James watched as his wife ran up the stairs to grab their son, and then ran to the front door. He used every type of spell or enchantment he could think of on the door, just trying to buy them some time. Immediately he knew that Voldemort had reached the front door because it raddled under the force of an impacting spell. There were several cracks running along the front wall now, but James' shields seemed to be holding. The next spell hit, but with substantially more power than the first. The whole house shook and the sound of various object falling and breaking echoed.
Just as James saw Lily carrying a miraculously still sleeping Harry down the steps, the front door finally gave way. He turned and saw the form of Voldemort walk purposefully into the room. His face was obscured somewhat by his hooded cloak, but his blood red eyes were clearly visible.
"Good evening Potters. I'm so sorry to intrude upon your evening, but unfortunately it was unavoidable. Now I was told that there was a little one here, ah there he is, right with his mudblood mother. If you both would do me the great service of moving out the way, I need to dispose of it," Voldemort snarled looking disgustedly at the child.
James knew something was wrong halfway through Voldemort's speech. Why was he coming to kill just Harry? How could he possibly know about the prophecy, the only people who knew were himself and Lily and of course the Unspeakable who had told him in the first place, but the Unspeakable had taken an unbreakable vow with James not to tell. He had only mentioned it briefly to…Oh no!
"Stay away from my family you bloody monster. Go back to your master, Dumbledore, and tell him that I'm going to kill him!" James yelled enraged at yet another realized betrayal. He heard Lily clearly gasp behind him and Voldemort's slit eyes were opened to the max.
Voldemort quickly steeled his appearance and an evil grin took over his face. He began to clap mockingly. "Very well done Potter, you are the first one to ever figure it out. I'm actually surprised that you didn't do it earlier. After all, did you really think it was a coincidence that I would show up wherever my master sent you on those foolish Order missions? Even before he heard about this prophecy he was trying to kill you and your wife, trying to set you up. I came here tonight with the intent to just kill the child and allow you to live in grief, but now it seems that there will have to be three corpses." Voldemort raised his wand and sent that feared green light straight at James' chest. James, realizing immediately what was coming, summoned the nearest chair directly into the path of the curse. It exploded sending pieces of wood and cloth around the room. Harry instantly woke up from his slumber, screaming his little lungs out at the sound of the explosion. Trying not to be distracted by his son's cries, James slashed his wand and sent a cutting curse at his opponent, hitting him in the shoulder and leaving a deep gash. Voldemort howled in rage clutching his wound, attempting to stop the flow of blood. Noticing that he was now distracted, James lowered his shoulders and ran full speed at the man whose named was feared by most, spearing him back into the wall.
James had thought that he was by no question physically stronger than the aging Dark Wizard, but he had underestimated him somewhat. After they crashed into the wall, Voldemort took his balled fist and threw it into James stomach, knocking the wind out him. He quickly pushed James onto the floor and looked towards Lily and Harry. He raised his wand, pointing it at the child and just as he muttered his second killing curse, he was taken out at his legs.
James looked on in complete horror as the curse headed straight for his family. His heart felt like it was in a vice, he watched as his wife turned around putting her back straight in the path of the curse. The next event happened in what felt like extremely slow motion. The curse stayed true, but as it was about to impact his wife, the light seemed to shatter and small bits of it were deflected everywhere, one bit impacting the small child in the forehead.
"No!" James screamed, jumping from the floor and running towards his family. He had watched the small bit of green hit his son and he feared the worst. It was impossible to tell though, as his wife was hugging the child so closely to her body. Not even sparing a glance at his wife, he lifted the child's head off of her shoulder and felt his whole body sag with relief as his son blinked at him. The only thing off was a jagged scar on his forehead. His relief was quickly tempered though, as he remembered who was still currently residing in his home. He turned around and saw Voldemort in the process of picking himself off of the floor. Tired of fighting, James aimed his wand and, using a curse he had picked up in during a late night visit to the Hogwarts Library's restricted section, sent a silver spike at Voldemort. The spike sailed through the air and before he even had a chance to act, the supposed Dark Lord had been impaled through the chest and attached to the wall, dropping his wand in the process. He wailed in agony as he struggled to free himself without any success. James stared at him with no sense of mercy or regret. This man who had come into his home, who had come to kill his son: James conjured a knife out of nowhere and squeezed it tightly in his right hand. He walked straight up to Voldemort, standing barely inches away.
"You thought you could come into my home and touch my family?" James whispered, turning the knife around in his hand.
Voldemort brought his hands up to the spike, trying hopelessly one more time to pull it out. "I will get you eventually P-Potter. My master w-will destroy you and all of the filth l-like y-you," Voldemort stuttered, coughing up blood in the process.
"It's too bad, you won't be there to fucking see it," James stated before he raised the knife and slammed it straight through Voldemort's right eye. His body began to spasm before it completely ceased moving all together. James stepped back slowly, barely able to comprehend the fact that he had just killed the second most evil thing that had resided in the country. There was still the person that resided in the first spot to take care of though.
James turned around and found Lily falling onto a couch with Harry still snuggled deeply in her arms. She looked like she was between fainting and screaming at the moment so James went over and placed his arms around her and his son.
"J-James, what did you mean about Dumbledore?" Lily asked shakily.
James drew back and looked his wife square in her eyes. "He's been playing us all Lily; he's been the Dark Lord all along. He was the only one who could have said anything about the prophecy, and Voldemort just admitted it himself."
Lily nodded her in understanding. "But what do we do now?"
"Pack up some things; we're going over to Sirius'. I don't know if he's gotten back from assignment yet, but I need to speak with him before we can do anything. Be quick because I'm sure this place is going to be surrounded with Death Eaters when Voldemort fails to come back. Let's go."
James went and stood at the door, standing guard while Lily and Harry went upstairs to pack. He held his wand tight in his shaking hand. His heart rate had still not come down from the moment that he had seen Voldemort walking towards their home. He tried to take some deep, calming breaths, but it wasn't working well. Looking over to the wall where Voldemort's body was currently bleeding out, he decided to make it more difficult for the Death Eaters to find. James waved his wand and the spike holding the body up dissolved, leaving a gaping chasm in the chest. He didn't even flinch as the body crashed to the ground. Quickly making up his mind, he banished the body away, sending it to the Shrieking Shack outside of Hogwarts. Hearing footsteps, James turned around to see his wife holding a small bag, which had obviously been expanded on the interior, and Harry who was still wide awake.
Lily looked at her husband confused. "What happened to him?"
James noticed she was staring at the spot on the wall Voldemort's body had previously adorned. "I banished his body. It should buy us a little bit of time while their out looking for him. Did you get everything you needed?"
Lily nodded. "Yes I grabbed us a few sets of clothes and the things Harry needs. How are we going?"
"The floo," James replied. "Sirius has anti-Apparation wards on his house, but the floo will let us right in. Here, hand me Harry and you go through first with the bag." James went over reaching for his son, who wrapped his tiny arms around his father's neck. He watched as Lily grabbed some powder out of a jar on the mantle and disappeared in a burst of crackling green flames. James walked over to the mantle, grabbed some powder for himself, and making sure he was gripping Harry tightly, disappeared like his wife.
When he appeared on the other side, Lily was in the process of lowering her bag onto the ground. James looked around at the place that Sirius called home. He hadn't been around the place for a couple months, but not much had changed. It was a single level home, but was still large. There were three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large kitchen that was rarely used, and a gigantic sitting room. If no one knew who actually lived in the house, they would think that it was Godric Gryffindor. Everything from the rugs to the walls was maroon and gold. James and Lily were extremely proud of the fact that they had been in Gryffindor for seven years, but they did love it enough to make everything the same two colors. On one occasion that had left Harry with his godfather for several hours, and when they returned, their son maroon and gold striped hair. James couldn't contain his laughter after Lily had punched Sirius in the stomach for messing with her son.
James handed Harry over to his mother while he went in search for Sirius. His search was proved unnecessary when a bleary eyed Sirius stumbled out of the hallway that led to his bedroom, his wand pointing at James before realizing who it was.
"Prongs? What the hell are you doing here, not that I don't enjoy seeing you? I could've had a female companion over for all you know."
Normally James would have made a remark about that, but he wasn't really in the mood for it at the moment. "Sirius, we've got really bad news."
"It must be important for all of you to be here at this time of night," Sirius added taking a seat on the maroon couch.
"Sirius, Voldemort showed up at our house," Lily said entering the conversation.
"What!" Sirius shouted, jumping to his feet, "What do you mean Voldemort showed up at your house? Where is he now?"
"He's dead," James replied calmly.
"What, that's terrific James. The Dark Lord's gone, we should be celebrating."
"Voldemort's not the Dark Lord Sirius. You better sit back down."
James and Lily spent the next half hour explaining to Sirius everything that was going on. They told him about the prophecy, and making Peter the secret keeper. Sirius had been hurt that he hadn't been asked, but was fine after James explained it was just a matter of him not being around. James then went onto explain how he had told Dumbledore a significant part of the prophecy, thus leading him to send Voldemort to their home to kill Harry.
"What about the part with the Dark Lord marking Harry?" Sirius questioned.
Lily lifted the now sleeping Harry's head up for Sirius to see. He nodded after he saw the jagged scar. "I think since it was actually Dumbledore sending Voldemort to kill Harry, that it counts as him marking him. I just wish I knew what happened with the killing curse, it should have hit me square in the back," Lily shook her head frustrated.
"Let's just be thankful right now that it didn't," James stated, wrapping an arm around her. "The problem we have now is what do we do about Dumbledore?"
"You and I should grab Remus and head to Hogwarts. We'll take the bastard out," Sirius answered confidently.
"As much as I want to kill him Sirius, it's not that simple. First of all, I'm pretty sure that Dumbledore could fight the three of us with his eyes closed. Second, if by some miracle we were to actually kill him, there wouldn't be any proof for the public that he was evil. They see a dead Headmaster and all of us are on a trip to Azkaban for a very long time. We have to do this by the books, which means going through the ministry."
"That's all well and good James, but what if Dumbledore has the Ministry eating out of his pockets. It could go very bad," reasoned Sirius.
"If that's the case then we need to find out who we can trust. We'll secure this place and leave Lily here with Harry. Then we need to get to work."