With You In Your Dreams
A moist October wind blew through the town of Surrey along Privet Drive. On the front step of Number 4, a small basket sat. The basket held a small child, no more than a year old, wrapped in a flannel blanket. A letter incased in a parchment envelope sat tucked beneath his head. The child lay sleeping peacefully, blissfully unaware of the great sorrow that has befallen him and the dreadful future that awaits him here at Number 4. In this late hour the street is shrouded in darkness, the streetlamps all burned out. Suddenly, from the darkness, a bright light emerged over the child. From this intense light, a figure materialized, the child's mother. Her pale skin and vivid red hair glowed angelically as she gazed upon her infant boy. A crystalline tear slid down her cheek.
"My sweet little Harry," Lily breathed as the tear made its way off her cheek and towards the child below her.
"I love you so much my darling," she breathed, her hands over her chest.
"I know you can't talk but that's ok. Mummy will talk and you can just listen," she murmured as she bent down closer to the basket.
"I don't want you to think that Daddy and I abandoned you. We would never do that," she said softly, smoothing the boy's hair.
"If I could change it…I would. I'm not going to be there to see you grow up," she gasped, fighting back a landside of tears.
"It hurts Mummy so much to know that I'm not going to be there to hold you when you are hurt. To make all the pain go away."
"Daddy and I won't be there to see you off to Hogwarts and to see you graduate," she breathed, dabbing at her eyes.
"But you are going to do great things Harry, marvelous and extraordinary things. You're going to touch everyone you meet," Lily affirmed to the slumbering infant.
"Always remember that we love you and will never stop loving you," Lily whispered as she kissed Harry's forehead, right about his lightning bolt scar.
She looked up at the house where her firstborn son was to grow up. She knew her sister and brother-in-law despised magic. They would not be forgiving of Harry when his magical abilities manifested themselves. Her heart longed to take Harry and leave him with someone else, anyone else but Petunia and Vernon. But she could not. She like Albus understood why Harry must live with the Dursleys, because Lily sacrificed herself in love to save her son.
Lily reached down, picked Harry up and out of the basket, holding him close to her bosom. She rocked him back and forth, humming lightly. She knew he was already asleep but this would b e the last time she would ever get to rock and sing her son to sleep. She placed him back in the basket and repositioned the letter so it wouldn't bother him.
"Stay safe my angel. Be a good boy and try not to make trouble," she whispered as she began to back away.
"I promise that we'll see each other again some day Harry," the redhead murmured somberly.
A faint white light began to rise around Lily, very slowly encircling her. A slightly panicked look spread over her pale features as she realized she was running out of time. She took a deep breath to calm herself.
"Harry, never forget that Daddy and I are with you, in your heart and in your dreams. As long as you live, we'll never truly be apart," she called as she ascended into the darkness from which she had come.
Just as Lily disappeared, the light above the front step flickered on and the door was pulled open. A young woman in her mid-twenties, wrapping in a bathrobe stepped into the cool air and looked down at her feet. She picked up the letter and slid her finger under the flap, pulling out a letter. She read it quickly by the dim light above her. Bending down once more, she picked up the basket and returned to the warmth of her home.