Prologue: Halloween 1981

Lily stared out at the stars from the window in Harry's room. It was already ten past ten, and James had yet to return from the Ministry. She watched the clouds move across the sky and sighed. She didn't want to hide like this, and she would have refused had it not been for little Harry. She wanted to protect him no matter what. So much was riding on James' meeting tonight. He had taken her results to the Ministry to see if they would approve tests of her new charm.

Flitwick would have been proud of her. She had found a charm that repelled the Killing Curse. James believed it would work on a large scale, but they needed the Ministry's consent for further testing. One could only cast the Killing Curse on one's husband so many times before getting a little tired of it. She smiled as she thought of how excited James had been the first time it had worked.

She had waited as he danced around the living room. He finally calmed down and kissed her deeply. So she told him to be careful or she'd do it again. And he'd told her that now she couldn't touch him. Sometimes James could act just like a three-year old child.

A shuffling of fabric made her check on her sleeping son only to discover that he was wide-awake and watching her. His deep green eyes blinked innocently up at her from the tangle of blankets around him. "So, you're not tired, huh? Daddy'll be home soon. Then you'll have to sleep." Lily picked up Harry and cuddled him closely. She spun her head around as she heard the front door close downstairs.

"Come on, Harry. Let's go see Daddy." She left the pale blue room and walked down the stairs slowly. "James?"

The silence in the house was a little terrifying.

"James? This isn't funny. Where are you?"

A dark figure appeared behind Lily as she wandered through the first floor of the small house looking for her husband. The shadow moved and suddenly a loud thud was followed by a shrieking cry. The dark figure picked up the baby and took him back up the stairs to his room. When he returned, he pulled a small vial out of his cloak and forced the unconscious Lily to swallow the smelly liquid inside.

The door opened to reveal another Lily. She stepped forward and watched as the true Lily began to change. "Will it work?"

"It will be hard to tell. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I can't let him kill her if the rumors are true. We will need her to defeat him. I…" The false Lily faltered. "I just wish I didn't have to leave our son."

"It will be all right. Remember to protect the boy."

The woman nodded and looked up the dark stairs. "The meeting will be over soon. Go. If James finds you here, he'll kill you."

"I know." The man kissed his wife lightly on the lips. "I love you, Cissa. Never forget that." He then turned around and picked up the real Lily. He walked out the open door and faded into the night.

Narcissa watched her husband vanish and wiped a tear from her eye. "I love you, too, Lucius."