Thank you for the incredible amount of reviews.
It was staggering…
I couldn't answer everyone back and not give away the end…
So I sent no PM's but thank you thank you thank you.
To one guest reviewer b/c I can't PM you- I am sorry you don't like him with Ginny,
And that you feel it ruined the story
But I won't apologize for ending it the way I always intended it to end.
That is what is so perfect about fan fiction, it can end the way you want it to.
You create the story you most want to read.
For everyone else I am so glad you liked it!
Sorry for the wait but a girl has to sleep…
And pay attention to her husband who was getting jealous of the laptop ;)
Here we go on our journey to the end.
Which is still several chapters away I might add.
Chapter 28
Planning a Goodbye
Saturday morning came early and James found Harry sitting center pitch at 6:30 AM. He had gotten up to go for an early run and happened to see him on the map. He walked from the stands to his son and seeker who was staring at a blade of grass in his hands.
"It's a little early for you to be up isn't it? I don't see the sun." he asked quietly. "Can I pull up a bit of grass beside you?"
Harry shrugged "You're the captain."
James frowned at his demeanor, he noticed the leather jacket sitting in his lap. "I am aren't I? So what is on your mind little boy of mine?" he said nudging his shoulder with his own.
"I don't want to leave." He mumbled, more to himself than James.
James sighed, "I don't want you to leave either." He said softly.
"But either way I am. If I just go tomorrow and let everything happen I will leave and you will die. If I go back to my time tomorrow with Ginny, I will leave and… well who knows what will happen. But at least you will live and mum, and Siri, and my friends." He said quietly.
"I care more about you being happy Harry."
"I know you do. But I will not be happy if I go back, knowing I could have saved you and I didn't. You don't understand, I have lived without you and now I have lived with you and if I have a choice well damn it you are going to be there!" he said angrily, throwing the grass in his hands.
"Do you think, that even if all this changes, I can still end up happy?" he asked, his fear betraying him.
James turned so he was face to face with his scared son "Harry look at me please." He said softly. For once Harry instantly listened. "I know you, I love you. If you are set on changing our future I can promise you one thing. You will be born, and I will move heaven and earth to see that you are the happiest child ever. I will make certain you meet Ginny, I promise you that. Nothing will stop me from seeing that you get the life you were meant to have. A life with two parents and a godfather that adore you. Friends and family and every single thing that you deserve. I promise."
He watched as the sunrise caught a single tear as it slipped down Harry's face.
"Come on little boy, let's eat and go see Lils, she is probably a mess in her own right. She will want to see you."
"Where is Ginny and…well, myself at?"
"They are staying in the room of requirement, well hidden from anyone. We all talked with Dumbledore and mum and dad. They are meeting tonight in the head's dorm to see you. Dumbledore going to help us set everything up. So if anyone asks, you have detention" James said with a sly grin.
The two walked to the castle in silence, for once not thinking about the quidditch game that was coming, but instead thinking of their goodbye that was looming extremely close.
O0o0o0o0o0oo0
Harry sat in the overstuffed armchair with Brooke on his lap. The party for the valiant quidditch cup winners was in full swing and he was trying very hard to participate.
"Why so down? You won the match for us." She asked as she took a sip of butterbeer.
"I know, I was just thinking about my-my Godfather, and how I wished I could go home and he would be there waiting for me." He answered truthfully. She squeezed his shoulders and kissed him lightly on the lips, he smiled sweetly at her. "You are a great girl, you know that."
"I do now." She replied with a smile. "I was thinking we could go to your special classroom tonight." She said suggestively.
"I would love to, I would, but James is already taking Lily there and I have a detention for missing a paper in Care of Magical Creatures. It is at 8:00." He answered.
"Well maybe tomorrow after the village." She said hopefully.
He desperately tried to smile back. "I think we have a date." He said.
After a few dances with Brooke he claimed to need a nap before detention and snuck off up to the seventh year dormitory to be alone. However he quickly realized that he wasn't going to be alone. Sirius was sitting on his bed, throwing a quaffle in the air, he looked over when Harry entered.
"Hey squirt, what brings you to my domain?" he asked, not able to pull off a smile.
"I wanted to be away from everyone, and still be with your stuff." He said, not the slightest embarrassed, as he took a seat on James' old bed. "What are you doing up here, you threw the party?"
Sirius shrugged, "I am thinking, about Jamie, and you and myself. I know that James and Lily are not happy with your decision Harry, and I am not thrilled with it either but I do understand it." He said meeting his future godson's eyes.
"You do?"
"Of course I do. I would give anything to know that Jamie was happy, and safe. He is my best mate, my brother. I believe James, come hell or high water, will find a way to get you back. I think that we just have to remember that it was you that told us you might be ruining your own future. You are already a stubborn, self sacrificing, cynical little git. I would imagine as the war goes on and you see terrible things that it will only get worse. Though I will praise your future choice in clothes, you were very well dressed." He said with a wink, causing Harry to laugh.
"You are the ones with the terrible clothes, it isn't my fault I didn't want to wear them. Though I have to say, I like the skirts. Or rather I like the girls in the skirts." He said with a grin.
Sirius chuckled. "Don't let your wife hear you say that. But I completely agree, those skirts and insanely sexy."
"Do you think that everything might still be alright in the future when I change everything, that I will still be me?"
"I think that you will be far happier than you have ever been in your life. I know that we will see to it."
"If something happens and things end up the same and I run off to the ministry at the end of my fifth year. Please don't come after me." He said quietly.
Sirius looked at him reproachfully, "Harry if it means your life, or my own…"
"It means me being happy Siri, it means me always having someone that cares. Just, please. Dumbledore is there, he will protect me, I will be fine, just live Sirius, I am begging you just stay there and live, had you lived you would have been freed in the coming days. We could have been together, you could have taken care of me like you were supposed to. I need you to live, no matter what."
"I won't go." Sirius whispered.
"You will stay away?" Harry said, stunned.
"For you, for your happiness, I will."
"Then I can do this tomorrow. If I have you to look forward to than I can do this."
0o0o0o0o0o
Harry was walking side by side between James and Lily. They were heading to the head dorms to discuss plans for tomorrow and for him to say bye to his grandparents. Lily was exceptionally quiet, Harry couldn't blame her, how do you say goodbye to the son you haven't had yet and now might never get to have. He echoed her silence as they walked.
They entered the room, seeing Dumbledore, the elder Potter's, and Ginny talking together. Peter was milling about the fireplace reading a book. The future Harry was sitting on a sofa beside of Remus and Sirius talking, he was smiling. Harry suspected that he was discussing his Godson, he always got that misted over look when he talked about Teddy. James and Lily silently took the seats on the couch opposite them with their Harry still between them.
Since they had arrived everyone sat down in chairs, or in Ginny's case, her husband's lap, making the younger Harry blush and shake his head. Ginny never had been one for hiding her feelings why should that stop her now?
"Alright Harry," Dumbledore said future Harry, "Tell us your plan, we have to be prepared."
He nodded and began. "It really is fairly simple, Harry, is going to go to Hogsmede like nothing is happening. Ginny and I will follow his group, me under my cloak, Ginny under his" he said pointing at his younger self, "and James and Sirius will follow under James' cloak." Everyone nodded in understanding. "Shortly after you get there you are going to go into the hogshead, within minutes it will be attacked. I will put a color change charm on my eyes, so that I am fairly identical to James. This is vital, James you cannot come out from that cloak until I put mine back on. No one is going to notice that James looks older while all of that is going on, but he has to switch with me before help arrives, he has to be the savior, he and Sirius."
He turned to look at Sirius, "You are going to save your brother. That is your only job. You will save Reg. Not only does he deserve it but it will make getting my hands on one of the horcruxes much easier if he isn't involved."
"I am sorry did you say ONE of the horcruxes? So not only is there a horcrux there are more than one of them?" Harold Potter asked, his face white.
"That is what I said, based on the time right now, he has five and I know where they all are, the diary is with Lucious Malfoy under his sitting room in his hidden vault, the ring is in Gaunt's Hollow, the cup is at Gringotts, the locket is still in the underground lake, and the tiara is here, in the room of requirement. In my time there was also the snake and very unfortunately myself but as neither of them have been made yet and won't be for some time I think we are safe to say there are only the five. I have the sword of Gryffindor with me, I will destroy them all." He replied calmly as if he hadn't just stunned everyone in the room.
"As I was saying, Sirius, when I have everyone but Bellatrix down, you will come out and save Reg. I am going to kill her, I am not one for killing but I will not let her get away with crimes she is going to commit, and if this doesn't work and nothing changes, well, if she is dead, you will live. So save Regulus, people need to see it. Harry this entire time you are going to guard Brooke. Keep her safe, stay out of the way. When I begin to duel Bellatrix you will get up to run to my side where Ginny will shoot you with a stunner from under the cloak, making it appear you got hit. I will kill the deatheater and set off a smoke blast giving Gin the chance to pull you with her under your cloak and you will use the time turner to go home. As the smoke is there I am going to transfigure something into your corpse, making it appear that you, James' little brother has been killed. Once I am done, James and I will trade places. It will seem you died in battle, and James and Sirius attempted to save you but only managed to save Reg and the Prewetts. They all will live." He said, looking at his former self. "You have to stick to that."
Younger Harry nodded his head, still not trusting himself to speak, but grateful that he had found a way to keep Sirius alive.
"Once he goes back, I will start hunting and killing Horcruxes. When they are gone, I will find him and kill him, leaving you all to grow up and live out the lives you should have. There is one thing though, Peter, you came to me begging for a chance to help save them. You said you wanted to prove that you would not turn on them again, correct?"
Peter nodded as everyone started at him in shock.
"Well I will, reluctantly, but I will give you the chance. You are going with me to get the locket, and you are going to drink the potion protecting it. It is painful, I watched it bring Dumbledore to his knees, and it may be cruel of me to ask you to do it but I think if you really want to prove yourself you will. If you love them like you say you do, you will do it. You will not die, I promise, but you will do it." Peter nodded gravely from his place by the fire. "Right well once all the horcuxes are gone and I kill Tom Riddle, it will be over." He finished, but James cut in.
"I need to make an amendment to your plans, and I swear to merlin if you don't listen to me that I am not letting you go back with Ginny." He said, staring hard at the older Harry, who was looking at him in shock.
"You can do your hunt, but you will wait to kill Voldemort, you will let us get married, and have Harry, you will let us be hunted and hide, and then, on Halloween night when he comes to the house I will let you answer the door while I protect Harry and Lily. You can kill him there, but I will not risk not getting my son. I refuse to risk it. It is the only way I will go along with this. It will mean you are born and that Voldemort still came after you. It will mean the world will still know Harry's story and Ginny will grow up adoring him. You will still have a chance to be together. I will not deny my son a chance to live, if he is going to save me, then I am going to save him."
"That means Peter will have to join the Death eaters." Older Harry said, looking at the smallest boy in the room.
"He can't do that, he knows too much." Sirius growled.
Peter shook his head. "We will do the locket first, then you can wipe my memory and push me towards them, whatever you need, I will do it. I want to show you that I loved your parents. I don't know what happened to make me change in your time but this time, I will do anything to see them live."
James, Remus, Sirius, and the younger Harry stared at him, shocked. The elder Harry nodded his head and went back to readjusting his plans to include James' request.
After more conversation and planning Harry said tearful goodbyes to his grandparents hugging them both and being smothered with kisses by Elizabeth, they left with Dumbledore, who took Ginny and future Harry with him, to discuss Horcruxes. Harry looked at Peter seriously.
"You are going to do this?" he said in amazement.
"I am going to do this." He confirmed.
"Why?"
"Because I can't think of any other way to show you how sorry I am. And I can't think of a better way to live or die than saving my best friends." He said with a small smile, Harry stood up and hugged him, thanking him repeatedly as everyone watched the pair of them in shock.
Shortly after, Remus and Peter left leaving Harry with the three most important people in his world.
"I think you two should stay here tonight." James said to the pair of them.
Knowing neither of them wanted to leave anyways, they both nodded. Harry turned and looked at Sirius with a smile on his face. "No matter what, you are going to live." He said, barely concealed excitement in his voice.
"It appears so." Sirius replied ruffling Harry's hair.
"If everything goes down wrong, you can take me, Dumbledore knows everything, he will give me to you." He said with a smile.
"I suppose he would, but Harry, it isn't going to go wrong. We are all going to live. ALL OF US." Sirius said gesturing to James and Lily.
Harry turned to look at them, a frown on his face. "What if he still kills you, you have him coming to the cottage on the same night, you are intentionally bringing him to you. You could very easily die." He said sadly.
"I know that, but you would still live. And with Sirius, and happy. Harry you are my son, any parent would die for their child. Lily and I have both talked about it, we are more than willing to do it time and time again. You are worth it, even if you don't think so."
"But I want you to live." He said, letting the tears fall down his face.
Lily smiled sadly and placed her hand on his cheek. "And we will, even if it is only within your heart."
