If I Could

"If I Could"

If I live
In a time and place where you don't
want to be
You don't have to walk along this
road with me
My yesterday
Won't have to be your way

If I knew
I'd have tried to change the world I
brought to you to
And there isn't very much that I can
do
But I would
If I could

She could stare into to those emerald eyes forever. The soft firelight shone into their depths, highlighting the dark, soulful pupils surrounded by an iris of deepest green to rival any shade that nature could offer.

She had been informed by many of her closest friends that they were exact copies of her eyes but she liked to think that they were different, more beautiful, they were to her, for they held in their depths something that she had lost long ago....innocence. His eyes held the innocence off youth, of hope; he had no knowledge of how harsh and cruel the world could be.

She had lost her belief that the world could be anything less than cruel sometime ago during her sojourn with the Order, sometime after she watched her friends die before her very eyes. Every meeting brought a new death, another funeral, another sad obituary to a fallen comrade that she had viewed as a brother or a sister.

No, the world outside was very much akin to the African plains. It had its herd animals; Zebra, Buffalo, Gazelles; people desperately clinging together trying to survive the times, firmly believing that, safety, came in numbers. Like herd animals they sometimes had to witness the death of their close kin, children, a spouse; only in the plains, death was announced through a snapping of jaws and a stricken scream. In the wizarding world it was heralded by a luminous green skull flashing, triumphantly in the sky above a family home.

If the wizarding world has its herds, then it also has its lions; wizards of extreme and terrible power, namely Voldemort. Any wildlife specialist will tell you that predators have a useful role to play in life. They are there, after all, to purge the world of the weakest, sickly animals. This was the role that Voldemort coveted in the wizarding world, believing that Muggles and Muggle borns should be exterminated as they are weak and tainted. Voldemort with his band of scavengers, who are unable to execute the kill themselves so invariably they trail after the predator, hoping to share the remains of the kill; the dregs of power.

As she looked down at her son, Harry, she felt all the more determined to see such a monster brought down. She would not have him become the next zebra.

She loved her son dearly but she regretted his being brought into such a world. She remembered the night he was born, she had loved him immediately. Her own precious angel, he lit up her life and rekindled a spark of hope within a deep dark void filled with sorrow. She would move mountains, to ease his path through life; no sacrifice was too big for her when it came to Harry.

He appeared so very young and helpless, lying there in her arms, now asleep. His pale skin, soft and flawless, dark fluffy hair contrasting starkly with his skin tone, piercingly green eyes now closed in slumber.

It was in that moment that she knew, some internal instinct perhaps alerting her to their fate. For translucent tears now rolled down her face, glittering like gems in the firelight. If asked she would never have been able to explain how she knew, but she did.

She gazed down at her son. "Oh Harry, did we do the right thing bringing you in to this world. I love you, I always will, but how will you ever survive, we should have waited."

Then there was the sharp, sudden guilt that came with the realisation that she wouldn't have had it any other way. For then she would not have her angel and her world would have remained shrouded in darkness.

She jumped slightly at the soft caress to her cheek, turning she smiled, putting on a brave face for her husband.

"Lily love, what's the matter, you've been crying dearest."

She reached carefully on tiptoe and kissed him softly on the cheek.

"It was nothing James, I am just extremely sentimental. I love him so much James, our son."

He glanced down at Harry a smile replacing his worried frown "Me too Lily. Sirius is having withdrawal symptoms you know!" He grinned, a boyish look on his face.

"He loves to spoil his godson, we couldn't have chosen better although Remus was a little bereft!" Lily replied a smile beginning to bloom on her face.

"Although I don't believe he misses the hair chewing though!" James added with a smirk.

"It will provide incentive for him to get it cut then!" she quirked.

They stood at the window awhile, together, the perfect family. Lily cradling Harry to her chest, James with his arm around her, they were strong and united together in love. Unaware that they would be separated from each other in a mere months time, the son left to brave the world alone, facing many dangers.

Death is not the ending, though it may seem so...there are no real partings in this world. Not even death can sunder families and lovers from each other, for real love is forever. Not even Voldemort can destroy such a powerful force for he can never destroy something he can never hope to comprehend.

In the end, the love of a mother would be his downfall.

For the love of Lily Potter would save Harry, enabling him to survive to fight another day, until the hour he exacts his revenge for his parent's death and rids the world of the poison that is Voldemort.

If I could
I would try to shield your innocence
from time
But the part of life I gave you isn't
mine
I've watched you grow
So I could let you go

If I could
I would help you make it through the
hungry years
But I know that I can never cry your
tears
But I would
If I could
Yes I would
Yes I would
If I could