Chapter 2 – The First Encounter

Author Note: I present thee chapter 2! I will try to post the chapters as soon I finish them, but as I said in the previous AN, internet connectivity in Puerto Rico is very weak so I cannot promise a specific upload date due to it. I want to give a warm thanks to sarahgri99, Kallanit, kronecker2017, skyjadeprincess, TrAfAlGaRlAwSgUrL27, Bordeaux Lady and TheWhiteFang597 for following/favorite my story, to Ravenspire to be the first reviewer, and to Fire The Canon for the invite to the challenge forums! It makes me very glad that many people seem interested in the fic and I will try my best to not let anyone down.

Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns the Potterverse. I only own the Rivers family and some filler characters.

Nearly ten years had passed since Anthony Rivers had encountered Sirius Black and James Potter on the motorcycle being chased by Death Eaters. Less than year after that event, he had woken up to find that the Dark Lord that has been terrorizing Britain, the self-styled Lord Voldemort, had fallen on Halloween of 1981, murdering the Potters before his apparent demise at the hands of the son of James and Lily Potter, Harry Potter. The boy vanished the same day without trace.

Many pureblooded families, especially the Malfoys asked of the boy's whereabouts but it was impossible. Number 17 on Magnolia Road had little changes for the past ten years. The sun rose on the tidy and beautiful front garden. The photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed.

Nine years ago, there had been only pictures of Anthony and Janice carrying their two year old Andrew. Now, Andrew was eleven years old. The boy was 5'5", chubby face and body, his brown, slightly unkempt hair and the caramel brown eyes he had from his mother. In 6 months' time, he will be leaving towards Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He had a younger brother called Anthony Rivers Jr., obviously named after their father. Andrew and Anthony Jr. differed by four years. He was small and pudgy, with slightly curly hair and also had his mother's color of eyes.

Andrew was headed to the nearby primary school, about to start the Easter term. Usually, Andrew, or Andy, as his parents would call him, would go to class and on his free time, he would visit the nearby library. That day, during lunch, he sat outside and ate the tuna sandwich his mother packed before she went to work in Diagon Alley. When he finished and started to walk back to class early he noticed a huddle of students around someone who was thrown in the floor.

He walked towards them and saw a scrawny, bespectacled boy in the floor, glasses knocked askew, and with a bleeding face. Four others were laughing impishly. He recognized them, it was the usual gang of bullies that roamed the playground near his house: Gordon, Malcolm, Piers and the Dursley boy who lived three streets away.

"What are you four doing?" asked Andrew menacingly, glaring scarily over his glasses. He learned this trick from his father, which he used on criminals. "Oh, erm… nothing at all, Rivers" answered squeakily Dudley Dursley, clearly stunned for being caught red-handed. The others started to look panicked, looking ways to escape. No one has tried to go against him due to his father being a renowned policeman.

"Well, apparently it doesn't seem like so, Dursley. Maybe a quick report to the headmistress will do the trick." Andrew said smirking. Dudley panicked, but he tried to stop and confront Andrew. "He deserved what he got, Rivers. You don't have to go and tattle to the headmistress." He pushed Andrew back and he fell to the floor also. Dudley and his gang started to laugh again. Andrew got very mad and some odd blow of wind shuffled over him and suddenly, Dudley got knocked away like if a rhino had trampled him and fell a couple of feet away, nearly squashing the skinny boy.

Dudley, quickly stood up, looking flabbergasted at the boy, at Andrew and then at his friends and they all ran (or in Dudley's case, waddling like a penguin) back inside. Andrew then stood up, walked to the other boy and helped him up. "Are you alright, kid?" Andrew asked carefully. The boy quickly nodded and mumbled "M'fine…" Andrew looked at him oddly and then asked "Why Dudley Dursley and his band of shaved baboons were hitting you? Do you know him?"

"He's my cousin. They usually beat me up and chase me to play their favorite game." Andrew frowned deeply. "So, what's your name?" inquired Andrew. "My name is Harry Potter, nice to meet you." Andrew, looking very surprised, and with his mouth formed into a perfect O-shape and his eyes went to his forehead where he saw a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt and spoke after the impression. "Uh, my name is Andrew Rivers. I live in Number 17, Magnolia Road."

"You don't live so far from us, we live in Number 4 Privet Drive." Harry said, intrigued by Andrew's reaction to his name. Andrew and Harry headed towards the school, leaving the latter in front of his classroom door before going to his classroom. "Dad'll want to know about this… Harry Potter, living with Muggles…" Andrew muttered to himself, sitting down on his chair.

That night, Mr. Rivers came back early from his shift at the police department. They were in the middle of their dinner when Andrew cleared his voice and spoke. "Dad, you won't believe what I discovered today at school." His father raised an eyebrow and passed a bowl to Janice, who was trying to make his younger brother eat some vegetables. "What did you discover today, Andy?" Andrew hyped up a bit and spoke really fast "Harrypotterisatmyschoolandlivesnearby".

Janice glared lightly at her son. "Don't garble the sentence Andy. Speak more clearly!" Anthony Jr. giggled at his older brother's antics. Andrew glared at him and recited slowly "Harry Potter is at my school and lives nearby!" Anthony's knife slipped off his hand and clattered on the table, Janice's mouth was agape, but Anthony Jr. asked quite excited, with a grin so big that it wouldn't fit on his face if bigger. "The Boy-Who-Lived is at your school?! Wicked!" Mr. Rivers' started expression changed to one of doubt. "Harry Potter living in a muggle residential area? How is that possible?" He would definitely look into this.


Six months later…

Andrew was waiting excited on front of his Father's old car, waiting to be taken to King's Cross. He was finally going to Hogwarts! Both his father and mother asked for a day off to see their firstborn go to Hogwarts. The previous week, they went to Diagon Alley to buy his school equipment, the school robes bought on Madam Malkin's, where Janice was Madam Malkin's assistant for the past 8 years, his new pet owl called Odin, a large black barn owl, and specially, his wand. His wand was made of black walnut and phoenix feather, fourteen inches and a half long, and according to Garrick Ollivander, it had a hard capability.

He waited that his mother could finally get Anthony Jr. (or little Tony as she called him to avoid confusions whilst calling them) hold of him to finish dressing him. It was still 9:30 am of September 1st, 1990. His dad placed the school trunk on the car's trunk. Andy, meanwhile, was reading very interestedly the books that were asked for Potions: Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger and had nearby the book assigned for Herbology called One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore to revise some of the ingredients' properties.

Five minutes later, they were reaching King's Cross. Mr. Rivers parked the car in a nearby parking lot and then procured a trolley for his trunk and Odin's cage. Andrew pushed the trolley nervously and reached towards the wall between platforms 9 and 10, the magical way to reach Platform 9 ¾, where the Hogwarts Express was stationed. He hugged and kissed his mother, hugged his father, who ruffled his hair and gave a noogie to Tony on his head. He boarded the train bound to Hogwarts with a large smile on his face. He spent most of the train ride reading the books he had out since that morning.'

That evening, they reached Hogwarts. Andrew trooped down the train and followed the voice that cried "Firs' years over 'ere!" He suddenly bumped into a gigantic man, clearly two or three times as tall and many times wide than he was. "Sorry 'bout that, mister.", he excused himself. "S'fine, young one. What's your name?" the giant man asked. "Andrew, Andrew Rivers." He brought a hand to shake the man's ginormous one. "Name's Rubeus Hagrid, the groundskeeper o' this fine institution." Hagrid smiled broadly and when every first year came around him, they went through a dirt path leading to the lakeside. "No more than for ter a boat!"

Andrew shared the ride with an Asian girl, a girl who seemed to be her friend, who had curly, red hair and a skinny boy with dark hair and slightly buck-toothed.

When they reached the other side towards the boathouse, after they saw the grandiosity and magnificence of the castle while riding the boat, they walked to the castle's front door, where a tall, stern woman was waiting for them. She presented herself as Professor McGonagall, transfiguration mistress of the school and Head of Gryffindor House. Immediately, in the entrance hall, she explained briefly about the basic rules and the houses and made them follow her towards the right, where the Great Hall was found.

Andrew was so distracted he nearly crashed into someone in front of him. Suddenly, Professor McGonagall brought a rickety old stool and placed a very old wizard hat, with many patches and fixes that you couldn't count at a brief notice. The Sorting Hat started to sing a song about the school history, but he didn't pay much attention. He was absorbing everything he was seeing at the moment. Then, Professor McGonagall grabbed the hat and she called from a scroll the names of the students in alphabetical order.

"Bell, Katie!" called Professor McGonagall. The Sorting Hat was placed on her head and the hat cried "GRYFFINDOR!" The farthest right table shouted and clapped in glee that they got the first student to their house. Professor McGonagall then called "Chang, Cho!" in which she got sorted into Ravenclaw. After her, a tall, lanky, yet good-looking boy walked after calling "Daniels, Jeremiah!" and became the first male Ravenclaw. "Edgecombe, Marietta" was called and also was sorted to Ravenclaw. A smug-looking boy by the name of Cormac McLaggen walked towards the stool with a swagger and sat down and was directly sorted to Gryffindor in less than a few seconds. A pale boy named Mark Newell and his cousin Jessica went to Hufflepuff. They ran through all the other names until "Rivers, Andrew!" came up. Andrew meekly walked towards Professor McGonagall and sat down. The Hat went nearly completely down, covering nearly to his nose, and tilting his glasses askew.

"Hmmm, curious… The son of Anthony Rivers, one of the most prominent Aurors in this decade... How interesting. Where shall I put you?" The Hat started to whisper. "Definitely not Slytherin or Gryffindor for sure. I seem to be stuck in between Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. You are both very well knowledgeable and also very, very loyal." The Hat continued to compare, and contrast where he could fit better, until it reached his verdict. "Young man, I know now where to put you… RAVENCLAW!" He walked eagerly to the blue and bronze table while a bespectacled girl called Sharleen Travers became the last person to be sorted to Slytherin.


Eight months later…

Andrew sat on a solitary table that was well hidden in the library, doing his essays for Transfiguration and Charms after finishing the Astronomy charts. Andrew had risen to be one of the 5 highest scoring first years of the entering class. So far, his best class is Potions, in which Professor Snape had a great suspicion that Andrew was nothing short of a prodigy. He'd never seen such excellent work ethic since he assisted school himself. His potions were prepared in so perfect that Professor Snape was deeply impressed had offered him to give him occasional extra lessons Saturdays afternoons, just after they exited Double Herbology classes. He completed the assignments satisfactorily and went back to Ravenclaw's Common Room.

A month later, he took the final exams for his first year. He ranked first on the Potions exam, in the top three in Charms, Herbology and Transfiguration, seventh in Astronomy and Defense Against the Dark Arts (although the DADA professor, Professor Walters had been stuck in St. Mungo's since before Easter because of a stray spell which left him in a sort of coma.) and the lowest class he ranked was History of Magic, who he was the exact middle score of the whole year. He estimated that he was between the fifth to the ninth place, in which at least he did estimate correctly because he finished seventh, scraping it by two points. Once again, Slytherin won the Quidditch Cup and the House Cup for the year. Gryffindors were fuming they was stuck with a third place within the House Cup. Ravenclaw lost managed a third place in the Quidditch cup, but second in the House Cup Competition. The next day, the train departed towards London. Little he suspected that the next day, he would meet again the boy with the lightning scar.