Remus POV.
Remus was having a bad Monday. He was used to the fatigue, pain and aches after a transformation after having had them for 30 years, nonetheless it still doesn't make it any easier, even though the Wolfsbane potions helps immensely. He's never been happier to have Sirius back to help him during the transformation. Having Sirius there to keep him company and sane after twelve years of dealing with it alone, can bring tears to his eyes. Just having Sirius with him after twelve years can bring tears to his eyes.
Remus honestly didn't know what to do with himself after James and Lily died. He had lost every single person he loved and cared about in a span of a few hours. The only person left was Prongslet but Dumbledore had said it was paramount that he grew up with blood relatives as that would keep him safe and hidden from death eaters and the sort. After seeing the young man harry had grown into when he first met him on the train and subsequently in classes when he started teaching however made him doubt ever trusting Dumbledore with placing him with Lily's sister.
Harry was a kind and very polite young man, but after having observed him for quite some time he realised Harry harboured a deep mistrust for teachers and everything authoritarian. He never initiated contact and always made a perceptible shift when somebody touched him without him having seen the person or realised it happening. Harry never talked about his home life and looked positively ill when someone mentioned the Dursleys which only the adults did. He noticed that none of his friends ever mentioned them. He'd tried to get Hermione or Ron to talk to him, they could see he meant it well and was only thinking of Harry's wellbeing, but they refused to say anything than Harry having a less than adequate home life. The only thing of importance that they mentioned was how Harry never went home for vacation and that they both would send him food during the summers away from Hogwarts.
Remus was just about to go lie down a bit and rest before Sirius would return from wherever he'd run off to whilst he was sleeping, when he heard a knock at the front door. He opened the door to see an exact replica of James and Lily at 21 standing at his front steps, "Moony!" the carbon copy of James exclaimed and before he knew it, the sight of his long dead family combined with the fatigue, and pain in his body from the transformation made him faint on sight.
When Remus came to he was laid out on his comfortably worn out couch with a blanket on top of him. "Wha…. What happened" he whispered to himself as he slowly sat up and looked around, he spotted Lily and James on the love seat across from him going out into the kitchen, if he'd looked closer he'd have seen the distraught looks on their faces, but instead he shot up and raised his wand at them and with the calmest voice he could muster in such a situation he uttered "Do you know how disrespectful it is to disguise yourselves as two dead people? How dare you!"
"Remus" Lily said, "Please calm down, give us a chance to explain –" "Explain? Explain what, Lily and James died! There's nothing to explain!"
"Remus, I realise how frightening this must be, especially taking into consideration how much older you look which must mean we've been gone for a while, but it truly is us. Please give us a chance to prove ourselves, we need you Moony"
"How do you expect to prove yourselves? There's no- Wait, what did you call me?"
"…Uhhh. Moony?" "Ho-how do you know that name? Who told you?"
"That's what we've been telling you, it's us, we're not imposters, I know what you're thinking, we're probably cold heartless death eaters in disguise, but if you look closely moony you'll see we haven't even gotten our wands or anything of the sort."
Remus was quiet for a moment while he indeed took a look at their appearances, they both looked like they did at 21, Lily with her vibrant red hair and green eyes – Harry's truly are just like hers, - and James with his shaggy hair which won't lay flat no matter what he tries and his deep and warm hazel eyes. They looked on the brink of passing out from exhaustion or pain, he couldn't quite decipher it at the moment and true to James' word, there were no wands to be seen anywhere. "Everyone could figure out the facts, but could you please turn into your animagus form, so I could have a proper form of proof?" No later than had the words left his mouth James truly had transformed into a stag. You may be able to polyjuice your way to a lot of things, but one would never be able to impersonate someone's animagus shape. It truly is James. This left Remus absolutely shell-shocked. HOW? Screamed his mind at him, but the only thing he could manage doing was crash straight into James when he a moment later had returned back to his human shape, and finally shed the tears for his long-lost friend that he'd loved so dearly. James held onto Remus just as tightly and rubbed his back in the comforting way only he managed to be able to. Behind them Lily cleared her throat and spoke up "No matter how heart-warming this is boys, do you mind if I get a little hug in too?" Both men slowly released one another, and Remus took a look at her and scolded himself for not having asked her a question yet, -so much for Order training-. After having asked Lily the security question meant for her and subsequently hugging her half to death, he made them tea and transformed the sofa into a comfortable bed and the cushions into a few lovely pillows for them so they could sleep and rest for a while since they were clearly exhausted. Now he only had to wait for Sirius to return home, so he could intercept him and explain everything calmly before he hexed them both into oblivion before they got a defence out.
A/N: I know I said Remus was feeling the effects from the Full Moon and the transformation, but as I changed the timeline, and this is supposedly 1996 (summer, end of fifth year), the Full moon would've been 3 weeks ago, and not only roughly one, let's just play along for now, and say the Full moon wasn't three weeks ago but one.
Harry POV.
His birthday was in a week and Harry could not have cared less at this point. He was just so very hungry and in pain. The thrashing he had gotten earlier from Uncle Vernon for not having his lunch done proper was still very noticeable. As always, his pain was disregarded, and he was forced to continue doing his chores if he had the slightest hope for any sort of dinner that night. If he was honest with himself, Harry didn't know how long he could take this anymore, he was just so tired and run down. He hasn't looked himself in the mirror properly for years, especially not now, he knows what he'd see, he doesn't need the confirmation. -An array of scars, bruises and almost every single bone in his body protruding. Two more days and he'd be 16, he couldn't even believe it. The number of things he'd done so far after five years at Hogwarts. He knows all the detentions he had in fifth year would've easily been able to surpass the amount his father had.
He wonders if they'd be proud of him, all the things he's accomplished. Seeker at eleven, slayed a basilisk at 12, freed their best friend from the ministry and the life sentence waiting for him at Azkaban at 13, unwillingly participated and winning the TriWizard Tournament where he battled a dragon, saved two people from what he presumed would have been death by drowning, but turned out not to have been harmful, to the forced participation of the resurrection of Tom Riddle and death of Cedric Diggory at 14 started an illegal defence club alongside Ron and Hermione, while serving a multitude of detentions, 'rescuing' Sirius from the Department of Mysteries and befriending 'the greasy bat of the dungeons' Severus Snape all at the age of 15. Harry wasn't very keen on thinking about the Third Task and the subsequent consequences. He still had nightmares about it. About the shock and pain present in Cedric's eyes when Voldemort said, "Kill the spare" and the killing curse from Wormtail's wand flung him backwards and he fell dead to the ground. He didn't want to relive Voldemort's resurrection. He can still see his mum and dad springing out of the light when his and Voldemort's wands had cancelled each other's out. He misses them so much.
He longs for what he can see present in Molly Weasley's eyes when she looks at her children, the unconditional love and support and comfort she shows her children. He wants someone to hold him and comfort him, not hurt or simply dismiss him. He's not in denial about the Dursleys' treatment of him, he's had plenty of time to come to terms with that and how wrong it is, Snape helped him with that too. He has made his peace with it nonetheless. Dumbledore knew how he was treated yet sent him back here not once, but twice after he definitely must have known. Harry doesn't know if Dumbledore knew beforehand, but he definitely has known since fourth year, and it just hurts Harry to know that Dumbledore could -and would- just send him back here just like that. With what to Harry seemed like no hesitation.
