A/N: Hey guys! The basic idea in this story- time travel- is perhaps nothing new to Harry Potter fanfiction, but I really wanted to make my own to suit my tastes, so here it is!

If you like Lily Evans and the Marauders, I plan to have plenty of them in there. It will also include some of our favorite Slytherins. But the main character is Lily Luna Potter, Harry's daughter.

As far as genre goes, expect lots of romance (especially later on), humor, drama, mystery, and adventure.

WARNING: This is rated T for good reason. There'll be swearing, substance use, violence, and scenes of a sexual nature (probably not graphic enough to be rated M though).

Disclaimer: I claim not to claim, but to disclaim, and never reclaim, ownership of JKR's brilliant creations.

Chapter 1: Primitive Ways of Magical Transportation

Outside, the October night was windy and cold when I curled up on my favorite window seat in the girls' dormitory, a red and gold blanket snugly wrapped around my shoulders. Even though it was a Friday, a library book lay on my knees, one I had recently borrowed for a project assigned in Ancient Runes class.

Normally, homework is the last thing you'd find me doing on a Friday night - I'd much rather start a weekend by going out to Hogsmeade with my mates or something - but that day I made an exception. Not only were Emily and Hugo nowhere to be found, but I was also just in the mood for some lazy time and sitting around, after a couple cold hours of Quidditch practice. And there was something intriguing about this particular book that made me want to examine it.

True I'd only gotten it for the assignment, and it was written in old Norse runes so reading it was a pain. But there was still something in the way the thing looked that made me select it as the night's reading material, instead of the stack of old Witch Weeklys piled on my bedside table. Its brown leather cover was ornately decorated with swirling designs, and the text inside looked carefully handwritten on the thick, yellowed parchment. Plus, it had come from the Restricted Section. That fact made it all the more interesting. I seriously doubted it was actually dangerous since it wasn't anywhere near the Dark Arts books; it was probably just there because of its age. The key rune in its title translated to something like "portals" or "connections" so it seemed to be pretty relevant to my topic, "primitive ways of magical transportation."

Looking at this book, I could imagine how hundreds of years ago a sorcerer sat by the light of a flickering candle, diligently tracing into the pages his knowledge of some old form of Apparition... Lightly touching the cover's engraved markings with my finger, I wondered how old it could possibly be. I turned over to look at the inside of the cover page, thinking I might see something like a date inscribed somewhere.

But there wasn't anything written there; the cover's reverse side was smooth and unmarked except for a funny, square-shaped bump right in the middle, no bigger than the size of my palm.

"Weird.." I muttered, feeling the bump in attempt to figure out what it might be. It seemed like there was some sort of small, hard object trapped under the leather.

Well, wasn't that interesting...curious really. So did I have a choice but to cut open the book and take it out? Pince the librarian would kill me of course, if she found out. But I could always fix the book up with a little magic, couldn't I now? So I took my wand out of my robe pocket and made an incision in the leather right next to the mysterious object.

It turned out to be slender block of dark stone, its design fairly simple except for a very basic rune carved on one side. I recognized it immediately to mean "key," though a key to open what, exactly, the rune gave no hint for. Perhaps there would be something in the book which would explain it?

I thought maybe I should scan through the pages for any mention of keys, but at that moment the dormitory door opened and my best friend Emily entered the room.

"Hey Em." I greeted her. "I just found a key-thing inside this library book. It was actually inside the book so I had to cut it out. Isn't that strange?"

"Hmhm." was the only reply that came from Emily's bed where she had gone to lie down. Her voice sounded a bit off and it was rather unlike her to give such a brief reply. I had expected her to say something like "Nah, that's not strange. You defacing school property is actually a pretty normal occurrence." even if she wouldn't share my enthusiasm.

"Em?" She didn't answer this time so I pocketed the key and lay aside the book to go sit beside her. "Are you feeling alright?"

"No." She didn't look at me but stared up at the ceiling of her four-poster, clutching a pillow to her chest. Her eyes were red and swimming with tears.

"Well are you going to tell me what's wrong? Wait, boy troubles?" I sighed, thinking of my clueless cousin. "What did Hugo do now?"

Emily's bottom lip trembled. "Asked some Hufflepuff to go to Hogsmeade with him."

"Are you serious? Hopeless wanker." If there was one thing I learned in my time at Hogwarts, it was that all boys are bloody stupid. Apparently that doesn't exclude the ones I'm related to. "It's obvious he likes you. Probably just doing it to make you jealous, you know?"

"But why would he think he needs to make me jealous?"

"He doesn't think, is the problem. Would you like me to go knock some sense into him?"

"No!" She gave me a panicking look. "If you do that, then he'll know."

"Well maybe that wouldn't be so bad." I really didn't understand her. But if it took her until our last year at Hogwarts to admit she likes Hugo to me, I suppose I shouldn't've been expecting her to go and tell the bloke himself.

Just then my friend's stomach gave a rather loud growl.

"Hey, is this why you walked out after the first ten minutes of dinner?"

"I don't think I would've been able to keep my food down anyway. You should've seen how close together they were sitting." She said miserably.

"Wait, didn't you miss lunch as well?"

"But that was to study for that Potions test."

"Merlin's Pants, you must be ravenous! Why are you still sitting up here all depressed? This is a perfect reason to take a trip to the kitchens."

But Emily only pouted at my suggestion. "I don't want to go anywhere. And what if he's down in the common room?"

"At least that'll mean he's not off snogging that girl in some corner of the castle?"

Emily groaned. "You know just what to say."

At least she was still being sarcastic, I thought with relief. "Oh you know you could just end all this if you told him how you feel. Then he'll be snogging you. Where's the Gryffindor in you, huh?"

"It's not that simple." she whispered.

"And it's not that complicated. But you know what I think." I shrugged. After years of dealing with this, I recognized there was only so much I could say or do to help the situation. Still, what kind of person would I be to let my friend go hungry? I was feeling slightly peckish myself in any case, and the house elves probably had leftover pumpkin pie to give away from that night's dessert. "Alright, I'm going to go get us some food while you wallow in self-pity up here. You sure you don't wanna come?"

Of course Emily rarely changed her mind once she had decided on something, but she did request that I bring her a ham sandwich and some strawberry ice cream. So I emptied my book bag (after my first few visits to the kitchens of leaving with my arms full, trailing pasties on my path back, I learned to bring a bag), took out the Marauders' Map which I had tucked inside my Transfiguration textbook (it was rather past curfew), and turned to leave the room.

"Hey Emily?" I said, my hand on the doorknob.

"Mmh?"

"If you ever catch me willing to skip dinner over a bloke, feel free to hand me over to Pomfrey to have my head examined, alright?"

"Right." It seemed like she almost smiled. It was probably the image of me falling as head-over-heals in love as she had. I wasn't really one for long-term crushes or relationships. Well, I still had my fun, just never met the right person to get really serious with.

-0-0-0-0-0-

About fifteen minutes later I was making my way back up to Gryffindor tower with a bag of ice cream, pumpkin pie, and sandwiches for two, dodging patrolling prefects with the help of the Map. Incredibly useful, that map. It was something I always had on hand now that I didn't have to share it with James and Al anymore.

Walking through a long corridor on the third floor, I tried to keep my footsteps quiet in the otherwise silent castle. And then I once again saw a labeled dot on the map- one of my professors- possibly heading my way. Just in case I slipped through a nearby door which I knew led to the trophy room.

The torches inside were lit as usual, even though it was completely empty and, as far as I knew, only came into use for detentions and snogging. It looked like it would be a couple minutes while Professor Ackerley passed through the corridor outside, so I sat down on one of the lower trophy cases to wait.

I spent a moment looking over the map. Of course I already knew all the passageways on it by heart, but it was still kinda cool being able to see where everyone was. I made a mental note to tell Emily that Hugo was up in his dorm and not snogging anyone.

My thoughts wandered a little and I remembered the blocky key I found earlier in the evening. It was still in my pocket so I took it out to examine again. I ran my fingers over its smooth texture. Even if I never found out what it was for, I still appreciated a good mystery. I've always felt that there's a certain charm to anything unknowable.

When I glanced at the map again Ackerley was gone, so I grabbed my bag of food and stood up to leave.

But, when I was once again facing the door, I had to blink and rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things. There wasn't one, but two doors in front of me: One made of wood like most others in the castle, obviously leading back into the hallway, and another, right next to it, made of smooth, dark stone.

I rushed over to look at it closer- it was clearly magical since it hadn't been there before. And I had a suspicion that it just might have something to do with that ancient-looking key.

The door looked heavy and didn't have anything like a handle, but there were runes engraved all along its arching frame which looked too complicated for me to read, and - I smiled, reaching into my pocket once more - a little square indent in the place of where a knocker would usually be.

I placed the key into its lock, the possibilities of what I might find behind it flying through my mind. A room full of treasure? A room full of magic? Maybe it'll be some sort of enchanted chamber like the Room of Requirement which has more than one form?

Once the block sat snugly in it's place like the last piece of a puzzle, the heavy door faded into air as if vanished with a simple charm. And behind it was what looked like part of a lit corridor. Cautiously, I peered through the doorway, looked around, and saw a long hallway lit by torches, a couple suits of armor, and some perfectly familiar looking tapestries hanging on the gray stone walls. It was just the third floor corridor I had come in from.

Did the strange, appearing door lead to the exact same place as the normal one right next to it, then? I hadn't even considered that disappointing option. So much for finding a magical treasure room; It looked like all I did was make a hole in the wall next to a perfectly good door.

Rather put out by the anticlimactic turn of events, I decided to continue on my way back to Gryffindor Tower.

The Fat Lady was sleeping when I got there and she barely opened an eye to let me in when I told her "whizzing bees." When I opened the door to the dorm, however, I was rather surprised to see all the lights were already off and I could hear slow, deep breathing. Did everyone really go to bed in the twenty minutes I was gone? It was barely past eleven on a Friday, for Merlin's sake.

I went over to where I knew Emily's bed was and prodded her slightly.

"Psst, Em. I got the sandwiches and strawberry ice cream you ordered." I whispered. There was no answer so I asked for good measure, "Are you sleeping already?"

"Hmmffm." came a muffled reply from the dark lump on the bed.

"So you're leaving all the ice cream and pie for me to eat alone?" I asked, disappointed but still keeping my voice hushed.

"Hmf." the lump said again, this time with a note of irritation.

Well apparently, I wouldn't have anyone to share the midnight snack with. And I didn't exactly want to be eating in the dark, so I decided to go back down to the common room. There were very few people sitting awake there as well, but they were no one I knew or even remembered talking to before. At least the armchairs by the fireplace were empty.

I sat down in one of them, took out some pie, and kicked off my shoes to warm my toes on the flames' heat for a while. It seemed my night would end as quietly as it had begun, but at least it was still perfectly warm and comfy.

Even after I finished my pie slice and a cup of half-melted ice cream, I continued to sit in that armchair for a long time. Fire is funny like that- something about its heat and its flickering orange glow puts people into reveries. Eventually, too nicely settled to bother moving upstairs, I was lulled to sleep.

A/N: As a bonus, here's a description of Lily Luna for you guys. I wasn't planning on posting it since it would be practically impossible to fit it into the narrative, as LL isn't poetic enough to ever describe herself this way. But I like it so much, why not just put it here in the author's note?

Her round, brown eyes are usually cheerful, like little suns giving off a simple and inviting light. Her bright orange hair sticks up, stubborn and laughing, much like the petals of the flower which goes by the same name. Her mouth is rather wide, exaggerating any curl of her lips into a full-out smile or frown. Uncountable freckles are sprinkled across her thin face, congregating especially on her cheeks and perky nose. Her figure's lean and slightly muscled from the many hours of Quidditch, rather more boyish than she would like, especially considering her less-than-humble height. Her hands and feet are thin, and would be elegant, except the nails are always sporting chipped nail polish. Her movements are light and cat-like, sometimes lazy and relaxed, and sometimes light and springy. Her body's made of long slanting lines, curving like the stem of an overgrown weed, with her silly mop of unruly hair completing the image of a strange sort of flowering plant.

So that's that. Reviews? Thoughts? Questions? Suggestions? Confessions?

And btw, please feel free to review a chapter even if it's not the most recently posted one! This is all one big story after all, so feedback on any part of the project is very appreciated!