Chapter 6: One more day til Hogwarts
August 31, 2010
Potter Manor
The past two weeks of settling into the Potter Manor were intriguing to say the least. When the Potter's arrived home, after shopping in Diagon Alley, they were greeted by two house elves, Caractacus and Abott. The two house elves wore small suits with standard red tie and black jacket with a gold embroidered pin, labeled with a 'P'. Rooms were prepared in advance for the arrival of the Potters, with Harry and James having separate rooms from each other, and Lily had a special request complete and they awaited her in the kitchen.
The first night James couldn't sleep. He wandered the halls in the dead of night, trying not to make a sound, when he opened a random door and found what looked like a standard living room. Inside the room sat two gray fabric couches pointed towards a corner where sat a television. The TV sat on a regular size entertainment stand, with movies stacked below- both DVDs and VHS's- that sat next to a combined media player for the formats.
James looked through the collection, trying to find anything familiar, when he saw the first movie he can remember almost every word to, Happy Gilmore. The VHS shelve was missing- having the side marked in pencil- but James quickly popped in the movie and turned on the television. He sat down on the couch and made himself comfortable, hoping this could put him to sleep.
"Can't sleep?" Lily's voice almost made James piss himself, not noticing his mother enter the room. "I, uh… thought a movie would help relax me." James quickly got up and hit stop on the player and went to shut off the TV. "You don't have to turn it off, I could use a good laugh." Lily saw the opening scene of the golf comedy, one movie James surprised her with when they moved in together. "Have you seen this one?" Lily made her way over to the couch, sitting down and patting the nearby cushion for James to sit on. "Well… seen, no. Listen to through an air duct while Dudley loudly played it, yes."
James in fact had never seen any movie but Dudley loved to play his television really loud- to make the orphans jealous- and he always put them on repeat at night, so Harry and James both became comfortable with many classics.
"Well we have plenty of time to watch what we got and when summer comes around we'll get more." Lily looked down at her son, who yawned while staring at the tv screen, and smiled while putting arm around James to move him in closer. James laid his head on his mothers lap and felt a sense of safety for once in his life.
Presently though, the Potter's were scrambling around the kitchen, trying their best to make a four course breakfast together. Egg shells laid on the counter in pieces, flour was spilled on the floor, bacon grease coated the edge of the pan sitting in the nearby sink. At the table sitting down with a spreading knife was Harry and a bag of bagels. Various spreads sat down in front of him and he couldn't figure out what he wanted to try first.
"Very berry contains multiple berries but Crazy berry says it contains every berry! Then the jam jam jammy jam jam says it's the most jam that jam can be but spreadable flavors says their All Jam Rama Jam is the jammiest jam! How does anyone pick with these options?" Harry continued to rant on about the abundance of flavors as James pulled toast off the nearby stove and handed them to the house elf Abott, who was currently incharge of assembling the plates.
After breakfast, Lily sat the boys down and wanted to give them something as a late birthday present. She gave each boy a present, both wrapped in the same gray wrapping paper, and both of the boys tore open the paper to reveal MP3 devices. "I figured this could be a good way for us to connect with each other. I've added some music that I personally enjoy and thought while you're at Hogwarts, you could listen to the songs and talk about the music whenever you want." Harry and James both gave their mother the biggest hug they could muster. There wasn't a clear eye in that room that day, Harry and James had finally received their first birthday present, and Lily finally felt the family connection starting to grow.
In the evening both boys were up in their rooms, packing their trunks for the next day. James had most of his belongings packed away but kept out the book Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them. James had skimmed through his school books and couldn't wait to get started but this particular book grabbed his attention so much that he couldn't stop reading it. In James' right pocket lay the Muggle's Guide.
Every night James stayed up researching whatever he could think about wizards and magic. When the guide was asked how magic worked the response it gave back was: Magic works the way the wizard wants it to work. If you want to cast a spell, you should be able to cast the spell. If you doubt yourself, then Magic will fail, this is because Magic itself is judgemental. James didn't believe that magic could have personal emotions for every witch or wizard but further research only disproved his theory.
When asked, how does emotions affect magic, the guide said: Whenever a magical being is born, Magic itself sets a watchful eye upon that creature. When eventually that creature recognizes that they can wield magic, Magic will have already made an opinion about that creature and if it doesn't like how you are as a child, then you'll have a ruff time learning magic until something changes.
The guide did become a useful tool, to fill in any questions that James had about weird words Lily would say when talking. Words like Muggle, Butterbeer, Quidditch, or any kind of English food since the boys grew up in America and we're used to whatever stale food they were given.
Finally finished with packing, James closed his trunk then went over to Harry's room to see that he was finished packing as well.
"I'm glad we atleast get book bags to carry this shit around, I couldn't imagine carrying this many books by hand." Harry was sitting on top of his trunk and was cleaning his plain black shoes, making sure no dirt showed anywhere on the shoes. "You saw that picture mom showed us, going to school in a castle, I'm more worried about getting lost than about my books." James leaned against the doorway while watching Harry clean his shoes. "I would imagine there would be a school map they would give out to students to prevent that, assuming witches and wizards use maps." Harry said, making James chuckle.
James pulled out his wand from his pocket and studied it carefully, "Have you looked at any of our books for this year?" Harry was finished with cleaning his shoes and put them away for tomorrow before responding to James, "No, didn't think I would need to, I figured we would just take notes and look up what we don't know in our books or ask mom." James was surprised at Harry's response, glad that his brother was already making plans for school. "That's good, but some books have introductions that give a basic cover of what should be expected to know before reading, nothing that we don't already know, but it's more like keeping our minds open and clear. The weirdest thing I read was that Unicorns don't like boys that have gone or are going through puberty."
While the boys continued to chat, a small nearby portrait suddenly came to life, and spoke out with a clearing of his throat. "Excuse Me!" The man's voice was gruff, light, and in desperate need of a drink, "Would you boys happen to be the Potter heir's?" Both boys looked around for the source of the voice and found the portrait covered by a sheet in the back of Harry's closet. "Ah, thank you! James clearly never got me properly hanged! Nonetheless, both of you are here and we need to get going!"
Harry and James looked at the small portrait that contained a man, which James recognized as the same man from the portrait in the Potter vault, and wondered why he was giving them directions to leave. "Excuse us but we don't go anywhere with strangers and especially portraits who can't move." Harry spoke a little rough with the portrait, giving it a shake, when a whirlwind of air came out of the face of the portrait. Harry dropped the painting and fell back onto the floor while the portrait began to speak again, "This really can wait then, heed my words, once you've found your father will you know my purpose, for now I sleep!" With that, the portrait became still again and both boys were left with a seeming puzzle that could lead them to their dead father.
Downstairs, sitting by an open window, preparing papers for the start of school tomorrow was Lily Potter. Each paper filled with words with a tap of her wand and moved over to the side once filled, being replaced by another blank paper, which started to fill with words like the others. Sitting on a plate, on the desk next to the papers, were pumpkin pasties that were made by the house elfs and over half of them had been eaten. As Lily reached for another one she heard an owl hoot and turned to see if one of the boy's owls got out. Finding nothing flying around the house, she turned back to her papers, but was disrupted again by another owl hoot.
Lily looked up from her desk at the window and saw an owl perched upon its ledge with an envelope with the Hogwarts seal upon it. Grabbing the letter, the owl hooted then flew off, and Lily started to peel open the flap, wondering what news could be urgent this late. Her green eyes scanned over the letter once and instantly went back over, making sure she read the letter correctly. After the tenth time of rereading the letter, Lily started to say softly, "No, no, no… nope, not gonna happen!" Lily couldn't believe this news, this… this, indescribable inconvenience that just came from the mouth of a Hogwarts Owl.
Slowly the night came upon the Potter's and Lily decided to leave it be for the time being, but her eyes would be glued to James this school year more now than she thought needed.
Both boys got into their respective rooms for the night and tried to go to sleep, but honestly the excitement, anxiety, and they were guessing the feeling of magic were keeping them awake. Harry would eventually fall into a dreamless sleep but for James, he dreamed of the sea.
There was a cottage on the edge of the beach with a seashell windchime flowing in the wind, making its clattering noise with each gust. The beach was covered in driftwood every couple of feet and the smell of salt with the aroma of fish filled the air. James walked down the beach in his bare feet and felt a sense of calmness fill his body. He laid down in the sand, feeling its warmth that it absorbed from the sun, when someone else laid down beside him. He didn't bother to look up to see who joined him, just laid in the sun. Soon a voice filled James' head and could tell that it was separate from the sounds being picked up by his ears from the surrounding sea.
Long ago, before even Merlin, stood a tree that held the gift of magic. This tree grew every year and eventually grew to be the size that a bird would eventually like to build its nest in. One bird had traveled miles upon miles to find the perfect tree to lay her eggs in. When this bird saw the magical tree it instantly fell in love. As the bird began to build its nest, Magic observed and watched as the mother prepared to make a home for her family. Magic was pleased with the bird's usage of the tree and blessed her eggs to be magical upon laying. After the bird finished its nest, it laid its eggs the following day and was stunned to see each egg a different color. One egg was shining gold with a radiant glow surrounding it, another egg was completely silver and gave off warmth heating the other two eggs for the mother. The last egg was a dark black and could be looked through with its shell being paper thin.
The mother bird cared for her eggs until they hatched and sprouted out three crimson red phoenix birds. Each bird more beautiful than the last and each given a gift by Magic itself. The tree was a home and provider for the birds, watching over them as they grew. Eventually the mother bird died and the three phoenixes were left with the tree to themselves.
The phoenix that hatched from the gold egg started to tend to the tree, making sure its leaves and branches were well kept. The silver hatchling hunted for food for the three birds and comforted the others like a mother. The dark hatchling grew to despise the tree for its comfort, feeling slighted by Magic for making such an atrocity.
Eventually the dark hatchling wanted to leave his siblings and start a life of their own but their siblings wanted their companion to stay at the tree where it was safe. The dark hatchling then hated the tree for blinding his siblings to the niceties of comfort and planned to destroy the tree. In the middle of the night a fire grew from the base of the tree and awoke the birds to see their sibling breathing fire onto the tree.
Wanting to Protect the tree, the two aligned birds fought their sibling. In the air the fight went on for days, nothing could injure the birds. Not their claws, beaks, or even fire. Eventually one of the birds scraped past a branch and the magical tree drew blood. The birds now knowing an end to their lives, the gold hatchling grabbed ahold of the dark hatchling and dove down towards the tree. During the dive the dark hatchling was able to grab ahold of the free sibling and suddenly each bird was spewed through by a tree branch.
The residual magic left from the birds combined with the tree and made it even more magical than before but the tree soon wilted away its leaves and its branches started to die. The once beautiful tree was nothing but a single log, sticking out of the ground.
The voice soon stopped its story and the sound of waves crashing soon disappeared and James awoke to see the sun starting to rise.