1) This is the fourth book in the series. If you have not read Deer to Me and the anteceding books, I suggest you go read those first or else you most definitely will be confused.

2) I apologize for the delay in getting this chapter out. There were technical difficulties, as well as the stress of starting a brand new semester and all that goes with it (book buying and etc). I hope the next chapter comes quicker, but it's looking as though I'll only be able to post one chapter a week.

3) There have been many concerns about the canonicity of Harry Potter's birthday and other points. Those will be answered in this chapter. And for the record, James and Lily have faced Lord Voldemort twice; once in Heading the School, and once in Four Little Words.

4) Shameless plug, but....I'm nominated for "Best New Author" and "Best .... Novel" for Deer to Me on Portkey, so if anybody wants to mosey on over there and give me a few votes, I'd be most appreciative.

EDIT: Sorry guys! Confusing dates and all! I fixed the November screw up. It’s October, and I apologize for any confustion!!

"You walked out when I asked you to stay
As usual you'll get your way
You closed the door and stumbled down to the street
[...] Careful or you'll hurt yourself."
-Guster, Careful

Those Who Have Thrice Defied Him
Chapter Two

Neville slept fitfully next to his mother's bosom. His mother, held him tiredly; she had not yet been able to rest after giving birth to him. There had been an argument on whether or not Neville and his mother should be moved so soon after giving birth, but after the meeting had finally started in Dumbledore's office, no one wanted to leave the safety.

After all, when you've just watched a bug-eyed woman tell of the impending death of possibly your child, you'd want to stay in the safest place too.

"Well, that's it then," Frank said, grimly, swallowing. "It's Neville... He was born tonight, and we've faced Voldemort three times."

"I would say that yes, he is a candidate, but Lily-" Dumbledore started.

"Lily's not due until the October second," James said, hotly. "There's no way that...that....thing can refer to her..." Even though, he was grasping his wife so tightly that she was getting uncomfortable. "Not only that, but we've only ‘defied' Voldemort twice."

James glared at Dumbledore with such intensity that the older man had to pause a moment before continuing. "James, I do not doubt that the possibility of Lily giving birth by tomorrow night is rare, but it still is a possibility of it being you, however a slim one, so we must take precautions."

"Are you sure that someone else heard?"Alice asked, quietly.

"I am positive. However, the barman recognized him and ejected him from the premises at some point during the prophecy," Dumbledore said. "Our greatest unknown is how much of the prophecy he knows. Any fragment could lead him to believe that it was Neville, or worse, he could believe it was both of the boys, and go after both of them."

Alice looked down at Neville who had started to murmur again. "Albus, he's only a baby," she said. "He wouldn't kill an...." she trailed off and looked down, closing her eyes. Of course Voldemort would kill an innocent baby.

"What do we do?" Frank asked, gently rubbing his wife's back. "What do you want us to do?"

"Voldemort holds the cards now," Dumbledore said, standing up and walking to the window. "I cannot predict what he will do, nor can I predict the speed that he will receive this information. James, Lily, I would lay low for the next day. Do not use any magic and use Fawkes to check in every hour. Alice, Frank, until we know more, I want the both of you to stay here. Madame Pomfrey will be on hand to assist with your new son."

"Do you want us to stay here too?" James asked.

Dumbledore stood up and walked to his window, thinking.

"We are in a tight spot because we aren't sure to what extent Voldemort knows of the prophecy. As of right now, your unborn child does not fit the prophecy, and Neville does. If you were to stay here, Voldemort might suspect, with his incomplete knowledge, that it applies to you as well, and then you would be suspect and there would be no going back. If we act as if it has nothing to do with you, then Voldemort might leave you alone."

"So, the safest place is in our flat?" James asked, slowly.

"I believe so," Dumbledore nodded. "As I've said, there's no guarantee that he would even have you in his sights, but I don't want to give him any excuse to think that it's you. I would rather put all of our Aurors on protecting Neville then having to split them up between the two of you."

"We'd better go before anyone notices that we're missing," Lily said, quietly.

James nodded and helped Lily to her feet. He paused to shake Frank's hand, and give him a small smile, and, to himself, he was positive that Frank's baby was the one destined for that curse. It made sense, James thought, watching Lily Floo back to their house. Frank and Alice were both pure-blood, and Frank was an insanely talented wizard.

And why would Voldemort go out of his way to fulfill a prophecy when he had a perfect fit with Neville Longbottom?

With that comforting thought, he followed Lily into the fireplace.

"It's dark," James said, quietly. He had dark circles under his eyes and his hair was damp from coming out of the shower. He looked over to Lily who was sitting at the table, not really seeing anything around her. She jumped and looked out the window.

"Finally," Lily said, also having dark circles under her eyes. She was stirring an ice cold cup of coffee and staring blankly into the room, as she was prone to do when she didn't have much sleep. She rubbed her eyes and sighed, putting her head down on the table.

"It's nearly eight," James said, walking into the living room and planting a kiss on Lily's forehead. "Time to check in again."

"Huh?" she said, looking up, blankly.

James smiled tiredly and tapped his wand against the orange plume in his hand. "Go to bed, Baby..."

"No," Lily shook her head and put her head in her arms. "Can't go to sleep, what if something happens?"

"Lily," James put his arms around her and pulled her to her feet. "You're getting cranky. You don't need to be worried about this in your condition. The baby doesn't need you stressing out about all this stuff..."

Lily put her head in his shoulder and closed her eyes, breathing in his scent. She was starting to get a headache from lack of sleep and her bed was looking very inviting. James was rocking her back and forth slowly, and rubbing her aching back, very rhythmically. He leaned down and kissed her lovingly.

She moaned softly and licked her lips, about asleep on her feet.

They both had a heart attack when the door opened.

"Whoa....bad time?" Sirius asked, stopping short. "What's wrong?"

Lily, now incredibly awake, shot James a look that could have melted steel. "Nothing."

"Sure doesn't look like nothing," Sirius said, closing the door behind him. "Why did Dumbledore want to see you guys last night?"

"No reason, Sirius," Lily said, deciding that it would be more intelligent to stay around. She could see James bursting to tell Sirius what was going on, but somehow she didn't want to tell anyone what was going on, at least until they were in the clear.

"Lily, we can tell-" James said, motioning to Sirius.

"We are not going to tell anybody," Lily said, sternly. Sirius was taken aback by her tone of voice.

James squeezed her gently. "Baby, it's-"

"The more people who know, the more dangerous it will be," Lily said.

"But, it's Sirius, honey," he assured her. "We can trust him-"

Sirius watched this banter back and forth very curiously. He'd never seen them in this much disagreement about something; usually one would relent after a few minutes, but neither was ready to back down.

"You can wait a few hours," Lily snapped. "I don't want to jeopardize anything-"

"How is telling one person jeopardizing anything?" James snapped back. "And it's Padfoot, no less."

"Oh yes, dear Padfoot-"

"What is your problem?" James glared at her.

"I don't think you're taking this seriously enough," Lily said, turning around and staring at him. "We have to think about our child, James-"

"I am thinking of our child," James growled. "And I think that his godfather has a right to know what's going on."

"Why? What's so important that he needs to know?" Lily asked.

"Don't you want as much protection as possible?" James said, as if it slightly embarrassed him to talk about it. "Three of us would be much more protected than two."

"But we won't need protection if nobody knows!" Lily stood up, exasperated.

"We can't bet on him not knowing!" James stood up too. "Would you rather live a lie and be surprised when, oh here comes Lord Voldemort, going to kill our baby, and us too, or would you rather be protected by one of our oldest and dearest friends?"

"Wait a minute," Sirius said, standing up. "What is this about Voldemort and your baby?"

Lily felt tears welling up in her eyes and stood up. "Now see what you've done?" She stormed towards the door, grabbing her purse as she went.

"Where are you going?" James asked.

"I'm going out!" she said.

"Oh, if that isn't the dumbest thing I've ever heard," James said. "You aren't going anywhere!"

"It'd be safer than with you, blabbing to everyone a dangerous secret!" Lily spat.

"Can you both quit fighting long enough to tell me why my godchild is the target of Lord Voldemort?" Sirius interrupted.

"Dumbledore heard a prophecy last night that foretold that a child born as the seventh month dies to parents who have personally faced Voldemort three times will have the power to defeat Lord Voldemort," James said, not taking his eyes off of Lily who was getting angrier and angrier by the minute.

"But, Lily isn't due until October, Prongs," Sirius said. "And you've only faced him twice-"

"Yes, but we aren't sure how much of the prophecy that he knows," Lily said, also not tearing her eyes from James, her eyes burning in cold fury. "So he might have heard half of it and come after us anyways. So, we have to wait until midnight until we're in the clear."

"Which is why I thought it was a good idea to tell Sirius," James said.

"Oh come off it Potter, you couldn't keep something from Sirius to save your life, and apparently, neither your child's," Lily growled. Her head was pounding from lack of sleep and she was getting unnecessarily angry at James. "I have to get out of here..." she whispered to herself, grabbing at her head and walking to the door.

"You are not leaving this room!" James said.

"Yeah, leaving wouldn't be the best idea, if there's a murdering bastard out to get you..." Sirius said.

"I don't care, I can't stand it here anymore," she said. "And I really can't stand you right now!"

With that, she slammed the door behind her.

She knew she was being irrational, but when she stepped out into the dingy alleyway between their two buildings and got a whiff of dirty, fresh air, she didn't care. She was pregnant, and she hadn't slept in two days, and she would be damned if she was going to let Potter get away unscathed with pissing her off like that. She was probably going to go to Dumbledore's office, or stay the night at Hogwarts or something. But she needed a breath of fresh air before she left.

"Lily!" James said, breaking out of the stairwell. She had taken the elevator and he had no choice but to run down seven flights of stairs to catch her.

"Go back upstairs!" he bellowed at her. She yanked her arm out of his hand.

"Don't you grab at me James Potter!" she spat. "And don't yell at me either!"

"I'll yell at you all I want when you're being stupid!" James cried.

"I'm not endangering our child any more than you did!" she yelled. "And at least I have an excuse!"

"Oh yeah?" James growled. "And what's that?"

"I'm pregnant!" she spat. Sirius, who had taken his time walking down the stairwell, approached them slowly.

"That's always your excuse, isn't it?" James rolled his eyes. "I'm being a bitch, but it's all right, I'm pregnant!"

"Actually, that's a very reasonable excuse," Sirius interjected mildly.

"Shut up!" They both said at the same time.

"I dare you to carry around this kid for a day, Potter!" Lily glared at him.

"I dare you to put up with yourself for a day, Evans-" James mumbled and Lily gasped.

"What did you just call me?" she gaped.

"Ooh," Sirius said, stepping forward. James was about to loose his testicles. "Look, I think you both are very stressed right now, and for good reason, so why don't we all just take a deep breath. Lily, honey, you don't need to be stressed like this in your condition, and James, you don't need to be saying things like that with Lily in her condition..."

"Oh go screw a whore, Sirius," Lily snapped, turning on her heel and walking around the side of the building. Once she whirled around, she stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes widening.

"Ah, Mrs. Potter, just the mudblood I wanted to see," said Lord Voldemort, a twisted smile coming to his face. "You've saved me the walk up to your flat."