For Alice Potter, the following Sunday was pleasant, but the outcome of the events that day worried her.

She sat in the courtyard of the school in the chilly shade of an oak tree with Skippy Rudge, who'd been delighted at her invitation to study for a Transfiguration test there. The breeze teased the pages of the big leather-bound book that was on her lap. She enjoyed the sound it made. She'd spent most of her free time in her first term flicking through the books in the Ravenclaw common room. They were all full of magical creatures and powerful spells and pretty, if not slightly useless, charms.

Neither of the two first years were paying much attention to their studies. Rudge was happily feeding a bag of crackers to Morgana, Alice's pet raven. The book in Alice's lap lay neglected. Her eyes followed the windswept Gryffindor, Ophelia Peck, around the courtyard as she hurried to join her friends. She was tall and fair and smiled a lot. She was nice and popular and funny.

"What are you looking at?" asked Rudge, not looking away from Morgana as she pecked at the cracker crumbs in his hand.

"Nothing," she mumbled. Watching Ophelia Peck made her feel rather small. "Just thinking."

"If you're worrying about Elsie, then don't."

She tore her gaze away from Ophelia. "Why would I be worried about her?"

Rudge shrugged. "You haven't spoken to her since Friday. Seems odd."

Alice thought back for a moment. Surely she'd spoken to her best friend in the past two days...

"Can you show me the flower-charm-thing again?" he asked eagerly.

Alice sighed. "No, Rudge. It's difficult."

"So?! It's so cool! And if you got really good at it, you could show Flitwick and get extra credit!"

"We're not OWL students, Rudge. We don't get extra credit."

"Oh, go on! Please!"

Alice didn't need much persuading. As tricky as it was to perform, she couldn't help but feel a little proud of her abilities. She'd never witnessed many charms being performed when she was younger. Her mother was akin to muggle ways of life, thus all her housework was done by hand. She'd her father and Sirius perform a few tricks in the garden, and Harry and Ron had spent a few holidays trying to impress the younger ones of the group. As far as magic went, her odd little talent was relatively... nice.

She ripped a long blade of grass from a luscious clump by the base of the tree and stared at it. She tried to memorise everything about it: the deep dark grooves, the shiny edges, the converse scratchy and smooth textures of the blade, like velvet. It shivered and rippled in the breeze before Alice felt the edges of the blade of grass tense and curl inward, forming a thin cylindrical stalk. Out from the tip sprouted a delicate pink shoot.

"Wow..." whispered Rudge in awe.

The shoot spiralled and peeled and grew and unfurled until a perfect pink rose had been formed from a single blade of grass.

Around them, Alice had gathered an audience. She was concentrating on her rose, but she couldn't but feel smug that Ophelia Peck and her friends were watching in amazement. Cedric Diggory and his large bunch of friends made no secret of their intrigue. Neither did Miles Malfoy.

Deriving inspiration from the staccato gusts of wind, Alice blew a sharp breath at the rose head. As though a gale had accumulated, the rose head snapped off and went soaring into the air, spraying the courtyard with thousands of conjured pink rose petals. Some squealed in delight, others gasped. Alice grinned at the sight of fellow first years jumping around, trying to catch the petals as they continued to fall. It was snowing petals now, from about seven feet in the air. As a joke, Fred and George Weasley detached themselves from Cedric's group and began collecting petals themselves. It soon turned into a game: throwing clumps of petals at one another. A rose war.

"Oh dear..." commented a scathing voice. Both Alice and Rudge looked round the tree. Leaning against the trunk was Druella Lestrange. Alice shuddered. Druella smirked slightly. "Mr Filch won't be too happy. I expect he'll make you clear this up."

Alice's eyes widened. The rose petals ceased to fall. People looked around, disappointed.

"That's right. That's how detention works at Hogwarts. I'm surprised you didn't know."

Alice blushed, but still managed to scowl. "I've never received a detention. Of course I wouldn't know."

Druella raised an eyebrow. "The same can't be said for the rest of your family."

"Druella..." warned a voice from nowhere.

The crowd began to disperse now that the petal shower was done. Miles Malfoy stepped forward, giving him a warning glare.

"I'm stating the facts, cousin! No need to scold me!" she smiled. It was not a happy smile. It was disturbing.

"I think what Alice Potter did was cool," he said meekly.

"Cool? Miles, the courtyard now looks like a florists' shop floor on Valentines' day."

He shrugged. "Nothing wrong with that."

Druella's stare turned icy. "I never thought you were one for romanticising, cousin. Perhaps young Potter here has helped you turn the tables, as it were."

Miles Malfoy's cheeks went pink. "That's not true."

"Isn't it?"

"You're embarrassing me, Druella.

"Likewise."

"Don't be so mean!" exclaimed Alice, suddenly finding herself standing up. Rudge tugged on her robes like a shy toddler. She ignored him.

As Alice took a step forward towards the bickering cousins, Druella gave her a piercing look and moved towards her as well. Alice flinched, but she could not back down. It was like fighting a bear.

"We've been here two months and I haven't heard you say a nice thing to or about anybody. Doesn't that bother you?"

"Why would it?" asked Druella calmly. "There's nobody hear worth a damn."

Alice's gaped at her. "What about your cousins?!" she glanced at Miles, who looked terrified.

"PATHETIC BOYS," hissed Druella, sounding very much like a snake. She must've been the truest Slytherin of them all. "Fickle, stupid, weak-minded boys!" she rounded on Alice as she spoke. "Simpering mother and s-s-s-stuttering father, neither of them worth a second glance from anybody of good blood..."

Alice would've lunged. She was preparing to. Only, she didn't need to. A streak of ginger flew across the courtyard and crashed into Druella Lestrange.

Ginny Weasley was standing in seconds, wand aimed downward and the fuming girl on the ground. "My Dad kept the headlines from that night, you know," she told Druella. "I know what the headlines were. The Lestranges were deranged. Seems they passed that trait on to you, little girl."

Alice spotted Harry, Ron, Neville and Hermione running across the courtyard towards them. She groaned.

"Aim your wand away from me, you disgusting blood traitor..." growled Druella.

"MISS WEASLEY!" exclaimed a shrill voice.

Mrs McGonagall rushed towards them from the outer-archway, brandishing her wand. "What do you think you're doing?!"

Ginny blushed red. "Lestrange was..."

"We saw the whole thing, Professor!" lied Harry once he and his friends had joined them. McGonagall stared at him, wide-eyed. "Ginny didn't hex Lestrange or anything!"

McGonagall glared at the girl on the ground. "Get up, girl! Miss Weasley, put your wand away at once!"

Ginny gulped and shoved her wand into her jeans pocket. Alice looked to the rest of them. Ron and Hermione looked concerned but pitiful. Harry merely looked angry. Alice held his eye contact for a long time. Harry gave her a warning glare.

"Professor," said Miles quietly. "Really, nobody was going to hurt anyone. We're all OK!"

"Liar," growled Harry. "Your deranged cousin was about to rip Alice's face off and you know it."

"No she-"

"Enough!" barked McGonagall. "Now, some body tell me why we seem to be flooded with rose petals!"

"It was Miss Potter, Professor," said Druella smugly. "She performed a charm on a blade of grass and littered the place with them."

McGonagall rolled her eyes. Alice took a deep breath, preparing herself for hearing of a month's detention. Instead, McGonagall held up two wrinkled hands and slowly moved them apart. Just like that, the petals swirled upwards into several whirlwinds of whipping petals, before they dissolved in to sweet, pink smoke.

"Wow..." whispered Rudge from the ground.

"Bloody hell..." agreed Ron.

"All of you return to your common rooms immediately. Five points will be deducted from each of your houses. Good day to you."

McGonagall ran off, with Rudge and Hermione tailing her to plead their innocence. Immediately, Harry reached out and grabbed Alice's forearm.

"We're going," he told her. "We're done with these lunatics."

"But..."

"No, Alice. You heard McGonagall. Back to your common room. And you, " said Harry, glaring at both Druella and Miles. "Keep your pureblood bitterness to yourselves. Stay away from us."

With that, he dragged Alice away. She said nothing to her brother. She merely scowled all the way through the castle until he released her outside her common room. She didn't even say goodbye.

oOo

James Potter had always been a light sleeper. He had that in common with his wife. In fact, it had been in the sleepless hours of nights at Hogwarts that James Potter had spent sitting on the sofa with Lily Evans, chatting and laughing, proving to her that he was worth just one date. That was all it would take.

Now, twenty years on, he woke up to the sound of his wife crying.

He rolled over and lifted his head up. He saw her silhouette sitting on the window-seat, hugging her knees. In the light of the streetlamp outside, he saw the streams of tears glisten.

"I've heard that's dangerous?" he asked casually.

Her crying stopped as she turned to look at him. "What is?"

"Sitting in a position which painfully crushes your womb. Much like the position you're sitting in now."

Lily looked down at her knees and let them drop, stretching her legs out in front of her. "Sorry," she mumbled, wiping her face.

James sat up. "Why are you crying?"

Lily shook her head. "Doesn't matter."

"Lily,"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Bad dream."

James frowned. "Again?"

Lily nodded.

James sighed. "Come to bed."

"I don't want to sleep."

"Come to bed or I'll stupefy you."

Lily laughed weakly and slid off the window seat. She padded across the room and clambered back into bed as James held the duvet up to let her in. As soon as he'd tucked the duvet tightly around her and replaced his hand back onto the swell of her stomach, she began to cry again.

"James..." she whimpered. "I keep dreaming about us dying."

James sighed and kissed her head. "That's a silly thing to do."

She sobbed again.

"Lily..." he whispered. "Tell me about them."

She sniffed. "No. You'll get bitchy."

"Will I?"

"Yes."

"Tell me, and I'll try to control my bitchiness."

She took a deep breath. "I dreamt that he killed us... that night."

James inhaled shakily. His heart was sore.

"I saw you and me, dead on the floor. We weren't even in the same room..." more tears came. James hugged her tighter. That was all he could do. "And then I saw Harry as a first year, crying and lonely because we weren't there to tell him how special he was..."

"Lily..."

"And Alice was never born and this baby was never born and we were dead and Harry was all alone and Voldemort was still killing people and we weren't there to protect our son!"

"Lily," said James seriously. He leant up on his elbow and looked down over his wife. "I hate to state the obvious, but we're alive."

Lily rolled her eyes.

"Listen," he said softly. Lily swallowed and looked back up at him. "The bastard's dead. We killed him. We ended that war and because of that, Harry knows how much we love him. So does Alice."

Lily smiled gratefully up at him. "You're a relatively tolerable man to have for a husband, Potter."

James grinned. "And you're aesthetically pleasing as far as hormonal wenches go, Evans."

"You haven't called me that in a while."

"You haven't been an Evans in a while."

Lily frowned. "Do you think I should write to Petunia soon?"

James shrugged. "I think you should visit her. In actual fact, it might be nice if she visited you for once."

"James..."

"I know, I know. Don't be the bastard husband. But seriously, Lily. She's never visited her niece and nephew. Last time she saw Alice, she was in nappies. Alice that is, not Petunia."

"Lily smiled half-heartedly. I'll write to her tomorrow. I'll take the kids to see her when the baby's born."

In the dim light of the streetlamp, which filled the room with a dull orange glow, Lily looked beautiful. Particularly as she looked happier and more hopeful than she had in a long time. He couldn't help but grin.

She laughed. "What's so funny, Potter?"

James shrugged. "Nothing. Just your face."

"I despise you."

"Likewise."

She reached up and placed a hand on the back of his neck. He bend down and eagerly kissed her.

She pulled away. "We haven't talked about names yet," she reminded him with a smirk.

"Oh yeah. I did come up with one that I thought was perfect. I think you'll really like it."

Lily looked doubtful. "Go on then."

"Dudley."

The pair stared at each other before erupting into laughter. They had joked about Petunia's choice of baby name for years after Dudley was born. It felt great to laugh about it again.

"Seriously though," sighed Lily after a while. "We need ideas."

James leant back onto the pillows and let Lily rest her head on his chest. "What do you suggest then?"

"I don't know," said Lily. "I like Molly for a girl. You know, after Mrs Weasley."

James wrinkled his nose. "What for?"

Lily shrugged. "She's my friend and she's done a lot for us."

"Yeah, but... Molly? Really?"

"Well... OK, it might makes things confusing at times."

"I can't give someone called Molly a bath, Lily."

"Okay..."

"Frank for a boy? After Frank Longbottom?"

"We can't have an Alice and a Frank be brother and sister."

"Marlene?"

"That's already Alice's middle name."

"...no it isn't..."

Lily leant up and stared at him. "What?"

"Her middle name's Lily."

Lily's eyes widened. "No it's not! It's Marlene! We decided against Lily because it didn't sound right!"

"...oh yeah."

"James!"

"Sorry!"

"You forgot your own daughter's name!"

"I remembered it was Alice, didn't I?"

"What's my middle name, Potter?"

"Marie," James scowled, poking her in the ribs. "I remember 'cos I asked Padfoot if I should ask "Lily Marie, will you Marie me?" and he told me that was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard."

"Because it is."

"You and him have as much sense of humour as a brick."

"A controversial statement there, Potter. I've been told my humour is of excellent taste. You on the other hand..."

"It's been twenty two years since we first met, Lily, do you think you could stop breaking my heart?"

"No. You'll always be an arrogant toe-rag."

"Uppity crone."

"Smug bastard."

"Frigid skirt."

"Hardly," she grabbed his hand and planted it on her belly.

They both felt the baby kick.

"...shit," gasped James.

Lily rolled her eyes. "That's beautiful, James. That's profound."

oOo

A/N: Rivyoo pleez.

Nel X

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