Murder of Crows

11.15 PM, 31ST OCTOBER, 1981, POTTER MANOR

LILY POTTER STOOD in the soft glow of the nursery, her gaze lingering on the two small figures lying peacefully in their crib. The gentle light of the night lamp illuminated their tiny forms. The girls were only fifteen months old—still so young, still so innocent—but Lily had long since learned that nothing about their future would remain untouched by the extraordinary blood that ran through their veins.

Jasmine's serene face was turned toward Ivy, her small hand resting on her sister's side, a quiet protector even in her sleep. Despite their young age, Jasmine had always seemed the more composed of the two. While Ivy was the more active and restless one, Jasmine was calm—too calm, at times. There was something about her stillness, her quiet observation of the world around her, that made Lily pause. It wasn't just that Jasmine was a quiet child; she seemed to carry an awareness beyond her years, as though she were always paying attention to everything, always watching and analysing.

Then there was Ivy—bubbling with restless energy even in sleep, kicking her legs under the blanket, shifting as if the world around her could never move fast enough. Ivy was basically mini-female James. It wasn't that she was difficult; rather, she had an innate curiosity, a hunger to learn and understand, to push against the edges of the world and see how far she could bend them. Even without speaking, Ivy radiated the desire for more—more exploration, more movement, more discovery.

James liked to say that he'd be the one to train Ivy in the ways of the Marauders, bringing joy to the world through mischief and misadventures. He'd jokingly comment that Lily and Jasmine would be the ones to shake their heads in disapproval and lecture them over their pranks. Lily had smacked him on the head for those types of comments on a number of occasions, but she knew what she was getting into when she married him. In truth, the idea kind of appealed to her.

She knew that James had matured quite a bit during his teenage years, and even more after entering into a relationship with Lily. He would go back to his prankster ways whenever Sirius was around, but he knew how to rein himself in, in part because Lily would have his hide if he went too far, but who cared? He might have some slight childishness to him, but he was man enough to do anything for his family.

In any case, Lily found herself thinking of how excited she was for Jasmine to grow up enough to do research with her mother, to question, to intuit. Sure, Ivy might be interested in that too, but Lily always felt like Ivy would be able to sit still long enough to do so. Ivy was more of an adventurer. Jasmine felt more like the scholar between the two.

But even with all the differences between the girls, there was one thing that remained unknown to Lily.

Which of the Potters' inherent cursed techniques would each of them inherit?

It was a question that had lingered in Lily's mind since the day the girls were born. The Potters' bloodline was a rare one—gifted with not just one, but two immensely powerful and dangerous cursed techniques. Six Eyes and Limitless. Cursed Domination and Nullification.

Those techniques were an incredibly integral part of the Potter Family's history, passed down for generations and leaving a mark in the annals of times past. After all, they were the only family known to possess two distinct inherited techniques, let alone two powerful ones.

Scholars believed them to have gained the Cursed Domination and Nullification from the fallen Peverell Bloodline of old, the single most powerful family in the history of Magical Britain, and among the most powerful in the entire history of the wizarding world. However, historical accounts were pretty scant and vague on that.

The Potters apparently gained the Six Eyes and Limitless in the Golden Age of Witchcraft and Sorcery. That era also went by names such as the Arthurian Era, the Merlinic Era, or as the Japanese called it, the Heian Era. The Potters were believed to have gained it from the fallen Gojo Clan of Magical Japan through intermarriage or something. History was again rather obscure on how that came to be.

It was theorised that a member or a group of members of the Gojo Clan fled feudal Japan towards the end of the Heian Era. Authoritative historical records showed that the Gojo Clan was persecuted and massacred by the other clans. This seemed to be the most likely reason, because further records suggested that they made it to Magical Britain, likely becoming assimilated into the Potter bloodline.

And yet, despite the profound significance of those powers, no one—least of all Lily herself—knew which technique would be passed on to which daughter.

No one in history had ever been known to possess two distinct inherent techniques at once, not even among the Potters. Anyone who possessed more than one usually had one main technique that contained various capabilities, such as the Black Family with Creation and Manipulation of Curses, or the Zen'in Clan of Japan with the Ten Shadows, or perhaps the Potters' Cursed Domination and Nullification.

This led Lily to try and guess which girl would inherit which technique.

Jasmine, with her calm, perceptive nature, could one day inherit Cursed Domination and Nullification—the ability to control the will of others, to make them bend to her desires, and to nullify the powers of anyone who stood in her way. It seemed like the perfect fit, given Jasmine's quiet authority, her ability to read people, her sense of control over her own emotions.

But then, Lily would see Ivy—the one who was always seeking, always testing the boundaries, always trying to push things further—and wonder if Ivy's inherent restlessness might be the perfect match for Cursed Domination's control, for the way the technique demanded not just calm but total mastery over others.

And yet, the very idea of Six Eyes and Limitless seemed just as fitting for either one of them. The way Jasmine observed the world, the way her eyes seemed to burn with a quiet insatiable desire to understand everything, to break things apart to see how they worked. Yet, there was also something in the way Ivy explored her surroundings, something in the way she liked to experiment and learn.

Lily had always thought that by now, she would know. She had always imagined that she would have some sense of certainty—some sign, some whisper from the universe—that would tell her which of her daughters would inherit which technique. But instead, all she had was the quiet uncertainty of the present, and the knowledge that the future was a mystery even to her.

There was the possibility of them not inheriting the full technique, of course. It was common. Usually when a member of a noble bloodline with an inherent cursed technique failed to inherit the full technique, they would instead have a simplified version, or their own innate technique.

For example, James got the simplified Limitless – Boundless Reach. It gave him powerful space manipulation without the legendary control over infinity or cheats of the Six Eyes. All the same, in his hands it was a formidable technique. Another example was Naobito Zen'in, the current head of the Zen'in Clan, who lacked the Ten Shadows. Instead, he had an innate technique, Projection Sorcery.

Lily was sure, however, that her daughters did not fall in either category, and that they truly had the full inherent techniques. It was as though their powers lay dormant inside them, waiting for the right moment to surface, waiting for the girls to grow into the fullness of their abilities. It was maddening, in a way—so much potential locked away, with no indication of when it would break free.

But no matter what power each twin inherited, they would always have each other, and their family. For now, that was enough.

She watched as Ivy shifted restlessly, her tiny fingers curling into the blanket. In her sleep, Ivy reached out toward Jasmine, her hand finding her sister's side. Jasmine, without a second thought, rolled toward Ivy and placed her hand on Ivy's back, offering the comfort of her presence even in slumber. There was a natural connection between the two—something deeper than just the fact that they were twins. It was as if they had always known that they needed each other.

The rest of it—the techniques, the choices, the destiny waiting to unfold—would come when it was time. Until then, Lily would cherish these quiet moments, where the future was still uncertain, and her daughters were still just children. They had full lives ahead of them, a world full of beauty and mystery to explore. There would come a time when they wouldn't be her little girls any more. They would have their own lives to lead. Their own ambitions and dreams. She would protect and guide them until then, and she would love them to the end of time.

The best part was that, on top of the contented family she already had with James and the twins, one more child was coming. Lily was sure it was another girl, even though James was betting on a boy. Nonetheless, it was their conviction that the coming child would be just as much of a joy as the twins were. That the child would be loved and protected by her parents and older sisters. Lily's happiness as her little family grew was immeasurable.

However, one thing worried Lily above all else, one thing that threatened the safety of her family: the prophecy that apparently involved her children.

Given the nature of her children's heritage, she had known that the wizarding community would eagerly be waiting for the girls to live up to the legacy. Lily and James were already well known, even without the bloodline. They had made names for themselves. On top of that, the bloodline was one that literally sent ripples across magic itself. It was a given that expectations would be high for the children.

Nevertheless, Lily wanted her daughters to live on their terms, not by others' expectations. They would be great, definitely. They were already famous from the very second that they were born. All the same, Lily wanted them to carve their own paths, to choose what they wanted, to be what they wanted. She didn't want them to merely be trophies or objects for people to gawk at. She wanted them to live their lives to the fullest.

Then Dumbledore told her and James about the prophecy. When she first heard it, Lily wanted to commit war crimes. Her children were supposed to beat a madman with severe megalomania when they were just toddlers?! What kind of senile thinking was that?! They weren't heroes. They weren't warriors chosen by the heavens. They were her babies!

She wasn't going to give up their futures for some stupid prophecy, greater good be damned. The wizarding world wasn't worth giving up her children for. It was just as full of corruption, ugliness and bigotry as the muggle world. Yes, there was still beauty in the world, but most of the time that beauty tended to be where people were not.

People would always have wars. There would always be hunger, poverty, crime, death. There would always be tyrants who rose to oppress the people, be it lazy bureaucrats, arrogant nobility, greedy businesspeople, or megalomaniac Dark Lords. There would always be people who suffered. There would always be the need for a saviour.

If her children wanted to be those saviours, she would not stop them. She would support them wholeheartedly, but it had to be their choice. No one else's. They would not be someone's scapegoat or martyr, not while she lived and breathed. If the world had to burn for them to be happy, Lily would gladly light the pyre.

Lily looked at the slumbering girls with a smile once more before stepping out of the nursery. She had come to see them one more time before she went out with James to a meeting that the Order had organised for tonight. If she had to say, the only reason why she and James still stood by the Order was because Lily didn't want her children to have to live on edge forever.

The Potters weren't among the families that could just move out of Britain to escape the frankly stupid war that was being waged. Their sheer power and wealth meant that if they tried to settle anywhere else, they would be swarmed by foreign governments and other noble families who wanted a piece of the Potter legacy.

They'd have to constantly live on edge, navigating a web of numerous threats coming in from all sides thanks to the greed of others. Survival of their family would require them to engage in the ruthless, often chaotic games of politics and power on a perpetual basis. Neither Lily nor James were ready to put their family through that. Their best bet was to remain in Magical Britain and wage the war for their home.

Lily wasn't happy about it, but then again, beggars can't be choosers. Once she was out of earshot of the nursery, she summoned the Potters' house elf.

"Tilly," she called. The house elf apparated instantly to her mistress' side.

Tilly was a house elf that was in better shape than most noble families' elves, probably because the Potters tended to be kind to theirs. It wasn't much, given that Tilly still had the frankly pitiful appearance of her species, but she was chirpy and cheerful, and loyal to a fault.

"Yes, milady?" Tilly squeaked.

"As you know, Master James and I will be out for tonight," Lily responded. "You already know your duties, but I need you to ensure the children are safe."

"Tilly will do her best, miss."

"Thank you. Do have a good night."

Tilly bowed and scurried off, most likely to keep an eye on the children. House elves were truly a wonder, what with their incredible work ethic and low maintenance. Lily knew that she could leave and come back in a week, and still find an unsupervised Tilly in the nursery watching over the girls, who would be still as well-fed and cared for as ever. She was grateful, honestly.

"Honey," James called up. "We're getting late!"

Lily sighed with a chuckle as she headed down. James really was still the same guy she met back on the Hogwarts Express, at least as far as his restlessness went. The war meant that he couldn't hang out with the Marauders as much as he used to, and all that pent up energy was begging to be released. She could understand, given that he was someone who thrived most in daredevil schemes.

Entering the living room, she found James practically jumping up and down as he paced around the room impatiently, eager to go.

"You'll dig a ditch in the floor with how you're pacing," she remarked, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Sorry," he said impatiently. "Alright, let's go, let's go."

Dear god, he was acting like a man-child. The brat had already lit the fireplace and had Floo Powder clutched in his hand. Lily face palmed, wondering why she thought it would be any different. Then again, she knew what she was getting into when she got married to him and had his kids. She sighed resignedly in exasperation.

"Fine, but you had better not pull any pranks while we're there," she said pointedly. James smiled smugly opening his mouth to say something, but she cut him off.

"And no, you can't put Sirius up to anything either. No, not Remus or Lucius either. Heaven knows those two need some peace from you and Sirius."

James' face fell. "Oh, come off it, Lily. I wasn't going to go too far."

"Sure, whatever you say. I just don't need more of Molly's stories of how she used to get her brothers in line. Merlin knows I've had enough of her lectures on how I'm not setting you straight."

James winced. "Yeah, she can be a bit overbearing. I still wonder why she is part of the Order, given that she's a housewife and mother of six with no real skills that could help in the war effort. She just mindlessly agrees with the headmaster and tells others how to live their lives. It's well-meaning on her part probably, but still."

Lily shrugged as James threw the Floo Powder in the fireplace, and the flames immediately turned green. "Ah, we'll worry about that some other time. I want to get this over and done with. Let's go."

James snickered. "Now, who's the impatient one?"

Lily smacked him upside the head nice and hard, earning a wince from the man-child. "Want to continue down that train of thought?"

"No, ma'am."

"I thought so," Lily turned to the fireplace and stepped into it, disappearing with a whoosh as the flames rose higher before settling once more. James followed suit, shuddering. His father, bless his soul, was right. In marriage, the wife is always the right one, even when she's wrong. Sirius and Lupin were right to remain single. Not that he'd ever let Lily catch him saying so. He was reckless, not suicidal.

******

Author here. Just mentioning this: unlike the original story of Harry Potter, the Potters did not live in Godric's Hollow, but they do still have a residence there thanks to ancestry and inheritance. Instead, they stayed at the Potters' family manor. Hope that clears things a bit. This is a huge plot point, to be honest. It'll be explained better as the story progresses.

As for Lily mentioning a very special someone while berating James, that has to do with changes in the plot. 

Also, as you can see, the Potters are indeed a special bloodline, having two of the most broken abilities in manga. It has to do with something really special that I'm cooking up.

I know that in the original story, it wasn't exactly common knowledge about their ancestors being the Peverells, but I did say that they were a powerful bloodline, so it makes sense that people would do research, and historical records about their lineage would come up. As for the Gojo Clan being part of their ancestry, I'm pretty sure that will surprise people. All the same, it'll all be explained more in the coming chapters.

If anyone has ideas for cursed techniques, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise, ciao!