Okay, I know you're tired of hearing excuses instead of seeing chapters but I'm going to explain anyway because I actually was doing more than sitting at the computer laughing at everyone who was waiting for a chapter; I'm soooo sorry it's taken me this long. First I had to get through the last week of school, my eighth grade promotion, and then my big brother's graduation. Then I completely broke down because my band teacher (who is like a second mother to me) is moving along with her two kids who are two of my closest friends. After that I had to travel about 14 hours with my family to go to my other older brother's wedding in Ohio in which I had to be a bridesmaid so that was crazy. After that it was my friend's birthday, my brother's birthday, and then another friend's 15th birthday party and it was a really big deal because she's Hispanic so it was a whole coming-of-age thing, kind of like Harry turning seventeen (sorry; I just couldn't resist putting that little scrap of Harry Potter in there). And now I have just returned from a four-day visit with my band teacher in her new house. And something went wrong with the phone line to my house and that had to be fixed so I couldn't get on the internet to update for a while, not to mention I had major writer's block. I'm trying to make up for all this by writing faster than I usually do so please don't hate me. Oh and, by the way, READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE BOTTOM. I have a question to ask you readers. It really wouldn't help anything to scroll down and read it now because I kind of want your opinions about changing something in this chapter…well, the story actually.
My page breaks aren't working so:
HPHPHP - Change in scene.
Author's Note - Kind of self-explanatory but it means end of the chapter.
Green-Eyed Tears A Wish Granted
As the sun rose, morning light peeked through white curtains to find a boy huddled in bed, the covers pulled tight around him. He wasn't asleep; his brilliant green eyes were half open, staring at the intricate designs on his bed cover. Harry was usually up and active at this time of day but this morning he decided he was just going to take today slowly and enjoy all the small things; today was his 15th birthday.
It had been a few days since his two guardians had tried to talk to him. The morning after they had apologized for pushing him so far and Harry had accepted with a small smile to assure them that they were forgiven. After that everything had gone back to normal. Better than normal, actually. Harry felt closer to them, especially Sirius. He would make sarcastic comments and pull pranks to make Harry laugh; unfortunately for Remus, he was often on the receiving end of the pranks. To make it even better, Sirius said they would be able to make the annual trip to Diagon Alley soon to pick up Harry's school supplies.
Harry yawned and sat up, stretching. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed, starting when his bare feet hit the cool floor. He stood and hobbled sleepily over to his dresser to fish out a change of clothes before crossing the hall to take a nice long shower.
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Harry came down the stairs, running a hand through his wet hair. He had barely walked a step into the kitchen before the wind was knocked out of him by someone throwing their arms around him. "I missed you so much!" said Hermione excitedly while still hanging onto her best friend for dear life. When she finally pulled back, both teenagers had wide smiles on their faces. Harry looked over at Remus meaning to ask when Hermione had arrived but lost track of the thought when his eyes met the sight of Ron rising from the chair next to Sirius's.
"Hey, mate! Happy birthday," he said with a matching smile.
"Ron, hey! When'd you guys get here?"
"Just this morning; I thought Sirius told you we were coming." Harry gave Sirius a questioning look.
Sirius shrugged, "We thought we'd surprise you. I talked to Molly last night and she said she'd send them over first thing in the morning. Now," he and Remus stood from the table, "I want you to sit down with your friends and catch up while Moony and I make you a beautiful birthday breakfast."
Harry snorted, "You can cook?"
Sirius rolled his eyes and gave an over-dramatic sigh, "Alright, fine…I'll supervise and Moony will make you a beautiful birthday breakfast." The trio chuckled as the three of them sat down in the vacated seats. They began discussing how their summers had gone so far; Harry telling how great it was to be living with Sirius and Remus, Hermione describing the steps she took to complete the summer homework (a topic which was quickly changed to Quidditch by the boys), and Ron reliving situations which were all relatively the same but all funny in their own way – Fred and George testing out their new inventions around the house and getting caught, always ending with a very, very loud lecture from Mrs. Weasley.
Finally, breakfast was ready (bacon, toast, eggs, and biscuits) and the two men placed a full plate in front of each of the teens and sat down with their own plates to join in the conversation that then dissolved into anecdotes of the Marauder days at Hogwarts.
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For the rest of the morning, everyone took it easy; Ron and Hermione gave Harry their gifts which turned out to be a book of different Quidditch teams and Honeydukes' chocolate from Hermione and a rather large assortment of Zonko's pranks from Ron (Remus groaned from the other end of the table).
"So, Harry," Sirius began, taking a sip of coffee, "Anything special you wanted to do today?" Harry shrugged, looking indifferent. He hadn't really thought about it; he'd never celebrated his birthday before…at least not in the traditional way.
"You said we were allowed to go in the attic, right?" he asked.
"Sure. But, like I said, there's not much to see." Harry turned to his friends. Ron smiled and nodded and Hermione raised her eyebrows with a small grin; they all knew there had to be something interesting up there. They pushed their chairs back from the table and Harry gathered up his presents.
They stopped at Harry's room to drop off the book and bag of pranks (Harry kept the chocolates to share while they were in the attic) and soon they were on the second flight of stairs. About ten steps from the bottom, there was a landing with one staircase going up on the left and one on the right. "Left or right?" Harry asked. "Left," said both Hermione and Ron in unison. At the top of the stairs, Harry opened a narrow white door to reveal what looked like it might have been a bedroom at some point. There were boxes strewn across the floor, most of them empty but some still sealed with tape. A tangle of sheets lay on top of a small metal bed frame that was stuffed into a corner.
Hermione wandered over to a stack of boxes and opened them one by one, peering inside while Harry gazed out of the only window, admiring the extensive view from the third floor and Ron roamed around the room looking at some faded maps that were tacked to the walls.
"There's nothing much in these boxes," called Hermione from behind a pile them, "Just a whole bunch of encyclopedias…I think; they look really old."
"We could go check out the other room," Ron suggested, squinting his eyes to make out some writing at the edge of one of the maps, "There were more stairs, remember?"
"Sounds good to me," sighed Harry, looking away from the window. He followed his friends down the stairs to the landing before walking straight up the other ones. There was no door this time; instead, they came directly into dark room that was slightly smaller than the one they had just left. The two windows in the room had curtains drawn across them which Harry and Hermione quickly pulled apart, letting light spill into the dusty room. There were many more boxes in this room…in fact, that's all there was. Harry opened one and pulled out an old picture frame. The picture was a wizarding one; four figures were moving inside the border. Two black-haired boys stared out of the photograph at Harry, one taller than the other; they were definitely brothers. A tall, solemn man and a fierce-looking woman stood behind them. 'Their parents, I suppose,' thought Harry. The younger boy had a lopsided grin on his smug face but the older had a scowl across his handsome features, his gray eyes saying that he did not want to be there. 'Those eyes…,' Harry mused, 'Where have I seen those eyes?'
"That's Sirius!" said Hermione who was peering over Harry's shoulder. "Are you sure?" he said, looking at the boy again. Now he saw it; he didn't know how he had missed it before.
"Of course, this must be all his old stuff."
Harry sank down to the floor, still staring at the child version of his godfather. Ron and Hermione joined him amid the sea of cardboard and started rummaging through other papers and pictures. Harry put the photo on the floor beside him and pulled a large box toward him leaning back against the wall next to Ron.
The trio spent the rest of the morning passing Harry's chocolates around and laughing at pictures of Sirius inconspicuously giving his somber parents bunny ears.
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The time came when Ron and Hermione had to say their goodbyes and return to the Burrow for dinner. Harry was extremely sorry to see them go but he didn't have long to think about it; Sirius and Remus led Harry into the living room. For one terrifying moment, he thought they were going to talk to him again but Remus assuaged his fears by telling him that they had a gift for him.
"You know you didn't have to, right?" Harry said embarrassedly.
"Come on, Har, you deserve it," Sirius pulled out a package wrapped in brown paper.
"Going for the old-fashioned look Sirius?" asked Remus.
"What? I thought it looked good!" Sirius explained. Harry chuckled, taking the package from Sirius. He turned it over and slowly tore the paper back. A brown leather bound book lay in Harry's lap. The front was embellished with a golden "M"; the book immediately caught Harry's interest. "Open it," Sirius encouraged.
Harry flipped open the cover and read: "To Harry James Potter (otherwise known as Prongs Jr.), may this book help you cause more trouble than you ever have before."
Harry smiled and turned to the next page. A picture of 15-year-old Sirius, Remus, and James stared back at him. Under the picture was a story of one of the pranks the Marauders had pulled back in their school days. Harry flicked through more pages; the story went on for some time.
"That book contains every single joke or prank we've ever pulled," Sirius said with mock-seriousness, "Honor it forever."
"I promise," Harry replied, trying to keep a straight face. Remus laughed and Sirius took the book from Harry's hands and flipped to a page somewhere in the middle of the book. "This is one of my favorite ones; it involves a group of Hufflepuff girls, a cramped space, and a fake spider."
Sirius sat back in his armchair and began reading - Harry settled into the couch cushions next to Remus and closed his eyes, picturing Sirius's words…. Before long Harry had fallen asleep, his head resting on Remus's lap. Sirius closed the book quietly and looked at Remus. Remus gave a small smile and looked down at the sleeping boy next to him. "He looks so peaceful when he sleeps," Remus commented.
"Except when he has nightmares," Sirius suddenly looked ten years older.
"That's what we're trying to work on, Sirius," said Remus sadly. The two men rose wearily from their seats, Remus scooping Harry up into his arms and heading up the stairs to put the boy to bed. Sirius sighed and ran a hand through his hair. 'Harry…,' he mused, 'We can do it – we'll help him.'
HPHPHP
A deafening clap of thunder broke the sleepy silence of Godric's Hollow. The ground began to rumble; it started out as a tiny quake and got bigger and bigger until trees' roots came up out of the ground. An immense "boom" sounded through the night and the rumbling stopped; a cloud of dust had gathered around the old ruins of the Potters' house.
He tumbled over on the floor. His head was spinning. He couldn't breathe. He didn't know where he was. He didn't know where he had been. He didn't know what was going on. He coughed and coughed and coughed until the dust cleared.
James Potter opened his eyes and squinted; everything was blurry – he couldn't tell where he was. He didn't know what to do…wait…that wall looked familiar…he knew this floor…he'd walked those stairs. This was his home, but it was different. Everything was lopsided and burnt and even parts of the walls and doors were missing. Then he remembered – Voldemort. Lily and Harry! He had to help Lily and Harry!
He shakily got to his feet and staggered up the stairs. The last thing he remembered was dueling Voldemort – it was blank after that. He reached the landing and stumbled over to each room one by one, calling Lily's name. No one answered; no one was upstairs and he had already been downstairs. He went back downstairs and pushed open what was left of the front door. Making his way up the lane, he kept looking left and right. Had she gotten away? Was she safe? Was Harry safe? He had to find out. He had to find them.
He was passing the graveyard now; he looked over at the headstones and then looked back at the road. Wait. He did a double take. There it was: POTTER. James didn't know any other Potters. He stepped over the low wall and headed toward the stone. He knelt down in front of it. LILY POTTER 1960 – 1981 and JAMES POTTER 1960 – 1981: Beloved Friends and Parents Gone but not Forgotten.
James's heart skipped a beat; what was going on? He wasn't dead! Lily wasn't dead! Where was Harry! He wanted answers – Dumbledore. Hogwarts – he had to get to Hogwarts. He didn't know if he could Apparate at the moment; he'd probably end up splinching himself…but he had to try. He closed his eyes and concentrated with all his might on Hogsmeade…CRACK…and James disappeared into the night.
Author's Note
I successfully got James back into the land of the living! This is my longest chapter yet, I am proud to say! And I think it's my favorite, too. Once again, I am extremely sorry for the long wait and I promise I'll start the next chapter tomorrow. It should be easier to write now that I've got James out of his grave but, who knows?
Right, about the question I wanted to ask: Should I bring just James back or re-write this chapter and bring Lily back too? Just something I was thinking about today. Please let me know in your review!
Review Responses:
GoddesGirl123 – Thanks for the review!
applesollie – I guess James did hear the wish.
RaiseYourVoice – You're quite welcome. I'll have to check out your site!
Stars Tears – I think it's awesome that you like my story that much. And tell me how it goes with that guy – I wanna know!
Lukesweetheart – Thanks for the review!
Intergalactic smart-ass – Glad you like my story! I like your name.
living-is-easy-with-eyes-closed – Thanks. I know I'm bad with updating; I'm really sorry.
bookworm622 – I'm so happy I got Harry's character right – Thanks for the review! They really keep me going.
SillySocks – I love it when people tell me my story's one of their favorites – thanks so much for reviewing.
utahtoken – Thank for the review!
LilyXJames – Judging from your name, this is your kind of story. Thanks for reviewing!
cheeky devil from hell – Here's James for ya!
Snuffles Is My Idol o.O – Thanks for reviewing!
Patricia8 – Thanks for reviewing! (I'm sorry I keep giving the same response; it's all I can think to write but I really do appreciate every single review I get)
Daniel Freakz – I'm glad you like my story! Keep reviewing!
