Hadley versus the World

hours before death.

The autumn breeze tousled Hadley's hair and pinked her cheeks. She payed careful attention to the leaves crunched beneath her fathers feet as he strolled down the street beside his wife, who was pushing a pram along. Occasionally, one would fall past her, lightly swaying as the air gently carried it to the ground. The air was crisp . Hadley's world was painted red and orange.

as the family of four made their way home after an enjoyable Halloween, something caught Hadley's eye; a large maple leaf, it was a fiery feast of colors. She admired the precious leaf as it fluttered down, and cascaded to the ground

She absolutely had to have it; wouldn't her Mother and Father be impressed?

Her little hand slipped out of her fathers and she began to stumble towards her new treasure. Her knees were just like hinges, wobbling to and fro before falling on her padded bottom, just as she grasped her small hands around the leaf it disappeared, blown away. her bottom lip quivered and she began to sob and just as she did so the heap of leaves from the tree above fell

down they came like multicolored rain. Golds, reds and browns. They are a myriad of shapes and sizes, these leaves that clothed the trees were now spurred on the ground. Then she clapped like it was all part of the plan and rolled to her stomach to get up again.

Her parents exchanged quizzical looks; how did their three year old daughter mange that?

"Her first sign of Magic!" lily exclaimed "would you look at that harry?"

she beamed at her baby boy, who was back to one of his favorite games, trying to see how many of his fingers he can wedge into his mouth.

"she gets it from me." James chuckled, as he picked up his daughter.

"oh please," she huffed "the only thing she's learnt from you is that foul language." Lily smirked, breaking eye contact, and turning her attention to her daughter who was fiddling with the zipper of her fathers jacket.

"me?" he chirped, pretending his face wasn't a shade of crimson. "i'm the humblest person you'll ever meet, Evans." he spoke in a sarcastic tone.

"how do you feel about it, Hadley?" lily raised an eyebrow, as she fixed her daughters beanie.

"bastard!" Hadley giggled pointing at her father.

"I quite agree." lily laughed,

she snatched her daughter from his hands and began to push the pram further along the road. James admired lily's attitude and ran quickly two catch up with her. In no time the family of four were safe at home, engulfing the warmth of the fire place ; Hadley and James chasing Harry, who was zooming along on his toy broom stick while lily attempted to bake Treacle Tart; James and Harry's favorite.

after half an hour of non stop running James slumped in a kitchen chair and threw his glasses on the table. "done already?" lily asked as she took the tray out of the oven.

"we've only just begun" he sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair "here i'll help you"

"careful it's ho-"

he grabbed the burning metal with his bare hands- He ran on the spot, stamping his feet for a few seconds, and then paced halfway down the kitchen and back. His eyes fell upon the mess he'd made.

"I'm sorry, Lily, i was just trying to help." he grunted still, still clutching on his scorched hand.

she sighed "Potter, you fool." she dragged him to the kitchen sink and placed his hand under the tap; his blistered hand filched as it touched the chilled water.

its was complete silence, the only sounds you could here were the trickling water, the distant sound of Celestina Warbeck's track coming out the living room, Harry's gurgling, and Hadley's giggling while she played with Bosley the Ginger Kneazle Cat.

The couple locked eyes, in those few seconds There was no time, no wind, no rain. James's mind was at peace. Lily shifted an inch closer- their shoulders were now touching.

"you didn't need to help" her eyebrows furrowed and she focused on his scorched hands, refusing to look at him. "I had it under control."

"I wanted to, besides, something smelt like it was burning" he chuckled, but winced as the pain hit him.

she smiled at him sympathetically, "perhaps i could actually smell something if you didn't use buckets of conditioner this morning." she snapped.

"I wouldn't be the one to talk. The amount of Rose Perfume you're wearing is giving me an asthma attack ."

"I ran out of that stuff yesterday" she whispered. "And you hogged the shower all this morning." he replied. Their faces were millimeters apart, His eyes search hers.

Warm lips pressed against his.

A Kiss like this was a beginning, a promise of much more to come, a happy life, a big future.