A/N: Well, here you. Chapter one of my story is finally complete. Leave me a review to let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!

9 Years Later

It had been nine years since Voldemort had attacked the Potter Cottage, and the family had moved back into James' ancestral home of Potter Manor. James hadn't been back to the manor since the death of his parents a couple of years before the attack on his sons had happened. He hadn't been able to bring himself to step foot on the grounds that his parents had been murdered on. With the destruction of the Godric's Hollow house he had no choice in the matter though. They had to be protected if any of the remaining Death Eaters decided to attack after the fall of their lord. The manor's wards had been reinforced and added to by not only himself and Lily, but by Dumbledore as well. The years had been good but slightly strained for them with Chris being hailed as the Boy-Who-Lived. He was a celebrity in the eyes of most of Wizarding Britain, and they wanted to know everything about him. They wanted him to be a public figure even if he was only nine years old now, soon to be ten.

Every year on his birthday, many witches and wizards sent him gifts just for being their savior. However, most didn't seem to remember that he had a twin brother and never sent Harry any presents. The first year that Chris received all those presents, James and Lily thought it unfair to Harry, so they decided to donate them to the new wizarding orphanage that Dumbledore had created for the orphans of the war. That was seen as such an unselfish act by their savior that people sent him even more gifts the next year to celebrate what an amazing child Chris was. Again, James and Lily donated some of the gifts to the orphanage but decided that he could keep his favorites this year. And again, Harry received none other than the presents his parents, and Sirius and Remus got him which seemed even less than they had gotten for Chris. This continued every year with the pile of presents for Chris growing and the one for Harry staying about the same, even getting a little smaller as the years passed.

As the years progressed Lily and James got swept up in the fame that was bestowed upon one of their sons, while quietly forgetting about the other. They didn't seem to notice Harry fading into the background since he had always been a reserved child. Chris was the rambunctious child of James Potter that one would expect, always getting into mischief and playing pranks on everyone. He loved playing Quidditch and just flying in general, always hated anything related studying and would avoid it at all costs. He did the required training that was forced upon him by Dumbledore and his parents, mostly his mother, but with the bare minimum effort possible.

Harry, on the other hand, took after Lily more than James in personality alone. While he was the spitting image of his father, except for the eyes of course, his nature was that of his mother. He was quiet, he liked to read and learn new things, and rarely spoke unless spoken to. While he enjoyed flying, he wasn't as fanatic about as his father, brother and Uncle Sirius were. That was most likely attributed to the fact that he always flew alone. He only ever flew when his family was away, such as at a press conference for Chris or some party for influential members of society, something he obviously was not in his parents' eyes. He had tried to incorporate himself in with his father and brother a few times when they went flying together, but James had said that there weren't any games that could be played with three people. So, he would have to sit out, and it would be his turn soon, but it never seemed to be his turn, so he had stopped trying. He would sit at the desk in his room quietly reading and trying not to pay attention to the resentment that was bubbling in his stomach as he saw and heard them having a good time in the manor's Quidditch pitch. Harry just could not understand why his parents seemed to care more about Chris than they did him. What had he ever done to make them not like him? He had done everything he could to make them see that he was just as good as Chris, if not better. He had shown them his accidental magic that wasn't so accidental anymore. He had learned how to slightly control his magic and bend it to his will. He wouldn't say that he was a master of magic, because of course he had no wand yet, but he was able to do small things here and there that he knew Chris couldn't. Chris didn't care about learning things; he just wanted to play and have fun all the time. Harry had gotten over those feelings of innocence after a few years of his parents practically ignoring him in favor of his brother.

Even Lily didn't pay him as much care as she did Chris. Chris was the apple of her eye and no one could ever be better than him. When Harry was trying to show her how he could summon his favorite stuffed animal she said that he was just jealous of how much Chris could do and he was trying to outshine his brother. Didn't he know how much his brother needed to learn in order to fight You-Know-Who when he returned? So eventually Harry stopped trying to get his parents attention and instead focused on learning anything and everything he could about magic and Hogwarts. He often spent hours upon hours in the Potter library just reading, old textbooks of his parents, books on magical theory, books on Hogwarts itself, whatever he could find. And while he didn't understand a lot of what he read he made a mental note to revisit the library as often as he could, especially after he started Hogwarts so that he could understand more on those topics.

"Chris! Get down here the party is starting soon! Harry you too!" He heard his mother yell up the stairs to his brother, and as an afterthought added him. "Oh yeah," Harry thought, "it's the gala tonight." Every year on the twin's birthday the Potters threw a giant birthday gala for their precious boy-who-lived. It wasn't really about Chris' birthday; it was more about being able to socialize with the right crowd of people. For example, Minister Fudge attended every year and James was hoping that this year he could schmooze his way into being the chief Auror when Scrimgeour retired at the end of this year. Other notable figures were in attendance every year as well, such as Dumbledore, Amelia Bones the head of the DMLE, and Barty Crouch head of the DIMC. Harry would be expected to make an appearance of course, because it would be strange for him to not attend his own birthday party and his parents had to keep up appearances about being the perfect family, but he was not to be a part of most of the festivities. If it were up to him, he would not even go, but his parents forced him to. So, he quickly got up to get dressed in the formal robes the house elves had laid out for him. He couldn't quite get it on by himself, so he ended up calling for his personal elf, Moxi to come and help him. She helped in to get into the robes and tried to help to get his rats nest hair to lay down but like every Potter before him, it was impossible. He was soon ready to go and started to make his way downstairs to the grounds since the gala was to be held outside this year due to the weather being agreeable unlike last year when it stormed from sunup to sundown. As he passed by his brother's room, he felt a pang of loneliness in his heart as he watched his mother help his brother get ready. Instead of lingering though, he kept walking with his head held high not allowing it to bother him. He vowed then and there that he would do everything in his power to be the best he could be, and he would show them that they were wrong for ignoring him all these years.

He reached the grounds and saw a large banner hanging over the pile of presents that adorned a long table. The banner read "Happy Birthday Chris and Harry!" and Harry just knew that his name was added on as a second thought. They were already a few people here even though the party had not officially started yet. He saw his Uncles Sirius and Remus standing with Dumbledore talking in low voices next to the table with the gifts. Surprisingly, he saw Severus Snape staring out at the small lake that was on the grounds. He knew that his mother and the professor had tentatively made up in the recent years, but he never expected the potions master to be present at one of these galas. Maybe he was here because next year would be Harry and Chris' first year at Hogwarts, and he was one of the only professors the boys had yet to meet. That was mostly since Snape and his father did not get along, and only tolerated each other because of his mother. Harry had just made the decision to go and speak with the Slytherin man, when Sirius and Remus saw him and made their way over to him after the conversation with Dumbledore was finished.

"Happy birthday Harry." Remus quietly said as he reached the now ten-year-old first.

"Happy birthday Harry!" Sirius yelled as he came up to the boy and enveloped him in a hug, with Remus chuckling and shaking his head in the background at his friend's antics. When Sirius finally let him down from the massive bear hug, or dog hug if you knew the man's secret, he summoned two red and gold wrapped presents. "Here. This one is from me and the other one is from Moony over there." He nodded his head at the man that was standing next to him. The man in question looked surprised, and Harry figured it was because he hadn't expected to have a present to give to Harry or Chris. He knew that Remus struggled financially due to his condition and guessed that Sirius had bought an extra gift so that Remus didn't feel left out of the celebration.

"Thanks Uncles Sirius and Remus. I appreciate the thought." Harry responded politely as he had been taught by the various tutors he had had throughout the years. By the time he had finished talking with his uncles it was time for the event to officially start, and he had no time to speak to the potions master as he had intended to. He turned to the makeshift stage that had been set up for the entertainment to use to see his mother beckoning him over to stand with his family. Sighing under his breath he made his way over to stand next to his brother.

"Happy birthday Chris." He said quietly as he leaned closer to his twin.

"Yeah, you too Harry." The hazel eyed boy responded, distracted by the adoring public in attendance.

"Attention everyone! First, I would like to thank you all for being here to celebrate my boy's birthday with us. We are honored to have so many important people take time out of their busy schedules to be here with us at this time." His father's magically amplified voice rang out over the crowd, and the chatter dissolved into nothingness. "This time next year will be a little different for us because the boys will be receiving their Hogwarts letters, and we couldn't be prouder of them."

"Sure, you couldn't." Harry thought to himself. "What you mean is that you couldn't be prouder of Chris, you don't even know anything about me." He had to fight to keep the sneer on his face from showing and ruining the perfect image his parents were trying to portray. However, he did notice one man staring at him with a slightly knowing and surprised look in his black as coal eyes, one Severus Snape. He broke eye contact before the man could glean anymore information from him, Harry knowing Snape to be a skilled legilimens. Harry stopped listening to the lies spilling from his father's lips, instead taking the time to observe the crowd to see who had all showed up this year. There of course was the Minister, Directors Bones and Crouch, the Weasley family, the Longbottoms and many others Harry did not know, nor did he care to know. Finally, after his father was done speaking it was time for the things Harry wasn't a part of, Chris was to give his press conference before opening his presents to be donated. He would open the personal presents later tonight when it was just the close friends and family left.

Harry took the two presents from his Uncles and escaped to his room in the manor, not noticing that a pair of pitch-black eyes followed his every move. As he entered his room, he laid the presents on the large canopy bed that was against the far wall. He took the first one in his hands and turned it over to find the seam of the wrapping paper and began to open it. It was a book of jinxes used for pranking called, The Beginner's Guide to the Art of Pranking. While Harry was not that into pranks and the sort, he did enjoy learning new magic even if he couldn't legally use it yet. Harry grabbed the second present to open it and it was another book, this one about the history of Hogwarts. Harry knew that Sirius had bought both presents, but this was definitely something that he could see Remus actually getting him so he though that Sirius really outdid himself with the presents. Again, he squashed the resentment that he felt building when he realized that his Uncles knew him better than his own parents and that was saying something, since even Sirius and Remus didn't know all that much about him.

Later that night after the gala had finished and it was just James, Lily, Chris, Sirius, Remus, and Harry was when Chris opened the presents from their parents. They had gotten him a ton of things, like new everyday clothes, toys of every kind that he had hinted at wanting, and even a new broomstick. They had given Harry some new clothes too simply because he had outgrown the ones he had already, but other than that they didn't get him anything else. They didn't even notice him leaving the room, with his eyes slightly glistening from tears he refused to let fall, promising to himself that he would never let their neglect bother him again. He would rise so far above his family that he would never need them again.