Chapter 2: Born through a blade
Sunlight was streaming in through the broken windows when Lily potter awoke. After blinking sleepily for a moment, she frowned at the cold wind blowing into the room. Letting lose a yawn Lily climbed out of bed and turned to close the window, only to blink in shock as she found that it was not open as she had thought, but broken, like many of the other things in the room.
"What is this?" Lily murmured to herself in confusion "what happened here? Was it an earthquake?" She paused for a second looking around the room or as it could be better described the ruins of the room, as the place was an utter mess with pictures blown off the wall, their inhabitants shouting silently at the treatment, and the dresser tipped over onto the floor which was itself covered in broken glass, 'heck'Lily thought to herself 'not even the bed was spared, how did we sleep through this?'
It was then that the shock of her awakening wore off and Lily Potter's maternal instincts jumped into overdrive, as she rushed from the room with a terrified whisper of, "my babies!" heedless of the broken glass on the floor or the damage it did to her feet.
Entering the hallway Lily was not surprised to find it just as damaged as the bedroom was before. But this did not matter to her as she hurried down the hall, completely ignoring the broken pictures, decorations and mementoes. Normally this level of damage would have been extremely saddening to her, with all the effort she and her husband had put into making this their home and all the memories stored within it. But at the moment she had a much higher priority, the safety of her children and until they were safe nothing else mattered.
Lily potter turned into the doorway leading to the children's room, noting absently that whatever had done this had torn the door straight off its hinges. Lily then stopped and stared in shock at the room inside.
It was as if a bomb had gone off, the room was a mess even the walls were crumbling. But that was not what held Lily Potter's attention, it was the roughly circular area in the centre of the room that seemed completely unscathed, the eye of the storm as it were, inside this oasis of calm there were three things, the first of which Lily noticed instantly, it was the cot which her children slept in and it was apparently undamaged "thank Merlin" Lily whispered in mild relief. It was then that she noticed the other things within the circle of calm. One was the Potter sword that her husband had hung above the cot as a good luck charm, it had detached from the beam above and was now sticking out of the floor, hilt upwards in front of the cot, standing with a proud and noble air about it like a sentinel between the children and the pile of ashes heaped on the floor.
Lily carefully walked through the room towards the cot taking care to avoid the pile of ashes in front of it, something about those ashes just screamed evil at her. She reached the cot and peered inside it with baited breath and saw to her immense relief that both of her babies were there, and breathing. It was only after she had confirmed this fact that she noticed what had happened to her children. Harry's hair had turned a silvery white colour, something vastly different to the black of the day before, but other than that seemed mostly unharmed, his brother on the other hand. "Oh Adrian" Lily gasped as she saw her child's head caked in his own blood which had seeped from a wound on his forehead in the shape of a bolt of lightning.
"Jaaames! You get in here right now!" Lily yelled frantically as she instinctively reached for her wand, to perform basic healing, only to realise that in her haste to check on the children she had left her wand in the bedroom. Lily cursed under her breath and glanced between the cot and the doorway, as she wondered whether or not to go and fetch her wand in order to begin first aid, but at the same time not wanting to leave the children alone while she did so.
Luckily for her the decision turned out to be unnecessary as her husband came rushing into the room with his wand out. "Lily!" James called out frantically, his eyes darting around the room taking in the situation with the skill of an Auror captain "thank merlin you're all right. How are the children?" he asked hurriedly while walking over to the cot taking care to avoid the pile of ash "And what is this stuff anyway? Where did it come from?" James continued as he looked down at his sons. The moment he saw them he swore violently, and turned to his wife, who could see that despite the controlled front he was putting up he was just as scared as she was.
"Lily" James spoke, in a calm and commanding voice the one he used when giving orders to an Auror team in an emergency "You need to listen to me. The children are going to be okay. We don't know how long they've been like this and they are still alive, so they are in no immediate danger. Now I'll stay here and begin first aid on Harry and Adrian, while you go back to our room and get your wand. Then, I want you to go downstairs and call Dumbledore on the floo, get him over here Now. I don't know what has happened but he might. Okay?"
Lily nodded silently. "Good" James said as he looked his wife straight in the eyes, before having his gaze flicker to her feet. "che, before that though let me heal your feet, they've been cut to shreds by the glass. I know you were worried but you've got to stay safe as well. Now hold still."
James knelt down and pointed his wand at Lily's feet while muttering an incantation, which as he watched caused his wife's feet to be covered in a soft green light as the cuts healed. "There" James said in satisfaction as the healing completed "all done. Now quickly, go and get Dumbledore, and for my sake if nothing else be careful."
With that said James stood, turned to the cot raised his wand and began to cast the spells that would diagnose the health of his sons.
Lily paused for a moment to watch her husband begin to work, before giving one last wary look at the ominous pile of ash and carefully walking out of the room.
Lily stepped out of the children's room and walked back down the corridor to her bedroom, being careful this time to avoid any broken glass. When she reached the room she walked straight to her side of the bed and bent down by the bedside table, which had fallen during the night, and started to look for her wand as she had left it on the table. After a minute or so searching Lily found her wand under the bed having apparently rolled there when the table fell over. Thus Lily stood and with wand in hand hurried downstairs to the fireplace.
"Hogwarts School, Headmaster's office" Lilly called out to the green flames before her.
It was a common misconception Lily thought idly, the combined stress making her a little thoughtful, as she prepared to stick her head into the flames, that the floo did not connect to Hogwarts. This was not true Hogwarts was connected to the floo it was just that you could not travel through it due to the wards. Lily pushed these thoughts out of her mind as she was suddenly looking at a large number of moving portraits, former Headmasters of Hogwarts. Taking a deep breath she called out "ALBUS!" at the top of her voice, startling some of the sleeping portraits, but Lily ignored there grumbling and the squawk from Fawkes she was to busy focusing on the bookshelf that connected the headmaster's office to the living quarters.
It was with substantial relief that Lily saw the bookshelf swing open to reveal Albus Dumbledore, immaculately garbed in some glittery purple and red monstrosity of a robe, as usual, pushing aside thoughts as to how he was up and dressed already, Lily opened her mouth to speak but Albus beat her to it, eyes twinkling.
"Ah, Lily what a pleasant surprise, though maybe a little early, anyway I am being rude how are things with you and the family?" the old wizard spoke pleasantly, "Hmm, but I see that not everything is all right, what has happened?" he continued his voice losing a little of it's light heartedness while maintaining it's warmth even as the twinkle faded from his eyes.
Normally Lily would have been comforted by his grandfatherly demeanour. But at the moment she was just a bit too stressed out for that and instead blurted out.
"Oh, Albus thank merlin you're awake. Something terrible has happened, the house is in ruins Adrian is injured, Harry's hair has gone white and there is this strange pile of ash on the floor in front of the cot. I'm worried, please come over as quickly as possible!"
"Hmm. I see, that is troubling." Albus replied now totally serious " in that case there is no time to waste please step aside I will be right through."
As Lily pulled her head out of the fire and stepped out of the way her thoughts returned to before the conversation started. It is impossible to floo to and from Hogwarts... 'unless that is' Lily thought as the old headmaster stepped out of the green flames, 'your name is Albus Dumbledore' .
Albus himself seeing the questioning look on Lily's face answered the unspoken question " I modified the wards to recognise me and allow me to pass through. I thought it might be useful someday, apparently I was right" he finished with a slight smile before turning and striding towards the stairs " now quickly. I don't know what has happened here but there was dark magic involved. So it would be best if I checked your children as soon as possible." He called back to Lily even as he took the stairs two at a time.
Lily hurried after the elderly wizard, inwardly marvelling at the strength of his magic to enable him to move like a man in his early 40's even while being over 100 was an impressive feat, even for a wizard.
They quickly walked down the ruined hallway toward the children's room both of them ignoring the state of the house around them. As they turned through the doorway they saw James standing above the cot with his wand out casting spells constantly.
James heard them walk in and turned, sighing in relief, "Albus, thank Merlin you're here. Adrian has this cut on his head and I haven't been able to close it, it's resisted all the spells I've cast please do something." he pleaded
"Of course James, now let's have a look" Albus murmured soothingly as he leaned over the cot and began weaving The Elder wand through complicated patterns in the air.
"Hmm, interesting. This cut was definitely made by dark magic, which is why you were having such trouble treating it incidentally. But it isn't overly dangerous, I can heal it now actually, the only issue is that it will leave a scar" He said after a few minutes of careful examination.
"Oh good, please heal him now we can deal with a scar." James stated relievedly.
"yes, well I had anticipated as much and anyway scar's can be useful have I ever told you about the one on my knee..." Albus continued with light pouring from his wand, before Lily interrupted with an exasperated chuckle "yes Albus you have told us about your scar before now. So please heal Adrian and finish examining Harry."
Albus looked a bit embarrassed at that interruption, but merely chuckled before refocusing on his spell casting.
It was a minute or so later when Albus stopped his wand movements and spoke up again "Well. Adrian is fine now, but his brother... well what has happened to him is interesting to say the least, I am reading almost no magic within him at all which is odd because I know that he was born with above average magic levels. Also there is a strong but quickly dissipating magical aura around that sword over there, and it seems to be related to what happened in some way" Albus said with a nod towards the blade still embedded in the floor. "speaking of which where did you get it? I can't tell much about it without further examination but it is unusual to say the least"
"It's an heirloom" James replied shortly "about Harry does this mean what I think it means?"
"yes I am afraid so" Albus continued gravely "it is quite likely that young Harry is now a squib. But having said that he is perfectly healthy though I am not sure why his hair has changed this way, it is not harmful and he is in no danger. Personally I suspect is just a side effect of the magic that happened here. Speaking of which now would be a good time to find out what actually did happen"
Albus finished before turning to the ash pile in the middle of the room and the sword that stood between it and the cot.
Albus crouched down by the pile of ash and began sifting through it with his wand while muttering softly under his breath. This continued for a while before He spoke up again while still examining the pile. "Oh yes, with all the excitement I quite forgot to ask what do you know about what happened any clues you can offer may be useful in determining just what occurred."
Lily frowned for a moment in thought before replying slowly "not much actually. I remember having dinner with Peter last night then going to bed and waking up to find this, nothing else sorry." She finished with a slight scowl.
"Don't sell yourself short my dear. On the contrary that is quite useful." Albus retorted good naturedly before elaborating "Firstly from the state of your house we can determine that something major happened here, and as you didn't wake up it suggests that you had been spelled to sleep, most likely with a potion. This means that this was a deliberate act against you, and as such it is likely that Peter slipped you a potion during your meal last night and therefore... well, well what's this then?" Albus trailed off as he pulled a wand out of the ash pile.
"Yew... thirteen and half inches... phoenix feather core." he murmured under his breath while examining the wand "well we now know who it was who attacked you last night because this," Albus gestured at the wand he still held "this is Voldemort's wand, and from what I can gather this ash is what is left of him. I would guess that he had heard of the Prophecy and decided to kill Harry and Adrian in order to prevent them from becoming threats to him in the future. It is ironic that in attempting to avoid the prophecy he has in fact fulfilled it. But as he was able to find you it suggests that Sirius has betrayed you and given up the secret to the fidelias to Voldemort."
"Oh" Lily said with a start "Sirius wasn't our secret keeper, we thought it would be too obvious so we decided that he would act as a decoy to protect Peter, who would be the actual secret keeper."
Albus gave her a chiding look "It is too late now but it would have been best if you had told me so, after all I still thought it was Sirius who was your secret keeper, if something had happened to you he would have been blamed" The old wizard shook his head before continuing
"At any rate something strange happened here and it resulted in Voldemorts defeat and while I have little idea as to what actually happened, the facts are that he attacked your children and died and so I would expect," here he chuckled lightly "that you are about to become rather famous as the parents of the children who defeated Voldemort" Albus smiled slightly at the looks of horror on Lily and James's faces.
"Now don't be like that it's not that bad, now get Harry and Adrian and come along firstly we need to get you settled into Hogwarts for the time being, after all you can't really stay here at the moment. Then I need to inform the ministry as to what has happened here" this time it was Albus who had a look of horror on his face, as they headed out with both Harry and Adrian fast asleep.
Well that's it for this chapter. The next one will be the proper start of everything while this was just a bit more intro I'm not sure if it really fits of if it has too much explanation in it but hey, also some of you may have noticed a change I made in the pevious chapters (not counting the massive upload error) and as such you will be able to guess an important plot change.
