QL, Catapults, Beater 1, reserve: Write about someone hiding a big secret.

Prompts: Father&Daughter, Locket, a funeral.

THC, round 7, Slytherin, HoH, Standard.

Prompt: [Speech] "I liked my life before you came into it."

Word count: 2222

Beta(s): Butterflies765, CupCakeyyy, S L Blake, Aya Diefair, Fires of Eden Red Rose Aurora

Harry gripped the cold piece of jewellery in his wet hand. This couldn't be happening, he wasn't strong enough for this. How was one supposed to hold a funeral for their daughter?

He dropped his head down, listening to the rain beat against the pavement in front of him. A miserable day for a miserable funeral.

"Dad," his son spoke, standing a few feet away from him.

Slowly, Harry lifted his head to look at his eldest child; James. He was relatively dry because he had an umbrella that he was holding out to share.

"You keep it, James," Harry spoke, his throat sore and rough. The crowd was starting to gather around the casket.

It was time.

Harry pushed himself up, feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. He placed a hand on James' arm. "Where's your mother?"

James looked towards the casket. "In the front, with Al."

"Go join her," he spoke, releasing him. "I'll be there in a moment." He watched his son walk off, glancing back at Harry as he did, before looking down to see the golden locket in his hand.

The last thing Harry wanted to do was stand in a crowd while the rain plummeted down on him. He had never cared about getting wet in a storm before; he had fond memories of playing Quidditch or running in the rain. In fact, it had been a day with similar weather when Lily had told him something that would eventually lead to this.

Harry had been readying the brooms for him and Lily when the rain began to crash down, soaking the field. "Hey, Lils! I think we should postpone our game. I don't think you want to be soaked for your friend's birthday meal."

Lily jogged over to him, her hair freely swinging around her. "I'll just use a drying charm." She grabbed one of the brooms with a smile on her face and headed out into the rain, her hair instantly sticking to her face.

Harry let out a laugh as he followed her, shielding his face for a second before hopping onto his broom and flying up into the grey sky. "Are you ready?" he called to his daughter and watched in confusion as she flew straight up to him. That wasn't usually how they started the game. "Changing tactics?" he joked.

But, Harry instantly knew that wasn't what was happening. He had brought her up here to tell her secret plans about Ginny's birthday a few months ago. It felt very much like that but Harry didn't have any idea what her secret could be.

But as the seconds and minutes passed by, he knew it wasn't going to be good news. He just knew he couldn't push her. Whatever it was, he'd be there for her.

"Dad..." Lily looked around nervously, no resemblance of a smile anymore anywhere on her face. "I need your help."

Levelling himself on the broom, he stared at his daughter in confusion. He watched her hair twisting in the wind, her locket swung to one side, and her hands shaking with an uncharacteristic nervousness. "With what?"

Despite the rain falling down hard, he saw the tears falling down his daughter's cheeks and flew closer to her, reaching his free hand out in comfort.

She avoided eye contact. "I've messed up, Dad," she admitted. "It was…" she trailed off, taking a few breaths in an attempt to calm herself down as the sobs began to ring through her body. "It's about Zabini…"

"Lils, it's going to be okay," Harry assured her, "I'm right here."

He knew that the two of them had met up during a few of the summers. As did a lot of her friends. After all, they were all in the same year at Hogwarts and there wasn't as much segregation between houses. However, he never expected what next came out of his daughter's mouth.

Holding back his own sniffling, Harry moved one leg in front of the other and made his way to the front of the crowd with his wife and two sons.

He didn't want to be here, he'd rather be anywhere but here. Who would want to be at their child's funeral? With all of their friends and family standing around, too.

But they'd done this before.

They had all put on their black suits and outfits, came out to this solemn location, and mourned the loss of a loved one. During the war, it had happened a few times. But this wasn't the same as mourning those lost in the war; it was one person, so terribly important to him. But it felt wrong.

Harry looked around. He observed how tightly Arthur held Molly as they adapted to the loss of their granddaughter, at how Bill was trying to support his mother, wife, and children all at the same time, at her Hogwarts friends who had barely started their post-Hogwarts lives.

It took a few long seconds before Harry realised that everybody had gone silent and were listening to somebody at the front. With a heavy heart, he forced his head to look up at his son, Al. Was Harry supposed to know he was talking at this event?

"Lily always was an energetic person, one of the best I knew. She didn't let anything get her down." Al paused to dab his eyes with tissues. He hadn't stopped crying for days. "The last time I saw her wasn't any different, we played a game of Quidditch and she let me win. She always was better than me at that game. She grinned and congratulated me for beating her, but we both knew I could never actually win against her." He paused again and looked around. "That is what made her a great person. She always thought about others, even before herself."

Harry wanted to go up there and take his son's pain away when fresh tears started to fall down Al's cheeks.

But the tears didn't stop him from continuing. "Lily made everybody's life better, made my life better. Don't get me wrong, I liked my life before she came into it, but she made it better. Every moment that she was around made it better."

Harry looked up in confusion; he'd heard that phrase before.

"I liked my life before he came into it," Lily muttered as Harry walked her into the Ministry. "I can't believe I was so stupid to trust him. I knew he wasn't good… but, there's no war going on, how was I supposed to know that people would still be evil? I know his father was a Death Eater, but you taught us to not care about somebody's last name."

Harry had been so disappointed in his daughter for her naivety, for believing that everything was a joke until it went too far. But she shouldn't have had to live in a world where you couldn't trust somebody you went to school with. She should have been safe. She was too young to deal with this stuff, only eighteen and having graduated only a few months ago.

He put an arm around her shoulders. "It'll be okay, Lils. We can sort this out."

She nodded numbly. "I hope so. Because Zabini isn't going to give up."

Harry pulled her a little closer to him. He wished he had done something sooner, taken into the Auror's sooner instead of believing it wasn't as serious as Lily thought it was. His daughter had exaggerated things in the past. Harry knew he'd be able to protect her, but her friends? The rest of the world? He couldn't do that alone.

But as it turned out, he wasn't able to protect Lily. She had still ended up caught in the middle of Zabini's rise in power—or at least, his attempt.

But now there was a body.

An example.

A fellow ex-Hogwarts student, Melinda, had just been killed for refusing to follow Zabini. Lily had been there, she had witnessed it. And now she was rightfully scared.

But Harry would keep her safe, he wouldn't let Zabini anywhere near her ever again. He would find the Slytherin boy and throw him in Azkaban where he belongs. And he would do this before he killed anybody else.

Harry zoned out from the rest of the funeral, he simply couldn't face it anymore. This funeral was wrong. Everybody being upset was worse. It wasn't right.

He clenched his hand. A glint pulled his attention and he looked down to see the gold chain dangling from his palm. He was supposed to give the locket to Ginny; let her have something that reminded her of her daughter. But that would make it too real. Could he do that to her?

Maybe he should just tell her the truth. It was killing him to hold it in. It was too much. But he loved his daughter and would hold this secret as long as he needed to. He'd even take it to the grave if he had to, as she had done.

Finally, the rain calmed down and a ray of sunlight shone down on the casket, signifying that his daughter's soul would be lifted into heaven. Though, Harry knew that wasn't true. Lily wasn't going anywhere.

As the crowd started to disperse, he watched a young man approach the casket; he'd come. His hair was longer and curlier than it had been from his memory, and he wore elegant black robes, but nothing that would make him suspect he was really behind the recent murders.

Harry turned to his wife and held out his palm. "This is for you."

"Lily's locket," she muttered, taking it from his hand. "Why isn't she wearing it? She should have it with her when she… moves on… when she… is buried."

Harry took her into his arms as a fresh set of sobs left her; she had been so strong during the ceremony.

"What's going on?" James questioned.

Harry reached out one of his arms and pulled James and Al closer to him. "It's going to be okay, boys. I promise."

"How? How can it ever be okay? We've just buried our daughter, Harry!" Ginny snapped, pulling away from him and waving the locket as proof.

Harry looked towards the four Aurors who were approaching the young man, wands raised. "Trust me, Gin. I had to."

"Had to what?"

"Freeze!" an Auror yelled.

Zabini spun around, his wand raised, and his eyes murderous.

"Petrificus Totalus!" another shouted.

Instantly, the eighteen-year-old dropped to the ground, stiff as a board.

They took him off, sending Harry a nod of confirmation.

It was done, they had captured the boy who was trying to be the next Voldemort, who was trying to get followers, who was planning people's murders. But he was only the tip of the iceberg. Who knew what he had started? And until that information was found out, he still had more secrets to keep.

"You set up a sting at our daughter's funeral!" Ginny shouted, her face instantly red with anger, her wand hand twitching, the locket dangling between her fingers.

"It was necessary," Harry replied, his voice calm and collected. She was valid to have these emotions, hopefully, she'd eventually understand.

"Necessary?" she repeated. "Necessary to ruin our daughter's funeral? I have to live my life without her now! And you couldn't let us rest in peace?"

Harry bowed his head slightly. There wasn't another way. Nobody knew where the Zabini boy had gotten to and weren't able to access his family's manor. So when it had been mentioned to have a few Aurors here in case he turned up, it had made sense. But Harry hadn't expected him to show. From what Lily had told him, Zabini had turned into a power-hungry man, no longer caring about what friendships he'd once had.

"Life will be okay," he told her, not believing his own words.

"I liked my life before you came into it. But I loved it once you entered it. Now… now I'm not so sure that I like my life with you in it," Ginny admitted, shaking her head. "It's as though you don't care that Lily is dead! Talking about life being okay! It will never be okay!"

"Ginny…"

Unfortunately, Harry never finished that sentence as Ginny shook her head and Apparated away. Harry accepted all of the hate that would come his way over that fact, but he didn't care. He would do it again if need be. Right now, he had to put his daughter ahead of his wife; even if she did murder or divorce him for it.

His sons had walked off during the commotion, he hadn't even noticed until he saw them with George and Angelina a few metres away. He offered a small wave confirming that they could take the kids.

It wasn't long until Harry was left alone in the graveyard.

He looked over at where everybody presumed Lily was and would be for the rest of her life. But they were wrong. And as much as Harry wanted to tell everybody the truth, he couldn't; he needed to keep his daughter safe. He needed to keep the location of where she really was a secret, because she was actually alive.