IMPORTANT: Please reread this chapter if you haven't already. I've changed it drastically and I don't want anyone to get confused about it. Thank you for your reviews, and there is another author's note at the bottom that will answer them all. I usually don't open the chapter with it, it just changes it up and I don't like it. It takes attention away from the actual story and thus I never do it. Love from Marlene.

Lily Evans stared unseeingly into the flames leaping around the hearth, her bloodshot emerald eyes half-open and her fingers shaking as they braided the blonde locks of her best friend, whose form was sat stiffly in front of her; none of them had been as scared as they were now, with Cassandra in the hospital wing and with Hermione kidnapped and in the clutches of the darkest wizard to roam the lands since Grindewald. Lily hadn't been right since she had seen her best friend being dragged away from her, struggling and screaming for her, when she couldn't, she hadn't, helped her.

The others had been understanding about it, sympathetic and, most of all, broken beyond belief. Lily had been thankful for their support, but it wasn't doing her confidence wonders and she doubted that she'd be able to go through with the attack without being caught out in her emotions. She was dangling over the very edge of her bottled up emotions and she knew that, at some point in her life, that they would all come out in a tumble of screaming and sobbing and pure uncalled for anger that she could not control.

Alice had convinced her to leave the hospital wing that morning, to leave Gideon and Fabian to watch over Cassandra. Gideon had been overcome with guilt about leaving her alone there, despite it not being his fault in the slightest, and he had convinced himself that he would be there because he had to apologise to his girlfriend.

Lily had willingly done the same. She had sat by her friends' side, with her hand in her tight and sweaty grip, her tears cascading in an endless waterfall down her face, but as soon as someone would ask she would stop immediately and turn cold and indifferent. She had to be strong for her friends, she had to be strong for her family, but, most of all, she had to be strong for her best friend and her boyfriend; she couldn't break when they were depending on her to right her mistakes.

A pair of earnest amber eyes searched hers as Remus settled at her side, immediately wrapping an arm around her shaking shoulders and pulling her close; she felt her resolve breaking then and there, and soon she was a shaking, sobbing mess in his arms, as everyone in the common room watched, awestruck, as the infamous Lily Evans, the brave, strong girl whom they had looked up to for so many years, break down into a hysterical fit of tears and emotions that they didn't realise people were capable of feeling at once.

"You don't have to be indestructible," came James' soft tone, and her shoulders began to shake harder and harder until she was uncontrollably weeping into her boyfriend's shirt, a force that could not be reckoned with even by an avalanche or a volcano.

She was Lily Evans, indestructible, tall, strong and level-headed. She was brave and fierce, with a pair of gorgeous emerald eyes that no one could say no to.

But she was also Lily Evans, the one who believed she had the power to change the world just by being there. She had tried so hard to be happy for other people, to be strong for them, that she had forgotten to be happy for herself. She had a lot of fixing to do, and she knew that.

She also knew that it would, most likely, be the hardest thing she would go through in her life.

For once in her life, Lily Evans was not indestructible.

In the moment that Peter Pettigrew's form struck the ground, chaos was brought to the world. Voldemort gave a scream of fury and drew his own wand, his juniors flocking around him and flanking him almost protectively, their own wands jabbed dangerously in the direction of the four standing in the entrance to the room; Frank and the twins paled furiously and each of their hands shook as their wands were pointed almost maliciously in the direction of their opposition; Lily saw her chance and took it deftly, ducking the first of many curses from the Death Eaters and crawling forward, towards the limp, plump body of her boyfriend's best friend.

Tears prickled in her eyes as she felt her heart breaking in her chest as she swept his sandy locks from his plump, clammy face and looked deeply into the emotionless, blank watery blue eyes of the corpse lying before her; a justified anger rose within her and suddenly she was on her feet, standing protectively over his form, screaming every curse she could think of in a shrill and haughty voice that she hadn't been able to disguise in the midst of battle. She wasn't perfect, but Lily Evans knew when things were wrong and leaving his dead body in the middle of a battle wasn't right in the slightest. She wasn't cruel, quite the opposite, and she couldn't bear to see the utter betrayal on Remus' face if she had abandoned his best friend in battle even if Peter was dead.

Lily whirled around, ducking a bright orange curse at the last moment. Peter was dead because of her, because she hadn't moved in time. She was determined not to let him die in vain, not when she had the chance to avenge such an innocent life in her hands now. "Impedimenta!" she bellowed, the sound wrenching from her throat and the dark grey spell erupting from the tip of her wand, striking the nearest Death Eater in the chest and immobilising him. "Incarcerous!" Thick, wire-like ropes sprung from her wand tip and wrapped securely around his arms, binding him to the column supporting the roof that stood behind him.

"Stupefy!" she screeched at the next one, binding him in a similar way. "Avis! Oppugno!" A flock of bright yellow birds began to pelt the Death Eater with missile-like beaks, his screams and yells for help being silenced as his face was damaged and mangled.

"Crucio!"

She collapsed, a torn, drawn-out scream wrenching from her lips as she took the brunt of the curse, the very blood in her veins replaced by white-hot knives that pierced her insides, a crown made of thorns atop her head, digging into her scalp, a pain unknown to humans tearing at her soul. Lily writhed on the floor, her fingers harshly wrenching at her own throat. She could no longer keep her eyes open as the pain continued at an unbearable rate, an unstoppable force that collided with her very heart, tearing it apart. But she refused to beg for her life, even as she felt it was ending, the tears cascading down her cheeks and the screams escaping her the only signals of pain that left her.

Lily's fingers wrenched at her very heart, her wand clattering to the floor beside her, useless in the state of pain. She could feel nothing but the pain, the silence around her deafening her, her own screams tearing through the sounds of the battle at an alarmingly loud rate. Her emerald eyes fluttered as she fought to stay awake, the edges of her vision blackening as she clung to consciousness with the remaining strength.

"LILY!"

And suddenly the pain stopped. It was so sudden, so unexpected, and so welcome that she began sobbing in relief rather than pain. There came a few muffled sounds of battle, but she could no longer hear much other than the ringing of her own screams in her ears.

"You bitch!"

Hermione. That was Hermione's voice, shaking with anger and with adrenaline, and Lily fought to keep her eyes open to watch. There was her best friend, standing over her, her wand in her hand and pointed maliciously in the direction of the Death Eater who had struck her with the curse. Bellatrix Lestrange's maddened eyes were alight with a crazed look that frightened her. But Hermione was not afraid, rather enraged and determined; if she craned her head painfully, she could see a familiar pair of cinnamon eyes that she knew so well, burning with a stubborn and determined fire of life and of death, of love and loss, but mostly fury and anger. Lily allowed a smile to touch her lips as she watched the brunette shake in rage.

And then the world dissolved into darkness.

I edited this chapter, replaced it, even. I wasn't the slightest bit happy with the previous one, and instead the prophecy will be in the next few chapters. I'd like any suggestions to go back and improve the story, and I'd like to say thank you to my wonderful readers and reviewers: here are some replies that I thought I should give out in my gratitude.

Lionswing: I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you in a while! You have my deepest apologies, and I shall attempt to be kinder to my fabulous and most avid reader so far. Thank you for your continued support and your wonderful suggestions. In the future, I will attempt to keep my paragraphs shorter so that the readers aren't so daunted about their length. I'm not surprised that someone's brought it out in the slightest, actually, as soon as you said it I looked back through the story and, as soon as I saw it, I realised that you were right.

Fleur Suoh: You'll have to find out, won't you?

MSupernatural: I know. I adore James, too - he's my favourite Marauder. I have edited the part about Cassandra and James' confrontation, though, but that will be featured later in the story, when she wakes up from the hospital wing and finds out that Peter is dead... crap, I just gave that away, didn't I? DON'T READ, DON'T READ, DON'T... dammit, you've probably already read it by now, haven't you? And don't worry, I'm a weirdo too.

Sampdoria: First of all, thank you so much! Second of all, Snape isn't a bad guy. He had to win Voldemort's allegiance somehow, didn't he? He is the spy in the Order and if he refused to torture a mudblood, who is considered scum, it would look suspicious and would draw unwanted attention. He's not bad by any means because he wants to help the Order. In my mind, Peter wasn't a bad friend. He was just scared about his friends not being able to protect him and thus he wanted some more powerful friends to help him; his allegiance was turned to Voldemort because, in his mind, if he was going to be protected from the Dark Lord, who better to do it than the Dark Lord himself?

Shotgungirl2015: Here's your update! Though it isn't really, it's just changing up the chapter... oh, well. It's sort of an update, isn't it?

IMPORTANT: I hope you're not mad that this isn't a proper chapter, but I have changed it up drastically, so please reread the chapter here.

Love,

Marlene