After he'd left the kitchen, Harry ran up to his friends, eager to tell them the news.
"What's got you so happy?" Ginny asked her boyfriend.
"My parents." Harry said.
"What about your parents?" Hermione asked.
"They're downstairs." Harry said.
"What are you talking about? Your parents are dead." Ron said.
"No they're not. At least not anymore. They're alive again." Harry said.
"Harry, how is that possible?" Hermione asked.
"I don't know, but I know what I saw. It's them Hermione. Sirius said that Dumbledore himself confirmed it." Harry said.
"Harry, you'll understand if we have a hard time believing you." Ginny said.
Harry nodded and said "You'll see at dinner. I promise you."
"We'll take your word for it, but anyway, did you learn anything else while you down there?" Ron asked.
"My parents explained the connection that seems to exist between my mind and Voldemort's and now my mother is going to be teaching me occlumency in order to protect my mind from it." Harry said.
"You're going to learn how to block the connection?" Hermione asked.
"Yep, I'm just glad that all the charges were dropped." Harry said, referring his disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Magic, which had been held on 2 weeks ago on June 30th (I know it was in August in the book, but I'm changing things up so Lily and James can celebrate Harry's 15th birthday with him).
"And I'm not sure that the Ministry can arrest you for that. Speaking of the ministry, do they know your mum and dad are still alive?" Hermione asked.
"I doubt it, otherwise it would've been front page news on the Daily Prophet." Harry said, right as Molly walked into the room.
"Dinnertime." Molly said.
"Mum, are Harry's parents really down there?" Ginny asked.
"Yes dear and Ginny, they are quite anxious to meet you." Molly said.
"Why me?" Ginny asked.
"They want to meet their son's girlfriend." Molly explained.
"Well then, we better not keep them waiting." Harry said, taking Ginny's hand and leading her downstairs.
"I want to meet Harry's parents to." Hermione said, practically dragging Ron with her as they headed downstairs.
Dinner went well, since both of Harry's parents approved of their son's relationship with Ginny, much to both of their relief. James and Sirius were now trading mischief stories with Fred and George, trying to figure out which duo had caused more chaos at Hogwarts, both sides laughing at the other one's tales with Ron, Harry and Ginny laughing at both sides while Remus brought Lily up to speed on Harry's education. Needless to say that she was very proud when she heard that her son was the top defense student in the school, and that Remus himself had taught Harry how to produce a patronus charm.
"Can Harry produce a corporeal patronus?" Lily asked.
"Yes, and it's a stag, the same as James's patronus and animagus form." Remus said.
"James will be so proud. But why is it that Harry's worst subject is potions?" Lily asked.
"Because he has a very biased teacher who hates him because of who his father and godfather are." Remus said.
"Severus is the potions master?" Lily asked.
Remus nodded and said "Yes, from what I can tell, when Slughorn retired, Dumbledore hired Severus as the potions master and let's just say his hatred towards James has definitely affected his treatment towards Harry."
"Better not tell James that." Lily said and Remus nodded, since he had no plans to tell James where Snape worked until after things with the ministry had been resolved.
After dinner, Molly and Lily sent everyone who was still in age up to bed before settling down in the sitting room with James, Arthur and Sirius.
"Thank you for looking after Harry all these years when we weren't able to." Lily said to Molly and Arthur.
"It was no trouble, we loved having Harry with us. It was only a shame that we couldn't watch him over the entire summer, but Dumbledore always insisted that he stayed with his aunt and uncle. At least now we know why and now he never has to go back to the horrid place again and live those disgusting people. No offense Lily." Molly said.
"Why would I be offended by a true statement. Petunia and I maybe family in blood, but that's it. Petunia made it clear she wanted nothing to do with me years ago and after how she and her walrus husband and whale son treated Harry, well, let's just say she's lucky we're estranged because if I ever saw her again, I'd kill her." Lily said.
"Well I'm going to kill Pettigrew when I get my hands on that worthless piece of slime. I still can't believe that even after everything we'd done for him, he still ratted us out to save his own skin." James growled.
"Maybe we shouldn't think about finding wormtail yet. You 2 should be more concerned about meeting with minister tomorrow. If we're lucky, not only will he officially proclaim you 2 alive and give you custody of Harry, but he might also clear my name of all charges and finally acknowledge that Voldemort is still alive." Sirius said.
"Good idea. And speaking of which, we should probably get to bed so we aren't exhausted tomorrow during the meeting." Lily said, taking her husband's and they went up to bed
