Disclaimer: I don't own anything remotely relating to Harry Potter. It all belongs to JK Rowling.

Summary: Sequel to Beginning of the End. Two years after leaving Hogwarts, Lily and James are living in a world that grows darker each day. With their friends beside them they must fight the war that threatens to consume the world they know…a war that will eventually consume their lives.

A/N: Poofsequel magically appears in a puff of smoke : Welcome back to the story! Just a few things everyone needs to know first.

One: This is a sequel. So if you haven't read Beginning of the end this won't…actually this will make sense except you haven't much hope of understanding who Tash and Jen are… okay actually maybe you will since I re-describe them in this chapter. Oh well, read Beginning of the end!

Two: This is a sequel (as I said before) however it will be shorter than the original…Hopefully… God knows how long I'm going to stick to that plan…

Three: Unfortunately in order to keep this story shorter there will be points where I am going to have little leaps in time. Otherwise we'd have sections of this story where I'd be struggling for things to write about. And I don't want to make this boring for you! (come on I have to cover three years in this story cut me some slack!)

Four: This is a sequel (sure I've mentioned that before) and it continues right up to Lily and James's deaths… so it probably will be long actually…so much for point two.

But all death aside, here is the sequel (That I'm sure I've mentioned before!) and I'm hoping everyone will enjoy it. I love reviews, constructive criticism is also appreciated.

And thank you for taking the time to read this massive authors note. I just felt it was necessary.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed Beginning of the End: My good friend Tai told me how to check how many hits Beginning of the End has. I was completely shocked to see the number of hits the story had. Not only that but three of you have listed me in your C2 archives. I'm really touched guys. Thank you so much to anyone who has ever taken the time to read what I have written. Its well worth the hours I sit in front of my computer straining my wrists and eyes.

I cannot accept responsibility for any loss of items, limbs or sanity during this story!

Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to Jasmine, my little sister, who received her blue belt last weekend.

RECAP:

It wasn't a Death Eater who had caught her. The face sneering up at her was that of Lord Voldemort.

"Join me and you could become more powerful than you are now."

He knew they were very special people, and they were going to make their mark in the wizarding world.

"You three have found true love," Crystel smiled at them.

"And amazingly, after all this," Jenny said. "We're all still friends."

…

Two years later:

"Congratulations."

Congratulations didn't even begin to explain how happy Lily felt. Two years of hard work and training had finally paid off. She was now officially an auror.

"We did it Lily." Lily grinned at James and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Around her, the rest of the group were hugging each other and passing congratulations around. Lily herself was standing next to James, in amongst the room of about fifteen other people who had just finished training to become aurors.

In the beginning, Lily had missed Hogwarts bitterly. She had missed, getting up in the morning with Jenny bouncing around the dorm and Tash singing at the top of her voice. She missed the classes, her life wandering around the castle with her friends. Most of all, she had missed the atmosphere and excitement that only happened in Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.

Two years of auror training had brought Lily within close proximity to the war against Voldemort. The training and the war had taught her a valuable lesson. When death was being reported each day, you didn't know how long you had left until it was you who ended up dead. So Lily had promised herself that she would make the most of the time she had.

Two years in training had also seen Lily grow up considerably. She was still the same red head that everyone knew her by, except now an inch taller and with her face reflecting her intelligence. She felt older with some of the things she had seen during her two years in auror training weighing constantly on her mind, but she learnt not to dwell on them too long.

Peering around in the crowd, Lily spotted Sirius, Remus and Tash fighting their way over to them, all wearing the same dark blue robes that all the new aurors were wearing.

"We're aurors, can you believe it!" Tash squeaked. Lily wondered vaguely whether Tash had swapped bodies with their other friend Jenny, who was always in a state of wild excitement. But then she observed her blonde friend and reminded herself that this had been her ambition for almost seven years. The two years at auror academy had fulfilled her dreams. Apart from getting taller (now reaching 5'10) and more outgoing, Tash hadn't changed much from their time at school.

"Yes we can believe it, quite easily," Sirius smiled, pushing his black hair out of his face and slinging one arm around his girlfriend's shoulder. Lily noticed several people in the crowd were looking at Sirius and wishing they were in Tash's place. It was clear in the two years away from school that Sirius had not left his good looks and natural charm there.

"How much sugar did you put in your tea this morning?" Lily asked her friend.

"I don't drink tea Lily," Tash rolled her eyes. "And I'm not sugar high, I'm just happy."

"Hey guys!" There was a yell from the crowd and everyone turned to see a small figure fighting towards them.

At first glance, Jenny looked like a cross between a hippy and a university student. She was however neither. She just liked the colour green, which covered all her clothes except for the cloak she was wearing, which was a cream colour with a wand and bone cross on the pocket. She had green glasses and her short brown hair was tied up in mad bunches.

"Congrats everyone!" she smiled, pulling them all into a huge hug. Jenny certainly hadn't changed at all from school. She still owned the title of the hug monster, though she was now slightly more mature from working for almost a year at St Mungo's as a trainee healer.

"Thank you Jenny." James sounded like he was choking in the hug. His glasses had also been knocked off his face when Jenny had thrown herself at everyone. James still wore glasses and had his trademark messy black hair. Lily had given up nagging him to brush it. After almost twenty years of having messy hair, James was unlikely to change it now.

"Well where are we going to celebrate?" Remus asked, placing one arm affectionately around Jenny's shoulders as they left the building. The rest of the graduates were beginning to trickle out.

"Don't care," Tash shrugged. "I could go jump in a freezing cold pond right now and I'd still be happy!"

"Well the park's just over there if you want to go and jump in…" Sirius began nodding over the street.

"In your dreams!" Tash scoffed, giving her boyfriend a playful smack on the arm.

"The leaky cauldron's not far," James pointed out. "We could go there."

"Brilliant!" Jenny grinned. "I want a nice hot butterbeer!"

"It's not cold Jenny," Lily shook her head. "Its Easter!"

OOO

"Wormtail!"

"Yes my Lord."

OOO

"Here's to you guys!" Jenny raised her glass along with everyone else.

"To us guys!" Sirius repeated throwing back his firewhisky so quickly that he began to choke. Everyone laughed as James and Remus thumped him on the back together.

"So when do you guys actually start work?" Jen asked.

"Next week," Lily said. "We meet our team leader and then we're on call for about eight hours."

"Shorter than my day!" Jen sighed. "I have an eleven hour shift before I can go home."

"It'll be worse if you become a healer in charge," Tash reminded her. "They do a fourteen hour day don't they?"

"But I'd love to be a healer in charge!" Jen smiled. "I love being a trainee healer but I just feel I've got past the training stage. Plus if I'm promoted I'll be able to suggest changing our uniforms." She shrugged at her cloak, which was a rather dull cream color. Lily grinned at her friend. If Jenny got promoted she was pretty sure that St Mungo's wouldn't know what had hit them.

"What's wrong with it?" Sirius asked.

"It looks like I'm wearing porridge!" Jenny spluttered. Lily, James and Remus chuckled. Sirius inhaled half his firewhisky up his nose and started to choke. Tash snorted in her strawberry milkshake.

"I think that's a cue," Lily said. "Whose round is it?"

"Sirius," James said. Sirius stopped choking, pouted and rummaged around in his pockets.

"Broke again?" Remus asked.

"No," Sirius rolled his eyes and fished out some gold. "I'm just short of cash."

"In other words, he's broke," Tash said grabbing a fist full of coins and handing them to her boyfriend. She received a kiss on the cheek and Sirius got up from the table and disappeared to the bar.

"D'you think he even notices that he didn't ask us what we wanted?" Jen frowned.

"I'll go tell him," Remus volunteered. "Everyone want the same?"

"Another strawberry milkshake with chocolate ice cream!" Tash said instantly.

"That's a lot of sugar Tash," Remus cautioned. "Are you sure you don't want a firewhisky?"

"What's the point of having alcohol when you can get hyper of sugar?" Tash asked. "One milkshake!"

"You know Tash sometimes I think you're three years old," Lily shook her head.

"And what's wrong with that?" Tash asked. "I like milkshakes! And I hate alcohol!"

"Just a water for me," Jen said. "I have to go back to work in…" she checked her watch. "Ten minutes. My lunch hour's almost over."

Remus grinned and hurried after Sirius. Tash made a noise that sounded suspiciously like 'aww!' and decided to disappear to the bathroom. Jenny went with her. Lily smiled at her friends and had another sip of her drink. James stared at the table. Lily knew something was wrong.

"What is it?" James turned to face her.

"You've been in a black cloud for the last hour," Lily said. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he sighed but Lily read right through this. She had only seen that look on his face once before.

"I miss them too," she said. "But they'd be really proud of you if they were here today. I know they would." She gave his hand a squeeze. James's parents had been killed a year ago in a Death Eater attack in Manchester. Lily knew James missed them terribly and was miserable that they could have been there to see him finish Auror training.

"I know they would," James said, slipping an arm around Lily's shoulders. "And I've always got you Lily."

"Always," Lily said. "I'm not going anywhere James Harold Potter. I promise you that!"

OOO

"Watch them. Report their every move to me."

"At once my Lord."

OOO

"Bye everyone!" Jenny smiled. She was heading back to work and Remus had said he would go with her to make sure she got back safely.

"Bye Jen," Lily waved.

"Be safe!" Tash shouted. Jenny grinned and waved as she walked out of the door. Remus followed.

"Aww they so cute!" Tash cooed.

"As cute as me?" Sirius asked innocently.

"Of course dear," Tash said sweetly. Sirius grinned and Tash gave Lily a withering look at which she chuckled in her drink.

"Come on then," Tash said, stepping up and picking up her bag. "We have to get going if we're going to see my parents."

"Do I have to?" Sirius asked. "Your father's scary."

"Everyone thinks he's scary," Tash rolled her eyes and grabbing Sirius's arm. "My cat thinks he's scary! Come on!"

"We'll come too," James said. "It's about time we headed home."

Lily drained her drink and followed her friends out of the bar. A breeze blew through the streets and Lily shivered despite the warm summer's air.

"See you guys!" Tash smiled. Sirius waved at them and Lily and James both waved back as their friends both disapperated. Lily grinned at the spot where they had disappeared.

"My parents don't scare you do they?" she asked as they made their way in the direction of the park.

"No your parents are nice," James said. "Its just parents mean commitment and Sirius still finds being committed slightly strange. Not that he'd have it any other way with Tash."

Lily smiled as they walked through the park gates and along the now familiar pathway, dodging a football that came flying from the right. The children ran after it. Lily loved this place. It reminded her of her own childhood spent playing in the garden at home, completely carefree. Completely unaware that she was a witch. And completely unaware of what would happen as she sat down at the nearest bench besides her boyfriend.

"Lily," James turned to face her, and Lily felt herself get easily lost in those hazel eyes that she had admired for years. "There's something I want to ask you."

OOO

"They will not escape me this time."

A/N: Muses: Yeah that's what you think Voldie! Hello you adoring fans! We're back! We're back! We've missed everyone! Especially all you people who love us enough to return to this story! We send you all cookies!… wait a second! Who stole the cookies? (in background, Helen hides cookies behind her back but Fred notices) HELEN! Those were for the reviewers! Helen: I was hungry! And Mei isn't the only sugar fanatic around here.

Excuse me guys! I am HEALTHILY addicted to sugar! Mmm! I could go for a strawberry milkshake right now…Anyway! We're all back! Hope you all enjoyed the first chapter. Now you know what you have to do! You have to click on the 'submit review' button and tell me what you thought! Update will be in a week's time!

She enters the 21st Century: I've finally got myspace up and running. If you're feeling nosy, go see it (though I can't imagine why you would want to waste your time).

Next Chapter: First day at work! I know it doesn't sound interesting but it does get better!

May Stardust fall in your dreams!