Chapter One
End of Sixth Year, 1977
"I need you both to understand what I'm asking. This is not a decision to make lightly." Dumbledore spoke slowly and deliberately, his chin resting lightly upon the tips of his fingers. For the first time in Lily's memory, his eyes weren't twinkling, but were solemn and concerned, his mouth curving down in a firm line.
"Consider what I have said this morning over your holiday break. Perhaps in September, you both will have made your decisions."
Lily was shocked and overwhelmed. She stared down at her pale legs, her black school skirt sitting neatly across her thighs. Her hands were clenched together in her lap. Lily glanced to her side, Alice looked just as unsure as Lily felt.
"Now, I think it is time to attend breakfast and eat a sturdy meal before the train ride home." Dumbledore stood and led them to the door of his office.
Alice and Lily walked along the third floor corridor silently. Their shoes made tapping sounds on the stone floor, sending echoes through the hallway.
Alice broke the silence. "Are you going to do it? Are you going to join Dumbledore's organization?"
Lily glanced at her best friend, frowning. "Are you?"
"Don't know."
"Me neither."
They stumbled into the cacophony of noise in the Great Hall, and thoughts of rising Dark Lords, murder and secret societies trickled out of their minds.
Petunia was clinging to the arm of her boyfriend of sixth months, Vernon Dursley. Her thin angular frame was clinging to his bulky form, a glass of wine held in one of his large hands and the half-empty bottle in the other. Petunia sneered across the dining room table at Lily, her arms latched onto Vernon's arm.
"Vernon, tell my sister about the business you run with your father."
Vernon looked at Lily, who shrunk back a little into her chair, setting her knife and fork down firmly on her plate.
"Drilling. I run a drilling business. Good money. Sturdy job. Respectable." Vernon grunted in pride. Vernon lifted his left arm and patted Petunia on top of her head. Petunia giggled, satisfied with Vernon's attempt at friendliness and intimacy.
Lily pushed back her chair and stood. Sliding her dinner plate into her hands.
"May I be excused? Lily looked to her mother and father. They nodded.
"Of course Lily."
Lily escaped to her room and sat on her bed, pulling her knees up against her chest. She felt sick looking at what her little sister had turned into. She didn't understand where the sweet little ten year old girl with the bouncy blonde bob had disappeared to.
Lily fiddled with her wand between her fingers, watching as multi-coloured sparks floated through the air as she slowly swished it.
"Willow, ten and a quarter inches, swishy." Lily pictured Ollivader's intense gaze in her mind.
Lily flicked her wand and watched as flames encompassed a piece of scrap parchment. Tendrils of fire licked the ink and left a small, neat pile of ashes on Lily's desk. She smiled. It felt good to be able to use her magic at home, now that she was of age.
She could hear Vernon's explosive laughter and Petunia's nervous giggle from the sitting room downstairs. Lily spun around and flung out her wand again. A hole burnt through the window curtain. She grinned at her nonverbal spell accomplishment.
Suddenly, Lily was laughing. Her feet were moving, dancing, around the room. She was spinning, her wand weaving and waving as she conjured, transfigured and charmed objects around her bedroom. Quickly, she cast a silencing charm as her desk chair flew across the room.
Lily grinned. Even if she'd lost her sister, at least she had her magic. Her magic would always be there.
Lily barely noticed when her wand slipped from her fingers and landed softly on the bed. Instead, she kept dancing, her arms still waving wand movements and incantations. Her feet stopped as she held her arms forward, watching as a several ducks materialized on the carpet. Quacking, the ducks waddled over the floor, their webbed feet making small taping noises and their wings gently flapping. Lily looked at her hands, then across the room at her wand tucked between the bed sheets. Closing her eyes, Lily began to move her arms, undoing the incantations nonverbally and without her wand. When she opened her eyes, the ducks were gone and the curtain was mended. She grinned widely.
In that moment, Lily made her decision. She was not going to turn into her sister. She was going to make a difference, and she would fight for Dumbledore's Order.
Her shoes slapped against the pavement as she jogged, her breath moving steadily in and out of her body. Lily's forehead was beaded with sweat, streaks of her red hair were darkened with the wetness of perspiration.
It was calming. Exercise made her miss Hogwarts less. It made her worries about the future Dark Lord fade away.
"Lily, you've been working out an awful lot lately. You've lost weight." Lily's mother stood in the doorway to her father's shed where Lily was driving her fists repetitively into the punching bag.
"I know. I'm working off stress. I'm fine mum, just getting fit." Lily smiled at her mother.
Mrs. Evans smiled back. "Well, you do look very healthy. You've put on some muscle." Laughing, Lily turned back and returned to punching the bag.
Suddenly, she had a routine. In mornings Lily ran. She didn't know for how long or how many miles. She just enjoyed the feeling of running. The wind rushing past her and the strength in her limbs. She would do sit ups and crunches and push ups. She would hit the punching bag. She studied advanced magic. Offensive and defensive spells, spells that worked with emotions and the natural elements and with the mind.
If she kept busy she didn't think about how serious Dumbledore looked when he talked to her and Alice, or about how her simple, oblivious family might end up in danger from the Wizarding World. So she kept running, and punching and practicing wandless magic.
Lily grinned when a school owl entered her window one morning. Even after six years of the Wizarding World, magic still enthralled her. Lily offered her toast crusts to the owl.
"I'm sorry, I don't have any owl treats."
A gold badge fell into her hands form the envelope. Head Girl. A warmth filled Lily's chest. Even with the impending dangers Dumbledore ahd talked about, Lily was determined to make this a good year.
Her feet were pounding the pavement again, but her mind was elsewhere. She hadn't heard from Alice for since the train home. Neither of them had owled each other. Lily supposed it was because of how shaken they had both been after Dumbledore's meeting.
She missed Alice. Alice had been the smiling face that welcomed her into the wizarding world. Lily remembered running towards the train on September the first as an eleven year old. She was late; she had only run through the barrier right on eleven o'clock. Petunia had thrown a tantrum and delayed them. Lily had thrown her bags onto the moving train, and was jogging to keep up with it. A smiling face of dark curly hair had appeared in the opening. Two small hands had grasped Lily's and hurled her up onto the train.
The two girls stood facing each other, their hair blowing around each other's faces from the wind rushing by the rapidly speeding up train.
"I'm Alice Prewett."
"Lily Evans."
"Chocolate frog? My dad gave me loads for the train."
Lily grinned and accepted the candy, following as Alice wheeled Lily's suitcase into her cabin. "You look like a Gryffindor to me." Alice remarked over her shoulder. Lily giggled and munched on the chocolate, not understanding but interpreting the strange statement as a compliment. Alice grinned back.
Lily was pulled out of the past suddenly as the breath was sucked from her lungs. In a moment, she had fallen to her knees, gasping for air.
"Lils?"
Lily looked up from her vantage on the floor to see seventeen-year old Alice Prewett, standing in shorts and a sports-bra, her hands on her hips.
"Hello Ali." Lily stood smiling, realizing that she'd accidentally apparated when thinking about Alice. Quickly, Lily skimmed her hands over her body, making sure she hadn't splinched herself.
The two girls looked at each other. Both were wearing workout gear. Alice had a headband holding back her curly brown hair. Her fists were wrapped in white material for boxing the punching bag hanging beside her.
Alice grinned. "So, I take it you decided to take Dumbledore up on his word and started training?"
Lily laughed, grateful for the company of her friend. "Yeah. That covers it."
Alice pulled her hair back into a messy ponytail, her blue eye sparkling. "Come on, let's do some sparring."
They sat on the porch drinking lemonade, their bodies tired and sweaty.
"I'm scared Lil."
"Me too. All I know about Dark Lords stems from Grindelward. I don't know how to handle a wizarding war. All I know is that I somehow have to help."
"Me too."
The talked about Lily's wandless magic and about Alice's spell writing. Alice handed Lily a thin book without a title.
"It's an old Prewett volume on wandless magic."
Lily smiled. "Thanks Ali."
Alice smiled. "Always."
Author's Note: Please review and share your opinion! The story will pick up in the next chapter as the Marauders arrive back at Hogwarts for Seventh Year. Thanks for reading!
