**So what's changed and why?
**Severus is the last one to enter the house instead of being the first. This is because Lily would not have left Harry if she knew he was still in the house. Plus Hagrid had to see the bodies of Lily and James in order for Sirius and Hagrid to think they were both dead and to move on with the plotline.
**Lily is alive. It's called fanfiction for a reason.
**James dies. I'll explain this in the next chapter.**
My eyes fluttered open and I wished that I didn't have to wake up. Waking up hurt right now. My head was killing me with a mind-splitting migraine. There was some form of burning pain too both on my head and over my left arm, based mainly at the forearm. If I moved a finger, my arm burnt and I gasped at the agonising pain.
"Lily?" Whispered a voice. I recognised that voice but it wasn't one I wanted to hear. I opened my eyes properly anyway and looked up at the ceiling where a head was blocking my view. I recognised his face but I hadn't seen it in a long time.
"Severus? Severus Snape? Is that you?" I whispered.
"Lily," The voice was a sigh of relief but also one of concern. I tried to sit up and screamed as the pain shot down my arm. Severus stopped me from sitting up by placing a hand on my shoulder and putting me down on the floor again. "Stop. You've broken your arm. You'll hurt yourself more."
"How can you tell?" I twisted to try and look at my arm. It didn't look too bad.
"Where's the pain?" He crouched down and tapped my arm.
"Shoulder. Elbow. Forearm. Everywhere." I moaned.
"I think you've broken your arm, Lil."
"I want to get up..." I gasped as tears filled my eyes. I wanted James... Where was he? Where was Harry? Where was my son?
"Give me a minute, Lily. You'll be alright." Severus waved his wand, murmuring an incantation. I groaned as I felt a movement within my arm. It hurt so bad... Severus muttered an apology over and over again as he moved my arm across my chest. He then placed a hand between my shoulder blades and helped me to sit up. My arm, surprisingly, did not hurt but everything else just ached. My ankle killed as I tried to stand but Severus helped me balance on one leg, putting his arms around me to support me.
"Where's James? Where's Harry?" My tears flowed freely down my face because I already knew the answer.
"James is dead." The way that Severus said it hurt. It hurt like lemon juice in a cut, worse than salt rubbed into the wounds. It said it harshly and I think that's what made me collapse as suddenly I felt my knees give out and Severus was holding me up. Severus must have seen my face of pure pain as he looked deeply into my eyes, holding me tight and murmuring apologies over and over.
"Where's... Where's Harry?" I gasped.
"I... I don't know." I almost fell backwards and Severus had to hold me up again.
"What do you mean?" I cried through the never ending flow of rears.
"He isn't here, Lily... Your son isn't here."
"THEN WHERE IS HE?" I screamed, pushing Severus away. The force behind my fists to his chest surprised him enough that he let me go and moved back a step only to come to rescue when I almost went to the floor again. I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die... Why hadn't He killed me??
"I don't know, Lily... I don't know..." Severus' voice was terrified. He was scared of the way I was acting but I honestly didn't care. He could not come to my side, fix my arm and tell me I was living for nothing. Nothing...
"Why me... Why... What's the point..." I continued this up as Severus pulled me close and started to pull me out of the house. I let him drag me, not caring... Not wanting to leave where my husband lay... Not wanting to leave when Harry could be... dead... As I was stuck in my bubble of panic and despair, Severus pulled out his wand and cast a spell. Something shiny popped out of the end of his wand and disappeared down the road. I didn't notice what shape it took but I saw that it was a patronus. I didn't care enough to ask where it had gone and who it was going to. However it did not take long for a reply to come back as a phoenix landed in front of us in the middle of the dark street. It spoke with Dumbledore's voice, Albus Dumbledore the most experienced and wise wizard who was also the headmaster to my old secondary school of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was the one who had told us to go into hiding after an anonymous tip off had said that He was after us... After my little boy... Had He succeeded? Had He killed my son? Had He...
"I'll lift it now. Be quick." The phoenix then vanished. Severus took hold of my waist with one arm, holding my sore arm in his hand and he turned on the spot. I was squeezed through a thick rubber tube which made it hard to breathe but eventually we stepped onto solid ground. Severus pulled me forwards and I struggled to make sense of the brightness of my surroundings. He gently pushed me into a chair opposite Albus. Albus Dumbledore was sat in the chair behind his desk, looking weary. His silver beard had been tucked into the belt at his waist and his wand lay on his desk beside his folded hands. Severus hovered behind me.
"Lily. Are you alright?" Albus asked, quietly. I couldn't answer. I was suddenly overcome with the pain of losing James and Harry that the tears overflowed again and I sobbed into my hands. Albus ahemed lightly and I looked up to see his kind face and a hand reaching across his desk with a tissue. I took it and sobbed into it for a little longer but eventually the tears stemmed and I fiddled with my soaking tissue.
"Severus. Please leave." I heard footsteps pause and it was only then that I realised that Severus had been pacing the floor all the time I had been crying.
"Why?"
"Please, Severus. And I will know if you decide to hover." Albus gave Severus such a meaningful look that I could almost feel the tension in the air. However, Severus did not respond and he left Albus's office, shutting the door behind him. Albus waited just a little longer than looked at me.
"Lily. Harry is alive and well." I almost choked.
"He is?"
"Yes. I had Rebeus Hagrid take him to a safe place. I have seen him for myself. He is not dead. He is safe."
"But... But James..." Albus bowed his head.
"Yes. James is dead. I'm afraid that nothing will bring him back. But... I need to discuss something with you."
"What?"
"Before you and James went into hiding, I had a discussion with James. I cannot say what we discussed but I want you to know that James died because he wished to protect you and Harry. Which he did. I have to admit that I doubted that he could do it. One man against the cruel Lord Voldemort... It was a doubt that terrified me. However, James managed it and proved me wrong which I am proud to admit."
"But... But James is dead..." I gasped, almost near to tears again.
"Yes James is dead... But he took away the threat of Lord Voldemort." This stunned me into silence.
"Impossible..." I whispered.
"Yes he did. Even if just for a short while."
"Lord Voldemort is... Dead?"
"No. Not dead. Gone but I have no doubt he will return. We need to consider the safety of your own wellbeing as well as your son's. I have not a single doubt that Harry will be in grave danger once Voldemort's followers hear of his downfall. As will you once it is discovered that you lived."
"Why did he let me live? I don't understand..." I ran a hand through my red hair. My hair was tangled and knotty but I didn't care what I looked like right now. I had so many questions...
"I believe that Voldemort wanted his obstacles out of his way before he took care of Harry. You were in his way and so was James."
"But why kill James and not me?"
"Oh I don't believe for a moment that he wanted you to live. If he had not had his downfall, he would have murdered you too, in cold blood. I think having you knocked out was just a cruel way for you to be awoken by him and for him to murder you without you having any form of defence. Cruel but it would have worked. Remember, Lily. Voldemort does not love. He does not care. All he knows is cruelty and evil. He would have slain you without a single thought to it." I knew that any other rational person would have been horrified at the thought of death, terrified even. I didn't care. I didn't care, I honestly didn't. I would have begged Albus to do me the honour but I knew he wouldn't. When I didn't answer, Albus stretched his hand out across the desk. I looked up again to see his look of pure sympathy and concern. The concern would have warmed my heart if it hadn't already been so damaged...
"It is not worth it, Lily. It won't bring him back..." I didn't want to talk death with Albus. Albus was sweet but what would he know? What would he know about death?
"So what do I do now then?" I asked, in an attempt to change the subject. Albus hesitated as if considering whether or not to indulge me with an answer to my request or to persist on the topic of my death.
"We protect you and we keep Harry safely hidden where he is."
"Protect me?"
"I know for a fact that Voldemort's followers will be picking off the Order of the Phoenix more now that they have lost their leader and master. If they know that you and your son live, they will torture you for information as to where Harry is and will kill you. Your protection is now a priority."
Albus went on into discussions of hideouts and plans to stay concealed. I tried to listen but my thoughts continued to stray away. My heart ached with my sorrow at losing James, my pain at not having my son safe. It would seem like Harry was not alive until I saw him again. I had to see my son...
Finally, he waved his wand and a phoenix patronus burst out the tip and flew off out of the room, vanishing into the wall.
"Now... Before Severus comes back, I want to give you something. I feel that you will need it more than me." Albus opened a drawer in his desk and took out something which I knew very well. James' Invisibility Cloak. This Cloak had been handed to James from his father, passed down from father to son for generations. It still worked to perfection, concealing the wearer better than a disillusionment charm. I took the Cloak from him and ran it through my fingers, feeling the way that it felt like running water. Light as a feather, as soft as silk.
"I'm sorry, Lily. I feel as if this is my fault. I should have been your Secret Keeper... I should have given you James' Cloak... Maybe then you would all have been safer."
"It wasn't your fault, Albus. It wasn't anyone's fault." But then I realised something. Albus wasn't our Secret Keeper. He had never been our Secret Keeper. Sirius Black had been. Sirius Black, my husband's best man and best friend. Sirius Black, someone who had been there with my husband since the first day of being on the Hogwarts Express, on our way to Hogwarts... I felt my fists clench and unclench. Black.
"Sirius Black. HE betrayed us?"
"It seems that way." Albus bowed his head in solemn sorrow.
"He couldn't have done. I don't believe it. Not to James... And Harry... Sirius is Harry's godfather. He would NEVER do it... I don't believe it."
"I'm afraid this is how it seems." I shook my head again and again. Everything was stinging my head and I couldn't handle it. I felt dizzy... And then I remembered something.
My first day on Platform 9 ¾ and then on the Hogwarts Express. Severus finding me on the carriage, trying to cheer me up by saying I had better be in Slytherin... Slytherin... The house which nearly all Dark wizards and witches had come from... Severus' friends back at Hogwarts... Avery and Mulciber... Severus Snape... Who had joined the followers of Lord Voldemort once we had left school. Joining the ranks of the Death Eaters.
"Why. Is. Snape. Here?" I asked.
"Severus is a professor here, Lily. He is our Potions Master at Hogwarts. A fantastic professor he is too." I stared at Albus, shell-shocked.
"But... He... He's a Death Eater!"
"Was. He is no longer one."
"But how can you be sure?! He could be hoodwinking you! How did he know where to find me?! How..." And then it hit me. Severus Snape had tortured Sirius to find out information about where we lived. Severus Snape had helped to kill my husband and nearly murdered my baby boy. Snape. My oldest friend. The man who my husband was going to meet and apologise to put the past behind once and for all. Snape.
"Snape... Killed... My husband..."
"No, Lily. You're jumping to conclusions." I was losing breath and rapidly.
"How... Could... You... Be so... Foolish? Snape... Hated... James... Hated... Sirius..."
"Lily, calm down." Albus looked faintly horrified as he stood up. My vision seemed to tunnel and everything was blurry. I faintly saw Albus move away from his desk and heard the door bang open as Snape cried out my name. I was out before I could hear or see anything else.