A/N: This chapter dedicated to Juju (DontmesswithYami) because she was the first to review my sequel!

Chapter 2: A First Time for Everything

"James! James! Bloody hell, mate, wake up!" Sirius' head shouted from the fireplace.

James kept his eyes shut tightly, not relishing the idea of leaving his warm bed and wife. "Don't move," he whispered very softly in Lily's ear. "Maybe he'll just go away."

Lily giggled softly. Sirius was either in the house or downstairs with his head in the fire. James tended to be a bit of a baby when it came to his sleep. "You'd better go and see what he wants," she said. "It may be important."

"It's never important," James muttered. "What time is it?"

"James, get your bloody arse down here! This important!"

The clock read six thirty in the morning. James groaned, but removed himself from his wife's embrace and climbed slowly out of bed. He grabbed his dressing gown and started downstairs.

"All right, all right, I'm coming," he groused. "What's so urgent, Padfoot?"

Sirius' face was grave as it settled on top of the emerald flames. "It's Dumbledore. He sent a message saying that we've got an emergency Order meeting at seven. You and Lily both need to be there."

"At the Manor?" James asked

"Yeah. I've got to go and tell everyone else." James nodded and Sirius disappeared from the fire. With a sigh, James quickly ran up the stairs and roused his wife.

"Emergency Order Meeting at seven," he said, gently shaking her shoulder. Lily had fallen back asleep.

"Hmmm?" she mumbled. James smiled, leaning down and pressing a gently kiss to her lips. That was always, he had learned, a sure way to rouse her.

"We've got an emergency Order Meeting at seven," he repeated. Lily sighed, then reached out and pulled James down to the bed. She kissed him deeply, then snuggled against him, loving the warmth that always seemed to radiate from his body. "We've got to go," James urged, running his fingers through her sleep-mussed hair.

"Five more minutes," Lily said determinedly, trying to cuddle closer to him.

"It's six thirty-eight, and we're due at the Manor at seven," James said, gently trying to disentangle himself from his wife's grasp. "I know you're going to want a shower before we leave," he added. Lily sighed, knowing that he was right. It was, she was unhappy to admit to herself, time to get up and out of bed.

Suddenly, she sat bolt upright. "We have to leave, in, like, ten minutes," she exclaimed, throwing back the bedclothes and staring incredulously at James.

"I believe we've established that, love."

"Shit, why didn't you wake me up earlier?" Lily rushed to the bathroom, and a moment later James heard the sound of the shower running.

"You batty, adorable thing," he said, chuckling softly at his wife's morning time antics.

They arrived at Potter Manor only a few minutes late, a miraculous feat for Lily. Her hair was still dripping wet, but was pulled up into a messy bun, so it was hard to tell that she had merely rolled out of bed. Or so she liked to believe.

"Members," Dumbledore began, "we have a situation to attend to. It has come to our knowledge that there is an attack planned in Liverpool this morning."

"How did we come by this information, exactly?" Hagrid asked gruffly.

"We have a complicated network of spies, Hagrid, as you well know," Dumbledore replied, not unkindly. "However, we must do whatever we can to protect those innocent people in Liverpool from Voldemort's power."

"V-voldemort's actually going to be there?" Peter asked, a faint tremble in his voice.

"That's unlikely. He usually doesn't like to get his hands dirty unless it's a particularly important job," James answered. He knew this from his training at the Auror Academy. Those in the Information Sector were given profiles to study on key dark wizards, Voldemort the most prominent among them.

"You are correct in that, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore agreed. "However, that does not meant that we will not fight against every adversary as if he were Voldemort, himself. We have several possible tactical strategies laid out." At this, the Headmaster waved his wand and several rolls of parchment appeared and rolled themselves out on the table in front of them. Lily, Frank, Gideon, and Sirius all snatched eagerly at the plans, looking intently over them. Plans like these were their specialty at work.

"We will allow Lily, Gideon, Sirius, and Frank to give us their professional opinions on which strategy would be to the best of our advantage," Dumbledore said, looking proudly at his former students and feeling very accomplished in what they had learned.

They eventually decided on a counter-attack plan. The members of the Order would leave immediately and clear anyone and everyone from the streets around the center of town, using the excuse that there was a gas leak and that it was unsafe to remain in the streets. The rest of the Order would hide in strategic places around the cities and make every attempt to engage the Death Eaters in battle before they could harm anyone.

James leapt behind a large dustbin, using it for cover as he tried to catch his breath. The battle had been raging for nearly two hours. There had, so far, been no loss of life on either side, but many of the Order had apparated to St. Mungo's for healing of injuries received during battle. James was sporting a nasty cut to his forehead, but he simply reached up and wiped the blood away with his left hand before jumping back into the battle.

Lily was on the other side of the street, fighting a battle with two Death Eaters at once.

"Expelliarmus!" she cried, managing to finally disarm one of her opponents. A swiftly cast "Protego!" paralyzed the man, not allowing him to get to his wand. Unfortunately, the other Death Eater caught Lily by surprise.

"Crucio," he snarled pointing his wand directly at her. Lily fell to the ground, writhing and screaming in unimaginable pain.

"Stupefy," James shouted, stunning the Death Eater. He ran to Lily and helped her off the ground. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she said shakily. "Thanks." Then she saw something over James' shoulder. The other Death Eater she had been dueling had beaten her Protego curse and gotten back his wand. "Behind you!" Lily shouted, pushing James out of the way and pointing her wand hurriedly at the approaching Death Eater. "Stupefy!" He fell to the ground. Lily had not seen that the curb behind him was jagged and probably sharp. She had not expected the fall to leave the man with his head sticking into a rock, blood spilling over the ground. She had not expected his mask to slip. She certainly had not expected that mask to reveal someone she had known at Hogwarts, namely, Harold Swiften, one of Lily's earliest boyfriends. Most of all, Lily had not expected to kill him. Lily saw his eyes, blank and staring up at her. He was definitely dead.

"Oh Merlin," Lily whispered. She stood motionless, staring down at the body of her first kill.

She was lucky that James had been son ear, lucky that he had turned in time to see the man fall. James knew immediately that the man was dead.

"Padfoot!" He shouted to his best mate, and signaled him. Sirius saw Lily standing perfectly still, staring down at the body on the ground and guessed what had happened. He quickly finished his own battle and ran to his friends. He, James, and Remus managed to form a sort of protective barrier around Lily as she stood still, staring down at the body of the man she had killed.

The battle ended quickly. When they realized that one of their band had fallen, the Death Eaters quickly disapparated, leaving their dead behind. Lily was still standing over Harold's body.

"Lily?" James said softly, laying his hand on her shoulder. Lily jumped and looked at him. There were, James was almost surprised to see, unshed tears bulging in her, dark, emerald green eyes. "We've got to get back. Can you apparate?" Lily didn't answer, so James took her hand, apparating her side-along with him, back to Potter Manor.

When they arrived, the Manor was in a flurry of activity everywhere. Those with minor injuries were being healed by Emily, who had worked as a Medi-With earlier in life. Dumbledore was deep in conversation with Moody at the kitchen table. Others sat in small groups discussing the battle.

Moody left the table and walked over to Lily and James. "Can I speak with you for a moment, Potter?" Lily nodded and followed him into the next room. They both sat.

"Look," Moody began. "I know that today was your first kill." Lily nodded, forcing the tears out of her eyes. She didn't know why, but she refused to let herself cry in front of her boss. "If you need someone to talk to-"

"I'm fine," Lily interrupted him stonily.

"Are you sure?"

"Can I go now?"

Moody eyed her wearily. "Yeah, sure. Make sure you write out a report for Dumbledore." Lily nodded and apparated straight home. She leaned against a wall and sat down, tears streaming down her cheeks as she waited for James.

When James arrived, the first thing he saw was Lily sitting on the kitchen floor, sobbing. He gathered her into his arms without a word and lifted her, carrying her upstairs to their bedroom. He sat her down on the bed, joining her and holding her as she cried.

"Shhh," he whispered. "It's going to be alright."

Lily shook her head. "It was Harold. Harold Swiften. He-he was my boyfriend in f-fourth year."

"I know," James said softly. "I know." He pulled her into his lap, holding her and pressing soft kisses to her forehead and the top of her head.

In her fourth year, Lily had gone into what could only have been described as a Goth phase. She had died her hair black and began wearing outrageous clothing when she wasn't in uniform. When she was uniform, she had worn black leather jewelry. Her fingernails had been constantly painted black. She had also dated a string of guys who were much older than she was and were basically bad news. Harold Swiften, a seventh year in Slytherin at the time, had been one of those guys. They had only dated for about a month, and Lily had broken up with him because he had been pressuring her to have sex with him. Still, though, he was someone she had known, someone she had kissed. A worse person could not have ended up as her first kill.

Lily cried still harder as memories of her short time with Harold assaulted her memory. Suddenly, she jumped off the bed and ran to the bathroom, feeling dangerously nauseous.

James sighed and followed her into the bathroom, holding back her hair as she retched. When she had finished, James helped her stand and helped her over to the sink so that she could brush her teeth. They returned to their bed and James looked his wife seriously in the eye.

"I know this is hard for you," he said softly. "The first kill is…" he broke off with a shudder as he remembered his own first time. He had avenged his father's death moments after it had happened when their Manor had been attacked by Death Eaters. "It's extremely difficult for everyone."

"I knew it was going to happen eventually," Lily said softly. "I mean, I'm an Auror. I work in the Special Forces Sector. The job does involve battle. I just never thought that-" she broke off, crying again.

James pulled her close. "I know," he said softly. "I can't imagine if it were someone I'd known." He stroked her hair. "We're both off of work today, by the way. I talked with Moody. He said you seemed upset."

"I didn't want him to know," Lily mumbled. "I just…. I'm one of only three women in the entire department. There's just Emmeline, Marlene McKinnon, and me. It don't want him to think that I'm weak."

"No one in their right mind could ever call you weak," James said, fighting a chuckle.

"I didn't have to kill him, James. I didn't even mean to at all. I just used the Stunner and he-he fell and hit the curb, and-"

"I know. I saw the whole thing, remember?" Lily nodded.

"It-its' my fault that he's dead. I took another p-person's life," she said softly, horrified by her own words. She started to sob, and James pulled her closer. She buried her face in his chest.

"I know. I know, Lilyflower. It's alright," James tried to sooth her, running his finger through her hair. They sat together for a long time in silence.

"Are you hungry at all?" James asked softly. It was nearly three in the afternoon and, neither of them had eaten any breakfast or lunch. Lily shook her head. "Well, you need to eat something, and I'm starving, so I'm going to go fix us both something anyway." He squeezed her tightly, then stood.

He returned about twenty minutes later with a tray carrying to mugs of tea and two bowls of chicken soup. He knew that it was Lily's favorite "comfort food".

"Budge over," he said to Lily, pointing his wand at the tray so that it levitated while he climbed into the bed next to his wife. Lily looked up at him.

"Thank you," she said softly. "I really just needed for you to be here for me right now."

"I love you. I will always be here for you. I promise you," James said, taking her hand and gently kissing her knuckles. Lily smiled, her eyes still watery.

"I love you, too," she said softly.

A/N: Well, here is the second chapter. I hope that everyone likes it. It's sad, I know. But, believe it or not, it is neccessary to the plot. Hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter!

Please review. I don't care if you just say "Crappy story. I hate it." or "Cute story. I like it." I'd prefer the second option, but each to his own opinion. Please R&R.

Love from

Lyny Angell