Chapter 1: Happy Birthday to Me
Key: "Speech", 'Thoughts', ""Magical Incantations""
Author's Note: The main idea for this story is to move away from standard canon and explore new ideas and how they could be incorporated into the Harry Potter Universe. Assume everything that happened before this was (unless later stated otherwise) the same as canon Harry Potter. I'll try to be unique with most of my ideas, but given how many fanfictions there are out there, I'll probably be stepping on some toes - for this I apologise.
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Monday -=- October 31st - 06:00 -=- Potters' Cottage
A pair of brilliant green eyes snapped open as he awoke from his slumber. Today was an interesting day for his family. On one hand, it was the day he lost his grandparents to some sociopath relic of the past, but on the other hand it was his eleventh birthday. The day he could officially enter the wizarding world. Naturally, he did what he always did on birthdays and ignored the past in favour of celebrating the present.
It was only years of experience that saved him from from untold horrors being wreaked upon him as he jumped out of bed and rolled across the floor to safety. Something splattered against his bed with a sickening sound. It was then that the dark-eyed demon spoke.
"Happy Birthday my little brother!"
He warily stepped out of the shadows whilst eyeing brother. The last two months had been the most peaceful prank-free months he'd ever had. He was slightly annoyed at being awoken in such a manner, but was ultimately used to such things when dealing with his brother. 'He just couldn't wait, could he? The sun isn't even up yet.'
"Bloody hell, James, aren't you meant to be at Hogwarts?"
To this he responded by firing off a jinx at his younger brother. It was seemed unfair how wand laws suddenly tipped the balance to the older brother's favour. The younger one's legs snapped together and it was by sheer luck that he managed not to fall over. This was quickly remedied by James tackling him to the ground, turning them into a mass of flailing limbs. 'Well at least I'll be able to get a wand soon, that should even the playing field a little.' It was then that the true equaliser appeared. Both boys suddenly found themselves floating mid-air, unable to move.
"Now, James. Is that any way to treat his brother on his birthday?"
Harry Potter stood in the doorway with his wand, as well as a lone eyebrow, raised. He was the husband of Ginny Potter, proud father of three children and head of the Auror Office in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement (DMLE). He was also once known as the Boy-Who-Lived, a title given for defeating Voldemort as a baby and then finalising his victory in adulthood. The only thing the remained to show of it was a barely visible almost gold-pigmented lightning bolt scar.
"Of course it is!" was the only reply my brother could come up with.
In response to such cheek, Harry turned around and started walking back down the stairs with two brothers floating in tow. As they reached the bottom they were released which resulted in one of them landing face-first on the floor. Good reflexes weren't only useful for avoiding pranks. Standing around a cake was the rest of the Potter family. On the left was red-haired freckled matriarch of the Potter household, Ginny Potter. She might have had a kindly looking face at the moment, but could be extremely fierce when angered. Next to her was the youngest of the Potter family, Lily Potter. Named after their grandmother, she was almost identical in appearance except for her light chocolate colored eyes.
"Happy Birthday!" they exclaimed as the birthday boy saw them gathered around the cake.
Albus Severus Potter was celebrating his eleventh birthday that day, the day he officially became a part of the wizarding world. While all the Potter children were very talented, Albus seemed to have inherited more than just his name from the old headmasters of Hogwarts, according to his parents. It seemed like was constantly doing accidental magic, most of the time with enough intent to be something almost useful. Using sugar that was floating in circles around your tea was easier, right? This started much earlier than other children and was still occurring with semi-regularity. The fact that he wasn't even a year away from Hogwarts made it even more curious.
His green eyes twinkled faintly as he took in his loving family surrounding a massive birthday cake, filling him with enough emotion to cause something that usually made his parents chuckle. He only faintly heard Lily questioning his mother, "How come he gets twinkly eyes?", as he moved to blow out the candles. He was always the quiet Potter child and thus surprised his family when he yelped out loud as he ran towards a stack of presents that had just appeared. While they initially thought it was because of sheer quantity of presents, the real reason for this was revealed as they saw his behind and noticed a large red and orange stain on his clothes. It even seemed to be moving in a way reminiscent of flames.
As Harry cast a silent finite to get rid of it, he called out, "Don't open any of them yet. Rather wait for your party today so that you can properly thank everyone."
Ginny took the opportunity to whack James on the back of the head for pranking his brother twice, already, on his birthday. They had to call in quite a few favours in order to get him out of school for the day and the only thing he seems to care about since getting back has been pranking his brother. He really was incorrigible.
"It wasn't even me this time." he mumbled to himself as his brother came running back to hug his parents.
As serious as Albus could be at times, he was still an eleven year old after all.
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Monday -=- October 31st - 17:00 -=- Potters' Cottage
The birthday party was a great success among the most of the children even some adults had a great time. Not many wizards lived the semi-muggle lifestyle that the Potters enjoyed and were intrigued by the television as well as all the games they had on the system. An electronic dance-off tournament was quickly set up and came down to crazy Uncle George competing against Teddy. Teddy eventually won by cycling his hair through the most neon colours imaginable in order to distract George at the most inopportune moments.
The only response George had to his loss was to turn both their faces neon blue as he congratulated Teddy. He might not be a metamorphagus, but was still armed to the teeth with his prank products.
After most of the guests had left, Albus walked up to his father and sat on the armrest of the chair he was currently occupying. He had managed to get the day off at work and Albus was capitalising on spending all his free time with his father that day.
"I have a little something for you, Al" he said after a moment. He proceed to take out a small envelope letter with the Hogwarts emblem sealing it. Albus's eyes widened as he reverently opened the letter.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy
Headmistress: Minerva McGonagall
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 1st. We await your owl by no later than July 31st.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
"How did you get it so early?" Albus asked after flipping through the list of supplies needed. Hogwarts had only just started the new year less than two months ago.
"I asked for it to be quickly written when I picked up James, Professor McGonagall was happy to do so if it meant a couple of days free of pranks." Harry replied, still thinking of her as a professor even though he had graduated almost two decades ago.
"When can we go to Diagon Alley?"
"Tomorrow, why don't you go open your last two presents?" Harry responded as the last of the guests apparated away and two presents suddenly appeared on the nearby couch. Ginny was keeping James and Lily distracted in the kitchen whilst cleaning up so that Albus and Harry could spend some quality time together. Albus inherited not only his father's looks, but some of his shyness too and always spoke the most when in his father's presence. Out of all the Potter children, it seemed like Albus was the closest to Harry.
Albus hopped out of his makeshift seat and walked over to the last two presents that weren't even there a moment before. He grabbed a small looking rectangular box and carefully opened it - he was never one for tearing his present's wrapping paper apart like his brother. What he found was looked like a leather bangle that was about two inches wide. Knowing that magical things were often more than they appeared, he put the bangle on.
The black leather expanded across his forearm and turned into a series of crisscrossing straps before tingling a little bit and disappearing. It was then that he noticed there was also a small note on on the inside of the box. He took it out and read:
Voucher for: 1 Wand
Confused, he looked up to find his father standing right next to him. As he was about to ask, his father knowingly interrupted;
"What you have there is the newest auror-standard wand-holster. It should keep your wand invisible and intangible to everyone but yourself and should prevent anyone from disarming you whilst it is still in the holster. Even though it still only feels like you are wearing a tight bangle, the entire thing is actually there. Just remove what you feel if you want to take it off. This," he pointed at the small note in the box, "should allow you to get a free wand from any Ollivanders shop in Europe. You should be able to store that voucher in the holster until then."
As Harry was speaking Albus was touching his right forearm in wonder. It was true, all he could feel was a skintight leather bangle sitting just below his wrist. As his father finished speaking he looked up and asked, "Does this mean we can go to Diagon Alley tomorrow?"
Harry's nodded as Albus placed the voucher against his wrist and watched it disappear.
"How do you get it back?" he asked.
"All you need to do is flick your wrist outwards with the intent of retrieving your wand and it should come shooting out."
Albus looked towards the second present with some trepidation. It looked like it was a wrapped up towel and was beginning to dread another Ginny-knitted sweater when he noticed it was from Harry.
"You got me two presents?"
"No, the first was from your mother," he replied with a wink. Such a sneaky way to get away with two presents, but Albus wasn't complaining. He knew that the family was actually incredibly wealthy and had seen the Potter Ancestral Manor once before. Unfortunately, his father avoided fame and excessive wealth like a house-elf avoids clothes and it was due to this that family members had to adhere to the 'one present per person' law. Well that, and that Ginny would curse him into next week if he raised his kids to be as spoiled as Draco was in their early Hogwarts days.
As he finished unwrapping the present found that it appeared to be nothing 'Well that was strange,' he thought.
He reached into the cocoon of wrapping paper and felt an almost liquid-like fabric. As he took it out, he noticed that only one side of it was visible. 'There's no way this is what I think it is.' he wondered in disbelief.
He put it on and looked up to find his reflection wasn't visible on any surface he was meant to have a reflection on. He also noticed that it was almost completely translucent when worn too. "You got me an invisibility cloak?!" he squeaked loudly before remembering his brothers were only two rooms down in the kitchen. Hopefully they didn't hear anything.
"Well could you imagine what James would do if I gave it to him?" Harry joked.
Albus took the cloak off and noticed that the visible side was opaque again and the invisible side seemed to be somewhere in between ink-black and invisible, unlike what what it was before. At the same time Harry noticed that, from his perspective, the invisible side maintained its invisibility after being taken off. 'Weird, I guess it bonds to be somewhat visible to whoever legally owns it and since my father was dead when I received it was always mine...'
"Now Albus, there's something I must tell you about this cloak, but only if you promise to not use it for too much mischief."
"I promise I won't use for anything too mischievous." he replied with, his eyes twinkling once more as he thought about the semantics of what his father said. He might not be the prankster of the family, but he was still acutely aware of any loopholes he could exploit when given a new set of rules.
"Good. I've had this cloak checked by the unspeakables and they found that it was made almost entirely out of thestral hairs. What this means is that it'll never loose its invisibility." '...among other things.' he thought.
"I want you to promise you'll pass this on to your son like my father did to me." he stated, thinking on how all the hallows seem to have been made from thestral parts and how that's probably how the entire myth started. It made sense when one thinks about how the brothers must have 'seen death' in order to make the legendary items. Thinking about it, he realised how many thestrals, usually almost hairless, must have been used to gather enough hairs for an entire cloak. He started chuckling at the image of a Peverell brother chasing down flocks of thestrals in order to gather hairs.
All this went unnoticed by Albus who was in complete awe after his father had finished speaking. Demiguise invisibility cloaks were already really rare, but the one in his hands took rarity onto a whole new level. These last two presents were probably the best presents he'd received in his entire life thus far.
After his shock wore off he couldn't help but think, 'Looks like the playing field has just been tipped in my favour, older brother...'
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Monday -=- October 31st - 22:22 -=- Potters' Cottage
A loud noised caused Albus to jolt out of bed and roll into a crouch. He looked around his room, searching for who he assumed was the cause, automatically assuming it was James to blame.
'Strange, he's not here. He never pranks Lily at night.'
Bright lights flashing outside his window accompanied with crackling noises made Albus instantly wary. A large exploding sound decided it for him and he walked towards the door and pushed it open. Nothing. Suddenly wary again he silently crept down the stairs - avoiding the creaky step that usually alerted him to incoming pranks. About halfway down he hears an earsplitting scream. It was only after a moment that he recognized the voice of the scream.
'Lily!'
Frantically, he started running down the stairs only to be pushed down to the side by both his parents. Before they moved out of his hearing range Harry whispered, "Stay hidden Albus, stay hidden," just before throwing his new invisibility cloak over.
He hears some shouting and his blood runs cold as Lily's scream is suddenly silenced. His dread triples when he hears a shriek that could only be his mother before she the shouting resumed. Unable to take it anymore, he ran down the stairs and was greeted by a horrific scene.
The room was completely trashed, furniture almost completely shredded and there were large holes visible in the walls. The door to James's room looked like the epicentre of some massive explosion with large wodden splinters littering the hallway. Filling nearly every breach in the outer walls were dozens of wizards, for that's the only thing they could be, dressed in dark robes and hoods that completely obscured their faces. Harry and Ginny were firing curse after curse at the invaders, fighting like Albus had never seen before.
Just after a wizard in dark robes exploded into a shower of gore, courtesy of Ginny, the true horror of the situation was revealed. Lying in the centre of the room was the still form of Lily Potter. She wasn't breathing.
Unable to see anything other than his sister, Albus ran forward, cloak flying off of his head, only to be stopped by Harry who turned from the fighting to push him back with such force that he probably bruised his buttocks as he fell. It was this slight distraction that had cost the fight and Harry and Ginny suddenly found themselves completely unarmed.
Albus saw confusion, realisation and finally determination on settle Harry's face and had less than a second to process what happened before what happened next. He looked and nodded at Ginny, grabbing her hand as both stepped in front of his prone form to be struck be at least a dozen green spells each. Both forms fell limply, staring up with glassy eyes.
Dead.
Albus's world collapsed around him as he stared at his two unmoving parents. He felt true despair as he crawled towards them, his cloak pooling around his feet. Time seemed to stop around him, nothing mattered to him anymore. He didn't even care about living, he wanted to join is parents, he just wanted them back. He was so deep in emotional turmoil that he didn't feel any pain as two unique scars appeared just below each collarbone.
After what seemed like an eternity, he looked up to face his parents' killers. They seemed to be shocked by their victory, like they didn't ever suspect that they would succeed and live to tell the tale. Most of them didn't even care about the small child crying over the corpses of hise parents. Eventually one stepped forward and looked the boy in the eye, looking at him in disgust.
""Avada Kedavra""
It was then that Albus knew pain. Pain of the body, pain of the mind and pain of the very soul. It felt like his very essence was being torn apart and stuffed with nails, piece by piece.
To the shock of everyone present, when the curse collided with the small child and he started screaming. He arched his back as his left side started bleeding, blood drenching his pajamas. After exactly two seconds, the bleeding stopped and all blood suddenly glowed killing-curse green, radiating outwards from the now collapsed boy with the force of a hurricane.
No shield could stop it, no person could outrun it and no object to defend from it. Everyone left in the Potters' Cottage died as Godric's Hollow, thirty-five years later, experienced the killing-curse rebounded once more
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Monday -=- October 31st - 22:32 -=- Potters' Cottage Ruins
Albus awoke with a start. He was in pain, but it was not unbearable. It was the type pain one has after exercising for an entire day without any rests. What was strange was that this pain seemed to be present in his mind too, as if he had been over-thinking something for the last week straight.
As he opened his eyes, his stomach dropped. Everything he had thought was just a nightmare was real. It seemed like he was in his own personal hell. Everything in sight was scorched or shattered and without the opposite wall supporting the house, the entire top floor collapsed leaving him trapped within a small triangular pocket of space near the staircase. Had he thought about it, he would have been glad that he couldn't see his sister as her body was probably scorched beyond recognition.
At that moment that his adrenal gland finally kicked in and flooded his body with adrenalin. It was fight or flight and subconsciously, he must have known that if he stuck around he would be driven insane. He reached for his father's hand and grabbed the Potter Family Ring. The fact that it slid off his finger and onto his own was yet another example of proof that they were really gone. As soon as it was placed upon his index finger it resized to be a snug fit and glowed brightly in acceptance.
Albus then pressed upon the Potter crest and whispered, "Potter Manor."
He screamed out as his magic started up again in order to portkey him to the ancestral manor foyer. His last thoughts were, 'It looks like it wasn't just my muscles that feel like they're overworked,' before he passed out on the manor's floor.
As of November 1st 2016, Albus Severus Potter was an orphan
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Friday -=- November 3th - 14:15 -=- Potter Ancestral Manor Foyer
A small boy rolled over on the ground and attempted to get up. Attempted because he was halfway up before he realised what had happened and collapsed onto his back. The fleshy sound of his back hitting the floor reverberated throughout the large foyer.
"Why?" was all he could say before he burst into tears, curling up into the fetal position as he cried everything away.
It was hours before his tears ran dry and he finally realised that there was nobody there to help him, nobody to sooth his paints, nobody to allay his fears and nobody to look after him.
He was all alone and he didn't even have a wand, some 'new wizard' he was. He made his way over to the informal sitting room and turned the on the Wizarding Wireless, seeing as they hadn't set up any new utilities from the last couple of decades at the manor.
What he heard chilled him to the bone. A new group of dark wizards have swept across Europe like a plague, murdering thousands over the last few days. On Halloween, any family related to the fall of a recent dark lord were targeted and eliminated.
What was more shocking was that many of them were known to Albus. The Longbottoms, the Scamanders and even many of the Weasley branches were all families who had children that he was friends with and now all of them are gone. What's worse was that most of his friends were at home with their parents due to his stupid little birthday party. Nearly everyone had decided to stay with their parents for the night, like James, in order to get a restful night of sleep before heading back to Hogwarts.
Albus wanted to cry, but his eyes remained defiantly dry. Everything was his fault, even his parents died due to his idiotic distraction that came at the wrong time. It was at that moment that something hardened in little Albus and one thought screamed above all others.
'It is up to me to make it right as it was my fault.'
This led to the thought that would later embed itself into the core of his psyche. The thought that gave him the determination and drive to do what needed to be done.
'It is up to me to become the avenger.'