Author's Note: I do not own this. Some of the characters in this book are J.K. Rowling's own characters. I just love HP so much that I wanted to continue the series on. By the way, this whole story is my own imagination. I am not suggesting that-wait! Spoilers! :)

Chapter 1
Signed and Sealed

Lily stood in the midst of a war. Shoots of light spun past her, hitting people and buildings - both crumbled to the ground. But she did not crumple when the light hit her. People who had not fallen rushed past her, hurrying to a place she did not know. When they brushed her she did not feel it. Even the sound of shouting and explosions were muffled and no smells came into contact with her nose.

Lily blinked slowly. The battle slowed and she moved equally slowly. She felt heavy and, glancing down (ever so slowly), saw she was wearing what appeared to be golden armour, a sword in its sheaf and a golden shield across her back. In her hand was a strip of narrow wood - her wand. No time to look anymore she was here – wherever here was. This was where all the commotion was coming from, all the chaos. Lily expected to see some sort of dark wizard or witch, throwing spells at everything that moved or some sort of horrible monster with talons and teeth dripping with human blood. Or (heaven forbid) a wounded dragon snapping and breathing fire at everything that still lived. She braced herself for the worst and saw... the twisted remains of an iron cage, the ends bent, smoking and the colour of fire - as if they had been recently burnt. The iron dripped on to the ground. Drip, drip.

'He's escaped,' Lily thought, (she could not explain why she thought 'him' - the thought had just entered her mind as if it was not her's at all). Lily did not know why the idea filled her with equal amounts of joy, sadness, anger and dread. Of course all this made her very confused so she stood there trying to untangle the knot of ideas that was her brain. Suddenly, she heard the *shinx* of a sword being drawn from its sheaf. Lily spun round quickly - which is no mean feat for someone in full armour. A knight in pure black armour was standing three feet away from her, his silver sword glinting with malice.

Before Lily could even draw her ruby encrusted sword (she could hardly believe it either) a golden shape flew over her head and thudded to the ground in front of her. The knight stumbled backwards and the shape pounced - a roar as mighty as Niagara Falls split through the night sending Lily to her knees, her hands over her ears. The shape turned and, just for a second, met her gaze with his own amber stare. He shook his magnificent mane and roared again. Lily shut her eyes...

Lily woke up with a jolt. She breathed heavily the roar still echoing in her ears. It was early morning and according to her alarm clock around 6:30. She rubbed her eyes sleepily. What day was it? Tuesday 24th July. Something important was going to happen today. If only she could remember what.

Lily pulled back the covers of her Illegal Spells bedspread (THE greatest wizarding band in the entire universe!) and walked to her window. It overlooked the east wood and sure enough a watery sun hung just under the treetops like a poached egg. Just then an owl screeched over the housetops of Godric's Hollow either flying back to its nest to have a snooze or flying to the recipient of a letter clutched in its beak. 'I hardly ever get mail' thought Lily, wistfully thinking of her cousin, Hugo, the only one who ever wrote to her. Their family owl had a broken wing and using his sister, Rose's owl was not an option. Lily rested her head on her hands. Even so, she hadn't heard from him in three weeks and once in a while it was nice to talk to someone who hadn't been to Hogwarts. Lily jerked upright. Hogwarts. The letters. She grinned. Maybe she was going to get some post after all...

Half an hour later, when she could wait no longer, Lily bounded down the stairs in a t-shirt and jeans, a sweatshirt tied round her waist. She ran into the kitchen, skidded across the tile floor and collided painfully with the kitchen table, knocking her father's tea on to the floor. She winced at the sound of breaking china. Her mother gave her a stern look, "Lily Nymphadora Potter will you be careful! Look what you've done! You've knocked your father's tea on to the floor! That was a nice brew as well," "Don't worry Ginny, I can at least save the cup. See, Reparo." Lily's dad, Harry Potter, reassured them. At the mutter of the Repairing Spell the cup pieces sprang together and flew into Harry's hand. Albus gaped at the cup as it was given to Ginny to re-fill, "How did you get it into your hand?" he asked. Harry shrugged, "Practise,"

Lily sat down, rubbing the bruise blooming on her hip. A plate of scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon and toast was set down in front of her along with a glass of orange juice. James mentioned Quidditch and the topic of conversation took off. Albus, James and Harry got into such a heated argument about where the Kenmare Kestrels would finish in the league that it was a while before Lily could get a say. Finally, after half an hour of James wondering who would be made Captain this year in the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, he paused to take a sip of water. Lily took advantage of his momentary silence to say, "Are the Hogwarts letters coming today, dad?" Harry sipped his tea, "Yes, I believe so Lily. In fact, I believe that's them now," he added, glancing out the window. Lily ran to the open window and looked out at the almost blue sky. Two owls were flying towards their house – wait, was that a third owl flying towards them? And a fourth?! "Gang way! Clear the table! Owl overload coming straight at us!" She grabbed her juice off the table and Ginny stacked the plates neatly on the draining board. A few seconds later, two owls landed gracefully on to the table, one landed on the windowsill and the last one landed on the butter dish that Ginny was just about to clear away.

The two owls on the table hopped over to James and Albus, sticking out their legs for them to untie the letters they carried. Ginny went over to their family owl, Mercury, and carried him to the perch just inside the back door. Lily stared at the owl in front of her, 'Why did it land in the butter dish?' she thought, puzzled. 'Must be new. It is rather smaller than the others' Lily put the owl's strange arrival out of her mind. She took the letter from its beak and the other owls flew out the window. Hers, however, didn't. She stared at it and it stared back. She stared right into its eyes and she felt like she was drowning, drowning in pools of amber, emerald and sky, flashes of images swimming in and out of her line of vision and screeching, that turned into pleading, that turned into screaming. A lot of screaming. Lily wanted to stop the screaming, to help whoever was screaming. She was drowning, drowning.

The owl blinked. Lily blinked. The owl hooted softly, as if to comfort her, and flew out the window. Nobody seemed to notice. James and Albus were too busy comparing their lists (Albus had taken one of the same classes as James and both were wondering if he would get the same books) Ginny was reading the letter brought by Mercury with a slight frown and Harry was eating the rest of his toast, watching Ginny with a look of concern. Lily suddenly felt as if she didn't want to read her letter here – she would read it later, in her room, in her own time. Albus glanced at her, opening his mouth to say something when Ginny said, "Harry. It's your cousin, Dudley. He's written us a letter."

Harry got up from the table slowly. He took the letter and read it, quickly. His frown got deeper and deeper as he got further down the page and once done said, "I'll leave by ten, I just need to pack a few things…" He walked out the kitchen and up the stairs. Ginny and James followed, James asking his mother what was going on. Albus turned to Lily and murmured, "What the heck was that all about?"

A few minutes after Harry had left, Lily went up to her room to open her Hogwarts letter alone. She broke open the red wax seal and slipped out the letter. It said all the usual stuff that she had seen on James, and then Albus', letter. She gave a sigh of relief. 'At least the weirdness stopped here' she thought. Then Lily noticed the spidery writing on the back. Her heart thumped and her breath came out in short gasps as she re-read the writing:

Watch your back…

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