If you've been a reader of mine for any length of time, something you've no doubt noticed is that my writing tends to go into long dry spells whenever I'm really stressed about something. Without boring you with the details, I'll just say that another huge move is looming in my near future, and it's been occupying a lot of my mind thoughts. Brain things. You know, cognitive energy. I did manage to squeeze this out, though.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

The trial of the Lestranges (and Crouch) was held over the first week of December. There had been a lot of restructuring recently on how to conduct trials, thanks to the scandal involving Bartemius Crouch Sr, and a good deal of time was spent discussing what would and would not be admissible evidence. Officially, they were on trial for their attack on the Longbottoms, but the added charge of being a Death Eater – an official crime in its own right for the past three and a half years – was also being included, meaning anything about their activities throughout the war that could be proven was fair game.

There was an extensive list of witnesses whom the Ministry had called to testify, beginning obviously with the Longbottoms and the Potters, as well as Sirius, Remus, Moody, and Emmeline Vance. Dumbledore and Galahad Fawley, who had also been present to witness the aftermath of the attack, sat on the Wizengamot and would be permitted to give evidence after all other witnesses had been interrogated.

After this there were a number of aurors, as well as various members of the Order of the Phoenix, who claimed to have encountered the Lestranges in the field. This was sometimes difficult to prove, since Death Eaters tended to wear masks, but the Ministry's strategy appeared to be relying on the sheer number of people who claimed to have seen them.

It also helped that, in spite of whatever passed for protocol among Death Eaters, Bellatrix Lestrange had rarely taken as much care to conceal her identity as the rest of them.

There were a number of civilians, too, who had been terrorized or targeted by the Lestranges in one way or another over the past eleven years, but perhaps not surprisingly very few of them actually consented to testify. The fear of retribution from Voldemort's followers – chief among them the Lestranges themselves – was still very real.

The four accused Death Eaters were allowed to summon witnesses for their own defense, but nobody actually expected them to do so. Indeed, Bellatrix Lestrange spent most of her time in the courtroom boasting about what they had done, and how they would be rewarded above all the other followers of the Dark Lord for their display of loyalty and devotion. Her husband and brother in law appeared, if not in agreement, at least resigned to the fact that she was going to do this, and put up no fight.

Barty Crouch Jr was a different story altogether. He had managed to convince his mother to come in and testify on his behalf. She was almost hysterical and nearly broke down several times, insisting that he was a good boy who'd fallen in with a bad crowd and been led astray. It was her fault, she said. She didn't pay enough attention. It was his father's fault for being too harsh and never around. It was the Lestranges' fault for lying to him about what he'd really be doing, coercing him and threatening him until he felt he had no other choice. But really, he was a good boy.

Crouch himself was then questioned, and seemed to corroborate his mother's account. He was just a confused young man with a promising life ahead of him who had been neglected by his father and led astray by others who had taken advantage of his vulnerability and naivete. He hadn't truly understood what he was being asked to do and by the time they were in the moment it was too late for him to back out.

This testimony was given credence by virtue of the fact that, unlike his three co-conspirators, he had no prior record and no other reported incidents of Death Eater activity. Mitigating circumstances that surely played a part in how the Wizengamot made their decision.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

'Three years!' Sirius raged back at Ivy Hall that evening. 'Three effing years!'

'Sirius,' Remus attempted, but Sirius' indignant outrage stormed right over him.

'That slimy, entitled, evil little shit is only getting THREE FUCKING YEARS for joining the Death Eaters and trying to effing MURDER Frank and Alice!'

'We don' t know that's what they were trying to do,' said Remus. 'In fact all evidence suggests they were trying to abduct Frank and Alice for some reason.'

'Information, I'd wager,' said James. 'They wanted their master back and were hoping someone could tell them where he'd gone. In any case, they definitely weren't fighting to kill until Lily and I got there.'

'And that makes a difference?' Sirius raged on. 'Trying to bring back sodding Voldemort isn't as bad as killing for him?'

'Objectively, it isn't,' said Remus rationally. 'But I know what you mean. At least the Lestranges got longer sentences.'

'They should be put away for life,' Sirius fumed.

'Probably, yes,' said Remus. 'But as they can't be proven to have used an unforgivable on anyone, there's no legal pretense for it.'

'Please,' snapped Sirius. 'We all know they've used those curses dozens of times.'

'Yes, but we can't prove it,' said Remus. 'Throwing them away forever without proof is exactly what Crouch Sr tried to do to you.'

'What do they want for proof?' Sirius asked. 'They had sworn testimony from multiple people. Unless they want photos of them committing the acts, what can they expect beyond that?'

'I don't know what to tell you, Padfoot,' said Remus, giving up. 'All I can say is I'll sleep easier knowing that the Lestrange brothers will be kept out of society for twenty years.'

'And that bitch cousin of yours for thirty,' said James. 'If they try something when they get out, we can deal with it then.'

'Whatever,' Sirius growled. 'There's still the matter of that little Crouch shit weaseling his way out of it. Three years is practically nothing! He'll be back out looking for Voldemort again while kids who just went to Hogsmeade for the first time are still in school!'

'Probably,' Remus agreed. 'I don't expect he'll have an easy time of it, though. If Moody was convinced by that act of innocence Crouch put up, I'm the next Minister for Magic. You know the aurors are going to be keeping an eye on him for a long time.'

'It's not like he'll be on his own,' Sirius growled. 'Plenty of them have managed to avoid punishment somehow. Did you hear that slimy prick Avery got out of it by saying he was under the Imperius?'

'I did, yeah,' said James glumly. 'Doesn't surprise me. Exactly the sort of shite he'd get away with, isn't it? I hear Lucius Malfoy did the same thing. Typical.'

'Wonder how much gold they "donated" to the ministry after the fact,' said Sirius darkly.

'At least they got Mulciber,' said Lily, suppressing a shudder. 'I don't know what I'd do if he somehow managed to snake his way out of prison.'

'Makes you wonder if that was part of Avery's story,' said Sirius. 'They were mates, after all, and we all know what Mulciber's specialty was.'

'You think Avery would sell him up the river like that?' Remus asked.

'You don't?' replied Sirius, shocked.

'I think that's exactly the sort of thing he would do,' James said. 'Hell, Mulciber might have even gone along with it. Who knows what goes on in that psychopath's head?'

'What worries me most is how many more of them there are that we don't even know about,' said Lily. 'Even counting the ones who got off, the number of people charged can't possibly account for every Death Eater there was. We always knew there were some we hadn't identified yet.'

'Crouch Jr being one of them,' said Remus. 'You're right, Lily. We can't entirely let our guards down just yet.'

'Moody was saying something like that,' said James, remembering. He still hadn't made up his mind on what he was going to do regarding the old auror's proposition. 'He said there were going to be a lot of them that still needed to be rooted out, that the hard times aren't over yet.'

'He'd say that regardless,' said Remus, 'but I suspect he's right in this case. It's like Lily said; the ones we've found just wouldn't account for everything we saw happen during the war.'

'I think I'm going to join up with him,' said Sirius, who'd been silently contemplating something during the last stretch of the conversation.

'What's that?' said James, caught off guard.

'Moody,' Sirius clarified. 'You know I told you he invited me to join the aurors. I think I'm going to do it.'

'What, really?' asked Remus, taken aback.

'Sirius, you know that's a huge commitment,' said Lily. 'And hard work. And dangerous.'

'So basically what I've been doing since we left school, but now I'll be getting paid for it,' Sirius quipped.

Lily frowned. 'I mean it, Sirius. This is a huge decision.'

'You don't think I know that?' he countered. 'I've been mulling it over for a month, Lils. It's not what I would have chosen to do if I could have everything I wanted, but you and James almost died. Harry almost died. And with filth like Avery and Malfoy still out there, and scum like Crouch set to be back in less time than it takes to tame an erumpent, somebody has to do it. If Moody thinks I'd be good at it, I reckon I should give it a shot.'

There was a powerful silence after that. James looked very pensive.

'Do you think I should join up, too?' he finally asked.

'James...' Lily started, her head snapping toward her husband.

'Don't join up just because I am, Prongs,' Sirius said. 'Completely different circumstances. You've got a lot more to lose than I do.'

'All the more reason -' James protested hotly, but Sirius rode over him.

'More people who depend on you, then,' he said. 'I'm not saying you shouldn't do it; that's up to you. But you've got a lot more to consider before jumping in. At the very least, I don't have a wife I need to talk it over with first.'

Lily shot Sirius a very grateful look, and he smiled faintly back in reply.

'You're not just doing this because you think it'll let you be the one to find Wormtail, are you?' Remus asked suddenly. Everyone's faces hardened.

'I won't deny I've thought about it,' said Sirius. 'But that's not the only reason, no.'

'Even if it was, I don't think I could really blame you,' said James. 'But let's take a break. I'm tired of talking about it. I don't feel like doing much of anything at the moment, really. What does everyone say to some takeaway for dinner?'

'From where?' asked Sirius.

'There's a new muggle place in town,' said James. 'It does Indian food; I've never had any and thought it looked interesting.'

'Those are really becoming popular now,' said Lily. 'It's all the rage in the muggle world, from what I hear.'

'I've had curry before, but not much else,' said Sirius. 'Why not? Let's give it a go.'

And so James and Sirius apparated into town and ordered as much Indian food as they thought four people could eat, making sure only to order things they'd never heard of before. Despite the rigors and stress of the deay leading up to it, it ended up the sort of fun evening they hadn't been able to enjoy since leaving school.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Harry's second Christmas was a joyful affair, though small and intimate. Lily and James had considered inviting people over, but given they'd just thrown a party a little over a month before, and that New Year's was only a week later, they opted to make it a family affair. This meant only the three of them and Sirius were together in Ivy Hall on Christmas Day. Remus was spending the day with his father, the two of them enduring their first Christmas without Remus's mother. The Potters had of course invited them to dinner, but they had politely declined, wanting to spend the say together in memory of Hope Lupin. Remus had dropped by on Christmas Even instead to exchange gifts and wish them all a Happy Christmas.

Audrey, too, was spending Christmas with her family, though she had promised to come by on Boxing Day to see them all. Even after two months, Lily couldn't help the wonder she felt that everything seemed so normal again. It wasn't the only thing she felt wonder over, though the other could wait until that evening when she and James were alone.

Tori made them a wonderul feast (they were only allowed to offer minimal assistance in the preparation. Lily could have ordered the elf to let them help, but she knew that would only hurt Tori's feelings). It was the best food any of them had eaten in a very long time.

'Crackers!' Sirius announced jovially, pulling several of them out of his cloak and tossing them onto the table.

'Where in the hell did you get those?' James asked, laughing.

'I made a trip to Diagon Alley while you two were visiting with Frank and Alice the other day,' he said. 'I kept meaning to go after training but I was always too exhausted.'

True to his word, Sirius had joined up with the auror program just a few weeks before the holiday. As they didn't generally take on new trainees until August, Moody had put him on something of an "accelerated training regimen" in order for him to catch up, and by all accounts was putting him through the wringer. He hadn't quit yet, though.

Lily gleefully pulled a cracker with each of them, and ended up with a lovely green and gold scarf, and a small nest of dormice, causing her to laugh in delight. They were awfully cute.

'That reminds me!' exclaimed Sirius suddenly, jumping up from the table and dashing out of the room without another word. Lily and James looked at each other, bewildered.

He returned just as quickly, carrying a box with holes in it.

'Sirius, what did you do?' she asked, mock-threateningly.

'Open it,' he prodded, a positively manic grin on his face.

Shaking her head in resignation, she pulled the box toward her and lifted off the lid. What she saw inside nearly made her heart stop.

'Pangur!' she squealed, reaching in and scooping out the pure white cat, pulling it to her chest and snuggling it. 'Oh my goodness, I thought you were gone forever!' She continued making unintelligible sounds while smothering the cat with affection, savoring the softness of his fur and the calming rumbling of his purring. He was evidently happy to see her, too.

'How is this possible?' she said to Sirius when her senses finally returned to her. 'Where did you find him?'

'It was sort of a happy accident,' Sirius said, still grinning wildly. It was infections; she knew she was doing the same, and a glance at James told her he was as well, though it was mixed with shock and wonder on his part. He had nothing to do with this, then.

'Well, don't keep us in suspense,' Lily prodded. 'Out with it!' She snuggled her beloved cat once again, holding him tightly. It hadn't really registered that she had him back and on some level she was afraid that if she let him go she'd lose him again.

'I went by the house,' Sirius began. There was no need to specify which house. 'I'm not sure what I was looking for. A trace of Peter, a clue abut Voldemort, something we didn't find when we cleaned it out before that I could bring back for you...anyway, I was poking around and I heard some scuffling. Had my wand out and was halfway throuh a curse when this little blighter popped his head out at me. I couldn't believe it. I was sure he'd run off or been crushed, or-'

'I thought so, too,' said Lily, a wave of guilt washing over her. She'd been so overwhelmed – first with the trauma of it all and then the relief at finding her husband and son alive and well – that she hadn't been able to spare more than a few minutes of grief for her faithful feline friend. She'd been almost ready to move on and find a new pet. For Harry's sake, mostly. A little boy should have a pet.

'Well, he must have recognized me, because he didn't run off when I went toward him. He let me pick him up, and I took him to my old flat to nurse him back to health and whatnot. Remus has been helping me look after him. I was considering bringing him back to you right away, but he was in rough shape and I wanted you to have a good reunion.'

Lily's eyes were stinging. 'Thank you so much,' she managed to say, her voice quavering.

'Really, mate,' said James. She looked over and saw that his eyes were a little watery too. She hadn't thought he was so attached to her cat. 'Best Christmas present ever.'

'Make sure you thank Remus,' Sirius said. 'I haven't been able to spend much time with the little chap thanks to Moody's mad training schedule.'

'Oh, we will,' said Lily. 'I can't believe you two kept this a secret!'

'Come on, Lily,' said James, chuckling a little. 'If there's one thing the lot of us can do better than anyone, it's keep a secret.'

'Fair,' she said, laughing. 'Here, let's let Harry play with him and I'll put on some music.' Harry had been squirming anxiously to get at the cat ever since she'd opened the box. James lifted him out of his chair and put him on the floor, and Lily gave the cat one last kiss on its head and put it down next to her son. Many mothers would be leery about placing something covered in razor sharp claws next to their toddler, but she would trust Pangur with anything.

'Lucky you got those dormice,' Sirius said to her as she moved to turn on the wireless.

'Oh no, I hadn't even thought of that!' she said. 'They were so cute! But I suppose it will make him happy. He always loved chasing things.'

She flicked on the wireless and the voice of Celestina Warbeck filled the room. Nobody present particularly enjoyed her singing, but James always insisted on listening to at least one of her songs every Christmas Eve and Christmas, as she'd been his mother's favorite and it brought back memories. Afterward she put on Bing Crosby, who had been her father's go-to Christmas album, and whom the boys actually liked. It was, all things considered, a perfect Christmas. There was one very important thing she still had to do, but it could wait just a little bit longer.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

James was feeling very content when he and Lily went to bed that evening. It had been the kind of Christmas he remembered from his boyhood: a peaceful day of fun and joy, safe and warm in his house with his family. He might even be growing to like Celestina Warbeck a little, if purely for nostalgia's sake.

There was no denying that Sirius had been the hero of the day with his rescue and return of Lily's cat. He did feel a bit of guilt over that; he'd barely given the cat a second thought in the aftermath of almost losing his wife and son, and learning one of his best friends was a traitor and murderer. Had he ever really devoted time to thinking about it, he was sure he would have been sad at Pangur's loss, but it would still have been a minor worry amidst everything else.

It didn't stop him from being overjoyed at seeing their pet alive, though. Something Lily commented on as she climbed into bed next to him.

'What a wonderful day,' she said, kissing him on the cheek. 'I notice you were nearly as happy to see Pangur again as I was.'

'Why wouldn't I be? I love the little furball too, you know.'

'I suppose I didn't realize you were so attached to him is all.'

James could have told her the real reason he had such a strong connection to her cat, but he'd decided long ago that she didn't need to know, and telling her would be contrary to his original intentions. He supposed there was little chance of her misinterpreting him now, or reacting at all negatively, but it was the principle of the thing, damn it.

'How could I not be?' he said simply. 'You've had him for ages. He's been a part of our relationship since it started. Not to mention all the times he's literally attached himself to me.' The little blighter's claws really were rather sharp.

Lily laughed and kissed him again. He supposed this was as good a time as any to tell her what else he'd been thinking about. But how to ease into it?

'In any event, it looks like our family is completely whole again,' he said. She would understand. She had to. Especially since he was planning to wait until the normal recruiting period; Sirius's "accelerated training" appeared grueling and insane.

'About that,' Lily said, sobering slightly. James was immediately on his guard. What had happened?

'What?' he asked sharply.

'Nothing to worry about!' she said quickly. 'It's just...well, I've been meaning to tell you for a few days now but I didn't want to do it when anyone else was around, and I didn't want to cause you any anxiety before Christmas.'

'You're causing me plenty of anxiety right now,' he said. 'What's the matter?'

'Nothing's the matter!' she insisted. 'I'm explaining this horribly. James, I'm pregnant.'

She might have doused him with a bucket of ice water.

'What? How? I thought we were being careful!' It wasn't as if he didn't want to build a family with Lily, but they'd just barely managed to bring themselves through the war intact. He would've preferred a chance to get his feet firmly on the ground before expanding any more.

'Well, do you remember how...enthusiastic we were after...after everything with Voldemort?'

He nodded. He was not likely to forget any of that for the remainder of his life.

'Well it seems,' she continued, 'that in all the excitement, I wasn't perhaps as careful as I should have been. I'm supposed to take my potion every three days, and I know I missed at least one dose. And my head was just so full of you being alive, of all of us being alive, that it never occurred to me to take anything the mornings after, either.'

'That does explain it,' said James, his thoughts coalescing. 'Without any preventions, the only way for someone not to be pregnant after those few days would be if they were biologically incapable.'

Lily closed her eyes and shook her head at his crassness, but she was smiling. No doubt she remembered that time as fondly as he did.

'Well, that's it, then,' he said. 'I can't join the aurors now.'

'Were you going to?' she asked him, a little taken aback.

'I was strongly considering joining up this summer,' he told her. 'No way in hell was I prepared to subject myself to what Sirius is going through.'

'Why does this change your mind?'

He blinked, surprised she would need to ask.

'It's a dangerous job, Lils. Anything could happen. I've been trying to convince myself for a month that if anything happened to me, you and Harry would be all right. You're more that capable of looking after yourself and him, after all, should it ever come to that. But this...it's just one more weight on the scale. It's too much; I can't risk it.'

'I wouldn't be all right,' Lily said. Her voice was just above a whisper and her eyes were heavy. 'I'd never dream of stopping you from doing what you feel is right, and if I lost you I'd be able to raise Harry and get by, but I'd never be all right again.'

James's chest ached. Could really have been considering…?

'Lily...'

'Hush,' she said, putting her hand over her mouth. 'Don't you dare feel guilty about something that hasn't even happened yet. I thought I lost you once, and yet I'm still here. I was prepared to pick up and carry on, for Harry's sake. I just don't want you to think I could ever move on.'

'I hope you could, someday,' he said. This had been a reality for both of them during their active days with the Order, and yet somehow they'd never really talked about it. 'Not right away, you understand, but eventually. If there's some bloke out there who could make you happy, I wouldn't want you to turn him down just in memory of me.'

'The same goes for you, incidentally,' she said. 'But it's never going to come up because the war is over and I'm not going anywhere.'

'Neither am I.'

'James, if you want to be an auror, you should. Don't worry about my feelings; I'm a big girl.' Merlin, he loved her.

'I don't, though,' he said. 'I thought I did, but as soon as I decided not to, I felt...relieved? Which maybe doesn't speak well of me, but that's how it is. I want to be here, with you. With our family.'

'Wanting to be there for your family doesn't make you a coward, James,' she told him forcefully, displaying her uncanny knack for knowing exactly what he was thinking. 'And I know you; you'll find plenty of other ways to help the cause without having to be out on the front lines duelling Death Eaters.'

'Should I, though?' he asked, airing the last of his doubts. 'I'm really good at it. Shouldn't I be using that to help?'

'So am I, but that doesn't mean that's all I can do. The war's over, James. There are still evil people out there, but in peacetime ordinary people aren't expected to risk their necks. Let the people whose job it is to handle it handle it. Live your life how you want.'

'You're brilliant,' he said, smiling and cupping her face in his hand.

'You bring it out in me.'

By the end of the night, if Lily hadn't already been pregnant, James thought, she likely would be now, preventions or no.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

One of the things about writing different stories all along different points on a timeline is that occasionally one will reference people or events from a previous story that I haven't written or published yet. The dilemma I face is whether or not to fully explain them, thus adding vast swaths of chunky exposition, not explain them at all, leaving people confused, or to avoid mentioning them entirely, which works in the short term but would then be weird when the "prequel" stories are completed later on.

I'm going for as much of a happy medium as I can. Several characters already mentioned in this story have their origins in my "Lily and James at Hogwarts" story, Breaking Assumptions. There are also a few references here and there to events that will happen later in that story, as well as a few other things I have in mind for my overall timeline but haven't decided which story to include them in yet.

It'll all make sense in thirty years when I'm done, unless I die before then in which case have fun puzzling it out!

Leave a review if there's anyone still reading this!