Dedication: To halestorm 1313– my 100th reviewer!! Huzzah! I made it to triple digits!! Thanks to everyone else who voted but especially to halestorm 1313 because she made my day by making it 100 reviews. :-)

Special Mention: the one and only person who got it right AND didn't just say it and change their minds because of the brown hair: Mo.Mo.licious. Clever thinking

A/N: I couldn't stress enough over this chapter. It caused a major writer's block… and for now, this will have to do. I'm ever so sorry. It's short but chockfull of info.

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Chapter 11
Two Sides to Every Story

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The mysterious figure turned around and Harry's emerald eyes connected with a pair of sparkling blue eyes. Her features looked so familiar to Harry but he couldn't recognise the middle-aged woman that stood before him.

"Who are you?" he said loudly. The unknown woman seemed calm, her smile was friendly and genuine, and for some reason it made Harry's heart stop for a moment.

"Still unable to recognise me in this, I see," her mouth twisted into a wry smile. Even her voice sounded somewhat familiar to Harry but still, he could not register where he had seen or heard this woman before. One thing was for sure, Harry did not feel safe with her. She could have been a death eater for all he knew.

Her wand reunited with her head and her hair became darker. Redder, even. It became a rich auburn colour and her eyes… Oh god… Harry thought. No, no, no…

Lily Potter smiled back at her son, her equally green eyes shining in the light. "Now I don't want to frighten you…"

"No," Harry cut her off, burying his head in his hands. "This is all some big scheme or something. My parents are dead," he emphasized on the word. "Whatever you and Jason Parker are pulling, it's not going to work on me." Harry was quick to his feet as he quickly tried to reach the door, only to have her cut across his path.

"Harry I know that it's hard to take in but--"

"How many times do I have to say it?" Harry yelled at her, "My parents are dead! Dead as in died and never coming back. For seventeen years, they have been six feet underground…"

"Oh Harry, you don't honestly believe that do you?" she asked. "Not after meeting your father, do you?"

Harry was a bit hesitant before answering, "I've got no choice. I've gone seventeen years without parents, I'm fine without them."

Lily grabbed his arm and held him back. "You don't mean that."

"Of course I mean it," Harry argued, shrugging himself out of her grip.

"Harry, please… let me explain." Harry tried once more to escape her presence but she grabbed hold of his arm again. "Please Harry. What do you have to lose?" He looked at her and could see the pity in her eyes…Merlin, her eyes. All his life he grew up only seeing those eyes behind the glass of a photo frame (or his own reflection) but now…

"Change back," Harry said meekly. "I can't think when you look like that." Lily was a little thrown by his words by obediently obliged. Her waves of long red hair turned back to the lush chestnut brown it was before. "What do you want from me?"

"I want what should have been mine long ago," her hand found its way to Harry's shoulder. "My son."

Harry shrugged her hand off. "You left me. You abandoned me. For seventeen years. What makes you think that I want anything to do with you anymore?"

"Please, Harry. Let me explain," she begged. "If you don't believe me afterwards and you want to forget this whole thing ever happened, then so be it. But could you at least give me a shot?"

Harry let out a frustrated sigh. Should he give her a chance? If she really was his mother, then he could… what could he do? Let her back in his life? Shut her out even with this knowledge? Harry knew he had to; at least, hear what she had to say. He paced around the room a little; debating whether or not he should listen then gave up and sat on one of the empty desks, before finding his voice, "Go on then"

Lily gave him an approving smile and began her story, "The night that you defeated You-Know-Who, your father and I were going out for a little time to ourselves. Being in hiding with a fifteen month baby wasn't exactly peaceful, so your father decided to take me out for the night. I was quite worried about leaving you, especially with the war but someone reassured me…"

- Flashback –

Two figures stood in the bathroom as they got one of the pair ready for the night. Lily stared at her reflection in the mirror: her usual auburn hair was now a light chestnut brown, her exquisite emerald eyes were replaced with the bluest eyes possible. But everything else about her was still the same, despite her hair and eye colour.

"Are you sure this will work?" she asked out to the other figure in the room. "I don't look that much different."

"You look like a brand new person, Lils," the figure said, stepping into the light. An equally young woman seemed to glow under the dim light. Her face was similar to the one of the younger woman; in fact they could have been twins minus the hair and eyes. "No one's really going to examine you and just say you're Lily Potter."

"I don't know if this is such a good idea," Lily bit her lip. "It looks like I dyed my hair and put on contacts."

"Trust me. How do you think I got here tonight? Times are hard and no one is going to recognise you." Lily still looked doubtful, thoughtfully pulling on a strand of hair. "Go on and have some fun for now. We will be alright," the other woman smiled.

Lily smiled at her auburn hair copy "thanks Aunt Lily"…

- End Flashback -

"She was you're aunt?" Harry gaped.

"Yes," Lily smiled to herself knowingly. "Mum's sister, so you're great-aunt. Mum named me after her after they found out she was barren. She couldn't have any kids, Harry and she wanted kids so much. We developed a close bond. Closer than I ever got with my own mother. In fact, she was the one who took into pride about me being a witch. Mum and dad were always there, but she always wanted to know how school was, and what the wizarding world was like… she even took me to Diagon Alley every year to get my supplies.

"It was in Diagon Alley that she met her fiancé, James Richardson. Pure coincidence that his first name was also James. Met him during my last year and they were engaged just after you were born, Harry. But with the war, they never quite got around to their wedding and with Aunt Lily being a muggle; well… you can imagine what they were going through"

"And they were the ones who died?"

"Unfortunately," Lily sighed. "If there were some things I could take back, leaving her with you that night would have been one of them." She looked helplessly at her son, "I'm not proud of what I did, Harry."

Harry closed his eyes for a moment, taking it all in. His eyes snapped open with realisation, "What about the blood? The protection of love? The thing that saved me that night?"

"Aunt Lily would have done anything for you, Harry" Lily explained. "She was more of a mother figure than my mother ever dreamed of. Petunia did always take after mum. But when you were born… it was just another reminder of something she couldn't have." She sat down next to Harry, "she loved you as much as I loved you. She always thought of you as if you were her own and she could never see you as anything but."

"But you didn't love me," Harry responded. "If you did, you wouldn't have abandoned me."

Tears were welling in Lily's fake blue eyes, "It was the hardest thing I ever had to do." She exhaled a breath, "do you think I wanted to leave you?"

"Then why did you?"

"We knew You-Know-Who was still around," she said. "We didn't find his remains when we came back to the house. We knew we had to protect you and the only way we could do that is let you have the blood protection."

Harry cut in, "but we have the same blood. Surely the wards would have worked for you and dad too."

Lily nodded sadly, "Dumbledore put the wards on Petunia's house before we could do anything. I wanted to take you but I wanted to protect you. It was our only choice."

Harry inhaled a sharp breath, "why now then? Why did you come back now? And not all those times when I need you guys?"

"I don't know," she whispered, bowing her head in shame, "Maybe because you were too young to understand what we did."

Harry went silent. So everything was a lie. Everything he ever grew up knowing was a lie. Every little detail was false and his life seemed so different now than it was when he first walked into the classroom.

What should he do? Were these people telling the truth? How did he know that this wasn't some sort of ploy? But they did manage to give reasons and did know things that only a selective few would know – and none of those selective people would try and pull this sort of prank on him. There was only one explanation:

These were his parents. And they had lied to him. His whole life. What was he suppose to think? What was he suppose to say to them? What was going to happen?

Would they rejoice over their reunion? Could they? Did he even want that? He would have given anything for this moment long ago, but now he didn't know what he wanted. They had abandoned him and he had waited seventeen years for this… What was he suppose to do now?

"Harry," she took his hand in hers, "please say something."

Harry inhaled a breath, preparing to speak but the voice that Lily heard was not his.

"Mum?"

Both Lily and Harry spun in the direction of the voice. To their horror, Jamie stood at the door, her mouth hanging open.

A/N: So we have come to the end of another chapter, and yet another cliffie.

What I am truly amazed at was how everyone guessed at the end of last chapter. As you have read, it was Lily impersonating Prof. McGonagall – and yes she has brown hair in her new appearance. The majority of people didn't seem to get that – or if they did, they guessed Lily but then said "no" because it was a brunette. And to my utter horror was that people guess that it was Hermione – even though I said that Hermione was at the breakfast table when "Prof. McGonagall" arrived. Oh well… seems that I can make you think and trick you easily.

But thus, you have it. The truth on how they returned and all those little things that would make sense if this is DH compatible. If you have any inquiries, just ask away – in a review. C'mon people, let's see if we can get on our way to 200. This being my most successful story, I would like to see it get that far, at least. Oh and anonymous reviews are now available!

I hope I didn't confuse anyone!!

Ahh… update will be… in a few weeks. I know it's taken me 2 (almost 3!) months to get this chapter out, but I have a good reason. Okay that's a lie, but I did however do my exams… err… long ago. BUT you can clearly tell how important this chapter is so it was written in the utmost care. It could have been worse: I could have come out with a filler instead but I didn't. Be thankful for that.

Infinite X's and O's,
Creative Touch

Xxx