In the Tower
Chapter 27: 1981
Disclaimer I have never, ever owned Harry Potter. So there.
Summary: Sirius, Remus and Peter lock James and Lily in a tower over Christmas Break. They don't have anything except a bit of food and the passion within themselves. And right now, they're just letting it out.
Author's Note: Well guys... It's all over. Tell me how you feel. 'Cause I feel a little nautious.
Previously: Katie walked around the bed and went to Lily who was snoring lightly. She giggled, wiping at her tears. "Take care of them for me, Lil. They're boys and you know how much they make those stupid mistakes. They wouldn't survive with you. I love you too."
And then she was gone. And no one even knew she'd been there.
There are some defeats more triumphant than victories. Michel de Montaigne
Lily watched in fascination as Harry continued to babble. Tears were leaking from her eyes, her slice of pizza sitting on the floor. She crouched down next to him, and he looked up at her with those penetrating, intense green eyes of his. "Will you say it again, Harry?"
"Pizza," he said, giggling and looking at Lily's pizza on the ground. She picked him up and bounced him on her hip slightly.
"JAMES!" She yelled, covering Harry's ears with her hands as she yelled up the stairs to him. He came pounding down them minutes later, his wand out and prepared to fight.
"What? What happened? Are you okay?"
She held up Harry in front of his father and said, "Say it again, Harry! Say it for daddy!"
"Pizza," Harry said again, reaching out and grabbing James' nose. James reached up and gently detached Harry's hand from his nose and rubbed it, staring at Harry. He looked up at Lily over Harry.
"He just said his first word!" James said, pride echoing throughout his words.
"I know!" Lily said with obvious glee.
"We have to tell Sirius! Dumbledore! Everyone!" Lily looked down, bringing Harry back down to her hip and rubbing his back as he blew his nose into her shirt.
"We can't tell anyone, James. You know that." James sat down on the couch, and picked up Lily's pizza. He buried his head into his hands, running his fingers through his hair and trying hard not to show that he wanted to cry.
"Why not though? Why can't we just go and kill Voldemort? Everything would be okay then!" Lily sat down next to him, putting Harry in her lap and letting him suck his thumb. She placed a hand on James' back and rubbed, trying to comfort.
"Everything wouldn't be okay, James, and you know that. They would be after us and they would never give up."
The rest of the day was bittersweet.
"Now Harry," Lily said, putting lipstick on Harry's face and trying to make him stop rubbing at it, "You look adorable. I just want to put this in my mind forever. Please try to stop rubbing it and ruining your image?"
James came into the room holding a big box of Halloween decorations and then dropped it when he saw Harry. "What did you do to his face?" James said, hopping up and down on one foot and coming over to them. Lily glared at him.
"He's supposed to be a wood sprite." She said, grudgingly, kissing Harry's head and looking down at his brown costume. "He's very cute."
"Mum?" Harry said, tugging slightly on his outfit.
"Yeah, baby?"
"Do I haveta?"
Lily scowled and straightened the ragged collar. "Yes, you do. Only for a few minutes," She said comfortingly, looking and watching his bottom lip tremble. "James, draw!" James grumbled but brought over a piece of parchment and quill, took a look and then tapped it with his wand, watching as the parchment began drawing Harry's portrait, and held it to Harry when it finished.
Harry scrunched up his nose. "Ugly." Lily hugged Harry to her chest and James laughed, going to the mantelpiece and placing it up there in front of their graduation picture. She went into the kitchen and took a rag, wetting it and then coming back into the living room, crouching down and wiping lipstick off his face.
"Why don't you just give him a good scourgify?" Lily licked her fingertip and rubbed it vigorously on Harry's cheek, making his squirm.
"Dad," Harry whined.
James laughed, picking him up and soaring him away from Lily. "It's a mom thing, kid, ya wouldn't understand." James looked at Lily over Harry's shoulder to see her standing with her hands on her hips, her emerald green sweater stuck to her and her corduroy's dirty and looking ragged. "I'll put him to bed, and then I'll be back."
"No, don't bother. I'll do it. Can you clean up some of the decorations?"
"Of course,"
"Mommy?"
"Yes, Harry?"
"Hi!"
"Lily?"
"Yeah, James?"
"Why do we have all of this if we can't show anyone?"
Lily glared. "It's Halloween. I wanted to get the spirit of it."
"Mom?"
"Yes, Harry?"
"Why go sleep?"
"Well baby…" Lily's voice trailed off as she disappeared from James' sight. He started to collect things aimlessly after they were gone, tossing assorted items into the boxes. The pounding on the front door jerked James from his dolly day dream, and James started panicking. No one knew where they lived except Peter, Sirius, or Dumbledore. And they always flooed in.
No one used the front door, unless someone found them...
James took his wand from his belt and ran to the stairs, yelling, panicking. "Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off-!"
James ran to the kitchen, tripping over Halloween decorations and streamers, and the kitchen door burst open, knocking James off his feet.
He stood up quickly and backed away from the door, his wand out and his whole body shaking nervously as Voldemort swept into the room.
"Hello, Mr. Potter. How nice to see you again."
"Hardly," James spat, edging around the kitchen table as Voldemort came around the other side. And so they dueled. James heard Harry crying loudly up the stairs, and as he fired off spells all he thought about was his family. Even if he died, he hoped they would live. They were survivors.
"This is taking much too long," Voldemort snarled, and shouted, "Immobulus!" James' eyes widened as he became stiff, and Voldemort lifted his hood. "Betrayed. How very sad. Good-bye, James Potter."
The next thing he sees is Katie standing in front of him, a sad look on her face. "James, you're dead." She was so frank, so honest, and so real, that James ran to her and scooped her up, burying his head into her stomach and sobbing. Her arms were around his shoulders and were holding tightly onto him. "I missed you too," She said. "But you might want to watch this." She detached herself from him and stood on tiptoe, wiping his eyes. "Hey. Don't worry! Just come on."
She grabbed his hand and led him over to Somailia and Cecilia, who were watching the scene sadly. He sat down between the two girls and leaned his head onto Katie's shoulder, amazed she was here and he wasn't simply daydreaming. He put a hand over his mouth as Voldemort was towering above Lily. She was standing over Harry's crib, and Harry was crying loudly within, knowing something was wrong.
"Not Harry, no not Harry! Not Harry! Please I'll do anything-"
Voldemort was hissing at her. "Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!" His girl didn't budge, and Voldemort yelled out an angry, "AVADA KEDAVARA!" Lily's body slumped over and Somailia put Cecilia in James' arms.
"This is my baby. Be nice to her." He heard her walk away and comfort a just appearing Lily.
"Is Harry going to be okay?" James asked, scared.
Katie bit her lip. "In a sense of the word, yes. He lives. But he has a very tough life in front of him."
"JAMES!" Lily said, running toward him, tears streaming from her eyes.
James turned to her, bouncing Cecilia on his knee. "That's our baby out there." He said, hollowly, and turned back, looking down at the showdown between Harry Voldemort.
"Hello, baby." Voldemort said, moving the blanket from Harry's twisting form so he could get a clear view of him. Harry's face was screwed up and red, his tiny fists pounding. Voldemort stared. "How are you supposed to kill me? You're only a silly baby." Voldemort twisted his wand through his fingers, watching Harry. "Avada Kedavara," he said, silkily.
But something went wrong. The green haze formed a barrier around Harry, glowing and pulsing. Harry grew quiet, and Voldemort started screaming, writhing in a pain worse then the cruciatus curse. It stopped then, and Voldemort seemed to poof away, gone.
Harry started getting angry. And he showed his first signs of magic. As he pounded his fists and cried, the cottage started to slowly get licked by flames.
"He's going to kill himself," Lily moaned, clutching James' arm tightly. James shook his head and continued to hold onto Cecilia, watching his little boy.
"Here he comes," Katie said suddenly, choking up. A bright light came out of the darkness towards the flaming cottage, and Sirius landed roughly down in front of the house, wiping off his helmet and sprinting toward the front door, screaming out for James or Lily.
"Harry!" Sirius said, rushing up the stairs as the decorations and Godric shot out of the house, running for who knows where. Sirius banged into the bedroom, staring at Lily's lifeless body and Harry in the cradle. He picked up the squirming baby and raced back down the stairs, and out of the house, carrying the sobbing baby away as timber and things began flying in the sky.
All James could watch was the portrait he had taken of Harry now two hours ago turn into flames, disappearing forever.
It seemed like hours before anyone else showed up. Hagrid appeared out from the road down Godric's Hollow, his feet pounding and his voice ripping through the air, bellowing. Sirius whipped his head around, cradling Harry to his chest.
Hagrid stared up at the smoldering cottage. "Do you know what happened?" Sirius asked, patting Harry's back and trying to sooth him.
"No, but Dumbledore might." Hagrid said, looking down at Sirius. "He asked me to take 'Arry." Sirius shook his head, pulling Harry tight to him.
"Oh please, let Sirius keep Harry! He knows the boy!" Katie shook her head.
"It's not how it works, Lily."
"Let me keep him, Hagrid. I'm his godfather." They quarreled for a few minutes, and Sirius finally relented. "Where are you going to take him?"
"Where are they going to take him?" Lily asked, looking at Somailia. Somailia stared back at her intently. "Oh no, not her!" Somailia nodded. "NOT PETUNIA!"
"We're taking him to his muggle aunt. His only blood relative left. He'll be safe."
"Take my bike," Sirius said, handing Harry and his helmet over to Hagrid. "I won't be needing it where I'm going."
"Where you goin'?"
"To take care of some business." Sirius said firmly, and then walked up to Hagrid, kissing Harry's forehead. "I'll see you again," Sirius said, and then nodded at Hagrid and walked away.
"Where's he going?" James asked.
"To get revenge for you."
"What will happen to him?"
Katie said frankly, "He's going to fake his own death and kill thirteen people in the way, blaming it all on Sirius. Sirius will go to Azkaban, and Peter will hide as a mouse for thirteen years."
"What does he do after that?"
Katie pulled her lips into a firm line. "I promised Harry I wouldn't say."
"Then where's Remus?" James wiped his eyes, looking despairingly at Lily. "How could we doubt Remus?" He said, agonized.
Somailia stiffly said, "I don't know. Remus was always innocent." She cleared her throat. "Remus is out running tonight." James looked apologetic, but Somailia kept her stony face intact.
Hagrid landed at Privet Drive and with Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore; put Harry on Petunia's doorstep. Then they were gone, and only the dead were watching Harry through out the night.
Petunia found him the next morning and awoke him with a scream, and opened the letter Harry had been sleeping with. She pursed her lips and then looked around, making sure no neighbors saw. She took the basket firmly and went inside shutting the door.
"Full circle," Somailia said. "Everyone is finding out that Voldemort is gone now, and Harry is the Boy Who Lived."
Lily began to gnaw on her lip, and Katie laid a hand on her arm. She looked calmly at James and Lily and then turned to look at Somailia and took Cecilia from James, grinning at all four of them.
"Don't worry," she said, "you'll see him again."