It had been a long year. While he was grateful for the second chance at life, he could have never imagined the boredom and embarrassment that came with the life as a baby. He had had an uneventful year for the most part, though he may have made a few slip ups. His drive to get started with his magical journey coupled with the desire to be more independent made him forget to curb himself and he was already crawling before he was 5 months of age. He walked for the first time last month and was on the very cusp of being able to speak coherently.

It was only a few days earlier, when he heard his mom bragging to the receptionist at Scrivenshaft's quill shop about his advanced capabilities that he realized that he had screwed up. But that brought up a new dilemma. He wanted to learn as much as possible before school started and he couldn’t do that if he was constantly hiding from his mother. So, he had to either suck it up and live as a mere child for several more years or assume the mantle of a genius. Well maybe he could compromise and somehow convince her that he didn’t want to be too famous.

The house they lived in was courtesy of his mother's position as the manager of the shop, J. Pippin's potions. He found out a lot about her over the course of the year by overhearing some of her conversations with others and seeing some of her correspondence when lying on her lap. Her full name was Kaela Icarus née Ira Dominus of the pure-blood house of Ira Dominus and formerly married to a Greek magician Erastus Icarus from a clan of inventors and ancient rune experts. Having experienced a very different life before and also read about the prowess of half-bloods and muggle-born in the series, he did not set much store by bloodlines and purity but even he had to admit that his were impressive.

His father had worked with Gringotts, the wizarding bank run by goblins from what he could make out. So, he was most likely some sort of treasure hunter or curse breaker for them. A thrilling occupation and one he found an interesting option for when he was an adult. Unfortunately, his father went missing in some Mayan ruins on one of his explorations about a couple of months after his conception. His mother held up admirably after the ordeal and despite the large fortune that she and her husband had, took up a job to keep herself busy. The shop here was a branch store of the one in Diagon Alley and she got the job via one of her connections in the family.

Though he had not been to all of the shops with her, he did make the rounds of the Three Broomsticks (no butterbeer for him though), Dervish and Banges (the magical contraptions there were mesmerising), Scrivenshaft's quill shop, the Magic Neep (a greengrocer, never mentioned in the series though) and the Hogsmeade Post Office (the place had literally every kind of owl imaginable). One more place which got regular visits was Dogweed and Deathcap, a herbology shop which also functioned as a apothecary and from where his mother got most of the required ingredients for her potions.

Though his drive to learn magic was strong, it was only halfway through the year that he realised that he would not be able to perform magic without his wand, which he could only buy after he was eligible to enter school. It was a crushing blow, but he adapted soon enough and realised that he could use the time to get far ahead with the subject theory and with potioneering. With a master potioneer by his side, he would be fool not to utilise the advantage to get ahead while he could.

Another important thing he had to do was to keep an ear out for the death eater movements. As far as he knew Hogsmeade had not been attacked by them the first time round and he hoped that wouldn't change. Being in a wizarding home had the other benefit of being able to listen to the Wizarding Wireless Network. The WWN had lots of interesting titbits of information and he heard several familiar names like some of the Ministry members and the Order of the Phoenix. The warnings about several dark curses and creatures in league with Voldemort sounded out regularly throughout the day. He never truly appreciated the description about the desperate days during the rise of Voldemort but he was living them now.

Well, he would complete one year in this new world tomorrow and he was as grateful to be here as he was on the first day. Cheers for many more exciting years and lots of magical fun.