There had never been a time when the Ancient and Noble House of Potter had merged with the Ancient and Noble House of Black.
There had been many marriages in the past but due to one reason or another those couples never seemed to be able to have any children. Unknown to either family was the fact the two ancient family magics could not merge together peacefully without causing great destruction. So acting like two opposing magnets the two family magics made sure no successful conception was even possible between the two families.
That is until one Henri Jameson Vega Potter-Black was born, also known as Harry.
How was Harry's birth achieved successfully?
A loophole that not even Death thought about.
When James Potter and Regulus Black fell in love against all odds, they believed that they would have to accept not having any children or having to take on single-child contracts in order to get heirs to carry on their name, magic, and line. But then spitfire Lily Evans nearly smacked both of them over the head with sense and a generous offer.
Lily Evans, with the help of some potion brewing by Severus Snape, would act as a surrogate for James and Regulus to have two children, an heir for each line. The potion that would be provided by a reluctant Severus would combine both James and Regulus' DNA and after Lily drank the potion would magically create a child that was of the both of them. Because the baby would be mostly sustained by Lily's magic during the pregnancy the baby might acquire an Evans' trait or two in the process, but neither James nor Regulus minded at all.
On May 1st, 1979 James and Regulus met with Severus and Lily to add their blood and semen to the potion that would then mature for the next 6 months before Lily would be able to drink it.
They were going to be Dads.
Or they were.
On June 28th, 1979 James was sitting with Lily discussing their upcoming plans regarding her moving into Potter Manor once she was confirmed pregnant when suddenly he felt his marriage bond, a normally warm hum in the back of his mind, grow cold and then snap.
The pain was immense. Nothing had ever felt like this. In that instance, he knew his beloved Regulus, his star, was no longer in the world. He was sure he scared Lily that day as he screamed and cried until someone had to stun him so he wouldn't hurt himself in his grief.
Lily, Remus, and Severus took turns caring for James while Sirius had gone tearing off to try to find what had happened to his brother. Peter had been taking longer and longer breaks away from his friends, a red flag that they would have paid more attention to if they weren't so worried about James succumbing to the loss of his bond.
Sirius returned to them in mid-August having found no sign or clue as to what happened to Regulus or even where his body was. There were rumors circulating that the Dark Lord personally dispatched Regulus for turning down his offer to join his ranks. That night Sirius crawled into bed with James and they held each other and cried.
When October 31st, 1979 arrived James had made a decision.
Severus was reluctant to agree but Lily thought that it might actually be good for him to help heal from the loss of Regulus.
So just as the day ended and turned into November, Lily drank the potion they had started back in May.
In nine months, James would have a small piece of Regulus back in his life in the form of the baby they had so excitedly talked about since Lily had mentioned her offer.
The war was slowly getting worse the further Lily's pregnancy progressed.
Dumbledore had suggested they get the wards at the manor updated especially as the child would be arriving soon and needed as much protection as possible as he got older. Dumbledore even offered his cottage in Godric's Hollow to them so they could stay somewhere comfortable and warded as the goblins began their work on updating the Potter Wards for the first time in a century. It was going to take them time, more than James had been comfortable with, but with the war going on they didn't have enough wardmasters to go around.
They would have to stay in Godric's Hollow for 15 months, but after that, the wards would be stronger than most of the lowest-level vaults in Gringotts. So Dumbledore placed his home under the fidelius charm using Peter Pettigrew since both Sirius and Remus were gone on missions and Severus was already playing spy.
Not long after they settled in at the cottage, Lily went into Labour on July 31st, 1980. She was in labor for most of the day. Madame Pomfrey came over to assist with the birth as the only healer in the Order that they could safely give their location to.
At 23:59 a little boy is born.
Henri Jameson Vega Potter-Black.
Weighing 2.8 Kg with a height of 48 cm the baby was small but healthy. A full head of pitch black hair, the shade of Regulus' hair, but the cowlicks that James could already see pointed to the poor kid having James' hair issues. He was so beautiful. A perfect mixture of Regulus and himself.
His precious baby.
He would protect little Harry (as Lily had been calling the boy while on bedrest to recover from childbirth) from anything and everything. He already lost his other half but he was so lucky that Harry held some very prominent reminders of Regulus.
The first time little Harry opened his eyes he shocked all the adults in the room. Instead of normal baby blue eyes, Harry's left eye was silvery gray like Regulus' had once been and his right eye had probably started off with James' hazel eye color but the outside of the Iris was Lily's green shade.
They had been told because of Lily's magic feeding into the pregnancy that Harry might develop some traits from her but this wasn't what they had expected. Harry was beautiful though and James loved him and was so grateful to Lily for helping bring his boy, the last of his Regulus, into the world.
Everyone who met Harry could tell he was different from a normal baby. There was just something about how Harry looked at someone that felt… odd. Harry would sometimes also look at blank walls or empty parts of a room and stare like it was the most fascinating thing in the world. Madame Pomfrey assured them that all babies did that and to not worry.
Harry was also an amazingly quiet and well-behaved baby. Unless he wanted food, he never cried. James would sometimes sit in front of Harry and poke at him to make sure he was real and alive until Lily would chase him off for being absurd. Most parents would give anything for their babies to let them sleep through the night and not cry at the littlest of things.
When James asked Lily to be more than Harry's godmother but to be his Mum, Lily didn't know what to say. It was a shock. But James' argument was that since Regulus wasn't here, Harry deserved to have a second reliable and responsible parent he could turn to especially when godfathers Remus and Sirius were causing mischief. Still, at the mercy of her hormones, Lily cried and agreed to officially be Harry's Mum.
As the months went by they all began to notice that Harry's differences were definitely not just 'things all babies do' like Madame Pomfrey had told them. Lily, being the closeted Ravenclaw she was, began to do research. It took weeks for her to find what she was looking for and a new symptom to confirm her theories. Both James and Lily had chalked up their exhaustion to being new parents and trying to support the Order still in the war effort. Then their physical exhaustion began to turn into magical exhaustion and Lily then had her answers.
Henri 'Harry' Potter-Black was a necromancer or would be when he got older.
This revelation was a lot for her to try to comprehend, she worried about telling James, although she shouldn't have. James apparently had a suspicion of something similar, being a pureblood though he was more aware of the possibilities than Lily was, and James never got enough credit for being as intelligent as he was. The man was just naturally lazy and people mistook that for a lack of smarts.
Their baby wasn't going to be a wizard. Not that any of them cared much about Harry not having traditional wizarding powers, but there was a sad moment when they realized that Harry wouldn't be able to attend Hogwarts as they had. Necromancers had their own brand of magic, very different from wizarding magic, although some wizards like Voldemort were able to mimic or twist dark magic to create a false necromancy like inferi.
The problem with necromancers, and why they were feared so much to be hunted down by the Ministry of Magic anytime one emerged or was discovered, was that they stole magic. Anytime they touched a witch, wizard, or magical being their passive necromancy began to suck out the magic of that being like a dementor sucked the happiness out of the air. There are no writings proving that a necromancer had any control over this side effect and as far as anyone knows no necromancer that has lived long enough to come into their power has been able to avoid taking the magic from others. If they spent too much time with particular people or touched someone too long, their soul would follow the magic and all that would be left is a husk of a person. The Department of Mysteries actually theorizes that Dementors are what a necromancer becomes when they die.
How would James and Lily raise Harry if they couldn't touch him? No child deserved to be touch starved.
James, although a light-leaning grey wizard, did marry a Black. A Black who had necromancers in their bloodline before, quite possibly the reason Harry was a necromancer was due to Regulus' genes. However, the Black Library had many good and bad solutions to a child being born as a necromancer. One of which was a well-used and bookmarked text that had a horrifying and complex ritual to completely drain a child of the necromancy powers entirely and reinvigorate them with wizarding powers through a sacrifice. James didn't want to know just how many Black wizards had started out their life as necromancers, only to be changed due to prejudice and fear. What Lily hated about that ritual most was that it had to be performed within the first 3 moon cycles of the child's life.
Thankfully there were less drastic options available within the library as well. The ritual they ended up choosing wasn't perfect and they argued about it for weeks, but finally, they came to the decision that it was the best of their bad options. It was a simple ritual, quickly done with few ingredients. Once they were done they could touch Harry again safely. They put a temporary block on his necromancy, one that would hopefully hold long enough for them to not only love their child, hold him, and care for him but would also allow him to learn about his unique powers without becoming overwhelmed by them. The block would eventually come down and they would have to come up with a new idea. They didn't want to one day no longer be able to touch Harry nor did they want Harry to hold the guilt of possibly killing one of them just because he wanted something as simple as a hug. They had years to create a new and better solution. For now, they had the chance to kiss and cuddle their baby safely.
October 31, 1981, was the day before they would officially be moving back to Potter Manor and everyone was both excited and exhausted. The wards were finally finished. They would settle for the next 12 hours and then Lily, James, and Harry could move back into the Manor. Remus and Sirius would join them once they returned from their current missions and Sirius was also going to go pop in and check on Wormtail since they hadn't heard or seen him since Harry's 1st birthday party.
Lily was putting Harry to bed while James was cleaning up the kitchen when something dark and evil crossed over the wards. James had his wand out and was slowly creeping towards the entryway when a bombarda blasted the front door open and into pieces.
"Voldemort." James spat before conjuring the strongest shield he knew in front of the cackling dark lord. "Lily! It's him! Take Harry and Run!" James yelled he needed to give them time to get out and get to safety. His shield shattered like a rogue firework and the duel was on. James had gone through Auror training even if he had never officially joined afterwards so he could hold his own pretty well. But he had never had to fight Voldemort alone before. His fear for Harry and Lily kept him going, but it wasn't enough. One step wrong and James' vision was filled with the green of the Avada Kedavra curse.
James' body hit the floor and the Dark Lord was quick to move up the stairs.
Lily had warded the door to Harry's room the best she could when she discovered the anti-apparition ward that was surrounding the property. As she heard James' body hit the floor and Voldemort's evil laugh echo in the halls of the cottage she stood over Harry casting every light and dark protection spell that she knew. The wards wouldn't hold for long and Lily may not be able to save herself but she would be damned if she didn't save Harry. Harry who had been entrusted to her by both Regulus and James. Harry called her mama and would tangle his tiny hands in her bright red hair when he was tired. Lily had never wanted kids of her own, but she had wanted her two friends to be able to have the children they deserved. Harry was the greatest thing Lily had ever done.
The door to the nursery was blasted open and Voldemort stepped into the pastel green and yellow room.
Lily knew this was her end, but she would make sure Harry lived.
When the killing curse hit Lily Evans she knew that Harry was going to make it. She only hoped Sirius and Remus made it back soon to help the little boy.
When the Dark Lord stepped over the body of Lily and stood in front of the boy prophesied to defeat him, the boy did not cry. The boy's peculiar eyes stared at the monstrous form of Voldemort and did not waver.
Voldemort cast the killing curse one final time and then he was forcefully ejected from his body, feeling worse than when he tore his soul for his Horcruxes. Voldemort fled.
When Sirius found the destruction of the cottage, he felt nothing but fear and devastation. Wormtail had betrayed them. Finding James' body was like losing Regulus all over again. Sirius wasn't sure how much more this war could steal from him and Sirius still come out sane. Sirius then found Lily's body in the blown-apart nursery and he was sure if he looked in the crib his nephew and godson would also be gone. Until he heard the rattling sound of Harry's favorite stuffed cat.
Seeing Harry alive was a relief but also terrifying. He needed to get Harry away from here and to Potter Manor. Remus would be out on his mission for another two weeks. He was all that Harry had. Summoning what he could from the room he packed a bag for Harry and then picked up the quiet little boy, sucking on one of the ears of the cat plush.
"I promise to take care of you little deer," Sirius said quietly, kissing Harry's fluffy hair. They moved quickly through the house, Sirius would return later to secure James and Lily's bodies for burial. Harry's safety came first.
As Sirius made it to the edge of the wards Hagrid of all people arrived.
"Hagrid?" Sirius said in confusion, lifting his wand just in case it was someone in disguise.
"Sirius, good to see yer al'right." Hagrid boomed out, causing Sirius to look around nervously.
"I'm fine Hagrid, why are you here?" Sirius asked impatiently.
"Professor Dumbledore sent me of course. He felt the wards go."
That made Sirius relax some. "James and Lily -" Sirius started but felt himself getting choked up. "T-they are dead. But Harry made it. I am taking him to safety. Would you make sure nothing happened to them before I can return?" Sirius asked.
"Ah, the Professor sent me to get little Harry. He will be okay with the Professor while yeh deal with this." Hagrid said gruffly.
"No, no. Harry is my responsibility now. They would have my head if I do anything but make sure Harry is okay first." Sirius said, turning to head out of the wards. He never expected to be hit in the back with a stunner from Hagrid of all people.
When he woke up next he was sitting in a cell in Azkaban.
That night Albus Dumbledore left Harry Potter on the steps of Petunia Dursley's house and enacted the next phase of his plans. He would be ready once Harry was old enough to attend Hogwarts and then the final chess game would begin.