Uninvited guests
"So, once again, congratulations." James said while raising his glass to the newlywed couple. It all had gone rather fast after Sirius talked with him. A day later, he had invited Amelia for a candlelight dinner and proposed to her. And just a month later they had their wedding. It had been a rather small affair, since Amelia still was not really in the mood for a party, and Sirius did not want to invite his family anyway.
However, Sirius, with a lot of help from his best man Remus, had managed to get her into a nice two week honeymoon to sunny Egypt. They had just returned today and immediately came to Lionfire Hall. James still felt a bit upset every now and then that he had not been able to be Sirius' best man. Madam Pomfrey had only reluctantly agreed to let him leave his sickbed two days before the wedding. There had been some odd complications during his recovery, but by now he was back to full health.
"How does it feel to be Mrs. Black?" Lily asked.
Amelia smiled to Lily before she looked at her wedding ring: "Wonderful. Although I have to admit it still feels weird to be called that way." James could not help but once again list the differences between the two redheads. Amelia's hair was just a shade darker than Lily's, her face a bit fuller and her general expression much less cheerful. Although she definitely had a good sense of humour as well. She was also about a head shorter than Lily.
"I can imagine that." Lily smiled, "Normal people have a longer engagement so they can get used to the idea you know. Oh, by the way, do you want to know how many people asked me if you were pregnant when they learned of the sudden wedding?"
Amelia shrugged: "No, not really. Although I guess they were partly right since if it had not been for Susan we would most likely have waited a bit longer."
"What does Susan have to do with it?" James wondered.
"Those rulemunchers at the ministry prefer to have an orphan adopted by a married couple. And since Edgar and Cassandra did not leave a will others could have fought Amelia's claim." Sirius explained.
James nodded in understanding but Lily asked: "But why? I mean, you are her closest relative aren't you?"
"Yes, I am." Amelia nodded, "But since Susan is the official heir to the house of Bones there was a risk that some other related pureblood family would try to claim her and raise her as a ward of their own family. Just for future political gain." She shook her head sadly. "One of the many failures of our system. Anyway, I do not really think any family would have had the guts to do something like that right now. But I preferred not to take the risk."
"What Amelia means is that the ministry officials would ask ten times more money from any interested family now that they knew she was going to get married soon." James drily added.
With a grimace Amelia admitted: "That sounds about right. As I said, our government system need some serious changes. Anyway, back to more cheerful topics. How did it go with Susan? Did she cause any troubles?"
"Oh no, not at all." Lily cheerfully replied, "It was great to have her for the last few days. And I think Harry really liked having another kid around all day. If Jenny complains a bit when you go pick her up later just ignore her. She just does not want to see her go."
James laughed: "Yeah, she has been almost dancing around in happiness for the last few days." In fact, the elf had already mentioned it would be much better for Susan to stay with them when Remus first brought her over for a visit two days after the wedding. Thankfully she had been tactful enough not to say it in front of Remus, who had been terribly insecure about taking care of Susan those first few days. From the moment that she heard that Susan was going to stay here for a few days while Remus handled his 'furry little problem' the little elf had been jumping up and down with joy.
"That's good to hear." Amelia smiled, "I am looking forward to having her in my… our home."
"I am still terrified of the idea." Sirius cheerfully admitted.
Lily laughed: "Oh, come on Sirius! You are going-"
She was interrupted by a loud gong.
"What the-" Was all James managed to say before he was also interrupted when Timmy came running through a door shouting: "The outer ward is falling!"
None of them wasted any time on useless questions. Instead, they all followed Timmy in a fast run towards the spot on the inner wall where only months ago James and Lily had witnessed Voldemorts attack. Oddly enough, the situation seemed to be even more threatening this time. A small part of the outer ward, just to the right of the main gate was glowing in a bright red colour.
"Who on earth is doing that? Even Voldemort did not manage to make the wards glow red." James wondered aloud.
"There are four masked death eaters outside." Timmy replied, his voice even more squeaky then usual. "But they are using some kind of device to drain the ward."
"A ward-breaker. I have heard of these tools, they can somehow drain all magical energy from a small area and in that way disrupt any ward. Although after doing so they can not be used again. They are also illegal in Britain and very expensive." Amelia replied. "Still, I guess the death eaters do not really care about the illegal part and have found some odd sixty thousand galleons somewhere."
James blinked a few times at the high price for what seemed to be a one use only item. Then he turned to Amelia and asked: "Can you try to contact the aurors? Four death eaters should not be much of a treat, but just to be sure?"
"Of course." Amelia nodded before running back into the house towards the nearest fireplace. They had eased up on the safety measures after they destroyed Voldemorts body. But since there had been a few more death eater raids after the attack on Amelia's brother James had not yet deactivated the garden defences. Judging by the now even brighter red glow above the wall that had been a good decision.
He turned his eyes towards the garden and saw numerous statues already marching to the area behind the red glow. Soon the knight statue that commanded all the other statues was forming them up in a rough semicircle. Obviously he tried to make it look like a natural setting, but to James it was rather obvious something was wrong. But maybe that was because he knew the normal position of each statue. Or maybe the three huge catapults that were moved into firing positions behind the statue army gave it away.
"Did the commander already activate the garden pods?" James asked.
Timmy nodded, "Yes, look, here they come."
James and the others followed Timmy's finger back to the house and they saw a small army of some thirty statues running over the inner wall. The biggest of the statues was a two feet tall statue, but most of them were only a few inches tall. Still, beside the two feet tall statue they all carried what looked to be a small metal pin. "Oh, of course, they have to be manually activated." James commented.
"I wonder how they plan to get down?" Sirius wondered.
As if it had heard him suddenly one of the huge dragon statues that usually guarded the quidditch pitch came running around the corner of the wall. It ran towards the small army and raised itself on its hind legs. With some effort it put its marble head on the battlements of the inner wall and stretched its tail backwards, forming a huge but strange slide towards the grounds. The small statues did not hesitate a second and the centaur started to pick up the smaller statues two at a time and put them on the dragons head.
Soon enough all the small ones had disappeared into the grounds. The dragon patiently waited for their return. Amelia could not tear her eyes away from the dragons head while she ran back towards them. She shouted: "The floo is disconnected!"
James nodded: "Hardly surprising, but it was worth a try."
Amelia slowly turned her head between the three of them: "How come you three are so calm? I mean, there are death eaters attacking. I know all three of you were fine aurors, but still."
"And we have the best auror with us today. You should not forget about yourself." Sirius smiled and Amelia even blushed at that.
"Normally we would have been worried about fighting four death eaters with just the four of us." Lily admitted, "But to be honest I do not expect it to get to that."
Amelia frowned before her eyes shot back to the dragon again. Then she turned to the grounds and said: "Those statues… They were not much more spread out when I left you." After a few seconds she drily added: "And I did not notice those catapults. What is happening?"
"You have the honour to see the Lionfire Hall inner defences in action." James drily replied before he added: "And since you are practically part of the family now I think I do not even have to obliviate you afterwards."
"Obliviate me? Why?" Amelia sputtered in protest.
"Standard safety measure." James simply replied, "Our wards would be much less effective if our enemies knew about them. Those four death eaters will be obliviated."
"While I can see the logic in that, I can hardly allow you just to obliviate them before questioning." Amelia the auror protested.
James shrugged: "Sorry, but I do not believe the ministry will give me another opportunity. So they either leave from here without their memories of today or without their lives. Whatever you want."
Timmy fanatically nodded in agreement, but Amelia spluttered a bit in protest while the bright red glow turned into black. It was only a matter of minutes now. Sirius tried to comfort his wife: "He is right love. They will come back to Lionfire Hall eventually. And it would be a shame if they knew about the defences by then."
"How do you know they will be back?" Amelia wondered, "I mean, if those defences are as formidable as they seem they will most likely aim for easier targets next time. If they remembered them that is."
"That is actually a reason to make them forget, don't you agree?" Lily asked, "Better that they waste their energy on a well protected house then attack defenceless muggleborn homes or so."
James just shot Amelia a worried look. It had been a good question, which reminded him that Amelia was well known for her sharp brain. He wondered if they should inform her about the prophecy and all that. But this was hardly the time, so instead he looked at the dragon statue and saw that most of the small statues had already climbed its back towards the inner wall.
As soon as the last one was pulled over the battlements by the centaur the dragon reared back from the wall and started to run back towards it original hiding spot. The other dragon was already well hidden on the other side of the house. Together they would storm any attacker that managed to get through the smaller statues. Although to be quite honest James had no illusion about four death eaters managing to get that far. It would have been a far different story if Voldemort had entered. Or if they had brought a small army instead of only four.
The dragon suddenly froze in a rather unnatural position at the same moment that Timmy said: "The outer ward is pierced."
Sure enough, the glow had disappeared and four black robed figures flew their broomsticks through the hole that it left in the ward. They landed just in front of the outer wall when they saw James and the others standing on the inner wall. Apparently, they did not want to fight from the air. They moved forward some forty feet until suddenly all statues drew their weapons or readied there fists, claws or teeth.
The four death eaters hesitated until the front figure cursed a stone dog into oblivion with a well placed reducto. It was as if this had been the signal the defenders had been waiting for. All statues charged towards the four death eaters. At the same time all garden pods surrounding the area began firing their minor hexes. The spells were hardly dangerous, but over thirty stunners, trip jinxes and tickling charms coming in from all directions would confuse anyone. Some of the statues had actually attached one or two of the small garden pods to their shoulders, which made Lily compare them to some muggle movie.
Two more statues were reduced to mere rubble. Poor Timmy would have an awful amount of work to repair them. But then the four death eaters were simply overran by the vast number of statues and garden pods. After two minutes four of the larger manlike statues started to march towards them, each of them clutching one of the death eaters to their torso. A fifth, smaller, statue followed them with their wands. All of the five statues had some large black burn marks were curses had hit them. Apparently the four death eaters had fought fanatically. Actually, two of them were still struggling to get free. Of course, it was rather useless to try and physically overpower a stone statue. But they tried none the less.
"How is the ward doing Timmy?" James asked.
"It is almost closed again." The elf replied, his voice still squeaky but much more like his normal voice now. "In two minutes or so it will be whole again. Although it might take a day or two to get it back to its old level."
"I see." James nodded, "Keep an eye on it while we go see our new guests okay?"
The elf squared his shoulders in agreement and while Amelia kept muttering about what just happened they moved downstairs to where the five statues were waiting for them. Once there Sirius immediately asked: "Amelia, would you terribly mind if I accidently broke their wands before we start questioning them?"
Amelia softly laughed: "Yes, we may be able to gather some evidence from those wands. Maybe that statue can bring them inside the manor? Just to be sure?"
The wand carrying statue, a fisherman, turned its head to James. When he nodded the statue marched on towards the manor.
All four of them still had their wands aimed on the death eaters. Eventually James asked: "Sirius? Can you remove their masks?"
His friend only nodded and walked towards the first death eater. The only female in the group. "Ladies first." He commented while pulling her mask away. Immediately Bellatrix Lestrange spat at him, but he simply dodged it. "Bellatrix! What a pleasant surprise! I would have invited you for our wedding. That is, if you had not turned into an evil deranged psycho." He pleasantly told her.
She only sneered: "Like I wanted to come!"
"Tut, tut, how impolite. I am sure you were raised better than that." Sirius calmly replied before he ignored her and moved on. It was hardly surprising that the next two were the male Lestranges. But the last one was a huge surprise, although Amelia was the only one to immediately recognise him: "Barty Crouch?"
"Barty Crouch?" Sirius asked, "As in, the son of our former boss?"
"The one and only." Barty jr. smugly replied, "Surprising, isn't it?"
"A bit." Sirius admitted.
James did not really care, although he guessed it would have far reaching impact on the political landscape. After all, Barty sr. was the most likely candidate to become the next minister. This little drawback might ruin that though. Still, he personally could care less about who would be the next minister. So instead he asked: "Why did you four come here today?"
He expected it would take some effort to receive an answer. But to his surprise Bellatrix immediately started shouting: "Because you know where the dark lord is! We have to find him!"
"Well, just so you know, we have not got a clue where he might be." James answered with a grin to hide his surprise at the question. He had been sure it was some kind of revenge raid. Then he turned serious: "How do you know that he survived anyway?"
But neither Bellatrix, nor one of the other three death eaters wanted to answer to that. After a while Amelia suggested: "I believe it would be easier to use veritaserum on the ministry. I will be sure to ask this question."
"Yeah, I agree." James nodded, "Lily, if you would do the honours?" She was much better with memory charms than him after all.
As soon as she stepped forward Amelia wanted to object again, but Sirius stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him questioningly while Lily stunned the four death eaters before she started with her oblivations. In the end Amelia simply said: "You better explain to me how you can be sure that they will want to return here after they were taken down so easily."
James and Sirius exchanged a worried look. Of course, Amelia did not miss it and her expression became even more hawk like. Eventually Sirius said: "It is your decision. Well, yours and Lily's of course."
"What is?" Lily wondered, obviously she had already finished obliviating the four death eaters.
"If we give Amelia some background information." James replied, judging by the expression on Amelia's face by now they would either have to tell her more or obliviate her as well. And for obvious reasons he would rather not obliviate his best friends wife.
It was Lily who first spoke again: "I think we should tell her. Although I would appreciate a magical oath to keep it secret. Nothing personal Amelia, it is just that this is very important for us and we do not know you that well."
Amelia visibly doubted about what to do. But once again Sirius interfered: "You can trust us Amelia. I swear that we are not doing anything against law or the ministry. But just as Lily says, it is very important that nothing of what we are doing gets out."
Eventually Amelia reluctantly gave an oath that would prevent her from sharing any of the information that she would learn that day. After a long explanation the first thing Amelia drily commented was: "I felt happy that you left the aurors Sirius. Because my dad always used to say it was bad luck if both people in a relationship were in the force. But now I feel your new 'job' might be just as dangerous." Then she nodded and said: "I can see why you wanted an oath Lily. If there is anything I can do to help, just let me know."
"We will." Lily smiled, obviously happy with Amelia's reply. But James could not help but feel worried. He never thought they would have to explain their actions to an outsider within a few months. And he could not help but wonder what it did say about other possible unexpected surprises.
A/N: Bit of a time jump there. But I had to get Bella and her friends out of the way. It made sense to me that in the new timeline they would rather try and attack the Potters instead of the Longbottoms. After all, they would be the most likely suspects of knowing more about Voldemorts fate. Beside that, it let me play with the defences of Lionfire Hall, hope I did not make them too strong. Guess we will have to wait for a real attack to judge that…
I was tempted to try and write a chapter about Sirius' wedding. Some nice room for comedy there;) But in the end I figured it would be better to get this story moving a bit. Next chapter will see an even bigger jump through time.
On a side note, I hope you guys like 'my' Amelia. I figured she could be a bit less strict than in canon since she is a lot younger and got married, which will hopefully manage to keep her a bit more focused on life outside the office.
An amazing seventeen reviews this time :D
Serena Bluemoon: According to William Voldemort actually marked Harry as an equal when he decided to attack him. I guess I can not yet give too much away about what will happen in the end, I mean, that would not be fun right?:)
Katzztar: Well, since he already went on a honeymoon with Amelia I think it turned out alright. I just hope he won't be too much of a bad influence on Susan, she is rather quiet in canon I think.
Alaskanking: I agree with you on the long chapters, but I am sure there will be some more short chapters which just won't fit with the chapter before or after… Blame it on my writing skills :D
Acrazysmile: No, James just avoided that fate when Lily used her new family portkey. Then she summoned Dumbledore who dealt with the floating part of Voldemorts soul. Well, Fawkes did in fact.
Dogsby: I think wards can be compared to locks and other anti-theft measures in our world. Sure, you try and protect your home, but if someone really wants to get in they will find a way to overcome those obstacles. I mean, in the books there are a few times that even the Gringotts and Hogwarts defences get bypassed, so what chance does a normal house have?
Teufel1987: You sound a bit Hermione-ish there (yes, I know that is not a word either) ;) But you are right on both counts of course, just edited them. Strange that my text processors spelling and grammar check did not pick up 'hurted'. And strange that there are English verbs that do not change when put into the past, but that's most likely just because I'm more used to Dutch grammar. As far as my google skills work out I have to say that this is the only one I would usually miss though. I mean, 'letted' and 'costed' would hurt even my English feelings;)
My flawed design: Hope you do not mind too much that I pretty much skipped the wedding and the proposal. Although I could hardly have James witnessing the proposal I guess:)
Happylady: Already jumped a few months this chapter. But soon the jumps will be more like a couple of years at a time yeah. I plan to describe only a few events during the next ten years or so. Knowing me, it will most likely turn out longer than I expect. But at least there will be no day by day chapters for a while;)
Mwinter1: Well, here it is. Hope you liked it!
Fudge: You are not the only one it seems:D
Deanine: I used to do that. Use the reply to review button I mean. But I gave up when I started to get mails from people who wondered what I replied to certain reviews;)
ILikeComps: Yeah, it was. But Lily was just in time with her portkey. I'll try to keep Sirius acting odd every now and then.
Silverwolf: I guess I could have copied your review as a reply to Happylady's review. So yep, that is pretty much my plan until we reach Hogwarts.
RRW: Good to hear!
Man of Faith: I am trying not to give too much away of the ending, but I have to admit that I wonder if Harry's 'power of love' is any less because his mother survived? Although I guess taking down Quirrel with only his hands might be difficult now. But if Lily's sacrifice was the deciding factor for the eventual victory then Harry would not really be the 'chosen one', more the 'blessed one' or so :P
I am not quite sure about the pairings yet. Depends a bit on how Harry and some of the girls develop in this alternative timeline I guess. Just a small example: why would Ginny still have a crush now that Harry did not personally defeat Voldemort as a baby?
Crazyjim87: For your first question I guess I just point upwards;) As for the hallows, I guess he will get the cloak when he goes to Hogwarts. No reason why not, but they still have to find the stone. And he will have to actually defeat Dumbledore before getting the wand, so that might take a while… So the only answer I can give is 'not anytime soon';)
Sarah-rose76646: Whoa, that's a long review. Let's focus on the positive part first. Glad to hear my story manages to keep people awake until 2 am :D I guess I am hardly the right person to call my own story 'interesting, unique, or spell-binding', but let me assure you at least that a gang of super-wiz-kids is not what is going to happen;)
As to falling back to the 'reading HP book's summary and do over' story. I felt I had two options with a seer. I could go with a few cryptic remarks like 'don't trust the rat' or such and go from there, or let him describe a not quite accurate version of canon and see how it would influence the story. An accurate version would have been rather useless since in that case they should have just received the books somehow;) I picked the second version because I thought it would give me more options for this story.
Anyway, cheers for making the effort for such a long review after feeling disappointed about a story. And although I feel there was nothing wrong with your review I appreciate it that you did not chose for the anonymous route.
