James Did It!

By: EDelta88

Rated T for mature themes and paranoia

Insert disclaimer here...

Background and Beginning Notes:

So one day I was reading a Fanfic that made Lilly out to be this ludicrously brilliant chessmaster who planned so far ahead that she had Harry's whole life planned. Everything in the whole damn fic lead back to Lily, EVERYTHING! It got so rediculous at some points that she would have had to be a seer of incredible power. So, in a fit of spite, I yell "Well maybe you didn't save Harry at all! Did you ever think of that? MAYBE IT WAS JAMES!"

Then it hits me...

I had never seen a fic... where it was James that saved Harry. I have never read a fic where it was something that James had done. It is always "Harry this," "Lilly that," a handful where Sirius or Remus do something, one where Snape bites the bullet, and several where it's Dumbledore. Hell, I found one where Peter saves the day! But never James.

So...

In a moment of sheer brilliance James Potter makes a decision that will change the life of his son forever. After all Voldemort cannot kill what Death cannot find.

Prologue

"There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight. In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across.. However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands and made a bridge appear across the treacherous water. They were halfway across it when they found their path blocked by a hooded figure.

And Death spoke to them. He was angry that he had been cheated out of three new victims, for travelers usually drowned in the river. But Death was cunning. He pretended to congratulate the three brothers upon their magic and said that each had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him.

So the oldest brother, who was a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence: a wand that must always win duels for its owner, a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered Death! So Death crossed to an elder tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a wand from a branch that hung there, and gave it to the oldest brother.

Then the second brother, who was an arrogant man, decided that he wanted to humiliate Death still further, and asked for the power to recall others from Death. So Death picked up a stone from the riverbank and gave it to the second brother, and told him that the stone would have the power to bring back the dead.

And then Death asked the third and youngest brother what he would like. The youngest brother was the humblest and also the wisest of the brothers, and he did not trust Death. So he asked for something that would enable him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death. And death, most unwillingly, handed over his own Cloak of Invisibility.

Then Death stood aside and allowed the three brothers to continue on their way, and they did so, talking with wonder of the adventure they had had, and admiring Death's gifts. In due course the brothers separated, each for his own destination.

The first brother traveled on for a week or more, and reaching a distant village, sought out a fellow wizard with whom he had a quarrel. Naturally with the Elder Wand as his weapon, he could not fail to win the duel that followed. Leaving his enemy dead upon the floor, the oldest brother proceeded to an inn, where he boasted loudly of the powerful wand he had snatched from Death himself, and of how it made him invincible.

That very night, another wizard crept upon the oldest brother as he lay, wine-sodden, upon his bed. The thief took the wand and, for good measure, slit the oldest brother's throat.

And so Death took the first brother for his own.

Meanwhile, the second brother journeyed to his own home, where he lived alone. Here he took out the stone that had the power to recall the dead, and turned it thrice in his hand. To his amazement and his delight, the figure of the girl he had once hoped to marry, before her untimely death, appeared at once before him.

Yet she was sad and cold, separated from him as by a veil. Though she had returned to the mortal world, she did not truly belong there and suffered. Finally the second brother, driven mad with hopeless longing, killed himself so as truly to join her.

And so Death took the second brother for his own.

But though Death searched for the third brother for many years, he was never able to find him. It was only when he had attained a great age that the youngest brother finally took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son. And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life...

Not for the first time James recalled the story of the Deathly Hallows, the story of the brothers Peverell... the origin of his family. The names had changed or been lost to time but the story always stayed the same. A young man, not much older than James was now but wise beyond his years, received a cloak unlike any other from the entity that called itself Death. He then lived a long and full life with Death unable to find him until he passed the cloak to his son and went to meet death willingly. It was a story that had repeated itself through the history of the Potter family for generations as the cloak passed from one generation to the next.

So it had been a closely kept secret that the Potters held one of the Deathly Hallows. A closely guarded secret shared with only a few and discovered by even fewer. It had been a secret that James had all but forgotten until a few weeks ago when Dumbledore had asked to examine it. Thinking nothing of it, James had very nearly given the cloak to his former headmaster when he had had a moment of clarity, a moment of brilliance the like of which had spawned his greatest pranks, and done something else entirely.

Now he stood alone.

He stood alone at the bottom of a staircase watching his wife's retreating back as she ran to their child and worried only for her because he knew that Harry… he knew Harry would be alright.

And so James Potter turned away from the stairs to face the door to his family's cottage and greeted Death like an old friend, secure in the knowledge that his son would live to see the morrow.

After all, Voldemort could not kill what Death could not find...

A/N

And there you have it.

This was actually the original basis of Runner but Silent didn't really like it so were went another direction. Obviously, this idea focuses heavily on the Hollows, the cloak especially. All my ideas revolved around the cloak being (in addition to very handy) the ultimate defense through some sort of "hiding."

Killing Curse is useless because the cloak negates all instant death abilities.

Sometimes being invisible isn't so helpful so the cloak can become any sort of clothing.

A general defense that has a Ghosting effect where Harry becomes temporarily incorporeal.

While wearing the cloak (which is always) Harry cannot be scryd, summoned, located through spellwork, tracked, traced, etc.

I had more but I seem to have forgotten quite a few of them...

In any case, I pictured this as a Harry that vanishes at some point in his childhood and evades all attempts to apprehend him... possibly becomes a legendary thief or something. Either way, he's the most slippery little bastard on the planet.

Cheers!