Once Upon a Time

by Lady Halaia

Short one shot. Really strange look at one way of telling the story until Lily and James die.

Once upon a time. The phrase with which all good stories start. As though without them, it is not a story at all, but a lie. The phrase that validates everything one says. And so will I start my story, though I doubt the events which occurred are far enough behind us to use such a phrase.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a boy with dark, messy shadow hair and earth brown eyes. He had loyal, brave and just friends. Or so the story goes, I do not think that that is quite true. It makes his friends sound perfect, and no one is perfect, are they? So perhaps we say, he had friends who were as loyal and brave and just as a mere mortal can be, each with their own flaws, but they all adored each other very much. As though they were brothers.

And once upon a time, there lived a girl with hair the colour of fire, and eyes the green of growing life. She was the light to the boy's darkness, and that is all that is known of her. Why, you ask? Because the boy was so loud, and got so much attention, that the girl was left out of it, for all her brightness and inner light.

Now, the boy loved the girl, with all his heart. The girl, you would expect her to feel the same, wouldn't you? But she didn't. She despised the boy for his loudness, which she called obnoxiousness. She hated his confidence, which she called arrogance. She hated him for his pranks, which she deemed cruel. But the boy did not give up on her and in the end; he got what he wanted, because that is what happens. Boy meets girl. Boy loves girl. Boys marries girl.

So the story should end happily ever after, shouldn't it? The boy shadow got his girl light, and they got married, and even had a son with his shadowy hair and her vibrant eyes that were the essence of life.

But as in every story, there must be the evil stepmother, or the evil fairy, or the jealous witch. Funny isn't it, that it is always a female? Not this time. In this story, the evil character is a man. He was tall and dark and ugly, as all evil beings are. Or as we assume all evil beings are. This monster had been handsome once, or so it has been said. And he wanted the boy and the girl dead, though by now they are not a boy and a girl but a man and a woman, each grown older and stronger and wiser and happier, and now they loved not only just each other, but their son as well. And the evil wizard wanted the man and woman dead, because they were magical as well, being a wizard and a witch themselves, and their son a wizard as well, and all three were as powerful as the evil wizard. The man and the woman defied the wizard, three times the story goes, and the wizard was not happy, so he wanted them dead.

And the man and woman found out that the evil wizard wanted them dead, so they hid. They took their son with them, and they worried and fretted and prayed that they would be spared, that their son would be spared, that they could leave and walk around outside again, that their son could see the sun and play on his broomstick that his godfather had bought him during the day and sleep with a nightlight his mother had made just for him, all light and warm but harsh against the soft shadow of the night. To make sure that they would be safe, they told just one person where they hid, and trusted their dear friend to keep their secret, and named him their Secret Keeper.

But their dear friend turned out to be not their dear friend after all, and he told the evil wizard where to find the man and woman. So on a dark and stormy night, have you noticed how it is always dark and stormy when someone is killed? On a dark and stormy night, the evil wizard found the man and woman and went into their house, and killed the man, the man with shadows for hair and earth for eyes, and who tried to save his wife and child, but he had lost hope, and was hurt and sad and weary, and he missed his friend even though he had betrayed them and he knew that he would not survive, but perhaps his loved ones could, so he fought as hard as he could, but it was not enough and he died in a flash of light the colour of his wife's eyes.

And the woman with the hair of fire and eyes the verdant shade of life had to listen to her husband defy the evil wizard and pay for it with his life, and she knew she couldn't run, because her son couldn't run and the evil monster was smart and trapped them inside what was supposed to be a safe haven. And when she heard the evil wizard come up the stairs, she held her year old son in her arms, and tried to comfort him as she cried and mourned the man she loved, and waited for the evil wizard. Then the evil wizard came in the room, and offered the woman her life, if she would only give him her son. And the woman of light and life said no, no, take me not my son, take me, but the evil wizard didn't listen, and killed her with the same spell that he used on her husband.

So only the son was left, and he was screaming and crying and calling for the man and woman, his parents, who had died trying to keep him safe, cold and tired and hungry in the harsh and unforgiving glare of the nightlight that was meant to reassure him. And the evil wizard smirked in triumph and leveled his wand at the small child, and began to speak the spell. The son recognized the spell, he had just heard it twice and knew as only small children can that this was how his parents died, and he knew as only a small child could that this evil man had killed his mother and his father and would now try to kill him, but he needed to not let that happen. So as the evil wizard finished the spell, the son screamed his anger and sadness at the loss of his loving parents who had held him and sung to him and threw him in the air but always caught him again and had never before neglected to answer his cries but now they couldn't answer even though this was the most upset and hurt and tired the child had ever been in his short life and instead of hitting the son, the spell backfired and hit the evil wizard, and the child was left alive, and he was praised as a saviour who had saved them all from the evil wizard by the rest of the good wizards and witches, and the child was sent to live with his mothers sister.

So it should be happily ever after now, shouldn't it? The evil wizard was dead, killed by the love of a small child, and even though the man and woman had died, they had died an honorable death. And the boy was with family, who would love and cherish him, because that is what family does, nurtures and protects and reassures and loves.

But that didn't happen even though it should have because this story begins with once upon a time and that means happy endings but instead the son became that boy and was thrown in the cupboard under the stairs and maybe, just maybe that means it's not the end yet, just the beginning but that can't be right because the evil wizard is dead, isn't he? But if it's not finished perhaps we should start again when that boy is eleven and he finds out his true heritage and goes back to the place where it all began, where fire met shadow and earth met life and that boy becomes the boy who lived, and is a hero because the evil wizard couldn't kill him, and then that means that the happy ever after just hasn't come yet, but it will, and light will overcome the darkness because that's how all stories end.

Right?