Atem's Sister Atea: Here it is… Chapter 4!!! Sorry for the long wait. Busy with schoolwork and baby-sitting. My brother Laurence and his girlfriend Melissa just had a B-E-A-utiful baby girl! Born on May 14th, 7 lb., 9 oz.! YAY!!! This chapter is dedicated to little Yanilissa. But enough babbling! It's time to give out the very first Most Awesome Reviewer Award! And here to join us are a few special guests from the series! Come on up guys!
Harry Potter: Hello all!
Ron Weasley: Hey there!
Hermione Granger: Glad to be here!
ASA: So is Hogwarts' Golden Trio ready to announce the first person to win this award?!
Golden Trio: You bet!
ASA: All righty then! The winner's name is in this envelope. (holds envelope up) Drum roll please!
(drum rolls)
ASA: And the winner or should I say winners of the Most Awesome Reviewer Award goes too…….
(all four look at the name)
ASA along with Golden Trio: x-hannah-banana-x; Angel Diary; and Velgamidragon!!!!!!!!!
Ron: Congrats!
Harry: You guys earned it!
Hermione: You three have always left heartfelt reviews about how you enjoyed this story and why!
ASA: So congratulations to x-hannah-banana-x; Angel Diary; and Velgamidragon for being the first persons to win this great award!
Harry: Hey. Shouldn't you get to the story?
ASA: Oh yeah! Almost forgot! Thanks Harry for reminding me!
Harry: Anytime!
ASA: Anyway, this is it. The chapter where Lily and James Potter make the ultimate sacrifice. This chapter will have multiple points of view. In simpler terms, I won't be focusing on just one person's point of view. Hope you enjoy!
Ron: I hope Hermione isn't crying by the time this chapter is over.
(Hermione smacks Ron)
Ron: Oww!!!
Hermione: What's that supposed to mean?! That I'm an emotional crybaby?!!
Ron: Bloody hell, I was joking!
(Hermione smacks him again)
Ron: Oww!
Harry: Break it up you two!!
ASA: Okay, I need to help Harry break up this fight. Enjoy the chapter! (Goes over to help out Harry)
Disclaimer:I'm REALLY starting to hate this. I DO NOT own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling does! And I don't own the lullaby either! Remember when I said last chapter that I would be screaming my head off by this chapter? (Screams head off!) There you go!
"Talking"
'Thinking'
Chapter Four: My Last Lullaby
October 31st, 1981
Harry Potter was giggling with delight. His father, James Potter, was using his wand to create colored smoke for him to catch. As much as he tried, he catch the pretty puffs. But that didn't matter to him. He just knew that when his dad waved his wand, amazing things would happen, so he just enjoyed himself.
James loved entertaining his small, year-old son. Whenever he performed magic tricks for him, Harry would explode into a fit of laughter. James thought there wasn't a sound more beautiful than a baby's laughter. He kept saying that when he grew up, Harry would be just like his dad. Lily wasn't so fond of the idea as James was. She thought it was bad enough having ONE prankster in the family, let alone two.
While James was thinking about this, he lost his concentration. As a result, his wand produced not a puff, but a VERY large cloud of smoke which impacted on James' face. Since the smoke was colorful, so was his face. Little Harry was silent. Then he started giggling like a baby hyena.
'He has my sense of humor', James thought as he wiped his face clean.
Just then, Lily walked into the room.
"Hey Lily. What brings you down here?" asked James.
"It's Harry's bedtime." said Lily.
" Oh c'mon Lily, it's Halloween. At least give him five more minutes."
"He's a baby James. He needs his rest."
"He's having to much fun to sleep! See for yourself."
It was true. Harry was still giggling from James' incident with the colored smoke. He didn't look like he was going to sleep anytime soon.
James gave Lily a smug smile thinking he had proven his point.
'Nothing I can't handle.' Lily thought with a smile.
"Let me see him dear." she said.
James then scooped Harry up in his arms and handed him to Lily wondering what she would do.
Lily started to rock her son in her arms. Sure enough, after a few moments Harry started to close his eyes, and gave a small yawn.
Lily gave James a smug smile of her own. She had proven her point. It was time for Harry to go to bed, whether he liked it or not.
'Bloody hell! How does she do that?' James thought.
"Okay you win" he said aloud.
"Of course."
CRASH!!!!!!!!!!
Just as Lily said those words, a loud sound broke through the silence.
James rushed into the hall that led to the front door of the cottage.
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP
Voldemort had just crossed over the threshold of the Potter house. Just then, James Potter came sprinting into the hall.
'Oh no. It's him! Not good!', James thought as he looked into the blood-red eyes of the Dark Lord himself.
'I have to keep him away from Lily and Harry! If I can hold him off, maybe they'll have time to escape.'
He reached for his wand, only to realize that he left it in the sitting room.
'This could… complicate things a bit.', James thought.
"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! I'll hold him off!"
'Hold me off, without a wand in his hand?!', Voldemort thought.
'The poor pathetic fool! He won't even last a minute!'
He laughed his cold, heartless laugh before casting the curse…
"Avada Kedavra!"
The deathly-green light completely filled the cramped hallway. It lit the pram pushed against the wall, it made the banisters glare like lightning rods, and James Potter fell like a puppet whose strings were cut.
He was dead before he hit the ground.
'He thought he could actually stop me.', Voldemort thought amused.
'That was the fool's last mistake.'
Voldemort could hear Lily Potter's screams from the upper floor. She was trapped, and they both knew it.
'The poor woman's afraid.', Voldemort thought.
'If she's sensible, she won't have anything to fear from me. After all, I only want her son. But if she's in my way… I'll have to eliminate her.'
He started to climb the stairs, listening with faint amusement as Lily attempted to barricade herself in the nursery.
'She has no wand on her either. How stupid they are. They thought that their safety lay in their friends, that weapons could be discarded even for moments, that they could actually let their guard down.'
'Well it all ends tonight.', Voldemort thought as he forced the door open.
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP
Lily was crying uncontrollably. She was trying the barricade the door to her son's nursery, trying to keep the Dark Lord from entering. But in her heart, she knew that it wouldn't hold him back for long.
It was at that moment that little Harry started to cry too, as if he knew that something was wrong.
"It's okay Harry. I'm here.", she said as she picked up her son to comfort him.
Then she started to sing gently to him:
Hush now, my baby
Be still, love, don't cry
Sleep as your rocked by the stream
Sleep and remember my last lullaby
So I'll be with you when you dream
River, oh river
Flow gently for me
Such precious cargo you bear
Do you know somewhere
he can live free?
River, deliver him there…
Harry stopped crying.
'Please let him be safe.', Lily prayed.
Just then, the door blasted open, revealing Voldemort himself. His bone-white skin, right to his cold, red eyes.
At the sight of the Dark Lord, Lily turned around and gently laid her son in his crib. She then threw her arms wide as if to block Voldemort from attacking her son, hoping that she would be killed instead.
'If one of us as to die, please let it be me! Spare him!'
"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!", Lily shouted with desperation obvious in her voice, tears running down her face.
"Stand aside, you silly girl… stand aside, now.", Voldemort said flatly.
"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead!"
"This is my last warning." 'She's wasting my time! Why would she ask to be killed instead of her son? Foolish woman.'
"Not Harry! Please…have mercy… have mercy. Not Harry! Not Harry! Please- I'll do anything!!." Lily was begging Voldemort to spare her son.
Voldemort's patience however, was running out fast.
"Stand aside. Stand aside, you foolish girl!"
Lily merely shook her head, refusing to leave her son's side.
He could have forced her away from the crib, but it seemed much more prudent and amusing to finish off the entire family…
"Avada Kedavra!"
The green light flashed around the nursery and Lily Potter dropped to the floor, dead, just like her husband had. Harry had not cried the entire time Voldemort was threatening his mother. He stood up, clutching the bars of his crib, and he looked upon the intruder's face with a bright interest in him.
'He's probably thinking I'm his father in disguise, making more pretty lights, and that his mother would jump up at any moment laughing.', Voldemort thought.
He pointed his bone-white wand very carefully into Harry's face, right above his bright-green eyes. He wanted to see it happen. He wanted to see the destruction of this one, final threat to his plans.
His hood shifted, revealing the nightmare that was Voldemort's face to the poor child. He started to cry again. He now knew that the figure under the cloak was not James.
Voldemort winced at the sound of Harry's crying.
'I always hated the sound of infants crying. I could never stomach the ones crying at the orphanage. No matter. It all ends now.', Voldemort thought as he prepared to cast the curse that had taken so many lives, including those of little Harry's parents…
"AVADA KEDAVRA!!!!"
Just as he cast the dreaded curse, Voldemort broke. He was nothing. Nothing but a spirit filled with pain and terror.
'What happened?!', Voldemort frantically thought.
'What happened to my body?!!!' He then heard crying. He looked down on what remained of the Potter's cottage and to his shock, there was Harry. Alive! Trapped under the rubble of what was his nursery yes, but still alive!
'How did he SURVIVE???!!!!!!!!!!'
If Voldemort still had his body, it would be shaking with pure rage. He had failed to kill this insignificant child when he had murdered some of the most powerful sorcerers of the age!!!
'There will be time to ponder this later', Voldemort thought.
'For now, I have to hide myself. Not here, but somewhere far away. At least until I can find a way to restore my body.'
With that thought, Voldemort left the ruined cottage in Godric's Hollow behind, along with the screaming baby boy who now had a scar on his forehead: a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt. A boy named Harry Potter, who would never again be entertained by his father, never be held by his mother, and would never hear his mother sing him to sleep again.
Atem's Sister Atea: Well, there you have it.
Harry: That was… intense.
ASA: I hope I didn't bring back any bad memories Harry. Believe me, it was hard to write the scenes were Voldemort… well you know what I mean.
Harry: No, it's okay. You did a great job.
Hermione: Yeah. Nice job ASA. (Turns to Ron) Well Ronald, as you can see, the chapter's done and I'm NOT crying my eyes out. So what do you have to say NOW?
Ron: Okay, okay. I admit it. You're not as emotional as I thought you were.
Hermione: Thank you Ronald. (gives Ron a smug smile)
ASA: Glad you two made up. Now PLEASE promise me you won't start fighting like that anytime soon. Me and Harry got a decent amount of bruises from trying to break you guys up.
Harry: You said it ASA!
Ron and Hermione: Okay, we promise!
Hermione: I hope your readers enjoyed your latest chapter. If they did, I hope they'll leave plenty of reviews.
Harry: Hermione's right. I checked earlier today. Your story has over 400 hits!!!
ASA and Ron: Say what now?!!
Hermione: Really Harry?
Harry: Yeah. Come see for yourself.
(ASA checks computer as Harry; Ron; and Hermione crowd behind her)
ASA: Son of a basilisk! He's right! There have been 422 hits on this story!
Hermione: That's great!
Ron: Wicked!
Harry: Told you. But look at the number of reviews this story has had. I don't think you'll like it.
(ASA checks computer again while Ron and Hermione wait in anticipation)
ASA: What?! I don't believe it!
Ron and Hermione: What is it?!
ASA: There have only been 10 reviews over all!
Ron: Only ten?!
Hermione: Out of over 400 hits?!
Harry: I knew you guys wouldn't like it.
Ron: Readers, you need to start reviewing!
Hermione: You might get a chance to win the next Most Awesome Reviewer Award!
ASA: That's right! Not to mention us authors would fell more motivated to write these new chapters if you guys would be so kind enough to review and tell me how you liked it and what I need to improve on.
Harry: So don't be shy to review this story. Who knows? If there's more reviews, it might get updated sooner.
ASA: That's right Harry! So please click on the pretty review box below to share your opinion.
Hermione: Whoa! Look at the time!
(everyone checks time)
Ron: Bloody hell, it's 1:30 in the morning!
Harry: We better get to bed. So see you next time ASA!
ASA: Bye guys! See you next time!
Golden Trio: You too!