Chapter 1 is short but it's a start!

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Prologue

It is often said that within the few precious moments before death, one's life flashes before his or her life. As human beings, it is only natural that we try to guess what those moments will be before we encounter death with our most flattering memories: graduations, pursuing jobs dreamed of since youth, and finally meeting "the one". We embrace this mental summary of life to simply make death a little more bearable.

But how can death be bearable if it is the result of a murder? If it takes a young woman away from her year old baby? If it takes a man's best friends away from him, and leaves him absolutely broken beyond repair without them?

As the merciless green jet of light neared her closer and closer, Lily Evans realized that she did not want her life to flash before her eyes. Watching her life unfold like a film would not make her death more bearable. Watching herself becoming friends with some of the greatest people she'd ever known, falling in love with a man who made her laugh so hard she cried, and being a mother to the most beautiful baby boy in the world did not make her death bearable at all. And although she chose to die for her son, and would die for him a thousand times more if she had to, she was still a human being, and attempting to embrace death in those few seconds was undoubtedly the hardest thing she had ever done.

Chapter 1-Changes

5 years earlier

"Petunia!" Lily shouted down the hall. "What have you done with my blanket?"

No response.

"Petunia!"

Again, no response.

"Petunia, I swear on Merlin's beard, if I find it in your bedroom-" She muttered as she marched into her sister's room, two doors down from her own. There she found her sister laying on her bed, reading. She looked up from the newspaper as if she hadn't a clue of what Lily might want from her.

"Well, you might think to knock next time, Lily. What if I'd been changing?" Petunia said matter-of-factly. Lily scowled at her, then begin searching for her blanket in her sister's perfectly neat space. Her bedroom was organized enough to be on the cover of a home decor magazine with her creamy white walls, spotless vanity, and large paintings of the Italian Riviera and Amalfi Coast aligned perfectly next to each other.

"You're absolutely right, Tuney. I should knock next time, else I might walk in and be blinded by the sight of you naked, or even worse for me, the sight of you without make-up." Lily retorted, pulling the folded blanket out from under the bed. Just as she stood up, she found herself face to neck with Petunia, who was quite tall and looking down at her.

"Well, since you can't seem to stand the sight of me," Petunia said, crossing her arms. "I guess you'll be happy to know that I won't be coming to the train station to see you off today." Lily searched her face, trying to decide if she was joking or not. She scoffed.

"Don't be ridiculous, Petunia." Lily turned to go back to her bedroom, but her sister stopped her.

"I'm serious, Lily. I've got a date. With a banker. A handsome, charming, and completely normal banker." Petunia walked to her vanity and opened a tiny, white jewelry box, pulling out a pair of topaz earrings their grandmother had given to her as a birthday gift. Lily could only watch her, in shock. A laugh of disbelief escaped her. As a sixteen year old girl, Lily hardly expected to be best friends with her sister, who was three years older than her. That hope had been long gone since she returned home from her first year at Hogwarts. She did, however, expect her sister to act like a proper sister during important things like this.

"Petunia, I'm not going to be home until Christmas, or maybe even later. You're going to go on a date with some random bloke instead of coming to say good-bye to me?" She looked at her for a while, wondering why she was still surprised at the fact that her sister wanted nothing to do with her. Even though Petunia's eyes were a cold, dull green hue-a less enticing and attractive replica of Lily's, she still had pretty, youthful features. High, enviable cheekbones and a tall, lean body. She was almost four inches taller than Lily, who was 5 feet and five inches tall.

"Oh, please. I wouldn't find myself at that platform 9 and ½ if my life depended on it." She hissed. "It's just a bunch of freaks getting ready to go off to a mental asylum. That's where you're going, Lily. An asylum."

"Oh, that's great, Petunia. That was a really good one." Lily returned without blinking an eye. "How long did it take you to come up with that one? The entire summer?"

"God, Lily you're such a freak! Don't you understand that? God, just leave! Nobody wants you here!"

"You know, I really wish you'd just give it a chance!"

"Give what a chance? Your psychotic mind? Your weird friends? Your freakish powers? No thanks, I'm glad I'm normal. At least I won't be finding myself in hell after I die."

Lily stopped, her mouth slightly open. She let out a soft breath and blinked a few times. Now, Lily Evans was not one to back down when she had something to prove. She had extremely thick skin for a sixteen year old girl.

But this time it was different.

This time her sister's words were like a punch to her stomach, leaving her feeling hollow and speechless. All she could do was stare.

"I have to go...I need to get to the station."

Without another glance at her hardened sister, Lily took her blanket and rushed back to her bedroom, which compared to Petunia's room was a pig's nest. Her purple and white wallpaper was ripped in all the corners, her nightstand was barely visible under her collection of used cups, plates, stacks of papers and spell books. She stuffed everything she'd need for Hogwarts messily in her trunk and carried it downstairs and into her fathers car.

"Why such a rush, dear?" Her mother called from their cozy, yellow-walled kitchen after taking a sip of her tea. "We've got a whole hour till we need to be at King's Cross."

"No rush, Mum," Lily said as she threw on her coat and tied her long red tresses back. "I'm just really excited to see all of my fellow sinner friends from Hogwarts."

Sirius Black was easily one of the most popular boys, not only of his year, but at Hogwarts, and he wasn't exactly the nicest person around. But he was quite funny. He was also a rebel, as he always did the opposite of what he was told just for the fun of it. And for some odd reason he could never understand, people respected that.

He wasn't adored by just about everyone he met like his best friend, James Potter, but he was respected and he took great pride in the reputation he'd created for himself over his time at Hogwarts.

His parents, on the other hand, did not.

"Goodness, Sirius, haven't you any sense? Tuck in your shirt for Merlin's sake. And do something about that mess you call your hair. It's a disgrace to the Black name." His mother snapped as they approached Platform 9¾. He smirked. He looked forward to her calling him a disgrace to the family, which happened on a daily basis.

"Why do you even try, Walburga?" His father said from behind him. "There's no hope for him anymore." His smirk widened into his signature, arrogant half-grin. If there was one thing he loved more than disappointing his mother, it was disappointing his father. Seeing his frown of digust everytime he did something "wrong" brought him enough joy to laugh for days.

"Well, I'm off." He said as he stood in front of the platform. "No use in you two coming along beyond the barrier, it's not like you'll be getting a hug from me." He noticed his parents eyeing his younger brother worriedly and groaned. "Oh, come on. Reg's a big boy now, aren't you, Reg?" His brother looked up at him, his brown eyes hesitant.

"Go on by yourself, Sirius." His father said, placing his hand on Regulus' shoulder. "We'd like to have a word with our son before he leaves." After rolling his eyes at his father's deliberate comment to make him feel inferior, Sirius turned back at Regulus and looked him straight in the eye, silently pleading with him not to go along with his parents' attempt to turn him into them.

He'd learned a lot about his brother this summer. They hadn't exactly become friends, but being stuck in the same house for some time had forced them to get to know each other. He'd discovered that Regulus was rather claustrophobic, talked in his sleep, and hated Herbology. But the most important thing he'd learned about his brother was that there was still hope for him to refuse their parents' pure blood supremacy beliefs and take his own path; he wasn't exactly sure what to believe in at the moment. Knowing this, Sirius tried to keep him away from their parents as much as he could.

"Write him a letter." Sirius said coldy, reaching for his brother's arm. "Come on."

"Sirius, wait." Regulus said quietly. He barely made eye contact with his brother, knowing that what he was about to say would anger him. "I want to hear what they've got to say."

Sirius frowned at him and glanced at his parents. Then he turned back to Regulus. Grabbing him by the collar, he pulled him so that his ear was next to his face. "Listen to me." He whispered. "You're only fourteen. You've got time. Don't let them make you think you've got to do anything. They are not worth the trouble of hating yourself later on for going along with their damn supremacy theories."

And with that, he released his brother and ran through the barrier. For the first time in what felt like forever, he was finally away from his horrid parents.

He breathed a sigh of relief and closed his eyes dramatically to relish the moment.

"I leave for three weeks-just three weeks-and you turn your hair into that? Forget Padfoot, I'll be calling you Jesus from now on." A voice called out to him.

This time, the grin that spread across his face bared his bright teeth. He opened his eyes and exclaimed, "Prongs!" as he saw his best friend, James, standing right before him. He walked towards him and hugged him tightly just to embarrass him. "How did you ever survive Italy without me? I was so bored without my Potters."

"Eugh, Jesus, enough with the public display of affection. You're sending the girls away." James grumbled, trying to push Sirius, who was quite strong, off of him. Eventually Sirius backed off to get a better look at his friend. He was probably three shades tanner than he was when they last saw each other. His jet black hair was slightly less wild than normal, a result of James' attempts to comb it, but his blue eyes were still covered by those ridiculous round glasses-James called them stylish.

"Italy was great," James said as they grabbed their trunks and began walking towards the train. "Three weeks of eating pizza for dinner every night. What more could I ask-bloody hell, Padfoot, look! Look at Evans, over there." He pointed out the redhead hugging her mother good-bye. Then he scanned the room and nudged Sirius, pointing to the opposite side. "And look over there." Sirius looked in the direction that James was pointing and spotted the target immediately: Snivellus.

"I guess she really meant it when she said she never wanted to speak to him again." Sirius mumbled, thinking back to the day Severus Snape had called her a mudblood and he and James had eavesdropped on her confiding in her friends about him after.

"I guess so." James said, not taking his eyes of Lily. She was smiling at her father now, and Merlin, the things that smile did to him were unbelievable. "Think I should go talk to her?"

Sirius snorted. "Yea, sure. You'll say something that she'll get annoyed by, then she'll insult you and ruin your first day back at Hogwarts. It'll be a great start to your year. Go for it, mate."

James glared at him and rolled his eyes. "Why would I take girl advice from you? You've never had a girlfriend for more than three weeks." He fixed his glasses and cleared his throat. Straightening his back, he said, "I'm going to say hi. Go find a compartment for us."

"Actually, I'm gonna watch so I can say I told you so when she calls you an idiot." Sirius said with a smirk as he leaned against the train. "Go on, you've got five minutes till the train leaves."

James cleared his throat once more and rolled his shoulders back. He ruffled his long hair again, turning it back to the unmanageable mess all the girls-except Lily-went crazy over. Then, he smiled softly.

Things would be different between him and Lily this year. He was determined to make her finally realize that he, James Potter, was a much better man than she thought. This year, he wanted her to actually eat the candies he'd send her for Christmas, rather than throwing them out right in front of him. He wanted her to come to the Quidditch matches and cheer him on, not just her other girl friends on the team. Most of all, he wanted to hear her contagious laughter after his jokes, which he knew she thought were funny but refused to admit it, instead of glaring at him nastily.

He wanted all this simply because her company made him happy. Contrary to what almost everyone at Hogwarts believed, James Potter had not been pining after Lily Evans all this time simply for the chase. Somewhere along the five years that he'd known her, James Potter had unknowingly fallen in love with Lily Evans.

So yes, things would be very different between them this year. Even if they were in ways he or she, or anyone, for that matter, didn't exactly expect