It was complete and utter chaos in the Potters' residence. Young Harry, who had recently turned eleven that month, had woken up his parents as soon as sunlight had pierced through the curtains of his red and gold painted room. He had hurriedly pushed his round glasses up his nose and jumped out of his bed to run towards the largest of the bedrooms at the end of the corridor. He could hear his father snoring. As soon as he reached for the door to his parents' room, he squealed merrily for them to hurry up downstairs.
The dark-haired boy walked to the left side of the bed where an equally dark-haired man was sleeping. Rectangular shaped glasses were threatening to fall down the bedside table. A picture of a dancing couple was standing beside the glasses. Harry threw a look at it and smiled before returning his attention to the task at hand: waking his father.
'Come one, Dad,' the boy complained while pulling on his father's hand.
'Just a few more minutes, prongslet,' James Potter replied sleepily.
It was a desperate situation and so Harry turned sharply towards his mother. He grinned when he saw she was awake and already trying to wipe the sleepiness out of her eyes.
'Mum, please,' he urged her. 'Let's go make breakfast so we can already drive to King's Cross Station! My suitcase is ready. I just need to eat, take a bath and add my toiletry bag to my case.'
In spite of her still sleep-fogged mind, Lily Potter could not resist smiling upon noticing her son's imploring green eyes. She warily exited the warm bed sheets and nudged her husband who let out a groan.
'Alright, Harry,' she decided. 'You dress the table for me while I try to force your lazy dad out of the bed.'
The dark-haired boy enthusiastically nodded and showed her his newly acquired wand. But Lily shook her head before reminding him he was not allowed to do magic outside of school. Harry shrugged and disappeared from view.
She put on her dressing gown and turned to James who had finally decided to straighten up and sit in their bed. His naturally tousled hair was sticking up in every way and he put on his glasses before focusing his eyes on her face. She could swear she could see tears threatening to escape the corner of his eyes behind his glasses. She pulled him to her and they hugged.
'Feeling nostalgic?' she murmured to him tenderly.
He sighed. "More than you could ever imagine."
They pulled apart and he stood up from the bed to stretch his relaxed muscles. She watched him with amusement shining in her own green eyes while she accioed an elastic tie from the bathroom to take care of her mid-length auburn hair.
'I hope he has fun and that nothing will untoward will happen,' James said. 'You know since that night... He was just a baby...'
'We did what we had to do and everything turned out well. Dumbledore will protect him and our friends will be there too. Nobody can harm him,' she declared. 'In any case, I'm sure he'll easily make friends,' Lily added.
'... and I hope he'll manage some mischief, he's half-Marauder after all,' James replied with a proud smirk.
'James Potter, don't you dare giving him any ideas,' his wife waved a finger in his direction.
'Don't worry, Moony and Padfoot'll keep him in line.'
'I'm sure Remus will be able to... but do you really expect Sirius to be a good influence on our son's behaviour?'
James offered her a knowing grin and she knew it was hopeless. She shook her head and slipped her feet into a pair of comfortable socks that her husband had given her the previous Christmas. They had tiny deer printed on them.
About two hours later, the Potters were arriving at the station. Over his suit, James Potter had put on his Auror robes and his wife had doned a new cloak she had purchased a week ago. Harry had insisted on wanting to put on his Hogwarts uniform but his parents had convinced him to wait for when he would be nearer to the school. He had therefore decided on dressing with a simple button -up shirt and khaki pants.
Harry had obliged his mother by accepting to try and tame his hair. It had been difficult but they had arrived to an bearable compromise. James had laughed at his son's grimace but had immediately choke on his tea when his wife had attempted to cast the same hair taming spell on his own unruly locks.
Once at the station, James fetched a baggage trolley for his son to install the traditional and gigantic Hogwarts luggage on it. Harry was holding on to the cage of his new feathery companion Hagrid had personally delivered him on his birthday. Hedwig, the snow-white owl, had fallen asleep in the car during the ride to the train station.
Lily was looking around the busy platforms, trying to spot any familiar faces she might recognise from her own school days. She was also hoping to catch Molly and Arthur Weasley before they crossed to Platform 9 with their children. It had been a while since the red-haired couple had dropped by their house. She remembered having met the little girl Ginny. Molly had always wished for a daughter and her wishes had been granted five sons later.
The Potters had last seen the Weasleys no less then two years ago. She hoped for Molly's sake that the twins had learnt to behave themselves. James had been greatly amused by their facetiousness but Lily had barely contained herself when they had accidentally transfigured one of her favourite tea cups into enormous cockroaches. She could still remember Arthur's face growing hot with embarrassment when his wife had blamed him for his carelessness. The twins had stolen his wand to accomplish their prank.
Harry helped his father hoist the heavy luggage on the trolley and positioned Hedwig's cage on top of it. He asked his father to let him push his own trolley and so the small family walked briskly towards the intersection between platforms 9 and 10.
Lily and Harry were about to make the walk through the wall when a familiar low voice stopped them in their momentum. Harry jumpily turned around and spotted a tall and fashionable man standing a few feet away from them. He suddenly abandoned his trolley to his parents care and ran up to the man with dark curly hair falling to his shoulders. The eleven-year old tightly wrapped his arms around the newcomer's waist who exasperated Lily by ruffling the well-combed hair.
'Sirius!' Harry exclaimed. 'I didn't know you would come too!'
'Well, I can't miss my godson's first crossing of the platform, can I?' Sirius Black chuckled. 'It's not every day a young man gets to see the Hogwarts Express for the first time, eh?'
In the meantime, James and Lily had brought over the trolley and when Harry finally let go of his godfather, the adults greeted each other. Sirius took in the happy couple faces and noticed the pride in his friends' eyes when they glanced to their son. They had gone through so much during their only son's first years. The Daily Prophet had been horrible to them and Sirius could not blame them for their protective nature.
As the years passed, the story of the boy-who-lived had been forgotten and the only reminder of the events was a thin and jagged scar on Harry's forehead. Sirius had to squint to even notice it. During the last decade, his godson had unsurprisingly grown to become an exact physical replica of James, but with his mother's eyes.
'Prongs, mate, you still look good!'
'Never as handsome as you, old dog!'
James replied with a pat on his friend's shoulder.
'Lily, you're as beautiful as ever,' Sirius kissed her gently on the cheek. 'I'll never get why you finally agreed to marry that git!'
Sirius barely avoided getting punched on the arm by his old school pal. Both men started laughing like they were fourteen again. Their playful display of friendly affection was brought to an abrupt halt when a third man joined the group.
He was slightly smaller than Sirius and his sandy brown hair was scattered with a few grey strands. His face was naturally pale, but to his friends', his exhaustion was obvious. His deep green eyes took in the small group and he looked glad to join them.
Lily's smile widened and she walked towards him. She hugged him to her and straightened his shabby clothes before pushing his floppy fringe from his forehead. To Sirius and James' amusement, the tips of his ears turned pink.
'Remus!' Lily said while bringing him over to the group. 'I wasn't sure if you were still planning on boarding the train this year. Sirius told us last month that you had accepted to commute with him to Hogwarts.'
'And risk getting killed because of his horrible driving habits?' Remus teased. 'I might be a Marauder, but I'm the less crazy of all of us.'
While James and Remus shook hands, Harry's father noticed the new silvery scars peppered on his friend's pale face. The older ones were fading already.
'How are you doing, Harry?' Remus asked kindly. 'Are you nervous at all?'
'I guess I'm more excited than nervous. I can't wait to finally see Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall.' Harry let out in a breath. 'I want to learn all there is to know about magic. I want to meet Professor Snape also, Mum says he's great!'
'Hear that, Moony?' Sirius elbowed the tired looking man besides him. 'The boy can't wait to meet Snivellus.'
Remus avoided the bait by shaking his head and shoving his hands deep into his pockets. Lily however, threw a warning look to a sniggering Sirius. She then returned her attention to her son.
'You will learn all about magic very soon, young man,' she told him. 'Let's get you to platform 9 so you can settle in on-board.'
The four adults walked along the boy who could just barely hold in his excitement.
'I want to go first!' the boy claimed to the four adults after having regained his place behind the trolley.
Sirius and Remus let the family positioned themselves in front of the brick wall.
'But I'll wait for you two to join us on the other side.' Harry declared to the men standing nearby.
'Padfoot and I will follow you, laddie,' Remus reassured him.
Lily grasped Hedwig's cage with one hand to keep it from tumbling down during the passage, she laid the other on her boy's shoulders. She felt her husband put his arm around them and noticed that he too, was holding on to the trolley. All three Potters held their heads high, facing the wall where a magical world was Harry's to discover. Just before they started walking towards the barrier, James murmured 'Get ready, Harry, your adventure is just beginning.'