DH SPOILERS. It's Lily's fifth year at Hogwarts and life is harder than ever. She not only has to worry about homework, OWLs, and BOYS, but she also has to worry about her family and her friends. Dark times are settling across the wizarding world leaving fear in it's wake. Mainly Lily/Scorpius, with minor pairings on the side. This fic will get darker...

A/N: This is my first fic, so I'd appreciate any constructive criticism. )

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, then I don't own it. Unfortunately.

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Chapter One

It was September first again, and Lily Potter was scanning her room for any last minute belongings that she would need to take to Hogwarts for her fifth year. Spotting a lone red and gold knee sock under her bed, she bent down to retrieve it. She was about to fling it carelessly into her still open suitcase when suddenly, a movement on the sock caught her eye. Immediately, she dropped the sock onto the floor like it was a piece of hot coal, and jumped onto the bed, shrieking like a banshee.

Scuttling quickly across her hardwood floor was the most grotesque spider she had ever seen. It was covered in dirty brown hair, and you could see a puke green color peeking out from underneath all the fuzz. Its eight long, spindly legs were all bent at odd angles and were all different lengths. It had a pair of eyes on its head and another eye on its back. Lily briefly wondered if it had an eye on its stomach, too, before realizing all to late that the spider seemed to be headed right towards her suitcase.

"MUM," she shouted, clearly horrified, "Get up here fast, and bring your wand!" Lily could hear her Mum bustling about in the foyer, fussing over her brother, Albus Severus; Lily wondered if she had even heard her. Frustrated, Lily tried again. Taking in a deep breath, she shouted even louder this time: "MOTHER! GET UP HERE NOW, AND I MEAN IT!"

"OI," another voice shouted, "Could you shout any louder? My windows AND my eardrums are rattling." It was Lily's other brother, James, who had graduated from Hogwarts two years back. Lily narrowed her eyes. She was willing to bet all the money in her family's Gringotts account that James had something to do with the spider, but before she could think about it anymore, her mother huffed into the room.

"What is it now, Lily? You know we don't have time for this, the Hogwarts express it leaving in less than an hour!"

Lily pointed to her suitcase across the room. "That's what's up." She watched her mother follow her finger to the spider that was now making its home inside the folds of parchment in the suitcase.

Lily watched amusedly as her mother's face go from interested curiosity, to slight confusion, to a look of pure disgust. "That has got to be the most...the most...the grossest thing...since...since...oh, I don't know!" Her mother exclaimed, giving up, and instead just gawking, speechless, at the creature. Lily coughed impatiently.

"So, uh, what are we going to do about it?" Lily asked her mum, her chocolate brown eyes boring into her mother's head. Ginny snapped out of her reverie and regained her composure.

"Let me go run and get Harry." With that, she left Lily standing alone on her bed.

About a minute later, A man with messy, jet-black hair and bright, green eyes swept quickly into the room. He raised his eyebrows when he saw the strange spider, but nevertheless, he lifted his wand as well. Levitating the spider with a swish and a flick, she turned to Lily and told her to open the window. Lily scurried from her bed, an pushed the window open. She stepped out of the way as her father gently guided the spider out of the window and landed it neatly outside of the white picket fence surrounding their yard. Both Ginny and Lily let out a sigh of relief.

However, that relief was, evidently, only momentary. Albus Severus, who had been waiting impatiently in the foyer was glancing uneasily at his wristwatch. The Hogwarts Express was going to leave in less than half an hour! Clearing his throat and speaking loudly, he asked his mum, rather innocently, if she happened to have the time. Hardly two seconds had passed since he had posed that question when there was a very loud shriek. Well actually, three matching shrieks-- His mum's, his dad's, and his sister's-- followed by a very frantic, "Merlin's beard! The train's going to leave without you lot on there! We've got to go, NOW." Albus smiled to himself as he heard his mother muttering a few choice words under her breath, and then reprimanding Lily when she followed in her example.

The Potters had planned on reaching Kings Cross in their trusty second-hand muggle car, but given their time frame, they decided instead, to flag down the Knight Bus. The Knight Bus, though fast, had left the Potter family out of breath, from trying to keep all their belongings from hitting the other passengers atop their heads, so they were all quite relieved when they finally reached Platform 9 ╬ with approximately eight minutes to spare.

Harry, Ginny, and James watched with amusement as Albus and Lily lugged their bags onto the train with difficulty. Feeling pity for the two of them, Ginny casually flicked her wand at the bags, and they immediately became almost weightless. However, just as the bags had become light as a feather, Lily gave an almighty tug and lost her balance completely. When Albus had heard her squeal, he whirled around to find that he was too late to catch her. He watched in horror as the scene before him played out in slow motion: Lily was toppling backwards, her eyes wide as saucers. Suddenly, she was suspended in air.

Well, Albus had thought she was. Except for two pale, slender hands and a bored, drawling voice that commented with dry amusement, "Well, well, well...look at what I've caught. Potter and, well, Potter. Feeling a bit clumsy and slow today, are we?"

Albus stared at the blond haired wizard with unadulterated dislike, while Lily seemed to be in shock. Scorpius Malfoy sneered at Albus and said, "What? Did you get hexed lately? Is that why you're looking so daft? Oh wait, you always look like that, Potter, I forgot it runs in the family. You're lucky I caught her." With that said, he pushed Lily back towards Albus and stalked off in the opposite direction.

"Lily! Are you okay? I mean, I'm so sorry, it was just happening to fast, and I didn't really even realize that you had lost your balance, and when I turned around, I was rooted to the spot, and I don't know, I just couldn't seem to be able to move, much less catch you, I mean, I don't know what would've happened if that git hadn't caught you, and oh, it's all my fault, I should've just--"

"ALBUS. Shut up."

"Oh, okay then. Well, Mum must've just charmed the bags to be weightless so let's go grab a compartment so we can go say goodbye." Albus grabbed both of their bags and set off in search of an empty compartment. At the second to last compartment, and he stopped. "Here, this one's empty."

Nudging the door open with his foot, he thrust the bags onto the seats. "C'mon, let's go." He turned on his heel and started to walk back towards his mum, dad, and brother.

When Lily and Albus reached them, Ginny immediately attached herself onto Lily, and was talking to her in near hysterical tones. "Oh, Lily dear! I really didn't mean to. I just wanted to help..." She continued on, unaware that Lily and her father were exchanging exasperated glances.

"Mum, honestly, it's fine. I'm alive, aren't I?"

"Well..." James interjected, "I saw that someone caught you. Who was that, anyway?" Lily blushed and murmured something unintelligible. "What? I didn't quite catch that, Lils."

"Oh, it was no one really," she said in a light, offhanded tone, "Just this boy two years ahead of me." James narrowed his eyes at her and growled menacingly. Lily seemed to quake under his unwavering gaze. "Um, well, if you must know, it was, uh, Malfoy..."

James nodded, "Oh, alright, just point him out to me when you guys get back for Christmas holidays, and I'll thank him." Hearing Lily sigh with relief, he realized that something wasn't right. He did a double take. "WHAT?!" He yelped, "Malfoy? He did what?! That bloody git, the next time I see him, I am going to pound his smug little pale, pointy, face in!"

Albus and Lily simultaneously rolled their eyes and looked at each other. They turned away from James and focused their attention on their parents. They reached up to embrace both of them, for a group hug when suddenly, the Hogwarts Express gave an almighty lurch, and started moving forwards ever so slowly. At once, Ginny was ushering them onto the train, "Be good! And do your homework! And study hard! And stay out of trouble! Don't do anything that me or Harry wouldn't do!" Ginny fell behind as the Hogwarts Express began gaining speed. She was waving to them like there was no tomorrow, with tears streaming down her face as Harry stood with his arm around her, grinning and waving, though not as frantically as his wife. James however, stood behind Ginny and Harry, and made gagging gestures at their back.

Albus and Lily had watched them until they were out of sight. Shaking his head, Albus said, "You would've thought that she'd be used to us leaving every year. I mean, really, she doesn't have to cry, does she? It's a bit embarrassing, to tell you the truth." Lily nodded half-heartedly and sat down wondering when their friends would start showing up.

Even though she and Al were in different years, they still managed to be good friends with each other. This also meant that all of her friends got along with Al's friends as well, and vice versa, forming a large 'clan' of Gryffindor students who would go to great lengths to protect each other. This was a good thing because lately, there had been whisperings of another group. A dark group that was supposedly calling themselves the next generation of death eaters. Lily shivered slightly at the thought. Albus didn't notice, though, because at the moment, the compartment door had burst open, and there was a very loud squeal.

"LILS! It's been AGES! I have SO much to tell you! I don't know if I'm EVER going to find the time to update you on ALL of the comings and goings of my summer! I mean, I've been SO absolutely busy, and EVERYTHING has just been so HECTIC..." Lily let her mind wander off. She looked at her best friend, to see if she had changed any during the summer holidays. She had. Well, she had appearance-wise, at least. (Adrienne Euan definitely still talked the same way as she used to--when you listened to her talk, you could actually hear the words being said in all capital letters.) Adrienne's appearance was definitely different. She had filled out a little during the summer, and she wasn't as gangly and thin as she used to be. Her brown hair was shiny and wavy, reaching a point a little past her shoulders. Her eyes were no longer covered by glasses, and her deep hazel eyes stood out clearly on her pale face. And her freckles! Adrienne's freckles were gone!

"Adrienne." Lily stated simply, "What happened to your freckles? I want to get rid of mine, too."

Adrienne looked at Lily dismissively, "Oh, my freckles? My mum gave some kind of creme that I put on them, and they disappeared after a bit, but ANYWAYS, back to my story..." Albus coughed, and exchanged amused glances with Lily.

By the time they were nearing Hogwarts, the entire group had all, at one point been inside that compartment. At the moment, the compartment was occupied by Lily, Adrienne, Maylene Belby (She had a twin sister, Marlene, in Ravenclaw), Marisol Brocklehurst, Rose Weasley, Albus, Landon Briggs, Laurence Longbottom, Hugo Weasley and Evan Creevey. It was a relaxed atmosphere, and Lily was having a splendid time with her closest friends. When Prefects began knocking on doors to tell them to start changing into their robes, everyone except for Lily, Albus, and Adrienne parted. As the three of them changed (with Albus facing the opposite direction), they chattered excitedly about the upcoming feast.

"...hope the sorting is over quickly today, I'm STARVED."

"You're starved? I didn't even get to eat breakfast this morning because there was this enormous spider we couldn't get rid of..."

"Personally, I don't think you girls are nearly as hungry as I am. After all, I am a growing boy. I'm so hungry right now, that I bet I could polish off the entire kitchen if the house elves would let me have a go at it."

Lily and Adrienne rolled their eyes at each other. "Oh, I bet we could eat the entire kitchen, too, if we had the chance."

Albus slowly turned around the face them. "Is that so? Then how about today, during the feast, we have a little eating contest, to see who can eat the most..." He saw the two girls glance at each other for a split second. "What do you say?"

"You're on."

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A/N: Is this worthy of any reviews?