Lily Potter's eyes bolted open, cold sweat was dripping down her forehead and she was tangled in her bed covers. She had tears forming in her bright almond shaped emerald eyes, and her auburn hair was sticking to her back.
"Lily?" Her husband asked groggily opening his eyes, "Lily, what's wrong?"
Lily turned to face her husband, James Potter, "nothing, I just had a bad dream that's all." She said.
"Again?" James asked frowning and sitting up slightly.
Lily nodded, "but don't worry it's only a dream," she said, this was reassuring her self more then James.
There was a brief silence, "James what if it had been different, what if it had actually happened like in my dream?" Lily said fighting back tears.
"You can't think like that Lily." James said pulling her into a hug, "just be grateful that it didn't happen, just thank god that we were lucky."
"I know but I can't help thinking what might have happened." Lily said wiping away a lone tear. "I'm going to check on Harry."
James nodded and released his wife from his embrace.
Lily slid out of bed and out of her bedroom, she crept down the hallway into her sons room.
She pushed the door open, making sure that it didn't creek and entered the room.
"Mum," Harry Potter said as she entered in his cute baby voice.
"What are you doing awake?" She asked going over to his cot and lifting him out.
"Mum," Harry said again smiling and showing all of the teeth he had, which wasn't very many.
Lily went over to a chair by the window and she sat with her son, rocking him back and forward.
She looked out of the window as she sat there, her eyes scanned the dark front garden below her. They moved over the gate and her heart missed a beat and she sat bolt upright.
Her eyes did a double take and she relaxed, she thought she had seen a figure, clad in black, standing by her front gate, but it had just been a shadow.
She was so paranoid these days, well ever since they had been visited in the middle of the night by Lord Voldemort. But if you had been attacked in the middle of the night by the most feared Dark Wizard of all time, who was intent on killing your child, wouldn't you be a little scared?
She kissed her sons head as she thought how lucky he was to be here, how lucky she was to be here, in fact how lucky they all were to still be alive.
It had been a narrow escape, too close for comfort, she was just grateful that her potion hadn't back fired.
Lily remembered how she had found the potion that had ultimately saved not only her family, but possibly the whole wizarding world.
She had found it not long after she had gone into hiding, it was in a library book that she had found in the bottom of her old school trunk. She remembered smuggling it out of the restricted section during her seventh year to do a bit of extra revision for her potions NEWT.
She had forgotten about it after her exams, she must have thrown it in the bottom of her trunk and it stayed there with the rest of her old school things.
She had never really looked inside it after she left school, but she was feeling particularly down on this day and wanted to remind herself of better times. She had emptied her whole trunk, and she found it lurking at the very bottom.
She had been flicking through the book when she found the potion, it looked very difficult to make. It used ancient magic as a barrier against even the most powerful dark spells, and if brewed strongly enough could even protect against the killing curse, but even if it was brewed strongly enough for that you needed to take a large dosage which could be more fatal then the curse itself.
After reading about the potion she was determined to try and make it, even if it didn't work there was no harm in trying.
She had collected all the ingredients that were required, many of them she had never heard of before, and set about brewing it.
It needed to be kept in a cool dark place with no direct sunlight, this was because, as it said in the book, some of the ingredients had a tendency to explode when out I the sun for too long.
It was not a nice potion to make, she would often spend hours in the cellar at night, which was apparently the best time to brew it, sweating over the boiling cauldron. At many points when she was making it she was required to put her own blood in it, this was apparently because that blood signified death and this potion was protecting against it. But she knew that it would all be worth it if it saved her son.
She finished brewing it about a month before Harry's 1st birthday, she bottled it and left the in the cellar, hoping that she would never have to use it.
After that she had forgotten about it, as she had never actually had to use it, until the night that Voldemort arrived in her front garden. The night that still haunted her.
2 MONTHS EARLIER
"IT'S HIM LILY!" James shouted, "HE'S COME!"
Through the window of Godric's Hollow you could see the outline of Lord Voldemort. His long black robes billowing behind him in the wind. He held his wand in front of him.
The world of Lily Potter was crashing down around her ears, only a few seconds earlier she had been celebrating the fact that she was expecting a second child with her husband, but it seemed impossible now that she could have possibly felt happy at all.
James turned to face her, there was no fear in his eyes, she knew that he had been preparing for this moment mentally ever since they had gone into hiding.
"Lily," he said in a strangely calm voice, "go and get Harry, get out as quickly as you can."
Lily went to James, "I love you." She whispered and she kissed him.
James pulled away after a few seconds, "I love you too," he said, it was paining him to do this, it was like his heart was being ripped out. "Now go," he said and he watched his wife run from the room.
"Emma, take the twins and go out the back. When you're out of the house make a portkey, then go for help." James looked at Emma, but she hadn't been listening to a word that he had said. She was standing transfixed on the window and seemed to be in a daze.
"EMMA!" James shouted, he didn't have anytime to loose, the Aurors and enchantments would keep Voldemort back for long.
"What?" Emma asked taking her eyes off the window and looking at James.
James ignored her and turned to Jess, "go with her and help her."
"But I need to help you," Jess said, "You-"
"No," James said and she knew there was no point in arguing, "now go, quickly."
Jess hugged James quickly, "good luck." She said and then she picked up Sinead, Emma had Reece and ran from the house, Emma in front of her.
They raced to the back door, "you take Sinead." Jess said handing Emma her other child. She then scooped up a mug from the table and, with her heart pounding, followed Emma out the door.
"Get your wand out." She hissed, "and stay behind me."
Emma slid behind Jess with her wand out, it seemed that she could not think for herself, she just had to do what she was told.
"Keep as quiet as you can," Jess whispered as she held the mug out in front of her and waved her wand, but before she could say the incantation to turn it into a portkey Emma shouted.
"JESS!" And a curse flew past her left arm.
"Crap!" Jess muttered.
Emma started firing spells at the two black figures that were advancing towards them. Her aim was terrible but this was because, one, she was holding two children in her arms, and two, she was shaking with fear.
Jess ducked down a another spell flew past her ear.
"Portus," she said tapping the mug with her wand, "hold on." She shouted to Emma and her friend put her hand on the mug too.
"Bugger," Emma shouted as a spell hit her arm and it started to bleed.
"Just hold on," Jess said and she put an arm around her friend, "1,2,3."
On number three Jess Emma and the two children disappeared as the mug transported them away.
Lily Potter ran out of the living room and out into the hall, she needed to get Harry and get out . She went to the stairs and was half way up when she stopped and raced back down again.
"The potion." She said to herself as she ran back to the ground floor, yanked the door to the cellar open and pointed her wand.
"Accio potion." The small phial of blood red potion flew into her hands.
She held onto it tight and ran back to the stairs.
"Lily, what are you doing?" James asked as he emerged from the living room and took up his place in front of the stairs, ready to die defending his family. "Get Harry out."
Lily didn't say anything but she put her hand on his shoulder as she ran past and up the stairs.
She burst into her sons room just as she heard a crash downstairs, Lord Voldemort had breached the house.
Harry was standing in his cot, his hands holding onto the bars, he had obviously been woken by the commotion downstairs.
"Here Harry." Lily said un corking the potion, "Drink this, it will keep you safe."
She heard yells, they were closer then before, the fight must have moved up onto the staircase.
"There's a good boy." Lily said as she tipped the contents into Harry's mouth and he began to swallow. She just prayed to God that she had brewed it strongly enough.
Just as she tipped the last dregs of blood red liquid into his mouth the door flew off its hinges and James came flying into the room followed by Lord Voldemort, standing in the door way.
Voldemort fired another spell at James and he was sent flying through the window.
"JAMES!" Lily screamed and Voldemort looked at her.
"Move out of the way." He spat and he flicked his wand and Lily was sent across the room and smashed into the wall, then everything went black.
PRESENT DAY
Lily stood up, Harry had fallen asleep in her arms. She went back over to the cot and placed him inside, kissing him on the head as she did so. Then she left the room.
She looked at her bedroom door, and she heard snores coming from inside, James must have fallen asleep again. She proceeded down the stairs and she sat in the living room.
Lily sat in the dark room, a tear rolling down her face as she remembered how she felt two months ago and, although she was happy that her family wasn't dead, she couldn't help but feel that she shouldn't be.
Why hadn't Voldemort just killed her? How had Harry survived?
She found it hard to believe that it had just been her potion, to be honest she didn't think it would work. She had looked up the potion in many different books to try and find it's theory, to find out how it worked, but she couldn't find it anywhere. It was like it didn't exist.
Maybe the potion hadn't had any effect at all, maybe Harry had special powers she knew nothing about, but she doubted that very much.
She sighed as she remembered a conversation that she had had with Dumbledore in hospital a few days after the attack.
She had told him about the potion and how she could find no evidence of it in any other books.
Dumbledore had just smiled and nodded and gave her a cryptic reply, "I very much doubt that something as simple as a potion could have protected Harry, not matter how complicated it was to make. The only thing that could have saved him was your love. I believe that it wasn't the ingredients that you put into the potion knowingly that saved you son, but the one that you put in without knowing it that did."
Lily was very frustrated with this answer, why could he not just give her a straight answer? It would have saved a lot less confusion, and wouldn't have taken as long to say! But Dumbledore was sometimes too clever for his own good.
She had thought over what he had said many times, she didn't think she had put anything extra into the potion, but he had she that she didn't know he had done it.
Had she been asleep when she did it or something?
Then she remembered the other thing he had said, that only her love could have protected him. Had he meant that she had put her love in it?
Had the fact that she loved her son so much and that she was willing to do anything to keep him alive somehow been transferred to the potion? Is that what had saved her son?
Lily got up and went down into the cold dark cellar, the floor was very cold under foot and she winced as her bare feet touched it.
The cellar smelt to damp and it felt the same, she shivered as she lit her wand tip and a thin beam of light lit the room.
She went over to a table on the far wall, this was where she had brewed the potion, and it had been where she had left the book.
She cast the beam of light over the wooden surface of he table, but the book wasn't there.
"Odd," Lily said to herself. She searched the whole cellar but it wasn't there.
She was positive that she didn't move it, and James wouldn't have taken it. She wasn't sure that he even knew there was a cellar here
She sighed, maybe she'd look again in the morning when she wasn't so tired.
She went back up the stairs and into the main house, closing the cellar door behind her.
She went back into the dark living room and sank into the sofa, she was now utterly confused!
She closed her eyes, thinking about the potion, and she soon drifted off to sleep again.
Right that's the first chapter done, that was really just sort of explaining how they survived. I couldn't come up with a really good way of making Lily and James live and Voldemort go away so I just had to use this potion idea.
If you haven't read the other two stories then you might be a bit confused, I would advise reading the other two stories, otherwise you might not get this story. It might not be necessary but I'll probably be making references to things that happened in the other stories.
I haven't mentioned anything about Wormtail in this chapter, but don't worry that's for the next chapter, god I hate him!
Right I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and I can't wait to hear what you thing.
P.S If anyone has anything that they really want me to include in this story, or any ideas that they think I could use, then please don't hesitate to email me. : )