Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Two Years Later…..

"I'm telling you that you shouldn't discount myths unless you know for a fact that they aren't true," Lily argued. "Absent does not mean non-existent."

"And I'm telling you that its irrelevant whether or not they existed," Petyr argued back. "Whether or not the War for the Dawn occurred doesn't matter. It's supposed events were thousands of years ago and have no bearing on the events of today."

"Then how did the Wall come to be constructed?" the red head shot back. "A structure that size is impossible to be created by human means unless there was some sort of magical building technique and it was obviously built to keep something out. Why not the Others?"

"The Others are a northern myth," Petyr scoffed. "The only examples we have of them are legends and vague stories that don't reveal details or places or names. There's no concrete evidence that they existed."

"Tell that to the Starks," Lily muttered in response. "That Wall was built for a reason and it is the biggest example the realm has that something long go tried to come south and it had be beaten back and barricaded. You can't deny that. The Starks can't anyway."

"Seven hells all you two do is argue about books and history and politics," Ed exclaimed, "you never want to go out and do anything fun!"

"You might benefit from learning about those sorts of things Ed," Lily scolded her younger brother. "You're going to be the Lord of Riverrun someday."

"But history is boring," the eight year old complained. "Who cares what happened thousands of years ago?"

"My sentiments exactly," Petyr said sending Lily a smug smile to which she responded by sticking out her tongue.

"Lily, a lady doesn't stick her tongue out at people," Cat said imperiously from her seat further down the table.

The younger red head rolled her eyes. "According to you a lady doesn't do anything. All she does is sit there and sew all day long. Why on earth you want to be one is beyond me. If you keep this up you're never going to be able to remove the stick from up your arse."

Catelyn gasped her hand flying to her mouth as if Lily had just said the most scandalous thing and Ed's face turned purple in an attempt to keep his laughter in.

Lysa clapped a hand over mouth to keep her giggles in but one escaped anyway. Even Petyr glanced down at the table with a tiny smile on his face.

Cat's eyes narrowed at her smug younger sister, mouth hardening into a grim line. "I'm telling Mother what you said."

Instead of cowering in fear Lily simply raised an eyebrow and leaned forward with one elbow on the table. "No you won't, because she's bedridden on orders from Maester Vyman to avoid stress. And this is the sort of thing that might cause her stress. And we all know that you won't want to do that now would you Cat?"

The older red head stared at her for a moment, mouth opening and closing like the trout that was emblazoned on their banner. The only sound that came out of her mouth was a squeak as if she couldn't believe her younger sister would stoop so low as to very nearly blackmail her into silence.

Finally, the only response she could give was a huff before settling back into her chair and opening her book and stacking it on the table in front of her so it blocked everyone else from view.

All Lily did was chuckle before glancing back down at the open book in front of her.

The four Tully children and Hoster's ward Petyr were sitting in the library of Riverrun taking their lessons with maester Vyman who was at this moment consulting with a servant who had come in with a note.

They had been in the midst of their midday lessons on history courtesy of the maester of Riverrun with books scattered about the table all around them along with quills, pieces of parchment and ink pots. Dull afternoon light was coming in from one of the High windows in the library and lighting the shelves in a warm brown glow.

The smell of parchment and still drying ink was thick on the air and the nostalgia that this brought back for Lily of sitting in the library at Hogwarts with her friends and studying was so acute that she had had to rub her eyes a few times to rid them of the threatening tears.

They were keeping their voices low as Vyman had a glare that could melt steel but his absence had encouraged them to look up from their books and speak loosely on the lesson in hushed whispers.

It was one of Lily's favorite times of the day, other than sparring with the master at arms in the courtyard. Desmond Grell had taken over for her Uncle Brynden when he had left Riverrun and though Lily privately thought he wasn't as good as her uncle, he would do for the present.

Brynden's reasons for leaving had been business that needed conducting, but Lily knew for a fact that he could never stay in one place for too long. Sometimes her heart ached from the absence of her favorite uncle, the man who understood her better than her own father. He had drilled her mercilessly in the art of the sword and privately instructed Grell to keep on training her even after he had gone as he had said she had an enormous amount of potential.

He had promised his nieces and nephew that he would return soon and then had thundered out of the courtyard of Riverrun without a backward glance.

That had been about a year ago. He had been gone for short absences in between but this was the first time he had been gone in a long while and all of the Tully children were feeling his absence, including Petyr.

To Lily's surprise, once she had decided to try and get along with him, she had discovered they had a lot in common intellectually. In many ways he did remind her of Severus. They were both somewhat socially awkward, possessed an alarming amount of arrogance and were very intelligent. They had even come from the same sort of economic background.

While Petyr's father was a lord, he owned a marginal crop of land in the littlest of the Fingers of the Vale, a title that Ed had turned into the nickname Little Finger for their father's ward. Petyr was also rather short and slight and so earned the moniker for his physical stature as well.

Lord Baelish was a minor part of the nobility and thus didn't have a lot of wealth to his name so it was surprising that he was able to send his son to foster at the keep of the Lord Paramount of the Trident.

Though he didn't seem to be abusive like Tobias Snape when Lily had seen him for the first time at Riverrun, there was a coolness that he projected towards his son which was plainly evident on both of their faces.

It was scary how much Petyr and Severus were alike and every time there was a particular sort of Severus type personality trait that would come out in him, Lily would feel apprehension roil in her stomach like sour milk.

It seemed Petyr also kept an eye on her and Cat which had manifested more and more in the last two years.

It was as if he couldn't decide which he liked better. Lily knew she and Cat were polar opposites, Cat was the prim and proper lady who would make any man an excellent wife one day. Lily was the fiery magical warrior, not that anyone knew it who had no plans to be some man's bed warmer for the rest of her life.

She certainly hoped what he was going through wouldn't last long and they could all get one with being friends before the annoyances of hormones and adolescent issues came along.

Merlin she would have to go through that all over again.

Growing taller, widening hips, larger breasts, menstruation, dear god she had forgotten how nice it could be to be a kid again.

Enjoy it while you can Lily, she thought to herself grimly as she looked around the table at the four other children sitting there. In about approximately two years its going to start all over again. Merlin help me.

She wondered what Petyr would be like when they all hit puberty and began to grow up. Cat had the makings of a beautiful woman already and Brynden had commented to Lily that he had a feeling she was going to need to learn how to become a better swordsman than all of the men in Riverrun and perhaps the south in order to keep the men away.

Would this….fixation on the two of them continue, or would it fizzle out with time and familiarity?

And the worst part of it all was that Cat seemed to be completely unaware of it. Though Lily was glad of it for the most part, it also meant a potentially awkward conversation further down the line.

Merlin, was I that oblivious to Sev's intentions? The red head thought to herself. If I hadn't been so bloody naïve I would have nipped it in the bud right away. I didn't feel the same way but if I had realized it and told him early on…maybe there wouldn't have been so much heartbreak.

And so Lily resolved to speak to her sister about this as soon as possible. She had had a sinking suspicion that things were headed in this direction when Petyr's eyes would swivel back and forth between her and Cat a bit longer than necessary.

Petyr and Lily were ten at the moment and so this was a bit young for a crush but Lily wasn't going to put any age limits on feelings. Cat was thirteen and already so much like Minisa when it came to them that it was frightening.

What was even more alarming was that Hoster was already looking into marriage alliances for her.

He had had his eye set on the north for the last little while as the heir to Winterfell was only two years older than Cat and would soon be of marriageable age also.

The whole thing made Lily feel ill. Soon enough Lysa would be married off and then the time would come for her to be given to someone.

Lily shuddered and then forced the thought aside.

"So, have you discovered the answer to the question as yet?"

Vyman's voice had come from somewhere nearby causing all five of them to jump in surprise.

They all looked up into the face of the aging maester who somehow had managed to move as silently as a cat. The servant he had been speaking to had disappeared back out into the hall.

"Um, what was the question again?" Ed asked with a guilty look on his face. He had been too busy pretending that his quill was a sword and stabbing Petyr with it who had a long suffering expression on his face when he looked at the heir to Riverrun.

Vyman raised an eyebrow. "Attention is key when you are in a position of power Lord Edmure, Your lord father uses attention with remarkable discretion when writing letter to his bannermen, and it is due to this attention that he can focus on the most important concerns facing the Riverlands. Where you choose to focus your attention determines what is important to you. Remember that."

Lily looked up at the aging maester with a newfound respect. He really was one of her favorite people in this keep. He was wise about many things, very intelligent and remarkably nimble and agile despite the years he was attaining. He was a fount of good advice and the interest he had taken in Lily with regards to her higher education was something she would always be grateful for.

Vyman let the silence hang for a moment before clapping his hands together. "Right then, we may return to our topic. The question I asked you to consider was to the matter of what caused the extinction of the dragons."

Lily narrowed her eyes as she glanced down at her text. With Vyman there was always more than one answer. There was the one that was obvious and right in front of your face and there was the hidden and deeper answer that tied into the first one but also unveiled other truth that one hadn't considered.

"The majority of the dragons were killed during the Dance," Petyr began. "And after it was over the dragons that did hatch became smaller and smaller until they were about the size of cats."

"Could it possibly have something to do with the Dragon Pit in King's Landing?" Lysa asked suddenly. "They were caged there and not allowed to fly over the city. Could the lack of space have made them smaller and caused them to die out?"

Lily threw her sister an approving look. Every so often Lysa would display a moment of clarity that would make the other red head think that possibly her sister wouldn't turn into some sort of flighty maiden obsessed with dreams of love and romance.

It seemed Vyman had a similar idea because he smiled at her. "An excellent point Lady Lysa. It may well have been the pit and the lack of space that stunted the growth of the dragons and made them more susceptible to extinction. But that wasn't all of it, does anyone have any other ideas?"

"Dragons were creatures of magic," Lily said an idea suddenly coming to her. "I remember reading something where they were called fire made flesh and they had a deep seated connection to magic. We don't know how the Valyrians trained dragons. Could there possibly be a magical connection and if so could the deaths of many of the Targaryens have broken a magical connection thus making the dragons more susceptible to extinction?"

"And here we go again with the magic," Petyr scoffed. "Lily, there is no such thing as magic."

"So says your limited thinking," Lily shot back.

Petyr's eyes narrowed but Vyman broke in before another argument manifested. "They could Lady Lilian, a long time ago there was the possibility for such a connection but no one knows why or when the ability to practice it disappeared."

"Could it be because magic somehow left the world?" Lily persisted. "If dragons were creatures of magic and magic is somehow gone and they were dependent upon it, it would follow that a lack of magic in the world cased the dragons to go extinct."

"That's absurd," Petyr snorted and Lily threw a glare at him. "Well why don't you explain it if you're so smart?"

Petyr snorted. "It's obvious that Lysa's explanation is the best," he said. "After the Dance, there were fewer dragons to repopulate the species and as time went on less and less dragons were born thus causing the decline and eventual extinction."

"And how do you explain the size of the dragons that were born?" Lily demanded. "The history books say that the ones born after the Dance were the size of cats. Is there any brilliant deduction you have on why that happened?"

Petyr shrugged. "An illness perhaps?"

"Right, next you're going to say that – "

"I didn't mean to cause an argument," Vyman interrupted holding up his hands. "The truth is that no one knows. Both of your theories may be correct and both of them may be incorrect due to some information that may have been lost over a century ago. Perhaps time will give us the answers that we seek and perhaps not. The important thing is to continue asking questions."

He looked like he was about to go on when all of a sudden there was the sound of footsteps outside the library door and all six of them looked up.

To Lily's surprise, her mother stepped through the door into the cool quiet.

She's not supposed to be out of bed, Lily thought looking at the older woman in concern. I hope nothing's wrong.

Ever since it was discovered a few months ago that Minisa Tully was expecting again, maester Vyman had decided to keep her on bed rest as much as possible as she had been very ill at the start of her pregnancy.

Lily was ecstatic when she learned that she would have another sibling. She secretly hoped that it would be another boy as she already had enough sisters and she needed another brother to balance it out.

She had never had this many siblings before much less a brother and the idea of having a big family had always appealed to her. Even though she wasn't a mother anymore, Lily had always dreamed of having lots of children.

Harry had been her first, but she had had no plans to stop after him. She planned to be a career wife and mother and wanted a lot of children to fill her and James's home with laughter. James had been an only child and so he had wanted a lot of children as well.

Harry would have been the eldest there would have been boys and girls after him. Lily had even secretly thought up names for the rest as she had watched Harry sleeping in his crib.

It would have been expensive James had told her but then he had followed it up by laughing and saying that he had inherited a lot of money from his parents being the only child and they would have been able to afford it.

Lily grimaced and shook off thoughts of James and Harry. It was gone….they were gone…that life was over.

It had been ten years since she had last seen them and there were times when they felt like a distant memory to her and then there were times where it would seem like she had seen them just yesterday and the wound would tear again.

Maybe I'm developing a bipolar disorder, the red head thought to herself miserably. One minute I think the wounds have healed and then the next I want to cry all over again.

She sighed and ran a hand through her long red curls. I just need to practice saying goodbye to them and then forgetting. It's the only way I'm going to stay sane.

"Are you well my lady?" Vyman asked breaking into Lily's thoughts. His words were directed at her mother who was standing in the doorway with one hand atop her stomach and the other resting against the doorframe for balance.

The older woman smiled but she looked pale. "Yes Vyman, there was just something I wanted to ask you. I had forgotten you were in the middle of the children's lessons."

"We were just wrapping up," the maester assured her. "You are not interrupting."

He turned to the rest of the Tully children and Petyr. "Remember what I said. Questions are what shape the world and history allows us to search for them. Whether the answers are of magical or non-magical origin the truth is what is the most important. You are dismissed. We'll pick this up again tomorrow."

There was a flurry of activity as sheets of parchment were shoved into books and quills were set down while ink pots were stoppered.

Vyman stepped away from the table to speak with Minisa and Ed led the charge out of the room. Lily could practically see his mind darting to his riding lessons of which he was still trying to master.

It seemed as if the horses in the stables of Riverrun didn't like him and made their discontent at his presence known by skittering away from him when he came close.

It was beginning to become embarrassing for Ed and was rather amusing for the rest of the Tully children, even Catelyn who would often hide her smile when her brother would fail to mount his horse for the thirtieth time.

But this time, Lily decided she would hold off on laughing good-naturedly at her brother and hid behind the stacks of books near the door of the library so she could over hear what her mother and Vyman were going to talk about.

It was insufferably nosey, but when it came to family, Lily had a feeling it would be alright. The rest of her siblings were of the mind that their parents were invincible and that nothing could ever harm them…but she knew better.

After all, hadn't she been a parent when she had been killed?

Lily knew better than most that life was fragile and the way her mother was carrying this baby was far different than how she had carried Ed.

With Ed she had been tired a lot, but she hadn't been sick to this degree. Come to think of it, Minisa had been sick a lot even before she would have found out she was pregnant.

Lily knew that each pregnancy was different but at the same time, this increasing dialogue with the maester was beginning to make her uneasy.

I wonder if there is some sort of potion I could brew for her to make her more comfortable, the red head mused to herself as she watched the two of them from behind the stack of books. I might not have all the magical ingredients I would need to make a true calming draught or something like that but it would be better than nothing. I just don't want to harm the baby.

"How are you feeling this day Lady Minisa?" the maester asked.

The lady of Riverrun blew out a breath of air. "Tired Vyman, very tired. It seems all I am is tired these days. Gods I didn't think getting old would be this hard."

"My lady you are as young as the day when you married Lord Hoster," Vyman replied gallantly and Lily smirked, smooth Vyman, very smooth.

Minisa laughed. "You are too kind Vyman. I don't feel young. This is my fifth child and already I am beginning to feel like a well-worn rag that has been wrung dry too many times."

"Which is worse?" the aging maester asked. "The nausea or the fatigue?"

Minisa sighed. "Some days it's the nausea and some days it is the fatigue and some days its hard to tell the difference. I'm only halfway through his pregnancy and already I want nothing more than for it to be over."

"You appear tired my lady," Vyman said assessing her critically. "Your pallor is slightly grey and you seem fatigued if the way your hands are trembling is any indication."

Lily peered slowly out from behind the stack of books in concern.

Minisa frowned and glanced down at her right hand before placing it atop the table and resting the other atop her stomach. "That's not fatigue Vyman, I am just feeling cold is all."

Lily's frown deepened and she muttered a warming charm and cast it upon her mother a second later.

Minisa's eyes narrowed. "How odd, suddenly I feel a good deal warmer. This castle is always damp because of the water that surrounds it and I always feel more warm then cold….but suddenly I feel comfortable."

"Well good," Vyman replied. "Now may I escort you back to your chambers my lady? You really should be resting."

"Oh very well Vyman, I swear sometimes you are worse than Hoster when it comes to my health."

"Well I am a maester my lady. If I didn't worry about health I wouldn't be worthy of the title."

Minisa's chuckles followed the two out of the library and Lily remained in hiding for a moment longer before she let out a breath and leaded back against the bookshelf before closing her eyes.

Why do I have a bad feeling about this?

Ω

"What's your home like?" Lily asked.

It was late afternoon one day and she had suggested that she and her siblings go on for a ride beside the river not far from Riverrun.

Catelyn had turned her down as well as Lysa who had opted to spend time with their pregnant mother in her solar.

Only Ed had agreed to go with her as well as Petyr which was surprising. He knew how to ride a horse but Lily would have thought he would want to stay in the library with his books.

Getting Petyr out into the open air was like trying to get a bat to go out into the sunlight. He loved his books too much sometimes.

Lily was a voracious reader too but she understood the necessity of balance in her life otherwise how else were you to develop a more well-rounded perspective?

So the three of them had rode out of the gates of Riverrun with a few guards following after Lily had asked maester Vyman to inform their father they were going for a ride by the water's edge.

It was a beautiful afternoon with sunlight shining through the green leaves of the trees onto the ground below and the distant roar of the ford just off to their right. The riverbanks on the edge of both sides of the river. The sky was a deep blue color and there were pearl white fluffy clouds lining the edges of the trees.

Every so often a bird would call to another one on one side of the river and a moment later a second bird would answer.

Water was tricking over the roots and stones and shrubs of the river in a never ending symphony of nature's power and Lily loved every moment of it.

When the social stresses inside Riverrun became too much, she would always retreat to nature to take in the fact that life in Westeros was bigger than what happened to her and it always would be.

Despite what happened to her, nature would always carry on in a never ending rhythm and somehow that was comforting.

Once they had gotten down by the water, Ed had gone forward to have a closer look at something he had seen and Lily and Petyr had seated themselves on rocks further back on the bank with some of the guards tending to the horses.

A gentle breeze was blowing lifting Lily's long red curls off her shoulders and she unconsciously closed her eyes taking a deep breath of the cool air.

The two were quiet for a long time before Lily had ventured the question, forcing Petyr to adopt a thoughtful expression.

"The Fingers….well….they're very sparse on grass and vegetation. Only the smartest farmers can grow crops there," he said, the look in his grey green eyes one of musing and memory.

"I take it you don't want to farm?" she asked and he gave her his characteristic half smile. "Would you want to?"

Lily tapped her chin as if she were thinking about it. "Not particularly but then farming's not for everyone. I'm not going to be a lord one day either.

Petyr laughed but it sounded more like a scoff. "I won't really be a lord of anything. My father's a sworn bannerman to Lord Arryn and I'll serve him for the rest of my life. I don't have any soldiers and only a few servants to my name who I'll have serving me after my father dies and because I am his only heir, I have to assume command of his role."

His lower lip had curled almost into a sneer and he sounded uncharacteristically bitter. The boy that Lily had known was quiet, somewhat sarcastic and very logical.

But this boy sounded angry about the situation life had put him in and longed for it to be different.

She couldn't say she blamed him.

Her being here in Westeros was hardly ideal given the fact that she should have died and reincarnation was just one of Death's cruel jokes.

She was still a little bitter about that too.

"You don't want to be a lord?" she asked in an attempt to get her mind off her own dark thoughts?"

"It's not so much that I don't want to be a lord," he said. "But I want a better land to be lord of. You don't get to do anything when you're the lord of the smallest of the Fingers. No one notices you and you're constantly be overlooked."

A chill swept over Lily then as it sounded eerily similar to something Severus had said to her. He had hated how Slytherin house was constantly overlooked in favor of the Gryffindors and he wanted to do something that would gain the attention of the rest of the school and show them that Slytherin house was just as good as Gryffindor.

And look where that had gotten him.

She shuddered and hunched further inside her blue fur lined cloak even though it wasn't that cold out. Get a grip Lily. There aren't any dark lords here for Petyr to join and he doesn't have magic.

Maybe not but there are still other ways he can get himself into trouble with an attitude like that.

The red head once more shook off the dark thoughts and turned back to her friend. Petyr wasn't Severus and there wasn't a James or Sirius around here to bully or harass him. Hopefully his bitterness about his position in life wouldn't last and he would learn to be content as time went on.

Hopefully.

"You won't be overlooked by Riverrun Petyr," she said in an effort to encourage him. "And you're friends with my brother and he's going to be the Lord of Riverrun someday. You know what happened with your father and my father. Such connections shouldn't be overlooked."

Petyr picked up a stone and flicked it towards the river's edge as if he were trying to learn how to skip it. "Maybe you're right."

It was all he would admit right now but Lily could accept that she was alright with that.

They lapsed into silence again and Petyr picked up another stone and flicked towards the river bank. It just barely made the water and landed in the shallows.

Lily frowned. "What are you doing?"

Petyr's eyes narrowed in concentration. "Isn't it obvious? I'm trying to skip a stone."

Lily snorted in an attempt to keep her laughter in. "Petyr that's not how you skip a stone. Your wrist is all wrong."

He turned to her, both eyebrows raised. "Well how would you skip a stone then?"

Lily held out her hand. "Give me the stone and I'll show you."

He reluctantly placed the stone in her palm and Lily got to her feet somewhat imperiously. "The first thing you have to do is get closer to the river. You can't skip a good stone from thirty bloody feet from the bank."

"Since when did you become such an expert in the subject?" Petyr asked her with a slight smile.

Lily looked at him like he had grown three heads. "You just don't live beside a river for your entire life without learning how to skip a few stones. Now watch closely."

She and Petunia had done this many times before Severus had come along and their relationship had changed forever.

Lily gripped the flat stone between her fingers. "Now you need three things in order to properly skip a stone. Speed, spin and angle. Now you need to place your index finger against the edge of the rock, like so."

She demonstrated the proper gesture and Petyr bent down before retrieving another flat stone from the bank. "Like this?"

Lily examined his choice before nodding in approval. "Exactly like that. Very good."

Once his form was complete she went back to her instruction. "Now face the water side ways with your feet shoulder width apart like this."

Petyr frowned a bit but otherwise turned on the side of the river bank to mirror her position. "Like this?"

"Good," Lily said. "Now bend your wrist all the way back and snap it forward to flick the rock against the surface of the water."

As soon as she had given the instruction, Lily flicked the stone forward and watched as it sailed out over the surface of the water before bouncing three times across the surface and then sinking beneath the waves.

Petyr watched for a moment before trying it. He let out a muffled curse when the stone hit the water and sank immediately with a wet plunk.

"You can try bending your legs as well," Lily suggested. "And make sure to follow through. You get more momentum that way. Watch again."

She searched another few seconds for a stone before picking up an ideal one and going through the same motion all over again.

Petyr watched her again, a frown of concentration coming over his face as he picked up another stone and once more mirrored her stance.

This time his flicking motion when he released the stone was much quicker and this time the stone hit the surface of the water once and then sunk on the next skip.

"Good," Lily said with an approving smile. "The trick is to keep practicing. I've had a two or so years of practice and I do it almost every day so you do it that much, you should probably be as good as I am."

"How many skips can you do?" Petyr asked curiously.

"I've gotten up to nine," Lily said. "But maybe today I can get it to ten."

"What are you two doing?" asked a familiar voice and Lily looked to her left to see Ed hurrying up the bank toward them.

He had the sleeves of his shirt rolled up and the edges of them were wet as if he had been up to his elbows in the water.

"Mother's not going to like the fact that you went wading Ed," Lily warned her brother.

He rolled his eyes. "Oh for the love of the gods Lily, not you too. You're as bad as Cat sometimes."

Lily's eyes widened. "I am not!"

"Yes you are," Petyr piped up as he bent to pick up another stone. "The only difference is Cat is like that with everyone, you're only like that with Ed."

"See?" Edmure said smugly. "Even Petyr believes me."

"So?" Lily demanded. "Petyr's only one person. When you get everyone in Riverrun to agree with you, then we'll talk."

Ed rolled his eyes and then saw what they were doing. "Are you skipping stones?"

"No, we're shoeing a horse," Lily said sarcastically. "Of course we're skipping stones!"

Ed smirked at her. "I bet I can beat your score this time."

Lily stuck her tongue out at him. "You wish."

For the next hour or so, the three of them remained on the bank flicking their wrists back and forth until they were sore and sometimes laughing so hard they could barely breathe.

And for that moment, Lily forgot all about the past and her dark memories and her still ever present sorrow.

She forgot it all because right then it wasn't important.

This was.

What she didn't notice however was the sideways looks Petyr would sometimes shoot her and the look of curious confliction on his face.

Before long she would though.

Ω

Several months later….

Second life or not, Lily was having a hard time not pacing.

Her mother had gone into labour not long ago and the servant had come to collect her and her siblings from their various activities almost an hour ago. They were currently sitting in chairs in their father's solar just down the hall from their mother's chambers.

Petyr wasn't with them as only family had been called but Lily had a feeling that he was around reading some sort of book and scheming as he usually did.

This past few years with him had taught Lily that he was a planner, someone who always had another card up his sleeve and always knew what to do.

That sort of constant clinical method was something that would bear watching for the future.

There were times when Lily liked to hang around Petyr and then there were others in which he said or did something that would make her uncomfortable.

A few weeks ago for example she had just come down the hallway to go to the library and had turned the corner in time to see Petyr standing awfully close to Cat.

Their faces were very near to each other and there was a sort of glazed look in the boy's eyes that made Lily wonder if something might have happened had she not come along.

The red head cleared her throat loudly causing both of them to jump and raised an eyebrow when they turned to look her way.

"What is it Lily?" Cat asked, her face was flushed as she glanced down at the ground. She looked more embarrassed than anything else and Lily hoped deep down that she and Petyr hadn't been about to kiss.

He knew better than that, surely.

Not only was he three years younger than her, but it would also be highly inappropriate here and now.

"Mother was looking for you," the younger girl said in a short tone. "She said she had something she wanted to show you."

Cat brushed the loose strands of auburn hair away from her face. "I'm coming."

Then without looking at Petyr or Lily she hurried off down the corridor, lifting her skirts almost running as if she were trying her utmost to get away from the both of them without appearing unladylike.

Too late, Lily thought with a grim sobriety.

She wasn't certain whether or not her sister had been intending to kiss Petyr before she had come along or if the boy had just invaded her personal space and she had been too shocked to back away.

But one thing was for certain….whatever had been about to happen could not happen again.

Cat's sights were set on marrying a handsome and powerful lord, two things that Petyr Baelish most certainly was not.

She didn't want her sister to lead him on and she most certainly didn't want to see Petyr hurt. But if the boy had invaded her sister's personal space without her permission….well than that was something they were going to need to talk about.

She turned back to the boy who was watching the spot where Catelyn had been with a strange expression on his face.

To her, it almost looked like longing.

"Petyr?" she called out before he could turn away and he looked back at her, his face going blank.

Something Lily had learned about the boy in the last few years he had been with them was his unhealthy fixation on her older sister.

There were times when he looked at Lily a little too long too which made the younger red head wonder whether or not Petyr was beginning to like the both of them for different reasons and wasn't certain which he liked better.

And one thing was for certain, Lily didn't want to be on the receiving end of his attentions.

She remembered what had happened the last time she had been liked by someone and she didn't want a repeat.

It would be far better for the five of them to simply be friends without the nonsense of romance involved.

I need to talk to Cat.

For the moment however, Lily strode towards Petyr, grim purpose on her mind.

"Yes Lily?" he asked looking at her carefully as she came to a stop in front of him.

The red head narrowed her eyes as she looked him over. Something she had ironically learned from Death himself, or the Stranger as he was called here was that life was driven by desire. Her chief desire had been to get back to Harry and James and his had been to prevent her from doing that and send her to this life.

He had gotten what he wanted and she hadn't.

And it had taught Lily to look at the desires of people as there were often more than one. Sev had been driven by his love for her as had James. Voldemort had been driven by his desire for power and to cleanse the magical society of muggleborn magicals like her.

Everyone had been driven by desire.

It was how life worked.

And it seemed that Petyr's chief desire had been to steal a kiss from her older sister before Lily had come along and foiled it.

"I want you to be very….very careful," she said. "I think you know what I'm talking about. This isn't a warning or a threat. This is me as a friend telling you that you need to watch yourself. Catelyn…is not part of a revelation of whatever fantasy to you want to be true. You need to live in the real world Petyr. You have to. If you don't it will hurt you. And I know you don't want that. So please….please be wise.

His eyes widened as she said the words and they fell from Lily's mouth like they were bars of lead.

She didn't want to hurt him, she really didn't especially after she felt they had reached a turning point after all the fun they had at the river not long ago. But Petyr had to know that he was setting himself up for heartbreak if he continued on the path he was going.

And then she had turned and walked away, not even looking to see if he was watching her.

They hadn't spoken much after that and it had bothered Lily because she liked Petyr a lot, but the Petyr who argued with her, who she would talk to and he would always tell her the truth.

She didn't like the Petyr who would get close to her sisters and then try and do strange things.

Please…please…..please…..please, don't let him follow Sev.

She didn't even know who she was praying too or if she was praying at all.

But then Lily and the rest of her siblings were called in to meet their new baby brother whom Minisa had proudly named Axel.

Great, Lily thought to herself as she gazed down at the auburn haired blue eyed baby. Now I'm going to have two brothers to keep an eye on. This is going to be complicated.

But even that was nothing compared to what was going to happen in the next few years.

Ω

So I know the introduction of a fifth Tully child is unexpected, but I am anything if unpredictable sometimes. I wanted to give Lily another brother who is going to play a unique role as the story goes along. There's going to be another time jump in the next chapter so stay tuned for that and Brynden Tully will be making another appearance. Don't forget to review and happy reading everyone!