Lionhearts | hp. ✓

Year 7 | The Demise of Lily Potter

THE ART OF medicine is claimed to be perfectly scientific, based solely on the success of experimental procedures and the anatomy of the body. But even in the medical field, there are unexplainable occurrences – often called miracles. It was a miracle that George Weasley was still alive after weeks of torture and of significant blood loss – and it was a miracle that he still remained perfectly defiant against the Dark Lord, still entirely loyal to the rebellion. He did not break nor crack beneath the pressure that had him screaming out for his brother on the darker nights. It was a miracle and Lily Potter would be damned if she allowed such a miracle to be in vain.

There are times when people are close to death and they experience an unusual burst of energy and willpower called The Surge. Sometimes, comatose patients awaken as if nothing had happened to them and all was right in the world. A man about to go into cardiac arrest may experience so much excitement, he'll feel as though he could run a marathon. It's an unusual state of mind. Lily Potter was not in a normal state of mind.

After discovering the reasons behind her godfather's actions, after accepting she was pregnant with Fred's child, after leaving her best friends and seeing all of those children suffering because of a war centered around herself, Harry and the Dark Lord....it was amazing that she had enough willpower to stand – a miracle, ironically enough. But this was not a good miracle. This was not getting to say a last goodbye to a dying son before he draws in his last breath on his death bed or someone getting to fulfill a last wish before they close their eyes to the world. This was not a miracle, in every sense of the word, and these were not normal circumstances.

Lily Potter had many things stolen from her: her beloved parents, who fell to almighty Death so young, their lives unfulfilled; Sirius, who never got to live the life he deserved as he was plagued by his years in Azkaban; a good childhood, for she went unloved by her Muggle family; her innocence, for she was haunted by monsters since age eleven; and quite possibly, her sanity.

The Surge seemed entirely real to Lily Potter as she walked over the sloping hill of the Hogwarts grounds, past Hagrid's diminished hut and the Forbidden Forest which now housed creatures far past her own imagination. Her auburn hair stood out against the green lawns and from one person to another, whispers of Lily Potter on the grounds travelled throughout the entire castle until everyone was trailing curiously behind her. This was the calm before a storm, the burst of energy and hope before hell would break through the fissures of the earth and set loose; this was the Surge.

If Lily Potter was asked if she would want everything she had lost back, she would stare at nothing for a moment, contemplating the consequences of such a decision. Of course, it was impossible. Death was but the one thing no magic, miracle or science could cross into – only evade. And after a moment of thought, she'd shake her head because having all of what she lost back would mean giving up everything she had gained as a result. The Weasleys, her surrogate family; Hermione, her closest friend; Neville, a young man more loyal and compassionate than anyone she had ever met; Fred and George, with whom she shared and created contagious laughter; Fred alone, the man who caught her imagination and shared her heart; Severus, a godfather that sought to protect her until the end. And most of all – Lily Potter herself. She would never have been the reckless, sarcastic, foul-mouthed, compassionate and protective person she was that day if she wouldn't have lost what she did. The truth is, everything happened the way it was meant to. She was meant to become the person she was and she was meant to do this. Lily hated that brutal truth with every fiber of her being.