Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I'm pretty sure you know that already but just to be safe.

When you were a child you could be anything you wanted. You could climb Mt Everest in a day or have a tea party with the royal family. There were no limits, Imagination ruled. Only things changed didn't they? You got older and suddenly inviting Queen Elizabeth to a tea party became a lot harder and eventually impossible. You had to start healing your own scars, your teddy bear couldn't be there to comfort you anymore. People expected more from you and you couldn't use puppy dog eyes if you screwed up. You were lucky. You had these opportunities before real life came rudely knocking on your door. I never did, things happened too quickly. My childhood started and ended when I was one. In the space of an hour, life came knocking at my door so vigorously it knocked off the hinges. And I wasn't even old enough to remember what real life looked like.

Since I was old enough to walk and say my name, I had to slave for a family that was known to me as my own. I never truly understood why they were my family, they never loved me. I had never known what true family was like until Hogwarts. I just accepted that this was how families were meant to be. I thought this was my true position in it. As if people had held a board meeting before this thing called 'Harry Potter's family' existed. One man selected the outcome of people's families as his team members nodded in agreement while he said things like "Oh and kill his parents their not necessary, also throw in the fact that his Aunty and Uncle will work him tirelessly but never love him." They were feeling practically nasty the day they choose the outcome mine. So my family was created and my life was already mapped out for me, people call this 'fate' or 'destiny'. This was what I believed and I was too young to understand I could change it.

Until I saw that small, slightly yellowed envelope. Someone had made the effort to send a letter to me! I stared transfixed at this small old parchment envelope with a red stamp sealing inside it my new fate. Unfortunately I never got to know what was inside. Vernon did his best to destroy each and every letter. He knew what was inside; he laughed at me while he burned them and shredded them like it was his cruel joke not to tell me. 'Forget it' I told myself every time I saw the yellow envelope burn. But the knowledge that someone, somewhere was making a huge effort to contact me, and I would never know who burned inside me. This was how life first presented itself. Filled with grief, pain, loss and a burning desire to find out who wanted to contact me so desperately that owls sat outside our house in privet drive for a month.

August 10th 2001 A need for a promise

Teddy crawled onto my lap causing me to knock over my ink well that narrowly missed spilling onto my written work. Teddy stared at it interested. "What are you writing Harry?" he asked looking up at me furring his eyebrows. I smiled at the curious look on his face. He had always been interested in my work since I had been promoted to head of the Auror department. I came home with papers that needed checking and editing, they were slowly starting to pile up on the corner of my desk. Teddy thought they were more exciting than his toy broomstick Ginny had brought him. I often found large crayon drawings all over the papers. "Well I'm… I'm working" I lied, picking up the inkwell. "Scourgify" the ink rapidly disappeared off the table. Teddy's eyes widened in amusement. Being only 3, Teddy found magic exciting and mysterious. "What did it do?" he asked poking my wand I had set back on the table.

"It's a cleaning spell" I answered simply

"Why?" Teddy asked. I didn't understand the logic of his question and just ignored it trying to put my mind back to my previous task. "Why does it clean?" he asked again.

"Well the inventor of it made a huge mess that would have taken years to clean up so he simple waved his wand and said 'Scourgify'" I waved my wand in front of Teddy. He stared at it mystified. Seeming to have satisfied Teddy's curiosity, I picked up my quill and dipped it into my now half empty well.

"Why did he make a big mess?" Teddy asked, again gazing up at me looking confused. I laughed softly and put my quill down just as Ginny opened the door prepared to tell me something.

"You know what Ted, I think Ginny has something for you downstairs" I said looking over at Ginny. She looked sideways at me before walking across the room. "Wait in the lounge Ted I'll be down in a minute" she said going along with it. Teddy stared at my wand one last time before heading out the door. "I can help you with it Harry, just let me know okay" he said turning around and puffing out his chest determined to look brave and grown up.

"Thanks Ted, I'll keep that in mind" I said before he nodded and marched down the stairs. Ginny leaned on the desk reading my paper in front of me.

"This looks pretty deep Harry" she giggled, looking up at me "are you writing a memoir?" she asked emphasising the word memoir. I sighed and shoved my so called 'memoir' in the draw.

"Yeah, I should be sorting this lot out though" I said leaning back on my chair gesturing to the piles of paper in front of me. I had never faced this amount of work before it didn't come close to N.E.W.T level work. There was no Hermione to help either. She was living at the Burrow with Ron and the rest of the Weasley's, while Ron saved up enough money to buy a house. I was living in Grimwald place with Ginny, taking care of an orphaned Teddy. I returned here after the war, unsure of what to do next. I had no idea where Teddy was. I knew Ginny had been taken back to the burrow. I dedicated my time to figuring out how to find Teddy. I finally received word from Molly, who had aided my cause, and found out he was living under the care of Andromeda Tonks. She couldn't care for him after Ted died and was willing for me to take him. Ginny noticed me struggling and moved in to look after things while I completed my Auror training.

"Harry" Ginny called my attention back into the room. She was clicking her fingers in front of my face wearing a confused look. I shook my head, grabbing my quill once more and started to work on the stack of paper work.

"You look tired seeing as you haven't properly slept in 3 days now. You can start on this tomorrow, they don't have to be handed back until Monday" she said snatching my quill off me.

"No I'm fine I need to get this done, it's just sitting on my desk taunting me otherwise" I said grabbing at my quill that she was currently holding high up into the air.

"It's only Friday, you have the whole weekend while I'm on shift at St Mungo's and Ted's at Mum's" she said continuing to levitate my quill higher and higher till it hit the roof. I couldn't argue with her. She was right.

"Fine" I huffed

"Great" she said cutting the spell, causing my quill to clatter to the floor and smug ink on the floor.

"Thanks I just cleaned up the ink Teddy made me knock over"

"You're welcome" she giggled "Scourgify. There all clean now off to bed, I'll be up soon. Thanks to you I now have to give Teddy something" she frowned at me before sweeping out of the room and down the stairs. My eyes grew heavy and my mind went foggy as I felt myself grow more and more tired. I pushed the chair back and stood up. My surroundings spun around me and I felt myself sway. Gripping the desk I waited for it to pass. Things stopped swaying, I let go of the desk and started towards my room, eagerly awaiting my cosy bed I hadn't slept in for 3 days because of unfinished work. I usually woke up suddenly facing my desk at 4:00 in the morning, after reliving the war in my dreams. I must just be tired I told myself feeling another wave of dizziness. I leant on the door frame closing my eyes trying to hold down the urge to vomit. My mind went foggy again and I could hear my heart pounding in my chest. "Harry what's wrong?" I was vaguely aware of Teddy tugging at my jacket before the ground grew closer. "GINNY!" Teddy screamed before I blacked out.