"What is he doing?"

Turning to the window where he could hear rapid thwacks reverberating from, Charlus Potter saw his darling wife Dorea looking towards the gardens at the back of Potter Manor wearing what could only be a confounded expression. Chuckling beneath his breath, he joined his wife in looking through the window of his study and watched as a shirtless boy of eleven years laid into the wooden dummy in front of him.

"I believe he called it Bajiquan?"

"What?" asked his puzzled wife who was entirely unfamiliar with the strange words.

"Bajiquan. Do you remember that representative from the Taoist Association in China, Xiao Yunfeng, who came for a meeting regarding some bulk purchases of Magical Herbs last month?"

His eyebrows rose to his hairline as he watched his nephew move with such speed that his arms and feet blurred. Charlus could only shake his head in amazement. To think that a child could move with such speed and power... what else could he call his nephew but prodigious?

Turning to his wife, he saw Dorea furrow her brows and an admittedly cute pout formed on her lips as she tried to remember which of the representatives he was talking about. Not that he can blame her for her confusion; as a Noble of the Highest Order for an equally Ancient House, he was quite the busy man and he always had meetings with foreign dignitaries every other day of the week. Were it not for his Occlumency, he was sure he would have already forgotten each and every one of them.

'That would have been embarrassing', Charlus thought. 'It would have certainly been a great political faux pas.'

Even then his Occlumency had never been the best so it always took considerable effort on his part to avoid forgetting the numerous 'Important People' he had to meet. It was for this reason that he had invested on a pensieve when one of those artifacts had appeared in an auction some twenty years ago.

"Do you mean that short, stuffy man with the funny little goatee that acted like he had a perpetual stick up his behind?"

Miming as though she were a wise old sage, Dorea squinted her eyes and pretended to stroke a beard. Seeing his wife make such a silly face, Charlus turned to the side, and hid his laughter behind his fist and coughing as he did so. Even then, he could not fully prevent the small quirk of his lip. Something he was sure his dear wife had caught if the mischievous sparkle in her eyes were any clue.

"Hmhm, y-yes, that is who I had meant."

"Then, what about him?"

Clearing his throat for the final time, Charlus saw that his nephew had noticed them watching him. He gave James a wave and a smile and he said,

"It would seem that our dear nephew has gotten quite close to Xiao Yunfeng's daughter. From what James has told me, they have been keeping correspondence for the past few weeks. It seems like he got the idea of doing martial arts from her."

"I see..." Dorea hummed in apprehension and asked, "Is she another one?"

"Thankfully, no, she isn't." He quietly replied as he watched his nephew start another cycle of those strange movement patterns. "But I would not be surprised if her family had quiet plans regarding her friendship with our nephew."

"Xiao Yunfeng, although he strikes me as an honorable man in our one conversation, he is no doubt a Slytherin at heart." Dorea worried at her lip as one hand cupped her elbow. "He is a cunning and ambitious man. It would only make sense for a man like him to permit his daughter to continue her friendship with James in the hopes that we might ally with him or worse, he might propose a betrothal between his daughter and our nephew."

Gently, Charlus took her hands and did his best to ease her worries.

It has been almost half a year since they had taken in his nephew. When he had heard that his younger brother Fleamont and his wife Euphemia contracted the deadly disease known as Dragon Pox, he had been beside himself with grief. There had been no known cure for the illness - not even magic, for all its wonders and miracles. In fact, magic only seemed to make the disease much more resilient, much more infectious, deadlier. All that one could do was endure the pain of the disease.

His brother and sister-in-law fought the disease as best as they could but they had eventually succumbed into death's embrace not even a month later. Charlus had taken James away from their cottage in Godric's Hollow, fearing that the last reminder he had of his younger brother would also be infected with the cursed disease if he had remained in the previously infected home.

A fear that had unfortunately come home to roost.

A day after they had taken his nephew into Potter Manor, James had been struck by a terrible fever. Dorea had to move James into a different wing of the manor and had instructed the House Elves - the only magical creatures known to be immune to Dragon Pox - to take care of him.

Three months.

For three whole months their nephew battled against the disease that had killed his Father and Mother. For three whole months, Charlus and Dorea had been with their nephew through the scrying mirror that had been gifted to Dorea by her brother Arcturus. They had watched as the disease ravaged the poor boy's body; boils bursting with yellow pus, rashes so deep red that they looked as though they were bleeding, fevers that could have cooked his organs, even minor bleedings from his orifices.

They had been with him through it all.

It had been on the third month, the third day, of the third hour that the disease finally seemed defeated. It had not escaped his nor Dorea's notice that James had finally healed on the witching hour - a stable number in a sequence of 3's - it was a miracle of Magic.

Karot had alerted them as soon as James had awakened and it was with deep relief that they had rushed into their nephew's room. When they arrived, James looked healthy. His boils and scars disappeared and his skin rashes were now the color of his normal fair skin.

It was as if he had never been sick at all!

It was a lie.

With his authority as the Lord of House Potter, Charlus called in the best healers that the Merdinia Sanatorium would be able to send him to check on his nephew's health. It was then that they had delivered the most heartbreaking news: James had lost his memories. The fevers had damaged his organs and most importantly, it had damaged the nerves in his brain.

Had James not been as magically powerful as he was... Charlus could not bear to think of it. Magic's blessing and James' inner strength had allowed his brain to fully recover, but his memories will never return.

"The vessel may have been repaired, but the contents have been spilled and will forever be lost," the healer had told them. "What was lost can always be found and what was destroyed can always be repaired, but what doesn't exist can never be seen. Had he lost them, there are potions and magicks that can awaken forgotten or hidden memories, but, his memories were not lost... it was more like they never existed. I am sorry, Lord Potter... there is nothing more that we can do."

Orphaned of both his Mother and Father, ravaged by a disease that had killed stronger men than he, it had seemed like misfortune had found his nephew as even his memories were taken from him. Seeing as though the world despised him, Charlus and Dorea had decided to take their nephew in; if only to shield him from any more misfortune.

Fleamont's son... his younger brother would never forgive him if Charlus had merely left James alone. Not that he would, of course. James was his nephew, his blood, his family and now, since he and Dorea were childless, his heir.

Ever since Charlus had proclaimed James as his Heir Apparent after his recovery, there have been multiple instances where rival and allied families have sent their own members in the hopes of creating a relationship with his new heir. The Potter Family had always been famous as the richest and oldest Magical Family bar none in the whole continent of Europe. With a traceable history stretching as far back as 14,000 years ago, they were one of the longest lasting and most prosperous family lines in the world and with that extensive history, they had accrued considerable influence in every Magical Society that have existed on Earth.

And there are many who would lust after such an influential power.

Charlus and Dorea had been careful and had educated James extensively in the ways of their society; if only to avoid going to war. They have done their best in teaching James humility even with their Family's overarching influence and power. They also did all they could to instill within his nephew the Pride of House Potter, as even with the humility they were known for, their family was still an old house that had cultivated power even before the first civilizations had existed.

'We Were, We Are, We Will Be'

Those were the words of House Potter that encompassed their entire history. It was those words that made up the totality of their Pride. For while they would not start any fights, their Pride will not allow them to do anything but end it in such a way that it would be clear to all that in a conflict with their House, those who opposed them will only have destruction as their sole outcome.

"Humility and Pride, those two conflicting notions war within a Potter's blood," Charlus had told that to James once.

"Our Humility dictates that we treat all we meet, whether they be Magical or Mundane, with genuine kindness and compassion. Our Pride orders us to allow no insults and to permit no offenses. We are always pulled by one side or the other and some become too Humble where they are essentially doormats, and some are too Prideful whose narcissism is to be their end. You James," He remembered staring into widened gold orbs and speaking in his most serious tone possible. "You are my Heir. You are the future Lord of Potter, a King among Kings. Humility and Pride can never control you. They are yours to command."

"James is smart. I am sure that he will be on the lookout for anyone that will seek to use him. He understands the power and burden that the title of Lord will bear. That is why, you need not have any worries, my dear. Have trust in James."

"I do trust him," his dear wife said, "It's everyone else that I am suspicious of."

With those words, all Charlus could do was sigh. Sometimes, for all that his wife was the sweetest, the gentlest and most loving woman in the world, he forgets that she was a Black. Paranoia and distrust are some traits that run true to those who descend from the House of Black, and Dorea, for all that she acts otherwise, is a daughter most worthy of her previous House.

"I worry for him."

She wasn't the only one. Though he had only been with them for a short time, Charlus couldn't help but think of his nephew as his own son. Dorea was incapable of bearing him children, it was the only reason that the extremely arrogant House of Black allowed a daughter of theirs to marry into a family diametrically opposite without an exorbitant dowry. With no known solution either through Science or Magic, Dorea would forever remain barren; it would take a miracle for her to conceive.

Charlus had never cared for that though. He would have gladly paid for any amount that the Blacks would have asked for in a dowry, for that was just how much he loved his wife. The amount he would have lost would be incomparable to the woman he would marry.

His love, which he had never hesitated to shower Dorea every day she was with him, could never abate the guilt she had always felt since their marriage. As much as he had loved his wife, Dorea loved him just as fiercely. She had always regretted that she could never give him a child, the family that he had always wished for.

When James came into their lives, Dorea had come to care for him as if he was the fruit of her own womb. Since she had been unable to bear Charlus a child, he knew that she had resolved herself to raise James as her own son.

As a result, she had become rather overprotective of his heir.

'Not that I could speak for myself,' Charlus thought. A sardonic smile was upon his face as he moved towards his dear wife.

"As do I, my dear," Charlus had said as he embraced her to his side. "As do I."

For a few minutes, they had watched the boy they had claimed as their son practice in the gardens. They watched as he smiled joyously while moving his body to an unheard rhythm. For a while, Charlus chose to forget his responsibilities as The Lord of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter. He chose to forget the various duties he had to attend to and instead chose to enjoy this brief moment of peace with his beloved wife by his side and the boy he had thought of as his son in front of them. Charlus smiled in contentment even through the losses that he had recently suffered from for he had the family he loved with all his heart with him.

Whilst the Lord and his wife looked over their adopted son, unknown to both, a letter appeared upon the great redwood desk in the study. Wrapped in an envelope of yellowed parchment and sealed with red wax, bearing a seal of highly detailed heraldry containing a Lion, a Snake, an Eagle and a Badger, it was an invitation to the place where only the greatest can thrive.

Hogwarts Academy for Mages

-Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus-

Welcome, James Potter of Potter Manor, Nab Head, Pembrokeshire. Are you ready for a new world?