Chapter 1

Harry groaned as he opened his eyes and winced as a bright light filled them. Closing them quickly again he waited a few moments before slowly opening them again, taking his time so he could see just what was going on around him. What came into view though was not anything he had expected, as he seemed to by laying in a forest, though where was hard to till which one.

Shaking his head, he slowly sat up and groaned loudly as his sore body protested this movement after laying like it had been on the hard ground. Making out the outline of his glasses sitting beside him on the ground he picked them up, and put them on. The world came back quickly into focus allowing Harry to see just where he was for the first time.

Harry seemed to be in the outer edges of a forest, more than likely the Forbidden Forest, which surrounded his school. And as he looked around to try and figure out where he was, he spotted a large castle some distance away from him, making him realize he was most likely correct. Harry's memories finally started catching up to him again at this point, playing out like a film in front of him.

He watched his life at his cousin's house, the Dursley, the 10 long and terrible years he spent there. He could remember his aunt and uncle, both overly demanding and angry at or with him, then their own son, spoiled beyond anyone else Harry knew with weight and anger to spare.

Harry's mind then jumped to getting the letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was for the first time in his life everything was explained to him, all his weirdness. He had magic, and not one of his relatives had any. He soon went to the school, where he was famous, and he met his first two friends; Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger.

At first everything was going okay, but then things slowly began to change as a weird set of events made them realize something was going on. After a lot of works they found out just what was going on. Hidden in the school was an item called the Sorcerer Stone, and a person named Voldemort was after it. The scary thing was Voldemort was the person that had killed Harry's own parents and was the reason for him living with his relatives.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione had gone after the stone to save it from Voldemort, but only Harry, by the time they reach the stone, was able to fight. Ron had been knocked out earlier in the process and Hermione, had gone back to get some help as she nor Harry was a match for Voldemort, or anyone else that might have been with him.

But the person Harry had met was not the person who they had thought was helping Voldemort. It was not Professor Snape, how for seemingly no reason seemed to hate Harry and was, for lack of a better term, evil. But rather it was Professor Quirrell, who seemed like he would jump in fright from his own shadow. And gone was Professor Quirrell's stuttering and scared demeanor.

Quirrell revealed he had caused all the problems at the school throughout the entire year. And then had captured and tried to use Harry to get the stone. But Harry had lied about getting it, and after getting shoved to the side by Quirrell trying to get the stone again he had taken off running. He dodged the spells with a little bit of luck.

But Harry had gotten caught by Quirrell before he could leave the room. Harry scar, shaped like a lightning bolt, had hurt so much when Quirrell grabbed his hand Harry could barely think as it burned on his forehead. Quirrell had backed up, and Harry was just able to catch the glimpse of Quirrell's hand, bright red with burns. But before Harry might try and make use of this Quirrell had stumbled back and pointed his wand at Harry.

A spell leapt out of Quirrell's wand, a dark and deep green. And Harry, though he did not know how, knew this spell was the same one that had killed his parents. Harry braced himself not able to get out of the way of the spell, his scar hurt too much, and he was too stunted to move. And as the spell impacted him the spell seemed to stop moving as his scar began hurting more than ever before. Harry at this point blacked out, not able to take the pain anymore.

Which made Harry wonder just why he was out in the forest, and better yet what had happened to Quirrell. But as Harry moved he felt the stone was still safely kept in his pocket. Taking a few deep breaths, Harry tried to think about what to do next realizing that his scar was no longer hurting. And as he put his hand up to his head and realize after a moment his scar was no longer there.

"How you feeling," A voice said to his right.

Harry turned grabbing for his wand but not finding it. He looked about for it for a few moments before finally giving up and looked at the speaker.

"What… who are you?" Harry asked, his eye falling on a red haired female the same age as himself.

"I… I am your mother, Lily Potter," the female said a plain tone of voice.

"My… mother," Harry said, his eyes meeting her own and stopped moving, and for that matter nearly stopped breathing.

Harry was known for three things in his appearance. First was his overall appearance, at least according to most, said he looked just like his father. But two big things about this were not true. First and most well-known was his lightning bolt scar. The second, were his eyes bright green like large shining emeralds. And this female eye were the same as his own.

"But... but, how?" Harry was finally able to get out, "I mean you're my age!"

"A long story, I can explain if you wish," Lily said.

"Explain please. Also what am I doing out here, what happened to Quirrell and what is going on here?" Harry said speaking a little faster than he had meant to.

"Well the best way to answer all that I should start with the beginning," Lily answered.

Harry nodded, and shifted a little bit feeling less sore as he pulled his legs towards him. He was still wanting to run for it right now, but his body was not ready to run at all. Lily looked at him for a few moments before speaking.

"Well it started with a prediction given about Voldemort, you, myself, and your father. It said that the one that could defeat Voldemort would soon be born to those that had thrice defied him, and in the month of July. It stated Voldemort would mark him as his equal and he would have power the dark lord knowns not," Lily said before adding, "I can tell you the full version later if you wish."

Harry nodded, before motioning for her to continue, which she did, "Now, after hearing this we moved into hiding, but not because we were worried about it. But rather our spy in Voldemort's ranks reported that Voldemort had also found about this prediction, and as such he was acting on it. But it was not until two years later did the events come to past, and you were born."

"Okay, so he learned about you and decided to hunt you down then," Harry guessed.

"Yes, we went into hiding under some of the most powerful spells out there. They were able to hide us very well, but I felt it was not enough. As such both you and your father began working on some ideas of our own to make sure we would all live. I began researching powerful spells and even some of the dark arts, while your father began looking for better ways to keep us hidden."

"Dark arts?" Harry asked a little surprised, the need to run slowly fading as his interest grew.

"Yes, though I might add some of the darkest magic is not really that dark if the conditions are willingly met. Anyway, the spells I came across gave me hopes for the future, but the process and possible results would be considered so dark… and slightly wrong. What I discovered allowed me to tie my life force to your own, but I hoped I would never have to use the spell," Lily said.

"What did my father find?" Harry asked, not completely believing what this Lily was saying.

"It was newly created ward charm where you could hide a secret with someone. Basically if I were to be the secret keeper, even if you were standing right outside your own house, unless I told you where the house was, you would never be able to see it. But in our set up of the spell, we gave the wrong person the secret, and they betrayed us," Lily said, a look of anger passing over her face.

"So Voldemort attacked then?" Harry guessed.

"Yes, your father tried to fight him, giving both you and me time to escape. But Voldemort must have spent more than a few hours setting up a set of wards and spell to keep us from escaping, as every method I tried failed. Finally I retreated to your own room and realized I did not have any choice but the use of my last results methods to save you.. Pointing my wand at you, I cast the spell, sealing my life force to your own," Lily explained.

"Okay, so how did he die then, Voldemort I mean," Harry asked

To his surprise Lily grinned rather happily, "It was a powerful potion of my own making. I knew I was going to die that night, but I was going to make sure Voldemort came down with me. It was designed to reflect spell that had affected me, back on the caster at three or four times its original strength. As he cast the killing curse at me, the effect was amazing to say the least. It hit him, and destroyed his body, and continued on into the house itself. The effect on the house, or what I could see before my body faded, left it looking like a bomb had gone off."

"That sound crazy," Harry said in a blunt tone.

"Yes, now I did not fully awake for nearly two years after these events. Best I can tell your scar was were my spirit was sealed, and from there I tried the best I could to help you. But… well the spell I cast linking us together would only bring me back under one condition, and that was if you were about to die. So for eight years, I was forced to watch those animals raise you the way they did," Lily said, her tone and eyes filling with anger.

"It…" Harry began but Lily cut in.

"It is not okay. I was not able to comfort you, I was not able to protect you. I was not able to do anything for you. I could not be the mother I should have been," Lily said, glaring at the ground.

Harry could see, not just anger but also regret, and he found himself feeling pity towards Lily. He so wanted to believe her, but how could he. She was his age, which was way too young. Lily, his real mother should be at the youngest in her late twenty. But before he got that one answered Harry had another question he wanted to know.

"So how did you come back this time?" Harry asked.

"Quirrell cast the killing curse at you. And as this spell was going to kill you, my own spell activated. Using the power from the killing curse, as well as magic from your own body, I was reformed. Quirrell was too shocked to move, and with this bit of luck, I was able to grab your wand in time and blast him with a powerful spell of my own. At this point as my powers were not fully reformed I decided to retreat and teleported us out of the castle to the edge of the forest." Lily explained.

"And your age?" Harry asked.

"Well it is the spell I used. It was made to be used between a husband and wife. So in order to make sure they could still live out their lives together it made the user same age once the other is reformed," Lily explained.

"I see," Harry said before looking at closely at Lily, "I guess it makes sense."

"So… do you believe me?" Lily asked after a few moments.

Harry wanted to believe her, his heart wanted for this to be true a reason for all his pain explained in some way. But his mind new better than to let him just believe a story so crazy. Weirdness, while common in the magical world, never normally reached his kind of levels. But then again if one were to consider the craziness of his own story of surviving a curse that no one else had ever survived before, her story at least had reasons behind how it all had happened.

Still though as he looked her, and met her eyes he just could bring himself to say that she was wrong. He could see the worry, and hope in her eyes, as well as the look of love and longing to be with him. There was also a strong vulnerability about her that finally set Harry mind in what he was to do.

"Okay, I am not completely sure I believe all this. But, I do trust your story enough to at least give you a chance," Harry said, with a small smile.

"I could give you more proof I was able to watch your life," Lily said, after a few moments.

"Sure," Harry said, not sure what she was going to say.

"Your teleportation while fleeing those bullies, your ability to speak to snake, your hair growing longer after it was cut. Even your nightmares of a high cold laugh and a green flash of light," Lily said, listing off several things that Harry had never told anyone about before, not one person.

"I… but…" Harry said, not able to deny her claim now, unless of course she could read his mind somehow.

"I watched everything, I know you better possibly than you even know yourself. Not that it ever let me help you up to this point," Lily said with a slightly bitter tone in her voice.

Harry got up and placed his hand on her shoulder, "It is not your fault, and you are here now."

"Yes… I am here now! And we need to make some changes in your life. The first of which is you're not going back to live with; those people! Sadly I, correction, we don't have a real house to stay at anymore. But, if we are lucky I know of a tree house in this forest that should make do for now. Second we need to start getting you out of whatever game Dumbledore is playing with your life," Lily said.

"What do you mean game?" Harry asked, a little confused.

"With my ability to sit back and watch but not help I began noticing things that don't just seem quite right. The first being the Weasley family, you noticed his mom talked about a station begin packed with muggles. Her husband works for the Ministry of Magic, keeping magical items from ending up in muggle hands. Also she had forgotten where the platform was after having had kids go there for nearly ten years by this point," Lily explained.

"Okay," Harry said after a few moments.

"Now, we also have Dumbledore 'hiding' one of the most powerful magical objects known to man in a school filled with kids. Then he tells everyone basically where it is, then he hides it behind traps and obstacles three first years got past. I don't care if your friend is one of the best in her year, there is no way three first years should have been able to get through real blockades," Lily added.

"So… wait do you think this stone might be a fake then?" Harry asked drawing the stone out of his pocket.

"More than likely. Nicholas Flamel is over 600 years old, he did not reach that age by leaving it in some sort of vault. I met the man once as he was helping Dumbledore dealing with some runes and wards to better protect Hogwarts. He may have seemed light hearted, but I could feel the power hidden inside him. Even when Dumbledore, when he was at his maddest, could ever hope to match it," Lily said taking the stone and looking it slowly over.

"You have a point there," Harry said, "so the stone is a fake, why then set it up as if it was real?"

"Simple, really, he wanted to see how you would act. Would you not do anything, or would you rush headlong to stop Voldemort. Maybe even test how much truth the prophecy held about you being the only one who could beat Voldemort," Lily said, before tossing the stone aside and aiming the wand at it.

With a loud crack the stone shattered into a great many pieces, leading Harry to say, "It is a fake."

"Yep," Lily said nodding, before looking at Harry, "We need to get your stuff from Hogwarts, and head to the tree house, and from there we can make our next move."

"Okay, how do we want to do that?" Harry asked.

Lily smiled and held up a large cloak, which Harry realized was his own invisibility cloak. A grin grew on Harry's own face as he realized her plan. Within minutes they were on the move up into the castle, and Harry as they moved along could not help but ask, "So… what should we… tell my friends?"

Lily was silent for a few moments as they moved along the corridors carefully to avoid any students that were still in the castle. It was not until they were nearing the portal hole that led into the Gryffindor common room did she speak, though in a rather low voice as to not be over heard by anyone, or the nearby paintings.

"We tell them nothing for now. If they realize your safe and don't act worried then Dumbledore will be onto us." Lily said.

"But we have to tell them something they are my friend," Harry said a little louder than he meant to.

Lily sent him a small look of annoyance as his outburst had caused a few nearby students to look about in confusion after they had opened the portrait hole. But Lily did not say anything as they used this moment to sneak into the common room. Once inside they snuck up to Harry's dorm, then after making sure no one was in the room Lily closed the door and placed a spell on it. Harry begin dashing about his small bed area collecting all his things, tossing them in his trunk as he went.

"Now, as to answer your question. We will tell them, but after they have left for summer break. Then it will be easier for them to keep that a secret then. Though we will still have to be careful as Molly, Ron's mom, might give us problems. She is Dumbledore's little helper," Lily said with an annoyed chuckle.

"I see. Question, how are we going to be getting this trunk out of the school without anyone seeing or hearing us?" Harry asked.

Lily smiled at this point, "That is rather simple really; we will be leaving during supper tonight. Everyone will be down at the feast, though I will need one thing to help us escape safely."

Lily at this point held up the wand and muttered something Harry did not hear, and a few moments later a folded piece of parchment came flying in through the nearby window. Lily caught it in her hand and smiled a little bit as she turned it over. Harry walked over and looked at it, but it did not seem that it was anything really special though. But a moment later with a tap from the wand ink began moving over the parchment.

"This is a map of Hogwarts that shows everyone's current location, as well as ever single secret passage in and out of Hogwarts plus how to access them," Lily said answering Harry's unasked question.

"Did you make this," Harry asked in shock.

"No, it was your father and his friends many years ago that made it. They left it hidden for others to find and later use," Lily said with a small smile.

"So we use this to make sure it is safe to go down, then we hide in the forest. But how do we live down there? I mean we don't have any way to get food right now, and you cannot keep using my wand," Harry said.

"Don't worry, I will be taking care of that soon enough," Lily said in a matter affect tone that reminded Harry rather forcefully of Hermione.

Harry nodded, and soon went back to packing. Once this was done Harry and Lily returned to hiding under the cloak, with Lily telling Harry as much as she could about his father and herself. Harry listened with undivided attention, he had not heard anything about his family before, and being told everything was not something he was going to miss.

But as time went on an idea invaded his mind, one that had up till now made him wonder why it had not accord to him the moment this all started. Why was he listening to her, why was he believe her? How could he really trust her, she could have woven this story to trick him. Or he could be out cold and this could all be a dream, after all things did not normally go this good for him.

But as his mind reached this point another idea invaded his thoughts. Even if this was a dream, why worry, why not enjoy it. And if this was not a dream, why would this girl go to such lengths to trick him, why not just do whatever she wanted to him out in the forest before now. It made more sense to not risk coming into Hogwarts.

Lily by this time had noticed Harry had stopped paying attention to her stories. She could feel he was doing some very heavy thinking on something, but she was not sure what. Lily sighed and hoped Harry was not having second thoughts about going through with this. She did not want to have to hurt or harm him in order to keep him safe, or even having to do something to him to keep herself safe.

But whatever before either one of them could say another word someone came into the room. And this person in particular caught Harry's and Lily's eyes, a red head kid to be precise. It was Ron Weasley and he looked rather mad about something. It took Harry a few moments to realize this as Ron glared at Harry or more correctly Harry's bed, as Harry and Lily were under the cloak.

"It is her own fault, I guess she just does not want to expect that," Ron said, glaring at the bed, before muttering much quieter, "It is too bad Hermione does not realize how important Harry really is to the world; at least if what mom said was correct. Though… he does not seem that special, at least no more than myself."

Harry shifted, but before he did anything he felt Lily's hand on his own, and remained hidden. He wanted to do something about say something, or tell Ron off, even if he was not sure how he was going to go about it yet. Besides that he had upset Hermione, and Harry very much did not want to think about how bad Hermione was feeling.

Harry knew Hermione well enough by this point. She freaked out over the idea of a wrong answer. If Hermione thought she was at fault for his disappearance there was a good chance she was not even eating at this point. Harry though guess, if what Ron said was true, she was getting on by believe that her leaving to get help was his only chance.

Finally Ron left, still looking mad and muttering about different things. It was at this point, Harry checking his watch saw that it was closing in on supper time. Lily began watching the map, and soon everyone had left the tower, it was now or never.

Carefully they gathered the last few things of Harry and put them into the trunk. Then hoisting the trunk up between them and carefully moving the cloak over their bodies, then began working their way out of the room and down the stairs. They crossed the common room and began working their way down the through the portrait hole, before heading down through the castle.

As they moved along, they would stop minute or so. Lily was always double checking the map, and as they got close the second floor landing, and Lily checked the map again and when she did not give the go ahead right away. Harry turned to face her best she could under the cloak. But before he could ask what was going on, he heard something that gave him the answer, it was the sound of a crying female, and it was getting closer.

It only took a few more seconds before Harry saw Hermione running past them, eyes were red, and tears seemed to be slowly moving down. But before Harry could do anything more, Hermione rushed passed them, and was gone up the stairs. Lily acting quickly moved under the cloak and put her hand on his shoulder, shaking her head.

Harry though made to move again, only stop when Lily spoke, "Harry if we do something now we could make her life even worse than it is right now!"

"How, she is in tears again?" Harry asked quietly but fiercely.

"I know, and I don't like this anymore than you. But if we do something now then she risks being put under a lot more pressure than she can handle," Lily said.

"But we cannot just do nothing, she is my friend!" Harry said, glaring at Lily.

"I know, but what can we do where we don't give ourselves away?" Lily asked.

"I… I don't know," Harry answered finally, feeling rather lousy.

"We will send her a letter with your owl after she has left for the train, and explain everything, or most of it," Lily said, consoling Harry best she could, she knew just what it felt like to betray a close friend.

Harry nodded, before finally saying, "I hope she is not to mad at me."

Lily nodded as they moved the rest of the way out of the castle and onto the grounds. Summoning a second broom, taking one of the school brooms in this case, they set up a harness made from magic and took off into the forest. It was not till as the sun began fully setting did they began moving down towards the trees of the forest.

Lily smiled and brought them into landing on some sort of large wooden building, built high in-between four large tree. It was suspended between them by strong steel cables, and seemed to be rather small. For a place that was going to be where the pair of them was going to be living for a while, Harry felt it might be rather cramped. It was not until Lily moved aside the cloth door, and Harry followed her inside, did he rethink this idea.

The building, which might have been only six feet on a side, was much bigger on the inside. Within the building there were five total rooms. Two were full bedrooms, with semi large closet. There was a full bathroom, then finally kitchen, and living areas.

"We built this in our last year at Hogwarts, your dad and me. It was designed for vacationing for when you were old enough to ride a broom safely, not to mention were working on your animagus form as well. But, well that never came to pass, but it will more than make do for a home for now," Lily said.

"Animagus?" Harry asked a little confused.

"A witch or wizard that can change into some sort of animal. Your father could change into a stag. I can become a falcon, we were never able to being your own training, but we were able to test your form. I think Hedwig will be rather happy with it," Lily said as she moved Harry's trunk to between the two rooms.

"An owl then?" Harry guessed.

"A Snowy Owl to be precise. That will be one thing we will be working on this summer, plus other spells for both combat and defense, and finally potions, though I will have to figure out how to get the ingredients as this place was only set up for normal cooking, not potion brewing," Lily said.

"Okay… that is going to be kind of cool being able to fly without a broom. But how are we going able to work on wand work, I mean the moment I use my wand once school is over, they will track it won't they?" Harry asked.

"Yes and no. You see, this close to Hogwarts the Ministry of Magic cannot track spells usage at all. But a few more miles away they would be able to track us with ease. The same is true if we were in Diagon Alley, as well," Lily explained.

"That is good, but I just thought of something else, I know you can use my wand. But well we need to get your own wand you cannot just keep using mine," Harry pointed out.

"Yes I know. I will work on trying to get mine back. You see when I was absorbed into your scar, and so was my wand and clothes. My clothes reformed when I reformed, but I have not yet figured out why my wand has not reformed," Lily said sighing a little.

"Maybe it became part of your body," Harry guessed.

"Possibly, in which case I might be able to use wandless magic without a problem. But if I cannot, nor can figure out how to reform my wand, I am going have to get a new wand from Ollvander," Lily said.

"Well let's hope we don't have to do that then," Harry said and Lily nodded.

"Now, it is time to get to training, we are going to be dealing with the Dark Lord, and we will be dealing with Dumbledore sometime soon," Lily said, gaining a small smile.

Harry nodded, "I am ready… after we get some dinner."

Lily blinked before finally laughed as she realized in all the excitement neither of them had eaten in nearly 24 hours, and they were both beginning to feel this effect of hunger.

"Right, after dinner."