Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
ANs: What can I say? This is also in the plot bunny universe of In Outstretched Hands, so what can I REALLY say? This is just (hopefully, a one-shot) explaining a lot of things that happen in that universe. It's more exposition than anything else. The other stuff will be explained in the other fic.
And yes, I know it's odd for someone to go and walk into a field that's so vast, but trust me on this. Actually, the Potter house is probably the closest distance. The whole "vastness" is just an illusion placed there centuries ago and it is old earth magic, so...can't do anything. So yes, James and Lily don't realize that they walk a shorter distance than they "visually" see it, but it doesn't matter to them because they like the walk anyway.
And the type of wards they have is things like anti-apparition wards and so forth. They live in a small suburban muggle town (when I mean small suburban, I mean just that. But they live in an older part where it would be more on the outskirts of the suburban than anything else.) so even if the streets are interconnected and so forth, it's not as "huge" you know what I mean? Just...stick with me here, it's the best I could do in the situation and I don't think I can change it now.
Unless someone wants to give me some ideas...? If you do, just email me at kris yuy at yahoo.com [without the spaces] :D Thanks!
Oh, and if anyone is willing to become a beta for me or something, please do contact me. I'm usually online on AIM or YIM or just email me, it works too. :) Thanks.
Of Fog and Field
It was a dark night, surrounded by light fog and translucent moonlight. All around there was no sign of life—of human life, anyway—as the couple descended from their destination.
They had just escaped from their meeting and had apparated into an empty field near their own home. No one lived in this area for miles and roads would be for at least thirty kilometers in any direction. The couple chose to walk the distance; the wards they had set up around the house at least spanned to a ten kilometer distance. The best things to do were either walk or take a car; but at this time of night, it was easier for them to walk, being without a car.
The fog was hanging in the night, like an ominous fabric. The couple silently walked, listening to the heavy thud of their shoes against the ground.
They stopped for a moment, as the moon came in clear view. It was almost full now, just a few more days and it would just be right. They gazed up at it, knowing it could be one of their last special silent moments together.
They stood like that for awhile until the man gazed down at his companion's eyes, holding her hand tightly. He tried searching for an affirmation; all he got was fear, confusion, hesitation... they were lucky tonight. They almost got caught in a death eater's trap, but they managed to escape to make it tonight's Order meeting.
His companion just wanted to rest for awhile.
The same emotions were reflected in her eyes as she gave him a weak smile. For awhile, it seemed the silence hanging above them was becoming heavy with decision. The question was still unanswered.
The man's hazel eyes bored into her for reassurance. He could catch the reluctant worry, but she nodded. His face lit up as he grinned.
He took a hold of her hand as he gripped it tight, dragging her into the night. They ran like lovesick teenagers, frolicking through fields, being young and free. Their silvery laugh rang through the night as they continued on their merry way.
The man stopped for a breath, only to be pushed down by the force of the woman colliding into him. They fell with a thud as she fell on top, looking at his face for a few short moments. She laughed heartily, her face glowing. Happiness never felt good in such a long time.
She gazed her eyes down as her hand trailed down his cheek. It was a sweet moment, so innocent. His face held its boyish charm, especially now in the moonlight...
She leaned down with her half-opened eyes, inches away from kissing the man she loved. She could feel her body heat with electrifying sensation, a pulsing energy from within. She tilted her head, waiting for the pressing of his lips. As she felt the man's brush against hers, there was an innocent cry.
"Mum?"
It must have been a teenager, not quite deep, but not quite mature yet. A boy, a lost boy...
The woman's face became attentive as her eyes returned to its normal size. She lifted her head up, straining to hear the sound.
"Dad?"
She was unsure of this. Who was this boy? How could he be lost in the middle of nowhere? She was sure her neighbors didn't have children or at least, a boy in the family. All she knew was that the neighbors were either elderly or had a family of girls.
She whispered to the man beneath her.
"James... What should we do?"
She held out her hand to him as they helped each other up. She tried examining his eyes, unsure what to think. Who was this boy? Could he be a new death eater recruit? Could he be some random muggle lost? Who was he?
James brushed himself off as he grabbed his wand. His suspicions were just like hers. "I have no clue, Lily. We're just going to have to make due with this bugger."
Lily would have laughed at that, if the situation weren't so dire. What was her husband to call a teenage boy, a "bugger" anyhow? For all they knew, it could be some random death eater polyjuicing as a teenager. And that stunt they just had escaped from...
They were stepping cautiously on the grass, towards where the sound had been. James' wand was out like a sword, wary of any noise. Lily stalked away silently, watching to her right, as James did to his left. Cover as much ground; there wasn't much to hide in this place.
There was a rustle of sound scuttling the grass as Lily pointed her wand out, poised on instinct to attack. Another rustle came to the area as something dashed towards her legs. She jumped, crashing into James.
They murmured words of apology to each other. It had only been a rabbit.
The fog was starting to become thicker than it had been hours ago. They stopped as a shape of a boy came out of the clearing fog. The boy inched closer to them, his body illuminated by white light of the moon. He was pale, so pale, his skin looked milky white.
Could he be a ghost? But why would a ghost want to hang around here? And why show up now?
The boy was only several feet away now. His features started to become much more apparent as he came closer. Dark, ebony hair, a pair of round glasses...
A wand was held up in front of his face as he recited the spell.
"Lumos."
His eyes were a brilliant green.
And his skin had a peachy tint to it, resembling life; along with a lightening bolt scar on his forehead.
"Mum? Dad?" his voice ringing out for their attention.
They were in disbelief.
It had only been a couple of weeks ago when Lily announced her pregnancy. But this was something inconceivable, something unimaginable.
The boy was like a carbon copy of James, with certain Lily fixes. He was like a sixteen-year-old James, but on the short side. In essence, he could have been, if it weren't for those eyes...the haunted look in them brought shivers down her spine.
Was this how their child could grow up like? Grown up, looking like James, with a touch of Lily? Was this the look of their future child?
James turned to Lily with a guarded look.
He tried calculating this in his head. This boy is possibly their child? That was absurd! Nothing more a trick, an illusion! It could be a trap. They had to be careful.
His face was schooled into a focused demeanor as he gave her a nod. He was trying to approach the boy in an inconspicuous manner. His curiosity was growing larger.
The grass crunched underneath his feet as he walked toward him.
He kept his guard as he stopped. He inspected the area with his eyes, trying to make for improvised escape routes. He could catch him in any direction, if the boy chose to escape.
"Who are you?"
His curiosity bit him harder, but he fought the urge down. He could feel his blood turn cold.
Did the Death Eaters find out about Lily's pregnancy? Were they truly in danger now?
The boy lowered his wand. James stepped closer to him, deciding to take his chance and risk it. His wand was jabbing near the boy's chest as he grew more menacing.
But the boy had only said, "Nox," as the light went out. He felt James' eyes on his hand as he pocketed it.
"What's your name?"
Silence was drawing near. All the boy could do was stare his slytherin green eyes back into the man's hazel ones. He did not want to move, as if trying to remember all the lines and planes of his face. He wanted to take in the detail and put it in his memories for safekeeping.
James couldn't help but feel unnerved. The boy obviously didn't mind having creeping silence on his tail while staring at people. Did this boy ever look at himself? Those eyes were scary...
He looked the boy over, noticing the baggy muggle clothes hanging over his frame.
The silence made him itch all over.
"I said, 'Who are you?'"
He glared at him as his face hovered inches in front of the other. He positioned his wand at the boy's throat, making sure the situation was in his hands.
In a steely silken tone, he threatened the boy again.
"If you don't tell us your name, you will severely wish you were never born."
He jabbed his wand again. "Well?"
The boy's eyes widened as he smiled, warmth twinkling in them. Obviously he was either naive, had a lot of courage, or was plain damn foolish.
His eyes became wistful under those glasses as he held his hand to James' left cheek.
"Dad," in an innocently small voice. "It's me...Harry."
He felt...
What did he feel anyway? Disbelief? Terror? Horror? Madness? Insanity? Was he really his son?
As he tried to ponder on it, the boy hugged him.
James did not know what to think. He was speechless, he was...shocked.
"Dad...you're alive..."
He gripped at his shoulders, as he buried his face into the crook of his neck.
"Don't leave me again, Dad...I don't want to be left alone..."
The touch, it felt...natural. It did not feel like a foreign stranger in his arms; it felt like something of his own flesh and blood. The closeness, the ache of protection; he wanted to take this boy and save him from the dangers of the world.
He felt his hand creep up to the boy's back. He was flabbergasted. He didn't know what a dad was supposed to do situations like this. Hell! Maybe his own body was deceiving him and thinking that this truly was his son.
"Dad, don't leave me."
If James was clueless to know what to assess of the situation, then Lily was out of it.
What was going on? This wasn't right. How could James just go and let the boy hug him? She knew he wouldn't do that to complete strangers he felt were untrustworthy. To think about it, no one would; at least, not during these times.
She tried thinking, transfixed on the fatherly act just a few feet away. The boy's whimpers and his desperate cries...
Something came to Lily's mind as she remembered, gasping as her hands flew to her lips. Her eyes widened.
No, he couldn't be...
He just possibly...
She could recall James' voice from their home in Godric's Hollow that one, spring night.
He had been pacing, right after a bout of jumping and glee when Lily told him of the pregnancy. He was ecstatic, delighted. He could not help but swing his wife around in the spacious living room as he cried out joyously.
They had retreated into the kitchen, in hopes for some food to fill their stomachs. After all, Lily had just returned from a private healer session.
She could recall the look in his eyes as he offered her a chair, sitting down in his own.
'Lily, I might have to warn you...if the baby is born...'
She had looked at him quizzically.
'What, James?' She stared at him, wondrous. 'What is it?'
James sighed as he had pulled his hand through his messy hair.
'I'm warning you now, Lily...If we're killed...We need to take some precautions, Lily.'
He took Lily's hands in his as he solemnly looked at her.
'I know this might be hard to believe, but my family has always been able to manipulate time magic, ever since the beginning of this bloodline.'
He stared at her, watching as she tried processing the information.
He continued,
'When Potter children are young, they are susceptible to go off into various points in time if the child's parents—especially the mother—are not with them.'
She kept on staring ahead, as if she was looking through him. She snapped back from her reverie as she tried thinking this through.
'What is that supposed to mean?! That's entirely impossible! You can't manipulate time!'
She had jumped out of her seat.
'Lily, sit down. Listen,' he said, anxiously looking around as he took her hands in his again.
'There was a possibility I could have, Lily. But luckily for me, I still had my parents to keep me close by, so that wasn't a problem.'
There wasn't much he couldn't do. He had to get the truth out now.
'The thing is this obviously runs off ancient magic within the Potter blood. The children are capable of tapping into raw emotion better than we can without losing so much energy.'
He paused.
'Usually, the children are obviously with their mothers. Sometimes, if the mother is dead, the father can tap in, only if he has acquired a token. But that's usually a rare case.'
She stared back at him again.
'What do you mean a "token"?'
'Well, there's a tradition in our family that every first born child is given a necklace, or some piece of jewelry, depending on your Potter relative, to be handed down to the first born child to be given from its mother.'
Curiosity did not get the best of her at that point.
'How in Merlin's name did you family get this power, anyway?'
This was a clincher moment.
'Even though the details are rusty, seeing as the family is countless of centuries old, probably older than a millennia, the tale has been, well, modified quite a lot.'
He laughed, remembering his father smiling when he couldn't recall the whole tale himself.
'Well, in the beginning, there were more pureblood families than the ones that exist now. But there are only a handful of those pureblood families that exist even before the Hogwarts founders. There are probably three of those today, existing. Those are the Potters, the Malfoys, and (to the dismay of the Malfoys) the Weasleys.'
He smiled to himself.
'The families that did exist before the founders had powers unimaginable. They could manipulate all sorts of magic, depending on what family you were born in. And if you blood from two similar families, you'd probably be able to manipulate not one but TWO types of magic.'
Lily seemed to be enjoying this history lesson. You just learned new things in new situations, huh? He smiled as he continued.
'But as I said, only those three families exist now. So who knows what magic has been lost. Though I know at some point in time, some powerful wizard cursed both the Malfoys and the Weasleys...they used to be great allies you know, but that's all changed now.'
He cleared his throat.
'Enough about that, my dear lady. Let me get some butterbeer before we start getting into the juicy details.'
He gave her a wink as he proceeded towards the icebox, now with two butterbeers in hand. He handed one to her, as he sat down, drinking his own. Lily clutched the bottle without opening it, watching James set down his on the tabletop.
'There's only one reason how a Potter child is able to manipulate time. If he or she gains enough raw emotional power with the thought to change a certain event in time, he or she could, in a sense.'
He took another sip, urging Lily to do the same. She reluctantly took the cap off and drank hers down.
'This only happens to firstborn Potter children. That's why it's not such a big problem in the family. If all the Potter children were able to go through time, that'd be a scary situation!'
She shook her head as she laughed.
'What?!'
She smirked. 'I was imagining what would happen if you and Sirius were somewhere in the past, stranded without anything except your brains and wands. God, I'd feel sorry for those poor people trying to help you back! You'd probably turn their hair green first before you'd both come back!'
She fell into fits of laughter.
'Hey! It's not like we're that stupid to do that...'
'You never know...'
As their laughter died out, James resumed his speech.
'Well, at any rate, the little fellow will probably hold on to his abilities until he's eight or so. Sometimes there is a chance that they might retain their abilities after he's eight, but that hasn't happened in a couple of centuries.'
He tried to think for a moment.
'I believe the last time that happened it was during 1782 or something...
Anyway, don't worry about it.'
James took both butterbeers and placed them on the table, his hands in Lily's once more.
'So...I'm asking is...are you willing?'
She gave James a look.
'If I wasn't willing, I wouldn't be pregnant with your child, would I?'
James looked scared at that. What did he do?
Lily just smiled, as she kissed his cheek,
'Yes, I am totally willing.'
This was a lot to think about. If this was truly their child...But if he was able to arrive here, like that, then...
She could feel panic rising up within her. She started chanted to herself, silently, trying to reassure her own feelings.
Don't tell me that we're dead, or that something happened...
Lily hesitantly walked towards the two, unsure of what to think. She pressed her hand against James' shoulder.
"He's our son..."
James didn't saying as the boy pulled her into his embrace, feeling the warming comfort of familial security.
"Don't leave me, I love you..."
Before they could say anything, he disappeared.
They had felt his body vanish into thin air. Lily could only lie still in James' arms, thinking things over. What happened just now? What was going on? Was this real? Was this a ruse out to get them? What was happening?
All he could do was hold her, under the moonlight, his wand on the ground.
It had been foggy that night, but as the wind blew, it had become clearer as any day could have been.
James picked up his wand, pocketing it, as they slowly walked towards Godric's Hollow.
They expected the worst to come.