Prologue

"Lily – take Harry and run!" I screamed, terrified of what was undeniably going to happen. My main concern was for the safety of my beautiful wife and son. She was standing on the first landing on the stairs, tears running down her pale cheeks; in her arms was a sobbing toddler with messy black hair.

"No, James! I'm not leaving without you." Lily said firmly, grabbing hold of hold of my arm. I placed my hand on the back of her neck, and pressed my lips to hers frantically.

"Please, Lily… Harry needs his mum... you need to run with him."

Her grasp tightened.

"Our children need their dad." Oh sweet Merlin… we were going to have another baby… another beautiful baby and I wouldn't be around to hold it.

"Fuck, Lillian… all the more reason why you should run…"

"You can't ask me to leave you – "

BANG. I glanced over my shoulder towards the front door, where I could make out the forms of three wizards.

"Go, now. I'll stall them… I love you, Lillian… until my last breath. Look after my children." I kissed her roughly, and turned to Harry. Lily's eyes were streaming with tears and she still managed to take my breath away.

"Look after your mum, little man." I kissed his fat little cheek.

I pulled my wand out of my pocket and turned down the stairs.

I walked purposefully towards the front door. There I could see the faces of the three wizards and I'm surprised to see that I recognized all three of them. My eyes flashed towards the short one.

"Wormtail, why?" I asked shocked. Peter was supposed to be one of my friends.

"Prongs, I'm sorry." He stuttered. Fury and betrayal flooded me.

"I could kill you for endangering my family!" I bellowed.

Lord Voldemort snickered.

"He was being a good servant, reporting to his Lord," he said cheerfully.

I looked towards the other face behind him.

"Severus… you love Lily. How could you do this to her?" he flinched after I said this. Snape had confessed his love for my Lily the night before our wedding and she broke his heart. She loved me… not Snape, never Snape. That being said, he had always meant a lot to her, having been a dear childhood friend of hers.

"I think we have talked enough," their leader announced, "Crucio."

Agony, overwhelming agony flooded my body turning me into a writhing puddle on the floor. Screams were tearing out of my throat. I would do anything for the pain to go away.

"Where is the boy?" He demanded. Merlin, he wanted my son… over my dead body.

"I will not give my son to you." I would have to die first.

"If you give me the boy, you and your mudblood wife may live." I knew he was bluffing. There was no way he'd leave us alive after this, besides he hated muggleborns.

"You would have to kill me first," I spat clambering to my feet. "Expelliarmus!"

Voldemort blocked my spell with a wave of his hand.

"That can easily be arranged, Mr. Potter."

He raised his wand in front of him, and just before he said the words that would end everything, I saw Snape muttering something quickly under his breath.

"Avada Kedavra!" A green light escaped the end of his wand and I heard a loud shrieking from upstairs. I was – milliseconds from being – dead and Lily was still in the house. There was nothing I could possibly do to help her now.

The room went dark and yet for some bizarre unknown reason, I could still hear everything that was going on in our home.

"Severus, you are to search the house for the mudblood. Wormtail, I want you to remove all traces of our visit."

I could hear footsteps thundering up the staircase and along the hallway to the nursery where Lily was with Harry. They were going to kill my family and there was nothing I could do to stop it. How could the universe be so cruel as to keep me mentally alert in death… to allow me to be able to hear the final words of my wife?

"Severus! Please don't tell me you're with him." Lily whispered brokenly to her former best friend.

"Oh good, you have found the boy." Lily gasped taking a shaky step backwards into the side of Harry's crib.

"You are not going to take my baby," she hissed.

"If you give me the boy, you will be spared."

Wormtail was hovering around our living room, looking at old photographs taken of the whole gang. He knew as well as I did that there would be no way that Sirius and Remus would let him live for this. How could he listen to the horrors happening upstairs and not do anything?

"You have already murdered my husband, why would I willingly lose my son? He is all I have left." Snape groaned.

"Lily, please… just give him what he wants. I promise it will all be ok."

"How can you say that? He wants to kill my child." Lily sobbed loudly.

It was time for the leader to speak, "We have given her too much time to stall. One last time, hand over the boy."

"No. You will have to kill me first," Lily said softly. Snape whimpered brokenly.

"Very well then. Avada Kedavra."

My head was screaming in agony as I heard my wife fall to the floor; the same noise was heard from upstairs from Snape.

Wormtail went into immediate action, "Evanesco."

All thought and sound vanished in to nothing.