The Potters meet B.O.A.R.

AN: I have asked permission and recieved it from sakurademonalchemist before even typing this. If you want to see the original without my writing getting in the way there is a link in my Bio to both Jade Angel and the Author Page of sakurademonalchemist.

"Lily, did you leave a book on the living room table?" James Potter called to his wife in their kitchen as he looked at the odd book that he was sure appeared out of nowhere. Given that he was raised by overly cautious parents and heard many horror stories from his best friend Sirius he was slightly paranoid around books he didn't know.

"Of course not! Harry puts everything in his mouth and I don't want him to ruin any of my books. We can't exactly get replacements right now." Lily said as she walked into the living room with her son in her arms only to pause as she saw the book herself. "I've never seen that one before."

"Well…" James started to say before the book in question started to float. The Father didn't hesitate to put himself between his family and the unknown while inwardly cursing himself for leaving his wand on the table…that was currently below the book.

"Oh it feels so good to finally be active." A voice from the book said before noises associated from stretching came from it. It then turned to face the family that were slowly backing away from it. "I apologise for startling you. I am a Book Of Alternate Realities, or B.O.A.R. for short. I and my fellows have been scattered amongst realities to try and keep some mistakes from being repeated more than necessary. I contain the Reality of a possible daughter of yours that could have been born instead of Harry. I will warn you that not everything contained within my pages can be applied to your reality. There will be similarities but some things might never happen even if I never came to you."

"So you want to show us what happened in that reality so this one can be better prepared." Lily said with a hand on James's shoulder to get him to relax. If it was to harm them then it would have at least tried already. They slowly moved to sit on the couch, James made sure to grab his wand though.

"Exactly, I was created by a man that wanted to stop, and I quote, 'The decent people getting anal without lube because some fucker thought he knew everything despite being a stupid prick'. I believe that he might have altered it for his fellows but those were his first words to me. I will display what happens in the story as I tell it and will pause whenever there is an interruption. Are you comfortable?" B.O.A.R. said conveying concern as they slowly relaxed.

"Yes we are." James said after sharing a look with his wife and seeing that Harry was starting to nod off after the sleep charm Lily placed on him.

"Splendid, Chapter 1…"

It was a perfectly ordinary night when everything changed.

"I know the feeling." James said giving B.O.A.R. a pointed look as it showed a girl in bed.

Erika Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived, had just gone to sleep when Vernon, dead drunk and more than a little incoherent, walked into her room quieter than she ever would have believed possible...and took a pillow to her face.

"WHAT!" Both parents shouted with only Harry's presence keeping them from lunging at the book to tear answers from it.

"Why is my possible daughter with my Sister and her Bully of a Husband?!" Lily demanded holding Harry tighter to her chest. James wasn't capable of speech as he glared at the frozen seen.

"In many of the Realities you are betrayed by your Secret Keeper who in most cases is a Death Eater Spy. This usually results in your deaths and your child surviving a Killing Curse from Voldemort himself. The backlash destroys his body and the house. They are usually found by Hagrid who has orders to take them to Dumbledore and refuses to hand them over to the usually grief stricken Sirius. Dumbledore believes that they survive due to Lily's sacrifice and that it requires them to be with her blood relatives to keep him safe until he is of age. Most versions of the Dursleys don't take this and the implied threat kindly and take it out on the easiest target." B.O.A.R. explained.

"So Dumbledore thinks that I would do something that would require my child to be near Petunia! I know he likes to make people believe he is eccentric but this makes me think he is honestly senile!" Lily said with a growl.

"It is a widely debated topic."

"Remind me to pay Peter a visit." James said with his tone promising violence. As the person responsible for the death of him, his wife and a torturous life for his child Peter Pettigrew would receive no mercy from the Stag of the Marauders.

Erika woke up with a start. Fighting like a mad woman to get free of the smothering hands, but the last thing she would remember of that night was the sight of the clock on her dresser...it read ten minutes to midnight.

"Lily, would you complain if your sister and her husband were suddenly the victims of the gas leaks going around?" James asked with a forced calm as he held his wife and son closer to him.

"Not if we're babysitting their son." She replied as despite her rage at her brother-in-law she knew her nephew to be innocent of it, at least at his current age.

Erika didn't know where she was, only that for the first time in her life she felt...safe. Wanted. Loved.

"Dumbledore might just have a gas leak of his own as well." Lily said while James nodded in agreement.

"Oh my poor baby. How could he had left you there when we specifically stated not to do so under pain of death!" said a woman. She sounded very upset. Erika blinked. She had only heard that voice once, and it had been screaming at the time.

"Well at least your other is just like you. However, I don't like the implications of that last part." James said being slightly calmer now that his potential daughter wasn't being smothered before him.

"When that bastard dies I am so going to make him suffer for leaving you with them," said another rather venomously. Again, she only vaguely recognized the voice.

"I'm surprised Sirius hasn't already. I can't see him standing by and letting this happen." Lily said with a frown while James blinked.

"That's a good point. Where is he in all of this?" James asked with concern about his best friend.

"Sirius Black in most Realities is believed to be your Secret Keeper and as such was sent to Azkaban upon his capture." B.O.A.R. said while James closed his eyes and forced himself to keep calm. He could keep that from happening and made a point to remember to have Sirius with him when dealing with Peter.

Erika leaned back from the embrace and her eyes bulged.

"Mum? Dad?" she whispered in shock.

"At least she can recognise us." James said trying to lighten the mood and failing.

Lily was hugging her daughter rather tightly. Erika could feel the tears on her clothes.

"Hey sweetie. I'm so sorry we weren't able to protect you from all that. If only we'd chosen Sirius, or Remus..." said James Potter. He ruffled her hair affectionately.

"Don't worry Harry, we won't let any of this happen to you." Lily said to the sleeping baby as she smiled sadly at the interactions of their others and Erika. It was sad that such a happy moment only came about because of a tragedy.

"But... how is this possible?"

"That fat pig Vernon, may he rot in the pit for eternity, killed you," explained Lily.

"He can do a lot more than merely rotting in hell." Lily said before thinking up ways that she could make the pig beg for death for daring to kill her daughter.

"So that wasn't a dream. I really died?" said Erika. For someone who crossed over she was surprisingly calm.

"What exactly has she been through that dying doesn't faze her?" James growled out not sure if he really wanted an answer. Why was his daughter destined for such a short and clearly shitty life.

"I'm afraid so sweetie. On the plus side, you'll never have to deal with a Malfoy again!" said James with false cheer.

"And we can finally see you perform instead of having to watch it second hand," said Lily.

"Perform?" The two eldest Potters asked in unison rather curious about what could possibly distract their others from Erika's death.

Out of all the things Petunia had taught her daughter, she had been surprised then happy that her sister had at least bonded with Erika over ballet. Lily had never cared for it, but the mere fact that Petunia had taken Erika to lessons had made things just a little more tolerable than it could have been for her daughter.

"Still doesn't excuse letting your husband kill my daughter and clearly neglecting her if she didn't feel safe, wanted or loved." Lily said torn between interest at how Erika did and anger at how her sister didn't look after Erika like she would take care of Petunia's son when she died.

It was one of the few things that could get Petunia's approval, and she had been quite disappointed when Erika had forgone the lessons in favor of magic.

Erika felt like she was finally home in that brief moment with her parents. James and Lily were absolutely furious with Dumbledore for his inability to keep her even remotely safe while she tried to learn magic...and when Erika expressed a desire to go muggle and abandon her schooling at Hogwarts altogether, she was surprised her father agreed that it would have been better for her.

"I might have Pride in my magic and bloodline but my Family is, and will always be, more important." James said wishing Erika could hear him or at least his other explained that to her.

Lily wanted her to retake dance lessons. There was no reason to let such talent go to waste, and Erika had the talent (and the flexibility) for it.

James's eye twitched at the emphasis placed on flexibility before remembering what ballerinas wore. There was no man alive that would stay that way if they thought of his daughter like the narration hinted at.

Erika wished it could be like this forever. She never wanted to go back to her life again... her life was full of nothing but pain, and this was the best she had ever felt.

But the universe was a cruel bitch who loved to screw with her.

"HASN'T SHE GONE THROUGH ENOUGH?!" James shouted making Lily wince but she agreed wholeheartedly. Neither wanted Erika to suffer even if it meant that she was dead. There was such things as a merciful death after all.

Erika was forcefully taken from her parents, who looked very angry at the intrusion...before she saw a spark of fear in their eyes when they realized who it was.

"What could scare us into not even defending her?" Lily asked in shock. They had faced Voldemort several times without fear because it was the right thing to do. And yet here they had the best motivation of all and did nothing.

She saw a glimpse of wings and realized it had to be an angel.

"If we fear the angels then they clearly aren't the goody two shoes that people think they are." James said struggling to keep from being angry at his other.

"I don't know how you managed to slip up here, but you're going back whether you like it or not! I am not allowing some slip of a human ruin my day just because you didn't like the prophecy!"said the angel annoyed.

"Racist angels…what next, the devil tries to woe her out of love?" James said sarcastically getting a small giggle from Lily at the sheer ridiculousness of such a thing happening. They tried not to think of the implications aimed at the prophecy.

Erika saw golden gates, and realized with horror that she was being thrown out of heaven. She fought like mad to avoid being kicked out, but the angel had a stronger grip than she thought. She caught a glimpse of cold, cruel eyes before she felt herself fall. She heard the angel tell the gate keeper that until she killed the warlock she wasn't allowed back in.

"If you want him dead so badly do it yourself!" James snapped as he rose to his feet. He swore that Harry would never suffer as Erika did and he would find a way to help her if things kept going as they were.

And it was thanks to the gate keeper's reply that she knew the name of the angel who had cast her out.

Zachariah.

It was midnight when Erika took that first gasp of air since the attack, and the first thing she did was curl up her knees and cry.

James sat back down t hold Lily as she wept with Erika. Both would forever curse the name Zachariah.

She had found peace. She had been with her parents and she no longer had to fight and that damn angel had taken it all away. All because of some prophecy he claimed she needed to complete?

The next morning, Vernon's eyes almost did a double take when she left the room, but he clearly believed that the 'death' of his unwanted houseguest had been a drunken hallucination. They didn't speak a word, but Erika would later jam the door with some old nails that night just in case he tried to repeat it.

"He won't get the chance to." James promised darkly.

A few days later she found that his actions had an unexpected side effect...her scar, which had plagued her for years, was an angry red color and actually looked like it was healing over. Closer inspection of the pillow Vernon had smothered her with revealed a foul black sludge that refused to come out.

So his actions had removed whatever connection she had to Voldemort? Erika didn't know whether to be relieved or horrified.

The Potters didn't have that problem and were horrified. How could Erika be connected to Voldemort in the first place?

She settled on indifference, though for the next two days she refused to leave the house, despite the A/C being broken.

Erika thought long and hard about what her life had been like and came to an uncomfortable conclusion.

Magic had screwed her life up. Badly. It simply wasn't worth learning how to use her magical core if all it gave her was pain and sorrow. Unfortunately she couldn't leave Privet Drive that easily. She had noticed the watchers yesterday and suddenly all those invites for tea became very suspicious indeed from the seemingly innocent Mrs. Figg.

"Figg, isn't that the old woman that Dumbledore knows with all the Kneazles?" Lily asked in shock before anger took over. "Dumbledore knew, he wouldn't her around Erika unless it was to keep an eye on her. Why would he allow such things to happen?" James said nothing as he struggled to keep from having another outburst of rage.

Besides, it would take too long for her to reach London and to her Trust Vault from Surrey. Better to wait for a chance to catch the Knight Bus without anyone being suspicious from the Weasly house than trying to do so when everyone was watching her.

A few days later Dudley had a run-in with a couple of dementors and only barely managed to get away thanks to the fact her watchers actually got off their asses and saved him. Her uncle couldn't blame this on her, because she had been staying in her room quietly making a list of things she could and couldn't do once she had access to her converted vault contents and what she would need in order to live on her own until she was old enough to leave the country without suspicion. Outside of making sure Hedwig knew the general plan (which was to wait with Luna Lovegood, a fourth year Ravenclaw she had chatted to once before the Yule ball last year) until she had found a place or someone who could keep the wizards off her ass until Voldemort was no longer her problem to deal with.

"He shouldn't be her problem to deal with in the first place." James growled out holding Lily closer to him. "Why were Dementors at a muggle area and why does it seem that Erika has had a run in with them before?"

She didn't know what prophecy that angel had mentioned was, but she could guess. She was not going to give him the satisfaction of acting as his pawn when she had her own life to live, heaven be damned!

"DAMN STRAIGHT!" They shouted happily.

So she prepared...and in the meantime she got back into her old stretching exercises from ballet.

Petunia caught her at it once, but when she went to tell Petunia what she was doing her aunt didn't say a word as she closed the door.

However Erika noticed that her aunt actually left her more food than usual and even allowed her longer shower times. Dudley never came in to drag her out again.

"Why would he be the one to drag her out? Why do they think that dragging her out is alright to begin with?" Lily said as their mood soured again at the clear implications and they hoped that it didn't go further.

Erika hated Grimmauld Place more than Privet Drive, as bizarre as it seemed. She had at least made a strong enough impression with her 'rescuers' when she nearly brained Moody with the baseball bat left over from Dudley's ill-fated attempts to try his luck at the sport.

"Good on you Erika. I remember quite a few stories from Sirius about that place." James said smirking at the paranoid wizard being ambushed by her.

"Didn't it say that Sirius was in Azkaban? How could they get to it without him?" Lily asked before B.O.A.R. spoke up.

"In most Realities Sirius sees a photo of Peter Pettigrew with the Weasleys who are usually near, if not friends with, the Potter child. He then becomes the first ever to escape Azkaban without outside help in order to kill Peter before he can harm the child." B.O.A.R. said making them both relieved that Sirius cared enough to do the impossible.

The fact she had brought it with her as incentive to leave her the hell alone, more so. Three seconds of Erika's scathing tongue lashing for her now-formerfriends and the fact she seemed far too happy to hit them with the metal bat had been the best way to secure her own room...one which to her delight had a window that lead into the back yard.

"I can't blame her given that they didn't help her while she was at the Dursleys." Lily said unhappy that Erika was losing friends but consoled herself that they weren't true ones if they did nothing. She had always helped Severus when his father got too much and had tried to get him arrested several times but neither Eileen or Severus would press charges.

She used that as a way out of the house one night to see how far it was to London.

The answer? Less than two hours walk, according to the Google Earth map she used. Less than that, if she ran.

Sirius seemed to be the only one who knew what was going on with her. That she planned to run away and not come back.

"I just realised something." James said with a frown making Lily turn to him curiously. "Where is Moony in all of this? Sirius has the excuse of being in Azkaban and even then he broke out to protect her. It hasn't said anything about Moony and I would like to think he would get over his annoying self pity if it meant keeping her safe."

"We'll just need to see. I just hope that Sirius helps her even if he doesn't go with her. I doubt Azkaban did him any favours." Lily said with a matching frown as she had always found Remus to be the most mature of the Marauders and hoped that he would have at least tried to help her.

He recognized the signs pretty fast, considering he had the same ones when he was sixteen. He said nothing, but if Erika found an obscure book to summon beasts most people would consider evil under her pillow one night, she kept her mouth shut.

Because of her new anti-social outlook (she blamed Cedric's death, so the 'adults', barring Sirius of course, didn't question it) everyone more or less kept their distance.

"I'm rather worried about how useless the adults are if Sirius is the only one noticing what is going on. You would think Moody would have noticed given his paranoia." James said while Lily nodded in agreement.

"I hope Sirius checked through that book before he gave it to her. I can't see him giving her an Evil Book but he wasn't always cautious." Lily said making James tilt his head. Sirius was raised by a Dark Family so he would trust his judgement.

Everyone except Fred and George.

"So little sister..." started Fred.

"When are you planning your big escape?" asked George.

"Why do I get the feeling that they take after you and your gang?" Lily asked getting a mock hurt look from James.

"It wasn't a gang. Besides, if they have noticed what the adults haven't then they know her better than the others." James said with a smirk. He hoped they would help Erika get into pranks, which despite what Lily would have people believe came from both adult Potters.

Erika's eyes grew guarded. But her posture was relaxed. The twins had cornered her in a secluded portion of the Black Family Library, far away from any prying ears and after they had cast several charms against the adults hearing them. Not that they could, considering they were in a meeting at the moment. The fact she hadn't reached for her now ever-present bat spoke volumes about how she felt about them.

"She must feel the same towards them if she isn't grabbing the bat." Lily said with a slight smile happy that she had someone in her corner other than Sirius.

"What makes you think I'm leaving?"

"Dear little sister..."

"Did you think Sirius was the only who recognized the signs of teenaged rebellion?" finished George with a grin.

"So when were you planning to go?" continued Fred.

"Soon."

"We can help with the distraction," offered George.

"As glad as I am to hear that, the last thing I need is for the adults to realize that you helped me. And the less you know about where I'm heading or plan to hide, the better."

"Can we at least get a hint?"

"Let's just say I plan to get back into a hobby that I was forced to go to the wayside because I thought magic

would actually make my life better, instead of making it worse."

Seeing their surprised faces, it was clear they didn't know she had a hobby before Hogwarts.

"I think that Erika is going to be very good at hiding from everyone if even these two didn't know about the ballet." James said letting out a relieved sigh. While he would prefer that she didn't have to be so independent it was better than being dependent on clearly incompetent adults.

"But... what I could use is some help with keeping people from finding me once I'm out of here. And getting a passport, one for the muggle world."

"We might know a few people who can get a passport..." said Fred.

"But how are you planning to leave England?" asked George.

"Fly of course. Shouldn't be too difficult."

"James, is there something you want to tell me?" Lily asked not missing the slight smirk that appeared on her husband's face. He merely shook his head with an innocent look on his face. Lily let him have the small secret in case it came in useful for themselves.

Of course things weren't as easy as she would have thought. Getting a passport took the better part of a week, and even then she had difficulty hiding what she had planned from the increasingly nosy Molly Weasley.

"I think I remember her." James said frowning in thought before his eyes went wide. "She's the one that used a love potion on Arthur and has seven kids, mostly boys. From what I hear she is quite controlling over them."

"You don't think she would try and set Erika up with one of her sons do you?" Lily asked having a very dim view of love potions. She knew a couple of girls that almost had their lives ruined because of them.

"No, despite Arthur not caring about it since he was already head over heals for her, Gideon and Fabien read her the riot act for it. If she does try to set them up then she won't use potions. We don't know enough about her children to see if they would though, Fred and George seem alright but don't know about the rest." James said hoping Erika was careful.

Fortunately there was an easy way to hide it. She used it as a bookmark in something muggle that Hermione wouldn't touch out of principle.

Erika had learned rather fast that Hermione hated fantasy novels, especially once she found out that most of the genre couldn't be applied to her new found magical powers.

"That doesn't mean you can't try and make something similar." Lily said with a frown at the close minded attitude towards magic. Even purebloods liked to experiment if they hear of something interesting. James and Sirius were still trying to make Lightsabers.

She however liked it because it was something she wasn't allowed to read at home. A forbidden pleasure as it were. And she loved Lord of the Rings.

Some rather dense relative had given Dudley the entire set, all first editions. He hadn't even opened them once. So she had confiscated them herself. Not like Petunia ever noticed they were missing.

"I'm glad she had found something she liked at least. I can scarcely believe that Petunia never grew up." Lily said unhappily at the reminder of her sister.

Erika had her chance during the last Order meeting shortly before the lists were sent out.

Erika locked the door, jammed it with a nail and had another argument with her former friends loud enough to be heard downstairs by the adults. After slamming the door, no one wanted to bother her for a few hours, not that they would after she nearly bashed someone's head in.

Remus, bless his nose, said that it wasn't the best time of the month to be around her when she was in a bad mood.

"So Remus is alive. At least he is trying to get her some space but is that because he knows or is she really on her bad week?" Lily asked while James tried to block out the implications. He didn't want to hear about his daughter having gone through the dreaded puberty essentially making her a few steps from adulthood.

Everyone wisely didn't ask what he meant.

It took little doing to open the window. She kept it open most nights so Hedwig could hunt.

Hedwig was already flying to Luna's house until Erika found a way to keep the idiots in the magical society from bothering her ever again.

"That could take a while." James said knowing that magicals could be tenacious when they wanted to be and from what they had heard they were rather invested in using Erika as a symbol.

She deftly dropped to the ground with her expanded bag and made sure no one was watching. Her cloak was useful, there was no doubt of that, but with Dumbledore and Moody, it was useless. Luckily Sirius knew she was planning to leave soon, so when he heard the thump outside (he was the closest to the outside wall, strangely enough) he covered her exit.

"Lily, remind me to get the cloak back from Dumbledore and check it over. I've personally used it to get the drop on the two of them so he had to have tampered with it." James said as his temper flared again. It was only because Erika had it and Sirius was helping her that he managed.

If anyone noticed he talked a little too loud while in an argument with Snape, no one said anything. The twins grinned upstairs as they heard some of the insults he hurled at their potionsmaster.

"What the hell is Snape doing in an Order meeting? He's a fucking Death Eater!" James demanded while Lily looked conflicted at the fact her old friend had apparently turned on Voldemort and incredulous at the fact that Dumbledore had him teaching at Hogwarts.

"Severus Snape turned spy upon the death of Lily Potter in most Realities. His reasons vary from guilt at being the one to give Voldemort the start of the prophecy to anger at the death of the woman he was obsessed with. I have no idea of how the local Severus is so don't make rash decisions about him, please." B.O.A.R. said not really helping James's temper.

The moment she entered Gringotts, she knew she was going to have a really, really bad day.

Malfoy was there.

"I forgot that the peacock managed to breed." James grunted out in annoyance.

There were ways around him though.

She waited patiently in line until the goblin was free, and asked to be taken to her vault. From there she emptied out her entire trust vault, and asked where she could convert it all into muggle pounds.

"Convert? Are you insane woman? Goblins don't keep muggle money on hand like that! We barely have use for the paper the muggleborns bring in every year!"

"Wait WHAT?!" Lily asked in shock. "Do you mean to tell me that the Goblins don't even try and invest it in the Muggle World? I would have thought that they would have done something so obvious as they have a steady income of Muggle Money." James just shrugged not really having an idea about the Goblins or how the Muggle World worked.

"So what happens to the cash the muggleborns trade in every year?"

"We use it as kindling."

"WHAT!" Lily shouted in rage. Over the years she had converted a lot of money and to hear that it was just burnt pissed her off. It didn't help that she hadn't really calmed down since learning about her daughter's life.

Erika thought fast.

"Fifty galleons and you funnel it all to my wallet each year," she said immediately.

"All of it? What in the Goblin King's name would you need all that paper for?"

"Its official, our daughter is a genius." James said in pride making Lily giggle and calm down a little. Neither of them commented on the fact that they had started thinking of the strong willed girl as theirs.

"You mean you don't want fifty gold coins just to get rid of it?" asked Erika.

"I never said that, just curious why you would want it," said the goblin quickly.

"It's easier to carry. Coins are heavy," said Erika with a straight face.

James looked even prouder at the perfect poker face she had. Even if it was inherited from Lily and not him he knew it would server her well.

The goblin took her up to a higher office, where she paid them the fifty coins in exchange for them sending all the 'muggle' currency the got each year to her wallet.

Idiots.

"And that was just Chapter 1." James said trying to settle his emotions. "We can't stay here if Peter will betray us. I know where Sirius lives and I doubt he will mind us crashing there for a little while." He waved his wand and everything started packing up.

"I want Sirius with s when we continue reading. He might provide an insight to things we can't and I doubt he would be happy if we cut him out." Lily said grabbing the things for Harry while James pocketed the rest and grabbed B.O.A.R.

"We'll need to catch him up and keep him from going after Wormtail. I want to finish the book before we do anything. We might make things worse if we don't." James said before escorting his family from Godric's Hollow with nothing but determination in his eyes.