Story Number 2:

There have been many stories with this theme and this is my take on it. It's totally unrelated to the first story but probably makes sense in that context too; I have plans to use this in one of my upcoming story. I do not know when I will actually come around to write it as I have quite a few stories lined up after I finish with 'Three to Triumph' and 'With You by My Side'.

Lily Potter's Rant

Albus Dumbledore was a happy man; even being in the afterlife he was able to do some 'greater good' to the wizarding world. He was able to convince the savior, Harry Potter to go back from limbo and finish his duty of getting rid of Lord Voldemort. His carefully concocted plan has finally come to fruition; his cryptic clues and small pieces of the puzzle fitting together neatly to finish the final riddle to the puzzle that was the dark lord. His trusted friend and confidant Severus Snape, delivering the final piece led the lad to his death, well not really as the death was that of the final soul piece of Tom Riddle.

Was there any other way to get rid of the horcrux inside Harry Potter, of course there was. Not only the goblins were adept at handling it, but the selfless and unconditional love of a woman would have forced the soul of the one who did not have even an ounce of love in him, out of Harry Potter. Fortunately, or unfortunately there was one such woman in his life; Hermione Granger, the brightest witch of her age but sadly a muggleborn.

Dumbledore could not allow the ancient and noble house of Potter to have two non-pureblood ladies in its house. He did not have anything against them, on the contrary, they would infuse new genes to take care of the problem of continued in breeding; but Hermione Granger was not an ordinary witch, she was a crusader. Her greatest strength was the logical mind of hers and she had Harry Potter totally in her control. If she said, "Jump" Harry Potter would ask, "How high?"

The combination of the brightest mind and the fame and fortune of Harry Potter would not have bode well for the world which was seeped in, some would call it bigotry or narcissism, but he would like to think it as tradition. Together they would have ushered in a revolution and the long entrenched purebloods would have had to give way to a new generation of muggleborns and without his balancing presence at the helm of affairs, the husband and wife team of Hermione Granger and Harry Potter would have ruled the roost.

So what did he do? He convinced Harry Potter long ago, that the love Hermione Granger had for him was that of a sibling, not that of a prospective wife. Anyone who would have seen them interact through the first five years would have convinced Harry Potter otherwise, but the poor boy, devoid of any love in his life was easy to manipulate and with the introduction of the Weasleys into the fray, it was a cakewalk.

Even now, when he met Harry Potter in limbo, he was able to reinforce his message that he was intended for Ginny Weasley and the love of his life, his best friend Hermione Granger was intended for Ron Weasley, and he fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

Happy in his thoughts that his job was now finally done and he could rest in peace in the afterlife, he turned back to meet Severus who was waiting on the fringes near the lake in a very fine glade. His happiness turned to terror however when he saw the one person he wanted to avoid at all cost.

Chest heaving, her auburn hair crackling with the magic that was pouring out of her and emerald green eyes alight with righteous fury, Lily Potter looked like the tempest herself. "Albus Dumbledore!" she bellowed shattering the peace of the place, "How dare you, I was the one supposed to go and talk to my son but no, the great Albus Dumbledore had to go and muddle things up even after he is dead and buried. You dare to come here with this… this bastard!" Behind her James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus and Nymphadora Lupin were stunned; Lily never cursed even when the situation warranted it but now she was unleashing the big guns.

"How many children's lives did this sorry excuse of a human single handedly destroyed and you watched from the sidelines, even encouraging his behavior in your deluded opinion that everyone could be redeemed. Some of them should be put down like the rabid dogs they are."

Dumbledore was stunned; even Snape could not believe the venom that contained in the woman's rant, a woman who he was proud to call a friend and even thought would spend his life with. He had mostly to blame himself for letting her slip through his very fingers all due to his immaturity and one mistake, one small mistake that ruined his life and now it looks like even his death.

Lily Potter was however, just warming up, "He should have been shipped off to Azkaban the moment my son was left orphaned. Instead, he was paid to torment the same frightened boy whose very life he ruined and was rendered helpless in this world due to his actions."

She then turned her attention to the man she once considered her best friend even though at that time she chose to ignore his taunting of other muggleborn students during their time as a necessary evil for his stay in Slytherin house. After the way he insulted her however, she no longer deluded herself and unlike Dumbledore, she chose to see him without any bias and what she saw did not please her and so distanced herself from him.

Severus Snape the bane of a majority of students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry gulped when he saw a furious Lily Potter. He forgot that Lily was a lioness not just due to her being placed in the house of the brave, but also due to her ferociousness when defending someone she loved as was in ample evidence at school. Now she had her gaze fixed on him, this was bad!

Now she had her chance to give him some home truths, "Severus Nathan Snape! I always considered you my friend and later on a brother even." His shock was plain for everyone to see, that was not what he thought, he used to think that he was at least a prospective suitor in her life. When lily turned on Sirius who chose to snigger at the name 'Nathan' at that very moment Snape thought that he was saved, "Don't you dare laugh behind my back Black, I will deal with you later."

Sirius thought that he was safe but now he began regretting his decision to accompany them when James told him about Lily's crusade. He thought he could poke fun at two of the worst offenders in Harry's life but it looked like he was going to be included in the whirlpool. He had no option but to grit his teeth and bear it but first he could at least enjoy Dumbledore and Snape's discomfort.

Lily continued her tirade against Snape, "I know you thought that it was romance but how could I, after you told me during the very first year at Hogwarts, that you cared for me and guided me in the magical world like a mentor would his student. Did you ever stop to think that I might have had a different opinion about our relationship? You, who dreamed of fathering a child with me, forgot about everything and went on a path of emotional abuse against my child, treating him like the scum of the earth. Did you think that I would have forgiven you for that just because you were not the father? Seeing your behavior against the students at Hogwarts would send me puking at the very thought of your fathering a child with me. I mean how can you be so abusive if you wanted to be a father? Would you even be a good father to your own child? I know for sure that you cannot be."

Snape was stung by the accusations and hung his head at the words, even though he thought he had a thick skin, the barbs hit true. The truth was that he could not even refute her words, he tried to analyze for himself the feeling of having his child in his arms, but frankly he never saw the joy and now he was facing judgment of the worst kind.

"If you love someone, you would seek their happiness even if it gave you pain, not their destruction. Look at my son, why did he have to sacrifice himself for the people of the wizarding world who considered him delusional and a liar. Ask him and he would say that he was willing to die if the woman he truly loved could find some happiness, even if it was in the arms of another man. You thought that I would have been happy with you after my son and husband were dead just because you made a token attempt to save my life? I would have enjoyed torturing you and killing you off, if I was the only one left to survive that Halloween night."

She paused to catch her breath after that amazing torrent of vitriol; her gaze softened just a fraction as she asked, "Where was the gentle soul that I though was a kindred spirit?"

Then she scoffed at her own words, "... a gentle soul would have burned at the very thought of repeatedly raping women and harming innocent children. No you were never kind, I even doubt you have a soul, otherwise how could you have passed unheeded into this resting place for the innocent. I should have seen it when you tried to turn me against my own sister, even though she turned bitter all by herself, I am sure I could have patched up things with her if not for you… and that brings me to you" she turned her sights to her former headmaster.

Albus Dumbledore, considered by most to be the next Merlin was thoroughly cowed by that glare. He began whimpering like a two year old on a scary night of a thunderstorm; actually a two year old might have been braver than him at that moment. Hell began looking more and more like a picnic compared to the wrath of Lily Potter, and he could not prevent the shudder that ran through him at the thought of facing many more years of this. Beside him, his faithful friend and accomplice was left a drooling and mindless husk as his brain shut off due to the tongue lashing dished out by an angry mother of the child he had unjustly wronged.

"I have many complaints against you and even your forcing Harry to stay with Petunia paled in comparison to what you did to keep my son away from the one woman he loved and who loved him back in equal measure. You told him that love was the power that would defeat Voldemort and still you pushed him away from the selfless love of one woman towards the infatuation of a fan girl, just because it did not fit in your grand scheme. What would have happened if by some quirk of fate he did not get to be the 'Master of Death' and perished at the hands of Voldemort? Would your grand scheme for the world have survived the blight that was an unbeatable Dark Lord?"

Dumbledore shuddered at that, he really did not count on the possibility that even the power of love varied depending on the ones who was involved; he thought that love was love after all. That was probably why he was never able to love a woman enough to get married. The love of the girl who gave of her freely and was always by his side would definitely have helped the boy out, even if he did not get all the three hallows together but would the selfish infatuation of the girl he set up for him have helped him out similarly? He had to admit it would not have. He was now able to realize the true power of another kind of love as he was facing the love of a mother taking her righteous anger out on him.

"You are lucky that you are dead, otherwise I would have transcended the divide just to kill you. Where was the training for him to survive? You, who knew of his fate, chose to sit idle while he managed to survive solely with the help of the one girl who he held dear in his heart. They chose to stay by each other and were even prepared to die for the other and yet you tried to turn her towards the one who always chose to run away when the going got tough? … and How did he even return to the tent that time?" she asked and proceeded to give the answer too, "Due to the gadget you gave him; you knew that this was going to happen. Did it have some kind of tracking charm on my son? Did you put some compulsions in it so that he would always stay at my son's side even though he was clearly reluctant to do so in the face of danger?"

"All your manipulations led my son to believe that he was worthless of love and he did not think twice about going to his death. He did not even talk to the girl who would have moved heaven and earth to stop him from letting Voldemort kill him."

Now that Lily exhausted her repertoire of accusations and insults against Dumbledore, the moment that Sirius was dreading for a long time was at last upon him. Hands on her hips, she turned to a dear friend of her husband and by association herself, "We made you godfather, Sirius Orion Black, because you would have had the teeth and the drive to fight against Dumbledore's machinations and do what was right for my boy. Even with your upbringing you knew what should not be done to a child in your care and we thought that you would take care of him just like your own son. But no, 'I am so heartbroken over the death of my best friend, I need revenge, let others take care of my responsibility!' If you thought about it for even a moment you would have understood that your primary duty was to my son and not to avenge our deaths. Should we have written that down for you, what to do in case we died?"

Sirius gave her a sheepish smile and her features softened considerably, her ire was now more like an explanation to a dull child rather than a full blown lashing, "I admit you have had a tough life, maybe even harsher than my son's in some aspects, but we were sure you learnt from that. You knew what was going on, yes you did not know the contents in their entirety but you knew there was a prophecy named after him, he could have been told about that. He came to you about the dreams he was having, you might not have known about the hall of prophecies, but there were others working at the Ministry who could have solved the mystery or at least you could have warned him about the prophecy. Just giving him your fortune was not the way to help him, you could have at least trained him, as his godfather you had every right to be a part of his life and you should have given him the greatest gift you could, the means to survive. You were an accomplished hit wizard, where did all that training go? Surely you were not that afraid of going against Dumbledore, that you could not even teach him a few tricks of the trade, come on admit it at least to yourself, you had nothing to lose and everything to gain once Voldemort was done in."

Nearly out of steam, she turned to the last members of the stunned group, well leaving her husband aside, he was also a victim after all and he does get his share when the occasion warranted. She had only one grouse against the couple and it was not that serious, it was done with the best of intentions but still was not a good move in her opinion, "Tonks, I know that you did not know us or for that matter even my son for the longest time, but you were a Ministry employee and an auror at that, I mean couldn't you think for yourself just for a moment? Remus, I am disappointed in you the most, you were the logical one of the three. I do not where all this falling prostrate before Dumbledore came from, we were never like that, yes we respected him but never made him god."

It was true, Remus Lupin realized but it only came a little late, "What possessed you to make him a godfather to your son? He never knew a father figure and his love life was a sham he put up for the benefit of one woman he wanted to have all the happiness in the world. The other woman who was dreaming to marry him one day was a very immature person, only interested in chasing any boy who caught her fancy. You did not even bother to name anyone who could have taught him the ways to take care of a child as godmother, yes Andromeda was taking care of little Teddy, but still."

"He had only Arthur Weasley as a model for a father figure and one who was not the perfect example at that, a man who ran away to his tool shed to prevent any meaningful interaction with his wife, Mr. Granger would have been a far better role model. He raised a wonderful little girl who would turned out to be the perfect woman for my little boy, but no that old coot took care of that. Arthur cannot even stand before his wife for his own principles, let alone defy or correct her overbearing opinions. Would he say no to anything his wife said especially if it concerned her darling daughter? My son would be nothing more than a puppet in the hands of a new puppeteer. Did you even stop to think how the responsibility of taking care of an infant would have influenced his own love life? He would have needed a partner who was willing to allow your son in their lives and not someone whose only goal was to enjoy the parties and the fame."

"Oh! I just hope that he wakes up enough to see that the perfect woman for him has been beside him all along." She could not continue, her emotions finally catching up with her, she turned and buried her face in her husband's chest trying to stem the tide of tears.

Everyone within earshot including the author thanked the fates for taking the last minute decision to change the destiny of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger and saving their ears from Lily Potter's rant.

James Potter exclaimed, "Lily! Look Harry's kissing Hermione."

"… and she's kissing him back!" Sirius joined the general cheer. Everyone was happy, though there was a tumultuous cheer for the couple, two of them were mostly glad that due to these new developments, the tempest would give them a miss the next time.

"I could watch them being happy for all eternity" Lily Potter squealed, happy that her son had finally come home.