Hi! So this is my first attempt at a multi-chapter story. I hope to update at least every two weeks. Please review! Thanks.

Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter or any plots and characters.

2022

It was a normal summer afternoon in the Potter household that day. The sun peaked out from the clouds, a relief after a fortnight of rain. Harry was at the Ministry, working overtime to accumulate a week off to spend with his children. Ginny sat at her desk in the study, fingers tapping away at the keys of a typewriter, finishing her column on the Chudley Cannons tenth losing season in as many years. The only thing strange about the whole scene was that James, Albus and Lily were inside also, rather than chasing after muggle ice cream trucks or playing Quidditch in the yard in the back, which they shared with the Longbottoms and George and Angelina Weasley.

It was no accident that the three Potter children were inside for the day. In fact, they had voluntarily locked the front door and closed the blinds. James joked that it was for a demon summoning ritual, at which Albus replied that it had been proven that demons weren't real, and Lily said that it was an impractical place to perform a summoning, as the blood needed to draw the pentagram would stain the carpet and give them away. They had pulled it off quite well, but James knew they were joking. His siblings did have some sense of humor, no matter how small.

In fact, the reason the siblings were inside on a nice summer day was not particularly magical at all. Actually, it was a common problem among muggle celebrities, though on a larger scale. The truth was, a cameraman for Witch Weekly had spotted the three children walking around the muggle parts of Godric's Hollow, and had decided to follow them. Using James's crazy ideas, Albus's knowledge of physics, and Lily's strategies, they had managed to the escape the cameras and slip into their house, which paparazzi was not allowed to come near.

The siblings had gone their separate ways, James upstairs to test some of the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products that Uncle George had sent over, Albus to floo Rose and have a debate about whether or not flooing should be allowed without permission, as Albus had apparently entered her room while she was doing her hair, and Lily, bored to death, to examine the pictures on the fireplace mantel for the umpteenth time.

She had memorized each of the pictures on the mantelpiece, as it was usually what she did when she was bored. As much as Lily liked plotting her enemies' downfalls, James was the idea guy. She was the one who planned out how exactly they were going to pull it off without getting caught. She didn't like to reread books over and over again like Albus either, even though she did like to read. All together, it was a recipe for boredom.

The first picture was her parent's wedding picture. They were young, but not as young as her grandparents. Dad was laughing, his black hair sticking up exactly like James and Albus's did. Mum was smiling the widest Lily had ever seen, her eyes shining even in the picture. She was beautiful too, her hair pulled up in a gracious up sweep, and a gorgeous white dress with flowing skirts. On principle, Lily didn't consider her parents particularly dashing (unlike the rest of the Wizarding World). She was, after all, a teenager. But she thought they looked wonderful in their wedding picture. It was rather sweet.

Lily's eyes scanned over the rest of the pictures- her, James and Albus as babies, each of their first year sendoffs from King's Cross, eighteen Christmases, and countless birthdays, until she got to the other picture she particularly liked to examine. In it was a red haired woman with bright eyes and a dark, messy haired man with glasses, but the couple wasn't Harry and Ginny. It was her grandmother and grandfather, James and Lily Potter. The whole Wizarding World seemed to know exactly what had happened to them- how they had died when her Dad was a year old. There was even a bloody statue in front of the church in Godric's Hollow! She could hardly forget them. But no one seemed to know much about who they really were, rather than what they did. Their three best friends were dead, two honorably and one a traitor, and Lily had never gotten up the courage to ask Professor Mcgonagall or Professor Flitwick, the only two professors at Hogwarts old enough to have taught Lily and James.

She picked up the frame, examining it. It was new, unlike the picture, obviously. It was taken before Dad was born, probably somewhere around 1979. Lily popped the photograph out from the frame and examined the back. Written in small letters, so messy she could hardly read it, was a little note.

Glad you had fun, but I had to stand in the wind and it messed up my hair! Happy anniversary. Love, Sirius

Funny, Lily had never noticed that before. She supposed she had never pulled the picture out of the frame simply because she would have been scolded for it. Strange, that had never stopped her before. Albus had the right idea with his speeches about possibilities. Of course, it was usually accompanied by a statistic, and by then she and James had stopped paying attention. But really, you could pretty much do anything if you thought outside the box. It was certainly more interesting, it seemed.

Sirius… The name rang a bell in her head. Where had she heard that name before? Lily glanced around the mantel, eyes settling on a picture near the back. Still clutching the photo of her grandparents, she leaned forward to examine it. She recognized her father immediately- messy black hair and a burgundy scar sticking out on his pale forehead. A man stood with his hand on her Dad's shoulder, laughing. He had shoulder length hair that might have once been neat but had been ruined by… something.

By Azkaban, Lily realized. This was Sirius Black. Dad's godfather. Her… great godfather? He looked much better than most people would've after twelve years in the brutal wizard prison.

The picture must have been taken in 1995 or '96, because Sirius had died that spring. Lily wasn't sure why, but it had something to do with a curtain.

She frowned, trying to dig up the memories. The Second Wizarding War was awfully complicated, with so many people as spies or under the Imperius Curse or on either side that it took years to remember. Besides, Lily had made a point of ignoring Professor Binns on the subject, not wanting to hear a familiar name.

All of the sudden, a body crashed through the fireplace, smacking into Lily and separating her grip on the picture. She fell back onto the wooden floor with Albus on top of her with a painful smack! while the picture flew across the room and hit the wall with a crash! as the glass shattered.

"Al, you prat!" Lily exclaimed, running over to examine the picture. "Couldn't you have walked through the floo like a normal person?" The glass had shattered completely, puncturing the photograph in places. Other bits of the frame covered the plank floors in a fine dust of broken glass.

"Calm down, Lilykins," Albus said, rubbing the back of his head. "The fire's supposed to glow green before I come out. And anyway, I couldn't have walked through it, seeing as Rose shoved me in. She wasn't happy about me appearing in the middle of her hair styling time. It's a lot bushier when she doesn't magic it, did you know that?"

"Yes, I did, " Lily replied through gritted teeth. "I'm a girl too, in case you hadn't noticed. She taught me how to style my hair. And you better be able to fix this. It's the only picture Dad's got of his parents."

He sat down, prying the broken frame from her fingers, which were beginning to bleed from the glass. He examined it a moment, before drawing his wand.

"You ought to fix that," Albus added, motioning to her fingers. "This'll be an easy one, I do it with my glasses all the time. Surely you can repair a measly picture frame, Lily."

Lily, having decided that her fingers weren't important enough for her attention at the moment, rolled her eyes. "No, I can't, because of something called underage magic. Not all of us are seventeen, Al."

"No. You're the only one who isn't," Albus replied, and received a swat on the arm with bloody fingers for it. "Merlin, Lily. Just joking. And look, you've stained my sleeve!"

"Can't you clean a measly sleeve, Ravenclaw?" she said, mockingly. "Seriously, Al. Dad'll kill me. Fix it!"

"He won't kill you, but fine." Albus drew his wand, and without uttering a word, he waved it over the picture frame. Even the tiniest bits of glass lifted off the floor, fusing together flawlessly, as if the frame had never shattered. Even though Lily had grown up with magic, sometimes it still amazed her. "And by the way, Lils, this won't be the only picture Dad's got of his parents. There are probably boxes downstairs."

"Right," Lily said. "I knew that."

"No you didn't. Besides, now you've hooked me in. Let's go look for them." Albus took her wrist, pulling her toward the basement stairs.

"Stupid Ravenclaw curiosity," she muttered, pulling away. She glared at him for a moment, folding her arms, before succumbing to his pout and following him down the stairs. After all, she was rather curious too.

The basement was by no means a pleasant place. It wasn't finished, so the walls and floor were made of concrete, which was horridly cold in the winter. In the summer, however, it was rather pleasant, the coolness of the underground room, if you could ignore the towering boxes of stuff stacked upon the walls. James, Lily and Albus had spent lots of rainy days downstairs, playing hide and seek or show and tell. They hadn't spent much time down here lately, preferring to spend their days with their cousins or friends rather than in a cellar.

Lily and Albus descended down the creaky wooden staircase, the dim light flickering in the room. She kept her hand gripped to the railing, careful not to fall down. It wouldn't be very fun. As she stepped down from the landing, she nearly tripped over a newer box- full of what appeared to be programs for the Ministry dinner her parents had to attend each year.

"Blimey, there's so much more rubbish in here than there was when we were little." Albus had tripped over a bag of old Quidditch uniforms for the team Lily had played on when she was eight. He winced as he got up, rubbing his ankle.

"Oh, please," Lily scoffed. "I know it doesn't hurt. Quit being stupid, Al." She cracked her knuckles and glanced around the basement, frowning. Boxes, mostly normal looking cardboard ones sat on countless shelves. They looked normal, but she knew some of them were magically enhanced, most likely so that they were bigger on the inside. "Where would those pictures be?"

Albus brushed off the back of his trousers and began to dig through a box next to him. Lily turned around to check a bag sitting on the ground near the foot of the stairs. She opened the top carefully, to make sure nothing popped out at her. (Her uncle owned a joke shop. It paid to be careful.) Inside the box, there was some sort of muggle plastic sheet in the box, with air filled bubbles attached to it. As she picked it up, the bubble popped, tickling her fingertips.

"Hey, Al. You took muggle studies. What is this stuff?"

Albus sneezed, dust covering his face. He glanced over at Lily, nose wrinkled. "Not photographs," he noted.

"Thank you, for that wonderful speech." She rolled her eyes. "Yes, I can tell it's not a photograph. But what is it?"

He dropped the box he was holding, letting stacks of old chocolate frog cards fall onto the floor. Most of them were of Dad. Albus stuck his hands in his pockets, brushed off his nose, and picked up the plastic sheet. "It's bubble wrap," he said grinning and popping another bubble.

"Bubble wrap? What's it do?" Lily frowned and folded her arms.

"Keeps muggle's fragile stuff from breaking when they mail it. But the best part is…" he stuck the bubble wrap in her face and popped a few bubbles. "That."

"Right," she replied, rolling her eyes and shoving away Al's hand. "We should keep looking for the pictures." She squeezed the picture frame from the mantel to make sure it was still there, and began to trek deeper into the basement. She ran her fingers along the shelves, briefly glancing into each box for more frames. Her fingers left a trail of clean in the dust covered boxes, like a line of footsteps in untouched snow.

She peered into a box and noticed a strange hourglass on a necklace balanced on top of an old candy tin. Deciding it was just weird jewelry, Lily looked farther up and noticed a picture frame poking out of a box just out of her reach. Even as she stepped up on the bottom shelf to try to jostle it, her hand fell an inch or so short.

"Al! Help me out here! I think I found something!" Albus turned around and watched Lily for a moment, deciding the best way to help.

He had come to the conclusion that he should try to hoist Lily up, like he used to when they were little. Later it would occur to him that he could have used magic, but he had only turned seventeen a month ago and his brain was used to figuring things out without it.

"Get down. I'll lift you up." It would also occur to Lily later that they should have used magic, but she was focused on the picture, one of the few times she was only thinking about one thing at once.

She hopped down from the shelf. Albus made a step with his hands near the ground, grunting as she stepped onto them. Lily was expecting to simply reach up and grab the box, but he had another idea. He pulled his hands up fast, with her standing on them, attempting to hoist her up to the top of the large box.

It worked to some extent. Lily was flung upwards, right in reach of the box, but the problem was that she couldn't hold on. She reached for one of the flaps, which gave way to her weight, sending her down to the box below, which held the strange necklace. She just barely managed to keep hold of the picture from the mantel before the hourglass necklace broke her fall, shattering and showering it's golden dust all around her, and the world disappeared.