Waves of Death Eaters flooded onto the Hogwarts grounds. There was no time for further talk. Chaos reigned. James was firing and blocking spells right and left, trying to keep track of the other members of his team, but it was impossible to catch more than a few glimpses. He dodged a spell and shot another one at the Death Eater. They hadn't bothered with masks tonight.

Cold began to spread over James, and he swore. Dementors. Before he could ready his wand, a goat came charging through the crowd, waves of white light flowing from him. Aberforth had joined the fight. James looked around. He was standing in front of the front doors.

"They've got giants!" Aberforth shouted, his voice magically magnified over the din. "It looks like they're breaching the north battlements! I'll need a team!"

James yelled at a few of his team mates to go help and saw students from the other teams speeding that way as well. Aberforth disappeared back into the castle, and James returned to the battle.

A spell grazed his cheek, and he felt blood start dripping down his face. He hit the offending Death Eater in the chest, and he fell. James caught sight of Lily's red hair, as she stunned the Death Eater coming up behind him. James pivoted and sent a Death Eater flying through the air.

Roaring sounded through the air, and James saw Grawp the giant wandering past the castle swinging a stone gargoyle. Hopefully he would find Voldemort's giants and trounce them.

A jinx came from a window and struck a Death Eater in the head. James looked up but couldn't tell who had sent it. He blocked a spell coming his way and caught sight of Remus dueling Dolohov before they vanished into the crowd again. The fact that the pair were able to have a proper duel in this madhouse spoke to both duelists' skill.

James suddenly came face to face with McNair. He ducked his jet of green light and fired back. McNair blocked, but James shot another spell before his opponent could counterattack. His spell knocked McNair off balance, and James made to follow up his advantage, but McNair dived back into the crowd and vanished. James, frustrated, turned to find a new target.

Minutes later, he thought he saw a flash of hot pink. That couldn't be right, he thought, as he blocked a spell. Tonks was...

"James!" ...right here.

The Death Eater he was dueling collapsed under her spell. She was white faced, and her hair was wild. "James!" she cried. "Where's Remus?!"

James scanned the crowd but couldn't see him. "The last time I saw him, he was in that direction," he said, gesturing. "But..."

Tonks was gone before he could finish his sentence. James sighed, peering through the mass of people and flashing lights for Lily. Tonks wasn't the only one with family here, after all. There she was, dueling two at once. James rushed forward to help her. He attacked, she defended, perfectly complimenting each other. The first Death Eater fell beneath their force, followed closely by the second.

"Do their numbers look smaller at all?" Lily shouted.

James glanced around. Bodies of both sides were scattered around the grounds, either dead or injured, but the chaos of battle had not diminished. "They out number us!" James answered.

A high-pitched scream of laughter split the night. That couldn't be anyone but Bellatrix, but James couldn't see her. Shame. There were plenty of people he could avenge with her death.

James shot a spell into the crowd and found himself dueling Rodolphus Lestrange. Their wands flashed so fast they were almost a blur, until suddenly a student James didn't recognize struck Rodolphus in the head with a spell. He looked really tiny; was he really seventeen?

James didn't have time for question or thanks as he barely dodged a green jet of light from somewhere. He thought he heard someone shout "Colin!" and the boy disappeared back into the crowd, but he couldn't be sure.

Suddenly, to his right, flashes of light were raining down on the Death Eaters from the sky. James looked and saw that Oliver Wood and a group of other students and ex-students had somehow managed to get a hold of brooms and were divebombing the Death Eaters from above. Smart.

He also noticed, with a rush of fury and sadness, that in the distance, the Quidditch Pitch was up in flames. It wasn't enough Voldemort was decimating the great school, he had to ruin Quidditch too!

No time to mourn, James flung himself back into the battle, dodging, blocking, and casting spells. Where was Voldemort, anyway? James hadn't seen hide nor hair of him all night.

He dispatched his opponent and spun to look for a new one and felt his blood turn to ice. Lily was standing too far away from him, face to face with Severus Snape.

How had they gotten separated so far? Lily wouldn't be able to kill her old friend. James started through the crowd, shoving and stunning everyone out of his way. He kept his eyes fixed on the pair. They were not saying anything as far as he could see, nor were they attacking each other. Maybe Snape did still care, even a little? James would take what he could get.

Then Snape raised his wand, and James raised his own as well, even though he was too far away to do any good. A bolt of light flashed from Snape's wand, Lily raised her wand too late, and...

The Death Eater that had been sneaking up behind her dropped.

James froze in shock. Lily whipped around to face Snape.

Snape was running for the Whomping Willow, and Lucius Malfoy stood in his place. James started moving again. Malfoy looked awful. He blocked Lily's first attack, and then ran when he caught sight of James coming toward him.

James changed direction and finally reached his wife. "Are you alright?" he demanded, shaking her slightly.

"I'm alright," she said. She didn't look alright. She was bleeding from her shoulder, was covered in dirt and soot, and her green eyes were filled with pain, anger, and confusion. "He saved me," she whispered.

"Yeah, well," James didn't have anything to say to that. "I'm still going to beat him next time I see him."

Lily shot a spell behind him. Right, there was a war going on.

The two of them stood back-to-back, attacking and defending against the Death Eaters. James noticed that they seemed to be significantly closer to the castle than they had been before. They had lost ground.

It seemed that they stood there and fought for hours. Or days. Or weeks. There was no break in attack or defense, nor did it seem like there would be an end anytime soon. That is until...

"You have fought valiantly," said Voldemort, his voice carrying to the whole school just like before. Everyone on all sides paused, freezing to listen, as if the voice had hypnotic power. "Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery." Why did he speak of himself in third person? James wondered wildly, shield charm hovering in front of him, though no one attacked. Was it because only he could say his name? "Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will die one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste.

"Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately." At once, black robed Death Eaters started heading toward the forbidden forest. "You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured.

"I speak now, Harry Potter," James' heart sank. "Directly to you. You have permitted your friends die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour."

James and Lily exchanged panicked looks. "He wouldn't..." Lily whispered.

"He would," James said, feeling more hopeless than he had all evening. "You know he would."

"Ron and Hermione won't let him," said Lily.

James wondered if anyone could stop Harry once he put his mind to something. Together, they walked very slowly back to the castle, looking around as they went for any sign of their son. The distance which had seemed so close before now seemed incredibly far, exhaustion weighing him down. People were already magically taking bodies from the grounds back into the castle. James did not want to see who had died, but there were a few people he had to find.

Finally, James and Lily entered the Great Hall. Almost everyone was gathered there, but the silence of the huge crowd was oppressive. James spotted the Weasley's right away, red hair acting like a beacon. They were gathered in the middle of the hall, all of them except Ron, around one body on the floor.

Reluctantly, the Potter's stepped forward into the hall. It was Fred. James felt punched in the gut. Out of all the Weasley's, Fred was dead? It didn't seem possible. What about George?

James scanned the hall, searching the faces of the living rather than the dead, looking for friends. What if it was Kinglsey dead, or McGonagall, or, heaven forbid...

Lily gasped beside him; a gasp so full of pain, that James thought his heart stopped. Dread filling him, he forced himself to turn, to look down at the bodies lying next to Fred. James was so close now that they lay practically at his feet.

Remus and Tonks.

They lay next to each other, their hands nearly touching, like even in death they were reaching for each other.

Were they really dead? They looked so peaceful, as if asleep.

James knelt, as if in a dream, and gripped his old friend's wrist, feeling, willing, for a pulse.

There was none.

Remus Lupin was dead.

"You never break promises, Moony," James whispered, his voice sounding strange to his ears. "What a time to start." He felt Lily's hand on his shoulder as if from a long way off. Everything was removed at the moment. Nothing mattered except this. James ran a shaking hand through his hair.

"For the love of Merlin, Prongs, that does not make you look cool!"

"Come on, Moony, you wish you had hair like mine."

"Hell no. Padfoot's maybe."

James made a dry sound that he wasn't sure was a laugh or a sob. Was this how Remus felt when he thought he was the last Marauder? How had he bourn it?

"Prongs?"

"Hey Moony."

"I thought you were dead."

James shuddered. The Last Marauder. It sounded so final. But it couldn't be, could it? They were supposed to grow old together; Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. They weren't even forty yet. And Remus had a family!

"If you don't invite me to your wedding, I'm never going to speak to you again."

"I suppose you're going to insist on being my best man as well?"

"Who else were you going to pick?"

He would never hear Remus laugh again. Both he and Tonks laughed a lot. Would anyone laugh without them? "Oh merlin," he choked out. "Teddy." He felt Lily kneeling next to him on the floor. Her hand slid along his back from one shoulder to the other, squeezing slightly and pulling him closer to her.

Remus had been so happy. Sure, he had been scared at first, but once Teddy arrived... had Remus ever been as happy as he was then? James didn't think so.

"To Teddy Remus Lupin! A great wizard in the making!"

It wasn't fair. He would have been such a fantastic father. Teddy needed him, needed them both. And they were gone.

Remus Lupin was gone.

Gone.

Dead.

And James was sitting on the floor next to the corpse of his best friend, one hand covering his eyes, as his shoulders shook with sobs. Lily sat next to him, her arms wrapped around him, and James hoped she could hold him together, because he felt like he was falling apart.

He did not notice Ron and Hermione join the grieving Weasleys or Harry running from the room.

So that's it. James Potter, the first to die, officially became the last to survive. Remus Lupin is my favorite character, and it hurts me deeply to kill him and Tonks, but alas, I thought it necessary. The main reason I wrote this story was to see how James and Lily would react to the books as are, not how they would change things had they been alive.

Also, I'm not writing Harry's experience with the resurrection stone, but Sirius couldn't be the only one to meet him, could he?

What will happen next? Will Lily ever find out the truth about Snape? How will the parents react to Harry's death? Will they even survive the final stretch of the battle? Tune in next time, to find out!