Summary: Lily decides to finally come out of seclusion. But whilst exploring Grimauld Place she comes across some discussions not meant for her ears…

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c i I have realized that not once have I included a disclaimer in my story, so to any lawyers out there, here it is:

b Disclaimer: The world of Harry Potter and all it's contents belong to Ms. JK Rowling. This story is mine, but I have borrowed a world of magic that belongs to her genius only. /b /i

b i Chapter 5. – To Wake and to Move On /i /b /c

Lily rolled over in her bed and stared at the ceiling. It was in the middle of the night and, once again, she couldn't go to sleep. The same terrifying scene kept replaying itself in her mind; the flash of green light, her father's collapsing body, her mother's screams of anguish. It didn't feel real to her. This wasn't her life anymore. Lily had turned into a puppet whose strings were being suavely pulled and manipulated. She was being protected by people she had never met. She was forbidden to leave this place, (Grim Mould Place or something like that) by still stranger strangers. The future was indeed looking grim.

Lily did not go exploring her prison. When she had ventured outside the bedroom she had been given she was accosted her supposed twin brother, Harry Potter, and his crones, an eccentric looking teen with orange hair and a busy girl who always had her nose in some book. Lily wanted to avoid them as much as possible, and since the bedroom was the only place they i didn't /i follow her, this was where she had spent every single minute of her despair. i Wallowing in it, more like /i whispered the traitor voice in the back of her brain.

Today, as Lily lay staring at the black ceiling above her bed, she came to a forceful decision. She was not going to lie here like a sack of potatoes any longer. She was going to go out there and kill the man who had murdered her parents. She i would /i learn magic, like her mom and dad had asked her to. Then she would go out there, and she would make it as painful as she could.

Lily sat up, and looked at the wardrobe at the end of the room. Walking to it, she looked inside and found that somebody had been to her home, taken her clothes and brought them here. For the first time in days, Lily got out of her pajamas. Pulling on her dirtiest, darkest clothes she turned around to face the door. She didn't think that anybody would make out her dark clothed body from the black walls of the place. If she kept her face down she would be able to explore it without interruption from her nosy brother and his strange friends. Opening the door a crack she looked out into an empty hallway.

Deciding that it would be best to avoid any sleep walkers that might be lingering around an entrance somewhere on the ground floor, Lily decided that it would be best to go up the stairs at the end of the hall. She took a step towards the stairway, and winced as she was confronted by a tremendous squeak from the board beneath her feet. Freezing where she stood, she strained her hearing to see if anybody had heard. After a moment of silence, she stepped carefully of the spot, removed her shoes, and walked gingerly towards the wall. She then began to walk on her heels, the back of her feet against the wall. It was difficult but it worked. Dismissing the problem of noise, Lily turned her thoughts to exploring the house.

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The place was a dump. After half an hour of looking around, Lily could not imagine a more moldy and dusty place on the entire planet. The place was falling apart; it was amazing the roof hadn't caved in by now. In some rooms you could find evil looking skulls and weapons; in others it looked as if someone had tried to clean up and failed miserably.

Lily sifted through the rooms one by one, floor by floor, working her way up through the house. On the second floor after her own she heard voices. She made to walk quietly past the room, but her curiosity got the better of her. She stopped next to the door, and strained to listen. It was the boy Harry, probably speaking to his two friends. About to move on, Lily heard her name and stopped. Standing more still than ever before, she listened to what her brother was saying about her. A girl asked something; it was probably the bushy haired girl she had seen before.

'Have you two wondered how Voldemort knew about Lily?' she was saying. Lily's brother and the other boy didn't say anything, so she supposed that had nodded or shaken their heads. The girl continued to speak.

'I mean, even Professor Dumbledore didn't i really /i know about her, did he? So how come Voldemort knew?' After a short silence, Harry answered her.

'It might've been because of my bad occlumency. He might have felt it,' he intoned.

Another bout of silence followed his words. Outside the door, Lily was getting confused. Who was Voldermort, and what on i earth /i was occlumency meant to be? Keen to learn more, she silenced her thoughts and listened once again. The girl spoke next.

'It might not have been just you, Harry,' she said slowly, as if she was contemplating some tricky school task. 'What if it was something i she /i felt, and then i Voldemort /i felt through i your /i connection with him? I mean, it i is /i possible, isn't it?'

Lily waited for an answer to this statement, but just as it sounded as if her brother was about to say something, another boy's voice cut in.

'When is she going to come out of that room?' it said, and Lily decided that it was the red headed boy. Unlike all of the previous statements, Lily did not have to wait long for the next person to speak. This time, when the girl spoke, she sounded much more like the bookworm Lily imagined her to be.

'Really, Ron, you are so daft! She's just lost her parents, for i gods /i sake!'

'Yeah, and locking herself up will do her a lot of good!' was the angry retort.

'What would you do? Something drastic, now that I think of it…'

They continued to bicker as her brother remained in silence. Lily slowly fell back into her own thoughts to think over all she had heard. All at once, there was a loud i crack /i behind her, and then someone tapped her on the shoulder…

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i Author's Note:

This was a really difficult chapter to write, as I had virtually no idea how to bring Lily back into the world. I have realized that never before have I included a disclaimer, so I made sure to add that at the beginning.

I ended up deciding on making Lily feel closer to Harry, Ron and Hermione, and used that to bring the latter two back into the story, as it is dismal without them. I also just realized that I have left my first cliffy, which should be fun…

I hope you all had a happy New Years, and please remember to jot down something in the reviews.

Love,

Lily Potter