James Sirius Potter-Dursley, who preferred Jase, sat down at the table in his Aunt Jessica and Uncle Dudley's kitchen. His aunt walked in and ruffled his ink black hair affectionately.

"Remind me later and I'll cut your hair." Jase had to admit that his untidy black hair was badly in need of cutting, not that it would help it stay down. It always seemed to be sticking up all over the place and nothing he or his aunt tried seemed to work. His bangs hung into his brown eyes and hid the scar on his forehead. It wasn't that Jase was embarrassed by the scar that was shaped like a lightning bolt; it just raised too many questions. Questions that Jase didn't have answers to.

"Aunt Jessica, don't you think that I should make breakfast like usual?" Jase said tentatively as his aunt cracked an egg littering the pan with bits of shell. She smiled apologetically and handed him the other egg in her hand. For as long as Jase could remember, he liked making breakfast. He couldn't really cook anything other than breakfast food but he was still better on than his aunt who could burn toast.

Because it was a weekday, Jase didn't make a big breakfast like he did on the weekend. He only made sunny side up eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage, toast, orange juice and tea.

Just as Jase was pouring the tea, Uncle Dudley walked in. He nodded at Jase without saying anything. Dudley wasn't very talkative especially to Jase. It wasn't that he was mean or rude to the boy; he just didn't really know his nephew. Neither of them had exactly made an effort to learn much about each other.

Aunt Jessica forced Emma-Claire and Walker to get out of bed and come to breakfast. "We are a family and we will eat our meals like a family!" She said as she followed her twins down the stairs. Jase's cousins were only six months older than him so they all were in the same grade at school together.

Emma-Claire was quite popular with a lot of friends. Her light brown hair was cut just below her shoulder and she almost always wore a headband. She had blue eyes that reminded Jase of the ocean although he couldn't remember ever going there.

Walker could only be considered popular if you became so by beating up everyone who looked at you oddly. He was built like a house with a block shaped head and legs like tree trunks. The kids that Walker beat up were usually too scared to tell their parents so the Dursley's didn't realize what a terror Walker was. The only time he did much more than ignore and avoid Jase was when he remembered that he was just as good a punching bag as anyone else. This didn't happen very often because Aunt Jessica tended to notice if Jase was covered in bruises.

The family muttered their thanks before digging into their breakfast. Jase silently spread raspberry jam on his toast as his aunt told them what they needed to do for the day. It was a moot point because Jase would end up doing most of it anyway because Walker would, of course, be out with his gang all day.

The alarm clock on the counter went off, signaling that it was time for Jessica and Dudley to leave for their jobs. Aunt Jessica was a receptionist at a high profile law firm and Uncle Dudley had his own contracting business. There was a flurry of activity as the adults rushed around the kitchen putting dishes in the sink and grabbing their lunches. Then with a kiss on the cheek, they were gone and the house was silent. As predicted, Walker's gang was at the door a few minutes later.

Shrilly, the phone rang a while later. Jase didn't pay any attention to it because no one ever called for him. Jase heard Emma-Claire squeal into the receiver which meant that one of her friends was back from vacation.

Jase didn't have any friends; Walker had made sure of that, not that anyone had ever really tried. All of the other kids were afraid of Jase because of his accidents like the time he had turned a teacher's hair purple or when he had vanished into thin air once while giving a presentation. He hadn't meant to do anything strange. Strange things just seemed to happen to him like when random people come up to shake his hand in stores and on the street calling him Mr. Potter.

After cleaning up from breakfast, Jase went up to his room which was simple and the way he liked it. The walls were white and the only furniture was a bed, a desk and a wardrobe. On the desk, books from the library were piled dangerously high. Jase found his company in books, not boring books about plants or planets but books about witches and wizards, dragons and knights and all other kinds of wondrous things.

Lying on his forest green comforter, he was reading a book about a farmer's son who discovered a dragon's egg.

Just as the story was starting to pick up, there was a scream. Jase had to stop for a moment and think about whether it was in the story or if it was real. He heard it again and realized that it was Emma-Claire. Taking the stairs two at a time, Jase ran into the kitchen just in time to see a tawny barn owl fly out of the open kitchen window.

"What the-" Jase exclaimed. Emma-Claire sat down hard on a chair, staring at the center of the table. There were two envelopes that looked like they were made of thick cream colored paper. The only difference that he could see was in the names on the front.

He picked up the letter to get a better look, making sure that his eyes weren't playing tricks on hum. They weren't, across the front in a neat, tight script it read,

Mr. J. Potter

Second Bedroom on the Left

12 Applewood Road

Little Whinging, Surrey

He looked up from the first piece of mail that he had ever gotten. Emma-Claire sat, her letter clutched so tightly in her shaking hands that her knuckles were white.

"What do you think it is?" She asked quietly, never taking her eyes off of the envelope.

"Only one way to find out." said Jase as he tore open the envelope.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmistress: Amelia Woodward

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Sincerely,

Neville Longbottom

Deputy Headmaster

He read it twice not fully believing it but somewhere inside, he knew that this wasn't a joke. In the back of his mind, a thought arose. "I hope I'm not in Slytherin." It shocked Jase because he didn't even know what a slytherin was but his stomach filled with dread when he thought the word.

"An owl?" Emma-Claire said. "How are we supposed to send an owl?"

"Wait," Jase read her letter over her shoulder. It was exactly identical to his except for a note at the bottom. "It says that someone will be by tonight to explain to your parents." She nodded slowly then gasped and looked up at Jase.

"This is why you can do all that weird stuff, like the time with Granny's cat!" Jase flinched at the memory. Great Uncle Vernon had been saying how Jase's parents were a bunch of no good, low life, criminals. Jase had gotten so mad that it had felt like his stomach was boiling and then Caspar, Great Aunt Petunia's cat had blown up like a balloon and sailed out of the open window. Great Aunt Petunia started screeching and Uncle Vernon yelled something about Great Aunt Marge (who refused to come within ten feet of Jase). Then Uncle Vernon had yelled at Jase to get out of his house and to never come back, which would have been perfectly fine with Jase. Of course, Aunt Jessica still forced him to go with the rest of the family every Sunday afternoon.

"I guess so." shrugged Jase still bothered by the sudden arrival of the word slytherin. He couldn't place where he had heard it or why it had such a bad connection. Jase just knew that he didn't want to be associated with the word.

To take their mind off of the letters, Jase suggested that they bake a birthday cake for Uncle Dudley and Aunt Jessica's birthdays which where back to back with hers that day and his following. Together, the two of them had more fun than Jase could ever remember having with his cousin. He actually couldn't remember ever having as much fun.

As they were waiting for the cake to cool so they could decorate it, the cousins sat down at the table.

"Jase, do you think these have anything to do with your parents?" She asked, looking at the letters in the center of the table. This was the first time that she had ever said anything about his past because none of them every talked about it. The few times that Jase had asked his Aunt, she had simply shrugged and told him that she had never met his parents. There had only ever been one time that Jase had been able to pluck up enough courage to ask his uncle about them. Dudley had turned to him and said "Well, your parents- they- they were good people. You look just like your dad but you got your mum's eyes. They didn't deserve what happened to them." He shook him head. That was all he said. It sometimes bothered Jase that he couldn't remember anything before he came to live with the Dursley's when he was seven.

"Yeah, I- I think it does." He said, never taking his brown eyes off of the letters. The cakes were cool enough to decorate, ending the conversation.

While they waited not so patiently for the adults to get home, Jase couldn't help but wonder if he had done things like this for his own parents when they were alive. He didn't even know how they died. It wasn't so much that he didn't want to ask, he just didn't want to know because of what Uncle Dudley said, 'They didn't deserve what happened to them,' There was something about that sentence that made Jase wary. He liked to think of them dying instantly and painlessly together like in a car crash.

That night Uncle Dudley surprised the family by taking them out to dinner. Emma-Claire managed to surprise Jase by not bringing up the letters at all though, she might have been waiting for the same thing he was, a time that felt right.

Thankfully, the time to tell Dudley and Jessica about the Hogwarts letters was decided on by someone else. When the family got home, Emma-Claire and Jase presented their cake which they had decorated in blue and yellow which were Aunt Jessica's favorite colors. The cake was received to rave reviews even though Jase found a few eggshells in his piece.

Just as the Dursley family was sitting down in their usual way to watch the nightly news, their doorbell rang. Jessica looked puzzled and asked the children if they were expecting any company. Jase and Emma-Claire shared a knowing look before following her into the hallway. Walker, not wanting to be left out crowded in with them just as Jessica opened the door.

"Hello, I presume that you're Mrs. Dursley?" A tall man with broad shoulders and wavy brown hair said. Jase had the distinct feeling that he knew the man but couldn't remember ever seeing him.

"Yes,"

"I am Professor Neville Longbottom, the Deputy Headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Letters were delivered today and I believe they arrived at this address, announcing my arrival." He said. Jase's hand automatically went to his pocket where he had stored the letters.

"Kids?" Aunt Jessica turned partially around. Jase didn't say anything but handed her the letters. She quickly skimmed both and nodded at the note on the bottom of Emma-Claire's.

"Please, come in, Professor Longbottom." She led him into the parlor where he sat in Jase's favorite armchair.

"Dudley, dear, this is Professor Longbottom." The large blond man studied the professor for a breath. "We've met before. You were friends with Harry." Dudley said finally, holding out his hand.

"Yes, I'm glad that you remembered." The man with good taste in armchairs said with a nervous laugh and took Uncle Dudley's hand. He scanned the room until his blue eyes finally landed on Jase.

"You must be James. You look just like your father but your eyes," he said quietly, "you've got your mother's eyes."

"You knew my parents?" Jase asked as he scooted closer from his place on the floor.

" Yes," He laughed. "Yes, I knew them quite well." Professor Longbottom said and looked down at his hands solemnly as though the mere thought caused him pain.

"Professor, I don't mean to be rude but why are you here? Dudley and I knew that Jase was a wizard." Jase realize that she hadn't read the names, only scanning the bodies of the letters and assuming that both letters were for Jase.

"Oh, I'm not here about James. I'm here to talk to you about your daughter, Emma." Uncle Dudley turned noticeably paler and Aunt Jessica's jaw dropped to the floor.

"Emma-Claire," Walker said, slightly disgusted.

"My apologizes, I didn't know that you used you're middle name also." Professor Longbottom said making a note but Jase could see that it hadn't been a correction but a statement to get her attention.

Walker looked absolutely repulsed. His brown eyes were filled with horror and focused on the one person that he had never hurt before, his sister.

"What?" She asked innocently.

"You – you - you're a-a-a freak." He spat at her. "You're just like him, just as strange. No one's going to talk to you when they find out that you're- you're like him!" Walker yelled before storming up the stairs.

Emma-Claire's bottom lip twitched violently as her bright blue eyes turned stormy and really looked like the ocean.

Professor Longbottom seemed to be slightly in shock because he sat for a moment in silence. Then he suddenly seemed to snap back into real time.

"I'm so sorry about your brother." He said tenderly and patted Emma-Claire gently on the arm. Jase got the feeling that the professor knew a lot more about tears than laughter. Jase has heard the phrase once in a book and thought that it was the only way to describe the look behind Professor Longbottom's eyes.

After a beat, he launched into a long speech about supplies and such that they would need and how to get places but Jase didn't listen.

"Now, I must be off, a few more muggle families to explain to. Jase, Emma-Claire, I'll see you on the first of September." He nodded before letting himself out. The visit had left Jase with even more questions and fewer answers.

A/N: Thanks for reading! If you like this enough to favorite or put on alert please review and tell me what you like!

-Prim