AN: Sorry to all my readers, and a double sorry to readers of Harry's Sorrow, it will be updated while it is still December! I promise! Now this is a real chapter for you all! Thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoy! :) (Still un-beta'd, I'm trying to change that) And yes, this chapter is probably at least somewhat smaller than the first, but this is more of my usual chapter length, so you should get use to this length for chapters, because I'm not usually one for long winded chapters. I'm just usually much better at keeping my stories updated, but end of semester sucks, and I still have finals this week to contend with. :(

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Harry Potter, much as I might want to, it belongs to JK Rowling, who has the brilliant mind that came up with the idea and original story for Harry Potter! :)

Harry and his mother talked for hours the next day while James relaxed a bit and flew in the family's enclosed little backyard. Harry used the time to explain about the future he came from and why he had eventually felt he had no better choice but to use the ritual to come back in time. Despite everything, Lily understood what happened, and they agreed to keep everything from the rash and brash James so as to prevent him from doing anything stupid. So they decided to plan ahead to prevent the worst, and to get ahead of Dumbledore's schemes and Voldemort's evil plans.

A Week Later

Lily and Harry worked hard all week, trying to prevent the same catastrophes from occurring once more. Lily told James the bare minimum of what he needed to know to get him on board the plan. He accepted his part, and accepted that he might not be there to see Harry grow up. So he worked for the ½ week that he got, to make some things for Harry to remember him by, and to get his affairs in order. Lily was doing the same, just in case, but she hoped that she wouldn't need them. Now it was Halloween, and the family was up in the nursery, while the scene that Harry remembered from the first time he lived this night (secretly it really was his memory, not that Lily told James that). Lily had set up a ritual that would use the willing sacrifice in the face of mortal danger, and imminent death to reflect any 1 curse from the person that the mark was placed on. Then she walked over to little Harry, and in the same place as his "curse scar" had been, she placed the mark of the ritual, a lightning bolt. James was in the rocking chair, polyjuiced as Lily, and once Lily finished the ritual preparations, she was disillusioned and then she crouched behind the crib. She was in charge of back up scrambling, and shielding the 2 survivors from the falling debris after the A.K. attempt.

They heard spell fire from downstairs and then Voldemort was in the room with them. He offered to allow Lily to live, if she would just step aside, but James had been coached too well, and knew he had to willing allow himself to take the blast to try to save Harry. So Voldemort hit him with a spell, and then turned his wand onto Harry. Once again, the ritual worked, leaving Harry with a new scar and no Voldemort, for now at least. Lily acted quickly, shielding them, and then grabbing Harry and running out of the house as soon as possible. Tears streamed down both faces as they fled the ruined house.

Meanwhile, up in the nursery, something stirred.

When Harry and Lily made it to their safe house, just 2 houses down from Hermione's house (bought secretly by Lily, with Harry's input), Lily set Harry down on the couch, and then flopped onto it herself. She sat there quietly for a good hour at least, just questioning choices that were made and why James had had to die. Harry just sat, sad himself for the fact that he would never truly know his father. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, so Lily dried her eyes, and opened the door. Emma Granger and Hermione were outside the door, both already in the loop. Dan Granger was going to be brought into the loop once the kids were both 5 years of age. Hermione toddled in, and straight over to Harry on the couch, and hugged him. She congratulated him on keeping his mother alive, and consoled him over being forced to allow his father to die regardless. Emma just took Lily into the kitchen, and made her some tea, allowing her to grieve in the company of a friend.

What none of them knew was that James hadn't died, but he had been injured severely, enough to make him forget his family, and name. His injuries also messed with his system enough that some of the polyjuice potion continued to affect him, making him look like a red haired, slightly feminine version of himself. Sirius, who found him knew of course, but decided not to tell, because he thought that Lily and Harry had died, and didn't want James to have to live with that. So he simply told him that he was a good friend of James (and he did tell him his first name, just not his last name), and that that was all that he could remember. James White (He wanted to thank Sirius, but didn't remember him well enough to say he was a brother and pick up Sirius' last name) went on to be the transfiguration professor at Hogwarts, and the remaining Potters and the Grangers didn't get the magical papers, so no one ever realized what had happened.