And On We Go

The first thing James saw when he opened his eyes was the ceiling of his home. 

Had he fallen asleep on the couch again? He loved Harry more than anything but wished the boy would sleep through the night soon. He was starting to feel as old as Dumbledore, exhausted from staying up with his son. 

He reached out beside him to grab his wand when he felt a stair beneath his hand and not the coffee table he was certain he had left his wand on. James sat up suddenly. Why was he on the stairs? 

He made eye contact with Lily at the top of the stairs, and that’s when it came back to him. 

Right, he had died. 

“We need to get to Petunia,” she said, hurrying down the stairs. She was in her plaid pj pants and the quidditch jumper she had stolen from James in their seventh year. She looked so normal like she had only just woken up to check on Harry and was ready to go back to bed. It was still hard for him to fathom that they had been dead for so long. 

How long had they been dead? From how Dumbledore spoke of him, Harry had been at Hogwarts for quite some time. It had to have been at least 10 years. His son had grown up without him. 

“Sweetheart, there’s nothing you can do for her. You heard what Death said,” James said, ignoring how odd it felt to talk about Death as a corporeal being. His heart ached for his wife; Lily loved her sister so much. Petunia ripped her to shreds, but she never stopped trying. 

She looked at him, tears in her eyes, “I know, but James,” she paused to breathe shakily, “She has a son. He’ll be so scared. She might have to die, but that doesn’t mean he does.” 

“And he won’t,” James assured, “We’ll get there in time.” 

He went into the living room and found his wand on the coffee table, right where he had left it when he went to answer the door on Halloween. 

“Do you have your wand?” James asked, coming back into the front hall. 

Lily walked out of the kitchen and held it up for him to see. 

“Alright,” he nodded, running his fingers through his dark curls and opening the front door, “off we go.”

“James, dear, shouldn’t we put shoes on first?”

He glanced down at his bare feet, “Ah, yes. That’s probably best.”

Walking the streets of Godric’s Hallow was eerie. James didn’t recognize any of the people out and about. Passing the church, James stopped to look at the front sign.

July 14

 Luke 24: 6-7

"He is not here; he has risen!"

James laughed to himself; if only they knew. The fourteenth, though, was good. They had time. 

“Should we gather backup before going to your sister’s? It’s only the fourteenth. We have a few days,” James asked. 

“Hmm…” Lily muses, “I don’t know. I’m not sure who even is alive anymore. Even if they were, would they believe us?” 

“What if we went to Diagon Alley? It would be good to stop by Gringotts and get some money, especially if we’ll have our nephew with us soon. We won’t want to drag him around the wizarding world. We can stop by the owl post and send for Moony and Pads,” He said after thinking for a moment. 

Lily nodded in agreement and looked around before sticking out her wand. 

A loud screeching of tires sounded before a big, purple bus came to a halt with a screech right before them. The force of the wind blew Lily’s long locks right into his mouth. 

The Knight Bus had always been amusing to James. He had only been on it a handful of times, but every time was thrilling. 

After digging the required 22 sickles out of his pocket, James and Lily climbed up and requested to be taken to the Leakey Cauldron in London. 

James was worried the lanky man would ask for more information, but he simply pointed out which beds they could sit on and told the driver, Eernie, to ‘take it away.’ He was relieved he didn’t have to come up with a lie right now. 

Lily and James sat silently as the bus zipped and zagged through traffic. Even the adventurous prospect of the Knight Bus was doing little to abate his discomfort right now. Lily appeared to be enjoying the ride even less. 

Eventually, they arrived and clambered off the bus. It zipped off as soon as his foot hit the pavement, not even fully off the stairs yet. 

Despite at least a decade passing, the Leaky Cauldron looked just as he remembered it. The long brown tables from wall to wall. The space illuminated only by dim, faded lighting. The lack of people was odd, though. For a summer evening, the place was rather empty. 

James reached behind him to grab Lily’s hand before tilting his head down and away from the light as they headed to the back alley where the passage to Diagon Alley was. 

James pulled out his wand and tapped the familiar pattern into the brick wall. As the bricks slid away, James took a step back and bumped into Lily. 

This was not the Diagon Alley of his adolescence. 

There were no bright colors, loud chatter, or bustling crowds. The street was deserted. There were no lights on any of the shop fronts. It was like a dark cloud had settled over Diagon Alley. 

James pushed his glasses up his nose before squeezing Lily’s hand and walking forward. He glanced to the left as they made their way down the cobblestone road toward Gringotts and noticed a dark-skinned, older man watching him warily from the front door of his shop. James pushed on his glasses once more and waved. The returning look he received caused him to drop his hand and turn away from the intense gaze. 

They made it about halfway down the main street when a voice stopped them. 

“Potter!” 

James turned around to see who had called out. It was a stockier man with long billowing black robes and a blackthorn wand pointed at his chest. The most poignant part of the man, though, was the mask covering his face. A death eater. 

“Well, well, Harry Potter in Diagon Alley. I don’t believe it,” the death eater said. 

The man continued speaking, but James didn’t hear any of it. He thought he was Harry. James looked like his son. James’ son looked like him. It was so unfair–a death eater knew more about his son than he did. 

Oh, but Harry looked like him. That made his chest warm. He could somewhat picture this older Harry in his mind now. James' basic facial structure, but with Lily’s sloping nose and startling green eyes. He hadn’t stopped to think about how Harry would have a much different face now than he did as a baby. James tried to morph his one-year-old’s face into this adult Harry he was picturing. James realized he very desperately wanted to know what his son looked like. 

Before he could dwell too much on Harry, spells started flying. A green light flashed and passed his head, and Lily dragged him into hiding behind a nearby cart stacked high with potion ingredients. Glass bottles shattered all over the cobblestone as more death eaters closed in on them. Lily’s hair fanned out as she flung around the edge of the cart to hurl defensive spells at them. 

James pressed himself into the glass-covered cobblestone ground to peer at the Death Eater’s feet below the cart; there were six sets of feet. He grabbed his wand from his back pocket before flinging around the cart's edge to fire off hexes. 

His arm started to ache from how rapidly he was throwing himself around the cart to fire off a hex before coming back to the safety of the cart. 

“We can’t keep doing this,” Lily panted, “We have to move.”

James glanced around and saw an alleyway further down the street and to the left. They would have to cross directly in front of the death eaters to get there. 

“There,” James pointed. 

Lily followed his gesture before nodding, “Okay.” 

“On three?” James asked. 

Lily nodded again. 

“One…two…three!” he yelled the last number as they flung around the edge of the cart, fighting in tandem.

Lily was a great duelist. She was fantastic at charms. James threw up a shield charm when she thrust out a hex, and she would block spells while he cast every defensive spell he could think. His throat hurt from yelling spells. They were almost to the alleyway when a spell hit him square in the back. 

“Stupefy!”

He fell over onto the cobblestone face first. He couldn’t see the commotion anymore, but he could hear it. He felt panic claw at his chest. Lily couldn’t protect him and fight off more than six death eaters. James would be the first to acknowledge how powerful his wife was, but even she had her limits. 

He heard an uproar of yelling. A few panic-filled moments passed. 

“Rennervate!” he heard before his muscles were released, and he was able to move. 

Pushing himself off of the cobblestone, a pale, freckled hand entered his line of sight. 

“Need a hand, mate?” a voice offered, and he grabbed hold of it, allowing the man to pull him to stand. 

“Woah,” the man said, seeing his face. 

He stared at him for a moment before blinking and recovering from his initial shock. The red-headed man held out his wand for him. 

“Thanks,” James said, taking his wand. 

“Follow me,” the man stated before turning and running off down the road, throwing spells all the while. 

James ran to follow and threw defensive spells to cover the man’s back as they ran. They made it past the alleyway they were initially heading for and veered right into a side street. They ran down the road to a tall building with the sign ‘Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes’ atop it. 

The man in front of him jogged up the stairs and pulled open the door. He pulled the door shut behind James, and then he clicked the lock and yanked down the blinds. 

James turned to look for Lily and made eye contact with a man with the same face as the man behind him.

“Blimey, Fred,” the new man said. 

“I know,” Fred said from behind him. 

Fred walked around James and over to who James assumed was his twin brother, “what happened?” he asked, turning his brother's head.

James saw it now: deep in the mass of red hair atop the man’s head was sticky blood and a big gaping hole where his ear should’ve been. 

Lily jogged down the stairs, a towel in hand, “I tried to heal the wound, but it wouldn’t stop bleeding. Curse injuries, particularly from dark magic, can be impossible to heal with magic.” 

She walked over to Fred and his brother and pressed the towel hard against the side of his head. 

Fred took the towel from Lily. She showed him how to hold it securely to the other man’s head. 

James heard the brother softly jibe to Fred about how he was ‘holey’ now, before Fred smacked him on the unijured side of his head. He watched as Lily healed the cuts on Fred’s arms. 

“Who are you anyways?” Fred asks as Lily turns his arm to heal a particularly large gash.  

James exchanged a sideways glance with Lily, “James Potter, pleasure to meet you. And this is my wife, Lily.” 

“Yeah right, and I’m the Minister of Magic,” Fred said. 

“Come on, I lost my ear, the least you can do is tell us who you are,” George said, slinging his arm not holding the bloody towel around his brother. 

“No, really,” Lily said, “I’m Lily, and this is James,” she dropped the man’s arm to gesture at him. 

“The Potters are dead,” George said. 

“We got better,” James replied, shrugging. 

Fred and George turned their heads to look at each other before returning to Lily and James in synch. 

“Prove it,” Fred said, crossing his arms and leaning back on the counter behind him. 

“Prove it?” James sputtered and threw up his arms indignantly, “how?” 

“Tell us only something you would know about Harry.” 

“How does that prove who we are?” Lily asked. 

“Well, I don’t know, I’m not the one pretending to be my mate’s dead parents now am I?” Fred asked. 

“Wait, you know our son?” Lily asked.

“No, I don’t know who yourson is. I’ve never met him.” 

“You just said Harry was your mate,” James said. 

“He did,” George confirmed, nodding. 

“Okay, so you do know our son. Harry is our son,” James said, confused. 

“Prove it,” The twins say in unison. 

“Oh Merlin, we’re going in circles,” James said, yanking his hands through his hair. 

“Listen,” Lily said, walking around James to stand closer to the twins, “I don’t know how to make you believe me. I am Lily Potter. This is my husband, James. Our son is Harry James Potter. He’s been living with my sister, and something awful is going to happen. I don’t know how to convince you, I just need you to trust me,” she is even closer to them now and gesturing with her hands pressed together as she speaks, “Now, I understand that he’s in hiding somewhere, so he’s safe, but my sister has a son.” 

Lily pressed her hands to her chest as she spoke with fervor, “My nephew is the same age as Harry. He doesn’t deserve to die. I lost touch with my sister quite some time before our death and I’m not sure where she lives anymore. We need to get there. Will you help us?” 

James watched as the twins looked at Lily before looking at each other and then back to her. 

“Alright,” Fred said, hesitantly, with a nod. 

“We’ll help you,” George reaffirmed. 

James sighed with relief. Thank Merlin. James was sure he and Lily could’ve come up with some way how to get out of Diagon Alley and into London on their own, but the world was so different now. It would be so much easier having people who haven’t been dead for at least a decade with them. 

“One small problem,” George said. 

James felt his high spirits drop. Of course, there was always a catch. 

“Harry isn’t in hiding, not yet at least. We aren’t supposed to go get him ‘til after his birthday,” he continued. 

“Then where is he?” James asked, walking forward to stand next to Lily and crossing his arms. 

“He’s still at his aunt’s,” Fred said. 

James did not expect that.

Honestly, James didn’t think they’d be able to meet up with their son for quite a while. If death eaters were out and about, it meant that You-Know-Who was back in some capacity. As soon as they had known about the prophecy, James and Lily had taken up the Fidelius and hid. It was only logical that Harry would be hidden right now. As much as James wanted to see his son, he hoped that by throwing himself into the task ahead–retrieving his nephew–that he would distract himself until they could convince someone to let them get to their son. 

This changed things. 

Harry being in danger wasn’t even a factor in his plans. Suddenly, three days didn’t feel like as much time as it did earlier. It wasn’t nearly enough time. He needed to be there, now. 

“It’s alright, though, we know where they live,” George said. 

“You do?” Lily asked, hope heavy in her voice. 

“Yeah, we stole our dad’s car and broke him out in his and Ron’s second year,” Fred said, casually. 

“Broke him out?” James asked, thick eyebrows scrunching together.

“There were bars on the windows,” George clarified. 

“I’m sorry, there were what?” Lily said, low and scathing.