Last Chance

By: Padfoot356

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and everything related to it belongs to JK Rowling. The plot of this story and all of the characters you do not recognize belong to me.

A/N: This story does not follow the books exactly, for example Lily and James are not head boy and girl. Hopefully you will enjoy it just the same. This is just an experiment to see how this chapter goes, if all is well then who knows, maybe there will be more to follow. Mischievous grin

Click. Click. Click. The sound of her ballet flats could be heard through out the store as Lily Evans made her way to the back room. She opened the door slowly to find a squat woman with short blonde hair sitting nervously beside a small cardboard box. She rose as Lily entered the room, tears filling up her blue eyes.

"Oh, Honey," she gushed wrapping Lily's petite frame into an overwhelming hug. "I'm going to miss you so much."

"You say that every time I leave," said Lily tenderly.

"I know, but things just aren't the same without you here." Lily gave her a sympathetic smile as she made her way towards the box.

"I should probably get going," Lily began; she was never good at goodbyes.

"I guess so," said the blonde as she exhaled deeply. "I'll see you when you come home this Christmas."

"Right," Lily thought to herself. "Home, where ever that is."

"Bye, Meredith. Thank you so much for everything."

"Oh, goodbye Honey," said Meredith, giving Lily one last hug. Lily slipped out of the room, her box slightly slumping her posture. She stopped at the front counter, placing a set of keys on the desk and then left through the front door, the bell chiming as she stepped onto the hot asphalt. Lily turned around one last time to look at the small boutique she had just left, resting the box on her hip. 'Bookish Beauty' the sign read. Lily remembered when she first applied for a job there her first summer after she turned 16, she was going through some hard times at home and the owner, Meredith, had took her under her wing as a motherly figure.

            Lily got into her car and started up the engine, turning up the radio as loud as it would go. As she began to back out of the parking lot she looked at the image reflected in her rearview mirror, barely recognizing the girl staring back. Creamy white skin, dyed black hair, startling green eyes that had somehow lost their sparkle, all the result of everything going wrong in her life, a result of her rebellion.

 A few minutes later she stopped in front of a small house, its paint peeling and the shudders hanging off unevenly, defiantly something her mother wouldn't approve of. She made her way to the front door and let herself in, being welcomed by the thumping of an amp and the rhythmic sound of drums playing their last set. She followed the music to the basement, arriving just as the song ended. Lily walked up to the guitarist slowly.

"The hardest goodbye," she thought.

"Sumner…" she began, not knowing where to begin.

"Hi," he said tersely.

"I just wanted to-,"

"Lily, stop. Just stop," Sumner said as he raised his head from putting away his guitar, his piercing blue eyes peeping out from behind a mop of shaggy brown hair and meeting hers with a sudden jolt. The others had left and now it was just the two of them. Alone. Together. "I'm tired of this. You leave every year at the end of summer with no explanation at all. We've gone through so much to be together, but you wont even tell me where you are for 10 months. All I ever get is the odd letter here and there delivered by an owl."

"Sumner I can explain," began Lily, her voice choking.

"No, that's the thing, you can't. I've put up with this for the past few years but lets face it. We're growing up. We're too old for these games."

"What are you trying to say?" She asked, although she knew the answer perfectly well.

"I'm trying to say goodbye, Lily. For good." A wave of shock and grief flooded Lily's face. Everything paused for that brief moment. 'For good.' She didn't know what to do, she looked at Sumner but he was already leaving, making his way up the concrete staircase to the main floor of the house. She knew she couldn't stay in the basement forever, so she followed his footsteps slowly, everything passing by as if she wasn't in her body, as if this wasn't really happening.

She left the deteriorating house and got back into her car. She looked at the box besides her containing a solitary picture frame; a couple of records, a book tossed listlessly into the pile, all the remains of her muggle life, and broke down. Lily usually wasn't one for crying. She didn't cry when her parents separated or when her sister left her for that large mass she called a boyfriend, or even later on when her father died of bone cancer, but this was different. Everything she cared about was gone. 'For good.' Meredith. Sumner. Her family. After an instant and a few goodbyes she was left empty. She felt dark and hollow inside, as if she would never be filled up with happiness again.

Lily didn't bother going home after that, it's not as if it would have mattered anyways. She didn't expect anything from her mother, not even a good bye. She got out of her car at Kings Cross station. Deciding just to leave it there, she wasn't sure if she'd be coming back. She dragged her trunk out of the backseat and made her way into the busy building. As she made the crossing between platforms 9 and 10 she could see the scarlet Hogwarts Express gleaming in the distance. She decided to stay back for a little while, not in the mood to mingle with her peers or explain her red eyes, swollen from crying. She watched silently as the crowd slowly deteriorated and got onto the train.

"Hogwarts Express!" The conductor called. "Last chance."

"Last chance," Lily thought. The conductor was right. This was her last chance to be who she wanted to be, not Sumner, not her sister, definitely not her mother. This was her last year at Hogwarts and she was going to go onto that train making the most of it.

"Merlin, Lily! Where have you been? I didn't think you'd show up."

"Nice to see you too, Hannah," Lily said smiling.

"Oh you know I've missed you," laughed Hannah, her blonde hair shining in the light coming in through the window of their compartment. "So how was your summer?"

"Eventful to say the least."

"Why? What happened?" Hannah said in a worried tone. She was always worried about Lily, whether she knew it or not.

"Sumner and I broke up. You were right, it never would have worked out."

"I never said that!"

"Mmmhmm, sure Hannah, it's all in the facial expressions," joked Lily as she waved her hands in front of her face vivaciously.

"Riiight," laughed Hannah. Just at that moment the door slid open and a sandy haired boy popped his head in.

"Um, mind if we sit here?" He asked. Lily looked behind him to see just what 'we' he was referring to. Piled behind the boy were three others, two towering above another. One had untidy raven hair and horn-rimmed glasses framing eager hazel eyes. The next sported shaggy brown hair atop a lanky frame. The last was stocky with watery blue eyes. She should have known. Remus Lupin, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew. The Marauders.  Hannah took a quick glance towards Lily who just shrugged.

"Sure," Hannah answered.

"Thanks."

            The boys piled in and sat down just as the train's wheels began to rotate. Lily found herself sandwiched between Hannah and Remus and sitting across from James who was, well, bluntly staring at her. Or as she saw it, her unnatural hair colour. As the minutes passed by everyone had seemed to drift off to sleep except for Lily and Remus who had busied himself in a book.

"That's a nice necklace," he suddenly said, gesturing to her neck. Lily automatically fingered it, remembering when Sumner had given it to her for her birthday last year. She had forgotten to take it off.

"Oh," she began. "Thanks, it was a gift."

"They must have liked you a lot to give you something like that."

"Yea, I guess they did," she said slowly, ignoring the lump growing in her throat. After an awkward silence Remus spoke up again. 

"I see you around a lot, you know."

"Really?" Lily asked, genuinely surprised. She always made an effort to blend in with the crowd, go unnoticed.

"James pointed you out to me one day, and now it seems like I see you everywhere. I've been wanting to talk to you, I just haven't seemed to have gotten a chance well, until now."  Lily began looking down at her feet; the last think she wanted was for Remus Lupin to see her blushing. "So are you into Quidditch?"

"Not really," she answered with a laugh. "I never could get the hang of it."

"Ha, me neither. It's weird being around Sirius and James when they're the bloody Quidditch stars of Gryffindor."

"Sounds like it."

"Oh yea, that's me. Remus Lupin, the odd one of the group," he said with a forced laugh.

"I know exactly what you mean," Lily said with a sigh. "Hannah is my best friend, but her life just seems so…"

"Perfect?" Asked Remus, raising his eyebrows and leaning in closer to Lily.

"Exactly." Lily wondered how Remus could understand her so well when his life seemed just as faultless as everyone else's in the compartment, but she couldn't muster up the courage to ask. Suddenly the train came to a screeching halt, awakening the sleeping occupants.

"Last stop," came the crackling voice of he conductor being amplified magically throughout the train. "Hogsmead."

"Ready?" Sirius asked the other Marauders as he rose from his seat. Remus, James, and Peter simultaneously nodded and began to walk out of the compartment.

"It was nice talking to you, Lily," Remus said over his shoulder as he left. Lily watched as James pulled Remus out of the compartment and down the narrow corridor or the train.

"What was that about?" asked Hannah, her voice breaking the silence as she raised an eyebrow in Lily's general direction.

"Nothing really, we just talked on the way here. He's actually a decent guy," stated Lily honestly.

"Decent? It sounds to me as you're getting over Sumner sooner than we thought."

"Ha, right Hannah. Me like Remus Lupin? Defiantly not my style."

"I didn't realize you had a style."

"Yea, well… are we going or not?" Lily asked impatiently, not knowing how to respond to her friend's assessment. Hannah always had a way of reading Lily, whether Lily liked it or not.

"I am pleased to welcome you to another year at Hogwarts!" Dumbledore's voice boomed throughout the Great Hall. Lily knew that this was the time that Dumbledore gave his annual beginning of term speech and that she should be listening, but she was distracted by Remus's hair as it swished across the back of his neck when he would laugh at something James was saying. She knew she was behaving like one of those giddy girls who hopelessly stared at the Marauders hoping for a date to Hogsmead, but she just couldn't help herself.

            Throughout the rest of the evening Lily remained quiet as she picked at the vegetables sitting lifelessly on her plate. She practically haunted the Hogwarts hallways as she made her way up to the tower and into the Gryffindor common room. She politely smiled at a few familiar faces as she made a beeline for the girls' dormitories. She had almost made it when….

"Hey Lily!" Lily turned around to see Remus grinning at her. "You dropped this," he said as he stuck out a folded piece of parchment.

"I don't think that's mine," she said dazed.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure it is," he said as he pressed the note into her hand. "Gotta go, see you around." Lily stared at her hand as if she never knew it was there before. She went up the staircase and was safely alone in her dorm when she opened the note for the first time.

Lily-

Some of us are getting together tomorrow night to go to Hogsmead.

We were hoping you and Hannah would come along. Meet us in the

common room at midnight.

Hope to see you there,

Remus

"What are you reading?" Hannah asked as she entered the room. Lily passes her the note and watched Hannah as she scanned it.

"Well?" Lily asked.

"What do you mean well? We're going."

"My thoughts exactly," Lily said with a smile.

A/N: Well there it is, the first chapter. Please review to tell me your thoughts; this was kind of a spur of the moment fic so I have honestly no clue as to what kind of reaction it will get.

Thank you so much for reading!

Padfoot356