Well, there were a lot of follows on that first chapter and some excitement about it from the friends I spoke to. Leave a review if you like it and are excited to see how the Hogwarts years go down, I suppose.

Disclaimer: I continue to not own Harry Potter, unbelievably.

Chapter 2

Before Hogwarts

2 years old

Harry had seen Lily answer the Muggle phone they kept hidden in the cupboard for emergencies once (once) and had been absolutely intrigued. Now he enjoyed walking around the house and picking up random objects to hold to his ear, saying 'ello?,' and starting conversations. Any adult getting anywhere near Harry was warned about this. Today, his phone of choice was one of Sirius' shoes.

"Ello? Dada?" Harry asked.

Lily's shoulders tensed, and she was thankful that Remus was nearby so that she could continue unpacking a box of dishes and cutlery while he scooped up Harry.

"Daddy can't come to the phone right now, love. Wait… Hello? Harry? Can you hear me?" Remus asked, taking Sirius' shoe and holding it up to his own ear.

Harry laughed and Lily looked over her shoulder.

"Careful with your arm, Remus," Lily said. His broken arm, an old injury that never had time to heal quite right from one full moon to another, had been acting up again.

"I'm alright, he's not so heavy," Remus said. "Not so heavy but growing so fast."

Harry opened and closed his tiny hands, and Remus passed the shoe back.

"Ello? Moo?" Harry tried again.

"How can I answer the phone when you're holding it? Really, Harry…"

The backdoor swung open, and Lily startled even if it was just Sirius.

"Ello? Pafoo!"

"Hello Harry," Sirius said holding his wallet up to his ear. Harry laughed. Two-year olds were so pleasantly easy to entertain, and they'd mercifully seemed to stumble across a tame case of the terrible twos. Between the three of them, they were nearly able to keep up with him.

"Alright," Sirius said. "Lily, is this the right thing you wanted?"

He held up the outlet cover and Lily nodded, a little shocked that Sirius had been able to find it in some Muggle hardware store in the first place. Truth be told, she'd hoped he wouldn't. It was the last thing they needed to baby-proof Harry's room, which meant they could finally bring him there. That was what Lily had told Remus and Sirius, anyways, and she knew she was going to be held to that today.

Lily took a deep breath. She tried to remind herself that settling into this house, bringing Harry to his bedroom, wouldn't make their move and everything that had led to it more real. There was no getting away from that.

"Hey," Sirius said squeezing her hand. "This house is amazing. We're going to have such good times here. It's not sad, it's happy."

"Happy," Lily nodded. Happy, happy, happy. Harry made her happy.

"Come on baby," she said, lifting Harry from Remus' arms. "Let's go see your new room!"

They'd left the walls white so that Harry could chose a colour when he was old enough to have a favourite. Until then, they'd brought in every colour of the rainbow via toy boxes, a colourful carpet, yellow drapes, and a tiny little table set where they could sit and draw with Harry. Hipprogriff stickers on the walls flew around the room and galloped across the ceiling, occasionally perching in corners to peck at their feathers. The rocking chair they'd salvaged from Godric's Hollow sat in one corner, and Lily was immensely grateful for it. She and James had taken turns spending long nights sitting there, cooing and feeding and soothing and singing to Harry, or telling him stories and burping him and playing with him and ticking him. It was nice that something concrete had made the transition from there to here.

"Here we are," Lily said plopping Harry down on the floor. "Go explore, love. This is going to be home."

After obtaining what they took to be Harry's seal of approval, that night they toasted the house and nicknamed it The Woodland.

3

"Beautiful," Slughorn said, looking at the picture of Harry Lily had brought. It was a quick little picture she'd taken of him over Christmas, sitting in a pile of discarded tissue paper and ribbon. Lily was dropping a big sheet of wrapping paper which fluttered down and landed on his head, and he laughed before pushing it away.

"He is," Lily smiled, tucking it back into her coat pocket. She and Slughorn met about once a month for coffee or lunch, and today he'd insisted on paying since she'd translated a Medieval antidote potions recipe written in Ancient Runes for him. "He's starting preschool next year. He's basically an adult."

Slughorn laughed.

"Well Mrs. Potter, there's an interesting way to branch off of that and into my next question for you," he said, buttering a slice of Madam Rosmerta's fresh soda bread—a real treat. James used to swipe brown sugar from the kitchens to sprinkle over a heavily buttered slice, and Lily loved it so much that she couldn't protest at its origins.

"Oh," Lily said, closing her hands around her cup of coffee and leaning back in her chair. "Always so full of surprises, Professor Slughorn…"

"Horace, Lily, I've told you a million times," he said. She smiled. She did it to annoy him. "Or Professor Potter, as I'd hope."

"What on earth do you mean?" Lily asked.

"I plan on retiring," Slughorn said.

"Congratulations!" Lily said. "You've had a long career."

"I have, and I quite hoped you would be the one to replace me…" Slughorn said.

"I could never," Lily laughed.

"You were one of my most brilliant students," Slughorn said. "None of the students I've sent your way continued failing my classes once they'd had your help. You are exceptionally gifted, but exceptionally kind and patient and helpful which is so important in a teacher. I've talked with the headmaster and he quite agrees. Both of us are of the opinion that it would be quite easy to arrange for you and Harry to both come live at Hogwarts during the school year, and have him looked after during the day while you taught…"

"Professor, I could never," Lily repeated again, putting her cup down. "No student would learn a single thing about potions with this scar to look at."

"Lily!" Slughorn said, flabbergasted.

"I'm not being vain," Lily said. "I'm being serious. I'm the Girl who Lived, didn't you hear? The Prophet ran a piece all about it to celebrate the two year anniversary a few months ago."

"You are far more than that," Slughorn insisted.

"That's very kind," Lily said. "But I'm not interested in taking any space I'm not thrust into by that charming Rita Skeeter. I'm happy where I am, I'm finally getting used to the new house, and I like the translation and the tutoring that I do. Please, pass my contact information along to whoever replaces you."

"I have no idea who will if you're sure you won't," Slughorn said.

"A capable instructor, I'm sure," Lily said. "Now tell me, what will you do with this retirement of yours?"

4

"Mama," Harry said as they walked home from preschool.

"Yes, sweetheart?" Lily asked.

"Sara doesn't have a Padfoot," Harry said. "Or a Moony."

"No?" Lily asked. Sara was the little girl who wore yellow rainboots regardless of weather who got dropped off by her mom every morning—a heavily pregnant woman who was always happy to talk to Lily in the schoolyard. She and Harry had seemed to become friends, which was a relief given how shy he'd been at the start of his preschool career.

"No," Harry said, shaking his head. "Sara has a mama, a dad, and a little brother soon."

"That's nice," Lily said.

"Where are Sara's Padfoot and Moony?" Harry asked.

"Well, not everyone is lucky to have two uncles like you," Lily said. "Especially not lucky enough to have two uncles who also live in the same house. It's fun, isn't it? Who would make pancakes on Sunday if Moony wasn't with us? And whose motorbike would you ride if Padfoot wasn't here?"

Oh yes, Lily had recently found out about some recent trips her son and his idiot godfather were going on. Lily had technically never forbidden Sirius from taking her son zooming around on that death trap of his, nor had he really ever asked her if he could, so this wasn't breaking any rules. But then again, some things were so obvious, you shouldn't really have to, and Lily had expected mixing motorcycles and small children to be one of those things. Bold of her, to assume that Sirius Black would do the maths.

Still, she brought it up now to try and derail her son's current train of thought because she was pretty sure she knew where this was going and had no desire to reach the destination.

"Why does Sara have a dad and not me?" Harry asked.

And, there it was.

"You do have a dad," Lily said carefully. "His names is James. He loves you a lot—just as much as Sara's dad loves her. He just can't be here right now."

"Why?" Harry asked. "Where is he?"

"Do you know what's in the fridge at home? Pink lemonade," Lily said. "How about we talk about it once we have some pink lemonade and maybe even cookies? We're not too too far from home. Then I'll… I'll tell you."

She didn't know how, but she would.

5

Lily had found a box of family albums in the Gringotts vault that even James mustn't have known about. They had put Harry to bed, poured themselves generous glasses of wine, and bundled up in the biggest blanket that could be found in the parlour before cracking the albums open.

There were pictures of Mr and Mrs Potter's wedding before they'd come from Jamaica, of Mr Potter at the launch of several of his potions, of Mrs Potter volunteering in various functions at St-Mungo's. And of course James who, having been an only and highly spoiled child, had been photographed largely.

"So we've really got a James Potter clone on our hands, huh?" Sirius said glancing up at a picture from Harry's first day of Muggle preschool on the fireplace mantle. They were nearly identical.

Lily drained her wine, and dropped her head to Remus' shoulder.

6

"He's got your kindness," Sirius informed her, cracking the doorway of the study.

"What makes you say that?" Lily asked, looking up from the runes she was translating for a client.

"Yesterday, he asked me to pack an extra sandwich in his lunch because the boy he shares a desk with might not have one," Sirius said.

Lily smiled.

"Please do."

"Gave the kid a juice box, too," Sirius said.

7

"Se…"

"Ser," Remus said gently.

"Serendeep…"

"Serendip…"

"Serendipeetee," Harry read.

"Serendipity," Remus said.

He tried not to smile, lest Harry think he was laughing at him. Really, he was just impressed by the amount of energy Harry was dedicating, as he did after every full moon, to orbiting around Remus and spending time with him and taking care of him. Harry had come to find Remus in the solarium as soon as he'd come home from school and crawled on him and had wanted to know all about what Remus was reading.

"You're right Moony, your books are too hard," Harry said nudging the book back towards his uncle. "I'm gonna have to practice reading more."

"Maybe. Do you want to go get one of yours that we can read instead?" Remus said.

"That's probably a good idea," Harry admitted, jumping off his knee. They'd brought him to the library just last weekend, so his new pile of books was still interesting.

"Do you want me to bring another blanket?" Harry asked.

"I'm okay, thank you," Remus said.

"Okay. I'll bring us tea," Harry said as he wandered out of the solarium.

"Lovely, thank you," Remus smiled. It was sweet. It was also so like James.

8

"I would like you to tell me what you did," Lily said.

"The teacher wrote a note," Harry muttered.

"Yes, but I would like to hear it from you," Lily said, crossing her arms. She, in fact, had said note in her hand right now. Harry wouldn't meet her eyes. "Harry James Potter, I have all day to stand here and wait for you to tell me what happened at school today. But you should know that the longer we do this, the less impressed I'm going to be."

Harry weighed his options considerably.

"I put frogs in Jeremy Martin's backpack."

"You did," Lily said. "Thank you for your honesty. Can you tell me why you did that?"

"Because he told Sara that her mom was fat," Harry said.

"Okay," Lily said. Now they were getting somewhere. "That wasn't kind of him to say, was it?"

"No!" Harry said. "See?"

"I see that Jeremy was being unkind. I do not see why you had to act inappropriately," Lily said. She wasn't even sure how Harry had managed to smuggle frogs into the school, but that was besides the point. She'd probably be able to find that out from Sirius or Remus, who would undoubtedly ask themselves (or had maybe counselled Harry in the first place). "Being unkind to unkind people doesn't make the unkindness okay, Harry. We know that. What could you have done differently?"

"Nothing!" Harry said defensively.

"Deep breath," Lily said. "What about telling a teacher?"

"The teacher doesn't care about Sara because she has a stutter and everyone thinks she's dumb," Harry said.

Lily chewed her lip. "I'm… sure that's not true."

"I'm not lying!"

"I'm not saying that you're lying," Lily said. "How about after supper, you and I go sit on the porch and talk about some other things you could have done? Then we'll think of a way to apologize to Jeremy."

"I don't want to," Harry said. "He's stupid."

"That's not nice," Lily said.

"Neither is he!" Harry said. "He made Sara and Anthony cry yesterday and he steals marbles all the time."

"Sounds like a real jerk," Sirius said.

"Get out of the kitchen, you're not part of this discussion," Lily said. She turned back to her son.

"Padfoot agrees with me," Harry said defensively.

"Padfoot is not your mother, unfortunately for you."

9

"Well, this is it," Sirius said. "The beginning of the end."

"You're being dramatic," Remus said, swirling his drink.

Everyone else had gone home after Sirius' surprise party, but after they'd sent Harry to bed and cleaned up a little bit Sirius had said that he refused to be old and go to bed before midnight on his birthday, and ergo decided to crack open a really, really nice bottle of Firewhisky he'd been given.

"You say that because your birthday's only in November," Sirius said. "You'll see then. We're old now, Moony."

"We're not old we're thirty," Lily said, though the drink had gotten to her head a bit and now she was starting to fall down the rabbit hole Sirius had not only fallen into, but had blown up with a stick of dynamite to make bigger. Maybe she was old. Her child was nearly ten. And if he kept sneaking out at night to wander the garden and look at the stars, she'd probably start greying too. On account of being old and all. "Oh God…"

"Exactly," Sirius said. "She gets it. And James would get it too."

That was uncomfortable, but one of Sirius' nine distinct drunken personalities was Honesty Sirius. That was the Sirius that had told Lily, at a party in sixth year, that James was his favourite person in the world and that he'd changed, and that Lily should give him a chance. Honesty Sirius was right up there with Slutty Sirius, as far as consistency went, and so Lily knew he was right.

Lily lifted her glass. "To getting old."

"To getting old," the boys repeated.

10

So while Sirius was a big, big fan of the fact that his job was essentially to run around and try to break centuries-old magical barriers by any and all means necessary, when he got back to Gringotts he was going to have a few hissy fits and maybe break a few bones. This had not been a day trip to Wales but rather a three-day ordeal to break into an ancient Welsh king's tomb during which he'd been unable to backtrack or communicate with the outside world.

He'd finally managed to undo the last major enchantment, had secured the crown and arrowheads he'd been sent in for, had stuffed them in his safekeeping bag, and had gone home immediately. If Gringotts was going to wait to give him crucial case facts, they could also wait for him to sleep off a shitty job, eat a bunch of food, and shower before getting their treasure.

When he opened the front door, he called in to the others that it was him. He was fully equipped to face Lily and Remus' respective wraths about disappearing, but before he could beg for forgiveness, Harry ploughed into him, arms wrapped around his waist.

"Hey," Sirius said, wrapping his arms around his godson. "Hi, hello."

"You were gone so long," Harry said, his face buried in the fabric of Sirius' coat.

"I know, I'm sorry," Sirius said. "I'm pretty mad about it too. That means you had that spelling bee yesterday, right? Did you get first place or what?"

Harry didn't say anything, he just snuggled more. Sirius looked up and saw Lily, pale and relieved looking, and Remus who just bore that façade of annoyance and judgement that Sirius had come to associate with fondness.

"Don't be gone that long ever again," Harry said so earnestly that Sirius nearly promised to quit his job.

"I'm really sorry," Sirius said. "But you should know I'll always come back, okay?"

"Okay," Harry said. "And I finished first."

"Yeah you did!" Sirius said, ruffling Harry's hair. "That's Remus and Lily rubbing off on you. I'm super proud of you. Let's go get celebration ice cream!"

"It's 8:00 PM at night," Harry said.

"Can you spell 'celebration?'" Sirius asked. "Come on, let's go! Lily, Remus, you get your coats too now..."

11

"Mum! Mum, Mum, Mum!" She heard Harry's feet scrambling all over the hardwood floor right before the study door flew open.

"Harry, what did we say about knocking before coming into the—"

She trailed off when she spun around to face the door. He grinned and held up the creamy letter in his hands.

"It's a Hogwarts letter!" he said.

Lily didn't know what to say. Of course, this wasn't altogether a surprise. And it was the most important day of Harry's little life so far. But her blood froze in her veins. This was it. He was eleven, he had his letter, he was going to… he was going to be leaving.

"Well," she said smiling anyways. "What does it say?"

"I don't know," Harry said. "I saw it and got so excited that I just came here."

Lily laughed.

"Well come here, let's find a letter opener…"

She wrapped her arms around him while he opened the letter and read the green-inked words out loud.