(13) The Plan Of The Stag

"No! No no no! Lily!" Snape knelt down beside her & held her lifeless body in his arms. While working undercover for Dumbledore, he had heard that the Dark Lord suddenly knew where the Potters were. The shield had been put down. He had hurried to Godric's Hollow, knowing he was already too late. Running into the house, he had seen James lying dead. Snape bounded up the stairs & into the bedroom. Harry was sitting in his crib, looking scared. On the floor was most of Lily. It took a second to sink in, then he realised it was an Invisibility Cloak. Either way, his flower was dead. He held her close to his chest, weeping, screaming her name. He held her as if it meant his life. Knowing it was useless, he whispered, "Legilimens." Snape found himself in a white world. "Lily?"

"Who are you?" Lily called out, her voice faint. She heard someone scream again. A man's voice. Calling her name. Lily reached out.

"LILY!" Snape saw a delicate hand & reached out to grab it. He had to pull her back.

There was a thud of a door being thrown off its hinges & someone screamed "JAMES!" downstairs.

Snape was shaken out of his spell. He looked at Lily lying in his arms one last time. Still dead. He lay her down & fled out the window & over the roof. Hitting the ground, Snape ran into the bushes before apparating away to Hogwarts.

"PRONGS! NO!" Sirius went to his knees beside the fallen Stag. He had been waiting anxiously since lowering the shield, knowing something bad was about to happen. Unable to keep still, Sirius had suddenly jumped on his bike & sped over, wishing he had never left. He ended up almost first on the scene, barely missing Snape's apparition a moment before. Why did James tell him to do it? "Oh Merlin! No no no! I knew this would happen! Why did I listen to you? James!" He held his friend & distant cousin close, kissing his cheek, his lips, his nose. "Oh God!" Sirius rocked back & forth with grief. He suddenly heard a baby's cry. "Harry? HAROLD ARE YOU OK?" Sirius gently laid James on the floor, then dashed into the bedroom. "Har—OH MY GOD NO! LILY!" Sirius stood silently for a moment. He knelt down beside Lily, petting back her hair. "... Not you ..." He saw the black pendant around her neck. Its chain was twisted up over her chin. Caressing her hair with one hand, he worked the chain with the other. "My dear friend," Sirius sniffled, finally breaking the chain off. He knelt there, staring dumbly ahead at nothing, then looked up at the ceiling. "What have I done?" He covered his face with both hands & bowed down, sobbing. He suddenly jumped to his feet & with a loud scream, he hurled the necklace into the farthest wall. Harry whimpered. "I'm so sorry, little one. I didn't mean to scare you." He picked the baby up & held him close. "You're safe. Thank Merlin, you're safe!"

"Sirius?" Hagrid called out. "What the devil's goin' on 'ere? Where's the baby?"

"I got him! He's ok!" Sirius called out.

"Snape came t' Hogwarts," Hagrid cried. "He said summin about Jim & Lily being dead. But 'Arry was fine. Dumbledore told me, come ge' 'Arry."

"Yeah, h-he's ok," Sirius said in a trembling voice. His whole body was shaking. "He's just-just a bit scared."

"I canna believe it!" Hagrid went on. "They're dead! DEAD! How?"

"Jim planned something," Sirius gasped in a breath. "It didn't work! Oh God! What am I going to do?"

"Dumbledore wants 'Arry," Hagrid tried again. "We sort this mess out!"

"Yeah," Sirius sighed. "Yeah. It's best to get Harry away from this. He's safe with Dumbledore. I'll deal with James & Lily." He handed over Harry. "Take my motorbike. I won't need it any more." He handed over the keys.

"Are ye sure?" Hagrid wondered what that meant. Sirius loved that bike!

"Yeah ... yeah!" Sirius nodded. He had been the Secret Keeper. The Potters were dead. He didn't know if James had told any one that he had ordered the shield released. At the moment, it looked like Sirius was a traitor. He had to run for it & figure things out. "Go! I'll be fine." Would he?

"I'll take care o' him," Hagrid indicated Harry in his arms as he turned & left.

Sirius knelt beside Lily one last time. He reached out & touched her face. "Goodbye, my precious friend." He got up & ran downstairs. He had to leave. Sirius skidded to a stop as he reached James.

"Last!" James coughed, standing up brushing his shoulders off. He coughed again. "Last time I'm using that ruddy potion. Can someone say EW?" James hacked & coughed. Sirius stared. The bloody hell was going on now? "UGH! Seriously! I'd rather have died! Oh, hi Paddy-kins." He put his glasses on as if nothing happened.

"What?" Sirius glared. "Paddy-kins?"

"Oh shut up!" James scoffed. "I've called you that many times before."

"How can you stand there & joke?" Sirius demanded, rubbing fresh tears from his eyes. "Lily's lying dead upstairs & all you can do is be mean to me?"

"Is she?" James spoke casually as if all was well. "Huh, I never did find out exactly when the Hallows spell wears off."

"Hall—Hallows spell?" Sirius glared. "James! Your wife! The love of your life! Is dead!"

"I know that," James shrugged.

"Wha ... ?" Sirius was confused. Seven years at school listening to James bemoaning his love for Lily. He didn't care? "Damn you! She's dead!"

"I'd look around if I were you," James pointed behind Sirius.

Sirius whirled around. Lily was standing behind him. "What?"

"Didn't I tell you all that everything will be ok?" James winked.

Lily shook her head. "Harry's gone! He's not in his crib."

"Hagrid has him," Sirius said. "Taking him to Dumbledore."

"Oh," Lily sagged against the wall. It was a good thing to because at that moment the predicted migraine struck. Hard.

James, Lily & Sirius writhed on the floor holding their foreheads. It was worse then before. Mercifully, they soon past out from the pressure.

James moaned softly, opening his eyes. Remus was lying in a bed next to him, on his right. Past Remus was another bed. Sirius. James slowly turned his head the other way. Lily was lying on his left. He sighed & pushed himself up, muttering crossly, "I knew that was gonna happen."

Remus growled. "You didn't happen to know exactly when?"

"Just around Halloween," James shrugged. "That's all."

Remus pressed one hand to his forehead. "Sweet Merlin have mercy! That was worse then the one in Seventh Year. Prongs. Do you know if we'll have any more?"

James thought a moment. "Hmm, there might be one more but not for a while."

"Let me guess," Remus hissed.

"Don't hiss," James cut in. "Have we taught you nothing in proper werewolf etiquette?"

"Oh, you deserve to be hissed at today," Remus kept his fangs bared. "Next migraine won't strike until sometime in 1994. Am I right?" James stared at the werewolf. "I'm right, aren't I?" Remus clicked his fangs together irritably. "Thought so."

"Who told you?"

"Oh please," Remus barked under breath, turning away.

"Moony!" James demanded. All he got was Remus raising one hand, making a very rude sign. "Whatever."

It took the better part of two hours for everyone to slowly come to & get out of bed. James got dressed & went to stretch out on a chaise longue in the waiting room nearby. They were in St. Mungo's Hospital. Who told Remus? It wasn't time yet! He sighed heavily, sitting back. He laid his arms open along the top of the couch & looked up at the ceiling. He heard raised voices & turned his eyes to the door dead ahead of him.

"I want to speak to James alone," Lily was saying. "Before I do anything else. Dumbledore can wait two minutes." At that, the door burst open & Lily stormed in. She stopped short, glaring. She kicked the door behind her closed & advanced on her husband, still reclined in his seat, feet up on the low coffee table before him. She stopped on the other side of the table & glared at him.

James winked. Lily's left eye twitched. She was mad at him. He wasn't allowed to be flirtatious! "See anything you like?" James smirked.

Lily narrowed her eyes while crossing her arms. Oh yes! She saw quite a bit of what she liked. James, lolling there like the idiot he could be. He was wearing dark brown, nearly black leather pants & black boots that went almost up to his knees. His pure white shirt, sparkling with discreetly placed sequins was wide open from top to black belt. His wand rested on a gold sheath at his left hip, like a small sword. Handsome idiot! She reminded herself that she was mad—infuriated!—with him. "James!" She breathed.

"I told you I'd work on getting you pregnant again after Halloween," James said casually. "It's after Halloween. Figured I ought to make myself presentable to the lovely Lady of my house. You like?" He winked again, still lying arms spread out, feet on table. He crossed his ankles.

Lily shook her head, trying to focus. "James! You didn't tell me I'd actually DIE even though I had the Hallows!"

"Duh! Deathly Hallows," James scoffed. "Death's Mistress. Gees, you'd think it was obvious. They bounce you through Death, I guess you could say."

"You guess?"

"Something like that," James went on. "But through Death they do take you. You bounce right back. In limbo. Another way of saying it."

Lily clenched & unclenched her fists by her sides for several moments. Why was he so goddamned sexy? Lying there. Smirking. Glasses dangling out of the corner of his mouth from one earpiece. Shirt open. Try as she might, she couldn't miss the rather large bulge below the belt. Bloody Stag's in heat. Lily tried not to roll her eyes. Screw him anyway! Wait! No, no, not like that! Lily finally rolled her eyes. "What about Harry? How did he survive?"

With one hand, James pulled his glasses from his mouth & played with them using his fingers only. "Because of your sacrifice," He said as if it was the most obvious convenient thing in the whole wide universe.

"My sacrifice?"

"Lily, I couldn't tell you exactly what was going on before hand for one simple reason," James sounded like he was finally going to explain himself. "Your sacrifice had to be genuine."

"You knew I would die?"

"I knew we would both die," James said. "I just found a way of counter-acting it before it happens."

"I heard Voldemort scream Aveda Kedavra," Lily huffed. "NO ONE survives that curse. There's no cure."

"Exactly, no cure," James said. "But using a bit of luck from Felix & a random joke potion to make everything look green; combined with a simple poison from a toad to cause rigor mortis for a time—please even muggles know that one—then purposely tripping at the last possible, erm lucky, second to duck under that incurable curse ... well, as you can see," He laughed. "Works like a charm."

"JAMES CHARLUS BLACK POTTER!" Lily gritted her teeth.

James laughed at her again. "As for you, I honestly didn't know & still don't know when their spell wears off & you pop back to life. I knew you'd go into limbo but that was about it." He wiggled his hips into the seat a little, keeping that bulge of his 'firmly' in place.

Lily ignored his wooing as best she could. "I still don't understand Harry."

James pouted. He was 'horny' & didn't feel like talking. "When we started all this, I asked you if you were willing to die for me. For Harry. But that was it. If I had explained any more, you'd have done everything by rote alone. Harry would be dead. But if your sacrifice was genuine, you would create an ancient magical shield around Harry that kept him safe. Making you unwittingly vow to die for either of us got that little spell going."

"How did you even know about something like that?"

"While under Liquid Luck's double dose, I went to Diagon Alley. That's where I got that other potion & the toad's poison. I also ran into Dumbledore. I casually asked him if there was anything to protect someone you love even if it means your own death," said James. "That's why yours had to be a genuine intention."

"But I'm not dead," Lily said. "Wouldn't that cancel the effect?"

"No," James shook his head. "The point of it was that you did die. No offence, but for lack of a better way of putting this, for the sake of clarity, so what if you came back after? Your shield had already been cast."

"That—that was your plan the whole time?" Lily demanded. "Since when was it, Seventh Year?" James nodded. Lily huffed & shook her head. "You're mental."

"Not as bad as old Moony," James smirked.

"Hey, he has a good excuse," Lily defended. "Being a child of the moon & all. You don't."

"Yes I do," James argued. "I love my family. My pack. I'd do anything to keep them all safe."

Lily glared at him for a long time, then made her way around the table. She grabbed his collar & hauled him up. "Come with me."

"That's all I wanted in the first place, my love," James snickered at the double meaning. Lily rolled her eyes, tossed him into the nearest closet & went in after him. After putting up a quick muffling spell at the door, she voraciously had her way with him. Both exited the closet several minutes later, breathless but looking quite smug.

(AN: I ripped off a couple things here so quick disclaimers. I don't own the scene in "Return To Snowy River" when Jim Craig & his horse fell down the cliff. Lines stolen/tweaked for Sirius when he thought everyone was dead. Yes I shamelessly swapped the horse's bridle out for Lily's pendant. No I don't care!

I don't own Richard Cypher-Rahl's outfit from 'Legend Of The Seeker' either. KIND OF what James was wearing in the waiting room. The shirt's actually mine though. Literally. Mine's really black with a few white sequins but since James already had black, I made it a neutral color.)