Hey! Reviewgirl911 bringing you a brand new Harry Potter story. I was inspired by parts of Princess of the Blacks by Silently Watching (excellent fic; you guys should check it out), but I don't attend to copy it. While I think the idea of a female Harry working in a brothel is interesting and worth exploring, my female Harry and hers will be different. Jen Black is a witty, sardonic little bitch (in the best way possible), but I want to write a girl a little softer and who would actually reconcile with the Potters and not have a reason to hate them. So, without ado, The Sky's Still Blue. Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I get tired of saying this.
Summary: Lily and James had it all: great jobs, wonderful friends, and the perfect family. Their son Arthur is the famous Boy-Who-Lived, and their daughter Callista is already a whimsical beauty. But when the six-year-old Callista is snatched during an attack on Diagon Alley, their world is shattered. Eleven years later, James and Sirius are sent to investigate a brothel in Knockturn Alley. There they meet a girl with startling familiar green eyes. Will Callista be able to fit back into her family, or will the demons that haunt her be too strong?
Once upon a time, there was a little family that loved each other very much. There was a sweet mom and a strong dad and two cheerful children. Despite that chaos, the war going on around them, they were happy. Until that Halloween.
Lily Potter stirred the alfredo sauce she had sitting on the stove, occasionally glancing out the window for a glimpse of black hair. Though they were supposed to be in hiding, James had insisted on going with the Marauders for Remus's "special night". He promised to be home at a reasonable hour, but Lily wasn't sure what reasonable was to her husband. He had already bought their baby boy a toy broomstick for Merlin's sake!
Lily smiled as she thought of her children. Arthur Sirius Potter took heavily after his father with messy black hair and mischievous hazel eyes though he did have some of her facial features. He was a very active baby, constantly trying to walk around. James liked to joke that he was trying to learn how to walk because he knew it came before flying a broom. Arthur was also extremely protective of his younger twin sister. He would always crawl in front of her when the door opened or grab her hand when she appeared frightened. This greatly pleased all the Marauders, particularly James and her godfather Sirius, because no boy in their right mind would want to mess with a girl who had four Marauders and an older brother backing her up.
Callista Alice Potter was already an enigma even as a baby. While she had inherited Lily's startling green eyes, Callie, as she was nicknamed by her brother, had none of her parents' other visible traits. She had beautiful honey blonde, Lily's mother's shade, hair. Callie's features were so elegantly Black that their friends and even James liked to joke she was really Sirius's daughter. Unlike her older brother, Callie was a calm baby. She did love to talk, gabbing on whenever she felt like it. Callie was also very affectionate, adoring cuddles and kisses. She gave them out as frequently as she received them, often planting kisses on the cheeks on her father, uncles, brother, and playmates. The one time Callie had kissed Neville on the cheek, his face turned bright red, causing Sirius to crow about how his goddaughter would be a heart-breaker.
Lily couldn't believe how lucky she was. She had a loving husband, two adorable children, and wonderful friends. The only thing disrupting their perfect little world was the threat of Voldemort and the prophecy looming over them.
Shortly after the twins were born, Dumbledore came to them with a prophecy predicted by Sybil Trewlaney. It stated that a boy would be born in the end of July to parents who have thrice defied Lord Voldemort, and that boy would have the power to defeat him. According to these perimeters, two boys qualified: Arthur Potter and Neville Longbottom. Both families had since gone into hiding under the Fidelus Charm.
"Lily-flower! We're home!" James Potter shouted cheerfully (and perhaps a bit drunkenly).
"Shh!" Lily hissed, glaring lethally at her husband. "I just put the twins to bed." James looked down at his feet. She turned to Peter and Sirius. "Are you two staying for dinner?"
Sirius smiled charmingly. "My dear Lily, do you still need to ask that question?"
She rolled her eyes. "Pete, what about you?" she asked an oddly jumpy Peter.
"Sure," he replied nervously. James and Sirius raced to the food, eager to eat, but Peter seemed slower to go. Lily pulled him aside.
She touched Peter's arm gently. "Peter, are you okay?" Lily asked worriedly. "You seem a bit off tonight."
Peter nodded. "I'm just tired," he lied. "I haven't been sleeping well." Which really wasn't a lie. Peter hadn't been able to sleep lately, the faces of the people he had betrayed and will betray haunting his dreams.
Lily seemed to accept this answer. "Let me know if you need some Dreamless Sleep potion," she offered kindly. "It won't take me that long to make."
Peter expressed his thanks and promised to take Lily up on the offer should he need it. He followed her into the kitchen, thoughts swirling around in his head. The Dark Lord had finally ordered Peter to tell him where the Potters were, and he had agreed with the stipulation that none of his friends die. Shockingly, the Dark Lord had agreed to these terms and scheduled the attack for tomorrow night: Halloween.
Peter never thought it would come to this, having to betray his best friends. He knew that, no matter the outcome, this couldn't end well for him. He would either rot in Azakban or die at the Dark Lord's hand. He knew he sort of deserved it. He had given Voldemort Marlene McKinnon, Sirius's girlfriend, Dorcas Meadows, a Hufflepuff who had always been kind to him, and countless other familiar school faces. Peter saw their faces in his dreams, haunting him, accusing him. More frequently, he saw the faces of James and Lily and Remus and Sirius and even the little twins asking him why. Those two faces were the ones that haunted him the most.
Even when Peter had almost convinced himself that this was for the best, that Lily and James could have another son, he would see little Callie's face, her expressive green eyes drilling into his soul, asking if she would ever have another twin.
On Halloween night, the Potter cottage in Godric's Hallow was the picture of innocence. Lily and James were sitting on their couch, drinking tea and enjoying the relative silence of their home. Sirius was holding a giggling Callie, conjuring colorful bubbles for her to admire. Arthur was crawling around on the floor, but he seemed to be losing steam.
Lily put her tea cup down. "I'm going to put Arthur to bed," she told her husband, picking up their yawning little boy. "Don't let Sirius corrupt our little girl."
Sirius faked offense. "Me? Corrupt Callie? Never!" Lily gave him a look. "Come on, James! Back me up here!"
James only laughed. "You're on your own there, Padfoot."
Sirius pouted. "Nobody loves me," he whined. As if disagreeing with him, Callie gave him a slobbery kiss on the cheek. Her godfather brightened up instantly. "Love you too, princess," Sirius whispered into his goddaughter's ear, the pleasant sound of his voice making her coo.
"Trying to make Rosmerta jealous, Padfoot?" James quipped. It was followed by an "Ow!" and a giggle that could only belong to Callie.
Lily smiled as she carried her son upstairs. If anyone had asked her a year or two ago if she thought that Sirius Black, playboy extraordinaire, could be so attached to a baby, she would've laughed and said no chance in hell. It was still shocking for her to know that her baby girl had Sirius so tightly wrapped around her finger. And yet it was a fact that nobody could deny and most found funny, particularly his ex-flames.
James was still recovering from the hex he received when he felt a slight shift in the wards. Dumbledore had modified them so they would be alerted if someone was entering the property. This wasn't too unusual except for the fact that Remus was still recovering from the full moon, and Peter was visiting his mother. Those were their only other visitors besides Sirius who used the door. Dumbledore, on the rare occasion he did visit, always came in from the password-protected Floo.
James, now in full alert mode, grabbed his wand and looked at his best friend. "Get help," he instructed. "Tell Dumbledore to send someone to check on Frank and Alice too." Sirius didn't question his friend, having felt the shift in the wards himself. Managing to both carry Callie and clutch his wand, Sirius stepped into the Floo. "Twizzlers," he said, activating the Floo.
Roughly two or three seconds after Sirius and Callie had Flooed away, the front door was blasted open. Lord Voldemort glided in, looking every bit the complete monster he was. "Ah, the noble descendant of Gryffindor prepared for a fight,' he smirked. "Unfortunately, I'm running low on time tonight." Voldemort sent a Stunner at James, which he blocked. Of course, James was too busy blocking and sending a Disarming spell of his own to notice the silent Stunner Voldemort sent his way. He felt to the ground, his wand still gripped tightly in his hand.
Voldemort smiled cruelly and called for a figure that was still trembling at the doorway. "Watch him until I turn, Wormtail," he instructed before gliding up the stairs.
Peter gulped in fear, looking down at one of his best friend's stunned body. "I'm so sorry, James," he whispered.
Lily, having heard the commotion downstairs, was trying desperately to comfort her crying son. Nothing was working. She was half-convinced that Arthur was crying not out of fear but because he thought his sister was downstairs, and there was no way for him to protect her. Lily tried not to think about what had happened to her husband, Sirius, and her little girl downstairs, only praying that they were okay.
She was standing in front of her son's crib when the door was blasted down. Lily knew she was going to die. She left her wand downstairs when she came upstairs to put Arthur to bed. Lily didn't mind dying this way, protecting her baby boy. And yet, to her surprise, the spell shot at her was a mere Stunning one.
Voldemort sighed. It would've been easier to kill the Mudblood, but he had promised Severus he would spare Lily Potter. He stepped towards the crib, pointing his wand at the baby boy that had wet cheeks but no new tears.
"Goodbye, Arthur Potter," Voldemort whispered ominously before performing a spell he'd done a million times before.
Experts in dark curses and what not would debate what really happened that night: whether Voldemort's soul had been too fractured by other Killing curses or if Arthur's unstable magical core had somehow expanded to cover his heart and thus bounced the curse back onto Voldemort. Of course, these were just the squabbles of researchers, and most wizards found them to be tedious and boring.
At the end of the day, here were the facts: Voldemort died and Arthur lived, making him the hero of Wizarding Britain.
None of these things mattered to the Potters. They were just both happy their babies were healthy and safe. Peter hadn't even bothered to flee when his master had been defeated and was sentenced to life in Azakban after confessing to the betrayal of the Potters as well as many other Order members. He also gave a list of Death Eaters who ended up joining him in Azakban. Lucius Malfoy managed to buy his way out of prison, but others, like his sister-in-law Bellatrix Lestrange, were not so lucky. Just to rub salt in his cousin's wounds, Sirius, as the new head of Black, disowned both her and Narcissa from the family and reinstated his favorite cousin, Andromeda Tonks.
The years went by, and both the Potter children grew up. Arthur was learning the ways of the Marauders and becoming increasingly more mischievous each day. Lily and James were careful to love their children equally and made sure they knew Arthur defeated Voldemort by mere chance, nothing more. Callista was growing into a great beauty, her head in the clouds more often than not. Much to Lily's amusement and James's horror, they began to receive offers for marriage contracts for her. It was part of James's motivation for working towards the promotion of Head Auror, rationalizing that no boy would try to marry his daughter then. He received the promotion. Lily's career was also taking off. Together with her good friend Selene Lovegood, Lily made several very important discovers in the use of Charms that gained her international recognition.
Overall, life was good, or at least it would be for a little while...