Christmas approaches. Lily is taken away from a case, and Harry receives a visitor.

LILY XVIII

She opened the door at the invitation of the assistant, who closed it as soon as Lily was inside. The office she just walked into was quite austere, with few items to decorate it. It was mostly occupied by piles of paper and many bookcases and shelves filled with large volumes whose subjects, from what Lily could tell, concerned mainly laws, international relations, regulations, philosophy, politics and even religions of the magical world, though she also noticed some works from the world of Muggles, including The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes, De Re Publica from Cicero, the autobiography of Winston Churchill, and even one which was placed with the cover page visible to everybody, showing an old man with almost no hair holding a cigarette in his left hand, and a title in French that Lily read as Attendez que je me rappelle.

"Please sit down, Evans," the woman behind the only desk in the office told her. The woman in question signed something, then gave her full attention to Lily as she was sitting down in a chair in front of the desk.

A pair of blue eyes framed by short brown hair on a face that looked carved stared at her with intensity. The only other eyes Lily ever came across that gave the same impression of being scrutinized by X-rays were those of Albus Dumbledore. The ones that examined her right now belonged to the person who was probably the most powerful woman in the magical world.

"Savage told me you identified a suspect fore the bombings," Amelia Bones stated.

"Yes, I did," Lily confirmed.

She had been going over the files of multiple bombings that happened in England those past years where magical elements were involved in the attacks, and found photos on three scenes showing the very same woman. The inquiry for the recent bombings was stagnating, and Miranda Savage, the Auror Lily was assisting, struggled to find any lead to the people who were responsible. Lily thought the Auror almost smiled when she informed her of this new lead Lily found this morning.

The Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement opened a file on her desk and took a photo that she showed to Lily.

"This woman?" Amelia asked her.

"Yes," Lily confirmed.

This was indeed one of the photos on which she identified the woman. The quality was bad, but she managed to enhance it using various spells. It now showed clearly a woman who had to be in her thirties, with a slightly tanned skin, brown eyes, a well proportioned face, and thick brown hair brought together in a large plait that fell over her left shoulder while leaving a few strands go free.

Amelia turned the photo to look at it, then put it down while pursing her lips.

"You will not find her."

For a moment, Lily didn't know how to react to this. She was under shock when Amelia Bones stated that she would not find this woman.

"What do you mean? Do you know who this is?" Lily asked.

"I do. Our paths crossed, some time ago. I don't know her name, but I highly doubt she is behind these attacks."

Lily tried to regain her composure. "Well, all our clues led us nowhere. This is the only lead we have so far."

"I'm not telling you to not look for her, Evans, but don't be surprised if you can't find her. Anyway, this is not the reason why I summoned you." Amelia closed the file, then crossed her fingers and looked straight at Lily. "I wanted to apologize for yesterday's events. We should have protected the students better."

"Do you have any idea where Peter Pettigrew might be?" Lily asked immediately, jumping on the occasion to know more about the research of Peter.

"I'm afraid we found no trace of him, neither on the train nor in its vicinity. We don't know where he might be hiding right now."

Lily looked away, containing a sigh on despair mixed with anger. Yesterday, Harry was attacked by Peter Pettigrew while on his way back home on the Hogwarts Express. Harry wasn't injured. Peter merely bit him while still under his rat's shape. Remus healed the biting, and the Healers at St Mungo's, where she brought Harry later that day, confirmed that everything was fine.

Lily had been training when this happened. She was practicing her transfiguration skills to better hide in various environments when Miranda came to tell her that Pettigrew was spotted on the Hogwarts Express, and that her son had been involved. Lily immediately rushed to the first safe place to Apparate after she was told where the Hogwarts Express had stopped, and Apparated to this place.

She was very worried for her son. All she was told, all she knew at the time, was that Peter had been on the train, and that Harry had a contact with him. She feared the worst. She was relieved beyond measure when she found her son outside the train, with a group of friends and Remus by his side. She thought he must have been a little embarrassed when she hugged him tightly against her, almost crying, in front of his friends. She had a tendency to forget that he was no longer five or eight-years-old.

The people of Hogwarts and the Ministry were already searching the train thoroughly. Remus had sent messages to both the school and the Ministry as soon as he learned that Peter was on the train. As a result, most teachers, including Dumbledore himself, at least half the Aurors of the Ministry, the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol, and various bodies in charge of maintaining the magical law, from Obliviators to even some Unspeakables, were looking into every nook and cranny.

Lily was allowed to bring Harry back home with her. Both Dumbledore and people of the Ministry thought it was safer. Lily used Side-Along Apparition to bring him back home, like when they visited Godric's Hollow. From what she heard later, several other parents brought their children back home with this method, or using Portkeys that the Ministry of Magic quickly installed. Arthur told her all his children, except Percy who wanted to stay on the Hogwarts Express to protect other students as Head Boy, came with him to their home with a Portkey. He also brought Hermione back to her home, her parents being unable to come and take her since they had no magical powers. Less than half the students completed the journey back home on the Hogwarts Express.

The search of the train proved fruitless. When Lily talked with Kingsley this morning, he told her they could confirm that Wormtail was on the Hogwarts Express. It just happened that a student was holding a camera when the rat ran through the corridors and took a picture of him. He had asked Lily, Sirius and Remus to confirm this was Wormtail on the photo, and they all confirmed. The rat also corresponded to the photos of Pettigrew that the Ministry of Magic had. So Wormtail was truly on the train. Any possibility that Harry, Fred and George mistook a common rat for him was excluded. However, the staff from both the Ministry and Hogwarts could not find Wormtail on the train, and they also failed to find out where he might have gone after leaving it. After the search was completed, the train completed its journey, but under heavy surveillance. Dumbledore himself had stayed on the train to ensure the safety of the students.

Lily was relieved that Harry was safe and that he wasn't injured, but also angry that Wormtail was allowed anywhere near her son.

"Any idea how he might have come aboard the train?" Lily had already asked the question to Kingsley this morning, but she didn't expect a different answer from Amelia. And indeed, she received a very similar answer.

"It could have been any way. He might have snuck into the wagons through any passage big enough to let him inside under his rat form, whether just before the train left Hogsmeade, or even before it had arrived at the station. But we suspect he probably got in while the student were embarking. Our people had conducted a search of the train just before the students arrived. We should have found him if he had been on the train at this moment."

Lily shook her head. "He always managed to get unnoticed, even when we were children."

Amelia Bones nodded. "I have something to confess, Evans, but this information must not leave this office. We knew that Pettigrew was not far from Hogsmeade that day."

Lily was taken aback. "What?"

"A Muggle spotted him a few days ago, in a village not far from Hogwarts. We put precautions into place, had people verify the Hogwarts Express before it left, and we had the staff from Hogwarts along with many employees of the Ministry undercover to watch the students as they went into the train. It seems these measures were not sufficient."

"Why didn't you warn the people about this? Why didn't you tell the population of Hogsmeade and the students that an assassin might be nearby?"

People, especially her and Harry, had the right to know if Wormtail was nearby. And if they had told the population, they would have hundreds more eyes looking for Wormtail. Maybe he wouldn't have made it into the train.

"Because we were hoping we could catch him."

For a moment, Lily couldn't believe what she just heard. "You used my son as bait?"

"No, we didn't. We were merely hoping that Pettigrew would lower his guard, and that it would be easier to catch him. If we had informed the population, we feared he might go back into hiding the moment he read about it in the Daily Prophet."

"Or someone might have been more likely to spot him."

"It's unlikely," Amelia replied, as if she stated a fact. "So far, every time we spread the news that Pettigrew was to be found and asked the population for help, we received countless reports from every wizard each time they saw a rat. Do you realize how difficult it is for the average wizard or witch to distinguish two rats? We would have wasted precious resources to investigate any rat sighting in Hogsmeade and around. That's why it was decided to keep this information secret for the time being, because the people of Hogsmeade would not have been able to help us anyway. Our failure there was that our people undercover didn't stop Pettigrew from embarking the train with the students. For that, I sincerely apologize."

Lily was about to make quite a sarcastic observation that the Ministry made a huge blunder on this one. Luckily, Amelia Bones didn't let her speak as she continued herself to talk.

"But there is something we need to know, Evans. Do you have any idea what Peter Pettigrew was doing on the Hogwarts Express?"

Again, Lily was taken aback. "What do you mean? He attacked my son. It's clear that he was there for Harry."

"We believe so. But we are wondering what he wanted from your son." Lily was confused for a moment. "From the information we could gather, the testimonies of the students on the train, your son was alone for approximately ten to fifteen minutes near the washroom of the train. Even then, Pettigrew only attacked him when he was about to leave it. And when he assaulted your son, all he did was bite him. Your son didn't even require medical attention for this. A man with no medical training was able to heal him without problem. For a man who murdered twelve people in cold blood, I get the feeling that Pettigrew was not on the train to kill your son."

For a moment, not a word was said. Lily thought about it. It was true that, considering what Wormtail did in the past, it was strange that he didn't finish Harry when he had the opportunity. Lily thought it might be because he was a coward. He murdered those people twelve years ago to frame Sirius and escape punishment, and she thought it was very likely that he would just hide from the Ministry after he escaped Azkaban. Sirius himself thought he probably left the country. Wormtail might have been afraid.

However, now that she listened to Amelia, she realized that most of it made no sense. If Peter wanted to avoid trouble, if all he wanted was to avoid the authorities, then he would never have come anywhere close to Harry. Her son was protected at all times. Getting near him was the best plan to be arrested and sent back to Azkaban. If he was close to Harry, then… The only plausible reason Lily could see why Wormtail was there was to kill Harry. Perhaps to take his vengeance because Harry destroyed his master. Or maybe in the hopes that it might get Voldemort to look at Wormtail more favorably. But given his past methods, it was true that this shouldn't have been difficult for Wormtail. He would certainly not hesitate to blow an entire wagon to murder Harry. And even if he didn't want to be seen, according to what Amelia just told Lily, he had more than enough time to kill Harry while he was alone in the washroom. Why didn't he do it?

And so, indeed, the question Amelia asked made sense. What was Wormtail doing on the train?

"I don't know," Lily finally confessed. "I have no idea."

"Evans, think about it very carefully," the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement insisted. "Is there anything that Pettigrew might have wanted from your son, except to kill him?"

Lily tried to think about it. She didn't see. Though, she had to admit that of all of James' friends, Wormtail had to be the one she knew the less. He worked for Voldemort. He was being chased now. He could either want to hide, but he clearly didn't try to hide when he climbed aboard the Hogwarts Express. The only reason why he might have attacked Harry was that he wanted to kill him. It would make no sense to only hurt her son. Wormtail proved that he wouldn't relinquish to kill. He was there to kill Harry out of revenge, or maybe to please his new master. He had been at Hogwarts. He must have been aware that Voldemort was back. If he was in Harry's dormitory for the last years, he must have known about the events surrounding Voldemort over this period. Wormtail gave the information to Voldemort about where Lily lived with James and Harry. That got Voldemort destroyed. Wormtail's master was probably furious against him. Now that Lily thought about it, Voldemort must have been furious that one of his disciples was out there, free, hiding while he was reduced to the state of shadow or smoke, and that Wormtail did nothing to find him. Perhaps Wormtail wanted to kill Harry to enter Voldemort's good graces once more. Ever since he heard of the prophecy, Voldemort had been determined to kill Harry, and his determination did not lessen after his downfall. Nothing would please Voldemort more than to see Harry dead. The only thing that might make Voldemort even happier, that could satisfy him further than Harry's death was…

Lily realized something. Voldemort's greatest wish wasn't for Harry to die. He wanted Harry to die by his hand. And the only way for that to happen…

"He was there to kidnap Harry!"

She said that while looking straight into the eyes of Amelia Bones, who didn't flinch a single moment. "Are you sure?" the woman asked evenly.

"Well… that's the only thing that would make sense. If he wants to kidnap Harry, that explains why he was more cautious. Kidnapping someone is much more difficult than killing him."

"Right. He might have been waiting for the right moment. But you know this man better than anyone else at the Ministry. Why would he want to kidnap your son?"

Lily hesitated. She wasn't sure about what to say to the woman in front of her. If someone would never underestimate Voldemort, it was Amelia Bones. But for most of the world, Voldemort died twelve years ago. Well, if Lily was to expose her theory to someone, better be the woman sitting in front of her.

"Voldemort wants to kill my son." Amelia didn't flinch at the mention of the name, which was already a good sign. "The only reason I can see why Wormtail was in that train and he didn't try to kill Harry, was that he was trying to capture him and to bring him to his master."

Amelia Bones remained silent for a very long time. Lily waited for the older woman to react. When she did, it was to speak in a very low, slow, heavy voice.

"According to the information that I have, Lord Voldemort would currently be hiding in Albania." Lily was relieved. At least, she believed that Voldemort was still alive. "Are you sure that it would be why Pettigrew assaulted your son?"

"I have no way to be sure of it," Lily conceded. "But if he wasn't there to kill Harry, then he must have been there to bring him to Voldemort. This man… I think nothing could pleasure him more than to kill my son himself."

Amelia Bones seemed to ponder Lily's words for a time. And then, for the first time in her life, Lily heard this woman speak with a weary voice. "If you are right, then this is good and bad news at the same time." Lily frowned, unsure of what this woman meant, but Amelia resumed before she could react. "This means that whatever Pettigrew tries, he will not try to harm your son. At least, not enough to cause his death. On the other hand, if he is indeed trying to catch him rather than hiding from us, this means whoever is around your son might get hurt, if not killed. Pettigrew is unlikely to care about collateral damages, like he showed us years ago."

Then the proactive and unflinching high official of the Ministry was back. "I'll add additional protection around your son, and I'll discuss with Dumbledore to enhance the security measures around and inside Hogwarts. Also, I must inform you that the Floo Network Authority is establishing a special safe network to allow students to go back to Hogwarts through the Floo Network at the end of the holidays. Considering what happened on the Hogwarts Express, I would advise you to use it."

Lily nodded. "Thank you, Madam Bones."

The other woman nodded as well. "One more thing, when you're back after Christmas, I'm putting you and Savage on the Pettigrew case."

That also took Lily by surprise. "I thought that Kingsley and Nymphadora…"

"Shacklebolt and Tonks will keep working on it. I'm merely adding you to conduct the search with them. I think it is time to have more than two Aurors working full time on tracking Pettigrew."

Lily was at a loss of words. She had wanted to chase Wormtail ever since he put Sirius in Azkaban years ago. But she had to take care of her son first back then. And after he was caught, then escaped, she was kept out of the search efforts due to her personal involvement in the case.

"Mr Scrimgeour didn't want me…" Lily began, but she was interrupted.

"I'll have a discussion with him. I want someone who knows Pettigrew to track him. I trust you to do so in the complete respect of the laws and regulations in place, and to not let personal considerations cloud your judgement and your behavior in this investigation. Savage and Shacklebolt will not hesitate to report any wrongdoing from your part. Am I well understood?"

Lily thought about it for a moment, but there was only one correct answer to give if she wanted to participate to Wormtail's chase. "Yes."

"Good. Now, I guess you want to go home. You're dismissed."

Lily left as Amelia Bones merely ordered. It was late in the day. Evening was approaching, and she was indeed to go back home. It would be Christmas Eve tomorrow, and the summon to Amelia Bones' office had frustrated her as it delayed her return home where Harry was waiting.

Lily had ordered him to stay inside their apartment. She didn't even allow him to wander through the corridors and stairs of their tower. Despite two Aurors guarding the place where they lived, she didn't want to take any chance. Harry didn't take it well, and she felt he wanted to argue about it, but he just kept his mouth shut and said nothing. She expected though that he may contest it later during the holidays, maybe after Christmas.

Still, Lily felt quite joyful as she packed her things at her cubicle. Savage had assigned one to her in the Auror Headquarters. Lily and Nymphadora were among the few among the trainees to have their own cubicle there, but the major cases on which they worked had brought their respective mentors to assign them a cubicle so they could work more effectively. She hummed a Christmas song as she filled her bag with everything she might need during the next few days. Even during Christmas, she might be called for work. Such were the lives of Aurors. They never knew when they could be required to work. Crimes didn't know holidays.

"Hello, Lily."

She turned to see a small man with big glasses and dark hair approaching her. "Hi, Gen. Day is over for you too?" she asked him as she finished filling her bag.

"Yes." He looked exhausted. "Not so for Mr Scrimgeour. He still has a lot of work to do. But he doesn't require my help anymore tonight."

"Good for you." Lily stood up. Gen Chang had stopped on his way at her cubicle's level. He followed her as she made to walk out of the Auror Headquarters. "Eager for Christmas?"

"Oh yes. You have no idea. Especially after…" Her stopped in his words. "By the way, I didn't ask earlier, how is your son? Is he alright after what happened on the Hogwarts Express?"

"He's fine," Lily replied. "I hate to say that, but he's seen worse."

Gen nodded. "You know… It could have been my daughter."

"What do you mean?"

"Well… I heard about the attack… I know that Pettigrew attacked your son in the toilets of the train. My Cho happened to be in those very toilets a few minutes before it happened. If that's the case… She might have been next to this man the whole time… Just to think about what he might have done to her…"

Lily felt a wave of compassion for Gen. She was worried for Harry, but other parents had very good reasons to be concerned for the safety of their children as well. "Well, thank heavens, I think he was only after Harry."

Gen didn't reply immediately. "Take care of your boy, Lily. Our children are the most precious things we have in the world," he said as they entered the lift. Lily couldn't agree more.

"I hope your wife is not working this year for Christmas," she told him. She remembered that Gen told her his wife had been working last year on this day.

"I'm not even supposed to answer you," he replied, a sorry expression on his face. She accepted it. Gen's wife was an Unspeakable, and Unspeakables kept the things they worked on secret, and that almost always extended to their families. She changed the subject.

"What about your daughter? Is Cho alright?"

"Still a little under shock, after what happened on the train." She sighed. "I had my sister come over at home to look after her while I'm at work. No offense, Lily, but not everybody is used to dangerous situations as your son Harry is."

She couldn't disagree with the fact. "Let's hope it stays that way for your daughter. Everybody of her age deserves a normal childhood."

The doors of the lift opened on the atrium. Gen headed for the fireplaces while Lily followed a path to a safe place to Apparate.

"Merry Christmas, Lily," her colleague wished her.

"Merry Christmas, Gen," she replied in kind. A few moments later, he disappeared in a burst of green flames, and not long after, Lily Apparated in the hall of the Abandoned Tower, where she lived.

She climbed the stairs until she arrived at the level where her apartment was. To her surprise, she found not one, but two people standing in front of her front door. One was the Auror who was put in charge of watching the entrance to her apartment, as part of measures implemented to protect Harry from Wormtail, while the other was a girl around Harry's age with blond hair.

"I just want to see him, to make sure he's alright," the girl said, almost on a pleading tone.

"I'm sorry, Miss, but I cannot let anyone but the authorized people inside, and you're not," the Auror replied, impassive

"Oh, come on! I've come in this place all the time during summer."

"Sorry, Miss, but I can only allow those who are permitted."

"What's going on?" Lily asked when she was close enough.

Both the Auror and the girl turned to face Lily. "This young girl wants to see your son, Mrs Evans, but my instructions are clear. I am only to allow inside those you permitted, and you did not allow this young person," the bearded man explained.

"Come on! Mrs Evans, you recognize me, don't you? I spent time with Harry during the whole summer," the girl said.

Indeed, Lily recognized that girl. "You're Hannah, isn't it? That's your name?" She nodded. "Wait here a minute."

Lily walked into her apartment. She noticed the Auror placed himself between the opening and the girl. As soon as the door closed behind, she was welcomed.

"Hi, Mom," her son said.

"Hey, Lily," Sirius said, coming to greet her as well.

"Hi, Sirius. Thank you for watching over Harry," she said.

"I'm not sure if it was useful, but I spent a good day with my godson." She hated it when Sirius questioned her decision for Harry in front of her son.

"Do I really have to stay inside for the rest of the holidays?" her son asked, as if to emphasize her feelings.

"It's just for the time being," she replied as kindly as she could.

"That doesn't tell me much."

"Look, one of your friends, that girl Hannah, she wants to see you. Do you want her to come in?"

Harry didn't reply for a moment. "Yes, of course."

"Good." Lily made for the door, then stopped in her tracks, and turned back towards Harry. "Is there something that only you and Hannah know?"

"What?" Harry asked, clearly not understanding what his mother was asking.

"I must make sure this is really your friend Hannah. Tell me a question I must ask that no one else would know the answer about."

For a very long moment, Harry was just agape at what her mother asked him. "Is that really necessary?"

"Harry, do you want to see her, or not?" she firmly retorted.

Harry was obviously displeased. He growled. "Alright. Ask her who I should date."

For a moment, Lily was taken aback, and didn't know what to say. She even exchanged a look with Sirius, who looked just as dumbfounded as she was.

"I beg your pardon?" Lily finally blurted out.

"Ask her who is the girl she thinks I should date. If she replies Hermione, then it can only be Hannah."

He raised his arms in the air and walked away, leaving both his mother and his godson unsure about what to think about this. Though quickly, Sirius' face displayed an amused expression. "You asked for a question, Lily. You've got one."

Lily felt the kind of frustration she usually felt when Sirius behaved like an idiot. "Get away from here."

He raised his hands in surrender and headed to the kitchen. Lily shook her hand in despair and went out of the apartment. The girl with blond hair was still there, waiting.

"It's fine. You can come in. But first, I must ask you a question, and you can only get in if you answer correctly," Lily warned.

"Oh," Hannah said, frowning. "What is it?"

"Tell me the name of the girl my son should date."

The girl's reaction was very close to what Lily expected. She froze for a moment, then jumped. "Can you repeat, please?" she asked uncertainly.

"Tell me which girl Harry should date," she asked again, sounding totally ridiculous. Even the Auror looked at her as if she just arrived from another planet.

Hannah, on her side, was motionless, but her eyes moved frantically, looking everywhere. "Eh…" Her cheeks turned pink. Oddly enough, it reminded Lily of a girl she hated back at Hogwarts, a girl from Slytherin, and her current predicament made her impatient about Hannah's hesitance. "Well… I think… Hermione Granger…" she said very low, so low that Lily barely understood the name. But this was the right name.

"You may come in."

She made a sign of the head to indicate Hannah that she could come inside, but she remained still.

"You want to make Harry wait," Lily asked her.

"Well… No… No, of course." The girl seemed to recover her spirits. "Thank you, Mrs Potter."

"Evans," Lily corrected dryly.

"Sorry, Mrs Evans."

And the girl almost rushed inside.

Lily followed her and closed the door on a still dumbfounded Auror. She let Harry and Hannah alone in the living room while she headed for the kitchen. There she found Sirius, and also Remus who had not come to greet when she came back. However, for now, her full attention was on Sirius.

"Thank you for supporting me," she said stiffly for him.

"Lily, your son just got his revenge for you keeping him inside," Sirius said, a huge smile on his face. Remus was struggling to not laugh in his corner.

"He got too much from you and his father, Sirius," she retorted.

Though, as Lily threw a few spells to arrange the table, she realized it wasn't really true. That kind of tricks was something she and James often used even back at Hogwarts, innocent jokes that they later laughed about when remembering them. She realized she was smiling as well, realizing how her son played her for a fool.

"I'm not privy to everything that happened, Lily, but correct me if I'm mistaking. Harry just asked you to ask one of his friends if he should date Hermione?" Remus asked, unable to retain a smile.

"Technically, he had me asking her who he should date. And if she replied Hermione, then it meant this girl was no impostor," Lily explained.

"Hermione?" Sirius seemed to be thinking. "It's this girl that he's always with?"

"Yes, Padfoot," Remus answered. "But let me reassure you, Lily, I have never seen anything between her and Harry that suggests they are together. Of course, I'm not watching them all the time, but I highly doubt your son has a girlfriend."

"It's fine, Remus. I got the same answer when I asked McGonagall…"

She regretted saying it aloud, for Sirius started laughing and mocking the fact she asked their former teacher about Harry's love interests. However, she only had to endure it for less than thirty seconds for Remus brought the conversation somewhere else.

"In Harry's place, I would have asked her what her deepest fear was. Peter and most wizards would never have known the answer to that question."

"Why not?" Lily asked, intrigued and impatient to have Sirius calm down.

"This girl, we're talking about Hannah Abbott, right?" Lily confirmed. She had forgotten her family name for a moment, but once Remus said it, she recognized it very well. "When we studied Boggarts, hers took the appearance of…" He seemed to search something in his mind. "I don't remember the name. It was a character from a Muggle movie. He had dark robes, a black armor and a black helmet. He was breathing very loudly, and he was holding a strange glowing red stick in his…"

"Darth Vader," Lily replied.

"Ah, that's it. That's not a possibility I considered when I decided to study Boggarts with…"

"What is a Death Raider?" Sirius asked.

"Darth Vader. He's a villain in the Star Wars movies," Lily explained as if she was talking to five-years-old boy.

"A Star what?"

Lily sighed in exasperation. As a Muggle-born witch who still lived with a foot into the Muggle World, she explained what a movie was, and what were the Star Wars movies, to both Sirius and Remus, who looked more confused with each of her explanations. Her explanations were only stopped when Harry and Hannah stepped into the kitchen, the girl asking who was talking about Han Solo. Sirius had only begun to be really interested when Lily told her about this character.

Lily invited Hannah to stay for dinner, since she was already there. They had a pleasant enough dinner, but Hannah looked a little shy in the beginning, always looking towards Remus. She was probably uncomfortable at the idea of dining with one of her professors. At the end though, she turned into a real chatterbox, to such an extent that Harry almost looked relieved when she left. It was Lily's turn to enjoy some small revenge on her son's previous trick. She ruffled his head before he went back to bed, and the spirits in the apartment were quite good when night came.

"Remus, thank you for staying there," she told him before he went to bed. Sirius had already gone to sleep, and Harry too.

"It's my pleasure, Lily. I would never want to leave Harry in danger. And again, I'm sorry that I wasn't there when Peter attacked him."

"It's fine. I don't blame you. I guess… I guess it's almost impossible to guarantee his safety. Not at Hogwarts, not here, nowhere."

She fell into a deep silence, regretting once more that Harry's childhood was slipping through her fingers much quicker than she hoped it would.

"Lily… I want to tell you… I'm going to teach Harry how to fight off Dementors."

She looked back to Remus. "You will?"

"Yes. When the new term begins. Considering how he is affected by them, and with Peter's threat on top of that, I think it will be better if he knows how to defend himself against those things."

"Do you think he will be able to do that? To… produce a Patronus?"

"He might be able to conjure one, even if it doesn't have a definite shape."

"But… It is an act of very advanced magic. You believe that he could actually succeed?"

"I don't know, Lily. It's Harry who asked me to teach him. We can't begrudge him that. Not after what happened at the Quidditch match."

Lily nodded. "No, of course not. And… I wish he could defend himself, but… He's only thirteen. Some Aurors at the Ministry can't produce one, so Harry…"

"Let's give him a chance, at least. He won't lose anything by trying."

"Yes, of course." She looked straight to Remus. "Do your best."

"Like always," her husband's friend replied. "Like always."

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Next chapter: Hannah