1 Chapter 1:

A young emerald-eyed boy stood before the mirror, he was eleven years old today, and in a couple of odd weeks, he would be joining the 97' class of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Despite his father's best efforts he had grown up a responsible young man who took his life and role very seriously, but things did not turn out the way he would have liked them to.

You see in July 1980 a woman named Sybil Trelawney had made a prophecy about a young man that would be born as the seventh month dies to people who have thrice defied the dark lord. This particular young man would be destined to either rise or fall at the hands of the Dark Lord Voldemort.

When the Potters found out about this prophesy they placed a fidelius charm on the property, and attempted to evade a blood-thirsty Dark Lord. On Halloween of 1981, however, the game changed. Peter Pettigrew, a long-time family friend to both of Harry's parents betrayed them and led the Dark Lord straight to little Harry in hopes of saving his own ass. There was only a small problem with this plan...

Lily Potter nee Evans, who was widely considered one of the greatest charm prodigies to ever walk into the Wizarding World, had placed wards on the fidelius charm to inform her of when the secret was told, and when Pettigrew told someone without their permission, the Potter's prepared an elaborate ambush plan.

The elaborate scheme was meticulously set up, with several less-than-legal blood rituals performed, that would protect Harry from the killing curse. It took tireless amounts of work from the scared mother, but when the time came her plan had succeeded.

On Halloween night the Dark Lord strolled into Godrics Hallow, intent on finishing off the child chosen by the prophecy, only to have the killing curse rebounded by Lily Potter's magic. The public was never given this knowledge and they proclaimed Harry as "The Boy Who Lived."

Lily and James Potter both allowed these rumors to fluctuate, but never gave a definitive account of what had actually happened. When Harry had turned ten years old the parents however had sat him down and explained the lengths they took to keep their son safe.

At that point, Harry had two different mindsets. On one hand, he was not this boy who lived rubbish, however, he was the chosen one of a horrible prophecy, that could one day lead to his death. However, he wasn't without training this time around.

Even at ten years old the young man had a thirst for knowledge that could never be satisfied. He grew up with the best of the best teaching him different basic subjects. They had all known the prophecy, and no one wanted Harry to lose this prophesied death match.

James Potter even told Harry in times of fear that he would never have to face the Dark Lord alone, that no matter what happened his mom and dad would always be beside him in the fight. This would give Harry the necessary strength to do one last repetition or one last push for to get a spell correct over the years.

The young man looked himself up and down again, observing his shirtless body. For an eleven-year-old, he was very defined. The semblance of an up-and-coming six-pack physique was clearly starting to form, and he was by no means a scrawny James Potter. He looked like a fair mix of his two parents, but he had seen pictures of his grandfather Charlus, and he looks almost like an exact replica.

Both were tall, and Charlus was very muscular in his youth, which Harry seemed to adopt, his jaw bone was rather small, while his cheek bones were sharp, and the most notable feature would always be the scar on his forehead that gave the world a constant reminder of just what he had gone through and what was yet to come. His green eyes of course were as radiant as his mother's but he incorrectly believed that someone would recognize his scar before his eyes.

He strolled down the halls of Potter manor trying to make his way to the grounds where he would start his day with a run, however, he was immediately intercepted by a tall man with a lush white beard, Harry easily recognized the man and gave a large smile, "Good morning Headmaster. Care to join me for a morning run?"

The grandfather-like man chuckled at his pupil for a few moments, "No my boy, I dare say that with my old age I would not make it to the fence line before I had some sort of cardiac arrest. I am merely here to wish you a happy birthday and tell you that your day off should start now. Training can resume tomorrow my boy, today you must celebrate with your friends and family. Go back to your room and sleep in, today is your day, my boy."

Harry looked suspiciously at the old man, "What brings you here this early headmaster? I know mum and dad aren't awake yet, and I don't believe you came here to tell me to sleep in. What is really going on?"

The headmaster just merely had a twinkle in his eye, "I take it you don't want to sleep in then?

The young man who was always respectful to his mentor groaned, "Headmaster you're avoiding my question! Is everything okay? Did something happen to Moony or Padfoot?"

Dumbledore sighed as he stared at the young man in the eyes in an attempt to breach his occulomency shields, however, Harry was having none of it as he brought his barriers straight up to block out the old man, "Very good Harry. Very good. You detected me and blocked me out in record time. Now as to why I am here, I was just visiting my brother Aberforth down the street and knew you would be awake at this early hour, so I thought I would be the first to wish you a Happy Birthday, and maybe even deliver this parcel to you."

The young man seemed to stare at the letter that was being held out to him in shock, "Is that what I think it is?"

Dumbledore merely laughed heartily, "I guess you won't know until you take it, my boy!"

Reaching out quickly the emerald-eyed boy took the letter with the Hogwarts insignia on it and tore it open rapidly, reading the Hogwarts acceptance letter. Harry at this point was doing his best from letting out a cheer, but couldn't help himself.

Being a considerate person the headmaster had already cast a privacy charm so that way they would not wake up the whole house, "So I guess this makes it official then doesn't it professor. I will be a Hogwarts student in just over a month?"

"Was there ever any doubt?" asked the august wizard with a sagely smile.

Harry chuckled, "Only every other day headmaster, it is simply wonderful to read the letter and make it official."

The old headmaster patted the young man on the shoulder, "I see some exciting times ahead of you my boy. But, now I may not be up for a run, but perhaps we can engage in another familiar activity?"

Harry brightened up, "How about a duel instead? You are already here headmaster, and I could really use some practice. We can go down to the training grounds and just practice lightly. Please?"

Dumbledore chuckled at how the young man was able to grasp the point of conversation so easily, "I don't suppose I could just convince you to go back and get some more sleep?"

Immediately shaking his head no, the headmaster smiled at the eager young man, "I suppose we could do a small-time duel. I would like to see how your chain spells are coming, after all, someone has to keep this old wizard in some type of shape. Shall I meet you down there in five? I would like to get some pumpkin juice before we begin."

Harry exclaimed and darted off towards the training grounds, a.k.a the quidditch pitch. As Harry approached the quidditch pitch he felt something was a little off in the air. Taking note of this infraction he pulled out his wand, which was a gift he had received from the headmaster at age seven. It was basic, eleven inches, Oak, and a hippogriff heartstring.

This wand wasn't set to his specific skills, but he was going to get a new wand today, that would be crafted to his liking. The Hippogriff heartstring actually belonged to a hippogriff Harry had met when he was a baby, it died when he was six. The wand was effective, but he one day hoped for one that would perfectly fit his magical core.

The emerald-eyed boy raised his wand with precision as he listened as closely as he could. Then in a tight circle, he waved his wand, "Homenum Revalio."

One of Harry's teachers, Mad-Eye Moody, had taught Harry the revealing spell recently, and at first, he thought it hadn't worked, but suddenly his wand turned a faint blue, and Harry spun around as he felt a magical presence enter the air, "Expelliarmus!"

The headmaster was then there in all his glory, with no wand in his hand yet, and dodged the curse Harry had thrown. The young man growled, "Perificus Totalus! Stupefy! Immobilize!"

Dumbledore easily weaved through the set of chain curses as he complimented, "Very good Harry, but you are going to have to be much faster than that."

Suddenly Dumbledore started flicking his wand without saying the incantation, however as each spell came towards Harry he darted in between them, only raising a shield when he felt too many coming in to dodge efficiently, "Protego Duo!"

At the desperate cry of Harry's voice, a solid blue shield popped up in front of Harry covering him from head to toe. This was enough to surprise the headmaster, so much so that he almost got hit by the young man's curses, "Diffindo! Expulso! Reducto!"

Harry didn't power the spells very much, but he did send them with the speed that very few could match. It was told to him that his speed and precision would always be his greatest weapon in a duel. Dumbledore had to beat away the first curse with a wandless type of magic, then apparated out of the way only to appear behind Harry throwing a powerful stunner, which was supposed to end the fight.

However, the now eleven-year-old boy was full of surprises as he flung his wand in a short pattern causing the overpowered stupefy to stop in its track. Dumbledore who had never seen this type of spell smiled at his pupil, "Well done Harry. Was that the anti-jinx curse your mother was working on?"

The green-eyed boy who was taught to never be distracted in a duel merely nodded as he began running towards the headmaster, flinging curses, at a high speed. Now the old headmaster was being forced to block with shields, as the number of curses hurled at him kept rising, but before Harry could get into a point range blast radius, Dumbledore flicked his wand up, taking the oldest Potter scion straight to the ground hard, and disarming him for good measure.

Dumbledore began clapping slowly, "Your training is progressing very beautifully Mr. Potter. I fear you will be standing up to fourth and fifth years with that speed of a lion you have. Gryffindor will have a very promising young student come September first."

Harry stood up groaning but still bowed to the headmaster as his opponent had bested him, "Thank you, headmaster. My chain work still comes in threes, though I am still working on the five chains with Moony."

The headmaster's eyes were twinkling madly as he put a hand on the young man's shoulders, "I dare say your family will be awake by now, and our duel was most refreshing. To see the young take such interest in their studies makes my old heart grow fond of the many great memories. I hope that when you make it to Hogwarts you will continue this training and studies. I believe your parents made it to where you would be most knowledgeable in all your subjects, and remember these last words of wisdom with that thought in mind. 'A friend in need can sometimes be the best there will be'."

The words at the time seemed to go over the young man's head, but in the future, those words would bring a great impact on the boy's life. As the two walked towards the porch of Potter Manor, which was honestly a modest three-story home, that was a stereotypical white picket fence home, with a large patio, and a huge land that was surrounded by wards, they discussed Hogwarts.

Dumbledore and Harry had big plans to unite the houses of Hogwarts and change the way people thought. Harry saw Dumbledore as an idealist, however in truth, the man was a realist, Harry just didn't realize how far his actions would go as the boy who lived.