Chapter – 1: A Different Beginning…

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"Is he asleep?" James asked as Lily came and sat beside him on the couch, putting her head on his shoulder as his hand automatically moved behind her back and began to slowly massage her head. She closed her eyes and sighed in relief.

"Finally," Lily said sounding tired. "He's only one and yet so full of mischief and trouble. I wonder how he'll end up once he's grown up."

"Hopefully not like me," James said with a smile.

"Hopefully," Lily said as the two continued to watch the telly. "Any news from Dumbledore?"

"Nothing," James said when he winced.

"Is he still bothering you?" Lily asked, putting her hand on his left chest.

"I still don't understand why you call it a 'he'," James said. "Didn't I tell you why the Potters got stuck with it?"

"Still, I think he wouldn't have done all of that just because he was under influence," Lily said.

"And you know that because somehow you can talk to it and that it likes you, you said?" James said. "How did it happen again?"

Lily didn't miss the smirk on her husband's face as she slowly moved even closer to him. "Well, it happened when we both did something very stupid yet very…pleasurable," her finger caressed James' face before her lips touched his and she kissed him slowly before moving away, looking him in the eyes, "and then we moved further," she said moving her hand down his body when James stopped her. She looked at him a little confused when she felt it too and her eyes widened.

James stood up quickly and walked over to the window. He slowly moved the curtain to peek outside when he saw a familiar face standing at the door. He was a little confused as he moved back from the window and looked at his wife. "It's Peter," he said sounding confused.

"Why is he here?" Lily asked. "I thought Dumbledore told him to stay as far away from this place as possible."

"It could be something important," James said as he moved towards the door when Lily caught his hand. He turned to look at her.

"Is your wand with you?" she asked in a very serious tone. James nodded. "Be careful. I'll be in the nursery with Harry."

James nodded before opening the door and walking out. Lily headed upstairs and entered the nursery. She walked up to the crib where Harry, her son was sound asleep. She smiled, moving the slight bit of his hair from his forehead to look at his peaceful sleeping face when she heard a commotion downstairs and immediately walked up to the window, her wand in her hand. She looked outside and found no one when she heard James' voice as he knocked on the nursery door.

She opened it and looked at him. He had never looked that scared and terrified and she immediately knew that something was wrong. "What is it?" she asked slowly, somehow controlling her own thoughts.

"The rat betrayed us," That's all James could say when they both felt the wards around their house coming down followed by numerous apparitions happening outside their home. Lily turned pale when James shook her slightly. She regained her composure but the look of fear and nervousness was clear in her eyes. "I'll hold them off. You take Harry and run." Before Lily could say or stop him James was gone. She just stood there. Her mind had gone numb when a loud explosion shook the entire house. She could barely keep herself from falling down as her mind went to whether her husband was alright when the sound of her crying son grabbed her attention. He had woken up.

She was immediately by his side, holding him up in her arms, keeping him close to her heart as tears fell from her eyes. As she stood there, trying to make her son to stop crying everything went silent at once. She could no longer hear the exchange of spells downstairs and the sound of explosions from those spells. Fear crept back into her as she slowly stepped back until she could no more. With her back against the wall her eyes stuck looking at the door. She slowly reached for her wand with one hand while grabbing Harry with another. She had already tried apparating away but it didn't work and she wasn't surprised by it either. The death eaters knew how to surround their enemies, how to take out their target.

The faint sound of the footsteps from the stairs outside sent a chill down her spine. Realizing that it was slow and not hurried Lily knew that whoever was outside was not just a death eater. She didn't need to guess for very long as the door clicked open slowly and the person slowly walked in. She had goosebumps all over her body as she recognized those red eyes and that sick smile. He was standing there, looking at her but then her eyes looked at something even more horrific as she barely let Harry fall from her arms.

He was holding James with one hand like a rag doll. James wasn't breathing. His eyes and mouth were wide open. Tears fell from her eyes as she barely remained standing, holding her son even closer now as she knew that the end was near.

"I can spare you your life, if you give me what I want," Voldemort said looking from a dead James in his hand to Lily before smiling again. "You can get to live."

A bright flash of light followed by the sound of a small explosion from Lily's spell which Voldemort had casually diverted with just his mere hand filled the room before the dust settled and there stood Lily with her wand pointed at Voldemort. She was holding Harry tightly in her other arm but despite her pointing her wand at Voldemort her eyes was looking at James, who was now on the floor as Voldemort had to drop him so he could deflect Lily's spell.

Voldemort chuckled. "I suppose you are, after all, overwhelmed," he said talking to Lily. "You can't even aim properly. How are you going to protect your son?" His smile was then replaced by an enraged look as he pointed his wand at her. "Pathetic mudblood!"

His scream was supposed to be followed by a killing curse but it didn't happen as James' body jerked suddenly and something pushed Voldemort towards the wall on his left. Despite being a very powerful wizard Voldemort wasn't so gifted with physical strength or endurance and the impact from the wall dazed him for good if not make him unconscious.

There was a smile on Lily's face as she wasted no time and fired a killing curse at Voldemort. The spell hit him point blank as she saw the life leaving out of Voldemort's eyes before the spell also caused an explosion on the wall behind him, throwing his now lifeless body out on the street.

Lily was at once by James' side as she made a small cut in his arm. Luckily his blood hadn't clotted yet as she collected some of it before running down to the basement with his floating body and Harry. She knew she didn't have much time but still the fact that their lord had been thrown out of the house dead would've definitely shocked the death eaters and they will take a little time to realize what had happened. Lily wanted to use this small window of time to get out of here.

Once in the basement she locked the door behind her with a series of spells before walking up to where the ward runes were placed. She knew using James' blood which was also linked with the wards of the place would leave a trail for the death eaters to follow but she didn't care. All she needed was to get out of this place right now.

Since the beginning she had doubts about this plan. She had often wondered why Dumbledore wouldn't suggest them hiding at Potter manor. The place's ancient wards were too strong for anyone to break. It was so strong that they didn't even need a fidilius. Questions flooded her mind but she shoved them all to the side as she cleared her mind before enchanting the spell as she dropped James' blood on the rune stone that was in the middle of the pentagram.

A blood activated escape route which Lily had come up with because of her paranoia. James had thought it was too much but today she had been proven right. As she finished casting the spell the pentagram glowed. She quickly stood in the middle of it with James and Harry in each of her arms when the wards she had put on the basement door were shattered by sheer magical prowess. She knew who could be responsible for this. There was only one person in Voldemort's army who was this powerful magically – Fenrir Greyback, the alpha werewolf. With over a thousand or so betas in his pack he was the most powerful lycanthrope in the whole world and that also made him resilient to most magic, powerful or weak.

As the dust of the rubble settled she saw him standing there, looking at her with an enraged expression before he slowly started to approach her. She knew he didn't know what she was doing which is why he was being a little careful. His senses might've alerted him. With the huge pentagram and the complicated runes drawn all over the floor anyone would get confused as to what it could all mean. For paranoid people like Fenrir and the many death eaters behind him they thought it was probably a trap laid out by Lily and James for them. But when the entire basement was filled with a bright flash of light and there was no one standing in the middle of the pentagram once everyone could see a little bit Fenrir and the death eaters knew what had happened.

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Lily hit the pavement outside a house hard as the air inside her lungs was knocked out. However, her focus was on Harry. She had put many protective charms around him because she knew that this mode of travelling was untested and what she had done, she had done in an utter sense of desperation.

Harry seemed unconscious though. When she checked for his heartbeat she found he had none. Panicked, she immediately started to give him CPR. Blowing the air through Harry's tiny mouth she gave him chest compressions with two fingers before she heard a faint gurgle and then a single cough followed by Harry waking up, crying.

The flood of emotions that filled her knowing that her son would be alright made her legs shake as she lay there on the ground with her dead husband and her one year old crying son. She was too tired and her entire body was in pain. She must've caught a spell while using the escape rune and she confirmed it when she saw her left waist bleeding. She felt light headed and weak but she knew she couldn't give up now. With the magic that she had used to get out of Godric's Hollow, she knew it could be tracked. She had no time perfecting it.

She put a sleeping spell on Harry before grunting loudly as she stood up. Her legs were shaking violently so she grabbed the door handle before opening the door and walking inside. She then floated her son and James in too before locking the door.

Once inside she removed her shirt and examined her state. The wound was rather huge, almost three inches wide. She wondered how long it had been since she was hit but feeling the unconsciousness closing in along with light headedness and blurry vision she knew she would pass out soon because of the blood loss.

She gripped her wand, took in a few quick breaths before casting a spell which turned the tip of her wand red hot. She then gritted her teeth and closed her eyes as she put the burning end of her wand on her wound as the entire house filled with her painful shriek. Luckily, no one heard her guttering cry because of the late hour and the fact that she had hastily put a single privacy charm the moment she had entered this house.

After the most excruciating eight seconds of her life Lily slowly opened her eyes as the wand fell from her hand. She didn't even have the energy to look down at her wound. Fully aware that she didn't have much time she took out her communication mirror and called in for help from a friend no one else knew she had before the mirror fell from her hand and broke into pieces as she passed out from blood loss.

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Thanks for reading…