A bit of background into this story before we go too much farther.
In 1978, the Marauders and their classmates graduated from Hogwarts.
In 1979, both Isabel Black and Hermione Lupin were born; Isabel was born in December and Hermione was born in September.
In 1980, Harry Potter was born on July 31 and Neville Longbottom was born on July 30.
In 1981, Lily and James Potter are killed by Voldemort after being betrayed by Peter Pettigrew while Sirius is sent to Azkaban Prison for the murder of 12 muggles and 1 wizard. Nothing exciting happens until 1991 when Harry Potter receives his multitude of letters. This begins the story as we know it.
Disclaimer: Ms. Rowling owns this huge sandbox and I, like many others, are just grateful that she's willing to let us play in it.
Summers were supposed to be filled with fun and games and good times, something young Isabel Black wasn't feeling as she starred out of the side car window. Her aunt and uncle had chosen to move their little family in the middle of summer holiday. That sounded like less and less fun every time she thought about it. It also meant that she, herself, and her cousin, Neville would be attending a new school in the fall.
"Couldn't we have moved to a wizarding community?" Isabel asked her aunt as she turned her attention from the side window to the front seat.
"We've had this talk already Isabel. You know exactly why we aren't moving to a wizarding community." Her aunt replied with a sigh.
Isabel frowned. She'd never gotten on well with any of the muggle children from the various other places that they had lived. In fact, she was part of the reason why they had moved so much. All wizarding children had the "trace" put on them as young children but Isabel was one of the few who's trace hadn't done much to mask her magical power. She had turned ten just before Christmas and still had terrible uncontrolled bursts of magic. Though, this time, they weren't moving because of her but rather because they had outgrown their old flat.
"You guys are getting older and need more room to grow. This new house will have a yard for you to play in and we'll just have so much more room." Alice stated as she turned to look back at the two kids.
"We're here." Announced Frank as they pulled into the driveway of a nondescript house.
All the houses on the street were all the same shape, the same size, and the same color. Aside from the golden numbers and the various cars, they were all completely identical. Once they were all out of the car, Frank unlocked the front door and they all filed into the house. There was a hallway leading from the front door to the kitchen and dining room with a doorway that led into the sitting room. There were four bedrooms upstairs and after several moments, Isabel was somewhat excited to pick her own bedroom. Frank and Alice had moved a majority of their belongings in a few days before and Isabel had been elated to know that she had been given one of the bedrooms that overlooked the back garden.
It was still pretty early and after they ate dinner, but Isabel wanted a chance to arrange the stuff in her room before she went to bed. Climbing up the stairs, she couldn't help but wonder what she would be doing right now if her family was still together. Pushing open her bedroom door, she stood still for a moment and looked around her bedroom. Alice had used magic to make the room just slightly larger and everything from her old room was here. Breathing a sigh of relief, she walked over to her bed and sat down. Flopping back on the bed, she closed her eyes and breathed out a sigh. How different things would be if she were living with her actual parents and not her godparents. That was a dream though because her brother had been killed by Death Eaters and her father was in Azkaban for murder. What had happened to her mother had been the worst though; tortured to insanity by the Death Eaters who had killed her brother.
Forcing herself to take a breath, Isabel realized that her face was wet. Growling to herself, she rolled over and buried her face in her pillow. She hated crying and Merlin knew that she had cried enough in her ten years of life that it was a surprise that she had any tears left at all. Once she was sure that the tears were gone, she got off her bed and changed into her pajamas. She could hear
Neville in the room next to hers, talking aloud to his small collection of magical plants. The thoughts of her family were stuck in her mind again. Unable to remove them from her thoughts, she wandered from her room downstairs and into the kitchen where Alice was sitting at the dining room table.
"Not tired?" Alice asked as Isabel slipped into the chair next to her godmother.
"I started thinking about Mum again." She whispered softly as Alice sighed.
Standing up, Alice moved around the kitchen to fix the girl a cup of tea. To some extent, she could relate to what Isabel was experiencing but at the same time; it was a completely foreign subject. Alice's parents had been killed when she was 15 while she had been away at Hogwarts. Like Isabel's brother, Alice's parents had been killed by death eaters. That was where the situations became completely different. Isabel's mum had been tortured to insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange when Isabel was only five and a half years old.
"Drink this." Alice stated as she placed the blue and green teacup in front of Isabel.
Isabel's small smile was all she needed to see, it was the sign she needed that told her that the spitfire strawberry blonde almost eleven-year-old girl sitting at the table would be alright. Both were silent as Isabel drank her tea. Once she was done, she embraced Alice in a tight hug.
"Thanks, Auntie." She whispered softly as Alice hugged her close.
"No problem Issy. We'll go see your mom tomorrow so that you can tell her about the new house." Alice replied as Isabel nodded.
"It's getting pretty late. You should go to bed." She added as Isabel pulled away and headed up the stairs.
When she arrived back at her room, Isabel was a little surprised to see that it was already almost midnight. It was at that point that she realized just how tired she really was. Crawling into bed, she spared one more glance at the window. The night sky was dark but the stars and moon were a perfect accent. Rolling over, she exhaled a breath and closed her eyes. Within a few moments, she was asleep.
In another house on Privet Drive, dreams were not coming as easily to one nine-year-old Harry Potter. He had been sent to his cupboard without being able to eat any actual dinner. So, he was tired and hungry and sore. Exhaling softly, Harry thought back to earlier in the day. A new family had moved into the house next door today. From what Harry had seen of them, they looked like a normal family. Aunt Petunia was the only one who had said anything about them, commenting on how they looked so normal and plain. Harry supposed that that was a good thing. Rubbing his eyes, Harry curled up on his side and began drifting off to sleep. As he faded into sleep, he wondered if maybe he might be able to become friends with those two new kids.
A/N: Well there's the first chapter rewrite. I started the story later because I didn't like the in-between time cut from the start of the story to when they ended up at Hogwarts.