Chapter 1

The Potters

The sun started was rising over the village of Ottery St Catchpole. This charming, quiet village tucked neatly in the English country side, had all the usual tropes that belonged to a quaint English village. There was a post-office which could deliver any letter by hand within three to five working days if the item you sent didn't get lost in transit. An overpriced corner shop for buying groceries that tasted half as good as the price might suggest. A model toy shop that remained open because all the grannies of the village refused to travel to the city for presents. A café that only served tea and coffee, not any of that city muck and if you wanted something to eat, you would have a bacon roll or starve. There was also a large statue that was located directly in the middle of the village. The statue was of four otters, all happily playing in a pond, deciding which one of them would get to eat the fish that one of the lucky few had had caught. Despite the playful nature of the statue, each otter had a paw that pointed in a specific direction, North, South, East and West. Coincidently, these paws indicated four paths that any visitor to Ottery St Catchpole might want to follow. If they were to take the West Path, they would find themselves on the main road which would lead them away from the village and beyond. Following the East Path, would bring them to the only acceptable street, where the people of Ottery St Catchpole lived. The North Path was barred by a gate that had a sign on the front of it, which read: "Private, do not enter" This led to a vast forest that was deemed by the local council as "Too dangerous" to enter. If, however, they were feeling curious enough to wander somewhere different and take the South path, they might find themselves wandering into a world that might have felt a little different to them. And it was on this path that our story begins. At the end of the road, beyond the grass that grew higher than any man, there was a house that belonged to a strange little family.

In comparison to the other houses on the South path, this house was quite normal looking. Mostly because the other houses beyond the tall grass raised high into the air or looked like castles. Some barely looked like houses at all and some were just showing off in their magnificence. Only, Muggle would only see something that resembled the house that sat at the end of the path. It had only two floors, three bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, a dining room, a library on the end of the second floor and large garage that never seemed to have a car parked outside or hidden within. The front garden was something out of a fantasy novel, so neat and tidy with many flower beds that held the most curious looking plants and vegetables. On the right day you might have heard a few of these plants singing or perhaps having conversations about the murderous woman who sometimes cut off their heads to brew her potions. There were many wonderous and odd things in this garden but few stood out like the little creature that spent a great deal of time tending to the miraculous plants. This creature, with his big flappy ears, tennis-ball sized eyes and long nose, who wore a clean white cloth around its small body like a toga, was a house-elf named Dobby. Dobby, belonged to the Potter family, and was very proud to be so, thank you very much. Abandoned some time ago when his former Master was killed in a terrible, albeit murderous accident. Dobby had found his way to Lily Potter thanks to a mutual friend of the family. His main duties were to keep the house clean, tend to the garden – which was something he loved to do, and when needed, take great care of Lily Potter's son, Harry.

It had just passed 9 o'clock and Dobby was admiring a family of Bowtruckles that had recently moved in to the only tree in the garden, when Dobby heard someone call out, "Dobby, help!" Dobby's ears perked up right away, recognising the voice of his Mistress, Lily Potter and instantly disapparated from the garden – which is a fancy word for disappearing in one place and appear in another – and straight to the kitchen where Lily was.

.

"Mistress Lily." Dobby announced himself. "Dobby has come right away!" Dobby had his little fist balled up as if readying himself for a fight. Not that this was a regular occurrence in the Potter household, Dobby was just given specific instructions at the time of his hiring. To his relief, all he discovered was Lily trying to wrestle together a rather large breakfast. Normally breakfast wasn't capable of defeating her, but this morning was different and Lily had a few extra mouths to feed.

"I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times for the last 10 years Dobby, please stop calling me Mistress," Lily told him in a kind, yet slightly distressed tone. It should be made clear that was in no way an order. House-elves loved to be given orders, and in over a decade in which Dobby had served The Potter family, he had never once been given one. Lily Potter had a great dislike for having what she called "A slave, "given to her. To her, Dobby was much a part of her family as her son was. Which is the soul reason you would be hard pressed to find a happier house-elf than Dobby.

"Dobby will attempt to try it at some point this century Mistress." He promised, but doing so with his fingers crossed behind his back. He then quickly rushed forward and got to work helping Lily to set the table, and as he counted the plates he asked, "Will Master Remus be joining us for breakfast?"

"Yes," Said Lily, "Neville as well, Augusta has errands to run this morning, so we're taking Neville to Diagon Alley with us.

Lily had a soft spot for Neville Longbottom and was very pleased when he and Harry had grown to be best friends. Neville's grandmother was something of a tyrant at times, a very formidable woman who would be the first to deny it, happily stood guard over The Potter family. She sadly had a talent for being too hard on Neville, which unfortunately caused Neville to be as deadly as a puppy. Neville had known the Potter's for so long and so well, that Lily didn't even blink when she heard the front door open, she simply called out, "Wipe your feet Neville, Harry's upstairs!"

"Yes Mrs Potter, Thanks Mrs Potter, Mr Lupin is here too, Mrs Potter!" Neville called back to her. She could hear him stumbling over the top step and then the sweeping of a brush. It was likely that Neville had been at her plants before coming in. He was quite fond of Herbology. This is why she kept a broom at the door for whenever Neville visited, it saved time.

"Mrs Potter, Mistress Potter," Lily sighed, gazing at Dobby and admiring the wake he had taken full and complete control of the breakfast preparations.

"And what appears to be the matter with you?" Remus Lupin asked, appearing at the open-door frame of the kitchen. He looked very pale this morning, shabby and tired but he smiled warmly at his friend.

"Since when did we become so old that the young felt the need to not use our first names?" She asked him.

Remus simply chuckled and removed his cloak, draping it over the back of his usual seat before replying "I think it was some time after we turned…"

"I think you'll find we're not nearly as old as the number you're about to say, Remus." Lily glowered at him, looking very dangerous indeed.

"Sorry, Mrs Potter," He said with a light smile. One that vanished when Lily's glower got more glowering. "Erm, I trust Harry is upstairs, for that is the only reason Neville could ever move so fast?"

"Yes," Lily replied, rolling her eyes. "Severus gave him the entire spells, charms and potions list for his first year."

"Oh dear." Nodded with understand, and holding back the amused chuckle that threatened to break free. Such a gift from Severus to Harry, could only mean that Harry's room was now in a state of absolute disarray.

And, sure enough when Neville reached the top of the stairs, walked past Lily's room, the spare room and stopped at a door that had a wooden sign on it that read: "Harry's Room," He stepped in and found Harry Potter, standing on his single bed and looking at the wall opposite it. Harry's room was a large place, his bed sitting on the far right against the wall with the head beneath the window. Next to the bed was a desk topped with all kinds of books, instruments, magazines, newspapers and bits of parchment. Next to that and leaning towards the open window, was a bird cage with no bird in it, instead it sat open as if waiting for something to fly into it. Along the wall next to the bedroom door was a large closet for clothes and the like, then finally was a large open space that held nothing. This space was used for pacing and thinking, the wall next to it was covered in bits of parchment that had long explanations for the spells and potions that had been given to Harry the night before. Neville, who had gotten use to Harry and his ability to learn almost anything overnight, simply chuckled at the state of his wall.

"Your mum is going to kill you."

"You as well if you don't clean up before breakfast," Harry said, not looking away from the mass of information that was currently sticking to his wall.

Neville caught sight of himself in the full-length mirror next to the wardrobe. He pulled a twig from his hair and dusted down his clothes. Neville was a round faced boy with large front teeth and big ears, who had a talent for Herbology, something his grandmother didn't approve of, but something that Lily had encouraged greatly in the young man. Harry, who was thin, with round glasses, black thick hair and green eyes, looked down at Neville and gave him a grin.

"She's already seen it I think she knew it was coming." Harry told him, grinning and leaping barefoot from his bed to the floor, landing with a loud thud.

"Yeah, but what even is it?" Neville asked, taking a closer look. To him it was just mindless babble that if noticed, would occasionally have words that looked like spells,

"That my friend, is every spell, incantation, charm, potion, jinx for our entire first year at Hogwarts," Harry explained, "Severus gave it to me last night."

"He gave you all of this?" Neville asked in surprise, "He's a teacher, he's not supposed to give you answers!"

"Ha! Sev give me answers?" Harry asked with a roll of his eyes. If there is one thing that Severus Snape, one of Harry's most trusted and loving of adopted uncle's was, it was not someone who would allow Harry to gain knowledge easily. "Please, he just gave me the list, I did all of this."

"You know all of this?" Neville asked, his mouth hanging open. He was used to Harry being somewhat cleverer than he was, but this was reaching lengths of genius that matched Remus and Severus. Who were two of the smartest and talented wizards that Neville could think of at that moment.

"If you'd come over yesterday, you'd have been able to help me with the herbology stuff." Harry rolled his eyes. Mums already had a go at me for not taking interest in it," He sighed and shook his head. "What a Potion Mistress for the Ministry needs Herbology for, is beyond me."

"It's an interesting subject, besides, the more she knows about Herbology the safer her…"

"Neville, my friend, my best friend," Harry said, casually putting his arm around Neville's shoulders, "As much as I'd love to hear your speech about how Herbology is the best thing ever, and while I accept that you love it, even hope one day you'll teach it at Hogwarts like you've always dreamed, I will never, and I mean never, see a need for it,"

Unimpressed as he usually was with Harry's lack of interest in Herbology, Neville gave Harry a playful shove back and inspected the section of the wall that Harry titled: "D.A.D.A" and asked "D.A.D.A?"

"Defence against the dark arts, looks like the Professor is going to go over a few dark creatures," Harry explained, "Severus doesn't like him much, then again he doesn't like any Defence against the dark arts teacher," he said, happily amused by this.

"What's this spell?" Neville frowned, "Flippendo, knock back, jinx?"

"Standard stunning spell," Harry said, sounding a little bored by it, "They teach it to all the first years, but Remus showed me the Protego Shield charm, he says any hexes and curses I had to learn by myself, that's when mum hit him with a spoon." He chuckled.

"I see Remus is coming with us today," Neville said conversationally. Neville, like Harry was very fond of Remus, but his presence usually meant that Lily was going to worry about something.

"Yeah, I think if she wanted it, mum would have had Remus, Severus and Peter there," Harry said with a roll of his eyes, "You know how she gets, though, I can't think for a second what Peter would do if anything bad happened." Harry added, making Neville chuckle.

Peter Pettigrew was someone who Harry and Neville tolerated, and Harry often wondered if Lily did the same. Unlike Remus and Severus, Peter wasn't the cleverest wizard in the world and often was found asking Remus for help with all kinds of things. He didn't visit often and when he did, it was never for long except to eat whatever food that was on offer to him. Lily had often told Harry, that he should respect Peter because he was one of his dads' best friends. Harry felt that his dad must have been a very forgiving man, if he was friends with someone like Peter.

"Still though, only 2 more days and we're finally there," Neville said with excitement practically oozing from his pours.

"And only a couple of hours until I have my wand," Harry grinned, his wand was the most coveted of items on his school list. After years of studying and guess work, he would finally be able to put all those spells he had read about to the test. Harry, unlike most wizard children his age, had a fascination with increasing his knowledge of magic. He had dared to read through some of the many books that resided in his mother's library. His favourite subject without question was Defence against the dark arts. In theory, he was also a dab hand at charms and transfiguration, and since one of his mother's oldest friends would be his potions teacher, he felt it best to get a head start on that subject, as nice as Severus was to him at home, he had promised Harry there would be no favourites in his potions class. Harry also, unlike most children had already decided what he wished to be when he grew up. Harry wanted to be an Auror – someone who caught dark wizards for a living, he had decided on this career path many weeks ago when his mother sat him down, to discuss the nature of how his father had died.

Unlike most children who would have feared the possibility that dark forces would want to harm him. Harry had learned that his father and his mother, were brave members of a secret order who once fought against Lord Voldemort. She told him that other witches and wizards wouldn't be like Neville or his grandmother, who without hesitation would say Voldemort's name out loud. That the reason for their secluded life, had been because she never wanted Harry to be the centre of attention because of a terrible moment in history. He was by no means a famous wizard. Many had worked to make sure that the events of Godric's Hollow had remained a secret. That it was a mistake on The Dark Lords part which had cost him his life, even going as far as to say James Potter was the one responsible for the dark lord's demise. While that last part was a lie in some margin, Harry had taken the news much better than Lily could have ever dreamed. The only thing that had bothered Harry most about this tale, was learning that it had been a close friend of the family who had tricked Peter Pettigrew into making him the secret keeper for James and Lily's hiding place. Had this so-called friend not been so loyal to the dark lord, Harry might still have had a father. As a result, Harry had taken it upon himself to be as good and great a wizard as he could learn to become, because he believed his father to be a great wizard who protected those he loved. He also knew, that if he were to train and become part of the elite wizards responsible for catching dark wizards, then he, Harry, might one day learn the name of the man who betrayed his father, and meet him. The identity of this man had been kept a secret from Harry. Remus, who Harry had come to regard as a trusted ear, had asked why. Remus' reply was to tell Harry that it was only because his mother loved and wanted to keep him safe, that she would not tell him. Which only made Harry more determined to begin his studies.