His curse and her blessing
Lily stepped out of the bathroom, walked down the stairs and heard the happy and squeaking chuckle of her baby boy and the loud laughter of James coming from the living room. She leaned forward to peer through the open door and her thick, shimmering red hair fell over her face. A silent smile formed on her lips as she watched the two most important people in her life.
„James dear, it's almost eight. I believe this little man here should really go to bed quite soon", Lily said in a loving voice.
James turned around to look at his beautiful wife, nodded in agreement and blew her a kiss. Harry, sitting on his father's lap and watching his mummy with his big, green eyes, imitated his dad's gestures all the while making funny smacking noises.
Lily laughed warmly and blew both of her boys a kiss in return.
„Harry my love, I'll get your bottle ready", she said and disappeared through the corridor into the kitchen.
There she heard once again the soft puffing noise stemming from the living room and Harry's screeching laughter, and Lily knew that her husband didn't resist their sweet boy's smile and was now again producing colored sparks with his wand. She took her own wand and tapped on the small bottle full of milk which waited on the kitchen counter. Within a split second the milk was hot and Lily took the bottle into her hands to carefully check the temperature. Looking down at them, she realized in surprise that she was not wearing her wedding ring.
Well, I must have taken it off whilst in the shower, she thought with a frown and went, now lost in thought, back to the living room, completely forgetting Harry's little bottle.
It stood now on the light marble surface of the kitchen counter and shone brightly in the moonlight, as did the polished wand next to it.
Lily took Harry into her arms, gave him a loving kiss on his soft cheeks and carried him out of the living room. As she left, she could see out of the corner of her eyes how James stretched and yawned cutely and tossed his wand on the small coffee table in front of him. The wand rolled over it and, with a faint 'fwopp', fell down on the other side. But James couldn't care less, instead he cuddled up under a warm blanket and got quite comfy on the couch.
Smiling, Lily left with her son in her arms and stepped into the kitchen, which did now lie in semi-darkness; the only light coming from the moon outside the windows. She knew very well that little Harry did not like the darkness and she did not want to frighten him, so Lily just quickly grabbed the bottle on the counter without completely entering the kitchen. She noticed however the small note that James must have left for her. He had started to leave her these small tokens of love, after Harry had been born and they had heard about that dreadful prophecy. The tiny paper was, as always, carefully folded and Lily decided that she would read it later that night, once Harry was soundly asleep. Then she left the kitchen, humming a good night song to her baby and walked down the short corridor towards the stairs. Harry war looking at her with sleepy eyes and with the back of her hand she caressed his messy, black hair, as he was babbling in a soft voice and his very own language. Lily beamed at him and was about to take the first step on the stairwell when she heard a terrified, panic-stricken stream.
„Lily, run! Take Harry and run! It's him. Quickly, leave. I'll hold him off."
James had sat on the couch, tightly snuggled in the blanket and relaxing, his gaze wandering around the room and glancing through the window, when he saw him. With a billowing cloak and a murderous expression on his snake like face Lord Voldemort paced towards their front door - directly towards it. He was less than ten feet away, wand in hand.
Panic, in utter and complete panic James screamed, trying to warn Lily and tell her to escape, while he himself jumped off the couch.
„Lily, run! Take Harry and run! It's him. Quickly, leave. I'll hold him off."
He was already halfway through the room and reached into his pocket for his wand, but he found it to be empty. In this moment the front door exploded, and without a second thought, James stormed out of the living room and into the corridor. He stormed forward to face Lord Voldemort. He had to keep him away from his family. He had to.
Lily stood at the bottom of the stairwell, frozen and in shock. To her feet lay the broken pieces of Harry's bottle. She did not know how they got there. She must have dropped the bottle, but she did not remember it.
That's impossible, Lily thought, it cannot be him, but not even a second later the unmistakable sound of an exploding door blasted into her ears. She covered Harry safely in her arms and rushed up the stairs, trying not to stumble. Instinctively she needed to flee from the disturbing noise, towards her son's nursery.
With his head held high, James step into the hallway in the exact same moment as Lord Voldemort did. Then, a thought hit him like a lightning bolt –the fidelius charm was broken - they had been betrayed, and he had no wand to fight. Voldemort raised his head and his gaze met James' figure standing in the smoke and debris of the explosion. These red, merciless eyes locked on James' honey colored ones, and both stood still for a second.
Lily, Harry, was James' only thought. He had to protect them, whatever it took. They were the only thing that mattered now. And he lunged forward, towards Voldemort. Out of love and despair he attacked the enemy, threw himself at him, wanted to fight fiercely and empty handedly, in order to save Lily and Harry, in order to give them this one little life saving second more they needed for Lily to grab her wand and disapparate with Harry to safety.
As he was attacking, James could see the slightly confused look on Voldemorts face, as they both knew that James Potter did not have a chance of leaving this hallway alive, with him having no wand. Thus, Voldemort raised his own and screamed: "Avada Kedavra!".
In this tiny fraction of an instant, James realized that he would not be able to push Voldemort away, to make him stumble and fall and loose one second on Lily and Harry. James saw the eerie green light and the buzzing of death filled his ears, but he did not think about his own death. His only, his last, his most desperate thought went out to Lily and Harry. He prayed that they were able to escape as the green light hit him and all went black.
Lily had reached the landing and dashed into the nursery, as a terrible voice from downstairs screamed: „ Avada Kadavra!" and a heavy body fell onto the floor.
This noise flashed through her body like an electric shock and she gasped from the pain. She knew exactly what had happened and an overwhelming fear and sorrow stabbed through her heart like icicles, freezing her every feeling.
"James…", she whispered before she even realized that she had moved her lips. Then she felt a small movement in her arms. It was Harry. Her baby boy. He fidgeted a little and smiled at her. Lily felt her knees tremble like they wanted to drop as it hit her all of a sudden. Voldemort really, inevitably wanted to kill this wonderful little boy in her arms. They had known it almost his whole life, a few days after his birth they had known of the prophecy, and therefore she and James had decided to go into hiding, to protect Harry. She had know that the darkest wizard of all times wanted her baby dead, but despite all this knowledge, she had never quite realized, as she did in this very moment, that someone wanted absolutely, unequivocally, to take Harry from her.
She looked into Harry's tender face und recognized so much of James in him. His face, his hair, his smile –he was so much like his father – and a painful grief tore at her soul, giving her a feeling as if she was to be torn apart, judging by how much it hurt.
Harry stared at her with his big, green eyes – her eyes.
They had to leave, Lily thought, now!
And she grabbed the wand in her pocket.
She seemed to faint as she reached into an empty pocket and immediately remembered that her wand lay downstairs in the kitchen, useless on the polished marble counter. The emptiness in her hand and her heart filled her like a venomous gas, then the smallest of sounds woke her up. The creaking of glass and a crunching of calm steps on the shreds.
Trembling from head to toes, she put Harry on the floor and started bustlingly to push the baby changing table in front of the closed door. A silly attempt to stop Voldemort – she knew that much – but it was the first thing that came to mind. Lily had trouble breathing, her lungs cramped, but relentlessly she pushed and piled and pulled and stacked everything she could manage to find.
When the steps reached the stairs, crackling, Lily took Harry into her arms again. She felt the warmth of his innocent, little body and ran to the window, looking down into the dark garden and feeling helpless. A few feet below them her wand was laying and waiting. If she could just get to it.
Should she jump? With Harry in her arms?
She was terribly afraid that her son would get hurt, but Lily also vividly remembered her own childhood, remembered when she was playing on the playground with Petunia and did jump from the swing, flying through the air like a ballerina and landing on the ground without the slightest harm.
The steps from outside now came to a halt. He was right outside the door. Pure fear rose in Lily and she looked at Harry's little face.
"Mummy loves you, Harry. And Daddy loves you, too", she whispered, and as the changing table and as the stacked boxes flew away from where Lily had put them she decided. She had to protect her son - by whatever means necessary.
Determined, Lily opened the window and was about to put her foot on the windowsill, when Voldemort tore open the door and entered the nursery. His deathly pale hands held his wand and he pointed it directly onto the mother and her child.
Lily screamed and turned away such that Voldemort could not see Harry. The window behind her slammed shut and Voldemort stepped further into the room a cold smile on his lips. Lily grabbed the window, but she could not open it anymore. He must have sealed it magically and, thus, Lily and Harry were trapped.
Meanwhile Voldemort came closer, an avid grimace on his evil face, Lily tried to protect Harry from this inhumane, this unforgiving glare, but a tiny piece of her cloak had gotten stuck in the magically shut window. Lily wrenched and twitched, yanked and tore until the cloak gave in and the tissue ripped and Lily fled with her son in her embrace to the furthest corner of the room. She could hear the sound of her beating heart loudly in her ears.
"Well, well. That is him finally", hissed Voldemort's snake like voice in the darkened room.
Lily had reached Harry's cradle. The small, white cradle that James had magically enlarged and there she painfully remembered the night that Dumbledore had told them about this damned prophecy and that Voldemort thought, that it might refer to Harry; that night more than a year ago Lily and James had made a vow on the bedside of their sleeping infant son. They had vowed to always protect him, to fight for him with all they had to give and to make sure that no one would ever harm him. The thought of their promise and how James had kept it made her feel numb, deaf, as if her heart was filled with icy water and not with warm blood.
She put Harry in his cradle and tried to calm her shaking finger, and then she turned to face Voldemort. As she turned, she peered, for the tiniest part of a second, at her son's incredibly beautiful face. She knew that she would never see it again.
Then she stood tall and locked eyes with Voldemort, all the time pressing herself to the wooden cradle. She would not let him touch Harry. Never.
Voldemort looked at her with a slightly bent head and seemed almost amused, although it was a coldhearted and cruel amusement. He knew that she had no wand and he laughed at her. It was an evil laughter and Lily did not want her son to hear it.
"Please", she whispered, "please, show mercy. He is just a little baby boy."
„Let me through", spat Voldemort, „stand aside and I will spare you."
Lily's fingers seized the cradle grid. Voldemort wanted to spare someone?
„Take me!", she begged, „Kill me! Kill me in Harry's stead. ", but Voldemort shook his head no.
"He will die", he said coldly, "step aside and save yourself, you stupid girl."
He lifted his wand, but Lily did not move an inch. She would not. She could not let something happen to her boy.
„Please, please, mercy", she pleaded crying, "kill me, please, kill me".
The tears came so suddenly and felt burning hot on her cold skin. She cried and felt guilty for having taken the wrong turn down at the stairs. She should have remembered that her wand still lay in the kitchen. James had been so brave, trying to stop Voldemort all by himself, and he now lay dead in the hallway downstairs. And her, she had no wand, but wanted to push Voldemort away, force him to retreat, only with the love she felt for her son. Nevertheless, she knew that this man in front of her would not leave.
„Move", Voldemort said one last time and pointed his wand now directly at her. Lily shook her head.
She would not.
„Please. Kill me instead. Spar my son."
Lily's trembling fingers cramped around the cradle grid until it hurt. She would not move. She would never give Harry to this monster. Voldemort seemed surprised and horrifyingly amused at the same time. He looked Lily in the eyes and said very calmly: "Avada Kedavra!"
Lily saw the mysterious mist of green light rushing towards her, she heard Voldemorts high pitched laughter and met his merciless eyes. But she did not want them to be the last thing she saw. Lily closed her eyes and while the whirring of death flew towards her, and she just thought of her son, of
Harry.
In this very moment, baby Harry pulled himself up, reaching for the grid and touched his mother's hand. For one heartbeat, this warm, futile touch of Harry's fingers was the last thing Lily Potter ever felt in this world. As her hand loosened its grip and her body fell to the ground, she was already dead.
* This attack on the Potter family is a more detailed version of the attack mentioned in the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling and also inspired by the Harry Potter films.