Title: Moments
Author: Qwyneth
Rating: PG (a light one at
that)
Distribution: Email me to
ask and I'll give you my blessing
Disclaimer and thanks at
the end.
A/N: Okay, I know this is
not the best choice of subject—not exactly original. But I've been
thinking…what exactly do we know about Lily? Just about nothing. We know she
was Head Girl (intelligent), great at Charms (magically talented), Muggle-born,
of the surname Evans, had green eyes and long red hair…and we can read between
the lines to gather that she was curious, kind, loving, pleasant, and not too
disturbed about some good-intentioned rule breaking (practicing magic at
home—if the law existed—and marrying one of the most well-known troublemakers).
We also can conclude that there's something special about her, something
to do with green eyes and Voldemort. But you know what exactly all that tells
us about her personality, history, and character, from a writing point of view?
Diddly. There's nothing to base a fic character on—and I have to admit that
I've read far too many fics where she remains her 1-dimensional self as a main
character. So this is an attempt—albeit poor—to give Lily (and James to an
extent) some depth and some humanity. I'm writing in the frame of an event that
has been fairly clearly defined in order to blend Rowling's Lily and my Lily
better—so please don't shoot (or flame!) me for rehashing a very well-known
night. And now, on with the show! Read, enjoy, and review please!
Moments
Lily pushed back
the heavy drapes yet again and stared at her reflection transparent against the
darkness.
"Lily, he's not
there. Come back and sit with me, you're making yourself sick with worry." A
chill ran through her body as her husband spoke, and Lily gripped her elbows,
hugging herself in an instinctive effort to calm her jittery nerves. "Lily,"
the deep voice behind repeated.
"James, I—"
Turning, Lily looked at her husband lounging across the room. "I just can't
relax. I just….I just can't shake this feeling. I can't describe it.
It's….it's…." Lily paused as she returned to the dark window. "It's as though
there's something menacing surrounding me, enclosing me. And the longer I wait,
the longer I just sit here and do nothing, my chances for escape are being shut
off, one by one." As she spoke, she felt her husband draw up behind her, and,
turning around, buried her face in his shoulder. For a brief moment her fear
abated, as she reveled in the familiar, homey feeling of being in her husbands
arms. But another chill racked her body, and she whimpered, crying out even as
James' arms tightened around her, "Oh James, I'm just so scared!"
"I know
sweetheart, I know. But there's nothing we can do about it. We have to just—"
"No! No, I mean,
why? Why us, James?" Pulling away enough to see his face, she continued. "Why
do we have to hide out like criminals, in fear of our lives? When is it going
to end? What did we do to deserve this, this half-life? I want to raise our
son—our children—like decent, normal human beings! I want to see my friends—our
friends—I want to go to market and have people over and work again! I want a
life, James! I want to be doing something to help the cause, something to stop
Voldemort! But instead we're locked away here, for God knows how long, away from
everyone but blasted Peter—and he's in hiding too! When and where is
this going to end? I just want a normal life." Lily's demands faded into cries
as tears overwhelmed her.
James sunk his
face into her hair and stroked her back. "I don't know," he murmured quietly,
over and over again.
After a few
minutes, as Lily's sobs abetted, she pulled her face up and gently smiled into
his. James smiled back. "I just don't know what's going to happen, sweetheart. But
we won't be here forever—something's got to break eventually. Voldemort will
tire of hunting us, and we can slowly return to our lives, and the cause. Or
someone will finally hunt him down, or something! But until then—until then, we
just have to be strong. We don't have any other choice, Lily. We have to be
strong, for ourselves and for Harry. This will end. It will." As he spoke,
James gently caressed his wife's cheek, then pulled her close and kissed her.
Suddenly the
darkness enclosing the house began to glow in a strange, ethereal way, a
hideous green pulsing sharper with each heartbeat. A piercing cackling laughter
engulfed the house, it's pitch rising in intensity, permeating right to the
hearts of the couple and surrounding them, attacking from every direction. Lily
and James pulled apart, arms still clutching the other terrified, and a scream
began to form in Lily's throat when suddenly—it stopped. Silence descended as
startling as it had disappeared. One heartbeat, two…
"It's him. It
must be. Oh God," James barely breathed. "Lily, take Harry and go!" he said,
his voice getting stronger. "It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off—" Turning,
face set in determination, he shoved his wife away from the window, punctuating
his order. Lily tripped in shock, before stumbling out of the room as the door
burst open and the laughter returned, less penetrating but still haunting.
Harry, get to Harry…Lily's breath caught
and choked out of her in a sob as she heard her husbands shouts abruptly end and
a heavy weight hit the ground, but her eyes caught on an old bassinet in the
corner, and somehow she found herself next to it, bending over her fussing
infant son. "Shh, my baby. Shhh….don't cry. Mummy's here." Tears slipped down
her cheeks as she scooped up her son and cradled him protectively against her
chest, but both tears and blood froze as a now-familiar cackle rose behind her.
Her thoughts swarmed inside her before giving rise to screams. Not
Harry! No, not my husband and my son, not Harry, not my baby, "Not Harry! Not Harry! Please—I'll do anything—"
"Stand aside.
Stand aside, girl!"
"Not Harry, not
Harry, please not Harry!"
"Stand aside, you
silly girl…stand aside, now…."
"Not Harry,
please no, take me, kill me instead—not Harry! Please…have mercy…have mercy…."
Lily's pleas faded and her thoughts finally cleared as she saw the green death
flying towards her in slow motion, and she calmly turned her back, tightened
her arms around her son, and knew no more.
Mere moments and one final
spell later, dazed, green baby eyes blinked shut on a spidery trail of dark red
blood as a silvery shadow, hazy in its near-immateriality, slithered out into
the night.
Disclaimer: Okay, my name isn't doesn't begin with Joanne and it
doesn't end in Rowling. If it did, I would not be wasting my time with this
crapolla, I would be hard at work on my fifth book to try and keep my billions
of fans from dying of anticipation. Yes, I am using her characters and, in this
situation, her scenario, and I'm doing it without authorization. As I'm not
attempting to gain profit from this, I don't think I'm liable. But just in
case, I think this disclaimer has proven that the characters and scenarios
belong to the illustrious JKR. HOWEVER, this story DOES in fact belong to me. Please
respect that.
Thanks: Tremendous thanks and many bear hugs to Alicia/Sue
Spinnet for convincing me to swallow my fears and post. (Go read her stories!!
They're incomparable!!) As always, thanks to Rach, Jenn, and Shipper for all
the love and shit (and never-finished or posted stories) they've provided and
put up with over the years. You guys finally have me posting. I love yas.
