The Weasley children did not attend a school for witches and wizards. They were tutored at home, in a quiet sunny schoolroom with only the best instructors. After all, only the best was expected for the Minister of Magic’s children.

The schoolroom was attached to the rest of the large house and had a low, sloping ceiling but tall windows that kept the room sunny and cheerful. From the windows, you could see the vast flower garden and the woods beyond the house. This land was all owned by Ronald Weasley and his wife, Hermione.

This story begins in the height of autumn during the children’s History of Magic lesson. All six of the Weasley children varied in age from six to fifteen and were all under the sharp eye of their tutor, Professor Summerfield.

While Professor Summerfield worked with six-year-old Katherine, the youngest, she was running out of patience. Katherine was the spoiled pet of her father and mother and often would push Professor Summerfield to her wits end. Today, Katherine was purposely irritating Professor Summerfield by answering every question with, “I don’t know.”

“Sometimes I think Crookshanks would learn faster than you, Katherine,” exclaimed Professor Summerfield in frustration.

Tears welled in Katherine’s eyes, “I’ll tell Daddy.”

“Go right ahead,” said Professor Summerfield, “I don’t see the point in teaching a six-year-old anything anyway.” She turned to the rest of her pupils, “I’m leaving you all to your studies for a bit. When I return, I shall hear what you have learned and if you did well enough, then you will be rewarded with a trip to Diagon Alley.”

“That’s bloody brilliant!” cried Matthew, a mischievous ten-year-old.

“I don’t want to hear another word out of you, Matthew. If I do, you won’t be coming with me.” Matthew crossed his arms in a huff and didn’t say anything else.

Professor Summerfield turned to thirteen-year-old Mackenzie and twelve-year-old April and said, “Girls, I expect your two-foot essays on the goblin wars to be handed to me when I return.”

A small figure sat in the corner. She stood out because she looked nothing like the others. She had jet-black hair where as the others all had bright red. She was bent low over he piece of parchment and was scribbling something furiously. Professor Summerfield swept over to her desk and said, “Lily, I want every single one of the components for a love potion written neatly with no smudges. I expect this to be done with no problems.”

“Yes, Professor,” said Lily quietly. She lifted her gaze for only a moment before returning her attention to her parchment. Potions was defiantly not her best subject and she was already given coursework far too difficult for her to comprehend.

Professor Summerfield gave commands to the rest of the children and then said, “I expect you all to remain in this room until I return.”

“I’ll make sure that they do, Professor Summerfield,” said Matthew in an irritating, bossy voice. She swept from the room and he said under his breath, “Unless Mum or Dad interferes…”

As soon as all of the children were absorbed in their practices, Matthew jumped onto his chair and threw his History of Magic book across the room; “I know all of this stuff! Who needs to study for Professor Summerfield? I am smarter than her anyway!”

“Oh, shut it, Matthew!” snapped April. “You’re just mad because you can’t have a wand yet, and if you don’t keep it down, I will have to hex you!”

Matthew gaped at her, “That’s not true! If I wanted a dumb old wand, Dad would get it for me.”

When nobody answered him, he turned to Lily. He pulled out his quill and tickled her with the eagle feather on the end. She jumped and begged him to stop.

“But teasing you is so much fun,” Matthew said. He poked her in the shoulder.

Lily seemed to be shaking in frustration but she managed to keep her temper in line, “Please leave me alone, or I’ll never get this done in time!”

“All this time on one set of ingredients? I’m ashamed to call you my cousin, Lily Potter. I could have finished it several times by now.”

“I’ve gone over it several times, but I can’t get the spelling or the order right and I’m not allowed to use my textbook.”

“How do you know they’re not right?” asked Matthew. “Why not just look in the textbook? That’s what I’d do.” He poked her with the feather again.

“That wouldn’t be honest,” said Lily as she pushed his hand away.

“Nobody will ever know!” said Matthew.

“It would be a lie,” said Lily firmly as she set down her quill. “But I’ll never get it right if you are here irritating me like this!”

Lily tried to go back to her studies but Matthew persisted in irritating her in any way he could. She begged him several times to stop, but it didn’t do any good.

“Why don’t you take your book out to the garden, Lily,” said April. “I’ll call you as soon as Professor Summerfield comes back.”

“I can’t do that,” exclaimed Lily. “Professor Summerfield said not to leave the room and I can’t disobey her!”

Lily went back to her potions work, but Matthew stayed by her and criticized every word she wrote. At last, he bumped her arm and a giant smudge was left on the paper.

Lily saw the smudge and burst into tears. “Now I won’t get to go to Diagon Alley! Professor Summerfield will never let me go! I wanted to see the owls and cats! I also wanted to see Uncle Fred and Uncle George!”

Matthew, who was not as bad as he seemed, felt suddenly guilty. “Never mind, Lily. I can fix it,” he said. He suddenly remembered that he was too young to have a wand. He thought and said, “Just tear out this page and start again on the next page. I won’t tease you anymore, and I can even help you with the spelling.”

“Thank you, Matthew, but I can’t tear out this page because that would be the same as lying.”

Matthew wasn’t used to his offers being refused. “Have it your way then. If you won’t let me help then you deserve to stay home!”

Mackenzie was amazed at Lily’s outburst, “Lily, I have no patience with you! You always cause a fuss. I won’t pity you at all if you have to stay home!”

Lily didn’t say anything. She brushed away her tears and returned to her writing. “It’s no use, that ugly smudge ruins everything!”

She finished the page neatly except for the smudge. She went back to her History of Magic but she couldn’t focus on the words.

Soon, Professor Summerfield returned. Still, Lily thought she might be able to finish if the others went first. She even had a small hope that Matthew would confess.

Professor Summerfield, however, called on Lily first. She was always hardest on Lily out of all of the children. She looked over Lily’s parchment.

“Didn’t I tell you not to smudge it? Do it again and if there is a smudge, no dinner today. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Professor.” Lily knew it was an empty threat because her Aunt Hermione would make sure that she had something to eat.

Matthew watched the proceedings from his desk. He was clearly guilty but somehow, he managed to convince himself that it was her own fault. He saw that his sister April was staring at him with cold eyes.

“Professor Summerfield,” said April, “since Matthew won’t speak up, I have to tell you that it is his fault that Lily’s work was smudged. He made her spill the ink. It’s his fault that she didn’t finish her studying as well. She was too honorable to go outside or tear out the page.”

“Is this so, Matthew?”

Matthew didn’t say anything.

“Alright then, you can stay home as well.”

April’s jaw dropped to the floor; “You’re still going to punish Lily? I told you that it wasn’t her fault!”

“I will not be yelled at by my pupils, April.”

April hung her head, defeated.

All of a sudden, an elegant woman in long dress robes entered the room. “Are you through yet, Professor?”

“Yes, we’ve just finished.”

“Are you all ready for our trip into Diagon Alley?” All of a sudden, Hermione Weasley looked over at Lily who was sobbing into her arms. “What is the matter, Lily?”

“She failed her lessons and I’ve told her to stay home,” said Professor Summerfield. “Miss April tells me that Matthew was to blame, so I’ve told him to remain home as well.”

“I see,” said Hermione.

“I had hoped that Matthew could come with us today to look at racing brooms and perhaps start looking at wands. He is just a child,” said Hermione looking at her eldest son.

“Very well. You, of course, can decide what is best for the children.”

“Lily is not mine and there is nothing I can do about it, though I hope that you are not being too harsh,” said Hermione gently. “I presume that you will be more diligent in your studies from now on, Lily,” she added sweetly. “Well, I have a guest that I simply must attend to before we leave, but I will see you all in a little while.”

Hermione strode from the room. She felt bad but Lily was not her child and in no way hers to control. Things might be different if Harry was here….

When her mother had gone April stood up again, “You will let Lily go, won’t you?”

“I have said that she will stay home and I will not break my word!”

Mackenzie stood up and said to her sister, “Why do you care? She has such silly ideas and I don’t feel sorry for her!”

Professor Summerfield crossed over to Lily and said, “Why are you just sitting there? You have work to do!”

Lily opened her book as she brushed back her tears. She knew that her aunt was acting unfairly but it wasn’t her fault. She was in Professor Summerfield’s care during the school hours and not her aunt’s. Even after school she technically wasn’t her aunt’s…

“Why don’t you speak? Why have you been idling all morning?”

Professor Summerfield smacked Lily smartly across the face. “That is for being lazy!”

Lily held herself back from yelling. She tried to hide the pain but her face seared with a dull ache. Soon it was announced that the fireplace was all set for the Floo travel. All of the children and Professor Summerfield hurried from the room and left Lily alone.

She opened her desk and pulled out her little book of pictures. It showed wear and tear from frequent usage. She looked at a picture of her mother waving at her out of the picture with her toes dangling into a little pond. She snapped the book shut, held it to her chest, and sobbed, “Why did you leave me? Why?” She let her tears flow freely and shouted as if to the ceiling, “I didn’t even do anything!”

“What is the matter?” came a gentle voice from behind her.

Lily looked up and saw the face of a pretty woman. “Miss Franklin!” she cried.

“Please, call me Melissa.”

“I thought I was all alone!”

“You were until right now,” said Melissa Franklin. She was a guest in the Minister’s home. She was in her training to become an Auror and was from over-seas in America. She was a guest in the Weasley household until her lodgings were ready at her training facility. “I was walking in the garden and I heard you crying. Is there anything I can do to help?” Lily didn’t answer. “I think I understand. Everyone is gone and left you alone. Perhaps you have work that you didn’t finish?”

“Yes, but being left isn’t the worst.” She burst into another round of tears and cried, “I didn’t even do anything! I was punished and I wasn’t to blame! I’ll never be like my mother, never! She wouldn’t have let herself be punished. She would have fought back! I’m afraid that I’ll never be able to do that…”

Melissa had only been on the estate for a few days but she had already been surprised by Lily’s sweet deposition.

“My poor, Lily,” she said. “That is your name, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” said Lily.

“Well, Lily, I’m sure that you will get there someday. I’ve been watching you and you are a very sweet child. I’m sure that you are more like you’re mother than you know. ”

“Thank you, Miss Melissa. I do love my mother so much! I’ve never met her…My aunt and my uncle love me but they don’t really care. They have six children of their own to care for and a world to run…”

“I see… So you are not the sister of Katherine and the other children? Mrs. Weasley is not your mother?”

“No, she is their mother, not mine,” Lily replied. “My father, Harry Potter is the other children’s uncle. My mother’s name was Ginny Potter. She was Uncle Ron’s sister.”

“Indeed. And your father is traveling a lot?”

“Yes, he is the head of the Auror department, but you probably knew that. Right now he is not in Europe. He had been away since before I was born and I’ve never even seen him. Oh, I do wish he would come home, though! I love him! Do you think he would love me?”

“I’m sure he would,” said Melissa.

“My mother died when she had me, so I can’t remember anything about her.”

Melissa stroked Lily’s hair, “But remember that her love is far greater than the love anyone else on this earth could possibly have for you.”

“Thank you, Miss Melissa!” she said sincerely.

“And thank you, Lily,” Melissa said with a laugh.

“For what?”

“For giving me one of my first real friends on the estate. I’m sure that everyone here must adore you. I know I do already.”

“I don’t have anyone to love me except for my nanny. Her name is Mrs. Hubbard.”

“How would you like to come and have hot coca with me tonight? Or pumpkin juice if you prefer it?”

“I would like that very much!” said Lily happily.