So. Once upon a time, an author named Realmer started writing a story about James and Lily. It grew into a trilogy, which end in the "present" day of the books, and then spawned several shorts. And now . . . this. This is the true conclusion to my Seeker Universe, my take on the final battle and all that leads up to it.
If you haven't read the Seeker Trilogy et al, don't worry. I mean, yes, it'll make this easier to understand, but . . . it's not strictly necessary.
Enjoy! Oh, and much much thanks to my fantabulous beta TMell!
Realmer
DISCLAIMER: I'm writing under a massive deadline to finish this before the release of DH, because I know that JK will send it all merrily off to the land of Alternate Realities. Somehow, I don't think I'd be doing that if I'd actually, you know, written the original series. I merely dabble.
Promises Kept
Chapter One - Dreams
Peter Apparated to the Ministry building and had barely popped into existence there before he was running toward the golden grills. He had to find James!
The magical elevator moved incredibly slowly. It was excruciating. He waited impatiently at each stop, bouncing on the balls of his feet, willing the enclosure to move faster.
Finally, finally, the grill slid away and that cool, annoying voice announced the Auror headquarters. He stumbled out, looking around in an effort to find James.
"Pete!" he heard a loud voice exclaim. "What in Merlin's name brings you here?" And Sirius came up beside him, looking amused and a little puzzled.
"I need James, Padfoot!" he said urgently.
"Why?" Sirius asked, now looking worried. He knew that only something serious would bring Peter to the Ministry to fetch James. "What's wrong?"
Peter shook his head. "Nothing's wrong; well, Lily might answer that question differently, but I need James. Where is he?"
"This way," Sirius said, figuring he'd know what was up soon enough. He led Peter down a twisting maze of corridors. At the end of one was a man with out of control black hair speaking to a bald black man. Peter heard the black haired man laugh. "James," Sirius called. He turned to call out a greeting, then saw Peter.
"Yes – Peter?" he asked, instantly worried. "What's wrong?"
Peter shook his head again. "Lily's gone into labor." James paled.
"W-what?" he asked, shocked.
Peter nodded. "About thirty minutes ago. Remus took her to St. Mungo's and sent me to get you."
"But – she's not due for three weeks!" James said, panicked. "We had it all planned –"
"Take it up with the baby, James," Sirius said, moving into action, looking to the black man, who nodded and dismissed them. "Right now, you've got to get to Lily." James nodded numbly. Rolling his eyes because James didn't seem inclined to move, he said,"Come on, Pete. Help me with him." And they ushered James out of the Auror headquarters. By the time they had reached the Ministry, he was out of his shock and was frantic.
The news that awaited them at St. Mungo's was not reassuring, however.
"What do you mean, I can't go in?" James thundered at the nurse behind the desk. "I'm the father!" The nurse was sympathetic, but refused to budge.
"I'm sorry, sir, but the doctor has closed the room. Your wife is very close to delivering now, so you shouldn't have too long a wait. Mr. Lupin is with her. But I'll let them know you've arrived."
Sirius and Peter dragged James away from the desk before he could do something troublesome, like kill the nurse.
"Prongs, Prongs!" Sirius shouted. "There's nothing you can do! Nothing but wait! Prongs! Pete, help me, would you?" And together they wrestled him into one of the chairs. He was still muttering and fighting them, so Sirius slapped him across the face.
It worked. At least, he stopped struggling.
"My wife is giving birth to our first child three weeks early, and Moony is in there with her instead of me!" he shouted.
"Yeah," Sirius agreed. "It's crappy, isn't it? But you know what? That's the way it happened this time. And there's nothing you can do," he said firmly. James sat, breathing hard.
"It wasn't supposed to happen this way," he said, running a hand through his hair. "I'm supposed to be with her," he whispered.
"I know, James. I know," Sirius said wearily, sitting back as well. Before long, James was up again, but Sirius and Peter let him go once it was clear he wasn't going to try and force his way to his wife. He just paced back and forth, in an endless cycle around the waiting room.
After what seemed like an eternity, a masked and capped figure emerged from the door leading to the Ward. James froze in his pacing and stared at the man. He pulled of his cap and mask. It was Remus.
"Go on back, James. She wants you."
"I'm not talking to you," James said, pointing. Remus smiled apologetically, patting James on the back.
"I'm sorry, mate. It all happened so quickly; there wasn't much we could do." James gripped his hand tightly.
"Is she . . ."
"She's fine," Remus said. "Exhausted, but glowing with pride, as she should be. She's not cursing you anymore, which she was doing a little while ago." Remus paused and looked at his friend, considering. "You know, it may have been better that you weren't there," he said. James let out a breathy laugh and headed for the door. "James?" Remus said. James turned to look back. "He's perfect."
James smiled and hurried down the corridor. As he neared the room, a doctor came out. He saw James. "Are you the father?" he asked kindly. James could only nod. The doctor smiled. "Go on in," he said.
Nervously, James pushed open the door. Lily was propped up in the bed, looking, as Reus had said, exhausted but ridiculously happy. She held a small bundle. "James," she whispered as he came in.
"Hey," he said softly. She smiled at him.
"Come see your son, James." He crossed to the bed and looked at the small bundle in her arms.
He had a shock of black hair that stuck up everywhere. It was quite obvious that the baby's hair, like his father's, would never be controlled. James watched as the baby slept, his tiny mouth opening and closing and his tiny fingers clutching at the blanket.
"Oh, Lils," he breathed. "He's beautiful." He smiled down at his son and his wife. "Look what we did," he whispered. He kissed her then and put his arms around her. "I love you so much, Lils. And I'm sorry I wasn't here."
She laughed. "Yeah, this one's gonna be troublemaker, just like his father!" James was just relieved that she wasn't mad at him.
The doctor opened the door slightly then, saying, "There are three men in the lobby asking if they can come back."
"Of course," Lily said quietly. The doctor nodded and left. Lily handed the baby to James. The infant was so small! He seemed so dwarfed in James' arms, yet James didn't have the usual fatherly fear of dropping him.
As James took him from Lily, the baby turned and opened his eyes, looking up at James without crying. James gasped as his eyes met the baby's bright emerald ones. "Hey," he said to the boy. "Hey there. I'm Dad." The baby's seeking hand found James' finger and held on tightly, and that was it. James fell absolutely in love with his child at that moment.
Then the door opened and the other Marauders were ushered in. As they gathered around, James showed off his son proudly.
"What's his name, James?" Peter asked. James smiled and spoke the name he and Lily had decided on only last week.
"Harry."
Harry woke slowly, opening his eyes in the darkness, the scene of a small hospital room fading from his sight. This was not the first such dream he'd had since he and Ron and Hermione had left to search for the Horcruxes. He didn't know where the dreams came from, but he had the feeling that they were true, and he was grateful for them. A lot of them had been scenes that Remus had told him or scenes that his mother had written about in her book. Tonight's had not been.
He rolled over on to his back and looked up at the stars. He, Ron, and Hermione had destroyed all the Horcruxes in the past year. It had been one of the most difficult things Harry had ever done, and if it hadn't been for the dreams helping him along, he was nearly certain that they never would have been able to do it. Now, all that was left was to find and destroy the last piece – Voldemort himself.
The snake had been the hardest so far. But destroying Voldemort would make that seem simple, Harry knew. And Harry didn't know yet how he was going to do it, but he wasn't worrying too much. He'd find a way. He didn't let himself think otherwise. Perhaps the dreams would tell him.
The dreams told him many things. In the past year, he had learned how to read them. They helped keep him appraised of how close they were to finding a Horcrux, when they could expect reinforcements, what was going on with their families. They did all this in addition to telling him more about his family. Somehow, he knew his parents were helping him.
He hadn't mentioned much of this to Ron and Hermione because it all seemed a bit too much like Divination to him. Ron would laugh and Hermione would scoff. So he just told them what they needed to know, and they didn't question where he got his information.
This particular morning, he informed Ron that Fleur had given birth to her baby, a boy. At least that dream had been fairly straightforward, easy to interpret. Unlike the one he'd had five days ago, one that kept coming back, probably because he hadn't done anything about it. His thoughts kept circling back to it, as though his subconscious mind knew it was important, but his conscious mind was determined to ignore it. His made him uneasy, as if turning everything he'd lived with for the first however many years of his life upside-down.
Every time he closed his eyes, parts of the dream came back. It was driving him to distraction, and Ron and Hermione recognized that. It was Hermione who suggested that they might go to St. Mungo's in hope of meeting up with the family and seeing the baby.
"They'd probably still be there," she said. Harry nodded.
"Yes, the baby was only born last night." It suddenly occurred to him that Remus might also be there. "Yes, we should."
"All right, but later this afternoon," Ron said. When Harry asked why, he said, "Because you don't look as if you slept at all, mate, and you should get some more rest first, or Mum'll go mad." Harry agreed, but knew what he would see once he slipped into sleep.
"Tunia! Tunia!" called the small red haired girl. She was only eight, small with bright green eyes, freckles, and two missing teeth. "Tunia!" she said again, skipping into a room at the end of the hall. An older blonde girl, about thirteen, sat at a desk in this room. "Tunia, play with me, please?" the red-head pleaded. The blonde girl sighed and set down her pencil.
"Lily, I'm a little busy," she said. Lily bounced up onto the bed.
"But you've been working all day!" she said. "Don't you need a break?"
Petunia turned in her chair, looking stern. "What did Mother tell you about bouncing on the bed?" she asked.
Lily made a face. "That a lady never does," she said.
"Exactly," Petunia said, getting up and crossing to her sister, her face still stern. "So," she said, and then she grinned and, with a flying leap, landed on the bed beside Lily. Lily dissolved into giggles as Petunia tickled her mercilessly.
"Stop, stop!" she gasped through her laughter. Petunia laughed too.
"Let me work for fifteen more minutes, okay Lils? Fifteen minutes, and then I'll play with you."
"Okay, Tunia," Lily said with a huge sigh. "But what am I s'posed to do until then?" Petunia laughed.
"Why don't you go set up the attic?" she suggested.
"I can choose?" Lily asked, her eyes lighting up. "But it's your turn."
"You can take my turn," Petunia said. "Go set up for anything you want, okay?"
"Okay!" she said and bounded from the room enthusiastically.
A short while later, there was a knock on Petunia's door.
"Yes?" she said.
"I bring an urgent message from the Queen," came her sister's voice, with affected deepness.
"Enter," Petunia said, although only ten of the fifteen minutes had passed. Her sister was right. Petunia was ready for a break. Lily entered, wearing a cardboard suit of armor and sword, her hair tucked up under a helmet. In one hand she carried a scroll. "The Queen has bid you fetch me?" Petunia asked, slipping into her character with all the ease of practice.
"She instructed me to fetch the greatest sorceress in the land. Is that not you?" Sir Lily asked.
"So it is said," Sorceress Petunia replied, opening her closet and pulling out a large purple cloak. This she put on. A silver circlet with a dangling purple gem followed. "And what task does the Queen need done that her guards and knights cannot do?"
"A dragon must be slain." Petunia smiled, but the Sorceress frowned.
"And how many have been claimed by the beast's magic?" she asked, pulling the cherry branch wrapped in gold wire that served as her magic wand our of her desk drawer.
"No casualties as of yet, Sorceress," was Sir Lily's reply. Sorceress Petunia's frown deepened.
"Then why must the beast be slain?"
"The Queen has so ordered. I am to take you to its lair myself."
"But would it not be more beneficial to capture the dragon and tame it? It could then been used in service to the kingdom." Sir Lily shifted uncomfortably.
"But the Queen –" Petunia knelt before the knight.
"Good knight, I ask you to help me in this. Take me to the dragon and help me to tame it. Once we have done so, the Queen will forgive us this transgression."
"But, if we should fail, having defied the Queen's orders . . . our lives are forfeit!" exclaimed the knight. Petunia laid a hand on Sir Lily's arm.
"Good knight, if we fail in an attempt to tame a dragon, our lives may well be forfeit anyway. Will you help me?"
There was silence for a long while, then the knight nodded. "Aye, Sorceress. I will help." Sorceress Petunia smiled. "Then lead me to the lair!" And the two sisters ran from the room.
---
"Tunia?" came a little girl's whisper. Petunia rolled over sleepily in bed. Her door opened slowly and Lily's head poked in.
"What's wrong, Lils?" she asked.
"I can't sleep." Petunia pulled back the comforter and patted the bed. Grinning, Lily climbed in and lay down in her sister's embrace. "Tunia?" she asked.
"Yes, Lils?"
"I saw a shooting star."
"Did you make a wish?" Petunia asked sleepily.
"Mm hmm," Lily said with a yawn. "Wished for a magic wand. If I had one, I'd wave it and fix everything that's wrong with the world." Petunia smiled.
"I believe that. If anyone could fix the world with magic, it'd be you, Lils." Lily smiled.
"Tunia? If you saw a shooting star, what would you wish for?" Petunia propped herself up on one elbow and gazed out the window, thinking.
"That it was all real," she whispered finally. "The magic."
Lily nodded, turning over so she could see Petunia's face. "I wish so, too," she said. "What do you want to be real the most?"
"Dragons," Petunia said, smiling as she thought about this afternoon's game. "I want to see a dragon someday. I want to ride one across the sky." she said.
"You'd be the best dragon tamer ever," Lily said, looking up at her sister. Petunia smiled down at her.
"I love you, Lils."
"I love you, too, Tunia."
"Good night," she said, kissing her sister on the cheek and snuggling down into the pillow, pulling the covers over both of them.
Harry woke as he always did after that dream – uneasy. If it wasn't that he had learned to recognize his mother anywhere, he would never have believed that this was his Aunt Petunia.
She hated my mother! he thought fiercely. Hated her! Mum said so. And I've seen enough to know that.
"Harry?" Ron said, seeing he was awake. Harry sat up, still thinking.
"Let's go," he said, suddenly decisive. Something told him that Remus would be at the hospital.