Disclaimer: None of the characters you recognize belong to me. It all belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Chapter 2

One by one each of the Potters fell out of the fireplace, the adults more gracefully than the children. The Leaky Cauldron was only just beginning to fill up with customers, many blinking tiredly at the early hour while a few others were wide awake and rushing off to a new day's work.

Both James and Rhea were fascinated by the strange, eclectic collection of people currently being served breakfast by the kindly bartender, Tom. He seemed to be having particular trouble understanding one man's heavy Scottish accent. The man was getting more and more frustrated as he repeated his order, eventually banging his fist on the counter and spewing what sounded like curses in another language.

James was focused solely on this confrontation, trying to memorize the angry words, barely even noticing when his father picked him up and moved him out of the way of the aisle. Charles made his way towards the counter, frowning as he listened to the angry stream of words coming from the man's mouth.

"Hello," Charles said, as both the men at the bar turned to look at him. "Is everything all right over here?"

The Scott snorted and rolled his eyes, turning back towards the bar.

Charles merely raised an eyebrow before turning to the bartender. "I hope this man's not giving you too much trouble, Tom."

Tom, looking eager to talk to someone with a friendly face, gave a pleasant, if stressed, grin and answered "Of course not, Mr. Potter. It's nothin' ol' Tom can't handle."

Charles grinned back before turning back to the man slumped on a barstool. "Now, what was it you wanted?"

James leaned forward a bit, hoping to hear what the man said, but was unable to. Evidently, Charles could hear because a moment later he said, "A firewhiskey? This early in the morning?"

"That's what I was trying to tell him, sir." Tom said. "We usually don't open up any firewhiskey till later in the afternoon."

Charles looked curiously at the scruffy man for a moment before turning to Tom. "Well, do you think you could get some out for him? I know it's unusual, but…" He trailed off, looking at Tom hopefully.

Tom sighed and nodded, heading back to retrieve the drink.

As it was brought to the man, Charles turned towards Emma and called, "You four go on without me. I'd like to speak with Marcellus here a moment."

Leean and Emma began to usher the two children, both of whom were confused by the sudden change in plans, out of the bar. Once out the door, they paused, waiting for Leean to pull out her wand.

"But… who?" James trailed off, looking to his mother for an answer.

Rhea watched as her mother and aunt shared a secretive look. Her young face turned to a frown and her eyebrows furrowed as she looked on, confused.

Rhea stared at a trashcan for a moment, as though hoping it would give her answers. "But… how did Uncle Charles know his name?"

"Charles know a lot of people. Comes with being Head of a department," Emma said quickly, not quite meeting Rhea's eye. "Now come on. We have a lot of shopping to do today. James, your father will come meet up with us soon, so let's get going."

Leean moved to face the brick wall leading to Diagon Alley. "We need to go to Gringotts first, so there's no point in telling us if you see something you want. We'll look around on the way back. Got it?"

There were two murmurs of assent as the children tried to put the strange incident out of their minds. After all, Rhea thought, there was always time to think about it later, when there wasn't shopping to be done.

As Leean used her wand to tap out the correct sequence on the wall, Rhea felt the excitement building up inside her. Slowly, the bricks began to move, opening to show the magical shops of Diagon Alley.

Leean moved briskly through the portal, before turning back to find that only her sister-in-law had followed her. "Come along, you two. Let's not be standing here all day."

James and Rhea glanced at each other, elated, before moving through the portal at a half-run. Both adults moved swiftly through the crowds, Leean more purposefully than Emma. Emma constantly looked back, making sure the children were keeping up, and stopped Leean when she was moving too fast. The children, for their part, were looking around at the happy madness with interest, watching as some witches and wizards negotiated prices, argued about current events, or even, as one wizard was, walked around covered in filth holding out a cracked crystal ball as he told of the doom and destruction the future would bring.

"Listen!" he screeched, barely heard over the cacophony, "You can hear the cries of war to come! Look!" He shoved the cracked crystal ball towards a shocked women and her child, his face mad with panic. She moved away quickly, shielding her child and pushing him along, glancing over her shoulder in fear. The mad man did not seem to notice her leaving, but continued to push through the crowd, holding the ball aloft. "You can see the savior of our world!"

James and Rhea didn't even need to look at each other to know what the other was thinking. Simultaneously, they began to slip through the crowd toward the old, decrepit man.

They finally reached him, trying to tell some shoppers previously enjoying ice cream and sun outside of Fortescue's about an evil lord, half-man, half-snake, who would try to take over all of Britain. He let out a mad cackle. "Only the savior can stop him! Look!" He held out the crystal ball again. The others backed away, but he continued to babble nonsense. "Leave! Leave, while you still can! He will kill you all if you do not heed my warning!"

James and Rhea glanced nervously at each other before approaching him.

"Excuse me, sir," Rhea called politely, watching in shock as the man whirled around to face her, his eyes bulging out from his head. "If you don't mind, my cousin and I would like to see this 'savior'."

The man stood there a moment, staring at them as his mouth opened to show a few crooked, dirty teeth. Rhea wondered if he even understood what she said. She looked nervously into the crowd for a moment, hoping her mother and aunt had not gone too far away.

Just when she was about to tug James away and head toward Gringotts, the old man moved. He pushed his crystal ball in front of their faces, his wide eyes never moving from James' face. The ball was immaculately polished, and in excellent condition, aside from the rather large crack. It contrasted greatly with the mans gnarled, dirty hands.

James and Rhea peered into it with interest, and were disappointed to see only James' reflection.

"You see," the man whispered, leaning in towards them. He glanced around, as though he were sharing a secret. "The chosen one."

"But sir," James said indignantly, "that's just my-"

"James!" Emma's sharp voice pierced the din as she reached out to grab her son's shoulder. "What did we tell you two about staying near us at all times?"

"Well… It's just…" He glanced nervously at Rhea, hoping she had a better excuse than he did.

She hung her head. "We're sorry Aunt Emma." Her voice was low and guilt-ridden. "We were just curious. I mean he was shouting…"

She trailed off as she noticed the old man was no longer next to her.

Emma rolled her eyes. "Come on. Leean's waiting by Gringotts."

James and Rhea followed her through the crowd, careful not to fall behind again.

When they finally arrived at Gringotts, Leean ran forward from where she had been waiting by the door. She hugged Rhea and then James.

"If you two keep running off all the time, I'm afraid the next time we're going to have to leave you at home."

"No! We won't go anywhere, we promise," James started earnestly. "It's just, we saw someone-"

"We got distracted," Rhea said quickly, stepping on James' toes. As he winced, she continued. "We thought we saw there was a new flavor of ice cream."

Leean's eyes narrowed as she watched the small exchange. "Uh-huh. Well, we need to get going. We'll talk about this again when we get home, alright?"

Both children sighed and then followed their mothers into the bank.

While the adults were waiting for a goblin to be free, Rhea pulled James aside.

"What were you thinking?" she whispered angrily. "You know how mad they would be if they found out we were talking to some stranger. Especially one that's completely mad."

"Sorry." James said sheepishly. He then gave an eager grin. "But he was absolutely barmy, wasn't he? I mean my own reflection…"

Rhea looked amused, but then frowned slightly. "There was something funny about it, though."

"What?"

"For a second, I could have sworn your eyes looked green."

"Er- Maybe it was a trick of the light? I mean, we didn't really get a good look at it."

"Yeah, your probably right."

"Either way, we should catch up to Mum and Aunt Lee. Wouldn't want them to go to the vault without us." James flashed a taunting smirk. "Unless your too chicken to ride the cart and want to sit it out."

"Never!" Rhea took off running, pausing only to shout back, "Race you!"

James quickly began to run after her screaming "No fair!" as he went.

A/N: I'd really appreciate any feedback. Please review! It would encourage me to update faster...