"Lily," says her father, coming into the kitchen with the post in hand, "someone seems to have sent you a stamp collection."

Lily and her mother both look up. Geraldine Evans is laying the pieces of a pattern for dress robes across the dark green fabric spread out on the table. Lily is trying to translate the pattern's directions into things that can be done when the seamstress cannot use magic -- Witch Weekly has, understandably, assumed that its readers can achieve certain effects with Charms. Lily isn't sorry to have an excuse to stop for a moment.

"A stamp collection?" she repeats, and her father hands her a postcard.

The front is fairly standard, the sort of thing you could find in any rack of postcards anywhere tourists go in London. Lily turns it over and almost starts laughing. Crowded in above her name and address are a half dozen stamps, one of which is in pre-decimal currency, and which taken all together were probably enough postage to have mailed her a small paving stone, nevermind a postcard.

Lily is reading the message when Petunia comes in. "Who's that from?"

"Someone from school," Lily says, without looking up.

Petunia pulls a glass out of a cabinet. "So why didn't one of those stupid birds bring it?"

"Because he was proving a point," Lily says.

"'He'?" her mother asks. "Who's it from, dear?"

"Um, his name's James Potter. He's in Gryffindor with me."

"And, what, he doesn't know how to use stamps?" Petunia asks, leaning back against the counter, her arms crossed, eyes narrowed in the direction of the postcard.

"Well, it got here, didn't it?" Lily asks. "Besides, it's probably the first time he's ever used stamps. He's from an old wizarding family. I doubt he's ever sent anything by Royal Mail before."

"'Old wizarding family'?" Petunia says. "What's that mean?"

Lily's temper, which is uncertain at best around her sister, flares a little. "That if wizards had titles, his name would probably have 'The Honourable' in front of it," she snaps.

"So why's he writing to you?" Petunia asks.

"That's none of your business," Lily says.

"Lily?"

"Yes, Dad?"

"This young man ... "

"Yes?"

"Are you and he -- "

"No," Lily says. "Don't you think you'd know if I were going out with someone?"

"But he's writing to you over the summer?" Geraldine asks.

"It's just a postcard," Lily says.

"Protesting a bit much, aren't we?" Petunia asks, and waltzes back out of the room with her glass of water before Lily can answer.

Lily's parents exchange one of those Looks that for some unfathomable reason they seem to think Lily will either not see or not understand.

"Look," she says, "it's ... I told him I thought he should go visit some part of London that wasn't full of wizards, and so I guess he did, and he sent me a postcard to tell me liked visiting the British Museum, and that's all there is to tell, and can we please talk about something else?"

"Of course, dear," her mother says. And then adds, "Is he cute?"

"Mum!"

"Sorry," Geraldine says, though she neither looks nor sounds it. She and Adrian exchange another Look.

"If you're quite done," Lily says, "I'm going to go back to working on these directions, now."

She shoves Potter's postcard into the back of the magazine.

And that's the end of it, right?

Except ...

Well, really, it would be a bit rude not to write back.

Wouldn't it?

5 July 1976

Potter,

Thank you for the postcard. It arrived yesterday in the post. I do have to ask, though. Where did you even find a 6d stamp? We haven't used that money in years, not since before we started at Hogwarts. (Fortunately, the other five stamps were more than sufficient postage.)

I'm glad you're enjoying Muggle London. Where are you and Black planning to go next? If you haven't been yet, I think you'd enjoy the Tower of London. History -- and ghosts -- but nothing at all like Binns.

Well, whatever you do next, I hope you enjoy it, too. Even if it's back to Diagon Alley and Quidditch, thank you for going to the Muggle world the time you did.

L.E.