"Lily! Take the children and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!"

Spells fired around me, and I looked up at the red-haired woman who clutched onto me and my black-haired twin. I buried my face into my mother's neck, and she tucked a stray curl of red hair back behind my ear as the front door was splintered open, and I was suddenly jostled beside my brother as my mother ran down the hallway and up the carpeted staircase. I barely made out the solitary scream from behind us, which echoed off the walls of the upstairs hallway, as my mother ran into the nursery at the end of it and slammed the door behind her, placing us both in the large crib we shared.

Kneeling, she stared at the pair of us, her green eyes locking with my brother's identical ones for a moment, before she turned and regarded my hazel ones. Reaching through the bars, she gave us each a small smile as we reached out to clasp our tiny hands in hers. She was biting her lip now, and trembling slightly, and I could practically feel the fear radiating off of her as dark magic continued to stink up the house.

"Harry, Tilly... You are so loved, so loved," came our mother's whispers as the creak of the floorboards in the hallway echoed throughout the house. "Harry, Tilly... Mama loves you. Dada loves you. Harry, Tilly... Be safe. Be strong..."

The door banged open from behind our mother, who ripped her hands back and away from us to face the intruder, who was cloaked in a black shroud-looking thing, his face invisible to the naked eye, his wand drawn upon our mother. "Stand aside," came his hissing voice.

"Not my babies! Not my babies! Please, not my babies!"

"Stand aside, you silly girl," the voice hissed again. "Stand aside now."

"Not my babies, please no!" she cried out, voice still trembling. "Please, no... take me, kill me instead... Not my babies! Please...have mercy...have mercy..."

The dark wizard before her raised his wand, without a moments' hesitation, and the ball of green light beamed forth from its tip, striking down our mother without mercy. He crossed over to our joint crib and stared down at us, menacingly, his wand poised to strike again. Harry and I tensed beside one another, waiting for the blow to come. However, there was an almighty explosion as soon as the spell would have hit us, followed by yet another agonized scream, and the pair of us sat there, in the wreckage which had been our nursery, screaming and sobbing at the notion that our mother would never hold or comfort us ever again.

There was another explosion following that, this time downstairs, and the quick footsteps flew through the house. Another scream echoed, so we could sense that, whomever had come in there, had seen our father's body. Whoever it was ran up the staircase and into further darkness of the house, and peered into the nursery, seeing our beloved mother upon the floor. He peered through the darkness, catching sight of the pair of us inside our crib, and dashed forward, lifting us into his arms, and Harry and I immediately quieted at the familiar scent of our godfather.

"What in Merlin's name did he do to you?" Sirius Black whispered, gently pressing the pads of his thumbs onto our foreheads, and we squirmed and shrieked in his arms at the dual sensation of pain which ripped through us at that. He reacted to a noise on the property, and whispered to himself, "Shit. Dumbledore." He looked down at the pair of us, unsure, but the mutual looks of dread that we gave to him sealed our fate. "No one will be taking you away from me," he vowed to the pair of us. "Once that old man sees what happened here, he'll take you away and give you to those Muggles... I cannot let that happen." Looking down at our mother's body, he whispered to her, "Don't worry. It shall be as you and James wished. I'll protect them both with my life, I swear it."

Then, holding on tightly to the pair of us, he summoned necessities that our parents had pre-packed away, in case the worst happened. He turned, just as the man called Dumbledore stepped into the doorway.

"Sirius," the man said. "Hand them over."

"Sorry, old man," Sirius replied. "Not this time." Our godfather then cracked away, never looking back, as we held on tightly to him for dear life, never knowing what that man wanted to put us through, and we were better for it.