Two Pairs of Round-Rimmed Glasses
...
Harry fidgeted with his porridge spoon nervously. His eyes shifted from the cold plate to the calendar that had been hung up in the wall of the kitchen. The ten-year-old boy – soon to be eleven, as he always reminded his parents – started moving his leg up and down rather nervously.
"What's wrong, darling?" Lily asked sweetly to her son, caressing his black locks of messy hair.
"We all know what's wrong with our little boy," smirked James, who pulled his son up to his lap. "The little folk is nervous because he hasn't got his Hogwarts letter yet!"
Harry felt flushed, and tried to stop his father from tickling his stomach. It was useless, though. The man wouldn't stop, and they all ended up laughing. James and Lily did know Harry would be a wizard – they had seen him doing some weird stuff over the last few years, like changing people's hair colour at wish or playing with levitated dried fruit in the supermarket. Of course, muggle neighbours found this pretty unusual, but Lily always knew how to handle the situation. Her parents had been muggles, after all.
The family of three decided to leave the breakfast as it was, Harry having barely touched his porridge plate. Lily accio-ed the plates to the sink, and let the charmed plate brush do the rest.
She turned to find her son and husband sitting next to each other in the house sofa, and smiled. Harry was the spitting image of his father when she had first met him on her first train ride to Hogwarts, except for the boy's eyes. They were hers. She smiled broadly to see how they were arranging a game of Exploding Snap, remembering how James and Sirius used to spend hours playing that same game in the Gryffindor common room. After all the struggles they had been through during the war, she had felt so overjoyed when all the danger had disappeared...
"Be careful with your glasses, you two!" she laughed as she sat next to James in the couch. The older man laughed as he ruffled their son's hair.
"Harry's an amazing player, haven't you seen him?" James asked, showing pride for his young son to be able to play such a difficult game. "He beat me three times yesterday."
"Yes! Yes I did!" Harry exclaimed proudly.
Lily smiled and cuddled into James's arms, watching the two of them play. They placed one card on top of the other, and when she saw James's expression of mimicked horror, she knew the cards would explode soon. And indeed they did, in James's turn. With a slight boom! all of the cards were spread around the floor. She turned around to look at her husband's face, which was now covered in ashes. She couldn't help but giggle.
"Hey!" he protested. "It's not even funny!"
"Yes, yes it is," Lily answered, giggling softly. Then she turned to her son, who kept on dancing what seemed like a little victory dance. "It's not hard to beat your dad, is it Harry?"
"Not really," the boy joked with a stifled laugh. James looked at him with a fake glare, but the boy chuckled. "It was a piece of cake."
"Oh, you little thing!" James exclaimed, laughing too. He still had his face covered in ashes, but he caught is son by his waist and sat him on his lap, starting all over again with the tickling. "You're a little monster!"
"Dad!" Harry exclaimed between laughs. "Dad, stop! I can't take it!"
"You will, my son!" James cried, still tickling the boy, who wouldn't stop laughing.
When Harry finally rested between his parents in the couch, he still giggled for his dad's tickles. Lily caressed his black hair slowly, and looked at James, who tried to clean his ash-covered black-rimmed glasses with the end of his shirt. She tried to muffle a laugh with one of the pillows, but James noticed it anyway and looked at her with raised eyebrows and a quite funny expression.
"What?" he finally asked. "I know I look gorgeous with all this black thing in my face, but it's not quite useful when it comes to actually seeing through glasses."
Lily laughed again. She had known him for twenty years now, and suspected to have been in love with him all along although she used to deny the fact over their first six years together. Yet, she had always loved how he could always give you a reason to smile. Deep inside, Lily had always known James would be one great man one day. And indeed, he now was.
"Oh, I know," she answered, playing along. "I just can't stop staring at your...ashy face."
James laughed and went to the bathroom to clean his face. However, on his way there, he spotted something rather peculiar hanging on their window.
"Harry..." he muttered. "You'd better come and see this."
The boy and his mother stood up too, and walked to where James stood. When the boy saw what was his father talking about, he broke into a huge grin.
"It's for me!" he exclaimed. The boy opened the window and let the owl in taking a parchment envelope from its beak. James payed the brown owl five knuts and let it fly back. He and Lily looked at their son with proud expressions as the boy read through the address written in the letter excitedly.
Mr. Harry Potter, Room to the Right
Potter Cottage
Godric's Hollow, West Country.
Harry grinned as he opened his letter frantically. James held Lily in his arms, they both felt so proud for their son as they saw him reading through the letter they both knew so well.
"Mum! Dad!" Harry exclaimed excitedly, a wide grin spread across his features. "I'm in! I'm going to Hogwarts!"
"That's my boy!" James exclaimed, holding his son in his arms. "Well done, lad. I'm sure you're gonna kick it in the school. Make sure the name of the Marauders is well remembered, okay?"
"I'm sure Harry won't be a nasty troublemaker like you boys were...you practically blew the school up once!" Lily exclaimed, kissing his son in the cheek. "I'm so proud of you, Harry."
"Oi, Lily!" James exclaimed. "You calling us pyromaniac troublemakers?"
Lily laughed softly and challenged her husband with her emerald green eyes. "Why, that's exactly what I said."
James rolled his eyes, but smirked slightly. He ruffled Harry's hair. The boy was now all giddy, moving up and down without being able to stay still for more than five second. James and Lily were overjoyed by their son's attitude.
"Oi, I just remembered!" Lily exclaimed. "We better go to the Diagon Alley soon, shan't we? We need to get our little wizard proper school material."
"That is very true," James agreed. He looked at his giddy son, who wouldn't stop grinning. "Harry, go upstairs and grab a jacket, we're off to Diagon Alley."
The boy nodded happily and dashed upstairs, looking for the first jacket he'd find. When James and Lily knew they were alone, the man wrapped his arms around her waist as Lily let out a small sigh.
"Our little Harry is growing up," she muttered. "It's incredible to think it was twenty years ago when I was the one walking down the Diagon Alley. So many things have happened in all this time, yet it feels like it was only yesterday when I saw that bunch of black messy hair in the Platform."
James chuckled at his wife's comment, knowing it was very true. Once more, doubt gushed over him. What would have happened if Sirius hadn't been their Secret Keeper after all? They had been lucky to know of Peter's alliance with the Dark Side just in time. Had they made him their Secret Keeper, James knew the two of them – and most likely Harry, too – would be dead. He shivered at the thought, but said nothing. War had been hard enough for Lily and him, and now they had finally found peace in their little house in Godric's Hollow. Watching Harry grow up had been the best gift life could give them. If Dumbledore hadn't fought Voldemort – because James called that personification of the devil for his real name, not for a nickname everyone used to show their fear to him – none of them would be here. But over the last years, the horocruxes had been destroyed – everything was safe, and James finally knew this when a colleague in the Ministry had told him Dumbledore himself had destroyed the last of the horocruxes. He had planned to tell Lily, but he still hadn't found the time to do so.
"Lily," he whispered then. "Martin Schkoepf told me something quite interesting the other day." His wife 'hmm'-ed as to tell him to continue, and after taking a small breath he finally let the words flow, "Voldemort's last horcrux has been destroyed."
Lily's eyes widened in surprise. The woman slowly turned around to face her husband, and a split of a second later the corners of her lips curled up into a smile.
"Really?" she muttered. "Is it...is all of him...is all of him really gone?"
James nodded, "To the very last piece of his soul."
Lily felt a lump in her throat. She wanted to cry, to cry for the freedom that it gave her to finally know Voldemort would never be back. Those years in hiding after they finished school would have been impossible for her had James not been by her side in every second of her life. A tear rolled down her cheek, which James quickly rubbed away with his thumb. When their eyes met, James leaned in and gave her a long, calm kiss. Lily had known James for twenty years, but she still felt that something inside her when their lips crashed, just like the very first time not so long ago, back in Hogwarts's corridors.
When their kiss was over, Lily hugged James tightly, and they stood there for a second.
"You know, I've been thinking," James added. "Now that everything is finally over...wouldn't it be neat to give Harry someone to play with when he's back next summer?"
It only took Lily a few moments to realize what James meant with his last question. She had never wanted to talk about it, but over the last few years James had always hinted he would like to have another child. Sure, they both thought Harry was the greatest son a couple like them could have – but why not try to give him the brother or sister he had asked for so long? She smiled shyly.
"I don't see why not," she answered. "It would make him so happy."
James smiled. "Very well then," he said. "I'm sure he will love the surprise."
James leaned in, ready to kiss his wife once again, but they were interrupted by a young voice and excited jumps down the stairs.
"Who will love what surprise?" asked Harry as he reached his parents. He was still skipping up and down nervously, with a never-leaving grin in his lips.
James winked an eye at his son, "You'll see." He then eyed Lily and gave his son a smirk. "And you shall find out soon."
Harry hopped up and down excitedly, for he had no idea what his parents were up to. In that moment, he could only think of one thing: Hogwarts, Hogwarts! He was going to go to the best wizarding school in Great Britain, and presumably in the world entire. He laughed joyfully when he saw his father winking an eye at him before disappearing with the Floo powder in their chimney, and soon followed him. His mother fixed his cloak one more time and gave him some Floo powder. She kissed his forehead and smiled.
"You'll be one great wizard, just like your father," she trusted him, smiling broadly. Then she added, "Oh, but don't tell him I told you that."
Harry giggled just as he tossed the Floo powder onto the chimney's floor after having muttered, 'Diagon Alley!'.
~.~
Harry was ecstatic about his first day. A month and a half had flown by, and now the three Potters were walking down King's Cross on their way to Platform Nine and Three Quarters.
"You'll see, it's wicked cool to get to the Platform," James told his son, who nodded nervously.
The family of three reached the Platform Ten and headed towards the gap between Platform Ten and Platform Nine. Harry giggled at the sight of some Hogwarts students and their Wizarding families who mocked muggle passengers and station officers, and the boy's eyes opened widely as he saw how a red-haired boy around fifteen ran into the wall between the Platform Nine and Platform Ten and seemed to dissolve between the stone wall.
"Oi, Arthur!" James called a man who waited with a bunch of red-haired children.
The man, whom Harry assumed as Arthur, turned around to smile widely at the sight of his parents. The woman next to him, who seemed to be his wife, smiled too.
"Lily! James!" she exclaimed, and went to hug them.
The four of them met happily. Harry was sure they had been friends back in the old days, when that nasty war had happened. He looked at the red-haired children who came with Arthur and his wife, and assumed the fifteen-year-old he had seen running into the Platform earlier was their elder brother. There were two identical twins who seemed around thirteen years of age. The two boys smirked at Harry, who thought he might have something in his face. There was another boy who seemed around his age and ate a sandwich rather thoughtfully. Finally, there was a little girl who looked slightly younger than Harry, with bright red hair just as her brothers'.
"Oh, is this your son Harry?" Arthur's wife asked, finally noticing the boy carrying a cart with his brown trunk and a white owl he had named Hedwig. "Nice to meet you, dear. My name is Molly Weasley, and this is my husband Arthur. Your parents and us used to be very close a few years ago."
Harry nodded politely, smiling at the woman who introduced him to her children.
"These two folks are Fred and George," she said, pointing to the twins. As they smirked, she rose her eyebrows. "They're rotten stuff, you won't befriend them if you have a single neuron in there. Then there's my little Ronnie, who's your age and is starting in Hogwarts this year-"
"Mom, not Ronnie!" the boy complained, cutting his mother off.
"Okay...well anyway, that's Ron," Molly finished. "And this is our little daughter Ginny. She's ten now, aren't you honey?"
"Yes mom," the girl answered shyly. She didn't like it when her mother acted as if she were dumb.
The adults went into a nice conversation about the Ministry and their nowadays life, Lily commented about how Fred and George had grown up so much in the past years and Ginny listened politely, unable to let go of her mother's grip. Fred and George gradually grew bored from their parents' conversation, and ended up vanishing into the wall just as their older brother did a few minutes ago.
"How do they do that?" Harry asked.
"I've no idea," Ron answered. "You really can't explain magic, can you? Anyway, I think it's pretty cool."
"Yeah, so do I," Harry agreed. "I wanted to learn some charms over the last months, but my dad wouldn't let me touch my wand until today."
"Same happened to me," told him the red-haired boy. "I've got Charlie's older wand, but still they haven't let me see it until today..."
The two children trailed off into a conversation about Hogwarts, houses and life there. Harry wanted to become a Gryffindor, and so did Ron. The black-haired boy told him about how he wanted to be a Quidditch player like his father, whilst Ron admitted he feared not to live up to the expectations his older brothers had created. Within a few minutes of conversation, the boys started enjoying the other's conversation, and Harry couldn't help but think he might end up becoming good friends with Ron.
But then, the dreaded time came. James walked over to Harry, and prepared the cart.
"You ready to get to the Platform, son?" he asked. Harry nodded nervously, to which James chuckled. "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt at all. Come here."
The boy caught hold of the cart and his father did the same over his son. Then they both started pushing the cart into the Platform's wall, Harry fearing they'd end up crashing against it. He shut his eyes close and waited for a loud thud to happen, but a few seconds later he heard the whistling of a train engine and opened his eyes again. He looked around and saw his mother had joined them, and smiled proudly at her son.
"Well, Harry," Lily said. "It's ten to. You'd better get your things on the train and get yourself ready."
Harry and James went to leave the boy's trunk in the luggage wagon. Then, the boy turned back to his father, in a manly act of confidence, and whispered his father the greatest of his doubts back then.
"Dad, what if I don't get sorted in Gryffindor?"
James smiled at his son and ruffled his hair, "You will get sorted in Gryffindor."
"But what if I don't?" Harry insisted. "What if I end up in Slytherin?"
"Harry, you've got qualities that make you the best of Gryffindors," his father told him. "You're brave, witty and loyal, just like every Gryffindor wishes to be. And if you're placed in any other house, even Slytherin...well, it will have gained one great magician."
Harry smiled doubtfully at his father, but hugged his neck. "Thanks, dad. When I grow up I want to be as brave as you."
"Don't you doubt that, my son," James whispered, hugging his son back.
They both returned to where Lily stood and the boy hugged her tightly, assuming it was time for goodbye. However, when Harry was ready to leave, James squeezed his arm gently and smiled.
"Son, we've got something to tell you," his dad told him. The man looked at his wife, who nodded slowly. "You're going to have a little sibling soon."
Harry's eyes were wide open now. A sibling? He had always wanted one! He had felt jealous about Ron and all of the siblings he had, and he was quite shocked when the red-haired boy had argued him and told him he was the lucky one for not having to bear with nagging brothers all day long. The boy's lips broke into a grin as he hugged his mother first, and then his father.
"That is great!" he exclaimed. "But...but when?"
"It's due in May," Lily told him, "but we don't know if it's going to be a boy or a girl yet.
"I don't care!" Harry cried excitedly. "I'm going to be an older brother!"
James smiled at his son's sudden joy, which had been added to the anxiousness about the sorting that would be celebrated later on that day. The boy smiled at them, not being able to believe he was getting so lucky. Then, he hugged his parents one last time and looked at his watch.
"Whoa, it's running late," he commented. "I'd better get on the train. See you in Christmas, mum and dad!"
He waved at them as he hopped on the train. Lily and James looked at their son, wandering around the different compartments. Soon enough, he sat inside one not far away from where they stood and saw how he started chatting happily with the Weasley's youngest son, who actually seemed happy to see Harry again. James reminded joyfully how Sirius and he had met not so long ago, in that very same train, and probably in that very same compartment. Only then did he realize his wife was starting to cry.
"Hey, honey!" he exclaimed, looking at her. "He's just going for three months. We'll have him back in no time, you'll see!"
"I...I know," Lily muttered between sobs. "I...I've just suddenly realized how much he's grown up in no time. I'm going to miss him so badly, James."
James hugged her tightly and kissed her red hair. "I know, I know...but think about the terrific experience it was to start in Hogwarts. You and I, remember? Back in 1971. I would always pick on Snivellus, and you would always stand up for him." Lily laughed between the tears, and James caressed her hair slowly. "Don't you worry, Lils. Harry will do great in Hogwarts. He's our son after all, isn't he?"
Lily chuckled, and James wiped the tears off her face. He smiled as their eyes met. "Besides, you don't want him to leave thinking you're upset, do you?"
Lily shook her head and walked over to the window of Harry's compartment. When the boy saw his mother, he grinned and rushed to the window, saying goodbye once again.
Soon enough, the train whistled again and it started moving. Harry kept his eyes on both of his parents, smiling of pure glee. He saw them standing in the platform, looking at Harry's figure getting lost in the distance. When the train had finally left King's Cross and made its way through a small field, Harry closed the compartment's window and looked at Ron, who seemed to play with a little cat in his arms.
"Like him?" Ron asked. "My brother used to have a rat, but one day my father got fed of it tattering our cheese and decided to kill it. Nasty, I know, but it's neat I got a cat instead."
"Whoa, sorry for the rat," Harry commented, not being able to know what a great thing Mr. Weasley had done by killing old Scabbers, "but the cat's quite cool, you know."
The boy's voice trailed off as he opened his backpack and found a little piece of parchment inside.
To my little son,
I assume you'll be reading this once you're in the train, so you cannot scold me for calling you 'my little son'. I just want to tell you we love you so much and we want you to have a great time in Hogwarts no matter what house you get sorted in. Just be yourself and make sure to bring home some cool Hogsmeade stuff!
Your father, James.
P.S. Hope you like the present inside your backpack. Your uncle Sirius and I chose to give it to you the other day!
Harry held the little piece of parchment in his hand, and then peered inside his backpack. There he found what seemed like a piece of black cloth and took it out. When he placed it in front of his face, Ron gasped.
"Harry..." the red-haired boy whispered. "Harry, I think it's an invisibility cloak."
The black-haired boy was amazed by his new friend's comment, and found to his astonishment that in fact his hand did disappear when he twisted the cloth around his arm. He looked at Ron with an overjoyed expression.
"You know what, Ron?" Harry asked with a smile of ease. "I think this is going to be quite the year for me."
...
Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed this! It's my first story so please be kind, but reviews and tips are very welcomed!