Epilogue
Ever since Lily and James finished their sixth year at Hogwarts they knew that a knock on the door wouldn't always bring good news. In fact, it mostly brought them bad news. The first knock on the door brought them instructions for their first Order of the Phoenix meeting. Then when they knocked on the door for that first meeting, everything changed for them.
During one of their first missions, a small tap on the door alerted them to some small children trapped in a room. They were able to get them out alive but their parents weren't so lucky. That hit Lily especially hard.
A knock on the door notified Sirius to the passing of his father. A celebration was had.
For the next year, they fought alongside other members of the Order defending themselves and others against the forces of Lord Voldemort. Sometimes they were victorious and other times they lost more people than they wanted. Each death brought a knock on someone's door letting them know of their inevitable mourning.
Alice and Frank were married in April of 1979. It was a small wedding but it was filled with love.
Sirius and Emily broke up in May. It just wasn't what either of them wanted anymore. The war had changed them. They stayed good friends though.
A few months later, in September of 1979, a knock on the door let James know that it was time to head to the alter. While a second knock told Lily it was time to walk down the aisle. Their wedding was a nice reminder of what everyone was fighting for.
In October, a knock on the door showed a tearful Mary. Her news was that she had decided to leave the Order and move away. She couldn't deal with this anymore. She wanted to help people but she wasn't strong enough for this. This wasn't how she imagined things. Mary hugged everyone and said goodbye. That was the last time she saw James and Lily.
James knocked on the bathroom door after seeing Lily rush in there, worried that something was wrong. What he found was his wife sitting on the toilet looking dumbstruck at her wand. When he asked what was wrong she replied with 'I'm pregnant.' Lily had never seen James hit the floor so fast. Within the next few weeks, Lily went to the doctor and confirmed that she was in fact pregnant. Alice also found out shortly after Lily that she was expecting too. All of their parents were thrilled for them.
At the end of 1979, a tap on the window notified James and Lily of Mr. and Mrs. Potter's illness. They rushed over to find them both in bed ill. They told them not to worry. They had lived a long life and wished the same for them. Take care of our grandchild and any future ones you have. They only lived a few more weeks and that was by far the hardest James had ever taken anything. He didn't speak much for about a month until Lily set him straight.
In February of 1980, James knocked on the bathroom door only to find Lily crying into a tub of ice cream. She revealed that she was so scared to bring a child into this world with a war going on. James was relieved that she felt the same as him.
Lily and Alice had both stopped going on missions at this point but that didn't keep them from helping where they could.
Remus was mostly gone for the next several months using his status as a werewolf to help the Order. Peter had been kind of distant but James said it was because this wasn't really the kind of thing he would normally do.
Close to both Lily and Alice's due date, Dumbledore brought them news of a prophecy. Since both of them were due around the end of July, the prophecy could refer to either. Worry settled deep in each couple but there was nothing they could do at the moment. They had to move on with their lives.
Harry James Potter was born on the last day of July 1980. The day before, Alice had Neville. The birth of these beautiful boys was rejoiced throughout the friends and family of the couple. It was clear that Harry had the shape of his mother's eyes and one could hope that he got their color too. He also had a shock of black hair on top and no one wished his father's unruly locks on him. Neville looked like Alice with a little Frank thrown in the mix.
These boys were the light in this dark time. Eventually, it became known that Voldemort thought his down fall would be because of Harry. So James and Lily went into hiding where they could no longer do anything but raise Harry.
The war was getting worse. It felt like no matter what the Order did nothing was doing any good. They were barely getting any new members which were not enough to offset those they had lost.
On the last day of October 1981, Dumbledore received a knock on the door. The news was exactly what he had been expecting. James and Lily were gone. However, Harry was still alive. This shocked him to his core. How could this be? He called for Hagrid and Minerva and got to work on saving this little boy. It was decided that he would be put in the care of Lily's sister and her sister's husband. They were muggles and the best place for him would be outside of the wizarding world.
Who knew that a simple knock on the door could change so many lives…
A/N: Thanks for reading my story! I hope it was a satisfying conclusion after all of these years. I'm just glad that I finally got it finished.