Disclaimer: The Harry Potter books and all of the magical world belong to Mrs Rowling. (So I'm not earning any money or credit! Only the Plot is mine!)
Chapter One – One Hour.
The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour. - Japanese Proverb.
Our story begins on one night which appears to be like many others, an idyllic picture of a loving couple putting their child to bed does not seem to be of great import, in the greatest scheme of events. However it is often the smallest of actions which determine the fates of us all, and this was by no means fated to be an ordinary night. For the events of this night would have far reaching consequences.
October 31st 1981, Potter Cottage, Godrics Hollow.
James Potter sighed as he looked down at his son who was now lightly snoring. He'd spent the last hour trying to get him to drop off to sleep but as soon as he'd given him the toy dog Sirius had bought him, he settled right down.
At first Lily and James had been happy that Sirius was buying their son toys, until they realised that he'd taken to enchanting them so that they would do things when James and Lily weren't looking. The stuffed animals which represented each of the marauders had seemed like such an innocent gift until the night where James looked in on Harry to find him laughing as the four stuffed animals running around on the floor, playing a game of chase. Lily had gone ballistic, shouting at Sirius about the dangers of letting a baby with unstable near enchanted toys, but Harry was not able to sleep unless he had his toy Padfoot, something that amused Sirius and Remus greatly.
Smiling once more at his son he placed the other three toys next to Harry and then, drawing his wand, he traced the outline of the unusual rune which was present on the headboard of his sons crib. The rune looked like a simple decoration but in actual fact it was the activating rune for a series of complex wards that he and Lily had built to protect his son.
As he checked that there wasn't any toys left on the floor of the nursery he began checking all the extensive protections in the room. Professor Dumbledore had told them that the Fidelius charm was the most powerful ward that would ensure that no-one would be able to hurt his family, but coming from a family who had produced several world-class warders James was fully aware that every ward could be broken given enough time and determination. Unfortunately their enemy had both in plentiful supply, several of the distant alarms wards which James had placed around the village of Godrics Hollow had been triggered or tampered with several times in the past few months and it disturbed James greatly that there was no apparent reason for it. No attacks had been made so the Death Eaters must have been scouting the area.
With a deep breath James brought forward his Mage sight, a rare ability that often showed up in the Potter line (which, combined with the family magic, made the Potter fantastic warders and enchanters) , as he checked all the hidden ward and runic spells in the nursery he thought back to the temper tantrum that Moony had thrown when he realised that James had Mage sight, when it was Remus who spent hours learning runes and Arithmacy. It had bothered his friend greatly that James was able to effortlessly out-perform him in these two classes, despite the hours he put into studying. Seeing that none of the spells or wards had been tampered with and that all of them were at full strength, having been charged just that weekend he began checking his other lines of defences.
All around the house there was an abundance of stuffed toys, something most people would dismiss as natural clutter from having a baby in the house, but if one looked closely they would realise that there were stuffed animal in every room. The nursery held two toy lions, three wolves, a dozen ravens suspended from the ceiling, a stag and a bear. Each of these toys was in pristine condition, mainly because Harry refused to even touch them, something which made James sure that his son had inherited his gift for Mage sight, as each toy was actually a real animal transfigured into a scaled down plush replica of it's natural form.
Each of the animals had been put under a special stasis charm which kept them alive while transfigured, meaning if ever they were attacked, a few activation spells would unleash a stampede of animals, each taken from the Potter estate menagerie and bound to the Potter family magic, meaning they would fight to protect anyone of Potter blood and were generally resistant to magic.
With these animals, the wards, charms and various runic trap laid around the house James and Lily hoped to be able defend their Son until help arrived.
The three times that he and his wife had been unlucky enough to fight Voldemort they had fought on his terms, in a place of his choosing and often hopelessly outnumbered. Luckily the two were very talented and their respective abilities in transfiguration and Charms meant they could hold their own long enough to escape. However if together they were equal to Voldemort on his terms in a spur of the moment battle, the couple hoped to be better than him on their home ground by using their prodigious magical talents to prepare for battle.
And they were prodigious, James had taken his Transfiguration NEWT in fifth year and spent two years learning from Dumbledore, while Lily had done the same for Charms and Potions, studying under Slughorn and Flitwick. Under normal circumstances the two would be studying for their masteries by now, but as it was they were forced instead to hide and do their own research in secret, but neither of them had been idle, as shown by the protections they'd come up with for their son.
Satisfied that his son was safe James left the nursery and put a drop of his blood on the solid oak door as he closed it behind him. This would bring up the last layer of protections, the Family Magics he had used to craft a ward around the Nursery. He knew that even Dumbledore and Voldemort would be hard pushed to break such protections when they were powered by the magical cores of all the past Potters.
James and Lily had both been fascinated by Family magic and has actually spent the summer between their sixth and seventh years learning all about it from James' dad, usually an outsider would not be taught family magics but it was clear by then that James and Lily were meant to be together, James had grown up in his fifth year, and by the beginning of sixth, they were hopelessly in love. James had learned been focusing his research on using the Family magic to cast wards and charms, something believed to be impossible, but James had prevailed and created an entirely new method of warding, one which gave him a massive advantage. Lily however had been interested in the possibility of combining family magics together, something brought on by her discovery that she was a distant descendant of Hufflepuff and James of Gryffindor. The two had been doing research on the Hogwarts wards in their seventh year with Dumbledore when they discovered that between them they were able to actually influence the wards, something that only the headmaster should be able to do. They had later found that it was because they were each descendants of a founder that together they could alter the school wards. They had even discovered that the power of the Hogwarts wards was sustained by a unique type of magic, similar to familial magic but sustained, as far as they could tell, by the magical cores of the founders. This discovery became the foundation for both of their avenues of research as they tried to discover how to recreate the effect to create an ultimate type of protection which could be powered by someone from beyond the grave.
James had eventually figured out how to create wards sustained by family magic by venturing into Blood magic, he knew that his wife had ventured into the ill-reputed art also but that she had much more success. Trained by Sirius who, at first, seemed wary of teaching the magics he had studies at his fathers knee, they had both become proficient in the art and Lily could probably pass a Mastery in the art. All he knew of her research was that it was an amazing mix of familial magic, charms, advanced potions and a Blood magic all rolled into some kind of ritual.
As he opened the door to the study he grinned when he saw his wife reflexively grab her wand and throw up a shield. Both had been rather jumpy the past few months.
"Good girl." James smirked as he made an over exaggerated leer at his beautiful wife. "Gotta remember.."
"CONSTANT VIGILANCE" They shouted in unison, before breaking into giggles.
His wife flicked her wand to end the shield and scooted over and indicated for him to sit next to her on her bench. James preferred to use a modern Muggle swivel chair when working but Lily swore by her old Piano bench, James liked it only because he could sit next to his wife and nuzzle and kiss her as she worked, something he began doing now, trying to start something. It had been a while since they had shared a bed like a married couple, they had been so stressed recently.
"James stop it" Lily said slapping him good naturedly. "I wanna show you my work, I've finally finished it." She said excitedly.
James stopped trying to kiss his wife's neck and looked over the various parchments in front of them with a raised eyebrow. Most of the work went straight over his head but he knew enough to tell that all of the work culminated in some kind of ritual which bestows protection upon a family, powered by Family magics and Blood magic combined, which effectively cast several permanent charms upon the family members, he recognised the spells as powerful protections used by the Purebloods to protect their heirs.
"Wow Lils, this is..." James stuttered speechless. "This is amazing babe, the power of this ritual would be incredible!" James exclaimed excited.
Lily smirked at him and said. "Indeed."
James stared at his wife in a parody of a horrified expression. Lily looked confused at her husbands actions.
"You sounded just like Snape then! Oh please god, never do that again!" James exclaimed, half joking. He and Snape had formed a workable truce, James was one of the few who knew Snape was a Spy for the order and all because of the debts he owed James and Lily, as such he had great respect for the man.
Lily gave him a mischievous smile before doing her best impression of Snape's silky voice. "Mr Potter, are you saying you don't like it when I speak like this." She said while suggestively rubbing his thigh.
James shuddered and grasped his wife's hand. "Never ever do that again, the last thing I need is to be thinking of Snape while we're in bed. Just ewww!" He finished childishly.
Lily just smirked at him and gave him a peck on the cheek, knowing that any more would give him idea's.
"Back to the ritual" She said gesturing. "It's going to be really powerful and even better, I designed it so that when it's performed the people involved don't have to be blood family. Meaning that you could adopt Sirius, Remus and Peter in, maybe we could bring in Frank and Alice too. I based some of the work off You Know Who's mark." Lily explained.
"After studying Severus' Dark Mark, I realised the advantages it actually offers the Death Eaters. Believe it or not the Death Eaters can subconsciously pull extra magic from each other to cast spells beyond them. And Voldemort can consciously pull lots of magic from his Death Eaters. It's how he made himself as powerful as Dumbledore. He can't be as old as him and Dumbledore has always been a prodigy in terms of magical strength, and he's only get stronger, but I think You Know Who now is stronger than him because he has stolen a bit of each of the Death Eaters' magical core."
James frowned as he considered this explanation.
"Surely if that were true, then all the Death Eaters would be as powerful as Voldemort if they can pull magic from each other as well?" James asked curiously.
"No, it's different, they can pull a small amount of magic from the other Death Eaters with Voldemorts permission, I suspect he alters their marks so that his more favoured Lieutenants can pull more magic from the masses of Death Eaters, than they can from each other but for them it's only a temporary infusion from the reserves of magic each Death eater has. But You Know Who steals a piece of their actual core when they take his mark." She said confidently.
"I don't get the difference, surely the magical core and magical reserves are the same? I get that he takes it permanently and the other only borrow but what's so important about that?" He asked thoroughly confused.
Lily sighed and then appeared to think for a second. "Think of the core, as a greenhouse, and the magic as leaves on plants. Everybody has a core with a different amount and variety of plants. Which is why they have different power levels and some are better at charms than transfiguration for example."
"Like yourself." James confirmed. "You have more, Charms plants."
"Kind of." Lily agreed. "It'd be better to say that the leaves on my plants are better at making a certain potions with the potions representing types of magic, you follow?"
James nodded and indicated for her to continue.
"Now the Death Eaters can nick a few leaves to help make more powerful potions from other Death Eaters, but Voldemort takes the plants themselves and as such has a much larger supply of leaves because..."
"Because the plants are always producing leaves. So the core that he steals a bit of, produces magic and he's stealing a little bit of their potential to do magic?" James finished horrified.
To most Purebloods the idea of someone stealing the magic from you, was an unforgivable crime.
"The Death Eaters surely wouldn't sign up if they knew that." James said thoughtfully.
Lily shook her head. "It's so small an amount that most wouldn't notice really. And you would only notice if you needed to use your full core, which is not only extremely rare but even if they did do it they would then just tap the magic of other Death Eaters." She explained.
"You know this explains something the Professor and I spoke about at the last order meeting. We noticed that all of his Lieutenants are never out at the same time, nor are the majority of his troops, and if he is out then usually it's a very small number. We thought it was because he was guarding something important and that when he was out he left a heavy guard. But this explains it better, he's using the magic of the Death Eaters so..."
"If they were all out at the same time they wouldn't be able to tap each others magic..."
"Because it would already be in use..."
"Meaning that if we could lure them out in a mass battle..."
"They would be loads weaker!" They exclaimed together, before breaking into giggles. They often finished each others sentences despite their complete different ways of looking at things, something that entertained them both no end.
James sighed after he managed to control his giggles, he wished there were more moments like this, but unfortunately these were dark days and humour was difficult to come by.
"So how does the Dark Mark effect your ritual?" He asked when he remembered what they had been talking about.
Lily smiled at him, few people were able to understand her explanations and even fewer willingly asked for them.
"In several ways. You Know Who managed to come up with a foolproof way of bringing his followers to him or him to his followers by using the mark as guide for apparation, this works in part because of the whole magic sharing thing, as the Death Eaters are just following the 'Feel' of the Dark Mark when apparating, which is basically their magic mixed with his magic, and they follow that feeling to where it also exists, basically in him. So in this way they can find him anywhere, since they are following their own magic signature, and thus can find it anywhere. My ritual will similarly mix the magic of those participating so that they will always be able to find each other in the same way. However mine is different slightly. Each person involved gives each of the others the same amount of 'plants', so that no capacity for magic is lost, but you are able to find the others, (like the Dark Mark) and you will have an increased affinity for the particular magic that the others are good at. For example, if we did it, I would get better at Transfiguration and you would get better at Charms." Lily explained excitedly.
James nodded his head slowly. "That could be a huge advantage, all on it's own!"
"And there's more!" Lily said excitedly. "I theorise, that as the exchange is completely willing, and it must be willing to work, then there is a possibility that, to continue the plant analogy, the transplanted plant would give seeds which could grow other plants also. Not the same amount as the original owner for sure, but enough that each person who does the ritual will notice a marked improvement in their power levels over time. There are other factors to consider, it's infinitely complex, but eventually they would reach a plateau much higher than their own natural limits." Lily said smugly.
"What other factors are there to consider?" James asked concerned. "Would this hurt a Harry? Can children even do this?"
Lily nodded excitedly. "That's the best bit, I'm certain that children could do this, but to once again abuse the plant analogy, the plants of children are not yet fully formed so you would receive less raw magical capacity initially from a child but they would receive more, in comparison, because you plants are fully grown. This would manifest in a much larger ability for accidental magic and earlier ability for Wanded magic." Lily stopped when she saw James raise his eyebrows impressed. "There is even more, are you familiar with the five stages of magical maturation?" Lily asked.
"Ermm, no." James said embarrassed. "But I guess one would be while you're between eleven and seventeen?"
Lily jerked her head. "Kind of. The first stage of maturation is first growth, between conception and age five, roughly. Between these ages the raw amount of magic a person will ever achieve is determined, as after this point there is no natural way to increase magical production, or plant any more plants. You follow?"
James nodded and motioned for her to continue.
"If we do the ritual on someone before the age of five there is a large chance that the transferred plant will seed other plants. A very large chance. Thus increasing the possible total amount of power drastically, especially if the ritual is done with more than half a dozen people. The second stage is stabilization which occurs alongside the first stage but continues until around the age of ten, never later than eleven. Until this point using a wand is dangerous, this is why Hogwarts acceptance age is what it is. But if the ritual involves someone over the age of eleven, which it must, then stabilization of the magic will occur much more rapidly as there is already an example of stable magic plus specialisations are much more likely to transfer as the plants can grow the right way. Still follow?"
James nodded once again. "That's amazing, just by the age of eleven someone would have a huge advantage from this!"
"They would." Lily nodded. "But there is more. By the age of eleven the amount of plants is set but until the age of about seventeen, again no later than nineteen, the plants will grow which will effect the total capacity for magic. Note this is different from flow, or amount produced minute, which is determined by the amount of plants. At this point there is also an advantage as the plants will begin growing earlier and will already have a template to follow in the transplanted and already fully grown plant. Still with me?"
James nodded again, beginning to see just how amazing this ritual could be. If all these claims were true then Harry could be maybe as powerful as Dumbledore by the time he was eighteen!
"The fourth stage of growth is refinement. This is where the plant analogy really breaks down. Refinement effects neither flow nor capacity except maybe in the sense that 'refined' magic is more powerful than non-refined magic. This begins once stabilization is complete and will continue until around the age of twenty five when stage five begins. Can you see how the ritual benefits stage four?" Lily asked smugly.
James nodded slowly. "Well, if stabilization happens earlier then there is a longer period for refinement to occur, thus the witch or wizard would have more refined magic than any others. Plus the previous magic would already be refined so it would be easier to refine the rest because there is already an example?" James finished uncertainly, Lily nodded in confirmation so James continued. "Then what is stage five and how does the ritual effect it?"
Lily grinned wide at this. "Stage five is conversion. Around the age of twenty five the body begins to decay, magic combats this by converting some of the bodies functions to work on magic and using magic to speed up certain processes and generally prolong a witch or wizards life."
James was already grinning madly, seeing where it was going. "If your ritual works, then there will be much more magic for conversion and the person will live a longer life!" He exclaimed.
Lily now looked extremely smug. "Yep. She said popping the p, in a manner which annoyed James. "Dumbledore has a great flow of magic, store of magic and refinement of magic and so he has lived for a long time. As most powerful wizards do. Well those who don't turn Dark or get killed." She amended.
"In short your ritual would turn any ordinary wizard child into a magical prodigy!" James said in awe.
He'd always been aware that his wife was smart but this was beyond amazing. The implications of this ritual were astounding.
"And there are so many other effects I can think of, as well as more we may never know until we try it. Sharing magic with another person makes you like them more, trust them more and less likely to betray them. No matter how illogical. You Know Who made this much more powerful with his Dark Mark by mixing in obedience and loyalty spells too. Which explains why the Death Eaters are so fanatical. They're literally bound to him. Of course the effect wouldn't be so pronounced with this ritual but it would form a noticeable bond between the member of the ritual."
James sat for a second considering the implications of all of Lily's research. It was exactly what they needed in order to beat Voldemort and begin a new era of magical strength.
"Do you reckon that this is, 'The power he knows not'?" James asked quietly.
"I think, that it's possible." Lily said confidently after a few second thought.
"So that's what you've been working on then? Impressive." James said with a smile.
"There is one more thing. A fail-safe if you will..." Lily said hesitantly.
James frowned. He knew Lily was hesitant because she was about to talk about the possibility of them dying. It had been the cause of their one major argument. Lily seemed almost depressingly certain that they were both going to die at Voldemorts hand. James knew he was being childish but he refused to even believe the possibility, even though Lilys surety caused him major discomfort. The first time she had mentioned it, he felt as if her words carried power, almost as if she knew some undeniable reality he was not yet aware of.
He knew that Lily was unaware, but the Line of Hufflepuff was supposed to carry the power of Divination. It was a little known myth, something mentioned only by Pureblood parents to their children when talking about the various powers and affinities of the Magical Lines.
A small part of James knew that Lily had inherited a small amount of Seer power. Though she was dismissive of the art of Divination, to the extent that she never even considered the possibility that she had the talent, James was becoming increasingly sure that this was the small amount of Seer blood enabling her to get a feeling of her impending death. He just hoped he was wrong.
Sighing James regarded his wife. "Show me." He commanded.
Surprised Lily launched into an explanation which drew upon several branches of magic, a potion she'd baptised her son with to provide a general link, a small Bloodmagic ritual which would allow her to pledge her life to protect her sons and finally an expanded version of Family magics where she pledged her whole being to the protection of her son's family. Ten minutes later James surprised Lily by quickly performing the same ritual an d letting her draw two pints of his blood to be stored for the rituals which would be required after his death to cement the protection. All that was left was a relatively simple incantation which would activate the complex sacrificial magic as he was dying. That was the hardest part, the incantation had to be said less than a minute before death for maximum effect, so they would need to be careful to not get caught by surprise.
James and Lily were just preparing for bed when Lily finally caved and asked her husband why he had so easily agreed to the ritual.
James' throat tightened up and his mouth dried up. He was going to have to admit that he was wrong and his suspicions about her unknown ability.
Just as he was opening his mouth to explain, the pinkie finger on his left hand began vibrating. James immediately tensed up, shed his robe and grabbed his wand.
"James what's going on?" Lily asked as she grabbed her own wand and followed him into the hall.
"I placed advanced warning wards around the entire village. My first set has just been triggered." James explained as he began taking down the protections from his sons nursery. An action he would later regret.
Just as the last ward dropped James looked in to see his son awake and crying in the corned. What had awoken him? James wondered. As he began wondering if maybe Harry had his Mothers meagre gift for divination, the second and third fingers on his left hand began vibrating and the first stopped vibrating. His heart began to thunder in his chest.
"My outer warning wards were just ripped down and the inner ones are registering a major force of Death Eaters and an omega level wizard." James said as he pushed his wife toward his child. "That means he's here Lils. You know what to do."
Lily gasped as tears came to her eyes. Blinking rapidly she cleared her eyes and grabbed her husband in a ferocious kiss.
"We'll be together forever James. Always." Lily said resolutely.
James nodded and slammed the nursery door shut and quickly began raising the wards around the room again. He swore violently when his fourth finger began to vibrate and then all his warning cut off. That meant Voldemort had destroyed the main Ward anchor, which was five feet in front of their front gate.
Turning towards the door he whispered a quick incantation and there was a crunching sound as all the outer doors and windows became stone. In actuality none of the windows or doors existed, they'd been temporary creations which allowed one to walk or see through the walls which were in actuality four foot thick concrete, reinforced with steel rebar. Another hurried incantation sent his Patronus flying through the wall with a message to alert the order. There was always someone on guard at headquarters in case someone needed re-enforcements, but it would take time for the message to meet them. James knew that Moody, Hagrid, Sirius and Remus were on duty today and hoped to hell they could get here fast enough. With a flash of inspiration James grabbed a mirror from the side where he'd discarded it last.
"Padfoot, Moony" he yelled.
Just as the faces of his best friends came into view his thumb vibrated once.
Cutting off his friends greetings he yelled desperately. "He's here, the Fidelius is intact Peter must be a traitor. Come quick."
Not waiting for his friends answer he threw the mirror to one side and slashed his wand downwards and muttered under his breath. "Fidelius Patronus Absolvus"
He felt his magic swell as the Fidelius charm dropped. Now the order would be able to help them.
As he focused once more on the long hall he heard a muffled explosion. 'Padoots protections working then' James thought viciously.
Another sweep of his wand activated the pre-made space expansion charm Lily had anchored in Bloodrunes. Fighting in a narrow hallway was suicide he knew. Another flick brought all the pre-transfigured animals, except those in the nursery, to his side. He activated another set of Bloodrunes which cancelled the reducing charm on the pre-prepared, spelled walls and pillars of granite.
James was now firmly in control of the battlefield. Every possible advantage was to him. The anti-apparation wards in the house were impossible to destroy as they were anchored under the nursery, and only a few were keyed to them anyway,. This combined with his preparations meant that he had the complete advantage, except for numbers. 'How many are there?' He wondered.
"Accio Improved Marauders Map." James incanted. He caught the piece of paper and quickly spoke the activation charm. "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good"
immediately a map of Hogwarts, The Ministry of Magic, Diagon alley, and Godrics Hollow came up. Technically possessing such a thing was probably illegal but as he was the Ministries most trusted warder he had been able to slip a few thing in which gave the advantage to their team. This was unfortunately the only working copy as he'd only managed to hook up the map yesterday.
The names of several prominent Death Eaters popped up at him. Lucius Malfoy and the Carrows were powerful and he'd duelled with them plenty of times. He saw a few others who were less powerful minions clearly there just to witness, Crabbe and Goyle were expected but seeing the name Peter Pettigrew hurt a little, he'd hoped that it was untrue and that Voldemort had found a way around the protection but his name was there along with the small icon of a Dark Mark which identified Death Eaters. In the centre of them was the name, Tom Marvolo Riddle Jr.
James and Lily had learned much about the origins of Voldemort from Dumbledore after they learned of the prophecy concerning their son, both had been surprised to say the least. The leader of the Pureblood supremacist movement was a Halfblood?
James snorted at the memory. "Mischief Managed." He intoned, as he folded the map and placed it inside his Dragonhide vest. He and Lily had been sleeping in these vests for months, just in case. And tonight evidently it paid off.
With a flick of his wand he transfigured his Pyjamas into a formal battle robe with the crests of Potter on one side and Gryffindor on the other. If he was going to die this day, he'd at least look the part.
Another muffled explosion shook him from his thoughts. This one however wasn't from Padfoots protections. It was the sound of a Reductor curse being aimed at the cottage.
"Son of a bitch." James swore under his breath. "They're moving too damn fast, how powerful is this fucker? The outer protections should have kept him busy at least ten minutes!" He began to sweat slightly. Evidently Riddle was dipping heavily into his followers' power tonight.
He waved his wand and a dozen wolf toys changed back into their natural forms.
"The family is under attack, we must protect them at all costs!" He thundered.
Just as the front wall blew inwards the wolves all howled at once, giving off an eerie war cry. The low level Death Eaters came through the hole first James noted with Satisfaction.
"Haha, looks like I get a chance to warm up." He grinned ferally and motioned for the Wolves to attack.
The Death eaters were unable to see him yet, because of the granite walls between them. However the walls were heavily spelled, by Dumbledore himself in fact, so James was able to see straight through them, fire curses through them and they even had a powerful reflecting charm on, so that any curse that was less powerful than the charm was reflected back at the caster. Considering that Dumbledore cast the charm, the Death Eaters got a nasty surprise as they had to shield from their own spells. Before they could recover the Wolves had run straight through the wall and began ripping the Death eaters to pieces.
The screams made James feel slightly nauseated but he didn't pause and quickly began firing curses at the Death Eaters. Of the dozen or so canon fodder the wolves had managed to take out three already and were mauling four more so he had clear targets.
"Expulso, Reducto, Diffindo, Sectumsempra!" James shouted.
That combination was a spell chain he'd worked on, the wand movements easily flowed together and the spells caused carnage very quickly. It was also particularly difficult to block them all.
Repeating the spell chain several times James managed to take down four more Death eaters. The remaining three quickly snapped up shields and tried to duck for cover but there was no-where for them to hide. Quite by design in fact. To get around the shield he began to throw a few darker curses.
"Fractum Ossa, Coque Snaguino, Amputavo, Castrare!" The second spell chain immediately killed two more Death Eaters.
By this point six of the Death Eaters had fallen to various curses thanks to the spell chains, and another five had been killed by the wolves. This left three Death Eaters now being mauled by the remaining wolves, which James was happy to note was only three less than there were at the beginning.
A slew of Killing Curses interrupted his thoughts. Four wolves dropped straight away, leaving only five, but they'd already taken down one of the lesser Death Eaters and the other two were both sporting injuries.
"Fractum Ossa, Coque Snaguino, Amputavo, Castrare!" James yelled aiming at the two Death Eaters he guessed to be Crabbe and Goyle, judging by their size.
The Bone breaker managed to his one of the Death Eaters in the knee and he was subsequently his by the castration curse. The other two were dodged however.
By now the more powerful Death Eaters had come through the hole with Voldemort himself in the centre. With an agonised yelp the last wolf was beheaded by a lazy flick of Voldemorts wand.
"You don't need to fight us Potter. Join me and we can rule the Wizarding World together. I'll even spare the Mudblood. I require only one thing in tribute." Voldemort said in a slimy voice.
"I will never join you Riddle, you Halfblood pretender!" James shouted as he undid the transfiguration on the Lions and half a dozen eagles which quickly took up perches around him. He threw a few more dark curse chains at the Death Eaters to slow them down before giving the order for the animals to attack. The five lions ran to the left and the eagles to the left leaving James free to throw more chain spells at the centre Death eaters.
"Fractum Ossa, Coque Snaguino, Amputavo, Castrare! Fractum Ossa, Coque Snaguino, Amputavo, Castrare!" The Death Eaters either side of Voldemort were forced to dodge and throw up shield but a bone breaker hit the on the left in his right shoulder, though he seemed to shrug off the pain, and an amputation curse removed the right hand of the Death Eater James suspected was Lucius Malfoy.
While Voldemort was busy throwing killing curses at the Eagles which were proving to be a serious nuisance, having already taken the masks from Alecto Carrow and Peter Pettigrew and taking out the eyes of the latter, which James noted with satisfaction.
A quick incantation released one of his most brilliant idea's. A cage of Billywigs, which had been hidden in the ceiling over where the front door used to reside, was opening letting out at least three dozen of the pesky animals.
As the Billywigs stung Amycus Carrow and Lucius Malfoy James began to launch chain spell after chain spell straight at Voldemort. The Dark Lord was forced to keep up a sickly green shield, which stopped any of the animals touching him, as well as a bright golden one which absorbed most of his spells.
Tired of being on the defensive Voldemort launched a powerful Reducto straight at the wall. This was the first curse to be fired toward the wall itself, thanks to his distractions, in the form of the animals and curses. The curse was promptly reflected straight back towards the invaders and hit an astonished Crabbe, immediately overwhelming his shield and turning everything above his waist into a bloody mist.
"Not good enough Tommy boy!" James shouted in glee before he fired another Dark Chain spell at the Dark Lord.
The answering scream of frustration made James grin wickedly and his spirits were only raised further when he noted flashes of spellfire outside the hole. The cavalry had arrived!
With a sharp twist of his wand and a guttural incantation in Hebrew James made the four Pillars, which had previously been ignored by the Death eaters, except to use as cover, explode spectacularly. The explosion however wasn't of fire or stone but icy shards and water.
With a flick of his want the shard aimed for the Dark Lord, only to be re-transfigured into fine sand.
Focusing on what he wanted James jabbed his wand at the sand and intoned. "Terra Hirundo Inimicos!"
To distract the Dark Lord from his transfiguration he threw a few more Reductos towards him.
The Dark Lord however was not easily fooled and flicked his wand and silently turned the sand into ice shards again and then cast an unknown spell.
"Reflectum concavis!" He yelled. A bright blue shield sprung into existence before him.
James' eyes widened and he quickly dived to his left but it was too late the Reductos rebounded off the shield and destroyed the granite wall.
The explosion of the wall signalled the turning of the tide. James was thrown back and felt a sickening crack in his right arm as pieces of rubble flew towards him. His quickly erected shield stopped the largest pieces but his skin was quickly shredded by the shrapnel.
Cursing, he stumbled to his feet and transferred his wand to his uninjured left hand, and waved it hastily undoing the rest of the transfigurations.
The animals didn't need any orders, they simply ran straight towards the Dark lord and his followers, who had now killed the eagles and Lions and cast some kind of curse which made the Billywigs explode.
As he tried to steady himself, James was horrified to see Voldemort simply flick his wand and conjure a wave of fire which instantly incinerated his animals, and with them his last hope at beating the Dark Lord.
"Magnus Glaciem scutum!" James yelled desperately.
An icy blue shield flickered into existence around him, seemed to waver and then solidified as he pushed his will into a spell he knew was slightly beyond him.
However the spell did it's job, protecting him from the wave of fire which engulfed him and continued to burn the air about him.
Panicking slightly, James noticed that the fire continued to burn hotter and hotter. He quickly slashed his wand downwards and then flicked forwards. "Protego Unda Extorsum" He intoned.
The shield blew outwards with great force. Pushing away all of the large pieces of rubble and extinguishing the flames instantly.
The room swayed ominously, a sure sign that he was approaching magical exhaustion. He looked up to see Lord Voldemort alone now. From the sound of it the other Death Eaters had left the building to help subdue the fighters the order had sent. James noticed with satisfaction that Lucius Malfoy and both Carrows lay beneath rubble clearly dead.
Quicker than James even thought possible Voldemort threw a series of curses at him, verbalising only the first.
"Crucio!"
James' world exploded in pain as he felt all of his nerves light up in pain, as if he was being stabbed by a thousand burning knives, it was the first time he'd felt Voldemorts Cruciatus and he was so completely taken off guard, that he didn't notice his wand leave his hand, or his legs being cut off below the knees, or his stomach being sliced open then frozen with his organs half outside his body.
As the curse finally let up, James could see the Dark Lord barely five feet from him. Mustering his strength he spat at the inhuman being.
"Go on then. Kill me! But you will fall!" He screamed defiantly.
Voldemort just laughed at him.
"James, James" He chuckled. "Death will not be so easily coming for you." He smirked ominously and then flicked his wand a couple of times.
James screamed as his left arm was sliced open and his blood flew to the door which hid the nursery. He was then petrified and twisted about and propped up so he could see the door behind which his wife and son were hiding. Voldemorts intent was obvious.
"Lily, stay strong! The order are here..."
Another lazy flick of Voldemorts wand rendered him unable to speak. With a smirk the dark Lord waved his want in pattern that James recognised as a ward breaking spell.
His body alive with intense pain James watched as the evil creature took down the wards one by one. He lay there hoping with all his might that the Order would be able to beat the Death Eaters outside and get in here to help Lily but if anything the battle outside sounded like it was going strong.
With a triumphant grin Voldemort slashed his wand down.
"Recesserimus" He shouted with glee.
The door flashed red then white, the standard signal that the ward had been broken. Grinning like a loon the Dark Lord grasped the door handle and turned.