Only Chapter
Baby Harry sat up in his crib. He would usually be as keep by now, but something woke him up.
"What an adorable wee bairn dear Lily birthed." An ethereal voice said to him.
This is what woke Harry up. He wasn't upset due to this person's appearance. She wore a white dress, and her hair was just as red as his mother's. In his baby mind, this was his mother.
She was glowing as her hand hovered around Harry's cheeks.
"Oh you poor child. You don't know the devastation that will come in a few days time. Unless..."
Brigid had always been a lazy banshee. She didn't even warn Lily's grandmother of her untimely demise, but this is just a child in front of her. He doesn't deserve to have a death in his family so young into his life. He's barely learning to recognize faces!
"Can you say 'banshee', wee bairn? Say 'banshee'. Banshee?"
They spent a good part of the early morning together. Harry had managed to say the word somewhat, but Brigid knew Lily was smart enough to get it.
For the next few days, whenever Harry look at his mother, he would point at her hair and say 'banjee'.
This perplexed both parents until it finally hit Lily.
"Harry, sweetie? Are you trying to say 'banshee'?" Lily asked apprehensively.
Harry clapped and giggled while chanting 'banjee'.
It was this scene that James walked into.
"James, we need to get the bloody hell out of here!" Lily started.
"Whoa! Slow down dear, and tell me what brought this on?" James tried to placate his wife, but she already called several house elves to pack up the house.
"Harry has been trying to tell us he saw a banshee! That's why he kept pointing at me and calling me 'banjee'! We were asleep, and she had to warn someone!" Lily ranted as she hugged her son close.
"I thought banshees only warned people of their own families, unless you have Scottish roots I don't know about."
"Yes, actually. My mother's maiden name was O'Conailli. There were times where her Scottish brogue came out, but like Minerva, it only happened when she was very angry." Lily explained.
"Oh. Well then, let's return to Potter manor. I honestly don't even know why we came here. The wards at the Pottery are much stronger than the fidelius."
"Wait. If Pettigrew truly betrayed us, and brought the Dork Lard here, then we should leave a trap."
"I love the way you think, darling. I think I know the exact thing we're looking for in the Potter Grimoire."
"Brilliant!"
A powerful blasting hex destroyed the front door, and allowed the most feared Dark Lord (since the last one) of all Magical Britain entry.
He was alone as he strode in, expecting a fight to immediately begin, only to see the room empty.
As he strode further into the house, he didn't notice the door repairing itself. When he made it to the second floor, he saw a glow coming from what looks to be the baby's room. Bursting in, in a dramatic fashion, he saw the glow coming from out the window.
Rushing towards it, he saw runes sketched onto the ground encircling the entire house. He crashed threw the windows, intent on avoiding what was obviously a trap, and tried to fly away from the house.
That plan failed when he harshly crashed into an invisible barrier.
He looked pass the wards to see the Potters standing in front of him with matching triumphant smirks.
A string of profanities later, and Godric's Hollow shook with the explosion that completely disintegrated Voldemort.
This explosion woke all the residents. As they all shuffled out their doors, Aurors arrived to the scene.
"Aurors!" One announced herself.
"Amelia! The war is over!" James said excitedly.
"What do mean? Elaborate, man!" Another Auror shouted.
"We received a warning from a banshee a couple days ago. As we all know, banshees warn those of her family when someone of the house are about to die. We took that warning serious and planted a trap from the Potter family grimoire to catch and destroy Voldemort."
As he was speaking, the runes on the ground lit up again and the house rebuilt itself.
"So Sirius Black betrayed you. Figures, he's a Black after all." Another Auror spoke. He almost bit his tongue with how fast he shut his mouth when Lord Potter let a bit of his displeasure known.
"Sirius Black has been my best friend and brother for over a decade. Do not speak ill of him in my presence. Besides, he wasn't our secret keeper. Peter Pettigrew was."
In an effort to keep her foolish coworker alive, Amelia tried to move the conversation on. "We'll start a manhunt for him immediately."
"You should know that he is an illegal animagus. His form is a rat." Lily spoke up.
"Why hasn't he registered at the Ministry? Are you and Black animagus also?" Amelia asked suspiciously.
"Sirius and I registered with the ICW, but I doubt Pettigrew did the same." James said.
Amelia nodded. "We'll get started immediately. Tell Black to report to the DMLE soon. He's our best tracker."
As if summoned, Sirius apparated to the scene, wand in hand. His relief at seeing the Potters was plain to see.
"Oh thank Merlin! I didn't see Peter at his home, so I assumed the worst!" Sirius exclaimed as he rushed forward to hug the Potters.
"He betrayed us, Padfoot. The fucking rat actually brought Voldemort here tonight, but we trapped him with Ancient Potter Magic." James explained.
Sirius was shocked, angered, and ashamed at this news. "I almost got you all killed. If only I hadn't insisted for Peter to be the secret keeper. I'm so sorry."
"Sirius, calm down. We all trusted Pettigrew, it wasn't just you. We don't blame you at all, and we destroyed Voldemort tonight. Now all we have to do is find the rat." Lily reasoned.
"I'll hunt him down immediately! You guys should check on the Longbottoms too, just in case. Get Remus too, he's probably still sleeping." Sirius insisted before he apparated away to begin his hunt.
As the other Aurors were disapparating to begin arrests, Hagrid portkeyed in.
"James! Lily! I'm happy me to see you both alive! Ye, alri? Where's little 'arry? He's not hurt is he?" The half giant lumbered towards them.
"It's alright, Hagrid. We're fine. We destroyed Voldemort, tonight, and Harry's being watched by Potter house elves. I have a question, though, how did you know we were attacked tonight?" Lily made sure to not sound upset, or accusatory. She didn't want to spook the gentle giant.
"Oh, Prof'ser Dumbledore sent me. Though he said to come pick up Harry, but nothing about you two." Hagrid replied, not seeing anything off with that, while the Potters glanced at each other.
'How did Dumbledore know we were going to be attacked?'
Frank wasn't overly concerned when the ward's tingled at a portkey entering them. The Longbottoms only had seven people know the location of their home, and Frank's mother, Augusta, was their secret keeper, and she would kill herself before betraying them.
They were not expecting a trio of death eaters bursting in with wands already firing spells. Alice was on the floor playing with their son when Bellatrix hit her with the cruciatus curse, her screams of pain reverberated off the walls.
Frank had his hands full fighting off Rodolphus and Rabastan, his wife's screams were driving him insane but he couldn't get to her aid without suffering the same fate. These three death eaters were all very experienced at this and Frank's attacks were becoming more and more desperate as spells were now flying everywhere.
It was into this scene that their friends arrived and immediately burst into action.
The safety of everyone here could only be guaranteed by putting these three down as quickly as possible, and this was not the time for stunners or wasted calls of 'aurors - surrender your wands'. A curse into the back of the nearest death eater from James was immediately followed by Remus, and Lily joining the fray.
Lily had started firing curses at Bellatrix, not holding back, nor wasting time. None of the death eaters had any time to waste firing curses in the child's direction, they were far too busy fighting for their very lives. As Bellatrix came under the combined onslaught of Remus and Lily, she was being forced further and further back as she dodged spells.
Lily wanted to ensure Bellatrix kept her full attention on her and Remus, there was currently a child and his defenseless mother lying behind transfigured cover. This called for a little taunting. "Is 'ikkle Trixie up to her old tricks again? What master is she toddling after now that shit for brains Voldemort got his arse handed to him?"
"Don't you dare speak my master's name! A mudblood like you is unworthy of having it pass your lips."
Lily knew what buttons to press with Bellatrix and could see it was working so kept it up. "I don't even want to think about where your lips have been Trixie. I never figured a Black would ever be an asskisser. Then again, when you marry into scum I suppose a sharp fall in standards has to be expected. At least your sister, Cissi manages to keep her nose up in the air while living with filth, and thank Merlin for Andi!"
Bellatrix was now solely focused on killing this mudblood in front of her, so focused that she totally missed the real danger. Alice lay there forgotten and not as defenceless as Lily thought, she'd managed to draw her wand. Her limbs were shaking so bad though that firing a curse might miss this bitch and hit one of her friends. The death eater was getting closer and Alice judged her moment well, as Bellatrix dodged a spell from Remus she was now almost within touching distance of the witch lying shaking on the floor. Alice could hardly miss as she fired a reducto curse into the back of Bellatrix's left knee, blowing the leg right off and putting the crazy bitch down. A stunner from Lily made sure she stayed there as he raced over to defend Alice and cast a protective shield. Remus now joined the fight on the remaining two death eaters still standing.
The first indication Rodolphus got that the tide had turned was when his brother took a bludgeoning hex to his unprotected back. It was only seconds later that he found himself heavily outnumbered.
Tactics and common sense dictated he should apparate out of there, only this wasn't just two other death eaters that were down but his wife and brother. This caused him to hesitate and, with three powerful wizards now firing curses at him, his hesitation proved very costly. As he dodged a curse from James, Remus and Frank both caught him and the fight was over.
Rodolphus had hardy hit the floor before Lily was tending to her injured friend. Alice was barely hanging onto consciousness but refused to give in until she knew her boy was safe. "Neville, my Neville, where's my baby?"
Lily levitated Neville over for Alice to see he was alright and she settled down. Frank was currently taking Neville from Lily and kneeling beside his wife. "I'm so sorry love, I kept trying to get to you but they were firing curse after curse to stop me."
Alice held up her shaking hand to touch both her boys on the cheek. "Our baby is ok, nothing else matters next to that."
James and Remus finished securing the criminals, and they made their way to the others.
James spoke up. "Frank, Alice needs to get to St. Mungo's as quickly as possible. Don't worry about Neville, we'll take care of him until she gets back home."
Remus interrupted and handed Frank a scrap of parchment. "Bellatrix had this in her pocket, I thought you might be interested in it?"
Frank recognised the significance at once, it was their address written in his mother's handwriting. "There were only two of these made and you got the other one from mother earlier today."
The wizard in question took his piece of parchment from his pocket and it was a perfect match. James had finished searching and securing the other two death eaters, when he saw the two pieces of parchment, their fears appeared to have been justified. "Let me guess who you gave the other one to, Albus Dumbledore?"
Frank could only nod as he held his wife and son, the realisation of what almost happened beginning to sink in.
Seeing that Frank was struggling with his emotions, James took command of the situation. "Frank, you get Alice to the hospital. Neville will be well taken care of. Remus and I will drop these animals off at the ministry before contacting your mother, we'll see she gets to St Mungo's. Lily can get Neville to the Pottery, and we'll be back as soon as we can."
Lily definitely wanted to get Neville out of there as soon as possible so kissed her husband before taking Neville from Frank. Alice attempted to smile at her but it came across as a grimace. "Take care of my baby."
"You know I will, just take care of yourself and we'll bring him to see you tomorrow."
Remus reset the rope portkey for the Pottery. Remus handed Lily the portkey, and she activated it.
James quickly made a portkey for St. Mungo's, sending Frank and Alice on their way.
They had no sooner left when Remus asked James the all-important question. "So how did the death eaters get a hold of that?"
"You know as well as I it would only happen if Dumbledore wanted it to, I hardly think he would leave it lying about. The old man may play up on his eccentricities yet he's anything but stupid. There's a reason behind everything he does, the reason might only make sense to him but you can be sure he'll have one."
Remus then noticed Bella's leg lying amongst the carnage. "Sirius's mother has a troll's leg she uses as an umbrella stand. I wonder if she'd want her favourite niece's to make a pair?"
The adrenalin was leaving their systems now and joking about was the way they handled it. "Well I think it's a safe bet Alice won't want to hang it above the mantelpiece, she's welcome to it!" Both wizards were chuckling as the tension from the unexpected battle left.
"They were very lucky we arrived Prongs. Alice was down and Frank was about to join her. Even five minutes later could have been too late!" Remus stated.
"Let's just get these three to the ministry and then we can start with a couple glasses of firewhiskey before Padfoot joins us. I won't settle until we're back at the Pottery."
"PETER!"
The short, plump man was racing down the street as fast as he could. It was dark and pouring outside.
Pettigrew was soaking, and he could barely see but it was hard to miss two glowing grey eyes chasing him.
Now, muggles aren't foolish like the purebloods like to propagate. If a man in odd clothing is been chased by a big, furocious dog, they're of course going to take notice, but it's not like they could help.
As the big black dog jumped to tackle him, it transformed into Sirius Black. In midair, he casted a notice-me-not spell around himself and Peter. Peter had his wand out, but he couldn't think of a spell quick enough before he was tackled, and his wand flew out of his hand. The man fell hitting his head, his eyes were foggy water falling in them, though he didn't need to see, because he could practically feel the anger directed towards him.
"Sirius please!" Peter begged the very angry wizard kneeling on his chest.
Leaning down, their faces only centimeters from each other, he spoke. "You betrayed them."
He didn't shout, which made it worse for Peter. The rat understood anger. His master displayed anger quite a bit, both at other death eaters, and at him.
Sirius, though, didn't yell. This displayed something Peter had never experienced before: absolute fury.
"HELP!" Peter cried desperately. "Someone give me that stick!" But the notice-me-not spell Sirius casted was still in effect, and the muggles around them just kept about their business.
"I would like nothing more than to kill you here and now, Pettigrew, but I think the kiss would be so much better for you! It'll probably be your first."
"Not the Dementors, please!" Peter wailed in fear.
"I admit your soul will probably make them sick, but it's worth the risk!" Sirius grinned savagely. He stunned Peter, and made a portkey directly to the DMLE.