Authors Note: In need of a beta reader for this story, to edit grammar and insert correct punctuation. I suck at that stuff. This story will mainly be from Lily's POV but there will be parts done in Albus and James's POV too. Anyway, enjoy.
Prologue
Lily Luna Potter awoke to darkness.
This was nothing new, as she'd been waking to darkness rather frequently these last few weeks. Her mind simply just did not want to settle and every time she managed to fall asleep it was inevitable that her churning thoughts would interrupt the few blissful moments she'd managed to capture. Over the past week or so, she was sure that she'd only managed around two hours of uninterrupted sleep, if you could even call it that, that was surely because her body had become so completely and utterly exhausted that even her spinning thoughts couldn't fight back the almost death like oblivion of passing out.
For a while Lily lay there in her warm four poster bed and stared at the red velvet hangings. She breathed an uneasy sigh, which sounded far too loud in the oppressive silence of her dorm room. She listened intently for the sound of her roommates and noted the steady deep breathing of the four other Gryffindor fifth years, that were currently occupying the room. Scowling as a sudden wave of intense jealously swept over her, she curled her hands into fists and blinked rapidly to try and prevent the tears of frustration from leaking. Oh, to be able to sleep so soundly and peacefully, they had it so easy.
Truth be told Lily didn't know exactly why she was finding it so hard to sleep and the relentless churning of her mind made absolutely no sense to her whatsoever, it never did. She just felt, as she had done every night for the past two weeks, that something incredibly terrible was going to happen. She knew it was nonsense. She was at Hogwarts, the safest place in the world. She was surrounded by friends and family that loved her and would do anything to protect her. Nothing bad was going to happen and logically she knew that. But no matter how hard she tried to will herself to forget the gut-wrenching panic that overcame her every time she woke in the night, she just couldn't.
Rubbing her eyes furiously she pulled back the bed covers and lightly placed her feet on the cold stone floor. She shivered and grabbed her fluffy robe from where it hung on one of the posts of her bed, wrapped it snugly around her and yawned. She knew now after fruitlessly struggling for the past few days that there was simply no chance that she'd be able to fall asleep again and with this thought she silently padded towards the door that would lead to the common room. No one would be awake yet of course but reading a book by the warm fire was a far better option than lying in her bed for the next three hours, ruminating on the cold dark feeling seeping through her.
She tiptoed down the twenty four steps, taking care not to make any noise. Her brow furrowed and she smirked slightly as her gaze trailed over the suit of armour at the bottom of the steps, internally debating with herself as to the pros and cons of "accidentally" knocking it over and waking the rest of her house. Pro: She would have some company. Con: They'd all be extremely grumpy and probably not the kind of company she wished for. Dismissing the childish idea, she didn't give the mass of metal a second glance as she entered the dimly lit common room.
It was oddly sinister at this time of night, or rather early morning. Shadows seemed to leap out at her from behind the plush armchairs and the unlit fireplace loomed before her like a great stone mouth, ready to swallow her whole. She shook her head at such silly imagery and took out her wand. Pointing it at the readily stacked grate, she smiled bemusedly as a whoosh of flames sprouted from the end of the tip and set the logs alight. The common room was much less sinister now that the fire was crackling merrily, the shadows all vanishing as the mighty orange flames chased them into the furthest corners of the room.
Yawning once more, Lily picked up a random book from one of the few shelves that were haphazardly placed around the room and settled into the squashy chair closest to the fire. Flipping it to the first page she began to read and soon forgot about her worries as she happily became immersed in a tale about a courageous Wizard named George who fought off a rampaging dragon in Libya. The uncomfortable feeling in her gut though, never abated but Lily tried her damnedest to ignore it.