A/N: Argh. Don't you just hate it when you have the perfect story in your head, but when you try to write it, it doesn't work out? Well, I hate it ;) This story sort of took a life of its own, it was very different when I first thought of it. Oh well, I'm always a critic of my own writing. I do hope you like it, I think there will only be 3 chapters in this whole thing…but who knows? This story is from Lily's POV…the others won't be, just a lil FYI. I apologize greatly for all and any grammatical and spelling mistakes I know I must have made. Please forgive me ;) Please review, good or bad, let me know what you think. Thanks!
Disclaimer: Of course, these characters don't belong to me, they belong to JK Rowlings. But I think everyone knows that.
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Chapter 1
Lily hummed softly to herself. She lazily stirred the chowder she was making with her wand, adding potatoes to it as the wand went slowly round. The smell of the chowder turned the kitchen into a very warm, inviting atmosphere. Lily loved it.
Harry's tiny whimpers brought Lily sharply back from her peaceful reverie. She turned and looked at her young son lying in his playpen, staring pitifully at her with his blazing green eyes. Lily smiled. Harry seemed to know she couldn't resist those eyes of his.
Putting a lid on the chowder, she walked over to Harry. Seeing his mother approaching, he starting making cooing noises. Lily laughed and scooped him up.
"What do you think you're doing, hm? Distracting mummy while she's cooking?" Harry simple grabbed her nose in reply.
It was a brisk fall day. James and Lily had been married for a little over a year, and Lily had never regretted a moment of it. She was the happiest she had ever been. Even though she and James were currently in hiding from Voldemort…well, she didn't care as long as she had her family.
Lily strolled into the living room with Harry bundled in her arms. She dug her wand out and quickly started tidying the room with a few simple charms she knew. She smiled to herself, glad she had paid attention in Charms class. She would have hated to have to do all the cleaning without magic…she had much more important things to pay attention to, Harry for instance.
Harry reminded Lily of this fact by sharply pulling on her hair.
"Ouch!" Lily looked reproachfully at her son. "You know, you're turning into your father." Harry simply giggled in his baby way and began sucking on a strand of his mother's hair.
Lily sighed resignedly and looked out the window. Speaking of James, he should've been home by now. She was always worried when he came home late, now that Voldemort was searching for them.
But of course
, she reminded herself, he is out with the boys right now. The boys, of course, were Sirius, Remus, and Peter. They always seemed to keep him later.Lily rolled her eyes and smiled at the thought of the four of them. Inseparable, that's what they were. Not that it's a bad thing…almost sweet in a way she thought to herself, quickly straightening some cushions.
The three of them were coming over for dinner that night. They did that a lot…Lily was convinced none of them knew how to feed themselves. But then she had to admit, she didn't mind really…she enjoyed seeing them as much as James did.
She looked at Harry in her arms. He had replaced her hair with his thumb. "Are you excited to see Uncle Sirius, Harry?" she chattered at him. "And Uncle Remus? And Uncle Peter?" Harry made a contented gurgling sound. "I'll take that as a yes" she said, tickling Harry.
Normally she wouldn't care how her house looked for those three, but Sirius was bringing his girlfriend tonight. What was her name? Lily thought. Sarah? Yes, that was it. Normally Lily wouldn't tidy her house for one of Sirius' girlfriends; he had so many of them. But he had been dating Sarah for a while now.
"What is it now, six months? Yes, that sounds right" she muttered to herself. James and confidentially told Lily that Sirius was thinking of popping the question to her…and if this girl was going to be Sirius' future wife, Lily wanted to make a good first impression.
Lily set Harry back in his playpen and frowned at the quickly darkening sky. Even when out with his friends, James wasn't usually this late. Just as she was starting to think about going to look for him, she heard a loud yell and laughter. She sighed. That was Sirius all right, and that meant James was with him. Thank God she thought.
Sweeping Harry up, she went out to greet her husbands and friends at the door. James was just making his dramatic entrance as she got there. "Honey, I'm home!"
Lily rolled her eyes. James always loved to put on a big show in front of his friends.
"Heya, Harry!" A tall, dark-haired man rushed up to Lily and scooped up Harry, throwing him up into the air and catching him.
"Sirius, be careful!" Lily said reproachfully.
"Oh Lily, he's fine. See, he likes it!" Sirius looked triumphantly at his laughing godson.
Lily shook her head and looked back to the doorway. A gaunt young man was standing there, holding up his tired looking coat. "Er…" he muttered.
"In the coat closet, Remus" Lily said, smiling at him.
"Right," said Remus, returning her smile.
"And hello to you too," said the third man. Lily looked at her husband. Harry looked so much like him she though. Although she didn't have much time to reflect upon this, as James reached over, swooped her up and kissed her.
"James!" Lily's protest sounded very muffled under his lips.
"Ah, you know you love it," said Sirius, bouncing his godson on his knee. Remus gave a half smile and went to go see Harry.
James broke the kiss to look at Lily. "Yeah" he whispered. "You know you love it."
Lily hit him playfully. "That's enough of that." She looked briefly around the room. "Where's Peter…and Sirius, didn't you say Sarah was coming?"
Remus shook his head. "Peter said he had to catch up on some work. Poor guy, he hasn't had a moment's rest the last couple of weeks."
"And Sarah," butted in Sirius "wasn't feeling too well tonight, decided to stay at home." He looked hopefully at Lily. "I promised her I'd bring back some food though…"
Lily laughed. "Count on you to be the first to ask for extras, Sirius. Of course you can take some with you."
Sirius smiled broadly. "That's what I thought you'd say."
*
"Ahhh" sighed James, pushing back his chair and sticking out his feet. "Dee-licious, Lily, I must admit."
"Gee, what a compliment," said Lily, looking amusedly at her husband.
"It really was good, Lily" Remus said, scraping the last of the chowder from his bowl. "Quite excellent actually."
"It was ok, I've had better" Sirius smiled broadly at Lily.
Lily made a mock courtesy as she stood up to take things back to the kitchen. "Why thank you Sirius, you are too kind. James, would you take Harry to bed?" She looked at Harry. Half asleep in his high chair, his face was dangerously close to falling into his mashed peas.
James chuckled at his son. "Yeah, why not. Care to help?" he asked, looking at his two friends.
Remus scratched his chin. "I'd love to James, but I should be going. Shouldn't hang around here too long…" Lily looked at Remus. He never stayed around much anymore, even since they went into hiding. She knew he was just worried about them, but still…
Sirius looked at Remus. "Yeah…yeah, I guess I'd better be gettin' back to Sarah." He pushed out his chair and sprang up. "Lily, I believe you promised me some chowder," he said, smiling charmingly. Lily sighed and went into the kitchen. Ever since Sirius became our secret-keeper, she thought they haven't been around at all. I just hate it…
She walked back out to living room where Remus and Sirius were making odd cooing noises over Harry. Sirius saw Lily come in with the chowder and stood up, smiling "Ah, Lily, you are too good to us," he said, taking it off her hands.
"Don't remind me," muttered Lily.
Sirius turned to Remus, "Ready, Moony?"
Remus patted Harry affectionately on the head and straightened up. "Of course, Padfoot. Thanks again Lily, James."
"Don't mention it," said James, smiling wryly, holding Harry closer to him.
As they were heading out the door, Sirius turned "Take care you two." A look passed between him and James, and then they were gone.
*
Lily stroked Harry's little head, watching him sleep. He looks so peaceful. He has no idea of what's going on in the world…Whenever Lily couldn't sleep she came into Harry's room. She had been coming in a lot lately. Seeing Harry sleeping always calmed her.
She heard a creak behind her. She jumped and spun around. "James! You startled me…"
James was leaning on the door, looking in on his wife and child. "Sorry, didn't mean to."
Lily smiled. "I know. Come look at him, James, doesn't he look just like a little angle?"
James walked slowly over and looked into the crib. "Yeah" he murmured. "Yeah, he does." He turned to Lily and took her face in his hands. "What's wrong?"
"Whatya mean, what's wrong?" said Lily defensively.
James looked at her. "I know when something's wrong Lily…tell me?"
Lily sighed. "James, I just…I wish everything was back the way it was. I hate not being able to see our friends, Sirius, Remus, Peter…I hate being in hiding, I hate Voldemort and what he's doing to us…I just hate it all." A single tear rolled down her cheek, and she quickly turned her face from James.
James gazed at his wife for a moment, then lifted her chin so he was looking into her beautiful green eyes. "I love you. We'll always be together, all of us. Nothing can change that" he whispered and kissed her passionately.
They were rudely interrupted by a loud tapping noise on the window. James unlocked his lips from Lily's and looked outside. A large owl was there, pecking at the window.
"Who would send a letter at this time of night?" Lily whispered, looking at James. James shrugged, a strange light in his eyes. He walked over to the window and opened it, relieving the owl of its letter. The bird gave a quiet hoot and swooped off into the night.
Lily looked back down at Harry, hoping the noise hadn't disturbed his sleep. No, he was still snoring quietly, sucking his tiny thumb. Lily smiled and reached down to pull up his blanket. She heard James give a quiet moan. She looked up sharply. "What is it?"
James looked up from the letter and met Lily's eyes. She was startled to see how sad they looked, how painful…
"What is it?" she whispered again, walking over to him.
James looked down at the letter. "It's from Sirius," he muttered. "Sarah's been murdered."