Thunder

By LilyHeartsJames

Disclaimer- JK Rowling owns all the rights to the amazing 'Harry Potter' series. I'm just a kid who loves to write about this amazing world.

Dedication- Lily and James, the OTP of all OTPs.

Ever since she was a very young child, thunder was never really one of Lily Potter's strong points.

Now, merely decades later the loud rumbles outside still caused her to sit upright in bed, her emerald green eyes widening as she glanced out of the window at the darkened sky. Another clap of thunder made her shiver and just as she was about to lie back down and will herself back to sleep, her son's sudden crying in the next room changed her priorities. Clearly Harry had been woken by the thunder too.

She pushed back the bed covers and made her way across the room, glancing briefly back at the sleeping form of her husband who was curled up under the blankets, his mouth hanging slightly open as he let out another loud snore. She smiled before grabbing her fluffy dressing gown off the hook and tiptoed from the room and along the dark hallway; the sound of thunder clashing against the sky and Harry's screaming causing her chest to tighten.

She was pulling on her dressing gown when she slipped into the room and spied the distressed one year old standing in his cot, his bottom lip trembling as he tore his gaze away from the window. His small white hands gripped the bars of the cot tightly and his cries became softer as his mother neared him.

"Shhhhh, Harry, Mumma's here" she cooed as she held out her hands to lift him from the cot and he immediately released the bars and stumbled towards her. She gently picked him up and lifted him out of the cot and settled him on her hip, her arms wrapped around him firmly.

"Mumma's here, sweetie" she assured him as his cries turned to sharp sobs and she carefully bobbed him up and down lightly, smiling down at her little boy. "Did that thunder frighten you?" she asked and Harry looked up at her, his tear stained, blotchy red face quivering as the thunder continued to roar outside the cottage.

She walked over to the window, humming a small tune and adjusted Harry so that she could sit on the rocking chair in the corner of the room. She placed him on her lap faced towards her so he could still see her calming face as he continued to whimper.

"It's going to be alright, Harry" she told him quietly as she rubbed at his eyes softly with the sleeve of her robe. She hugged him to her chest as she leaned forward in her chair and plucked a tissue from the box and leaned the chair back, wiping his nose lightly with the soft tissue. She knew her words held deeper meaning than the thunder; for there were worse things threatening them at the moment. However, this was still much of a concern for the infant, and she knew that trivialising it wasn't going to help him feel less frightened. And besides, she thought as she pushed the tissue into her robe pocket, he was calming her as much as she was him.

"Were you dreaming, Harry?" she asked softly, knowing the infant wouldn't answer and watched him closely as he nestled his head into her chest. "I was. You and Dadda were playing outside on the grass and he was chasing you. It was a beautiful, sunny day, much like today. Daddy tripped over and you jumped on him and he started tickling you. And you were both laughing" she murmured, a ghost of a smile tracing her lips as she began to run her fingers delicately through his messy black hair. "You laugh just like him" she told him and his shoulders shuddered as another wave of thunder boomed against the window shutters and Harry began to bellow loudly.

She patted his back softly with her other hand, continuing to rock back and forth and humming the same tune from earlier. "Shhhh, Harry. I'm here. Mumma's here" she repeated and his cries continued much like the thunder and the rocking and she began to sing a quiet lullaby to try and soothe him.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine" she murmured, rubbing his back in small, comforting circular patterns, "you make me happy, when skies are grey. You never know dear, how much I love you, please don't take my sunshine away…" Harry's cries slowly began to subside, and she continued tracing circles on his back as she sang to him quietly in hopes she didn't wake his sleeping father in the next room.

Lily leaned over the side of the chair and picked up a small blue and yellow book and turned Harry around in her lap so that his back was leaning comfortably against her chest. "Why don't we read a story? You like this book" she whispered and she held the book in front of the infant who lifted his chubby little fingers and flipped open the front cover and his mother began to read the story to him quietly.

Harry had grown quiet after the first few pages, his chest was no longer heaving and his lips were now steady. He pointed at the pictures with his index finger and Lily kissed the top of his head as he turned the pages, quietly labelling the things he pointed at.

Scuffing footsteps outside in the hallway caused her eyes to snap up to the door cautiously as her husband's messy haired head peeked around the open door and his warm, hazel eyes lit up at the sight of his wife and son reading a book together.

"Did we wake you?" she asked, relaxing her shoulders and giving him a sympathetic smile as he made his way into the room yawning and ruffling his hair.

He kneeled down beside them, mussing up Harry's hair affectionately as he did.

"Don't worry about it. Come on, I'll make you some tea. We'll be up for a little while it seems" he said smiling up at her and she shook her head at him.

"Are you sure? I don't mind sitting up with him. You look knackered" she said softly and he rolled his eyes in response.

"Stop hogging the poor boy and hand him over" he replied, holding out his hands for his son and she grinned and pressed her lips lightly to the crown of Harry's head before lifting him up into his father's waiting arms.

"James?"

He hugged Harry to his chest, his arms wrapped around his body securely as he swayed him from side to side. He glanced up at Lily lovingly, his eyes portraying a softer side. "Evans?"

She smiled at the use of her old surname and walked over to him and said "everything is going to be alright, you know."

He nodded, his eyes not quite meeting hers.

"I know."

She tilted her head to the side and he leaned towards her, pressing his lips briefly against hers before pulling away and tucking a loose strand of auburn hair behind her ear.

"I love you, you know" he murmured and she nodded, taking his hand and leading the way from the room.

"I know" she responded, repeating his earlier words and he smiled and looked down at Harry who was staring up at him intently and he poked his tongue out, causing the child to giggle.

James handed his wife a cup of steaming hot tea and she smiled gratefully at him as Harry sat on his bottom on a comfy mat perched on the floor and held a rubber block to his mouth, drooling on it and gurgling as he did.

The thunder had diminished ten minutes earlier and Lily now leaned into her husband's shoulder, his arm wrapped firmly around her and she watched Harry on the floor, sighing contentedly as she sipped her tea.

They sat in silence, both watching their son and drinking their tea, comforted by one another's warm bodies wrapped against each other and seemed to be lost in their own separate thoughts.

Lily thought back to her dream, where the sun was out and shining and Harry and James were sprawled out on the grass, laughing and rolling about as James mercilessly tickled the infant. It was a dream, but a delightful one at that and she smiled over the rim of her hot beverage as Harry dropped the block in favour of another and brought it up to his mouth, saliva dripping down his chin.

James sat beside her off in his own little world, thinking about his own dream. James' expression darkened at the image of him tripping into a smouldering room, his eyes were darting back and forth trying to find his wife and son through all the debris. He ran up the stairs as the smoke began to tear at his throat but he ignored it, racing up into the infant's room where he found both bodies lying on the floor, Harry curled in Lily's arms and their bodies were frozen like icicles, cold and dead.

His body tensed and Lily's head turned to him and frowned.

"James? What's wrong?"

He shook his head, bringing his tea to his lips and drinking it.

"Nothing."

"You're lying."

It was a statement, she knew him well. Too well.

"It was just a dream" he told her, although it was more to assure himself it had not been real, and he privately vowed to himself to make sure it never came true. He couldn't let that happen.

"What happened?" she asked gently, interlocking her fingers with his and his eyes finally met hers and he grimaced.

"Don't worry about it, love. It was just a dream" he repeated quietly and she squeezed his hand supportively. He sat forward, placing his half empty cup on the table.

"Everything will be okay, you do know that don't you?"

He shrugged, watching Harry.

"Sometimes I do. Other times I just… I dream. And it always ends the same, with you and Harry…" he couldn't finish his train of thought out loud. "And it scares the absolute shit out of me" he told her honestly, wincing at the language and glancing at Lily apologetically.

Lily leaned forward and rubbed her nose affectionately against his then leaned back slightly and gazed into his doubtful eyes.

"We're not going anywhere, believe me. Harry and I will be okay, and so will you. We're going to be fine, everything is just-"

"Stop saying everything is going to be alright because it might not be!" James snapped suddenly taking her aback and she leaned away from him, her wide eyes staring at him.

His eyes softened, and he lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles.

"I'm sorry, Lily. I'm sorry. Merlin, I'm just-"

"I'm scared too, James. I lie awake worrying every night, just like you do. But I have to believe that everything will be okay, because if it's not-"

"And if it's not?"

"Then they win" she finished quietly, her eyes never leaving his and he sighed, closing his for a moment before reopening them and he smiled slightly, tracing small patterns on her hands, his tea now sitting abandoned on the table beside the couch. "And we've got something worth fighting for haven't we?"

It was a rhetorical question but he nodded all the same and watched her closely.

"A better future for the three of us" he responded and she smiled, squeezing his hand encouragingly once more.

"We need to protect Harry with everything we have, and if we lose faith then all of this would be for nothing. We need to keep fighting, to believe that we're doing the right thing for all of us."

James nodded once more and picked up his cup of tea and took a large gulp and sighed. Lily released his hand and grasped his shoulder instead, squeezing it gently.

"I know that you miss your friends and that you hate being cooped up like this. So do I. But we need to protect Harry, they understand that. We need to stick together James, we're a family."

He turned to face her and cupped her face in both hands and pressed his lips firmly against hers.

"I know that, I promise. I just… I don't ever want to lose you, either of you, that's all" he murmured as he pulled away and leant his forehead on hers and she smiled.

"You won't. Just wait and see, we'll be sending him off to Hogwarts in no time. He might even make a very responsible Head Boy one day."

James leaned back against the couch and snorted.

"Not if Padfoot has anything to do with it."

Lily chuckled and snuggled up to him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"I think we doomed the poor boy the day we named Sirius as Godfather" she replied and James grinned.

"I told you Remus was the responsible option."

She rolled her eyes.

"Sirius was determined to be the Godfather the moment we told him we were getting married!"

"He was determined to be Godfather to our children when we were fourteen years old, you just didn't know it at the time" James responded and she laughed as Harry's eyes wrinkled up and his lips trembled suddenly as he let out a huge yawn and James smiled fondly at his son.

"Looks like someone's not too far off from sleep" he remarked leaning forward and picking up his son who had begun to rub his eyes. He leaned back once again and cradled Harry in his arms as Lily got comfortable once more leaning against his chest, staring down at her little boy.

"Goodnight, sweetheart" she said kissing his forehead softly and Harry nestled into James' chest and began to close his eyes. "I love you."

They watched him drift off to sleep as his chest began to rise and fall with his soft snores when Lily glanced up at James and smiled.

"I love you too, by the way" she told him and he smirked.

"I know."

So the word 'thunder' inspired me and my fingers just started flying all over the keyboard and I ended up with this and just, yeah. I had to write it. But despite what anyone thinks, I'm actually really proud of it.

But it wouldn't hurt to know the thoughts you guys have, just because I love reviews and such. They make me all warm and fuzzy inside, and as cliché as that sounds it's one hundred per cent true!

So please hop to it!

Love and cookies and cream ice cream,

LilyHeartsJames