James Potter was sitting at a long, wooden table, roaring with laughter along with his wife and fellow Marauders.
“Yes, and then he - and then - he goes to me and says, ‘Oh, Jamesey-poo! I love you!’” James paused yet again for the table to wipe the tears from their eyes and for the final sighs to fade.
“Aah, I love overdone Cheering Charms,” said a tall, attractive man with dark hair, wiping tears of laughter away from his gray eyes. “James was so good at that by the end of our seventh year that old Snivelly was still in hysterics from a month ago when we got off the train…”
As Lily Potter’s fit of giggles died away, a long, loud wail was heard from upstairs.
“Oh, it’s time for me to feed Harry!” Lily exclaimed, leaping out of her seat.
“Have fun,” Sirius replied. “Try not to get too much mashed carrots on your shirt.”
Lily rolled her eyes at him and disappeared up the stairs.
“James, you remember that time when you turned Snivelly upside down in front of all those people and took off his pants?” Remus snickered in spite of himself.
“Yeah, I remember. I wonder if he ever washed his underwear. Or even changed then.”
“Probably not,” Sirius stabbed viciously.
“Here we are, Harry!” came a voice from the stairwell. Lily walking into the dining room carrying a gurgling baby Harry on her hip. “Why doesn’t Daddy feed you tonight?” she cooed, plopping the tousle-haired baby onto James’s lap. The look on his face was priceless. The entire table roared with laughter.
“It isn’t funny!” James protested in an abnormally high pitched voice.
“Merlin, James, your voice is higher than Peter’s!”
“Hey!” Peter, who had been silent through dinner, looked up at Remus reproachfully. “That’s mean!”
“It’s not mean, Peter, it’s the truth,” Sirius said.
Then, with a pouty “Hmph!”, James carried Harry out of the room.
Upon James’s return, Sirius, Remus, and Peter announced that they had to leave.
“Not fair! I spent half the time feeding Harry!” James wailed.
“If you fed him more often, it would have taken you about five minutes,” Lily interjected, a faintly indignant note in her voice.
“I am out there every day, working my tail off so you can buy food to feed him!” James shot back in a mock hurt voice. Lily rolled her eyes for the fortieth time that evening.
“I suppose we’ll be seeing you at Christmas,” Lily said, turning to Remus, Sirius, and Peter.
“Yeah, see you then,” Remus said, hugging Lily and James in turn. Peter did the same, though longer than he would have usually done. Taken aback, Lily blinked a few times, but otherwise showed in no way that she had noticed.
“’Bye,” Sirius said, pulling James into a tight, one-armed hug. “See you at Christmas.”
“See you,” James replied. He and Lily stood side by side with their arms around each other’s shoulders.
As the three men disappeared into the trees surrounding the cozy cabin, Peter turned around and gave James and Lily one last, despairing look, his eyes looking more watery than usual, and vanished after Sirius and Remus. Lily and James stared at the spot in the trees where their best friends had disappeared for a moment, and then went back inside to sit by the fire in the living room.
Lily gazed absently out the bay window into the rain that now drove down onto the lawn, making it a field of mud.
“This’ll be wonderful come tomorrow if Harry gets out there,” James said, bringing Lily back to the living room with a bump. “Lily?” Now something held her gaze on a spot outside. She could have sworn she had seen something ghostly white drift in front of the window…But no. This had to have been a trick of the firelight glinting off the rain. Lily shook her head and turned back to James.
“What was that, honey? I’m sorry.”
“I said, this’ll be wonderful come tomorrow if Harry gets out there.”
“Oh, trust me, he won’t be out there if I have anything to say about it.”
“It’s Him.”
“Yes, James, I know Harry’s a boy,” said Lily, rolling her eyes once more.
“It’s…Him,” James repeated hoarsely, the color draining rapidly from his face, staring at the door.
“What…?” Lily followed James’s gaze to window pane. On the other side of it, all that could be seen was darkness, and two pinpoints of ruthless blood red. She tried to scream, but nothing came out but a sort of cross between a squeak and a grunt. She grabbed on to James’s shirt, her knuckles white, as a feeling of sick, frantic fear flooded her body.
“Lily, go,” he whispered, his voice cracking. “I’ll hold Him off. Take Harry and go! Run!” he screamed.
“James, no…no, please, don’t leave me…don’t…”
“NOW!”
“I love you, James,” Lily squeaked, her bright green eyes wide with fear and shining with love for her husband.
“I love you too, Lily,” James told her, his eyes swimming with tears that he struggled to hold back. Lily had no choice but to tear her grasp from James’s shirt and go to the stairwell. At the doorway, she turned around one last time to see James watching her, one solitary tear trickling down his cheek, and Lily knew that this was the last time she would ever see her husband standing straight and tall. She forced herself to look away and start up the stairs.
By the time Lily reached Harry’s room, she was gasping and crying hysterically. She heard the door slam open and held in a particularly loud hiccup. She heard shouted insults and breaking glass. She wanted to scream, James!, but for Harry’s sake held in her desperate cry. Lily scooped Harry out of his crib. His eyes opened quickly, and Lily willed him to be silent. The baby kept as silent as the grave, as though he realized how important it was.
Lily crept silently down the stairs, aware of the tears still pouring down her face. Suddenly, a high, cold voice shouted “Avada Kedavra!” Lily barely held in her scream as she heard the thump of a body hitting the floor, and fresh tears flooded her cheeks. She chanced a look out into the living room and saw a black cloaked figure disappear into the hall to her room. She looked down and bit her lip. James lay still on the floor, wand in hand, and his wide-eyed gaze seemed to implore Lily to get out of the house.
Footsteps from the hallway announced Voldemort’s return to the room that she was in. It felt like her heart was gripped in a cold vice of terror.
“Crucio!”
Nothing could have prepared her for the intense white-hot pain that pierced her body. Lily clutched Harry to her chest as she lay on the floor, screaming endlessly. And then, as suddenly as it had started, the pain stopped.
“Would you like me to do that again?” whispered Lord Voldemort triumphantly. Against her own will, Lily found herself shaking her aching head.
“Would you rather me finish it now?” He asked, His eyes glinting maliciously. Once again against her will, Lily nodded.
“Give me the child first,” He said coldly.
“Never,” Lily whispered. “You’ll have to kill me a thousand times before I let you have him. Kill me. Not Harry. I’ll do anything, anything…” she pleaded desperately, more tears spilling over.
“I’ll just have to do that then,” He said, and let out a short, mirthless laugh as Lily lay quivering on the ground. “Avada Kedavra!” Another wave of intense pain rolled over her as her essence was ripped from her body without ceremony and tossed into the endless void beyond.
Now only baby Harry faced the evil sorcerer. He hugged the dead body of his mother, waiting, waiting for the inevitable. The incantation was spoken again. A burning pain erupted on his forehead, as he heard, not only his own howl of pain, but Voldemort’s as well. He saw through watering eyes a skeletally white wisp of spirit rush off on the wind, and was left alone to cry, still rubbing his forehead.
~***~
The next morning, miles and miles away, Remus Lupin picked up the newspaper and read the headline casually: JAMES AND LILY POTTER MURDERED; ONLY SON SURVIVED
He looked up at Peter and Sirius, bewildered.
“Oh my…” Peter whispered, bringing a pudgy hand up to his mouth. He jumped up and Apparated away.
“You,” Remus said angrily, staring at Sirius in disbelief.
“I…I never…you know I never…” Sirius replied, in as much shock as Remus. Then anger flooded him. “Peter. Why that little rat.” And he, too, disappeared with a small pop! Remus was now alone in his kitchen. He stared blankly at the headline that blared his friends’ deaths out at him. He could feel the tears coming and made no attempt to stop them spilling over. Only one thought made it through the dull buzzing that numbed his brain: Why?
Why? by sirius_s_child
Chapter Notes: Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own anything that you recognize, but it all belongs to the brilliant Jo Rowling.