Halloween, 1981
It started out a day like any other, just an ordinary Friday. The only thing remarkable about it was that it happened to be Halloween; but no trick-or-treaters would be calling on this house…not that they wouldn't if they could see it.
If you happened to be standing right outside this family's living room window you would be unable to see any of the following, because of the protective charm placed on the dwelling. The Potters were the family that lived here, hiding from one of the most evil and powerful wizards of all time. James and Lily Potter were a young couple in their early twenties; they had two small sons, their older son Jamie was three years old and their younger son Harry was fifteen months old
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first. James was on the sofa entertaining Harry by making lights and smoke appear from his wand, while Jamie was more interested in wrestling with their less-than-impressed cat, resulting in his favourite Chudley Cannons pyjamas being clawed and ripped. Lily walked in, laughing at the state he was in, but with a flick of her wand his pyjamas were as good as new,
"Someday these will be beyond even magical repair!" she laughed, ruffling his messy curls, "time for bed."
"Aww!" whined James childishly.
"Not you James, you idiot," she laughed, "give me the baby."
She took Harry upstairs, closely followed by Jamie. James got up to follow, his wand dropped out of his hand and rolled under the sofa, the second he bent down to pick it up he heard the front door burst open. He rushed into the front hall, forgetting his wand.
"Lily, take the boys and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!"
Voldemort laughed, hold him off without even a wand!?
He forced him out of the way with his own wand, leaving him out cold on the floor; he'd be dealing with him shortly. He carried on upstairs and found the mother in the bedroom; she'd placed her sons in the cot behind her and was stood in front of them protectively, she too was unarmed. She would not stand aside and pleaded with him, begged him to take her life instead.
"Avada Kedavra!"
She lay lifeless on the ground, the bigger boy had started screaming, the smaller one, not old enough to understand stared at him with interest. As Voldemort stepped towards the two boys, the bigger one wrapped his arms around his little brother, as if trying to protect him. His death was so unnecessary, but if he wanted the same sticky end as the rest of his family then so be it…he'd make a clean job of this. He pointed his wand towards the small one first, the bigger one, still crying, held his brother tighter. The baby had started crying by now.
"Avada Kedavra!" And then he broke; He was nothing, nothing but pain and terror, and he must hide himself, not here in the rubble of the ruined house, where the children were trapped and screaming, but far away...far away...
Sometime later James Potter came to, it took a few seconds for his mind to swim into focus. He opened his eyes and saw the house in ruins around him.
"Lily. LILY!"
He pulled himself to his feet and sprinted upstairs to the bedroom, the first thing he saw was Lily, limp and lifeless on the floor. A horrible sound, unlike any he'd ever made before escaped him as his legs gave out and he fell to his knees, crying.
A quiet whimper brought him out of his stupor, he looked up, and there was Jamie and Harry, huddled together in Harry's cot, both unharmed save for a cut on Harry's forehead, and both were alive. He couldn't believe it; he hadn't dared consider that the boys might have survived Voldemort's attack.
He scooped both boys up in his arms and held them tightly, not wanting to let go of them again.
"Oh my God! Lily?! James?!" came the familiar voice of his best friend Sirius Black as he ran up the stairs. He saw Lily on the floor,
"Jesus…how…what happened?"
James had been about to answer when he was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Albus Dumbledore.
"Sirius," he said in disbelief, "what have you done?"
"It wasn't…" Sirius stuttered through his tears, "I wasn't the…"
"It wasn't Sirius it was…" James paused for a second, hardly believing what he was about to say, "Peter."
"I'm gonna kill the little rat," snarled Sirius as he went to storm out.
"Sirius, don't do anything stupid!"
"Sirius leave Peter to the Aurors," said Dumbledore, "Take James and the boys to your flat, I will join you shortly. It is unsafe to remain here now that fidelius charm has been broken…and I believe the muggle police have been alerted."
"Right," Said Sirius, forcing himself to calm down.
A few hours after the four had flooed to Sirius's place Dumbledore finally showed up.
Exhausted, Jamie and Harry had finally fallen asleep and James had put them to bed on the pull-out sofa in Sirius's spare room. Not wanting them to be out his sight, James was sat on the floor in the corner of the room staring into space.
He was going over and over the night's events in his head, praying that it was all some terrible dream. Sirius returned with a mug of tea, which he set down on the floor next to James. He gave a murmur of thanks but did not touch it. Dumbledore joined them shortly, looking grave. He looked in the direction of the sleeping children.
"Would you mind if I just had a look at Harry's forehead?" He asked.
"Why?"
"I promise I won't wake him," replied Dumbledore, approaching the sleeping toddler.
He carefully brushed a tuft of jet black hair out of the way and examined Harry's forehead where the cut had been, James had cleaned the blood off and stuck a plaster over it, Dumbledore peeled this off to reveal a lightning shaped scar.
"Can you do something about that?" asked Sirius
"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in useful. I have one myself above my left knee which is a perfect map of the London Underground," replied Dumbledore.
"What happened then," asked Sirius, "Where is he? Is he dead?"
"No," replied Dumbledore, "There wasn't enough human left in him to die. I believe he fled after losing his powers."
"But how could he lose his powers?"
"This is no ordinary scar on Harry's forehead; this is the mark of being touched by an evil curse. Voldemort tried to kill Harry, but his curse rebounded back on him."
"How?"
"Very old and powerful magic," Dumbledore replied, "Lily gave her life to protect her children, and her love left them with a deep, powerful protection; Voldemort could not touch them."
Dumbledore reached in one of his pockets and pulled out James's mislaid wand, "I believe you are missing something," he said handing it to James, "I'd advise you to lay low here for a while, now that he's gone the death eaters won't be pleased, they may try to hunt you down. The Aurors have already rounded up A few who showed up Godric's Hollow this evening. If you'll excuse me, I need to meet with the Minister for Magic."
"I'm so sorry James," he said before he disapparated.
For the next few months, James, Jamie and Harry stayed with Sirius in his small London flat. During this time, some death eaters were rounded up, including Peter Pettigrew…but not after he'd killed twelve innocent muggles in cold blood. This had been intended as a distraction while he changed into rat form and fled, but he was unsuccessful and he was carted off by the Aurors.
"He should count himself lucky I wasn't there," Sirius had said fiercely, "I'd have ripped the bastard limb from limb."
Pettigrew was sentenced to life in Azkaban.
The Potters didn't stay with Sirius for long; his tiny flat was too small for four people to live in. They did not go back to Godric's Hollow, instead, they moved into a new house just outside a small village not far from London.
