Disclaimer: Don't own. Don't care. Writing this for free.

AN: I shouldn't be writing this. I should be working on my thesis. Just... I couldn't get my mind to concentrate without getting this out of my chest. So I got it out.

Following chapters will be on Charlus' Potter POV (more or less). This one, however won't. I read it after it was done and I liked it well enough, but to be truthful this war written in a single go, quite half-assedly on my part, so read it expecting a few more typos than in my other fics.

FAIR WARNING:

While the romantic aspect of this fic will be very scarce, as a woman writing a Self-Insert I plan to make Charlus Potter's past life as a female one. This means that Charlus would be a woman in a man's body (sort of), which is why latter on the character will be half-homosexual (bisexual even) no matter where the ships fall. I encourage people with homophobic tendencies to find another fic.

Published on July 24, 2017. Unbetaed.

Chapter 1: The Troublesme Twin

July 31th of 1980 was a happy day in Godric Hollow, for even though the Potters were forced into insolation by threat of being horrifically murdered, Lily had managed to deliver not only one healthy baby boy but two. James couldn't get the stupid grin out of his face as he saw his beloved redhead wife hug baby Charlus to her chest while Marlene McKinnon -the only Mediwitch in the order, thus the one to help deliver the baby- finished carefully cleaning his youngest son, Harry. The two babies were two peas in a pod, with the Potter black hair and blue-gray eyes he hoped would turn green in due time.

The 1st of August was almost as joyous, since all the Marauders, along with Albus Dumbledore and Frank Longbottom, had been into the building to offer their congratulations and celebrate the birth of the twins. It was that day that James and Lily finally announced the godparents of each baby: Sirius Black and Marlene McKinnon for Charlus, Alice and Frank Longbottom for Harry.

On August 2nd, though... that was the day that the nightmare began. It was two o clock in the morning when the quiet of the night was broken by a high pitched wail that made James jump out of the bed, wand in hand, and rush to the nursery, to find the twins crying. He froze in place, eyes still roaming the place, Lily, who had followed him there, snorted and moved ahead to pick a very distressed Harry and hand the baby to the older Potter before going for the other twin. Soon enough they were fed and changed and back to sleep... for 30 minutes. There was another sharp wail and the two of them rushed back to the nursery, to find the same scene happening, only this time the babies were clean and changed, so they were in a loss. Following tips read in books about babies, Lily softly sung while each one of them rocked a baby to sleep, again. Not an hour later, again came a wail, crying and soothing, and back to getting the babies back to sleep. By the fourth time it happened they decided to move the crib into their room, on the eight time they realized that every time it was baby Charlus who would start crying, disturbing Harry and making him wail as well.

On the tenth time, they realized that they fear for Charlus crying was not the paranoia of being first time parents, but that something was truly wrong with the Potter heir. Lily had then casted every diagnostic spell she knew off, but nothing unusual was picking up. Worried, they resolved to call Marlene again, but her diagnosis didn't offer any new answers.

The following days didn't get any better, if anything they seemed worse: Charlus cried all the time, be it night or morning, and for no apparent reason. In the end, they had no choice but to split the babies and take turns to watch either Harry or Charlus. Once apart, Harry cried very little, which was a great reassurance for the Potters that they weren't horrible parents. Deep sleep was a rare affair, and it was almost always related to the visits of the Marauders, who would watch the babies while the pitiable Potters got some shut eye.

On October 31 1980, around three months after the nightmare began, Charlus' accidental magic exploded outwards, sending every piece of furniture crashing into a wall. James fearfully stood up from the splintered chair that had smashed along with him against the wall. The ever-present silencing charms must have remained intact because nobody rushed in to see what had happened. So it was only James who saw Charlus fall limp into the floor with eyes open but vacant. James moved towards his son as fast as he could with his newly wounded leg. He forgot to breathe as he picked the lifeless body of the Potter heir: Charlus's heart wasn't beating.

Relying on his Auror training, James managed not to freeze in the face of death, but to move into action. He casted a finite incantatem on the silencing guards, yelling at Lily, who busted into the room, Harry in hand, immediately noticing the wrecked room and James holding a dead Charlus. James watched with some relief as she rushed out of the room, clearly to seek help. She came back not a minute later, explaining that Remus (who James just learnt was visiting) went to search for Marlene. Lily repaired Charlus crib with her wand and deposited Harry there before she sat in the floor next to James, and asked him to put Charlus on the floor so she could perform some CPR. Before Lily got into it, Charlus convulsed once, then stilled again, eyes no longer blank as he stared at a the moving lion patterns of his left shoe with clear fascination.

Overwhelmed with joy and relief, Lily picked her baby boy and thanked Merlin and the Four Founders that her baby was alive. James was no better off, his eyes were red as he half-hugged his wife.

Remus came with Marlene fifteen minutes later, the woman donning a fancy robe, her brown hair in an elaborate updo, her face painted in heavy makeup: the woman clearly had had plans for the night. Once in the room, the woman didn't waste any time before giving Charlus a deep checkup. In the end, she dejectedly explained that there she could not find anything wrong with the baby; on the other hand, she spent a good while treating James's concussion, and getting his broken leg into a cast that he should not remove for 36 hours while the potion he downed took effect.

Regardless of the fact the baby was apparently fine, Marlene stayed for the night to be on the safe side.

The hours to follow would be unusually quiet, baby Charlus slept the whole night without crying, something that was chalked off to his magical outburst being very draining. On the next day, however, he didn't cry as he woke up. His parents. Used as they were to the incessant wails were wary. The hours passed and Charlus didn't cry: not when it was feeding time, not when he soiled his diaper, not for any reason or lack of thereof. The Potters were seriously considering to get the baby to St. Mungos so he could be seen by a more senior healer than Marlene, but stepping out was too dangerous to risk it.

Oddly enough, now that Charlus had transformed into a frighteningly quiet baby, Harry became Charlus measuring stick for more things than before. Harry cried due hunger? Both babies were fed. If Harry cried because he soiled himself? The twins got a diaper change. Harry was sleepy? The two of them were taken to bed.

Eventually, the eerie quiet of Charlus became the norm, and since nothing else untoward happened the two babies were allowed to play together and sleep on the same room. Charlus. Surprisingly, became fast friends with Harry. The two of them were not exactly inseparable, but Harry, seemingly fascinated to be in the presence of another baby, usually chased after his older sibling, and Charlus allowed him to be around with little fuss, even though the latter never started their interactions, Charlus sometimes blabbed back to Harry the latter engaged in baby talk.

Charlus and Harry, while physically identical, were completely different to each other in temperament. Unlike Charlus, Harry was a perfect baby angel. He was healthy and playful, cried little and laughed a lot. Harry wanted to be carried all the time he wasn't playing and wanted to play almost every waking moment. Unlike Harry, Charlus didn't like to be carried, preferring to be put on the floor, he didn't play too much and was in the habit of giving all his toys to Harry.

Months passed and the war got worse. News of the war were coming more frequently, and none of them were good. Remus parents were killed by Greyback's pack, Jame's parents by Death Eaters, the black tapestry showed Regulus Black as dead and Walburga died from grief. Families aligned with the light were persecuted into extinction, others fled the country for the sake of protecting the children. The daily prophet got filled with obituaries, and people feared reading a loved one's name in them. The Order lost Marlene McKinnon, Gideon and Fabian Prewet, along with many allies. The loss of the light looked imminent, that is, until October 31th 1981.

It would be on that Halloween that history would be made.

It would be the day that the dark lord would come into Godric Hollow to kill the baby of the prophesy.

It would be the day when a killing curse would hit Lily Potter and another bounce from Harry to turn Voldemort's body into ashes.

It also would be the day that Voldemort's soul, unable to get into Harry's body due his mother's love protection, would find a host in Charlus Potter, who had been hiding so well neither his mom nor the dark lord had known he was in the room.

It was the day Charlus Potter became an Horcrux.

It was also the day that Sirius chased after Pettigrew and get framed by the rat.

But, more important of all, it was the day that Albus Dumbledore walked got the Potter Twins from Hagrid's hands, took one look at the thunder-shaped scar on Charlus Potter forehead and reached the conclusion that the wrong baby Potter had been "marked as an equal" by Voldemort. Thus, that was the day that Charlus Potter became The-Boy-Who-Lived.

And the plot as we know it died a tragic dead.

To Be Continued.

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AN: So that's it for now. I plan to update this, at the earliest, on October 2017.

I hope this SI fic was good for you. I have read too many SI in the Harry Potter area that have left me disappointed.