Chapter 22: Homeschooling

Draco looked at the girl he recognised as Lily Evans.

Her face was oval and seemed to emit light, she had big beautiful bright green eyes, she had long silky red hair, she was quite tall and very white.

Draco suddenly felt as if his stomach was turning inside out.

'No, no, no, she's Lily Evans, Potter's mother, I can't think of her like that.'

'But... that smile, those lips that...'

Lily turned her gaze towards the door to the entrance of the Potions shop as she heard someone enter and realised that there were two young people about her age staring at her.

The male was looking at her with his mouth open and the female was smiling slightly.

Lily could see a few tears in the young witch's eyes.

Surprisingly, this grey-eyed male looked rather like Severus' Dark friend Lucius, but without Malfoy's characteristic blonde hair.

'Who are they? well... I'd better introduce myself first' Lily thought.

Lily smiled warmly at them both and approached them.

Lily tried to remember this girl's face, but nothing came out.

She had never seen her face before and she couldn't find any resemblance to anyone else either.

"Hi, I'm Lily, Lily Evans. I don't think I've seen you around here before," Lily greeted kindly.

"Certainly..." replied Draco automatically causing Lily to give him a confused look, but after a moment Hermione nudged him to shut up.

Hermione was surprised to look up and see Draco gawking at Lily.

'I almost thought that the reason Draco was gawking at her was...'

'No, Draco couldn't, he couldn't, fall in love with her' Hermione thought but Draco's gaze was still fixed on Lily.

" Nice to meet you. Hermione Prince is my name, and this is my half-brother Draco Prince."

"Prince?" asked Lily.

"I've never heard of a student with the surname Prince at Hogwarts and from what I can see you two must be close to my age" she added intrigued.

"That's because we've both always done homeschooling," informed Hermione.

"So you two just do your studies at home?" asked Lily.

"Yes," they both nodded.

"Wow..., but doesn't the Ministry require wizards to validate their homeschooling by attending a magical school in their final year?" asked Lily again, very intrigued by these two wizards she had never seen before.

She had heard of homeschooling, but never knew anyone who did it.

"Yes. Although we plan to go into 6th rather than 7th year so that we have an extra year to adjust to the wizarding school," replied Hermione.

"So, are you planning on attending Hogwarts?" asked Lily.

"Well, we still have to take the admissions exams, but yes, Hogwarts is the school we're hoping to get into," explained Hermione.

"Yeha It was the only option as my sister doesn't like Durmstrang," commented Draco jokingly wanting to join in the conversation as he felt left out with Hermione being the only one to speak.

But his joke had the opposite effect than he intended as Lily was quite surprised and tense when she heard that he was considering going to Durmstrang.

Suddenly, Lily straightened up and said: " You know that Durmstrang teaches Dark Magic, don't you?"

"Of course I do..." started Draco but again he earned a nudge from Hermione who shushed him.

"My brother's just joking, we never considered going to any school other than Hogwarts," commented Hermione truthfully as that was just Draco's invention and she really wanted to smack him for being so reckless.

Lily was relieved to hear Hermione's sincere words and understood that her brother was really just making a bad joke like James and Sirius used to do.

"And I apologize, Draco still doesn't understand that England's current state against Dark magic is no joke," Hermione said with clear irritation in her voice as she looked at Draco, letting him know that the two of them would have a long talk later.

Draco just sighed wearily, there was no worse punishment than listening to Hermione lecture you.

"My mistake," Draco said reluctantly, he didn't think a simple joke was such a big deal, but knowing that Hermione wouldn't stop complaining later if he didn't say something to correct himself, he decided to just take the more convenient course of action.

Lily just shook her head and then smiled again.

"Don't worry, you're not the first one I've met who does that..., in fact, I think you'd probably get on quite well with them..." commented Lily.

'Though I hope James doesn't dare add another one to his Marauders, my head hurts enough with only four, hell let alone five' thought Lily.

Draco didn't pay attention to who the people she was referring to were, but Hermione did, and she knew she was referring to the Marauders.

'Draco and the Marauders?..., no, no, that wouldn't be possible' Hermione laughed lightly at the thought of Draco with James, Sirius, and Remus.

" By the way, you're not from around here right?" asked Lily.

"Huh?, why do you say that?" this time it was Draco who spoke looking at Lily with intrigue.

"Hmm, well, even though I can definitely judge from your accents that you're locals, but I've never seen you before," replied Lily.

Draco and Hermione looked at each other and finally, it was Draco who answered as he figured she wouldn't want to lie to her.

"Uh-oh, that's because we were born here, but then our family moved outside and just recently we moved back to England," said Draco.

" So, why did you move here, to go to Hogwarts?"

"Yes and no..., our family died and our only living relative lives in England. So we moved here," Draco said calmly.

Lily shifted slightly, feeling awkward for asking this.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." apologised Lily in a slightly broken and regretful voice.

"It's fine, don't worry about it," Hermione said quickly not wanting her to feel bad for them.

Then they were silent for a few seconds.

"So... Do you know which House you want to go to yet?" asked Lily again trying to pick up the conversation that had become a little awkward.

"Definitely..." Draco was about to automatically say something but instantly fell silent and then looked at Hermione doubtfully.

'Should I go to Slytherin or should we both go to the same house, Hmm Granger in Slytherin..., yeah right, like that's even possible' Draco denied not knowing what to say now.

"We haven't decided yet, but personally I would like Ravenclaw or Gryffindor," said Hermione seeing that Draco didn't know what to say.

Lily nodded in agreement with her, those two houses were the same ones she had thought about joining her first year and luckily ended up in Gryffindor.

"Then maybe we'll be house mates since I'm in Gryffindor, it would be nice to have someone fresh in the group, of course, if you agree," smiled Lily.

"That... yes, I would like that" nodded Hermione with a hint of happiness in her voice.

"Great, then we'll just have to wait, although if you get into Gryffindor I recommend you watch out for Marauders..." said Lily.

"Marauders...?" asked Draco suddenly as if he remembered something about them.

"Yes, a gang of four troublemakers and irresponsible people who love to play pranks... although they're good boys, but they don't know how to control themselves. Except for Remus, he's actually nice enough and smart," Lily remarked.

The three of them chatted for a while as they looked at and bought different potions.

Hermione was delighted to be able to meet and talk to Lily Evans, while Draco didn't know how to feel, but he took an active part in the conversation.

They could both admit that Lily was kind, respectful, intelligent, funny, and humble.

Her character seemed to show and want to find the beauty within all things and people when she spoke, almost without focusing on the outside.

And Hermione and Draco concluded that Lily had that beauty not only on the outside but also on the inside.

Lily kindly offered to guide them through the rest of Diagon Alley, and they accepted even though they already knew it.

After going through various shops and buying everything they needed, they finally said goodbye to Lily but she made them promise to talk to her so they could meet up and go over everything they needed to get into Hogwarts.

Lily was quite persistent in helping them practise everything they needed to know for the entrance exams, saying that as a Hogwarts student she could tell them what they would need to know more accurately.

Plus she already considered Hermione as a future Housemate.

Although Hermione wanted to refuse, to her surprise it was Draco who accepted Lily's invitation and she had no choice but to agree.