Disclaimer: These characters (except Lexi) all belong to J. K. Rowling, who is a magnificent writer. I'm only borrowing them for the time being.

My good friend Sarah is helping me write this fic by betaing for me. My best friend Meg is going to be hepling with Sirius's POV, b/c he's her favorite character.

PREQUEL

The wind was echoing against our living room in Godric's Hollow, causing our family clock to hum. The clock was just like the Weasley's, but since it came from generations of Potters, the clock's hands were made of 24 karat gold with gemstones decorating each member's hand. Lily had fallen asleep in the rocking chair across from Harry's maple tree crib engraved with little griffins. Lily had fallen asleep; it had been a long day for us.

As I watched her chest rise up and down. I felt comforted to know that everything was well with her, like things used to be before the war. The only other time I had ever seen her so peaceful was one day in our 7th year on the way to Honeydukes. It was winter break, and snowflakes were falling freely from the sky.

Recalling the moment, I laughed at the thought of me freefalling out of the sky onto Lily Evans, because Lucius Malfoy had hexed my broom. Five seconds before landing straight on Lily, I had seen an expression of pure bliss cross her features as she read, "Hogwarts, A History". I crashed into her with a similar smile. Even after she punched me in the stomach and walked away, I couldn't stop smiling. She was just - so beautiful with her long cherry locks laced together by a single gold ribbon, the perfect image of a Gryffindor girl, or should I say woman. She hasn't changed much since then, maybe her brow has been creased by a few lines of worry, but we all have those. The war spares victims on no side. In her sleep, Lily let all her thoughts of lost friends, treacherous friends, and manipulative mentors slip away, her expression remaining true to the 17 year old girl she once had been: young, peaceful, blissful. Her expression remained the same now. How simple things had been then.

Today was our 3 month anniversary in hiding. Harry's light mewing had woken me up; at first I thought it was on of the normal happenings: a dirty diaper or a pang of hunger, but it was different. Little emerald-eyed Harry had just alerted us that Death Eaters were attempting to invade our peaceful home. The laundry was still in the dryer when they breached the first of three wards, and Harry's cries elevated to screeching. Lily awoke at the sound of the infant's screams, her green eyes wildly darting around in panic. Looking at Lily with tears threatening to leak out of her beautiful bright green eyes, I told her in a crackling voice, "Lil…Lily they've breached Dumbledore's first wards…take Harry upstairs and try to contact Hogwarts!"

Lily stared at me and vigorously shook her red locks.

"And leave you here to fend for yourself? How could I do that James?"

"There isn't time to argue, luv. Now go, before it's too late. If they've been able to find us there has to be a traitor in the Order, and Dumbledore must be informed. You know that if he isn't, not only are our lives and Harry's over, but our cause may be lost too."

I gave my beloved Lily a flitting kiss on her lips spiked with all the emotions that were going on in my mind: the anger, the pain, the fear. But most of all the love I had for her and for Harry. I wanted Lily to know how much she meant to me just in case something happened to me. Oh dear, sweet Harry, my strong little boy, he doesn't even shiver when his knowing eyes skim towards the window where green light illuminates the surrounding area and screams of Muggles ramble between the cracks of the house. I gave him, my dear boy, a kiss on his brow in hopes that he'd be able to maintain this memory of me in his uncertain future.

I think I had a moment of clarity then, a prophecy if you will. I knew Lily and I had come to the end of our lives but Harry, he would be strong. He would be the eternal light in a gulf of madness; Harry's small hand grabbed my thumb in responds to my kiss, as if he were telling me that he understood, and I think he did; Gods know that child is wise beyond his few months. I watched Lily sprint up the stairs with Harry in her arms before standing in front of our oak door. No one would cross the doorway border without killing me; I am ready to fight until life has exhausted itself in each cell of my body. No one will take my wife and child away from me, no one can take them while I stand here waiting. Waiting on a path for certain death. I listened to Lily run upstairs before standing in front of our oak door, wand in hand. I got ready to defend my family with everything I had.

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As I ran up the creaky stairs, all I could think about was James. My James. So brave and so foolish. Why oh, why couldn't he be cowardly for once? But I knew the answer to my own question: because then he wouldn't be my James Potter. I looked down at Harry, a miniature version James but with my eyes. Those pretty eyes were welling with tears of alarm, and I felt helpless. I couldn't even help my little boy through this nightmare because I was living it as well.

Oh, how I wished this could all be a dream, and at the peak of the moment of dread, I would wake, and James would be there to comfort me, and make love to me. To kiss the tears from my lips and cheeks and eyes. I remember now how he loved to kiss my eyes. Then he would whisper that everything would be fine, I was only dreaming. Only dreaming…

The sound of the door slamming against the wooded wall downstairs brought me back. I so long to rush down to my husband, to be by his side, and to face our enemies together. But then I remember his words to take Harry, for he may not live. As I laid my sleeping boy in his crib, a single, salty tear fell from my cheek. I hadn't even known I was crying. As I watched the drop fall onto the corner of his mouth, Harry licked it, tasting on his lips and tongue the love and sorrow I had in my heart for him, for James, for the entire wizarding world.

I wish that everything was as it was that long ago September 1st, when I first met my unknown-to-me-then-future-husband. The one I hated with a passion…