The Potters slipped into the sort of routine James had wished on stars for throughout the war. Gentle, loving routine.
He woke before Lily and brought her tea in bed. He fed the cats and the dog and the owl and chatted with his little zoo until Harry came down the stairs, rubbing his eyes, his hair a complete bird's nest. He would feed his children, kiss his wife goodbye, go to work and balance the darkness of cruelty and revenge with the sweetness and light waiting for him back home. He would return, occasionally with flowers, and chase his children through the orchard, or make dinner while Lily splashed with them in the stream. They would eat well. They would read stories to their yawning children. They would kiss them goodnight and cuddle on the sofa, staring into the fire, remembering a time when pain and chaos and death were the only thing in their minds. Occasionally they would go to dark places, but mainly they soaked up the peace, loving each other, loving what survival had rewarded them with.
Watching Remus discover his community made James want to re-explore his own. He wanted not just something in between routine and celebration. Ritual.
The idea for a spring equinox party had been Lily's, but James saw it as an opportunity for something wonderful. A gathering of everyone they loved to share wine, good food, music, games, stories... for their children to make friendships strong enough to be armour for their first weeks at Hogwarts. It was a perfect idea.
Owls went out and owls came back. James transfigured a table fifty feet long, with a gazebo and twinkling lights and a gramophone. Their orchard was beautiful enough but Lily made it wondrous, creating wildflowers from nothing and casting butterfly charms.
Lily was huge by this time, so everyone helped. The Weasleys arrived first, the boys a legion of butlers carrying dishes of food Mrs Weasley had prepared in advance. Ted, Andromeda and Nymphadora Tonks arrived with crates of fairy wine and butterbeer. Nymphadora set to minding the growing number of children while the adults got started. James, Arthur and Ted discussed the art of growing marrows while Lily, Andromeda and Molly talked at length about Lily's latest idea: To create a small school for witches and wizards too young for Hogwarts. Nothing so almighty and wondrous as Hogwarts, but a classroom with a kind tutor where they would learn to read and write and play together.
Of course, Lily's pregnancy was almost at an end. Plans would have to stay plans for some time. But it was as exciting an idea as she'd had in a long time.
Augusta Longbottom arrived with Neville, whom they hadn't seen in almost two years. Their reunion was awkward and polite and promising. They were so, so happy Augusta came.
Sirius arrived with Isabelle for once, and their three children. Elvina did not stop to be greeted by the Potters before running off into the orchard with Matilda, who was fast becoming her favourite person in the world. The twins, now walking, were impossible to control. Molly Weasley set her older boys to shepherd them.
Remus surprising everyone (except for the Potters) by arriving with the Minister's daughter.
Everybody cooked. Everybody served. Everyone had a good time. At the end of the meal, James raised a toast to his wife.
Tipsy adults dozed in deckchairs or cooled off in the stream. Children laughed and splashed each other.
And that's when it changed.
It was poor Bill Weasley who spotted the water turn red where Lily Potter stood. In years to come, he would remember Mrs Potter staring at the water as though solving a puzzle, before what seemed like hundreds of witches hauled her out of the water. In reality, Molly, Andromeda and Augusta unelegantly helped Lily clamber our of the stream and waddle into the house. James had not heard the commotion and so didn't notice the emergency until Lily was half-way up the stairs.
Neither of her previous births had ripped her apart in the way this one did. Witches stood around her bed throwing spells and enchantments at her, desperately trying to stop blood pouring, stop pain wracking her body, stop her screaming. Somewhere in the far, far recesses of Lily's mind she worried about her children hearing her.
James, clutching her hand and panicking, felt old horrors rise up in his chest and threaten to tear his sanity from him.
At the stroke of midnight, out came a girl. Small, grey, and limp.
She was a beautiful, horrible thing. A moment of silence would haunt them all forever.
Then, frantic spellcasting, the grappling of potions and blankets, husbands sent to St Mungo's. It went from silent to unbearably loud with panic and the cries of confused children.
They willed her to join in and cry. They prayed and pleaded with anyone who would listen.
Movements slowed.
Andromeda held her still, and looked at James with deep, deep sorrow.
Surely they had not survived the war to endure this. She could not be gone. James knew, as he had with his older two children, that he had been put on Earth to be her father. He had dreamed of this child: of the colour of their hair, their laugh, their Hogwarts letters, their first love. He had spent nine months whispering to his wife's belly promising adventures, stories, incredible magic and soul-aching love. He had watched his little family as they went about their rituals. Breakfast, a walk, storybooks. In his dreams, she fit so neatly beside her siblings. It all flitted through his mind while his wife sobbed: The places she would never see; The lives she would never touch; The hand he would never hold again.
Just as grief began to constrict around his heart, Lily gave a scream so terrifying he was sure she was dying too.
Molly Weasley leapt forward and shoved Lily's legs apart once more.
James' head spun.
Out came another girl. Small, pink, and crying.
The universe shifted its weight and fell into orbit around her.
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Lily had been a twin. But her brother had died the day they were born and a part of their mother had followed him. He was never spoken of at home and Elizabeth Evans had not a somber woman by any stretch, but on occasion, for a split second Lily would notice something unreachable about her mother. Something haunted. James knew all about the lost Evans child and their mother's brief moments of death. But when he thought of it, it was often to wonder how different their family might have been had the boy lived. He never thought he would find himself trying to reach into oblivion for his own dead child and for the part of his own soul trapped down there forever.
But who was this little stranger who had tucked herself into her mother's ribs and waited to surprise them?
Nine months of dreams, whispers, promises and plans, and she felt so brand new. Had it all counted? The love he had shown to the 'baby' in his wife's womb- had they shared it?
When their older children had been born, there had been an unignorable familiarity, as though James had known them all his life. They recognised their parents' voices and knew that they were safe in their arms.
This little stranger was almost as surprised to find herself in the Potter Family as they were to find her there.
For weeks, no-one was sure how to act around the Potters. People hung about offering support and help, trying to congratulate and console at the same time, or being paralysed with uncertainty as to what was appropriate and when.
She never let her parents grieve for long, taking to crying whenever they cried, or waking to cheer them up. She was unnaturally alert and talkative and wriggly. She seemed to know her brother and sister and seemed to cry for their attention. There was something unique and wonderful and strange about her which made James fear for her and love her deeply. When James and Lily talked and they realised their love for her was stronger than their grief for her twin, they knew they would be alright.
Lily had not thought of her mother so much in a long time. Lily and Petunia had often resented their thematic names, but she felt it was apt to name her poor lost daughter Violet in the hopes that wherever she had gone, her Grandparents would know her.
Their bright little living wonder became Daisy.
Their little stranger became someone to learn.
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