As a special birthday gift from me to the fans, I'm posting at least two new chapters and making a drabble a full story!

You could say it was partly desperation, partly curiosity... but mostly it was an attempt to show those idiot pure bloods she was a better witch, despite being a 'mudblood'.

Lily Potter wanted to get pregnant, but thanks to certain factors, James' seed simply refused to take. She had to bribe and cajole him into going to a fertility clinic to find out that all the centuries of inbreeding had resulted in him having a very low viable sperm count, thus making it rather hard for her to get pregnant.

But Lily wasn't an Unspeakable for nothing...she would have a child, one way or another.

And to that end, Lily dug into the department's old and abandoned research materials for inspiration. It was clear a ritual would have to be used, the only question was what sort of one and how difficult it would be.

It took her seven months, and she finally hit paydirt.

It was a ritual to summon something. The parchment was too damaged to make out what, but she could tell it was a greater spirit of some sort and there was even leftovers from the attempt. Sure, it was a jar of odd clay, but from what the notes said whatever it was made out of was highly charged with earth magic. So much that if used in any rituals that were dedicated to Gaia or any other earth-based god/goddess, it had a higher chance of succeeding.

Well, Lily might not be a pure blood, but even she knew that another name for "Gaia" was Mother Earth. And for what she wanted to do with this jar, this suited her needs perfectly.

To that end, Lily employed the help of one Sirius Black. While James was a pure blood, he didn't have the same background knowledge in semi-legal rituals that Sirius did. Mostly because the Blacks descended from Druids and had actually been around longer than the Potters.

Sirius was all too happy to help, as the little one would become his godchild. Remus, for obvious reasons, was excluded as he didn't have the background knowledge. Lily wanted this to be a surprise because as much as she loved her husband, he had the worst habit of trusting Professor Dumbledore too much with information he had no business knowing.

And Dumbledore would likely have several words to say about using a ritual and an unknown mud that summoned a greater spirit into an unborn child. Right before trying to hoard the information himself for a later date.

Lily might respect Dumbledore, but she sure as hell didn't appreciate the fact that he kept hoarding information that could have helped with the war to himself because he still saw them as the wet behind the nose first years that wanted to learn magic, despite being grown adults. She hated the fact he was still trying to coddle them and try to mold them into his ideal witch/wizard long after they graduated.

Sometimes people needed a sharp reminder of their mortality to find what they were meant to do in life or to be set straight.

Lily and Sirius set up the ritual circle, and Lily took out a teaspoon's amount of the clay. There really wasn't a lot in there, so she didn't want to waste any of it.

As the two began to chant, Lily noticed the circle was glowing. Following her gut instinct, she placed the clay which was feeling more magically charged by the second onto her stomach, directly over her womb.

She felt something latch on to her magic, and the clay sank into her body.

She felt energetic and rather horny, so once they cleaned up she promptly went to find James. Nine months later, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl.

For some reason, Lily decided to name their daughter Rhea, as she had a strange feeling naming her daughter Inanna would have been in poor taste...though she had no idea why. Then again after she looked into that particular Goddess' legend she decided Rhea was far better for her little girl. Rhea loved her children so much that she was willing to risk her husband/brother's ire and tricked him into eating a rock rather than allow her child to be eaten like the rest were.

She found the Epic of Gilgamesh oddly fascinating, though.

Rhea Larkspur Potter was a happy, healthy child with her mother's green eyes and her father's hair...though thankfully it seemed Rhea's hair took more after Lily than James, who looked like a bird's nest at any given time. She was spoiled rotten by her godfather and showered with no end of love and affection by her parents.

In short, her life should have been happy.

However the peaceful times were not meant to last.

In the blink of an eye, she was left orphaned, her godfather imprisoned and left on the door of her magic-hating aunt who was less than pleased being stuck raising her younger sister's daughter as well as her own son.

Twelve years later, in the Shrieking Shack

Sirius looked at his goddaughter, who was far too skinny for his liking. He was not happy Dumbledore left Rhea with Petunia, as it was clear Lily's elder sister still held a great deal of animosity towards her that had been extended to her daughter. There was also a guarded hope in her eyes, as if she couldn't believe the offer he was extending to her was actually real.

Sadly it wasn't meant to be. Thanks to the idiocy of the Minister and the fact Peter escaped, he couldn't clear his name and free his little pup from that woman. Despite the fact she would almost certainly jump at the chance to run away with him.

Rhea cried herself to sleep that night, knowing she had a chance for freedom only for fate to take it from her.

Though she was a little confused as to why Sirius told her to learn meditation before he flew off with Buckbeak. How was that supposed to help protect her?

Rhea hated the magical enclaves. After losing Sirius, it seemed Dumbledore had come to the decision she hadn't lost enough and wanted to bind her to one of the pure blood families in order to "protect" her. Being told that she would marry Draco of all people in order to "Save" him was ridiculous.

She packed her bag discreetly, insuring that no one knew what she had planned. Then, in the dead of night she fled into the Forbidden Forest, not really giving a damn about the centaurs or anything else.

Right now there was literally nothing worse than being in that castle, treated as a caged bird that they could play with at their leisure and then scorn when she tried to break free.

It wasn't until she felt a hot pain and the sensation of something wet dribble down her cheek that she realized she was being hunted. The centaurs were already pissed off after Umbridge last year...it was only natural they wouldn't like the idea of Rhea going through their territory, completely vulnerable, without even asking.

Fire filled her veins and went deep into her core. This was something all too familiar to her...the sensation of being hunted. Strangely, she had never felt unhappy with the idea of the hunt...just the thought of being caught by people who wanted to break her in a way that she would never recover from.

Determination and the same odd calm settled into her bones, as she lengthened her stride and began to run with purpose. This wasn't a time to overthink things... only instinct would save her now.

If she had a mirror or any reflective surface she would have seen how her eyes were glowing from an internal light, or that her hair took a decidedly greenish tinge. Considering she usually kept it short enough that she could put it into a loose bun, rather than mess with styling it, it was only natural she wouldn't notice anything different.

Seeing a clearing up ahead, she sped up. Sure, there wasn't anything to hide behind...but she was more interested in escaping as opposed to hiding.

She made it as far as the odd rock formation in the center before she was surrounded. There had to be at least ten pissed off centaurs who were looking decidedly unfriendly...one of which was Bane who she knew hated magicals.

And this time, there was no way Firenze would come to her rescue. She was completely isolated from any form of help and surrounded. To make matters worse, she had already snapped her own wand and was thus more or less defenseless save for a potions knife.

She had the distinct feeling that blade wouldn't protect her in the least against the ire of the centaurs.

Rhea backed into the rocks, noting absently that they were smooth and too symmetrical to be natural. Had she stumbled across a druid ritual area by accident that had been abandoned?

She wiped the blood off her face, and stared Bane down without hesitation.

Bane sneered at her, and she knew without words that if they caught her she would find out exactly why Umbridge looked so terrified whenever she heard the sound of hooves. She had looked into what centaurs of old had done to captured females and really wished she hadn't.

She didn't judge Hermione for that stunt...Umbridge had deserved to be punished, but she sure as hell didn't want to suffer the same fate.

Bane drew his bow, clearly intent on maiming her slightly to insure she couldn't run anymore. She had managed to evade their arrows earlier...but backed into a corner like this and surrounded there was no way she was getting away.

Rhea tensed...and put her bloodied hand against the alter without thinking.

Her magic surged, as everything felt into such perfect clarity that she suffered no illusions of what was happening to her.

Fire entered her veins, her bones, her core, her very soul. Unseen by Rhea, her entire body began to shift under the stimulus of the accidental blood sacrifice she had made onto the alter.

Her hair fell from the loose ponytail she had kept it in, going from shoulder-length to flowing down her back past her backside...the black locks turned a vibrant green. Her body became taller, more androgynous though she still managed to keep her limited bust size. Her figure filled out to a much healthier weight class, and became sturdier in certain ways. Her magical core surged, as if being given a massive boost in size as several bindings violently broke off. In the span of seconds, she went from an underage witch to someone who had reached full magical maturity.

Ancient knowledge filled her being, and without a second thought as to what she was doing, she raised her hand and pointed it at Bane...or more specifically his arrow.

"Enkidu," she intoned, her voice filled with ancient power.

Chains flew past her, shattering the arrow like a twin and impaling Bane.

Cold, hard shock could be found on the expressions of the centaurs that had cornered her.

While they were an ancient race, they were much diminished compared to their ancestors. However there was no doubt that the witch-child that they were trying to punish for trespassing had somehow unlocked a power that hadn't been seen since the Age of Gods.

Rhea gazed at each and every one of them...she was perfectly willing to kill them all and not lose an ounce of sleep over it.

As Bane collapsed to the ground, dead from the attack, the remaining centaurs came to a consensus immediately.

They fled.

Once she realized she was safe, that she could leave without getting killed for it or worse, the events of what just happened caught up to her in an instant.

She blacked out.

A few hours later...

When Rhea woke up, it was to the smell of wet dog and the sensation of a cold nose against her back.

She still had no idea why she didn't scream when she saw that massive white wolf staring her down calmly, with another one lying against her lap keeping her warm.

Seeing Hedwig, she gently stroked her owl's feathers.

'You foolish chick! You should have called me when you realized the centaurs were hunting you!' scolded Hedwig.

"I'm sorry Hedwig, but you were too noticeable and I didn't want to drag you into my mess," said Rhea...before realization hit her. "Hedwig?"

'Yes, Rhea-chick?' asked Hedwig, tilted her head and preparing to knock some sense into her.

"Since when can I understand what you're saying, instead of making a general guess?" asked Rhea slowly.

The wolf in her lap shifted, and their tag wagged a little when they realized Rhea was awake. Judging by the lack of equipment against her, she could only assume the wolf was female. The other wolf she could tell right away was a male.

While confused, at this point she was more tired than afraid.

The wolf resisted any attempt to get up. And to be honest, she was just too exhausted to care anymore.

So she tried to meditate...even if she had no idea why Sirius insisted it was important she learned.

She woke up the next morning, with the wolves still laying next to her as if guarding her, Hedwig sitting next to her head on the alter...and very confused.

Meditation was oddly relaxing...but it had also freed her mind to the point she found herself in an ancient glen, with a man about her 'age' sitting calmly among the flowers.

Learning she had been created using the 'contributions' of her parents, but that the majority of her was actually made from the 'clay' her mother had used as a catalyst in a rather odd summoning ritual was a shock.

In a way, she could honestly claim this...Enkidu...was her true father, as James had only donated the required material to kickstart the process. His 'seed' was far too damaged to create a child normally, which was why her mother had been forced to find alternative methods to have her little girl.

She would give him this though...even though she had really been formed by that strange clay her mother had used, he had loved her without hesitation.

It had made her cry, knowing she had truly been loved by her parents, and that she technically had one with her at all times.

Enkidu was the reason why she was alive in the first place... her infant self had instinctively drawn upon his power when the curse hit. His very being was far beyond the ability of any mortal wizard to kill...it had taken the wrath of the very gods for his death the first time.

However she hadn't been old enough to handle the full brunt of his power, which was why he had never manifested before. Now though...now the limited fragment of his self that slept in a place called the "Throne of Heroes" had fully merged with her, lifting the restrictions of humanity from her permanently.

Rhea rubbed her eyes.

Finding out she was both the 'daughter' of Enkidu and their 'reincarnation' was beyond confusing, but she wasn't complaining. Compared to all the nonsense she went through before, this didn't even come close to her top five worst things to happen to her. And best of all she could talk to Hedwig properly now instead of making a highly educated guess what her owl was saying.