F R O S T B I T E

By: July and Oktober

Disclaimer: we all know how this goes... we don't own it... you don't own it... If we did this would be canon... and Ginny would have a personality... So don't sue... at least not us... that author above us... totally fair game... especially if they didn't include the obligatory disclaimer... we has no moneys... we be just broked college kids... However we do accept donations:D... in the form of large unmarked bills... or sexual favors... gotta love the Benjamins... mmm BEN!... but yes Hairy Pothead and affiliated others belong to JKRowling and everyone else that has a hand in her pot... yes you heard us... her pot... more statements on the obvious... the answer to every question is 42... the flying spagetti moster has touched us inappropriately with his noodely appendage... the dark side lied, they have no cookies... Severus Sanpe looks cute in bunny ears... and if you're still reading this disclaimer we are truely sorry... Sincerely July and Oktober kthxbai

Prologue

Hidden behind his white skull mask Severus stood proudly in the middle of Malfoy Manor's Ballroom amongst his fellow Death Eaters. He could hear the distant cries of his eight week old godson ring from the rooms above.

"Yaxley, what do you have to report about your progress at the ministry."

A tall man stepped forward and knelt down before them, "I have assurances from my connections in the Wizengamot that they will support us come time for nominations."

"How solid is their support?"

"They know their interests are being watched over by you, my Lord."

The handsome Dark Lord smiled and nodded, "Very good, very good."

Severus smirked, glanced to the window and then froze. That was certainly unexpected. He attempted to focus his attention back on his Lord who was continuing to question the others about their progress, but the weather outside was completely fascinating. Never in all of his life had he seen such a sheet of white.

"Severus!"

His eyes snapped forward and locked on those of his irate Lord. "What is so beguiling that you do not respond to a direct question?"

He didn't say anything, fearing the repercussions; instead, he fell to his knees in submission and extended one arm straight out, pointing to the window. "Please forgive me, my Lord, but I suspect that there must be strong magic a foot."

Severus refused to move, he just waited. Then to his utter amazement, the Dark Lord began to laugh. It was terrifying. Severus had never heard such a horrifying sound in his life. The demonic laugh rang through to his bones.

"Severus stand; please stand!"

He watched in horror as the man ran to the bay windows and threw them open laughing into the wind as it blew sheets of thick snow into the hall.

Severus looked over to where his best friend was standing and was met with the same confused look that must have been gracing his own face. He took comfort in the fact that he wasn't alone in his confustion.

"Blizzards in July! BLIZZARDS IN JULY! My faithful! Do you know what this means?" The man bent down, grabbed two handfuls of snow, and thrust them into the air. "Tonight, shall go down in history! For tonight an ICE DEMON WAS BORN IN BRITAIN!"

James let his hand fall away from the curtain that now obscured the window. His son was being born, and he was not going to devastate his wife with the news of the ice storm raging outside. He stared at the covered widow for a few more long moments. It wouldn't be long until his mother showed up, and Lily would have her heart broken. He was not going to let his mother take their only child away; he would teach his son the self-control necessary for keeping his inherited powers under control.

However, for now, while the storm raged outside and the mediwitches and wizards rushed in and out of the delivery room, he could wait, and pretend his life was still normal.

"Think it has something to do with the Dark Lord?" Frank Longbottom stepped up to the window and peered out of it himself.

There was a pause and James blinked. Finally he nodded, "Oh yes. Definitely. It's absolutely something that monster's cooked up." He silently thanked the Gods for fools and friends.

Frank stepped away from the widow and cast a glance at the room his own wife was in, "How long have you been here?"

"Few hours already."

"You think it will be over soon?"

"Not sure. The mediwizards told us the labor can take days."

The two men looked at each other uncomfortably.

"Hope it doesn't take that long," Frank muttered, "Alice will kill me."

"Lily would murder me too. You going in?"

A scream rent the air, the sound of Alice Longbottom cursing Frank to the deepest level of hell imaginable. Frank gulped and sat down, fast. "No. I think I'm going to stay right here. What about you, James?"

"I think I'll stay here with you. Moral support, and all that." James felt a bit green around the gills as his own wife screamed.

They sat there, awkwardly, for a few hours getting up to peek at the horrible storm outside, until one of the witches rushed up to James and gave him a beaming smile. "It's over, you can go in now."

He gave her a proud smile and nodded at Frank, "Good luck," he said simply, before walking into the room that held his exhausted wife, and newborn son.

Lily was reclining on the hospital bed; a bundle of blue blanket wrapped up in her arms, and stared through her disheveled red hair at the new life she'd brought into this world. "Jimmy," she said, looking up at her husband, "Isn't he beautiful? He's perfect."

James walked over to her side and stared down at his son, "Of course he's perfect. He's your son."

"Don't forget, he's yours too." She laughed and stared back down. "Hi Harry. I've been waiting for you. You gave me so much shit, but I love you, yes I I promise you can have all the ice cream and bananas you want." Then she stopped, puzzled, "He's got such blue eyes."

"All babies have blue eyes," James replied a bit uncomfortably.

"Yes but these..." she frowned a little at the sleepy blue eyes of her baby blinking up at her. "His seem unusually blue."

"I'm sure it's nothing. All babies are born with blue eyes. They'll change." He nodded with authority, effectively closing the subject.

"Alright, if you say so, darling." Lily couldn't bring herself to argue the point anyway. What did it matter if they were baby blue, or always blue?

The new parents sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Lily spoke up again, "What was that middle name you wanted?"

"Dimitri," James said softly, "My grandfather's name."

"Harrison Dimitri Potter." Lily's smile grew wider, "welcome to the world.

The blizzard outside of Hogwarts raged with fury and Albus Dumbledore stared out over the snow-covered grounds and shivered. "It's not very pleasant to hear but I suggest withdrawing from the world and going into hiding as quickly as you can arrange it."

Alice Longbottom reached down and picked up her chubby five-month-old son from the royal blue blanket he had been playing on. "You have no way of knowing which one of them the prophesy is about? There aren't any other clues?"

"If there were my dear I wouldn't be talking to all of you. I'm very sorry. My intelligence has informed me that the Dark Lord has learned of the prophesy and has already begun his search. It is only a matter of time before he discovers Neville and Harry."

Lily bent over and retrieved her smaller son as well. He had happily rolled off his red blanket and was now dangerously close to his father's foot. The boy began to fuss and wriggle in her arms and Lily reluctantly handed him to his father who was arguing with the headmaster.

"So that's it? Sorry folks but you are the Dark Lord's new target. You're on your own. We have dedicated our lives to your cause and you are just going to throw us to the wolves? No, Harry! Lily can you take him?" James desperately did his best to keep a hold of his son who decided that it would be fun to play stomp on Daddy's private area.

"He wants you. There isn't anything I can do"

Not having much choice James stood up and began bouncing his happy son on his hip. "You have to do something!"

Albus looked at him sadly; "I have done all I can. There is nothing left that I can do. I'll oversee the Fidelius Charm but everything else is in your hands. I'm very sorry. I suggest trying to see as many people as possible and to try and go on as normal until you go in to hiding. You are all known members of the order; the Dark Lord will be watching you."

Frank stood up angrily, "I can't believe this! You once told me that you could get us out of the country if it came down to it. What happened to your American connections?"

"I could potentially get one of you out or maybe two but the children are too small to make that kind of floo. I swear I have agonized over this decision and it's the best and only option. Please don't make this any harder than it has to be."

"Frank, please. We should go. This isn't doing any good."

The young father sighed, turned, and looked at James and Lily who were trying to keep their happy, active son amused, "I'm so very sorry."

James smiled sadly and nodded. Both men knew that the best outcome for their families would be the destruction of the others. "May the gods watch over you and your family, my friend."

Frank nodded, "Likewise."

The two women hugged each other showered kisses on the others child. The two girls had been the best of friends since they were eleven and they knew this might likely be the last time they ever saw the other alive.

Albus watched on sadly as the two families left. Once alone, he looked out at the worst storm Hogwarts had seen in a century. "May the gods have mercy on you and may your sons bring a frost that will destroy that devil of a man.

James embraced his mother at the front door. "It's good to see you again. I'm sorry it's under these circumstances though."

The aged woman stepped around him and into the house after he broke the hug. "If you vould just have invited me over more often ve vouldn't have had dis problem." Her soft blue eyes fell on the stairs, "And dat is vhere Dimitri is, da?"

"Yes, mother. That's where Harry is."

"Dhen take me upstairs to him, my son. You need him out of the country and I hafe a very short time before my train leaves."

James hesitated. "Mother," he began, "Lily is still having some trouble with all of this. She's already so distraught; please don't mention anything about our family."

Her eyes widened in surprise and her frown wrinkles deepened. "I can't believe you haven't told her. She deserves to know the noble heritage of our family, of my grandson! De Gods would not approve of dis."

"I don't give a damn what the Gods think!" James kept his voice low, and tightly controlled, "The Gods can go hang themselves for all I care. I am losing my son for what could be years and until he's safe back in Lily's arms she doesn't need to know anything about us."

Rusalka Moldov stared at her son and then nodded, "Fine. I vill respect your vishes, my son. Now, take me to Dimitri."

James resisted the urge to correct his mother again, and sighed, before leading the way to the nursery where Lily was still trying to pack.

Harry was rolling around on his little blue blanket dressed in a blue romper and chewing on his bare foot when James stepped into the room with Rusalka not far behind. James grinned at his little man and kneeled down, "Hi there, Harry!"

Harry gurgled happily and shoved his foot a little farther in his mouth.

Lily was dashing around the room, grabbing various muggle baby toys, burpies, and clothes and packing them all in a rather large suitcase, before pulling everything out and starting to repack it. Her hair was frazzled and her nerves looked about shot. "Should I put this in here?" she muttered to herself as she held up a tiny baby hat, "No, no. He won't ever wear it." She tossed it to the side and turned around, finally noticing she had company. "Oh! Hello Rusalka! It's nice to finally see you again!"

Rusalka stared at her daughter-in-law and then brushed her aside. "I vill pack."

"I-" Lily stopped, "oh, okay." She turned to James and smiled somewhat stiffly, "I see Harry's managed to pull his socks off again. He finds his feet absolutely fascinating for some reason." She knelt next to her husband and son, gently pulling the foot from Harry's mouth, before she picked him up and cuddled him close to her.

James stood too, enveloping the two most important people in his life in a soft hug.

Lily looked at him with tears streaming down her face and began to plead yet again for him to change him mind, "Please, Jimmy, don't make me send him away."

"Lily…"

She shook her head and began to cry harder, "Please, don't."

"There is no other choice. We have discussed this. This is the absolute safest option. What if he were to find us?"

Lily looked down at her small son and kissed his hair out of a need to get closer to her baby, "we would fight him off. Please James, he's my baby! Please!"

James felt tears sting his eyes and his heart wrench painfully, "You know that there is no other way. Please darling. You must be brave. We will see him again."

He watched a flash of emotions cross his wife's face and he knew that she had read him correctly, fully registering that they mostly likely wouldn't survive this war, but if she was strong she might be able to save her son. He watched her sniff resolutely, bite her lip, and place a kiss on her son's head and then walk over to where James's mother was shrinking Harry's things and placing them in a muggle diaper bag.

"You will be where we discussed?"

Rusalka nodded.

Lily took a deep shuddering breath, turned, and began fastening Harry into the muggle carrier that they had purchased special for this trip.

James led his mother downstairs to give Lily a few more moments with their son.

"Please take care of him."

"You need not ask stupid question. I vill protect him vith my life."

James nodded and looked up at his wife who was carefully descending the stairs all the while watching her son try to free his toes, "No Harry, leave the sock on."

He met her at the bottom of the stairs and bent down to say goodbye, he wanted to say something, anything, but he was at a complete loss. Instead, he just leaned in, kissed his sweet boy for the last time, and held back the tears for his wife.

He watched and she strongly stepped forward, handed off the carrier to his mother, and then covered him in his blue blanket. "He gets cold easily."

Rusalka nodded, "I keep him varm."

With that final farewell, the woman turned and carried her grandson out into the snow and to the cab that was waiting for her.

James watched his wife collapse in on herself and fall to her knees sobs wracking her body and he felt himself break. The tears he had been holding back broke loose and he ran to her side and hugged her, neither caring about the snow that was flying in through the open door.

Nearly a year later Lily was upstairs in Harry's room, putting tiny neat stitches into a pumpkin costume, hoping that the dark times would pass and she could finally see her baby again. James was sitting in the living room, reading The Three Musketeers and dreaming of reading it to his son one day.

The sound of wood splintering filled the house and James dropped the book and ran for the stairs. "LILY!" he screamed, "THE BASTARD BETRAYED US, RUN!" James turned to cast a spell but is immediately silenced by...

"Avada kedavra." Lord Voldemort stared coldly at the body at the bottom of the stairs before gliding his way up to the nursery where Lily was waiting.

Lily stood at the door with her wand raised and tears streaming down her face. "You will not have him, you monster!" and with a single spell, she brought the house crashing in flames around them.

In the mountain town of Melnik, Bulgaria, Rusalka finished feeding baby Dimitri and tucked him into his crib, cooing at him in her native Russian, before settling down by the fireplace. The boy had grown much in her care, and no longer caused snowstorms when he was upset at being hungry or left alone. "Poor, Dimitri," she murmured quietly. "I can only hope-" she was interrupted by a scratching at the front window. She wrapped her shawl tightly about her shoulders and stared at the golden eagle perched outside. Official Gringott's Post. She opened the window for the creature and took the letter from his ankle, tossing him a bit of stew meat before she opened it and started reading.

Dear, Mother

If you're reading this, then the worst has happened. I'm sorry we could never spend more time together. The estate has been left to Harry, with the Gringotts Goblins in London overseeing it until he comes of age. There is a trust fund set up for any living expenses that he may incur until he has reached his majority. Our wish was for him to go to Hogwarts when he was old enough, but the way things are going we understand if you decide to send him else elsewhere. There is so much I wish to say. Tell Harry that we love him every day and never let him forget we did what we thought was best.

Please keep him safe. He is our world, our everything.

Love, James

P.S. Keep him warm for me. Lily