Disclaimer: I do not own anything Harry Potter. If you recognize it, it's not mine.
Author's Notes: Hello. Welcome to my new story. :] It follows the next generation of Potters and Weasley through their seven years at Hogwarts. Hope you enjoy.
Seven Years
Chapter 1
The happiest day of Harry James Potter's life was May 2nd, 2000. It was the three-year anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts and the end of the War.
It was also his wedding day.
He insisted on that day for a reason, specifically because it was the anniversary of the end of the war. It was a reminder to him of what he lost and what he gained. He never wanted to forget why he fought so hard, against all odds. Ginny. He loved her with every fiber of his being. In the early morning hours of the Battle of Hogwarts, shortly after it ended, Harry asked Ginny for a walk around the lake. He asked her to be his girlfriend. To truly be his girlfriend, with no dark Lords hanging over their heads. To his joy, she said yes.
The wedding happened at Hogwarts. Ron and Harry had just finished Auror training. Ginny had been playing with the Holyhead Harpies for two years and Hermione had one year left of Wizarding Law School. She was Ginny's maid of honor, while Ron was Harry's best man. Neville and Luna were both in their respective wedding parties and three year old Teddy Lupin was the ring bearer, his hair a soft gold to match the wedding décor. It had been a gorgeous ceremony, but Harry only had eyes for his beautiful bride to be, in her flowing wedding dress, accented with delicate peach embroidered flowers.
A year and a half later, when Hermione had graduated and both had steady jobs, Ron and Hermione were married at the Burrow. Ginny and Harry repaid the favor as their maid of honor and best man, respectively. Two years after that, Neville married Hannah Abbott, and shortly after, they all received post from Luna, informing them of her marriage to fellow naturalist, Rolf Scamander, whom she met abroad.
Ginny gave up playing professional Quidditch and became the main Quidditch correspondent for the Daily Prophet in 2003 when she discovered she was pregnant with their first child. Harry was ecstatic. He had a beautiful wife, and was finally getting the family he always wanted. James Sirius Potter was born at 3:17 a.m., June 11th, 2004. He was perfect. A big baby, with a wisp of dark hair and light brown eyes like his mother.
Not even a year later, Albus Severus Potter was born on April 25th, 2005 at 2:45 p.m. His name was difficult to decided on between Harry and Ginny. Both parents were set to name their next son after the headmaster who had offered so much kindness, compassion and guidance to them all but a middle name had not been decided on by the time he was born. Ginny wanted Fred or Arthur, but the moment little Al was born, and he opened his big, emerald green eyes; Harry knew it had to be Severus. He fought tooth and nail to get Ginny to agree, and in the end, she complied.
A few months later, Hermione, who had been pregnant alongside Ginny, gave birth on August 31st to her first child, a baby girl named Rose Amelia. Harry, who gained some experience handling James, had been natural at fatherhood, as had Ginny with motherhood. Ron, however, spent all nine months of his pregnancy a nervous wreck, alternating between studying baby books, flash cards included and cursing the day he met Hermione. However, the moment Rose was placed into her fathers arms, she wrapped her small hand around Ron's long finger, and he melted. His little girl already had him wrapped around her finger. Ron would do anything for his little girl. One year later, Ron's son Hugo Arthur Weasley was born on January 1, 2006, at 12:04 a.m.
Harry was very happy with his two sons. By age two, James was already proving to be a little terror, whizzing around on his toy broomstick, knocking many things over and breaking even more. He had always been a very rambunctious baby, and in contrast, Al had been easier to handle. James adored his little brother, and loved to play with him. But Harry was jealous of Ron and his relationship with little Rosie. He wanted a daughter.
He got his wish. Harry had just been promoted by Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt to Head Auror when he received an urgent floo from Hermione. Ginny had gone into labor two months early and there was a complication concerning the placenta. The baby was not expected to live. Harry had never been more scared in his life, even when facing Voldemort. Lily Luna Potter was born on March 22nd, 2006 at 4 in the afternoon, at thirty-two weeks gestation. They had always planned to name their daughter Lily, but after seeing her, so tiny but full of life and a full head of red hair, he knew Lily was the perfect name choice.
Harry loved his life. He had three beautiful, intelligent, courageous children and a brave, spirited godson that reminded Harry so much of Remus. He lived in Godrics Hollow, having made its repair the first thing he did after the war, after asking Ginny to be his girlfriend. His best friends lived across the street and a few houses down in his mentor's family home. They raised their children together in the countryside.
"Lily, it's here!" James called up the stairs to his little sister. "Sorry, but you're actually a Muggle! OW! Mum!"
"Knock it off, James," his mother said easily, before turning her back to him and returning to cooking breakfast.
Lily came bounding down the stairs, a red blur and went flying to the kitchen table.
"It's here, it's here, it's finally here!" She crashed into the table, making the glasses of juice rock and almost spill.
"Lily, watch it!" Ginny told her daughter as she placed a plate of pancakes on to the rickety table. James grabbed for his glass of juice with a glare to his sister.
Lily ignored the reprimand from her mother and the look from her brother. She flicked through the post quickly, skipping past her brothers letters before arriving on hers.
Lily Luna Potter
Godric's Hollow
Kitchen
She tore the paper open and scanned the page eagerly. September first could not come soon enough for her. Ever since her eldest brother had started Hogwarts, coming home for Christmas with stories filled with excitement and adventure (granted, it was James), she had wanted more than anything to go to Hogwarts. She turned to her brother, smacking him over the head with her envelope.
"Ow! Lily!"
"I am not a muggle." She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Mum, Lily hit me!" He turned to his mother. "Are you going to let her commit such an act of injustice?"
"James, give it a rest. Lily, don't hit your brother," said Ginny, without missing a beat in flipping the eggs. The moment her back was turned, Lily stuck her tongue out at James, who responded with a rude hand gesture.
"Mum, can we go to Diagon Alley today?"
"We have all summer to go, Lily."
"Mum, please," she begged. Ginny sighed, and placed the final plate for breakfast on to the table. Ignoring Lily's question, she turned to her son.
"James, where's your brother?"
"He's outside practicing with Dad," James responded, already shoveling more food than any thirteen year old should be able to eat onto his plate. Lily sighed, and sat in her seat at the end of the table, slumping in the seat. She crinkled her nose in disgust at her brother, who was now forking four fried eggs into his mouth.
As if they knew they were being talked about, Harry Potter and his youngest son, Al, entered through the back door, bringing with them a blast of hot air. Both were sweaty and their matching black hair was mussed in the back.
"Is it time for breakfast already?" Harry asked, taking his sons broomstick and hanging them on the broom rack next to the back door as Al took a seat next to Lily.
"Already? It's after ten," Ginny said, sitting down. She tilted her head up to kiss her husband. All three children made gagging noises and gestures. She rolled her eyes as Harry sat down at the head of the table.
"Sorry. I had to score against Al once. It would be embarrassing not to." Al beamed at his father's comment.
"I'm definitely going to get on the Quidditch team this year, now that Wood is graduating," Al said excitedly. Lily gave a pointed look to James.
"Speaking of Hogwarts, the letters came today," James said casually.
"Daddy, can we go to Diagon Alley today?" Lily asked sweetly, turning to her father. She widened her eyes and jutted out her lower lip. "Please?"
Lily knew that she could get her father to say yes to anything she asked. It was the benefit of being the youngest and only daughter. Her father turned to her and smiled.
"Did you ask your mother?" He asked.
"Yes, she did," Ginny said crossly. "And her mother said no."
"But Dad, I want to start learning already!" Lily tugged on his shirt. James snorted.
"Just like your Aunt Hermione," Harry said with a laugh. He checked his watch. "After breakfast, I'll shower, and we can head over."
Lily smiled widely.
After breakfast, the family of five headed to Diagon Alley. She clutched her father's hand and they Apparated. After she experienced the uncomfortable feeling of being squeezed through a rather small tube, she landed unsteadily in the front of Gringotts. Her father's steady hand kept her on her feet, but the moment she gained her balance she pulled on his hand, tugging towards the bank.
"C'mon, let's go," she said.
"Lily, stop that this instant," her mother said crossly, already in a foul mood at Lily for worming her way here. Lily immediately stopped pulling on her father's hand, and slowed down to walk back with James and Albus. She knew from experience when to stop pushing her mother's often short temper.
James sped up to stroll casually along in front of his siblings, his hands in his pockets. A girl who passed blushed and smiled as he passed her. James grinned.
"Hey, Melanie. See you in school," James said, purposefully beginning in a deeper voice than his normal voice, before it cracked on the word school. With his ears turning red, he hurriedly sped up. Lily and Albus snickered.
At Gringotts, the family piled into one of the carts headed by a goblin. Lily loved coming to Gringotts. It had been her favorite part about coming to Diagon Alley with her family to shop for Albus and James. The ride was exhilarating; the wind blowing her hair forcefully back, the colors blurring together. Once, she thought she even saw a dragon. Even now, she couldn't help laughing out loud with Al as they flew down one track and went around the curve. Al loved Gringotts just as much, maybe even more than Lily, and he found everything so fascinating. The goblins, the intricate pathway, the money system. James, on the other hand, hated the ride. He often got sick and he thought the goblins were rather creepy. He groaned as the cart switched tracks abruptly, causing the whole family to bounce up and down.
"Are we almost there yet?" He moaned, paling and turning slightly green.
The cart came to a skidding stop. James was the first one out, hopping over the side to steady ground. The goblin gave him a dirty look.
"Vault 612," the goblin, named Ashmud, said in a gravely voice. He performed an intricate ritual of running his fingers along the wall, pressing in places and twisting things that Lily couldn't see. Finally, a door materialized.
"Thank you, Ashmud," her father said politely. The family of five entered their vault.
Lily knew her family was rich. Her grandfather, who her brother was named after, was the only child of a very rich and very famous wizarding family. They had many estates that just continued to collect interest, even as they sat for years, long after both her great-grand parents and grandparents had passed on. Her grandmother, her namesake, came from not a poor family, but much less endowed then James Potter. Lily thought it was the smarts with money her grandmother must have had that ensured her husband and future family members had plenty of money. Her father, Harry, had of course inherited all of this.
Despite this knowledge, it was still always a shock to enter the vault and see the mountains of gold, piles upon piles. Galleons, sickles, and knuts, along with a few family heirlooms, including a blood stained sword that none of the children had the courage to ask their father about. It was shocking, as the kids weren't used to having a lot of money. Sure, they had a really nice house, and really nice things, but the children had to do chores each week for allowance, and if they really needed something they couldn't afford with their own allowance, they had to propose the case to their parents and prove that they really did need it that badly.
Once her parents had taken out the money they needed, they headed back out into the blinding sunlight.
"Okay," her mother began. "Al, you've shot up over the past year. You'll need some new robes. Lily needs some, too."
"I need to get more potions supplies," James piped in.
"Well," Harry started. "I'll take James and get all the kids' potion supplies. Ginny, did you want to take Al and Lily to get their robes? We can meet at the bookstore in half an hour."
With a plan set, James and Harry took off in one direction, James already talking his father's ear off, while Lily and Al followed their mother in the opposite direction. Lily walked up next to her mom and slipped her hand into Ginny's.
"Thanks, Mum," she said quietly. Ginny turned and smiled at her daughter, squeezing her hand before letting go.
The three Potters entered Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. There was already one other boy, a blonde, being fitted with his back to the Potters. Madame Malkin tittered about around him.
"Oh, my dear, you have gotten so tall," she clucked, bending down to work on the hem of the robes. "I don't think I can let the hem out on these any more. You'll simply just have to get new ones."
"Alright, that's fine," the boy said in a smooth voice, still unchanged by puberty.
The boy stepped off the pedestal and walked out on to the floor, without even noticing the family. Madame Malkin turned around.
"Ah! Mrs. Potter!" She cried, rushing forward to say hello. "How nice to see you again. What can I do for you today?"
Ginny pushed the kids forward. "Al's robes have gotten too short, and it's Lily's first year."
Madame Malkin nodded, pushing both children up on the stools, before running off to get some robes for them to wear.
"I'm going to look around the shop," Ginny said as she walked off.
Al and Lily stood there for a moment, looking around.
"So are you excited for Hogwarts?" Al asked softly.
Lily looked at her brother. She loved both of them, very much (much more than she would ever let them know, anyway.) While James and she often fought, their personalities much too vivacious and rambunctious to be in one room together for long without a fight, Al had always been the quiet one. Her mother often called Al her good son. Even as a baby, he never cried or fussed. Al had always been the practical one, the voice of reason in the family. He was incredibly intelligent (he confessed to her in secret that the Sorting Hat had tried to put him in Ravenclaw but he begged for Gryffindor.) He was calm, cool, confident, collected. Everything Lily wasn't.
It was for these reasons that Lily knew she could trust Al with her confession.
"I'm afraid," she said softly.
"Why?"
"What if I don't get put in Gryffindor?"
"Oh, Lils," he said, with a slight roll of the eyes. "You know you can ask the Sorting Hat to put you there if it tries to put you anywhere else."
"Yeah, but I don't want to ask. If it doesn't think I belong there in the first place, I don't want to put myself where I don't belong."
Al was silent. Lily wondered if she went too far.
"I think," he said quietly, looking at his feet. "That our choices define where we belong. Besides, you most definitely are a Gryffindor."
Lily smiled. She opened her mouth to thank him, but the blonde boy had come back, with a set of robes in his hands. He looked at them warily, walking up to his stool.
"Hello, Scorpius," Al said. The blonde, Scorpius, nodded. Lily stared at him. He was the same height as her brother, James, and thin, with dirty blonde hair and startling grey eyes. Lily thought he was rather cute, her ears turning red at the thought.
"Good afternoon, Albus." Al frowned. While he wasn't on such terrible terms with Scorpius as James was, they weren't best friends, either.
Scorpius pulled off his current robes. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt underneath, and he pulled on the new set in his hands before resuming his place on the stool.
Lily shifted, suddenly uncomfortable. It was awkwardly silent. She was very grateful when Madame Malkin returned within a few moments of the boy's arrival.
"Here, try this." She handed a black set of robes to Albus. She turned to Lily, shaking her head. "Sorry for the wait, dear, but I'm afraid I had some trouble finding something your size. This is my smallest, but we'll still have to take it in quite a bit."
Lily grumbled. She was not that small. She heard a snicker to her left. She wasn't quite sure who had laughed, but she glared at Al anyway. Her brothers were always teasing her for her size. Size was no guarantee of power, her uncle George always said, but it didn't help when the bigger people had wands and you didn't.
As Madame Malkin tended to the three children, sticking sharp pins in unwanted places, Ginny returned.
"How's it going?" She asked, looking at her daughter who had to have at least fifty pins up and down her whole body. Lily glared at her mother. The doorbell tinkled.
All four heads to turned to see a man enter. He was dressed in Muggle clothing, jeans and a nice button down shirt. He had white blond hair, slicked back, with a pointed face and chin.
"Hello, Ginny," the man said to her mother. Lily glanced at her. How did she know this man?
"Good afternoon, Draco," her mother said, polite, but Lily could hear the tightness in her voice.
"Are we almost done here?" Draco asked Madame Malkin.
"Almost," Madame Malkins said, her voice muffled as she was holding pins with her mouth. Lily listened carefully to her mother and the man as they began to talk.
"How is Astoria?" Her mother asked.
"She's good. We just got back from holiday in France, visiting her family. It was a nice break for the three of us," he replied.
"Oh, yes, Harry did mention you were on holiday." Draco nodded.
"There you go, dear." Madame Malkin patted Scorpius on the shoulder. Lily, disappointed in the conversation between the adults, shifted impatiently. Scorpius pulled off the robes. As Draco paid for it, Scorpius turned to Al and Lily.
"Goodbye." Al nodded back and Lily waved as Draco returned to his son, placing a hand on his shoulder to guide him out of the store.
Lily dared not question Al about either the boy or the man, not while her mother sat there watching. After a few more sharp pokes, and a bit of a wait, Ginny, Al and Lily left the store with their purchases and headed towards the bookstore. Lily had no chance to ask Al anything, as just then James and her father joined them, laden with potion supplies for all three kids.
Lily soon forgot about the boy from the robe shop and asking her brother about him or her fears of not being placed in Gryffindor. The longer they shopped, the more anxious she became about getting a wand. They had put it off until the last moment.
The family entered Ollivander's, Lily bouncing excitedly ahead of the rest. James and Al sunk into the chairs, tired and bored by the end of the day. The old man who ran the shop, who frightened Lily with his strangeness, came to the front desk when he heard the bell on the door as it closed.
"Ah, the Potters!" He cried. "What can I do for you today?"
Harry put his hands on his daughter's shoulders. "Lily needs a wand."
Lily gripped her father's hands. Harry gave her a gentle push forward, pulling his hands out of her grasp. "Go on, Lily."
Ollivander reached out to her. She edged forward towards the man.
"Come on, dear," he said. He waved his hand and a measuring tape was hovering next to him. "I just need to take a few measurements."
After taking measurements, including the length of her earlobe, Ollivander waved his hand and the tape was gone.
"Now for the wand," he said, going back into the shop and bringing out many long, thin boxes. Lily tried the first dozen or so boxes with no luck, feeling very silly waving the wand around, trying to imitate her father, but nothing happened. She had just placed the last wand, a rather short, ugly, bumpy one, back in the box. Ollivander looked her up and down.
"Yes, I think I know the perfect wand for you." He disappeared again into the back. Lily looked at her father nervously. He winked. She swallowed. Ollivander reappeared.
"Try this one," he said, opening the box. In the velvet lay a beautiful wand. It was bright and smooth and long. Lily smiled and picked up the wand. The moment it touched her skin, she felt warmth flood her arm and go through her body. This was it. Grandly, she swished the wand and large, red and gold sparks shot from its end, filling the room, casting red shadows across every face.
"Ten and a quarter inches, Alder wood, with a phoenix feather core," Ollivander said softly. "Nice and swishy."
"What does all that mean?" Lily asked.
"It means," Ollivander looked at her, very seriously, "you will be a very powerful witch, Miss Potter."
Lily didn't stop smiling, even after they had gotten home that night.
Author's Notes: I hope you enjoyed it. Perhaps you noticed some minor changes. The ages of the children have been modified slightly to fit my story, such as Lily and Scorpius. It's only by a year though. Please review!