A/N: JKR owns everything
Halloween 1981
"Lily, take Harry and run. He's here" James shouted to his wife.
"But what about you? I'm not leaving you on your own James"
"Lily please, get Harry upstairs, I'm not losing either of you or I swear-" the rest of James Potter's sentence was drowned out by a loud cackle coming from the hallway.
"Stay safe Jamie" Lily whispered before rushing up the stairs and into the nursery. With Lily and Harry safely out the way for now, James turned his attention to the monster in the hallway. Clutching his wand tightly he stepped out into the hallway. "Stupefy!" he shouted, only for Voldemort to stand there and flick the spell away like it was a fly.
"Crucio!" it came before James had a time to react and he felt the burning pain of millions of tiny needles penetrating his whole body. After a while, the curse ended, leaving James panting on the floor.
"Where is your son?" Voldemort hissed as James struggled to his feet.
"He's not here, he's at his aunt's house with his mother" James lied, hoping that rumours of Voldemort's mind reading were not true.
"You lie" was the response. "Avada Kedavra!" James saw the bright green jet of light heading towards him. He jumped to the side and the last thing he was aware of was a sharp pain in his head before blackness took over.
Tom Riddle barely looked at the man lying on the floor, thinking him to be dead. He stepped over the unmoving body and glided slowly up the stairs. It was a small house, only three rooms upstairs. One contained the bathroom, the other was the master bedroom and the last one, the only one with the door shut was the nursery. This was the door Tom Riddle went to. He found the door was not locked. He opened it and stepped inside.
Lily Potter was petrified. Her husband was downstairs taking on Voldemort by himself and she couldn't even help him. She settled Harry in his cot, whispering to him the time.
"That's it Harry. We'll just sit tight for a few minutes while daddy fights the bad man downstairs. He's very brave you know. Your daddy is the bravest man I know and he loves us both terribly Harry" her voice shook as she tried to drown out the screams coming from downstairs. "We both love you. And you must never forget that." She stroked Harry's messy black hair when she heard a high pitched voice cry out the unmistakable words of the killing curse followed by a crash and a thump.
"James!" Lily gasped in horror. "No no, not my Jamie." She cried, tears falling thick and fast down her cheeks. She quickly kissed the top of Harry's head before shakily standing up, knowing she was the last line of defense, the only thing left that could stop Voldemort from getting to her son. Gripping her wand tightly, she positioned herself in front of the cot and waited.
The door swung open slowly, the hinges creaking, giving away the age of the once ramshackle cottage they now called home. Lily angrily swiped the tears away from her cheeks as she came face to face with the man who had just murdered her husband.
"Ah Lily Potter. I thought I'd find you here" he said, his black robes billowing around him although the air was still.
"Please don't hurt him" Lily whispered.
"Move aside."
"No please, I'll do anything, kill me instead. He's just a baby" Lily begged.
"I said move aside. The Dark Lord will be merciful. Move aside and you shall not be harmed."
"No! You may have killed my husband and you can kill me, just please, let Harry live."
"You insolent girl, you have to learn that we can't always have what we want." Just as Voldemort finished speaking, he shot a spell at her and Lily couldn't even move before the purple light hit her in the centre of her chest. Immediately, she felt her legs go heavy, like they were made out of lead and her eyelids started to droop. She could barely concentrate when she heard Voldemort say one last thing.
"Say goodbye to your baby, Mrs. Potter. Avada Kedavra!" lily watched as the green light streaked across the room and summoning the last of her strength, to protect her son, she clumsily stumbled in front of the cot. Then Lily Potter knew no more.
Sirius Black was worried. Peter Pettigrew, the secret keeper for his best friends, had disappeared. Sirius had just come back from Peter's small flat, which the rat animagus had been told not to leave, only to find him not there. Hundreds of thoughts spun round Sirius' head. Had the death eaters found out that Peter was the secret keeper? Did they come and take him from his flat? If they did then Lily and James would be in danger... Peter was hopeless at occlumency and wouldn't last a second if someone tortured him with the cruciatus. Swearing under his breath, Sirius hurried out of the flat he shared with Remus and apparated to Godrics Hollow.
The first thing he saw was the house. The little cottage that Lily and James had been hiding in had a giant hole blown in the top of it, like a bomb had exploded inside. His heart in his mouth, Sirius wrenched open the gate and ran to the front door that was swinging on its hinges. Pushing it open, he saw James, his best friend and brother by choice lying face down in the hall. Sirius froze for a second before hurrying to his friend's side.
"Prongs? Come on Prongs, you can't be dead" he muttered. Lifting a hand to feel James' pulse, he had to sit down as he felt a pulse thrumming in his vein. "Merlin Prongs, I thought you'd gone and snuffed it!" Sirius said as he let out the breath he'd been holding. Scanning the hall, he noticed the coat stand had been knocked over and there was a scorch mark on the wall he quickly identified as a deflected spell but apart from that there was no sign of a fight.
"James, come on, wake up, where's Lily and Harry?" Sirius frantically got up and looked into the living room. James made no move to awaken. Leaving his friend, Sirius bounded up the stairs two at a time and rushed down the hall to get to the nursery. Opening the door, his gaze was straight away drawn to the unmoving form of Lily Potter on the floor at the foot of the cot.
"Oh dear god, no." Hoping for a second miracle of the night, Sirius rolled Lily over and apart from a fall of her chest as she breathed.
"Unca Siri!" Sirius' head shot up and saw his godson standing up in his cot, holding on to the bars.
"Hey there Harry" Sirius whispered, reaching into the cot and picking up his godson.
"What happened Harry? Did the bad man come?"
"Unca Siri! Muma?"
"Mummy's fine, see? She's just... sleeping. Come on Harry, let's get you out of here and then I'll tell Dumbledore that the bad man came." Cradling the toddler in his arms, Sirius made his way to the fireplace in the living room and grabbing a handful of floo powder, shouted "Hogwarts headmasters office".
Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office reading a muggle fiction novel that Professor Fielding, his muggle studies teacher had given him the previous Christmas. Albus was chuckling to himself at some muggle joke when all of a sudden the fireplace roared into life and out stepped Sirius Black, clutching his godson in his arms. By the look on Sirius' face, something terrible had happened.
"Sirus? What's wrong?"
"I... I don't know Albus, Peter wasn't there today when I went to check on him even though the bloody git knew not to leave the flat and then I went to Godrics Hollow to make sure James and Lily were ok, but when I got there they were both unconscious and I think Voldemort had just left." Sirius rambled. Albus held up a hand.
"What's Mr. Pettigrew got to do with this Sirus? Aren't you the secret keeper?" Dumbledore asked, his eyes narrowed slightly.
"No, me and Peter swapped at the last minute. I thought that they'd be safer using him, I mean, who would suspect Peter Pettigrew of being the secret keeper? I was just the decoy" Sirius said with an angry look on his face. "Not that it did much good, that bloody rat!"
"Sirius, you take Harry to St Mungos to get him checked over. Lily and James..."
"Are in the cottage, they're still alive but they're unconscious, we need to be quick." Sirius rummaged around for the worn slip of paper he carried around in his wallet. "Here, this is the address" he said, handing Dumbledore the paper that had Peter's spidery scrawl on it detailing the address of the cottage.
With that, Sirius strode over to the floo, Harry thankfully sleeping in his arms, praying that Dumbledore would get to his friends in time.
Sirius sat in a chair next to the bed Harry was sleeping in. After being checked over, the healer had announced that Harry was fine, although he now sported a scar to his forehead, the only sign he had been attacked. Sirius could not believe it when the healer had examined the magical signature around it and explained it was where the killing curse had rebounded. Sirius was in shock at how close he had come to losing his family that night.
James and Lily had both been brought to St. Mungos a couple of hours ago and there was still no more news on either of their situations. If it weren't for the fact that he refused to leave Harry on his own, he would be out there hunting down Peter. He couldn't imagine betraying his friends the way Peter had. Soft footsteps approached and he heard a voice.
"Mr. Black?" Sirius looked up to see a healer standing next to him.
"Is James ok? Lily? Will they-" the healer held up his hand.
"Mr Black, Mr Potter's symptoms are consistent with being held under the cruciatus curse. If he were held under any longer I would be fearful for his sanity. However, so far he is showing good cognitive signs and I believe he will make a full recovery." Sirius felt the knot in his stomach loosen slightly.
"So he'll be ok?"
"After a period of rest and recovery he should be just fine" the healer said, a small smile on his face.
"What about Lily? She looked like she was sleeping, she has to be ok?" Sirius asked.
The smile disappeared off the healer's face.
"Mrs Potter's condition is more serious. We are, as yet unable to figure out what curse she was struck with, and therefore cannot start any treatment. I assure you, we have our most knowledgeable people looking into her case" the healer said.
"But she'll be ok?" Sirius clenched his fists so hard his knuckles were turning white. Lily had become the sister he never had, and he couldn't bear to think of anything happening to her.
The healer didn't answer right away, and the pause scared Sirius more than he thought silence could.
"It is too early to say I'm afraid. We're doing everything we can" he eventually replied.
"Can I bring Harry to see James?" Sirius asked quietly, the shock wearing off and the gravity of the situation dawning on him.
"Yes, I don't see why not" the healer replied. "I'll bring you both to his room now."
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