It began with smoke. James' wand puffed for the amusement of tiny Harry, his chubby hands reaching up to touch the coloured clouds. James laughed and so did the little boy, his bright green eyes watching his dad in wonder.
"What time was Sirius coming over again James?" Lily called from the other room, her hands busy in the sink washing the dishes from dinner.
"Any minute now, he just needed to fill up his bike." Her husband replied, blowing the smoke higher so Harry had to stretch to grab it.
"Well we'd better get this little fella off to bed then, now you've hyped him up" said Lily drying her hands as she came into the room, her hair falling across her face. James scooped the little boy up with a laugh, planted a wet kiss on his cheek and handed him to Lily.
"Thanks Lils, I'm beat." James said yawning and she smiled as she left the room. Ruffling his hair absentmindedly, James threw his wand onto the couch and stretched. For a moment he considered closing the curtains for the night, knowing how exposed Lily felt when they were open, despite the Fidelius charm. He started towards them only to hear a loud crash.
There was a moment of blinding white light and immediately he knew. He'd found them. Without time to worry about the fate of Peter, who they had entrusted with the secret, or his wand, which was still lying on the couch, James ran into the hall and saw him. A menacing hooded figure standing in the doorway of his family's home. The figure looked almost like a Dementor but instead of feeling all the happiness being sucked out of him, James only felt white hot pulsing terror. He spotted Lily frozen halfway up the stairs, little Harry still in her arms, and he yelled at her to run. If only they got away, if only they survived then this, this act of standing against him without a wand, the weeks of hiding without contacting old friends and family, would be worth it. He prepared himself to charge.
Voldemort laughed, high pitched and coldly, before casting the spell and green light filled James' vision, green like Lily's eyes.
Lily ran up the rest of the stairs and got to Harry's room, the first room she came to. Harry gave a little whimper as she set him down and began to barricade the door with whatever she could find. A chair and some boxes, they hadn't even finished moving in yet properly for Christ's sake. She heard the laughter as the spell was cast and felt a pain in her chest, worse than anything she'd ever felt. She couldn't stop herself from screaming. James was dead, she knew.
She looked at Harry, whose face was furrowed in confusion. He didn't understand why she was crying at the sound of footsteps making their way up the stairs. He didn't know his father was already dead. Wiping her tears away hurriedly Lily picked up the boy and held him close, whispering softly to him.
Daddy loves you, Harry. Mummy loves you. We'll be okay. We'll see you again soon.
She silently cursed the charms that they had placed on their home to stop people from Apparating to it that also stopped them from escaping. She cursed the fact that James had put down his wand. She cursed Sirius' bike for needing fuel on that particular night. But most of all she cursed Peter, who had revealed their hiding spot.
Peter had doomed them all. Dumbledore had told them the Fidelius charm only worked when the secret is given willingly. Lily didn't care what they'd promised him, or threatened him with. It didn't matter now. The irony was painful. No wonder his animagus form was a rat.
She heard Voldemort at the door, heard him cast a charm to blast it open, through the boxes she had piled there. Seeing Voldemort step into the room she dropped Harry into the crib and shielded him with her body, arms open wide. She realised faintly that she was still crying. Her face was wet and her shoulders shaking. She knew that she had dropped her wand on the stairs. There was nothing she could do.
"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"
She had already lost so much. James. Her heart throbbed painfully for the man she had married, lying alone in the hallway. Her hands gripped the crib tighter.
"Stand aside, you silly girl...stand aside, now..."
Why hadn't he killed her yet? Perhaps there was some scrap of humanity left in him. Perhaps he would let him live.
"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead-"
If there was somehow a chance, some way she could make this all worthwhile.
"This is my last warning-"
He's just a boy, just a baby. He's her baby.
"Not Harry! Please ... have mercy ... have mercy ... Not Harry! Not Harry! Please - I'll do anything - "
As the figure stepped towards her she could finally see beneath his hood and she saw that he was barely human anymore. His eyes were like slits and were coloured blood red, his skin almost translucent. Dark magic had done its damage. Who could ever stand against such horror?
"Stand aside - stand aside girl"
Lily willed every part of her body into protecting Harry as Voldemort took one final step towards her. She heard him cast the spell. Not Harry, she thought and she was gone.
It ended in smoke. The curse which had rebounded, thwarted by a mother's love, had destroyed the entire right side of the top floor. Now missing one of its walls, moonlight shone into Harry's room and onto the crib, inside which Harry Potter stood, clutching at the bars of his cot and watching the smoke rise from the ruins. He was crying softly and occasionally rubbing at his face with chubby fists, the fresh wound on his forehead bright red and glistening in the moonlight.
AN: Stick around, part 2 coming ASAP