And here we are THE FINAL CHAPTER! I hope you enjoy this one as this two part story comes to an end. I am going to take a bit of a break from this wonderful fandom but I will be back to the wonderous world of Harry Potter and I will be back to play around with the characters, this was my first real bit of the Marauder timeline so I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

Please Read and Review.

And a MASSIVE THANK YOU! to you all for your support over the past couple of years with both this story and The Beginning Of The End. It means more than words can say.

Enjoy.


The End Of The Beginning

Chapter 20-To Be Continued

The FINAL CHAPTER!-James and Lily enjoy a quiet night in on Halloween. Neither of them know what is going to happen. It's the Beginning of the End and the End of the Beginning and this duo of stories is about to come to an end.


Slightly smaller chapter under 2K.

God he was board.

"I am board" he said to Lily and she laughed from the kitchen though it was tinged with more of a pained kind of noise than he was used to hearing from her. Harry sat on the floor sitting up like the big boy he was now gave that gummy gurgle and James nodded his head more smoke coming out of his wand. He thought he looked like Sirius for a second, Sirius his best friend and his brother who would rather die than let anything hurt them, who was prepared to go into hiding into his childhood horror of a home to keep his baby boy and his wife safe. He wanted to sleep too, his body was aching for sleep but he found he couldn't these days. It had been a week. To James it already felt like a lifetime.

He watched as Harry reached out, fat chubby fists clutching at the smoke. His little face crumpled as the smoke disappeared into the air as if he could not understand where the smoke had gone, why he could not hold them in his hands just a little bit longer and then just because he could (and also because Lily was right—deep down, he did spoil Harry) there would be James waving his wand and watching the childish delight on his baby's face as smoke reappeared.

Okay so yeah, yeah he was board. With no cloak and no way of asking when he was going to get it back there was nothing else to do and he was rapidly running out of things that needed to be fixed. The days were long and agonising but it was nights like this that made him think just for a little bit that it was all worthwhile. Because it was.

If it kept Harry safe like this, safe and happy even for a moment longer then he was going to do it and he was going to do it time and time again. When the healer had passed him that little bundle of blankets and dark hair and green eyes in the hospital he had felt something new open up within him. It had been like he had opened up a whole new part of himself, something that was growing with each passing day. He found that he wanted this feeling to keep growing, it was intoxicating the love that came with being a parent.

For Harry he would do anything.

For Lily he would do anything.

It was as simple as that really, when you thought about it. As simple and as easy as that.

Harry started fussing and James yawned.

"Oh dear Merlin" Lily said coming into the room. "Between the kids outside celebrating Halloween and you half asleep it's a miracle I can get anything done."

She picked Harry up and he settled against her shoulder. Harry immediately attached himself to her red hair. He had a thing for Lily's red hair James mused half sleepily. It was ironic really. Also he was hoping a very good sign that his son would come home to him one day during the summer holidays like he had done with his own father and would chat his ear off about some red headed girl that he was sure he was in love with.

Thoughts like that were hard too. If James could will this nightmare of a life away for Harry by sheer power alone he would do. However he couldn't…and it was a powerless feeling to know that you couldn't keep your family safe.

Lily's hand was on his shoulder.

"Say nighty-night to Daddy Harry"

Harry gurgled. James waved watched as the two people he'd die for over and over again walked up the stairs.

He turned back to the sofa and picked up his wand before tossing it back down onto the sofa. He didn't need the bloody thing anyway. What use was it when you didn't even have an excuse to use magic?

Maybe tomorrow he would ask for that cloak back—and get Harry to walk, he had to get Harry to walk, only way the kid was going to get on a broomstick—

And suddenly the back door blasted open.

And we all know what happened next.


Lily knew by the sounds of explosion downstairs that James was dead.

It registered dimly in her brain simply because she knew James. She knew him, she had known him from the age of eleven, from boy to teen to man, she had known him and she had loved him and the only way that Voldemort was coming up the stairs right about now was because James was dead.

But she didn't have a time to think about what that meant, she didn't have to time to mourn the man that she had loved. She didn't have time to register that she was a widow at the tender age of twenty one because the door blasted open and she staggered forwards with the blast of it dropping Harry into the crib. Harry gurgled against the crib bars thinking the green light was no doubt Daddy doing a show for bedtime.

Lily turned around. She had taken on many rolls in her life, daughter, sister, student, friend, fighter, wife and now…now her final role was to be mother.

It was a role she was willing to die for.

It didn't even register that it was Peter that had betrayed them. Maybe it had registered for James but James was dead and soon she was going to be too.

But it didn't matter.

If it kept Harry alive for even a few more seconds then she would do whatever it took.

And so she raised her chin, clenched her wandless hands around her baby's crib, looked the monster dead in the eye and opened her mouth to beg.

And we all know what happened next.


Maybe for Lily and James this was where the story ended. Their love story cut so short and so brutal and their lives immortalised in stone and a boy who had more than his fair share of trauma in his life before he had even been legally allowed to drink.

There was another red headed girl for the dark haired boy with glasses. This time the courtship was a lot smoother than Lily and James—well—they didn't try to claw each other's eyes out. Of course Voldemort got in the way but wasn't that the story of so many people's lives?


Fingers brushed down the two headstones, snow falling thick and heavy that one winter where the man and the woman had come to see the graves. Five years later another man and woman came to see the graves. There were two more there now in the graveyard, one for Sirius Black, one for Remus Lupin and his wife and Harry Potter his baby boy on his hip and his wife by his side looked down at his parents and their two best friends resting places and thought that perhaps now they would be happy.

James, named after his grandfather was sleepy and warm against his chest. Brown hair ticked his chin and his eyes were drooping. Harry Potter thought he was the best baby in the whole world but then again he freely admitted he was biased. Teddy had come pretty close and Harry found that the best nights in the world were when he was curled up in front of the TV with his four year old godson asleep at his side and his baby boy asleep on his chest. Ginny had finally relented and gotten a DVD player and Harry had finally had chance to find out what he liked.

Sometimes his wife joined him—for reasons beyond his comprehension she had become an fan of Star Wars—and Harry himself was a fan of Top Gun. Sometimes his father in law joined him fascinated by the DVD player opening and closing.

Sometimes Ron did, Ron his brother who was obsessed with cartoons and who thought the bunny was hilarious.

It was boring really, a perfectly ordinary boring life.

For Harry Potter the extraordinary child of two extraordinary people it was the best life in the world to have.

Ginny next to him wrapped an arm around his shoulders and said without even looking.

"Teddy do not pick that muddy birds nest up"

Teddy whose small hands were outstretched snatched them back his hair going dark purple for a moment and then back to the mournful silver with the one streak of pink which was what his hair was whenever they came to see his parents.

He stomped back next to his side and both parents held their breath. Teddy at the age of four had inherited his hand eye co-ordination from his mother that much they had already discovered by now.

Harry wrapped one arm around his wife and for a second the family of four stood there looking down and then Harry nodded to himself.

This was not the end he thought as James slept against his chest warm and safe and living in a world without war. This was not the end, this was just a beginning.

"The beginning of the end and the end of the beginning" he said under his breath.

Ginny opened her mouth turning to him with a quizzical stare but Harry just kissed her instead and she smiled at him her brown eyes soft with an understanding that even now he was not sure he fully deserved.

"Come on" she said taking her son out of his arms and holding her hand out for Teddy who took it willingly. "Let's go home Harry okay?" she said turning to him and Harry nodded his eyes still on the graves.

He reached out and touched them once two fingers trailing across the smooth stone and he stared at them. It was nice to see them again.

"Goodbye Mum, goodbye Dad. I'll…I'll come see you again real soon"

And with that he turned his back and he walked away with his family towards his ordinary life full of peace and normality that his parents had always wanted for him and he knew that wherever they were they were with their friends again, (including Marlene and Mary both consigned to the relics of history) and that they were smiling down on them, happy that they were all finally at peace.


And yeah, I had to stick Harry in there somehow didn't I. I like to think that all of them were buried together, Remus, James, Lily, Sirius, Tonks...Marlene was in her family vault but that doesn't mean that they are not all having a good time.

I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and this story and again another huge Thank You to you all. It means more than two simple words your support and I look forwards to hearing from you again soon x.