A/N: Originally the idea for this story was to have James and Lily remain as ghosts so they could help their son, but I nixed that idea and changed it to this. I never decided whether to make it a long story or skip time to get him older quickly, but I obviously spent a good bit of time and chapters and he is still in first year. So, it is moving in a pace like a longer story as he goes through Hogwarts. The title is self-explanatory and given that James and Lily survive along with Frank and Alice, it makes it a better plan. Without inspiration who knows what will happen with this story? I did have an idea for fifth year and wrote it down. I seem to enjoy coming up with ways to deal with Umbridge.
A Better Plan
by Roff
Chapter One
When James and Lily Potter were planning for every eventuality, they used what they had available and researched everything they could get their hands on. The Potters were a very old family, especially if you took into account they were descendants of Ignotus Peverell. Ignotus was the last of the Peverell line, which went back several centuries even before the Potters came along.
The Potters had decided to stay in the Godric's Hollow house because it was better suited for the Fidelius charm. Besides, the town of Godric's Hollow was where Godric Gryffindor lived at one point, as it was named after him when the land originally belonged to Godric.
The Peverells were also from this area and headstones in the graveyard attested to that fact. You could also find graves for the Dumbledore and Bagshot families. These were well known names in the magical world.
The Potters had always kept the land they owned in Godric's Hollow. It was passed down from the Peverells. The house there was fairly new though. It had replaced the older house before it to bring the residence into more modern times.
In the early part of the twentieth century, not long after Fleamont and Euphemia Potter were married, Euphemia Potter had the old house torn down and a new one built in its place after Fleamont told her she could do with it whatever she wished. After the new house was put in the Potter elves were instructed to keep it maintained.
The home sat on some beautiful land off by itself, not very far from the town of Godric's Hollow. It was not used all that often except when Fleamont and Euphemia wanted a change of scenery or just to spend the weekend away from their castle in Wales, which had been the seat of the Potters for many, many centuries and the Peverells before that.
It was once called Peverell Castle but was now known as Potter Castle. It wasn't near as big as Hogwarts but like most castles it was rather large for a home.
James and Lily Potter took the Godric's Hollow house as their first house after they married in August of 1978. Fleamont and Euphemia Potter, parents of James, remained at Potter Castle in Wales. The castle was certainly big enough for both couples and could even hold more than that, but the younger couple felt it a good idea to live under a different roof at least in the beginning of their new marriage to create their own dynamic as a married couple and family.
The older Potters completely understood and recommended the Godric's Hollow house as a good place to start. Plus, the town of Godric's Hollow was in the area where the Potters originated.
Magic made it easy so they visited each other quite a bit. However, when Dragon Pox claimed the old couple, causing them to die from it in December of 1979, James and Lily moved to the castle. James was now the head of the Potter family and had to handle all the family business. It was not easy with the war going on against the dark lord Voldemort.
Both James and Lily were heavily involved in the fighting and had already faced Voldemort a few times in battle. They were very lucky because pretty much anyone who faced him ended up dead. Only one other couple, Frank and Alice Longbottom, had managed to face the dark tosser and live.
In all the fights, the couples had to work well together as a team when they fought him. It took both of them to keep him at bay long enough to escape the mad man.
James and Lily ended up moving back to the Godric's Hollow house about a year after Harry was born. His date of birth was July 31st of 1980. A prophecy was told to them by Headmaster Dumbledore about the dark lord, naming Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom as the only possible children the prophecy could be about. They just didn't know which child it was since both were born in the time frame indicated by the prophecy and both sets of parents had faced Voldemort successfully a few times.
The young Potter parents were very confident not long after hearing the prophecy that it would be Harry and not Neville. Harry was showing magic very early and it was powerful for a child his age. Little Neville was not showing any yet. They even had to put a partial block on Harry's magic to keep him and others around him safe.
One of the things they did in preparation was to take everything they didn't want to lose or couldn't easily replace and moved it into Potter Castle. The Potter elves helped a lot with that.
Part of the plans they created, in addition to using the Fidelius, was to make sure Harry survived no matter what. On top of that, they wanted to make sure they survived should anything at all go wrong. The third thing they planned for if Voldemort somehow found them was to make sure the dark lord did not survive.
On October 31st of 1981 when their secret keeper, Peter Pettigrew, otherwise known as Wormtail, betrayed them by telling Voldemort where they lived, all the plans by the young Potter couple came into play.
Voldemort crossed the alert ward when he crossed the Fidelius ward. The Fidelius is a very powerful ward while an alert ward is simple and hard to notice. James put the alert ward up, hidden behind the Fidelius, and he only told his wife about it. He keyed them both into it so that any time a person or animagus crossed that ward it would tell them the name of the person who was visiting.
Wormtail crossed the alert ward not thirty seconds after Voldemort did. This made James and Lily happy since they knew that Wormtail had betrayed them. They both felt anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards go up.
"He's here, Lils. You know what to do," James told her.
"Lucy," Lily called out softly as she stood up with a sleepy Harry in her arms.
A soft pop was heard as a female house elf appeared. Lily handed Harry over to Lucy with a "Take him." She then watched as the elf disappeared with her child back to Potter Castle. The wards that were put up by Voldemort are common wards but they do not block elf magic.
Lily then followed her husband toward the back door while she flicked her wand a couple of times. James had been casting spells constantly after he spoke to his wife. Both of their presences were now fully masked by Lily after she handed Harry off to Lucy.
They both went out the back door. James stopped and cut his hand with his wand before placing it with his blood on the door frame outside. He was now tied even closer into the wards and could tell where everyone was located within the ward area, whether in the house or outside of it.
They heard the front door get blown off its hinges and James could tell when Voldemort entered the house. The dark wizard looked around the first floor as Wormtail followed him in. Voldemort was just about to go up the stairs when James used Potter magic with his hand still on the door frame.
The front door leaped back into place quickly and repaired itself right after the entire house locked down when the Potter wards went into full lockdown mode. Now no one would be able to get in or out of the house without a Potter cancelling the lockdown wards. Next, James told Lily to transform and take off running to the woods behind the house. She changed into her doe form then took off. James then used some different Potter magic before transforming into Prongs and taking off quickly right behind his wife.
The different Potter magic James used was a spell that was tied to the wards. It was designed to destroy everything in the house in order to protect Potter family secrets from theft should anyone not a Potter break through the wards. The combination James used with the different spells had never been used in that manner before or in that order, but for what he wanted to accomplish this was the combination he needed.
Just before he ran into the woods as Prongs, the house behind him exploded into a fiery inferno that amazingly stayed within the lockdown wards. James, with his magic still tied to the wards, felt the lives of Voldemort and Wormtail wink out of existence inside the house as the fire intensified and destroyed everything.
The Fidelius covering the entire property prevented anyone who did not know the secret from seeing the house being consumed by an unnatural fire.
James looked at the beautiful doe beside him who was his wife and nodded. She licked his long face in reply. They had killed Voldemort and their unfaithful friend who they now knew had been the spy in the Order. They watched the house burn for a little while longer as they came to terms with what they had accomplished.
They had put an end to the war finally.
Suddenly they heard a yell and a wraith flew out of the burning house, escaping into the night.
James transformed quickly back into himself along with Lily.
"I can't believe Voldemort used such dark magic to tie him to this plane of existence. I thought for sure we had him for good, Lils."
"Goes to show you we had no idea how deep his depravity goes."
James just shook his head.
"Let's take care of the fire and head to the castle, James. I want to hold my baby."
James nodded. "It won't take me long. The Potter wards worked just like they were meant to work. I suspect they will do so again," he said and headed closer to the burning house.
With a flick of his wand and some additional private Potter family magic the fire suddenly went out immediately. James released the lockdown next and the burned walls fell in on themselves. He turned back to his wife who had just finished removing the weakened anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards Voldemort had put up earlier.
"Let's go," he said.
Lily nodded then apparated at the same time as her husband over to Potter Castle where their son was waiting on them.
Lily found her son and Lucy in Harry's room. Lucy was sitting in her own chair that was the perfect size for her small elf body. She had her own chair in the nursery so it was available when she took care of the baby. She was rocking Harry back and forth. She noticed when Lily entered the room. She actually felt both of them when they arrived via apparition.
"How is he, Lucy?" Lily asked the elf quietly.
"He went to sleep very quickly after we arrived, Mistress Lily," she answered back quietly.
"Good. He was so tired."
"Do you want me to put him in his bed for you?" Lucy asked.
"No thank you, Lucy. I'll take him. I want to hold my baby for a while before I put him down for the night."
Sensing the worry and sadness in Lily, Lucy handed Harry over to his mother before quietly popping away to see to her duties and to make sure the master bedroom had been properly prepared for the Master and Mistress by another elf she set on the job. She had already taken care of the final touches to the young Master's room while she rocked him.
All the stuffed toys he liked to play with were waiting in his crib for him, along with a soft blanket.
Lily sat in her own rocking chair with her son in her arms, his head resting on her shoulder. She held him dearly and rocked as he slept on, oblivious to what had just happened at the other house and what was in his future.
Meanwhile, in another part of the castle.
James had been busy. He had sent a messenger patronus off to Sirius and Remus. They were told to come to Potter Castle immediately. The two friends knew this was important so hurried over. Sirius arrived by floo while Remus apparated.
They wanted to know what was going on as soon as they arrived but James told them to wait until he involved Dumbledore so he could fill them all in at the same time.
James threw some floo powder in the fireplace and called out "Hogwarts – Headmaster's office" then stuck his head in the flames.
"Albus? Are you there? Albus?" he asked with the last time a good bit louder.
A few seconds passed before he saw Dumbledore approach the fireplace.
"James?" he asked. "Thank Merlin you're alright. I knew something had happened to your secret keeper due to the Fidelius. I was just about to go check on you."
"Except for Peter, all the rest of us are fine, Albus. Can Sirius, Remus, and myself come through? I'd like to explain what happened. It's very important you all know what I know now."
"Yes! Of course! All of you come on through," he said as he stepped back further and made sure there was enough chairs for the three young men to join him.
James sent a messenger patronus to his wife to let her know where he was going while he was waiting on his fellow Marauders to floo ahead of him.
"Tippy?"
Pop!
"How can Tippy be of service, Headmaster?"
"Tippy, please bring some tea and biscuits for four."
"Tippy will be right back," the elf told him as she noticed three men coming out of the floo one at a time.
Once all three were there, Albus indicated for them to sit in the chairs provided so they all grabbed a seat. Dumbledore sat down behind his desk.
"Now, James, please explain what happened."
James told them everything about their plans as they all helped themselves to some tea and biscuits that the elf provided. He told how they had used the Potter wards to kill Voldemort and Wormtail who had betrayed them. He had to pause in his story and explain to Dumbledore that Sirius was not the secret keeper but they had switched it to Peter with Sirius pretending to be the secret keeper. He pointed out how Peter had to be the spy in the Order. He then continued until he got to the most important part.
"This is what all of you need to know. Voldemort is not dead. We were happy for a few seconds thinking we had finally outsmarted him and killed him off. However, we heard him yell not long after his body died and then saw his wraith soar straight out of the burning house and fly away.
"That is some very dark magic, my friends," James said continuing. "To tie your soul to this plane of existence so it can't pass on to the afterlife is extremely dark. He has gone way past what any rational person would do to remain on this Earth."
"How do you know of such dark magic, James?" asked Dumbledore.
"Lily and I looked at everything to find all possibilities that could be explored so we could protect our son, even if we died and had to come back. Or, if we had to remain as ghosts. We left no stone unturned. We even looked at some dark rituals but the only ones that would help at all required sacrificing the lives of others so they were discarded."
"Wow, James!" Sirius exclaimed. "You sounded a lot like a Black just then. That is until you discarded the solutions because they were too dark. They wouldn't be too dark for my family! I know quite a bit about dark magic just from growing up with that bunch."
"We all knew you had problems, Padfoot," Remus said tweaking him.
"Watch it, Moony!'
"Anything else to add, James?" asked Dumbledore to get things back on track.
"I'll tell you something else but it better not leave this room as it pertains to my son. Got it?"
He watched as they all nodded in agreement. He wasn't really worried about Sirius and Remus but he wanted to make sure Albus understood not to talk about it with anyone else.
"Okay. Lily and I are sure Harry is the child in the prophecy. He's been showing very strong magic for a good while and he's only 15 months old. In our time spent with Alice, Frank, and Neville, we have never witnessed the child doing any magic yet, nor have they mentioned it. This of course is quite normal.
"Harry, on the other hand, is not normal. He is too powerful for someone so young. Lily had to put a partial block on his magic to make it safe for him and others around him. We plan to remove it as soon as we believe it will be safe to do so."
"That is quite interesting and I must concur with you given that new information," Dumbledore replied. "It indeed appears young Harry is the one spoken of in the prophecy. I'll be sure and keep that to myself though.
"I will however have to share with the Minister your defeat of Voldemort and how you witnessed his wraith leaving, indicating he used dark magic to keep his soul from moving on. We may have to figure out if any of that information will need to be kept from the public. The last thing we need is to have any of his followers or anyone else looking into this darkest of magic to do the same."
"Yes, that could be very bad," agreed Sirius, "and his followers are just the ones who would be crazy enough to do it."
"What about Frank and Alice?" asked James. "They're in hiding too. We'd better fill them in on what happened."
"Let's go check on them right now," suggested Remus. "If he personally attacked your family, he might have sent others after the Longbottoms."
"Yes! Let's go!" agreed Sirius standing up.
"I'm sure they are fine with their protections but if you want to check on them by all means do so. I'll contact Minister Bagnold while you guys tend to the Longbottoms. Given the importance of this, she needs to be told immediately. Now, I don't expect any issues, but if you run into any trouble do send me a patronus and I'll join you immediately to help out."
"Will do, Albus," James answered. "You can let Minister Bagnold know that I will come in tomorrow morning and make a statement."
"That will be much appreciated, James. Say hello to Frank and Alice for me."
Dumbledore watched as the three men left his office to apparate to the Longbottoms. He then used the floo to contact Minister Bagnold at her residence since it was getting quite late.
"James? Sirius? Remus?" Frank asked when he answered the door. "What in Merlin's name are the three of you doing here this late at night?"
"I have big news, Frank," answered James. "You, Alice, and your mum are gonna want to hear it. Can we come in?"
"Maybe. It depends on whether or not you can answer my challenge questions," he said with a steely eye.
"Right, right, right! Go ahead! Ask away!" James replied.
"Very well. Tell me, Sirius. During the Great Knicker Raid of 1977 at Hogwarts, what was the color of Marlene's knickers?"
"White with red hearts," Sirius answered with a smile.
"James? Color of Lily's during that same raid?"
"Black with lots of lace," he answered with a grin.
"Now you, Remus. Tell me what was the color of my wife's knickers?" he asked with a smile. "During those days she was known as Alice Fortescue."
"You would save me for last wouldn't you, Frank?" asked Remus. "Alright, I'll answer because it was before you married her and even before you were dating. Baby blue with pink clouds floating all around."
Frank grinned at them.
"Well, what are you waiting on?" he asked them. "An engraved invitation? Get yourselves into my house!"
They all walked in to find Alice just inside where it was likely she heard every bit of their conversation. Remus stopped in his tracks and looked ready to bolt.
"Thanks for giving those back, Remus," she told him smiling. "Those were one of my favorites and I still have them!"
Remus' face turned beet red so they all started laughing at him.
"Remus!" Sirius scolded him. "You're not supposed to give them back! That's the whole purpose of a knicker raid!" he exclaimed.
"What in the world am I supposed to do with knickers?" Remus asked him confused. "I have no use for them and besides they didn't belong to me. I gave them back after we had our fun."
"Remus is a gentleman. The rest of you would do well to learn from his example," Alice scolded them. "Besides, no one asked Frank whose knickers he took and what color they were."
"And no one is going to!" he insisted quickly. "Discussion is over! Let's go to the lounge so James can tell us what's going on. Follow me," he said walking ahead of them all business.
Alice hung back with the others as they all started following after Frank.
"He seems a bit touchy about that subject," Alice told them with a smile.
"You mean you don't know whose knickers he stole?" asked Sirius.
"No, I know exactly who it was and all the details surrounding it. I'm just surprised he used that as a challenge question since it could bring up his part in it. He must have just forgotten until now," she said with a big smile.
"He seems pretty adamant about not discussing it," offered James. "So, I'll not be bringing it up."
"No, best not to bring it back up," Alice agreed. "Let's give him a few more years …or decades," she said with a chuckle.
After they were all situated and James told the story again, it was decided to make it easy for all of them to come immediately to their aid in case the Longbottoms were attacked by Voldemort's death eaters. They did this by allowing the Potters, Sirius, and Remus to apparate or portkey straight into a special room in the manor in case of an emergency.
As an extra precaution they made sure the Longbottom elf could get to Potter Castle and bring Neville there too for his safety. Also, the Potter elves could bring witches and wizards into Longbottom Hall if no one could apparate or portkey in.
Frank and Alice would first send patronus messages out to them if someone attacked their wards to get in, but elves would be their failsafe if all goes wrong. Augusta had already gone to bed before the men arrived so Frank and Alice would inform her in the morning of the agreed upon changes and the news.
James then took the Longbottoms into his confidence about Harry being the child of the prophecy. They gladly agreed to keep that secret. No sense in allowing stupid adults to ruin a small child's life with all their nonsense if that secret got out.
They were thankful it was not their Neville but afraid at the same time for little Harry. They had grown quite fond of the black-haired, green-eyed toddler. He and Neville were quite close and played well together. Perhaps they would remain that way.
It was two days later in the evening when James received a messenger patronus from Frank and Lily received one from Alice. Then the Longbottom elf, Trixie, appeared in the castle carrying young Neville with her.
Lucy took Neville and put him down with Harry on the floor so they could play together.
They could not apparate so the Potter elves were sent to get Sirius and Remus so they could be taken to the Longbottoms while Trixie took James. Toby, another Potter elf, took Lily. Lucy remained behind to watch the toddlers and protect them at all costs if necessary.
Just before James left with Trixie, he sent off a messenger patronus to Dumbledore so he could get the aurors to Longbottom Hall.
When they arrived via elf travel they found the Longbottoms were ready and waiting. Augusta looked ready to skin a bear with her teeth.
"How many?" asked Lily.
"I believe four," answered Frank.
"I sent a patronus to Albus," James told them. "He should send more to help but we already have them outnumbered. It depends on what they have planned. That's the part that worries me. I don't know why they are here now."
"They just put a hole in the wards. They must be using some sort of illegal ward buster," Frank told them. "Remind me to get the goblins to fix that and improve our wards so it won't happen again."
"Everyone who isn't a Longbottom mask your presence in case they check," instructed Alice. "No use in letting them know they are outnumbered."
All four of them cast the spell on themselves then disillusioned themselves too, standing perfectly still to make it harder to detect them. They also spread out to be in better positions.
A few seconds more and the front door was blown off allowing Bellatrix Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange, and Barty Crouch, Jr. to sweep through the opening. They approached the three Longbottom adults standing in the atrium with their wands at the ready, waiting on them.
Before Frank could ask what they wanted, Bellatrix shouted at them.
"WHERE IS HE?" she demanded yelling.
"Who are you looking for?" Frank asked her calmly.
"YOU KNOW WHO I'M LOOKING FOR! THE DARK LORD! NOW, WHERE IS HE?" she seemed to yell even louder.
"Why in Merlin's name would you think your dark lord would be here in my house?" he asked her confused.
Bellatrix screamed in frustration. Her husband, Rodolphus, decided to take over.
"The dark lord knows about the prophecy, Longbottom. We went to the Potters but couldn't find them and your child is the other child of prophecy so we figured he must have come here. We're also missing another death eater that went with him."
"Last I heard, Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew died the other day. I don't think you are going to find them, especially here," Frank told them.
"Who told you that?" Rabastan asked.
"I heard it officially as an auror, from the Ministry," Frank said smiling. "That's all I'm going to tell you."
"YOU WILL TELL ME EVERYTHING!" yelled Bellatrix. "CRUCIO," she yelled casting the torture curse at Frank.
Frank spun quickly out of the way of the curse while Alice fired a cutting curse at Bellatrix. Augusta sent a sick looking yellow curse at Rabastan, while Remus stunned Barty Crouch, Jr. and tied him up.
Rabastan blocked against the yellow curse from Augusta but didn't see the stunner from Sirius coming from beside him. He was tied up immediately afterwards.
Rodolphus was going to cast a torture curse at Alice but didn't see the stunner from James that hit him in the side and then ropes tied him up. Lily sent a stunner at Bellatrix but she managed to spin out of the way of Alice's cutting curse, then block Lily's stunner.
Lily closed in on her while continuing to cast at a very fast pace to keep her on defense. James recognized her tactic so transformed a chair into a tiger and had it jump on Bellatrix. That was all it took. Bellatrix was hit with three stunners from Frank, Alice, and Lily before she could even deal with the tiger.
Sirius tied up his cousin with ropes while James reverted the tiger back into a chair and admired all their handy work.
They all heard a noise at the door and turned at the ready.
The newcomers put their hands up immediately until they were recognized. Soon, it was apparent that the new arrivals were Dumbledore, Sr. Auror Moody, and ten more aurors.
"Better late than never!" James told them as he put his wand away.
"It seems you all had it well in hand," Moody told them looking at the trussed-up death eaters.
"This is what happens when you plan for just such an event, sir," offered Alice.
"I can see that," Moody responded. "We'll get them to the holding cells for you since you guys already did the hard part."
"They are all yours, sir," Frank told him with a smile.