Fourteen Years Ago

Summary: Every Halloween Lily has a nightmare about Halloween night in 1981. There is one thing that assures her that the dream wasn't true and that is checking on her son and watching Harry as he sleeps.

AN: A sequel to I Fought for You.

It was rare that Lily had a nightmare, but when she did it usually revolved around Halloween night 1981. They all started out the same way and occurred around the same time every year. Around the time of Halloween. She had asked James one time if he dreamed of that Halloween night and he said no before asking why. He didn't know what to say when she told him she did.

"You worry too much," James said once.

But Lily still had the nightmares, even when she didn't think about Halloween 1981.

So it was no surprise to Lily when on Halloween night 1995 she found herself in the midst of a nightmare of Halloween night 1981. This was the first Halloween that followed Voldemort's return back in June, which made the nightmare seem all the more real. Another difference, she noticed was she wasn't in the house in Godric's Hollow, instead, she was in her home in Potter's Bar.

She was standing in the front hall in front of the stairs and Voldemort was standing at the open door. It was blasted open, almost like the door was on that Halloween night and James was nowhere to be found. Looking around, she realized that it this was happening at the current time when Harry was fifteen years old and not fifteen months old.

Voldemort smiled a sinister smile. "Well, look who it is. Lily Potter, we meet again," he said as he spat the last word. "I've missed you, my dear Lily."

The voice sent chills up Lily's spine. That high, sarcastic voice was something that she never wanted to hear again, but unfortunately, she was going to one day.

Lily reached for her wand. "Get away from me Tom!"

Voldemort laughed in response, cackling.

"Looks like someone needs to learn some manners," Voldemort said.

"What do you want?" Lily asked, her voice was barely audible and it shook slightly as she pulled every bit of her will into it. She was scared, terrified really. She knew what he wanted. He wanted her son. Dead.

"Oh, I think you know what I want," he paused. "My dear." He drew out the last word so it sounded as though it was said by a snake and not by the thing that was standing in front of her. No one considered Voldemort a person. "I want to kill Harry. But first, I have to get rid of you." A cruel, lopsided smile spread across his face.

He raised his wand and shouted "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Lily's eyes snapped open, as she sat up suddenly, noticed she was drenched in sweat, and breathing heavily. It had to be a dream. It couldn't be true.

Even though Voldemort had returned Lily had one reminder that he didn't kill Harry fourteen years ago. She was alive. But was that dream true?

She looked to her left at James, who was soundly asleep. Lily smiled softly at the sight of her sleeping husband. She remembered that James had come to Hogwarts to spend some time with her and James. It was a tradition they had developed when Harry was a first year and only last year was the one year that had skipped. They picked it back up this year.

Lily was still breathing heavily. She sat up, knowing what would help her forget all about the dream and to assure her that it wasn't true.

She got out of bed and walked out of her bedroom in her private quarters at Hogwarts, confusing her for a minute before she remembered where she was and turned to the left to the room with a Quidditch figure on the door, marking Harry's room in her quarters.

Carefully, Lily opened the door, trying not to make a sound. She stepped into the bedroom and sighed in relief when she saw her son, sleeping soundly.

The clock on Harry's nightstand said it was three in the morning, which surprised Lily. She didn't know it was that late. With school the next day, Harry was usually in bed by ten or eleven o'clock depending on how much homework he had. But then he usually took an hour or so after completing homework to unwind before he went to bed.

Lily approached the bed carefully not to trip over the clothes that were lying on the floor. It amazed Lily just how quickly Harry's room, both here and at home, how quickly it got messy. Harry wasn't an extremely messy person. He would clean it up on his own without her saying a word. James once joked that its like 'Hurricane Harry' has hit. But to Lily's pleasure, Harry didn't need to be told, although sometimes once, to clean up.

Lily sat down on the armchair that sits in the corner of the room. She sat there, watching Harry sleep, pausing when she saw him turn on his back, his breathing slow and steady.

She couldn't believe how much time has passed her. She felt like it was yesterday that Harry was a baby. She must have blinked because Harry was now a fifteen-year-old boy who was now a few inches taller than her and almost as tall as James. But the big change that happened this year was Harry got a girlfriend.

She had never seen Harry happier and she had Ginny to thank for that. The smile seemed to be a permanent fixture on his face and she heard him laugh more often.

Now that she thought about it, tonight was the first time she had seen Harry for more than an hour. Since he and Ginny together, he spent a lot of time with her. When Sirius asked about Ginny, Harry said that he told her about their Halloween tradition and she understood that Harry would be with his family tonight and she'll see him in the morning.

Lily had told him he could invite her, but Ginny had politely declined and told Harry he should spend some time with his family. Sirius followed up with a question of how things were going and Harry replied. She noticed how Harry lit up when he talked about Ginny and this made her happy.

It was nice to see the smile on her son's face after the rough start Harry had in his fifth year.

Before curfew, She, James, and Harry left Sirius and Remus's quarters and headed to Lily's. Harry and James headed to the sitting room and Lily said she was going to get a shower before she made some tea or hot chocolate.

When she returned to the sitting room from the shower, she found James and Harry sitting on the couch with hot chocolate and were talking about Quidditch. She smiled as she watched her boys discussing Quidditch as the conversation moved to the Gryffindor team and James reminding Harry that he was going to be there for his first Quidditch match of the year.

She made three cups of hot chocolate and took it to the sitting room where they caught up with each other about what was going on in their life. James talked about what was going at work and told Lily when he would be coming up to work with the seventh years who were planning on becoming an Auror following Hogwarts and talk to the fifth years who were considering becoming an Auror.

"Have you given any thought to what you want to do?" Lily asked Harry.

"Not really," Harry admitted.

"You got time," James assured him.

Lily filled them on how the potions she was working on and her research for some of the potions she was hoping to improve. She was thinking about working on a potion to help with the after-effects of the Cruciatus Curse, more commonly known as the torture curse. James just nodded, knowing the reason behind Lily's research and hoped that of all the potions she was working on, that she was successful with that potion.

Harry told them about his fifth year, thus far by announcing, "Why didn't anyone tell me that fifth year was going to be like this?" and it ended with a rant of how everyone is acting like the world is coming to end and OWLs were next week and not in June.

James and Lily listened carefully, having been there before, and then when Harry finished, they passed on some advice.

Harry asked Lily if he could sleep in a little because he didn't have morning classes on Friday, only Defense against the Dark Arts in the afternoon. She agreed with she noticed some dark circles under Harry's eyes and noticing him falling asleep on the couch after he finished in the shower.

When James returned to the sitting room, he noticed that Harry had given in and fallen asleep. He glanced at Lily before approaching the couch and picking Harry up to carry him to bed.

"Don't hurt your back," Lily cautioned. They could have woken Harry up and tell him to go to bed or cover him up with a blanket and leave him on the couch, but there were two reasons for carrying Harry to bed. The first being is when Harry is half asleep and half awake, he was clumsier than he was when he was fully awake. The second was the couch was uncomfortable and Harry would wake up with a stiff neck and sore back.

Lily needed a new couch, a more comfortable one.

She followed James to Harry's bedroom and she walked around him to turn down the bed. Together they tucked him into bed. Lily leaned over and kissed his cheek and James ruffled his hair, both whispering good night.

Lily looked at her son as she came back to the present and was watching her son sleep. He was still lying on his back, with his mouth wide open. His one arm was slung over his head and his other was laying on his stomach. She watched the hand move up and down as Harry breathed.

She tucked the cover that had fallen off the bed during the course of the night around him. The weather was getting colder, but then again, Scotland was usually colder than it was in England.

He was wearing his navy blue Henley sleep shirt. Lily had bought it when she and Harry went shopping for clothes before school started. Harry had told her a few days ago that it was comfortable and that she should have bought two because he had a suspicion that he would wear out the shirt before Christmas. She planned on buying more shirts in different colors as she knew that Harry would be wearing Henley shirts all winter to bed. She might buy James some as well

"Mum?" Harry's voice made her jump slightly as she wasn't expecting him to say anything.

"Did I wake you?" Lily asked.

"No. I need to use the bathroom."

Harry slipped out of bed and headed to the bathroom, his glasses still on the nightstand. He could see enough to get to the bathroom from his room. He returned to the bathroom, wiping his hands on his burgundy pajama bottoms. His hair was wilder as it was shorter than it has ever been since Harry was a child. He laid back down in his bed.

"Is something wrong?" Harry asked.

"No, I just thought I'd check on you."

She didn't want to tell Harry about her nightmare because she didn't want to worry him.

"Okay."

"Go back to sleep, Sweetheart. I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay."

Lily tucked the cover around him, even though Harry could protest, he didn't need to be tucked in.

"Goodnight, Sweetheart," Lily whispered and kissed his forehead.

"Goodnight Mum, I love you."

"I love you too, Sweetheart."

Lily watched Harry sleep for a little longer and then she decided it was time to go back to bed. As she thought, the trip to Harry's room had worked and she felt better and knew that Harry was okay and was sleeping in his room next door. She returned to bed and laid down on her side, snuggling into James's side. He shifted to lie on his side and wrapped an arm around her.

Feeling content and comfortable, Lily went back to sleep with a smile on her face as she dreamed about some happier times for her family. She hoped that happy dream came true