MY LIFE IN A NUTSHELL

NARRATOR: Ms. Lily Evans

SUMMARY: It's the start of 7th year and things are beginning to spiral out of Lily's control. Follow her day-to-day adventures in this multi-chaptered fic about love, hate, and the many aspects of a 17-year-old witch's life.

RATING: T, for language, some visual imagery, and attempted humor.

Disclaimer: Mm, mm, NOT MINE.

A/N:

Sorry that I've kept you waiting for a while- I've got several good ideas, I just didn't know how to put them into words. Therefore I've been lazing around Fanfiction, reading but not writing...call it a hiatus, if you wish.

This chapter gets a little more serious. I thought Lily should have more...depth to her life, since she grew up to be such an amazing person. Here's the introduction to Lily's slow contact with the dark, sinister world outside where a creepy anorexic albino with red eyes and a paranoid ability to speak with snakes will come into play.

Well, enjoy!

My head was spinning and my thoughts were jumbled as I flopped clumsily onto my four poster bed. Trying to comprehend what I had just witnessed, I carefully sorted the many shouts and exclamations in my head and tried to come up with logical reasoning.

'Cause that's what Lily Evans was, right? Logical.

Totally, completely, sane.

I had walked through the portrait hole alone, on account that Remus and James had taken a walk down to the "library." I presumed they were trying to impress me and at the same time subtly sneaking off to break some rules. I respected that, I guess; at least they were continuing their "Marauding" hidden from the public eye.

Imagine my surprise when I walk straight into a soap opera-esque scene, complete with the consoling friends and the sadistic blonde who everybody thinks is an angel sent straight from the Garden of Eden.

This time, the consoling friends were, list:

-Jillian Lewis (not a surprising factor) and

-Miranda Goshawk. MY MIRANDA.

I blinked once, trying to make the horrible hallucination disappear. However, I was forced to believe it wasn't a dream after pinching myself repeatedly and blinking rapidly, so fast that the images before me slowly started to seem vaguely similar to the style of stop-motion animation.

Eva Kimble, the current garden sprinkler (salty tear version!), looked up from the palms of her hands in which her face was covered. Her eyes were puffy and the mascara she had so meticulously applied was streaking down her cheeks. She looked vulnerable.

And I knew, for once, I had nothing to say to her. And maybe, just a little, I held about a cubic millimeter of pity for Kimble; it was odd feeling so emotional and torn at the time. But I still had enough space left in me to hear the echoing shouts of betrayal and to see the slowly red-tinted scene before me as I looked at Miranda, doing her best to comfort Eva.

I sighed, shook my head as if shaking my feelings out. I decided to quickly hurry past the sobbing/comforting girls on the common room couch and to sit down in the far corner and get out my books to study. Just like I had planned to do. Soon enough more students would filter into the place; Alice and Marlene were bound to come around sometime, right?

But obviously this plan didn't work. I took the first step and felt a bone-crushing force enclosing my wrist and twisting me violently until my arm was bent backwards and my face was contorted in pain. An indignant shriek was emitted from my captor, who was no other than Eva herself. Floods of tears still streaming out of her eyes, she screamed in my ear so loudly my eardrums felt like they were vibrating and on the brink of explosion.

"YOU NASTY FUCKING WHORE! YOU KNEW! YOU CHEATING STUCK-UP BITCH! HOW COULD YOU? HOW COULD YOU?"

The tears were coming more steadily now.

All I could stutter out was a, "Erm, I'm afraid I don't-"

"You know what you did, Lily Evans. He's mine, he's got my CLAIM written all over him! You're stealing! You're nothing but a dirty thoughtless slag, a shallow self-absorbed PRAT!"

"It's nice to know you think so highly of me," I muttered. I swore I could hear a chuckle behind her, but it might've been my imagination.

"You SNOGGED James Potter! You stole him right out of my hands, and you're nothing but a filthy thief!"

"Calm down, Eva," I said calmly, trying to issue out mellow vibes. "I most definitely did not snog James Potter. I'd have to have pretty horrible taste to do that."

Eva raised an eyebrow.

"Don't turn that statement on me," I said before she could interrupt. "Seriously, there is nothing going on between James and me at the moment. Actually, correction: ever. We are friends, in a purely platonic relationship. And what you thought was snogging-" I turned my gaze to Jillian Kringle, who coloured visibly-"-was actually the effect of running several flights of stairs and being late to a Prefects' meeting I forgot about because I was too busy thinking about the pudding we had for lunch. Understand?"

She eyed me for a moment, then sniffed. Sniffed again, then turned on her heel (slapping me with her outlandishly long hair and elbowing me roughly in the stomach) and stormed out of the room into the girls' dormitories. Jillian Lewis followed her up the stairs, her head bowed forward, still flushed red. Miranda stared at me, her eyes cloudy and unreadable.

"You thought Jillian was telling the truth, didn't you?" I asked Miranda stonily.

"It's not like it's unbelievable," Miranda said.

And at that moment Miranda's betrayal sunk in. It was a slap in the face, a stab in the back, the utmost insult. Miranda thought me low enough to use a guy's affections for a quick snog and forget. Miranda knew me. She knew my nuances, my habits, my guilty pleasures, my faults and my perfections - but apparently she didn't know me well enough.

I stared at her, gaping for a moment. Turning on my heel too, I stormed out of the Gryffindor common room, heading for the Head dorms, the terrible lump in my throat growing as I choked the tears back.

"Lily, your life has turned into this book," Marlene said, looking up from her latest violently pink trashy romance novel.

Sadly, I couldn't disagree- I was dealing with a betrayal, a Queen Bee, and a confusing guy all at the same time.

"My life needs to gain depth," I said sadly, slumping onto the couch. I was back in the common room and had recited the entire event that happened previously; they had both tittered disapprovingly and decided to console me in their special ways.

They weren't doing so great.

"That's it!" Alice exploded. I stared at her with a funny face, not comprehending her sudden epiphany.

"What's it?" Marlene sat up a little straighter.

"Lily's life right now is like the baby pool. She needs to take a plunge into the deep end," Alice said happily. "And obviously, we all have too much time on our hands, and we can work out a plan like this."

"What's the plan?" I said, feigning interest.

"We're going to create something," Alice said boldly. "With the aid of whoever we need. We could even consult Dumbledore on it if necessary. Or," Alice said, raising an eyebrow in my direction, "we could ask for aid from the Marauders."

"Are you suggesting some sort of immature little club? Like chess? Come on, Alice, the idea's a waste," Marlene snubbed.

"I think she has a point," I said, my feigned interest turning slowly to real interest. "All we have to do is find a serious issue to settle this thing over."

"I'll read the papers tomorrow," Alice said, a wave of her hand dismissing the conversation. "Don't worry, there's bound to be something that'll give our lives meaning."

"I know you think we didn't actually go to the library."

"Oh, yes, amazing. You can read minds, James."

He laughed and ducked down to check the broom cupboard beside us. It was empty, and the action did not ruin the moment.

We were making our first patrols of the year, and they had gone more successfully then I had ever anticipated- James was entertaining me with his stories and adventures, and keeping my company in the dark, chilly hallways of Hogwarts. I, meanwhile, was finding this time a perfect situation to just listen and wind down. The day had been eventful, and this was the perfect way to relax.

"Wait a second," I said, putting a hold on our conversation. Running a little ways down the hallway, I picked up something gleaming silver on the ground. Looking closely at it, I saw that it was a locket, small and fine. While there was an intricately carved border around the pendant, it seemed normal and plain. I tucked it in my pocket; if the necklace was made of actual silver, then the owner would definitely be wanting it back.

"What's that?" James said, catching up with me.

"Something we can categorize as lost and found," I said absently. "Continue on with your story, then. Where did you actually go?"

"I don't know why you don't believe me, but I actually wasin the library."

"If you were, then you were probably concocting an evil plan or something."

"I can't disagree with that," James sighed. "Am I really that predictable?"

"Even more so."

"Well, if you really wish to know, dearest flower, Remus and I were listing the different ways we could hook up Filch and Pince."

I gave him an admonishing look. "You all have way too much time on your hands."

"At least I'm not living a soap opera life," James teased. I froze in my steps.

"Who told you that?" I questioned suspiciously.

"Marlene," James said shamelessly. "She passed the hint that you're trying to give your life a little bit more meaning. I could help with that, you know," he said, doing the infamous double-eyebrow wiggle. I groaned and rolled my eyes, but he just laughed.

"Yeah, I've been thinking about it. Something to distract me from Eva and Miranda, and you."

"Me?"

I hesitated before answering. Surely that hadn't come out of my mouth as well, right? I decided, then and there, to just tell James the straight-out truth.

"Well, you've changed."

James jokingly checked himself out. "Nice of you to notice," he teased.

"Oh, you know what I mean," I said, tapping him lightly on the nose. He looked a little bewildered.

"And if I don't know what you mean?" he asked slowly.

I tapped my own nose and giggled.

I noticed at that incredibly tense moment that we had been standing at the door of the Head's dorms for at least two minutes. With a breezy, "Goodnight," I entered the common room with what I sincerely hoped was a suave manner.

I was running at full speed, my breath coming up in choked gasps and my legs turning into lead- bright flashes surrounded me at every angle and I desperately attempted to dodge and duck my way through the flurry of deadly curses.

The castle lay in ruins before us. The walls that once held such a feeling of security, of safety, were completely obliterated and crumbling to dust as I took in the scarring image. Fire was blazing from open windows, shadows were screeching overhead- Hogwarts had turned into the setting for the darkest night terror.

And there he was, pale and gleaming, ugly and so deadly, all red eyes and white limbs- hissing in that strange raspy baritone, looking upon the scene with nothing less than triumph in his eyes.

He had won. Yet, here was I, running toward him, arm outstretched and wand at the ready-my soul screaming, my heart thudding, my consciousness slowly melting before my eyes...

The scene changed.

A warm, comforting voice that soothed my being, soft skin like velvet to the touch, and bright hazel eyes withholding unknown secrets and mischief. I drowned in the hazel; and he laughed good-naturedly, with a soft, soft, "See? I knew you'd always come around."

I woke up in the dead of night, hyperventilating and clutching my stomach.

Dreams were dreams and nothing more, my mother had once told me. I touched my burning, sweaty forehead, knowing that being who I was, dreams would always be much more than bargained for.

A/N:

Review, as always! Tell me how I did on this chapter! Hopefully I'll update soon.

-.x.