Sorry for the wait! Thank you for all the follows, favourites, and reviews!
M.
Chapter 4
James and Lily had taken Harry from the Potter ball almost immediately after the meeting. After Charlus's decree neither of the young Potter parents felt up to socializing and pretending that their world wasn't crashing down around them. They entered the small cottage which had been their home for the past few months.
"How could he do this?" James asked as he threw his coat on to the loveseat, "How could he decide to take the fall without consulting any of us. That entire meeting was supposed to be a consultation not a fucking decision."
Lily scowled at his language but didn't say anything. She didn't know what else could have been done. She was ready to lay down her own life to save Harry and James and she knew that James was ready to lay down his life as well. She also knew that neither her, nor James, would have accepted the other dying for the other. But Charlus, he was the head of the family. His death would put the Potters on a new path with James as the head of the family, something that was not supposed to happen for many more years. "What can we do? This is a family issue; he is the head of the family. His word is law for us."
"There is nothing we can do now thanks to that old man."
"We are going to have to go back; maybe we can talk him out of it. Maybe we can find another way to save Harry." Lily said as she sat down on the sofa with a sleeping Harry in her arms.
"Lily we don't know when he will attack, we don't know how Dumbledore might interfere, we don't even know how Voldemort found out about the prophecy or who the traitor on our side is. It took us 5 months to come up with this plan, what if we don't have time."
"Use your mirror to call Sirius, have him come over here and we can perform the fidelius charm tonight. That might buy us some time." James left to go to their bedroom where the mirror was. Lily sighed. This was such a mess. Why did it have to be them?
Sirius Black was possibly drunk and in a garden. No. He was possibly in a garden but definitely drunk. There could be no doubts about that. He didn't mean to get drunk but these things can happen. You put a dashingly handsome gentleman at a party, throw in some horrifying news, a couple of pretty witches, and a dash of fire whiskey and there you have it - drunk. These things really couldn't be helped.
"Padfoot"
Perhaps, Sirius mused, he had had more than a dash of fire whiskey. It could have been 2 dashes, possibly 7, but who was counting. He wouldn't be this drunk if it had simply been a dash.
"Paaaadfooooot"
Maybe there had been a dash for each lovely lady. Maybe if he remembered how many ladies he tried to woo tonight perhaps he could figure out how many dashes of fire whiskey he had had...had had had...had.
"Dammit Sirius look in your pocket." Sirius started at the noise.
Wait a minute. What was James doing in his pocket? Had he been shrunken down again? Sirius patted his pockets trying to free his best friend. "Prongs where are you! Who shrunk you! I'll duel the bastard who dared to attack you!"
"I haven't been shrunk you nob, I'll calling you on the mirrors. Find your mirror." Why would James be trapped in a mirror Sirius wondered. It was possible he might be too drunk. Again, these things can happen. Checking his breast pockets he pulled out a mirror.
"How did you get trapped in the mirror Jamesies? Do you need a helping hand? A hero?" Sirius asked. Maybe if he smashed the mirror James would be free.
"For fuck sake Sirius where are you"
"I think I'm in a drunk." Sirius said looking around. There were flowers and trees and he was laying on some very comfortable grass.
"Let's try that again. Where are you?"
"I told you I'm in a garden. Now who is the drunk one?"
"Still you asshole" James sighed in exasperation. "Come by the house when you have sobered up enough to apparate."
Sirius lay back down on the soft grass. Sobriety did not sound as much fun as being drunk. Now had it only been one dash?
James went back down to the living room where Lily and Harry were nestled on the couch.
Lily looked up and asked, "Did I hear yelling?"
"He is too drunk to find his way over here. I told him to come as soon as he sobers up but Merlin knows when that will be. How is Harry? I'm afraid this wasn't the most spectacular ball for his first time."
"Should we have done more to introduce him to pureblood society? He is going to take your place as the heir to the Potter House and will be a half-blood amongst purebloods. He is going to have so much pressure on him after this Voldemort business is through."
"He will have a different debut later when he is 15. That one will be more important. For now, anyone who matters knows that we have more pressing issues on our plate. We went, people saw him, and he was adorable. That is all that is required for now." James sat down and put his head in his hands. Today was too much. It was all too much.
"James you know what Dorea told us when this all started. We need to relax, we need to live, and these are going to be days with Harry that we will regret if we do not live our lives with love and happiness. He wins if we lose sight of what matters. The attack won't be tomorrow, it could not be for years. So let us live our lives as we normally would with perhaps a bit more caution."
James looked up and smiled weakly at his wife. "You're right. It is just a lot. When we graduated Hogwarts I did not see our lives leading to this while we were 20. Don't get me wrong, I love you and Harry more than anything else in this world. I just didn't think we would be in hiding from Him."
"You always had every intention to fight, so did I. We were always going to have to hide James."
"But it didn't have to end up like this. Harry didn't have to be a target. We hid you so carefully when you were pregnant. No one outside of our circle knew about Harry until he was born."
"I know love. But this is our life and we need to live it."
James and Lily sat in silence lost in their own thoughts. Lily couldn't help but thinking about the plan, thinking about how to save everyone. They needed to know who the traitor was - then perhaps they could make a plan. If they could plan for the attack...
"James?" He looked up. "What if we involved Sev?"
He was silent for a long moment. "I'm sorry but did you just suggest using a Death Eater to save our son? A Death Eater who hates both Harry and I?"
"What if we turned him over to our side?"
"The only way to get him to leave the Dark Lord would be to offer him you, and even then it might not be enough."
"What if we used Dumbledore, couldn't we manipulate him as he has tried to manipulate us? What if Dumbledore thinks he is offering you and Harry as a sacrifice to stop Him. I'm sure I can convince Severus to be our secret keeper." James rolled his eyes at that but she pressed on, "Dumbledore will tell him about the sacrifice and then Sev will betray us to gain favour with Him and believe he is gaining me as a prize."
"You are not a prize Lily." James interjected and now it was her turn to roll her eyes.
"I know that James. But what do you think? Could it work?"
"That is a lot of variables love. How will we know when the attack is."
"Sev would tell me when to get out or invite me to meet him alone. If that happens then you and I leave and Charlus comes."
"That type of deception would destroy any chance of you and him rekindling your friendship." Not that James really wanted that.
"If he betrays us in the hopes of you and Harry being sacrificed and murdered then we were never really friends. If he values what we had more than that we have a secret keeper who won't betray us."
"That also would mean whoever is the traitor amongst us could not be the one to gain favour for betraying our location. But would he come here? Would he come here before informing the Dark Lord of our location?"
"We could meet in neutral ground. We could ask Dumbledore to perform the charm at Hogwarts and let his 'brilliant' mind work out how best to sacrifice us and to gain Severus as a spy in exchange for me."
"That could work. Let's go to my parents tomorrow and if we can't change my dad's mind then we will run the plan by them." James said resigned. Lily knew that he would never want to put this much faith in Severus but they didn't have any other options.
AN:
Again, sorry for the long wait! This is a bit shorter of a chapter but I wanted to get the aftermath right (and I hope I did). Tell me, what do you think of Lily's plan?
M.
