DISCLAIMER: All things Harry Potter belong to JKR.

"Put on your face and let's pretend,
The killing lights won't kill us all again." -AFI, "The Killing Lights"

-- The Killing Lights --

Lord Voldemort was just finishing off James Potter when he heard Sirius Black's voice behind him shouting, "Avada Kedavra!"

The Dark Lord felt something brush his back and turned... just in time to see Bellatrix slide limply to the ground. She'd shielded him from her cousin's Killing Curse.

Rodolphus took up the fight where his wife had fallen, distracting Sirius well enough that Voldemort could now enter the Potter house unchallenged. He didn't have time to spare a thought to mourn the death of his most faithful. He had a child to kill.

But there was still the mother to deal with.

"Stand aside," the Dark Lord commanded coldly.

But Lily refused, standing in front of her child, begging him to spare Harry's life.

"Stand aside, you stupid girl!" Voldemort snapped, stepping closer.

Her wand shook in her hand as she readied her strongest shield charm, wondering what spell the Dark Lord would throw at her.

But he did not use magic against her. Once he was within arm's reach of Lily, he reached out and slapped her - hard enough that she fell to the floor.

"Avada Kedavra."

Lily struggled to her feet, her ears still ringing from the blow.

Why am I not dead? she wondered.

And then she saw the reason. The Dark Lord's Killing Curse had not been aimed at her...

She scooped her son's still-warm corpse from the crib and cradled him against her chest then collapsed to the floor, sobbing hysterically. All the fight had gone out of her. With her husband and child dead, she had nothing left to live for anyway. All that was left for her to do was await her impending doom.

But at that moment the Dark Lord was distracted by a sound from outside.

That sounded like... but, no, it couldn't be...!

He raced outside to see for himself.

Bellatrix was screaming. She was still lying on the ground almost exactly where she'd fallen earlier, hysterical sounds of panic and fury issuing from her throat, ignored by all others as the battle between Death Eaters and Order of the Phoenix members still raged all around the Potters' property.

The Dark Lord knelt next to Bella and pulled her into his lap, holding her tightly against his chest. Her hands clutched at the front of his robes and she buried her face against his neck. As she clung to him her screams gradually died down into sobs, then into sniffles.

When she was finally quiet he asked her, "How did you survive being hit with the Killing Curse?"

"I didn't die," she rasped out bitterly. "But something did."

That's when he noticed that her skirts were covered with blood.

"I didn't even know I was pregnant," she whispered, sounding stunned. "I never... I never..." Her voice cracked and she broke into sobs again.

"You never would have put your child in danger this way if you had known," he finished for her. "I know." He suspected Rodolphus would be equally upset. The couple had been trying to concieve for years, and Bella had gotten so jealous when Naricssa's child was born only a year after she married Lucius. And now Bellatrix would carry a burning hatred for her cousin for the rest of her life... or Sirius's - whichever ended first.

-tbc-

Reviews are love.