Disclaimer: It STILL isn't mine, even after 28 chapters of a fic. Strange.

Chapter 1: The New World


It was the summer holidays. Or rather, it wasn't the summer holidays. "Holiday" implies that you'll return to school afterwards. But Lily Evans, James Potter and their friends had left Hogwarts forever, and all eight of them were lounging around at Lily's house, not quite knowing what to do with themselves. Lily had conjured up five comfortably squashy beanbag chairs to go with the two she already had; she herself had opted to sit on the bed.

'It's weird,' she said to the room at large. 'It's the summer holidays, but there's no homework or anything.'

'No Lily, what's weird is that you miss the homework. I miss the Quidditch,' said James.

'Already?' asked Remus incredulously, 'But no, what I think is really weird is that you're engaged.'

They all laughed, except for Caroline.

'Not really. I saw it coming since the first day, you know,' she said. 'When James first set his eyes on Lily, and they nearly popped out.'

Everyone laughed for a while, before a long silence began. This was not the first one that day. There were no classes to complain about, no teachers to gossip about and no Potions essays to copy off Lily.

'I got an apartment,' said Sirius suddenly. 'In London. It's expensive, but it's worth it. Caroline and I are moving in together.'

'Really?'

'That's great!'

'When did this happen?'

'Yesterday,' said Sirius. 'We're moving in next week.'

'You and Caroline are so lucky!' said Sarah. 'You see so much of each other. You're going to live together, and you'll be together at work, once the Auror training program starts in September.'

'Yup, I've got him all to myself,' said Caroline, grinning.

The room relapsed into silence, until Lily put down her packet of Peppermint Toads and voiced what was on everyone's mind.

'It's so awful!' she said. 'Everything's so awkward between us all. We have nothing to talk about now that school's out! Are our lives really that boring?'

'It would appear so,' said Peter, sadly.

'I'm bored,' moaned Suzie. 'Put some music on or something, Lily, you're the host, it's up to you to entertain us.'

Lily sighed, but got up, pulled a record from its sleeve and put it into the player. There was a scratching sound for a minute, before the sound of ABBA's "SOS" filled the room.

'Ooo, ABBA!' squealed Suzie, moving her head to the beat. 'My favourite!'

'I knew you'd like it,' replied Lily, grinning and sitting back down on the bed.

Everyone relapsed into silence.


After a while, the jug of lemonade ran out. Lily was the unanimously, apart from herself, elected "Re-filler of Drinks and General Fetcher and Carrier", and so she hoisted herself off the bed, picked up the empty jug, and, stepping over Sarah, went to the door, and then downstairs. Conjuring some ice as she walked, she went into the kitchen, to find her mother sitting at the kitchen table, with puffy eyes and several used tissues.

'Mummy, what's wrong?' she asked, concerned, putting the jug down and coming over to her.

'Do you remember that shop where we got the decorations for your room, when you were about eight?'

'All Kinds of Everything?' asked Lily, thinking of her recent excursion there with James to buy a disco ball. 'Of course. Why?'

'And do you remember the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Owen?'

Lily nodded, suddenly feeling a sense of dread.

'Well, they… they,' Mrs. Evans hung her head and took a deep breath. 'They were found dead.'

Lily let out a strangled gasp, and said urgently, 'What? How?'

'Their shop didn't open this morning and when Mrs. Peguin, you know, that nice French lady, opened it, they were found lying on the floor, dead,' replied Mrs. Evans, starting to cry again.

'How?'

'No one knows. They were just… dead. The only sign something was wrong was the green smoke, which seemed to be in the shape of a skull, floating above the shop.'

Lily closed her eyes, her worst fears having been confirmed. She didn't feel sad, or sick, or anything you're supposed to feel when confronted with death, but simply empty, no real emotion. She nodded blankly, trying to understand, to process what had happened.

'I'm going back upstairs,' she said quietly, knowing there was nothing else she could really say.

'All right,' her mother said, and Lily turned away from her and left the room. She walked slowly up the stairs and paused outside her room, before taking a deep breath and opening the door. Her friends had not seemed to have moved at all while she had been downstairs, although the pile of chocolate that had been at the end of the bed seemed to have moved to be by Caroline's beanbag. Remus turned his head to an awkward position over his shoulder, and looked at her.

'Hey, Lily,' he said. 'Where's the lemonade?'

Lily didn't reply, but instead sat down heavily on her bed, and put her head in her hands. James and Sarah were up and by her side in an instant, and the others were sitting up more straight, worried expressions on their faces. James and Sarah sat either side of Lily, and put their arms around her.

'Lily?' asked Sarah tentatively, 'what's wrong?'

Lily removed her hands from her face and looked at her blankly.

'The Owens are dead,' she said quietly, and covered her face in her hands again. James let out a squeak, and held Lily tighter, as she continued, 'They were discovered this morning. The Dark Mark was above their shop.'

'The couple you saved?' asked Caroline, uncertainly.

'But we didn't!' said Lily suddenly, removing her hands and staring at the room at large. 'We only bought them more time! He went and killed them anyway!'

No one knew what to say to this, and so they settled on just looking back at her, their faces as expressionless as hers. Lily slowly brought her eyes down, leaned back into James' arm, and, finally, started to cry.


Hepsa and I wrote most of it together. Credit to Lamia for Gamma-ing.

We apologise for the short length, but we have such bad writer's block that we need to post it before we can right more. Just like Chapter 17 of JIG (also a very short chapter).

We'd like to say hello to the real Jemima Owen and Eric Peguin because we forgot to when they first came in. We're sorry to say that this is likely to be your last mention.

Review replies:

To Princess Eclipse, pyrotechnic and Prongs76: I'm glad you enjoyed the fic, and here is the sequel for you!

MssrBlaze: You are welcome to join C.A.P.W.P.P., if you would like. It now has six members! (Me, my two brothers, Hepsa, moony07 and you… possibly Lamia as well). I'm glad you liked the story, and don't worry, you weren't rambling.

Moony07: You don't have a problem with S.O.S., do you? And feel welcome to write long reviews, we like them! And glad you liked the story! Here's that sequel you demanded.

Review topic: ICT teachers who are getting stressy about us not doing proper work. It is proper work! Just not school work!

Larka :)