- Text Size +
An Artefact of Sorts


“OH MY GOD.” Lily’s voice was shrill, pitched and terrified. “OH. MY. GOD. James. Oh my GOD.”

He stared at the dashboard.

“I’m going to throw up.” She pulled over to the side of the road and pulled the brake up, running ‘round the car to the trees and doubling over.

James sat for a second before he mentally caught up and he climbed out, numb, and walked over to where she was, scooping her hair out of her face and holding it back. He stared back down the road, one fist still tight on his wand, half expecting Bellatrix and Rudolphus to apparate right there behind him.

“James; oh my God. Your house.”

“I know.”

“Oh my God. James. Oh my God.”

“Lily. I know. Bloody hell. I know, alright? Stop saying that.”

She shook and sat down on a rock, wiping her mouth pathetically. The car blinked at them, the emergency lights on.

He felt like he’d been through whiplash. He’d been so bloody happy and then everything had literally gone up in flames. He couldn’t wrap his mind around it, he had to be dreaming. Obviously. Lily Evans wasn’t going to snog him ever and the house did not go up in flames. Both were just as likely as the other. Besides - there as the Fidelus Charm protecting the house. This was rubbish, obviously not real.

“Wake up,” he commanded himself and he smacked his palm against his forehead, “Wake up wake up wake up!”

Lily grabbed his wrist, “Don’t.”

“Evans. I grew up in that house. I - all my things are there. All my school things. My broomstick. I - all the pictures. All my clothes. My mum’s stuff, my dad’s books. My - my dad’s trunk.” He looked sick.

Thank Merlin Sirius had taken the Marauder’s Map and the Invisibility Cloak with him. James had give them to him before he left, since Sirius would have more use for the cloak at Fallengunder taking care of two werewolves than James would loafing about St. Mungo’s everyday.

He held his hands to his head. He was slowly realizing he wasn’t going to wake up, it wasn’t a dream, and everything was gone. He stared at the dirt beneath his trainers. “Merlin’s beard, I’m homeless,” he murmured.

Lily pulled him close.

“I - I gotta get to St. Mungo’s. I - I need my mum. I need my dad. I dunno what to do. They’ll know. They’re… they’re adults, they’ll know.”

“Alright,” Lily said, “I can take you to Mungo’s.”

“Bloody hell,” he whispered as Lily got up and pulled James to his feet. “Everything is gone, Evans.”

She frowned.

“I don’t understand,” he murmured, “The Fidelus Charm -- but Kingsley Shacklebolt would never have -- how did they --- I mean… how?” James emphasized. He looked into Lily’s eyes. “How?”

Lily felt a lump rise up in her throat.

“I don’t know,” she said quietly because she didn’t dare to say it.

Lily helped James to the car and got him into the seat and she closed the passenger door on him and ran ‘round to the driver side, her hands shaking. Stay cool, Evans. Drive him to Mungo’s and then find a way to get in touch with Sirius. You don’t know that it’s your fault this happened, it could be a coincidence. It could be that paper was only good for your eyes, that nobody else would be able to see it. And you didn’t do it, the Lestranges did it. You aren’t to blame.

But when she looked over at him and James was doubled up in the seat, covering his eyes with his palms, she couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming guilt sweep through her, hot and searing.




The owl came to Fallengunder that same day, late in the afternoon, two days before the full moon. “It’s a letter from James!” Sirius had cried excitedly when he’d first seen it - too happy to see James’s handwriting on the letter to wonder why it wasn’t Bubo who carried the note. The letter fell from Sirius Black’s hands before he finished it.

“REMUS!” he screamed, “REMUS!!!!!! MOONY!!!!!!!”

He ran down the stairs, carrying the letter, tears blurring his eyes. Remus was setting the table in the dining hall - one tiny table in a huge hall with but three places upon it. Sirius ran into him - literally without stopping and grabbed onto his shoulders and Remus dropped a plate in his surprise. “What in Merlin’s madness is the matter?” Remus gasped as the air was knocked out of him by Sirius’s velocity.

“The Potter’s, Rey, the Potter’s. They’ve blown the house up. They’ve blown up the house. It’s gone! James’s house is gone!” He shoved the letter into Remus’s hands.

Remus looked it over, his face paling as he read.

“It’s my fault, Remus.”

“It isn’t your fault.”

“It is,” Sirius said, “I - I sent Lily Evans the address. That bit of paper Mrs. Potter gave us so we could see it? I - I kept it. I was afraid I’d get locked out somehow and I didn’t wanna lose James and I’ve kept it all this time and when we left James there all alone… I sent it to Lily Evans and… and it must’ve got lost, it must’ve got lost and the Death Eaters got it and they’ve blown up the house, Rey!” Sirius choked over the words, desperate.

Remus shook his head numbly at the letter.

“We gotta go. We’ve gotta go to James!”

Remus nodded.




It was an artefact of sorts, the attack.

The Potter house was one of several that burned in the fiendfyre that morning. Kingsley Shacklebolt’s house burned, too, and so did the Prewett twins’ and the old Dumbledore house and Dorcas Meadowe’s apartment building (three other families were displaced as well from that fire, all muggles, and her cat went missing). So did parts of the Weasley house - though Arthur and Bilius Weasley had managed to salvage much of the Weasley’s most precious things, including Molly’s beloved family clock, boxes of family photos and Charlie’s dragon book. Ted and Andromeda Tonks got Nymphadora out of the house before it burned down, just as had happened in the old timeline, and Alastor Moody was saved by Gideon Prewett.

Others, too, other families, other houses.

Thirty-two in all, nearly every one of them a blood traitor family, everyone of them consumed entirely.

Three deaths occurred, though names were not released in the Daily Prophet - only that it was a young boy and two adults, each killed in separate attacks.

James felt numb at the thought of how much less the attacks had bothered him when he had heard of them the first time - how selfish he’d taken the news. He had not personally been affected, so it had not bothered him to hear that houses were destroyed, that lives were ruined, that things were gone that could not be replaced. The Potter house hadn’t been attacked then. Now that it had, the heaviness and the pain that he’d not felt before weighed heavy on him.

Some things were impossible to change, some things are meant to happen, and when attempts are made to stop them, they happen anyway in even worse capacity.




Across the ocean, in New York, outside of the suitcase, Tina Scamander sat in her sister’s apartment. Queenie sat in the chair across from Tina.

“It isn’t your fault, Teeny,” Queenie said, breaking the silence. Her eyes flitted over Tina’s numb form. Then, “No - it really isn’t, there isn’t a thing you could’ve done differently. Ly was sick, Teeny, that isn’t your fault.” She frowned. “I know he and Newt has their difficulties, but Ly really knew deep down that Newt loved him. You know he did, deep down.” Tina moved her mouth and Queenie said, “I know. But you did what you could.” She nodded fervently.

Tina stared at Queenie.

“Jenny, Lysander’s girl, she’s such a sweet heart really, I trust her completely. She really loved Ly a whole lot… She really did, I heard it before she knew about… me...” Queenie frowned and looked down at her tea cup. “So you’ve seen her then, Teeny.” She gasped and nearly dropped her cup. “Wait. No! How far along is she? Why didn’t Lysander tell you? Ly didn’t know, she didn’t tell him?” Queenie asked, “And Newt doesn’t know! Oh my. But it’s like a blessing isn’t it? A bit of Ly lives on… in a way…?” Queenie’s eyebrows knit together. “Teeny, I’m sorry. You really must tell Newt… After all, if he’s going to be a grandpa, he should know.”

Tina looked up. “Queenie?”

“Yes?”

“Stop reading my mind and having conversations with yourself. Please. You’re tiring me out.”

Queenie flushed.

“And whatever you do… don’t tell Newt about that baby. Not yet.”