On July 31st, 1980, James and Lily Potter welcomed twin boys into their lives. The first twin born, Harry James Potter, was named after their father and paternal great-grandfather. The younger twin, Tony Fleamont Potter, was named after both of their grandparents. Both boys had tuffs of black hair and bright green eyes, but they were vastly different, even from such a young age. Harry was born screaming, and he certainly had a set of lungs on him. Tony, however, was much quieter. At first, the new parents were worried there might be something wrong with his lungs or something was stuck in his throat, but to their relief, he was healthy. They both were. They were also very close, even as babies. Harry would cry and whine until Tony was placed next to him, then he would calm down. Tony, however, was always quiet, but he would giggle whenever Harry was nearby. The two boys just seemed to have been born to be close with each other.
For a little over a year, the boys were practically inseparable. They shared a crib, even though there was one for each of them. However, whenever they were placed in their different cribs, Harry would scream while Tony would whimper, reaching out for each other. Eventually, Lily and James stopped fighting it and would put them both in one crib. They figured the two boys would eventually grow out of it, so for now, it was fine.
The family of four lived in hiding in the Potter cottage in Godric's Hollow, and while the baby boys were perfectly content and happy, James and Lily were anxious, waiting for an ambush that seemed to never come. They had few visitors. Sirius Black, Harry's godfather and James' best friend, loved to spoil the two boys with toys. Remus Lupin, Tony's godfather and a close friend of the Potters, would tell the boys stories or read to them. Bathilda Bagshot, an elderly neighbor, liked to come over to talk with Lily and give the boys candy, even though they weren't quite old enough for them yet. And Peter Pettigrew, another friend of the Potters, though he didn't visit them often and seemed to get more distant as time went on.
In October of 1981, Peter Pettigrew was given the power of being the Potters Secret Keeper, the only one who could reveal their location. Unfortunately, barely a week later, Peter showed his true colors by sharing the Potters location with Voldemort.
On the evening of Halloween in 1981, Lord Voldemort arrived at Godric's Hollow. Harry and Tony were up in their crib while their parents were down in the living room. James and Lily were having a conversation, which would be lost to history, no one ever knowing what they had been talking about that fateful night. James must have heard something, because he jumped up, telling his wife to grab their sons and run. He ran towards the Dark Lord to hold him off for as long as possible, forgetting his wand behind.
Lily ran upstairs into her sons' shared room while her husband was quickly killed. Voldemort gave her a chance to save herself - at the cost of her sons. She refused. She begged for the dark wizard to spare her children, even if it meant forfeiting her life in return. So he killed her.
Harry and Tony had been awake the entire time, watching as the green light hit their mother. They saw her fall to the ground and not get up. They both looked up at Voldemort. Another green light lit up the room, this time aimed at the twin boys. The light hit Harry first, creating a scar on his forehead, before bouncing off towards Tony. No scar formed for him, but his eyes did change shades to match the deadly color. The spell then rebounded again, this time returning to the original caster.
Like James and Lily had earlier that night, Voldemort fell to the ground, unmoving. However, unlike the countless others he had slaughtered before, Voldemort was not dead, though that wouldn't be known for another decade.
The house started falling apart as a fire started. The fire looked normal at first glance, but to those who looked more closely, they would notice that there was a green tinge to the flames.
A giant man with wild hair and kind black eyes burst through door, breaking it. He made his way to the nursery where the twins were. He bundled them both up in blankets before leaving the burning building. He ran into Sirius outside of the demolished home, who pleaded for the giant to give him the boys. Hagrid refused, saying that he had orders from a man named Dumbledore to take the twins to their relatives. Sirius relented, giving Hagrid his flying motorcycle in order to safely transport the infants. The giant agreed and took the motorcycle, flying through the night sky.
Sirius knew that Peter had to have betrayed Lily and James, for he knew that Peter had been their Secret Keeper. He took off to hunt his former friend down, for answers as well as revenge. That would turn out to be a mistake, one he would pay for the next twelve years, but we'll come back to that later.