Hello, all! This is it :) The last chapter before we get to all of the Hogwarts goodness! I already have a few chapters written at Hogwarts, but I might completely rewrite some of them because I don't like them haha. Again please know that none of these characters are mine. I just really like to write about them and give them a nice storyline. Please enjoy your days and let me know any questions, comments, and concerns :) xx

July 31st, 1990

After about eight months of practising Occlumency, Harry was barely getting better at it. He could scarcely only just keep his grandma out of his mind, and she wasn't digging through his memories yet. His confidence was slipping, but he continued trying regardless.

Minerva opted to disregard their weekly Occlumency session this week because it was Harry's birthday. She stepped through the fireplace shortly before dinner. After they discovered Dumbledore's duplicity, Minerva never left her classes, and she'd simply stop by after she was done for the day.

James and Sirius were making dinner tonight. Harry wanted bangers and mash with mac and cheese. The adults thought it was a bit odd, but Sirius and James were making it regardless.

Harry was lying with Lily and Remus on the couch, looking through a pile of photographs they had taken over the years. None of them moved, but Lily planned on making a cauldron of developing solution as soon as they were allowed to leave.

They were still looking through pictures when the boys finished preparing dinner. "We're done, my love, and family!" James said in a sing-songy tone.

"Come, come, dearest ones," Sirius chirped in the same tone.

When the others had gotten into the kitchen, James and Sirius were plating the bangers and mash. Their mac and cheese was already on the table in little bowls. It was quite a cute setup if Lily had to say so herself.

Typically she did all the cooking, but the boys were very talented chefs, and they liked to take over sometimes. They all sat around the dinner table as James gave each of them a plate and Sirius handed out silverware.

"Thank you, Daddy and Uncle Sirius," Harry said with a grin.

"It was our greatest pleasure to serve you your tenth birthday dinner," James said chipperly.

"After all, our little Fawn only turns double digits once!" Sirius added.

"That's all my fingers! Soon we're not going to be able to call you little Fawn anymore; you're getting so big," James concluded with a happy nod. Harry grinned as he picked up his fork.

Sirius gasped as if he forgot something, and leapt out of his chair and to the fridge. He pulled out a bottle of elf wine and some butterbeer for Harry. He had managed to sneak out under the Invisibility Cloak after he transfigured his appearance, and took a Hogsmeade trip.

Sirius poured each of the adults a glass of wine and poured a wine glass of butterbeer for Harry. He waved his hand, and all of the glasses distributed themselves amongst those at the table.

"Now we're ready," he said with a cheeky grin.

Harry was trying to figure out how to hold the wine glass; it was as long as his head. He watched his mum intently as she silently taught him how to hold it. With a grin, Harry took a sip of the butterbeer.

They ate their dinner with some idle chit-chat about the things Harry had gotten for his birthday, and what Harry would be doing next year at school. Now that it was only a year away, Harry was eager to talk about Hogwarts all the time. They told him stories about their own times, and the things he would be able to learn.

Lily thought they had to be joking when James and Sirius talked about helping Harry become an animagus. Worse yet, Harry was actually entertaining the idea, and he sounded excited about it. Lily thought she'd go crazy if three animals were running around her cottage all the time.

They finished dinner, and James banished the dishes to the sink. With a wave of his wand, the cleaning towel lathered itself with soap and began to wash off the dishes, then rinsing them off when it was done.

Harry bounded into the living room and leapt onto the couch, "Mummy, can't you just see it? What if I'm a stag like Daddy, and then we can go trotting through the woods together. And maybe one day, I can go with Uncle Sirius and Daddy when there's a full moon and play in the woods with Uncle Remus. Wouldn't that be fantastic?" He said dreamily.

"Harry, sweetheart, I'm not sure that's the best use of your time. It took your dad and Sirius years to get it right. Tell him that I'm right, Minerva, please. I feel like I'm being overrun by the boys in this situation." Lily said exasperatedly.

"Although I don't condone you all becoming animagi at such a young age with no help from an adult at all, I have a hard time staying mad at you." Minerva began, addressing the boys. "As for you, Harry, I will support you in whatever you do, but please think about all of your options before you commit to this. It takes time, and it could be dangerous."

"If I still want to do it in three years, will you consider helping me with it?" Harry asked logically. "And you Mummy? I won't do it if you don't want me too, but if I still want to three years in the future, will you think about it?"

Minerva nodded thoughtfully, and Lily sighed. It was hard to discourage her son from doing things he wanted when he thought rationally instead of just some fever dream. "Alright. If you're still thinking about it in three years, I'll put some more thought into it."

Harry grinned and decided to drop the subject. "Can we read a book? I want to go to bed soon, but I think a nice book would be a perfect end to my birthday."

"Of course, darling. Which one do you want to read today?"

"The Phantom of the Opera?" Harry suggested casually. They had read the novel before, but it was one of his favourites.

There was a little twinkle in Lily's eyes as she pulled the book from the shelf, "Alright boys, snuggle up." She said quietly as she opened the cover.

She read the novel quietly. Her voice was soothing, and Harry found all his anxieties drifting away. He'd miss this the most when he went off to Hogwarts; hearing her voice, and hearing her read.

He closed his eyes as she read and let the peace fall over him in gentle waves. At some point, his grandma left, and he felt himself being carried up to his bed. He hadn't dressed today, so he was already in his pyjamas. The person who had carried him tucked him into bed and softly kissed his forehead before they left. Harry assumed it had been his dad.

He snuggled into his sheets and pulled his blanket around him. Several small stuffed animals were in his bed: a stag, a black dog, and a sandy wolf. Harry reflexively reached for the stag and pulled it into his chest as he drifted off to complete sleep.

November 29th, 1990

After almost a year of practising Occlumency, Harry was finally getting somewhere. A little while back, he had learnt how to put up walls to guard his thoughts. Although they weren't very strong, he felt that he had gotten the most difficult part out of the way.

He had to worry about maintaining those walls whilst someone was digging around in his head. It was hard. It was painful. Every time his grandma said the words 'legilimens,' Harry felt as if his skull was being torn apart.

Harry knew that he was lucky. Had anyone else been teaching him Occlumency he would've felt extremely violated. Not only did the act hurt, it felt extremely personal. In his head, the person could read through his memories like a scrapbook and feel his emotions in those moments. He cringed at the thought.

Harry felt the all too familiar pain wedge it's way into his skull, and he desperately tried to maintain his calm. He knew that she would never go too far where it hurt unbearably, but she still dug a bit. He imagined massive black stone walls in his mind that guarded all his memories. They were divided by year with a great oak door that allowed you to enter the different sections.

His feet hit the ground, and he opened his eyes. He was in his memory room. All the doors around him detailed the last 10 years of his life, and he needed to protect him. The pain that engulfed him was lessened as he walked around, placing heavy locks on all the doors. It was odd, he knew he wanted to lock the doors, and then the locks appeared in front of them.

This was just his mind, and it provided for him. Harry walked around all ten doors and locked them securely. Then it felt like he was being pulled from that plane, and he was back with the pain of his mind being invaded.

Minerva lingered for a few seconds to see if she could find anything. After coming out dry, she left his mind and let out a content sigh. Harry gathered his bearings and rubbed his head uncomfortably. He always had a headache after, but his grandma gave him chocolate or a cauldron cake every time.

"You put up stronger walls this time. I wasn't aggressively digging, but I couldn't find anything. This is good progress," she said warmly. Like every week when they were done, she reached into her robe pocket and pulled out the sweet. "It'll make you feel better," she said.

It was a bar of Honeydukes chocolate this time. He took it and peeled off the wrapper. "I put locks on my doors," he explained as he broke off a piece of the chocolate and popped it in his mouth.

"Very good. I'm going to have to start digging now. It'll be more uncomfortable, but hopefully, your locks will hold, and we won't have to go for very long. I know it hurts, and I wish I could stop it."

Harry nodded slowly, "But when I master this, we'll all be safe. No one will be able to get in unless I want them to. It'll also make the meditation part of the animagus training easier. If I go through with it, of course."

"You read about the process?" She asked curiously.

"I had Daddy explain how he did it before I went to bed one night. He told me about all the things I'd have to do."

"And you think you're up for it? It's quite a terrible process. I will help you if it's what you want. We can work on it while you're still at school and strong enough. But only if you're absolutely positive, it's something you want to do. Once the wheels get turning, it's hard to stop."

"I want to help Uncle Remus in the woods on full moons," Harry said resolutely. "And Daddy told me that being an animagus saved our lives when Voldemort tried to kill us. I know it's dangerous, but I want to go through with it."

Minerva simply nodded. She remembered when she first felt that the Marauders had done it. It was like the cat within her was running from Padfoot, trying to eat Wormtail, and being intimidated by Prongs. She was disappointed at first that they were unregistered, but she understood why they had done it. Harry was right, without their animagus transformations they would've died. Her favourite students and now family would be dead, simply non-existing.

Something within her changed that night, and she was no longer disappointed that the boys had done something so foolish and reckless by themselves. She was grateful that they cared so much about what happened to Remus because it meant that they were all alive. So if Harry wanted to become an animagus, she would help him.

"How about we take a break for now, and then go back to it later. Your Hogwarts days are getting closer, and I want you to block out as much as possible." She said quietly.

"Alright. Can you try to dig through my memories this time? I know it'll hurt, but I want to see how strong my walls are."

She smiled; Harry Potter was a fighter. That would aid him well in the future. "Of course. I'm going to try to find a particular memory. That way you'll have to keep up all your walls."

Harry nodded, and he went back to breaking off pieces of chocolate and eating them. He was a tad bit afraid of the pain that would come, but he needed to face it. A part of him knew that his safety, and his family's safety, depended on mastering Occlumency.

January 12th, 1991

It was a snow day. Harry had just finished his Occlumency lesson for the day, and now they were laying out in the back garden. They all had warming charms cast on them, and they were having a snowball fight. Even Minerva was joining them today, which was new. Harry was running around aimlessly, throwing neatly packed snowballs at everyone he could. Sirius was using his magic, which Harry deemed cheating since he didn't have a wand.

Harry was excited for the snow days when he did have his wand though. All the things he would be able to learn and do were entrancing, and he had to fight to regain concentration on the game. He dove behind a pile of snow he had made earlier and began packing the snowballs as fast as he could.

A wave of Sirius' snowballs began pelting at him, and he crouched lower to the ground. Harry started to throw his own snowballs from behind his barricade at Sirius. James came leaping over next to Harry and made his own snowballs. "We're going to get your Mum, alright?"

"Why would we get Mummy?"

"Because she threw a huge snowball at my head," James said resolutely, and Harry grinned cheekily.

They both packed some more snowballs before standing and aiming at Lily. She shrieked when the first snowballs hit her. Harry started giggling madly as he threw more snowballs at his mum. Remus clipped James in the back with his snowball. Sirius threw some at Minnie. Minerva was aiming at Remus. It was chaos.

Lily ducked behind a rose bush she had planted years ago. Minerva joined her a few minutes later. "What are we going to do to get them back?" She asked conspiratorially.

"Sirius is the one using magic to make his snowballs," Lily groaned, "he does it every single time. It's quite annoying."

"So we get him first? Then go for Harry and James; they're working together to hit us."

Lily nodded, "Alright. I don't see Re as much of a challenge. He's the most gentle out of the boys."

Minerva nodded as well, and the two women packed some snowballs. They worked together to hit the boys. Lily and Minerva had surprisingly strong throwing arms, and they nailed the boys one by one.

James groaned when Minerva hit him in the face with a snowball. "Not fair, Minnie!"

"All is fair in love and war!" Minerva teased as she readied another snowball.

They continued like that for what felt like hours. Lily and Minerva backed out of the fight first. It was dinner time, and Lily went inside to begin preparing something. Remus and Harry joined them next, and then Sirius and James.

They were all knackered by the end, and dinner was welcomed with open arms. After dinner, Minerva went back to Hogwarts, and Lily went upstairs to run a bath. James had purchased a television at some point during the year. He wanted to have a way of watching films at home, so when Lily left, James turned on the television set and put in the VHS tape to watch Bambi.

James had never seen the film before, but according to Sirius, it was excellent. It was most certainly not excellent. James had no idea how Sirius even found out about this film; it was depressing and made by muggles.

In his anxiety, James transformed into Prongs. He knew the film wasn't real, or he hoped it wasn't. He felt personally attacked; he had never heard of hunters before. There weren't any at Hogwarts, or in Godric's Hollow. He'd have to ask Lily if she knew about any films regarding dogs. He wasn't going to let Sirius get away with showing him this atrocity of a movie.

Once the film was finished, Harry meandered into the kitchen to get some sweets. He made straight away for his cauldron cakes; they were his favourites. His grandma always got them for him when she went to Honeydukes. It was much more frequently since they began their Occlumency training as well; which made Harry happy. He was thrilled for the days that he'd be able to go to Hogsmeade.

James followed him into the kitchen for his own sweet. "Did you know, Fawn, that your mum put a restriction on how many sweets I'm allowed to eat per day?"

Harry grinned cheekily, "I don't have a restriction on sweets intake."

"I know you don't. If anything you should, not me. I mean, I'm thirty, and you're ten." He grumbled.

"Mummy must think I'm better at controlling myself," Harry smirked.

"You are absolutely correct, little Fawn. She's never trusted me when it comes to controlling myself. I suppose she thinks I'm a tad bit immature."

Harry simply nodded. It was too late to get in a sass battle; something which had happened before. James was the master of sass, but he had created a counterpart who was equally as sassy.

"Well, Daddy. I'm going to bed," he said cheerily. "You should go to bed too before Mummy comes looking for you and finds you eating sweets."

James grinned, "You truly are my pride and joy. When you get to Hogwarts, you need to pick up my legacy."

Harry grinned back before he meandered out of the kitchen and up to his bedroom. He changed into his baggy t-shirt and pyjama bottoms and made his way to bed. He wrapped himself in his covers and pulled his Padfoot plushie closer to him. He drifted off to sleep with good thoughts.

May 29th, 1991

Hogwarts days were getting closer. They all knew it was coming, but they were all dreading it. Harry didn't want to leave his family, and his family didn't want him to go.

Regardless of their anxieties, they were all gathered in James and Lily's bathroom to put on facemasks. James and Sirius had been cautious the first time they saw the minty goop that Lily expected them to put on their faces. Once they had tried it, however, they loved it. It made their skin all tingly and soft, and it was lovely. Sirius more so than James; he was a drama queen, or king, as he liked to be called.

Sirius lathered his face with the facemask and then passed it off to James. James lathered his own face, then passed it onto Remus. It continued like that for a few minutes until all of the boys and Lily had put the stuff on their faces. Lily set a timer for twenty minutes, and they all wandered out of the master bathroom.

Lily collapsed onto her side of the bed and stared up at the ceiling. James collapsed onto his own, followed by the pile of men consisting of Remus, Harry, and Sirius.

"Can you all believe little Fawn is going to Hogwarts in a few months? We're going to be going to Diagon Alley soon and getting all his school stuff." Sirius said quietly.

"I'm not looking forward to it. I'll miss him terribly," James commented. "Whatever will we do when our little Fawn isn't with us every day."

"I have no idea, but one thing's for sure. You all need me to carry on," Harry moaned dramatically.

Lily giggled, "You are something else my little Fawn. I do hope you know that we'll send you letters every day. Maybe we'll send you little gifts every once in a while."

"Who will provide me with Honeydukes sweets. Surely Grandma will keep bringing you sweets, so does that mean I get some still too?"

"I'm sure she'll still give you cauldron cakes until your third year. You can always sneak out though, I suppose." Sirius said casually.

"Sirius! Stop encouraging my son to break the rules," Lily groaned.

"But Lily, what's life without a little risk?" Sirius asked cheerily.

"You take that way too literally," Lily mumbled.

"I for one hope you take advantage of the wondrous Hogwarts library, Fawn," Remus added offhandedly. Lily nodded in agreement.

"It's wonderful there," Lily said reverently. "There are books of all kinds. Textbooks, research books, storybooks."

"I like books," Harry said pensively.

"You know what we need, the Map," James said as if he hadn't been paying attention to the conversation up until this point.

"Ooooh, that would be nice," Sirius mumbled. "Little Fawn, your first order of business is to find our Map. The caretaker Filch nicked it from us during our seventh year. He marked it as 'confiscated and highly dangerous' and locked it away."

"What does it do?" Harry asked, his curiosity peaked.

"It shows where everyone is at all times. It doesn't matter where they are or what they're doing as long as they're on the grounds. And in the rooms we discovered, Hogwarts is a mystery, and there have to be places we haven't found yet." Remus explained.

"That's your next order of business Fawn. Once you get the Map back, you need to add to it. We need to find all the rooms in Hogwarts." Sirius chirped. "A whole new generation of findings would be delightful."

They sat for a few minutes in silence. Lily didn't want to add fuel to the fire that was the boys. The timer went off, and they all pushed themselves off of the bed to wash their faces.

"This was positively splendid. I love skincare," Sirius said enthusiastically.

"We should do a few more before little Fawn goes off to school," James said pensively as he dried his face with a towel.

They all nodded in agreement. "Well since we're doing a self-care day, can we eat chocolate," Remus asked, completely serious.

Lily and Sirius broke out into laughter. "Of course, Remus. We can eat all the chocolate you want."

Remus grinned and immediately ran to his room to grab his chocolate stash. "Let's make chocolate shakes too! I know from personal experience that chocolate shakes make everything better."

"Of course you do Moony," Sirius said with a crooked grin, "I for one am fancying a nice vanilla shake."

Remus paled as he turned to look at Sirius, and his mouth hung open. "You would prefer vanilla," he said the word as if it brought him great pain, "over chocolate?"

Sirius broke into another fit of laughter. "Of course not, Moony. I was just teasing you."

Remus let down an audible sigh and raced out of the room before there were any more surprises. The others trailed after him, still laughing at his bitter abhorrence for vanilla ice cream.

They all made their shakes and sat around the couch in the lounge. It was peaceful, and they were all content. Harry was deep in thought about starting school. Before this, it had all been talk, as if he wouldn't actually have to leave.

Now it was real that he'd be leaving. He didn't know where that would leave him. He had never been out of the house without his parents and uncles. In his ten years of life, he had never been away from them for more than a few hours. Now he was expected to be away from them for months.

It frightened him. Despite the knowledge that he would have his grandmother with him, he was still afraid. He knew that they wouldn't be able to spend time together in the open, and so her protection, for the time being, would be confined to the four walls of her classroom.

Despite his ever-growing fear, he was going to take it in stride. Whatever was going to happen would happen, and he couldn't control that. He could control the time he spent with his family before he left. In the end, that's all that really mattered to him.

They drank their shakes and talked about everything they could think of. It was peaceful, and they were all having a good time. Harry loved his family more than anything, so a conversation about the differences between quills and muggle pens, and the newest Nimbus broom people were working to make were all interesting.

Harry went to bed that night with a smile. He hugged his Moony plushie closer to him. Would he take the plushies to school with him? Maybe. They were important to him, so regardless of what people thought, he would cherish them. The thought of the plushies carried him off to sleep.

July 23rd, 1991

Lily woke up early Tuesday morning. Hogwarts letters would be arriving tomorrow. Her baby, the light of her life, would be leaving to a place she couldn't protect him. Thoughts flooded through her mind. Are his mental walls strong enough? Is he safe to leave the protection of their home? Will Harry be alright being away from them for so long?

She turned her head and saw that James was staring listlessly up at their ceiling, which reflected the morning sky. "Thoughts woke you up as well?" He merely hummed in response. "I don't want him to leave," she mumbled.

"Me either, love," he whispered.

Their door creaked open, and Sirius walked in. He didn't have his usual pep in his step, and he was staring at them with sad eyes. "I heard you talking." He said quietly and crawled into their bed.

They made room for him, and he pulled the covers over himself. "What are we going to do without our little Fawn. I don't know how to act when he's not around."

"Do any of us know what to do without him?" James asked offhandedly.

The door creaked again, and Lily simply moved closer to Sirius, so there was more room on her other side. Remus crawled up next to her and pulled the covers over himself.

"He'll be okay, right?" Remus said with a yawn.

"He's strong," Lily whispered, "I'm sure he'll be alright. And we're only a floo away if he needs us."

"Can I go check on him sometimes? I don't need to be me. I can stay as Padfoot if we're worried about people finding out I'm an animagus. I hate to say it, but Lily and Re aren't animagi, and a stag is rather conspicuous."

"I suppose a big black dog isn't as obvious as a stag." Lily hummed pensively, "There are no dogs at Hogwarts either, though. Maybe we could do fire calls? They could work."

"I just want to make sure he's alright. I don't want to have to wait for an owl to deliver my post," James said adamantly.

"We all want that James," Remus whispered.

"I wanted to get Harry an owl for his birthday. That way, we can still communicate with him, and he has a friend at school. He'll get the Invisibility Cloak, of course; that's how my dad gave it to me."

"We might need to get two owls then. It would be too obvious if the same owl was delivering letters to Harry and Minerva every day."

"I suppose you're right, Lils. We keep one owl, and we send another one with Harry."

"We're going to have to visit Gringotts tomorrow," Sirius commented with a shudder. "I know the goblins are going to want to meet with me regarding my vaults. My parents are dead, which means I inherited everything."

"We've only really gone to muggle grocery stores." Lily mumbled, "We haven't accessed our Gringotts vault in ages."

"Good thing the goblins don't take sides. Death Eaters have been trying to recruit the goblins for years, and they've never been successful."

"I guess that's a positive. I do find Gringotts quite unsettling though, regardless of who the goblins choose to support. They just freak me out," James muttered.

The door opened again, and Harry leapt onto the bed and curled up with Lily. She ushered him under the blankets, and he was engulfed in the warmth of all their body heats. It should've been sweltering, but the bedroom fan was enchanted to keep them cool no matter how hot it got outside.

"I'm scared to leave," Harry said quietly.

"We're afraid for you to leave too, sweetheart."

"Grandma will protect you, Fawn. Don't forget that."

"Can you explain the plan to me? Like what's going to happen when we go outside, and I leave."

"Of course, sweetheart. We're planning on leaving early, so there aren't many people out and about. Grandma is going to come to give you your letter instead of sending it out. We're going to buy all your school things as quickly as we can before we come home. And when you go to school, you'll have to hide your relationship with Grandma, but she'll be there to protect you. We'll send you letters every day, and we'll try to figure out another way of communicating with you. Uncle Sirius wants to visit you at school in his animagus form, but we need to work out the kinks of that one. Regardless of what we do, I want you to know how much we love you, and how hard we're going to work to make everything work out." Lily explained comfortingly.

Harry nodded, "Alright."

"We're going to hope for good things little Fawn," James whispered. "We don't want anything to happen to you while you're at Hogwarts, but always do your best to study and master the magic you learn. You need to be prepared for anything. It shouldn't be hard, though because you're wonderful and extraordinarily talented."

Harry nodded and rested on his mum's chest. Sirius snuggled him from the other side, and he sighed contentedly. He would miss this. He knew he should work on packing his trunk soon. Time was moving too fast, and before he knew it, it would already be September 1st.

They didn't move that day. Despite their growling stomachs, they laid in bed and absorbed their last day before everything changed. Harry might not be leaving tomorrow, but as soon as that letter was in his hands, things would start moving at lightning speed, and before they knew it, their family would be separated.

They fell asleep together in James and Lily's bed. All five Potter-Lupin-Black clan members knew that when they opened their eyes tomorrow, everything would be different. The starry ceiling twinkled and enveloped them in a warmth that said at least they'd all look at the same sky at night.

They might be hundreds of miles apart, but the world was quite a small place, and they'd be able to see the same stars and constellations regardless of where they were. They'd figure it out; they would learn how to acclimate to this new lifestyle. They'd all be alright in the end.