Islington 1996

Once Lily regained consciousness the devastation was the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes. Most of the block where Grimmauld Place was located was gone, with only a large, gaping hole remaining where dozens of buildings had been just moments ago. Slowly Lily realised the implications. Every single Order member would've been at Grimmauld Place by now. The entire Order... gone. Perhaps some other lucky soul had been running late as well, but otherwise they would all have gone up in flames. Immediately her survival instinct kicked in. She did not have time to mourn her fallen comrades or even consider the full implications of what had just happened. She just had to get to safety. Now. She turned on her heel and started running away from the devastation as muggles around her came out from nearby buildings that were still standing and began shouting and pointing at massive amount of black smoke erupting from what only minutes earlier had been a whole residential block. Her heart was beating loudly in her chest as she hurried down the street in search of a slightly secluded place that she could apparate from.

She had little hope that her first apparition attempt would be successful. The Death Eaters usually placed anti-apparition wards over the areas they were attacking to make it harder for the Order to get there. She ducked into a narrow alley, and to her utter surprise felt herself leaving the carnage of London behind as she pictured the white cliffs of Dover in her head. When it did work, and she landed on a windy hill overlooking the sea she instantly collapsed onto the grass underneath her.

She felt herself starting to hyperventilate and tried to slow down her breathing as she tried to decide what to do next. She desperately tried to summon a happy memory (holding Harry for the first time), and with shaky hands attempted to conjure a Patronus but only managed some pale, white wisps. She tried again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. After another three attempts she gave up and shouted a long string of curse words angrily into the wind.

She made another apparition jump to Eastbourne and then onto her usual spot in Talbot Park near the old council estate where she lived. She nearly ran from the park to her flat in her eagerness to get home and when she did, she collapsed on the couch in the living room and buried her face in her hands.

After a couple of minutes, she gathered her wits and attempted another Patronus, and to her relief her snow leopard leapt out from her wand. She remembered how shocked she had been to see her delicate doe replaced with the predatory feline, but after a few years she had gotten used to the Patronus' new form.

"I need you to go to relay a message to Alastor Moody," she instructed the Patronus. "'I'm alright and I wait for further instructions'," she continued, and the large cat looked quizzically at her before fading away before her.

Her heart sank like a rock.

There was only one explanation to why a Patronus would not even attempt to deliver at message, and she had seen the behaviour too many times before to think it could mean anything else than that the recipient was dead.

She took a deep breath and conjured the Patronus again, this time asking it to deliver a message to Remus.

Nothing.

Aurora.

Nothing.

Emmeline, Sturgis, Amelia.

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

Lily fell to her knees with a whimper as the Patronus evaporated after she had asked it to deliver a message to Angelina, who was the last Order member she tried.

Although she had spent most of her time by herself in the last couple of years, she had never felt more alone in her life; it felt as if she was the last person left on earth

For some absurd reason, the person who came to Lily's mind was her sister. Petunia had refused to see her for years following James' and Harry's deaths, and it had been nearly a decade since Lily even knew of her sister's whereabouts. She could no longer find them in the phone register, and she assumed they must have moved abroad. She wondered where Vernon Dursley, who seemed narrow-minded enough to detest all places not England, had taken her sister and their spoilt child. Perhaps they were living on the Costa del Sol along with heaps of other British expats, refusing to learn Spanish or spend time with anyone not entirely English, or maybe they were amongst the masses of Brits who had relocated to North America and Australia. She wondered what Vernon and Petunia would make of the U.S or Canada, or even the Down Under with its laid-back attitude and wild animals.

The mental image of Vernon Dursley finding an alligator in the bathtub or a snake in the kitchen actually managed to make Lily smile in the midst of her misery and gave her the energy to consider what her next step would be.

Lily grabbed the locket around her neck and unclasped the chain. Unlike the others that were made of brass, hers was made of silver, but with the same motif of a phoenix. She knew that she had to act quickly – it was only a matter of time before the world found out about the Order and when it did, she would lose the only thing she had to bargain with.

9 PM tonight

She entered into the left side of the locket with her hand and watched as small, golden letters appeared, lingered for a few seconds and then faded away. On the rim of locket there were three tiny screws. Slowly and carefully she turned the first of the screws. On the left side of the locket there were three sets of numbers, and as the turned the first of the screws, one of those numbers began to change. She imagined the number she wanted clearly in her head, and within a matter of seconds, the numbers stopped changing and came to a halt on one beginning with 53, followed by a series of decimals. She then did the same with the second screw and entered a number beginning with -1, and for the last one she entered 2100. Longitude. Latitude. Time. At nine o'clock that evening, Lucius Malfoy's locket would become a portkey and transport him to the park near Lily's flat.

She had never taken anyone to her home before, but if she was going to bargain with Lucius Malfoy, she wanted the advantage of home turf and she would soon leave the flat and never return regardless.

While she waited for the clock to strike ten, she went through the flat collecting everything she might need and getting rid of the rest. She dumped her newest batch of Polyjuice that she had started brewing on the stove only hours ago, put her best kettle, some of her potions books and notes into her satchel along with most of the ingredients in the cupboard, and dumped the rest in the bin. Her battered, red satchel would've weighed a ton if not for the weightless charm she had placed on it along with the endless extension one.

When the clock was quarter to nine, Lily left her flat and walked to the park. She did not run into a single person on the way and was grateful for not having to obliviate any more teenagers.

She waited in a dark corner of the park, and at nine o'clock sharp a tall figure with platinum blond hair in a neat plaid appeared out of thin air near the muddy pond.

"Malfoy," she called out as she emerged from the shadows.

Malfoy turned around on the spot with his wand drawn.

"Evans," he greeted her and lowered his wand. "Quite advanced magic you've managed to put into these trinkets."

He held up the locket she had left for him in Bethnal Green.

Lily thought she could hear a compliment somewhere in his comment.

"Thanks

"I'm not going anywhere with you before I have some insurance that you're not leading me into a trap set by your little Order friends," he snarled.

Then the Death Eaters did not know about the Order yet. Good, Lily thought, that would buy her some more time.

"Fine, let's do it here, then," she said impatiently. "What do you have in mind? I don't see any potential binders, so an Unbreakable Vow is hardly on the table."

"A blood pact," said Malfoy determinedly.

Lily could not help but laugh.

"You want to enter into a blood pact with a Mudblood?" she asked with an amused voice.

"I want to save my son," Malfoy said through gritted teeth.

"Alright, a blood pact it is," Lily agreed. She was less familiar with that than with Unbreakable Vows or regular Wizard's Oaths, but it hardly mattered much now anyways. "You'll have to take the lead, though, I'm a bit fuzzy on the details."

Malfoy pointed his wand at the palm of his left hand and made a small incision. Blood immediately started pouring from the shallow wound.

"Go on Evans," Malfoy said expectantly, and Lily did not hesitate before she did the same to her own palm.

For a few moments, Malfoy stared at the rich red blood dropping from Lily's palm and she wondered if he was surprised to see that her blood looked identical to his.

Not that it should be a surprise; Malfoy had probably seen the blood of hundreds of Muggles and Muggle-borns, he should know that it all looked the same by now.

"Get over here," he ordered, and Lily took a few steps forward until they were only a few feet apart. "Hold up your hand," he instructed, and Lily obeyed.

She was somewhat surprised when his lined his own palm up with her and clasped it so that she could feel their blood mixing.

"You may start with your terms, Evans," he said.

"Do you, Lucius…," Lily trailed off as she couldn't remember his middle name. She knew it was something strange and pompous that she had never heard outside the Wizarding World, and she was fairly certain it had been his father's name.

"Abraxas," Malfoy supplied.

Lily raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Very well. Do you, Lucius Abraxas Malfoy swear to hand over Tom Riddle's diary to me, Lily Diana Potter on this day, the 6th of October 1998?"

"I do."

Nothing visibly happened, but Lily could feel a short rush of magic through her body as the vow was made.

"And do you swear not to cause me any intentional harm on this day, the 6th of October 1998 as well as tomorrow, the 7th of October 1998?"

Malfoy frowned.

"We're approaching midnight," Lily explained.

"I swear that I will not cause you any intentional harm on this day, or tomorrow," Malfoy swore, and another rush of magic followed.

With that, Lily's terms were finished.

"Do you, Lily Diana Potter swear to do whatever is in your power to help Draco Abraxas Malfoy?" Malfoy said.

"I swear that I will help Draco Malfoy-" Lily began but was cut off.

"To do whatever is in your power!" Malfoy corrected with a growl.

"I swear that if I can help Draco in this universe or any other, I will do it," Lily swore with a roll of her eyes.

Malfoy seemed satisfied with that and moved on.

"Do you swear to cause me no intentional harm on this day, the 6th of October 1998, or tomorrow, the 7th of October 1998?"

"I do," Lily vowed, and two drops of blood rose from their interlaced hands and merged into one nearly a metre up in the air. A vial formed around the drop and slowly descended towards the ground.

They released their hands and Malfoy caught the vial.

"Do you want it?" He asked and Lily shrugged.

"Does it matter?"

"No, it's supposedly impossible to destroy."

"Keep it then," said Lily and Malfoy put it in the inner pocket of his expensive-looking cloak.

"I want to know what your plan is for Draco," said Malfoy brusquely.

"We shouldn't stay here, the parks tend to attract a lot of strange visitors at night," said Lily anxiously.

Malfoy gave a curt nod.

"Lead the way, then."

They walked in silence along the pathway to Lily's home, and thankfully it was just as abandoned as it had been when she had walked to the park earlier. Malfoy wrinkled his nose when she led him inside the building where her flat was located.

"You live here?" He asked with an appalled look on his face as he took in the dirty, grey walls in the building's entrance.

Lily shrugged.

"I figured you people would be more likely to leave me alone here than in some fancy townhouse in London."

"A couple of years ago, perhaps, but many of those who work at the Ministry have discovered the benefits of living in central London. Most of the better parts of town have been untouched for a long time now," Malfoy pointed out.

"You blew up a whole residential block in Islington today," she reminded him as they climbed the last set of stairs up to Lily's floor, and Malfoy gave her a perplexed look.

"No, we didn't," he protested.

Lily snorted. "Why do you even bother lying about something like that? It's hardly any worse than what you've done before," she said bitterly.

Malfoy shook his head. "I'm not lying. The bomb in London was not ours, we were as surprised as you were."

Lily came to a sudden halt just outside the door to her flat. "B-but… if it wasn't you… who was it?"

Malfoy shrugged. "Who knows, perhaps it was one of those… what are they called? Gauze leaks?" He said with a bored voice.

"It's never gas leaks," Lily muttered and unlocked the door.

Back when the Statue of Secrecy was still in place, gas leaks had been one of the muggle authorities' standard explanations for some of the devastating explosions that had taken many innocent lives.

"We're getting off track, Evans. What are you going to do for Draco?" Malfoy wanted to know when they were both safe inside the flat.

Malfoy sneered at the interior in the flat as well but did not comment as Lily lead him into the living room.

"Put him on a plane to New Zeeland," she answered simply.

"One of those aeroplanes?" Malfoy questioned doubtfully.

"It's the quickest and easiest way to travel without magic, and since travelling with magic always leaves traces, the muggle way is a safer bet," she explained.

Lily took a look at her palm. The wound had closed and a crusty layer had formed, but it was an awkward place, so Lily took out her wand and a non-verbal healing spell later the skin on her palm was as smooth as it had been an hour ago.

Malfoy seemed to want to follow her example, because he took out his wand and waved it, but it failed to produce any magic. He tried again, but the wand remained unresponsive.

"Evans. What have you done?" He growled accusingly.

Lily frowned. She hadn't placed any enchantments on the flat that should interfere with any spellcasting, and Malfoy was evidently having massive troubles because he had now resorted to trying a long string of verbal spells ranging from simple ones like Wingardium Leviosa to highly advanced dark curses. Nothing worked.

"What are you playing at, Evans? Have you cast some sort of magic-repellent enchantment?" He growled in frustration after he failed to levitate one of the pillows on the sofa.

Lily successfully cast a verbal lumos with her own wand to prove that there was indeed no such enchantment in place.

"I don't understand," Malfoy said warily.

"Nor do I," said Lily slowly.

The wards, she thought, it must have something to do with the wards, but since it only affected Malfoy and not herself it must also have something to do with him. She searched her mind for possible explanations to why a wizard would all of a sudden lose his magic. What could her wards possibly have triggered?

"Oh," she breathed as she came to a realisation. Suddenly several pieces of a larger puzzle that she had been trying to solve for years fell into place.

"What? Why is this happening to me?" Malfoy snarled back and Lily dashed into the kitchen and pulled out one of the kitchen drawers where she found a small vial of green liquid that she had put there less than a fortnight ago.

She went back into the living room and held the vial up in front of Malfoy's face.

"This. You must recognise it; we've found them on every Death Eater for the past six years, I bet you have one in your own cloak right now," she said forcefully.

Malfoy nodded slowly. "Yes," he confirmed.

"He's told you that it's something that will help you, hasn't he? Something that will make you resist interrogation, or maybe even help you escape if you're captured by the Order," she guessed.

Malfoy did not respond, but his silence was an answer in itself.

"Well, he's lying. I've analysed the potion myself, and seen it ingested once. It's not pretty. It's a slow, agonising death, nearly an hour of the worst pain you can imagine, and at that point death is probably a relief."

"And your point is, Evans?" Malfoy drawled haughtily but Lily could tell that he was less confident than he had been a couple of minutes ago.

"I just couldn't figure out why he was counting on every single one in his ranks actually taking it if it came down to it," said Lily. "Bellatrix probably would, and perhaps some of the other truly fanatic ones, but I couldn't see every single Death Eater being willing to take an unknown potion even if they had been told it would help them. Frankly, I couldn't believe he was expecting that either. Now I understand that of course he doesn't expect it, he must have some other guarantee. An Unbreakable Vow, for instance."

Lily could immediately see on Malfoy's face that she was right.

"You've sworn an Unbreakable Vow that if you're captured by the Order you will take the potion, haven't you?"

"I've not been captured by the Order," Malfoy snapped.

Lily gave him a pitying look.

"Well, the problem is that you've walked straight into my flat, which is warded with highly complex spells, amongst them an enemy-prevention enchantment. The reason it hasn't gone off is because I was the one to bring you here, which probably counts as you being captured. The Vow must recognise it even if your mind hasn't realised it yet."

Malfoy stared at her with a mix of shock and pure anger.

"You foul bitch," he spat venomously. "Drop the bloody wards, immediately!"

"You know it's too late, Lucius. When our bodies shut down, the magical core is drained first; that's why you can't do any magic. You're dying," Lily said. "For the last minutes of your life you will effectively be a muggle. Isn't that ironic."

"You knew this would happen!"

"No," Lily denied sincerely. "I honestly had no idea. I vowed less than half an hour ago that I would do nothing to cause any intentional harm. If I'd known I wouldn't have been able to bring you here."

Out of the blue, Malfoy lunged at her, but he stumbled and instead collapsed on the floor. He clutched his abdomen and started panting heavily.

Lily had never seen anyone breaking an Unbreakable Vow before and had no idea how long it would take for the vow to kill him. It seemed less agonising than Voldemort's concoction, but it was definitely not painless.

She reached into her satchel and grabbed a flask with a deep, purple liquid inside which she uncorked and handed to the wizard on the floor.

"Malfoy, take this, it will knock you out," she instructed calmly, almost kindly, and she realised he must be in quite some pain since he didn't say a word – he just poured the potion into his mouth without hesitation, and in less than a few seconds he was unconscious.

His breathing got increasingly shallower in the next couple of minutes and a couple of times his limbs would spasm. The clock was only a little after eleven when Lucius Malfoy passed away on the living room floor in a dingy flat outside Sheffield.

When she was sure that he was really gone, Lily searched through all the pockets on his cloak and robes and in addition to another vial of the green liquid, she also found an old-looking, leather-bound diary with the name Tom Marvolo Riddle embossed.

Unlike the duplicate Malfoy had shown her in Godric's Hollow, this one truly did practically exude dark magic, and when she held it in her hands the diary felt alive, just like Helga Hufflepuff's cup had done. Lily was certain that she was holding another horcrux.

AN: I had a lot of trouble with this chapter. We're getting into more plot-heavy territory (compared to the first couple of chapters which have been mostly set-up), and it was a real challenge writing the scene with Lily and Lucius.

The "real" plot is still two or three chapters away, however, but please bear with me.

Also, reviews give me life and will to write (and edit), so I'd love to hear from all of you. What do you think of Mark, for instance?