Chapter two

James shuddered as wave after wave of pain flooded his body. Faintly, he heard someone shout again, and though he wanted to answer, James could not because his throat was clogged by the heat of the death spell. He could feel the power of the spell and could feel the impact as it hit, could feel the burn of flesh and snuffing of life. He heard a woman's scream echo reverberate through his body. The words, not Harry, please, not Harry, sounded through his mind, only to be cut off at mid scream. He knew, just knew, that the woman, a woman who meant a great deal to him, was dead. James wanted to also scream in pain, denial roaring through him. NO! NO, NO, NOOOO!

But, he couldn't get anything out. James gasped for breadth, wanting to roar with the pain of the moment, but nothing came. Then, he heard the harsh delighted laugh. James wanted to shut it out, but could do nothing but be caught up in this nightmare. His body arched and unfelt tears streamed down his anguished face. Enough, he wanted to shout, enough! But, fate was not kind. The harsh, evil laughter continued, gaining in volume inside James' head, feeling as though it would split his head asunder. Then, he heard a baby cry in terror. NO! He screamed internally. Not him, not him! He knew the baby, a boy, was about to be killed by that evil laughter as well, and he couldn't bear that thought.

The laughter sounded again and he could feel the build up of the dark magic. James wanted to turn away in pain, but again, the power that held him would not release him from the vision. Then, green magic was released and James tensed, waiting for the death wail of the baby. But no such sound came. Rather, he heard the coarse laugh turn to a scream of disbelief and rage, and James felt the green magic rip into a million pieces, dissipating into a cloud of green. He knew the dark presence hadn't been fully destroyed and that the green cloud was indeed sentient, but it was very weak, bleeding invisibly from some unexpected blow. A second more, and James felt it fade from his perspective. He heard the baby cry in irritation and thought it was the most wonderful sound he had ever heard. His tense body suddenly relaxed and the vision that had gripped him in its tight fist, left him. James let go and fell.

James didn't know what woke him, but one moment he was in darkness and the next, he heard the sound of life fill his consciousness. He felt the cold floor below him and realized that he was lying prone on the floor of the little gray room. There were voices around him and he tried to concentrate on what they were saying.

"James! James, come on, wake up, that's it, come on! No, no, don't go under again, come up, old pal, you can do it!" The voice was urgent and agitated, a familiar voice, a trusted voice.

"Sirius! Let him come up on his own, don't push him! He just needs to relax. That's right, James, just relax. You're okay, just fine." Another much loved voice, but more calm and smooth than the first.

"I believe, gentlemen, he is indeed awake." He knew this voice; it was Dumbledore, his old school master, now his friend and mentor.

James slowly opened his eyes and was confronted with the worried faces of Moony and Padfoot on either side of him; other faces seem to be crowded around behind them. Sirius broke out into a wide grin of relief, while Remus gave a slight smile, but it too conveying the relief he felt that James was awake and no longer in pain. James wanted to give a smile in return, but his body seemed drained of any energy, and all he could seem to do was blink rapidly and breathe.

Sirius broke the silence. "For God's sakes, Prongs, what the hell happened? You were down on the floor, withering and shuddering. What in God's name happened?" Remus shot Sirius a rebuking look, but it did not face the auror, as usual.

For those few moments, James had forgotten what he had witnessed in the vision. And, indeed, it was a vision, though he had never had one before. James drew a deep breadth, his face filled with horror and suddenly sat upright, forcing his friends to jump back in order to avoid colliding with him. He scanned the room and found Dumbledore, who also had a worried look on his old face.

"Voldemort!" James gasped, wanting to say more, but couldn't get it out of his mouth fast enough. "Harry…LILY!" James knew, without any doubt, that he had just heard Lily and Harry. There was no doubt in his mind that his wife was dead. The thought sent a jolt of pain inside him. And his son…his son…God, James had no clear idea of what happened. He knew Harry had survived Voldemort, but whether he was still alive was another question.

Dumbledore quickly came closer and said urgently, "What is it James? What have you seen?"

James was gasping with his effort to control his shaking. With Sirius' help, he stood up from the floor, swaying a bit, as the blood rushed to his head. He shook it to clear it and turned to Dumbledore, who was standing next to him. James reached out with a shaky hand and grasped the old wizard in the front of his robe.

"Voldemort…Voldemort attacked Godric's Hollow. Tonight, he came. I…just..heard them." James bowed his head, shudders racking his body. "Lily…dead….Harry…Oh God, Harry!...He's, he's..alive…don't know how! Voldemort, gone…vaporized…God, Lily!" James swallowed with the effort to speak coherently, his control cracking with the need to scream in anguish.

"James!" Sirius shouted, but Dumbledore put up a hand to silence his friend.

"James, are you sure of what you saw just now?" Dumbledore asked quietly, urgently.

James urgently nodded, then said, "I've got to go, I've to get there!" James made a move to find the small keyed ball that had allowed him entrance into the secret chamber. Sirius grabbed his arm to stay his movement, while Remus moved in front of him and placed his hands on his shoulders.

"James!" Remus said urgently, "please, calm down. Think! How could Voldemort have found out where Lily and Harry where? He could never have found out their whereabouts, especially since you move about everyday and the only one to know where your family is Sirius as your Secret Keeper. There is no way Voldemort could have gotten to them!"

Sirius drew in a startled breadth then, his face going pale, his eyes growing large with disbelief. The hand that restrained James tightened and his knuckles turned white. He whispered, "No, no, it can't be."

James bowed his head down, folding over in his grief. "No, not Sirius….Peter, Peter was the Secret Keeper, we switched….he…must have told…revealed their whereabouts. I told him I was leaving to come tonight and we arranged to communicate afterwards so I could let him know that I was back. We were at Godric's Hollow."

The room was stunned again and Remus' face grew as pale and horrified as Sirius' had become.

Dumbledore's voice slashed through the heavy silence. "I see. This changes the situation. We must get organized and move to Godric's Hollow to see what has happened. But, we cannot just rush into the situation without taking precaution." He turned to Mundungus Fletcher.

"Mr. Fletcher, if you would be so kind, would you please make a surveillance of Godric's Hollow from above ground. Since the Secret Keeper's oath has been broken, you will be able to find the place. You can communicate the information to me through this." Dumbledore pulled out his wand and created a small round mirror framed in silver. "It is enchanted so that you can have direct communication to me and everyone present here." Fletcher took the mirror, nodded, and, pulling out his keyed-ball of light, disappeared from the chamber.

James tried once again to leave the chamber, his urgency to get to his family driving him. But, his friends had not let go of him as yet. They both still had a tight hold on him, both silent with their thoughts, though, they, like James, were also shaking with the news.

But, before any of them moved, Dumbledore cut in again, his calm voice washing over them. "Now, we must decide on a plan of action. If Godric's Hollow has been razed, no doubt, there are Death Eater's about the place. We shall surround the area at certain points and move in." He waived his wand again and a map of the area surrounding James' house appeared. Dumbledore pointed to several areas where they could apparate to without drawing attention to their presence. He assigned various positions to the present witches and Wizards, giving them instructions as to what they should do. Neither James, Sirius, or Remus listened or participated in the conversation. They stood side by side, each lost in his own thought.

Sirius was praying that this was all a nightmare, that Peter hadn't truly betrayed James and Lily, that he hadn't handed the information to Voldemort. Sirius felt the impact of the blow, knew that it was his own fault for coming up with the idea of making Peter Secret Keeper. It was his fault, and now Lily might be dead. His one salvation lay in the hope James had not seen the present, but was seeing some vision of the future that could be. Please, please let it have been false. His redemption lay in that one hope, though even he could not help think that it was a false hope.

Remus was reeling with the information that Lily might be gone and that Peter could have betrayed them all. He hadn't known that Peter had been made Secret Keeper and in a flash, he realized why. They had thought that I was the traitor. There had been very faint rumors growing and he had also heard about it. He could not imagine how or why his best friends had thought that he was the one who would betray them, and he felt a pang at the thought that his brothers had not trusted him. How could they think that that? But then, Remus realized the irony of the situation. He would never have thought that any of them would betray the other, yet Peter, another brother, might have betrayed them all. And because of that, Lily and Harry could be gone. Remus reeled at the thought and prayed that James' vision had been false. He had never had visions before and knew that James had no Seer blood in him. It was possible that James was hallucinating, but even Remus felt that it was a hollow hope. All he could do now was pray that things hadn't been blown to hell.

As for James, he could not stop hearing Lily's scream over and over. His wife was dead. He knew the others were trying to believe that his vision was wrong, that it was something unexpected, but not necessarily true. He too hoped that he had a false vision, but James knew that it was true deep inside. His shudders were overtaking him and if he didn't get to Godric's Hollow soon and see what had happened he would burst. Dumbledore was doing something, but James couldn't pay attention, couldn't get past the tremors of his body and the screams in his head. Oh God, what would he do if Lily really was gone? And Harry…

Dumbledore finished giving the other Witches and Wizards their direction. He turned to the three Marauders and saw that they had not heard a single thing he had said. And, because he knew what they were going through, he gently called to them to get their attention.

"Gentleman," he said, "it is time for action. When Fletcher reports back, I am having the others apparate to certain spots around the house. I wish you three to join me at this spot." He pointed to a spot that was in front of the house, diagonal to the front gates. There was some bush covering there and it would conceal them enough from any Death Eaters that might be there.

"Do you understand me? We must not rush in there without precaution. We will apparate there, take stalk, then go in."

The three marauders nodded numbly to this. Just as Dumbledore was about to continue, the mirror in his cloak started to vibrate and chime. Dumbledore withdrew the pocket mirror, waved his wand at it so that it grew to ten times its size and let it over the square table so that everyone could hear what Fletcher had to report. Fletcher came into view, his brown hair waving around from the wind and they all could see the stars over his shoulder.

There was some sort of explosion and sound in the background and Fletcher had to shout into the mirror to be heard. "The house is burning and falling apart! There doesn't seem to be anyone here, all the Death Eaters have run away. I myself saw a few of them hurrying away from the house. I don't know if anyone survived, but it doesn't look good. We need reinforcements NOW!"

Dumbledore raised his voice and replied, "We understand Mundungus. We shall be there momentarily. Stay in the air till we get there and keep a close watch for Death Eaters." Fletcher nodded his assent and the mirror blackened. Dumbledore waived at it once again and it split into smaller mirrors, going to each of the members present.

"Take these with you and stick to the plan on where you should apparate. If you find anything, just use the mirror to communicate and we will all be able to hear you. Be careful and do not take any unnecessary risks. Hagrid, you will come with me." The giant man nodded.

Dumbledore looked at James. "Mr. Potter," he said, using his old school-master's voice, "will you be able to apparate without splinching yourself?"

James looked at his mentor's face, the eyes no longer twinkled in its customary fashion, but which held a cold determination, and nodded. "I will do what I have to do."

Dumbledore accepted his word. "Very well, let us be off then."

As one, the members of the Order of the Phoenix left the sterile gray room and apparated to Godric's Hollow that windy night in the fall of 1981. But none of them were prepared for the sight that met their eyes.