Hey guys

I'm really sorry that it took me so long to write a new chapter. I had some things to deal with and there was a huge lack of inspiration. -.- I hope you like this chapter and I will try my best to upload the next one earlier.

Thanks for reading and if you like it or have some advices for me please leave a comment.

Greeting

Illumisee

The boy who lived

"Who is that?" Sirius asked looking at the future people. But they remained silent and Ally motioned for Teddy to carry on.

Mr and Mrs Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

"Yeah, normal and perfectly boring." Ally seemed to be bored but the name Dursley rang a bell in Lily's head. It seemed to be familiar.

They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

"Yeah, we know" Alhena and Harry said in unison sighing heavily. Though everyone from the past was confused about this Remus eyed Alhena and asked: "How would you know?" "Oh I'm sure it will be said in no time. Just listen."

Mr Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.

While the marauders started laughing at the name Ally and Harry rolled their eyes and Alhena peeked at the book. "Oh, here it comes."

The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.

"Oi!" Sirius roared. Remus just growled. He didn't like it if someone spoke ill of his friends. "What would be wrong with that?" James asked confused and Harry smiled at him. "It will be said anyway but they are not too fond of magic." "Oh!" And with that Teddy continued.

Mrs Potter was Mrs Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be.

"Glad to hear that" Ron said while Lily who had realized by now it was her sister looked crestfallen and James was pretty angry. "I'm not a good-for-nothing." Sirius and Remus supported that statement. Severus only huffed silently rolling his eyes.

The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. That boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.

"A child like that?" Lily looked at the book in disbelief. Ally chuckled. "Wouldn't matter even Harry can't repair the damage they had done to that boy." Harry smiled at her knowing that she had always liked to manipulate Dudley. Then he chuckled himself. "I reckon it's the first time ever Ally is commenting a book while reading it. Usually she would nearly kill every person who makes even a sound while a book is read." Ally smiled but motioned for Teddy to continue.

When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work,

"Why would he choose the most boring one?" Sirius asked confused but Remus answered. "Because he is a boring person, Padfoot." "Yeah, too right" Ally nodded.

and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.

"You know, he never got this thing with sitting at the table during the meals without entertainment." Harry nodded remembering one of the countless scenes that occurred during those times.

None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.

At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.

Sirius and Alhena said in perfect unison: "He's wasting good food there." While Sirius and the other past people were shocked the future people laughed at that. "Would just need Ron to say it too and it would be perfect" they exclaimed. Ron shot them a glare. "Some nice friends you are."

"Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.

It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar — a cat reading a map.

"Minnie!" Harry, Alhena, Ron, Sirius, James, Frank and Ginny exchanges grins as they had spoken at the same time. "It's professor McGonagall" corrected Lily and Hermione at the same time and looked at each other in surprise. As the others took notice that said Professor was still sitting right next to them they nodded.

For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen — then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive — no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs.

"Well normal cats can't" Remus said thoughtfully.

Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.

The majority of the males seemed to be bored so Teddy carried on quickly.

But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.

"So why exactly was this strange?" asked James and received a hit on the back of his head by Lily. "Muggles don't wear cloaks, that's why it's strange." James smiled at her. "I know of that Lily-flower just wanted to ask."

Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes — the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdoes standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together.

"Erm, what happened?" asked Alice a bit insecure. Alhena just shook her shoulders. "We will know."

Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt —these people were obviously collecting for something… yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.

"He really must love these things" James commented and was hit again right away this time by his best mate. "Can we just get on with reading? I want to get to the interesting parts."

Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at night-time. Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.

"Charming fellow" Severus stated and everyone stared at him. "What?" He glared at them gritting his teeth and Teddy hurried to read on.

He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the baker's opposite.

He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This lot were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.

"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard —"

"— yes, their son, Harry —"

"Alright, what happened? Why are they talking about you?" Lily seemed serious and Harry swallowed hard. Alhena just looked at her. "Wait and you'll find out."

Mr. Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.

He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialling his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking… no, he was being stupid.

"And he found that out by himself?" asked Sirius in mock surprise. Ally smiled at that and Harry chuckled.

Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry.

"See Harry, that's how important you really are. No fussing about the name." Alhena smiled and poked him in the side. Harry laughed. "Yeah tell that to all those other people." Before anyone could ask she nodded to Teddy who carried on.

He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold. There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her — if he'd had a sister like that…

Lily looked really hurt by now and everyone felt really bad about it. Teddy looked as if he had a bad consciousness but Alhena ruffled his hair fondly cheering him up.

but all the same, those people in cloaks…

He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.

"Sorry," he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passers-by stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last!

"Wait, what?" all the past people even Severus asked in unison. The future people only nodded grimly knowing that he wasn't really gone at that time.

Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"

And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.

"You mean his arms actually fit?" asked Hermione and Harry and Ron stared at her in disbelief. "Who corrupted Hermione?" they gasped in mock shock. Alhena grinned. "That would be me, guilty as charged."

Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was.

He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.

"What a guy."

"Shut up Padfoot."

As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw—and it didn't improve his mood — was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning.

Even the future people wondered how she had managed to stay there the whole time but Teddy just read on.

It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.

"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly.

The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.

"Ah yeah, has to be Minnie then" Alhena nodded approvingly and Ron and Harry chuckled. "How would you know?" Frank asked but Alhena still smiled. "The number of times I got that look I will never forget it." "And what made you deserve to get this look, Mrs Malfoy?" Alhena grinned at her former teacher and answered: "trust me, Professor, you don't want to know. At least not yet."

Was this normal cat behaviour? Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.

Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Won't!").

"What a brat" James and Sirius stated getting glares from Lily. Immediately they shut their mouths.

Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:

"And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newscaster allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"

"Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early — it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."

"They are really getting careless" Remus commented and everyone else nodded in agreement.

Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters…

Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good.

"What? The tea?" Again Alhena and Sirius spoke in unison and grinned at each other while the others just sighed. Teddy seemed to enjoy it since he was grinning widely as he continued to read.

He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er — Petunia, dear — you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"

As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.

"No," she said sharply. "Why?"

"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls… shooting stars… and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today…"

"So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.

"Well, I just thought… maybe… it was something to do with… you know… her crowd."

"Her crowd?" Angry glares were shot at the book from every direction.

Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son — he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"

"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.

"What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"

"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."

"I like it" Lily whispered slightly red in the face. James smiled and looked at her while Severus tried his best to hide his feelings towards this development. Even though they were already married he still couldn't help disliking that fact.

Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."

He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.

Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did… if it got out that they were related to a pair of — well, he didn't think he could bear it.

"How I wished he couldn't but he lived through it" Alhena sighed and Harry nodded grimly. However they didn't answer the past people's puzzled looks.

The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind… He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on — he yawned and turned over — it couldn't affect them…

How very wrong he was.

Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.

"Whoa, she didn't move at all?" Sirius seemed astonished.

A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.

Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt.

"Dumbledore" everyone except Severus and Regulus chorused happily. However the future people who had seen him die couldn't help but feel a little sad.

He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.

He clicked it again — the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.

"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."

"See, we knew it" those who had recognized Minnie from the very beginning said in unison. The others only nodded.

He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled. "How did you know it was me?" she asked.

"Well it was pretty obvious" Sirius scoffed as Ally giggled. The others decided not to comment.

"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."

"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.

"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."

Frank, James and Sirius cheered but stopped at the expression on Alhena's and Harry's faces.

Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.

"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no — even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news."

She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls… shooting stars… Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent — I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."

"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."

The past people listened, half shocked half relieved.

"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumours."

She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"

"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore.

"We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"

"A what?" Except for those who were raised with Muggles everyone looked confused.

"A what?"

"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."

"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone —"

"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense — for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort."

"Yeah, tell her that after they can find you by speaking the name" Ron said without thinking and the past people looked at him shocked and slightly afraid. "Is that true? Can they find you if you use the name?" Alice asked insecure. Ally shook her head. "Not yet. This is something they did in our time it will be explained soon enough."

Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name." "I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."

"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."

"Only because you're too — well —noble to use them."

"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."

"Ok, didn't want to know that" Sirius said and most of the others nodded in agreement.

Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the rumours that are flying around. You know what they're saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"

It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.

"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters.

"What?" Everyone from the past was shocked even Severus. After all this would mean that the dark lord was after Lily too. Didn't he manage to protect her?

The rumour is that Lily and James Potter

Teddy stopped to take a breath. He had already realized that the mentioned people were right in front of him and it was hard to read that passage.

The rumour is that Lily and James Potter are — are — that they're — dead."

Silence. While Alhena stared at the book, her friends looked at the ground and the past people were in a state of shock. After a moment Lily looked at Teddy. "Teddy… please continue." Alhena nodded and he continued.

Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.

"Lily and James… I can't believe it… I didn't want to believe it… Oh, Albus…"

Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know… I know…" he said heavily.

Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry.

"Wait then why is he sitting here?" asked Remus in confusion but Ally just pointed at the book to tell him it was written in there.

But he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke — and that's why he's gone."

Dumbledore nodded glumly.

"Whoa, my son defeated Voldemort" James said in excitement while Lily seemed to be relieved. Sirius looked at his brother. "So your master is finally dead." Regulus chocked. "He's no longer my master. I just have to find a way to get away." Harry just looked at Alhena who seemed a bit down and Teddy read on.

"It's — it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done… all the people he's killed… he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding… of all the things to stop him… but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"

"That's exactly what I want to know" Lily said and the others nodded in agreement. Only Harry, Alhena, Ron and Hermione still had their gloomy looks on.

"We can only guess." said Dumbledore. "We may never know."

"Talking to him sometimes is like talking to a centaur" Alhena said with a sigh. "Just don't try to get a straight answer." Then she looked at Dumbledore. "Oh, sorry Professor it just slipped out." The headmaster smiled at her. "It's alright Mrs Malfoy I think it was quite fitting."

Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Then she looked up again.

"Just – one more thing, Dumbledore." She pulled herself together as there was still something worrying her. Dumbledore waited silently.

"Lionel contacted me. You know, the Aislin boy. He and Helena are worried. Since yesterday their baby girl has hardly stopped crying but she doesn't seem to be ill. And now they heard about poor Lily and James."

"So now they are talking about me" Alhena confirmed. Lionel and Helena looked at their future daughter. "That means you saw…" Helena stopped. Alhena nodded slightly. "Well I can't remember as much as he can" she nodded toward Harry "without looking at it but enough to never forget it."

She sobbed. The old wizard seemed to have sunken into thoughts.

"Since yesterday you say? This is indeed highly unusual. I fear, dear Professor, the constant crying of the little girl is related to the boy."

"Er, what?" Except for Harry, Ron and Hermione everyone seemed confused. Alhena rolled her eyes. "It will be explained so don't worry."

The witch gasped but looked at him disbelieving.

"That can't… You mean… But headmaster the girl is only a year old. You don't mean to say she is…"

She didn't finish her sentence but she never had to since Dumbledore nodded.

"You know as well as I do about the Aislin heritage, Professor. I don't doubt the girl has inherited both traits."

Ally sighed. "How does he always know?" "Know what? What are those traits?" Remus looked at her curiously as even he didn't know about this heritage but Alhena shook her head. "Like I said the books will explain." "You aren't really talkative about yourself, are you?" Lily looked at her and Alhena shrugged her shoulders. "Not really, I have my reasons though." Lionel and Helena looked slightly worried at this.

"Both? Only one would be hard enough but both? She's a baby!" He nodded again.

"A baby indeed but already bound."

Now Ally grinned. "See Harry. I always said we're bound to one another." Harry grinned at that.

Minerva didn't say anything else. She couldn't really follow his thoughts. For a child to carry such a burden. And what would that mean considering the boy?

"Erm, a lot of fun?" Ally suggested and Harry chuckled at that. Yeah, he and Ally have, despite the hard times, had a lot of fun together.

Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"

"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"

"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."

"No!" Lily screamed. James looked at her shocked and tried to calm her down. "Lily it's ok." "No it's not" Lily protested. "Petunia hates me she would never take care of him properly." The future people got a gloomy look while James turned to his friends. "Just in case… promise me one of you will take care of Harry if anything happens to us." Both nodded not seeing the looks Alhena and Harry gave one another. However Dumbledore recognized them and began to think his future self might have made a mistake.

"You don't mean – you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore — you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son — I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"

"It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."

Alhena chuckled at that. Yeah she clearly remembered the influence Dumbledore's letters had on Harry's aunt Petunia. On the puzzled looks she said: "Well aunt Petunia never could say no to Dumbledore so there's no need to worry in that matter." Dumbledore chuckled at that.

"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous — a legend — I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future — there will be books written about Harry — every child in our world will know his name!"

"Exactly." said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"

"He has a point" Remus said and nodded a bit. "Yeah but he didn't know what aunt Petunia had become" Alhena said before Teddy continued to read.

Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes — yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.

Everyone laughed at that though they could clearly imagine it to happen that way.

"Hagrid's bringing him."

"You think it —wise — to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"

"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.

"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to — what was that?"

A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky — and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.

"Whoa nice" echoed Sirius and James, as did Frank. The others only grinned (or didn't care in Severus' case) and listened to Teddy reading on.

If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild — long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.

"Aww, Harry" Lily and Alice cooed while Alhena grinned. "Ally?" Harry didn't like her grin. "Just thought you must have really missed that you know" she said and winked at him. He sighed and told Teddy to keep reading.

"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"

"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got him, sir."

"It's mine!" Sirius yelled gleefully. "YES!" "Shut up Padfoot" Remus sighed, annoyed.

"No problems, were there?"

"No, sir — house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."

Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.

"Is that where —?" whispered Professor McGonagall.

"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."

"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"

"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground.

"Another thing we didn't want to know" James muttered but loud enough for everyone to be heard.

Well — give him here, Hagrid — we'd better get this over with."

Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.

"Could I — could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.

"Why are they always getting at dogs?" Alhena and Sirius asked again in unison. While the future people laughed and chuckled the past people became more and more confused but an idea was forming in Remus' head. He moved over to Alhena. "Say…" he whispered in her ear so the others couldn't hear. A smiled spread on her lips and her eyes were blinking mysteriously. "Well that might be possible it might be not. You will see." She winked at him and Teddy continued reading.

"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "You'll wake the Muggles!"

"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it —Lily an' James dead — an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles —"

"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two.

For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.

At the mention of the light in Dumbledore's eyes Harry and Ally got all gloomy. But instead of answering the unspoken question they just remained silent so Teddy read on.

"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."

"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I best get this bike away. G'night, Professor McGonagall — Professor Dumbledore, sir."

Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.

"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.

Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.

"Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.

A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley… He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter — the boy who lived!"

"That's it who wants to read next?" Teddy held up the book and Remus took it. "I will, is that alright?" As everyone nodded he turned the page to read on. Alhena ruffled Teddy's hair and smiled at him softly. "You did a great job Teddy. Have I ever told you how proud I am?" Teddy grinned at her. "Let me think, Aunt Ally, maybe two or three times every minute for the whole twelve years." "Aww, you are so bloody cute!" Ignoring the fact that she had used improper language around a twelve year old boy Remus was happy that his son was loved so much. The girls cooed at the sight while Teddy seemed quite pleased. Smiling Remus looked at the book and began to read.