SURPRISE! Guess who's back! : D

I know, I know - it's been a very long time, and I can really only apologise for that. I kind of lost my love for Harry Potter for a while, but I've really wanted to get some of my old projects up and running again lately, so I've decided it was time to take another pass at this one. After spending a lot of time planning out the various directions I'd like to go in with this story, I feel comfortable reviving it now : )

Now fair warning, I don't have any kind of update-schedule set in stone. I'll be aiming for at least once a fortnight, but I might go over or under that on occasion. Also, this first chapter is now a lot shorter and acts as a prologue, and is almost exactly the same as before. The next chapter is when thing's start changing from the original version of this story : )

Anyway, without further ado - welcome to Unveiled Prophecies : )

Please remember that Harry Potter is not mine, and I hope you enjoy this story : )

Unveiled Prophecies

A Perilous Warning

James Potter groaned in annoyance as he clapped an exhausted hand against his forehead. The half-asleep man was attempting to block out a rather obnoxious tapping sound. He was currently tucked up in bed with his beautiful wife Lily, his muscular arms wrapped around her slender form, his chin resting on her shoulder.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

James let out a growl of frustration. His hazel eyes snapped open in anger, and he glared murderously around the room.

What the bloody hell was that infernal tapping?

Shifting his weight carefully to avoid waking Lily - although how she could sleep through that damn tapping he'd never know - James propped himself up on his elbows and continued scanning the room. Unfortunately, without his glasses he didn't have much luck in identifying the source of the disturbance.

Snatching them up from their position on his nightstand, along with his wand - just in case - James slipped on his round-rimmed spectacles. The world immediately sharpened into focus. A scowl crawled across James' handsome face as he finally laid eyes on the thing that had dragged him out of dreamland and back into reality.

An owl.

It was a bloody owl.

Somebody had sent him a bloody owl at six-fifteen in the morning. James let out a grunt of displeasure. If this was Sirius playing some kind of lame joke on him, James was going to kill him.

Rolling out of bed, James slipped on the novelty lion-shaped slippers Lily had given him for Christmas - a gift he would never live down if his friends ever found out about - and began to cross the bedroom.

The room itself was beautiful. Sleek, stylish red carpet covered the floor and the walls were painted with rich gold colouring. Mahogany furniture lined the walls, and a grand master bed filled most of the space, with red hangings and bedding covering the sleeping form of Lily.

James smiled lovingly down at her. This was nothing he wouldn't do for his wife and their infant son Harry. They were his world. They were his everything. It was for them that James was fighting in the war of light versus darkness. He wanted a better world, a peaceful world, for them.

And by damn he would do anything he could to make them one.

His warm smile melted away however as he turned to the window to let the large tawny owl perched on the windowsill in. James' face twisted into a perplexed frown. Now that his mind had had a few moments to fully awaken and shake off the last of his sleep, he was beginning to wonder exactly what the owl was doing there.

He doubted very much that this was a joke after all.

The war-time they lived in didn't allow people much of a sense of humour anymore. Plus, the manor the Potter family lived in was protected by some of the most powerful and ancient wards known to wizard-kind. The only way the owl could have got through the enchantments and protection charms over the manor in the first place was if it was sent by an individual that was keyed into the wards, allowing them free access to the manor.

Given the current climate of the war, that list was rather a short one.

Add in the fact that the entire manor had been in lock-down for almost a year now, with little to no contact with the outside world, and James couldn't help but be curious as to who could have sent the letter. And why it couldn't wait until a more sociable hour.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

James rolled his eyes in annoyance. It appeared that this particular owl was a rather impatient one. He didn't want the blasted bird to disturb his wife however. Harry had not slept well at all last night, and Lily had been the one to spend most of it up with him. It was for that reason that James quickly opened the window and stepped back.

The owl gracefully soared past him, flew in a wide circle of the room, before it dropped its letter on the floor, and flew out the window again without some much as a backwards glance. James certainly wasn't sorry to see the back of it. In fact, he was rather happy to be able to shut the window behind the wretched thing.

But being much more interested in the reason for his early wake-up call than the offending party itself, James crossed the room to retrieve the fallen letter.

He looked down at it, his eyes narrowed in distrust and suspicion.

Whilst he knew that the letter had to have been sent by someone his family trusted enough to allow access through the wards, James was still conscious of the fact that there was still the slightest chance that something nasty might slip through. Deciding he couldn't be too safe, James flicked his wand in a complicated movement, and ran a quick diagnostic spell over the sealed letter. The letter glowed with a shimmering pale blue light.

James heaved a sigh of relief.

Blue meant that there was nothing untoward or dangerous hidden in the letter, nor were there any jinxes or curses to be wary of. It was kind of sad really. That something as simple as opening a letter had been reduced to running checks like that, all because of the war.

Still, in the current times, it was a necessity.

With the letter having been deemed safe, James picked it up, and was not surprised to find it addressed to himself and Lily. He quickly tore into it, a sense of urgency in his movements now. After all, they were at war. And this letter had to be important if it was to deprive him of his sleep. James' eyes quickly began scanning through the letter.

"Dear James and Lily,

This message is of the upmost urgency. There isn't much time. Voldemort is preparing to attack Potter Manor, today! You both know of his strength, and his determination to rid himself of you all. You must evacuate immediately, or prepare all your defences. I do not know when he will attack, but it shall be soon. I myself will gather some of our closer forces and arrive to help as soon as I can.

A. P. W. B. Dumbledore"

James felt the blood drain from his face. His eyes widened as a sickening feeling of dread settled in his stomach, and the room seemed to spin around him. His hands shook in horrible fear as the letter's words sunk in.

He was coming.

No, no, no! This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening! The monster was coming for his baby boy, his precious baby boy, who had done nothing to deserve any of this. It wasn't fair.

No.

James quickly shook his head. He took several deep breaths in a pitiful attempt to calm himself. The man knew that he couldn't afford to panic right now. His wife needed him to focus. His son needed him to focus.

It was only by doing so would they all survive this day.

Repeating that in his head like it was his own personal mantra, James immediately snapped into action.

"LILY! LILY, WAKE UP! NOW!" he yelled, trying desperately hard to keep the panic out of his voice. If Lily was going to be calm, then he needed to be calm for her.

Lily jerked awake with a start, and immediately glanced around the room, already sensing that trouble was afoot. Her emerald green eyes locked with her husband's hazel ones. The young wife and mother felt her heart plummet and her stomach twist unpleasantly. She recognised that look on his face. Thanks to the times they lived in, Lily had sadly grown far too accustomed to it. Something bad had happened. Lily just knew it. Something bad had happened to someone they loved, or something bad was about to happen. Either way, Lily just knew she wasn't going to like what she was about to hear.

"What's happened James?" she asked him, working hard to keep her voice level.

Flying into a blind panic wouldn't help.

"He's coming Lily" James told her grimly, his eyes dark, "He's coming here. Look!"

He thrust the letter from Dumbledore at her. Lily's emerald eyes scanned the letter, and she promptly turned a ghastly shade of white. Without sparing her husband so much as a frightened glance, Lily scrambled out of her side of the bed and stumbled to her feet, her wand already in hand.

"James, what do we do? Where do we go?" she cried, unable to prevent the fear entering her voice.

Try as hard as she might not to show it, Lily was afraid. Voldemort was after her beautiful baby. An innocent child. Her heart clenched at the very thought of that evil bastard within two miles of her infant son. But Lily wasn't going to fall apart. She refused too. Her son needed her to be calm right now. For him, for his father, and for everybody else she cared about.

James rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he regarded her question. From the expression on his face, it was obvious that the man was torn over the matter of which action they should take.

One the one hand, Potter Manor had some of the best defences known to wizard-kind. James knew that not even a whole army could break through the wards. And even if they managed to get past them and into the grounds, which was next to impossible, James knew that an intruder wouldn't survive the defences on the inside.

But on the other hand, Voldemort was not your average wizard.

James wasn't even sure the man was completely human, and not just because of his heartless nature, but because of the sheer amount of magic he could wield. There was no way to be certain how well the manor's defences would fair against the Dark Lord. But James did know one thing.

Running away was not the answer.

His parents had always taught him to have faith in the manor. And by Merlin, he was going too.

"We stay here. We activate the defences and fight" James eventually declared.

There was a steely determination in his voice that Lily had rarely heard there. The redhead immediately tensed up. Her mind was already rushing back to the memories of herself and her husband narrowly escaping Voldemort twice before. Needless to say, those were hardly pleasant occasions. And as loathed though she was to admit it, Lily wasn't so sure they could pull off a third escape.

"James... are you sure?" she couldn't help but question in a nervous voice, "You know how determined he is. How powerful he is. I think we should leave".

James shook his head sadly. He hated hearing that note of fear in her voice, but he was sure that staying put was the right course of action.

"Have faith in the manor Lily" he urged her, "It will protect us, I promise. Come on, we should start preparing...".

James was cut off as an deafeningly shrill squealing noise echoed throughout the manor house and its grounds. James' face turned a ghastly shade of white. No, no, no. It couldn't be that sound. Not yet. But it was.

And James immediately understood what it meant.

The noise was an alarm set to a detection spell that warned them about nearby wizards. Naturally there were several exceptions to the detector, for example, it didn't go off whenever Dumbledore or Sirius came around. James and Lily hardly wanted the alarms going off every time one of their friends dropped in.

No.

Whoever the spell was alerting them to was a stranger. And it stood to reason that there was only one person that stranger could be right now. It was Voldemort. After the warning they had just received, there was nothing else that made sense.

He had arrived.

"Oh god James" Lily whimpered in fright.

James quickly pulled her to him, and she buried her face in his chest.

"Hush sweetheart, it's all going to be okay" he soothed her.

"How can you say that?!" Lily choked out tearfully, almost losing herself to her growing nerves, "He wants to kill our son. Our baby".

James had to work extremely hard to blink back tears of his own.

"The manor will keep us safe" he so desperately wanted to believe that, "Look... g-go check on Harry. He'll need you".

Lily looked up from his chest at him with terrified eyes. It shattered James' heart to see her so afraid, but the harsh reality was that with Voldemort constantly coming after them, he was growing more accustom to seeing her like this.

And it pained him every single time.

"What about you?" she whimpered.

James heaved a heavy sigh. That was quite a loaded question, and he had a feeling that his wife wouldn't be pleased with his answer.

"I'm going down to the grounds" he informed her. Lily opened her mouth to protest. James quickly spoke again before she had the chance to, "I know, I know. I don't want to leave you either, and I doubt he'll get in" James soothed her, but it was nowhere near enough to ease Lily of her troubles, "Lily. I don't have a choice. I need to be there to activate the rest of the manor's defences".

Lily swallowed hard, eyes frightened.

"Can't you do it from here?" she pleaded desperately, "I can't stand the thought of you being so close to... to him".

James solemnly shook his head.

"I can't. I wish I could" he gently explained to her, "I need to be that close because the defences need an imprint of my magical signature. I can't do that from here".

"J... James, be careful" Lily whispered, her eyes bright with tears, "And if he gets in, just apparate away. I'll take one of the Portkeys with Harry".

"Okay" James agreed to her request.

"And... I love you" Lily whimpered, her eyes burning with unshed tears.

James couldn't help the sad, albeit strained, smile that lit up his face. Despite the bleak situation around them, James never got tired of hearing her say those three wonderful little words.

"I love you too" he told her, praying it would not be for the last time.

The two of them headed for the bedroom door. James' mind immediately turned back to what Lily had just said about them fleeing. That was one of the good things about owning a manor like Potter Manor. James - as head of the house - could apparate within the grounds, but nobody else could get in or out that same way. Unfortunately however, that also included Lily and baby Harry, so he had asked Dumbledore to create them several Portkeys; some to Hogwarts, some to Sirius's flat, and even a few to the headquarters for The Order of the Phoenix, which both he and Lily were apart of. That way, Lily and Harry would also be able to make a swift escape if they ever needed too.

As they emerged on the landing, Lily glanced in the direction of Harry's nursery, before she turned to her husband and swallowed hard. She prayed with every fibre of her being that this wouldn't be the last time she saw him alive. She tried her best to memorise his handsome face, just in case...

James sensed where her dark thoughts had led her, and quickly pulled her close to him.

"I love you" he repeated to her lovingly.

James then pressed a passionate, almost desperate kiss against Lily's lips, before he dashed off down the stairs, clinging frantically to the hope that they would be reunited soon. He was horribly aware however, that which each step he took, his beloved Lily and his precious baby boy were getting further and further away.

And his showdown with Voldemort was drawing ever closer.

And there's the first chapter : )

Like I said, this is now just a short prologue to get things going again.

I actually liked this part of the original first chapter, but I wanted to take a second-pass at the rest of it, which is why I decided to break it up in this manner. It's still kind of intense though, huh ; ) Hopefully this is a nice little taste of what's the come in the next few weeks as this story gets revived and continued : )

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review telling me your thoughts and opinions. Although, if you have any suggestions of what you'd like to see further on as this new timeline unfolds, be that characters or events you'd like to see, please feel free to leave them in a review as well, and I'll give them due consideration : )

Until the next time, keep on reading : )