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Chapter 1: Halloween Night

Halloween was certainly wizard's favourite party, celebrated around the world. Lily Potter had always loved this occasion, and especially the night that concluded that day. Growing up in a Muggle family, Lily also knew the customs of those who have no magical power. At her former school, in Cokeworth, teachers organized every Halloween little games. One of her favourites was to dip her head in a basin of water filled with apples and grab one of the fruits with her teeth. As far back as she could remember, she had always won this game, without ever wet her uniform and her long red hair, braided. The night, Lily and her sister Petunia listened stories of ghosts and monsters told by their parents, or broadcast on the radio. These fables made them shiver with fear and anguish. But their parents had assured them that ghosts and hooked-nosed witches didn't exist, that they were only pure inventions of imagination to scare.

In Hogwarts, Lily had learned to celebrate Halloween with dignity, and discovered that ghosts really existed. Severus had told her, when they were ten, that ghosts – and all kinds of monsters – were real and only wizards and witches could see them. She really believed him when a ghost, with his head almost decapitated, invited himself to her table during the first banquet of the year. Severus... Lily hadn't thought of him for a long time. He had been the first wizard she befriended. He was the one who revealed her she was a witch like him. And he had been her best friend until their fifth year at Hogwarts. She didn't know why she was thinking about him this Halloween night.

She was in the living room with her husband and their son. James was playing with Harry. He amused himself to make him laugh by making appear puffs of coloured smoke. She would soon fall asleep their little boy in his little bed, singing him a lullaby or telling him a beautiful story that would end happy.

If the circumstances had been different, she and her husband would certainly have organized a small dinner, but it was too dangerous. The war against Voldemort intensified, and the dark wizard was after the Potters. She and her husband had challenged him three times before Lily got pregnant. For months they had been hiding in this house, on Dumbledore's orders. The director of Hogwarts - and founder of the Order of the Phoenix - had informed them that Voldemort intended to kill their unborn child. He had given them no details, but a spy had reported to him the terrible plans of the dark wizard and they concerned their son, a baby who was celebrating his fifteen months this day. The Order had lost many members in recent weeks. The McKinnons had been completely eradicated last summer, and Lily had been crying a lot. The disappearance of these wizards had been a heavy loss for the Order. James couldn't stand being locked up, and only dreamed of one thing: fighting like the others.

Sometimes she and her husband would argue about it. He felt like he was being held in a cage. Lily, too, didn't like this situation very much. She too would have liked to face their enemies, but the safety of their son must take precedence over any else. James was aware of this, and he too wanted more than anything to preserve the life of their child. He could no longer sneak out of their cottage, for during the summer he had lent Dumbledore his Invisibility Cloak. The headmaster still hadn't returned it. This Invisibility Cloak had been in the Potter family for generations, and James had assured him that it was the best cloak ever made on earth. The director, fascinated by this artifact, wanted to study it. He had said nothing more. James and she trusted him.

Lily admired for years this great wizard who had defeated Grindelwald in a duel. Bathilda Bagshot, a neighbour who knew Dumbledore well, had made revelations to them on Harry's first birthday, but Lily didn't really know if she should believe it. Bathilda was the great aunt of this Grindelwald, imprisoned in Austria and had introduced him at the end of the last century to the young Albus Dumbledore. For one summer they had been friends until the death of Ariana, Dumbledore's sister. It seemed surreal to her. How could the greatest wizard of all time have befriended this odious dark wizard he had defeated? No, Bathilda was losing her mind.