Disclaimer - I do not own any part of this story except for the idea - all characters, settings and plots that are similar to J.K. Rowling's work belongs to her.
Chapter 1 - 31st October, 1981.
The dust was still settling when Lily's eyes fluttered, still on the edge of unconsciousness. She could hear a loud wailing cry close by, but there was a muffled sniffle and hiccup closer, in the direction of the crib.
'Harry!' Lily sat up quickly, coughing and looking around frantically. The heat from the explosion was stinging her eyes and burning her throat every breath she took. She found Harry still in his crib, tear streaks staining his chubby red cheeks, pieces of drywall from the destroyed walls was coating him and his crib. She looked around towards the other wailing sound, and saw a bundle of cloth near the doorway.
What had happened?, thought Lily, as she picked up Harry out of the crib, covered his mouth with his crib blanket, and slowly walked towards the crying bundle. She spotted her wand, thankfully still intact, lying on the floor near the changing table. Gripping Harry, she bent down to pick it up.
"Lumos," she whispered, so as not to frighten Harry any further. "James! James, are you okay?" She waved her wand around the room, still coughing from the burning in her throat. The wailing crying was getting shrill, it sounded like it was in pain, whatever it was.
Think, Lily, think! We were downstairs finishing up dinner, James offered to take Harry up for his bath, but there was a noise outside that took his attention…
Flashes appeared in her mind, confusing shouts and screams, but there were more pressing matters at the moment. The shrill cry seemed to be getting louder, and as Lily, still clutching a sniffling Harry, bent down to shift the pile of cloth bundled near the door. They appeared to be wizards robes, but they didn't match anything James owned.
Stand aside, silly girl. Stand aside! Lily let out a sob as she remembered Lord Voldemort had been standing in Harry's doorway. As she moved the cloth, she saw a tiny little clenched fist waving to get free from the material. Once it had one hand free, there was a frustrated cry that replaced the high shrieks, and the bundle of wizard robes were pushed aside to reveal the scrunched up red face of a small baby, smaller than Harry.
She cast a quick scourgify on the nearby rocking chair, and placed Harry in it. She quickly cast a cushioning charm on the floor around it, in case he fell, and she turned back to the baby. "Homenum revelio!" she cast towards the middle of the house, hoping against all odds that it would reveal James inside. When nothing came back, she fought back the tears, not knowing if it was the tears or the dust now stinging her eyes. She had Harry, and this new baby, to get to safety before anything else.
"Dumbledore! Dumbledore, he must know what to do!" She immediately sent out her doe patronus, and it cantered out of the hole in the wall. She cast some supporting charms on the structure of the room so movement wouldn't cause any more damage. After a second thought, she sent a patronus to Sirius too, a boiling anger rising in her when she thought of what Peter must have done.
Take Harry and run, it's him! Lily heard James' voice ringing in her ears, the last thing he'll ever say to her. She couldn't go and find his body, since she had the two babies with her. She wasn't ready to pick up the little one, since she had her suspicions of what had happened and was not prepared to touch it. Could it really be him, she eyed the baby suspiciously. It still had it's fists clenched and face screwed up in frustration, but it was no longer shrieking. It had deep brown eyes, a little button nose covered with snot, it's cheeks were tear-stained and red, like Harry's were, and it had a small tuft of dark brown hair.
Gently rocking the rocking chair Harry was in, and cooing him back to sleep, she kept an eye on the baby on the floor bundled up in the robes while she waited for Dumbledore and Sirius. She had found a wand when she searched the robes around the baby, and hid it in one of the drawers on the changing table, feeling a bit silly trying to hide her actions from the watching baby.
She wasn't too sure how much time had passed, she had been trying to piece together her fragments of the night's events, right up till she had woken up with a start to find Harry alive. She heard the voice before seeing anyone arrive,
"Lily! Lily! James?" a gruff, worried voice carried through the house.
"I'm up here Siri! Please! Where's James?" Lily called out towards the hallway.
She heard his footsteps over the rubble, and then they went silent.
"NO! JAMES, MERLIN NO!" she heard Sirius's voice break, he must have found James' body on his way up to her. Lily cried, "Siri, please!" Her tears broke their barrier and she cried at the heartache she could hear in Sirius's voice, and as if it were the finality of knowing that James was definitely gone.
"Lily, where's Harry?" Sirius had had to leave James, knowing he had to protect Harry, and Lily. As he entered Harry's room he used his wand to shift the remaining dusty air out of the room, and cleared a path in the rubble towards Lily and Harry, spotting him still miraculously asleep in the rocking chair.
"Harry's sleeping, he's alive, thank Merlin he's alive!" She sobbed again, "I didn't know what to do, I couldn't leave Harry, but I couldn't leave that there either!" She pointed a finger at the baby sitting in the pile of robes.
At Lily's disgust, Sirius looked over and saw the baby, scrunched up red face and fists clenched, eyeing his every move. "Who's baby is that, Lily? What..."
"I think it's him," she forced out, thinking about all that had happened had really made her anger rise, not being able to match the vile Lord Voldemort with the baby in the robes, she couldn't look at it any longer.
"Him? Lily, I don't understand…" Sirius' brow was furrowed in confusion, "Peter… He was secret keeper… but how? How could it be him!"
"No, it's not Peter, Peter was the rat we should have seen! He broke our Fidelius to You-Know-Who. He came tonight, kill-" she broke down with another sob, "killed James, and tried to kill Harry."
"You think this baby is… that this little thing… is Lord Voldemort?" Sirius looked Lily dead in the eye, thinking she was joking. It must be a joke, for how could Lord Voldemort end up as a baby, and in Harry's bedroom, and had just killed James? "Don't joke!"
"HOW CAN I JOKE WHEN JAMES IS DEAD SIRI. YOU SAW HIS BODY!" She shouted. Harry stirred in the rocking chair, and Lily had to rub his belly to quieten him down, cooing at him through her sobs.
Sirius worked through the confusion, his facial expressions went from furrowed brows, to a twitch above his right eye that always twitched when he was exceptionally angry, which didn't happen often. The last time she had seen that, he had been disowned by his family when they were sixteen. His breathing got louder, and quicker, and his fingers tightened around the wand in his hand.
"I'll kill him! I'll kill him for killing James!" Sirius jumped up from beside Lily and pointed his wand at the baby.
Before he could cast any spell, his wand shot out of his hand and soared across the room to the doorway, where Dumbledore stood, the most serious face Lily had ever seen on him.
"You mustn't Sirius. He must live." His voice was soft, but carried across the room and stilled Sirius' movements.
"How dare you say that, DID YOU SEE WHAT HE DID! He's a murderous bast-"
"Watch your language, Sirius!" Lily cut across him, looking back at Harry, making sure he was still sleeping. She had been startled by Dumbledore's sudden appearance, but thankful he didn't apparate straight into Harry's room.
Sirius sank to the floor, wandless, and deflated. He couldn't look at that thing any longer, he couldn't be in the same room as it! It had killed his best friend, the father of his godchild, and they wanted to keep it alive.
"It doesn't deserve to live" he choked back a sob as he moved over and scooped up Harry. Holding him tight, and being gentle so that he didn't wake the sleeping baby, he moved over to the other end of the room, not wanting to separate him from Lily, but needing to be as far away from that as possible, and needing to keep his hands busy.
Dumbledore was silent as he cast several charms around the room, and towards the baby on the floor.
"I am sorry for the loss of James," he said softly, towards Lily, after he had finished casting his charms. He bent to pick up the baby, which squirmed and let out another loud wailing cry. Lily quickly grabbed one of Harry's spare blankets from the nearby dresser and helped Dumbledore wrap the naked baby in warmth. Lily, assuming the baby was safe, now that Dumbledore had picked it up, summoned two milk bottles from the fridge. One went straight to Sirius, who placed it on the table near the door, still rocking a sleeping Harry. The second bottle went to Dumbeldore, two small fists opened up and reached for the bottle before either of them could move it any closer. The baby drank quickly and still had his big brown eyes watching both Dumbledore and Lily.
"Is it really…" Lily asked, dreading the answer.
"Yes. This is, or was, Lord Voldemort." Dumbledore replied. "I am not sure what has happened here this evening, but we must proceed. We need to get out of Godric's Hollow, and we must secure this wreck before the Ministry, or any Death Eaters can enter. I will call for assistance, and will leave you and Sirius to tend to James…" His gaze moved over Lily, and towards Sirius, holding Harry. The broken family would rise from this, he was sure. Lily and Harry had a big support network around them, and he would not let them fall. Quietly, he gave a slow nod towards Lily and Sirius, and walked out of the room carrying baby Lord Voldemort.
Lily hugged herself tight and moved towards Sirius, "We have to…" she started, not sure how to word the rest of it. Bury James? Put Harry down so they could move James' body from the house? She couldn't bear to leave Harry, but she had to see James. She dropped her gaze and stopped talking to Sirius, she grabbed his elbow gently, and led him out of Harry's room. As they left the room and came out onto the landing, she saw James' body, lying halfway up the stairs. She rushed down to him, and fell to the steps next to him. She lifted his head and cradled it in her lap, moving brown strands off his face and gazing into his unblinking eyes. She wished she could see into his soul, but it was gone. There was nothing left of him but the shell of his body. She hugged him close and released her sobs, crying her heart and remembering the short years they had enjoyed together. She had Harry, and she had the last little piece of James in her belly, the last gift he could give her.
The next 24 hours were a blur to Lily, Dumbledore came back with a number of Order of the Phoenix members, and they began the cleanup and securing of the house. Lily noticed a few onlookers out on the street, she gave a sad nod to Bathilda Bagshot as she shuffled along and stood to watch from a distance.
Together with Sirius, they had managed to move James' body; Sirius had conjured up an elaborate coffin with satin and velvet lining, and they placed James into it. They crossed his arms, and cleaned him up, "It's just like he's sleeping," Lily had whispered, feeling the knot reforming in her stomach, knowing it was a sleep he'd never wake from.
Harry had woken up just before dawn, crying so loudly. Nothing Lily or Sirius could do would calm him, he was sobbing, "Da! Da! Da!" His fists were opening and clenching at nothing, somehow in the direction Lily knew James was, downstairs.
What felt like hours later, when the sun was sitting closest to the middle of the sky, Sirius nudged Lily, who had been sitting in the lounge chair, clutching Harry, and softly said, "It's time to leave, Lils. The house has been secured, we need to take James' b-" he stopped the sob trying to leave his chest, 'take him and find a new place to set up the Fidelius."
"I can't -" Lily started, as Dumbledore walked into the living room. "My dear Lily, you have been so brave." He had moved forward and placed a hand on her shoulder, as he looked down into her wet eyes, and at Harry, finally sleeping again, in her lap.
"I have pulled a few strings, and there is a site in the graveyard beside the church that will be held for James, we can send out a message to those closest to you and ask if they will visit for a short service. But we must leave today, I have set up some quarters for you temporarily in Hogwarts. It would be the safest place right now."
Lily just nodded and snuggled Harry closer to her. "How do I tell him his daddy is gone.." she whispered to no one in particular, but shifted a strand of Harry's dark brown hair off his forehead. "He's so much like him,"
"I'll go grab Harry's bag, Lils, all your things have been packed up," Sirius started, and Dumbledore cut in, "and the house elves from Hogwarts are ready to move everything into the quarters there." Sirius left the room after a quick stroke of Harry's head.
"Thank you, Dumbledore, truly, thank you. I don't know what Harry, Siri and I would have done without you." Lily sniffled, and gave a watery smile to Dumbledore. "We hadn't told anyone else yet, but I am pregnant again. James was over the moon when we found out. We were -" she sobbed again, "were going to wait to tell everyone, but I think Hogwarts will be the safest place right now. Thank you,"
"Congratulations, Lily. May I?" He gestured towards Harry, and Lily nodded, standing up and handing over Harry in his bundle of blankets.
"He is so much like James, yes. But he has been blessed with your eyes, Lily." Harry had stirred and opened up his eyes. Looking at Dumbledore, he seemed to take a deep breath and held it for a moment, before screaming out "DA! DA! DA! DA! DA!" However, Harry wasn't squirming to get away from Dumbledore, he grabbed a fistful of Dumbledore's beard, and pulled. Thankfully Dumbledore's beard was so long it didn't pull his head down with it.
"Oh, I'm sorry! Harry, let go now baby, I'm sorry" she said again, trying to wrench the white hair out of Harry's fist. "Daddy's not here right now, shh it'll be okay, we'll be okay" she was stroking Harry's face and continued cooing at him until he was just whispering "Da, da, da, da" and hiccuping.
Sirius returned with a baby bag strung over his shoulder. "Oh, Prongslet," he signed as if Harry did this all the time. "Come to Padfoot." He placed the bag on the floor, and Harry reached out both hands towards him, "Pa-foo, da?"
"This kid doesn't miss a thing, does he? I'm sorry Prongslet, he's not here right now, want to go to Hogwarts? I'll show you all of the secret-"
"Oh no you won't! I won't have my little one corrupted before he can walk and talk properly!" Lily moved forward, but Sirius was too quick and turned around with Harry, lifting him high, "Me? Corrupt the heir to the Marauders? Not a chance, Lils. It's already in his blood, isn't it Prongslet" Sirius touched his nose to Harry's, and Harry squealed in delight. "Pa-foo! Pa-foo!"
Lily picked up the baby bag with a small smile playing on her lips despite the devastating situation. She knew Sirius would be able to lighten up any mood, even when his best friend- She stopped her train of thought, knowing it would bring more gut-wrenching sobs, "Let's go, please."
Dumbledore took Lily by the elbow, and placed a hand on Sirius' shoulder. Harry looked at them all, then snuggled into Sirius' shoulder too, placing a hand on the bare skin above Sirius' collar.
A loud crack was the last sound heard in Godric's Hollow that afternoon, the final enchantments placed on the house were disillusioning and redirecting any onlookers to look elsewhere. The finality of what had happened that night would stay in the minds of all involved for years to come, and Dumbledore alone knew what must happen next for he alone had heard the full prophecy all those nights ago.
Please comment and let me know what you think of this story line. There is a new prophecy to guide this set of events.
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