Chapter One-

Lily's P.O.V

June 8th (the end of Sixth Year)

Lily Evans walked quietly off the train, her demeanor contrasting greatly to the constant chatter of her peers. She slipped through the barrier after putting a charm on her trunk to make it weightless. Quickly walking down the street, she entered a nearby restaurant. She changed into her 'street clothes': jean capris and a tank top, exposing several scars. She tied her shoulder length, bright red hair into a tight bun, slipped on her steel toed boots, and took out a very long black wand that was definitely not bought in Diagon Alley. She pulled a large belt, two daggers, and a very light, dangerous looking sword out of a separate compartment in her bag. She stuck one of the daggers in her belt and the other in a sheath tied around her upper arm. She cast a Concealment Charm on the sword, and also placed it in her belt with her wand. After pulling on a very lose black sweatshirt, she exited the restaurant just in time to see James Potter and Sirius Black stroll though the barrier with Potter's parents.

Lily grimaced, "Bugger! I hope they don't see me…"

She edged closer to the wall of the restaurant. If Potter saw her, he would find someway to use her attire against her.

"Probably more rumors," she thought.

Not that she cared what people said about her, but if people paid too much attention to her they might notice something odd.

"Not that they already don't," she thought sadly.

It was a well known fact that she and James Potter were not exactly best mates. Ever since first year, they were constantly at odds with each other in practically everything. James Potter was popular and had many friends, but he mostly hung out with Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. Lily; however, had isolated herself from most social interactions. She wasn't that bad-looking and she worked very well with the other prefects, but she made no attempt to make friends. Anyone brave enough to try to make friends with her was politely asked to leave her alone. She spent most of her time in the Hogwarts Library because it was impossible to get any work done in the Common Room if you lived in the same House as James Potter and Sirius Black.

The reason James Potter hated her so much was because she seemed to be perfect at everything: Charms, Potions, Transfiguration, Defense Again the Dark Arts, you name it, even flying. When he pranked her, she would simply reverse the prank and make some comment about his maturity level. In fact, nothing seemed to faze Lily Evans. She never seemed to get mad, only annoyed, she never looked sad, happy, or frustrated. She seemed to be completely emotionless. The key word was 'seemed'. For some reason, Potter's other friends didn't hate Lily as much as he did, but they disliked her very much.

Lily didn't make any friends because if they found out about her life outside of Hogwarts, they would get scared and tell someone. She would then be sent to an orphanage. She didn't make friends because they wouldn't understand what it was like to be Lily Evans. She didn't deserve friends because she was a murderer, a thief, a street rat, a m-

"No, don't think about that now," she berated herself, "concentrate on getting away." She saw Mr. Potter pull out his wand and summon the Knight Bus.

"Please just go away!" she thought.

Suddenly, she could feel a pair of eyes on her. She whipped her head in the opposite direction as if looking for someone. Then, the Knight Bus disappeared as it wheeled around the corner.

"Shit. He saw me."

James' P.O.V

James walked through the barrier with Sirius and his parents.

"Finally," he thought, "three whole months without that cow Evans to mess everything up."

"I can't wait to get home," he told Sirius, "I'm starving."

"Me too!" Sirius grinned , "Your mum's cooking is really good."

"Come on boys, we're going to take the Knight Bus home," Edward Potter called to them. "If they'll even let you on," he added with a grimace.

"It's not our fault that that bloody bus driver doesn't like dung bombs" James protested

"JAMES!" Katherine Potter reprimanded. "WHAT have I told you about swearing!"

"I-er- sorry, Mum." He cringed. The Knight Bus pulled up, interrupting any further conversation.

"Nice one, Prongs," Sirius whispered in his ear. James was just about to tell Sirius to shut up, or something a little bit more vulgar, when he saw her.

She was just standing there staring off into the distance. Suddenly, James realized how different she looked with her hair in a bun and without her usual long sleeved white jumper and baggy khakis.

"Odd," he thought, "she kind of almost looks pretty…" His eyes widened comically, "I did NOT just think that! Ewww, Evans! Fuck, my brain's been addled by the long train ride!" He sighed, "Oh, well, at least I can make fun of her next year," he thought and grinned.

"What are you grinning about?" asked Sirius, "Never mind, bad question. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

James snickered and after checking to make sure his parents weren't looking, he stuck his hands into his pockets and boarded the bus. Sirius already had his wand out to cast the spell. Everything was going according to plan.

"JAMES EDWARD POTTER, SIRIUS ORION BLACK, GET BACK HERE!!"

By the end of the quite eventful trip back home, he had completely forgotten about Evans and her sudden change of clothes.

Lily's P.O.V

After the ten kilometer walk to the not-so-upscale part of London, Lily arrived at the door of the old building that was her home. She had found it when she was ten and had gotten in many fights for it over the years. She was quite fond of it. Well, as fond as a person could be for a drafty, empty (except for all the broken glass), smelly building. It took her almost ten minutes to break all the locking and unbreakable charms she had installed. However; if she came back for the summer without putting on any charms, all her stuff would be gone. The door, windows, and weak parts of the walls would have been trashed.

Dropping her bag on the floor, she walked down a flight of stairs to the basement, pried open a loose tile, and pulled out a jar of money. She emptied the contents on the floor and began counting them.

"Damn! I thought I had more than this, I'll have to go pick-pocketing again…"

However skilled at pick-pocketing she was; the older you were, the harder it was to get away with it. She would've just gotten a summer job, but since she didn't have a birth certificate or any type of identification, it made it near impossible to get a job. Well, a decent job. There was always prostitution, drug dealing, and even loan sharking; however, Lily had never been in a situation where she had been forced to sink so low.

Groaning, she put all the money back into the jar and leaned against the wall of her cold, dark, sanctuary. She wished the building was smaller. She had three floors all to herself and while she was used to being on her own, the size of the building made her feel quite lonely. She picked some matches and began to light the hundreds of candles that were scattered around the floors of her home. She wasn't poor enough to be incapable of affording a flashlight, but she liked candles better. They calmed her down and made the dreary building feel more comfortable. There was not a single piece of wood (besides her wands) in the basement, so it wasn't a fire hazard and she always kept her worn, second-hand books away from the entrancing flames. Before she went to Hogwarts during the winter, she had almost frozen to death because the building had neither heating nor air-conditioning.

She sat on a moth-eaten pillow and closed her eyes, welcoming the darkness. She used to come down here to relax and think of better times, but to her dismay she found that there were no 'better times.' She suddenly stood up and began to check the validity of the charms on all the windows and door. She had to renew a few. Paranoia never left her for long. After a quarter of an hour had passed, and she was certain that her safe haven was not vulnerable, she settled back down onto her cushion and fell asleep, ignoring her hunger. She could have easily transfigured some random object into a bed, but the Ministry might notice the use of magic in a very suspicious part of town and come to investigate. Lily knew that they weren't authorized to make such searches; however, in light of the increasing amount of Death Eater attacks, she knew that they were under a lot of strain.

She slipped into restless dreams of a rainy day and a blonde, horse-faced, woman.

The next day, Lily awoke early and found that most of her candles had burnt out. She cursed, and after stuffing some Muggle money into her pocket, she went out to buy some more. She entered a tacky convenience shop and bought five hundred of them. The middle-aged man at the cash register didn't comment, but raised his eyebrows slightly. Lily didn't know if it was because of her purchase or if he saw the knife in her belt. Lily smiled inwardly. He probably thought she was in some sort of cult because her boots were very 'gothic' looking. She was about to leave, but stopped when she saw the headline of the London Monthly report, "Unexplained Death Toll Rises to 200".

"Horrible, isn't it?" asked the man behind the counter nervously. Lily frowned slightly as he went on, "Them scientists don't even know how or who killed 'em."

"Very odd, indeed," answered Lily. The man looked surprised at her jargon, "I'll take this as well."

After she bought the newspaper, she got a sandwich at a café, sat down in an abandoned park, and looked over it for any clues. It was obvious that these "unexplained killings" were the result of the Killing Curse, or rather, Death Eaters. She found that the first of the killings had taken place in December. She frowned, while she didn't get the Daily Prophet, she was sure that she would have heard of the Death Eater attacks from the other students. She was puzzled as to why they weren't reported. She knew that the Ministry was rumored to be quite incompetent, but she doubted they were this incompetent. "Unless…" she paused, thinking it over.

"Unless, they didn't report the killings because they didn't want people to panic. Yes, that would make sense; or rather, in Ministry logic."

To Lily, not reporting the killings to the Wizarding World was a grave mistake. If people didn't know what was going on, how were they to protect themselves? Lily finished her sandwich, folded the newspaper up, put it in her bag, and headed for the subway station. She wasn't planning on taking the subway herself; in fact, she only went there because the conditions of a subway station at rush hour were perfect for pick-pocketing. As a child, she had been content to steal food from garbage dumps; but after a horrible food poisoning incident, she decided that buying her own food was much better. At first, she felt bad for stealing people's wallets and purses, but she consoled herself by remembering that they didn't need the money as much as she did and always remembered to destroy their credit cards.

She made her way down the stairs and leaned against the wall, waiting. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of urine. Lovely.

August 27th (six days before school starts)

Lily gritted her teeth in irritation as she was yet again forced to defend herself against this annoying gang of drug-addicts and rapists. There were five of them, plus the two she had knocked unconscious, and Lily patience was at its breaking point.

"C'mon, totty, I'll promise to be gentle." said one wearing a skull bandana. Lily barely restrained herself from rolling her eyes.

"Leave me alone," she growled, her hands playing with the concealed hilt of her sword. Her inner sadist would have loved for her to draw it and see their faces, but she restrained herself. If only she could get them to leave her alone without violence…

It was only after she received her Hogwarts letter and found Diagon Alley that she decided to carry a sword. She had seen it hanging in a store window. It had been labeled unbreakable, so she couldn't resist buying it. She rarely used it; but when she did, the fight would usually be over in seconds. Most people did not expect her to be carrying a sword. A gun would have been useful as well, but bullets cost money and no one where she lived had enough money for one either, so she didn't get one.

"Oh, c'mon, totty," said his blonde haired companion and Lily lost it. She punched him in the face and was satisfied with the cracking noise his nose made. She kicked the one with the bandana into the wall and turned around to deal with the last one when she felt a sharp pain in the center of her back. She swung around quickly, but not fast enough to avoid another cut being scratched into her back. She smashed him into the wall again, this time making sure he was unconscious and turned around to see a gun pointed in her face.

"Fuck."

"D-Don't move!" stuttered the last member, who looked younger than she. She raised her eyebrows and tried to quench her fear.

"Put the gun down," she said calmly, staring him down.

He looked terrified and she sighed inwardly.

"Listen to me," she said, "If you put the gun down and leave, I promise not to hurt you."

She then cursed, remembering where she was. Here promises meant nothing.

In a quick motion she wrenched the piece from his hands and stuck it in her pocket.

"Leave," she told him and he ran. She limped over to the unconscious bodies and freed them of all their money. Biting her lip, she made her way back to the building; trying and failing to ignore the gashes on her back.

Well, now she had a gun.

August 29th (four days until school starts)

If Lily could have ever flown without a broom it would have been now. She had just returned from a very successful pick-pocketing mission. She even forgot the cuts on her back that she had accumulated. Thankfully, she had been able to disinfect them promptly and with the help of some potions she had made, they were healing quickly. Lily stuck the money in the jar and made her way up to the top floor where an assortment of old furniture she had dragged up over the years lay. She had a few pieces of carpet, a three legged table, and a chair taped together with duct tape. She grinned to herself and sat on her chair, humming softly. There were many reasons she disliked the large building that was her home, but it had its advantages as well. For one, she could do whatever she wanted. Two, and the most important one of all, she had her privacy. Before she lived here, she always remembered hating the fact that, in the city, she could never find a place of her own. Now she had one.

She opened the only door of a previously two door cabinet; which had taken her ages to haul up the stairs; and was about to eat something, when a strange blue band on her finger began to glow.

"Blast! Fucking Death Eaters! I hope there aren't a lot, I'm not sure I can handle them with my wounds…"

Over the years, living in the slums of London, Lily learned that the back alleys were the favorite places for Death Eaters to torture their victims. She had gotten rid of a few, but not enough to make any noticeable dent in their ranks. She pulled on her large black sweatshirt and pulled the hood to conceal her face. She ran down the stairs and out the door, but not before grabbing a vile of painkillers. She locked the door with a basic charm, not having time for much else, and hurried through the dimly lit alleys. As the ring's glow grew brighter, Lily knew she was getting close.

Lily swallowed as she began to hear the screams. So they were still alive. Good. She would save them. She had to. She sped up, biting her lip in anger. Oh, would they pay!

However, she was usually uninjured when she fought them; and usually, there were only ten Death Eaters at the most.

There were twenty. She had stopped against a wall and had counted them. She couldn't see who they were torturing and maybe it was for the better. She might have done something stupid.

"Well at least that fucker Voldemort isn't here," she thought, trying to get her emotions under control. "C'mon, you can take them!"

She stepped out into the street lamp looking at the many Death Eaters. Her eyes widened as she recognized the three people lying on the ground. She swallowed and directed her attention to the Death Eaters who had frozen and were staring at her.

"Well, well, look what we have here, Death Eaters." Lily spat the name like a curse, "I think I'll have to dispose of you," she said, smirking slightly.

She could tell they were nervous. It was one of the perks of being 183 cm tall.

Feeling somewhat ecstatic as the instinct to kill took over, she advanced, like the jet black wolf her Animagus form was, on her prey.

A/N: Revised Chapter One is finished! The revised version of TPTA will basically be me adding more details. I don't think I shall be changing anything major, but you never know! I'm also doing this to get my inspiration back for the sequel, which I started posting, but then kind of lost it. I should be getting these out pretty fast, but in the meantime you could always review… (hint, hint)