31st October 1981 - Potter Cottage, Godric's Hollow, England
Harry was crawling across hardwood floor making his way through a cozy looking drawing room.
He stops for a brief moment to play with the tasseling on the end of the large red persian rug that takes up most of the floor space before he gets bored with it and resumes his journey.
He makes it to a door, directly opposite the one he had entered from and using the wall levers himself onto his little feet and hand on the wall, he uses the solid surface to keep his steps steady as he totters the last couple of steps.
Little fist rising he smacks it against the door in a rather poor facsimile of a knock but it's apparently enough because a moment later it opens to reveal a pair of legs then a smiling face.
Lily crouches down to bring herself closer to her son's eye level. "Hello, Mischief, come to visit mum?" She asked, jade eyes dancing as she reaches out with the hand not holding a notepad to lightly boop his nose.
Behind her the potion room is a riot of smells that are mostly ignored by baby Harry who bounces a little in place and waves his still closed fist. "Dadadada!"
"Oh, daddy sent you did he?" She asks, expression patiently amused.
"Yayaya!" He all but screams, bouncing in place again, hand still on the wall to support himself.
She laughs at his enthusiasm, an edge of tiredness slipping away for a moment. "Well, we better go see what he wants, yeah?"
Baby Harry squeals and tries to quickly turn on the spot but ends up falling to hands and knees.
"Steady there, Mischief." Lily says from behind him while she stands again and closes the door to the potions lab, making sure it's securely latched before following after him as he pushes himself to his little feet again and toddles forward, periodically steadying himself with the wall as he goes.
Lily chuckles quietly as she watches him go and slows her own pace to keep pace with him as they move through the drawing room then into the dining room where he slows to unsteadily weave his way around a hutch resting against the wall he was using.
Lily pauses long enough to set her notepad on the dining table before moving to peek into the kitchen just a step behind baby Harry who upon seeing his father at the stove starts babbling excitedly.
"Ooh, you found mum, good work!" James cheers, grinning down at his son.
"Mm, came and knocked on the door like a little gentleman." Lily informs him with a proud smile.
"O'course he did, the little heartbreaker." James chuckles, giving his son an exaggerated wink that had him laughing and clapping his hands happily. "I'm just about done with dinner, if you want to set the table and get Harry into his high chair?"
"Sure. Come on, Mischief, let's get you into your special chair." Lily chirps, swooping down to swing a squealing Harry up into her arms.
Back in the dining room a negligent wave of one hand saw plates and cutlery to fly from the hutch into place on the dining table while Lily settles her son into his polished wood highchair at the end of the table, buckling him in so he wouldn't try to crawl out of it.
James appears in the room a moment later, wand aloft as he directs several dishes onto the table. A roast dinner of chicken, pumpkin, potatoes and broccoli and corn on the cob.
He settles into his seat and tucks his wand away. He starts to turn toward Harry with a bowl of mashed vegetables and some carefully picked out bits of chicken meat when the doorbell chimes.
Lily shifts her attention from serving herself towards the entry hall. "That'll be Sirius again. I swear he's got a timer set up, he's more reliable than the upstairs clock."
Setting aside Harry's colourful bowl, James pushes himself back to his feet. "Not true, I fixed it this afternoon, so they're about on par." He quipps, drawing a snort of laughter from his wife that makes him grin before leaving the room.
Lily finishes dishing up her own plate and starts in on James' while Harry happily babbles away.
James reappears a few moments later when she was seating herself again with a tired looking Sirius trailing along behind him.
"Joining us for dinner, Sirius?" Lily offers.
"I'm fine thanks, just stopped by to check in." Sirius replies as he picks up a chair and shuffles it around so he could sit next to the highchair.
Hearing the new voice, baby Harry looks toward it and screams, both arms flailing in joy.
"There's my little mischief maker, gonna let your uncle Padfoot give you dinner?" Sirius asks with a grin, looking rather pleased with the reception.
"You and your bloody rockstar welcome." Lily grumbles, rubbing absently at the ear closest to her son. "I swear he only gets that loud with you."
Sirius shoots her a grin while he absently stuck his pinky in the mashed up pumpkin to test the temperature before licking it clean and divvying up a spoonful for baby Harry who immediately settled to eat the offering. "That's because he knows I'm the fun one."
"Oi!" James sputters, and gives his best friend a playful scowl. "Just because you spoiled him with his first broom!"
"You know you don't have to sit there and feed him spoon by spoon anymore." Lily cuts in before they could get too swept up in their back and forth banter. "He's getting better and better at holding his spoon himself and making sure it all actually gets in his mouth."
Sirius shrugs, and smiles down at Harry who obediently opens his mouth for the next spoonful. "I know, but it's kinda nice. Besides, the rate he's growing he's going to outgrow his old uncle Padfoot in no time at all."
"Ahuh, so when are you going to finally settle down and have some kids of your own?" Lily prods, looking especially amused when he chokes on air and starts coughing while Harry laughs at him.
James laughs right along with his son.
"Bloody hell, Lily. Give a bloke a little warning." Sirius grouses when he's finally got his coughing under control.
Popping a small roast potato in her mouth, Lily shrugs rather nonchalantly at him. "I don't see why, it's a perfectly reasonable question." She tells him, tone and expression taking on a haughty edge, though her jade eyes are still sparkling with mirth.
Sirius responds by making a face at her that has Harry laughing and trying to copy it. "Changing the subject, I paid another visit to Wormtail and told him to lay low for a bit."
"Subtle." Lily mutters before sighing. "It's been, what, nearly three weeks since the last raid?"
"Yeah." James agrees, expression turning sour. "I don't like this. They haven't been this quiet since the bloody war kicked off."
"Definitely up to something." Sirius agrees with a grimace but quickly smiles at Harry when he reaches for the spoon to feed himself. "The rest of the Order and I are all trying to keep ears to the ground to figure out what's happening, but so far we've got not a hint."
James and Lily share a look before Lily pulls a little more chicken from the carcass and hands it to Harry who readily accepts it and immediately shoves it in his mouth where his sharp little teeth make short work of it.
"I think I've cracked that second layer to the Fidelius, although the magic consumption is still ridiculously high. It's likely to put the caster flat on their back with just a single casting at this rate." She tells him, obviously trying to steer the conversation away from the worry.
"Still though, managing to add another layer on top of the standard Fidelius, which most wizards can't make heads or tails of, so that there's a fidelius hiding the base fidelius so the base Secret Keeper doesn't even know that they're hiding a secret." Sirius says, shaking his head a little at it. "This mind-boggling stuff. Maybe that's why the Death Eaters have gone quiet, James, they finally caught on to how bloody terrifying your wife is."
James laughs, expression becoming unspeakably fond as he regards his wife who has turned to smirk at Sirius. "Took 'em a while."
Noticing that Harry has finished eating and is instead playing with the remains of his food, Sirius chuckles and pilfers James' napkin to clean Harry up before tossing it back with a grin, laughing at the face his oldest friend makes. Then he reaches out and undoes the straps holding Harry in his high chair and plucks him out.
"Why don't we go play for a bit and leave these boring old folks to finish their own dinner?" He asks Harry, even as he's already making his way away from the table and through the door leading into the sitting room which was filled with Harry's toys, having obviously been repurposed into a rumpus room of sorts.
Kneeling down, Sirius deposits baby Harry on the floor then lets himself fall back into a slouched cross-legged position. "What'll we play with today?"
Harry is already toddling over to one side where a brightly painted chest sits open revealing a plethora of colourful blocks, a pegboard, a toy carriage and other bright bits and bobs meant to distract and entertain.
He picks up the pegboard and dutifully carries it over to Sirius, though he loses his balance a couple of steps in front of Sirius and falls onto his hands. "Ow."
Sirius bites his lip to contain a laugh and stretches forward to pluck the pegboard from Harry and set it aside before coaxing the toddler to sit up again. "Alright there, mischief maker?"
He gets a frown in return that makes him smile while little Harry holds up his hands.
"Ouch?" Sirius asks quietly, reaching to take the toddlers wrists in his hands so he can turn them this way and that to inspect them. Finding no actual damage, other than a little redness he leans forward to place a kiss on each and gives Harry a little grin. "All better."
Magic words spoken Harry turns away to grab the pegboard and drag it closer. He plucks a circle shaped piece out of it's spot and shows it to Sirius.
"Circle." The older man tells him dutifully, still smiling down at him.
Harry puts it back in its spot and takes out the next shape and shows it to the older man.
"Square."
The piece goes back where it belongs and the next is plucked out.
"Triangle." Sirius tells him when he holds it up and gets a very exaggerated nod in turn.
The piece goes back where it belongs for a half a second before Sirius reaches out and plucks out all three before shuffling them around and holding them out again.
Harry for his part looks up at Sirius, then at the block pieces but plucks the first out of his godfather's hand without a fuss and plops it back in its spot. He repeats the process with the next piece, then the next then holds out both hands, palm up and looks up at Sirius.
"All done, you've gotten too clever for this one. Just like your mum." Sirius tells him with a smile before he extracts his wand and neatly transfigures the simple three piece pegboard into a larger one with nine different shapes.
Harry squeals and clumsily claps his hands at the use of magic making Sirius laugh.
"There we go, much more interesting now." The older man says before he starts to pull out each piece and tell the bright toddler what they are.
Baby Harry is fiddling with a star shaped piece with rounded edges when Lily and James appear through the doorway, though the toddler is so engrossed with running his chubby fingers around the edges of the thing that he doesn't seem to notice them at all.
"Might be setting the bar a bit too high there, Pad's." James says when he takes in the larger, more complex board and pieces.
"Nah, the old one was too easy. He's a curious little sod, he'll grow into it pretty quickly, I reckon." Sirius shoots back, though his eyes are still trained on Harry. "It'll help his fine motor skills develop." He adds, watching a tiny hand turn the piece this way and that to get all the angles to align with the cutout.
"For how much you avoid the topic of having kids of your own, I'm almost positive you've read more books on parenting and childhood development than I have." Lily teases him, then laughs at his sputtering.
"Anyway, ignoring that, I'm doing a run down to Diagon later this week. Do you lot need me to pick up anything for you?" Sirius asks, giving Lily a mock scowl.
Lily immediately nods. "Yeah, I've been writing up a list. It's mostly potion bits so I can restock our supplies."
"You could just buy your potions premade and be done with it."
"Pfft, no way. I'd rather do the brewing myself thanks." Lily shoots back, crossing her arms over her chest. "Besides, gives me something else to do when Harry's down for a sleep."
From his spot beside Lily on one of the couches, James hums quietly. "Speaking of sleep. Might be about time for bed." He says, giving a nod to where baby Harry is rubbing at his eyes with one hand while the other rummages through his new shaped peg pieces.
"Not surprising given how much he's been running around today." Lily says, expression fond.
Sirius hums. "I should head off too, they've got me rostered onto the graveyard shift tonight at the office, sorting through cold case files."
"You know they'd stop punishing you with desk duty if you just gave in and accepted the new partner." James prodded as they all started pushing to their feet.
"Piss off, I've already got one." Sirius shoots back immediately, giving his mate a heavy glower before his expression settles into a grimace. "Besides, they keep trying to saddle me with greenhorns."
"As if you're so unbearably seasoned." Lily teases as she kneels next to Harry and gently takes the pieces from him and slots them into their correct places.
James chuckles at that. "Auror years are like dog years. One year in the field for an auror is like five years for anyone else. Sirius and I are practically little old men in comparison."
Lily snorts at that and Sirius rolls his eyes while he pushes himself up off the floor after pressing a kiss to the crown of Harry's head and Lily's cheek before he disappears from the room with James.
When Sirius didn't immediately appear again baby Harry's bottom lip dropped and his brows scrunch up in an easily recognisable prelude to tears.
"None of that, Mischief." Lily says as she boops his nose to grab at his attention before picking him up. "Your uncle Padfoot will come visit just as soon as he can and he'll play with you again. Bedtime for you I think."
She jostles him a little on her hip before looking up at the doorway as James reappears.
"Why don't you get him tucked into bed while I tidy up down here, then I'll put the kettle on for a cuppa?" James offers, leaning down to place a kiss on his son's head and his wife's cheek just like Sirius had done.
Lily hums a quiet sound of approval, returning the kiss before lightly brushing strands of hair back from baby Harry's face where it rests against her shoulder. "Make mine ginger tea, would you?"
"Queasy?"
"Mm, just a tad." She grimaces, free hand dropping to rest low on her stomach.
James shifts to start making his way towards the kitchen. "Want me to dig you out a packet of gingersnaps?"
"Just the tea should do, ta." Lily replies, giving him a small smile before turning and heading out the room, through the entry hall and passed one staircase then into the reception hall that housed the staircase she carefully made her way up, one hand against the banister to help keep steady.
At the top of the stairs she turned to one of two doorways, one decorated with a little nameplate pronouncing it baby Harry's room.
Stepping into the room she carried him over to an antique looking wooden changing table and carefully set him down. "You're being such a good boy for mum." She says softly as she moves about changing him and getting him dressed in a set of pyjamas. "Hopefully you'll be just as good when you have to share your things with your little brother or sister."
Harry lies quietly while his mother works, tired green eyes blinking slowly until they fall closed.
There's a lingering moment of darkness filled with impressions of sensations and emotions that are too vague and fleeting to latch onto before they fade.
When they open again he's in his crib and there's a lingering sense of panic and dread flowing through him.
He's only crying for a little while from his lingering fright before Lily appears in the doorway, expression concerned.
"Oh, what's wrong, Mischief?" She asks as she moves to pick him up and cuddle him close. "Have a scary dream?"
She turns to pace back and forth through the room, slowly spinning when she has to stop and turn around so she's continuously moving while she rubs his back with the hand that's not supporting him.
It's quiet in the house, aside from the sound of Lily's steady movement and her quiet humming so the shout, when it's uttered, travels easily.
"Lily run!"
Lily stops in place, jade eyes wide as she looks to the doorway, arms tightening around baby Harry.
"Take Harry and run!"
Fear tears its way across her features and a hand shoots out, wandlessly slamming the nursery door closed while sounds of furniture breaking echo up from the floor below.
She turns on the spot and there's a disorientating moment of blurs as the world feels smashed together before she's stumbling back, both arms wrapped around Harry to keep him safe.
"Anti-apparation." She pants out, frantically looking left and right. Her eyes settle on the window briefly before moving away, apparently deciding the drop from the second story too dangerous while holding Harry.
Harry, who's confused tears seem to inspire a new idea.
She turns and settles Harry back into his crib before turning back to the door. Her hands come up, free of Harry's weight and making a complicated gesture. In answer the wood of the door and its frame merge and fuse together.
She turns then and kneels next to the crib, hands reaching to take hold of the bars before one slips through to lightly brush back Harry's black hair from his face and brush the confused tears from his cheeks.
"Harry...Harry you are loved, so so loved. Mama loves you, Dada loves you. Padfoot and Moony love you. You're loved and no matter what, you'll be okay." She tells him, expression determined and eyes clear. "I love you, Mischief, my baby boy. Mama loves you. You need to live."
The knob for the nursery door rattles in place though the door, fused to frame doesn't budge but Lily ignores it and instead pulls a needle from the hem of her pants leg and jabs first herself with it then Harry, causing a fresh wave of tears.
Taking hold of his little bloody finger in her own, her eyes take on a soft glow, easily missed but for shadows of her hair around her face. "Percussit a plurimum, sanguis enim sanguis, pretium vitae meae, mater in filium, tenetur a juramento et magicae, orationem meam animam iurandum."
There's barely a moment between the last spoken word before the door is smashed to pieces and Lily is rising to make herself a bigger shield so none of the pieces hit her son.
She spins on the spot, arms out and expression defiant as the black robed figure of the self named Dark Lord Voldemort steps into the room, wand still raised.
"Stand aside." He orders, expression cold but otherwise empty of emotion.
"No, kill me instead and leave my son alone." Lily shoots back.
He scowls then. "Stand aside, Lily Potter and I will let you live."
Lily tilts her head back. "Take me instead, kill me, not Harry."
His bone white wand jerks aloft, aimed squarely at her chest as he snarls at her. "Stand aside or I will kill you right along with your child!"
"My life for Harry's, I won't let you kill him, you have to kill me first." She shouts back while her son cries behind her.
"So be it!" Voldemort snarls again and his wand deftly moves in a motion he must have done countless times. "Avada kedavra!"
There's a flash of sickly green light and a shout that sounds hauntingly like her crying son's name then she's lying on the floor, limbs akimbo and a red halo of hair around her head, though her face is mercifully peaceful and not twisted up in fear or pain.
Casting a last look at her body, Voldemort dismisses it and approaches the crib to gaze down at baby Harry with his tear stained face.
"Hm, to think such a small weak thing could be my prophesied end." He whispers to himself, red eyes narrowing. "Never."
Almost negligently he raises his wand again, focusing on the child and sneers.
"Avada kedavra."
It's said as a whisper this time, rather than an angry shout, a mockery of the setting. But the moment the spell touches Harry time seems to slow, his eyes glow and he screams.
Wild magic crashes through the space between the before exploding outward.
There's a half moment of eerie stillness in the centre of that storm of magic, time enough for Voldemort's blood red eyes to widen and the sneer to disappear from his pale face and then he's gone, whisps of shadow and dust fluttering almost gracefully in the air.
Only baby Harry remains in the wrecked room, wailing in fright and pain, a bloody mark cut into his brow.
A deal struck.
Blood for blood.
Her life paid.
Mother for son.
Bound by oath and magic.
A prayer made from the soul.
He wails for mere moments before another figure darkens the shattered doorway, pausing there.
"Oh…" There's a wealth of pain in the one choked whisper, as the figure of Severus Snape stumbles forward half a step before falling, crashing, to his knees only to drag himself forward until he can reach out and drag Lily's fallen form into his arms.
His bitter sobs of pain and denial join Harry's as he clutches her cooling body close, rocking in place.
Eventually the sound of a motorcycle rapidly approaching sounds in the room, echoing in through the shattered windows and ruined roof. It seems to grab at Severus' attention because he lifts his face from Lily's hair, devastation and regret etched deeply in the pale skin.
He looks across at Harry for the first time since he had stumbled into the doorway before looking away again and down at the dead figure in his arms. Gently, as if fearing he'd harm her, he brushes the hair back from her face, black eyes staring down at her features for a long moment before he sniffs.
He sets her down, slow and steady, fingertips lightly tracing one cheek before moving away and disappearing on from the spot.
There's a commotion elsewhere, a cry that sounds too strongly like pain before there's thundering footsteps and the sound of a body slamming into a wall, the footsteps barely slowing.
Looking simultaneously haggard and frantic, Sirius bursts into the doorway only to freeze in it unknowingly in an eerie mimicry of the way Severus had bare minutes ago.
"Oh, no, Lily...flower, no…"
The words are whispered, gutted, though still audible over baby Harry's crying which has not let up since the explosion of magic.
It grabs Sirius' attention and his gray eyes dart to Harry only for him to jerk back and gasp when he catches sight of the blood covering his godson.
"Harry!" He cries and stumbles forward on wobbly looking legs, taking care to avoid disturbing Lily's body. He reaches into the crib and pulls Harry up into his arms, squeezing him close for a moment before pulling back to assess the still bleeding wound.
He looks from the wound and to the room at large before striding two steps to the old changing table and quickly sweeps an arm over it to clear off stray bits of rubble before carefully setting Harry down. He draws his wand in quick order, clearing the blood and whispering a simple diagnostic spell all aurors are taught in training for field emergencies before wilting just a bit at whatever the spell tells him.
He stems the flow of new blood and whispers a healing charm in an obvious attempt to heal the bleeding mark only to frown when it fails to seal completely.
Sirius seems to shake it off a moment later when a thought seems to occur to him and he quickly sheaths his wand and goes about changing his godson and swaddling him up in one of the fluffy blankets that had been folded to one side. He holds him tight to his chest and whispers quiet reassurance while his own voice wobbles and tries to break and reaches out to grab the nappy bag that had been left packed and ready next to the antique rocking chair in the corner.
Slinging it over his shoulder he carefully edges around the room, around Lily, before slipping quickly out of the room and down the stairs.
The large form of Hagrid is out by Sirius' bike, taking in the ruined house with an expression of awed horror.
As Sirius draws closer Hagrid looks up and takes in Harry's who has finally started to quiet. "Poor tyke, here, pass him here and I'll get him to Dumbledore." The half-giant tells him, holding out large hands. "The rest of the Order is on the move, the Death Eaters have hit multiple homes. None of us can get word from Alice and Frank, Pettigrew, Caradoc or Edgar."
"Shit, I need to check on Peter. He could be…" Sirius trails off, expression falling as he looks over his shoulder at Potter cottage.
"I'll take young Harry to safety, you check on Pettigrew. Remus and Aberforth have gone to check on Alice and Frank and their boy." Hagrid tells him as he gently eases baby Harry out of the smaller man's arms. "Harry'll be safe in the meanwhile."
Sirius stares down at baby Harry for a long moment before he pulls the nappy bag off his shoulder and gives it to Hagrid. "Here, it's got fresh nappies, some clothes and a couple of toys in it. You should take my bike, it'll be quicker. The less time Harry's out in the open, the better."
"Right, good luck!" Hagrid tells him and moves to straddle the bike.
Sirius winces as the metal frame groans under the weight but backs away and draws his wand. "Quickly!"
There's a roar as the engine rumbles to life and Hagrid gives Sirius a last wave before he tears away, bike quickly ascending up into the air, then away.
Looking down at the small form bundled up in the well of one of his large arms, Hagrid sighs. "You'll be alright, you'll see. Everything'll be alright." He rumbles.
It doesn't take much longer before baby Harry slips into an exhausted sleep, and the world goes black.