Harry Potter and the Fifth Edition
Prologue: Death & Destiny
As the wards shook around the cottage in Godric's Hollow, James froze, his brain desperately attempting to catch up with reality. 'They couldn't have found us, we're under the Fidelius, they'd need to tear the location from... Watcher's above... Peter.'
Suddenly, Lily thrust Harry into James' arms; she gripped his bicep like a vice, and, with her other hand, waved her wand in a succinct spiral motion while speaking an incantation, "Rugamis Locunora." Magic surged out from her, starting to grip its way around the entire family, then it rebounded sharply, reverberating within her bones as the teleportation spell failed. Lily stumbled into James; a drop of blood rolled from her nose to her upper lip.
"James... anti-teleport wards. He's come for Harry." She wiped her nose, smearing blood on the back of her shaking hand. James stared into his wife's eyes as the bright green hardened, her voice urgent, "We have to save Harry."
James' mind was still reeling, they'd been eating some snacks together and playing with Harry's blocks, picking them up with a mage hand and rolling them through the air. Harry would giggle, and—
Crash. The wards shook once more and one of the paintings in the hallway fell to the floor. James began searching for his gear, still holding Harry in one arm, he tried, "Lily, we've fought him off before, we can do this." Giving up wasn't in his vocabulary. By the Nine Hells, giving up wasn't in any of his friends' vocabulary either.
His thoughts involuntarily drifted to Peter, once more. Peter would never have given in; James knew his meekest friend was as brave as any Gryffindor or Marauder… They would have to have tortured until he spilled.
Watcher's above, they'd just seen him earlier this week.
"We have to protect Harry." Lily's voice cut through his torrent of thoughts, causing James' world to spin as he looked at the infant, his child, in his arms. She was absolutely right; they couldn't protect Harry and fight him. He turned towards his wife, his genius of a wife, the wizard who could learn a new spell in a minute, whose sheer brilliance shone brighter than any other variant human ever could. After a moment to steel herself, her voice broke his reverie once more, "I can use the Ritual."
The Ritual.
The Ritual that required him to give her his wand, and somehow delay the Dark Lord for one minute, while his brilliant wife imbued their son with the most protective spell she could devise. The Ritual that required both of them to not attack the Dark Lord as the murderous lich assailed the home that they had built together. The Ritual that required neither of them could live so that Harry could survive.
James swallowed, and any rebuttal fell away upon seeing the tears running down Lily's cheeks. He passed Harry over to Lily, and, with only a breath of hesitation, handed her his wand too. "Go, I'll hold him off." He gave a wobbly smile to the two most precious people in his life, tears running down his face.
Lily held Harry to her chest, and started to speak through the lump in her throat, "...Don't att—"
"Don't attack him, I know. Lil's," He looked to her beautiful green eyes, "I love you."
She just managed, "I love you too."
He leaned over and kissed Harry on the head, "I love you so much, Harry… S-Sirius," He paused not wanting to think if any other friends had been caught, "Sirius will take care of you… Live, and I'll see you again one day." A teardrop remained on Harry's forehead. Turning back to his wife, for the final time, James said, "Go save our son."
Lily nodded and ran upstairs to the nursery. Her Animated Spellbook, Vel, kept pace with her and was already flipping to the pages bearing a title in Primordial, Su'chaile Locshira, or, The Ritual of Singular Protection.
Meanwhile, James flexed his fingers, feeling the magic course through him from his Potter ring. His Oath of Devotion that tied his soul to his magic seemed to thrum in preparation. Fighting the Dark Lord without actually fighting or even having his wand... if things weren't so dire, he would've scoffed at his wife. Luckily, James had other options beyond sorcery.
His platinum wedding band glowed white as he twisted it with his right hand and held his remaining fingers in a gesture to ward off evil. "Sanctus Solidaris" he intoned; a slight shimmer appeared around him as his Sanctuary spell took hold. As he took a step, he glanced down at the snacks they were eating, and slipped a pork rind to put in his pocket. For Peter. With another shudder, he opened the front door to the cottage, stepping towards his last stand, but if it meant Harry would survive... so be it.
Lily gently set Harry in the crib, and then, she began to move with the well-practiced discipline of a member of her Order. Components began to whirl out of her satchel and set themselves floating in the formation of a seven-pointed star, centered around the crib.
Another blast from the Dark Lord's wand rocked the foundations of the cottage, the ward stone of the premises having finally split down the middle. James coughed into his arm as he waded through the dust cloud outside of his home. A hauntingly gaunt voice spilled out from the cloaked form in the shadows, "James Potter, you've been a thorn in my side for some time, and it will give me so much satisfaction removing more of Dumbledore's pawns today." James felt every hair on his back stand, any remaining wards fell to nothing as Lord Voldemort dispelled them with an incantation and a gesture.
James kept walking across the lawn, holding out his hand with the glowing ring. His voice carried, "Voldemort. You are not welcome in my home. Begone." He held his hands out and attempted to push the Dark Lord back. A wave of holy energy washed over the area. The Dark Lord paused his stride momentarily in surprise, nearly succumbing to the Paladin's powers.
For half a beat, Voldemort tilted his head at James before cackling, "You are a fool, just like Dumbledore. There is a difference between mere undead and the undying. No ministry paladin would be able to turn me. Glacius." His wand hand lashed out sending a beam of frost towards James. Only, rather than hit James, the Ray of Frost bent around him, and angled into the cottage door instead. The Dark Lord's eyes narrowed, sliding from where his wand pointed at James to the now frost covered door.
In the nursery room, Vel flew around the crib, fluttering her pages to assist her wizard by distracting the child. Lily drew a sleeve over her eyes, leaving a dampness on the hem, and began her chant in primordial. Layers upon layers of abjuration magic began to encircle her son.
James smirked, "You really should work on your aim. Or... just Go. Away." Once more, James pushed his arms out in the same motion to Turn Undead, and as the Dark Lord braced himself for the wave of holy energy, James actually subtly cast Grease in front of the pale robed lich, the pork rind in his pocket powering the grease spell's material component.
Voldemort's body had tensed for a second turning attempt. When it never came, his mouth creased into a frown, "You are quite annoying." He squinted at James' form, and then waved his wand with a murmured, "Bombarda." A ball of lightning crackled a foot to James' left, illuminating his wide eyes for an instant. Then the lightning disappeared within itself, and James' vision went white as a Thunderwave erupted through his body, tossing him onto the ground ten feet away. "Ahhhh... not invulnerable or anything of the sort, just hard to pin down."
The house shook with a cacophonous noise outside. Lily gritted her teeth in concentration, refusing to worry about James, and kept working. The couple's wands lay on either side of Harry in his crib. She pulled out the cloth bag and sprinkled the diamond dust over her son. It disappeared into the babe's skin with small crackles of energy.
James struggled towards his feet, ears ringing, and unable to see out of his right eye, it took him a moment to figure out his glasses had shattered, but he saw the Dark Lord begin to march towards him. It wasn't as satisfying as he'd hoped, what with the bloody eye, but he just managed to witness Voldemort slip onto his ass on the Grease spell.
Trying to take advantage of the delay, James stood up and tried to concentrate on a new spell, his voice croaking out the incantation to the spell Protection from Evil and Good. From his place on the ground, Voldemort snarled, sliced the air with his hand. The divine magic dissipated to nothing as the Dark Lord's Counterspell shredded through it.
James wobbled five paces from the door of his home and pulled from the divine magic of his Oath. One hand over his eye to repair the wound, and the other laid over the rib sticking out of his chest. The divine magic pulsed within him, causing his flesh and bone to repair itself, to the point he could at least see Voldemort's blurry shape with depth perception.
Voldemort snarled, "Glacius!" and another burst of cold bluish-white energy shot towards James, now unimpeded by the Sanctuary. The frost stung, not as bad as glass in his eye, but he could feel all his joints struggle against the cold. The Dark Lord stood, saying something in Draconic that sent chills up James' spine. Voldemort switched back to English, every syllable palpitating with fury, "You dare!? This was going to be quick! But now, this will be as painful as possible!"
"Sesspeerla!" he hissed in Draconic, and in his next step he disappeared into a column of smoke.
Harry cried as the diamond dust itched, but he was soon distracted by the dancing book fluttering between spell diagrams and fun pictures Lily had drawn in Vel for her son to appreciate. Lily, hearing the battlefield go silent, paused for a breath before checking that James' wand still lay there, and she continued her chant.
James blinked through the dust of the battlefield, his vision blurry, but he saw no sign of the enemy. Hearing Harry cry, he suddenly feared that Voldemort had teleported into the house. He snarled, "Coward!" and started to run back to the cottage. But, as he turned around, James came face to face with the red eyes of Lord Voldemort. The pale gaunt hand of the lich reached out and touched James' chest. As though all his veins had turned to ice, James stood, paralyzed, before Lord Voldemort.
"This will be... most painful." Voldemort intoned with a vicious grin. "Venenumit."
The battlefield had gone incredibly silent, and Lily had progressed with the ritual. Her and James' wand, tied to the sacrifices, bound together and merged into a protective light that was absorbed by the seven-pointed star around Harry. Lily finished the chanting and began to pump almost all of her magic into the circle around Harry. It vanished into his forehead with a pulse of white light.
The final step in the ritual was for both her and James to die by Voldemort's hand.
James, as it turned out, was well on his way to this end. The Cloudkill spell engulfed his paralyzed body, and every time he'd break free of the frost, he'd only end up inhaling more poison. Voldemort's frost covered hand would touch him and sear his nerves with more frigid paralysis.
Upon James Potter's final breath, his body temperature sinking to hypothermic levels and the poison forcing his organs to fail with every slowing beat of his heart, his final thoughts were of friends he would reunite with on the other side, his wife who would join him, and his son who would live.
Voldemort stood over the corpse of James Potter; he snarled at the man who had caught him with a Grease spell, of all things. He should've expected it, given what Wormtail had told him of their little group's antics; luckily, the woman hadn't escaped with the child during this delay. The Dark Lord pivoted, and with a flourish of Prestidigitation, he cleaned himself of dirt, dust, and grease; before stepping foot into the Potter home.
He found the mother in the back with the child.
Voldemort's voice hissed slightly in Draconic before he snarled in anger, trying to keep his word to Severus, "Your husband is dead; step to the side and you may live."
"No." Lily's voice did not waver, though tears flowed freely down her cheeks. She stood valiantly between Voldemort and Harry, and Vellum, her spell book, floated near her. "Not Harry! You'd have to take me first!"
And she began to cast Major Image, absolutely harmless, but the thrum of magical power was enough to force the hand of the lich.
In a well-practiced motion, he wiped away her casting with a Counterspell gesture, and aimed his wand in her direction, "Dissolotium!" He roared, a battlefield mindset taking over once more. The green ray of light struck her in the chest, and she fell, dead instantly; her body turning to ash as the Disintegrate took effect upon her corpse.
He startled when the toddler began to cry. He approached the son of his dead enemies... Harry Potter, the child of prophecy, the one who could grow to destroy him, and Lord Voldemort spoke the words he'd saved for this moment. His strongest spell, Power Word: Kill.
"Avada Kedavra."
Author's Note:
Hey everyone! So happy you're reading my new story here, and I am happy to update you all with the news that I'm officially married! Yayyyyy! The wedding was wonderful, and I've found I really like having a ring on my finger. With all the stress from planning a wedding dissipating, I'm hoping to have more time for fun writing like this, and I'm happy to share it with all of you.
This story has been stuck in my brain for quite awhile now, and NaNo seemed like the perfect opportunity to put some ink on the page. Apologies for everyone waiting for the next chapter of Against All Odds! Know that it is also in my docket for NaNoWriMo this year, hopefully you won't have to wait too much longer.
As you may have read in Author's Notes in AAO, I do really enjoy D&D, and have DM'd for around 5 years now. Though I've played Pathfinder before, I mainly play in the ruleset for 5th edition. If you've never played, but want to, then my honest recommendation is to try a game like Betrayal at House on the Hill, with a group of friends. It'll teach everyone the basics about having skills and stats, as well as gently introduce changing mechanics to the game (well as gentle as a betrayal can be, I suppose.) D&D is super fun, and every time I dive deep into spell workings within Harry Potter, I always end up with that fun thread in my brain regarding actual rules within that universe.
There's a lot of interesting design questions that have gone into the worldbuilding thoughts of this world, that I hope to share more in future chapters. In this case, James being an Auror, has several levels as an Oath of Devotion Paladin on top of his Sorcerer class. Meanwhile, Lily, brightest witch of her age and all that, makes for an amazing Order of Scribes Wizard. I've always thought Harry's origin story has been shaky at best. As I was getting ready to publish this chapter, my wife and I (super fun to say) were talking about how awful the whole scenario played out. I'm hoping that by adding James' contribution to the ritual, and more reason for them being defenseless, it adds to the effect of their sacrifice and the magic at play.
The other fix-it in this chapter, is more for the fan-fiction writings I've seen in the past who have Lily or James give a letter to Harry about how they never trusted Peter or things like that. It is wild to think that you would not trust somebody but be like, yeah here's the secret to my family's safety. It should be unthinkable for Peter to have betrayed them, and their first thought should be, oh shit, Peter's been tortured, not ah he was a traitor all along. Similarly, Sirius should've gone looking to rescue/find Peter, and then it all devolved when Peter is unharmed and traitorous, rather than him giving Harry to Hagrid while he seeks revenge.
I hope everyone enjoys this fun project, the summary is a hard thing to explain it with, but essentially it is going to be a story where a lot of AU elements from 5e/D&D are implemented into HP to change, update, or make better sense of the world. As you've seen in this prologue, I'm using real spells along with the rules from 5e, and I used the Lich stat block for Voldemort. Weirdly, I think the action economy of rounds actually lends itself pretty well to fantasy writings.
Already, I've been tinkering with Chapter 1, and I hope to post more soon. Please let me know what you think!
Sincerely,
Middlejourney