Chapter One: First Day at Salem Magical Children's School
Four years and two months later...
Harry Potter stood outside of the Salem Magical Children's School. He had been informed by his parents and uncles that the instances of him teleporting the baby bottle off of the counter and banishing building blocks wasn't anything bad, it was just accidental magic and that he was a wizard.
The boy had been amazed when he heard that at three years old. Now he was going to be going to school with kids just like him: magical kids who were as young as he was and went all the way up to eleven years old.
As he stared at the large brick building and its glass doors, he heard his parents exit the car behind him.
"So, Harry, what do you think?"
The little boy looked up to his mother.
Lily still had the little bit of body she'd gained from carrying and giving birth to her little man, but she was still a shapely woman. Her red hair went down to the top of her pants in a ponytail, and her emerald-green eyes shined in the sunlight of that August day.
Beside her, James stood as well with the hair that would never behave. His brown eyes also shone, but at a lesser tone than his wife's thanks to his circular glasses. Harry had inherited most of his dad's looks, but he had Lily's eyes.
Said young boy spoke up excitedly.
"It's such a big building, Mama! I bet it can hold hundreds of people in it!"
James laughed at his son while Lily smiled.
"Well, maybe not that many but it still holds a lot of kids. We'd better get inside, though - we don't have much time left before school starts and you don't want to be late." Harry bounced as James shook his head.
"Don't get him excited, Lily. We'll never get him to sleep tonight otherwise." However, James himself chuckled after saying that.
"Well, at least he's enthusiastic. Remember what we feared would happen, love?" James nodded. The four Marauders (Lily had been inducted after concocting the plan to go to the USA) had all feared that Harry would be scared of the school and make every effort a four-year-old wizard could to evade having to go to school. The two parents were glad to see that those fears were unfounded (and James could tell Remus the infamous 'I told you so.').
The three walked into the school with groups of other parents and children, both groups excited for different reasons. The children were excited for two different reasons: the new students were excited for something new while the returning students were excited for another year of learning magic and being with their friends, while the parents were excited because it got the kids out of the house for seven hours and that gave them time for things that they normally couldn't do with the kids in the house.
James and Lily escorted Harry to his preschool classroom, where the teacher stood with about fifteen other preschoolers sitting on a mat with a repeating color-changing charm on it that kept said children's attention.
The teacher, Helena Johnston, noticed the family walk in.
"Hello! Are you the Potters?" Lily nodded.
"Yup. I'm Lily, the man-child over here is my husband James and this is my four-year-old son, Harry." James nodded amiably while Harry shyly waved from his position in front of his mother. He glanced around and saw a face he recognized, that of his best friend/godbrother Neville Longbottom. He waved to the boy, who stood up and made a mad dash for his brother.
"Harry! You made it!" The two hugged and Mrs. Johnston chuckled alongside the Potter parents.
"Well, Harry, Neville, we've got to be going. Tell us all about school after you get home, alright?" Lily kissed her son on his cheek - making the boy blush - and James simply ruffled the untameable black hair of his son before the couple walked out.
Harry smiled at Neville, pulling something out of the back of his jeans.
"I got my wand yesterday, Neville! Ten inches, sacred oak wood with a phoenix feather core!" Neville laughed, pulling his own out.
"Well, Mama did say that I could tell you about my wand after you got yours. Mine's eleven and a half inches, elder wood with a dragon heartstring core." The two boys shot sparks at each other, laughing, before the teacher called out.
"There'll be time for that later, you two. Come on over here, we're going to say the Pledge of Allegiance." The two boys walked over to the group and placed their right hands over their hearts, just as the teacher did, and started reciting the Pledge of Allegiance with the rest of the class.
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all." The hands fell.
"Alright, children, settle down. I'm Mrs. Johnston, your teacher, and first off we're just going to learn everyone's names, alright? Sit down in a circle and I'll join you." The sixteen students sat down in a circle, Harry sitting right next to Neville with a smile.
Helena sat down between two girls who'd made a spot for her and smiled at her class.
"We'll do it like this: you say your name and one thing you like, alright? I'll start. I'm Mrs. Johnston, and I like teaching." The girl to her right spoke up first, therefore putting a counter-clockwise spin on the names.
"I'm Mariah Redstone, and I like my big brother Jacob!" Mariah had a deeper voice, even for a four-year-old.
"I'm Sam Hemel, and I like playing with my pet dog Sparky."
"I'm Alicia Barrett, and I like..."
Around the circle this went until it reached Harry and Neville.
"I'm Harry Potter, and I like playing with my uncles Moony and Padfoot." Said boy wrapped his right arm around Neville with a smile.
"I'm Neville Longbottom, and I like helping my mama with the garden at home." The last three children said their names and then Mrs. Johnston stood up, beckoning the children to follow her to the corkboard with the rules list.
"Alright, kids, now let's read the rules all together, alright?
Rule Number One, the Golden Rule: I will not do something to someone unless I would like that done to me.
Rule Number Two: Share if asked to share.
Rule Number Three: Be on time and don't wander around.
Rule Number Four: Ask to go get a drink and to go to the bathroom, don't just go.
Rule Number Five: Raise your hand to ask a question or give an answer. Don't blurt it out unless told otherwise.
Rule Number Six: No bullying allowed. This ties in to Rule Number One." After that, the woman showed the children to their desks and allowed them to put their wands on the desktops.
"Okay, kids, the first thing we'll be learning is how to make some basic spells. Who here can tell me one basic spell?" Mariah's hand shot up.
"Yes, Mariah?
"Lumos!"
"Good! Lumos is the most basic of spells, and all it takes is this!" Helena made the required flick of her hand while saying the word, and the tip of her wand lit up. The children all made oohs and aahs and she extinguished it with the counterspell, Nox.
"Okay, now who can tell me another?" Harry raised his hand.
"Harry?"
"Finite."
"Good! Finite is used to cancel basically any spell. All you need to do is point your wand at a spelled object and say: Finite! Try Lumos, Nox, and Finite now. I'll enchant your desks with a simple color-changing charm so you can try Finite." For the next fifteen minutes, the children got down the incantations and wand movements for the three most basic of spells. Harry naturally got the incantations down pat quickly, practicing the first two with the spare eleven minutes he had left over. Neville, on the other hand, took ten minutes to get all three down.
After this lesson, the children were started by Helena on mathematics, and after that, phonics and their English classwork. Eventually, it got all the way to history.
Harry was excited for this one. He always loved hearing about the past.
"Okay, children, settle down and put your English books away in your desks. I'll pass out your history books in just a minute." The woman walked over to the cabinet to the left of the door, pulling out a stack of sixteen thin children's history books. She put one on everyone's desks and returned to the front of the room to write on the blackboard.
"Please turn to page one in your books and silently read the paragraph there." The children started reading slowly. Helena looked at her watch.
Eventually, five slow minutes passed by and every one of the sixteen students was looking at their teacher.
"Alright, so I see you've read the content. Can anyone tell me what it says?" Mariah raised her hand again, and Helena picked her again.
"History is the recording of the past, writing down that which has happened. Without history, we wouldn't know how we got here or how we do things. With history, we can read about the brave soldiers of the Army or the Great Depression. With history, we can figure out where we've been and it can help us to go forward." Helena nodded after Mariah finished.
"Good, good."
Too soon (for the kids), 3:15 PM rolled around and with it the end of the school day.
Harry and Neville's parents stood at the curb, waiting for their children to run out and when they did, Lily and Alice caught the two four-year-old missiles.
"Hey, son. How'd school go?" Harry laughed.
"It was so cool! We got to do a few basic spells, and we got to learn some history!" Lily laughed alongside her husband and Alice and Frank.
"Well, seems as though the children enjoyed school. We'll be heading home now, you three." The Longbottom family walked off to their own vehicle, got in, and drove off to their home. The three Potters soon followed their close friends' example and drove off to their own home.
As the three entered, they were approached by a behemoth black dog who suddenly licked Harry quite sloppily. The boy laughed and wiped himself off.
"Hey, Padfoot!" The dog made a barking laugh and transformed into Sirius Black, one of Harry's two uncles. The other one walked in and smiled at seeing Sirius pick up and hug Harry.
"Harry had fun, I think, Moony."
"Yeah, seems that way, Feathers." Lily laughed and transformed into a beautiful white eagle and flew off towards the second floor of the home, towards the library, before turning back to Lily.
James shook his head in amusement as he saw his wife fly off.
"Hey, Remus - I told you so. Harry wasn't scared at all. In fact, he was quite enthusiastic and still is." The cautious werewold shook his own head in amusement, walking forward and taking Harry from Sirius. The man had the decency to look astonished.
"Hey, give me back my pup!" The two playfully fought over Harry and Remus won, with Sirius stalking off towards the living room while James heartily laughed at this. The two men walked into the kitchen, where Remus set Harry down and let the boy run off while he and James grabbed cups of coffee.
"Really does seem like little Harry had fun." James nodded and took a sip of his drink.
"Any contact from Albus while we were gone?" Remus nodded.
"Fawkes flamed in a minute after you left. He's up in your bedroom, waiting for you to take the message off of his leg." James nodded and, in one big swig, drank the rest of his coffee. He set down his cup and walked into the living room to see Sirius shouting at the TV, which was playing an American football game - which was between the San Francisco 49ers and the St. Louis Rams.
"Come on! Go, go, go! Damn!"
"Having fun yelling at the TV, Sirius?"
"Wha? Oh, hey, James. The Rams are fifteen yards from a touchdown and the 49ers' defense is on point today. They've got fourteen points while the Rams only have three. I want the Rams to win." James laughed. While he had never really gotten into sports, Sirius had taken to American football like a fish to water. Probably because of the fact that there was tackling and running for your life in the game.
"Well, I'll head up to my bedroom and see what Fawkes has for me from Albus. Probably the same thing he's saying every time, 'come back and defeat Voldemort' and all that. We left the country because of that damn prophecy! We're not coming back until he's gone!" James walked up the stairs while Sirius returned to the game.
Entering his and Lily's bedroom, James smiled at the sight of the phoenix.
"Hi, Fawkes. Whatcha got for me?" The bird stuck his left leg out and James untied the letter on it.
"To the Potter Family:
Your wish has been granted. I have reluctantly taken the steps to stop the Dark Lord and he has been defeated, but not without a huge loss.
A wizarding family has defeated Voldemort with my help, but all three members of the family are dead. The parents were killed first, allowing the baby child to both take and rebound a Killing Curse from and to the Dark Lord. The baby is dead, but so is the Dark Lord.
I'm sorry to say that most of the Death Eaters have gone to Azkaban. They could've been redeemed but they did things that were severe enough to warrant their placement there.
Best wishes,
Albus Dumbledore
Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards
Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot
Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry"
James laid the letter down and blinked.
Voldemort was dead.
The war was over.
All because a family invoked obscure magics meant to protect a child from death.
Only the child didn't survive.
James ran his hand over his face. Suddenly, his good mood was trampled over by bright purple robes with stars and moons on them.
He quickly walked over to his desk to pen a reply.
"To Albus Dumbledore:
That's amazing news, but it's not going to bring us back to England. We're all set up here in the United States and we've got Harry in elementary school. To pull him out now would be unthinkable.
He's already made friends with the Longbottoms' kid, Neville.
Still, thank you for the news.
Thanks,
James Potter"
He folded the letter, put it in an envelope, and closed the envelope before tying it to the phoenix's leg. Fawkes nuzzled his friend before flaming to Harry, nuzzling and cooing to the young wizard, and then flaming back to Dumbledore.
Lily walked into the bedroom, seeing James standing and shaking his head.
"James? What's wrong?" She wrapped her arms around her husband's shoulders from behind, and the man sighed.
"We just got a letter from Albus. Read it, love." He handed her the parchment, and Lily was astonished as well.
"At least the war's over. What did you write back to him?"
"Only that we're too entrenched here in the USA. Harry's in school now and to pull him out wouldn't be good, my love." Lily kissed her husband's cheek before moving around to stand in front of him.
"Good. You know, that's the best thing you could've said." The two then shared a passionate kiss before James' hand drifted down to Lily's abdomen.
"How far along are you now?"
"Only two and a half months, James. I won't be showing for at least another half a month." Lily was pregnant again with another member of the Potter family, and she was ecstatic at being able to give Harry a little sibling.
However, she didn't really like having the morning sickness a second time or the accursed mood swings.
The family of five was a happy family. Harry ran around the house when he wasn't in school, playing with the large black stuffed wolf he'd gotten from Sirius when he was only two.
Sirius, during football season, could be found in the family room watching the latest football game.
Remus was normally found in his office at the end of each month, tallying up the expenses and income.
Lily stayed in the library most of the time brewing the Wolfsbane potion every month for Remus and just generally reading. James usually sat with her, and when he wasn't he went to the basement and their training room they'd built in order to keep his skills as sharp as possible due to his being in the American Department of Magical Law Enforcement (DMLE).
The next few years would be uneventful, mostly...
A/N: First Harry Potter story of mine, and I think this turned out quite well for a 'first' (second really) chapter. Yes, I made the Longbottoms go to America, too. The thought is that Albus, upon losing the four Marauders to America, told the prophecy to Frank and Alice, who promptly followed their friends' example and fled across the Atlantic.
Next chapter will be the major events that happen between 1984, when Harry starts school at the SMCS, and 1991, when Harry's Hogwarts letter arrives at the house. Hermione comes in during a shopping trip to Diagon Alley in chapter three.
Until then.
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