An empty home.
Every memory, every piece of furniture, every little knick knack packed away.
For twenty years this house had been my refuge from the world. Within these walls is where I raised my son, where I had cooked dinner and kissed my husband goodnight. I made it a home.
And now it's a home I'm forced to flee from in order to keep my family safe. What I wouldn't give for things to have gone differently.
"If they think for a moment that you know where I'm going, they'll stop at nothing to get that knowledge from you," his voice grave, a misplaced warning.
"Do you think I don't know what their capable of?" I said, "You didn't just loose a mother that night in Godric's Hallow, you know. I lost a sister."
A sister lost long ago, too soon laid to rest. A sister, who I put second to my own pride. A sister, who I'd give anything to hear laugh once again, to see her smile. A sister I miss.
An engine roars to life, shattering the silence and whatever else was held in it.
Harry, the nephew—my sister's son—nods his head goodbye.
Neither of us willing to actually say it.
There are so many things I would have done differently.
The car is running, but I don't move. I don't look away.
Those eyes, those broken green eyes, begging for something I never understood how to give.
He's Lily's son, an orphan dropped off on my door step all those years ago. He was her son. He deserved her. Her and her unwavering love. How could I ever have come close to replacing her? How could I have not even tried.
"I'm sorry," I whisper.
"Me too," he answers softly.
Neither of us move.
Light flashes outside.
The family car explodes.
I hear my son scream for his father, before going silent.
A voice, cruel and hard, bellows from the doorway "Well, well, well, what do we have here?"
Then, another, "Going somewhere, Potter?"
"How—" Harry's voice cracks. Black cloaked figures swarm the empty room. "How did you find me?"
"Really, it was too easy," a man hisses as he enters the living room. He is pale, a freakish grey color. He has no hair on his head and is missing nose.
"Voldemort," Harry snarls. The room becomes stifling.
The man who murdered my sister, has stepped foot in my home.
"Don't say his name!" a cloaked figured yells. Harry shifts closer to me. For his safety or mind, I don't know.
"Quaint place," Voldemort said, looking around the house.
"What do you want?" I ask.
"Harry Potter dead at my feet, by my hand."
I step forward, putting myself between Harry and this monster.
Lily, help me.
"You? A muggle, think you can stop me?" he laughs, so do the other cloaks surrounding us.
"I'm willing to try."
More lights flash, voices yell, Harry drags me to the ground.
Lily, save me.
I yank his arm, dragging him with me towards the kitchen.
Lights explode the cabinets as we pass. I shove him close to the wall crouching down next to him, with the fridge shielding us from the main battle.
More voices, more lights, one of the cloaked freaks collapses dead, less than a meter from us.
The colorful lights reflecting off of his gold chained necklace caught my attention. Harry sits shaking next to me. My mind unable to focus on a single thing that I could do, or say. We were going to die. This was it, and all I could focus on was that damn necklace.
A light hits the fridge, demolishing more than half of it.
I grab Harry, again, dragging him as I crawl towards the mudroom at the end of the kitchen.
As we pass the dead man, I take his necklace with me.
We crouch down, hiding behind the wall.
"Survive this," I growled shaking the arm of his that I still had a death grip on. "Do you hear me? You survive this. You survive this war, and you be happy."
"We're getting out of this together," the boy foolishly replies.
Lights still flashing in the living room. The dead man's necklace weighing heavy in my hand. I can't bring myself to argue, to dash his naive hope. I couldn't, because I wish I was still able to hope like him.
I fiddle with the necklace. There is a pendant, it spins.
Light crashes through the wall we're hiding behind.
Harry aims his own wand through the hole, calling out his own spell.
He's fighting back, but I can hear the cloaks getting closer.
Lily, protect me.
More noises echo throughout the hollow house, more lights flash, destroying my home.
"Harry Potter!" Voldemort hisses. I turn towards him as he towers over Harry and I. His eyes glowing red, wand pointed at Harry. "This is where you die."
I move. Lights flash. Everything goes black.
For all my failures, for all I would do differently, I'd give anything for a second chance.
Lily forgive me.
Warm arms surround me. I can hear birds chirping. The smell of magnolia blossoms, wild daisies and pink lilies wrap around me like a safety blanket. An overall comforting feeling of home wells up inside me.
"You're safe," Lily whispers rocking me back and forth, "I have you. Your safe."
