Memories are strange, he thinks.

They get twisted, contorted, changed…modified. Some are quite subconscious, like the way you smell a certain smell and a time and place simply pop up in your mind… and you can't for the life of you remember the last time you thought about it. Some are things you are required to memorize, perhaps a long time ago, and just become part of the many things that you've been expected to memorize at school.

And some, no matter how horrible, you can't seem to forget for the life of you.

But then there are others, like the first time you taste chocolate fondue or your first love… that stick with you until the very end.

As the green light flashes, he remembers many things. Pieces and snippets of all parts of his life. They seem to flash past his eyes, like a movie.

He sees his father, teaching him how to mount his first toy broom… doing his first spell with his brand-new wand… meeting the boys who he would come to think of as his brothers… meeting her…going to Hogsmeade… his first Quidditch game… the first time he tried firewhiskey… mastering the Animagus transformation… when he won the Quidditch cup… the first time they kissed… his parents' funeral… the first time they had sex… their first Christmas out of Hogwarts… meeting Harry for the first time…

All these memories flash in his mind before he hits the floor.

His last thought is that he hopes is that they manage to escape.

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! I'll try to hold him off — just go!"

Her heart is pounding as she runs up the stairs, desperately wishing James had his wand.

Half-way up the stairs, she hears his body hit the floor.

The tears are streaming freely down her face as she wills herself not to fall, to keep moving, but her body doesn't let her.

Finally, she summons the courage, the courage that he'd want her to have.

She throws open the door and sees Harry crying loudly in his crib. She picks him up, holds him close to her, whispers things in his ear she desperately wants him to remember for as long as he lives.

She hopes that's a long time.

But suddenly the door is thrown open and he's there, the one who killed her best friends, the one who killed her parents… the one who killed him.

"Not Harry! Please, no, not Harry — I'll do anything!" She pleads, but the narrow snake-like eyes do not soften.

Many memories flash in her mind before she hits the floor.

Her last thought is that she hopes, by some miracle, that Harry survives.

A/N: hello! this idea just popped into my head when I was trying to write a prologue for the james/lily multi-chaptered fic I'm working on, and I just decided to post it. I'm not exactly happy with the ending, but I figured I'd just put it up anyway.

review? pleeease?