Chapter Four; Four Years Later

Harry James Potter was four and a half years old. His mother couldn't believe how quickly he was growing up. Harry was just like all the other little boys in his neighborhood except for two very important things. He was unaware of the fact that he was a wizard because of the fact that his mother wanted to protect him from that life until he was ready for it.

Harry often wondered why he and his mother had a scar on their foreheads that was in the exact same shape as a lightning bolt, or why the other children bullied him (calling him names like scar head) because of it. Harry could also make unexplainable things happen that the other boys and girls couldn't do. For instance, he exploded several heads and accidentally shrunk his cousin's Dudley's sweater one time after he pushed him down the stairs.

Poor Harry was always getting suspended out of nursery school and getting hurt and there wasn't anything that his mother could do about it. She couldn't even explain to him why it was happening. One day when Lily drove to the school to pick her son up as usual, she found that he wasn't there. Lily started to worry more than she ever had in her life. Harry wasn't anywhere to be found, and Voldemort was still alive and looking for him.

"Harry!" she hollered on the top of her lungs while she quickly raced back outside feeling her heart pounding frantically against her chest. That's when she heard the sound of muffled sobs. She quickly turned her head and saw a little boy sitting all by himself on top of a swing. "Oh, thank God." Lily said breathing a sigh of relief before she raced over to him. "Harry James Potter, never scare me like that again!" she yelled as Harry gasped and tearfully looked up at his mother.

He knew that when she called him by his full name that he was in trouble. "I'm sorry Mummy, are you angry?" he asked her when all of a sudden she knelt down in front of him.

"Oh sweetheart of course I'm not. Mummy was just worried about you that's all. Are you alright?" she asked him soothingly while tucking a strand of hair behind his ear.

"No!" he sobbed. "It's not fair! All the kids are always laughing at me and hitting me!" he cried as Lily held out her arms and let him fall inside of them.

"Oh darling, I know." She reassured him soothingly while kissing the top of his head and gently rubbing his back.

"I just don't understand why they do that Mummy. They call me a freak just because I am different from them." He explained as Lily suddenly remembered when she was a little girl and her own sister had called her that.

"It's alright Harry, things will get better for you. I promise you that." She told him while she planted another kiss on his head and continued rubbing his back.

"Mummy," he began with a sniff. "can I ask you something?" he wondered when they suddenly broke their embrace.

"Sure sweetie, what is it?" she questioned him back.

"Why don't I have a daddy?" he asked her. Lily was suddenly taken aback, his question had taken her completely off guard.

"Well,.. do you remember when I told you that when people die they go to Heaven?" she asked him as he simply nodded at her. "Well,.. that's where your daddy is." She told him but for Harry that wasn't a good enough answer.

"But why did Daddy have to go to Heaven? Why didn't God let him stay here with us?" he asked her.

"I'm sorry sweetheart, I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that." She began with a shake of her head. "But I just want you to know that I love you very much, and I'm always going to be here to protect you and do what's best for you. Do you understand?" she asked him as he nodded again.

"Yes, but I'd still really like for someone to be my friend." He replied with another sniff before wiping his nose with the back of his hand.

"Don't worry love, just give it time alright?" she questioned him with a warm and loving smile as he nodded for a third time before he threw his arms around her neck and hugged her tightly.

"I love you." He told her.

"I love you too baby." She told him before she planted a third and final kiss on the top of his head and then scooped him up inside her arms. "Come on, let's go home." She told him as she started carrying him to the parking lot.

….

Lily parked her car in front of the Dursleys' house and carried Harry out of it. The first face they saw was that of a rather ticked off Uncle Vernon,.. AKA Lily's brother in-law. "There you are!" he hollered as he stormed towards them shaking his fist. Harry hid his face inside his mother's chest. "I've been looking for you everywhere! A bunch of rutty birds left their droppings all over our doorstep!" he shouted.

"Stop it Vernon! You're scaring Harry!" Lily snapped angrily at him.

"Well that's not really any of my concern now is it!?" he exclaimed while Harry continued to tremble with fright and blinked away his tears that weren't already rolling down his cheeks.

"Well, it should be. After all he is your only nephew." She pointed out as she watched his face turn red as a tomato and then all of a sudden he thrusted an envelope inside the palm of her hand.

"Just take your bloody letter and clean it up!" he spat before he stormed away. Harry watched as he hurried back a crossed the street and slammed the front door behind him.

"Why does Uncle Vernon hate me so much?" he asked his mother.

"Because he's a right foul git that's why!" she muttered under her breath. "Don't pay any attention to him Harry, if he ever lays a finger on you I'll kill him." She said while she started tearing into the envelope. "It would serve him right to, for the way his son treats you! The spoiled, ungreatful_" she mumbled but what else Dudley was Harry never found out. For Lily's eyes widened with great astonishment and disbelief as they fell upon the letter unfolded in her hand.

Dear Lily,

I hope you are doing well. I'm sorry that it's taken me this long to write to you, but I haven't spoken to you for so long that I didn't quite know what to say. First of all, I just wanted to tell you that it was no accident that you and your son survived. I was the one who found out about the prophecy and I told Dumbledore about it with great hope's that you would be safe. I was ever so relieved to find out that you were alive. It has been brought to my attention that you and your child have been forced to live with muggles for the last few years. Dumbledore told me that that was the safest place that you could be other than Hogwarts. That's why I am pleased to inform you that you may come and chose to live at the castle if you'd like to. You can bring your son and stay with me as long as you'd like. Please send me an owl ASAP with your response.

Your old friend,

Severus Snape Head of Slytherin house and potion's master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry