It's been less than a month since I last updated this! That's pretty good for me, I think.
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This was a disaster. An absolute, unmitigated catastrophe. Forget gleaning information on the Dark Lord's whereabouts, if all four of them managed to escape from this house unscathed, it would be a miracle.
Rudolphus was staring into the furious eyes of his new opponent, dueling with every curse and hex he knew; they couldn't afford to hold back in the hopes of gaining captives or information anymore. Sweat was already beading on his brow from the effort. He tried to take stock of their new circumstances.
There was no shortage of intelligence on the Potters. They'd been a priority target for over a year, after all. He knew that the mudblood, filthy and unworthy as she was, was not to be underestimated. Still, someone as gifted as Crouch should be able to at the very least fend her off until someone could come to help him, and if they got very lucky he might finish her off and come help one of them instead.
Her husband, on the other hand, was another matter entirely. According to reports going all the way back to his first year at Hogwarts, James Potter had never lost a duel.
Rudolphus tended to take this claim with a few grains of salt, but the fact remained that ever since they'd managed to take out the Prewett brothers, Potter had sat just below Alastor Moody at the top of their list of enemies never to engage without superior numbers. All but the most skilled of the Dark Lord's followers – such as himself and Bellatrix – were advised to avoid him if possible. Of course, the same was true of the Longbottoms, but trying to fight all four of these blood traitors and mudbloods at once was pushing their luck past its breaking point. Evenly matched and with equal numbers, whichever side lost a fighter first would almost certainly lose the whole fight.
Now was not the time for such foolish notions as masculine pride. They had to do everything they could to maximize their chances of getting out of this.
'BELLA!' he bellowed, knowing he'd need to be loud enough to break through her battle frenzy. It worked; she spared him the tiniest of glances. 'I'll handle Longbottom; Potter is yours!'
'Fine by me,' Potter growled as Rudolphus and his wife switched opponents. He was now in only a slightly less terrible position than he'd been a moment ago, but this was their best hope. He'd have to give it everything he had. Their own safety and freedom notwithstanding, the Dark Lord was counting on them.
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When James stepped through the floo, he was expecting to see Lily, Alice, and Frank waiting for him on the other side. What he was definitely not expecting was to find the three of them fighting for their lives against a quartet of Death Eaters.
'Oh, shit,' he heard one of them say, even as he saw a curse narrowly miss his wife's face. His face screwed up in fury.
"Oh, shit" is bloody fucking right, he thought, and jumped into the fray. He thought he recognized the spellwork of his opponent as that of Rudolphus Lestrange (who was clearly fighting to kill), and he was proven correct a moment later when the masked wizard yelled out, 'BELLA!'
Apparently he was to switch opponents. 'Fine by me,' he growled. It didn't matter to him which one of these lunatics he took down. What were they even doing here? How had they found the place? Had they tracked him and Lily here? He'd never forgive himself if they'd somehow placed Frank and Alice and their son in danger.
'What are you doing here, Potter?' Bellatrix Lestrange spat at him. Well, that answered one question (to his great relief), but it raised several more.
'These are my friends,' he shot back. 'What are you doing here?' Not that he cared. The Lestranges were two of the most wanted and dangerous Death Eaters out there. Bringing them in (along with whoever these other two were) would go a long way toward getting things back to normal.
The Death Eater did not answer, but put all of her focus into trying to bring him down. He was mostly blocking and deflecting her spells, studying her technique and waiting for an opening. He didn't know how long this had been going on before he and Lily showed up, so he had to assume Frank and Alice were tired and maybe even hurt, so he couldn't waste too much time, but he was also trying not to cause too much damage.
A blasting curse came for his face which his shield charm absorbed, followed by a stream of fire that he redirected harmlessly into the fireplace. He summoned the rug from under Lestrange's feet, but she vanished it before it could trip her up. A conjured swarm of metal darts shot at him, which he transfigured into flower petals, and he wrapped her in a coil of conjured rope, which she turned into a snake that he vanished into a puff of smoke when it moved to strike him. He sent the smoke at her to obscure her vision, but she waved it away and fired a killing curse which he ducked, sending back a stunner of his own that she deflected into the ceiling.
'James, for fuck's sake, don't worry about the house!' cried a worryingly out-of-breath Frank. 'Take her out!'
'If you say so, Frank!' he called back, allowing himself a grin. Now he'd been given the go-ahead to go all out, this could get really interesting.
Deflecting another barrage of hostile spells, he fired a blasting curse of his own, but instead of aiming it right at her, he shot it at the floor under her feet. While she was momentarily off-balance, he ripped open the ceiling above her and showered her with debris. Calling forth the fire from the fireplace to wrap around it all. Hey, it worked on old what's-his-face, he reasoned.
An anguished cry from his left pulled his focus for a moment, and he saw that Lily had managed to down her opponent, whoever he was. She made a move to help him, but he held out his hand to forestall her.
'Help Frank and Alice; they're probably exhausted,' he told her over the noise. 'I've got this one.'
She did not question him but nodded and ran over to help their friends. Unfortunately, in that brief interval Bellatrix Lestrange had managed to extricate herself from his attack and regain her bearings. She was shaking ceiling dust off of her, ready for round two.
'You'll pay for that, Potter,' she spat.
'Will I?' he taunted back. 'Don't see how you'll be much of a challenge after that boss of yours.'
It had the desired effect. She let out a scream of primal rage and attacked him with a hail of curses that would have done all sorts of horrible things to him had they connected, the least unpleasant of which involving paralysis and disembowelment. Alternately blocking and deflecting them, he slowly backed away across the room and away from the others, isolating the two of them. Now things were slightly less urgent, he was content to go on the defensive and let her tire herself out. As soon as he saw an opening, he would strike.
He had to wait longer than expected; she had stamina to match her power and skill, it would seem. Spells crashed and exploded into walls and furniture all around them. More than one little fire sprang up. Through it all he kept up his defense and did not attempt to strike back. She managed to drive him all the way to the large bay window at the front of the room. But an opening did come. She cast a curse that would have boiled all the blood in his veins, and paused ever so slightly to catch her breath. In that instant, he struck like a viper.
He conjured a bright flash to temporarily blind and disorient her. He fired a knockback jinx and then several stinging hexes in rapid succession at different parts of her body that she respectively blocked and tried to swipe away like a swarm of mosquitoes. Even blind, she was able to adequately defend herself, but it was all part of his wider smokescreen. He had previously animated the curtains on the window behind him and now had them reach out and wrap around her wrists. Even as she cast charms to sever them, he was already liquefying the floor beneath her to trap her feet, and by the time she noticed that, he had reattached the curtains, anchored them to the re-solidified floor and turned them to stone, fully locking her in place. From there it was a simple matter of a disarming charm and a stunning spell and she was finished.
Lily, Alice, and Frank had by this time managed to mostly wear the other two Death Eaters down. They were fully on the defensive now and were trying to back their way to an exit, so it was easy for James to come up and stun them from behind. The fight was over.
'Oh, Merlin,' Frank panted, leaning over to place his hands on his knees to brace himself. 'Thank you both, truly. I reckon we'd have been done for if you hadn't come when you did.'
'No question,' Alice agreed, slumping against the wall behind her and sliding down it until she was sitting. 'Thank you both so much.'
'Are you all right?' Lily asked, her voice full of concern as she moved in to inspect the two of them. James busied himself collecting the wands of their assailants and binding them in thick, unbreakable cords.
'I took a few hits,' he heard Frank saying. 'Nothing too bad. I might lose part of my left ring finger and I won't be running any time soon, but it could definitely be worse.'
'I'm probably going to need to go to St Mungo's,' Alice said. 'I got grazed with something – I'm not sure what – but it definitely did some kind of internal damage. I can feel it.'
'Is that safe?' James asked, coming back over to join them. ' I mean, they were obviously targeting you for something. Couldn't we have a healer come here?'
'That's probably a good idea,' said Frank. 'I'd trust you two to look after Neville, but what if something like this happens again while it's just you here?'
'We need to get the wards back up,' said Alice, pushing herself to her feet. 'We're sitting ducks right now.'
'We'll help,' said Lily, offering Alice a hand. 'James and I have gotten rather good at wards.'
'I'll bet you have,' said Frank. 'And that's a good idea; they'd obviously done enough research on our wards to know how to bring them down; having something else up in addition will be a good extra layer of protection.'
The fire blazed to life again, and all four of them swerved toward it, wands out. A second later, Sirius stepped out, carrying a peacefully sleeping Harry. His eyes went wide as he took in the demolished room before him.
'What the bloody hell happened here?'
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'Thank you, Galahad,' said Dumbledore, shaking the hand of the acting head of the Department of Magical Law as he prepared to leave. Sirius had sent word to the old headmaster right away, who had come almost at once along with Remus, Mad-Eye, and Emmeline Vance. It wasn't long past that when Fawley showed up with a team of aurors, but they had little to do by that point other than collect the Death Eaters and carry them off. A pair of healers had come to look over Frank and Alice, and the other Order members had set about reconstructing their sitting room.
'I'll need to speak with everyone involved as soon as possible, of course,' Fawley was saying, 'but it can wait until tomorrow at least. Let them rest and recover first.'
'We can come in first,' said James, indicating himself and his wife to the department head. 'Give Frank and Alice a bit more time.' Lily nodded.
'Thank you, Mr Potter,' said Fawley. 'It seems we've been speaking to you rather a lot lately. Perhaps I should offer you a job.'
'Not if it means working for Crouch,' said James. Sirius snorted and Lily shook her head in exasperation, and the corners of Fawley's mouth twitched just the slightest bit but he managed to keep himself in check.
'Yes, well, that too is something that has yet to be decided,' said Fawley. 'I shall see you all tomorrow,' he said, tipping his wide-brimmed wizard hat. 'And I'll be leaving a pair of aurors here to watch over the property, just in case.'
They thanked him again, and he turned and stepped into the fireplace, vanishing in a swirl of flame.
'I think it wise to leave a few of our own people here as well,' said Dumbledore as soon as he was gone. 'Sirius and Remus have already volunteered.'
'Of course we did,' said Remus, moving closer to James and Lily, the latter of whom was holding her son protectively. Sirius shuddered, thinking of what might have happened if he'd arrived even a few minutes sooner with Harry while the fight was still going on.
'These four were some of the most dangerous Death Eaters out there,' said Emmeline formally. 'With them out of the picture along with You-Know-Who, things should be a lot safer. Some folks are already turning themselves in, saying they were under the Imperius Curse. Even if they're lying, it's still one less thing to worry about for the time being.
'Things do appear to be looking up,' said Dumbledore, allowing himself a smile. 'If all continues to go well, James, Lily, and Harry should be able to go home much sooner than we planned.'
'We can't leave Alice and Frank now!' protested Lily.
'I was not suggesting any such thing,' said Dumbledore placatingly. 'I have already broached the subject with Galahad about adding extra protections to both of your homes in light of recent events. The idea is for both of you to have auror protection and additional warding provided by the ministry until we are certain the danger has passed.'
'I can live with that,' said James. 'Do you think it could really be over, Professor? It feels like this war has been going on for my entire life.' Sirius knew what he meant. The first attacks had occurred the summer before their first year at Hogwarts and things had only gotten worse from that point on.
'Do I believe we have seen the last of Voldemort or his followers?' Dumbledore replied. 'I cannot afford to be so optimistic. Not yet. But I do believe that for now, at least, the war is over, yes.'
James and Sirius shared a look. They did not miss what Dumbledore had implied. But how could that be? Sirius had seen the dark wizard's body with his own eyes. What did the headmaster know that they didn't?
A worry for another day. Now, it was enough to know that he and his friends were safe. Safe as they could be in a world with any Death Eaters still at large. But that was still safer than most anyone had been in a very, very long time.
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Peter was exhausted. He had spent most of the previous day and night in the undercarriage of a muggle lorry headed west out of the city. He did not dare resume his human form to apparate for fear that someone – anyone – might see him. All the same, he knew he couldn't stay on the run. The stress alone would wear him down in a matter of weeks. He needed to find a place to hide, which was why he now found himself scurrying through the growth on the side of a lane winding out of one of the few villages in southern England where magical folk were known to congregate. Nobody he knew lived here, nor did anyone who followed the Dark Lord (that he knew of), which meant as long as he kept his head down and his wits about him, he should be relatively safe. As safe as he could hope to be, anyway.
There was a house ahead, and in the bright dawn light he could see even from a distance that it was clearly the home of a magical family. Muggle builders could would never construct something that looked so unstable. He headed toward it, nose and whiskers in the air to detect any potential threats.
He went round to the back of the house, where there was a large hedge that surrounded the property. Poking through it, he saw a large garden, a shed, a pond with a large willow tree, and a large picnic table. On the air there was a very strong smell of gnomes. They would have many holes in and around the garden in which he could hide in an emergency, though the prospect of fighting them for a space did not appeal to him.
He sat for some time under the hedge, weighing his options. Did he dare show himself? He had know way of knowing whether his ploy with Sirius had worked or not. In a worst case scenario, his former friends may well have told everyone about his disguise, though that would mean outing themselves as well. He grit his teeth and snorted angrily. That wouldn't stop them. They would care more about catching him than about staying out of trouble themselves. And to think they'd ever called themselves his friends.
Still, the odds of every witch and wizard in the country knowing about him, much less being familiar with his exact description, was rather low. And he'd never know anything if he didn't find some source of news.
That settled it. He had to have some way of knowing what was going on. He could try scrounging for newspapers, but that would require being in an area with a much more dense magical population than he was comfortable with.
The back door to the house opened and three children came out. They all had red hair and the older two were carrying broomsticks, while the youngest clutched a book and hung back from the other two, who ran off almost at once toward the far end of the yard. The young boy strolled slowly toward the picnic table where he sat and opened his book.
Peter faced a decision. He could make a life for himself in the garden and keep an ear out when he could, or he could attempt to work his way into the house. The latter presented greater risk, but the alternative was having to live outside with gnomes for who knew how long. Weeks or perhaps even months.
I can hold out for a few days, at least, he thought. If nothing happened or looked like it was going to happen, he could chance making his way into the house. Maybe he could make himself a pet of one of these children? No one would suspect a child's pet of being an animagus, even if they knew they were looking for one, and only his former friends would be able to recognize him on sight.
He decided to let himself be seen by this youngest boy, who looked no older than five or six. If the child raised the alarm, he would know that the heat was on even worse than he thought and could escape and rethink his plans. If not, he could come back for the next few days and see what happened. His decision made, Peter emerged from beneath the hedge and cautiously approached the boy.
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This is the end of The Potters Who Lived, but it's not the end of this story – that is, this universe I've made where Lily and James survived Voldemort's attack. There will be a new entry in this series at some point in the future, by which I mean whenever I get around to starting it.
And hey, I wrote this whole thing from start to finish in under a year! Champagne for everyone!
Thanks all for reading and especially for reviewing. Let me know what you thought of this tale, and what (if anything) you're looking forward to seeing in future installments, though I'd ask you not to be overly specific. Thanks, and see you then!