A/N: WOW! New record! 13 hours later… 40 EMAILS!! Even though they weren't all about this story but around 85 were. And that's more than last time. So here's my promise: an actual update.
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Chapter 8
Who, What, When, Where, How and Why?
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'You're crazy,' Harry spat.
'Maybe I am, but that is the truth Harry,' James admitted.
'No it isn't. My parents died 17 years ago. What makes you say anything different?'
'That wasn't us, Harry. They were family friends of ours, using Polyjuice potion to give us a chance of getting out of hiding once in a while. You see… the Polyjuice potion allows the drinker…'
'I know what it does,' Harry interrupted. 'How can I believe you? For all I know, you can be a death eater.'
'Fine. Ask me anything. Anything you want, and I'll prove to you I'm James.'
'Ok… what's mum's sister's name?'
'Petunia,' he answered flawlessly.
'Where did you hide out?'
'Godric's Hollow'
'Who's my godfather?'
'Sirius'
'What did he give me for my first birthday?'
'A kids-sized broomstick. And I'll never forgive him for it. You would take off and make me chase you around the house.'
Harry paused. Anyone could have done research and found all this out – after all there was a statue in Godric's Hollow as a memorial for his parents. He needed a question that no one knew about. Like…
'Are you an Animagus?'
'Yes…'
'What's your Animagus form then?'
'A stag. Padfoot is a large black dog, Wormtail a rat and we did this so we can keep Moony company while he sorted out his furry little problem.' James grinned triumphantly as Harry's jaw dropped.
'D-D-Dad?' Harry stuttered. James nodded, glad that this was going so well. 'Where the bloody hell have you been!?' James almost toppled out of his chair from Harry's sudden change from shock to fury.
'Whoa, whoa. Calm down Harry-'
'Don't you tell me to calm down! You can't drop something like that and expect me to be OK with it! After all I have been through: living at the Dursley's, fighting Voldemort… everything! Where have you been!?'
'We've been in hiding-'
'From who? Voldemort?'
'From you. You were taken away from us by Dumbledore and your mother agreed that it was best that we kept our distance from you.'
'Mum's alive too?'
'Yes, and she will have my head when she finds out I'm here telling you this,' James told him, hoping to get some sympathy from him. To his dismay, he didn't.
'Why did no one tell me this!? Why didn't Dumbledore?'
'No one knew Harry. No one knows that we're alive… except you now.'
'So you've been keeping this a secret? Didn't you care anymore? About anybody but yourselves?'
'Don't you talk to me like that,' James said, raising his voice.
'I can talk to you any way I want to,' Harry retorted back. 'You've been living a happy life by yourselves not caring about the rest of us, who actually mourned your death-'
'Life hasn't been easy on us either, Harry,' James reasoned. 'Don't you think it was hard enough on us having to give you up? We were trying to protect you!'
'By running away? How is that protection?'
'When we saw the ruins, we knew that You-Know-Who wasn't dead. There was no body, and to give you the ultimate protection you had to grow up in the muggle world, where no one could find you.'
'But – but why couldn't you just have taken me and let me grow up in the muggle world?
'That does seem like the ideal solution, doesn't it?' James replied. 'But you were under Dumbledore's watch and if we removed you then the whole world would panic. "The Boy Who Lived gone missing"'
'Yeah, but if you told them you were my parents and that you were alive then why would anyone care?'
'The news would have spread faster that way, wouldn't it? You-Know-Who and his followers would know that you were hiding in the muggle world and we would be on the run again,' James continued. 'Plus, you were dropped off at your aunt and uncle's so that the charm would work because of a blood relative. The charm was sealed on the house so you wouldn't be found whilst growing up – we couldn't just take you! You were protected there and gave us more reason to leave you.'
Harry's eyes seemed to relax but the rest of his face was still plastered with mixed emotions of rage and confusion. 'But didn't you ever try to contact me? Send me a letter? Anything?' said Harry.
'You would want to know the same questions you're asking now. And we figured you were better off not knowing the truth.'
'It's always "we figured". You're my parents – you're supposed to look after me! Be there for me! But you were too busy deciding what to do with your lives. What about Sirius and… and Remus? Did they know the truth?'
'No. As much as I wanted to, your mother forbade me from doing so. If she couldn't have her you then she chose to cut me off from Padfoot and Moony.'
'At least they cared about me,' Harry growled. 'They were there for me because you weren't! They were there till the end. The department of Mysteries, The Triwizard Tournament, DA, even in the forest…' Harry trailed off. The resurrection stone, the forest, the graveyard, Priori Incantatem… 'Wait… how is that even possible?'
'How is what possible?'
'I've seen your ghost. Or soul or imprint or spirit or whatever it is. How come I saw you then? You had to be dead…'
'Not necessarily. They died while they were in our form. The Polyjuice potion takes a little while longer to wear off the dead. It was long enough to convince people that we were dead and to bury the bodies under our name… but also the spirit could look like the way they died. And also… we sort of told them to do it.'
'How can you tell them what to do? They're the ones who are dead.'
'Your mother used one of those widgie board things. She started to believe they were haunting us, blaming us for their deaths so she used the board to talk to them,' James explained. 'She did it every time she thought she could feel their presence. I, personally, thought she was losing her mind but I guess she wasn't. She kept saying that they were telling her that they would reappear in front of you and she kept begging with them to pretend to be us. Disguise themselves, if you will.'
Harry groaned as he put his head in his hands. 'Merlin… this is just too much.'
'I know it is, Harry. But the truth is out there and…'
'And what?' Harry's head shot up. 'What did you think I would say when I found this out? That I'm okay with it? I'm glad that you did what you did. Come back to you and possibly try and even get to know you?'
'I…'
'Try and make up for the childhood that you missed?'
'Harry-'
'You know what Dad? You and mum completely blew it. There's no way I would consider these things after what you did,' Harry rushed on.
'Harry, I-'
'Forget it,' Harry slammed his hand on the table as he rose from his chair. 'I've gotten this far without you, and I don't need you now. And you just made it so that I would never have to. Thanks a lot,' he said, his voice dripping with venom. Harry grabbed his cloak and rushed out of the pub, not even looking back. He could hear James call his name as he made his way through the crowds. As soon as he reached the door, he pulled out the invisibility cloak from his pocket and threw it over himself and stormed off in the direction of Hogsmeade, fighting back tears.
O – o – O
James called after Harry, trying his best to keep up with him as he rushed off. He made it to the door, long enough to see a dark-haired teenager disappear under a cloak and then invisible from sight. Harry had the cloak? Not now James…
James strangled a frustrated cry that had built up in his throat. He ran his hand through his hair, breathing heavily as if he had just run a marathon. His heart was beating rapidly against his ribcage and his mind was swimming with horrible thoughts. But one stuck out the most…
Lily is going to kill me.
O – o – O
Harry made it back to school, still under the invisibility cloak. It wasn't until after he took it off that he remembered that it was once owned by his father. He felt sick to his stomach at the thought that his parents could have held something as big as this, away from him. He effortlessly shoved the cloak into his pocket and set off for the Quidditch pitch where he bet the others were.
He needed his friends. They were at least there for him all this time. He had always thought his parents were great people and now he wasn't even sure who they were. They had always seemed like heroes when really they were cowards. Passing the lake, Harry paused and looked over it's dark waters.
He slipped off the Gryffindor ring that was on his sitting on his finger. With an angry thought of his parents, he threw it into the lake. Somehow he felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He still fought back the tears that were now really threatening to fall.
Harry heard a loud cheer erupt from the Quidditch pitch. He quickly ran over to see if it was perhaps Ron that was receiving the applause. Arriving at the pitch he saw Ginny instructing a couple of students who were carrying beater bats. He strode over to them and once the others had gotten up in the air, he wrapped his arms around her waist.
'What-?' Ginny whipped around only to be deeply kissed by Harry. Harry broke the kiss, grinning slightly and his breathing ragged. 'Not that I'm not flattered, Harry… but can I ask what I did to deserve such a kiss?' she laughed.
'Oh nothing. I just needed it… needed you,' he kissed her again.
'Bad day?'
'You could say that…'
A/N: WOW! How long is that title? I always knew that's what I wanted to call it but I didn't really think it would be that long! LOL
Sorry that my update was a bit later than many would have hoped. Truth is that with this summer heat that we have in Australia, I got slightly dehydrated and collapsed. I've been in hospital for a few days to get my fluids up to date and have been ordered to be on bed rest for (what feels like) several days.. I'm a little weak, dizzy and tired but was determined to keep my promise. Screw bed rest – this is better.
So what do ya think?? Personally, I think it's one giant argument and that's probably because it is. LOL!
I guess Harry's reaction was pretty obvious, given his history and all. Why would I change him? It's better this way. I know there are still a lot of questions that weren't answered but they will eventually be answered in the next couples.
Reviews will be loved and kept close to me at all times.
Lots of Love,
Creative Touch
