The Law of Unintended Consequences

Chapter 1

Returning to the Past

I shall return to my love...

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, nor do I own the Harry Potter Series.

"Avada Kedavra!"

There was a flash of green light, which Lily Potter, formerly Lily Evans, didn't even attempt to dodge, secure in the knowledge that her sacrifice here would save her son from death. There was a loud rushing noise, and then...

Lily found herself suddenly found herself staring at a blue, cloudless sky. She sat up and found herself in a strange place, a seeming hodgepodge of two places that she had known in life; on one side was a small thicket of trees with a stream running alongside it, on the other side was the house she had just died in. She then called out for her husband, hoping that, if he was dead, she might find him here, "James! James! Where are you!? JAMES!"

Not seeing or hearing any sign of her husband in life, Lily was rather confused; she had always expected that she might see him in the afterlife when they died. 'How strange... I wonder where James is? Maybe, just maybe, he survived, considering he isn't here...'

As she hoped that James had somehow survived, she caught herself staring at how it seemed the stream suddenly melded with the house where the two met; it seemed like the stream was flowing, then the water somehow became the floorboards, seamlessly. Lily was looking at this strange phenomenon, trying to puzzle it out, when she suddenly heard a noise coming from above, a slight humming.

Looking up, she saw a glowing silver ball slowly floating down. She moved to draw her wand in case it was hostile, but it wasn't in her pocket; upon looking, she found herself in a red and gold robe which, although extremely heavy looking, was actually so light as to be completely unnoticable. Realizing that there was little she could do, she simply stood up and looked warily at the silver ball as it stopped, floating gently no more than two or three feet off of the ground.

Looking more closely at it, she realized that, although it was nearly opaque, a silhouette of something vaguely humanoid could be seen on the edge of it, and there seemed to be a small aura of energy surrounding the ball, causing the glow. Suddenly she heard a voice inside her mind. 'Lily Potter I presume. I presume that you are wondering what is going on?'

Lily spoke aloud in response, more than a little nervous, but she mastered her uncertainty with sheer bravado, saying impatiently, "Yes, I am she, and you are right. What the hell is going on here?"

She could have sworn she heard the voice in her head chuckle, then it continued, unfazed by her rudeness 'I am what you may consider an angel of fates. You see, there are many universes, of which the one you left is but one of them. Each of these universes are born by a change in the fate of the world, and then end when the fate of the world is an unavoidable death. In your world, the actions which have been taken by the people of your world will lead to a relatively benign fate, but there are others wherein those same people made different choices, leading to the destruction of their world.'

Lily understood what he was saying, more or less, but unsure where he was going with this, so she said, "So, what would this mean for me? Why are you telling me all of this? I mean, I'm already dead, so why would it matter?"

The voice of the angel then laughed slightly and continued, 'You see, Mrs. Potter, when a universe is destroyed, what we typically do is take the energy created from its destruction, and then use it to make a copy of a benignly fated universe, with minor changes. It just wouldn't do for us to copy them exactly, as that would lead to multiple universes dying if that particular universe was fated to die. These minor changes come from us changing a single person, one whose choices could have made a great difference for good or ill in the outcome of the fate of their world. In this case, we have selected you to be the one to cause these changes.'

Lily, nervous again, but still curious, asked him quietly, "What do you mean by 'cause these changes'?"

'We mean inserting your soul into that of the Lily of the new time-line. You would be replacing your fourteen year old self, and you would have the opportunity to change your actions for good or ill. You could relive your life but better, and maybe even cause a superior fate to the one that your world will be undergoing...'

Lily suddenly interrupted, "But I thought you said that our world would have a good outcome!"

Sounding a tad annoyed at being interrupted, the voice continued, 'I said that it would have a relatively benign outcome, but your world will be badly damaged by two wizarding wars nonetheless. You have the opportunity here to change the future of your world for the better; given your personality, I have no doubt that, given your personality, you will accept, but I must give you the option to decline nonetheless.'

Lily was annoyed at his assumption, but couldn't deny that he was correct, so, somewhat sullenly, she asked, "So I will get to see James and all of my friends again?"

'Yes. Your friends will be identical to how they were at the age of fourteen, although after that is up to you. After all, Our actions and choices always have consequences. For example, if you had made different choices, then Peter Pettigrew might have ended up not betraying you, or James Potter might have given up on you, or Severus Snape might never have joined the Death Eaters. Every choice we make has its own results; you have been given the gift of knowing what some of those choices might lead to.'

Lily, outraged, shouted, "Are you saying that Snape's choices and Pettigrew's betrayal are my fault!?"

'Yes and no. Snape and Pettigrew made their own choices, but they might have had or made different choices had you made different ones. Now then, this conversation is starting to tire me. Have you made your choice Mrs. Potter, or I suppose, Miss Evans?"

In the end, Lily knew that she would have no real choice, given how she always had to do the 'right' thing, no matter how much it might hurt her, although sometimes doing the 'right' thing only seemed to end up in more pain for everyone. Besides, while she severely doubted that Pettigrew could have been changed much, she had wondered a number of times in her life whether or not she could have stopped her former best friend from going so wrong, and this gave her a great opportunity to try and find out. As such, Lily nodded to the angel and whispered, "Yes..."

Author's Note: This story is based off of a mass of similar fanfics in this particular fandom wherein Snape gets the chance to relive his life and change it; for example, 'The Moment it Began' by Sindie. In this one, Lily is getting her chance to go back and make a difference. Now then, I am going with the approach that she doesn't hate Snape, but she hates what he has become and would like to change that if she can; if she had known what he has done for his love for her, she might realize that, just by staying at his side, she might be able to stop him from becoming a death eater, but she does not know what he did to try to save her, nor what he will do in the future to atone for his failure.

The theme of this fic is one of my usual favorites, the consequences of our actions. Lily's actions will have consequences that she does not expect, for both good and ill...

For those of you who have read my previous fic, I will NOT be engaging in an excessive level of James-bashing in this fic, although I might do some without intending to.

Revised March 23, 2009