I still don't own Harry Potter. The bolded words aren't my own.
James And Lily's Death
The TV screen lit up. The watchers were greeted by a scene, but before they could see more, Insert Awesome Name Here stood up and paused it, just to be annoying.
"By the way, we're watching a movie version of what's written in the book," she announced. "Because it totally makes sense." She quickly started it again, leaving the characters confused.
The night wet and windy, two children dressed as pumpkins waddling across the square, and the shop windows covered in paper spiders, all the tawdry Muggle trappings of a world in which they did not believe. . .
"Typical of Muggles," muttered a few pureblood.
"Typical of purebloods," muttered a few Muggles.
Insert Awesome Name Here stood up, paused the movie, and yelled, "OH MY MERLIN, WE FORGOT THE DURSLEYS!"
Even though she was being incredibly annoying everyone was still affectionate towards her because she was so relatable and pretty. In a bright flash, the Dursleys appeared, looking very confused.
"What are we doing here?" Dudley asked. Several wizards laughed a bit rudely at seeing him, because he looked dumb and fat, because apparently that's all Dudley is.
"Oi!" shouted Vernon, moving to stand in front of his son and wife. "What're we doing here with these people?"
"These people?" repeated some wizards threateningly.
"Hello, Dursleys!" squealed Insert Awesome Name Here. "I have a big explanation that I won't explain because everyone already knows what's happening already. Please sit down and watch!"
The Dursleys sat down, all fight conveniently disappearing from them. And nobody protested either. Harry was too happy, holding Ginny's hand.
The film was started again.
And he was gliding along, that sense of purpose and power and rightness in him that he always knew on these occasions. . . . Not anger . . . that was for weaker souls than he . . . but triumph, yes. . . . He had waited for this, he had hoped for it. . . .
"Who is this?" asked Dudley.
"Voldemort, likely," Harry replied through a thin smile. He'd mostly forgiven Dudley, and felt it was okay to talk to him civilly.
A lot of people shuddered at the name, because even though he was definitely gone this time, they were still scared of words, because words are powerful.
"Nice costume, mister!"
Cue snorts.
"Voldemort in a costume," muttered Lee Jordan. "That's even more terrifying than he already is."
"Imagine if he was a clown," added Charlie.
"You're going to give the kids nightmares!" Hermione protested, covering Teddy's ears protectively.
He saw the small boy's smile falter as he ran near enough to see beneath the hood of the cloak, saw the fear cloud his painted face: Then the child turned and ran away. . . . Beneath the robe he fingered the handle of his wand. . . . One simple movement and the child would never reach his mother . . . but unnecessary, quite unnecessary. . . .
"That's so mean!" Cho Chang exclaimed, earning a glare from Ginny, because of course whatever Cho Chang said was totally a move on Ginny's boyfriend, and being scared of losing him again, the redhead was very protective of Harry.
"We just went through a war," Seamus said. "I think we know there are mean people out there who would kill innocent children."
There was a respectable moment of silence as everyone remembered those they'd lost.
And along a new and darker street he moved, and now his destina- tion was in sight at last, the Fidelius Charm broken, though they did not know it yet. . . . And he made less noise than the dead leaves slithering along the pavement as he drew level with the dark hedge, and stared over it. . . .
"Hedges tend to be very good for spying," Harry said.
"And you'd know because...?" asked Dean, curiously. "I mean, I get that you were undercover for a year and everything."
"He would know," Ron said in a clipped voice, "because he spent most of sixth year spying on Malfoy."
"What?" several people, including the spied on boy and the spy himself, yelped.
"I did not!" Harry protested, because that's what he did.
"Well, this got awkward," muttered Molly, because she had no other line to say in this segment.
"Guys, we're watching Lily and James, Harry Potter's parents - we're going to watch them die," said Hannah Abbott. "And we're talking about hedges and spying on Malfoy?"
Petunia gasped, trying to hide the dismay and grief she was obviously hiding because she still loved her sister even though she'd said some nasty stuff about Lily.
They had not drawn the curtains; he saw them quite clearly in their little sitting room, the tall black-haired man in his glasses, making puffs of colored smoke erupt from his wand for the amusement of the small black-haired boy in his blue pajamas. The child was laughing and trying to catch the smoke, to grab it in his small fist. . . .
"SO CUTE!" Ginny squealed, completely missing the point. The point being, of course, that this was the night Lily and James died.
There was something a bit sad about seeing this; it had been a perfectly ordinary night, save for it being Halloween, when Lily and James had died. And everything Harry'd lost when Voldemort came...
A door opened and the mother entered, saying words he could not hear, her long dark-red hair falling over her face. Now the father scooped up the son and handed him to the mother. He threw his wand down upon the sofa and stretched, yawning. . . .
"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" yelled George in an accurate impression of Moody, the only funny thing he'd said so far because he was currently still grieving over Fred.
People laughed, and then sobered because they'd never hear Moody yell the phrase again.
Meanwhile, the older generation of wizards and Petunia, although she'd never admit it, were stricken at seeing Lily and James, looking so happy.
The gate creaked a little as he pushed it open, but James Potter did not hear. His white hand pulled out the wand beneath his cloak and pointed it at the door, which burst open.
The room instantly quieted, because it was a solemn moment.
"They're so stupid for going about unarmed," whispered someone who should die shortly.
He was over the threshold as James came sprinting into the hall. It was easy, too easy, he had not even picked up his wand. . . .
"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!"
"How?" asked Harry, his green eyes filled with tears.
Ginny put a comforting hand on his arm, while many people proceeded to weep because it was so sad, and Lily and James hadn't even died yet.
"BOOHOO!" sobbed Insert Awesome Name Here obnoxiously, but she still managed to sound perky and cute as she wept grossly, getting snot all over her brother, who was too sad at the scene to be angry.
Hold him off, without a wand in his hand! . . . He laughed before casting the curse. . . .
"Avada Kedavra!"
Many flinched, hearing these words and knowing what they meant for James...
Except for that one person who had a death wish and said, "He had it coming to him..."
The green light filled the cramped hallway, it lit the pram pushed against the wall, it made the banisters glare like lightning rods, and James Potter fell like a marionette whose strings were cut. . . .
"WHY WOULD THEY SAY THAT?" raged Hermione, her sadness slipping into anger.
Harry too was so sad he was bordering on anger..."Hermione, it's okay," he whispered.
His friend continued to sob, along with most of the female population and most of the male. And Draco Malfoy was not crying. No, that was not a tear in his eye, he just had ALLERGIES. And yes, Malfoy's can have allergies, that is allowed, but he's not crying, okay?
He could hear her screaming from the upper floor, trapped, but as long as she was sensible, she, at least, had nothing to fear. . . . He climbed the steps, listening with faint amusement to her attempts to barricade herself in. . . . She had no wand upon her either. . . . How stupid they were, and how trusting, thinking that their safety lay in friends, that weapons could be discarded even for moments. . . .
"Idiot..." whispered the same person who wanted them to die.
Everyone else was too sad to speak without opening their eyes and swallowing tears and snot.
He forced the door open, cast aside the chair and boxes hastily piled against it with one lazy wave of his wand . . . and there she stood, the child in her arms. At the sight of him, she dropped her son into the crib behind her and threw her arms wide, as if this would help, as if in shielding him from sight she hoped to be chosen instead. . . .
"A mother's love," Harry whispered softly, regretful to see his mother like this, but at the same time grateful that she'd sacrificed herself. It had saved him, even if Voldemort had thought she'd died for nothing.
"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"
"Stand aside, you silly girl . . . stand aside, now."
"She'd never stand down," whispered Molly fondly, because none of the Marauder's were present to whisper this themselves and it was just a very Molly Weasley thing to say.
Everyone agreed.
"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead —"
"This is my last warning —"
"Not Harry! Please . . . have mercy . . . have mercy. . . . Not Harry!
"Mercy," said Harry with a dry laugh, "is a concept far to complicated for Voldemort to understand.
"So true," agreed many people, because it was a true fact. The Malfoy's, Blaise, and Pansy all just exchanged looks, unsure what to do or say.
Not Harry! Please — I'll do anything —"
"Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!"
He could have forced her away from the crib, but it seemed more prudent to finish them all. . . .
Many snorted in disgust; the thought was just such a Voldemort-like one to have that frankly none of them wanted to spend the energy commenting on it.
The green light flashed around the room and she dropped like her husband.
"Did they have to use that comparison again?" Hermione groaned.
"Yes, it clearly has affect," Draco said in response.
"Stay away from my girlfriend," Ron growled unnecessarily.
"I didn't even move towards her," came the blonde's dry response.
"Are you crying?" Hermione asked him, sounding shocked.
Draco brushed away a not-tear and sniffed disdainfully (and not to keep from crying) and he sneered, "Of course not."
It was quite obvious he was, but everyone decided not to push it because they were all crying themselves. Except Vernon, who appeared to be the one with the death wish and was busy muttering nasty things under his breath.
The child had not cried all this time: He could stand, clutching the bars of his crib, and he looked up into the intruder's face with a kind of bright interest, perhaps thinking that it was his father who hid beneath the cloak, making more pretty lights, and his mother would pop up any moment, laughing —
"That's so sad," Ginny whispered thickly, swallowing down her tears, trying to be brave for Harry.
Hermione hugged Teddy to her, intent on not letting him see what she deemed to graphic for his little self. "Isn't a child's innocent sweet?"
Everyone nodded to show they agreed.
He pointed the wand very carefully into the boy's face: He wanted to see it happen, the destruction of this one, inexplicable danger. The child began to cry: It had seen that he was not James. He did not like it crying, he had never been able to stomach the small ones whining in the orphanage —
"Ugh, he's a big baby," Angelina said.
"And he doesn't have a nose," Lee added.
"Everyone knows that," Angelina agreed.
"Everyone...nose that," George said.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Cue flinches, but any tears were mostly due to the deaths they'd already witnessed, and the knowledge that Harry was orphaned...even though they already knew all this.
And then he broke: He was nothing, nothing but pain and ter- ror, and he must hide himself, not here in the rubble of the ruined house, where the child was trapped and screaming, but far away . . . far away. . . .
"HAHAHAHA, YOU DESERVE IT!" Ginny yelled at the screen. "You - " she let out a string of curse words to display her loyalty to Harry and also convey her anger at Voldemort.
"Ginny!" Molly said, aghast, although she silently agreed.
Cho Chang began to laugh in a crazy fashion that unnerved Ginny and everybody else, because why not.
"And we're done!" trilled Insert Awesome Name Here. Many people sighed, moving to get off the couches before realizing they still had to watch more.
"Next up," said her brother, "is..."
If anyone would like to see a certain scene, let me know! Otherwise I'll do something else. Hope you enjoyed! Any feedback is much appreciated. Thanks for reading!