General Warnings: Very occasional/mild language; some fairly graphic-ish violence. (Specific warnings can be found at the tops of the offending chapters.) Complies with T rating standards in its entirety.

Feedback Policy: All is welcome!

Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction set in and using characters from the Harry Potter world, which is trademarked by J. K. Rowling. The quote in the summary is by Richard Bach.

Cover art: Screencap from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone with a generic filter, because I am not artistic in the least.

Wrong Choice

Chapter 1. A Choice

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him!" James screamed at his wife. Lily stood fast at his side, unwilling or unable to leave him, she wasn't sure—With one shove, James had her through the door of the nursery. "Go! Run! I'll hold him off—"

The front door burst open. Bone-chilling laughter reached Lily's ears. She stumbled over to Harry's crib, reaching in—

A flash of green light from the hall brought Lily to her knees in a sob. A shadow crossed over her. Lily was on her feet again in a moment. "Not Harry! Not Harry! Please — I'll do anything—"

"Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!" His high, cold voice froze Lily in place. He's giving me a choice, she realized. A choice. Lord Voldemort is giving me a choice.

Lily had read stories where time would freeze when the main character had a big decision to make. She wished it would now. I can't watch my baby die—but whatever I choose, at least one of my children will die—If I save myself, I can raise my unborn baby—but how can I watch Harry die?—he'll die anyway, no matter what I do—but how can I live with myself knowing I stepped aside—CHOOSE, Lily.

Lily's hand flew to her stomach, covering it protectively, as if that motion could protect the tiny human inside her.

"Stand aside, you silly girl! Stand aside!" He was raising his wand. Lily braced herself, trying to look away from those terrible eyes. "Avada Ked—"

Lily threw herself out of the way. Her earth shattered as she looked back. Harry was reaching up, laughing. "Dada!" he exclaimed. After all, it was always his father who made the pretty lights and put on the silly cloaks to make him laugh. When he peeped up into the hood, though, he began to whimper, realizing it was not his father who pointed a wand at him.

"Harry!" Lily choked out. He turned in his crib and looked through the bars at her. "It's okay, sweetheart, Mummy's here, Mummy sees you. Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry! So sorry! I love—"

"Avada Kedavra!"

"—you," Lily finished, tears streaming down her face. Voldemort began to sweep from the room. Wandless, Lily jumped on him from the back, pummeling every inch of him she could reach. Without a word, he threw her across the room. Lily's head crashed against the wall. She fell limply to the floor.

And dreamed.

She dreamed of Dumbledore and McGonagall, walking down a familiar street. Privet Drive. Where Lily's sister lived. They were talking softly. Minerva inquired something of Albus, and his answer made her gasp and sob.

Without knowing how, Lily knew that Minerva had just been informed of Lily and James' deaths. Lily started at this realization.

There was the sound of a motorbike from far overhead. Sirius, she thought, of course. He is godfather, after all. He might be bringing Harry to see Petunia. To...tell her that I'm dead.

I'm dead.

She had never been in a dream where she had been dead in the beginning before.

To her surprise, though, it was Hagrid who landed the bike, Harry tucked under his arm. Lily got closer. Dumbledore placed her son on her sister's step, saying something like—"the only family he has."

"That's not true!" Lily screamed. No one took any notice. "He has Sirius and Remus and Pet—! Sirius and Remus! He has them! Don't give my son to them! Don't you dare!" Lily's famous lectures were usually listened to and heeded, but no one even heard her.

When the three adults left, Lily padded up to the doorstep and looked down at her son. His sleeping face was as adorable as ever, marred only by a single mark. A lightning bolt scar right in the middle of his forehead.

As she reached out to touch his face, the scar began to glow, brighter and brighter and bigger and bigger until—

Lily awoke with a start.

"I think that's the last of them, Moony," Sirius Black said to his friend, watching a zombie and a princess pad down the walkway hand in hand, swinging overloading bags of treats.

Remus Lupin laughed. "You've been saying that for the past hour and a half, and they still keep showing up," he admonished.

Sirius and Remus had spent Halloween holed up in Remus' kitchen handing out Halloween candy to the Muggle children who lived in the neighborhood. The beauty of Halloween was that it was the one night a year when the two men didn't have to bother hiding their wizards' attire and items.

Sirius, for one, had lugged out his cauldron to fill with candy to hand to the kids. Remus dumped his old Hogwarts hat on a scarecrow outside, and both men were wearing robes and letting their wands sit out on the kitchen table.

Sirius ripped open a chocolate frog. (Remus had pointed out when Sirius showed up with them that they couldn't hand out magically animated candy to Muggle children, to which Sirius had responded, "Oh, well. Guess we'll have to eat them ourselves.")

"Too bad Lily and James couldn't be here this year," Remus commented. "Harry would really have liked all these costumes."

"Not to mention the candy," Sirius agreed. "Even Lily wouldn't have been able to get him to bed with all that sugar."

Ding-dong! Remus and Sirius heaved themselves up and walked to the door. "Trick or treat!" exclaimed a group of teenagers in various costumes. Once they had their Honeyduke's treats and were leaving, one boy looked up at Sirius and said "You guys don't look much like wizards," and started to turn away.

"Oh, yeah?" Remus asked, eyes dancing. Sirius was deliberately not looking at the boy or Remus.

"Yeah," the kid said. "You should put better effort into your costumes next year." He turned and ran to catch up with his friends.

Remus closed the door, turned around, and met Sirius' eyes. They both doubled over laughing, tears streaming from their eyes. Somehow they made it to the kitchen and sat down. Just when they began to calm down, they caught each others' eyes again and relapsed into laughter.

Suddenly, a silvery phoenix patronus materialized over the table, perching in thin air. In the quick, panicked voice of Albus Dumbledore, it said, "Remus—Voldemort has been sighted in Godric's Hollow. The Potters have been attacked. Sirius has betrayed us all. Find him, Remus. I will take care of the survivors. I only hope that Hagrid will find some."

The bird dematerialized. Sirius was on his feet before Remus. Just as Remus lunged for him, Sirius turned in place and Disapparated. He was gone. Remus sank to the floor and buried his head in his hands, all fight burned out of him as fear and horror swept him.

The Potter's Home can be found at Number 13, Lion's Lane, Godric's Hollow, England, Sirius thought hurriedly, racing through the sky on his motorcycle. While it was slower than Apparating directly to Godric's Hollow, it could get him closer to the house.

The house showed itself to him. Sirius paused, shocked, at the gate. "Dear Merlin," he whispered, staring at the wreckage of the Potters' lovely little cottage. The gate's latch was broken beyond repair, so Sirius vaulted over it and seemed to be running before he hit the ground.

He glanced above the house. Dark Mark, Sirius noted with a wild moment of desperation. No. James couldn't be—no. He slipped on the wet gravel, catching himself on his hands and disregarding the cuts he received.

The door was hanging open on one of its hinges. The lights in the house were still on. Sirius made it to the kitchen, dimly aware of the supper dishes still on the half-wrecked counter. "JAMES?" he shouted hoarsely. "JAMES?"

He tore through the living room. "THIS IS NOT FUNNY! JAMES! JAMES?" Sirius raced up the stairs and stopped dead in his tracks.

A lone figure lay spread-eagle on the carpet. Sirius approached with caution. James' face looked up at him with cold, sightless, horrified eyes. "JAMES!" Sirius yelled, falling to his knees and pulling his best friend's head onto his lap.

"NO!" he screamed. "WAKE UP! WAKE UP, PRONGS! PLEASE! PLEASE, JAMES!"

His voice fell to a whisper. "Please, Prongs, I can't do it without you. Lily needs you, Harry needs you, but I need you, too. Please don't be...don't be..."

Sirius waited, but James didn't move, didn't blink, didn't show Sirius his trademark trouble-making grin. Sirius sobbed and threw his arms around his best friend, holding James to his chest and burying his face in James' shirt. It still smelled like that cologne James had been wearing since fifth year and had only just grown into.

With this fresh wave of memories came a new thunder of grief. "Prongs," Sirius whispered, "I'm going to check on your wife and baby, okay? I'll be back. I'll be back, Prongs." He lowered James to the carpet and closed his hazel eyes gently. He could have been sleeping but for that unnatural paleness.

With much reluctance, Sirius padded up the hall and called, "Lily? Lily?"

He pushed open the nursery door, intending to look for Harry. He walked slowly to the crib, terrified of what he might find. Harry lay there, unnaturally still, like a puppet with cut strings.

He picked up the little boy and cradled him to his chest, closing those startlingly loving green eyes as quickly as he could. "Padfoot's here, Padfoot's got you," he murmured to the boy. "My godson. I love you. I know wherever you are, your daddy's taking care of you." He laid him back down in the crib and tucked him in snugly.

"Lily?" he called again, leaving the wreckage of the nursery. A small noise made him turn back. "Lily?" he asked hopefully. "Lily?"

A burned board shifted slightly on the other side of the room. "Sirius?" said a small voice.

"Lily!" exclaimed Sirius, bounding across the room and digging fiercely through the broken wood. He uncovered her, shaking and badly bruised, but alive, and wrapped her in a hug. "Lily...I thought...I thought..."

"That I was dead?" Lily supplied. "So did I, for a moment. Is James...?" Lily looked desperately hopeful.

Sirius looked at her sadly, at a loss for words.

"He's dead, isn't he?" Lily's lower lip was trembling, the only visible sign of weakness.

Sirius decided he had to say it. "Yes, Lil. James is...dead." James is dead, James is dead, Prongs is dead, my best friend in the whole wide world is dead. Dead.

Lily gave a muffled scream and leapt over the junk on the floor to the hall. Sirius followed dumbly.

Lily knelt next to her husband. She took his hand in both of hers and lay down next to him with her head on his chest. She lay there like that for a few everlasting minutes. Then she sat up, leaned down and kissed James on the lips for a long moment.

She whispered something in his ear, crying now.

Sirius, feeling like he had to say something, said, "Harry..."

Lily looked up at him with a terrible anguish. "I know," she said, barely audible. "I saw it."

Sirius knelt next to her and took one of her hands. "We should go someplace warm," he said softly, indicating the nearby hole in the wall and the sky, which was threatening to rain.

Lily nodded but made no motion to get up. Sirius wrapped his arms around her and picked her up like he would a very young child. Cradling her to his chest, he walked as gently as he could away from the still form of James Potter.

"James. Harry. James. Harry. James. Harry. James," she was whispering, growing louder the farther away they got. By the time they'd reached the front door, she was screaming and sobbing. "JAMES! HARRY! JAMES! JAMES!"

A huge form was running heavily up the street. Sirius squinted. "Hagrid!" he called over Lily's grief-filled scream.

Hagrid took in the scene before him. "James 'n Harry?" he asked uncertainly. Sirius shook his head slowly. Hagrid hung his head. "Dumbledore sent me."

"Why?"

Hagrid shrugged his huge shoulders. "He reckoned Harry'd still be 'live. Wanted me ter bring him ter Surry."

"Surry?"

"Yep."

Lily had stopped screaming. "Sirius, where's Peter?" she asked hoarsely.

Peter. Up until this moment, Sirius had been thinking about too much to even consider the reason for it all. "Hagrid, can you take Lily to Remus' place? I...have to find someone."

"Well, sure, but are yeh sure yeh don' wanna go yerself? She could use you, I'll wager," Hagrid said.

Sirius nodded. "I'm sure. Look, you can take my bike. It'll be easier to carry her that way."

Hagrid looked incredulous. "Really? I can borrow it?"

"You can have it," Sirius said, handing over the keys and putting Lily on her feet. She swayed and Hagrid steadied her.

"Sirius?" Lily asked, gripping the front of his robes. "You aren't leaving me, are you? Please don't leave me."

Sirius melted. "Actually, Hagrid, I'll take her home myself. Peter can wait until morning."

"Guess I'll go ter Dumbledore, then," Hagrid said and turned away, taking one last look at the house, ruined and empty. He handed Sirius' keys back and disappeared.

Sirius helped Lily straddle the bike and climbed on behind her. He fitted the key into the ignition, punched the button for the cloaking device, and climbed steeply into the clouds.

Sirius banged with his foot on Remus' door. Remus pulled it open with a stony look on his face. His eyes softened when he saw Lily, swaying and crying softly, on his doorstep. He understood what had happened.

Without a word to Sirius, he helped her inside to the sitting room, where she sat on the sofa and buried her face in the blanket Sirius draped over her shaking figure.

This done, Remus turned to Sirius and grabbed him viciously by the collar, throwing him to the floor. Lily screamed.

"How could you have done this, Sirius?" he demanded. "How could you have killed your best friend?"

Remus was on top of him now, throwing punches into his face. Sirius tried to push him away. "Moony, shtop!" he cried over a mouthful of blood. "It washn't ne!"

"Oh, it wasn't you. Sure, I believe you," Remus said sarcastically, ramming his fist into Sirius' gut. Sirius still refused to punch back, even though he was better suited to fist fighting. "He was your best friend, Sirius! I thought you were different than your brother, but you're not! You're the worst Death Eater of your whole family! You know no loyalties! Not even to your godson! Your one year old godson! You let him die with his father! Your best friend! You heartless man! No, you're less than a man, you-don't—deserve—that-title!" The punches were flying fast now, and Remus began to call Sirius names that would have made Lily appalled if she had been listening.

Lily threw herself off the couch heavily and wrapped her arms around Remus' torso. "Stop, Remus, stop! It's my fault, not his! It's my fault Harry is dead, MINE! Stop it! Stop, Remus, I beg of you! Stop! STOP!"

Remus wrenched his arms from her grip and threw her to the side. Still punching hard, he announced, "The Aurors are on their way. You'll be in Azkaban for the rest of your miserable life! And know this, traitor, that you have no one. No one. Lily hates you, Peter hates you, your family hates you, and I...hate...you!" These last few words were accompanied by three hard kicks to the stomach. Sirius curled up on the floor and tried to protect himself from the new onslaught of attacks.

"STOP!" Lily was crying. "STOP, PLEASE! REMUS, STOP! IT WASN'T HIM! IT WASN'T! STOP!"

The terrible attacks continued. Lily sank to her knees and began to sob. Her life had come to an end. "REMUS, STOP!" she begged again, fruitlessly. Her hand came to her belly again, rubbing it soothingly and getting an idea. "I'M PREGNANT!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Remus paused. Sirius took the moment's rest to crawl away to the corner of the room and collapsed. "What?" Remus asked dumbly. "What?"

"I'm two months pregnant," Lily murmured, patches of black crawling across her vision. "I'm going to faint. I never faint. Don't let him go to Azkab—" she sat down heavily. "It wasn't—" and then she fainted.

"Moony," whispered Sirius. He spat out a mouthful of blood.

Remus looked at him sharply. "What, Black?"

"It was Peter, not me. Peter was the secret keeper. We switched because...because...we thought..."

"Shut up, Black, I won't believe your lies," Remus snarled. With this, he pulled out his wand sent ropes flying at Sirius, effectively binding and gagging him. Then he picked up the crumpled figure of Lily and carried her to his bedroom, where he tucked her in and returned to the living room to wait for the Aurors.

Sirius begged with Remus with his eyes. Remus was watching the proceedings coolly, a feeling of vast betrayal behind his otherwise impassive gaze.

Mad-Eye Moody was standing over Sirius, announcing, "Sirius Black, you're under arrest for treason and conspiracy to commit the murders of James and Harry Potter. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defense if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you say may be given in evidence. Do you understand these rights as I have explained them to you?"

Sirius glanced at Remus one last time before stiffly nodding.

"Let's get him out of here. See you, Lupin," Moody muttered. "I know this must be hard on you. You gave him quite the beating, eh?"

"Yeah," Remus said tonelessly. "He deserved it. He deserves this."

Moody gave his twisted smile. "Just keep telling yourself that, Lupin, and eventually you'll believe it. Always works for me."

Remus closed the door on the Aurors and sank to the floor, leaning against the door. For the first time that night he let himself cry. He buried his head in his hands and sobbed. He cried for Lily, pregnant and widowed. He cried for himself, losing two best friends in one night. He cried even for Sirius, who had strayed in a direction Remus never would have believed of him.

Lily dreamed again.

This time it was light outside. The sun had just risen, and the fresh smell of an early fall morning was in the air. The door of number 4, Privet Drive was opening quickly. "You're going to be late for the office, Vernon!" Petunia was caterwauling back into the house.

She turned around and almost dumped a set of milk bottles on the precious bundle residing on her front step. With a gasp, she dropped them, and they shattered on the walk. Harry woke up at the crash and began to wail. Lily wanted badly to run to him and cuddle him.

Petunia closed the door sharply. Lily was appalled. Petunia was just going to leave her nephew on the front step? The door opened again and Vernon poked his head out. He pushed the door open wider and began to speak in hushed tones to Petunia, shaking his head.

Petunia leaned down and picked up the letter resting on Harry's chest. She opened it and read it quickly, before scooping up Harry unceremoniously and firmly nodding to Vernon. She pushed him out the door, kissed him lightly, and closed the door.

As Vernon opened his car door to go to work, the light on the street began to fade. Lily squinted to keep watching, but the sky was getting dimmer and dimmer like the lights at the end of a play.

Lily slept on dreamlessly.

Remus was sipping his tea shakily when Lily stepped out of Remus' room, wrapped up in his dressing gown and tottering to the table.

"Morning," he greeted past the thick lump in his throat. He didn't bother adding 'good' to that statement. Grief had erased that word from his vocabulary, and the pouring rain didn't help much, either.

Lily didn't answer, instead pouring herself a cup of tea and reaching for the milk. "Moony?" she asked in a strange voice.

"What is it?" Remus asked absently, trying to distract himself with the morning paper. No such luck. The news of the Potters' deaths was blasted all over the front page.

"Your milk's out of date," Lily answered, peering at the smelly mess inside the carton.

Remus stared at her. "That's what you're thinking about?" he demanded incredulously. "Today of all days?"

"What else is there to think about?" Lily defended. "Besides..." The moment that thought drifted across her mind, Lily burst into tears.

"Oh, Merlin," Remus said. "I'm so stupid." He pushed himself up from the table and wrapped his arms around Lily, tears leaking from his own eyes. He wiped them away hurriedly. "It's okay, Lily," he murmured, rubbing her back, "we'll get through this, somehow."

Lily nodded against his shoulder. "Together. We'll get through this together. Where's Sirius?"

"It's okay, Lily, they got him. The Aurors came for him last night. He'll be in Azkaban by now," Remus assured her.

Lily recoiled from his embrace. "No!" she shouted. "No, Remus, you have to be lying! He can't! I told you not to let him go!"

"What are you talking about?" Remus asked, confused.

Lily was aghast. "He's innocent, Remus! We switched Secret Keepers. Peter betrayed us, not Sirius! We have to get him out of there!"

Remus looked bewildered. "But...but why? Why did you switch?"

Lily's face lost its panic and assumed a decidedly guilty look. She looked up into his blue eyes with sadness and a bit of fear.

"You thought it was me." It was a statement, not a question. "You thought I would betray you to Voldemort. You thought I was a double agent. You thought it was me."

Lily was crying again. "I'm so sorry, Remus! I am!"

"It's okay, Lily," Remus soothed, hugging her again but still feeling shocked. "I forgive you. The important thing now is that we free him. Fast."

Lily nodded. "But how?" she mused, pulling away from his hug and sitting down at the table.

They sat in silence. "There are two ways to do this," Remus finally said. "Legally..."

"Which could take months or years in the middle of a war," Lily interrupted.

Remus acknowledged this with a tip of his head. "...or, well...extra-legally," he finished.

"You mean break him out? Of Azkaban?" Lily asked shakily.

Remus looked nervous, too. "Let's save that as a last resort," he said firmly.

Lily nodded dumbly.

Silence reigned again for a while. Then, Lily stepped in with, "I'll go talk to whoever's in charge of Sirius's case." She stood and headed for the door.

"Lily, wait!" Remus called, realizing something with a start.

Lily stopped with her hand on the door. "What?"

"Peter's not stupid," Remus reminded her. "He's going to suspect us of doing exactly what we are doing. That makes you a target."

Lily's hand dropped to her side and she gazed open-mouthed at Remus, realizing his point. "You don't think I should leave the house until he's caught," she accused. "That's ridiculous."

She would have gone on, but Remus stopped her. "No, no, I just don't think you should go looking quite so..."

"'So' what?" Lily demanded impatiently.

"Well, for one thing, you're wearing half-burnt up clothes under an old dressing gown," Remus pointed out.

Lily glanced down at herself. "I suppose you're right," she said glumly. "Do you have anything I can borrow?"

Lily swept out of one of the Ministry fireplaces wearing a pair of Remus' old robes. They hung loosely and were cinched closed with a belt. She approached the visitor's desk.

"Lily Potter?" asked the receptionist excitedly. "You're alive! The whole world thinks you're missing. Did Sirius Black kidnap you? Who saved you? What—"

"I'm here to see..." Lily checked the slip of parchment in her hand, "Bartemius Crouch." She completely ignored all the questions and the gathering crowd. The receptionist handed her a name tag and waved her toward the lifts.

Upon exiting the lifts, cameras were flashing in her face. Reporters were waving note pads in her face. She pushed through the crowd, murmuring "No comment, no comment," every few seconds. She knocked hurriedly on the door labeled 'Crouch,' and entered without waiting for a response.

Barty glanced up from his desk and looked her up and down with his eyebrows raised. "Come in, Ms. Potter," he said dryly.

"I was being hounded by reporters," Lily responded in explanation. Then she sat down across the desk from him. "Sirius Black," she said simply.

"No need to worry, Ms. Potter, he is locked up in a high security cell in Azkaban as we speak. Constant supervision by dementors. He is paying for the death of your husband and child."

Lily took an involuntary breath at the idea of her friend in the constant presence of soul-sucking monsters. "No, no, Mr. Crouch," she protested. "He's innocent. I swear. We switched Secret Keepers. It's Peter Pettigrew you want."

"Yes," Mr. Crouch said calmly. "That's another thing to add to the charges: the kidnap and Confunding of Lily Potter." He made a note on a slip of paper on his desk.

"I'm not Confunded!" Lily screeched, outraged. "I'm the only sane one here! Sirius doesn't even get a trial?"

Crouch up at her. "We are in the middle of a war, Ms. Potter," he said, patronizingly slowly. "We cannot afford to give every blatantly guilty defendant a fair trial. Black is guilty. If I were you, I would see a Healer about that curse he set on you. Good day."

Lily was outraged. "How dare you speak to me that way? I just lost the love of my life and my only child and you say 'good day?' No! I insist you bring Sirius Black back to the mainland immediately!"

"Ms. Potter, I am a busy man. Voldemort is stronger than ever and I am trying to save every Knut for the war effort. I have mounds of paperwork to go over. If you continue to refuse to leave, I will call security."

Lily stood stubbornly.

"As you wish," Mr. Crouch sighed. He raised his voice. "Raj, get this woman out of here. See to it she doesn't speak to the press. Thanks."

A burly looking security guard entered momentarily. He took Lily's arm and pulled her as gently as he could toward the door. Lily was glaring daggers at Crouch, but he took no notice.

The guard escorted her up the lift and to the floo. "Remus Lupin's residence," Lily announced, stepping dejectedly into the fireplace.

Remus looked up from his book when the flames of his fireplace turned green. "How did it go?" he asked, getting up to take her cloak and help her sit down.

"We're breaking him out," Lily announced grimly.

(A/N) Welcome to the story! Read on!