-8-

Eight months passed, and over that time a lot had changed for Lily and her daughter/sister, Holly. Harry had changed her name to blend in more, and it was quickly accepted by Lily, who'd admitted that if Harry had been born properly a girl, Holly would have been at the top of the list of names. Mixy took them out, disguised as a human and got them entered into one of London's primary schools, and they got school uniforms.

Clothes shopping along with other things, like hair styling, was a new experience for Holly, who had never been pampered in her entire life; Lily had always favoured simple styling, but since she had been locked in that portrait for the last few years, and since she had found her son's body so badly beaten thanks to the Dursleys, she had wanted to spend some mother-daughter quality time with Holly.

At the same time, Lily also showed her daughter that she was a bit of a nerd. Lily had always loved Doctor Who, and it opened her head to sci-fi and horror movies, and she had enjoyed using magic in her new incarnation to con their way into the cinema, just to watch some of the latest movies. It was an eye-opener for Holly, who had grown up hearing so many negative things about her mother as the Dursleys brainwashed her into thinking her parents died in a car crash, of all things, but she quickly enjoyed it.

At the same time, she enjoyed clothes shopping. Mixy had originally conjured some basic clothes for them before they went shopping, but they needed a fuller wardrobe, and they needed school uniforms when their placements were confirmed.

Okay, Lily hadn't originally planned on going back to school, but because of how long it would take to grow a new clone, and her desire to make up for lost time with Harry/Holly, she had no choice.

In any case, she had nearly been driven mad by Dumbledore's insane need to keep the Potter family under constant house arrest, and she had spent the last few years locked in a portrait. She wanted to get out and enjoy life.

Lily might have been a fashionista in her previous life, another surprising detail although Holly was starting to accept the fact there was still so much about her mother she needed to know about, but she was making up for lost time, but fortunately for Holly, she was not one of those girls who spent hours and hours picking and choosing her clothes and deciding on the combinations. She chose clothes she liked and felt comfortable, it was as simple as that.

Lily herself was just as surprised. She had expected Harry to reject his new albeit temporary gender, begging her desperately to send him back to his old body. Instead Harry had adapted amazingly well to his new gender, even choosing a new albeit temporary name to be accepted in school properly. Lily had decided to go to school, too, even if she had already been, but she had not wanted her daughter to be lonely, but privately she wanted to have what she'd always wanted, a sisterly relationship with a girl whom she was related to.

She had never been close to Petunia. When they had gone to school, not only had the age difference caused problems but so to did the fact Lily seemed effortlessly talented in everything she put her mind towards. Okay, at first Lily had been smugly satisfied by all of this attention, but she wasn't oblivious, she had seen the effect this had on her relationships and she had changed her approaches as soon as she could, and while they worked for the most part, it hadn't been successful. But not always.

Lily had no intention of ruining or souring her relationship with Holly.

She had been denied it for so long that she was determined not to let go, but what surprised her the most was how quickly and easily Holly had taken to being a girl.

What excited her the most, and Lily had not foreseen this even with her expertise in occlumency (something she'd have to teach Holly the first chance she got), although it was argued she had been more interested in saving Harry's life when Mixy finally got him away from Petunia and Vernon's violent tendencies that left his body in a poor state, afterwards she was amazed by how well she got along with her son turned daughter, it was almost as if they were twin sisters for real, and Lily wanted to continue pursuing that relationship.

What really stunned Lily the most was that she had not expected Harry, or Holly, as she was calling herself now, to jump at the chance of getting new clothes, and she didn't know if it had something to do with her new brain or something different. While they'd been shopping, Holly had jumped from rack to rack, eagerly checking out the different clothes of their age range, and it made her wonder if Holly would actually prefer to be a girl for the rest of her life.

She was only a little bit ambivalent about that, but if Holly wanted to stay as a girl for the rest of her life, then Lily would support her. In truth, she was enjoying their new relationship. Holly seemed very taken with her new body, and more than once Lily had caught the girl who was practically her twin sister primping in the mirror, which only served to prove Holly was liking this.

Whenever she caught sight of Holly's face, watching how excited she was - and this was becoming increasingly common - when she met their friends at school (it pleased Lily that Harry had inherited her natural winning personality and James's charisma), when they went shopping, Lily forgot Holly was her daughter and not her twin.

But more and more, it was becoming easier to accept.

And now Lily wondered whether to bother with Harry's replacement body, and if Holly would prefer to be a girl forever.

Whatever the choice, she didn't mind.