I still own nothing. This chapter has a death in it. It's kind of graphic too...but, oh well. This chapter shall be fun.

On My Own

James Potter smiled deviously as he pierced his blade into the robber again. The man cried out in pain, but the King stayed unfazed. Fresh blood ran down both their arms, drenching their shirts and turning them a dark red. He pulled the dagger out and allowed the body to fall.

"You...exist..." The dying man whispered. James leaned over him and grinned maliciously. The blood that stained his clothing and skin and mind had no affect on him. Rather, he enjoyed seeing the man in pain.

"Did you ever doubt it? Oh, stop giving me that look-its not as if you're unfamiliar to death. This blood-your blood-will never suffice for what you did to her." he said, laughter dripping from his low and dark voice. The man frowned.

"Don't hurt Sarah...don't hurt Adam and Kari..." And then his life was no more. James moved away carefully from the blood coated carcass and walked away as if nothing had happened.

"Goodbye Adam, Kari-daddy loved you."

Lillian Evans smiled as she stared out onto the city. London was beautiful when the sun rose. Everything was so quiet and peaceful and alive. Her engagement ring shone in the orange colored sunlight. It made her widen her smile as she thought of Hilliard and when they first met.

It had been about five years ago and Lily was about eleven. The royal Evans family was hosting a birthday ball for their precious little Princess, which really seemed to unnerve her older sister Petunia, and Hilliard's family had been among the other rich guests. Hilliard, who was almost fourteen at the time, fell for her the minute their eyes met.

It would be only a little more then twenty four hours before she would be married to her only and true love. Imagining for always and forever with Hilliard was more then any girl could dream of. After all, having the chance to marry a handsome Prince at sixteen was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

However, the excitement of your average sixteen year old Princess' behavior was not exactly up to speed with how Lillian felt. She assumed it might have had something to do with her strange maturity, how she had grown since she learned to deal with street life. This made her slightly proud. Hilliard would have the best of both worlds; an innocent wife who was strong and wise. What man could resist?

One did, but the Princess wouldn't think of him. She had spent too many nights crying and pondering over him and she knew she didn't want to any longer. Lillian had everything she could ever ask for and she didn't intend on throwing it away on some silly little crush. She'd do what was expected and marry the good-guy. Fairy tales may have played a huge role in her life, but she wouldn't allow one of the silly premonitions of the Princess giving up her entire world just to be with some roughen that swept her off her feet run how she'd do things.

Her mother walked in and smiled as she gave Lillian another one of her romantic and wondrous explanations of marriage, causing Lillian to become more and more eager for the following day. After she was fitted into her wedding gown, as had been done for the past week, she smiled at her reflection in the mirror. This was it. This was what she always wanted.

Peter looked in the mirror as he shaved off the becoming beard on his face. He was about eighteen and a skinny boy with blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. Peter may not have been as attractive as his fellow friends, but he surely was no ugly duckling.

He noticed another object in the mirror, that of James Potter, both his friend and his king. Peter turned to talk to him but stopped abruptly when he noticed something strange. Or-not so strange, but certainly bad. James had this look in his hazel eyes, a dark, demented look. A look Peter well recognized but only after some serious massacre or death.

A grin also lay on his face, his white teeth commenting against his dark skin. His hands were wrapped in fists and the morning light projected his blood stain clothes. Peter merely shrugged and continued to shave. Seeing James kill was not much of a surprise-much less seeing him after he killed, so Peter chose not to be alarmed.

"Welcome home, Prongs. Out for the evening?" Pettigrew asked calmly. James nodded and the smile dropped from his face. Instead a look of normality formed on his almost perfect face, his cold eyes seemed distant and lost-as always.

"That ball was something wasn't it?'' the short blonde haired boy added. James' malicious grin returned to his face and he walked next to his friend and pulled something from his pocket. Peter eyed it aimlessly as James dunked it into the water. It was a bloody blade and the sticky red blood colored the water that Peter had used to shave.

"The ball was fine-but last night was the best." He said slyly. Peter grinned and laughed. This all may have seemed weird and morbid to some outsider who was a stranger to death and murder, but it was nothing to be alarmed about. Nothing at all.

Remus and Sirius came walking by, their hair matted with spring water. They had just returned from the baths. Sirius looked up and noticed James' good mood, happy for this he trotted over to Peter and James and gave Prongs a heavy slap on the back.

"Good ol' mate, see you're smiles back on your face." he said in total street lingo. James grinned once again and shoved his dagger back in its case.

"I'm feeling pretty damn good, Padfoot." James said. Remus smiled at the usually depressed boy. James was sure one of those who could easily confuse someone by them just studying his attitude. He was like a pendulum, his moods flashing from one to another fast as lightning. But he was the best friend one could get, and Remus Lupin knew what a 'good-friend' was when he saw one. After all, James would rather die then betray him, spilling his secret of being a werewolf.

He turned away from his friend to see a group of girls talking while some knitted and others sharpened blades on numerous daggers. One girl was prominent among the others; a girl with long brown hair and huge brown eyes. She poked esscently at a dying earthworm and laughed out loud every now and then. Her name was Sapphira Higgs and she had been the light in Remus' eyes for quite a long time. Beside her was her good friend Kathleen Soliday, a girl about a year younger then him who enjoyed scaring the crap out of him and stalking him around. She was often seen playing a huge organ that mysteriously popped out of nowhere.

The next girl over, who was busily humming and sharpening a really long scythe, was Drusella Cammolie. She was a nice girl-smart-but incredibly depressed and morbid. Remus turned his face away from the group of women and focused on his comrades.

They were a group of four men-they had not been 'boys' since they were little. For seeing blood shed and fighting morphed them into men quickly and the had been so for many years. James, who always had a leaderistic quality to him, had taken his job seriously-despite his young age. Remus was the most mature of the group. Whilst the others would do things instinctively, Remus chose to map everything out. Sure, it irritated the boys often, but Remus J. Lupin's mind could act s a lethal weapon. That was a good thing.

Sirius Black was not the most one track minded person you could find, nor the modest, but he was a great companion. For when Sirius got angered, which was only when he saw someone innocent die, he could become a creature of...maybe, mass destruction. And Peter, who seemed shy and gawky, could be the best comrade- for his sweet-boy nature surely helped him deceive unsuspecting enemies.

James turned to look at his friends and then walked back to his tent. He was dying to get a little shut eye. But as he laid his head onto his pillow an image flooded his mind. James was finding it hard NOT to think of Lily, but she was always there-inside his mind. And as he saw her laughing form, he couldn't help feeling the urge to wrap his arms around her. His mind went back to the day that Fannie died. He wouldn't admit it then, but it felt so good to hold the Princess in that tight embrace.

They hadn't known each other that long; it had probably been a only month since their first meeting, but James already felt seriously close to the girl. They had not gone on any grand or romantic adventures, in fact, each time of their meeting, their lives were on the line.

James massaged his forehead and wondered what she was doing at that moment. It was then that it hit him like a million bricks. He had hurt her again. There she was, lying on the dirty floor, practically begging him to love her and he rejected it all. He watched in pure spite as the girl he did love, the girl who made everything seem alright, become rejected for the one thing she couldn't resist. He was a monster. A selfish, heartless and demented monster. He had only denied her love because he was so over come by hate towards the royal family. He had not even done what she must have, looked beneath the family title and into that of the one that they did love.

But could this seriously be love? James didn't think he knew for he had never experienced love before, Nor had he experienced a feeling quite like this either. But this time, James did not expel the thought of it being love form his mind. He realized that he had grown somewhat since meeting Lily. He was no longer the stubborn little boy that once he was, but instead a man who could admit it all. Even feelings that he felt, he would not hide.

As James drifted off to sleep, he dreamt of Lily and he apologized. Even if she couldn't hear him-he had to.

"Come on, my darling daughter. Luanne calls for dinner." The Queen of Wales called into her youngest daughter's room. Lillian smiled and nodded and walked out with her mother down the glorious golden steps. She wore a dress of sea green that pleated at her waist and skirted into layers and layers of fine silk. Her hair was pulled up and back into a braided bun. Her mother looked just as lovely in her velvet red and gold dress. Lillian loved that dress on her mother because it often reminded her of Christmas.

The King waited for his wife and children at the bottom of the stairs. Lillian's sister, Petunia, waited beside him, her thin nose rose high in the air.

"Good evening, Mother. Lillian." she said in a cockish tone. The Queen smiled and linked arms with her husband. The family walked to the dinning room for a spectacular feast.

As Lillian sat down on the velvet red cushioned chairs, her mind drifted onto a man. She felt her cheeks grow red and she looked down to hide it from her family and the servants. Lillian noticed that not thinking of James was getting harder and harder to do every day. Sometimes she just wanted to flee the kingdom, forget about her marriage and responsibility. Just being with James made it seem like it was nothing. But Lillian knew she couldn't-not even if she wanted to. She loved Hilliard with all her heart and she could never let him go. They had something-they had kissed and whispered loving words into each other's ears late at night. James and she shared nothing of the sort, their only touchy-feely movements were being pressed against each other and that was when their lives were at stake.

But Lillian couldn't help but wonder what kissing James would be like. It ought to be full of passion and emotion, not like the measly, sweet kisses that she and Hilliard shared. That's when she felt it-that urge to run out right then and there and gather the young King of thieves into her arms.

She shook her head, blinking her lovely green eyes and placing on a false genuine smile when her mother asked if anything was wrong. Sometimes Lillian hurt-she couldn't be like other daughters who could tell their mothers their men problems. Her mother would go bizerk; she'd have a total fit. Lillian frowned down at her plate. She wanted desperately to have a woman's advice, but the only woman who it would be safe to talk to about it was dead.

They enjoyed a benevolent feast that night and spoke lightly over the conditions of the city and the wedding of Lillian. Just a few more hours and she would spend the rest of her life being bride to the most handsome and kind Prince in all of Europe.

But thoughts of James kept entering her mind subconsciously. His laugh and his killer grin-the way he'd protect her. Sure, he didn't step before her with a sword while a dragon tried to attack (she really needed to stop reading those silly penny-novels) and he was surely no white knight ridding on a beautiful white stallion, come to rescue her-but she decided that she didn't need that. Was it so wrong to love a dark prince? Lillian shook her head for the millionth time that night and set her mind back on the wedding.

She and Hilliard had been sweethearts for awhile. Everyone always suspected that the young Prince had feelings for the Princess of Wales, but were inevitably surprised when he asked her hand in marriage.

You should be happy, not worried sick. Her mind cried. Suddenly, but not for the first time, Lillian didn't know what to think. Half of her wanted to go through with what lay ahead the following day-but half of her wanted to ditch it all and follow her soul.

As Francesca had once said, following your heart is one thing, but following your soul will lead you to victory. So her heart longed for Hilliard while her soul needed James? Marrying Hilliard would be easy, it would disregard no laws nor would it bring harm to anyone. Plus, she could honestly say that she loved Hilliard with all her heart. But James-she felt this need inside of her for him. It wasn't just one of those sweet and tender needs, but a lusting and a wanting. Like a sweet when you are a child. But being with James was far past dangerous. It would, not could, take people's lives and ruin all that had been set forwards for the past hundred years. But he was in her soul and sometimes it seemed as if her soul had the first right.

So she went to bed, confused by these thoughts and hoping to figure it out in her sleep. Actually, she wanted James to leave her mind. It wasn't right that she would have to do her family dishonor by falling in love with an outsider. But she couldn't help it.

As she slept everything seemed to map out. Lillian woke with a start into the darkness of her room. She knew what she had to do.

The next morning a paper lay on her father's work desk.

Leader of Thousand Guard Militia Found Dead.

Okay, so does everyone understand everything thus far? I know you're probably wondering, 'well...the ending of this story really doesn't help answer my question of whether or not they'll get together' but hold your horses. I need to ask a question of all of you. Should James come to the wedding? Should he cut the fun short and claim Lily as his? Or should Lily be the one who stops it all? Should she leave before the wedding to catch James? I need your help so...I hope to get it. Thanks so much!