Summary: Two and a half years ago, James Potter's life ended when his wife was captured and declared dead. After intense mourning, his friends forced him to move past it, and resumed living without Lily. But an anonymous tip that brings Lily home sends his life into a tailspin once again.
Disclaimer: I own Penelope but that's pretty much it. I'll let you know on the rest. So, until further notice, JK Rowling owns pretty much everything in this fanfic except the plot, which isn't entirely mine either(see dedication). Please don't press charges, I have to pay $400 bi-annually for car-insurance, I can't afford anything big.
Dedication: The idea for this fanfic is from the case of Lt. Commander Michael Scott Speicher, a United States naval pilot, who has been missing since January 16, 1991. His status has been changed from Killed in Action to Missing in Action. This by no means is a representation of his life, only of a presumed dead soldier. This is for all the soldiers who haven't made it home yet.
*~*~*
"Mummy? Are everyone staring at us?" Celeste asked, motioning that she wanted to be carried along the streets of Diagon Alley.
"Is everyone staring at us?" She corrected without thought. "Yes, they are. People will probably stare at us for a very long time until they get used to us again."
"Why?"
"That's just what people do. We're snoopy."
"I see."
I just bet you do, Lily thought. She tried to ignore the questioning glances of everyone as they continued on their way to Delacour's Dress Robes. It was robe store that had all variety of garments, despite the name, that was a little of Diagon Alley. It wasn't as busy as the well-known Madame Malkin's, but the clothing was of the highest quality. James's mother had introduced her to the store, swearing that no place could get quite the fit Delacour's could. There was no tinkling sound as they opened the door, signaling it was a high-class establishment.
"Ooooohhhhhhh." Celeste breathed, her little brown eyes opening wider. "Pretty!"
"You think so?" Lily hugged her tightly, loving her little daughter more than ever. "So do you want clothes like these, or the ones like you have always had?"
"Thheeeese." Apparently, Celeste was in permanent awe. "I love these clothes."
"Can I help you?"
Lily felt a hand on her arm, and she turned to see the shopkeeper herself. Madame Delacour seldom attended her customers, choosing to hire shop girls to tend to that, and make the clothes on her own. Lily had to grit her teeth to screw up the nerve to say something. Almost three years of virtual silence, then one day of complete silence had really upped her hesitation to speak to anyone besides Celeste. Harold Croaker had been a huge step for her. However, she was saved by Celeste, the ever-clever toddler.
"Yes! Me and my mummy need some pretty clothes. Wait. Mummy? Is it okay for me to talk to her? She is a stranger too, right?"
Madame Delacour was turning her head back and forth, from Lily to Celeste and back again, as if she were watching a tennis match.
"She is a stranger, but you can talk to her. Her name is Madame Delacour."
"Okay. Well, my mummy has a list of stuff we need." Celeste looked expectedly at Lily, who nodded and pulled out a folded sheet of paper, which by the picture of a Quidditch match on it, looked to be from a coloring book. Lily wordlessly unfolded it and handed it to the seamstress, who looked it over.
The woman, showing all the professionalism she was known for, gave a nice smile. "Why don't we just measure the two of you then. Step right behind that curtain over there, we'll see what size we need to make you."
Lily helped Celeste upon a chair, and they both stood still as two tape-measures attacked them.
"Do we have any color specifics?"
"Celeste, tell her what colors you like," Lily instructed.
"Yellow and red and blue and green and pink and purple, lots of purple, and turkeyoysie, and rainbow, and…I guess that's it. No brown. Or black, no black. None."
Madame Delacour was grinning at the pronunciation of turquoise. "Are those colors acceptable? No black? Not even for day wear?"
"No black!" Celeste yelled, and Lily nodded agreement.
"Very well, no black. Shall we say a robe each of yellow, blue, turquoise, green, pink, purple, and red. Yellow, pink, and purple in pastels. Coordinating shirts and skirts and trousers.
"What about rainbow?"
Lily felt unnecessary in the process, Celeste apparently knew what she wanted.
"Er, well, let's see…rainbow…?" She look around, looking at a loss, and rather disgusted at having to make one of her creations rainbow.
"One shirt," Lily supplied.
"Of course. Now for you, ma'am." Madame Delacour, rather obviously to Lily, left off any sort of name, not sure what to use.
Lily handed her another list with very specific instructions on it, fabric, color, cut, style, lining, thread material, buttons, zippers, and any other possible mishap. At the bottom was a very visible NO GREEN!
"I can have these ready by one tomorrow."
Celeste looked crestfallen by the wait.
"Do you have anything in her size that we could take right now?" Lily asked, knowing how important it was for Celeste to have some untainted clothes in her possession immediately.
"Just a few things, over here."
Celeste beamed and toddled over to look at the small multi-colored robes and other garments. She touched them all, and Madame Delacour smiled encouragingly. "This one."
The shop keeper held up a purple sweater and tan skirt for Lily's approval, which she gave. "She needs some shoes."
Soon, Celeste was equipped with a pair of toddler sneakers, fully outfitted with purple on them, and Lily paid a rather hefty chunk for all of their purchases. Next, they returned to the main portion of Diagon Alley to visit Magical Menagerie, next to Gambol and Japes. This made Lily feel more than a little wistful as she remembered times with the Marauders there, or trying to find a gift for James.
"Mummy?"
"Here we are." Lily snapped back to reality and led Celeste inside the clamoring and noisy store. Inside, a rather large Niffler was being wrestled into a pen, and apparently more than one owl wanted to be fed.
Celeste made a whimpering sound, and pointed at the ugly Niffler. "I don't want a kitty!"
"Sweetheart, that isn't a kitty. We'll find you a kitty. Why don't you ask that lady over there?"
She nodded, and wiped away a tear, and went over to a woman wearing a checked shirt that said 'I'm wild…I work at Magical Menagerie'. "D-do you have an-any kittens?"
"Sure we do, sweetheart. Don't worry about Bugsy over there, he wouldn't hurt a sweet little girl like you." The lady gently guided Celeste over to a section that held cages full of cats of many sizes. "We have your regular garden-variety cat, then we've got some kneazles. Some of them are mean little buggers, but if they take a liking to you, than they're great."
"A sneezel?" Celeste asked, her eyes widening again.
"Kneazel," Lily corrected, examining the cats in question. "They're very good pets, however not as cute as a cat."
Celeste began looking through all the cages. "I like him, what's his name?"
Lily winced. Celeste was looking at the ugliest cat on God's green earth. "His name is Tiger. How very original."
"I'll call him Marauder."
"What?" Lily hissed, and now her eyes widened.
"You used to talk about Marauder. Not anymore, but a long time ago." Celeste was obviously in love with Tiger/Marauder. She was petting the sorry looking beast through the cage, causing her mother to groan.
"Are you sure this is the one you want? You haven't looked at them all yet."
"No. I want this one."
"Alright," she sighed in resignation. At least it was still small.
*~*~*
"Blessed hell!"
Lily groaned for the tenth time that hour, this time at the person who was apparently her neighbor across the wall. She heard a thumping of somebody beating the wall, signaling for silence.
She couldn't blame them. It was midnight, and she was stuck taking care of Celeste's damn cat. Now she understood why her own parents hadn't allowed her a pet before she went to Hogwarts. Children were not capable of taking care of their own animals. Celeste was in the big bedroom sleeping soundly, like only children could, while Lily had been awakened an hour ago by incessant and stentorian meowing from Marauder. The cat's name alone was enough to make her throw up, but she was forced to use it. How could a kid remember something from two years ago anyway?
Lily wailed in frustration when Marauder jumped onto a cabinet and made a wooden bowl fall off, creating another racket.
Moments later, there was a thunderous knocking on her front door. "Listen! I don't give a bloody damn what the hell you're doing in there, but considering some of the freaks we have nowadays, I wouldn't be surprised. However, it is midnight, and the rest of us decent people have a job to go to in the morning, so you better damn well shut up!"
Marauder chose to let out a pitiful meow, and sat in front of the door on his haunches, licking his lips.
"And muzzled the blasted cat!"
Lily paled with the recognition.
"Mummy?" Celeste asked softly, walking into the room in a little purple nightgown. "What is going on?" Then Celeste too paled, but in fear. "They're going to take us back, aren't they? Don't let them take us!"
Celeste sat down and started crying, and Marauder walked over to lick her face and meow in accord.
More banging at the door.
"Nobody is going to take you back. That's just our neighbor, he's mad because Marauder is making so much noise. Can you two please be quiet?" Lily asked, rubbing her daughter's back and petting the stupid Kneazle. Finally, there was silence inside, but more knocking on the outside.
"We better let him in, Mummy." Celeste abruptly sprinted to the door and unlocked it, opening it for their neighbor as Lily said, "NO!"
"We have had a quiet building for the past year, and I don't bloody well care you the hell you think…oh Jesus." Their neighbor walked right in, wearing his night apparel and glowering furiously until he saw Lily holding a squirming Kneazle.
"Mummy! The man with sad eyes! He's our neighbor!" Celeste clapped in delight, smiling broadly at all.
Neither of the adults seemed to think this was a good thing. Not at all.
*~*~*
Well, here we go. I made my own site, by the way, since the expage one is down permanently. You can find the link on my bio page. Thanks for all the great reviews, Julie, Sugarquill, Eleanor, Kristen, ljpottafreak, Kelly, Clare, Erica Skyfire, Céline, Hanna-chan, Stefanorkle, hpankiki, torifire126, Holly, Kait, NattyNatterz, sunshine, Melissa, TheElfinChild, JazzyNStu, Maria, RBFfreak22, AznGurl, raphaella, Melissa, Vumbu1, Mistocean, luv-jinxy, Tina, everblue3, Julie Anna, unicorn jewel, punkchiclosr3076, Laugh Out Loud.