Levicorpus, a Fanfic

[terri_testing]

Disclaimer:  Any reader, I assume, already knows to whom the characters and setting belong.  I claim nothing.

AU to canon, and to my fanfic “Liberacorpus.”

Warning for language, and for (non explicit) violence.

Summary:  Snape reconsiders a decision that he had previously reached.  So does Lily.

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

Meanwhile, the embryo that will become Neville Longbottom was one day from its formation.

Sons of Prophecy

[terri_testing]

I've always liked Whitehound's take on that, that Tommy might finally be brought low by a coalition of people each of whom meet one clause of the prophecy by some interpretation....

Re: Sons of Prophecy

[sunnyskywalker]

That would be fantastic.

Re: Sons of Prophecy

[jana_ch]

The Hufflepuff Solution.

...is a team effort. The Gryffindor Solution is a single hero. The Slytherin Solution is a private conspiracy. The Ravenclaw Solution is to study the situation until somebody else decides to do something about it and comes to you for information.

Hey, I’m a ’Claw myself. Work at something when learning about it is so much more fun? Get out the tea and reading lamp! There’s a Dark Lord to be vanquished.

[oryx_leucoryx]

So, how would things have turned out in this AU

Getting the prophecy orb

[terri_testing]

Well, we know that in canon Tom jumped on the bit reported to him, but never tried going after the original and finding out the whole until Harry's 5th year--after he'd been bit by it. Note that he had to wait to get Augustus out of Azkaban before he found out that only he and the "one" would be able to lift the orb from the shelf, so they had never discussed it before Augustus's incarceration. So I suspect that originally Tom didn't know that prophecy-copies were stored in the DoM, and that checking for new prophecies wasn't part of Augustus's duties for his august master. (And that Tom was not inclined to share with ANYONE the information that he was prophesied to be vanquishable.) Otherwise Tom would have asked to see the whole in 1980, and Augustus would have explained back then why he couldn't oblige

Re: Getting the prophecy orb

[jana_ch]

...Albus is going to start suspecting Sev of disloyalty and be interested in tracking him down.

Then Sev had better get himself under Barty Sr’s protection as soon as possible. Better to be beholden to an honest hard-ass than a lying, manipulative, two- (or three- or four-) faced twinkly grandfather.

Re: Getting the prophecy orb

[oryx_leucoryx]

Not sure there was anything honest about Barty Sr?

[sunnyskywalker]

Oh, this is fantastic! Glad to serve as inspiration :-)

If Severus had come to long for the Dark Lord’s downfall, as it seems he must admit to himself that he had, he’d have to start working for that directly, not hope for a prophecy to release him.

I absolutely love this bit. Yes, Potterverse, this is how you do it! Focus on what you can do yourself instead of relying on luck and prophecies. (Magic really can damage one's development, can't it? As I know you said in iirc the "Headmaster Snape" stories with regard to risk-assessment, but it spills over into so many other areas.)

And wow, it looks like something was finally too much for Remus and he stood up to James and Sirius--this might have all sorts of interesting repercussions!

Heh!

[terri_testing]

Yeah, well, Severus at least would have learned a lesson from his close call.... Not sure I feel inspired to write what he does next, but we'll see if that inspiration strikes too.

Of course, he won't remember reaching this decision--but the fact that he's sick with terror at telling his master he'd failed through no fault of his own should prove its own wake-up call.

Remus--I do think beating up a girl would be too much for him. Even if she was an undutiful wife. (Plus, in the original Libercorpus James got rid of Remus in a few months anyhow, because he was too prone to sympathize with Lily's loneliness once pregnancy isolated her further--and to suggest remedies.) I don't think James and Sirius will ever forgive him.

Not sure if James will ever forgive her--or pretend to, to get her back in his power.

[jana_ch]

The hardest part of the story to believe? Remus showing backbone. But if anyone is going to rescue Lily it has to be him, because it certainly won’t be Peter or Sirius, and I can’t see her being able to rescue herself after the way she was ground down in Liberacorpus.

So where will she go when she leaves Godric’s Hollow with nothing but her wand and the clothes on her back? I doubt if James will just give her up; we know how persistant he can be. Are her parents still alive, in Cokeworth perhaps? The only one sure to be willing and able to protect her for her own sake is Severus; she is exactly the sort of complication he does not need, and would be certain to take on, to his own detriment

Lily ground down

[terri_testing]

This is quite early in the grinding process- he's got her alienated from her magical girlfriends, but hasn't gotten too far on attacking her self-worth-he was waiting to get her further tied to him by pregnancy (and isolated/ dependent by same) to work more on that. Excuse me, to work on educating her on being a proper wife to a Pureblood husband, smoothing off those Muggle rough edges including that unseemly independence of thought

James Giving Up?

[jana_ch]

I can’t see James just giving up. The man is nothing if not persistant. Assuming he didn’t start chasing Lily until he went through puberty, he spent at least three and possibly four years pursuing one girl. For a teenage sports star with lots of other options, that’s forever. She is his, dammit! He put himself through the wringer to get her (when she should have been falling at his feet-stupid Northern bint, her muggle parents barely out of the working class), and he is not about to let her go running off and tell everyone she’s dumped James Potter.

I can’t see him trying to kill her, though. He is heavily invested in the myth of the Great and Good James Potter, and the Great and Good James Potter does not commit murder (manslaughter maybe, but not pre-meditated). He sometimes has to chastise his wife a bit, but he’s always in control of that, he says. Another thing the Great and Good James Potter does not do, however, is get dumped. He will get her back

[oryx_leucoryx]

You know, in this version James went all the way to call Lily the M-word, so perhaps some Gryffindors might support Lily's leaving. If she is still in touch with any of them.

[vermouth1991]

James was screaming at her, “You bitch! You Mudblood bitch! I didn’t think even you were bitch enough to kill my baby!”

I'm beginning to appreciate Hannibal Lecter's morbid interest in collecting church collapses (with actual human casualties) now . . .