I am rewriting this fic... And finishing it. Finally. It's been too long. Nothing major has been changed in the beginning chapters, however I do plan on transplanting a chapter or two and relocating some for a better flow.

enjoy.

It was a regular day like any other: Lily woke up, brewed some coffee, and went to sit on her front porch. This was her favorite time of the day - the air smelled clean, the grass distinguished in dew, it was quiet. Of course, soon the street would be all a flurry of activity. The pregnant woman down the road, Rose, would go for a stroll with her petite lap dog.

Her next door neighbor, Melinda, was about seventy-two. She would come outside soon enough and shuffle to the end of her driveway to get her mail. Then, she would proceed to stare at her lawn for longer than necessary. After that she'd wander at random through her yard, mail in hand, and comment on the color of the grass. Yesterday it was too dark of a green; the day before that it was quite brown.

The garbage truck would come down the street soon. Forcibly emptying plastic, green containers into the back of their powder blue truck. There would be cars on the way to work. A few merely getting home from wherever they had been before the rest of the city woke up.

Lily waited patiently for her other next door neighbors to open up their front door. Waited for them to peek their head out in a conspiring way. The ones who always kept their blinds shut. When she first moved in, she went to meet them, but they never came to the door. Even though she saw them pull back the blinds for a moment. Whenever they left the house, they were already in their car as the garage opened. They never had visitors.

Every morning, one of them would speed walk to their mailbox to get the mail. Depending on the day, they would grab their trash can, and pointedly run back to their house. At some point, They would let their horrific dog out into their yard, and it wouldn't stop barking for hours.

Nowadays, it never made a peep. Lily smiled behind her coffee mug at the thought. She could hardly get any work done in the house with that dog's incesant barking. She definitely couldn't get any work done in her yard when it was making all that noise. So she had taken a few liberties with her wand, and the dog hadn't made a peep since.

That was part of the reason her back yard looked a fright. The other reason was that she didn't much care for yard work. Since she couldn't use any magic on it during the day where people could see, she never got around to it.

She heard a dog bark with a deep tone and she ripped her head up at the sound. Right across the street from her was a black dog about half of her size. It seemed to be staring right at her. At first she wondered if she should go look on its collar for a number to call. She decided against it, because it was a pretty large dog.

The dog's gaze shifted from her to her neighbor's house in a quick motion. Lily felt herself lean forward as she looked to her left. Her neighbors were peeking through their door frame sooner than usual. In one swift motion, the man ran into the middle of the yard and stuck a sign into the ground. He went off his normal sprint path to the mailbox. Then proceeded to walk swiftly to the mailbox but found it empty, seeing as the mailman hadn't come yet.

He slammed the door shut and Lily was sure he had locked it and gone back into hiding. She stood up and walked down her front porch steps. The sign read "For Sale". She felt herself chuckling. She thought about how her morning routine would most likely change after they moved.

The black dog was approaching the sign and staring at it. She had never seen a dog act so unlike a dog before, it seemed so intelligent. It was right up on the sign now, and it sniffed it for a moment before ripping its eyes back to her. Lily was mildly startled and frowned in confusion. What a strange animal, she thought.

After she sat back down on her porch swing, the morning proceeded - mostly - as expected. A large moving truck backed all the way up to her neighbor's garage, it covered the opening so she couldn't see in. Their dog was never let into the back yard, and the day went normally.

Lily waved at Rose as she started to approach her porch, her belly protruding. "You're gettin' big. How much longer do you have?" Lily asked kindly as she met the woman at her steps.

Rose patted her stomach and smiled down at it before answering. "Only two weeks. I'm getting antsy. I know John is ready for my pregnant hormones to go away. But I have a feeling there will be a whole different set once I'm sleep deprived from this little booger." She laughed loudly and unattractively, but Lily felt herself smiling anyway. "Oh hey, you didn't by any chance see a black dog around here, did you? It dug up my flower bed and I have no idea who owns it!"

Lily chuckled under her breath, thinking, Muggles. If only Rose knew that there were so many other concerns bigger than a few ruined daffodils.

"You know, I saw it across the street not even an hour ago. It was sniffing around their yard," Lily gestured to her left, "and then it just ran off. Strange dog though, I felt like it was smarter than we give dogs credit for, if that makes any sense." Lily mused modestly.

Rose seemed horrified at the thought. "Smart? It tore up my entire flower bed. Lily, if this dog was smart, it wouldn't have done that." She balked after her short rant and then shook her head. "Well anyway, I'm off. I've got some yard work to get done. I'd ask for your help, but you don't seem to fancy it, so..." She left her sentence hang with a good natured smile. Lily nodded and the pregnant woman spun around and began speed walking away. Her arms swinging as if she was jogging.

As Mrs. Melinda came out and noticed how pale of a green her grass was, Lily made her way inside. She set her coffee mug into her empty sink and walked over to where her table was. She had received a letter from Remus, an old friend from Hogwarts, yesterday and hadn't had the time to read it yet.

He had sent her a housewarming present when she had first moved in. It was several candles that never burned down. They wouldn't even go out unless the person who cast the spell to light them blew them out. It was a welcome surprise when she lit them for the first time. They smelled exactly like her favorite bath salts from Hogwarts. A smell she wasn't able to take with her or find elsewhere, as the house elves made the salts themselves.

Lily had told Remus that she had moved into a Muggle house about half an hour outside of London. He had confessed that he wasn't surprised. As she thought back on her Hogwarts days, she wondered for a brief moment why she hadn't dated Remus. He was funny, smart and brilliantly kind. He had magic and wasn't hard on the eyes. Then, all at once, she remembered exactly why. As the Head Girl, she couldn't have dated one of the four boys who caused the school the most trouble. Prefect, or otherwise. It would have sent a mixed message to the rest of the students. Reaching forward, Lily snagged the piece of parchment off her wooden table and broke the seal.

He always began his letters with the same thing:

Everything is fine here, how are you Lily?

I'm glad you liked the candles, I wanted to give you a little something to remind you of the good times. I can't believe that sweet ole Lily Evans used magic in the Muggle world simply because she was annoyed by a small dog. If you were willing and capable of that, why not have just silenced the Marauders back in school? I'm sure we did enough to warrant that treatment. If you're a journalist, why not work for The Daily Prophet? It would be a nice change of pace from Rita Skeeter. I'm glad to hear you've settled in nicely, and if you'd have me I'd love to come and see where you live. Maybe the whole lot of us could drop by. I know you have a soft spot for Peter and I, so if you can just get past James and Sirius, I think it would be quite enjoyable. As for me, I'm bouncing around here and there with work. The ministry won't hire me full time because of my condition, but Dumbledore still contacts me on occasion when Hogwarts needs someone for the DADA class. Did you hear that Severus got the job after he graduated? I find it quite fitting, he was always slightly dark, no? Well, I hope this letter finds you well.

Until next time, Remus Lupin

She scanned the letter, noting a few words and picking up on familiar names. Something stuck out: "I'm glad to hear you've settled in nicely, and if you'd have me I'd love to come and see where you live."

Remus wanted to visit? There wasn't anything wrong with that, of course, but she found herself shocked. She hadn't ever known him to invite himself to anything. He tended to stick to himself and the shadows.

She smiled as she thought to herself. That boy is magic through and through, and he will be dumbfounded when he realizes I live without it most of the time. And it was true - Lily rarely used magic anymore. She loved it and was quite good at it. She didn't need it to be a journalist though. And it was easier to live as a Muggle if you weren't trying to hide a wand everywhere you went.

That said, Lily didn't go out much. She had made one friend at work: her name was Loyal. They had bonded over what people would say whenever they introduced themselves. "Is that your favorite flower?" or "Are you? I mean you don't seem like the type to betray..." Loyal was a feisty character, very similar to Lily in a lot of ways but so different at the same time.

Lily loved her life, she loved her job, and she loved her home. While it bothered her considerably, Lily would admit she was missing something. She had always wanted to be a wife and a mother. She had adored her parents and their love, and she wanted to give that to a child of her own. She didn't feel right about marrying a Muggle, because she didn't want to live her entire life as a lie. She didn't want go around blurting out "I'm a witch" to every bloke that caught her eye, either.

When she wrote Remus back, Lily told him that she would absolutely adore a visit from him. That it had been far too long. She noted that they mustn't wait this long next time and asked if he wanted her to prepare anything for his arrival. Right as she was about to roll it up and send it, she added in at the bottom a small note as a joke. It was about her lack of a love life, and then her owl was off.

See ya next chapter. :)