Disclaimer: Sorry, J.K. Rowling is not one of my aliases, so I don't own the Potterverse

Things aren't always in black and white,

Nothing can be described as an easy way or a hard way,

Sometimes wrongs are done in the name of good,

And good deeds for evil intent.

Nothing is ever fair,

And everything comes with a price.

"Shades of Grey" – Severus Snape

Lily leaned against the wall outside Borign and Burkes, frowning slightly as she stared at the stars. Another shiver ran down her spine as flashes of fire dotted her vision. 'Bloody dementors' she thought angrily. The night was abnormally cold. The dementors had, once again, found a new master. When her father found out that they had left Azkaban, he (along with Uncle Ron) spent the whole week abusing Minister Scrimigour when they thought the children weren't around. Lily had learned many new (if somewhat vulgar) ways to express dislike for a person that week. Afterwards, her dad had started to hunt down former Death Eaters, gathering the Order, and trying to help as many people as possible.

She feared that her dad overworked himself. In fact, she believed that both her parents overworked themselves. Mum would spend endless hours at St. Mungos trying to save the lives of people, or making them more comfortable as they died. She would always end up going home late with a sad expression on her face, and on more than one occasion Lily had caught her sobbing in the middle of the night with Dad trying to offer her some comfort.

Another wave of coldness snapped her attention out of her thoughts. She pulled her cloak tighter around her body even though she knew it couldn't protect her from the chill.

"Look at the stars, look at the stars, look at the stars..." she muttered softly to herself.

"Lils!" whispered an urgent voice in her ear. She jumped drew her wand and pointed it straight at space beside her.

"Lily! Calm down! It's Matt," said the panicked voice. Matt removed the hood of his cloak so Lily could see who was beside her before placing it back on his head.

Lily let out the breath she was going to use to curse the voice with.

"You prat! I could've killed you," she whispered at him angrily, "What are you doing out here anyway? Aren't you-?"

"I found it," he said, cutting off her rant, "And James is about done. Borgin is asking for a fortune, so I'm thinking we're going to use plan B."

Lily snorted. "I told you so, didn't I?" She glanced around. "Anything close?"

Matt sniffed the air and grimaced slightly before responding. "Just Borgin... and a few dementors are around somewhere."

"Obviously," she muttered sarcastically as more fire flashed before her eyes.

Matt heard her and looked at her for a second. "Only a little while longer and then we're out of here," he said softly.

"I'm fine," she whispered back irritably. Matt cocked an eyebrow her, although she couldn't see him. Then he spoke, "I know you can feel them before James and me."

"I'm fine, Matt."

Matt shook his head, "It's okay for you to be scared, Lils."

Before Lily could respond, James walked out of the shop and into the alley beside it. Lily got off the wall and followed him, making sure the cloak hid her face. Matt swore he heard her sigh and mutter something like "No, it's not" under her breath, but he wasn't sure. He shook his head and followed Lily and James into the alley.

James was not in a good mood. Borgin wasn't the most pleasant person to talk to, especially when you are trying to buy one of his more... personal items. He removed his glamour charms while continually cursing under his breath.

"Stupid man... probably doesn't even know what the bloody thing does."

"Granted we don't really know what it does either," interjected Matt's voice. The cloaked figure of his sister walked up to him and leaned against one of the alley walls. Matt appeared beside her with the cloak in his arms.

"We know more than he does, in any case," Lily said in that matter-of-fact way she picked up from Aunt Hermione, "So where is it, Matt?"

Matt sniffed the air once again, and then sneezed. "Did you know there's a shop that sells body parts about a hundred meters that way?" He pointed in a completely opposite direction. Lily and James both raised an eyebrow. "It's messing with my sense of smell, not to mention that I want to gag every time I breathe. It's best that I go in alone while Lily holds the wards open. James you have to keep watch over her."

James nodded and Lily stood up straight and faced the wall that was apart of Borgin and Burkes. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"Ready, then?" Both men nodded although they knew she couldn't see them do it.

Lily's eyes snapped open. They were glowing an eerie green color. Her hand was tracing out an invisible rune, before she pressed her palm in the center of it. The rune became visible, and then flashed a bright blue before disintegrating into thin air. Lily's hand was now glowing the same color as her eyes were and she held it against the wall, not moving her eyes from the area in front of her.

"I've disabled the wards around the back so you can go in through there. Also the alarm system around it is under my control, but not the magic sensors, so no magic. You have about fifteen minutes before I have to drop it or face magical exhaustion." Both James and Matt's eyes widened. Lily gave them a wry smile. "You have no idea how much dark magic is in these wards, so I suggest you go before I collapse."

Matt muttered darkly under his breath as he picked up the metallic scent of blood, bringing back particularly gruesome memories of battles that he had been caught in. One of that reasons he hated Knockturn Alley was the stupid human body part shop that was right in the middle of the area. One of these days, he was going to burn the bloody shop to the ground and then find the owner and kill him because he most likely was a Death Eater (not to mention anyone who actually owns a body part shop must be Dark or extremely mental).

He still remembered the first time he walked past the Alley. He was six and he couldn't quite control the enhanced sense of smell yet. He walked right by the Alley and got a full whiff of the shop, even though it was blocks away, and vomited on the spot. Not a very pleasant first experience for a not so pleasant area. It was better than most of his other experiences with the place at least, although that wasn't saying much.

He snuck past the staircase that lead up to Borgin's room. He almost wandered up there when James was distracting the old man. It was obvious that the man had Dark items and a raid the flat above his shop would most likely show exactly how many Dark Artifacts he had in his shop and how many items he sold, which would lead to the Ministry putting him in Azkaban (for all the good that would do). Of course that also meant that the stairs going up to the rooms were heavily warded.

Matt entered the back room and sniffed the air. He held back his normal gag reflex and cocked his head to the side in a very canine like way as he tried to determine the different scents of area. He frowned and tried again, trying to block out that blood and decay smell, and determined there was a lot of dust in the room. He let out a soft frustrated growl. He was sure that he smelt it when he was here with James. Matt closed his eyes and focused on the room. When James was in here he had attempted to keep his distance by walking around the back of the shop. He was walking by the curtain when he caught a faint whiff of ... the curtain!

He almost slapped his forehead. Of course the curtain had scent dampening charms on them. He rushed to the curtain and tore it open. His eyes widened slightly as he saw jets of light headed in his direction, before he ducked, cursing himself for his carelessness. He heard the dull sound of footsteps on the ceiling above him and let out another stream of curses. It looked like Borgin was awake after all. He quickly dodged another jet of red light.

Nice security system he thought absently based on muggle technology and not the magical warding system. Very clever. Who would have thought that such a pure-blood supremacist would rely on muggle ideals?

He quickly ran to retrieve a box that was positively reeking with the smell of the object he was looking for. The dull sound of footsteps had reached the stairs and Matt nearly panicked. There was no way of getting out without being seen by Borgin unless…

Matt looked at the small window almost behind a shelf. It would be a tight fit and he would be left open to the curses the security system was firing. He sighed silently, as he reached for his wand. He had to use magic, there was no other way.

"Protego!" he whispered and a magical shield appeared just as another jet of red light was about to hit him. He ran to the window box in hand, calculating how much time he had until Borgin enter the room or his shield ran out of power. He jumped up grabbed the ledge and quickly hauled himself up. It was a tight fit, but a little bit of wriggling and he managed to make it out just as Borgin entered the room and his shield flickered out of existence. He sighed in relief. He rounded the corner to where James and Lily were standing.

James tapped Lily on the shoulder. Lily dropped her hand and turned to him.

"Got it?" she asked, tiredly.

Matt nodded and she smiled.

"That's good," she muttered, before fainting.

James managed to catch her and shook his head at his stubborn sister.

"She's exhausted."

"So am I," Matt said.

James rolled his eyes at Matt.

"Let's go home" he said, "Before those dementors find us."

Matt grinned. "Yeah, home."

A/N: My case of writer's block has offically been cured. Hooray! Now if only I could work on those Literary Analysis papers for English. Bah! Plays are must less enjoyable if you analyze it to death.

Lily is able to control warding systems, who knew? XD Yay, bad habits.

Anyways, hoped you enjoyed it! Please, R&R.