Set in an Alternate Universe which fractures from canon at the moment in 1980 Sev erus Snape realises who

Voldemort means to target and goes straight to Lily to w arn her instead of to Dumbledore. Covers some of theevents of the Autumn of 1980 including the (very much non-canon) Battle of Godric's Hollow on Hallowe'en of that year. Originally intended tocover more events afterwards, but abridged and indefinitely on hold for now due to formatting problems. Chapter 1: Shattered [View Online][Printer Friendly Version of This Chapter] Disclaimer: I am not J K Rowling, nor do I own Harry Potter. I am not H P Lovecraft either, nor do I own Cthulu, Abdul Alhazred, The Necronomi con, or Al Azif. Note: Whilst I have written and had intended to originally post rather more than this, t he constant bother of having to endlessly reformat material because the site is incompatible with the text editor I use, and the rules of this site which preven t me from posting supporting material in letter form as I would like are barrier s I have neither the time nor energy to deal with at present.I may manage one or two more chapters over on the supporting material story , but it s an uphill battle.Ap ologies to readers on this site who enjoy this for not being able to post more.

On a shelf in a hall in the Ministry of Magic, a prophecy sings and hums Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies One prophecy, on a shelf of prophecies, in a chamber full of prophecies. Albus Dumbledore, Defeater of Grindlewald and Headmaster of Hogwarts School (among st a variety of more and less important titles), pauses to inspect it, then nods , and goes on his way Behind him, the prophecy hums and whispers, and the dissonances and stresses of a chaotic world swirl and almost entirely cancel one another out... Severus Snape is a wizard almost at breaking point.The summer of 1980 is coming to an end and the Dark Lord has been investigating, studying the reports of spies a nd lists of infants born in July.The Dark Lord has concluded, although his inform ation about it is incomplete, that a recent prophecy of a threat to himself indi cates either the son of the Longbottoms or the son of the Potters as being a fut ure source of real danger to him; and he is inclining towards believing that it is the Potters son who brings that peril. The Longbottoms mean little to Severus, but if the Dark Lord comes down on the Po tters it will mean likely not just the destruction of the son, but of the entire family and even though Severus hasn t exchanged civil words with her for years, J ames Potter s wife, Lily, and her safety and happiness means everything to him.

Severus has served the Dark Lord as a Death Eater now for several years, and, ind eed delivered information regarding what the Dark Lord now knows of the prophecy to him.The bitter irony of that does not escape him right now. Severus has several options, none of them very pleasant, and time is running out. Severus chooses. Where are they Pettigrew?

Wrapped in his disguising robes and mask of a Death Eater, Severus has speedily t racked down Peter Pettigrew, a known associate of the Potters, and holds him up at wand-point.Night has fallen and Severus has surprised Pettigrew in a shadowy a lley outside a club which Severus knows is one of Pettigrew s favourite haunts.Hard ly the bravest of men, Pettigrew falls apart with very little persuasion, and di vulges all that he knows to Severus Snape.Severus doesn t waste time to stop and er ase the man s memory of the inquisition, but instead takes Pettigrew s own wand to h amper his ability to send any immediate warning and leaves him to scamper off. Apparating rapidly across the country and pausing only to consult a London A to Z , Severus Snape arrives within minutes in the room in the mediocre muggle bed an d breakfast on the outskirts of London to which Pettigrew has just given him dir ections. He casually stuns James and disarms Lily with the wand he has taken from Pettigre w, then pulls off his mask. Severus? Lily says, as James lies oblivious on the floor. Over in one corner is a crib in which the infant Harry, focus of the Dark Lord s cur rent attention, lies.

I can t trust Dumbledore not to play games.I thought I d bring you the news direct.And b the way you should be careful who knows where you are. Severus tosses Lily the wan d he captured from Pettigrew, and her eyes widen as she recognises it. He pulls his own wand out, in case she tries to fight him instead of hear him out . What news? She looks scared of him.Not unreasonably, although she should be much more scared o f other things given the ease with which he just tracked her and her family down , and given what she doesn t know yet. The Dark Lord himself may shortly come after you.He seems to be inclining towards be lieving that a prophecy Trelawney made to Dumbledore means your son is a direct threat to him.The Dark Lord takes the view that most such threats are best dealt with pre-emptively by his personally killing however many people he regards as n ecessary to remove to utterly extirpate a threat. Severus.You work for him though these days.Why are you here now?Why are you telling me this? I wanted you to be able to look me in the face perhaps one last time, Lily, and to be able to see in my eyes how grave I consider your situation to be.That and to s ay how much I regret ever reporting what he knows of this damn prophecy to him i n the first place.You deserve that much from me.

They exchange a long glance, and whole aeons seem to pass in a moment of painful u nderstanding. Severus winces, then raises his wand and prepares to depart. No, wait, Severus.I ll wake James.He has to hear this too.

Lily says.

I rather doubt that James will want to listen.I just stunned him, I m partially the r eason the Dark Lord is coming after you right now, and James and I never got on at school, as well you know, Lily. Nevertheless, Severus does not go though, not ye t. He will listen if I tell him to. says Lily, and Severus knows that that is true.He an d James may utterly detest one another, but he recognises that James Potter is a s powerless to gainsay Lily as he himself. I was stunned, and you were disarmed, and he did nothing but talk? Lily, having been awoken and heard Severus report of the situation. James Potter asks

Yes. says Lily. If he wanted to kill us or curse us or do something to Harry to curry favour with his master, we were completely at his mercy. We need to take this to Dumbledore, at once. James says. If we know Voldemort s personal ly after us, we should be able to turn this to our advantage somehow. Severus almost blinks at that.He came here, to this shabby room with peeling paint and second-rate sheets, to warn Lily so she could take any steps necessary to p rotect herself.James, with typical Gryffindor bravado, actually wants to try and take advantage of the situation to turn it into a trap or ambush, no doubt.Actual ly, that wouldn t be a bad idea, if it could be done without Lily s life being put a t stake, Severus thinks.Although, reading the chemistry in here, seeing the way t hey look at one another, he s sure that Lily would take it hard if she lived but l ost James or their son. I ve warned you.I ve done my part. Severus says. No you haven t. James says. If we don t mention our source to anyone but Dumbledore t under strict oath of secrecy you can go back to your Death Eater friends so as to be able to keep Lily informed of any further developments which threaten her safety, am I right, Severus? For a moment, it feels to Severus as if James Potter has tied his tongue with a c urse.He hates him for his suggestion, but knows he has a point Indeed, though if there are any developments I will endeavour to let you both know . Severus says. But if you intend to set any traps for the Dark Lord, don t rely on be ing able to take him with a wand, and get out of this place now because I questi oned Pettigrew and if I go back I m going to have to report that also that I inves tigated if you were here but that the place was empty. You ll have to take this. Lily throws Peter s wand back to Severus.He catches it, a look of surprise on his face. Unless you obliviated or confunded Peter, he s probably a lready told several people a Death Eater took his wand.If that gets back to You-K now-Who You re right, of course. Severus acknowledges. Well in that case pocket for coins.

an

he begins to fumble in

 I think I can stand the cost of a new wand for an old friend.

James scowls.

Severus ripostes to the scowl with an evil glare, but disapparates. In a small cosy sitting-room, lit by several dozen candles, Albus Dumbledore, in h is capacity as leader of the Order of the Phoenix, listens to the tale James and Lily bring him, assessing the potential damage it might cause.He was aware of wh o had listened outside the door when the prophecy was made and was reasonably ce rtain that Severus Snape would have reported what he heard of the prophecy to Vo ldemort; he had been absolutely certain that if that happened Voldemort would mo ve soon against one or more infants and their families.Albus is, however, surpris ed that Snape has actually approached Lily Potter directly to warn her there is a very real threat against her life.Clearly the man must have very deep feelings for her, which run contrary to any other loyalties despite the fact that she s ano ther man s wife.By what James and Lily say he seems resigned to a remote, unrequite d, love for her though he could have exploited the situation of having her, Jame s, and Harry at his mercy in any one of half a dozen ways, but he was apparently concerned only for Lily s well-being.Albus dismisses a moment of gnawing doubt as to whether he misjudged Severus Snape during that young man s Hogwarts years as no t useful to the present situation. So, if Snape s correct and from what Albus has gathered from other sources he rates there as being at least a fifty/fifty chance that the man does know what he was talking about then James and Lily and Harry are in terrible danger.The logical th ing to do would be to hide them at once, and distract Voldemort into a months or years long search for them; but no, James wants to set an ambush Albus wishes Snape had come to him with this.He could have dictated the pace then, and presented the situation to the Potters as if they had no choices but to go into hiding, but now James has this preconceived idea, and when Albus suggests t hat they might like to go into hiding, James counters that the Death Eaters can clearly find them anyway, by interrogating known associates.The ease with which P ettigrew gave them up to Snape has them shaken.And to be frank, they apparently w ould rather put their own lives on the line than hide whilst their friends are i n danger. So now Albus has to decide what to do.He could exert his authority and force them into hiding anyway, against their wishes, or he can make the best of a bad deal and go along with James ambush notion and hope against all logic that if somethin g goes wrong Severus Snape gets word out in time. He sends for Alastor Moody.If James madcap plan has even half a chance of success, Alastor will be the wizard who can make it work.And if James plan has no chance th en maybe Alastor can make James see sense and ensure the Potters go into hiding.A lbus could of course sabotage James plan by presenting facts in such a way as to guarantee Alastor turns against it, irrespective of whether it s workable, but Alb us has a soft spot for James and wants to give one of his favourite former pupil s at least a fair chance of making his case Severus Snape is concerned once more.It is the end of October, now, and the headqua rters of the Death Eaters is abuzz with the news that the Dark Lord has just dis covered that the Potters are apparently staying in an Order of the Phoenix safehouse, in the village of Godric s Hollow.This information came from a Death Eater i nterrogation of Peter Pettigrew.Given the ease with which Pettigrew was taken las t night and gave this information up Severus Snape can only hope that this is a deliberate ploy by the Order of the Phoenix. In light of what Snape had told the Dark Lord that he had previously questioned P

ettigrew about the Potter s location, but found that place recently vacated, the D ark Lord sent a couple of Death Eaters out at about noon to discreetly scout the locality, rather than immediately go himself and risk a wasted visit.The scouts returned several hours later with reports that the residence did indeed seem occ upied by at least James Potter, but that there appeared to be half a dozen other wizards in the vicinity apparently placed specifically to watch for any trouble .The scouts believe they were not noticed, and that their presence raised no alar ms. This news greatly interested the Dark Lord.It made him certain that the Potters we re indeed in Godric s Hollow, with some degree of Order protection, but also made him decide to gather some additional Death Eater support, before striking Severus excuses himself from the muster of Death Eaters, and takes himself in eve ryday robes to the old familiar halls of Hogwarts.He goes not to the headmaster s s tudy, but to look for his old potions teacher, Professor Horace Slughorn. Good evening, Professor Slughorn. , Severus greets him.He has surprised the professor in his rooms, as he readies himself for the great Hallowe en feast of that evenin g. Severus!Is that you? the professor starts nervously. I hear troubling rumours about wha t you re involved in these days. I am here on account of another of your former students: one of your favourites as I recall, Lily Potter, nee Lily Evans. Severus hesitates, unsure for a moment of h ow far, if at all, Professor Slughorn might have been taken into Lily or Dumbled ore s confidence. It is a matter of some urgency.If you have any mutual means of conta cting her, could you please do so, and let her know that I have been here and as ked you about her and if she and James are expecting a good many guests for thei r Hallowe en celebrations this year and do so as quickly as possible?She s an intelli gent woman.She ll understand my intent, I m sure.That will be all. Under the circumstance s that is the best which Severus can do short of apparating to Godric s Hollow and walking into a potential ambush which might take him down as a known Death Eate r before he can say anything. I ll do my best, Severus. Professor Slughorn promises.

Wait, Severus.Just how many guests? Severus turns to find Lily emerge from an adjace nt room, looking extremely concerned. Lily m dear, how exactly am I supposed to keep you safe if you won t stay out of sigh t for even a couple of hours? Professor Slughorn harrumphs. Lily? Severus mind reels.What is she doing here?Does this mean Dumbledore persuaded Ja mes out of any ambush plan? It was Pettigrew they took and questioned, and they doubted his reliability, so th ey sent a couple of scouts based on the information he gave them. Severus briefs her.Either this will make sense to Lily or it won t, and since she apparently trust s Professor Slughorn with confidences so much as to stay here, he will just have to do so too. The scouts noticed a few wizards loitering, which upon their reporti ng back was sufficient to convince the Dark Lord of the target, but he s mustering support to go in with him.A lot of support.He means to make a grand show of this. Alastor reckoned he d go for it in a big way, but I never believed him. Lily goes whi te. That s the only reason I let them talk me into coming here with Harry.James I have to go back to him.They ll need every wand if they have that sort of attack coming.Look after Harry, professor, whilst I m away.

She goes out for a cloak, and then returns, wand in hand and ready to depart.

Wait.I ll come with you. Severus says. You won t have enough brains with just James ther o deal with the Dark Lord face-to-face if he arrives. Lily hesitates a moment, then shrugs. Come on then, but keep your wand away when we arrive until I can explain things to my colleagues.And maybe I can use you as a hostage if we have to later negotiate with your master. Former master. Severus says.

Constant vigilance! Alastor Moody snarls.Besides the battle-hardened auror, there are couple of other aurors present Frank and Alice Longbottom at this prearranged O rder of the Phoenix apparition-point in the cosy flagstone-floored kitchen of so meone s cottage.The Longbottoms look twitchy, Severus thinks, and little surprise.Pr esumably they know that Voldemort might have decided the prophecy meant he shoul d go after their son, Neville.At the moment, their wands are out and they look li ke all that s keeping them from hexing Severus into oblivion is Lily s obvious prese nce in apparent control of the situation and the lack of any final word from Moo dy. Lily had side-along apparated into Godric s Hollow with Severus held at wand-point.T hey had discussed it on the way out of the Hogwarts grounds and concluded it was the only way for Severus, a known member of Voldemort s circle, to arrive. By bringing him here, rs in our midst. Moody continues, you ve given You-Know-Who a pair of eyes and ea

Alastor.He came to Hogwarts, because he thought Horace could get a message to me.He could have killed Harry if he had wanted to do so. Lily says. Normally, yes, it woul d be insane of me to bring him here, but You-Know-Who s over-riding concern right now is the prophecy, and Severus could have taken care of it then and there. The auror glowers at Severus, his artificial eye scrutinising Severus independent of the other one, then he finally reaches some sort of conclusion and turns bac k to Lily. Fine. Moody growls. What s so important you had to come here bringing him?

He says You-Know-Who is throwing practically everything into this. Lily says. He says You-Know-Who sent scouts who spotted the obvious and he s taken our bait and is ro unding everyone up to see his prophecy shattering moment of triumph. The Longbottoms visibly flinch, Alice giving a little gasp and her husband going pale, but Moody is made of sterner stuff. Excellent. Moody beams, a sight possibly even more frightening than his glower. We spo tted someone sneaking furtively around, admiring our obvious wand-carriers, and thought the reaction would either be a no-show or everything coming in.Now we get to roll the whole lot of them up. He cracks his knuckles and his smile broadens. Stil l doesn t explain what you re doing here, Lily.There are half a dozen ways you could have told me that without coming. Alastor.If practically every Death Eater in the country is about to descend, you ne ed my wand here.How many have we got on our side who can match my charm work?I ve ta ken care of the primary objective for now, so I can deploy here to assist you.

Moody glances briefly at Severus again, before subjecting Lily to a penetrating s tare. Are you going to try and tell me you brought him along because he offered to help too?

I m not even going to dignify that with an answer, Alastor. Lily says. If he s playing an kind of game, I trust it s one that has my best interests at heart.

He s exclusively under your command then. , Moody snorts. If he s here solely because of y u, you re the only one I can trust to handle him.And thank your lucky stars I m in ch arge of this operation, because Dumbledore would pack the pair of you off back t o Hogwarts I don t doubt. He looks at the Longbottoms. Alice: go pass word that we have ourselves an official Death Eater defector, who is not to be harmed by our side as long as he is both accompanied by Mrs. Potter here and obviously non-hostile to her. Alice nods, and departs, then Moody wheels on his wooden leg to address Sev erus for the first time. Right, Snape: Brief me.Give me everything you have on your former chums and the allies you figure You-Know-Who may be able to muster, start ing with approximate numbers, then the dozen most dangerous wizards in your rati ng and their favourite habits and spells, including You-Know-Who.Obviously I know much of this already, but it s always nice to have some verification and it s good to have any gaps you may incidentally hit upon plugged.And make it as succinct as possible.If Lily s fool enough to be here, I want her and you in position somewher e before your former chums arrive and things kick off. Debriefing by Moody over, Lily escorts Severus the short way through the early eve ning streets of Godric s Hollow to the building where James has set up base, in th e safe-house that is supposedly the current Potter family home.Lily lets them int o the house with a front-door key, and they meet with James in the front room. Besides more magical protections, the curtains are drawn for privacy, and the sas h-windows are currently down.There s a crib in one corner, with a blanket draped ov er the top and sides of it that completely conceals its contents and anything un derneath it.The room is lit by magical lights.

Lily!What are you doing here? James casts a sour look at Severus. And what s he doing he lice came round with the orders from Moody about him, but I could hardly credit them and had to check she hadn t been confunded or something. Apparently our target has taken the bait in a big way, and is dropping by with som e extra guests.I thought you d need a hostess to help serve all the little treats. L ily explains, stretching to give James a quick wifely hello peck on the cheek. Severu s? I m here to prop the door open, if need be and act as an expendable bouncer if thing s go south. Severus scowls at James. I didn t feel like fighting alongside Nott or any of the Lestranges tonight, and once the battle starts and he starts summoning a ny and all possible Death Eater reinforcements he s hardly likely to fail to notic e my absence from his muster of Death Eaters at which point my career there is e ffectively over. Which bait did he take? , James frowns. Pettigrew. , Severus returns. A stunner and just the threat of a cruciatus e rat squealed.Fortunately he was a sufficiently convincing coward that they eved him anyway, and tossed him in a cell whilst awaiting verification of his formation.Whomever briefed him could have made a better job of preparing him it. curse and th beli in for

 It was Dumbledore s idea and Peter didn t honestly completely know what was going on. Jam es looks absolutely wretched for just a moment. I hope he ll be alright with this aft erwards.Dumbledore seemed to think he d be okay so long as we win here today and Pe ter gets some reward for the unwitting role he s played. Severus makes a mental note not to ever trust Dumbledore with his own best intere sts.Lily, he notes, looks sick and surprised, so apparently this is the first she s heard that Pettigrew had been unaware of the role he d been assigned. They hadn t hurt him too badly the last I saw of him.He was just looking very frighte ned, and trying to curl up in a corner and go to sleep. , Severus says. So long as yo u win decisively tonight, anyone with any brains left back at Death Eater centra l even if they figure Pettigrew was a set-up will keep him unharmed to use as a bargaining chip to try to save their own necks.Anyone without any brains will be too busy running on pure instinct to bother about him. James looks relieved.Lily casts a glance at Severus which says she s wondering if he is trying to actually make James Potter of all people feel better about the sit uation he d put his friend in, and if so why?Fortunately James misses Lily s glance, and Severus doesn t feel like responding. Okay, Snivellus: so, since you re here at what will presumably be target alpha for t he Mouldy One, you may as well know James commences to explain. I assume the location is heavily warded and reinforced to ensure structural integr ity, in case a giant gets anywhere in range of it.Other than that I do not need t o know any secret plans you have.If he gets close enough to me to try and rummage around in my mind to determine why I ve changed loyalties, it s best I don t have any thing which might compromise any surprises you have lined up for him. Severus int errupts. As I said, I see my role here as being to purely get in the way of anythin g coming at the pair of you until either I m dead or the battle is over and you ar e secure. Lily and James exchange glances. Damnit, Snivellus.You should have been sorted into Gryffindor.I think I m belatedly st arting to respect you, if not to actually like you. , James says, and, wonder of w onders, there actually is something like grudging respect in his voice. Hogwarts wouldn t be still standing if there d been five Marauders. What makes you think you d have been a Marauder? , James challenges. What makes you think if I d been in Gryffindor I wouldn t have been? Severus returns. The two men spend a long moment looking at one another, and at last James looks a way. Bloody Sorting Hat. , he mutters. I swear if we all come out of this alive, I m going to beg or steal it, and get a second opinion from it on if it placed you right. There is a tinkle and a thud in one corner of the room, as a handful of coins and a stone which had been suspended in midair drop to the carpet. Okay, that was a signal from Moody, to indicate we have lots of Death Eaters and t he Mouldy One coming at Godric s Hollow from all directions. James announces. I ll get t he windows open, for sniping out of, and battle stations. Lily swishes her wand through the air and promptly vanishes under cover of an inv isibility charm.James pulls back the curtains for a moment, and opens the windows Severus snorts.

which overlook the street, then draws his wand.Severus lurks quietly in the back ground, wand drawn, ready to apply shielding charms or conjured or transfigured objects to block incoming spells or people as necessary.This looks like it s going to be a long night It was shortly after sunset, on the night of Hallowe en in 1980, that the Battle of Godric s Hollow commenced.Initial Death Eater probes towards the vicinity of the Po tter residence were met with counterattacks from a couple of wizards.Apparently c onfident that this light resistance was the entire extent of Order of the Phoeni x commitment to the area, in what was clearly intended to be a crushing display of force meant to lead into his anticipated prophecy-shattering moment-of-triump h the Dark Lord sent in almost every Death Eater he had, and discovered that the Order of the Phoenix had evacuated every non-wizarding inhabitant of the villag e and brought their own members and a handful of trusted auror allies in to pret end to be the regular residents.Although the Death Eaters had them outnumbered, t he Order of the Phoenix and their allies had dug in and prepared the ground to f avour themselves. An awful melee developed in the streets, with witches and wizards blasting one an other with hexes, or sniping with jinxes from buildings. For a while the Dark Lord seemed content to hang back from the fray, watching the fighting with amusement, before at last losing his patience, drawing his wand, and with a couple of loyal lieutenants providing support, storming towards the P otter residence, around which so much of the fighting was raging. By this point in the battle there were so many charms and counter-charms around t hat any attempt to apparate in or out of the vicinity of Godric s Hollow was compl etely out of the question. The Dark Lord smashed through a cordon of aurors, ble w the front door off its hinges, and leaving his lieutenants outside to cover hi s back he swept into the house beyond, from which he had observed a James Potter occasionally sniping throughout the evening who was, he was by now absolutely c ertain, no polyjuice double. Severus Snape and both James and Lily Potter were in the front-room.The woman was under the cover of an invisibility charm, but the Dark Lord had measures in plac e to be able to see through such tricks, given that James Potter was known to oc casionally employ an invisibility cloak.There was a covered crib in the corner fr om which gurgling noises were emerging.It was immediately apparent to the Dark Lo rd that Severus had changed sides. With unbelievable swiftness he disarmed Snape and both the Potters of their wands , smashing Lily s with the force of the disarm, and slammed Snape, who tried to im pose himself between the Dark Lord and the others, up against the wall, hard, wi th a binding charm.Lily s invisibility charm failed with the breaking of her wand. You disappoint me, Severus.Your end will be lengthy, exceptionally painful, and an example to all my true followers. the Dark Lord promised. Here s a little taster: cr ucio. Severus groaned, and went a paler shade than normal. James had been scrambling for his wand, and the Dark Lord disarmed him again, bef ore he could get a proper grip on it, and then hit him with the killing curse, a vada kedavra.James Potter hit the floor, dead. The Dark Lord turned then on Lily, wandless and fumbling with some sort of mechan ical contraption in her hands.

 How appropriate for a mudblood, ools.

he sneered. Magicless, and groping around with crude t

He opened his mouth to pronounce a killing curse. It turned out he had barely the time to get beyond the second syllable before a s obbing Lily Potter pulled the trigger and shot him with a very heavy duty crossb ow, at virtually point-blank range.The Dark Lord staggered backwards and did not complete his spell. The Dark Lord looked down at the bolt protruding from his chest an expression of incomprehension mixed with pain and disbelief stretched across his features. Choking, he drew himself as erect as possible and tried to point his wand at Lily Potter again. Rather then attempt to reload her weapon, she discarded it to take up another alr eady loaded crossbow from a pile which had been concealed under the crib.The Dark Lord stared at the crib, the covering blanket discarded, seeing it was complete ly empty, and that the sounds emerging from it were nothing but a glamour. He opened his mouth, and the next crossbow bolt took him in the throat. He sagged, and dropped his wand.He flopped to his knees. The woman crossed the room and kicked his wand away from his feeble attempt to re trieve it. Lily Potter stood over him, tears running down her face, and yet another crossbow pointed at the Dark Lord s head. She pulled the trigger. In the Hall of Prophecies, in the Ministry of Magic, there is a sudden sharp crack o f something like glass breaking, and a magical glow goes out. With the Dark Lord s demise, the spells holding Severus Snape to the wall and inflicti ng agonising pain on him had expired. You you said we shouldn t rely on being able to take him in a wand fight. Severus, swaying.She dropped the crossbow. Lily said to

She went over to James and knelt down mechanically by him as if, somehow, that wo uld make him be any less dead.She caressed his face desperately, and then, very s lowly, lifted his glasses to close his eyes, then resettled them and kissed him once on the lips. Lily. Severus obvious distress er that would be r son very, very said, doubly afflicted by Voldemort s own mistreatment of him, and the Lily was now in.He tried to think of something that might help h unclouded by his own dislike of James Potter. He loved you and you much.

He was horrified by the horrible soul-tearing wail of grief that that brought fro m her, and even more by the floods of tears that followed. He bent down and slowly picked up his own wand, then went across to sit next to h er, on guard should anyone else come upon her in this state as she mourned the h usband she had so very obviously loved.

 Albus Dumbledore walks across the floor of the Hall of Prophecies, something like a spring in his step.The victory at Godric s Hollow has been almost total, in terms of bringing the wizarding war to an end.Almost every major Death Eater in the Br itish Isles had been there, and once news of Voldemort s demise spread, and his bo dy was brought out, many of those present surrendered.Albus Dumbledore had to adm it that he had been greatly impressed by Lily Potter s preparation in having sever al pre-loaded crossbows to hand winched back and ready to fire.Apparently having a stockpile of them in the house had been her idea and she d somehow arranged tips crafted of cold worked iron, blessed by a priest for good luck an amazing strok e of foresight!The cold worked iron must have done horrendous damage to Voldemort s unnatural body and constitution, and who could tell maybe even the blessing mig ht have had some effect too Albus Dumbledore stops and frowns.The globe he is accustomed to being here is quit e patently not here, although there is a pile of shards on the shelf and more cr unching under foot.Albus hurriedly collects them altogether, and with a brief spe ll confirms that this, indeed, is apparently the very prophecy globe he came her e to check on. His frown deepens, and he very slowly works another spell.The globe is gone becaus e the prophecy is destroyed. Suddenly, an awful unknown future looms ahead of him. Clearly the victory at Godric s Hollow yesterday meant more than the death of Volde mort and the smashing of the Death Eaters of the current day. Albus Dumbledore finds he is suddenly shaking.Voldemort has apparently died before marking either the infant Potter or Longbottom as his equal.There will be no pro phesised hero now who will have power the Dark Lord knows not .What does this mean?An d how much will that matter? Survivors of the battle gather around James Potter s grave on a damp and dull Novemb er morning, whilst the bell tolls and the sexton drones. Professor Horace Slughorn is there too, in a darker shade of emerald green than u sual, and a sombre toned cravat.Professor Slughorn has been asked to hold Harry, whilst the dark-veiled widow weeps at her husband s grave. Lily Potter exists as something like a mobile buffer zone between Remus Lupin, Si rius Black, and Peter Pettigrew, all members of the Order of the Phoenix and fri ends of James, and former Death Eater Severus Snape, here specifically at the gr ieving widow s request.There is still a good deal of history between Severus and Ja mes friends to be gotten over, despite Lily s account of the last struggle with Vol demort.At least Sirius considers it would have been a good trade if Severus were now dead and James were standing here at the funeral of a belatedly repentant De ath Eater. Peter Pettigrew is nervous and twitchy.The Order of the Phoenix had not entirely e xplained to him that they had wanted him to divulge the information he gave the Death Eaters perhaps a shade quickly.He had been considering switching sides, imp ressed with the obvious growing power of the Death Eaters, but now the end of th e war has of course saved him from making that mistake, and nobody in the Order of the Phoenix minds that he squealed, as he thought, to save his own skin.They h ad relied on him to do so, to lure the Death Eaters into Moody s trap.There has bee n much back-slapping, and talk of him perhaps even being awarded the Order of Me rlin, Second Class.

Remus is pondering what path his life should take now; he has only just learned t hat there were some doubts starting to arise over his allegiances, given his wer ewolf nature.Severus, in so far as the others are prepared to take his word in su ch things, has poured polite scorn on the notion that Remus had ever been a spy for the Death Eaters. Albus Dumbledore stands back a polite distance, watching the groups at the gravesi de and worrying.In order to maintain appearances, he had attended the Hallowe en fe ast at Hogwarts, as he usually would have done.If he had not presided and Voldemo rt had somehow got word of that fact, Voldemort might have smelled a trap.He know s that Lily is wondering, though, whether James would still be alive if Albus ha d been there and fighting in Godric s Hollow, and worse still why he didn t do anyth ing more about Tom Riddle before he rose to become Lord Voldemort?In her grief, a great veil is coming down between headmaster and former pupil, and Albus can on ly hope that it is a temporary barrier.Lily Potter is an extraordinary woman of g reat character, who has just been through rather a lot, and if she goes off the rails now Well Albus tries not to think about that possibility too much. On the Hogwarts staffing side the whole situation, with the prophecy Professor Tr elawney made having been apparently broken, appears to have unnerved the divinat ion teacher.This morning she had leant over a balcony and yelled down at Albus in his house in R lyeh great Cthulhu lies dreaming of YOU, headmaster . Something in her tone had sent Albus to the library where it had taken a couple o f hours to discover that Cthulhu was a unique creature believed to live in tropica l seas and first described in text by a muggle named Abdul Alhazred in a book ca lled The Necronomicon.Abdul Alhazred was not considered a serious scholar by most witches and wizards however, the Hogwarts library kept no copy of his book and he and his Cthulhu rated only passing mentions in other books.Reassured that Profes sor Trelawney may as well have predicted that he would be trampled by a crumplehorned snorkack herd, Albus had resumed preparing himself to attend James funeral . He may as well keep Trelawney on the staff though in case she makes any further g enuine prophecies, in the future The funeral is over, and Severus waits, uncomfortably, around the edge of the gath ering at the after-funeral lunch.Professor Slughorn is prepared to be amiable to him and to chat with him he s thinking about retiring at the end of this school ye ar, it turns out but there are a lot of other people in the room who are at the best uneasy about Severus presence.Moody s testimony to the Wizengamot that he betra yed the Dark Lord and brought news which was in his opinion crucial to the Dark Lord s recent defeat may well have kept Severus out of a cell, but that doesn t mean his Death Eater past will be forgiven or forgotten in a hurry. Sirius Black is arguing with Lily over in one corner.For a moment, he starts to ra ise his voice, then checks himself and decides to go instead.As he passes Severus he pauses for moment: If you so much as harm a single hair on her head or my god son s, Severus, so help me if the remaining Marauders and I don t hunt you down and make you pay. Then, with a final angry glower, Sirius Black sweeps out without giving Severus t ime to respond. Severus isn t sure what Sirius thinks is going on.Once the Wizengamot have finished with the Death Eater trials currently being worked through and there is no longe r a possibility of his testimony being required by them, he had been intending t

o leave the country and seek some remote Mediterranean island to build a modest residence where he could lose himself in solitary potion research.Better, surely, for Lily for him to give her the space to mourn her lost love in private and go on with raising her son?... And yet Sirius words give him cause for doubt and to take another look at the woma n in the corner, who has seen her husband casually slain by one of the most evil wizards of all time, knowing that he was looking to destroy her son and her, an d who in a desperate struggle for survival killed her husband s murderer.After the service Professor Slughorn whispered something to her at the graveside which cau sed her to gasp, and there s been an air of almost desperation to her since Severu s realises.She s a woman teetering on the edge of an abyss, and what if the only so lid thing she thinks she has to hold onto right now is him? Shadow of Three Bolts: Lily & Severus, Author s Notes Shattered (Late Summer and Autumn 1980) This story covers the months where the shadow of three bolts alternate universe goes off in a significantly different direction from canon.First of all an explanatio n of a couple of things I ve had to judge by rule of thumb: Trelawney s prophecy to Dumbledore I haven t been able to find a specific date for this being made, but deduce since i t s referring to children as yet unborn when it s made that it comes at some point i n the spring of 1980.It seems to me that although Voldemort knows of the prophecy and the first part of it immediately, he then has to wait for information to co me back to him from death eaters/allies in the Ministry on babies born in July, and that he s doing that and processing information during August, before reaching the conclusion that he needs to go after the Potters.It seems to me that even th ough Dumbledore knows Snape, at least a suspect Death Eater, was caught listenin g outside the door when the prophecy was made, that Dumbledore doesn t know what a ction or what targets Voldemort will take in reaction, although I imagine he tak es some steps (ensuring that they re constantly on the move, etc) to keep likely t argets out of the way. As far as I know there is no official Peter Pettigrew s betrayal I ve been working on the basis that in the original canon Peter Pettigrew s morale an d loyalty to the Potters and Order of the Phoenix, although shaky, are still jus t about reliable in 1980.It seems to me likely that it s Voldemort s long drawn out h unt for the Potters in canon that wears down Peter s nerves and finally tips him o ver the edge into treachery at some point in the summer of 1981.I have difficulty imagining canon Peter Pettigrew being a Death Eater or double-agent for Voldemo rt for longer than a couple of months before someone in the Order would tumble t o him, or Snape uncovered him.I also have difficulty imagining Voldemort waiting more than a few days to go after the Potters once Peter Pettigrew turns and Vold emort knows where they are. Other points regarding this story: Names: Albus/Dumbledore, and Severus/Snape Although in canon Albus Dumbledore is usually referred to as Dumbledore, and Sever us Snape as Snape, canon is mostly narrated from the point of view of Harry Pott er who has a generally formal relationship with these figures. version of what happens when prophecies fail.

In Shattered I have tended towards using Albus and Severus ing things from their own perspectives.

first names when narrat

The Potter invisibility cloak during the battle of Godric s Hollow Lily and James primary concern is Harry.Consequently, during what turns into the Ba ttle of Godric s Hollow, they have left the invisibility cloak at Hogwarts with Ho race Slughorn (who is looking after Harry) so that if something goes wrong at Ho gwarts he can use it to help keep Harry safe.If they need invisibility during the battle, the Potters are counting on Lily s own ability with charms to create an a ppropriate effect. Once the battle is over, Horace returns the cloak (along with Harry) to Lily. (As a side-note, in the event of both James and Lily Potter dying or becoming inc apacitated during events in Godric s Hollow, and Sirius (who is there fighting in another part) being similarly affected, the Potters have named Horace Slughorn a s Harry s permanent guardian.) Lily s invisibility during the battle of Godric s Hollow I have no idea if wand-cast invisibility spells normally terminate if the wand th at worked them is snapped by a particularly forceful disarm, but Lily is using h er own version of a disillusionment charm which doesn t adhere to normal forms.Sadl y, Voldemort arrived expecting invisibility anyway, otherwise she might have got the jump on him Voldemort s Wand Note that Lily doesn t just kill Voldemort; she disarms him too, in the process, ki cking his yew and phoenix feather wand away from his grasping fingers.That is suf ficient, in this universe, for the yew and phoenix feather wand to accept her as its new mistress, and given Lily s old willow wand just got reduced to splinters Dumbledore and the Cthulhu mythos Dumbledore is hopelessly under-informed regarding Lovecraftian matters, as I assu me the wizarding world in general of this alternate universe to be.He relies on t he somewhat patronising this stuff was written by muggles who can t possibly have k nown what they were talking about wizarding opinions of the centuries, and doesn t bother to check things such as that The Necronomicon in its various versions is actually a translation, and that the book Abdul Alhazred wrote was actually Al A zif.Only very occasional wizards (such as the historic figure Owain Glynd?r whom this universe assumes was a wizard) take such matters seriously or make an effor t to carry out any research. Some notes regarding the principle characters in this piece: James Potter Although James Potter dies, the circumstances of his demise are very different fr om the original canon.Here he dies wand in hand (or at least inches from his fing er-tips) in the middle of a pitched battle he deliberately sought which brings t he first wizarding war to a close twelve months ahead of canon.He has the chance to employ an aggressive strategy which it seems to me (as a Gryffindor) would ha ve been natural to him if he had been offered a chance to do so in the original canon.I can only assume that in the original canon since Dumbledore got the infor mation about the direct threat to the Potters first, he had time to prepare argu ments and soften James up, to make him adopt a much more Dumbledore strategy of

life in hiding and ultimately under the short-lived fidelius charm.Here James get s to dictate the strategy of the last days of the war, even if others such as Mo ody and Dumbledore handle the tactics of the battle and of how the enemy is lure d into the trap.James also at least tries to ensure Lily and Harry are away from the front line of the final battle (although of course Lily comes running back t o his side in the final crisis, certain Harry is safe with her old potions teach er). Before the end James has the chance to converse with his old enemy, Severus Snape , and to at least recognise and acknowledge the man s courage and devotion to Lily .What might develop from the temporary truce which results between the two men is never discovered, since Voldemort subsequently kills James. Severus Snape Severus Snape is at the point at which this alternate universe fractures from can on.He hears Voldemort pronounce an effective death sentence on Lily and has a what have I done? moment where everything since he s joined the Death Eaters comes cras hing down on him.He concludes that the only side which matters is Lily s side and tha t given the things he s done (including putting her life in danger, but extending to Death Eater activities in general) his own life is forfeit if necessary in he r cause.He doesn t bother to beg Voldemort for favours because he doesn t believe or trust Voldemort will deliver on such a critically important (to Severus) thing, and even attempting to request Voldemort spare Lily may draw suspicion to Severu s potentially compromising his usefulness to Lily. And since the only cause which matters to Severus is Lily, he has to track her do wn and personally warn her of what s hanging over her head now it s the fastest and most reliable means of getting his message to her.Dumbledore isn t an option.Dumbled ore (as evidenced to Severus mind by what went on at Hogwarts in the Marauders ye ars) never bothered to listen to him or to take him sufficiently seriously. Severus isn t blind though; he knows Lily has married James and has a child by him.H e s not expecting or trying to get taken back into her good graces.If his love for her is unrequited, so be it.He s in a state of mind where his own well-being or hap piness have ceased to matter the only thing which does is that Lily is happy and well.He still absolutely loathes James, but recognises that James makes Lily hap py, and so respects him for that.He s probably borderline suicidal, willing to die for the good cause to at least try and atone for the mistakes he s made. Even once James is dead, Severus is in a state of sufficiently low spirits that h e simply assumes that Lily would be better off without him.It takes a comment fro m his archenemy, Sirius Black, to draw his attention to the fact that maybe she would be better off, actually, if he stays around. Lily Evans/Potter/(later) Snape Whilst Lily has been handling things relatively well up until the battle of Godri c s Hollow, her life comes crashing down around her ears at that point.First, aside s from other friends/colleagues who are injured or killed in the battle, she see s James Potter a man she dearly loves and the father of her son, killed in front of her eyes by an evil dark lord whilst she s practically helpless.Second, and per haps more damaging, she then kills aforementioned dark lord; yes it s in self-defe nce, and yes it s in the middle of a war and he s an armed and very dangerous enemy combatant, but my reading of canon Lily (which she has been up until this point) is that she s not the sort of witch who would want to actually take the life of a nother human, however evil.Voldemort s blood on her hands is something so against h er nature that on its own it would be enough to break her.Then of course, just to finish her off, when she s already disintegrating, Professor Slughorn barges in a t the funeral in his well-meaning way to warn her that Tom/Voldemort had likely

fashioned horcruxes and that there is, therefore, a good chance that some day th e monster who s just wrecked her life may be back. Technically, Lily is still physically alive at that point, but the woman she was is practically dead, her world blown to smithereens by a series of catastrophica lly cruel events.She s teetering on the brink of madness (and if she goes over the edge it s an even chance of whether she becomes completely incapable of anything, or becomes a revenge-obsessed new and improved counterpart to Bellatrix, intent on killing anything remotely Voldemort related) and the only person who can reac h her and hold her safe is her old childhood friend Severus.He warned her what wa s coming, twice, and even tried to stand in the way of Voldemort whom he openly defied and betrayed to try to save not just her but James too.The old mudblood in cident really doesn t matter any more at this point.Even the prophecy can be forgiv en since everything he s done since has been to try and ward off the consequences of that awful mistake. Lily & Severus Although the relationship between the two is more a topic for later chapters in th is story, the look they exchange in the bed and breakfast involved them both rea lising they d made a lot of mistakes in how they dealt with one another in the pas t, not least Lily realising she d pushed Severus away when he could have done with a friend, and Severus realising he d been too weak and not done things he should have. Final Note: The Shadow of Three Bolts The events of Shattered present a considerable deviation from the canon Harry Pot ter universe.Voldemort has fallen in a pitched battle in Godric s Hollow a year ahe ad of canon, killed by Lily at a terrible cost to herself.James is dead, as in ca non, but so may be dozens of other aurors/Order of the Phoenix members/Death Eat ers who lived in canon though the Death Eaters depredations of the population hav e been cut short a year early, too.Voldemort went without marking any child as hi s equal invalidating the prophecy.Severus Snape never went to Dumbledore and put himself at his service, leaving Dumbledore without a tame ex-Death Eater potions master or spy to reactivate in later years.Peter Pettigrew never harmfully betra yed the Marauders, and Sirius Black didn t go to Azkaban.The devotion of Severus Sn ape, some Gryffindor impatience and boldness from James Potter, and three crossb ow bolts fired by Lily have sent shockwaves through what might otherwise have be en to come