A/N: Hello. Thank you for all of the reviews! I'm really glad that you give them to me; they make my day (if they're good). Anyway, I have a lot planned for this chapter, but I'm not sure if I'm going to do it all for this one. I don't know, I let my hands guide me. They have a will of their own. Anyway, on with the story because you probably don't want to hear me rambling.
Disclaimer: I don't even own a piece of Harry Potter, even if I wish I did.
Returning of the Parents
By: AutumnBreeze12
Chapter 4
James walked into the kitchen. He had smelled Molly cooking and let his nose guide him to where the food was. Lily was in the kitchen too, and it was then that James noticed that their robes were still the ones that they had died in. James winced when he realized this; he didn't want to remember that night, and wearing the clothes they had on then were a big reminder. James began to wonder where they could get new robes when it hit him; Diagon Alley! Why hadn't he thought of that right away? It was the most obvious option, and they needed to get to Gringotts anyway for money. Thinking about his made him wonder if Diagon alley was still were it used to be, and if it was even Diagon Alley!
James sat down at the table thinking about this. He would have to ask someone, and seeing as Molly was right there, why not ask her? James opened his mouth to speak, but at that moment Fred and George came in. They made for James right away. They had a look of murder in their eyes. Fred spoke first, or he thought it was Fred. "So, your nickname is Prongs?" he asked innocently.
"Yes," said James suspiciously.
"Did you know any object called, I don't know, the Marauder's Map?" asked George.
"Yeah, me, Sirius, Remus and the rat made it. Why?" answered James.
"Do you know if Harry or anyone else know that you made the map?"
"Yeah, Harry Ron and Hermione both knew that it was us who made the map. Why?"
"Do you know how long they knew?"
"Why?"
"Just answer the question,"
"Not until you answer why,"
"Nothing, we're just wondering,"
"Nice try. That doesn't work on me,"
"Please just tell us?"
"Fine. I think they knew about it since their… third year was it?"
"THIRD YEAR?"
"Why?"
"Come on George, let us go find our dear brother and his dear friends," snarled Fred. They left without another word, leaving a very confused James behind. James looked at Lily helplessly. Lily giggled.
"I think you just got our son into trouble," said Lily.
"How did I do that?" asked James. At that moment Harry, Ron, and Hermione entered the kitchen. They looked around at the tense atmosphere.
"What? What happened?" asked Ron.
"James got you in trouble with the twins. They were asking about the map that he made, and he told him that he knew that you knew that they had been the Marauders in your third year, and they went off looking for you with murderous expressions on their faces," answered Lily.
"Why would they want to murder us though?" asked Ron. Hermione suddenly paled.
"Because we didn't tell them that we knew the Marauders! They had always wanted to know, and finding out that we knew in our third year and didn't tell them must have been a big hit," said Hermione. Ron groaned.
"We're dead," said Ron. "But I'm glad we didn't pass them on the stairs, who knows what they might have done. We'll just have to send in someone to calm them down. I propose that Harry go,"
"Why me? Why not you?" asked Harry.
"Because you're brave and I'm not,"
"You're scared of your brothers who have lived with you your whole life?" asked Hermione.
"You've never seen them in murder mode! They can kill you, I swear, they had Charlie in bed for a whole week after one particularly bad prank, even though I think that that was an accident," Ron said while waving his arms around. Hermione just sighed and sat down. "You'll see Hermione, you'll never know what hit you, one minute you'll be fine and the next minute your unconscious!"
"I think that you're over exaggerating Ron," said Lily calmly.
"I doubt it. I once pranked a guy for dating you, and he was in the hospital wing for a month," said James.
"That was you who did that!" shrieked Lily.
"Oh, damn," said James as he jumped up and ran from the kitchen, leaving a shrieking Lily behind him. James wandered down the hall and up the stairs. He was poking around in the rooms, when he came to Harry's room. He went inside and found it messy, most likely from Ron by the looks of it. James was about to walk out when he saw Harry's trunk open. He went over to his trunk and looked in it. He was suddenly aware that all of Harry's clothes were too big for him and they had holes in them. They looked like they had been handed down from an elephant, and he just realized that Harry had been wearing these clothes all day yesterday (today he had worn robes). The sizes were much too big for him and they didn't look like they would ever fit him. Now that he thought about it, Harry looked thinner than he should. Harry hadn't really talked about the home that he had lived in before he went to Hogwarts, and for some reason that was troubling him. He knew that Harry had gone to live with the Dursleys, but by the looks of it they had mistreated him more than he thought.
A noise on the stairs made him jump and remember that he wasn't really supposed to be here. He wanted to ask Molly about Diagon Alley anyways. He walked out into the hallway and went back to the kitchen. Harry was sitting by his mom at the table. They were both talking about something. James sat down at the table thinking hard. He couldn't go to Diagon Alley yet anyway, they had to tell the public that he was back. They didn't want to cause a panic, or at least Dumbledore didn't.
Fred and George bounded in at that moment. They looked overly cheerful. They made a beeline for Harry who hadn't yet realized that they were here. "Hello Harry," said George. Harry looked up at them.
"Hello," said Harry.
"We were just wondering if it was true that you knew the Marauders since third year?" asked Fred. Harry seemed to have a small coughing fit.
"Well, I better go," said Harry as he got up and tried to walk out of the kitchen. Fred and George cracked both evil smiles that were identical. Harry, taking this as a warning, whispered something in their ears. The twin's smiles widened and they nodded.
"You drive a hard bargain, Harry, but it's a deal," they said at the same time.
"What's a deal?" asked Lily, narrowing her eyes.
"Nothing, nothing," said Fred. "Well, come on George, this changes all of our plans,"
"What did you tell them?" asked Lily when the twins went away.
"I can't tell you, that would ruin the whole joke," said Harry. Lily shook her head while frowning. She had never really approved of all the pranking business. Harry sat down at the table and began doing what looked like homework. As soon as he started, Lily seemed to appear at his shoulder. Harry looked surprised, but let his mom help him anyways.
Hermione entered the kitchen and made straight for Harry, who was still doing his homework with his mother. She sat down with them and started instructing Harry with Lily. It was kind of funny actually, seeing as Harry had two girls hanging over him while he tried to do his homework.
The day passed quickly. At dinner, James and Sirius banded together to make all of the food turn pink. Lily wouldn't touch it after that. Molly shrieked at Sirius and then said to James that it wasn't his fault, resulting in Padfoot hitting him on the head.
Lily was talking with Hermione. She really was a smart girl, but by the sounds of it Harry and Ron barely ever listen to her. Lily was talking about O.W.L.s with her and she really had some interesting things to say. It was fascinating to have someone else to talk to that actually understood what she was saying and listened to her. After some time talking about O.W.L.s Lily decided that she should change the subject.
"So, how did you and Harry first meet?" asked Lily curiously. Hermione smiled.
"The first time we meet was on the train ride to the school, I was helping a someone look for a pet. Back then we weren't friends though. It took a while for them to actually talk to me because I was always answering questions in class and everyone called me a know-it-all," she answered.
"How did you become friends?" asked Lily.
"Well now, that's an interesting story. You see, it just so happened that on Halloween a troll was let in. I was in the bathroom crying because of something Ron said to me, and the troll came in the room. Ron and Harry had been looking for me because they knew that I wasn't aware that there was a troll in the castle. They came into the bathroom and ended up saving me from it,"
"They saved you from a troll! In your first year!"
"Yeah, it was pretty amazing. Now that I think about it though, it was funny the way they did it, even if it was terrifying at the time. Harry did a very stupid thing; he jumped on the troll, and ended up accidentally sticking his wand up its nose. Then Ron knocked it out with it's own club by using the 'wingardium levoisa' spell. When the teachers came in you should have seen their faces! It was a mountain troll too," said Hermione. "After that we just kind of became friends,"
"I see. So, my son defeated a troll in his first year along with stealing the sorcerer's stone?"
"Ah, well, that isn't all he's done,"
"He's done more!"
"Well, I try to stop them, but no! They never listen to me!" scowled Hermione. Remus heard this comment from where he was positioned at the table.
"I presume you're talking about Harry and Ron?" asked Remus.
"Yeah, how could you tell?" asked Hermione sarcastically. Remus smiled.
"It was obvious, they never listen to sense. I remember when Harry went illegally into Hogsmeade when everyone told him not to," said Remus. "He had just gotten the map in his possession. I was a professor at the time, so naturally, I confiscated it," Sirius, who had heard this, scowled.
"I can't believe that you took the map away from them! You know that they needed it if they wanted to pull off successful pranks!" said Sirius.
"They never pranked anyone, they went on missions to rid the world of evil!" said Remus. The two girls and Sirius stared at him. "Okay, so I may be over exaggerating a little bit, but you don't have to stare at me like that!"
"Right, anyways," said Hermione, blinking a little. "Harry and Ron were always getting into trouble. As Harry is fond of saying, 'I don't go looking for trouble, trouble usually finds me',"
"Yeah, they were always out after curfew and were always finding ways to break the rules without meaning to," said Sirius. "It was quite lucky that one night that they decided to go to Hagrid's hut when Buckbeak was supposed to be executed even though they weren't allowed or else I would have never met him,"
"Well, we had to go! I mean, we couldn't have left Hagrid there!" protested Hermione weakly. By that time more people had joined their conversation, including Molly, Arthur, Fred, George, and Ginny. Together they told some of the more minor adventures of Harry's and his friend's life that really wouldn't be considered minor to anyone else. By the time dinner was ready, Lily was fuming at some of the more stupid things that her son had done. Lily really wanted to yell at him for being stupid enough to yell at the minister, even thought that git had deserved it, but decided not to. She didn't want to scare her son away with her temper when she had only just met him.
When James, Harry and Ron walked in they stopped at the sight of all of the people at one side of the table. The whole group had gone quiet when they entered. "Why do I have a feeling that they were talking about us?" asked Harry.
"Because they probably were by the looks of it," answered James. Harry sighed and sat down at the other end of the table were no one seemed to be sitting. James sat down on one side of Harry and Ron on the other. Hermione wandered over to them and sat down next to Ron. Molly served them all food and everyone ate in, weirdly enough, silence. Until James broke it, that is.
"I was thinking," started James. Sirius gave a gasp.
"I didn't know you had it in you Prongsie," said Sirius.
"Shush. Like I was saying, I've been thinking. We need to go to the ministry to get me and Lily back on the alive list, and then I want to go to Diagon Alley because we need some clothes. It would also be nice to go back to Potter Manor for a while," said James thoughtfully.
"Potter Manor?" asked Lily. "I didn't know that we had a Manor,"
"I didn't tell you. I think that it's bigger than Hogwarts, but the only reason Hogwarts is more safe is that it has more secret passage ways and it's more confusing. I know everything in the Potter Manor, and believe me, there is a lot," said James.
"I remember Potter Manor. Wasn't it like Hogwarts except slightly bigger and less mysterious?" asked Sirius.
"Yeah. We would spend a lot of time there, that was where I grew up," said James.
"It's like Hogwarts?" asked Harry in awe.
"Yeah. The Potter line is one of the most ancient lines around. I think that it's even older than the Malfoy line, and maybe a little older than the Black line. It certainly is the richest line there is, but I'm not for sure on that anymore seeing as I've been dead for fourteen years. How did I come back anyway?" asked James wonderingly. "But anyway, sorry Lily, but I didn't want to take you to Potter Manor. There were just to many memories of my parents and I hadn't quite gotten over the loss yet. Then there was the fact that I wanted to live somewhere less massive for a while. But anyway, now that I think about it, we should have lived at the Manor. The Manor has as many wards as Hogwarts, except for maybe a few,"
"Does that mean I can do magic there and the ministry won't know?" asked Harry excitedly.
"Yeah, you can do as much magic as you want," said James. Harry smiled happily. "But anyway, the first thing that we need to do before we go to the Manor is go to the ministry. They'll want to know that we're back,"
"Quite right, James. I've already set up a meeting with the minister tomorrow," said Dumbledore as he walked calmly into the kitchen. Lily couldn't help but wonder how Dumbledore had gotten such good timings on these sorts of things. James seemed to echo want she was thinking.
"How do you always have such good timing?" asked James suspiciously. "If I didn't know better I would say that you've been listening in on our conversations, but there really wouldn't be a point to that would there?"
Dumbledore continued on as though James hadn't spoken. "So, after you've spoken with the minister, I feel that it would be necessary to take you to Diagon Alley. I thought that we should tell the world that you are back, because my sources tell me that Voldemort knows you're back. There isn't any point in hiding it, and you should be able to go out in public without people gawking at you and fainting,"
"Yeah, we definitely wouldn't want that," muttered James. "I mean, the news that two people have come back from the dead won't make them faint either," Dumbledore continued to ignore James.
"I think that you should be safe at Potter Manor, which is the place that I would like you to stay at, after we've gotten the whole matter about being dead cleared up,"
"Okay then," said Lily cheerfully. "So tomorrow we're going to tell the world that we're back?"
"Well, I don't know when the paper is going to get out that you have come back, so I think that it would be wise to wait a day before you go out in public. We don't want to set the world into a panic," said Dumbledore.
"Do you have any idea how we came back?" asked Lily.
"I have a few theories, but I don't know if they are correct. It might be because of priori incantatum that Harry used at the last task, or it might just be because Harry needed you. I think that a combination of both of these brought you back," answered Dumbledore. "It would explain why you came back and Cedric Diggory didn't,"
"Yeah," said Harry quietly. Lily sighed. It was painfully obvious that Harry was blaming himself for the death of Cedric, and that he was depressed over it, but the only other person who seemed to have noticed this fact was Ginny. She was trying to coax Harry out of his shell and to open up more, but it wasn't working very well. One thing that Lily noticed was that Harry was good at hiding his emotions when he wanted to, only that he didn't want to often. The only other person who could see through his mask was Ginny, but why it was Ginny Lily didn't know, because Hermione seemed like a more likely candidate.
"So we're going to go to Diagon Alley as soon as word gets out that we're alive?" asked James.
"Yes. We don't want to scare the people more than we have to," said Dumbledore.
"Okay then," said James cheerfully. Dumbledore stayed for a few more minutes, but he only came to tell them that information. Lily couldn't wait for tomorrow. She wanted to go to Diagon Alley as soon as possible. She wanted to see her old friends, not just the ones in the order. Lily wanted to go and see how much things have changed, and she wanted to look around the shops.
James woke up the next day to see Lily up and bustling around. She was getting ready for the day happily, humming to herself. One could tell by just looking at her that she was excited. James didn't blame her, he wanted to get the whole mess cleared up too and today would be the day that they could do that. He wanted to see everyone that he used to know. He asked around about some of the people he used to know. He was disappointed to find out how many died. When he found out about Frank and Alice Longbottom he had gotten angry at the person who caused their insanity, and had to go cool down for an hour. He was friends with Frank and Alice, and the fact that they had a baby boy too made a plus because then they could bring Harry over to play when he was younger.
James got out of bed and began to get dressed. He was in an unusually good mood today, seeing as he had just gotten up. He and Lily went down to breakfast to find Dumbledore downstairs waiting for them and Harry begging Dumbledore to let him go with them to the ministry. It was obvious that he wasn't going to let Harry go, and it was obvious that Harry knew this, but he kept trying anyway.
"Please? I won't draw attention to myself,"
"No, you can't go, you'll be going to Diagon Alley tomorrow, and that's stretching it thin,"
"But I want to go!"
"Harry, there are death eaters constantly trying to kill you. You can't go,"
"I'll try not to draw any attention to myself. I'll stay in the shadows!"
"You draw attention to yourself whether you want to or not. You can't go. Please stop asking," Harry sighed and turned away.
"Don't worry, we'll fill you in," said James. "You won't be missing much, just me telling off Fudge about Sirius. I swear, I'm gonna kick his-,"
"Okay, why don't we go now?" intervened Lily swiftly. James scowled at her but said nothing. James and Lily walked out with Dumbledore onto the street. From there they apparated into the ministry (James and Lily were both under an invisibility cloak). Dumbledore purposely strode up to Fudge's office. When they entered Fudge looked up and swelled up pompously.
"You needed to speak with me headmaster? Or is this another a dead man coming back to life thing?" said Fudge.
"Ah, another dead man coming back to life thing, but not the one you're thinking. A dead man and woman," answered Dumbledore. Fudge's eyes widened.
"Oh, so first it's you-know-who coming back, which is completely ludicrous by the way, now it's another person? Well, who is it?" asked Fudge, making it sound like he was only humoring Dumbledore. James threw off the cloak.
"Hello Fudgey," said James. Fudge fell off the chair he was sitting in. He quickly stood up, ignoring James snickers.
"And let me guess, the woman is-,"
"Me," said Lily, also taking off the cloak. Fudge gaped at them helplessly before springing into action.
"Well then, you wouldn't mind if I test you under veritaserum?" asked Fudge, and without waiting for an answer he summoned a guard, who promptly fainted at the sight of James, and who Fudge had to revive. "We need veritserum for these two people," said Fudge pompously. The guard nodded mutely and went to get the potion. When he came back he handed Fudge the bottle and Fudge said, "Sit down… Mr. Potter," James quickly sat down in a chair and the guard administered the serum. James felt himself going into a stupor.
"Your name is?"
"James Thomas Potter,"
"And your date of birth?"
"August thirteenth," (A/N: I don't really know when his birthday is, sorry if it's wrong)
"And your wife's name?"
"Lily Evans Potter,"
By now Fudge was getting flustered. He was desperate to prove this guy wrong, so he asked, "And who was your secret keeper?"
"Peter Pettigrew,"
"That isn't right! It was Sirius Black!"
"No, it was Peter Pettigrew. We switched at the last moment because we thought that no one would think Peter as our secret keeper. It turns out that he was working for Voldemort the entire time,"
"But… that can't be true!"
"It is. Sirius told me what happened when I came back, he told me that when he found out what Peter had done he went after him, and tried to kill him, but failed. Peter blew up the whole street with the wand behind his back and transformed into a rat to escape,"
"But Peter isn't an animagus!"
"He's an unregistered animagus,"
Fudge glared at James for a moment before administering the antidote. He turned to Lily and asked the same questions. After a while Fudge finally pronounced both of them alive and well and that they were both Lily and James Potter. He also pronounced Sirius innocent. That afternoon they went to Grimmauld place feeling much better.
Lily and James Potter Alive!
By: Rita Skeeter
Startling new evidence shows that Lily and James Potter, who supposedly died on October 31 many years ago, just came back to life. Or did they? Were they hiding this entire time? Or did they do what we thought was impossible and break the laws of death to come back again? We can only guess the answer. More information on page ten.
Sirius Black is innocent!
By: Rita Skeeter
Sirius Black, who we all thought to betray Lily and James Potter, broke out of Azkaban years ago, the first one to do so. But did Black really betray the Potters? When Lily and James Potter were brought out into the open they answered this question. No. He didn't. It turns out that Peter Pettigrew was the one to betray the Potters. Sirius Black had convinced the Potters at the last moment to change secret keepers to one that he thought would be a better choice, because he thought that no one would suspect Peter as the secret keeper. As it turns out, Pettigrew was the traitor. Pettigrew blew up the street of muggles while blaming Black, and fled down into the sewers in his rat form (he was an unregistered animagus). Mr. Black is now free of all charges and has gotten one million galleons in apology for sending him to prison. For more information on Sirius Black, turn to page thirteen.
James smiled as he read the paper. It was the day after he and Lily went to the ministry. Today was the day that they were going to go to Diagon Alley. James couldn't wait, he really wanted to go. Sirius had been finally proclaimed innocent, and both he and Lily were claimed alive again. This day was a happy day for everyone in headquarters.
A/N: Well, that's another chapter done! I've been going through writer's block; so don't be surprised if you don't hear from me for a while. Next chapter is where they go to Diagon Alley! Review!