I don't own Harry Potter.
DZ2's Dark Shadows of the Potters Challenge.
Plot: The Most Noble and Ancient House of Potter, one of the Lightest, most heroic, Gryffindor-centric families in the history of magic... and yet there is more to the family than meets the eye.
Children laughed as they dragged their parents up and down the street, all of them dressed in a dazzling variety of costumes.
Werewolves, witches, and pirates alike all went from door to door with grins on their faces and a spring in their step, the bags at their sides weighed down with candy. As parents exchanged knowing looks, all of them glad that Halloween that year was a Saturday (So they didn't have to deal with hyperactive children up all night on a weekday when they should be sleeping), a single cloaked figure stepped out from behind a tree and started down the street.
Making his way down the street with his hood pulled down over his face, the figure paused to allow an exasperated woman past, a condescending sneer tugging at his lips as he glanced over her son who was waving a painted stick in the air and yelling nonsense. Resisting the urge to correct the boy's pronunciation of 'Abracadabra' by sending a 'Avada Kedavra' at him, the hooded figure continued down the street, finally coming to a stop around halfway down the road.
To anyone that was looking, the hooded man was merely standing there looking between numbers 5 and 9. The hooded man however, was studying the two-story house resting between them, being one of the seven people capable of even knowing that number 7 Gryphon Road even existed, everyone else merely believing there had been an error in the numbering of the street.
Eyeing the house suspiciously, the Dark Lord Voldemort reached out with his magic and probed at the dwelling, hairless eyebrows shooting up in shock as he discovered the total lack of wards and protections beyond an alarm spell. Success already flashing through blood-red eyes, Voldemort pushed open the gate and stalked up the stone path, a flick of his wrist causing his bone-white wand to snap into his palm from its holster on his forearm. Stopping at the boundary of the alarm ward, Voldemort raised his arms and started muttering under his breath, feeling as his magic surged out of him to settle into the form of an anti-teleportation ward around the property which stopped all methods of magical travel within its borders.
As a smirk tugged at his lips, Voldemort purposely stepped through the alarm ward and continued up the path towards the house. Flicking his wand he sent a blast of magic at the front door, barely catching a glimpse of a person rounding the corner at the top of the stairs in front of him before a shield was springing from the end of his wand as a red bolt of magic flew at him from the side.
"Potter" Voldemort greeted coldly as he turned to see the Potter Lord standing there with his wand raised. "This does not have to end badly. You could merely give me the boy" he suggested slowly, not wanting to kill another Pureblood when too many had already died resisting him.
Potter (James he believed, nasty common name if you asked him) didn't reply verbally, choosing instead to throw a blasting hex at him that Voldemort deflected almost lazily.
"Very well. You will join your mudblood wife and your son in death" Voldemort declared, sending a powerful bone-breaking hex at Potter who barely managed to throw up a shield in time to stop it.
Voldemort faltered, resisting the urge to step back in shock as Potter's eyes shifted, the iris changing from a light hazel to an eerily glowing red as the rest of his eyes turned pure black. "You will not touch them!" Potter snarled out, a hiss echoing with his voice as elongated canines were bared in a growl.
Lip curling in disgust, Voldemort unleashed a spell chain of dangerous dark curses at the black-haired man, losing all desire to try keep Potter alive with the revelation that the man's blood wasn't as pure as he originally believed. Moving with reflexes confirming his creature status, Potter dodged some of his spells and shielded against the rest, not hesitating as he retaliated with a series of hexes and curses that Voldemort was shocked to see coming from such a 'Light' orientated person.
After what felt like hours of dueling, Voldemort being grudgingly forced to admit that Potter was talented and that he was actually rather enjoying their battle, he finally managed to get a spell past the seemingly untiring Potter's defenses and hit him dead in the chest.
Smirking as the black-haired creature blinked at him slowly, Voldemort turned his back on the collapsing half-breed and stepped over a chunk of rubble as he started up the staircase. Following the sound of feminine chanting Voldemort strode down the hallway, coming to a stop in front of a door that had a slight glow to it, a simple life-sensing charm revealing Potter's whore and spawn were on the other side of the door. Tilting his head and listening to the chant for a moment, Voldemort frowned slightly as he failed to recognise the spell, unable to recognise the strangely familiar language it was being cast in.
Raising his wand Voldemort threw an explosive charm at the door, blasting it off its hinges and into the room. Striding in quickly he paused at the sight of the red-headed witch lying in a crumpled heap on the other side of the room, the remains of the door scattered around her as a slowly growing halo of blood spread from her head. "Mudbloods" he sneered under his breath with a smirk before turning to face the crib which held a confused looking black-haired baby.
Approaching the crib Voldemort was shocked when the baby, Harry, took one look at his face and giggled. The baby clapping his hands together, letting out a string of happy babbles as emerald-green eyes turned red like Potter's had.
This was the boy destined to defeat him? A non-human creature was prophesied to vanquish the greatest Sorcerer to ever live? Perhaps he was wrong… he had only chosen Potter since they were both half-bloods, a taint that would torment him for the rest of his immortal life, but maybe it was the pureblood child that was the threat. It had to be the pureblood, this creature was still sitting there giggling and babbling at him, the idea of this being his vanquisher was amusing at the least.
Still… it was better to be safe than sorry, or whatever that muggle saying was…
Raising his wand, Voldemort opened his mouth to cast the killing curse only for a voice to interrupt him. Spinning to face Lily Potter, Voldemort turned his wand on her as she blinked up at him, muttering something under her breath as she reached for her wand. Recognising the signs of a concussion on her face, Voldemort summoned her wand to him and snapped it slowly, absently throwing a charm at the broken half of the door lying on her to increase its weight and pin her down.
Voldemort reached into his robes and pulled out a small dagger, the green-tinted blade shining in the light as he held it in his hand and glanced over to Potter again. "Feel honored mudblood" he hissed out, "For you are about to watch the greatest Dark Lord in all time gain immortality".
Turning back to the crib Voldemort began chanting, speaking the all-too familiar ritual for the creation of his seventh and his final horcrux. As he felt the ritual magic taking hold of his soul Voldemort raised his wand and aimed it at the still red-eyed Harry Potter who was now frowning up at him as if he had finally realised that something was wrong.
"Avada" Voldemort began, the second word of the curse easily sliding from his mouth as Lily Potter's muttering suddenly got louder, the chant she had been reciting earlier flooding through the room as blood-red runes suddenly began glowing in a circle around the crib.
Upon seeing the runes realisation struck Voldemort.
Fae…
James Potter and his son were Fae.
He didn't have time to wonder what breed of Fae the Potters were before the killing curse was striking an invisible barrier that spanned the circle surrounded by the runes, the spell somehow not only being stopped by the barrier but actually being reflected straight back at him as the barrier exploded as everything turned white.
Lily groaned as she shoved weakly at the half of the nursery door that was currently lying across on the small of her back and pinning her to the floor.
Tears welled from her eyes as she couldn't resist glancing over to the crib, the sight of her son's limp body tearing a sob from her lips as she went limp herself, laying there and sneering over to the pile of ash that had once been Voldemort's body. "I hope it hurt, you bastard" Lily spat out, glaring darkly as she glanced over her shoulder at the heavy, obviously charmed, door.
Glancing back over before she could stop herself, Lily wondered why the ritual didn't work. It had been designed centuries ago to defend against soul magicks, meaning it would work (And had done so before) against a spell which was designed to tear someone's soul out instantly. She and James had spent hours and days going over the runes to make sure they were written down correctly and were in the right order. They both had even taken turns at performing the ritual so she knew that her own Fae blood, however diluted, was strong enough to activate the shield.
Unless… unless the Fae blood she had inherited from her grandmother had just not been strong enough to counter the strength of Voldemort's killing curse…
As she sagged back down weakly she peered over at the shards of her wand and swallowed dryly, feeling numb and empty as she lay there.
The sound of a whimper made Lily's head snap back up, eyes instantly locking onto the shifting form of Harry as she watched him twitching. Feeling a strength she didn't know she was capable of rushing through her veins, she slowly placed both hands on the door and pushed, feeling sweat beading up on her forehead as her magic surged up to lift the door off the ground, floating into the air like gravity had no hold on it.
Forcing her aching (And possibly broken) body to its feet, Lily stumbled over to Harry and swooped down to pick her drowsy son up, flinching at the sight of the lightning bolt-shaped gash on his forehead. Moving to pull her wand out, Lily froze and glanced over at the shards once more, her eyes slowly raising to stare at the white wand sticking out of the pile of ash.
Grimacing, Lily snatched up Voldemort's wand as Harry sniffled and clutched at her shirt, whimpering softly as she turned it on him and cast a medical scanning spell. Sighing in relief as she realised that aside from the gash and being magical exhausted, her son was fine, wondering absently if Harry's exhaustion was due to accidental magic interfering with the magic of the ritual to cause the explosion that had blasted away most of the wall and ceiling.
Holding Harry to her chest, Lily cautiously started towards the door, Voldemort's wand raised as she left the nursery with the darkest grey spell she knew on the tip of her tongue. Casting a life-revealing spell Lily froze as the spell showed a faint life-sign in the living room, hope fluttering up in her chest as she shot towards the stairs and rushed down them to see James lying in a crumpled heap.
Darting over she set Harry down beside her and started waving the wand over James' body, letting out a whimper of relief at she realised that her husband was alive… if only barely.
A loud crack made her snap up, her wand pointing at the door and a curse flying from her lips as a black-haired man ran into the room, Sirius Black barely throwing himself to the side in time to avoid the crushing curse thrown at his head. "LILY! DOWN GIRL!" Sirius called out from his place on the floor with his hands over his head. "James?" he blurted as he scrambled over to her side with wide fearful eyes.
"He's still alive" Lily confessed as she and Sirius cast spells over James' body rapidly, "I don't know the curse though so I can't counter it" she choked out.
"Take him" Sirius ordered, his normally grey eyes now a glowing gold, "I'll take Harry to the Bunker, you get James to the Realm".
"What? Are you sure?" Lily exhaled as she watched Sirius grab Harry who merely squirmed and reached for James with red eyes. "Go" she instructed without waiting for him to answer, "I won't be able to come back until James is better. Look after him" she added unnecessarily as she leaned over to kiss Harry on the forehead, knowing that Sirius and Remus would tear anyone apart who tried to go after Harry, both werewolves extremely protective of their Pack. Choking on a sob Lily pulled James onto her lap and grasped the emerald pendant around her neck, activating the portkey now that the anti-teleportation wards had fallen with Voldemort.
Sniffing Sirius tightened his grip on Harry who was whimpering now, "It'll be fine pup" he murmured softly, "Papa and Mama are going to okay, they'll be back soon".
"Pa'oot?" Harry mumbled with a yawn, making Sirius chuckle before he could stop himself.
"It's me Prongslet" Sirius agreed as he slowly stood and looked around, his wand out and at the ready even as he felt anger rising up inside his chest. "You better run Wormtail" he growled out as Harry clutched at his shirt and yawned once more. Swearing to hunt down the rat and make him pay (Before giving him to Remus and Lily for the execution), Sirius instead climbed the stairs and rushed into the nursery, barely pausing to vanish the runes painted in blood on the floor before they were noticed.
Flicking his wand a couple of times Sirius had a bag packed for Harry in seconds, shifting the exhausted infant in his arms he threw the bag over his other shoulder and slowly headed downstairs again, planning on leaving a note for James and Lily to find when they returned from the Fae Realm.
Pinning the note to the fridge Sirius froze as two cracks filled the air, one of them louder than the first. Swallowing nervously Sirius edged towards the back door, planning on sending a bombarda into the living room and running.
"Do yeh think they made it Professor?" Hagrid's emotional voice rumbled through the house making Sirius sigh in relief and push open the door in time to hear a snarled "Stupefy!" before everything went black.