“Avada Kedavra!” A man screamed as a jet of green light left the wand in his hand.

  “No, you don’t.” A bespectacled man swung his sword and cut off the jet of green light, preventing the sparks from touching him or his wife beside him. They were both standing in front of a crib that housed a sleeping baby.

  “Bombarda!” The woman beside the man shouted as she waved her wand at their assaint who promptly cast a shield to block the attack. The resulting explosion sent a rge amount of dust and debris flying around, creating a temporary smoke screen.

  “Ventus Duo!” The assaint cast and a strong gust of wind started blowing away the temporary smoke screen.

  “Lily, Protect Harry.” The man said as he approached the assaint with his sword in one hand and his wand drawn in his other hand.

  “James!” Lily shouted, casting a rge shielding charm over the crib to protect their child from the flying dust.

  “Bombarda Maxima!” James said, trying to take advantage of the momentary distraction of their assaint. Just as the sound of the explosion reached James’ ears, their assaint’s next spell made him jump back to Lily.

  “Pestis Incendium!” The man’s incantation had Lily’s eyes widen as she saw the intense explosion from James’s spell being engulfed by a monstrous snake made entirely of fire.

  James regrouped with Lily and cast multiple more protection charms, “My shield isn’t going to hold much longer against Fiendfyre, James.” Lily said as she desperately poured her magic into her wand to keep the shield maintained.

  James didn’t say anything for a moment as he seemed to be deep in thought, “Lily…” He had a gaze in his eyes that instantly told Lily what he was about to do.

  “No…” She tried to stop him.

  “You have to leave. Take Harry and leave. Voldemort is too strong for us.” He said, “And don’t come back. Leave Engnd. I don’t trust him anymore.” His final words were solemn yet cryptic.

  “Avada Kedavra!” Voldemort shouted as James quickly cast a levitation charm to pull some debris to be used as a physical shield in front of the shielding charm that Lily was still maintaining to block the killing curse.

  “I love you and Harry. With all my heart. But you have to leave. If not for yourself, then for Harry. Please leave, Lily!” James desperately shouted as he saw Lily hesitating.

  “Impedimenta!” James saw the Fiendfyre snake getting closer and tried to stop it in its tracks before shouting at Lily, “Leave! Now!”

  He approached the quickly cracking shield as he threw his wand at the side and held the sword with both hands, “Let’s see if you are as good at conducting magic as you are at sshing…” He commented with a confident chuckle. He was fully aware of the capabilities of the Sword of Gryffindor. Using the sword as the focus, James cast his next spell.

  “Aqua Eructo!” James shouted as a huge jet of water escaped his sword and met the Fiendfyre snake head-on after it broke through Lily’s shield.

  Lily’s eyes were full of tears as she grabbed her crying baby in her arms and gave James one st look before disappearing from her spot.

  As James heard the loud crackling sound that came from his wife Apparating away from their house with his son, he let out a relieved sigh before narrowing his eyes, “Even if I’m going to die, I’m taking you with me.” His eyes had an almost mad gleam in them as he stopped his water jet and hurled the sword at Voldemort.

  “Pitiful tricks.” Voldemort wordlessly cast a spell from his wand that deflected the sword at the side, away from James before shouting, “Avada Kedavra!”

  As James saw the jet of green approach him, his torso suddenly started getting thinner, and within a moment, he was a stag that was able to easily maneuver and dodge the killing curse.

  “An Animagus.” Voldemort was surprised but still confident as he case more spells in conjunction at James who had already approached the sword and turned back into human form before grabbing it.

  What followed was a suicidal duel where James took more and more hits from Voldemort while trying his best to get an attack in, but the dark lord was too strong for him. He could barely keep himself alive as they fought for another hour.

  ‘I can’t escape, he’s perfectly on my tail… Where’s the damn backup…’ James had already tried escaping from Voldemort, but the man seemed to almost be toying with him as he only gave him shallow wounds whenever he tried to escape, pulling him back into the fight.

  At this point, James had a creeping suspicion that something was terribly wrong with the current situation.

  ‘Wasn’t Wormtail the Secret Keeper... I can get that he betrayed us, but what’s with the Order? Not a single one of them has appeared even after Lily left…’ With countless questions unsolved, James gave his all to the fight, but it was a losing battle. He was sure of it.

  …

  A few hours ter, Lily Apparated back to Godric’s Hollow, in what was supposed to be her home. She had a stony expression with red puffy eyes that had a betrayed gleam in them. By now, what was once her home was no more than an amalgamation of debris. With the roof blown off and half the walls having been destroyed, there was already a yer of snow formed on whatever parts of the home were intact.

  At the same time, a stag appeared beside her— A pure blue glowing construct that took the form of a stag. It was James’ patronus that Lily had followed back home.

  She tightly cradled Harry in her arms, tightening the bnket that was wrapped around her baby boy before following the stag into the destroyed house. The patronus naturally pushed away the debris and snow wherever it stepped, allowing Lily to comfortably follow its path.

  “James…” Her stony expression melted as she gasped with tears falling from her eyes after she looked at her husband’s state. With his limbs either burnt off or mangled, and multiple burn marks all over what remained of his body, James Potter was dead. And the rational part of her brain knew that she couldn’t do anything about it.

  “Lily…” She heard a coarse response to her cry, making her eyes widen as she ran up to her husband. Flickers of hope danced across her pupils as she kneeled beside his head.

  “You’ll be fine, you’ll be fine, James…” She shakily pulled her wand out and started casting spells to save him. She cast spell after spell with no response.

  “I don’t have much time…” James started as Lily interrupted him, “You’ll be fine. I’ll keep you safe.” Seemingly not hearing her, James continued, “I don’t know what… happened with the Order, but… I used that spell, Lily.” He coughed painfully before continuing, “That… ancient magic spell you came up with…” Hearing James’s words made Lily halt in her path.

  “No…” She refused to believe it.

  “But he’s not gone. Even… with that sacrificial spell, he escaped…” James coughed even more as Lily cast a water spell in a conjured gss to let him drink water, but the water didn’t pass through his lips and merely slid down his face, “Take Harry away from Britain… You cannot trust…”

  James weakly opened his eyes and looked at his wife with an emotional expression, “I love you… always.” He gave her a weak smile as his pained breathing ceased.

  At the same time as James’ words ceased, the Patronus disappeared.

  “James! James! Nooo!” She screamed painfully as she rested her head on James’ chest while crying her eyes out, “This was all my fault… If I hadn’t come up with that spell…”

  Suddenly, thunder fshed as Harry woke up, followed by the loud sound of that thunder’s crackle, hearing his mother’s wails, Harry couldn’t help but start crying too.

  “Oh… I’m sorry honey…” Lily, in as much anguish as she was, bottled her grief down and pulled Harry close to her chest, before humming a soothing melody for him. Even as tears fell from her eyes, she tried her best to calm her child down.

  Lily’s soothing hum was the only sound that was heard through the cold night.

  …

  One week ter.

  There was the sound of knocking on a door as a woman stood in front of a house with her son in her arms, hidden underneath her cloak.

  The door opened not more than a few seconds ter as a beautiful blonde appeared, “Lily…” She looked over at Lily worriedly, “Come in.”

  “Thank you, Apolline.” Lily pressed her lips together as she walked into the house.

  “Would you like something to drink? Some tea perhaps?” Apolline asked with a thick French accent.

  “Just water, thank you,” Lily said as she settled on the couch in the living room, letting Harry rest on her p.

  “Is this?” Apolline came with the water and gnced at Harry.

  “Harry… He’s the one Vol… You-Know-Who was after…” Lily said, feeling annoyed that she couldn’t even freely speak the name of the person who murdered her husband. She didn’t care much for jinxes such as the trace on Voldemort’s name, but other people were particurly sensitive toward the name. And she didn’t know if the death eaters were still actively targeting people who used Voldemort’s name. She wasn’t going to risk it.

  “I’m sorry for your loss… But you should know, your husband is a hero.” Apolline said.

  “Yeah… I’m grateful for your help…” Lily said absently, thinking about James’ st words.

  “It’s quite all right.” Apolline said with a little smile, “After what you both did for us when our Fleur was born, this is nothing. We were lucky that her birth was only deyed. A few more years of pregnancy, as painful as they were,” She paused, “…they were completely worth it for our baby girl.” Apolline had a fond motherly smile on her face.

  Unlike humans, Vee pregnancy cycles worked differently. Unlike humans’ 9 months, a Vee would be pregnant for more than 2 years before the fetus was developed enough to be birthed.

  However, this slow development doesn’t affect the lifespan of the Vee, which is simir to that of humans. It just meant that a fetus needs more time to develop due to the magical nature of their powers.

  Lily just gave her a small smile in response as the sound of clicking was heard. A door opened and a man came into the room with a small girl with prominent ptinum blonde hair following after him. She was holding his hand as she took small steady steps.

  “Mrs. Potter. It’s nice to see you. Meet Fleur.” Monsieur Decour said enthusiastically before gesturing to his daughter who was following after him.

  Fleur mumbled something in French which Lily didn’t understand, “She’s greeting you. We haven’t gotten the chance to teach her any English yet.” Apolline said, gazing at her daughter lovingly.

  “It’s all right. She’s a lovely girl…” Lily praised Fleur who hesitantly came to the couch and sat beside Lily at her father’s behest.

  Lily gently rubbed Fleur’s head before turning to Apolline, “I hope you don’t mind me staying here for a while until I can arrange my own pce…”

  “I told you this before, and I’ll tell you again, We all owe far too much to you and James. Even if you and little Harry decide to live with us for the foreseeable future, we would be very happy.” Apolline said.

  Lily smiled and told her, “It won’t be that much, just a month or so until I can get a discrete pce for myself.”

  “Stop worrying so much, Mrs. Potter. You can stay here for as long as you want, It would be good for Fleur to have a pymate too.” Apolline’s father said happily.

  …

  7 years ter, on September 1st, 1988.

  “Harry! Come on down. You don’t want to be te for your first day of school, do you?” Lily shouted from the kitchen in fluent French. After living in France for the better part of a decade, Lily had grown very familiar with the nguage.

  “In a minute, Mum.” Harry’s reply was slightly muffled and made Lily’s head shake, though she continued making breakfast.

  With breakfast finally ready, Lily put the necessary things on the dining table and walked to Harry’s room, about to go check on him. That was when there was a knock on her door.

  She turned to the door instead. She twisted the lock and opened the door. It revealed a little girl with silvery blonde hair who seemed to be around 9 years old.

  She was wearing the Beauxbatons uniform that consisted of a light blue button-up colred dress that went just to her knees. She wore a simirly colored bzer over her dress that had the Beauxbatons emblem embroidered on it.

  “Fleur, honey? What happened?” Lily asked Fleur who replied, “Mum sent me to check up on ‘Arry and to help you if you needed anything.” She held the hems of her bzer as she looked at Lily with a cute smile. However, her eyes had a gleam that told Lily exactly what she was there for.

  “Is that so?” Lily smiled with a shake of her head as she stepped aside, “Come on in, take a seat at the table, we haven’t had breakfast yet.”

  “Yay!” She cheered as she ran to the dining table where Lily had already set a pte for Fleur. This was a regur occurrence as the little girl just adored Lily’s cooking. She would regurly find excuses to come by and eat with Harry and Lily.

  Lily and Harry lived in the same suburban district as Fleur’s family, so Fleur’s parents didn’t have any problem with her going to Lily’s house by herself.

  Meanwhile, Lily went to check up on Harry. She walked into his room and saw her son still asleep in his bed. Seeing his state, she sighed, “Why am I not surprised…”

  She brought her wand out and cast multiple spells on Harry, “You’re lucky we don’t have any time…” She grumbled as Harry was forcefully awoken and levitated out of the bed before his clothes flew out of his closet and repced his pajamas. The whole process took no more than a few seconds and by the time Harry came to his senses, he was standing in front of his mother, completely cleaned and fully dressed for school.

  He was wearing a light blue button-up colred shirt and pants that were a slightly darker blue along with a necktie that matched the color of the pants. His bzer was almost identical to that of Fleur.

  “Morning, Mum…” He hadn’t yet recovered from the shock of being forcefully awoken by magic and stayed there frozen for a few seconds.

  “I told you st night to go to sleep on time…” Lily shook her head and said, “Come on, Fleur is waiting for breakfast downstairs.”

  “Oh…” Harry’s response was ckluster as he followed his mother down.

  “Fleur, do you not like your mother’s food?” Harry asked in French as he took a seat beside Fleur.

  “Please, my mother is an amazing cook,” Fleur said with a straight face.

  “Then why do you come here every morning when you aren’t at Beauxbatons?” Harry asked with a ugh as he chowed into the pancakes.

  “Shut up.” She mirrored his movements and grabbed a few pancakes before drowning them in maple syrup.

  Harry gave her pancakes a look before wrapping his arm around Fleur’s neck and pulling her toward him, “Ahh! Mrs. Potter!” Fleur instantly cried out, though Harry didn’t care, and stuffed two of the pancakes on her pte into his mouth by the time Lily came back from the kitchen, “Harry!” She said sternly.

  Harry let go of Fleur and said with a ugh, “Sorry, Mum…” He gave an annoyed Fleur a victorious look as she looked at her missing pancakes.

  “You…” She gave him a vicious look as she took out her wand.

  Harry’s eyes widened as he noticed the wand and shouted, “Mom! Fleur’s hexing me!” His words sent Fleur into panic and she quickly hid her wand.

  A few seconds ter, Lily came with more pancakes and took a seat with them, “Can you both have a peaceful breakfast for a single morning?” Her tone was full of exasperation.

  “She started it.” Harry instantly threw Fleur under the bus.

  “I did not! You were the one who stole my pancakes first.” Fleur shouted as she gred at Harry.

  “You did too.” Harry gaslit her.

  “Did not!” She said.

  “Did too!” He said before both of them said in tandem, “Ouch!” They held their heads in pain.

  They both gred at Lily, “You used magic!” Harry compined.

  “Do you see my wand?” Lily said smugly as she pointed at her wand that was in its holster at the side.

  “Y-you cheater. You cast it wandlessly.” Harry instantly caught his mother.

  “Yeah? What are you gonna do about it?” She provoked him.

  “Fleur, Mum’s bullying us…” Harry grabbed Fleur’s arm and shook it, instantly changing sides and even dragging Fleur into it.

  “Mrs. Potter, how could you…” Fleur shot Lily a betrayed look, instantly teaming up with Harry to gang up on Lily.

  “Stop being dramatic.” Lily ughed, “Here, I got you extra pancakes.” She pushed the pte to Fleur.

  “Sorry, ‘Arry. She’s too strong for us.” Fleur instantly gave up on her new teammate for food.

  “Can’t say I bme you…” Harry sighed as he continued eating the delicious fluffy pancakes, “They are great pancakes, Mum…”

  “Thank you, Harry.” Lily ughed at her son’s antics.

  “Are you prepared with everything, Harry?” Lily asked, she had already helped Harry pack a while ago and was just making a st-minute check.

  “Yep, I’ve got my clothes, books, money, everything.” Harry nodded.

  “The Portkey?” Lily asked.

  “In my pocket.”

  “The backup Portkey?” She asked.

  “In my luggage,” Harry told her.

  “And the emergency parchment scroll?” She asked.

  “In my backpack. I’m prepared, Mum.” He said with a little whine.

  “I’m just worried…” Lily said before thinking something, “Walk me through the process of using the scroll.”

  “Mum…” Harry whined, but Lily just gave him a stern look. He gave up and said, “I just have to use my quill to write the message on it before tearing off the part where I wrote the message and throwing it into the air.”

  “What will happen then?” Lily asked.

  “It will burn on its own and you will receive the message,” Harry gave his prepared response.

  “Good,” Lily said as she noticed him casting an envious look at Fleur’s waist, “Don’t feel too jealous, you’ll get your wand for your second year too. You aren’t ready yet for it.”

  “I know. But spending a year studying theories is so boring,” He whined,” And I can already use your wand to cast magic,” Harry said.

  “You have to deal with it, honey. You aren’t the only student. There are muggles and other students who have stricter restrictions…” Lily expined with a smile, “How about this? When you come back at the end of the month, I’ll help you with the applications of the magical theories that you learn during the year. You can use my wand as much as you want at that time.”

  “Promise?!” Harry’s eyes lit up when he heard Lily’s words.

  “Promise.” She ughed.

  “Um…” Fleur seemed hesitant but gathered the courage to speak, “Can I join in too, Mrs. Potter?” She discretely gave Harry a look and saw his expression getting sour.

  “No, it’s just Mum and me. You aren’t invited.” He shed out.

  “Quiet down, Harry. Fleur can join in too, it will help you to have a partner to practice your magic with anyway.” Lily saw Fleur’s expression brighten up at her words and smiled.

  “But…” Harry was full of compints.

  “No buts. And Fleur will only be able to come by during Christmas and festival holidays. Unlike you, She has full boarding from this year.” Lily’s words pcated Harry.

  Harry was currently too young to live in the dorms for the entire year so, Beauxbatons had a semi-boarding system for the first years. Once Harry reaches his second year, he will also be moved into the full boarding system like Fleur.

  This system was in pce to get the younger students used to the boarding system for their first year without directly plunging them into it.

  The girl in question pouted when she heard Lily’s words, “I don’t want to stay in school for the whole year… The people there are annoying…” She looked away with a pout. Clearly, she didn’t have the best time at school.

  “Maybe it’s you who’s annoying,” Harry said nonchantly.

  “Y-you meanie…” Fleur pushed away the pte and got off the chair before walking away.

  “Harry…” Lily frowned at Harry’s words.

  “What? I didn’t even say anything too bad. I just called her annoying. I’ve said meaner things to her before.” Harry raised his hands defensively.

  “Apologize to her,” Lily said, “Your words hurt her.”

  “But…” Harry’s words died down as he saw his mother’s stern gaze, “Fine.” He got off the table and grabbed his and Fleur’s ptes that still had their breakfast.

  “Where are you taking that?” Lily asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “She likes food, it will pcate her easier.” Harry shrugged as he walked after Fleur.

  Lily was a little impressed by his thoughtfulness, ‘This kid, I swear…’ She shook her head.

  …

  Harry walked into his room, pushing the door open with his foot, “Go away.” He heard Fleur’s muffled voice that had hints of sobbing as she buried her face in his pillow while lying on his bed.

  “This is my room,” Harry stated as he took a seat beside Fleur on the bed and put the ptes on the side table. Seeing that Fleur didn’t respond “God, I love this pancake.” He excimed as he tore off a bite and started eating.

  The sound of his deliberately loud chewing was the only thing that was heard in the empty room for the next minute.

  “I hate you.” Fleur got up and looked at him begrudgingly as she grabbed her pte and stuffed her teary face with the pancake.

  “I don’t particurly like you either,” Harry shrugged, “Mom sent me to apologize to you.” He said with the food still in his mouth.

  “Finish the food in your mouth before you speak.” Fleur chided him after swallowing her food, she was almost finished.

  “Whatever.” He paused before eating the st piece, “I’m sorry that you’re annoying.” He said before putting his empty pte to the side.

  “You…” Fleur grabbed a pillow and hurled it at Harry.

  “Hey!” He shouted as he fell off the bed due to the force she hit him with. He stood up and looked at Fleur with vengeance in his eyes, “You’re on.” He said as he grabbed a pillow and hurled it at Fleur.

  What was supposed to be a simple apology devolved into a childish pillow fight that sted for the next five minutes.

  When Lily came up to check on the both of them, she was greeted by the scene of Fleur straddling Harry and hitting his face with a pillow again and again. She saw Harry hit Fleur’s side with a pillow, throwing her off of him, and intervened promptly.

  As Harry was about to hit Fleur’s face with a pillow, he felt his hand going empty as he was lifted into the air. The same happened with Fleur as she developed a pout on her face.

  “So this is apologizing, huh?” Lily gave Harry a dry look.

  “I did apologize,” Harry said defensively as he floated in front of Lily who had her wand out. She was levitating Harry and Fleur.

  “How exactly did you apologize…” Lily’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Harry.

  Harry said, “I said, I’m sorry and everything.”

  “That is a lie. He said that he was sorry that I was annoying. He never apologized.” Fleur said angrily.

  Lily gnced at Fleur before looking at Harry again with scrutiny.

  She was about to say something, but then a knock on the door stopped her, “It’s time to leave.” She said, “I expect you both to make up through the carriage ride.” Lily said sternly. When she didn’t hear a reply from them she asked, “Understood?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Both of them replied in tandem. They gazed at each other for a moment before turning their heads away with a ‘humph’.

  Addyctive