Over Again

Chapter 14

James Potter was lucky. He had always been lucky. He was lucky when at 9 he had decided to fly his broom but it had malfunctioned and threw him through the open French windows across the piano room and into the antique wooden table. Luckily, he had come away with just bruises and scrapes, though his mother had banned him from flying for almost 7 months. He had been lucky when at 11 shopping for his Hogwarts essentials, he had been overenthusiastic and run away from his parents and unknowingly into Knockturn Alley the one who found him was an auror on patrol who knew his parents and not a hag or werewolf. He had been lucky at 12 when he had stumbled across the passage that stated an animagi could spend time with a werewolf and not be turned and he had found the solution to help Remus. He had been lucky at 15 when he had figured out what Sirius had done and had been in time to save two of his friends' lives. He had been lucky at 17 when Lily had finally decided to date him, he had been lucky when she married him and he had been lucky at 21 when she had blessed him with Harry. And he was most definitely lucky that he came out almost unscathed from Voldemort's attack on his family and Bellatrix's assault.

His luck, it seemed, had spread to his family and had saved his family from certain death even though he had been sure he had died, as had Lily. He wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth and was fully prepared to take full advantage of his second chance.

Lily on the other hand seemed to have gone in a complete 180 degree to him, she spent any spare moment from her husband and son learning a new way to fight, some new demon to vanquish to protect her husband and son, some other obscure piece of magic to research, a lost knowledge to find, deadlier spells to learn, spells to cut and burn and eviscerate . If it had been before, neither of them would have even considered it, both horrified by the lengths Lily was going to, yet now it was necessary, and vital and she felt vindicated that the next time anyone wanted to harm her family, they would lose at least a limb if not their life to her. Any time she didn't spend with her husband and child, had been days filled with passion and vengeance and the feeling of not being enough, she wasn't enough, she hadn't been enough, but she would be, she was determined to turn and warp herself into someone who could protect her husband and her son.

Sirius had decided that if he had to protect the people he loved from monsters, then he had to turn into a bigger monster himself. Seeing James's body and the ruined house had shaken his beliefs to the core and now every time he saw him struggle to walk, the fire within him burned just a bit more, taunting him that it was just a miracle that had kept his family alive, just a miracle that Harry wasn't an orphan, just a miracle that he himself hadn't ended up in Azkaban. he had always believed in good and bad, he believed that his blood family was bad and his chosen family was good, yet in his insistence to be 'good' he had almost lost them, in his insistence that the light would always prevail over dark, he had believed a man who had wanted to put him in Azkaban thinking he had betrayed the only people who mattered to him. This instance had well and truly opened his eyes, he needed strength, and power to protect them from everyone. He had gone back to the Black House, not to Grimmauld Place, but to his paternal Grandfather's house on the outskirts. After a few heated discussions, they were reaching tentative peace, it was still fragile enough that it could break any time but they were working on it, the house would be neither light nor dark. Sirius would get access to all the forbidden Black magic, but he would need to bring the house back to its former glory without being extremely pro-light.

Remus upon hearing everything had found a quite steel in him which had always been buried underneath anxiety, he was the one who helped stop James's anxiety attacks, he was the one who held Lily back from crossing a line which he knew would revolt her once woke up from her haze, he was the one who had calmed Sirius's explosive temper and was helping him structure negotiations with the House of Black. He had become their anchor, holding his precious pack together, and in doing so he shed his naturally shy nature, instead he began radiating a quiet authority, one which kept them functioning. Yet, even he wouldn't be around Harry without his inner wolf at the forefront, his eyes glowing amber and ready to tear apart anyone who looked at the child in the wrong way.