Hey Everyone! I'm back! I'm sorry I've been away for so long but between a few family issues and the fact that I was just in my school's musical, I really haven't had the time to write. I've had the idea for this story for a long time. Ever since I heard that James had died first I wondered why Lily wasn't protected by James' love like Harry was protected by hers. So, I created a senario (the details of which will be introduced later) in which that is exactly what happened, but Harry is still marked. I'm posting this now because the Draco story I was going to post wasn't up to my standards and I just didn't like the story as much as I used to.

Get ready for a LOOONG story guys. I'm going through all seven years of Harry's Hogwarts experience as well. I really hope you enjoy the story! My goal is to update once a week. I know I'll be able to stick to that during the summer and well most of the time but I may skip a week around AP exams and then again during regular exams. I already have a few chapters written. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER.

Summary: What if Lily survived but Harry still got protection? How would things have changed?

"Do it agian James! He loves it when you make those sparks!" Lily said happily as she watched her son's entertainment with James' wand. The sparks came out of the top quickly and Harry watched them, his eyes fixed upon the tip of James' wand. James and Lilly smiled at each other. Suddenly, the door burst open and James saw Voldemort.

"LILY! TAKE HARRY AND RUN!" James shouted. Lily ran up the stairs to the nursery, hoping James could save himself somehow.

"Foolish man. Their going upstairs will do nothing. You can't protect them. I am Lord Voldemort." Tom riddle said as he drew his wand, aiming it at James Potter's chest.

"If I die tonight, I'll die protecting my family because I love them." James strongly resisted the urge to fight. He wasn't sure why but something was telling him to die peacefully.

Voldemort was quiet for a moment and then barked a laugh. He tilted his head slightly with an amused smile on his face and said to James, "Well well. I very much expected for you to put up a fight, James Potter; in fact I was told that the one thing I should worry about was your fighting skills. Are you trying to prevent your death? I'd be more than willing to spare your life if you join my followers!"

"Never. I'd rather die a painful death a thousand times over than ever give you my son or my wife by following you. Bastard." Voldemort's eyes flamed as he shouted,

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" and James Potter was dead.

Lily had been watching from a crack in the door.

He just… James is… her already existing tears poured out of her eyes more furiously than before. Suddenly, Voldemort looked up at the door of the nursery. He grinned evilly as he stepped over her husband's dead body and began running up the stairs. She placed Harry in his crib thinking that if Voldemort decided to kill her he would at least be safe. She didn't want to drop him or have him more accessible to Voldemort. She slammed the door closed and stood in front of her son. The door knob began to turn as Lily waited, horrified. He seemed to be opening the door as slowly as he could, knowing that she was waiting in anticipation. Harry began to wail.

"Harry, don't cry. Be strong. Mummy loves you. Daddy loves you. Be strong, Harry." She whispered to him softly and began humming the tune of "Hush Little Baby", the lullaby her mother always hummed around the house when she was a child, in an attempt to quiet him. The door was fully opened now and Voldemort's eyes stared at her. A smirk grew as he pointed his wand at her and said, "Move, girl!" Lily shook her head furiously, unable to move away or respond to Voldemort. "Reducto!"

Lily was flung across the room, her head had been hit hard... but was she bleeding? She stopped thinking of herself though as Voldemort raised his wand to her son. She struggled to get up but she suddenly found herself extremely dizzy. Since she'd moved her head away from the wall, she felt a warm liquid trickling down the back of her neck. The blood barely registered as she tried crawling to her son while Voldemort said the words, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" and a green light reached her son. She screamed as the light seemed to rebound off of her wailing son and hit Voldemort. Voldemort disappeared and suddenly his cloaks fell to the floor, empty. A small opaque clump of air hit her son as a larger ball of opaque air flew out of the window. Lily attempted to stand but found herself unable to get up. She remembered that her wand was in her bedroom. She cried silently as she did her best to re-start the song she'd been humming in order to stop Harry's cry and calm herself. Aware that she was too weak to get up, she knew that she needed to stay awake. She could hear Harry's cries and that gave her the need to live.

She didn't know how long it had been. All she knew was that after some time had passed she heard the door open and slam.

"JAMES! LILY! HARRY!" She heard shouts of terror from the door. Sirius.

"JAMES! NO!" He'd found James. She tried to stop listening to Sirius's cries as Harry's wails intensified, trying to get attention.

Sirius didn't come up for at least another minute. She had her eyes closed and she didn't think she'd be able to open them any time soon. Harry was quiet for a minute. It gave her the ability to hear Sirius's footsteps for a moment. Unfortunately, Harry heard them as well.

"Lily?" Sirius's quiet, shaking voice was barely heard over Harry's wrenching sobs. He ran to Harry first and when his godson's eyes landed on him, Harry's cries diminished greatly. She could hear Sirius's small steps as he moved to stand next to her. He crouched down. "No, Lily, please. Not you too. Please, no."

Lily moved her hand, trying to find Sirius. "Sirius. Sirius my head." Her voice was so low Sirius had to place his ear next to her mouth.

"Thank God you're alive, I'll get you to St. Mungo's immediately. Harry too…"

Lily faded in and out after that. Harry was going to be safe. She thought she heard Hagrid's voice as she finally passed out for good.

She woke in a hospital room, presumably at St. Mungo's. Her head still hurt terribly. She could hear two voices in the background.

Why am I in the hospital? And where's James?

"James." She said groggily, trying to find him.

The two background voices stopped. "Lills?" Remus's voice called.

"Remus, where's James? What's going on?" She struggled as she tried to find them in the room. Remus and Dumbledore were in the two chairs beside her bed. Harry was in Remus's arms. "Professor? Why are you here without James or Sirius?" Remus's eyes looked pained as Dumbledore looked gravely at her.

"Lily, do you remember anything from last night?" Dumbledore asked. The healers weren't sure if her head injury had caused brain damage or not.
A few horrible memories came flooding back to her, but somehow she felt like there were a few things missing from her memory. Suddenly she remembered something terrible. Something that just couldn't be true. "Is James really… is he dead?"

Dumbledore nodded his head solemnly as Lily burst into tears. "Lily, he died to protect you and Harry. Of course, unless you tell us what happened that night we're only speculating. From what I understand, if he hadn't died protecting you, well, the consequences would have been terrible. Both you and Harry would have died. His love protected you." She was quiet. She could feel the different potions affecting her brain. She didn't understand. "I'll explain more when you're well."

Lily nodded her head in silence. She motioned for Remus to give her Harry. A thought popped into her head. "Dumbledore? Where's Sirius? He told me he'd bring me here. So where is he?" It was one of the few things she could remember.

Dumbledore looked at Remus. Remus answered instead. "Lily, he's in Azkaban. As your secret keeper, he must have sold you to Voldemort, in other words, he's a Death Eater, Lily. I know this must be so hard for you…"

Lily's eyes fumed after he'd said Sirius was in Azkaban. Her fury was boiling. "GET HIM OUT OF THERE! DID HE EVEN GET A TRIAL IF HE'S IN THERE SO SOON? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? DO YOU NOT TRUST HIM THAT MUCH? YOU BLOODY MORONS!" Lily's anger foamed as Harry awoke, wailing, stopping her screams. Remus and Dumbledore had shrunken in their seats. Both were trembling. "You idiots." She said as she tried to calm the screaming child. "James would be so disappointed in you, Remus. And Albus, no trial? You didn't question him at all? Sirius was not our Secret keeper." Remus looked shocked. "Sirius thought he was the obvious choice. He didn't trust you though, Remus, nice to know the feeling was at least mutual, so he came up with another pick. He'd act like he was still our secret keeper so that if Voldemort ever found him he couldn't get any information out of him. And that way he'd die knowing we were safe." Remus and Dumbledore looked dumbfounded. "So we switched secret keepers. I guess that was the biggest mistake of our lives. Sirius Black was not our secret keeper. Peter Pettigrew was."

Sirius stared solemnly at the blank wall in his bleak cell. He was innocent. Lily would wake up and prove it. She had to. It had been over a day and a half and there was no sign of anyone giving him a trial or pardoning him. Nothing. He didn't want to believe that Lily was dead. She couldn't be. Harry and she were all he had left of James. James. Prongs. His brother. The man he'd grown up with and loved so dearly. Though he would never admit it. Of course, now he regretted it. It was nothing more than brotherly love, but it was love nonetheless.

A screech could be heard from his cell. Not just any screech, but one he knew all too well. It was his lovely cousin Bellatrix. Sirius snorted. Finally that bitch is where she belongs, he thought ironically as he stood up and stared at the bars enclosing him. I wonder how they finally got her. I've been on the search for her for years… too damn bad I couldn't be the one to catch the bitch. The unattractive and quite annoying screech came closer and closer. The screech turned into a laugh as Bellatrix was carried past his own cell and they stared each other down.

"What the 'ell is the blood traitor doing here?" She laughed at the Ministry's stupidity. Sirius could see it in her eyes that she was truly wondering how they could frame him. She started to fight the guards and attempted to stare down Sirius longer.

"I'd ask the same but we both know why you're here." Sirius replied, his voice harsher than he'd expected it to be.

"True." She continued to fight the guards as she looked at him oddly. "Who knew I'd ever find you here." She laughed crazily again as she let herself be carried off by the guards. Sirius watched them carry her off until they were out of his sight.

He was innocent. He knew it. Bloody hell, even Bellatrix knew it. He was going to get out soon. And if he didn't, he'd turn into his dog form (the dementors are only to look for humans right?), get out of Azkaban, and search for Peter Pettigrew until the traitor was dead. The image of that rat running free made him sick.

The footsteps of another guard came nearer as Sirius straightened up. He sat back down on the lumpy bed and continued to stare at the wall, not wanting to look desperate. He listened closely to the footsteps as they came nearer and stopped in front of his cell. He heard the cell door being opened. "Sirius Black, I've come to release you. You've been pardoned by the Minister of Magic." It was Kingsley Shacklebolt, his fellow Auror.

"It's about bloody time." Sirius said as he grinned. I've got to get to Lily and Harry.

Sirius ran into the hospital room. Lily was asleep but Remus was in the corner, feeding Harry. He hadn't had a real talk with Remus for at least four months. The animosity between the two had increased when, as he realized in the day he spent at Azkaban, Peter tried to separate them in an attempt to assure his position as secret keeper. He wanted nothing more than to re-kindle his brothership with his friend. Remus hadn't noticed Sirius in the doorway so Sirius cleared his throat. Remus's head snapped up.

"Well. I guess this would be the best time to have this conversation. Since Lily's asleep." Sirius said, whispering as loudly as he could.

"Sirius, I'm so sorry, I just assumed…"

"You assumed I was their Secret Keeper. That's how I wanted it to be perceived. That's how the plan was supposed to work. I don't blame you whatsoever. I know I thought you were the traitor but as I thought more about it while I was at Azkaban, I realized that Peter fed me ideas against you. I'm so sorry, Remus."

"I'm sorry as well. Peter did the same to me. I actually thought that you were following your family heritage. How easily manipulated we were." Remus said, as if a bad taste resided in his mouth.

"I know. It was war. There was a traitor. What else were we going to do? Let's put that behind us and concentrate on what's going on now. How is she?" They both turned their heads and looked at Lily's sleeping body.

"Well, from what we've gathered from her, she was hit by a Reductor curse from Voldemort, but it didn't cut her it just threw her against the wall. When she hit the wall she hit the back of her head. They're currently re-growing some of the bones in her skull and the skin and hair. We're just lucky nothing penetrated her brain. You know how hard it is to reconstruct brain tissue." Sirius sighed in relief. She was going to be okay. "Unfortunately she seems to have lost a few memories of that night."

"That's not good but at least she'll be okay. And what about Harry? It was so dark in that room I didn't see anything wrong with him. I was in a hurry to get to Lily though."

"Come take a look for yourself." Remus said quietly. Sirius crossed the room to get to the baby in Remus's arms. He looked at the baby's face and suddenly noticed a giant lightning-shaped scar on his forehead that flamed red.

"What… how…" Sirius was so confused. How does one get a lightning bolt-shaped scar on their forehead?

"Albus believes that James' sacrifice for his family prevented them from being hurt from Voldemort's curses. The Reducto just threw Lily back, and when Voldemort tried to kill Harry it bounced off of Harry causing Voldemort's death. Everyone in the magical community is holding Harry to be a hero. The "Boy-Who-Lived" to be exact. Harry is famous. He's so famous that there are people who are already trying to buy the trademark of his name. I don't know how Lily and Harry will ever be able to live a normal life."

Both men were quiet for a long time, each lost in their thoughts. "We'll figure something out. I know it."

I know this is a little choppy but I'm really excited about this story. The story will go more smoothly as I get into it but I really wanted to get everything into this so that you guys could have as much information as possible.

Please review!

Thanks for reading!