Those Who Have Thrice Defied Him

A/N: I'm using information (spells) from Deathly Hallows, but I don't think I've got any actual spoilers in here so it should be ok for all to read, but tell me in a review if you think that it has got spoilers and then I can warn people.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Harry Potter, and I've just realised I should probably say that the title is JK's own exact words.

Chapter 2

Being in the right place at the right time can affect your entire life, but being in the wrong place at the wrong time can affect your life, and other's lives, even more. It was yet another small decision that made Harry Potter eligible to be the person who the prophecy was about, but this time the decision was only the start of it. If James and Lily hadn't decided to meet here, maybe Neville would have been the only person who could have killed Lord Voldemort, but it did not happen that way: it happened this way.

The second defiance came twelve years later. Both Lily and James had left school, but they were not yet married. They had arranged to meet at seven thirty in a favourite haunt of theirs: a clearing in a wood near to James' house. As it happened, this was exactly where James had first defied Lord Voldemort – the building had long since fallen down.

James was looking forward to seeing his girlfriend, and Apparated to meet her slightly earlier than they had actually planned to meet. He Apparated slightly away from the spot, so he could surprise Lily if she was already there, but she wasn't, though there were other people there – James could hear muttering. He crept forward, as quietly as he could, wishing he had his Invisibility Cloak, but he hadn't suspected he'd need it to meet up with Lily.

As soon as he was in sight, he moved behind a tree to stop the people seeing him – he'd seen Death Eaters. Immediately wanting to warn Lily, he tried to Apparate out to her house, but he could not do it. As he tried, every Death Eater in the clearing looked towards James, and he realised that there must be an anti-disapparation jinx on the area, although you could still Apparate in, and also a charm to tell the Death Eaters if magic is being used – or trying to be used – around the area.

James didn't even have seconds to think: he just ran. Even as about thirty Death Eaters were chasing him and attacking with Unforgivable Curses, his most prominent thought was of Lily: he had to warn her. He knew how the Order of the Phoenix communicated, and although he'd never tried before, he knew he had to try now.

"Expecto patronum!" he shouted. Ignoring the laughs and jeers of the Death Eaters behind him, but still sprinting away, he said to his stag patronus: "Lily, Death Eaters here, warn Order." It raced off. After a second, in which he pointed his wand behind him and (hopefully) stunned someone, he created another patronus and sent it to the Order – as he'd never made one talk before he decided to needed to have back up.

Now that he had warned Lily, he thought about how he himself would get out of this situation. He quickly decided that running would be easiest, and the fastest way to run, for James, was to become Prongs. The Death Eaters, being surprised at his sudden transformation, paused their spells and this gave James time to transform before they began aiming their spells again. As the spells came, Prongs was galloping away, turning every few steps to try and lose some of the Death Eaters, although a few were keeping up with him still.

Prongs soon realised that, by turning every few steps, he had no idea which way to go to get out of the woods, which had expanded in the past twelve years. Slowing and looking around to try and recognise something, a Death Eater who had earlier lost Prongs' trail, but had now found it again, took the chance.

"Crucio!" Prongs looked round before agony overcame his entire body. Still a stag, his legs twitched horribly, and he fell to the floor, his eyes showing the torture.

"Here! Over here!" The Death Eater screamed into the woods. However, the Death Eater had taken her concentration off Prongs, and he was no longer in agony: his legs had stopped twitching and he could get up, but as the stag was getting up, another Death Eater ran into the clearing – unnoticed by Prongs, they were back at the original spot – and sent a spell that hit Prongs even as he was about to gallop.

Prongs collapsed to the floor

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Lily knew she would be late to meet James, but she wanted be absolutely perfect tonight – it had been an entire week since they had last seen each other. She thought she caught a glimpse of something silver as she looked in her mirror one last time, but when she turned there was nothing there so she decided she was imagining things.

She Apparated to the clearing, and the first thing she saw was a stag, lying on the floor – dead? As she recognised Prongs by the markings, she looked up and saw several Death Eaters pulling their wands out of their cloaks.

Lily, unlike James, could not run. Instead, thinking of her James, she pulled her wand out and started spelling as many Death Eaters as she possibly could. Any onlooker could see that she was an incredible witch, and her anger at what she assumed was James' death spurred her on almost to the point of her being indestructible, but the though that without James her life was meaningless was actually the thing that made her indestructible.

She was in a rage like nothing she'd ever experienced, and her magic reflected that. After stunning – silently, so the Death Eaters didn't know what spell was being used – three Death Eaters, she knocked a tree down with a brandish of her wand and, though not crushing any Death Eaters, she did block several spells and gave herself some time.

With time to think, Lily became slightly less careless. She put a shield charm over Prongs, and exploded a near by tree which, judging by the screams, hit several Death Eaters, and, although she had no idea that it had happened, also hit Voldemort. Whilst dodging more spells, Lily was saved.

Some of the Order of the Phoenix had arrived. Lily recognised Alastor Moody and the Longbottoms, but there were another five people who she did not recognise at all.

As they all began to attack the Death Eaters, although it must be said that Lily in her rage had been about as effective as the eight Order members were, Lily went to check Prongs, which was what she had been wanting to do since she had seen the body, removing her shield charm on the way.

Lily realised that she had a problem: where, exactly, is a stag's pulse? After trying to work it out, she heard someone screaming "Stupefy" and she realised that she could just try to wake him, to find out if… if…

"Enervate," she whispered, pointing her wand at Prongs. He still lay still. "James… James?" Lily sobbed into the stag. "No… it can't…" Lily felt the body move from underneath her. "No!" she screamed, curling up on the ground. "No! You can't take him… leave him here!" She didn't know what to do… what could she do now that he had been taken from her?

"Lily?" A voice murmured from above her. She recognised the voice, but she didn't believe it. "Lily, look up." How could her mind be tricking her, believing that it was him standing there, talking to her? It wasn't fair. "Lily." The voice was more persistent now.

She opened her eyes and looked up. She couldn't believe it. He was there, he was standing above her, talking to her. "James!" She hugged his legs tightly.

"Go!" A voice shouted to them. "Go quickly before they regroup. We've got them covered."

"How? There's an anti-disapparation jinx."

"There isn't anymore!" the voice replied, and Lily felt James pulling her through a hole, squishing her, before they appeared near to Lily's house.

Later, James would always taunt Lily for thinking that him transforming back into a human was someone dragging his body away from her, and she would laugh back, saying that she had been the one to survive the Death Eater's attacks without getting hurt at all. The argument would continue, from James being the one who got the Order which saved her in the end, to her being the one who had first shown him how to make a patronus. The arguments went very deep, until they could not be recognised as an argument about their second defiance of Voldemort.

A/N: James is James as a human and Prongs is James as a stag.

R&R, please