History Repeated

So, I don't own Harry Potter...Damn.

Thanks to those who have followed, favored, and/or reviewed.

31 July 2015

Eleven-year-old James Potter walked through the hallway. Photos of nameless ghosts littered the hall. He recognized only two people, the man with the scar and his redheaded wife, his parents. The rest were strangers with history to memories he didn't remember. He asked himself who they were. Were they the family he only heard about a few times from his aunt and uncle? Were they his parent's friends? Both?

"You don't want to do this," James heard as he stared at a photograph of his father as a child with two other children, all wearing robes from the world he only heard in stories. One had red hair like his mother, the other bushy brown hair. A boy and girl, with his father in the middle of them. James knew his father was important in the wizarding world but how was the question James never received an answer for. He looked away from the photo toward the room the voice came from.

"Jimmy." James stopped and looked around but no one was there.

"I think I do, Potter," the voice said. James didn't recognize either voice, though one was more familiar than the other. One was clearly male, the other...he didn't know. Despite the voice being loud, it was muffled out and ragged, like glass, was being shoved into each word the figure said.

"Tell the truth, Potter," the voice said as another round of ghostly voices said his names.

"...Jimmy...James...Jimmy..."

As James walked closer to the door, a loud crash was heard and a young child's cry could be heard. He stopped when he heard the ragged voice let out a breathless laugh.

"James," the voice said his name, the sound cutting through him like a thousand paper cuts.

James opened his eyes and saw his cousin, eight-year-old Daisy, looking at him with wide hazel eyes.

"Come on, Jimmy!" Daisy said. "Breakfast's done and you're not up!"

James blinked and looked at his alarm clock. 8:03. On a Friday, during the summer holiday. James groaned, wondering silently if his aunt had forgotten that school had ended weeks ago and the new term didn't start until September. Hogwarts, his aunt, and uncle told him. That would be the school he was going to, once he received his letter.

He had been seven when he learned about magic but only after he managed to teleport out of his bedroom during a nightmare. He had woken up on the roof of his family's house. After a bit of panicking from his Aunt Helen, Uncle Dudley had gotten him off the roof, and together, the two adults explained to James that he was a wizard and would be going off to a magic school after his eleventh birthday, which had been last October, though he didn't celebrate it then. He never did, his aunt and uncle's reasoning was because his parents had died on that day. How they died still wasn't clear to James, but he had his suspicions if his nightmares were to go anything by.

As James got off his bed, he glanced at the framed photograph on his desk. It was of him and his parents. Uncle Dudley had given it to him after he asked what his parents looked like. He had never seen Dudley, who was his father's first cousin and had grown up with him, look so upset before. James had been five when he asked that, and only because he had been teased by a bully in his classroom once it got out that he didn't have any parents.

Daisy looked up at him expectantly. James pointed at his door and said, "Get out, Daise. I've got to get dressed."

The girl grinned and nodded. "Alright," She said. "Hurry up, slowpoke!" James, amused, shook his head as his cousin left his room, shutting his door as she did.

He glanced at the wardrobe that stood next to his door and walked towards it. He pulled out a pair of jeans and a red and blue button-up short sleeve shirt. He pulled the button up over the long sleeve shirt he wore to bed, it was black with a red bat symbol on the chest area–Red Hood's symbol. His Aunt Helen had been disturbed by the character when he and Callum explained who he was. She tried to convince James to get a Batman one instead, but he had been adamant about getting the shirt.

He pulled on his jeans and fished for two socks in one of the wardrobe drawers. He put them on and slipped on his shoes before leaving his bedroom.

The Dursley's home was a decent size for a family with three kids living in it. The garden out back was large enough for playing, and there were enough rooms that the two Dursley children and James got their own rooms. Though, this was at the expense of the guest room, which was given to Daisy once she was born. James smirked as he passed the door to Daisy's room, which had previously, more often than not, been occupied by Uncle Dudley's parents.

Vernon and Petunia Dursley. James had an unstable relationship with his great aunt and uncle. Vernon outright despised James, often telling him that he was a disgrace to his wife's family. Petunia, meanwhile, often shot looks of disgust and anguish at James, which confused him most of all.

They had attempted to take James off Dudley and Helen's hands years ago, but why James didn't know. It had been shortly after his little teleporting incident. Uncle Dudley made the mistake of telling his parents, who had gone off on him about James being a danger to his family. That was all the boy had heard before his Aunt Helen shuffled him, Callum, and Daisy out of Vernon and Petunia's home in Surrey. That had been the last time James visited the house on Privet Drive. Uncle Dudley had made it clear to his parents that the only way they would be allowed to see his children as if they came to his home and not stay at theirs.

As he walked down the stairs, he could hear loud whispers coming from the kitchen.

"He's coming!" James heard his cousin, fourteen-year-old Callum, loudly say, not bothering to whisper like the rest of his family.

"Quiet Callum!" Aunt Helen ordered with a sharp hiss.

James smiled to himself as he turned right and entered the kitchen at the end of the hall, where the Dursley family stood with a fair few presents on the counter and breakfast cooking away on the stove.

"Happy not-birthday, Jimmy!" Daisy said, standing on her chair as she jumped down from it and ran towards him, wrapping her thin arms around Jimmy, who smiled and hugged her back with one arm.

"Thanks, Daise," He said before looking at Uncle Dudley, who lightly smiled with a strange look in his eyes. The same look he had every year on this day.

Considering October 31 was the day that James' parents died, his uncle and aunt chose to celebrate James' birthdays on July 31, which had been his father's birthday. James never liked this but he never said anything about it. The Dursley's always tried to make things normal for him, or as normal as they could when raising an orphaned wizard. He imagined it was something more for Uncle Dudley but James never asked. Whenever the man got upset, all questions tended to die away. Questions on his father, in particular, James had realized not long after he turned nine.

"Didn't you wear that shirt yesterday?" Aunt Helen questioned, giving him a pointed look.

James smirked. "No," He lied as he sat down next to Callum, who snickered and lightly punched him in the shoulder.

Aunt Helen sighed but turned back to making breakfast.

"Here," Uncle Dudley said, adverting James' attention towards him. He held out a yellow envelope. "Someone'll be by tomorrow to take you." He gave James a quick smile.

James only nodded and looked down at the letter.

MR. J. POTTER

The Second Bedroom to the Left

7 Egerton Road,

Cokeworth,

STAFFORDSHIRE

James looked up and said, "Really?"

Uncle Dudley nodded. "Really," He answered.

Almost hesitant, but more excited, James tore the envelope open and fished out the letters inside it. He discarded the supplies list on the table, which his uncle took and began to read while James started on the acceptance letter.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmistress: Minerva McGonagall

(Order of Merlin, First Class)

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Neville Longbottom,

Deputy Headmaster

James looked up and grinned. "Is it tomorrow yet?" he questioned, to which Callum again snickered and Uncle Dudley snorted.

"Ask again tomorrow," Callum said.

"Let me see, Jimmy," Dudley said and James gave him his acceptance letter. James noticed the recognizing look on his uncle's face. "Huh," the man said. "I remember these two, McGonagall and Longbottom. They were here once."

"They were?" James, Callum, and Daisy simultaneously asked, though with various tones.

Dudley nodded as he glanced at Helen, who was filling the bacon and sausage on a plate. Without explaining anything else, Dudley got up and helped his wife set the table before everyone began eating.

1 August 2015

It had been years since Neville last step foot on Egerton Road, taking James Sirius Potter out of the wizarding world he was born in. Now, he was there to bring the boy out of the muggle world he was raised in.

For ten years, he kept James Potter's whereabouts a secret, even from his own family in the wizarding world. They didn't know, him knowing. He didn't know what they thought, knowing their worries would make him feel more guilt than he was at that moment.

He had to, though. Him and McGonagall. They had to keep James a secret, even from his mother's family. The identity of the Secret-Keeper was still in the air, and just last week ten deaths had been reported in a day. It had dropped, Neville bitterly thought as he walked the same road to the seventh house on the left side of the street.

He had kept a distance from James and the Dursley family, secretly corresponding with Dudley on the Potter boy. He had even used the muggle post to deliver James' Hogwarts letter because dead post owls had been falling from the sky as of late, and Neville didn't want to take a chance with James' location being discovered.

Even now, Neville felt on edge walking up to the Dursley home, wondering if he was being watched or not.

Raising his clenched fist to the door, he knocked and waited until the door swung open, revealing Helen Dursley. She looked older, though not by much considering. She looked tired, but Neville wondered if that was because of James going off to Hogwarts, as well as her own children.

Still, he was greeted with a warm smile by Helen, as though she was welcoming an old friend. Neville smiled back, though he was more hesitant.

"Professor Longbottom," Helen said. "It's been a long time."

"Too long," Neville agreed. "Is Dudley here?"

Helen shook her head. "No, he's at work," She said. "And our kids are at my mother's for the day."

Helen let Neville in and closed the door once he stood in the hallway. Neville saw the staircase, the archway that led into the sitting room, and the door at the end of the hallway, which he imagined was the entre way to the kitchen.

"Please," Helen said as she led him into the sitting room. "Wait here, I'll get Jimmy for you."

Neville nodded and sat down.

When Helen left the room, Neville stood and walked around the room, taking in every photograph on the light beige walls. Photos of three children were the most prominent. A slightly large teenaged boy with brown hair and blue eyes, another boy with messy brown hair and bright brown eyes, and a little girl with blonde hair and hazel eyes. The Dursley children and James Potter. They all looked happy, and judging by the photos of all three children together, they appeared to at least tolerate one another. Neville smiled in particularly, when he saw a photo of an eight-year-old James, grinning as he hung upside down from a tree.

"Err...Hello?" Neville heard. He turned around and saw a tallish boy with messy brown hair and wrinkled clothing. Either he just got up or didn't care about his state of appearance.

Either way, Neville nodded politely to James and said, "Hello, Jimmy."

The boy smiled nervously as he tugged on his red, long-sleeved shirt that was under a short-sleeved grey button-up shirt. It had some sort of character on it but Neville didn't know what it was.

"My name's Professor Longbottom," Neville introduced. A bit too awkward for his liking, he held his hand out for James to shake, which the boy did.

"Your name's on my letter."

"Yeah, one of the drawbacks of being the deputy headmaster," Neville joked and James snorted. "Are you ready to go?"

Suddenly more relaxed, James grinned as he nodded his head.

"Brilliant," Neville said, returning with a grin of his own. He looked up and saw Helen watching from the archway. "I'll make sure to have him home in time for bed, Mrs. Dursley."

Helen nodded and glanced at James. "Don't give your professor a hard time, James Sirius Potter," She said. "And do you have your supplies list?"

The boy rolled his eyes but had a smirk on his face. "Yes, Aunt Helen." He held up the papers he received yesterday to prove it to his guardian.

Neville watched as the muggle woman smiled. "Have fun and be careful," She said.

James nodded before looking at Neville, who quietly motioned for the boy to follow him out the door.

Once outside, Neville looked around and saw the street was empty. He held out his arm. "Take my arm and try not to move. This is going to be a bit unpleasant, so hold on tight."

Confused, James grabbed his arm and before anything else could be said, the two wizards disapparated away.

When they apparated to the back room of the Leaky Cauldron, James started to fall over but was caught by Neville before he could completely.

As the boy coughed, Neville awkwardly helped James regain his balance.

"What–what the Hell was that?" James demanded as he looked up at Neville, pale-faced, and breathing loudly.

"Apparation," Neville said. "It's a quick way to get to places." Or away from them if the situation was dire, Neville left unsaid. He awkwardly patted the boy on his shoulder. "I've never liked it myself but we are on a schedule. Quicker in, quicker out."

James nodded. His head snapped towards the door when Neville's wife, Hannah, stepped through it. Though she no longer worked as the landlady of the pub, Neville's wife still had access to a majority of the out-of-bounds areas, including the room the Longbottom's and James stood in now.

"Blimey Neville," Hannah said as her brown eyes set on Neville and James. "Is this..."

Neville nodded. He glanced at James and said, "James, this is my wife Hannah. She's the matron at Hogwarts."

"Matron?"

"Healer," Hannah clarified. "I attend to any ill or injured students at the school." She gave him a kind smile. "Merlin, you look so much like your parents." She glanced at her husband. "I take it no one knows he's here, do they?"

Neville shook his head. "It's safer this way," He said. "Have the girls returned from Luna and Rolf's yet?"

"No," Hannah answered. "They're going to stay the night. Luna mentioned something about a Nargle hunt she wanted to do with our girls and her boys."

"Bloody Hell, Alice, and Frankie better not come home saying there are Nargles everywhere," Neville joked, though he laughed. "Luna, Lysander, and Lorcan are enough as it is. Now our girls?"

Hannah laughed and winked in James' direction.

"What's a Nargle?"

"That's a good question, we still don't know," Hannah said. She looked at Neville and said, "I best be off. I've got potions to sort through back at the school." She then looked back at James and said, "Have fun today, James. I'll see you soon but hopefully not in one of my hospital beds."

"No promises, Mrs. Longbottom," James said, which made Neville smirk. "I've got history with getting myself into trouble, so I'll be a frequent visitor to your hospital."

Hannah snorted, shook her head, and waved Neville and James off before she started to leave.

"Oh, and Nev?" Hannah said as she turned to face him and James. "There's a couple of Weasley's in Diagon Alley, just to let you know."

Neville frowned, but nodded and watched as his wife left the back room. It had been quite some time since he last saw the Weasley family, at least the ones not attending Hogwarts. It was hard to keep James' whereabouts from them, but he had promised McGonagall years ago after they left the Dursley house. When he found James looking at him, Neville sighed.

"What has the Dursley's told you about your mother's family?" He asked the eleven-year-old.

James frowned. "Not much," He admitted. "He mentioned once that two of her brothers tried to kill him with a piece of toffee that made his tongue grow so large it almost suffocated him."

Neville stared at the boy, knowing instantly which of Ginny's brothers he was talking about. Only Fred and George could pull something like that off. They were far more clever than anyone would believe.

Nodding, Neville said, "Yes, that would be your Uncle George and Uncle Fred's doing. They opened up a wizarding joke shop not long after leaving Hogwarts. George runs it now, with your Uncle Ron."

"What about Uncle Fred?" James asked.

Neville bit his lip, wondering if it was the right time to mention this. If the boy happened upon a Weasley, he could mention Fred and bring up old wounds that the Weasley's, particularly George, were still dealing with.

"He died," Neville revealed, his voice dripping with contained sadness. "I'll tell you more about it later."

James frowned, but his expression became more gloomy.

"Make sure yo stay close to me, James," Neville said to the boy. "Diagon Alley's not a place to wander off on your own." Not anymore at least, Neville silently thought. "And don't mention your surname to anyone."

"Why?" James asked.

"Because your dad was...well-known in the wizarding world."

"Oh." A million questions appeared on James' face, Neville knew he would have to talk to the boy later. He wondered how much the Dursley's told him about his parents, not much if the look on his face said anything.

Forcing a more cheerful smile on his face, Neville said, "Right. Let's go, we've got a lot of stuff to do today."

James smiled and nodded.

Together, Neville and James walked out of the room, entering the almost empty pub sans a few tired and weary-looking wizards who eyed Neville and James with contempt.

Neville instinctively kept his hand on James' shoulder as he guided the boy towards the brick wall that led into Diagon Alley.

"Watch this," Neville said, a more natural-looking smile crossing his face as he pulled out his wand. Going three up and two across from the rubbish bin, Neville tapped the correct brick and the bricks started to pull themselves apart. Neville looked at James and watched as the boy's eyes grew in amazement.

"Whoa," Was all James said and Neville laughed.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley, James."

So, what do you think?

Please, review, like, and/or follow. That would great.

Until next time...

Review(s):

cheese12345: Thanks for the review. It is sad that history's repeating itself with Harry and Ginny, and you will have to wait and see who their killer is.