"Can you see him?" called James from upstairs.

Lily scanned the living room. The floor of Harry's nursery had collapsed since the blast, leaving a gaping hole in the lounge ceiling and the roof. White November daylight shone onto the fallen plaster, snapped wood beams and shattered light fixture which had smashed the coffee table and sprayed the fireplace in white flecks of pain chippings. The jet of light had flashed throughout the house, singeing anything made of fabric. The sofas, carpets, rugs and curtains were all burnt, blackened and smoky. The bookcase in the corner had collapsed, pouring singed books into the chaotic mix of mess. The same had happened with the drinks bureau. It was miraculous that the Potters had survived. Magic, you might say. Lily gently kicked a fallen wood-beam and listened closely. She waited several seconds before responding.

"No... if he's in here, he's very dead," she looked up at the ceiling, where James' head was poking out through the side of the gaping hole.

"He'll turn up," he assured her. "Don't worry."

Lily sighed as James ploughed on, digging up what few items that weren't destroyed in Harry's bedroom. They had managed to salvage a few clothes and shoes from the laundry pile that had been downstairs. Fortunately, most of their more precious keepsakes were unscathed: the white rose hairpin that had belonged to James' mother. Lily's father's muggle war medals. Harry's first pair of socks and first rattle. James' Gryffindor scarf. Their respective Head Girl and Head Boy badges. Lily's gift to James upon their engagement: a very old pocket watch, real silver, with a stag's head emblazoned on the front, his initials on the back and a romantic message from Lily on the inside. All these items had been kept safe in a shared memory chest that they'd both been too embarrassed to tell their friends about. Unfortunately, not all of their treasures had been locked away. Harry's first scribble picture had been framed on his bedroom wall, and was now destroyed along with James and Lily's wedding photos. Lily's wedding dress, too, was gone.

"Tuppy...come here, boy..." she cooed to the room, hoping to hear a faint meow. She stepped over the wood beam and clambered in to the main mountain of clutter. She picked up two large slabs of plaster, one of which crumbled in her hand and rained back onto the floor. Lily sighed in frustration and tossed the other slab of plaster into the corner of the room. She pulled apart the splintering remains of the coffee table to find the wicker basket of old Daily Prophet copies and baby toys which they'd kept under the coffee table since they'd moved in. She picked up a surprisingly unbroken colourful plastic object. On further inspection, she recognized it to be the teething ring that Petunia had sent as Harry's first Christmas present. There were tiny teeth marks all over the handle, but the gift had arrived that way. Lily had never seen Harry chew it.

The sight of the toy tugged at Lily's heart. She dropped it back on the floor (sentiments aside, it was definitely useless now) and reached in to her trouser pocket. She pulled out a bit of parchment that she'd had on her person for the past two days. She opened it up and read it over.

Dear Petunia,

I hope you are well. I imagine you've got your hands full these days, what with Dudley being almost two now. It's been so long since I last saw him, I don't even know what he looks like. I imagine he has your lovely hair.

I'm writing to let you know that we no longer hold our current address. Our house is badly damaged. It's repairable, but James and I both feel that a change of scenery would do us good. I will send you the details soon.

I would so love to see you again, and little Dudley. Recent events have prompted me to write this, to ask if there is any chance of us meeting soon. It seems silly to have to beg, but I fear that we've reached that point in this ridiculous enmity. Please see reason, dear sister.

All my love,

Lily.

It was the best she could do. She would have to send it soon. She tried to picture Petunia opening the letter and glancing at the name at the bottom. It was unlikely that she would pay the letter any heed, particularly if her husband was in the room at the time. As a matter of fact, Vernon had been the subject of every sentence Lily had had to restrain herself from putting in. Don't show Vernon this letter. I imagine Vernon is fuming that I've written to you. How is your marriage? I'd so love to be reunited with you and Dudley.

Then, she heard a high-pitched squeal coming from the front garden. Within seconds, she was clambering over the debris and sprinting into the garden.

Harry was sitting in the only patch of grass that was not scattered with roof tiles. A huge black dog was nuzzling his hair.

"Woof!" said Harry. He turned round and scanned the garden in search of his mother. When he spotted Lily, he smiled. He pointed at Padfoot and looked back at Lily, as if to show her what he'd found. "Woof!"

Lily breathed a sigh of relief and rolled her eyes. "Yes, Harry," she walked over to the pair, folding up the letter and shoving it back into her pocket. She sat down cross-legged behind her son. "Can you say 'dog'?"

"Woof!"

"Yes, but try saying..." but she stopped.

The groups of wizards and witches from all over the country had been arriving in Godric's Hollow since Bagnold's speech, just to get a glimpse of the house where Voldemort was killed. Unfortunately for them, James had cast enchantments deeming it invisible to anyone they didn't know. It would have been a funny sight, watching dozens of witches and wizards wandering around the village looking lost and confused, but Lily found the whole affair sinister. She shouldn't have felt the need to keep a close eye on those with clunky cameras around their necks.

CRACK.

Both Lily and Padfoot jumped as Dumbledore apparated right outside the garden gate with a newspaper tucked under his arm.

"Professor..." Lily began, scrambling to her feet. "Did you talk to Scrimgeour? How bad is it?"

"Albus, dear Lily, it's Albus," Dumbledore smiled. "May I enter your humble abode?" he asked, looking up at the crumbling house. At his words, Lily became a little self-conscious of her and James' possessions that were scattered all over the lawn and in all of the hedges.

"By all means," she moved to open the gate, but should have guessed that Dumbledore would be able to merely wave his hand over the lock and have it slide across. The gate swung silently open and Dumbledore stepped into the garden.

"Albus..." Lily began, noticing how strange it sounded to call her old Headmaster by his first name. "Please tell me you've just been to the Ministry."

"Lily, I have just been to the Ministry," he said.

"And?" Lily probed. "What did Scrimgeour say? Are we still in danger or not?"

Dumbledore sighed. "I did not speak to Rufus as I had planned. It seems he was overseeing the plans for a rather tricky auror mission." Dumbledore took the newspaper from under his arm and held it out for Lily to see. On the front page, Millicent Bagnold was flanked by ministry officials. Her advisor, Isabelle, stood at the very edge of a long line of heads of department. Rufus Scrimgeour was next to Bagnold, both of them beaming at the flashing light bulbs of press cameras. They and the other ministry officials were holding up long flutes of sparkling beverage, dressed in fine but casual clothing. The headline above read "Ministry Celebrates Despite Desperate Death Eater Hunt"

It felt as though a cold stone had dropped in Lily's stomach.

Noticing Lily's anxiety, Dumbledore put an arm around her shoulders. "I would advise you all not to lose your heads over this," he said calmly. "You would be surprised at the eclectic range of reactions that Voldemort's death provoked among the Death Eaters..."

"What do you mean?" asked Lily as she heard her husband run down the rickety staircase indoors.

"Well," Dumbledore sighed. "The Death Eater army was hardly a democracy. Your killing of Voldemort freed more people than you might think..."

Your killing of Voldemort. Perhaps that was why people were flocking to see The Potters.

"Professor, I-"

"Professor!" James joined them, shaking bits of plaster out of his hair. "Good news or bad?"

"That entirely depends on your nature of interpretation, James," smiled Dumbledore. "I sincerely doubt that any previous followers of Voldemort are planning to lay siege upon your home, but I do suggest that you find somewhere..." he glanced over his shoulder at the growing crowds of wizards. "...quieter... to regroup."

James nodded, his eyebrows contracting slightly in his confusion.

Without another word, Dumbledore turned and walked back out the garden gate. He stepped right in to the throng of witches and wizards, who turned to him excitedly, expecting him to divulge all the secrets of Voldemort's death. Instead, he uttered something so quietly and calmly that Lily and James did not hear it. It must've been profound, for the majority of people bowed respectfully to him before disapparating away.

"A cat among the pigeons, that man..." James mused. "We can't stay at Batilda's for much longer. Her house stinks of cabbage."

"She keeps cabbages in the under-sink cupboard. She thinks they help with gnome control," Lily explained vaguely, turning around. She looked up at her house, or at least, what remained of it. It was strange to see her house turned inside out like this; it showed that a home was no more than a shell until happy memories permeated its walls.

"Look at them..." she heard James mutter. He was looking at the people standing around, staring at their house, taking pictures. "Our house is a fucking tourist attraction now."

"I don't blame them," said Lily softly. "If I were in their shoes, I'd want proof."

"What - and Voldemort's corpse in a glass coffin wasn't proof enough?" James asked, a little angrily. He stared at his wife, but when he saw the melancholic expression in her face as she stared up at their ruined house, he could do nothing but sigh. "Yeah, you're right."

"This is not our home," said Lily seriously. "It can't be, if we'd tip-toe around Voldemort's memory for the rest of our lives. We've got to go."

Lily glanced at her husband to gage his reaction and was disappointed to see him frown. She stepped in front of him and planted her hands on his face, forcing him to look down at her. "You know it doesn't matter where we live, right?"

She saw him contemplate her words in his mind as though he'd never thought of them before.

"We can't let hisdeath be the end of us. We deserve peace now."

James smiled softly. Lily loved it when he did that. He had such a naturally hard expression that genuine gentility was a foreign expression. He started playing with a strand of her hair. "We'll be pressed to find somewhere more peaceful than Godric's Hollow."

Lily raised an eyebrow and peered over James' shoulder. He followed her gaze to the remaining wandering witches and wizards, all nattering and bickering about where the house was.

James rolled his eyes. "Right. We're peace-scouting now."

oOo oOo oOo

On their second morning waking up in Bathilda Bagshot's house, Lily acknowledged that perhaps it wasn't just a gnome prevention that had Bathilda buying crates full of cabbages every week. Lily awoke to the sound of Harry's hungry cries on the morning of the 3rd day of November while her husband was still deeply asleep. She let him lie there. James had had trouble getting to sleep in Bathilda's guest bedroom, which was damp and muggy with the ever-present smell of overcooked vegetables in the air. So, she tip-toed around the bed to Harry's makeshift cot and picked him up.

"Don't wake Daddy," she whispered to him. He gurgled and grumbled as she walked with him down the dark landing.

"Shh," Lily whispered to her son, bouncing him on her hip. "We don't want to wake Daddy now, do we? And we definitely don't want to wake -"

"Morning, dear!" beamed Bathilda from the doorway of her bedroom.

"Good morning, Bathilda," Lily smiled pleasantly.

Bathilda held a candle in a holster in one trembling hand, for the autumn morning light was very dim, and reached behind the door for her old pink dressing gown with the other.

"It's a bit chilly this morning, isn't it?"

"Oh, biting. I could do a warming charm on that dressing gown of yours if you want me to..."

"Pish, Lily. I'm fine, really, I'm just old. I'll survive. Anyway, like I always say, there's nothing like a good muggle-made fire to thaw the bones. Isn't that so, dear?"

Lily tried and failed to disguise her feelings of mild dread. Bathilda's fireplace was appallingly dirty, as though it had never been cleaned. Whenever Bathilda had lit fires in the past, they always filled the living room with the smell of hot rotting vinegar.

"Why don't you let me light the fire, Bathilda?" asked Lily before Bathilda began to descend the stairs. "Then you can put your feet up and -"

"No, no, no, dear, please!" Bathilda shuffled over to Lily, her arms held out. "I can watch Harry while you have a bath..." without waiting for Lily's response, she winched Harry out of her arms and began to descend the stairs. Harry began to cry again, writhing and struggling in Bathilda's arms.

"Thanks, Bathilda," Lily called after her weakly. When Harry's cries became quieter and quieter as Bathilda took him in to the kitchen, Lily stared at the bathroom door ominously. Lily had put off having a bath in Bathilda's house since they'd arrived after Voldemort's cremation. Lily was better at ignoring off-putting smells than James was (whom she could hear retching every time he entered the bathroom) but even she could not ignore the overpowering smell of cabbage. It was so odd.

Cabbage aside, there were other human needs that Lily had neglected since living with Bathilda, and now that Harry was being looked after, she could attend to them.

She returned guest bedroom where James was groggily rubbing his eyes. Lily sat down on the bed beside him and rubbed his back.

"Mmm..." he rolled over and sat up. "Morning."

"Bathilda's giving Harry his breakfast..." she told him. "...so that I can have a bath."

"Great. Remember not to breathe while you're in there."

"So..." she waited for him to catch on. He didn't. When he managed to keep his eyes open, he stared at her vaguely. She sighed. "We've got about twenty minutes to ourselves, James. Can we make the most of it, please?"

It took James a few seconds to catch on. When he did, he took her face in his hands and kissed her softly on the lips.

She pulled away before he could deepen the kiss. "I do actually need a bath. I stink."

James groaned. "Can it be a quick bath?"

"A 'quick bath' is not something I recognise. If there is such a thing, people who take 'quick baths' are heathens..." she leaned closer to him. "But feel free to join me for a long one..."

She took his hand and hauled him off the bed, guiding him across the landing to the bathroom.

As soon as they were inside, Lily started to draw the bath. When she stood up, James was quick to pull her night-dress over her head. She shivered as the cold air of the bathroom hit her skin, and again when James pushed her against the door. But she soon melted as he pressed his lips to hers, kissing her as deeply as she'd wanted him to for days now. She reached for the waist band of his pajama bottoms.

But any possibilities of being distracted from the stench of rotting cabbage quickly went out of the window. Water spluttered from the taps into the bogey-green bath tub. Lily could almost taste the bizarre smell of vegetables.

James wrenched his lips from hers. "Fuck's sake..." he dropped to the floor and yanked the cupboard door open. A plethora of cabbages, turnips and onions tumbled out, rolling all over the bathroom floor. Lily stared in bewilderment.

No sooner had the cabbages spilled out, James was unlocking the grimy window and prizing it open.

James grabbed two of the cabbages on the floor and hurled them out of the window.

"James!" Lily lunged at him and grabbed his arm, stifling her own laughter in case Bathilda heard her. "We can't throw out her stuff!"

"They're cabbages, they're not hard to come by. And she doesn't need them and they stink."

"Can't you just ignore them?" as she spoke, she put her hands on his waist and guided him back to where they'd been seconds before: kissing against the door.

James was soon pulling away. "I can't. It smells like death."

Lily sighed. "Alright." She turned off the bath taps. She was gross for not having had a proper wash in days, but didn't feel anywhere near as dirty as she felt needy.

She lead James back into the bedroom. As Lily locked the door shut, they both noticed that their bedroom smelt just as strongly as cabbage as the bathroom had. It was inexplicable, but more than that, it was angering.

When Lily turned round, James looked just like he had done five years ago, when his Quidditch final had been cancelled.

She had been ready to rant, but she softened, and joined him on the bed. "We can't stay here."

James raised his eyebrows in agreement. "Should we ask Sirius if we can stay at his flat?" he proposed.

"This place smells of roses compared to Sirius' flat."

There was a long silence.

"Are we being stupid?" asked Lily, placing her hands on her hips. "It's just a bad smell. We've lived through worse, haven't we?"

James smiled crookedly and leaned against the bed-post. "I think we're just impatient to live how we want for a change."

Lily thought. She recounted her relationship with James, back to the first confessions. She mentally ran through every shared bed and every hiding place. "God..." she whispered. "We've never been free..."

She could feel James watching her, silently sharing her feelings. The mattress shifted, and James was shuffling towards her. He touched her cheek, guiding her to face him, and placed a soft kiss on the corner of her mouth. "We will be."

The mood for sex was gone, but they lay in each other's arms for a while, just cuddling, occasionally kissing, imagining where they wanted to be. It occurred to Lily that it was entirely possible to miss something that you've never had. Lily missed many things, and needed so many things that she didn't have in order to give Harry the life she wanted to give him. It wasn't selfish to believe that she herself needed to be happy to make her son happy. Lily and James, like all new parents, knew nothing of parenting. But what they did know, they had learnt from their parents. And they had both learned that two unhappy parents makes one unhappy child, and they knew that Harry would never be unhappy.

After a while, Lily sat up. "I'm getting dressed." She walked over to the wardrobe. "We need to be at the Ministry by nine."

She pulled the wardrobe open and jumped out of the way in time for three more cabbages to tumble out onto the floor. She looked over to James, wide-eyed, mouth open.

James was grinning, fighting loud laughter. "She's... thorough..."

"She's insane!" hissed Lily, hastily grabbing a dress and cardigan from hangers and slamming the wardrobe shut.

"Should we ask her about it?" asked James, picking up the cabbages. "Or tell Dumbledore that she's one slice short of a loaf?"

Lily glanced at the cabbages in James' hand, looking concerned.

"Seriously, what the fuck could she possibly want with a hundred cabbages?"

Lily shrugged. "I'm beyond caring at this point."

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Harry seemed relieved to see his parents come downstairs, when they rescued him from his breakfast which appeared to be a bowl of beef puree. He had reached for James instantly, who'd picked him up as Lily informed Bathilda of their urgent business at the ministry. Several minutes later, Sirius and Remus arrived in thick winter cloaks.

Lily and James donned hats, scarves, gloves and bulky coats before Bathilda could trap them into breakfast. Lily forced a hat onto Harry's head, contemplating binding his thrashing arms to his sides as he tried to wrestle her.

"Wonderful to see you, Sirius, dear!" Bathilda smiled warmly as Lily buttoned up Harry's coat. "I cannot thank you enough for your sound advice on gnome control..."

Lily froze.

"...what?" James asked, looking at Sirius through narrowed eyes.

Bathilda chuckled. "I was going to mention it to you, but I didn't want you to think I was barmy! I was having trouble with gnomes coming in to my house a few months ago, when I bumped into Sirius in Diagon Alley and he told me to hide cabbages around the house! Sounded absurd, but it did the trick! I haven't seen a gnome in weeks!"

Lily and James glared at Sirius, who gave them a devious smile. "Exceeds Expectations N.E.W.T in Herbology, my friends. Don't underestimate my knowledge of botany."

Growling under her breath, Lily scooped up her son and walked off into the living room while James grabbed Sirius around the collar and marched him in after her. Remus followed with an amused smirk on his face.

James pulled out his wand and aimed it at the fireplace. "Aguamenti!" he fired, and the flamed hissed as they vanished. "Sorry, Bathilda. Try a Drying Charm."

Lily rolled her eyes as she flung the floo powder into the fire. She stepped inside. "Ministry of Magic!" she shouted. Bathilda's living room disappeared into a blur as Lily's insides churned with the motion of being inside a washing machine. She could hear Harry giggling over the loud whooshing noise of floo travel. Then, she landed.

Her feet found the ground again. She was standing in a black iron grate in what looked to be a window-less, door-less holding cell. She might've been alarmed had it not been for Millicent Bagnold's assistant, Isabelle Sommier, standing in the doorway in a navy pin-stripe power suit, clutching a clipboard, smiling that corporate smile that Lily had noticed Isabelle possessed.

"Welcome to the Minister of Magic's Floo Network, Mrs Potter!" she turned to Harry, who was still drowsy from breakfast, and beamed at him. "Hello, sweetheart!" she cooed at the baby.

Then, as she heard the whooshing sound start up again behind her, she dived out of the way. Sirius stepped out of the grate, shaking ash out of his coat. He looked up and Isabelle. "Morning, Miss Sommier," he grinned.

Isabelle fought a smirk. "Hello, Sirius."

Lily looked between them suspiciously. "I thought James was joking when he said..."

"Nope," said Sirius happily.

Isabelle blushed as James stepped out of the grate, followed by Remus.

"Try a Drying Charm'... really, James?" questioned Remus as he stepped out. "Bathilda wrote the seven most widely-read spell books in history and you tell her to 'try a Drying Charm'?"

"What, she's above getting advice?" asked James.

Remus rolled his eyes and grinned at Lily, who refused to believe that a man who once achieved an Outstanding in Charms thought that a Drying Charm actually existed.

"Gentlemen, Madam, if you'd like to follow me..." Isabelle turned on her heels and faced the wall behind her. James shot Lily a confused glance before the glossy black bricks began to shudder and shunt to the side, parting to create an archway. Isabelle stepped through the gap into a long narrow corridor that neither of them recognised. Endeared by Sirius' bounding after her, the three others followed.

"Er - Miss Sommier?" called James. "Where are we?"

"It's Isabelle. And we're in a secret passageway," Isabelle replied, her voice echoing loudly in the never-ending corridor.

"No..." James drawled quietly to Lily, but his voice carried too, louder than he'd intended.

"This is a Permission Only access route to the Minister's private rooms. There's the Red Room, where emergency meetings take place, there's the panic room, there's the cabinet room where the Minister keeps all his or her files and documents and stuff and through there is the emergency staircase, which have two-way access to her own home, the muggle Prime Minister's office and a location unbeknownst to anyone except the Minister of Magic." Isabelle pointed to various points in the wall where Lily assumed were hidden rooms, for there were no doors down this corridor.

They came to a stop at a nondescript point down the corridor, where Isabelle turned to face the left-side wall. She handed her clipboard to Sirius and pressed her hand against the brick. Slowly, her hand sunk into the wall as though the bricks were made of tar. Her arm disappeared up to her elbow. She grabbed something within the wall. They heard a "clunk" sound, as though she'd unlocked a deadbolt. Then, she turned and smiled at them. "Follow me, please," and her whole body disappeared into the wall.

Sirius threw himself after her immediately, followed by an uneasy-looking Remus. James grabbed Lily's free hand as he stepped in front of her. He pulled Lily through after him. It was not like walking through the barrier to platform nine and three quarters. This was a horrible sensation, like walking through hardening glue. Lily clutched Harry nervously and had to exert great force to push herself and her son through the wall until she stumbled into the room on the other side. Harry seemed totally nonplussed as his head lolled onto his mother's shoulder.

"Sorry about the theatrics," apologized Millicent Bagnold, rising from her huge throne-like desk chair. "But we couldn't have you walking through the main part of the Ministry, given your current status in the Wizarding World. Oh, bless the little lamb, he's fallen asleep!" Bagnold grinned at Harry. True enough, Harry was dozing on Lily's shoulder.

Lily whirled round to stare at the spot in the wall that she'd just walked through. It looked like an ordinary solid wall, except that Isabelle was now pushing a huge portrait (which hung on side-hinges) against the wall. When it was in place, there was another "clunk" sound, and the portrait of Hogwarts Castle was fixed to the wall.

Bagnold stood as proud as she had when she'd first become Minister: slender in white heels with a spiky short-crop of blue-grey hair. She smiled at the quartet and gestured to the front of her desk. "Will you have a seat?" she asked. Instantly, four gold clouds of smoke swirled up from the plush carpet. They materialised into four gold chairs.

"Right, then... right," began Bagnold, sitting back down as the four friends sat on the gold chairs opposite. "To business..." she shuffled a stack of papers on her desk. She looked up at the marauders. It was as though seeing their faces this close cemented a particular idea in her mind. It was as though she'd seen the light.

"It's been a funny old week, hasn't it?" commented Bagnold. Lily said nothing, nor did the boys. Bagnold smirked. Then, she sat back in her chair. "I've been in this job for three hundred and sixty five days today. A whole year ago, an army of Ministry officials swarmed my house and quintessentially dragged me into this office," Bagnold did not seem bitter. She was merely reflective. "Poor Rodney had run a mile when Dumbledore confirmed to us that Voldemort was back. He thought that by being a muggle-born Minister, Voldemort would target him first. He was right, of course, but... there was really no need to emigrate to Greenland..." Bagnold's mind wandered for a second. "Such a strange little man... anyway, the upshot of it all is that I've been in this position for a year and I have yet to make any significant change to our world."

"Rubbish!" argued Sirius instantly. Bagnold looked mildly shocked. "You funded the Auror department, you let the Order get on with their thing, Merlin's beard, we couldn't have defeated Voldemort without your leniency!"

Bagnold smiled. "I'm flattered, Mister Black. I didn't mean to sound so self-deprecating. I was referring to... well, our world as it was. Before Voldemort, I mean. You might've been too young to truly appreciate it, but our world and structure of the Ministry had started to fall into disarray... nothing alarming, just... not ideal."

The four of them hadn't even left Hogwarts when the fight against Voldemort had begun. They truly had not been a part of their own world.

"We seem to have let certain ideologies fall through the cracks, so to speak. If the war has taught me anything, it's that we should never underestimate the underdog."

Remus and Sirius sat up.

"I'm a liberal, my friends, and for once I am going to make my views understood. Mister Lupin..." Bagnold looked straight at Remus. He went pale. "How old are you?"

Remus swallowed. "Er - twenty, Minister."

Bagnold seemed oddly pleased. "Lovely. I'm giving you a job."

Remus' eyes bulged. "As...what?" asked Remus.

"Well, I'm not, but Brutus Croptford is. He's looking to recruit support staff for his campaign to legislate his Bill of Law."

The four friends stared at her, confounded.

Bagnold rolled her eyes. "I've just promoted Brutus to the Head of The Department of International Magical Cooperation. He, like me, feels that certain issues need to be addressed by the Ministry."

Bagnold started to leaf through the multitude of documents that were spread all over her desk. "He's looking to start a think tank concerning the levels of prejudice within the admittance stages of magical schools. If the think tank is a success, then... well, we could be looking at an international decree of equality."

"That's brilliant!" exclaimed Lily, momentarily rousing the sleeping Harry. Bagnold smiled. Remus, however, still looked ill.

"Minister, I- I can't accept your offer," he seemed surprised to hear the words come out of his mouth.

"Sorry?" asked Bagnold.

"I can't take the job, I'm not... qualified."

James, Sirius and Lily all seemed to deflate. They knew what Remus was on about. However, so did Bagnold.

Bagnold's eyelids drooped as she gave him a deadpan look. "I know you're a werewolf, Mister Lupin. Albus told me."

Nobody spoke.

"But I'm afraid I refuse to hear your resignation until after you've started the job."

"Minister, I-"

"I know, I know, you're a vicious monster who mustn't be allowed near any other living beings. I've heard it all before, dear. My daughter was just the same."

Lily's jaw dropped.

"Your daughter's a werewolf?" breathed Remus.

"Yes," replied Bagnold, looking indifferent. "Happened on an eventful holiday to the Teutoburg Forest in Germany. She was worse than you after that. She said she couldn't face her Hogwarts friends and demanded to be sent elsewhere. We transferred her to The Heftigritter School. It's in Germany," Bagnold smiled slyly. "She wanted to find the werewolf that 'ruined her life'. Such a drama queen..."

"What happened?" gasped Remus, fascinated.

"Oh, she found him! Wonderful old man, visited us twice a year before he died."

Lily and the others stared, amazed.

"Erik Muller, his name was. Had a whole family, introduced my Rena to all his grandchildren... he helped her." Bagnold leant forward, looking Remus squarely in the eye. "Rena realised that she was mad to want to miss her brothers' weddings and the births of her nieces and nephews."

Remus' stunned expression faded into one of contemplation, and guilt.

"My daughter grew a pair, Mister Lupin. It's about time you did the same."

Sirius and James both gawped at Bagnold, before turning to laugh at Remus. However, Remus looked genuinely moved. He swallowed.

"This is a letter of recommendation from me to Brutus. Give it to him. I've told him to expect you in his office in ten minutes."

"Thank you," Remus said seriously. Bagnold nodded.

"As for you, Mister Black..."

Sirius sat up excitedly.

Bagnold glared at him. "Settle down there, sunshine, I know what you're like and I wouldn't give you a job if you were the one paying me."

Sirius sank back down.

"However," Bagnold grabbed a sheet of paper and tore off the corner. She grabbed her quill and scribbled something onto it. "This is the name of a contact whom I think it would be prudent of you to meet. Isabelle will take you to him once she's shown Mister Lupin to his interview."

Sirius' eyebrows furrowed. "Who?"

Bagnold handed him the bit of paper. Sirius read it and looked up. "Who is he?"

"Just tell him your name and the rest will follow."

Sirius' expression darkened. "I don't think that's a good idea, Minister..."

"Don't worry," she said, smiling. "He'll understand."

Isabelle opened the real office door to the rest of the ministry and gestured for Remus and Sirius to follow. Both men got up and shuffled out, each looking nervous and lost.

"Now, you three," she grinned briefly at the sleeping Harry on Lily's lap. "The news I have for you isn't as positive as Mister Black's and Mister Lupin's."

Lily swallowed and glanced at James, who was staring at Bagnold with a look of dread.

"There are still Death Eaters to be caught, as I'm sure you're aware. It shouldn't be too difficult to round them up. They seem to have lost their bloodlust since the possibility of being rewarded had been burnt to a crisp and locked in a Gringotts vault. However, um... Alastor asked me to relay to you that he thinks you should wait until the more loyal of Voldemort's followers are in Azkaban before finding a new home."

"Er... no," said James. "Sorry, but we've just spent fifteen months living in hiding. We want our bloody freedom."

"James..." Lily warned wearily.

"I hear you, Mister Potter, but there is a risk that some of them might be planning to avenge Voldemort's death. We cannot put your lives at risk. Think of your son, Mister Potter."

James glanced down at Harry. Thankfully, his expression seemed to soften slightly. That did not mean that he was happy.

"Who's left, then?" asked James, still watching his son sleep.

"Avery and The Lestranges, although we've got Rabastan. Speaking of which, erm... the Wizengamot inform me that the Death Eater trials are due to start tomorrow at nine. Will you want to be present?"

Lily and James exchanged a look which confirmed to each of them what the other was thinking.

"No, thank you," said Lily. "It's probably best if we keep away."

"A wise decision," Bagnold agreed. "There's just one other thing," Bagnold leant forward on the desk again. "People are confused as to what happened that night in your house. My press liaison officer has promised the news editors that I would ask about a press conference..."

"No," said Lily quickly. She looked at James in a panic. "We can't..."

Bagnold shifted uncomfortably. "I understand that Voldemort's death is a rather sensitive topic, but-"

"It's not that..." said James, with difficulty. He glanced apologetically at Lily before continuing. "We... we don't really know what happened... or even how he died."

Bagnold looked between the two of them. "I don't understand."

Lily swallowed and took a deep breath. "We didn't kill him, Minister. We were... I don't know, we were arguing..." Lily remembered the blazing row she'd had with James that evening. It had been about money. It seemed so trivial now. "...and we didn't hear him come in and he didn't stop to kill us. He just... went upstairs for Harry."

Bagnold looked utterly lost. "But then, who killed him?"

James shrugged. "Harry?"

Lily nudged him in the arm. "We didn't think about it..." she explained. "We just saw him reach the landing and we just legged it upstairs. We didn't have our wands, we didn't have anything, we just... we didn't think, we just..."

But Bagnold was already nodding. "It's alright. I'm a parent, I understand," then, she sighed. "But you're wrong. You did kill him."

Lily and James stared at each other.

"How?" asked James.

Bagnold chuckled tiredly. "You two... Albus always told me Lily was modest but you, James... I'd heard you were a big fan of praise."

Lily and James didn't know whether to be relieved or offended. They were both definitely confused.

"You started the fight against the Death Eaters when you were schoolchildren. Schoolchildren. You founded the Order of the Phoenix. You captured Death Eaters. You sacrificed more than most brave wizards would have done."

"Minister-"

"As for the 31st October, you did kill Voldemort. It's complicated, but you should ask Dumbledore. I'm sure he'd explain it better than I ever could." Suddenly, Bagnold looked very tired. She sighed sleepily, reclining back in her chair. "Maybe a press conference would be stretching it a bit far, but people of the wizarding world aren't looking for minute-by-minute accounts. They just want the facts. They want to understand and appreciate what they're celebrating. I'll arrange for you to make a statement with Albus within the week," she smiled wryly. "It won't kill you."

The office door opened. In stepped Isabelle and Sirius, who looked euphoric.

"Sirius?" asked James. "What's up with you?"

"Ted Tonks," he breathed. "He was the contact. He's my cousin's husband. They've invited me to dinner."

Sirius' happiness and relief was so apparent that Lily found herself beaming from ear to ear.

"Isabelle, would you kindly escort the Potters and Mister Black back to the Floo network?"

"Yes, Minister," Isabelle smiled, walking over to unlock the portrait.

"Oh, Mister and Missus Potter... in light of giving people their just-desserts, I will be in touch with you about yours."

James and Lily stared at her. "Excuse me?" asked James.

Bagnold smiled. "You won't get away with saving the world."

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed. Please Review.

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