Chapter 2

~In Crowley's mansion, a few minutes after the end of Chapter One~

Lily walked down the stairs to find Alfie making something with ground beef and dough.

"Alfie, what are you making?" she asked.

"Hello, Miss, Alfie is making beef empanadas. He hopes that is acceptable." Alfie said happily. "Alfie enjoys cooking, Miss. His favorite is salad, but Master Crowley does not enjoy salad very much. So Alfie is not able to make it often."

Lily smiled. "Well, Alfie, I would like a salad with carrots, tomatoes, and anything else you think would be good."

Alfie clapped his hands happily. "Oh, thank you, Miss! Alfie will make the best salad in the world!"

Lily laughed and walked out of the kitchen, patting his head on the way. "I'm sure you will, Alfie."

As she explored the mansion, she saw that Crowley enjoyed light in his home. Funny, you would think, with him being a demon, he would like darkness better.

Walking into a room, she found what she assumed to be his study. There was a desk, a chair, a sofa, and papers and things of the sort. Curious, she wandered closer. Seeing graphs, numbers, and what looked to be complaints. Looking closer, she saw that they were labeled as 'deals' and each had a 'collection date.'

This is weird, and not very profitable, she thought, bewildered. The collection dates are ten years after the original deal was made. She wondered what the people that made the deals gave in return.

"Well, I see you've made yourself comfortable," said an amused voice behind her. Whirling around, she found Crowley grinning. Smiling sheepishly, she turned back to the papers. "What are these deals? And these lists? Also, I couldn't help but notice that the collection dates are ten years after the deal. What do they pay you that is worth waiting that long?"

"Well, the deals are when people tell us what they want, and the collection dates ten years later, are us collecting their souls. That's what the numbers are; the number of souls in hell," he explained, looking sorrowfully at the paper. "Poor bastards." He looked at her. "Heaven only accepts the very best. So, we are having a problem with overflow at the moment. We're working on a solution, though."

Lily soaked this in, then asked, "Do you ever feel bad for them? Like, when you're taking their souls?"

"No," Crowley replied with no hesitation. "They could fix their problems themselves, but instead turn to a demon to do it for them. One thing I don't tolerate, however, is my demons going back on their deals, or in other words," he looked back at the papers in disgust. "Collecting early."

Lily nodded. It was true, some people were too lazy to help themselves "So… why are you doing this?"

Crowley looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Like what is your job in the ranks, or whatever?"

Crowley laughed. "Lily, I'm the king. Of hell."

Lily's eyes widened. "Wait, does that mean you're Lucifer?"

"No. I never have and never want to be an angel. Bastards," he muttered.

Lily looked at him weirdly. Crowley smiled and said, "Trust me, love. You never want to meet an angel. They don't know anything about this place and most of them don't want to."

"Ok…" Time to change the subject, she thought. "How do you know about magic? And if you live in America, what were you doing in the UK?"

"I travel to a random demon's station every once in a while, to see how they are doing. And I was born a Squib in Scotland, so I grew up around magic, but didn't have any of my own."

"Just out of curiosity," said Lily hesitantly, "How is the station in Godric's Hallow doing?"

"Well, I got one the night I was there, so not bad," replied Crowley brightly.

Lily nodded. She couldn't get mad at Crowley, he was only doing what he needed to. It wasn't his fault these people were lazy.

"So, I saw you looking over my papers. Any suggestions?," said Crowley.

Lily looked back at the graphs. "Well, if you shortened down the collection date on future deals, to five years or so, then you would have a much larger income," Lily felt no guilt in thinking this way, the people doomed themselves when they came to a demon.

Crowley considered for a moment, then a grin slowly spread across his face. "Lily, are you going to stay?"

Lily thought for a moment. James was dead, the Order would be fine without her, and Dumbledore, while having good intentions, had never really made it into Lily's good graces.

"Yes."

Crowley's grin grew even wider. "Then I see a very profitable future for the two of us."

~Later, Crowley is meeting with other demons~

Lily was eating the salad made for her by Alfie, which really was really good, when Crowley walked up to her.

"Lily, I need you to go to your room. Other demons are here."

Lily paused. "Wait. Why? Are they here because of me?"

Crowley snorted. "Don't flatter yourself. They're here because of an annual meeting that I totally forgot about."

"What is it for? Like, to report in, or all that?"

"Yes," Crowley glanced over his shoulder. "Now you need to go, Lily, or your head and mine are on the chopping block."

Lily raised an eyebrow, but did as she was asked. When she was gone, Crowley sighed. That one's going to be a handful, he thought.

Heading into the conference room, he threw the doors open and strode in dramatically to meet the demons gathered there.

"Well. Look at you, gathered around like it's circle time in preschool."

One demon stood up and said, "Crowley. Is it true you have a human in this house?"

Crowley grinned. "Yes. I figured having a human that wanted to do anything I wanted her to would be entertaining."

"Stop acting, Crowley!" shouted another demon. "You're going soft, admit it!"

"Show me respect, you insolent worm," Crowley growled. "You take care of a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. And I'm the king of hell!"

"Even I can see that this is not the way you should be running things," the demon sneered.

Crowley sighed, and waved a hand. A second later, the demon's now-dead body fell with a thud to the floor. "Anyone else agree with him?" When nobody answered back, he said, "That's what I thought. Now, let's get down to business."

Hey guys. So I was amazed by the views this got, because the last story that I wrote got 80 views at its peak. I know this chapter was short, but I was having trouble thinking about what to write in. We'll be seeing Harry next chapter! Now, to address the amazing people who reviewed and let me know what they thought.

Spencer366: Good! I have read these kinds of stories too, and I figured I would give it a shot. And I don't want to give too much away for what's in store, but I think it's safe to say that Lily won't die in this FanFic.

Rose's Fox: I'm glad!

KateKat1992: Good. So, like I said with Spencer, I don't want to give too much away about the story. But I want to try something: If 5 people review and ask me questions about the story, I will answer one. Okay?

Again, thank you so much for giving me this feedback. I love hearing what you think! Keep reading and reviewing, Gridline OUT.