Prologue
Eleven year old John Wendell Potter came from an extraordinary family. A family of over-achievers to put it bluntly. His siblings were all easily capable of juggling multiple tasks. All were quite successful in every thing they did, be it in Quidditch or grasping knowledge with ease. And each had their own special skill making them unique among the rest of the family.
His elder sister Lily Selene Potter was coming up to be a budding potions genius. His elder brother Jason Sirius Potter was the most popular Quidditch player and then there was his younger brother Jaime Nyx Potter( the name a combination of his paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother, his parents had squabbled a lot over equal rights to naming their last newborn.)
Jaime was an inventor. Or so his mother said and she was most probably right. He had been able to activate their mother's most complex defense system during a raid. The brat had been barely five then.
Really, John would have taken the names of either of his brothers any day. He was named after Remus John Lupin and his middle name came from his maternal grandfather who his mother had never been able to track down as of yet. It wasn't even the old man's real name! It was a pseudo name used when his maternal grandparents had gone into hiding because of the wizarding turmoil. It just wasn't fair.
The family had an exacting standard, but John was sure none of the others noticed. But they weren't normal were they? His father for all his talks about wishing to be normal was at a loss to deal with normality when it confronted him. He tracked down rogue wizards, which was no mean feat. He often said he had gotten used to it. John could only wonder what kind of life his father had had for him to be used to living perpetually on the brink of death.
He had told John there was nothing wrong being normal. But when John came back with low marks or would fail to mount a broomstick, the man would look confused or sorrowfully at him.
His mother "tinkered" away with ideas for new innovations. Both his parents were highly sort-after by the press, but they rarely indulged such requests. He stayed away from her. All he got was lectures for his bad marks, though said in a soft, sympathizing voice it made them more bearable.
His parents couldn't understand him. He blamed his siblings for that. They were used to seeing perfect marks and aerial feats, who could blame them if they looked nonplussed when he had one day hesitatingly announced he had come fourth in Gobstones? It wasn't exactly high on their list of achievements.
"Merlin Johnny, if I could throw a Galleon at you for every one of your daydreams, I would be knutless!" exclaimed Jason Potter seeing his brother on his bed with a faraway expression plastered on his face.
John was about to point out the irrationality of his statement, but then his little brother joined them just then, saying, "Does anyone know where Selene is? I have a feeling mother and father are going to give us something but are waiting for us all to be in one place when they do. And I'm quite impatient."
"Well Jaime, Selene must be in the Apothecary...with Teddy I think."
"That's far..." said John
"Yes no doubt about that Genius!" scoffed Jason before stalking out, pulling Jaime along with him, "You better come down for dinner. Dad's cooking."
Selene was in the Apothecary, but not with Teddy.
Their mother leveled a glare at her, "What is this I hear about you disturbing Severus Snape?"
"Eh? Snivellus?" chimed Jason, winking at his father
"How many times have I told you Jason not to insult the man?"
"Too many times to count." murmured Jaime, experimentally poking at the gravy on his plate.
"It's not like I'm telling it to his face, right dad?"
"He's right Janie." smirked their father, trying to spoon extra gravy onto his wife's plate who resisted his efforts.
"I'm on a diet." she announced sternly, more to herself than to him, "It's healthy greens from now on."
Their father had a dismayed look on his face, before annoyance set in, "Fine then, extra serving for everyone else."
John couldn't get much of the extra serving. How can one when one had three very dominant siblings? Jaime for all his calm and sweet demeanor was as competitive as his siblings when it came down to it.
"You're missing out Janie." their father informed viciously and his wife threw him a venomous glare and stole his plate as well, "You should get on a diet as well."
"Now you're not making sense." his father waved his spoon over an absent plate, "I am on the move half the day, while you're in one place tinkering away_"
"Tinkering away?" his mother asked sharply
"To use a layman's term darling."
"A regressive term!"
"Let it be, now give back my plate."
His parents also had a tendency to be childish. John though glumly looking at Selene's fat portion of gravy longingly.
Though if one thought about it they were certainly better off than the Weasleys. The raging war had taken a toil on their resources and the family was huge in number. There were the grandparents, their seven children and then the tripled grandchildren. It wasn't very feasible. Especially when prosecuted by the Ministry and scorned by the pureblood wizardkin.
Dinner was over and they were all in the living room waiting when their parents brought in the "trinkets". There were four, so maybe they didn't have to share. Then again John didn't remember needing to share anything. Anything material that is.
"You should decide among yourselves." his father said indicating the wrapped packages.
When their parents were gone the siblings tore upon them, only for it to come undone before they could touch."
"Jaime!" Selene groaned, "I was looking forward to opening them."
"Faster this way." said Jaime, placing the spare wand back inside his pocket.
"Let's see what we have." muttered Jaosn examining the trinkets.
The Potter invisibility cloak, the Marauder's map( Yes, finally!), a thick dark book and a locket..
John inwardly moaned. He was going to end up with the locket. Selene wasn't the type for them, and she would undoubtedly go for the map or the book.
"I'm taking the locket." announced Jaime, plucking the silver thing from the floor and walking off.
Selene twitched her nose, "Now the map would be useful, but so would the book. Of course one can learn everything the book might have to offer so..."
"How about we all just choose one, but let the others borrow temporarily? That way we all can use all of it." Jason suggested.
"They agreed, and Selene thus took the book, John the invisibility cloak and Jason the map.
John didn't know their lives were blessed, better than most in the world.