The Last Laugh
Chapter Twenty-One: Return of the Bed Nazi
By: Star*dust
The next morning happened to be a Friday. But this did not comfort anyone. Usually they would all be saying T.G.I.F., like most people. Today, however, Lily was concentrating on her friend Matt McKinnon. She felt absolutely horrible for him, and for Karen, but she knew that this was nothing compared to what he was going to. They had been married for barely a year, what Lily didn't know was that she would never live to see her second anniversary either.
That Friday, she didn't feel like going into work, which she was almost certain would involve revisiting Gringotts and relieving whatever horrors chose to haunt her. She had a lot more to worry about than work, but she knew it would do no use to sit around and be sad.
As she arrived she wondered where Angie was. She hadn't really talked to her for a while. Hopefully, Angie was doing better than she was. James was waiting for Lily in her office when she arrived and her heart rose a little.
"How's Matt?" He asked immediately.
"I don't know," She replied with a sigh as she sunk down into a chair. "He's very unresponsive, about the same as when you left this morning."
"Dumbledore's written a letter to us. He's very concerned. I've been talking to Moody all afternoon, I think maybe someone needs to stay at the house with Matt," James said. "I'm worried that someone might. I don't know, try to do something," He said a little uncomfortably. Lily looked up at him in surprise.
"What are you trying to say?" Lily asked. "You think that they killed those people for. for actual reasons, besides the fact that they're all heartless?" Lily wasn't one of the smartest in her class for nothing. She had picked up on James's worry.
"It seems to me to be the case," He said. "I mean, there were some people who were standing right next to others that were killed and they escaped. They all say most of the same thing. The death eaters raised their wands and uttered the killing curse, the person next to them falls and the death eater moves away and they run screaming from the building amidst other death eaters. It just doesn't seem they would let people get away so easy if they were just arbitrarily killing people."
"I suppose you might be right, but that note said 'kill all'" Lily pointed out.
"But perhaps at their little secret meetings they decided who to kill. or something," Although Lily agreed she couldn't help responding jokingly.
"You make it sound as if they all get together for a game of yahtzee and casually discuss who to kill as if planning a bake sale," Lily said.
"As interesting as that scenario is, that's not the mood I was going for. What if these people were murdered for a reason? You know, with motive and planning and intent."
"Are you trying to say that someone may be trying to kill Matt?" Lily asked, already hearing the horrifying truth in her head. James nodded and Lily suddenly burst out crying.
"Oh James! I'm so scared! I'm so frightened. Anything could happen to us! Anything!" She wailed. "Out friends are dying like life is going out of fashion. Young, vibrant, people struck down in their youth! It's horrible, horrible, but the reality is we're next! We're next!" She continued to shriek.
"Lily, calm down," James said flatly rising out of his chair. He crossed the room and knelt down in front of Lily. "We can prevent it. We can stop it-"
"James be real, we're not all powerful and we're not invincible! Our friends have been dying and there was nothing we could have done to prevent it!"
"YES THERE WAS!" James shouted suddenly scaring Lily and causing her tears to stop. Something inside of James burst at that moment and emotion, the likes of which Lily hadn't seen since his parents died resurfaced.
"If I had acted on my instinct I could have gone to Gringotts! I could have at least saved some lives! And I should have figured out that code! I should have sent someone to Gringotts as a caution! And now I have to go and stop something from happening to Matt. I'm not letting him die! I won't Lily! I'm not letting anything happen this time!" He continued to rant like this for some time before Lily calmly responded.
"James, could have, should have, would have," She said. "Life is full of them, and it's no good dwelling on it. It won't change anything. Look, it's not our fault that people are dying; we're just here to do the best we can protecting them. We just have to be here for those that are left in this cruel world. James, I'm scared, and worried, and horrified at all the total evil in this world. But I'm not going to be unrealistic. I'm just one person, I can't do everything. Please, don't get upset, we have to be strong." Lily said. This was an uncharacteristic switch for the both of them. James took in a deep breath.
"I know, I'm sorry, I should have been stronger. I shouldn't have burst out like that," He said.
"I know, you're just outraged, just like I am. But we need to stop the should haves, OK?" James nodded and engulfed Lily in a hug. They both needed each other in more ways imaginable; it was funny how just a little hug could make everything right again.
"You better get out of here before Moody has our heads on a silver platter!" Lily said suddenly.
"He'd never have our heads on a silver platter. He'd be too paranoid our heads were poisoned. He'd make Mr. Crouch, who has a crouch up his butt, taste it first." James said matter-of-factly.
"I honestly don't understand you sometimes," Lily replied. James rolled his eyes, flashed a grin, and left.
~*~
As long as anyone wasn't bursting in screaming at her to come to Gringotts, Lily decided to write a letter to Dumbledore. She had been pondering whether or not to ask him about some of the dreams she'd been having, but she decided that she had better ask him later. She had enough to say to him without talking about that.
When she had finished spilling out her story of what happened yesterday and her worry about Matt, and about everything, including James, Harry, Sirius, Angie, Elizabeth, herself, and the world in general, she had come up with almost three rolls of parchment.
"I do hope Dumbledore's not busy today," Lily said signing the letter and sending it off with an owl. But barely had she time for this, did James turn up again.
"I'm going home, honey," He said. "I've talked Moody into letting me stay home to 'protect Matt' though I think Moody thinks that I'm lazy, oh well. Where's Harry today?" James asked. "I'll swing by and pick him up,"
"Oh, he's at Mom's house," Lily said.
"Oh, well, maybe I won't then," James said. Lily laughed.
"You're going to have to get over this fear of my parents, you know. You'll have a good impression if you go pick Harry up. Just don't start anything." Lily said and when James's expression hadn't changed she added one more piece of advice. "If you're worried pick Matt up and have him go with you. It'll take his mind off of Kerrie," Lily said, swallowing some memories as she saw a couple of aurors approaching.
"Mrs. Potter? Moody has sent orders that you are meet him at Gringotts immediately," Lily nodded.
"I was expecting that," She said. "Well, bye, I'll see you tonight," She said giving James a quick kiss and a hurried good-bye.
"Love you," James said before striding off down the hallway.
~*~
James arrived in Godric's Hollow, a couple of minutes later. He had apparated up the street, as opposed to in front of his house. His plan was to check the mail box, the muggle mail box, (occasionally Lily got letters from muggle friends) and the association bulletin board for any announcements.
However, all thoughts of anything remotely related to muggles or announcements flew out of his head in a nanosecond as his eyes saw his house, towering at the end of the street. The sun winked off the windows merrily, but above the house, in the soft blue sky, was the cold, ugly, dark mark.
James's mouth had gone dryer than he ever imagined the Sahara desert and his throat felt like sandpaper. His heart raced and pounded in his chest, and sweat started to leak out of him as his footfalls pounded on the pavement.
He reached the front gate and went crashing through it; fumbling around for his wand he opened the front door, cautiously, despite his panic. Auror training hadn't been COMPLETELY worthless.
He needn't be worried, nor go far, for there by the fire, where he had always been was one of James's closest friends: Matthew McKinnon.
Bitter regret and unbelievable guilt consumed James Potter long after the ministry officials arrived. Long, long after.
~*~
Lily was relieving a particularly gruesome event, yet a totally irrelevant one, when she was snapped out of it. Standing in a particular spot inside the white chalk outline of a woman, Lily had horrible visions of a little girl being beaten by her father; though Lily couldn't imagine how this would help them in anyway capture this woman's murderer.
"Potter. Potter! LILY!" Frank Longbottom shouted, bringing her back to reality. "I'm sorry to interrupt but the ministry just been to your house. I mean, they're at your house. Dark mark in the sky and everything," He said.
"WHAT!?!?" Lily screamed looking wildly at him, her eyes wider than saucers. "Oh god, Matt and James, and HARRY. Oh god, what happened? WHAT HAPPENED FRANK?" She screamed holding onto him for support. Her knees seemed to have forgotten how to hold her up.
"Matt," Frank said bowing his head. Lily had forgotten that he and Frank had been pretty close friends. "They're saying that James found him when he cam home." This was hardly cause to breathe relief!
"Both of them in two days," Lily said shakily. "Oh god," She repeated.
"I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but Moody has insisted you stay and keep working, he at least wants you to visit the passage where the carbonated crystal was being kept. I'm sorry about this, but you can't leave just yet. Tomorrow they're going to have no choice but to open the bank. There's been more than one near riots out there today. Everyone's worried, they want their gold. They're afraid it will be stolen." He said. "We've had more than a job trying to contain the crowd. Sorry to say several of them have been arrested, but we've no choice. We've got to continue the investigation," Lily knew all this already and was not interested in listening to Frank babble. Especially since she was still a long way off from swallowing these recent events, let alone start digesting them.
"And James and Harry are fine?" Lily asked.
"Perfect," Frank assured her.
"Thanks so much for telling me. Listen, could you do me a favor and owl James. Tell him I'll be home as soon as possible and also tell him it wasn't his fault. I know you don't know what I'm talking about, just do it, please." Lily urged him and Frank didn't really have a choice but to nod. "Thank you!" Lily cried as she sprinted off towards the now empty carbonated crystal vault.
~*~
Two hours later she ran into the house to find James almost in the exact same spot he had been when the first ministry officials had arrived. He was sitting stiffly on the second stair right in front of the doorway.
Lily saw him and dissolved into tears, for the first time able to show her emotions, and they all annoyingly came spilling out of her eyes. She just cried on James's shoulder, and he held her; Conveying everything that needed to be said without words.
The next morning found them asleep, but in the exact same spot, though later that would be regretted. In about one minute, when I write them waking up, James will regret it.
James opened his eyes. The sunlight was streaming in the window and bathing them in warmth. Carefully he moved out from under Lily and blinked and stretched before groaning and clutching his back in pain.
"I'll never do that again!" He declared. "That was the most uncomfortable, painful experience I've ever been through." Lily sat up and though she agreed she didn't much feel like talking about it.
"I suppose Mom will be worried sick about us. I can't believe she didn't owl! I can't believe I didn't even go get Harry last night! I'm such a horrible mother! Mom is going to kill me!" Lily said.
"Don't worry about your Mom. You were in no shape to get Harry last night. I think she'll understand. Look, I'll owl in to work. I don't think we need to go in today. You go get Harry and we'll just talk and get over this," James said, almost as if he were trying to convince himself rather than Lily.
"OK," Lily said. She quickly slid in front of the mirror to straighten her hair. She gave her best smile, but it was very weak.
"Cheer up dear," The mirror told her. "It was quick and painless. It was over in a second," She said.
"Oh my god," Lily whispered. "You saw it. You saw Matt being killed."
"Sadly, yes. You have no idea how frustrating it is to watch such things. Though I am quite used to it. I don't want to talk about Slytherin's later days." She said, and Lily could imagine this mirror shuddering. It was weird, but most of the time Lily almost considered herself to be talking to a person.
"Did you see who killed him? Do you know who murdered Matt?" Lily asked the mirror.
"No, the person was hidden under cloaks and robes and masks as always,"
"Yes, I suppose that makes sense," Lily said disappointed, with a last look at James she disappeared.
DING-DONG.
James jumped, which was unlucky since this just made his back hurt ten times worse. He answered the door and Peter Pettigrew came inside.
"I just heard in The Daily Prophet." He said showing James the front page. "Is everything OK?" He asked concerned.
"I suppose you might say that I'm OK. I'm alive anyway, but in unbelievable grief." James replied dramatically.
"Cheer up Prongs, tomorrow's another day," Was his response. "Where's Lily and Harry, that little bugger?" Peter asked almost cheerfully.
"Lily's gone to get him at her Mum's," James replied.
"Well, all right then. I've got to go, I'm on my way to work, you know. Cheer up!" He said, and disappeared.
It didn't take long (About 8 seconds) before James's mind turned back to what he'd been asking himself ever since he saw the dark mark in the sky so many hours ago.
*Why hadn't he stayed home? He knew that Matt was in danger. He could sense it; and he also knew those people weren't just killed so they could steal the crystal. There was a reason and the best reason that James could come up with for the McKinnons was their old family name and powerful back round. They were an obvious threat. And James had known all this, so why hadn't he stayed home? Or come home sooner? Why had he waited for Moody to get out of that meeting? Why didn't he just leave right then?* All these questions had been haunting James and eating away at his insides.
With a horrible growl he realized how very hungry he was. He hadn't eaten since breakfast yesterday. Breakfast yesterday with Matt. A horrible lump was rising in James's throat, but he took a deep breath and forced it back inside.
~*~
The third day of November found Lily and James, as well as everyone who knew Matt and Karen attending their depressing funeral. Lily's eyes were red and her face tear stained as they returned home that evening.
The fourth day of November provided more heartache for Lily as she saw her husband off on another assignment. "I don't know how long, but I'll be back for Christmas." He assured her. "And Harry, don't get so big on me," With an encouraging smile he left.
Lily began her cleaning rituals for the morning while Harry was swinging in the baby swing. She had barely started this when she heard a soft murmuring.
She turned slowly to look at Harry, but it most certainly wasn't him. When it didn't stop she picked Harry up out of the swing and walked curiously into the living room where she could now clearly hear what was being said, or rather sung.
"I am slowly going crazy, one, two, three, four, five, six switch! Crazy going slowly am I six, five, four three, two, one switch!" Sirius was sitting slumped down in an armchair singing softly.
"And why, Mr. Black, are you going crazy?" Lily asked wondering when Sirius had arrived.
"I think it's in my genes. My SISTER is driving me up the wall, across the ceiling, down the wall, through the floor and out the basement window!"
"That bad?" Lily asked.
"I don't want to talk about it," He said, so what did he do? Continue to talk about it. "I mean! Can't she just get over herself! Maybe I should see if there's a way to give her some of that money. I daresay I'll need it all. But no, there's no way I'm going to give in to her!" He said his mood changing dramatically through the course of the conversation.
"This really is getting to you, isn't it?" Lily asked looking slightly alarmed.
"Well, yeah," He admitted. "She always does and I don't know why,"
"You need to relax. You need something to relax you,"
"Like a girl," Sirius said.
"Yes, like Angie," Lily replied with a grin.
"Oh no!" Sirius cried. "No, no. Angie is happy with her daughter and with JOSH," He said emphasizing the name. "You need to get the crazy idea of me and Angie out of your head!" Sirius was half trying to convince himself of this, but Lily saw right through him.
"Oh come off it! You'd rather be with her any day. I can tell you miss her even if you don't want to admit. I'm telling you, you're not just Harry's god parents because James and I were desperately trying to hook you two up, someday you'll end up together." Lily said knowingly.
"Now it's you who's going crazy!" Sirius declared.
~*~
Soon the lonely month of November passed into the chilly nights of December and Christmas drew ever closer. There was no word from James, but Lily had begun to figure out that no news was good news when he was on one of those auror excursions.
On Christmas Eve James returned bitten with the Christmas bug. He bounced around the house singly Christmas Carols and catching Lily and Harry under the mistletoe. He was in an unusually good mood about something, of course Lily had no idea that James had got The Marauders to come blast 'Jingle Bells' at six o'clock tomorrow morning right outside on the front lawn, just as his little Christmas prank to Lily.
That night, even though Harry was sleeping peacefully the entire night (he had only just started sleeping through the night this past week) Lily couldn't help tossing and turning worrying about something. She had an uneasy feeling, and she'd come to learn that when she had an uneasy feeling it usually meant something was wrong. That night she didn't get much sleep, and if she hadn't been awake she probably would have been very annoyed with the barn owl that swooped in the window a couple minutes before six Christmas morning.
She leapt out of bed at once, and snatched the official ministry letter from its claws as it swooped back outside into the gently falling snow.
Lily's face fell immediately as she recognized the letter. There were special kinds of official letters that the ministry of magic always used. There was an entire office devoted to housing all of these kinds of letters, with sort of fill in the blanks with names and dates and stuff. Of course, your department may have to use any one of those letters, and sadly, the one that was used most often, was the "We are sorry to inform you that." And usually that was ended with the death of someone you knew.
For quite a long moment Lily didn't dare to look at it, breathing deeply and wondering who it was and desperately wishing it to be a mistake. Slowly she looked at the letter and began to read the bad news.
Her eyes suddenly stopped on the name Josh. She was unable to go on, silently praying it not to be Josh Thompson, for that would be a terrible blow to Angie, who needed someone right now, and to Kirsten who would go without a father.
In a moment she willed her eyes to tear themselves away from that name but the next word caused her to break into a cold sweat and sit down. It was worse than if it had been Josh Thompson. This was Josh Martin, her muggle next door neighbor. Not that she knew this particular Josh a whole lot better, but she was pretty sure that for whatever reason he died, it was somehow related to her.
Swallowing repeatedly she continued reading the letter.
Mrs. Potter,
We regret (ok, it was regret, so the ministry used fancier words than she remembered, big deal!) to inform you that Josh Martin is deceased. He was murdered in his home at precisely 4:52AM, Christmas Day. We have reason to believe it was the act of dark witches and wizards unknown, the dark mark was found looming in the sky.
Sincerely, Bartimus Crouch
Head of Magical Law Enforcement VP of Committee on Sentencing for Azkaban
Lily was surprised to find more writing, obviously hand written at the bottom of the letter.
Mrs. Potter,
This death has disturbed us greatly, because we cannot for any reason see why the dark lord may have wanted to kill this innocent young muggle. You are the only person that he knew who was magical in any way. If you have any reason to suspect anyone or have any idea why He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named may have wanted to eliminate him, please contact me, or someone in my office. I expect Alastor Moody will have you working on the case and I will speak with him for any updates.
I am very sorry for your loss, and for future reference his family will not remember the dark mark and cause of death was heart failure, seems it runs in the family.
Concerned, Artemis Lupin Minister of Magic
Lily folded the letter carefully and placed it on her bedside table. It was still very dark outside as Lily dressed fifteen minutes until six. She was nervous and her brain was working ceaselessly trying to understand what had happened to Josh, her neighbor and friend.
Had she not been so worried she would have stopped to reflect on Artemis Lupin and who he was but she was much too worried to bring up the past and many issues that really weren't any of her business.
Unsurprisingly another letter arrived from Alastor Moody. He wanted her to report to work immediately to work on this case and try and figure out who killed Josh Martin.
Lily was just about to scribble a note to James when he turned over and noticed Lily was no longer next to him. He sat up sleepily.
"Merry Christmas," He said, but then he caught the color of the sky and started asking questions. "Why are you awake? Are you going somewhere?"
"Listen, my neighbor, Josh Martin was killed about an hour ago and Moody wants me to come work on the case," Lily said grabbing a few last minute things.
James followed her downstairs and towards the front door.
"What do you mean? What's going on?"
"I don't know. The ministry owled me and said that Josh was killed and the dark mark was over his house. They've done memory charms on the muggles, not before questioning them, I'm sure, but I've got to go to the house to see if I can find a clue, or something." Lily explained this all very quickly.
"But it's Christmas Lily," James said.
"I know, but I can't just sit here and do nothing about this. I know that I'm the reason he was killed. There's no other explanation, I'm the only magical person he knows! It might not be my fault if he had unknowingly pissed some death eater off and was killed in the street, but I know this has something to do with me. It's personal James," Lily said desperately trying to make him understand.
"It's OK, I understand, you've got to work, but just be careful and try to be home in time for Christmas dinner," He said.
"You're amazing," Lily said in awe at his understanding and consideration.
"Though I do think it's rather ironic that I caught hell for the past two years when I had to work on Christmas," He added nastily but Lily didn't say anything, she knew she was lucky and James was being much more than fair.
But she didn't have time to really consider that right now, she was too worried about this whole Josh thing. People she knew were dying right and left and somehow it had to be related to her, to something she had done.
But what could possibly justify the killing of all these innocent people? Nothing, of course, but there had to be some reason related to her, no matter how stupid, she was sure there was a reason.
~*~
Lily arrived in her hometown neighborhood very much afraid and very early in the morning. It was snowing outside and bitterly cold. Already a foot or so of snow covered the ground and Lily trudged through it. She was literally blown away by all the people who were there working. Well, maybe not blown away, but certainly miffed.
Her house was totally unharmed, and looking at her next door neighbor's house you would think nothing was wrong, but the house now had a very dark feeling. You could tell something wasn't exactly right.
The first thing she saw was her mother and Mrs. Martin outside at Lily's house. Her mother was trying to comfort Mrs. Martin but crying herself. Lily got a horrible pang and for a moment she was sure she was going to cry in front of all these emotionless aurors, but then, the feeling passed as Moody came up to her at told her everything they knew, which wasn't much.
She only listened half heartedly as she stared blankly at her mother and her second mother, Mrs. Martin.
"How important is this?" Lily asked interrupting Moody telling her nonsense stuff. "Do I need to make haste, or not?"
"Well, haste is always advised. If we find something the trail is always fresher the less time has passed," Moody said. "But it's not absolutely necessary right away. Today however, is needed. Before noon for sure,"
"Good," Lily said striding past him and up onto her porch so she could cry with her mother and Mrs. Martin.
~*~
After they had all calmed down a bit, Lily felt it was part of her job to ask a few questions.
"What time did you find him?" She asked Mrs. Martin.
"About a minute before the police showed up," She said. "I was just going to call them when they knocked. I thought it was a little strange." Of course it was strange, but the ministry had known it had happened the minute the spell had been cast, that's why they had arrived so quickly.
"Mom, did you hear anything?" She asked.
"Not a thing dear, except for your father snoring, and with that there's not much else one could hear," She replied. Lily nodded knowingly.
"You didn't notice any suspicious characters yesterday or the day before that?" Lily asked.
"No," They both answered slowly.
"But honey, I don't understand," Her mother said. "He died of heart failure, he wasn't murdered,"
"You know me, just making sure," Lily said quickly, she was clearly not going to get anything out of them. Maybe she'd ask her father if he'd seen anything yesterday. He was known to sit in the den and watch the street out the window while he smoked a cigar or a pipe. Mr. Martin was probably working yesterday so that would be a no go. The poor old man, he was a workaholic, he'd work himself right into the grave!
"I never thought I'd be burying my son!" Mrs. Martin wailed and went into another bout of tears. Lily left to do an examination before the muggle doctors left and took the body away.
But going into the house she couldn't concentrate and no visions came to her. After a long time she sank to the ground and sobbed. She couldn't help her friend, not this way anyway. She would have to figure it out another way. There had to be some link to her and that just made the guilt worse.
After a while she went over to her house to wish everyone the happiest Christmas they could have. Petunia, Vernon, and their quite large son Dudley were in the den. Petunia's face was tear streaked, she had known Josh too.
Just as Lily was saying her goodbyes and was about to leave Petunia took her aside into the front room where no one could hear them. She backed her into a wall and with crazy bloodshot eyes she began interrogating and cursing Lily.
"It was you, wasn't it?" She asked. "You're the one who got him killed! You and you're queer murderous lot. You may not have wanted him harm but you went mixing with the wrong kind and now look what it's done. It's all your fault! That could be us next! It's all your fault!" She screeched.
Lily couldn't take it anymore. She burst into tears and ran from the house. Petunia had made her guilt one hundred times worse and the tears were flowing freely and freezing to her face. When she turned up again in Godric's Hollow everyone was inside merrily singing and laughing around the Christmas tree, their presents opened.
Lily burst in the door and saw the happy sight. Everyone fell silent and looked at her, and then she suddenly started crying again and ran upstairs.
James quickly handed Harry off to Angie and raced up after Lily.
~*~
The New Year wasn't such a happy event this year as the Josh Martin case still didn't have anything new to add to the list of clues.
Before she knew what was happening Lily's life turned much better as she and James took a weekend off for their first anniversary. Reluctantly they agreed to leave Harry in the care of Sirius, as long as Angie promised to check in twice a day.
"Now don't come back with another one!" Sirius called as they left.
"Sounds like your father," James mumbled to Lily.
It was the most romantic two days Lily had ever lived. They spent it in a very expensive place in Paris going to the finest restaurants and dancing on a boat in the Seine. Watching the sunset from the Eiffel tower. Going back to the hotel.
All in all both Lily and James had needed the break and it did everyone good. Sirius was really good with Harry now and Angie got to spend some time away from her child while Lily and James got to relax.
Once they got back they were still busier than ever the dark lord on the rise, as always, there wasn't much higher he could go. Lily viewed this as both good and bad. On one hand, he had more supporters and power than ever and was wreaking more havoc than ever, but on the other he had no where to go but down, everything to lose, and it was her deepest desire to find a way to make him lose it all.
~*~
Before either busy body knew what was going on the end of April was upon them and in absolutely no time May first approached, and Kirsten was already one year old.
"James?" Lily called as she put Harry's shirt on. "Come on, honey! We're going to be late!" The family was heading to Angie and Josh's for Kirsten's first birthday. Lily sighed. Where had the year gone? How could this have happened? Time was slipping away from her faster than she ever remembered it in school.
Her life was so different now. In the morning she would have a wonderfully blissful happy time with her son and sometimes her husband. There was never a morning she didn't welcome, but her afternoons and evenings were often hell as she sat alone, usually recalling horrible visions and racking her brain to the point of exhaustion, and her day didn't stop there.
She came home, sometimes in time for dinner with Harry. She would usually spend an hour or so in front of the fire with a quill and parchment, or sometimes in the library. Her nighttimes were tortured. She couldn't remember the last night she had a full night's rest, or at least, a dreamless night.
James looked as if he had aged ten years over the past year. He didn't sleep much either and Lily spent a lot of her time worrying about him, not that she had time to spare. She sighed again and smiled at Harry who was kicking in his seat.
"JAMES!!" She yelled again.
"I'm coming," He said. "You didn't want to show up without a gift did you?" He asked.
"Well, we're supposed to be charming her necklace," Lily said. Josh had gone out and found the most beautiful necklace at a muggle jewelry store in London. It had a glimmering diamond 'K' for Kirsten. Angie and Josh had put a spell on it already and they wanted all their friends to enchant it somehow so that it might be useful to her.
Lily, James, Dumbledore, Sirius, Peter, Remus, Sierra, and even Holly Mischel were going to somehow charm the necklace. Lily thought it was a very clever idea. It kind of reminded her as some sort of dedication. Kirsten could always keep this necklace and it would probably turn out to be very powerful and helpful for her.
Elizabeth was back in Germany after Halloween they hadn't heard from her, though James saw her briefly once. He said she was even more grim and wizened now. She hadn't seen Harry yet. She was at the wedding though, and Lily was glad for that.
"I know, I've got that all planned, don't you worry." James said. "But I also got something the kid could play with, you know. She's one year old, she won't appreciate a spell!"
"What did you get her?" Lily asked curiously.
"You'll see." James said with a grin. Lily didn't the press the subject and with a small pop they disappeared.
~*~ When they arrived Angie greeted them at the door. She said a rushed baby talk greeting for Harry before she allowed them to step inside.
"Come along, everyone's in the kitchen. I'm afraid Kirsten's asleep at the moment, but no matter, now that everyone's here we can charm the necklace." She said leading them into the kitchen where everyone warmly greeted Lily and James, and Harry.
Even Dumbledore didn't look out of place in this crowded room full of young people. He was laughing merrily along with Sirius and Peter.
James handed Angie Kirsten's present.
"What's this?" She asked regarding it suspiciously.
"Just a little present from Uncle James," He said with a grin. Angie narrowed her eyes but set it on the table.
"Uncle James?" Lily asked him.
"We're like an Aunt and Uncle to Kirsten," James said. "Just like Uncle Sirius and Aunt Angela are to Harry," He said.
"Correction," Lily said. "They would be, IF we had not made them god parents,"
"Oh," James said. "Yes, that's true," And at that point their conversation desisted as Sierra came over to hold Harry, talking quickly and excitedly.
"Well, let's see it!" Holly Mischel finally said to Angie who was looking murderous, both sisters still carried an outrageous grudge. "Let's see this infamous necklace,"
Angie disappeared upstairs for a second and when she reappeared she was carefully carrying the most beautiful necklace Lily had ever laid eyes on. It sparkled and shined over every inch and already carried a very powerful aura. Lily gasped, and indeed no one was speaking, just all looking on in awe at the necklace.
"Very fine job," Dumbledore said to Josh breaking the silence. Josh couldn't contain how pleased he was at this compliment. "I'm sorry to rush this, Angela," He said. "But I really can't linger much longer. The school calls," He said with a grin.
Then very carefully he took out his wand and tapped the necklace gently twice and said a few muttered words so that no one could hear. The necklace momentarily turned green but then quickly faded, or rather returned to its light catching normalness.
"Thank you for the drink. I'll see you all later," He said, and left.
One by one, everyone in the room, minus Angie and Josh who had already placed their spells on the necklace, had much the same ritual as Dumbledore as they each placed their own spells on the glimmering necklace.
Angie recognized a few of them, when she heard the words and others she discovered later. Remus put a spell on it to act like a compass and point north if Kirsten wanted it to. Holly put a spell on it to make the necklace vibrate if someone was looking for Kirsten. Lily put a spell on it to make it glow if she was in danger. Peter put a spell on it to provide a sense of comfort if she needed it (acting in much the same way as chocolate). Sierra enchanted it to always allow her the first strike in a duel. Angie had linked her necklace to herself so that they could always find each other. James enchanted it to provide invisibility for thirty seconds when needed. Sirius, although Angie never found this out, put a spell on the necklace to shock any boy that she kissed for the first time. And Josh had enchanted it to play any song she thought of whenever she wanted. The only one, besides Sirius's, that remained a mystery to her was Dumbledore's spell.
When Angie was satisfied with everyone's spells, with perfect timing Kirsten's cries rang out and Angie dashed upstairs to grab her. When she came back down the beautiful little girl had the necklace on, it fitted her perfectly.
"I've also added a little charm to allow it to grow as it needs to," Angie explained stroking her daughter's quickly lightening hair.
"That reminds me," Lily said. "I have another useful little spell, if you don't mind," She said.
"Of course not," Angie said.
Once again Lily took out her wand and then hesitated. She looked more closely at the necklace. "Angie, it looks like something is missing here," Lily said pointing to either tip of the K's diagonal marks. "It almost looks as if something was broken off,"
Everyone was now trying to crowd in to have a look, and sure enough there were two silver pieces attached to the diamond 'K' that certainly didn't look like they belonged. Angie stared curiously and then shrugged and Lily continued with her little enchantment.
"This way, she can always find it," Lily explained. "It would be a shame to lose something so pretty and valuable,"
"Let her open my present now," James said setting the wrapped small shirt box in front of Kirsten. Kirsten carefully picked it up, and with a little help from Angie she ripped off the paper and opened the box to find a small little shirt with THE ARROWS printed on the front. It had a picture of two Arrow's quidditch players zooming around on the shirt. Angie rolled her eyes and said it would look cute on Kirsten.
The marauders exchanged high-fives, because everyone knew, the Arrows were the best quidditch team.
~*~
As summer approached and Harry got bigger he started to become more and more trouble. Often around the house you heard various shouts from either Lily, James, or Sirius, saying:
"No Harry,"
"That's mummy's hair, let go!"
"Stay out Harry,"
"NICE SHOT HARRY!" Sirius declared one night as he entered the kitchen and Harry flung a spoonful of carrots (from a baby food jar) and it Sirius square in the eye.
"Don't encourage him," Lily said giving him a look. "If I didn't know better I'd say he was your child," James snorted, the thought of Sirius Black having a child was absolutely ludicrous.
Along with Harry's new found mischievous attitude he started walking, and that didn't improve anything. One day when Lily came home from work, Harry was asleep and Sirius was writing a letter in the living room.
It was dark and James was gone on an outing, he would probably be back soon, walking into the living room Lily tripped on a baby toy and swore loudly.
"Bonjour," Sirius said looking up. "Your French is lovely," Lily just gave him a look.
"When did this place get to be such a mess?" She asked and Sirius just shrugged.
Two weeks before Harry's 1st birthday Elizabeth Hoffenmeijer sent them a letter saying she would be arriving in five days. Sirius was there when this letter arrived and teased Lily for taking a day off of work just to clean house, especially when Elizabeth would never care, unless of course her bed was messed up, then she would mind.
When Elizabeth arrived she had to be taken on the tour. She'd never been to the Potter's before. With lots of ooohs and aaahs they at last arrived at her bedroom. It was a LARGE room, the largest bedroom, except for Lily and James's, usually used for Sirius, but since he NEVER slept in his room and only used it every once in a while to store a few clothes or belongings, they allowed Elizabeth to use it, mainly because of the nice view, it's own bathroom and it had the nicest four poster bed.
But, lo and behold, the first thing she said upon entering it. "Oh my God," She said in a disgusted sort of tone, "Look at that bed! The comforters a half an inch off to the side and can you see that huge wrinkle there!?" She continued ranting for a minute or so until she had fixed the bed how she liked it. The return of the Bed Nazi.
All the while Lily was in the background shaking her head. "And no bed is complete without Bradley James," She said finishing; for one horrible moment Lily thought she was talking about her newest boyfriend, but to her relief, she pulled out a cuddly teddy-bear, and set it on her pillow.
After the bed had passed serious inspection the two girls went downstairs where Elizabeth goggled over Harry and they talked for a while only being interrupted by Harry pulling Elizabeth's hair or her glasses of her nose.
"So Liz, what have you been up to in Germany?" Lily asked. Elizabeth's face hardened and she became very grave.
"I started training with my uncle and my cousin. My cousin is about seven years older than I am and he's a code-breaker and my uncle is the head of the international law enforcement agency in Germany. I started working with the agency that goes out and clears away experiments gone wrong. Nasty, nasty business.
"I work with the worst kinds of things imaginable. Nasty dark creatures. You think it's bad here, over there the ministry isn't so big and so strong, and the dark arts aren't even manageable anymore." She had a far off dead look in her eyes and Lily was very quiet.
She hadn't really ever thought about it. Lily always thought her job was bad enough, but at least she dealt with things in the mind, things she knew she couldn't have been able to prevent but can still bring justice to the perpetrator. In Elizabeth's case, she saw the worst of the worst, the things that might have been stopped, and the things that no one else wanted to see, or even dream about.
"But I try not to let that get me down," She said brightly all of the sudden catching Lily off guard. "So, where's Prongs?"
"On assignment," Lily said dully, causing Elizabeth to laugh.
"You two are hopeless, every time I see him, he doesn't say much just thinking about home, and here you are at home just thinking about wherever he is," She rolled her eyes. "You guys are so cute!" Now it was Lily's turn to roll her eyes.
"So, is there-dare I say it- another Bradley back in Germany?" Lily asked.
"No," She said. "God no. I mean, I've got fair pick of the local dead beats in the jail,"
"Jail?"
"Well, it's not really a jail, because we all know that's Azkaban. But this place is like walking around the ghetto. It's horrible and unclean and there are some of THE worst people in there, just waiting until we can somehow transport them to Azkaban where they can go insane and rot," She said nastily. "We're so busy with everything else we just don't have time to say, hey! somebody needs to take this batch of earth slime down to Azkaban. We have to wait until we're full and some guards have no choice but to come and transport some of them away, or give them a kiss, whichever they deem necessary, they all deserve it," Lily stared at her.
"I don't really think anyone deserves that," Lily said in horror.
"You would if you have seen what I've seen. It's better to give their souls to the dementors than the demons and the devil. The dementors are almost like demons, mind you, but you would understand if you were in my shoes," She said darkly.
Lily shook her head and happened to glance out of the window.
"JAMES!!!!" She screamed jumping to her feet and racing to the front door which she wrenched open and ran to her husband.
James Potter and Frank Longbottom, both looking grim and weighed down, but triumphant, nonetheless, both smoking cigars in celebration, were walking side by side towards the house.
James grinned broadly as he saw her, and dumped all of his things onto the ground. The next second Lily had leaped into his arms, he spun her around and then they kissed. Watching from the door, Elizabeth Hoffenmeijer smiled, a true smile of happiness, where he eyes sparked to life, for a once in a blue moon, year lifting, smile of happiness. Lily and James were so happy it always wore off, and that was one of the most missed things about them.
She glanced up at them again and the smile disappeared and she plunged back into her world of fake laughs and darkness.
Elizabeth, shrouded in mystery, and intrigued by such sights descended slowly from the house and went to greet an old acquaintance, Frank Longbottom.
"Hello Frank, I'm Elizabeth Hoffenmeijer," She said with a fake smile and the important air about her. Frank ignored it, very well by taking a long drag on his cigar and blowing smoke at her before replying casually.
"Of course you are, graduated the same year and all." They both had to move slightly sideways so as to dodge the happy couple who were dancing and laughing. "Kind of makes you feel left out, doesn't it?" He asked with a grin. Her mouth moved into a small smile in reply.
"And what is with the man-killer?" She asked pointing to the ugly cigar.
"Just a bit of celebration," He said.
"Celebrating what? I can think of nothing worth celebrating, that requires you to kill yourself in the process of celebrating it," It took him a second to understand this statement.
"For bringing in Snape Sr., of course," He said, almost shocked they hadn't heard this news. "We've earned bonuses and respect and. fame,"
"You mean, you've convicted Mr. L. Snape, father of Severus Snape?" She asked letting out slight surprise in her voice.
"He isn't convicted yet but we found him in a VERY compromising situation,"
"Then what are you celebrating for?" She snapped. "If he's not convicted yet and not sent to Azkaban yet then there is absolutely no reason to celebrate. You haven't beaten him yet! He could still escape! Why would you leave, why not stay and guard your bonus, you've given him opportunity to flee! Mark my words, you don't celebrate until the fat lady sings and she hasn't even gotten up yet! He could be escaping by now!" She cried fury and rage in her voice, her vision clouded she was transported back to Germany where she commanded foolish men, she was no longer yelling at Frank Longbottom, but a stupid idiot who had let someone else slip away. And then suddenly she was back again and she fell silent.
"Forgive me, I'm sure the situation is under control, but perhaps you will wait to celebrate until you've seen something through next time," She said more calmly. Lily stared at Elizabeth. James was certainly right, she had changed, she was not the carefree girl Lily used to know, she was the head of her department back in Germany, ruthless in her pursuit of justice.
~*~
About a hundred people came to Harry Potter's first ever birthday. And, of course, Lily was fussing like a slightly crazy, always perfect, grandma getting ready for her yearly hosting of card club. Everything had to be a "picture" and even James had to admit the house had never looked so good in all of its glory.
Sierra Havairhafpvermin had baked the most enormous birthday cake which could only be rivaled by cakes backed for feasts at Hogwarts.
In the back yard by the lake -way in the back- there were four LARGE tables seating roughly twenty-five people each. Then, there was another table, same size, but stuffed full of so much food that you couldn't pick out the tablecloth beneath it all.
Decorations just floated through the air and there was an enormous boat by the water's edge packed full of birthday presents.
Lily and James were certainly taking full advantage of that bonus James had gotten.
Harry might not have been famous yet but an awful lot of people knew who he was, or at least they knew his parents.
As people arrived and the sun beat down on them, people began to have a cool off in the lake. There was a loud babble and chatter and shouts could be heard as the marauders had started a particularly good water fight.
In the midst of all this joyfulness bad news was brewing and not just from traitorousness to come. An owl swooped over the crowd. An owl that held the same fate of the owl about Lily's dear departed neighbor. Lily's Aunt and Uncle were gone.
And what's more, Lance Snape had evaded capture and they were quote "doing all that was possible" to find him.
"See what happened now!" Elizabeth shouted suddenly to the silent crowd. She had a mad glint in her eyes but also a lingering 'I told you so' "While you were celebrating, something that was never meant to be because you didn't see it through, Snape escaped and now you pay for your foolishness with TWO lives!"
~*~
A/N: Hey Harmony, thought you'd enjoy Snape Senior's name. Doesn't it suit him well? *Cackles*
Well, I hope you all enjoyed that chapter! I'm just two from the end! JUST TWO!! Hey, don't worry if you're confused about stuff, it's only going to get more confusing before it gets better explained. Lol.
Anyway, I don't know how long chapter 22 is going to take to post because I have a feeling it will end up being so much longer than I want it to be, just for the simple fact that more has to happen in this chapter, than almost the whole story! Not really, but some very important parts come into to play. So, I apologize ahead of time for the length of time it might take me to post chapter 22, but believe me, I will get it done as fast as I can because I can't wait to write it. I have been waiting for this the whole book!! YES! I CAN'T WAIT!
OK, anyway on to the thank you section: Alexandra- If you must know, as I have all this planned out, yes I am sort of on a killing spree, but it all ties in and it all leads up to Lily and James dying, obviously, but don't worry, I've still got some humor left in me, and a hell of a lot of romance, which is something I'm not big on writing, but trust me, there's some major romance coming up, and don't let the killing get you down. And don't worry, I'm not offended!
Libertygrl413: Thanks for the reviews, as always. Sorry fanfiction.net wouldn't let you login, I'm sure we all know what you're going through! Lol. And yes the Slytherin dream is important but not for reasons in this story, in the sequel is where they matter. Actually, come to think of it, there are some things in the Last Laugh, though they are minimal as compared with the sequel.
Buckbeakbabie: I'm so glad you liked the baby Harry and baby Draco thing, it was supposed to be funny. and now every time I come to the mirror of erised part I think of you, lol! You're the best girl!
sCHEm: Glad you liked it; hope you liked this one too!
The next morning happened to be a Friday. But this did not comfort anyone. Usually they would all be saying T.G.I.F., like most people. Today, however, Lily was concentrating on her friend Matt McKinnon. She felt absolutely horrible for him, and for Karen, but she knew that this was nothing compared to what he was going to. They had been married for barely a year, what Lily didn't know was that she would never live to see her second anniversary either.
That Friday, she didn't feel like going into work, which she was almost certain would involve revisiting Gringotts and relieving whatever horrors chose to haunt her. She had a lot more to worry about than work, but she knew it would do no use to sit around and be sad.
As she arrived she wondered where Angie was. She hadn't really talked to her for a while. Hopefully, Angie was doing better than she was. James was waiting for Lily in her office when she arrived and her heart rose a little.
"How's Matt?" He asked immediately.
"I don't know," She replied with a sigh as she sunk down into a chair. "He's very unresponsive, about the same as when you left this morning."
"Dumbledore's written a letter to us. He's very concerned. I've been talking to Moody all afternoon, I think maybe someone needs to stay at the house with Matt," James said. "I'm worried that someone might. I don't know, try to do something," He said a little uncomfortably. Lily looked up at him in surprise.
"What are you trying to say?" Lily asked. "You think that they killed those people for. for actual reasons, besides the fact that they're all heartless?" Lily wasn't one of the smartest in her class for nothing. She had picked up on James's worry.
"It seems to me to be the case," He said. "I mean, there were some people who were standing right next to others that were killed and they escaped. They all say most of the same thing. The death eaters raised their wands and uttered the killing curse, the person next to them falls and the death eater moves away and they run screaming from the building amidst other death eaters. It just doesn't seem they would let people get away so easy if they were just arbitrarily killing people."
"I suppose you might be right, but that note said 'kill all'" Lily pointed out.
"But perhaps at their little secret meetings they decided who to kill. or something," Although Lily agreed she couldn't help responding jokingly.
"You make it sound as if they all get together for a game of yahtzee and casually discuss who to kill as if planning a bake sale," Lily said.
"As interesting as that scenario is, that's not the mood I was going for. What if these people were murdered for a reason? You know, with motive and planning and intent."
"Are you trying to say that someone may be trying to kill Matt?" Lily asked, already hearing the horrifying truth in her head. James nodded and Lily suddenly burst out crying.
"Oh James! I'm so scared! I'm so frightened. Anything could happen to us! Anything!" She wailed. "Out friends are dying like life is going out of fashion. Young, vibrant, people struck down in their youth! It's horrible, horrible, but the reality is we're next! We're next!" She continued to shriek.
"Lily, calm down," James said flatly rising out of his chair. He crossed the room and knelt down in front of Lily. "We can prevent it. We can stop it-"
"James be real, we're not all powerful and we're not invincible! Our friends have been dying and there was nothing we could have done to prevent it!"
"YES THERE WAS!" James shouted suddenly scaring Lily and causing her tears to stop. Something inside of James burst at that moment and emotion, the likes of which Lily hadn't seen since his parents died resurfaced.
"If I had acted on my instinct I could have gone to Gringotts! I could have at least saved some lives! And I should have figured out that code! I should have sent someone to Gringotts as a caution! And now I have to go and stop something from happening to Matt. I'm not letting him die! I won't Lily! I'm not letting anything happen this time!" He continued to rant like this for some time before Lily calmly responded.
"James, could have, should have, would have," She said. "Life is full of them, and it's no good dwelling on it. It won't change anything. Look, it's not our fault that people are dying; we're just here to do the best we can protecting them. We just have to be here for those that are left in this cruel world. James, I'm scared, and worried, and horrified at all the total evil in this world. But I'm not going to be unrealistic. I'm just one person, I can't do everything. Please, don't get upset, we have to be strong." Lily said. This was an uncharacteristic switch for the both of them. James took in a deep breath.
"I know, I'm sorry, I should have been stronger. I shouldn't have burst out like that," He said.
"I know, you're just outraged, just like I am. But we need to stop the should haves, OK?" James nodded and engulfed Lily in a hug. They both needed each other in more ways imaginable; it was funny how just a little hug could make everything right again.
"You better get out of here before Moody has our heads on a silver platter!" Lily said suddenly.
"He'd never have our heads on a silver platter. He'd be too paranoid our heads were poisoned. He'd make Mr. Crouch, who has a crouch up his butt, taste it first." James said matter-of-factly.
"I honestly don't understand you sometimes," Lily replied. James rolled his eyes, flashed a grin, and left.
~*~
As long as anyone wasn't bursting in screaming at her to come to Gringotts, Lily decided to write a letter to Dumbledore. She had been pondering whether or not to ask him about some of the dreams she'd been having, but she decided that she had better ask him later. She had enough to say to him without talking about that.
When she had finished spilling out her story of what happened yesterday and her worry about Matt, and about everything, including James, Harry, Sirius, Angie, Elizabeth, herself, and the world in general, she had come up with almost three rolls of parchment.
"I do hope Dumbledore's not busy today," Lily said signing the letter and sending it off with an owl. But barely had she time for this, did James turn up again.
"I'm going home, honey," He said. "I've talked Moody into letting me stay home to 'protect Matt' though I think Moody thinks that I'm lazy, oh well. Where's Harry today?" James asked. "I'll swing by and pick him up,"
"Oh, he's at Mom's house," Lily said.
"Oh, well, maybe I won't then," James said. Lily laughed.
"You're going to have to get over this fear of my parents, you know. You'll have a good impression if you go pick Harry up. Just don't start anything." Lily said and when James's expression hadn't changed she added one more piece of advice. "If you're worried pick Matt up and have him go with you. It'll take his mind off of Kerrie," Lily said, swallowing some memories as she saw a couple of aurors approaching.
"Mrs. Potter? Moody has sent orders that you are meet him at Gringotts immediately," Lily nodded.
"I was expecting that," She said. "Well, bye, I'll see you tonight," She said giving James a quick kiss and a hurried good-bye.
"Love you," James said before striding off down the hallway.
~*~
James arrived in Godric's Hollow, a couple of minutes later. He had apparated up the street, as opposed to in front of his house. His plan was to check the mail box, the muggle mail box, (occasionally Lily got letters from muggle friends) and the association bulletin board for any announcements.
However, all thoughts of anything remotely related to muggles or announcements flew out of his head in a nanosecond as his eyes saw his house, towering at the end of the street. The sun winked off the windows merrily, but above the house, in the soft blue sky, was the cold, ugly, dark mark.
James's mouth had gone dryer than he ever imagined the Sahara desert and his throat felt like sandpaper. His heart raced and pounded in his chest, and sweat started to leak out of him as his footfalls pounded on the pavement.
He reached the front gate and went crashing through it; fumbling around for his wand he opened the front door, cautiously, despite his panic. Auror training hadn't been COMPLETELY worthless.
He needn't be worried, nor go far, for there by the fire, where he had always been was one of James's closest friends: Matthew McKinnon.
Bitter regret and unbelievable guilt consumed James Potter long after the ministry officials arrived. Long, long after.
~*~
Lily was relieving a particularly gruesome event, yet a totally irrelevant one, when she was snapped out of it. Standing in a particular spot inside the white chalk outline of a woman, Lily had horrible visions of a little girl being beaten by her father; though Lily couldn't imagine how this would help them in anyway capture this woman's murderer.
"Potter. Potter! LILY!" Frank Longbottom shouted, bringing her back to reality. "I'm sorry to interrupt but the ministry just been to your house. I mean, they're at your house. Dark mark in the sky and everything," He said.
"WHAT!?!?" Lily screamed looking wildly at him, her eyes wider than saucers. "Oh god, Matt and James, and HARRY. Oh god, what happened? WHAT HAPPENED FRANK?" She screamed holding onto him for support. Her knees seemed to have forgotten how to hold her up.
"Matt," Frank said bowing his head. Lily had forgotten that he and Frank had been pretty close friends. "They're saying that James found him when he cam home." This was hardly cause to breathe relief!
"Both of them in two days," Lily said shakily. "Oh god," She repeated.
"I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but Moody has insisted you stay and keep working, he at least wants you to visit the passage where the carbonated crystal was being kept. I'm sorry about this, but you can't leave just yet. Tomorrow they're going to have no choice but to open the bank. There's been more than one near riots out there today. Everyone's worried, they want their gold. They're afraid it will be stolen." He said. "We've had more than a job trying to contain the crowd. Sorry to say several of them have been arrested, but we've no choice. We've got to continue the investigation," Lily knew all this already and was not interested in listening to Frank babble. Especially since she was still a long way off from swallowing these recent events, let alone start digesting them.
"And James and Harry are fine?" Lily asked.
"Perfect," Frank assured her.
"Thanks so much for telling me. Listen, could you do me a favor and owl James. Tell him I'll be home as soon as possible and also tell him it wasn't his fault. I know you don't know what I'm talking about, just do it, please." Lily urged him and Frank didn't really have a choice but to nod. "Thank you!" Lily cried as she sprinted off towards the now empty carbonated crystal vault.
~*~
Two hours later she ran into the house to find James almost in the exact same spot he had been when the first ministry officials had arrived. He was sitting stiffly on the second stair right in front of the doorway.
Lily saw him and dissolved into tears, for the first time able to show her emotions, and they all annoyingly came spilling out of her eyes. She just cried on James's shoulder, and he held her; Conveying everything that needed to be said without words.
The next morning found them asleep, but in the exact same spot, though later that would be regretted. In about one minute, when I write them waking up, James will regret it.
James opened his eyes. The sunlight was streaming in the window and bathing them in warmth. Carefully he moved out from under Lily and blinked and stretched before groaning and clutching his back in pain.
"I'll never do that again!" He declared. "That was the most uncomfortable, painful experience I've ever been through." Lily sat up and though she agreed she didn't much feel like talking about it.
"I suppose Mom will be worried sick about us. I can't believe she didn't owl! I can't believe I didn't even go get Harry last night! I'm such a horrible mother! Mom is going to kill me!" Lily said.
"Don't worry about your Mom. You were in no shape to get Harry last night. I think she'll understand. Look, I'll owl in to work. I don't think we need to go in today. You go get Harry and we'll just talk and get over this," James said, almost as if he were trying to convince himself rather than Lily.
"OK," Lily said. She quickly slid in front of the mirror to straighten her hair. She gave her best smile, but it was very weak.
"Cheer up dear," The mirror told her. "It was quick and painless. It was over in a second," She said.
"Oh my god," Lily whispered. "You saw it. You saw Matt being killed."
"Sadly, yes. You have no idea how frustrating it is to watch such things. Though I am quite used to it. I don't want to talk about Slytherin's later days." She said, and Lily could imagine this mirror shuddering. It was weird, but most of the time Lily almost considered herself to be talking to a person.
"Did you see who killed him? Do you know who murdered Matt?" Lily asked the mirror.
"No, the person was hidden under cloaks and robes and masks as always,"
"Yes, I suppose that makes sense," Lily said disappointed, with a last look at James she disappeared.
DING-DONG.
James jumped, which was unlucky since this just made his back hurt ten times worse. He answered the door and Peter Pettigrew came inside.
"I just heard in The Daily Prophet." He said showing James the front page. "Is everything OK?" He asked concerned.
"I suppose you might say that I'm OK. I'm alive anyway, but in unbelievable grief." James replied dramatically.
"Cheer up Prongs, tomorrow's another day," Was his response. "Where's Lily and Harry, that little bugger?" Peter asked almost cheerfully.
"Lily's gone to get him at her Mum's," James replied.
"Well, all right then. I've got to go, I'm on my way to work, you know. Cheer up!" He said, and disappeared.
It didn't take long (About 8 seconds) before James's mind turned back to what he'd been asking himself ever since he saw the dark mark in the sky so many hours ago.
*Why hadn't he stayed home? He knew that Matt was in danger. He could sense it; and he also knew those people weren't just killed so they could steal the crystal. There was a reason and the best reason that James could come up with for the McKinnons was their old family name and powerful back round. They were an obvious threat. And James had known all this, so why hadn't he stayed home? Or come home sooner? Why had he waited for Moody to get out of that meeting? Why didn't he just leave right then?* All these questions had been haunting James and eating away at his insides.
With a horrible growl he realized how very hungry he was. He hadn't eaten since breakfast yesterday. Breakfast yesterday with Matt. A horrible lump was rising in James's throat, but he took a deep breath and forced it back inside.
~*~
The third day of November found Lily and James, as well as everyone who knew Matt and Karen attending their depressing funeral. Lily's eyes were red and her face tear stained as they returned home that evening.
The fourth day of November provided more heartache for Lily as she saw her husband off on another assignment. "I don't know how long, but I'll be back for Christmas." He assured her. "And Harry, don't get so big on me," With an encouraging smile he left.
Lily began her cleaning rituals for the morning while Harry was swinging in the baby swing. She had barely started this when she heard a soft murmuring.
She turned slowly to look at Harry, but it most certainly wasn't him. When it didn't stop she picked Harry up out of the swing and walked curiously into the living room where she could now clearly hear what was being said, or rather sung.
"I am slowly going crazy, one, two, three, four, five, six switch! Crazy going slowly am I six, five, four three, two, one switch!" Sirius was sitting slumped down in an armchair singing softly.
"And why, Mr. Black, are you going crazy?" Lily asked wondering when Sirius had arrived.
"I think it's in my genes. My SISTER is driving me up the wall, across the ceiling, down the wall, through the floor and out the basement window!"
"That bad?" Lily asked.
"I don't want to talk about it," He said, so what did he do? Continue to talk about it. "I mean! Can't she just get over herself! Maybe I should see if there's a way to give her some of that money. I daresay I'll need it all. But no, there's no way I'm going to give in to her!" He said his mood changing dramatically through the course of the conversation.
"This really is getting to you, isn't it?" Lily asked looking slightly alarmed.
"Well, yeah," He admitted. "She always does and I don't know why,"
"You need to relax. You need something to relax you,"
"Like a girl," Sirius said.
"Yes, like Angie," Lily replied with a grin.
"Oh no!" Sirius cried. "No, no. Angie is happy with her daughter and with JOSH," He said emphasizing the name. "You need to get the crazy idea of me and Angie out of your head!" Sirius was half trying to convince himself of this, but Lily saw right through him.
"Oh come off it! You'd rather be with her any day. I can tell you miss her even if you don't want to admit. I'm telling you, you're not just Harry's god parents because James and I were desperately trying to hook you two up, someday you'll end up together." Lily said knowingly.
"Now it's you who's going crazy!" Sirius declared.
~*~
Soon the lonely month of November passed into the chilly nights of December and Christmas drew ever closer. There was no word from James, but Lily had begun to figure out that no news was good news when he was on one of those auror excursions.
On Christmas Eve James returned bitten with the Christmas bug. He bounced around the house singly Christmas Carols and catching Lily and Harry under the mistletoe. He was in an unusually good mood about something, of course Lily had no idea that James had got The Marauders to come blast 'Jingle Bells' at six o'clock tomorrow morning right outside on the front lawn, just as his little Christmas prank to Lily.
That night, even though Harry was sleeping peacefully the entire night (he had only just started sleeping through the night this past week) Lily couldn't help tossing and turning worrying about something. She had an uneasy feeling, and she'd come to learn that when she had an uneasy feeling it usually meant something was wrong. That night she didn't get much sleep, and if she hadn't been awake she probably would have been very annoyed with the barn owl that swooped in the window a couple minutes before six Christmas morning.
She leapt out of bed at once, and snatched the official ministry letter from its claws as it swooped back outside into the gently falling snow.
Lily's face fell immediately as she recognized the letter. There were special kinds of official letters that the ministry of magic always used. There was an entire office devoted to housing all of these kinds of letters, with sort of fill in the blanks with names and dates and stuff. Of course, your department may have to use any one of those letters, and sadly, the one that was used most often, was the "We are sorry to inform you that." And usually that was ended with the death of someone you knew.
For quite a long moment Lily didn't dare to look at it, breathing deeply and wondering who it was and desperately wishing it to be a mistake. Slowly she looked at the letter and began to read the bad news.
Her eyes suddenly stopped on the name Josh. She was unable to go on, silently praying it not to be Josh Thompson, for that would be a terrible blow to Angie, who needed someone right now, and to Kirsten who would go without a father.
In a moment she willed her eyes to tear themselves away from that name but the next word caused her to break into a cold sweat and sit down. It was worse than if it had been Josh Thompson. This was Josh Martin, her muggle next door neighbor. Not that she knew this particular Josh a whole lot better, but she was pretty sure that for whatever reason he died, it was somehow related to her.
Swallowing repeatedly she continued reading the letter.
Mrs. Potter,
We regret (ok, it was regret, so the ministry used fancier words than she remembered, big deal!) to inform you that Josh Martin is deceased. He was murdered in his home at precisely 4:52AM, Christmas Day. We have reason to believe it was the act of dark witches and wizards unknown, the dark mark was found looming in the sky.
Sincerely, Bartimus Crouch
Head of Magical Law Enforcement VP of Committee on Sentencing for Azkaban
Lily was surprised to find more writing, obviously hand written at the bottom of the letter.
Mrs. Potter,
This death has disturbed us greatly, because we cannot for any reason see why the dark lord may have wanted to kill this innocent young muggle. You are the only person that he knew who was magical in any way. If you have any reason to suspect anyone or have any idea why He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named may have wanted to eliminate him, please contact me, or someone in my office. I expect Alastor Moody will have you working on the case and I will speak with him for any updates.
I am very sorry for your loss, and for future reference his family will not remember the dark mark and cause of death was heart failure, seems it runs in the family.
Concerned, Artemis Lupin Minister of Magic
Lily folded the letter carefully and placed it on her bedside table. It was still very dark outside as Lily dressed fifteen minutes until six. She was nervous and her brain was working ceaselessly trying to understand what had happened to Josh, her neighbor and friend.
Had she not been so worried she would have stopped to reflect on Artemis Lupin and who he was but she was much too worried to bring up the past and many issues that really weren't any of her business.
Unsurprisingly another letter arrived from Alastor Moody. He wanted her to report to work immediately to work on this case and try and figure out who killed Josh Martin.
Lily was just about to scribble a note to James when he turned over and noticed Lily was no longer next to him. He sat up sleepily.
"Merry Christmas," He said, but then he caught the color of the sky and started asking questions. "Why are you awake? Are you going somewhere?"
"Listen, my neighbor, Josh Martin was killed about an hour ago and Moody wants me to come work on the case," Lily said grabbing a few last minute things.
James followed her downstairs and towards the front door.
"What do you mean? What's going on?"
"I don't know. The ministry owled me and said that Josh was killed and the dark mark was over his house. They've done memory charms on the muggles, not before questioning them, I'm sure, but I've got to go to the house to see if I can find a clue, or something." Lily explained this all very quickly.
"But it's Christmas Lily," James said.
"I know, but I can't just sit here and do nothing about this. I know that I'm the reason he was killed. There's no other explanation, I'm the only magical person he knows! It might not be my fault if he had unknowingly pissed some death eater off and was killed in the street, but I know this has something to do with me. It's personal James," Lily said desperately trying to make him understand.
"It's OK, I understand, you've got to work, but just be careful and try to be home in time for Christmas dinner," He said.
"You're amazing," Lily said in awe at his understanding and consideration.
"Though I do think it's rather ironic that I caught hell for the past two years when I had to work on Christmas," He added nastily but Lily didn't say anything, she knew she was lucky and James was being much more than fair.
But she didn't have time to really consider that right now, she was too worried about this whole Josh thing. People she knew were dying right and left and somehow it had to be related to her, to something she had done.
But what could possibly justify the killing of all these innocent people? Nothing, of course, but there had to be some reason related to her, no matter how stupid, she was sure there was a reason.
~*~
Lily arrived in her hometown neighborhood very much afraid and very early in the morning. It was snowing outside and bitterly cold. Already a foot or so of snow covered the ground and Lily trudged through it. She was literally blown away by all the people who were there working. Well, maybe not blown away, but certainly miffed.
Her house was totally unharmed, and looking at her next door neighbor's house you would think nothing was wrong, but the house now had a very dark feeling. You could tell something wasn't exactly right.
The first thing she saw was her mother and Mrs. Martin outside at Lily's house. Her mother was trying to comfort Mrs. Martin but crying herself. Lily got a horrible pang and for a moment she was sure she was going to cry in front of all these emotionless aurors, but then, the feeling passed as Moody came up to her at told her everything they knew, which wasn't much.
She only listened half heartedly as she stared blankly at her mother and her second mother, Mrs. Martin.
"How important is this?" Lily asked interrupting Moody telling her nonsense stuff. "Do I need to make haste, or not?"
"Well, haste is always advised. If we find something the trail is always fresher the less time has passed," Moody said. "But it's not absolutely necessary right away. Today however, is needed. Before noon for sure,"
"Good," Lily said striding past him and up onto her porch so she could cry with her mother and Mrs. Martin.
~*~
After they had all calmed down a bit, Lily felt it was part of her job to ask a few questions.
"What time did you find him?" She asked Mrs. Martin.
"About a minute before the police showed up," She said. "I was just going to call them when they knocked. I thought it was a little strange." Of course it was strange, but the ministry had known it had happened the minute the spell had been cast, that's why they had arrived so quickly.
"Mom, did you hear anything?" She asked.
"Not a thing dear, except for your father snoring, and with that there's not much else one could hear," She replied. Lily nodded knowingly.
"You didn't notice any suspicious characters yesterday or the day before that?" Lily asked.
"No," They both answered slowly.
"But honey, I don't understand," Her mother said. "He died of heart failure, he wasn't murdered,"
"You know me, just making sure," Lily said quickly, she was clearly not going to get anything out of them. Maybe she'd ask her father if he'd seen anything yesterday. He was known to sit in the den and watch the street out the window while he smoked a cigar or a pipe. Mr. Martin was probably working yesterday so that would be a no go. The poor old man, he was a workaholic, he'd work himself right into the grave!
"I never thought I'd be burying my son!" Mrs. Martin wailed and went into another bout of tears. Lily left to do an examination before the muggle doctors left and took the body away.
But going into the house she couldn't concentrate and no visions came to her. After a long time she sank to the ground and sobbed. She couldn't help her friend, not this way anyway. She would have to figure it out another way. There had to be some link to her and that just made the guilt worse.
After a while she went over to her house to wish everyone the happiest Christmas they could have. Petunia, Vernon, and their quite large son Dudley were in the den. Petunia's face was tear streaked, she had known Josh too.
Just as Lily was saying her goodbyes and was about to leave Petunia took her aside into the front room where no one could hear them. She backed her into a wall and with crazy bloodshot eyes she began interrogating and cursing Lily.
"It was you, wasn't it?" She asked. "You're the one who got him killed! You and you're queer murderous lot. You may not have wanted him harm but you went mixing with the wrong kind and now look what it's done. It's all your fault! That could be us next! It's all your fault!" She screeched.
Lily couldn't take it anymore. She burst into tears and ran from the house. Petunia had made her guilt one hundred times worse and the tears were flowing freely and freezing to her face. When she turned up again in Godric's Hollow everyone was inside merrily singing and laughing around the Christmas tree, their presents opened.
Lily burst in the door and saw the happy sight. Everyone fell silent and looked at her, and then she suddenly started crying again and ran upstairs.
James quickly handed Harry off to Angie and raced up after Lily.
~*~
The New Year wasn't such a happy event this year as the Josh Martin case still didn't have anything new to add to the list of clues.
Before she knew what was happening Lily's life turned much better as she and James took a weekend off for their first anniversary. Reluctantly they agreed to leave Harry in the care of Sirius, as long as Angie promised to check in twice a day.
"Now don't come back with another one!" Sirius called as they left.
"Sounds like your father," James mumbled to Lily.
It was the most romantic two days Lily had ever lived. They spent it in a very expensive place in Paris going to the finest restaurants and dancing on a boat in the Seine. Watching the sunset from the Eiffel tower. Going back to the hotel.
All in all both Lily and James had needed the break and it did everyone good. Sirius was really good with Harry now and Angie got to spend some time away from her child while Lily and James got to relax.
Once they got back they were still busier than ever the dark lord on the rise, as always, there wasn't much higher he could go. Lily viewed this as both good and bad. On one hand, he had more supporters and power than ever and was wreaking more havoc than ever, but on the other he had no where to go but down, everything to lose, and it was her deepest desire to find a way to make him lose it all.
~*~
Before either busy body knew what was going on the end of April was upon them and in absolutely no time May first approached, and Kirsten was already one year old.
"James?" Lily called as she put Harry's shirt on. "Come on, honey! We're going to be late!" The family was heading to Angie and Josh's for Kirsten's first birthday. Lily sighed. Where had the year gone? How could this have happened? Time was slipping away from her faster than she ever remembered it in school.
Her life was so different now. In the morning she would have a wonderfully blissful happy time with her son and sometimes her husband. There was never a morning she didn't welcome, but her afternoons and evenings were often hell as she sat alone, usually recalling horrible visions and racking her brain to the point of exhaustion, and her day didn't stop there.
She came home, sometimes in time for dinner with Harry. She would usually spend an hour or so in front of the fire with a quill and parchment, or sometimes in the library. Her nighttimes were tortured. She couldn't remember the last night she had a full night's rest, or at least, a dreamless night.
James looked as if he had aged ten years over the past year. He didn't sleep much either and Lily spent a lot of her time worrying about him, not that she had time to spare. She sighed again and smiled at Harry who was kicking in his seat.
"JAMES!!" She yelled again.
"I'm coming," He said. "You didn't want to show up without a gift did you?" He asked.
"Well, we're supposed to be charming her necklace," Lily said. Josh had gone out and found the most beautiful necklace at a muggle jewelry store in London. It had a glimmering diamond 'K' for Kirsten. Angie and Josh had put a spell on it already and they wanted all their friends to enchant it somehow so that it might be useful to her.
Lily, James, Dumbledore, Sirius, Peter, Remus, Sierra, and even Holly Mischel were going to somehow charm the necklace. Lily thought it was a very clever idea. It kind of reminded her as some sort of dedication. Kirsten could always keep this necklace and it would probably turn out to be very powerful and helpful for her.
Elizabeth was back in Germany after Halloween they hadn't heard from her, though James saw her briefly once. He said she was even more grim and wizened now. She hadn't seen Harry yet. She was at the wedding though, and Lily was glad for that.
"I know, I've got that all planned, don't you worry." James said. "But I also got something the kid could play with, you know. She's one year old, she won't appreciate a spell!"
"What did you get her?" Lily asked curiously.
"You'll see." James said with a grin. Lily didn't the press the subject and with a small pop they disappeared.
~*~ When they arrived Angie greeted them at the door. She said a rushed baby talk greeting for Harry before she allowed them to step inside.
"Come along, everyone's in the kitchen. I'm afraid Kirsten's asleep at the moment, but no matter, now that everyone's here we can charm the necklace." She said leading them into the kitchen where everyone warmly greeted Lily and James, and Harry.
Even Dumbledore didn't look out of place in this crowded room full of young people. He was laughing merrily along with Sirius and Peter.
James handed Angie Kirsten's present.
"What's this?" She asked regarding it suspiciously.
"Just a little present from Uncle James," He said with a grin. Angie narrowed her eyes but set it on the table.
"Uncle James?" Lily asked him.
"We're like an Aunt and Uncle to Kirsten," James said. "Just like Uncle Sirius and Aunt Angela are to Harry," He said.
"Correction," Lily said. "They would be, IF we had not made them god parents,"
"Oh," James said. "Yes, that's true," And at that point their conversation desisted as Sierra came over to hold Harry, talking quickly and excitedly.
"Well, let's see it!" Holly Mischel finally said to Angie who was looking murderous, both sisters still carried an outrageous grudge. "Let's see this infamous necklace,"
Angie disappeared upstairs for a second and when she reappeared she was carefully carrying the most beautiful necklace Lily had ever laid eyes on. It sparkled and shined over every inch and already carried a very powerful aura. Lily gasped, and indeed no one was speaking, just all looking on in awe at the necklace.
"Very fine job," Dumbledore said to Josh breaking the silence. Josh couldn't contain how pleased he was at this compliment. "I'm sorry to rush this, Angela," He said. "But I really can't linger much longer. The school calls," He said with a grin.
Then very carefully he took out his wand and tapped the necklace gently twice and said a few muttered words so that no one could hear. The necklace momentarily turned green but then quickly faded, or rather returned to its light catching normalness.
"Thank you for the drink. I'll see you all later," He said, and left.
One by one, everyone in the room, minus Angie and Josh who had already placed their spells on the necklace, had much the same ritual as Dumbledore as they each placed their own spells on the glimmering necklace.
Angie recognized a few of them, when she heard the words and others she discovered later. Remus put a spell on it to act like a compass and point north if Kirsten wanted it to. Holly put a spell on it to make the necklace vibrate if someone was looking for Kirsten. Lily put a spell on it to make it glow if she was in danger. Peter put a spell on it to provide a sense of comfort if she needed it (acting in much the same way as chocolate). Sierra enchanted it to always allow her the first strike in a duel. Angie had linked her necklace to herself so that they could always find each other. James enchanted it to provide invisibility for thirty seconds when needed. Sirius, although Angie never found this out, put a spell on the necklace to shock any boy that she kissed for the first time. And Josh had enchanted it to play any song she thought of whenever she wanted. The only one, besides Sirius's, that remained a mystery to her was Dumbledore's spell.
When Angie was satisfied with everyone's spells, with perfect timing Kirsten's cries rang out and Angie dashed upstairs to grab her. When she came back down the beautiful little girl had the necklace on, it fitted her perfectly.
"I've also added a little charm to allow it to grow as it needs to," Angie explained stroking her daughter's quickly lightening hair.
"That reminds me," Lily said. "I have another useful little spell, if you don't mind," She said.
"Of course not," Angie said.
Once again Lily took out her wand and then hesitated. She looked more closely at the necklace. "Angie, it looks like something is missing here," Lily said pointing to either tip of the K's diagonal marks. "It almost looks as if something was broken off,"
Everyone was now trying to crowd in to have a look, and sure enough there were two silver pieces attached to the diamond 'K' that certainly didn't look like they belonged. Angie stared curiously and then shrugged and Lily continued with her little enchantment.
"This way, she can always find it," Lily explained. "It would be a shame to lose something so pretty and valuable,"
"Let her open my present now," James said setting the wrapped small shirt box in front of Kirsten. Kirsten carefully picked it up, and with a little help from Angie she ripped off the paper and opened the box to find a small little shirt with THE ARROWS printed on the front. It had a picture of two Arrow's quidditch players zooming around on the shirt. Angie rolled her eyes and said it would look cute on Kirsten.
The marauders exchanged high-fives, because everyone knew, the Arrows were the best quidditch team.
~*~
As summer approached and Harry got bigger he started to become more and more trouble. Often around the house you heard various shouts from either Lily, James, or Sirius, saying:
"No Harry,"
"That's mummy's hair, let go!"
"Stay out Harry,"
"NICE SHOT HARRY!" Sirius declared one night as he entered the kitchen and Harry flung a spoonful of carrots (from a baby food jar) and it Sirius square in the eye.
"Don't encourage him," Lily said giving him a look. "If I didn't know better I'd say he was your child," James snorted, the thought of Sirius Black having a child was absolutely ludicrous.
Along with Harry's new found mischievous attitude he started walking, and that didn't improve anything. One day when Lily came home from work, Harry was asleep and Sirius was writing a letter in the living room.
It was dark and James was gone on an outing, he would probably be back soon, walking into the living room Lily tripped on a baby toy and swore loudly.
"Bonjour," Sirius said looking up. "Your French is lovely," Lily just gave him a look.
"When did this place get to be such a mess?" She asked and Sirius just shrugged.
Two weeks before Harry's 1st birthday Elizabeth Hoffenmeijer sent them a letter saying she would be arriving in five days. Sirius was there when this letter arrived and teased Lily for taking a day off of work just to clean house, especially when Elizabeth would never care, unless of course her bed was messed up, then she would mind.
When Elizabeth arrived she had to be taken on the tour. She'd never been to the Potter's before. With lots of ooohs and aaahs they at last arrived at her bedroom. It was a LARGE room, the largest bedroom, except for Lily and James's, usually used for Sirius, but since he NEVER slept in his room and only used it every once in a while to store a few clothes or belongings, they allowed Elizabeth to use it, mainly because of the nice view, it's own bathroom and it had the nicest four poster bed.
But, lo and behold, the first thing she said upon entering it. "Oh my God," She said in a disgusted sort of tone, "Look at that bed! The comforters a half an inch off to the side and can you see that huge wrinkle there!?" She continued ranting for a minute or so until she had fixed the bed how she liked it. The return of the Bed Nazi.
All the while Lily was in the background shaking her head. "And no bed is complete without Bradley James," She said finishing; for one horrible moment Lily thought she was talking about her newest boyfriend, but to her relief, she pulled out a cuddly teddy-bear, and set it on her pillow.
After the bed had passed serious inspection the two girls went downstairs where Elizabeth goggled over Harry and they talked for a while only being interrupted by Harry pulling Elizabeth's hair or her glasses of her nose.
"So Liz, what have you been up to in Germany?" Lily asked. Elizabeth's face hardened and she became very grave.
"I started training with my uncle and my cousin. My cousin is about seven years older than I am and he's a code-breaker and my uncle is the head of the international law enforcement agency in Germany. I started working with the agency that goes out and clears away experiments gone wrong. Nasty, nasty business.
"I work with the worst kinds of things imaginable. Nasty dark creatures. You think it's bad here, over there the ministry isn't so big and so strong, and the dark arts aren't even manageable anymore." She had a far off dead look in her eyes and Lily was very quiet.
She hadn't really ever thought about it. Lily always thought her job was bad enough, but at least she dealt with things in the mind, things she knew she couldn't have been able to prevent but can still bring justice to the perpetrator. In Elizabeth's case, she saw the worst of the worst, the things that might have been stopped, and the things that no one else wanted to see, or even dream about.
"But I try not to let that get me down," She said brightly all of the sudden catching Lily off guard. "So, where's Prongs?"
"On assignment," Lily said dully, causing Elizabeth to laugh.
"You two are hopeless, every time I see him, he doesn't say much just thinking about home, and here you are at home just thinking about wherever he is," She rolled her eyes. "You guys are so cute!" Now it was Lily's turn to roll her eyes.
"So, is there-dare I say it- another Bradley back in Germany?" Lily asked.
"No," She said. "God no. I mean, I've got fair pick of the local dead beats in the jail,"
"Jail?"
"Well, it's not really a jail, because we all know that's Azkaban. But this place is like walking around the ghetto. It's horrible and unclean and there are some of THE worst people in there, just waiting until we can somehow transport them to Azkaban where they can go insane and rot," She said nastily. "We're so busy with everything else we just don't have time to say, hey! somebody needs to take this batch of earth slime down to Azkaban. We have to wait until we're full and some guards have no choice but to come and transport some of them away, or give them a kiss, whichever they deem necessary, they all deserve it," Lily stared at her.
"I don't really think anyone deserves that," Lily said in horror.
"You would if you have seen what I've seen. It's better to give their souls to the dementors than the demons and the devil. The dementors are almost like demons, mind you, but you would understand if you were in my shoes," She said darkly.
Lily shook her head and happened to glance out of the window.
"JAMES!!!!" She screamed jumping to her feet and racing to the front door which she wrenched open and ran to her husband.
James Potter and Frank Longbottom, both looking grim and weighed down, but triumphant, nonetheless, both smoking cigars in celebration, were walking side by side towards the house.
James grinned broadly as he saw her, and dumped all of his things onto the ground. The next second Lily had leaped into his arms, he spun her around and then they kissed. Watching from the door, Elizabeth Hoffenmeijer smiled, a true smile of happiness, where he eyes sparked to life, for a once in a blue moon, year lifting, smile of happiness. Lily and James were so happy it always wore off, and that was one of the most missed things about them.
She glanced up at them again and the smile disappeared and she plunged back into her world of fake laughs and darkness.
Elizabeth, shrouded in mystery, and intrigued by such sights descended slowly from the house and went to greet an old acquaintance, Frank Longbottom.
"Hello Frank, I'm Elizabeth Hoffenmeijer," She said with a fake smile and the important air about her. Frank ignored it, very well by taking a long drag on his cigar and blowing smoke at her before replying casually.
"Of course you are, graduated the same year and all." They both had to move slightly sideways so as to dodge the happy couple who were dancing and laughing. "Kind of makes you feel left out, doesn't it?" He asked with a grin. Her mouth moved into a small smile in reply.
"And what is with the man-killer?" She asked pointing to the ugly cigar.
"Just a bit of celebration," He said.
"Celebrating what? I can think of nothing worth celebrating, that requires you to kill yourself in the process of celebrating it," It took him a second to understand this statement.
"For bringing in Snape Sr., of course," He said, almost shocked they hadn't heard this news. "We've earned bonuses and respect and. fame,"
"You mean, you've convicted Mr. L. Snape, father of Severus Snape?" She asked letting out slight surprise in her voice.
"He isn't convicted yet but we found him in a VERY compromising situation,"
"Then what are you celebrating for?" She snapped. "If he's not convicted yet and not sent to Azkaban yet then there is absolutely no reason to celebrate. You haven't beaten him yet! He could still escape! Why would you leave, why not stay and guard your bonus, you've given him opportunity to flee! Mark my words, you don't celebrate until the fat lady sings and she hasn't even gotten up yet! He could be escaping by now!" She cried fury and rage in her voice, her vision clouded she was transported back to Germany where she commanded foolish men, she was no longer yelling at Frank Longbottom, but a stupid idiot who had let someone else slip away. And then suddenly she was back again and she fell silent.
"Forgive me, I'm sure the situation is under control, but perhaps you will wait to celebrate until you've seen something through next time," She said more calmly. Lily stared at Elizabeth. James was certainly right, she had changed, she was not the carefree girl Lily used to know, she was the head of her department back in Germany, ruthless in her pursuit of justice.
~*~
About a hundred people came to Harry Potter's first ever birthday. And, of course, Lily was fussing like a slightly crazy, always perfect, grandma getting ready for her yearly hosting of card club. Everything had to be a "picture" and even James had to admit the house had never looked so good in all of its glory.
Sierra Havairhafpvermin had baked the most enormous birthday cake which could only be rivaled by cakes backed for feasts at Hogwarts.
In the back yard by the lake -way in the back- there were four LARGE tables seating roughly twenty-five people each. Then, there was another table, same size, but stuffed full of so much food that you couldn't pick out the tablecloth beneath it all.
Decorations just floated through the air and there was an enormous boat by the water's edge packed full of birthday presents.
Lily and James were certainly taking full advantage of that bonus James had gotten.
Harry might not have been famous yet but an awful lot of people knew who he was, or at least they knew his parents.
As people arrived and the sun beat down on them, people began to have a cool off in the lake. There was a loud babble and chatter and shouts could be heard as the marauders had started a particularly good water fight.
In the midst of all this joyfulness bad news was brewing and not just from traitorousness to come. An owl swooped over the crowd. An owl that held the same fate of the owl about Lily's dear departed neighbor. Lily's Aunt and Uncle were gone.
And what's more, Lance Snape had evaded capture and they were quote "doing all that was possible" to find him.
"See what happened now!" Elizabeth shouted suddenly to the silent crowd. She had a mad glint in her eyes but also a lingering 'I told you so' "While you were celebrating, something that was never meant to be because you didn't see it through, Snape escaped and now you pay for your foolishness with TWO lives!"
~*~
A/N: Hey Harmony, thought you'd enjoy Snape Senior's name. Doesn't it suit him well? *Cackles*
Well, I hope you all enjoyed that chapter! I'm just two from the end! JUST TWO!! Hey, don't worry if you're confused about stuff, it's only going to get more confusing before it gets better explained. Lol.
Anyway, I don't know how long chapter 22 is going to take to post because I have a feeling it will end up being so much longer than I want it to be, just for the simple fact that more has to happen in this chapter, than almost the whole story! Not really, but some very important parts come into to play. So, I apologize ahead of time for the length of time it might take me to post chapter 22, but believe me, I will get it done as fast as I can because I can't wait to write it. I have been waiting for this the whole book!! YES! I CAN'T WAIT!
OK, anyway on to the thank you section: Alexandra- If you must know, as I have all this planned out, yes I am sort of on a killing spree, but it all ties in and it all leads up to Lily and James dying, obviously, but don't worry, I've still got some humor left in me, and a hell of a lot of romance, which is something I'm not big on writing, but trust me, there's some major romance coming up, and don't let the killing get you down. And don't worry, I'm not offended!
Libertygrl413: Thanks for the reviews, as always. Sorry fanfiction.net wouldn't let you login, I'm sure we all know what you're going through! Lol. And yes the Slytherin dream is important but not for reasons in this story, in the sequel is where they matter. Actually, come to think of it, there are some things in the Last Laugh, though they are minimal as compared with the sequel.
Buckbeakbabie: I'm so glad you liked the baby Harry and baby Draco thing, it was supposed to be funny. and now every time I come to the mirror of erised part I think of you, lol! You're the best girl!
sCHEm: Glad you liked it; hope you liked this one too!