AN: I read a story like this about 6 or 7 years ago and fell in love. I haven't been able to find it again nor do I remember many of the details and so I've decided to try my own hand at it. I plan to do all seven books.

Advanced Warning: I'm not the biggest Harry/Ginny fan. I love Ginny as an individual character and there will be no hate for her, but I'm not sure yet if I'll have Harry end up with her. Not that that matters in this fic as he doesn't even get an eye for girls til about 3rd or 4th year.

Also, Sirius is still in Azkaban until 3rd year. Don't worry I have a plan so it'll work. But we won't get into that until the third year!

If you have any more questions feel free to let me know in the comments. Thanks and I hope you all enjoy.

Oh and sorry one more thing. There will be no OC's in this. James doesn't remarry ((That may change depends on popular opinion or if I feel like it.)) Remus doesn't have any kids. (Until 7th book) and Sirius is still in Azkaban.

(October 31st, 1981)

On the edge of a rather small hovel of a town, there sat an equally small and dusty little pub. It wasn't the kind of place that had a lot of visitors and those who did go in were old and depressed. The man who owned it was beginning to gray himself but he just couldn't find it in him to shut the place down. It was still rather early in the evening and he was wiping down the bar to keep himself busy his eyes flicking over to a table in the corner keeping an eye on their drinks. They'd walked in about an hour ago and had hardly ordered anything at all claiming they were waiting for friends.

They were both quite young, though it seemed one was more well off than the other. The old man wondered if they'd been stood up. So instead of demanding they buy something he simply let them be. It was Halloween after all and there wasn't exactly a line to get in.

They were an odd sort. The more spiffy of the two was twirling a foot long stick between his fingers and he could have sworn he heard him talking about Hogwarts, whatever that was, perhaps it was a skin condition. He hoped it was nothing contagious.

The two young 21-year-olds it turns out were as far from normal at it was possible for them to be. They were, in fact, wizards and had only chosen the dingy little bar because it was safer. You see James Potter was supposed to be under house arrest and in hiding, and no one would have ever thought to look for him in the middle of a muggle pub.

It was supposed to be a night away, a few drinks among friends to celebrate the Holidays and give him a chance to stretch his legs. His wife, Lily, had suggested it. But it was certainly not going as planned.

James' knee twitched impatiently.

"James. Put that away." The shabby looking man looked at his friend before glancing at the bartender wearily.

"It's fine, I'm not using it." He shifted in his seat anyway sticking the wand in his back pocket and smiling to himself when he thought of what one of his senior Aurors would say if he saw him do such a thing. He glanced at the clock once more and sighed "Honestly Remus I'm getting worried." Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew were supposed to have met them there 45 minutes earlier and had still not shown. It was quite usual for one or both of them to be a bit late but this was getting ridiculous. And James despite having Lily's permission had wanted to be home before his young son, Harry, was put to bed.

"Maybe there was an emergency with the Order and he and Peter were called away. There might even be an owl at your house waiting for you as you speak."

"If there's not I'm going to write him a howler."

"James." Remus sighed in exasperation at his friend, but James just smirked.

"Teach him to stand me up." James declared. Remus rolled his eyes amused but he too stood up. He moved to lay down a few bills for taking up the bartenders time but James beat him to it with a little smile. "Would you like to pop in for a bit, Lily will be happy to see you and I know Harry misses his Uncle Moony."

The two left the bar walking back down towards the house. James was chattering away about plans to prank both Padfoot and Wormtail once he saw them.

"James!"

Said man paused looking at Remus wondering why he had stopped his ramblings. Only to see his friend's pale face staring up at the sky. He followed the man's line of sight and was reaching before his wand already running toward his house. Small trails of smoke billowed into the night sky, but it was the dark green skull and swirling snake hovering in the clouds for all to see that was most gut wrenching.

((10 years Later.))

James Potter woke with a start, his alarm ringing in his ears and sweat pouring down his face. He blinked blearily his hand searching for his glasses as he wiped his forehead on his Pajama sleeve. He pushed the round spectacles up his nose and tapped his wand to the clock stopping the annoying noise.

It wasn't the first time he'd had that dream, and it most certainly wouldn't be the last. He pushed the blankets off of him and stretched yawning. His eyes caught the calendar hanging on the bathroom door and he grimaced. It seemed his day wasn't going to be getting any better

He threw on some muggle clothes and shuffled through through the quite house until he was beside his son's door. He knocked once. Twice..

"I'm coming in." He creaked open the door and heard a groan as the light from the hallway filtered through the room and illuminated the face of a young boy. Said boy pulled his blankets up over his head so only a few tufts of raven black hair could be seen.

James couldn't help a small smile. "Come on, I know you're up." On any other day, the child would already be up and about full of energy, but he knew just like last summer and all the summers before that Harry was simply being stubborn. He flicked his wand watching in amusement as his son tried valiantly to keep hold of his comforter which levitated off of him.

"Noooo!" He complained when it was tugged from his fingers.

"Up and at em'"

Harry sent a piercing glare at his father grabbing a pillow and pulling it over his head his scrawny body curling up as his bare toes met cold air. "I don't want to go. Let's skip it."

"Harry we have this conversation every year."

"Maybe one year you'll listen to me."

"This is important." James tried to make Harry listen to reason but the boy was stubborn. A trait he'd gotten from both himself and lily which made it doubly so. He flipped on Harry's light before moving to perch on the edge of the bed. "Look I know it's difficult but it is necessary, family is important."

"They don't act like family." He grumbled voice muffled by the pillow pressed over his head.

"I know they can be a bit… difficult-"

"A bit!" Harry sat up looking at his father an expression of disbelief on his face. "Every time we leave you always complain, so why even go in the first place."

"Petunia is your Mother's sister. They may not have gotten on the greatest but Lily still really cared about her. She would have wanted you two to know each other, and it's only a week." Only partly true. Lily did lover her sister, and he knew she always wanted to reconcile with Petunia. But the real reason they had to go visit was for the protection wards. Petunia was Lily's only living blood relative and for Lily's sacrifice to keep Harry safe it was necessary to visit them once a year.

None of them liked it. The Dursley's absolutely hated them and Harry and James were not that fond of them either, but if it meant Harry was safe then James would happily grin and bear it.

Harry was not privy to the last bit of information. James had told him about his mother, and how she'd saved him. But he didn't want to burden Harry with anything more than that. Voldemort was gone, dead? James doubted it, He and lily had fought Voldemort, and there was something so inhuman about the dark wizard, no, he was certainly out there somewhere, weak, powerless. Not that Harry needed to know that. He was just a child, and with any luck, Voldemort would stay gone.

He looked at the clock on the wall and sighed. "Come on, we're going to be late."

Harry pouted grumbling as he finally crawled out of the bed. "Who cares… stupid…" He muttered and James ruffled his hair earning an even more irate glare from his son. James put his hands up in surrender, He looked just like his mother when he glared at James like that, and he was certain that by the time he reached fifth year his glare would be quite frightening to anyone it was directed at.

"Well, I'll be downstairs making breakfast." He said leaving Harry to get himself ready.

Harry shuffled around his room pulling on a plain slate gray t-shirt and blue jeans. He ran a brush through his messy locks trying to tame it as much as possibly before ambling down the stairs and into the kitchen. He couldn't help a small snort as he caught site of breakfast.

"Don't laugh I worked hard on this." His father teased passing Harry the milk as the boy filled his bowl with chocolate puffs.

"Yeah, I'm sure it required a lot of effort." Harry felt a bit better, but the pending Dursley visit still seemed to loom over them. He hated having to see his nasty relatives and could not imagine how Aunt Petunia was anything like the sweet and loving mother that Harry had stared at in photographs or listened to stories about.

At the very least they'd be doing something fun. The Dursley's insisted on having them around for Dudley's birthday if only to get James to spend money on expensive gifts for Dudley.

His cousin was a very large boy round and plump he wore clothes four times the size of Harry's and he was, in Harry's opinion, a big fat git. He teased Harry all the time, about his hair, or glasses, or lack of a mother (though only when none of the adults were around). And Harry would have no choice but to put up with the bullying because he knew his dad had a hard enough time with his Uncle without worrying about Harry.

The first few years things hadn't been too bad, but then Harry had begun to display larger amounts of accidental magic and the Dursley's would just not have any of that freakishness in their house even if they knew Harry couldn't control it. He hoped this week would pass without incident, but he had a nasty feeling bubbling within him filling the bespectacled boy with unease.

AN: Any reviews would be appreciated. :)