I do not own Harry Potter.
It had been two weeks since Rose told her family about modeling. Two weeks since Justin arrived. Two weeks since she was able to freely immerse herself in the muggle world and she was thoroughly enjoying it. Slowly the suite had turned into her home base for all things modeling. There were constantly clothes and gifts being delivered and she met with her agent almost daily. She loved it but she got the sense that the rest of her family was very uncomfortable with it. Her agents latest idea was to have a large bash to celebrate Rose's 17th birthday which was thankfully fast approaching. She had begged her mother to wait to spill the news to her father until she turned 17, which she reluctantly agreed to, but she could tell how much her Mum hated keeping the secret. Today was Saturday and they were scheduled to spend the day looking at spaces to have her birthday party. Her Uncle definitely wasn't happy about the whole thing; especially since Lily wanted to head into Diagon Alley to do some shopping while Rose was out. He was still very careful and always had a barrage of aurors with them at all times. By splitting up he was forced to split his aurors and could obviously only be with one of them himself. She also felt bad because James and Al had been alternating weekends at Hogwarts, so that they could spend time with their girlfriends, but her Uncle made sure they were both home today.
"Rose!"
"Yeah?" she yelled back, as she took one last look in the mirror before heading to her bedroom door to go down stairs. She stopped and decided to write a quick note to Justin, who was out meeting with his agent about a new job. "Sorry I missed you! Love you lots, Rose."
"Rose, are you coming down?" asked James, standing in her doorway.
"Yeah, sorry, I just wanted to leave Justin a note."
James rolled his eyes and said, "Come on! My dad's going to have a fit as it is!"
Rose smiled understandingly at him as she closed her door and walked downstairs with him. "So are you going with me today?"
"I have no idea. Dad won't talk until we're all downstairs…. You look nice by the way."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Thanks."
James just shrugged and she added, "I'm sorry you didn't get to see Kristine this weekend."
"Rose, it's fine. I understand."
"I know but I still feel bad. Do you think Al's mad he didn't get to see Tracey?"
"He'll get over it if he is," smirked James.
Rose smacked his arm and said, "You're terrible!"
Harry cleared his throat as they entered the room, "Alright, everyone take a seat and I'll explain what's going to happen today."
"Merlin, Dad, you make a shopping trip into such a huge production," grumbled Al.
Harry turned to lay into Al but Hermione stopped him with a hand to his arm before he could.
"Right. Anyway, Al, Scorpius and I will go to Diagon Alley with Lily while Hermione, James and Hugo go with Rose. Because Rose will also have her security team with her I'm only going to send 3 of the aurors with her and I'm sending the other 5 with Lily."
After waiting for everyone to nod in acknowledgement he continued, "Now, remember if you see any sign of trouble just activate your emergency portkey, which will bring you back here. If for some reason you can't do that send me a patronus. Everyone understand?"
Everyone nodded, all well aware of the procedure, after having it drilled into their heads every night for the last week.
"And be quick. I can't control how long it takes your agent, Rose, but please try and hurry him along. Don't stay in one place too long. You can figure out all the details another time, preferably here. Tell him you have a family dinner you have to attend if you must, just please try and be quick."
"I will Uncle Harry," she replied sweetly, making Lily roll her eyes.
Harry saw and said, "That goes for you too young lady. Just because I'm going to be with you doesn't mean you can take as long as you like."
"I know Daddy! Can we just go already?"
Harry looked around and couldn't see any reason to delay this further, even though he couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen today… "Yes, I suppose so."
For whatever reason Diagon Alley wasn't crowded today and Harry was thankful. "Alright Lily let's be quick."
"Dad! We just got here! I need to find the perfect present for Rose and that can't be rushed! After all you only turn 17 once," she snapped then added, "Besides Scorpius, Al and half the aurors are here! Honestly nothing is going to happen."
"Don't say that," growled Harry.
Lily rolled her eyes and said, "I'm going in there," pointing at a shop that seemed to be exploding with pink glitter. Harry clenched his jaw knowing it was going to be a long day.
After visiting what he was positive was every single shop in the Alley Harry had had enough, "Time's up Lily. I know for a fact you bought several things for Rose and I'm positive there isn't any shops left to visit anyway."
Al and Scorpius sniggered and Lily glared at all three of them. "Fine, but it's such a nice day out, I want to get an ice cream. Don't worry, I'll get it to go!" She quickly handed a bunch of bags and her jacket to the three of them before turning and running across the alley to the ice cream shop.
"Lily, wait a minute!" yelled Harry, but she just turned and waved him off happily.
She had barely made it across to the ice cream shop when an explosion blasted through the alley, sending chunks of debris everywhere.
Harry groaned as he tried to sit up, "Fuck," he hissed. He looked down and found that there was a very large piece of glass sticking out of his abdomen. He looked around wondering what the hell just happened and saw that his body had obviously been tossed through a glass window. It was hard to see anything but dust but he could hear movement and people starting to respond. He struggled to sit up again but the pain was too much. Then he heard his daughter…
"Daddy?"
Lily was on the ground and she couldn't see anything through the thick layers of dust. Her head was ringing and she felt something warm drip on her arm. She looked to see it was blood, her blood. She seemed to have a head wound and tried to shake the ringing away but it only made it worse. She reached around feeling for her wand; it was in her hand a minute ago before she fell. What happened?
"Daddy?" She called again, unable to even hear herself; she started to cry as she shakily stood.
"I'm here Lily!" yelled Harry but she obviously didn't hear him.
"Daddy! Dad? I can't hear you… I can't see… Daddy! Where are you?"
"Hold on Lily, I'm coming to find you," yelled Scorpius.
"Al!" yelled Harry, realizing he hadn't heard from his son.
"I'm OK, Dad. Just banged up," said Al, coming into Harry's line of sight. "Shit, Dad," he said when he saw his Dad's wound.
"Yeah, help me up, will you?"
"You sure you don't just want to wait for help to get here? That looks really bad, Dad."
"No, I want to get your sister out of here. I don't like this, Al."
Lily was just starting to be able to see through the dust when suddenly she was grabbed around the waist from behind. She screamed, startled and tried to pull free but then another grabbed her by the arm and they started to pull her roughly.
"Daddy! Help!"
"Lily? What's wrong?" yelled back Harry. "Go Al, go!" he yelled, shooing Al towards Lily.
Harry heard the panic in his daughters voice and knew he didn't have much time; he grabbed the piece of glass and quickly pulled it out of his stomach, doubling over in pain. "Fuck!" he was gushing blood and quickly cast some field medic spells on himself. It was enough that he could move around at least. "Lily, I'm coming!"
"Scor!" screamed Lily as she kicked and scratched and bit her attackers.
"I'm coming Lily, I'm coming!" yelled Scorpius, frantically trying to get to her through all the rubble.
"Scor! Please!" she begged, fighting off her attackers as much as she could. They were pulling and grabbing and hitting her everywhere.
Lily knew she was going to be taken soon and she was starting to really panic…. "Daddy!"
And then she felt herself being dragged into apparition and her last conscious thought before everything went black was, please Daddy, find me.
"Nooooooooo!" screamed Scorpius hauntingly.
"Lily? Lily, answer me!" yelled Harry, hobbling closer. He could see more now that the dust was starting to clear… and he saw Scorpius kneeling on the ground.
Al reached Scorpius first and started shaking him, "What happened? Where's my sister!"
Harry couldn't hear what Scorpius said to Al but he knew his daughter was gone as soon as Al looked up and met his eyes; his son's eyes were filled with despair.
"No. No. No!" yelled Harry, practically falling over himself to get to Scorpius. "What happened? Where is she? Where's my daughter!" he screamed, shaking Scorpius violently. Scorpius wouldn't answer him, wouldn't even look up at him. He felt Al pulling him away, felt the pain as his abdomen ripped open again, saw the blood and then he was falling…falling to the ground. His last conscious thought was, please let this all be just another nightmare.
Lily woke up groggily on the floor. It was dark and quiet. Too quiet. She started to get up slowly and everything seemed to hurt. There was blood on the floor and on her arms and she could feel it dried on the side of her face. She stood shakily and looked around to find that she was in a bedroom, one she didn't recognize. Looking further she realized there were no windows but there were two doors. Deciding it was worth a shot she staggered towards the first door and tried to open it. It was locked. She steadied herself, swallowed the vomit steadily rising in her throat and shuffled towards the second door. It was unlocked. Taking a deep breath she slowly opened it up to find a small bathroom. She surveyed it to find only a toilet, sink and shower. There were no windows, no mirror or even a shower curtain. There wasn't anything in here that could possibly be used as a weapon or as a way to escape. Suddenly feeling dizzy she sat on the toilet seat and held her head in her hands. She took several deep breaths to try and calm down but she couldn't silence one screaming question, now what?