Harry Potter and Death's Mystery

Chapter 7

Achoo! The sneeze caused James Potter to jump, and hit the floor hard. Groaning, he sat up, and rubbed his hand through his hair. A layer of dust fell off his head, causing him to sneeze again.

He looked around for his glasses, which were nowhere in his sight, and noticed that he had been lying in a pile of dust on the floor by the stairs. Explains why I sneezed, he thought. 

That was when he remembered his final memory. "Lily! Harry!" He called, running around the room, bumping into multiple tables and chairs. 

"I'm up here, James," Lily sobbed, causing James to stop in his path. He found his spare pair of glasses on an end table, and attempted to wipe them on his shirt. He put them on, and rushed up the stairs. 

"Lily!" 

He found her sobbing by Harry's crib which was empty.

"I failed, James!"

"No, you didn't, Lily, you did all you could. And we don't even know if he is —" he couldn't say the word "— Sirius might've come and taken him, and went to go get help."

"You're right," Lily stood up and rubbed her eyes, "I can't believe Peter would do something like this!" She muttered, biting her bottom lip. 

"To think we trusted him," James kicked the air, and a puff of dust left the floor, causing him to sneeze again. "Why's there so much dust? It couldn't have come so quickly."

"You're right," Lily knelt down, and drew a line in the dust with her finger, examining it closely. "This looks like it's been here for years."

"You don't think —" James began.

"That we died? Or at least were unconscious for a while? Yes, I do. Doesn't explain why we weren't buried, though."

"What if we were buried? I mean, if we came back from the dead, anything's possible. I say we try to find out the date." James suggested.

"Good idea, do you have your mirror?" James thought for a second, before bolted out of the room. After a few minutes, he came back looking down. "It's not where I left it. Someone must've taken it."

"It's alright. We should go to the cemetery, first." Lily said, making her way to the door, while wiping her tears. 

"Why the cemetery?" asked James.

"We can look on the tombstones to find a recent date. Plus, we can see if we have one, or Harry." She mumbled her son's voice, before leaving the room, James following suit.

"James! Look at this!" Lily exclaimed, stopping abruptly as she saw the placard outside her house.

"The house looks worse from the outside," whispered James. 

"Read this!" Lily insisted.

James walked over and his eyes widened as he read the sign.

"On the spot, on the night of 31 October 1981, Lily and James Potter lost their lives. Their son, Harry, remains the only wizard ever to have survived the Killing Curse. This house, invisible to Muggles, has been left in its ruined state as a monument to the Potters and as a reminder of the violence that tore apart their family."

Across the sign was multiple messages in graffiti, all wishing Harry good luck. James smiled broadly, "He's alive."

"But we're dead," Lily cried. "What if it's been a hundred years, and Harry's on his deathbed with five kids, twelve grandkids, and sixteen great-grandkids!"

"I highly doubt it's been that long. Maybe we ought to send a Patronus?"

"What if everyone we know is dead?" Lily cried.