1981 / 1982 / 1995
Title: 1981
House: Gryffindor
Word Count: 100
Characters/Pairings: Lily/James
Author's Notes: For the Halloween challenge. The first of three in a series. Thank goodness for the very helpful timeline over at the Lexicon.
In the darkness of their bedroom, James' chest slowly rises and falls. Running after the impossibly energetic baby leaves her exhausted, but Lily tries to stay awake long enough to watch her husband sleep. For just a moment, the threat that looms unendingly on the edge of her consciousness slips away, and there is only this. Stillness. Peace. Hope, even. She smiles and allows herself to wonder how different he will look when his perpetually unruly hair turns grey.
Laying her head back on the pillow, Lily notices the clock striking midnight. Halloween, she thinks, just before sleep takes her.
Title: 1982
House: Gryffindor
Word Count: 100
Characters/Pairings: Petunia, Harry, Vernon
Author's Notes: Petunia's certainly been a lousy surrogate parent and sister, but I can't imagine that she's all heartless all the time, you know?
Petunia paces the lounge. She closes her eyes and sighs heavily, trying to shut out the screams of her two year old nephew, who is inconsolable.
Given a bottle, Dudley would always settle, but Harry pushes away the one she offers. She's even rocked him, something she's usually loathe to do. But if this wakes Vernon...
Too late. He clambers downstairs wearing a look of disgust.
"Petunia, it's after midnight! Please!"
And then she realizes: that makes today Halloween. She looks into the child's eyes, so like her dead sister's, and shivers.
"I'm sorry," she says, but not to Vernon.
Title: 1995
House: Gryffindor
Word Count: 100
Characters/Pairings: Remus/Sirius
Remus and Sirius sit across from each other at the kitchen table at 12 Grimmauld Place, an open bottle of Firewhiskey between them. They've been reminiscing for hours.
Somewhere in the vastness that is the ruined Black homestead, a grandfather clock chimes twelve times. Midnight. October 31st.
Remus looks at his oldest friend, whose eyes are shining with the suggestion of tears. He reaches for Sirius' hand, rougher and yet more frail since Azkaban.
Sirius squeezes back, and raises the glass in his free hand. "To James and Lily."
"To James and Lily. And to us."
Sirius smiles. "To us."
House: Gryffindor
Word Count: 100
Characters/Pairings: Lily/James
Author's Notes: For the Halloween challenge. The first of three in a series. Thank goodness for the very helpful timeline over at the Lexicon.
In the darkness of their bedroom, James' chest slowly rises and falls. Running after the impossibly energetic baby leaves her exhausted, but Lily tries to stay awake long enough to watch her husband sleep. For just a moment, the threat that looms unendingly on the edge of her consciousness slips away, and there is only this. Stillness. Peace. Hope, even. She smiles and allows herself to wonder how different he will look when his perpetually unruly hair turns grey.
Laying her head back on the pillow, Lily notices the clock striking midnight. Halloween, she thinks, just before sleep takes her.
Title: 1982
House: Gryffindor
Word Count: 100
Characters/Pairings: Petunia, Harry, Vernon
Author's Notes: Petunia's certainly been a lousy surrogate parent and sister, but I can't imagine that she's all heartless all the time, you know?
Petunia paces the lounge. She closes her eyes and sighs heavily, trying to shut out the screams of her two year old nephew, who is inconsolable.
Given a bottle, Dudley would always settle, but Harry pushes away the one she offers. She's even rocked him, something she's usually loathe to do. But if this wakes Vernon...
Too late. He clambers downstairs wearing a look of disgust.
"Petunia, it's after midnight! Please!"
And then she realizes: that makes today Halloween. She looks into the child's eyes, so like her dead sister's, and shivers.
"I'm sorry," she says, but not to Vernon.
Title: 1995
House: Gryffindor
Word Count: 100
Characters/Pairings: Remus/Sirius
Remus and Sirius sit across from each other at the kitchen table at 12 Grimmauld Place, an open bottle of Firewhiskey between them. They've been reminiscing for hours.
Somewhere in the vastness that is the ruined Black homestead, a grandfather clock chimes twelve times. Midnight. October 31st.
Remus looks at his oldest friend, whose eyes are shining with the suggestion of tears. He reaches for Sirius' hand, rougher and yet more frail since Azkaban.
Sirius squeezes back, and raises the glass in his free hand. "To James and Lily."
"To James and Lily. And to us."
Sirius smiles. "To us."