It was dark, cold. Silence reigned in the cottage. And then, there was a gasp. Slowly, the eyelids of one James Potter fluttered open. For a moment, nothing happened. Then,

"LILY!"

The birds tat had been roosting in the trees beyond the house flew up into the air as the man pounded up the stairs, muttering to himself. "Don't be dead, Lily, please don't be dead…hold on Harry, daddy's coming, Lily…Lily…" His footsteps echoed as he ran towards the nursery where the door stood ajar.

James burst in. The room was completely destroyed. Blankets scattered the floor, a toy rabbit lay earless, a gaping hole in the wall showed the twinkling night sky. Immediately, James' eyes went to his sons crib, where his son lay asleep and he let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. Then his eyes travelled downwards.

His wife lay obstructing the cot, her beautiful green eyes closed and her face pale.

"LILY!" Once again he screamed her name and dived to her side. He was crying now, huge fat teardrops which slid from the end of his long nose into her glorious red hair.

"J-James?" Her eyes were still shut, but she stirred feebly in his arms.

"Lily…oh Lily, thank merlin…"

Her emerald eyes now flew open and she let out a quiet scream.

"James…is Harry…is Harry?" the words were too terrible to pass her lips.

"No, Lils, he's fine…he's asleep at the moment actually…" he let out a shaky laugh. "Imagine that, you know who attacks us and-" at this, however, he stopped abruptly.

"James?" asked his wife, looking round from where she'd beenf azing at Harry though the bars. When James spoke, his words were strangled. "Merlin, Lily…he attacked us…and…and…"

Lily rose, unsteadily, to her feet, picked the sleeping Harry from his cot and sank back down next her husband. Silently, she laid her head on his shoulder, and the two of them clutched their son and each other, looking out from the wreckage of the nursery into the starlit sky, both too tired to see the small, lightning shaped scar that had just changed their son's destiny for ever.