A/N: Hi! This fanfic is likely to be very lengthy, but I DO wish to keep you interested! The Marauder era is my absolute FAVORITE from the Harry Potter series and I hope to do it justice! (I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters)
Chapter One
In the Beginning
"But- Harold-this can't possibly be…"
"I'm afraid it is, love. You could fancy a bit more chipper face than that, poppet."
"I'm fifty-seven, Harold. I'm past my prime for this sort of nonsense. I mean after ALL those years of anguish and heartache and sobbing and trying-"
"You didn't have fun trying? Winnie, that's the fun part, I'm surprised at y-"
"HAROLD! I MEANT that we're simply too old! This must be a mistake; honestly, I can't see this actually happening. This is complete and utter rubbish. I'm checking it again…"
"Well you seemed to be keen on 'trying' the other day after I was promoted at work, and last weekend after Muriel's wedding, and after I de-gnomed the garden on Saturday, and-"
"ENOUGH! I didn't say I didn't enjoy the process, Harold. Merlin's beard will you get off it?? You have no idea what I'm going through! We don't even know for sure. What if fate's just teasing us? And here you are acting like a bloody git when I've received the news I've always wanted twenty-plus years too late. You think it's funny do you? How we've tried all our married lives-"
"And prior too, dear. Remember? You were stressed about your N.E.W.T.s and I had just lost the Cup and I was in the locker rooms sulking on my broom and you-"
"THAT'S IT! I am NOT putting up with your childish and insensitive behavior. You can fix your own bloody dinner, I'm going to Agatha's."
"Winnie, don't- I'm sorry, love. I'm new to this, too. You know I act like a prat when I'm nervous-"
"Or tired, or happy, or bored, or grumpy, or excited,or…"
"Alright, alright! I deserved that. Winnefred, stay. Be happy. Better late than never, eh?"
"Oh, I suppose. I just don't understand how this could've happened?"
"Well, after my celebration down at the ministry, we came home a little tipsy and one thing led to another and…"
"HAROLD!!!!!!!"
No less than nine months later, on March 27, 1960, a bouncing baby boy was delivered at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries to a very happy Mr. and Mrs. Harold Potter.
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Nearly two months earlier, almost to the day, a bright-eyed little girl was playing in a sandbox, scooping heaps of sand into her palms and watching the grains trickle through her fingers down her plaid pink pinafore. Her light blonde hair was tied in neat little pigtails fastened with correlating ribbons. The tot's baby blue eyes spotted snow on her wellies and she clambered on to her feet like a newborn deer. Just as she was about to dust them off a loud bang erupting from her drive-way kept her frozen on the spot. Across the alley her father's chocolate brown Farina roared toward her in reverse, screeching on the pavement as it backed away from the cheery little house it called home. Her eyes widened in fear as the car took off at lightning speed down Holly Drive, appearing smaller and smaller with each passing second. A single tear slid down the girl's cheek as she watched it go, and suddenly realization dawned on her- she was forgotten.
"Now, now, dear don't worry. Your father just rang and I got here as quick as I could," a woman cooed (slightly out of breath) as she laid a hand on the little girl's shoulder. She had silky dark hair cut chin-length, and her crown was teased up making it appear shorter in the back. A wide green headband separated her hair from her forehead and she wore a smile that revealed her lovely white teeth. She looked to be in her mid-twenties and was seemingly attractive, with pale skin that beamed against her snowy surroundings.
"Come on, Petunia, dear, let's get you out of this January cold. I know somebody who would just love to meet you!"
But the blonde little girl didn't want to watch the lady's baby sleep or eat or spit up or cry. She was about to get enough of that at home. But whether it was ickle Severus or the new baby on its way, she cared not as she slipped her tiny hand in Mrs. Snape's and they made their way down the icy road to Spinner's End.
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The sun shone brightly on a warm June day in Northern England. Three children could be seen scampering around a large wooden sandbox in their neighborhood park. Two little girls squealed with delight as a frog pounced on top of a young boy's head. The younger of the two girls prodded the amphibian off with a stick while the older girl shrieked as it attempted to throw itself down her jumper. The boy doubled over with laughter as the younger girl called after her.
"Tuni!! Wait- TUNI!!!"
"Oh, let her go, Lily, I'm glad she's gone," the boy said still sniggering.
"But I didn't mean to nearly shove it down her throat! Oh now she'll hate me…" Lily said with a frown.
The boy rolled his eyes then looked deeply into hers. "As close as you two are I doubt something as trivial as a frog on her jumper would make her hate you."
"I guess you're right, Sev, but Tuni's been acting rather strange around me lately. Mum and Dad have been really excited about my starting school, and I suppose they have been paying a little more attention to me. You know, buying my school things and testing me and such. I think she might be jealous." Lily looked downward at this and repeatedly scuffed the toe of her Mary Janes on the sidewalk.
An awkward silence passed between the two as the boy stared intensely at a slug in the grass.
"Er- are you excited about Kindergarten, Severus?" Lily asked tentatively.
The boy slowly turned his gaze from the ground to her face. She was beautiful. Vibrant green eyes shaped like diamonds that shined twice as bright looked back at him, as if prompting him to answer. He focused on her strawberry locks that fell softly around her lightly freckled face. Her hair seemed never-ending as it cascaded over her tiny shoulders, accentuating just how petite her five-year-old frame truly was.
"I'm not going to Kindergarten."
The girl was completely flustered at this response, but after several seconds of gaping and sputtering she was finally able to stammer out a meager "WHAT??"
"Sev, don't poke fun, it's not that bad. We're best mates, I'm sure we'll be in the same class-"
"I'm not going to Kindergarten, Lily."
She stared at his stringy black hair that hung loosely about his milky-white face. His charcoal eyes appeared glued to the slug as he sniffed his rather large, hooked nose. The tension was palpable and a billion questions sprang into Lily's mind.
"But, Severus, why!?! Don't you want to learn- I don't know- everything? How to finally read that ruddy Dick and Jane book- or, or to multiply as well as Tuni?" the redhead asked incredulously, her emerald eyes rapidly darting about her surroundings. She was scraping the bottom of the barrel for answers, and it was apparent by the bewildered look plastered on her young face.
"Lily…" he paused, deep in thought. You could almost see the gears turning inside his head. It was as if he was fighting a battle within himself, on the verge of revealing important information that only a select few had the privilege to know.
"Why, Sev?" the words escaped her lips barely above a whisper. Her big eyes drifted in slow motion from the sidewalk to his, before spilling silent tears at the prospect of leaving her one and only friend behind-for reasons unfathomable. She could read Severus like a book, and knew whatever he was holding back was haunting him inside.
Severus finally settled on an answer and croaked, "I'm different."
"Sev everyone's different and no you really aren't-"
"And so are you."
Lily was taken aback at the interruption and began to feel one of her infamous red-head tantrums flaring up within the pit of her stomach and spreading like wildfire through the rest of her body.
"I'm not DIFFERENT!!? What is that supposed to mea-"
"No, no, Lily, listen" Severus cupped her face in his hands and locked his eyes on to hers. "This is very important. It's not a joke and you can't tell a single soul-not your mum, not your dad, not even Petunia."
"But Sev-"
"NO Lily." He cut her off with an intense glare. Whatever it was he was hiding, it was big.
Lily sighed and finally met his gaze after determinedly looking everywhere but his eyes. "Okay then," she admitted in defeat.
"Strange things happen around you sometimes, don't they, Lily? Like when your temper gets the best of you or you're really excited? Or scared, yeah?"
"Yes……" Lily's breath intake quadrupled as her eyes returned to darting around the quiet park. He could hear her heart thump wildly inside her ribcage and her tiny palms were instantly laced with sweat.
"Well strange things happen to me as well. Remember when you accidentally broke the string on Petunia's box kite of the Beatles?"
"I tore a hole in Ringo's face…" she confessed quietly, her statement dripping with remorse.
"But it flew all by itself! Remember? It was as if invisible string was pulling it where we wanted it to go. And Ringo didn't even need that eye-patch."
"Yes, but-"
"And your third birthday when they showed your favorite episode of the Banana Splits seventeen times in a row on the telly and their bus just happened to break down on Holly Drive?"
"So, I don't see h-"
"OR when your mum ran over your cat with the sweeper and it lost nearly all its fur and YOU petted it one time and all its hair grew back??"
"Twiggy! But Dad ran over her with the car last summer. I was so upset then, Sev, but she didn't spring back to life!" Lily shot a contemptuous look at her male counterpart before crossing her arms to her chest and sticking her nose up in the air.
"Magic never does," Severus replied in a subdued manner. His eyes searched the blades of grass but the slug was nowhere to be found.
"Magic? What does magic have to do with anything?" Lily retorted as she crinkled her nose.
"Magic," he paused, "is everything." He looked up at her with eyes so true that Lily knew this was not a hoax.
"What do you mean…" Her eyes were still skeptical but her face began to acquire a look of intrigue. That was one thing about Lily that started young and never changed- she always had a thirst for knowledge, for meaning, and gave every subject a chance before making the decision of whether it was worthy enough for memorization.
Severus took a deep breath and sighed, closing his eyes and shoving his hands deep in his pockets. It seems this had been the moment he was avoiding the entire time, and Lily waited on tenterhooks for an answer.
"I'm a wizard, alright? And if my calculations are correct, you're one, too-or a witch rather-so we don't even need to go to Kindergarten! There." He shot her a look that said he wasn't happy with himself for revealing such an intimate, personal secret, but immediately looked relieved as he released what seemed to be all the air in his body -deflating his small chest.
A smorgasbord of emotions ran across Lily's face in approximately ten seconds, starting with shock and ending with contempt. She had a million reasons why this dark-haired loon was off his rocker and was not about to miss an opportunity to tell him so. (Little did she know what her future held in this department…) She opened her mouth to begin her energetic retort when she was cut short by the very being she was aiming to chastise.
"Before you say anything, let me explain a little further. I know that little red head of yours has a week's worth of questions and I would be more than happy to bypass those and cut straight to the chase."
Lily's mouth went from fully open to an extremely thin line before she pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, attempting to scald her opponent with her stare. This was an expression she'd seen Petunia wear almost daily; Severus recognized it immediately and hurried with a response.
"My mum is a pureblood witch- her parents were wizards, their parents were wizards, and the like. Wizards, and witches, go to a special school to learn spells and potions and plants and creatures and all sorts of things concerning magic. There's a whole other world out there that's completely different from our own, Lily. Anything can happen. And my mum told me I'm a part of it, and I know you are, too. Come to Hogwarts with me, Lily, and learn to wave a wand instead of boring Muggle things and hanging around with Petunia." He said with disgust. "Learn magic with me, Lily."
Severus was now standing on the edge of the sandbox, looking down at Lily with hopeful eyes. He reached out his tiny hand for her to take, his charcoal eyes filled with longing and desire, as if Lily redeeming his offer would bring a joy to his heart he had never known. The girl of his affections bit her lip in thought and slowly brought her gaze to meet his. Her hands were pulled back near her chest, and she tentatively stuck out her fingertips. The dainty little hand crept forward, easing its way towards his. It seeped closer and closer and just as their hands were about to touch-
"SEVERUS!!!!!!!!!" A man's voice bellowed from beyond the extent of the park, bouncing off the majestic oaks.
The boy's head snapped upward and his eyes widened in fear. With one last sorrowful look at Lily, Severus sprang from the plywood surrounding their desert and sprinted towards Spinner's End as fast as his legs could carry him, leaving behind a very confused Lily with a hand still outstretched.
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The wind rushed through his jet black hair like an unstoppable force as he climbed the cloudless skies. Higher and higher he soared, filling his body with multitudes of restless butterflies, flapping their wings ferociously against the pit of his stomach. They boy's palms of his hands and feet tingled with pleasure as he glided over his tranquil surroundings. The tops of his shoes brushed the weeping willows underneath him, enclosing a beautiful meadow. Wildflowers seemed like tiny pinpricks of color from his perspective, and the cricket chirps below were barely audible. A frog plopped in the pond directly beneath his dangling legs and he could see precise concentric circles formulating around the disturbance to the placid water. The sun was sinking behind the tops of the trees, emitting a beautiful glow that bounced off the young boy's face. If anyone questioned if there was a heaven, he knew where to take them.
"JAMES LANCELOT POTTER!"
So much for peace and tranquility.
A harried looking woman came charging in to the clearing with a look of angst and determination on her aging face. She had chestnut brown hair whisped with gray and eyes to match. Her hair was thick and styled somewhat short; the ends were flipped outward, resting along her jaw line, and the rest stood perfectly in place with no movement what-so-ever. Her figure was a bit wider than it had been in previous years, but she was not a large woman by any means. She wore long scarlet robes that twinkled in the light of the sunset, a bit old-fashioned but very exuberant nonetheless. Her arms akimbo, she tapped her foot impatiently as she stared upward at her target.
"Just what exactly do you think you're doing out here, may I ask? I have been searching all over the place for you and calling your name like a madwoman thinking you were still in the house-like you're supposed to be, might I add-and here you go taking off on that sodding broomstick your uncle gave you…"
The boy rolled his eyes as the woman continued to drone on about this and that-none of which he cared to listen to, and therefore didn't. He had the messiest black hair known to man-muggle and wizard alike-and no matter what he did to comb it, it always looked as if he just stepped off a broomstick. His hazel eyes sparkled behind his wire-rimmed spectacles, and his small and skinny body was slumped over the gnarled wooden handle of his Comet 140, hovering thirty feet in the air. Everyone his parents knew gushed that James Potter was the cutest little devil they'd ever seen, and he would flash them a cheeky grin capable of getting him out of whatever trouble he could muster- which happened to be a lot.
"…and out here of all places! When we just bought you that turquoise wizarding wireless you just had to have last week AND those new crystal gobstones after you blew up the last set- and yet here you are ferreting around with that dirty old broomstick that's been around longer than Merlin. Honestly, James, I don't know what I'm going to do with the likes of you! Now go on to the house and get washed up, your father and I are leaving in ten minutes for the-"
"AWW MUM! I don't have to go to that do I?" James whined, his eyes wincing in pain.
The woman sighed. "No, dear, we've been over this dozens of times," the elderly witch said flatly as she took a deep breath and blinked, bringing her eyes down from the tops of the trees to focus on her son."You're staying at the Fawcett's this evening while your father and I attend Quintus Dearborn's retirement party down at the ministry."
The six-year-old groaned and faked lurching over the edge of his broomstick while his mother continued to tap her foot with impatience.
"We don't have time for this, James. Get down here this instant and march yourself right in to that house, young man!"
"Can't I just stay here with Gilby, or go to Uncle Alberic's? Please, please, Mum, please?" James pleaded with large, rounded eyes, shining in the glow of the setting sun. The insides of his brows pointed skyward and his mouth was set in a small pout .
"Your uncle is going with us to the party," his mother scoffed, clearly losing her patience with the messy-haired child towering three stories above.
"But, why?" he asked earnestly, trying to buy some time.
"Why couldn't you have asked these questions earlier? Godric's sword, you're an ornery little bugger today. Your father and Alberic went to school with Quintus and they're all dear friends. Your father has worked with him in the ministry for nearly half a century and your uncle-" she stopped suddenly, her eyes snapping open and searching the clearing-for what, she didn't know-and her face slowly regained its composure, "your uncle just knows his side of the family, we'll put it that way," she finished quickly, averting her eyes.
"How does he-"
"JAMES, ENOUGH! You are going to the Fawcett's and that is final. You may ask all the questions your heart desires when we get home but you must do as I say and get ready to go NOW. Phaedra's going to be watching you this evening and she's new to the babysitting realm, so please, James, for the love of Quidditch be good."
A wicked smile creeped on to James' face and a blazing fire replaced the dull sheen in his hazel eyes. Whatever he had in store for poor Phaedra surely wasn't under the category of 'being good.'
"Oh, dear, I probably shouldn't have mentioned that…" Winnefred said to herself as she watched her son, faster than lightning, bolt from the outskirts of Seeker's Landing back to the seven story manor where Gilby had dinner waiting.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed! I would absolutely LOVE feedback on this story!!! Let me know what you think. Thanks!!!! -lilymione1203