Last Chance

Chapter Five: Morning of Mourning

At midnight, two dark figures appear in the living room of the Evans's home.

James woke bright and early on the morning of September the first. He leapt out of bed, bounded across the hallway, and threw open Sirius's bedroom door. The door hit the wall with a deafening bang, causing Sirius to nearly jump out of his skin.

"Bloody hell, Prongs, could you be any louder?" Sirius said, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"Ah, Padfoot, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I get to see Lily again today!"

Sirius sighed. "This is sick. Now get out so I can get ready to leave without having to listen to you blabbering about Evans all morning."

James stuck out his tongue and retreated to his own room before Sirius could react. Once he had gotten dressed and ready to leave before anyone else; he double checked his truck to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. He strode to his bedroom window and called out,"Artemis!"

A handsome tawny owl flew through the window and landed obediently on his master's arm. James walked to his desk. On it was perched a large golden bird cage. He opened the door and held it open as Artemis sidled into the cage and settled himself. When he was situated, James cast a levitation charm on the cage and sent it downstairs to the entrance hall. He did the same with his trunk before crossing the hall to knock politely on Sirius' door.

"Now why can't you knock nicely every time you decide to come barging into my room?" Sirius said sarcastically as he opened the door. James moved out of the way as Sirius floated his own trunk down the stairs.

"Where's Pip?" James asked, glancing around Sirius's room.

"Damn. I forgot I let him out last night." Pip was Sirius's barn owl.

Sirius went to his window and looked around. He caught sight of his owl and said, "Of course he's sitting there on the farthest branch of the nearest tree just to be obnoxious."

"You mean like you?" James sniggered.

"Why I oughta…" Sirius said shaking his fist jokingly. "Hey, Pip, come 'ere!" The bird slowly – oh so slowly – sidled along the branches until he reached the window, and flew straight to his cage. Sirius shut the door and sent the cage zooming down the stairs, much to the displeasure of caged owl.

"You know, Padfoot, the more you torture that owl, the less he's likely to obey you." James laughed.

"Yeah well, he's not really the obedient type anyway. At least he'll carry my mail. That's all I really need him for anyway." James shook his head as they reached the first floor landing. They made their way to the dining room for breakfast.

"Morning, Mum. Dad." James said as they entered the room. His parents were sitting at their usual places at the table. Mr. Potter's face was buried in this morning's issue of the Daily Prophet.

James glanced over his father's shoulder at the front page. The headline read: MUGGLE MURDERED BY DEATHEATERS.

"Did you have to work last night?" James asked.

"Yes."

"Well, who did they kill?"

Mr. Potter sighed, "James, you may want to sit down." James did as he was told and looked expectantly at his father. "The man's name was William Evans."

James froze. "Did he have a family?"

Mr. Potter nodded. "A wife and two daughters."

"Their names?" Sirius asked, catching on and sensing James's distress.

"I shouldn't tell you." Henry looked away.

"Dad, please? I have to know."

"All right then. His wife's name was Anna, and the two daughters were," he paused, "Petunia and Lily." He said grimly.

"No," James said, sinking lower in his chair. "my poor Lily flower."

"Oh, James, dear, it can't be helped. The Death Eaters are ruthless, and they have an unreasonable hatred for Muggles." Jane shook her head sadly.

"I hope Lily still comes to school. If she's not on the train, I'm going to go to her house the first chance I get."

It was silent for a few moments while they chewed their food. Then, breaking the silence, Sirius said, "Prongs, do you even know where Evans lives?"

"Possibly…" James winked.

When breakfast was finished, Mr. Potter called a Muggle taxi service for a large cab. They loaded Sirius and James's things into the boot with the exception of the owls. James was still distracted by the death of Lily's father as they climbed into the two backseats along with, much to the dismay of the cab driver, Artemis and Pip.

The ride to Kings Cross Station was nearly silent with the exception of the owls ruffling their feathers. James sat in the backseat, staring at the floor of the cab, hands intertwined in his lap. Sirius did not disturb his thoughts; he knew James was worried about Lily and nothing could possibly cheer him up except a smile on her face, which he knew would be an impossibility when they saw her. If they saw her. Sirius doubted that anyone could bring themselves to leave home the morning after a relative's death.

Near midnight, Lily was woken up by voices downstairs. She slipped out of bed and crept out her bedroom door to the top of the stairs.

"Let's get out of here. She's friends with Potter's son. Do you want him coming after us?" a sickly sweet voice said from the living room.

Lily heard a creak on the floorboards behind her and spun around to see her mother and sister. "Shh!" she said.

"What's going on? Your father just went downstairs because he thought he heard a burglar."

"Shh," Lily repeated, holding a finger to her lips. The three women resumed their eavesdropping.

"Can't we just kill them all?" another voice said, this one low and guttural.

Lily had to silence her mother and sister yet again as they gasped.

"No. We're supposed to be meeting with the Dark Lord. But because of you and your Muggle killing fetish, we're going to be late."

"Fine, fine! I'm coming."

There were two loud cracks as the intruders Disapparated. Lily slowly led the way downstairs with her wand draw and held aloft. The others followed behind her; all were thinking the same thing, and hoping they were wrong.

It took them what felt like hours to reach the living room, when in reality it was only a few seconds. The group stopped at the door and Lily paused, afraid of what she might find in the living room. Petunia shoved her forward and she stumbled into the room. Lily swept the room with a quick glance, immediately finding the one thing that she had hoped she would never see. There was her father, lying on the floor, and staring at the ceiling with wide lifeless eyes.

Mrs. Evans was the first to break down. She fell, sobbing, beside her deceased husband. Then Petunia began wailing, and Lily's shoulders shook slightly as silent tears slipped down her cheeks.

Then Petunia turned on Lily. "This all your fault, you freak!" she shouted, still sobbing, "If you weren't a…a…a witch," she spat the word as though it were something nasty, "Daddy wouldn't be dead!" She lashed out a Lily, clawing at her with her nails. Before she could do much damage, her mother grabbed her around the waist and pulled her away.

"Petunia, Don't you dare blame this on Lily! This is not her fault."

"Yes it is, Mum! How can you defend her? Those people that were here, they were like her!"

Just then there were multiple cracks as three people Apparated into the room. Petunia screamed and hid behind her mother and Lily turned her wand on the newcomers. Luckily she recognized one of them.

"Professor Dumbledore!" she gasped.

"Lily, please lower your wand; the Ministry has sent aurors to deal with this situation properly." he said calmly.

"Oh. Sorry." She lowered her wand.

The taller of the two aurors held out his hand, "Henry Potter, top auror at the Ministry of Magic, at your service." He had unruly black hair, and startlingly blue eyes that could nearly rival Dumbledore's. He looked oddly familiar…

"Please tell me you aren't James's father." Lily said.

Henry laughed and ran a hand through his hair. Well now I know he's related to Potter, Lily thought to herself.

"As a matter of fact, I am. But don't worry, I know all about you, and I find his feelings a bit unorthodox." He laughed again. "But, once that boy commits to something, he won't stop until he reaches it."

Lily groaned, but shook his hand. The other auror was shorter and had a wooden leg. "Alastor Moody." He introduced himself.

Dumbledore addressed the Evans', "Please, you must cooperate with the Ministry if they are to catch the wizards that did this."

Petunia stuck her nose in the air and sniffed, "I'm not doing anything of the sort with your lot."

Dumbledore turned to Mrs. Evans, "We need complete cooperation to arrest your husband's attackers." She nodded. Dumbledore inclined his head to Mr. Potter, "Please proceed with the questioning."

Mr. Potter gestured to the couch. "This may be easier on you if you sit down." The women sat on the couch while Moody went to examine Mr. Evans's body.

"Did any of you see what these wizards looked like?" Mr. Potter began.

Lily answered, "No, but we did hear them talking. It sounded like a man and a woman. And they mentioned something about meeting with the Dark Lord, whoever that is."

"Deatheaters." Henry said. "Can't they ever find anything else to do besides tormenting Muggles?"

"Deatheaters?" Mrs. Evans said.

"Yes. They're the followers of You-Know-"

Henry was cut off by Dumbledore. "Really now, Henry. I thought you, of all people, would not be afraid to say Voldemort's name."

"With all due respect Albus, I feel as though saying the name will bring him upon my family, and I don't know what I would do without Jane and James. Or Sirius for that matter."

"Naturally," Dumbledore said, a slight twinkle in his eye.

"Now then, did you hear any names? Anything that might help us pinpoint a particular Deatheater?"
"No."

It was like that for an hour or two; Mr. Potter asking questions, and Lily answering most of them because her mother and sister were too upset and afraid to speak up.

As Mr. Potter prepared himself to Apparate home, he paused. "I'm terribly sorry for your loss. I'll do my utmost to get these two life sentences in Azkaban."
"Thank you." Lily said, nodding. And with that, Henry Potter Disapparated.

Lily had woken up in her own bed, unable to remember how exactly she had gotten there. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes as she remembered the morning's events. She dragged herself out of bed and down to the kitchen to find her mother and Petunia sitting at the table in silence, sipping tea.

She poured herself a bowl of cereal and joined them at the table. Lily ate her breakfast slowly, not really tasting it.

They sat in silence for nearly half an hour, but what felt like much longer, before her mother broke the silence.

"Lily, do you still need a ride to the train station?"

"Yes."
"You're still going to leave for that freak institution, even after Daddy was killed? What's wrong with you?" Petunia screeched. She threw Lily a venomous glare and stomped up the stairs to her room.

"So, you do plan on going to school?" her mother asked.

"I have to. It's my last year. If I want to graduate, I have to really apply myself this year. I can't not show up for school."

"Okay then. We'll have to leave in half an hour, so you'd better get ready to go."

Lily nodded and pushed her chair back. She put her dishes in the sink and climbed the stairs to her room. She showered and dressed quickly, double checking her trunk to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything important. After shrinking her trunk so that it would fit in her pocket, and locking Melina securely in her cage, she returned to the kitchen to get her mother to drive her to Kings Cross Station.

[A/N]: Reviews feel like Christmas.