A/n- Written for 'The Telephone Game'.

Summary- The last story Lily Potter ever told James Potter was of Pandora.

Disclaimer- Nope, don't own HP. Or the Ancient Greeks

Pandora's Box

She was looking for him, he knew that much.

James stared at the moon and chuckled at the reminder of the countless hours they'd spent trying to come up with a way to make it explode, so that Moony would never have to become a werewolf again. They'd been young and still, they'd been trying to fight something so much bigger than themselves, just like they were now.

And it was all out of one thing, love.

Back then it had been his love for his friend, now it is his love for his son, his wife

He could hear Lily walk up the stairs, calling out his name as she finally saw him sitting on the edge of the roof. She came and silently sat down next to him and took his hand.

He didn't look at her; he couldn't, not now when he didn't want her to see the tears in his eyes. He needed to stay strong for her, for their Harry, but right now he felt anything but that, he felt helpless and he didn't have any more hope left in him.

They sat in silence, the same thing on both of their minds.

It was Harry, their Harry, who was the one person who could defeat didn't know how a barely one year old boy could do that, but he trusted Dumbledore. They would have to hide, and though James knew they both would do anything for their son, right now it was impossible to see how much longer they could protect him.

"Did I ever tell you the story of Pandora?" Lily asked, and despite everything, James smiled, it was a little game they'd been playing for years, telling stories they thought the other didn't know.

He shook his head and waited for her to continue.

"The ancient Greeks believed that Pandora was the first woman on Earth. She was extremely beautiful, and they say that she was brought on Earth as a distraction for men because they'd already been given the gift of fire, oh... shut up," She added when he smirked, "She lived peacefully for a while, but then one day on her doorstep arrived a box, and it said that the box wasn't supposed to be opened, but she was curious-"

"Naturally," James added in a sarcastic tone, and Lily just rolled her eyes and continued.

"Anyway, she opened it, and out came all the evils of the society, greedy, dishonesty, violence. It was the price, the gods said, humans would have to pay because of Pandora's indiscretion, and that was reasons the Greeks gave for why evil exists in the world,"

"So, you're saying, that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, does all that he does because some woman couldn't control her curiosity a million years ago?" He asked, and Lily rolled her eyes again.

"No,that is not the point of the story," She said.

"Then what is the point of the story?" He asked.

"I would tell you, if you would let me complete the story, can I?"

James made a gesture with his hands that said 'go right ahead'.

"After realising what she'd done, Pandora closed the box, and only one thing remained inside-Hope. Just like every other emotion, hope is still on Earth, too, but it's harder to find because it's hidden away in a box. All we have to do is reach out and try to open that box because without hope the world will be nothing but a bunch of aimless souls, it's the reason that this world hasn't succumbed to evil," she said as she held her eyes with her own.

"We can't lose hope James, because if we do, he might as well have won already. We have to hope that we'll see Harry stumble and fall and then get right back up, that we'll send him off in the Hogwarts express and wait for him to come home at Christmas, and that he'll spend weekends at Hogsmeade with his friends, and that one day he'll be as good a man as his father. We'll get through this," She said, her green eyes, glistening with tears. She laid her head on his shoulder and they sat their staring at the stars for a while.

Tomorrow the fight would start all over again, against something so much bigger than all of them, but they would have hope, and he knew that right now, that was enough.

A/n- Please Review!