Everything is Relative
by Teddylonglong

All recognizable Harry Potter characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story. I am merely borrowing the characters to play with them.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

Warnings: Completely AU, partly OOC.

Harry merely shook his head in confusion, when Felina continued, "Now, just keep in mind that you can do some things and can't do others. Right now, I suggest that we help your parents and grandparents into this time."

"If I might suggest something," Whisker spoke up, who had remained quiet so far. "As Rose is a muggle and Paul has always pretended being a muggle, I suggest fetching the Potters here first. It might be easier to make them understand what happened, and Lily will then be able to help us convince her parents."

"You're right as usual," Felina replied, smiling at her fiancé.

"So, ever since you rescued them from Voldemort sixteen and a half years ago, they have been in limbo?" Harry enquired. "At least that's what you told me sometime. For them, no time has passed, since Voldemort attacked them?"

"Exactly," Felina confirmed. "They'll have a hard time believing that you're their son, because for them, you just were a baby a minute ago."

"Oh fun," Harry replied, letting out a deep sigh. "Err, sorry, but wouldn't it be better to fetch Paul first? You told me once that he was your friend at Hogwarts. At least he knows the two of you."

Felina and Whisker exchanged a glance, before Whisker agreed. "Harry is right. We should do that. Paul, then Lily, then James and Rose at last."

"All right, so what do we have to do?" Harry asked in growing excitement. 'Am I really going to meet my parents in a few minutes'?' he wondered, looking at Felina in expectation, only to realise that she was busily waving her hand over one of the devices.

"All right, you have 45 seconds to prepare yourself for the arrival of Paul," Felina suddenly said, and all three of them stared at the device in expectation. "At least, I hope that it'll work as planned," she then added, causing Harry and Whisker to let out a collective groan.

HP

When Harry looked back at the time device, he saw a man who seemed just a few years older than Petunia and Vernon step out of it.

"Paul," Felina was the first to greet him.

"Rebecca, Artemis and James," Paul replied, seemingly confused. "I'm sorry. Where am I? The last thing I remember is that Death Eaters attacked us. Where is Rose?"

"Rose will be here in a moment," Felina replied, smiling, before she explained, "Not only Death Eaters but Voldemort himself attacked you and meant to kill you; however, an instant before his curse hit, I managed to send you away."

Harry remained quiet so as to not confuse his grandfather even more.

"You saved our lives," Paul stated, looking back to the time device. "What is this?" he asked in apparent confusion.

"Ever since Rebecca saved your lives, you've been in a time limbo. Only just now, the threat from Voldemort is mostly gone, so that we decided that it would be safe enough to let you out," Whisker explained. "In fact, you have spent seventeen years in said time limbo, and this here is not James Potter but your grandson Harry Potter."

"Harry?" Paul said, his eyes widening, as he turned around to view him more closely. "Of course, you have Lily's green eyes," he then realised. "When I last saw you, you just had your first birthday."

"Hi Granddad," Harry replied, smiling. "Sorry to disappoint, but I'm already seventeen."

"No, no disappointment here," Paul assured him. "You've become a fine young man. Excuse me, Rebecca," he added, "but where are we? And where is Rose?"

"I will fetch her, as soon as you feel comfortable with your new situation. We also have to bring Lily and James out of their time limbo," Felina informed him. "We are in the time chamber within the Department of Magical Mysteries in the Unspeakables' office of the Ministry of Magic. The three of us are Unspeakables, and our team is responsible for the time chamber. Later on, I will cast a charm at the four of you that will prevent you from talking about the chamber as well as about our identities as Unspeakables," she added, letting out a deep sigh.

"That's all right," Paul replied, nodding in understanding.

"Paul, we have one request," Whisker spoke up. "Please give up denying your magic. Your whole family apart from Rose is magical, and, according to Harry, there is even a way to give her magic. You cannot return to the muggle world but must live in the magical world after the stunt Rebecca did to save you. No muggle would be able to comprehend such a thing."

"Will Rose understand?" Paul asked, doubt evident in his expression.

"She will," Harry replied, smiling. "Nevertheless, we believe that Rebecca should fetch my parents back first, so that my mum can help you convince her."

Paul nodded in apparent understanding. "Yes please," he finally agreed.

While Felina busied herself casting spells at one of the other time cabins, Harry contacted Regulus through telepathy.

'Regulus, can you please explain to Aunt Petunia that team 13 is responsible for the time chamber and that Rebecca has saved my parents' and grandparents' lives, and that they're just arriving here from a time travel limbo. Can you please ask her if I may bring them and Rebecca and Artemis into Hogwarts Manor? Our parents might need their and our help to adjust. Please answer as soon as you can.'

Just when he focused back on the time chamber, a young witch, not much older than himself, with red hair and emerald eyes stepped out of a cabin.

"Mum," Harry blurted out in absolute delight – only to find himself at wand point an instant later.

'Of course, bring them all here,' Regulus' reply just arrived, when Paul gently but firmly lowered Lily's arm.

"Easy Lily," he said in a soothing voice. "I'll explain everything now."

"Where's Harry?" Lily enquired, seemingly panicking. "Where's my baby? Dad?" she then asked in apparent disbelief. "You're supposed to be dead. What are you all playing at?"

"Rebecca and Artemis here saved our lives. James and Mum will be here soon as well," Paul explained, gently.

"And where's Harry?" Lily shouted, urgently, her eyes blazing with apparent anger, trying to push her father's arm off her own.

"Mum," Harry repeated. "It's me. Many years have passed, since Voldemort attacked you and Rebecca saved your lives. It's 1998 now, and I'm already seventeen."

Looking at her father, Lily said, "Please allow me… I won't kill him."

"Go on," Paul replied, smiling.

'He probably knows her well enough to know that she wouldn't harm me,' Harry thought, although he still did not feel well finding himself at wand point, even if it was by his own mother.

Lily cast a couple of silent spells, which Harry did not recognise, before she finally let her wand sink and stepped over to him, pulling him into a bear's hug. "Harry," she sobbed, "I'm sorry for not believing you, but this is so unreal. Just a few minutes ago, Voldemort came and attacked us, when you were a baby, and now… I'm sorry."

"Lily, there is nothing to be sorry about," Paul replied, smiling. "I take it that you cast a diagnostic spell at your son that told you that he's him?"

"Yes," Lily replied, her eyes widening in apparent surprise. "Dad, aren't you a muggle?" she asked in confusion. "How do you know such things?"

"No, he only feigned being a muggle out of pity for your mother," Felina informed her. "We made him promise to stop that nonsense now though."

"Rebecca, will you please fetch James now?" Paul spoke up. "I'm sorry, but I can't wait to see Rose alive and well."

Now that Lily was convinced that everything was as they told them, it was easy to convince James and Rose, and thirty minutes later, Harry instructed everyone including the Unspeakables to take the floo to the founders' quarters of Hogwarts.

"Harry, wait. Who else is around there?" James enquired, seemingly alert. "We wouldn't want to meet, for example, Dumbledore, the meddling old coot, or Peter the traitor."

"Neither of them has access to the founders' quarters," Harry promised in a soothing voice, "only our direct family along with the extended family. However, since I contacted Sirius' brother Regulus earlier, he will have informed the whole family about you, and everyone will be excited to see you."

'Felina, did you cast the charms at all of them?' he thought to his colleague, who gave him a comforting nod, before she pulled up her hood and motioned the four time travellers to follow her to the fireplace. Seeing that Whisker put up his hood as well, Harry did the same and followed the group to the fireplace in the Unspeakables' office.

Two minutes later, the same group was standing in the founders' quarters at Hogwarts, and, lowering his hood just like Felina and Whisker, Harry ushered them to the connecting door to Hogwarts Manor. "Please join me at Hogwarts Manor," he told them. "Rebecca and Artemis, will you please come with us, too?" he asked, giving his colleagues a pleading look.

HP

During the rest of the day, the extended family celebrated the return of the four time travellers. Everyone was happy to have them back, even if they were shocked to say the least and bombarded Rebecca with questions that the Unspeakable could not answer.

"Harry, can you call Madam Pomfrey here?" Luna whispered to him, when they went out onto the beach to take Lucy out for a moment. "We need to ask her if I may give your grandmother magic, provided that she wants it."

"Let's just head to the castle and see her," Harry replied, smiling. "Lucy will be happy for the small walk, and Minerva only told me last night that Poppy was going to remain at the castle the whole summer. I was considering inviting her into the manor anyway."

"Let's do that," Luna replied, giving him a dreamy look. "She'll be happy to not be alone in the castle the whole time."

HP

"Sirius," James addressed the older wizard, who had once been his brother in all but blood, after dinner, "we'd like to travel to our home to retrieve some clothes and such, but do you think it's accessible by floo? Was it not destroyed in the attack?"

"The Unspeakables completely renovated the place, just like the Evans house," Sirius replied, grinning. "You can easily floo over and bring here what you need. You could even live there if you wanted."

Lily and James exchanged a glance. "I think that I'd feel safer here together with everyone else," Lily spoke up, hesitantly, only to add, "at least until the baby will be born in any case."

"Let's do that," James agreed, smiling.

'The baby?' Harry thought in excitement. 'That means that I'm going to have a sibling? How cool is that?' He did not voice his thoughts though but instead called Dobby, his elf, who was always willing to help.

"Could you please help my parents bring their belongings here?" he asked, glad when Dobby nodded without making a fuss for once, only to inwardly groan in annoyance at the elf's antics.

"Dobby wills takes the parents of the great Harry Potter," he blurted out and, grabbing Lily's right arm and James' left arm, popped away with them.

"Dobby, no," Harry groaned, causing everyone to laugh.

Ten minutes later, Dobby was back with Lily and James in tow.

"Harry," James quipped, "don't ask that elf ever again to help us."

"James," Lily lightly scolded him. "He meant only well."

"Oh well, now you got to know Dobby," Harry replied in amusement. "If you ever need anything, feel free to ask him. He's the best."

"Does anyone know what happened to Neko, our cat, after we were gone?" Lily enquired, looking around in expectation. "Since she's a magical cat, she still should be alive in any case," she added, sighing.

"After the attack, I took her in," Rebecca admitted. "Do you remember Arabella Figg?"

"Yes," Lily replied in obvious excitement. "She loves cats."

"Oh well, that was my other persona," Rebecca explained, smirking. "I only gave her up recently, after Harry found out about me. Anyway, Neko is Professor McGonagall's familiar now."

"I've just called her over. I hope she'll be here in a moment," Minerva spoke up, smiling. "I'm sorry, Lily, I didn't recognise her; otherwise, I wouldn't have bonded with her."

"That's fine," Lily replied, gently. "I'm just glad knowing that she's all right and in good hands, and if I can still meet her occasionally, I'll be happy."

"Cats have their own ways anyway," Rebecca said, smirking. "Bonded to the headmistress or not, she might want to stay with you once she sees you."

"That's true," Minerva agreed. "You never know with cats."

"That's why I prefer doggies," Harry whispered into Lucy's ear. "You can always rely on them."

The canine looked straight into his eyes in confirmation, before she proceeded to lick his hand with fervour, just when Neko dashed into the parlour and greeted Minerva, before she noticed Lily and jumped up onto her lap, where she lay down and purred in apparent happiness.

"Somehow, I feel as if I was in a wrong film," Lily suddenly spoke up. "I mean, I am really happy to still be alive, and I will never forget what you did for James and me, but everything is so different like it was before. Are you sure that we didn't end up in a different dimension? With Dad and Vernon being magical, Petunia being a Charms mistress and the new Charms professor at Hogwarts, Remus cured from lycanthropy, everyone living here together at Hogwarts Manor…" She slowly trailed off, giving James a questioning look.

"It's all right, Lily," her husband reassured her. "From the age difference between us and our friends as well as the age of Harry, we can see that more than sixteen years have passed. Don't worry, we'll get used to it, and I'd say we have many friends and a large family to help us."

"I'm sorry for just throwing everything at you," Rebecca, who had remained fairly quiet so far, spoke up. "The records at the ministry are changed, so that you don't have to do anything to register as alive again. Everything is done."

"Sorry Rebecca, I didn't mean to sound ungrateful," Lily apologized. "Thank you so very much for what you did for us. I really appreciate being alive."

"When you have got used to your new lives," Minerva spoke up, "I'd like to ask you and everyone else here as well to consider taking up a position at Hogwarts. For the next school year, I am planning to hire several new teachers. But I won't bother you now but leave you in peace for a week," she added, smirking. "As to Artemis, our new caretaker," she said, turning to the Unspeakable, "I'd like to occasionally ask you to take over classes if a teacher is sick or otherwise incapacitated from teaching."

"If you deem me able to do so, I'll happily comply," Artemis replied, smiling.

HP

Harry showed his parents to the fifth apartment on the second floor, and with a flick of her wand, Petunia connected the doors to Harry's and Luna's rooms to go out into the new Potters' quarters.

"Perhaps, your parents will need you nearby," she whispered to Harry, who nodded in understanding, knowing that it was not because Petunia did not want him in their own rooms.

Rose and Paul decided to occupy one of the larger rooms on the third floor.

'Granny has taken the news that Granddad is magical quite well,' Harry thought, when he retired to his own room after a long day of informing his parents and grandparents about what they had missed during the last sixteen and a half years. 'The next few days won't be much better,' he mused, 'considering that not only Minerva but also the Unspeakables will try recruiting some of the four time travellers. And then we're going to have dinner with Tom again,' he recalled. 'I wonder if Aunt Petunia will tell Mum and Dad and her parents about Tom. Apparently, Granddad doesn't even know that he's not her father. Perhaps it'll even be better if it remains that way though.'

HP

Petunia decided to not tell Tom about the time travellers, just as she was sure that she did not want Paul to know about Tom being her birth father.

"Paul has been my father all my life until about two years ago, and he was a wonderful father. Why would I want to inform him about it?" she said, when Harry and Dudley asked her before heading to their traditional family meeting in the Dursley house.

"Are you going to tell Mum?" Harry enquired. "Sorry, I'm just asking, so that we'll all say the same thing."

"That's right," Petunia agreed. "Frankly speaking, I don't know yet. Perhaps, if the opportunity arises, I'll be willing to tell her. But only her," she added as an afterthought. "For the time being, please don't say anything."

Whenever they met with her birth father, they kept talking about unimportant family matters or minor events that happened in the magical world, just to entertain the old man and keep him connected to the world. For unknown reasons, Tom had accepted that he was a muggle and had recently taken interest in computers – ever since Petunia and Vernon had presented him with a computer, which Dudley had specifically programmed for Vernon, when he was still a muggle.

HP

Lily found it difficult to get used to her new situation. On the one hand, she missed Baby Harry and the quiet of her cottage with only her, Harry and Neko at home during the days. On the other hand, she loved being surrounded by a large family, especially after realising that her father was magical and her mother was going to become a witch due to a blood transfusion from her goddaughter Luna. While James spent all his time flying or talking with Remus and Sirius, whenever they were not working, she preferred to talk with Minerva, Amelia, Petunia, Hermione, Luna, Susan, Harry, her parents and her parents-in-law in their portrait. She even spent much time conversing with the founders in their portrait, especially Helga, whom she knew from her apprenticeship with Poppy, which in her mind had only been a couple of years ago.

One day, when Poppy visited to check on Rose and Luna to see that they did not have any aftereffects from the blood transfusion, the healer addressed her in a soft voice. "Lily, I know that you'll need to get used to the situation first, but if you're ready to think about what you're going to do if you wish to work again, I just want you to know that I'd like to retire in the near future. Ever since Minerva and Harry decided to make rooms for retired teachers at Hogwarts, Rolanda and I have been toying with the thought of retiring."

"Rolanda as in Madam Hooch?" James, who had witnessed their conversation, spoke up with apparent interest.

"Yes dear," Poppy replied, smiling.

"I'm in," James stated, grinning broadly. "Where do I apply for the position?"

"Just tell Minerva," Poppy replied, before she returned to her conversation with Lily. "Please think about it. You're a qualified healer on the one hand, and I know that there might be better positions at St. Mungo's, but on the other hand, it would give you the leeway to look after your baby."

"I'd like that," Lily decided, spontaneously. "Yes please. Whenever you wish to retire, I'll be ready."

HP

Later on, Harry was lying awake in his bed, pondering everything. 'As much happy as I am to have my parents and grandparents back, this changes everything for me. Dad is the Lord Potter and, even if he did not even know about it before vanishing sixteen years ago, he is entitled to be the Lord Gryffindor-Ravenclaw. Grandfather Paul should be the Lord Slytherin-Hufflepuff, which means that I am the heir, but they're not much older than myself, just three years in Dad's case, so that I don't have any reason to marry three girls.'

That realisation and the question what to do kept him awake for a long time, before he drifted off to an exhausted sleep without having been able to find a solution.

tbc...

Thank you so very much for the few but kind reviews for the previous chapter. My muse really appreicates the feedback.

Next chapter: "Minerva's meddling".