A/N: Thanks for the loving reviews, I hope you'll excuse the lack of updating. I've been busy with school and the spring musical, "Wil Abner." It's funny but takes a lot of work. Well, I hope you like this chapter. If you do, or don't, let me know! Please don't just add me to alerts and favorites! Everybody please review! And, couldn't you tell that this was hurridly written?
Chapter 11 Truthfully the Truth
Harry stopped pacing, breathing hard, and looked at his mother. She looked pained, sad, angry, scared, and frustrated all at once. He knew he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear. Despite this Harry couldn't help yelling,
"What in the name of Merlin could have made you leave your one-year-old son?!" Lily took a deep shaky breath.
"Harry, this next part is the truth about what happened, but we fully understood it a little over a year ago. Your father and I... Voldemort obliviated us, so that w--we forgot we had a son!" Tears began streaming freely down her face as she continued. "He broke down the door, and stunned your father. He killed our cat Garfield, and Ody our owl, then transformed them into replicas of our bodies. He then proceeded upstairs to find me shielding you in the nursery." Lily was crying harder now. Snape had snuck out of the room to go find James.
Lily continued: "The same thing happened that you heard with the dementors, but he silently stunned and obliviated me. He then tried to kill you, but couldn't because I was willing to die to save you. He became the half alive being that you meat in your first year. Nobody knew we were obliviated--or even survived--until Severus came to check on us..."
Harry couldn't help interrupting her,
"Snape!? Why Snape!?" A male voice answered from the kitchen doorway
"Your mother and I were best friends in school until our fifth year. I chose a path, and chose poorly. I turned spy for Dumbledore when I found out your family was in trouble. Bl--Sirius and I showed up at your house at roughly the same time. He took you out of the remainder of the crib, and I woke your mother and father."
Lily took up the story again, she had stopped crying, and her voice was better controlled thanks to Snapes intervention. She explained,
"I woke up, and only remembered Severus' face, but nothing about him. I remembered that I was married to James, and that was it. I didn't remember Voldemort--or hiding--or--You," her voice shook on the last word, and an arm fell around her shoulders.
"Lils?" Lily nodded, and James began.
"I didn't remember anything about hiding or you either. I remembered that I was an auror, but I didn't remember Voldemort. I couldn't figure out why I was lying on the floor, and why our living room was completely destroyed. I then saw Sirius with you in his arms."
Flashback:
"Sirius? What happened? Why is the house destroyed?"
Baby Harry cried when he saw James, and reached out his arms for him.
"Where'd the kid come from?" James asked.
"What?" Sirius stared at his friend. "James, this is Harry!"
"Who?"
"Harry!"
"I repeat--who?"
Sirius gaped in horror,
"Your son--Harry James Potter!--O Merlin please tell me you remember him! James please!"
"I don't have a son Sirius," James said darkly, "Lily had a miscarriage, remember?" His voice was hard and icy, and it had a tone of finality in it. Sirius growled in frustration, and crossed the room to James' side in three strides. He took his friends hand and placed it on Harry's cheek. The toddler giggled happily,
"Dadda! Dadda!" he yelled and reached out to a shocked and extremely confused James.
"I don't have a son!" James yelled as Lily ran into the room.
"James, what's going on? What happened?" She spotted Harry now crying and reaching frantically for James.
"Who's the kid?"
"O no! Not you too!" Sirius cried out. "Lily its Harry--your son!"
"Sirius Black! I don't know what your trying to pull, but it's not funny!" Lily yelled as her eyes filled rapidly with tears.
"Lily," Sirius said his voice cracking. He was beginning to figure out what must have happened.
"No! Shut up Black! You know perfectly well what happened in the car crash! I can't believe you'd stoop so low to steal a child and pretend it's mine! I hate you!" Lily picked up the nearest flower pot she could find, but then saw the baby cuddling close to the man's chest, and threw it to the ground instead.
"Mama! Mama! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Mama! Mama! Mamaaaaaaa!" Harry cried now reaching for Lily.
"Sirius take him back--take him back to his parents--right now!" Lily shrieked. Sirius fled the house with Lily screaming after him, and Harry crying for his "mama" all the way out into the yard. Once outside the cries changed.
"Haggid! Haggid!" Sirius looked up to see the half giant coming towards them.
END FLASHBACK.
"Then Hagrid took you to the Dursley's, and Dumbledore convinced us to go to America and hide there. We didn't know why he sent us there; he wouldn't tell us, but we went since we trusted Dumbledore with our lives."
James smiled grimly.
"If only we knew what had just happened, the reality of that would sink in. Soon afterward, Sirius was sent to Azkaban, and neither of us knew why."
"How'd you get the memory back then?" Harry asked trying to keep his anger from exploding at his parents. It was driving him mad that he'd been so furious at his parents for the past four months. He'd been silently accusing them of abandoning him and even, not really loving him only to find out it was once again all Tom Marvolo Riddle's (that stupid ugly snake like creature.) Harry clenched his fists.
Lily continued the story.
"We remembered all the good people in our lives. I think the reason I didn't remember Severus because Voldemort thought he was a Death Eater. When we got to America Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid, Remus, and Madam Pomfrey kept trying to get us to remember you. They told us stories about times we'd had with you, but none of it did any good. It just made me burst into tears, and James break whatever he was holding." (A/N: Sound familiar?)
Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was just absurd, even with all that happened in his life. More absurd than Ginny possessed, more absurd than Voldemort sticking out of the back of Quirrell's head, and even more absurd than his parents alive. He didn't know if he really believed it or not. He asked irritably,
"Then how'd you get the memory back!?"
His father answered him,
"Dumbledore was working for a long time on a potion that would recreate the memories that one had lost to obliviation. Once you got to Hogwarts, he kept showing us pictures of you. Finally, about November of your first year, he found a potion that would bring back our memories. Don't ask me how he did, I have know idea, but it worked!" We remembered everything!" Lily choked out.
"I hated myself for leaving you! Hated Voldemort! Hated Peter--and always will! I wanted to go and take you from my horrid sister (O yes I hated her too after I found out how she treated you), and take you home with us, but Dumbledore wouldn't let me! He refused to let your father and I anywhere near you."
Harry scowled.
"I hate Dumbledore too," he muttered darkly.
"Harry, you have to understand. You thought we were dead, and with you just learning about wizardry, Dumbledore didn't think it wise to overwhelm you. Besides, our memories were coming back slowly, and we only fully remembered everything when Sirius came at the end of your third year," James explained in a voice of urgency. He needed Harry to understand that he loved him, and Lily loved him, and his siblings and Sirius and Remus all loved him.
"Why didn't you take me in after third year then?" Harry asked trying (but failing) to hide the anger in his voice. Lily sighed,
"Believe me, we wanted too, but Dumbledore knew that taking you away from the Dursley's permanently would raise uproar in the wizarding community, and people were bound to find out. Besides, the ministry knew that Sirius was your godfather, so if you disappeared, they'd assume he took you."
James put in
"Harry I love you, your mother loves you, and Nick, Mattie, and Kaitie love you, and Sirius and Remus, we all love you. We would never purposefully hurt you Harry; we only want what's best for you. We were trying to keep you safe! Do you understand son?"
Harry nodded.
"This makes me want to destroy Voldemort even more. Wait! What was that prophecy?"
James' face grew grim.
"THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD APPROACHES. ... BORN TO THOSE WHO HAVE THRICE DEFIED HIM, BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES ... AND THE DARK LORD WILL MARK HIM AS HIS EQUAL, BUT HE WILL HAVE POWER THE DARK LORD KNOWS NOT. ... AND EITHER MUST DIE AT THE HAND OF THE OTHER FOR NEITHER CAN LIVE WHILE THE OTHER SURVIVES. ... THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD WILL BE BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES. ..."
"So I have to beat Voldemort, or die trying. Well, not much different than what I've always wanted to do," Harry tried to joke, but James saw the look of panic in his son's eyes. James sighed.
"You have know idea how much I wish this wasn't true," he began. "how much I wish I could take back all the years of pain and suffering, and replace them with ones of love, happiness, and joy." Lily added,
"I wish I could take back all the years without you, without even knowing you existed. I wish I could go back in time and tell my past self about you, and take you from Petunia. If I could Harry, please believe me I would."
And at long last, after months of hating them, after years of wishing he could know them and thinking he would never get the chance, Harry believed them. He could see the trouble written on their faces. He saw it plainly in their eyes. They loved him, and would never have left him if they had a choice in the matter.
Beta's Note: After three weeks you finally find out the truth! I feel like this chapter could have had a little more to it, so, Miz Jen Jen and I have agreed to keep writing the story as planned, and fix the earlier chapters as well. Tell us if you think it needs a re-write, any suggestions are welcome.