A/N: This story is based on the book and movie, A Walk to Remember. I've watched and read the book at least a million times and have cried every single time. I recommend reading it/watching the movie before reading this story, because it kind of gives away the ending. Read and Review!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and the characters you recognize.
Wind
Prologue
When I was seventeen, my life changed forever.
I know there are people who wonder about me when I say this. They look at me strangely as if trying to fathom what could have happened back then, though I seldom bother to explain. Because I've lived here most of my life, I don't feel that I have to unless it's on my terms, and that would take more time than most people are willing to give me. My story can't be summed up in two or three sentences, because then people would be begging for more. It can't be packaged into something neat and simple that people would immediately understand. Despite the passage of forty years, the people who knew me that year accept my lack of explanation without question. My story in some ways is their story because it was something that all of us lived through.
It was I, however, who was closest to it.
I'm fifty-seven years old, but even now I can remember everything from that year, down to the smallest details. I relive that year often in my mind, bringing it back to life, and realize that when I do, I always feel a strange combination of sadness and joy. There are moments when I wish I could roll back time and rake all the sadness away, but I have a feeling that if I did, the joy would be gone as well. So I take the memories as they come, accepting them all, letting them guide me whenever I can. This happens more often than I let on.
It is April 12, during the 17th year after the millennium, and as I leave my house, I glance around. The sky is overcast and gray, but as I move down the street, I notice that the dogwoods and azaleas are blooming. I zip my jacket just a little. The temperature is cool, though I know it's only a matter of weeks before it will settle into something comfortable and the gray skies give way to the kind of days that make England one of the most beautiful places in the world.
With a sigh, I feel it all coming back to me. I close my eyes and the years begin to move in reverse, slowly ticking backwards, like the hands of a clock rotating in the wrong direction. As if through someone else's eyes, I watch myself grow younger; I see my hair changing from gray to brown, I feel the wrinkles around my eyes begin to smooth, my arms and legs grow sinewy, lessons I've learned with age grow dimmer and my innocence returns as that eventful year approaches.
Then, like me, the world begins to change: roads narrow and some become gravel, suburban sprawl has been replaced with farmland, and downtown streets teem with people, looking in windows as they pass small shops and markets. Men wear hats and women wear dresses. At the courthouse up the street, the bell tower ringsā¦
I open my eyes and pause. I am standing outside the Baptist church and when I stare at the gable, I know exactly who I am.
I am James Potter and I am seventeen years old.
This is my story; I promise to leave nothing out. First you will smile, and then you will cry- don't say you haven't been warned.
A/N: The introduction was taken from A Walk to Remember, by Nicholas Sparks, with a few altercations made by me to fit the story. And so its not so confusing, this is a total AU story, and James now lives in a muggle town.
