Disclaimer: What I own, I own. What I don't I don't. I make no claims on the Harry Potter universe it belongs to JKR. What you recognize is hers what you don't is mine or you've been living under a rock for years.

It's MY Life

Chapter 3

Harry opened his eyes slowly, momentarily panicking because everything looked so unbelievable large around him. His panic slowly subsided as recent events coalesced into his foggy mind. Right, baby me. No wonder everything looks so huge, I'd be surprised if I'm a foot tall yet.

Harry closed his eyes for a while longer, trying to organize his thoughts into some semblance of order. Back in time. Check. Tommy out of the picture for the moment. Check. Bond with Hermione. Check. Let's see, what's next? Harry was a little worried about this point for the simple fact that all of the plans he needed to implement required more movement than crawling and more speech than screams. He turned his head slightly and saw the form of baby Hermione laying next to him.

He was suddenly lost in his thoughts and memories of the past.

Hermione laying beside him on a bed. The night of their wedding. They were twenty-three. The golden glow surrounding them in the early morning hours after a bout of making love.

Hermione approaching him as he was seated in his favorite chair. A radiant smile on her face as she told him she was pregnant.

Hermione lying lifeless in his arms a few short months later. Their unborn child still within her. His voice screaming in rage and grief and anger as his magic was left to run rampart with no control and only a vague target. Finally looking around him as he noticed the crater he was kneeling in and the buildings around him in flames. He never did find out if those Death Eaters survived the blast or not.

Slowly going through the years alone with no one and nothing for company.

It was a miracle he wasn't insane by the time he left. He remembered he used to talk to himself pretty regularly or to the memory of Hermione as he had arguments with her that only existed in his mind at that point. Still even the memory of her provided good balance to his often rash actions.

Bringing his thoughts back to the here and now Harry ran through his options. He couldn't do very much in his present body. He had all of his knowledge and spells from his future years but his magical core was that of a fifteen month old baby which pretty much eliminated everything unless his emotions were running rampart to create accidental magic. His thoughts returned to what he already accomplished. Damn, Mum and Dad are going to tell Dumbledore about this.

He immediately set his new task. Bringing up his occlumency shields. While this was, in itself simple, reality had to muck around and add its own twist to it. How would a fifteen month old baby possibly have occlemency shields? This gave Harry a problem. If Dumbledore kept to his usual practices he would want to probe Harry's mind, probably under the guise of performing a checkup on him to Make sure he suffered no trauma most likely. Harry gave a mental snort at his Headmasters manipulations.

It did, however, present a problem he needed to work through and quickly.

As he was working on his occlumency he happened to chance upon the answer. Securing his mind he was sorting through all of his future knowledge, cataloging, storing and securing those memories. Off to the side of those memories he found a strange blackness was the only way he could describe it. Upon closer examination he found rudimentary memories of his life up until the point the came back. They were strange and disjointed to say the least. His infant self had no idea what the big people were saying or who they really were. Snatches of conversation were garbled enough that no sense could be made of them. Sights and sounds were all bright and glaring, screaming for his attention at all times. His young mind had not developed the necessary filters yet to focus on things.

These infant memories suited Harry's purpose perfectly. He surrounded his future knowledge with a wall of purest black so that it blended seamlessly with it's surroundings. He then surrounded these wall with more walls, although he made these ones permeable. He placed these walls in the hundreds, layering one atop the other, all surrounding the one with his future knowledge. Over the outermost layers he supplied his infant self's memories.

Finally he was satisfied. To anyone who tried to use legilimency on him he would just appear to be a blank slate with little knowledge of the world around him. At the first sign of any probe he would simple retreat into his "core" for lack of a better word. Harry resolved to let his new memories play out and store themselves outside his "layers" to adjust with his experiences. Anything that showed his future knowledge in this new timeline, by action or deed, would be stored in his "core" and either an edited memory would be supplied or one from his original timeline.

Satisfied with this solution he returned his attention to his soul mate. She had finally woken and was staring at him with those same chocolate brown eyes that he would always be able to lose himself in. He tried to smile at her but was unsure if he was able to manage it or not. He watched as she struggled to sit up in the crib. Finally she was able to manage it and turned back to stare at him again. He could see the beginnings of her future intellect in those eyes as she looked at him, trying to figure out who this new person was and how he had gotten there.

Harry struggled to pull himself into a sitting position as well. They sat and stared at each other for what seemed hours. Finally Hermione burbled and a smile appeared. He couldn't help himself at that point, he started laughing hysterically, or what passed for it in this body. It actually ended up as more like screams. He found he didn't care in the slightest and simply couldn't stop. The thought of his beautiful, gifted, intelligent and book obsessed Hermione, the one who always quoted facts and information and well thought out plans and hypotheses for as long as he had known her. Now and forever more her first words to him instead of "Have either of you seen a toad." would be permanently replaced with Burble.

Hermione apparently liked his baby laugh and wanted to play so she handed him a stuffed bear and then grabbed one for herself. They sat laughing and playing for awhile until the adults came in to see what the noise was about.

~~oOoOo~~

Dan and Emma had spent the morning getting to know the strange new couple better. Emma was surprised when Lily had helped her with the morning breakfast and watched with fascination has she waved her wand and objects floated and moved on their own. She gained control of herself enough to overcome her shock. Soon they were trading recipes and talking about the stupidity of some of the things their men had done.

Lily was enjoying getting to know this relaxing woman. She found a part of herself that she had nearly forgotten about before. Emma was coming to remind her of her sister Petunia. Not the envious and bitterness that turned Petunia into the person she was now, but the acceptance and friendship they both shared when they were small children. Lily would never admit it out loud, but she missed the friendship she had with her sister. Certainly she had friends now, but they were all in the magical world. Emma was someone who could connect her back with her past, with her roots before she went to Hogwarts.

Emma found herself growing more and more comfortable around Lily. Emma had never had a great many friends before. Or at least, not people that she would classify as friends. No, the people that she knew and talked with the most frequently would more be classed as social acquaintances by her. Lily was something different in her experience. She was warm and open and inviting, inquisitive but not invading, questioning but not invading her boundaries and respecting her privacy. In the short time that Emma had known Lily Potter she had come to accept that she could be a good and true friend given time.

In the living room, Dan was in the midst of a dilemma. Three complete strangers had shown up in the middle of the night in his daughters bedroom. A complete shock for any ordinary person. To have that shock then compounded upon with the revelation that magic exists in their world, to have it demonstrated to him, and then to be told that his daughter had some type of magical bond with a boy he had never laid eyes on before, that may or may not indicate that she was married before she was out of nappies. That said potential husband was also in nappies and he could do nothing to frighten away said potential husband, Really Dan, how the hell do you scare a boy away from your daughter when he's not even old enough to understand you? Needless to say, Dan Granger was in a state of emotional shutdown since the night they appeared.

Looking up at a noise from the doorway he noticed James Potter standing there eyeing him with sympathy. "Bit of a shocker for you, I imagine." Dan snorted at the massive understatement and turned his head to resume his gaze out the window. In the corner of his eye he noticed James slowly make his way into the room and sit in a chair facing the same direction, only a small end table separating the two. After a few minutes of silence Dan was shaken back to the present by James' voice, "Can I interest you in a drink?" Dan slowly turned his head to face the man that had made such an abrupt intrusion into his and his wife's lives. After a moment of awkward silence, in which he continued his somewhat blank stare, James offered up tentatively, "You look like you could use one." Dan nodded his head slowly to which James replied, "I'm going to use some magic to get us some of the good stuff all right?"

Seeing his slow nod again James carefully pulled out his wand and gave it a wave. With that simple gesture Dan watched as a bottle and two glasses suddenly appeared. James watched as he tensed slightly. "It's all right. It's just some wizard made alcohol." Seeing Dan relax slightly he grabbed the bottle and filled the two glasses with amber liquid. Holding one out for Dan to take he then relaxed back into his chair and took a tentative sip. He waited as Dan watched him drink before he took a sip himself.

Dan was thinking that his life just couldn't get any stranger. People showing up out of nowhere, things appearing left, right and center. Now drinks appearing out of nowhere. It was disturbing in its own right. He took a slow sip after watching James do the same, then nearly coughed himself into a coma.

"Bloody hell! What is this stuff?" His throat was burning pleasantly and a warm sensation was making itself known in his stomach. He sat up straighter in his seat after he got his coughing under control.

"Firewhiskey," replied James. "One of the better wizarding drinks. Guaranteed to make you forget all your problems by the sixth glass at the most." He had a small smile on his lips as if it explained everything. "I'd take it very slowly if I were you. If you're not used to it, it will have you under the table faster than you can blink."

Dan eyed the glass warily then took another slow sip. Now that he knew what to expect he found it to be a rather pleasant drink.

Talk continued between the two men, each feeling the other out, trying to get an idea of what the other was all about. For James it was the idea of someone that would do their best just to provide for his family. He could respect that even if it was a foreign concept to him. James was the Lord of the Potter household and his family was very well off. They wouldn't have to work for several more generations if they didn't want to. For Dan it was the idea of someone who had everything, to give it all up just to protect the ones they loved. Dan could understand that concept all to well. His own father had thrown him from the house after he announced his intentions to marry Emma. His father didn't approve of her at all and they hadn't spoken to each other since the day he told him of their engagement.

Talk became easier as the drinks flowed. Stories became funnier and laughter began between the two men as they shared some of the funnier moments in their lives. They were halfway into their third glass when they heard screams coming from Hermione's room upstairs. Both fathers immediately dropped their drinks and bolted for the stairs, their wives right behind them.

All four came to a sudden stop at the sight of the two toddlers sitting in the crib, swinging stuffed animals back and forth and laughing happily. Emma and Lily smiled at the perfect scene of happiness between their two children. Dan and James exchanged looks and quietly left the women standing there to return to their drinks. Lily and Emma exchanged looks of their own and nodded to each other. Each silently thinking to themselves that if their children could find that much happiness with each other then maybe they would see if a lasting friendship could be developed out of the sudden appearances.

~~oOoOo~~

Many miles away from Crawly…

Sirius Black walked nonchalantly up the front walk to the home of one of his friends. He was going to catch up with Peter to see about the latest news of goings on. He opened the door without even bothering to knock. The house was eerily silent with no signs of life at all. A sinking feeling began to develop in his gut as he drew his wand and began to look for some sign of his friend, expecting with each room to find nothing but a body or blood splattered on the walls.

After his search turned up nothing but the persistent feeling in his gut remained, his face paled to almost white. James and Lily! Peter was James and Lily's secret keeper! It was a last minute switch from the plan. A clever ruse to have the Death Eaters trying to find Sirius to get to the Potters. It was long suspected that there had been a traitor in the ranks of the Order of the Phoenix. Some were suspecting the Potters other friend Remus Lupin, simply because he was a werewolf and therefore labeled a "dark" creature. Sirius had not doubted his friend at all but had been convinced to secretly change keepers by James, who thought it would be a grand prank to play on their fellow marauder.

If, however, the spy was actually Peter, then they may have doomed his friends just for a silly prank! With that thought lodged firmly in his mind, Sirius ran out of the house. Once clear of the wards he apparated to Godric's Hallow and the home of his best friend.

Arriving at the house his knees nearly gave out at the sight that awaited him. The front door was blasted completely off it's hinges and lay in a wreckage of shards and splinters along the hallway. Gathering what courage he could, he slowly made his way into the house, determined to find what he thought was the final fate of his adoptive family.

He made his way around the first floor and found nothing of importance. Nothing that looked out of place. Thinking that it would be just like their cowardly enemies to simply murder them in their bed he took a deep, slow breath and made his way upstairs.

Stopping at the door to James and Lily's bedroom he closed his eyes and steeled himself before looking in. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary he let out a great sigh of relief. Maybe they managed to get away. He kept that hope alive in his head as he took a few more steps to check Harry's room. Hope turned to shock as he came upon what appeared to be a glittering cage with the body of Voldemort lying inside.

Sirius froze and stared at the sight in disbelief for a frozen eternity. Shock gave way to elation at the end of the Dark Lord. Elation gave into anger as the realization of how he came to be here in the first place set in. Anger gave way to duty as he set off a patronus message to Albus Dumbledore letting him know of the news and to come quickly to Godric's Hallow.

Sirius made his way outside to await his arrival, thankful he had the scrap of paper on him that told of the place were the Potters were hiding. He collapsed on the front steps of the house and held his head in his hands. Scrubbing his face momentarily he muttered, "I need a drink."

The wind softly blowing the leaves through the yard was his only answer to said need.

A/N For those that would like longer chapters I will say this. This story has no plot mapped out, no ending yet. This story is writing itself, I am just along for the ride. When an idea pops into my head for the next chapter I am usually at work. That gives me about 3 or 4 hours to bounce the idea around finding the beginning, middle and end of said chapter and a vague idea of when to insert certain points. Then it's probably two hours of typing to get done then posted. So if you are looking for longer chapters blame it on my imagination because apparently it's that short.

Also I would like to thank Annabelle for the wonderful suggestion and hope that I at least attempted well with this chapter.

Thank you all for reading and please leave a review to let me know what you think!