June 1979

Albus Dumbledore sat behind his polished oak desk in the headmaster's office of Hogwarts, which was full of things that one would associate more with a military leader than a school teacher, feeling every bit his advanced age. He had just come from a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix, a vigilante group he established a few years prior, where he had received news that three more of its members had been killed trying to defend a muggle town. He was beginning to think that if things stayed as they were going, then the war they were fighting was going to be lost a lot sooner. In fact, without some kind of miracle, he doubted that no matter how long the war went on that Voldemort would win regardless. Albus knew that he could have stopped the war if he had taken action a lot sooner but he just couldn't bring himself to take the life of someone who was merely on the edge of losing themself to the pull of the dark.

A firm knock on the office door brought Albus out of his dark musings, something which he was incredibly thankful for.

"Enter," he called with a shaking voice.

Minerva entered the room, practically throwing the door open, with a large smile on her face. "Oh Albus, I've just come from tea with Lily, James, Sirius, Marlene, Frank and Alice. I have a message from them that I think would lift your spirits, I know how much you need it right now."

"Is it a message from them or something you think I should know about?" Albus asked with obvious, and eager, interest. It had been far too long since he had heard any truly good news worth celebrating.

"It's a little bit of both, a shared request and a few updates on their conditions. Well, you always say that the best way to honor the dead is to truly live your life in the happiness they would have wanted for you and, as you know, there are three weddings scheduled for you next week. As we both know, Frank and Alice are the first couple with James and Lily right after them but the third couple was a surprise. Sirius and Marlene have finally decided to stop dancing around each other and, after what I hear was quite the passionate debate, decided to get married as well, they're the third couple," Minerva said, practically bouncing in her seat. It was rare for him to see his normally stern and composed headmistress act so giddy but Albus truly loved those few, precious moments.

"I'm glad to hear that Sirius and Marlene have finally managed to agree that they belong together as everyone has been telling them for years. What other news do you bring?"

"So, the six of them have decided that, instead of having separate weddings on three separate days, that they would all be more than honored to have you officiate three short weddings in quick succession in front of the Order. However, while that happens to be my favorite piece of news, the final piece of news is that, in light of current events, the six of them have come to the agreement that it would be best for them and any children they wish to have, if they were to move into one of their manors," Minerva explained.

"That would probably be for the best. I know Voldemort has plans to try and eliminate Charlus to weaken the Wizengamot and the Longbottoms are becoming more and more of an issue. I think that it would be best for them to live in one of the Black properties. At least Voldemort is still of the mindset that Sirius could still be won over. If they are in need of any extra warding then I would be happy to offer my assistance," Dumbledore explained. "You are correct though, the news of three marriages and possibly a few new children soon truly has warmed my heart. If you would please give them my congratulations on their upcoming weddings and let them know that not only am I more than happy to officiate but I will also give them each time to announce their plans at the next Order meeting."

December 1980

It was never a good feeling when Albus was forced to be the bearer of bad news. Unfortunately, this time the news was especially bad and the only thing that made him feel any better about his situation was the fact that he was not alone to bring it. Together with Minerva, Filius and Severus, he was confident that things would turn out alright. Well, after everyone realized who was on what side then it might be okay.

Albus was glad to note that while the manor was spacious, it was nowhere near the size it could have been. He simply chalked it up to the fact that it might have been one of the unused Black properties, of which there were many. On the outside, it looked to only be a three-story building in the shape of a u, with quite a few rooms in each of the wings though the entire first floor looked as though it was one massive sitting room.

When the four of them reached the front door, it was wrenched open by Frank Longbottom before Albus even raised his hand.

"There had better be a damn good reason Severus is here," Frank spat. "The wards told us that he has the Dark Mark."

"If you will allow us in, then I would be more than happy to explain everything. He's here because I absolutely need him to be in order to give you all of the details," Albus explained slowly. It took several minutes before Frank stepped aside to allow them entry.

As the four visitors followed the auror through the house, Albus took note that the house was very sparse. There were few photos showing the families, furniture was sparse and a brief glance into the library showed him that there were no books on the shelves. When they finally reached the other eight people living in the home, Albus noticed that all of the furniture had the sheen of being transfigured from something else. It truly seemed as though all of them were more than ready to leave the manor at a moment's notice, despite the fact that they had somehow layered the Fidelius charm over what was already one of the most well-protected manors Albus knew about.

The manor's occupants were sitting around three babies that were dressed in matching plain clothes. Neville, Harry and Rose were a shining beacon of innocence that Albus was truly happy to see. The same could not be said about the remaining five adults, each of them not only had their wand out but they each looked incredibly angry.

"I am well aware that you all believe Severus to be a Death Eater," Albus began, "the truth of the matter is that he is a double agent on my behalf. The Dark Mark on his arm is also a fake."

At the look of shock on some of their faces, Albus pulled out his own wand and added four more chairs since he knew that he would have to give a full explanation before they could even get to the bad news.

"I think it would make things a lot faster, Albus, if you allowed me to explain my role first," Severus said. He slowly looked around the room to make sure that everyone was in agreement before beginning his side of the story. "As you are all aware, Slytherin was the primary focus of early recruitment during our time as students. What you don't know is that recruitment comes at a heavy cost. When Lucius approached me, it was shortly after his marriage to Narcissa. The reason his recruitment of me was so focussed was because the Dark Lord was holding his wife hostage under the threat that if I did not join his ranks, then his wife would be turned over to the new recruits as free use entertainment. On top of that, my recruitment offer was a hand delivered letter from the Dark Lord himself stating that if I denied his offer then the rest of my family would be turned over to Fenrir Greyback before being sent to rip me to shreds. Needless to say I had to accept to save the life and well-being of many others, but there was no way I was going to let that madman mark me as a slave. Shortly before I was forced to go before him, I went to a muggle shop that sold prosthetic skins. A little bit of magic has attached that prosthetic to my skin until he's stopped."

"There's no way you're telling me that you're innocent in this war," Alice challenged.

"By no means am I innocent. However, while I am one of the better duellists he has at his disposal, he has never sent me out on one of his raids. I am always locked in the potions lab with the assignment of coming up with new ways to control people so that he can expand his army," Severus explained. "I have only been on one mission and it was a recon mission. While I thoroughly enjoy brewing, there's no way I would put any amount of effort to help the man who casually kills his own followers faster than the Order."

"Which brings us to the reason the four of us are here tonight," Minerva said. "The recon mission Severus spoke about happened a few hours ago."

"As the six of you are no doubt aware, Tom has already decided that Charlus and his wife are going to be the targets of an assassination attempt, Agusta is another major target though she will be decidedly harder for him to get to since she is rarely in a position to harm. The rest of the Black family is split between blindly worshiping him and completely loathing his very existence. Part of the reason we are here is to tell you that we have finally found out who the spy in the Order is," Albus said.

"We won't be telling you who it is until they are found once again and captured. The reason we are keeping this from you is so that there is no drive for any of you to leave this manor for any reason other than possibly an attack on Hogwarts or the Ministry," Filius added.

The numerous thoughts flying the minds of the residents were beginning to pile up with questions. It was rare for them to be kept out of the loop for so long and for Filius of all people to be the one to tell them that they were specifically keeping them in the dark was unexpected. During the few minutes of silence they were given to process the new information, the three mothers left to put the children to bed. When the women returned, the group went over all of the information they had been giving a few more times to clarify a few points. While Albus was sure that any hostility was gone from the group, he was sure that it would be a while before everyone stood on equal ground.

When everyone felt confident that Severus was truly on their side, they all swore to reinforce their occlumency to make sure that his secret was safe. After the promises were made though, James finally spoke up.

"It's great to know where your loyalties lie, Severus, something tells me that all of that was the easy conversation. Why are you really here Albus and why did you feel the need to bring three other people with you?" James asked slowly.

"The mission Severus went on tonight is going to affect you all quite drastically. I am aware that nobody here, myself excluded, believes that prophecies are worth paying any attention to. That being said, Tom believed the one that was made a few hours ago and is therefore going to target one of your children," Albus admitted with a slight cringe. The resulting outburst was exactly what he was expecting. The fact that Sirius was the silent one was incredibly unnerving though.

"So, basically, what you're telling us is that some hag said something having to do one of us or one of our kids and now Tom is going to try to kill a baby because of that?" Alice asked in shock when everyone else quieted down.

"Specifically, the short version is that the prophecy predicted that a baby that was born at the end of July would have the power to vanquish him," Severus explained. "That is all he cared about from the part of the prophecy I reported to him. The only reason I even heard that part was because the Dark Lord asked me to find out what post Albus was interviewing for."

"In plain words, the prophecy says something to the effect of a baby born in a set of three will be marked by the Dark Lord as his equal and that he would be joined by two others, one of which will die and one of which will raise with him," Albus said. He was really hoping that they wouldn't ask him for the exact wording, he truly hated the prophecy and if they left it as it was then it left a little room for hope.

"What makes you think it applies to one of our babies?" Marlene asked. "Surely there are a lot more children out there that were born around the end of July and that's not even considering any babies that might be muggleborn."

"On top of that, there's no way that he holds that much of a grudge against any of us. We're not the only ones who have been absolute thorns in his side either. There are plenty of other Order members that have done far more damage to his cause than us," Sirius added.

"Tell us what the prophecy said exactly," Lily demanded.

Albus heaved a great sigh trying to give himself a couple extra seconds to compose himself. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be marked as the veil between worlds thins… born to those that have thrice defied him and banding together with those closest to him… the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… together with the pair born alongside him their life will be filled with peril and pain… one shall die, one shall fight and one shall rise alongside the one marked… the path to victory lies through gates of pleasure but one must die at the hand of the other for neither will own their life while the other survives…"

"Wait, hold on. That was confusing as hell," Sirius admitted.

"I have it written down on a sheet of parchment for each of you," Albus said.

"From what little of this I understand, what you're saying is that you think one of the three five-year-old babies asleep in the next room is going to be targeted by Tom because of this nonsense prophecy, marked as his equal, have his life dictated by some unknown force whether or not Tom is vanquished and while all of that is happening to the one he marks, one of them is going to die while the other one rises to watch the marked one attempt to survive against what is possibly the deadliest and most unhinged Dark Lord Britain has ever seen?" Sirius asked in disbelief.

"Sirius, honey, you really need to calm down," Marlene said as she laid a hand on his forearm. "However, I think we should really break this apart and see what we can conclusively get out of this shitty jumble of words."

"From what I've managed to get out of it so far, sometime around Samhain, Tom will somehow enact a plan that will somehow draw out your children. I'm not sure which one will be marked and I have no idea what it means but the one he marks will likely be exposed to something or inherit something that will eventually give them the upper hand in a confrontation. Their life being filled with peril and pain is both obvious and far too vague to come to any firm conclusions about. The line saying one shall die may not actually mean that their life will come to an end though. One shall fight means that they will be fighting something though it may not be Tom or anyone from his army. There's nothing clear about what it means by one shall rise alongside the one marked. When it says that the path to victory lies through the gates of pleasure, I feel as though it is saying that as long as the one that's marked finds happiness then they will be on the right path but the fact that one must die at the hands of the other is the most dangerous line out of the whole thing. To not own their life will truly be misery," Albus said sadly. "For obvious reasons, I made sure to remove the memory from Sybill's mind. As long as there is no discussion about the prophecy outside of this room then I think we shall be safe. Keep in mind that there is no reason that this prophecy is guaranteed to happen but I felt it necessary to tell you since you are the ones who are currently at the highest risk. Please take every precaution available, I do not wish to see any children targeted for any reason."

October 1981

The sky above Hogwarts and the surrounding border were glowing a bright white, easily illuminating the threat it was barely keeping out. The students were being escorted out of the castle through the docks since it was the only way to get the students low enough that the wards would allow a staff member to activate an emergency portkey to take them to St. Mungo's.

Albus stood at the top of the Astronomy tower, looking out at the Death Eaters, vampires, werewolves, trolls, giants and many more creatures that were hammering away at the dome. Things were looking far more than grim and not for the first time was he wondering how many lives would be lost before the night was over.

"Albus, what are we going to do?" Minerva asked defiantly.

"My dear, we have been at war for a good number of years and we both knew that it would always come down to this. I have already activated every possible defense I have at my disposal, the only thing left is to fight as best as we can and hope that everyone makes it through the night to fight another day," Albus replied wearily.

"Well don't sound so bleak, Headmaster," James called from behind them. "We just finished setting as many traps as we could. As long as most of the staff stays indoors, then when the wards fall, Tom's army is going to be slowed down and thinned out enough that we should be able to hold out for reinforcements."

Albus and Minerva felt a wave of relief wash over them as Lily, Sirius, Marlene and Remus appeared from behind James as well, all of them dressed for the toughest fight of their life.

"Right now it's just the five of us but Frank and Alice are coordinating their efforts to get the rest of the Auror corps and Hit Wizards here as soon as they can. Remus and I rigged a large series of traps throughout the castle as well to make sure that the rest of the staff and students are able to make their way out. Any questions or are we good to start the fight?" Sirius asked.

"What about your children?" Minerva asked in horror.

"Charlus and Dorea have them. If there's anyone left that we trust, it's those two," Marlene explained. "As long as they made it to Potter Manor, everything is going to be just fine."

"I've given the staff emergency portkeys that were made specifically to pass through the wards if they're hit with anything lethal," Lily said. "Now let's stop standing around and make sure that the school is empty."

Meanwhile at Potter Manor

Voldemort stood just outside the ancient wards with a team of curse breakers tasked with breaking into the grounds. His goal tonight was to kill all three children. No matter what some stupid prophecy said about marking an equal, there was nobody in the world that could call themselves the equal of Lord Voldemort. Once the children were out of the way, he would burn down the manor with Charlus and Dorea inside. It would deal a massive emotional and psychological blow to Dumbledore's pathetic band of misfits and pave his way to glorious victory by the time he met up with the rest of his army.

After his victory over Hogwarts, he would take down the ministry just to prove that not only would he never have an equal but also that he bowed to nobody and nothing, not even magic itself.

As he looked out towards the ancient manor, he felt his anger rise. How dare that worthless wretch claim that there was anyone that could possibly be his equal. The fact that she thought a baby of all things could ever hope to stop him.

"My Lord, we nearly have the wards ready to allow you entry," one of the curse breakers announced.

"Do you mean to tell me that you and your team are unable to bring them down entirely?" Voldemort hissed.

"None of us have come across a warding scheme like this one. It ties in to so many different places that are each then warded as well. If we had a few weeks to weaken the outer wards then we might be able to bypass the other anchor points but right now the best we can do is allow you entry without triggering any of the defenses," the curse breaker explained.

"Very well, I had thought that the Potters would have stronger wards than others since they are one of the oldest families in Britain. Are you absolutely positive that the wards will not harm me once I have crossed them?" Voldemort asked as he began modifying his plan to fit the new variable.

"From what we have been able to decipher, as long as you do not cast anything lethal directly at Charlus then it won't activate. Just things along the lines of the Killing Curse, things that someone could survive or things that aren't immediate death are okay," replied the curse breaker.

Voldemort nodded before turning back to look at his target in the distance. The limitations, while not unexpected, certainly would make things a little more troublesome. It meant that he would have to duel Charlus at a disadvantage, well more of a disadvantage. After all, the man already knew the lay of the land, the layout of his house and was a world renowned duellist for the ICW. Though, while Voldemort wanted to be sure that all of his targets were killed, there were quite a few ways he could go about it and using Fiendfyre was quickly becoming a better idea by the second.

Back at Hogwarts

James and Sirius were dueling side by side once again and they were as fluid as ever. Even though it had been a little over a year since either of them had last seen any sort of combat, neither of them ever got out of shape. The two of them were moving through the crowd of Death Eaters, taking down as many as possible as fast as they could. Despite being severely outnumbered, they were not outclassed. The longer the two of them fought, the more they thought that something was wrong. When the rest of the Aurors and Hit Wizards arrived, they quickly started taking out or capturing as many creatures as they could. They all worked together on stunning and binding the sentient creatures before banishing a portkey at them, the non-sentient ones were simply killed as quickly as possible.

"As much as I hate to say it," James began.

"The members of the inner circle aren't here and neither are the dementors. Something's definitely wrong," Sirius finished for him.

"Where would they be though?" James asked.

Before Sirius could answer, a bright silver fox appeared between them.

"Voldemort is here, his Death Eaters have us pinned in the study. Send help," boomed a deep voice.

James and Sirius hardly spared a glance at each other before bolting towards the Great Hall.

Potter Manor

Charlus ground his teeth and he quickly healed the cut on his leg. His patronus had only been gone a few minutes and he knew that there was no way his son was rash enough to simply charge into a battle against Voldemort on his own. Unfortunately, Charlus knew that they weren't going to arrive in time to save his life, a withering curse had caught him from behind. When he had sent his wife off with the children, she had known as well that something was wrong. He just hoped that they would arrive in time for the children.

"You have fought well, Charlus, but you and I both know you are not long for this world," Voldemort taunted. "I will allow you to die in peace with your wife if you simply step aside and allow us to pass. There's no longer a safe way for her to escape."

The quick look of confusion must have been a little more obvious than Charlus thought because Voldemort hadn't missed it.

"I've surrounded the manor in a dome of Fiendfyre, your floo has been disconnected, your portkeys are blocked and you helped us make sure there was no apparition on the property. The longer you wait, the smaller the dome gets," Voldemort warned.

"You may have guaranteed my death, but you have no idea who you're dealing with," Charlus growled as he fell back into his dueling stance. 'Just a few more minutes until the curse reaches my heart. As long as someone manages to get the kids out of here then our job will be complete.'

The two legends clashed once more using everything they could. Volemort was quickly losing ground as Charlus fell into his rhythm. With no more ways to attack, Voldemort did his best to counter as much of the damage as he could. Charlus was no longer holding back out of the fear that his wife was not far enough away, she was more than capable of blocking anything that went astray. The torches were enchanted to beat Voldemort like clubs, the chairs became massive predators that were biting and clawing at any enemies they could reach and every spell was fired with perfect precision, if any of them hit then losing a limb was going to be Voldemort's least concern.

It wasn't enough though. Just when Charlus thought that he might be able to take a few of the masked freaks with him, his body went rigid and turned to dust before he even hit the ground. Voldemort, finally free from all the transfigured animals, only spared a couple of seconds to heal his wounds before moving in the direction Dorea had run off. With the Lord of the house dead, the wards restricting him would no longer hold him back and Voldemort was going to make the bitch pay for her husband's insolence.

James, Sirius, Remus and Dumbledore appeared at the edge of the property to a scene out of one of their worst nightmares. A massive ball of fire stood in place of the manor, roaring with such ferocity that it blocked out all other sounds.

"Tom's work most likely," Dumbledore said. "There's nothing we can do until he brings it down himself. I can feel that there are still people feeding their magic into it to make sure that nobody will seize control of it."

"Our children are in there, Albus! Surely there's something we can do," Sirius shouted.

Albus took his wand out and made his way towards the glowing fire of hell, hoping that they could at least open a door.

Dorea stood with her back against the wall, watching in horror as a raging inferno inched its way towards her and the children. She knew that she would have to turn back but knowing that she would be facing the man evil enough to try and burn the children was nearly as bad. There were no other options she could see to get out of the situation though either, she had even tried to dig straight down but the fire was there as well.

"Here we are at last," announced a chilling voice. "You've even placed the children between us already, how thoughtful of you."

Dorea turned and cast a barrier spell in front of the children. They had to live and Dorea was going to make sure to take a few of the masked ones with her. Everyone seemed to forget that she had been training with Charlus for nearly forty years. She was the reason Charlus learned as much as he did, family magic and rituals did more than simply give one a little bit more power.

"James, in just a moment we will split a small entry in front of you. If anyone knows the path Dorea would have taken then it'll be you. The kids will be close to her, make sure they're safe. We will be able to give you about ten minutes so please, for love of all things, hurry the hell up," Dumbledore shouted. The amount of power the old man was using had long since brought him to his knees.

The instant the gap was large enough for him to fit through, James threw himself through. He used a spell he had learned just after getting his wand, a modified version of the Point Me spell that only works on family members, to find his mother. As he tore his way through the house, he made sure to incapacitate anyone he saw that was feeding the Fiendfyre. Walls were blown apart, floors were caved in and furniture was splintered. There was nothing shorter between two points than a straight line and James was making damn sure that he went in a straight line.

He passed a pile of ash and snatched up the partially buried wand thinking that it would be a good idea to have a spare. The spell told him that he was just around the corner from his mother and son as the voice from his nightmares shouted the familiar words and green light illuminated the hallway. He had never sprinted for so long in his entire life, and would forever be ashamed that he was only a second too slow.

"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort roared a second time. Dorea throwing herself in front of his spell the first time was annoying, sure, but in the end it was futile. Voldemort heard footsteps behind him but he didn't care, for at that moment he watched as his spell struck the infant in the face and for some reason it threw the child backwards before coming back at him. The pain was excruciating.

James came to a halt as the body of Voldemort was vaporized by his own spell. It took him a second to gather himself enough to realize that not only was it still incredibly loud but it was for a completely different reason. Then he finally shook himself and scooped the children into his arms.

"James!" Sirius' voice floated down. "What happened?"

James looked up to see Sirius and Remus running down towards him looking pale. "Help me get the children out of here! We can talk about what happened later."

The three friends, each holding a child, made their way out of the house as fast as they could. Albus was barely getting to his feet when they finally made it to him. Without saying a word to the old man, Sirius grabbed his arm and used the emergency portkey all Order members had, to take them to Madam Pomfrey.

January 22 1980

James was asleep in one of the chairs at St Mungo's. When he had gotten back from Potter Manor, he finally felt the blood. Harry was taken from his arms by an extremely pale McGonagall while he was hit with a stunner by Madam Pomfrey. The next thing he knew, he was waking up two days later to the news that his wife and son had been taken to St. Mungo's but before he could go see them, he needed to talk to the aurors.

Those had been the most anxious hours of his entire life. He hadn't been told why they were taken to St. Mungo's, nobody even hinted at what might have happened to them. The aurors had a ton of questions about what he had seen, if he had anything to do with some of the bodies found at Potter Manor and they brought in a few of the Unspeakables to review his memory of what happened that night. Even after they said they were releasing him, they insisted that the only way he would be able to visit his wife and child was if they were the ones, along with the head Unspeakable, to escort him there in case they needed to subdue him. When he asked why the Croaker was coming with them, he was only told that he had something he wanted to explain to him.

It had taken his wife three weeks before she was let out. At one point she had been hit with some kind of curse that destroyed her uterus. She had been nearly inconsolable about that for a while when she was told that it was irreversible. Later that day, she and James had been sat down by one of the healers there for much worse news. Harry had in fact been hit by the Killing Curse and even though he had somehow survived, there was a large lightning bolt that went horizontally from just under the far edge of his left eye, over his nose and ended just under his right cheekbone. Harry's vision appeared to be fine, but they were unable to heal it in any way. Beyond that, he had been thrown into the last bit of the Fiendfyre and therefore had a large burn scar from the back of his left shoulder, covering the tricep, and going all the way down to just above the back of his left knee. They had done everything they could to minimize the scarring but were only able to reduce it down to the points of contact. Overall, minus the scarring, Harry seemed to be perfectly fine otherwise.

A little over a week after they were told about Harry's scar, Unspeakable Croaker sat them down and explained that he would be bringing a team of Unspeakables to examine Harry and until they were finished, Harry would have to be kept unconscious. Before Croaker shut the door behind him, his parting words were that they would only be told why after they were finished.

James was woken by the sound of a large number of people entering the room, including his wife.

"We're going to need the two of you to leave the room to minimize the risks of failure. Your son will be fine and Unspeakable Croaker will explain everything to you when we're finished. After he finished explaining everything, he will then wake your son and you will be free to take him home," one of the Unspeakables explained. "This is going to be a rough and lengthy procedure. We estimate that it will be about twelve hours before we're through, so I advise you to seek out your friends so that they can comfort you afterwards."

Lily and James knew that there was nothing they could do except comply if they wanted to finally have their son back. The two of them made their way to the atrium and flooed over to Black Manor.

"Prongs, Lils, what's going on?" Sirius asked in a panic.

"Right now Harry is being operated on by the Unspeakables, we don't even know what they're doing yet but we would've only been in the way or worried ourselves into one of their beds," James explained.

"Do you mind if we stay with you until we receive word that they're through?" Lily asked on the verge of tears.

"Of course not, you guys are always welcome here," Marlene said as she crossed the room to embrace her friend.

Sirius sent a patronus to Frank, Alice and Remus asking them over. It only took a few minutes for all of them to arrive with their children, in that time Marlene had made tea and sandwiches. The next twelve hours were going to be rough.

"So tell us what you guys have all been up to while we've been busy," James said lightly.

"Well, I'm pregnant again," Marlene said nervously.

"That's wonderful Marlene," Lily exclaimed. "How far along are you?"

"We both only found out yesterday," Sirius admitted. "She's about six weeks along."

"I didn't want to upset you but I wasn't going to keep it a secret from you either. I didn't want to have to disappear from your life because that would've been the only way I would've kept quiet about it," Marlene said.

"No, James and I talked about it and with all of Harry's injuries, I don't think I would've been able to handle having another child anyway. I'm already going insane over just one, I don't want to know how bad I'd be if I had two children running around like their father," Lily joked.

"Alice and I are about to open a few greenhouses to start growing a few plants," Frank announced. "We figure that the market for herbs and ingredients is about empty right now and since nobody seems willing to do anything about it, we might as well make a little bit of money as well."

"If you guys wanted a little help expanding, I'm almost finished with my potions mastery. I could brew a variety of potions to sell. With a few donations to the right places, we'd be able to set up a nice shop and really get people back on their feet," Lily said, excitedly bouncing in her seat.

"I know you're interested in getting a few properties, Sirius. Would you like to start a small project fixing up a few houses and businesses?" Remus asked. Everyone went silent and looked at him. "What?"

"Oh no Moony, we've given all of our big announcements, I think it's about time you told us why you've been so busy lately," Sirius all but commanded.

"Wait, what?" James asked. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Remus here has been spending a lot of time trying to keep something from us but he forgot that we have all known him since he was eleven and can tell when the excuses he gives us are shit," Frank said with a laugh.

"Fine, I've been seeing someone," Remus admitted. "Though I'm not sure now is the time to talk about this right now."

"Oh come on! We're finally all in the same room, life is finally starting to go up for everyone. Now is a great time to talk about it," Lily said. "Tell us about him or her. I don't think I've ever seen you date anyone."

"Well, if you insist, it's actually someone you all know. To be honest, we just finished breakfast when I got your patronus," Remus said. "Okay, before you guys all bite my head off, it's Aurora Sinistra, she was a year behind us but she's the Astronomy professor starting this year."

"That's great! How did you two start dating?" Marlene asked.

"Well, shortly after the Battle of Hogwarts, we were both helping Madam Pomfrey in the aftermath when we started talking. At first it was more to distract us from all the damage we were seeing and all of the injuries we were hearing about but one day, we just went out to the Three Broomsticks," Remus said. "Neither of us really know why we both went together but after a while we just made it a daily thing and we made it official just a few days ago."

The seven of them spent the next few hours planning out a few things that they could do after Harry got out of the hospital. Just when they were about to start dinner, Lily and James got called back to St. Mungo's. The rest of them followed in a show of support. When they arrived, Unspeakable Croaker quickly pulled James and Lily into the hospital room.

"I have good news and bad news, before I get there I need to explain what we've done," Croaker said. He sat down and began speaking again before Lily and James even processed what he had said first. "Now, I'm going to tell you everything at once, let you ask your questions then I'm going to give you the bad news then the good news. Do you understand?"

"Is our son still alive?" James snapped.

"Yes, your son is alive. In fact, from what we've found, the fact that he is still alive is more than just a miracle. The night that he was hit with the Killing Curse, something caused the curse to rebound. We haven't figured out what it was but we've accepted that we won't know without looking at Voldemort's memory. Going beyond that brings us to the bad news and the reason we kept him unconscious. Thanks to your memory James, we found out that Voldemort is not dead. I know how bad that sounds but the amount of work it would take for him to return is astronomical. What was keeping him alive was a fragment of his soul and that fragment attached itself to your son. The good news is that we got rid of it. Now, some of the side effects from getting rid of it is that we have no idea if anything from it transferred to Harry."

"What kind of things could have been transferred to him?" Lily asked.

"We've had our best mind experts look at him and a lot of it's really jumbled so it might have left some kind of alterations on his personality though most likely, there are going to be some memories left over. Things like spells and the like, not any of the horrendous things he's done," Croaker placated.

"Yes, because the spells were so child friendly!" Lily screamed. "You've given us your news now, wake up my baby."

Croaker shot a spell at Harry as he made his way out of the room. Harry slowly started to wake up as a healer entered the room with a stack of papers.

September 1 1985

Harry walked between his parents down Diagon Alley, holding both of their hands. Even though he had had plenty of people stare at him throughout his life, he never really got used to it. Some people stared because of the scars they could see while others stared as they whispered about how he was famous. He was thankful that he had his friends though, none of them ever made him feel weird about something that happened to him before he could remember anything.

The reason they were at Diagon Alley that day was to get the things they would need for him to start his tutoring. He was going to start learning the basics of the subjects they taught at Hogwarts, a little bit about how the Wizengamot worked and how to dance. While none of it sounded interesting to him at all, he was just glad that it meant he would be spending more time at home. Crowds and strangers still made him incredibly uncomfortable. What Harry was really looking forward to was when he would finally be allowed to get his wand. His parents had told him that he would be learning all of the theory behind everything until he was eleven so that he wouldn't accidentally blow something up trying to learn something on his own.

The three of them were going to go to Flourish and Blotts to pick up a few updated versions of books to make sure that they weren't missing anything. The Potter library was far larger than most but while it was massive, it was mostly full of books that other family members had written, collections of self updating books and a lot of ledgers about the families finances.

"Harry," Lily began. "I know that you're not excited about your tutoring sessions but would you feel better if you had some friends with you?"

"It depends on which friend. Rose, Cassie and Neville would be okay but I don't think I'd get along with Draco and Ron wouldn't pay attention anyway," Harry replied.

"I think we can get Rose and Neville but Cassie's parents would probably have hired other tutors already. You know how much the Malfoys enjoy the nice things and private tutors mean that there's nothing to stop Lucius and Narcissa from doing the things they do throughout the day," James explained.

"If they hired you then they wouldn't need anyone else and they would still be able to do their daytime things," Harry argued.

"Yes, but we're not teaching you everything a tutor would teach Cassie, we're just teaching you a little bit about everything. A tutor would teach you everything about the one thing they're best at. Plus we're not the only ones that are going to be teaching you anyway. Sirius, Remus, Marlene, Aurora, Frank and Alice are going to be helping you too," Lily said. "If you study really hard then maybe we can all go out to a few quidditch games."

Quidditch was one thing Harry was really looking forward to, especially since he and his friends all flew together as often as they could. All of them would always bet things on which team would win in the professional league. Harry was beginning to think that getting a little bit of tutoring might not be such a boring thing after all, especially since his parents might be nice enough to add a quidditch tutor if he was lucky.

1989

Harry had been studying as hard as he could for the last four years and had made a lot of progress. After the first two years, his parents realized that they would actually need to hire a few real tutors to cover the things that he picked up the fastest. When he was first beginning his tutoring sessions, Harry made sure that he had a dicta-quill so that he and his friends would be able to have a copy of everything that was said. Having Rose and Neville study with him had helped him figure out each of their strengths and weaknesses when it came to their studies.

Harry picked up ancient runes, arithmancy and potions the easiest but really struggled when it came to astronomy and history of magic. He had progressed so far in the subjects that he was good at that his parents had offered to hire a couple of tutors for him to get a little bit of practical experience and his mother started having him help her in her potions lab. They weren't quite sure on what to do to help him with astronomy or history though and figured that maybe Remus and Aurora just weren't keeping his attention as well as Harry told them they were.

Rose was really good at understanding charms and transfiguration but started to fall behind in herbology, defense against the dark arts and care of magical creatures. It wasn't that she didn't understand what she was being taught, it was just that she really didn't care for those classes. Though she wouldn't admit it, she really didn't like arithmancy but knew that it was important for her to know since she was the one who wanted to create her own spells.

Neville was mostly just there. He never seemed to put a lot of effort into any of the work he was given and kind of just looked like he was going through the motions for everything except herbology. Neville claimed it was because herbology was something that didn't take a lot of power and was something that he could make money off of throughout his entire life but his argument crumbled when Harry pointed out that he didn't need any power for history or astronomy either.

When Harry started to pick up his grades in his weaker subjects, his parents added another subject for him to study. Harry's parents had given him a rule about his tutoring when he started experimenting on his own. The agreement was that Harry had to reach a third year equivalent in order for him to be able to drop that subject. After that rule was given to him, he had asked his parents if he would be able to focus on one subject at a time so that he would be able to be as thorough as he wanted. Unfortunately, his parents didn't realize that would also lead to him dropping subjects only a month later and while they both secretly wondered if the memories the Unspeakables said that were left over had something to do with it, neither of them stopped him from doing his own research.

Neville and Rose watched as Harry began studying more and more subjects until they decided that they just wouldn't keep up. Then one day, Harry wasn't studying, he was making. During one of their days off, Harry approached the other two with a handful of seemingly random objects, a stack of parchments and a very scary smile on his face.

"Guys, I think I have a great idea," Harry said. "I need you guys to hear me out first and tell me if I'm wrong."

"Does it have anything to do with all of the stuff you've been studying?" Rose asked. "I'm not going to lie, if you're here to tell us that we need to do as much as you have then I'm not going to listen to you at all."

"Yeah, just thinking about all of the things you've read about gives me a headache," Neville said.

"No, it has nothing to do with you guys having to study more. Just, give me a second to explain," Harry said as he set down his burden on the table. "Before I set all of this up, you guys know about how my parents hired someone to teach me about wandless magic right?"

Seeing both of them nod, Harry set up a series of floating balls and parchment before turning back to them.

"Alright, so I'm sure you guys remember how Mrs. Weasley laid into the twins during one of our visits about their pile of joke products and it got me thinking: What if we competed with them?" Harry asked rhetorically. "I've been exchanging letters with them and I found out that they don't really know what they're doing. A lot of their stuff is just them throwing a bunch of stuff together, seeing what happens and then using that on someone else. Between the three of us though, we have enough knowledge to pull better pranks off and we have access to the journals of our parents to give us the ideas we need. What do you guys think?"

"I think the twins are lucky to be alive if they're really just throwing a bunch of things together at random," Neville admitted. "If that's true then I don't think I want to have them do anything to me. It's scary enough how they always talk huddled together like they're about to pull some sort of joke but now that I know how dangerous their pranks are, I don't like it."

"No offense Harry, but Neville's right," Rose said with a shrug.

"That's okay, that wasn't my only idea," Harry explained. "That was the one I didn't think you guys would've gone for anyway. My other idea, now that you two mention it, is a lot safer."

Neville and Rose shared a look with each other before motioning for Harry to continue. He rotated the floating parchments to reveal a set of diagrams, numbers and lists.

"My other idea is that if we were to motivate the twins into studying a lot more before they make any more prank items, then we would have total immunity from being targeted by them. Honestly, I like a lot of their jokes and some of their ideas have been pretty cool. I think if I were to help fund their projects then they might take studying a little more seriously. The biggest reason I want you two to be a part of this is because I want to start making little gadgets and potions for them as well," Harry explained.

"Why?" Rose asked.

"I like making things. The balls that are floating around me have small runes carved into them that make them hold up the parchments attached to them. I made a little ball that glows when I hit a certain rune on it and floats next to me when I touch another. It's actually really convenient when I'm trying to read at night or find something under my bed. Anyway, I think it'll make our time at Hogwarts a little easier if we have the twins on our side," Harry pointed out. Harry had to promise each of them that he would write the first ten essays for them but eventually they agreed to help fund the twins.

The night after that conversation, Harry borrowed the family owl to send a letter with his offer. After his interaction with his friends, Harry was expecting to have to make further promises to Fred and George, which was something he really didn't want to have to do but when he got their letter the next day he was glad to see that they accepted his offer. Their only conditions for him were that they each became a silent partner and that he specifically helped them make a few of their projects. They were particularly interested in the floating light he had made. They gave him the challenge of recreating and improving a few of their previous prank objects as their way of seeing if he was right about how dangerous some of their pranks had been.


James was deep in thought one night about how far his son had gone in his studies. He wanted to offer to teach Harry how to become an animagus though not only did he want to give the offer to his son but also to Harry's friends, maybe Frank as well. The thing that was really holding him back was the fact that he didn't know how any of the wives would feel about it and the last thing he wanted to do was incur the wrath of four incredibly scary witches. He was so deep in thought that he wasn't paying attention and answered Lily when she asked what he was thinking about.

"I think it's a good idea," Lily said. "As long as they know that there's a chance that it might not be possible for some of them."

"Wait, you're okay with it? Why?" James asked in shock. "I was sure that you would have cursed me so badly that I lost the ability to be an animagus myself."

"Rose and Harry are close enough that they might actually start dating later, but as far as Ron and Neville go, I think they might start drifting away when they start school. It would be nice for them to have something like this. It might help cement their friendship with each other," Lily explained. "I don't think you should give the offer to Cassie though. I know that Harry and Neville like her well enough but if you make the offer then Lucius might think that you're trying to set her up with one of them."

"Well, with what Lucius is trying to do to her then maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing," James argued. "I mean, can you even think about how the poor girl must feel about the chance that her father would lock her into a marriage contract with someone from the continent? I'm not even going to start on the age difference either."

"You've seen him in the Wizengamot meetings, it's exactly the kind of thing he would do. Whatever that ponce thinks would give him more influence is fine with him."

"I've thought about challenging him to a fealty duel for some of the things he's been trying to do. He's the one that's been trying to make it impossible for muggleborns to even attend Hogwarts. I know that he's been trying everything to find whatever remains of Voldemort, it's only a matter of time until he does."

"On what grounds would you even challenge him on? I don't think he's done anything that would allow magic to accept your challenge."

"There's a lot of things he's done that would justify it but the problem is that I would come across as the bad guy right now. People are suspicious of his Imperious claim still but that's not enough but if he slips up and something else comes out about him then I'd be viewed as the one who decided to take action first. Right now it's not about what I could challenge him with, it's about timing. Too early and the Potters are marked as power hungry, too late and he'll have the Wizengamot eating out of his hand."

"What would you need to have happen to be able to challenge him without any backlash from the public?"

"We know he's blackmailing people, we would just need a single one to come forward about it or for him to try blackmailing the wrong person. Otherwise we would have to be traditional ourselves and wait for him to insult us publicly."

"We're traditional though."

"Not really. The level of traditionalism we would have to practice would have Harry in some form of contract. Sure, we've taught him all the right manners but we would have to change our lifestyles quite a bit. This decision wouldn't only affect our family either. Our friends would have to change to match as well, Remus would have to become a vassal for one of our families just to be able to be our friend and his marriage to Aurora would be scrutinized to make sure that it met the Ministry's laws of marrying a werewolf. Sirius and Marlene would be facing a lot of challenges as well, they have four kids. That's a contract for each of them, lessons about why Rose wouldn't be able to take over as the head of the family anymore, all of their kids would have to be introduced into high society along with Harry. Frank and Alice would have to completely restructure their house to align it with their political stances which would really change a lot for Neville and Cheri. That's just the start of it all. Harry's nine, we would have to start all of that tonight just to be ready for Hogwarts."

"Why would we need to be ready for Hogwarts?"

"There are a lot of families that have heirs that are the same age as Harry and all of them honor the old traditions. While we might not have to face the public that often, Harry will be in front of the heirs almost every day for the next seven years. Everything he does will be judged by the others, if he somehow insults one of them then it would be seen as our whole family insulting theirs. The only positive that would come out of it is that he would be a bit more protected from them as well. It's a two way street but it's much thinner on our side."

Lily took a moment to digest everything she had just been told. She needed to be sure about her decision and she didn't feel like it was one she could make on her own.

"If you're serious about how much of a change it would be, then we need to talk to the others about this as well," Lily said. "Something like this should be a group decision and I need to know exactly how the others are going to be affected."

James nodded and sighed as he stood up. It was going to be a long day. He sent out a patronus to Frank, Remus and Sirius asking them if they were willing to meet with him and Lily to discuss a few important things. While he waited nervously for their responses, he made sure to set up places for all of the kids to sleep and considered getting a couple of house elves. After a few hours of waiting, the Blacks were the first to arrive with the Lupins right after, though the Longbottoms took a few more minutes. All of them had gone to Gringotts and contacted a few solicitors before arriving because the last time James called them all together it was to announce that Voldemort wasn't dead.

"Now that you're all here, I can explain why I called you all here," James announced from the desk of his study. He looked at the simple couches that were occupied by his friends, the old wooden bookshelves that were filled with journals written by his ancestors, he even knocked on his mahogany desk as he quickly wondered how much would change if they decided to go through with the change. "First things first, I want to warn you all that this is not going to be an easy conversation. Please try to keep your tempers in check while I explain what brought on this meeting, then I'll need you guys to ask any questions you might have. This is something that needs to be decided upon by tonight if we're going to have the time we need to achieve it."

"Then you better get started because I'm starting to worry a little bit here," Remus said.

James nodded and ran a hand through his hair. "Okay, so it all started when I was thinking about offering to teach Harry and his friends how to become an animagus, that'll have to be a conversation for later though. When I asked Lily about it she specifically said that I shouldn't extend the offer to Cassie because she didn't want Lucius to get the wrong idea. Perfectly normal concern because you all know a little about what he's trying to do to his daughter but it got us talking about some of the things he's been trying to push through the Wizengamot. Well, I admitted to wanting to challenge him to a fealty duel."

"A fealty duel?" Sirius asked in shock. "A duel to the death would be kinder to him and at least give the families of his victims some closure."

"Yes, but he's looking for Voldemort, or at least what's left of him. I told you all about the shard of Voldemort's soul that attached itself to Harry, but Croaker told me that there were more of those shards out there and that some of them might be able to possess someone or even be used to bring him back to a body, so allowing Lucius to keep looking would be atrocious," James explained. "That's why I would go the route of fealty over honor. The problem with that though, is that I would need a very good reason to challenge him."

"Surely there's something he's done that would allow you to do that, right?" Alice asked.

"Not without some pretty severe backlash," Frank replied. "If he were to challenge him now, magic would accept it and while that would convince a lot of people that James was in the right, a lot more would think that he was trying to grab more power."

"Which would give the Wizengamot the faction that Lucius leads the chance to call for all of the titles, votes and property of the Potters to be handed over to the Malfoys for a wrongful accusation. While Lucius would have to obey James' orders and vote in accordance, it would allow him to blackmail a lot more people into countering his votes and push through some of the laws that James has blocked recently," Marlene added.

"Right, so the best solution Lily and I could come up with was to become traditional," James said as he carefully looked at each of his friends. "Normally this would be the last thing I would want for any of us, especially because of what it would do to Remus and Aurora but there's a few ways we would be able to spin the whole situation into our favor."

"Surely you realize how much Remus and I would have to change!" Aurora shouted. "Everything we've finally managed to accomplish would practically go up in smoke!"

"That's why James called you all here, I wanted to be completely informed on what would all have to change for each of you before I went any further and wound up making a decision I would regret later," Lily admitted. "We're not asking for any of you to change but if there's a way that all of us becoming traditional could help us change the way our works and prevent Voldemort from coming back then maybe there's a reason we should all be considering it."

"Fine, what have you two figured out then?" Aurora asked.

"So, the first thing we would have to do is make Remus a vassal for one of our families. It would put him nearly equal to that family in political power," James said. "For the most political power it would be my family, for the most freedom it would be Frank's but for the most efficient, it would have to be Sirius."

"How would that be the most efficient?" Lily asked.

"While the Potters have the most power, they're viewed as part of the progressive faction and a vassal would immediately make the public shift that view to dark which would also make the public think that Harry is going to be the next dark lord rather than being a hero. The Longbottoms are purely neutral in the Wizengamot, there's as much to say about them positively as there is negative, a true wildcard that has swayed massive decisions in the past," Sirius said. "The world thinks that the Blacks are dark already and even though I'm seen as the good member of my family, I'm seen as gray by the world at best. If Remus were to be my vassal then he wouldn't just be allowed to be seen by dark families because he's a werewolf. My approval of him would make it so that there's no faction that would turn him away, and it would allow him to get real jobs. Though the drawback to him being a vassal at all is if he bit someone, which we all know would never happen, it would have him executed and the lord would be sent to Azkaban."

The room was silent for a moment, most of them were looking between James, Sirius and Remus.

"The rest of us would have to start attending societal functions, hosting balls, dressing differently and watching everything we say or do," James said, drawing attention back to the topic. "There will always be someone trying to pull us one way or another. Our lifestyles will have to change a bit and we'll have to broaden our circles to include people in power. It won't be difficult to change but it will be difficult to adjust since we'd have to start considering contracts. Luckily, we can all make sure that any contract always has an easy way out that won't hurt anyone."

"So, in short, what you're saying is not only will we have to start throwing our names around and hang around a few department heads along with the minister but we'll also have to start dictating who our children can be involved with?" Marlene asked.

"There's more than just marriage contracts," Frank said. "As long as we teach our children how to court someone then we would be able to let them choose who they date, the only thing we would have to do is make it official with a courtship agreement. Then they'd be able to call it off at any time, for any reason."

"The thing that makes this such a dangerous decision is that if we decide to go down this route then it'll also affect how our children are seen," Sirius explained. "It'd be one thing if our kids argued with each other at home but if they argue with each other at Hogwarts, the other heirs will see that and they'll report it to their parents who will use it against us. If our kids aren't a united front then we aren't a good team for people to back."

"More than that, anyone we might be allied with would also be brought into question as well. Being the face of a movement will allow us to change everything in the Ministry but only if everyone is on the same team in the first place," James said.

"I see," Frank whispered. "Neville's been drifting away from Harry and Rose ever since there was that wolf that attacked them. He's felt transient ever since and if he drifts away now then we would be starting this whole alliance with a massive crack in the foundation. I'm sure the rest of you have noticed as well which is probably why James wanted to teach our kids how to be an animagus."

"Well, yeah but that was so that they all had that in common and could explore Hogwarts the way we did when we attended," James pointed out. "It truly has nothing to do with any of this, I was even going to offer to teach Ron but Arthur and Molly aren't a part of this."

To the rest of those in attendance, it looked like Frank was about to pull his wand on James. There were a few moments of silence as the tensions grew until Aurora spoke up.

"I'm willing to do this," Aurora interjected.

"I agree," Remus said. "Though, I have the most to gain from this."

"Honey, calm down. You know that James only has everyone's best interest at heart," Alice said.

"He's the only one who-" Frank started.

"If you finish whatever you're about to say without really thinking about it, I'm going to curse you for him," Alice said viciously.

"If Frank and Alice agree then, we'll do it," Marlene said. "It's really going to be an adjustment but we'd be able to start making changes immediately in the Ministry, Wizengamot and even Hogwarts."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked.

"Think about it, James and Sirius are the best Hit Wizards in the last century with contacts in the ICW and seats in the Wizengamot. Frank and Alice are hands down the best aurors in the ministry, including Moody. Frank has a seat in the Wizengamot and Alice and Augusta both have spots on the Board of Governors. Aurora and Remus work at Hogwarts as professors. I have a seat on the board and Lily is the potioneer that not only brews everything Hogwarts needs but also that Hogwarts sells for almost a third of its funding," Marlene listed. "That gives us eight votes on the Wizengamot, four people who have massive influence on the way a few departments are run, three voices on the board and three staff members that have the ear of the deputy headmistress. I'm not saying that we're going to be able to make any real changes to anything for a while but if we do this, go traditional and everything, we can start pushing people in the right direction to prepare them for the changes we want to make."

Frank heaved a heavy sigh and shook his head. "I can't believe I'm saying this but, Marlene's right. I'll start making changes and get Neville taught."

"Good, I agree," Alice said.