Disclaimer: I don't own HP.

Lily Potter sat on the living room couch holding her small son, Harry, on her lap. It was Halloween, and Lily was now positive that her mother was right when she said not to watch all of those horror movies because they would come back to haunt her. The fact that her family was wanted dead by a powerful nemesis didn't help the matter.

Lily held her baby, only just over a year old, close as she lost herself in thought. She hoped his father, her husband, would be home soon, Lily didn't like being alone, especially now.

At some point, Lily must have fallen asleep, because the first thing she noticed as she opened her eyes was that Harry was no longer on her lap. She sprang up into a sitting position faster than she could blink and her voice stuck between her erratic breathing and the desire to scream and cry out at the same time.

"Lily? Love, what is it?" a concerned and gentle voice asked her as a hand rubbed her back.

Her eyes scanned the room and Lily sighed with relief when she saw Harry sitting on the floor, happily playing with his favorite stuffed bear, Blotchy.

"Oh, James," she whispered, leaning back into him, her breathing still heavy.

He put his strong arms securely around her and rested his cheek against the side of her head. "Are you ok?" he asked.

Lily slowly nodded. Her voice was shaky and weak, "Yes, it's just... I didn't even know I was asleep, then I wake up and... and-"

"Shh. It's all right. I came home, you were sleeping and holding Harry. He really wanted to get down, he was squirming like mad, so I put him down and gave him Blotchy. I didn't want to wake you, you haven't been sleeping well lately, so I just sat with you. I'd never let anything happen to you or Harry, you know that, Lils. I love you."

She nodded again, slightly calmer this time, and wrapped her arms around James's neck. He helped Lily scoot into his lap and just held her there as she inhaled his scent and allowed her fears and uncertainty to be swept away.

James softly kissed her temple. "Go back to sleep, love. You'll feel better in the morning."

Lily sighed contentedly and cuddled closer to James. She couldn't help thinking about the fractions that she used to hate, but two halves do make a whole, and James and Harry made her whole. Lily didn't know what she would do if she had to live without one, or worse, both of them.

"I love you," Lily whispered to him.

"I love you, too," James whispered back.

Lily laid her head on her husband's chest, took one of his hands in both of hers, and held on tight. "James?"

"Hmm?"

"He's perfect," Lily said, smiling and looking over at their son.

James smiled. "You both are."

The clock on the mantle chimed eleven times.

"James, we have to put Harry to bed. He was supposed to be asleep hours ago."

"Alright, Lily, I'll do that, you get some more rest." James gently eased Lily off of him, stood, and picked up Harry.

"Ok." Lily thought quickly for a moment. "And James, the sooner you put Harry to bed, the sooner you can put me to bed," Lily said, with a slight smile and biting her bottom lip, her eyes full of love and desire.

James smiled back at her. "I think I'll take you up on that."

He turned to take Harry upstairs and Lily sunk back into the couch, closing her eyes and smiling. With recent events, she and James didn't have much time together for only each other, so every time there was time, they were sure to make the most of it.

Lily bolted up, her eyes now wide and fearful.

James ran back into the room, still holding Harry. "What was that?"

"I don't know."

Another loud crash was heard at the door, like someone trying to get in.

Lily stood as fast as she could and ran to James and Harry. "James?"

"Shhh," he said. He drew his wand and peeked out the front window. "Fuck," he whispered.

"James, what is it?" Lily asked as another crash echoed off the walls. She was scared now, and was sure it showed in her voice.

"It's him - he's here."

"Wh-what?"

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off--" James gave Harry to Lily and turned to fight the... thing that was trying to kill his son. As he took a step towards the door, he felt something hold him back. Lily. She was holding his hand, not letting go of him or Harry. Silent tears were cascading down her cheeks. She knew if James stayed to fight Voldemort, he would die.

James hated it when she cried, it was like watching his world fall apart. Lily was his world after all. Lily and Harry. He felt his own tears threaten to fall, but he refused to let them. He needed to be strong... for her.

Another crash came, but the door still held.

James took his wife in his arms and kissed her with all the passion and love he had left in him. He felt Lily give him all of hers back. When they broke apart, James just held her, unable to look at his love.

Another crash. They could hear the spells protecting the door starting to give.

James pulled back and looked deep into Lily's eyes, the eyes he loved so much. "I love you," he said, truth in every word. "Both of you." He gently kissed Harry's forehead, knowing he would never get to raise his own son.

"I love you, too, so much," Lily answered, trying to be strong.

Another crash and the door was halfway down.

James kissed Lily again and, even though Death was at their door, both felt safe in the other's embrace. They were in love, and they found it undying.

"Go," James whispered.

Lily fled, stumbling to the other side of the room. She turned for one last look at the man she loved. "I'll always love you, James."

"I'll love you forever, Lily, I always have."

"So have I."

Lily turned again and ran through her house as they heard the door finally be broken, and James went to seal his fate, not being able to help but think why they hadn't stuck with Sirius as Secret Keeper.

Lily could hear shouts and spells as she ran and cried, desperate to get out, to save her child.

She reached the back door, still able to hear her husband defending her. Maybe they would get out of this alive after all, the Potters had defeated Voldemort three times before, why should this time be any different? Lily grabbed the handle of the back door after throwing open the locks and wrenched it open.

"Boo."

"AHH!" Lily screamed at the top of her lungs as a Death Eater stood, waiting, and grabbed her wrist.

"LILY!" she heard James scream after her.

"Just give me the baby, Mudblood, and we may let you live," the Death Eater sneered at her.

Not my son! The thought raced through Lily's head with defiance. She would never let them have Harry. "No!" Lily brought her foot up and kicked the Death Eater as hard as she could.

He moaned in pain and Lily was able to tear her wrist out of his grasp. She turned and fled. She had to find another way out. She ran through her home, banging into walls as she looked behind her to see if she was being followed. The only thing Lily cared about was keeping Harry safe. She reached the front hall in time to see James shout a hex at Voldemort, Voldemort block it and send a flash of green light at James, and James fall back dead, all in less than a second; to Lily though, James took a lifetime to fall.

"NO!" Lily screamed when her brain registered what had happened. Her tears fell completely free now, there was no hand to wipe them away. James Potter was dead. Half of her world was gone forever.

Voldemort looked over at her from his most recent victim as if this were nothing new, yet triumphant all the same. He had disposed of a powerful rival, one close to Dumbledore.

"Daddy? Dada!" Harry squealed, holding his little arms out to the body on the floor. "DADDY!"

Lily looked up from her husband's dead form, still crying freely from it, to see his murderer pointing his wand directly at Harry. "NO!"

She forced herself to move, half-running, half-pulling herself up the stairs with the banister while Voldemort paitently walked up after her. Lily held Harry to her chest and she could hear him screaming for his father. A father who had always been there by the second, but rarely third, cry at most, and it tore her heart out.

Lily reached the top of the stairs and ran as fast as she could to the room at the far end of the corridor, Harry's room. She reached the knob and looked to see the shadow of Death coming up the stairs, know she had no way out.

She struggled with the dooor knob, crying and panicking, willing it to open. Voldemort reached the top and turned to face her, slowly walking as if murder was no different than a midnight trip to the kitchen.

Lily could see the gleam in his eyes now, the gleam that told her her child, her baby, was going to die, just like her husband.

The knob suddenly turned, and Lily, gasping with triumph, forced the door open.

Not a second too soon, Lily and Harry were through the door, and Lily, holding Harry with her right arm, used her left to slam the door shut.

"AAH!" Lily began tearing again as she felt a searing pain shoot through her arm and it went limp as Voldemort threw a spell at the door to force it open, but Lily refused to let it budge.

She forced her arm to work again, and made her hand lock the door. In an instant, Lily had put Harry down, pulled out her wand, and began shouting every blocking and protecting spell she knew at the door. That had to hold him off, at least for a little while. Lily hid Harry in a bundle of blankets and would have put a silencing charm on him too had she not been using her wand to repair her damaged protection spells as Voldemort tried to get through, and she tried to find a way out.

The window was too high to jump out of, and even if she used magic, Lily was sure there would be Death Eaters standing by.

Harry's calling for his daddy killed Lily inside, and the feeling only got worse when she told him everything would be ok soon, that Daddy would be up in a minute; all the while knowing he would never come.

For twenty minutes, Lily must have held off the evil that had come to destroy her family, and had already succeeded.

As Lily was thinking over James, she knew she shouldn't be, not yet, but she was, she remembered coming home after they had first joined the Order of the Phoenix, a secret organization run by their old Headmaster against Voldemort. It was before they were married, not even a month after school; and James had been so genuinely worried for Lily's safety that he immediately grabbed some floo powder out of a pot on the mantle, put it in a bag, and the bag in Lily's pocket, then kissed her lovingly.

"Always carry this with you," he had said, "so you can get away. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Lily was about to tell him she would never run, but saw the look in his eyes, the indescribable look, and couldn't. She had given herself to him for the first time that night, and she didn't regret it. Neither of them ever knew if they would live to see tomorrow, and they wanted to be sure they were together and had proved their love in every way possible. They were married not two weeks later.

Lily reached into her pocket, and sure enough, the floo powder James had given her about four years ago was still there. She was nearly crying from relief when she realized a problem: the only fireplace was downstairs, and Voldemort was blocking the only way to get there. But she continued to hold him off, this time with more confidence, they were going to escape without stepping outside of the house.

She considered for a moment blasting the door into Voldemort and running, but that could prove foolhardy, he could blast it in first.

Lily knew she'd have to make one; unfortunately, her wand was in use.

Looking over at Harry wrapped in blankets screaming for James and occasionally her, Lily repaired the door one last time before flicking her wand to move all the furniture in front of it, then tried to transfigure a part of the wall into a fireplace.

"No, no, no, NO!" Lily panicked as the wall kept starting to return to normal whenever she moved her wand to strengthen the door. "Work, work, please work!" But Transfiguration had always been James's subject, just as Charms had been hers. "James! Help!" she called out to him, willing him to answer, but knowing he never would, her first scream that night had been the last he ever could.

Lily was crying harder, she needed the fireplace to work. She began to spend more time on it than she should have, and she knew it. The fireplace was almost done when the door blew in.

"NO! HARRY!"Lily abandoned her attempt to create a fireplace, a mean of escape, and scooped up her son, holding him as close and tightly as possible. She would not lose him too.

"Li-ly," Voldemort taunted her in a mocking voice. "Why don't you just give up? Potter is dead, he died because of you. If he hadn't been bonded to a Mudblood do you think he would have so readily accepted his fate? He just wanted it to end, and I helped him out. Now let me have that thing you are holding, and I will let you live. You can find something of your own species to breed with, only more things to exterminate on a slow, boring day."

"SHUT UP!" Lily yelled at him. "DON'T TALK ABOUT THEM LIKE THAT!" Lily knew his words were lies, but wouldn't hear anyone insult her James like that, especially his murderer, and she'd be damned if she allowed anyone to speak of Harry that way. Lily was shaking and her eyes were watering from so many emotions; anger, hate, love, sorrow, fear, she didn't know which was the cause.

"Give me the baby."

"NO!"

Voldemort held up his wand and advanced, his eyes flashing in anger. He was getting tired of this, he came to kill the child the prophecy spoke of, and he had already waited a long time to do so.

"That baby is going to die - NOW!"

Lily didn't know what else to do. She had beg, plea, anything. "Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

"Stand aside, you silly girl... stand aside, now..."

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead--"

"Stand aside!"

"Not Harry! Please... have mercy... have mercy..."

"Move, now!"

"Not Harry! Not Harry! Please - I'll do anything--"

"Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!"

"Please!"

"Avada Kedavra!"

The jet of green light hit Lily squarely in the chest before she even had time to react.

Voldemort raised his wand again to carry out what he came to do. "Pathetic," he muttered as he looked down at Harry Potter before repeating the words he had used to kill the baby's father and mother, only something went wrong. As the spell hit the screaming child, it did not silence him, but rebound upon Voldemort, who screamed in wrenched agony as the light hit him, but refused to kill him.

As the evil that came and killed left nothing but a tiring baby wanting his parents to come pick him up and hold him, the clock struck twelve times.