Chapter 19: The End

Disclaimer: This is the end...sad...but I still can't claim to own the characters or the universe. I'm not about to open that can of worms!

"And that is how I fell in love with your daddy," Lily said as she kissed her little boys hand. He was blinking heavily and his breath was very steady. He was so near to sleep, she almost rejoiced. She felt as if she had been telling this story for weeks, it exhausted her even more than the lack of sleep.

"And the rest is—" she began in a whisper, but was cut off by another voice.

"History," sounded from the doorway.

At first Lily's heart began pounding because she was afraid, after all, someone had been in her house without her knowledge, and these were dark times, but then it changed. As the person in the shadows came out of the shadows and headed toward her one step at a time, her heart beat, not because of fear, but because of the same reason it pounded every day of her life since that fateful day so many years ago, on one side of a platform.

Had she not recognized the voice, she may have spun around, wand raised, but she knew who it was, even with her back to him. He continued taking small, almost silent steps to where she stood. It felt like each step was a mile farther away than the last, as he slowly found his way to her. Her face was tingling, her arms lay limp about her side; she could almost feel his heart beat now.

"For those who don't know, Lily Evans thereafter married James Potter, just months after leaving Hogwarts their seventh year. She was doubly above his league, but she loved him, crazy as it was." Harry began giggling and wiggling frantically, but still tiredly, to the voice he knew quite well.

At that point Lily couldn't help herself anymore, she turned around slowly to see the smiling face of a messy haired, glasses wearing, hazel eyed, little boy. Only now, he wasn't just a little boy, he was a grown man, a man whom she loved with all her heart.

He looked at her longingly, like he did everyday of their lives. She looked back with equal longing, but her feet were rooted to the spot. James seemed to know that she couldn't move, because he began walking in tiptoes toward her. Each step brought him closer to her. When he finally reached her, everything sped up in one synchronized flash of time. Lily jumped into his arms with a huge smile on her face, and James caught her and spun her in circles in his arms. When he began slowing his spinning, they embraced.

"I missed you today," she said simply.

"I know," he replied. They didn't dare talk about what took him away. It was something they didn't have to vocalize, they both knew, and they both were obligated to it.

James put his wife down in that moment, and though their faces had been sad and forlorn a second ago, now that they looked in each other's eyes, they could do nothing but smile.

James' arms were still around her, and she noticed something pressing into her back. She turned to see what it was, but he caught on before she caught sight of it. He pulled it away from her back and caressed the beautiful pendant as he looked down at it.

"Remember when I gave you this?"

"How did you get that?" she asked him without answering.

He looked down shyly, "I took it. I thought it would bring me good luck." She looked back at him with glassy eyes, he smiled at her sadly.

They stayed there for a second, with tired sadness in every feature, and then they snapped out of it and began giggling. Whenever they got too sad, they always found solace in each other's laughter.

"By the way love, I loved your version of our story."

She smiled, "you don't think it was too dramatic?"

"No, it was just right. It's something Harry will never forget."

She smiled again, and grabbed his hand to place a kiss on it. Then, Lily remembered Harry. She turned to see her little boy, but she was met with a sleeping baby.

She laughed, "Well, it worked, anyway."

James took her hand. "Come on, love. Let's go to bed."

Lily looked at him mischievously, "Don't boss me around, Potter." She smiled very widely at her old nickname for him.

He smiled equally as mischievous. "Only if you say please, Mrs. Potter."

They both laughed as quietly as they could, due to the sleeping baby, and then Lily wrapped her arms around her husband's waist and trotted out of the room.

"By the way," James began, "it really was a Nimbus 1990."

"I know," Lily said with a light laugh.

…

"Where do you think we'll be in 10 years?" Lily asked James as they walked back to the common room.

"Somewhere together, that's all I care about," James replied.

A/N: Okay, that's the end. I'm really sad it is over, and hope you guys are too. I may have made it a little anticlimatic, but I think the line "I loved your VERSION" to be rather exciting. I expect a hundred questions, so don't be afraid to ask. I will say this, because I'm sure you are all thinking, or maybe I'm just a huge nerd, and I think you are thinking it, but the story was a VERSION as James said. Whether that means it is true or not. What I kind of did with most of this chapter was allude to fanfiction. Ten points to anyone who can find the association I'm talking about. But with the version thing, you have to know that at least some thing were real, because of the Nimbus thing. That's all I'm saying, but I'll be happy to answer questions more in depth than that. Once again I want to say thank you to EVERYONE who reviewed! I'm so glad you all were with me for this, I don't know if I would have finished it otherwise. Over 100 reviews! That is insane! I've never had that kind of following for one of my stories. Now, I'm sorry, I have to promote myself: if you all liked this story and haven't read When Pigs Fly, by me, you might want to check it out. It's older, but it is still an LJ fic, and one of my favorites that I've ever written. I, also, have a great deal of Marauder's stuff in one shots and what not. Click on my name up top, you may even find some other great fics to read on my favorites list. That's how I find great fanfiction: checking out people's favorites. Anyway, this is really long, so I'm just going to say, thank you! Hope you enjoyed the ride.