Summary:

After Harry's parents were killed and the little baby was all alone in the ruins of what used to be his house, he uses accidental magic to get his mommy and Daddy back. But everyone knows you can't bring people back from the dead. What will the 16 year old James and Lilly do when a baby appears in the Great Hall, and calls James 'dada!'? Written as a response to a challenge from Anne-Lilian. Enjoy :)

Somebody shouts. A man, she thinks. Whose is that voice? Then another. Laughing. Cruel, awful laughter. Inhuman laughter.

A scream. Who was screaming? What- was it coming from her own mouth? But why? And where was she?

A baby in her arms. Green eyes blinking, smiling up at her, so like her own that she could have been looking into a mirror. A crash, and the baby disappeared, and somebody's screaming again. Who's screaming?

And suddenly there's just light. Blinding, incredible, cold light, blocking out everything, blocking out the baby, and the crib, and the sudden tearing feeling that hits her as she realises that she's all alone. That she's leaving this baby completely alone and she's powerless to do anything about it.

A name.

Harry...

Lily Evans jumped awake, drenched in sweat, her dark red hair plastered to her face. She sat up in bed and tucked her feet under her, trying to calm her laboured breathing. She didn't often have nightmares, and very rarely such vivid ones. Pulling the heavy bed hangings aside, she reached for the glass of water she usually kept by her bedside, before changing her mind and swinging her legs out of bed to go to the bathroom to wash her face – maybe that'll wake me up a bit, she thought, shaking her head to try and clear her mind of the awful images that still lingered from the confusing dream. As she made her way cautiously across the darkened dormitory, trying not to wake up the sleeping figures in the beds around her, Lily shivered slightly in the early morning chill that always seemed to creep into the dormitory as autumn approached. Gryffindor tower always seemed to get the worst of the winter weather, although if the rumour about the location of the Slytherins dormitories was true, then they were perhaps to be pitied in the midst of all the heavy rains that had pelted Hogwarts since school had started again the previous week.

After washing her face and composing herself, Lily made her way back to bed, feeling slightly better about the night's events so far. It was only a dream, after all. As she tiptoed back across the circular room, she noticed the girl in the bed next to hers sleepily stirring, and sitting up slowly.

"Whozat? Who's there? Lils, is that you?"

Lily had to laugh at her best friend's sleepy confusion, and sat down on the end of her bed. "Yeah, it's me Alice. Sorry, I was trying not to wake you. I just had a bit of a weird dream. Go back to sleep." she said, patting her friends outstretched leg gently.

Alice sat up properly and ran her hand through her short, tufty hair. "Dream? What dream? Argh. It's so early. What day is it?"

"It's Saturday, Ali, first Hogsmeade visit of the year, remember? Or at least it will be in," she checked her watch, squinting in the dim light, "two hours and twenty-five minutes."

"Well, I'm up now" she replied, "what was this dream that was so important you had to get up at stupid 'o clock in the freezing cold?"

Lily sighed, and curled her legs up onto the bed to tuck them under Alice's blankets, huddling up against her friend from the cold air. "You know Ali; I'm not even sure what it was. It was terrifying, the most scared I've ever felt in my life, but I couldn't tell you why." She glanced up at her friend, thankful to see that she was taking her seriously, a look of concern on her good-natured, round face. "There was somebody laughing. It wasn't a nice laugh though, and then someone screamed... I think it was me, but it just wouldn't stop. Oh, and a baby as well. He looked a bit like me actually, and he wasn't scared. I was though, and I just felt so helpless. I remember that most, how helpless I was. It was awful," she finished, leaning back and shaking her hair out of her eyes.

Alice frowned, taking in her friend's paler than usual face and her typically confident voice that was shivering slightly, and somehow she doubted that it was from the cold.

"That sounds awful Lily. Just try and forget about it though, yeah?" she shivered. "I feel a bit weird too now you mention it. I don't think I had any nightmares like you, but maybe I just can't remember them." She swung her legs out of bed suddenly, startling Lily and making her jump. "Come on. Lets go sit in the common room while we're up, we can build the fire up and get warm."

The other girl smiled gratefully. "That sounds like a plan. Besides, if we stay here much longer we'll end up waking everybody up, and I can't have that on my first week as Prefect now, can I?" they laughed, and began to make their way down the narrow spiral staircase to the large, warm common room that lay below.

By the time breakfast was over and done with, Lily was feeling much better. As they all made their way back upstairs to get their cloaks, she tried to focus on the days events instead of the dark thoughts haunting the back of her mind. She'd promised to help Alice with starting on her Christmas shopping on the first trip to Hogsmeade, and although she had half been hoping that Alice would forget, at least it would keep her mind off scary laughter and green-eyed babies. Harry. The sudden recollection of the name floating around her dream made Lily stop in her tracks for a few seconds on the crowded staircase.

"Liiiiilly" sang out Alice's cheery voice from just ahead of her on the staircase, "Are you coming or not?"

Lily smiled, and ran to catch up with her. She was just being silly, she reasoned. Stupid dreams.

James Potter was not having a good morning. Since his violent and sudden awakening from a rather confusing dream that morning, everything seemed to be going wrong for him. In his confusion, he'd accidentally dressed for the day in his school uniform, and his so-called 'friends' had of course let him get all the way downstairs to breakfast before informing him that it was in fact, Saturday. He'd missed most of breakfast due to having to rush upstairs and change, and to top it all off, Remus kept bothering him about the dream he'd woken up from so distressed.

"Moony, come on, can we just stop talking about this now?" He pushed past a first year impatiently as they made their way up the stairs to the common room. "Are these kids getting younger?"

Remus grabbed the tiny sandy-haired boy who was teetering at the edge of the staircase and set him back on his feet. "Ah, leave them be James. And it was just a suggestion."

"And what suggestion might that be, ladies?" came an amused voice from just behind them. They both turned, just in time to see Sirius striding up the crowded stairs, a huge grin on his face. "Alright Prongs, I see you finally figured out what day it is then?" he dodged a half-hearted punch from James and straightened up, shaking his head. "So what were you on about then?"

James snorted. "Nothing, he just won't stop going on about that stupid dream I had last night. I swear, it's nothing, it's not even bothering me anymore."

As they finally made their way into the common room, he was grateful that the noise of the excited students all around them prevented them from saying anymore on the subject. By the time they made their way up to the dormitories, Remus and Sirius were talking about something considerably less sensitive, although he couldn't help but notice that Moony was watching him from the corner of his eye the whole time. Annoyed, he sped up and started searching for his cloak vehemently to give himself a reason to hide his face from Remus. He had been hoping that the vivid images from the dream would have faded over the morning, but he still couldn't forget the piercing voices and lights that lingered in his mind. And a name. Harry.