Chapter 1: The Marauders Stand

Disclaimer: I obviously don't own the idea of Harry Potter or any of the money making forms of it.

Summary: AU. Neville is BWL. This is a story of a different Harry who does not bear the burden of the BWL mantle.

A/N: There will be differences to canon in character backstory, family trees, some OOC characters, etc.

This work has been inspired in some areas by stories such as Holly Potter and the Statues of Stone by xOreoKeKz

October 31st 1981

Moody shot out of bed, decades of war and auror training experience taught him to trust his instincts, and his instincts were screaming at him. Some called him paranoid, and crazy, perhaps they were right, but he was a major obstacle in Voldemort's way, killing and capturing more Death Eaters than anyone else. He had a right to be paranoid.

The whole day and tonight in particular had a dark sense of foreboding attached to it. Earlier he had dismissed the feeling as a result of Samhain, where the barrier between life and death was at its thinnest. No, this felt like something more, something sinister.

Magic crossing his wards had him spin, drawing his wand toward the threat. He let out a sigh of relief as a feeling of joy embraced him, an ethereal shaggy dog stopping before him. The relief quickly turned to alertness as the frantic voice of Sirius Black spoke, "Moody, meet us at the Potters. Peter's not home and I have a bad feeling."

Cursing, Moody rushed out the door and past the wards apparating just outside the Potters fence. Instantly Moody was assaulted with the familiar sound, feeling and smell of battle. Stopping only to send a patronus to the ministry and Albus for reinforcement, Moody rushed into the fray, through the blasted open door to the cottage, and sneaking upstairs to where the fighting was occurring.

Assessing the situation Moody spotted three people in Death Eater regalia fighting and another lying on the floor. Snarling as he recognised three Lestranges and another young man, possibly not even in his twenties. The Lestranges were known, inner circle Death Eaters to the Order but the Ministry would not move on the evidence they had brought in.

Lily was lying in front of the crib housing a wailing Harry Potter, clearly alive but with a vacant expression in her eyes as she twitched endlessly. James was fairing little better, twitching and struggling to move with unsteady movements, as if his brain was not obeying his body.

Sirius and Remus were desperately trying to fend off the unknown assailant, Rodulphus and Bellatrix Lestrange. Moody could tell they were on the back foot, three against two while Sirius and Remus fought with all their might to protect their own lives as well as their friends.

Moody steeled himself and let loose a relentless spell chain at the backs of the Death Eaters. Powerful piercing, cutting and bone shattering curses flying towards them with deadly accuracy, Rodulphus went down almost instantly with a piercing curse to the back of the skull. The unknown man shielded his skull with his non-wand hand, screaming in pain as his hand was shattered. Bellatrix, one of Voldemort's most skilled and most insane, shielded the onslaught from her attackers cackling madly at the sight of her husband's death.

Moody and Remus ruthlessly battered the unknown Death Eater's defense, spying weakness due to the injury. Sirius was battling his cousin, barraging her defenses and holding his own now it was a one on one duel. He prepared to shield as Bellatrix drew a powerful slash, casting a verbal Sectumsempra.

At the last moment Bellatrix redirected her spell toward the crib, directly at where Harry lay wailing. James, who had been twitching, struggling and barely conscious, somehow knew the danger his son was in and dove desperately in the path of the spell. The magic of the invisible sword sliced through James' neck, the remnants of the powerful spell, continued leaving a deep gash from Harry's hip to his shoulder.

Just as Moody and Remus managed to stun and bind the man in chains, they heard Sirius' anguished, heartbroken scream. Looking over just in time to witness Bellatrix cackle as a green light hit Sirius, fixing the grief stricken look in his face for eternity.

Moody moved swiftly, breaking Bellatrix's wand arm, stunning her and tying her up. Hearing the tell tale cracks of apparition he looked out the side of the house, roof barely supported by the wall, half blown up and covered in scorch marks. The ministry obliviators, field medics and aurors were here approaching the house and obliviating muggles in the area. Trusting them to secure the Death Eaters he rushed to the crib, surprised to see the rise and fall of the toddlers chest.

Diagnostics informed him the infant had not fatally damaged any organs, but if left untreated he would surely bleed out soon. Running through the healing spells he knew would seal wounds was unsuccessful. Cursing to himself Moody realised this was no normal cutting curse, likely the sectumsempra. Sectumsempra had become a popular curse amongst Death Eaters and had always proven fatal, there was no known countercurse developed yet. If it didn't damage vital organs, the victim would bleed to death.

Moody cast a ferula to tightly bind Harry's torso in bandages and slow the blood flow, calling the medic over, Macmillian. She quickly grabbed blood replenishes out of her pack, and fed them to the infant, while she cast numbing charms surrounding the wound.

November 1st 1981

Vernon Dursley was 26 years old and had been married to his wife Petunia for over two years. He had been working at Grunnings for four years now and had quickly climbed the ranks as a successful salesman. After a recent promotion, he, his wife and his infant son Dudley had moved into a spacious two storey house in Little Whinging, Surrey.

The day after their wedding Petunia had told him some fictitious story about a hidden magical world with flying broomsticks and mail carrier owls. He thought she was crazy; until she brought out a box full of letters from her sister, filled with talk about potions classes and moving pictures of students in robes waving wands and petting unicorns. He heard a sad story about sisters, one who resented the other due to jealousy and another who slowly forgot about the older sister she once looked up to.

When Dudley was born she had finally contacted her sister and they had found out Lily was expecting a baby soon too. Unfortunately, they learned that Lily and her husband were targets in the civil war the wixen were fighting. Over the next fifteen months they continued to correspond, talking about their lives and especially their beloved children. Vernon was so happy to see the smile on her face every time she read a letter from Lily.

Today Vernon drove into work and began to go about his day as normal, when he left for a late lunch with a potential client on Charing Cross road, he started noticing things that set off alarm bells in his head. Fireworks were being set off almost constantly and he was seeing lots of people wearing robes out and about. There must have been something big happening in the magical world, and by the smiles on faces it was a good thing. Lots of what he heard made little sense, but he kept hearing the name Neville Longbottom and he thought he even heard a mention or two of the Potters.

After a long lunch in which Vernon left very happy; he had gotten on well with the client, even reached a verbal agreement for a big deal and all but signed the contract. He arrived home early, all smiles and informed his wife about the big deal he made. As he started to tell her about all the suspected magicals he saw today there was a clear knock on the door.

Vernon opened the door and was instantly shocked, the man in front of him was about 6 foot tall and dressed in a suit, the surprising part was the litany of scars on his face, burn scars, claw marks, chunks out of his nose. Looking down he was even more surprised to see a wooden stump for a left leg.

"Vernon Dursley, I'm Auror Alastor Moody. Do you mind if I come in?" he said gruffly. Vernon waved him through unsure what an auror was but hesitant to question the scary looking man. After they had sat down around the dining room table with tea in hand Alastor addressed Petunia in a solemn voice. "I'm sorry to inform you, but last night your sister Lily and her family were attacked in their home. James was murdered and Lily is in a comatose like state, and is unlikely to recover. Harry is in critical condition."

Vernon scooted closer to his wife wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into his chest as she broke down. He wiped the tears out of his own eyes, he didn't know the Potter's well but they were his siblings in law and seeing his wife in this state was terrible.

"Can you tell us any details?" Petunia croaked after a few minutes. Moody contemplated for a few moments before explaining softly, "I don't know how much you know of the state of the wizarding world right now, but we have been attacked by British terrorists for almost ten years, it has become more akin to a civil war lately. James and Lily have been involved in the effort through James' work as an auror, a kind of elite magical police force, and as a part of a civilian vigilante group. I was James' mentor as an auror for the two year training period and I got to know Lily very well through that and the vigilante group."

Giving a long sigh Moody continued, "They have been in hiding for some time as their efforts toward the war became known and with Harry's birth. Last night their location was betrayed by a supposed friend Peter Pettigrew" he said, snarling the name like venom.

As he explained what happened when the intruders attacked, Vernon grew more and more horrified. The Potters were incredibly brave and strong people, it was heartbreaking listening to the family's last stand and he prayed that Harry and Lily could recover. He had never met James before but he had a huge respect for the man. He also had a massive respect for Moody and the Potters' friends.

Moody then told them that Lily and Harry were at St Mungo's hospital in London. After dropping off Dudley at their friends the Polkiss'. They experienced the hellish apparition, essentially teleportation, and far more horrible than he imagined; they threw up on arrival. Moody guided them toward an entrance that appeared out of nowhere when he touched them.

They were directed to a private room where Petunia broke down at the sight of Lily's dull eyes and twitching body unresponsive to her sister's weeping. Harry was lying in a crib, pale sickly skin and a hideous wound.

November 3rd 1981

Severus Snape often found himself contemplating his decisions and his life. He had no delusions about himself, he was an unbearable, rude and pessimistic person and had been for as long as he could remember. He grew up in an environment that shaped his pessimistic worldview, with his drunk, abusive father and his mother that had given up. She was a witch and yet she allowed her filth husband to not only hit her, but also her young child.

The only light in his life was Lily Evans, she was a bubbly, energetic kid who had become best friends with him after he told her what she is. She never cared about his dirty appearance, ragged clothes and bruised body. Lily's parents were great people who saw a skinny poor kid, and fed and cared for him.

As the war heated up, Severus' and Lily's relationship became more and more strained. At the start of his Hogwarts years, the Slytherins had treated him as an outcast; a poor half-blood friends with a Gryffindor muggleborn. He hadn't cared though, he had Lily and he didn't need anyone else. Unfortunately, by his third year, older Slytherins including the Head Boy Lucius Malfoy, had taken notice of his prodigious potions and defense talents.

The purebloods even in his own year had begun associating with him and he had given in to the temptation of having powerful allies to back him up. He knew they could help him succeed, and he was nothing if not ambitious, the dream to make a far better life than the one his mother had. Lily's other friends had never liked him and even Lily herself didn't like his new allies, not that he could begrudge her with their discriminatory view toward her and people like her. Eventually their relationship reached its breaking point, lashing out in a moment of weakness, Severus ruined their friendship. But he still loved her, and always would, it wasn't romantic, but he loved her more than anyone else.

He grew bitter, throwing himself into potions, and spell crafting. As his feud with the marauders grew to more vicious levels including his own attempted murder via werewolf, Severus became closer with his junior Death Eater housemates who allied with him against the marauders.

He devoured their rare potions and dark arts tomes, using his arithmancy skills to develop spells for use against the marauders and general usefulness. One of his biggest regrets was developing the sectumsempra curse; Montangue had walked in on him decimating a table with his curse. Now it was a Death Eater favorite and had ended so many lives.

He had joined the Death Eaters right out of school; Lucius Malfoy had vouched for him and funded his potions mastery. In return he brewed potions for the Dark Lord and his followers and spent the nights hanging around wizarding areas gathering information about the Dark Lords enemies. His biggest regret was choosing to spy on the Hog's Head in January of 1980 with Felix Rosier. In a stroke of terrible luck they had overheard a prophecy predicting the Dark Lord's fall, being with Lucius he was forced to relay the information.

In an even worse stroke of luck, Lily's son fit the bill of the prophecy and now their family had a target on their head. Distraught, he went to Albus begging him to save her and her son, telling him he would do anything.

Just like that his life had become more complicated and far more dangerous; after bringing such important news to him, the Dark Lord now held him in his good graces. Albus had offered him an assistant professor position and after learning this, the Dark Lord wanted him to pretend to spy with Dumbledore. Severus didn't even know if he was classified as a double, triple or even quadruple agent, he wanted to save Lily above all else and all though he didn't think it possible, he wanted the 'light' side to win.

It had been over 15 months since Lily's son was born and he became a spy. Four high ranking Death Eaters had attacked their home the other night, their location betrayed by Pettigrew; the traitor had always been a coward. Lily was severely injured, extended cruciatus exposure over ten minutes from two powerful Death Eaters at once; she was broken and unresponsive. Her son was in critical condition, from his spell. It seemed Potter had finally done something noteworthy and had taken the brunt of the spell saving his son from certain death.

November 1st had been a day of celebration for the British wixen, fireworks and parties everywhere. He was probably amongst the first to know the news; late on Samhain night he had felt a sharp pain in his forearm and when he saw the mark had faded he knew the Dark Lord was gone.

Then he had heard the rumors about what happened, the Dark Lord had brought down the wards of Longbottom manor and murdered Augusta Longbottom before turning his wand on Neville Longbottom. Somehow the killing curse had rebounded and a husk of the Dark Lord's body had been found by a frantic Frank and Alice Longbottom.

November 1st took a terrible turn for Severus that night when Albus informed him of what happened at the Potter's the night prior. He felt as if he were well and truly dead inside, the only way he was functioning at the minute was a single minded goal for Lily's sake. He knew Lily wouldn't care about herself so long as her child lived, so he had set to work on a countercurse. The ministry had been working for over a year for a countercurse, but as he invented the curse and wrote the arithmancy himself he could reverse engineer and counter it far quicker and that is what he had been working tirelessly on ever since he heard.

Disillusioned, he snuck into St Mungo's, locating Harry Potter's room swiftly and reading the patient information sheet by the bed. All they had done so far was replenish the blood he was losing. Severus drew his wand, hovering it back and forth over the wound and casting the countercurse vulnera sanentur. The wound slowly knitted together leaving an ugly scar from the infant's hip to his shoulder. Severus had theorised that if the countercurse was cast in the first hour or so after the victim was hit by a sectumsempra there would be minimal to no scarring, but at least Harry would make a full functional recovery. He left a sheet on the bed with the incantation and process of the spell.