Thank you all SO much for your reviews! I'm sorry it's been more than a YEAR since I last updated, but believe me – you don't know what I've been through.
Anyway, I never forgot this story so here I am finally posting a new chapter XD. Don't forget to review since it's my life supply in this cold, cruel academic world that I live in!
As for your question, KeyKeeper12, James's eyes are gold. That's what I meant since the beginning, but I thought that hazel meant 'very pale brown'. Maybe it doesn't, though ;P.
Chapter 9: Truth and Illusion
Some building opposite the Leaky Cauldron – Some house in America (James must feel like a lost child now!)
James suddenly found himself on the filthy rooftop of the building on the right side of the Leaky Cauldron, his arm still in Jesse's strong grasp.
"Let go of me! Why the hell did you Apparate?!"
"SSHHHH! Keep it down, will ya?!"
"What did you just do?! We can't just leave my son behind!" He yanked his arm out of the werewolf's grasp, but Jesse quickly kept his hold firm.
"He's not in danger, Mr. Potter! You are. YOU have to go hide until we can figure out when it's safe for you to resurface. Don't do something stupid and get yourself hurt when you've just reunited with the only family member you have!" James stopped his fighting against the taller, more muscular man and looked at him angrily, about to curse right before Jesse spoke again. "Your son will be fine under Dumbledore's protection. He'll find a way to prove to him the truth about you. If he doesn't…I'll find a way. I'm not the youngest Alpha ever chosen by my people because of my looks."
James didn't know how that was supposed to reassure him. He didn't even know this guy.
"Right now, we're going to Rachel where you're gonna stay until we can figure out how to help your son make the people he's with – whoever they are – believe him."
"How very thoughtful of you," James said sarcastically "Why do you even want to help us?"
Jesse looked at him as if he initially thought it was a trick question: "Huh? Because you're my fiancee's best friend's husband! You're the father of The Boy Who Lived! And I'm not one to leave people be killed when I can help it. Besides," he finished with a proud, nostalgic grin "Rachel would turn me into a werewolf-skin rug if she knew I met you and didn't bother bring you over." He sighed happily, as if the thought of Rachel skinning him was attractive in a way.
James looked at him hard, hating the fact that he couldn't make a decision! He kept thinking: 'Harry's in there right now being interrogated by Dumbledore!' And he knew how determined for information that loony old man can be.
"Come on, James, it's not like Dumbledore's gonna hurt him! He's probably too relieved to find him alive to actually punish him!"
But James knew better, and he hated the way the Headmaster kept doing things he believed were for good and then ending up ruining everybody's life, and what James hated most was when the old wizard apologized. James had always wanted to beat the living crap out of him every time he showed remorse, but for some stupid reason would refrain himself at Dumbledore's teary eyes. Those eyes made him angriest.
Without warning, James felt as if he'd left his stomach behind. He and the guy named Jesse were rotating very fast, everything passed around them in meaningless but colourful blurs.
"Wait!" James shouted, outraged: "I didn't say –!"
In a few seconds, everything stopped and he reflexively adjusted his landing to be on his feet and not face-first into soil and grass. Jesse landed beside him, only it looked like he pounced on the ground. They arrived to a house's front yard somewhere in the world.
"YOU IDIOT!" James shouted. He grabbed the front of the werewolf's shirt and pulled him roughly to his face: "Who TOLD you to Apparate again?! I thought I told you I'm not leaving Harry behind, and no, I DON'T want him with Dumbledore!!" he roared when Jesse opened his mouth. "Stupid idiot!" and he pushed Jesse hard.
Jesse looked unfazed for someone who looked like he was about to be trampled, and when he was pushed he did not fall over, "You really are as arrogant and stubborn as Rachel says you are!"
"You…"
The house's back door was thrown open, and a woman with thick, black hair and pale, icy-blue eyes stepped out angrily. At first glance, she looked ready for a bloody fight and looked like she would enjoy it.
James turned around and stared at the woman he could never understand what Lily saw in her or how they had such a special connection. They were as different as night and day.
Her ice-blue eyes zeroed on him, and her face betrayed her feelings of shock and disbelief. She looked at first as though she'll scream, but before either James or Jesse could move, her hands had disappeared for less than a second into her clothes and out they had come again. About four magical knives were flung – seemingly out of thin air – towards James.
His body automatically responded to the attack and evaded them, but he ended up in the position he was trying to avoid before: his face in the dewy soil and grass.
"CRAZY BITCH!!" he screamed at her as he jumped back up, "Idiot! What am I, a shooting board?! Which hell did you escape from?!"
She smirked and looked at him with a thoughtful – and still surprised – expression on her strong face, "I see you in front of me, Potter, but I can't believe it." she walked up to him until they were only a few inches apart, eye to eye, nose to nose.
James looked at her, clearly irritated, and then jumped back when she roared, "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN FOR THE PAST 15 YEARS, YOU IRRESPPONSIBLE DIMWIT!?"
The Burrow
Dumbledore looked at Harry over his half-moon spectacles for a moment, looking tired. Harry almost felt bad for worrying him, but ever since Dumbledore found him trying to look innocent in the toilet back at the Leaky Cauldron, the old man kept trying to get answers out of him, and Harry stubbornly kept his mouth shut until he could think of how to lay down the bomb.
They had Apparated to the grounds outside the Weasleys' home right out of the Leaky Cauldron's toilets, and slowly made their way towards the crooked house.
"Harry, please tell me why you thought it was alright to 'take a stroll' outside at night, alone and unprotected."
"I felt strangled," came Harry's stubborn reply "I felt like I was suffocating inside the house, so I went out."
"Harry why don't you tell me the truth?"
"You never want to hear it." Harry replied coldly at first, then burst out angrily, "What are you talking about? I'm always telling you the truth, but you never believe it, do you? What difference does it make if I tell you now?! You'll just think I'm hallucinating again, just living in another stupid figment of my imagination!"
"I never thought that", Dumbledore said quietly, sounding sad, "I just didn't want Voldemort to find a hole to leap through in our relationship, Harry. You know that."
"No, I don't." he was being stupid, and he knew it.
"How about you tell me what happened this time, if I promise I will believe you?"
"And afterwards go make plans with everybody else except me as soon as I turn my back." Harry said bitterly.
"Won't happen."
"I want to tell you what happened! But I don't know what you'll do if I did. You won't believe me – nobody will...not after…not after Sirius…"
They reached the front door, and before Dumbledore could answer, the door was slammed open and a pale, frightened Mrs. Weasley lunged out and half-carried Harry off the ground in a hug.
"Harry! Oh my God, thank you God! Thank God you're alright!" a couple of fat tears ran down her cheeks, making Harry hate himself for feeling guilty.
"Harry, why did you run off like that? I thought at first – I thought -!"
"I'm fine, Mrs. Weasley. Please don't worry about me." Harry said, and with that, he was dragged into the house with Dumbledore following after, closing the door and replacing the Shielding Charms.
As soon as Harry entered the kitchen, he was greeted with half a dozen "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN??!!" and a split-second late one, "WHEER Z HELL HAF YOO BEEEN, 'ARRY??!!", then bushy hair filled his vision. Hermoine was in front of him.
"What were you thinking – scaring the hell out of us like that?!" She shrieked into his bewildered face, her eyes over bright.
"Don't give us that look, Harry!" Ron said angrily, turning him around by the arm to face him, "You scared the living daylights out of EVERYONE! We thought you were kidnapped – we thought the Protection Charms had been breached or something – but noo. You decided to call the Knight Bus into your home and take a night tour around London!"
"What is it with you people?" Harry said in a low voice, too furious to speak normally, "You think I went out on a suicide trip? You think I like making everyone worry about me? Or do you think I get a kick out of being on every channel of every radio in the Wizarding World? You think I enjoy the attention?!" he looked furiously at Ron.
"No – wh – that's not what I said at all! I – "
"Oh really? Really? Then what were you saying JUST NOW?!" he yelled.
Everyone remained silent. Then a soft voice spoke, "He didn't mean it that literally, Harry." Ginny said, "We were all really worried about you."
"Yeah? Well, next time don't bother!"
"Harry." Harry felt a hand land on his shoulder. He turned around to face Mr. Weasley.
"Look. I know that we sometimes don't take the things you tell us seriously enough, but that isn't because we don't trust you! And you know that. It's because there's a possibility that – that You-Know-Who can use you as a puppet to speak to us!"
Mrs. Weasley looked at her husband unhappily. Everyone at the table did the same. It seemed pretty clear to Harry that they didn't want him to be told that.
Fleur looked disturbed at first, but surprised everyone by saying, "'Arry eesn't z type of paerson to geeve up so easily! Eef 'Arry eez being possessed, we'll all know. He can't pretend to bee 'Arry. 'Arry eez too kind."
Everybody stared at her, stunned that Miss Fleur Delacour would make such a…deep statement. Harry felt a rush of appreciation towards her.
"Eet haz never happened bee fore, haz eet?"
"No." Ginny answered simply.
Mrs. Weasley shook her head as if to get herself out of a weird dream where Fleur has something sensible to say.
"See, Harry," Dumbledore finally spoke again, "Everyone is ready to listen to what you have to say. Let's all sit down, have a nice breakfast seeing as it is still early, and listen to your story. I'm sure it will be exciting."
"Yes! Yes, you sit down Harry," Mrs. Weasley pushed him down into an empty seat and went to the counter to prepare breakfast for two more.
Dumbledore seated himself across from Harry. Ron and Hermione sat on either side of their friend.
Looking around at everybody seated at the table, Harry noticed that their breakfasts were nearly untouched. Harry couldn't help but feel more peaceful, seated amidst them. They were all shouting at him just now, but before he came in they were all too worried about him to even eat.
Rachel Danseldon's House
Rachel stood with her back to James, looking at the photos she had all over the mantel, lost in her thoughts. Her face softened at a picture of all five of them girls in their dormitory, including Lily and herself, laughing for the camera and blushing in their graduation robes before they leave for the feast.
"Alright. I've decided I believe you."
"Gee, thanks." came the sarcastic reply from behind her.
Rachel remained silent for a moment, and then said something James never heard her say before, "I'm sorry."
James stared at her, stunned.
"I'm sorry for making you tell me this story, for making you relive it again, but I had to be sure."
James couldn't blame her. He was just glad someone else besides Harry – and Voldemort – knew he existed on the planet "It's alright."
"So," when she turned to face him, her face was as mean and her expression was as forever-sarcastic as he ever remembered it to be, "What are we gonna do now?" she answered her own question "I'm contacting Dumbledore, and the old fart better believe me or I swear I'll set his beard on fire like I did back in school."
She hasn't changed one bit.
But James was glad she didn't, despite the fact that they were always at each other's throats, ever since they were in school. She was about the only girl in school he ever bothered to reckon with, because she had spunk like nothing he'd ever seen before - the girl who constantly believed (and seemingly still does) that nothing bad can ever happen to her. She and Lily became best friends as soon as they met in first year, and the raven-haired girl rubbed off on Lily pretty fast, to his dismay. But then again, Lily rubbed off on her as well.
They were so different, but had a special connection he couldn't fully understand. Watching her now, and irritated that he actually missed her, he wondered: thinking back to all those times when she nearly died, but came back to them as if nothing's wrong, he wondered whether her absolute belief that she will NOT be defeated by anybody was actually what kept her alive through all those battles.
"You'll stay here with me until you get yourself together then we meet the old man." she went on in her clipped, confident voice, sitting opposite him, "and I wanna meet Harry, too. I've only ever seen pictures of him…"
Jesse, who'd been mostly silent throughout Rachel's 'interrogation', stood up.
"Okay. I'll be going now. I've got to meet with a bunch of other werewolves from other countries."
Rachel turned to him,"Why?"
"It's kind of like a meeting between prominent leaders of underground werewolf groups on how to improve their living standards wherever they live and all. There's probably gonna be talk about Voldemort as well. Greyback from Britian's gonna be there, so besides listening to whatever he'll be saying about Voldemort, I have to go just to creep myself out at how gross he looks."
"Have fun!" Rachel said as he practically pounced out the window and ran off.
James smiled a little through his depression from the couch he was curled up on. Sometimes he really believed Rachel thought she lives in one of those Muggle video games, where you always have another chance to beat the enemy.
