Chapter 2
Potter Manor was a bit of a mess when he appeared in the main living room. He hadn’t been here since his parents died. Too many memories and ghosts around. But the wards were old, and while it may not be enough to stop the Dark Lord from finding him, they should hold him off long enough for James to make a plan. He hoped.
He needed to find a way to hide from the Dark Lord first, then to find Lily and Harry, then figure out if it was possible to return to their lives or if they had to keep running.
He sighed, he still didn’t understand why she ran. They had talked about it years ago. When Albus had come to them talking about prophecies and destiny, not theirs of course but their beautiful baby boy’s. After he left, they called Remus, Sirius, and Peter and talked for hours. First, about if they believed in prophecies or fate, he had not, but Lily had, and his friends had been split.
Then they talked about going into hiding, which was Albus’s suggestion. None of them liked the idea, nor the pitfalls that came with it. Not being able to talk to their friends or the other Order members didn’t only mean they’d be lonely but also alone. No one to share information with, to keep them updated on the other side's movements or the war, and of course no one to have their backs if everything went to hell.
Running was worse. No safe place, always on the move, and no one to look to for help, at least not without endangering them. Even Lily had agreed it was a horrible plan.
It took a week. A week of them not making up their minds, of Dumbledore's displeasure of them not yet going into hiding, and a week of no sleep before the stupidest idea came to him. He hadn’t spoken to Lily about it. Just grabbed his robes and rushed to his friends. He knew even then Lily would be a hard sell.
Somehow he had managed to convince them that his family's only hope was to plead with the Dark Lord himself. They didn't need to run or hide if they could convince the man himself they weren’t a threat. Honestly, he had thought his friends would think he’d lost it, instead, they listened and actually started talking about it.
It had been Remus that brought up the how, not why, but how. How would they go about it? How did you tell a terrifyingly powerful and dangerous man, you wanted to meet up and talk and make him believe it? Sirius of course had been the one to name Regulus, his little brother and loyally marked follower of Voldemort. He had agreed to send a message through their house elf, detailing James’ idea and asking if it was possible.
Lily had not been happy at first, more like enraged, but she came around, eventually. And for five years they’d been happy. Or so he’d thought. The war had come to a bit of a standstill, with the Potters, Longbottoms, the heir to the Blacks, and even the last Lupin joining Voldemort’s side, it seemed to put a stop to any true fighting before it began.
The Order or at least the members they had known had either disappeared or went about their lives as if nothing was going on. The only big difference now was James and the others weren’t invited to get-togethers, birthdays, or holiday parties. It had hurt but James couldn’t fault them.
The Dark Lord gave himself a public face, Thomas Gaunt-Slytherin, the last heir of Salazar Slytherin. He took his seats amongst the Lords and had even helped pass a few laws over the years, one of which gave Remus the ability to come out as a werewolf and still find work and live a good healthy life. Something James and Sirius always prayed their friend would be able to do.
And things settled. There was no more fighting or raids, and as far as James knew no muggles were being attacked or murdered. Things actually started looking up. Alice and Lily found new friends and slowly Lily lost her nervous edge and started smiling again. Harry and Neville had become fast friends, and surprisingly Lucius Malfoy and Thaddeus Nott’s sons were good kids and Harry enjoyed playing with them.
So Lily's choice to leave didn’t sit right. He thought she was happy and most importantly safe. They had been fucking safe!
He needed to stop thinking about it for now. Because he had no idea how long he had until someone noticed something was wrong. He had a meeting in the morning and knew the second he didn’t show someone, probably Rabastan would come looking for him.
His babysitter as Sirius liked to call the younger Lestrange brother would check his house first, if Remus and Sirius were still there, he'd know instantly something was wrong. If they aren’t, Bastan will probably attempt a message, when James ignored it, the man would go to their Lord. and the man would call for James with his mark.
He looked down at his right arm, not left, Voldemort wanted to send a message by placing it on his dominant side. It was different from the others, the loyal ones. Instead of the Dark Mark, he had two Ouroboros symbols, one a dark green snake wrapped around his wrist, its head/tail centered perfectly on top of his wrist, and a black dragon just below his elbow, its head/tail lying up a little to the right instead of centered. The two marks marked his vow to the Dark Lord and the man’s promise in return. They had hurt like hell and as far as he knew he was the only one with the mark.
Sirius, Alice, and Frank had taken the typical Dark Marks, it seemed that despite Albus’s belief that both Harry and Neville could be the child of the prophecy, Voldemort only felt Harry was of concern.
Remus didn’t have a mark, he instead had taken a place amongst Fenrir Greyback’s pack, kinda. It seemed pack bonds were a real thing, not that they had even heard of them before, Greyback announced that he couldn’t fully claim Remus because the idiot wolf had already formed a pack of his own with his friends.
It had caused a bit of tension until Greyback had been able to use the tiny bond he had with Remus as the wolf that had bitten him to bind him not to the man’s pack but to him himself. It left Moony in the awkward spot of having a pack but also having to bow to an Alpha. But the bond made it so Greyback could find Remus anywhere which satisfied Voldemort.
Looking over the mark, his only hope was that because it had been a spear of the moment thing and different from the Dark Mark that maybe, just maybe it had a weakness he could exploit to hide him.
The Potter family library wasn’t as large as the Black’s but it was still decently sized and held enough books from many different branches of magic that James had hope.
Or he did, until hours later when he was surrounded by books and hadn’t found a damn thing to help. There had been a couple of wards and sigils that had looked promising but when he tried to draw them on his skin they burned and then faded away. The first time, he had frozen and sat waiting for the tingle of being summoned but when it didn’t come he tried a different mark. So far nothing had worked, not even a little.
Throwing a book across the room, James screamed in frustration. The only thing positive that had come out of this search was a tracking spell he could try for Harry. He looked down at it and wondered if he had enough time to give it a try.
Figuring he had no other choice he stood up and headed for his grandfather's old potions lab. He couldn’t use this spell to track Lily because they didn’t share blood, but that didn’t stop him from using it to find his son.
It took an hour to brew the potion, causing him to get anxious. The sun would be coming up soon and his meeting had been set for 7. He was running out of time.
When it was done, he stepped outside the house and the wards that might protect him and dumped it out into the air, whispered “nanciscor” The thick red potion spiraled in the air in front of him before it began to glow and turned into a small firefly like creature that darted off. Surprised and confused, it took him a second before his brain kicked in and he took off after the light-bug.
He really wished this thing came with better directions because the second they left the property line, it stopped, turned around, and flew around him in a dozen or so circles, then the world spun and he found himself standing in the middle of a muggle street. Thankfully it was dark and not many people around because that would have definitely broken the secrets act if someone had seen him.
He was left with the desire to vomit but had to swallow it down when the little light-bug took off again. Halfway across the street, his arm felt like it caught fire and James collapsed.
“No, no, not yet,” he begged as he could feel the Dark Lord reaching out for him and pulling him back to him. Looking up at the sky, James cursed, the sun wasn’t up yet, he shouldn’t have been missed yet. Biting his lip, he forced himself to his feet, ignoring the pain of ignoring the call.
The light-bug had stopped in front of what looked like a bookshop. It was closed and locked up tight but a quick, alohomora, had the door opening for him. He was quiet as he entered, only daring a ‘lumos’ so he didn’t trip over anything.
The bug led him through the store and to a stone wall, that if the damn thing hadn’t flown straight through, James wouldn’t have looked at twice. It took him a couple of minutes to find the right place to press then the stone wall fell away in a staircase. Which led him down into what looked like a ritual room. Something he hadn’t seen the likes of since the last time he dared to go to the Black family home.
A large copper circle set in the center of the room and a number of candles had recently been burned. His little bug was going crazy over the circle. Like it had found what he had been seeking but not. James' heart raced as he tried to understand the ritual, the circle was a focus and the candles were either a power source or a different type of focus, there were runes etched onto the floor, and for a moment he regretted leaving his friends behind, Remus had loved studying Rituals and Sirius had excelled at Runes despite hating the subject.
It doesn’t matter, he told himself, he might not have been great at the class but he still knew enough that this ritual was focused on hiding something, someone, Harry if he had to guess since it had stopped his tracking spell.
Standing there staring at the circle, his arm burning, James gave up hope of getting his son and wife home before the Dark Lord found out Lily had run. He had no idea what to do next. He wasn’t even sure he could do anything. And from the sounds of footsteps echoing softly behind him, he didn’t even know if he would be alive to try anything.
“James,” Bastan sounded off like he didn’t know if he was worried or angry. A knot formed in his stomach, he wished it had been someone else. Despite having been enemies, Bastan had taken his job to teach and look after James well enough and even formed a friendship with him.
He went to turn, “Don’t.” He froze at the angry tone.
“It's not what it looks like,” he said, hoping his friend believed him.
“You ignored my fire message and our Lord's call,” Bastan sounded pissed as he approached James, “Wand out,” James carefully pulled his wand out of its holster and held it out away from him for Bastan to summon. Instead, his friend grabbed it with his hand, and James jumped when a wand tip was pressed against the side of his neck from behind, “What the hell were you thinking?” Bastan hissed in his ear, sending shivers down his spine.
“Bas, please I wasn’t running,” he said, “I--” he stopped, fuck, there really was no way to save his life without putting Lily and Harry in danger. “I wasn’t running,” he said because it was the truth and the only thing he could say.
There was a sigh, soft and barely audible to him, “I want to believe you, I do, but this looks bad James, and you know I have no choice but to take to our Lord.”
Yeah, he knew. “I know,” he said, he didn’t fight when Bastan tied his wrists together nor when his friend summoned the items from the ritual into a bag before he was forced out of the shop and apperated.
His only thought once they landed inside the Dark Lord’s home, was that he prayed the ritual worked because now Lily was Harry’s only protection.