Author: Ladyfun

Title: Preservation

Pairing: Lily/James

Rating: Generally K+

Disclaimers: All of this (Ladyfun gesturing big wide circles over the computer with her hand) belongs to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing, and this is all for non-profit fun. And I sure as heck don't own Quiddich.

SUMMARY: For the Quiddich League Fanfiction competition/Round 9. She has a need that recurs, once a year…every year. James indulges her, heartbreaking as it may be for them both.

A/N #1: Written for Round 9 /Season 2 of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. Position is "reserve" for Chaser 3 for the Wigtown Wanderers. Prompt: Focus on a necessity for your character/pairing (Lily Evans)

A/N #2: Optional prompts used (setting) Godric's Hollow; (word) Present; (quote) "The secret of happiness is not doing what one loves, but loving what one does" – J.M. Barrie

Random technicality: I can't post new fanfics, it would appear, so I am posting it as chapter 2 of Second Chances. This is UNRELATED story content to Second Chances.

Title: Preservation
Round 9/Captain Love
Position: Sub for Chaser 3- Prompt: Lilly Potter
Team: Wigtown Wanderers

She has a need that recurs, annually.

On All Hallows Eve, she and James prepare themselves as best they can, to visit Godric's Hallow. He puts on his trench, the one she hates because it has literally become threadbare in the elbow and he refuses to allow them to be patched. She puts on a soft cashmere dress and her warm downy coat; they bundle up and prepare for the almost always unusually cold evening that confronts them on this day. Usually before they depart, James will remind Lily how "bloody cold" the Western part of England is at this time of year, already.

She just smiles that warm smile of hers, and focuses it on James.

He pauses, momentarily.

It is the smile that can move mountains, the one that can make you believe you can do anything. He knows its coming, so he sighs, and buttons up his coat, resigned to the fact she will convince him to go, regardless of what he might counter with.

"Ready, dear?"

"Of course, James." She agrees, steadying herself on his arm.

The nausea-inducing suction was very distinct.

She hated apparition, back when she was alive; now, as a dead person (or "alive-challenged", as persons of her ilk preferred to call themselves), it is decidedly even worse. She and Remus speculated one day on why the once-a-year apparition was so grueling on the Potters; Remus surmised that it was because there was such an ornery distance to travel. One cannot actually measure in kilometers the long distance between observing the dead, and observing the living, after all.

Once they arrived, they smelled the familiar aroma of the graveyard in which they are buried. It looks the same today as it did in 1981.

James had to move mountains and rivers, practically, to get them this unusual travel pass that allowed them to return, once a year, to the Hollow. It was allowed only with the strict understanding that Lilly would not interact with the "alive" people, and never reveal herself. Godrick Hollow had been their first "newlywed" home, and it felt very comfortable to them both.

It was an accident when she first saw the golden trio, or at least, two thirds of them.

Seeing Harry and Hermione, and their obvious fatigue, it took everything in her to reveal herself. She rationalized, well, James and I showed ourselves to Harry, when he was younger, back in 1997.

"James!" She cried. "It's Harry!"

She watched, as that dreaded snake lured Harry away from that delightful bushy haired girl, Hermione, and he nearly died. James was better than she; he was more able to address his feelings. He grabbed her, and whispered, "This isn't the mirror, Lilly. They're not supposed to see us."

Lily just felt a mother's guilt, for "abandoning" her child, despite the fact she had nothing to do with that outcome. She didn't voluntarily agree to be murdered; none of this was her doing. However, that did little to assuage her feelings when she saw Harry, each year, growing up.

Finally, one year, he brings a read headed girl, with him.

"Hey its one of the Weasleys', he's bringing round to meet us! Well, dead us, anyway..." James says, excited.

"Harry is dating a boy Weasley?"

"No, goof! A girl Weasley!"

Lilly looked confused, back then."I didn't know that Arthur and Molly had a girl! Not that there would have been anything wrong with that, dating a boy, I mean..."

She regards the redhead that would soon become her daughter in law and have a distinguished professional Quiddich career, playing for the Harpies, until her 2nd concussion finally forced her to retire.

"Well. I guess she'll grow on me."

"What's the problem?" James asks.

"Red hair."

"What?" He laughs. "That's like, inverse discrimination, dear!"

"I just didn't want my grandchildren to have red hair, dear. That's all. It's a hard row to tow." She muses, knowingly.

He just laughs, kissing her. "Don't you know, red hair is the ingredient to concocting the prettiest women of all?"

She blushes.

She is secretly glad it was one of the Weasley's; they have grandchildren coming out of their ears, practically! Let Molly gush over any of the other 10 billion grandkids - this way, she is more likely to have a more than willing other nana on the girl's side to giving her the babies! She hoped they might have three, somehow. She had always wanted three - it was never her own intention to have one.

She had long ago determined three children was the absoutle perfect number. One was lonely, and would present its own trouble. Having two might risk a relationship that could sour, like hers and Petunia's had; best, was three, she decided.

XOXOXOXOXO

Her need hasn't changed, as the years went on; if anything, it grew.

James had mastered patience for taking this grueling trip, once a year. This year, however, was extra-special for them both. This year, Harry and Ginerva bring an infant to the cemetery. Bald as a bowling ball with freckles and one tiny curl of red hair, they held up a chunky infant, giggling despite its location in a Graveyard, too young to be alarmed.

"Mum? Dad? I want you to meet someone, okay? This is Harry Potter, Junior!" He holds up the baby to the headstones.

Lily's heart swells that day, and the smile doesn't come off…even during apparition back, to the other side.

He thought it would be harder for her, to see the grandchild she couldn't participate with, being deceased. He knew he had recruited her, into the Order; he feels a little badly for that. "Any regrets, dear, besides the obvious?" James asks, as they walk hand in hand out of the cemetery.

As if she knows what he's thinking, she does "the smile." He feels better.

She says, quietly. "Well, it's like the saying goes, "The secret of happiness is not doing what one loves, but loving what one does." I wouldn't have had it any other way, James, even if it meant preserving my life. We did something important, James! We didn't give up, when everyone else was."

Then she did it again...that infamous smile of hers.

XOXOXOXOX

It is this most recent trip, that really does her in.

She has met Harry Jr. and James the III; but little does she realize the delight that will come from her taking in her third grandchild, with the fire engine red head of hair that crowns her head.

It is the first girl.

"Mom, meet Lily Luna Potter, and say "hi" to her!"

Lily Sr. gasps, and Lily Jr. decides to take a nap, instead, shortly after passing gas.

Ginny leans over to whisper soothing to her husband, along the lines of, "Okay, you've shown them your hat trick. I hope they can rest in peace, now. "

Lily Sr. decides, in that moment, that she very much likes this Weasley girl, after all.

She smiles.

THE END.