Before it Began
By. SkyQuill
Summary
James knew he was in love at first sight, but what would it take for Lily to love him back? Read their story leading up to their deaths and discover the dangers they faced and the loves and friendships they shared.
Disclaimer
I do not own most of the characters and places or anything else that may seem familiar. J.K. Rowling has the exclusive claim to this as well as the general plot that formed this fanfic.
Chapter 38: As Time Progresses
Lilys return from the hospital with Harry was heralded with much gifts and affection. Cadence had bought both Neville and Harry heaps of little jumpers and various outfits while Lupin provided many different toys. Peter didn't seem too enthused by the newest additions to the Potter and Longbottom houses, but brought over a slightly withered bouquet of flowers all the same. Sirius however, remained the most excited, second only to James and herself.
It was only minutes after she had arrived home, that Lily found herself immersed in an argument with her son's godfather.
"There is no way in bloody hell," Lily said fiercely, "That you are taking Harry out on that gigantic motorcycle of yours."
"Lily!" Sirius protested, "It's perfectly safe! There are enchantments and charms that will prevent him from falling off, and do you really believe i'd put my godson in danger?" James was hovering at the edge of the living room, looking on as his wife and best mate argued. Remus, who was there too, was watching the two of them, a mildly amused look on his face as he cradled Harry in his arms.
"Sirius!" Lily cried in exasperation, "We're talking about the you who used to sneak off with a werewolf every month! No offense, Remus. But honestly, Sirius, you have no concept of danger!"
"I do too!" Sirius retored indignantly. "Besides, this is different, it's not my own neck, but Harry's. I would never do anything that could harm him, you know that!"
"The answer is still no." Lily said firmly. "Even if I was confident about the saftey of that dratted motorcycle, I doubt he'd like it very much anyways." Sirius opened his mouth to protest but Lily cut him off. "No Sirius. He's a newborn. Motorcycles are noisy and fast, he'd probably be scared."
"My son would not be scared." James put in for the first time. Lily shot him a murderous glare.
"Come off it James." she said irritably. She took Harry back from Remus. "Now if you don't mind, i'm going upstairs to get some sleep. I'm exhausted and i'd thank you all to not disturb us." And with a last annoyed glance at the three former maurauders she marched upstairs, Harry gurgling in her arms.
"Come on sweetie," Lily cooed, her voice losing it's irritance. "Time for a nap." Harry just gazed at her, his bright blue eyes sleepy. She smiled and tapped his nose affectionately. With a mess of already raven dark hair, it was clear that Harry would take after his father. As Lily layed her son down in the crib she pondered whether his now innocent, blue eyes would turn out to be a warm hazel, or bright green.
"Night Harry." Lily whispered, dimming the candle light in the baby's room with her wand. "Sleep well my son."
000
As the weeks past, Neville and Harry grew rapidly, as did their parents love for them. Never before had Lily and Alice known love quite like this. In their sons was a part of them, and their husbands. How could life contain anything more perfect?
Much to the their surprise, Dumbledore seemed to take a keen interest in the babies. This became apparent to Lily on the night of the first Order meeting she had attended since after the birth. After having been showered by much fondess by the rest of the Order, Dumbledore had approached the hapy couples individually.
"Congragulations James, Lily." he said serenely, coming over to them after having conversed with the Longbottoms. "Harry is it?"
"Yes sir." Lily said, offering her blanket wrapped son to their old headmaster. He took the bundle and gazed at the baby, a mix of cheer, curiosity and...was it nervousness?
"A new hope in a time of great darkness." he finally sighed, handing the child back to Lily. "Tell me know, you've both escaped Voldemort three times now, is that correct?"
"Er...yes sir." James said, looking surprised as he considered this. "I guess so, but why do you ask?"
"No reason." Dumbledore replied airily, "Just thinking. Young Harry here is very fortunate to have such deserving parents." James smiled proudly and rested a hand on Lily's arm.
"Thank you." he said, hazel eyes glowing with warmth. Dumbledore bowed to them, and then slowly strode away but not before Lily caught a distinctly odd gleam in his wise blue eyes. She frowned, was there sadness there? What was it that their leader was hiding from there, or was it anything at all? Perhaps he thought it a bad time for a child to enter the world.. Lily glanced down at her sleeping baby and vowed, then and there, to protect her son to the best of her ability. She would not let anything befall him.
000
As the August warmth faded away into the chilling winds of autumn, life seemed to take on a quicker route. Guility, both Lily and Alice were glad that they had reason to not involve themselves overly in the Order activites. As each day progressed, it seemed that more misfortunes were plaguing their lives. Attacks were so numerous now, Lily thought it reasonable that every leaf falling from the trees could be accounted for by some dementor, inferius or death eater attack.
It soon became clear to the lot of them, that they were fighting a losing war. Already they had suffered heavy losses to the Order. Carardoc Dearborn, Dorcas Meadowes and Benjy Fenwick had all been killed in battle. Only the other day had the Bones family been found dead in their home and to make matters worse, no clue to Callidora's disappearence had yet been discovered. Although Lily and Alice tried to channel their sadness away into caring for their newborns, it was impossible to escape the ever striking lightning of Voldemort's wrath.
As the danger increased tenfold, Lily's resolve to use every bit of her moral fibre, intelligence and love to protect her son grew stronger. Whenever Harry was napping, she would immerse herself in books filled with information on ancient magic, protection spells and potions. Sirius worried that she was suffering the after effects of her pregnancy, she now spent so much time reading but she assured him she was merely concerned. Even James was working harder then ever. Auror training was progressing and he had accomplished so much he had been moved ahead early to a higher level of training. Frank and Alice, who had already achieved full auror status due to their achievements the last year, were also totally focused on anything that would help in the war and the protection of their families.
Even Peter seemed to be spurred to work harder then usual, or so Lily and James suspected by his appearence. There were shadows under his eyes and his skin seemed to have taken on a paler, gaunter look then usual. Even his light, mousy hair had grown lank. He continued work for the Order alongside the rest of them.
Remus and Sirius had also become quite distracted. Never before had the Order been so busy. Remus was actively working undercover to try and discover which werewolves were on Voldemort's side, while Sirius had been assigned along with some others to researching giant involvement. Several times already, they had been sent on missions to halt the furious creature's rampaging.
Much to Lily's dismay, James too, was quite caught up in the whirlwind of it all. He and Frank had been given leadership of the effort to stop the dementors and death eaters. It was a task Dumbledore told the others was highly dangerous, but extremely important. The headmaster had apologized to both wives for having to assign their husbands such perilous missions, but told them it was their only choice. They were losing to many people to keep shunting other capable wizards to the side. This did nothing to raise Lily's moral, proud as she was of James.
And still, in their every spare moment, Lily and James spent their time fawning over Harry. Lily scrapbooked everything, from his first smile, to his first noises. He was developing at a healthy rate. Already he was able to hold his rattle, and recognized and trusted a few certain people. She and James of course, were his most familiar as was Sirius, but Harry was also beginning to respond to Remus, Cadence, Alice, Frank and strangely Dumbledore. The few times Lily went to the meetings, he listened in unusually rapt attention to the elderly wizards comforting, yet commandng voice. Also unusual, was Harry's firm dislike of Peter. Though Lily suspected that he was lacking in his children skills, she had not anticipated Harry's intense wailing every time Peter held him, or spoke. It had become so bad that Peter had rather stopped coming around so much.
000
Before long, Christmas time arrived. It was hard to believe that the holidays had at last arrived, when everything around them seemed to dark and dangerous. It was the day before Christmas and both Cadence and Alice were over at the Potter's place. James and Frank, were of course, still at work, and Sirius was doing something for the Order. The three girls, Neville and Harry had gotten together to decorate a large, Christmas tree and put up other decorations around Lily's house.
"I remember that it was at Christmas time you and James first kissed, Lily." Cadence said reminiscently as she hung garland over the prickly branches. Lily grinned at the memory.
"Yeah, it was minutes after I stopped hating him."
"I don't think you ever really hated him Lils." Alice said distractly as she pulled the tinsel away from Neville who seemed to think it was something tasty to eat. Lily and Cadence looked at her incredulously.
"Lily not hate James then?" Cadence asked articulately. She then burst into hysterical laughter. "You're mad!" Alice scooped Neville off the floor and into her arms. She gave Cadence a cross look.
"There's a difference between strong dislike and hate Cady."
"Maybe." Lily agreed while Cadence continued to look doubtful. "It was very, very, veeeery strong dislike then. I used to loathe his demeanor. Sure is strange how we ended up though." And she gestured at Harry who was surveying the various baubles in a box, looking awed by the glittery colours.
"True." Alice said with a smile. "Now why don't we let these two little rascals put on the star?" Lily grinned as she picked up Harry and summoned the star at the same time. Both women let the two babies grasp it loosely in their tiny hands as they held them over their heads towards the top of the tree.
"Go on Neville, Harry..." Alice cooed encouragingly. "Put it on top." The babies looked down at them in confusion, and Harry began to whimper. Lily immediatly took him down and held him close.
"It's okay sweetie, you don't have to put it on if you don't want too." Lily murmured, holding his petite hands fondly. Harry immediatly ceased his crying. Alice took Neville down too, and he promptly set the star atop her head. Alice chuckled,
"Not there Neville. Wingardium Leviosa." Neville watched in wonder as Alice used magic to set the ornament atop the tree. He laughed in delight once it was on top. Alice grinned,
"I love being a mother." she sighed, kissing her son on the forehead.
000
Christmas came and went without too much disturbance if you don't count the emergency Order meeting later that day. As it turned out, the death eaters had staged a morbidly festive murder in a muggle community in the heart of London. It was a horrible reawakening to the war around them, and as the holidays passed, work picked up once again.
It was the middle of February when Lily dared take Harry out. She wished that James was there to accompany them, but he had auror training. She had tried the others, but Cadence too had work, and Alice had taken Neville to visit his grandmother. She would have delayed the outing, but today had been the only day she had been able to convince Dumbledore to let her use the Hogwarts library. The students would all be busy with activies on the grounds (it was Valentines day), seeing as Hogsmeade trips had been banned and so they had agreed that the library should be rather empty.
Lily had not been willing to use apparation to transport herself and Harry as it was dangerous for a young baby and so she had opted to use the floo network. Before long, she had landed spinning in the emerald flames of a fireplace inside the Three Broomsticks. Harry began to cry from the experiance and Lily hastily tried to comfort him as she stepped outside into the flurry of snow.
Rocking him in her arms, she trudged through the snow, being careful to keep Harry's blanket wrapped securely around his fragile body. By the time she reached the castle, he was fast asleep. Dumbledore greeted her by the doors.
"Mrs. Potter." he said formally. He glanced at the dozing baby in her arms and smiled with the same sadness she had seen in his eyes when he had first set gaze on her child.
"Hello professor." she said, gladly stepping into the warmth of the castle.
"I'm afraid i'm due to host a staff meeting shortly and I will not be able to accompany you in your research. I trust you know your way to the library?" he asked apologetically.
"Yes sir. Quite well in fact, newts and owls made sure of that." Lily replied with a small smile.
"Very well." Dumbledore said. "Good luck." And with that he strode away, leaving Lily alone with Harry. She shook her head to clear it and headed for the library.
"Lily?" Madam Pince said in shock as Lily entered the warm book filled room. "Dumbledore mentioned that someone would be coming but he didn't say who! It's been ages, and oh!" Her beady eyes widened as she caught sight of Harry. Lily smiled and pushed her red hair out of her face.
"Yes ma'am, it's been awhile."
"So who's the lucky father?" Madam Pince asked. Lily felt rather odd conversing with her old librarian as though they had been old friends (which they had most certainly not been, madam pince had never shown any friendliness to the students). She suspected the witch merely wanted something to gossip about. She seemed to be the type who was greedy for knowledge.
"Er, James Potter." Lily answered hesitantly. Madam Pince looked as though she had been struck dumb.
"Potter?" she asked in disbelief. "The infamous Potter? But you hated him!"
"Yes well, things change." Lily murmured distractedly. Harry was beginning to stir. "Now if you don't mind, I need to look at a few books."
"Of course, go right ahead." the elderly witch said, still looking shocked. Lily thanked her and found a table at the back of the room. She conjured a small baby carrier for Harry and layed him in it. After making sure he was still fast asleep, she removed her winter cloak and went to find the books she was looking for.
Magic of the Medieval Ages, Primitive Potions, The Beginning Ages, were some of the titles Lily managed to find from the dusty shelves. She returned to the table and flipped through them, quill and parchment ready to take notes, but there was nothing that seemed even remotely useful for protection of for aid in the effort against Voldemort. Sighing, she returned them to her respectful places and reluctantly approached Madam Pince.
"Excuse me ma'am, may I use the restricted section?" Madam Pince eyed her suspiciously but eventually agreed, though it looked against her better judgement. Relieved, Lily entered the restricted zone and began checking the titles there. Two books immediatly caught her interest.
Aborignal Ancients and The Magic In Love. Removing them from the shelves they were on, she carried them back and opened the first on on ancient native american practices. She found several things that she scribbled down.
The Fideler Ritual-a practice whereby ancestral artifacts are hidden from rivalling tribes with only one person knowing the location--could this be used on people?
Amulets- Combining potions and stones with similiar properties to enhance certain properties- Harry and James?
In the book she also found an interesting section mentioning various herbs and stones which had different properties. She jotted a few of these down as well, becoming increasingly interested in amulets.
Stones...
Malachite- protection stone for children, wards against evil
Quartz- amplify magical abilities, ward against evil
Amber-Purifies mind, body and spirit
Apache Tears-Assist in grieving process, helps break down barriers
Obsidian-Dispels negativity, healing, protective,helps one to see flaws in themselves and change it
Ruby-Love and Protection
Herbs...
Agrimony- acts as a deflective shield, sends back negativity
Angelica-strongly protective
Balm of Gilead-Protective in love matters
Camphor-used to protect against mental intrusion
Once she had finished Aboriginal Ancients, she opened the Magic in Love. Even as she opened the page, she felt a warmth tingle in her fingers and something seemed to embolden inside of her. All at once, she felt her motherly protection, ardor and love for her friends and family surge inside her and instinctively knew that only one with such intense feelings could read this book.
Flipping through a few page of deep knowledge and writings, but nothing particularly useful, her eyes finally fell upon a short verse.
Call upon the magic of old,
Love verses a soul that is sold,
Gone but not lost,
Forever comes with a cost.
Lily read the short poem over and over again, curiosity peaked. As she went over it for the fifth time, she whispered it aloud and felt a tingle run up her spine as warmth spread from her fingers to her toes. The hair on the back of her neck rose and she glanced at Harry. He had awoken and was staring at her, his turquoise-y eyes wide.
"Did you feel that too sweetie?" she asked, feeling very peculiar from that experiance. Harry babbled something and she kissed him on the cheek. She hesitated for a moment quill poised over the parchment, wondering whether or not to write down the verse. It was clearly, a very powerful spell. After debating with herself for several more moments, she made up her mind and decided to write it, but in a way that only her gaze would be able to decipher it.
Lily quickly cast a very advanced and complicated spell, then surveyed the parchment she had just written the poem on. To anyone else's eyes, it would merely look like a bunch of random symbals. She decided to test it quickly on Madam Pince.
"Excuse me ma'am." she said, calling the librarian over to her. "Do you think you could tell me what this means?" Madam Pince gave her a look that clearly said she had better things to do but scanned the paper anyways.
"I don't know." she said shortly. "Bunch of random hogwash if you ask me."
"Right." Lily said, hiding her satisfaction. "Thanks." Madam Pince huffed and swept off again to her desk. Lily smiled at Harry, glad it had worked.
"Well Harry, I think we've made some progress, shall we head home to see daddy?" she cooed.
"Dadda?" Harry babbled and Lily's emerald eyes sparkled with delight.
"Your first word!" she exclaimed, picking up her son and hugging him with adoration. "Aw, Harry!" As she set him back down, she surveyed him curiously, wondering whether all the magic she had been dabbling with had caused this. It was rather early for him to start speaking. Lily shrugged it off, collected her books and made to put them away. She was eager to tell James what she had discovered, and about Harry's accomplishment. He would be so proud.
As she wandered through the restricted section, replacing the novels she had borrowed her eyes fell upon a black leather book, jutting out slightly from the shelf which was precisely beside Magic In Love. Furrowing her eyebrows she removed it and glanced at the title. The Dark Arts Demonicy. Instantly she knew she was looking at a dangerous book. The very thing seemed to emantate a cold chill of forbidding, yet gripped with curiosity, and wondering whether this could be useful, she hesitantly brought it back to the table and sat a distance from Harry. She felt she had better keep it away from him.
She flipped through the pages, ignoring the awful feeling that came with reading the text of the pages. All warmth from her previous readings had evaporated. It felt as though she were holding the saga of dementors in her delicate hands.
She took her quill and parchment again, ready to take more notes when she skimmed over a section about a most curious tool of evil. Horcruxes. Mouth hanging slightly open, she read the section on it with horror. As she turned the next page, a piece of parchment slid out. She glanced at it in confusion, it was written in a language she could not understand.
Serispito-Perisss
Lispessto-Perisss
Fresssin-Lissssti
Herisset-Lissssti (Tresset perisss, lisspenss)
Serissanto-Perisss
Grisssin-Lissssti
Thinking that it was possibly encoded, she slipped it amongst her other notes, worrying all the while. What she had just read was the most powerful of magic...the most dangerous. How many others had read this book before her. Feeling extremely guilty and nervous, she carried the book back to the restricted section and gave it a mistrustful look. Suddenly, a thought surfaced. Students really shouldn't be reading this, Lily thought, what if she just took it with her? This way, she would have valuable research, and the book would never fall into the wrong hands.
Making up her mind, she glanced around anxiously and shrunk the book. She quickly stuffed it into her pocket and then gathered her notes and Harry. New ideas forming in her head as she made her way back to Hogsmeade through the snow and past the shouting and laughing students, she continued thinking hard. As the snow whirled around her, she couldn't help but feel her thoughts were in the same motion.
Author's Note: First of all, i apologize for postponing this. I went on a short vacation and just didn't have time to get this up before. As well, I know this chapter has a bit of a time jump, but nothing much happened in between and I didn't want to bore you. I'm now in major research mode, both for baby developement, and things like the metaphyscal properties of rocks and herbs. Lily's notes are going to be very important in forthcoming chapters. VERY. And also, after i'm finished this story (the end is approaching) i've decided to do a sortof sequel, though it will take place where the sixth book left off and will lean heavily on what has been in this story.
So anyways don't worry, there's still quite a few chapters to go, but i'd just thought i'd let you know about my plans for another story. I'll update soon, hope you enjoyed. (I know this chapter was a bit odd)