As usual see the disclaimer in chapter one, and say if there are any major mistakes as it hasn't been beta'd
I thought i'd pretty much put chapter 11 and 12 together to get back on the right numbers for the updates
When they walked through the main entranceway it was just before midday, there was nobody around, after summoning a house elf they found Remus hadn't arrived and so they climbed the stairs to put the twins in their cots in their new room and to check on Harry.
They quietly opened the bedroom door not wanting to interrupt any playing but were met with an empty room. Their eyes met in panic before they both hurried into the room and started searching everywhere they could think of, under the bed in tiny little nooks and hiding spots within the wall; the ensuite, that they had assumed he would find. However, there was no sign of Harry. James opened the closet as a last resort before they started searching out all though the manor. There curled on the floor of the closet dressing robe tucked around him as a blanket fast asleep a book in hand. They let out sighs of relief before James bent down and picked their son up. Lilly moved ahead of him towards the bed and turned the bed down, Harry was placed in the bed, his dressing robe removed, book gently tugged out of his hand, covers pulled up to his neck and they smiled, kissed their son's forehead and after casting charms to alert them once he begun to wake quietly left the room.
…..
The main door started to slowly creep open and Remus' head slipped around it exactly ten minutes after they felt the wards alerting them to someone else's presence. They could see the tense expression on his face relax when he saw them. James grinned happily and hurried towards his friend as the door swung closed behind him.
"Moony!" He called excitement on his face as he hugged his friend.
"James, Lilly it's good to see you. I have to ask how did you find me?" Remus' voice matched his expression in happiness.
"Well to be honest it was pure luck. How were we supposed to know you would be babysitting out twins? Anyway come on upstairs to the library we can talk there and be close to the children." With that Lilly started to walk up the staircase. Wondering why family manors were so popular. What family would be big enough to live there and actually have enough people that they wouldn't have to yell across to the other side of the manor to talk to someone? She couldn't understand how people could live like this.
When they reached the Library Lilly stood for a moment just looking around at all of the books. It astounded her just how many books the Potter family had every time she came in here. The room was filled with bookshelves and books. There was a small area in the centre where there were a few comfortable couches. She was positive that this library had more than the Hogwarts library. She chose a comfortable looking dark blue leather couch. James sat beside her and Remus on the dark blue leather armchair opposite them.
"So Remus, where is Sirius? We thought he would have been with you?" James started, worried about his other friend's absence.
"Uh .." he paused and cleared his throat, "about that how about I tell you what happened after that night, then we can get more into the present so you get a better idea about what has been happening?" They nodded and moved slightly getting more comfortable slouching relaxing back into their seats.
"So…. Well You-Know-Who was said to have died that Halloween. Harry is said to have been the one to kill him. He is known as 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' on account of his surviving the killing curse fired at him by You-Know-Who."
"Remus!" Lilly interjected then continued, "call him Voldemort after all he is dead, or said to be".
Remus looked startled for a moment before nodding and continuing. "It was made clear that at the very least …Voldemort had lost all of his powers as people that had been under the imperios curse came out of it. The Dark mark faded significantly. The Aurors were rounding up more and more Death Eaters, most of them went to Azkaban although some like the Malfoy's bought their way out of it. Sirius was put in Azkaban for being a Death Eater, being responsible for your deaths and …. for the murder of Peter Pettigrew and 12 Muggles with the use of a single curse. All they found of Peter was his finger.
The Wizengamot decided that to prevent dark creatures following another Dark Lord they need to enforce more restrictions and slowly it became required for any sentient creatures to be registered. Vampires cannot venture into the Muggle world. Werewolves are required to inform any potential employers that they are a werewolf, the employers aren't required to hire them. Actually I don't believe there are any werewolves employed in England. Every creature had at least one type of monitoring. I decided to leave the Magical World when 3 years ago they were about to pass a law requiring every werewolf to have a tracker on them permanently, like they had done to the Vampires just after that night. The Lestranges attacked the Longbottom's on the 1st of November and tortured Alice and Frank into insanity before they were put in Azkaban. Neville is now living with his grandmother.
Like many other creatures I left England altogether for a while, I went to the United States of America and I received my charms, Defence Against The Dark Arts, and Ancient Runes Masteries. I came back to England a couple of years ago. There had been no changes for the better law wise in the Magical World in fact they had made it even more strict, so I went and lived in the Muggle world. Since then I have been lying low trying to get the Muggle requirements to get a job teaching young children. I thought then I would have a chance of finding Harry and being able to know for myself that he was safe. I was working as a babysitter for the money to pay for my living costs when I met you.
I still get the Daily Profit and just over a week ago it was said that Sirius escaped Azkaban, it is even being publicised in the Muggle world that he has escaped prison. That is all I know." He sighed there had been a lot to say and very little had been good.
"Have you heard anything about Harry?" James' voice was urgent. Remus just shook his head. "Then they may not have noticed he is gone or they are keeping it quiet to avoid panic." Lilly just nodded. She rose sensing from the spell that Harry was waking up, she left the Library and went down the hall into Harry's bedroom.
Lilly arrived just as Harry opened his eyes and sat up she smiled at him and held out her hand, he climbed out of the bed and took it. Silently they left the room and walked back to the library. Those in the library were amused at the look of amazement in Harry's face as he walked into the library. Lilly led him over and gently pulled him down to sit between her and James.
"Harry, this is Remus he is a friend who is going to be living with us. He has been telling us about all of the things that have changed in the Magical world while we have been gone and while you left with the Dursleys." James smiled down at his son even as he spoke. Remus watched Harry almost as he was trying to take in every detail a frown appearing on his face at the small child in front of him.
"Why was I left with the Dursleys?" Harry's voice was nervous as he sat in the couch between his parents; despite being assured he wouldn't be punished for asking questions he was still very tentative when asking anything. It was only because Remus was there that he dared, when he did something wrong in front of other people he was only punished later when the guest was gone. Lilly and James jumped not having expected the question exchanged slightly nervous glances, what if he hated them for what happened even though it had been out of their control; he had been with his aunt and uncle for years. Their son was eight and was already so grown up, they had missed so many years.
"Well, Harry this is a long story why don't you get comfortable." James paused watching his son wriggle around for a moment before staying still. Remus turned towards them looking interested, he hadn't heard the whole story yet, they had been preoccupied talking about Sirius. He opened his mouth after gathering his thoughts together and begun to speak, " It all started not long after your first birthday Harry, Albus Dumbledore came to us concerned because of a certain prophesy that could either be about you Harry or our Godson Neville Longbottom and Voldemort's vanquishing. It had come to his attention that a spy of Voldemort had heard part of that prophesy. Albus encouraged the Longbottoms and us to go into hiding where we would be safe until you could protect yourselves. It seemed obvious to Albus that Voldemort would try to end your lives before you could grow up to become a threat to his world domination plans. We went under the Fidelius charm, which meant that nobody could know where our house was unless the secret keeper- your mother and I with Sirius' help chose Peter our other best friend. Sirius was the decoy, we thought that nobody would think that we would choose Peter because he wasn't as strong magically. All was well until Halloween, we had Lilly's mother and father your maternal grandparents visiting for dinner. It was a stormy night I was downstairs with your grandfather and your mother was upstairs with you and your grandmother, it seemed odd at the time you just wouldn't settle down to sleep but now I have to wonder. .." He trailed off tears silently flowing down his face at the memory. He took a deep breath and forced himself to continue.
"The door exploded just before midnight giving us both a fright; I stood before Voldemort and although I fought as well as I could however I was no match for him. It wasn't long before the green light of the killing curse came towards me it is a little bit of a blur after that but I remember your grandfather jumped on top of me blocking the curse from hitting me. I remember just before the curse hit he said 'you have all of your life ahead of you'. Then I remember losing consciousness, the next thing I remember I was in France in a non-magical hospital. From what I managed to gather I was in a coma for three and a half years it was very odd it took weeks for everything to come back to me the French calling me monsieur Vasaio didn't help. Although I did work out that although we were in France the word Vasaio was the Italian equivalent of Potter. I think now Sirius left us in France because he knew we both are fluent in it and it was away from England. In the Magical World, France and England don't have a very good relationship, mainly because of how superior the purebloods over here act. There isn't much that follows that just that Lilly woke up a few weeks later just as I was starting to get a proper understanding of what had happened, it took a while for her to get her memory back an soon after we found out she was pregnant. Quietly we got back to England and visited the Goblins carefully but they had no idea where we could find you. Then we started searching quietly. We had to be careful any sign to the Magical World that we were looking for you and there would be Death Eaters- Voldemort's loyal followers swarming everywhere. We weren't willing to risk it. Then we were lucky enough to find you the day before yesterday and so you were brought back here." He stopped talking then looked at Lilly expecting that she would tell what happened from when she was upstairs. She was biting her bottom lip, tears flowing down her cheeks. He smiled soothingly at her and gently pulled her into his lap. Lilly took another deep hiccupping breath then began slowly the words seemingly reluctant to leave her lips.
"Mum- your grandmother and I were upstairs trying to get you to settle down and sleep, at the time we thought it was due to the storm but I do wonder now like you love. We could hear the door explode and then you both were exchanging curses. I was listening carefully dreading the sound of the killing curse that I knew would be uttered at some point. Once he cast it, there was silence. I knew then that Voldemort was likely coming up the stairs towards us. I was terrified but I tried to encourage mum to hide in the wardrobe she argued and hid in a shadow. I heard the creak on the stairs and knew he was lmost upon us and there was no time to argue with your grandmother so I stood in front of her shielding her from Voldemort's sight. I refused Voldemort when he told me to stand aside and let him kill you Harry so he raised his wand to me and cast the killing curse, but mum apparently like dad threw herself in front of me taking the curse. The only reason he didn't notice was the dust thrown up in the air by the collapsing of part of the roof in the room. He stepped towards Harry I tried to move to protect him with my body but I couldn't move I was stuck under some of the debris as well as mum. It left me unable to do anything but watch as he cast the killing curse on Harry-you. Something happened then -the killing curse appeared to rebound hitting Voldemort, you started to cry and again I tried to get closer to you but the debris was still there and more of the roof was coming down. I think something hit me in the head because that's the last thing I remember before I woke up in that hospital in France. If there was anything we could have done to prevent you being sent to live with my sister and her husband we would have done it. Legally you shouldn't have gone there with our Will which according to the Goblins was read. We have been searching constantly since we got back to England. We were really worried especially as we woke up without anyone there. We assumed it was Sirius but something must have happened to him and we haven't been able to get a hold of any magical papers, not with living in the Non-Magical World where it was easy to hide and have someone keep an eye on the twins, allowing us to search." She stopped her eyes were on Harry who had started silently crying when she had come to the end. Remus had slowly and carefully approached him and now Harry was sitting in Remus' lap, which was a slight surprise, but the nervousness had changed into hope. It had allowed James to snuggle her up in his arms tears in his eyes at the memory. She frowned for a moment then it hit like a freight train, "Harry we all love you so much and are so happy to have you back and safe with us." She felt James' head resting on her shoulder nodding emphatically.
"Really? But why I am just a little freak nothing special." He son still seemed uncertain but he was gaining confidence in some ways and the knowledge that they were getting somewhere almost made her smile before the words Harry had spoken sunk in.
"Harry we have told you not to call yourself a freak you are no freak you are our little angel not a freak and yes, really we love you. You are our son how could we do anything else." James spoke before she could but it may have helped confirm that they loved him with the confirmation and words being spoken by both of them.
"Right it is time for lunch come on." Sighing slightly Lilly got up drawing a handkerchief from her sleeve and wiping the remaining tears. They had mostly dried in the warm air. She walked to harry and wiped his as well before returning the handkerchief to her sleeve.
Harry appeared to be in a daze he was just sitting there staring off into the distance seeming to not have noticed the plate of sandwiches in front of him.
"Harry?" Lilly had an amused tone, she was a bit surprised the shock had lasted so long. Surely it wasn't that much of a shock to be told that they loved him. It seemed to jolt Harry back into the real world and he put his hand near the plate inching it closer watching his parents. When he didn't receive a negative response he picked up a sandwich and started to eat it.
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The sandwich had chicken and salads in it. The bread was so soft he had never felt anything like it. It was nothing like the hard lumps of bread the Dursley's had given him with a small piece of almost equally hard yellow cheese. Slowly he ate until he couldn't eat any more due to his stomach's protest at the thought of another bite. Looking down at the plate he noticed it was still over half full. He sighed and hoped he wouldn't be set to work like he had at the Dursleys. If he moved any time soon he felt like he would be sick.
I was going to end it here but thought i'd be nice and give you a bit more
Again Harry didn't eat much nowhere near enough to for a child of his age, causing Lilly and James to be reminded again that they needed to call a healer to check Harry.
After thinking carefully James tried to come up with some names. A list of those he trusted was short, a list of those who he trusted in the medical field was even shorter. Another option was the Muggle world but how could they explain it and a significant number of the problems would be ones the Muggles couldn't fix. He frowned and considered others, ones that weren't in the Order of the Phoenix that were healers. He was running out of ideas, the only possibility he had was Poppy Pomphrey and they couldn't go to her because then they would have to go to Hogwarts. Although he wasn't entirely sure he thought it was likely that Poppy was in the Order, which put her on the list of people he wouldn't trust especially not with his son after what they had done to him already. No he couldn't do it there were only two other options. The first was Andromeda Tonks, she was a healer and wasn't affiliated with the Order, however something in him questioned where her allegiances lay. It was clear she wasn't on Albus Dumbledore's side yet she wasn't on Voldemort's either; if she was in with the ministry it could spell disaster for them. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but he thought that somewhere in his body he knew all along who they would be turning to for help if they could get in contact with him… Severus Snape had been difficult to get in contact with even when they knew he would be in one of a small number of places. After all these years he couldn't imagine where he should look. He knew though that he could trust Severus even though he didn't want to. Lilly and Severus were like brother and sister ever since they arrived at Hogwarts. He knew he had made it difficult for their relationship especially when they had begun dating. Severus and James had hated each other and it wasn't until after Hogwarts that they had started to see past childhood rivalries.
He smiled thinking back to the reunion, just before their wedding. He had been willing to try to look past unpleasantness from Severus for Lilly it had been odd. Severus too had been intending on ignoring unpleasantness for Lilly as well. It had been a pleasant conversation and had been all they needed to get over the majority of their hatred towards each other, although they still had arguments they were almost enjoyable. He frowned thinking about Severus' relationship with Remus and Sirius, Sirius and Severus never got on.
"Remus where is Sirius now, he didn't commit any of those crimes mentioned earlier?" his voice came out before he realised that he was going to say it. He took a deep breath waiting for the answer.
Remus' soft voice broke the silence that had filled the room, "well he was in Azkaban but a week ago it was front page news in all of the papers in the Magical world that he had escaped, which means I have no idea where he is or where he was going."
"Do you know if he knew that Harry was left with my sister and her husband?" Lilly asked her question sparked an idea in his mind, what if he was at the Dursleys' even now looking for Harry.
"Hmm I don't know, but with Harry disappearing it is likely that Dumbledore has the order swarming around the Dursleys if they know, which could be problematic…" Remus' voice trailed off even as thoughts came into James' mind about how to get into the area to see if there were wizards surrounding privet drive even with the risk it could give.
"Has it been in the Prophet about Harry's disappearance, I would suspect it would be front page news?" His wife again showed how clever she was.
"No, but that could be because Albus wants to keep it quiet and track him down with the Order." He could tell that Remus was nervous and disappointed in himself that he couldn't provide any more information but they were grateful for what he had known.
"It's alright Remus you have told us what you know, we are just happy that we found you and that you are safe," again he was proud of his wife's choice of words.
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"Severus I need you to go and investigate the Dursleys, see if you can find anything that the kidnappers may have left behind or anything that they said or did while there. Find out what they looked like, it could give an indication of what we are dealing with and if Sirius Black is involved. We need to know what happened" Albus stood from his desk, concerned. Death Eaters could have Harry Potter in their hands and they had no idea where he could be. He watched as Severus stood from the chair in front of his desk and left the office, the door silently closing behind him.
"Kingsley, Alastor I need you to go to Privet Drive and look for magic traces, look for anything that shouldn't be there. Talk to Arabella Figg, she knows what is supposed to be there and what isn't. The pair nodded at Albus and left the office. Albus was left alone to worry about what had gone wrong in his plan. Nobody had known where Harry was living, purposefully, he had even required Minerva to give a vow on her magic that she wouldn't tell anyone where he was living. He knew she still had her magic so it had to be somebody close to Lilly who had found him.
Hope you enjoyed
there's more excitement to come yet so watch this page!
