memories and questions
Night fell and Lily shook her head. All these years, her baby was in danger. Not from Voldemort, but from his family. Lily forgotten that Sirius told her all of this not that long ago. Had to been a day or so ago, but he didn't establish the facts that heartily. All he said was that the Dursley's gave Harry a rough time. Lily turned over in her bed to face the glimmering moonlight that was shimmering in from the window, as James walked in to the hospital room and made his way to her bed.
"How was everything?" he whispered, making sure not to wake Harry, who was in the bed next to Lily, sound asleep.
Lily looked up at her husband, in the moonlight. "Sirius is an ass for not telling us."
"We know."
For a while James and Lily laid there intertwined in each other's arms. James felt Lily relax in his arms and he noticed her breathing slow and steady as he felt his eyes close and sleep upon him, he remembered the night he propose to her.
Flashback:
That evening James walked into the common room to see his lovely Lily doing her homework on the table by the fire. James just stared at her for a couple of minutes just watching the fire glisten off her red hair, then he came back to the living.
James walked over to Lily, put his hands over her eyes and said, "Guess who."
Lily lifted her head just a bit, she knew it was James, but instead she said, "Sirius honey I don't want to play with you tonight. James be back any minutes and we both know you like it ruff and tuff.'
Lily heard a snort of laughter behind her as James took his hands off her eyes and sat down next to her, and then pouted. She slyly smiled at him with a twinkle in her eye.
James smiled back. "You knew it was me, didn't you?" James asked.
Lily smiled again, "Yes, I saw you come over."
James didn't say anything; he just grabbed her around the waist and kissed her on the lips. Lily closed her eyes and savored the moment. Lily broke them apart and looked into James's sapphire eyes. Just then their embrace was broken, when Sirius, Remus and Peter came down the stairs. Sirius looked over them with disgust. Remus smiled and Peter looked like her was going to throw up.
James smiled, "Hey guys, I was waiting for you guys to come down."
Everyone looked at him strangely. James just kept on smiling the Potter smile and turned everyone to the common room door and down to dinner.
The dining room was packed and James waited until everyone was seated. After Dumbledore was done talking, James sat up on the table and cleared her throat and screamed, "Shut up!" All the students and teachers looked up at him, Lily looked around embarrassed and told James to sit down.
James's just smiled.
When all eyes were on him, he spoke "Good evening everyone and sorry to interrupted before dinner, but I have something to say. I assume everyone knows who I am, but if don't my name is James Henry Potter, seven years ago I came here as a first year to learn magic. What I didn't expect was to learn about friendship," looking at the Marauders "life and love," looking at Lily, "Especially not love, but I did... and well I want to know one little thing." James moved and stood in front of Lily and pulled a ring out of his pocket. "Lillian Rose Evens will you marry me?"
The whole school was speechless, while waiting for Lily's answers. Lily started crying, "Yes," she whispered. "I will marry you."
The whole school was clapping with the teachers crying. The Marauders were really shocked, but they got over it quickly and went to congratulate their best friend and head marauder.
End of Flashback.
As James fell asleep and dreamt on and remembered proposing to Lily. Lily woke up and remembered the same thing. She smiled at the thought knowing well enough to know her husband was dreaming the same thing.
She then poked James really hard in the rib cage. "James, wake up."
"What?" James groaned. "I don't want to go at it now."
Lily stifled her laughter. James not wanting sex was a new thing for her, but she guessed sixteen years without it ...
"No, not that." She giggled. "Besides, Harry's next to us."
James slowly opened his eyes, "What is it then?"
"Well, Christmas is coming up. So I was wondering what if we have a Christmas party, sort of."
James tiredly shook his head, yes. "But where?"
Lily ran through her head each house they owned. "Godric's Hollow."
James sat up a little straighter.
"Since Sirius is there then it'll be easier to explain to Harry why he's alive. Also, his friends can be there with him."
James sighed, "Alright"
Lily shook her long mane of red curls out of her face and laid back down on James's chest, listening to his heart beat as she fell asleep dreaming of friends and Christmas decorations.
The next morning Lily got up and noticed her son and husband were already out of bed and gone. "Potter's" she thought, "Always on the run." As Lily got up and stretched, she made her way over to her forest green luggage trunk, that she made her husband drag across Europe to bring to Hogwarts, and opened it.
Out of everything she bought she pulled out a checkerboard purple and black skirt and a long sleeved violet top. She put them on and to finish off her outfit she put on a set of heavy black robes with the Potter crest on them. With that done she made her way to the dungeons.
MALFOY MANOR-
"About time you arrived." The man said,
He was seated in Lucius Malfoy's leather chair behind his cherry desk. Lucius glared at the dark haired man, when he saw him grab a few files off the surprising clean desk and leaf through them.
"So, you finally decided to show your face again after fifteen years, dear cousin."
Lucius said coldly, to the man.
"Cucio"
Lucius fell to his knees and screamed. The pain he felt was nothing that could compare, not even Voldemort torturing him.
"Don't back talk me, ever again."
"Yes, master."
The man looked up at Lucius. His blue eyes meeting, the stormy gray ones.
"I came here for a reason Lucius; tell everyone that I'm back. Make no mistakes. Got that? Need me to write it down for you?" he said sarcastically on the last part.
Lucius looked up, "No master."
The man got up from his seat and walked over to Lucius. He then bent down. "Good."
After a moment hesitation he go up again and walked out of the room. Only pausing a moment to give a comment to Narcissa. Lucius got up and made his way to his desk, he then summon a house elf.
"How may Anya help master?" said the house elf in a light cotton blue dress.
Lucius looked at the girl house elf, that he so dearly trusted then and will now.
"Tell everyone there is a meeting soon. Our master is back. Tell them I will contact them soon enough."
"Yes, sir." With a bow Anya disappeared out of the room in a puff of smoke.
Lucius then let out a breath he was holding. Soon it will come to an end.
HOGWARTS DUNGEONS-
"So, how long have you been a wake?" Severus asked the red head, when he handed her a cup of rose mint tea, in a lily-white cup.
Lily smiled. Severus was too kind. Even back in school. A Gryffindor and Slytherin to become friends was a scandal, an outrage, but a Slytherin to be friends with the Ravenclaw and Slytherin heir wasn't.
You see, Lily was adopted; her birth parents were Tom Riddle and Carresse Coves. Tom a half-breed and Carresse a pure blood. When Carresse found out she was pregnant, she was scared, so she gave up the baby when Voldemort came to power. Lily's adoptive parents, Kendall and Mark Evans, told her this in a letter two days before they were killed. Voldemort knew of his relationship to Lily. He knew he was her father, for she had the Slytherin eyes, and he didn't try to kill her for that reason alone.
"I've been a wake for two weeks." She said calmly.
"Good."
Severus looked at Lily over his cup of tea. "Look, I'm sorry..." he trailed off.
Lily looked into Snape's dark eyes and wrinkled her nose. "For what?" she asked confused.
"For not telling you and James that Voldemort was coming."
Lily gave Severus a smirk worthy of the heiress of Slytherin and Ravenclaw, in which she was. "It's ok, if you did tell, Voldemort would still be around and Harry be dead. So let's just have a nice cup of tea and stop worrying over the past."
"But..."
Lily gave Severus the "don't contradict me mother glare. "No if's, and's or buts. Now sugar? and are you still in love with Holly?"
Snape gave Lily a mock glare and told her everything he wanted to tell her.
November ended just as the first snow hit the ground in December. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry grounds were covered in a soft, thick blanket of glistering snow and ice. Classes of the day were canceled because the snow wouldn't let up. Each day it snowed more and more. Fortunately the castle was designed for this. The snow didn't cover the steps but once past you were waist high in frozen rain.
By the time Christmas break arrived the professors piled on extra Christmas homework. When the trio descended the stairway of their dormitory to the Gryffindor common room on the 21st of December their homework was done, thanks to Hermione, and their things were packed for Christmas this year. It was going to be spent at Godric's Hollow.
You see, Godric's Hollow was different to most Potter Mansions, since it was Godric Gryffindor's ancestral home, it was particularly special; for or not many of the Hogwarts founders home survived the wars of the Wizarding World.
The Hollow was a three story tall mansion, with a basement, wine cellar, and six separate dungeons. It stood upon 600 acres of land, but people were never quite sure for each time the land was measured, the landscape changed when wanted. This was because of the protection spells that were placed on the mansion and its grounds, for everything changed and was never in the same place twice. The inside common room of this mansion was the first thing Harry, Ron and Hermione saw when they flooed in.
James and Lily stood to the side when Harry and his friends rushed in to check the place out. Holly and mistletoe was everywhere and the house elves put up lights and icicles. The day they arrived, Lily wanted the house to look like a Christmas or winter wonderland and the house elves; Court, Anya, Mindy, Jax and Fay; really went out of their way for their masters.
The children looked around in wonder. Before them was the grand hall staircase. Atop of which Harry, Ron and Hermione had control over the west wing, while James and Lily's rooms were in the right.
To Harry's right was the ballroom, which was only used during the holiday, according to James, and would be used this Christmas, explained Lily when Hermione accidentally wondered aloud if they were actually going to use it.
To the left of them was the common room and kitchens, more glamorous and enormous than the best chef could dream of, a dining room connected to them by a hallway and a study, which was connected to the library. The only problem was the rooms move to a different location each or every other day.
When James told them this, the trio had a very confused look on their faces. Each person wondering why the rooms would move locations. Lily explained it was for security purposes, and for them not to worry, as they would figure everything out. And she was right. By Christmas Eve each person understood where
everything went.
When eight o'clock rolled around that night before Christmas, the Potter family, including Ron and Hermione, could be found decorating the tree, with presents underneath. Harry, Ron and Hermione sat around stringing popcorn, which ended up in their mouths, or Lily's hair, which James stated, "was quite a nice bright target". They were also listing to a muggle cd player that had old fashion Christmas carols on it, when Lucius Malfoy's head appeared right next to Hermione, causing for her to shriek. James and Lily looked up from their conversation.
"Lucius, what are you doing here?" James asked in a deadly calm voice.
Lucius glared at James though the fire, "It was my hope that we might talk".
The lights in the room dimmed as Lily's eyes darted between Lucius, James and the trio who gave heated glares at their enemies' father. They so hated him because he, Lucius Malfoy, tried to kill Harry in his second year.
"Now?" she asked
"Yes, madam." Lucius stated calmly, but shyly.
Lily sighed and gave permission, Lucius then entered the Potter's home. He stood up and tried to walk over to Lily but as he began to walk Harry tripped him a little by putting a foot on his cloak. Lucius glared at the boy and started to move to him, but he was stopped by a slight cough by James. Instead, he moved to Lily and bowed to one knee in front of her and took her hand.
"Still looking like a beautiful flower as ever," He said as he gave a long kiss on her hand.
Lily giggled. Harry, Ron and Hermione each made a disgusted sound. They weren't exactly sure what was happening and they knew it wasn't right. James saw this. Hell, he could feel the hatred coming from his son and friends that was directed at the elder Malfoy. James then cleared his throat and spoke, "Lucius, let's talk somewhere else."
Lucius turned to James, who was before him. 'The brats' Lucius thought to himself but said aloud and in an even tone, "Yes". The lights once again turned back to normal as both men left, Harry turned to his mother.
"What the bloody hell was that about?" he asked. Angry and curious as to why Lucius Malfoy was playing the buddy with his father and same with his father to the Death Eater. He knew James would never join Voldemort, but why was Malfoy here. Was it on business or maybe James was a Death Eater... but that wasn't possible, was it? Harry always thought Death eaters weren't allowed to marry mudbloods. Harry wiped the thought of mudblood out of his mind. He had just called his mother a mudblood, or was she? Harry didn't know for the way Lily acted. She didn't behave like a mud... a muggleborn, but like a pureblood raised by muggles.
Lily looked at her son startled and wondering what he was thinking. "Language," was the only thing that came out of her mouth, and, "besides, I don't know. It's your father's business. So bed, all of you, now." Lily felt her nose twitch as she lied to her son. That was Lily's flaw. Her nosed twitched, like a rabbit, when she lied. She shook her head. As long as Harry didn't know that, she was good.
As Harry moved up the stairs he started thinking. Why had Lily lied to him? What was the deal with his father and Lucius? And, more importantly, why had Lily's nosed twitched? Was that what it did when she lied? He gave both Ron and Hermione looks as they moved across the staircase to the west wing. A look that caught Lily's attention. A look that she knew well enough to know that the kids would find out James' and her secret and she pondered what would happen if they did. Would Harry hate them? If so what would happen to the family she loved so dearly? With that she raced to tell James. Not before she called upon Jax and Mindy to finish the tree. Which she knew they would have done before the morning.
That night Harry lay in his blue and silver room. He then rolled over and stared around him. He stared at the wooden desk that was facing his window, the built in closet with actual clothes that fit him. He looked around at his four-post bed and everything else the room held. CD's, his Firebolt, quidditch gear, etc.
He realized that this was all his. His belongings. The way things were supposed to be before Voldemort and the Dursley's and yet... he felt something wasn't right. There was something he was supposed to know and yet it had been hidden from him. Harry then turned off the light that was right next to his bed. His parents were hiding something from him. He knew that and before everything he planned to find out exactly what it was and if it was good or bad. If it was bad, who knew? Harry then conjured up a fireball and checked the room again. With a snap of his fingers he put it out and fell asleep. Not seeing the glowing, pale woman like figure that watched him every night since he was young.