NineteenYearsLater

“Mom?” I poked her shoulder. She awoke with a jerk and a yelp. “I think we’re here.”

She nodded and slid out of the taxi, paying the driver quickly as I lugged a small suitcase out of the trunk. I say lugged because the little bugger was slightly weighty.

I clutched a small bag that I was taking as well in my hands, since I knew that I might need some form of entertainment on the train. Mom dragged me and my stuff onto the designated platform before spotting the Malfoys. She decided to go over to them and start up a conversation, leaving me standing there alone.

I heard some yelling so I turned to look and then I yelled towards the yelling, “Albus!”
Albus Potter, who had been my next-door neighbor until two years ago, turned and waved.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, as older brother James also saw me.

“LILLIAN! My main Girl!” He yelled, coming over and giving me a bear hug, “So you decided to join the rest of us at good ol’ Hogwarts!”

“I guess I have,” I told him, taking his loudness in stride as he had been like this when we were neighbors.

“I hope we’ll be in the same house,” Albus told me, and I agreed.

“Just make sure you don’t get Slytherin!” James taunted.

“What’s so bad about Slytherin?” I asked him, not understanding why that would be a bad thing, “Most of my family was in Slytherin.”

“Oh,” James deadpanned, and then explained, “Apparently Slytherin is where all of the Evil wizards are from.”

“Not true,” Teddy Lupin strode up, “I was in Ravenclaw and I’m totally EVIL!”

We all laughed, but inside I was worried. James grabbed my bag before I could protest and dragged it aboard, depositing it in an almost empty compartment. Rosie Weasely was in there, reading. I had met her through the Potters, who were not only friends with her family, but Ginny Potter was originally a Weasely. Ginny was James’ and Albus’ mom.

“Why a suitcase?” Albus asked me, as he somehow managed to put his trunk in the overhead rack.

“I’ve been living in America, that’s why.” I told him, plopping down and opening up my little bag.

Out hopped a black cat with a white star on its forehead and white paws, a snake made its way out, an owl flew out and a large crow managed to wiggle itself through the opening and flutter up to the overhead rack. James’ jaw dropped, joining Rosie’s and Albus’.

“Where did they-? How did you-?” James couldn’t make up his mind how to ask me and what to ask me. I grinned.

“I made up a spell that allowed them to stay in there comfortably, and my suitcase is no different. I have enough stuff in there to live comfortably wherever I choose for a long time.” I explained to him.

“You did what?” His voice crept up an octave. Rosie interjected.

“Do you think you could be any louder?” She asked him, hands over ears.

“Yeah I could,” He told her, “Want me to be?”

She shook her head and returned to reading. I shook my head at them and gestured for my crow to come down and join me. His name was Capricorn, the cat’s name was Airus, the owl’s name was Stripe, and the snake’s name was something I couldn’t even pronounce in English. Cap, Capricorn’s nickname, came down and perched on my knee, rubbing his head into my hand, which was placed at the perfect height, since he always did that. Albus timidly stretched his hand out to Cap, but it didn’t get that far, since Airus decided that she wanted to petted as well.

“Mrowr!” She exclaimed, hopping up onto his lap and rubbing her head into his hand.
“Airus, what have I told you about doing that without permission?” I asked her. She gave me an exasperated look and then turned to Albus. The poor guy never had a chance. When Airus decides she wants something, she usually gets it. She looked into his eyes, purred, and somehow managed to make her eyes grow to a ridiculous size. Albus took one look and ended up hugging her. Stripe was reading over Rosie’s shoulder, and I don’t think she minded one bit. My snake, who we call Mal, slithered over to James, unnoticed, and went into his pant leg, climbing up him.

“AIEE!” James screamed, jumping up, and I barely managed to not burst into hysterical laughter. “Something just climbed into my pants!”

“It’s just my snake!” I exclaimed, before laughing.

Albus was already laughing, but Rosie was starting to look rather annoyed.

“Sorry Rosie, what are you reading anyway?” I asked her.

“Just a random book I pulled from Mom’s stuff,” She replied. I read the binding and let out a
laugh. It was Hogwarts, a History.

James was still trying to get Mal out of his pants.

“Well at least someone wants in there,” Scorpius was in the doorway.

I sighed.

“Hello, Scorpius, how was life at your family homestead?” I asked him, trying to be polite to my cousin.

He scowled at me, and then smiled at Rosie.

“Hello Rose Weasely, how is life for you?" He asked her, automatically telling me that he liked her.

“Hello,” she said, distractedly, “Um, -?”

“Scorpius Malfoy,” he told her, as if she should know this. She gave him a mild smile and then returned to her reading. I tried to stifle laughter as he left, looking miffed. James was just standing there, looking miffed as well because of Scorpius’ comment. Mal had slid up through his shirt and curled around his neck, Mal’s favorite spot.

“Sorry about Mal,” I told him, as he sat down, “He has no qualms with just doing whatever he wants. By the way, don’t mind Scorpius, he’s just nervous. He’ll be better when we get to school. Oh, and shouldn’t you boys go find somewhere to get changed and change into your school uniforms?”

“What about you?” James asked me, looking at my jeans and a t-shirt. I waved at it and it transformed into the uniform. He gaped at me.

“How do you do these things?” He asked me, as both Albus and himself gathered up their stuff to change somewhere else.

I shrugged and waved them out of the compartment. I turned and regarded Rosie.

“You know he likes you, right?” I asked her, “And it must have been love at first sight, since I know he’d never seen any of you before.”

“Who likes me?” She finally broke away from her book and put it away to stare at me.

“Scorpius,” I told her, “He looked like he was head over heels, which is pretty strange, if you think about it.”

“He likes me?” She asked me, incredulously.

“You know,” I told her, “For a smart person, you seem unusually slow right now. Yes, Scorpius likes you. At least try to get to know him before you make judgments, okay?”

She nodded, she still seemed a little surprised.

“Isn’t he a Malfoy?” She asked me, and I nodded.

“That’s why I said for you to get to know him a little bit before you make any decisions to hate
him or anything, all right?”

She nodded. James and Albus returned right then and we were unable to keep up the thick-fest. James was complaining about Mal.

“This thing won’t get OFF OF ME!” He exclaimed, pointing to the snake. I shrugged and nodded to Mal.

“Please get off of him,” I told Mal, hoping the guys wouldn’t think it strange that their friend could speak Parseltongue.

Mal agreed and slithered over to me.

“Why are you wearing pants, Lil?” Albus asked me, as James exclaimed, “You can speak Parseltongue too?”

“Because I feel like it and what?!” I split up parts of my mind, trying to answer.

“You can speak Snake too?” James exclaimed, “We can too!”

“What are you talking about?” Albus asked his brother.

“Albus, could you understand my sentence that I directed towards my snake?” I asked him, catching on.

“Yeah why?” He asked.

“I wasn’t speaking English dude,” I told him, and his jaw dropped.

“Really?” He exclaimed. Rosie was staring at us.

“Can you understand me?” I asked him.

“Yeah.” He replied, and then understood what that meant. “Oh no! We’re evil!”

I shook my head and sat down.

“No you’re not. Do you guys know that your dad’s a legend?” I asked them.

“Legend?” James and Albus asked me, at the same time. Rosie gave me a knowing look.

“Could you please help me explain?” I asked her.

She nodded.

“Okay, boys,” I told them, they sat down smartly and sat up straight. I couldn’t pass up such a chance, so I quickly pulled out my camera and snapped a picture. Then I continued, ignoring their looks of disgust. “There was an evil wizard, years ago, I’m pretty sure it was at least thirty years ago when he first started. He got extremely big and bad, making all of the good wizards worry and fear. His name was Voldemort-”

My voice got cut off when I saw something in the window. It had looked like a face, but no face that I had ever wanted to see. It was a ghost of a thing, with barely any real skin and slitted nostrils where a nose should be. That face has these horrific eyes as well, ones that made you feel as if you were drowning. I gasped and blanked out.

When I awoke, I found myself staring into a pair of very pale blue eyes. Albus was staring down at me as well, and I saw Rosie in the background, looking fretful.

“James, back off would yah?” I asked him, pushing him away. He just grinned in relief.

“You okay, or are you so afraid of this evil wizard that you’re going to faint again when you talk about him again?” He asked me, cockily.

“Shut up,” I told him, “And do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?”

“Oh yes, Your Majesty!” He exclaimed, sitting across from me and looking overly attentive.

“Okay, so ignoring the stupidity running through this room at this very moment,” I told them, “I'm going to finish the story.”

“This bad guy was looking for a couple of people in particular,” I explained, “since he had heard a premonition about his downfall, and part of it had to do with a child born in a certain month of a certain year. He started out with two names, and only chose one, although the one not chosen was a pure blood. The half blood that he had chosen, had two parents who were a couple that were the best witch and wizard around. They were not only good at heart, but they were great at magic. He somehow managed to find where they lived, since they used a spell to hide themselves, and came and killed the two parents. He then tried to kill the son, but was unable to, in fact, he almost died.”

James and Albus still didn’t understand anything.

“That event happened about 36 years ago,” I told them, “and the son’s name was Harry Potter.”

Albus’ jaw dropped to the floor, James looked surprised as well.

“The son was sent to his Aunt’s and Uncle’s, where he spent a miserable eleven years. When he finally managed to receive the Hogwarts letter, for his aunt and uncle opposed the school’s teachings with their last breath, he was sent off to Hogwarts. In his first year, he faced Voldemort for the second time, and for the second time, he won. The same could be said for his second year, when Voldemort came out of a book as his younger self. In his third year, he faced a different evil, the person who had ratted out his parents, and was forced to let that person go due to extenuating circumstances. In his fourth year, he was put in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, as evil forces were trying to trap him into helping them bring back Voldemort to full strength, which they did, by way of Polyjuice potion. With Voldemort back, Harry was forced to fight against some of his followers the next year, when he went into the Ministry of Magic to find the Premonition about himself, even though he didn’t know about it until he was there. Voldemort was fended off, but in his sixth year, Harry quit school, to go looking for ways to destroy Voldemort for good, this mind-set brought about by Albus Dumbledore’s death.” James looked at Albus and I nodded, “Yes, that’s who Albus was named for, along with Severus Snape, the one who, in the end, helped Harry more then he realized, even though he hated Snape with all of his being. This reason was because he saw Snape kill Dumbledore, but Dumbledore forced Snape to do it, for the greater good, so Snape was actually a good person. In his seventeenth year, Harry Potter killed Voldemort once and for all and now we live in a time of peace, until the next evil wizard comes along to botch it up.”

“That’s a rather pessimistic view,” Rosie commented. I shrugged.

“Whoa,” James said, trading surprised looks with Albus, “I never knew Dad had done such
stuff.”

I smiled.

“Well now you do,” I told him, “and that’s all that’s important.”