October 31, 1981
"Okay, Harry." Lily said, leaning on the doorframe leading into the living room, "Time for bed. Say goodnight to daddy."
"I've got him." James told her, standing from the couch, and scooping the fifteen-month-old into his arms. "What do you say, Harry?" He asked, looking into big, innocent green eyes, "Want to give your mama goodnight kisses?"
The toddler beamed, before suddenly lunging toward Lily, James' practiced hands being the only thing keeping the one-year-old from falling as he placed an open-mouthed kiss to Lily's cheek with an exaggerated 'mwah!'
Lily couldn't help but giggle, grinning as James pulled the toddler back toward himself and headed for the stairs. "Good night, Harry!" Lily called after them.
"Nigh' nigh'." Harry told her from around the two fingers he had shoved into his mouth, waving with his other hand.
Lily chuckled, waving back, but it was more a bittersweet thing than anything. Sometimes she was reminded, rather suddenly each time, of all the things she missed while she was away teaching at Hogwarts.
She couldn't help but wonder how much more she was going to miss of Harry growing up. How much she was going to miss of the next one, while she had until May to worry about that particular problem, she would appreciate it, and she was sure James would appreciate it, if she could be there for the pregnancy.
And the birth, James was due in May. That baby could very likely be born during finals. Would Lily even be able to have a substitute cover her for finals so she could be there for the birth of their child, or would she end up having to miss that too.
Maybe she should talk to Dumbledore about just moving her family into her private quarters, it wasn't like it'd be the first time a family lived in Hogwarts so that one of the parents could teach. This year's defense professor, Elizabeth Diggory was near constantly shadowed by little Cedric, and the Runes professor, Pandora Lovegood always seemed to have eight-month-old Luna strapped to her back.
Of course, Lily could talk to Dumbledore, but she'd also have to talk to James about it, them moving into Hogwarts with her, it would mean that the house at Godric's Hollow would only really be used in the summer. And James would potentially have to consider a different career path, not being able to floo back and forth to the ministry while pregnant, not that he'd be able to work there much longer before he'd be put on leave.
She sighed, going about picking up the various toys scattered around the living room floor.
It was as she was picking up the throw blanket that Harry had been dragging around earlier that day, that Crookshanks yowled, jumping from his perch in the window.
Lily froze, straining her ears as she tried to figure out what had caused such a reaction from the part kneazle.
It's Halloween, so there's the sound of trick or treaters, little kids running, and yelling, and laughing. In the silence of the house, she can barely pick out the sound of footsteps making their way up to the door.
Except, they have wards up, that should deter any child from coming up for candy. All anyone should be able to see, is an empty plot so why would a child be coming up to their door?
She slowly set the blanket down on the couch, before blindly grabbing the nearest wand.
Immediately, Lily knew it wasn't her own. While it was responding well to her, the magic entangling itself with her was far darker than her willow wand would ever be capable of wielding. Not evil, definitely not evil, but dark.
There was also the fact that holding it felt weird, almost like trying to hold a pair of scissors in her left hand, she supposed there was a reason that Ollivander asked which hand was dominant after all.
It almost felt like instinct at this point, as she aimed it at the door, arm straight and her shoulders back, as she was taught was the proper form at Hogwarts, feet spread apart slightly as she had learned was a good idea for balance while on the field for the Order.
Maybe it was one of the few people that knew their location and she was overreacting. But maybe it wasn't one of those few people and she wasn't overreacting.
The door started to slowly open, Lily could have sworn it had been locked, but she guessed 'alohomora' did exist for that very reason.
She readjusted her grip on the wand, it really did feel odd in her hand, with the grooves not lining up very well with her right hand. But she was righthanded, and she wasn't going to risk her family's safety by holding the wand in her non dominant, unexperienced hand just for the sake of her comfort.
It wasn't like she knew for sure where her own wand was at the moment, either.
She felt a presence behind her, and she had a split second to wonder at how James made it down the stairs without her noticing, before the door was opening completely with a bang, a dark cloaked figure stepping in.
Before Lily can even blink, there's a cold hand on her arm, guiding her. Lily watched as the wand went from pointing directly in the figures face, down to chest level, up to shoulder, then down to waist.
In the meanwhile, there's a voice, a familiar voice, but not her husband's, whispering out an almost breathy, "Adava Kedavra."
Lily's eyes widened as she watched bright green shoot out and hit the figure, she knew who it was, her mind just didn't want to admit it, in the chest, making it crumble to the ground before having the chance to do anything.
She stared at the body for a long moment, wand held loosely in her hand that now hung by her side.
Slowly, she pivoted to look behind her, the voice she heard should be impossible, and yet, behind her stood Euphemia Potter.
A very see-through, very severe looking Euphemia Potter, looking much younger than Lily was used to seeing her, with an absolute mess of dark curls falling down her back. But Euphemia Potter none the less. And Fleamont Potter, amongst many others that Lily didn't recognize each just as faded as each other.
The woman's dark blue eyes lit up as she grinned, giving a little, almost cheeky wave.
Lily stared, jaw going more and more slack the longer she stared.
The wand clattered to the ground, and with it, the group blinked out of existence, leaving Lily staring into thin air.
"Lily?" James called, quickly coming down the stairs, Lily looked up at him as he came barreling into the living room, using one hand to catch himself on the doorway, "What was that?"
Lily gave a quiet, almost hysterical laugh at the situation, as wide hazel eyes looked between her and the pile in the front doorway.
"Who is that?" James blurted, looking between Lily and the figure splayed on the floor, a pale wand rolling from the person's hand. The couple stared wide-eyed at the semi familiar wand that they'd seen several times during battle. "Is- Is that Voldemort?" James eventually asked, asking the question that Lily's mind hadn't wanted to connect the dots to answer.
"I d- I don't know!" Lily said, a giggle slipping past her lips, "I don- I don't know! I think so?"
"…Is he dead?" James asked hesitantly, not knowing what to do next if he was. And it seemed he was, as he wasn't so much as moving, at the very least, he was severely incapacitated.
"Should be?" Lily told him, but it came out as a question over anything else, "I- I picked up your wand, and used the killing curse without actually using the killing curse, and your parents were here." Lily explained, fully aware of how out of it she sounded, "I killed a man with your wand. Your wand killed a man."
"I mean… if it's actually Voldemort, does he count as a man?" James questioned, looking at the body in horrified curiosity.
"But we don't know if it's actually Voldemort." Lily told him, refusing to turn back around to look toward the door.
James sighed and walked over to pick his wand up from where it fell at Lily's feet.
"What are you doing?" Lily asked, watching as he approached the body.
"Checking," James answered, crouching down and pulling the dark hood from the body's face, finding himself staring into lifeless red eyes. "Yeah. Yup. This- this is definitely Voldemort."
"And he's-?" Lily somehow couldn't bring herself to say it, a feeling of both dread and hope welling in her chest.
"Yeah." James muttered, "He's dead."
James looked up at Lily, and the couple found themselves staring at each other in bewildered silence.
This was not how they had imagined their night going.
"So, what do we do now?" Lily asked, eyes darting between her husband and… him.
James opened his mouth to respond but faltered and instead just gave a shrug.
"This is where you can leave it to me." A voice piped up from behind James, making Lily let out a small shriek, and James to whip around wand going up with a fluidity that Lily could only dream of having.
Albus Dumbledore stepped into the dim light that was flooding out from their open door, hands held up at the wand being aimed at his chest.
"What are you doing here?" James spat, wand not wavering in the least, even as he stood from his crouch.
Dumbledore actually seemed to hesitate for a moment, before finally answering, "I had alarms connected to your wards."
"Something only the real Dumbledore would know." Lily demanded, hands on her hips, "Now."
The old man seemed both impressed and peeved by Lily's reaction, "Most everybody would expect you two to have me as your secret keeper, but you two are quite stubborn, it would seem."
Lily shook her head, "Something only Albus Dumbledore would know." She emphasized.
The old man's eyes twinkled as he answered once again, "Young mister Potter here, had exactly three-hundred twenty-six detentions while attending Hogwarts."
"Wait, is that true?" Lily asked, glancing over at her now blushing husband as he ran a hand through his unruly hair. "James!"
"Detentions are relatively easy to find the records for, Lily." James reminded.
"Right." Lily muttered, looking back over, "Something else, Dumbledore. If I should even call you that."
The old man chuckled, "I am the head of the Order of the Phoenix." He said finally, "An organization of which the base is located at the Burrow, Molly and Arthur Weasley's home."
"Right." Lily deflated, arms crossing. "We will be talking about you monitoring us after we explicitly told you not to." From the corner of her eye, Lily could see James slowly lowering his wand.
"You told me you didn't want me to be secret keeper, not that I couldn't put up a few mere monitoring wards." Dumbledore corrected, making Lily's blood boil at the tone, alongside the invasion of privacy.
"I think you should just take Voldemort's body and leave." James spoke up, from where he was now standing next to Lily.
"Very well," Dumbledore sighed, pulling out his wand to levitate the body still in the entryway, before turning back to them, "You two should move to somewhere more secure. At least for the night."
James quirked an eyebrow, "Do you think us dumb?"
"Of course, that's already in the plan." Lily finished, watching as the man finally turned and walked out of the house, not saying another word.
Listen to her, talking like they've had time to make a plan.
She turned to her husband, "You go check on Harry and start packing for the night, and I'll call my mum and see if they have room for us for a night or two?"
James agreed and headed back up the stairs, as Lily shut the door and headed for the phone, grabbing her wand that turns out was sitting on the end table.
Holding the phone to her ear, Lily shut her eyes as she listened to the ringing, waiting for either her mum or dad to answer.
She found herself almost wishing that she'd wake up and find this all to be a nightmare.
But also terrified that she would be waking up and finding this to have been a dream.