DISCLAIMER: you know the drill. I wish I did, but I don't, and I'm not claiming to. Don't sue me. Period.

Okay, I am endlessly sorry that I haven't been able to find the time to update…it's been a very long sequence of events (one of which was my struggle to pass calc 2), and explaining that would be longer than this chapter itself.

Anyway, I fear that I've lost a good number of my readers because of the time delay. So that makes me sad, but it's really my own fault. I did make a promise that I would finish this fic, and I do not plan on breaking that promise.

So, after god knows how many months of abandonment:


To the Moon and Back—Chapter 11


James sat bolt upright, awakened by a loud CRACK, like the sound of a whip. It took him several moments to make sense of his surroundings, but looking around he saw that he was back in his own bedroom. Throwing off his blanket, he saw that he was still in the Muggle clothing that he'd been wearing the previous day.

The previous day, he realized, eyes widening with the realization. Quickly, he changed his clothes and bolted across the hall and into his twin's room, not even bothering to knock. He found her already awake, hopping on one foot in an attempt to pull on a sneaker.

"You hear it, too?" she asked him, now moving to run a comb through her hair and pull it into two braids.

"Yeah," James said. "Lily, how did we get back here?"

"I dunno…Mom must have brought us back here, but we should be at school! Or at the hospital…but why we're back home—"

"We need to find our mother," he said, not waiting for her to finish her thoughts. "Grab your stuff."

"Just a moment, let me just fin—" but he had already disappeared into his own bedroom. She finished the second braid and looked around the room for her knapsack, which she located at the edge of her bed. Grabbing it hastily, she met her twin in the hallway and both dashed off to their mother's bedroom.

But there was no one in it. No hint that the bed had been slept in, and nobody to be found in her bathroom, either. The two exchanged glances.

"This is creepy," Lily said, voicing what James was thinking as the two of them bolted off down the stairs. Nobody in the office, dining room, or den. Only when Lily pushed open the door to the kitchen did they find a sign of life in the house, for Ginny stood making tea, toast and eggs. She turned and gave them a small smile.

"Hey, I figured that I'd make breakfast for the two of you so you'd have it for when you woke up. Sit down and I'll fill you in," she said, doling out scrambled eggs and toast onto three plates and sliding two across the kitchen table to where the two stunned, curious children had taken their seats. Lily jumped up to retrieve the butter and jam from the refrigerator, and James poured each of them a glass of milk while Ginny brought over a tea tray and cutlery from a drawer.

"Where's our mother?" Lily asked as James reached across the table for a fork. "At the hospital?"

"Yes," Ginny nodded. "She's there now with Ron, and she asked me to come back to check on you too and take you back to St. Mungo's when you're finished with breakfast."

"Great!" Lily said as James began to eat his eggs at top speed. Lily hastily took a large bite out of her toast. "I'm done." Ginny laughed.

"That doesn't count," she joked, "you haven't even swallowed it yet! Slow down, please, you don't want to make yourselves sick, too."

"Ok," James said, still eating at top speed. Lily began to spread butter and jam on her half-eaten toast, and her brother soon followed suit. Ginny poured them all cups of tea.

"How do you take your tea?" she asked them. Lily and James glanced at each other and grinned. Until they moved to England, they didn't know that there were different ways that they could drink tea.

"One and a half sugar, no milk, please." Both said in unison. Ginny grinned.

"Finally know how to drink tea, eh?" she asked with a smile. "You've come a long way, I'm proud of you."

"Thanks," Lily said as she took her cup of tea from her godmother, who was now sprinkling salt on her eggs.

Fifteen minutes later, the three of them were traversing the corridors back at St. Mungo's Center for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Turning into his father's room, James saw that his mother was fast asleep, head drooping onto Ron's upper arm. His head turned as they entered the room.

"Hey…how are you two?" James shrugged.

"How's—how's he doing?" Lily asked, hoping to hear of some improvement. Ron sighed, rubbing his eyes.

"Okay," he said. "He has improved a little…some of the treatments have begun to take effect, which is good. But if he doesn't get better fast, this one—" he gestured at Hermione, who was still sleeping, "—wants to try some crazy Muggle treatments on him." He rolled his eyes.

"His face looks better," Lily observed, moving closer to the bed and leaning over.

"Yes, that's thanks to some Healing ointments, and a bruise-remover courtesy of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," Ron chuckled. James looked at his sister, confused, but quickly saw that she couldn't offer him any answers.

"Oh, they were here?" Ginny spoke from behind them. Ron nodded.

"Yes, they came 'round and brought tea and some pastries for us…they left just half an hour ago, actually."

"I'm sorry that I missed them," Ginny said. A soft noise caused them to look around—Hermione was beginning to stir. She groggily lifted her head, and Ron flexed his arm.

"Good thing you're awake," he joked. "I don't know how much longer my hand could have gone without blood flow." Hermione rolled her eyes at him.

"Hey, guys," she said, noticing that her children were back in the room. They crossed the room to give her a hug, and she held them tight. "Here, we should get up and stretch our legs a bit," she said to Ron.

"Right," he nodded, and the two of them left the room to discuss something with Ginny, leaving the children at Harry's bedside, where they took their seats. Lily, who sat closer to Harry's head, glanced down at her watch.

"What time is it?" James asked.

"It's almost eight o'clock," she said. "We have a Potions exam in two hours."

"Oh, forget about the Potions test, it's not important," he said. When Lily gave him a skeptical look, he added "I'm sure the Professor McGonagall's told Slughorn about the situation."

"And knowing him, that shouldn't really be a problem," Lily nodded in agreement. "I'm sure that he wouldn't care if we never took the test at all," she laughed, and James grinned.

"Hey, don't say that too much, or I might start to think that that's actually a possibility." They exchanged glances and smiled. After a few moments of silence, an overcast look came over James' eyes.

"What?" He shrugged.

"I dunno…it's just…well, what's going to happen? How long are we going to be out of school? What if…what if," he began, voicing a fear that Lily also harbored, "if he never gets any better?"

For a moment, neither knew what to say to the other. Both simply gazed down at their father, Harry Potter, a man whom they knew only through stories, photographs, and a single written letter.

"I don't know," Lily said honestly. It was a question she really didn't want to know the answer to, and one that she knew would only be shared aloud between her and her twin—neither dared voice the thought to their mother. Hermione was under too much emotional strain already.

Once the question had been brought up, it hovered ominously over them both. Several minutes later, Lily decided that they needed to distract themselves, so she pulled out her Defense Against the Dark Arts book and began her two feet of parchment essay on the yeti. James followed suit, both of them occasionally glancing up at their father lying, still motionless, on the hospital bed.

They sat like that throughout the day, moving eventually for Ginny and Hermione to take over sitting in the chairs. James and Lily settled themselves on the floor with their books still open in their laps. Nobody quite seemed to care how much time had passed, but visitors kept popping up throughout the day.

It was around ten o'clock that Lily got so sick of people she didn't know staring at her, seeking out her eyes with their own to see if it was true, she slammed her book shut and dragged her things down the hall to the lounge. She sighed and spread her things comfortably over a table, sitting down to complete her essay in peace. And this way, she figured, she was at least a room away from the distractions.

"Hey, mind if I join you?" James stood in the doorway, knapsack over a shoulder and History of Magic book tucked under his arm.

"Sure," Lily shrugged. "What brings you here?"

"I got sick of people looking at me…I didn't know who any of them were. Plus, I think that Mom was starting to get uncomfortable explaining, you know—"

"Us? To everyone?"

"Yeah, that about covers it." Lily cleared a space at the table for him.

"History of Magic?" James nodded.

"Yep. How far are you?"

"I have two inches done, you?" Lily asked him as he sat down and opened his book, taking out his quill and inkwell again.

"I've got my name at the top of the paper," he said, grinning. She smiled back.

"Way to go," she said approvingly. "At least we know that you can't have lost points on it yet."

"Yes, but I also haven't gained them, either," he laughed, taking a look around the room. It was a nice one, with a handful of round tables and sofas to sit in, a small table piled with old copies of Witch Weekly Magazine and The Daily Prophet. A small machine in the corner advertised tea "however you like it, courtesy of St. Mungo's. Complimentary biscuit with each cup." Sunlight streamed in through two large windows, so there was no need for other lights.

"Nice place…is this the tea room?"

"Yep," Lily answered, writing in another neat sentence. "Come on, that essay isn't going to write itself." He rolled his eyes.

"Okay mom," he said, smirking, but he soon turned his quill back to the parchment and began to write.

One Herbology essay later, Professor McGonagall dropped by to give James and Lily their homework for the day and confirmation that Professor Slughorn would be happy to let them take their potions exam at a later date. The two of them exchanged glances and fought the urge to laugh. As the Headmistress turned to go, she stopped in the doorway.

"I hope that everything turns out well for you two," she said, a brief look of pity fleeting over her eyes.

"So do we," James said.

"Thank you, Professor," Lily said as she turned to leave, robes swishing gently around behind her as she walked out the door.

"That was weird," James told her in a low voice. Lily frowned, leaning forward across the table to be able to hear him better.

"Why? She just came to bring our work."

"She came, Lily, the Headmistress of Hogwarts," he raised his eyebrows pointedly. "Why?" James felt slightly ruffled by his sister's unconcerned shrug.

"She was also a good friend of our mother's and father's, and a fellow member—" she lowered her voice to a whisper, "—of the Order of the Phoenix." Lily returned her voice to its normal volume. "She probably wanted an excuse to visit, if nothing else." James didn't look completely convinced, but he nodded slowly.

"Okay, I guess that makes sense."

"What makes sense?" Both of them turned to see their mother standing in the doorway. She gave them a weak smile, entering the room and taking an empty seat at the table where her children sat. It was the first time that Lily and James had been able to look at Hermione closely in the last day or so. Lily saw that she looked both tired and worried. She had dark circles under her eyes, which seemed to have lost some of their usual sparkle. Glancing quickly over at James, she knew that he had seen it, too. Hermione, who seemed unaware of their sweeping gazes, looked from one to the other.

"Hey, are you ok?" The twins snapped out of their own reverie.

"Yeah, we're fine," James said, frowning. "You, on the other hand, look exhausted." Hermione gave a small smile.

"I've been here for…a while," she finished, not wanting to admit to herself that she had been keeping an eye on Harry every moment that she could since she learned of his admission.

"The entire time?" Lily asked, though she already knew the answer. "Mom, you've got to get some rest. Please."

"Why don't you go home and sleep for an hour or two, maybe take a hot shower."

"Yeah, it will make you feel loads better."

"And you know that when Dad wakes up, you aren't going to want the first glimpse of you in 11 years to be after you haven't slept for days," James said with a slight smirk on his lips. Hermione's face broke into a smile. She knew that they were right.

"And Ron and Ginny will still be here, right?"

"Well, Ron will," she said, thinking for a moment, "but Ginny had to go in to work today for a few hours, and she needed to do some things at home as well. But since Ron is not on duty and Daniel is in school, he can stay with you…let me talk to him."

And so in the middle of the afternoon, Hermione left St. Mungo's with a quick hug and kiss to each of her children. She also had a quick word to Ron about having his head if he didn't take care of her kids, after which he sprang into mock salute and assured her that she had nothing to worry about.

"Behave," she told James and Lily, though she knew that she had nothing to worry about. "And let me know as soon as possible if there is any change in his condition, even if it is," she bit her lip, "not good." Ron nodded.

"Definitely, Hermione," he said sincerely, reassuring her. "Don't worry about it." Hermione gave him a small, trusting smile before turning and leaving the room.

A quarter of an hour later, James and Lily had gone back into their father's hospital room. Harry Potter still lay, unstirred, on the bed without indication that he would come 'round any time soon. They sat in the chairs at his bedside, a small table pulled between them. They had begun a game of wizard's chess, with Ron watching them appraisingly.

As one of Lily's knights barbarically took out James' last bishop, a noise caused them all to laugh: James' stomach gave a loud, hollow rumble. His cheeks reddened as he placed his hand over his stomach as if to try to silence the noise. Ron checked his watch.

"Well, you should be hungry," he said, smiling. "It's nearly one-thirty, and I'm hungry too. Can you two hold down the fort while I grab something for us to eat?" Lily nodded.

"Definitely. Thanks, Ron," she said, clearing the broken bishop from the chessboard.

"Yeah, thanks," James told him, looking up. After Ron had left the room, James stood as well.

"What, one busted bishop and you're quitting?" Lily joked.

"You only wish," James said, grinning back. "I'm just going to go and find the bathroom."

"Hurry back! I can't wait to kick your wizard tush," Lily called to her brother's retreating form.

"Only in your dreams," his voice floated back through the door as his footsteps pattered down the hall. Lily turned to the chessboard for a moment, plotting her next move. She thought of going to get a cup of tea from the next room, but decided against it, instead choosing to wait for Ron to return with lunch.

Readjusting her chair, she gazed for the dozenth time into her father's face. Hesitating, she rested her right hand on his left, which lay still atop the blanket. Harry's hand was tough and callused from years of work as an Auror. His breathing was slow and consistent, a good sign. His pulse and blood pressure were normal, but still he lay unresponsive. Lily sighed.

How different were her life, James' life, her mother's life been had she not run? If she hadn't left so soon? If Harry and Ron had found her before she made her decision to run? She had imagined growing up in England, in the wizarding world, ever since she found out about her parentage and the story behind it. She could have grown up in that world, with dozens of people who loved and cared for her, who wouldn't have treated her like a freak.

But Lily knew, as she absentmindedly stroked her father's hand as she'd seen her mother do so many times in the last day, that her mother had done the best she could, and that she wouldn't have traded those last 11 years of her life for anything. She and James had grown up happily with their mother and a few good family friends, and she knew that neither of them felt as if they missed out on anything.

Well, not really. Except for the whole growing up without a father thing. But now their father was back, and it hit Lily that there was a very real possibility that he would never come out of the coma. She looked around at the door, wondering how long it could have possibly taken her brother to find where the toilets were.

And then, very suddenly, Lily felt her father's hand suddenly move beneath her own.

"Dad?" She heard the steady beeping of the heart monitor quicken as Harry turned his head slightly on the pillow. And for the first time, his eyelids fluttered open and Lily looked into a pair of emerald eyes that matched her own.


"Is it true?" Hermione asked, breathless, as she quickened her steps down the wooden corridors of St. Mungo's. "Is it?" Her voice carried an urgency that was not to be ignored. Ron Weasley grinned beside her, his long legs easily able to keep up with her rapid pace.

"Very much so. Harry's awake, and your kids—his kids—are in there now, meeting their father for the first time."

"I have to see him," Hermione resolved. They were approaching the door now, and she could see that it was still partially ajar. Hurrying toward it, she could hear giggling and faint laughter. Her hand hesitated at the knob for a moment before she pushed the door the rest of the way open and stood in the doorway cautiously.

Hermione could hardly believe the sight before her. Lily and James were talking animatedly, both still affixed in chairs at the bedside, to their father for the first time. Harry Potter was sitting in his bed, propped on his pillows, also with a smile on his face. The noise that she had made upon entering the room caused their heads to turn. As Harry's eyes found Hermione's, his smile widened, eyes glittering in both joy and disbelief.

"Hey, 'Mione," he said in a soft, croaky voice. Hermione wasn't sure if his voice was hoarse with emotion or just because he hadn't used it in a while. She also didn't care. Eyes welling with tears, she made her way over to the side of the bed not occupied by her children. The two of them were staring so intently at each other that neither noticed Lily and James quietly slip out of their chairs and out of the room, closing the door behind them for privacy.

"I—I can't—" she began, her voice breaking with emotion. She could not tear her brown eyes away from his green ones. Slowly, she reached out her hand and gently caressed his cheek.

"Neither can I," Harry said, shaking his head slowly from side-to-side, as if to make sure that this was completely real. "Hermione…it's been…"

"Way too long," she finished, tears now streaming down her cheeks uncontrollably. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Again," he said, "I don't see why you are crying." She hit him playfully on the shoulder, laughing through her tears. She threw her arms around his neck and lay her head on his chest, tears now absorbed by his hospital gown.

"I'm so glad you're back," Hermione told him, lifting her head and dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. She sniffled a little, and Harry reached to wipe a stray tear from her cheek, shaking his head in mild disbelief.

"You have no idea."


Okay! So that's it for chapter 11…the next installment should be up in a week or so.

And for the updated scoreboard!

Gryffindor: 130

Ravenclaw: 35

Hufflepuff: 35

Slytherin: 20

And how this worked was those of you who specified points to be given to a specific house got them, if not, the remaining 40 pts were divided between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. But thanks to Maitlyn, Slytherin is now on the board! Yay!

Hmmm….no questions for this chapter, but there will be some up again for the next chapter! I think that we'll do a couple of general trivia questions instead:

What architect designed the glass pyramid that is part of the Louvre museum in Paris? What was his/her nationality

Which U.S. state does not subdivide into counties?

Which Roman emperor appointed his horse to the councel?

Have fun with those! Again, each is worth ten points and if you don't specify a house, I'll divide the points up somehow.

Until next time (sometime in the next week and a half, I promise)

Callista Rose