CHAPTER 14

James Potter tensed as he heard the sound of someone appearing at the wards. He warily approached the front door and went outside. He approached the figure, who seemed to be casting detection spells at the surroundings and wards. James smiled slightly as he reached the figure. It was his old mentor Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody.

"Hello Mad Eye. What're you doing here?"

"Hmm.. What was the first spell I tested you on Auror training?"

James rolled his eyes as he answered, "The stunning spell and I blew up the training dummy. Sirius blew a hole into the wall."

Mad Eye chuckled. "Got power on him, Black."

"Yeah, so what can I do for you?"

Mad Eye regarded him for a long moment. "Care to invite me for a drink?"

James raised an eyebrow but nodded. He led the way to the door, hearing the "thuck, thuck" of Moody's newly installed wooden clump of a leg. He winced as he remembered the condition in which he'd been brought to the Auror Headquarters that day after the ambush.

It was a normal day so far in Auror Headquarters. There had been news of some Death Eaters torturing a muggle family. It had been reported that there were only a few of the bastards. So the Head Auror - Alastor Moody, took only a few Aurors with him, giving the others a much needed chance to recuperate. It was expected that they would be back within a few hours.

But six to seven hours had passed and still there was no sign of the Aurors. Then finally, a patrolling Auror rushed into the Minister's office saying that the raid had actually been an ambush and there had been a hell of a battle. The Minister immediately sent a search party consisting of the most experienced and top ranking Aurors. The scene they came to find was one of utter devastation. Not one Auror, it seemed, had survived the battle.

As the others were staring around in horror at the bloody scene in front of them and picking up bodies of the deceased, James came upon the bloodied, disfigured and trampled body of the Head Auror Moody. He choked back a sob on recognising his face, which was a mess with one eye gone. But then he had noticed that somehow, miracle of miracles, his mentor was breathing.

He immediately jumped up, shouting that he was taking Moody to St. Mungos. He reverently picked up his senior's still form and then portkeyed away. Only on reaching St. Mungos and laying him on a bed in the Emergency Ward under the frantic and worried eyes of Healers, did he see how bad the Auror's condition was.

Mangled - there was only one word for it. He had not only lost an eye but also a leg and his stomach was torn open, by a rabid animal it seemed.

Greyback was the only possibility. His blood boiled as he thought of the feral werewolf who had destroyed so many innocent lives, including the life of his best friend - Remus Lupin. His friend had been condemned to the life of an outcast by this deranged and psychotic creature. Greyback and his like were the main reason for the hatred, prejudice and fear the wizarding world felt for werewolves. ..

Moody's gruff voice startled him out of his thoughts.

"So Potter. Heard there'd been an attack at your house?"

Ah yes.. the inevitable topic of discussion.

"I don't suppose that this place is suitable for such a discussion."

"We are under wards Potter."

"That we are Mad - Eye, but, as you so eloquently put it, CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Mad Eye glared at him. Through his scarred face, it was difficult to understand when he was glaring and when he was just looking. But right now, James was positive his mentor was glaring at him due to his joke about his mantra.

James chose to ignore Moody's affronted silence and continued to walk calmly up to the door. He opened it and waved his mentor in. He asked him to make himself comfortable and went to call Lily who was inside and, as far as he knew, playing with Harry.

Lily was in fact talking to Sirius as Harry sat on his shoulders and gurgled in delight. A flash of something passed through James, which couldn't have been jealousy since Sirius was Harry's godfather and therefore entitled to have him on his shoulders as much as he wanted. No it wasn't jealousy at all.

Nevertheless James couldn't quite see this scene anymore and so he cleared his throat.

Lily turned around and smiled (easing his feelings of the something that was not jealousy) and Sirius jumped making Harry wobble and laugh even more.

James hastily plucked him away from Sirius and then said, "Padfoot, I suppose it would be better if you were to go right now. Moody's here and I am quite sure he is here to subtly interrogate us, Constant Vigilance after all."

Sirius looked a little disappointed but he just nodded and pecked Lily on the cheek, ruffled Harry's hair and grinned at James before turning around and disapparating. James looked at the spot where Sirius had vanished, trying to ease his guilt at feeling that 'something' that was not quite jealousy; even as he vaguely decided that the wards needed to be strengthened and apparition needed to be completely blocked.

Lily touched his arm startling him out of his reverie and nodded towards the door. James gave a half-smile and walked ahead with Harry in his arms.

He reached the living room and saw Alastor looking around with an odd expression on his face. On spying him, he stopped his examinations and waited for them to come. Lily greeted Alastor who nodded back and then she went to the kitchen to get tea for them. James sat down on the sofa and waited for Alastor to speak. Half a minute before he spoke, "Heard You-Know-Who had come here."

It was a statement, yet had a subtle question and a demand for details.

"Yes, Voldemort paid us a little Halloween visit."

"I don't suppose he had come for trick-or-treating?"

"You suppose right. It clearly was not an ordinary 'wanted to wish you a Happy Halloween' visit."

"Seems that way though."

"Huh?"

"If really You-Kno... okay, Voldemort had come here then I suppose there would have been some marks to indicate his presence?" Also you wouldn't have been sitting here perfectly well without a scratch on you.

It went unsaid, but not unnoticed.

James sighed. It was clear Moody was not going to back off until he got answers.

"Well, as you know, last night Voldie .." Moody snorted before he could help himself. ".. came here intent on killing us. We were in here when he blasted off the door. For some reason the wards didn't alert us as quick as they were supposed to, or maybe he was just too quick.. or maybe it was because he knew the Secret... Whatever the reason, I was in here and on hearing him, told Lily to take Harry and go. She went up to the nursery, but couldn't apparate because of the anti apparition wards put up by him. Me and Voldie exchanged a few spells but then I got hit with an Avada. I just dropped, like..like I was asleep. The same happened with Lily upstairs. But when he turned his wand on Harry, something happened. I don't know, neither does Lily or even Dumbledore but there was a blast and Voldie got incinerated. And a weird, wonky bubble kind of thing encased the property and woke us up as if we were just sleeping. We woke up to find Sirius here crying. As we sat up, he looked shocked and fainted. Then later on reviving him he heard our side of the story and then feeling pretty overwhelmed apparated to his flat." This was the decided edited explanation of what happened that would be told to anyone apart from who they trusted, as well as the Founders.

Moody didn't say anything at first. "I.. am glad you survived Potter. You and your family." James was surprised by the emotion in his mentor's voice. He couldn't think of anything to say so remained silent.

Suddenly Moody chuckled. "Obviously I was able to drill something in your thick head so as to hold your own against Yo.. Voldemort, even for a few moments."

James chuckled at the obvious attempt to lighten the situation.

They sat in silence for a few moments when Lily came in with the tea. She smiled at Moody and then sat down taking the unusually quiet Harry from James. Alastor's eyes moved to Harry's forehead. Lily answered his unspoken question, "Yes this is where Voldemort hit him with the Killing Curse."

Moody swallowed and nodded. When he spoke his voice was unusually thick. "Got any idea how He got destroyed?"

"Not really. There's this hypothesis, the only one in fact, that Harry being traumatized unconsciously powered his accidental spell so much that it was enough to bring us back from the dead and Voldie to get destroyed." James answered.

He had to lie to his mentor though he wasn't really happy about it.

"Be patient. His time will come. Right now he is too much in the old man's pocket. Later when the time is right, you can tell him everything."

It was Gryffindor's voice.

James jumped violently making Lily and Moody look at him with thinly veiled panic in their eyes. He cursed Godric in his head and hastened to reassure them. "Its okay, I just.. had a ... spasm."

Moody narrowed his eyes. James gave his best innocent look possible. His eyes, if possible, narrowed even further. But just as he was about to speak, a distraction presented itself in the form of Harry. The little boy, having fallen asleep on his mother's shoulder, suddenly woke up with a start and started crying.

Lily shot a panicked glance at James - Harry hardly ever cried. He was an extremely happy and bubbly baby. But all that happiness seemed to have evaporated from him, he was wailing and all the efforts of her mother to soothe him were in vain. At last, James understood some of the almost incomprehensible blubbering coming from his child's mouth.

"Mama, dada.." *sob* "bad man come.. light come.."

James' heart was in his mouth. No parent should ever have to go through this, he thought. Seeing his child, his precious Prongslet, crying and dreaming about an attack by the most feared Dark Lord on his house; was not an experience he would care to repeat. But in his heart of hearts, he knew that this may well be a recurring nightmare of his boy. Such a traumatic event of one's life wasn't ever entirely removed from one's mind.

James stretched out his arms and Lily placed Harry in them, albeit a little reluctantly. James immediately crushed his little child in an embrace that could rival Hagrid's. Harry was still crying, but his wails sounded a little softer now. James started rocking him whispering words all the while.

"Its okay little one, its okay Prongslet. Daddy's here and the bad man has gone. Shh.. it is alright Harry.."

Hearing his words, Moody's eye widened and Lily gave a gasp. Harry stopped wailing and looked up at his father teary eyed.

"Dada ok? Mama?"

"Everyone is okay Harry. Everything is all right."

Harry looked at him for another moment, as if judging the truthfulness of the statement, before breaking into a wide beaming smile that mad James' heart leap. His precious Prongslet was all right.

Alastor then cleared his throat, breaking them out of their reverie.

"I'd better get going."

"Wait, Alastor. I have a few questions I'd like to ask." Lily said.

Alastor looked at her with an unreadable look before inclining his head. Lily took a deep breath before asking, "Isn't it true that the Ministry tracks magic? Especially dark magic and you know, accidental magic along with.."

"I get the idea lass."

"Right. So.. my question is that well.. since the Ministry tracks these sort of things, why didn't it send Aurors the first time Voldemort cast the Killing Curse? If they had come then, James.. he wouldn't have.. died. And then Harry would have been safe. So why didn't the Aurors come?"

Moody looked uncomfortable. "I.. Since you house was under the Fidelius, it couldn't have tracked the dark magic being cast at your home."

"Hmm.. I don't understand. Dumbledore said that he had a ward tracking the magic cast in our house and tracking our health and life force. So if he could do that even when we were under the Fidelius, then why couldn't the Ministry do the same?"

"Dumbledore had erected a ward like that? Why didn't he tell the Ministry then? Besides, why didn't he intimate us - the Order Of Phoenix to come to your aid?" Alastor looked thoughtful.

Lily and James remained silent. They could see that this was something the old Auror needed to think about himself. James' mind was running at top speed. It was very clever of Lily to start sowing the seeds of doubt in his mind like that.

Suddenly Moody said abruptly, "I need to go. Best of luck dealing with everything that happened. "

He then walked to the door and James broke out of his reverie and rushed after him.

After seeing Alastor off, he came back to see that the Founders had claimed the sofa. He caught sight of Godric lounging on his sofa with a look of amusement. His irritation spiked.

"Why didn't you give me a warning before coming into my head like that? I almost gave the game away you know.."

Godric turned to look at him.

"Like this?"

James jumped about a foot high. "What did you do that for?"

"To give you a warning of course." Gryffindor was looking at him as if he was stupid.

"But.. I.." James spluttered.

"And yes, I need to have a word with you about respecting elders and your language young man." He said suddenly, all Professor-like.

"I am not a kid." James muttered sullenly, while calling Godric all sorts of names in his head.

"I did ask you to censor your language Kid. Or do I need to scourgify your mouth?"

James shuddered. His father had once done that and it was not an experience he cared to repeat.

"But how did you know what I was thinking?"

"Ha! See, I can spy on you!"

Rowena rolled her eyes before replying. "We can read your thoughts dear."

"But.. but that's illegal!"

She raised an eyebrow. "You didn't let me complete. I was going to say we can read your thoughts only if we want to. No Occlumency barrier can keep us from reading your thoughts if we really want to read them. Its a sort of privilege of being dead. Also we can also speak to you telepathically. If you try broadcasting a message it would work, but only when we are in the Realm Of The Living."

"Oh."

Then Lily spoke up. "Rowena why did you tell me to ask Alastor about the magic?"

"Its a way to start undermining the long bearded idiot's authority and control on everyone. As you saw, Moody became suspicious and on going back he will ask Dumbledore all of these questions..."

"But won't that make Dumbledore suspicious?"

"Not really. Since he knows that you are one bright witch Lily." Rowena smiled and Lily blushed at the praise from the Founder of the house of wisdom.

Suddenly James spoke up. "Hey, why don't you tell us about the future now?"

The Founders turned to look at him as one. Then Slytherin spoke, "What makes you think that we are going to tell you about the future?"

"Well.. you are here to change things aren't you?"

"Yes but we already made a major change in the time stream by saving you both. So now if we tell you any more about the future, we could seriously alter events and it may lead to such a different outcome than before that we wouldn't know how to handle it."

"But.. I don't understand.." James said bemusedly.

"The Butterfly Effect." Lily said softly.

Rowena and Helga beamed at her. Gryffindor looked impressed while Slytherin.. looked bored with a hint of grudging respect.

"Huh?" was James expected response.

Lily rolled her eyes and answered. "James, there is a theory called the Chaos Theory, given by a muggle scientist named Edward Lorenz. He stated something commonly called as the butterfly effect - 'A very small change in initial conditions can create a significantly different outcome.' For example, if suppose a butterfly wanders into the house of a player and he sees it. He becomes excited and stops to capture it. He was just going out to play in a match. By stopping to capture the butterfly, he became late and thus was anxious and not properly attentive to the game. And as a result, lost the game. Thus, a butterfly was the cause of a nation's embarrassment, if it were an international game."

"So, if we were to offer you details of the future well in advance, it could create very different outcomes that may not necessarily be in our favour." Helga explained.

"I see."

"But rest assured, we are always going to offer help and guidance whenever you are in need of it."

"But.. does that mean you are going?" Lily asked stunned.

"Yes dear." Helga smiled a little sadly.

"But.. but.."

"Listen my dear. Its not as if this is the last you are seeing of us. But we also need to follow rules you know. Now we will probably see you when Harry becomes eight or nine years old. We have decided to start teaching him a few things about magic and how to control his powers. Since if we gift him his powers all at once, it ay lead to a serious backlash. So look forward for our next meeting."

James swallowed and Lily wiped her eyes surreptitiously. "We understand."

"Oh and one more thing. Who all can we tell about you?"

"Whoever you trust fully. Proper and complete trust. And remember if you are in doubt, try broadcasting a message, we'll let you know." Slytherin said.

"But you just said we can't talk to you when you are in the Realm Of The Dead?"

"Ah. But one of us is usually around. Even if not, we'd still be observing you and will come to give you a warning."

Then Gryffindor grinned, "Keep that chamomile ready for me Lily. Its going to be a long ten years without it."

Everyone burst out laughing. The founders winked and smiled one last time before disappearing with a loud boom and a blinding light, leaving Lily and James standing there staring at the spot where they'd just been.