Here's chapter one. it's rather short and features the ONLY bit of Snilly that I will ever write. No offence Snilly shippers but it's just not a pairing I can get behind.

No reviews as yet but thank you very much to those of you have followed and/or favourited this story already.

Disclaimer: See the Prologue.

Chapter One: As the World Falls Down

They had named her Sarah. Sarah Rose Potter. How fitting that her new parents, although not royals like she had been born to in her previous life, had bestowed upon her the Hebrew name for princess. One would almost think that James and Lily Potter knew what their daughter had once been.

Regrettably, at least from his standpoint, Jareth could not look in on little Sarah. He simply did not have the time. He had a kingdom to rule in the Underground, a network of banks to preside over in the Aboveground, and his duty to the wished-aways of every realm which had ever heard the story (and there were a lot of those). So in order to keep tabs on her, he sent a small group of more intelligent goblins to live in the Potter's home.

This was how he learned about the potential danger to his precious one's new life. There was a prophecy which applied to the self-styled Dark Lord Voldemort, and one of two infants: the first of which was little Sarah, the other a boy whose name was Nathan Lightbucket or something silly like that. It was just as well that goblins were excellent mimics or he might not have ever learned of the mortal peril that Sarah might very well be in.

"King!" the leader of the Godric's Hollow hoard shrieked as it appeared in the throne room that night. "King!"

Jareth had been bouncing the latest wished away on his knee at that point and addressed the diminutive goblin with a carefully disinterested. "Yes?"

"I has news," it told him. "About the precious."

"What of her?" Jareth asked, finally looking up at the goblin.

His subject had subsequently informed him, of the visitor to the Potter residence, an old man with half-moon spectacles who had brought with him news of the prophecy.

"What is this prophecy?" Jareth demanded, handing the baby off to a nearby goblin so as to offer this matter his full attention. "Quickly, and in detail."

The goblin had spoken in a deep rasping voice:

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches

Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies.

And the Dark Lord will mark this child as his equal

They will have the power that the Dark Lord knows not

And either must die at the hand of the other

for neither can live while the other survives

The One with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord

will be born as the seventh month dies.

Jareth nodded, deeply troubled, and dismissed the goblin back to its post. Hopefully the prophecy pertained to the boy, and not little Sarah, but he would still look into ways to keep her safe.

Through his spies in little Sarah's home, Jareth learned of the plan to appoint her godfather, Sirius Black as the family's protector- and of his subsequent refusal on the grounds that he was too obvious a choice, given his closeness to James Potter. In the same way he also learned of the appointment of Peter Pettigrew to the position that Black had refused.

Not sharing his hopefully-eventual-father-in-law's trust in the Pettigrew, Jareth positioned wards of his own around Sarah's home. Sad to say that not a week after he placed them, the wards were triggered. Fearing for his would-be future queen, the Goblin King himself rode out to tackle the threat to her life.

He arrived in the Potter's little home just in time to see Sarah's mother fall in her defence, and before he had chance to intervene, Voldemort trained his wand upon the innocent baby, who perceiving danger even at her tender age, had begun to cry and…

"Avarda Kedavra!"

In a flash of garish green light the Dark Lord vanished, leaving only his crumpled garments behind him. Sarah's continued keening wail was like music to Jareth's ear, as it assured him that she was still alive. The king's relief however, was diminished by the amount of blood on her little face. Crossing the room in a heartbeat, Jareth scooped her up out of her cradle and held her close.

"Hush now," he cooed, rocking her gently, injecting a soothing note into his voice which babies could not resist. Sarah; for all the iron will she had had in the past, and would again as she grew up; was no exception. "There now, that's better."

He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead- healing the wound ending the pain inflicted upon her by the curse and wiped her face. The wound was a jagged cut on her forehead; a curse scar, which would be with her for the rest of her life. It pained him to see any child harmed, but this was the soul whom he had loved, and would come to again as she approached adulthood; seeing her little face marred by the final blow of the war into which she had been born enraged him.

It was only when the sound of footsteps approaching the nursery reached his ears, that Jareth put Sarah back in her cradle. She stared up at him, plaintively through the same large green eyes that she had had a lifetime ago when she had won back the baby brother that she had so carelessly wished away.

"You still have such cruel eyes little one," he told her, fondly, and promptly made himself invisible to mortal eyes as the nursery door opened to admit a dour looking individual in black robes and greasy black hair which fell to his shoulders.

The man, it seemed wasn't there for Sarah. He instead rushed to the mother's lifeless body, clutched her close and broke down in tears.

"Lily, Lily, Lily," he wept, pressing a kiss to her still warm forehead, her eyes, her lips. "I'm so sorry Lily. I'm so, so sorry."

The way the man acted, as if little Sarah was not in the room, did little to endear him to the Goblin King, grief stricken or not, his priority ought to have been the child. All the same though, he did feel for the other man: he recognized a man in love when he saw one, and having only ceased grieving himself on the rebirth of his beloved, he could not deny the stir of sympathy for him.

The man wept over Lily Potter's body until a new sound roused him. The roar of an engine drawing close to the house, the man stiffened and leapt to his feet looking panicked. Then he disappeared with a loud crack, startling the silent Sarah and making her cry again. Jareth scowled at the spot on which the greasy haired man had disappeared, but before he could move to comfort the baby again another man burst into the room.

"Pahfuh!" Sarah cried out, pulling herself to her feet and reaching out to the newcomer.

"Thank you Merlin!" the man breathed, his eyes locked on Sarah. He was across the room in a heartbeat and had the baby in his arms, holding her close and burying his face in her soft dark baby hair. "Hey little Bambi, its ok, Padfoot's got you."

Padfoot.

Jareth finally relaxed, knowing that little Sarah was in safe hands. This man was her godfather, a man who could be trusted to care for the precious little one until she was old enough to come to him. Calling to the Goblins, Jareth took his leave of the house in which Sarah's world had fallen down far too soon.

~v~

Next time: Dumbledore's plans for the Girl Who Lived are thwarted because Sirius has someone to fight for him.

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