Chapter Two: Following in the Footsteps

The sun dawned on a quiet summer day in Grimauld Place, a day much like any other in the long uninterrupted freedom that Summer Holidays could bring for children. But in one household in Grimauld Place, today would mark a very special occasion: one which the family had been looking forward to for years.

Number Twelve Grimauld Place was a curious residence as, to most people, it wasn't even there! Only to those who had been informed of the secret of the house could see it. The family that lived in Number Twelve was not people who got overwhelmed by inconsequential things, but today the house was alive with celebrations of a truly momentous event. A celebration very similar in nature to that which had taken place at Number Twelve in April of the previous year was taking place. For on that day, July the 14th, Albus Severus Potter was celebrating his 11th Birthday!

Perhaps to most families, 11 would not be marked by a particularly special or meaningful celebration. Such gatherings would be saved until two years later, at the 13th Birthday, or perhaps expended the year before for the 10th. However, the Potters were not an ordinary family by any means: they were a family of Wizards!

And amongst Wizards, the 11th Birthday was one of the most important that a child would ever have. For it was after their 11th Birthday that a child would be able to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The year before, Albus had been forced to watch his brother James go off to school without him, and had agonized in jealousy when James had returned spouting tales about his adventures at the infamous Wizarding School.

But this year, Albus was not to be left behind, for this year was to be Albus' First Year at Hogwarts, where he would have all sorts of adventures just like his brother! When Albus' Hogwarts Acceptance Letter arrived just a few short days later, he was practically leaping with excitement.

Waving the letter in his brother's face he said "Look, look Jamie! I'm gonna go to Hogwarts with you this year." his boyish excitement bursting from his small features.

James, for his part, had rolled his eyes at his brother's enthusiasm, though he had been just as excited the year before. "Yea, that's great Al." James had replied dryly, "So long as you don't end up in Slytherin!"

Albus' happiness had faded somewhat at this prospect, but he had quickly brightened again saying "I'm not gonna be in Slytherin Jamie, I'm gonna be in Gryffindor like you, and mom, and dad, and everyone else!" Of course he would not be in Slytherin, why would his brother say that?

"Whatever you say Albus" James replied coolly, walking out of the room, already knowing that his words were going to continually haunt his brother over the coming month.

At first however, James' words meant nothing to Albus, just the usual teasing that he had to undergo from his older brother. But then he started to think about what would happen if he was in Slytherin. After all, wasn't he named at least in part for a Slytherin? Albus Severus Potter!

Like a festering wound, the question began to fill Albus' mind, possessing him until he could think of nothing else. James, on the other hand, had many other things on his mind. Many, many other things.

He had waited, waited and waited and waited as long as he could, put it off as long as possible, but now he was going to have to tell his father what had happened at the end of last year in the Forbidden Forest. James had not told anyone yet, and the thought of his father's reaction petrified him.

But he had to tell his father, partly because it concerned him, and partly because James was very scared about what the experience had meant. For that May, while he battled an agent of the Voldemort Revisionist Movement and attempted to destroy the fabled Resurrection Stone, he had heard the voice of his dead grandfather. The first James Potter, someone whom James had never even met!

And so, when James had finally plucked up the courage to do what needed to be done, he approached his father timidly. "Daddy…" James said softly, "I need to talk to you about something."

Harry Potter, for his part, was somewhat nervous of what his son was going to tell him. James was always the sort to get himself into trouble, and Harry worried that his son may have gone somewhat too far in a prank and really hurt someone. "Yes James, what is it?" he asked hesitantly.

"It's about what happened that night in the Forbidden Forest," James had long since told his father about the night, "When I was in the Forest…I heard a voice, but it was…" James could not find a way to explain to his father how he had known without being told who was speaking to him.

His father, however, had experienced the power of the Resurrection Stone firsthand, and was able to guess what his son was trying to say. "You heard the voice of someone who was dead." He finished gravely, realizing not for the first time that what his son had gone through must have been just as incredible as any of his adventures.

Awestruck by his father's guess, James simply nodded weakly and said "Yea. Yea I did." He paused, unable to say those words, but he had to. "It was Grandad who spoke to me daddy. Your father, the one I'm named after."

James' father sighed heavily, what his son had told him did not surprise him very much, but it did fill him with old feelings of sadness and regret that he hadn't felt for some time. He knew why his son had heard that voice, but it did not make hearing it any easier.

"James," he said finally, "The Resurrection Stone cannot truly bring someone back from the dead, but what it can do is present a sort of impression of them. In your fear and desperation, you may have caught a hold of a tendril of the Stone's Power, and brought someone back for help. That person would be the one you most desperately wanted to see, in your case your namesake."

James was shocked, and somewhat relieved by this knowledge. Of course, the knowledge of how powerful the Stone truly was caught him quite unawares, but his overwhelming sense was that of relief.

He had thought, for some time, that something was wrong with him: that he had lost his mind and would be cursed with the sounds of the dead for the rest of his life. The knowledge that it had had nothing to do with him and would never happen again, filled him with a sense of relief he had not felt in months.

Unable to voice his thanks in mere words, James hugged his father tightly, trying to convey in that action all of his relief and love and thanks. However, his father was not done talking just yet.

"And while we're being honest here James, I noticed that you stole a little something from my Office last summer!"

James' Aunt Hermione, Uncle Ron, Aunt Angelina, and Uncle George had come that day to Grimauld Place with James' cousins Hugo, Rose, and Fred to celebrate Albus Fred and Rose's acceptance to Hogwarts. James had not felt much like joining in the celebrations, reflecting instead on the fact that none of his Aunts or Uncles had been there for his party the year before.

"Hey James, we were gonna go play Gobstones in the basement. You wanna come?" Hugo asked him. James looked at the boy disinterestedly; Hugo had inherited his father's freckles, and in most other regards looked as much like his father as Albus looked like his.

"Nah, I don't really fancy watching you and Albus disgrace another game." James teased, at which Hugo retreated from the room pink-faced.

It was rather childish of James to pester his cousin for no real reason, but he was still in a foul mood after his conversation with his father the day before. His father had spent half the afternoon berating him for taking the Marauder's Map, and was even more furious when James refused to tell him where he had found out about the Map from.

In the end though, James' father had agreed to let him keep the Map so long as he did not tell his mother. While Harry Potter begrudgingly knew that his son was not going to be stopped from being a rule-breaker like he had been, he knew that his wife would not feel the same.

Though he should probably have been grateful that his father did not ground him, or insist on him returning the Map, James instead was annoyed with his father for bothering to lecture him about 'taking things that didn't belong to him.'

However, when Lily came up a few minutes after Hugo to ask James to go down with them, James conceded. Mostly because he knew that he wasn't going to have any fun sitting around upstairs with his older relatives; but also because he knew that keeping his younger sister happy was going to help him in the coming months. The summer before, his red-headed sister had been hysterical at the thought of being left behind while her eldest brother went to Hogwarts. Now, with both of her brothers heading off to school, she was sure to be ready to explode in one of her infamous tantrums.

When James entered the basement of Number Twelve, his cousin Rose sarcastically remarked, "Oh, has the king decided to descend from his throne to sit amongst us common folk? Do what do we owe the pleasure King James the Big-Headed?"

Rose Weasley was one of James' favorite cousins because the two of them got on so well, they both had a tendency for trouble-making, and they both had a never-ending supply of comeback lines. Rose looked exceptionally like her mother, except for her flaming red hair. However Rose Weasley, like her mother, was a little too bookish for James: something he told her constantly.

"Well," James replied in a regal tone, "I decided that I would grace you with my presence in order to show you how a true Gryffindor should comport himself. Being the obvious Ravenclaw that you are, you wouldn't know."

Of all the things that James could have said to Rose, there was nothing that could have silenced her more quickly than this. Like Albus, Rose was terrified of what would happen during her Sorting when she went to Hogwarts. However, unlike Albus, Rose had the added pressure of having her father telling her constantly that if she was not Sorted into Gryffindor she would disgrace the family name.

Of course, Rose's father was only joking, but Rose was too frightened to see it that way. Something that James knew all too well from his First Year at Hogwarts; though he would never have admitted it to anyone.

"That's low James, I thought you had some tact!" Hugo snapped, rushing to his elder sister's defense. Which James found to be oddly amusing, mainly because Rose was generally not much nicer to Hugo than James was to Albus.

"I don't know what you're talking about Hugo, I'm just saying it like it is." James said, not noticing that Albus' grin had slid off his face, and he too was looking just as frightened and somber as Rose. Both eleven-year-olds were thinking of their Sorting, and what would happen to them when the Sorting Hat was placed upon their head. Fred on the other hand looked completely calm, as thought the possibility of him being Sorted anywhere other than Gryffindor had not even remotely occurred to him.

"Just give it a rest James, you're not being funny." Hugo said in a huff, turning away from James and back towards the game that he was in the middle of with Albus. However, the younger Potter no longer seemed to be very interested in the game. He didn't even laugh when the marbles squirted Hugo in the face with a foul-smelling sticky liquid. His mind was a thousand miles away.