Summary: "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...born to those who have thrice defied him..." - Which Lily blamed all on James actually. After all, if it wasn't for that smart mouth of his...anyway, they'd defied him three times and almost died along the way. Nothing like a little danger to add some spice to their romance, 'ey?

Disclaimer: Hmmm, I often wish I was JK Rowling...but I'm not, so basically everything you recognize is hers. (and everything you don't is mine, so back off)

Hello again! Ok so as you probably noticed, I took down the last version of this story and have pretty much rewritten it here. This is the sort-of sequel to my story Earthworms and a Horny Suit of Armour, which basically just told the story of James chasing Lily while they were at Hogwarts. This story, however is mainly about their relationship (of course :D) and the friction between good and evil, causing every witch and wizard to keep their friends close, enemies closer, and fall asleep with their wands under their pillows. Hopefully it should go a bit more chronologically from now on. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter One

Lily sat on the edge of her barstool, feeling extremely self-conscious. She'd let Sarah dress her, something she wasn't planning on doing again in a hurry. Sarah Zabini was a tall, haughty girl, with long thin limbs, sleek black hair, and a stare that could freeze a boy's heart as soon as melt it. Lily often referred to her as the most expensively dressed prostitute she'd ever met. Which was a pretty accurate description, having slept with half of the Hogwarts population.

Lily's other best fried, Eleanor Harvey, was much more conservative, with her large blue eyes, set wide and innocent in her chubby round face. She had curly blonde hair and was the spitting image of a perfectly carved porcelain doll – and was about as naive as one too.

But school was over now. Lily had graduated from Hogwarts less than two weeks ago, and currently found herself sitting in a seedy pub, carelessly stirring her drink, and attempting to look casual. Which she wasn't. Not by a long shot. She was dressed in knee-high black boots, an extremely tight mini-skirt, and a low cut red silky top, showing ridiculous amounts of pale skin. She'd refused point blank to don the fishnet tights when Sarah had held them out to her. Of course, Lily wouldn't normally being sitting in a dirty old bar, practicing the art of indecent exposure, if it wasn't for her determination to help Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix. And her mission for the night was to get information out of one Theodore Guildenweed, a large man, sitting in the corner, downing tankard after tankard of mead.

Of course, Dumbledore hadn't assigned this job to her. He'd simply been discussing it and she'd volunteered. He hadn't been too pleased, but as he could think up no reasonable excuse for her to not help, he'd had to allow it.

As Lily sat at the bar, waiting for the opportune moment to approach Guildenweed (in other words, when he was so drunk he could barely walk), Lily's thoughts skimmed over her last few weeks at Hogwarts and landed on James. They'd departed with rather curt goodbyes, and neither had written. With a sigh, Lily pushed the olive around the bottom of her glass. They'd fallen out after Christmas. Lily had gone home during the Christmas holidays…had rushed to the hospital on Christmas day, and spent the next week at her father's bedside, watching him slowly die.

She'd hated the man anyway, but he was her father after all, and she'd loved him once. Sometimes Lily just wanted to curl up in a ball somewhere, somewhere alone where it was dark, and she could just lie down and cry. Then fall asleep and not have to face it all – life. It had just become too hard. Maybe that's why she'd volunteered for this mission. She'd become reckless. That's what Sarah thought anyway.

Eleanor reckoned Lily had to admit to her feelings – her feelings of loss for her father, and love for James – something Lily was not willing to do. And Eleanor thought Lily had to cry, because 'once you cried, everything would be all better.'

Truthfully, Lily hadn't cried since it had happened…and the tears just wouldn't come. Maybe it was because she'd never really loved him. How awful did that sound - her father. Dead. It just didn't seem right. There had been so many close calls, with him being an alcoholic and drug user. But this time he'd actually died.

Lily shook her head and pierced the olive angrily with her toothpick. No. She had loved him. He was her dad. And as much as she hated his guts for being weak and pathetic and never there for her, he was still her father. It wasn't fair.

Everyone she'd ever loved or cared for had been ripped away from her. Both sets of grandparents over the years had died slow and painful deaths. Her aunt had been killed in a car crash, her cousin had drowned three summers ago, her sister had stopped talking to her, her mother pretended she didn't exist, her older brother…Lily felt her throat burn as it always did when she thought of him. He'd died when she and Petunia were only five years old.

And now her father.

She wasn't going to let it happen anymore. She couldn't. She would refuse to love anyone because she just couldn't get hurt again. Not again, not now. Her heart had been torn into a million little pieces and no one was left to help her sew it back together.

Someone tapped her shoulder and she broke out of her reverie with a start. It was Guildenweed, a drunk sneer on his alcohol-slackened face.

"You're pretty," he slurred, attempting to sit on the stool next to her, but missing and falling to the floor, his tankard hitting the hard stones with a clatter. Lily stood and took his arm, pulling him to his feet.

"I'm Lily," she said, smiling as best she could and trying not to throw up from nerves.

"Ted," he muttered, slamming the tankard down on the counter and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. He smelt distinctly unwashed, coupled with the smell of pipe smoke and alcohol. He actually smelt a bit like her father, but Lily put that thought quickly out of her head, before this whole thing became some sort of Freudian mess. "How much?" he asked, leading her through tables and towards the pub door.

With a start, Lily realised he thought she was a prostitute. Wow, Sarah's dress sense was really having an effect.

"Well since you're so gorgeous, I'll give you a cheap rate. But how 'bout we get ourselves a little drink first, 'ey?" she purred, taking him by the arm and leading him back towards the bar.

"Drink? Drink sounds good! Two ales!" he yelled at the barkeeper, who shot them both a dirty look and filled two tankards with dark brown ale.

Only when Guildenweed was drinking greedily from his tankard, did Lily relax slightly, and allow her mind to focus on the task she had been given.

"You come here often?" she purred, fingering her mug but not taking a sip. She needed to keep her head clear.

Guildenweed shrugged. "Often enough," he slurred. "Never seen you here before. You're prettier than th'other girls. Younger too."

Lily smiled coyly at him and raised her tankard to her lips, in imitation of drinking. "Well, I've got some friends. As pretty and young as me. I could introduce them to your friends…Or do you come here alone?"

At that moment, a hand rested gently on Lily's shoulder. She jumped and spun around, only to find herself face-to-face with a tall man in his thirties, with long blonde hair and icy blue eyes.

"Why so nosey, Lily Evans?" Lucius Malfoy drawled, sneering nastily at her.

Swallowing, Lily moved her hand discreetly towards her wand, but he grabbed her wrist.

"I don't think so," he said, in barely more than a whisper.

Lily's mind was whirling, but she attempted to stay calm. How had he known she would be here? Did this mean he was connected to Guildenweed?

Malfoy seemed to read her mind and laughed coldly. "It seems one of your friends was keeping an eye on you tonight. We ran into him outside the bar. Now, what I want to know is, why are the two former heads of Hogwarts spying on my good friend here?"

James. Shit. How was she going to get out of this now? And how did James know, anyway? "It's none of your business what I'm doing here, Malfoy. Last time I checked, this was still a free country. I have as much right to be here as you do. More so, I would say, given some of your recent actions."

"You are wrong, Lily," Malfoy breathed, his hand tightening painfully on her wrists. "Mudblood's don't have rights anymore. You'll be begging to tell me everything by the time I'm through with you tonight."

Thanks for reading. Please Review!!