Chapter 5: A Night to Remember – Or Not

Lily was frantically searching and scavenging through her room for a decent outfit to wear to the concert. The task at hand was presenting to be rather difficult since she didn't own any party clothes.

"Lily darling, what time are they coming to get you?" asked Rose as she knocked on Lily's open door, making her presence known.

"They said about nine. They wanted to get something to eat before the concert. Knowing those boys, I'd say they won't get here until 10 or so."

"What's with the mess, darling"

"I can't find anything to wear. Look at these clothes, none of the, scream anything but bookworm."

"My God, Lily! Are you a witch or not? Can't you just change them into something more fashionable?"

Lily face palmed herself. "Thanks Mum" she said out loud. To herself she thought, "How sad that even muggles have to remind me that I can do magic."

Lily transformed some of her best clothes into a killer outfit. She was about to put on heels, when she remembered that James liked the height difference between them.

"Wait, since when do I care what James thinks. I'll still go with the flats, but only because my feet will get tired faster if I don't" Lily justified to herself.

Just as Lily was placing some essential things, like money and her keys, into a small clutch bag. She could hear the doorbell ring, repeatedly.

"Lily, I think they are here," Charles shouted from downstairs.

"Coming". Lily ran down the stairs and opened the door.

"Hey guys, come on in. Remus these are my parents. Mum, Dad, this is Remus Lupin; he was my fellow prefect last year. And you guys remember James and Sirius."

"Pleasure to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Evans. I apologized on Sirius's behalf. He has never seen a doorbell before," Remus said.

"Ohhh, that's alright dear. Now Lily, remember you have to be come by 2, or you won't live to see 2:01."

"I will mum, bye mum, by daddy," Lily said as she kissed both her parents on the cheek, and walked out the door with the Marauders at her heels.

"So Lily, do you mind side-along apparating with me. If you don't trust me or something you can apparate with Remus," James said nervously.

"Why can't she apparate with me," asked Sirius.

"Padfoot, no one in their right mind would trust you, especially not with a girl involved," replied Remus.

"Fine, whatever. Be that way Moony. See if I ever by you chocolates again."

"Padfoot, kind sir. Please forgive my transgression." Remus said as he kneeled in front of Sirius.

Lily just laughed at the scene before her. "Its alright, James, I trust you to not splinch me," Lily said.

"London, here we come!" Sirius yelled.

And just like that all four teens were gone.

XXX XXX

Not a second later, they all reappeared in an ally close to where the concert was going to be.

"So Lily, are you hungry? We know this great pub. The food us awesome, the place is kind of dingy though," James said.

"Sure, why not?"

They all started walking in the direction of the pub.

"Guys, I have a question. How are they going to stop muggles from wandering into the concert? Loud music is bound to catch someone's attention," asked Lily.

"From what I have heard, they are placing muggle repelling charms around the surrounding are to make it look like an abandoned slaughterhouse, similarly to Hogwarts," Replied Remus.

"Good old, Hoggy Hogwarts. Should be a damn good year. As the only non lame, non prefect, non Head boy member of the Marauders, it is my duty to uphold our name."

"Sirius, you shouldn't be telling your Head Girl and Boy, what you are planning to do this year."

"Ahh, but Lilykins, you see I have black mail against two out of the three people here."

"You wouldn't dare, Padfoot. We got dirt on you too. Remember the crying incident of fourth year, Moony." James said referring to the first time Sirius got drunk off of fire whisky and he started crying and pronouncing how much he loved his fellow Marauders.

"Was that when the four of you ended up in the hospital wing for a month?" Lily asked.

The boys became very serious. The incident that Lily was referring to was the first time they accompanied Remus during the full moon. It took Remus a while to trust the three animals before him, and when he did he played just a little to roughly. The boys ended up with so many bruises, scratches, and teeth marks that they had to stay in the hospital wing for almost a month.

Sirius was the first to recover and said, "You must become one of us to know our secrets. For only a true Marauder, and Wormtail, may know the truth."

By now the teens had arrived at the pub. They all decided to sit up at the bar and ordered their food.

Lily looked around at her surroundings; the place really did look dingy. She would have never dared come in here alone. "How do you guys even know about this place?"

"My parents travel a lot, you know with being the department Heads of the Auror's Office. I was always bored being cooped up in the house during the summers, so I would come out to London and do some exploring and one day I just stumbled in here." James replied.

"Well I'm glad you did, because the food is awesome."

They all ate their food and could only talk about the concert. Once the bill came, Lily began to pull out money from her bag.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Lily," Remus said kindly.

"Excuse me?"

"You were going to pay your share of the bill, right?"

"Yea, so?"

"James isn't going to let you."

"What? Why?"

"It's not just you Lils. I never let any of my friends pay, when we go out. My parents and I have more money then we know what to do with. I'm the sole heir of the Potter fortune. It's not fair for me to have that much money to myself. So this way I can share some of it." James interjected.

"Um, that is very generous of you James," Lily said. She never knew potter could be so nice.

"How do you have muggle money?"

"I keep a stash of it for going out and stuff."

"Hey guys, we should get going. We don't want to miss a thing," Sirius shouted.

And with that they were off.

XXX XXX

The concert was exhilarating. Lily could feel her heart pumping with adrenaline. The crowd was great and the band was amazing. Till then Lily had never felt a high like this. And it ended all too soon.

"Merlin, that was the most incredible thing ever," Lily shouted. They were waiting to be allowed to leave, as to not draw attention from muggles, since they were not going to apparate out of London yet.

"No need to shout, Evans. We are right here," Sirius said covering his ears.

"Ohhh, sorry. I still can't hear myself think."

James laughed. He was admiring how beautiful Lily looked. Her hair was wild, her eyes shone bright with excitement, and her skin glowed in the moonlight.

"So, Lily we have two options. We can take you back to your house or we could go wreck some havoc since we still have time before your curfew," James asked, fumbling over his words a bit. He wasn't ready for the night to be over.

"Um, well what did you have in mind?"

James was more than shocked. Lily wanted to spend more time with him (and his friends). Sirius and Remus sensing that this could be big for James, decided to do what any good friend would do.

"Prongs, you go ahead without me. I promised Mum, I would help her plant her garden, early tomorrow."

"You garden, Black?"

"Yes I do Lily. I will have you know that Mummy Potter says I'm the best gardener assistant she has ever had."

"Padfoot, you are the only gardening assistant she has ever had." James said.

"Hence, I'm the best."

"Hey prongs, I should get going too. I told my dad I would spend more time with him before we leave for Hogwarts," Remus lied. He always spent the beginning of the summer with his father and the rest he spent at with the Marauders.

"Okay, see you later guys," James answered, getting really nervous. He would have to spend time with Lily alone.

"By Lily, see you on the train."

"Later Evans. Don't keep Prongsie here out to late." Sirius said.

"Bye, guys." Lily said to the boys.

And with a crack they were gone.

"So, James, what do you want to do?"

"Well we could walk around, maybe find a park to sit and talk or something." James said while running his hands through his hair, a nervous habit.

And walking they went heading in no direction.

"How has your summer been?" James asked.

"Pretty uneventful. Alice being away with Frank has made things pretty quite. How about you?"

"Padfoot and Moony keep me busy. What about your sister? Has she come around yet?"

Lily recalled the night she told James about Petunia. They were in the common room, arguing about something or other, when an owl dropped a letter for Lily. She had written to Petunia, like she always did, but this time she replied. She wrote to say she was engage and didn't want her to be a part of her new life at all. Lily ran from the common room. Naturally James followed her, she cried on his shoulder as she explained her relationship with her only sister.

"She left, last night because of me. She told me I was ugly and worthless. That no one would love me," Lily remembered out loud. "She is right, I suppose. Even you stopped asking me out."

James stopped walking and turned to face Lily.

"I only stopped asking because I knew you didn't like me harassing you. I still very much feel the same way about you, Lily. I just learned how not to scare you away with those feelings. If friendship is all you're willing to give, then that is all I'll take. I want what you want."

Lily's heart started beating fast. She didn't know how to respond. She felt queasy, not in a bad why, but in the way you feel just before ridding the tallest roller coaster at the amusement part.

"How is it that James can get my heart to race with a couple of words", Lily thought.

James not wanting to put her in an awkward position decided to change the subject.

"You know Lily, I'm going to need a lot of help with this Head Boy thing."

"Lucky for you, you know all the school rules. You 've already broken all of them."

"Ha ha" James replied with fake sarcasm.

Lily giggles at his antics. Suddenly her wristwatch beeped announcing it was 2 am.

"Ohhh shit! My curfew!"

"Evans, what language. And from the Head Girl, no less."

"Come on James. I'll be dead if my parents are awake!"

Lily grabbed James' hand and apparated them to her house.

XXX XXX

The sight before them was not what you would expect from a quite muggle neighborhood. Lily couldn't wrap her mind around the scene before her. Everything was coming in little, snippets, in slow motion.

The first thing she saw was the giant mark above her house. A skull with a large serpent coming out of its mouth, glowing an ominous green. Four dead bodies lay on the ground, not a lot but enough to put spread fear through her body. It took Lily a while to realize she was seeing her home set ablaze with flames that consumed it.

Everything picked up from there. Lily ran into the house without thinking, she had to find her parents. She could hear people calling her name. She could see aurors trying to put the fire out. Her body was on autopilot. She ran up the stairs into her parents bedroom. She would never forget the sight before her.

Her mother's body was sprawled lifeless on the ground. Her body was frozen in a position of contorted pain. Her eyes, which remained open, held the horrors she felt in her last moments. Her father, her sweet loving father suffered a more torturous death. His body looked as if it had been whipped. Lily knew this not to be true; those deep cuts could only have been made by dark magic.

It finally hit her. Her parents had been tortured and then murdered. Time finally caught up with her as she realized the house was still burning. The instinct to survive, that came first nature to all Gryffindors, kicked in. It was as if her mind had cleared, she could hear and focus better.

Someone was shouting her name, searching for her frantically.

"Lily, where are you?" James yelled frantically. He felt an uncontrollable amount of fear. What if he couldn't get her out in time.

"James! James, I'm upstairs!" Lily yelled as she tried to not inhale more smoke than she already had.

James reached her just as she fell to her knees. He scooped her up into his arms and made a run for it. When he reached the outside, he was surrounded by a lot of people.

Lily recognized a few. She saw Dumbledore, Mr. and Mrs. Potter, Sirius, and Remus. Other faces, she had never seen before. Time slowed down again. A loud screeching sound came from the street. Everyone turned. A woman had gotten out of a car, horror shone on her face. The woman took in her surroundings, and then looked directly into Lily's eyes.

Lily saw Petunia, and then the world turned black.

A/N:

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