Chapter One:

The Boy-Who-Lived makes a mistake.

Harry sat at his desk behind a large pile of parchment that had been accumulating over the summer. He had never remembered Dumbledore's desk seeming so cluttered; it always seemed as if his old Headmaster always had his school issues under control. After reading and signing yet another parchment and noticing that he had barely made a dent in the pile after several hours of work, Harry sighed and leaned back in his chair. He looked at the pictures on his desk and smiled, remembering his years as a student at Hogwarts; he never imagined that he would become Headmaster of the school that had become his home.

A quiet knock broke his reverie. "Come in," he called.

The door creaked slightly on its old hinges as Bill Weasley walked in. "Afternoon, Harry."

"Bill! So good to see you!" said Harry as he stood up from his desk to hug Bill like the brother he had become. The entire Weasley family had taken him in and treated him like one of their own, and he was eternally grateful.

"I am not interrupting anything am I?" asked Bill, eyeing the piles of parchment that Harry could have sworn had grown since he had stood up from his desk.

Harry laughed, "Nothing that didn't need a little interrupting," he said ruefully. "Have a seat, would you like some tea? I have some scones as well. How's your family?" he asked as Bill sat in one of the cushy red chairs in front of the large desk.

"No thank you, Harry, dinner tonight at the homestead, remember? I have got to leave room for my mother's cooking! And the family is fine, thank you."

"Is it really Thursday already? This week has flown by, I have so much to do for Start of Term in two weeks. I am not sure how Albus and Minerva ever got it all done in time!" said Harry suddenly overwhelmed by the work that was accumulating in his head and on his desk.

"Well, that is what I came to talk to you about, in a way," said Bill hesitantly. "I was on watch at the Waikely home today, like you requested."

"Is everything alright? Are Abby and Daniel ok?" asked Harry worriedly.

"Yes, they are fine, but Abby refuses to show Daniel his letter, she keeps hiding them. We could send a deluge like they did with your situation, but I don't think that would be the best idea. Abby is very adamant about Daniel not coming to Hogwart's this year."

"I see."

The two men sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Bill finally broke the silence, "Harry you will have to go there, speak to her, and convince her. You are the only who she might listen to."

"She hasn't returned my letters, she refuses to see me, she broke all contact with the wizarding world. I don't know if it will do any good to go and speak to her."

"But Harry, the prophecy…"

"Prophecies! You come to speak to me about prophecies! Look what good it did me!" said Harry bitterly running his fingers over the long scar on his face.

"I am sorry Harry, I should not have mentioned it. Even so, this is the only son of your friend, the one you swore to protect, to care for as your own. And yet you sit around and watch while his mother denies him his abilities. He should be allowed to let them flourish and he should know what really happened to his father. I fear his mother is not well."

"Right, she has not been well since… since Jude was killed."

"Harry the boy does not play with other children his age, he doesn't go out of the house very much, she escorts him to school and they go to the market. But other than that, he doesn't leave. She never lets him out of her sight. It isn't healthy, Harry."

Harry sat back and thought through the information; he missed his friend Jude terribly. Had seven years really passed? Had it been that long already? He looked over the piles of parchment on his desk, and then looked at Bill's face. Taking out his wand, he tidied the parchments on the desk and stood up.

"I have to make a visit first," said Harry.

Bill nodded and the two friends shook hands. As Bill turned and made his way to the door, Harry called after him, "Tell your mother I might be late tonight."

Beneath a green tree, perched rather precariously on the edge of a green hill, stood Harry Potter, the Boy Who had once Lived, Headmaster of Hogwart's, a tired man. The burden of his responsibilities and his losses weighed heavily on his shoulders. As he stood on the quiet hill, by the grave of one of many friends he had buried along the way, the breeze blowing his robes and his ever wild hair, Harry Potter shed a single tear.

"I am so sorry Jude," he whispered, sinking to his knees. "I have failed you once again. I allowed the time to go by, I forgot my promise to you. Now it might be too late to save what was most precious to you. I am so sorry. I can not make up for lost time, but I will try to keep my promise in the future. You were a good friend, a good Auror, a good man. Daniel deserves to know that. I promise you I will help him grow into a good man, a man who is proud of who he is, who knows his past, and one who can face the future with his head held high. I am so sorry I let this go for so long. But I will do what I can to make their lives better."

Harry stood and stepped back. He had a big task ahead of him, a task he was not sure he was prepared to deal with. But this was not a choice, it was an obligation. He had let too much time go by, and he had only himself to blame. Sighing he flicked his wand absent-mindedly to remove the damp earth from the knees of his pants. He silently walked down the hill and was gone with a quiet pop.

Far away, on a quiet little lane, with humble homes, there was another pop. Harry Potter walked down Quarry Trail, thinking sadly about the last time he had been there. It had been nearly seven years ago. The houses looked more cheerful, especially number 8; flowers were blooming out of every bit of space that could yield a plant. The walkway was lined with pansies of every colour, the window boxes were overflowing with daisies and there were large rose bushes around the edge of the house. The house itself was small and white, with green shutters and a chimney with a wisp of smoke curling its way up into the sky. But in spite of the flowers, there was an air of sadness that pervaded the little cottage. The windows drooped like sad eyes and the flowers seemed to be a feeble attempt to disguise the sorrow.

There was a thin woman on her knees near one of the rose bushes. She was humming a sad little tune as she weeded and pruned the large bush. Harry walked up to the quaint little gate and not wanting to frighten her, cleared his throat quietly. The woman did not seem to hear him and kept on weeding. Harry tried again, clearing his throat much more forcefully the second time.

This time the small woman jumped and whirled around, clearly frightened. "Harry! Harry Potter! What are you doing here? You nearly frightened me to death! I have nothing to say to you!" she said hurriedly.

"Abby, I have only come to talk to you about Daniel."

"Daniel is fine, thanks for asking, you may leave now, your business here is done," she said bitterly.

"Look, Abby, I made a promise to Jude that I would take care of you and Daniel."

"The best thing you can do is stay out of our lives!" Abby's voice was becoming more tense with every word she said and the tears in her eyes were threatening to spill over.

"You call this a life for your son Abby? You don't let him come out and play with other children, you refuse to give him an education, to teach him things his father would have wanted him to know," said Harry, clenching his fists at his side.

"How dare you tell me how to raise my son?" she asked as she flung the small shovel she had been using to the ground.

"I am sorry, I should not have said that, but I am worried about him," Harry ended lamely. He cautiously took another step towards Abby.

"You, you are worried about him? Where have you been all these years then if you were so worried about him?" the pain in her face was evident. She took off her gardening gloves and began ringing them in her hands.

"I am sorry, I have failed! I failed Jude, I failed you, and worst of all I failed Daniel! But I only have one thing left to do, and that is to do my best for both of you and keep at least part of my promise to Jude." Harry was pleading with her at this point; in all honesty, but it was for his own conscience than anything else.

"The great Harry Potter admits he made a mistake? The Boy Who Lived can fail? Well, call the Daily Prophet because this is news!"

"Yes! I made a mistake! I have failed!" said Harry throwing his hands up in the air, "Now please, help me to make it up to Jude!" He was close enough, so he took hold of her shoulders with his hands.

At first she refused to look in his direction, instead stared at the ground. Because of his height, Harry could see the tears running down her nose and falling silently to the ground. His heart ached for the pain he had caused this family.

"I miss him so much, Harry," she whispered as she finally collapsed against his shoulder, "tell me again what he said when you found him."

Harry squeezed his eyes shut as the tears ran from his eyes. He had tried so many times to put the memory in a pensieve, but it was a memory that was too strong to take completely from his mind. He pulled Abby closer and whispered, "By the time I found out it was an ambush it was too late, I found him in one of the back streets of Knockturn Alley. He was still alive, but so close to death. I held his head in my arms and he whispered something to me. I could barely hear him; I was trying to make a portkey to St. Mungo's. But I caught your name and I knew he understood that he wasn't going to make it. He looked into my eyes and said, "Take care of Abby and Daniel. Tell them I love them and always will, and help Daniel grow up to be a good man. Tell them I am so sorry I couldn't be there for them.' So I promised him I would do all that I could. Abby, there's something that I haven't told you about what happened next." Harry felt Abby pull away from him and look into his eyes searchingly. Her eyes begged him to continue.

"Jude pulled out his wand, and pressed it into my hand, and then he said 'Give this to Daniel when he is ready for Hogwarts'." Harry pulled a long, thin wand out of his robes and held it in his palm. "Abby, Jude wanted Daniel to become a talented wizard. He wanted him to enjoy his abilities and learn to use them for good. He wanted Daniel to live a full life. It was his last gift to his son."

Abby's breath caught at the sight of the familiar wand. She reached out her hand and after some hesitation finally managed to touch the warm wood. It was too much for her, she pulled Harry close to her again, burying her head in his shoulder and wetting it with her tears.

"Alright, but I have a few conditions…"

Daniel had been sitting in his favourite chair reading his favourite book for what must have been the millionth time. He looked at the big clock by the door; it was nearly dinner time and his mother had not come in yet. She was usually very punctual, maybe she just got carried away in her gardening, but he worried about her nonetheless. He put down his book and softly padded across the thick carpet to the window in the small door.

His mother was out in the yard, but she was not alone. There was a man there too. There was something very familiar about the man, but Daniel could not figure out what it was. The two were arguing about something. His mother looked very upset, but just as Daniel had decided to go and defend her, the man took her in his arms and put her head against his shoulder. When they finally separated, there was a peace on his mother's face that he had never seen before. She looked like she did in the pictures that he wasn't supposed to have seen.

There were many secrets in his home, Daniel knew it. There was something his mother was keeping him from. Sometimes he wanted to be like other children and play after dark in the street on the hot summer nights catching fireflies and looking at the stars. But he loved his mother and she worried so much about him. She was so frail, he needed to take care of her. She needed him to make her happy.

Daniel had taken it as his personal mission in life to make her smile. Some days he could even make her laugh, but those were so few and far in between. Daniel clung to a childish memory of long ago when his mother was happy and laughed everyday and there was a man, his father who would throw him up in the air or onto his shoulders and they would all go for a walk and laugh the whole way. But the memory was very faded and was beginning to lose its colour and the laughter sounded more distant in his head every time he thought about it. He tried to only think about it on the days when his mother was especially sad and he couldn't even make himself smile.

Daniel wondered who the man in the yard was, where he came from, why he had come then and why his mother knew him so well but had never talked about him. But then, his mother never really talked about the past, and Daniel didn't bring it up much even though he wanted to know more about his father because he knew that it made his mother sad. He could tell when she was thinking about his father; her eyes would become very sad and she would look off into the distance as if expecting him to walk towards her. On those days, she didn't go to market, she didn't work in the garden and sometimes she forgot to cook. The whole house would groan with the sorrow. Those were the days that Daniel would dream about the old and faded memory of the man who was his father and the time when things were happier. Those were the days when he wondered if those days would ever return.

Author's note: Hope you are enjoying it so far. Don't fear the review button, it is your friend. The second chapter is called "Home Sweet Burrow" and will be up as soon as it gets back from the beta. Thanks for reading!