Before Hogwarts

Back in Time

"Rick, do you think Harry is ready to learn the truth, about us I mean? After all he is almost eight years old and has only known about the magical world for a year. Do you think he will understand if we told him where we really came from and why we waited until he was seven to 'rescue him'? ", Lucy asked one night as they sat in front of the fireplace enjoying some wine and cheese.

"I'm not sure if Harry is old enough to understand all of it. I mean we have known about Harry since an hour after his parents were murdered. It took us this long to find him because of Dumbledore's poor attempt at a Fidelius charm and blood wards. I told James that the Fidelius charm at Godric's Hollow was faulty and poorly done, but he and Lily trusted Dumbledore with their lives and lost. As far as I'm concerned the things James and Lily did right were moving money to the states, allowing me to put that charm on them to monitor their health at great distances, and naming Sirius, Remus, and myself as guardians outside of their will. I still, after over eight years, can't believe they made that rat their secret keeper. I could have told them that Remus wasn't the spy, but I didn't think Peter was capable of that kind of deceitfulness.", Rick replied.

"We haven't even told Harry we knew his parents and I think we should at least tell him that and show him some of the pictures we have of them. He doesn't even know how they looked since Petunia didn't keep any pictures of Lily after she married that lump of lard, Vernon. I swear when you turned him into a walrus he looked better than usual; he still smelled bad, but looked more natural that way. If Dudley doesn't straighten out I'm going to turn him into a pig all the way. I've learned a bit from Petunia, even if she looks like a horse at times, and she is starting to come around and take better care of Harry at least", Lucy continued.

After a few minutes of silence Lucy asked, "How did you meet James and Lily in the first place? You never said and I never asked before. I know you didn't meet at school as you were educated in the US and went directly from school to the service."

"That is an interesting tale in and of itself. I can't tell all of it as I'm still under oath not to reveal some things.", Rick replied.

Flashback to February 1979

It was cold and foggy when Captain Richard "Rick" Green got off the plane at Heathrow. "Why can't the British keep their problems on their side of the ocean?" he thought. Rick was here in merry old England because some idiot wizard named Voldemort, what kind of name is that, sent some of his "Death Eaters" to the US to attack and rob the magical library in Salem. They didn't even know how to handle a simple mundane alarm system, much less how to take down the wards. Hell, even I wouldn't want to attempt to disrupt those wards, one wrong move and you're nothing but a blood smear on the grass. Now I have to bring their remains back so they can hopefully be identified. I wonder who I made mad this time to get this assignment?

Rick was met by a very strangely dressed man holding a sign saying "Richard Green, USA" above his head and waving it around like an idiot. "What is with these people, men wearing fuzzy women's slippers and an old suit that went out of date thirty years ago?", Rick thought as he approached the man. "I'm Richard Green, I assume you are my escort to the Ministry."

"Don't say that so loud, secrecy you know. We don't broadcast things like that around here", was the whispered reply. The man lead Rick to a waiting car and they headed to their destination, after Rick picked up his bag from the baggage area. Wouldn't want someone asking why a man was carrying several pieces of wood in a plastic bag with his clothes. Rick was surprised when they got out of the car and the man pushed both of them into a phone booth; he was even more surprised when the booth turned out to be an elevator that sank down below street level.

Rick was handed a badge that said "Richard Greene, DMLE Interrogation". As soon as they got off the weird elevator they stopped at a desk where his escort handed his wand to the guy behind the desk to be weighed, then the guy asked for Rick's wand and weighed it. Rick was lead to another elevator and they went down 10 floors stopping on each floor for papers and people to get on and off.

"Here is your visitor Potter, you might want to explain the Secrecy Act to him. He was talking about the Ministry in front of muggles at the areopain place.", Rick's escort said as they approached another man with unkempt hair that was sticking out all over the place.

"Hello Captain Green, I'm James Potter and I'm to be your contact with the Ministry of Magic while you are here. I hope you will overlook Booth he is of the old school and doesn't deal with people very well.", the man said as he held out his hand. Rick shook hands with the man and said, "Just call me Rick, that Captain Green stuff is too formal for my tastes". "Fine then you should call me James. I understand some of our bad boys made it all the way to the states and caused a little bit of a problem. I hope none of your friends were hurt by them, they can be right nasty at times.", James replied.

"Nope, we only had one injury; a new man forgot to duck and we had to reattach his ear. But it seems that all of the 'bad boys' as you called them were unprepared to face battle hardened troops. Most of them died rather quickly, my guys don't play when someone fires a curse or hex at them, especially a harmful one. They have a tendency to give better than they receive. We did manage to capture two of them and after a little persuasion they talked our ears off about some 'dark lord' called Voldemort. No offense, but we wish you would keep your problems over here, Grindelwald was enough of a problem with him trying to help Hitler and such. What ever happened to him any way, we would have liked to have had a few words with him. Oh, by the way my last name doesn't have an 'e' on the end of it.", Rick said with a smile.

"I assume that the two who survived will be in prison for a long time, at least I hope so. You might want to avoid saying that name around here people get upset about that. As to Grindelwald, he is in the magical side of Nuremburg Prison under Dementor guard.", James replied.

"You still use those things? Man, England must be the only country in the world that would allow those things to survive. We got rid of them ages ago, oh there are still two or three locked up in a research lab somewhere I guess. Any way why don't we get the dirty work over with and then go have a beer or something. My flight was a dry one, I still don't understand why you folks wouldn't allow an international portkey.", Rick said.

The two men went to an office and Rick puller out the plastic bag of wood strips and gave them to James. When James went to transfigure them Rick told him that six of the eight were just piles of goop and fingers. He showed James which two were whole bodies and James turned them back into human form. It didn't take James long to identify those two, the others would have to be studied very closely to identify them.

"You said you captured two so the total was ten death eaters?", James asked.

"Nope just eight, those two died when they tried to assault our healer and I put them down like the rabid dogs they were, which was probably more humane than what Lucy was going to do to them. She has this thing for cutting curses and male genitalia, and she doesn't always need her wand for that one either.", Rick said as he shivered a little.

James took Rick out for a few drinks and the two of them exchanged "war stories". James ended up inviting Rick to supper so Rick could meet Lily, who was pregnant and at home. James, Lily, and Rick hit it off real quick and were having a good laugh when a man just walked into the kitchen only to have a wand stuck to his head by Rick before anyone could say a word. The man turned out to be Sirius Black, one of James' best friends. A little while later two more friends showed up, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Rick soon found out that James, Sirius, Peter were animagi and Remus was a werewolf. This didn't bother Rick as werewolves weren't considered "dark creatures" in the states as long as they stayed away from people during a full moon, and Tick already knew a few animagi that worked with him on occasion.

Rick could only stay a few days then he had to go back to the states, but he and James agreed to keep in touch - and Lily would make sure of it. Rick returned about two months after James' son, Harry, was born and the Potters were already under the Fidelius charm. Since Rick's specialty was warding, and the breaking there of, he examined the wards around the Godric's Hollow house and found that the Fidelius wasn't cast exactly right and told James. After a long talk with James and Lily, where Rick found out why the Fidelius was cast, Rick got them to agree to transfer a nice sum of money to an account in the states for emergencies and as a source of money for Harry later. It was Lily's idea to name Sirius, Remus, and Rick as guardians of Harry should anything happen to either James or Lily. This was most likely because Lucy had come to visit with Rick to see the baby.

The four kept in touch with each other via the mail and an occasional international owl. It was a little over a year later when Rick was awaken form a nap by the health alert spell he had cast on James, Lily, and Harry. The spell indicated that James was dead and so was Lily. Harry's was okay for about 10 minutes then it just went away, the spell didn't show Harry as dead but it no longer functioned. Harry was either inside a very strong ward or someone had placed a Fidelius charm directly on him. It was hard to tell due to the distance from the US to England, plus Rick was well aware of the problems the English were having.

Rick called Lucy and the two of them took emergency leave and went to see about Harry, and his parents. It took a while but they finally learned that Sirius had been arrested and sent to prison, Remus was missing, and supposedly Peter was dead by Sirius' hand. They found out that Dumbledore had assumed magical custody of Harry and had hidden him somewhere "safe", but nobody knew where. The ministry of Magic refused to even look at the document Rick had and that James and Lily had signed. Since Sirius was in prison and Remus missing, that left Rick responsible for the bank account until Harry showed up and turned 17, in England, or turned 18 (under US law).

End Flashback

"Well if it hadn't been for Dumbledore's poor blood wards failing we would have never found Harry until he showed up at Hogwarts at the age of eleven. It took a while for the spell to build up enough energy to notify me that Harry was alive and well and for us to tract him down. I'm just glad James had told us that prophecy all those years ago. So I think it might be time to tell Harry we knew his parents, but let him know not to tell anyone else yet, especially the Dursleys.", Rick said.

"I agree Rick, but how did the account grow so large? If I remember correctly it started out at about $2,000,000 after exchanging it from gallons to dollars.", Lucy asked.

"Well, I kind of cheated. I have been putting money in the account since Harry disappeared, plus the bank invested very well and got a real good return. But, Vernon isn't getting as much as he thinks. Every little item we buy Harry that he should have already had is deducted from Vernon's money. Plus, when it is reported to the government for tax purposes the value is inflated a little bit, say three to four times as much as it really is. Also, I charged Vernon for half of our Christmas trip and expenses.", Rick replied doing all he could to keep from laughing right out loud.

Lucy didn't even try to keep from laughing loudly and ended up rolling on the floor trying to get her breath back. Rick wasn't in much better shape between laughing at Lucy and about the prank he had pulled on Vernon. "Well dear sister, I think we should get some rest. We get Harry tomorrow for two weeks and I have a feeling we are going to need all the rest we can get. You do remember how much energy an eight year old has don't you?", Rick said as he helped Lucy up from the floor. The two said goodnight to Twinkie and went to their rooms.

Well now you know some of the history of Rick and Lucy and how they came to care about Harry. We also learned that Rick might have made a good Marauder. Please click the green button below and tell me what you think. Also, I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters you remember from the books or films. If I did own them I wouldn't be broke all the time and this wouldn't be FANFICTION.