Introduction

Hello! What you are about to read is my first real attempt at long fiction so expect a little inexperience on my part. I began writing this as mostly an exercise in writing and I really hope to continue it to its logical conclusion. By the way I'm writing this in UK English so spelling will be a little different here and there.

As for the story itself well it's a female Harry Potter story, if you didn't get that from the summary, so consider yourselves warned. It'll focus on the friendship between the three main characters and the adventures they go on, mostly a retelling of the books/movies but of course with original twists throughout. I should note that I haven't read the books in a long time so what happened in the books and what happened in the movies have blurred together, so expect a bizarre amalgam of the two.

Any romantic aspect to this story will be a subplot and a long time off, especially as I don't really know how I want to approach it and who might be involved. However I am leaning towards femslash involving the main characters at this moment, so again warning! If you want a detailed explanation why please see my notes at the bottom.

Anyway if you feel like reviewing please do so; any and all feedback is what I'm here for. If you do though please don't sugar coat things, I'm a big person and I can take it I promise.

Update 23/02/2014 -Misspelled Lily. Thanks to Harmonian Shinobi for pointing that out.

Disclaimer: I do not own or in any way claim to own the Harry Potter franchise and its related material. All rights belong to the respective parties that actually do own it so please don't sue.

Prologue – To forge a legend...

A soft pop disturbed the silent night as a ripple in the air resolved into a figure wrapped in a voluminous black cloak. The figure inhaled the cool night air sharply, gathering its bearings before turning its attention to the aging townhouse before it. Warm light filtering through windows illuminated the figure, casting an imposing shadow onto the street.

Gaunt hands lowered the hood hiding their face, revealing handsome aristocratic features and cold blue eyes that were topped by dark wavy hair that was cut short. Here then stood Lord Voldemort, the most powerful dark wizard to have ever lived, amongst countless other titles just as sinister, and the cause of the first great wizarding war to touch England's shores. Drawing his wand the Dark Lord stalked towards the house, face twisted into a triumphant smirk. Finally his prey was within sight.

A negligent wave of his wand brought down the wards enveloping the home in a shower of sparks, raising new ones in their place. A second gesture blew the front door off its hinge, the loud boom alerting the inhabitants of the danger fast approaching.

Tonight he would seal his immortality.

In the upstairs nursery the wave of residual magic washed over Lily Potter, who instinctively tightened her arms around the baby she held. Her fiery red hair fell over her shoulder tickling the child and drawing forth a disgruntled cry. Something was horribly wrong. She knew she had to move, her baby's life was at stake, but knowing and doing are very different things.

The atrocities committed by dark wizards during the war played through her mind, images of murder and mutilation filling in exactly what would happen to them if she didn't do something. Fear and adrenaline warred for control over her body, her eyes flicking erratically across the room searching in vain for her wand while her body remained rooted in place.

Before either could claim victory the door to the nursery burst open as James Potter rushed in, wand drawn and ready.

"Lils it's him, you need to run!" he shouted breathlessly, a myriad of emotions playing over his face, "Take the baby and run. I'll try and distract him."

Although tension strained his voice, the seemingly heroic words broke through her panicked daze. Her mind frantically searched for escape and quickly faltered, the portkey and fireplace were downstairs, far beyond their reach, and the oppressive grip of foreign wards crushed her hopes of disapparting. Cold logic reigned in her dread; no matter what they tried she knew there would be no escape. With that clarity achieved her husband's words at last ticked over, her emotions crystallized into fury, crushing her despair and spitting out the broken remains as a biting invective.

"James Potter! Off all the stupid, inane... there is no way in hell I am leaving you to die," she spat, her eyes ablaze.

"Lily please... I can hold him for a little while. Sirius and the other must have felt the wards go down; they'll be here in a bit to back me up. I can't... I just can't-"

The pleading tone in his words was unmistakeable and desperate, his wand trembling in his hand. A spike of guilt drove through the witch at having caused her husband pain but she knew better than to give into it. All she could do was harden her resolve.

"I know James, I know," she replied softly, her words laced with sorrow and understanding, cracking slightly under the tension. "But there's nowhere to run, he has us trapped here; all we can do is protect our baby."

Lily's heart broke as the last vestiges of hope drained from her husband's eyes, replaced with grim resignation, evidently having reached the same conclusion she had. He reached over and took her hand in his, squeezing hard, conveying all he felt in that final gesture.

"I- Together then, for Alex... I love you"

"I-" she tried to reply only to be cut off by the sound of heavy footsteps climbing the stairs.

They turned hastily to the door, James raising his wand to face whatever was coming while a quick locking charm sealed the door. A whole eternity seemed to pass between each step, the protesting creak of floorboards almost deafening. With each moment and every step their will crumbled a little more only to be bolstered again by a squeeze of their hands or a stolen glance at the precious burden that Lily bore. Finally it was all they could do to take in one last deep breath as the footsteps fell silent at the door.

The Dark Lord took a moment to savour the tension leaking from the room before him. The unmistakeable smell of terror and the last defiant glimmer of hope fading away. It was nothing short of beautiful he thought, engraining the memory amongst his other great triumphs. Sensing that the moment had arrived he thrust his wand forward, blasting the door open to reveal his quarry wand aimed at his head, incandescent red spellfire already hurtling towards him.

It was with almost indifferent grace that the Dark Lord batted away the stunner and retaliating, throwing his attacker against the wall with a sickening crunch. The disturbance woke the baby in Lily's arms, who shrill cry accompanied the witch's own at the sight of her unconscious husband. He contemplated finishing off the fallen wizard but thought better of it. It would be far more entertaining to make him watch as he tortured his mudblood whore before finally gracing his broken soul with death, besides he came here on business. With that pleasing thought in mind he turned towards the witch who was futilely attempting to shield the baby from him.

"Give me the child and you may yet live passed dawn," he hissed, after all a dead mudblood was no fun to torture.

Unsurprisingly however the redhead glared defiantly back, her shoulders pulling in tighter, refusing to budge. Snape had always said Lily Potter, or Evans as he insisted on calling her, was a stubborn one. But not to matter, the wilful ones were always more fun to break.

"You can go back to whatever pit spawned you, bastard," she spat, fighting to reign in her trembling body. She was under no illusions about what was going to happen to her, a fact Voldemort knew all too well, but the vehemence behind her words almost took the dark wizard aback. "You're not touching my child."

He sighed at such a predictable response. Why did they never give in? Did they not realise how pointless their petty defiance was? Moreover the incessant caterwauling from the child refused to cease, no matter how much pressure he exuded on the child's mind. Frustration building the Dark Lord dispensed with subtlety and levelled his wand at the witch.

"So be it then, I'll just have to taunt your husband with the news of your demise instead," he hissed, dangerous undertones clear at losing out on his fun.

Lily knew what was coming; she could feel the magic building in the air until it was almost palpable. As her muscles tightened in anticipation her emotions ran away from her. Regret for never being able to watch her baby grow up, the sorrow of losing the love of her life and the fear of what was to come after death. Yet looking down at the face of her child she felt a calm settle over her, knowing that she would go down protecting the most precious thing in her life.

"Avada Kedavra," Voldemort croaked out, pushing all of his hatred into the words, willing his magic onwards to snuff out the woman's life.

A sickly green light pooled at the tip of his wand, pulsating and screeching an unholy requiem for its victims. From Voldemort's perspective it seemed to pause ponderously as if taking in its surroundings before lancing out towards his target, a bolt of verdant lightning.

Almost immediately he felt something off, a stirring in the air, the magicks fuelling the killing curse seemed to ebb as if pulled away by some vacuum. He searched frantically for whatever was causing the disturbance, observing the very magic in the air in ways few other mortal ever had.

What he found alarmed him greatly. A halo of magic appeared to surround the witch before him. No! His jaw nearly hit the floor as he noticed that this mysterious spell came from the child and not the mother. He had barely begun to question his own sanity, after all this child was barely a year old, when he noticed something else.

The halo was growing in size and intensity, glowing with such fire that the Dark Lord was forced to shield his eyes. The magic swirled and pulsed building to a crescendo before exploding outwards, throwing bodies around like ragdolls. A deafening crump followed the walls of the nursery blasting outwards, tearing out a large chunk of the roof with it.

James Potter woke to an acrid stench invading his nostrils and feeling like someone had taken a sledgehammer to his entire body, his every breath ragged and hard fought. He lay there for what felt like several minutes, mentally taking stock of his wounds. His limbs felt like jelly and he guessed several of his ribs were broken courtesy of his breathing troubles. Finally he forced his eyes open and blinking his way through the blurriness took in his situation. What he saw sent a spike of panic through his mind, the nursery was in ruins, debris was littered everywhere and his wife lay in a heap beside an enormous hole where the outer wall once stood. His only relief was that Voldemort appeared to be gone, however at that point he could hardly care less how that came to be.

Gulping in air James propped himself up on his arms, and with muscles protesting at the abuse they had taken already slowly stood up. Dizziness threatened to knock him back to the ground as he stumbled towards his wife, nearly collapsing as he reached her crumpled form. Tentatively he reached out to touch her shoulder, shaking her gently in hopes of waking her feeling the pit in his stomach grow as he got no response.

"Lils... Lily please," he begged, his voice hoarse from his injuries, growing increasingly frantic with every second.

Just as he began to lose his grip on his panicking mind a piercing wail came from the bundle his wife still clutched to her chest. He started forwards to check on his child when with a gasping breathe Lily jerked into consciousness, arms flailing wildly at some imaginary attacker.

"Lily wait, it's me James," he soothed, gently drawing her into his arms. "It's safe, Voldemort's gone."

It took several moments for her to calm enough to make sense of what was around her, eyes meeting the concerned gaze of her husband. As his words at last seemed to register she allowed herself to relax into his arms and remembered the crying baby she held. Rocking the bundle slowly the mother lulled the infant back to its slumber, finally allowing her to fully collect herself.

Seeing the last of the panic drain from his wife's eyes he focused on the precious charge she held. Pulling aside the blankets that swathed the baby he gasped as he caught sight of the bloody scar etched onto the tender skin beneath a dark fringe. His gasp caught the attention of his wife who nearly lapsed back into her frenzy. Reacting quickly James wiped the scar clean with the blankets and was relieved to find the scar already scabbing over, a fact that also served to settle his wife down. With the crisis averted the mystery of how the scar got there in the first place and what exactly had transpired rose to the fore.

"Lily... what happened?"

A thoughtful look crossed her emerald eyes, brows furrowing as she grimaced at the blanks her mind was drawing.

"I-I don't... One minute th-the Killing Curse... was about to... Oh god, he was about to kill the both of us. A-a-and then Alex... became so warm and a flash... and then nothing..."

"Nothing? As in you didn't see or can't remember?"

"I think I blacked out after the flash but I can't remember. What could this mean James?"

He was at a total loss, never having heard of someone surviving the Killing Curse, let alone seemingly destroying the one who had cast it. Yet somehow his child, barely a year old, had done just that. All he could do was shrug in response.

With that train of thought shelved for now Lily's mind turned to darker thoughts, namely how had the Dark Lord found them? The house and their location were supposed to be under the Fidelius Charm, one cast by Dumbledore himself, and thus the secret was touted to be safer than Gringotts itself. The only weakness to the charm was the secret keeper... It was at this point that her thoughts came to a screaming halt. She wanted -no needed to be wrong, her husband would be devastated otherwise.

"What I want to know is how the hell that slimy bastard found us," James muttered, eyes darting about as if looking for clues amongst the rubble. "I thought we were supposed to be under the 'great' Fidelius?"

Lily felt her heart sink knowing that she had to tell James her suspicions, their lives may still depend on it. Forcing her mouth to cooperate she cautiously began to relate her suspicions.

"James... I-I think Peter..." she trailed off, faltering as she saw the understanding blossom in his eyes.

"No, there's no way he could... He was one of us! A Marauder. He was at our wedding, when we named our baby... he... Oh god, how the hell didn't I..."

With each word his conviction dimmed, memories rose unbidden of how his friend had grown distant, furtive, as the war had dragged on, disappearing for weeks. He had claimed he was on missions, scouting or some such, and they never had a reason to doubt his word. Communication between members of the Order of the Phoenix, created to fight the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters, had grown strained and rare as members were killed and secrets compromised, so it was not unusual for them to know nothing about each other's assignments. At this realisation anger swiftly replaced his denial, his hands fisting tightly until they began to tremble.

"James... I-"

"No. If that rat betrayed us, then he's dead to me."

Lily pressed her back into her husband's embrace, hoping to comfort him and in turn drawing strength from his warmth. Eventually as she felt the shaking diminish and his body seemed to deflate she thought about their next move. She knew that the most obvious answer would be to wait until the Order arrived, undoubtedly with the Aurors in tow. But would their enemies expect that? Perhaps they had planned this as an ambush, drawing the Order out with convenient bait and now Death Eaters were ready to pounce on a distracted foe. Yet try as she might the thought that a close friend had betrayed them always came back to the forefront. If Peter could betray them, who could they really trust?

There was something going on that neither knew about, something that had driven the urgency they had felt from the Dark Lord. It must be something that had threatened him directly for the attack was in hindsight extremely poorly planned, with few contingencies she could think of. And now they did not know who amongst their friends they could trust.

However in addition to this would be the reaction from the world if news of this got out. The adulations and celebrity aside the Death Eaters and their sympathizers would look for any opportunity to finish what the Dark Lord had tried. They would forever have targets painted on their back and no idea if the person they passed in the street would turn around and take aim. Their child would never be safe, never have the life they deserved, always hunted. Before she could complete her train of thought James spoke bringing her back to reality.

"Lily... What do we do now?" he asked, barely whispering, having evidently followed a similar train of thought. "Do we wait for the others?"

She hesitated a moment before expressing her misgivings and was both gratified and depressed to find that her husband had had similar concerns. Their choice then was clear, they would have to disappear and let the world believe that on this day a family had died stopping the greatest threat the wizarding world had ever seen. They would leave behind all of their friends and secret their child away.

"Where can we go?" asked Lily. "Everywhere in magical England may be compromised."

"What about my Grandparents old manor? Everyone thinks that it burnt down at the start of the war, it's even in a muggle town," replied James, frowning in thought.

"It's certainly insulated enough and if I remember right we stashed some money there."

Another thought occurred to Lily. "Wait what about Gringotts; surely they'll know we are still alive? Won't they tell everyone?"

James considered this for a moment, going over everything he knew about the goblins and the agreements they had with the Potters.

"No we should be safe, we all signed a confidentiality agreement when we opened accounts there. They'll be closed mouthed about their customers even if the Minister for Magic inquires."

With that the two lapsed into silence, taking in the momentous decision they were about to make. Looking into the future brought one final hurdle to the witch's attention.

"We can't keep our baby locked away for every though James. One day they'll want to see the world and there will be nothing we can do to stop a child of ours from exploring. There's also Hogwarts..." she trailed off.

Indeed James could see how that could pose a serious threat. The way the school for magic and the Ministry kept track of new students was automatic and enormously powerful. In just under 10 years time the magicks that lay over all of England would detect a new student was ready to take their place in Scotland. Ultimately it meant that in 10 years time their ruse would fall apart.

"It's something we'll just have to prepare ourselves for and Hogwarts is probably the safest place in the world. What kind of life would our child have without an education?"

"Although I certainly won't be pleased if they bring someone 'special' home," he added, trying to lighten the heavy mood that had descended over them.

Despite it all Lily could do nothing to stop her lips from quirking up at her husband's silliness. Nodding slightly in acquiescence to the plan she took one last look around and much to her chagrin found her wand lying in a pile of debris. Handing the baby to James she walked over to pick it up, taking a moment to check for any damage it may have sustained before pocketing it with a bemused shake of her head, the stupid thing was never where she wanted it.

"We're really doing this, aren't we?" she asked, receiving a nod in reply. Taking a deep breath she offered her hand, pulling James to his feet.

"Shall we then?"

"Of course my lady," James replied, sketching out a shallow bow that was ruined by the ball of sheets he carried.

Before she could change her mind again Lily raised her wand. A turn of her feet later the three vanished with a soft pop, leaving the house devoid of human life.

By the time the Order arrived, along with a sizeable Auror company as predicted, the house was long deserted. Their investigation turned up a scorched scrap of black cloth and some suspicious looking ash, but nothing more. However the same could not be said once Dumbledore cast a revealing charm over the house. The crowd watched the Potters confront He Who Must Not Be Named, their horror quickly turning to awe as they saw the most feared wizard to have ever lived be defeated by a mere child.

As the magic collapsed, leaving the fate of the Potters a mystery, hushed whispers rippled through the crowd, slowly growing to a roar of cheers as the knowledge that the war was over settled in. By the time order was re-established and the order given to stay silent about the night's revelations, midnight had long since passed.

The small army dispersed in various directions, some eager to be home to celebrate, others returned to duty while the Ministry officials went to prepare an address to the public. Come the morning they would announce the fall of the Dark Lord and the sacrifice of the Potters, a message of hope and celebration tempered with sorrow.

However as legends are want to do word began to spread almost from the get go, passed on as whispered rumours, quick notes scribbled on spare parchment or the drunken revelry of the indiscreet. Word soon reached the ear of the Daily Prophet, the newspaper that had cornered the news; unsurprisingly they leapt on the story.

So it was that by the morning as the Ministry prepared to announce victory over the Wizarding Wireless a new copy of the Prophet was already in the homes of almost every witch and wizard in the nation, the story emblazoned across the front page.

In that story the Prophet would coin a term that would be forever etched into the Wizarding World, for they told the tragic story of the Girl Who Won.

10 Years Later

Minerva McGonagall's days as deputy headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were more often than not dull. Granted that every so often she would have to deal with some troublemakers, namely the second year Weasley twins, but that paled in comparison to the time she spent dealing with paperwork. Today's paperwork however she did not mind nearly so much, for today she had noticed a new acceptance letter sealed in a crisp white envelope sitting in the ever growing pile on her desk.

It was always a pleasure to see such a letter for it meant another addition to their small but rich world, a new mind ready to seek out the mysteries of the world. As she reached for the envelope, eager to see who it was that would soon be attending, her heart skipped a beat at what she saw. For printed on the envelope in flowing cursive was an impossible name.

Alexandria Potter.

A/N:

Add 3 cups of tripe, 5kg of misunderstanding and a grain of truth. Mix well.

As for why I am inclined towards femslash well it is sort of complicated. Since the main characters are female the norm would have them paired with one of the male characters. However the characters I am trying to portray will be very strong willed and highly intelligent women with a sense of adventure. As such none of the male characters that are remotely close to them in age feel like good partners for them, with any relationship I shoehorn in lacking the equality that makes a good relationship. Moreover I honestly am not that fond of many of the male characters personalities, as many i.e. Ron and most of the Gryffindors being lazy and/or deliberately obtuse at times.

With that in mind it sort of makes sense for a very close friendship to develop into something a little more don't you think?

Anyway those are just thoughts I have right now, it may and probably will change as I go along.

Sorry for the wall of text AN.