A/N: I hope you enjoy this, and please review! It would mean so much to me :)

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, and I don't own Harry Potter. I wish I did, though.

Chapter One

It was a truth universally acknowledged that James Potter was not the kind of eleven-year old you wanted unleashed and allowed to run free in a train station crammed with thousands of innocent civilians. Well- truth be told, James was not the kind of eleven-year old you wanted unleashed anywhere.

His mother, upon realizing he was not, as she had expected, standing obediently behind her, entered a state of panic verging on hysteria. "He was standing right here just a minute ago!" She looked around the crowded train platform, searching desperately for a glimpse of his unruly black hair. Instead, she was met with the markedly less pleasing sight of her husband fiddling discretely with his wand, completely oblivious to the fact that his son was nowhere in sight.

"Your son has gone missing," She said, her voice rising to an octave shrill enough to break glass. "Do something, Francis, don't just stand there!"

Her husband flashed her a look of annoyance. He was trying to receive a wand message from the minister of magic without drawing any muggle attention, and his wife's ravings were not making it any easier. "Eleanor", He growled through gritted teeth, "You know what happens when I miss a code orange message from Donston." As the Minister of Internal Affairs and one of the most influential wizards of his time, Francis Potter was one of the few people in the country on a first name basis with the Minister of Magic. His influence, however, was useless against the provoked maternal instincts of his wife. He tried to ignore the death glare she was shooting at him and focused his attention instead on the silvery wisp issuing from the tip of his wand. "Just give me thirty seconds."

Eleanor huffed angrily. "You know what happens if you leave your son alone for more than thirty seconds."

Francis Potter was no longer listening- not to her at least. The silvery wisp billowing out of his wand took the shape of the minister's severe, imposing face. It was not a face many dared to ignore, even to placate irate wives. "Mr. Potter, this is a code orange emergency, we need you at the ministry immediately." The image turned orange and blinked out.

Mr. Potter sighed and turned to his wife, running a hand through his immaculately combed hair. "I need to go, you make sure he doesn't get into any trouble. Just use a sweepsearch spell if you don't manage to find him after awhile." He said in a low voice, pecking her on the cheek as he turned to leave. "Don't look at me like that, I hate having to do this as much as you do- I had a whole 'be responsible' speech planned out."

Eleanor sighed, but couldn't help the sides of her lips from twitching upwards. "So that was what you were practicing in front of the mirror yesterday night."

John Potter blushed and straightened his tie self-consciously. "Well, I'd better be going- try not to let it reach the ministry... Donston already wants to send James to an adolescent reformatory as it is. That incident at the museum- oomph!" Eleanor had leaned forward and planted a kiss on his lips. They were both smiling now. She watched the tall figure of her husband disappearing slowly into the crowd before setting out in search of her son.

After a few minutes of dodging round throngs of people and their speeding trolleys, she gave up and sat down at a bench. "Might as well wait for the scream," she said, surreptitiously casting a massage charm on her feet. These blasted muggle high heels were more formidable than they looked.

A few minutes later, the catastrophe Eleanor had been expecting occurred, albeit on a scale much larger than she had deemed her son capable of causing. This was, in itself, quite a feat because she wasn't, by any means, one of those mothers who underestimated their sons. I'm getting a little too old for this, she thought, sighing resignedly. An important point to note, is the fact that she was only thirty-six years old. She hitched up her skirt, and rushed to the battle scene.

Feathers exploded in a million different directions like fireworks as trunks morphed into large squawking parrots. Trolleys veered wildly to avoid the growing flock of birds, careening into walls and old tottering women. A crowd had gathered around, some them guffawing loudly, some of them still screaming.

"What's happening?!" Bellowed the security guard, completely bewildered and not very amused. A particularly large lump of bird poop landed on his head, silencing him momentarily while he scrambled desperately for tissue paper. Trolleys rose to the air, levitating above thousands of stunned faces like ceiling fixtures. They then proceeded to dance a little jig in the air much to the amusement of the onlookers.

"Merlin," breathed Eleanor, "It's a good thing I touched up on that mind-wipe spell." She launched into action, waving her wand in the air frenziedly. When she was sure every suitcase had been returned to their respective owners, she wiped clean the memories of the past ten minutes from the minds of every muggle unfortunate enough to have witnessed the incident. Herds of baffled commuters circled the area for a few minutes, wondering what it was they were about to, trying in vain to remember things they had already forgotten they knew.

Mrs. Potter now rounded on her son. "You deserve a long lecture right now- unfortunately, you're running late as it is and I don't want the train to leave without you," She marched along the train station at a blistering pace, dragging the lanky black-haired boy along by the scruff of his neck. "Never, ever, do that ever again, do you understand? What if something had gone wrong?"

"Aww, mum, nothing could've gone wrong." James, at eleven, had already mastered his trademark cocky grin, much to the consternation of his mother.

"James, anything could go wrong. Never forget that."

"Alright, mum, enough with the death glare already. Your eyeballs look like they're gonna fall off."

Eleanor sighed and couldn't help but laugh. His sparkling, gold-flecked hazel eyes and the endearing dimple on his left cheek made it extremely difficult to stay mad at him for long. "What? Only my eyeballs? I swear, I'm going to lose every strand of my hair before I'm thirty, no thanks to you and the kind of stress you put me under."

"I'll buy you Gordon's Magical Hair-Growth Shampoo for Christmas."

"Couldn't possibly use that. It's for middle aged wizards with beer bellies. I might grow a beer belly by accident."

"Like Dad, you mean." James said, grinning. "I'll send him that for Christmas then. Speaking of which, where is he?"

"James! Your father doesn't have a beer belly," Eleanor said, swatting at her son, huffing angrily. "He doesn't even drink beer! And he isn't middle-aged either."

…

"Just in case this turns out to be a big joke, I'd like to say before I end up too dead to speak- this is a brilliant prank." They stood in front of the brick wall marked 'platform nine and three quarters'. James eyed it suspiciously from a distance.

Eleanor Potter rolled her eyes. "Thank you for the undeserved compliment. Now, you'd better go before the whistle goes-" A faint train whistle blew in the distance as if to prove her point.

"Bye mom," James said, his eyes shining with excitement. "Don't miss me too much,"

"I will, whether you like it or not." Eleanor Potter felt a sharp stab of sorrow as she watched her son pass through the platform wall the way she had done, so many years ago. Immediately, she wanted to rush through the gateway, drag him out and hug him close to her forever. She forced down the lump in her throat and blinked fiercely. "Oh James..." She croaked, her voice cracking with emotion, "Please try to stay out of trouble." She shook her head, realizing how absurd that sentence sounded even before she finished it. She knew her son well enough to know that he couldn't keep himself out of trouble if his life depended on it.

Little did she know that this innocuous thought would turn out so chillingly true thirteen years into the future.

A/N: Thanks so much for reading this, I'll be putting up new chapters (and a prologue) soon, so keep your eyes peeled :) Pleease review... I will love you more than James loved Lily. Well, maybe a little less. But still, review :)))