After a quiet dinner, they all settled down in what was formerly known as the sitting room, some with tea, some with something a little harder. The room had been transformed from an intimidating and formally decorated space, into a comfy family room. Big squashy couches lined three of the mint green walls, facing the merrily burning fireplace. A blocky muggle television sat in one corner. The three couples took a couch each.
"Okay Harry," James set his Butterbeer down on the coffee table. "No more waiting. How did you kill Voldemort?"
"I hope you haven't got somewhere to be after this," chuckled Ron.
James looked at him seriously. "No where at all. I'm ready to finally have all my questions answered."
Ron swallowed, and joked, "Alright, you asked for it!"
Harry took a big swig of fire whiskey, took a deep breath, and started.
"Well, I guess it really started my first year at Hogwarts. You see, I never knew I was a wizard before I came to Hogwarts. In fact, thanks to Uncle Vernon, I almost wouldn't have gotten my letter at all, but Hagrid came and got me, and helped me do my shopping."
"Oh, thank God for Hagrid. He was always so kind to me." Lily interjected. Harry smiled, and continued.
"That first year, I became friends with these two, and we stumbled on the Philosopher's Stone hidden at the castle. Well, we didn't 'stumble on it,' so much as we hunted it down all year. It turned out that our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell, was trying to steal it, for Voldemort. He had lost his body, or something, and was living on the back of Professor Quirrell's head." Both Harry's parents were taken aback by that.
"It only gets worse," Hermione warned.
"Anyway, we got through a bunch of traps set up by the teachers, which I never would have gotten through without Ron and Hermione. They went and got Dumbledore while I saved the stone, and met Voldemort for the first time." Lily's hand covered her mouth as a small squeak escaped. James held her tighter.
"I tried to warn you," Hermione muttered under her breath to Ron.
"I barely escaped, and the stone was destroyed to keep it from Voldemort." Harry took a moment to breathe, and Ginny rubbed his arm.
"What Harry'll never mention, because he's too good, is that he was also suddenly dealing with being a giant celebrity. We'd been hearing about famous Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, ever since we were kids, and of course he was all anyone could talk about. Everyone was judging every move he made! Every point lost, every Quidditch game won. Everything he did was practically national news! Still is, in fact. The press'll have a field day when they learn about this," Ron interjected.
"That must be terrible, Harry." Lily remarked.
Harry shrugged. "It's not easy, but you get used to it. Anyway, second year was tougher, if you can imagine that. That was the year Ginny started Hogwarts. Have you heard of the Chamber of Secrets?" Ginny buried her head into Harry's shoulder, and he wrapped his arms around her.
James shook his head, but Lily sat up straight. "I have. I read about it in Hogwarts, a History."
"Now that's a phrase that takes me back," Ron mumbled to Hermione, who playfully swatted his thigh.
"Apparently, it was built by Salazar Slytherin, and was home to a force that could eliminate all Muggleborn students from the school. As far as I knew, it was only a legend," Lily continued.
"Well, it's not. Someone opened it that year, and it was all I could focus on. The monster inside was petrifying kids who weren't pureblood, and it even got Hermione towards the end of the year. Thankfully, no one died, but there were some close calls."
Lily turned whiter than a sheet. James was outraged. "That's horrible! Did you ever find the evil git that did it?" Harry began to rub Ginny's back as he explained.
"It's a little more complicated than that. It turned out, Draco Malfoy's father had slipped Ginny this diary that was kind of infused with Voldemort's younger self, and he possessed her, and made her do all kinds of horrible things. He made Ginny release the Basilisk, which was what was petrifying all those students. Ron and I saved her just in time, and destroyed the diary." He pressed a kiss to Ginny's temple.
"Is it done?" She whispered to him, childlike.
"Yes, honey, we won't talk about it anymore." She swiped at her face, wiping away tears, and settled back in to her seat, head still leaning on Harry's shoulder.
He looked at her sideways, troubled. "Anyone mind if we take a quick break? I could use some water," he asked.
"I'll get it, Harry. You stay with Ginny," said Hermione.
"You mentioned Draco Malfoy…any relation to Lucius? He was a few years ahead of us at school." James said cautiously.
"That's right. Draco's his awful son. That guy was an absolute tosser all through school, and even joined the Death Eaters near the end. I hear he's come round to our side now that it's all over, but I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him," Ron responded.
"That makes sense to me. The apple never falls too far from the tree with the Malfoy family." James said, resignedly.
"You know, Harry, you don't have to get through all of this tonight. We can just go to bed if you want to." Lily said gently.
"That is tempting…let me at least get through the next year, I think you two will learn some things you'll want to think over."
"Would you mind if I went to bed, Harry? Can you manage without me?" Ginny asked, stifling a yawn.
"Of course, Gin. Get some sleep. I love you." She leaned over and kissed him, said her goodnights, and went upstairs.
"Poor thing," whispered Lily, watching her go. "What a terrible thing to go through. No wonder she'd a bit tetchy."
"What do you mean? Thanks, Hermione," Harry accepted the water from her gladly.
Ron draped his arm on the back of the sofa, around Hermione as she sat back down, and said, "She's angry about something that happened today, but she wouldn't talk to Hermione or me about it. I think she's getting ready to have a proper row with you, mate. Gird your loins." He gave Harry a pointed look as Hermione smacked his chest.
"Ronald! She's a human who's upset, she's not the galloping horde."
"Speaking as one who some might describe as 'a little tetchy' myself, I'm sure the sleep will do her some good. The problem won't go away, but it helps." Lily said reassuringly.
James held up in hands in innocence. "No comment."
"Go on Harry, I think we all could do with a little sleep. One more story, then bedtime," joked Hermione.
"Okay. Well, third year wasn't all that bad, except for all the dementors…and the escaped convict who wanted to murder me." Seeing their baffled looks, he laughed, and explained. "Sirius had escaped from Azkaban the summer before school started, so the dementors that guard Azkaban basically took over the school because they thought he was going to come back to kill me. Nothing bad happened, of course, except that I kept getting followed by this big dog, and Ron's rat was going mental all the time. It was terrifying at the time, but pretty funny in retrospect."
"None of that sounds funny to me!" Lily was horrified.
"No, it was just Sirius! He never would've hurt Harry." James patted her leg.
"I was safe the whole time. Well, maybe not from the Dementors, but Professor Lupin helped me with that. Oh right, Remus came to work at Hogwarts as our new defense teacher!"
"No! Ole Mooney as a teacher! That's perfect. How was he?" James was bouncing with joy in his seat.
"We learned more from him in a day than ever learned from any other defense teacher, before or after him," Hermione interjected, and the boys nodded enthusiastically.
"And to top it all off, Ron's older brothers gave us this charmed map they'd found in Filch's office…" Harry said, lifting an eyebrow to James.
"Our map, the Maurader's Map? You have the Marauder's Map?" James jumped off the sofa, nearly spilling his butterbeer.
"I do!" Harry replied as he laughed.
"We all thought Filch destroyed it! I can't believe this! Can I see it sometime?"
"Yeah, maybe tomorrow, I've got to get it from the vault at Gringott's." James pouted a little, and sat down once more. Lily just rolled her eyes, and rubbed his back soothingly.
"Anyway, near the end of the year, Ron ended up getting dragged into the shrieking shack by the dog, who of course turned out to be Sirius. He and Remus explained that you guys were friends, and…" Harry licked his lips, and valiantly kept going. "And that it was actually Peter that turned you over to Voldemort."
Lily and James felt as if a bomb had been dropped on them. James began to shake, and Lily let her tears fall into her lap, ashamed. The others traded sorrowful glances as they let Lily and James take in the news. After what felt like hours, Lily finally spoke.
"We…we were so stupid. We underestimated him. We should have trusted Sirius. I should have trusted Sirius. I'm so, so sorry James." She laid a gentle hand on his arm. He looked oblivious to it.
"No," he remained staring into space. "It was Sirius' idea. We did trust him, Lily. Probably too much. But, you're right, we did underestimate Peter. I won't make that mistake again." He suddenly fixed his intense gaze on Harry. "He was Ron's rat, wasn't he?" Harry just nodded.
"While we were taking Peter back to the castle to arrest him, Remus started to transform, and Snape was interfering, and Peter escaped. Luckily, Hermione had a time turner because she wanted to take too many classes, otherwise, we never would have been able to help Sirius escape. But we did," Harry finished quickly, to reassure them.
"Snape? How'd he get there?" James snarled. The color drained from Lily's face.
"He was our Potions master," Hermione responded helpfully. "He was there…well, honestly, he was there to out Remus as a werewolf. He's been trying to do it all year. Snape always wanted the Defense post instead of Potions. Remus lost his job because of Snape."
Lily nodded, a defeated look on her face. "I guess that's really who we was, in the end. Only out for himself."
"That rank bastard." James muttered, pulling Lily into a hug. "I think we'd best call it a night. You called it, Harry. We're gonna need some time to process that."
Harry nodded. "I hope you don't mind, I've put you up in Sirius' old room. It's not exactly the same as it used to be, but it's still a little piece of him. Do you know the way?"
"Yeah. Thanks, Harry. That was thoughtful." James pulled Harry into a brief hug, then he and Lily made for the stairs.
Later that night, Harry tried his best to sneak into his and Ginny's bedroom without making any noise.
"Harry?" Ginny whispered groggily.
"It's me, love. Go back to sleep." Harry gently opened the dresser drawers and pulled out his pajama bottoms. It was still a sticky, hot night, so he didn't bother with a shirt.
"Nah, I've got to use the loo," she said, slowly pulling herself out of bed. When she returned, she snuggled up to him, pressing her cold nose into his hot neck. He hummed in appreciation.
"Hey Gin?" He asked sleepily.
"Yeah?"
"Everything alright?" She took so long to reply that he almost thought she had fallen asleep.
Finally, she whispered into his neck. "No."
He tried to crane his neck to meet her eyes in the darkness. "What is it? Did something happen while I was gone?" She pulled him close to her, reveling in the feel of his warm, smooth skin on hers.
"I don't want to talk about it right now."
"Oh…ok." He buried his nose in her sweet-smelling hair, and kissed the top of her head. "Is there anything I can do?"
She sighed, and began to use the tips of her fingers to trace designs on Harry's chest that made him shiver. He wanted her, but he knew it wasn't the moment.
"We can talk about it tomorrow. Would you just…hold me?"
"Of course, Ginny. I'm here for you. I'll always be here for you."
She stretched up to plant a gentle kiss on his chin, and he tilted his head down to make it a real kiss. Her belly flipped in anticipation as the kiss deepened. Maybe just holding him wouldn't cut it tonight, after all. She just wanted to forget everything that had happened, and be with him. He raised his eyebrows as she moved to straddle him, and grinned as she cast the contraceptive charm.
"Well, maybe there is one thing you could do."