Harry Potter stood by his desk in a brand new office—well, new to him at any rate. He looked around, reminiscing over the great people who had sat here, all the past Heads of the Auror Office. Mad Eye Moody was first to come to mind. How he’d ever fill the spot of that great hero, Harry hadn’t the slightest idea.

He sat in the swiveling chair behind his plain, wooden desk. It didn’t creak, and was surprisingly comfortable for a thin cushion with wheels. Oh, the things Muggles were missing out on without magic….

He’d begun unpacking his files, parchment, and quills, when a knock came at his door. Harry hadn’t realized he’d closed it. Just as he was standing up to open it again, the knob turned softly, as though not to wake a sleeping person when you enter their room, and a small, pale hand peeked between the doorjamb and door, pushing slightly. A face followed, looking about with a wide, blue-grey eyed gaze Harry would have known anywhere. The question was, what was this face doing here?

“Luna!” Harry said, not unpleasantly surprised. “What are you doing here?”

Luna often visited Harry and Ginny, and had even been the first of their friends and family to tell them that their child was positively going to be a boy. They didn’t know how she’d been so sure, but she was right. And James Sirius Potter was due in late May; Harry was so nervous, for being three months from being a father was both exciting and unsettling. He and Ginny had helped raise Teddy of course, but this was going to be so different.

Jerking his mind back from the future, Harry just caught Luna’s greetings.

“Oh, hello Harry!” Luna said as if he’d surprised her by coming into her office. But she contradicted this conveyed emotion with the statement, “I thought you’d be here.”

Luna hadn’t changed much since Hogwarts: same dirty-blonde hair (now it was past her shoulders however, instead of halfway down her back), wide-eyed stare, and calm, drifting attitude. Her dreamy, mysterious composure could occasionally become wrapped in a gauzy seriousness lately, but the same could be said of anyone who’d fought at the Battle of Hogwarts.

The thing that proved her most to be the same old Loony Lovegood was her current state of dress; a lightly shimmering, pale aquamarine set of robes that were paired with some outfit underneath of the same material, but in a bright magenta color. Somehow, seeing the outfit with the grey-lit hallway as a backdrop, Harry couldn’t help but inwardly admire her unusual, but eccentrically impeccable, taste.

“Hello Luna. Saw my name on the door?” Harry asked, guessing that was how she knew where he was.

“Oh, is it?” She glanced at the door she was still standing near, half behind it. “‘Harry Potter, Head of Auror Office.’ Lovely! And yet your office doesn’t quite look like home yet, does it?”

“No, I was just getting set up. Come on in though, I’m not too busy.”

“Alright.” Luna left the door ajar, which promptly and silently closed itself—Moody’s charm on it for safety, reckoned Harry—and took a seat. “Wow, this chair is so comfortable! I wonder if they stuffed it with fur from the Whiffle-Tailed Lemming….”

Harry smiled as he put a few folders in order. “You know, I’ll have to ask. I don’t know.”

“Well, are you sure you’re not busy?” Luna asked, suddenly a little more intently focused.

“Not even a little, why?” Harry supposed this would reveal the purpose for her visit, if there were one at all.

Luna stared about his office for a half-minute, eyes drifting over the mundane Foe Glass and de-cursed artifacts, but lingering on the yellow shadows between papers and studying how the magic staples didn’t wrinkle the corners of even the thickest paper packets.

“I actually need a place for inspiration. Quibbler writing is my job now you know, even though Dad’s still editor and there are other journalists to write stories, I like to contribute when I can.”

“Oh? But how can I help with that?” Harry inquired. He hoped the article would not be about his new job as Head Auror.

“Most times I find someplace I remember something intriguing or infuriating about, then I start getting ideas from what I feel.”

Harry was still not making a connection. But Luna continued, “I was just going to see, if it wasn’t impossible, if maybe I could wander the Department of Mysteries for an hour or so.” She added as Harry thought about this, “With supervision of authorized personnel of course.” Her mouth turned up in a friendly way at Harry.

“You’re going to get inspiration from your feelings about that night?” Harry asked, voice trailing off as he remembered the fear, adrenaline, pain, of that night in fifth year. The night burned into him forever as being the night of Sirius’s death.

“Well, maybe this time not from my feelings but ponderings I suppose might be a better word. From musings that night brought to the front of my mind. You remember….” Luna trailed off the end of here sentence as well.

“I remember.”

* * *

Harry managed to get them into the Department of Mysteries. Now they stood in a familiar circular room, full of the same doors repeated over and over all around them. Blue torches flickered; there was no afternoon sun to come through leaky clouds down in this dark place. And there were no windows, even if the light could have penetrated the sidewalks and layers of floor above.

Luna and Harry stood side by side.

“Shall we just try a door and hope it’s the right one?” asked Harry. He honestly had no clue about what anything was down here, much less where.

“That’s the only way I can see to go about it,” Luna replied, not minding having a little search to stall before she found what they were looking for.

Harry opened a door straight across from them, and Luna turned to the one behind. She found the room Ginny had loved that night, with time in a jar. The hummingbird continued its endless cycle, joined now by a small tulip growing in midair from a bulb to a bud, to a flower and then a wilted rag on a twig, and back.

Harry found the room of prophecies. As more and more were recorded each day, they were stored here, and it looked like the collection was just as expansive as before the night where they’d smashed quite a number of them.

The doors closed simultaneously. Harry looked at Luna. “We’d better just choose a door quick, before the walls spin,” he said. They ran at once for the same door. There was a half second left, maybe, but still they paused.

Then the walls began to blur, without warning. Blue stripes of flame swiped past at light speed. A blank space wound up at the spot where their palms had almost pressed a few moments before.

“Well, I’ll try this one, and you try that one,” Luna suggested, pointing at the door to the left of the blank spot for herself to open, and Harry the one on the right.

The large black barriers swished open. Luna and Harry stared into the left door at the chamber of stone steps. In the middle sat an archway with a fluttering, gossamer veil. They walked towards it, step by step descending to the center of the chamber. Whispers floated over their ears.

“I can hear their voices,” Harry said. He didn’t know who the “they” were, but he wanted to find out now as much as he’d wanted to know all that time ago.

“I hear them, too,” Luna reassured Harry, just as she had when they were fifteen.

By now their steps were slow and reverent as they approached the veil. They stopped. The whispers were no louder here than they were from several meters away. Together they circled the arch cautiously. An undetectable breeze from nowhere gently pushed the tattered veil as they came back to their starting point.

Without any more hesitation or discussion, they pushed the veil aside just enough so they could step through.


A/N: Hi! Hope you like this story, it’s my first. (I’ve just written poems so far.) If people like this story, I have some ideas for different ones I may try out as well.

There was a great, slow, endless rush of wind that seemed like it would blow the skin and bones clean off Luna and Harry, leaving nothing but two pairs of eyes hovering above the ground.

But then it stopped, suddenly.

And they found themselves in a bright, undistinguishable place. They turned around to view the arch and it was gone. Looking around, Harry was reminded of the time when he let Voldemort “kill” him, and he woke in a grey, misty version of King’s Cross Station. However, this place was much brighter, and there was no source for it: the light came from all directions at once, making it impossible to see anything.

“Hello?” Luna called, seeming to think this was the best way to make scenery arise. Harry started at the sound of her voice.

“Sirius?” he questioned softly, after he realized there was really no other option; it never hurt to try.

There were not even whispers anymore. The silence was solidly surrounding them from an immense distance on every side. It didn’t seem like a place where talking was allowed, but they continued calling out anyway.

“Mum?” Luna asked, hesitantly.

“Dad?” Harry stepped forwards. Maybe walking in this cavern of white noise would help. “Mum?”

“Anyone?” Luna wondered hopelessly as she meandered with Harry.

Having nothing else to do, Harry and Luna continued aimlessly for a long while. Or perhaps it was a short while. This void had no time or place, no signs of life. It seemed irreverent to speak to each other, so they did not.

After what felt like hours, or maybe only minutes, they went to separate places inside their heads. Dreaming of the loved families they’d come to find, and what they wished was behind the veil. This place was nothing like they’d imagined it.

Lost as they were in this ethereal place, it was a significant amount of time before they noticed they had gotten very close to a—something.

Luna stopped very suddenly, and grasped the elbow of Harry’s robes to jerk him to a halt as well, but not soon enough, because he walked face-first into a wall. Then he stumbled backwards, bumping into Luna, as she had pulled his robes back so he could get a proper look at whatever he’d run into.

In fact, both of them had to retreat several steps backwards, then several more before the entire set of words were clear.

Floating on an invisible—but, Harry could attest, decidedly solid—wall, was a phrase printed, or painted, or stamped… somehow, a phrase was written in midair. It said:

ONLY WHEN YOU ARE READY.

“ ‘Only when you are ready,’ ” Luna read.

“When we’re ready…” Harry pondered, not finishing his thought.

They stood staring at the wall. Turning to look back where they came from, there was still nothing. Returning his gaze to the wall, Harry wondered what they had to be ready for.

Luna moved backwards, slowly creeping towards the wall, and sat leaning her back against it. Harry joined her, and they rested. Not because they were tired, but to find out what they had to be ready for.

* * *

“I’m ready,” Harry said after nothing happened.

“Me, too,” Luna seconded. “I am also prepared-for-whatever-is-to-come.”

There was no change. They continued leaning against the wall. Luna looked straight up at it, seeing the letters from underneath. No secret messages decoded before her eyes, so she relaxed her neck to look at the floor. The floor held no interest for her though, as it looked just like the ceiling, which looked like every single wall, except for this one—if there were any walls but this one.

Harry stopped thinking about anything. This was not like either of them expected obviously, and they had no way out. At least, not until they were ready, it seemed. But what would happen when they were ready?

“Are you ready, though?” Luna asked Harry all of a sudden. It was the first time they’d spoken directly to each other this whole while.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked.

“Are you ready, to see them? Or see what they’ve become back here, in whatever this place is?”

Harry thought about it. “I don’t know.” He’d seen Sirius, talked to him and his parents even, using that Resurrection Stone. But that had been when he’d been about to join them…. “Oh!” He realized suddenly what the wall meant.

Luna glanced over, curious.

“Are you ready, Luna?” Harry asked.

“I want to see my mother, of course—”

“But are you ready for this?” Harry asked, jumping up and waving his arms wildly around him. “Are you ready for death? Afterlife? Joining them and being gone, forever?”

“Oh!” Luna exclaimed, jumping up also. “Oh!”

This was a conundrum. After some thought, Luna replied as best she could.

To the wall, Luna spoke solemnly, “I am not ready. Not for death, no. I have a lot to do, with my father and friends, and I think if I died now I’d be… missing a lot.” The answer came easier than she expected. It was apparent that she couldn’t die: she was meant to do something, she was not ready. Not at all.

Harry turned to the wall also. “I’m going to be a father soon…. I want to see my son, and raise him. I want to see my godson and my wife again. I was ready for this, once, but now I don’t think I can leave without it doing more hurt than good.”

Luna nodded at Harry. If they weren’t ready for death, maybe they weren’t ready to see the dead.

Still, nothing appeared to be transforming on the wall. The once-cryptic message did not change, and the arch with the veil didn’t appear.

Then the words slid around on the wall, blending and turning from stone-grey to a thousand colors that were all mixed into an abstract pattern. A picture formed, a blue sky and green grass, a familiar lake and tree line. The mural then leapt off the wall and took over every white space where Harry and Luna were trapped. The scene came to life and words pounded in their ears, from some deep place inside their minds came the word “Lily”.

There was Lily, running with her first year friends, late to their first Care of Magical Creatures lessons. There were faint sounds, laughter and happy voices. Harry and Luna couldn’t walk around, they saw everything from an overhead view. Not like viewing a pensieve memory, but more like they were watching from some invisible cloud close to the heads of these students.

They watched Lily make her way through her first day at Hogwarts, doing wonderfully in all her classes. Harry saw Professor Slughorn tell her what great potential she had in potions, and saw the old Charms professor give ten points for Lily’s perfect hovering charm.

They saw Lily and Severus Snape talk about their first days in the Library before dinner. Then it morphed—they watched Lily’s happiest moments in school, then summer rushing by: spent with girl friends at the shore and with her best friend Sev at the park by Spinner’s End. There was no Petunia in these happy days.

Second year at Hogwarts, with Lily getting perfect marks in classes, practicing spells on early Saturday mornings on the grounds with Sev. Talking with friends over breakfast, Harry even noticed his father, James at the sidelines occasionally. The summer went by, Lily and Sev both hitting a growth spurt that was visible to Harry and Luna with their time-lapse view of her life.

Time seemed to move faster, there was less Severus in Lily’s life now, though they still met—never in public, however, usually in a secluded corner of the library. Lily had plenty of other friends, from all the houses it looked like. A few days she talked to Remus Lupin, Harry was surprised to see. The summer between her third and fourth year, Lily spent more time with Snape than ever, shockingly. There was even one time when Harry glimpsed a meal between Lily, Petunia and their parents. All troubles looked to be forgotten as the four laughed over some joke that his aunt—his aunt—had just told.

Fourth year was quiet, still Lily enjoyed her classes. Trips to Hogsmeade were prominent memories and there was no Snape, until there were memories of walking through dark halls at night. They talked and laughed as much as ever, but these times were few and far between the outings of Lily and her friends, those sweet spring days spent with feet in the lake and worries dissolved into a bright blue sky. This year’s summer was short, harsh storms kept Lily inside with a small kitten and a stack of spell books. Letters appeared to be written at intervals, Harry saw the word “Sev” often at the top of the parchment, followed by long paragraphs.

Fifth year and Harry saw darkness start to stain the corners of Lily’s happy life. There were still amusing conversations and pleased expressions when there was a job well done in a particularly difficult lesson. Slug Club started cropping up here and there, but there were copies of the Prophet lying around with headlines like, “Death Eaters Attack” or “Are Muggles in Danger of Being Murdered?” The scene from the lake didn’t appear. The summer memories showed no sign of Petunia or Snape, but the O.W.L. results pleased Lily. Another growth spurt.

Sixth year: more of the same classes, and friends. But more often now, James Potter would appear… a conversation between he and Lily in the Gryffindor Common Room before she set out on Prefect duties; asking to borrow a quill, and a simple smile passed between the two faces. That summer, a letter came with a Head Girl badge for Lily. She began writing a letter, starting out “Oh Sev, you’ll never guess—” then stopped, whisking away the name with a small flick of her wand; she squeezed in the name ‘James’, and continued writing just as happily.

Seventh year for Lily, and he saw her trip on the train. Just the most every-day moments now looked like they were the most special to her. Conversations about the weather were like heart-to-hearts, as they watched Lily comfort some friends on the loss of their family members. Dating James came up in the middle of the year, and Harry saw a few trips to Hogsmeade, late night Head duties evolved into a walk on the grounds, stargazing by the lake or from the Astronomy Tower.

Summer approached more quickly than any other year’s. Lily and James joined the Order of the Phoenix, they watched Sirius come to a meeting on his brand new motorcycle. James and Lily got engaged one night, a year after they graduated from Hogwarts; the wedding several months later and it was the most joyful Harry had seen Lily—the whole scene was glowing, tinged by her emotions. Then Harry saw her telling James she was pregnant—they were both overjoyed; the hospital scene was as exuberant to everyone there as the wedding had been; a scene from another day, still in the hospital where Sirius excepted the responsibility of being Harry’s godfather, and was ecstatic.

Every memory from there on out included a baby Harry in some way. Luna and Harry watched Harry grow up, making James, Lily, and all their friends smile. Harry saw his first Christmas and Easter, and on his birthday he even saw himself smash the ugly vase his aunt had sent for Christmas by knocking it while on his little toy broom. The last memory was of Lily watching Harry and James play in the living room, James shooting bubbles at Harry with his wand, small jack-o-lanterns by the fireplace and leaf decorations on the walls celebrating Harry's second Halloween.

The image froze. The colors began melting and transforming again, turning to an abstract of swirls and circles before slowly forming a new setting.


A/N: Hmm… This chapter was a lot longer than I thought it would be! But that’s okay. Actually, this whole story is going in a completely different direction than I planned it to. Oh well; I actually really like this chapter. Tell me your favorite part, I’ll tell you mine! :) Or tell me your least favorite: constructive criticism is good for the soul. (Yeah, I’m practically begging for reviews. Don’t disappoint!)

The colors of the new setting mainly consisted of greens and browns, with a translucent gold here and there. The random colors formed into leaves and bark, shafts of sunlight swung down like ropes between them. Harry and Luna found themselves in a forest, bodiless and looking down from high branches through leaves that were changing color. Again the deep voice resonated in their heads, saying with the clarity of a dark bell sound, “James”.

A dark haired, bespectacled James was maybe nine or ten, and had climbed high up a tree. Harry saw his grandfather—looking a little older than a father, perhaps, but with young eyes and a big smile—peering up at the boy with his own hazel eyes. James’s father waved at his son to come down. Laughing, James daringly flung himself from his perch into the open air. If Luna could have gasped, she would have. Harry was shocked by it, but only for an instant before James was caught safely in his father’s arms. There was an equal mix of disapproval, relief and amusement in the man’s face as his son was returned to earth without a scratch. Harry noted this in the back of his mind as one of the ‘parenting looks’ he’d have to develop… or perhaps he’d come by it naturally.

Another scene, James was a little taller and had a pronounced look of mischief in his ten-year-old face. He was in the back garden of some well-sized house, very likely his own, and he picked up a snail. Running to a back window of the house, he deposited it in a window box containing a hodge-podge of daisies and herbs and some plants that were probably magical, as they looked like sea coral growing from the dark soil. The snail was set by one of the lump-like coral plants, and it slithered towards one of the small caverns with caution. Just as the snail was crawling in the mouth of the little cave, James tapped the plant with his finger, making the hole close around the snail’s mid-shell region. Unfortunately for James, the snail obviously had some magical properties of its own and was able to speedily slip out of harm’s way.

James was in the kitchen, sneaking biscuits and sweets at Christmas. Setting a trap for Father Christmas on New Year’s Eve, and the next morning he woke up to find one black rubber boot in the net. **

Then James had his eleventh birthday on a cool March evening; James and his parents sat on a picnic blanket in the forest where James had climbed trees. There was a lot of food squeezed into the little basket they’d brought—Harry saw his own favourite, treacle tart. But the main desert was the cake of course, and James blew out the candles dramatically to the applause of his parents. The wish he said aloud, but it was muffled by something, as though they were on the other side of a thick glass wall. But the wish made Harry’s grandparents laugh uproariously. Harry’s grandmother even looked like she had a little snort when she laughed, which only made James and his father laugh harder.

On a hot August day at the shore, James looked through tide pools and examined the little starfish and sea urchins; no magical coral or snails here.

In his own room, messy as any young boy’s would have been, James hung Quidditch posters with autographs. (His favourite team seemed to be Puddlemore United, Harry was surprised to see.) Suddenly his mother peered through the doorway, and James turned, grinning. She nodded approvingly at the posters, then appeared to motion for him to take them down. Harry and Luna could lip-read clearly the next bit of the conversation: ‘What, why?’ ‘Well…’ And then a Hogwarts letter was produced. ‘Take them with you!’ They looked over the booklist together, James practically jumping with excitement.

The first trip on the Hogwarts Express, James met Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Lily. The creation of one Snivellus’s nickname was not seen, but there was an incident of picking out every dirt, vomit and bogey flavoured Bertie Botts Bean and re-wrapping them to sneak back onto the snack trolley. The first year was filled with several incidents like that, and Severus Snape was often the target, though not the majority of the time. James had a proclivity for Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Surprisingly, one of his favorite classes was Care of Magical Creatures; he produced detailed drawing for every assignment—his friends teased him, of course, for having what the professor had dubbed ‘a scrupulous eye—doesn’t miss a thing.’ Flying lessons were an interesting thing to watch, as James was talented in the air, but could not for the world get his broom to leap into his hand on the first try. He resorted to kicking it to his hand with his toe.

The summer was filled with days similar to the childhood days Luna and Harry had witnessed earlier: there was climbing in trees, and flying over them as well. James had his father enchant a Quaffle to pass to him for practice.

Second year and James was back with Remus, Peter, and Sirius as if they’d never been apart. There were no more trolley tricks this time, but the four made sure some dungbombs found their way into a Slytherin-filled compartment; Harry couldn’t tell if a young Snape was inside or not. A little further into the year, James and his friends were cautiously approached by two frightened first years who were lost and asking for directions; James began drawing a detailed map of where the classrooms and bathrooms were on the second floor, but Peter had told them where to go before he’d been satisfied enough to give them the map. The drawing was tucked into a textbook until a weekend a while later: while sitting under their favourite tree by the lake, James took the parchment out once more and began adding halls and closets, labels of which classroom was which and where professors’ offices were. ‘What are you doing that for, James?’ ‘Oh, I figure we should know our way around.’ Over the second year, the map became an obsession for James, and even his friends helped out when they snuck around after hours using the Invisibility Cloak to make the most accurate map available. Extra sheets of parchment were Spell-o-Taped together to make one seamless album labeled ‘The Marauders’ Map’.

The following summer was quite eventful, as James and his friends spent a whole week traveling between all of their households—besides the Black home, of course. That summer, Remus told his friends, after much tribulation, that he was a werewolf. The friendship was not daunted however, and the four boys were closer than ever before school started.

Third year and James kept a close eye on Remus, as did Sirius and Peter, for they were very worried about their friend’s Furry Little Problem; around the week of a transformation, pranks would rise up to distract Remus from the impending night of horror. They also began researching werewolves, hoping to find a better way to help Remus. When not watching for a full moon, James was trying to catch the eye of Lily Evans by any means possible; letting loose crickets and mice, and terrorizing the cruelest of the Slytherins did nothing to impress her, and the Marauders failed to see why not, as the spellwork involved in some of the events was quite advanced. James made the Quidditch team as a Chaser this year, and was looking to be the best they had. In one game, he was responsible for every point scored besides the catching of the golden snitch.

Then summer arrived and so did major growth spurts. There seemed to be a period of time when James constantly had a plate of food at his side and there were two new pairs of shoes, he outgrew them so fast. It was an amazing thing to watch, truly—new robes had to be bought for the school year, and the Marauders had a long day in Diagon Alley getting school supplies and envying the newest items in the Quidditch shop. There was one attempt to have a detour down Knockturn Alley, just for the sake of appeasing their curiosity, but Peter’s parents found them before they could get anywhere.

As they entered fourth year, James, Sirius and Peter threw themselves into the complicated process of becoming Animagi. While learning the necessary spells and precautions, they stumbled across a spell that gave them a renewed interest in their old project, The Map. There was a spell to create moving people and the labels of the rooms would change as the rooms did. They could even leave imprints of their own thoughts into the map, so it would work with like-minded people who may use the map in the future. There was a lot of wand-waving and potion-brewing involved in making the map so intensely sophisticated, but the four boys worked over that as much as they worked on becoming illegal, unregistered Animagi. The map was less complicated however, and was completed before the end of the year; each boy signed it and added passageways as they discovered them—or rather, they told James where to add them. The map was one of his most creative outlets, besides the few creative ways he found to torment Snivellus and some of his less pleasant friends… and the few rather embarrassing instances of James attempting to ask Lily out. Harry tried to look away, mixedly bemused and embarrassed—not by James exactly, and not quite for him, because James was just bold and out there with his performances, as rash as the time he had leapt from the tree tops to his father’s arms.

Summer came and it poured out rain. James practiced Quidditch until the lightning struck to close for comfort. Sirius, Peter and Remus came over to spend a week at the Potter house and they made leaps of progress toward becoming full-fledged Anamagi. They had the heads and torsos of their animals down, except for Peter who had the ears and facial features only.

By fifth year their Anamagus forms were perfect. They were ready before the first full moon. The four boys were cocky and undefeatable. Even Remus the prefect was still a Marauder by nature. James often casually asked questions about his fellow prefect Lily, though unfortunately usually within hearing distance of her. They saw James go through course counseling, and he chose all the classes he needed to become an auror—Harry and Luna could tell, even in these happy memories, the war was closing in. In the beginning of the year there had been the usual pranks, occasionally bordering on cruel, but always bringing laughs—but towards the end of this year, James was a little more quiet.

Another growth spurt leapt out at Harry and Luna, watching James grow in fast-forward. He seemed to become more mature. Sirius moved in only a few days into the summer, and long days were spent envying new brooms in Quality Quidditch Supplies, and then playing Quidditch when Remus and Peter came over. Neither Remus or Peter was very good, but they weren’t clumsy in the air, by any means. It was no surprise that James and Sirius both got mainly Outstandings on their O.W.L.s.

During sixth year, there were fewer pranks, but more trips to Hogsmeade. They used secret passages still to smuggle Butterbeer to the Gryffindor Common Room. War tinged the edges of everything now, as James was focused on becoming an auror. James was no less focused on Lily Evans however, and he started up several conversations with her that were not uncivil, and then Lily even began initiating conversations herself after seeing how James had really had a small, but important change of heart.

The summer following sixth year was rather short. The highlight of the season was when James and Lily began exchanging letters, started when Lily owled James to tell about how she was Head Girl.

Seventh year arrived quickly and ended quickly. There were wonderful moments in this year as much as any other, and the last half of them all included Lily, who’d finally agreed to go out with James. He took a lot of time to appreciate simple things, or as simple as things could get when he was preparing to join the Order of the Phoenix.

Even after school, James and Lily were just as happy together. James wasn’t pleased with Lily joining the Order of the Phoenix, but respected her decision to want to help. James went on missions that looked dark at first, but were often light and thrilling during the beginning of the war; Sirius and James usually worked together on Order missions when they could, and there was a lot of motorbike riding. Lily and James were engaged, and there was the same golden wedding memory, but from a different point of view; Harry and Luna looked down the aisle with James and waited for Lily, and they could sense his intake of breath as she walked down the aisle. Harry also took the time to notice his parents’ friends’ faces—there were a lot of people who really loved and cared about the young couple.

Harry saw Lily telling James she was pregnant, and they were happier than ever. Harry was born, and Sirius was the godfather—James and Lily had both agreed long beforehand—and even when they were all three in hiding, James was always glad to just be together with his family. He took a lot of time decorating for their first Christmas together, and on Harry’s birthday didn’t waste a moment before teaching him how to ride his toy broom. The happy moments where James was just with Lily and Harry were endless.

The happy picture of Lily, James and little Harry together stopped, and for a third time the walls moved around Harry and Luna until they created another scene of a life to watch.


A/N: Well, this was more difficult than the last two chapters. Not so much dialogue, sorry! I tried to make it as interesting and unique as possible without giving too much away…. The next chapter will take a while though, I have two completely different scenarios planned for whoever’s next. Review and I’ll love you forever!

**This actually happened to my uncle; he wanted to catch Santa Claus, so he set up… I think it was a cage or something… and anyway, he woke up the next morning to find Santa’s black boot! I think it’s a cute little story. :)