A Hero's Reward
By: TheFifthCharmedOne
Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, I own nothing.
Summary: The final enemy to defeated is death right? Well Harry Potter has dealt with both death and enemies, and defeated them all. He has his one true love, Ginny, and they're married, and she's pregnant with his son, his best friends have expressed how they truly feel, and they're married as well, and Hermione is pregnant with a baby girl. So why doesn't Harry feel fulfilled? He has everything he could ever want, except for his heart's desire. But what happens when the shooting star that changes everything comes to pass? Will Harry receive the ultimate reward?
Pairings:
Harry/Ginny
Ron/Hermione
Tonks/Remus
Molly/Arthur
George/Angelina
and finally…
Lily/James
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Chapter 2: Meeting The Family
The sun began to rise over the horizon as Harry, Ginny, Lily and James walked slowly toward the Burrow, Lily and James listening to every word Harry said about how his life had been. Lily growled at the mention of Petunia and Vernon nearly starving Harry constantly and vowed she'd make them pay, only after seeing her magical friends again. They decided Ginny should go in first; it would lessen the blow of seeing dead people walking. With a sigh, Ginny opened the door of the Burrow only to be attacked by her mother.
"Ah! Mum!" Ginny squealed under Molly's grip.
"Where have you BEEN?! I came into your room to see if you were up yet, and I find your bed empty!"
"Mum-"
"Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
"Mum-"
"You could have gotten hurt, or the baby!"
"MUM!" Ginny yelled. Molly stopped cold. "Something very special and impossible happened last night. I can't exactly explain it, so I should just show you. Call the rest of the family."
"All right…" said Molly unsurely. "Ron, Hermione, George, Angelina, Arthur? Ginny needs to tell you all something,"
Ron and Hermione came down first, followed by George, Angelina and finally Arthur.
"You may not believe what you're going to see, but it's as real as it gets."
"Ginny….what is it?" said Hermione. Ginny took a deep breath and called out the door.
"Harry? Bring them in now." Harry cautiously approached the door, with Lily and James standing behind him.
Molly and Arthur blinked. The kids were confused.
"Lily? And James?" said Arthur. Lily and James nodded.
"Your parents mate?" said Ron, bewildered. Harry nodded.
"But how?" said Angelina. "Lily and James Potter died twenty years ago,"
"I know they did." said Harry. "But in first year, I found the Mirror of Erised, and it showed that my heart's desire was to know my parents, since they died when I was one. The spirit of Dumbledore showed up and told me that because I'd defeated Voldemort, I was given my heart's desire, which hasn't changed since I was eleven."
The Weasleys just looked shocked as they looked in between Harry, Ginny, Lily and James.
After a long ten minutes of silence, Ron randomly asked a question.
"What's it like to be dead?" Hermione smacked his shoulder.
"Ron, you don't ask people things like that!" To everyone's surprise, Lily and James chuckled.
"It's not something you want to experience twice, let's put it that way." said James.
And with that, questions of all sorts started coming from Hermione, Ron, George, Angelina, Molly and Arthur. Harry and Ginny watched in a sort of stupor.
Harry was watching his parents answer questions. His parents. The people he'd heard so much about, but never got to know on his own.
Ginny was watching Harry. She could see the wheels turning in his head; she only wished she knew was he was thinking about.
Suddenly everyone stopped talking when they heard the popping sound of Apparition. They turned.
"Oh, it's just you Perce," said George, relieved. Everyone sighed.
"Percy?" said Molly, seeing his flabbergasted face. Then she saw what he was staring at, or more specifically who.
Lily and James looked up.
"Is this your stuck up brother?" James whispered to George, who snickered and nodded. Percy scowled. Lily smacked James's arm.
"Mr. and Mrs. Potter?" said Percy, talking for the first time. He shook his head. "This is impossible! You-you died on October 31, 1981!"
"We know that." said Lily. "But yesterday, Harry brought us back to life." Lily smiled at her son. Percy looked at Harry.
"How?"
Harry sighed and explained everything all over again.
Percy just stared for a long minute before becoming serious again.
"Well," he coughed. "To prove that you are indeed the previously deceased parents of Harry, you're going to have to come with me to the Ministry and talk to Minister Shacklebolt."
"I'm coming too." said Harry resolutely. Percy was going to object, but then thought twice. He nodded.
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"You say that because of the power of the twentieth anniversary and your heart's desire that your parents came back from the dead?" said Kingsley skeptically.
"I know it sound crazy Minister, but I can prove it. Mum! Dad!" Lily and James walked in, and Kingsley almost fell out of his chair.
The kid was telling the truth.
"Okay," said Kingsley. "I'll just ask a few questions, and if you get them right, I'll believe that Lily and James Potter have come truly come back from the dead."
"Go ahead." said James.
"Fine, first question. Who was Lily's best friend until fifth year when he called her a Mudblood?"
Lily winced and tried not to show it. "Severus Snape." answered James.
"Correct." said Kingsley. "Second question. When is Harry's birth date?"
Lily piped up here. "July 31st, 1980, St Mungo's Hospital For Magical Maladies and Injuries."
Kingsley raised his eyebrow. "Correct. Third question. What are your middle names?"
"Rose and Michael." said James.
"Correct. Fourth question. Who were the Marauders?"
"James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew." said Lily.
"Correct. Fifth question. Where is the headquarters of the Order of Phoenix?"
"112 Grimmuald Place. Also known as The Most Noble and Ancient House of Black." said James.
Kingsley was having trouble not believing them now. "Final question. What was the last thing you said the night you died?"
They hesitated. The night they died was a sensitive subject, and why not? They lost everything then.
"I told Lily to take Harry and run, that I would try to hold Voldemort off. But she refused. She ran up the stairs after that. I remember thinking I love you before the green light flashed in my eyes."
Lily's eyes filled with tears.
"My last words were trying to stop Voldemort from killing Harry, to take me instead. He told me I could stand aside, and just let him kill my son, my baby boy. I wasn't going to let that happen, so I stood there and took the green light with all its power."
There was a long silence before Kingsley spoke up. "I always thought that death was the final battle in life, that it would determine where you ended up, heaven or hell. But now it seems like you two have been given a second chance." Lily and James looked at each other, then at Harry, and then at Kingsley. "You may want these." Kingsley held out two aged wands that hadn't been used in years.
Twenty years to be exact.
"You kept our wands?" gasped Lily.
"When the Aurors discovered your destroyed home, they discovered James's wand amongst the rubble of what was once your living room, and Lily's in the what was once the nursery. Something told them not to snap them in half, like they'd been told to. So when they came back, and Fudge took the Minister position, those two Aurors hid the wands in an invisible safe, that I just discovered last night."
"Who were the two Aurors?"
"Alice and Frank Longbottom." Lily gasped as the previously unshed tears rolled down her face. James hugged her on one side and Harry on the other.
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A/N: Sorry for the sad ending, but I couldn't think of another way to do it. Next chapter, Lily and James confront Petunia and Vernon for what they did to Harry over the years.
Please review!!
~Charmed