Lily Potter often asked herself if the wizarding world was just plain stupid.
As a muggle-born witch, she had quickly become aware of the blatant stupidity of many wizards, but she had assumed that given how powerful they were, Albus Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort were smarter than that.
She was stunned senseless when she learnt of the prophecy linking her child Harry to Lord Voldemort. Technically speaking, while Harry and Neville Longbottom and to a degree Susan Bones met some of the criteria - their families had defied the Dark Lord more than once and were both at the end of July, Lily was not happy that her son was being targeted although it quickly became apparent the Dark Lord seemed to care more for a prophecy child than just focusing on something more practical and logical, like taking over the country. But what Lily did not like was how Dumbledore was forcing her and James to hide while he made sure the Longbottoms did the same.
When she learnt about the prophecy and how seriously Dumbledore was taking it, Lily felt whatever shreds of trust and belief in Dumbledore vanish. It had taken a battering in her time at Hogwarts when the Dark Lord had begun rising to power and how Dumbledore had done nothing about it when the poison of Voldemort's beliefs spread to their ears. But it had collapsed even more when she was forced to join the Order of the Phoenix - James had of course been devoted to the old wizard, blissfully ignoring his parents' warnings and fears with a nonchalant wave of his hand - and Lily saw none of the Order barring a few were taking the threat seriously.
Many of the Order were just a bunch of old friends of Dumbledore. Few of them were capable of holding on in a fight. And Dumbledore himself rarely if ever bothered to go out and fight Voldemort and the Death Eaters.
The prophecy was the last straw for Lily. Looking at her current situation, Lily realised they were all being set up to die and let Voldemort kill them all, just so then Dumbledore would have a saviour. The old wizard kept spouting off about a 'greater good' but Lily had often challenged him about what that meant, much to his dismay. Well, she refused to let her child die, just like she refused to die for a prophecy she had never heard of. Dumbledore had kept it all to himself and only told the Potters and the Longbottoms only the basics so they could not even work out the full meanings.
That made sense. Dumbledore loved keeping secrets, but while she understood that, Lily believed Dumbledore did not understand what needed to be kept secret and what should be divulged.
It was frustrating but Lily had begun working on possible ways around the prophecy.
She considered creating golems of herself and James and Harry, so when the time came when either Sirius or Peter let them down, they would be miles away. There was no doubt in her head something would go wrong and while she had come to trust Sirius, she knew there were ways of cracking a person down and Sirius was hot-headed. Peter was an untrustworthy coward.
The only downside to that was Voldemort would begin that all over again. She needed to think of a way of dealing with him, but she didn't know how as the serpentine wizard was powerful and was rumoured to be immortal.
And then she found the answer. One day, it occurred to Lily there might be a way. She set up a trap with runes and blood-based magic. Finding a remote patch of moorland in Yorkshire, Lily warded it with Death Wards and after speaking the name "Lord Voldemort" aloud, she didn't have long to wait before a dozen Death Eaters appeared. They were killed by the layers of Death Wards imbued with runestones and fuelled by her blood. Lily found it poetic, that a filthy little mudblood would effortlessly kill the Death Eaters.
Once the wards did their job, she began examining their bodies, absently identifying some of them. She wasn't bothered about the loss of the two male LeStranges, both were animals who deserved what happened to them. Also, a few people from the Ministry like Rachel Edgecombe are now dead. But Lily paid more attention to the Dark Marks before she took them to the Department of Mysteries where she worked.
Unlike Albus Dumbledore, Lily knew when she needed help.
Xxxx
The Department of Mysteries was a dream come true for Lily. At first, she was uncertain about what the Unspeakables did, but she found they were interested in researching the arcane and unknown mysteries of magic. Joining them was largely due to her ability to think outside of the box. While they were stunned by what she did, Lily came clean about the prophecy and her desire to stop it from coming true through her child.
With the help of Algernon Croaker, who was not happy with Dumbledore's methods in handling a prophecy he believed in although it quickly became clear the old wizard was both open-minded and yet not certain about prophecies to begin with, Lily and a small team of Unspeakables examined the Dark Marks and discovered how Voldemort was supposedly immortal.
Voldemort had linked himself magically to each Death Eater. They were giving him their magic, feeding his soul directly similar to the Horcrux. When Croaker told her what a Horcrux was, she felt sick and thought it was more likely he would have used that to become immortal, but fortunately, they had worked out the best way of dealing with him.
The Unspeakables used the Dark Mark of a living Death Eater - Lily was unsure how the Death Eater was caught, and to be honest she truly, really did not give a damn - and they began tearing the magic out of the Dark Lord and his followers at a massive rate. They tore it with the same subtlety of a kid ripping a piece of paper to shreds.
Xxxx
Lily and Alice were sitting in the living room of Potter Manor, watching as Harry and Neville played on the floor, both holding back smiles.
"It's hard to believe it's been a month since you and the other Unspeakables revealed what they did," Alice commented as she watched her son giggle.
"I know," Lily was silent for a moment, considering what had been going on for the last month. The Unspeakables had revealed their role in the ending of the war, telling the populace they had studied the Dark Lord and found his so-called immortality and they'd dealt with him and his followers.
Many like Dumbledore protested the loss of life. But the Unspeakables shot them down. They revealed that the Dark Mark used a form of soul magic, tying every one of them together and linking it to the Dark Lord's soul.
Dumbledore made the mistake of confronting her in the Order's meeting, but Lily had given him both barrels. She'd screamed at him that she was not going to let her son be set up to become a weapon and orphan, and she refused to let go of the fact he had been trying to set up two families for his games. Some of Dumbledore's diehard fans had attacked Lily, but Lily was not having it. She didn't care if she had just insulted and accused one of the greatest wizards in the world, she was not going to let her son be caught up in a war that should have been stopped right now before it was too late.
It had taken a while for her to tell James the complete picture, but soon she was glad her husband was right behind her. She was getting worried James would just keep on blindly following Dumbledore rather than her.
Alice was instantly on her side. Like her, she had been scared out of her mind for the future of her family, especially with Voldemort hunting her family down. She even stated publicly in front of the Order that Lily had done the right thing.
"What's happening with James, what are your plans?" Alice was referring to the plan Lily had come up with to move to America. She did not want Harry or any other child she had to attend Hogwarts. The last thing she wanted was for Dumbledore to interfere in Harry's life and Alice couldn't blame her. Lily was making her think she should argue with Frank and that they should do the same thing. The Potters and the Longbottoms were two of the prominent magical families attending the school, and if they left because of Albus Dumbledore it would cause all kinds of questions to surface about the old wizard's abilities to run the school.
But Lily was not interested in causing a political uprising. She was determined to make sure Dumbledore did not say or do anything that would destroy Harry's life or the lives of other Potter children.
"He's looking into it, Alice," Lily replied, smiling at the boys before it faded a little and she turned a solemn look at her friend. "The Potters have holdings and relatives in America. Moving there wouldn't be hard, but James is reluctant. A part of him does not want Harry taken out of Hogwarts and I understand that, but I've got so many memories of what our time at the school was like, and I find it wanting. So much bullying was allowed so much bigotry. I've forgotten how many times I was called a mudblood," Lily, who'd been shaking her head at the bad memories of those days, scowled venomously as she remembered being called that slur.
Alice nodded. "And nobody did anything about it," she murmured, remembering how McGonagall and the other teachers could not do anything. She had never understood the logic behind that reasoning.
"I don't know what Dumbledore was thinking when he told the teachers not to do anything, Alice, but I don't know what would happen if Harry went to Hogwarts and someone bullied him. There's the chance Dumbledore could try something and step in and cause problems for Harry," Lily shook her head in dismay at the thought.
Alice frowned. "You think he'll go that far?"
"Isn't he still obsessed with that prophecy?" Lily counted. "I tell you, Alice; it's a nightmare and a fight and a half trying to make James see sense."
She wasn't wrong.
While James had lost some of his awe of the old wizard especially after he had seen for himself how obsessed he was and how Dumbledore suffered from tunnel vision which focused on Harry for reasons she could not grasp since Voldemort had never even laid eyes on the little boy, James was torn about keeping Harry from Hogwarts. Lily hoped a bit more persuasion might help, especially since they knew that the Potters living in America attended Ilvermorny.
From what she'd heard, the school was extremely good.
"Mmm, I think I'll speak to Frank, and you're right about Dumbledore. He is obsessed with the prophecy. It's almost like he wishes the war were still ongoing," Alice said.
"I hope not," Lily scowled. "The war nearly destroyed our world, and he wishes it went on? If I have my way, no more Potters will be attending Dumbledore's school."
There was no telling what kind of things Dumbledore would be doing with the students with that kind of mind.