Author's Note/Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. This is the edited version of the first chapter.
In August of 1981, Lily Potter was getting ready to put her young son to bed, while her husband waited for her at the kitchen table with their fake passports, airline tickets, and identification cards lying on the table. After Lily had put Harry down for the night, she joined her husband in the kitchen
"Lils, I've decided that I don't want to go to the States and be seen as a coward by everyone,. Frank and Alice aren't leaving; I don't see why we have to," James told her.
"I don't know what they're doing to protect Neville, but Severus risked his neck for us by warning us that Voldemort thinks that Harry is the one who is going to beat him, not Neville. I wonder why he'd think that, since Harry's only a half -blood and the Longbottoms are one of the oldest pure blooded families around;, plus, both of them are Aurors, which would make Neville the better candidate though. I wouldn't want to see any of them dead, since I'm tired of this killing over blood purity, with some pure bloods thinking that they're superior to Mmuggle borns like me," Lily told her husband.
"Well, I'm still not going, since I don't trust anything that Snape says anyway,. Besides, if I stay here, then I could go into hiding which would throw Voldemort off on Harry's location. Besides, if you're traveling alone with a baby, it would be easier to hide, since Voldemort probably has his followers looking for a family traveling out of the country, not a single mumsince you could pass yourself as a widow," James reasoned with her.
"Well, I still want you to come with us. What do you think he'll do to you if somehow they manage to come here and find out that Harry isn't here? Do you think that he will just leave quietly and go to the Longbottoms.? He'll kill you first, and I don't know what I'll do without you," Lily pleaded with her husband.
"I'm not going to take anything from Severus, not even a plane ticket to get away from here and to a safe haven. Dumbledore could just as well make us safe here, and besides, Snape wants to keep you safe, not me and Harry," James insisted, pounding his fist on the kitchen table to emphasize how serious he was.
"James, that isn't true, if he didn't want to keep us all safe he wouldn't have spent his hard earned money on those plane tickets to get us out of the country. I see what you're saying, but it was Sirius who found us a place to stay with his cousin's Muggle relations in the States, even if they are related to him by marriage. So we'll be living as Muggles until it's safe for us to come home. Besides, right now the best thing that we can do for the war effort is to keep Harry safe, not to fight right now no matter where we are," Lily reasoned with him.
"Fine, you can take him, but I'll stay here," James insisted.
"Fine, but you do know that I'll always come back for you and will be there for you," Lily reassured her husband.
"I know, but I still don't like the fact that we're going to be separated for an indefinite period of time, no matter for whatever reason," James told her.
"I hope that you understand what you're doing,. I'll hate to be a 21 year old widow," Lily told him.
"I can't promise you that I won't die, but if I do die, I would want you to find someone else who can make you as happy as I have," James told her, sounding a bit sad as he said the last part realizing that there was a possibility that he could lose his life.
"You know that there will never be anyone else for me," Lily reassured him.
"Well, let's spend our last night, here together instead of fighting. I do understand your need to be here, even if I feel that Harry and I need to be somewhere else," Lily told her husband as she motioned for him to join her in their bedroom.
James followed her there, to give his wife a proper send-off before she left in the morning for who- knowsew how long, with Harry sleeping soundly in the nursery.
November 1, 1981
Lily Potter had opened up the latest edition of the wizarding newspaper that she had picked up from the wizarding village that she visited only once a day so that she could catch up on the news from home. The headline got her attention as it meant that she could return home very soon:
Voldemort Gone: Defeated By a Tiny Tot
The news of the celebrations that occurred soon after Neville had defeated Voldemort disgusted Lily, since they were celebrating the fact that two people had died and left their little boy orphaned. She knew the Longbottoms from Order meetings and she had gotten to know Alice better when both of them were pregnant, even letting their little boys play together after they were born. She knew in her heart that they were celebrating You Know Who's downfall, but it was still revolting to her.
A few days later, just one day before she was supposed to leave for England, a few days later the headlines read that another Auror washad been found missing from his home the next morning, where he washad been living alone, and that his name couldn't be released until his family was notified. Lily looked read the headline and thought that it was tragic that anyone could do this, even after You Know Who was defeated. She got to the airport with Harry, waiting to meet her husband after being separated from him for almost three months, and to tell him about the new addition that they would have in their family in about six months. When she arrived at Heathrow Airport, she was greeted by two of their good friends, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black.
"Where's James?, I thought that I had told him the time and date that I was arriving so that I could meet him here. Oh, is he out looking for that missing Auror, and he can't come to meet me?. I can't wait to see him after being away from him in so long, plus I can't wait to tell him my news, even though Harry knows, but I want to wait until after I tell James to tell you, though you'll find out eventually," Lily demanded her friends to tell her why James wasn't there to meet her while both Remus and Sirius looked uncertain as to how to break it to her that James was the missing Auror..
Both Remus and Sirius looked at her with pity and moved to an area in the airport where they could break the news to her in a more private setting.
"Lily, James is the Auror who's been missing for the two days, and its not looking good for him right now. but everyone in Law Enforcement and even the surviving members of the Order are out there looking for him," Remus told her gently.
At that news, Lily just broke into tears, with Harry wondering why his mum was upset and why two of the guys that he saw as his uncles had made her upset. As a result he began to wail too, with Remus trying to comfort Lily and Sirius calming down Harry.
After Lily regained some of her composure, she asked, "Where's Peter,? Don't tell me that he's been kidnapped too?"
"We don't know, Little Flower; we haven't seen much of hims since the Longbottom's' deaths,. Ttheir deaths seemed to have hit him hard, but as far as we know, he hasn't been kidnapped either," Sirius answered her, trying to sound reassure herring, though he had his suspicions about him. He didn't want to voice them in front of her since she just had learned that her husband was missing.
A few minutes later, a red headed man entered their private space with Lily's bags in hand, looking around excitedly as if he was a child in a candy shop.
"Did you see so many wonderful inventions here?, wWhy, her bags here were on a rotating circular thing that appeared to be moving on its own. In spite of that, I was able to get your bags for you, Lily, though I'm sorry to hear about your husband. I know how my wife felt when her brothers died," Arthur told her.
"Who are you?" Lily asked, sounding irritated with his cheerfulness in this somber time.
"Lily, I want you to meet Arthur Weasley, Molly's husband and the Prewiett twin's' brother in law," Remus introduced her.
"Arthur, I know that you volunteered to meet Lily at the airport because of your fascination with Mmuggle things, but keep your displays of enthusiasm to a minimum, since she's going through a rough time right now," Remus reprimanded him.
"I know, but I can't help myself. , but I'll try to remember that we're still looking for her husband, though he could still be alive, but being around all of these Muggle inventions is just too exciting," Arthur replied, looking remorseful as he said this.
'I'm sure you wouldn't be too excited to be here, if it was Molly who was gone and left you alone with all of your kids, especially the twins," Remus reminded him.
"Probably not," Arthur replied looking a little bit defeated.
"You do know that you're supposed to take her things over to Godric's Hollow while Remus takes Harry to your house, and I'm taking Lily to Auror headquarters for her to find out more about James's whereabouts," Sirius told Arthur.
After that, Sirius took Lily over to the Ministry, where they found out that they didn't have any new leads on James's whereabouts. and she feared that he was dead, even though they did try to keep her hopes up at Auror headquarters.
A few days later, she had received an owl from St. Mungo's that let her know that James had been found, but washad been admitted to the hospital for injuries that were sustained during his days in captivity. As soon as she heard the news, she flooed Molly the good news and asked her to baby-sit Harry for her while she went to St. Mungo's to see her husband, whom she hadn't seen in a few months. Of course Molly agreed, and Lily sent Harry to stay with the Weasleys until she had gotten back. , sShe hoped that James would be able to come home soon. When she arrived at St. Mungo's, the Healer in charge of James's case took her aside and told her about James's condition.
"Mrs. Potter, I'm afraid to inform you that your husband has survived the worst torture possible in the wizarding world. It appears as if he was tortured with the Cruciatus Curse multiple times, so now he is in a comatose state where we don't know if he'll ever wake up. If he does wake up, then Hhis brain suffered so much irreparable damage from the torture that if he does wake up, he won't be able to live on his own, and that he would be institutionalized for the rest of his life," the Healer informed her, trying to sound as sympathetic as possible.
"Do you know who would do this to him?" Lily asked.
"No, I don't, but one of the Aurors on the case should be able to give you more information," the Healer answered her.
Just then, Sirius Black came into the area, followed by Alastor Moody,. "I want to know, did you catch whoever was responsible for this? Because if you have, I want them to rot in Azkaban for the rest of their lives," Lily demanded.
"I don't know if you're ready for this, but the news is going to hit the papers tomorrow so you'll at least find out from them," Sirius told her in an understanding tone.
"The ones that we have caught are Bellatrix Lestrange,Rodolphus Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange, Barty Crouch Jr, and Peter Pettigrew. From what Sirius has told me, was that after you and Harry left, James had put the house under the Fidelius Charm with Peter as the Secret Keeper. Peter was the one who led the others to James's house because they thought that James somehow knew where Voldemort was and that he could lead them to him," Moody broke the news to her as gently as possible.
"I can believe the others, but Peter! I thought that he was our friend;, how could he do something like this?" Lily exclaimed sounding shocked that one of their friends could do something like this to them..
"Sometimes the want for power can cause someone to betray their friends," Moody answered her trying to reason with Lily , with Sirius looking like he wanted to punch something, like the wall, to let out his anger.
"Well, I'm going to stay here until James wakes up," Lily exclaimed.
"Fine, but I hope that you take care of yourself, if not for you, then for your baby's sake. I can't believe that Harry will soon have a little brother or sister," Sirius told her sounding concerned for both her and her unborn child.
Since he had been told about the new baby the day before, after Lily brokehad broken down and finally told him about it,. but she had made him promise not to tell James that he had been told first, when James was found.
"Yes, I know to take care of myself, since I want this baby, since this will be the last one of James's that I will have. Sirius, Harry is over at the Weasley's. I want you to go over there after you get off from work and let them know what's going on. You do have the key to our house, so I want you and Remus to stay there and watch Harry for me while I'm here," Lily told them.
"We can do that for a few days, but I don't want you to get your hopes up yet, Lily Flower,. There is but on one condition: that I bring Harry over here once a day to see his mum and dad. Plus it wouldwill give me a chance to check up on you," Sirius told her.
"That's fine," Lily replied.