“Lily! He’s here, take harry and run” James ordered his wife, feeling fear run through him but he was determined. James knew what he was signing up for when he joined the order, he had been worried when that prophecy had been revealed by Dumbledore, he had trusted Pettigrew.
He bitterly regretted that decision now.
James Potter was a Gryffindor though; bravery and courage fuelled his every action. He was a Potter, Courage and Craft affected his every action and he had Peverell blood running through his veins, he would greet death as an old friend.
James stared at his beautiful wife; the woman he had loved since the moment he had laid eyes on her. He stared at her wide, scared but determined green eyes, her flaming red hair as she protectively clutched their son to her chest. His sweet son, best of both himself and his Lilly. Merlin James wished he could see his son grow up but he…he would not.
James would bitterly regret that but if laying down his life gave his wife and son a chance. He would do it.
“James…” Lily trailed off
“Go. Now.” He ordered pulling her into a passionate kiss, a final goodbye before pushing her up the stairs, he could feel the wards crumbling in the back of his mind, only offering his wife time, time to flee before Voldemort would follow.
James’s chin raised defiantly as the front door was blasted inwards, his already messy hair getting more snarled and tangled.
“Hello Pettigrew” James greeted his one-time brother calmly, casually ignoring the man that was currently out to kill his wife and child
“J-James” Peter stammered, his eyes wide in shock.
“James Potter” Voldemort interrupted a slightly amused tone to his frozen, hissing voice and James looked over at him
“Voldemort,” James said shortly
“I offer you this one chance, to waste pure blood, to spill a drop of magical blood is always a great shame so move aside and I will spare you” Voldemort offered
“No” James said shortly readying himself in a fighter’s position, he had no wand but he’d go down defiant.
“You think you can stand against me? You have no wand” Voldemort laughed- a mockery of one a violent hissing that raised the hair on the back of his neck.
“No, I don’t” James agreed calmly, feeling that spark of Gryffindor bravery- or recklessness that his mother would often times chuckle about.
But James Potter had always been a consummate Gryffindor, always daring, brave, reckless and courageous in every moment of his life. He loved his wife recklessly, chasing her and wooing her with his heart on his sleeve recklessly, he was recklessly devoted to his family and recklessly loyal to his friends.
After all, no one but a reckless, idiotic, boy would become an illegal animagius to spend the full moon with a werewolf.
Lily was always complaining he was still the same.
Who was he to disappoint his wife?
He dodged the Killing curse sent towards him and felt the house shake as the stairs blew up.
“Oh? are we going to dodge?” Voldemort mocked and James felt rage overwhelm him at Voldemorts amusement, as if James as just a pest in his way. he was toying with James and fucking Pettigrew was stand back and snickering at him. at James Fleamont Potter.
“No, I’m a Gryffindor” James smirked “I’m going to charge”
James leapt forward, feeling the smooth transition take over him, he had a brief moment to revel in Voldemorts red eyes widening in shock as he was charged by a rampaging stag, who bellowed in pure rage.
The Maruarders had always teased James about his animagus form. They liked to joke he was just the peaceful King of the forest, nothing but a grass muncher that flees at the first sign of trouble. As much as Remus loathed being a werewolf he admitted on a full moon, he was the most dangerous amongst them. Sirius loved to play the loveable dog and even looked contemplative when James had suggested making the change permanent, Sirius loved to play at being the grim and with his claws and fangs, when he snarled Padfoot looked truly dangerous.
Even Peter had gotten all upset over not being considered dangerous, he had insisted a rat could be more dangerous than a Stag, they had condescendingly agreed but James would never make that mistake again.
Prongs on the other side was…impressive visually but not as dangerous at first glance like the others. He moved gracefully and delicately, picking his way carefully over the ground and he bounded along. He was not dangerous like Padfoot or Moony with their claws and fangs, but James had his hoofs and razor sharp antlers to compensate.
James didn’t think Voldemort agreed with the assessment of a Stag not being a threat while he was currently being speared by his rack of antlers. With a bellow, James jerked his head and Voldemort was tossed off his antlers, furious still, James raised up on his back hooves before slamming down with all his power, feeling the dark wizard’s chest crack under his cloven hoofs, James didn’t let up until his chest cavity was nothing but mush.
A squeak of horror captured James’s attention and his brown eyes met with the pale, horrified face of his once best friend.
“J-James” Pettigrew stuttered, and James huffed, his sides heaving, and he watched in satisfaction as a dark stain covered the front of his trousers.
It was the last thing Pettigrew ever said.
“Lily?” James called up the stairs blinking slowly as he felt the blood trailing down his face, he grimaced at the feel of Moldyshorts blood on him but oh well. He was covered in blood. His face, hands, hair and neck, he grimaced at the state of himself.
“Lily-Pad, it’s me, it's safe. I promise” James called again; his voice soft despite the carnage he was surrounded by.
“Prove it! Prove your James!” came the fierce demand of his wife and James grinned, he thought he would never hear her voice again.
“Hmm, Alright, your favourite nickname for me is Toerag” James offered
“That’s public knowledge!” she shouted back
“Ah, I proposed at our graduation?” He suggested
“Public knowledge!” she called back
“Ah! We first had sex on the quidditch pitch” James shouted, that had been a fun night “I set up our one-month anniversary date on the quidditch pitch with a field of flowers and you were so overwhelmed that you had your naughty, naughty, way with my poor virginal body”
“Virginal my lily-white arse” he heard his wife grumble as she came around the corner and stared in shock at the destruction of their ground floor
“Hello Love” he grinned sheepishly up at his beautiful, beautiful wife who was clutching their confused looking Harry.
“Honestly, James this isn’t how you greet guests” Lily joked feebly
“To be fair, love, they were uninvited, can you put the stairs back and do you have my wand?” he asked, and she held up his mahogany wand before waving her own causing the stairs to reassemble. She came down the stairs but stopped short of actually hugging or kissing him, staring at him in shock
“Are you hurt?” she asked him gently
“I’m fine, it’s not my blood” he replied softly taking his wand and sending off his Patronus to Dumbledore. He needed to know what happened
“What happened?” Lily questioned eyeing the destruction and holding Harry’s hand when he reached out to touch his father’s bloody cheek
“I, uh-“ James scratched the back of his neck sheepishly shuddering at the feel of a cold drop of blood down his back
“I stampeded” He offered weakly
“you-what?!” Lily asked her eyes widening but they were cut off by a roar of a motorcycle and then the sounds of frantic bootsteps coming up the quaint stone path that Lily had insisted be bordered by her favourite flowers.
“JAMES?! LILY?! HARRY!?” came the frantic shout of Padfoot as he came tumbling into the house, through the blasted front door, he tripped and landed on top of Voldemort.
“No, no, please, James, no” Sirius sobbed as he clutched onto Voldemorts body, to be fair to the man, James had stomped his face in, so the darkest wizard of all time wasn’t exactly recognisable.
“Pads…that’s Voldemort,” James told his best mate, and Sirius's head snapped up to stare at the little Potter family with red-rimmed grey eyes
“Prongs? Your, okay? Your all okay?” Sirius asked with a cracking voice
“Yea” James nodded “are you though? I mean you’re the one currently cuddling with Voldemort”
Sirius yelped and let go of the rapidly cooling body looking repulsed and James had to laugh.
“didn’t know you were so close, Padfoot” James smirked
“Oh yea, we braid our hair at every sleepover and paint each other’s nails” Sirius snarked “where’s Petey? I went and checked on him, but he wasn’t there…I couldn’t find any signs of disturbance”
James silently pointed to the second body, feeling the betrayal and rage finally catch up to him “he decided that our bond of brotherhood wasn’t enough and decided to hand myself, my wife and my son over to Voldemort”
Sirius took a deep breath as his jaw clenched his fists tightening as he stared down at the corpse of his best friend. He spat on the body of the traitor before stepping over his body and moving to check on his real family.
“James, Dear pass over Harry’s bottle?” Lily asked the next morning, running her fingers through Harry’s messy hair, he was blinking sleepily.
“Course Love” James grinned as he flicked his wand and smiling as his son made grabby hands at the bottle
“I brought the newspapers” Sirius called as he dropped them onto James’s empty plate, heading into the restored living room
James grinned and looked down at the headlines.
“Dark Lord Dead?!”
“Chosen One destroys Dark Lord?!”
“James Potter, Light Wizard VS Voldemort Dark Wizard”
“Voldemort ReVealed!”
“Grip of the dark lord is finally Bucked!”
“James Potter Bucks up and takes on dark lord!”
“We’re big FAWNS of doe-feat of the Dark Lord!”
“Dark Lord destroyed by rampaging stag!”
“Is the dark lord as dangerous as he seemed? How the dark lord was conquered by an animal!”
“Do you enjoy the puns?” Sirius snickered as he came back into the kitchen with a smiling Dumbledore and heavily limping Alastor Moody
“Hilarious” James deadpanned
“I can’t believe you stamped Voldemort’s head in!” Sirius snickered in amusement
“What can I say?” James shrugged his lips twitching
“He was the darkest wizard alive, even I couldn’t best him, why did you come to the decision to change forms?” Dumbledore questioned staring at James with twinkling blue eyes
“To be fair, headmaster” James started before taking a sip of tea “you can’t turn into a gigantic fucking stag and I had my family to defend, it’s not like I was thinking rationally”
“No, indeed, I find myself lacking in that regard” the headmaster agreed with a tip of his head “I never thought an animagus form would be so useful”
“Where are the bodies?” Moody asked his magical eye rolling wildly in his head.
“Oh, I shoved them outside” James shrugged unconcerned “and used their wands as tinder for the fireplace”
“You shoved the bodies of a traitor and the darkest lord in our history outside to rot?” Moody asked
James shrugged as he picked up his son and bounced him on his knees, delighting in Harry’s giggles “They were little bitches”
He laughed when Lily slapped his arm
“James” she scolded
James smirked at her “watch it, you’re hitting a national hero here”
Lily rolled her eyes an amused smile pulling at her lips “I hate you”
“Nah, Lily-pad, you love me Dear-ly” he grinned
“Hilarious” she snarked
“I know I have a HART of gold” James carried on
“I want a divorce,” she said flatly
“You know it BEE-HOOFS me to call you a liar” James smirked “just because I deer to be different, I don’t think it’s a good-eyed-deer for us to divorce, especially as it’s going to reindeer later. I think your deer-lerious from the stress of last night. Leaving me would be a real deer-lemma and people will wonder how deer you leave the vanquisher of Voldemort, why not try writing in your diary? Start with Deer Diary-“
He laughed along with James as Lily stomped from the room. It felt good to laugh after nearly dying.
“The ministry does want to fine you for being an illegal animagius” Dumbledore added
James shrugged “it was accidental magic”
“I’m sure” Dumbledore agreed before taking his leave.
“C’mon Harry, lets go play on your broom” James grinned, national hero he might be, but he had a son to teach the finer points of quidditch. That took priority.