DEATH OF THE WRONG BOY

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 1 – A Disastrous Mistake

James Sirius Potter was the Boy-Who-Lived. He had defeated the most evil Dark Lord in centuries when he had only been a mere babe of 15 months. His magic had been so powerful that not only had he survived the killing curse – the first known person to do so – but his powerful magic had reflected it back on Voldemort and had actually disintegrated his body. All that was left of the Dark Lord was his robes and his wand.

According to a prophecy, heard only by Albus Dumbledore, the Leader of the Light (okay someone else heard it – the dastardly Death Eater who had heard half the prophecy before being thrown out but who nevertheless ran back and told Voldemort what he had heard) Voldemort would be defeated and marked as an equal by a boy born at the end of July. James Sirius Potter was born on July 31, 1980 and now had a vee-shaped scar on his check, no doubt caused by his magic deflecting the killing curse

Albus Dumbledore had proclaimed the boy their savior mere moments after arriving at the Potters' temporary home in Godric's Hallow. Peter Pettigrew, the friend of the Potters, had been babysitting when Voldemort had entered and killed Peter first then went upstairs to kill the boy of the prophecy. Instead the Dark Lord had met his demise.

The Potters had been at an Order of the Phoenix meeting when the alarms on the wards of the house went off and the entire Order had followed the anxious parents led by Albus Dumbledore. As the house was under the Fidelius, a special port key was created by Dumbledore – who was the secret keeper – and everyone went to defend the Potters' home.

It was a mystery how Voldemort had found out the secret. As always, Dumbledore had come up with an explanation. He had always written the address for the Potter residence on a scrap of paper which he kept in the desk in his office. There were several people who needed to know the secret, so Dumbledore would show them the paper, had them memorize it and then he put the paper back in his desk. Apparently, the paper had disappeared from his desk when he went to check on a hunch he had had, thus someone must have stolen it and given the information to Voldemort.

There must be a traitor in the Order because some people knew that Dumbledore kept the paper in his desk and either they let it slip by accident or had purposely stolen it. How the traitor got into Dumbledore's secure office, got passed the notice of the portraits of the former Headmasters and then sent it to Voldemort…well Dumbledore didn't explain it as after all, Voldemort was dead and the Potters could come out of hiding now. For some strange reason, there was no search for the possible traitor.

With the death of the Dark Lord, Magical Britain went into a frenzy of celebrations. James Sirius Potter was proclaimed a hero and actually became the youngest person in history to receive an Order of Merlin. Granted, it was only a third-class award due solely to his youth. He also got his own chocolate frog card.

His parents also became instant celebrities. Eventually Lily Evans Potter, the mother of the Boy-Who-Lived, wrote several books about the Potter family and how they were raising the young hero "to be the best wizard since Merlin." They also saw to a series of adventure books starring "Jamie" and his probable future adventures. There were toys, games, action figures, coloring books, etc. involving the Boy-Who-Lived.

The Potters made a nice income from the books and toys, which they placed in a special account for Jamie. Any cash presents Jamie received from grateful people and admirers also went into this account. He also received many presents from his fan base not only on his birthday and Christmas, but on October 31st, the anniversary of his defeat of Voldemort.

Since the Godric's Hallow house had been destroyed, the Potters moved back into The Pottery, the Potter ancestral home. The home had been sealed on the death of James' father Charlus. James had not been able to claim the Potter lordship upon his father's death due to being in hiding from Voldemort. At least that was the excuse told to everybody.

What was not generally known was that James Potter had been basically disinherited by his father. He was allowed to live in all the Potter residences, many of which were self-supporting or rented out, the rents of which he would use for upkeep of the properties and for taxes. He had a yearly allowance of 25,000 galleons besides, which was a tidy sum of money. He also was an Auror and derived an income from that except when he had to go into hiding.

Other than these niceties, the main Potter fortune was entailed to the next Potter who proved worthy of being Lord Potter. The reason for this was that Charlus Potter knew his only son was…. well he was not the proper material for a Potter Lord.

Charlus had blamed himself and his wife for spoiling their only child and not raising him properly. Well they had tried, but James just didn't have an interest in performing the duties and responsibilities of Lord Potter. Although he learned the things that interested him, such as Pureblood etiquette, the laws which were of benefit to a Pureblood and all the entitlements and privileges which went with it, he had no interest in learning estate management, financial management and especially the position on the Wizengamot he would be obligated to take once he became of age.

No, James wanted to have fun. During school he only applied himself in his studies which interested him, he lived to play pranks and, once he hit puberty, the pursuit of the female sex for his own personal enjoyment. He never thought about the consequences of his actions and Dumbledore always just smiled on his antics and let him get away with just about anything short of murder.

Charlus Potter knew just what a power-hungry and manipulative individual the real Albus Dumbledore was. He liked to cultivate and groom certain well-placed students, which while not unusual especially in the political arena, did not set well with Charlus Potter. No, Dumbledore knew that James was too indifferent and lazy to actually think about things, especially things which he considered boring. Therefore, James would follow Dumbledore blindly and be used by him shamelessly and not know it was happening.

That was exactly what happened. Dumbledore had formed his own organization to combat the threat of Voldemort, the Order of the Phoenix. Naturally he was in charge and ruled with an inefficient and iron hand. James Potter was one of his most ardent and faithful followers. He got to be a dashing hero, despite his already being an Auror, which Charlus also did not approve of, but that was James and he wasn't going to change.

When James had graduated from Hogwarts, he was given a yearly allowance of 25,000 galleons with the understanding that this would tide him over until he had found a career or for him to do further study to gain a mastery or to do a world tour to learn other magics not taught in Britain. When he began training as an Auror, he received a small stipend from the Ministry so the allowance enabled him to get his own bachelor pad and live in the style he was accustomed to.

James and Sirius Black moved in together, were training as Aurors and doing a lot of wild partying. Charlus despaired further when he heard about his son's lifestyle, and James' behavior only served to confirm Charlus' worst fears.

Although Dorea, James' mother and Charlus' wife, had definitely not approved of James wanting to marry a Mud…Muggleborn, even she had to agree that the girl was not only intelligent, sensible and more magically powerful than most of the Pureblood girls James could marry, but she just might be the saving grace for their son.

Lily did do James a world of good and he matured enough to convince her to marry him, but he still had no inclination (or the ability) to become a competent lord. Charlus knew that James was contributing a lot of his money to Dumbledore's Order and it had been brought to Charlus' attention from a very reliable source that should Charlus die and James inherit the estate, he would probably be the sole contributor to the group and more than likely, between the Order and James' spending habits, the vast Potter fortune would be squandered before any heir of James' became of age.

That was why Charlus had taken the steps he had concerning the Potter estate. When it was discovered that Lily would be giving birth to twins, Charlus established individual trust funds with certain conditions to protect the money for both boys and even to provide a fund should James die for the boys' maintenance. This was not only for the boys' benefits, but to save the Potter fortune from James and Dumbledore.

It was a good thing that Charlus had taken such precautions as shortly after he had made a new will and all necessary arrangements, both he and Dorea died suddenly both being killed in a Death Eater attack while at a meeting with friends.

James had been shocked about his father's will and Dumbledore had been angry as he had planned to use The Pottery as the headquarters for the Order as well as getting James to finance everything. Everything was airtight and unbreakable on pain of total disinheritance so Dumbledore's plans were thwarted despite his many connections.

That was one of the many reasons the Potters used the fame of their son to acquire wealth. James still just had the G25,000 a year and his Auror salary and he had been seriously considering quitting to spend all of his time raising his wonderful son.

Besides, he really didn't like working as an Auror because of all the paperwork and the boredom as with Voldemort being dead and Death Eaters either in prison or "Imperiused" all the Aurors had to do were boring things like keeping the peace and guarding the Minister of Magic.

His laziness resurfaced and although he could still use his vote in the Wizengamot, he didn't like attending the meetings as they were boring, so he just let Dumbledore use his vote for whatever laws he wanted passed.

When Sirius Black's father died and he became Lord Black, he did the same thing concerning his voting privileges. He still was an Auror but due to his rank and position, he only worked part time and actually was allowed to choose his assignments. He convinced James to do the same so technically "James was an Auror" but still had time for fun and leisure and to raise and spoil Jamie.

Yes, life was good for the Potters, or at least James, Jamie and Lily Potter.

It hadn't been very well known to the world, but Jamie was not an only child. He wasn't even the eldest son. The eldest Potter son was his twin, Hadrian or "Harry" who although he too survived that dreadful night and survived with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead, Dumbledore had proclaimed Jamie as the defeater of Voldemort and Harry just a survivor.

Jamie had been chosen because of the "V" shaped mark on his cheek and the fact that he was screaming at the top of his lungs. Little Harry had been unconscious and almost presumed dead, until Sirius had rushed over to see if his godson was alive.

Harry was unconscious because his magic had allowed the curse to bounce off of him and hit Voldemort. A small explosion was caused by the powerful magic thus causing the roof to start falling in and it had been a sliver of wood which had caused Jamie's scar. Since Jamie's screaming was seen as his being strong and healthy, it was assumed that not only had he defeated Voldemort, he had probably saved his brother.

Oh well, so much for the well-known fact that Albus Dumbledore was never wrong.