Disclaimer: This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy. No ships. Bashing around everyone.
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Summary of Years 1977 -1980The betrothal's magic did bring James and Lily together emotionally during their sixth year. The couple worked out a compromise that allowed her to continue her visits with her parents at the winter and spring holidays. In summer between their sixth and seventh years, she remained with her parents in their home with an appearance at least once a day by James – often with his well-behaved friend, Sirius Black.
Lily didn't record many things in her diary during her seventh year. She was Head Girl and James Potter was Head Boy. Her duties, studies, and private projects kept her busy from morning to well past midnight almost every night of the week.
In October 1977, Mr and Mrs Evans were killed in a terrible car accident involving several other cars with multiple casualties. At the request of Lord Fleamont Potter, the DMLE investigated and determined that magic did not play a role in the accident.
However, Petunia latched onto the idea that some wizard had caused the accident and blamed Lily. The sisters drifted apart after the funeral and by the new year, all correspondence had ended.
Attacks by Death Eaters occurred more often and, in the spring of 1978, Fleamont and Euphemia Potter were killed during an attack on Diagon Alley. Lily supported James through his initial grief and getting through taking and passing the NEWTS.
Lily was caught off guard by James Potter deciding that they would marry immediately after graduation. Unable to protest, Lily became Lady Lily Potter at age eighteen. She was very sorry to see that her sister wasn't allowed to attend the wedding and never acknowledged the announcement.
After their wedding and short honeymoon to an undisclosed location in Europe, Lord and Lady Potter began their adult lives. James became an Auror and with Sirius Black at his side and fought courageously against the Death Eaters. Lily buried herself in her work with charms and her theories about Magical Null Space.
However, James refused to allow a formal apprenticeship with Professor Flitwick, and Headmaster Albus Dumbledore forbid unofficial work with the Charms Master at Hogwarts. His argument was that her games and pretty papers would steal time from true candidates for a mastery of charms.
In the fall of 1979, Lily fell pregnant. James celebrated and the happiness of her husband pleased the witch. She contemplated the birth of her first child next summer. However, in the winter of 1980, arguments erupted between the couple over Lily's work on her theories of Magical Null Space.
In a major development, she had created a spell – Improved Finite Incantatem (IFI) that was an amplified version of the Finite Incantatem. The spell pulled things back from Null Space after a simple ritual. Lily was preparing to publish her work, but James was angry that his wife wanted to use her maiden name on the papers. The arguments culminated with a final confrontation one afternoon in the spring.
"No, you can't publish as Lily Evans! The paper must list your name as Lily Potter!" James demanded. Then Sirius interfered and he wrote the name James Potter on title above Lily's name.
"I understand pureblood society better than either of you," Sirius stated. "No one will take this work seriously if it has a muddy woman's name as the theorist. You need – must have – a pureblood man's name at the top of the cover page."
The argument deteriorated from there and James was forced to take Sirius out to the local pub to eat supper that evening. Lily refused to cook, citing the pregnancy making her tired, which James could not dispute.
On a trip to Hogwarts with James for a meeting with Order of Phoenix, Lily called for a house elf and gave the creature the original notebooks and documents of all her work to protect or hide in Hogwarts. These precious documents included the originals of all her personal diaries though she kept copies of every book, diary, and document to continue her research and writing as best she could around her husband's prohibition.
In late May, just two months before the due date for their child, James lost his temper with the amount of paper spread around the office one evening, destroyed everything, and ordered his wife to stop these useless studies. In the argument that followed James also destroyed all the copies of Lily's diaries at the house in Godric Hallow
Feeling as though her husband judged her work and value to be lacking, Lily fell into a depression. When Alice Longbottom visited and saw the state of her fellow mother-to-be, she ripped a strip of skin off the posterior of James Potter and an equally painful one from Sirius Black.
Contrite, James apologised but doesn't offer any relief on the prohibition on her working. On their wedding anniversary, James gave Lily a new diary, but she never wrote in it. After Harry is born, she discovered someone had cast a compulsion on her to write in the diary.
Contemplating this manipulation, she decided where and how the new diary came to her. It took a few days to decide how to act. Then when James was out of the house, and the baby is asleep, she wrote with a great deal of flourishes and swirly tails on the last letter of each word. She smiled as the writing disappeared for a moment – magic making it appear in the duplicate copy of the book located elsewhere.
'Hello Professor Dumbledore! There's a muggle expression that seems appropriate this afternoon! F-You!'
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Excerpts of Informal Diary about Events and Conversations 1980-1981In the middle of July, Harry searched through his mother's book bag that had been used as a changing bag before Halloween 1981. In the bag, Harry found another notebook that was labelled Mind-Numbing History. He searched through the book and discovered his mother's records of conversations with James and events in 1981.
This writing was only in the school notebook and not copied into Albus Dumbledore's copy. The entries end on 27 October 1981 so there was nothing recorded about that fateful day, and this suited Harry. He had gained valuable insight into his mother's feeling and opinions.
His father – James Potter – was portrayed in a better light in this writing and Harry hoped it was because the man had grown up. Nonetheless, Harry attempted to rationalize the man's actions and opinions as being the ones he was taught as a boy.
'Not that they were right, but he didn't see anything wrong with them,' he thought. 'No, they weren't right. Maybe if he'd lived, he could have changed.'
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2 January 1981 A Careful ArgumentJames encouraged his wife to write about her theories in charms in the diary, ignoring the first statement she written. But Lily simply wrote out recipes for muggle food dishes to fill the pages.
On another night, the couple argued – as much as a muggleborn witch could argue with her pureblood husband. Lily pleaded, "James, I know you love Harry if you don't love me like I had hoped. Can we save his life? Please, let's leave Britain!"
"Lily! The Potter family can't desert Magical Britain for another land! We've been here since they invented dirt!" James said and laughed at his own joke.
"Yes, but could we leave for a few years? Just until the ministry settles with the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters."
"But what if the Dark Lord wins?" asked her husband.
"Then we will be alive – Harry will be alive!"
"Dumbledore says that the Dark Lord will not stop with Britain. He wants to rule the world. And there's a prophecy that means the Dark Lord will come for Harry wherever we are!"
"Then why won't Dumbledore tell us what it says? Divination is all over the place and very unreliable – even for Dumbledore!"
James frowned. "We can't question everything Dumbledore tells us."
"You never question any of his commands or pronouncements!" the witch complained. While her husband grumbled about doubting the leader of the Order of the Phoenix, Lily realised he was not willing to question the dictates of the headmaster.
"James, I have shown you the size of Muggle Britain and the things they can do! Magical Britain is nothing next to what the muggles have. What do you think the muggles will do to magical houses and people if the Dark Lord takes over and starts openly attacking the muggles?"
"They don't have magic! Muggles are no threat to us!" stated James, parroting pureblood myths.
"They don't have magic, but they have other things – guns, bombs, and missiles," Lily counter argued. "In other nations, the magical people are more integrated with the technology. In France, the Aurors use muggle communication devices, and they aren't limited to just stupefying the criminals!"
"No, we must not drop down to their level! Dumbledore says we are better than they are!"
"Yes, but our friends are dying, and the Death Eaters keep getting released from the DMLE holding cells before they even come to trial!
James shook his head and assured his wife, "We are safe here under the Fidelius. None of the Death Eaters can find us."
"But..."
"No! Stop!" James commanded. "This discussion is over! We are not leaving! You are not leaving Britain with my son!"
Thereafter, Lily did not ever mention leaving again. She did write in an old class notebook about the arguments and everything that had happened since the day
Thinking he'd found the only copy in their library; James destroyed his wife's school diaries and the papers discussing Magical Null Space. The look on Lily's face when she found the desk clean left the wizard uncomfortable for days.
She never told him about the set that were hidden at Hogwarts in the Room of Requirement, or the copies of her diaries that she kept in her bottomless bag – that was now Harry's changing bag. It always stayed with her to provide clean nappies and wipes for the baby, and regular and teething toys.
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21 October 1981Lily Potter found herself holding Harry again while he slept. The last four days, her instincts screamed to hold her baby. The witch worried that this meant that soon she would not be able to hold him anymore. Her bottomless bag was always close at hand with all the supplies to care for Harry, as well as her recent notebooks and ideas.
'Does being the blood-adopted son of Sirius Black give Harry any protections? Any more protections? James and Sirius accomplished that without telling me. Damn wizards! Damn men!' Her thoughts raced, 'How do I protect Harry? James is so blind to common sense because of his pureblood sense of entitlement…and Dumbledore's grandiose statements. If we go out, the Dark Lord and his minions may show up at any moment.'
Thinking about protections, Lily remembered the stone she'd carved with protective runes in her fifth year, and muttered, "The Four Idiots never figured out how I did it…they never got their hands on the stone."
'How do I give the same protections to my baby? I can't enlarge him to carve runes into his flesh. What about a tattoo? But where?'
'And how do I get a tiny tattoo on his skin where no one will notice it? Maybe Sirius Black was right…this muddy witch will be using tiny tools to draw runes.'
'Or maybe I can magnify my vision and use tiny tools to tattoo something on my baby?' she decided and retrieved the shield stone from her bottomless book bag. She had learned to hide the bag from James even when he was in a good mood – it reminded him that she was qualified to be a Mistress of Charms when they graduated from Hogwarts. Only his selfishness and pureblood pride kept her from being named a mistress and publishing her magic breaking articles on Magical Null Space.
After quick experiments with magnifying charms and mirrors, Lily was able to see her son's skin almost twenty times larger than normal. She looked him over and found a smooth, clear spot on the upper left cheek of his buttocks. With a sleeping charm, she practiced drawing the runes on his flesh.
That first day, she continued her research and found a description for how tattoo artists injected ink into the flesh of their customers.
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24 October 1981For three days, Lily forced James and Sirius to change Harry's nappy when he was wet. James was anxious to get his wife pregnant again and was solicitous to her wishes. Neither wizard noticed the tiny ink stain on Harry's buttock. That afternoon, while James was on duty with the DMLE, Lily tested her ability to tattoo her own skin with the same runic array on her left thigh. The needles pricked her skin, but a numbing charm dispelled the discomfort.
Before 3:00 PM she had the protective rune in her skin. And she was surprised to see them glow slightly, meaning her magical core had powered them without her having to use her wand.
'Good!' she decided. 'Harry's magic will keep the runes powered up!'
That same day, James returned home with Sirius Black and the two wizards asked for a large supper. Not bothering to argue, Lily set to work in the kitchen. She failed to notice the compulsions sent toward her back by Sirius Black and James. Black cast a compulsion for obedience to any speaker, and Potter cast a lust charm. In both cases, the spells bounced back and hit the caster. During the rest of his visit, Sirius was very uncomfortable, but he found himself agreeing to every suggestion that Lily made at the table, and James was equally uncomfortable for other reasons.
When James finally suggested that Sirius leave, the wizard left without saying goodbye to anyone. And James carried his wife to their bedroom before she could clear the table.
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27 October 1981While James left to complete his duties as an Auror that day, Lily had time to carefully tattoo her baby. She let him fall asleep naturally, then cast a sleeping charm and numbing charm on his buttock. She magnified her vision by twenty times and used a needle to inject ink into the pattern of the tattoo on the child. Then she vanished the ink and saw the tattoo glow with the power from her son's infant magical core.
She recorded her success and stated there was only a moment of satisfaction because she knew the future was full of danger for her and her son.
There were no additional entries.
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Lily's Changing BagIn the hour after the murders of James and Lily Potter on 31 October 1981, Sirius Black arrived at Godric Hallow and removed his godson from the ruined house where the bodies of his parents (and the robes of the Dark Lord) lay. Padfoot was cognizant enough to grab the 'changing bag' that Lily always carried around. Black knew the value of clean nappies and toys when his godson was tired and unhappy. He handed the infant and changing bag over to Hagrid who flew away on the motorcycle while Sirius began his doomed hunt for the rat.
Once Hagrid reached Hogwarts and carried Harry into his hut, the changing bag was beyond Hagrid's experience, as was changing a baby's nappy. He summoned house elves from the castle who took care of the baby's physical needs and instructed the half-giant to cuddle the tired baby until he fell asleep.
They returned with food and changed Harry's nappies again in the middle of the night and in the morning. When a message from Albus Dumbledore was delivered to Hagrid to deliver Harry to him in Little Whinging, Hagrid forgot to collect the changing bag as he left his hut, settled Harry into the side car of the motorcycle and roared off into the sky, headed for southern England. The house elves returned to clean Hagrid's hut, and they found the changing bag. Their magic recognized the bag belonged to Lily Evans (Maybe Potter) to their way of thinking. Since Miss Evans was no longer a student at Hogwarts, they took the book bag to the Come-And-Go room where they placed her other deserted belongings – diaries and papers.
The elves hoped that someday, the witch's family might find the bag and reclaim it.
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