Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all its characters are owned by J. K. Rowling.
As it was possible that James might return soon, Remus decided to go back to his place with Lily promising to devise a way so that they could exchange messages with each other.
While Remus was gone, Lily began planning. She had a Dark Lord to take care of and a rat to catch, after all.
Before planning to set up traps, planning emergency exit measures was important.
Portkeys and Apparation were useless because any Death Eater worth his salt and their Master too would first set up anti-portkey and anti-apparation wards around the house they planned to attack.
First, she created a set of messaging devices for herself and Remus. Each set consisted of a little foldable board and a quill. Each quill was connected to the other person's board as well as their own with Protean charms. The board had many raised dots each of which had a Protean charm on them. It was quite time-consuming work which took an hour, at least for each set but the end result was that, whenever the quill touched the board, the points on that board and the recipient's board heated and lit up thus allowing the other person to know they had an incoming message and see what was being written.
Once she had sent the messaging set and explained their functions to Remus by owl, she sent him on an errand to Diagon Alley. There she had him obtain a female house elf's services and have the elf listen for Lily's call. Then, he told Lily through the message board, the name of the elf, he had obtained - Nyssa.
Lily had in the meanwhile let James think that she was in touch with some foreign witch friends whom she had come in contact with, through Alice.
Lily called the elf to her while James was in the bathroom and bonded with her. Then she instructed her on the cover story. When James came out, Nyssa was introduced. The elf's primary duty would be to protect Harry and take him to his godmother, Alice, ASAP at the first sign of trouble. Nyssa had been then sent to the Longbottom's home so that she would know where it was located.
Later that night, she said to James, "I want Nyssa's existence to be kept secret from everybody including Sirius and Peter. Let us keep some cards to ourselves. Even if they won't willingly betray us (she mentally excluded the traitor), that monster is known to use any means at his disposal if he were to capture them - deceit, Veritaserum, Cruciatus…"
James interjected, "Sirius would not break under the Cruciatus…"
Lily heatedly interrupted him. "Let me finish, James."
He wisely closed his mouth.
"I know Sirius would not break under it, but I am not talking about that. Voldemort is known to be one of the world's most accomplished Legilimens, is he not?" asked Lily.
(Legilimency -the art of viewing other's memories, Occlumency - the counter to Legilimency and also an art of organizing thoughts and memories to help a better recall)
James realized with dawning horror what she was implying. The Cruciatus Curse, especially the one cast by a powerful wizard like Voldemort would weaken Sirius' Occlumency shields making it easy for Voldemort to invade his memories. Once he reached that point, he would not only know about the real Secret Keeper but also, where he was hiding, and then he would go after Peter.
Lily only had more to add to his horrors.
"I see that you realize where this would lead to, but this is not the end of it," said Lily making him look up.
"What do you mean, hon?" asked James. "How can things get worse than this?"
"You forget that if Peter himself is captured, then Voldemort will not even require the Cruciatus Curse to invade his mind," said Lily regretting that she had to continue this charade. "He doesn't have Occlumency shields that could withstand a decent Legilimens, forget an accomplished one like the Dark Lord."
"You are right. Let's keep some things to ourselves," said James agreeing with her.
Lily heaved a sigh of relief.
"That also includes our knowledge of any traps we will set for Voldemort if or when he finds us," said Lily. Personally, she believed it was not a matter of if but when.
"Again, I say you are right and so is Sirius," said James, grinning at his memory of something.
"And what was that?" asked Lily, amused.
"Potters and their weakness for the smartest witch of their times," said James, imitating Sirius.
Lily snorted.
"Let's begin planning, shall we? After all, what would be the use of me marrying a Marauder if I can't use his brain to turn this house into a death trap for the Dark Bastard?" asked Lily smirking.
"Right, you are and, hey, let's call him Dead Boy or DB from now on, derived from your Dark Bastard sobriquet. He is, after all, to us, a dead guy walking," said James grinning, as if they were planning a school prank.
Lily rolled her eyes. Expect James to make fun of the name of the most feared dark wizard of their times during serious situations but then again, calling Voldemort, DB would save a lot of time and also make him sound less ominous or fear-inspiring. So, maybe, her husband had a point. A small one.
"Ok, my dear husband. Now, before setting up traps for DB, we should set up undetectable alarms so that we know when somebody untrustworthy appears in our area," said Lily.
"And how do we do that? I guess you have already given this a thought. The look on your face clearly says so," said James.
"Eight Sneakoscopes in magically silenced boxes buried just under the surface at eight points on the border of our house is my answer to that. Each box will be charmed to ping a point on a map we will have of the locations of the sneakoscopes if one of the sneakoscopes activates," said Lily. "I will send Nyssa to buy them."
(To jog the memory of those who have forgotten, a sneakoscope is a ball of glass that lights up and spins and whistles shrilly when an untrustworthy person is nearby.)
"Brilliant, but have her buy them from different shops in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade instead of all at one place," suggested James.
"Why?" asked Lily, puzzled.
"Do you want people to get suspicious or for someone to place any spell on one of those due to said suspicions?" asked James, raising an eyebrow, an action that reminded Lily of Severus, making her feel sad.
"Good idea, dear," said Lily, looking down at the list she was forming to hide the sadness in her eyes. "Now onto traps. Often, the best prank or trap is the simplest thought out one instead of a complicated bit of magic."
James had noticed the sad look in her eyes but decided to ask her later when they would be in bed. She would be more open to sharing her feelings while they were snuggling into each other's arms, comforting each other.
"What is going on in that brilliant brain of yours?" asked James.
"Can you tell me about the pranking potion with which you used to change the Slytherins to animals while at school?" asked Lily, her goal evident.
James fell off his chair, laughing hard at the thought of turning the most feared Dark wizard into a penguin or a bug.
"No one in their right mind would think of pranking DB, would they?" asked Lily, looking amused.
"You would but let's call it the consequence of marrying a Marauder, shall we?" said James, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.
That had Lily laughing too.
"But how would you douse DB in the potion?" asked James while summoning what the Marauders called their Pranking Grimoire.
"DB will come, expecting magical traps, but what we will set would be Muggle ones," said Lily. "Nyssa's gonna have to go shopping quite a number of times whenever some new trick or prank comes to our mind, I think. As to dousing DB with the pranking potion, I will have her buy a wind chime to place over the front entrance. The centerpiece of the wind chime will be an undetectably extended container for a cauldron full of your pranking potion and it will be charmed to be magically upended with a password set as 'Welcome, Dead Boy' when Voldemort is under it," said Lily.
"Nice," said James chuckling. "We also need to think about Harry's backup emergency exit though, even if we have Nyssa. What if the wards stop her from disapparating with a wizarding child?"
"True," said Lily. It had her thinking for a while.
"Say, Lily?" asked James with a snap of his fingers.
"Yes?" asked Lily.
"Didn't you once take me to a movie where a scene shows the passengers get out of a rescued plane through a cloth slide?" asked James.
"A chute. Brilliant! Come on, James," said Lily, quickly cottoning on to what he was implying. She took his hand and began pulling him towards Harry's bedroom, as it was a priority. The child was playing with a stuffed dragon while Nyssa watched.
Lily picked up their son and then turned to her husband.
"Now would be the time for the Transfiguration prodigy to turn the part below the window sill, into a chute," said Lily looking at him.
James had that done in a matter of minutes and turned to Lily.
"And now would be the time for the Charms prodigy to do her bit and let me play with Harry," said James, grinning, throwing her words back at her and holding his arms out for his son.
Lily rolled her eyes and handed over Harry, who eagerly went as his Dad always created fun stuff to play with, like now, for instance, where he was making colorful bubbles come out of his wand for his son to pop. Lily was in charge of discipline in their home keeping both important boys of her life in line while James was the fun guy of the house.
She placed Disillusionment, Notice-Me-Not and various protective charms on the chute. Then she drew some Runes on it while hovering on a broom invisibly on the outside. Once that was done, they instructed Nyssa on what to do with the chute and gave her the next day's shopping list as planned.
"Just pranking Voldemort will not do," said Lily, sitting in a chair. James placed their son in her lap and she started rocking him. "He has said from time to time that he is immortal. Though some might say that he is bragging, the recent changes in his facial appearance tell a different story. We do know that there are a number of potions, spells, and rituals to elongate life and strengthen oneself against some level of spells. Heaven knows how many of the dark ones Voldemort may have discovered and imbued in himself while studying the Dark Arts."
"So, what's your plan?" asked James leaning at the window.
"Feed him Veritaserum 24 hours after he has been captured," said Lily.
"Why 24 hours?" Asked James confused.
"You do know that there are antidotes to Veritaserum, don't you?" asked Lily.
"Ah, yes," said James sheepishly.
"Also, I missed one point in our planning. it would be better if we place a Notice-Me-Not on the area backside of the house so that if DB brings someone to keep an eye there, they will not notice anything they shouldn't," suggested Lily.
"Have Nyssa do that. She can ensure that we are not affected by it. Often, people ignore how powerful elves can be," said James.
"Good idea, dear," said Lily with approval in her eyes and turned to Nyssa who immediately popped out and returned a few minutes later saying, "It's done, Mistress".
"Thank you, Nyssa," said Lily smiling kindly at her.
Then, she continued, "We also don't want Dumbledore or others to know we have Voldemort in our captivity until we have all his secrets - names and locations of all his followers and supporters, any spell, ritual, or potion he may have used to ensure his survival, his hideouts, and hideouts of his followers, names of people who are being or have been coerced or bewitched into doing their bidding, etc. Once we have all the info, we bring Barty Crouch into our confidence and make further plans after giving him the obtained information. He has been ruthless in his pursuit of Death Eaters. I know that Dumbledore does not approve of his 'Cast to Kill' orders but Dumbledore's promoted way of Stunners and Body Bind curses is not working. We have lost so many because of that. Would you cast a spell that can be easily shielded if my or Harry's or Sirius' life was threatened, James?"
James was both awed by her deep planning and ashamed by the truth of her words regarding the ongoing civil war. He was going to defend Dumbledore but Lily's sharp words brought home the sad truth.
"An eye for an eye would make the whole world go blind," said James, still protesting weakly while Lily placed Harry in the cot.
"We are only fighting to defend ourselves and our right to live a life, learn among others regardless of blood status, and achieve things based on our merit and hard work rather than on the basis of how pure our blood is or how rich or well-connected we are. What is the other side fighting for - power, freedom to rape, torture, or kill anybody either because they don't fit their definition of a Pureblood or because they have violent tendencies like Fenrir Greyback? Are we the same as them, James?" Lily asked.
This blasted the last of his defenses to smithereens.
"You are right, Lily," said James, his head bowed.
"I am sorry for using such harsh words, honey but it is the truth and you know it," said Lily taking his face in her hands, and kissing his lips softly.
Leaning back, she said, "We need to erode his power base too so that even if he escapes somehow, people won't be willing to support him." A grin akin to the one she had given to Remus earlier was slowly forming on her face.
"Oh, I so wish Voldy was here to see that look," said James laughing and feeling a lot better now. "You have something nasty planned in that scheming brain of yours, methinks."
"Leave it to me, dear, and enjoy the show," said Lily still smiling in an evil sort of way.
And there you go. One more chapter is finished. See you in a few days soon.
