Woweeewowow, thank you for all your love and feedback. You guys are so incredible. I'm also very sad it's over, but WHAT A RIDE we've had together! ;)
annabellestiles47: Yes! A happy chapter that we all deserved 3 Yay, glad you also loved Whatever You Say, Professor! I'm about to go back and reread and write the epilogue for that as well! Haaaaa, also you are welcome. I am very amused I was secretly in your class then XD Hope you get more exciting classes soon! Jily Fan: They ARE! And IT IS :'( Thank youuu! I'm gonna be so lost without writing this! GirlGhostly: Yay! I think having my next story lined up will def help with my own withdrawal ;) Also *Pat pat!*... Even though it's all going to hit the fan now T_T Thank you! I honestly can't believe I wrote something this long! Love fics: I KNOW! Wasn't I talking with you about it back when I finished Professor and brainstorming where I thought I'd go with it? You're an OG to this story! Thank you 3 I do love how far they've come. Yes, a Regulus-turns-good shout-out :( Yeah... about that Marlene post... BUT YAY ENGAGED! Nina: I really, really loved your gif :'D Shiz was so funny. I'm sorry I took you by surprise! But what LOVELY things you just mentioned, thank you thank you thank! Their pitch! It had to be on their pitch 3 So much love Angeltuesday: Gah, shucks. You're welcome for the speedy updates, haha, I got a little obsessed :D And WHAT a compliment, thank you 3 I'm just a dramatic, angst-loving, helpless romantic I guess ;p Breanie: I LOVE THAT :D Jus de Carotte: Yay, James didn't muck it up in the slightest ;) Awww thank you... hopefully you don't hate it! You are welcome! Lunane: Haha, you are right on time my friend. Taming each other, I like that, because that's what it feels like they totally did! I never grow tired of James compliments, bc our boy deserves them all! And YES, Enemy Within is it! O.o Oh man, oh man... I'm actually kind of nervous for it. I don't know if it will be what people are into! EllanaWest: Gah, I'm sorry the ending came quickly! I'm still so honored to be your first incomplete story (haha) and I'm so glad you did, because your reviews were always so lovely and thought out, and it really made a difference for me, so thank you. Aw, happy tears! And drunk James has not been forgotten ;) rmmurphy: I'm glad! But yes, I'm not gonna lie... it's a lot :/ HazzaP: Hey! I'm glad every time you review, no matter how many times ;) Especially when they're as nice as this and compliment something I worked really hard on aka my planning! Excuse me O:) Hahaaaaa evil creative overlord and plotty mc plotterson slayed me :'D This is the smut fic that dreamed of being something bigger! Lol. Cheers!
Warning: Sad. Just sad.
Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter. Art work by the awesome Meg (tumblr: anxiouspineapples)
Epilogue
Life after Hogwarts kicked James and Lily's arses. Despite their wishes and dreams, the war actually took a nasty turn for the worse, with death and destruction lingering in the air all around them constantly. It was suffocating. It was maddening; but, at least they had each other.
Lily's need for protection got even more dire, and she begrudgingly found herself sidelined from most of the action, instead having to channel her talents into healing fallen Order soldiers who returned from battle. One such night, she'd had to heal her fiancé, her wand hand shaking terribly the whole process, after he'd had his third run-in with Voldemort. This time, it had been without her. Removing the blood that had pooled all around her work station, Lily wanted to ban him from leaving their perfectly cozy home in Godric's Hollow ever again, but he'd convinced her he had to fight, to at least try to make things right.
She understood.
Unfortunately, soon his hand was forced and he had to go into hiding with her — all because of a soddening new prophecy. James swore he was going to visit every Seer in the world and steal their voices forever.
It would have been all too easy to lose hope for a better future, but James and Lily worked hard at being each other's rock. One night, James had Lily laughing so hard she'd painfully snorted up her tea through her nose. He'd been lamenting on and on about how he couldn't fathom being as powerful as Voldemort and not using all that magic to make the world a better place. She absolutely loved that he was a man so noble that the other side of the war truly looked like a bunch of bigoted idiots with absolutely no rhyme or reason to their madness. "Like, I don't know, if you've got that much magic at your disposal: charm away all diseases! Or at the very least, run a toy drive or something." For some reason, imagining the most evil wizard alive holding up a teddy bear had Lily laughing so hard that she'd almost fallen out of her chair. She was pretty sure that was the night they'd conceived Harry.
So Lily and James held on tightly to all of their precious moments, both big (like their wedding, Harry's birth) and small (teaching Tiger to roll over — maybe, quite possibly she's just that tired all the time), and of course, to their friends.
James' father died shortly after their glorious, perfect wedding, but Lily knew it had meant so much to her new husband that his dad had made it that far — for him. Lily asked Fleamont if he would do her the honor of walking her down the aisle, and it was one of the final lucid moments he seemed to have left in him. Walking towards a very dapper James, with Padfoot grinning by his side like a madman, was a moment Lily would never forget. James had looked so utterly mesmerized, holding back tears, and Lily's heart had all but burst. "He's always loved you, you know," Fleamont had whispered conspiringly in her ear. Those Potter men: always making her giggle from pure, unadulterated bliss.
The last time Lily ever saw Mary was at her wedding. Mary's Squib sister had nearly been murdered by an unknown Death Eater (Mary suspected it was Avery), but escaped with good old-fashioned Muggle self-defense, which completely caught the monster by surprise. Not willing to take any more chances, Mary sped up the timeline of her family's move to Australia and committed to going with them — at least until the war was over. She wrote a letter to Lily promising to find all the best places to visit for when Lily could come out of hiding and join her down under. Of course, Lily never did.
Marlene tried to deny her feelings for Rosier as long as she could, but after months of monotony at home and an endless, fruitless job search, she found her resolve weakening. After all, wasn't dating a spy whom she still secretly loved exciting as hell? It was almost like something straight out of one of her beloved romance novels. Rosier convinced her to give him another chance after he'd anonymously informed the Order that Voldemort indeed believed the new prophecy to be about either Lily or Alice's baby. Marlene didn't see any other way he could prove himself loyal to their side at that point.
Unfortunately for Marlene, there was still the problem of Lily's former friend: Snape. The dark arts lover had become obsessed with climbing the ranks in his cult and earning favor with his master, especially after he'd heard that his former nemesis, James, had married his childhood crush. He had become hell-bent on proving his own self-worth to anyone who would pay attention. Ever since Snape had snitched to Voldemort about Trelawney's prophecy, he'd quite enjoyed being the Dark Lord's favorite pet. As such, he felt as though he had to continue working to earn the position. After all… he'd never been anyone's favorite anything, and the feeling grew to be intoxicating. Voldemort taught him Legilimency himself, as he knew people were aware to be on guard around him and more or less control their musings. His thought process was that the skill in the hands of someone more unassuming (and their same age) would prove to be useful in uncovering the mole Voldemort knew was in their midst. Snape was more than eager to tell Voldemort that it was in fact Rosier who was the Order's spy, and that he had rekindled his relationship with Marlene in secret.
Voldemort thought the perfect punishment for Rosier's duplicity was killing the woman he loved — and her entire family right before her eyes. He gave the honor of these murders to his most trusted minion: Severus Snape. The last words Marlene McKinnon ever heard, as she looked at the swallow face of her former classmate, twisted in rage, was, "Who's the loser now?"
When Rosier had gone to pick Marlene up for a date as they'd planned, it was in fact he who had discovered her body, mangled and filleted almost beyond recognition. The whole thing had been a set up; Aurors arrived on the scene of the crime soon after. Rosier, covered in blood and too high on his grief to register much else, lashed out, wanting for the pain, the sight of Marlene's lifeless body that he had just held in his arms, to be wiped clean from him with everything else. When Moody killed him, he had no idea he'd just killed the Order's spy. That secret died with James and Lily.
When Dumbledore would later make references to Snape having been their spy all along, Snape went along with it. After all, it never hurt to have more traction with the winning side considering his old master was gone, and this way, it appeared as though he hadn't just come crawling out of necessity. Fooling the old man had almost been too easy considering just how lenient he was on giving people second chances, and how bad he was at judging people's characters. (His hires at Hogwarts spoke to that.) Snape could really use a job — the top Potioneer and best arse-kisser for a dead man wasn't very lucrative. Snape knew that aligning himself with Dumbledore would also keep him out of trouble with the Ministry.
Frank continued to be one of Lily's absolute best friends, but having to go into hiding meant that they couldn't see each other the last couple years of Lily's life. They even felt it too risky to send owls, considering how trackable they were. Lily also felt weird about everything if she was being honest — hoping her baby was spared meant she was hoping that Voldemort would go after her best friend's instead. She hated that she'd ever even had this thought. Of course, it was Frank and Alice's love for their friends that ended up being the couple's downfall. After James and Lily were murdered, their funeral was a big public affair, fit for the heroes that they were. Everyone had let their guards down, thinking this blasted war was finally over with Voldemort gone. However, Bellatrix and her friends knew that Frank would attend the funeral, so they waited. They abducted them as soon as they arrived and tortured them for information about what had happened the night Voldemort had disappeared. Bellatrix had gotten a little too into using Crucio on Alice, and seeing his wife suffering so greatly on the same day that his best friend was being laid to rest finally broke Frank Longbottom to the point of no return.
Remus was sent on excursions to try to gain the trust of other werewolves shortly after graduation. It was a role he absolutely despised, and his visits home were rare and often marked with bouts of irritability. James and Lily worried that Remus held a grudge against them for not doing as much for the Order as he was, especially when they were sequestered away in Godric's Hollow for their safety, but they never brought it up. After all, James didn't want to have another fight like they did because of Dana, and he really hoped that the rift in their friendship would heal itself. It wasn't like James wanted to be on house-arrest. He probably hated it just as much as Remus hated doing a task doomed to fail.
Peter was hired at the Ministry soon after Hogwarts, much to everyone's surprise. Obviously, their shock was just another nail in the coffin of Peter's sense of being overlooked and under-appreciated. When a beautiful woman came to visit him almost every day during his lunch breaks, he ignored her last name, and that she was the very hated cousin of his best mate. Bellatrix was beautiful, and Peter didn't have a lot of beautiful women who would usually look at him twice. Besides, they talked about real things, like how they both missed Jennifer Stone and how they both felt misunderstood by those around them. Peter had no idea that Professor Stone had told her best friend before her death just how much she'd already groomed the young Gryffindor and how vulnerable he was to persuasion. Peter merely thought that he and Bella had an "unspoken connection." Naturally, he couldn't tell any of his friends this, but that they didn't even bother to notice the newfound pep in his step was telling to him. When Bellatrix offered to introduce him to someone who would 'really love to meet you,' he didn't think twice. After he met Voldemort and pledged his loyalty, Bellatrix never met him for lunch again, but it was already too late. He'd signed his life away in blood.
Sirius continued to be there for James and Lily every step of the way: getting them groceries when they couldn't go out, helping to plan their wedding with them, and of course, babysitting Harry when they just wanted a few hours for a date in the other room (okay nap, when they wanted to nap). He kept James' spirits up in the same way he had their whole lives together, which was beneficial considering James wasn't used to being forced to hide away like Lily was. People like James just weren't made for quarantining — ironically the whole bloody reason they hadn't fled to another country in the first place. James' reliance on Sirius got to the point where Sirius thought it would be far too obvious to have him be their Secret Keeper. The rest of that story, as they say, is history.
Halloween Night, 1981
"Babe, we can't dress him up like a stag every year," Lily teased, flicking at her husband's fake antlers, currently perched lopsidedly atop his messy-as-always hair. They matched a tinier set that very adorably adorned her young son's head, making him even more of a carbon copy of his father than usual. It hadn't been all of five minutes after James had held his son for the first time, his eyes practically morphing into hearts, when a mischievous smirk had slid onto his face.
"What?" Lily had asked skeptically, and exhausted.
"Lils…"
"Yes?"
"Baby…"
"Yes?" Lily had been in no mood for banter.
He grinned down to Harry. "I knew I'd be right, but—" he held up Harry to face his mum, "— I didn't realize I'd be this right."
Lily had laughed, and then promptly yelled at James because laughing right now fucking hurt.
Yeah, so it turned out their baby looked like James, but Lily was still holding out hope that perhaps he'd act more like her. Naturally, she ignored all contrary evidence — like that he seemed born ready to fly, already had infectious charm, a whole bunch of nerve, and, you know, the fact that there seemed to be a rather familiar swagger to his first little steps. But then again, Harry was just such a good, sweet baby; and sure, Lily hadn't been around for James' infancy, but there was no way that he could have been so well-behaved back then. (James had pointed out that she was the more likely out of the two of them to throw temper tantrums, but she ignored that too.)
"Why not?" James asked innocently with puppy eyes that rivaled Padfoot's. "They still fit him, and look how happy he is!"
"And they'll keep fitting him every year since you keep transforming them larger," Lily responded. However, she lacked any true opposition in her words, because Harry really did look so over the moon to be matching his dad, emerald eyes gleaming as he leaned back in his crib, clapping his hands. She couldn't help but gush over him.
James pulled out another pair of plushie adult antlers out of his back pocket and offered them to Lily. "Is someone perhaps jealous, and in need of her own pair?"
Lily shook her head, snatching the headband and jamming it over her hair. "When'd you make this?"
"Just now, on the couch."
She grabbed both of James' cheeks, smooshing his face before kissing him between every word. "You are such a dork."
James grinned as he wrapped his arms around his wife's hips, pulling her flush against him. "I'm pretty sure you meant adorkable."
Lily smiled as she tilted her head to the side and rested her forearms on his broad shoulders. She wasn't altogether too subtle about just how much she was checking him out in this sweater, but so what? James was her husband, and her husband was a whole damn meal.
"Pretty sure I meant I'm gonna need you to…" Lily leaned into his ear and whispered something that made him flush almost instantly.
James' jaw dropped, faux-scandalized as his fingers dug into her skin possessively. "Lily!" He shook his head and laughed. "Harry's first real sentence is going to be something filthy, and you'll have no one to blame but yourself."
Lily shrugged. "I don't know about that. We could always pin it on Padfoot."
James chuckled, leaning into her as his hands roamed her back and he swooped her down for a kiss. Lily giggled as he held her there for a moment, rubbing his nose against hers. "Mrs Potter, that is simply devious."
She gave him a fresh peck. "You love it."
"I do, oh, how I do…" Harry making strange gurgling noises had them come back to standing straight. "I know, Harry, I know." Harry continued making nonsensical squeaks that James pretended to understand perfectly. "Why yes, very astute observation, son. You should be wary of red-headed minxes trying to steal your heart."
"Oh hush, you," Lily reprimanded her husband as she took Harry in her arms. He immediately started playing with her hair as she cooed to him. "Happy Halloween, Harry, happy Halloween!" She tenderly pushed his wild hair off his forehead as she bounced him. "Next year we'll take you Trick-Or-Treating," she promised hollowly. Lily missed the sad look James gave them; after all, they'd never expected to spend a second Halloween in hiding. "Even if we have to do it from under your Dada's Invisibility Cloak." Lily looked up to James, who quickly cleared his face of melancholy. "Did Albus mention when he was bringing that back, by the way?"
James shook his head. "Nah, he didn't."
Lily balanced Harry on her hip and swayed them gently. "I still don't get it. I mean, I heard the man say he has the means to turn himself invisible with my own ears. So, why's he gotta take ours?"
James sighed. "I don't know, babe." The way he said it very much implied, 'When Albus Dumbledore asks you to do something, you just do it.' His eyes landed on the camera Padfoot had dropped off on his last visit, and he instantly jumped at the chance to brighten the mood. He picked it up and pointed it his family's way. "All right, my deers! Harry, Harry— look at Dada!" Harry tittered and did so. "Okay, on the count of three, we're gonna say 'Prongs,' okay? Okay Harry: one, two, three—"
"PWONGS!"
Lily gasped as James took the shot and then practically punched the air in excitement.
"Good job, Harry!" Lily encouraged.
"Yes, Harry, yes!" He stole Harry from Lily and made him fly across the room in his arms, one of his son's all-time favorite pastimes. Harry cheered and giggled as James continued to shout, "A genius! Babe! Our baby is a bloody genius!"
Lily watched the scene, heart melting with love, sweet, sweet love. She adored her family so friggin' much, and truly would do anything to protect it.
James flew Harry back to her and removed the bulky camera strap from off his neck, managing to one-handedly make it face them as he stood by Lily's side and clutched Harry to his chest. "Here, let's get one of the whole Pwongs family."
Lily laughed as she took Harry's tiny hand and leaned into her husband. He kissed her cheek right before the flash went off, completely taking her by surprise. "Sneak attack," he joked.
Lily couldn't wait to see how the photo developed. She thought it had the potential to be one for her nightstand.
Of course, she never found out.
Only a few seconds later, the sound of their front door being blasted apart downstairs echoed across the whole house. Lily and James both jumped, making three sets of plushie antlers and the camera fall to the floor, the lens cracking sounding like a death knoll.
Lily and James turned to each other and she saw her own sickening panic reflected right back at her. No, her brain short-circuited, it's rowdy trick-or-treaters. It's the neighbors. It's Tiger. It's not… it can't be…
But she knew who it was. She had always known who was coming for her, who was still fuming over her years of evading him, who was here. This time, she feared she wouldn't be able to get away. This time, she knew she was about to die.
James reanimated first, shoving Harry into Lily's arms as he pushed her to the window. She realized they both didn't have their wands. If she recalled correctly, hers was probably still on the kitchen counter, last having been used to clean up the mess of James' attempt to make shepherd's pie from scratch. "Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off—" Seeing his wife remain frozen, he opened the window himself, only to be greeted by a solid brick wall. He yelled out in frustration, punching it to see if it was really there. "Shit!"
Voldemort had magically trapped them inside, and they'd been having too precious of a moment to notice.
Downstairs, she heard Tiger let out an almighty hiss and Voldemort cry out as though he'd been brutally scratched. It was a small victory that ended too soon when she heard that horrid spell, followed immediately by a vivid green light making the carpet just below the nursery door glow. Tiger…
"No… no…" Lily cried, squeezing Harry to her chest.
James sunk to Lily's eye level, gripping her face right in front of his own. "Lils, baby, listen to me," he whispered urgently. "Listen to me." Her terrified darting eyes, frantically searching for a way out, any way out, finally focused on his. A small wave of completely unwarranted comfort washed over her, even though tears were fully streaming down her face. "You have to protect him. I know you can do it," he told her steadily.
What he was planning to do — go down and face Voldemort and buy her time to perform her shield magic — was slowly starting to sink in. "NO. No, James, don't go, please—" she pleaded, wildly gripping for his wrist. She was holding on to both her boys, her boys; why would anyone try to take them from her? Why? "Stay! I can protect you. I can protect both of you!"
Lily's vision was swimming, but she could still so clearly feel the pain in James' gaze. "We don't know that, Lils. It's never worked at protecting two people before." His hand quivered as his thumbs swiped at her cheeks. "Maybe the only reason it hasn't been activated yet is because I'm still here."
"No, baby, no…" Lily sobbed, leaning into his palm. She knew they were running out of time, but she couldn't lose him. Not like this. "Please, don't leave—"
James was holding back his own tears as he moved in to kiss her forehead and put his hand over her heart. "I'm right here. I'll always be right here." He bent to Harry and kissed the top of his head; their son, their precious little son, let out a little laugh with the action, truly having no idea what was going on. "Save Harry?" he asked determinedly as he stood tall.
Lily jutted out her chin, summoning every ounce of strength her body had left to answer him. Her husband needed her. Her son needed her. "Yes. I will." She felt her jaw twitching, but her conviction remained solid, I'll do whatever it takes.
James shot her a wink. "That's my girl."
He turned to leave, but Lily wasn't ready. She wanted just one more moment, one more second with her man. That wink had brought her back to a time when the possibilities had been endless, and they weren't yet cursed — even if it had felt like they were at the time. She yanked James back to her and sunk her free hand into his silky hair, kissing him like they were 16 again and he'd just cornered her against a desk to try to get her to admit that she loved him back just as much as he loved her. Only now, they both already knew.
She could faintly hear the creak of the first step, alerting them to the fact that Voldemort had deduced that they were upstairs. They were out of time. She quickly tried to imprint the feel of James' lips into her mind forever, to memorize the love she felt with Harry sandwiched between them, delighted he was getting hugged by both his parents at once — but it was over too soon. "I love you, James Potter. I've always loved you." Her voice crackled and was water-logged, but he still understood.
Lily watched as a tear escaped from one of his gorgeous hazel eyes and rolled down his cheek, over his smattering of freckles, to where his dimple should have been, where it had been not minutes ago. He tried to smirk, but his lips didn't quite make it. "I know, Lily. I love you too. Until the very end."
He turned and walked out the door, and Lily knew it was the last time she'd ever see her husband again. She threw things in front of the door, barricading them in desperately, but knowing it was no use. She just needed to do something with her hands to distract herself from James' suicide mission and the fact that she wasn't going after him. She was trying to find a way to not completely fall apart over the fact that she'd just let her heart walk out the door and she wasn't going to protect him — the man who had always been there for her was about to die, and she was doing nothing.
Harry babbled at her chest, a string of Mamas and Dadas, and she looked down to him to try to stop from hyperventilating without James. He looked so very much like his father. "Mama loves you," she sobbed. "Dada loves you." Why wasn't the shield working yet? What more did she bloody need? She felt like she was losing her mind.
Then she heard it. After a few taunts from James and a high-pitched cackle, she heard the worst curse in the world and felt a body crumble to the floor, reverberating through her bones and sucking out her will to live.
She knew James was dead.
Lily screamed, feeling her heart ripping in two, or maybe it was her very soul; all she knew was that he was gone, her James was gone, and she didn't— no, she couldn't be here without him. Never again would she see his smile light up the hall when he waited for her after a class they didn't share. Never again would she wake up to his eager face, ready to tell her about all the games he and Harry had already played that morning. Never again would she feel his arms wrapped around her tightly when he inevitably fell asleep as they watched a Muggle movie together on the couch. Never again.
But, Harry. Save Harry. Harry needs you. Since when had her inner monologue sounded like James? She looked at her son, emerald eyes wide and curious, wondering why his mum was screaming bloody murder. All she could see was love. This was her child, her baby with James, who looked just like him, who was a part of him — and she was going to save him.
She felt her heart pump out its final beats for herself before lurching and bursting forth its last protective bubble, straight into Harry who was still cradled against her chest. The filmy surface was a blood red, like the purest of love, but tinged with gold flecks, the same hue as those in his father's eyes. James is golden. James' love for his son would help to protect him too, even now.
When the bubble soaked into Harry's skin, he looked straight at Lily mesmorized. She knew that awe-inspired look. It was the same one he always gave her whenever she'd start singing him a lullaby before bed. After the attack at the talent show, Lily had never sang in public ever again, and James had never asked her to sing for him either, knowing how painful the memory was for her. But she still sang for Harry, if only to see the look he was giving her right now. She wondered if that's what her magic felt like to him — like his mum was softly rocking him to sleep whilst singing him the sweetest of songs.
(She never knew it, but James would have an almost identical look on his face whenever she sang, only he'd be on the other side of the nursery door, listening in. The Potter boys both just loved her voice that much.)
As her magic got absorbed, Lily let out a shaky sigh of relief. He'll be safe. She knew Harry would grow up, be the bravest kid in all the land just like both his parents before him, it just wouldn't be with them.
FIN
Well, that's all folks. *Sobs* I love you, stay safe, and thank you for reading ^.^