Chapter Text
"Hey, James?" Lily called down the hallway. "Isn't there an order meeting today?"
"There is? THERE IS! HOW DID I FORGET?" Lily sighed and got to her feet, grabbing her wand heading towards the living room. "Who's watching over Harry and Alex?"
Lily was already getting ready to apparate. She grabbed a dark-colored hat and tossed it on her head — October was so cold! — and threw James' cloak at his head. "I think Laura is coming over today. Better not be late! Hurry up! Why are you so slow?" James made a show of trying to toss on his cloak and Lily grabbed onto him and they apparated.
The rest of the order was already there, excluding the people who couldn't attend. Unfortunately, Sirius was on some sort of mission as a dog, and Peter had missed multiple meetings this month anyways.
"Any news to report?" Dumbledore said calmly to the crowd of people. "Any signs of attacks in your neighborhoods?"
"None," most of the people chorused. Snape just frowned and glared.
"Good. Sirius is tracking down the most recent case of a kidnap. Does anyone know where Peter is? He's been gone for a while now."
"He visited a few days ago," James called. "He brought the twins a birthday present." Lily remembered that vividly. Peter had been oddly quiet the whole time, but still managed a chuckle when Harry stole the toy broom Sirius had gave them from Alex, hopped on, and promptly crashed into their cat Whiskers.
Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a moment, but dropped the subject. Instead, he requested volunteers for a new mission.
"Anyone here willing to fight in the next wave? It happens next Thursday. Many of the light side has already volunteered, order or not. We're trying to launch a surprise attack on the Death Eaters near Windcroft." Dumbledore then started to list off battle strategies and tactics they would reuse and tryout this attack. After around half an hour of explaining, more than half the order had already volunteered.
James was the first one. Lily considered staying home with the twins, but decided that Laura had been doing a great job so far, and she would continue to.
At last, the meeting was over.
- - - - -
"What in the-" James started, but was cut off.
"HARRY! ALEX!" Lily pushed passed him and into the ruined house. She rushed across the rumble and found Laura's crumpled form by the cribs of both boys. They had inevitably fainted, but they were still breathing. But Laura...
Laura was dead.
"What happened here?" Lily stared at the rumble of the house, not hearing James at all. The style of this attack was so obvious. Kill off everyone, blow up house. How were the twins alive?
Then she spotted a heap of ash amidst the rubbled. It resembled the shape of a fallen human — sort of. Lily's eyes widened. No way-
"He's dead," James breathed before Lily could. There was awe in his voice. Lily shared his awe. How could this had happened? Who defeated You-Know-Who? No one had managed it before. ever.
- - - - -
The news spread like wildfire. Lily supposed it made sense; if everyone hadn't known by now it truthfully would have been odd. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named: Defeated by a 1-year-old was a topic that would have been expected to be gossiped about everywhere.
People celebrated in their own ways. Almost everyone sent relieved letters to relatives, safe in the absent of You-Know-Who. Dedalus Diggle even sent off bouts of shooting stars into the air. People weren't very subtle about the celebration either. Lily was completely sure at least half of the muggles had witnessed some kind of magic these past few days. They would have been completely delusional if they hadn't.
There was only one problem: No one knew which Potter twin defeated Voldemort.