Chapter 1: Five years later

A messy black haired twenty two year old studied himself in the mirror in his bathroom as he brushed his teeth, "Get your game one!" Evan Parker thought as he spat out the toothpaste into the sink. So much had changed in these four short years, he was now 5'11' and had a bit of muscle on him due to all the rigorous training he had everyday with United, he then smiled contently at his trophy cabinet, in particular at the medals and trophies he had received over his beginning career, among them were his first and most precious PFA Young Player of the Year, 1998-89 Champions League Medal, his five Premiere League Medals and four FA Cup Medals.

Then, after switching into a grey Adidas tracksuit, he snuck out of the house quietly for his routine jog. Things have changed dramatically over the course of five years, since the day of his debut against Leicester City, one being that he became well recognized on the streets of Stretford, Manchester. Maybe it was that thirty-five yard volley against archrivals Liverpool or it was that miraculous hat-trick over Juventus but for whatever reason, he couldn't walk into a coffee shop without making a big fuss.

Thankfully, Sir Alex Ferguson kept much of the media away from his players, including Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, whom were uncomfortable with interacting with the press. Evan often visited the orphanage where he was raised before being adopted, bringing Manchester United Jerseys and footballs along with other gifts to the children living there.

In addition, Evan often played along with the children, it reminded him so much of the times he played in the small field when he was just a small boy.

Eight year old Evan received the ball, and instantly nutmegged one boy and went past another with the infamous Cruyff turn and scissored around the keeper and tap the horribly deflated ball into the net.

Evan snapped out of his thoughts and stopped in his tracks as the small man turned red, thankfully being it was only seven in the morning, the streets of Manchester were relatively quiet and peaceful. Then after another thirty minutes of well paced jogging, Evan returned to his house just a few blocks away from Old Trafford Stadium.

"Hello, dear, how was your morning run?" Evelyn Parker greeted her son as he came in the front door, Evelyn was a tall and slender woman with shoulder length dark brown hair with bright blue eyes, even though she was in her late thirties, soon to be early forties, one couldn't tell from simply looking at her.

"Great." Evan said with a smile and gave his mother a big hug.

"Go take a shower, you stink." With a grin, Evan bolted up the stairs. Then after a quick shower, he came down and sat down on a chair in the spacious dining room where his two elder sisters, Meredith and Cassandra were already seated and were chatting idly about something girlie no doubt Evan deducted, both girls looked after their mother, tall and slender; the only difference between the two was that Meredith had a darker shade to her brown hair whilst Cassandra had a strawberry blondish color and had blue eyes instead of hazel.

"Going to win today Evie?" Meredith asked.

"Seriously, are you ever going to stop calling me that?" Evan retorted with his arms crossed.

Cassandra giggled and added. "You better, dad is more insane than anyone else in Trafford when it comes to United vs. Everton."

Before Evan could react, a deep jolly booming voice echoed the dining room "Good morning everyone." Edward Parker was a big man in his early forties, his almond colored hair was neatly cut and his brown eyes were filled with warmth and joy. Edward kissed his wife before giving his daughters a peck on a cheek and ruffled his son's already unruly black hair.

"You ready kiddo?" Edward asked Evan as Evelyn, Cassandra and Meredith laid the plate of pancakes on the center of the table and a plate of bacon and eggs for themselves.

"Yup, the boss has been stressing the importance of the match since we finished playing Newcastle in St. James last weekend." Evan replied, in fact, Manchester United had been undefeated in twenty-six games since last April.

The women of the household just rolled their eyes as the conversation of football between father and son quickly escalated enthusiastically.

"I hate it when they go into these conversations." Meredith groused.

"I know! It's like they don't even think we exist." Cassandra huffed with her arms crossed.

"That's not true!" Edward and Evan remarked, Edward looking at his wife for support but only got a smile along with a shake of her head.

"Anyways, how are things doing in the salon Cassie?" Edward asked.

"Wonderful, business has been sky high since my dearest superstar of a brother cuts his hair there." Cassie replied with a smug smirk at her brother who just glared.

"Speaking of which, you need to cut your hair soon." She added which elicited a squeal from Meredith, who surprisingly worked for Armani, "Also a new wardrobe!" Evan made a face, he wasn't exactly fond of clothes shopping but it was inevitable, being that he had two older sisters who liked to dress him up when he was younger. In fact, photos of their handiwork could be found around the house, something Evan didn't really want the media to find out.

"I have enough clothes already…I'm not like David, whose married to the biggest pop star in the country and needs new clothing for every appearance he makes." Evan murmured while giving the photo of him with the Spice Girls on a nearby shelf a quick glance.

"Hmmph, that boy is selling clothes and promoting perfume more than playing football these days." Edward said with his arms crossed and a glare on his face.

"Dad…" Evan sighed.

"Fine, fine, I know the lad's your friend, just wanted to tell you to be careful… I'll just drop it right now even though the other lads at the agency believe that." Edward huffed, he was a senior Journalist for Manchester News.

"Don't mind your father, he's just in denial that he's no longer young and hip." Evelyn remarked, earning a rather loud "HEY!" from her husband. Evan shook his head, his family was definitely special and he wouldn't trade it for all the money in the world.

Meanwhile, many miles away in the starting to be busy city of London, was a house that was dark and gloomy despite the brightness of the sunshine. However it was unlike any house that had ever existed, only people who are magical and noticed by the Secret Keeper could see it. The miserable old house was called Number Twelve Grimmauld Place and it rightly deserved the name as the exterior was dark, dank and unfriendly.

Within, a rather oddly dressed old man with an ancient looking face, a long white beard, half moon spectacles and robes made from light blue silk that went all the way to the floor was looking at the faces of the people in the same room as him. They were known as The Order of Phoenix, an organization dedicated to resist the dark wizard, Lord Voldemort; who was technically dead but not quite rose again in the summer of 1994, through a set of incredible old dark magic at the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament, a tournament between three magical schools.

Ever since the rebirth of Voldemort, the wizard world was in chaos though the Ministry of Magic was adamant that the Dark Lord was not back. As a result, Minister Fudge ended up hanging lifelessly from his entrails from ironically, his own statue in the middle of the Atrium.

What's worse, the entire Wizard World was shocked to the core when Voldemort himself revealed that the prophecy actually required two boys, not one to defeat him and reveled in mocking his former professor, Dumbledore for going to such means as sending the Potter's other child away and obliviating the child's parents. With a mock bow, the Dark Lord thanked the Ancient Headmaster and disapparated away, cackling like the madman he was, leaving the leader of the Light on his knees.

He had been searching for the lost boy ever since but with no luck, since he had obliviated everyone at the orphanage nineteen years ago to prevent the boy from knowing his true name, something Albus truly regretted doing. To say the Potters were livid would be a huge understatement; James had to be held back by Sirius, Lupin and Kingsley to prevent him from going at the old man.

"Arianna…I have done so many wrong and hurtful things, I don't expect you to help guide me but I will make this right, no matter what it takes."

"HE DOES IT AGAIN! WOULD YOU BELIEVE THAT? EVAN PARKER'S Second hat-trick of the season! And what a way to route it off, a bicycle kick, great cross from Becks. His manager is looking absolutely gobsmacked, what a player this young man is turning out to be! That makes it 6-2 to Manchester United, their unbeaten, invincible form continues." The commentator exclaimed as Evan was group hugged by his teammates. Evan took out his silver crossed necklace and kissed it before pointing both his index fingers to the sky. He basked in the chants of his name from the United fans, nothing in the world felt better than having your name chanted by a large multitude of people.

Then as the final whistle was blown, the two teams shook hands and jerseys were exchanged. In the United dressing room, it was utter chaos, that was until Sir Alex Ferguson came in and immediately, the celebrations died out. Gary Neville smiled sheepishly before putting on his shorts, causing Evan and his other teammates to snicker loudly.

The boss then complimented them a "job well done" and patted Evan on the shoulder lightly before departing. Never the one to be the partying type, the messy black haired twenty-year-old midfielder quickly changed into his comfortable grey hoodie, long black Adidas training pants and sneakers before giving the rest of the squad 'the slip.' He then slipped into the driving seat of his car, a second hand Silver Mercedes convertible and started towards home.

It was due to his mother's insistence that he got the car he was driving now, Evan never thought it was necessary since he lived pretty close to Old Trafford Stadium and the malls around the city and preferred to walk. He stopped at the sign of the red lights and flinched when he heard loud giggling, a red convertible was in the lane left of him and its passengers included four girls around his age.

Evan silently prayed for the red-light to turn green faster and when it did, he sped off with much enthusiasm. When he arrived back at his home, the gates opened for him and he parked the Mercedes right next to his sister's BMW in the spacious garage. Stretching his arms, he opened the door which led to the house and as he entered the living room.

"SURPRISE!" Evan was shocked to see confetti raining upon him and was gathered in a big hug by his mother. "What's the occasion." His father then came out from the backyard and embraced his son, "Proud of you, lad, you did this old man proud." T

Then, with his parents' arms on his shoulders, he was led out to the backyard where the scent of barbeque filled his nostrils. Evan had a great time, the food was fantastic, and spending time with his family was wonderful since the life of a professional football player, especially a Manchester United player was usually extremely busy with four cup competitions to win, not to mention daily training which took out most of the day.

"Hi Evan…" Evan became as still as a rock as he heard the voice, it was one that he hadn't heard of in a very long time and it brought up memories he wished to forget. He slowly turned around and surely his ears were correct.

There, standing, as beautiful as the last time he saw her was Nicole Lancaster. Her long dark auburn hair, still shoulder length and her eyes still a piercing hazel color. Her Levi's jeans and black tank top showed off her curves flawlessly. Edward was looking nervously at the scene unfolding before him, his son was rather broken when the girl left the country, something about becoming a professional dancer but he couldn't blame her because Nicole was and still is his son's first love, judging by the pained expression on his son's usually cheerful face.

"You sure this is a good idea dear?" Edward asked with a raised eyebrow to his wife standing next to him.

"Just let it play out Ed…" Evelyn replied with a reassuring smile. Edward just scratched his head but obeyed his wife as she was, though he would never admit to his friends or children, the brain in their relationship; his wife was insufferably protective of their son, ever since they had brought him back from that orphanage.

Evan, realizing that he still hadn't said anything opened his mouth and said in a soft tone, "Hey Nikki….how was Italy?"

Nicole, never taking her hazel eyes off his, didn't seem to heed the question as she threw herself into the arms of the man she had missed so much and regret leaving. Evan, eyes wide, could barely comprehend what was happening instead, reciprocated her hug just as tightly burying his face into her silk textured hair, "I've nearly forgotten how good it smells like." Evan thought.

Slowly, after what seemed like an eternity he pulled away slightly and his eyes softened when he saw that Nicole was sobbing slightly, her hands clinging around his waist tightly afraid that he might disappear into thin air if she were to let go.

Wiping away the tears with a handkerchief, Evan paused when he heard "There wasn't a day….where you have never entered my thoughts…Evan, I don't ever want to be apart from you again, I don't care what my parents think…I love you.." Nicole whispered.

Evan was beyond shocked, he was a person that liked to be prepared for whatever future had in store for him but for once he didn't have a plan. He had two choices, walk away and spent the rest of his life wondering what could have been or take a leap of faith and be with the woman he loved. Evan didn't need another moment as he gently lifted Nicole's chin and kissed her longingly, with a passion that he thought he had lost. She kissed back with the same intensity if not with more intensity than he.

They only parted their lips due to the lack of oxygen, Evan was the first to break the moment, with a low whisper, "Don't leave me...I love you…"

Resting her forehead against his, "I promise…I love you too…so much." Nicole answered with sincerity and love in her hazel eyes, she had hurt him yet he remained ever faithful.

"What did I do to deserve someone as good and perfect as him." She questioned herself as she buried her face in Evan's chest.

Everything seemed to be perfect but alas, destiny will soon play a cruel joke on the young man once again.