Together

I wrote this for a DeviantArt challenge I'm participating in. We're challenged to write something about our favorite pairing every day. Characters belong to J. K. Rowling & Warner Bros. Entertainment.

It was Halloween and the radio on the coffee table was on, the scratchy voice of the announcer filtering through the small cottage. Lily sat on the couch in the sitting room, holding her tiny bundle of joy close to her heart, which was shivering with worry.

The voice coming from the speaker spoke of horrors that terrified Lily. In three counties, a thick mist and heavy dourness had fallen over towns and cities, depressing everything with light in its soul. Two bridges had collapsed in the past month, killing hundreds total. Just four towns away, a small house had been found with all its inhabitants dead of mysterious causes. People were disappearing left and right, and so many were afraid to even leave their house.

Not that it would make any difference.

Lily knew exactly what was causing these things, exactly what evil haunted England. It was tearing the country apart, and its normal people didn't even know what was going on. Some blamed it on the year, some on the change in the Parliament, and others on the French. But they were all wrong.

There was so much more to this world than the common people knew, things they believed existed only in storybooks and fairytales. Charms, magic, witches and wizards. Curses and evil. 

It was him. The one whose very name struck terror in the souls of Lily's people. And it was he who had caused Lily to be where she was now, in this small village, hidden from view in a charmed cottage with no one but her, her husband, and her beautiful baby boy she held now in her arms.

Lily let out a deep sigh, her heart heavy and laden with things that no one person should have to carry alone. For she thought not of herself, or even of her husband, but of the boy in her arms, of all the multitudes of people who relied on this innocent baby. It was such a burden to bear, and little Harry was barely a year old.

Lily was so deep in pondering that she didn't notice the shift in the couch. Only when James placed his arm around her shoulders did she start and look up, into the troubled golden gaze of her husband. There, Lily found strength, for she knew that James would rather die than let anything harm her or their son. She leaned into his embrace and returned her gaze to Harry, who stared up at her with a peaceful expression, his sparkling baby's eyes the same brilliant shade of ivy as her own.

Lily shifted a finger to stroke his smooth forehead, admiring its pale beauty. She played with his mop of dark hair that was promising to be just as messy as his father's.

James gripped her shoulder and rested his chin on her head, his breath stirring her red hair. Her troubled heart was growing lighter with James' every breath, and she felt, in this moment, safe at least. For they were together. Though Lily, the most skilled witch in her class, had little faith in magic and simple charms, she did have faith in the infallible strength of love. And where else to find love but in the arms of her adoring husband and holding her only son?

It was then that there was a terrible crash and the door to their cottage exploded inwards.