a/n: Hello, all! I haven't written anything in a while and this story is slightly different from my usual, but I feel that it is better written than my other work. I'm really excited for this story and hope that everyone enjoys it! :) Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters, and the summary (as well as the corresponding line in the text) is based off of a quote from the first book.

Clifford's Corner Store sold milk.

It also sold candy, chips, magazines, over-the-counter medicines, peanut butter, diapers, soup, and a plethora of other items considered necessary for the people of Cokeworth. As such, Clifford's Corner Store saw a steady stream of regular business all year round.

Elijah Clifford, the shop's owner, was a decrepit old man in his seventieth decade. He was no longer the spry firecracker he had been when he had first founded the store (thereby being the first in his family to make something of himself), but he could still be found in the back rooms of the place, hobbling around on his mahogany cane and threatening any folks he deemed to be potential shop-lifters. As he did not have the energy or the patience to deal with the endless flow of customers that the shop saw daily, Mr. Clifford eventually enlisted the help of a young girl with striking green eyes.

He was not inclined to trust gingers, especially not sixteen year old gingers—he had always been told that they had a wicked temper and no consideration for others. However, this particular ginger came with a reference letter from his landlady Mrs. Mortimor (this letter cheerfully reminded Clifford that she knew all about the illicit cat he kept in his flat, and unless he wanted her to take actions to remove this cat, he better damn well give "Lily Evans" a job).

And so he did.

He didn't ask why she needed a job and he didn't ask how she knew Mrs. Mortimor. In fact, he didn't really ask her much of anything. He just read the letter, made sure that she at least seemed trustworthy, and gave her a job working part-time at the counter without so much as a smile.

Just because he had to cater to Mrs. Mortimor's whims didn't mean he had to be happy about it.

He was a stubborn man, so his surliness lasted well into the first month of Lily Evans's employment.

She wasn't a bad employee, she was just…different. She came in every morning, right on time with a smile and a "Good morning, Mr. Clifford!" She scolded him when he tried to climb the ladder to restock something, and climbed it herself—flat out ignoring him when he protested. Sometimes she brought him back a sandwich from the local deli if she noticed that he hadn't had time to eat yet. She flirted lightly with the customers, was courteous to everyone, and had even started up a Tip Jar to raise funds for his hip replacement surgery (she was able to raise £46 in two days).

Lily Evans was the best employee—and the sweetest ginger—that Mr. Clifford had ever known.

He would deny it until his dying day if asked outright, but he had developed a soft spot for the young girl. And when she entered the shop seven minutes late on June 25, a slight frown upon her face, Mr. Clifford was…well…worried.

"All right there, Evans?" he grunted, stumping out of the back room to survey her.

She looked up at him briefly, before casting her eyes down again, pulling her long hair out of her face and into a ponytail. "Yes, sir. I'm fine."

In Mr. Clifford's personal opinion (he had a knack for this sort of thing) she was absolutely not fine. And he told her so.

"Well…" she hedged, before heaving a sigh and leaning against the counter. "You're right. It's been a pretty horrid morning."

"You wake up on the wrong side o' the bed?" he asked shortly.

"No. It's my sister's birthday and we got into a row, again. And then I saw an old—er…well, he was my best friend for a long time, but we had a sort of falling out at the end of school this year…"

She trailed off, and Mr. Clifford (being a man of few words), didn't know what to say. With a clearing of his throat, he gave her a short nod before turning away.

"Good luck with things, Evans," he called over his shoulder.

She smiled—her first genuine smile of the day. "Thank you, Mr. Clifford."

When Lily was still friends with Severus Snape, they would end up in Clifford's Corner Store every summer without fail.

It was mainly Lily's fault, seeing as she had an incurable penchant for the ice cream bars they stocked, and every time she felt a little overheated she would drag Sev into the store for a frosty treat. Sometimes they would stop in for a bag of chips or a cool drink—one time (she remembered very clearly because they had laughed about it all day) they each made up lists and had a scavenger hunt among the shelves. It had been extremely fun until Clifford got suspicious and kicked them out.

Now, staring out at the small, sun-dappled shop from her place behind the counter, Lily felt a tug of sadness in her gut.

There were memories here: Memories of weaving in between the shelves in search for that perfect summertime snack; memories of laughing at Mr. Clifford as he chased a hooligan with his cane; even memories of pressing her face against the large storefront window as she passed in the hopes of seeing Severus inside buying medicine or something for his mother.

And then, a memory that eclipsed them all: "I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"

He had tried to apologize, of course. He had waited for her outside the common room, accosted her in the library; he had even sent her a letter at the beginning of summer (that she had promptly thrown away).

But the look on his face when she'd encountered him this morning on her way to work, had jarred the suppressed memories loose. He had been walking down the alleyway that she used as a shortcut sometimes, and though she was already late, seeing Snape so unexpectedly made her stumble to a stop.

He had kept walking, looking at her so impassively that she was sure he must be hiding his true emotions with the apathetic mask he so often wore (she found it hard to believe that he could get over everything so abruptly, especially after the way he'd acted after it happened). He had passed her, not sparing her a second glance, peering through her as if she were a ghost—as if their friendship had really meant shit to him and he had forgotten everything they had been through together.

"Sev!" she called after him, unable to stop herself, her heart feeling heavy and dull inside her chest.

He hesitated, just for a second, before turning around, the same bland look upon his face. "Don't call me that," he said simply.

And then he turned away.

The thought that he could forget about them so easily had been haunting her all morning because seeing him again had reminded her of everything—the good times and the bad times, and could Snape really just give up? Could he really just ignore her; ignore the fact that he had been her best friend and that she had a right to be royally pissed off at him? Was he really just going to pretend like none of it had ever happened?

Well, that was just fine. Perhaps, Lily mused, it would better that way anyway. It was hard to keep pushing Snape away—to pretend like she didn't have an urge to accept his apology and save him from himself. The last thing she wanted was for her (former) best friend to be sucked into the Dark Arts. But then she remembered who he always hung around with and how they treated other muggleborns, and she wondered if maybe he hadn't been sucked into it already.

If he could forget, then it would make it that much easier on her—and maybe then they could truly go their separate ways.

"You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine."

The jingle of the shop's bell disrupted her thoughts, and she looked up to find four very familiar boys running into the store, all looking slightly sweaty and harassed.

"Do you think they saw us come in here?" Remus Lupin asked urgently, swiping a hand over his forehead, his bangs sticking slightly to the skin.

Sirius shrugged in answer. "Either way we're screwed."

James Potter ran a hand through his hair, coming further into the store. "I can try to contact my dad. Tell him where we—Evans?"

He stopped short at his words, hazel eyes meeting green, and Peter Pettigrew, who had been following close behind, ran into the back of him. "Ouch," he grumbled, rubbing his nose tenderly. "What the hell, Prongs?"

"Evans," he repeated again, looking almost sick. Lily stared back at all of them in shock. They had been the last people she had expected to see today, and their sudden arrival had her quite flustered. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here," she said simply. "What are you doing here?"

"Shit," Sirius Black suddenly muttered, much to her surprise. "Shit. This is so bad. Prongs, get your dad."

"What's going on?" Lily asked uncertainly. She couldn't remember a time when every one of the Marauders looked nervous. "Is everything all right?"

The four boys stared at her, looking as if they were deliberating on telling her what had gotten them worked up into such a state, but after a moment they turned back towards each other, murmuring softly.

Lily let out a light huff, figuring that their behavior was only to be expected. They hadn't spoken since the end of last year, when she had (wrongly) blamed them for her ruined friendship with Snape. She had known at the time that it was ultimately Snape's fault, but she was so mad that they had been picking on him in the first place and that James Potter had embarrassed her again by asking her out in front of a large group of people.

She brushed a piece of hair out of her eyes, still carefully watching the four Gryffindors talk amongst themselves. She knew that apologies needed to be exchanged, but she was suddenly quite certain that something was wrong…James looked over and caught her eye again, but he didn't look annoyed with their less than affable parting last year. He looked…worried.

The Marauders weren't bad guys. Yes, they annoyed her for a good majority of the time that she spent around them, but they were loyal and they were trust-worthy and they were extremely outspoken in their steadfast disapproval for any type of dark magic. Seeing them now, looking panicked and concerned and completely ignoring the way they'd parted last year—which they would normally bring up at the first opportunity—made her anxious as well.

"Er…Guys?" she said hesitantly. "Potter?"

They stopped talking, though they still looked rather jumpy, and Potter's hand flew to his hair again. "Hmm?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Sirius said immediately.

She frowned. "I don't believe you."

"Have you seen anything strange, Evans?" James asked abruptly.

She blinked. "Strange?"

"Yeah, strange. You know, like…anything weird?"

"Like what?"

"We don't have time for this," Sirius interrupted. "James, can you contact your father, or not?"

"I—"

They never found out whether he could or not, for at that moment, a large explosion blasted the storefront window into pieces, spraying the room with shards of glass.

Lily shrieked ducking behind the counter, but the Marauders had nowhere to go.

"Fuck!" Sirius yelled, ducking away from the window as well as he could, even as the force of the blast knocked them backwards a few steps. The others followed suit, gritting their teeth as slivers of glass pierced their skin, and with a grunt, Remus pushed his three friends towards the heavy wooden counter that Lily was behind.

Catapulting themselves over the top, the four boys collapsed next to the redhead, breathing heavily and bleeding.

"What is going on?!" she demanded shrilly, wincing as Peter pulled a rather large piece of glass out of his arm. "What was that? Who did that?"

"Death eaters," Sirius muttered shortly, preforming a shoddy healing spell on a gash across James's neck.

Lily paled. "Death eaters?" she repeated, looking at Sirius in shock. "You're being chased by death eaters?" Remus nodded grimly. "Why? What did you do?"

Sirius grimaced. "I may or may not have gotten into an altercation with one last weekend that resulted in his arrest by the Ministry. It seems his mates are out for a little revenge."

Lily gaped for a moment, unable to find the words to correctly describe what she was feeling.

Another blast reverberated throughout the shop and James set his jaw. "Come on," he said, moving himself into a crouching position. "The ministry will realize that spells are going off in a muggle neighborhood. They'll come stop it. Are you guys ready?"

"What are you doing?" Lily hissed, horrified, as the other three nodded.

"Don't worry there's only four," Remus said.

"Only four?"

"Evans, if you don't want to fight, I won't hold it against you," James said shortly, "but we can't just sit here."

A cold feeling stole through her veins. "I can't fight," she said weakly.

"Sure you can," Remus said, giving her an encouraging smile. "You're brilliant at Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Don't force her!" James said sharply.

"I'm not! I'm just saying—"

"No," Lily interrupted, rubbing a shaking hand over her face. "I can't. I don't have my wand on me."

The boys froze; Sirius looked at her incredulously. "You don't have your wand?" he repeated, looking like he very much wanted to hit something.

She shook her head miserably.

"Oh no," Peter groaned.

"Come out and play," a horribly sinister voice growled from somewhere in the shop.

"Great," Sirius was muttering. "This is just bloody great. What kind of witch doesn't carry her wand—"

"Shut up, Padfoot," James snapped, rubbing an agitated hand through his hair, looking torn. "I'm trying to think."

"Go," Lily said tersely, as the death eaters shot another curse that blasted through some shelves. "I'll be fine. They might not know I'm here."

James glared at her, which she really thought he had no business doing. "Wormtail, you stay here with Lily," he said gruffly. Peter nodded. "Everyone else, come on."

"Be careful!" she cried, reaching for his arm. He shook her off, standing up and shooting off a stunning spell that missed its target, Sirius and Remus at his sides. Without a glance back, they launched themselves back over the counter and into battle.

"Oh Merlin," Lily moaned, jumping as she heard another large explosion. "I can't believe this is happening."

"Don't worry, Lily," Peter said, patting her awkwardly on the shoulder. "We've been holding these four off all morning. They're not that smart. And I may not be as quick as the lads are with defensive spells, but I can do a bloody good shield charm."

She smiled feebly. "Thanks, Peter."

He grinned—and looked far too relaxed for the situation they were currently in. "Any time."

"What in the devil's name is going on out here?" Someone roared, and Lily's heart dropped to her shoes.

"Oh no," she moaned in fear.

"What?" Peter asked urgently. "What is it now?"

"Mr. Clifford."

"Who?"

She looked over the top of the counter, Peter scrambling up to be beside her, just in time to see the old man she had grown so fond of clump out of the storage room.

The two death eaters spotted him as well, laughing cruelly. "Look, it's a muggle!" One of them shouted, sending a curse his way that James just barely managed to deflect.

"Get out of my store!" Elijah Clifford thundered, swinging his cane through the air menacingly.

"Mr. Clifford!" Lily screamed. "Get out of here!"

At her words, a death eater shot a spell towards her, but Peter's confidence in his shield-casting abilities proved true, and the spell merely bounced off and put a hole in the ceiling.

"Not a chance in hell, Evans!" he answered, taking a step into the fray. "These hooligans are ruining my shop!"

"Mr. Clifford, no!" she shouted again. She tried to climb over the counter, but Peter grabbed her and held her firmly in place.

This time it was Remus that deflected the spell meant for the old man.

"Peter, shield him!" Lily said with a sudden burst of fervor, pointing across the room at her boss.

"But Li—"

"Protect him!"she demanded, sounding slightly hysterical even to her own ears. "I can take care of myself!"

He hesitated only a moment more before nodding, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like: "James is gonna kill me," before scampering off towards the old man.

As soon as he left the safety of the counter, Lily poked her head up cautiously. Remus and Sirius were both in front of Mr. Clifford now (who was still ranting and raving) wildly deflecting every spell that two particularly vicious death eaters were launching at them, while James was backed against a shelf, fending off the other two death eaters by himself.

She had to do something. She couldn't just sit there and watch them get beaten or hurt or worse, regardless of if she had a wand or not. They were only sixteen years old. Sixteen bloody years. Without every person doing everything in their power to help, she doubted they would get out of this situation unscathed. With a deep breath to steady her heart, she quickly determined what she needed to do.

Peter was creeping towards the store room; at any minute, he'd be able to protect Mr. Clifford, allowing Remus and Sirius to focus on incapacitating their death eaters. James was closer to her anyways, therefore being easier to help; she just needed to figure out a good distraction…

Her eyes settled on the heavy glass jar she'd been collecting tips in for Mr. Clifford's upcoming hip replacement surgery.

Without giving herself any more time to think about it, she jumped on top of the counter, scooping up the jar and holding it defensively.

"OI!" She shouted, as loud as she could. "Wouldn't you tossers rather kill a Mudblood like me?" The two death eaters fighting James looked over, just as Peter reached Mr. Clifford.

"Evans!" James shouted angrily. "What do you think you're—" With a deep breath, Lily threw the glass jar with all her might, making solid contact with one of the death eater's faces. The jar cracked loudly, sending paper money and coins spilling across the floor and the man stumbled backwards, accidentally dropping his wand as he fought the urge to black out.

The other death eater snarled at her, turning swiftly away from James and towards her.

"Cruci—"

"NO!" James shouted desperately, shooting a spell that made the death eater trip forward. The curse barely missed Lily, allowing her enough time to jump off of the counter and roll behind a row of shelves; she let out a sharp cry as she felt some glass slice her knee.

Staggering to her feet, she limped forwards, peering around the edge of the shelf to survey the scene once more. Sirius was grinning rather manically, looking as if he was actually enjoying matching wits with the older death eater. Remus had moved away from Mr. Clifford, but was still fighting his opponent, and James was overcome with such fury at the whole 'Crucio' situation that he was busy shooting every curse he could think of in his adversary's face, slowly beating him backwards towards the open window.

As if in slow motion, Lily watched the death eater she had hit with the jar shake off the injury, retrieve his wand and shoot off a spell towards Peter, who had been focusing all of his attention on shielding Mr. Clifford.

"Peter!" Lily cried as he was blasted backwards into the store room.

With a shout, Remus shot a conjunctivitis curse and dashed over to Peter, deflecting more curses as he ran. Turning around, Sirius managed to engage the death eater Lily had hit into his duel, but the one that Remus had just dealt with muttered the counter curse and turned towards the old man.

With one graceful arc of his wand through the air, Mr. Clifford's throat was slashed, blood spattering the wall behind him in a lethal pattern.

"NO!" Lily shrieked, feeling her throat tighten. The death eater started directly towards her, his eyes narrowed into evil slits behind his mask and she let out a choked sob, stumbling backwards a step.

"Evans, run!" Sirius shouted as he shot a spell towards the death eater pursuing her, and she ducked back behind the shelf, pure fear and anger mingling together and obscuring the urge to cry.

Sirius would not be able to distract him for long; she had to act quickly.

And she would not run. Running would give her no chance; she would be a fleeing target—easy to kill. She needed to be clever; she needed to find a way to catch him off guard and fight back long enough to survive. Ignoring her shaking hands, blinded by fury (or was it grief?), she looked around frantically for something to use to fight the death eater with.

Her desperate eyes landed on the contents of a shelf near her feet. Picking up the sack of flour with a burst of inspiration, she feverishly ripped it open, and poised herself at the edge of the shelf rows, listening hard for any footsteps coming towards her. She heard them almost immediately.

Although her pounding heart was threatening to beat out of her chest, Lily let out a steadying breath and took the step so that she was in full view of the death eater, heaving the sack of flour towards him so that the contents sprayed out and hit him in the face.

The thick powder covered his mask, infiltrating his mouth so effectively, that his curses were turned into pathetic coughs and choking noises. In his anger, he shot off a nonverbal spell at random that she easily dodged, and before he could wipe the flour out of his eyes, she rammed her foot as hard as she could into his crotch, yanking his wand out of his grip in the next second.

"Stupefy!" she shouted forcefully. Though this wand did not feel nearly as powerful as her own, it still got the job done, and as the man was stunned she quickly conjured ties to keep him immobile.

Adrenaline pumping through her body, she turned to the fight, charging across the floor before she process what she doing.

Keeping her eyes purposefully averted from Mr. Clifford's fallen body, she shouted, "Reducto!" catching one of the death eaters dueling Sirius by surprise and sending him soaring across the room. He hit the ground with a sickening thud, and she quickly stupefied and tied him as well.

"Evans?" Sirius asked in disbelief as he sent his opponent stumbling back a few steps. "How'd you get a wand?"

"Tell you later, Black," she yelled, sending a curse at the death eater still struggling with James, who was now bleeding profusely from a cut in his stomach.

"Potter!" she called in alarm as she saw the startling red color soaking through his blue shirt. She started to dash over to him, but he shook his head.

"Stay back!" he wheezed out, just as the death eater sent a curse towards her. "Protego!" she yelled quickly, but the curse still knocked her backwards, causing her to smack into the back of the death eater that Sirius was now taunting ("Oh, come on, you can do better than that!").

She hit his back hard, sending him forward into Sirius and knocking them all to the ground. Sirius quickly punched him the face, but the raging death eater retaliated by wrapping his hands around Sirius's neck and squeezing with all his might, pushing him roughly into the floor. As the sixteen year old's face started to purple, Lily managed to pick herself off the floor, raising her borrowed wand to help; but she was suddenly knocked backwards by another spell sent from the other death eater.

James had been sent flying across the room too, with a much larger amount of force, and he hit the floor hard and skidded until he ran into a shelf.

"Potter!" she called out, forming a hasty shield around him as the death eater advanced. "Are you alright?"

He raised a hand in a weak thumbs-up and she groaned in fear, casting another glance at Sirius, who had managed to break the death eater's hold on his neck, but was still struggling against the other man's superior strength.

"Levicorpus!" she yelled, lifting the death eater six feet in the air. Gasping for breath, Sirius stupefied him and was up in a flash, limping across the room to help James just as Lily let the death eater crash to the ground.

She was about to cross the room to help the boys (and was wondering what on earth had happened to Peter and Remus), when the loud sounds of popping notified her that Aurors from the ministry were apparating onto the scene.

"Freeze!" One of them roared, but his command went unheeded.

At the sight of the Aurors, the last remaining death eater raced across the room to grab one of his fallen comrade's arms, and turned on the spot, disapparating and leaving James fuming.

"Dammit!" he bellowed as Sirius helped him up from the ground, kicking a random piece of wood that had been blasted off of one of the walls. "We almost had him!"

"I need some help in here!" Remus shouted from the back, and Lily, Sirius, and James joined the three Aurors that were heading that way.

Lily, however, stopped short before she reached the room, as she caught sight of a spread-eagled body in her peripheral vision. "I don't know what happened to him," she could hear Remus saying quickly. "He's alive, but he's unconscious, and he won't stop bleeding."

Mr. Clifford hadn't stopped bleeding either, Lily noted, dropping to her knees beside the body and taking one of his gnarled hands in her own. He hadn't deserved to die and yet she had been powerless to stop it, and now he was gone before his time.

"I managed to slow the bleeding a little bit…" Remus was saying and the gravity of the situation hit her full-force as she registered just how heavy and cold Mr. Clifford's hand was.

He was dead.

Dead.

And Peter was bleeding out in the next room and there were two death eaters tied up on the ground and they were only sixteen years old.

A debilitating sense of relief that she'd survived settled over her.

"What happened here?"

"Do you know how lucky you are?"

"How did this man die?"

"How did you evade harm?"

"Are you aware of the danger you were in?"

"How did you manage to trap these two death eaters?"

The questions that were being asked around her seemed to go on forever, and eventually the noises became foggy and muted, and she wanted to look away from the sight before her, but she couldn't.

Everything was red—his neck, the floor, his clothes, her leg—and she felt dizzy and kind of sick; she'd never seen a dead body before, and now she couldn't tear her eyes away from one.

She started to shiver.

She wasn't sure how long she sat next to Mr. Clifford's body, but suddenly someone (Sirius, she realized belatedly) was forcing her up.

She tried to stand, but pain lanced through her knee and she wobbled dangerously. She had almost forgotten that she'd hurt it near the beginning of the fight. James appeared out of nowhere, catching her underneath her other arm and together, the two boys helped her outside. Remus was already there, talking to some Healers (when had they shown up?).

Sirius stepped away almost immediately to talk to Remus, but James didn't move, just continued to support her weight and stared stoically at the ground.

It was strange to be this close to James Potter and not even care, when they had so often clashed if they came within even a few feet of each other at Hogwarts. Sure, they had moments where he made her laugh or they had a good conversation, but it was usually when they were alone—not with large groups of people around and certainly not in chaos like this.

She supposed that there were some things you couldn't share without ending up liking each other (at least a little bit more than before), and using four wands and a sack of flour to fight off a group of death eaters was one of them.

"It'll be okay, Evans," James said stiffly, and Lily realized that she was crying.

Was this what shock felt like?

Remus and Sirius returned after a moment and they all stood together, too exhausted to do anything but wait until a tall wizard strode up to them. He was intimidating, with a thick trench-coat and a snarl that made her more uneasy than the strange blue eye that seemed to be whirring every which way in its socket. She wondered briefly if his eye had been cursed or if he chose to have it like that.

"Do any of you have anything to say for yourselves?" he growled, and she realized that he was angry, although she didn't really think he had any right to be.

James seemed to be thinking along the same lines as her, and she felt his arm stiffen around her. With a snort and a raised eyebrow that was indicative of his cocky demeanor, he looked this strange wizard straight in the eye and said what she was thinking: "Yeah. What took you so long?"

The wizard scowled as Lily's knee gave a particularly nasty throb. "I think you lot'd better come with me."