Lily had been an early riser ever since she was a kid.

That hadn't changed when they had gone into hiding, and it still hadn't changed after being in the hospital for three days. By the time sunlight trickled in through the curtains, Lily was already pushing herself out of the bed, careful not to wake up James as he snored next to her.

After freshening up in the bathroom with some supplies that Healer Bell had given her before they left, she made her way downstairs, the library on her mind. It felt like forever since she had a good book in her hand.

Her attention shifted, however, when she got down the steps and heard the sound of cabinet doors opening and closing in the kitchen.

She tensed at the noise, but quickly relaxed, the logical part of her brain kicking in.

"Harry?" she spoke up as she swung the kitchen door open, "What are you doing up so early?"

The child jumped and quickly shut the cabinet that he was peering into, spinning around to stare up at her with wide, green eyes.

"Sorry!" he exclaimed quickly, "I was trying to cook breakfast but there isn't any food."

"Cook?" Lily blinked slightly at his words, thrown off, "Oh, Harry, you don't have to cook. We're going to go out to get breakfast today before we go to Diagon Alley. We haven't bought groceries yet. That's why your father got pizza last night."

Harry's eyes flickered to the empty pizza box on the table. His eyebrows furrowed, "But it's my job to cook breakfast."

"It's your-" she cut herself off and took a deep breath, shaking her head. Oh, she couldn't wait to talk to Petunia. She kneeled down in front of her son and looked him in the eyes, green eyes to green eyes, "Harry, it's not your job to cook. Not here, okay? Your father and I cook. What other jobs did you have at the Dursley's?"

The boy squirmed lightly and looked away, staring down at his feet. He shrugged lightly, "It depended on the day of the week."

"Okay," Lily said, pinching the bridge of her nose. A part of her didn't want to know, but she also knew that she needed to know what he was used to in order to help him, "What would you do today if you were still there?"

He licked his lips nervously and then spoke in monotone, as if reading a list, "In the morning, I cook breakfast, make the beds, make Dudley's lunch, and do the dishes. After school, I do Dudley's homework, clean the bathroom, do laundry, tend the garden, tidy up Dudley's toys, wash the windows, water the plants inside, and cook dinner before Uncle Vernon gets home from work. After dinner, I wash dishes and clean the kitchen."

Fury blossomed in her chest, but she pushed it down, forcing herself from not leaving and apparating the Privet Drive right at that moment to curse Petunia and Vernon into oblivion. She needed to focus on Harry at the moment.

"What happened if you didn't finish in time?"

A fearful look crossed Harry's face but he answered, "Uncle Vernon would get really mad. He'd beat me and send me to my cupboard for the rest of the night."

"Oh, Harry," Lily said, brushing a tear away and placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "What do you mean your cupboard?"

"That's where I slept."

Never before did Lily think that there would be someone on this planet that she would hate as much as Voldemort.

"You don't have to worry about that here," she told him firmly, shaking her head, "You never should have done so many chores, and they definitely never should have hurt you. You will have chores here but not that many and if you want to cook, make sure to do it with either James or me, okay? And we will never lay a hand on you for anything."

Harry looked skeptical. He opened his mouth, then slammed it shut.

"You can ask questions, Harry."

A relieved, but worried expression flooded over Harry's face, "How will I be punished for being bad, then?"

He refused to look at her eyes still. He looked back down at his feet and waited stiffly for her answer.

Lily took a deep breath. She pushed her red hair out of her face and sighed lightly, "You may have to go to bed early," she explained slowly, "Or privileges could be taken away."

His eyebrows furrowed again, and he looked up this time, surprised, "Really?"

She nodded firmly, "We will not hurt you. No one should ever hurt you. Do you understand?"

"I understand."

She wasn't sure he did yet, but she smiled lightly anyway.

With time, he would trust her. With time, they could be a family again.

Harry ended up spending half an hour in the library with his mum. She gave him a book about Wizarding fairy tales and he settled in on one of the chairs to read it until his father woke up.

When James did wake up, he had to floo to a place called Hogwarts. He hadn't looked very happy when he left, but he was smiling brightly when he returned, clutching a stick to his hand and handing Lily her own.

"Our wands!" Lily said cheerfully. She took the wand in her hand and waved it lightly. Harry jumped as bright red sparks left the end of it, "Dumbledore had it?"

James nodded and pocketed his wand, "He kept them safe."

"That's one thing he kept safe," Lily's voice dropped lightly, a tinge of bitterness to it.

Harry had a feeling that she was talking about him.

"Are you ready to go, Harry?" James asked him, quickly changing the subject, "I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

He nodded and smiled lightly, "Me too."

"How about we eat at the Leaky Cauldron?" Lily suggested as she walked to the fireplace and grabbed a handful of floo powder, "We can eat there and then go into the Alley."

James nodded at the suggestion, "That sounds like a plan," he said, glancing over at Harry, "What do you think?"

Harry had never heard of the Leaky Cauldron. It sounded like a freakish place that Aunt Petunia would have a heart attack just being near. She was always particularly picky about the places that she went inside of. In the rare times that Harry was allowed to go with them somewhere, she would grab onto his arm tightly before they reached a particular place and move across the street, glaring at the building, usually because the place looked unkempt or had a homeless person standing outside of it or had a freaky name.

"That sounds nice," he answered, because it did. He always wanted to go to those places that his aunt never let him near.

"Splendid!" James said in a mock posh voice as Lily flooed away, "Let us be on our way, then. Just say 'Leaky Cauldron'."

Now that he had done it before, he wasn't as nervous. He took a handful of the powder and climbed into the fireplace before shouting the location and throwing down the powder, quickly clamping his mouth shut to avoid soot getting in it again.

He tumbled out of the fireplace in a new location. Lily caught him again and he wasn't as surprised at the sudden touch as he had been the first time.

The Leaky Cauldron was a dim building, with a bar and several tables tucked into the shadows. An elderly, bald man was behind the bar and a few other people were seated at the tables, with more than one having turned to look at them.

He ducked his head insecurely as he noticed they were being watched. James stepped out of the fireplace after him.

"Ah, this place hasn't aged a day," James said cheerily, pointedly ignoring the stared coming their way. He gestured for Harry to follow him and Lily up to the bar, "Tom!"

The man looked up from the bar. A surprised look crossed his face, but it was covered by a smile, "Mr. and Mrs. Potter. I never thought I'd see the day. And is this- Is this Mr. Harry Potter? My, welcome back. Welcome back."

"Can we get a table, Tom?" Lily asked, eyes flickering around at those staring nervously, "We'd like to have some breakfast before heading into the Alley."

"Certainly! Certainly," the man said, gesturing to a few nearby tables, "Take your pick. I'll be with you in a moment."

Harry was sure that someone would come up to them a few times during their meal, but Tom continually redirected them away. Harry wondered if they knew his parents. They must, if they were so eager to see them.

He ate his pancakes in only a few minutes. He had been pleasantly surprised to have been allowed to pick what to eat, and then had quickly eaten it in case they changed their mind. He took a little more time drinking his pumpkin juice and put off drinking his nutrition potion until the last minute.

By the time he drank the potion, he was absolutely full, and both of his parents had finished eating.

He followed his parents over to a nearby wall and watched with curiosity as Lily pulled out her wand and touched a few of the bricks on the wall. He pondered the peculiar actions with a furrowed brow, but his eyes widened in amazement as the wall opened up and his parents ushered him into a colorful alleyway.

He almost couldn't walk but forced himself to do so lest his parents get angry. Lily grabbed his hand to pull him through the hustle and bustle of what seemed like hundreds of witches and wizards. Everyone was dressed in robes and some were wearing weird pointed hats. Most of them didn't even blink an eye at them, seemingly used to people walking out of a wall. Some, however, had turned to stare at the small family, causing Harry to move a little closer to Lily.

The shops were what really caught his eye. They were a variety of sizes and colors and had the most peculiar objects in the windows. Harry saw one shop with several cauldrons lined up on the window, and another was proudly displaying several broomsticks. There were quills, rolls of parchment, spell books, weird food, robes, and vials of substances that he didn't even want to think about. He even saw one shop with several cages in front that contained owls.

"Come on, Harry," Lily said, smiling to herself as they pushed their way through the crowd, "We need to stop by Gringotts before we can shop."

Harry didn't know what Gringotts was.

He learned soon enough.

After walking only a short distance, a huge building became visible, white as snow with a set of stairs leading up to double doors where a horrifying creature stood, dressed in a scarlet and gold uniform.

"That's a goblin," Lily told him softly, noticing the look of uncertainty cross his face as he stared at the creature, "As long as you don't try to steal anything, he won't hurt you."

The goblin nodded at them as they entered, and Harry found himself hurrying beside Lily to get away from him as quick as possible.

Of course, there were more inside.

He pointedly looked away from the creatures and followed his parents as they walked down the long row of goblins. He stared at the floor and kept a firm grip on his mother's hand.

"We would like to go to our vault, please."

Harry looked up as his father began to speak and found that they were standing in front of another goblin. He moved closer to his mother and forced himself not to look away this time. The goblin in front of them looked just as bit as scary at the others, but there was something about him that didn't seem as intimidating.

"Do you have your wand for verification?" the goblin asked in a high, shrill voice.

James pulled out his wand and handed it over to the goblin, who scanned it over once before nodding, "You don't have your key," the goblin spoke, "Am I correct?"

His father looked surprised, "Yes, you are."

The goblin nodded, "It was brought to us after the attack for safe-keeping. Follow me. You will have to perform a blood test to retrieve it."

As they walked, Lily whispered to him, "That is Gornuk. He has handled the Potter vault for dozens of years. He'll give us our key and then we can go to our fault and get money from it."

Harry nodded as she spoke, feeling a little braver now around the goblins.

They entered a small room that had black boxes lining the wall. Gornuk lead them towards one labeled, "687."

"You need to put a drop of blood on the top of it. If you are a Potter, then it will disintegrate, and you can have your key."

Harry didn't like that one bit. He took a step back, but Lily put a hand on his shoulder, "Relax, Harry. It's okay. James is going to do it."

His father didn't even hesitate as he pulled out his wand and muttered a soft spell, pointing the wand to his left index finger. A small cut appeared on the top of his finger and he squeezed out a small drop of blood, letting it fall on the box.

Just as Gornuk said, the box slowly disintegrated. It was hollow on the inside, Harry realized, and a small gold key was left on the table where the box had been.

James whispered another spell under his breath and the small cut on his finger healed.

"Whoa," Harry found himself saying to himself, causing James to laugh.

The man grabbed the key and then turned to Gornuk, "Can you take us to our vault now?"

"Certainly," the goblin responded.

To get to the vault, they had to take a mine cart, which Harry thought was absolutely brilliant and loads of fun. He stared as they passed vault after vault after vault, going deeper and deeper underground. Lily had a hand on his shoulder, as if afraid that he would fly from the cart, and James laughed beside him.

When they reached their vault, James opened it, and Harry felt his mouth fell open in surprise.

There were heaps and piles of what looked like gold and silver, taller than him in some places, and some piles were even taller than his dad. He stared in amazement at the money. The Dursley's definitely most not have known about this.

James pulled out a small leather bag from his pocket and shoveled a few handfuls of the gold into the bag.

"These are Galleons," Lily explained to Harry, gesturing to the gold coins. She pointed to the silver piles, "And those are Sickles. Oh, and those are some Knuts over there. They're wizarding currency. One Galleon is equal to 17 Sickles and one Sickle is equal to 29 Knuts."

Harry was pretty sure that he wasn't going to be able to remember that.

"Alright," James said as he turned back to them, pocketing the money, "All set. Let's get shopping."

They shopped all day. By the time they got home, it was growing dark, and James and Lily had filled their pockets with shrunken clothes and toys and they were carrying several bags of groceries.

It didn't take them long to put everything up and by the time they did, Remus flooed into the living room. Harry jumped in surprise, having not expected the man's appearance, and found himself observing the man's apparel curiously.

The shabby robes were odd, he felt like. Mr. Remus Lupin was the only wizard he knew to dress in such shabby robes. They were like the clothes that he wore at the Dursley's, old and torn.

"Moony!" James said happily, walking over to hug his friend, "How was work?"

"It was alright," he said with a light smile, shaking his head to get the soot out, "I got your letter. How was Diagon Alley."

"Splendid," he responded, "We got ice-cream and bought tons of robes and toys. Lily wouldn't let us get a broomstick yet."

Lily shook her head, a fond smile on her face, "There are tons of broomsticks here."

"Yeah. Old ones," James pouted childishly, but Harry could tell that he was just joking.

Remus just grinned and turned to Harry, "How are you doing, Harry? Did you enjoy Diagon Alley?"

He nodded quietly and smiled at the man, "I did. It was tons of fun!"

Harry's eyes flickered to Mr. Remus Lupin's hand, noticing that he was carrying a newspaper. James seemed to notice it at the same time, "What you got there?"

Remus lifted up the newspaper. Harry found himself looking at the front page, where big letters read out, "Is Sirius Black Innocent or are the Potter's confunded?"

"Confunded?" James asked, taking the newspaper into his hands and skimming the front page. His face twisted in the familiar expression of anger and Harry found himself tensing, "Are they out of their mind?"

"It's the Daily Prophet," Remus said, as if that explained everything, "They love to stir up drama. Besides, most of the details haven't been leaked yet. All anyone knows is that you are claiming that he is innocent."

"Because he is," James said, clenching the paper, "This is b-"

"James!" Lily admonished, cutting him off.

Harry found him looking back and forth between his parents and Remus, completely confused by what was going on and more than a little scared. James was angry, he could tell, and he was also angry about something that Harry had absolutely no clue about.

"Sorry," James said with a huff, eyes flickering down to Harry, "This is ridiculous. They're just making things worse for Padfoot."

Remus sighed and nodded lightly, taking a seat nearby, "I know, but we can't do anything about that now. We just have to prepare for the trial."

There was a beat of silence before Harry spoke up, unable to keep the question to himself any longer. They had said that he was allowed to ask questions, anyway, "Who is Sirius Black?"

James jumped and turned to Harry, surprised, "Did I not- Merlin, I didn't. Sirius is my best mate. He's your godfather. He was arrested or something that he didn't do, though, so we are trying to get him out of prison."

Harry blinked blankly at that, "Prison?"

His mother nodded as she walked over, "He's innocent," she assured him, "When we were hurt, no one was there to prove that he was innocent, though. They thought that he betrayed us and that he killed a lot of people, but it was someone else."

"You'll like him," James said with a smile, "He's great. He adored you when you were a baby and was always coming over to spend time with you. He even bought you your first broom."

Harry wasn't sure what he thought of that. The fact that there were three adults that cared about him had already seemed like a miracle. Now, there was another one?

It seemed like a dream.

There was a beat before Remus spoke up again, "James, in your letter, you said that you needed to talk to me."

James' eyes lit up and he stood up straight, "Oh! Right! How would you like to move in?"

There was a long pause. Harry looked back and forth from Remus to James.

"Move in?"

"Yeah," James said happily, "We've got tons of room here and Harry loves you. Besides, I feel like we never got to see each other before… everything happened. It'd be nice to be able to send more time with you."

Remus shook his head, but something told Harry that he wasn't necessarily saying no, "What about my-"

James interrupted him before he could finish, "We've got the cellar. We could ward it up and you'll be good to go."

Harry felt like he was being left out of another secret. He didn't ask this time, though. He'd already asked enough questions in one day. Surely, they would get mad if he asked another.

Remus sighed, frowning, "You're doing this out of pity, aren't you?"

"Of course not!" James said, crossing his arms over his chest and arching an eyebrow, "Just because I want you to be living better doesn't mean I don't also want you to live here for other reasons. Namely, you're one of my best mates. If you live here, you'll have your own room, and you can still work at your library without a problem. Besides, I'm going to need your help with Sirius."

For a minute, Harry was sure that Remus would refuse. Then, however, the man just smiled and nodded softly, "I'd like that."

Harry found himself smiling as well.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading, everyone! I'd love to hear what you guys have to say so leave a review. Particularly, what do you hope James and Lily do when they meet the Dursley's, which will be coming up soon.

Next chapter (Sunday, February 3rd): The Potters and Remus go to Sirius' trial and fight against a Wizarding World desperate to believe that everything can stay in the past.