Credits and warnings: Deathly Hallows spoiler! If you haven't read the seventh, do not, I repeat, do NOT read this. If you ignore this warning and went ahead anyway, don't blame me for spoiling the story.
All characters and places belong to J.K.Rowling except for the following: Aunt Beatrix Weasley, Lucien Weasley.
This fanfic does not completely follow what J.K. said about what happened to the characters afterwards, but I try my best.
Chp. 1: Potter Residence
James Sirius Potter lived a perfect life. His family was famous (in fact, they are positively the most famous wizarding family there is), and they were an extremely caring bunch. His father, Harry James Potter, was the one who had finished off the worst Dark Wizard there ever was. More than half of his family has got Order of Merlins for fighting in the battle that took place seventeen years ago, the one in which his father had slew Lord Voldemort. As if anyone's family can be more respected than that.
His mother, Ginny Weasley, redheaded and beautiful, worked as an Seeker during Quidditch seasons and editor on the Daily Prophet during other times. His father, Harry worked as an Auror with Uncle Ron. Uncle Ron was always joking, teasing, and being scolded affectionately by his wife, Aunt Hermione, head of Magical Law Enforcement in the Ministry of Magic. Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione had two children: Rose and Hugo, both resembling their parents in various ways.
Then there was Uncle George, boss of the largest wizarding joke shop there ever was: Weasley Wizard Wheezes. James knew that he also had an Uncle Fred, Uncle George's twin and co-worker, who was murdered during the battle that also took Voldemort. Uncle George never quite gotten over his twin's death, and married late because of it too (or so his sister Ginny claims). But now he and his wife, Aunt Beatrix, are expecting a son. Uncle Percy was the least popular among the children; he worked in the Minister's office, and was always rambling about a law or frowning at other's jokes that offended the law in any way. His lectures and talks were only appreciated by Aunt Penelope, who was the only living person that doesn't mind Uncle Percy (according to their daughter, Yvonne).
Uncle Charlie worked in Romania with dragons, which made him a hero among the boys. They would always badger him about the stories of his work whenever he visited home. Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur lived close enough; their children, Victiore and Lucien, were like brother and sister to the Potter children (James had a litter brother, Albus, and a little sister, Lily). Granddad and Grandma Weasley lived in the house all of James's uncles grew up in: the Burrow. All their children paid frequent visits to them with the exception of Uncle Charlie, who lived too far away.
The Potters lived in Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, the house that James's Dad inherited from James's namesake, Sirius Black. According to all who has seen the place seventeen years ago, the house used to be dim, dirty, and full of dangerous Dark objects. The Potter children, however, found this all very hard to believe. Now Grimmauld Place was a sunlit, clean, beautifully furnished and perfectly safe home. What was even harder to comprehend, though, was that their bright-natured house-elf, Kreacher, used to be a mumbling, darkly-cursing and un-cleaning pain-in-the-neck covered in filthy rags. Indeed, James, Albus, and Lily had all frowned skeptically up at Uncle Bill when he reminisced this bit of old times. Kreacher was now a cleaning-freak and the best babysitter the Potters have ever seen. He was always dressed in white towels, his snow-white hair washed and groomed, and addressed everyone as Master or Mistress. Even if Kreacher did have room filled with rather quite disconcerting contents (large quantities of odd-looking silverware, elf-heads, and a painting of a woman that shouts out awful things, but Kreacher had polished everything until they shone so they seemed less threatening), he did not seem like the type who would have insulted Muggle-borns, like Uncle Bill had said.
Now Kreacher knocked on the ajar door of James's room (Sirius's old room; it was said that the walls used to be covered with posters of Muggle girls in bikini that no one could remove, but when James was born and it was to be his room, it was realized that Harry, the rightful owner, could remove those posters with a charm. He had not, however, thrown away everything that hung in the room: the flags of Gryffindor were washed and repaired by Kreacher and now hung in the living room. Pictures of Sirius's old days at Hogwarts with Harry's father were displayed in the drawing room with other photos) and told him his parents awaited him to join them at breakfast before they leave for work.
James followed Kreacher down the narrow stairs, passing Albus's room (Sirius's brother's old room), Lily's room (used to be one of the many visitor bedrooms), and Kreacher's room (another old visitor bedroom that James's father and Uncle Ron used to bunk in), to the kitchen. His whole family was there: Lily giggling at a small model of Iceshot 103, the fastest broom in the world at present time, which zoomed around her. Albus was prodding his cereal, while obviously trying to make the cereal box sitting in front of his bowl move (Albus made a habit of trying to make things hover in air ever since he found out he could). Harry, James's father, was immersed in the Morning Prophet while sipping his coffee. Ginny was giving bread crumbs to her old Pygmy Puff, Arnold, whom she had had since her fifth year at Hogwarts and whose purple fur was turning lighter and lighter. Uncle George, who had created the species of Pygmy Puffs with Uncle Fred, admitted that the Pygmy Puffs' fur would fade until they are left with only a light tint of their original color.
Ginny raised her head and gave James a small smile. "Do come and sit, James," she said, pulling out his chair for him.
"Good morning, everyone," James mumbled to the room, his greeting was mixed with a yawn.
Albus didn't look up (his face was turning red at his effort with the cereal box), but made a most curious noise that James took as a reply; Lily squealed excitedly.
"Jamsie!" She shrieked, bouncing in her seat enthusiastically, and went on before he could scold her for calling him by his childhood name. "Look! Look at what I can do!"
"I've already seen—"James retorted impatiently, but a glare from his mother stopped him. Lily screwed up her face, staring at the Iceshot model, and a trail of sparkling stars appeared from behind its small circling figure.
"It's great, Lils," said their father suddenly, emerging from behind his paper. Harry had always shown the utmost interest at his children's first signs of magic. He had bought James a new toy broomstick when James made the pillow throw itself across the room at Albus (much to Albus's dismay). Then when Albus made James's chair hover in the air and throw James off a year later, their father awarded Albus with a set of new Gobstones. A few weeks ago, when Lils talent of making things sparkle was discovered, she recieved the model of Iceshot.
"Ooh! Ooh! I did it!" came Albus's voice, as the cereal box strayed a foot above the table, uncertain of which way to go.
"Aha!" shouted Lily, and the cereal box also left sparkling trials as Albus made it circle their father with his gaze. Ginny giggled.
Kreacher dodged the cereal box and set a bowl of James's favorite, cornflakes with chocolate milk, in front of him. James picked up his spoon and thanked Kreacher, gazing up at the cereal box and the broomstick model with annoyance.
As he felt a strong urge to stop all this positive attention on Albus, the cereal box opened itself and poured its contents all around Harry. Albus and Lily gave yelps of surprise and the cereal box dropped on the floor, still squirting cereal everywhere. It had stopped sparkling, and so did the broomstick.
"James," moaned Ginny in an exasperated tone.
"It's all right, it's all right," said Harry good-naturedly (he always had a blind spot for trouble when it came to his children's magical abilities). "Exafanio, exafanio" he muttered, using his wand to clean up all the cereal on his robes and the floor surrounding. "He can't control it, really. Scourgify," he made a swishing movement with his wand, and the crumbs were gone.
"Sorry, sorry," said James, pretending to be miserable while wanting to laugh.
"No problem," said his mother, to everyone's surprise. "You won't be able to mess with your magic in just a few days." She looked at him, amused. "Mwahaha."
"That means," put in Albus in a cheery tone, "I can do weird things to you while you can't do them back!"
"Albus," scolded their mother.
"Don't be so sure," replied James coldly, downing the rest of his milk. "Even if I own a wand, I can still do wandless magic if I get a great emotional upheaval. Dad did, right, Dad?"
"That was different," cut in Ginny. "Your father was being taunted with things much worse than what Albus would ever say to you."
"True, true," agreed Harry, smiling at Kreacher as the house-elf refilled his coffee. "Alright, you all, don't do too much mischief today after we're gone. Teddy's bringing Victiore and Lucien over today."
"Great!" exclaimed Albus and James in unision.
"Don't get too happy, Kreacher here's gonna keep a close eye one all of you," snapped Ginny, as James and Albus exchanged meaningful glances. "Especially you, young man," she turned to stare at James. "Don't think I don't know it was you leading Lucien and Albus into sneaking into our room…and take the Sneakoscope."
James winced. "Mum—"
Ginny gave him another blazing stare. "No sneaking, no smashing, no exploding, and definitely no flying!"
"Why not?"
"You'll break every single furniture!"
"I'm a good flier!"
"So? You'll still break things—"
"I can mend them though! Or Kreacher can if I can't…or Teddy!"
"You might injure yourself, and even if you don't, you'll definitely injure Albus."
"Well, why can't I fly in the backyard?"
Ginny stared him down and smiled a smile with no humor in it. "Because if I know my sons at all, you'll probably be airborne in Ireland when I get back."
James scowled at his mother, then shot a pleading glance at his father.
Harry, however, shook his head reprovingly. "No flying outside, James. Imagine if the Muggles saw you…"
"I thought this whole house is protected from Muggle view!"
"Once you get outside the protection bubble, though—"
"You're going to be late!" shrieked a voice that made everyone jump.
Ginny flicked her wand crossly at the short-tempered clock on the kitchen wall, and stood up. "It's right," she said to her husband. "We're going to be late for work if we keep this up."
Harry also stood up, and as Ginny strode angrily out of the kitchen, he whispered in his eldest son's ear. "If you really want to fly, you can go on your old broomstick."
Before James could roll his eyes and point out that he was way too big for a toy broomstick, Lily let out a surprised yell. A single light-brown owl flew gracefully through the window and landed next to the battered cereal box. James had never seen this handsome owl before.
"James," said Harry hoarsely. "It's your…your Hogwarts letter!"
As James dived eagerly past the gaping Albus at the owl, his father shouted for his mother, who wore a displeased and confused expression as she rushed back in the kitchen at his call. When she set her eyes on the Hogwarts owl, her pretty face broke into a large grin.
"James! Oh, James!" she pulled her son into a tight hug, but James was struggling to open the thick parchment envelope.
"Let me see, here…"
As mother and son pored over the parchment letter written in green ink, the father turned to the rest of the kitchen.
"You're brother's off to Hogwarts, Al, Lils!" he exclaimed, excitement sprawled upon his face; joy danced in his emerald eyes.
"We'll be able to get all your stuff on Sunday," put in Ginny. When she caught James's glare, she grimaced slightly irritably. "Can't do it any faster, James, honey, we're way to busy."
"But it's Monday! I have to wait for almost a week!"
"James, we've got no choice."
With that, she left, apparently remembering that she was late for work. Harry gave James an affectionate pat on the back and followed his wife out.
---
James sat on his brother's bed, still reading his Hogwarts letter over for the sixth time, drinking in every word. Lily was pouting on the floor, rolling around Gobstones for Arnold to chase.
"I want to go to Hogwarts too!" she said, for what was the twentieth time.
"In four years, Lils," James replied with a smug smile. Lily shot him a glare that resembled their mother so much, it was sort of eerie.
"Four years!" she wailed.
"Two for me," muttered Albus, the pleasure on his older brother's face failing to reflect on his.
"A week, for me!" James spread his arms as if to celebrate. Albus gave him a sorrowful look.
"Maybe I can sneak on the train, and you know, go with you?" he asked this in the voice of a mosquito.
"No way. Besides, they'll just send you home," Lily was the one who answered instead.
"Shut up, Lils," said James, his eyes now dancing with mischief. "You know, that would really upset Mum…"
Albus looked at him from the foot of his bed hopefully, but Lily shrieked, "No! I'll…tell her you're planning it! You're not leaving me here alone!"
"Aw, c'mon, Lils…"
The doorbell rang. James scrambled off the bed and raced out the door, colliding painfully with a charging Albus. After some pushing and punching, James raced down the stairs with an fervent Albus hot on his trail. The two fought their way to the peephole and saw Teddy's heart-shaped face perched behind the door.
"Kreacher! Kreacher!" The brothers shouted excitedly for the old elf, since only him and the other adult wizards and witches could open the front door.
Kreacher hurried down the stairs with Lily behind him. He smiled at his bouncing young masters and, panting slightly, tapped his long fingers on the door twice. The doors sprang open and Teddy, Victoire, and Lucien stepped in. James went straight to Lucien.
"Guess what? I got my letter!"
Teddy pored at James over Victoire's head as Lucien gave a roar that was a mixture of jealousy and delight as he groped for the letter still clutched in James's hands to read through.
"Your Hogwarts letter, James? That's great!"
"Thanks, Ted," said James, as he and Teddy punched their fists together in greeting.
"Well, I'm your head boy now, I get to watch your every move and give you detentions if I please."
"Head boy! Wow, Teddy!"
Teddy grinned his pleased-with-himself grin, and turned to hug a bouncing Lily.
"He is excellent," agreed Victoire, somewhat it a mocking way. A reproving glance from Teddy told James that Teddy has been talking about his new assignment quite a lot.
"Hey, Vickie," said Albus and James together.
"Hello, you two. As I was saying," her beautiful face that was so like her mother's broke into a shimmering smile. "I'm not doing so bad myself! Gryffindor prefect, announced my letter."
"That's wicked!" gasped Albus.
"Yes, yes. Uncle Perce was really proud." Everyone laughed.
As they all strolled into the living room, chatting intensely in groups, Lucien rounded up on James.
"Brooms, let's go!"
James shook his head, and dropped his voice. "My parents said no…and Lils will tell on us if we do…"
Lucien didn't bother to hide his disappointment. "Aw…" he turned his attention back to James's letter. "I can't believe you got yours. I still need to wait a year."
"I'm definitely going to be in Gryffindor, you'll see."
Lucien chuckled. "Imagine what Uncle Ron would say if you don't! A Weasley has never been sorted into any house other than Gryffindor."
"Well, I'm a Potter. But a lot of the Potters were in Gryffindor too, like my dad, and granddad, and great-granddad," James added defensively. "Probably my great-great-grandad too, dunno…"
"Hey, what did my godfather do with those crystallized pineapples I gave him?" Teddy's voice traveled from the kitchen. "Don't tell me he ate the whole box in two days!"
James, Albus, and Lily looked around guiltily. "Daddy, erm, took them to work with him!" Lily composed wildly. "Said he'd like a snack, or something."
Teddy re-entered the living room, positively skulking. Waving his wand carelessly at the television (Arthur Weasley had invented television that coped with wizarding channels a few years back) to turn it on, he sank into the couch. This action, however, plucked a mischievous string in James's brain, making it ring with thoughts. He pulled Albus and Lucien into a tight circle. Checking to see that nobody was paying too much attention to them, he breathed out what Teddy had inspired him.
"Now that I've got my letter, you know, I'm perfectly qualified to," He looked up again to check that Lily's eyes were still occupied on Victoire. "…get a wand. Imagine what I...we, can do…we don't have to wait a week."
Albus's eyes widened, Lucien's glinted gleefully.