Hindsight

Summary: "Ten years," James whispered to his wife. "We've been dead for Ten years… how is this possible?" Ten years after the tragedy at Godric's Hollow, James and Lily come back to life and find their world turned upside down.

Chapter 25

The room stood still for what felt like forever, everyone rooted to their spots as they all tried to process what had just happened.

And then there was utter chaos.

For the first time in their entire friendship, Remus was the one to have a complete mental meltdown. He was cursing and shouting while tugging his hair and blaming himself for not reacting when Harry was just arms length away from him. Sirius, although shaking from nerves, was trying his best to calm the man down. Dumbledore was surrounded by an angry mob of professors who were all arguing about how to safely and quickly get down the entrance in time to make sure they could find Harry and Ginny. And amidst all the noise and worried cries, James and Lily stayed silent.

Unable to believe that they'd let their son slip right passed them. Unable to believe that they allowed him to stay long enough for this to happen.

Lily looked over at her husband and saw him breathing rapidly as he stared at the Chamber entrance. She reached out and pulled him to her, placing a gentle hand on his chest.

"Breathe, love."

"I can't," he gasped out. "Harry-"

"We aren't waiting for the professors," she stated as calmly as she could. "We're going down there now. But I need you to breathe first, James."

He nodded jerkily and forcefully tried to stop his panic attack. He closed his eyes and concentrated on taking longer breaths. As he did this, Lily turned to Sirius. He noticed the intent on her face immediately and he led Remus over to them. The werewolf was still panicking but looked considerably better than a few minutes before.

"You got a game plan, Evans?" Sirius murmured hopefully.

She smiled at him. "Looks like we're gonna have to take the lead. Our time to shine, Sirius."

"Finally. I've had enough of these two thinking they were more important than us," he joked in an attempt to distract the two.

"Wanna jump in headfirst like your silly godchild?"

"He's your spawn."

"Damn right he is," she shot back. "Now let's go down there and save the day."

Sirius straightened his shoulders. "Oi, you two. Are you still crying or can we go find Harry?"

Remus glared at him but James merely walked up to the entrance.

"Everyone ready?" Lily asked. She took James' hand. "Don't worry. I'll protect you."

He let out a small laugh despite what was going on. "I never doubted that."

"Wait!" Minerva shouted when she saw them approaching the pipe. "What do you four think you're doing?"

Sirius raised a brow at her. "Saving my godson. What exactly did you assume we were doing?"

Vector gaped at them helplessly. "You can't possibly go down there without a plan! Who knows what is down there-"

Remus scoffed disbelievingly. "That's exactly the point, isn't it? There are two children down there that need us. If you don't want to do it, we have no problem going first."

There was an explosion of voices.

"But what if there's a trap going down the pipe?"

"We need to be cautious!"

"Who knows what'll happen if we don't attack this with a solid plan! For all we know the basilisk could be waiting-"

"So what?" James snapped. "We're just going to continue wasting time, then?"

Lily reared back towards the sinks. "My son is waiting down there for me and I'm not wasting a minute more squabbling with you all!"

"Lily, just wait!" Severus shouted.

She ignored him and disappeared down the hole. James sent the man a warning glare before following his wife, his two friends just behind him.

It felt like they were sliding down the large pipe for forever until finally they shot out into a dark tunnel, each of them tumbling into each other as they fell out. Bones of small animals were littered all over the ground and Lily was sure she was going to be sick as she imagined Harry's body in the thick of it. When everyone was back on their feet, she shook the thoughts out of her head and nodded at them to follow her. Together, the four of them began their search. There was a clear trail of crushed bones ahead of them, which told them that they must have just missed Harry by not very long. The tunnel twisted and turned, and a lot of their decisions on where to go were made by guesses, but they somehow had amazing luck. After a long trek, they came upon a large curved mass in front of them. They froze, relaxed when Remus pointed out that it was just a shedding of skin, then grew worried once more when they realized just how monstrously enormous the basilisk would be.

It was then they noticed dust wafting in the air from the shedding's direction. Lily all but ran over with James, whisper-shouting Harry's name desperately.

None of them were quite sure what to expect once they got into that section of the tunnel, but it certainly wasn't a dazed Lockhart lying semi-unconscious across from what appeared to be a huge cave in. Pebbles were still tumbling down from the top of the pile and the dust had them coughing and their eyes tearing. Despite the darkness and their watery vision, the fact that Harry wasn't anywhere in sight was horribly apparent.

"You," Lily called demandingly as she stalked over to Gilderoy. She hauled him up onto his knees and shook him roughly. "What did you do to my son? Where's Harry?"

"Wha-" Lockhart groaned. "N-nothing, I- who are you?"

Lily dropped him in surprise. "What?"

Gilderoy glanced at all of them with a hesitant smile. "And who are all of you?"

Sirius frowned. "Sirius Black, and you are?" he asked sarcastically.

"Why that's a good question…"

James' face scrunched up in confusion. "Do you not know who you are?"

Gilderoy shrugged. "You wouldn't happen to know who I am, would you?"

All of them stared at each other incredulously. "Any takers?" Remus deadpanned.

Although the other men shook their heads, something next to Lockhart caught Lily's attention. "Look!" she exclaimed. She bent down and picked up Lockhart's wand, which was broken at the tip. "You don't think he tried to attack the basilisk and caused this mess, do you?"

"Or attacked Harry," Remus murmured thoughtfully with a deep glare on his face. "What if Harry is on the other side of this bloody rock wall?!"

Sirius turned to James and Lily with horror in his eyes. "There's no where else he could've gone but forward. If he wasn't back there…"

James grabbed at his chest as he felt himself lose control of his breathing once more. Their son was trapped on the opposite side of the cave in with a basilisk roaming loose. Lily shook in her spot before whipping her wand out and sending a powerful "bombarda!" at the wall. They all ducked as rocks exploded in their direction. Remus felt one cut across his cheek as another rather large chunk hurled into Sirius' stomach and knocked the wind out of him. She winced, realizing her poor judgment in her haste to get past the cave in.

"Move the rocks," James gasped out with great panic. "I don't care if we have to levitate them one by one or claw our way through it! Move the fucking rocks, now!"

Harry watched with great trepidation and fear as the entrance opened before him.

When he first got to the Chamber, Professor Lockhart had been cowering in a corner, obviously unsure of where to go and desperate to find a way back up. Harry's original plan had been to wait for his parents to come down, get scolded, and leave them with no choice but to move forward with him. It obviously wouldn't be an easy task to get him back up without using all of their effort. Unfortunately, Lockhart created a problem the moment he noticed he wasn't alone anymore.

In his fall, the tip of Lockhart's wand had broken off, rendering him defenseless and even more useless than he already was. In his desperation, he had tried to steal Harry's wand, forcing the boy to run for it. Trying to hide himself, Harry scoured the tunnel in the dark, feeling at the walls to make his way around until finally he could take it no longer and casted a quick "lumos" to see where he was. He had just come across a rather large snakeskin lying on the ground when he heard Lockhart behind him. He told Harry he couldn't let the others know that he'd tried to hurt him- Dumbledore and the apparently living Potters would surely murder him for it. Then, rather stupidly or perhaps by instinct, Lockhart waved his wand in Harry's direction with a loud scream of "obliviate!"

Harry saw in near slow motion as horror flooded onto his on his professor's face just a split second before the spell backfired and hurled him backwards into a wall when he realized what he'd done.The ceiling above them began to tremble and shake and dust rained down on Harry's head. He had just enough time to dive out of the way before giant rocks fell down from every direction and trapped any possible way backwards to the entrance of the Chamber.

One he regained his focus and digested what had just occurred, a horribly feeling of regret bubbled in his stomach and raced all the way up to his throat. What had he been possibly thinking? Jumping into the Chamber without any trained wizards around except for the idiot Lockhart?

With nowhere to turn, he continued on, convincing himself to be brave for Ginny. After all, she had been down there for far longer. She couldn't possibly wait much longer. By the time any of the professors or his family got down to the Chamber she'd probably be dead.

And now he was standing at what he was certain was his possible death.

His parents would kill him if he didn't die within the next few seconds.

Summoning up every ounce of Gryffindor courage he had left, Harry walked into a dimly lit chamber. Pillars lined the long stretch before him, all of them carved with serpents. He shook from head to toe as he very slowly walked forward. Wand raised high, he glanced about him wildly, listening carefully for the basilisk. Every so often, he'd blink his eyes shut to protect himself, unsure if the next time he turned to look at something would be the last. Finally, he came to the end of the Chamber, where a very large statue of a wizard with a long, thin beard and a monkeyish face stood tall. At the statue's feet, lying facedown with red hair splayed around messily was-

"Ginny!" Harry gasped as he raced forward. He kneeled down next to her and shook her desperately, allowing his wand to skid away from him in the process. "Ginny? Gin! Don't be dead- please-"

He turned her around until she was partly in his lap.

"Ginny… Ginny, Please… please wake up. It's Harry."

"She wont' wake."

Harry jumped and spun so fast that Ginny flopped back onto the marble floor with a dull thud. He looked up and saw a young, thin, black-haired boy looking down at him curiously. The boy was obviously a bit older than him, but that wasn't what caught his attention. It was the fact that he seemed…blurry. Like he was looking through a misty window or like his glasses were suddenly the wrong prescription.

"Who are you?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"…Tom. Tom Riddle."

He began circle the two on the floor.

"Are you the one that opened the Chamber?"

He nodded. "Or at least… Ginny did. For me."

He narrowed his eyes at the stranger. "Ginny would never hurt anyone. What did you do to her?"

Tom bent down a few feet away and picked Harry's wand up off the floor. "I've been waiting for this for a very long time, Harry Potter. For the chance to see you… to talk to you."

Harry jumped to his feet. "Give me my wand back. Now."

"You won't be needing it."

All traces of fear left Harry for a second as anger flooded through his veins. Who was this boy that was slowly killing his friend? "Tell me who you are and what you did to her. Now."

Tom smirked lazily, bending down to pick up the diary near Ginny's body. Harry had been so worried he hadn't even noticed it. With his other hand, Tom gripped Harry's wand tightly and without moving even an inch, letters appeared in the air next to him.

Harry took a step back and watched as the words "Tom Marvolo Riddle" quickly rearranged and revealed who was standing before him.

"Would you like to hear a story, Harry Potter?"

Harry was running so fast that his legs were aching and his lungs were burning. He turned a corner and clamped a hand over his mouth tightly, trying his best not to make a sound as he heard the basilisk approaching him rapidly. He closed his eyes and pressed himself as far back against the wall as he could.

Somehow, despite the large cave-in, a large crimson bird had flown in and dropped the Sorting Hat into Harry's arms. Harry took one look at it and knew exactly what it was. Fawkes. His parents had once explained that it was Dumbledore's phoenix that had donated two feathers to Ollivander, one of which was now in his wand. He'd tried to look for the bird every time he was in Dumbledore's office but had never seen it until now.

Fawkes had pecked the basilisk's eyes out the moment it came out of Salazar Slytherin's statue, and despite the way Tom Riddle mocked the choice of weapon, Harry was not foolish enough to leave the hat behind. There had to be a reason it was sent to him. Besides, it was all he had left now that Fawkes had disappeared somewhere. Maybe he'd gone to get help for him…

He hugged the hat close to his chest and held his breath when the basilisk slithered by.

"Please," he thought to himself. "Mum, dad. Someone. Please help me. Please."

And with his plea, the hat responded. It contracted and squeezed in his hands until it felt much heavier than a ratty old hat should. Harry peered into it confusedly and gaped at what he saw. He reached in and pulled out a long, silver sword. Rubies were embedded into its handle, nearly hypnotizing him with their beauty. Quickly, he rolled the hat up as much as he could and shoved it into his back pocket before gripping the sword with both hands, taking a deep breath, and running back out into the long corridor.

It didn't take long to gain the basilisk's attention and its screeching hisses were flooding into Harry's ears as it got closer and closer. He turned his head in time to see it lunge at him.

With a cry, he dodged out of the way. The basilisk's head hit the chamber wall instead. From a distance, he could hear Lord Voldemort laughing at him. Ignoring it, he focused on the basilisk that had lunged at him once more. He fell on his back and watched with wide eyes as it grazed past him and hit the wall again.

Harry rolled out from underneath it, got to his feet and steadied himself. He raised the blade before him and swung at it but it didn't do much to the basilisk's tough exterior. He slashed again. A small cut appeared and the basilisk hissed loudly in pain. It reared back, ready to strike harder than ever. Harry cocked his arm back and shot forward with a roar as it came for him.

By some luck, the sword went straight up into the roof of the serpent's mouth. He buried it hilt-deep and its blood ran down his arm, drenching his clothes.

But Harry had no time for relief, for a searing pain shot through him and lit his nerves on fire. It felt like lava coursing through his veins, and looking his arm, he saw why. One of the basilisk's fangs had sank deep into him, digging down more and more as the basilisk fell to the floor until it finally broke off.

Harry slid down the wall next to the dead basilisk and brought a shaky hand up to the fang. With all the strength he could manage, he wrenched it out, groaning and gurgling from the pain of it all.

He knew it was too late. The poison in his body was spreading and blinding him with its white-hot torture. His vision went foggy but he could see Tom Riddle standing above him.

"You're dead, Harry Potter. Dead."

"Lily, look! Fawkes is back!"

She looked up to see the bird come out of the large path they'd made.

Moving the rocks was much harder than they thought it would be. Aim at the wrong rock and it would've collapsed it all. Vanishing some of them had done the trick but they still had to be strategic, for if one disappeared in the wrong place it would have caused a rockslide in their direction. At the start of their struggle, Fawkes had appeared and soared through the very tiny opening they had created. James had hollered for it to come back, but it did not listen and disappeared deep into the darkness. They doubled their efforts after seeing the phoenix. Minutes later, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Severus had appeared behind them.

"What happened?" Albus questioned urgently.

"No idea," Sirius sighed irritably. "This bloody ponce can't remember a thing and Harry is nowhere in sight. We've been working on this wall for so long already. Had some accidents." He glanced at Remus, whose leg was bleeding from a particularly sharp rock that rolled down and scratched him when he wasn't paying attention.

"Did Fawkes come through? Did he give you the Sorting Hat?"

Remus stared at the old man in disbelief. "The Sorting Hat? What would that do for us?"

Dumbledore cursed under his breath. Had it been any other time, they all would have been scandalized by it. Dumbledore? Cursing? "So you didn't see him?"

"We did," Lily answered quickly. "He flew right through the top."

Worry ate at Albus' heart. "Severus, Minerva. Hurry. We need to get these rocks out of the way. If he didn't bring the Hat to them, he must've brought it to Harry."

"I don't get it," James deadpanned as the professors rushed forward and gave Sirius and Remus a hand with the wall of rock. "What's so important about the hat?"

The question went unanswered. Deciding it wasn't important to know just now, he instead turned his effort to helping clear the path. It didn't take long for all of them to finally make a large, safe enough way to get through. Once it was done, and spells were put in place to stabilize as many spots as they could, Lily rose up before them.

"You three stay here. If we can't stop the basilisk…"

Severus visibly flinched at what she was implying. If they were killed, the professors would serve as the second defense.

Lily nodded at Albus who took her order in stride. "James, Sirius, Remus. Come on. Let's-"

Fawkes' song filled the air as he swooped in from behind her and hovered by her shoulder. All of them could see the blood staining his beak. "Fawkes," Albus greeted softly. "My dear friend, what has happened?" The bird reached down and tugged on Lily's shirt. "Follow him! He'll lead you to Harry!"

Lily pivoted on her heel and hurdled through the hole they made. "Let's go!"

James, Remus and Sirius raced down with her until they reached a long corridor of pillars. They hesitated for a moment just to take their wands out before continuing on. Lily sucked in a sharp breath when she saw the basilisk lying still in front of them. She brought a finger to her mouth, telling them to be quiet, but Fawkes flew passed her unbothered.

The snake didn't move.

Was it dead?

She squinted and noticed a pool of blood seeping out from beneath it.

"It's dead," she said with disbelief. "Did Harry kill the basilisk? By himself?"

"Fawkes…"

They all jolted in their spots. Harry. That was Harry's voice they heard from the other side of the basilisk.

""Look," a new voice said mockingly. "Even Dumbledore's bird knows you've met your end. Do you see what it's doing, Potter? It's crying. I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Harry Potter. Take your time. I'm in no hurry."

Lily grasped James' sleeve in her hand and tugged him with her as she sprinted around the enormous corpse before her.

"So ends the famous Harry Potter!"

They turned around its tail and ran along the other side of it. A teenager was standing in front of the curled body of their son. "Alone in the Chamber of Secrets, forsaken by friends, defeated at last by the Dark Lord he so unwisely challenged. You'll be back with your dead Mudblood mother soon, Harry-"

"STUPEFY!"

They watched in amazement as Lily's spell shot straight forward and slammed into an invisible barrier. How could the boy have defended himself so quickly? The young man turned his head curiously, as though someone hadn't just tried to attack him, and stared at the newcomers. "And you are?"

Lily glared. "His Mudblood mother," she answered coldly.

The boy's eyes widened and he snapped up in surprise. "But-"

"Didn't Ginny ever tell you while she was writing to you, Tom?" Harry spat weakly.

They finally caught a clear glimpse of their son. He was gripping a large, bleeding wound on his arm and trembling from pain. A basilisk fang, stained red, was on the ground a few inches away from him.

No…

Harry gave them and Tom a shaky smirk. "You didn't do a very good job at killing any of us Potters, really."

There was a fury on Tom's face that had all of them worried but when he turned back to Harry, it was Fawkes that had his attention. "Get away, bird… get away from him! Get away, I said!"

Tom raised what looked to be Harry's wand and shot a spell at the phoenix, but it was too late. Fawkes had done his job… whatever it was.

"Harry?" James called out worriedly.

Harry stared up at them in wonder. "It was the basilisk, dad. It's fang stabbed me but Fawkes- he did something! It doesn't hurt anymore!"

"Phoenix tears," Tom growled. "How could I forget… But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way. How would you like for your parents to watch you die, Harry?"

"No!" Lily cried. She lunged forward, her arms outstretched like she could pull her son from harm if she could just reach him.

"Harry!" James shouted. "Harry, move!"

Tom thrust the wand in Harry's direction and opened his mouth to cast a spell. Lily had just landed in front of Harry and shielded him entirely when-

"NO!"

Mother and son looked up and watched as Tom writhed and twisted violently. He let out a loud, piercing scream, flailed around while slowly disappearing from view. When he was gone, Harry's wand fell from the air and clattered on the marble floor. Silence rang through the dungeon and they searched for any sign that Tom was still around.

What they found instead, a few feet away where Ginny's body was, was Sirius and Remus.

Sirius was cradling the waking child in his arms, looking overwhelmingly relieved that she was still okay.

Remus, on the other hand, was staring at his hands. They were covered in ink, like he'd spilled a bottle on himself. Lying in front of his knees was the diary that had disappeared from the bathroom, a severed basilisk fang poking up from right in the middle of it.

"Fawkes brought it over to me after that boy attacked him," Remus explained quietly. "I don't know why but, it was like an impulse… I just knew I had to stab the book with it." He shook his head confusedly, blinked, then scrambled over and pulled Harry out of Lily's arms and into his own. "You stupid little fool, how could you do this to us?"

"I'm sorry," Harry told him with pure remorse. "I'm so sorry… When the fang...When I was dying, all I could think of was that I'd never see any of you to tell you I was sorry."

"Harry," James breathed. He didn't bother to move Remus. Instead, he wrapped an arm around both his friend and his son. "Harry," he said again as he began to cry. "Harry, you could've… oh God, Harry."

Lily wept tears of joy as she snuggled into the hug. "My baby. Oh, my beautiful boy."

Sirius watched them exhaustedly, hugging Ginny to his chest and whispering calming words when she came to and realized what was going on. "It's all right, sweetheart," he promised. "Everything is going to be all right."