This chapter is dedicated to: SweetSouthernGal, who has reviewed absolutely everything that I've written, even my worst piece with so much enthusiasm! Thank you so much!
James sat across the hall from Lily's room. He had been waiting there for almost forty-five minutes when one of the healers came out.
James looked up hopefully, "Can I see her now?" he asked, his face lighting up.
The healer gave him a sympathetic look. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Potter," she said, taking her gloves off.
"What happened to Lily and the baby?" James asked, getting up and walking over to the door.
"We don't know exactly, she stopped breathing, then her heart stopped. We couldn't revive her. We weren't able to deliver the baby in time, he died also," she replied looking down.
"No," James whispered. He fell to the ground in tears. "NO! THEY'RE NOT DEAD!" he shouted, pounding on the wall.
"If you'd like to go say goodbye to them now, we'll just take care of the bodies, so there's less stress for you," she said, helping James up, and opening the door for him.
He only saw that there was blood everywhere. On the floor, covering the healers who were filing out of the room, you could even see it on the blankets that had been thrown all over the room. They were soaked in it.
He sat down in the now familiar chair that stood by Lily's bed. She lay completely still, as if she were sleeping. She looked peaceful, and she probably was, as she was in a better place now. Her eyes were closed, and her hair was splayed out across the pillow. There was a sheet covering her lower half, and he pulled it down. He could see that they had attempted to get the baby out using a muggle technique, a caesarean. He bent over and kissed the very top of her still large belly.
"Goodbye, baby," he whispered to it. He brought himself to once again look at Lily's face. It was now tinged with blue, from lack of oxygenated blood.
"I love you, Lily," he whispered, and kissed her one last time before leaving her forever.
Seeing that James had finally left, the female healer walked back in, and chuckled to herself a bit.
"You're such a fool Potter, such a fool," she said to herself, and cast a charm upon Lily, then left with her. But she didn't end up in a morgue, or even a hospital. She wasn't at an undertaker's. She was at a far worse place. She was in the Riddle's Mansion.
"I see you've brought the bitch back, and her little half-blood brat. He doesn't suspect a thing, does he?" Voldemort asked.
The woman shook her head. "The plan is going perfectly. He fell for the fake incisions and everything!" she said, excitedly. The woman speaking was of medium height and you could see a few blonde curls bouncing in front of her round face.
"Good work, Bella, good work," he said, smiling.
For the next few weeks, James stayed in his room day and night, only leaving up to go to the bathroom.
Molly and Sirius brought him food, and the only person he allowed in was baby Ron. He felt that he could really open up to him. You could hear James sobbing much of the time. He had taken the loss of Lily and the baby hard.
On July 31st, he finally came out. He looked like a completely different person. He was thinner, as he hadn't been eating. His hair was finally tamed, but only because it was weighed down in grease that rivaled Snape's hair.
First he took a shower, during the past few weeks he had completely disregarded his personal hygiene and grooming. He headed downstairs in fresh clean clothes with his hair still wet, and was greeted with many sympathetic looks and some teary hugs.
Sirius was sitting at the table, talking with Dumbledore. He looked very excited and happy. James couldn't believe how anyone could be happy at a time like this, but he still sat down next to his best friend. He grabbed a cup of coffee, and sipped it, listening to Sirius talk. Apparently he hadn't noticed James sitting down next to him. When he did notice, he shut up immediately.
"How much did you hear?" he asked, glaring at James. James personally didn't think that that was the way to treat your best friend, who had just lost the love of his life and his son, but this was Sirius, so he let it go.
"I heard nothing, Sirius, but what does it matter?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Anything that Sirius had to tell Dumbledore, he could tell James.
"Are you sure you didn't hear a word I said?" he asked.
"Padfoot, I'm a Marauder, would I lie to you?" James asked in return. Sirius now raised his eyebrow.
"That's a trick question, Prongs," he replied.
"Mr. Black, I think that you should tell him what you have just told me," Dumbledore said, it was the first thing James had heard from him the whole time he had been down there.
"James, I think Lily is still alive, which means that you're baby might still be alive as well," Sirius said, for once, the tone of voice matching his name.
"How? I saw her right after she…d-died," James said, it was still hard for him to say that Lily was dead. His mind still thought that she was somewhere else, and she would be coming back soon.
"My brother-" Sirius started, saying the word brother as if it were the most disgusting thing in the world. "Regulus contacted me this morning. He wanted me to help him escape from Voldemort. He said that he couldn't handle it anymore. He also mentioned that Voldemort has been pretty happy lately, that for once the Dark Lord's plans are coming together. He said that there was a prisoner that looked a lot like Lily, and then he went on about a prophecy, or at least that's what I think he said," Sirius said, all in one breath.
"I was witness to the prophecy that Sirius is talking about. Your and Lily's unborn child fits the prophecy perfectly, that is, if he is born tonight. Although there is another, lesser known family that also fits the prophecy, however Voldemort doesn't know that," Dumbledore said, that famous twinkle in his eye.
"Let's find her then," James said, putting down his cup.
"It's not that easy," Sirius said.
"What do you mean?" James asked.
"We have no clue where she is," Dumbledore supplied.
James groaned. This was getting them absolutely nowhere.
"Well, we don't have much time to find her then, yesterday was her due date," James said.
"It's fine, you just sit back, we'll take care of it James," Dumbledore said, putting a hand on James's shoulder.
"I can't just sit back and watch while Lily's life is on the line!" James shouted.
Sirius looked surprised at James's sudden outburst. "Calm down, Prongs."
"I will NOT calm DOWN!" he yelled, "Lily is in trouble, and I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!"
Sirius took out his wand and stunned James. He fell to the ground. "I'm sorry, mate," Sirius said when he walked by, trying to plan out the best way to get Lily back for James.
Lily woke up surrounded by darkness. She tried to sit up, but found out that she couldn't. Suddenly a wand was lit and she could see Voldemort's horrible face. She screamed.
"Miss Evans, I am not that bad to look at," he said chuckling to himself. "Do you know why I brought you here?" he asked.
"Because you're a sick bastard who likes to see people suffer?" Lily asked.
"Oh you're close, Miss Evans, very close," Voldemort replied. He didn't seem angry at what she had said, but rather amused.
"I brought you here because I want your child. I need him, to fulfill a prophecy. As soon as you deliver I will let you go," he said.
Lily felt slightly relieved, but only slightly. Her child was still in great danger. All she wanted right now was James, he'd be able to help her out of this.
"Now, is there anything that I can get to make your stay here more comfortable?" Voldemort asked, a little bit too nicely.
"All I want is James," Lily muttered, not expecting him to hear her.
"James it is," he said, and quickly summoned one of his followers, whispering some instructions in his ear. The death eater nodded quickly and disappeared.
Lily rolled over so she was no longer facing the horrid man, but he turned her back around. Lily winced a little.
"Are you feeling alright?" he asked, there was a strange look was in his eyes. Something almost like caring.
"I'd be much better if you weren't around," Lily snapped.
She'd done it now. She had really pissed him off. He got up right away, throwing the chair he was in to the ground. He started to perform violent curses on her. She was writhing in pain, and knew that this was no good for her son.
"LEAVE HER ALONE!" bellowed a familiar voice. It was James.
Lily couldn't believe that he was actually here. Voldemort knew it wasn't worth it to curse her,
and left the room.
James immediately rushed to Lily's side. There was sweat gathering on her forehead, and she was crying. She could still feel pain from the curses.
"Lily," he whispered, almost not daring to believe it.
Lily smiled a little, but then winced. A sharp pain cut through the lower half of her body. She screamed.
"Are you alright?" James asked, a look of fear in his eyes.
Lily nodded, clenching her teeth together.
"Do the others know where you are?" she asked. James nodded, while Lily winced again in pain.
"Lily are you sure you're not in labor?" he asked, looking down at her.
"I don't know, James," she said, near tears as another wave of pain went through her.
James put out his hand, and she grabbed it thankfully. It was helping her a little, but not enough.
He let go for a second, and she looked disappointed.
"Lily are you able to sit up a bit?" he asked. She nodded and moved up ever so slightly, her back was still hurting her. James got behind her and moved so that one leg was on each side of her and she could lean back on him. He wrapped his arms around her, and let her take both of his hands. It seemed a lot more effective.
"How far apart are they?" James asked. Lily was sobbing now, and it was getting harder for her to breathe. He wished that the others would get there soon, he was afraid that something might go wrong.
"About four minutes," Lily said, gasping for breath.
The current contraction stopped, and Lily collapsed back into James. She let go of his hands and let her head rest on his shoulder.
"I love you James," she whispered. James smiled a bit, rubbing one hand through her hair, massaging her head, the other hand was rubbing her belly, realizing that the prophecy really had to be about them, but what was it?
She tensed up as yet another contraction hit her, and this time her grip on his hands weakened, and she fell back into him.
"Lily," he said, worried. She didn't respond. Just then the door flew open and someone walked in.
Author's Note: Alright, I'm posting this a bit earlier than usual because my dad's going in for surgery tomorrow, and I doubt I'll have time to update this over the weekend like I normally do. Then today I found out that my grandmother is also in the hospital, although no one will tell me why…although I think that it might be further complications to her MS…who knows? Anyway I would like to thank for reviewing:
Flame Of Desire- I can to leave you with a cliffhanger…it's so much fun, and it keeps more people reading that way too, at least I hope it does!
really-big-HP-freak- Please don't fall, you might hurt yourself and if you hurt yourself, who would be reading this? And then if you fell out of your chair you could sue me, and that wouldn't be very good.
Jackie G- No Harry is born, this isn't exactly AU, but I have to work really hard to keep what's coming in canon, I'm still trying to fit it together though so the whole timeline works out. And they weren't really at their best when they died, don't you think? I mean, he surprised them really, so I don't really think it's a fair fight, but oh well, I'll address that later.
soft n' fluffy- How did you read and review this so fast? I swear I had it up for about five minutes and I got this e-mail saying that you had reviewed already, you're awesome!
Patronus99- You're one of my favorite reviewers, and I'm glad you like my story so much!
WickedWitchSirstersMioneGin- I couldn't make sense of your name at first, but then I finally understood after I read your bio…I love it, it's so creative!
Well, read and tell me what you think, I don't really like how this chapter turned out, but it'll have to do. I am really doubting this one.