A Family Matter

I have been told to write the books that I want to read, however, right now I am going to write the fan fiction I want to read.

If you love it, great! If you hate it, that's okay too! Like anyone on this site I always appreciate reviews and feedback.

Hope you enjoy it!

M.

Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever, own rights to Harry Potter.

Chapter 1

It was a crisp fall day in the hamlet of Godric's Hollow. The sun was hidden behind clouds but the rain had held off enough that so that 3 young men were able to play quidditch in the hidden grove behind the safe house.

The safe house was a small unassuming cottage with a bedroom upstairs and the kitchen and living space on the main floor. The basement had long ago been converted into a safe room where none, not even a house elf, could enter without the permission of the head of the family.

Lily Potter looked down at her sleeping baby in his bassinet listening to her husband's laughter. It had been so long since any of the marauders had truly laughed like they were now. A message had come and dampened the happiness that they had had when Harry was born. They had been told that her Harry would have to face so much and suffer and possibly die to defeat the Dark Lord. Which was unacceptable.

She was Lily Evans Potter and she would not allow her child to be raised without a family. She was married to the heir of the most ancient and noble Potter family, a long forgotten branch of the Peveralls. Her mother in law was a Black. Her friends were brilliant, idiots but brilliant idiots, and she was the brightest witch of an age. Together they would find a way to save Harry from that maniac.

The wards around the house changed to inform her that James and the others had entered the perimeter of the safe house so she gently picked up Harry and carried him downstairs.

James strolled into the house and dropped a kiss on the forehead of his wife and child as he and Sirius went to the fridge to scavenge food.

"Have fun?" she asked as she vanished the mud they tracked in from her floors.

"Lily please inform your husband that you think that Alice is into me." Sirius asked through a mouthful of bread.

"Lily please inform the dog that Alice is married to Frank, has a baby, and repeatedly sent stinging hexes at his magnificent rear" James quipped after swallowing his food.

"Thank you for noticing the magnificence of my arse good sir"

"Anything for your arse my liege"

"Wormy said that he saw Jacob and Sharon Bones the other day and to inform you that Sharon also is not interested in you and asked that you stop harassing her"

"I have never harassed Sharon. That was you! You would follow her around Hogwarts like the dog you are!"

Lily left the two to their banter smiling to herself. It wasn't so long ago that she would have been exasperated by their constant noise and chatter but today was a good day. She sat down next to Remus on the couch and passed him Harry to hold. As she tucked her feet under her she noticed that Peter hadn't returned with the rest. "Where did Wormy go?" she asked the patient werewolf.

"He has a new job apparently. Apparently he has a very demanding boss and forgot that he needed to pick up potion ingredients or something." The werewolf explained. "You know how he gets, always forgetting things and always between jobs. Hopefully this sticks. He sends his love to you and Harry though."

"Good for him for going into work on a weekend instead of messing about with you lot" she smiled as Harry began to wake up and wriggle.

"I can't believe how big he is for only being around 4 months" Remus began bouncing Harry up and down on his knee making funny faces.

"Exactly 4 months thank you very much." Lily corrected smiling. "And I know; he is getting to be quite the arm work out these days. James says that I am getting 'jacked' was the word I think he used. I don't know. I honestly can't believe how much he looks like James."

"Hopefully he will have better manners than prongs" Sirius said as he came in and sat on the floor stretching his legs out.

"Says the man who talks with his mouth full. I can't imagine Aunt Walburga taught you those manners. I do know that my mother never allowed it from you." James said as he took his armchair by the fireplace.

Lily looked around at her little makeshift family. She was wary about Peter's absence, it had been happening more and more the last month. He would be here then he would be gone. James wasn't concerned though. She turned back to Remus, "Speaking of Alice and Frank, have you two seen little Neville yet? We had them over to the Manor before we had to leave but haven't seen them since then."

"I don't think anyone has seen them. I think that Mrs. Longbottom put their home under the fidelius charm." Remus replied as he passed Harry to Sirius. "Here Padfoot, it is your turn to change him."

"Is not!"

"Is too."

"Is not" Sirius pouted.

Lily sighed "it is fine Padfoot, I can change him."

Sirius stood and she reached for her son "You will not. You are going to sit and relax and Mooney and I will figure out the diaper bomb."

As the two left James turned to her. "Should we do the fidelius? It is about the only charm not on this house. You can perform it right?"

"I can, I cast it on the great hall for extra credit during my NEWT. Would you want to be the secret keeper?"

"I don't know, what if something happens when I'm out on order business or on business with my father."

"You could stay home and not go until the threat is dealt with James" Lily sighed "That is what you all have me doing."

"Lily someone needs to be here for Harry. To protect him. We have talked about this." James was right, they had discussed it. She was finished her Charms mastery and had taken a maternity leave from working with Professor Slughorn on her Potions mastery. James and Sirius were a deadly team when fighting the Dark Lord's minions. She needed to be home to feed and nurture Harry and was more than capable to protect him on her own.

"Fine. Get that damned cloak back from Dumbledore though. I don't like it not being here or with you."

"I will my love" James looked into the fire "we should have Sirius be the secret keeper. I want it to be family and they would expect it to be me or even my parents. Then he can go into hiding and we can cast the charm on his house and both locations will be protected."

"Should we ask him now?"

"No, let's keep it in the family. Were you able to talk to Sybill? Is what Albus said true? Have you contacted Aurora?"

She stood and went and knelt before him guiding his face to hers. Tears glistened in her eyes and she could see that he knew. He pulled her into his arms and held her as she quietly cried. She had contacted her old friend and had contacted the Aurora Lovegood too to see if she saw a similar future for her child. Sybill had told her the prophecy and said that she couldn't see anymore into the future of Harry. Like he had been blocked from her sight. Aurora had written that Harry could survive the attack, but only if there was a sacrifice. Someone who loved Harry and shared blood with him would have to die first. Aurora had sent a ritual to Lily with instructions. It would be Harry's best chance to live but there would be a further cost that Aurora also couldn't see.

Someone was blocking visions from the two seers and Lily wanted to know who it was and why. There were few wizards powerful enough to work such a manipulation and she did not like to think of what would happen if her suspicions were true.

"James," she began. "Aurora sent me something."

Before she could explain Sirius and Remus returned with Harry. She got off James and took her baby outside to the garden to enjoy some fresh air and allow Remus and Sirius to lift James' mood. She sat down next to her Kneazle, Hazel, who was sunning itself on the back steps. Harry began cooing and reaching for Hazel and Lily quickly moved the little boy out of reach from Hazel's tail.

She thought more on the idea of the fidelius charm. Dumbledore believed that there was a traitor amongst their friend group. The Bones and Longbottom's had gone into hiding since the births of their babies. Aurora was now pregnant and would no longer be leaving the Tower she and Xenophilius lived in. Sirius would be going into hiding from his insane family soon and Remus had a secret mission from Dumbledore he would be leaving on soon. The people she loved were leaving. This was supposed to be the happiest time in their lives and yet the dark kept her isolated.

She thought of her friends Claudia Greengrass and Lucille Davis. The two Slytherin girls she had been friends with who married within their house and now were forced to associate with Death Eaters. She knew their husbands were trying to remain neutral through this mess but were being pressured into 'falling in line'. Their own children would grow up with the likes of the Malfoys, Goyles and Crabbes if nothing was done. Claudia had written to Lily asking for advice about her pregnancy and had informed her that the Malfoy's had already proposed a marriage contract between their two unborn children. Cyrus Greengrass had been able to decline on the grounds that neither baby was born and their genders were as of yet unknown.

She thought back to her own pregnancy. James and his family had been wary when she insisted on getting an ultrasound done with a private squib doctor. It was a new technology that had become an obsession for her pregnant mind. She had wanted to know the gender. Had been unable to handle not knowing the gender of her baby. The pureblood's faces had been incredible when they first heard the heartbeat of little Harry and Charlus, stoic and grand Charlus, had tears in his eyes when he found out that it was going to be a boy.

Lily had tried to get her magical friends to go to the squib doctor to find out what the genders of their babies were going to be but all of them refused. It was expected but made Lily sad. There was this entire other world that most of the magical community would never experience. Sirius had become enamored with the muggle world that Lily showed the marauders.

She was brought out of her reminiscing by a loud crash from inside the house.

"It's fine it's fine!" James called out "Padfoot is a clumsy moron"

She came back inside with Harry and saw that the hideous lamp Petunia had gifted them had shattered. She laughed. "Well at least we no longer have to suffer through owning that monstrosity"

"See James I did you lot a favour"

"We could just fix it with reparo" Remus suggested.

"Don't you dare" Lily glared at him. "It broke there is nothing we can do."

James laughed and kissed her. He took Harry and began twirling the giggling baby around singing "The evil lamp is gone! The evil lamp is gone!"

Padfoot and Mooney left leaving the Potters to alone. The young parents looked at each other and silently agreed to let their worries go for a few more hours. While Lily prepared a roast and potatoes James sprawled on the floor with Harry entertaining the baby with little soft plush animals and a fake cauldron that would shoot up different coloured smoke.

It was a quiet night for the Potters with their friends gone and it was Lily's favourite kind of night. She could pretend all was well and that all of her loved ones were safe. She was 20. She was completely in love and had an adorable baby boy who was the joy of her life. She lost herself in her cooking and the sounds of James playing with Harry.

That night as she put Harry down in his bassinet and went to bed she smiled. Today had been a good day. It was a different Halloween than they had had last year, it had been her last drunken night before her and James would quietly start trying for a baby. She had been convinced to dress up as a doe and go out with the marauders who dress to honour their animagus forms. Today in honour of Halloween she had tried to dress Harry in a little stag costume but he had refused to wear the antlers and had smeared the little nose she'd drawn on.

In the morning as they sat down to toast and tea James read in the Daily Prophet that the Bones family had been found dead. Death Eaters attacked the couple in their home on October 28th and the family was found on the 30th. Their newborn daughter was added to the ever lengthening list of orphans and would live with her aunt and godmother Amelia.

"Fuck" James muttered.

Lily turned to him and raised an eyebrow. He passed her the paper and her heart stopped. The Bones had been in hiding for a month. How had they been found so quickly?

"Lily…" James trailed off at the sight of her face.

"Floo your family James. We need to do the charm and make a plan. Today."

She prayed that Aurora was right. She prayed that the ones she loved would be safe. She looked at the small child in her arms.

When this is all over will she have done enough, will she and James survive to raise their baby?

AN:

So this is the first chapter. I hope you liked it. This story will follow Harry through his Hogwarts years but the first part will be focused on the Potters as a family. Every chapter will not be in Lily's perspective.

This is how I am breaking down the family.

Charlus Potter and Dorea Black = James Parents

So Sirius is James First Cousin as Orin Black and Dorea were brother and sister.

If you have any further questions, feel free to PM me or Review.

M.