A/N: Alright. You all know that I've never done anything like this before. It's a bit terrifying, in fact. But I accepted the challenge, and I'm going to see it through to the end.

The challenge was issued to me by Paris in December for the You then Me challenge on the HPFC forum, and it's the hardest challenge by far I've ever even considered. I am, however, working on a million different things right now, most of which have due dates, and as this story is going to be my longest probably ever, it may take me over a year to finish. Unthinkable for someone like me who has the shortest attention span ever. But, I promise no matter how distracted I get I won't completely forget about this.

Also, for any (if any) who are waiting for more of my other stories (such as A New Beginning) I'm working on it. Really. We've recently been through a certain level of family crisis including death, and then there was NaNoWriMo, so I've just been pretty busy. And I might be again soon. But anyway, I'm sure this isn't why you are reading this story, so I'll let you get to that.

Disclaimer: I own no characters or places as they belong to JKR, but most of the story is mine, except the basic plot, which of course came from Paris in December.

"James, please?"

"It's not safe, Lily. Please drop it."

Lily sighed and fell back against the couch next to her husband. "I'm bored, James," she whined. "I just want to go for a walk."

James shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I don't think it's a good idea tonight."

"Why not?" she asked, crossing her arms and sitting up.

"I just have a terrible feeling right now, okay? Sirius was supposed to be here tonight and we haven't even heard from him. That's not like him."

Lily sighed again. "You're probably right."

James returned to the book he was reading, and silence fell over the room. Lily stared at the ceiling for no real reason except that she didn't have anything else to do. Harry was in bed, and she'd finished her books, and without Sirius here, there was no one to tell her news of the outside world. As she'd said, she was bored.

James sensed her unusual quiet, and turned to look at her. She smiled at him, trying to keep the tension from between them. He reached out for her, and she slid into his arms. For a moment, all was quiet.

Sirius woke tied to a chair in a room so dark—or perhaps so big—that he couldn't even see the walls. There didn't seem to be anything or anyone else in the room with him, and he had only a vague memory of how he'd got there.

He sat in silence for a long time, so long that he thought no one would ever enter this room again. And maybe that was the plan. Maybe they meant to kill him so that everyone who knew where James and Lily were would be the new secret keepers. It wouldn't surprise him. Remus may stand a chance against torture, but if they went after Peter, James, Lily and Harry would be dead inside a week.

Five years ago, he wouldn't have been able to sit here quietly, waiting for death or torture. But he'd been awaiting this day since James and Lily took their son into hiding, and five years is plenty of time to take stock of your life and prepare for it to end.

And when the first Cruciatus Curse hit him, he didn't scream in pain, as much as he wanted to. He simply wouldn't give them the satisfaction.

A crash shook James and Lily from their silence. Lily didn't even stop to look at James or grab her wand before standing and rushing towards her son's room, and the noise.

When she arrived at his door, everything seemed far too quiet. And then she saw Harry sitting up in his bed, and looking at her.

"Mommy?" he said quietly. "What was that?"

James pushed past her into their son's bedroom while she stood frozen in the doorway.

"Lily? Everything's fine, sweetie, it was just a toy. Harry, you fell asleep with your broom next to you, right?" Lily looked around and knew that he was right even before Harry nodded. Fighting back tears of relief, she rushed in and picked up her son.

"You're coming to sleep in our room tonight, alright, dear?" Harry nodded and wrapped his arms around his mother's neck. Lily glanced at James as she left the room and could tell he was feeling the same relief she was.

She walked out into the hallway, petting Harry's hair as she headed to her room.

And then suddenly, she heard her son scream, and before she could react she felt something heavy and hard hit the back of her head. She fell to the ground, her vision blurring, and only just managed to keep from landing on Harry too hard.

Although her hearing was becoming as unclear as her vision, she heard James come out of their son's bedroom. She hoped desperately that he'd remembered to pick up his wand when they ran to check on Harry.

She lifted her son to his feet and yelled, "Run, Harry, get out of here!" He didn't hesitate. As she tried to stand herself, she felt something hit her head again, and everything went dark.

She didn't remember much about the weeks that followed. No one did. For the first few days after the attack on their home in Godric's Hollow, Lily was in St. Mungo's. Harry never left her side while she was there, even though several people tried to take him home so he could rest.

When she woke, he wasn't the only one with her. Sirius's brother was there, too, asleep next to her bed. After trying and failing to force her headache away, she reached over and shook him awake. He opened his eyes, and she could see the sadness they held.

"What happened?" she asked, trying not to move too much so she wouldn't wake the child sleeping on her legs.

"Sirius," he said, and his voice broke. "Sirius is dead."

Her breath skipped a beat. Certainly not Sirius. It was unthinkable. But it made sense.

"I'm so sorry, Regulus," she said, patting his knee, which was just about all she could reach right then.

"There's more," he said, clearing his throat. "And you won't want to hear it."

She knew, somehow, before he said it that he would tell her James was dead, and the tears began to flow right then.

"I'm sorry, Lily," he said, nearly mimicking her words from earlier. "I know it's not worth much, but he died to save Harry. And I don't know how, but somehow when they tried to kill Harry, he didn't die."

"They?" she asked. "How many were there?"

"I don't know, maybe a dozen? It didn't really matter when it came down to it, though. When You-Know-Who died, they all—"

"What?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. No one does. None of us thought it was possible."

"It can't be possible. If James was already…" she stopped and cleared her throat before continuing. "Harry was the only one there who stood against him." She looked down at her son. "He doesn't know any magic, much less anything strong enough to kill Voldemort." Regulus cringed at the name. "There must have been some mistake. A spell ricocheted or something."

Regulus shook his head again. "I don't know. I wasn't there. I'm lucky to even be here now."

"Why?"

"I was in Godric's Hollow when the attack happened. I wasn't with the Deatheaters, of course, but, since I was once one of them, people tend to assume."

"You…were there? Where?"

"Nowhere near your house," he said. "I was…with a girl." He seemed a little ashamed of that.

Lily said nothing for a moment. And then, she heard her son's voice.

"Mommy?"

She sat up quickly and hugged him. "Oh, Harry," she muttered, tears she'd been holding back finally spilling over. She heard Regulus stand and assumed he'd left the room, although she refused to look up. For all she cared, she may never look up again. She had all that was left in her world right there in her arms.

"Harry! Remus is here!"

Harry ran down the stairs and into the werewolf's arms so quickly Lily wondered if he'd been waiting at the top of the stairs, just as she'd told him NOT to. It didn't matter right then, though.

"What are you doing here, Uncle Remus?" the eleven year old asked, grinning from ear to ear.

"I," he said matter-of-factly, "am taking you to the train."

"YES!" Harry said, excited. "Let's go, I'm all packed already!"

"No you're not," Lily said calmly, stirring a cauldron of something that looked green and sticky and smelled of feet. "Because you chose to wait for Remus rather than finish packing."

"Well…" he said, running a hand through his hair, just as his father always had. "I'm nearly packed, honest."

"Get up there and finish, then," Remus said, setting Harry down on the floor. Harry ran back up the stairs, and Remus turned to Lily. "I heard Regulus was here again yesterday," he said. "You okay?"

She nodded and smiled. "He's not bad, Remus. He comes to check on me, make sure I'm holding up okay…" she paused for a moment. "It's hard to see so much of Sirius in him, but it's hard seeing so much of James in Harry. So I deal with it."

"By never leaving your house." She didn't comment, although her face fell instantly. "Merlin, I'm sorry, Lily. It's just, you know, with the full moon coming up and everything…"

"You're grumpy, I get it," she said, and her smile returned, although it no longer reached her eyes. She sighed down at the potion she was brewing. "I need better ingredients. But with a growing boy in the house, I can't really afford it. Not without spending the entire Potter fortune," she said sarcastically.

Remus nodded. "I know. But at least your potions are good enough to sell to St. Mungo's."

"How is the teaching job working out, by the way?"

He shrugged. "You mean the planning? I don't know, the other teachers are starting to guess. I'll probably be fired after just this one year."

"What a shame," she said absentmindedly.

He nodded just as Harry came running back down the stairs, dragging his trunk across the floor.

"Harry, what have I told you about that? Ask for help, would you?"

"Uncle Remus? Can you help me please?" he asked sheepishly. Remus laughed and leaned down to help the boy.

"We'll see you later," Remus said.

Harry ran back to his mother. "I'll write you all the time," he said as she leaned down to hug him, leaning him away from the cauldron. "Will you be too lonely here without me?" he asked.

She laughed gently and shook her head. "No. Uncle Remus will visit, and so will Mr. Regulus. And Mrs. Longbottom, she owes me a visit." And then she stood up and reached for something high up that Harry hadn't noticed before. When she came back down to his level, she was holding a beautiful white owl out to him.

"Oh, wow! An owl!"

"The Hogwarts owls aren't always terribly reliable. And some of them bite."

Harry smiled up at her and she kissed his forehead. "Get going, or you'll miss the train."

"Harry Potter, his father was the one who…"

"Wow, can you believe having to…?"

"I hear there's something wrong with his mother."

"Yeah, I heard that too."

"I actually know that."

Harry passed the compartment with the four gossiping children momentarily before realizing that Neville, his only true friend, was one of them. He entered the compartment glaring at Neville, who had immediately halted the conversation when he saw Harry.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk about my family," he said, glancing around. Neville was sitting next to two darker skinned girls who looked like twins, leaving Harry to sit next to a pug-faced girl with long black hair pulled back away from her face. She didn't smile as he sat next to her.

"Well, people are going to ask, Harry. Your father's a hero."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yeah. That's great. But none of you understands what that really means, so I'd appreciate it if you'd shut your traps about it."

Not a great start to his first year. The girl next to him looked shocked at his outburst, and the twins glanced at each other nervously. He sighed, and then sat up straighter. "Alright, I'm only going to tell this story once. So that you don't have to gossip about it anymore."

Neville grinned and sat up straighter, too. "Wicked, my Mum will never tell me this story."

Harry sighed. "Alright, so when I was five years old, my mum and dad were waiting up for Sirius one night, because he was supposed to come visit, but he didn't. It turned out he was being tortured to death by Voldemort." The other children gasped as he said the name. "Anyway, Sirius was the one who was keeping where we were a secret, and when they tortured that out of him, they came to get me. Because, you know, there was some prophecy or something. So then, my mum tried to get me out of the house, but I tripped, and then I forgot what happened. But Mum told me that when Voldemort tried to kill me, he missed or something, and the curse hit him instead. Seems like he'd have to be pretty stupid to do something like that, though."

"I wouldn't speak so badly about the Dark Lord, Potter," came a voice just outside their compartment. All five of them turned to look, not realizing until right then that they had all been leaning in towards each other. The boy who had spoken had blonde hair and stood with ridiculously good posture. He was all alone, looking at them with arms crossed over his chest.

"Oh, the great Draco Malfoy," said the girl next to Harry, crossing her arms and sitting up straight. "You can't tell us what to do, you know."

"Yeah, with the disgrace your father's become…" Neville said.

Harry looked up at Draco, who seemed sad, and almost felt bad. But he'd heard the name Malfoy before, and he wasn't prepared to forgive anyone associated with that man.

"H-hey. Don't talk about my father that way. He isn't a disgrace. He was forced to do those awful things. And I said not to speak badly about the Dark Lord because he could come back any day." This last part was said in a whisper.

"And it's just so easy to believe that a Malfoy is just looking out for someone else's safety," one of the twins said, the other nodding her agreement beside her sister.

"Maybe you should just get out of here, Malfoy," said the pug-faced girl.

The boy turned up his nose at them and walked away with tears in his eyes that he wouldn't let fall. Harry noticed as Malfoy walked away that his robes were torn and patched in places, and that they were too long for him, a fact he'd managed not to notice before.

"Maybe we were a bit too mean," the twin who hadn't said anything spoke up then. She seemed to have noticed the same thing as he had.

The five of them were silent for a moment before Neville turned back to Harry and said, "So, wait, why is your father a hero, then?"

Harry shrugged. "Dunno. I guess because no one knows how Voldemort could have died unless my father killed him, but my father was already dead by then. At least, we think so."

"And your mother?" one of the twins said. He was having trouble keeping them straight. He thought that was the one who had teased Draco, but even their clothes were similar, so he couldn't be sure… When they got into uniforms, he'd never be able to call them by name.

Harry looked away then, out the window at the countryside they were passing now. "She doesn't leave the house."

"Never?" Both twins said at once.

He shook his head. "No. Uncle Remus takes me places sometimes, and gets our groceries and the ingredients Mum uses to make potions, and people come to visit, but no, she never leaves."

"Why?" The other girl asked.

"Because she's scared."

"Of what?"

Harry shook his head. "I don't know!"

"'Scuse me?" said a voice just outside the compartment. All five of them turned. A girl stood there, wearing her school robes already. Her brown hair was puffy and she almost looked like she'd been crying.

"Yes?" Neville said when she stood there in silence for a few minutes.

"Can I sit with you?" she asked, looking as if she expected them to say no. She was clutching a necklace so hard her knuckles were turning white.

"Sure," Harry said without question, making room by pushing at the girl next to him. She rolled her eyes but moved closer to the wall.

The girl in the doorway looked ecstatic. "Oh, thank you! You have no idea how mean people have been to me today. My name's Hermione Granger, by the way."

"Neville Longbottom."

"Padma Patil. And this is my sister, Parvati."

"Pansy Parkinson."

"Harry Potter."

Hermione looked at Harry, her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide, as if he was the most amazing thing she'd ever seen. "YOU'RE Harry Potter?"

"And you're Hermione Granger," said Neville. "Aren't you that Muggle-born girl?"

"That's YOU?" the twins said in unison.

"You're so brave," one of them – Parvati, Harry thought – said in a whisper.

"Wait, why?" Harry said looking around. "Not that I doubt you're brave or anything, just…"

"They're saying I'm brave because I'm the only Muggle-born witch at Hogwarts this year. And it's not been easy. So much for equality."

"Oh. Well, you know, I'll never be mean to you for that," Harry said. "My mum's a Muggle-born. She's pretty amazing."

"You just told us that your mother hasn't left her house in almost six years," Pansy said, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall wearing a pout.

"I heard about that. She's just scared. Fear is completely natural when you've been through something like what she went through."

"But Harry doesn't lock himself in his house all day," Neville said.

"Different people cope differently," Hermione said. "Harry probably has something else he does to get over his fears."

"Please stop talking about me like I'm not here," Harry said, and the others fell silent. Finally the silence was broken by the sound of wheels clattering against the floor. A woman with dimpled cheeks followed the cart that approached, and she poked her head in and said, "Anything from the trolley, dears?"

Pansy looked at the cart longingly, even as she shook her head slowly. The twins conversed in whispers, their heads so close Harry's eyes were crossing just looking at them, and then one of them stood and bought two licorice wands. Neville stood next, pushing past them and towards the cart. He spoke to the lady for a moment and returned with a small bag of candy. Hermione went next, but only returned with a chocolate frog. Harry didn't bother. He wasn't much in the mood after the talk they'd had.

After the woman left, the silence continued. And then Neville said, "Well, I can't eat all of this by myself. Anyone want a frog?"

The conversation recommenced then, about things entirely different than when he first boarded the train. As they sped along, everyone got a good laugh, and the four girls saw that Harry wasn't always angry, and Pansy even gave in and ate a chocolate frog and some of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

"Lily?"

"I'm in here, Reg," she answered, recognizing the voice now almost better than her own. But even knowing him, and seeing him as often as she did, it still shocked her how much he looked like his brother. So she waited as long as she possibly could before looking at him.

"Hey," he said, holding out a bag to her. It was from the Apothecary, she recognized the symbol better than her own name.

"Thanks," she mumbled, taking the opportunity to look up at him with an excuse if tears filled her eyes again. He wasn't fooled.

"It's been six years, Lily," he said, sitting at her table. "You know me. I'm not him."

She shook her head. "I know, Reg. I know. Just…sometimes I'm afraid of what I'll do when Harry comes home all tall and handsome and looking just like James."

Thankfully this time he didn't make a joke about doubting that Harry would ever return from school looking like a corpse. She'd cried for hours last time, and he's sat with her in agony knowing it was his fault. He stood again and sat back down, this time on the table. Something about wanting to be taller than her, easy enough when he was standing, but not when he was seated comfortably.

"Remus came by today, right?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Only to take Harry to school."

"Oh, right, they opened Hogwarts back up," he said.

"After three years of planning. I don't even know that there will be enough children for classes to be anything like normal."

"At least they don't have anything to be afraid of."

"Are you sure about that?" she asked, and he didn't like the implication in her voice.

"If You-Know-Who was coming back…"

"Say his name, damn it. It's not like it can kill you."

"If he was coming back, I wouldn't know about it. I got away, alright?"

"Right. Sorry. I just get…"

"Scared," he finished, standing and joining her next to her cauldron. "I know."

She leaned into him, wrapping an arm around his waist and not looking at him. He hugged her back, more firmly than he would usually give hugs. "It's all gonna be alright. Alright?"

She smiled and nodded, finally looking up at him. "Yeah. It'll be alright."

A/N: Okay. Reviews and ideas for improvements and/or events you want to see are more than welcome. I'm trying not to follow JKR's storyline too much, so I love ideas. Anyway, until next time.