Chapter Text
Harry giggled as he watched James create small puffs of smoke from his wand, while Will tried to grab at it in his small hands. The thin vapour coloured pink, purple, green, and blue was swirling around the air, to the delight of the two toddlers. James smiled fondly at them; they both were so happy and delighted at such a small act of magic.
James sat cross-legged in the middle of the living room, leaning against their brown leather couch. Harry and Will were standing in front of him, staring at him enthusiastically, waiting to see what he would show them next. Their standing was sometimes a bit wobbly, and not completely stable, but they were usually pretty good at it and didn’t fall over often.
Harry loved running around, whether inside the house or in the backyard, which was somewhat of a hazard, especially inside, but they got rid of anything that could hurt him – or that he could break. Will was calmer, usually following Harry around, curiously observing what the other was doing instead of participating in the mischief. But don’t let that fool you, he absolutely could cause a disaster if he wanted to. Luckily, he didn’t; they could only handle one tiny human wrecking ball.
James continued to dispel smoke from his wand, drawing shapes and patterns in the air as if he was using a pencil: hearts, stars, circles, zigzags, and squiggles. With just his will, he alternated between different colours for each one, sometimes a yellow star or a pink circle. Both twins were watching him curiously, wondering what he was going to create next.
With a wave of his wand, he made an orange zigzag, which stayed suspended in the air for a moment, before drifting over to Will, hitting him in the face. Will looked absolutely flabbergasted for a few seconds, as if he had no idea what had just happened, before his face split in a slightly gummy smile.
“Dada!” Will giggled, small hands extended and reaching for James.
Harry was watching this whole event fold out in fascination, looking like he didn’t know what to think about the events that had just played out in front of him. He turned to Will and put one hand on Will’s cheek, pawing at it as if he could still grasp the smoke that had disappeared.
Gently, James took Harry’s smaller hand into his own, removing it from Will’s face. “Careful,” He admonished, “Not so hard, you don’t want to hurt your brother. Do you want dada to make more smoke, or are you tired enough to start getting ready for bed?”
In answer, Will grabbed the tip of his wand and Harry’s bright eyes stared at him expectantly. Grinning at the adorableness of their silent response, James waved his wand again, tracing out a green heart, the same brilliant colour of both the twins’ eyes. From where James was sitting, the heart framed the two boys, their awe-filled faces looking at it in excitement.
Before he could produce anything else, the sound of soft footsteps behind him distracted him.
Turning around he saw Lily, who had just entered the room, smiling softly at the three of them. Her dark red hair fell in thin strands from her long ponytail, unevenly framing her face. Her lips, still quirked up in a smile, were slightly redder that usual, the red lipstick she used for vampire costume earlier that day still staining them slightly.
“Alright my loves, time for bed!” Lily declared, earning a round of grumblings from the two young boys; they still wanted to play with their father. “None of that! It’s getting late and you’ve had a very big day, you need to sleep.”
“Even me?” James inquired, grinning teasingly. “Have I had a big day as well?”
Lily just rolled her eyes. “Every day’s a big day with you around. Sirius will be visiting tomorrow the morning, if you don’t go to bed now then you’ll be too tired to get up then. And what would that leave me with? Having to deal with the twins and Sirius? It’ll be an absolute nightmare.”
James just laughed, shaking his head in amusement. Lily didn’t really mean that, she was just commenting in jest, she actually really enjoyed seeing Sirius when he came around. He was the only person, other than Peter, Lily, James, and the kids, to know where they were hiding. It got pretty lonely and confined after a while, being stuck in the same house for months on end, so Sirius coming around really helped to lighten the mood; the twins loved him, and Lily enjoyed being around someone that wasn’t James. Peter hardly visited.
“Oh, don’t be like that, I know you love us.” James retorted, grin not slipping from his face. Lily just rolled her eyes, again, in return, her expression light, nothing at all close to the expression of despair that marred her features during their night-time talk only a couple of days before.
“Of course I do, you still need to sleep, though. The sooner you go to bed the sooner it will be morning!” Lily declared.
He just sighed. “Ok, ok.” He stood up from where he was sitting and stretched his cramped muscles, something that he hadn’t realised he had, letting go of his wand so that he also could stretch his stiff fingers. As he did this, he glanced out the window, noticing how dark it had gotten while he was entertaining the kids, the night sky now having been dimmed, and, if he squinted hard enough, he could almost imagine a tall figure walking past…
“I’ll take Harry, you take Will.” Lily ordered, already picking her assigned child, which James followed suit, wanting to let out a groan as he did so. He could hardly believe it, they were both so big already, nothing like how little they were when they were first born.
He followed Lily out of the room and into the hallway, expertly dodging toys scattered on the floor and the two prams, all stuff left there because of the twins. The floors were almost always covered in trinkets, something that James enjoyed since it made the house look like a normal family lived in it.
They climbed the stairs, Lily’s straight red cascading down her back, her ponytail swinging with each of her steps. It made a small swish sound when it brushed against her green cotton t-shirt, as well as her socked feet making a soft pad against the wooden stairs. Harry was peering over her shoulder, curiously watching the gentle jolts Will made as James climbed the stairs, a small smile and a giggle building up on his lips.
They were halfway up the stairs when Lily stopped and swivelled around, seemingly for no reason. Startled, James went to step back, his own socked feet slipping slightly on the smooth wooden stairs. Lily stood extreme close to him, only standing on the step one above his own, giving him a clear view of her expression of fear. If he really wanted to, he could reach out and touch her.
“Lily?” He questioned, unsure on what was going on and what she was doing. Why had she suddenly stopped? Her face was startled, eyes darting around frantically and skin ashen. She must have realised something that he hadn’t, something that scared her very much, something that seemed very important. “What’s going—”
He wasn’t able to finish his sentence. A loud bang sounded behind him, followed by wood being splintered apart. He whipped his whole body around, nearly falling down the stairs as he did so. He could feel his face draining of all colour when he saw what was behind him.
Their orange-brown door had been blown off its hinges, leaving it scattered and splinted all out the hallway below, and the doorframe now bare. Standing where the door had previously been, was a tall, hooded figure, long white fingers lazily wrapped around the wand in his hand. Even while not being close enough to see, he could guess who this was, as it couldn’t possibly be anyone else.
It was Lord Voldemort.
Lord Voldemort had found them.
“Lily, take the twins and go! It’s him! Go! Run! I’ll hold him off!” He frantically instructed as he spun around once more, nearly dropping Will in his haste to get the twins to possible safety with his wife, Lily rushing away when they were both secure in her arms. He tried not to think about how the only way to get out of the house was downstairs, where the danger he was urging who to get away from was lurking. Lily has to contact Sirius and get reinforcements, to get him to tell Dumbledore, or any other order member, where they were. The secret must have transferred to Sirius, he was the only one who knew where they are, because Peter must be dead. Voldemort would have killed him.
He tried not to think about that.
Darting his eyes around, James tried to find a way he could use to slow Voldemort down, or temporarily distract him from achieving his goal, to give Lily a change to find a way to get away with the twins. His panic only increased when he couldn’t think of anything, he was on the stairs and Voldemort way down the hall, and if he got anywhere close to him, he would be dead, instantly. The only way was to prevent Voldemort from coming up the stairs until Lily could contact someone with the request for aid.
He slipped his hand into his pocket, almost having decided a course of action. He would have to block the stairwell with more than just his body, he would be too easy to get rid of. He had to think of something no one would be able get past, it would be impossible to apparate anywhere inside the house because of the anti-apparation charms, he was good at transfiguration, he just had to think of something that would be stro—
His stomach dropped and his breathing came out short as his hand wrapped around nothing, fear he was trying to supress finally filling him. His wand wasn’t in his pocket! Desperately, he tried to remember where he put it, he thought he put it in his pocket, where else could he have put it? He had it earlier in the living room as he played with the kids, then he thought put it in his pocket while he was stretching. But that wasn’t right, was it?
He had dropped in on the couch.
His wand, his only possible defence, was in the living room, on the other side of the hall. Somewhere he couldn’t possibly get to, since doing so would give Voldemort the change to slip past to go up the stairs and get to his family. A lump formed in his throat as he realised how powerless he was.
What could he possibly do?
Abruptly, an idea came to him. An incredibly stupid idea, but what were his other options? This was one stupid idea in a sea of stupid ideas. Mind made up, he descended the stairs, making sure that his face remained blank and didn’t show any of the fear that was curling around in his belly. He didn’t want to give his murderer that satisfaction of seeing him cowing in fear, pleading for his life. No, he would go down fighting bravely.
At the base of the stairs, he switched his light jog into a full-on sprint, aiming to catch Voldemort by surprise, and not just by his running. Voldemort wouldn’t be anticipating this from him, he would be expecting something similar to his plan before or a full on attack. He didn’t know that James didn’t have him wand.
As he got closer to him, James saw a flash of the grievous face that was usually obscured by his hood. Piercing scarlet eyes widened in slight shock; long, thin hair pulled in a single braid over his shoulder; pallid skin stretched over his gaunt, skull-like face.
Voldemort’s surprise didn’t last forever, instead his thin lips twisted up into a smirk, finding James’s attempt at thwarting him amusing. Swiftly, he pointed his wand at James and let out a high, shrill laugh that grated at James’ ears. He knew what spell would be said afterwards before it left the other’s lips.
“Avada Kedavra.”
The green light flashed, flying toward him before he could even properly register feeling afraid or to attempt tring to dodge. For a moment, he thought of his kids, how they had found the green smoke he had made so amusing. He didn’t think that they would like this spell as much.
His body fell to the floor with a thud, momentum causing it to slide slightly on the hardwood floor, glasses shattering on impact. The shards splayed around him like a halo, digging into his skin and small fragments flying into his open eyes, the glass around him a potential hazard to anyone who may decide to walk by. With just a flick of a wand, his body had been drained of life, and left, unmistakably, dead.
——
Lily stumbled as she scrambled up the stairs, desperately trying to keep her footing and keep the two kids secure in her arms. She could feel a sob building up in her throat, though she was determined to not let it get past, to remain cool and collected while she figured out what to do. Down the hallway she ran, or at least how fast she could walk with two toddlers cradled in her arms, socked feet stumbling slightly in her attempted haste.
After slamming the nursery door closed, she carefully placed both twins in one crib and her wand down, deciding that her first course of action would be to barricade the door. Doing so would hopefully slow the Dark Lord down and give her enough time to send a patronus calling for help to Sirius.
Her thoughts raced as she dragged the crib toward the door, unsure how much time James would be able to give her. If Voldemort comes in before she’s able to contact someone then there is practically nothing that she could do to stop him, other than try to bargain for her life, but she wasn’t going to do that. She had nearly dragged the crib all the way to the door when she heard it.
A cold laugh followed by a loud thud, as if something, or someone, had dropped onto the wooden floorboards, hard.
There was only one possible explanation for the sound, one that Lily did not want to even consider. James was dead and soon his killer would be coming to finish off the rest of them.
Unbidden, images of the scene down below came to her in her mind. James, sprawled limply on the ground, glasses now askew on his face; hazel eyes, usually so full of joy, now devoid of it, no longer dancing with his usual warmth and mischief. Lord Voldemort would be standing over his body in all his atrocious glory, grinning down at the man he just murdered, not caring about the people’s lives that he’s destroying.
She could hear him now, the soft sound of feet against carpet, the high-pitched creaking of the stairs, slowly stalking them. She finally pushed the crib fully against the door, hoping that it would be able to hold back the predator hunting them in their own home, if only for a couple of minutes. She leaned against the crib in exhaustion, her breath came out ragged, having not done much exercise in the year that they were stuck in their home.
She hastily backed away from the door when it started to creak, as if the wood was slowly being pulled apart, her back hitting the edge of the crib. She hadn’t earnt them any time at all. She spread her arms out, trying to shield her children from view, as if them being out of sight would save them from the madman dead set on killing them.
The door burst open akin their front door, Lord Voldemort strode into the room, appearing just as terrible as all the other times that she had fought him face-to-face. His eyes were gleaming with bloodlust, not yet fully sated with just his previous kill, hungering for more. Fear choked her.
Darting her eyes around the room, Lily tried to find some way that she could possibly get to her wand, which she had carelessly placed on the nightstand next to where the now broken crib used to be. She couldn’t move to get it, doing so would give him the opportunity to get to her children. She couldn’t let that happen, she had to stay to protect them. Despair filled her, desperation clawed at her throat, she didn’t know what to do!
“Not the twins, not the twins, please not the twins!” She hopelessly pleaded. Even while doing so, she knew distantly it was a lost cause, he was here to kill them, not her. Panic bloomed in her chest; tears sprang to her eyes. She couldn’t let that happen!
“Stand aside, you silly girl… stand aside now.”
No, no she couldn’t stand aside and let him kill her kids, what kind of mother would that make her? She couldn’t live while her kids were dead, she couldn’t let him—
“Not my kids, please not my kids, take me instead, kill me instead—”
Please, just let them live, let them live—
“This is my last warning—”
No, she couldn’t move, she had to stay in front of them to protect them, they would die otherwise, they would die—
“No! Please… have mercy… have mercy! Please, I’ll do anything—”
She’d let him kill her, do anything to her, as long as it kept them safe, as long as she could continue protecting them, they just had to be safe—
“Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!”
No, she wasn’t going to stand aside, she had to stay here, she had to, there was nothing else that she could do, she had to stay here—
“Avada Kedavra!”
And, just like her husband, with a flash of green light, her body limply fell to the floor.