No Warnings
Chapter 3: Heart Break and Unfortunate Truths
"James," Dumbledore said as he stepped into the hall, "Lily is going to be alright." James could hear the sepulchral tone in the Headmaster's voice.
"Is there something wrong?" James could barely keep the pain from his voice. He was imagining the worst possible things. The one thing that stood out was that Lily was going to die because they couldn't heal some of her wounds.
"She won't die, but…" Dumbledore seemed to be lost for words. The Headmaster recentered himself and continued, "But she won't be able to have anymore children, James."
For a moment James thought it was funny that the things you never think about are always the things that happen. And then James' heart filled with anguish. "Does she know?" he asked tonelessly.
"I'm afraid she is still asleep, my dear boy. I'm not sure when she will be awake, but you are welcome to stay here at the castle."
James nodded his head, and let his body take control. He was led into the infirmary. There were several beds taken. The raid had ended up being an ambush. The Death Eaters had planned on taking out the Healers to demoralize the Order. There was an explosion, and it caused the roof of the building to collapse on top of several people. Killing almost everyone in the building. Both James and Frank had been lucky that their wives happened to be outside at the time of the explosion. Unfortunately both women were immediately targeted by Death Eaters. They had held their own against seven of them. But another explosion caused derby to shower down on the small battle. Three of the Death Eaters were killed in that explosion and another two were taken out by the derby. That very same derby crushed Alice's leg and hip. Lily was hit by a curse that caused massive internal bleeding in the confusion.
Lily lay upon one of the cots in the corner of the large room. Her body was covered in bandages. James was grounded to where he stood. He vaguely hear the door be slammed open. Frank Longbottom stopped in his tracks at James' side when he spotted Alice. Alice was in a cot that was toward the middle of the room. Her leg had been healed, but she was still crying out in pain. Sirius came into the room and put a hand on both of his friends' shoulders. It was a small, comforting gesture. Both men silently thanked their friend and went to their wives.
Neither Lily or Alice were able wake up or speak for a few days. Madame Pompfrey insisted that the two of them stay in a magical induced coma so their bodies could have a better chance at healing. The two men resorted to staying in spare rooms in Hogwarts with their sons. Sirius and Remus had both been set on salvaging of the Potter house as they could.
Frank's mother had brought Neville to the schools that Alice could see him when she woke up. Harry was staying safely in the room that had been given to James. Minerva and Pomona had taken to playing with the babies as often as hey could. All of the professors were infatuated with the children.
Finally after a week and three days, Alice was brought out of her coma during breakfast. It had been a teary occasion. Alice also had lost her ability to have children. The young mother didn't let go of baby Neville for nearly three hours after she heard the news. Frank had a weary look on his face. But the happiness of having his family reunited out shined the fact that the Gryffindor had barely any sleep.
It wasn't until after dinner when Lily was brought out of her coma. James shakily carried Harry into the infirmary. Lily's eyes were bright with fear. She could instinctively tell something bad had happened. James wasn't sure if it was what happened to her or if it was what happened to their son. When James reached the bed, Lily all but leaped onto her family for a hug.
James could feel tears soak into his clothes. James was dreading to have to tell his wife the horrible truth of the days that have past. He didn't know where to start. He was at a complete loss for words. Lily ended up giving him a place to start.
"Is my little Harry alright?" the red head said sniffling. She reached out to hold Harry, but so froze the moment she saw the wound on his forehead. A statue couldn't have been more still than Lily was in that moment. Then large tears dripped down her face and she was once again an uncontrollable mess of sobs.
"Voldemort when to Godric's Hollow. Peter was the spy." James choked up. It was the first time he admitted that his friend was a traitor. "It was Peter, Lily. He gave Voldemort Harry's location. It was all a diversion. He was in the nursery with Harry. He killed Peter… He could have killed Harry…"
James was now sobbing. He could only think that this was his fault. He and Sirius both thought that Peter would have been the better choice for their Secret Keeper, because the Dark Lord would never have expected someone so weak to protect his family. It was obvious to everyone that Sirius or Remus would have been strong enough to protect themselves. But then James thought that it was because Peter was so weak that he betrayed his family.
It took the family a while before the crying stopped. "Lily, there is something else," James voice faltered. "Lily, the curse caused a lot of internal injuries… Lily, oh Lily…You won't be able to have children anymore…"
James buried his face in his hands. Lily sobbed and hugged Harry close to her chest. The small family stayed together in the infirmary that night. Neither the Longbottom family or the Potter family left Hogwarts until after the holiday season.
Despite all that had happened that fateful Halloween, the Potter family tried to live as a normal life they could. They let Harry play with other wizarding children and visited Diagon Alley as much as possible. They didn't want the events of that night to keep Harry from having a normal life. And yet they could never truly shake off their fear of Voldemort coming back to finish the job. Nor could they keep little Harry from meeting the Dark Lord.
The Weasley family never learned what had happened to little George. They never found out that the darkest wizard of all time had saved two members of their family. And thus the Weasley still despised the Dark Lord. They said horrible things about him all the time. Horrible to four year olds. This caused the twins to resent their family. And the Weasley family never learned truly how deep that resentment and anger ran in in the twins.