HARRY POTTER AND THE RETURN OF THE DEAD.

Because it was Lily's sacrifice that saved Harry as a baby, when Voldemort returned using Harry's blood, Lily was brought back too and her love for James was so strong that he returned as well. With his parents back, Harry's fifth year promises to one he will never forget.

Story Info.

the last thing Lily and James remember is Voldemort's attack on Halloween when they died.

PROLOGUE.

The smoky shadow of a tall man with untidy hair fell to the ground as Bertha had done, straightened up, and looked at him . . . and Harry, his arms shaking madly now, looked back into the ghostly face of his father.

"Your mother's coming . . ." he said quietly. "She wants to see you ... it will be all right.. . hold on. . . ."

And she came. . . first her head, then her body... a young woman with long hair, the smoky, shadowy form of Lily Potter blossomed from the end of Voldemort's wand, fell to the ground, and straightened like her husband. She walked close to Harry, looking down at him, and she spoke in the same distant, echoing voice as the others, but quietly, so that Voldemort, his face now livid with fear as his victims prowled around him, could not hear. . ..

"When the connection is broken, we will linger for only moments . . . but we will give you time. . . you must get to the Portkey, it will return you to Hogwarts ... do you understand, Harry?"

"Yes," Harry gasped, fighting now to keep a hold on his wand, which was slipping and sliding beneath his fingers.

"Harry . . ." whispered the figure of Cedric, "take my body back, will you? Take my body back to my parents, ..."

"I will," said Harry, his face screwed up with the effort of holding the wand.

"Do it now," whispered his father's voice, "be ready to run . . . do it now. ..."

"NOW!" Harry yelled; he didn't think he could have held on for another moment anyway -he pulled his wand upward with an almighty wrench, and the golden thread broke; the cage of light vanished, the phoenix song died - but the shadowy figures of Voldemort's victims did not disappear - they were closing in upon Voldemort, shielding Harry from his gaze -And Harry ran as he had never run in his life,

"Stand aside! I will kill him! He is mine!" shrieked Voldemort. Harry's hand had closed on Cedric's wrist; one tombstone stood between him and Voldemort, but Cedric was too heavy to carry, and the cup was out of reach -Voldemort's red eyes flamed in the darkness. Harry saw his mouth curl into a smile, saw him raise his wand.

"Accio!" Harry yelled, pointing his wand at the Triwizard Cup. It flew into the air and soared toward him. Harry caught it by the handle -He heard Voldemort s scream of fury at the same moment that he felt the jerk behind his navel that meant the Portkey had worked - it was speeding him away in a whirl of wind and color, and Cedric along with him. . . . They were going back.

xx

At the same time in another Graveyard, far away in Godric's Hollow, a bright light flashed over Lily and James Potter's grave, illuminating the darkened graveyard for several seconds.

As the light faded, Lily and James stood staring at their names on the gravestone in confusion. Looking at Lily, James frowned. "If we died, how are we here?"

"I don't know_" Lily's green eyes widened as she looked up at James, "Harry!" If they had died, then what had become of their son?

"His name isn't on the grave," James hugged Lily close, "If he survived, he'll be with Sirius."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Lily asked, "Let's go_"

James ran his hands through his black hair, "It isn't that simple, Lily. Sirius won't just believe that we've come back from the dead."

"Then what do we do?"

What to do indeed? "We'll go to Dumbledore," if anyone was going to listen to them, it would be Dumbledore.