Chapter Ten

He never meant to come back.

Eleven years ago, he left Wizarding Britain behind with only vague intentions of one day returning, only to find several very good reasons to stay away.

But now he was back.

Of course, if it hadn't been for James, then he never would have come back. But, like it or not, James was a wizard and he was accepted at Hogwarts. Besides, some of the best days of his life had been spent at Hogwarts; although they didn't live in Britain, he'd always secretly hoped his son would be able to go to Hogwarts.

But then again, the worst day of his life was at Hogwarts as well: the day he broke up with Ginny.

Looking back on it now, Harry had been so stupid then. Breaking up with Ginny was the worst decision he could have made. He knew she could take care of herself; she'd always been a rather formidable witch. But he hadn't wanted to see her get hurt, especially as a result of a connection to him. He loved Ginny; he would have done whatever it took to protect her. And he thought she had loved him as well.

But if Ginny loved him then she would have waited for him. She had told him she understood, hadn't she? Hadn't she said she wanted to go with him? But when the war ended, she was nowhere to be found.

Indeed, almost as soon as that final battle at Hogwarts ended, Harry asked the Weasleys where Ginny was. He'd noticed that she wasn't in the midst of the fighting, and assumed Mr. and Mrs. Weasley forbid their underage daughter from participating. But he hadn't expected to be told that Ginny had disappeared only a few weeks after Harry, Ron, and Hermione embarked on their journey. She'd disappeared in the middle of the night, leaving behind only a short note explaining that she had to leave and that no one could tell Harry that she'd gone, because it would break his heart to know the truth.

Something had happened with Ginny that made her leave Harry. And she did leave him, because after the war's end, Harry waited for her return, just like she'd promised her parents she would. The only problem was that she didn't return. Truthfully, he probably could have waited longer than the two weeks he did, but he had been so brokenhearted that he did the only think he could think of when she didn't return. Harry left, too.

He went to find comfort in the family he never knew existed until he found mention of them among his mother's old things in their partially destroyed house in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Halliwells.

Penny Halliwell and Harry's grandfather, Gordon Johnson (who later changed his surname to 'Evans' for reasons that Harry had never been quite clear on), had been siblings. It was Penny who Harry went searching for, and it was Penny who Harry found living in her ancestral home in San Francisco, California along with her granddaughters, Prue, Piper, and Phoebe.

When Penny died suddenly shortly after Harry's arrival in San Francisco, he quickly made the decision to remain there permanently. And it was a good decision because, although he'd only known them a short time, the Halliwells were family. They were the only family Harry had and they easily accepted him into their lives, and his heart found a new home with them.

Two weeks after he first arrived in San Francisco, and just two days after moving into the house next door to Halliwell Manor, Harry awoke to find a baby boy on his front porch, reminiscent of his arrival at his aunt and uncle's house nearly seventeen years previously. There had been a brief note tucked into the baby's blanket, declaring that his name was 'James' and he was in need of a home.

Harry was all set to bring James to the police when the baby performed magic, levitating the blanket Harry had removed from him back to himself. Rather than the police, Harry went immediately next door to his cousins. But when the boy's parents couldn't be found by magical means, Harry made the impulsive decision to adopt James. The fact that James was clearly magical made Harry think the baby had been left on his doorstep deliberately.

Needless to say, Harry had had no idea how to take care of a baby, but his cousins helped him out. Of course, none of them really knew how to take care of a baby either, technically, but they were always willing to help him out. And James had turned out fine.

There was one thing about James growing up, though, that had always given Harry pause: how closely his adopted son grew to resemble him. If Harry didn't know any better, he would think that James was his biological son. But that, of course, was impossible. James could not be Harry's son. Or…could he?

The two of them looked enough alike. James was the exact replica of Harry's father as well. More so, even, because of his hazel eyes. But if James really was Harry's son, that brought up the topic of his mother and why she would leave James behind with no real explanation.

That was the most important question: Who was James' mother?

If Harry was, in fact, James' real dad, then there could be no question about his mother's identity. There was no one else except for her. It had only ever been her. But was it her? Was she his mother?

Maybe it was about time to do that long overdue paternity test and put all of his questions to rest…or create a multitude of new ones in their stead.

Having already seen James off on the Hogwarts Express, Harry was now walking out of Kings Cross. Tom had arranged an international floo connection for him, so he had to walk back to the Leaky Cauldron in order to return home to San Francisco. There, maybe he could ask Phoebe for some advice, or at least talk things through with her. She was bound to have some insight into how he should approach things.

As he thought things over, Harry accidently walked right into a woman on the sidewalk; she stumbled, but did not fall to the ground.

"I'm so sorry miss," Harry began earnestly, "I wasn't watching where I- Hermione?"

The woman's eyes went wide in surprise.

"Harry?" She demanded. "Is that you?"

He could only nod in response, amazed to have quite literally run into his old friend so randomly like this; though he belatedly supposed he shouldn't really have expected to spend time in Wizarding Britain without coming across someone he'd known. Hermione immediately threw her arms around his neck and pulled him tightly to her.

"Oh Harry!" She cried. "It's been years since you've been in touch! We've all missed you so much."

"Um...it's nice to see you too, Hermione," Harry said rather uncomfortably. "But I should be-"

"Oh no, you don't," Hermione cut in firmly. She had finally released him from her hug, but gripped his arm tightly so he couldn't get away. "I haven't heard a word from you in over eleven years. You aren't leaving until we've had a nice little chat."

a/n- Although this story is clearly AU, I have been trying as much as possible to stick to both the Harry Potter and Charmed timelines as closely as I can. However, you may have noticed some divergence in this chapter. To clear things up in case there is any confusion (because honestly it really isn't fully explained above) this is how the timeline works out in this story for 1998: The war ended on May 2 and Harry left Britain shortly after. Rather than March, Grams died in mid to late May and Phoebe discovered the Book of Shadows and cast the spell that made the sisters the Charmed Ones soon after, rather than several months later. Thus, when Harry finds James on his doorstep just 2 weeks later, the sisters are already witches. I think that should clear things up for now; although he was only mentioned briefly above, things concerning Gordon Evans née Johnson will be explained fully in Chapter Fifteen. Oh, and also, just for reference this story takes place in 2009.