A/N: Written for the Open Your Dictionary Challenge. My word was 'instead.' Any thoughts?
When Dumbledore knocked on their door, Alice already knew why he was there. She knew the words he was about to say and what they meant. After all, there could only be one possible reason for him to visit. As Frank went to welcome him, she sank into the armchair nearby.
"Good evening," she heard the venerable man's dark tone greet, announcing his lie at the very moment the words formed. A heaviness burdened the air, compressing the room and thickening the oxygen her lungs forced in and out like honey squeezed from a tube.
Frank's formal reply and offer of tea floated past her ears, not penetrating the wall that blocked all thought from her busy brain. The cogs within her head were already occupied with the memories from too recently, memories of a time when this seemed like a surreal future. At least, that was how she had felt when told the news, when making the decision, when talking with Frank and Lily and James about the possibility and likelihood of it becoming reality. Which it now was.
She couldn't help but wonder what went through their minds when it happened. Did they think about them? Did they wish he had chosen them? Did they wonder if they were the second of his hits?
Alice didn't know who their Secret Keeper was, but they were intelligent. Surely it would have been someone they trusted, a friend they held most loyal. And the only way – the only way – they still could have been compromised… How did it happen? Could it have happened to them? Could he have made Marlene betray them? Maybe he chose them because of who their Secret Keeper was. Was it possible that they had merely gotten lucky? What factor affected his choice to search their family down instead of hers?
"Did any of them make it?" she heard a voice that sounded like her own ask.
"Yes," Dumbledore answered after a moment of silence. Alice couldn't recall the last time she had seen the man look so tired and drained. He looked old. "Harry."
Both Alice and Frank felt their minds whirl with confusion and shock. Why had Voldemort failed to kill the one person he was after? Were they still in danger? What exactly had happened at the Potter residence that allowed the target to escape the Dark Wizard's grasp?
"James? And Lily?" Frank asked, heart sinking with his wife's when they saw the grief that filled Dumbledore's face.
"But… how?" Alice pleaded, needing to know how this had happened. How Lily's boy had been chosen. How Lily's boy had been spared. How Lily's life had been destroyed.
Even though she still didn't understand why.
"The details have yet to clarify themselves," their once Headmaster began, eyes seeming not to focus on anything in the room at all, "but I have managed to work some things out."
Although longing for her husband's hand to clench while hearing the tale, Alice simply couldn't bare to break the long silence by moving to the couch next to Frank. She did, however, catch his eye as they waited for Dumbledore to continue.
"Voldemort's entrance of the town they lived in alerted an alarm I had set around the perimeter of the town through his use of Dark Magic (I had established this for my own reasons long before James and Lily had chosen their location). Immediately I contacted their Secret Keeper, who I am disappointed to say paled and Disapparated on the spot. Moments later, when I felt the spell break, I knew Tom had already gotten to both James and Lily. With their deaths, I knew their house would become visible, so I immediately sent Hagrid to the general area, hoping he would be able to pick out their house, knowing also that it was too late. I had assumed that all three had perished, but Hagrid's news revealed I was wrong. Upon discovering Harry, new arrangements had to be developed." Dumbledore paused, eyelids seemingly heavy and head swimming with so many thoughts that it wavered ever so slightly.
"Who will raise him?" Alice's voice wondered out loud before she gave it permission to do so.
"He will be left with his aunt and uncle," Dumbledore answered solemnly.
"On Lily's side?" Frank asked. Both of them knew that James didn't have any siblings, but Alice's memory seemed to whisper that Lily had mentioned a sister once or twice. Dumbledore nodded to confirm their faded recollections of their friends. "But aren't they…?"
"Muggles," the old man who seemed old for the first time since their second year finished. "Yes." When Alice and Frank each opened up their mouths to protest and otherwise question his decision, he explained, "I think it will be best this way, not only for him to grow up without the knowledge of tonight's events, but also with his blood relatives."
Sighing reluctantly, they nodded, not understanding, but willing to trust the man before them.
"And… what happened to Voldemort?" Frank inquired in a shaky tone.
"That, I have yet to completely figure out," Dumbledore admitted.
"But you've come here," Alice remarked, starting to panic. "Will we be safe? Is he still out there? He didn't get Harry, what if he comes after us?"
"You still need to stay here," Dumbledore answered firmly. "Not only am I still unsure about Voldemort's state, but if he truly has disappeared, his Death Eater's will be seeking retribution."
"So is he still out there?" Alice questioned desperately, deeply longing for Frank's comfort right then.
"Until I know the answer to that for certain, I'm advising you have no contact with the outside world," Dumbledore repeated.
"Is it safe for Harry to be ou-?" Frank began, worry lines crunching his forehead.
"Harry's safety will not be a question," Dumbledore responded evadingly. "I will be taking care of that."
Once again silencing themselves and placing their trust in the man before them, Alice and Frank grew quiet.
"I just thought you deserved to know," Dumbledore remarkd softly as he stood to leave.
"Thank you," Alice whispered, also standing. Relief flooded over her body as Frank appeared at her side, his hand finally holding hers, warming her fears. Before the couple could follow their old Headmaster to see him out, the cry of a young baby echoed through the house.
"I'll get him," Alice told her husband immediately, motherly instincts kicking in at once. Squeezing Frank's hand, she bid Dumbledore goodbye (though nothing could be good tonight, not really) and slipped into the back room. Each step taken increased the volume of her son's wails, soft but pleading.
Her son.
Pushing the door open, she quickly strode inside and gently drew her child into her arms.
"Shhh, shhh…" she urged, rocking her body back and forth as she swung her arms ever so slightly. "It's all right, sweetheart."
Well, no, it wasn't. Not really. James and Lily were dead. All four of them had known, of course. All four of them had feared. Conflicting emotions swelled within her: grief at the loss of their two friends, slightly relieved that her family hadn't been chosen, guilt at feeling that way since it meant Lily had been chosen instead.
Instead of them. It could have been her family that was torn and broken.
Though they had all hoped otherwise, it always would have come down to one of the other. All of them couldn't have gotten through it without scars, without grave markers to visit afterwards.
Every coin had another side. A darker side. A flip side.
"Is he asleep?" her husband asked lovingly as he slid his arms around her waist, body easily falling into the swaying rhythm that was slowly lulling their child back into dreamland. She could hear the tears in his voice, but she pretended not to notice. After all, her cheeks hadn't exactly kept dry.
"Almost," she answered in Frank's ear, relishing the comfort his embrace delivered.
Sometimes you lost, sometimes you won.
Which was it this time?
"Shhh… it's all right," she repeated to the bundle in her grasp, partly for her husband, partly for herself.
Because it would be all right. It would have to be. The world may still be in a war, the Death Eaters may still be out there, but she was holding her baby. Her son wasn't in danger anymore. Her family wasn't a target. Her Neville was safe.