Note : Previous Chapter was updated and a scene was added.
Chapter - 2 : A few hours, and a few years later
The next day the Potter's went to Diagon Alley, where they met Sirius and Remus. Just like how Sirius was Harry's Godfather, Remus Lupin, his father's other best friend, was Daniel's. Remus hadn't been able to make it to the party yesterday, claiming illness. So now he was spending the entire day with his godson.
Daniel, James, Sirius, and Remus went straightaway to Quality Quidditch Supplies, with Lily following them to make sure they didn't buy anything too expensive, completely forgetting about Harry.
He on the other hand snuck off and using the money his mother had given him and bought a full potion set and a cauldron. He made sure that when no one was looking when he shrunk his cauldron down to keep it hidden from his parents.
Harry had odd quirks like that. The one thing he desired more than anything was his parents attention and love. Yet he was so afraid that it would look like he was bragging and showing off, he never mentioned his amazing powers and intellect. If he had maybe things would have been different.
He took his time strolling through various streets, until he got bored and decided to start looking for his family. He found out long ago that the easiest way was to look for a mob or reporters or journalists.
He saw them and made his way back just as his family was leaving. His mother took notice of him coming from the opposite direction to that which they were walking.
"James I thought you said you'll take care of Harry!", Lily glared at her husband.
"Oh did I, heh-heh, must've forgot", James said sheepishly.
Harry, being used to things like this shrugged it off. "It's fine mom, I got what I wanted. Let's go."
"Alright, let's get going then!", James said, eager to get out of that argument. And so bringing out a port-key, he held it out for everyone to hold. They left back for Potter Manor, Lily never losing her glare for the rest of the hour.
The years continued to pass for Harry. Now however, there was something good in his life. Ginny. After her first visit with Ron, she became almost a permanent resident at the Potter Household. Together they spent many long afternoons outside or up in Harry's room talking and playing and just being kids.
That Christmas Harry was happily surprised to find not two but three gifts under the tree for him. A book from Sirius, and some candy from his parents as usual. The gift from Ginny however made him gasp loudly, momentarily drawing the attention of his mother.
When she looked over Harry was reverently holding a small picture frame staring intently at the picture in it. He was sitting on the floor a few feet in front of her and she was able to see a picture of he and Ginny waving happily at the camera. She guessed it was taken at the Burrow, since she couldn't remember ever taking a picture like that.
She was a little surprised when Harry distractedly grabbed the candy and book lying on the floor next to him and walked out of the room never taking his eyes off of the picture. She was just about to get up and follow Harry out of the room when Daniel called out excitedly behind her.
"Mum look!" Lily turned around and saw her son holding the guitar he had been asking for. He began poorly mashing his fingers over the strings making a pretty horrible racket. It was however, just enough to make Lily forget the curiosity she had had for her oldest son.
Several months later Harry found the guitar which had stopped his mother from following him. If she had she might have found him crying over the picture, it was after all the first picture he had ever received where he was one of the main focusing points. That picture now held a special spot on the nightstand next to his bed.
Going back to the guitar however, Harry found it in Daniel's toy room several months later. At the time it was covered in dust and many of the strings were broken. Harry took it from the toy room and spent a few nights carefully repairing it, using both magic and the muggle way. Finally he had repaired it good as new.
On the next trip to Diagon Alley Harry bought a book that helped a person teach themselves how to play a guitar. So over the next few months and years, each night Harry would wandlessly place a silencing charm over his room and practice the guitar every night for an hour. He only placed the silencing charm so he didn't disturb the other residents of the house. The only person who knew that Harry played a guitar was Ginny.
One day, late into the evening, Molly came to pick Ginny back home. Seeing her, Lily went upstairs to call her on habit, was surprised to find Ginny sleeping next to Harry. They seemed to have been reading some book before falling asleep, exhausted.
Molly got curious and made her way up the stairs just to find Lily looking into Harry's room. When she got a look inside the room herself, her motherly-instincts started screaming. She knew Harry was the sweetest boy in the world and the way the children were sleeping was completely innocent, heck they were about 9 and 8. Yet she couldn't help but make a really weird face, which Lily didn't notice.
"Ah, we shouldn't disturb them, they were out playing in the woods all day. You know what Molly, I'll bring Ginny to the Burrow tomorrow", Lily said in a quiet whisper and Molly reluctantly nodded her head. Lily saw her off and went back up to Harry's room, putting his glasses and the half-open book on a nearby table, wrapping the kids in a blanket.
In what seemed the blink of an eye three more years passed, and Harry's eleventh birthday approached. Neither Harry nor Ginny were looking forward to him leaving for Hogwarts. Ever since his eighth birthday they had never spent more than a week apart. Now facing ten months apart with only the possibility of seeing each other once or twice over the two breaks, had gotten both of them considerably sad.
The trip to Diagon Alley went just as Harry had thought it would. Several reporters followed Daniel around documenting how the Boy-Who-Lived bought his school supplies for his first year at Hogwarts. Harry meanwhile snuck off just as usual buying several books and some used robes, he figured his parents would probably forget him anyway.
Harry had bought his own potion making set the day after his eight birthday, so he only needed to replenish his supplies. After that he used the money his parents had given him for his birthday, ten galleons, to buy a beautiful snowy owl, which he thought of naming Hedwing, that he could send letters to Ginny with. He rejoined with his family outside of Ollivander's Wand Shop.
His father was trying to keep the reporters out of the shop and while he was distracted Harry ducked under his arm and into the dimly lit shop. Lily and Daniel were already both in the shop and were surprised when Harry stumbled in carrying a large cage with an owl in it.
"Mum how come Harry got an owl?! I want an owl too!" Lily smiled down at Daniel as she answered.
"Of course Daniel, I'll buy you an owl after we get a wand, alright?" This seemed to placate Daniel who returned to smiling out the window at the one or two reporters who had gotten close enough to take a few pictures through the glass.
A few seconds later James stepped inside the door and closed it tightly behind him. He cast several charms on the door and shut the blinds tightly. Finally once he was sure they were safe he turned back to his family. He seemed mildly surprised that Harry had an owl.
"Harry, where did you get an owl from?" Harry smiled at his father.
"I bought her. I think I'm going to name her Hedwig." Hedwig hooted happily at Harry, but once Harry had given his explanation James turned back to Daniel.
"Well lets get your wand alright son." He looked around the building curiously. "Now where is Ollivander?" As if on cue the old man in question appeared from behind a book case of wands.
"James Potter and Lily Evans how pleasant to see you. This must be young Daniel. May I ask who you are?" The short man looked expectantly at Harry.
"Harry, Harry Potter." Harry was used to having to introduce himself where ever he went and the man seemed to sense Harry's wish to not be noticed.
"Well shall we find these two their wands?"
An hour later the Potter family exited the wand shop. Daniel had received a maple wand, ten inches, with a unicorn hair core. Harry had received a redwood wand twelve inches with a phoenix feather as the core. Mr. Ollivander had seemed slightly disappointed when Daniel found his wand, yet mildly excited when Harry chose his. When Harry asked him about his wand he merely said it was a very special wand and that he would tell him it's story when he was a bit older, gaining him curious looks from his family.
And so the rest of the summer passed by much too quickly for Harry's liking. Ginny was over nearly every day trying to fit in as much with her best friend as she could before he left for Hogwarts. Finally the first of September arrived in a flurry of packing and rushing.
A/N:
Another chapter done! It was I think the 2nd shortest chapter Ryder wrote (after the prologue) and I added/changed a mere 400-500 words (about 30% the original chapter's length). Ryder's style of writing is pretty different compared to mine, so you'll notice there were 2 types of 'Dialogue lines'. The first scene of this chapter (original) was moved to the previous chapter, since it fit the time frame better. I'll take a look at all the chapters and weed out typos where-ever I can.
I'll try to work on the next chapter tomorrow, and after that I'll be gone a week (College sucks man...). When I'm back though I'll get the next (,next) chapter ready (maybe even 2, no promises).
As to answer u/triggbc's questions, putting Harry in Gryffindor would allow me to make a bit more direct comparison between the twins and it's kinda a personal preference. I agree, soul bond is a very interesting aspect, but it's a bit too abused in fan-fics IMO. Besides, if I put both of those aspect from the original into this story, it would basically be just me taking Ryder's story and adding length to it (without any official permission too). Albeit that's all I did until now, it's only because I didn't have much to change in the starting 3 chapters.
Read, Review and Enjoy.
Peace~
