Dedications: Mwahaha.

Whoever the hell gave me this idea, probably my muse: Thank ya.

Prologue: A Very Bad Start

Smoke clogged Lily's nostrils. She awoke, coughing, and tried to brush away the incoming clouds. She heard screaming. More smoke poured into her bedroom; heart racing, she threw off her covers, snatched up her wand, and muttered a few words to clear the hallway and her bedroom.

Her older sister, Petunia, stumbled into the hall, coughing. She glanced down the staircase where more smoke laced the air, then at Lily.

"What the fuck is going on?"

Rather than responding, Lily tightened her grip on her wand, brushed past Petunia, and jumped the stairs to her parents' bedroom three at a time. Searing heat met her and she hopped backward, falling over Petunia.

Instinctively, she thrusted the wand in her sister's direction.

"Don't you point that thing at me!" snapped Petunia. Glaring, Lily made for the staircase again.

Flames consumed the bedroom door. Sweat ran down her forehead. She trembled, holding her wand out before her. She wondered if her parents were still alive. She only heard crackling flames.

"Do something, you idiot!" screamed Petunia. She sounded tearful.

A tear slipped from Lily's own eye. "Exstinguo!" she choked. "EXSTINGUO!"

Jets of extinguishing fluid shot from her wand and piled on the flames. They died down instantly and the atmosphere grew quiet. The sisters stood silently and stared at the large black burns on the door and ceiling.

Petunia pushed Lily up the last few stairs to the only third floor room. Her feet squished in the extinguishing fluid's bubbling remains.

"Open the door," whispered Petunia.

Lily kicked the door open. It creaked as always and revealed their parents' massacred bedroom. The beams from the roof were visible and several hung at odd angles, ready to fall. Most of the ceiling had been burned away; the darkness fell through the gaping hole, making their situation ten times more frightening. A few remaining embers provided their only light. The bed was a lump of ashes and twisted metal. The dresser was a heap of ashes. Their mother's hat collection, which had formerly adorned the walls, was now a collection of ashes. Their father's golf bag was now a pile of ashes and twisted metal. And the owners of the former hat collection, golf bag, dresser, bed and room appeared to be ashes now as well.

Lily entered the room, walking only on the ash-free sections of floor. She stopped in the center of the room, pausing before looking upward.

'Not them,' she thought. 'Anyone but them. This'll be all my fault.'

She looked up and gasped; the taunting Dark Mark grinned at her.

"What is it?" quavered Petunia.

Lily backed against the fire-marked wall, shaking and breathing heavily. Though she was well aware the Death Eaters preyed on Muggle-borns, she never expected to be a victim. She forced down a sob, feeling stupid and naïve.

Remembering her sister's question, she pointed toward the hole in the ceiling.

Petunia crossed the room and stared upward. She barely flinched. "What is that thing? What does it mean?" She eyed Lily like a disobedient child, as though she had set the house on fire.

"It's the Dark Mark," said Lily, barely managing to speak. "It's the symbol of the people who did this."

Petunia's mouth opened and closed several times. Lily suspected she'd been waiting to blame her. Her older sister's eyes gleamed with tears.

"I knew it!" she yelled. "Wizards! It's your fault they came here! It's your fault Mum and Dad are dead and it's your fault they can't see my baby or my wedding!"

Petunia clutched her flat stomach. She was only a few weeks pregnant, a secret both girls had kept from their parents. She was due to marry the father, a man Lily considered a boorish brute and slimeball, in three weeks.

Petunia's accusations failed to surprise Lily. She'd grown accustomed to them. Since she received her Hogwarts letter seven summers ago, everything bad that happened in the Evans household was Lily's fault, according to Petunia.

Petunia marched toward her; she fixed her gaze on Lily's wand. She stole it from her rigid sister and aimed.

"I hate you," she snarled. "For years I've hated you. Now our parents aren't around to save you. I can finally--"

A jet of magic shot from Lily's wand, hitting Petunia in the chest. Lily thought the spell had hit her, because at the same time a force pushed her down the staircase.

That force was Petunia's fist. Lily's head smacked the railing and the sound of sirens was the last thing that reached her ears before she blacked out.

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