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A loud crack of Apparition accompanied by an unusual sickly green light startled the young Potter couple as they sat snuggled together on their loveseat in the living room of the spacious cottage in Godric’s Hollow. They jumped to their feet in unison, panicked but unsure what to do.
“He’s here! How is he here, James?” Lily asked, fear lacing her voice.
“Go, protect Harry!” James said, pushing her towards the stairs as the front door was blasted through as though made of paper, the wards utterly inconsequential to the powerful dark wizard about to enter their home.
Lily ran as fast as she could up the stairs, faltering only slightly as she heard the deep, sibilant voice behind her utter “Avada Kedavra” and saw the echo of a green flash on the wall at the top of the stairs. Harry , she thought, pushing herself faster into his nursery and slamming the door shut behind her.
Harry had awoken in his crib from all the noise, and was wailing in displeasure. Lily heard slow, methodical steps moving towards the stairs, and beginning to come up after her.
“Don’t bother hiding, Lily Potter. If you give me the boy, you don’t need to die.”
Somehow, his voice seemed to come from right next to her, even though his footsteps told her he was not yet halfway up the stairs, taking his time, knowing she had no protection left.
Lily pushed the changing table from the wall next to the door in front of it, knowing it would barely slow Voldemort.
Where was her wand?
It didn’t matter. Even if she could get Harry and Apparate out, she knew in her heart that with the Secret broken, Voldemort could easily track her.
Suddenly she spotted a shimmer of silvery fabric piled on the floor in the corner of the room. It was James’s invisibility cloak, left there after playing peek-a-boo sometime earlier. She snatched it and shook it out, draping it over her crying toddler and tucking it around him.
“I know sweetheart, I love you, please just don’t cry. Hush, please, please, shush now,” she said mindlessly as the footsteps grew nearer.
She turned to face Voldemort as the nursery door blasted open just as the front door had just minutes before.
“Please, not Harry, kill me instead,” she said.
“Step aside,” he commanded again, but Lily refused. She would not let that evil man have unfettered access to her son, no matter the consequences. She could only pray that the cloak would make it harder to aim a curse, and maybe some of the Order or Aurors would show up and scare Voldemort off.
“Hush, Harry. Mama loves you,” were the last words from the young redheaded woman before she fell to the ground with not a sign of physical damage.
“Fool woman,” Voldemort snorted. “I hear you, Harry Potter. Now it is your turn to die.”
He pointed his wand directly at the the sound of the cries, not bothering to move from where he stood.
*~*
Sirius rushed into the smoking cottage, after growing suspicious when he was unable to reach Peter.
“No no no, James, no!” he cried, falling to his knees and pulling the body of his best friend to his chest as tears began to stream down his face. He looked around the room near him and saw no sign of James’s wand. His friend had stood up to Voldemort wandless to try to protect his wife and son, as futile as that was.
Lily. Harry.
Sirius reluctantly released James from his arms and forced himself to stand and try to find the others. Maybe they got away safely. Maybe they were waiting for him at some Order safehouse even now.
He quickly looked through the rest of the ground floor and didn’t see anything, so took the steps up two by two, turning towards the nursery that he’d seen blown out when he approached from the street. Deep inside, he knew it couldn’t possibly be good news, but part of him just thought if he walked slowly enough, the chance of a miracle was prolonged before he had to face the truth.
When he reached the doorway of the nursery, he saw Lily’s motionless form on the ground in front of the crib. An empty crib. There was no body of little Harry, and no sign of Voldemort.
Peter. Peter did this. And Peter was going to pay.
Sirius disappeared in a crack of Apparition, and a toddler cried out from under a cloak.