Chapter 1:

we make these memories for ourself

where our eyes are always open

our hearts are never broken

and time's forever frozen still

Lily's red hair whipped against her face as she spun from her previously stationary spot to shield herself from a collapsing wall behind her. The blast that broke the wall knocked her back and she coughed so hard her lungs ached. There were screams coming from upstairs and dark menacing laughter came from her right where the wall had been blasted to bits. Someone was likely being tortured and Lily tried her hardest to see through the smoke stinging her green eyes. Lily coughed into her sleeve and pointed her wand into the thick smoke of debris.

Order of the Phoenix Intelligence had mentioned that the orphanage they were in was a prime target because of it's high number of muggle borns being protected within it's walls by a kind old wizard who harbored a soft spot for muggles. Lily had found the old man dead in his office when she'd come to inspect under orders from her boss. Lily's boss and mentor, Albus Dumbledore had warned her to run if anything looked suspicious but when a little girl had been heard crying on the staircase Lily stayed longer than intended.

Lily's good intention had gotten her into the current smoky situation. Almost as soon as the first Death Eater entered the home to slaughter the children, Lily fought valiantly. She was determined to make sure nothing happened to the kids. After Lily had finished corralling the children away from danger and she was busy dueling another wizard, Lily's back up had appeared. The witches and wizards on her team were the very figures she was looking for in the hazy building-which had caught on fire from a wayward spell.

"Dumbledore was worried when you didn't come back!" Alice Longbottom, an undercover auror had shouted at Lily.

As kind as Dumbledore was, he normally would've assumed that his workers could get the job done without getting into much trouble but Lily was young. She had only been out of school for a few months. Dumbledore believed she had great potential and told her so often—when he wasn't focused on running the entire underground operation that was the Order of the Phoenix. Lily was surprised Dumbledore had noticed that her absence was longer than normal. He'd seemed very distracted the last she spoke to him.

Lily stepped across the rotting floorboard. The smoke around her was being lit up with flashes of brightly colored light. Lily could hear fire engines not too far off in the distance, and with the roar of the fire she knew she had to escape without being caught by muggle or wizard alike.

Dumbledore should've been more worried now. The muggles wouldn't be able to dismiss this as anything other than a gas leak or a fire vandalism. They would question the flashing lights, the bodies falling out of windows, and the screams of adults.

Lily was screaming now, "Alice!" she coughed against the thick air, "Where are you?"

Fighting dark wizards is what Lily had wanted to do since the rumors of the war had been floating around Hogwarts her seventh year. Lily wanted to fight and bring down the Dark Wizards threatening genocide of her kind of witch—muggle born. Any person non-magical was referred to as a muggle and Lily was the product of two non-magical people having a magical child. It wasn't unheard of for juggles to have magical children but the magical community didn't always accept Lily's kind.

The dark wizards who had come to kill the muggle born orphans in the Orphanage would do the same to Lily if they caught her. She wrapped her hand tighter around her wand and yelled bubble charms to her left, trying to subdue the flames that were swallowing up the wooden building. Finally giving up, Lily waved her wand and blew the smoke away with harsh slashes of her wand that emitted red sparks. It worked but she saw with horror that the entire building was likely going to come crashing down sooner rather than later.

Lily grabbed the shiny necklace at her neck, rubbing her fingers across the tarnished gold. The necklace had been a gift from Albus himself after Lily accepted his offer to be a part of the Order of the Phoenix after the death of her parents. It was a phoenix spreading its wings against a background of the Hogwarts castle. Lily's favorite part of the necklace was the engraving on the back and she let her fingers slide across the words.

Dumbledore had said in his office after handing the gift to Lily, "This is a gift, from me too you. Hopefully it helps remind you that even though you've lost your parents—you still have a family here."

And Dumbledore had been right beccause the Order was her family. Alice and Frank Longbottom came around for afternoon tea quite often. Dumbledore sent gifts on Holidays. Mr. Kingsley often made Lily his famous meat pies. Lily never felt unloved or left out—everyone was her best friend. She could count on them for anything, even now in the burning building.

"Lily!" A voice called out from ahead.

Lily let out a breathe of relief and ran forward, snaking her fingers around the wrist of Frank Longbottom himself who looked worse for wear with a long scar long his cheek.

"They're looking for someone Lily," Frank warned her, "The building is collapsing, Alice is checking the parameter. We need to leave."

Lily had just been about to agree when she heard another scream from upstairs. A child's scream. Frank must've seen the terror come over her face because he quickly started shaking his head. He knew Lily's weakness for helping children.

"No." Frank said harshly.

"Just a quick—" Lily replied to Frank, just as she spotted a man in a dark traveling cloak running across the adjacent hall, heading for the screams.

Lily rushed forward to go after the man and the screaming child when she felt herself pulled back by Frank. Lily yanked her hand from his grasp and ran forward with a burst of adrenaline. Once she made it to the hallway that ran into the staircase leading upstairs she looked back to send a promising smile to a probably angry Frank. Instead, a raven-haired boy had appeared and pulled Lily back away from the stairs and started going up them himself. Her jaw dropped.

Lily had seen his face other times before. He was a wizard but he wasn't in the Order of the Phoenix. He was a wizard that Lily hadn't seen in months. He seemed surprised too, because he spun on his heels mid step, and stared blankly at her.

Lily sent James a look for the first time in months, their eyes met momentarily. It was seconds, only seconds but Lily hadn't expected to ever look into his hazel eyes ever again. Everything around her seemed to be moving in slow motion. The flames licking at the sides of her body were imitating her body—burning up at the sight of a pureblood wizard staring at her like she put the stars in the sky.

That's when the flames finally hit her side, stinging like a hex. Lily snarled and clawed at the her skin as it burned. Lily's wand dropped to the floor and James rushed forward to grab it as it rolled towards the flames. Someone grabbed her from behind and fingers closed around Lily's throat just as James stood up straight. When he saw Lily's predicament he held out both wands, eyes vivid.

The person holding Lily captive amidst the flames spoke in a clear female voice with a strange accent Lily couldn't place.

"Come on Potter," the captor scrambled against Lily's fighting, "You want to help muggles? You can help this one by joining us."

James looked torn up as Lily struggled to escape her captor who held a wand to Lily's cheek with a free hand that wasn't curled around Lily's throat. Lily could hear the mysterious person breathing heavily in her ear. James opened his mouth to finally speak just as the cracking came from above. Lily let her eyes finally lift from James' face and saw the ceiling burning bright with flames above us. Whatever child had been screaming above couldn't be alive any longer.

The cracking continued. The building no longer had a fighting chance.

"Get out!" Lily heard someone behind shout, "It's falling!"

Above the two witches, the ceiling was cracking and beams started to fall. In fear of losing her life, the captor tried to disaperate with Lily in tow. Lily cried out as a burning beam hit her head and scorching heat touched her neck. The pain was blinding and Lily's vision went white.

A feeling of great pressure was forced upon Lily's body and she felt the captor let go of her neck.

~~~loving can hurt sometimes but its the only thing I know~~~

Watching a building burn. Hearing sirens. Feet carry her to a familiar doorframe, feeling the thick smoky air abduct her breathing. She pulled out a long stick that fit perfectly in her left hand and pointed it into the thick black air. Foreign words fell from her mouth. It was a dream that she had almost every night.

The scene itself fades like a movie on the telly at its end. Maybe she was insane or maybe she believed jumping into burning buildings was completely normal. Madame Williams said she was an idiot for jumping into any danger, as a girl of her age ought to be learning to cook and serving men. She touched her head where her red hair had grown back from the burns from the accident. It was dark red, a red similar to that of drying blood. She hated it. She loved her eyes though, green as a toad and as observant as a deer in the woods.

"Lis, did you finish your chores?"

"Yes."

Even now Lis's eyes were observing Mistress Williams going through her books, checking to insure all her guests had paid properly. She was separating the money into piles and Lis noticed that her pile was the smallest. Lis worked just as hard as the cook and maid, yet she got paid the least. The pay was important because Lis hoped to get a ticket to get out of the town she was trapped in.

Evidently, Mistress Williams of Café Leben had found Lis wandering the streets burned, battered, and broken. Lis remembered the old woman trying her hardest to get rid of Lis, but stopped trying once she realized Lis was cheap labor. Lis had no family, no education, and no place to go. Lis could basically work for free, all the money she got went towards rent and food anyways.

Lis wanted to leave France. She wanted to travel. She wanted a family that loved her. The only problem is, she has no idea who her family is.

When Mistress Williams had found Lis on the side of a road, she didn't know who Lis was, or where Lis was from. Lily's outerwear had been decorated with a a name stamped onto the clothes but it was so mangled from the fire, Williams had taken what she could from it to call Lis something other than 'girl'. Lis herself had seen the outerwear and the only letters she had been able to make out were L, I, E, V, N, and S.

Mistress Williams mostly called Lis 'girl' anyways (and other uncomplimentary names) but did refer to her in public as Lis. When Mistress Williams found Lis, garbled English was all Lis could speak. Lis slowly regained her speech capability but spending time in France had made French Lis' main language. Lis didn't know what the other letters in her name stood for but she hoped that one day she could remember.

The only hope of knowing her past was a charm she kept tucked away from the snarky Café owner in her pocket. It was the only piece of her past that Lis had. The round charm had a landscape of a castle scratched into the gold, but it looked like a chunk of the pendant had fallen off, because the castle was marred. Lis believed the lost piece was somewhere in that burning building.

"Girl," the woman snapped, shaking Lis form her thoughts.

Lis looks up from her daydream and sees that Williams looks nasty. Lis licked her lips and awaited an order she probably wouldn't like very much. Williams demanded that Lis cleans the inn-top too bottom for an important guest the next day and until it's finished, Williams would hold off on dinner from the cook that night.

"That's unfair." Lis argued instantly, eyes flashing.

"Excuse me?" The woman stood so that she was towering over Lis.

Lis stomped her foot, "I am hungry after a normal days work—now I'm expected to do twice the work in half the time with no food?"

Williams reached up to slap her and Lis backed away quickly, sensing the anger, "I clothe you, take you in off the streets, ask you to complete one task and you mouth off?"

"I work everyday. I worked all day today and now you want me to do double the chores? I don't deserve to be treated like a slave." Lis snapped, flexing her fingers that itch to reach for something to help her beat this woman at her own game. But Lis had nothing but words to fight the woman with.

"Leave if it so pleases you, then." Williams pointed to the door, "If you think I am cruel you have no idea what the outside world is like. It will gobble a girl like you up in a moment."

If Lis left the world she knew after the fire then she'd most certainly be alone but if she stayed at the cafe, she'd never know who she was or where she belonged. Lis refused to believe she was completely alone. Someone, whoever it was, had given her the charm in her pocket. They had to be looking for her. They had to be wondering where she was.

Lis knew she needed to find her family. Lis had nothing but fear of the unknown holding her under Williams' power and Lis didn't want to fear anything except never seeing her family again. Lis knew that the castle on the trinket meant something and it was a place where she could find her family.

"I will be fine and I will find my family." Lis told the old woman who laughed cruelly.

"If you think that silly pendant you are so desperate to keep is any clue—it isn't." The woman snarled, grabbing Lis' wrist, "No one lives in castles anymore. The castles of the old days are rotting in England. You act as if you are a lost little Princess—but you are nothing but a orphaned girl with scars of a fire someone probably set to kill you."

Lis yanked her hand from the wrist of the old woman with disregard, "You don't know me or why I was in a fire."

"You don't even know yourself!"

The old woman's words stung as Lis walked away from the only life she knew. Lis didn't know herself; Lis didn't know anything about herself. But, even knowing that, she left Williams and the dinky cafe behind. Lis was on a quest with no clues but a small trinket, Lis could not and would not be discouraged.

If castles were rotting in England—then that's where she would start her search.

Home. Love. Family.

It was going to be all hers as soon as she got out of France.

Disclaimer: So this story is based off of the Fox movie, Anastasia. The characters are all JKR.

I wrote this as a one-shot originally but I'm expanding the story and making into a multiple chapter. I really love Anastasia and I did love translating Miss Congeniality into a jily story-so this should be just as fun!

next time:

"Lily?" He spoke, eyes scanning me up and down keenly.

"Voulez-vous s'il vous plaît arrêter?" Lis asked, shivering in her seat.

He now looked puzzled instead of elated, as if expecting some other answer. Lis remained cautious and repeated her plea for him to stop staring at her.

"Sorry, sorry." his fingers pushed his black frame glasses farther up his nose as he scanned her up and down.

He was British, Lis recognized the accent. She sat up a little straighter and was now observing the man with a little interest. Of all of the things from Lis' past, that was one thing she remembered. She was comfortable speaking English, more comfortable with the syllables than the French she'd been forced to learn after she'd woken up as orphan Lis.

"Parlez-vous anglais?" he asked Lis, sitting down across from her at the table, looking hungry for answers.

Lis eyed him, "Yes."

"Lily?" he spoke the name with softer tones this time, his hazel eyes squinting at Lis as if he was sure he'd found someone he'd been looking for.

"Lis." I corrected quickly.

His face twisted, if only for a moment, then he stuck out a hand to Lis, "I'm James Potter."