The next morning, Lily examined herself in the mirror, pushing and pulling her newly wrinkled skin. She sighed, and turned to face James, who was still in bed.
"You're going to have to look at some point, James." He grabbed her pillow, and covered his head with it. She came to sit next to him, and wrestled it away from him.
"It's your own face, James. You can't ignore it forever." He groaned, eyes closed, and turned his back to her. She thought for a moment, and laid next to him, spooning him gently.
"You know, I rather like the new you. I've always fancied a silver fox." He turned to face her.
"Are you sure? I just feel so old. I feel like I'm my dad, all of a sudden, and yesterday I was me."
She ran her free hand through his grey hair. "Lucky for you, your dad was a stud." He laughed, and pushed her hand away gently.
"Gross, Lil!" He got out of bed, and approached the mirror over their dresser cautiously. "Fine, if it'll stop your nagging, I'll look."
She giggled to herself. "You know, I only married you to get closer to your dad. He was the one true love of my life!" She flopped back on the bed dramatically. James ignored her as he stared at himself.
"You know, I guess it really could be worse. Wish my forehead wasn't so big now." He rubbed his bare forehead, as if that would make the hair magically reappear. His wife snuck up behind him and wrapped her arms around him.
"You know, if it really bothers you, you could always cast a glamour or two."
He tilted his head, considering. Finally he shook his head. "Nah, I'm not that vain. If this is me, then I'll learn to live with it." She popped up on her toes to kiss him on the cheek.
"Come on, let's get some breakfast. You need help getting down the stairs, old man?"
"Oh shut up, you."
Breakfast was a rushed affair, everyone anxious to finish what they had started last night. Afterwards, they took their spots in the family room once again. Harry drummed his fingers on the arm of the sofa, waiting.
"I'm sure they'll be here soon," Ginny offered.
"Maybe they thought you said ten thirty?" James suggested.
"I'm sure Ron and Hermione won't mind if you start with out them, Harry." Harry met his mother's eyes, and nodded.
"That's true. I'm just worried about them. There's till Death Eaters out there with grudges against all of us. If they're not back soon, I'm going to check on them. We left off at the end of third year, I think." Lily and James nodded. Harry took a deep breath, and slowly let it out before continuing.
"Fourth year was really where everything started to get intense. That year, Hogwarts hosted the Triwizard Tournament." Lily looked confused, but James sat up straight.
"The Triwizard Tournament? I thought the last one of those was a couple hundred years ago! Wasn't it outlawed after students got injured?"
"Something like that. Hermione would know if she were here." Ginny replied.
"What's the Triwizard Tournament?" Lily asked.
"It's a competition between the top three wizarding schools, Durmstrang, Beauxbatons, and Hogwarts. They each select one student to serve as their champion and compete in tasks to see which school is best. I would've loved to get to do a Tournament. Did you get to do it, Harry?" James asked, enthused.
"Well…yes. Although I wasn't supposed to. Since the Tournament does have a reputation for being dangerous, Dumbledore put an age ring around the goblet where you submitted your name to be champion. Even though I was too young and didn't put my name in, my name came out of the cup. What's worse, another student's name was also picked from Hogwarts, so we both had to compete." Harry shook his head, trying erase the picture of Cedric laying dead in the cemetery.
"What? How?" Lily leaned forward, concerned.
"I didn't learn until afterwards, but Voldemort arranged for it to happen so that he could get to me through the tasks. The tasks themselves were horrible, and made worse by this awful journalist, hell bent on destroying my life. Rita Skeeter." Harry spat her name.
James blanched. "Rita Skeeter? That cow's been working for the Prophet forever. She was forever writing articles about my father that were utter bullshit!" Lily nodded in agreement.
"Well, I guess it's good to know that runs in the family then. The whole Tournament was awful to get through, and she made it worse by spreading a million terrible lies about me. The last task was the very worst. It was this giant maze, and whoever got to the cup at the end of it, would win the Tournament. The other Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory, and I both got to the cup at the same time, but it turns out the cup was a portkey that took us directly to Voldemort. He immediately killed Cedric, and took blood from me to resurrect his body. Of course, the bloody Ministry didn't believe Dumbledore when he told them that Voldemort was back, which only made the next year even harder than it already would have been."
"Bastards," muttered Lily. "Good God, Harry. That's a nightmare." Lily's breathing hitched as she tried to hold back the tears.
"More than a nightmare. I don't think that much stuff happened to us the entire time we were at Hogwarts, let alone in one year, and there was still a war on. You've been through so much. I'm so sorry, son." James slumped back in his seat. Harry felt his throat closing up, and took a sudden interest in a hole in his jeans.
"Just another day in the life for the Chosen One," Ginny quipped, taking his hand in hers. He gave her a grateful smile as she explained, "Never a dull moment with Harry. It's gotten better without Voldemort around, but I suspect that's what'll get him in the end. Harry is practically terminally interesting." Harry chuckled, and cleared his throat.
"I think I'm just going to use the loo quickly. Ginny, do you mind sending Ron and Hermione a quick Patronus? I'm getting worried about them." She nodded, and her sleek stallion slipped from her wand and out the door.
"So Ginny…Harry mentioned you're chaser for the Harpies! How has that been so far?" Lily asked kindly, filling the silence in Harry's absence.
"Oh, it's been good." She smiled, and fiddled with her wand in her lap. "I actually just returned from training a couple weeks ago. I haven't played a game yet."
"We look forward to seeing you fly. I was a chaser myself, you know." James leaned back, hands laced behind his head. "I had half a mind to try out for a couple teams after school, but we got married, and I decided I didn't want to be away from Lily that much."
"What did you end up doing after school? I don't think Harry ever mentioned."
"We both worked for the Order full time, for the most part. I took a couple months off to take care of my parents before they passed. Thankfully, my parents left us a good amount of money, so we could devote all of our time to fighting Voldemort."
"I'm sorry about your parents." Ginny offered.
"That's alright. They had long lives, and I'm glad I was able to make their last days easier for them. They died of Dragon Pox, you know." James shivered.
Ginny winced. "Horrible disease."
"How are your parents, dear? Molly was so helpful through my pregnancy. I don't know what I would have done without that woman." Lily rubbed James' back.
"Oh, they're great! Mum's a little down because we've all moved out, but Dad's been asked to teach Muggle Studies at Hogwarts, so he's over the moon."
Lily exclaimed, "How wonderful! He'll be perfect."
Just then, Ron's terrier Patronus skittered into the room, and announced that they would be round about lunchtime, and disappeared. Harry was a few paces behind it.
"That's odd," stated Ginny once he'd sat down. "He didn't say why."
"Ron probably just got up," Harry chuckled. "He could sleep through just about anything."
"If he just got up, they need time to have a huge row, then make up…noon sounds about right. Go on then, Harry. You'll be fine." Ginny rubbed his arm.
"Well, summer after fourth year, I had to go back to the Dursley's again, and I was almost expelled for using magic when dementors attacked me and Dudley. Dumbledore talked them out of it, and I stayed here with the Weasleys after that."
"I thought the Weasleys lived in Devon?" Lily asked.
"Yes, but that summer, we were cleaning this place so the Order could use it as their new headquarters," Ginny responded.
"That was when I first learned about the Order. I wanted to join so badly, but of course, everyone was determined that I go back to school. I almost wished I did get expelled when I met our new Defense teacher. Dolores Umbridge. She was an evil, prejudiced implant from the Ministry hellbent on brainwashing us into thinking that Voldemort wasn't coming back. Needless to say, we clashed many times, and she gave me this scar over a couple detentions." Harry offered them his right hand, still faintly branded I must not tell lies.
Lily gasped, and covered her mouth. James took Harry's hand and examined it. "I've seen something like this before. She made you write this, correct?" Harry nodded. James shook his head.
"Filthy dark magic. Voldemort used something similar to this to torture Death Eaters back in our day." Ginny leaned her head on Harry's shoulder, feeling sick.
"That may be where she got the idea. She wasn't a Death Eater, as far as I knew. Just a prejudiced politician with too much power."
Lily snorted. "What's the difference?"
Ginny laughed, and Harry smirked, continuing. "She refused to teach us anything useful, so Ron, Hermione, and I started an underground club to practice defensive spells, which we called Dumbledore's Army, or the 'DA'."
"YOU called it nothing. I named it Dumbledore's Army," Ginny interjected proudly. Harry rolled his eyes fondly and continued on.
"Around that time, I started having bizarre dreams where I was actually seeing through Voldemort's eyes, so Dumbledore made me study Occlumency with Snape. I actually accidentally saw you guys in a memory of his."
"I'm sure it wasn't good." Harry shook his head. Lily sighed. "I'm sorry you had to see us like that, Harry. Severus certainly…brought out the worst in us." James hung his head.
"Not long after that, Umbridge found out about the DA, and Dumbledore got sacked when he took responsibility for it, which was rubbish, because he didn't even know it existed. So of course, because things couldn't get much worse, Umbridge became headmaster." Lily and James both groaned, which made Harry's mouth twitch in a small smile.
"At the end of our OWL exams, I had another vision from Voldemort of Sirius being tortured, and Umbridge caught me trying to contact the Order to see if it was true. She knew I was lying to her, and used the Cruciatus Curse on me -"
Lily flew out of her chair. "She did WHAT? That's an unforgivable, and you were just a child!" James was so angry, he couldn't form a full sentence.
"It wasn't the only crime she committed. She's in Azkaban, where she belongs." Ginny said, through gritted teeth.
Harry smiled wickedly. "She got what she deserved that day as well. We ended up leading her into the forrest, and the Centaurs took good care of her." Lily sat, still red faced and fuming.
"That day, the four of us and our good friends, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood, rode Thestrals to the Ministry to save Sirius. I told you most of what happened there already…thankfully, the idiot Minister at the time, Fudge, showed up in time to see Voldemort for himself. Afterwards, Dumbledore told me about the prophecy the Death Eaters were trying to get."
"A prophecy? I do recall Dumbledore mentioning a prophecy, be he never told us what it was." James said, eyes hard as steel.
Harry breathed shakily. It was all leading up to this. "Our Divination teacher made a prophecy to Dumbledore during her job interview, concerning the downfall of Voldemort. Snape overhead the beginning, and delivered it to his master. He didn't hear the whole thing, thankfully."
"Have you?" His mother asked, quietly.
He took a deep breath, and whispered the words that had ruled his life since the day he was born. The room thrummed with energy, the words still carrying power long after they came to fruition.
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…." He finished, staring into space, considering just how true each part of it had turned out to be.
"How did he know it was you?" James whispered. "I'm sure there were other babies that applied to as well."
Lily added, "You mentioned Neville Longbottom. He was born in July as well, and I remember Alice and Frank faced Voldemort a few times as aurors."
Harry smiled faintly. "Got it in one. It could have applied to either me or Neville. But, because he tried to kill me and I lived, and was marked," he held up his fringe to reveal the lightning bolt scar, "he chose me. It had to be me, from that day on. Dumbledore always told me that the power I had was love. Your love protected me, Mum. And I didn't just want power for power's sake, I wanted to protect those I loved. It was my shield and the source of my power."
Lily and James nodded, devastated for their son. "It is that powerful, Harry. Never forget that," Lily whispered.
Harry took Ginny's hand, gripping it tightly in his. "Mum, I couldn't forget even if I tried."
Just then, a puff of smoke from the fireplace announced Ron and Hermione, grinning broadly as they greeted everyone. Harry stood up, and clapped his hands.
"Welcome, guys. This seems like a good time to stop and get a bite to eat."
"Do you mind if I cook instead of Kreacher, Harry? Seems silly, but I've always loved to cook when I've got a lot on my mind," James asked.
"Yeah, Dad, that sounds like a great idea." As the others filed out to the kitchen, he grabbed Ginny's arm and held her back. "Hey Gin, can I talk to you for a second?" She flashed him a timid smile, and nodded.
He wrapped her in his strong embrace, letting his head lean on hers. She hummed happily, fitting her arms where they belonged around his middle.
"I could stay like this all day," she muttered, balancing her forehead on his collarbone.
"I know. It's wonderful, being with them, but I could really use some alone time." He idly played with a strand of her hair, a naughty look in his eye.
"Mr. Potter! I don't know what else you could possibly want after last night. I'm barely walking as it is," she murmured seductively.
"Ooh, Gin, if my parents weren't in the next room…" He smirked at her, and he shook the thought out of his head. "No, I…that's not what I wanted to talk about. Speaking of last night, I keep thinking about how it was a little odd that you cast the contraceptive charm." She blinked at him, and shrugged nonchalantly.
"Force of habit. I was tired last night."
"Okay." He was silent for a moment. Ginny sweated in her short sundress.
"Well, if you don't -"
"What did you want -"
They both chuckled. Harry said, "You first."
"Oh, I was just saying that if there was nothing else you wanted to talk about, we should get back to everyone."
"Right." She began to extricate herself, and he pulled her back. "No, wait! Ginny…Gin, you know you can tell me anything, right?"
She smiled softly. "I know, Harry."
"And I'm here, whenever you're ready to talk. I haven't forgotten." He held her face in his hand, grazing his thumb over her cheek.
"I didn't think you had. I'm almost ready, I just…I want you to enjoy this time with them." His eyebrows snapped together. "No use worrying now. We'll talk tomorrow."
"I'll be holding you to that, Miss Weasley." He glared at her faux sternly.
"I'd be surprised if you didn't, Mr. Potter." She smiled, eyes tired, and they shared a delicate kiss.
"Come on," she whispered, pulling his hand. "They'll be looking for us soon."