Disclaimer: I am not J K Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: The following is set in an alternate universe, where James picked Peter Pettigrew to be the secret keeper for the Godric's Hollow fidelius charm, but Lily thought that was a bad idea. It is a one-shot.

October 30th, 1981

"Lily. What are you doing here?"

Professor Horace Slughorn had opened the door of his Hogwarts quarters to find his favourite former pupil, Lily Potter (formerly Lily Evans) outside, her face tear-stained, and Harry clutched close to her chest. There was a small bag of things on the floor.

"James and I have had a row. Can Harry and I stay here for a few days?" Lily asked.

"Certainly: Come in by all means." Professor Slughorn invited. He stepped out and bent down to retrieve the bag. "I'll bring your bag for you."

Over the next hour or so, in the comfort of the professor's sitting room, Lily's tale of woe spilled out. The pressure of being constantly on the move, with Voldemort after them, had been getting to the Potters now for several months, making them increasingly irritable and snappy with one another. Life on the run was hardly a conducive environment for raising a child, either. Finally had come the idea of settling down under a fidelius charm in one place.

"Only James has gone and made the secret keeper one of his old school friends." Lily sobbed. "Albus Dumbledore himself offered, but oh no, James wanted one of his mates to do it. He doesn't understand. He's been treating this whole thing like it's a game. I don't think he ever grew up. I told him this was the last straw, and that I'd rather trust one of the most powerful wizards in the world with the safety of our son's life than one of his old school friends, and that he could ask Albus to pass any messages on to me."

Professor Slughorn made appropriate soothing noises, made her something calming, and put her to bed in his guest room. Then, having secured his quarters as best he could to ensure her safety, he went to have an urgent word with the headmaster.

October 31st, 1981

"Where are Lily and Harry?" Peter Pettigrew enquired, dropping in mid-morning at the Order of the Phoenix safe-house in Godric's Hollow that had been assigned as the Potters' new residence.

"Oh, err, they're out." James said. "Something about medical checkups. I'm not sure how long they'll be."

James felt slightly embarrassed by the situation, and didn't want to admit that he and Lily had had a serious row.

"Nothing serious, I hope?" Peter looked very concerned. "They will be back this evening? I was hoping to pop around to help you all celebrate."

"Oh, nothing serious." James said. "Lily seemed to think it was entirely routine. I'm sure they'll be back by this evening."

He was reasonably confident, and had sent a number of silly singing letters to Lily, care of the Hogwarts Headmaster, which he was sure would win her round and coax her back home by tonight. And if not, then he could always make something else up to tell Peter.

"Oh good." Peter looked relieved, and spent the next three quarters of an hour talking quidditch and old Marauder pranks with James, before he excused himself and left.

James was certain he'd picked the right person to be secret keeper. That expression on Peter's face said to James just how much Peter worried about him and his family.

Night had fallen on Godric's Hollow, and James was waiting impatiently in the front room. He was sure that Lily would come back to him – she had to see the sense of what he'd done. He'd sent another message letting her know that Peter had been round earlier, and had been touchingly concerned regarding her and Harry's absence.

He heard footsteps on the front-path, and hastened to open the door, excuses revolving in his mind in case this should not be Lily, but Peter.

The blasting spell meant for the front-door consequently took him in the chest instead.

James Potter had a fleeting glimpse of Lord Voldemort, as he flew backwards through the air under the force of the spell, and then he slammed into something hard and everything went black.

A short while later, James Potter was awakened by a spell to find the Dark Lord looming over him, wand out, and staring into his eyes. Everything hurt. Peter Pettigrew's corpse was sprawled on the floor nearby. It looked like he'd suffered a thousand horrific tortures, and had literally scratched his own skin off in places in his agony.

And then the Dark Lord was tearing through James' mind in a fury, looking for information about where James' wife and child were, and James shook under the power of the assault. He was no occlumens, and was unable to deny the Dark Lord what he sought.

And then the Dark Lord withdrew from James' mind.

"Your wife and child may be currently out of my reach at Hogwarts, but the evening need not be a complete loss." the Dark Lord said. "You can assist me get to the Longbottoms, since although your own spawn was my primary goal, I may as well deal with the Longbottom heir, with your assistance. Imperio."

And James Potter was in too much pain to resist the magic of the Dark Lord, and felt himself succumbing to the spell and the Dark Lord's will.

November 1st, 1981

The horrifying news of the previous night's events reached Lily, in Professor Slughorn's quarters at Hogwarts, in increasingly awful instalments. The overly complicated plan of pretending Sirius was the secret keeper, but making it Peter, had imploded. Peter Pettigrew had been found dead and horribly mutilated in the ransacked safe-house in Godric's Hollow, a dark mark set over the building, but had been the only dead person on the premises. James was missing.

And then word of James started to trickle in. It turned out that James – James of all people – had helped Voldemort find out the location of the Longbottoms, so he could attack them.

But something had gone wrong for the Dark Lord and James in the attack on the Longbottoms. Frank and Alice were dead, but when the Dark Lord had tried to kill Neville, the killing curse had rebounded and destroyed him. James had been apparently caught in the explosion, and badly injured. Aurors arriving on the scene had caught him babbling deliriously, but he had confessed his involvement, and was on the fast track for a prison cell in Azkaban. Frank and Alice had been aurors, and the aurors didn't like those who helped murdering scum like the Dark Lord go after their own.

Lily felt mortified, and couldn't understand; she'd always assumed James had simply been immature, but could it all have been an act to hide that he was secretly in league with Lord Voldemort? Was the fact that he had been working for Voldemort why James had wanted one of his easily manipulated friends as the secret keeper, and not Dumbledore? And if so, why had he turned on Peter in the end?

Lily didn't know what to think. She wasn't sure how she'd be able to look Frank's mother in the face though, given what her husband had helped to do, and Frank and Alice had asked for her to be Neville's godmother… oh Merlin, that was going to be a problem.

Lily Potter's world was slowly but surely disintegrating about her.

November 3rd, 1981

"The story is confusing, as are many involving the former Marauders." Albus Dumbledore said to Lily. "However, it appears that in any detrimental things which James may have done, he was probably acting under the Imperius curse. There are three possibilities now: First, he goes to Azkaban without a trial, spends, say, half a dozen years there whilst the aurors cool down, then pleads that as a member of an ancient and noble house he had a right to trial, gets out, all charges dismissed, and compensation paid. Second, he has a trial, pleads Imperius and member of an ancient and noble house, and gets off scot free, although the auror department will be hopping mad at that, I guarantee, given how popular the Longbottoms were. Third, he has a trial, says Imperius, but says that under conditions of war that should be no excuse, and requests to be sent to Azkaban for a minimum sentence. He goes down, but it sets a precedent that Imperius is no defence in time of war." The leader of the Order of the Phoenix paused. "With the fall of Voldemort, Lily, the Death Eaters are falling apart, but a lot of them are wealthy and powerful enough to plead Imperius and get away with everything they've done – unless the Wizengamot has already tried and convicted a member of one of wizarding Britain's foremost families who was acting under Imperius. James could destroy Imperius as a basis for a legal defence under war conditions." He paused again to let her digest this before finishing off. "It's possible for you to see him. He's currently being kept in a cell at the Ministry. I'd like you to outline his options to him, if you would be so good, Lily, and to talk things over with him, and help him decide what to do…"

Author Notes:

Aaaaand, fade to silence.

On a more practicable note, I have taken the liberty of assuming that the house in Godric's Hollow was a safe-house owned by the Order of the Phoenix (which seems to me to make sense in terms of the fact that in canon nobody objects to it being turned into some sort of memorial, and also with the fact I can imagine Voldemort having already taken steps to make most formal Potter properties uninhabitable by later 1981, given the Potters had defied him three times and were known Order of the Phoenix members).

Voldemort summoned Peter Pettigrew and cruciatus cursed him to death whilst James was out cold, in his fury at Lily and Harry not being present. Peter clawing at his skin in agony obliterated any obvious signs that he had the dark mark, allowing the initial investigators to simply assume he was an innocent victim.

Thank-you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this brief sketch!