One Choice to Make a Difference

by jlmill9

This is a sequel to my reading the Harry Potter books series that I did, where the marauders and Lily are allowed to have one memory from that experience to try and changer their future.

1. The Choice

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

New A/N (07/15/2021):

For those that have not read my fic One Choice to Make a Difference, I'm going to give you a little background information. My first fanfiction series on this site was about Harry (along with Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna) transporting himself into a room (that was outside of time and space) where his parents, Sirius and Remus (as well as Frank and Alice Longbottom so Neville could see his parents too) were also transported to. Then, after meeting his parents, for some reason Harry thought it was a good idea for him to read the Harry Potter book series with all of the people in the room. It was explained that no one from the past would remember what happened in this room because the future wasn't allowed to be changed. Basically, when I started writing those fics (twelve years ago) I hadn't planned on making this story at all. I just wanted to have the characters read the books. However, after several reviews asking for a sequel, and spending so much time writing the characters as they read the book, I was inspired to write my 'What if' story.

About a seven months ago I had decided to repost this story as a new fic called It's One Choice to Make a Difference, however, shortly after I had finish posting that fic, it was removed from the site. The main reason I didn't just update this fic at that time is because I made considerable changes to the first chapter (and some minor changes to other chapters) and didn't want to remove my original work completely. However, it seems that I don't have a choice anymore and I would rather have the updated version of the chapter to begin the story. If you want to read the original first chapter I added it on as an outtake at the end of this fic.

O

Original A/N (1/25/2010): So, here's the first chapter of the sequel of sorts to my Reading the… series I did. For those of you that haven't read that series, it just gives you the interpretations I have on the characters, and some other characteristics that I've established as they read the Harry Potter books. I don't know how often I'm going to be able to update this story, I'm hoping that it will be once a week, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. However, I promise that if I don't, I will have a chapter every other week at most, but I think I will do one every week.

Thanks to my Beta MossTheInflatableCow. 12/23/2020: Thanks to ILRB80, as well.

Chapter One

The Choice

James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, Frank, Alice and the five year old Tonks were all standing in a room waiting to be transported back to where they had come from. It was odd to believe that only a few days ago they had arrived here in this room where they had met Harry Potter (along with Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Luna and baby Teddy) and had read books about Harry's many adventures. What was worse, however, was the knowledge that as soon as they left this room, their memories of those days would disappear. It had been explained to them at the very beginning that they wouldn't be able to remember anything, but it wasn't until this moment that they realized how hard these last few moments would be on them before they forgot everything. The friendships they had formed, the vital knowledge they had gained, the good times they had, and even the horrible truth they had learnt would all be wiped away so they could persevere the future that they had just read about. They were comforted by the knowledge that at least the people that they had just met would always remember them; these days wouldn't be forgotten even if they would never remember them.

With those thoughts in mind, when the yellow light appeared and everything started to shake, they were at peace with the idea of returning to the path their lives had been set upon. They were not prepared, however, for the shaking to increase or for the strangest feeling to go through them … a feeling as if their bodies were being split in two before they were slammed back down to the ground.

"What the bloody hell just happened?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know. I thought that we were going to be returned to our time but then …" Lily said worried; did something go wrong? Then suddenly, out of nowhere, Lily remembered something that she was sure she didn't know about a second ago: Hermione had given her a letter right before she had left and told Lily to read it after the yellow light appeared.

"What's that?" James asked, curious about what Lily had just pulled out of her pocket.

"It's a letter from Hermione. I assume it will explain what is going on," Lily said as she opened the letter and began reading:

Hello Everyone,

If you are reading this letter it seems that everything has gone as I had planned and you will all get a chance to change the future, or I should say, make your own future. The truth is, a few moments ago, when the yellow light had flashed, your essence was split in two, and a version of yourselves was sent back in time so the future you just read about (the future that we come from) will exist… nothing that you do will change our lives. In two hours, you will be returned to a parallel universe, which up until this moment was an exact copy of the universe that we came from, where you can make a new future. Before you get your hopes up in plans of what you can do in this new world, I must warn you that you will not have real memories of what happened in this room. It will be more like a forgotten dream, where almost all of the details will slip away but you will be able to choose to remember one thing. Be careful what you choose to remember, because that memory can manifest in different ways.

For instance, if you choose to remember a fact, you will retain that information, but you will not know where you had gained the knowledge. I warn you, depending on what the information is, you might question if that fact is even true. On the other hand, if you choose to remember something broader, like the way you feel about something (or someone), you wouldn't have a memory per say, it's more like you would retain the feelings you have gained in this room while reading the books. Again, you wouldn't know where these feelings were coming from, but I imagine this change will be subtle.

I hope you choose wisely and that you make a better world than the one that we live in; not that ours is so bad but a lot of good people have died and I hope you can prevent that from happening in your reality.

Love From,

Hermione

"Wow," James said, just as shocked as most of the other people in the room.

"I know what I'll remember!" Sirius exclaimed. "Lily calling me Padfoot!"

"Git," Lily said hitting him on the back of his head. "This is really important."

"I know," Sirius sighed, and after that everyone sat in thought, wondering what they should choose to remember.

"Does anyone else get the feeling that Hermione wanted us to remember a feeling, and not a fact?" Frank asked after thinking for several minutes, but when no one could give him an answer to that he added, "Because I have a dilemma. I know when the Lestranges are going to attack Alice and I… Hermione told me after we read the fourth book… but I'm not sure remembering the exact date and event is the best way to help my family. For starters, I'm not sure how I'll remember this information," he went on, not knowing if he would have this information as soon as he got back to reality, or if the information would just pop into his head on the day of the attack. "Maybe it would be better for me to remember to stay vigilant… or to always expect an attack… or that I need to protect my family after Voldemort is defeated… yes… that might be better," he trailed off, seeming to be talking more to himself now.

"Wait… why would you remember about that attack?" Sirius asked, and upon receiving an incredulous glare from Frank he quickly added, "I didn't mean you shouldn't want to protect your family, mate. I just meant that wouldn't it be better to try to remember how to kill Voldemort the first time?"

"You mean remember about the Horcruxes?" Franks said with a heavy sigh, that was another choice he was thinking about, but it made him wary.

"But you don't like that idea," Sirius frowned at the tone that Frank was using and he looked around the room to see that everyone else was looking thoughtful and cautious. "Come on, no one else thinks it's a good idea to remember the Horcruxes!"

"It's not that I don't think it's a good idea," Remus was the one to answer, "it's more like, I don't know how the memory will work… not to mention how many of us will have to use their one memory on this matter."

"It would probably have to be all of us," Lily said, "there are six Horcruxes and six of us …" and then she looked at the little girl who had joined them halfway through the last book and added, "not counting Tonks, of course."

"Of course," Remus agreed, he too was looking at the little girl and thinking about what he truly wanted to remember from this experience, but shook his head. He could not think about that now while they were still discussing the Horcruxes. "Still, I'm not sure there are six Horcruxes that will exist in the time that we are going back to, as it was not clear when Nagini, Voldemort's snake, was made into one. It seemed to me that it was sometime between the summers before Harry's fourth and fifth year."

"That's make things troublesome," James muttered. "Add to it the fact that Harry, himself, is—"

"That won't matter," Sirius interrupted James, mostly because he didn't want his friend to finish that sentence, but also because he truly believed what he was saying. "We will destroy all of the Horcruxes first and then we will kill Voldemort before he can lay a hand on Harry."

James gave his friend a sad smile as he shook his head, "Sirius… I'm not sure—"

"No! We will do it!" Sirius shouted at his friend obstinately.

"There are other issues besides just those two Horcruxes," Frank said as James and Sirius tried to stare each other down. "Like the Diadem in the Room of Requirement… I'm not sure anyone but Harry could have found that. Even with the description in the book, I'm not sure that would help us find the Horcrux."

"All we need to know is it's in the Room of Hidden Things," Sirius said waving his hand at Frank as he still glared at James. "We can Fiendfyre the room."

"How would we know the Horcrux was actually destroyed?" Lily said shaking her head. They had to have proof it was destroyed, didn't they!

"It will be," Sirius shrugged.

"And Hufflepuff's cup," Remus went on to another tricky matter. "I'm not sure we could get into a Gringott's vault in the time we have—"

"Harry and his friends got—"

"And the diary," Alice said thoughtfully, "we don't know where that is either. We only know that Malfoy had possession of it after Voldemort was stopped the first time."

"Argh!" Sirius groaned and shifted his glare to everyone in the room. "Why are you all against me?! This is the answer … it has to be! If we don't remember the Horcruxes … then… it's like we're giving up!"

"Sirius," Lily said softly as she got up and rested a hand on his shoulder, "no one here is giving up. I'm just worried that it won't be enough."

"Yeah," Sirius groaned as he leaned back in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose. The arguments the others have given against remembering the Horcruxes had started to give him doubt. There was a lot of information that they would have to remember about the Horcruxes to make that a viable option… and perhaps it was more information than they were allowed to remember. "Why the bloody hell can we only remember one thing!"

"I don't know mate," James sighed, he too wished that he could remember more than one thing… actually he wished that he could remember everything that happened here. But that was not an option.

"So James, what are you going to remember if it's not the Horcruxes?" Sirius demanded of his friend a few moments later. He was still trying to make that plan work, maybe if he remembered everything they learned about the Horcruxes, but he doubted he would be able to retain all of that information and he feared whatever he remembered wouldn't help him at all.

"I think I need to remember about Peter," James said frowning.

"That sounds good to me," Sirius practically growled, "but why do you look so frustrated?"

"I don't know how it's going to work," James groaned. "It's sort of like the same problem that Frank's having; expect I don't think either of my options is going to work. If I remember that Peter is a spy, or that he is going to betray us… well, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to trust that thought if it just suddenly appears in my head. I'll probably think someone is trying to curse me or something and who knows what might happen then.

If I tried to remember the way I felt when I learned that he betrayed us," James shuddered as he remembered that moment while they were reading the books. It was gut wrenching to learn that one of your best friends was going to betray you, and those most precious to you. "I fear it's the same issue. I'm not sure I would trust those feelings."

"Maybe if I remember it," Sirius offered, he didn't want to let go of his Horcrux plan yet, but James was right. Someone needed to remember about the rat, and if James couldn't…

"I'm not sure that will help," James grimaced at him, "I don't know if I would believe you… besides, you would probably have a hard time trusting the memory too."

"I can make you believe me," Sirius was confident in that, he knew that he could get James to believe him, even if what he was saying was hurtful. However, the last thing James said was a problem. It would be difficult for him to believe a thought or feeling that suddenly made him distrust one of his friends.

"Maybe you're thinking about this wrong," Alice said thoughtfully. "Maybe it's not about what Peter did (or will do); maybe it's about remembering the bonds you made with your friend— friends … while we've been here."

Sirius let her words wash over him. She had said 'friend' first, and he knew she meant Remus. In the book, Sirius had believed that Remus was the traitor. It seemed so inconceivable to him now; he couldn't understand how he could ever believe that Remus would betray them. But it had happened in the book … and it very well could happen in this reality, too. And Sirius could not let that happen.

"It's an interesting thought," Remus was the one to say and then he gave Sirius a meaningful look.

"I think you should remember to trust Remus," James added, "or maybe you should remember the bond you two have formed while in this room," he added on teasingly and his friends glared at him. "But seriously, I think it would be better if you remember that."

"Yeah I guess," Sirius sighed. "It just feels like I'm giving up again."

"Yeah I can see how remembering to trust me could make you feel that way." Remus said dryly.

"I just mean it feels so passive," Sirius explained. "I mean, first the Horcrux and now the rat… it seems like… I'll just be letting things happen."

"I need to say something, and I don't want you to interrupt me," James said looking at Sirius first, but then turned to the rest of the people in the room so they knew that they shouldn't interrupt either. "Since the third book ended I have been thinking about all the things that I have wished I could change. Of course, not trusting Peter was one of the first things I thought of, but I wasn't so sure that would really save my son. I'm even less sure now with the fact that I could only remember one thing and I'm not sure how that memory will work. It might do more harm than good to remember about Peter, and even if it did work, all it would change is stopping Voldemort from attacking us the same way he had in the book." James paused there and looked back into Sirius's eyes determinately, knowing that he could no longer skirt around the issue, he had to bluntly tell his friend what he knew was true. "The most powerful dark wizard ever is after my son and he will be determined to kill Harry and anyone else that's standing in his way. Do you really think Voldemort will let the fact that he doesn't have the rat as a spy prevent him from hunting down my son and killing us all?"

"No," Sirius admitted as his heart hammered in his chest.

"Can you guarantee if we go after the Horcruxes that we will stop Voldemort before he comes after my family?" James asked his next harsh question.

"No," Sirius finally admitted after trying (and failing) to say the opposite.

"Then you need to remember to trust Remus," James commanded. "If you remember the way you feel now, with the knowledge that we have gain through reading the books, I know that trust will be complete and unwavering. Not to mention, with that trust you probably wouldn't even think about talking me into making Peter my Secret Keeper."

"Argh!" Sirius growled at the mention of that… that he had been the one that talked James into that decision. And it was all because he hadn't trusted Remus enough. James was right, but there was still one issue Sirius didn't like. "But we probably won't figure out he's a traitor."

"I know, I don't like that either, but there are more important things that need to be remembered," James sighed and then made sure that Sirius was looking at him again, even though he knew his next words were going to hurt his friend. "I know how bad things could go, but I have to think about what's best for my family— my son. There might not be a damn thing that can save me… I might not have a future no matter what. I don't want to die and I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that from happening. But Voldemort is still coming after my family no matter what I choose here in this room, and if that's true, I have to accept the possibility that I might die… that Lily and I might die!"

"And if that happens," Lily said taking her boyfriend's hand, though James and her had never discussed this issue (thinking that it wasn't a real possibility), they had both come to the same conclusion. "Then we need the two of you to take care of Harry."

"That's right," James smiled sadly at his girlfriend as he wrapped his arms around her. "That's the other reason why I need you to remember to trust Remus. If we do die, if our fates are inevitable, then we can't have Harry go through the hell he went through in the book being raised by those… Muggles. We need you two to look after him!"

"How are you going to work that one out, though?" Frank asked, feeling a little awkward for interrupting this moment between the Marauders (and Lily), but he thought he should point out the flaw in James's plan. "Dumbledore is still going to want Harry to be protected by blood magic."

"Sirius is Harry's godfather; it is up to him—" James started to say but was interrupted by another flash of yellow light, this time coming from the letter that Hermione wrote. He walked over to it and noticed that there was a P.S. on the letter that wasn't there before:

P.S. If you are reading this, you have come to the conclusion that there is a possibility that Lily and James might die no matter what happens. If so, I have found a spell that might be of use to you. It is called 'Cruor Cognatus', which means blood relative, and it's in a book called 'Vanishing Charms and Where to Find Them'

"James, what's the matter?" Lily asked as her boyfriend had paused in his reading.

"That's the book I was going to give you for our first anniversary of dating," James sighed. "It was supposed to be a surprise."

"And it will be, at least by the time I get it," Lily said to try to soothe him. "Plus, it really sounds like something I'd be interested in reading… but you weren't supposed to spend money on a gift—"

"Don't worry Lils," James smiled. "It's a book that's been in the Potter family for generations. Any charm that falls out of practices appears in the book—"

"So it keeps getting more charms!" Lily exclaimed, very intrigued by the book now.

"We don't have time for this," Remus reminded them (though, he too seemed interested in the book).

"Right," James smiled at his friend sheepishly and then started reading again.

I found it at Grimmauld Place before our fifth year and Sirius told me it belonged to Lily, so I know you will have it in the future… or past I should say. If you cast this spell on Sirius (unfortunately it doesn't work on werewolves) you can make Sirius a blood relative of Harry's so completely that even Dumbledore wouldn't be able to argue with it, though it would likely be best if Lily and Sirius perform the charm when she is pregnant. I'm not sure if this spell will help, but I thought you should have the option.

"So that will make Sirius my brother… I don't know about that," Lily said making a face to tease her friend, but just hearing about this spell made her feel lighter than she had since the beginning of this whole process.

"Be serious Lily," Sirius said.

"I thought she just was being Sirius," James laughed along with Lily.

"Shut up," Sirius groaned. "So, are you going to go along with this spell?"

"It's a good plan," James said. "It's from Hermione, after all."

"You're going to remember to cast the spell," Lily said to James.

"Wouldn't it be better coming from you?" James frowned warily. "You're the Charms expert and it's going to be your book… and seeing as you are the one that's going to make Sirius your relative—"

"I have something else to remember," Lily interrupted in little more than a whisper but James heard her all the same. He, after all, was expecting her to say something like this.

"Just say it," James sighed after a few minutes of silence as neither one of them spoke.

"I need to remember what Sev did for me— for my son," Lily said. "I know I can't remember all that happened in the book… and who knows how the memory will manifest, but I know that I have to remember that Severus still cares about me."

"And that he would give up everything for you," James added, a touch bitterly, but he could understand why she would want to remember this about her old friend.

"James, he was my best friend and I still care about him," Lily sighed. "I can't let him become the bitter man he was."

"He might not have been as bitter as he looked, I mean it was from Harry's point of view; it could have been an act," Remus pointed out.

"He blamed himself for what happen to me," Lily said sadly, she knew that was true no matter what anyone said.

"He should," Sirius said bitterly, then groaned. "Sorry, it's just easier to hate him."

"He sacrificed everything to protect my son," Lily said. "The least I could do is remember that fact."

"I understand," James said. "I'll remember the 'Cruor Cognatus' spell … it will be a little weird for me to remember that, but I'm sure once I read about the spell everything will work out."

Sirius sighed, realizing that it was settled now; he was going to have to choose to remember his bond of trust with Remus and hope that everything turns out better than it had in the books. With that in mind, he turned to the werewolf in question and asked, "So, what are you going to remember?"

"Give me a second," Remus said, now focusing his thoughts on what he was going to remember. Selfishly, he was glad that they weren't all going to remember about the Horcruxes, because he knew he learned something important reading these books, and especially the last book. He just didn't know exactly what was best for him to remember.

"All right then," Sirius smiled at him, and then turned to his much younger cousin. "Hey Tonks, do you know what you're going to remember?"

"Er…" Tonks said confused, she wasn't sure what was going on here, after all, she was only five years old… and this was a really strange place to be in.

"You get to remember only one thing that you learned in this room," Sirius said.

"I know… I remember you cursing, so I can tell Mum later," Tonks smirked at Sirius; she always love seeing her mum yell at him.

"No you won't!" Sirius gasped.

Tonks giggled for a minute (along with everyone else in the room). "Then I'll remember Teddy."

"That sounds good," Lily smiled at Tonks; she wasn't sure what the girl would remember with that request, but it was nice that Tonks wanted to remember her son, even though the girl didn't know that's who Teddy was.

"I think I'm going to remember the need to protect my family even if Voldemort appears to be defeated," Frank stated his final decision, since it seemed like everyone was declaring their choice now. "Besides, it will probably make me more protective in general."

"I think I'm going to remember the friendship we've gain being here," Alice said smiling at the Marauders and Lily. "I don't know about you, but I feel like we have all became very close and I would like that feeling to carry on to our real lives. Besides, I would really like it if our sons could grow up together."

"I'd like that, too," Lily shared a smile with her.

"We should write this down before time runs out," Frank suggested.

"All right," everyone agreed, taking turns writing down what they chose to remember, though Remus lagged behind as he was still trying to make up his mind. When there was only five minutes left, Remus jotted something down on the letter and then looked at it hoping that it would work.

"What do you want to remember?" Lily asked noticing the look Remus had.

"That I can have a family," Remus said and that was the simple sentence he wrote down, but he was hoping that it would allow him to remember… "that just because I'm a werewolf doesn't mean that I can't still fall in love and have children. And that I shouldn't fear that future."

"Sounds like a good memory to me," Lily smiled at him.

"I hope it doesn't change too much, though," Remus said looking at Tonks; he had a hard time imagining ever falling for someone that much younger than himself, and he couldn't see her as anything but a niece (or something like that) right now, but he did want the future he read about. He could see it, in the moment that he had made Harry Teddy's godfather, that he was truly happy and he wanted that. Besides, the way that the Tonks in the books was described; he knew she really was the type of girl that he could easily fall for.

"I think it's time," James was able to say before there was a bright flash of yellow light for the third and final time and then everyone was gone.

New A/N (12/11/2020): Now that you have read the first chapter, I'll let you know why I have decided to post this as a new story, instead of updating the chapters of the original story. Well, I had planned on just updating the chapters when I had first started to edit this story a little over a month ago. I've had a desire to re-read this fic for some time now and I thought that I might as well try to edit this story up a bit while I was at it. Though I know I can't make this fic perfect, there were a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes that could be fix to make this story easier to read.

However, after I edited the first chapter I knew that the changes I made weren't enough. I had never been completely happy with this chapter, even the first time I posted it eleven years ago. I knew exactly what I wanted the characters to choose to remember but the discussion about why they made those choices always seemed forced. Even after I edited the chapter, it still felt forced. Plus, just like in the original version, I never even mentioned the Horcruxes, and I knew I needed to add that conversation. At the time I couldn't think about how I wanted that conversation to go, so I decided to continue reading and editing the story, all the while having this issue on my mind. After I finished with the story, I felt more comfortable with completely revising the first chapter, which is the chapter you just read. But the chapter felt so different that I didn't feel right about posting it instead of the original chapter. I don't know, maybe I was wrong… maybe no one would have cared or even noticed the difference since this story is so old. It's was just how I felt.