Chapter 1: Innocence Lost
6-year-old Lily Potter was happily prancing about her daddy's office. He was out for a minute, placing a call, having decided to stay and work from home that day. Lily Potter loved those days. Ever since her brothers had gone off to Muggle primary school, the house had gotten quite lonely. She appreciated how her parents always tried their level-best to make time for her around their busy careers and home lives.
Lily tried now to clamber up on her father's desk. If he came back and she was lying on his papers, he very well couldn't work and then they could play some more. As her tiny body scaled Harry's swivel chair, her hand accidentally pushed out as she tried to get a grip on the polished wood, pushing her away from the desk. The desk chair ran into something - Daddy's Pensieve. Lily knew she wasn't ever supposed to touch it, and usually it was locked, in Daddy's closet, but he had needed to use it in order to help place his business call.
Now colliding with the Pensieve, Lily flailed as she lost her balance... and fell backwards into the Pensieve.
Lily landed in a cold, dark room. It was big and spacious, with a bunch of old furniture. A witch with wild, black hair was yelling and screaming at seemingly everyone present. Then suddenly, she grabbed for a young woman and dragged her into the center of the room. The young version of this woman, she had seen in pictures - a family photo on Daddy's desk; a wedding picture on her Uncle and Auntie's dresser.
Auntie...
Whirling around, Lily watched as her Uncle Ron and her father were flung back, dragged down towards a scary, dank basement.
"Daddy? DADDY!" Lily screamed. He couldn't hear her.
Images came fast and hard now, Lily bouncing around from the basement to the room upstairs. She stood still, frozen with terror, as the mean witch with the wild black hair started hurting Auntie. Auntie screamed, and Lily began to scream and cry.
Then, Daddy came. Daddy always came to save the day, he was... Daddy. And Uncle Ron was right behind him. A house-elf appeared, one who looked a lot nicer than Kreacher (though, admittedly, Kreacher could be quite friendly once you got to know him, he seemed to like Lily well enough). A flash of silver from the mean witch with the wild black hair, and then -
Nothing, as Lily suddenly felt herself being dragged back up to the surface.