sequel death is the art of living (just for us)

by LaGranPepita

Personally, Lily Potter had thought it was hard enough being dead. It's even harder when she and her fellow dead friends are suddenly thrown into a strange world that seemed to be actively trying to destroy their very existence. Or: Lily thought she was dead. She was dead. Death was supposed to be permanent. Apparently, it isn't. Not for her, at least. Death would be too kind.

this is kinda all over the place since this project spanned over two months, so just bear with me, okay? please enjoy

It was bound to happen eventually, Lily knew that. Magic users were hunted for a sport, at least in this world they are, and they had high bounties on their heads. It wasn't as if it were uncommon for villages to completely disappear off the map just because a few magic-users lived in it. That didn't mean Lily Potter had to like it.

The bench she was sitting on was comfortable and had an excellent view of her fellow dead-but-not-dead friends as they played with the younger village children, her students. James, that loveable idiot, was smugly showing off his magic to the kids. Physical magic, her brain supplied helpfully as if she hasn't lived in this alternative world for over two years now.

Remus was sitting beside her, reading a new cookbook. It was one of those rare days when he wasn't busy with teaching his cooking classes or studying historical events in this world. Lily was grateful that he came today. Even though she didn't know why she felt such relief at his presence, she was still glad he was here.

Sirius was observing him, tracking James' movements to make sure he wouldn't harm any of the children who were too distracted by the illusions James was making. Lily stares at the corner of James' eye where a barely legible volcano was permanently tattooed on the skin that glowed faintly red as he creates illusions.

Lily could tell by the look on Sirius' face that he had still not gotten used to the fact that this world's, the one that had woken up in, fully human and definitely not dead like they should have been, magic users didn't need to use wands to create spells.

Lily herself had barely gotten used to it. She would have gotten used to it sooner if not for the fact that magic users didn't regularly show off their abilities, unless in solitude or in a village made entirely up of magic users. It was much too risky with bounty hunters sniffing out magic users like animals.

When they had first woken up in...this world, so much unlike their own but similar in too many ways it was painful, they hardly knew anything. It was quite embarrassing the first time they spotted someone who had healed a crying child's scraped-up knee. Sirius had shouted in alarm, Remus was staring at the mother, presumably with panic and a bit of awe, and James had just...gone back inside their house.

Well, he tried to go back. Elysium, their strange sort of home that they woke up in every year during their death loops or whatever they were, was nowhere to be found and they were in a strange place that looked like a centuries-old fantasy village, yet still had many of the same electronics that their world held. They had no idea what to do or where to go, but Lily had noticed that they were starting to attract attention, so she walked away, dragging her friends and husband behind her.

Looking back on it, Lily had found their idiocy hilarious. Oh, how innocent they were to this world's troubles. Perhaps they were still innocent.

---

Two Years Ago...

A woman with braided red hair was pulling a tall, black-haired man behind her. Along with the other three men, she looked hopelessly confused to the outsiders, who stared at the small group as they walked by.

The woman either didn't notice or didn't care because she walked straight up a bemused-looking bystander, and asked, "Excuse me, miss, I'm sorry for bothering you, but would you happen to know where a library is? Preferably one with a large section on the- our history."

The bystander looked at the red-headed woman in confusion before pointing to the right of her, a tall, red-brick building in the distance. "Um, you see that red building? That's the library."

The redhead nodded curtly before walking away briskly. "Thank you," she said stiffly.

"Uh-wait! W-Who-?" The bystander calls out to her but is ignored as the woman rushes towards the building, her friends on her heels.

---

Lily Potter slams four enormous books onto the table in front of Remus, who looks at the books with interest and more than a little apprehension. Lily slid into a seat next to James and grabbed two books, and handed one to her husband, who took it with a glum and a resigned look.

Lily opened the book titled An Extensive History and stared down at the table of contents, uncomprehending. "These are all the books I could find that had a reasonable amount of information. And was not opinionated." Lily nods to herself as if confirming her statement.

Remus opens one of the books, skimming the pages. After a few minutes of quiet and page-turning, Remus looks up at Lily, eyebrows raised. "This book implies that this world, or wherever we are, has magic, too."

Lily nods in confirmation, ignoring the way Sirius and James perk up in excitement. Lily slouches into her chair, suddenly exhausted. "That is what's implying," Lily sighs, rubbing her forehead. "I have an...idea of what this is." Lily waves her hand around the library for emphasis. "And I have an idea about how to adjust and the workings of this 'world'."

Remus hums. "Should we really be referring to wherever we are as a different world? It could be the same as the Wizarding World. It's certainly not the muggle world."

Lily shakes her head and drums her fingers on the table in their private room in the library, which the librarian had been kind enough to lend them. "No, believe me when I say this world is definitely not our own."

"And why is that?" Sirius asks curiously from his perch on an arm of James' chair.

Lily takes a deep breath, flipping through An Extensive History . "This world has magic, for starters. Just...not like ours." Lily pauses. "Um, people here don't use wands."

Silence.

Disbelieving, James questions: "What do you mean?"

Lily fidgets with her fingers. "I hope I'm understanding this right, which I might not be; the book was very confusing and-I'm getting sidetracked." She takes another deep breath. "Let me start at the origins of magic in this world.

"Around a thousand years ago, though it's more like 890 years, people started sprouting actual magic powers. Which is one reason this world is unlike ours: we had magic from the start of the world. These people were hunted-similar to America's Salem Witch Trials, if you will. These people still are hunted to this day." Lily looks down at her book in distress. It was obvious she didn't enjoy that fact.

"It took a while, but these magic users finally realized that they needed to hide and get away from the...unfortunate incidents," Lily says through gritted teeth. "They created their own villages, towns, homes, farms, and lives. This brings us to where we are now: a small town full of magic users.

"They, the magic users, trained their magic so they wouldn't be looked down on. They found out pretty quickly that it didn't work like that. They continued to be hunted down and killed, some taken in for experiments. The government, from what I have gathered, were and still are afraid of these magic users. The government made the public hate magic and any who wield it so that the users wouldn't even think of trying to overthrow them."

"It said that in the book?" Sirius asks, eyebrows raised in surprise.

Lily swats his arm, shaking her head in exasperation. "No. Why would they put that in a public resource? I'm just assuming."

"Ah," Remus sighs, nodding, "it makes sense."

"Thank you, Remus," Lily smiles, before continuing in her explanation, shooting a glare at Sirius to tell him to not interrupt again. She clears her throat. "It, shockingly, worked. The magic users didn't try to overthrow the government, but I'm assuming they didn't want to. Sure, the laws and regulations should change, but they weren't about to risk their somewhat peaceful lives by turning the world on its head. Sensible, really."

Lily leans back in her chair, a mysterious glint in her eye. "Now, here comes the fun part: the actual magic aspects. As I said before, this world's magic users don't need to use wands to channel magic. But the magic here is more condensed. There are fewer options to use.

"Magic is split between four types: Healing, Mental, Physical, and Dark. Technically, they have actual names, but everyone uses simpler names since it's easier. Each magic person, which is only about 16% of the population, is born with magic already chosen for them."

"They don't get to choose?" Sirius asks.

Lily shakes her head. "No, they're born with it. It normally runs in their family. So, if someone's parents both use Mental magic, there is a high possibility that the child will be able to use Mental magic."

"Huh," Sirius hums quietly. "How do they know what magic they have?"

Lily shrugs. "I don't know. The book wasn't super specific on this topic, but I'd assume they'd figure it out around two or three years old when magic users can use magic. Each magic is pretty different from another, though, so it shouldn't be too difficult to define which magic a child has." Lily clears her throat. "Or, they would figure it out by the so-called 'Mark' that a magic child develops over time."

"'Mark'?" Remus questions, eyebrows raised. "Like the Dark Mark?"

Lily pauses before shaking her head slowly. "No, not really. I'm assuming you've all seen the tattoo near your right eye?"

"Yeah," James nods. His eyes widened in realization. "That's a Mark?"

Lily smiles and nods. "It is. Every magic user has one, along with the same eye color as other magic users that have the same magic as them. Healing users have light or dark gray eyes and have a white flower with light blue swirls on the petals as their Mark." Lily's smile widens as she pauses for dramatic effect. "Which is the Mark I have. It seems that my eye color changed, too."

"Oh," Remus quietly murmurs. "I thought it was strange that your eye color wasn't green."

Lily stares at him. "That's what you thought was strange? Not the tattoo of a flower by my eye?"

Remus hums. "That, too."

Lily shakes her head and sighs. "Anyway, Mental magic users have green eyes and two eyes that stand beside each other next to one's right eye." Lily points to Remus, who looks surprised. "I believe that is Remus' magic, based on his new eye color and Mark."

Sirius and James nod quickly in agreement. "Yup," James agreed. "That makes sense."

Remus glares at James half-heartedly. "I suppose it does," Remus relents after a few seconds of quiet reasoning. "Please continue, Lily."

"Now on to Physical magic users, which I believe James is." James pumps his fist into the air and Lily ignores his excited babbling. "Physical magic users have red eyes." James turns towards Sirius, red eyes wide, expression surprised as Sirius snorts. "Their mark is an active volcano spewing lava."

"Cool," James breathes.

"Sirius is a Dark magic user, I believe." Sirius' lip curls in disgust. "It's not a bad thing, Sirius. It's quite useful, and it's only called Dark magic because people were afraid of it more than others back when magic was sparse."

"That's not making me feel better, Lily," Sirius mutters. James pats his shoulder comfortingly.

"It's fine, Sirius," Lily soothes. "I think it's quite interesting. Ahem, anyway, Dark magic users have black eyes and their mark is a wilted black rose."

"Y'know," Sirius starts, annoyed, "I'm starting to believe that Dark magic here really is terrible."

Lily immediately shakes her head. "Absolutely not! Each magic in this world has a specific set of skills and different, smaller abilities in the main magic."

"Lily, no offense, but that makes hardly any sense," James states.

Lily sighs. "It's kind of like a textbook. It has chapters, then lessons. The main magics, Healing, Mental, Physical, and Dark, are the chapters, and the abilities inside of the magics are the lessons. Does that make sense?"

James nods. "A bit more sense. What are these 'abilities' then?"

"Well, they vary widely, depending on what a person's body and mentality are most suited for, along with one's genetics, of course." Lily taps her finger on the edge of the book before flipping the page a few times. She turns the paper towards her friends, who peer at the pages in interest. "Healing magic is, in a sense, but I'm not going to get into it, the same for every user, but it can be difficult to heal fatal wounds or deep wounds." Lily hums. "Scars, too, can never be fully healed."

Lily nodded to herself as she continued, brow furrowed. "Mental magic is also pretty simple. Mental magic users can only use one variation of the magic. So, one user may be able to brainwash others, but another user may be able to read minds. Anything dealing with the mind, nerves, and sometimes the body can be used by Mental magic users. Make sense?"

Remus nods, smiling slightly. "Interesting, so what can I use?"

Lily pauses. "I...do not know," she admits after a few moments. "I have a theory. But I'll get to that later." Lily takes a breath, slightly tired after speaking for too long. "Now, Physical and Dark magic is quite a bit more difficult than the others. Physical and Dark magic users can use only one variation, or ability, unlike Healing magic users. But Physical and Dark have very diverse abilities.

"Physical magic can include anything ranging from elemental magic, which is quite rare, to super strength or speed, control over plants, those kinds of things." Lily nods to James. "You understand?"

James nods back, smiling cheerfully. "Mhmm. What about Dark magic?"

"It's kind of the same as Physical magic, but, of course, has unique abilities. This can include poison control and manipulation, which is really useful in my opinion, and I believe users can have immortality. There are multiple others, no doubt, but those are just ones I can name off the top of my head. Questions?"

"Just a few," Remus hums. "What is our magic? Or, abilities."

Lily sighs. "There's no way to accurately tell what ability one can use before they use it. But, I looked a bit into it, and as it turns out, you can make an educated guess by looking at one's Mark, body temperature as some abilities affect body heat, and a few other things, but we won't need them.

"My theory is we can use any ability in our magic." Lily holds up a hand, stopping her friends from interrupting. "Now, I could be wrong, but all of our Marks differ from the usual Marks." Lily quickly turns the page of her book, stopping on one page before turning it around for her friends to read. "Page 68 of An Extensive History , paragraph three, line two. 'Despite the deviation of magic users' Marks, the similarities of the four magic Marks are consistent. Each magic Mark is identical to another user's who wields the same magic.'"

Sirius blinks. "And that means…?"

Lily huffs, rolling her eyes. "It means," she stresses, "that Marks are the same for every other user in a particular type of magic. But," she touches the tattooed skin next to her eye delicately, "ours aren't like that. And-"

"-Marks depict what magic one can use," Remus finishes, nodding along. "But why would we be able to use any ability?"

"I'd assume it's because of our...past life?" Lily shakes her head, looking pained. "I don't know what to call this. Time as wizards and witches?"

Sirius shrugs and swings an arm around Lily's shoulder. He smiles, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes. "Doesn't matter what we call it. Might as well get used to it, though."

---

The Present…

And they got used to it, after a while. They learned they can, indeed, use any ability in their particular magic. Sirius was hilariously excited about that development, and he quickly got over any reservations he had about his magic.

To act more like actual people, Lily had encouraged her friends to get jobs, and, despite certain people's whining (cough cough Sirius and James cough cough), she finally convinced them. Lily founded a school and became a first-grade teacher in their village, Inverwood, James and Sirius were magic teachers for young children, and Remus was, surprisingly, a chef who occasionally stopped by Lily's school to teach kids how to cook simple recipes.

They were happy, maybe not as happy as they would have been if they were in their own world, but they dwelt little on their past lives.

Lily stood up from her place on the bench, clapping her hands a few times to get her students' attention. "Time to head back inside, everyone," she calls with a smile. Her twelve students turned to look at her and pouted as one."

"But, Miss Evans-!" Ceri, one of the youngest girls in her class, whines. Lily had kept her maiden name despite her still active marriage to James. In this world, so full of hatred towards magic users, Lily and James didn't want each other to be caught in the crossfire trying to lure the other into something. It was unlikely for someone to target them specifically, but precautions are necessary. "We wanna stay!"

"Aw," Sirius says, smiling at her enthusiasm, "looks like you guys have to leave."

"It was fun playing with you!" James pips in, bouncing one of Lily's students on his lap. James gently sits the child down, despite the protests, and stands up. He shot Lily a smile as he led the reluctant kids towards her. Ceri immediately latched onto Lily's hand once she was close enough, excitedly babbling about what James had taught her. "But you have school and we have to work."

Sirius sighs. "And deal with teenagers . Inexperienced, magical teenagers ," he groans dramatically. He turns towards the children, very serious, and tells them: "Never grow up to be teenagers. Never."

Ceri giggles next to Lily. She tugs on Lily's hand as she jumps up and down. "I won't," she promises, nodding confidently although she made a promise she could never keep. Lily smiles, shaking her head, and gently squeezes Ceri's hand, pulling her towards the brick schoolhouse.

"Come on, we have things to do," Lily says gently. Ceri nods and lets go of Lily's hand, rushing over to her friends as they walk towards the building.

Lily waits as her assistant, Teresa, also a Healing magic-user, takes over before she turns towards her friends, who were waving at the retreating children with varied pep. "Thank you for coming," she says genuinely. "I appreciate it."

Remus waved off her thanks. "It was no problem, Lily," he assured easily. "It was quite enjoyable to get away from work."

"You love being chef, Moony," James points out. Remus nods.

"I do," he agrees. "But I have difficult customers sometimes."

"Well, I, for one, am exhausted ," Sirius complains without being prompted. "Teaching is hard ."

Lily rolls her eyes. "Oh, however, am I to compare to your suffering? Certainly, you have it worse than me," Lily drawled.

Sirius nods in agreement, looking serious. "I do, of course, I do. You get to play around with adorable babies every day while I have to work with inadequate magic users who get frustrated often and whose pride gets hurt more than I thought was possible."

"He's exaggerating," James informs them with a smirk. "He loves his job."

"Don't be a snitch!"

Remus turns towards Lily with eyebrows raised, exasperated in a way that silently communicates these grown men are children , a fact Lily wholeheartedly agrees with even if one of the 'children is her husband whom she loves very much, but she is aware of his childish tendencies.

Lily sighs, eye twitching as her friends bicker. "Stop it," she hisses at them, watching them freeze. "I have to deal with children all day. I'd like to have some peace and quiet in my life. And, last time I checked, you all are not children, which means you should stop acting like one ."

The or else wasn't said, but Sirius and James got her message and obediently quieted down. Lily huffs, opening her mouth to continue chiding them when she smelled smoke coming from the center of town.

Lily freezes, something Remus notes. "Lily?" He asks, concerned. "Are you-"

Blood-curdling screams echo from the forest where their quaint village was located. Remus stops, as do Sirius and James, mouth open in horror as the occupants of Inverwood flee from their homes, chased by the bright, raging flames licking at the trees.

Behind Lily, Teresa stood stock still, looking terrified. That was wrong . There were children here. Children who needed to be protected at all costs.

Lily pulled herself together, mentally whispering reassurances ( it's fine and everything will be okay and you've done this before, you should be used to it by now ). She tapped Remus' shoulder, who seemed to be the least affected out of her friends (which wasn't saying much), alerting his attention.

"Help evacuate everyone you can," she whispers urgently. (Why am I whispering?) He hesitates, before nodding firmly and muttering to James and Sirius to do the same thing. They quickly rush towards the horrified villagers. (Straight into the flames .)

Lily herself runs towards her students (children, young, eight-seven-year-olds, so young), gaining Teresa's attention. "Help me."

Teresa hesitates, just like Remus, but she nods and starts picking up the terrified kids and whispering reassurances to them. She grabs as many as she can (two in her arms, three at her sides) and runs away from the fire, one more at her heels, clutching her pale blue skirt.

She's running towards the forest , Lily realizes. Not the one on fire, no, but the one a few miles north of Inverwood. That forest has thick trees, and it's not only good for hiding, but on the other side (if they can make it) is another village, Stafford, that is fully populated with magic users. A safe zone .

Lily takes a hold of Ceri's pale hand, pulling the light girl into her arms. Ceri buries her face in Lily's shoulder, crying. Lily grabs another child and places him on her back; his hold on her neck is painful, but she's not going to say anything. She grabs two other children's hands, pulling them towards her. Only two more . She couldn't carry two more, and one of those two kids is blind, and the other has a broken leg that isn't anywhere near healed.

Thank Merlin for Remus, though, who swoops in and gently places the blind child on his back, and cradles the other to his chest. Lily breathes a sigh of relief.

"We're heading to the north forest," Lily informs him, nodding in the forest's direction.

"The one before Stafford?"

"That's the one." Lily feels much too calm for someone who's in the middle of a fire. She'll reflect on her mental state later, she has people to save. "Spread the word. Don't be too loud, though, bounty hunters might be here. Someone had to set the fire."

Remus purses his lips and nods, whispering to anyone who comes close about the plan of action.

Lily nudges a young woman holding a child (can't be more than a few months old-Merlin. Why?) in her arms. "North forest," she murmurs to the woman. "Stafford."

The woman nods, looking relieved. The woman walks forward, but then stops, going slack. Remus only just manages to catch the crying child before the mother pitches forward, crimson liquid staining the back of her shirt.

Lily looks down at the woman (she's not breathing), face down into the ground. Lily cringes as the smell of blood reaches her nostrils, gagging as she desperately tries to regain control of her motor functions to keep going .

Remus lightly touches her wrist, looking just as horrified as her, but he tries to smile. He fails, but Lily appreciates the sentiment. Remus can't hold on to the child for long, he's carrying two other children, but he doesn't have to as an elderly woman takes the child from his arms, cradling the baby as she tries to soothe the child.

The woman looks at them, her long, braided blonde hair not able to hide the Mark that Lily always seems to notice first; she's a healer, like Lily, and her very presence immediately calms the child. She nods towards Lily.

"The north forest is where we're going, hm?" She sounds southern, though the accent is faint. She seems kind. She doesn't sound afraid.

Lily nods, afraid that if she starts speaking, she'd start to sob. The woman looks at her. "Be careful," is all the woman says before she's rushing away from the horde of quiet bullets whizzing above their heads.

---

Stafford was a beautiful village, in Lily's opinion. It would have been prettier if not for the fact that Lily was only half-conscious, tired from a full day's journey, covered in soot, ash, and whimpering children.

The walls that protected Stafford were large and towered over everything, just the same height as the trees, which was an impressive feat considering they were in a jungle. The walls were overgrown, though, so Lily couldn't fully appreciate its beauty without getting distracted by the growing vines and messy bushes.

The guard at the top of the gate notices Lily's group quickly, opening the gate with a simple wave of his hand. Lily, still carrying multiple children, hurries inside the walls, Remus in tow.

"Have you seen Sirius or James?" Lily mutters to Remus as the occupants of the village rush out of their homes to help the incoming people. Remus shakes his head mutely, cradling one of Lily's students in his arms. Lily sighs. "They'll be here," she says confidently. "Soon."

Remus purses his lips but says nothing to contradict her. His eyebrows raise as he stares at something in front of them, so Lily turns her head and comes face to face with a woman. Lily barely suppresses the urge to shout and flinch back.

The woman must have noticed her surprise because she flushes and steps back, looking sheepish. "I'm so sorry," she apologizes, her voice quick and airy. She wrings her hands, folding them together before pulling them apart multiple times. "Um, follow me, please."

Lily looks towards Remus, who stares back at her, amused. The woman is walking speedily ahead of them, so Remus shrugs and follows her. Lily huffs in annoyance. She gently pulls on the hand of one of her students to get her attention. The little girl has been staring at the village without blinking for the past few minutes and it's getting concerning. Lily pulls her along, following Remus and the woman.

A few minutes of walking later, Lily's arms have been emptied of children, as has Remus', by kind looking villagers, presumably parents with how gentle they speak and handle the kids, and are standing in front of a wooden, three-story house that gives out a very homey feel. The woman looks way more relaxed than she was when she first greeted Lily and Remus.

She knocks lightly on the white-painted door and waits patiently for the door to open. Lily hears faint noises of loud footsteps and an 'I'm coming!' from inside the house. A few stumbling footsteps later, and a pretty but frazzled-looking woman with light brown hair and green eyes stood in the foyer. Lily realizes she can still hear the footsteps inside the house, louder now that the door was open, and the voices sounded like children. The woman in the foyer was probably a mother.

The mother looked at the other woman, who still had not introduced herself to them, and smiled. "Ivetta," the mother greets. At least Lily knows the woman's name now. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

Ivetta, apparently, smiles back. "Oh, Miss Mercy, it's not for me," she replies, looking towards Lily and Remus with a shy expression. The mother, Mercy probably, turns her sharp eyes to her awkward guests. "It's for them. Do you think you could-"

Mercy waves her hand in the air. "Of course. No need to ask, honey." Mercy pushes Ivetta away from the house. "Now, you best be on your way, child. Don't want to worry that mother of yours."

Ivetta flushes again and nods, squeaking out: "Have a good day!" before she leaves, leaving Lily and Remus along with the woman.

Mercy turns towards Lily and puts her hands on Lily's face, cupping her cheeks. She frowns. "You look malnourished, dear." She clicks her tongue in disapproval and Lily feels like she's going to get scolded despite the fact that she's not a child. "When was the last time you ate, hm?"

"Um," Lily stutters intelligently. Remus smothers a snort beside her. "Like, a day ago?"

Mercy shakes her head. "That won't do." She ushers Lily and Remus inside her home. "Come on now. Let's get you both something proper to eat. Then we can talk."

---

Lily was right, like usual. Mercy Serenette, her full name but she insisted on being called Mercy, was a mother. Mother of six children, she had told them. Tiring work, it is. Wouldn't trade it for the world. Perhaps for a nap, though. Mercy certainly acted like a mother, taking no nonsense from anyone, fretting over them, and she was not afraid of scolding Remus and Lily for anything. She was also a Dark magic user, which reminded Lily of Sirius, who still hasn't been found. Mercy certainly made up for it, though.

It was sweet, Lily supposes, Mercy's concern. Mercy still had to take care of four children, the other two didn't live with her anymore: one was in the village's college and the other was raising a family, so Lily felt guilty at taking up the woman's time. But Mercy had quickly (and sternly) assured her that it was fine, and it was her choice, not Lily's. Which was comforting, if not slightly threatening.

Lily and Remus have only spent two-and-a-half weeks with Mercy, and one word to describe the household environment was chaos . Every morning Lily was sure that the house would collapse under the weight of the havoc that Mercy's children get up to in the early hours of the day. Cassie, a gentle eight-year-old, was the worst of them. You'd think that someone so sweet and shy wouldn't cause so much trouble, but you would be wrong.

Cassie and her twin brother, Simon, seemed to have some sort of war going on every hour of the day, which was most prominent during the morning for some reason. They shared a room, which caused even more problems as they thought that sabotaging the other while they got ready was a grand idea. Lily could hear the noises perfectly since she and Remus shared a room right next to Cassie and Simon, which was an...experience.

Lily would wake up at six in the morning when Cassie and Simon were supposed to wake up and get ready for school, only to hear Simon screaming 'DIE, YOU FIEND!' at the top of his lungs, before Lily heard a loud thumping sound. Lily, of course, rushed to make sure they were alright, but when she opened the door to their room, Cassie was tying her hair into a braid, humming softly while Simon was grabbing his backpack. It was like nothing happened.

The other two kids weren't any better. Melissa, a fourteen-year-old who cared about no one and nothing, and Tristan, an eleven-year-old who talked a lot and always knew random facts, were petty demons . Melissa was an intelligent teenager, and she thankfully didn't involve herself with her siblings' messes. But that also meant that she didn't try to stop them either. Lily is about ninety percent sure that Melissa has done her fair share of pranks, but just blamed it on one of her siblings, which is what makes her a demon.

Tristan, however, is less subtle in his gremlin duties that all these children take part in, apparently. He always tried to one-up his siblings, and he did. Every. Single. Time. And this just made the other children feel like they need to do better. Lily couldn't comprehend how Mercy dealt with these demon children.

In the morning, Lily got dressed as she usually did and headed downstairs, bracing herself before she entered the kitchen. The smell of bacon, eggs, and pancakes filled her nose. Lily learned very early on that Mercy loved to cook, and that she was incredible at it. I had to be , Mercy told her a few days ago. What else would my children eat? I'm a single mother, you know, nobody else to help .

When Lily walked into the kitchen, Remus was reading a book in the corner nook, sipping coffee, Cassie was wrestling with Simon over who would get the peanut butter sandwich or the ham sandwich for lunch, Melissa was eating quietly while subtly helping Cassie win the wrestling match by tripping Simon every few seconds, and Tristan was cheering Simon on and shoving his mouth full of bacon.

Mercy was scurrying around the kitchen, placing plates full of food onto the counter while simultaneously packing lunches for her kids. She looked up at the clock on the wall before clapping her hands together, gaining the attention of the children. She hands them the packed lunches.

"Hurry, hurry!" She tells them, already ushering them out. "Don't forget your backpacks. Melissa, do well on your test today. Simon, dear, stop messing with your sister, you'll be late. Tristan, stop sneaking the food out. I can see you, honey."

"Bye, Mom!" Cassie and Simon yell together, glaring daggers at each other as they rush out the door.

Melissa kisses her mother's cheek. "See you later," she says, casually dragging Tristan behind her. Tristan waves at them.

"Love you!" He shouts, pushing Melissa's arm away from his hoodie. Mercy waves back and the door slams shut. She takes a deep breath.

"Morning, dear," Mercy smiles at Lily, pushing a plate of pancakes towards her. "Eat up."

Lily takes a plate and places two pancakes on top of it, a spoonful of eggs, and one piece of bacon. She sits down on her usual stool and quietly munches on her food, letting the sounds of Mercy cleaning up the kitchen and packaging the leftovers fill the house.

Once Lily finished, she helped Mercy clean up and decided it was the best time to bring up her thoughts.

"Mercy," she starts hesitantly, gaining the older woman's attention. "I have something to speak with you about."

Mercy gives her a concerned glance before nodding. "What is it, dear?"

Lily glances at Remus, who has long since stopped reading his book to listen to the conversation that both Lily and Remus agree on. "So," she starts, fidgeting, "Remus and I were thinking about leaving the village."

Mercy doesn't react like Lily thought she would. She blinked slowly, looking mildly surprised, but she also seemed like she understood. "Really?" She asks lightly.

Lily nods. "We, well, we want to change things."

"Don't we all?"

"But we want to do something about it. And to do so, we would need to leave the village. We know what to do, so no need to worry."

Lily pauses and waits for Mercy to speak, but she doesn't for a while. It's only until a few moments later when she does. "Okay. Do you have a plan? When will we leave?"

Lily blinks. " We ?"

Mercy nods, determined, as if daring her to disagree. "Yes, honey, we . I'm not letting you do this alone. I'm coming with you both, and that is final. Now, do you have a plan ?"

---

The next morning, Mercy introduces them to a woman named Naomi Ciaon, a thirty-year-old Healer and good friend of Mercy's. Upon meeting the woman, Lily almost tripped over her feet.

"You were the woman who helped the baby!" Lily exclaimed. Naomi looks at her and chuckles, nodding.

"I was," she agrees with that same southern accent, smiling.

"You live here, though?" Remus questions, looking confused.

Naomi shakes her head. "I don't really live anywhere. But I've grown quite fond of Stafford. I was just visiting Inverwood, your village, at the time of the unfortunate event. I apologize for the loss of your village."

Lily musters up a smile. She wasn't particularly attached to Inverwood. She'd enjoyed the village and its peacefulness, the people were kind, and her job was delightful, but nothing would compare to her actual life. She appreciated the sentiment, though. "It's fine, but it is not your fault."

Naomi smiles again. Her very presence seemed to calm everyone here, including Lily. "Well, I don't know if dear Mercy introduced me to you yet, but my name is Naomi Ciaon. I'm a Healer, and I specialize in calming people, usually people younger than me, and putting others to sleep."

Well, that explains the aura of calm around her.

"Lily Evans and this is Remus Lupin. It's nice to meet you, Miss Ciaon."

Naomi huffs. "Call me Naomi. Don't need to be too polite if we're going to be working together."

Lily startles. "What?"

Mercy clicks her tongue. "Honey, do you honestly expect me to not get you into contact with others to help you? It's nice to know you have faith in me." Lily stutters out a response, but Mercy puts up a hand and continues on. "I'm joking, dear. Naomi here has been working with a group of the Anti-Magic Laws for a few years now. Ten, if I remember correctly."

Naomi nods. "You remember correctly." Naomi pushes a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "I'd like to say I'm well-versed in Magic Laws, and I've always wanted to get out into the field, but my superiors never agree." Naomi scoffs, crossing her arms. "It's incredibly annoying, as you can probably tell. So, when Mercy told me about you two, I decided that I'd like to join you if you'll have me."

Lily nods her head so quickly that she thought it might fall off. "Of course you can join us," she says with more enthusiasm than is probably necessary or professional. "We'd be very grateful if you could."

Noami's smile brightens considerably. "Thank you," she says sincerely. There's a faint thud from inside the house behind her. Milliseconds after the sound, Naomi turns towards the house behind her, presumably her's. "Say, Evans," Naomi starts casually, "did you happen to know two other people? Black hair, shaggy, and a taller guy with brown-ish hair?"

Lily's heart speeds up. She tells herself to calm down; no need to get her hopes up. Better to expect the worst and hope for the best, so she does just that. "Perhaps," Lily replies just as conversationally. "Why?"

Naomi smirks, an expression that Lily doesn't think should belong on such a kind face. "Oh, well, I have two very panicky males in my house that fit those descriptions exactly. Now, they-"

Naomi doesn't even get to finish her sentence before Lily is off with Remus right on her heels, running towards the house. She pushes the door open, glancing wildly around before her eyes settle on two guys slouching on the leathery black couch. They both look up in surprise and mild alarm, tensing. Then their eyes land on Lily and Remus, and now Lily has two pairs of arms wrapped around her waist, tackling her and Remus to the ground.

James beams at her from his spot on the floor. "You're alive!" Lily's heart breaks at his words, not just because Sirius and James had thought both she and Remus were dead, but because they were so close to each other.

Lily pats his arm lightly and smiles at him warmly. "We're alive."

---

Mercy and Naomi had gotten permission from the village leaders to leave the town that very same day. Lily and her friends had packed clothes, food, tents, and any useful supplies were stored in their packs for the journey. Mercy had taken her children along, not trusting other people to take care of her precious babies. Melissa didn't show it, but Lily could tell that she was relieved that she wouldn't have to take care of her siblings on her own.

At sunrise, their measly group comprising ten people, including Lily, were walking out of the gates of Stafford, the villagers waving goodbye to them as they left. Naomi had the sense to bring a map, multiple maps, actually, each dedicated to different parts of Scotland. When Lily asked Naomi about it, the woman had told her that she collected maps as a sort of hobby. Lily didn't question further, because they came in handy.

They traveled for multiple days, five days since Lily was counting, trying to find some place to set up a more permanent village. A safe haven, like Stafford and Inverwood, but where they'd plan attacks on the so-called 'Correctional Centers.' Lily didn't know of these Correctional centers, really just prisons as Mercy had bitterly told her, even existed until a few days ago when they were packing.

Not much is known about them. But, apparently, they're secure locations in the middle of nowhere dedicated to 'housing' and 'securing the safety of magic users. They really don't do any of those things , Mercy said to Lily one night. They're just prisons. Concentration camps where magic users are treated terribly 'for the good of society.' It's bullshit, that's what it is. And they plan to attack them.

---

Lily learned many things on the journey, just in a few days, so Lily was quite proud of herself. First, how to navigate a jungle. Lily didn't think she was out of shape in any way; she did regular training with Remus, Sirius, and James, and not just in training her Healing magic. But the trek through the thick woods made her reconsider that thought.

The next thing she learned was how to use bows and knives. Then she used those talents to hunt for extra food. You never know when you'll be out of food and need to hunt , Naomi had told her while showing her how to skin a rabbit.

And, as it turns out, Lily was incredible at fishing and building up makeshift camps in several minutes. Even Naomi, who was normally a kind and mild person but became very strict when it came to survival, was impressed. At least Lily could contribute to something.

You do help , Remus' words ring in her head when, on the second night, she had admitted to feeling useless. Remember all those times Sirius and James fell down or one of us got cut by something and you healed us? Was that useless?

On day five, Mercy came rushing back to their makeshift camp, panting but grinning widely. Naomi was up in seconds, striding over to Mercy to check if she was okay. Mercy waved her off. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Stop your worrying, dear."

Naomi huffs, rolling her eyes. "I'm only trying to help." Naomi hands Mercy a sandwich, which the older woman takes gratefully. "Now, why did you look so happy?"

Mercy's grin widens. Lily didn't even think that was possible. "I was hunting for food, as you know, and I stumbled across another one of those clearings that we keep stumbling upon. Remember those?"

Naomi looks like she's trying to stop herself from rolling her eyes. A fruitless effort, in Lily's humble opinion. "Of course I remember them. The camps, right?" It was phrased like a question, but Lily figured that Naomi didn't need any more confirmation.

Mercy starts to speak but closes her mouth as the sounds of Sirius and James fighting come over them. Lily cradled her head in her hands, sighing because she had thought that assigning those two to set up the tents would be a simple, undemanding job that wouldn't involve too much fighting. She was wrong, apparently.

"Dear God , James, what is this mess?"

"It is art , thank you very much."

"I don't know where you got 'art' from this, but that word should never be used to describe a monstrosity of that caliber."

"Excuse me, I don't think I asked for your opinion, Sirius."

"Well, I gave it anyway. You are welcome. And, just in case you didn't hear it the first time, this tent is garbage."

"Your input has been noted and tossed into the nearest volcano."

"At least it died in a blaze of glory, which is more than I can say for that tent."

Mercy chuckles next to Lily. "Anyway," she drawls, "I spotted a few people there, lookin' all tired and ragged. I felt bad for them, so I walked over. They all looked like they were about to fall over if I poked them, but they still stood up to protect their group. Of course, I wasn't looking for trouble, and I told them that."

"What did they say?" Lily asks, curious. They haven't interacted with others, people outside of their group anyway, very much, a few polite conversations with traveling merchants or traders, and that was about it.

"They were suspicious of me, at first," Mercy replies, "which is understandable since a random stranger offered them food, drinks, and a warm place to stay. Seriously, you should've seen their tents; looked about as ragged as the people themselves." Mercy hums. "But, after a bit, I finally got them to agree. So, now they should arrive in, oh, a few minutes, give or take. Melissa is preparing dinner for them, sweet girl."

Naomi sighs after a few moments. "Well, I guess we can't just deny them after you so graciously offered our home to them."

Naomi doesn't seem too happy about that, but Mercy just smiles kindly. "They could be useful allies," she says simply, and Naomi shuts up. With that, Lily stands up, heading towards their tents near a large tree.

"I better go do some damage control," Lily explains. "And make sure James and Sirius don't destroy the forest. You know how they are."

Mercy and Naomi nod grimly, having been witnesses to Sirius and James' arguments over the course of their few days together. Though she has no proof, Lily is about ninety percent sure that Sirius and James had something to do with the multiple burnt patches of rock at their last campsite. Add that with the fact that Lily had been able to sense the Dark magic, the magic Sirius uses, and someone with Physical magic, ahem James , could have only caused the smell of burning wood, Lily is sure she has enough proof.

And, after they had left the campsite, James and Sirius had been unable to look her directly in the eye. So, yes, Lily is positive she is correct in her suspicions.

The people that Mercy had talked about arrived about ten minutes later, according to Naomi, at least. Lily wasn't there when they arrived, she was too busy dealing with her idiot of a husband and his best friend. But, again, according to Naomi, Mercy had been very welcoming and kind, introducing the people to her children and letting the kids work their magic on them.

Figuratively and literally.

Melissa and Tristan had inherited their father's magic, Mental magic, which allowed both of them to make people think differently about them and other things. Lily thought that was incredibly useful in this situation. Cassie and Simon used Healing magic, inherited from their grandparents, one with magic able to cure fatigue caused by illness, hunger, dehydration, loss of sleep, anything really, and the other with the power to heal internal injuries. Both were incredibly useful, and Lily made a mental note to ask them if they can teach her how to wield those specific Healing magics.

Lily had once wondered if any of Mercy's children inherited her magic, Dark magic, but remembered Sirius telling how uncommon it was to get Dark magic through one's genetics. He told her that the last time a Dark magic-user had been born was two hundred years ago. Lily had thought Mercy wasn't too old, but apparently, she's centuries old. Most Dark magic users are centuries old, Lils , Sirius had told her. We're uncommon. The casual way he said ' we ' left Lily thinking about the fact that her friends, and her, thought of this world as home.

"Miss, you're burning the eggs," a kind, male voice said behind her. Lily hurriedly snapped out of her trance and took the smoking pan away from the fire, smiling sheepishly at the man behind her.

"Sorry," she apologizes shyly.

The man nods before hesitantly sticking his hand out. Lily shakes it politely. "It's nice to meet you, Miss. I'm Terrance Aoyi, and you are..?"

"Um, Lily. Lily Evans. Call me Lily, please," Lily stutters. She recognized the man, Terrance apparently, as one of the people they 'took under their wings' as Cassie, the precious child, had stated. He was about twenty years old, if Lily remembers correctly. He was very helpful with fishing this morning, as Naomi had said.

"Well then, I believe it's only fair if you call me Terrance," he smiles brilliantly at Lily. Then he gazes at the plates on the ground, heaped with food. "Would you like some help?"

Lily has never felt so relieved than at that moment. "Yes, please, if it's not too much trouble."

"Not at all," he assures, sitting down next to her and beginning to sort food onto different plates with larger portions for the adults, and smaller portions for the children. "So, how has your morning gone?"

Lily quickly learns that Terrance is an intelligent person, which is perhaps why Lily likes him so much. He fancies everything and anything to do with science, philosophy, and medicine. Obviously, they bond incredibly quickly.

"I was studying to be a doctor, back in my village," Terrance says wistfully as he places utensils and napkins on the plates.

"Really?" Lily prompts, focused on the cooking eggs in front of her. "Are you a Healer? I am."

Terrance shakes his hand. "No, I use Mental magic." He softly flicks Lily's forehead with a smile. "I can erase, plant, or alter memories in my own head, or others. It can be quite useful sometimes. Terrifying to many people, but intriguing. You?"

Lily hesitated for a moment. Remus and Lily had drilled into Sirius and James' heads to not, under any circumstances, tell people about being able to use all abilities in your magic, understood ? They've only told a few people, including Mercy, Naomi, and Melissa. They'll tell Mercy's other children when they're older, but not when they are young and don't need to have a heavy burden on their small shoulders.

But, with how careful they are, Lily wants to tell Terrance. She remembers Mercy's words the night before, they could be allies , and she makes her decision.

"I can use all the abilities dealing with Healing magic," she responds casually. Terrance pauses. Blinks. Then blinks again.

"Wha-?" His confusion makes Lily want to laugh, but she smothers it and smiles instead.

"I can use all the abilities dealing with Healing magic," she repeats, watching for his reaction.

Terrance is quiet for a few moments. Then he says: "Oh."

Lily's smile widens because there is no judgment, no selfish hunger for power in Terrance's eyes and voice, only understanding and a slight bit of awe. "'Oh' indeed."

---

After breakfast, Naomi and Mercy, with the help of their apparent permanent additions, pack up and they're on their way in minutes.

"it's nice to have the extra help," Remus murmurs to her as they make their way through the forest, "don't you think?"

Lily nods in agreement, using one of her many knives to push away the long leaves in her way. "Agreed." Lily hums. "Have you talked to any of the new people?"

"I have," he responds. With a questioning glance from Lily, he continues. "You've met Terrance Aoyi, right? The tall, black-haired guy? I heard you talking to him this morning."

"I did talk to him; he's quite nice."

"He is," Remus agrees easily. "Have you talked to a man named Erik Kane?"

Lily shakes her head almost immediately; she hadn't talked to many of the new people. Aside from a few polite introductions and accepted offers to help with chores, Lily had really only talked to Terrance. "I haven't, I'm afraid."

"I'm not surprised," Remus says, pausing momentarily to gently lift Cassie off the ground from where she tripped. Lily slowed down to wait for him, watching as Cassie thanked him before bounding towards her mother and grabbing Mercy's hand. "He doesn't talk much. Nice person, just quiet. Intelligent. He was one of the Athelney leaders, I believe." Athelney, according to Naomi who Lily should really stop getting information from because half of the stuff that woman tells Lily is bullshit, is a village that was burned down a few years ago and belonged to the wandering travelers.

Lily doesn't try to hide her surprise. "Really?"

Remus nods. "Really. I thought it was shocking, too. For someone so quiet, I would've expected him to be in the shadows, you know? But all the other people, the villagers, had great things to say about him. You should talk to Erik sometime. He could be a-"

"-possible ally," Lily finishes, smiling slightly. "I'll try to talk to him over dinner."

"What is your chore tonight?" Remus asks suddenly. Lily raises a questioning eyebrow. "I think Erik has cooking duty."

Oh . "I have cooking duty, too." What a coincidence , Lily thinks, and, by the smug look on Remus' face, he had something to do with it.

The conversation turns to different things after that, both of them sharing funny stories like the time, about a day ago, when Sirius tripped over an unearthed tree root and fell flat on his face, then complained about it dramatically, saying things like Moony, how can you be so cruel? Have a little sympathy and give me your chocolate and Lils, I've always liked you the best, you know. Always giving me free food, like hopefully now .

Lily enjoys traveling more than she thought she would, actually. The woods were peaceful, the occasional sounds of animals moving smoothly through the forest always made Lily feel excited; she might see a wild animal and, for an animal lover like herself, the forest is the best place to be. Sure, there's the sound of crunching leaves, pounding rocks, and the quiet shuffle of grass at her feet as their group, no longer small with the additional fifteen people, make their way through the trees. And, of course, the noise of voices that floated around her at all times of the day, only quieted down at night. But Lily loved it.

Lily quietly hummed to herself as she used her knife to cut through the surrounding vegetation, cursing under her breath after her foot got caught on a wildly growing bush. Lily cut through the bush carefully, avoiding the place where the berries were growing, until her foot got unstuck. She breathed a sigh of relief as she got up from her place on the ground and walked forwards hurriedly.

She loves the forest, don't get her wrong, but navigating through it is difficult . Not as hard as it was at the beginning of the journey, as her stamina and endurance have increased exponentially, thankfully, but still tiring at times. Lily still had to take a breather every couple of hours to catch her breath or relax her legs and soothe her straining muscles. On the bright side, Lily is much stronger and faster now. Even stronger and faster than when she was in her own world.

Their group stops for a moment, and Lily stops with them. Mercy looks up at the sky, eyes narrowing, before turning back to everyone. "Let's take a brief break to heal, get something in our stomachs, and relax. Sounds good, yeah?"

Murmurs of agreement float up towards Lily's ears, and she all but collapses on the ground, gratefully accepting one of their water canteens from James who sits beside her. He holds his scratched-up arm to her, looking sheepish. "Can you heal me, please?" He asks, pleading. Lily rolls her eyes, but nods.

She grabs his arm carefully, placing her hand mere centimeters from the wound. Lily concentrates and watches as the usual visual of faint green light spreads from her hand, slowly closing the wound. Lily waits for the expected feeling of cool water to wash over her, the way it normally does every time she heals someone. It's not actual water, just a feeling, but Lily relishes in it on days like today where the sun's out and glaring brightly.

James gives her a grateful smile, then a kiss on her cheek. "I'm going to go and help Melissa and Naomi hand out food. I'll be back!" And then he's off. Lily takes a few seconds to enjoy the peaceful silence, well, as silent as nature can get, until someone inevitably comes up to her.

A shadow passes by Lily quickly, then Lily hears and feels someone settling on the log beside her. A scraped-up arm is held out to her hesitantly, and Lily looks up. She's met with a kind man's face, pretty, faint scarlet eyes, and long faded red hair pulled back into a neat braid. The man gives her a sheepish smile. "Sorry to intrude, miss, but I cut my arm pretty badly, and I heard from a friend that you are a Healer. Is it possible-?"

Lily doesn't let him finish, already reaching to place her hand on the straight cut on the man's arm. She narrows her eyes at the wound. "Too deep," she decides. "For bandages, that is." She gestures to his bleeding arm before hovering her hand above the cut, watching the faint green glow and feeling the familiar sensation of cool water. The cut heals up nicely. Lily takes her hand away, inspecting the now closed wound before nodding and tapping the man's arm. "Be more careful next time," she chides gently.

The man chuckles and pulls his arm back, rubbing it almost absentmindedly. "Sorry for troubling you."

Lily smacks his lightly arm, the one that wasn't hurt of course. "Don't apologize."

The man smiles at her and shakes her head. "Nice to meet you. I'm Erik Kane."

"Lily Evans," Lily replies automatically before her brain catches up with his words. She has to stop herself from jumping in surprise. "Erik Kane? As in the former leader of Athelney?"

Does Lily really have this kind of luck?

The man coughs. "Co-leader, actually," he, Erik freaking Kane , admits. "Terrance did a lot of the diplomatic things."

Holy Merlin. Lily does have this kind of luck.

"Well, Erik Kane, I have been looking for you!" Erik Kane looks at her, looking mildly surprised and somewhat amused.

"That sounds very vague, Miss Evans."

Lily's smile turns sheepish. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

"And how did you mean it?" Lily had a feeling this guy was now fully amused at this situation instead of surprised.

Lily glances at Remus, who's quietly laughing with Terrance by Sirius and James, both of whom look thoroughly surprised at whatever Terrance is saying. "A friend," she supplies, "told me to meet with you."

Erik follows her line of sight. "Mr. Lupin?"

"You can just call him Remus, he doesn't mind. Same as me." Lily absentmindedly plays with her nails, which have, admittedly, seen better days. "But yes. We thought you could make an excellent ally."

"Ally?" Erik asks. "For your plan, right?"

Lily isn't surprised. "Yeah."

"Well," Erik says, shifting in his makeshift seat, "I, for one, think it's quite smart. You made the plan to attack Ashmount?"

"With Remus' help."

"And you think this plan of yours will work?"

"Possibly."

"Will it backfire?"

"Oh, no doubt in my mind."

Erik grins at her. "I like those odds."

---

To absolutely no one's surprise, it was Naomi and Mercy who found it. 'It' being the large clearing the group, including Lily, were standing in. Lily is not kidding when she says it's large; large doesn't even begin to describe the sheer amount of land in front of her. And Lily adored the place with her whole heart.

The clearing went on for miles; Lily couldn't even see the end. She could, however, see the clear-blue rivers weaving in and out of the land like a sewing needle poking through a sweater. Along with the faint sounds of cows, sheep, horses, and pigs, Lily could hear the rushing of the water in the river, which reminded her of how thirsty she was.

The surrounding land was flat, save for a few hills here and there, and was surrounded by a thick barricade of trees that protected the field. Perfect for a permanent camp; just what they were looking for.

Mercy clapped her hands together, looking absolutely delighted. "Oh, goodness!" She gasps, looking around. "I think we found our home, dears."

Naomi grinned and adjusted her grip on her backpack. "Agreed," she nods before raising her voice. "Alright, everyone. If we start setting up camp now, we should finish by dinner!"

"Speaking of dinner," James interjects, slyly grinning, "someone should get started on that."

Terrance pops up behind him, out of nowhere-how does he do that , and smacks him lightly on the head. "Yeah, like you ." And starts dragging a whining James away to cook dinner. Next to Lily, Remus rolls his eyes and huffs, smiling down at her as he sets his bag down.

"You heard the lady," he says, gesturing to Naomi. "Let's get started because I'm starving ."

Their tents, thanks to mostly Lily's efforts, were set up in less than ten minutes. Once Lily was finished unpacking things, she quickly scarfed down her dinner (a simple sandwich) at the ungodly time of nine, and, as a last-minute thought, she grabbed her bow, a quiver full of arrows on her back, and her hunting knives that were attached to various parts of her body and headed off to the wilderness.

It was a quiet night, peaceful even. The stars were bright and shining that night; the moon leading Lily through the forest. Her footsteps were as quiet as possible, hardly making a sound as she trekked her way through the jungle and the dense trees. Lily cut through the drooping leaves with her knife, kept her eyes and ears sharp, and one hand ready to grab her bow.

Crunch .

Lily leaped up into the nearest tree quickly, grabbed her bow, and notched an arrow, peering through the leaves. She spotted a small-sized deer walking serenely around the trees. Lily huffed out a breath as she left the deer alone; it wouldn't have helped much, anyway. She placed her arrow back into her quiver, gazing down at the ground below her.

It's times like these that Lily cherishes with all her heart. Traveling was hard . Finding a permanent place to call her own was hard . Planning an attack on the Correctional Center Ashmount was hard .

Ashmount, according to their, admittedly, limited information, was close to them, only about a day's worth of traveling by foot. It was one of the newer and smaller Correctional Centers, but it was still just as horrible as others. Lily had hesitantly approached the topic to Remus after they started their journey, back when none of them really knew what they were doing.

"Ashmount?" Remus repeated with a confused expression on his face.

"Ashmount," Lily confirmed shyly. "That new Correctional Center that Mercy was talking about?"

Remus runs a hand through his hair. "No, I know what you're talking about, but..."

"It's a lot?" Lily guesses. Remus looks relieved as he nods.

"Yeah." He exhales, watching the stars from the cracks in between the trees. "I-It's a lot. You think we can actually do this?"

Lily looks at James who was lying next to her, asleep and dead to the world around him. She stares at her hands. "I don't know," she admits."I'm kind of going into this blind."

"You're not the only one," he assures her, giving her a weak smile that Lily could barely see in the faint light of the moon.

"But," she continues, gaining confidence, "I think we could do this. Ashmount is a good start. A good beginning."

"Beginning to what, exactly?" Lily assumes he's eyeing her with concerned eyes. "Lils, what are you planning?"

Lily didn't respond to him because she didn't know the answer. To either of the questions.

Lily, after gaining the permission of Remus, had brought up their conversation to Naomi, who had agreed that they'd start planning an attack as soon as they got settled down somewhere, and promised it with a sly smile that had looked almost evil in the night.

Now that they were somewhat settled down, preparation for the attack on Ashmount would begin soon, and Lily wouldn't have nearly as much time on her hands as she does now. Which means no more late-night excursions to the forest.

Crack.

Lily jumped into action, landing gracefully on the ground after she jumped from the tree since that sound was not an animal. Mercy didn't look even a little bit surprised at Lily's presence and instead smiled at her.

"Lily," Mercy greeted, nodding at her weapons. "Hunting?"

Lily lowered her bow. "Yeah," she said, like it wasn't obvious. "You?"

"Oh, just wanted to ask if you were okay," she responded casually.

"Then are you going to ask?" Lily questions dryly. Mercy chuckles.

"Blunt as always, but no." Mercy eyes the large tree Lily had just jumped from. "Think I can get up there?"

Lily snorts. "Sure, you can try if you want."

Mercy smiles, shaking her head. "I'm going to pass on that . I'm not as young as I used to be, darling." And Mercy just leans against a tree, still looking at Lily. "So, dear, what's on your mind?"

"Thought you weren't going to ask questions."

"I said I wasn't going to ask you if you were okay, not what was on your mind," Mercy retorts gently. "So, what is on your mind?"

Lily shrugs noncommittally. "Nothing much."

Mercy gives her a look. She tsks . "You have to give me more than that, dear," she says exasperatedly.

Lily bites her lip. Mercy is a very persistent person when it comes to someone's wellbeing, it comes with being a mother, child , so Lily could hardly avoid the question without constant pestering.

Lily huffs in defeat. "I'm worried," Lily admits.

"Worried or scared ?" Mercy questions, eyes soft.

Lily takes a moment to think. "Both?" Lily sighs, running a hand through her hair. "I don't know. I'm worried about the attack on Ashmount, and, even though we haven't even planned it yet, I'm scared that it's going to go wrong." Lily shakes her head. "I'm a mess."

Mercy pats her hand comfortingly. "Don't stress it too much," Mercy tells her. "Naomi has been doing what I call 'stress screaming' which is exactly how it sounds and even more annoying. But it's how she gets out her worries and nerves. Hunting is like that for you, I presume. Everyone has their ways, and you shouldn't feel bad about it, okay?"

Lily nods, offering a weak smile that Lily can tell doesn't ease Mercy's worries. "I don't feel bad about it. It's...comforting, I guess."

Mercy smiles back, albeit a little more reassuring. "I know, dear." Mercy turns her attention to the canopy of stars. "I know."

---

After the whole excursion in the forest, in the morning, Lily went back to the village. She heard orders being shouted to their temporary builders as she made her way towards the one finished building that held the meeting room. It wasn't a large building by any means, only big enough to fit about ten people, a wooden table that seats the same amount of people, chairs, a tiny bathroom that wasn't wired whatsoever, and a small refreshment bar that was just a table with two coolers underneath because none of them knew anything about engineering. But it would have to do.

Lily waved at Erik, who was handing out drinks to people, and smiled at Terrance as he cooked brunch. Cassie and Simon played around with other younger kids, which there were only three of, while Melissa supervised and helped Triston solve his weird math puzzle. Lily didn't see Remus, James, or Sirius anywhere, which was good since they should already be in the meeting room. Erik, Terrance, Naomi, and Mercy were also supposed to be there, but Erik and Terrance would be a bit as they had chores to do.

"Lils!" James shouted happily as soon as Lily opened the door to the meeting room. "Tell Sirius I was right!"

"Right about what?" Lily asked warily.

"Well," James begins, " I was right about the fact that we're getting right hands, or secretaries I guess."

"What?" Lily couldn't be more confused.

"Yeah!" James exclaims excitedly. "Since this whole thing was our idea, we have been unanimously nominated as the village leaders."

"Why."

"People thought we were talented leaders," Sirius piped in. "So, now, we're officially the village leaders. You, Remus, James, and me. Cool, right?" The ' just like old times ' went unsaid, but Lily still heard it. The ache in her heart had dulled since they first appeared in this world two years ago, and now Lily didn't mind it too much. Even though she missed her son, her friends, her world , she still has to survive here.

"I guess," Lily agreed hesitantly. "Do we get to choose our right hands?"

"I'd assume so," Remus said, stepping into the room. "We have to wait for Erik and Terrance, though. Naomi and Mercy are already here, but they're outside. Shouldn't take too long, though." Remus held up a plate. "Cookies?"

"Hell yes!" Sirius quickly took four cookies before Remus could pull the plate away. Remus rolled his eyes and offered Lily one, which she took.

The wait for Erik and Terrance wasn't long, just like Remus had said, only a few minutes before they walked in through the door, Mercy and Naomi in tow.

"Oh, cookies," Terrance said, surprised as soon as he stepped in through the door. "Can I have one?"

"Be my guest," Remus said, pushing the plate towards him. Terrance took one and sat down next to Remus. The rest took their seats, except for Naomi, who started the meeting.

"Okay," she starts, looking at everyone, "first order of business before we start with the actual planning: you morons need right hands."

" I was right ," James whispers to Sirius, who stomps on his foot.

Naomi glared at them. "This is why I called you morons." That shut the two up. Naomi turned to Lily. "Lily, any ideas for your right hand?"

"Mercy," Lily replied without hesitance. "Wait, what do right hands do , exactly?"

"Well," Mercy says, "back in my village, our leaders had the right hands that helped a lot with planning and did a lot of public appearances. Not so much with diplomatic matters, but they helped a few times. They were usually kind and charming people."

Lily smiles at her. "Well, you fit that description perfectly. I'll have Mercy as my right hand. James?"

"Um, Naomi? Would you mind being my-"

"Sure," Naomi said curtly, not even letting him finish. "I don't mind. And you, Remus?"

"If it's not too much trouble," Remus says, "I'd like to have Terrance as my right hand."

Terrance beams, and Naomi nods, opening her mouth to speak, but Sirius beats her to it. "Erik, you want to be my right hand? It'll be fun."

Erik smiles lightly. "Fine by me, it's been a while since I've done anything like this."

Naomi sits down, folding her hands on the table. "Great, now that that's settled, we need to move on to more important matters: Ashmount. Lily, I believe you have a plan."

Naomi nods to Lily, who takes a deep breath and steels herself. "I do, actually. It's simple but effective. Here's how it should go..."

---

Lily's always loved the stars, even in her own world. But as her group, the third extraction group, made their way through the dense forest, and after ten hours of non-stop traveling, during the night of all the times, Lily was getting quite sick of the stars.

Thankfully, her group consisted of Erik, Remus, Mercy, and a twenty-year-old Dark magic user named Jeanine, who was fairly quiet and kind. Thank Merlin for small mercies. Lily doesn't know what she would have done if any of her friends weren't in her group. She'd probably be bored out of her mind and probably would have a few panic attacks out of pure nervousness for the attack on Ashmount, which is where they were traveling right now.

In approximately thirty-four minutes, extraction group number once, which included James, Sirius, Naomi, and a few others, would enter the Correctional Center Ashmount by a spot where the cameras couldn't see, where the fence barbed wire didn't reach, and where the wall was the least guard and fortified. Roughly six minutes after the first extraction team goes in, the first defense team goes in to gather the so-called 'prisoners', or magic-users, who were wrongfully imprisoned in Ashmount. Then the next extraction team goes in after that is the second defense team, and then Lily and her group go in.

It's nerve racking, especially on Lily's fragile emotions at this point in time. Before they left the still-in-construction village, Lily had been dealing with the shortage of food, Remus had been working with others on blueprints, Sirius and James had been educating others in anything ranging from mathematics to practicing magic, and their right-hands had been doing their best to help where they could. Despite that, their village was in rough shape.

Lily had, luckily, come up with a solution for the shortage of food. That, of course, was creating farms. Tomatoes were easy to plant, and Erik was an excellent farmer, and not just because his magic was plant-based, bread was easy to make, and berries had already been growing in the forest, they just needed to send people out to get them. Lily had quickly implemented a chore system for their tiny population, and people followed it diligently. Surprising , Terrance had told her as they watched people from a newly built cafeteria. This isn't how it usually goes . But Lily would take what she could get.

Remus had succeeded in creating blueprints for the entirety of their village (which they would have to change if- when- they got magic-users out of Ashmount), and the village's builders were already working on creating the houses.

Sirius and James had helped young children, with some help from Melissa, like Mercy's children and the new ones, with their schooling. They had some trouble at first, but quickly got it under control. Lily was quite proud of her friends for their accomplishments, but that still didn't stop her from stressing about things in the village even while she was on a very important mission .

Lily had to get herself back on track. Sixteen minutes had already gone by while Lily was in her own world, which means she only had around thirty minutes until she had to go in. Stupid . Focus .

They, as in her group, Lily included, were supposed to be watching the towering dark gray walls of Ashmount to spot any guards who may spot them, but Lily has obviously been failing at it. Lily scowled at herself, causing Erik to shift beside her, concerned eyes turned towards her. How he spotted the scowl on Lily's face in the dark of the night is beyond Lily's comprehension.

"You okay?" He whispers, the sound barely coming out. Lily nods and turns away, signaling the end of the conversation. Erik probably wants to press, but Mercy elbows both of them in the sides, shushing them with sharp eyes. Erik shuts up after that.

Thirty minutes pass by remarkably quickly, unfortunately, for doing something so tedious as crouching down in bushes and trying to not make a single sound. But it does, and soon, Lily and her group are making their way into Ashmount via a small hole in the east sidewall. The hole was only big enough to crawl through, and Lily could practically see Remus' silent groan. Lily cracked a smile.

Lily shuffled in through the hole after Mercy disappeared into the Correctional Center. For someone Mercy's age, Lily was surprised at how quickly she got through. She'll think about it later. Focus .

As it turns out, luck was not on her side today. Why? Because the moment she and Mercy turned the corner, a wave of goddamn guards in black uniforms (and holding stupidly large guns that Lily is pretty sure is illegal) surrounded them.

Mercy's breath catches in her throat, and Lily grimaces, steeling herself. Her Healing magic, unfortunately, isn't suited to battles, but Mercy's is. Mercy places her hands on the ground and, in a split second, a wave of green gas floats through the air towards the guards at high speed, curling around them like a snake. The guards dropped their weapons, grasping at their necks as they tried to breathe in something that isn't poison.

Mercy's mouth is pursed as the guards drop to the ground one by one. She gestures to Lily as the gas recedes back into the ground (Lily has questioned why the poison comes from the ground, but Mercy has never said anything. As an off-handed comment, Melissa had mentioned something about her 'father' or Mercy's husband. Lily never questioned again).

"Come on, Lily," she murmurs, loud enough for Lily to hear, but quiet enough that Lily had to strain her ears. "We have a schedule."

Lily hesitates, then follows Mercy as she leaves after half a second. The faint sounds of fighting reached Lily's ears, and she winced. This was supposed to be a stealth mission. That obviously didn't happen, if Lily's and Mercy's encounter was any example.

"Over here!" Remus shouted. Lily sighs; she guesses there really is no need for any subtlety anymore. Mercy pivoted corners, her boots quickly making their way through the muddy pathway. Lily followed and found herself next to three long lines of wooden houses.

And Lily is not kidding. The houses look more like shacks, really. The buildings couldn't have held over five people at a time, but Naomi had informed everyone that ten to fifteen people were packed into one hut. Lily had assumed the conditions in these Correctional Centers were bad, but she didn't expect it to be so...inhumane. It was disheartening.

Mercy looks over at the rows of shacks, which probably had around fifty buildings altogether, and says: "Lily, take the right row, Remus, the left one, and I'll take the middle. Jeanine, help us escort the magic-users out of here, and lead them to the entrance. The other teams should've cleared a path by now."

Everyone nods and rushes off to do their jobs. Lily jogged up to the first building, and heard the light voice of Mercy saying: "Yes, now get your asses out of this shack right this instant or so help me, God, I will burn this place down to the ground, and maybe then you'll realize you should get out of this godforsaken place ." Lily chuckled nervously; Mercy isn't always kind and patient.

Lily got to the first building's door and groaned quietly: it had an electronic lock. How annoying. Lily placed her hand on her chin, deep in thought. Her magic isn't used much in battle, save for healing warriors' wounds, but she had a few tricks up her sleeves. Lily gripped the electronic lock with both her hands, narrowing her eyes and let her magic flow to the lock. It's harder since it isn't a person, nor is it a wound. But Lily had discovered she could use one of her abilities, Warm, which would usually warm a person with hypothermia, overheat something electronic, or slowly burn a piece of wood down.

It takes a few seconds, no more than a minute, but the electronic lock fries and melts beneath her fingers. Lily hisses at the hot temperature but heals her hands quickly. Lily opens the door with more force than necessary and, apparently, the door couldn't handle that because it flew off its hinges and laid on the floor. Lily grimaces at the sharp sound it made, but looked up after hearing a soft gasp.

A little girl, probably around six ( six, dear god ) , makes her way towards Lily cautiously, curious eyes flickering between Lily and the door that couldn't handle the strain. The girl seems oblivious to the pale (so pale) hands trying to bring her back into the darkness that provided safety. The girl peers up at Lily through her long lashes, looking at Lily like she's a particularly confusing specimen and the child was tasked to study her. It was unnerving, especially for a six-year-old who looked like a corpse.

The kids had long, black hair that fell to her waist, looking like it hadn't been washed in weeks and cut in years. She had, from what Lily could see, scarlet eyes. Lily assumes she's a Physical magic user because of her eyes and her Mark, a barely eligible active volcano near her eye. She was pale, so thin that Lily could see her ribs protruding from her abdomen.

The girl stepped forward shakily, despite her determination to see what was going on. "W-Who are you?"

Lily's heart breaks for this child; her voice sounds like it hasn't been used in decades , even though she couldn't be more than eight or so. "I'm Lily Evans," Lily responds slowly, but clearly. "I'm here to help you."

Silence. It was quiet before, but Lily could be able to hear a pin drop on the other side of the world with how quiet it was.

"What?" Another voice says, breaking the silence. A woman comes forward, looking exactly like the little girl. Her mother, most likely . The woman started forward and gripped the little girl's hand in her own bony hands. "That's not possible."

"It is," Lily insists. "It is possible, and I really need you all to come with me because I still have fourteen or so other cabins to clear out in a minimal amount of time."

No one moved. Lily resisted the urge to sigh; she can do this. She's a mother, she can be patient.

The little girl moves forward first. "You're going to take us out?" She asks quietly.

Lily nods in confirmation but realizes that they probably won't be able to see her very well. "Yes."

The little girl is across the room in seconds, unhesitantly taking Lily's hand. The rough skin of the child's hand makes Lily's heart hurt. "Asteria!" The child's mother cries, reaching out towards her. "You can't-"

The girl, Asteria , tilts her small head. "Mama," she starts quietly, looking confused, "don't you want to leave? And find Papa?"

By the pained look on the mother's face, there is no 'Papa' to find. The mother comes near, gripping Asteria's other hand in hers. "Of course, dear," the mother murmurs, blinking back tears. "Of course I want to." The woman turns towards Lily, eyes like steel. "Well? I believe you said something about a time crunch? Let me help."

Lily smiles.

Asteria's mother, Eyea, was an immense help. As a Physical magic user, she could create sentient creatures (she called them 'Imps' which Lily had dryly thought was fitting) that looked like a mix between a phoenix and a dragon. Lily had found that the so-called 'Imps' were stronger during the day, but Lily still thought they were plenty strong when one of them knocked down a portion of a cabin's wall in one hit.

Lily was just finishing up with herding the imprisoned magic users away from Ashmount when she stumbled into James. Literally stumbled. Almost fell flat on her face had he not caught her with a quiet chuckle.

"Thanks," Lily mutters, dusting herself off regardless of not having anything on her being at the moment, save for her camouflaged clothing. "Can't believe that." She smacked his chest, watching as he winced with satisfaction. "Asshole."

James grinned cheekily at her. "It's not my fault you ran into me ."

Lily rolls her eyes. "Sure." She knocks on the side of his head. "C'mon, we're almost done. I'm tired and hungry."

"I'd assume the others are, too."

Before they could make it a few steps, Lily heard a scream, and her blood ran cold. It wasn't a very loud scream, but probably because it was a child's scream, horrified and choked. Lily felt James freeze behind her, and she whirled around to see him, face as white as a ghost, staring straight ahead. Lily was about to walk forward but stopped, feet planted firmly in the wet mud.

In front of her laid the body of Eyea, her daughter kneeling beside her, sobbing on her chest and screaming.

" Mama! "

Lily would never forget that scream.

James swore beside her, sending a burst of fire towards the approaching guards. Lily ran over to Eyea's side, running her hands to find any injuries. There, nudged in Eyea's abdomen, was a bullet, issued by Red Eye Incorporated, the company used for mass-producing weapons to 'protect non-magical civilians.' Lily grimaced, pushing her panic and fear and thoughts of 'oh my Merlin, she's going to die'; she's got bigger problems.

Eyea gurgled, groaning in pain. "Shh shh," Lily tells her softly, gently placing her hands over Eyea's abdomen. She needs to get the bullet out, but Eyea is starting to stop struggling and pressing into the ground. Lily curses, trying to ignore the agonized sobs beside her. "You-You'll be okay," Lily chokes. "Okay?"

Eyea nods, just the barest tilt of her head. "O-okay," she wheezes, staring up at the sky like the same stars she sees every night are something to admire. Not now they're not.

Lily tries for a smile, putting pressure on the wound. "Y-Yeah," Lily murmurs, blinking back tears. "We're g-gonna get outta here. That includes you."

Eyea's eyes are still trained on the sky. "Oka'," she repeats, slurring her words, which were softer than before. "Tha-ank you."

"For what?" Lily asks, distracted by the blood on her hands, on the ground, and, oh god, smeared on Asteria's clothes.

"Gett'g us ou'," Eyea says, words so quiet Lily could hardly hear her. "M' daughter ss' saved."

"I-It was n-no trouble." Lily's outright crying now, drops of water landing on Eyea's plain red shirt. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

Eyea smiles faintly, like it's some sort of sick joke. "Okay," she says again. Lily hates that word. "Ok'y." Eyea's mouth was moving, but Lily couldn't hear the words. She couldn't read Eyea's lips either; her eyes were blurred with tears. Lily assumed she said 'okay' by the way Asteria hiccuped and responded with 'Y-Yes, Mama. Y-You're are o-okay.'

Lily watched as Eyea died right in front of her daughter. Lily wouldn't notice this until years later, but Asteria didn't look sad; she looked...

( unhappy )

( angry )

( vengeful )

---

They held a funeral for those they lost during their attack on Ashmount a week after they got back. The village, now housing over a thousand people and continuing to be expanded, had an official mourning period that lasted two weeks. Loved ones and close friends of the newly deceased could take off of work for a week, few did, though. Despite the fact that people were mourning, that still didn't change the fact that the village needed to expand and new upgrades.

Lily herself had hardly gotten a few hours on her own to mourn, save for the day the entire village got together for the burials and funerals that took place; she was simply too busy. Lily had been put in charge of managing agriculture and overseeing the limited food supply they had. Diets and necessities for food were told to one of her assistants (of which she has five . Lily didn't think she needed five assistants. Spoilers: she did), who told Lily. Lily then created plans for food distribution every week.

Along with food distribution and monitoring the farming sections of their, admittedly, large village, Lily had other duties. A few of these such jobs were managing their finances, foreign affairs, including trades, (which wasn't too difficult as other magic villages were kind to different magic villages), and finding places for former prisoners of Correction Centers to stay. So, you can see how Lily never had much time to mourn.

But the village was expanding, which was good, she guesses.

Lily also never got to see much of her friends. James was off creating and working the education district of Elysium (Lily had elected to name it 'Elysium' in honor of their quaint little home from the beginning of this...adventure. The decision had been anonymous.), Sirius had been overseeing construction work, and Remus had been organizing their government; they were in charge of other things, too. They didn't want Elysium to be a monarchy, but most of the villagers had said that they didn't think they were ready to govern an entire village.

So, the compromise was that Lily, James, Remus, and Sirius, along with their secretaries, would become Prime Ministers, basically, but only until the people were comfortable enough to become a federal republic. Lily was fine with that when they made the decision. But, two weeks in, laying in her bed (without James, who was still working) in her massive mansion that the public had gifted all of the 'Prime Ministers', exhausted, she was regretting agreeing if only so that she doesn't have to be so tired all the time.

Ring. Ring. Ri-

"Shut up," Lily grumbles at the phone, groping through the darkness. Lily places the phone to her ear on the last ring, not bothering to sound less tired than she actually was. No one had her phone number besides her closest friends and co-workers, not the public. "Lily Evans speaking."

"Lils." Lily jumped up at James' tense voice. "We-uh-have a situation."

Lily's already walking to her closet, pulling on a simple but pretty short, white dress. She still has to look nice since she is a Prime Minister. Even if it is four a.m. in the morning, and only a few people are awake at this hour.

Halfway through pulling on her dress, Lily asks: "What kind of situation?" Please don't let this be like Ashmount . The pain was still fresh.

"Not a...terrible one." That does not inspire confidence. "Before you panic, I mean it's kind of an emotional matter?"

Lily huffed out a laugh, hung up without another word, pulling on a jacket, and braced herself for the chill May morning weather before stepping outside. Lily jogs towards Bastet Hill, which really isn't a hill per se, more of like a cliff, but James had jokingly named it that when they first arrived and the name had stuck (James had claimed it looked like a cat and had explained that Bastet was the Egyptian goddess of cats. Everyone had looked at him, surprised that he knew something like that. James had, unsurprisingly, pouted and complained about their 'lack of faith in his greatness').

Bastet Hill was where the Obelisk was located. The Obelisk was where Lily and her friends got most of their work done. It was pretty much any old government building; marble pillars, white walls, concrete floors, lavish decoration, etc, etc. Their offices, however, were not the most luxurious things ever. They were spacious, yes, but they were more comfortable and practical than grand.

Lily pushed open the door to the meeting room, dubbed by James Where Miracles Happen™, and was greeted by her friends and their secretaries arguing heatedly over the long wooden table.

"-solutely not!" Naomi was hissing loudly at an impatient-looking Sirius. "This is foolish, Sirius!"

"Please calm down," Erik was saying, desperately trying to stop them from trying to murder each other.

"Foolish?" Sirius challenges, placing his hands on the table separating them. "You know what's foolish? Staying out of it. This is our one chance to abolish those goddamn laws, and change the way those idiots in charge do things."

"Our one chance? There could be more!"

"I agree," Remus interjects smoothly, looking thankfully at the table and somewhat pitying. Again, the pity was directed at the poor table that has endured too much. "With Sirius." At Naomi's glare, Remus puts his hands up in a placating gesture. "While I understand your reasoning, I think it would benefit us, and others, more to take our chance."

Naomi throws up her hands. "Insufferable! You people are-"

Lily takes that as her cue to place herself in the conversation, walking towards her chair and sitting down. Seven pairs of eyes snap towards her. "What is going on?" Lily doesn't give anyone a chance to continue, instead, she turns to Mercy, who was also sitting down and looked quite pained. "Mercy?"

Mercy coughs, sniffling before someone hands her a tissue. "Thank you, dear," she says gratefully. "Colds." She shakes her head tiredly before looking at Lily. "Short story or long?"

"Mix."

"Mhmm," Mercy starts, "I'd assume you'd remember dear Asteria?" Lily freezes (hiccuping and choking and neverending sobs; blood so, so much blood; Lily couldn't tell which tears were hers and which were the grieving child beside her) .

"Yes," Lily says shortly, nodding stiffly.

"You gave her a suitable home five days ago, didn't you? Fitting in quite well, too." Mercy nods to herself. "Yes, well, what you don't know is the fact that before then, Asteria had told us about her village, Celestia, that was taken over by people in black clothes."

"The government?"

Mercy nods, frowning. "Yes, the men in black clothes were government agents. They took Asteria and most people in the village. Most people . Asteria had remembered her mother and late father hiding children and families in dumpsters and pushing them into the surrounding areas. So, we asked some former Celestian people to guide our scouts to see if there were any survivors. We had hoped there was; those government agents aren't always the most thorough.

"When our scouts arrived at Celestia, the whole village had been burnt to the ground, save for a few charred stone buildings and foundations made of stone. Everything there was unsalvageable. Unlivable. Strangely enough, the former Celestians had told us that the village was not on fire by the time they left, even the ones that were taken later than others said there were no fires."

"So, the government agents set the village on fire after they had taken everyone out?" Lily was slightly confused. Why ?

Mercy sighed. "We assumed that the agents didn't think they had everyone out. But they did. They got everyone." Lily didn't like where this was going. "What I'm saying, or implying, is that the government had been telling these agents to burn down our villages after the raid them. With no regrets."

Lily felt like she was going to throw up. "Oh."

"'Oh' is right, dear. But I feel like that isn't the best way to describe this." Mercy settles back into her chair. "What we are fighting over is staying here, building up our village, and staying out of whatever the government is doing."

"And the second option?"

Mercy twirls her hair, sighing again. "The second option is going to take a little visit to Wattson Officials and causing a panic, showing the public that the government isn't as in control as they thought."

The Wattson Officials building is where all magical laws and rules and such were created, argued about, and accepted. And the public knew about it. What the public didn't know was how magic users were being treated.

"The second option," Lily said without hesitation.

Naomi groaned. "You too?"

Lily smiles at her kindly. "Sorry, Naomi, but this could really be our one chance to get the public on our side. It'd be easier to change the laws with the public on our side."

Naomi runs a hand through her hair, staring at Lily intently. "You do realize that this could backfire on us horrifically. In so many ways."

"Then we'll just have to make sure it doesn't."

Naomi makes a pained noise. "That isn't how it works."

Mercy pats her back comfortingly.

---

Of course, they couldn't attack Wattson Officials without any plans or resources. So, they had to play the long game. A two-year-long game.

Now two years older and drowning in paperwork, Lily sighed, tiredly signing her name for what has to be the hundredth time in the past hour. James, who has been hanging out in her office for that same hour, chuckles. Lily resists the urge to throw one of her mini couch's pillows at him. Easy for him to laugh; he finished his paperwork hours ago.

"Will you stop that?" Lily finally snaps at James, who thought that bouncing a ball against the wall and trying to hit it with his legs was a good idea. It was not. "It's distracting me."

"From doing what?" James replies, momentarily stopping.

Lily huffs and gestures at her desk, which was taken over by papers. " This , you moron. I have food distribution plans to make, chores list to create for this week, Mercy spotted an error in our farming system in the east which I now have to fix, the trades with Myrefall aren't running as smoothly as it could so, of course, I'm going to make it better. The west side's market is needing money to repair the roads, money that I was hoping to save for creating another sub-section in the south because it's becoming overpopulated with all the hits we've been doing on Correctional Centers. Oh, and I can't forget the upcoming attack on the Wattson Officials building and because of that, I've been spread thin with all the work it's been taking to save all our supplies for it." Lily takes a deep breath. "So, as you can see, I'm incredibly busy and stressed and you doing whatever that is is not helping."

Silence. Precious silence.

"Sorry," James tells her, looking sheepish. "I can leave?"

Lily takes another breath. It's not James' fault that she's so stressed. "No, you can stay. Take a nap, you look like shit."

James grins at her, falling gracelessly on her couch. "Thanks. You look great, too."

Lily smiles a little before immediately getting back to work, letting James' soft snores that came after a while calm her.

It took another two hours of straight work to finish all the things she wanted to do, and, unfortunately; she didn't get to eat lunch.

Lily puts down her quill, still preferring to use a quill and ink instead of a pen or pencil. Small traces of her old home in her new one. Lily stretches, sparing a glance at a still sleeping James. She got up, grabbed a blanket, and threw it over him. After that, she turned off the light and headed out of the building. Lily winced as the bright sun hit her face as she stepped outside, but still walked down Bastet Hill.

Bastet Hill, and, by extension, their work, was located on the north side of their village, Elysium, which was the most populated, the south side a close second. It was basically a city, bustling with people and shops and loud noises. Lily didn't like it too much, which was why her house (more of like a mansion) was in the west, the least populated side. That, and the west was where her department, Agriculture, was prominent since it was where all the farmland was. Lily enjoyed her peace, sue her.

People waved at her as they walked by, politely smiling and nodding their heads at her. Lily smiled and waved back, relishing in the kindness that was abundant in Elysium. It was incredible, really, and sometimes still takes her breath away.

Lily didn't really know where she was going, only that she wanted to stay outside for as long as possible. She could head to her house, but dismissed the idea; it was too far away and Lily still has work to do. More work than usual as the attack on Wattson Officials was coming up in two weeks.

Lily ended up at the Grounds, where soldiers practiced and teenagers were taught how to use their magic to the fullest. Lily always liked the Grounds, strangely enough. She was always roped into healing injured people, which was fine, but could take a lot out of her.

"Evans!" A voice shouted. Lily turned towards the sound, laying eyes on Melissa Serenette, Mercy's daughter who had become an instructor for archers. Melissa jogged over to Lily, long brown hair flowing behind her. "It's nice to see you again." She points her thumb behind her where her twin siblings were fake wrestling with each other. At least, Lily hoped it was fake. "Without you or Mom here all the time, these idiots have been getting up to more trouble."

Lily laughed nervously as Cassie threw Simon over her shoulder, stepping on his stomach with her foot, one hand raised in triumph. Other soldiers shouted praise and clapped. "Sorry," Lily tells her. "Are they always like this?"

Melissa spares a glance at her siblings for a brief second before nodding solemnly. "Always. Ever since I took up a job as an instructor, they thought it was their personal duty to make sure I 'don't goof off' while teaching the next generation." Melissa shoots her a look. "I don't know what was more annoying: the fact that they think I needed supervision or that they think they're good at this."

Lily takes another look at the twins and shrugs. "They're not that bad."

Melissa snorts, crossing her arms. "Now they aren't. Should've seen them when they first started out. Looked like two baby dragons learning how to fly."

"Yo, Serenette!" A soldier shouts, waving politely and pointing at soldiers behind him with bows ready. "It's hunting time!"

"Coming!" Melissa yells back. "Sorry, Evans. Gotta go." She waves, walking away, but not before smacking her siblings' on the head and telling them to quit it. Lily watches her leave, chuckling before making her way towards the infirmary. Might as well help a bit.

---

"Burn, burn, ahaha!" James cackles next to Lily, making her eye twitch. She swatted his arm.

"Stop that," Lily hisses. "Just shut off the lights, okay? Do your job please."

James smiles at her. "Sorry, Lils. Getting to it now."

Lily huffs out a breath, standing up, her nerves gone after that particular interaction. They were finally attacking the Wattson Officials building after two torturous years of preparation. They got here in the end, though, and that's all that matters.

Lily left James to turn off the electricity, gliding her way through the not-so-secure-anymore building. The plan was simple: broadcast a live presentation over the entire country. Well, maybe not that simple if the precautions they took and the time they took to achieve such a thing were any examples. Which they were.

Their original plan was to cause a panic, but Naomi had quickly vetoed the idea of causing panic, shutting everyone up with her idea of a better way to do things. Informing the public, get the people thinking, was their goal. If everything went to plan, it should be achieved.

James was supposed to shut off the electricity in the building, only directing it to one source: the roof, which was where they were going to broadcast the whole thing. Lily and Naomi were going to head to the roof to do the broadcast. Sirius and Remus would film the whole thing and project it onto every screen in the country. How they would be able to do that, Lily didn't know, but she assumes it could be accomplished with their magic.

They also had guards stationed everywhere , on roofs of buildings in the surrounding area, inside buildings, and pretending to belong there (they wore contacts to hide their eyes and used someone's illusion magic to hide their Marks), even miles away from Wattson Officials there were people stationed. As Lily said, it was a big project.

Lily jogged up another flight of stairs, only a few more until she gets to the top. A person from Elysium had enchanted everyone to be unnoticeable until they wanted to be, so Lily could walk around in the building without worrying that someone was going to stop her.

"Two minutes, Lily, you were almost late," Naomi informs her as she finally makes it up to the roof and takes her place next to her, nodding at Remus who was next to Sirius. They had a whole station set up with lights, cameras, a projector, and a large screen to accompany it. They spared no expense with this.

"It's more of like three minutes, Naomi," Sirius corrects from his place behind the camera. "But yeah, you were almost late."

"Shut up, Sirius," Lily grumbles. "Just get ready."

Sirius salutes. "Yes ma'am!"

Three minutes later, Sirius is counting down. "Three...two...one...and you're on."

The presentation behind them starts, showing a long list of laws that magic users are subjected to. A long list of laws that the public is unaware of.

"As most people know, the Wattson Officials building is used to create and enforce magical laws," Naomi begins, all professionalism. It's supposed to be a broadcast, like a radio show. It's a calculated game, and Naomi's playing her part perfectly. "Which is where we are: the famed Wattson Officials building in all its fallacy." Naomi gestures to the screen behind her, the list still scrolling through. "Behind me is a list of laws that the government has subjected us to." Us was put in her speech intentionally; to show that she knows what it's like. Her Mark and eyes were unhidden.

"A few of these laws some might recognize: 'specialized abilities will not be used against any citizen, foreigner, or government official' or perhaps 'Marks will not be hidden from the naked eye.' Of course, people believe that these laws were put in place to protect both magical civilians and non-magical civilians. Let me tell you this: they were not . Some, like the ones I just listed, are to protect the non-magical populace. But others? No. They were put in place to destroy the magical race.

"Have you ever heard one of these such laws like, oh, possibly 'the magical populace may not, under any circumstances, insert themselves in any political position'? Obviously, that is one of the most known ones, even if people aren't supposed to know it. But observations can be made. How about another law: 'acres of land shall be used to house magical civilians for their protection and others'? Have you ever heard of one of these?

"I have. I've experienced many of them. The government likes to title them a fancy word: Correctional Centers." Naomi sounds out the word like it's the worst word she's ever heard. The disgust is obvious. "We, as in the magical population, don't call them Correctional Centers. Let me tell you: these so-called Correctional Centers are not what you think they may be. They are, for lack of a better word, prisons."

Behind Naomi, the screen changes to pictures of Ashmount, the wooden houses, guards, 'prisoners', and towers clear even in the dark. Lily doesn't bother to hide her wince and lets a single tear shed. It's not hard to play mournful when she already feels that way. The screen cuts to live footage, captured by Sirius as he was protecting a few magic users from guards.

"' You would do well to understand your place,'" one of the guards sneered at Sirius. "' Your species disgusts me.'"

"' Yeah, '" Sirius responded, looking bored but tense, "' that's great and all, but could you move? '"

Another guard, this time a female, steps up. "' You are not authorized to be here. Surrender now, and we might spare your lives .'"

"' Sorry, but that's gonna be a hard pass .'" And James runs, throwing up a wall of fire to shield the incoming bullets to protect the terrified prisoners.

"You might think that the magic-user here," Naomi continues, pointing at Sirius, "disobeyed one of the laws, one that I mentioned before that magic cannot be used to harm one. He didn't." Naomi plays back the footage, back when Sirius created a shield of fire. "He didn't actually harm anyone, just protected someone. Self-defense, if you will. He didn't intend to harm anyone, nor did he. But let me tell you a crucial element of magic-users' lives: for us, self-defense doesn't exist.

"It's unfortunate, but it's true. You think the magic-user here was given a pass because these guards were trying to kill him? Spoilers: he was not. He is being hunted down just because he protected himself and others, without harming anyone in the process. Does that sound fair?" Naomi demands. "Does that give us magic-users the same rights as the non-magical populace?"

Naomi stops, breathing heavily. It's Lily's turn now.

"I'd like you all to take moment and think about something in particular: your neighborhood, your city, your town, wherever you currently reside. What do you think of it? Do you think of happiness or anger? Do you think of family and friends or hatred and jealousy? What about selflessness and compassion or selfishness and indifference?

"Now, I want you to hold those emotions, feelings, and thoughts for one moment. We'll get back to it. But first, let me tell you about magic villages. The public doesn't know these exist, places where only magic users live and breathe and survive. My village, one we've called Elysium, is a village of about two thousand and seven hundred people. That might not seem a lot to some of you city folk, but it's a lot to magic-users.

"It means two thousand and seven hundred people are alive and breathing. Another village I've been to is called Myrefall, a village Elysium trades with. They only have about two to three hundred people. A small amount compared to my village. But they are all alive and surviving. Just like other villages, no matter the size. Stafford, Inverwood, Elysium, and Myrefall are a few villages that I can name off the top of my head, but there are many more.

"Take the thought that I told you to hold onto. That emotion, feeling, or thought is what you associate with your town or neighborhood or town or city. What to know what us magic-users associate with our villages? The word, the feeling , safe comes to mind. Our villages are one of our only safe-havens.

"But what about the Correctional Centers? What's something that comes to mind when one of us thinks of the Correctional Centers? I think only one word could describe it." Lily sucks in a breath. "I went to a Correctional Center once. Only once. Never again. When I arrived, and I'm going to be frank with you: I didn't think it was real. It was just so very horrible . I couldn't try to describe it to you even if I could. I don't want to revisit that time in my life again.

"But I'll try." Lily looks straight at the camera. "The pathways weren't pathways, they were pure mud. The houses where the magic users were kept-no, imprisoned -were more like shacks. The farms, the ones that were to provide the prisoners with food and nutrients, were pathetic. The guard towers were probably the nicest place there. Actually, no, scratch that. The guard barracks were comfortable and livable whereas everything was not.

"I'm going to be truthful. I, along with a few others, was there to rescue the wrongfully imprisoned magic users. When I was escorting a few people out...s-something went wrong. A woman died in front of me. That woman was a single mother, and she died in front of her daughter. Twelve people died that night. Such a small number, but too big in the eyes of those who care." Lily takes a shuttering breath, calming herself down.

"So, to answer my own question, the thought that comes to mind is death . Death is the word to describe any and all Correctional Centers." Lily makes sure her gaze doesn't stray away from the camera. " Death is the word that comes to mind when I think of the things that magic-users are put through. it's always in mind, never straying too far because it can't."

---

Three days later, they threw a party at Elysium for their success: the public was outraged at the new knowledge and being kept in the dark. Riots and protests were happening everywhere in the country, the government desperately trying to soothe the literal and figurative flames. Lily felt an odd sort of pride; she did this. Well, with others' help, of course.

"To us!" Someone shouts, thrusting their glass into the air. Shouts of agreement reach Lily's ears, and she laughs along with others, putting her own glass in the air.

"Woo!"

Someone bumps into Lily and the apology is already on the tip of her lips. "I'm-" Lily meets James' mischievous eyes and corrects herself. "-not sorry"

James whines dramatically, swinging his arm through hers. "I'm hurt, Lils."

A smile plays on Lily's lips. "No, you're not." Lily smacks the back of his head with her free arm, laughing as he mock-glares at her. "Don't get too drunk, okay?"

James swirls the straw in his margarita. "Who, me? This is my first drink. You should be worried about Sirius. He's got to have at least five glasses of wine, yet is still sober." James shakes his head. "I'm amazed."

Lily sighs, watching as Sirius flirts with Naomi, who does not look amused. "Stop it, Sirius," Naomi tells him flatly. "You're drunk."

"Am not!" Sirius retorts. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Naomi shakes her head in annoyance and sips her drink. "Sure."

"I am telling the truth!" He says, jogging after Naomi as she walks away.

Lily laughs. James places a plate of chocolate-covered strawberries in her hands. "Here ya go. Your favorite, right?"

Lily nods, happily consuming one of the strawberries before offering one to James. His eyes light up. "Yes! Thank y-"

James doesn't get to finish his sentence because a scream interrupts them.

( Mama! )

Lily's breath catches in her throat as she whirls around, watching as three people in front of her crumple to the ground, lifeless, with bullet holes in their chests. James grabs her wrist and pulls her away quickly. Unwanted memories spring up in front of Lily's mind.

( O-Okay? )

Lily hears shouts of panic coming from...from where? Everywhere, maybe. Lily can't hear what they're saying too well, but she catches little snippets.

"- eave now -"

"- ave to go, hon -"

"- where are you -"

"- nyone see my daughter?! -"

( We'll get out together. )

"Lily!" Someone shakes her shoulders-James. His panicked, tense face appears in her vision. She only now realizes she's crying. " We need to go. Now! "

Lily nods, at least she thinks she does, and then they're off. People are screaming, others are falling to the ground as silent bullets are shot from camouflaged guns. Lily sees Remus, Sirius, and a few others up ahead. They're trying to protect people, trying to stop this, but their efforts are fruitless.

"Lily? James?" Hands are placed on her face, Mercy's face coming close to her, her children rounded up behind her and hiding their faces in Melissa's oversized hoodie. Melissa grips onto them like a life force, whispering words to a crying Cassie. "You okay?"

Lily nods again, too choked up to say anything. Mercy steps away, nodding at James critically, and started walking towards her kids.

Lily saw a glint of something (silver probably) shoot through the sky and a millisecond later, Mercy is on the ground, groaning before going quiet and still.

Melissa screams. A loud, terrified, and familiar scream.

( Promise? )

( Promise. )

Lily freezes up, looking towards James who has gone deathly pale.

( Just like Ashmount )

"W-What's going on?" Lily chokes out, quiet but the others still seemed to hear her. James' grip on her arm had tightened considerably and she hadn't even noticed. Lily doesn't dare to go towards Mercy. The last time she did that, someone died.

( She's already dead. )

"We're being attacked," Sirius informs her, the sound barely coming out of his mouth. He looks horrified.

"H-How did they f-find us?"

Remus grimaces, pulling all of them away, whispering something to Naomi, who nods and picks up Mercy. Melissa immediately goes to help, releasing her grip on her siblings. Tristan takes his sister's place, bringing Cassie and Simon into a hug as they sob into his shoulder. Choked, hiccuping sobs. So, so familiar.

"It seems we have a traitor," Naomi breathed, anger coming alive in her eyes. Lily didn't hesitate to think that, had Naomi not been holding her dead friend, she would have rushed out and murdered the people who took her best friend from her.

Lily didn't blame her. Lily would tear apart this godforsaken world with her bare hands if she had to if only to keep her friends safe. Actually, that just might be what she'll do.

---

Twenty Years Later...

Lily eyed the people tending to their gardens. It was a pretty day, not raining as the past few days have been, so Lily gets doing some yard work, perhaps James would finally get to mow the damn lawn. But some people were, instead of working in their too-large gardens, staring at something. Someone. Particularly Lily herself.

Lily always hated people staring at her, but the staring never died down. Judgmental, relieved, scared, angry, terrified, happy, and annoyed stares were just a few kinds that Lily received on a daily basis. It's not surprising, really, and Lily's gotten somewhat used to it. It's not every day someone spots one of the people in charge of changing the laws regarding magical people. So, the staring will always continue.

Of course, the staring could also be because it's been twenty years since the hit on Wattson Officials, the Beginning of an End, and Lily still looks like she's in her middle twenties. But that's only because Healers have ridiculously long life spans, one of the longest, actually, so Lily, despite being twenty years older, still looks twenty-five. James often jokes about it, but Lily would just retort that he looks the exact same, too, so he really can't say anything. He usually shuts up after that.

Since then, Lily and her (surviving) friends had picked up the broken pieces of Elysium with shaky hands and sorrowful hearts. Elysium was rebuilt brick by brick and continued thriving, just in a different location, one in the mountains. Elysium still stands today, and people still live there, but it's more of a tourist attraction now. Lily doesn't govern over it anymore, though she could, and Naomi normally deals with the affairs there. She had told them to relax after the laws were changed.

And relax Lily did.

Sirius had liked to say it was an 'early retirement', but it really wasn't. Remus had run for a high political position in the government to make sure the rules stayed, and he won the election by a lot. It seemed former villagers of Elysium were all-too-happy to support one of their leaders by joyously recounting tales of Remus' accomplishments.

Lily herself had run for a simple position in agriculture, and she had also won; Lily had found she quite liked farming and was fine with fixing the country's way of farming that was pretty pathetic compared to Elysium's. She fixed that real quick.

Sirius had decided to help James and became a teacher, which they were all surprised about but supported him nonetheless. It was certainly an exciting day when James and Sirius got a teaching position at a magic school. Lily was so proud that she shed a few tears.

Lily and James had bought a mansion in a rural area. Why a mansion? Well, they wanted enough space to help young children, magical or not. Currently, they have gathered over twenty kids that are living in their house. Others have either left for college or gotten adopted by people that Lily herself had made sure were good people or found by their parents.

Lily was happy. She didn't dwell much on the past, on Mercy's death or Asteria's disappearance or Erik and Torrance's kidnapping and eventual murder. She had, years ago. But she's...not gotten over, she's just come to terms with it. People died, and the best Lily could do for them was live on in their stead.

Lily had had enough of the staring by one of her neighbors (she says neighbors, but their properties are hundreds of acres apart from each other), and plastered on a smile. She waves at the lady, Eleana was her name (maybe), who startled but waved hesitantly back.

Lily walked on, snorting as Eleana got back to tending to her stupidly posh garden that is always in better condition than Lily's mental health. Rich people , Lily shakes her head. She supposes she is also a rich person, but, eh, semantics.

After another two miles of walking, Lily jumps as a person tapped her shoulder. Whirling around, her eyes widened as she spots a familiar figure. Is that...?

"Miss?" The familiar voice asks softly. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Lily chokes out. The woman looked a lot like the woman who died in Ashmount, but younger and more...scarred. "You, um, look familiar. Could you perhaps tell me your name?"

The woman tilts her head, and Lily refuses to start crying at the gesture that was done by a little girl so many times. "Oh? I'm Asteria. Asteria Tru. You are Lily Evans, correct?" The woman looks sheepish. "Sorry, it's been a while. I got-"

Lily brings the girl-wells, woman now- into a hug. She hides her tear-filled eyes in dear Asteria's hair. "I'm so happy you're okay," Lily whispers. "Fate is a fickle thing. I thought you were dead."

Asteria chuckles. "And I to you." She goes quiet for a moment, pulling back and smiling at Lily. Her smile was off though. Her breath catches. "I...have a question."

"And that is?"

Asteria's voice is quiet. "Have-Have you heard from my foster parents? I-I haven't seen them in twenty years."

Lily's heart drops. "I'm sorry, Asteria," Lily tells her, taking her head gently. "Your foster parents died during the attack on Elysium. I'm so, so sorry."

Asteria's face is strangely blank. "I figured," she says, somewhat bitter. Her tone lightens, though. "Lily? I'm also sorry."

"Sorry about wha-" Lily feels something pierce her stomach, staring down in horror at the wicked sharp knife nudged in her stomach. Lily chokes, her mind blinded by pain. "I-"

Asteria smiles brightly at her. "I did say I was sorry, didn't I?" Asteria's face was right next to Lily's, eyes filled with hatred. "Your fault," she hisses. "Both of my parents died because of you. You deserve this."

And she walks away, leaving Lily dying on the cold concrete. Lily hears a scream, but she doesn't know who it's from: her, the neighbors, or her imagination. It sounded like Melissa, and, weirdly enough, a young Asteria.

Lily's eyes close, the faint sound of terrified screaming echoing in her mind.

---

James' stupid was peering at her in confusion and somewhat annoyance. Sirius' arms were crossed over his chest, looking thoroughly puzzled. And Remus was standing off to the side with a pained expression.

Lily, quite eloquent in her opinion, said: "I'm dead. Again."

"No," Remus corrected her. " We're dead."

James made a strangled noise. "I thought we already went through this?"

"We did," Remus hums thoughtfully. "Lily, you said you were killed?"

"Yes, by Asteria."

Remus startled for a moment, confused, but pulled himself together quickly."It seems we are dead." Remus ignored Sirius' 'no shit.' Remus sighs. "I'm very confused."

Lily looks up at the familiar ceiling of Elysium, not the village but their weird home. She closes her eyes, remembering both of her deaths. Dying wasn't a pleasant feeling, yet Lily had to go through it twice.

Lily pushes herself off the floor, starting towards the closed door that would lead outside. "Third time's the charm, as they say."

And she opens the door.

-deep breath- I FINISHED IT

bonus points if you can guess who said the quote that I turned around for the title :)

um, so. I don't normally write much angst, I'm more of a humor writer, but I wanted to try my hand at something new and challenging to me. Thus, this monster of a story.

this might be a bit all over the place, and the portrayal of emotions might not be up to par with others, but I tried.

it's been fun to write this, but my internet went out during the middle of my writing process, which sucked.

I felt like I glossed over Mercy's death, but I wanted to finish this. but the healing process did not go by quickly. it never does

thank you for reading and sticking with me