A/N: Hey all! I've finally got internet access!!! Thanks for all the
reviews!! You have no idea how good that makes me feel oh, in response
to Killerscissors, James and Lily are going out at the moment, and thanks
especially to Lady Riddle for the sweet review!!!
Heavy footsteps echoed through the empty halls of Godric's Hallow as James gave Lily a quick tour of his home. Lily attempted to suppress her amazement as James led her up to the winding staircase to the bedroom floor. Pleasantly faced witches and wizards smiled down at Lily from the many gilded portraits lining the second floor hallway.
"So . . ." James began tentatively, "What do you think so far?"
"It's amazing!" Lily gushed breathlessly, knowing that no words could ever describe the breath-stealing abilities of Godric's Hallow.
James released his breath in a contented sigh, "Well, there are only three rooms left, Sirius', the guest room, and mine." He involuntarily held his breath again, as if expecting her to protest, to ask him to just show her to the guest room and leave her be, but Lily just smiled and waited for the tour to continue.
Striding over to the door on the far right, James gave three sharp knocks before hollering, "Hey, Sirius, you decent?"
Sirius poked his head through the door questioningly but as James cocked his head towards Lily he smiled and opened his door wide.
Lily and James stepped inside and Lily grinned in spite of herself. The room was different than that of muggle boys, yet it was visibly the room of a teenage boy. Half-eaten boxes of chocolate frogs littered the floor along with numerous purchases from Zonkos. What set Sirius apart from most boys was the immaculate state of his robes and muggle clothing stacked neatly in drawers and hung in their stately forms in the spacious closets.
"So, this is Sirius' mess of a room-" James started.
"Mess?" Sirius snorted, "She obviously hasn't seen your room yet."
Lily tried to hide her smile as she contributed to the teasing, "Why? How bad is his room?"
"Oh, I'm sure he probably straightened it before you came, you know, swept the dirt under the rug and all that, but usually it looks like a disaster area. You know, the beach after a hurricane, a field after a tornado, a-"
"All right! Sirius, I'm sure she gets it." James' face had flushed with embarrassment.
Lily laughed at James' meek expression and swiftly kissed his cheek. "I'm sure it's not that bad," she giggled. "C'mon, let's go."
As James led Lily out the door, Sirius called out "Remember, Lils, if James' room is too frightening for you, I'm still single!"
Lily dissolved into another fit of giggles as James strode back and slammed Sirius' door, "What does he mean he's still single? He's going out with Kelly!"
"Actually," James hesitated, "Sirius received an owl from her two days ago, she dumped him for that Davies bloke."
The smile vanished from Lily's face, "You're joking!"
"I wish I was,"
"But, why?" Lily stared incredulously at James.
A sarcastic smirk spread across his face, "I guess it was easier for her to date someone from her own house. (A/N: More like I continuously forgot to write her in . . .) You know, same qualities and all. Anyways," he trailed off as they approached a hand-carved mahogany door, the word "James" etched across the arch, "Well, here it is." The door swung open to reveal a room that Lily could only imagine reflected all the qualities of James Potter.
A deep green comforter graced a queen-sized bed with a mahogany frame. Posters of fast moving quidditch players plastered the walls, hiding the wall's true color, faded comic books of "Marvin the Mad Muggle" (A/N: I don't have the fourth book with me now, so if that's wrong, please correct me!) lay scattered across the floor occasionally joined by a stray sock or two, but most of James' clothes seemed to have found their way to a closet or drawer. Old or forgotten school books were tacked neatly in a corner and numerous quidditch books peeked out from under James' bed as if they'd been shoved there as an afterthought. Emrys was sleeping in a golden cage atop a mahogany (a/n: can you tell I like mahogany? ) roll-top desk along with a countless number of unfinished letters and quill stubs. A smeared black line trickled down the leg of the desk, just below a deep scorch mark, suggesting to Lily that James frequently knocked over candles and inkpots. But what intrigued Lily the most were the few muggle devices James had scattered about his room; curving around his bed post was a metallic, flexible lamp, a record player lay between stacks of records labeled with numerous recognizable muggle bands, and a polished phone lay atop the desk.
"James, where did you get this?" Lily walked across to his night stand, lifting a miniature in her hand.
James stood in the doorway shuffling his feet, the blood rushing to his cheeks "Emmeline Vance took it at a quidditch match a while ago. She gave it to Remus 'cause she knew you two were friends, and, erm, he gave it to me because he knew I er . . . fancied you . . ." James mumbled, his face redder than he was sure it had ever been in his life.
Lily smiled as she gazed at the picture. She had a wool-knit cap pulled over her ears and was furiously waving a Gryffindor flag. The wind was pulling her hair in dizzy circles around her head as she laughed into the camera. She remembered that day, cheering as Gryffindor scored another goal, laughing at Emmeline to get the camera out of her face.
"So, Emmeline took this picture and gave it to Remus who gave it to you?"
"It's pathetic, I know," James muttered.
"Pathetic is about the farthest thing from my mind," Lily smiled, placing the picture back on the nightstand she walked over to James, "I think it's sweet." She slipped her arms around James' waist, embracing him. "Hey, you've got a picture of me but I don't have one of you." Lily pushed out her lower lip, causing James to laugh at her faked pouting.
"C'mon," he laughed affectionately, "let's show you to your room."
Beads of glistening sweat clung to his brow as James tossed and turned, green sheets scrunched to a ball at his feet. The pain etched across his face was not the appearance of a dreamer, but one of a child consumed in a nightmare.
James Potter stood alone in an inky-black room void of light. Misty tendrils enshrouded him, curling about his limbs as he stood stock-still amidst it all. "Hello?" he called out tentatively, "Is anyone there?" High-pitched cackling answered his call, chilling his bones. "Lumos," he muttered, hoping that the gift of visibility would aid his predicament. The light at the tip of his wand cast ghostly shadows through darkened space. He placed one shaky foot after another, trying to force his way through the thickening fog, when another form began to emerge from the depths of the mist.
"Hello?" James called again, "is someone there?"
A frightening chill crept down James' spine as his parents stepped forth from the fog, eyes wide and blank, faces full of fear. "James," his father mouthed, James' mother clinging to his side, "Run!"
Before James could respond a flash of green light exploded from the fog, illuminating the void. "Mom? Dad?" James murmured weakly, casting his wand around, the light landed on two stiff corpses of his parents. "No, no . . ." he backed away in horror, not wanting to believe what he was seeing.
"James?" A hoarse voice spoke from behind him. James whirled around to see a pallid Sirius standing there. "James, he's here."
"Sirius, what are you talking about, who's here?" James grabbed his friend's shoulders, trying to shake him back into logical sense.
"He is." Another voice whispered from the shadows.
James spun around to see Remus and Peter approaching. "Not you two too!" He groaned. "Moony, what is with you?"
"You need to run, James," Sirius began again, "He knows, he's after you." Sirius' eyes darted back and forth between Remus and Peter before taking James aside and whispering, "Switch to Peter, he knows I'm your secret keeper, you need to switch to Peter."
"Sirius, I don't understa-"
"James," a soft, lilting voice cut him off. James turned to see Lily standing with a baby wrapped in her arms. "Sirius is right, we need to go."
Before James could respond, a low muttering filtered in through the fog, followed by another blinding flash of green light. "No!" he screamed as Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Lily fell to the ground, the baby tumbling from Lily's limp arms as she hit the ground. High-pitched cackling filled the air yet again, mixed with the baby's wails. James sunk to his knees, cradling his head in his hands as he sobbed. The shadows surrounding him changed from the deepening black to a brilliant blood-red. "No," James moaned, "Sirius, Lily, Remus, no!"
As his sobbing began to subside and the baby's wailing dimmed, James could hear a new sound protruding from the bloody mist. "James! James!" a voice sobbed in terror, "James!"
James Potter started, sitting straight up in his bed, sheets in a tangled mess around his ankles. Panting hard, he looked around his room. "A dream," he murmured reassuringly to himself, "It was just a dream."
"James!" The frightened scream rang again, echoing down the hall. Now consciously awake, James recognized the alarmed voice as Lily's.
Kicking the tangled sheets off from around his ankles, James bolted out of bed and down the hall, his bare feet smacking hard against the wooden floor. Throwing open the guest room door without the slightest hesitation, James caught sight of a sobbing Lily writhing on the bed, covers twisted about her body, confining her movements.
"Lily, shh, Lily, it's okay," James fled to her side, trying to shake her from the nightmare, "Lily, wake up!"
"James?" Lily blinked up through tears, "Is it really you?"
"Yeah, Lily, I'm here." He smiled.
"Oh, James! It was awful! I thought, I thought," she coked between sobs, "I thought you were dead! There was this green flash, and you fell, and I took the baby and ran, and he came after me and, oh, James!" She flung her arms around him and sobbed into his night shirt as he patted her shoulder awkwardly, murmuring to her in a soothing voice. "Shh, Lily, it's okay, it was just a dream, nothing more. Everything's all right."
But as Lily's sobs began to settle and she relaxed in his arms, James couldn't help but reflect nervously on what she'd said about the green flash and baby, both of which had also taken place in his own dream. 'Baby,' James thought to himself, 'we have a baby.'HeH
A/N: I know the idea of James having Lily's picture is extremely overused, but I quite like the idea, I think it's cute, so forgive me for adding it in here. Oh, and I'm just going to assume that Emmeline wasn't a Gryffindor and was in the same year as Lily and James. The dreams are also overused, but what can I say? I guess I'm not very original. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!! Please review!!!
Heavy footsteps echoed through the empty halls of Godric's Hallow as James gave Lily a quick tour of his home. Lily attempted to suppress her amazement as James led her up to the winding staircase to the bedroom floor. Pleasantly faced witches and wizards smiled down at Lily from the many gilded portraits lining the second floor hallway.
"So . . ." James began tentatively, "What do you think so far?"
"It's amazing!" Lily gushed breathlessly, knowing that no words could ever describe the breath-stealing abilities of Godric's Hallow.
James released his breath in a contented sigh, "Well, there are only three rooms left, Sirius', the guest room, and mine." He involuntarily held his breath again, as if expecting her to protest, to ask him to just show her to the guest room and leave her be, but Lily just smiled and waited for the tour to continue.
Striding over to the door on the far right, James gave three sharp knocks before hollering, "Hey, Sirius, you decent?"
Sirius poked his head through the door questioningly but as James cocked his head towards Lily he smiled and opened his door wide.
Lily and James stepped inside and Lily grinned in spite of herself. The room was different than that of muggle boys, yet it was visibly the room of a teenage boy. Half-eaten boxes of chocolate frogs littered the floor along with numerous purchases from Zonkos. What set Sirius apart from most boys was the immaculate state of his robes and muggle clothing stacked neatly in drawers and hung in their stately forms in the spacious closets.
"So, this is Sirius' mess of a room-" James started.
"Mess?" Sirius snorted, "She obviously hasn't seen your room yet."
Lily tried to hide her smile as she contributed to the teasing, "Why? How bad is his room?"
"Oh, I'm sure he probably straightened it before you came, you know, swept the dirt under the rug and all that, but usually it looks like a disaster area. You know, the beach after a hurricane, a field after a tornado, a-"
"All right! Sirius, I'm sure she gets it." James' face had flushed with embarrassment.
Lily laughed at James' meek expression and swiftly kissed his cheek. "I'm sure it's not that bad," she giggled. "C'mon, let's go."
As James led Lily out the door, Sirius called out "Remember, Lils, if James' room is too frightening for you, I'm still single!"
Lily dissolved into another fit of giggles as James strode back and slammed Sirius' door, "What does he mean he's still single? He's going out with Kelly!"
"Actually," James hesitated, "Sirius received an owl from her two days ago, she dumped him for that Davies bloke."
The smile vanished from Lily's face, "You're joking!"
"I wish I was,"
"But, why?" Lily stared incredulously at James.
A sarcastic smirk spread across his face, "I guess it was easier for her to date someone from her own house. (A/N: More like I continuously forgot to write her in . . .) You know, same qualities and all. Anyways," he trailed off as they approached a hand-carved mahogany door, the word "James" etched across the arch, "Well, here it is." The door swung open to reveal a room that Lily could only imagine reflected all the qualities of James Potter.
A deep green comforter graced a queen-sized bed with a mahogany frame. Posters of fast moving quidditch players plastered the walls, hiding the wall's true color, faded comic books of "Marvin the Mad Muggle" (A/N: I don't have the fourth book with me now, so if that's wrong, please correct me!) lay scattered across the floor occasionally joined by a stray sock or two, but most of James' clothes seemed to have found their way to a closet or drawer. Old or forgotten school books were tacked neatly in a corner and numerous quidditch books peeked out from under James' bed as if they'd been shoved there as an afterthought. Emrys was sleeping in a golden cage atop a mahogany (a/n: can you tell I like mahogany? ) roll-top desk along with a countless number of unfinished letters and quill stubs. A smeared black line trickled down the leg of the desk, just below a deep scorch mark, suggesting to Lily that James frequently knocked over candles and inkpots. But what intrigued Lily the most were the few muggle devices James had scattered about his room; curving around his bed post was a metallic, flexible lamp, a record player lay between stacks of records labeled with numerous recognizable muggle bands, and a polished phone lay atop the desk.
"James, where did you get this?" Lily walked across to his night stand, lifting a miniature in her hand.
James stood in the doorway shuffling his feet, the blood rushing to his cheeks "Emmeline Vance took it at a quidditch match a while ago. She gave it to Remus 'cause she knew you two were friends, and, erm, he gave it to me because he knew I er . . . fancied you . . ." James mumbled, his face redder than he was sure it had ever been in his life.
Lily smiled as she gazed at the picture. She had a wool-knit cap pulled over her ears and was furiously waving a Gryffindor flag. The wind was pulling her hair in dizzy circles around her head as she laughed into the camera. She remembered that day, cheering as Gryffindor scored another goal, laughing at Emmeline to get the camera out of her face.
"So, Emmeline took this picture and gave it to Remus who gave it to you?"
"It's pathetic, I know," James muttered.
"Pathetic is about the farthest thing from my mind," Lily smiled, placing the picture back on the nightstand she walked over to James, "I think it's sweet." She slipped her arms around James' waist, embracing him. "Hey, you've got a picture of me but I don't have one of you." Lily pushed out her lower lip, causing James to laugh at her faked pouting.
"C'mon," he laughed affectionately, "let's show you to your room."
Beads of glistening sweat clung to his brow as James tossed and turned, green sheets scrunched to a ball at his feet. The pain etched across his face was not the appearance of a dreamer, but one of a child consumed in a nightmare.
James Potter stood alone in an inky-black room void of light. Misty tendrils enshrouded him, curling about his limbs as he stood stock-still amidst it all. "Hello?" he called out tentatively, "Is anyone there?" High-pitched cackling answered his call, chilling his bones. "Lumos," he muttered, hoping that the gift of visibility would aid his predicament. The light at the tip of his wand cast ghostly shadows through darkened space. He placed one shaky foot after another, trying to force his way through the thickening fog, when another form began to emerge from the depths of the mist.
"Hello?" James called again, "is someone there?"
A frightening chill crept down James' spine as his parents stepped forth from the fog, eyes wide and blank, faces full of fear. "James," his father mouthed, James' mother clinging to his side, "Run!"
Before James could respond a flash of green light exploded from the fog, illuminating the void. "Mom? Dad?" James murmured weakly, casting his wand around, the light landed on two stiff corpses of his parents. "No, no . . ." he backed away in horror, not wanting to believe what he was seeing.
"James?" A hoarse voice spoke from behind him. James whirled around to see a pallid Sirius standing there. "James, he's here."
"Sirius, what are you talking about, who's here?" James grabbed his friend's shoulders, trying to shake him back into logical sense.
"He is." Another voice whispered from the shadows.
James spun around to see Remus and Peter approaching. "Not you two too!" He groaned. "Moony, what is with you?"
"You need to run, James," Sirius began again, "He knows, he's after you." Sirius' eyes darted back and forth between Remus and Peter before taking James aside and whispering, "Switch to Peter, he knows I'm your secret keeper, you need to switch to Peter."
"Sirius, I don't understa-"
"James," a soft, lilting voice cut him off. James turned to see Lily standing with a baby wrapped in her arms. "Sirius is right, we need to go."
Before James could respond, a low muttering filtered in through the fog, followed by another blinding flash of green light. "No!" he screamed as Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Lily fell to the ground, the baby tumbling from Lily's limp arms as she hit the ground. High-pitched cackling filled the air yet again, mixed with the baby's wails. James sunk to his knees, cradling his head in his hands as he sobbed. The shadows surrounding him changed from the deepening black to a brilliant blood-red. "No," James moaned, "Sirius, Lily, Remus, no!"
As his sobbing began to subside and the baby's wailing dimmed, James could hear a new sound protruding from the bloody mist. "James! James!" a voice sobbed in terror, "James!"
James Potter started, sitting straight up in his bed, sheets in a tangled mess around his ankles. Panting hard, he looked around his room. "A dream," he murmured reassuringly to himself, "It was just a dream."
"James!" The frightened scream rang again, echoing down the hall. Now consciously awake, James recognized the alarmed voice as Lily's.
Kicking the tangled sheets off from around his ankles, James bolted out of bed and down the hall, his bare feet smacking hard against the wooden floor. Throwing open the guest room door without the slightest hesitation, James caught sight of a sobbing Lily writhing on the bed, covers twisted about her body, confining her movements.
"Lily, shh, Lily, it's okay," James fled to her side, trying to shake her from the nightmare, "Lily, wake up!"
"James?" Lily blinked up through tears, "Is it really you?"
"Yeah, Lily, I'm here." He smiled.
"Oh, James! It was awful! I thought, I thought," she coked between sobs, "I thought you were dead! There was this green flash, and you fell, and I took the baby and ran, and he came after me and, oh, James!" She flung her arms around him and sobbed into his night shirt as he patted her shoulder awkwardly, murmuring to her in a soothing voice. "Shh, Lily, it's okay, it was just a dream, nothing more. Everything's all right."
But as Lily's sobs began to settle and she relaxed in his arms, James couldn't help but reflect nervously on what she'd said about the green flash and baby, both of which had also taken place in his own dream. 'Baby,' James thought to himself, 'we have a baby.'HeH
A/N: I know the idea of James having Lily's picture is extremely overused, but I quite like the idea, I think it's cute, so forgive me for adding it in here. Oh, and I'm just going to assume that Emmeline wasn't a Gryffindor and was in the same year as Lily and James. The dreams are also overused, but what can I say? I guess I'm not very original. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!! Please review!!!