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The Lady
By nyladnam04

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Category: Girl Talk Challenge (2010-3), Girl Talk Challenge (2010-3)
Characters:Harry/Ginny, James Potter, Lily Potter
Genres: General
Warnings: Spouse/Adult/Child Abuse
Story is Complete
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 55
Summary: ** Winner of New Skills and the People’s Choice Award in the Girl Talk Challenge **
For protecting their son in the face of certain death, James and Lily Potter are given a wonderful gift: the chance to help their son succeed. James chooses the girl that Lily will train. Unfortunately, the girl is stubborn, willful and doesn't trust the Lady in her mind.
Hitcount: Story Total: 25440; Chapter Total: 4073





Author's Notes:
Thanks to J for being a wonderful beta!

Note: Four lines in the begining are direct quotes from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (American paperback edition), Chapter Nine: Grim Defeat, page 179.

The warning is for implied abuse in the Dursley home in a later chapter.




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31 October 1981

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

"Stand aside you silly girl … stand aside now."

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead —"

But Lily’s pleas were in vain as Voldemort raised his wand at her small son, his red eyes glowing with gleeful madness. Desperate, she stepped between the dark wizard and her baby, effectively blocking Harry from the line of spellfire.

"Not Harry! Please … have mercy … have mercy… "

Harry seemed to have picked up on his mother’s fear as he began to cry, his terrified screams drowning out the words Voldemort was saying as he pointed his wand directly at Lily’s heart. The last thing she heard as the poisonous green spell raced towards her was her child’s anguished cry.

“MAMA!”

And then there was only darkness and silence.

In what seemed like years and mere moments, Lily realized she must exist and that in existing she must also be able to hear and see and feel. With that discovery, she opened her eyes and found herself to be naked, but a niggling feeling that there was another presence nearby made her feel shy. As soon as this thought hit her, she found herself to be clothed. The bright mist that swirled around began to clear slightly, rather, began to become shapes instead of mist. Lily could see the outline of a person, and as the mist fell away, she recognized the figure.

“James! James!” she cried, running towards him. James turned around, the worried lines disappearing from his face and he caught her in his arms and pulled her tight into his body. They embraced for long minutes before Lily pulled back and looked up into her husband’s face.

“I couldn’t protect him,” she sobbed. “I tried! I stepped in between Harry and Voldemort. But he...he’s going to kill our baby!” She broke down completely, clutching James’s shoulders and burying her face into his neck. Lily could feel James’s body shaking and knew he was crying as well.

“We need to find him, Lils. If he...if Voldemort...if. We need to find him.” Lily had always envied the way James could focus on a task, his resolve hardening with whatever he needed to do no matter how he felt. With a nod, she pulled away, but continued to clutch James’s hand. They had only gone three steps towards the centre of what Lily thought was some sort of station when they heard a voice behind them.

“You’ll not find your child here. He is quite alive and well, and currently in the care of your half-giant friend.” They whirled around to face a girl who looked to be in her early teens at first glance. However, she had such an ethereal look about her that she could have been anywhere from 14 to 400. Her wispy hair could have been a youthful blonde or a wizened white and the knowing looking in her clear blue eyes may have been innocence or worldliness.

Neither James nor Lily Potter had ever been ones to cower, but for once they were both struck speechless. Perhaps it was by design, for the girl or spirit or whatever she was didn’t seem to want them to speak yet anyway.

“I died many years ago,” she spoke, her voice soft and low, but it carried easily in the silent station. “I could See, you see.” She smiled at what must have been a little joke to her. “I was, am, very powerful as a Seer. It drove me to madness in life and led me to an early grave. I couldn’t control my power. Whenever I touched my mother, I saw her death in hundreds of different ways, but they were all because of me. When I touched my brothers, I saw unhappiness and loneliness and guilt and sorrow. I could do nothing to change it. But I would also see visions of the distant future, and I saw your son.”

Here both James and Lily made to interrupt, but the girl continued to speak and they were unable to do anything but listen.

“I saw him and I saw many different outcomes, but so few paths. He is a curious boy, you see. I believe destiny has already been laid out before young Harry, carved out by others: Tom Riddle will forever try to destroy him; Albus Dumbledore will always try to mould him; his last remaining family will do nothing but ridicule and belittle him. The same people will always try to befriend him and his parents.” Here she smiled benignly at the Potters. “In every possible outcome, they would always try to protect him. I have grown to care for the two of you deeply from watching you both die to save your son over and over throughout my life and in my death. I believe it is due to this connection I feel with the two of you that has led us all to be here and for me to give you a chance to help your son.”

James had finally found his voice. “Harry’s alive? Voldemort didn’t try to kill him? What happened? Can we help Harry by going back?”

Lily could hardly dare to hope that she would be able to hold her tiny son again. In fact, she was already certain this wouldn’t be. The girl had said something about Harry’s last remaining family. As much as Lily wished it otherwise, she knew that this meant her sister had become Harry’s guardian and she shuddered at knowing Petunia would never treat Harry as well as she would have treated Tuney’s son if something had happened to her sister and brother-in-law.

The girl simply pointed to what looked like a stone basin on a pedestal and Lily followed James as he peered down into it. She had never seen anything like it before, but wasn’t surprised that her husband had. Below them a scene played out, starting from when Voldemort had blasted open the door of the nursery. James choked out a sob when the Lily in the basin stepped between the monster and their son. Tears trickled down his face when her body crumbled to the floor.

Then Voldemort raised his wand once again at Harry, and their son’s wails stopped. The intense look on the boy's face was all too familiar — he wore the same look whenever James put him on his toy broom or he tried to Summon one of his toys into his crib. Green eyes locked onto red and the room was filled suddenly with poisonous green light for the second time in a matter of seconds. There was a high pitched laugh and then a scream of pain. A loud blast quickly followed, nearly drowning out the pained cries coming from Harry’s cot. Through all of the confusion, however, Lily could see a wisp of something leave the pile of robes that had been Voldemort’s body and latch onto the lightning-shaped scar that was carved into her baby’s forehead. A larger spirit-like being fled the room and then the scene went black.

Neither could speak as the shock was too great, but the girl once again required no words on their part.

“James Potter, for protecting your family in the face of certain death, I grant you two gifts. I cannot spare your friends the pain they will endure. I cannot save the werewolf from hardships and grief, nor can I keep an innocent man from relieving his worst memories for many years.” She stopped as James let out an inarticulate, anguished cry.

“But who will protect Harry? Sirius can’t go to...and Remus! I should never have thought...!” The relief that his son had survived was quickly swallowed, as James realized that Harry would be on his own, that Sirius and Remus wouldn’t be there to protect his son and that Lily and his death had condemned everyone James cared about.

The girl waited patiently for James’s grief to subside enough for her to continue. “I can’t save them; however, I can give you the opportunity to do so.” James’s eyes lit up. “You won’t be able to do much, but what you’ll be able to do might make all the difference. You may visit your friends, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, in their dreams. It will help to keep Sirius Black sane while in Azkaban and Remus Lupin from succumbing to his despair and fears. One day they will both be able to help Harry, if you can first help them.”

James nodded forcefully. “The second gift I will give you,” she continued on, “is the opportunity to choose the girl that your wife will train. This girl will help Harry from afar until the end. Without this girl, it will become infinitely more difficult for your son to succeed. If he does not succeed, the world we have all left behind, but still care for will be plunged into a darkness that will last for hundreds of years.

“The girl must have the strength to withstand many trials and tribulations. Your son is not you, James. He will not see what is in front of him until it is nearly too late. But while he will not have the same awareness as you did as a boy, you will choose better than Lily.”

The girl waved her hand and hundreds of stone basins circled around them. Lily could look down into some of them and saw the little girls. They ranged in age from infants to toddlers. ‘How could you know who to pick when the little girls were this young?’

Lily glared at the girl. It sounded to her that James would be picking out the one who could become her son’s wife, and who better could pick the right companion for Harry than his mother?

“You would over-think it, dear.”

‘Apparently, the girl could read minds as well,’ Lily thought discourteously.

“I am a natural Legilimens, Lily dear.” She gave a small titter, but her blank expression did not change. “Besides, you wear your thoughts and emotions on your face.”

Lily tried not to show her surprise as she turned to watch her husband wander around the circle. He stopped and would watch some basins intensely, while others he would only glance into before continuing on. After what seemed like days, James finally came to a stop at a small basin on the far side of the circle. He spent several long minutes looking into it, smiling occasionally, and laughing outright on three different occasions.

“This one,” he finally said, looking up at his wife and the girl.

“You have chosen well, James Potter.” She waved her hand again and all of the basins disappeared. A sort of portal appeared in front of them all, giving Lily a large view of a tiny baby girl with wisps of red hair. Several little red-headed boys would race by her occasionally. While Lily admitted the baby girl was very pretty, she couldn’t understand what would make James pick this girl over any other.

“I counted five boys,” James said. “I figure if that little girl can handle five brothers,”

“Six,” the girl interrupted.

“Oh, well, six then. Anyway, if she can handle six brothers, she’ll have the strength and fortitude to put up with whatever Harry throws her way.” He wrapped his arms around his wife and grinned mischievously down at her. “Besides, she’s a red-head,” he said this matter-of-factly, as though that settled the matter.

“Lily Potter, your gift for giving your life for your son’s and, in doing so, invoking a protection that will ensure he will remain safe enough to meet his destiny, is to train the girl that will help young Harry. I would like you to meet your apprentice, Ginevra Weasley.”

From that day forward, Lily began to lay the groundwork that would precede her training of the young red-headed girl. As the years went by, she couldn’t help but be pleased with the girl that her husband had selected. She’d never tell him that, however. To the end of time, she would be convinced that he had simply picked the girl with the brightest red hair (and most stubborn temper) he could find.
Reviews 55
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