Meet your parents! Pt 1
James wasn’t sure how long he had fallen asleep for. He remembered being thrown back into the cellar, but his whole body ached. Suddenly the memories of their encounter with Voldemort came flooding back. His eyes flew open as he searched for Lily. Lily was staring off into space as he groaned and sat up. She was still just out of reach which only made him angrier.
“Hey Jamie, how are you feeling?” She asked softly. The healer-in-training in her starting to peek through. Before they went into hiding and before she got pregnant with their second child, Lily was training at St. Mungos to be a healer. She had told James that when she was a child all she wanted to be was a medic in the muggle hospitals. When she learned about the magical world her dream changed to become a healer, however, once she got pregnant with Harry the dream went on the back burner. Not like she minded, she loved her son dearly and didn’t want to miss a second of his childhood. Then they went into hiding and she got pregnant again. It was then she chose to see on the bright side of things, glass half full, if you will, that now she would be able to watch her children grow up in a tiny little cottage in Godric’s Hollow. Well look at how that turned out.
“I’ve been better, love,” James responded honestly. “Do you think he’s telling the truth about Harry? Do you think he’s alive?”
“Yeah I think he was,” Lily whispered back. Then they say in an almost comforting silence. Hours turned into days and days turned into almost a week before Lucius Malfoy walked into the dingy cellar closely followed by a few other Death Eaters.
“Well now our guest of honor has arrived, time for a family reunion isn’t it?” He sneered and signaled for the others to unlock the chains and lead the Potters by their wrist to a large ballroom-esc room. There were three loops protruding from the floor which their chains were attached to. They were just close enough to reach out to each other . For the first time in a week James could actually touch Lily. This seemed to give her the slightest comfort. There they waited for about twenty minutes. Praying that if Harry was here, he would be ok.
Harry was led back to his cell a day prior where he was chained to the floor and left in the dark. Trying not to panic, Harry practiced some breathing exercises he read could help with panic attacks. He found a book about it in a library back in Little Whining, most of the time the exercises worked but it didn’t seem to help too much here. Eventually, he managed to disassociate and everything seemed bearable.
He was alone for a day before Wormtail entered back into the cell. Without saying a word the rat unlocked the chains and led him back through the winding hallways into the ballroom. He saw two other people already there with their heads faced down and chained to the ground much like he was yesterday. Wormtail forced Harry to continue walking next to the newcomers and chained him down to the ground.
Harry didn’t realize that he didn’t have his glasses up until he tried to see who the new people were. He heard a feminine gasp next to him and he looked over and attempted to make out some features. All he could make out were two people, a man and a woman. The woman had long, auburn hair and fair skin. Not as bright as Weasley red, but red all the same, more of a Scottish auburn than the Irish red he learned to associate with his best friend. She did seem a bit paler than the Weasleys, not as textured of skin like Ginny or Ron has. At least not that he could make out. The man however, had dark black hair that was unbelievably curly and unruly, not unlike his own if he was being honest. The man had square framed glasses and tanned skin, almost like a Southern European or maybe Asian, he couldn’t be sure without his glasses. He knew he was starting but he couldn’t help it, it’s not every day you get kidnapped by a mad man and have someone else to share the experience with. As gruesome as that sounded it comforted Harry. He was pulled out of his thoughts by a painful tinge in his scar. He knew what that meant and he tried desperately not to let it show.
Lily and James were looking at the floor when the door behind them opened. They only looked up when the newcomer was locked into the loop on the other side of James, that’s when Lily gasped. She was sitting in the same room as the son she thought she had lost. She looked over at James when Harry shot his head in their direction.
James looked curiously at the boy, studying every feature. Merlin, he looks like me, but those eyes are Lily, he thought, although so is his nose and cheek bones. He’s skinny like me though, and that hair! Wonder if he got my eyesight too… his thoughts trailed off when he made eye contact with his son. Only to notice the slight squint in his eyes and the slight wiggle of his pupil. Yep he got my shitty eyes. James concluded. He looked back at Lily to see her eyes starting to water and started to rapidly blink away the tears.
Lily looked at her son with a pained expression. He was so painfully skinny. Much like Sirius was after summers, hell even Severus when they were children. She pushed the comparisons out of her mind slightly while she took in her son. His prominent cheekbones accentuated his sharp jawline and large, green doe eyes. Eyes that she knew as her own, the round almond shape was much different than James’ slightly smaller and slanted ones. Harry seemed to have gotten James’ unruly, ethnic hair; the dark, wavy, hair that was way too thick to stick a brush through easily. Harry’s skin tone was a lot lighter than she expected as well, as a child she knew he was pale for having a tan father like James, but she was hoping he wouldn’t be as pale as she was. Even with all of this, her son was beautiful and it killed her not to be able to hug him. She prayed that Siris and Remus took care of him, but every instinct in her body told her they weren’t that lucky.
Lily turned her attention away from her husband and to her son when she noticed a slight wince on his face. She wouldn’t have picked up on it if it didn’t look exactly like James when he was hiding that he was in pain. She knew that look anywhere. That’s when she saw him turn his head towards the door and a black hooded figure walked through and the pit in her stomach filled with dread.
“Harry Potter. To be in my presence once again. Why not long ago we battled for the first time and somehow you bested me. Again. But fear not, I will kill you.” Voldemort said to Harry. Who to much of his parents' surprise scoffed.
“Well you’ve tried what, four times now? I managed to come out just fine each time. I think I’ll place my money on a common flu killing me before you do,” Harry spat. James repressed a snicker while Lily looked overtly concerned.
“Well Potter, you see, I couldn’t kill you before and I’m working on getting why, but I can make you suffer.” Voldemort trailed off. “Harry Potter, it is my honor to introduce you to your not-so-dead parents!”