For the Houses Competition. This is a Muggle AU of the night James and Lily were killed because yay suffering?

House: Ravenclaw

Year: 6

Category: Standard

Prompt: 20:29 (or 8:29 pm)

Word count: 1001

At 8:20 pm on October 31st, James and Lily Potter were sitting down to have a quiet meal together, without being interrupted by their son.

At 8:25, their house was broken into by a band of men wearing silver masks, most carrying knives. Their leader, however, held a gun, his finger resting casually on the trigger.

By 8:29, James Potter was dead.

The night had started so normally. Sirius had come and picked Harry up, assuring Lily that he would be in the safest of hands. He bounced him on his hip, grinning fiendishly, and Lily had wondered for a brief moment if leaving Harry alone with Sirius was really the best course of actions. Still, there wasn't anyone she and James trusted more than Sirius - save Remus, of course - and she knew he loved spending time with Harry. So she kissed Harry gently on the top of his head then waved them off, smiling and shaking her head at Sirius as he blew raspberries at Harry.

She glanced at the clock in the living room - 8:06 pm - and set about finishing up their meal for the night. She'd cooked her mother's pumpkin soup recipe because it was Halloween, and because James had all but begged her, saying that it was the best thing he'd ever tasted. They'd decided to make a date-night of it, seeing as they'd barely had time to themselves for months, and they were long overdue a few hours without needing to look after Harry, too.

They were just about to start eating when the door suddenly crashed open, causing Lily to spill her soup all over the table. A semblance of annoyance at the mess filled her before the group of intruders burst into their living room, reminding her of the more immediate concern of dangerous men in her house.

There were about six of them; though Lily knew some martial arts, there was no way she would be able to fight all of them. She probably wouldn't even be able to take down one - her only weapon was a butter knife she'd grabbed off the table, whereas they were wielding long, sharp, surely-illegal blades - one even had a gun.

The one holding the gun stepped forward and held it up casually. James pushed Lily behind him, raising his fists defensively.

"What do you want?" he asked, taking a step towards the man. The intruder turned his face towards James, cocking his head almost curiously. Lily felt a sudden flash of fear, but no sooner had she opened her mouth to beg James to come back to her, there was a loud bang and James dropped.

Lily screamed.

She screamed until her lungs were empty, until her vision was obscured with tears, until she was on her knees next to James, clutching at him and repeating his name over and over. She thought perhaps if she said it enough, if she pleaded hard enough, he would sit up and put his arms around her, and tell her it would be okay.

But James didn't. His eyes were wide and his mouth half-open, his chest still. Lily looked up from him and saw the clock, a hole running through the middle of it. She registered somewhere in her mind that it must have been hit too, that it was no longer working, the hands unmoving, telling her that the shot had rang out at 8:29 pm. That James had… James had died at 8:29 pm.

Lily's vision blurred further, and the world bled, dissolving into nothing. She could not say for how long she stayed there - perhaps it was only a second, or perhaps it was not. Lily had not been counting. She felt as though she were stuck in time, frozen at 8:29, at the moment where her entire life had shattered like that godforsaken clock.

Something grey and metallic shifted into her field of vision; the barrel of the gun that had killed James now pointed at her. Lily glared up at the man, and saw then that he wasn't wearing a mask. His face was hooded, but she could see his eyes - blood-red without a hint of pity or compassion.

"The child," he said, his voice strange and almost hissing. "Where is he?"

Lily shook her head, thanking every star in the sky that she'd sent Harry to Sirius tonight.

"Come, girl," the man admonished. "You needn't follow him. Tell me where the boy is and you will live."

Lily just stared, keeping her mouth firmly shut. If she was going to die, then she would do so in the knowledge that her son would be safe. The gun inched closer towards her, and she thought morbidly how handy it was that the clock was broken.

Time of death, it proclaimed. 8:29 pm.

The gun went off again, and Lily cried out, searing pain flaring up in her side. She collapsed to the floor and could only listen as the men tore apart her house before finally, finally, leaving. She did not know how long the whole thing had been going on but here, in this room, it would be eternally 8:29.

Her eyes slid shut.

Some time later, Lily awoke to white hospital sheets and the beeping of machines. Sirius was sat next to her, his hair even more dishevelled than usual, his hands twisting anxiously together. He tried to offer her a smile when he saw that she was awake, but it was clear he didn't have the strength. Lily knew the feeling.

She only half listened as he told her how Harry was safe with Remus, how they'd barely gotten to her in time, how police were working to track down whoever had attacked them that night. There was a clock opposite her head, its ticking obnoxiously loud, and she looked over at it curiously, a half-laugh, half-sob forcing its way out of her throat as she noticed the time.

8:29.