If They Lived (A Harry Potter Fanfiction)

Free At Last

November 1st 1981
James's POV
My mirror I used to communicate with Sirius shimmered and I pulled it out of my sock, I was in the kitchen making Lily scrambled eggs, her favourite. She'd been up all night with the twins who were teething. Well, Lucy was teething, Julie just cried out of annoyance at this point. Lily gave birth to our two beautiful girls on July 1st.

Their names are Lucille and Julianne, or Lucy and Julie, named after mine and Lily's mothers, who both sadly passed away while Lily was pregnant. My Mum fighting for the Order, and Lily's Mum fighting breast cancer. Lucy was a little Lily, bright green eyes and vibrant red hair, certainly the loudest of all three of our kids as well.

Julie had my dark hair and hazel eyes. She was much more passive than her sister and by far the easier baby.

I grabbed my mirror and Sirius's face appeared, not looking gaunt and worn out like the last time I had seen him, but beaming with excitement.

"Prongs!" he shouted, "have you seen the Prophet?!" He asked me urgently.

I shrugged. "Not today. Why?" I wondered, what had Sirius so excited.

"He's gone, James. Voldemort's gone," he said, beaming from ear to ear. I dropped the frying pan I was holding, could it really be true? Could he really be gone?

"You're joking," I stated, sure that this must be one of Sirius's not-so-funny jokes. But he shook his head, still grinning like an idiot. "Voldemort's gone?!" I asked for clarification, when Sirius nodded I began to laugh hysterically with happiness. He's gone!

Lily's POV

"Voldemort's gone?!" I heard James exclaim from downstairs. My eyes opened in a flash as I threw the covers off of me and ran down the stairs.

I skidded into the kitchen and saw James laughing hysterically while reading todays copy of The Daily Prophet. "James?" I asked, getting his attention, "what's going on?"

He grinned at me and showed me today's front page: He Who Must Not Be Named Conquered At Last

My eyes widened and I smiled for the first time in what must have been months, a real smile. "He's gone," I stated, "We can live our lives, James! We can have the lives we always wanted!" I shouted as I launched myself at him, he chuckled and wrapped his arms around my waist while he rested his chin on top of my head.

"Yeah, Lils," he whispered, "we're free at last."

Later that day

Remus's POV

James and Lily invited Sirius and I over to their house in Godric's Hollow to celebrate Voldemort's demise. I was extremely happy for them, I know they both hated being cooped up in that house with three babies. From what I've seen so far, that Lucy is going to be a tenacious little thing, much like her mother, whom she so closely resembles.

No one has seen Peter anywhere and when I asked Dumbledore if he had seen him, he had just given me a sad look and told me to make the most of the celebrations, and that I would find out about Peter tomorrow. Although I trusted the old man, I was still worried for Peter, last time I saw him he didn't look so good.

I sat on one of the sofas in the living room, bouncing a giggling Julie on my knee. Harry hobbled over to Sirius and held his chubby little arms up. "Padfoo! up!" he demanded. I remember James and Lily writing to me when Harry said his first word. Lily and James had been taking bets on wether his first word would be 'Mum' or 'Dad'.

They were both wrong

Harry's said his first word when he was playing with James's two-way mirror and babbling on to Sirius when suddenly he let out a little exclamation of "Padfoo!"

James said Sirius cried although, as much as I want to believe that, I can't help but feel as though James might have made it up. Lily was just thrilled to have Harry say his first word. It hurt James's ego a little that his son's first word was his best friend's nickname.

Lily came and sat down next to me on the couch, sighing as she slumped down tiredly. Motherhood had taken it's toll on her, she looked like a werewolf the day leading up to a full moon. Even so she still found the energy to smile at me and the little girl on my knee.

"You're good with her," she commented, gently poking her daughter in the side, making her squeal with laughter. Lily and I both had to laugh along with her, it was so infectious. Julie was named after Lily's mother, while Lucy was named after James's. I thought it was a great idea to keep the names in the next generation, maybe I would do the same thing with my own kids.

It was James who had written me the letter announcing the girls's arrival. Lucille Hope Potter and Julianne Faith Potter. Both extremely appropriate names, given the circumstances.

I looked around the room at my friends and saw that even though there were still shadows under their eyes, their faces looked brighter than they had in a long time. They were smiling more often and I even heard some laughter. Even though it was going to take a long time, we would all eventually recover. Lily and James would be able to raise their kids in a world that wasn't tainted by darkness. Which is just what they want.