Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, settings, etc. located within this story.

Chapter 1: Message in an Owl

Lily felt the warm sunshine on her face and fluttered open her eyes to another morning in Spinner's End. It also could have been the totally unnecessary stomping of Petunia's feet, slamming of bathroom cabinets and shrill shouting across the house that woke her up, but Lily tried to be optimistic. It was far too early for one of Pet's temper tantrums. To make matters worse, her head was pounding from lack of sleep. Lily shook her head quickly, dismissing any further thought on the matter. No, it was also not a good idea to go down that train of thought this early in the morning.

Sounds, images, she had so little recollection from the dream. But she knew that at least once a week she would wake up in a panic. The first time it happened Lily had run into her parents' room to make sure they were OK, trying desperately not to wake them and frighten them out of their minds. She'd even poked her head into Petunia's room to see if she was all right. It was all so silly, but at the same time so very real.

Tonight was easier to handle. Lily listened to the leaves rustle outside her window, trying to ground herself in the present. It was just a bad dream.

Suddenly, Petunia poked her head into the bedroom. She looked around the messy quarters with disdain until her eyes found the object in question. "Oh Lily, you're awake."

"You know, it's a wonder I sleep at all through your hallway parade."

"Don't think it wasn't intentional," she declared smugly. "Company will be here soon and well, you know the rules." She glanced over at her vanity mirror with disgust and left the room.

Lily's eyes followed Petunia's gaze to the vanity mirror across the room. It was surrounded by moving pictures of her friends from school. She smiled, and crossed the room, pulling one of the whole group off the mirror. It had been taken on this brilliant sunny day by the lake, where the girls had spent the afternoon tanning and discussing O.W.L.s. That was until they were rudely interrupted by Potter and his damn friends. That was the day Lily realized that her whole world was about to change. She dropped the photo into a shoebox and began pulling the other's off quickly.

The "Muggle Makeover," as Lily lovingly called her tradition, entailed pulling all magical photos off her mirror and packing up school robes. She replaced books like "Magical Creatures and Where to Find Them" with "A Royal History of England" and took down the poster that Gwen had given her for Christmas in their Fifth Year of the Caerphilly Catapults. Lily never really unpacked trinkets when she got home, so the process went by rather quickly. There were only a few books left to pack when she heard a knock on the door.

"Lily dear," her mother called from the other side.

"Yeah Mum?" Mrs. Evans slowly opened the door and looked over her youngest daughter. Over the past summer she'd gotten considerably thinner, and dark circles had become a permanent fixture beneath her stunning green eyes.

"Just wanted to check in, see how everything is going."

"Oh, I'm almost done."

She paused, not sure how to begin. "I just appreciate that you understand," but Lily cut her off.

"It's really not a big deal."

"Alright, well you know we love you dear. We just don't know," at this Lily laughed.

"How to explain me? Don't let it bother you Mum, I know it's difficult." She smiled reassuringly at her mother's downcast eyes.

The hands of the wall clock spun too quickly to one o'clock, but at that precise moment, Lily could hear three short knocks on the front door. She frowned inwardly and braced herself.

"Lily! Please come down here!" her mother called up the stairs.

"Coming!" she called after. But at that precise moment she heard another short three knocks. That was certainly unexpected. Lily quickly looked over the her window and saw barn owl flapping furiously at the frame, tapping the glass pane with its beak, and making an obnoxious effort to be noticed. She groaned quietly and shouted "just one second!" to her family.

Lily grabbed a biscuit from her secret stash of junk food and hurried to the window sill. If she could just get the bird to give her the letter and fly away quickly then she could be downstairs in five minutes and no one would ever know he was there. She slowly undid the latch held out the biscuit as she opened the window. The barn owl flew through the window with force, knocked over a lamp and completely ignored Lily's cries.

"Shit! Come here! Come on!" She whispered angrily.

"Lily, is there something wrong?" her mother called.

"No Mom, just drying my hair," she said, quickly turning on the hair dryer on her vanity. This frightened the owl even more and it began flapping about the room, absolutely crazed.

"You have got to be kidding me," Lily cursed under her breath. At this point, the owl had knocked several books her shelf and feathers lay strewn about the room. Finally, she turned off the hair dryer and the owl calmed down enough to perch on her arm and hand her a letter. Unfortunately, Lily's grandmother chose that moment to open the door. She promptly fainted.

"LILY!" Her mother yelled, "what is the meaning of this?" Petunia ran over excitedly to see what all the commotion was about.

"Oh my god," she scoffed. "Uh, you really are a freak. You can't even pretend to be normal, not even for five minutes."

"Petunia, I will have none of that." Mrs. Evans asserted quickly, though she was still in shock. "Robert, will you please help me with my mother? Lily, you could have given her a heart attack! I don't know what to do with you. I mean, I try Lily. I really do try. But you always have to make things so difficult." She was interrupted by her husband rushing into the room.

"What happened?" He asked staring at his mother-in-law. His eyes found Lily. Her face had paled as she stared at her grandmother and then at the letter "oh dear Lily, are you ok? What's going on?"

"I don't know," she meekly whispered.

"Oh Dad, please-" Petunia began.

"Petunia!" Her mother shouted, taking control. "Robert, Lily is fine. She's just startled. Now will you please take my mother down to the sofa?" Lily continued to stare at the letter. She urged herself to reread its contents over and over while her mother continued on in some high-pitched speech about what how she should have known better. Lily could not pull her attention away from the letter.

"Mom," she whispered softly.

"What is it Lily?" she huffed impatiently.

"It's a letter from Professor Dumbledore," she whispered, as tears began to roll down her cheeks. Her mother noticed and instantly softened her face.

"Petunia, can you please leave the room?" she whispered calmly. "Lily, what is it dear?"

"I have to leave." Lily whispered urgently. She quickly began to collect her thoughts, hurriedly collected the newspaper clippings from the ground, and pulled herself together. "I just um…have to go back to school. I'm Head Girl this year, you know, and something has gone terribly wrong. I need to go back to school."

Her mother smiled and said, "can't the Professors handle it?"

"Yeah, I don't know," Lily brushed off quickly, "I just need to go." She looked at her daughter skeptically.

"Sweetheart, I'm sure they'll be fine without you. It's your last two weeks of summer, after all. I don't want them to take advantage of you," she asserted calmly.

"MOTHER!" Lily started letting her anxiety get the better of her, "Professor Dumbledore is not taking advantage of me. The Head Girl position is a huge honor, not that I need to explain any of that to you. And right now I have a responsibility. This is important!" The lies kept coming, but they weren't working. "You have no idea what my life is like or who I am, so don't pretend to." At that her mother's eyes fell to the ground.

"I'm sorry," she whispered quietly. "I'll just leave you to pack I suppose." As the door closed, Lily fell back onto her bed and let the tears flow freely. She reread Professor Dumbledore's letter over and over again.

Ms. Evans,

I apologize for this informality, but we do not have much time. You and your family are in grave danger. To save them and yourself, you will need to leave Spinner's End. I have arranged for a safe haven to lodge you until the start of the semester. I will pick you up tomorrow at 8:00 pm.

Professor Albus Dumbledore

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry