-The silence was deafening, before a resounding chorus of "WHAT?!" echoed through the hall of Grimmauld Place.-
The roar of outrage was more than enough to reawaken Sirius's mum.
"FILTHY HALF BREEDS, BLOOD TRAITORS, ANIMALS BEFOULING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS-"
"SHUT UP!" Rose yelled, pointing her wand at the portrait. There was a flash of light before Mrs. Black's voice was extinguished; though she continued to writhe and wave her arms, not a sound emerged from her painted, drooling mouth.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Ron bellowed staring at his best mate, to James and back again. It a mark of how stunned was that she didn't tell Ron off.
Harry wished he knew how to Apparate. Or make himself disappear. He cringed under the incredulous stares he was getting from all sides, except James's, who looked apologetic and guilty. That piece of information of his early life he had never disclosed to another human being before. Well up to this point anyway.
"It's true?" Lily faltered, staring at Harry. She whirled to James.
"How do you know that?" she hissed. Albus, Rose and Hugo looked at him also.
James looked at his feet. "I went through Dad's Pensieve once" he mumbled. The others had stopped to listen too. "I saw some things when he was younger and stuff he'd never mentioned before. Dad found me and told me some of the....nastier parts of his life."
Lily stared at her brother open-mouthed. "That's why you don't come to Uncle Dudley's anymore isn't it?"
James didn't look at her, but lifted his head to meet Harry's eyes.
"Harry?" Harry winced; Sirius sounded deadly. He turned to his godfather, who was within arms length of Harry, eyes flinty. He looked as menacing as he had been the night when Harry had first met him, when he had still thought he was a murderer.
"Is that true?" he asked. His voice was deadly quiet.
Harry avoided his eyes and glanced at Ron and Hermione, both of whom were staring at him. Ron looked appalled while Hermione seemed close to tears. Around them, Fred and George were gaping at him, for once lost for words. Arthur and Kingsley looked deeply troubled, as did Tonks. Ginny like Hermione, seemed close to tears while tears were already sliding down Molly's cheeks.
"Harry?" Sirius's voice had gotten a little louder.
Get it over with, Harry tried to order himself. Gather that famous Gryffindor courage. He shrugged lightly "Uh yeah. Maybe."
The next second, Harry found himself being swung round face to face with his godfather. Harry recoiled unintentionally.
Sirius stopped and seemed to force himself to calm down slightly. "Tell me the truth Harry."
Harry mentally sighed "Fine. Yes its true. And I guess that means you're telling the truth." This was said to an apprehensive James.
Sirius gave a very deep growl, so that for a second, it sounded like he was in his dog form. He stalked past Harry and the rest towards the door. Harry barely had time for fear to grip his insides before James leapt into Sirius's path.
"Whoa whoa mate calm down" he said palms out. "I know how you feel but trust me, hexing the Dursleys into oblivion won't do any good."
"The hell it won't" the twins chorused, looking ready to follow Sirius, Ron right behind them.
"Look" James took a deep breath "As tempting to kill the gits is, Dad has to stay with them for the summers. And they can't die yet, that'll screw the future up big-time."
"He's right" Albus agreed, stepping up beside his brother; Sirius looked ready to shove James aside.
James looked at Sirius determinedly, causing the older man to falter. He looks so much like James. But remembering his old friend reminded him of his promise to protect Harry and anger swelled.
"So what?" Sirius bit out. "You want me to let this go?"
"Sirius" Harry said imploringly behind him, he looked anxious. The last thing he wanted was for his godfather to have the murder of three more Muggles on his record as well.
"Let it go? Not a chance" James grinned and Harry glared at him. It was his fault this had been brought up in the first place. "See Dad won't let me hex or prank our dear relatives in our time; he says we'd probably give them heart failures. But your versions on the other hand-"
"Are not" Lily finished, looking thoughtful. "Not a bad idea James. 'Course, we'll have to be careful; Voldemort and the Ministry are both gunning for Dad at the minute-"
"But some retribution does seem appropriate" Albus concluded, an evil smirk crossing his face, as well as Hugo and even Rose.
James grinned at Sirius "Some good clean pranking would do you good Padfoot. I'd say you've lost your touch old man."
The stony look on Sirius's face was slowly disappearing "Old?" he repeated.
The group exchanged delighted grins. "Are you in then, Messer Padfoot?" Lily inquired mischievously.
Sirius bared his teeth in a sinister grin.
"Count us in too" the twins said as one.
"Of course" James beamed at the pair. "With three generations of pranksters working together, I think this will be a smashing success."
"Besides, we'll need you guys to cast most of the spells" Rose added smiling. "We can cast magic in here and crowded magic places, but not in a suburb with only one underage wizard recorded there. Uncle Harry will get the blame."
"Again" James and Albus muttered as one.
"Speaking from experience with the magic outside school Rosie?" Hugo said smirking, then retreated from her scowl.
"Yes, well" Mrs. Weasley stammered, releasing a relieved Harry; she had captured him in a bone crushing hug while the pranksters had gotten together. "A good talking to with the Dursleys seems to be in order."
"I'll do it" Sirius said, a very grim smile playing on his lips. "And I'll take Moony with me; he'll stop me from doing anything...drastic." Harry cringed at the ominous note in his voice.
"Well then" Rose said briskly to an immobile Kingsley "is that enough to prove who we are, or do I have to mention some of my parents'...er....more hidden secrets?"
Kingsley seemed to pull himself together. "Er no I suppose not" he cleared his throat. "You have given enough information to identify yourselves I believe" he gave her an apologetic grin. "Times are harsh."
"We understand" Rose smiled.
"CONSTANT VIGILENCE!" the three boys beside her bellowed, causing her and Lily to smack them all upside the head.
"We'll have to inform Dumbledore" Tonks announced.
"Good idea" Kingsley agreed. "Well everyone, we'd better go and inform the Headmaster about the situation. Nice to meet you all" he added to the time-travellers.
"Nice to see you with your earring in" Hugo smirked.
"Bye!" Tonks waved and stumbled before following Kinsley out the front door.
There was silence as the remaining people tried to make sense of the recent events and revelations. Harry could still feel some gazes on him and looked at the ground.
"So" James broke the silence "there anything for lunch Grams?"
The stillness broke. Molly visibly pulled herself together. "Lunch? Of yes of course, I'm sorry. Come in, please there should be enough for everyone."
"Great" James and Hugo said as one and followed everyone into the kitchen. Harry made to follow, but was held back by Sirius. Reluctantly, he lifted his head to meet his godfather's eyes.
"We're going to talk later Prongslet" Sirius said gently, but with steel behind it. Harry tried to drop his gaze, but Sirius forced his chin up, making their eyes meet.
"Ok" Harry said reluctantly. Sirius squeezed Harry's face once and gave him a one armed hug before letting him go.
When Harry entered the kitchen the seats to the table were almost full, with the only spaces free between Albus and James and across from Ginny. Not wanting to meet his future wife's eyes for the minute, he chose to sit beside his two sons. Sons. Merlin, it was unreal.
"Hey Dad" James said very softly beside him. "I'm sorry about that. It was the only thing I could think of that not many people knew about."
"You couldn't have picked anything else?" Harry muttered back.
"I didn't think you wanted them to know what they did whenever you did accidental magic" James said back darkly.
Harry grimaced. If Mrs. Weasley ever found out he'd been starved and locked up on a fairly regular basis, then it wouldn't just be Sirius gunning for the Dursleys.
"Don't worry about it" he said at last. James gave him a quick look but said nothing more as Molly put an enormous turkey on the table.
"Hey" Fred said suddenly breaking the quiet din "you never told us who Ron ended up with."
The five from the future glanced at each other. And smirked.
A/N: So......opinions?