Only the characters I created are mine. Here's the next installment. This story is moving along at a nice clip, although I don't know where I want it to end up yet. The next chapter will write itself, and after that it's just a sketch in my brain. With apologies to Pink Floyd for the chapter title, here goes...

June 1981

James sat at the desk in the den, just off the living room of his modest house, writing the third of many letters he had to get sent off before the month was out. Things had gotten quite dangerous, attacks happened on almost a nightly basis, and he really wasn't sure when it would be his name on the list in the Daily Prophet. Lily was at Alice's house, the two boys playing together in the simple way that infants often did.

Finally he finished, signing his name with a flourish. Sirius would be by later today, and from there he would take the letters to Ireland, where Ursula would pick them up and have them delivered to where they needed to go. Both Sirius and Ursula would keep a set of the letters for themselves, just in case.

James thought about the past few years, after he had gone to Arcturus' meeting. The paperwork had come by owl post two days later with slightly more provisions than he remembered hearing about. His children would go to one of the listed guardians first, and then if he had left a will, it would be followed as far as placement if the Paternis guardians felt it was appropriate. There were no trust fund requirements, but he was allowed to set one up and dictate how it should be used.

Second, and more surprising, was how close Lily had gotten to both Cassiopeia II and Ursula. Ursula was a solicitor, and was acting to help James and Lily make the most of their legal rights regarding Harry. Of course, Ursula was a major point of contention between Lily and Molly. Molly never had anything nice to say about Ursula or her parents, especially since her brothers had died. The fact that Ursula and her parents were some last true Prewitts left didn't phase her. Not that

Lily had also tracked down her birth mother in New England and began correspondence. Lily's mother, Susannah, was now married with two babies Harry's age. Lily wanted to go and visit, and take Harry along, but it was much to dangerous to travel with the increased attacks. James often worried about even the small trips to visit the Longbottoms, but he feared that Lily would go crazy if she had to stay in the house without contact with the outside world.

James sighed. He took in the stack of papers that sat in front of him. One was his Will, which Lily would have to sign, and he would have to imprint with his magical signature in front of a witness. The second was the paperwork setting up Harry's trust fund. That would be filed by Ursula. The next one was a 'guidance' that would be sent off to Cassiopeia and Orion. They had to receive it ASAP, since it had to be received while the parents were alive. The others were just letters to be mailed off in case he died. He knew Lily had a similar set of letters ready to be sent off in case the worst happened.

James sighed again. He had been doing that a lot lately, since finding out that Voldemort had put out a 'kill on sight' order for both him and Lily. He would be going under a special charm, Fidelius or something like that, and so all of this work had to be done before Albus came over to administer it. He had argued with Sirius long and hard, but both felt that Peter would be the better choice, if only because Sirius was under intense scrutiny already because of his other cousins' questionable affiliations.

James got up and went upstairs to Harry's room. He took out the three trunks he had gotten the last time he had been able to sneak into Diagon Alley, and un-shrunk them.

"Ya gotta do what ya gotta do" he mumbled to himself, and set about his task.

In the first trunk he put all the pictures he could find of himself, Lily and the other Marauders. There were plenty from his time at Hogwarts, but more recent pictures had been few and far between. In this trunk he also put in a letter to Harry, age 8. He took a copy of two of Harry's favorite stuffed animals, and the blanket that his mother had made him when he was a baby. He also put clothes, a hard copy of Quiddich Through The Ages, and his autographed picture of the Brighton Raptors, his favorite Quiddich team. Even though the Raptors had dissolved, he wanted Harry to have something particularly special from him.

He also added books. All sorts of books from the Potter Family Library, some books and notes from his and Lily's time at Hogwarts, and books about pureblood traditions, rites of passage and other important information specific to being a Potter Heir following the traditional pureblood protocols. They were not practices he still followed, but the risk of Harry being ignorant in a hostile environment was too great to offhandedly dismiss the traditions of his forefathers. With the way Voldemort and his followers talked, the only thing that might keep Harry alive would be his blood.

In the second trunk he added more books and notes, a lot of his Transfiguration notes and some of Lily's advanced Charms work. Finally he put in a few pictures of him on the Quiddich team at Hogwarts, and his old scarf. He would ask Lily if they should include their Prefect badges when she came back. He also put in this trunk a copy of Harry's birth certificate, and all the legal documentation that Lily had managed to gather about her birth family. This trunk was finished off with a letter addressed to Harry, Age 11.

As an afterthought he dropped in a key where the larger of Harry's trust vault would be. Dumbledore had insisted on getting a key to Harry's vault, but somehow James was apprehensive of letting go with all Harry stood to inherit upon entrance to Hogwarts, so he had taken out a small sum and set up a smaller vault for Harry. He figured Dumbledore just wanted to be able to give Harry something special, but the amount in the smallest vault barely contained half a million Galleons, once all was said and done. He wrote in his letter to Ursula that upon his death all outstanding vaults other than Harry's trust vault would be merged with the main Potter vault, including his personal vault and Lily's school vault.

The main vault contained significantly more than that, as well as furniture and other various items not left at his parent's home. Most of it had been from old Potter homes that had been sold after his father's funeral. He had only kept two other houses, along with the house he currently lived in. The weight of being the last male Potter still alive had been too much for James, and consolidating assets once spread across any number of cousins had been the option both he and Lily agreed upon. They'd kept the oldest and largest of the Potter homes and the home on the Isle that he frequented as a child. He wasn't even sure what was in the main Potter vault, since his salary had been enough to live off of, plus his personal vault containing the inheritance he had gotten upon graduating from Hogwarts. There was an inventory within the main vault, drawn up by the goblins when his mother had died, but by then Lily was pregnant with Harry and he spent most of his time fighting Death Eaters and conducting raids on possible Death Eater hideouts. The inventory would go in the final trunk. Whatever was in the vaults, Harry would be well taken care of. James closed the lid and moved on to the final trunk.

This one he only put a few things in. A couple of things Remus had wanted Harry to have, a couple of things Sirius had dropped by previously when James had told him what he was doing, and more books. These books contained information of a more questionable nature, from a different era of the Potter family. James was less likely to include these in Harry's education, but with the uncertainty of what kind of world Harry would be growing up in, he did not want to take chances. He also included the Potter family lineage book. It had the family tree and other essential family information written down from centuries of Potters. The book was older than Hogwarts, and held together by family magic. As long as a person with Potter blood lived, the book would remain whole. James had added his own small section about Harry and Lily, the war with Voldemort, and made sure that the family tree within the book reflected Lily's status as a New England-born pureblood. Again, James didn't care one whit about it, but this book was too important to the family for his personal feelings to change centuries of tradition.

Also in this trunk he put in newspaper clippings, some of Lily's more recent Charms notes, things that she had been experimenting with as of late. In this trunk he also put in the most recent copy of the Potter holdings, and the balance of goods and money in both his and Lily's old school vault, and the larger Potter vault. Here he also put keys to both vaults, as well as detailed instructions about how to go about claiming his rights at Gringotts. The last thing that went in was a letter addressed to Harry, Age 15.

James looked around the room quickly, trying to figure out if there was anything else he should put in the trunk. Most of the things in the trunk had copies around the room already. He hadn't thought about giving Harry birthday presents and Solstice presents, but if all went well he wouldn't have to. He left the trunks open, knowing that Lily had her own letters and other sundry items she would want to include. As an afterthought he moved the lineage book to the Age 8 trunk, figuring that the earlier he got that the better.

James went back downstairs, and turned on the radio. He didn't have a single thing left he could think to do, so he simply poured himself two fingers of Dwarfmeiser, his favorite drink, and sat down to listen to the latest play-by-play. His eyes happened to catch a shimmer, and he walked over, picking up the light as air filmy material he recognized as his Invisibility Cloak.

"Now how did that get here?" He murmured. He swore he had given it to Dumbledore to use during the last Order meeting he had been at. He shook his head, and downed the drink in his hand, his mind lost in the happier times he had with this cloak.

After some consideration, he took it back upstairs, and put it in the second trunk, in a separate sealed compartment. He wanted Harry to have it, but only if he was able to find it first. Then, after another thought he penned a quick note to Sirius instructing him about picking up a toy training broom to put in the trunk for Harry. He then wrote another quick note to Harry, and stuck it in one of the books he was leaving Harry, picking a book at random and thrusting it within. This note, he hoped, would clue Harry in to the fact that there was a secret compartment in this trunk, and that if he opened it he would be rewarded.

With that done, James went downstairs again, his mind troubled and his stomach empty. He couldn't wait for Lily to come home, so he took out his wand and used his rusty homemaking skills to find a meal himself.

"What are those trunks up in Harry's room?"

"Stuff. For him. In case something happens to us." James didn't look up from the article he was reading, about the "Orange Curse", surrounding a very lengthy losing streak by the Chudley Cannons.

"I can see that it's stuff. But why?" Lily padded over to the chair next to James', a sandwich in one hand, and a can of Fizz-a-Le in the other.

James sighed. "It's a bunch of things that I felt we would want Harry to have, divided by when we would want him to have them. Pictures of us, our old Hogwarts stuff, books from the library in Staffordshire, other things…"

Lily sighed and took a bite of her sandwich. "So you believe something will happen to us? Both of us?"

James sighed and put the magazine down. "I can't deny that I don't feel like something's coming. I just don't want to be caught with my hands in the air. Things are getting bad, Lils…"

Lily nodded. "I know. I'm just glad that I've been able to see Alice every once in a while."

James smiled. "How are they?"

Lily laughed. "Neville is a little butterball, he and Harry get along famously, even if all they do is drool at each other giggling and blowing bubbles."

James laughed, but quickly sobered. "Hey, Lils… you got anything you wanna put in those trunks?"

Lily thought for a minute. "Yeah. I'll see what's up there and maybe put in a few things. How are we…"

"Sirius. He'll take them and put two of them in Harry's trust vault. The other he'll give to Cassi."

"How will we know that nobody else will be able to get into them?"

James sighed. He really didn't want to have to tell Lily this, but it was the only way, after two months of research, he could find to keep Harry able to get in and others from getting in.

"Blood Seal."

Lily turned around so fast that James was afraid he was going to die, right then and there, at the end of Lily's wand. "A BLOOD SEAL?"

"Just because it's blood doesn't mean it's dark magic. It's just very, very old magic witches and wizards used to protect their things. Only somebody with enough Potter blood will be able to open them."

Lily was quiet, but her eyes were still dangerously dark. "Are you sure this is the only way?"

James nodded. "If anything happens, the person who opens those trunks has to be a direct descendant of the Potter line. Non-transferable, impervious to attack, poison proof, fiendfyre proof… triple tested by Gringotts curse breakers… nobody's getting in those trunks except Harry, or maybe his children."

Lily let out a low whistle. "You really worked hard on this, didn't you?"

James nodded. "I did research for two months into alternatives that don't hinge on 'dark' magic. Short of wandering into Knockturn Alley for a cursed trunk this is the best I could do to keep everybody else out."

Lily nodded, only partially satisfied. She knew locking charms and other things were unlikely to hold up to a master, or a very powerful wizard hell bent on getting to the contents of the trunks.

"Fine, fine fine… I'll work out what I want to put in them. You hungry?"

August 19, Godric's Hollow

"Here are the trunks, Sirius. How did the letter delivery go?"

"Plenty well. Ursula verified the magical signatures and signed the wills. She also date stamped all the letters so that they could be verified as written and delivered by you while you were still alive."

James nodded. "Did you get the broom?"

Sirius nodded. "Cleansweep 180, for ages 2 to 8. Self-shrinking with parental controls. Best and safest on the market." Sirius paused. "You know you're going to be around to teach him to fly right? That all of this is a load of bollocks."

James smiled. "I hope so. I hope so. We'll open those trunks when he gets old enough and have a right good laugh at ourselves for being so scared."

"So this is it?" Sirius was sad. It hadn't been a week since he started at Hogwarts that he had not seen James.

"No, Sirius, this isn't it. Albus will be by later to set up the charm. When everything dies down we'll be back out running around again. Promise."

Sirius laughed. "Yeah we will! And little Prongslet will be right out there with us! Won't ya?"

Harry, who was bouncing happily on his mother's knee, simply smiled and blew a bubble at Sirius, who laughed again.

"Everything's going to be fine." Sirius smiled. James dropped the wills in the first trunk, the one Harry would be getting right away, and Sirius moved to drop a small package into the second chest.

"What's that, Padfoot?"

Sirius smiled. "A little something, care of his Uncle Sirius."

James turned to his friend, the question on his face. "You never know…" Sirius sighed. "The 'family' is at full force, and with my brother's disappearance I don't want to chance Harry not knowing who I really am. It's funny how memories get tainted once you're gone."

James nodded. He understood. He looked one last time at the trunks, and moved to close them, activating the blood seal with a prick of the finger. Each one glowed with a number, indicating the age that a person had to reach before being able to open the trunks. The trunks then sealed with a dark purple light, and James stood back up, shrinking them all. He picked them back up again and handed them to Sirius.

"Here ya go." James plopped the three trunks into Sirius' hands, and Sirius pocketed them.

"So, will ya have a cuppa or two before you leave?" James asked.

September 9, 1981: Unknown

"I have been made the Secret Keeper to the Potters, my Lord."

Twin crimson eyes glimmered in the dark. "Excellent. You have served me well. CRUCIO."

A body curled up, body slamming uncontrollably as his neurons misfired and his bladder gave way from the pain.

"That was for taking so long bringing me this information. Carrow, Crouch, clean that mess up."

October 31, Mid-afternoon.

Lily felt odd. She had been feeling odd all day. Not sick, but just a skin crawling feeling that something terrible was happening.

The attacks had increased, so there was little news on the radio these days, except a count of the newly dead. Mostly muggleborns, and of course the radio said nothing of the muggles killed trying to reach those muggleborns. Being left to her own devices with only old Witchly Home magazines to keep her company was rough. She looked at the dusty pile of books that sat on Harry's dresser. They had come from the attic, books that she had hidden even from James. One of her housemates had given them to her ages ago.

"But this is dark magic, Nadine!" Lily had whispered in the corner of the library where her sometimes friend, Nadine, had called her.

"These are dark times, Evans. Better to have the books and not need them, then to find yourself needing them and not having them. You're a powerful witch, smart. Keep the books. There's a portkey in there as well. My family's library. You'll find more stuff there that will raise the hair on your neck, but it will be a safe and healthy neck." Nadine had whispered.

So Lily had taken the books, and they lived in her school trunk until she got married. Then they moved to a dark corner of the attic to make room for a keepsake box for any children she would have. She was thinking about hiding the books in Harry's baby bag, along with his favorite recipes and a couple of other things. Jewelry her mother had left her, for instance.

She had been staring at the books for ten minutes, after putting Harry down for his nap. She shook the cobwebs out of her head and shrunk the books and hid them in Harry's stuffed dog.

"Just in case." She whispered. She shrunk the bag again, like her and James had practiced, and put the bag back on its charm around Harry's wrist. It was complicated, her own invention, and to anybody else it would just look like a baby bracelet with Harry's name on it. However, she had taken the precaution of sending the instructions to Cassiopeia, Harry's intended guardian via the Paternis order.

If anything happened, and Harry managed to survive, Cassi would be able to un-shrink the charm, revealing the bag. It also had a safety feature, meaning that if somebody was just scrying the charm, trying to figure out what it was and how to open it, numerous not-so-nice things would happen to that person. Lily laughed at the thought of some random Death Eater attempting to undo the charm and ending up with bright blue hair and bright green skin for a week.

She sighed. She couldn't shake this feeling, and it troubled her to no end. It was as if all the magic in the world was pressing down on the small house.

"I just hope I'm wrong." Lily said to herself. She looked at Harry one more time, deep in the dreams of babes, and went downstairs to make James and her some lunch.

October 31st, 9pm

"Tonight is the night." Voldemort declared. "Tonight is the night when we shall have our final victory against those who oppose us."

The gathered group, hooded and fully masked, felt jubilation washing over them. Their Lord would have victory at last!

"We will move out in groups, as before. Carrow, your group will target the latest headquarters of Dumbledore's group. Yaxley, your group will target the Auror's headquarters. Lestrange, your group has its assignment. And I will move against Potter. We will have victory tonight, and tomorrow, the world will be ours!"

There was cheering, and the Dark Lord allowed it. These were his faithful, his specially chosen among the mindless mouldable masses. He raised a hand and the group was silent once more.

"In the morning, I will give the signal to move against the Ministry proper. Without the Aurors for support it will topple, it will fail, and they will die."

More cheering, and the Dark Lord allowed this, as well.

"Leave me. I must prepare."

The group disbanded, except for two people who would accompany Voldemort on the strike against the Potter house. "Dolochov, Wormtail. Have you made preparations?"

"Yes, my Lord." The taller and the slimmer of the two spoke. He had three Imperiused curse-breakers at his disposal, ready to break the wards around the Potter house, to make ready for his Lord's entrance.

"They suspect nothing, my Lord." The short and squat man spoke next. "They think that they are safe from you."

"Good. You have played your role well, Wormtail." The Dark Lord was pleased. Things were going well. The other side was falling like flies, and his mandate to the men of his group was also going according to plan.

It had not been something he had even given a thought to, until Malfoy had come to him, whispering about the need to have a new generation ready to serve him, and to enforce his will among the people. He had agreed, and had ordered his followers to have children. Most of them had complied, and the viable birth rate among purebloods was up. He would have a continuous strong army to keep the mudbloods in line, even as his older followers died off.

The pregnant and the newly birthed were in a secure location, safe from Order raids. They must be protected at all cost. He even had Severus working on a potion to restore fertility to those who had lost it due to 'genetic problems' with great success. After all, what was a Dark Lord, but a man, without followers?

"We will leave in an hour. Make any final preparations you must make before then."

"Yes, my Lord." The pair bowed and left.

The Dark Lord was pleased. Victory was so close he could smell it.

October 31st, 10:30 PM

James sat in the living room, feeling the same tension that Lily had felt earlier. He dismissed it, but still. Lily sat on the floor with a wide awake Harry, up far beyond his bedtime. She was trying to lull him to sleep, but the boy would not sit still for anything.

"Maybe he feels it too." Lily sighed. She sat Harry down on the floor, and handed him his blocks. The bracelet was still around his wrist, and only a silencing spell kept it from jingling.

"Maybe." James sighed. He idly twirled his wand as he waited for the static to clear on the radio. He was hoping somebody was out there broadcasting, and could report on the American Cup, the only Quiddich going on, best to his knowledge. Then the lights flickered, and the ground shuttered.

"What the…" James jumped up, and the ground shuddered a second time. When the ground shuddered a third time, accompanied by a loud explosion, James knew something terrible was happening.

He turned to Lily, who was already in motion. Everything slowed down at that point. He watched as Lily scooped Harry up, and then a splintering sound caught his attention from behind. He turned to see Voldemort himself, striding into the room, cloak billowing behind him.

"LILY! TAKE HARRY UPSTAIRS!" James shouted as he whirled around, a spell on his lips.

James could hear Lily's feet pounding against the stairs, even over the sound of his own blood rushing through his head. Voldemort was speaking, and James shot off a spell, not fully knowing which one he had chosen. The last thing James Potter saw was a bright green light heading towards him, and the realization he would be too slow to dodge it was the last thought in his mind.

Voldemort cursed the supidity of the Potter man before stepping over his body and moving up the stairs to follow the mudblood and her spawn. He found her in the second room he checked, waving her wand over the baby. She whirled around and pointed her wand at him.

"Stand aside, foolish girl. It's not you I want, it's the child."

Lily somehow summoned up the courage to respond. "Over my dead body."

Voldemort chuckled. "Do you know that fool Severus begged for your life even as he condemned the life of your child?"

Lily narrowed her eyes and fired of a single spell. It hit squarely on target and Voldemort hissed from the pain.

"FOOL! Avada Kedavra!"

Lily Potter slumped to the ground, as the house shook again. Voldemort realized that time was of the essence. If the wards he had broken were any indication, one of the Order fools would be along any minute to 'protect' their prophecy.

Voldemort walked over to the baby, who was staring at him with startling green eyes. Slytherin Green. Voldemort thought.

"Such a strong baby. Tonight, you die. Avada Kedavra!"

Harry stared at the stranger as the bright green light flowed out of the stick he was waving. Somewhere in the back of his mind the word 'wand' wanted to attach to this stick. He watched it flow towards him, and then flow away again and strike the man with the bright red eyes squarely in the chest. His head hurt. Tremendously. And there was too much noise. His crib shook, and he let out an ear-splitting wail. He felt strange sensations in his head, cold and hot at the same time, and he didn't like it one bit. He cried louder, hoping that somebody mama dada pafoo mooie would hear him.

A/N. Hope you enjoyed it. If you have questions about anything, including my logic, let me know. If I misspelled a word or a key name, let me know that too. I want people to enjoy my story without cringing about misspellings or what not.

Look for Chapter 3 soon!