The Way It Should Have Been

The Way It Should Have Been

A/N: Ok, so how does everyone like it so far? You probably expected everything that happened in the prologue, so now we're going to get down to business. And no, Harry is not going to be another rich snob like Draco Malfoy, His parents raised him better than that!

I'm going to have a few extra chapters in the beginning to give glimpses of Harry's life before Hogwarts. So maybe we won't be getting down to business right away after all. I just thought those chapters would be fun to write, seeing as how he grew up in the original books.

The Way It Should Have Been

Chapter One: Operation Stinksap

It was the summer of 1989. Harry Potter was eight years old, and full of mischief. His own father was astonished at all that Harry could accomplish in one day. Harry's best friend, Jameson Black, was always right there to help him. And sometimes Ron Weasley would come over to play as well.

On a hot summer day, Lily Potter had invited over Vanessa Black, Molly Weasley, and Georgiana Patil for tea. Their children had been brought along so that Harry could have someone to play with, (and because his mum thought the Patil twins and Ginny would keep Harry, Ron, and Jameson out of trouble.)

While their mothers were inside discussing things like the weather, their children's latest antics, and their husbands' jobs, Harry, Ron, Jameson, Ginny, Parvati, and Padma were outside plotting. Little did Georgiana and Molly know how much effect the boys had on the girls, rather than the other way around. They assisted the boys with every prank they were around for, and thought up about half of them. But at home they were perfect little angels for their mothers, cleaning their rooms and helping wash dishes.

Jameson was relaxing against a tree, presumably sleeping, Ron was scratching at a spot of dirt on his nose, and Harry was in deep discussion with the girls on how exactly they were going to get their hands on enough Stinksap to replace every single one of Mrs. Potter's jars of fruit preserves.

The plan was to bring Stinksap from each of their gardens at home the next time Harry's mum had them over for tea. Then, they would replace all of Lily's preserves with jars of it and take the real preserves to a hiding spot in Harry's room. They could eat as much of it as they wanted instead of the disgusting biscuits that Lily made for them.

"There's no way our garden at home is going to even have Stinksap in it," said Ginny. "With Fred and George around, there's no way mum would let any get near our house. They'd think of something much worse than replacing her preserves."

Harry blinked a few times, and then smiled. "Ginny, you're a genius. Your older brothers! Why didn't I think of them before? Would Charlie or Bill know how to multiply the jars? Then we would only need a little, and you wouldn't need to risk bringing any!"

Ginny looked enthusiastic about the idea, but Padma and Parvati had looks of doubt on their faces. "How would one of her brothers get here?" Padma asked. "Her mum only brings her and Ron, and she would get suspicious if they asked to come. I mean, come on, why would they, students at Hogwarts, want to hang around with us, eight-year-olds that don't even have wands yet? AND, they are not allowed to do magic outside of school."

Harry and Ginny's faces fell. They were about to give up when Jameson spoke up. "You know, I didn't get my fabulous pranking skills from my mum. My dad would probably love to help us out. You know he hates preserves, but can't stand to tell your mum that, Harry. He says he loves them and your mum serves them every time he comes over. If he helped get rid of them, he'd killing two birds with one stone. Reliving the glory days, and no more preserves are probably two things topping his list of things to do, besides catching his brother and putting him in Azkaban. I just have to make sure mum doesn't catch wind of it."

The other children's eyes lit up with delight. Operation Stinksap Preserves would commence in one week's time, when Harry's mum had their mums over for tea again.

One week later found the children outside in the garden again. Jameson's dad, Sirius, would be Apparating to the Potter garden any minute now. Jameson had asked his dad, and Sirius had proved more than enthusiastic. He had even suggested involving James, who had been Sirius's partner in crime while they were at Hogwarts, but Harry had vehemently protested that one, his dad wouldn't go along with it and would probably tell Lily, and two, dads weren't cool enough to pull pranks.

Sirius merely laughed at him. "I guess I won't be telling James then, but who says dads aren't cool enough? I suppose I'm just some guy that hangs out at the Black House, then, and not Jameson's dad? Because if I'm a dad, then I can't take part in this prank because I'm not "cool" enough."

Harry looked to be deep in thought, and suddenly seemed to give up. "Well, my dad's not cool enough. You're different, though. I wish you were my dad. Then I wouldn't have to have weird old ladies coming up to me in the street and introducing themselves to me because my last name's Potter."

Sirius laughed and Harry started mimicking the old ladies in a whining voice, "'Oh, look at those eyes. Your mother's eyes, those are.' 'Oh, just look at you. You'll be just like your parents, mark my words.' 'Exceptional people, your parents. I mean look at what they accomplished. It's not every boy whose parents defeated You-Know-Who.' And when my dad hears them say 'You-Know-Who,' he goes berserk. He says things like, 'Just say Voldemort, for crying out loud!' and 'How can you be afraid to say his name when he's lying in a bed at St. Mungos drawing pictures of flowers!' "

Everyone was laughing so hard that they didn't notice Lily come out of the house with biscuits for the children. She saw Sirius immediately, as he was an adult in a crowd of eight-year-olds. "Sirius," she exclaimed, "I didn't know you were coming. Vanessa didn't say anything. Is everything alright at home?"

Sirius already had a backup ready. "Oh! Hello Lily. I really didn't tell Vanessa I was coming. I forgot to give Jameson here his vitamins this morning. She asked me to give them to him because she wanted to have a lie in, and Jameson is always up before dawn. Don't tell her I was here, she really doesn't need to know that I forgot." He smiled sheepishly.

He then proceeded to pull out a bag of nasty looking vitamins. Jameson blanched. His father never made him take his vitamins, having known from experience how they tasted. He shakily put out his hand. His father conjured a glass of water and took three rather large vitamins outs of the bag. He dropped them into Jameson's hand and held out the glass of water.

Jameson snatched the water out of his father's hand, plopped the largest vitamin into his mouth, and took a gulp of water. He hastily chewed the vitamin, and took another gulp to wash it down. His face turned a nasty green color. Without another word, he repeated this process three more times.

Finally, the hunks of nastiness were gone. Lily had left, and Jameson gave his father a withering look. "You can't tell me there wasn't a better backup plan than those things. I know you better than that. Believe me, you are going to regret the day you married mother and had me when I'm through with you."

Jameson then proceeded to go and sit rather sulkily beside his favorite tree. Sirius grinned, but didn't say anything. He knew what his son was capable of, and was admittedly a little nervous about Jameson's revenge.

Ginny interrupted the staring contest going on between them by saying, "Well, it's been awhile since I had those preserves, so why don't we get this show on the road. Harry, you go and get your mother's box of preserves. You might want to sneak into your parents' room and grab the invisibility cloak first. Ron, you and I will go and collect some Stinksap from the garden, since Fred and George taught us how to retrieve it from the plant. Jameson...JAMESON, WAKE UP! Now, Jameson, you and your dad can be lookouts, or even better, Jameson can be a distraction. Yes, that's a good idea. Go and start showing off to the mother's or something like that. You seem to be good at that.

"Padma, Parvati, you can be lookouts with Uncle Sirius. He might need help because there are three places that need looking over. Padma, you are the smallest, so you go hide behind that statue outside the tearoom and make sure Jameson's distraction works. Parvati, you look out for Ron and me in the garden. Sirius, you'll be in charge of making sure a mother going to the kitchen, or James coming home doesn't ruin Harry's part of the plan. Make sure Harry stays safe at ALL COSTS. Now GO. Move, move, move."

They all rushed off to do their own tasks. The Operation went smoothly, and Phase Two began when they had all met in Harry's room. They took out one jar of preserves, and then stored the rest under a floorboard in Harry's walk-in closet. The one jar was eaten, and then filled with Stinksap dyed red. Sirius then multiplied the jars. "Sisnera!" he shouted. (A/N: Sorry, I don't know what the spell for multiplication in the books in, if there is one. And I am too lazy to look it up.)

Ginny was chosen to put the 'preserves' back because she was the smallest and the quietest. She could sneak in and out easily. She would use the cloak, and Padma would hide around the corner as her lookout. Phase Two passed smoothly as well. They all holed up in Harry's room with the preserves. Lily came up once with more biscuits for the kids, and Sirius hid in the closet. They decided the try putting preserves on the biscuits, and the rest of the day passed without incident.

Until James came home, that is. He wanted to surprise Harry so he sneaked upstairs to his room and burst open the door. "Hi Harry! Your birthday's coming up and I wanted to let you know that..."

He stopped talking when he realized that he had walked in on something that should not be going on. Sirius was there. That was his first clue. Secondly, they all started trying to hide what they were doing. Lastly, Harry did not come bounding over to meet them, or say "What about my birthday, dad?"

"What's going on?" he asked frankly.

Everyone started talking at once, except Sirius. He calmly walked over to James and told him what was going on. James laughed. "Why didn't you tell me Harry? I would have gotten off work to help you! I can't resist pranking your mother, and I love preserves. You know that!"

Harry smiled sheepishly, and said, "I promise I'll tell you next time, dad. Here, have a biscuit. There really good with preserves on them."

James smiled, and they all sat down and joked and laughed until evening. Later that night, when James was saying goodnight to Harry, he said, "Harry, I you to know that you can trust me with anything. And not just prank stuff. I'll always listen to you. You should know that. I did become an Unspeakable several years ago, after all. I know how to keep my mouth shut."

Harry smiled. "I know dad. I promise I'll come to you with everything. Ok, not everything, 'cause if I'm pranking you, I won't want to tell you."

James laughed. "Alright, well, goodnight Harry. See you in the morning. We have to go birthday shopping!"

A/N: Ok, well, there's the first real chapter! I wrote the last half in about twenty minutes on inspiration. Of course, that's how I get most of my work done. See you next chapter!