Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of its characters, they belong to the genius that is J.K. Rowling. I'm not making any profit from writing this.

This chapter isn't betaed, any mistakes are my own and English is definitely not my first language. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, flames are not.

Thoughts

should have been strikethrough but I don't know how to do that on fanfiction . net

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Anna deeply regretted saving that old woman. She was a coward, scared shitless of teeny-tiny insects, and a homebody. Not a full on shut-in, she went out to the movies and drinking with her friends on weekends, but she liked staying home. Her mom literally had to kick her out of the house sometimes. That's what happened the last time Anna ever saw her.

Her friends were stuck at home cramming for exams, she had already finished hers and was lazing around in her room. For two weeks. Cue Anna's mother throwing her out in her sweats with orders to not return for at least two hours. She was even wearing flip flops for Christs' sake. Not that her mother cared.

So, off Anna went, braving the July heat. Ate an ice cream, thank fuck she threw the wallet at my head before locking the door. Anna was walking down the sidewalk, looking at the store fronts in search of something to do. That's when she saw it.

There was an old woman in the middle of the road with a truck barrelling down the street towards her. There was literally no one else around so Anna ran in the middle of the road, grabbed that tiny old lady's arm and dragged her back. The truck barrelled right in front of them. It was so close, holy shit! I could've died!

Anna stood there, wondering when exactly she'd been infected with a suicidal saving people thing, and hoping it never happened again, when the old lady started thanking her. Which makes sense no? Anna did just save her life, but this is when things start getting weird.

"Thank you young lady, you saved me." she said.

"Yeah, no problem." Anna said curtly

She really just wanted to leave as quickly as possible, run back home and hide under the covers until she forgot how close she came to getting herself killed. Anna could feel tremors starting in her hands, but she refused to break down. The old woman was so calm, she didn't want to start screaming like a lunatic.

"I would give you a gift, but you broke my husband's urn."

Anna looked over at the street and yes, there were blue pieces and ash splattered on the ground. "Look ma'am, I saved your life, I'm sure your husband would understand." She better not sue me for that… could she do that?

"Yes, yes, but still… What is it you want most?" asked the wrinkly old woman.

"I'd like to go home ma'am. Too much excitement for me." she answered.

What kind of question is that? What do I want? Anna thought about her often empty house, her friends who were rarely there when it mattered and her mother who always kicked her out the few times she came home. Her mother said she had to be more 'social', but Anna knew it was so the woman could drink and smoke with her 'friends'.

"Ah! So that's it! I'll give you a soulmate for your loneliness, and a life of excitement as revenge." tittered the old widow happily.

"What...?"

Anna stared at her, her outline was shining, her features were becoming fuzzy. The air seemed to thicken and strangle her, Anna could feel it pressing down on her shoulders, she could almost see it gathering around the woman's hands. She slammed them against Anna's chest and her world started spinning and spinning and spinning. Black swirled around her, she was submerged in it.

Then colors burst around her again.

Anna looked around in confusion. She wasn't on the sidewalk anymore and there was no scary old hag anywhere. She stared down at her… that's not my hand. It was small and child sized. Anna's brain was telling her it was hers but… there's no freaking way! Anna slowly, carefully opened the little fist and dropped the red ball in it. She could control it. She hit the small palm against the ground.

Stings. Ok, so that mini hand is definitely mine. Anna stared past it at the little legs. She kicked her left foot in the air. Yep, mine too. Left hand, right foot, small tummy, touch her head, ruffle her short hair. All mine.

WHAT THE FUCK?!

Anna screamed as a giant hand picked her up, looking up, she saw the prettiest shining, gray eyes she'd ever seen. Also, the only gray eyes she's ever seen. They looked shocked, possessive and… Anna had no idea what that last one was. He looked at her like she remembered doing to her Stitch plushie the first time she saw it. A mixture of 'I want it' and 'I can't believe I found it'.

There was a really pretty golden glow where his hands were touching her.

That's weird. Almost as weird as being turned into a baby and teleported by an old lady whose life you just saved, just because you destroyed her husband. Spread his ashes in the wind. Seriously, it's not like I killed him! Bitch.

"Sirius?!"

Anna turned around towards the voice. There was a dark, messy mop on top of a bespectacled face sitting beside a really attractive redhead with emerald eyes. The beautiful lady looked pretty shell shocked… wait. Did he just say SIRIUS?!

Dark hair and gray eyes, check. Friends with a glasses wearing, messy haired man, check. One who's wearing a wedding ring sitting right next to a red haired, green eyed woman who ALSO HAS A WEDDING RING?! Check.

Brown haired, brown eyed man with face scars and shabby robes coming in through the FREAKING FIREPLACE?! CHECK!

Hello, darkness, my old friend.

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Anna loved being a baby, she could do whatever she wanted without much consequences, got plenty of hugs and kisses from her new parents and had absolutely no responsibility.

She was forcing herself to learn how to walk just so she could start potty training and never go through a diaper change again. It felt so demeaning and embarrassing she cried through the entire process and badly freaked out her parents.

Yes, her parents because Anna had decided that this was a 'suddenly remembers a past life' situation rather than a 'I possessed a fictional character' situation. There was no other explanation for her remembering exactly what the huge ginger cat was called. Minnie's name certainly wasn't in the books.

What Anna didn't like were the implications. Sure, being able to make objects fly during a tantrum was cool and all, but being Harry Potter, as in the boy-wizard, saviour and abused orphan was the worst.

She, guess it's he now? (no, not yet. I'm not Harry Potter yet), knew that Sirius was her soulmate. After the fear over her sudden fainting had faded, her dad had literally thrown fireworks around the house and bragged that "Of course my best mate is the only one good enough for my son" and then turned around and hexed Sirius green and silver "you better treat him right, Padfoot!".

At first, she'd been torn between happiness that she had a soulmate and disgust that said soulmate was her godfather, only to find out that was not the case. It turns out that Sirius and Remus had never met Harry before, unlike Peter. Remus had been off on Order business and Sirius had just resigned as an Auror, for some reason.

This meant that Sirius was not her godfather, she/Harry didn't have one before last week. The day she first remembered her past life was when Sirius was supposed to be made her godfather, but the soulmate bond changed their plans. Now Remus was her godfather.

He and Sirius were around often. The werewolf was the best storyteller, he could make all the voices. He also didn't read boring children books, but actual fairy tales and the Lord of the Rings. She'd never read those before, she just watched all the movies. It was pretty interesting.

Sirius was… hesitant at first. He obviously didn't know how to reconcile 'soulmate' with 'baby'. She couldn't blame him, she didn't know what to do either. He seemed to get over it one day and started playing with her, showing her magic and turning into a dog and slobbering all over her. At least he played horse with her when he was a Grimm. She never went horse riding before but she imagined that riding Padfoot was similar enough.

Every day was filled with love and laughter, the war only felt through the exhausted lines on Sirius' and Remus' faces, the worry lines around her parents' eyes and the tears whenever someone they knew was reported dead. It was selfish, but she desperately tried to ignore these times, she didn't want to think about the war, about Voldemort.

He would come soon.

§§§

There were runes on her crib and in the house. They were hidden by bedding, carpets, and wallpaper. Lily had mixed her and James' blood and painted them and a final, lightning bolt shaped rune on her small forehead "for victory".

She cried the day the last rune was drawn and every rune disappeared from sight. The ritual was complete and Fate was set in motion. She hated it. Just as much as she hated Voldemort for being smart and not marking Pettigrew. There was nothing she could use as proof and her mutters of "Pe' bad" served nothing except to remove him from babysitting duty.

She wished the lack of the Dark Mark was proof of innocence, but a guilty Peter had murmured that she had good instincts, that he was 'bad' and he was sorry but "he is winning and I don't want to die". She wished she could tell her parents, but there were words she shouldn't know, like 'Death Eater' and words she just couldn't pronounce with her baby tongue.

Crying and throwing a tantrum during the casting of the Fidelius didn't work, her parents just left her with Sirius in her nursery and went into the other room. Remus had been gone for weeks.

Now, it was too late. There were pumpkin and bats decorations everywhere. She decided to play and laugh and repeat "Love you" over and over again. If this was their last day together, she wanted to make it count.

She flew around on her toy broom playing tag with her dad. She asked her mom for "magic" and watched her conjure butterflies and flowers and sparkles of all colors of the rainbow. She rode Prongs and napped on his back, curled up on the floor with her mom.

Then an alarm sounded.

"Lily! Take Harry and run! I'll hold him off." her dad yelled.

The woman grabbed her and ran upstairs to the nursery. There was a crash downstairs, a sob slipped past Lily's lips.

"Harry you are so loved, so loved" she whispered.

AnnaHarryAnna felt tears streaming down her face.

"Harry, Mama loves you. Dada loves you. Harry, be safe, be strong" she kept whispering.

"Avada Kedavra!" was heard from downstairs.

Lily sobbed harder but turned to face the door, no wand in hand.

A dark hooded figure walked into the nursery and stopped on the threshold. Piercing red eyes and pasty white skin could be seen beneath the hood, "Stand aside and I will spare you." he hissed.

"Not Harry. Not Harry. Please, not Harry!" her mother begged. HarryAnnaHarrykept crying silently.

"Stand aside. Now!" he hissed again. Louder this time.

"Please, no! Take me! Take me instead!" she kept pleading.

"Stand aside, you silly girl! Stand aside now!"

"Please, have mercy… have mercy…"

"Avada Kedavra!" he yelled.

A flash of green light hit her mother and illuminated her figure for a second, before she fell to the floor, eyes wide open.

"Mama!" heshe cried. No, no, no, I don't want to be him. Mama!

"You'll be joining her soon." heshe looked up at the wand pointed at herhim. "Avada Kedavra!"

Bright green light blinded her for a second. Then a burning pain in herhis forehead, a red glow smothered by herhis small mattress, barely seen in a slightly uncovered corner. SheHe imagined the runes beneath the wallpaper must be glowing too.

The curse rebounded and hit Voldemort square in the chest. He screamed and turned to dust. It took a few seconds, enough for Harry to see the fear on his face, the hood having fallen back when he tried to dodge.

The backlash from the curse caused a portion of the ceiling to fall and crash beside his crib. Harry curled down in his crib and watched as a cloud of black smoke rose from the ashes and flew out through the open hole.

A small portion moved towards him, but a golden shield appeared as soon as it touched him and the small fragment disintegrated. Well, that's something at least. Thanks soulmate.

He passed out.

§§§

When he next awoke, he was in a hut with a huge bearded man standing over him. He screamed.

"Hush, little one. I know you're scared but there's no need to. Hagrid will take care of you."

For such a huge man, Hagrid was remarkably gentle. Harry spent most of his day sleeping, only eating when Hagrid made him and only getting animated when Hagrid tried putting him in a diaper. Harry was potty trained and refused to go through such a humiliating experience again, especially with a stranger.

Harry fell asleep later in the day, and woke up to the shrill scream of a horse faced blond woman standing over him. He felt his stomach drop, Sirius, Remus, where are you?