Sitting On The Baby By HPOD sufferer
Date: Thursday, 27th May, 5:24PM
Rating: K+ (Scary and Supernatural themes may scare young children, includes character death), sexual implications (very minor)
Summary: Sirius bounded into the compartment, making to sink into the seat next to Lily. The seat in which a sleeping baby...well, slept.Eyes popping, James grabbed his friend's wrists, stopping him from sitting. Sirius Black was frozen in a strange, half-sitting, half-standing position. Lily grabbed the baby quickly, and James released his friend."You know," said Lily " Baby sitting doesn't usually consist of actually sitting on the baby."
A baby has appeared. Where from? Why? Who does the baby belong to? Harry travels to Marauder Era. AS A BABY! Something went seriously wrong on that Halloween night.
Chapter 8: Behind Closed Doors
Death and destruction, the felons of war,
What hides, what lies beyond an impressive door.
However, when you seek something that is not yours
Be wary of what you find on shelves and in drawers.
Because face it, you are not alone
All you keep is not your own.
Lily unstuck her cheek from the book she was sleeping on. She looked around, but the common room was still. But she'd swear on her son's grave (ha-ha what a laughable thought, Lily Evans having kids!) that it had been shaking before.
Blasted nightmares.
She looked around. She was alone in the common room...except for that lump by the window over there. Moonlight sifted through the window onto the person's face. Lily approached cautiously. Everyone knows to be cautious in these times.
So she was slightly disappointed when she set her eyes on not an alien or Death Eater, but Potter in all his moonlit glory.
So, in her fury, she poked his ghostly white cheek.
His eyes opened, and he peered owlishly up at her, his other cheek still on the window pane and his glasses pushed up into his hair.
"Angel?" he said.
"Mind your language Potter," she snapped automatically.
He struggled to sit up, rubbing his cheek. "Since when did 'angel' become a rude word Lily?"
She narrowed her eyes at his use of her first name.
The common room shook and a low rumble seemed to reverberate from the walls. Lily clutched onto a chair to keep her balance.
"WHAT IS THAT?" James roared.
Lily gave him 'how can you expect me to know' look. She felt like she was experiencing an earthquake. Suddenly, it all stopped and she collapsed to the floor in shock. James helped her up. She tried vainly to ignore that he didn't let go of her hand once she'd regained her footing. They looked at the portrait hole.
"Should we check it out?" James asked.
"Absolutely not! we're head boy and girl, how could-"
"It's our duty to see if there's trouble," James reminded her. Lily looked at him in wonder. What he had said made sense. Granted, she had just woken up, but still.
"Wait here." He let go of her hand.
Lily wondered whether she'd missed something. So Potter thought he was going on his own, did he? Her mind stopped this vein when he bounded up the boy's staircase. Now that was peculiar...surely he wasn't planning on getting some shuteye now ?
Minutes later he was bounding down again, with what looked like a blanket in one hand and a piece of parchment in the other. "Magic tricks," he explained.
Perhaps she was dreaming. That would explain all the odd happenings of late. Since when did wizards use 'magic' tricks?
"Wh-huh?"
He swirled the 'blanket' and it settled over the pair of them. "So we won't be seen," he explained. Lily thought that was pretty stupid- people were more like to notice a walking blanket than two people. "It's an invisibility cloak." Oh.
He opened the parchment, which was blank. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
She gasped as lines started to appear, making up a map of what was unmistakably Hogwarts. James gave a small smirk and scanned it. Nobody was on their level, so they proceeded out the portrait hole.
It was eerie, Lily concluded, walking through the castle at night. It was too quiet, too dark, too big.
At the end of the seventh floor corridor, James stopped. "Dumbledore's in the entrance hall, and so is McGonagall," he murmured. "Sluggie's in his office...Hagrid at the gates for some reason..."
Lily was watching the map as well. As she glanced at where 'James Potter' and 'Lily Evans' stood, her heart stopped beating.
Someone was heading their way.
And it was not a student nor a teacher. Well, it had once been a student, because she recognised the name. Lucius Malfoy.
Lily knew he was a Death Eater. Footsteps could be heard faintly around the corner.
Completely forgetting they were under an invisibility cloak, she grabbed James's hand and dragged him along, desperately hoping they would not be found. She ran along the corridor, head boy in tow, when she did a double-take and dragged James through a door. Closing it swiftly, she sank to the floor, breathing in gasps.
James pulled off his cloak in confusion. He opened his mouth to speak. Footsteps patted past the door, and he snapped his jaw shut with and audible click. He glanced at the map and his face visibly lost colour at the name walking past where they should be.
The name walked off at a stroll towards Dumbledore's office.
"That was way too close," Lily breathed.
"What was he doing in the school!" James cried.
"I don't know." Lily looked around. They were not in a classroom, as she had thought, but somewhere altogether different.
For the best of purposes, it looked like a muggle living room. A thick carpet in maroon and a matching armchair adorned the room generally. A TV sat calmly in the corner and the coffee table was covered in magazines.
It looked like a mix between Lily's house and the Gryffindor common room. Nice.
"Where the hell are we?" James asked, as if mortally offended that he didn't know.
"Somewhere," Lily answered helpfully. James gave her a glare.
"I think we should go after Malfoy...he could be up to something." He said after a moment of pregnant silence.
"Could be?"
"Ok, is up to something. We gotta stop him!"
Boys, will females ever understand them?
"Why?"
Growling, James pulled her out of the room and dragged her along the corridors, the cloak forgotten in his pocket. Lily wondered briefly where on earth he'd got the map. Then it occurred to her he'd probably made it himself, with all the stuff he got up to. And that password...it explained a lot.
They found the entrance to the Headmaster's office (where Malfoy had disappeared into). Lily loved being head girl because it meant she didn't have to guess the password. "Pecan Nougat."
At the door, Lily knew something bad had happened.
The door was open. Dumbledore's door was never open.
The pair drew their wands from their pockets without even considering the fact that they hadn't done so before now, and James looked at her. Lily nodded.
James kicked the door open. With a crash it slung inwards.
Lucius Malfoy looked up, startled. The twenty three year old Death Eater dropped the file he held in his hand. "Well, well, well," he sneered.
He only needed to say that to give away the fact that he had no idea who they were. And in the time it took for Lily to process this, Malfoy's want had been summoned into her hand.
Good thing.
Malfoy looked outraged. "Give me back my wand little girl."
"Little? Little!" Lily screeched. The man was only five years older than her.
"What are you doing here?" James asked, in what Lily thought was a very stupid, arrogant and ever-so brave voice.
Lucius carefully shut the draw in front of him. Seeing this possible threat, Lily ordered, feeling very much like a cop, "Put your hands where we can see them and step away from the desk!"
Lucius raised his hands and stepped back.
Lily, quite enjoying herself, finished the statement. "You have the right to remain silent. If you choose to abuse this right, anything you say can, and will be used against you in the court of la-Wizengamot."
James and Lucius looked confused. "Pardon?" James said, instinctively turning to talk to her.
This was a mistake. Lucius's hand dove into his pocket.
"STUPIFY!"
The red light dashed across the room...
But it was too late. Lucius disappeared by what was evidently a port key. It had been in his pocket. The stunner hit one of the portraits on the wall and the inhabitant leaped out into the lap of his neighbour. Blushing and apologising profusely he stumbled back into his own smoking chair.
"DAMN!" James cried, jumping over to where Lucius had stood moments ago. "He got away!"
A thought come to mind for Lily. "You don't think...he took anything of Dumbledore's, do you? I mean, he was here a good fifteen minutes before us."
James looked up from the spot where the Death Eater had been, eyes growing wide. "Check to see if anything seems to be missing!"
James scanned his eyes over the desk and opened the drawer Lucius had been nailing through. Lily checked the shelves for any blanks in the dust. She was inspecting what looked like a monkey's head, when a shimmering light caught her eye. It was like the reflection of water, dancing on the wall. Turning she eyed the direction the light came from. A glass-fronted cabinet stood with it's doors ajar. Lily crept over and opened the door to its fullest.
It looked like a stone bowl. Runes that Lily couldn't decipher ran along the edge. Most intriguing of all, was its contents.
Swirling and seemingly giving a light off of its own, Lily couldn't decide whether it was liquid, gas or solid. It was like wind made solid. It span around and around, and Lily peered over the edge.
She managed to tear her eyes away from a second...to see a couple of round, dust free circles on the edge of a collection of bottles. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, Lily realised what Malfoy had stolen. He had stolen some of the- the stuff.
"James, I think you should come here," she said slowly and worriedly. James hurried over, looking concerned. She pointed to the circles, then to the basin.
His eyes, like hers, was drawn to the basin. "What do you think it is?"
Lily shrugged. The pair peered in, curious.
James thought he could see something moving in the shining depths. He leaned closer, trying to see what it was. Lily copied- she must have noticed it too.
It was only when James found himself experiencing the horrible feeling of falling that he realised getting so close was quite a mistake.
He found himself outside a cottage. It was dark, for the moon was evidently in the new moon phase.
A red star twinkled overhead. James turned to the window.
Lily, scared, tugged him from the window. "I don't think we should be seen!" she hissed.
James glanced down the street, then froze. A figure was ambling along it, with purpose. They were dressed all in black, a hood pulled up over their head. And James, even though he'd never met the man, knew it was Voldemort. Lily followed his gaze-her grip on his wrist grew tighter.
The figure reached the cottage gate, which opened soundlessly. He started to walk up the gravel pathway. A rock skittered away, and hit a flowerpot just to the right of the shadow in which James and Lily hid in.
James faintly heard motion inside the house.
Voldemort watched the bouncing stone, his red eyes gleaming as they searched the spot where James stood. Voldemort did not seem to see him, although the red eyes definitely settled on an area around James's stomach. "Lily," he hissed, "I don't think he can see us...I think we're in a memory..."
It was the only thing he could think up of that made sense. Lily nodded in agreement and they stepped out of the shadow to follow the Dark Lord.
With small click, the door to the cottage opened, and Voldemort entered.
James, about to follow, paused. Why was the sequence of events familiar? Then, through the open door, he heard voices.
"...It's such a pleasure to meet you."
"Unfortunately I can't return the sentiment."
"No matter."
Something was definitely wrong, and the two seventeen year olds knew it. They were stuck in place outside the door, afraid to go inside. James was terrified of what he'd see, what he knew he would see, if he entered. It was this shock that had made both ignorant to how familiar the second voice sounded.
"You don't scare me," said this voice.
"No, I terrify you."
"The day I feel anything akin to fear of you is the day I die."
"So you will die today. Then your wife shall die, then your son."
"Never."
"You've already lost..."
James did not hear the rest of the statement as he turned to comfort Lily, who had started to shake.
"Avada Kedavra."
Green light shone out the window, and a thump rang throughout the house. Lily wasn't the only one shaking. "I don't want to see, make it stop," she mumbled into his chest.
James however, knew he needed to know what happened next. He would never rest if he didn't, but he knew he'd never be able to do this again. "Stay here," he told Lily, setting her to sit on a bench.
He entered the house, barely noticing his surrounding as he proceeded, as if his feet knew the way, to a hallway. A door way at the end was empty, save for the long thing figure obstructing it. The ghastly head rose from the robes.
James wondered how many people had seen the back of Voldemort's head. Odd thought, really.
"Leave me alone," said a woman's voice quietly, in a childlike tone.
"Step aside girl, I've been here long enough," Voldemort commanded in a bored tone.
"No! Leave him alone, what has he ever done to you, he's only a baby!"
"Step aside, and I'll let you live."
"No, just go!"
"Step aside you foolish child!"
"Why won't you just leave him, he's only a child, defenceless, he'd never harm you!"
"You don't have to be so silly about this-"
"I'm not letting you have him!"
The Dark Lord lost his patience.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Thump.
James walked along the corridor, trying to stop his shakes. He was Gryffindor, for Christ's sake! He was supposed to be brave! But, in retrospect, not many Gryffindors had to see this type of thing.
Voldemort whispered something so quietly even James couldn't hear it.
Green light, for the third time, erupted from the cursed wand. The whole room seemed to shine with it. James clutched his chest as a baby's scream reached his ears, it was too much. Voldemort was bathed in green light.
And then the light was no more, and James's eyes popped out. Voldemort was gone, his robes pooled in the doorway. And James could see, directly through the doorway, a crib.
A small, black haired baby boy sat in the crib, gazing out.
James couldn't believe his eyes. The boy he had cared for a day sat in front of him. Little Harry was surrounded by a glowing red dome, which throbbed and sparkled with electric-like currents in a comforting way. "Mama?" the baby said uncertainly. "Dada? Woomta? Padfof?" The ball throbbed around him comfortingly. "Hawwy want mama!"
The ball shrunk toward the child in the centre. Soon the ball was like a glow on his skin. And then little baby Harry seemed to fade from existence.
James stumbled from the house, and found Lily outside. He fell into her arms, sobbing uncontrollably. She shushed and crooned, stroking his hair. James looked up to find them in Dumbledore's office once again.
The door opened, and the pair turned their tear-streaked faces to see the newcomers.
Dumbledore entered, and sat serenely behind his desk. McGonagall glanced at the Headmaster questioningly, and Hagrid settled into a corner.
Dumbledore placed his head in his hands and murmured, not even looking up. "How much did you see?"
Lily buried her face in James's shoulder once again.
A/N: It's longer sadder and has meaning...nooooooo!Yes, I purposely (sp?) left out James and Lily's names. Why? Becuase it's too early for them to find out. I've just started with a plot line, so I can't really put the climax in yet, hmmm?
Author's last note: If you hated it, tell me why; if you loved it, give a cry; and for the rest of you, tell me you were just passing by (review!) !