Chapter 33: Love Conquers
The house was cold. Damp crept in from the corners of the rooms, and the windows let in a cruel draft. Winter was on the way early this year.
Harry was crying again. Lily cradled him to her chest, singing a soft lullaby. “Here, give him to me, I’ll have a go.” James stood from the sagging sofa and prized the baby from his mother’s arms. He joggled him up and down gently. “Hush, Harry, hush,” he whispered calmly in his ear. The baby’s crying quietened down and he hiccoughed. James sat back down on the sofa with Harry and continued to jig him on his knee.
“There you go. That’s better,” he said, as Harry put his index finger in his mouth and sucked it contentedly.
“Thanks,” Lily said, grateful for the sudden quiet and straining to produce a smile.
James returned it with a knowing look in his eyes. “It’ll get better, Lily. He wont be after us forever.”
“Are you sure? As far as I’m concerned, we have to stay locked up here until someone destroys Voldemort. And just look how far we’ve got on that count.” She sighed loudly.
Just at that moment, there was a loud crack in the hallway and footsteps made their way towards the living room door.
“Who’s that?” Lily asked suspiciously. She rushed to the door and held it shut, pointing her wand at the handle.
Sirius’s voice came from the hall. “Lily, it’s Padfoot. You knew I was coming. Besides, Voldemort can’t find you here.”
She let go of the handle and Sirius opened the door. He swept his friend up in a hug.
“It doesn’t hurt to be safe,” she cautioned him.
“I know, I know. But there are only a handful of people who know your whereabouts, and four of them are in this room now.” He let go of her arm and looked around the room, spotting James and crossing the floor to sit down next to him.
“Alright?” he asked nonchalantly, whilst ruffling Harry’s hair.
“As good as can be expected. It’s good to see you. It’s been a while.”
“Tell me about it.”
“But you know what Dumbledore said. It’s far too dangerous. If anyone noticed you coming and going from here too often “ “
“They won’t. And even if they did, let them come for me. You know I’d die protecting you, Prongs.”
James smiled weakly. “Gone are the times when we could come and go as we pleased, eh Padfoot?”
Sirius laughed. “We’ll get there again, Prongs. It won’t last forever like this.”
“I certainly hope it doesn’t.” James lifted a fidgeting Harry from his lap and placed him on the carpet, where he immediately began crawling all about the room.
James took a deep breath, as if deciding where or not it would be best to speak, before saying quietly but determinedly, “I still don’t understand why you wouldn’t be our Secret-Keeper.”
“You know why, James. I’m a blood traitor, the easy target. They’re after me anyway, and that makes it all the more likely that they’ll find you through me. Peter is such an unlikely suspect. You’re safer with him, and that’s all that matters.”
“Then why are we hiding this from Dumbledore? He’s never given us bad advice before, and yet we shunned his own offer of being Secret Keeper in favour of you, only to then lie to him and switch last minute to Wormtail. It’s all a bit … shifty.”
“Isn’t everything, nowadays?” Sirius asked wistfully, sighing and sinking back into the sofa.
James laughed weakly to himself. “At least Wormtail’s uselessness is coming in handy finally. Back in school, if I’d known there would be a time when he would be useful simply because he was too dumb to be suspected of anything …. well, I guess I wouldn’t have been surprised really. Anyway, what’s done is done. I just hope it works.”
“We all do, mate. But Peter has never been anything but loyal to us all these years that we’ve been friends. We at least owe him some trust in return.”
“I know, I know.”
Lily gave James an encouraging look, as if willing him to speak about something. James cleared his throat. “Sirius. You know that Lily and I trust you with our lives, right? You know that we wanted you instead of Peter, and I understand the reasons why that can’t be possible, but, we wanted you to know that, if anything happens to us, we want you to take Harry.”
Sirius looked from one to the other, an expression of pure shock written across his face. “Me?” he asked. “I … I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes,” Lily put in for him. “You’re the best friend we have, and Harry’s godfather. He would be safe and loved with you.”
Sirius smiled. “Then of course I will.” He looked down at the baby, who was crawling around after a ball that kept escaping his clumsy fingers. “Let’s just pray that it never comes to that.”
They all kept a vigil of silence as they watched the baby happily playing with his toy ball, the child who was the cause of all this, and yet was so unaware of any of the danger he was in.
Sirius spoke first. “Well, much as I hate to leave you, its time I got back to Headquarters. There are things I should be doing.” He and James stood up and embraced like the brothers they had become after over ten years of solid friendship. They clapped each other on the shoulder, before Sirius swept Lily into a warm hug and kissed her on both cheeks. She smiled up at him, biting her lip. She hated saying goodbye to people nowadays “ you just never knew when …. well, it was too horrible to think about.
Sirius gave his godson a kiss and ruffled his hair, before standing back up and turning to his friends. “Well, I don’t know when I can visit again, but I’ll try my best to see you some time before the weekend. Any messages?”
“Yeah, tell Moony that we miss him, will you?” Lily said. “I know it’s impossible for him to visit, but it would be lovely to see him. Things just aren’t the same …”
“I’ll let him know.”
“Thanks.”
“Well, until next time. Keep safe. And give that godson of mine a kiss from me everyday, will you?”
Lily smiled. “We will.” She blew him a kiss of his own, and he shut the living room door behind him, disappearing from their sights.
***
The sky was darkening as evening turned to night. Lily flicked her wand and the lights shone brightly from the walls of the living room. She left to do the same elsewhere. James picked up his son and swung him round and round, and Harry squealed with delight at his father’s affection.
James halted, his back sore from the game, and placed Harry back on his play mat. He stretched up and yawned widely. Harry reached up to his father, disappointed at having been put down.
“Here, Harry, look at this.” He took his wand out from his pocket as a distraction, and waved it in front of Harry. “Look what Daddy can do!” He flicked it so that puffs of purple smoke erupted form the end. Harry giggled with glee, his nose scrunched up in enjoyment, and clasped at the smoke happily, watching it disappear in his tiny fists.
Lily pushed open the door and watched the two loves of her life playing affectionately, wondering how long it could continue this way, before they were found out, before they would have to run.
The smoke faded and Harry gurgled for more, clapping his hands gleefully at his father. “No more tonight, my boy,” Lily said, “it’s bedtime.” She looked a little strained, the stress of their present situation showing on her beautiful face.
James picked Harry up off the floor and handed him to Lily. “I’ll make us some tea,” he said. “Night night, Harry,” he added, ruffling the baby’s jet-black hair and planting a kiss on his forehead. “Sleep well.” He leant in to kiss Lily, too, briefly, before she left the living room, absently picking up stray toys on her way through the hallway.
There was a creak of a gate outside. Lily held her breath. No one should be coming to see them. The Order always Apparated and James was in the house. She put a gentle hand over Harry’s mouth to stifle his absent-minded noises.
“James!” she whispered in warning, but it was too quiet for him to hear.
There was definitely someone at the door now. She could almost hear the fast, shallow breathing coming from outside. Not now, please not now, she thought desperately. Come tomorrow if you must, but give us one more day’s happiness together. Just go away.
There was a flash of light and the front door flew open.
James came rushing out of the living room and took in the situation at once.
“Lily, take Harry and go! It’s him! Go! Run! I’ll hold him off!” He pushed her further up the stairs behind him. But he didn’t have his wand.
Lily longed to look at him, to take in every detail she could of him before it was too late: his beautiful face, his gleaming eyes, his strong chin, his muscular body, his loving soul. Just one more kiss, she thought desperately. Give me one more kiss.
Suddenly, without warning, a flash of green light lit up the entire house. It was followed immediately by a loud thud and a cold, high laugh.
He was dead.
Lily couldn’t watch. She had to get her son to safety. Head spinning, she ran up the staircase with both arms protectively around Harry. She looked desperately around for a safe place to hide him, but there was none. Defeated, Lily ran to the nearest room, Harry’s room, and slammed the door shut behind her, pushing an armchair up against the handle in a pathetic attempt to barricade Lord Voldemort out. She tried not to remember the sound of James’s body hitting the floor. But the green light that had killed him was penetrating her very soul, making it impossible to think of anything else.
Lily slid to the floor, cradling her son. He was dead. Memories flooded her mind: a small boy with messy jet black hair winked at her on her first journey on the Hogwarts Express; the same boy, taller now, asked her out on a date, only to be let down by her cruel rejection; James Potter, handing her a rose on Valentine’s Day; James Potter, telling her she was the only one for him; dancing at the Christmas Feast; the feel of his lips against hers; his declaration of love; his proposal; the day they were married; the birth of their son…
Her stomach lurched. It was too much. Like everyone else in her life, he was dead. But not Harry. Harry lived. She stood just as the door flew open. At the sight of Lord Voldemort, she placed the baby in his cot and turned defiantly to face the man who had murdered so many lives, so many loved ones. She threw her arms wide in front of the cot, shielding Harry from sight.
Voldemort raised his wand but did not use it.
“Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!”
“Stand aside, you silly girl … stand aside, now!” he demanded. His voice was cold and high, not like a man’s at all. Not like James.
Lily stood boldly, her wand also raised, her trembling hands giving her away. “Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead-“
“This is my last warning-“
Lily threw aside any attempt at dignity. Reduced to begging, she screamed out, “Not Harry! Please … have mercy … have mercy … Not Harry! Not Harry! Please “ I’ll do anything!”
“Stand aside “ stand aside, girl “ “
Death was staring her in the face, but all she could think of was her dead husband and her defenceless baby. If this was what love was, then so be it. She would rather die than let Harry be harmed. He was all she had left. He was her whole world.
Voldemort laughed, or rather, a cruel, piercing sound washed over Lily. He raised his wand above his head and whipped it down. “AVADA KEDAVRA!”
That split second it took for the curse of Lord Voldemort to reach Lily Potter was enough. This is for you, Harry, were her final thoughts.
***
Sirius Black stepped over the threshold of the ruin of a house in Godric’s Hollow.
It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true. His best friend in the whole world, the only one who truly understood him, was gone. He saw James’s body lying in a heap at the bottom of the staircase. He suddenly didn’t want to go any further. A lump formed in his throat and he blinked back tears.
Not James, please let it be someone else’s body. Please let the rumours be wrong. They're not dead. They can't be dead.
All he wanted to do was find Peter Petigrew and kill him, like he had killed James and Lily.
But the baby was crying. His godson. The child was alone. A sense of responsibility gripped him. He had always loved Harry. He would take him and raise him in memory of his friends. The boy would live. Determination flooded him and he stepped forward. “I’m coming, Harry,” he said, more to himself than to the baby in the room upstairs. “I’m coming for you.”
Love Conquers by dumbly_dorr
Chapter Notes: THE END IS HERE! Well, we all know what happens next, but this the tragedy seen through my pen (or keyboard ... ) and I hope it lives up to expectations. Please let me know what you think, and thank you all for sticking with me to the end. I love you all, and I love James/Lily/Harry.
Chapter Endnotes: Thank you all for getting this far. Time to get out the tissues!