'Chapter 2: One Step Too Far'

Disclaimer - I don't own anything but Hela Lily Potter and other characters introduced later.

Okay so here is chapter 2 of 'Born To Be Kings'. It's an important chapter to the story 'cause a lot happens here that you'll see for yourself. I'm not gonna write too much because it'll take too much time to read. Thank you to anyone that read the first chapter that i posted. One thing I forgot to mention was that all three children are biological triplets. It's just Alex was born the next day and nobody refers to them as that because James and Alex hate Lucifer and Artemis and vice-versa. To them, it's bad enough being siblings with Alex, they don't want to go around saying he's their twin too. In case you didn't notice, all authors notes are gonna be made during my rewrites of this, so that means that these aren't the same authors notes from Quotev. Anyway, let's get into it.

'One Step Too Far'

12 September 1988

Once Lucifer and Artemis had finished their delicious breakfast they washed their plates and went back up to their room. They usually spent most of their days in there, reading or playing with the toys that Lily, Sirius and Remus bought them. Of course, their toy box dwarfed in comparison to Alex's collection, which took up two of the eight guest bedrooms and his own room. Most of the toys were broken anyway, as Alex tended to play rough with them and when he got mad he would take it out on his collection. Thus, half his toys were damaged or in pieces.

Once in their room, the twins pulled out two muggle books they were reading that their mother had given them, Lucifer was reading Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien and Artemis was engrossed in IT by Stephen King. Despite what the public would believe, the twins were very smart and very powerful. Both of them hadn't had accidental magic since they were five and they knew the equivalent of a year 5 Hogwarts student.

Their mother and godparents knew it of course but no one would believe them. They all thought that Alex was the smart and powerful one, not the overlooked elder potter kids. Still, they read and learned at an accelerating rate.

They stopped their reading when the clock in the hallway struck 11:39am and went outside to get some fresh air by playing some quidditch, which was a hobby of theirs. Lucifer played chaser, but was also good at seeker, and Artemis played seeker, but was at chaser. Quidditch was where Harry had earnt all his muscles and physical strength, as it required a lot to be able to throw a 2 kilogram ball through a hoop in mid air. It was also where Artemis got here slim quickness from as well, since it took a lot of that to beat the other seeker to the snitch.

They had been playing for about three-quarters-of-an-hour now and neither of them had caught the play snitch the Potters had. Lucifer was winning 230-210 though, so whoever caught it would win the game.

Out of the corner of her left eye, Artemis caught a glimpse of the gold ball flashing in the sunlight and made a dash for it. Lucifer saw it too and he sped up his comet two-seventy to its max speed and was right on Artemis' tail. Now they were neck and neck going for the snitch, they both reached their hands out, desperate for the little flying ball that was barely the size of a golf ball.

So close.

Almost there.

Got it!

Artemis had her hand clasped around the snitch and turned to Lucifer, grinning a cheshire cat grin.

"Look who just won Luce". She stated, much to his dismay.

"You cheated, I know you did, somehow". He said while glaring suspiciously at her.

"Me? I would never cheat. The only thing I'm guilty of is being better than you at Quidditch". She responded matter-of-factly.

"Please. I could take you any day at chaser". He said while smirking, hoping to challenge her to the position he was clearly better at.

Artemis was going to respond but she has heard the flapping of wings behind her and turned around. There, flying in from who-knows-where, was Lagravis, with a different letter tied around his left leg.

"Sirius!" she yelled as she ran towards the old grey owl. She tried to take the letter from him, and as she did, the withering bird pecked hard at her hand, drawing blood. Lucifer threw the quaffle at Lagravis and it flew away, probably to its perch in the shed. Artemis proceeded to open the letter and read it aloud.

"Artemis, and Lucifer if you're reading this.

It's nice to hear from you, I'm sorry for James' behaviour. I swear, I have no idea why he's like that, he didn't act that way in Hogwarts, that's for sure. It's good to hear that Lily's okay, and that she hasn't become part of the abuse. If she did, I would swoop in there and take you all away from him, I swear that. I have been good, but you'll hear more from me later on as I'm gonna come visit. I've got nothing better to do with my day, I'll be there around-"

Her sentence was cut short as a chubby hand wrapped itself around the letter and snatched it from her grasp.

"Well, well, what's this". The snarky voice of Alex 'the boy-who-lived' Potter. Brat. She thought to herself as he started to read the letter in his mind.

"Alex, give it back". Lucifer said, his voice dangerously low. This scared the so-called saviour for a few seconds until his face turned tomato-red with anger.

"You don't deserve to even talk to him, he should be my godfather, MINE! NOT YOURS! You'll see, when he comes today, I'll convince him that you two aren't worthy to be in his presence and he'll be my godfather finally. He'll see what useless wastes of space you two are and he'll come to my side, they all do". With that he stormed off towards the manor, fury evident in his eyes and posture.

Artemis suddenly had a terrifying thought, what if the brat was right? What if he did turn Sirius and maybe even Remus against them? She would have no-one, no one except for her twin and mother. She didn't think she could live like that. These were thoughts she didn't want to have so she moved on to something else.

Sirius is coming today

Lucifer seemed to have had this thought as well and they both stormed up to their rooms to get ready for their visitor. They decided that first of all, they needed to get changed out of their sweaty exercise clothes and into a more casual outfit. Lucifer threw on a dark grey t-shirt and some black jeans, while Artemis wore a silver shirt and some jeans.

They stayed in their room for about two more hours reading their books before they heard the floo downstairs and their little brothers scream of "PADFOOT!" Both of them dropped their books and charged out of the room and down the stairs, almost knocking over a poor house elf who was busy cleaning, and into the living room.

There in the living room of Potter Manor was a tall, imposing man with a tweed jacket and a large grin on his face at seeing the two children run into the room. He opened his arms and the twins jumped into them, almost knocking the man over. This man was Sirius Black, heir to the most noble and ancient house of Black, Order of Merlin First Class for his apprehending of Wormtail after his betrayal, and godfather to Lucifer James Potter.

"Sirius! We're so happy to see you again!" Artemis said as she tightened the hug. Lucifer was smiling as well and Sirius' grin was brighter than ever.

"Oi! You two get off of him right now or I swear you that I'll" his sentence was cut off by Sirius' loud voice projecting throughout the room.

"It's alright James! We're just having a bit of fun here. No need to get your knickers all in a twist, mate alright?" Sirius looked at James, happy to see his first real friend again. James significantly brightened at seeing his friend again and pulled Sirius in for a hug. Sirius patted his best friend on the shoulder and gave each of the kids a present, the twins' both very obviously bigger than Alex's. The twins let out shouts of joy and praise for the man while Alex looked disappointed. He had been expecting something big as people tended to gift him large and expensive things like new brooms, a muggle tv, stuff like that. Although Sirius never got him as nice things as the twins, he still held hope that one day Sirius would see what dark creatures those two were.

Artemis unwrapped her present and opened the box inside to find a training wand, an actual training wand! Lucifer opened his and found the same thing. They had completely forgotten that you were allowed training wands once you were 8 years old, and it had been their birthday just over a month ago and Alex had been gifted one by Albus Dumbledore, his mentor and trainer.

While both the twins ran and engaged Sirius in another massive hug with shouts of "Thank you Sirius!" and "I'm so happy!", Alex opened his present. It was a bag of chocolate frogs. Alex felt mad at his siblings for taking Sirius away from him. He knew training wands weren't cheap and Sirius had bought one for each of them. That money could've been spent on his present instead of theirs! James had the same thought as his youngest son.

"Okay Padfoot, enough jokes." He said while chuckling. "Now it's time to leave those two and give Alex his real present." James paused, expecting Sirius to just drop the two twins and turn his attention on the 'only one of my children worthy of any attention', as James would say.

Sirius just looked at him confused, and asked "What do you mean James? That is his present. I bought Lucifer and Artemis these since I noticed that they didn't receive any for their birthday and I didn't know what to get Alex." Sirius still looked dumbfounded while James looked on in half confusion-half horror at Sirius.

"Surely you must have brought him something better than chocolate frogs!" James couldn't believe that the twins would ever get something better than Alex. He looked absolutely mortified. At James' statement, Alex looked at Padfoot expectantly. Sirius shrugged and turned when he heard someone else come into the room.

"Lils! How have you been! Artemis tells me you've been busy at home." Sirius grinned at his best friends wife and went in for a quick hug.

"I've been good Sirius, and Artemis was right, I haven't actually needed to go out for anything in days!" Lily smiled at her husbands best friends and then looked towards her children.

"Merlin, are those training wands?" She had asked no one in particular. "Why yes they are Lils, I bought one each for Lucifer and Artemis so they could get early practice for Hogwarts." Sirius had really with his trademark smirk plastered on his face at seeing his godson and sort-of-goddaughter laughing and waving and swinging their wands while saying gibberish they had heard in muggle fantasy books, they hadn't been allowed Hogwarts textbooks, though Alex had for his training.

"Sirius, would you like a drink?" Lily asked him, he nodded and relied with "A nice cup of tea will do, thanks Lils". They both left for the kitchen, sure they could've called for a house elf but making it themselves would've been easier and besides, Lily still had a little bit of work to finish there anyway.

Once they were gone James turned to the twins and snatched the training wands out of their grasps. "Listen you two, I don't want you going anywhere near Sirius anymore, do you understand me?" James had said with fury evident in his voice. Alex had stood behind him, smirking at his older siblings for being reprimanded like that.

"But why? Sirius is my godfather, is he not?" Lucifer had asked, sadness in his voice evident for the thought of losing Sirius, one of his only friends. Artemis, too had a look of despair on her face but she kept quiet while Lucifer questioned their father.

"Not anymore, you brats don't deserve to have him as godfather, or Remus!" James had half-yelled, half-whispered to them for fear of being heard by Sirius down the hall. Alex was still smirking at them in the background "But, but… you can't, he-" Lucifer's words were cut off by James' harsh ones.

"I can do what I want when it comes to you two" James snarled at them, hate filled his hazel eyes, hate which they did not know the reason for.

"Why? Why are you doing this to us? Why do you hate us so much? What do you really mean when you call us monsters, or frea-" Artemis' words were cut off by a slap to the side of her face. James suddenly felt a small fist connect with his jaw and he turned, ready to finally teach his worthless older son a lesson.

James raised a fist and Lucifer waited for the blow, but it never came. Instead he heard a shout of "NO!" followed by thundering, rapid footsteps and Sirius' body tackling James to the ground before he could hit his godson.

"JAMES WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU DOING" Sirius yelled at his best friend as they both stood up from beside the wall they had crashed into. Alex stood now, horrified that Sirius had attacked his father before justice could be served unto his brother.

"I'm about to teach this brat a lesson Padfoot, now move!" At this, Lily ran into the room to find her daughter with a red mark on her cheek, her eldest son cradling his sore fist, her youngest son looking mortified and her husband and best man bruised and yelling at each other.

"JAMES, WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE". The Lily Evans rage was back in her and James actually looked positively terrified. "Lily, it's not what it looks like!" He said quickly, desperate to defuse the situation.

"THEN WHAT ON EARTH IS IT THEN?" She yelled at him, clearly still angry. Now James started to get angry as well, mainly because of how the situation was going down. "DON'T YOU DARE YELL AT ME LIKE THAT!" He screamed back at her and his youngest son looked like he was about the shit himself.

"HOW COULD YOU HIT YOUR DAUGHTER, YOU DIRTY LITTLE BASTAR-" Her words, too were cut off by a slap to the face. Now everyone was silent, James had hit his Lily-Flower, and right then they knew that it was over.

"James?" Lily had looked up, tears welled in her eyes. Alex was full on crying now, he knew his parents could never recover from this moment. "How- how could you?" Tears rolled down her cheeks, and James felt a short blast of regret hit him before pain hit him, literally.

James had rolled over onto the ground, this time he had received a full on punch to the face from Sirius, and with blood dripping from his mouth, he looked up. Sirius was looking at him, the pits of hell flaming in his eyes and he angrily spoke out.

"I'm taking Lils and the twins back to my father, disabling the floo and setting up wards. You won't get to see them until you get your shit together Potter." The anger flowed through his voice as he spoke to the man he could barely recognize anymore. Where was the boy who entered his compartment looking for friends in their first year? Where was the teen that he used to pull pranks with everyday at Hogwarts? Where was the man for who's wedding he was best man? That James Charlus Potter was dead, he had died a long time ago.

James mumbled something incoherent and glared at Sirius. He didn't care though. He took a crying Lily into his arms and grabbed the twins before sending them all through the floo system. With one last hateful glance at James and a pitying glance at Alex, he strode into the green flames and yelled out his destination.

"Black Family Manor!".

WOO, what a chapter! The last one was pretty much a prelude into the current life of the Potters to catch you up on what's been happening since Voldemort. In this one, however, stuff actually happened. Anyway, thank you guys for reading this story, i mean come on! 7 favourites in 13 hours? Amazing! Also don't forget to review and tell me what you think about it or if you have any questions about the story itself, DM me! I'm not exactly a busy author. Okay, I'll see you guys next time. Peace!