W /N

This story takes place in the same continuity and time frame as my story "A Year Later," which I hope one day to be able to complete.

Prologue

Eric tried to relax as the plane began its final approach at Heathrow Airport. It had been a long seven and a half hours, and he wasn't particularly fond of airplanes to begin with. The floo network however, does not cross the Atlantic Ocean, portkeys from North America to Europe are both costly and difficult to create, and only a fool would try to apparate between New York and London. It had been nineteen years since John Sayer, Eric's father, had been killed by Death Eaters in Diagon Alley. John hadn't been an Auror, or a member of some secret resistance group fighting against the Dark Lord and his minions, like most of the Wizarding community he was just a man trying to live his life. John and his wife were both what would be considered purebloods, but neither from a particularly wealthy family. Like so many couples they'd met while attending Hogwarts, John was two years above Julia, and being in different houses they were largely unaware of one another until John's fifth year when their respective circles of friends collided. They became fast friends and before the feast at term's end they were utterly in love. The couple married soon after Julia graduated and with the help of their families, and a modest loan from the bank, settled in Broadwell, Gloucestershire. Neither had aspirations to change the world, there were no Ministry positions waiting for them, they eased into a quiet country life. The birth of their son, Eric Jacob, was to come not long after, and for ten years John and Julia's lives were complete. Julia managed things at home, tending house, chasing after Eric. Their two-story stone cottage was over a century old, and sat on a fair sized plot of land which included an apple orchard and a small dairy farm. John managed the farm, with magic he was able to handle the livestock and tending the orchard himself, and when it came time to harvest the apples there were always friends willing to lend a hand in return for a good meal and a few bushels to take home. Between income from the farm, and a number of small investments made over the years they were never going to be rich, but were able to live comfortably. It was a good life.

Being so far removed from the rest of the Wizarding community turned out to be a blessing when Voldemort began accumulating power. Though purebloods, they were not from politically active or prestigious families, and were thus largely beneath the Dark Lord's notice. They would have made it through the war completely unaffected had John not decided to visit the Alley that day. There was no grand purpose to the attack, the Death Eaters were simply there to create terror, and when they fled, the Dark Mark hanging in the sky, eleven men and women lay dead in the street, John Sayer among them. Julia was devastated, and within a fortnight she'd sold the livestock, sealed the house, and had left England behind.

Though she was born in England, her family had only been there for two generations, her grandparents having moved from America after visiting and falling in love with the Old World. Julia still had family in the Midwestern United States, and it was there she took her son to escape the war that had shattered her life, and the home that seemed empty without the man with whom she'd shared that life. When he turned eleven, Eric received letters both from Hogwarts, and from the Black Hills Academy in Wyoming. Though she hoped to return one day, Julia was not ready to go back to England, and enrolled Eric in Black Hills. Eric's school years were blessedly uneventful, he as an all-around adequate student, but he excelled at Charms and Defense. When he graduated, it was to his mother's great dismay that he accepted a recruitment offer by the American Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Eight months later he was a newly minted Warden. Julia was terrified, and proud.

Years passed, seasons turned, and though rumblings about the return of Volldemort made their way through the international magical community, the full extent of things only became clear after the final battle had been fought and won by the forces of light and their champion. Her son grown and on his own, Julia began to feel the pull to return to England, and once again call the place where she and her husband had built a life home. Her plans were cut short when a man who had had a few too many drinks with lunch lost control of his vehicle and drove up on to the sidewalk, and for the second time, Eric Sayer lost a parent.

Eric was jarred from his thoughts as the plane touched down. It had been months since his mother's death, and for some reason it had felt right to finish her journey and return to the home where he was born. He sighed with relief, as he stepped off the gangway and into the terminal, glad to be free of the plane and the recirculated air that despite constant filtration had become thick with the scent of its nearly two hundred passengers. He collected his luggage and made his way to the taxi stand, he'd considered apparating from the airport to the Ministry, but the notion of seeing a little bit of London before heading to his family home had grown on him during the flight. As the cab wove through the city he was enthralled by the sights, even while living in the United States he had not visited many major cities, his work and personal lives both revolving around the smaller communities that most Wizarding folk seem to favor, and too soon the cab rolled to a halt and Eric made his way inside, and up to the Floo Office. He was greeted by a dour witch who displayed all the enthusiasm of a person near the middle of a lifetime of civil service.

"May I help you?" she droned.

"Yes, I need to have my home reconnected to the Floo Network please." Eric replied.

"Name and address of the residence?"

"It's the Sayer residence in Broadwell, Gloucestershire, I'm afraid none of my mother's papers listed an address"

The clerk looked at him and sighed wearily. It was nearly two hours later when he stepped out of the Floo Office, and started to make his way toward the lobby. Eric had clearly underestimated the amount of red tape involved in what he thought would be a relatively simple process. In the end he'd ended up visiting several offices on three floors, filing his mother's death certificate, providing proof of his own identity, filing his mother's will with the Inheritance Office, and jumping through a half-dozen other frightfully tedious bureaucratic hoops before making his way back to the Floo Office and finally accomplishing what he had thought would be his only stop of the day.

Eric lugged his bags back through the main lobby toward the public floo stations, thankful when it was finally his turn to grab a pinch of floo powder and step into one of the oversized fireplaces. He cast the powder to the floor, took tight hold of his bags, and said, "Sayer Farm, Broadwell."

There was a flash of green, and the world turned upside down, and in seconds he found himself standing in a large, rough stone fireplace. He felt a tingle as the wards that had sealed the home for so long sensed his arrival and collapsed. The air was stale, and there was only a faint amount of light. Apparently his visit to the Ministry had taken even longer than he had realized. Stepping from the fireplace he let his bags fall to the floor. He drew his wand and cast, "Lumos."

A pale light spread from the wand tip, giving him the first look at the place in nearly twenty years.

"Well…" he sighed, "welcome home…"