-July 31st, 1980-
Lily Potter smiled at her baby girl who lay sleeping peacefully in her arms. Sitting in the chair next to her, her husband was holding their newborn son, rocking and bouncing him carefully. She looked up from the precious baby in her arms as the door opened and both Sirius and Remus stepped through and into the room.
"Hey Padfoot, Moony. Where's Wormtail?" James said as his friends entered.
"He said he was visiting his mum. She's apparently sick again," Sirius said, watching the baby in James' arms as he replied.
"Do you want to hold them?" Lily asked, causing their attention to break away from the babies they had been watching so they could stare at her.
"You want us to hold them? Have you met me?" Sirius asked, sounding slightly stressed. James shook his head, standing up and moving over so he was next to Sirius. He passed his son over, showing Sirius how to hold him properly.
"Sirius, meet your godson, Harry James Potter."
"Remus, come over and hold your goddaughter," Lily called from the bed. Remus moved from where he was standing at the end of the bed, to sit in the chair that James had just vacated.
"You want to name me godfather?" Remus asked, shocked. Lily smiled.
"Of course. One of them has to have a sensible godfather," Lily said, gently passing her sleeping daughter over to the man sitting next to her. Remus looked down at the baby he was holding, still sound asleep. A smile appeared on his face as he watched the baby in his arms.
"Thank you," he said earnestly. "She's beautiful. What's her name?"
"Lexa Lily Potter," Lily replied softly, watching her daughter in Remus' arms. She eventually allowed her attention to leave her daughter, looking up and over at Harry who Sirius and James were cooing at, the baby still in Sirius' arms. Both men were wearing grins. Even if they were in the middle of a war, Lily couldn't be happier.
-Halloween, 1981-
Lily glanced over at James. He had just put his wand down after entertaining Harry by making multi-coloured bubbles sprout from the end of his wand. Harry was now asleep in his lap. They had been in hiding for almost a year now, and it was the second Halloween that the twins were celebrating. Lily looked down at Lexa, who was curled up asleep in her lap. Her daughter looked so graceful as she slept, flaming red hair falling gently around the top of her face. Lily smiled at her daughter, glad that her family was so happy at the moment. But even as happy as they all were, she couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen, and soon.
As that thought crossed her mind, she heard the squeak of the front gate. They had deliberately left it squeaky, so they could know whenever someone was approaching the house. But she was sure that they weren't expecting visitors. She looked over at James, who hadn't appeared to have heard the noise.
"We weren't expecting anyone, were we?" she asked. She was pretty sure they weren't, but Sirius, Remus, and Peter sometimes popped by without planning their visit, informing James that they were coming an hour or two before they did. She hoped that it was just one of them. She paled as James shook his head.
"Someone's here." James quickly handed Harry over to her, shooting up in his chair and running to the front hall, not even thinking to pick up his wand from where he had just set it on the table. With one baby in each arm, Lily ran up the stairs to the nursery. The nursery had an emergency portkey and was the only place that they could Apparate from in the house. She first tried the portkey, but it wouldn't activate. And when she tried to Apparate out, she found that she couldn't.
She tried not to panic as she realised that there was no way to escape. She set each baby in their separate cot, quickly moving the cots so that they were next to each other rather than against each wall. She barricaded the door, putting every ward that she knew around the door as well. She then covered the cots with every ward and protection that she knew, putting all her effort into keeping her children safe. She just hoped that it would be enough.
~
Voldemort walked up the garden path, furious that the gate had squeaked and ruined his element of surprise. He had come to Godric's Hallow for one reason that night, to kill the one that was prophesised to defeat him. The Potter family had trusted the wrong person, his spy Peter Pettigrew, and the spy had handed the information straight to him after gaining it. Pettigrew had come to him a month ago, telling him that they had changed secret keepers, and that he now knew where they were. He had spent the last month planning this day, and nothing was going to stop him getting rid of the one said to defeat him. He had already set up anti-apparition wards and anti-portkey wards around the house, meaning there was nowhere for them to run.
He pushed the door open, stepping over the threshold. As soon as he entered the hallway, he stopped in shock. Standing there in front of him, in the middle of the hallway, was a large stag. The stag charged at him, causing him to quickly regain his composure. He flicked a stunner at the animal, causing it to drop to the ground. A stunner worked just the same as a killing curse would have in that situation, since he couldn't kill a transfigured animal; the animal would turn back into the table or other object it had been transfigured from in an hour or so anyway. Stepping over the downed animal, Voldemort continued to make his way through the house.
He used a point-me spell to locate the woman of the house. He turned towards the stairs and moved towards the heavily warded room that was at the end of the corridor. He could have unpicked and dismantled the wards, but he didn't bother; that would take too much time. Instead, he simply gathered his power and blasted them apart, before blasting the door open in the same way, causing whatever was blocking the door to be blasted out of the way.
He sent a killing curse at the woman who was standing protectively in front of both cots. A surge of magic pushed the woman out of the way as the killing curse approached her, causing the curse to hit the wall above the cots. The woman had been pushed to the floor, where she had hit her head on the debris from the door, knocking her out, causing the wards and protections she had put around the cots to fall. Voldemort turned his attention away from her. She was young enough to have more children, and one of his inner circle had begged for her life to be spared. Instead, her turned his attention back to the cots. He focused on the babies in the cots, trying to work out which one had the stronger magic, trying to work out which one would be his downfall.
The boy's magic was average, no larger than a normal baby of his age. The girl however, the girl's magic was swarming around her, almost double the amount a child would usually have at that age. She was already powerful, he could tell. And he knew that if her allowed her to live and to train that power, that she could defeat him. He couldn't allow that.
He studied the girl. She was standing in her cot, wide awake compared to her brother who was still sleeping soundly, hands gripping the bars, staring at him. Her name was written across the bottom of the cot, declaring that her name was Lexa. He felt her power pulse around her, the magic rippling in the air around her, an invisible force wanting to protect her. It was such a shame he had to kill her. So much potential would be wasted. But he couldn't allow her the chance, knowing she wouldn't join him. He pointed his wand at her chest, aiming straight for her heart.
"Avada Kedavra."
The green light flew from his wand as it had many times before, heading straight for the girl he was aiming for. It struck her, right in the chest and over her heart. Instead of absorbing into her and killing her, like the curse normally did, like it was meant to, the jet of light seemed to rebound from her. Her magic flared around her, brighter and more powerful, becoming visible in a bright silver and gold, as the curse was shot straight back at him. The green light of the killing curse moved at such a pace that he barely had time to register that it was heading for him, had no time to move, before it hit him.
He screamed; his whole body enveloped in pain. His essence was pulled from his body, even as his body collapsed to the floor, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. He watched as his body fell before he fled, being even less than a ghost. As he left, he saw the ceiling come apart from the backlash of the powerful magic that had occurred in the room. But whether it was from his magic or the girl's, he couldn't tell.
~
Sirius was woken from his sleep by a loud ,shrill noise blaring around his house, becoming louder and louder the longer he left it. He blinked slightly before paling, remembering what the alarm meant; the wards around Lily and James' house had fallen. He grabbed his wand from the bedside table next to him, quickly getting dressed and Apparating to Godrics Hallow, hoping beyond hope that James and Lily, as well as Lexa and Harry were alright.
He appeared in the street two rows away from their house only seconds before Remus did. They both exchanged glances before rushing through the streets to the house the Potters were in, since they couldn't Apparate any closer. They quickly headed up the path, and Sirius sped up when he noticed that the door was still open. He barged through the entrance and stopped at the sight in from of him. On the ground lay a stag, apparently stunned; at least, Sirius hoped that he was only stunned. Remus entered behind him, just as frantic, stopping next to Sirius, a look of shock on his face.
Remus pointed his wand at the stag, muttering a spell that Sirius didn't hear through his panic. The stag stirred, causing Sirius to let out a sigh of relief, before the stag turned into James, who was wearing a terrified look on his face.
"Lily, Harry, Lexa, Voldemort," James said frantically. That was all he managed to say before he was standing up and running further into the house. Remus and Sirius didn't even need to exchange looks or words before they both followed him. They found James standing in the doorway of the nursery, which didn't have a door anymore. Glancing around James, who seemed too terrified to move, Sirius gasped. Half the ceiling was caved in. Lily was lying in front of the cots, blood flooing from the top of her head, but she still seemed to be breathing. Behind her in the cots, Sirius could see both children seemingly sleeping soundly.
Sirius stepped around James and into the room, rushing the pick Harry up, wanting to make sure that he was ok. Remus followed him, scooping Lexa into his arms, copying Sirius and examining the baby to check that she was alright. They turned around to see that James had moved and was now kneeling down at his wife's side, cradling her head in his lap and gently running his hand through her hair. Remus crouched down next to James, one arm around his shoulder while the other continued to grip Lexa tightly to his chest.
"Hey Prongs, it's going to be ok. Lily's breathing. Lexa and Harry are alive. It's going to be ok," Remus said, keeping his voice soft and soothing. James looked up, tear tracks running down his face, his eyes starting to look red and puffy. Remus removed the arm from around James shoulder, instead pointing his wand at Lily.
"Enervate." This time, Sirius was calm enough to hear the spell that Remus had used. Lily's eyelids fluttered before she opened her eyes, sitting up and looking around frantically. She relaxed back into James when her eyes landed on the twins held safely in their godfathers' arms. Sirius drew his own wand, pointing it at Lily's head and murmuring a healing spell, to heal the wound on the back of her head before another spell removed the blood that had been running down her face.
"Let's get this room cleared up," Sirius suggested. He handed Harry over to Lily, while James stood as well. Together, James and Sirius vanished the rubble from the collapsed roof that was covering the room. The four adults gasped as one as they saw the body that had been lying underneath the rubble. Voldemort's body was spread eagle on the floor, a dull and faded look in his eyes.
"Is he ... is he dead?" Lily asked, her voice soft and quavering slightly. They all exchanged looks, none of them quite sure what to do. They didn't want to try and revive him to see, in case he wasn't dead, and none of them wanted to get close enough to check his pulse or anything. Lily eventually sighed, handing Harry back to Sirius, and picking her wand up from where it had fallen on the ground when she had fallen. She cast a diagnostic charm on the body on the ground. She stared at the results that came back before nodding.
"He's dead." They all stood in silence, the shock washing over them. The shock of what it meant. The Dark Lord was dead. Voldemort was dead. The war had to be over. No one said anything, simply standing there in shock, until Harry began crying, snapping them out of their shock.
"Come on, we should get out of here. The rest of the roof might collapse," James said as Sirius started to comfort the baby in his arms, trying to work out what was wrong. James moved towards the door and out back into the hallway, the others following him down into the living room. Sirius was at the back, still rocking Harry to try and get him to stop crying. Lily passed him a bottle as they spoke of what to do, of where to go. They decided to go to Hogwarts, to ask Dumbledore what to do now. They all left the house, walking the required two streets away before they Apparated to Sirius' house, since the floo in the cottage wasn't connected. From there, they took it in turn to step into the fire. Sirius went last, placing the empty bottle on the table in the living room before stepping into the flames with Harry.
"Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts." With that, he and Harry disappeared in a swirl of flames.
~
James, Lily, Remus, and Sirius stepped out of the fireplace in the Headmaster's office one by one. Remus still had Lexa in his arms, still sleeping soundly, exhausted from the large amount of magic that she had used earlier that night, not that anyone knew that. Sirius still held Harry, who had stopped crying now that he had had a bottle. Dumbledore rushed around the desk that he had been sitting behind towards the four that had just stepped out of his fire.
"What happened?" he asked, the note of panic clear in his voice.
Lily explained how she had heard the gate squeak and how she had rushed up to the nursery with the twins, trying to get out with both the portkey and through apparition, finding that neither worked, and barricading and warding the door. James explained how he had tried to hold Voldemort off, how he had used his Animagus ability to try and stop him before being stunned. Lily then continued by telling him how Voldemort had blasted down the wards and the door. She told him something knocked her out of the way of the killing curse and knocked her out.
Sirius then told how he had been woken up by the alarm and Apparated to Godric's Hallow, Remus nodding along. He told him how they had revived James and then Lily, and checked that the twins were ok. Remus told him how they had cleared up the room, since the roof had collapsed, and found Voldemort's body, and how Lily had cast a diagnostic charm on him, finding that he was dead.
Dumbledore nodded, looking over at the sleeping twins, Harry having gone back to sleep during the explanation of what happened. Dumbledore's eyes were drawn to the scar that was visible on Harry's forehead. He waved his wand over the scar, confirming his suspicions. It was covered in Dark magic. Without examining Lexa, Dumbledore turned to the anxious family.
"Harry, it seems, survived the killing curse and defeated Voldemort. His scar is covered in residues of Dark magic. Harry Potter is the Boy-Who-Lived, Wizarding Britain's saviour."
What they didn't know was that the lightening scar on Harry's forehead was simply caused by the same magical backlash that had brought the roof down. They didn't even begin to suspect that Lexa had a large scar, identical to Harry's in all but size, running from her left shoulder to her belly button, crossing right over her heart. Right where the killing curse had hit her.