I'm back, alive, and slowly going to start this new story. I haven't written for 8 months, because I've been at university studying science. The only thing I've pretty much done is filled scantron bubbles. So bear with me, and here goes.

1: Karma's True Form

This was ridiculous, Lily Evans mused. She wasn't one to do something like this - something so risky, and well...stupid. There was no assurance of the outcome, and Lily hated that. No, hated wasn't strong enough of a description. She abhorred it; detested it; loathed it.

"I can just imagine all the scenarios running through that pretty little head of yours right now."

"None of them end well," Lily admitted. "I'm telling you." Lily paused. "I can't do this." She stared at the gleaming surface some twenty meters beyond where she was currently kneeling and tried to poke her head forward in an attempt to get a better look.

Yelping in pain as her hair got caught in the branches hovering near her head, she growled in frustration.

"Any louder and you might as well announce our arrival," teased the girl kneeling beside her, as she reached over to help untangle Lily's uncooperative mane.

"We're going to get caught, and then tortured, and then put in the dungeons...I'm not ready for my life to be over. I just started The Tempest a couple of days ago and it's amazing and I'd really appreciate finishing it. Not to mention, my mother would miss me terribly!" Lily looked left and right, her fingers still combing through her red hair. Her perceptive green eyes scanned back and forth anxiously. "Oh, and I still haven't written my N.E.W.T.s!"

Her friend's lips twitched as she struggled to contain her amusement. As she slipped an elastic off her wrist and handed it to Lily, she sighed. "Calm your horses, sweetie. Firstly, I know for a fact that no one—and that even includes you—reads Shakespeare for fun. That book has been sitting on your desk, collecting dust, since the beginning of summer, and you only started reading it because you took Petunia's words as a challenge. You hate it!"

Lily finally ripped her eyes off the water and turned to look at her friend. "I like it!" she protested.

"You hate it…and secondly," the girl continued, "If I were to die – Merlin forbid – I'd really rather it happen before I had to study my arse off for the N.E.W.T.s. Imagine wasting all that time studying for those bloody exams!"

"Katherine Lisa Elliot! You're supposed to assure me that we are not going to die…not speculate on your own death!"

The brown eyed girl smiled impishly and shrugged, "I'm just saying."

Lily observed Kat's profile as her friend turned to survey their entrance route. Her wavy black hair was jutting out of her haphazard ponytail like a broom's end – a description Kat always used as she mourned the loss of her long-haired days. Her bluntly cut bangs gently brushed her eyelashes as she squinted.

"Look, there's no one there. If we're going to do this, we better do it now!" Kat's voice snapped Lily back to reality, out of her observational thoughts.

"Kat, let's just back out. This is going to end badly," she pleaded.

"Lils, we're on a mission."

As in, there was no backing out, Lily thought dejectedly. "We're going to die," Lily stated, even as she relented.

Kat grinned, knowing she had won.

"Ready?"

Lily quickly tied her hair up into a bun on top of her head, and nodded. "Set..."

Kat gripped the edge of her tank top in anticipation.

"Go!", both girls screamed at once, giggling a little as they ripped their shirt off.

"Bet you I'm going to get there before you!" Kat hobbled past the line of low trees as she wiggled out of her shorts and kicked off her flats.

Lily smiled and rolled her eyes, in mock exasperation. She threw her own shorts to the ground and, after a moment's hesitation, sprinted forwards. "Oh, what the hell," she mumbled.

As she reached the edge of the water, she took one big leap and tucked her legs into her body, bracing for impact. Seconds later, Lily resurfaced, bobbing up and down in the water. She brought her hand out of the water to brush the hair that was plastered against her forehead, off. "I'm pretty sure I won that bet," she laughed, swimming to the edge of the pool.

Lily crossed her elbows over the edge, and looked backwards at her approaching friend, waiting.

Kat surfaced beside her and gripped the ledge. She smiled as she responded, " only by a second."

Kicking off the wall, she floated on her back, arms and legs sprawled in all directions. "This water is perfect. Don't you wish you had a pool like this?"

Repositioning herself so that her back was against the wall of the pool, she nodded. "Who doesn't wish they had a house like this?"

With Kat still floating leisurely, Lily took the time to admire her surroundings. Looming in her view was a spectacular house – maybe even a mansion. She wasn't exactly sure at what particular size a house was classified as a mansion, but she had to imagine it'd be pretty close to what was in front of her. The structure was huge, and so beautiful.

The building itself was almost all white, with huge glass windows overlooking…well, everything.

Lily imagined what the inside would look like; maybe sparkling black floors and spiral staircases. The furniture, she envisioned, would probably be all stiff and uncomfortable for the sake of ostentatious beauty.

"—Lily!"

Lily blinked and looked blankly at her friend. "What?"

"I said, wasn't this a great idea?"

She raised an eyebrow. "You mean, illegally breaking into someone's private property and risking a criminal record and jail time?"

"You forgot, in our panties."

"The most important part," Lily sarcastically replied. Then, she grinned mischievously at the blissful girl drifting by her. Letting go of the wall, she brought her hands together perpendicular to the surface of the water and gave one giant push, sending a roaring wave at her friend.

Sputtering from the attack, Kat flipped herself upright as she reached shallow water, and shook her head. "Oh, live a little Lils. Besides, the technicalities are what matter. We're exploring London, and in doing so, borrowing someone's pool, and enjoying our last summer as students to the fullest possible degree."

"So in other words, trespassing for the greater good." Lily began swimming away, a smile plastered on her face despite herself.

Out to get revenge, Kat swam after her, keeping her head above the water so that she could respond. "Precisely! Well put, my friend. Nobody will even know we were here. The old fools who own this face probably don't make use of this pool enough anyways."

"We're just doing them a service then."

"You're catching on really fast!" By now, she had Lily cornered.

Lily flinched in anticipation of being drenched.

"What can I say," Lily shrugged, "I've always been a quick learner." She smiled at her friend, and finally admitted it. "Alright, I concede. This was a great idea and I'm not going to die."

In retrospect, Lily should have figured out that those words probably jinxed the entire mission-adventure-outing thing of theirs.

In afterthought, she should have never let Kat talk her into something so bloody stupid.

And in hindsight, after agreeing to Kat's insane plans, she should have definitely looked up who's house they were trespassing on. It could have well been Voldemorts', which would have been a disaster. Although, this wasn't much better.

"Who's there?"

The girls looked at each other, wide eyed, and froze, staying perfectly still and quiet.

"I know someone's there," the voice said dully, approaching with each passing second.

Without an escape, and with only one option left, Lily took it. She death glared her friend. What else could she do?

And then it happened.

"You're kidding." The boy muttered, as he finally caught sight of the girls. He lowered his wand, and for a second, could only crinkle his forehead in utter disbelief.

Kat had the audacity to throw her head back and laugh, as Lily sunk down and submerged her head under water, willing this all to go way. She didn't even have to look back to recognize that voice.

Lily swore profusely and loudly underwater. The words were muffled to everyone else, and appeared only as little surfacing air bubbles, but was unmistakable.

This had to be one sick joke, Lily thought desperately. Even so, she knew it wasn't. This was karma, she reasoned as she frowned. They did say karma was a bitch.

But in this case, it was in the form of a boy, arms crossed and smirking by the side of his pool.

"Well Lils, since I'm assuming you're about to kill me, I guess I won't have to write those N.E.W.T.s after all?"