A/N: Okay, sorry to keep you guys waiting for this chapter. I hope you’re not disappointed with it. So read past the disclaimer if you want to finish the chapter. Thank you to those of you who reviewed.
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Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns almost everything that you will find here. Most of you know what happened, I just feel like elaborating the story to my imagination’s desire.
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Once again it’s getting late at the Potter’s house. This time James spoke up as Lily had been too distracted to look at the time. While Lily has been standing near the window, James has been sitting on the couch holding a drowsing Harry.
“Lily, it’s getting late again. Maybe we should get some sleep.”
She hardly moved. She’s been staring out of the window until then. As he spoke to her, she looked over at him.
“But James, don’t you feel it?” she asked him with a slight shudder.
“Feel what?” he asked her nonplussed.
“Some odd vibe in the air, I’ve only felt it three times before now.” She shuddered again. “It’s the exact same odd feeling I had every time before Voldemort was about to come and try to do us in. Don’t you remember me telling you about it?”
“Yes, now that you mention it, I do,” he said frowning slightly.
Lily is wearing a concerned expression that was present the night before, and she finally decided to sit down. She looked at Harry in her husband’s arms; he had fallen asleep there with an innocent expression of absolute serenity and peace.
“What if something went wrong last night and Sirius got intercepted by a Death Eater or Voldemort and they coerced or forced him to tell them where we live?” Her voice grew steadily higher as she said this. Some panic had forced its way up onto her face, where it was usually never found.
“Calm down Lily,” James told her soothingly. “I’m sure Sirius and Peter are fine. In any case, I’m definite Sirius can throw off the Imperious Curse, Peter might be able to as well. Plus Sirius and his whole family have some weird immunity to Veritaserum. We tried it out in fourth year,” he smiled reminiscently, “ah, good times.”
Before James could go far down memory lane, there was a frantic knock on the door and Harry woke up and started making noises. James handed him to his wife and went to the door to see who it was. The caller this time was a short witch, by the name of Artemis Short, who’s panting as if she had just run a mile. James let her in and upon seeing her Lily looked nervous.
“What is it?” she inquired quickly.
“It…it’s…him! He’s coming… here! To…to…Godric’s Hollow!” she gasped, sounding as panicked as Lily felt.
“Who, is it Voldemort?” James asked urgently.
Artemis winced at his name momentarily, and then nodded quickly.
“People in the village are screaming that he’s there!” she said, still looking terrified.
“He doesn’t know we’re here,” James said calmly. “So we’re safe.” Artemis bit her lower lip as if to restrain herself from saying something else. He looked at her scrutinizingly. “So if you knew that we were hidden, why did you come?”
“The word is that he…he…” She faltered with a look of pure terror written all over her face.
“Well?” Lily asked her anxiously.
Artemis finally blurted it out.
“He knows where you live!” she cried out.
Lily looked stunned and clapped her hands over her mouth, but James laughed.
“Come now. You can’t mean that,” he said dismissively, still with a laugh in his voice. “Our Secret-Keeper is safely hidden. There’s nothing to worry about. Even if he were to come up to this very house and look in the window, he wouldn’t know we lived here. So there’s no need to worry about us.”
Artemis looked skeptical.
“Really, we’ll be okay,” he assured her. All traces of his laugh have left his face now.
Artemis turned to go and headed for the door. Almost as an afterthought, he called to her.
“Thanks for telling us though,” he told her in a calm, almost quiet, voice.
Lily nodded in agreement with her husband, in thanks for her neighborly concern.
“It was no problem,” she answered back in equal tones.
She left and shut the door behind her. Lily turned to face her husband.
“James,” she began quietly. “What if he does know where we live now?”
“Lily, he doesn’t really know where we are. He’s just guessing,” he explained reassuringly. “You know Peter wouldn’t betray us and Sirius would die before he says anything.”
She still looked a little doubtful, but her trust for James and his best friends won out in the end. She looked down on Harry who had fallen back asleep in her arms; she can’t help but smile at him before she looked back to James.
“Alright, I’ll take your word for it,” she sighed finally.
Suddenly, screams erupted outside. They sound as if they’re a mile away at first, and rose louder as the source came gradually closer. Lily looked shocked and slightly panic-stricken at this sudden noise; James stood up quickly and pulled out his wand, as he does so; Harry woke up for the second time that time that night, and is unusually silent, as if he knew the impending troubles and his parents' need to think.
“Wait here a second, I’ll go take a look outside,” James told her quickly.
He crossed the room to a window and looked out to the road. Not even five seconds passed before he dashed back to Lily, his face as pale as the full moon shining in the night sky. He tried, very unsuccessfully, to hide the panic registering in his hazel eyes. Lily looked at him, waiting only a moment, with bated breath, for his answer.
“Lily, she was right!”
She looked outright terrified now.
“Oh God! Did you see him?” She asked him horrified.
“Yeah, a few houses down, examining a little piece of paper…” he stopped, realizing what he had just said. “He must’ve done something to Peter! Oh no, and it’s my fault if he’s dead! Oh God, I hope he’s okay!” he moaned.
“There’s no time for regrets now, he’s almost here! There’s no time to escape either! We’re trapped! What are we going to do?” she groaned.
James managed to put on a calm expression, no matter how much fear and horror was coursing through his veins, in an effort to calm himself and Lily.
“Alright, Lily, I want you to take Harry and run away. Try to get out through the back, and if you can’t, hide,” he ordered.
He leaned down and kissed her, then the top of his son’s head. He looked Lily in the eyes and saw tears running down her face as tears threatened to spill down his.
“I love you Lily.”
“I love you too, James.”
He left her side and darted to the window. Voldemort was standing in front of their house, in the road, wearing a triumphant smile that contorted his already distorted features as he read the piece of paper. James turned his head back to Lily.
“Lily, take Harry and go! It’s him! Go! Run! I’ll hold him off.”
Lily held Harry closely to her as she stood up. She looked over at James, now standing by the door, wand out, ready for a fight. Reluctant to leave him behind, but knowing his mind was set, she took in his appearance one last time and ran for their bedroom. At that moment, the door burst open and Lily stumbled, before she recovered quickly. In the doorway stood Lord Voldemort; his catlike, red eyes burning from out of his pale colorless face, all the while, cackling like a madman. He pulled out his long wand on seeing James Potter with his wand out. He stopped laughing and allowed a horrible smile to twist his mouth. James attempted to Stun him, but Voldemort blocked it. James was about to cast another spell but Voldemort yelled one out before James could even allow a single syllable to pass his lips.
“Avada Kedavra!” he screamed.
In a bright flash of green light James fell, dead before he hit the floor. His hazel eyes were open, looking shocked and surprised, but blank all at once. There was a long howl from the distance as Voldemort stepped over his lifeless body as he stowed his wand back into his robes, and swept off toward the bedroom where Lily was with Harry. Harry’s on the bed with his mother standing in front of him, her back to the door. A floorboard creaked and Lily spun around. As she turned, fear flew across her face as she saw who it was. Voldemort advanced toward the place where she’s standing, directly in front of Harry.
“Step aside girl. I’m not here for you, I’m here for him.”
As he spoke the last few words, he pointed a long, white finger at the baby behind her. Lily was horrified and her brilliantly green eyes widen.
“Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!” she begged.
“Stand aside, you silly girl…stand aside now!” he ordered in a high, cold voice that was heard in many a nightmare.
“Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead!” she pleaded.
She was on the verge of tears, but she’s holding them back. She stood up a little straighter. She knew for sure now that James was dead, at the hands of the foul creature before her. She was intent on saving her son now. If she let Voldemort take Harry away from her too, without a fight, she knew that she would never forgive herself for it. Voldemort drew out his wand again and raised it slowly.
“Not Harry! Please…have mercy…have mercy!” she cried out in anguish.
“Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!” commanded Voldemort, eyes blazing furiously.
He took a step forward so there was only two feet between them. His wand rose slowly until it was pointed directly at her heart. She never flinched, but wore an unreadable face of stone.
Please Harry, I hope you understand that I’m doing this for you. I would rather die than live a life knowing I dishonored you and your father’s’ memories by giving up to the one I swore to help destroy. Just know that I love you, and I always will, even though I will die. What I do for you now is my last gift to you, she thought.
“Don’t kill Harry! Kill me!” she screamed.
“Avada Kedavra!” he bellowed.
Lily screamed, but her scream was cut off quickly as if the blinding flash of green light that shone instantaneously with the incantation was a knife. With a thud, Lily fell to the floor, dead, like James. Voldemort let out a high, cold, mirthless laugh. Her lovely green eyes sparkled with the moon filtering in through the window and a tear that had formed with her final scream. Her features held an expression much like her husband’s, shocked and surprised all at once.
Voldemort stepped over her limp body and turned his wand on Harry, a maniacal grin on his face.
“Avada Kedavra!” he yelled out a third time that night.
There was a third blinding green light, but it was quickly replaced by a bright scarlet light, accompanied by Voldemort’s anguished screams of pain and agony and an explosion. When the light disappeared, most of the house had crumbled away and was smoking. A ghostly shadow, that was the mutilated soul of Lord Voldemort, sped away, looking for a place to hide away so he could attempt to regain power.
Now only one sound could be heard after all this happened. That was the screams that clearly echoed anguish, pain, and loss from the little baby still inside the house’s ruins, Harry Potter.
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A/N: Alright, I hope everyone can hold on until I type up chapter 3. After chapter 3, it’s all done. Okay, you know the drill, review and tell me what you think. Whether you loved, liked, or hated it; I want to know, Siriusly (sorry about the pun, I really like it). Oh and did you find my furry little friend?
I only have 3 reviews out of 402 reads on chapter one, and none out of 146 reads on this chapter, come on you guys, I don't like it when you read and run!