My thanks to Oaab, who messaged me with this idea.

-8-

The Mysterious Lily Twins.

-8-

"Harry? Harry, can you hear me?" A musical lilting voice asked, the voice had begun as an annoying whisper, but then grew louder as he began waking up and becoming more aware.

Harry felt odd, and out of place. He tried to remember everything that had happened to him recently, but it was so hazy. He remembered Vernon tearing the door to the Cupboard off, and then grabbing him by the throat, only for Harry to instinctively react by electrocuting him with his powers. But while it had stopped his so-called pig of an uncle strangling him, it had only made him angrier, and then Vernon had begun beating him worse than he'd ever done before.

Harry had felt his legs snap. Oh yeah, Vernon had trampled his legs, stomping on them like a herd of elephants crashing through an Indian jungle, their weight crushing down everything in their path like many natural steamrollers; he remembered screaming in pain, only for Vernon to whip him, screaming at him to shut up. The memory was so hazy, he didn't even recall what had set his uncle off this time.

As he began moaning and waking up, Harry shifted around, only to stop when he realised something was off. Really off. There was no pain in his body. Not a single hint.

His legs should have been crushed to pieces, but they were feeling great.

There was no pain in other parts of his body.

In fact…Harry slowly woke up, stretching, and moaning a little.

"Sweetie, how are you feeling, now?" That musical voice asked.

Harry opened his eyes, automatically seeking his glasses - cheap, nasty things; the Dursleys had made him dig for the cheapest sunglasses they could find in an old bin in a charity shop, instead of letting him go to a proper opticians' and get a prescription that was perfect for him - but it took him a moment to realise that his eyes didn't need them.

"What's going on, why don't I need glasses?" Harry whispered before slapping a hand to his mouth, and then he realised his hand had brushed against a shoulder-length hair. Harry grabbed it, pulled it, and winced in pain, before he examined the long lock; gone was the black hair he'd sported, and his new hair was a deep, beautiful, dark red. There was a curl at the bottom of the locks.

The hair of a girl.

"What's going on?" Harry said, examining his hair before seeing his hands. His eyes widened, seeing that his fingers were slightly longer, and thinner, and his skin was smoother. "What's happened to my hair, my hands, and my voice?" Harry looked down at his body, looking past the long gown he was wearing.

"Missy Harry, you's okay, now?" A high pitched voice asked, making him jump.

Harry looked around and jumped again at the sight of the small creature with large ears that made them look a bit like Yoda. "W-Who are you?"

"I be Mixy, Miss," the little creature smiled and bowed. "At yours service."

"Er, Hi," Harry didn't know if he had been abducted by aliens, but everything was just so hazy that he wondered if this was all just a weird dream. "Who are you, where am I, why do you call me Miss?" He suddenly looked down at himself, feeling his face, eyes widening as he realised it felt wrong. "Can I borrow a mirror, please?"

"You'd better give it to her, Mixy," the mysterious voice asked.

"Hold it," Harry started to get angry about this, "who's speaking? Who's here with you? Why are you calling me Miss?"

"I'm over here, sweetie," the voice said, and Harry turned around so fast, that his hair whipped him in the face. But he was alone in the room - he realised that whoever lived in this house had better taste than the Dursleys, with the walls painted purple instead of being covered with that ghastly effeminate wallpaper favoured by the Dursleys - except for a large bookshelf, stuffed full of books, but on the wall was a portrait of a beautiful young woman with red hair.

The painting waved happily, "Hey, sweetie!"

Harry yelped, falling back in shock. The woman in the painting flinched. "Ooh, sorry, Harry," she said sheepishly, "I didn't mean to startle you; I could have done much better than that."

"Who are you?" Harry demanded. "Is this some kind of trick?"

The woman shook her head. "No, sweetie," she said kindly. "This is magic."

"Magic?" Harry repeated the word.

Magic was the one word, the number one word you should never, ever say in front of any of the Dursleys. Petunia and Vernon hated the word, and their hatred for it was so strong they refused to even allow any kid cartoon, movie, or book that had anything related to it. Just mentioning the word even once was an invitation for a beating and a week in the cupboard without food. Was it any wonder Dudley used it to get him into trouble?

The woman nodded, a smile on her face, "Magic does exist, Harry," she went on, "contrary to what my stupid sister likes to think, magic will always exist."

"Your sister?" Harry repeated before quickly working it out; his head was still a bit hazy, but his mind was still sharp. "You mean Petunia? Hold on, you're my mother?"

The woman - his mother? - clapped her hands from within the portrait she was residing in. "Very good, Harry, and yes, Petunia, to my shame and everlasting irritation, is my sister, and I am your mother. In case you didn't know, my name is Lily."

"Lily?" Harry shook his head, feeling his hair again. "Why's my hair like this?"

Mixy reappeared with a mirror and showed him. Harry gaped at the reflection he saw in it in shock.

Gone was his black hair, but there were physical similarities between himself and the woman; his softer face and smaller nose, for instance, and of course, their emerald green eyes.

But now he was looking at the face, and the body, of a stranger. The vision looking back at him was a much younger version of the woman in the portrait, with plumper cheeks, but their eyes, skin tone, and hair colour were identical.

Harry was no longer a boy, he was now a girl.

Quickly he pinched himself, but he realised he was not dreaming.

Harry turned to Lily. "What's going on, why am I a girl?"

Lily smiled sadly. "We didn't have much choice, sweetie," she said, "but if you're willing to hear me out, I'll explain."

Harry bit his (or should that be her lip?) and nodded. "Okay," she asked and sat down.

Lily turned to Mixy, the House Elf had put down the mirror. "Mixy, could you bring something for Harry to eat and drink, you'd better ask what she likes."

"Of course, Mistress Lily," Mixy turned to Harry, "What does young Missy Harry likes to eat and drink?"

Harry was still getting used to her new gender, but she was even more startled by the question. Nobody had ever really paid her any attention to what she liked to eat or drink. "I like apple juice and chopped fruit," she said hesitantly, "and some custard creams."

"Coming up," Mixy clicked her fingers and vanished before Harry's astonished eyes, and she turned questioningly towards her mother.

"Mixy is a House Elf," Lily explained. "They are bonded to witches and wizards and serve us in a symbiotic relationship. Mixy's been a great friend and helper to me in the last few years. And since she is bound to the Potter family magic, through you, she will do as you tell her."

"Is she a slave?" Harry asked quietly.

"Many witches and wizards will say yes, but I never saw them that way, and Mixy has been my friend and companion for the last 5 years."

"Witches and wizards?" Harry repeated quietly. "You mean, they're real?"

"Yes, they are, and I'm not surprised Vernon and Petunia never told you about them; my brother-in-law is a thug, who likes to think he's normal, but he's nothing more than a violent brute, and my sister has never been bright," Lily scowled at the thought of them, but after that, and after the House Elf returned, did she tell Harry everything.

She told him about how she had discovered her magic, with some help from her friend Severus Snape. She told Harry about her time at Hogwarts, joining the Order of the Phoenix, and everything about the war, with Lord Voldemort, and how she had saved him.

Lily told Harry about how she had gone to Hogwarts and used the Room of Requirement to find ways of ending Voldemort, so the Dark Lord did not kill her son, now turned daughter. She learnt about essence transfer, the act of moving the soul and magic to a new body, and she made her plans.

Plan A, Lily and James would sacrifice themselves to save Harry, who'd be sent through time a few minutes while a bomb destroyed Voldemort.

Plan B, in case Voldemort was smart and cunning enough to merely stun the Potters, the bomb would still go off, and Harry and his parents would be sent into the future. Lily had inscribed runes into their bodies to make them jump into the future by a few minutes while preparing a runic bomb in the house.

But things went wrong. The plan to activate was Plan A; she and James had died, but Lily had actually survived; she had been studying so many things for a while, but she had managed to cultivate a few clones of herself, but she'd been having trouble with the process and she wasn't able to get any of her husband's cells to clone, and it didn't help that he was often away, although what he was doing, she didn't know. She'd only had enough time to inscribe the necessary runes she had prepared for the job.

Lily had planned to wait until one of her clone bodies had reached 4 or 5 years of maturity since it was hard for her to accelerate the ageing, and while Mixy was a great help, she was incapable of some of the job. Lily had planned to jump into a clone, and then go from there, and then jump into the next clone's body, and then recover Harry.

Mixy, because of her bond with Harry, told her mistress where he was after jumping into Privet Drive. Lily had been furious with Dumbledore, McGonagall and Hagrid for dumping her son with Petunia and Vernon, knowing they would hate him and treat him worse than a dog walking in shit, and worse she was disgusted with Sirius Black for just running away from his responsibilities, cementing in her mind he was just not godfather material.

Over the years, Lily had become desperate; Mixy had learnt Vernon and Petunia had been abusing Harry, and it was getting worse, but because of the wards surrounding the property blocking Potter House elves, she wasn't able to get there and take Harry away, but over the years the wards had weakened. Lily had spent the last five years planning to murder her sister and making her pig of a brother-in-law pay for abusing Harry. But now they had gotten him out, now the wards were at their weakest, but Harry had been in critical condition.

The only hope for Lily was to sacrifice one of her clone bodies, and it wasn't a hard choice for her to make; she had died once already for her baby boy, and she would do it again, even if it meant him becoming a girl. But there was plenty of time for that to change.