Prevention - Chapter 2
Fight and Escape
(Screw poor Internet connection. This took ages to write on Google Docs. I think I was better off with Microsoft Word.)
Previously on Prevention…
"Nice costume, mister!" a child's voice rang out ahead. I froze, not making a sound. I knew those words. I knew those words.
Those were the words that Voldemort had heard from a young child, seconds before he arrived at the home of the Potters to kill all three of them. Tom Riddle had, thankfully, spared the child who'd spoken to him because it was not necessary to kill him. This did, however, mean that I had even less time to act than I thought.
I was suddenly gripped by indecision. Should I intervene? If I tried to fight him, I would almost certainly die. I often thought little of people who used the strategy of pure power to win, but it had historically worked out pretty well for him.
Should I risk the possibility of total abject failure of my mission - to make the whole country safer from the Dark Lords that had torn it to pieces - to save the lives of only two people? After all, if I let things play out like they had originally, Voldemort would kill the Potters and then be discorporated. In the chaos that would follow losing their master, I could assassinate all of the worst Death Eaters when they were in Azkaban, and move on to mowing down the others. I could even save young Harry Potter from his treatment at the Dursleys, the years that had warped him so badly that he'd never been able to be completely sane. By killing Bellatrix, Mulciber, and Dolohov alone, I would be saving hundreds of lives. Not even to mention the lives that would be saved if I destroyed the entire Death Eater contingent. And all I would have to do is let two lives end, right here, right now, at the hands of Voldemort.
It was brutal. It was utilitarian. It was brutally utilitarian. Did I want to be that kind of person, the person who would sacrifice the few in order to save the many? Could you treat people as if they were simply parts of a math equation, subtract the two who would die tonight, and add the hundreds who would have their lives if I waited? If I intervened to save Lily and James tonight, I might not even succeed in saving them, and I too would die for trying to deny the Dark Lord his prize. Their lives would be lost anyway, and mine too… and the country would be destroyed by mad Dark wizards again. Logic dictated that I should allow them to die, because then I would survive. An alive me could then wipe out the entire Death Eater contingent by assassinations, thereby preventing the worst of the damage of the Second War from being done. Hundreds and thousands of lives could be saved in the future, and all I had to do… was let these two die. Like a calculating bastard, who thought of people as parts of mathematical equations. Of course you can subtract two if you add one hundred.
I absolutely refused to be that kind of person. I was not Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter, or Lord Voldemort, and I would not treat people as if they could be sacrificed. It wasn't my right to sacrifice the lives of the few on behalf of the lives of the many. I could not, would not, make that decision for another living being. Either I would save the few and the many… or I would fail to save either. There was no middle ground. I could not decide who lived and who died.
No, I would stay, and stand against Voldemort. Not directly, in a contest of pure power - that would be suicide. But there is more than one way to skin a kneazle. I had a number of strategies I could use against him, and hopefully one or more of them would work.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Voldemort rounding the corner. He was on the same street at last.
I still couldn't see the bloody house, because I had not been told the Secret by Peter Pettigrew. Voldemort had, though. It was going to be an awfully hard time helping James and Lily Potter survive Voldemort's attack when I couldn't even see their house. Still, I had a number of methods that I could use, even in this instance.
Hiding behind a garbage can, I cast the Avis and Oppugno charms as fast as I possibly could. Within five seconds, I had a veritable sixty birds. The birds were only one measure of many, though. I continued to cast even as the birds converged on his position, this time with Patronus Charms.
Attack Voldemort, I commanded them. The Dark Lord had just gotten to the blank patch of air that was the house in which his enemies were hiding. He yanked back on a blank patch of air that must have been the door, and laughed in satisfaction at seeing his enemies caught on the back foot. I heard screaming from inside, but couldn't discern it - damn that Fidelius Charm. I knew what was being said, though.
("Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off")
And then my birds were upon him, interrupting James Potter's would-be death. Voldemort yelled in confusion and anger, but mostly confusion. He slashed his wand, and flames erupted from it, incinerating the birds. Unfortunately, I hadn't the time to Disillusion them, so he got all of them.
"James!" I screamed, hoping he could hear me - because I sure as shit couldn't hear him. "I'll hold him off! You should run!" Unfortunately, the act of screaming gave away my position, and I swerved as Voldemort's Killing Curse obliterated the trash can that I had been hiding behind. I Vanished the remains of the trash can. I heard James Potter's yells from inside the house. I still couldn't tell what was being said, due to the Fidelius, but I could tell his yell was a negation of my statement, that it was a statement that he was staying, determined to fight to the very end. That we had a better chance of delaying Voldemort from his goal of killing all of them if there were two people, instead of one, to hold him off.
Bloody Gryffindors. Still, I couldn't honestly blame him, not when I was also putting everything on the line to save another person. And really, what kind of father would he be if he wasn't defending his family?
Before Voldemort could cast again, the Patronuses were upon him. He laughed as they converged on him - Patronuses, really? - I imagined the look on his face said, before he remembered something very important.
Patronuses are immune to most spells, because they are incorporeal. He slashed his wand in my direction, hoping to dispel the Patronuses by killing the caster. A wave of fire rolled towards my direction, some of it taking the form of a dragon and other parts taking the form of chimeras. Fiendfyre. Well, this couldn't be dealt with easily.
Remembering I was still invisible, I Apparated again, envisioning my destination. I Apparated so closely to Voldemort that our positions actually overlapped with each other.
I rematerialized into existence in a truly uncomfortable position, my head just below the Dark Lord's armpit. I quickly moved to a new position, right below the Dark Lord's arm, simultaneously grabbing the limb in order to throw his aim off.
"Now, James!" I shouted, "Use your form!"
Voldemort yelled, trying to shake me off, but my Patronuses were still attacking him and he couldn't use a Killing Curse on me because my position directly overlapped with his. It would be fatal for the both of us. Of course, if I died, that would put quite a wrench in my plans to save the country from the Death Eaters and those like them. But I was willing to take the chance that Voldemort wouldn't do something that resulted in him being discorporated just to take out one of his enemies.
James Potter in stag form became visible, finally leaving the boundaries of his Fidelius-charmed house. He charged right at the Dark Lord. Voldemort tried to cast the Killing Curse at him, but I had his wand arm. I twisted it again, throwing his spell off-target again. The Patronuses continued to smash into Voldemort again and again and again.
Tom Riddle yelled, sending a cascade of violent magic in every possible direction. Magic responded to his intent, and the Patronuses dissipated. James Potter the stag flew back with great force before he reached Voldemort. I was separated from Voldemort, flying through the air, but managed to draw my second wand, charming the shoes that I had stolen earlier so I remained airborne.
"Homenum revelio," said Voldemort, because I was still invisible. I dropped the Disillusionment Charm a second before he finished casting the human presences spell, and hurled bits of ice from my second wand at the master of the Death Eaters. He sneered, casting a massive fireball in the direction of the ice, before turning and heading into the house, to harm the already injured stag.
I Disapparated out of the way of the fireball, reappearing closer to the house this time. I cast Sonorous on myself and then screamed, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" as loudly as I possibly could. Except I had screamed the words, instead of actually casting the spell. The idea was to bluff the Dark Lord into feeling real alarm, causing his attention to be distracted so that James the stag would have free rein to attack. I couldn't see Voldemort's reaction but I could hear his yell of pain from James Potter crashing into him in stag form. That sounded like a major setback, but in reality, that wouldn't have been nearly enough to handle the Dark Lord of many acronyms. I had to assume he still had his wand, and that any moment now he will cast a Killing Curse point-blank, offing the stag. There was little I could do to prevent it, when I can't even see his position. Except…
"Accio shoes!" With luck, it would do the reverse of a Banishing Charm, throwing Voldemort off-balance and rendering him unable to finish his incantation. I heard swearing from inside, and another scream of pain from Riddle, from when Potter the stag crashed into him again. I heard bones crack. I was not fooled, however. Riddle was only not a threat when he is discorporated or dead, and he was neither at the moment. I had to prevent him from casting anything so that the stag would be free to continue attacking him, but do it in such a way that I wouldn't accidentally hit James Potter. Which would be harder than it sounded, as I couldn't actually see anything in the house.
This should throw him off balance. "Faux Kedavra!" I incanted, making sure to scream the last word. A completely nonlethal jet of green light left my borrowed wand and entered the house. I heard a grunt as the stag was propelled upwards and crashed into the ceiling - Voldemort's work, presumably. I conjured lions and then ordered them inside, but they stopped in confusion just outside the door. Fucking Fidelius Charm! It was really a hindrance at this point. I Banished them inside, then quickly dived behind another garbage can in case Voldemort was up. I absolutely did not need to be in his line of fire. My whole strategy against Voldemort was an indirect one. I knew that I couldn't fight him directly, so I was cheating.
The stag crashed down to the floor, groaning in pain. Gravity had done its work too. James the stag would probably be too injured to attack Voldemort very well, even if the Dark Lord was also injured. Had he been alone, this is where his fight against Voldemort would have ended. But he wasn't alone, and I refused to be useless! As long as I was able to intervene between Voldemort and his victims, I would.
"Lumos Solarem." I dived behind the trash can again, a good decision as Voldemort's curse would have blasted me to smithereens if I hadn't. A good chunk of the street exploded, throwing up lots of rocks and debris. This I could work with. I directed the debris into the house to converge on Voldemort. This wouldn't work forever. Soon he would grow tired of dealing with my attempts to interfere with his killing of James Potter, and storm out of the house and burn the whole neighborhood with Fiendfyre, forcing me to flee. And then the Potters would be dead… and Harry would live with the Dursleys. That was not something I considered an acceptable outcome, considering everything that was to happen in the second war.
I Apparated into the middle of the air. There was something solid beneath me… I knew it was the house. So I conjured a tiger, and rapidly cast Engorgio on the tiger over and over and over again. I hoped the spellwork would act quickly enough to collapse the house. The Fidelius Charm couldn't hide the location of something that no longer existed, after all, could it? Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Riddle had transformed the debris into spears and sent them hurtling back in the direction from where they had come. Where I would have been, if I wasn't on the roof.
"Geminio!" Another tiger on top of the first one. Another duplication charm, "Geminio!" A third one was standing on top of the second one. And again.
"Geminio!"
Four gigantic tigers on the exact same spot was too much. Half of the roof collapsed, sending bricks in every direction. Luckily, it wasn't the half that I had been standing on. I splattered oil with my borrowed wand, noting the places where it seemed to stop in mid-air. That was where the bricks were. And now for the next salvo.
"Confringo!" I shouted, collapsing the other half of the roof. "Incendio! Incendio! Invito Vinum!"
It's pretty hard to miss a horde of collapsing bricks with a spell, even when they're invisible to you, especially when there are many of them and you only need to tag one to tag almost all of them.
I could hear Voldemort's roars of anger as tigers crashed down right next to him - not on top of him, unfortunately - followed by lots of flaming bricks. I could see the rooms coming into view. It was as I suspected. Without the existence of a house to protect, the Fidelius Charm was winking out of existence. I blew a hole in the other half of the house and used a Featherlight Charm to protect myself.
The Dark Lord looked livid, maintaining a constant Impervius spell so that the flaming bricks would dodge him. The tigers were on fire and were in great pain, and very angry. They took out their aggression on the nearest person to them - Lord Voldemort. He had to maintain the Impervius to protect himself from the flaming bricks, so he raised his other hand, wandlessly blowing the heads off of the flaming tigers.
"James!" I shouted, finding my way over to him. "Are you alive?" The man looked horribly pale, and I had to pull him out of some of the wreckage of falling bricks. I cast a few spells. "Flame Freezing Charm," I said shortly. "Sorry about the house, but…" I turned back as Voldemort killed off the last of the flaming tigers. I slashed upwards with my wand, taking care not to use the incantation. I doubted that James Potter would have approved of necromantic corpse detonations. The remains of the dead tiger blew up in Voldemort's face, staggering him.
His eyes met mine, suddenly becoming clear and focused. "It's time to escape," he said. "Can you Apparate?"
"Where to?" I asked.
"Not important," he said. "Lily and Harry have already escaped, so nothing at stake other than our own - fuck," he said fervently as we both swerved out of the way of flaming bricks that Voldemort was directing in our direction. I pulled him out of the way of a second volley, and then cast Fiendfyre at Voldemort. The cursed flame ate through the bricks, which were only on normal fire, moving towards Voldemort's position.
"Move now," he said. "We have but seconds."
I didn't disagree. We both vanished, reappearing in the Leaky Cauldron.
Back in Godric's Hollow, Voldemort screamed at being denied his victory.
(line break)
Leaky Cauldron, 10:05 PM
"This is a bit of a dangerous place for me to be, out in the open," James observed neutrally. "Even being in a place as public as Diagon Alley doesn't mean you can't be targeted by the Death Eaters. Still, it seems as if I owe you. You intervened against Voldemort, allowing my wife and son enough time to escape. I highly doubt I'd have lasted long enough for that if it had been just me. You also almost killed me by ceiling collapse, though. I'll take it, though," he raised a hand, forestalling my apologies, "since you saved the lives of Lily and Harry."
"You may need to warn Sirius," I said. "He'll go after Peter-"
"Good," James said.
"Potter!" I exclaimed, slightly shocked. I thought James of all people would realize the foolishness of Sirius' mission that had backfired and gotten him thirteen years in Azkaban, and the rest of his days as a fugitive. "You should… probably tell him you're alive. And inform everyone you can that you were betrayed by him, and not by Sirius. They think Sirius was the Secret-Keeper, after all."
"Oh, right," he said, then frowned. "Wait," he said more suspiciously, "how do you know that Peter was the Secret-Keeper? We told almost no one that fact."
"I am a Seer," I said blithely. "I predict the future."
"A Seer, who stood against Voldemort?" James asked skeptically.
"Yes," I said, enjoying the look on his face. "By the time I was possessed by the Inner Eye, I had already practiced Defense Against the Dark Arts for years. I didn't lose that skill when I gained the ability to see the future."
"You arrived almost too late," he said.
"I was warned by the Inner Eye almost too late," I spun my tale. "I believe it was trying to test my character, seeing if I would risk my own life to stand against true evil. I don't know why it waited this long. The Inner Eye works in mysterious ways."
"Seers," he muttered. "Bloody insane, the lot of them."
"One of them saved your life and those of your family," I reminded him. He flushed in embarrassment. "Oh, right," he said. "So tell Sirius I'm alive-"
"-And tell him not to pursue Pettigrew before you have given conclusive evidence to the Ministry demonstrating that Peter was the Secret-Keeper. Also, not to pursue Pettigrew alone under any circumstances. Any, do you understand? The rat is more dangerous than he looks. Who knows what tricks he picked up in his master's employ?"
"There's a location more secure than this one," he said, "but unfortunately I'm not able to Apparate. You saved our lives, even if you did collapse the house on both me and Voldemort, so I'm trusting you for now."
"You'd trust a complete stranger?" I raised my eyebrows. Merlin, this man really was too trusting. How had he not died already?
"You attacked Voldemort, risking your own life on behalf of my own, and that of my wife and son," he smiled. "I think you've proven you can be trusted. No one who isn't seriously brave and a good person would do something like that."
"House of the Longbottoms," I suggested. "However, they would have to trust me enough to let me in, and they don't know about that."
I had a bit of an ulterior motive for this: if I could interrupt the attack by the Lestranges, I could save Frank and Alice Longbottom from their state of being tortured into insanity. They deserved that much.
"I'll handle it," James said, fumbling for his wand before realizing he didn't have it. I sighed. "Use mine," I said, handing over my stolen wand to him. I still had two more.
"All right," he said. "Expecto Patronum Specialis. I am alive. We were attacked by Voldemort, the house was destroyed, but I'm alive and in the Leaky Cauldron. I'm currently too injured to be able to Apparate. We're thinking of holing up in the Longbottom residence for the time being."
"Sirius' innocence," I reminded him.
"Oh, yes," James said. He had admirable composure for how close he'd come to death; I was impressed. Then again, he had fought off Voldemort three times by this point. "Sirius, I will submit evidence to the Ministry proving that Peter was the Secret-Keeper, not yourself. Until then, keep your head down and do not engage Peter. Lily, when you can, please respond with a Patronus confirming that you are also alive. You probably are, since you escaped the house, but it would be nice to have confirmation. Frank and Alice - we'll be coming soon. Also, don't fire at my flamboyant companion in the red hat. This person intervened against Voldemort at a critical moment, saving my life and allowing me to delay Voldemort long enough for Lily and Harry to escape. Withhold your fire. Patronus destinations: Lily, Sirius, Frank, and Alice."
"I am not flamboyantly dressed," I said dryly, "and I do not have a red hat."
"Oh, right," James said, completely unapologetic. "Well, we can fix that, can't we?" A wave of the wand he'd borrowed off of me, and a red hat was on top of my head. A color-changing charm, and the robes I'd stolen were now bright pink.
I stared at him. "I hate you."
"Lies," he said, "you love me. Everyone does."