Deliverance. Disorder. Descent.

Author note – Iis done! after the past few weeks this story has finally come to life (and is out of my head!) and i would LOVE for you to leave a review (no matter how short) if you've read it - I thrive on feedback and just because it's the end (and hey maybe by the time you read this, it's been around for a while) i would STILL appreciate your thoughts (both the positive and negative) - i always feel good when my phone beeps with an email from ... :)

Enjoy!

for my best friend in the universe.

August

Life returned to a somewhat sense of normality in the weeks that followed. Riddle was in a top-security holding, his assets frozen and his wide network of employees were being arrested one-by-one. Lily and James were cleared to break cover in its entirety and they were able to head to their real homes and sleep in their own beds.

It was only one small thing, but Lily mourned the loss of her video of Hairspray. As wave after wave of morning sickness either confined her to her house, or at best, desk work, she missed the days where she could come home from a bad day at work, bake muffins and sing loudly and jam along with Tracy Turnblad and the Corny Collins' show. Of late, she came home from work, baked muffins and hummed tunelessly the songs from the film.

James was always there; ready to help with the cleaning up, the taste testing, and always on hand to cuddle up to on the ever-increasing chilly nights. They were both of them alone in the world, with only each other to turn to. Their colleagues left them to themselves, knowing it took a while to get used to real life after being in deep cover. They spent whole days chasing up paperwork, sitting close together, never straying too far from the other. One of the problems of being in deep cover – you get so attached and dependent on your partner that being away from them afterwards takes effort.

One evening, as they watched the nightly news on the television, they snuggled into each other on James' couch. They were glad to finally be away for the weekend, away from the endless paperwork, away from the aftermath of the election, away from being constantly watched or needing to watch over someone. Lily stomach was starting to expand, they had talked about moving in together seriously, but it had gotten past that stage.

James kept his mother's engagement ring in his pocket, ready and waiting for the opportune moment to place it on Lily's finger – providing she accepted.

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October

As winter drew closer, and Lily's stomach grew larger, they had both accepted the fact that they would need to move in together before their baby boy was born. As James' parents left him their family home out of the city in Godric's Hollow, near Bath, they decided to make the move.

Dumbledore had his two junior agents transferred to the Bath office, allowing them to focus on protecting the politicians living and working in the South West and the West Midland regions. With the election hype over, their jobs would likely return to the boring day to day body guarding duties and following up on threatening letters sent to the various offices of parliamentary members. Life returned to a sense of normal.

Tom Riddle was still unyielding when it came to interrogations and questioning, each new round bringing nothing but rising frustrating for those trying to get information from him.

On a chilly Halloween afternoon, a week after Lily and James finished moving in to Godric's Hollow, their phone rang. Dumbledore had called them urgently to inform them that Riddle had been broken out of his prison cell. Despite being out of contact with the wider world for nearly five months, his wide net of influence had obviously created a pathway for him to escape. Albus had a set of contingency plans in place, and needed them both to keep out of the public eye for a few weeks, either until Riddle was sighted well away from their area, or was recaptured. They were at a heightened risk due to their previous dealings with him, and Dumbledore didn't want to risk losing them.

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November

After spending a fortnight, going stir-crazy from being stuck virtually in their new home, Lily and James decided they needed a day out. James carried the ring in his pocket, almost an afterthought, but something made him pull it out of the pair of pants he had worn the previous day and put it in the pocket of the pants he was wearing.

As Lily waddled ahead of him towards the front door, coat on and winding a scarf about her neck, he grinned at the silhouette she made as she walked down the unlit hallway. Today was the day, he could feel it.

Dumbledore had called that morning to say that Riddle had been sighted up in Scotland, on the trail of a dissenting former employee that had been a leading reason in the Riddle family being ousted from the country all those years ago.

As they exited the house, heading towards the centre of the town, the sun peeked out from behind the clouds above, making Lily's hair light up and the red in her hair shine.

All in all, it was a new day; a good day to be alive.

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Epilogue

James and Lily were married a week before Christmas day, 1989, in the little parish of Godric's Hollow, their son; Harry James Potter was born a month later. With a mop of black hair like his father's and the eyes of his mother, he kept the two of them awake for many nights as he grew into a healthy and robust child.

Even though the threat of Tom Riddle hung over them for many a year, the three of them lived their own happily ever after.

-The end-

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