Summary: We have all heard about them: the unfortunate generation, the one which went to Hogwarts as the Dark Lord started to rise. Ten years later they had all lost something or everything they held dear: their liberty, their friends, their family, their santity; their life. As the First Wizarding War started they had to grow up too quickly and learned to fight to defend what they believed in. Friendships were made and undone as they chose sides. How do you betray your family to fight for the Light Side? How do you find love in the midst of a war? What do you become when you have live your whole life as a Werewolf? How do you end up betraying your friends, your brothers? How do find your place in the Wizarding World when half of it despised what you are: a mudblood? How do you find the strength to continue to fight when the world continue to get darker?

This is the story of Lily Evans, James Potter, the Marauders and their other friends. Includes: James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Alice (Prewett) and Frank Longbottom, Severus Snape, Mary McDonald, Hestia Jones, Dorcas Meadowes, Marlene McKinnon, Molly (Prewett) and Arthur Weasley… and others.

I have based many of the Ancient House stories and wizarding nobelty on Harry Potter the Return of Heritage.

Author's note:

School years for the various characters are given when Marauders and co start Hogwarts. Just to clear things up: in the story, Lily, Alice, Marlene, Hestia, Severus, Mulciber, Avery and the Marauders are in the same year. Frank is a year older. As they start, Andromeda is in her 6th year with Ted Tonks. He is a Ravenclaw, she is a Slytherin. Bellatrix have finished Hogwarts a year earlier and is already engaged to Rodulphus Lestrange. Lucius Malfoy is in his 5th year, Narcissa in her fourth. Both Molly and Arthur are 9 years older than the Marauders and friends. They have finished Hogwarts and are about to be married. Dorcas is the new Gryffindor prefect (so she is in her fifth year). Regulus and Rabastan Lestrange are a year younger than the Marauders. Amos Diggory is a year older. The Prewett twins: Fabian and Gideon are two years younger than Molly and are in their final year at Hogwarts.

Other characters introduced will be Umbridge, Lockart, Kingsley and most of the members of the 1st Order of the Phoenix. Other member of the Order and other Death Eaters will be created. (I am assuming that in the picture shown by Moody to Harry in the Order of the Phoenix, not all the members are described or some are already dead).

Chapter 1: A Muggle Childhood

Mr. and Mrs. Evans were proud to say that they were successful, happy and normal people. They were one of the kindest couple you could meet and perfectly normal.

Mr. Evans was the director of the local bank's branch. He was a tall, thin blond man with a rather long neck but highly expressive emerald green eyes. Mrs. Evans was a petite, dark red-headed young woman with beautiful blue eyes. She spent most of her day taking care of the house, her daughters or visiting friends. The Evans had two daughters, Petunia and Lily, and in their opinion you could not have found two more lovely girls.

Yes, the Evans had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't know how they would react if someone finds out about Lily's abilities. Lily was their younger daughter, she had shown when she was six years old, that she could do things other people couldn't. There was nothing dark about lovely Lily but she seemed to have some kind of extraordinary power which had yet to be explained. Her power seemed to have grown over the years and when she had strong emotions it was unleashed. More recently Lily had even been able to gain control of it. The Evans shuddered to think what would happen if someone found out about their daughter's capacities.

Lily Evans was a lovely six years old when it first happened. For her, life was perfect: she lived in a nice white cottage with beloved parents and an over-protective older sister. They had moved in this new house shortly after Lily was born and it was all she knew. Her life was now settled here in this normal neighbourhood in Cokeworth, in Northern of England. Overall, you could not have found kinder and more normal people than this family. Or at least, it is what they thought…

When Lily Evans woke on that dull Monday of September the 5th 1966, there was nothing that could suggest strange things would soon be happening, changing her life forever. Lily had started her third year of primary school four days earlier, as she had skip first grade. Somehow, after only a month at school, the teacher had found out that she could already read perfectly. She was moved up a grade. Her sister Petunia was two years older than her and they were still going at the same school. Lily loved spending time with her sister. She loved the way she looked at her with her kind blue eyes and she loved the way she protected her. Lily was a sweet girl and very popular at school. She could befriend anyone she wanted with ease. She was one of the smartest in her class. Petunia was kind but a bit arrogant and hated being picked on. She felt superior because of their social status. Their family was upper middle class compare to the 'poor' families, descendants of minors with whom she was going to school with. She wanted to be treated as such.

The eight years old Petunia wanted to live a fairy tale and she had it all figure out. She wanted to go to school and continue to university. At university, she thought she would probably study History. Meanwhile, she would have met her boyfriend in either high school or at the beginning of college. They would marry after they finished their studies. He would be rich, handsome, probably an aristocratic English men. He would be a doctor, banker or work in an important company. They would end up living in the heart of London in one of those nice Victorian houses. But they would also be welcomed to spend time in the family mansion. Given their financial situation, Petunia will not have to work but will take care of the house, the children and attend the numerous social events to which they would be invited. This would be the perfect life and the life she expected for herself.

Lily, on the other hand, was a real dreamer. She didn't know what to expect in life but liked to think she could truly achieve something. She felt like she had power, the strength to do something more. She was a caring person who wanted to do everything in her power to help others. She would willingly throw herself in front of a bus to save someone's life. She was thinking about becoming a doctor maybe; or fireman; or why not a law enforcement agent. Well she was clearly not sure… She had not thought about her love life yet but she was still young. If true love crossed her path she would take it and if not she would just go on with her life, helping others.

It was a beautiful day and Petunia and Lily had just been walked to school by their mother, Emily Louise Evans. Lily liked going to school where she had two best friends: Mary Smith and Kate Williams. Her free time was spent with her friends or her sister. However, while at school she was also picked on a lot, mostly because she was smaller than most of the students in her grade. While Petunia seemed to have inherited her father's height, Lily appeared to have inherited her mother's.

Anyway, on that morning she was being bullied by a boy named Andrew Matthews. She was in class listening to the teacher showing some additions on the blackboard. Or at least she was trying to listen, but this was becoming more and more difficult as the young boy kept pulling her long, red hair and throwing her paper balls in the back of the head.

Lily was slowly becoming more and more angry and was loosing her concentration. The teacher soon called on her to resolve a problem but she had no idea what she was supposed to do and blushed deep red. Meanwhile, Andrew was laughing cruelly behind her. She could not remember a moment in her life when she had ever been more angry and ashamed. She felt a wave of power rush through her body and soon enough the boy behind her was yelling in pain clutching his hands. The whole class turned to look at him and laughed. His hair had turned from light brown to a vivid bubble-gum pink but his hands were covered in blisters as if they had been burned while reaching towards Lily's hair. The young boy was rushed to the hospital wing and Lily was left panting on her seat.

Lily found it hard to concentrate for the rest of the day. She did not know what happened but she was sure that she was responsible in one way or the other. She had felt this kind of abnormal power rushing through her veins and then Andrew ended being up hurt.

When she got home that night, she told her mother what happened. Her mother looked at her with kind eyes, and immediately assured her that she had done nothing wrong. There was no way she could have burn this kid's hands or turn his hair pink. However Lily was not convinced, she could not help but think that she made it happen.

As her father came home later that night, he came to visit her in her room. She was on her bed, reading a book with a sorry expression on her face, visibly still upset.

"Hi sweetheart! How was school?" he asked in a kind voice, sitting on the bed.

Lily looked up from her book, and sat up next to her father. "Did mum tell you what happened?" she asked in a quiet, hoarse voice.

"Yes, she did and she told me that you feel guilty. It isn't your fault Lily-Flower, you didn't do anything wrong. And even if, and I say if but there really is no way you did, you did do something, you didn't mean it. The fact that you feel so bad now, and guilty is proof enough."

"But it felt so strange, I never felt like this before. I felt this kind of power running through me and then he was hurt. What is wrong with me, Daddy?" Lily tilted her head up to look in her father's green eyes.

Her father saw the unshed tears in the emerald green eyes, so much like his own. "Lily, you didn't do anything. There is NOTHING wrong with you, ok?" he waited to see her daughter give a small nod. "Now time for bed. Goodnight, sweetheart." He left closing the door and turning off the light after seeing her daughter was in bed. Thoughts were running around his head, he had never seen his sweet little girl so upset. She looked lost and for now they had done everything they could to help her. Lily had a real red-headed temper like her mother but at the same she was so kind. Why did she have to be so kind? She always felt every little thing going wrong was her fault. There was no way she could have hurt that boy.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, his wife was going through a similar train of thoughts. She hated seeing her daughter so upset. She had no idea what had happened to the boy but she could not be responsible. There was just no logical explanation. Or was there?... She remembered a conversation she had a really long time ago with her mother. She had told her that she had felt at some times rushes of power coursing her veins, apparently similar to Lily. She was also usually able to sense things, people, and the future in ways that other could not. The few people she had told had said it was intuition but Emily knew her mother always felt it was more than that.

This was the first sign that the Evans might not be that normal. At that point, even though Lily knew that what had happened to Andrew Mathews was not normal, Lily did not see how she could be logically connected to it. Even though she felt like she was, she had no way to know what happened. However, over the following two years, more incidents of the same kind happened. They would usually happen when she was angry, scared or feel any type of strong emotions. One day at school she turned her teacher's hair yellow. Another in sport class, the basketball literally floated to her hand as they were playing. One evening, their cat Toffee was stuck in the tree, meowing for someone to come and get him. She had somehow found herself sitting next to him on the branch. She only remembered climbing the first two branches though. Even more strange was that she slipped and fell over with the cat in her arms, instead of hurting herself, she landed in what felt like some type of cushions. She bounced three times and found herself sitting on her butt unscratched. While at home, lights would flicker if she was angry and electric utensils could explode.

Her parents had started to realise that there was something wrong with their daughter. However, after seeing two different doctors who laughed at their faces and thought they should all be placed into an asylum, Peter and Emily thought best to keep their daughter's abilities a secret.

The problem was that they were not the only one to have noticed Lily's abilities. Her two friends Mary and Kate had also started to think that Lily was doing all those weird things. They drifted away and by the time she was eight, Lily was not as joyful as before. Her only friend was now her sister but there were starting to have strains in their relationship. Lily did not realised this completely but Petunia was feeling jealous of her younger sister's power. When her parents would only be worried but proud, Petunia was jealous and angry.

One day a nine years old Lily was found at the park with her sister playing on the swings, Lily and Petunia were alone and Lily was happy. She seemed to have gain some sort of control over her power. Even if she still did not know what it was she was doing, she could control it better as long as her emotions were not too strong. And yet today she was happy, she wanted to do something 'abnormal', to enjoy the rush of power through her body so she started gathering speed. She was unaware that a young boy no more than nine or ten years old, sallow, small, stringy was watching her and her sister.

"Lily, don't do it!" Petunia shrieked as she saw her sister taking her hands off the swing's ropes.

But [Lily] had let go of the swing at the very height of its arc and flown into the air, quite literally flown, launched herself skyward with a great shout of laughter, and instead of crumpling on the playground asphalt, she soared like a trapeze artist through the air, staying up far too long, landing far too lightly.

"Mummy told you not to!"

Petunia stopped her swing by dragging the heels of her sandals on the ground, making a crunching, grinding sound, then leapt up, hands on hips.

"Mummy said you weren't allowed, Lily!"

"But I'm fine," said Lily, still giggling. "Tuney, look at this. Watch what I can do."

Petunia glanced around. The playground was deserted apart from themselves and, though the girls did not know it, Snape. Lily had picked up a fallen flower from the bush behind which Snape lurked. Petunia advanced, evidently torn between curiosity and disapproval. Lily waited until Petunia was near enough to have a clear view, then held out her palm. The flower sat there, opening and closing its petals, like some bizarre, many-lipped oyster.

"Stop it!" shrieked Petunia.

"It's not hurting you," said Lily, but she closed her hand on the blossom and threw it back to the ground.

"It's not right," said Petunia, but her eyes had followed the flower's flight to the ground and lingered upon it. "How do you do it?" she added, and there was definite longing in her voice.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" the boy could no longer contain himself, but had jumped out from behind the bushes. Petunia shrieked and ran backward toward the swings, but Lily, though clearly startled, remained where she was. She was torn between curiosity because the boy seemed to hold answers and fear because he had just seen her use her abilities. The boy seemed to be uncomfortable now, as though he regretted his appearance. A dull flush of color mounted the sallow cheeks as he looked at Lily.

"What's obvious?" asked Lily.

He seemed to be nervous but excited. With a glance at the distant Petunia, now hovering beside the swings, he lowered his voice and said, "I know what you are."

"What do you mean?"

"You're...you're a witch," whispered the boy.

At first Lily was scared, how could someone say something so mean? But then her pride took the better of her. She looked affronted.

"That's not a very nice thing to say to somebody!"

She walked back toward Petunia with her nose in the air.

"No!" Lily heard the boy cry as she walked away. The sisters considered him, united in disapproval, both holding on to one of the swing poles, as though it was the safe place in tag. He was highly colored now. For the first time, Lily noticed what he was wearing. It was an old man coat far too big for him and she wondered why he was wearing it even though it was a nice day. Then she noticed that underneath was a kind of smock. She figured that he wanted to hide it. As he flapped after the girls, he looked ludicrously batlike.

"You are," he said to Lily. "You are a witch. I've been watching you for a while. But there's nothing wrong with that. My mum's one, and I'm a wizard."

Petunia's laugh was like cold water.

"Wizard!" she shrieked, her courage returned now that she had recovered from the shock of his unexpected appearance. "I know who you are. You're that Snape boy! They live down Spinner's End by the river," she told Lily, and Lily could see her sister's tone that she considered the address a poor recommendation. Even if she didn't really care where people usually came from or what their parents were doing like her sister did, she could not help but think she had gotten it right for this boy. He looked clearly poor and sickly. There was nothing in him which inspired confidence.

"Why have you been spying on us?" asked Petunia in a voice full of disdain.

"Haven't been spying," he said, hot and uncomfortable and dirty-haired in the bright sunlight. "Wouldn't spy on you, anyway," he added spitefully, "you're a Muggle."

Though Petunia evidently did not understand the word, she could hardly mistake the tone.

"Lily, come on, we're leaving!" she said shrilly. Lily obeyed her sister at once, glaring at Snape as she left. He stood watching them as they marched through the playground gate. As soon as there were out of earshot, Petunia started talking.

"No, but seriously what is he thinking? A witch? I have never heard anything so ridiculous! How can anyone believe such nonsense? He must be crazy, and his parents too if they believe it. Witches do not exist, it is just in stories. I know that sometimes you can do things that are not completely normal… but there is an explanation. I mean a rational explanation. We don't live in the Middle Ages anymore! Witches! And look at how he was dress…"

And on Petunia rambled but Lily had quickly stopped listening. She knew that she should be offended by what the boy said. She knew that witches, wizards and magic could not be real. But she also knew that she was able to do things other people were not able to do. She had some abilities which had never been explained. She had seen some doctors, her parents had done some research but nothing had been found. The most plausible answer they ever found was that they were all crazy. And yet, this boy was giving her a new answer. An answer that sounded absolutely insane but what if it really was the case? What if she was a witch? What if what she was able to do was magic?

Lily was still lost in her thoughts as they reached the house. She was quiet through dinner and her mother sent her to bed early thinking she was probably tired. But that night, she could not sleep. It was only nine o'clock and she stayed awake on her bed looking outside the window. She was thinking again and again at what the boy had said. She turned it over and over in her head unable to think of something else. Was he just making fun of her? Would he tell someone? What if the boy was right? Should she talked about it with her parents? But deep down she knew that she could not say anything to her parents, or at least not until she was sure of what was going on. And so after staying awake well into the night, she finally fell asleep after reaching the conclusion that she had to speak to the boy, and the sooner the better.

The next day, Lily woke up early. There were halfway through the summer holidays and she had gotten used to waking up late. But today was special, she had hardly slept. She knew that she had to meet the boy again and wanted to do it today. Petunia was going to her friend's place who was organising a summer party around the swimming pool. This meant that Lily would be able to go back to the park where she hoped she would meet the boy again. She planned to ask him everything she wanted to know and would soon figure out if he was lying or not.

She went down to the kitchen where her mother and father were having a quiet breakfast. Her father was still working for another three days before taking some holidays. At that point, they would all be leaving for France where her mother's sister, Rose, was living with her husband Vincent and their two children: Constance and Maxence. Lily really liked her two cousins, especially Constance who was the same age as her. She was really kind and keep teaching her how to speak French whereas Lily would help her with her English. The two girls had a lot in common: they were both good at school and had the same character which meant they enjoyed the same games. They could play or read quietly at times but at some times they just had to run around and play tag or hide-and-seek. They also looked very much alike. They were the same height, had the same face shape and same hair. The only difference was their eyes: Constance's eyes were hazelnut brown. Maxence was a cute three year-old which they all like to take care of.

She was really glad that her parents had decided to spend the holiday with them and not her other cousin Justin. Justin was the son of Uncle Harvey and Aunt Charlotte. Uncle Harvey was her father's older brother. He was a really successful lawyer who lived in a big Victorian house in London. They had never been able to have other children and had completely spoiled Justin. He was now a mean, arrogant boy who kept making fun of her. He had seen her do 'weird' things twice and was absolutely convinced that she was abnormal and a freak. However, what really annoyed Lily about Justin was that Petunia seemed to enjoy spending time with him. She often helped him pull pranks on Lily and was happy to meet all his high-class friends when Lily could not care less.

All of this to say that Lily was really looking forward to join her cousins in the south of France for the holidays. Her grandparents would also be there and Lily was really excited to see Grandma Jane-Lillian again. She was named after her, and she thought that this suited her perfectly. Out of all the members of her family, it was probably to her grandmother she was closest to (apart from her parents and Petunia, of course). She was the person who seemed to understand her the best. Grandma Jane seemed to also have some kind of abilities. There were not as strong as Lily's but she was able to sense things that other people could not, like some vibrations. She also often dreamed that something would happen and it usually did. Lily felt that she was one of the few to which she could easily confide.

As she reached the kitchen's door, her parents looked up with kind smiles and said in unison: "Good morning darling, how did you sleep?" before both started to laugh.

Lily smiled and grabbing a bowl, milk and cereals, she replied "Good morning, I am good. I was thinking of spending the day at the park today with a picnic. It's such a beautiful day!"

This is what she had planned last night: she was going to spend the day at the park and wait for the boy. She preferred to ask for a picnic and stayed all day there because she had no idea if and when he would come. She was still young but lived in a small city and a very protected neighbourhood.

Her parents exchanged astonished looks. It was unusual for their daughter to spend some time outside the house when Petunia was not with her. She would usually go to the park if her mother could come but she had never asked to spend the whole day out alone.

"Honey, Petunia is going to Natalia's house today. She won't be able to come with you." Said her mother while buttering a toast.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but I was thinking that maybe I can go alone. It's really a beautiful day and I don't want to spend it inside."

"I don't know, you are still young and I don't really want you to go alone. When I come back from Mrs. Spencer's house, we can go together."

"Mum! That will be for ages! What am I going to do all morning? Beside I am nine, I am not little anymore. At that age, Petunia was allowed to go on her own and even take me with her. How am I going to ever make friends if everywhere I go is with you or Petunia?"

By the looks on her parents' faces, she knew she had won. They had always wanted to be more protective because they thought she was special but had never wanted her or Petunia to notice. Not allowing her do go to the park on her own would show it. They were also worried to see that she did not really have any friends.

"Ok, you can go," replied her mother. "But I will join you with sandwiches for lunch."

"Great!"

And so an hour later, a little red-head girl was found on the swings of the park. She had looked around carefully for any signs of the boy but had seen him nowhere. She continued to play on the swings, the rest of the games in the park and some of the children. Around noon her mother came over as she was playing hide and seek with a girl she had just met. The girl was named Mary and here visiting her grandparents for the holidays. Her mother invited Mary to join them and they shared the sandwiches she had brought.

Both girls continued to play until 4 in the afternoon when Mary was escorted home by her grandmother who was getting worried, not after inviting Lily over the following afternoon. Lily had been looking for the boy all afternoon and was getting worried that he would actually never show up. She knew that she had to be home no later than 5:30 if she did not want to get into trouble. This left him about an hour to get there and for them to speak before she had to leave.

She looked around the park, behind the hedges and next to the stream. Finally, as she was about to give up and go home, he arrived. He was wearing the same adult coat as the day before event though it was a hot summer day. Lily thought that he probably wanted to hide the smock suit he was wearing underneath. Lily smiled and went over to him simply saying:

"I was looking for you."

And that is how a snake and flower became friends.

AN: The excerpt i Italic was taken from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows