Chapter Text
James and Lily Potter had always been an intriguing couple. Ever since the time Lily Evans slapped James, an heir to a pureblood house, to the time he got on one knee to propose to her.
But things got weird as the time went on and they were finishing Hogwarts. A war was approaching, and they didn't know what to do, or Lily didn't know what to do. James wanted to fight. As the Gryffindor that he was, Lily expected that, and who was she to stop him from doing so?
As James fought, Lily started to see the war and see the prejudice, but she knew it wasn't that simple; it never was. So she went out and started looking for answers, and what she found made her change views. It appears that one can find a great deal of something by asking the goblins and being nice and respectful to them.
So while James fought, Lily prepared. She learnt, she researched, and she did everything she could to understand this war, the motives, and what happened to make it escalate. She did all that while trying to be a lovely and caring wife.
Until one day, she found out she was pregnant. Everyone was so happy for her, and she was happy too, but she couldn't stop being afraid – afraid of the future her child would have. Things were not good, but everything got worse once her friends started dying. She saw it all; she saw how it broke James every time he got home with news. It also made her sad, but at the same time, she couldn't stop thinking, 'Why are they fighting this war?' They just got out of Hogwarts; they have masteries and Auror training; they have so much ahead.
James continued to fight, to fight more, to the point that sometimes Lily wouldn't see him for weeks, and while he was gone, she was with the Goblins. They had developed a friendship of a kind, and at some point they convinced her that she should take an inheritance test.
She finally cracked; she didn't understand why she didn't want to do it, but after so much insistence, the goblins could hear a faint 'yes' coming from her mouth. She was surprised to find out she was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin. She was from a noble house, and she was an heiress. The goblins didn’t sound with that information, but they just said that she had the same colour hair as Salazar Slytherin’s wife. She also found out that she had been tampered with. There wasn't much the goblins could do beside a little purge, as she was pregnant, but as they did, her mind got a lot clearer.
With that information she came across a lot more resources in her research. Everything was going well; she knew who she was, and she started testing everything around her only to find that most of the things in her house were doped with something.
She stopped going home and started staying in a room in the bank; the goblins were excited to have another heir of Slytherin and one that could make such an amount of money move. Of course she knew who the other heir was, but she didn't quite know what to do with that information.
Her husband was nowhere to be seen; she didn't quite trust him anymore, most of her friends were dead, and she had a little being that she needed to think of. Despite it all there was one thing Lily Potter-Slytherin knew: she needed to visit an old friend.
She stopped in front of a house that didn't look like a home, a place that was cold and sad. She was wearing as much protective jewellery from the vault as she could, and when she knocked on the door, she didn't know what to expect as Regulus Black opened the door.
He stepped aside and let her in. She was her secret best friend after all, but she could see how he was different; she could smell the potions on him, but she also saw it, a ring on his finger.
“What did you do, Regulus?” she asked.
“I married him. I married Tom, not him.” He said, looking at the ring, “He banished me to the house. He got crazy and unstable, and there is nothing I can do to change that.”
“He made Horcruxes.” Lily stated
“Yes, more than one.”
“You’re wearing one.”
“I know, I can’t take it off. Every time I tried it, it just hurt me more.”
“Do you know how many?”
“Five,” he says, as cold as one could be. “He lost himself after the second.”
As Lily took care of Regulus, they started planning. Having the Black Library and Slytherin books at her hands and a brilliant mind like Regulus meant that they were no longer pawns; they had to start moving pieces on a new board completely their own.
James started going home and not seeing his wife; at first he thought it was just coincidence, but after a couple of times, he realised that the house was gaining dust and his wife wasn’t there. He ran to Dumbledore, and both of them started looking for her while the rest of the plans moved along. They needed the child.
As time went by, Voldemort got even crazier, and Regulus and Lily started preparing to leave England. They knew it was just a matter of time before they were found, but no one was expecting them to leave the country. There was at least one Black home in every country, so they only had to choose one.
Lily’s ninth month of pregnancy was approaching, and she wanted to have her baby somewhere safe, so things were moving, and it was only a matter of time before they were in America.
Regulus was sure that his husband had already forgotten about him by now, and even if that saddened him, he needed to continue so that they could be together sooner rather than later. As for Lily, she tried not to think about her husband; it was hard living without James, but at the same time she felt more herself than ever before. She just hoped that her suspicions were wrong.
They went to one of the castles the Blacks had; it was big, way too big for two people, but it didn’t take long for it to be filled with cries and little sounds from a baby. Hadrian Black-Slytherin was born as the seventh month died, delivered by Regulus himself with the help of an elf. His name was later changed to Hadrian Noir-Slytherin-Peverell.
When little Hadrian was 3 months old, Lily and Regulus started acting, testing all the spells they had made; they just needed one to work; they just needed one spell to stop the war.
James was going crazy; he was Lord Potter, but he couldn’t feel his wife or his son in his family magic. He didn’t know what was happening; he just knew that Voldemort had something to do with it.
Months went on, Hadrian had just turned one year old, and Lily and Regulus had finally concluded one spell that worked; they were both happy and relieved as they saw a horcrux above their table. It was just a matter of time before they perfected it.
It was the 31st of October, a cold night, and it was raining. The sky seemed mad; there was lightning covering the sky and noises that made anyone shiver. Voldemort knew this was the day that he was going to kill the boy, the Longbottom boy. He just knew he needed to do this so he could make Wizarding Britain a great place again; he could remember why he wanted that or what he was going to do next. He just knew he needed to kill. But despite all that certainty and all those empty thoughts, he just couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something, or rather someone.
As Voldemort got closer to the Longbottom house, he could feel the power that awaited him inside; the child was as powerful as he was, after all.
James Potter knew that he had to be the one to do something; it wasn't supposed to be Frank, not his kid; it was supposed to be his family. He approached the Longbottom house and waited for him to show up; if not him, then his family. He needed to be the one to take credit for his fall, Dumbledore’s plans be damned. He also needed to find his wife and child that he was sure had been kidnapped.
Regulus and Lily were working, and Hadrien was crying, but they knew they needed to do this today, so they were in the ritual room, a circle was drawn, and they were waiting for the time they felt was right.
The clock was moving, and so were they, and when it was nine o'clock, they knew they had to start the chants; this was their chance, and they wouldn't fail.
James saw Voldemort approaching; he took a deep breath and sent a spell in his direction. He knew this was going to be a difficult fight, but he was a Gryffindor; he wouldn’t lose to some snake-faced bastard.
Voldemort wanted to laugh; they had sent an adolescent to stop him, but he supposed he could do with the warm-up as he moved aside from the spell and cast his own. He got closer to the face and could see the rage in the boy’s eyes. He laughed.
Spells started flying in every direction; he knew it was just a moment of time before he defeated one of Dumbledore’s pawns. He got closer and closer and darker and darker with his spell.
But he felt something, something inside him changing, and as he saw a ray of green light escaping his opponent’s wand, he felt himself being pulled away from there.
James couldn’t understand what happened, but as he looked to the house, he saw Frank running to him with tears in his eyes. He just knew one thing: he, James Potter, was the defeater of the Dark Lord.
Lily and Regulus saw Voldemort in the middle of their circle, and they smiled at each other but didn’t stop chanting; they were going to bring every piece of his soul together. This was the end of Voldemort and the return of Thomas Marvolo Black-Slytherin.
Tom didn’t know what was happening; there were a lot of feelings inside him, a lot of memories, and a lot of regrets. He opened his eyes, and he just saw white.
“Stupid child.” He heard a voice. “How could you be so stupid?” He looked up and saw a dark cloak with no face.
“Who are you?”
“I’m your biggest fear, child.” Tom then realised he was looking at Death.
“Am I dead?”
“No, you are not me. I’m me. There isn’t another being or entity that is me. Such a silly question.”
“Did I die?” Tom rephrased
“No, you are in a coma at the moment. You will wake up eventually, but until then we are going to talk because you, a descendant of my first children, are afraid of me.”
“How could I not be? There was so much I needed to do and so little time.”
“And you thought breaking your soul was going to fix that?” Death asks, and I just look at the cloak. “Everything comes with a price, child. Vampires drink blood, werewolves lose themselves once a month, and Horcruxes are anomalies; they shouldn’t exist, and I think you don’t need me to explain why.”
“What did I do?” I ask more to myself now that I remember all the things. “Where is Regulus? Did he die?”
“Your husband is well, a bit exhausted from patching your soul the entire night. But it was only something he could do as a direct descendant of Lady Magic, but of course he also had help from another of my descendants. He and the girl make a great team, and when you regain yourself, you will help them with the training of my little master.”
“Excuse me?”
“Listen closely, they are powerful, but a ritual like the one they did last night only worked because they had help from me, so do not try it again. Now you have a mission: you will access the Peverell vault and learn the art of necromancy, you will get in contact with me again, and together we will train the child. Your husband will return to the old way of the Noir family; the Blacks are dead, and they will not rise again. He is cured from the curse. The girl – you still don’t know her, but you will respect her and learn with her. She is important, and she is going to be the head of the Slytherin family. Do not even think about interrupting me, child. You have the Peverell house almost to yourself, only to share with the little master. You lost your right to the Slytherin house, but you can have a new life with the Peverell. You are a brilliant boy, Thomas; you just got yourself in a game without seeing the board clearly and having the knowledge to make better choices. Things will change, for all three of you and for my little master too. A fourth will join you in a couple of years, and he will bring a precious jewel for the crown. Rest now, Thomas Marvolo Noir-Peverell; when you wake up, things will be different.”
And like that, Thomas opened his eyes to a room where a redhead was holding a baby and his petit étoile was sipping tea. His eyes were no longer red, but they were green, the same green as the baby that he was looking at.