Coming from a large family, I've heard many different takes on the War. That is, the Wars, both first and second. My older brothers were all born during the first war, the oldest of them actually remembering some things from that time quite well. I, however, was born just at the end of the war, growing up entirely outside of it.
Parts of the story are so familiar that it almost begs the question of why I'm writing this book. The fact of the matter is, the story of the second War has yet to be told by one of those fighting it, particularly by one of Dumbledore's Army. Neville Longbottom and Luna Scamander née Lovegood suggested that I be the one to put pen to parchment, particularly because Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione Granger, and Charlotte Wood have expressed an extreme lack of interest in doing so themselves. As the first of our children are coming into this world, I feel it is important for a record of our own time in our own words to be available to them. That is why I'm writing this book.
It has been a long time now from the end of the War, all of the major players now parents, working to better Wizarding Britain, and the Wizarding world at large, when at the time the War ended, they were all barely of age. The Wars, both of them, touched all of us on a very personal level, but none so much as Harry Potter and Charlotte Cromwell Wood.
As almost everyone knows, Harry Potter and Charlotte Cromwell Wood were both made orphans (essentially), by the first war. Their childhoods, much like their teenage years, were in many ways paralleled from very early on, which makes it completely unsurprising that they grew to be such close friends.
On the 31st of July, 1980, Harry James Potter was born to James Griffin Potter and Lily Irene Evans Potter in Godric's Hollow. In the morning, James's friends Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius Black visited, the last a bit reluctantly as he was going through a lengthy emotional turmoil, but he was, by all accounts, thrilled to be named godfather of the child. After Sirius Black had left, according to Remus Lupin's correspondence with Lily Evans Potter, Olivia Evelyn Cromwell visited and was named little Harry's godmother. She, herself, was incredibly pregnant and had seen no one but the Potters and Remus Lupin for months.
Not a month later, on the 23rd of August, Charlotte Vega Cromwell was born, in a remote area of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where her mother was hiding from both Death Eaters and the father of her child. In fact, only about a dozen people knew who the father of that child was, and no father was listed on the birth certificate, though the Minister of Magic was aware of the man's name. Though the opposite would be claimed later, it was for the protection of the father that he was unaware of the birth, and indeed, the existence of his child. Lily Evans Potter and Remus Lupin were made godparents, and Olivia Cromwell began to raise her child under the watchful eye of Albus Dumbledore, hidden away from all the other inhabitants of Hogwarts.
For a year, the war raged on: People died and disappeared, but the two young children who would one day change the fate of the Wizarding world grew up in relative safety, security and quiet. Harry Potter was being raised by a pair of incredibly loving parents in Godric's Hollow, and continuously visited by a string of caring family friends. Charlotte Cromwell was raised in a quiet but safe corner of Hogwarts by a loving mother, and was the occasional playmate of Harry Potter when Albus Dumbledore deemed it safe for Olivia Cromwell to visit her best friends.
Little changed for that year, until one fateful night when the world began to change once more. No one seems to know how, but Olivia Cromwell had managed to get a message to Sirius Black, with a time and place to meet, exactly one year after the birth of their daughter.
"She was going to tell him about me," Charlotte Cromwell Wood said over tea last week. "My mother had decided it was safe, that it was possible for the prophecy to have been wrong, or to have referred to someone else."
Still, Olivia Cromwell wasn't completely throwing caution to the winds.
"She dropped me off with the Potters," Charlotte continued. "I guess I played with Harry for a while. But she left Lily and James with strict instructions: if she wasn't back within a certain time limit, they had to alert Dumbledore and not mention me to Sirius until Dumbledore said they could."
A spy was in the Order of the Phoenix, and it appears to that Olivia Cromwell hardly trusted a soul but Dumbledore and the other hunted ones. She didn't even seem to trust the man she had continued to call the love of her life in letters to Remus Lupin and the Potters. The meeting point was an alleyway in Muggle London.
It is unclear exactly what happened in that alleyway that afternoon. All those who may have known are now long since dead. Still, we do know that Sirius Black arrived late, and that Olivia Cromwell was dead when he arrived. He Apparated to the Potters', who had already informed Albus Dumbledore of Olivia's lateness. Charlotte had been moved to her grandfather's manor by the time Sirius arrived on the doorstep with Olivia's body in his arms, saying that her cousin, Eva Morecomb, had Apparated away when he arrived. Dumbledore held a quiet funeral for Olivia, burying her himself at her father's home. Sirius was not told of his daughter's existence, as the spy was still on the loose and unidentified.
Sirius Black, who had already been so emotionally unstable that his friends never left him alone, was now so utterly distraught that Remus Lupin moved in with him indefinitely.
Shaken by the sudden and unexpected death of Olivia Cromwell, though for different reasons, Severus Snape met secretly with Albus Dumbledore and begged that he protect the Potters, as Voldemort had determined that Harry Potter was the boy that a prophecy made about a year prior referred to him, a prophecy now regularly talked about, although only two people alive today know of its full contents and have adamantly refused to release them.
Albus Dumbledore decided that a Fidelius Charm was the best chance the Potters had to survive. He suggested that they choose their Secret-Keeper carefully, as a spy was still on the loose. Initially, James Potter and Lily Evans Potter made the obvious choice: their best friend, the godfather of their son, Sirius Black. The week before the spell was to be performed, however, Sirius had a change of heart, thinking he would be the obvious choice, and that the Potters ought to pick someone Voldemort would never dream they would choose: Peter Pettigrew.
The charm was performed. The Potters celebrated a typical Halloween night, having a special meal and playing with their son. Remus was supposed to come by to check that the enchantments held, but as he was not the Secret-Keeper, he would not come in to visit. Sirius Black was supposed to check on Peter Pettigrew while Remus was away. Sirius, however, let Remus sleep and did both checks. By the time he had arrived at Godric's Hollow, the Potters were already dead.
That night is a matter of public record, and will not be replayed here. After Harry was taken to live with his aunt and uncle in Surrey, Sirius Black went to track down Peter Pettigrew, realizing what must have happened when he found his friend's home empty and no sign of a struggle. Peter Pettigrew had betrayed the Potters. He had been the spy.
He managed to track down Peter within the next day, cornering him in the middle of a Muggle street, and what occurred is a now-famous incident where Sirius Black was wrongfully framed of the murders of thirteen people, twelve of which were actually the victims of Peter Pettigrew, who faked his own death. Sirius was taken to Azkaban without a trial for a life sentence.
Of course, most of this happened before I was born, and nearly all of it is common knowledge. That is why this is the Preface. Most people won't even look at these words. What follows in my memoirs, however, is a tale of growing up in the war, knowing the four greatest heroes of our time from day one, and what really happened with the students of our generation, in our own words. This is not just my story. This is the story of an entire generation raised in the war.
-Ginny Weasley Potter