The Choices We Make
31st July 1994
"Happy birthday Evelyn!" exclaimed the crowd of excited guests gathered around the table as Evelyn Beatrice Potter blew out the candles on her birthday cake.
The party that was taking place in the large sitting room of the eight-bedroom Potter Manor, home of the Potter Family since it had been built by Henry Potter in 1920, with the British branch of the Potter Family making the Victorian-style manor their new home, moving away from their previous residence in the village of Godric's Hollow, though some Potters would occasionally live in their old home.
The now 14-year-old Evelyn looked just like her Mother did at fourteen, with long red hair ending below her shoulders and a soft kind face, complete with her steel-rimmed glasses showing that she had inherited her Father's poor eyesight.
Known famously around the Magical World as the Girl-Who-Lived (evident by the lightning bolt-shaped scar on her forehead just below her hairline), who survived being attacked by the Dark Wizard Lord Voldemort on the night of the 31st of October 1981, miraculously surviving a Killing Curse which rebounded off of the then 1-year-old Evelyn, striking Voldemort and destroying him.
The only reason (besides him being a cruel, heartless monster) for Voldemort to target the Potters was because he had heard a prophecy about a child born at the end of July being able to defeat him, scaring him to the point that he immediately resolved to find and murder this child.
A child that would turn out to be Evelyn Potter.
Snapping a picture with her camera to celebrate the moment, the 34-year-old, long red-haired, green-eyed Lily Rose Potter nee Evans was all smiles and love as she shook the Polaroid picture, bringing the photographic memory into focus for the family album.
Standing next to Lily was her Husband of nearly fifteen years James "Prongs" Fleamont Potter (also aged 34 with the two having gotten married on the 19th of September 1979, four months after their son Harry had been born on the 19th May 1979.
The other reason for them getting married at the young age of eighteen going on nineteen was the fact that Magical Britain was being ravaged by Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters at that time, with the two losing more than a few close friends before Voldemort was finally defeated on that fateful Halloween 1981 night, destroying him to end his reign of terror.
Having two infant children at that time, Lily had spent most of her time at home in Potter Manor with her two children while James was out doing spy missions for the Order Of The Phoenix and the Auror Office on most nights.
Ever since learning of the prophecy in July 1981, she and James went into hiding with their two children at her late father-in-law, Fleamont Potter's old cottage in Godric's Hollow under the Fidellius Charm, making Peter Pettigrew their Secret Keeper.
Looking at her daughter as she celebrated her fourteenth birthday, Lily still thanked whatever higher power there was that her daughter had survived what should have been a fatal attack on her life, also thanking that same power that Harry (who had been next to her in the cot) had also survived while she and James had been gravely injured by Voldemort as they tried to protect their children.
The 34-year-old James Fleamont Potter had wavy, dark brown, almost black hair (as opposed to Harry's black hair), that made it look like he had just dismounted his broomstick after a game of Quidditch, sharing the same facial features, poor eyesight and slim build as his son Harry.
Stood next to James was the 15-year-old, short black-haired, green-eyed with steel rim glasses, Harry James Potter, watching as his beloved sister celebrated her birthday.
Thankful that her family survived one of the darkest times in Magical Britain, Lily could not be happier than she was now, knowing that she and James were both happy with their lives, with she and James both owning large shares and control in the famous magical products company Marauders Menagerie Incorporated.
Also owning the company with them were their closest friends Sirius "Padfoot" Black and the werewolf Remus "Moony" John Lupin, though Remus lived in North America with his wife Jennifer and Daughter Lacey, marketing their various products to the North American audience, with the products produced by their company making each of them quite wealthy.
The products designed and marketed by Marauder's Menagerie Incorporated included state-of-the-art trunks which could only be opened by the witch or wizard whose magical signature it was keyed to, or maps designed for peoples houses (similar to the Marauders Map created by James, Sirius, Remus and Peter "Wormtail" Pettigrew in their Sixth Year), which identified and showed the location of each person in the house, through use of reading their magical signature.
It was just a shame that Peter would betray the friends who had stood by him since his First Year at Hogwarts, becoming a spy for Lord Voldemort out of fear of being on the losing side in the war, eventually selling the Potters out to Voldemort, mere weeks after he had been made their Secret Keeper.
Now Peter was in the High-Security Wing at Azkaban, courtesy of a life sentence along with several other Death Eaters.
Saddening Lily at the time, her former childhood friend Severus Snape had also been sent to Azkaban for life, lasting all of ten years before he died in his cell, alone and friendless as he had been for most of his life.
Even though her former friend had betrayed Voldemort (out of what he described as the love he had always felt for Lily) by revealing that the Dark Lord had heard the prophecy and was now targeting the Potters and the Longbottoms, making both Evelyn Potter and Neville Longbottom being eligible for the prophecy. It was discovered that despite his change of allegiance, he had still killed and tortured quite a few people during the war, even participating in the massacres of the Mckinnon and Bones Families during the war.
Not even Dumbledore, who tried to protect Snape in front of the Wizerngamot, could save the young man from the ruthlessness of Barty Crouch Sr who showed him zero mercy and sentenced him without hesitation.
After the full list of Snape's crimes was revealed, Lily had been saddened when she truly understood how far her former friend had fallen, wondering where the young boy who opened her eyes to the Wizarding World when she was a little girl had gone, not recognising the young man he had become.
Like Severus Snape, many Death Eaters were sent to Azkaban following the end of the war with most receiving life sentences (with Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody and Sirius's then-girlfriend now Wife Amelia Black nee Bones capturing many of the most dangerous Death Eaters including Antonin Dolohov and Morgan Mulciber), while other's were killed by Aurors and some even evaded imprisonment by claiming they had committed their crimes under the influence of the Imperious Curse.
Families like the Malfoy's, Nott's, Parkinson's, Crabbe's and Goyle's with the young Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Pansy Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe Jr and Gregory Goyle Jr all being in Evelyn's year at Hogwarts.
Snapping herself out of her regretful thoughts, Lily knelt down to press a motherly kiss to Evelyn's cheek whispering words of "Happy Birthday" in her ear as she looked around the room at everyone who had come to her daughter's birthday party, most of whom were school friends of Evelyn's while others were friends of hers and James or their extended family.
Friends of Evelyn included her best friends Susan Bones and Amanda "Mandy" Black (eldest daughter of Sirius and Amelia), the latter of whom was in Gryffindor House with Evelyn while Susan was in Hufflepuff.
Other friends from school included Neville Longbottom, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny Weasley (with older twins Fred and George playing on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team with Evelyn), Hannah Abbott and Megan Jones (who Evelyn had met through Susan) Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet (all three of whom also played on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team as Chasers), Parvati and Padma Patil, Hermione Granger and Lavender Brown.
Looking at the shy, forgetful Neville Longbottom, Lily felt a great deal of sadness and pity, knowing that when he had his fourteenth birthday yesterday, he had spent it at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, visiting his parents on the Permanent Spell Damage Ward where they had been residing since November 1981.
Along with his wife Alice Longbottom nee Hopkins (who was also a highly skilled Auror), Frank Longbottom was kidnapped and tortured into insanity by the Lestrange's and Bartemius "Barty" Crouch Jr, with the four Death Eaters seeking to find Voldemort, incorrectly deducing that the Longbottom's knew where to find him.
While the four Death Eaters responsible had been sentenced to life imprisonment in the High-Security Wing of Azkaban, Frank and Alice Longbottom never recovered from the mental torture inflicted on them, leaving them unable to function in society as well as incapable of recognising their only son Neville.
This deeply affected Neville more than people realised which, combined with his Grandmother's stern and strict demeanour (telling Neville that he needed to do more to live up to the reputation of his parents), had turned him into a shy, quiet boy who had serious confidence and self-esteem issues.
Issues that Lily tried to help him with, having been a good friend of Alice Longbottom during their school years, trying her hardest to assure Neville that his parents would be proud of him, yet her words did little to help Neville, even though the help she gave him with his schoolwork during the holidays did help him out slightly.
Other guests at the party included her older Sister Petunia Rosewood nee Evans (age 35), her Husband Timothy Rosewood, both of her son's Dudley and Samuel, with Dudley being her son from her first marriage along with her stepdaughter Leanne Rosewood who was a Hufflepuff in Harry's year.
If there was one thing Lily was glad about when it came to Petunia was that she divorced that awful Vernon Dursley (Dudley's Father) she had been previously married to, with the then 4-year-old Dudley showing signs of magical ability being the reason why Vernon left Petunia, with Petunia subsequently reconnecting with Lily who then introduced her to the divorced Timothy Rosewood (an old school friend of hers), with Petunia marrying him in 1986.
As such, Leanne (age 15), Dudley (age 14) and Samuel (age 7) had grown up close to their Potter cousins, with Dudley starting Hogwarts in the same year as Evelyn, being sorted into Hufflepuff like his older stepsister.
Other family members in attendance today were the Tonks' (with Andromeda Tonks being Sirius's favourite cousin), the Blacks (including Amanda Black's younger siblings James Edward Black, aged 13 and Kathryn Mary Black, aged 11) and the Lupins, who had travelled from New York to attend Evelyn's birthday party.
All in all, today had been a great day in Lily's eyes, as Evelyn thoroughly enjoyed spending her fourteenth birthday in the company of her friends and family.
As for Harry and Evelyn, Lily could not be prouder of them with the way they were turning out, with Harry being one of the top students in his year, starting from his First Year, with Professor Flitwick even making him one of the Ravenclaw Prefects for this coming school year.
Ever since his First Year, her son had enjoyed the company of his own little circle of friends, bringing home many stories about all the fun they got up to whenever he would come home for the holidays.
While not as smart as her older brother, Evelyn (who was the subject of whispers and hushed comments about her celebrity status as the Girl-Who-Lived) still did well in all of her classes, also being invited to join the Gryffindor Quidditch Team as the new Seeker in her First Year after an incident in her Flying Class where she helped Neville Longbottom out against Draco Malfoy.
Since joining the Quidditch Team, Evelyn had turned out to be a fantastic Seeker, winning the Quidditch Cup last year as well as forming close friendships with the older Chasers, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell over the last three years, with the three older girls treating her like their younger sister.
The only friends of Evelyn's that Lily was wary about were Hermione Granger, Ron and Ginny Weasley, noting that while Ron was not a bad person, he had a habit of looking at Evelyn in a way that suggested he wanted more than friendship from her daughter, with Evelyn showing no sign of returning his feelings and occasionally behaving in a rather uncomfortable manner at his unwanted affection towards her.
Nor did Lily consider Ginny and Hermione bad people, she just thought that it was weird how the two girls behaved around Evelyn, with Ginny being obsessed with Evelyn's unwanted fame while Hermione seemed to take real issue with people outperforming her in lessons, especially Evelyn who like Hermione, tended to be one of the top students in her classes.
Both of her children also proved to be rather popular with their fellow students, making several friends in respective year groups as well, with it being normal for Lily and James to host friends of their children at Potter Manor for several days at a time during the summer holidays.
As Evelyn opened a present from Harry, who had given her a complete collection of her favourite novels by famous French magical novelist Roxanne Maximoff, Lily thought back to the day she watched Evelyn board the Hogwarts Express for the first time, ready to start her First Year at Hogwarts.
1st September 1991
"Have you got everything?" said Lily, running her hand over the then 11-year-old Evelyn's arm and shoulder as she made sure her daughter had everything she needed for the train ride to Hogwarts.
Evelyn, who had been forced to endure her Mother's fussiness all day, was slightly embarrassed at how much Lily was fussing over her and it showed on her face.
She was just grateful that other people on the platform did not seem to recognise her at this moment in time, which always resulted in hushed whispers, handshakes and words of "thank you" from people who recognised her, particularly in Diagon Alley.
"Yes Mum" whined Evelyn.
"Now you know how I felt last year" said the now 12-year-old Harry as he pushed his trolley towards James so his Father could put his school trunk on the train for him.
Lily rolled her eyes at the words of her son.
"It's called being a parent… you'll know all about it when you're older" said Lily, sweeping forwards to wrap Harry in a hug.
After a few seconds of being hugged tightly by his Mother, Harry pulled himself free of her embrace.
Looking down the platform, Harry saw his 32-year-old, tall, thin, long black-haired Aunt Petunia Rosewood giving the same goodbye treatment to his slightly chubby 11-year-old cousin Dudley Rosewood, giving him several hugs and kisses while her 32-year-old, short blonde-haired husband Timothy Rosewood was stood close to them, holding the hand of the 4-year-old, short blonde-haired Samuel Rosewood.
When Dudley finally broke free of his Mother's hold, Lily waved for them to come over and join them.
As Dudley pushed his trolley containing his trunk towards them, Lily gave Harry and Evelyn one last hug each before boarding the train.
Twenty minutes later…
Standing with James's arm around her shoulders, Lily held back her tears and waved at the windowed compartment containing Harry, Evelyn, Dudley, Leanne Rosewood and the 11-year-old, long black-haired Amanda Black as the Hogwarts Express started to move along the platform.
With the five children waving back at her, Lily wiped a few stray tears from her eyes as James squeezed her shoulders for support, being a supportive and comforting presence as she waved goodbye to her children, knowing that she would not see them until December when they came home for the Christmas Holidays.
As the day went on, Evelyn's birthday proved to be one of the most enjoyable days for Lily and James, who got the chance to relax and socialise with the adults in the large sitting room while the children went to play outside in the summer sunshine.
She particularly enjoyed catching up with Remus and Jennifer Lupin (who she hardly ever saw since they only visited two or three times a year from America), both of whom were full of praises for their 11-year-old daughter Lacey Hope Lupin who would be starting her First Year at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this September.
The rest of the summer proved to be an exciting one indeed, with James getting all of the kid's tickets for the Quidditch World Cup Final held here in Magical Britain which would take place in two weeks time, even going as far as to get tickets for Leanne, Dudley and Samuel Rosewood as their parents could not take them themselves.
1st September 1994
Pulling his trunk into a compartment containing some of his close friends at Hogwarts, Harry collapsed onto the seat in slight exhaustion, having just spent the last ten minutes searching the train for them.
At his Mother's encouragement, Harry tried to befriend students outside of Ravenclaw House, forming a close circle of friends over his school years.
These friends (who were waiting for him in the compartment) were his Ravenclaw Housemates Jamie Morrison and Jeanette Farley, the latter of whom was sporting a prefect badge just like Harry, Hufflepuff Keeper Andrew Francis and Gryffindor Emily Dagworth, as well as Slytherin's Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis, the former of whom Harry held strong feelings for.
Feelings that appeared to go unrequited in Harry's eyes, thinking that Daphne did not see him as anything more than a close friend in return.
After congratulating Jeanette Farley for getting the other Ravenclaw Prefect badge and greeting the rest of his friends, Harry found his gaze wandering to Daphne who was sitting next to the compartment window to the amusement of another occupant of the compartment.
"Shall the rest of us just leave you and Daphne alone Harry… given that you seem to be undressing her with your eyes?" said the neck-length brown-haired Tracey Davis teasingly.
As he felt embarrassed at being caught staring at Daphne, Harry swore that he could see a blush creeping onto her cheeks.
"What are you talking about Tracey?" said Harry quickly.
Upon seeing the smirks on the faces of Tracey, Jeanette and Emily Dagworth, Harry shrunk into his seat slightly while Daphne seemed to be deliberately looking out of the window.
He knew it was slightly obvious to some of his friends that he liked Daphne, knowing that they were smart enough to figure it out.
Since meeting three months Daphne into his First Year, with Jeanette introducing her distant cousin (and Tracey) to her friends (Harry, Jamie, Emily and Andrew), Harry had always harboured more than friendly feelings for the blonde-haired Slytherin girl.
He relished spending time with her, finding her to be incredibly smart and witty as well as really pretty, with several other boys in their year sharing the same opinion about her beauty, given how many times she had been asked out over the years yet she turned them all down for unknown reasons.
Harry knew that her home life was not the greatest, with Daphne telling all of them in confidence that her Father, Stepmother and younger half-siblings Astoria (aged 12) and Gaius (aged 10) hated her for reasons she never revealed.
As such, Daphne would tell Harry that she always looked forwards to the day when she would return to Hogwarts for the school year, finding the castle to be more of a home than her actual family home.
Daphne, who had stayed at Hogwarts during the Christmas and Easter holidays every year, refused every offer by her friends to come and stay with them for Christmas, making all of them worry just that little bit more.
Harry himself had invited Daphne to come and stay at Potter Manor multiple times during the summer holidays but Daphne turned down each and every offer, eventually admitting to him at the end of the last school year, that her Father and Stepmother hated the fact that he and Daphne were good friends, looking down on Harry as a lowly half-blood and his family as blood traitors, especially Evelyn who they openly bad mouthed to Daphne's face.
Harry was not the only one of Daphne's friends who was hated by her family, with them also encouraging Daphne to sever ties with Tracey and Jeanette, both of whom were half-bloods like Harry, with Tracey bearing the surname of her Muggle-born father instead of her pure-blood Mother.
According to Daphne, revealed only to him, Tracey and Jeanette, her Father was not a Death Eater but proudly supported Voldemort's cause to rid the Wizarding World of Muggle-borns and let the pure-bloods control the country, thus seeing Evelyn as a traitor for ridding Magical Britain of a man he saw as beneficial to restoring pure-bloods to their rightful place.
Though he hated the very idea of her Father and her Stepmother (as Daphne's mother had died giving birth to her), Harry did not let that affect how he felt about Daphne, nor did he let what Daphne had told him about her Father's negative views on anyone who was not a pure-blood dissuade him from possibly pursuing a romantic relationship with her.
Quickly changing the subject as not to embarrass himself any further, Harry started to talk about the Quidditch World Cup (which had been won by Ireland) with Jamie Morrison.
Later that evening…
A short time after the Sorting Ceremony had concluded, when the grisly school caretaker and squib Argus Filch had removed the Sorting Hat and stool from the great hall, the 112-year-old, long grey-haired Headmaster Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who had a matching beard and wore floor length robes of light grey, stood up from his chair in the centre of the high table, walking around the table towards the bronze owl podium in front of the table.
"Welcome, welcome to another year at Hogwarts… now before we settle down to our delicious feast I have a few announcements to make… firstly I am saddened to inform you that the Quidditch Cup will not be taking place this year!" said Dumbledore.
Though Harry was not the biggest fan of Quidditch, he was slightly disappointed to hear that the Quidditch Cup would not be taking place this year as the matches were always fun to watch.
Looking up and down the Ravenclaw table, Harry could see the disappointed faces of quite a few of his fellow Ravenclaws, some of whom played for the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team including his fellow Fifth Years Cho Chang and Eddie Carmichael along with the Sixth Year Quidditch Captain Roger Davies.
After several seconds Dumbledore called for silence once again, silencing the students who looked up at him, eager to learn why the Quidditch Cup had been cancelled.
"This is due to an event which will be hosted right here at Hogwarts that will last for the entire year… the Tri-Wizard Tournament!" said Dumbledore.
"You're joking!" Harry heard Fred Weasley shout from the Gryffindor table as noises of excitement rang out throughout the Great Hall.
Dumbledore waited for the noise to die down.
"Yes, this will be the first time that the Tri-Wizard Tournament has taken place in over two hundred years… this is only due to the hard work and dedication of the Department of Magical Sports and Games to make the tournament safe… now for those of you who do not know, the Tri-Wizard Tournament features three schools for a series of magical contests, from each school a single student is selected to compete, and once selected you cannot turn back… now our competing schools, who are the Durmstrang Institute and the Beaxbaton's Academy Of Magic will be arriving on Halloween night, but we'll go into more detail about that before Halloween… however, due to the danger of tasks involved, the teachers and the members of the Ministry Of Magic have agreed that only students who are of age will be allowed to enter!" said Dumbledore.
Noises of anger and disappointment could be heard throughout the hall as well as comments about the decision being unfair and/or rubbish.
"This is for your own safety and that the level of skill and magical knowledge require to successfully complete the tasks is too advanced for anyone under Sixth Year!" said Dumbledore as angry shouts started to be heard around the hall.
"That's not fair!" shouted George Weasley.
"That's rubbish, it's rubbish!" shouted Fred Weasley.
"You don't know what you're doing!" shouted George.
"SILENCE!" shouted Dumbledore.
The entire Hall fell silent as it was not often that they heard Dumbledore shout like that.
"These rules are final… and the representative for each school will be decided by an impartial judge… now that that's out of the way, tuck in" said Dumbledore, snapping his fingers as the vast amount of food which made up the welcoming feast appeared on the tables.
As Harry filled his plate with some of his favourite food, the conversations at the Ravenclaw table were all about this year's Tri-Wizard Tournament.
Glancing at the Gryffindor table where Evelyn was sat with Amanda Black, Harry imagined that they were talking about the same thing as him, eagerly discussing their excitement at the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
As he was pulled into a conversation about the tournament with Jamie Morrison and Marcus Belby (also in his year), Harry stole one last glance at Daphne who was nervously picking at her food at the Slytherin table, meeting his eyes with a small smile for a second before they turned away from each other.
Once the feast was over and it was time for the students to return to their dormitories, Harry stood up feeling proud of himself and his new responsibilities as Prefect, walking over to Jeanette who also got to her feet and called for the Ravenclaw First Years to follow her and Harry out of the Great Hall up to Ravenclaw Tower.