Disclaimer: If I were J K Rowling, this would be the first chapter of book six.
AN: Another version of the night Harry's parents died, from Lily's point of view.
The door crashed open. Voldemort didn't ring anyone's doorbell.
I looked at James, and we knew that it would be this time. Voldemort didn't let anyone stand up to him three times and come away alive. Yes, this time we would die, but Harry would not, especially if I had anything to do with it.
"You get out of the house," James muttered to me as he left the room to face Voldemort for the last time. "I love you."
"I love you, too, James, but I'm not going."
James stood in the hall, shouting at me and duelling with Voldemort. "Lily, take Harry and go! It's him!" I know that, I thought, irritably. "Go! Run! I'll hold him off-"
Obediently, I left the room. James' tone brooked no argument.
I could hear Voldemort's laughter as I ran upstairs to Harry, my little son. He was lying in his cot, looking so sweet and innocent that my heart melted, as it always did when I looked at my one-year-old baby.
Harry smiled up at me, unaware of the fact that his father was fighting for our lives downstairs; unaware that I was going to sacrifice myself to save Harry; unaware that he was in mortal peril, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. "Mum," he gurgled, smiling.
A scream from the hall downstairs, a flash of green light, and I could feel that James was gone. Gone! My wonderful James!
This door crashed open, now, and I was distinctly glad of the anti-Apparition wards around the house. Voldemort stood and glared at me, but he didn't have his usual platoon of Death Eaters behind him. Peter wasn't even there - Peter, who betrayed us -and I assumed he'd waited outside. Unable to face your friends, you little rat, I thought, poisonously.
Voldemort laughed, a high-pitched laugh that didn't really fit his character.
He stepped forward and raised his wand.
"Not Harry!" I yelled in desperation, panicking that he might kill my only son. "Not Harry! Please – I'll do anything-" I could feel the tears running down my face as the fact that James was gone and Harry was the only one I had left suddenly hit me.
"Stand aside – stand aside, girl-"
I couldn't live without my little baby Harry. "No! Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" My mind started to race. I was panicking, and I knew I shouldn't be, but I just couldn't calm down.
"Stand aside, you silly girl!" I was irritating Voldemort? "Stand aside now!"
"Not Harry!" I love him too much! "Please, no, take me, kill me instead!" I was pleading, desperately pleading, and I knew it was hopeless, but I had to try. If I could sacrifice myself but save Harry…
"Not Harry!" My voice reached new heights. "Please! No! Have mercy…" I sobbed, "have mercy…"
It was old magic, but if Voldemort took me, Harry would be safe. With any luck, the spell would rebound on Voldemort, although I doubted he could die. And since it was old magic, Voldemort might not have heard of it…
He laughed and cast some curse on me. I think it must have been Cruciatus, because the pain…! The pain was terrible, and I finally understood how Remus must have felt during his transformations… I couldn't help myself; I screamed…
And he lifted the curse. "Right, stand aside, now."
I didn't move.
He raised his wand, and I cringed, preparing myself for the pain that never came. The light didn't even make me blink. The spell didn't affect me at all, until I realised what spell he had cast. Avada Kedavra. I was dead, with James, and Harry was safe.