"There have been three raids on houses of order members in the last twenty four hours. Luckily none of ours have been hurt, or even found, but they've got insider information they shouldn't have and we don't know how their getting it. Headquarters has been compromised and it's been surrounded by death eaters. Even if they can't see it or get in it were still planning a move." Moody's voice was calm as he spoke but Lily could see the anger in his one real eye, etched in the lines of his scarred face, frightening in the shadows cast from surrounding lamps. The other's were once again exchanging looks and she knew that there was something that he wasn't telling her. She didn't say anything, but continued to watch him and for once he was the first to look away with a weary sigh before he continued.

"One of the raids was on your flat in london. Last night."

She couldn't say that she was shocked. Years of worry and precaution had prepared her for the possibility that she wasn't even safe in her own home, but the sheer luck that there had been no one there was unbelievable. What if they had been there? What if Remus had been there alone?

Moody gave her a moment to process this information. She took a deep breath and refocused her attention on him.

"We also think that they aren't finished. They'll continue with their raids until they find someone. And if they can find one of our homes then they can find them all. But we've got spies of our own. Were gonna try and catch them in the act. Get there's before they get ours" he said with a grim smile.

It was McGonagall who spoke next and Lily turned her attention to her old teacher.

"Dumbledore's spies have informed us that he who must not be named wants Mad-eye. He's an experienced auror and important member of the order. If they could get to him then they would have everything they could possibly need to infiltrate the most crucial inner order and ministry workings. They wouldn't mind getting their hands on Frank and Alice either." She shuddered slightly.

"We think they're planning more raids for tonight, but we can't be sure where they'll try them. We have a vague idea that they'll be going to Moody's, which is also not far from the Prewett's and they'll be trying to keep us distracted at headquarters. We'll be splitting into three teams. One at headquarters, also in charge of finding a new site. Another between the Prewett's and Moody's and yet another over at Caradoc's. We don' t think that's likely just yet but there's always the chance. Any movement and we can have the entire order at any of these places in seconds, and they don't know that were onto them. We catch a few of them and we can find out what Voldemorts up to" Moody said.

Lily felt the last of her wedding day bliss melt away as she was absorbed back into reality. The last few hours of her life had seemed like a dream to her, and it was high time that she woke up.

"I'm in."

The other's looked surprised at her announcement. Dumbledore was smiling faintly again, as if he had known all along what she would say but the looks of incredulity on the other faces made her bristle defensively.

"I'm in the order too. You think I'm not gonna take part in this? "

"But it's your wedding day, we really don't even know..." but Dorcas trailed off at the look that Lily could feel on her own face.

"We need everyone we can get."

"Alright then, this is good" Moody was saying, with the same grim smile still haunting him.

"Lily?!"

She turned to find the marauders, minus one, making their way across the yard towards her and she went to meet them.

The other guests had disappeared and the garden was quiet and empty. Even Mary had left with her boyfriend and Lily felt a twinge of guilt that she had not been there to say goodbye. The last people she had seen off had been her parents who had gotten on the knight bus, nervously, on their own, long before the festivities had ended, making ridiculous excuses about the long day and the drive, but Lily hadn't minded. She understood how her parents felt. That they didn't really fit in with the rest of her world.

As she reached James, he took her hands in his and kissed her swiftly with his usual boyish expression.

"Are you almost ready to go?" he asked as he pulled away. Sirius was grinning evily beside his friend and she sincerely hoped that he wasn't picturing her honeymoon with James. She glanced back over her shoulder at the gathered members of the order who stood, watching the exchange in silence.

James took everything in quickly and a wide grin spread across his face as he ran one hand through his hair, making it stick up even more in the back, if that was at all possible. Sirius too followed her line of sight and his evil grin was replaced with a look of excitement. "Have we got some action then?" he asked, rubbing his hands together enthusiastically.

She looked back at James. "How do you feel about putting our honeymoon on hold for a few hours?"

He just smiled in reply and followed her back across the yard to the assembled order with his friends trailing behind him, delighted anticipation hanging over them all. She doubted that it was a good thing that he was more excited about a battle than he was about their honeymoon.

****

It had been wonderful to put on normal clothes again. Lily leaned against the back fence of Caradoc Dearborn's yard in jeans and a t-shirt. If a muggle were to walk by, all they would have seen would be the three teens lounging in a dark alley, as if simply enjoying the muggy, stifling heat that had settled over the area. What they certainly wouldn't have noticed would be that all three of them had a hand stuck in a pocket where they each had their wands concealed, but ready at any moment for anything. Lily clutched her own tightly. The streets around them seemed too silent. Too still. Normal night sounds could not be heard and she didn't think that it had anything to do with the heat. She knew she was being paranoid but she couldn't help the feeling that they would be seeing more than empty alley.

Lily, James and Sirius had been instructed to watch the back of the house as Remus, Edgar and Emmeline patrolled the street in front inconspicuously. Caradoc Dearborn was alone in his house, keeping up the pretense that the order had no idea about the raids. Elsewhere, Lily knew that the same set up had been employed at Moody's and the Prewett's. She wondered how Dumbledore and the other's were doing at headquarters.

No one spoke. They were too jittery with anticipation to relax and they certainly didn't want to miss anything, even though, as they had been told, it was unlikely that they would be seeing any action in the vicinity. They exchanged glances every now and then as if checking to be sure that their friends were still with them. Sirius was still looking excited but Lily could see worry in James' face as their eyes met and she wondered if it was concern for her. She felt a twinge of annoyance at his unreasonable concern and looked away, rolling her eyes to herself. She was just as capable as anyone and James knew it. She had saved his life the last time they had worked together but he seemed to have conveniently forgotten all about that.

Very suddenly, all the lights in Caradoc's house came on simultaneously and they spun towards the signal, drawing their wands.

"I'll meet up with the others and check it out. You guys stay here" Sirius said and he took off up the alleyway to the adjoining street, disappearing into the shadows.

A moment later they heard a cry from the direction that he had ran and though they couldn't see a thing through the darkness surrounding them, they knew that there was something wrong. Flashes of bright light from the end of the alleyway confirmed their thoughts.

"Stay here, make sure no one goes in the back!" James demanded, and with that he turned and ran off after his friend.

Lily gritted her teeth and turned back to face the alley. The lights in the house behind her went off as quickly as they had turned on and she was plunged back into complete darkness.

She didn't light her wand for fear of drawing unwanted attention to herself. She felt like a sitting duck, alone, blind and vulnerable.

She knew just what the sound of sweeping cloaks coming towards her from the open end of the alley meant. She could just barely make out the figures as her eyes struggled to adjust and she froze on the spot. There were two of them and one of her but she didn't think that they knew she was there as they whispered quietly and excitedly to one another. She wished she knew what they were saying but she would only have one chance to do what she needed too. She had to take them out before they called for reinforcements.

The pair drew closer and she could see their horrible masks and hear their rough breathing. They were heading to meet their friend or friends at the other end of the alley where the sounds and lights of battle were still resonating or else they were heading for the very spot that she stood frozen. She could just barely make out muffles noises from within the house and she knew that she was all on her own. There were too many death eaters for the seven of them to handle.

"STUPEFY!!"

Lily jumped away from the fence, her wand pointed at the pair of death eaters. One of them swore loudly as the spell flew over his shoulder and he danced out of the way. The other death eater laughed and pulled out his own wand. But she knew that they could only see her as well as she could see them and she had managed to take them by surprise. They shot curses in her direction but she avoided them with an agile determination. She wasn't about to get herself killed on her wedding night, she had more important things to do.

She flicked her wand again and this time the spell hit the larger of the two death eaters right in the chest and he keeled over backwards, landing in the dirt with a thud. The other death eater gave a cry of rage and lunged forward.

"Avada Kedav-" But she blocked the horrible curse with a wave of her wand.

The lights in the house came on again and Lily could just make out more death eaters swarming up the alley towards her and the man with whom she was dueling. Even if there was no escape, she knew that she would fight them to the death. She had denied their request to join them and that made her a desired target, an enemy of the dark lord. Footsteps from behind her told her that she was surrounded.

The man she was fighting froze as the light from the house illuminated the scene and he seemed to lower his wand slightly as he looked at her. She too stopped curiously mid spell and a few pathetic sparks flew from the end of her own wand. A streak of light flew over her shoulder from behind her, mere inches from her face, and she dove out of the way. She hit the fence and fell to the ground, but the spell had not been intended for her.

She looked up just in time to see the jet of light hit the death eater directly in the face. His mask flew off and he joined his friend in a heap on the ground. Glancing back around, she saw Sirius with his wand raised, still pointing at the man's frozen form with James right behind him. Sirius had a deep gash on the side of his face, his shirt was torn and there was blood dripping down from beneath his hairline. James looked slightly better than his friend but was also ruffled. He too was bleeding form various wounds. He was covered in dirt and he seemed to have lost one of his shoes. They both continued to stare down at the death eater on the ground and Lily looked back around at the long, greasy black hair, pale complexion and hooked nose that the mask had been hiding.

"Snivellus?"

Sirius' voice was full of an old, familiar disgust, taking Lily back to their school days. He stretched out one leg and nudged Severus Snapes' paralized form with his foot. James too was glaring down at his enemy, even as he reached out and pulled Lily to her feet with one hand. Both men looked around at her, horror reflected in their faces, but she said nothing. She had found out years ago that they had been right about Severus all along and she no longer cared what happened to him.

"He tried to kill you." James' voice shook with barely contained fury. She could feel him shaking with anger, his face white and shining with sweat.

The other death eaters had drawn closer as the event had unfolded but they seemed to have only just noticed their friends figures on the ground and the small group of people standing over them. Cries of anger rang out from the group. Spells and curses shot from their wands. One hit would mean that she or James or Sirius would never get up again.

They shot back their own curses in turn and took off towards the other end of the alley.

"It's Sirius Black and the Potter boy and his mudblood! Kill them!"

Raucous laughter and cheers rang out from the masked group and Lily recognized the voice of Bellatrix Lestrange. She was another of Sirius' relations and it was quite clear that she had no intention of letting her cousin and his friends escape. Lily shot another stunning spell over her shoulder as she ran, still gripping tightly to her husbands dirty, blood soaked hand and she heard a responding cry of as the spell hit it's mark. More curses flew over their heads, hitting fences and garbage cans as they hurried past. A cat ran across their path, gave a loud hiss as it jumped out the way of a jet of brilliant death and took off away from them. She hoped for the cat's sake that it would never again have to cross the path of another witch or wizard.

Lily nearly tripped over the body of another death eater as they reached the mouth of the alley and stumbled into the street. James' strong hands pulled her back up and around the corner and her jaw dropped at the sight before them. Death eaters dueled openly with members of the order in the middle of the street. Everyone seemed to have arrived for both sides. Moody was battling three masked men with a level of skill that Lily could never hope to achieve. Dumbledore himself battled several death eaters and he was already surrounded by several that had already fallen. The expression on his face was almost bored and he looked around and winked as she watched him. The other members were fairly evenly matched. Many of the death eaters masks had come off and she could see many familiar faces among her enemy.

Lily ducked another streak of light as it missed it's target and flew towards her instead. She turned on her heels and gasped in surprise. Remus Lupin was battling head to head with Fenrir Greyback not far off from the other duelers. The look on each face reflected the inner wolf in a way that Lily had never seen in Lupin's usually mild, friendly expressions. Lily raised her wand but a hand on her arm stopped her and James shook his head. It was Moony's battle.

With several loud cracking sounds, Bellatrix and her gang from the alley appeared amongst the other duelers, Severus among them.

Lily felt hatred burning inside of her like nothing she had ever felt. It was power and pain, and revenge. She dove into battle forcefully alongside the others.

Not far from her she saw James' taking on Severus and another masked death eater with a vengeance. Sirius was also fighting two at at time and Lily soon found herself face to face with Bellatrix. The older woman descended on her. She too had lost her mask, and her dark hair hung wildly around her shoulders. The witch cackled wildly as she took in her younger aponent but her smile faded rapidly as Lily managed to deflect each of her attacks, forcing them back at her, adding her own attacks to the mix. Every feeling of fear or hatred that Voldemort and his followers had ever brought up in her, Lily directed at his most trusted death eater. Voldemort wanted to kill muggles and mudbloods but she wasn't about to lay down and let him do so.

"I've been hoping to see you again, mudblood!" Bellatrix spit furiously at her. "You and your little boyfriend have caused more than enough trouble. The dark lord is not happy, oh, no, he is not happy with you at all." Lily sent a spell shooting at her enemy but the woman dodged it and closed in on her. "But the dark lord thinks that you could be useful, very useful, even though you are a mudblood" she said with distaste." I have been instructed to give you one last chance before I kill you." She cackled again, reminding Lily strongly of the muggle tales of witches, stirring their cauldrons and eating children.

It was quite clear what Bellatrix thought of letting a mudblood live as she shot another killing curse at Lily. She ducked and the mailbox behind her exploded so forcefully that it nearly knocked her off her feet. She could smell burning hair and feel the sparks charring her skin. She retaliated violently with the cruciatus curse but Bellatrix just laughed as she stumbled backwards.

"You have to mean it, you fool! And I'll take that as a refusal. Well then, I hope that you and your little friends are prepared to die!" and the battle continued savagely. Lily could taste blood in her mouth as she continued to fight. Her muscled burned in protest. Heat and hostility radiated through her and into her wand. Adrenaline exploded in her veins.

Loud cracking sounds reached her ears, announcing the arrival of a number of new people on the scene. Had Voldemort sent more of his followers? They couldn't hold it up much longer. She could see that many of the order had already fallen but it was with a sigh of relief that she saw that her assumption was wrong.

"The aurors, the aurors, the ministry is coming!"

Cries of anger and victory erupted from both the death eaters and the order respectively. The loud cracking sound was echoed up and down the street as ministry employees appeared and death eaters vanished, too afraid or weak to continue.

" You can fight mudblood, but you and your friends won't be so lucky next time. We will get you!" Bellatrix promised with a roar and a moment later she had dissaparated with a loud crack.

"LILY!"

She looked up in time to see James hurdling towards her through the crowd. Very few people were still battling. She could see Dumbledore and Barty Crouch standing over the death eaters that they had managed to capture but most of them had disapparated, to torture and fight another day. Members of the order were being roused from the ground. Cries of "enervate" could be heard from all around them as stunned people were brought back to life, some more badly injured than others.

Sirius was limping as he made his way towards them.

"So that didn't go quite as planned. Guess we'll be seeing them again" he said, looking altogether too eager at the idea.

Remus was bleeding profusely from a deep wound on his arm that he seemed not to have noticed. His look of fury told them that Fenrir Greyback had managed to escape with the others. The other members were disappearing one by one up and down the street. Moody, Frank and Alice were speaking with the newly arrived aurors.

"You look horrible" James told her seriously, eyes on her stomach where she knew that she had received a violent wound. She could feel the blood trickling down her side but she hardly cared at all.

They had all survived but she couldn't help thinking about what Bellatrix had said to her. Till next time then, she thought determinedly. There would be no giving in.

"So do you." She placed her hands on either side of his face. If he noticed them shaking slightly as she did it he said nothing.

"Are you almost ready to go?" he asked her for the second time that night.

Lily grinned. "Anytime."