Prolougue
James Potter was sitting outside the nursery, fighting to stay awake. His wife had just given birth a few hours ago and was resting at their home, while he stood guard outside the nursery at St. Mungo’s looking over his sons.
He had been blessed with two beautiful baby boys and had no intention of leaving them unguarded in these difficult times. As an Auror, he was a big target during this war and they were also warned by Dumbledore about some prophecy that might apply to his sons, and make them Voldemort’s primary targets.
Even the thought of Dumbledore made James angry, as he refused to give them the details about the so-called “prophecy” and just gave vague warnings.
James was immediately alarmed when he heard someone walking towards him. He had his Invisibility Cloak wrapped around him, an heirloom handed down to him by his father. He pulled his wand out of its holster, ready to jump the incomer or incomers if needed.
The young father immediately exhaled a sigh of relief, as he saw the familiar figure of his best friend turning around the corner, but not letting his guard down he pointed his wand toward the long-haired man and asked, “What did I say to you as we were walking to Hogsmeade on our first Hogsmeade weekend of our sixth year?”
“You bet me ten galleons that you will have a date with Evans before next Hogsmeade weekend, which I won because it took you a year to achieve that feat” replied the man, stroking his well-trimmed beard.
“What was your first reaction when you found out your animagus form?” asked the man.
“ I complained that it wasn’t something cool like a tiger” replied James, as he removed his cloak.
As soon as his best friend became visible, he was wrapped in a bear hug by Sirius Black.
“What are you doing here at this hour? Shouldn’t you be in a bar somewhere trying to get into a woman’s pants?” asked James with a smile.
“Your wife Floo called me, I’m here to take over guard duty of my godson and honorary nephew so you can go and get some sleep” replied Sirius.
“ You sure about this?” James asked in an uncertain voice.
“ Of course, I am willing to do everything necessary to help take care of those munchkins. Now go get some sleep, I’ll look over them for the rest of the night and convince Ted to discharge them in the morning” replied Sirius as he put his arms around James.
“ No chance you convince Ted, I spent hours arguing with him to move them to a safe house but he keeps refusing, says it’s too risky”, said James.
“ Now-now, dear brother, you forget I have the cheat code, his wife is my cousin. Now go home, get some sleep, and don’t forget to leave behind the cloak” replied Sirius in a cheeky tone.
“Ok, whatever just don’t get distracted if you see a pretty nurse”, said James as tossed Sirius the cloak, and then started to walk towards the exit.
“Oi, before you leave… I have a bit of a weird request” began Sirius in an unsure voice.
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“So, you want to adopt my son?” asked Lily Potter skeptically, while staring directly into Sirius’s eyes.
“Well, not just legally adopt him but through a blood adoption ritual so technically, he will also be biologically my son” replied Sirus trying to look away.
“And why the… why should I allow this?” questioned the angry young mother.
“Well, uh you see… currently the Presumptive Heir of the Black fortune is Malfoy’s brat, right, so the current Lord of the Black family, my grandfather, he isn’t happy with that because he doesn't support You-Know-Who. So he wants to declare someone else as his heir before he dies”, replied Sirus while looking visibly uncomfortable.
“ So why doesn’t he just name you his heir and you know, when you have children in the future you can pass along the title” asked Lily sounding skeptical.
“That’s the plan, the only problem is I can’t have kids, the healers at St, Mungos said it’s something to do with inbreeding and uh whatever” replied Sirus.
“So, yeah that's why I wanted to ask you if I can adopt young Hadrian here and name him my Heir when I become Lord of the family, after my grandfather’s death”, continued Sirius.
“ I mean I get what you are saying but I am still not sure-” began Lily while petting her orange tabby cat that had settled onto her lap.
“What’s there to think about Evans? We receive millions of galleons, sickles, and knuts to help fund our efforts in this war, and to top it off your son will inherit all that money and we can get advice from a man who played a crucial role in the last war against Grindelwald!” exclaimed Sirius rising from his seat.
“And there’s no catch? Your grandfather just decided one day to give you this offer to become his Heir as long as you adopt a child?” the redhead asked in a doubtful tone.
“Well, my grandfather was hit by a nasty curse during the previous war which is causing his body to slowly deteriorate, he has been bedridden for quite a few years which is why he couldn’t do much when my father decided to publicly support You-Know-Who”, replied Sirus as he sat back down.
“He claims that he feels like he is on his deathbed and wants to make sure that his family’s good name isn’t tarnished further and is taking precautions. For making me his heir he only put forward one condition he gets to meet the child every once or twice a month till he dies, and later on, the child has access to his portrait for advice”, continued Sirius with a hint of sadness in his voice.
“What about that ritual you mentioned, is it safe?” Lily said quickly trying to change the subject.
“Yeah, it should be completely safe” replied Sirius.
“Well, that's a problem, you say ‘should be” instead of it is”, says the young mother while aggressively petting her cat.
“I mean, it is. The only times they have been known to go wrong are when the adopter’s blood is forcefully or unknowingly taken or if the child is more than three years old but that too in rare cases” replied Sirius while running a hand through his hair.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” asked Lily in a concerned voice.
“I give you my guarantee that it is safe. It’s a ritual that has been used for centuries and it is common practice in many places” said Sirius pulling from his animagus form to make puppy dog eyes.
“Fine, when do you want to do this?” asked the mother in a defeated voice.
“ Brilliant, I was thinking right after Thomas and Hadrian’s first birthday. My grandfather’s elf will prepare everything, and we will just give Harry a Dreamless Sleep Potion and it will be over in less than two hours, it’ll be perfect” said Sirius as he slowed walked towards the door,
“You know my opinion on the nicknames “Harry” and “Tommy” Sirius, and you know better than to use them. Are you sure James agreed to this?” asked Lily still feeling a little unsure.
“Yeah-yeah, he said as long as you’re fine with it, he is too”, said Sirus as he reached for the door,
“Very well then”, Lily said with a sigh.
“We have a deal, see you later”, said Sirius as he opened the door, hoping to leave before she changed her mind.
“You owe me twelve galleons”, said Sirius as he closed the door.
James who had been standing outside trying to hear what was going on, just stood there with a shocked expression on his face. “H-how?” was the only word he could mutter.
“Like I always tell you, brother there ain’t a woman in this world that can resist my charm, and if I ever find one I’ll marry her”, replied Sirius with a smug look on his face.
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A brown-haired man was popped in, in front of the wreckage of a cottage, by a house-elf who immediately popped out after. On the entrance, a sign said 13 Godric’s Hollow. He carefully walked in, stepping over the rubble lying on the ground.
He cautiously opened the unlocked door of the house, with a knife in his hand.
Next to the staircase, was the body of James Potter, lifeless and cold. The man had no visible reaction towards the body and just walked past it, climbing up the stairs.
Out of the three rooms upstairs, two were empty. The third seemed to be a nursery, nothing unusual about it except for the body of a young red-haired woman lying on the floor and a giant hole in the roof.
The man seemed uncaring towards the body and just stepped around it, and walked towards the cribs.
In the first crib labeled, Tommy, was a black-haired, brown-eyed infant that was screaming at the top of his lungs and bawling his eyes out.
The other crib was labeled, Harry, in which there was another black-haired boy, but this one sleeping peacefully. It would be a delightful scene to see if not for the lighting bolt-shaped wound on his forehead which was bleeding profusely.
The man took the boy into his arms and wiped some blood off his wound, as he did so the house-elf that popped him here popped back in.
The house-elf levitated the blood off the man’s hand and multiplied it till a big ball of blood was formed. The ball slowly descended till it was resting on the now empty crib and it exploded, staining the room with blood.
Suddenly the familiar pop sound of apparition was heard in the distance, but by the time a certain greasy black-haired man entered the room, the elf, the man, and the bleeding baby were already gone.
A few hours later, a special edition of the Daily Prophet was released to the public. It said,
You-Know-Who Defeated!
In an unfortunate turn of events, on this Halloween night, You-Know-Who decided to target The Potter Family. In the ensuing confrontation, both James and Lily Potter were brutally killed along with their youngest son Harry (Hadrian) Potter. But miraculously, when You-Know-Who tried to murder the Potter’s oldest son Tommy (Thomas) Potter, he was somehow vanquished and is now considered dead…
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