Prologue.

A feeling of nervous unease had settled itself in Draco Malfoy's stomach as he entered the lonely hillside church, growing as he unlocked the wooden door of the bell tower and began the climb upwards. No one ever came here any more, the building forgotten and damaged by disrepair. The flowers by the font drooping sadly and gradually rotting away, the pews covered in a layer of grey dust. There were a few signs up decreeing that the Muggle council would do something about it soon, or the members of the nearby village were trying to raise funds and all that rubbish. 

Still, it was the perfect place to hide someone. The bell tower hadn't been visited for ages, and the bells were never rung, but if one actually set foot in the place they would find it clean and warm. Draco
smiled as he saw the flickering light of a fire. Good. The girl still knew her spell work.

It was strange the way he felt so protective over her, since she was actually older than him in age, though not by sight. She was still fragile, though, he knew, still trying to recover to the torture his father had put her through. The guilt returned to his body, mingling with the nervous butterflies that fluttered within also. He tried to think it wasn't his fault, that he couldn't have done anything when he was a fragile, persuaded child terrified of disappointing his parents. But the images of the girl bound by chains and covered in blood had haunted his memories ever since the fateful night when he had found out what Lucius Malfoy had done.

It had been his undercover project for a decade to find out how to recover her from the mirage she had become via Lucius Malfoy's spell, pulling her out of the rift and back into reality. But he had done it. After ten long years of working by night and often loosing her for weeks, or even months, Draco had done it.

But she had been ill. Very ill. Her body back then was weak and feverish, stung by blows and marred by previous attacks. There had been a terrifying period where it looked she had been about to die. 

It had been a miracle that she hadn't. The Malfoy's couldn't hire to healers, couldn't cart her into St. Mungo's. Otherwise she'd be discovered. For a long time, only Draco and his wife, Astoria, had known about her, their children had been toddlers and had not yet known. All that he and Astoria could do was wait and hope and watch their house elf do the best she could. And in the end, the girl and lived.

Lived to regain her health, to gradually take part, to form a kind of life in the dark Malfoy Mansion. She'd grown up with Draco's sons, Scorpius and Vladimir. She'd become part of the family. She was accepted in the little brood, loved as daughter by Astoria and then as a wild companion by the Malfoy children. Scorpius had always been courteous, though as he'd grown older he'd drifted away from the home and left the childhood customs behind. And Vlad, well, since Scorpius had left he'd grown alarmingly close to the girl. Until their peace was shattered a month ago.

A visitor had come round and spotted the girl. She usually kept out of sight, spoke to no one, but she'd been in a weird mood and if it hadn't been for Vlad she would have exposed herself completely. The visitor's memory of the sighting had been removed but it soon became clear that the girl couldn't remain. Her unusual romping was caused by some strange energy inside her, she seemed delirious most of the time and not herself. Action was taken and the girl was boarded in the cosy bell tower in the church a few miles from Malfoy Manor, and at least one member of the family had looked in on her every day. Up until a yesterday, all reports from the visits had been the same, that she was still muttering and singing with an insane look in her eyes, but that she was not feverish and did not appear to be in pain.

But that morning Vlad had spoken to his Father with a new light in his eyes, the tense expression of the last fortnight washed away.

''She's different, Father, she's back to normal - well, in a sense.''

At which Draco had raised his eyebrows and answered. ''How is she back to normal - 'in a sense'?"

Vlad had creased his brow. "She's herself but there's a new sort of energy to her, an aura, and she's completely healthy again."

"By completely healthy, what do you mean?"

"Well, she was always fragile before, wasn't she?" Vlad had looked up at his father warily. "It's just now, she's leaping around, jumping with ease, and her speed and reflexes are inhuman."

Inhuman. That had always been the girl's forté. It had taken a decade for Draco to understand her position, her different identity to a muggle or wizard. Even at her most decrepit, anyone could tell the girl wasn't human. That was one of the reasons he'd had to keep her within the walls of his Manor. It was when Draco was reflecting this silently that his son had spoken again.

"She wanted to see you.''

Draco had turned to his son sharply. "What about?"

"Isn't it obvious?'' Vlad had replied. "She wants the spell."

And that's why Draco's visit was so urgent, why he needed to get to this girl. He needed to understand why she wanted that all-important spell that would disguise her as a human - more or less. But why now? Why had she suddenly become healthy again? Well, he was about to find out.

Draco raised his hand and found the round, weathered metal handle and pushed the door open, sounding an ominous creak through the little room. His eyes found the lithe, elegant figure look out of the minuscule window, but in half a second she had spun round, face full of delight and strangely, determination.

"Draco!" 

He could tell what his son meant now, about her change. The new light in her eyes, the soft glow to her cheeks, the fluid way she moved without pain halting her. The scars on her bare arms seemed to have healed, too, and her skin was smooth and clear. And her mood was different, too, rather than the more innocent demeanour of before, she seemed wise and knowing, somehow. He took this in before replying;

"Vlad said you wanted to see me.'' For some reason his voice was overly solemn. Possibly because he knew what was coming.

She simply nodded, not seeming to notice his tone. "Yes.'' She looked at him with those luminous eyes, watching him seriously, as if she could tell that he knew.

Draco tried not to feel uncomfortable. Come on, this was the girl he had lived with for ten years, who he had seen as a daughter. But that gaze, the truly captivating, exotic eyes, had made him feel like he didn't know her. "What is it you want?"

She looked at him sadly. "I can feel it, Draco, the energy of the spell. It is waiting, and it will happen in a year's time."

To be honest, the boundaries of the spell under which Lilvaen was directed had never been exactly clear to Draco, nor ever properly explained, and he paused before questioning. "You will

"I will go. It was decreed that the spell would last half a century, but it has been seven years more than that, and it seems that my time has finally come. My senders told me me that I would feel the energy of my upcoming return a year before the transition would actually happen." She told him solemnly yet with a glint of excitement in her eyes.

"Are you sure?" Draco took her hands in concern and affection, knowing with sorrow what the inevitable answer would be.

"Yes". She looked at his face with sadness. "I shall be sorry...I will-"

"You will go to Hogwarts." Draco lifted his face, knowing that he could not dwell in the sadness and simple try to feel happiness for the girl. "I have perfected the spell. We always said you would enjoy your final year."

Her beaming red smile was light itself and seemed to brighten the dark room as it curved to create the dimples other cheeks that Draco knew by heart. "I do not know the words to thank you with." Her voice was like a bell, tolling with happiness as she spoke. All of a sudden she had enveloped him in another hug, and Draco clung to her just as blindly as she did. He would miss this mysterious daughter that he knew but at the same did not know, who's past was an enigma and present was a guilty memory.

"I'll miss you." He said into her curved ear as they embraced. She pulled out and stared at his face with another sad smile. "And I you." She looked down. "And Astoria, and Scorpius....and Vlad." Her last wore a different tone and Draco could sense what she meant.

"I don't mind, Lily." He said fervently. "As long as he wants it, and you want it, I need not object."

She smiled, but it was not quite sincere. "I just..."

"Don't know?" He finished, looking down at his daughterly treasure. "Don't worry. The answer will come."

She smiled, and another hug followed. This time, though, it was Draco who pulled out.  "Right. Let's get this spell cast."

Lily grimaced slightly, watching Draco hold forward his wand. "I don't particularly look forward to resembling a human."

Draco laughed. "You're so snobbish, Lily, even after all this time." He looked at her face closely, trying to store the memory of it's image. "You'll still appear the same."

Lily answered with a derisive laugh. "It is not looks I worry about." She retorted. "I just prefer my real form, that's all."

Vlad grinned then got on with explaining the spell. "Right, it'll wear off at Midnight each evening, so be sure you're out of your dormitory and possibly the whole castle by then. Contemplate the roofs." He told her, Lily nodding as he said this. "I can cast this from wherever I am and it will work, I've tested it. As for your appearance, you will simply change back to your true form, and I believe your clothing will change as well, to what you have on at this very moment, but I can't quite be sure in that department." He began to trace a bow-shape in the air with his wand, looking at an uneasy Lily as he did this. "Move a way a bit - yes, that's fine. Ok - here we go!"

"Mutaten inanis virel nocte...

Mutaten inanis virel nocte...

Mutaten inanis virel nocte..."

Draco incanted as he traced again and again the semi circle with his wand. And as he did this, it was clear the spell most definitely worked.

By the end, the girl had transformed from the exotic, divine, Lilaeven Evenstar into the still strangely beautiful Lily Archeron, destined to become a seventh-year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the beginning of term.

Draco stepped back and let her and himself admire and critique her changed appearance, then headed for the door as he heard the distant town bells strike one in the morning.

''I'll see you next week, for Diagon Alley." He told her as he stood by the door. "Vlad and Astoria'll visit whilst I'm working, but I'll definitely be there for your shopping and to see you off."

Lily nodded, looking up at him with fainter green eyes, hints of hazel and grey there. "Thank you so much, Draco. I could never thank you with your words, and I believe even my language could not do your grace justice/"

He smiled sadly. "You are like a daughter to me, Lilaeven. You were my sister and now my daughter and I love you with all my heart." He sighed. "As I sense my son does also." He looked up at her solemnly. "Do not feel pressure, my dear, simply treat him well. After all, you are only to be here for another year, and it is cruel for him to say goodbye."

She nodded, watching him with such a muddle of feelings it ws impossible to determine just which emotions she was using.

"I will, Draco."

And it was these words that echoed in his head as he apparated away into the night. That and the joyful rings of the chapel bell as the daughter and elf he loved sounded her happiness throughout the dark.