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Harry's Tale Part 3
"By now Harry's fourteen then and he's escaped Voldemort four times," James shook his head in disbelief.
Lily nodded "unfortunately it doesn't end there."
"So what happens next?" Sirius asked bracing himself for the worst.
"Well during the summer Dumbledore reinstated the Order of the Phoenix," Lily began.
"WHOOO, GO THE ORDER!"
"Padfoot, shut up," James laughed.
Grinning, Lily went on "and Daddy was trapped at the Dursleys house for over a month during which he used magic against the Dementors to save his cousin's and his own soul. Some Ministry toad called Umbridge sent them hoping to get Daddy expelled which is exactly what happened of course."
The Marauders and Lily were staring at her in shock and horror.
"But thankfully Dumbledore patched it all up and Dad didn't get expelled," Al said quickly.
"And my Mum and Dad got made prefects," Rose said unable to keep this piece of information to herself.
"No one cares, Rosie," Lucy sighed "And besides my dad was Head Boy – not that I care – so I win."
"I care and the only reason my Mum wasn't Head Girl was because she was too busy saving the world," said Rose hotly.
"Touché," Lucy shrugged knowing that at that time her father had been a 'ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry, world class git' as her Uncle George put it quite nicely and as her father never denied it but looked thoroughly miserable, it was very rarely mentioned.
"And don't call me Rosie," Rose added.
"Ah yes, only Scorpy can call you that," Al teased.
"Aww do you call each other Rosie and Scorpy," Sirius cooed.
Rose glared at Al "I have never in my life called Scorpius, Scorpy but yes he calls me Rosie."
"How cute," said James teasingly.
"Merlin, James I now know why you were named after these two. They're almost as annoying as you," Rose muttered.
James, James and Sirius looked as if they'd been complimented and Rose just groaned.
"So how about we talk about something interesting instead of Head Boys and prefects," Sirius suggested.
"Excellent idea," Fred agreed taking over the story "So Harry and the crew," Lucy laughed at Fred's description of everyone else "arrived back at Hogwarts only to find that Umbridge, the one Lily referred to as 'the Ministry toad' was teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts and generally just taking over the school."
Remus paled "You don't mean Delores Umbridge do you?"
"The very one," Teddy said grimly.
"She's published a lot of anti-werewolf legislation recently," Lily explained narrowing her eyes.
"Typical, well thankfully we've never met her," Al said "She basically ruined Dad's fifth year. She banned Uncle Fred and Uncle George and him from playing Quidditch because Dad and Uncle George beat up Draco Malfoy who was insulting nearly every member of our family."
A dark look of anger flashed across Al's eyes at that "Then she started reading mail so Sirius couldn't write anymore and banned him from Hogsmeade after he gave an interview about the truth about what happened with Voldemort."
"Sweet Merlin, she's a right cow," Lily muttered.
Teddy smiled remembering something "Speaking of Hogsmeade, Al, why don't we tell them about a certain Miss Chang."
Al and Lily frowned; they didn't particularly like hearing the stories about their parent's ex's although they couldn't deny this one was quite funny. James on the other hand burst out laughing; this was one of personal favourite stories that he'd been told.
"Now that is one hell of a funny story," James grinned.
"It all started out when a certain Harry Potter laid eyes on a certain Cho Chang," Fred began.
"As in the one he asked to the Yule Ball," Lily remembered.
"Precisely, well she was Dad's first kiss," James explained "Poor bloke didn't kiss anyone for fifteen years."
"Just because you were a player and you had your first kiss when you were twelve and then told the girl she wasn't 'the one'," Lucy teased while everyone laughed.
"Like you can do any better, you broke almost every boy in the whole school's heart," Rose pointed out.
"So is this why you two get on so well?" Sirius asked "You're both heartbreakers."
"Nah, that's just Lucy," Fred replied while Lucy glared at him "James wised up and got boring as soon as he started dating Alice."
"Remind you of anyone, Moony?" Sirius smirked.
"Funnily enough, yes, Padfoot," Remus replied.
"He wouldn't happen to be also called James would he?" asked Sirius.
"Nah, can't be," laughed Remus.
"Sod off you two. I was never a heartbreaker, I barely dated anyone because it was always going to be Lily for me," James said putting his arm around said girl who turned in her seat to give him a quick kiss.
"Please stop with the romance," Sirius mimed vomiting into the fruit bowl.
"You're just jealous," James smirked.
Sirius rolled his eyes and said sarcastically "Of course I am. Not really, I'd rather hear about Harry then watch you two, play tonsil tennis."
Fred snorted "Okay Sirius I'll continue. Uncle Harry asked Cho to go to Hogsmeade with him on Valentine's Day or rather she asked him but that's beside the point. Their date went horrifically badly."
"Firstly they found out that the only topic they could talk about was Quidditch," Teddy said.
"Fair enough," James shrugged.
"I thought so too but if you think about it, after that conversation runs out they're left in an awkward silence," Teddy pointed out.
"Oh yeah," said James.
"Well Cho suggested they go to Madam Puddifoot's for coffee – yes I do mean that fluffy pink hell hole with all the frilly curtains and fluff and pink," Fred visibly paled at the thought.
"Poor Harry," Remus chuckled.
"And it sort of went downhill then after Dad told her that he was going to meet Aunt Hermione for lunch," Albus smirked.
"He what!" Lily's eyes widened in horror "How can boys be so tactless?"
"It's a gift," James laughed.
Sirius asked "Why was he meeting your aunt anyway? He wasn't secretly dating her?"
Rose, Lily, James and Albus all made faces of horror and disgust.
"It's possible," Fred said thoughtfully.
"Shut up, Fred," Al scowled "No, Sirius he was not secretly dating his sister-in-all-but-blood. He was meeting her there along with Rita Skeeter and our parent's friend Luna Scamander, well she was Luna Lovegood then."
"Why was she meeting them?" Remus asked.
"To interview Harry, it was the interview that provoked Umbridge to ban him from Hogsmeade. Rita wrote the article and it was published in Luna's father's magazine," Teddy answered.
"Lovegood," Lily repeated "Is she Xenophilius Lovegood's daughter who writes the Quibbler?"
"Yes, that's her," Lily answered smiling.
"But that magazine has a lot of rubbish in it, doesn't it," Lily made a face.
James and Al smirked at their grandmother; their sister wouldn't take that insult to the Quibbler well.
"No, no it is not rubbish, to start with it is the only magazine which supported Daddy during the Second War," Lily retorted "It is one of the only publications that prints facts."
"Lily, you can't honestly call that rubbish about Bumple-spiked snackors, fact," Lucy sighed.
"It's Crumple-Horned Snorkacks actually," Lily snapped "And Luna was telling me just the other day that Rolf and she found the footprints of one last June."
"If you say so," Lucy shrugged deciding not to argue.
"Well I think it's a great magazine, very entertaining," Sirius spoke up.
"Precisely," Lily smiled "It's very misunderstood just because it has some unusual theories."
Teddy decided to explain "Lily, she feels quite passionate about the Quibbler because Luna's her godmother and has always enjoyed telling her about it since she was tiny."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Lilysaid truthfully.
"Its fine," Lily assured her; she was used to admitting defeat when it came to her godmother's magazine but she was still sounding a bit hostile.
"I was just wondering how you lot managed to know so much about Harry's date with Cho. I mean it's quite bad so I doubt he told you of his own free will," James said.
"Well of course he didn't tell us," Rose rolled her eyes "it was the Christmas holidays during my sixth year when we were all over at Uncle Harry's and Aunt Ginny's and James, Fred and Louis found Uncle Harry's Pensieve."
"Ah, I see where this is going," Remus nodded.
"Well they snatched it out of his office and showed it to Lily, Hugo, Roxanne, Lucy, Dominique, and myself. Oh and Alice who was staying over for a few days with me, Albus was staying at Scorpius's but I wasn't allowed," Rose continued.
"Did you really expect to let your Dad let you stay over at your boyfriend's house," Teddy raised an eyebrow chuckling.
"Well Victoire was always allowed to stay over at your house," Rose protested.
"That's because Bill and Fleur trusted Andromeda to make sure nothing happened, your parents did not however trust Draco Malfoy, come to think of it they still don't," Teddy replied.
"It's not like we were going to do anything," Rose muttered "And I'd stayed over before when we weren't dating."
"Okay, Rose," Teddy smiled.
"Well it didn't take long to persuade the rest of them that we should take a look in the Pensieve – I was more respecting of Uncle Harry's privacy – but no such luck, Roxanne dragged me in with the rest of them. And we saw the whole of the trip to Hogsmeade as well as the Yule Ball and a couple of other interesting incidents that we might mention later," Rose finished her explanation.
"How did you lot get landed with such a great family when I'm stuck with having two nice relations in total," Sirius grumbled
"Four now, you keep forgetting about Ted and Nymphadora," Lily told him.
"Well yes," Sirius conceded.
"But your shot of the rest of them now," James said optimistically.
"Thank Merlin, so anything else interesting happen in Harry's fifth year?" asked Sirius wanting to move away from the topic of his family quickly.
"Well of course, he did his OWLs," Lily said quickly.
"I said anything interesting Lily, the key word being interesting," Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Shut up, Sirius," Lily muttered "How did he do in his exams?"
"Haven't a clue," Lucy shrugged.
"He got an O in Defence Against the Dark Arts," Al said "But the only ones he failed were History of Magic and Divination."
"Well who cares about those two anyway," James shrugged, proud of his son.
"What happened at the end of the year?" Remus asked; he had seen the pattern about when bad things happened to his best friend's son.
The time travellers were all very quite for a moment.
"That bad?" James winced.
"Err, well you see Harry's lightning bolt scar on his forehead had a connection to Voldemort and sometimes he got visions about what Voldemort was doing," Teddy began to elucidate "And for months Harry had been dreaming about the Department of Mysteries where the prophecy concerning him and Voldemort was stored. Voldemort needed it but he couldn't very well walk into the Ministry to get it."
"Couldn't he just get someone else to get it for him?" Sirius asked.
"No Padfoot, only people who the prophecies concern can lift them off their shelves in the Hall of Prophecies," Remus replied.
"Exactly and there was only one person who Voldemort could get to get the prophecy for him," Teddy said sadly.
Lily's eyes widened "Surely not, you don't mean … Harry? Do you?"
Teddy's grim smile answered her question.
"That's why Voldemort had him dreaming about the Department of Mysteries then," Lily realised putting her head in her hands and James tightened his grip around her.
Lucy nodded "Yes, that's right. He realised he could use the visions against Uncle Harry. It was during the History of Magic exam, Uncle Harry fell asleep and he dreamed that well … he dreamt Voldemort had," she took a deep breath "that he had Sirius in the Department of Mysteries."
Remus's head snapped up; he had a bad feeling about where this was going.
"But it was just a vision, right?" James asked uncertainly sending a fearful glance at Sirius. Did something happen to him?
"Yes, it was just a vision," Lucy sighed "But Uncle Harry didn't know that. He checked at Grimmauld Place using Floo powder and Kreacher told him you were in the Ministry so Harry prepared to go there himself."
"Back up a moment, why the hell would I be at Grimmauld Place?" Sirius burst out in disgust.
"It was the Headquarters for the Order, you lived there," Al answered.
"What! How could Dumbledore make him stay there, he must know that Sirius hates that awful place," exclaimed James in horror as Sirius gaped wordlessly from across the table.
"He was trying to keep Sirius safe from the Ministry as well as near Harry if he needed to contact him," explained Al
"And just how long was I trapped there," Sirius said icily; he had thought he was free of that place for good.
"A year, I think," Rose said quietly "Sorry."
"Don't apologize, it's not anything to do with you," Sirius told her "You weren't even born. Why don't you just tell us the rest, I can tell it's going to be bad so just get it over with."
"Well to cut a long story short, Harry checked Grimmauld Place but Kreacher told him you weren't there," Lucy repeated "So along with Aunt Ginny, Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione, Luna and Neville, Harry set off for the Ministry riding Thestrals."
"Riding what?" Sirius asked.
"The things that pull the carriages up to school, honestly Padfoot you really are thick," James smirked.
"Shut up Prongs," Sirius retorted still annoyed about his imprisonment in Grimmauld Place.
"On arriving at the Ministry they discovered Sirius wasn't there … but ten Death Eaters were," Lily said miserably.
"Which ones?" Remus inquired.
"I don't know them all but I know Scorpius's grandfather was, Bellatrix Lestrange was as well as her husband and his brother and Dolohov," Lily replied; she had remembered these specific ones because she knew people who had been affected by crimes they committed. Her mother had received the diary from Lucius Malfoy, Professor Neville's parents had been tortured by the Lestranges, Bellatrix had killed Sirius and Dolohov had murdered her grandma's brothers.
"I should have know that sadistic cousin of mine would be there," Sirius said angrily "And of course that new husband of hers, Rodolphus … and I thought Scorpius was a stupid name."
"You really have one of the worst families ever," Fred said feeling sorry for his uncle's godfather.
"Thanks for telling me but I was able to work it out myself," Sirius sighed.
"Well the Death Eaters tried to get the prophecy off Dad, he'd lifted it when he saw his name in it," James continued "Both sides obtained casualties, Aunt Hermione was knocked unconscious," he decided not to mention she had almost died. "Mum had her ankle broken, Neville's nose broke, Uncle Ron got attacked by brains and Luna ended up unconscious too. A couple of the Death Eaters got injured but nothing that serious."
Albus took over "Neville and Dad were the only ones who could walk but Neville could cast any spells so Dad was basically on his own when the Order turned up."
"The whole Order?" Remus asked shocked.
"No, no, just Mad-Eye, you, Sirius, Kingsley Shacklebolt and my mum," Teddy answered.
"Ah yes, Moony's girl," James teased.
"Don't be a git," Lily said to James smiling; she was happy that Remus had a family in the future ... although for some reason Teddy had never met him.
Remus looked worried; he had a feeling something bad was going to happen and he knew that it wasn't Tonks or him, so that only left Mad-Eye and Kingsley who were both very experienced Aurors and Sirius who he was most worried for.
"And err, well you see…" Fred began unsure how to go on "Bellatrix was fighting Sirius and well…"
"Well what?" Sirius asked but he knew the answer.
"You fell through the Veil of Death and you well …" Lucy said awkwardly.
"Died," Sirius supplied not sounding too upset by this.
"Err yes," Lucy said quietly.
"What!" James exclaimed; he was only one who had not seen this coming "That can't be … Sirius can't … that bitch … how dare she … I'll kill her … you can't be … Harry's alone … this is so…" he couldn't speak. It was bad enough that Lily and he were dead but now Sirius was too not to mention Peter had betrayed them. Remus and Harry had both basically lost everything. His best friend was dead; it felt as though he was being told Lily was dead all over again...
"Prongs mate, it isn't that bad," Sirius said to him "Think about all the fun we can have in the afterlife annoying kindred spirits and Lily-flower."
"This isn't funny, Sirius," James replied "You're dead, yes you might see me and Lily again but what about Remus? What about Harry? What about you're life, you aren't meant to sound so pleased."
"Well put it this way, apparently I'm locked up in Grimmauld Place with Kreacher and the hag that is my mother's portrait with barely any company. And Remus has Dora and Harry has all the Weasleys and Remus and everyone else," Sirius smiled like he was quite a genius for working this out.
Lily sighed "Sirius, what is wrong with you?"
"I just don't see the point of getting worked up about something that won't happen for another twenty odd years," Sirius shrugged.
"What about Remus?" Lily pressed.
"Sirius, just because I got a girlfriend doesn't mean I won't care that you've died," Remus said sadly "But I don't know if this is the best time to tell you but Teddy told me why he didn't know me."
Teddy looked up alarmed and shared a look with Rose; they both looked in agreement that this was not the time to tell them.
"Remus, I'm not sure-" Rose began.
But Remus cut her off speaking directly to his two best friends very seriously and with sadness etched in every line of his scared face "I died too, Teddy was only a few days old."
"No," Lily breathed looking at Teddy begging him to disprove what Remus had said but he couldn't. Tears began to flow down her face; none of her friends where going to live until they were forty! Except Alice and Frank but they wouldn't even know what was going on around them.
James was looking at Remus in horror, words couldn't describe how he was feeling at this point, his two best friends were going to die, the woman he loved was going to die and he was going to die although he didn't really care about himself right now.
Sirius paled "Remus you … but … how?"
"Dora and I were fighting in a battle against Voldemort, the one that finished him," Remus replied sorrowfully.
"Wait, you don't mean to say that Dora was …" Sirius trailed off.
"I'm afraid so," Teddy said miserably.
This woke up James from his misery "But then who raised you? Tell me it wasn't horrible people like Lily's sister."
"Of course not," Teddy said quickly "it was my grandma, Andromeda, she's great, I don't know how to ever thank her for what she did after just losing her daughter, son-in-law and not long after losing her husband. And Harry and Ginny helped her as well. Harry's my godfather."
"You could argue that Mum is a horrible person," James joked "The amount of times she sent me Howlers at school is enough to classify her as horrible."
"You deserved each and every one of them," Rose said firmly "And she didn't send that many, it was like eight in seven years for Merlin's sake!"
"Well I definitely didn't deserve that one for locking you and Scorpius in a broom cupboard for an hour without your wands," James smirked.
Fred, Al and Lily all burst out laughing at the memory. Lucy looked like she wished she'd still been at Hogwarts then and Sirius cracked a weak smile.
"You most certainly did," Rose said hotly "I wouldn't have minded if you'd done it a month later when we were actually dating because then we wouldn't have had to just sit there for an hour doing nothing. It was so awkward."
"Whatever," James shrugged "and for the record eight Howlers in seven years is bad. In fact one Howler in seven years would be bad."
"I feel your pain." Sirius said "My mother sent me way over ten, mostly for being a disgrace to the house of Black. Not that I cared much, I only cared that I had to listen to her rant for a good ten minutes every time."
Fred, Lucy, Teddy and James laughed.
Rose sighed; at least they had managed to cheer Sirius up slightly but the others all looked extremely depressed. "Dumbledore told Harry the prophecy that night. And that's basically all that happened that year."
"Tell me the next year is better," James pleaded.
Lily grinned "it's my favourite because Dad finally stops chasing Cho and goes after Mum instead."
"He didn't really do that much though, he just kind of watched jealously from afar," Rose pointed out.
Lily shrugged "So, at least they got together in the end or else I couldn't have graced the world with my presence."
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Al teased.
"Sod off Al," Lily glared.
"So what happened?" Lily asked wanting to get her mind off her friend's deaths.
"Dumbledore started giving Harry private lessons to help him defeat Voldemort," Teddy explained "Harry found out that Voldemort had made Horcruxes."
"What are they?" Remus frowned trying to remember if he read about them ever.
Surprisingly it was Sirius who answered "A Horcrux is Dark magic, very Dark magic. It's an object which hides part of someone's soul, it means if the person's body dies the person's soul remains on the Earth but without a body. It means you can't die."
Lily, Remus and James stared at him for two reasons, the first being they were shocked that anyone would do such a thing. The second was that it was not a normal occurrence for Sirius to say something that reflected his intelligent for he was a very clever person. It normally just didn't seem it.
"And how do you get your soul into an object like this," Lily asked warily.
"You rip it into two by committing murder," answered Sirius.
"How do you know this?" James wondered.
"Remember the summer before fifth year when Regulus and I had to stay with our delightfully deranged cousins for a week." Sirius made a face at the thought "Regulus being the nerd he is spent half the time in Uncle Cygnus's library and he decided I might just be interested in what he was reading – I wasn't – so he told me about Horcruxes."
"Sounds like a lovely library," Lucy snorted.
"Lucy, when have you ever found a library, lovely," Rose wondered "More to the point when have you ever been in a library."
"I went into the Hogwarts library once," Lucy said indignantly.
"That was because you needed to tell Molly that your mum's brother was getting married," Lily reminded her.
"Whatever," Lucy waved it off airily "Sirius is right about the Horcruxes though, only Voldemort didn't split his soul in two."
"Teddy said he did though," Remus pointed out.
"No, Teddy said he made Horcruxes, not that he made six Horcruxes, he split his soul into seven pieces," explained Fred.
"Seven," Lily gasped completely disgusted.
"That's horrific," James agreed.
"So that's why he didn't die that night," Remus muttered.
"Yep, that's right," Albusnodded "his Horcruxes kept him 'alive'. To defeat him, Dad had to destroy all the Horcruxes."
"But they could be anything," protested Sirius.
"Thankfully Dumbledore had some ideas. The first one was the diary which Uncle Harry destroyed in his second year, the second was a ring that belonged to Voldemort's grandfather which Dumbledore destroyed, the third was Slytherin's locket, the fourth was a cup belonging to Hufflepuff, the fifth was the Diadem of Ravenclaw and the sixth was Voldemort's snake, Nagini," James explained conveniently leaving out the fact that his father was one as well.
"And Dumbledore just knew all them," Remus raised an eyebrow.
"No, he knew the first two because they'd been destroyed and he guessed the Locket and the Cup. He also assumed the other might be something of Ravenclaw's or Gryffindor's and the last one the snake," Al shook his head.
Remus, Sirius, James and Lily digested this for a moment.
"Well I for one wish to move on to a less depressing topic," Sirius said after a moment.
Teddy shrugged "fair enough, but the Horcruxes do come back into the story."
"So you were saying that Harry finally gets the girl," Sirius turned to Lily.
Lily grinned "Well it took him like a year because Mum had a boyfriend" she made a face "Dad spent most of the year wanting to strangle him or kick him off the Quidditch team."
"Oh we forgot to say that Dad was Quidditch captain," Albus interrupted.
"YES! HE'S FOLLOWED IN MY FOOTSTEPS," James yelled excitedly.
"Calm down, James," Lily laughed; she was glad to see him out of his depressed mood even if he went back into it later.
"But Lily, this is the proudest moment of my life! Our son is Quidditch Captain," James was practically jumping up and down.
"Really," Lily raised an amused eyebrow "that's better than him defeating Voldemort."
"Well that's good too," James waved it away "But Quidditch captain!"
"So you were saying, Lily," Lily turned back to her granddaughter with laughter evident on her face from James's antics.
"In the end, Mum broke up with Dean, thank Merlin but Dad still didn't ask her out," replied Lily.
Sirius frowned "Why not? I thought he'd be asking her out straight away, that's what I'd do."
"Well I hope to goodness that my son has better skills at asking a girl out than you," Lily smirked.
All the time travellers burst out laughing.
"What?" Lily looked at them "What did he do? I swear if he decided it would be a good idea to jinx Ginny so her hair would turn turquoise because obviously she'd want to out with him if he did that then I'll…"
"I take it James did that to you," Rose smirked.
"There's nothing wrong with turquoise," pouted Teddy.
"It wouldn't go away for a month!" Lily scowled "a bloody month!"
"You really know how to get a girl, don't you James," laughed Fred.
James just pouted and changed the subject "So why didn't Harry ask Ginny out straight away?"
"He was worried Uncle Ron would murder him for even thinking about Mum as more than a friend," Al rolled his eyes.
"He had reason to be worried," Fred pointed out "Scorpius is lucky to be alive, you saw Uncle Ron's face when he found out about him and Rose."
"It wasn't that bad," Rose said "I mean he only hexed him once, it could have been a lot worse. Dad was actually really good about it when Scorpius asked him if he could marry me."
"And then he went and got drunk as soon as he realised you'd be changing your name to Malfoy," smirked Teddy.
Rose scowled at the reminder and quickly changed back to the original story "Well to be honest Uncle Harry didn't exactly ask Auntie Ginny out."
"So how'd they get married and have these sprogs?" Sirius asked pointing at his best friend's grandchildren.
"Well in a nutshell Harry snogged Ginny in front of the whole of Gryffindor Tower after Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup," Teddy summed up with a grin.
Remus, Sirius and James burst out laughing at once.
"Looks like someone takes after their father," Lily muttered but she was also grinning.
"Did James do that to you?" asked Lucy confused.
"No," Lily shook her head "If he had I would have hexed him and he knows it."
James pouted "maybe before we started dating but since then it probably would have been you jumping on me."
"Suppose," Lily grinned at him then added to Lucy "I only meant that Harry seems to have as much tact when it comes to girls as my boyfriend here."
Rose nodded in agreement "I agree with you but Aunt Ginny doesn't, she says she would never have had it any other way."
"I agree with Mum, it's really romantic," Lily smiled then frowned "unfortunately they only went out for a few weeks though before Dad broke up with Mum so he could 'protect her'. But they got together again after Voldemort was destroyed obviously."
"If you knew Ginny, you'd know that she can protect herself just fine," Teddy cut in with a snigger.
"So why'd he break up with her if she can protect herself?" asked Sirius.
"Because Voldemort had used people close to Harry before as bait," Teddy said looking at Sirius pointedly.
"And because Dumbledore had just died," Fred added without thinking.
"Good joke Fred," Remus said lightly.
Rose looked at Fred with a look that said 'nice way to break it to them.'
Fred recoiled from his cousin "Err, well I wasn't actually joking."
Remus stared at him in horror "But … Dumbledore can't … he's Dumbledore … impossible…"
"How did it happen?" Lily asked her eyes wide while James put a comforting hand on Remus's shoulder. He knew Remus was always going to be grateful to Dumbledore for allowing him to come to Hogwarts when hundreds wouldn't have.
Sirius was looking at Fred, his mouth hanging open.
Fred looked to his cousins for help but none of them spoke up "He was murdered."
"But who would dare do that to Dumbledore?" Lily asked still in a state of absolute shock.
"Remember how we told you Snape turned to our side after he … well told Voldemort about the prophecy," Rose stepped in. They nodded "Dumbledore instructed Snape to kill him to protect Mr Malfoy from becoming a murderer. Dumbledore was dying anyway due to a curse he had picked up."
As Rose had explained this Lily, Remus, Sirius and James's mouths had gradually fallen open.
"Snape did it!" growled Sirius seething with anger.
"Isn't Mr Malfoy related to your boyfriend?" James asked Rose. "And why would he become a murderer?"
Remus got up and walked round the kitchen to get another bar of chocolate. Lucy took this as an invitation and took one herself as well.
"Severus … but … oh Merlin," Lily dropped her head into her hands.
"Yes Sirius, it was Snape but like Rose said – quite clearly I may add – it was on Dumbledore's orders because he was slowly dying," Al repeated. "Mr Malfoy is Scorpius's father who was instructed by Voldemort to kill Dumbledore or his whole family would be murdered."
"Harry and Dumbledore had been on a mission to find Slytherin's locket and they returned to the Astronomy tower and … after a few conversations between some Death Eaters and Dumbledore, Snape turned up and you know …" Teddy trailed off.
"I just can't believe it, I could never do something like that to someone like Dumbledore," Lily said quietly.
"My Dad once told me that Snape was the bravest man he ever knew," Al said trying to comfort his eighteen year old grandmother.
"But Mum says he was the biggest git she ever knew … except perhaps Uncle Ron," James smirked.
"James you really aren't helping," Al said to him.
"How about we move swiftly onwards, there's still quite a lot of information to come," suggested Lucy.
"Suppose you might as well," Remus said dejectedly.
Six months later and I FINALLY unpdated! So unlike me, normally I can't bear to leave stories for longer than a week but I had writer's block.
There will be one more chapter on Harry's seventh year which I am currently writing. Then there will be a chapter in 2026 which I have written but need to proof read. Then I honestly have no idea where this story is going but I am going to finish it! Suggestions would be welcome, I'm thinking of a Quidditch match maybe ? Please tell me what you think.
Hope you enjoyed :)
