Another life
I do not own Harry Potter
Chapter 1 what the future holds
It was a cold winter night, it was snowing, and the wind blew softly across the crispy white terrain that was covered by the snow. It is the 31st of January and everyone was settling in for a nice family dinner. Well, almost everyone. Our story begins in Godric's Hollow. A sleepy little town in Western England where everyone knew everyone. Our family in question is the Potter family. Lily and James Potter, their eight year old son Harry and his four year old sister, Gwen. Lily and James were childhood friends. They knew each other since they were eleven. They both met at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. While not getting along at first, the two warmed up to each other over the years. James being a man with a firm build, wore glasses over his eyes and had black messy hair that couldn't be restrained no matter how hard you tried. Lily on the other hand, had a slender and very soft form, fiery red hair and green loving eyes. Both of their kids resembled them a lot. Harry had his father's messy hair but had his mother's green eyes, while Gwen had her mother's green eyes and red hair but wore glasses over her eyes like her father did. Both shared similar characteristics to their parents both in looks and personality. Lily being a kind, loving and nurturing person, yet rather serious, while James was just as caring loving but was also a humorous goofball. Despite being serious, Lily still appreciated humor and laughter and always enjoyed it when their family would goof around with each other as long as it was appropriate.
Today was Harry's eighth birthday. He had some friends over, they had some cake and played some games. Now it was time to sleep. Once the teeth were brushed and the pajamas were worn, Lily put Gwen to bed while James did the same with Harry. While laying in bed James asked.
"Would you like a bedtime story?"
"Yeah." Smiled the boy.
"Which one would you like?"
"Could you tell me about Hogwarts?" asked the boy. James looked surprised. Harry hadn't asked much about it before. But seeing as he recently started showing signs of magic and they brought it up, he figured it was time for him to know about it. James tried to find the words.
"What do you want to know about it?" he asked.
"What's it like there? What is it exactly?"
James became focused.
"Hogwarts is a school where you learn about magic and how to use it properly."
"You mean I'm gonna do magic tricks?" asked Harry with excitement.
"Only when you're in school son. You are not allowed to use magic outside of school."
"Why not?"
""It's complicated. It's in order to protect the magical world. We don't want non magical people knowing about it. It makes things messy."
"How come?"
"Because to them magic does not exist. If people start seeing magic happening, it could cause troubles. People would think they have gone mad and it would lead to panic and a lot of questions we don't want to answer. Plus they might start taking advantage of us."
"I see…" sounded Harry.
After a short pause he asked.
"Does it hurt?"
"What?"
"Using magic."
James chuckled.
"No silly. It doesn't hurt at all. As long as you don't use violent spells."
"I don't want to use violent spells."
"That's good then, don't."
After a short while Harry spoke again.
"So what kind of classes do they have there?"
James rubbed his chin and pretended to be deep in thought.
"You know I'm afraid I can't answer that just yet…"
"Why not?" asked Harry in alarm.
"We need to make time for a commercial break." He said, pretending to sound deep. Harry laughed.
"And whoops, we're back." Said James.
Between laughs Harry spoke.
"Come on Dad... What kind of classes does Hogwarts have?"
"A lot son. There's transfiguration, charms, potions and various other stuff…"
"But what are those subjects?" persisted the boy.
James smiled and kissed his son on the forehead.
"I'll explain to you tomorrow Harry. Right now it's time to go to sleep. There'll be plenty of time tomorrow.
"Oh man…"
"Tomorrow's another day Harry. Then you can ask me all the questions you want."
"Okay." He said in defeat as his father kissed his cheek and tucked him in.
"Nighty night Harry."
"Night Dad." Said Harry and curled into a ball. James shut the light and left the room and went towards the kitchen. There he joined Lily who sat at the table drinking a hot cup of tea.
"He's really anxious to go to Hogwarts." He said and sat down beside her.
"Can you blame him?" she smirked at him. He chuckled.
"No I cannot."
She nodded. Soon afterward she added.
"It's coming soon you know. Three years from now, he'll receive the same letter we did." She said and took a sip from her tea.
"Yeah. I wonder if he's gonna make Gryffindor like we did."
"Bet he will." Said Lilly and put her cup down.
"You know Gwen should be showing signs of magic soon too."
"Yeah but she's got time till then." She replied and drank the rest of her tea.
"You know I don't think Petunia will be pleased when she finds out about Harry's development."
James shrugged.
"Nothing we can do about that."
"I know I just wish I could get her to be a little more open minded."
"She'll come around someday.
"I hope so."
James nodded.
"Well for now I wouldn't worry about it too much. I'm sure you sister and brother in law are just afraid of it. You may have had some rivalries with her but she did not have that with Harry. She knows he doesn't bite. Maybe when she sees him once she knows he's a wizard she wouldn't be so anxious about it."
"Perhaps not." Said Lily as James went to the tap to drink some water. After he drank he turned to her.
"You want to play wizard's chess?" he asked from the kitchen. She turned around and smiled at him.
"Thought you'd never ask…" she said.
To be continued…
So there it is. I'll be honest, up until recently I was seriously considering retirement but I decided to stay for now. Hopefully I still got the touch but I'll leave it to you to decide on that.
So anyway like I said in the description, this is a revised version of the 'boy who lived' story I wrote a few years ago. I hope you like it. If you so kindly would leave a review I'd greatly appreciate it.
Peace out…