Prologue

There was a small… fight. Not the, I want to hurt you fight, but this was a case of too many people trying to fit into a way too small space, so people ended up hitting and showing each other as they tried to squeeze themselves next to each other.

"Get out of the way Malfoy! Why are you even here?"

"There is something called an invitation Weasely. You might have heard of it."

Cue Ron's red ears and the laugh of his older brothers. "Ronniekins!"

Then it wasn't just the ears but the whole face.

"Are you guys done already? I am setting up the camera." Announced Mr. Weasely.

"Mione? If you need anything just…"

"I am fine."

"Really?"

"Ronald! I am pregnant, not disabled!"

"Move a little bit more Percy!"

"I really can't anymore!"

"Oh, cut it out. There is enough space for everyone."

Lily thought about that statement.

The whole Weasely family, Draco, some of the DA members, surviving Order of the Phoenix members, school classmates.

Needless to say, there were a lot of them. "Hey, Luna?"

"Yeah?" Replied her friend.

"Are you sure about that? I mean, the gift. It must have been pricy."

"Oh, do not worry about it. We are friends after all." She replied. "I just want you to have a safe place to retreat to no matter where you might end up."

Neville, who sat next to them turned around, looking just as confused as Lily felt but that confusion was soon dismissed. This is Luna after all. The wise and awesome and mysterious.

No, seriously. She is awesome in a strange way and he usually knows what she is talking about.

"Are you finally lined up?!"

"George! Stop throwing snowballs at Ron!"

"That was not me!" Came a reply, George looked away and at least attempting not to look guilty. Malfoy gave up on his previous seat and made his way next to Lily this time.

"Can I?"

"Sure."

"Last chance! I am starting the timer!"

The statement only resulted only in more showing.

"I.. thank you for the invite, Potter."

"Don't mention it."

"No, I really do mean it. I..."

"You are one of us, and it really sucks to be alone on Christmas."

"Thank you." Malfoy's voice was soft and quiet, almost disappearing in the noise around them. This was likely intentional because even though he has changed a lot, he would still rather go to Azkaban with his father than to be overheard.

"One day, you could invite us to your place."

"You are joking now, right?" The blond looked around again, Lily followed.

The place was a mess. As… mess. while most people looked somewhat normal, (by the standards of a normal wizard) There was still snow all around the floor, the food that Lily spent all weekend cooking was all around the place, courtesy of some spell going haywire - luckily, most of it was eaten before that had happened.

The Christmas tree which was earlier assaulted by some animated snowmen was somehow intact, surrounded by wrapping paper. Lastly, everything was covered by a fine layer of glitter powder.

"To my defense, I did not plan for this."

"When do you ever plan for everything, Potter?" Said the blond, absolutely baffled by the response.

"Good point."

"Here it goes!"

Somehow, the pictures turned out alright despite the chaos. Lily placed them in her pocket.

"So the monster was caught?"

"More like, those blokes from that department say that they killed it." The red-haired witch replied as she tried to get the glitter out of her long red hair. Looking at the sparkling powder, this is going to take weeks. Again.

How was she supposed to know that Luna was also into pranks?

"But they still couldn't find the body?"

"No."

"That is rather suspicious."

"No."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. I need to hear about something that is not baby-related. I am not even showing yet!"

"I am just trying to avoid jinxing stuff. You know how it goes."

"Please?"

"Mione… I am sitting currently in my new house with my best friends, enjoying an awesome Christmas. You know how these things go!"

Cue in the staring, silent pleading of her best female friend to continue.

"Well… they still can't figure out what the creature was, but the Aurors in charge did say that they cut it to pieces. Some people think that it - he was trafficked here by someone."

"He?"

"It spoke back apparently. Anyway, they still haven't found the people that were kidnapped." Or the bodies. The creature did not sound extra friendly from what people have told her. "Some said that it kind of resembled a vampire, but the vampire coves said that it is not one of them."

Unlike popular belief, the vampires, prefer to keep to themselves, living insolation in their tiny communities, almost completely cut off from the rest of the world. So cut off that even when Riddle´s men came marching in, they did not even want to hear about joining in some war.

Needless to say, even with the thing seemingly dead, some people still believe that it was some foreign variant. Or whatever.

Lily had her own hands full, though in her case mostly with small things like students trying to sell fire-whiskey to some unsuspecting muggles.

She kind of loved that this is the worst thing around (not counting the missing people and the creature), no more Death Eaters wandering about, ready to ruin someone's day.

"Hey, Lily!" Stepping all over the white glittering snow, Ginny marched in, frowning. "Do you have gnomes or something like that running around?"

"No. Why?"

"Something was running around the edges of the wards."

Lily frowned.

"Something?"

"Not sure what, it is too dark."

Hermione and Lily exchanged a glance. There really shouldn't be anything dangerous, while her home was not in the middle of nowhere, it was still quite a distance from any other place. There were some animals… but judging from Ginny's face, it was not something normal. Or at least, the little that she saw made her worried.

There is the jinx.

"I'll go check it out."

"Want a hand?" Mione asked, but she was already standing up to grab a coat.

Lily did not get a chance to answer - Luna was standing there pressing something into her hands. The blue-eyed girl had an odd smile on her face, sending warning signals into Lily's mind.

"Is something wrong?"

"Not really, but you should take this."

Lily finally looked down at the item and it was the same gift that Luna had given her earlier.

At first glance, it looked like a normal case, but inside… well, it was interesting. It is an expanded trunk she has yet to fully explore. Lily planned to do that once she finally got the time to rest for a bit. The last few days were hectic even without the Christmas madness.

Normally, if this came from any other person, Lily would have questioned them but Luna always had some kind of an instinct regarding some things. Ron, Mione, and Lily had the suspicion that she has some talent for divination, but nothing that could ever be confirmed.

Long story short, it was always better to listen to her advice - Lily took the case, but she still felt weirded out.

"Thank you." She paused, still bothered by Luna's expression. "Would you like to hang out around London? Not sure when, but I have seen this fancy Star Wars themed place. we could go in and have fun?"

"That would be lovely. Thank you."

"Great! I'll be back in a minute then. Can you also make sure that Teddy won't try to eat anything funny? Just in case."

"I'll look after him." The lion hat on her head roared as the blond spun around on her heel and left to find the little metamorph.

"Hey, Lily! Are you coming?" Mione was standing next to the door with her coat on, waiting for her, also looking a little worried.

"Coming."

A moment later, the two witches were making their way through the snow, the moon illuminating the white cover.

"Any idea what was that about?" Hermione asked, eyes darting towards the very lively house. Lily shrugged her shoulders, making sure to hold onto the case. It felt oddly heavy in the dark.

The sounds of the Christmas celebration became muted as the two got to the edge of the wards, Mione had her wand out and casting her spells while Lily did her own thing by looking around.

The air was cold, way below zero meaning that the snow instead of sticking together behaved like a fine powder, sparkling somewhat like the glitter bomb that went off inside the house. It was a pretty nice sight. The entire area must look beautiful from up above - maybe Lily should consider joining Hedwig in her animagus form sometime. The last time she had seen the snowy owl was however inside, eyeing some bacon.

There were a few footprints in the snow, but those could have belonged to anyone from the 20 plus guests inside. Or maybe some crazy well-wisher came from the muggle village nearby.

All of the sudden, Hermione giggled.

"What is so funny?"

"Oh… I have just wondered. Isn't there one muggle boy that really likes you?" Hermione asked. Lily's mind went through several scenarios, trying to figure out how that fact is relevant to this situation, then grimaced. "Maybe, just maybe…"

"Mione… he is 17."

"Well, maybe in a year or two. Mum said that these things stop mattering as people get older."

Lily opened her mouth, then closed it, really not wanting to open this can of worms. The disaster that is her dating history can only be matched by the disaster that is her general relationship with authorities.

Hint: She does not get along with the authorities.

"I am sorry, is this Lavender Brown in disguise?" She answered, eyeing her friend.

"That... was a low blow." Hermione grimaced, but the message was delivered. But the shots were still fired so there was no reason not to continue.

"Look, Lavender, you should move on. Ron has already found the love of..." The sentence was cut short when Mione stumbled for a moment.

"I am fine! I think that there is a rock under the snow."

The area became quiet again, interrupted only by the distant sounds of the party and the snow under their feet. Lily with her wand lit followed the footprints to see where they were going.

"It probably was someone from the inside or the muggle boy."

Lily looked a little closer at what looked like a few oddly placed branches in the snow, some distance away from the wards. The heavy snow slowed her down, but she still made it through, examining the spot.

"Mione?"

"Yes?"

"Was somebody inside injured? Or are we using fake blood for something?"

The temperature around them seemed to go even lower than it already was. The pure white snow around them stopped looking so innocent. The two witches looked at each other, now looking more than a little uneasy about the situation.

"Lumos Maxima." Lily chanted and the light of her wand illuminated the entire area.

While from distance it looked like branches, there was no mistaking in what it was now that they were closer. Lily touched it lightly - it was blood, fresh at that. The place looked as if there was a struggle between two or more people.

"Mione? Can you get others?"

"Alright, just don't do anything stupid. Okay?"

"No worries. You know me. I'll stick my wand right into their nose if something goes wrong."

One more eye-roll later, Mione was following the small path the two had created when they first came here.

But for the love of…, it was just so cold. Lily should have put something else over her shoulders, other than the fancy long hoodie, almost up to her knees. The thing was an awesome deep red with some gold features here and there - Gryffindor colors. Then the way too long scarf, also in Gryffindor colors.

Ignoring her discomfort, she directed her attention at the spot again. Looking at it again, it was not much of a fight, rather a one-sided beat down with the stronger figure dragging away the victim.

The trail led towards several pines, which slowly turned into a forest as one went further.

Lily remembered the muggle boy when he first approached her. His pickup lines were so bad they were almost good. So it was very awkward when she had finally told him about her age. She liked to think that she is not that young-looking - she was 20, but yeah… she looked like a short 17-year-old at best. Despite her discomfort, she never wished any harm to the boy.

If he came around and something caught him, she knows herself enough that she would blame herself more than anything even if it were his choices that got him into trouble in the first place.

Lily started following the trail left behind in the snow, canceling the spell from before, now moving around as quietly as possible to find out what had happened.

It took a while to get there but Lily eventually arrived at the first trees where she started looking around for any signs of life. "Homulus relivio."

There were a few signs of life, one was a human. The other… it felt odd.

The British hero, funny enough, was never forced to sneak around in the snow. But wow is actually kind of sucked. Her clothes were not suited for that either, she was pretty much a walking billboard of 'I am over here! Please spot me!' with those colors. But she had somehow managed to get closer to hear something.

A sickening sound of what Lily immediately recognized as snapping bones.

Oh, she hoped that she was just being paranoid. Regardless of whether she wanted it or not, she could already head Moody's words inside her head.

CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

To be honest, they have heard it so many times that it kind of became an inside joke among the three of them, with Ron enjoying the wost of it when he had attempted (and failed) to get his driving license.

Hiding behind a tree, she was finally close enough to have a somewhat of a look at the two presences she had felt earlier.

"======" Lily frowned, trying to make out the two figures in the darkness, while also realizing that the language the first figure was using was not English. Searching for information inside her brain, she finally identified the language, though it was not one she could speak.

Lily had once worked with Japanese Aurors, some political power play move. Plus, the Japanese quidditch team was in the country.

Those guys were amazing fliers - she had a blast with them behind the scenes.

Back to reality, she could understand it somewhat after spending some time with them but no way she could speak it, that takes a little more knowledge than Lily had.

"Smell. Delicious. You!"

The figure snarled as a wild animal would, throwing something away.

"Where, human! Delicious smell! Close!" There was a bit more that was being said but this was the extent of words that she could understand.

Lily finally recognized what she was looking at. And…

There was the muggle boy, lying on the ground, chest moving up and down and his breaths turning into a white mist as he exhaled, tears of terror going down his face. The figure above was not that of a normal human. While human-like, the skin was way too pale to belong to a healthy person. His only protection from cold was some kind of a messed up thin-looking vest, and a pair of pants stained with blood. Yet he did not seem to be bothered by the harsh temperature.

The few bits of exposed skin spotted blue marks that almost seemed to shine in the dark.

There was no time to spot anything else as right at that moment, the humanoid looked around, and straight at her.

"There!" It shouted but she was already moving, sending a curse at it. One curse turned into a slew of curses as the thing leaped high into the air, dodging the first attack.

It all happened in just a few moments, just like most fights go.

Fights do not drag out, they rarely do. If they do, there is some kind of a big issue that needs to be solved.

Lily dashed forward, looking over the crying boy, glancing at him to see the extent of his injuries. He looked fine, mostly fine at least. Nothing important is missing.

Then back to the thing, it landed in almost the same place that she stood at previously, an unpleasant smile that one would expect from one of the Death Eaters instead of something randomly encountered, appeared on its face.

"I smell you! I smell it wonderful!"

"Don't be worried. I'll protect you."

"L-Lily. Oh god, It is you…. I am sorry. I just wanted….the gift. I am sorry."

"We will talk later. Okay?"

He let out some kind of a strangled sound that was probably supposed to be yes. She did not know. What she knew however is that the thing in front of her had to be taken care of.

"Got you!"

It all... it happened in an instance. Case in one hand, wand in another. She moved to create a barrier and to stop the humanoid in its tracks, but it moved much faster than she had anticipated. Normally, she would have apparated to get out of the way, but she couldn't do that now.

It grabbed her and the world around seemed to vanish for just a moment.

Okay, since this idea will not leave me be, I have decided to make version 2 of this story. Now that the first version is a little older, there are a number of holes in the old fic and hopefully, this one is going to be much better than the first one. At least I hope so!

This is just a prologue, chapter 1 is being made right now, thought that I would publish them together but... here you go. I am pretty happy with how this turned out.

Obligatory, this fic is a shameless excuse to make Rengoku survive the train arc. And of course, romance with Lily (fem Harry.)

This fic, if possible, is at some point also going to include the main plot of Demon Slayer and mess around with it for obvious reasons.

Review please!