A/N: Dear all! Apologies for such a late update but things at uni have grown hectic! This chapter does a lot of time skipping so please bear with it but it's just that a lot needed to happen. I think one or two significant snippets of information come out in this one but because it's taken me so long to write it I've forgotten most of them!

- - -

"Hello Professor!" Lily greeted happily as she skipped down the last few steps from the dormitories. Her eyes flicked over to the tall figure to McGonagall's side and immediately noted a difference in Dumbledore's usual amiable features. "Morning Sir!" she added with somewhat caution. There was something wrong, Professor Dumbledore never looked like that; his mouth was pressed into a thin line and his eyes were far from twinkling but ice cold. Moreover, in all her years at Hogwarts she had never seen the Headmaster step foot into the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Good Morning Miss. Evans." He replied his voice giving nothing away but all the same Lily grew more uncomfortable. "If you would care to join me at my office please?"

"This way, dear." McGonagall guided her out with a hand on her back. Lily was now very confused, never had McGonagall projected such a...a softened image of herself. She cared a great deal for her students of course but never had she so openly shown so.

In this confused state Lily followed the Headmaster and Professor down the corridor with little idea that in just a moments time, no path she would ever step foot on would not be influenced by what they had to tell.

- - -

From a far enough distance to escape detection a certain shadow lurked. It was not an insubstantial Griever but a person of flesh and blood. The malcontent of this particular shadow was not to be taken lightly; it rivaled that of a Griever; bound from spite and spun out of malice. With a will beyond its control it could do no more than serve its master and become the lowest of all creatures...a spy.

- - -

Lily was no longer aware of herself, the office had somehow blurred and she thought everything had grayed until a tiny voice in her conscious mind told her to wait before slipping into darkness all together.

"I...I...need to... see Petunia. I want to see my sister." She managed firmly once she had proper grasp of her words. She did not hear anything else that was said to her but at last McGonagall stood up and she followed her wordlessly; aware that they were leaving Hogwarts and taking the well worn path down to Hogsmeade. Once inside the village she followed the professor into the Hog's Head until they stood in front of a roaring green fire.

McGonagall placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "There will be an Official waiting for you on the other side. St. Thomas is the place." There was little more that she could say and she stepped back letting Lily have the space to jump.

"St. Thomas." Lily croaked and stepped into the fire. The sensation was quite unlike any that she had ever felt in her previous Floo journeys. She was falling more than twirling and in a flash she landed on her feet in a cluttered janitor's room.

Lily gulped. She still felt like she was falling but a strong and bony hand reached out and gripped her about the elbow. "This way Miss Evans." The kindly looking wizard said and led her out of the closet into a busy hospital corridor. At once the noise burst onto her and she took a few seconds to adjust. Muggles were everywhere but they paid no attention to her or her strange school uniform. Although she could see a fair number of wizards undoubtedly sent from the Ministry of Magic to work on Muggle memories loitering about.

To the far right Lily spotted her sister who was hunched over on her knees on a seat. A large man sat next to her seemingly comforting her. Seeing her sister brought a hard lump to her throat and she almost went running to her before she remembered one of the 'rules' that Petunia had made for her. Lily stopped suddenly, lost in a memory...

"Muuuuuum!" Petunia wailed.

"Honey, you have to learn to accept what your sister is. At the end of the day, she will always be your little sister and there is nothing you can do to change that!" Diane said leaving no room for argument.

"FINE!" The then teenaged Petunia huffed and dragged her eleven-year-old sister up by the hand. She still held her hand back then, Lily remembered fondly. Pulling her up the stairs, Petunia led her to her room and dumped her in front of her desk and shoved a pen and paper in her hand. "If I can't change your freaky ways then we are going to have to make up a lot of rules to control it!" she announced. "Now listen carefully, I want you to write all of this down. Number one: Never mention this to anyone! If neighbors ask just tell them you are at a Boarding school far far away..."

The then Lily obediently picked up the pen and began to write down the dictation. One by one she continued to write. "...Rule Number thirty: When I'm with my friends, under no circumstance are you to show your face. If you have to I don't want you to speak at all." And so forth until at the very end she said, "Now sign it."

Lily printed her name as neatly as she could before the papers were snatched away. Petunia had them pinned up on her notice board for the first year or so before her dislike for magic grew to such epic proportions that Lily came home one holiday to find them ripped off.

- - -

Over time Lily forgot many of those rules and sometimes broke them just to annoy her sister but now for some strange reason rule number thirty came back. Straying aside she patiently waited becoming quite unawares of her surrounding until at last the man she now recognized as Vernon moved away.

"Petunia."

Petunia's head snapped up at the voice of her sister. Lily flinched back at the angry red eyed stare her sister shot at her. "How dare- how dare you come here!" she hissed as low as she could control.

Lily could feel her face crumple and her voice came out like a lost child's. "I wanted to see Mum and Dad."

Petunia was crying openly now but none of the tears could stop the rage she felt deep inside. "I will not let you harm them anymore! Never will you go near them ever again!" Lily thought that Petunia might have hit her but her sister's muscles had locked and all she could do was clench her fists. "It's you! You...all you're fault!" she sobbed.

"I...I..." Lily could find nothing to say.

Petunia's head snapped up and this time she did strike out. Lily reeled back and raised a hand to her stinging cheek. "You what? What can you say? You've killed you own Mother and Father you filthy little witch!"

Lily staggered back. It was real. Everything that Dumbledore had said to her in his office came flooding back with a frightening reality punch. She wouldn't believe it; she hadn't believed it; she had even blocked it out until Petunia had made it real.

The forgotten Official was suddenly there pulling her away. He'd silently witnessed the whole scene and would later report back to Dumbledore with great sympathy. Away he led her until they were outside and into the cold winds by the River Thames outside.

Lily slumped onto the barrier slipping somewhere between shock and back into denial. Her breaths came out raggedly and she seemed like she might pass out. With a last surge of effort she pulled her wand from her pocket and threw it over head with as much might as she could. The sleek wand soared out, spinning as it flew in a wide arc before it finally splashed into the calm murky gray water. Lily watched as it slowly sank lower and lower into the darkness below...

- - -

James dropped the paper onto the table and raked a hand through his damp hair and fell into a stunned silence. Across from him Sirius was frowning and he reached over to pick up the paper. He scanned it.

"Is this 'Evans', the Evans?" he asked with some dreaded caution.

James could only nod. Diane and Harry are...were... James found it hard to gather his thoughts. It seemed like just yesterday he was complimenting Diane's cooking and laughing with Harry and now...now they had become a statistic... James picked up the paper again feeling a deep loathing for the printed sheets and hated it even more for it's content.

"Shit." Sirius echoed his initial reaction.

James scrunched the newspaper up into a ball and threw it at the table. "This should not have happened!" trying to recompose his command on rational thoughts. He shouldn't be angry at a piece of paper reporting tragedy he should be angry at the source. "Voldemort." He said with poison.

Peter and Remus choose that exact second to reach the table and Peter squeaked and covered his ears.

"That was unnecessarily loud." Remus said pointedly as he sat down.

"You shouldn't say his name out loud like that." Peter warned while casting paranoid glances around. "He might hear you and then you'll be in trouble-" he stopped when he saw the dark stare James had on him.

"Voldemort is killing." He said to Peter. "Are we supposed to just sit here while he chooses and picks who next he wants wiped out?"

Convinced that he had a point Peter uncharacteristically argued back for which he was very proud of himself. "But we're students, we can't do anything against a wizard like him."

James leaned forward his eyes darkened. "We won't be students for much longer and then what would we do without Hogwarts for protection?" Peter gulped, he was no longer so sure that he had a point. "The more we fear him the more control he has. I for one am not going to just here like a duck and let him rule us like toys."

"Quite right, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore said surprising everyone from behind his eyes bright. "I agree. No one indeed is immune to these dark times." His voice softened and reached out and patted James on the shoulder. "However, there are those that aren't sitting around 'like ducks' as you say." He trailed off seemingly like he wasn't going to say more but after a pause he did. "We're not looking for heroes but for those that stand for what is important to them." With that he swept away to his seat at the front.

"That was enigmatic." Sirius thought aloud. "I've never seen him look so serious."

"Except when the death list came out last time." Remus reminded.

James felt more confused than the others and could not help but keep replaying the Headmaster's words in his mind. Something in it did not strike him as simply one of the many eccentricities that the old man harbored. "Who's the 'we'?" he asked.

"What?"

"The 'we' when he said 'we're not looking for heroes'."

Remus shrugged. "I thought he meant the school, as in 'the school isn't looking for heroes so don't do something stupid James' kind of meaning." He said with a faithful guess that James would try to do something stupid.

"Right." James fell quiet still not quite convinced. Was there a third party that Dumbledore was referring to as a 'we'? Something that was set up to fight against Voldemort specifically? He hadn't heard about it and it appeared that no one else in the Wizarding community seemed to know about it-

"Oh." Remus exclaimed loudly interrupting James' thoughts. He'd picked up the newspaper. He gave James a sympathetic look. "Is she okay?"

James was on his feet in a flash. How could he have not thought about it? He had been so consumed with his own reaction that he had not even considered those of Lily. Her parents... he groaned inwardly at his callousness and made a run back to the tower.