Chapter Text
That night, in a small cottage unseen by most, a hooded figure approached. He took out a stick and muttered several words, opening the gate at the front. He walked to the front door and did the same. Inside the cottage, he began to hear several noises: "Lily, it's him. Take Harry and run!"
"No, James, I won't leave you… "
"Lily, there is no time, run!"
Fools as if they could run from Lord Voldemort. He rushes in, wand in hand, ready to kill the individuals who would threaten his plans. He looks around and finds that the house is barren; only the furniture remains. Right in front of him on the kitchen counter is a strange device emanating from it the voices of James and Lily Potter.
He poked it with his wand, " Silencio." The voices stopped. He looked around the room, and no one was there. He then cast a spell that would identify humans; he found no one but him. I'm going to kill Wormtail!! He must've lied; I'll go after the Longbottom brat later. Then he hears a noise, one that he needed to have paid attention to earlier. Before he can do anything else, fire straight from the depths of hell engulfs him and the house. "NOOOOOO!"
*********
(Outside)
There is a ripple coming from the spot in front of the house. With a single movement, two figures step out of nowhere. "The alarm ward went off as we planned. You were right to be extra prepared, Lil."
"You too, James; I'm glad you kept the cloak." He nodded and reached into his jacket, pulling out his handkerchief to clean his glasses. "I found it strange that Dumbledore would ask for it when we go into hiding."
Lily nodded. She then cradled the bundle carefully in her hands as it had started to squirm, saying, "It's okay, Harry; it's over."
They looked at the front of the house, "do it, Lily." Lily took out her wand and threw a non-verbal spell at the house. "Three...Two...One."
With that house blown up in a gigantic firestorm, "Fiendfyre Lil, that'll definitely kill him, and that should end that stupid Prophecy." He reached out and rubbed Harry's head. " It's alright, Prongslet; he won't hurt you again."
The fire burned in front of the couple. James had been practicing creating a controlled version of Fiendfyre, and thanks to Lily's help, they did. Multiple protection charms were in place, allowing the fire to burn only in that specific area. After another forty-five seconds, nothing was left of the house, not even a small bit of ash. "It's over." James reached over and folded his cloak, stuffing it in his pocket.
Then , a small black cloud appears from the empty space. They look at the cloud's red eyes as it stares at them. "I will return!" He goes toward Harry, thinking he can try to take control of his body. James and Lily have pointed their wands at him.
"You will not take my child!" her wand is powered up with pure magic.
"Stay away, Moldywart!" His wand is also powered up with pure magic. Neither of them is using any spells; they just use pure magic and their love of their child, and together, they banish that part of Voldemort's soul.
"Noooooo! " That piece of his soul could not stand the pure amount of magic that these two were pushing out, and it evaporated. "What was that, James?"
"Dark Magic, some I've never seen before." Lily nods, then looks over James' shoulder. She sees movement. Currently, she is more willing to shoot first and ask questions later. She fires a stunning spell, hitting her target perfectly. James looks behind him, wand drawn. He goes to where Lily's spell hit. He finds a fat rat lying there perfectly still. "Lily, it seems our esteemed secret keeper was the traitor."
He picks it up by the tail, Lily moves closer, and her wand almost touches his eye.
"Hello Wormtail." They hear the familiar pop of a portkey, and both train their wands in that direction. Though Lily was not an auror, James had taught her quite a bit, and they moved silently.
Standing in front of the house was Hagrid, who fell to his knees and cried, “Not James, not Lily… not little Arry.”
They looked at one another and nodded. “Hagrid!”
He turned to their direction, “Lily...James and Harry. You’re alright?”
“Yes, we are.” Lily has her wand trained on him; tonight's betrayal rattled her more than she thought. James’s wand is also in his hand, though in a moment, it could quickly be targeting right between Hagrid’s eyes.
“Why are you here, Hagrid?”
“Dumbledore's orders, he saw that the alarm rang and sent me off to find Arry.”
Lily’s eyes narrow, “why just Harry?”
“I don’t know why he said it like that, but he said to find Harry.”
James’s eyes widened, “the prophecy Lily, “ she remembered the wording of the prophecy.
“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… Born to those to have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal,but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies.”
"That bastard he set us up, he set us up to die!" Lily begins to rant and call Albus several names. Hagrid looks confused at the two of them; James goes to comfort his wife. She begins to stop ranting and is now focusing on holding Harry, "James, he set us up to die, and god knows what would've happened to Harry."
She has several tears running down her cheeks, "James, I'm scared."
He wipes away her tears with his thumbs, "I'm scared too, Lil; I once thought of that man as great as Merlin, but now I hate him… I don't know what he's planning; I have no desire to be a part of it. Lil, the Longbottoms were moved as well."
She wipes tears from her face, “Hagrid, what about the Longbottoms?”
“They’re fine according to Professor Dumbledore, that reminds me can I see Harry? I gotta bring him to the Professor; you guys can come too.”
James wraps his arm around Lily’s shoulder and taps her on the same shoulder twice, “of course, perhaps the Professor might be able to explain what happened to us.” Lily nods.
Hagrid smiles, “That’s alright. Now I’ve got a Portkey here that should get us over there.” He turns around and reaches for a dinner plate, and is hit in the shoulder by an orange spell that spins him around rapidly. He collapses on the ground with a mighty thud.
“Nice shot,”
“I do have impeccable aim.”
“What did you hit him with?”
“A reducto, I’ve seen stunning spells bounce off of him, however, I aimed at his shoulder as I didn’t want to kill him. He’s a good man; just put his trust in the wrong man.”
“Yes, as did we, too.” Then, from behind him, they hear the rumble of a motorcycle turning around. They see Sirius on his flying motorcycle, looking completely befuddled at the scene before him.
“Hello, you two having fun without me?" He attempts to break the ice, obviously noticing Hagrid lying out on the ground.
"We're fine, Padfoot. In fact, we just killed Voldemort." James gestures to the empty spot near them.
"WHAT!!" They explained everything to him, including when Albus asked to see James's invisibility cloak.
(Flashback)
“James, you want me to do what?!”
James gestured to the blanket in his left hand, “Help me turn this invisible so that Albus thinks that this is my cloak of invisibility.”
“Why again?”
“Lily, you didn’t see his eyes when Albus asked for it; he looked almost maniacal. Plus, this cloak might be the thing that saves us both from Voldemort.”
She looked at the blanket and at James, “You’re right. We also have to place wards around the property so that we might know if we have an intruder.”
James nodded, agreeing with her, “We have to be safe, all of us.”
Though they knew the secret would be safe with Peter, they still had to be prepared for anything. They would need every advantage should Voldemort arrive, so they created this plan.
(End Flashback)
So, let me get this straight: You two just killed Voldemort, sent the black wraith of his soul outta there, stunned Peter, and took down Hagrid after uncovering Dumbledore's conspiracy?" Sirius looked at his brother in all but blood with disbelief.
They had left the area and gone to find a place to rest for a while. They had apparated to London and were now in a small muggle restaurant. James nodded, "Yeah, that's about what happened." He reached out and took a sip from his water.
Lily had left as Harry had decided to poop amid their storytelling; she went out to change him. They had shrunk all their stuff before, and Lily carried it in her cardigan pocket. They had also made a cage for Peter, stunned him again, and left them under a disillusionment charm on Siruis's bike, which was also shrunk down in the front pocket of Sirius's leather jacket.
"Heh, so you guys had a crazy night." Lily returned with Harry dressed in a jack o'lantern costume.
James smiled as he watched his son play with the hood with triangle-shaped eye holes. "Look at my boy."
Lily sighed, "Yes, in the spirit of Halloween, I decided to go out and get Harry a costume." Harry happily smiled, continued pulling on the hood, and messing with the eye holes.
Sirius smiled at this sight but had a question that he needed an answer to. "Well, what are you two going to do now?" Lily and James shared a look; they had discussed this before.
"We're leaving, we're moving to America."
Sirius coughs up his drink, "What, but this is...your home."
"Padfoot, the man we both revered and thought of as the next Merlin, expected us to die."
"He was going to do God knows what to Harry. We have to leave." Lily stresses the part about Harry.
"We were going to leave originally once we heard the prophecy but Albus somehow convinced us to stay. Now we’re going to move to America.” James happily took Harry from Lily and bounced him on his knee, “Yup, we’re heading to New York first. My family owns a small townhouse there, and then we’ll apply for citizenship at MACUSA.”
Siruis looked at them sadly, but he couldn’t help but agree with their choices. “I understand. I’m going to miss you three, but I understand. Unless there's a small doghouse for your pet/best friend?”
He looks at them imploringly with large puppy eyes. Both James and Lily laugh at his attempt to sway them. “Perhaps, though Moony might be…oh, we forgot about Moony!” Lily cries out as she runs her hands through her hair.
James wraps an arm around her and pulls Harry up. He holds his family close. “Sssh, it’s alright, Tiger-Lily. Padfoot, call Mooney after you’ve dropped off our ex-marauder. Then warn Frank.”
Sirius's eyebrows are raised. “What’s up with Frank?”
“The prophecy might’ve applied to us or Frank and Alice’s boy Neville. Sirius tell them to leave their safe house and find somewhere else to hide.” Lily says.
“Or tell them to get back to Longbottom Hall. You forget that despite her age, Frank's mom is quite the fighter; she used to be Auror.”
Sirius shivers as he remembers once when she had taken down two squads of trainee Aurors during training. “Yes, she is. How am I supposed to find the Longbottms? Aren’t they under a Fidulieus?”
Lily considered that, and then she had a realization: " Send them a Patronus message to find them. That would work. Explain everything. Hopefully, no one else will be harmed by the stupid prophecy.” She muttered. She found divination to be a boring subject. She didn’t even take it, but she had heard from others about it.
“Right, I’ll get on that.” As he gets up to leave, he looks at his family. “I’ll miss you three. If I can’t go along, well, just promise me you’ll write.”
"We swear, Padfoot, Marauders honor." James reaches into his wallet and drops some money. "We'll see you around."
The family heads out, leaving Sirius alone in the booth. "Godspeed, you three." He finishes his drink and leaves some money on the table before heading out.