Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Lily's POV

My eyes fluttered open. All I could see was darkness. I could tell I was inside of something but I didn't know what. Suddenly I felt a throbbing pain at the back of my head. I lifted my hand to reach up and feel it but there wasn't enough room. My hand struck a soft material. I felt around. It was everywhere. I tried to move my head but I couldn't and it was too narrow to shift over. I began to panic. Where was I? What had happened? I felt the outside of my pocket; thank God my wand was there. I somehow managed to get it out and muttered a spell. The top of whatever I was in – it seemed like a box of some sort – blasted open. I was immediately covered in dirt. I tried to stand up but the weight of the earth was too heavy. If I didn't get out soon I'd suffocate. I coughed a spell and the dirt came off me. Looking around – up, actually – I saw grass around me. There was an oak tree beside me. I pictured it and Apparated out of the hole.

I was in a grassy area with lots of trees. There were flowers in lots of places. Outside the fence that went around the grounds, it was snowy. I guessed that this was probably a magical place which Muggles couldn't see. I looked into the hole and nearly fainted. It was a coffin with the top off. I had been lying in a coffin! I had been buried! I frantically looked around. There were headstones all around me. Why hadn't I noticed them earlier? To my left was the closest one. I looked at it and screamed.

James Harold Potter.

1960-1981

Beloved husband and father

R.I.P

"Oh my God. Oh my god. OH MY GOD! JAMES IS DEAD!" I yelled. I fell to my knees near his grave, sobbing. But suddenly I looked to my left. There was another gravestone there.

Lily Marie Evans

1960-1981

Beloved wife and mother

R.I.P

I screamed again. What was going on? I started panicking. Sweat poured down my face, despite the cool breeze, and I was breathing heavily. It took me a while to calm myself.

"Ok," I said. "Let's just examine what happened. I woke up in a coffin and found my husband's grave right next to mine and a headstone saying I died." Before I could go any further, a piece of wood flew up through the ground. I screamed and flung myself away. The wood had come out of James' grave. The dirt tumbled into the hole, but suddenly vanished. A ragged looking James appeared next to the oak tree. He looked at me in astonishment. I stared back at him.

"Why was I in a box in the ground…?" he asked. I pointed a shaky finger at the headstones. He cursed and stepped back as if he'd seen a monster. He turned back to me. I ran up and hugged him as tight as I could.

"I thought you were dead," I whispered into his shirt. I didn't care that he was covered in dirt.

"What's going on?" he asked me, putting his head on mine. "Did you wake up in a box too?"

"Yes. It's a coffin." He cursed again. Suddenly we heard the gravel crunching on the path. Someone was coming. James grabbed my hand and we hid behind the oak. James' and my graves were sort of in a secluded area, around a corner, so we'd know if they were coming to our graves.

As they neared the corner, we could hear their conversation.

"It's almost time; he'll be coming soon," said a man's voice. He sounded old. A woman's brisk voice answered.

"Four years isn't so soon."

"It depends on how you look at it. We want him to come, so the time will drag out. But we also fear him coming because we don't know what will happen when he does, so the time will fly by." I wondered what they were talking about. The woman was probably about to reply when they rounded the corner.

"Good lord, Albus! The graves!" she shouted. Albus looked and turned very white. I had never seen him so pale. His hair was longer, but other than that, my old headmaster hadn't changed at all.

"Minerva, alert the Ministry." She immediately DisApparated. The Ministry of Magic? Why were they being involved in this? I mean, you wouldn't involve the king or Prime Minister in the Muggle world. Soon the woman, Minerva, reappeared with a pop and many pops followed the Ministry officials. I couldn't believe this was McGonagall. She looked a lot older than I remembered. The officials were taking pictures of the graves and doing all sorts of tests.

It took about an hour for everyone to leave. I had a bad cramp and was glad to stand up and stretch it out.

"Why did people from the Ministry come?" I asked James. He frowned.

"I don't know. Something strange obviously happened. Let's go home and we'll figure it out."

We stood in front of an empty space. Our neighbors' houses were still there; just ours was missing. Well, not entirely. There was a house there…but it wasn't ours. It was a different color and a different style. Only two rooms, one on either side of the house, looked like what we remembered.

"Something happened to us," said James. "Something bad happened; I can feel it."

"Let's go to the library. If it was something big they would have it. And if there was a reason like a fire or something that happened to our house, they'd have it in the local papers."

We Apparated to the library alleyway and walked inside. We had changed our hair and eyes just in case. I sat down at a computer and searched through the copies of the newspapers. James did the same next to me. Finally I gasped.

"I found something," I whispered. We looked at the picture. Our house was in ruins. I read the article to him quietly.

"'November 1, 1981

"'The home of Lily and James Potter was found destroyed earlier this morning. The other residents of the neighborhood claim they hadn't heard anything during the night, such as an explosion that would cause such destruction. It couldn't have been a fire, as the bodies of Lily and James Potter were found, burn-free. Doctors say they have no idea what could have happened. It seemed as though their hearts had just stopped beating.'"

I stopped reading. I couldn't go on. I turned to James and put my head on his shoulder. I started crying. He put his arms around me comfortingly. We stayed like that for a while before leaving the library.

I sometimes marvel at the fact that, if we had read the next two sentences, we would have saved ourselves a lot of trouble.

James' POV

I suggested to Lily that we go to the Ministry and ask about our deaths. In disguises, of course.

We Apparated into the reception room.

"We'd like to find out more about the deaths of Lily and James Potter," said Lily in a strained voice. The receptionist looked a little suspicious but led us into a room after confirming that it was ok. She pulled out a folder marked "Potter deaths." There was another folder next to it but I couldn't see the whole title; all I could see was the word
"Potter."

Lily opened the folder. She flipped through a couple of papers.

"J – James," she stammered after a bit. I looked over. "It says we were m – murdered by V – Voldemort." I took the paper from her. She was right.

"Oh my God." We read more, but nothing else was useful. All we found it was we were murdered on Halloween.

As the woman came back to put the file away – still looking at us suspiciously – I asked her about the other one.

"What's that one about?" I asked, pointing at the file.

"Harry Potter," she said.

"Can we see it?" asked Lily.

"No," she snapped. "It's confidential." She escorted us out.

Why did they have a file on my grandfather? He had died a while ago. I voiced my thoughts.

"I don't know," Lily admitted. "Let's go to Diagon Alley. We could find some useful things there. And also, our robes look a little out of date compared with the others." It was true; everyone else's were slightly a different style.

Lily and I Apparated to Diagon Alley. A few people looked at us strangely. Probably because of our robes.

We walked down the crowded street to Madame Malkin's. I still remember going there as an eleven-year old, getting my Hogwarts robes.

"Er, hi," said Lily when Madame Malkin walked up. "We need some new robes…we've been in Muggle America for a couple of years." Madame Malkin bought it and showed us many different varieties of robes, including summer and winter robes.

Once we had enough, we paid with some money I had in my wallet. We walked out of the shop with our bags.

"How are we going to get money?" asked Lily. "We can't use our account."

"I have Sirius'. We'll say we're good friends of his and we'll pay him back later." I gasped. "Sirius! Why didn't we realize earlier? We have to find Remus, Sirius, and Peter!"

"Yeah! They'll know what to do! Or, Remus will, anyway," said Lily. I grinned and found Sirius' key. We tried to act normal and walked inside. I cleared my throat as we approached a goblin.

"Excuse me, could we take some money out of Sirius Black's account? We're close friends." The goblin looked suspicious and surprised and the man next to me suddenly turned and held out an auror badge.

"Stan Tristan, I need to take you to for questioning," he said and waved his wand. Suddenly there were handcuffs around our wrists.

"What? Why? We really are friends of his! He said we could take money any time we wanted! We were going to pay him back!" I said. The auror didn't say anything just grabbed us and Apparated to the Ministry. We were taken with him.

We arrived in a bustling room. People were running around muttering about grave robbers.

"Grave robbers?" I asked.

"Someone stole the bodies of Lily and James Potter," said Stan disgustedly. "Can't believe anyone would do such a thing."

"Were they in a magical graveyard?" I asked swallowing.

"Yes."

"Are there any suspects?"

"Probably Death Eaters. Most likely believe their bodies will bring You-Know-Who back."

"Death Eaters? Back? What do you mean, back?" Stan looked at me strangely.

"He was defeated seven years ago…"

"Oh, yeah," I said, trying to cover up for my slip up. "I just don't want him to be back. But why would they need our bod-" Lily put a hand on my arm. Luckily Stan hadn't noticed what I said. He led us through a couple more rooms but was stopped by a large hand. A big man in a vest stood in front of us.

"What's this, Stan?"

"Said they were close friends of Sirius Black. Wanted to take money out of his account," Stan said, gesturing at me and Lily.

"Oh, really? Well, I'd like to hear this." They both walked into a small room. All that was inside was a small table and a couple of chairs. Stan conjured another one for the man, who was apparently his boss.

"Now, what are your names?" asked Stan. He had a quill next to him which was ready to write by itself. Neither Lily nor I said anything. Stan folded his hands. "What are your names?" he asked again, more forcefully.

"Mitchell and Jennifer Porter," said Lily.

Mitchell?

The quill moved across the paper, scribbling down what she had said. She might have said it too quickly because it didn't look like Stan and his boss believed her.

"What was your business at Gringotts Wizard Bank today?"

"We were getting money," I answered.

"Why were you trying to get Sirius Black's money and not your own?"

"We've lost our key," I said, "and Sirius said we could take his money any time. You can ask him!"

"I don't think that will be necessary, or productive," said the boss, with a look at Stan.

"What?" They didn't answer me.

"Sirius Black's account hasn't been accessed in seven years. Did you just lose your key?" I found this surprising. Sirius wasn't using his account?

"Yeah."

"That's funny," said the boss suddenly, looking up from his papers.

"Why?" asked Lily.

"There is no account for Mitchell and Jennifer Porter," said the boss. Suddenly his face hardened. "Expelliarmus!" he said. Three wands flew at him. He gave Stan back his. Then he stood up. "Petrif-" but I beat him to it. I flew up and punched him in the face. It was difficult because of the handcuffs but I managed. Stan lunged for me but I whirled around and kicked him in the head. I hit the boss again and he flew towards the wall. (A/n: It's like that scene in the Bourne Supremacy where he's not saying anything and then suddenly he attacks the guys) Lily stared at me.

"Auror training. They teach you how to fight the Muggle way," I explained. I found our wands and we tried to Apparate, but it wasn't possible. We opened the door a crack and walked outside. We kept our hands hidden, but one of the aurors saw. He ran to the room and saw his colleagues lying on the ground, unconscious. He pulled out his wand, and so did a lot of others.

"Stop!" he shouted. I looked back and we began running. They caught us with a simple roping spell. They didn't know we had our wands, so they didn't take them away.

From the grave to Azkaban. It was hard to say which was worse. I think Azkaban because in the grave you don't even realize you're dead and buried. In Azkaban you feel miserable and you actually want to be dead. We weren't even in the prison yet but we already felt like that.

They had taken our hands out of the cuffs so we wouldn't spend eternity in them (dementors couldn't take them off). Right before they took us inside, we turned to face the crowd of aurors and simultaneously pulled out of wands. We started stunning everyone. They were bad stunning spells, and the stunned aurors would wake up soon after being hit.

Lily and I had no where to turn except for inside the castle. As soon as we entered, we were hit with a horrible coldness.

We ran down the halls. On both sides of us there were cells with prisoners inside, screaming for death. I had been here once before, but there was no way to be prepared for the terror of it all.

"Everyone was right. They all go insane," whispered Lily, horrified. She was shaking. I grabbed her hand.

"It's ok," I said even though I was pretty unstable myself.

We turned a corner. This was the maximum security section. Dementors 24/7. Lily and I got rid of them and kept going. I looked into the cells. They were no bigger than my closet at home. I mean my old home. The prisoners were in striped Azkaban clothes, most of them in ripped ones. Their hair was all tangled and they looked like they hadn't seen a bath in years. All around us they were wailing for mercy. Except for one. When we passed, I thought he was asleep, but then he stood up and looked out the tiny window. He seemed perfectly sane, or at least he wasn't screaming.

"James, let's go!" said Lily urgently tugging at my sleeve. I knew she was scared; I was too, but this guy interested me for some reason. Hearing her voice, he turned around. His hair was down to his elbows and was matted and greasy. His eyes were sunken and I could see his ribs through his baggy shirt. His face was brown with dirt. When he opened his mouth to speak, I saw perfectly straight but yellow teeth.

"W-who are you?" he rasped. Then he suddenly doubled over, coughing. It sounded like he barely every used his voice. When he stood back up, he came closer and asked again. Lily and I backed up. "W-what are you doing here? Dementors will be back," he said. He coughed again, but less this time. Seeing he wasn't going to get an answer he moved up to the bars. Lily and I moved back again, but hit the wall. This was a narrow corridor. The man was closer to us than we would have liked. "Aurors out there looking for you?" he asked pointing at the window. I nodded. "What'd you do?"

"We wanted to take money out of a friend's account," I said.

"They don't usually put you in Azkaban for that." He was having trouble with some words, but managed fairly well for someone who had had nobody to talk to for several years.

"Well, we tried to defend ourselves…" said Lily. The man gave a little bark of laughter. It sounded familiar…

"They might for that. Stupid gits." Lily laughed a little. I was looking at the man carefully. He reminded me of someone. No…it couldn't be!

"What the-? Sirius?" I screamed. Lily looked at me.

"What?" I ignored her. The man turned to me.

"Who are you?" he asked, less friendly than earlier.

"Oh my God! What did you do? How could they put you in here? That's what they meant when they said it wouldn't be productive…they thought you were insane! But you're not! Why not? Everyone else is and…oh my God, I'm so glad to see you!"

"What are you talking about, James?" Lily said.

"Who are you?" asked the prisoner, harshly.

"It's us! Lily and James!" Sirius paled under all the dirt.

"No, it can't be!"

"I know, we're supposed to be dead but…" I told him the whole story. Finally Lily gasped.

"It is you!" she had been watching him while I was explaining. She waved her wand and out disguises came off.

"James…Lily…it's not possible."

"It's us!" I screamed. I wanted to hug him but I couldn't so I grabbed his hand and shook it.

"I can't believe they caught you. I thought James Potter was uncatchable," said Sirius, amusedly. He suddenly reminded me of the boy I had made friends with all those years ago. His eyes were more alive. I grinned.

"What did you do?" I asked. Suddenly his eyes faded again.

"Tried to get revenge."

"On who?" asked Lily.

"The man who sold you to Voldemort." I swallowed.

"Who was it?"

"Pettigrew," spat Sirius.

"P-Peter?" He nodded.

"I can't believe it! That little-" Lily cut me off.

"What happened?" she asked gently. I knew she was angry inside, but was trying to hide it.

"I cornered him on the street. Before I could do anything the bastard started shouting 'Lily and James, Sirius! How could you? How could you betray them?'"

"Wait…you said Peter betrayed us!" I exclaimed.

"He did," said Sirius. "I'm not finished. After he shouted that, he blasted the whole street apart, cut off his finger, turned into a rat, and ran off. He purposely made it so that I wasn't hurt. When the ministry people arrived, I was standing on the street with my wand out. Everyone assumed I had killed the twelve Muggles that got in the way and Peter. All they found of him was his finger. I heard them talking about it once. 'He didn't kill him, he destroyed him! All they ever found was his finger!' They also thought I had betrayed you because I was the most obvious choice for the Secret-Keeper."

"That's horrible," said Lily quietly.

"It's all my fault you died, though," said Sirius miserably.

"What? No, it's not! How can you say that?"

"If I hadn't convinced you to change to Peter…"

"Sirius, that's not your fault! It was our choice! And who would have thought that Peter Pettigrew was a Death Eater?"

"That's why Voldemort chose him," I said. "But there was no way any of us could have known. Sirius, it was not your fault. How can we make you believe us?" Before he could answer we heard yelling.

"Check the maximum security wing!"

"You have to go!" said Sirius urgently.

"But we can't just leave you here!"

"Don't worry about it!" he said. I rattled the bars but it was no use. I didn't have time to blast them open because the aurors were right around the corner. "Listen," whispered Sirius. "In one week, meet me at the edge of Hogsmeade, all right? The cottage. And bring some food!"

"How will you get there?"

"I might not, but be there anyway! Now, go!" We looked at him sadly but he waved us off. He was already assuming his previous position of lying on the bed. Lily and I looked at him one last time before running away.