Chapter One – The Visitor

The past year for Lily Evans was more of a shock to her. Of course she enjoyed her last year in Hogwarts, however there were various unexpected events that occurred, both good and bad.

In the previous summer, she was selected as head girl, a position she strived for since first year. She was quite proud of herself when she received her owl letter from Hogwarts, bearing the shiny badge she'd wanted. The selection for head boy, however, was more of a surprise to Lily (and to most of their year). James Potter had been known to the most prominent bully, prankster, arrogant quidditch player Hogwarts had ever seen. However, even with his past record, he achieved to gain the title of head boy. Lily had to admit that James Potter did smarten up his act and lessened his irritating and rude behavior.

But James Potter being head boy was not the most odd and troublesome episode of the year, it was the rumors and evidence that showed the rise of Voldemort, the most powerful dark wizard Birtain has ever seen. There were several muggle disappearances which definitely made Lily worry for her own family. It was the worst feeling she had ever experienced, that there was a great possibility that her family was the next to disappear. Thankfully, last Easter break was not the final time she would see them. In fact, they were all preparing for their weekend camping trip for the summer.

"Why does Vernon have to go?" complained Lily, "I mean, he's not even in our family yet, is he? And this is supposed to be our annual family camping trip."

"We might as well call him family, Lily," said her mother, "they will be getting married in a month's time."

"Oh alright, fine. I'll drop it."

Her mother looked at her and smiled saying, "I know this is difficult for you hon, but the camping trip may be the time to make amends with your sister and get along with your soon to be brother-in-law."

Lily smiled feebly at her mother. She knew that those two objectives were very nearly impossible, considering her sister's and her husband's view on her lot.

"Where is she anyway?" asked Lily

"Petunia? Oh, yes, she went with Vernon to do some last minute grocery shopping for tonight," said her mother, "and your father is outside setting up the camper. So you better finish up your packing before he loads the car with our backpacks."

And with that Lily went upstairs to her room to do what her mother told her to do. She packed all her essentials, went to the bathroom for her toiletries and finished off by packing the Auror Guidebook for light reading. She passed her mother, counting money on the kitchen island, and placed her backpack on the floor where all the other bags were. The moment she put her bag down the doorbell rang.

"Must be Petunia and Vernon, I'll go help them unload the car," said her mum.

As her mother went to answer the door, she heard a voice familiar to her, but not one that she would suspect of coming to her muggle home.

"Lily?" called her mother, "there's a handsome young man outside our door who claims to know you from school, should I invite hi-"

But Lily had already reached the door before her mother finished her sentence. "Potter? What are you doing here?"

Stood before her was her partner in school, James Potter. He obviously did not belong in the muggle world with his cloak around his neck. Lily gave a small smile. Potter was still the same, his dark hair sticking up in every direction possible. It was the oddest thing to see him standing outside their doorway.

"I have to talk to you," said James, running a hand through his unruly hair, "Dumbledore sent me to give you a message."

"Dumbledore?"

"Well, er yeah. And it's not exactly the most pleasant news either."

"Why don't you come in Mr. Potter," said Lily's mother, "you two can talk in the kitchen while I double check if we left anything upstairs. Oh and Lily, your sister should come home in a few minutes and by then we'll be able to hit the road."

"Alright, mum," said Lily, leading Potter into the kitchen.

"I can see where you got your freckles from. Your mum has them too. Although, what still makes me wonder is where you got your red hair from."

"Actually, I believe I got it from my grandmother. Apparently she had red hair as well." Lily said, "so do you want anything to drink? You must be hot in that cloak of yours."

Potter looked at her and smirked, "Lily Evans calling me hot in my cloak? This must be a dream."

"Haven't changed a bit have you?" said Lily shaking her head while smiling, "and you know what I mean."

"Alright, I'll just have water then," Potter laughed taking off his cloak and placed it on his chair, "going on a trip, I see," he continued, nodding to the bags on the floor.

"Yeah, it'll be our last annual family camping trip before my sister gets married."

"Who, Petunia? Hm, so she did decide to marry that bloke you told me about, Vincent was it? Personally, how you described him, he sounded arrogant, horrid and boring."

"Vernon. Well, I guess I accidently described you."

"Me? Arrogant, horrid and boring?" Potter said in a mock hurt tone, "I am most definitely not arrogant, horrid, and boring. I am the finest, most handsome quidditch chaser Hogwarts has ever seen." Lily raised her eyebrows and finally Potter added, "Okay fine, maybe I'm a tad bit arrogant, but I only speak the truth," again Lily raised her eyebrows, "fine, most of the time I speak the truth. Happy?"

Lily laughed and rolled her eyes as she gave him his glass of water. "And what have you been doing for the past two weeks after leaving Hogwarts?"

"Thanks. Sirius, Remus, Peter and I have actually got some sort of a mission."

"Really?"

"Yup. Although, it's not exactly a mission, but I like to call it one because it makes it sound kick-ass."

"Of course you do."

"Ha-ha, very funny. Anyway, I'm supposed to spread the word. And that's why I'm here, to tell you what Dumbledore wants to say to you and to other witches and wizards."

"Okay, go ahead."

"Dumbledore sent me, as I've already mentioned. And also, as you already know Voldemort has been rising to power throughout the year and Dumbledore is recruiting people for the Order of the Phoenix. It's a force against Voldemort and his death eaters. So Dumbledore sent me to spread the message to anyone who he thinks would want to join and also if I knew anyone else who would want to. And therefore, I came to you. But not to only just convince you to join, but also to warn you. Look, Evans, these disappearances are a sign that we are going to head into dark times, I just know it. You must take precautions and protect yourself and your family. He could be targeting you because of your blood. And I don't want to see you get hurt."

"I appreciate your concern Potter, but I can assure you that I am aware of the muggle disappearances that have been going around recently. And I will protect my family to the best of my ability if the worst should happen," reassured Lily, "and as for the Order, I have heard of rumors about it. And I've already been considering to join, but I need to protect my family before I can. I would need to put up spells and enchantments around the house before I sign up to ensure their safety. So, I'll do that first thing I come home from our camping trip. I would also have to put protection around our campsite as well, I suppose."

Potter smiled and got up, he said, "I knew I didn't need to come here and persuade you to come. But I still wanted to make sure. Well, I better be off now, I'm going to meet Sirius in the Leaky Cauldron at 5:00 and besides, you're going to go on a camping trip for the weekend."

"Mhm, and it sure will be fun," Lily said with heavy sarcasm.

"What? Don't you like family vacations?"

"My soon to be brother-in-law is coming along, and he isn't that tolerable. I have no idea what Petu-" Both Lily and James turned their heads to the source of the sound which sounded as if something heavy fell, "It sounded like it came from the garage. Dad? Are you okay?" There was no answer.

Through the kitchen window, Lily saw the end of a cloak flowing behind the garage. This can't be good Lily thought as she took out her wand. She saw Potter do the same from her peripheral vision. The door bell rang. Both Lily and James looked at each other with worried looks. He must have also seen the cloak too Lily thought. At that moment she heard her mother ask if it was Petunia while opening the door.

"MUM NO!"

Lily saw a flash of green and to her horror, a thump, similar to the thud near the garage, followed. She couldn't think straight, she couldn't move, she didn't want to. There was the unavoidable fact that both her parents were-

"EVANS! MOVE!"

Instinctively Lily ducked and got her head back together. There were definitely death eaters in the house and they were attacking. James was already dueling one of the two. And Lily was sitting behind the island cowering from them? Immediately she stood up and fired hex after hex at the other hooded wizard. Lily and James were dueling for their lives. There was total chaos inside the Evans household, appliances flying everywhere, and chunks of the wall being blasted. The tap in the sink had blasted and water was now being sprayed everywhere. Lily was soaked and she couldn't see properly with all the water coming at her. She was now shooting random spells at her attacker when suddenly the cabinet door was wrenched from its hinges and hit her on the side of her face. She fell to the ground seeing stars around her.

"Evans!" Potter panted while trying to hit his attacker, "We need to apparate out of here! I need to distract them and then we apparate!"

Lily nodded. But Potter didn't wait to hear for her confirmation, he pointed his wand to the couch and made it fly into the death eater. With a moment's distraction, the death eater that Lily was dueling looked at his friend and with all her strength Lily shot a stunning spell and hit im square in the chest. She jumped around the island with the little energy she had left, grabbed the cooler and nearest bag. Lily then seized the money lying on the table just in case and grasped for Potter's hand to apparate to safety.

Hello! I hope you enjoyed my first chapter of my first story. Please Review and I promise that the next chapter will be longer :) Thank you!