The Potters and the Choices Made
Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me. I'm making no money out of this.
"But dad!" Harry whined.
"No, Harry, sorry." James said, sighing sharply. He hated when he had to say no to Harry.
"That's not fair! Ron IS going, why can't I go too?" Harry shouted, stomping his foot. His face was red and he was angry. It was in times like this that James saw the 'Lily' in their son.
"Harry Potter! I told you you're not going!" James finally lost his patience. "And please respect your father, no shouting or stomping!" This had been going on for almost 15 minutes already. The older Potter sighed again and knelt, putting his hands on his son's shoulders. "Look son, I know you want to go to Hogsmeade too, but I can't let you go. It might be too dangerous, and there will be no one to take you there. And you have to go to school on Friday."
Harry simply nodded, albeit internally extremely furious. He and his father were in the middle of the dining room, where they had previously been having breakfast. The boy muttered an apology and then turned around and left the room. James sat on the table and held his head on his hands. He really, really hated when Harry got angry or sad with him, but this time, it had to be done.
Ron, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott were going to Hogsmeade to spend the day the following Friday, and Harry wanted to join them, but there would be no adults, only Ron's brother, Charlie, who was in his last year of Hogwarts. James and Lily tried their best not to be overprotective, but, even though they hadn't heard of them for about six years, Death Eaters were still a risk they were not willing to take.
After a few minutes, James stood up and started clearing the table and organizing the kitchen. He knew he could ask the elves to do that, but he liked to have something to do so that Harry's mild fit didn't bother him too much. He couldn't help but wish Lily were there. She knew pretty well how to deal with their son without being bothered too much.
After so much time at home just taking care of Harry, Lily decided she wanted to do something else as well. If James could work, why couldn't she? After James and Sirius had decided to go back to work, Lily's only companion, other than Harry, was Remus. But now that Remus didn't live with them anymore, and that Harry spent most of his day at school, she stayed home alone basically the whole day. The elves tried to keep her company, but they also spent a lot of time working. For a few days, Lily even liked being alone for a change, but after the first week, she knew she couldn't live like this.
So, she prepared herself for a whole day, cooked James' favorite dishes for dinner, asked Sirius to take Harry out, and then waited. She had been very apprehensive. What if he didn't accept it? What if he wanted her to be a stay-home wife? She didn't want to have an argument with him, but she wouldn't give up either. When James finally arrived from work, later than usual, by the way, they sat down to have dinner and Lily finally voiced her ideas.
"I think it's a wonderful idea, Lily-flower." He said then, surprising his wife more than she would ever admit. He had a sincere smile on his lips that showed nothing more than support for her. She gave him a treat that night, if you know what I mean...
So, James and Harry were alone that Tuesday morning. Lily was at St. Mungos, where she was working to become a Poisoning specialist, and Sirius had a shift that wouldn't end until noon. James had the day off, so he could take care of Harry. Sadly for him, this was the day that Harry decided to confront him about the whole Hogsmeade trip.
After cleaning the dining room and the kitchen, James moved to the living room, where he sat, rubbing his eyes. He really didn't have time for this... Wait, time?!
"Fuck!" He said, standing up. He looked at his wristwatch and saw that, if they didn't leave in the next ten minutes, Harry would be late for school. "Harry!" he shouted at bottom of the stairs. "You're going to be late! We need to leave!"
Soon enough, but not after making it understood that he was still upset, Harry came down the stairs, already wearing his school uniform and carrying his backpack. He didn't say a word, and didn't acknowledge his father.
"All set, love?" James asked, silently. Harry simply nodded, not even looking at his father. James didn't know how much a simple attitude from a child could sting so much.
And so they left. The walked the whole way up to the outside of Potter Manor, which was quite a walk, as its garden was as big as the ginormous house. There, James held Harry's hand and apparated to the Leaky Cauldron. From there, they walked to St. Tiagus. The whole thing took barely 15 minutes, but it felt like an eternity.
When they finally got in front of the white gates of St. Tiagus, James seemed to be in physical pain, while Harry looked like he had had his birthday canceled this year. Harry almost never acted like a spoilt child, but when he did, he made it sure people would notice.
They stopped in front of the gates and stared at the beautiful, three stores high, white and blue building. Harry distangled his hand from his father's and started entering the school. James' back arched. He felt old and tired and miserable. "Hey, son." He said, as Harry was about to get to the center of the patio. Harry stopped and looked back at his father. "I love you." James said, softly.
Something got to Harry's heart. He didn't know if it was his father's pained voice, his defeated appearence or unhappiness he felt. He felt his eyes filling with tears as he ran to his father, throwing himself at his father's arms. "I love you too, daddy." He said, his voice rough as he tried not to cry. He was eight! Definitely not a baby anymore!
When they let go, after a few good minutes, James had a small, sad smile on his lips. He used his thumbs to clean Harry's tears from his beautiful green eyes. "I really am sorry about Friday, Harry." he said. "I promise you I'll take you there as soon as possible, is that okay? Just the two of us, the Potter boys?"
Harry gave his father a toothy smile. "It's perfect, dad!" the boy said, hugging his father again, as James chuckled. When they parted, though, Harry groaned loudly.
"What's up, Pronglet?" He said, surprised with his son's reaction.
"What time is it?" Harry asked. When his father told him, he groaned again. "I'm late, dad! Mrs. Doubtfire is going to be so angry!"
James chuckled again, grabbing his son's hand. "Don't worry, kiddo. I'll take you there and talk to your teacher." And so they entered the patio, this time both of them together.
The school was not exactly a private school, but it was still a very good one. In fact, it had such a reputation that it was quite hard to get a vacancy if you did not have any 'strings to pull'. The whole school was coloured white and blue, from the entrance gates to the playground, which gave it a Portuguese-ish style. There was no graffiti on the walls, and all the thousands of windows were shiny clean and cracks free.
James had never entered a muggle school before, and he found it quite cosy, to be sincere. The white corridors, the red tiles on the ground... He couldn't help but smile. St. Tiagus was very different from Hogwarts, the cold, but still home-y castle. Harry was happily chatting about his friends from school, some art projects he had been working at and his p.e. classes, while James nodded and smiled. Soon enough, they were in front of a classroom door with a big, blue 8 on it. There was a small glass window, through which it was possible to see and old woman teaching. She could be compared to a plumper, slightly younger version of Prof. McGonagall.
James knelt in front of his son. "So, this is your room, right?" Harry nodded. "This is it, then, champ. Have..."
Suddently, a piercing scream filled the air, and it was obvious to them that it had come from the room. James stood up worriedly, holding Harry close to his body, and looked through the small window.
"M-m-miss Granger! M-m-miss Granger! W-what's happening?" The old woman, Mrs. Doubtfire, was still in front of the classroom. She was shaking slightly and seemed to be having problems to keep herself together. There was another loud scream, it was obviously a girl, probably Miss Granger.
It was then that the small glass on the middle of the door started freezing. And with it, froze James' spine. That could mean only one thing, even though it was something he'd never have believed to be possible.
Without too much thinking, the tall messy haired man kicked the door open, drawing out his wand from his sleeve. The moment the door opened, Harry and James felt the icy wind coming towards them. It wasn't a normal, natural, winter wind though (principally considering winter had finished almost a whole month before). It was a sick, dreading coldness that apparently made them freeze from inside out.
In the middle of the classroom, there was one big dementor. It's foul cloak and rattling breath couldn't mean anything else. It had its face directed to a girl, sat on the first desk of the last row across from the door. She had a somewhat long, bushy brown hair, and was looking at the foul monster with complete dispair. She was apparently the one to scream, but she seemed to have lost the ability to do anything else other than stare, her eyes, big as saucers, filled with tears.
The dementor was in the middle of the classroom. It was almost 3 meters tall, which made it almost fill the whole room. It was slowly gliding towards the little girl, and all the other children closer to it had fainted.
As James barged into the classroom, Mrs. Doubtfire turned to look at him. She said nothing, though, as she was in utter shock, about to pass out as well. With a pang on his chest, James saw the effects the dementor was causing to those young kids. 'As young as Harry' he thought. It was then that, in his mind, he started seeing house in flames, he could smell the smoke again, and he could feel his fear for his wife and son's lives.
Harry wasn't in a better shape either. He could hear his mother screaming, and that shocked him entirely. He tightened his grip on his father's hand, trying to find some comfort from the older man.
As he felt his son squeeze his hand, James snapped from the suffering he didn't even notice he was feeling. His focus went back to the dementor in the middle of the room, and his resolution to protect his son and those young children kept him from giving too much attention to the coldness filling him. The dementor had stopped moving towards the little girl and had turned towards the older wizard.
James remembered the first time he held Harry in his arms and bellowed "Expecto Patronum!". A Big, silvery stag exploded from his wand, using its antlers to hold the dementor before running through the window, so, out of the room with it. The effects were instantaneous. The classroom started to get warmer, and the negative feelings rapidly started fading. Sadly, Mrs. Doubtfire had collapsed, as all the other students besides the young Miss Granger. She was still very frightened and had tears falling freely from her eyes.
"Are you okay, miss?" James asked. The young girl's lower lip trembled and she just stared at the two men.
"Hermione?" Harry asked. She looked at him and finally gave up, lowering her head to the table as she passed out as well.
The Potter family, and that includes Sirius and Remus, of course, were all sat by the firing at the living room of Potter Manor. Harry had tried his best to keep himself awake, but, not long after the clock announced it was 9 p.m., he had already slept on the sofa. James and Lily had one of their silent conversations and James stood up. He then gently lifted Harry and carried him to his bed.
Lily, Remus and Sirius were unusually quiet, lost in their own thoughts. Actually, all three of them had been like this the whole day, after James informed them of what had happened. The Ministry had to send some people to the school to investigate, but there was no proof of the dementor. In fact, if it wasn't for James' career as auror, and the fact that the muggles had fainted, he probably would have had problems for using a spell in a muggle area.
The Ministry refused to admit there had been a dementor at St. Tiagus, as all dementors were under the control of the Ministry, thank you very much. Of course they couldn't overlook the statement of an auror, and the feelings described by every single child and the professor, but the Ministry chose to hinder the commotion but simply stating 'there would be further investigation'.
James got back to the living room and threw himself on the sofa, next to where his wife was. "So, now we can talk." He said, after sighing.
"So, Prongs... Tell us the story again, please." Sirius said.
As James told them, Lily, Remus and Sirius couldn't hide their fear for what had happened. "Do you... do you think they find us, James?" Lily asked, clearly shaken.
"They probably don't know where you guys live..." Remus said, thoughtful. "They probably discovered Harry went to that school."
"Isn't it too much of a coincidence that there was a dementor inside Pronglet's classroom?" Sirius asked, sarcastically. "Yes, they really found out Harry was going there..."
James sighed heavily. "If we hadn't been late..." He closed his eyes and took his glasses out of his face, rubbing his eyes with his thumbs. Lily shuddered at the thought.
"Let's not focus on the 'if's." Remus said. "Let's worry about what we need to do now." The four of them seemed thoughtful for a couple of minutes.
"Obviously, Harry can't continue going to St. Tiagus." Lily finally said. She seemed stressed and tired. James put a hand on her shoulder, as he knew how upset she was. She really liked the fact that Harry studied at the same school that she had attended.
"I'll go back to the school tomorrow to arrange everything." James said, still holding his wife's shoulder. "I'll get that little girl's address as well." Sirius, Lily and Remus looked at him.
"What for?" Sirius asked.
"She's a muggleborn, Padfoot. She must be scared out of her mind, and nobody will believe her. The poor little girl might as well go crazy."
"I guess they would obliviate her, wouldn't they?" Remus asked, concerned, but James shook his head.
"No, she was passed out, and as soon as they woke up, they were sent home. They invented a story to try to explain what happened, but didn't actually obliviate anybody." James ruffled his hair a bit. "The girl seemed to be in shock, she didn't speak to anybody, probably fearing people would think she's crazy."
"Or probably fearing she was going crazy herself." Lily said, darkly, as the other boys flinched at her tone. "That's how you feel when something magical happens and you've got no clue of what's happening."
The family spent some time thinking quietly. The day had been mentally exhausting for all of them. They lived in fear for Harry's safety, and an open attack like that proved bad things surely could happen if they weren't extremely careful.
"I thought the Ministry had the control of every dementor in England." Remus asked. "This has bothered me the whole day."
"Well, in almost every Order meeting Albus said he tried to convince our bloody minister that Voldemort's followers were trying to recruit the dementors to work for them." Sirius said, soberly, as Lily nodded.
"Maybe they finally managed to do so." She said shuddering at the thought.
A loud pang on one of the windows startled the group. It was getting really late, who could be sending them a letter at that time of the day? James stood up and opened the window next to the fireplace.
In came an old rental owl, one of those you could pay for a specific delivery. It was certainly in bad shape, its feathers were falling and one of its wings was definitely broken. It was a common brown owl. Sadly, as it got near the fireplace, the bird fell to the floor, and there it stayed motionless. Tied to one of its paws there was a red letter.
"Don't!" James shouted, as he saw Remus nearing the owl. "Don't get near that" He said, grabbing his hair in desperation. "It was the ward that kept that owl from getting here, it's probably something dangerous!"
Lily, Sirius and Remus eyed the fallen owl suspiciously. James grabbed them and tried to take them as far as possible from the owl.
"It's a howler!" Sirius said, eyeing the letter.
As soon as he said it, the Howler exploded. The four wizards flinched and prepared themselves for a scream...
That never came.
Instead, a dreadful, pained, dark voice filled the room. It seemed like hell had learned how to speak. It sounded like something foul, venomous had crawled into the room. The rattled voice made every hair of every person in the room stand. It felt like it was a disease that was slowly spreading itself through the sound that came from the howler. It said:
"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing...
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before"
As soon as the howler silenced itself, James, Lily, Sirius and Remus let go shaky breaths they hadn't realized they were holding. Before they could at least say something, though, the letter exploded again, filling the air, the room, and consequently the four wizards with a green slime that smelt remarkably like gas.
Gasping, they used their wands to clean themselves, but not before large, painful yellow boils appeared everywhere on their bodies. "Bubotuber pus!" Lily screeched.
The howler then exploded once more, and from it came the sick, disgusting voice of Bellatrix Lestrange "I hope you liked my little gift this morning, SCUM!" and then her cackling, crazy laugh. Finally, the letter tore itself apart, leaving the room silent at last.
A.N.: YEY! I updated!
There's something about this story that I need to get out of my chest. I had lost my interest in this. Like, totally. I was going to leave it behind, and never pay attention to it again. But then, I realized how hypocritical that would have been. I always get so sad when I like a story and the author simply stops updating... Then, I decided that I shouldn't do that with you. I mean, I hope there is someone there who likes this story. If there is, this chapter was written specially to you, okay? I'm sorry it took so long, and I'm sorry it is such a small chapter, but I really wanted to give you something.
Thank you so much for everybody who followed, favorited and reviewed Choices. You're great! Ah, I proofread the other chapters, because I really needed to do that, and also to get me some inspiration to continue writing. I still don't have a beta, though, so please, if you find too many mistakes in this chapter, just ignore them. As soon as possible, I'll proofread this one as well. If you feel like there is something weird, unexplained or right away stupid in this chapter, don't worry. I'll explain every reason for everything in the next chapters. But if you want to correct anything, or ask me to explain something, just send me a PM, okay? I'll be happy to answer.
I would like your opinion on something. If you had to choose someone other than Ginny to be Harry's pair in this story, who would it be? Hermione? Cho? Would you want it to be slash? Anything but slash? Should I make Harry celibate? lol. Please, I really want to know your opinion.
Hope you enjoyed, and please, if you can, leave some thoughts to me, review or PM? It will surely will help me continue... =)
