Bet On It!

Summary-

James Potter is dead but is he really. When lightning strikes the old cottage ruin and a man stumbles out. What will Harry, Remus and Sirius do? Read and find out.

Lightning Flash

Harry Potter lay on his bed of number four, Privet drive.

At the moment he was trying to ignore the aching feeling in his stomach.

He knew now that he shouldn't have tried to pick a fight with his cousin, Dudley, while his friends were with him.

It had been years since Dudley and his gang of friends had beaten him up or that Dudley had punched him at all. Harry tried to sit up against the pillows but winced in pain.

"Thanks for the punch Dudley," Harry said to himself, pain etched into his face and anger was clear in his voice.

The night was going to be a stormy one, Harry noticed, because of the grey, puffy clouds that had appeared in the sky ever since Dudley and his gang had left Harry alone in the park.

Then Harry had stood up from the muddy ground and had started back to the house in the rain, shivering and sneezing all the way.

The only odd thing about the storm was that the weather forecast at the start of the week hadn't predicted the storm. Harry had reached the house at seven o'clock and had been sent straight to his room for being wet and for giving Dudley a twisted wrist which Harry hadn't done at all.

Harry also realised that his scar had started to prickle whenever there was a lightning flash.

Then a knock on the door brought Harry out of his thoughts.

He got up quickly, ignoring his protesting body.

The door opened and Uncle Vernon stepped into the room.

"I hope that you've thought about your actions, boy," Uncle Vernon said and Harry nodded in reply, "Well we're going to take Dudley to the hospital to get his wrist fixed so you're going to be here alone, ok?" he asked.

Harry nodded silently and his Uncle left the room.

Harry let go a breath he didn't realise he had been holding.

Then he fell back onto the bed and drifted off to sleep.


Godric's Hollow was in a storm and was now empty of Wizarding folk, as it had been for fourteen years.

Then a flash of lightning striked the ruins of number thirty-two, Potter court.

There was a yell of pain and then the town became silent once again, so that the only sound was the thunder and rain.

A man came out the broken front door.

He stumbled a little down the front steps only to turn around and find the house in ruins.

The man stumbled down the path, then there was a loud cracking sound and he was gone.


Harry woke up from a dream he was having and he could still hear the yells of pain in his ears.

The yells were still ringing and it was causing Harry to get a headache.

Harry shook his head and got up from his bed, stretching.

He walked over to the window and looked out to find the street blown up.

There were groups of wizards and witches scattered around the place, investigating, with dead bodies amongst them.

"Get these bodies over there to be investigated," a familiar voice from downstairs, "I just hope they didn't get further than this point."

Harry turned around at the sound of people coming up the stairs.

Then he heard the lock on his door click, which had been put there by Uncle Vernon.

The door opened to reveal Professor Dumbledore and Mad Eye Moody.

"Harry, thank goodness," Dumbledore said, looking around the room gratefully.

"Professor, what happened?" Harry asked.

"Death Eater attack, obviously they didn't know that you were here, they obviously hadn't bothered to go further into the house and that your aunt, uncle and cousin were the only occupants," Dumbledore said, stepping aside so that Harry could leave the room.

"Now let's get going. We can't keep Sirius waiting any longer, now can we?" he added.

Harry walked past his Headmaster and led the way out of the house.

When they left the house Dumbledore and Moody lead the way to a group Order members.

Harry recognised most of them but the sight of one of them caused Harry to stare.

"Sirius?" Harry asked and his godfather turned to face him with a clean smooth face.

"Harry, thank goodness," Sirius said, running forward and pulling his godson into a hug.

Remus was grinning and nodding happily at the sight.

"Remus, Sirius; could you take Harry back to your house?" Dumbledore asked, "So that no Death Eaters know that Harry has been moved," he added.

Sirius let go of Harry and then he nodded urgently.

"Of course."


James Potter pulled the hood of his travelling cloak over his head and ran up the front lawn of his old school.

He slipped through the front doors easily, dripping wet and then he ran to the Headmaster's office.

He stopped in front of the gargoyle and took a while to catch his breath.

Then when he caught it, he started guessing the password; "Sugar Quills.", "Pumpkin Pasty.", "Fire Cookies," and the rest of the sweet shop until he had come to "Jelly Brains?" The gargoyle moved aside and he was surprised.

"What I was only joking?" he said as he ran up the stairs.

He reached the oak door with a brass doorknocker and knocked three times.

"Come in," a voice from inside said and James opened the door to find Dumbledore sitting behind his desk.

The old Headmaster looked up and frowned slightly.

"Headmaster," James said, bowing his head in a gesture of hello.

Dumbledore didn't look happy or delighted to see him but surprised and curious.

"Who are you?" Dumbledore asked harshly.

James became confused and then he straightened up with pride.

"Professor, it's me. James Potter," James said, astounded that Dumbledore didn't recognise him.

He removed the hood and Dumbledore jumped up from his seat, as though frightened.

"No, James Potter is dead and has been for fifteen years," Dumbledore said.

"What?" James asked.

"Turn into your animagus," Dumbledore said.

Now James was really confused because as far as he knew Dumbledore didn't have a clue that James had become an animagus at fifteen years old along with Sirius and Peter.

"What?" James asked, then sighed and got the idea that Dumbledore wouldn't tell him anything unless he turned into his animagus.

James leaned forward and trigured the magic and he formed into a magnificent jet black stag with towering antlers.

Dumbledore stared at the animal in front of him, recognising the darker lines around its eyes to show James's glasses but he had to look carefully because of its colour.

"Go into the back room James, quickly," Dumbledore ordered.

The stag took a steady, deep breath and went to the back room. When he was securely inside he transformed back into human form and pressed his ear against the door in curiosity.

"What's the matter Professor?" asked a familiar voice.

"Sirius, I need you and Remus to come to my office, immediately," Dumbledore's voice said in extreme urgency, "And bring a picture of James in his animagus form," he added.

James moved his head away from the door and he gave it a strange look.


"Harry!" Sirius called up the stairs and then he heard footsteps on the stairs, then Harry appeared.

"Yeah Sirius," Harry said.

"Have you got something to do?" Sirius asked him, Harry became puzzled and he looked at his godfather oddly.

"No, not really," Harry said cautiously.

"Then you can help me find something," Sirius said, starting up the stairs.

Harry turned around and looked at his godfather oddly, and then he shrugged and followed him.

"What are you looking for Sirius?" Harry asked as they came to a stop in front of the attic door.

"I need to find a picture," Sirius said with hesitation in his voice and facial expressions.

He opened the door and was about to enter but Harry didn't move.

"But Remus said that I'm not allowed in the attic," Harry said.

"Tish tosh, when has anybody bothered to follow a silly rule like that?" Sirius asked, "James would break a rule as silly as that one all the time."

Harry grinned and followed Sirius into the old attic.

The attic was small and it had loads of boxes with old photographs, toys, robes and other old stuff.

"Look in this box and look for a picture of a stag," Sirius said, placing a box down in front of Harry causing a cloud of dust to come up into the air.

Harry started coughing as Sirius started to laugh in reply.

"Sirius, that's not funny," Harry complained when the cloud of dust cleared away.

"No, its not now," Sirius said, opening another box.

Then they started looking for a photo of a stag.

Harry found millions of interesting pictures in the box that he was looking through.

There were thousands of pictures of his father, Sirius, Remus and Peter; but barely any of Lily when she was any younger than seventeen.

Each time he found one with either one of his parents in it he memorized their features so that he wouldn't forget what they had looked like.

Suddenly he found a picture of a magnificent jet black stag with high antlers and, just visible in the blackness of its coat, markings around its eyes.

"Ah! You found the one that we're meant to be looking for," Sirius said.

"Its dad," Harry said, watching the stag move gracefully.

It drew up onto its hind legs and spun around in a circle.

Then it landed back on the ground softly and started to paw the ground with one of its front hooves, while tossing his head softly.

"Yes, that's James when he was about twenty-one," Sirius said, "It was the last photo we ever took of him as his animagus," he added.

"What do you think my animagus would be?" Harry asked, looking up into his godfather's eyes.

"Well both Lily and James were deer," Sirius said.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Yep," Sirius said, nodding once or twice.

"So you're saying that I'd probably be a stag, like dad?" Harry asked.

"Yeah I guess so," Sirius said, taking the photograph from Harry and he went to leave but turned back around when he got to the door to find that Harry hadn't moved at all. "Come on," Sirius added and Harry left the attic, with Sirius bringing up the rear.


A/N: I hope you like this one. Review please!

Messers Prongs/Lily/Prongs