Enharmonic

The sirens wailed, sharp blue and red lights illuminating the street in the witching hour - three o'clock in the morning, thought the officer, and we can only see results. The house was completely burnt - ashes to ashes - except for a slightly charred bassinet in the very center of the wreckage.

"Bodies! They're breathing - it's a couple - must've had a baby, which was probably burnt to death, poor thing -"

Neil's breath caught in his throat suddenly. It was one thing to be desensitized, but it was quite another to be apathetic; he thought of his own infant son, peacefully sleeping now at home while his wife Geraldine watched over him.

Sighing, Neil continued, "Unconscious, both of them - appear to be married, I'm surprised the rings weren't destroyed in the blaze - get this down, now: male, black hair, tall - about 6 feet, eye color unknown, name unknown - I can't find any ID, damn it! - physical damage -- some cuts from glass -- minor burns on arms. Early to mid twenties. Female, likely wife, shoulder-length red hair, eye color unknown, about 5 feet 7 inches, name unknown, wearing a nightgown. Physical injuries - same as male - approximately same age. Both alive, barely breathing, cuts all over visible part of body, clothed in night clothes. Oi, here's a picture!"

Robert, the forensic scientist of the team, carefully lifted a charred photograph from a pile of strewn glass. A baby, who appeared to be taking after his father, smiled up at them happily.

"No sign of the child?" Neil asked quietly.

Robert shook his head silently.

"We'll send a search party, forty-eight hours only. Poor child probably didn't stand a chance."

The paramedics loaded the man and woman onto stretchers, and the ambulance wailed into the night. Neil got into the car and returned to the station.

Miles away over the town of Bristol, a giant man flew through the sky on a flying motorcycle, a peacefully sleeping infant named Harry gently cradled in his arms.

***

Beep...beep...beep...

She opened her eyes slowly and saw white. White walls and white sheets and white curtains and everywhere, everywhere - white! Swallowing a wave of nausea, she closed her eyes quickly and had a sudden thought - this isn't what the hospital wing should look like - and wondered where she had ever known a "hospital wing" - at school, perhaps -- and then she found that she couldn't remember school at all, and she opened her eyes again.

She lifted up her arms and studied them carefully without rising. Her arm was attached to an IV and there were stitches along her right forearm. Gently she touched her head and winced slightly. There was a large bandage wrapped around it. She wondered what had happened.

"You must always have a supply of potions for minor injuries. I'll give you a starting set - I trust you'll keep them constantly refilled, unlike your dunderhead of a husband. I hope he won't hurt the baby too much with his overlarge hands."

"Severus, don't be unkind."

A snort. "I'm being truthful, Lily."

She blinked at the sudden conversation. Lily. That was her name. Lily...Lily Evans? Somehow it didn't seem quite right. And who was Severus? And her husband? And - and her baby?

She smiled wryly as the first thought came to her head: boy or girl?

Her eyes widened with horror. Had she been pregnant when she was injured? Had she had a miscarriage? She ran her hand along her stomach. It was flat. Panic threatened to overwhelm her. "Oh please - even if I don't know anything - please let my baby be fine," she whimpered. "Please...please..." Her heart rate sped up rapidly, and she tried to calm it to no avail. "Please..."

"Awake, I see!" said a voice brightly. Lily sat up slowly as a nurse came into view. Her brown hair was pulled back into a long plait, and she was carrying a clipboard. "Do you know your name?"

"Lily."

"No surname?" asked the nurse, watching her closely.

Lily cleared her throat. "Evans," she answered raspily, uncertainly. It had come out so easily. She supposed that it was her surname then.

The nurse noted this and tried to smile. "All right. Would you like some water?" Without waiting for Lily's nod, she poured some ice water into a plastic cup and handed it to Lily. "Some police officers would like to talk to you," the nurse said. "Do you feel ready?"

Lily paused for a second and then nodded. She couldn't really remember anything regardless.

The nurse left, and two uniformed officers entered. "Ms. Evans," said one gravely. "How do you feel?"

"Awful," Lily answered frankly.

"Ah," said the officer. He was thick and burly and had a gruff voice and thick brown hair. His partner was young man, thin and weedy, with straw-colored hair. He did not say anything.

The burly officer continued. "We have here that you said your name was Lily Evans, correct?"

Lily nodded. "Yes."

"All right...now...where do you live, Ms. Evans?"

Lily thought for a second, and her eyes widened as she found no answer. "I...I don't know. I can't remember."

"Hmm," said the officer, writing this down. "Is there anything that you do remember?'

Husband. Baby. Man named Severus. "Think I have a husband," Lily replied, licking her lips. "And a - had a baby. Or would've had one. It's all blurry in my mind. Also, a man - friend - named Severus."

The officer nodded and noted this. "Your husband is probably the man we found with you, correct? You have the same ring."

"Mmm. I suppose. I don't remember being married." Lily tried hard to think of her husband, and was terrified to discover she had no idea what he looked like, or even what his name was. "Where is he?"

"He's still asleep."

"And...and the baby?" Lily asked, her voice breaking.

The officer and his partner exchanged glances. "We have a photograph of a baby," he said, and gently pulled out a photograph in a sealed plastic bag. The edges of the photograph were burned. Lily examined the picture closely. A tiny baby boy with jet-black hair and her brilliant green eyes smiled up at her from a pile of blankets. Lily realized with a sinking heart that he did not look familiar at all. She handed the photograph back to the officer, who said, "We did not find a baby at all. It is possible that he escaped the fire. We sent out a search party for him for forty-eight hours, but nobody reported anything." He cleared his throat and wrote something on his notepad.

"How long has it been since I was found?" Lily asked quietly.

"Two nights," said the officer.

"Forty-eight hours," Lily said softly, and she felt something inside her shatter in little pieces.

The thin, weedy officer finally spoke. "You and your husband were found in a burnt-down house in a village called Godric's Hollow two nights ago, October 31, 1981. You were both unconscious and had cuts all over your body. You were transported here immediately after you were found, though that was judged to be about two hours after the house was burnt down. Nothing was left of the house except for a charred bassinet next to which you were lying."

Lily tried to register all of this in her mind and opened her mouth to speak, but found that no words could come out.

"We do not how you and your husband survived such a devastating fire," the burly officer said. "It was a miracle."

"I don't know either," Lily managed.

The officer cleared his throat again. "The name Godric's Hollow does not sound familiar to you?" he asked.

"No," said Lily.

The thin officer said, "You mentioned at the beginning that you had a friend named Severus."

Lily nodded. The memory of the conversation was still in the back of her mind, and she snatched before it could get away like all of her other ones. "We were having a conversation about the baby. He -- Severus -- said that I should always have a supply of p--medicines for the baby. And then he," Lily paused, because the memory was escaping her, "he said that he hoped my husband wouldn't hurt the baby. But he was joking."

The burly officer finished taking notes and looked up at her. "Can you tell us anything else about this Severus? A last name, his physical features, perhaps?"

Lily shook her head. "I only heard voices. Severus' voice was deep, dry."

"And you said that you did not remember your husband at all?"

"No."

"Perhaps..." the weedy officer began, and he glanced at his partner, who nodded. "Perhaps if you saw him, you would remember."

Lily glanced between the two. "I'd like to see him," she said.

"Now?" asked the burly officer.

Lily nodded.

The officer reached up and drew back the left curtain next to Lily's bed. Lily turned her head slowly, slightly dizzy, and peered at the man in the adjacent bed. He had messy black hair and a slender build, and had the same injuries that she did. He, too, looked unfamiliar. Lily looked at the wedding band on her left hand, and then she peered over at the man's left hand. They wore the same ring.

The two officers were watching her. She turned back to them.

"I don't know him," she said simply. Her memory, she realized, was frighteningly blank. "I don't know him at all."

The officer nodded slowly and noted this. "All right," he said, "thank you, Ms. Evans."

"You're welcome," she whispered, as the two officers left. The nurse reappeared almost immediately and looked at the open space between Lily and her husband.

"Would you like me to keep the curtain open?" the nurse asked, and Lily nodded. "I'll be back in an hour," the nurse said. "If you need anything, please push the button on the left side of your bed." She waited until Lily's fingers clumsily found it, and then she left.

Lily sat and watched her supposed husband, wondering.

***

Green - a bright light and a sense of dread - tiny green eyes staring up at him from a crib - eyes flashing in anger, accompanied by a shout - green - and then there was red, red and gold, scarlet armchairs and a roaring fireplace, laughter, ink, writing; blue - blue enveloping him and them, them, his wife, his baby -

James opened his eyes with a gasp. He was lying on a white bed with white sheets, and a needle was in his arm, attached to a strange dripping contraption. An insistent beeping sounded next to his ear, and he thought vaguely of watches.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

"Remus, turn that bloody thing off!"

"Mmm," said a sleepy voice. Brown hair lifted from red and gold sheets. "Sorry. Get up, you prats, it's time for class."

"It's a Saturday," groaned the first voice. "There are no classes on Saturday."

"For us there are," Remus responded. "Now get up. Help me get Peter up, will you? And Sirius..."

"Hello?"

James slowly turned his head to the right. A redhead young woman with a bandage wrapped around her head was looking at him in some concern through - he noted suddenly - brilliant green eyes. She was also attached to one of the funny machines.

"Are you - can you hear me?" she asked cautiously.

James nodded dumbly.

"Do you know who you are?"

"James," he answered automatically. He couldn't stop looking at her eyes. "You look familiar. Very familiar. And your eyes are very pretty as well, and -"

Oh, he was at it again. Damn it, he always got tongue-tied around Evans -

"Evans," he said suddenly. "You're Lily Evans."

She gave him an odd half-smile. "I - I know. And you are?"

"James," he repeated dumbly.

"What's your surname?"

"Potter," he said automatically.

"Pleasure to meet you, James Potter," she said, and then she held up her left hand. A thin gold band encircled her ring finger. "Apparently, I'm your wife."

Uncertain as to whether she was joking or not, James looked down at his left hand and started in surprise. He was wearing an identical ring.

"Oh," he said.

A short, awkward silence ensued.

"Do you remember anything about us?" Lily asked, in a restrained tone of voice.

"No...I..." James could feel the memories there, on the edge of his mind, but he couldn't reach them. "I remember green light...and a...a baby. And friends...a boy named Remus and two other names, Sirius and Peter..." Strange. He remembered his roommates from -- school, he supposed -- but he couldn't remember that he had married this woman named Lily. Come to think of it, he couldn't remember the name of his school, either.

"There's writing here," Lily interrupted his thoughts suddenly. She was examining the interior of the ring. "'J.P. and L.E. July 1, 1979.' Lovely inscription. I suppose that's our wedding day."

James did not know how to respond. "Did we have a - er, a baby?" he asked, feeling slightly inappropriate.

Lily looked troubled. "I don't know," she said slowly. "Apparently, we did. I talked to the police officers about half an hour ago. They had a photograph of a baby boy who had your hair and my eyes."

Police? The word sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember what it meant. Something to do with law enforcement...like Aurors...wait, what were Aurors? Catching Lily's gaze, James made a non-committal noise in the back of his throat, feeling slightly guilty as he suddenly spotted Lily's breasts, which were at his eye level. He quickly looked away. "What happened?" he asked, staring at the ceiling.

Lily explained, "They found us at the ruin of a house in a village called Godric's Hollow. It was burnt down. We didn't have any identification, I suppose...probably burnt to ashes..."

"Ah."

"Yes. They don't know how we managed to survive such a fire." Out of the corner of his eye, James could see Lily watching him closely. "Do you remember anything?"

James thought. Hard. He came up with nothing. "Nothing beyond what I've told you," he answered.

Lily looked pensive. "I wonder if anyone knows that we're here...or if anyone is looking for us. And someone must have kept a record of when we bought the house, a deed or something. And our son...he must have had a birth certificate, don't hospitals always have copies of those?"

"Er," said James. Birth certificates, like police, didn't quite sound familiar.

Lily pulled back slightly, noticing James' uncertainty. "It's just so...so unreal! We don't even know who we are, we don't know where our son is, we don't even know we're married, we don't know anything about our past. I feel so power -" She fell silent suddenly and began to stare directly in front of her.

"Lily?" James asked hesitantly.

Lily started and met James' concerned gaze. "James," she said slowly. "Harry. We named him Harry." At James' bemused look, she continued distantly, "I had a memory. We were talking about...about a war, about how we had a new hope. Harry. 'Harry James Potter. Godson to Sirius Black and the future of the Hogwarts Marauders...' That was what you said. Sirius -- you said that name before. He must have been a good friend. And in the memory, I said something about not teaching our son to become a marauder...how strange..."

James couldn't respond. None of those names rang a bell in his head, besides Sirius' from his own memory. He thought back to what Lily had said and answered, "I can't think of any war here."

"I can't either," she said.

"But you're sure of our son's name?"

"Yes," she responded, and the words were clinical and detached and strange. "Harry James Potter."

He watched as she shakily pressed the red button on the side of her bed. "I've got to tell the nurse," she said. "I can't let this slip away."

"Harry James Potter," James muttered, trying the words out in his mouth. They felt strange. He supposed that the middle name came from his own name. James then wondered if he had a middle name, and found that he couldn't remember one.

A brunette nurse came into James' line of vision, and he watched as she stopped at Lily's bed. "Yes?" she asked.

Lily said, "I remembered our son's name. It's Harry. Harry James Potter." The nurse wrote this down, and then she spotted James looking at her.

"Awake?" she asked him. He said yes.

"All right," she said. "Two police officers want to talk to you. Do you feel up to it?"

"Yes," he said.

As James' interrogation proceeded, he found that he couldn't remember anything except for his name, an image of green light, Lily's name, and the names of three roommates from school, Sirius, Remus, and Peter. He couldn't remember marrying Lily or having a son, and he couldn't remember what school he had attended. He couldn't remember his parents' names, or any siblings, or the street address of his family home. The officers left looking frustrated. James sent apologetic glances their way and Lily's.

"I'm sorry," he said to her. "I just can't remember."

Lily looked at him sadly. "It's all right," she answered. "Neither can I."

***

On the other side of the island in a neighborhood and Surrey, one-year-old Harry James Potter began a new, miserable life with his aunt, uncle, and cousin -- Petunia, Vernon, and Dudley Dursley.