“Avada Kedavra!” A man screamed as a jet of green light left the wand in his hand.

“No, you don’t.” A bespectacled man swung his sword and cut off the jet of green light, preventing the sparks from touching him or his wife beside him. They were both standing in front of a crib that housed a sleeping baby.

“Bombarda!” The woman beside the man shouted as she waved her wand at their assailant who promptly cast a shield to block the attack. The resulting explosion sent a large amount of dust and debris flying around, creating a temporary smoke screen.

“Ventus Duo!” The assailant cast and a strong gust of wind started blowing away the temporary smoke screen.

“Lily, Protect Harry.” The man said as he approached the assailant with his sword in one hand and his wand drawn in his other hand.

“James!” Lily shouted, casting a large shielding charm over the crib to protect their child from the flying dust.

“Bombarda Maxima!” James said, trying to take advantage of the momentary distraction of their assailant. Just as the sound of the explosion reached James’ ears, their assailant’s next spell made him jump back to Lily.

“Pestis Incendium” The man’s incantation had Lily’s eyes widen as she saw the intense explosion from James’s spell being engulfed by a monstrous snake made entirely of fire.

James regrouped with Lily and cast multiple more protection charms, “My shield isn’t going to hold much longer against Fiendfyre, James.” Lily said as she desperately poured her magic into her wand to keep the shield maintained.

James didn’t say anything for a moment as he seemed to be deep in thought, “Lily…” He had a gaze in his eyes that instantly told Lily what he was about to do.

“No…” She tried to stop him.

“You have to leave. Take our son and leave. Voldemort is too strong for us.” He said, “And don’t come back. Leave England. I don’t trust him anymore.” His final words were solemn yet cryptic.

“Avada Kedavra!” Voldemort shouted as James quickly cast a levitation charm to conjure a physical shield in front of the shielding charm that Lily was still maintaining to block the killing curse.

“I love you and Harry. With all my heart. But you have to leave. If not for yourself, then for Harry. Please leave, Lily!” James desperately shouted as he saw Lily hesitating.

“Impedimenta” James saw the Fiendfyre snake getting closer and tried to stop it in its tracks before shouting at Lily, “Leave! Now!”

He approached the quickly cracking shield as he threw his wand at the side and held the sword with both hands, “Let’s see if you are as good at conducting magic as you are at slashing…” He commented with a confident chuckle. He was fully aware of the capabilities of the Sword of Gryffindor. Using the sword as the focus, James cast his next spell.

“Aqua Eructo!” James shouted as a huge jet of water escaped his sword and met the Fiendfyre snake head-on after it broke through Lily’s shield.

Lily’s eyes were full of tears as she grabbed her crying baby in her arms and gave James one last look before disappearing from her spot.

As James heard the loud crackling sound that came from his wife Apparating away from their house with his son, he let out a relieved sigh before narrowing his eyes, “Even if I’m going to die, I’m taking you with me.” His eyes had an almost mad gleam in them as he stopped his water jet and hurled the sword at Voldemort.

“Pitiful tricks.” Voldemort wordlessly cast a spell from his wand that deflected the sword at the side, away from James before shouting, “Avada Kedavra!”

As James saw the jet of green approach him, his stature suddenly started getting smaller, and within a moment, he was a stag that was able to easily maneuver and dodge the killing curse.

“An Animagus.” Voldemort was surprised but still confident as he case more spells in conjunction at James who had already approached the sword and turned back into human form before grabbing it.

What followed was a suicidal duel where James took more and more hits from Voldemort while trying his best to get an attack in, but the dark lord was too strong for him. He could barely keep himself alive as they fought for another hour.

‘I can’t escape, he’s perfectly on my tail… Where’s the damn backup…’ James had already tried escaping from Voldemort, but the man seemed to almost be toying with him as he only gave him shallow wounds whenever he tried to escape, pulling him back into the fight.

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At this point, James had a creeping suspicion that something was terribly wrong with the current situation.

‘Wasn’t Wormtail the Secret Keeper... I can get that he betrayed us, but what’s with the Order? Not a single one of them has appeared even after Lily left…’ With countless questions unsolved, James gave his all to the fight, but it was a losing battle. He was sure of it.

…

A few hours later, Lily Apparated back to Godric’s Hollow, in what was supposed to be her home. She had a stony expression with red puffy eyes that had a betrayed gleam in them. By now, what was once her home was no more than an amalgamation of debris. With the roof blown off and half the walls having been destroyed, there was already a layer of snow formed on whatever parts of the home were intact.

At the same time, a stag appeared beside her— A pure blue glowing construct that took the form of a stag. It was James’ patronus that Lily followed back home.

She tightly cradled Harry in her arms, tightening the blanket that was wrapped around her baby boy before following the stag into the destroyed house. The patronus naturally pushed away the debris and snow wherever it stepped, allowing Lily to comfortably follow its path.

“James…” Her stony expression melted as she gasped with tears falling from her eyes after she looked at her husband’s state. With his limbs either burnt off or mangled, and multiple burn marks all over what remained of his body, James Potter was dead. And the rational part of her brain knew that she couldn’t do anything about it.

“Lily…” She heard a coarse response to her cry, making her eyes widen as she ran up to her husband. Flickers of hope danced across her pupils as she kneeled beside his head.

“You’ll be fine, you’ll be fine, James…” She shakily pulled her wand out and started casting spells to save him. She cast spell after spell with no response.

“I don’t have much time…” James started as Lily interrupted him, “You’ll be fine. I’ll keep you safe.” Seemingly not hearing her, James continued, “I don’t know what… happened with the Order, but… I used that spell, Lily.” He coughed painfully before continuing, “That… ancient magic spell you came up with…” Hearing James’s words made Lily halt in her path.

“No…” She refused to believe it.

“But he’s not gone. Even… with that sacrificial spell, Ihe merely escaped…” James coughed even more as Lily cast a water spell in a conjured glass to let him drink water, but the water didn’t pass through his lips and merely slid down his face, “Take Harry away from Britain… You cannot trust…”

James weakly opened his eyes and looked at his wife with an emotional expression, “I love you… always.” He gave her a weak smile as his pained breathing ceased.

At the same time as James’ words ceased, the Patronus disappeared.

“James! James! Nooo!” She screamed painfully as she rested her head on James’ chest while crying her eyes out, “This was all my fault… If I hadn’t come up with that spell…”

Suddenly, thunder flashed as Harry woke up, followed by the loud sound of that thunder’s crackle, hearing his mother’s wails, Harry couldn’t help but start crying too.

“Oh… I’m sorry honey…” Lily, in as much anguish as she was, bottled her grief down and pulled Harry close to her chest, before humming a soothing melody for him. Even as tears fell from her eyes, she tried her best to calm her child down.

Lily’s soothing hum was the only sound that was heard through the cold night.

…

One week later.

There was the sound of knocking on a door as a woman stood in front of a house with her son in her arms, hidden underneath her cloak.

The door opened not more than a few seconds later as a beautiful blonde appeared, “Lily…” She looked over at Lily worriedly, “Come in.”

“Thank you, Apolline.” Lily pressed her lips together as she walked into the house.

“Would you like something to drink? Some tea perhaps?” Apolline asked with a thick French accent.

“Just water, thank you,” Lily said as she settled on the couch in the living room, letting Harry rest on her lap.

“Is this?” Apolline came with the water and glanced at Harry.

“Harry… He’s the one Vol… You-Know-Who was after…” Lily said, feeling annoyed that she couldn’t even freely speak the name of the person who murdered her husband. She didn’t care much for jinxes such as the trace on Voldemort’s name, but other people were particularly sensitive toward the name. And she didn’t know if the death eaters were still actively targeting people who used Voldemort’s name. She wasn’t going to risk it.

“I’m sorry for your loss… But you should know, your husband is a hero.” Apolline said.

“Yeah… I’m grateful for your help…” Lily said absently, thinking about James’ last words.

“It’s quite all right.” Apolline said with a little smile, “After what you both did for us when our Fleur was born, this is nothing. We were lucky that her birth was only delayed. A few more years of pregnancy, as painful as they were,” She paused, “…they were completely worth it for our baby girl.” Apolline had a fond motherly smile on her face.

Unlike humans, Veela pregnancy cycles worked differently. Unlike humans’ 9 months, a Veela would be pregnant for more than 2 years before the fetus was developed enough to be birthed.

Though, this slow development doesn’t affect the lifespan of the Veela, which is similar to that of humans. It just meant that a fetus needs more time to develop due to the magical nature of their powers.

Lily just gave her a small smile in response as the sound of clicking was heard. A door opened and a man came into the room with a blonde girl following after him. She was holding his hand as she took small steady steps.

“Mrs. Potter. It’s nice to see you. Meet Fleur.” Monsieur Delacour said enthusiastically before gesturing to his daughter who was following after him.

Fleur mumbled something in French which Lily didn’t understand, “She’s greeting you. We haven’t gotten the chance to teach her any English yet.” Apolline said, gazing at her daughter lovingly.

“It’s all right. She’s a lovely girl…” Lily praised Fleur who hesitantly came to the couch and sat beside Lily at her father’s behest.

Lily gently rubbed Fleur’s head before turning to Apolline, “I hope you don’t mind me staying here for a while until I can arrange my own place…”

“I told you this before, and I’ll tell you again, We all owe far too much to you and James. Even if you and little Harry decide to live with us for the foreseeable future, we would be very happy.” Apolline said

Lily smiled and told her, “It won’t be that much, just a month or so until I can get a discrete place for myself.”

“Stop worrying so much, Mrs. Potter. You can stay here for as long as you want, It would be good for Fleur to have a playmate too.” Apolline’s father said happily.