Disclaimer: I shall not call Harry Potter my own. Lily Evans plopped herself down on a squishy, purple beanbag. A moment before, it had been suffocated in a mess of dirty clothes that now occupied her bed. She let out a drawn-out sigh; it had been a long time since she had been able to have some time for herself. It had seemed that lately, Petunia was enjoying a new hobby that involved giving Lily the blame of every problem that occurred in the Evans household. If a sock was missing, Petunia then accused Lily of conducting strange and unusual experiments on it to turn it into a rat. If the phone rang and nobody was answering on the other end, Petunia seemed to think that Lily was using telepathic signals to make it ring. Needless to say, the summer had not exactly been enjoyable. An open window in Lily’s room welcomed the light breeze that flowed by. It was a perfectly lovely day, though somewhere around the street, Lily could hear Mr. and Mrs. Number 6 talking loudly about their brand new car that cost a fortune. She rolled her eyes; Lily had never much cared about who had the most expensive item on the block. She stretched her arms and appreciated how great the world was, until- “LIIIIIIILY!” screamed Petunia from downstairs, breaking the wonderful silence. Lily shot up from her beanbag, grabbing her wand. Now being able to magic outside of school, it was second nature to do so at any signs of trouble. She then opened her door and peered down across the hall and over the stairs, letting out a start of surprise at the scene occurring before her eyes. Petunia had barricaded herself under the dining room table while an impatient owl pecked on one of the chair legs that shielded her. She was backing up further and further, into what Lily realized was the priceless china cabinet that had been handed down throughout generations of the Evans family. “Petunia! Stop, no! Don’t back up any further!” Lily pleaded desperately. The owl, which had finally noticed the redhead, flew over to deliver the letter, and then departed from the chaotic scene. Petunia however, had more pressing matters on her mind-some which involved being killed under an extremely heavy china cabinet. “Subsisto!” gasped Lily, which stopped the toppling furniture piece. Petunia slowly crept out from under the table. She was panting, and her hair was in a curly, brown frizz. Both sisters stared at each other, not knowing what to say. Lily looked blankly into Petunia’s grey eyes, while Petunia gazed at her sister’s green ones. A few tense moments later, the older sister mumbled a feeble “Thanks”, and walked back into the living room where she read the latest article on two Muggle celebrities that were thinking about breaking up. Lily slowly walked back into her room, and once again sat down on her beanbag. The envelope in her hands was unmistakably from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was a thick, white envelope with green, loopy handwriting that addressed ‘Lily Evans, the smallest bedroom, Number 4 Privet Drive’. She grinned and hastened to open it. Out came the usual ‘Welcome back’ letter and school supplies list, along with a pleasant surprise: the Head Girl badge as well as a note which simply thanked her for fulfilling the requirements. Lily beamed and carefully placed the shiny badge on her dresser to admire in passing. This year was going to be great, and Lily was determined to enjoy herself. Even if it meant having to be with Potter…not that she was thinking about him or anything. Lily had actually been thinking a lot about the upcoming year. It was her last at Hogwarts, unless she wanted to start a career in teaching, but Lily had not grown fond of the idea of teaching small first years. Most of them were all right, but several were rather snobbish. Her two best friends, Adrienne Pierce and Paige Summers, seemed to know exactly what they wanted to do, and were determined to not let anything get in their way. Adrienne Pierce was usually not the ambitious type at all, but was working extremely hard to become a famous singer. She definitely had the look going for her with stunning blue eyes, long and flowing dark chocolate hair, and a perfectly proportioned body. Paige Summers was a dainty person with warm brown eyes and golden hair. She had a sun kissed face with a large quantity of cute freckles. Paige was a huge animal lover, and wanted to start a veterinary branch at St. Mungo’s for them. Lily had considered a number of professions, but the most appealing to her was an Auror. She wasn’t entirely sure that she wanted to go undercover, attend trials, and send numerous Death Eaters to Azkaban for the rest of her life, but there were ups and downs to everything. The phone rang somewhere from downstairs, and Lily heard Petunia answer it. An excited squeal from downstairs made it clear to Lily that it was none other than Vernon Dursley calling. A few minutes of high pitched conversation past by (extremely slowly as it seemed to Lily), and within five minutes, Petunia announced she was leaving to go out with her new boyfriend, and would not be back for a few hours. It looked like Lily would have to entertain herself that night. Mr. and Mrs. Evans were currently on a business trip in Sydney, and they would not be back until a few days until term started at Hogwarts. Clem, Lily’s pepper colored owl, was currently out hunting which made the house seem rather quiet without his occasional hoots and screeches. However, outside, she could hear what sounded like the entire neighborhood worth of cars leaving. Lily blinked a few times, and the noise was gone. Well, I might as well sit down and work on my potions essay… Lily suggested to herself, but right as she got comfortable on the couch downstairs, the doorbell rang. She frowned at the front door, wondering who it could be. On the other side of the door, a short man with stubby fingers and a large nose was promptly standing, waiting for someone to greet him. Lily walked over to the door, opened it, and stared. He was wearing an eccentric lime yellow suit with a bright purple bowler hat. His footwear were that of a small child’s; dirty and worn tennis shoes. A spotted red rabbit foot was clutched in his sweaty hand. “Can I help you?” she stammered. He gave her a toothy grin. “Yes I believe you can. You see, if my sources are correct, there is a special, ahem, package if you will that is currently stowed away inside of your house. If you would only let me look around-” “I don’t think so, buddy. Good bye,” said Lily firmly, shutting the door in his face. Normally, she wouldn’t have been so forceful with somebody, but he was the third person in the past week that had arrived mysteriously at the Evans house, requesting the permission to search it. Lily peered outside of the window, making sure that he went away. However, she only saw him for a split second before he disappeared into thin air. Sitting back down onto the couch, the redhead reread her partially composed essay about Violetlight stones and their properties. So far, she had explained their origin, properties, and use. Her essay was supposed to be two and a half feet, but she had only found enough information to make a grand total of three inches. Lily mentally shook herself. She was being stupid. The Violetlight was a basic subject, and she shouldn’t be having any trouble writing an essay on them. Despite the strange men that would appear on the Evans doorstep, something else was tugging on her mind, but she couldn’t pinpoint what it was. Perhaps it was the dread of the final year at Hogwarts, or maybe it was the heartache of Lily missing her parents while they were away in Sydney. Or it possibly could have been the severe overload of work that the sixth years had been assigned over the summer break. They were instructed to compose a Potions essay, learn a complicated charm only by reading about it, memorize a textbook worth of writings on Transfiguration, and study a complicated plant for Herbology. Lily rolled over again, and this time didn’t even try to focus on anything. Her mind was zoning in and out, and unless she wanted to rewrite her essay three times, it was best that she give it a break. Somewhere down the street voices were raised in a heated argument. One was low and husky, and the other was higher and fussy. They both seemed to be arguing about a serious dilemma, though neither could agree on what the main focus of the matter was about-and neither would say what they were arguing about. “-Well that’s of course beside the point,” spluttered the higher voice. “If you would just listen-” “To what? Listen about how I’m always the wrong one? How I’m always jumping to conclusions? Well let me tell you-” “That’s not what I was going to say.” “Maybe not, but I bet you were thinking it!” “No, I wasn’t. I was trying to tell you that-” “Shh!” “What?” “Shut up!” “Okay, but-” “Will you just shut your bloody mouth?” “Fine…” muttered the husky voice. A few moments of silence past and Lily found herself pressed up against the wall, hiding from sight in the open window, but still within earshot. “Okay, never mind. What were you talking about?” “No, not never mind. What was that all about?” “Nothing, I just thought I heard someone.” Lily could hear them walking closer towards her house throughout the street. She risked a look out of the window. Outside were two men, one being the Hogwarts Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Professor Buckhorn. He was a stoutly man who did not care much for children, and was therefore feared greatly by first and second years. His mouth was a bit lopsided, and there were streaks of grey in his black hair, which contrasted oddly with his yellow eyes. The second man was not one that Lily recognized. He was short and had vivid orange hair with light green eyes. In his hands was a rabbit foot similar to the one that the mysterious man and Lily’s doorstep had. She frowned at the abnormality of the situation. Why were two men that were obviously associated with Hogwarts taking a stroll through Privet Drive? And what was troubling them? “-Well of course you probably heard somebody! This place is swarming with Muggles, and do you really think that there is one person here who would not take one look at you and become suspicious?” hissed Professor Buckhorn out of the corner of his mouth. The other man pretended as though he did not hear anything. “So where does this charming gal live, anyway?” he asked. “Haven’t I told you, Leon? We’re not visiting her today; just locating the house for safety reasons.” The man called Leon gave an irritable tut. “Wouldn’t it just be easier to set up a permanent living quarter at Hogwarts for her and the boy?” “Possibly, but Albus thinks against it.” Lily was now very close to sticking her head out of the window to catch more pieces of the conversation. She was guessing that the girl they were talking about meant her, for there had been no other witch present anywhere near Privet Drive. However, pinpointing who the boy was would be harder seeing as how Lily had no earthly idea why she had to be protected. “Now where could be more safe than Hogwarts?” whispered Leon. Lily risked another peek out of the window, and let out a sigh of relief when she saw their backs, knowing she could freely listen with a lesser chance of being caught. “In my opinion, no where. You-Know-Who is going to have more difficulty breaking into Hogwarts than just a common Muggle home. I am sure that the Headmaster is aware of this, but he has his reasons. Ah, here we are,” said Professor Buckhorn, turning around. Lily whipped out of sight and crouched below the window sill, breathing quickly. She wasn’t positive that they had seen her; however she could not confirm anything without being noticed for sure. A few faint mumblings were heard, though nothing distinct. A few seconds later, a loud crack was issued from the spot where the two men had stood before, and Lily knew that it was safe to look. Sure enough, there was nobody standing outside as she poked her head out of the window once more, and the only sign of life that she could find was a small tabby cat that had been lurking by the tree that was planted under Lily’s window. The cat looked up at Lily and gave her a stern look, but the redhead was too busy examining the street to give the tabby a second thought. Forgetting her essay completely, Lily sunk down into her purple beanbag once more with a thousand thoughts flying in her head. Why in Merlin’s name were Professor Buckhorn and Leon (whoever he was) roaming her neighborhood, and was she involved in it? And, if it was so secret, why weren’t they putting up more of an effort to conceal their conversation? However, most of her thoughts were bent on the boy they were talking about, and how they were connected (assuming of course, that Lily was correct in thinking that she had been the girl they were discussing). She slunk even lower and tried to fall asleep, and tried to ignore the many cars that were now entering the neighborhood. Lousy kids down the street must be having a party…thought Lily with a taste of bitterness. How very wrong she was.