Chapter 3: The Funeral

It was almost inconceivable. Harry was dead. It seemed almost surreal. Ginny went up to her room, in a zombie like state and cried. Lion slithered over her wrist as if to console her. She knew it would seem silly, but he too seemed devastated over the loss of Harry.

"It's okay you know, I can take you in so you won't be abandoned." She said in an attempt to console him about his future. He bit the parchment.

"No, I don't care; I would give my life to get him back. He was almost like a brother to me. It's just so hard to imagine him gone. He saved me form that hellhole and took me in. If a snake was capable of it, I would say we magically bonded, as one would bond with a phoenix."

Ginny sobbed at this. It was too true. She had liked Harry; she may have even loved him. She would never know; she had no choice but to report this to Hermione and Ron. She pulled out her mirror and paused. Calling Hermione would lead to a lot of sobbing, so she decided to call Ron.

"Ron Weasley" She said into the mirror. She knew she had to maintain composure and try not to look too shaken up.

"Hiya Ginny, why the call; you aren't scheduled to report until next weekend. Did Harry return from his mission yet?" Ron asked happy to see his sister after weeks.

"Yes Ron he returned, for a short while. He's dead." She put bluntly and broke down sobbing.

"What no, that can't be, they guy survived like three killing curses, he can't be dead, impossible-" Ron was cut off by Ginny.

"NO Ron IT"S OVER! DEATH FINALLY CAUGHT UP TO HIM! Please it took me enough time to snap into it and denial will get you nowhere. I've got to go help plan his funeral service so you get to tell Hermione. Good luck with that bye!" And she hung up before he asked any questions about the matter.

Harry opened his eyes to see pitch black. "Am I dead?" he thought wistfully. He found he couldn't move much and that someone was talking outside of his box. He strained to listen.

"…good professor and will always be remembered by Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. Let us now take a moment of silence to show our respects to the late Harry Potter." After that Harry realized it, he was at his own bloody funeral. He had to get out, but how? The coffin was locked and there was no way out.

Then it hit him, people were buried with their wands. He felt around and sure enough on his chest lay his wand in all its glory. He grabbed it with his right hand and whispered "Alohamora." The lock clicked open and he pushed open the coffin with a swipe of his arm, which he just realized was fully healed.

He jumped out of the coffin to hear a series of gasps and "Sweet Merlin"s. "Yes, I'm alive apparently, although even I'm not sure how. Just out of curiosity, what exactly did you do to proclaim me dead?" Dumbledore came over to him to examine him.

"Wow, you have a pulse, but how? When we checked you, your pulse had stopped for a good three days. You're a miracle my boy, an oddment!" He proclaimed. This was answered by cheers. The next thing he knew was that he was tackled into a kiss by Ginny, just like the kiss in the Gryffindor common room in his sixth year.

They broke apart after what seemed like forever, only to hear an eruption of cheers from the students and a wolf-whistle from Sirius. The next thing he knew, Ginny was crying into his shoulder cursing incoherently at him and holding on to him for dear life.

The pair made their way back to their quarters and met lion there. He had evidently stayed in the room so as to avoid having to see his master's corpse.

"Harry you're alive! Wow, but how… I'm glad your back either way."

"Yes of course Leo, you see, I took your last words to heart and figured that if you had the guts to attack a Minotaur to save my life, I may as well live to pay you the life debt I owe you."

With those words, Lion almost jumped and slithered back to his niche in his master's sleeve.

"So Gin, how's it been over here for, well since I was gone?" He asked.

"Well Harry, in the thirteen days you were either out of the school or out cold, all that really happened was the entire Gryffindor house and some of the other houses- yes even Slytherin- grieving to some extent and Madam Pomfrey frantically thinking of things to do to save you. Oddly enough, she's done so many things to you that we can't exactly be sure of what revived you." Harry submerged deep into thought. What had revived him? Then it hit him, his own flask, what had Madam Pomfrey done to it? He ran down to the hospital wing in search of the Healer.

"Madam Pomfrey, what did you do with that substance that was in my cloak?" He asked grabbing the healer.

"Well Mr. Potter, I just fed it to you like I would do any other potion. What exactly was that? I couldn't tell, but since you told me to administer it, I did." She asked eyeing him suspiciously. "That was a potion right?"

"Umm… yes of course, but it was just a test potion, I don't believe that is what worked. It was most likely one of the other ones you gave me." He said too quickly, but he was not interrogated further. He ran back up to his room. On the way however, he met James.

"Hey Professor Potter, I was wondering if you could come to the Quidditch game this Saturday? It'll be a blast and I promise Gryffindor will beat Slytherin to a bloody pulp!" He promised.

"Hell, why not? Nothing like Quidditch to get you back up after your own funeral" he joked and the two potters laughed. "I'm going to go back and see what's up with Ginny. I have a lot of class work to catch up on." He said and began to go.

"And some not so class related work too right?" James asked innocently.

"How's Lily?" He retorted and walked off leaving a stunned James in the hall.

The next week was great for Harry. He was feeling much livelier and he showed it by bouncing around everywhere. He even played a few pranks.

Another great thing was that he and Ginny were finally together and would be able to pick up where they left off. He awoke on the day of the match with a something heavy on his chest. At first he thought it was from keeping things bottled up for too long, but when he opened his eyes, he realized it was just Ginny lying on top of him.

They had been talking the previous night and they had both fallen asleep. Harry nudged Ginny to wake her. Since that didn't work, he decided to have some fun.

He picked up his wand and thought 'Levicorpus' and Ginny rose into the air in panic.

"BLOODY FUCKING HELL POTTER! GET ME DOWN NOW OR I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU!" she threatened shooting daggers at him.

"Sorry." He said grinning stupidly and not meaning it. He cast the counter curse and she fell in to his arms with a groan. She took the liberty to punch his gut. "Ow gin, that hurt!"

"Sorry." She said exactly as he had.

"No you're not." He said and captured her lips in a searing kiss. When they finally broke away, they were both breathless and gasping for any amount of air. Before Harry could catch his breath again, Ginny captured his lips for another breath taking kiss.

Her hands began to travel under his shirt and he was losing sanity and fast. His thoughts were racing and his brain was at its near shutdown point. They continued to exchange kisses, each one more frantic than the last. Finally Ginny groaned and pushed Harry away.

"Harry I promised to get down to breakfast today and I need to do some practice in the Room of requirement." She pressed and got up. Harry just moaned halfheartedly, knowing she wouldn't change her mind.

"Fine then, I have a Quidditch match to attend to anyway. And be careful. Anyone who doesn't know about the room cannot find out about it. Wish I could kill old Voldy now to get it over with." He grumbled. And it was true. Why couldn't he kill Voldemort now? Big deal if the time line was altered. The world would be a better place and that was all that counted.

He got up to get dressed.

Harry walked out of his door only to be talked over by a very serious Sirius Black. Normally he would make a joke about this, but right now Sirius seemed very tense.

"Professor please help! James is on the hospital wing, he's just been hexed by a very peculiar cutting curse from Snape!"

Before the words were fully out of the boy's mouth, Harry was bolting toward the hospital wing. He got there in twelve seconds, almost a half a minute faster than his normal time.

"When was he hit?" Harry asked shoving aside the confused matron. She had been trying to help James, but to no avail.

"Only a few minutes ago." She sobbed. This was the first time she couldn't do anything to help a student.

"Alright, go inside your office and students leave. I would like to do this in privacy." He said and the students left quickly. Snape was the only one who knew the counter for the Sectumsempra, but Harry had an alternative solution. He fished out a bottle of clear liquid and poured it all over his father's wounds.

The wounds sizzled for a second and then began to heal. Harry grabbed a blood replenishing potion and fed it to James. "Enervate" he muttered.

James opened his eyes in a daze. He looked up to see Harry's face looking down on him. "Where am I and what time is it?"

"James you don't remember?" He asked carefully. It all came back to James.

"Snivellus." He muttered. "Did I miss the match?"

Harry laughed at the response. "No, but the match is cancelled. It was considered foul play for the slytherins, so now you play in two weeks. Amusing that you care more about the match than what happened to your attacker. Although that's probably because you'll get him back in some inhumane way." Harry said as an afterthought.

James looked puzzled. How did the professor know this and more importantly, why didn't he tell him off the idea? "No professor, it's not that. It's the fact that we have such a great penal system that I know he'll be punished appropriately." James tried.

Harry got up and turned. "Well Potter, I expect that a lot of your friends and teammates would like to see you so I had better let them in. And by the way, flattery will get you nowhere." He advised with a wink.

James turned slightly red before he nodded and Harry left. "Well guys, he's awake and about! Just be sure not to pester and tire him, not for his own sake, but for the sake that you guys don't get kicked out." He said and let in the crowd of people.

Harry walked toward the great hall only to find the Gryffindor table empty. He realized that the entire house was either asleep or seeing James. Luckily, he spotted Ginny ahead.

"Hey Harry, looks like you're officially a more competent teacher than Lockhart!" She exclaimed.

"Shut up Gin; don't remind me of that incident." He said swimming in the memory.

"Oh and by the way professor, you officially have to host the three Marauders for detention every other Saturday at eight." Gin said and Harry spit out his pumpkin juice.

"What! What did they do?" He asked incredulously.

"Well… that would be your fault. You exposed them as the marauders therefore got them detention for every prank they've pulled." Ginny explained calmly.

"Bloody hell, they're gunna hate me!" Harry fretted. "Well, I am their teacher and I guess this'll be kinda cool, lecturing them and stuff." He said pensively. "Hey today's Saturday!"

Harry, Ginny and the three Marauders were in Harry's office. It had been expanded and had a round table in it along with five chairs.

"Well you three, you have been very badly behaved and I apparently have been given the duty to punish you as I see fit." Harry said in a strict tone.

"Shut up Harry, you have no right." Ginny said nonchalantly. "If I recall you did much worse stuff during school." Ginny said and Harry gaped.

"And who told you about any of what happened? You didn't even know me well till sixth year." He said calling her bluff, except it was no bluff.

"Oh, so you're saying you didn't smuggle a dragon out of school?" She said and Harry gaped. The marauders however roared.

"No fair! You were worse than us!" Remus pouted and laughed at the same time.

"Ha! Looks like it's in the Potter blood eh James?" Sirius asked holding his sides.

"What else did the old bean do? I bet you did loads of stuff and didn't get punished for it!" James said going for a mutual punishment.

"Fine, fine, but I didn't do much more." Harry said but Ginny cast a silencing charm on him.

"Ok so his first year, he got past a giant three headed dog, a giant chess set, a troll, and a venomous tentecula. Second year he slayed a basilisk and went into the forest to fight off an army of acromentula. Third year, he helped his godfather escape from the law and go into hiding. Fourth year he illegally was entered into the Triwizard tournament and fought off a dragon. Fifth year he broke into the DOM and faced Voldy unscathed. Sixth year he was Quidditch captain and had to… had a huge power surge." Ginny finished hastily.

"That was just an overview Gin; you gotta give me more credit than that." Harry said huffing in pride. "I was in detention many more times than you ever were and I still got great marks on my OWLS."

"Well professor, what about your seventh year?" Sirius asked and Harry's look darkened.

"I dropped out of school for my own reasons." Harry said and turned away. What he said was no lie, but it was better to hold one's silence rather than give out the story like chocolate frogs. He could never let it slip that he knew that Voldemort had Horcruxes. "Anyway, I believe this week's detention is over. You can come back next week, and I guess we'll just have tea and pass the time. It is after all, my fault you're in detention." He reasoned and no one objected. They all filed out and left the two Professors in peace.

"Wow your dad and his groupies are way out of whack. Hermione would kill them if she knew how much they yearned to get into trouble." Ginny said, and Harry thought about it.

"Yeah she might, but if she did, we could remind her about the things she did at school. If I recall she confunded McLaggen so Ron would make keeper in your fifth year and my sixth." Harry said.

"She confunded him? Wow and here I though he was just really stupid!" Ginny laughed.

"I thought you knew? I mean, you are her best friend. Besides Ron will never be the wiser." Harry said. "Anyway, in about a week and a half, we get to leave this blasted castle and go on a well deserved holiday."

"Too bad we don't have a house." Ginny grumbled.

"Ah my fair lady doust thou darest forget that I am a flourishing and powerful wizard? I can conjure a house anywhere you would like."

"Since when can you conjure a house? I didn't even know that was possible."

"Well, it was theoretically possible but never been done until I did it a year ago. Dumbledore taught me how to focus my magic and shoot large amounts of it out at once without facing exhaustion. How'd you think my house was done so quickly and to my liking?" Harry asked with a smug smirk.

"Yeah, yeah Potter, just keep that bloody ego under check. It runs in your family seeing how your father has it and your mother doesn't.

"Shut up." Harry said archly. He felt a cold sensation on his left arm and looked down to find Lion staring him in the face.

"Harry, Tom is doing something again I think we should go."

"Why? I think we could always wait a bit, what could he do that is so important?"

"Well, I think you should check on that. I have a bad feeling he's doing something that will most definitely influence you."

"Well, where is he?"

"He's in Azkaban."

"WHAT? Why would he be in Azkaban? No one of use to him is in there now except… Gaunt! He's the one who killed Gaunt!"

"Probably, but from what you've told me he had ulterior motives."

"Like what?"

"He's going to rally the dementors and offer them what he can. Also, do you know where Azkaban is located?"

"No."

"Well get this. It's located on an uncharted island on the coast of Romania."

"So?"

"Romania Harry, is the root of wizarding history. In other words, it is the root of evil, the root of good and the root of every spell in the universe."

"What do you mean?"

"In a legend, there is a book that holds every single spell that a wizard can do. The book was written by Merlin and hidden away by the Knights of the Round Table. Camelot was more than a muggle story Harry, the knights, Merlin and King Arthur were very important. Arthur was a muggle, but could tell a wizard how to work a spell. He understood magical theory better than Merlin himself. The knights were the first Ministry. They each were responsible for something, like their own department."

"So what about Merlin?"

"Merlin was the most powerful wizard ever, the first one in fact. He lived around two thousand years and created over nine hundred trillion spells, some dark and some light. Those spells ranged from a silencing charm to the killing curse. Also, he put them all in a book to be guarded by the knights. The book was never to fall into the wrong hands, but one knight had terrible fidelity. He stole away with the book, but Merlin had foreseen it. He had laced the book with a decomposition curse so that one who touched it with evil intentions would decompose within seconds very painfully."

"And… you think Voldemort wants the book?"

"Yes! The book contains the spells to make a Horcrux, which is what he needs! Also, the book would give him a spell which would render him immortal without the need to split his soul. Basically all he needs is the book and he'll win the war! Also, the rest of the legend is crucial for you to hear, but later."

"Fine let's go, but give me around an hour to get ready with supplies."

"Harry, there is one more thing you should know."

"What?"

"That book will give you the answer to any question you have in the world. It'll do wonders for a user whose intentions are pure. You could use it to bring them back when you get home."

"Let's go" Harry's voice was crisp and determined.

A/N: Sorry guys, but I don't have a beta and to tell you the truth, I can proofread the document manually faster than my computer can spell check it, so sorry again about any typos!!! Review! (please I didn't really kill him…)