February 14th, 1980
"Are you ready?" James called into the bathroom from the living room.
"Yeah! Just a minute!" Lily called back, putting the finishing touches on her makeup. She was wearing a knee length light blue dress, it had near elbow length sleeves and a sweetheart neckline. There was a sapphire blue sash around her waist. At Lily's insistence James had gone out and gotten a button up pregnancy shirt that matched the color of her sash. At least the shirt had charms on it to help hide his pregnancy from anyone looking too closely.
xXx
At the first sounds of mass apparition, Lily had jumped up, lunging for the first thing she could weaponize. A wooden serving spatula. She swung around, her dress swishing around her legs, smacking the nearest Death Eater in the face with the spatula, making their mask go flying off their face.
"Snape." She spat, seeing the face of her once best friend.
He froze, saying "Lily, I-" his eyes widened as she started to rear back to swing again.
"Are you kidding me!" James growled, smacking a booster seat across the back of the unmasked Death Eater's head. "We're not even in the magical world!" he continued as said Death Eater went down in a dead faint. A booster seat! It had just been a plasticbooster seat! He met his wife's eyes over her fallen ex-friend.
She smirked, "A booster seat, huh?"
The small elderly man, who happened to be the owner of the small hole in the wall restaurant they were at, burst out of the kitchen wielding a sizzling cast iron skillet in gloved hands. He was a grandpa with a mouth on him, and he would never hesitate to tell you why exactly you should respect him as a solider from the second world war.
"I don't know who the bloody hell you are, but you better get the hell out of my damn restaurant!" the owner growled gravelly at the masked intruders.
"What are you a muggle going to do to us?" One jeered, striding over to him, arms spread wide in a 'come and get me' gesture, wand held frivolously in their hand.
The old man held the skillet in both hands, as one would a baseball bat, and swung. The Death Eater screamed as the skillet made contact with his face, the mask cracking and blood spewing from his nose to the sound of the Order and Aurors apparating into the building. He stumbled back a step, his hands flying to his face.
He dropped his hands from his face, glaring at the old man. "You want to play dirty; I can play dirty." He raised his wand with a flourish, just to have a sizzling cast iron skillet meet the side of his head.
"So can I, boy," The old man started, as the younger man fell into an unconscious heap, "So can I."
Yet another person apparated into the small restaurant, as several of the old man's customers were finally able to flee the building. The tall, pale man, with dark hair, red eyes, and a snake like nose looked around the room. "Ah. Lily, James." Voldemort said as several of his masked followers grabbed their fallen comrades and apparated away.
The wooden spoon/booster seat wielding duo shared a dubious look, before rolling their eyes and looking at the man.
"What are you here for?" Lily asked, "This is a muggle restaurant, what could you possibly want here?"
"Join me." Voldemort ordered.
"No."
Voldemort smirked, "Then I am here for thisss and only thisss." He raised his wand at the first person he saw, the elderly owner. He started chanting "Avada Kedav-" He swayed, red eyes rolling into the back of his pale head, he fell like a marionette with its strings cut. Yew and Phoenix feather wand rolling away from his hand as Lily and James slowly lowered the heavy metal serving tray they had worked together to lift and swing.
After a beat of silence, breathing heavily, the two Potters let the heavy metal tray fall to the floor, the loud bang! snapping everyone out of their shock.
The remaining Death Eaters rushed to their Master, apparating him away.
Several Aurors doing the same with the limp forms of Fabian and Gideon Prewett.
"What the Hell just happened?"
February 15th, 1980
"You should go into hiding." Dumbledore tried to convince once again. He may still think it more likely for the prophecy to have been about the Longbottoms, but this was obviously a targeted attack.
"Have they found our home yet?" Lily asked, knowing the answer. "Trust us, no one will be finding us."
February 18th, 1980
"I'm afraid that Fabian and Gideon Prewett succumbed to their injuries early this morning."
February 21st, 1980
"Potter!" Rufus screamed.
James jumped, startled, "Yes sir?"
"Make yourself useful." Rufus growled, shoving several files at him. "Work on the Vance case."
"The… Vance case?"
"Yes." Rufus answered gruffly, "Emmeline Vance was found murdered in her own home, hence the Vance case. Work on it, take Black with you to the scene if you need to." He continued, nodding toward Sirius who had been standing beside James, before turning to storm away. "I want results. By the end of the month, preferably, we don't have time to dwell on any one case."
"That is completely ridiculous! It takes more than a week to solve a case like this." Sirius exclaimed as James slowly flipped open the top file, paling at the sight of the first picture. He may not have known Emmeline very well, but he definitely knew of her, they had been in the Order together. To see pictures of her like this.. of anyone like this…
He slammed the file shut and burst into body shaking sobs.
"Hey, hey!" Sirius murmured, pulling him into a comforting hug, running a hand through James' hair, they stood that way for several minutes before Sirius spoke again. "I can work on it instead; you don't have to help. Not if it's going to affect you like this."
"No." James pulled away, wiping his eyes on his shirt sleeve, "No, it's fine. I'll be fine, I'll get over it." He laughed in a self-deprecating way. "I don't know why I reacted like that." He had never reacted near as strongly before.
"Well." Sirius drawled, "If I had to guess, I would say it probably has something to do with Prongslet."
February 22nd, 1980
10:00 A.M.
"Hadn't Vance been one of the Prewett twins' fiancé?" James asked as he and Sirius left the Vance house.
"Hm… Gideon's. Why?"
"It gives us a starting point." James stated simply, as they climbed back into the ministry provided car.
11:00 P.M.
Sirius sighed as he glanced over to where James was falling asleep at his desk. He didn't like that Rufus was putting something like this case on James, then demanding it be done by the end of the month. He also knew that Rufus really did not like that James had gotten pregnant. Sirius had been there when James went to talk to Rufus about parental leave.
"You'll get two weeks just like any other father."
"I don't think most fathers are the ones giving birth, though. Mothers who have been working here as long as I have are getting up to six months!" James exclaimed, taking a deep breath, "My healer wants me to have at least three. Male bearers are more likely to have severe compli-"
Rufus interrupted looking James straight in the eye. "That is not my responsibility. You should have thought of that before you took the potion and got pregnant. Especially in a time of war."
"Well, that's the thing, Sir, I didn't take the potion recen-"
"You are dismissed."
Sirius had tried to get James to go higher up and speak to the Minister, two weeks would not be enough for anybodyto heal from childbirth. James had refused, hoping Rufus would come around on his own.
He grabbed the keys to the Potter's truck, "James. Come on! I'll give you a ride home."
February 27th, 1980
"Antonin Dolohov." James stated looking directly at Rufus as he did. "He is one of the suspects in the Prewett twins' deaths, and more damningly, his DNA and Magical Signature are all over Vance's house."
"Are you sure about this?" Rufus asked.
"As sure as I can be."
"You better be right about this, Potter." Rufus told James, gruffly. "Now you can get started on the paperwork you let pile up over the last few days. After that you can work on the Bones case."
xXx
"Please state your full name." The minister stated, after truth serum had been administered.
"Antonin Dolohov."
"What is your birth date?"
"September twelfth, nineteen fifty-seven."
"Are you responsible for the torture and murder of Emmeline Vance?"
"Yes."
"Was anyone else involved in the murder and/or torture of Emmeline Vance?"
"No."
"Are you in anyway responsible for the murder of Fabian Prewett?"
"No."
"Do you know who was responsible for the murder of Fabian Prewett?"
"Yes."
The minister sighed, "Who wasresponsible for the murder of Fabian Prewett?"
"Igor Karkaroff. Rodolphus Lestrange."
"Are you in anyway responsible for the murder of Gideon Prewett?"
"Yes."
"Was anybody else responsible for the murder of Gideon Prewett?"
"Yes."
"Who else was responsible for the murder of Gideon Prewett?"
"Lucius Malfoy. Bellatrix Lestrange."
Needless to say, after a mere five minutes questioning, Antonin Dolohov was carted off to Azkaban for the murder and torture of Emmeline Vance, and the murder of Gideon Prewett. The Vance case was officially closed.
March 1st, 1980
"He was born late last night." Molly told Lily tiredly from where she was nursing her son in the Burrow's living room rocking chair. "I must say, I never thought I would have a leap day baby."
"He's precious." Lily told her quietly, she had just come by to bring the family a casserole so that they would have at least one night before either Molly or Arthur had to worry about cooking, and had ended up getting stuck talking to Molly.
"Would you like to hold him?"
"I- I can wait until he's done eating, though."
"Well, you're in luck. He's done eating." Molly chuckled, slowly standing with a slight wince and moving to sit next to Lily on the couch.
"Oh. I actually haven't ever held a baby this… young before." Lily told her uncertainly.
"You'll be fine." Molly soothed, "Just remember to support the head." She continued, passing the small baby over to her.
"Oh!" Lily exclaimed, adjusting her grip. "Hi." She breathed, emerald green eyes meeting the small baby's curious big blue eyes. He looked like his mother. She couldn't help but start wondering. Would Prongslet look more like her or James, would they have her hair or James', green eyes or hazel eyes. Freckles or no?
"See? You're doing just fine." Molly assured. "Besides, I heard you'll have your own soon."
Lily looked up grinning, "Yeah, at the end of July."
"Well, congratulations!"
"Thanks." Lily said softly. "Hey… do you think two weeks parental leave is enough after giving birth?"
"What brought that up?"
"That's how long Rufus is wanting to give James."
"Personally," Molly started, before pausing briefly, "Personally, I would speak to the minister. She's the only person above Head Auror. Trust me when I say, two weeks is not near long enough."