Snapshots

Author's Note: This is hopefully going to be a series of one-shots which will be updated whenever I get inspiration- i.e., sporadically. Each chapter tells the story behind one of the pictures in Harry's album which he received from Hagrid when he was eleven. Comments, critiques, and suggestions for future chapters welcome! Chapter one is dedicated to my long-suffering Schnauzer, whom I dragged out for a short walk in the rain, which was prolonged when inspiration hit for this story.

The Rain's Hope

The horizon was glowing that improbable combination of purple and yellow, that mix only nature could make lovely; that pair of colours which only appear in the sky on those happy occasions when a sunset and a rainstorm coincide. No less glowing was the face of Lily Potter as she walked beside her husband. They were strolling round a park near their home, at Lily's insistence; ever since the beginning of her pregnancy seven months earlier, James had become unwilling to even let her leave the house.

"Relax, James," she said; her husband had started violently at a small noise, which turned out to be the creaking of a swing as the wind increased. "It's beautiful out here."

"Beautiful?" James repeated in a voice approaching hysteria. "You're in very delicate condition, there's a war going on, and you're gallivanting off on these- these- expeditions-"

Lily snorted. "You're one to talk. Dumbledore said to be careful, not to put ourselves under house arrest. Look." She reached into the pocket of her robes and pulled out her wand. "I'm armed. We're fine."

"I still don't like it," James muttered, but Lily wasn't listening.

"Oh, James, smell these roses!" She nestled her nose against the soft petals, their fragrance made somehow sweeter by the scent of rain which hung heavy in the air.

"Yes, they're lovely. Now, Lily, can we go?"

"James-" she started exasperatedly, but was interrupted as the first drops of rain fell.

"Now look what's happening!" said James. "Come on, quick, you're going to get a cold, or slip on the ground, or-"

Lily walked up to her husband, put her arms round his neck, and kissed his cheek. "You're quite the mother hen, James. When I remember you at Hogwarts-"

"I'd really rather you didn't," he said; but he was smiling for the first time since they'd left the house.

The rain was now falling in earnest. Lily stepped away from James and twirled, her outstretched arms cutting through the drops of water. "Besides," she shouted, "Rain is the symbol of life and birth- it makes everything green, it restores things. Won't it be wonderful for our child to be here, to experience this?"

"From inside a womb," James said, rolling his eyes.

But Lily was not to be stopped. "Take a picture!" Ignoring his cries, she pulled an ancient camera from out of the front of her husband's robes, where he had been attempting to shield it from the rain. Forcing it into his hands, she ran a little ways in front of him, flinging up her arms as though conducting the symphony of thunder that resounded above their heads. Her robes were sodden and plastered to her body by this time, clearly revealing the life she was carrying in her belly. Her hair, too, was being whipped around by the gale, slapping her wetly in the face.

James sighed, but took the picture. "The camera'll be ruined, I expect."

"Don't be such a worrywart, James. A little water won't hurt it."

On closer inspection, though, James' face was such a combination of anxiety and love that Lily couldn't help relenting. "All right, then. Let's go home. But won't this be something to tell our baby about?"

"Him," James corrected. "It's going to be a boy. What, we'll tell him his mum went mad, dancing in the rain, no thought for anything except-"

"Except life, and joy, and a bright future?"

"Yes," said James as they slipped in the front door, and Lily went to boil some milk for hot cocoa. "Yes, it'll be a good story indeed."