It was dark in Grimmauld Place. The Order had succeeded in stopping a Death Eater raid on a small wizarding village, sustaining only minor injuries, but Lily still fidgeted nervously long after they had returned from the fight. There was a feeling starting in the pit of her stomach. Call it motherly instinct, but she thought—with an almost absolute certainty—that something had gone wrong. Perhaps she was overreacting, she thought to herself. Maybe nothing had happened and she was just being silly. Yes, she told herself, I'm being stupid. I'm going to go home and everything is going to be fine. But she just couldn't convince herself of that.

"James." Lily hissed as he continued to jabber away with Sirius. "We should get home. We don't want to send Michelle home a 4 in the morning!"

"Relax, Lil's." He smiled. "They're probably all sleeping right now."

"Even so," she said stiffly. "I think it would be best that we get home sooner rather than later."

"Ok, ok." He held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry, Padfoot, Lily Flower gets anxious when we leave the kids at home. See you around?"

"Course, Prongs." He smiled. "I'll probably stop by tomorrow and visit the little munchkins myself. That is, if Lil's doesn't mind."

"Why would it even matter?" She jested. "You'd show up either way."

"Well, I know that if you mind, it's just more reason for me to come. And eat your food." Sirius threw a look at James. "I'm jealous, mate. Your wife makes an amazing omelet."

"Yeah. It's why I married her." Lily looked indignant.

"Alright, you two." She warned, thoroughly irked now. "If you want to sit here and talk all night, go ahead. But I'm going home to my children, and I will not make you breakfast tomorrow."

"Come on, Lily." James sighed. "Why don't you go ahead. I'm going to talk to Sirius about… something. I'll be home in a few minutes. Promise." He flashed her a smile, to which she only quirked an eyebrow.

"Fine." She conceded. "But if it's longer than a half an hour, I'll come back here and drag you home by the ear."

"Wouldn't expect anything less from you, Flower." He grinned. She smiled back as she apparated home.

~0~

Lily screamed. That was the only thing she could do as she took in the scene before her. The moment she landed, she knew she'd been right. Her left foot had landed on a piece of wood that had once been part of the front door. The front garden was burning. It was funny how sometimes fire could give warmth pleasantly, but this fire burned hotter than anything she'd ever encountered. And to Lily, it sent the message it was intended. She'd just appeared in Hell.

She felt numb as tears started rolling down her cheeks and her screams mixed with sobs. Ignoring the fire, she ran through the demolished house—so full of memories that she couldn't bear to think of at the moment—towards the only room that mattered to her.

This door, too, was splintered into a million pieces. And her hopes were shattered as she looked at the giant hole where there had once been a quaint little window. Lily fell to her knees, as they could no longer hold her standing up. Everything blurred together as tears ravaged her eyes.

Michelle had never contacted them. If they had been able to get away, surely she would have. But she hadn't. Lily was sure she was dead. She mourned the loss of so much in one night.

She didn't know how much time had passed before she got control of herself enough to know what she had to do. Shakily, she got to her feet, pulled out her wand, and concentrated on Grimmauld Place, on James.

~0~

"I'm not entirely sure that Peter should stay as our secret keeper, Sirius." James persisted. They'd been going back and forth about this for the past ten minutes, and he wasn't sure that they would finish by Lily's deadline. "It's not that I don't trust him. But lets face it; he's not the best dueler. Someone could easily get a hold of him and force it out of him."

"The same could happen to me." Sirius argued. "Look, the whole point in doing this was not that I didn't want to be your secret keeper. We did this so that people would think that it was me, and if anything happened, I couldn't give anything up if I tried."

"Look, Sirius." James sighed. "I don't know ho—"

They were cut off with the loud crack of apparation, and the bang of something hitting the ground. James hadn't even known he'd taken his wand out until he found himself pointing it towards the direction of the sound.

"JAMES!" He lowered his wand. It was Lily. Had it already been half an hour? Couldn't be. "JAMES!" But then he registered her voice a bit more. She was hysterical. Something huge had happened.

"Lily?" He called out, running towards her, though he couldn't see her yet. "Lily, what's wrong?" There was no answer, but James heard a sound he hadn't heard in year. Lily was sobbing. It was the most heart wrenching sound he'd ever heard. She was crying harder than when her parents had been killed, and that was saying something. Already, James' mind was flying to the worst. Had she been hurt? Were the children ok? When he finally reached her in the kitchen, he found her on the floor, curled up.

"What happened?" He whispered, to scared for an answer. An answer that she couldn't give. Lily raised her head, but the words stuck in her throat. To say the words would make it too real. She would wake up soon. This was just a nightmare. She'd wake up, and James would tell her to stop worrying and she would hold her children until she couldn't feel her arms. Only she wasn't waking up.

Something was clawing at her chest, making it impossible to breath and creating a giant hole. How could she go on like this? How could she possibly live in a world where her babies didn't exist?

She felt herself hoisted up and she was looking into the fearful hazel eyes of the man she loved. Don't take me back there, she wanted to tell him. She couldn't possibly survive with the image of the flames in her mind. But she couldn't find the words to tell him, and they were apparating away, towards the nightmare that she couldn't wake up from.

~0~

Perhaps it was destined to be that way, but the Potters could not console themselves with this fact. Lily sobbed with relief when they found Samuel in the backyard, completely unharmed except for a small lightning bolt cut on the side of his neck. But yet, as the months past and turned to a year, they were hard pressed to find people willing to look for their missing son.

A grave was made in the graveyard in Godric's hallow. This really drove it home for James. An empty grave. Merely a hole in the ground, much like the one he felt in his chest. And it was when he saw this grave that he broke down, truly and wholly, for the first time in so long.

They hadn't even been able to find Peter. It had been his friend that betrayed them. His friend brought them to this point. But when they went to his home, hatred and sorrow both burning in his eyes, there was nothing there.

For the first few months the press left the grieving family alone, but past that was too much. The Potters understood to a degree. Voldemort was finally gone. Wasn't that what they had worked towards for years? Of course people were excited, but that didn't make the pain any better.

Dumbledore had stepped in and answered most of the questions, allowing the family some more space. But he himself had been forced to question them, to find the answers for these.

The media had named Samuel the Boy-Who-Lived, as it was speculated that the killing curse cast by Voldemort had hit him, but rebounded, killing the Dark Lord once and for all.

Though, Albus had told the Potters, this might not be the same forever. Voldemort may return. And in that case, Samuel would most likely be the one who had to destroy him. This news rattled the Potters, but they were accepting of this fact. They would agree to anything right now, they just didn't want to lose their other child. Anything, they had said, anything to keep him safe.

~0~

Years later

"Mum! Mum! Mum!" The five-year-old boy shouted. "Mum!"

"What, Sammy?" Lily asked, exhausted. She looked over at the boy, sitting on the ground. He was turning out to be quite the handsome young man. Messy Potter-hair rested on his head, but it was a nice red-brown shade that reminded her of leaves in the fall. Samuel hadn't gotten either of their eyes, instead inheriting the dark blue her mother had had. He was quite the child, but he left her in the dust most of the time, always running around.

Having a small child was no easy feat, and James being injured from an auror mission left her to take care of Sam and their one-year-old daughter, Sarah Dorea Potter, was enough to make her want to pull out her hair.

"Wanna know what tomorrow is?" He said excitedly, despite having asked her the same question all day.

"What's tomorrow?" She played along.

"My birthday!" He exclaimed. "I'm turning 6!" he held up seven fingers before realizing, and putting one down.

"Tomorrow?" She gasped. "Your birthday? It can't be. I vividly remember your birthday being last year." He laughed. "So what would you like to do for your birthday, Sammy?"

"Quidd-ich!" He cried, still not quite used to the word. She smiled. James always took Sam to a professional Quidditch match. She wasn't sure how he would do it this year, having a broken leg, but she was sure he would find a way to do it somehow.

"That would be fun, wouldn't it?" she murmured, her mind wandering for a second… wondering if Harry would have liked Quidditch as much as his brother… but she quickly shook that thought away. She folded some more laundry while keeping a close eye on Sam to make sure he didn't do anything drastic to keep from boredom.

She had been sad to learn that he had taken on some of the trouble-making personalities of his father and godfather. By the age of four, he'd already turned her hair purple and skewed the lenses of James' glasses so that he kept walking into walls. She was slightly worried, as he hadn't said anything for the past five minutes. She was about to ask him why he was so quiet when he asked her a question that she had not been expecting.

"Mum, why do we visit the cemetery every year on my birthday?" He wondered innocently. Lily was taken aback, unsure how to answer. She thought for a moment before answering.

"Sammy, when you were brought into your father's and my life, you weren't alone. You had a brother. A twin brother, which means you were born on the same day, so he had the same birthday as you."

"But why isn't he here now, mum?" He gazed at her genuinely interested.

"Because when you were both young, there was a very bad man who hurt a lot of people. When you were both very young, that man took your brother away from us." She finished sadly. "So we go to the cemetery to celebrate his birthday, too. Because it feels nice to have your birthday celebrated, doesn't it?"

"Can't we get him back from this bad man, Mummy?"

"No, Sweetie." Lily said this carefully. "He's gone somewhere we can't get him back."

"What was his name?" Sam was obviously thinking about something.

"Harry." Lily forced herself to keep a smile on her face for her child. She didn't want him to feel bad for asking. "His name was Harry."

"Oh." Was all Sam said, looking out the window. And that was all that was said about that subject for some time in the Potter household.

That night, however, when Lily walked into Sam's room to put him to bed, she found him with his coloring stuff sprawled out across the floor, staring intently at a piece of paper on the ground.

"What are you doing, Sammy?" She asked, a smile in her voice.

"Making a card." He drew a few clumsy lines before looking up at her.

"A card?" Lily asked. "For who?"

"For Harry!" he said, lifting the paper up to show her. "For his birthday!"

Lily could only smile and nod as she watched Samuel go back to drawing a cake on the front of the card. She told him she'd be back in a minute, and she walked out into the hall, thinking about the exchange that had just happened. A few tears fell down her cheeks, but a smile graced her face the entire time. By the time she walked back in, she had collected herself enough to seem normal.

"Mummy? Will you help me write the inside of the card?" Sam pleaded.

"Of course, sweetie." She agreed. "What do you want it to say?"

"Say Happy Birthday! And tell him he should come see a Quidditch game with us!" Lily's smile faded slightly as she realized her son thought he would be able to meet his brother someday, but she obliged.

"Anything else?" She asked softly.

"Ask him if he likes cake!" Sam said. "We should bring him some birthday cake!" Lily wrote it down silently, not sure what to do with such a bittersweet moment.

She merely put Samuel to bed after they had finished, and walked into her's and James' bedroom, where he was already lying down.

"What took you so long to put him to sleep?" James asked sleepily. "I was waiting for you." Lily got her nightgown on, and slipped in next to her husband. She wasn't sure what to say, but finally decided not to say anything, so that he wouldn't have anything distracting him from his son's birthday tomorrow.

"I had to let him stay up a little longer." She said, running over the night in her head again. "He was coloring."

Well… that was longer than I expected it to be, not that you guys are complaining or anything, right? Not much to say except let me know what you think. Oh, and Dumbledore will be kinda manipulative, but not like in most stories. And it won't be until later, because lets face it, we didn't notice anything except grandfatherly affection until the fifth book.

Peace out!