"Is it tonight?
"Tonight indeed." Healer Smythe held up a vial of shimmering purple liquid. "This potion will restore the damage done to your brain all those years ago and in the process will restore your memory of events before that."
Lily nodded. The hospital wasn't the worst place in the world to spend a week, but she was glad to be going soon. Being here around magic people had starting jogging her memory again, and she'd brewed a near-perfect draught of living death from memory. She knew her old professor, Horace Slughorn, would be proud if he could see her now. She'd also spent a lot of time with the poor tortured couple in the other ward, the Longbottoms. She'd been friends with them too at one point, she knew, and that they had a little son named Neville. Alice would smile a little bit every time Lily brought up Neville. Still, the Longbottoms hadn't always been like this. They'd once had a normal family and worked for the ministry, and then something horrible had happened to them.
"Are there side effects to the potion?" Lily asked.
"It puts the drinker to sleep for a few hours while it does its work." Healer Smythe said. "I developed this potion myself and spent several years fine-tuning it to reduce side effects. Here. Drink up, then go to bed. I'll check on you in the morning." Healer Smythe passed her the vial.
Lilly uncorked it and drank its contents in one long sip. The taste was fruity, like pineapple and cherry mixed together. "How long until it takes effect?"
"Well, it will put you to sleep fairly quickly. You'll be asleep for at least twelve hours, while the potion restores your brain. When you wake up tomorrow, we'll run an assessment to see how much of your memory was recovered."
Lily nodded. Her head already felt heavy, and she leaned back against her pillows. "Sounds good. So when I wake I'll know . . ." she tried to lift her hand, but her body was impossibly heavy. She tried to push a loose piece of hair out of her face, but her vision was going dark around the edges and the entire world . . .
"You're a freak, Lily!" somebody shouted. "A freak! Put it down! Mummy told you not to!"
"She's just ordinary." A boy's voice. "She's ordinary, and you're special."
"Severus that's mean."
"What is that thing you're wearing anyway, your Mum's blouse?"
A pair of hands searching a jewelry drawer and taking out a ring set with a little piece of turquoise.
"Don't worry about the Slytherins!" A boy's voice said. "You're in Gryffindor. The Slytherins aren't our sort anyway."
"My friend Sev is in Slytherin."
The boy's face twisted. "Oh. Well, Gryffindors and Slytherins aren't usually friends."
"My whole family are in Slytherin, except me." said another boy.
"Well, you're not in Slytherin, are you? So you must be all right."
"Are you coming to the quidditch match this Saturday? It's Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff."
"Why do you even hang around with Snape? He's creepy."
"He's my friend." The words were coming from her own mouth. "He's my friend, and I enjoy his company."
Those hands were chopping dandelion roots now, then pouring them into a steaming cauldron. The potion inside turned yellow, rainbow steam rising from the liquid's surface.
"Evans! Evans! Hey Evans! There's Hogsmeade next weekend—"
"No."
"Let me finish! Madam Pudifoot's teashop is doing something special for valentine's—"
"No."
"It'll be fun!"
"I said no!"
The boy looked hurt. "It's valentine's day! Who are you going with, Snivellus?"
"I've told you I don't feel that way about him. And please don't call him Snivellus."
An owl with a letter tied to its leg fluttered down, knocking over a jug of milk.
"I'm not going home this summer. I'm staying with Marlene."
"Why not? What's going on?"
"Problems with my sister. I think she's been jealous of me for a long time, but it's getting to the point where I can't handle it."
"Did you tell her?" The pale boy with the scars asked quietly.
"I tried. Many times. She told me to shove off. I finally gave her the silent treatment at the end of the Christmas holidays and she left me alone. Do come and visit us at Marlene's place, will you?"
A torch flickered in a long hallway as a nearly headless ghost glided past.
"I didn't mean to call you a mud blood!" The greasy-haired boy yelped. "It just—"
"Slipped out? Look, Sev, I've made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can even understand why I hang around you."
"You're head girl? Congratulations! Did they say who the head boy is?"
"Yeah it's James Potter. Ugh. He's such an arrogant toe rag. This year is going to be awful! I think the best we can hope is being head boy knocks some sense into him."
Snow was falling outside now, but a thick windowpane separated the whirling snow from two people who sat inside in the warm candlelight.
"You know, James, I was so upset when I found you were going to be head boy. I didn't think I could put up with you for an entire year. But you've changed. I think being head boy has done you a lot of good."
"You can tolerate me now, huh?"
"Maybe even better than tolerating you."
"Wow. Well, you know how I feel about you."
"Don't say anything more, or I'll go back to merely tolerating you."
"Noted."
Lily leaned back against the stone wall and looked up. "Mistletoe." she muttered. They'd been sitting under it this whole time. Had he noticed?
James cleared his throat. "Yeah, I saw it. But you said you liked the view out of this window so I wasn't gonna say anything."
Lily scooted a little closer to him. "I wish you had." He wrapped his arms around her and she threw hers over his neck. Their lips met.
"You're getting married?!" Sirius shrieked. "Prongs, you're 18! She's 18! What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking that I love her, and that I want to spend my life with her."
"People are dying." Lily added. "We don't know what will happen tomorrow, but we do know that we love each other. Why wait?"
"Well, thanks for rubbing it in my face that I'm single." Sirius grumped.
A pair of hands fold a copy of the Daily Prophet lengthwise, then chucked it in a dustbin. "Prophet's rubbish these days. Three suspicious disappearances in the last week, and they can't report on any of them."
A dirty cookie sheet in the sink. A cat fast asleep on a rumpled Gryffindor scarf. A little plastic stick being dipped into a cup.
"What on earth is that stick thing?" James asked.
"It's . . . a muggle pregnancy test."
"Why? We have wizard spells for that. Wait. Pregnancy test?!"
"I know, but I like the simplicity of muggle stuff." She tapped it nervously against the edge of the table while watching the clock. "Shit. It's positive."
A stack of baby clothes, a shiny new crib.
"Andrew."
"Maybe. I've always liked that name."
"Sirius."
"James, we're not naming our son after Sirius. I love Sirius, but he's not exactly a good role model."
"Well, we're still making him godfather. What about Fleamont the second?"
"I swear to Merlin, James!"
But all the argument was forgotten, for here was a tiny baby in someone's arms, fast asleep. A single tuft of dark hair stuck out beneath a knitted hat and his tiny closed around the edge of his blanket.
"I swear I feel like I did when I was pregnant with Harry."
"Harry's not even a year old!" said James. "Maybe it's just another hormone thing. Like menopause?"
"James, it is not menopause you stupid git! Look, I'll do a magical pregnancy test this time. Shit. Positive again."
"How on earth did we manage to make the same mistake twice?"
A second crib crammed into the other bedroom, more clothes, this time pink ones.
"Got the little tyke his first ever broom!" Sirius set a large package on the table.
"Sirius, he's one year old!"
"My mum had me on a toy broom when I was his age." said James proudly.
"James, I think your mum was an outlier. Most parents don't buy brooms this young."
And then there was a second baby, this time one that took after her. She was so impossibly tiny next to her brother, and her mouth opened just slightly as her mother set her down in her crib.
"Lily, take the kids and go! It's him! I'll hold him off!" James leapt from the couch towards the front door.
"Your wand!" Lilly wailed. He'd left his wand on the coffee table.
"Take the kids away! They're most important! Go!"
Lilly sprinted up the stairs into Harry's room and plucked him out of his crib. He'd been woken up by the commotion and was starting to fuss.
"Harry, we have to go away now." Lilly whispered. "You'll be safe. Be strong Harry." Downstairs, something thudded against the floor. "Oh Harry. I'll protect you." She grabbed an emergency diaper bag full of baby essentials and ran into the next room where three-week-old Christina and the emergency portkey were. Christina was still asleep. Lilly grabbed her blankets and all, but then the door burst off its hinges and Voldemort strode in.
"Not my children! Please not them, I'll do anything!"
"Stand aside girl, stand aside!" He walked forward, lifting his wand as Lilly tried to get to the portkey. She was almost there, but Harry started trying to wiggle out of her arms. Blast this new phase of wiggling out of people's arms!
"Harry, no!" Lilly shrieked, but he was walking across the floor and then Lilly had the portkey, and before she could do anything it yanked her and Christina away. They reappeared above Tottenham Court Road, a busy street in muggle London where nobody would bat an eyelid to a family appearing out of thin air. But she'd miscalculated somehow, because they were a hundred feet above it.
"I have to go back!" Lilly howled. "Get Christina to safety, then go back for Harry!" But they were already free falling above street. As the pavement rushed up to meet them, Lilly twisted her body to cushion Christina from the blow. Her head slammed backwards against the pavement and all went dark.