"Now for the fun part. Mum, your return has to be dramatic. So how're we going to do that?"

[{*.*}]

They decided they would try to work it so that everything political would be done before school was in – like getting Sirius out of Azkaban, and getting Pettigrew in. How they were going to do that in a week and a half, Harry had no clue. And how they were going to keep it quiet, Harry also had no idea, but Lily was an expert in those areas and had it done. While Harry chilled with his friends, Lily stood in front of a court. She was hooded, so none of them could see her. She tackled the Sirius problem, first pointing out that he never had a trial, then that he was never given Verisatum. When Dumbledore pointed out that he admitted to the fact that Sirius admitted to killing the Potters, Lily, still in her hood, said "Well maybe he was feeling guilty that he couldn't stop it – he was laughing at the sheer absurdity of the situation."

And with those words, the court brought in Sirius and tried him on Verisatum. They were shocked – and when it was over, Sirius was still glaring at Dumbledore. Then he looked around and asked who he owed his freedom to. At that point (A few days later), Lily, still hooded, had brought Remus Lupin in. Remus, apparently, had this twinkle in his eye. Lily had wandered into the courtroom and grabbed him Sirius by the shoulder and said, "Come, Padfoot! I can show you the world!"

Remus didn't get that, which surprised Lily, considering he had a thing for muggle culture. She apparated them into the kitchen. Harry had found a wonderful loophole with Dumbledore's wards – they wouldn't notify Dumbledore if anyone with Harry's blood apparated in, and they wouldn't notice side-along's either.

Vernon, who was in the kitchen at the time, fell on his "Patooshka". Harry wasn't sure where he'd heard the word, but it was so fun to say. "Hello Vernon. How's your day been?" Lily asked as if she hadn't given him a heart attack, the proceeded to sweep by him and wandered up to Harry's room. Remus and Sirius looked at each other and followed her up.

Now, Harry had been following them all with a disillusion charm and a silencer, though Remus had probably smelled him. He magically expanded his room and created another, really, for them. It was the confrontation that was most amusing. Remus stopped inside the room and said, "Who are you? You smell and sound like Lily, but she's been dead ten years."

Lily took off her hood, letting her hair fall down. Her eyes were glowing green and she had a small smile. "I'm not going to go into detail, Remus, but no, I'm not dead. I am very much alive."

Sirius' jaw had dropped. "Wow. You look… exactly the same. What's with your eyes?"

Remus elbowed Sirius, but before he could do anything, Harry had come up between them, and canceling the silencing charm, whispered, "Avada Kedavra green, hmmm?"

Remus jumped a foot in the air. Sirius, unbelievably, had better control over himself. Or maybe Remus' senses startled him. Either way, Sirius said, "Who's there?"

Harry snorted and canceled the disillusion. He forgot, at times, his altered appearance, so it startled him when the two men began looking between the two, over and over. "Harry?" Sirius asked. Remus rushed over and grabbed Harry's face. "Oh my gosh. You look so much like your mother!" Harry found that amusing, considering he'd always been told he looked like his dad. "I mean, it's like a perfect merge but I expected you to look like James!"

Sirius nodded as Harry extracted himself from Remus' grip and stretched his jaw. "Wow… you have a strong grip." Remus looked abashed but Sirius didn't pay him any attention. "Y'know, he used to look like James… he had his dad's black hair and cheekbones, I mean, even his eyebrows are different – sort of feminine, but not enough to take away the boyish-ness that is the rest of his face."

Sirius continued to ramble on; Harry looked at Remus and whispered, too quiet for anyone else to hear, "Did he just call me feminine?"

Remus' face was wonderful, a mixture of "How did he know?" and "Oh my gosh I love this kid!"

Sirius caught the expression his friend wore and stopped. "Remus. Buddy. What's wrong?" Remus shook his head and said "He knows… Did you tell him, Lily?"

Lily shook her head, and Remus continued to stare at Harry. He must have decided how Harry knew wasn't important because he said, "And all you got out of that was 'Feminine'?"

Harry nodded. "Yep! And I'm from the future, so technically, I know you two. But you don't know me and I didn't really get to spend much with either of you then so…" Harry muttered to himself, then shook himself. "Whatever. Hi! I'm Harry, nice to meet you!"

Harry wore a genuine smile – and he knew it made him look very innocent. Like an angel. Both adults ended up cooing. "Oh he's adorable!" Remus said. "He got all the best features, Lily."

Harry smiled – this glamour would work perfectly. If he could make Sirius go wide-eyed and speechless just because he's cute…

And because a week can't overcome ten years of abuse and starvation, he was small and skinny. That would serve its purpose.

"Ten years of abuse and starvation!?" Sirius cried. "I don't know you that well, but I will not stand for it."

Remus had already started down the stairs. Not good. Harry couldn't believe he said that out loud.

Aunt Petunia was halfway through the door, having come back from a meeting to file a divorce. Harry watched in horror as his aunt was strangled by a werewolf.

"Remus! Remus stop!" Lily shouted. Harry forced Remus' hands off Petunia's throat. "Remus stop!" He said forcefully. "She was spelled. The only one who actually wants to hurt me is Uncle Vernon. And no! You're not killing him either. He'll get his justice."

"You were abused?" Sirius asked weakly. He seemed to have lost all his fire, thinking his godson had been abused because he couldn't take care of him – at least, that's what Harry hoped. It wouldn't be good for him to have gone insane.

"Albus Dumbledore. He wants me to be his perfect little warrior. He wasn't going to tell anyone about the horcrux in my head. He had children doing what he wanted and I don't know if their parents are in on it too. I hope not. Back in the future, well, I rather liked that family, except for the two who, well, pretty much betrayed me."

Harry sighed. "He placed charms on her and several others to make them hate me. She was encouraged to mistreat me. Had she been in her right mind, it never would have happened."

"Harry…" Sirius tried again. "This is all my fault. If I'd just been smarter, I wouldn't have gone to Azkaban and you would have grown up loved."

Harry vacantly wondered if the random mood swings were because of Azkaban, but decided it didn't matter.

*.*

It was August thirtieth, the day before school began, that it happened. It took Harry a while to figure out what it was, but once he had, it was a little disturbing.

Remus had grabbed his shoulder and Harry flinched. It continued for the rest of the day, and that evening, Harry asked Luna if she knew anything about it. Apparently, Harry's soul had settled in and since his body has adjusted, any habits that eleven-year-old Harry had were coming back.

Remus and Sirius had adjusted quite well, and were excited for Harry to be off to Hogwarts so they could finalize things that needed to be finalized. They were going to be moving into one of the Potter residences later on. The two men quickly discovered that Petunia could be pretty decent, especially considering that with her death came the breaking of the charms, which was only noticed later on. It was confirmed that yes, Severus Snape was all but adopted by the elder Evans', and yes, he probably had extensive memory charms placed on him.

Harry was prepared to commit murder. The small part of him that hoped Dumbledore wasn't really behind all of this shrunk every time more evidence presented itself. By that point in time, it was no bigger than a nerve cell. And the little appendages were getting snuffed out as quick as possible.

Harry growled just thinking about it. He couldn't help the fact that every time he remembered something about his old life, he realized that it was, in some way, connected to the headmaster. It would drive anyone to insanity.

At least quarreling with Draco was still as fun as ever