A/N: Okay. Hello Guys. For those of you who already know me, thanks for checking out my new story! For those of you who don't, I hope you enjoy it and if you do, I just finished a Harry/Ginny story you might enjoy "The Commoner Queen".

So, on to this. Happy Birthday Lily is an 8-chapter fic that takes place from 2025 to 2032, always on the 24th December, which happens to be the day before Lily Luna Potter's birthday (at least in my world, since I'm sure J.K. Rowling will prove me wrong soon). Anyway, so this centres on an uncommon next-gen ship that I happen to love: Teddy/Lily. Yes, I know some of you think it's sick: you're very welcome to leave. But I would ask everyone to give it a chance. This started off in june 2012, so I've thought about it an awful lot and I have enjoyed writing it. There will be weekly updates and I do hope you guys like it. So, please, enjoy.

Happy Birthday, Lily

24th December 2025

She won't lie. She knows many people wouldn't understand but she still doesn't see the point in lying. She won't deny that up until fourth year, she never saw him as anything other than her favourite family member; something like a cousin maybe, but a lot closer, something like a brother but, then again, not quite.

In the first memory Lily Luna Potter has of Edward (Teddy) Remus Lupin, his hair is black and messy and he's only about 14, standing next to her dad and helping Albus ride his toy broomstick; the three of them look like they could be clones, just at different ages; however, Teddy hasn't changed his eyes, they remain an unnameable dark twinkling colour that he never ever changes because, according to everyone, they are exactly the same as his mother's always were.

Teddy (she refuses to call him Ted, or even worse, Edward…That's just not him) was the only one who defended her when her brothers made her mad, and he's the only one who would never leave her out because she was a girl. Hers was the first name on Teddy's lips when he entered Potter Manor, and he was the only one to have ever told her with sincerity that, even though she seems to have followed her mother's footsteps in every way, she isn't her mother, and she isn't Lily Evans Potter either, no matter how much people say they look alike... She's Lily Luna Potter, and she's unique.

And the funny thing, is that those are the reasons that Lily has always favoured Teddy over everyone who surrounds her, but they are also the reasons that explain why it is that Teddy ruffles her hair when he sees her, and hugs her like she's still 9, or kisses her on the cheek without it meaning anything. Those are the reasons that explain why it is that, even though Lily's heart has raced for Teddy since she turned fourteen, Teddy will always just see her as the little baby who awaited at home while he was off to Hogwarts.

"It's a tough choice," the man in question voices out as he comes into the porch of Potter Manor and waves his wand, muttering a quick warming spell. "But freezing your arse off in the December chill isn't going to make it any easier."

Lily turns to look at him and can't help but think about how gorgeous he looks. Never have a pair of jeans and a Weasley Jumper looked so good on anyone, and it helps that he's himself right now, with his father's nose and sandy hair and his mother's eyes shining with the lights coming from inside, where everyone's celebrating Christmas Eve.

"It was just getting to be a bit too much in there. I love every single one of them but, Merlin, how many of them are there? I don't even know how we fit so many people in the living room," is Lilly's answer.

Teddy smirks and steps a little closer to her. Lily looks down at what she's wearing and she wonders how it's possible for him to still see her as a baby when she's wearing this dress. Granted, she'll always be on the short side, and she'll always be a little more curvy than those stick witches and, of course, she accepted long ago she would never be able to compete with girls like Dominique or Victoire (after all, they have Veela blood in them) but she doesn't look like a baby today, she hasn't looked anything like a baby for a while now.

"You and Lorcan look a little..." Teddy starts, not finding the right word.

"Like we'd rather not be seeing each other's faces right now?" she offers. Teddy nods.

"Is it because...?" He leaves the sentence unfinished again, but then he continues. "I mean, Hugo mentioned something before and I didn't know if it was..."

"He's leaving for a four year investigation expedition once we finish Hogwarts, and he asked me to go with him..." Lily explains as she walks closer to the door and sits on the porch swing that her dad had set up back when her mother was pregnant with James. Teddy sits beside her.

"What about your options? Doesn't he realize you haven't made your mind up yet?" The Metamorphmagus asks.

The red-head bites her lip. "He says I could start taking a healing course in the afternoons up until the end of school and then, on the expedition, I could focus on researching and finding healing plants and new remedies that I could use to focus my training on potion making when I come back."

Finally, Teddy comes out and says what he's been wanting to say since she had first started speaking. "So, you're going to ditch the Harpies offer?"

Lily smiles at him. "And Puddlemere's and Falmouth's and the Cannons...But don't you dare let Uncle Ron know that."

Teddy goes wide-eyed. "They all want you as their seeker?"

The red-head hits him playfully. "Why the tone of surprise, Teddy-bear? You know I can even beat my dad now..."

"Harry's getting old, Lils, it hardly count...No, but seriously, Lily, I know we had talked what a wonderful year it was for seeker try outs but, everyone wanting you? It's beyond amazing, it must be some kind of record."

They both laugh for a second, listening to the music coming from inside.

"So, Lorcan doesnt want you to play Quidditch?" Teddy continued. "I'd kill for my girlfriend to be a Quidditch player...Free tickets all year long."

"You know the Scamanders don't like Quidditch...they love flying beasts but, flying people? Not so much...Either way, Lorcan doesn't know about the offers; I've only told you."

Teddy's jaw drops slightly. "Not even Harry and Ginny?"

Lily raises her eyebrows. "Mum and Dad? Yeah, right, like I want to get into that... They'll both say I have to do what I'll love the most, but then Mum will start dropping hints about how amazingly fantastic being a Quidditch player was for her and, Dad, in fear of me hurting myself while I play Quidditch with guys twice my size, will start leaving healing pamphlets on top of my bed by accident. They're just going to make this harder."

Teddy sighs and continues with a slightly defeated tone. "So maybe going on the expedition is your best option, maybe only for a year, though, to give you a little more time to weigh your options. If so many teams are interested now, I'm sure they'll still be interested in a year. The only problem might be telling your dad you're going to be sharing a tent with Lorcan for a whole year...Harry's great, but you know what he's like when it comes to you and boys."

"That's the funny bit," Lily suddenly speaks up. "When I mentioned that small factor to Lorc he...Well, he...He got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife."

The seventeen-year-old swears she hears Teddy's breath hitch and she has to remind him to breathe.

"Merlin, breathe, Teddy-bear, don't worry...The only answer he got from me were some gorgeous big fat bats coming out of his nose," she assures him. "I'm not crazy; Im not getting married right out of school like crazy Albus, and definitely not to Lorcan."

Now Teddy looks confused. "I thought you and Lorcan were serious...I thought you were thinking about having a future with him..."

Lily shakes her head. "Teddy, I…The way I feel about Lorcan is complicated. We've literally grown up together…I swear every single thing I did as a kid: walk, talk, tie my shoelaces…He's there in every photo with me. I really do adore him to bits and I can't imagine my life without him but, I couldn't share my whole life with him either. I'd feel like I missed out. Sometimes it just ends up feeling like we work because we're so used to working and being pushed together, not because we love or understand each other. In fact, I think, most of the time, we don't understand each other at all," she explains.

"It might not be my business saying it," she continues warily. "But I've always thought it might've been similar to what you had with Victoire...Isn't that the reason the two of you broke off the engagement?"

Teddy laughs. "Yeah...well, that, and... you know the night we broke up, when she told me she had kissed Dexter? All I could remember is the way your dad reacted when Ginny told him that that sneaky Italian Quidditch star tried to put his hands on her at an interview and just how mad he was that someone else had tried to touch his girl. I didn't feel anything like that, Lils...I just felt...relieved, I think..." he guesses.

Teddy looks at her and smiles in an idealistic way. "That's when I knew I wanted something like what your mum and dad have. I don't want to be the Auror who comes home to the housewife who's content just looking after the house and the kids and who is as calm and as peaceful as I usually am...I want to be with someone who puts herself before being a wife and a mother and who is like a storm, who can break me out of my shell every once in a while. I know I didn't know them, but from what I've heard, what I would want is someone who was as driven and passionate as my mother was." Teddy smiles, trying to lighten the mood. "Besides, it worked out for the best, Victoire and Dex really were meant for each other, I was just standing in the way...I think little Billy proves that. They're all perfectly happy,"

Lily laughed. "And then there's us. The undecided Gryffindor and the lonely Hufflepuff..." She says.

Teddy fakes an offended look and she laughs, wrapping her arm around him. "But don't you worry, I'll always be here to make sure you know you're never alone."

Teddy smiles too and wraps his arm around her. "And I'll always be here so you can tell me about your crazy life and I can help you sort out through your indecisions."

They both share a chuckle and Lily looks up at Teddy to find him looking down at her. Their proximity hasn't become obvious until that moment, when their faces are only a few inches apart. A strange silence falls upon them as they look at each other, suddenly the atmosphere seems a lot warmer, as their thick coats brush against one another and their eyes remain fixed.

Teddy's the one to finally break the moment, shaking his head and standing up quickly, giving Lily a hand so she can get up too.

"We should get moving, it's going to strike twelve soon and everyone's going to be looking for you..."

Lily cant' help the girlish giggle that escapes her mouth.

"I have to admit always having the family here for my birthday is pretty cool...my dad always says that I'm..."

"...the best Christmas present he will ever get," the both speak in unison. They're both standing in front of the door now, Teddy with his back to it and Lily standing opposite him. For a few seconds they stand in silence again until Teddy, without Lily quite understanding why, tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and his touch is suddenly nothing like what she's used to, she never allows herself to read into anything he does or says but, there's something different there.

And then Teddy looks at her, really looks at her... The way the black dress is so tight at the top, showing all her curves and then falls freely from her waist to mid-thigh, where her short legs somehow look long and the fact that they're so white is nothing short of beautiful.

"You look gorgeous tonight, Lils," Teddy tells her without moving his hand away from her red hair, which contrasts so amazingly with the dark dress. And Teddy doesn't know what the hell he's doing because he knows that this is Lily, that this is basically his little sister and she's only seventeen (even if she will be turning eighteen in a second) and he should feel like such a pervert but, he doesn't. He lets himself think what he never lets himself think. He lets in the thoughts that have come and gone briefly in the last two years, he allows himself to admit that no one understands him quite like she does, that no one can make him smile as much, that no one can make him care in the way he cares about her. He lets it all in during a single moment, knowing he'll push it all away just as quick as it came.

But he just feels like it would be a crime not to kiss her when she's looking up at him with those big brown eyes and that longing that he'd forced himself to ignore; so he doesn't think and he leans down and does it, he places his lips softly over hers.

Their lips have barely even touched when one of them gives the other a small electric shock that makes them both jump backwards. None of them even takes the time to think about how weird it is for this to happen right at this moment, they are both too consumed thinking about the kiss (if you can even call it a kiss) they've both shared.

"I...I...Merlin, Lily, I'm so sorry I don't...I don't know what happened to me, I was...I'm just going to..."

The clock strikes midnight and they both turn to look inside, where the old clock is chiming and the happy birthday to you Muggle song that the clock has always made on these especial days, makes its way to their ears.

"Happy 18th, Lily," Teddy says quickly and, before she can even say thank you, he's gone.

A/N: And so there you go, for those who review: I tend to reply and send a small preview of the next chapter. I happen to love tv promos so I know many people enjoy it. I do hope some of you will continue reading. For those of you who don't, thanks for giving it a chance any way! As always, any comment, of whatever kind, is greatly appreaciated.