🎶"No grave can hold my body down, I'll crawl home to her" - Work Song by Hozier
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"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off–"
Part of him thought it felt the floor as he fell more because he was looking at his body, protecting the stairs, waiting to buy Lily and Harry some time. It was an odd thing to look at yourself and know that you were already dead, that there wouldn't be more days where Harry would fuzz in the morning, or where they could see each him ride the broom Sirius bought him. No more nights where they cuddle and think of a future without war and surrounded by all their friends.
It was a second, and it felt like he now had eternity but there were still things he needed to do.
Lily.
Lily was the only thing in his mind, his spirit could not rest until he did something to help.
He willed his lifeless body to move, to get an inch of the stairs, follow Voldemort and stop him from ever hurting the people he loved the most.
Just one finger, just something. MOVE!
It was like his body, as the rest of the world, could not hear him.
"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" Lily screamed from upstairs, and James could not stay put. Damn his body, it didn't matter, it never mattered as long as he could do something, because there still must be something he could do.
He was not sure how he reached the room, there was no concept of space as before, just Lily and Harry, and the pull they had over him. There was something he could do, right? He wouldn't be there if there was nothing that could be done.
Harry was crying in his crib and Lily was pleading, pleading for the child's life, not her own, for the little person that made life worth living, war even more worth fighting for.
Maybe his spirit could protect them, even if he dissolved into nothing, if what remained were Lily and Harry and nothing else from himself but his love. That was powerful, right? That should at least gain them some time, it should.
Please let it count for something. He prayed to an unknown god that he was not sure he believed in, but hoped that anyone would listen.
"Not Harry! Please… have mercy… have mercy…" Lily's face was covered in tears, she did not have a wand, he was not sure why neither of them did, they were discarded because Harry needed attention. But she was crying and James wanted nothing but comfort her and tell her everything would be okay, that everything would be fine.
Yet his words did not reach her, as much as his love did, and he felt the green spell go through him one more time; so cold that it felt like it burned; and once more he could not stop it.
Lily saw her body hit the floor and knew she was dead. She had the sensation that she hit something, or something hit her, but she knew she was not alive any longer, it was irrational to feel anything, yet she knew she did.
She didn't feel physical pain, she had no body any longer, but the cries of her baby drew her in. She wanted to console him, to tell him he'll be okay, that Voldemort would not be able to hurt him.
But she could not shield Harry any longer.
NO!
Was the thought that came through as she saw Voldemort raise the wand, the killing curse at the tip, and she ducked. She didn't have a body any more but she wouldn't let her child be harmed.
A warm sensation embraced her, she wasn't sure how but she could feel Harry, warm, loving, and scared, and she felt protected. Looking up Lily found James, he did make it upstairs, it broke her heart how he did it because it meant that just like her, he was no longer in the plane of the living, but he was still the same man she loved, caring and protective, with a desire to keep them safe that survived the grave.
They could not do much, but they would be together.
And James knew that it would be the third time he would feel the curse, and the second time he would have his heart broken of not being able to stop it, but he still had to try to save Harry.
Voldemort's curse was sent, yet the cold spell didn't go through a third time around.
Harry was safe, and that all that mattered.