Life after the incident on that fateful night was less than ideal for Harry Potter. Sure he received food, shelter and protection, but the one thing he craved the most in life was his parents love. After his twin Rose was hailed as the saviour of the wizarding world the Potters slowly distanced themselves from Harry, leaving him alone most days while doing extravagant adventures with Rose. Eventually, Harry was only present with the Potters at family reunions, legal events and large outings, and that was only because of Professor Dumbledore. Harry sighed as he thought of the man he called grandfather, on one hand, Harry resented him for declaring his sister the girl-who-lived and the root of his parent's emotional neglect. And on the other hand, Harry knew that it was not the old man's intention to leave him like this, he even said himself that he was sorry that the fame had gotten to Lily and James' heads and asked for his forgiveness.

But Harry was definitely more grateful to Dumbledore for his tutoring. James and Lily were too busy handling work, business opportunities and of course making sure Rose was content at all times, and Albus saw only that Harry was not as loved by his parents, and so decided that Harry should at the least have something to make up for his past mistakes. Dumbledore was fond of both children and made a point of visiting on the weekends, but he absolutely loved Harry. He was a smart, inspired and well-behaved child, Harry was a perfect rendition of Gellert before he went dark, Albus remembered what his friend was like to this day. And so Albus took it upon himself to make sure Harry did not follow the path his friend did, but he knew the dangers of manhandling a person through a system and regime, Tom Riddle was one of the many examples of this. And so Dumbledore decided to be a friend to Harry, teaching and training, laughing and crying together. Albus knew that Harry was destined for greatness, much more than his spoiled sister could ever have, his only regret was that Harry did not receive the love that his parents should provide. And so he took it upon himself to make sure that Harry had love in spades.

And so we come to Harry today, on his and his sister's 10th birthday.

Harry awoke with a small jolt in the bedroom closest to the library of the newly rebuilt Potter Manor, realising that today was his birthday he smiled a bit.'Today is always fun, I hope Grandpa will be here today.' He thought as he got showered and dressed, Harry usually woke up at 6:30 in the morning. It was something that his Grandpa always taught him, 'Sleep early and wake early'. As Harry went downstairs he realised that he heard the voice of his Grandpa and mentor.'Brilliant! Maybe he is here all day!'.Harry was excited at the thought of his mentor being here all day so that he could present him with a special thing he had been working on.

'Still don't know why he had me learning Japanese last month, he must have his reasons but at least it's a pretty language' Harry thought as he approached the kitchen, all Albus had said when questioned by Harry was that he would need it soon and that it was another step to unification of all beings. Harry opened the door to see his parents and mentor sitting at the table with a small breakfast buffet on the table. "Ah, Harry! Do join us for a spot of breakfast. Oh, and where are my manners, happy birthday!" Dumbledore said as jovial as ever. James and Lily looked at each other, and then at Harry before James spoke up in a slightly soft and shaky voice. "Do excuse us for a moment, Albus, I need to talk to Lily for a moment in private, do excuse us."

"Ah of course, please, do join us soon. I am sure Harry would love to celebrate his birthday with you two as soon as possible." Albus said as he motioned for Harry to sit with him. Harry slowly took a seat, mumbling a good morning to his mentor and parents before the two aforementioned parents walked out the room. Harry quickly snapped out of his stupor before questioning Albus "What was that about?". Dumbledore simply said "Hmm, something smells like the Elixir of Alertness. What a coincidence." The two just shared a grin before Harry dug into his meal.

With the Potter Parents

Lily and James walked through the endless halls of Potter Manor. The seemingly endless stream of thoughts wreaking havoc in their minds. It was eventually James who broke the uncomfortable silence. "Lily...I think it's safe to say that we royally screwed up.". Lily just snorted at his ability to understate something before choking out a reply. "Yeah, we ignore our son for 9 years of his childhood, not even acknowledging his presence and on the morning of his birthday we see him and Albus acting like casual friends while we couldn't even remember him."

James winced as his wife laid out the cold, hard truth in front of them. It was always her that saw things as they were and wasn't afraid to tackle them, but this wasn't something that they knew how to tackle.

"I think we can safely rule out us pretending like nothing happened, 'Failure is not the end, it is only a stepping stone to success.' That's what my father always told me. Lily, we can't just sit around and beg for him to forgive us, he deserves much more."

Lily gained a new confidence in her belly and said. "You're damn right James, I was already terrible to my sister and now she won't even stay in the same room as me. I...no we need to fix this, I'm not losing my only son without a fight!"

James smiled at his beloved, she always knew how to get him worked up. "Couldn't put it better myself Lils. You head back in and have breakfast and I'll go and get another place in the camp that Aaron is putting on, the one we got for Rose."

With a plan in mind, James and Lily set out on their tasks. They didn't know if they could regain Harry as a son but they'd be damned before they gave up without trying.

Back in the kitchen

Harry was sitting down at the table slightly shocked, his parents had finally noticed him! It didn't matter that they instantly left: he was just happy that they knew he existed. Now that he was over the shock he was significantly happier and started up a conversation with Dumbledore in Japanese. "Grandpa, how are you doing today?"

Realising that Harry was practising his Japanese and genuinely curious as to his well being Albus chuckled and responded in kind."Very good, how are you doing today Harry, it is your birthday after all."

"Pretty good sir, any chance I will be learning the reason for learning Japanese?"

Albus barked out a laugh, "In about an hour Harry, on another note how is your music doing?"

Albus knew that Harry was very passionate about music, he got Harry a guitar as a present from himself to Harry for his 6th birthday. Harry had not put it down for anything but eating and even slept with it by his side. Albus was a bit concerned but was instantly entranced when he heard Harry recite something to him. Albus knew Harry was a guitarist but as Harry dabbled in songwriting and singing, he discovered that his voice was pretty good as well. Eventually every birthday and Christmas Albus got Harry a new bit of musical apparatus, eventually, Harry had an entire studio set up. Albus was more than happy to set up various acoustic and silencing charms around the room so that he wouldn't disturb anybody when he practised.

Harry perked up, grandpa always wanted to know how Harry was coming along musically and hear some songs and Harry was all too happy to oblige."Awesome grandpa, I've got the vocals and instruments down and I'm just refining it and it will be good to go. There are only a few more songs to record before the album is complete."

At the start, Albus was clueless about these terms but as he was always ready to learn he asked Harry some questions and picked up a book. Eventually, he was fluent and started to use a pensieve to re-watch Harry's songs. It was a bit of a hassle and he had to set aside time in his busy schedule to listen to his music. This was until Harry came through for him and presented him with something called a CD Player, all he had to do was shield the device from magic and put in one of the disks and the song would play, absolutely marvellous and he could get work done with one of Harry's songs playing.

"Marvellous, I trust that I will be among the first to receive one of your fabulous CD's?"

Harry smirked, grandpa was always asking when his new CD was coming and Harry always gifted him with a preview CD before he sent it off to the publishers that grandpa proxied for him. It was how Harry earned pocket money and was the best because with a few pounds slipped their way the producers accredited it to Harry's alias, Hecate.

"You expected anything else Grandpa, you know I'd never break you old and feeble heart with such a betrayal." Said Harry in a playfully teasing tone.

Albus was about to give a witty comeback but he stopped as he saw Lily enter the room. She had just been of recomposing herself and after hearing from James that Harry had gotten a spot with no fuss she composed herself and entered.

"Ah, Lily, I hope that you are done with your business, but where is James? I would assume he would like to celebrate his son's birthday." Albus said switching back to English.

Lily addressed him with a now calm tone. "Sorry we took so long, James is just off to wake up Rose."

Harry had shrunk back into his seat quietly eating, he had no idea how to act around his mother in front of Grandpa. Then it hit him, he could use the small bit of legilimency training Grandpa slotted into his extensive occlumency training to send a message to his mother to act normal.

'Mum, this is a legilimency message. Please just act normal in front of grandpa and we can sort things out after he's gone.'Harry sent over to his mum who received the message, jumped slightly and looked at Harry with a pained smile.

The chat continued for a while until James came down with Rose, he had awoken her and filled her in on what their situation was. Rose honestly couldn't care about her brother, he was just a wiry nerd and she had everything she needed, so she decided to simply be aloof with him.

Albus took this as his cue to leave,"Well it has been terrific catching up but I must be going back to the castle. Happy birthday you two, oh and how could I forget your presents!"

He tossed two packages onto the table, with a bit of magic they sailed towards Harry and Rose respectively. Harry opened it with a thank you and saw it was a new microphone that completely outclassed his old one. Rose tore hers open greedily and found a 50 galleon voucher for Gladrags clothing store, she mumbled a thank you without even looking at Albus.

Albus then said goodbye to James and Lily before striding up to the fireplace, tossing in some floo powder and proclaiming. "The Three Broomsticks!" And disappearing in a flare of emerald fire.