Lily was left in her kitchen to sit and take in all the perplexing events on her day. Her life had been so ordinary, boring and uneventful for almost a decade and within a week she had had her world turned upside down. She was so sad her brief acquaintance Mr Dawes was gone, an eccentric man but she had wished no harm to him. She hoped he was at peace now and she tried not to dwell on what was out of her control. She had spent too many years dwelling on her mother's health and then death and she didn't want to go back down that rabbit hole of depression.

The day was almost gone, the sun slowly sinking in the sky so she decided to take a bath and relax. She ran the tap on the bath and poured some of her favourite bath scent into the tub just as she was about to strip she jumped out of her skin at a noise at her bathroom window.

The tapping continued until she opened the curtains and she saw an owl flapping outside of her window. A familiar sight in the wizarding world but something Lily hadn't seen in such a long time. She quickly opened the window and the owl hopped into her bathroom and quickly found a safe perch on the towel rack on the wall. She admired its beautiful golden eyes, gryffindor gold she remembered, and its soft brown feathers. The bird seemed to have a good temperament and let her stroke its back and it affectionately nibbled at her finger before reaching out its leg and offering her the note attached. She took the piece of rolled up parchment and saw a wax seal, the Potter seal, on the parchment. She felt a nervous edge whilst opening it which felt strange, she had expected this message as he had told her about it earlier in the day.

The read:

"Lily,

I hope you are well and safe at home. This owl is Morgan and she is yours now. Hopefully she will help you keep in touch with the wizarding world, as we certainly need good people like you in these troublesome times.

Hopefully you won't mind me checking in from time to time to make sure you are safe.

All the best,

James Potter"

She smiled at the formality of his letter. She rolled the parchment back up and placed it on her bathroom counter. She mentally reminded herself to write back and thank you note in the morning once Morgan had rested. She has her own owl, her first ever pet, which was a novel change.

Lily spent the next few days a little on edge, she had a foreboding feeling of being alone in the house but she refused to let herself get psyched out. She had lived in solitude for a long time and she couldn't let fear change her. She did however have the enjoyment of a new back and forth communication with James Potter which seemed like such an alien thing to occur Lily could hardly believe it whenever Morgan returned with another message. They messages had stayed formal and polite and simply checked in with Lily but she enjoyed them and looked forward to the tapping of the owl on the window.

In addition to her new pen pal pastime Lily also had the slight feeling of being watched. She couldn't put her finger on it but whenever she left the house to run an errand or pop into the office she always felt like someone was behind her but when she looked there was never anyone there.

She finished her article on the garden centre and Herbertson was pleased with the result. Lily was in the office typing up some other smaller article Herbertson had asked her to do a bit of extra editing on when she heard Gina call her name from across the office. It was a relatively quiet day as a lot of the office was out covering the fair, an annual highlight for the town.

Lily finished off typing the last word she was writing then she walked over to see what Gina wanted. Herbertson's door was closed and although she couldn't hear him she could see him giving someone a really hard time on the phone.

"What's up?" She asked.

"Hey honey. How are you doing?" Gina asked sweetly as she filed her long talon like nails, today a tropical orange.

"I'm okay." Lily said shortly, she wasn't very good at chit chat.

"Look honey," Gina said, her usually sunny disposition dropping. She looked around the office and the only other person was a young temp organising stationery on the other side of the office. "I need to talk to you about… the thing I gave you to look into last week." She said matter of factly. Lily blinked and realised she was referencing Mr Dawes.

"Oh I… I see. What did you want to talk about?" Lily asked again.

"Look, I don't know how to say this, but…" She looked around again then Gina looked Lily dead in her eye, she even tilted her rhinestone glasses down her nose and quietly but clearly said, "Honey, I'm a squib, or I prefer magically challenged, and on occasion I work with a few special people in a little collective to help out on some projects, but I won't bore you with that. Basically I'm in a little trouble with them as I gave you the tip off about crazy old Dawes and I just wanted to apologise. I had no idea that this Dawes thing was actually the real deal, I just thought it might have a local crime relating to some kids vandalising. I thought it might be a bit more interesting for you! I had no idea you were… a witch and I had NO idea this guy's story was legit. I hope you'll forgive me honey." Gina said earnestly and she wait for Lily to say something.

"Gina… I don't know what to say. It's certainly not your fault what happened and as you can see I'm fine so no need to worry about it. I had no idea that you were… magically challenged. But you don't need to apologise. You did nothing wrong except trying to get me out of my funk and to do something more exciting. All good." Lily said finally smiling, Gina return her a relieved smile.

"Thanks sweetheart. I have to say that young gentleman certainly was cross to see you put in harm's way. He must have a soft spot for you." She said winking at Lily who realised she must mean James and she blushed slightly realising her implication.

Lily returned quickly to her desk a little shocked at the revelations Gina had just given her. Gina had mentioned working with a little collective, she wondered if she was referring to the resistance the Potter's had mentioned. That would make sense as they knew Gina had told her about the tip and James had in turn obviously come and told off Gina for her part in getting Lily involved. A over reaction in Lily's eyes as Gina had hardly meant to put Lily in harm's way and it left her with a bubble of annoyance in her stomach which grew as the day went on. So upon returning home she quickly scribbled a short but curt message to James:

James,

I don't need you jumping in and attacking my colleagues for just doing their jobs. I'm very happy to protect myself and Gina did nothing wrong. Don't step in where you're not needed.

Regards,

Lily Evans

After sending the message she felt like it had been a slight over reaction, especially when no response came that evening or the next couple of days. She missed her pen pal and cursed herself for her temper.

She tried to keep busy throughout the week by reading a new book, researching a new article for the paper and pottering around the house but she felt uneasy. The night air felt cooler one evening so she put another jumper on and an extra pair of socks to stay warm.

Her room was small and cosy but she had always felt uncomfortable moving into her mother's room after her passing so it remained the same and Lily stayed put. Her favourite feature of her room was a window overlooking the garden which had a seat in the alcove when she could snuggle up with some pillows and a blanket and lose herself in a book.

She hadn't done it in a long time but she reached into her old trunk and chose one of her old Hogwarts charms books to read through. The charms on the house had been fun but also showed her that she was a little rustier than she liked to admit on some of the spells she used to excel in. She sat in her window and waved her wands gently around as she tried to charm a candle on her small bedroom side table to light then the candle flame to change colour. A little charm she had made up as a 4th year student.

She smiled when it flickered from yellow to green to blue to red. She then had a memory of creating the spell and it brought back a flickering memory of her friend Severus and her spending hours pouring over books in the library and creating spells and potions of their own. It was their own secret club and they had created some amazing things but much like their friendship they were now gone.

Lily went to bed that night with a sad feeling in her heart remembering those times and drifted into an uneasy sleep. She dreamt of running through a forest and someone was chasing her and everytime she looked over he shoulder they were hidden behind a tree. She ran and ran and she felt like she was about to get caught and just as she felt something grab her arm she tripped in her dream and as she fell to the ground she realised the shaking she felt wasn't from hitting the ground but from someone shaking her.

"Lily," The voice said to her in the dark. She gasped and a hand shot out over her mouth and muffled her cry. She felt immediate panic and blinked and tried to adjust to the dark so she could see who was in her room holding her down.

"Lily, it's James. Don't panic please or scream." James said, Lily should have relaxed but she couldn't stop her body from tensing with his hand over her mouth. Her eyes finally adjusted to the dark and she could see his panicked look in his eyes. He leaned in closer to her and she could smell his musky scent the faint smell of soap. He whispered in her ear, "There's someone in the house. Someone dangerous."

He took his hand away from her mouth and waited a second to make sure she wouldn't scream then quietly stood fully up and creeped round to stand behind the door of her bedroom. He gestured at her and then to the wardrobe in the corner of the room and he waved for her to hurry. She understood and quickly jumped up, grabbing her wand from her side table and quickly slipping into the wardrobe to hide. He stood so still behind the door and Lily finally heard the gentle footsteps coming up the stairs in her house. The footsteps were obviously creeping but they were also heavy like that of a man's boot, hardly a subtle break in.

Lily held her breath as the steps got closer to her room, James held his wand aloft as he prepared for the intruder to come in. The doorknob turned and shook and then creaked open inch by inch. Just as the door was almost full open James jumped out from his hiding spot and sent a flurry of stunning spells directly at the assailant.

Lily heard a brief yell of pain, quickly followed by thud of the body dropping to the floor. Lily sighed in relief and just as she thought it was over there was suddenly a big bang downstairs and she realised this man wasn't the only person breaking into her house that night. A shout came from downstairs and then it sounded like two more people were running up the stairs.

James jumped into action and ran to the closet and grabbed Lily. He then ran over to her alcove window and swung the window open as far as it would go.

"Lily you're going to have to trust me okay. Grab my hand and get on the ledge quickly," James said. Lily looked at him like he was mad the the steps were almost with them so she quickly did it then just as the steps reached her door he grabbed her hand so tightly then pushed them both out of the window at the same time at the door blasted off its hinges.

Lily turned a split second after she jumped and spotted two men with silver masks running to the window but before they could reach it then were falling from a first floor window about to hit the floor and then suddenly Lily felt as if someone had hooked her navel and was dragging her through a wind tunnel. She was being flung erratically around and then suddenly she was flung from the tunnel and landed with a heavy thud on a hard surface which was the last thing she remembered before she passed out.