Stories In Progress (Fan-fiction First Chapters)

Harry Potter: Ruthless

Chapter One: A One-Hit Wonder

The ritual to use her blood and life force to protect her son Harry was all set and ready, James her 'husband' even knew some of it just enough to know she had to be the one that was with baby Harry should the Dark Lord come calling. What no one knew was that Lily Jasmine Potter (née Evans) was a lot more ruthless than they expected, Lily had set a lethal trap using the whole house and the sacrifice ritual that 'everyone' knew about was actually the back-up plan.

When James refused to leave the country to protect Harry from the Dark Lord, Lily stopped listening to a word he or his saint Dumbledore said. Since neither of them or her so called friends wanted to protect her son they could all fuck off; use her baby boy as bait would they, they'd learn why Lily wasn't considered the smartest witch in her generation for nothing. She used both her magical and mundane education to lay a trap that the wizard-bound idiots didn't see coming.

When Voldemort came that night he killed James after the idiot challenged him to a duel. The useless waste of space didn't even stick to the plan, he just went running up to the Dark Lord and dared him to kill him. At least he bought Lily enough time to make it to the fortified nursery with Harry. After checking her regular portkey necklace wasn't working and that she couldn't use apparition, Lily checked her last resort the window; unlucky for her either Dumbledore or Voldemort had sealed the house.

When Lily couldn't escape the nursery, she knew it was time. She finished the last of her preparations by casting a sticky charm to the Grim teddy that James had insisted Harry keep in his cot, making sure her little boy had it in hand she wiped away a fallen tear from her face and tried to smile at Harry as she didn't want his last memory of her to be a sad one. Settling Harry in his crib and wrapping him in the blanket her mother Flora had knitted, Lily steadied her breath.

Immediately afterwards Lily hung up the communication mirror she had activated the moment of the attack as she didn't want her friend to hear what was about to happen; if Lily had her way Harry wouldn't be here either but for the ritual to work she had to stand between him and death. Once the mirror was tucked away in Harry's sleeper safe, Lily bent down to the ground and swiped her blooded hand across the runes to set the fuse and activate the first active step in the protection ritual.

Stroking his soft hair, Lily felt the wards on the nursery door finally fall and the door wrench open. Turning to face what the cowardly sheep of the wizarding world called the most feared Dark Lord, Lily felt nothing but contempt. When Voldemort paused before killing her she was confused, when he told her to stand aside she was actually shocked for a second before she realised what must have happened; Severus Snape her old 'friend' and now a Death Eater minion must have made a deal with his Lord for her life.

Realising this was a golden opportunity to super-charge her protective ritual, Lily refused making sure she stood between Riddle and Harry as she begged for her son's life instead. Three times he asked and she refused and Lily knew someone up high must be looking out for her son as three was a very powerful protective magical number. As she waited for the killing curse to strike her Lily only regretted one thing that she wouldn't get to see her son grow up into an amazing young man.

As Voldemort killed her with the killing curse and then moved towards the crib, Lily couldn't help but thinking 'gotcha' as he cast the 'Avada Kedavra' curse at Harry. The curse rebounded straight back at the caster as it should but the shockwave coming off young Harry not only obliterated Riddle's body but also half the room in a circumference around the crib. The extra protection from the added power of a three-fold sacrifice had done an excellent job of wiping out every threat to Lily's son within range.

The moment there was no one physically alive other than Harry in the room the portkey and ward-breaker attached to the teddy activated taking Harry away to safety; coincidentally this was before the little piece of Voldemort's soul that had broken off at his body's destruction could attach itself to young Harry and so the soul piece having no anchor as the one Voldemort had especially prepared and brought with him was destroyed with his body so the sliver of soul left behind withered away.

Ten seconds after the last of Lily's blood left Godric's Hollow cottage, the building exploded. The magic bomb Lily had made was set to go off the moment there was no longer one of her blood alive in the house. Lily had originally planned to run with Harry, leaving Voldemort and his minions to their grisly fate; whether James or anyone else cough-Dumbledore-cough made it out alive, was not her concern. When Lily and Harry became trapped in the house, Lily had to switch to Plan B and use the bomb as clean-up and cover-up duty.

Lucky for Snape he arrived seconds late to the scene of the crime, just enough to miss being in the house when it exploded though he still went flying back down the garden path when the pressure wave released. Not so lucky was the second Death Eater on the scene that of Peter 'Wormtail' Pettigrew a 'friend' of James', who was hiding downstairs during the whole confrontation and had waited in the living room while the Dark Lord went upstairs to murder baby Harry. After the initial boom from the back-firing curse, Wormtail had made his way up the stairs to investigate; he was about halfway up when the whole place exploded.

Snape was still outside sitting on the ground staring in shock at the burning building when Sirius 'Padfoot' Black arrived on his flying motorcycle. Seeing the black cloak, Sirius didn't pause and simple knocked him out thinking he was with the Death Eaters raiding party attacking his friend's house. Sirius stood crying and wailing in shock at first when he got a good look at the burning destroyed house; getting over it after a few moments he started trying to get in passed the fire to see the state of his best friend.

Rubeus Hagrid the half-giant games-keeper from Hogwarts School suddenly arrived from down the street and helped get the broken front door open. Hagrid barely fit through the warped doorframe but neither man could go further in as the first floor was rubble and had collapsed into the ground floor. With the fire still spreading fast just like Lily intended, they didn't have any time; Sirius wouldn't leave without James and almost collapsed himself when Hagrid pointed out his body under some nearby rubble. They managed between them to get James' body out of the hallway where he died and as they were leaving the smoke cleared enough for them to see the remains of Pettigrew at the base of what was left of the stairs.

Getting back outside, Sirius fell to the ground next to his death best friend as several things happened at once: Snape woke up, several incoming apparition pops were heard, and the whole cottage finally caved in on itself. The pops turned out to be several incoming aurors including Senior Auror Alabaster 'Mad-Eye' Moody who were responding to all the magic used and the explosion.

Though Sirius was in no condition to give a report, he managed to explained what he thought had happened. Snape when confronted by Moody was able to confirm the part of it about the Dark Lord coming and attacking the Potters. Showing the Dark Mark on his forearm Snape and everyone were shocked to see it faded and dull, that was all the aurors needed to know to confirm 'You Know Who' had perished in the explosion.

Sirius started talking about how James must have done it as he had fought Voldemort before and survived. Sirius starting describing to the aurors, how he and Hagrid had found the body with James still having had his wand in his hand and signs of a fierce battle all around him. The aurors were inclined to believe that version of events as James was an auror and a known pureblood from an old family, so in their eyes he must have been quite powerful and James being an auror would be good press for the department.

Sirius had to do some quick talking after that as Moody finally remembered Sirius was supposed to be the Potter's secret keeper for their Fildelius charm but with an offer and a quick application of a truth potion Moody kept on him, the aurors finally believed him about a prank gone wrong and having switched to what turned out to be a traitor Pettigrew. Sirius promised the other aurors to bring in a copy of James' will that was in the Black vault that explained the secret keeper switch so that they could fill out the proper paperwork.

With the aurors securing the site and his best friend dead and his other friend branded a traitor, Sirius left Godric's Hollow to get rip roaring drunk never once all night thinking about Lily or her son. Hagrid who had finally remembered why he was there and had realised little Harry who he had come to collect must have died with his family. Following Sirius' example Hagrid headed to the pub to get drunk and spread the word at the death of 'He Who Must Not Be Named' by the brave James Potter completely forgetting once again that he was supposed to report back to Dumbledore with young Harry.