The room was flooded in light, and for a second, Lily wondered whether she had slept until mid-morning. But this wasn't the bright winterly light that would have greeted her had she forgotten to draw the curtains. Lily blinked, just as the source of the light started to speak in Albus Dumbledore's voice:

'I am downstairs. Get dressed quickly. He is alive.'

The phoenix disappeared, and reality caught up with Lily.

There was no James beside her in their bed. Dumbledore was downstairs, which could only mean... But no. He is alive. That had to mean that James was alive. But not okay. Otherwise, surely Dumbledore would have said that he was okay.

He is alive.

It wasn't just the choice of words. If James was alright, he would have been next to her, sleepily pulling her into a comforting hug. If everything had gone to plan, there wouldn't have been an Order member downstairs.

Not any Order member. Dumbledore.

Lily nearly threw herself out of bed. She fumbled with her tights, her fingers numb. It was going to be fine. This was James after all. But Dumbledore was downstairs. It was serious. It had to be.

She pulled on the brown robe she had already laid out the previous evening. James had been with her when she had bought that robe, and she knew he loved it. It was the outfit she had planned to wear as they discussed their future. A future that now seemed to hang precariously in the balance.

Racing down the stairs she found Albus Dumbledore standing in their living room.

'Albus,' she said, breathlessly, 'what happened?'

'Sit down, Lily,' Dumbledore said, looking unusually grave.

'No!' Lily said fiercely. 'Not until you tell me what has happened to James!'

Dumbledore didn't argue the point, but he sat down in the armchair. He looked up at her, and the sombre calmness did nothing, nothing to sooth her nerves.

'Where is he!?' Lily almost screamed. James had to be hurt, or taken, and Dumbledore was just sitting there.

Suddenly, Lily's stomach cramped.

No. No, no, no. No. No.

She could not lose her child. Her body hit the sofa as she tried to sit down, but her knees simply gave out. She had to relax, but instead of the calming breaths she had intended to take, all that came out were great big sobs.

The pressure was too much. Lily would lose her own child because she could not control the panic she felt growing inside her. Stress wasn't good for the baby, and this was so much more than stress. Dumbledore was here because something was seriously wrong. James had to be hurt. Her James. James, who had been in this very room less than twelve hours ago. James, who had swept her off her feet and stolen her heart. James, whom she should never had left out of her sight, because he was simply too good for this world, and too much for her to lose.

Suddenly, Dumbledore's (surprisingly) strong hands were on her shoulders and he forced her to look into his lined face. His piercing blue eyes met her.

'It was a trap, Lily, but they all made it out alive. James is at St Mungo's, where he is being taken care of, and I will take you there soon. However, I need to ask you some questions before I do that. It is not safe to assume we won't be overheard there.'

Somehow, the facts, delivered in Dumbledore's insistent but levelled voice seemed to have a calming effect on her. She was still shaking, but her breaths were coming more evenly.

'First, however, you need a warm cup of tea - and some biscuits. I'd offer you some more substantial food options, but I doubt you are feeling up to it. Biscuits, I found, is always soothing for the stomach, and it will give you the necessary sugar to make your body believe you've had more substantial nutrition.'

With a twitch of his wand, a steaming mug of ginger tea appeared, and a plate of biscuits.

Lily didn't argue. With shaking hands, she took the mug that was floating in front of her and let the heat from the mug travel up her hands. The mug felt like an anchor, something to hold onto in this sea of madness and absurdity.

By the time Dumbledore had seated himself again, Lily found herself saying:

'What do you want to know?'

Lily had questions of her own, but nothing seemed as important as seeing James. She knew that what she was imagining was probably far worse than the reality, it almost always was. But she knew Dumbledore was aware of that too, so if he was asking her to stay, it had to be important. Answer the questions quickly, and then she would see her husband.

'As I said, the whole operation was a trap. For all we know, this Ministry spy does not exist. Not to say that the Ministry isn't full of those sympathetic to Lord Voldemort's cause, but this critical weapon we have been pursuing seems to be nothing more than fiction. Or rather,' Dumbledore added darkly, 'a distraction. Something to avert our eyes from greater and more dangerous plans, no doubt. We don't know what, of course, because in this endeavour they have succeeded to keep us in the dark.'

Previously, the news that their Order had pursued a false trail would have spurred Lily into action. Lily agreed with Dumbledore - this was an elaborate plan - spun over months... That could only mean that the Death Eaters and their Master was planning something far more serious. Old Lily would have wanted to know what. But now, she didn't care. The only thing that seemed to matter was that the Order - that Dumbledore and Moody - had made a mistake that could have cost her husband his life. That had, probably, gravely injured him.

Lily managed, just about, to restrain herself from asking: 'what has this got to do with me?' but Dumbledore seemed to have guessed.

'There are two things that really troubles me about last night's events. One is that Lord Voldemort no longer cared about continuing to carry on this distraction, and instead decided to, and apologise for my wording here, use this as an opportunity to get rid of some troublesome Order members.'

Lily's grip around the mug tightened.

'There, he was not successful, thankfully, and the two of us cannot find out why Lord Voldemort decided last night was the right time to spring his trap. The more troubling thing by far is that they knew it was your husband and young Sirius Black who would be there.'

'Sirius!'

Lily felt a horrible pang of guilt as she realised she had forgotten about one of her closest friends. Dumbledore lifted a hand:

'Sirius is also being looked after by the Healers. I do not wish to worry you by saying that his injuries are far less... consequential than your husband's.'

But Dumbledore had succeeded by now. She had known from the moment she came down the stairs that at best, James was injured, and likely gravely so. At worst, he was fighting for his life. And she had chosen to trust Dumbledore that he would not have kept her from James if it was the latter. Whilst there was still a part of her brain that feared for James, that longed to see him, Lily was alert now.

It was Lily, the Order member; Lily, the wife that wanted to protect her husband from future danger, that next spoke:

'How do you know that the Death Eaters knew it was them?'

'Sirius told me about James' invisibility cloak,' Dumbledore said simply.

'But you knew about that already?'

'Yes, and no,' he said. For a moment, Dumbledore seemed far away, but then he cleared his throat:

'If Sirius is to be believed, this is a rather good cloak?'

'It is extraordinary,' Lily agreed.

'Well, the Death Eaters had taken precautions in proportion with that - ahem - reality. They had Dementors at the ready,' Dumbledore said, at Lily's inquisitive look.

Lily didn't bother telling Dumbledore that this told her absolutely nothing. It didn't matter.

'Their precautions are telling. Now, of course, James Potter is not the only order member to own an invisibility cloak, but they seemed to know they were up against no ordinary cloak. Which leads me to ask: James didn't tend to lend out his cloak very often, did he?'

'No. I mean, he would lend it to Remus, Peter and Sirius, of course. I think he's done that since he was at school.'

James was always generous with everything, particularly anything that could keep people safe, but his cloak was the one exception to that rule.

'Of course,' Dumbledore smiled, 'It does explain one or two mysteries from the past, doesn't it? Now, I also presume he would lend it to yourself?'

Lily nodded.

'And that is what worries you?' she asked.

'They might have wanted to pretend they only anticipated us being there, but they knew that whoever would be there had an... erm... what did you say? oh yes, extraordinary invisibility cloak.'

The Potters had always given James the best brooms, the best robes and equipment, and it had never surprised Lily that they had invested in the best cloak they could find. And now, this fact revealed something terrible-

'They knew James would be there,' Lily said, feeling sick to the stomach, and doubting it had anything to do with the nausea that accompanied her pregnancy. The betrayal was so raw. It hurt a thousand times worse for it being James who had been injured. James, who trusted everyone. James, who would give his life for anyone in the Order.

'That, or someone close to James. Or Lord Voldemort's imagination stretches further than I give him credit for. But, on the whole, I tend to believe I know Lord Voldemort's mind well enough... So I must ask you, Lily, in your husband's place, how many people knew about James' cloak? And I mean, preferably, having seen it in use or touched it, knowing that it was not some second-rate cloak.'

Lily shook her head, hot, salty tears running down her cheeks: 'That won't do, Albus. James might not have been good at letting the cloak out of his sight, but he would always, always, shield whomever he was with on missions. And yet more members knew about it.'

She drew a breath: 'But your instincts are right, I don't think James shared the knowledge about his cloak outside of the Order. He always treated it like a family secret that he felt forced to share, under the circumstances.'

Why James had treated the cloak like a secret family heirloom was harder for Lily to understand, but she knew James was confident that the cloak would last long enough to be handed down to his child, or children, and Lily had suspected he wanted them to be able to benefit from it secretly, like he had. She knew for a fact that James had so far kept the cloak from McGonagall.

But then again, McGonagall and James had always had a rather unusual relationship. One that Lily had never understood, neither as a student, nor as an Order member. She knew that James exceptional talents in both Transfiguration and Quidditch, areas that were close to her former professor's heart, and James' equally unique talent for breaking rules and getting into trouble, explained some of it. But not nearly enough.

Dumbledore sat silent for a bit.

'So where does that leave us?' Lily asked.

'With no proof whatsoever. After all, it could just be that the Death Eaters knew someone with an invisibility cloak would turn up. Or someone who is really good at the disillusionment charm. But I am inclined to disagree. Suspicions, however, are just that - suspicions.'

Dumbledore sighed before he continued: 'If nothing else, it means that it's time for me to take you to your husband.'

A/N

I know that in POA Sirius screams that Peter had been feeding information for a year, whereas this is set nearly two years before the Potters' death. Hear me out: in POA Minerva on the other hand says that Dumbledore had been suspecting 'for some time' that someone had turned traitor. Her assertion could mean information had been leaked for longer than a year, which I am intending for it to do. In this story, Sirius never clocks the importance of the information he's given Dumbledore. The only people to learn about Albus' suspicions are Lily, James and Minerva.

Peter's betrayal in my world is gradual. He did not give this first bit of information consciously, more like he let it slip to the wrong people (because lets face it, it's Peter, he would). However, his crucial first betrayal is that he does not own up to his mistake. Voldemort and his Death Eaters learn that even someone like Peter could be useful, and although Peter is careful for a while going forward, feeling enormously guilty about the whole thing, he is slowly approached, threatened and recruited by the Death Eaters.