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"Come on Lils, you think that fly on the wall is going to be the death of him. Let me give him one more go," Sirius tried again for the fifth time that hour.
"I said no Sirius," Lily snapped back. "He's only four months old; he can't even hang on by himself yet. You need both hands to steer that monstrosity."
"But I can-" Sirius began again but was interrupted by the man on the couch.
"Oh, just let it go Padfoot. There's no point in arguing with Lily when she's in a logical mood." Remus paused for breath and glanced up to grin at the two. "Try it again later when Harry won't go to bed."
Sirius grinned. Lily shot the man an evil look for giving Sirius false hopes; when suddenly there was a crash in the kitchen.
Faster than many could follow, Remus and Sirius had pushed Lily and the baby in her arms towards the stairs, drawn their wands, and advanced on the noise. Entering the kitchen they saw something that would turn their world upside down.
A young man was strewn across the Potters' kitchen table, which had snapped in half underneath him. The only reason he was not a slug on the floor for going into this house was that he looked oddly familiar... but this was impossible. James Potter was upstairs, probably trying to calm down his disturbed wife, considering he'd been upstairs in the middle of one of his drawings, they imagined that bit of parchment wasn't going to hold his attention long after this. Sirius was half surprised he wasn't down here himself by now. This had to be true, for no matter how much he looked it, this man was not James. They had a lot of the same face, and the boy even had his black hair, but there was something slightly off.
The man on the table stirred, groaning slightly and grabbing his head as if in monumental pain. The thought that someone had tried to use a Polyjuice potion to look like James was driven out of both men's mind as the eyelids slowly parted, and they saw a pair of bright green eyes behind those glasses. Remus had been too stunned to do much of anything but stare at the strange sight before him, but now that he was seeing life in the stranger he managed to gather his wits about him. "Alright you, whoever you are, you are to get to your feet slowly. No sudden moves or I will make sure that arm of yours never moves again." He demanded in a stern voice.
The familiar eyes slid over to the side to land on the two, and he frowned as he caught sight of them. Then his face grimaced. He clutched his head, his nose scrunching up like Lily's did when she got a migraine. Sirius and Remus exchanged wary looks, wondering if this was some kind of trick, but as soon as it had started, the boy relaxed again. Once his face calmed a bit his eyes reopened. With words slurring slightly he stated, "Alright." He raised both arms above his head, then brought them back down to his side to help lift him up.
Both men felt another spasm of shock as they realized just how close in height this person was to their best friend. Turning a funny green color the man managed to right himself, giving both guys one more confused stare, then pass out again on the kitchen floor as soon as James Potter came skidding into the room.
"What the hell?!" James yelped in shock, seeing his doppelganger on the floor.
Sirius turned to him sharply and said, "James, do you have any idea what's going on?" His friend merely shook his head in shock, still staring down at the body on the floor.
"Well," Remus started cautiously while shifting his weight around. "What do we do now?"
"Obvious ain't it?" Sirius grunted. "Call some Aurors and have him carted out of our hair."
"Is that all you think about?" Remus asked with a small grin. "Your hair?"
"Well, it is marvelous," he grinned, pushing it out of his face so they could see his full grin.
James, on the other hand, surprised his two friends by saying, "No, not yet."
They both turned to him sharply as Remus snapped, "James, you can't be serious?" he quickly cut himself off by stating, "Don't even start," to Sirius before hurrying on. "A strange person just apparated into your kitchen and you want to leave him there?"
"Well," James started slowly but gained confidence as he continued. "It's just; he seems rather harmless right now doesn't he? We should at least give him the chance to explain." Remus and Sirius both exchanged concerned and even alarmed looks.
"That's it, who are you and what have you done with James Potter?" Sirius finally spat, only half joking in light of the current situation.
James grinned and looked about ready to make a sarcastic comment until Remus seconded, "The James I know would ever leave a stranger in the house with his wife and son."
James slumped his shoulders as he reconsidered, but then his eyes landed again on the youth on the floor. He straightened back up and looked his friends square in the eyes. "Look you two, don't tell me you're the ones that need glasses now? Can't you see the resemblance between this young man and myself?" The other two had to agree with this.
"Well, I suppose-" Remus began slowly but was cut off by yet another harsh light appearing. All three men yelped in shock as eight objects slammed down, exactly where the other person had been. The wands had never been put away but had remained pointed at the stranger. Now they were raised instead at seven books, and a note. Cautiously Remus and Sirius walked forward, and while Sirius bent down to examine the books Remus read aloud;
'Harry,
We're all so worried about you. That potion has never been tested before, and we're still trying to put together the pieces of what happened to you. We've full confidence that you're safe, but keep your head down, as we both know that Death Eater's a known killer.
I've sent these books in hopes it will help jog your memories. It is still too dangerous to send another person after you. We might suffer the same effects. The rest of use will follow, as soon as I can find out how. '
"That's it," Remus finished.
"These books are a bit odd too," Sirius said, flipping through the books. "They're just numbered first, second, etcetera." He held up the skinniest book in the lot and showed it to James, who could only agree.
"This is so weird," Remus muttered, his eyes flickering back and forth between the man on the floor, his best friend across from him, the ceiling where his little cub was with his mother, and back towards the books. Sirius was merely looking down at the still asleep body, kind of bemused now. "So, what do you guys make of it?"
James sucked in a deep lungful of air before deciding. "Alright, nothing's concrete yet. I say we tie up this chap, and make him comfy on the sofa until further notice. Bring Lily and Harry down here; I don't want them out of my sight until I'm more comfortable about this. We'll read the first chapter to try and decide how legitimate this is. After that we'll wake the kid up and get some confirmation."
"And what about this Death Eater?" Remus asked, perusing the letter again. "Apparently this one here's not our only visitor."
James and Sirius hesitated, both sharing dark looks before Sirius said, "That just backs up what James said all the more."
"Waking him up might not help much," Remus pointed out, still staring at the letter. "These books are apparently here because he has no memory. This note seemed to have been written very hastily, look at how some of the words mash together. If it was any smaller I wouldn't be able to read it at all."
Sirius huffed, realizing both Remus and James were on opposite sides here, and he was the deciding factor. After thinking it all through he said, "I'm with James. If these books and this kid really are about our little Harry upstairs, the books should confirm it one way or another. Let's work through the first chapter until we come up with a better idea anyway."
Outvoted, Remus nodded and flicked his wand. Ropes spun around the stranger's hands and feet for good measure. James went upstairs to fetch his child. Sirius gathered the books and set them on the coffee table.
Once Lily had come down with her baby in her arms, her eyes went straight to James' duplicate on the couch. He had already explained the situation to her, and she agreed this was nothing to be hasty about. Remus almost wished she had disagreed, he still didn't feel too sure about this, but knew if she'd had another opinion she well would have spoken it to the lot of them.
Leaving the older unconfirmed Harry to the couch, Lily and James took up the love seat with their baby in Lily's arms. Remus took the recliner, and Sirius sat down on the hearth rug in front of the fire.
Remus had managed to take the book away from Sirius during all this, so it was he who opened it to the first page and read out the iconic first line of the series.*
Lily's face brightened with joy at those words, and as she clutched her son to her chest she cooed, "Oh, these books are about my little Hare Bear!"
"How on earth could you know that from the first sentence?" Remus demanded.
"My sister, Petunia, married a man named Vernon," she replied, a bit of a catch in her voice, the sting of not even being invited to that wedding still smarting a bit.
"Good to know about your horrid sister's life," Sirius said sarcastically. "But what does this have to do with Harry?"
Lily mulled that over for a moment before announcing, "Maybe I finally make up with her. Maybe we finally get to push all that water under the bridge."
"I doubt that," James muttered so low his wife couldn't hear him, rethinking the first sentence. He did not, however, repeat himself louder because he did not want to hurt his wife's chances of this being true.
As he stated the job of Uncle Vernon, James cut in to ask curiously, "What are drills?"
"They make holes in the ground," Lily said quickly before waving Remus on.
"She hasn't changed much," Lily said with a small smile, when she heard of her sister, now a Mrs., who spent much of her time spying on neighbors. "Always been a bit nosy."
When Lily heard that this couple too had a son who was named Dudley, she pursed her lips, wondering when exactly this took place, as she had no idea whatsoever that her sister was even pregnant; they hadn't even spoken in several years.
When she heard that the Dursleys wouldn't even be able to stomach it if anyone heard of their attachment to her new last name, for the first time, Lily started having doubts as well, but she quickly shook it off. "Perhaps they just don't want the other muggles finding out about the wizarding world. They're trying to protect us."
James still wasn't sure he agreed, as he knew it wasn't Moony putting such bitter little tones in all of this, but then again, he had no real idea what was even going on yet, so he still said nothing to put her hopes against this.
As Lily was told about Mrs. Dursleys' feeling for her sister though and how they still hadn't spoken in years and how they considered themselves of the opposite, Undursleyish, she flinched and looked down instead. There went that dream.
In hopes of cheering her up Sirius piped up, "so if they get to make those kinds of words up, can I make everything cool as Siriusly as possible?"
James groaned and Remus pointed out, "Sirius, seriously is already a word. Just because you substitute your name doesn't change that."
"Rats," he muttered, snapping his fingers, and then looking around as if noticing something for the first time. "Hey guys, where did Peter run off to?"
"Oh, he left a few minutes ago," Lily said, pleased for the momentary change of subject. "Said he had to run some errands. He'll be back later."
"Why didn't he ask any of us to go with him?" James asked.
Lily rolled her eyes and stated, "He wouldn't," while pointing at Sirius, "you couldn't," she told her husband, "and I was busy with Harry. Though I don't know why he didn't ask you," she finished, turning her wide green eyes on Remus. Remus shrugged and as he had no idea, just went back to reading.
At the point she learned the Dursleys would be horrified if her and her husband showed up for any reason regarding the fact they both had a son of the same age, Lily again pursed her lips, this time in a bit of annoyance. Yes, she had written to her sister to tell her she was an aunt now. When she hadn't gotten a reply she had tried to brush it off. Now she had learned that her sister had a boy at about the same time, and this hurt more than anything.
This feeling only continued to grow when she heard that, contrary to her, Petunia, had no desire whatsoever to meet her own nephew, but instead wanted to keep her farther away as her sister wanted to now keep her nephew away. Lily's feelings had sunk even lower with every word because clearly Petunia's attitude for her had only gotten worse. The other three boys in the room however looked outraged that anyone could think such a thing about a kid like Harry.
"Well that's ominous," Sirius chuckled when the book finally seemed to really get itself started in saying what the day was and how ordinary it seemed.
Remus kept going by telling how Mr. Dursley picked out his most boring tie and tried to give his child a kiss goodbye, hampered by the fact Dudley was throwing his breakfast at the wall. When they heard all he did for this was laugh, all of the adults exchanged startled looks. What kind of discipline was that? They all looked down at baby Harry in his mother's lap, who was now playing with Hickory's tail. If he had acted like that there would be a minimum of a verbal warning, not encouragement!
"What?" Sirius asked, startled about some cat doing anything like reading, let alone a map. Even in the wizarding world some things could just be odd.
"That's what it says," Remus confirmed.
"Think it really was?" James asked curiously, clearly like Mr. Dursley not sure if that had been real or some trick of his eyes.
Lily shrugged and admitted, "Unless it's an animagus, what else could it have been?"
"Well, since the possibility of an animagus being in a muggle dwelling are slim to none, we'll just have to read to find out," Remus pointed out.
"Why is that strange?" James asked when Remus spoke of all the cloak wearing.
"Muggles don't wear cloaks dear," Lily told him patiently.
"Don't they get cold?" He asked in surprise. Lily just shook her head, not wanting to get into it now.
"What on Earth has gotten into us?" Remus asked, slightly amused but mostly irritated at such carelessness.
"Something really big must have happened," Sirius deduced.
Everyone else gave him 'duh' looks before Remus went on.
When Vernon just convinces himself it was some collecting group, Lily decided, "Hopefully the rest of the muggles got that same line of thinking, don't want someone to get suspicious." Personally thankful that when they'd met James she'd convinced her then boyfriend to dress as a muggle no matter how silly he'd found it, but at least now the man didn't yet seem to have a clear connection to whatever was going on with them.
"Well, it's good to see he has a healthy diet," Sirius said sarcastically when he heard of walking to a lunch.
"Never mind what I said about the health thing," Sirius joked when all it was confirmed was a doughnut.
"We weren't paying much attention to you anyway," Remus told him without looking up.
Everyone looked around the room in shock when whispers of the Potters were first mentioned.
"What in the name of Merlin did we do?" James asked.
"Maybe you went on a killing spree." Sirius suggested innocently.
James threw a pillow at his best man, but as there really were no better suggestions, they looked back to Remus to continue.
Remus quickly told of Mr. Dursley trying to run back to his office and inform his wife of this, but ultimately seemed to decide against it and convinced himself he was over reacting, Potter must be a common name.
"No it's not," James snapped. "My family's a very prominent one, yet I'm the only line left." His voice stung, he didn't sound nearly as snappy at the end for having to even remind himself of his parents.
"It's actually pretty common among muggles," Lily told him gently to keep chatting rather than having to see such a look on him. "Come to think of it, so is my maiden name. I've actually met two separate people who have no relation to me at all with my old last name."
"Oh," James deflated and just waved Remus to keep going.
"Excuse me?" James snarled, temper right back when he heard of what kind of sister in law Vernon thought he had. "Like what exactly?"
"A witch," Lily told him with a straight face.
"Well at least he has manners," Lily said when Vernon apologized, even on impulse, for bumping into someone. "I certainly hope he takes those home to his son." She was still thinking of that breakfast scene of before.
There was a huge intake of breath all around before the news truly sunk in, of You-Know-Who vanishing! Then they all burst out in an explosion of happiness. It took a good while for them to all settle back down, and then James puffed up and stated, "I told you I'd be the one to do it."
"What in your fathead makes you think that?" Remus demanded.
"Well, they said Potter. Obviously I'm the only one to do it!"
"Could have been your Grandpa," Sirius pointed out just to egg him on though sadly the namesake had passed on as well. "They did mention Harry."
Lily gasped and clutched her son tighter to her, but James quickly tried to sooth her while giving Sirius a harsh look. "Don't freak her out like that."
He turned back to his wife and said, "I'm sure it has nothing to do with our son. Maybe they are talking about..." but he trailed off from there with no good answer.
She still managed to nod in some kind of agreement as she looked down at her baby. She didn't want her little Hare-Bare on the same continent as that, that horrid blight on existence, it was why they were in the Order after all, but if something had really happened...
"You know, this man's starting to remind me of my dad," Sirius said, rolling his eyes when he heard of Vernon's non approval of imagination for all this.
"That's a bit of a harsh insult," Remus noted. "We don't really know that much about this man yet. He could just be having a bad day." Sirius shrugged, he wasn't taking it back.
"What's wrong with cats?" Lily demanded upon hearing of the strange cat from the morning did not improve anyone's mood. She tickled Hickory's ear for emphasis, the cat purred in content as it wrapped its tail tighter around the baby.
"Still leaning away from the oddity of the cat?" James asked Remus when his face scrunched up finding the cat to only glare at Mr. Dursley when shouted at. Remus didn't give in easy, so he hurried on.
"That's a real accomplishment that is," Sirius said sarcastically, but considering shan't was a word he used often, Lily rolled her eyes at him.
"Ted?" Remus asked, interested at this bit of news on the news. "Don't suppose it's Ted Tonks? He's a muggle born who works for a news company if I remember correctly."
"Could be," Lily shrugged. "They didn't describe him. How should we know?"
"What on earth has gotten into us?" James asked, still more amused than anything and it wasn't like the whole of wizard kind to go about this type of thing.
When heard that Mr. Dursley can't bring himself to not speak up anymore even as he regrets it for their usual act of his wife not having a sister, everyone in the room looked rather upset at the reminder, but it was Sirius who looked rather guilty. Did he have any room to judge when he himself often pretended he did not have a brother for the opposite reason, for flaunting his pure blood status?
"Coward," James said, rolling his eyes. Though secretly he was pleased his name had this kind of effect on people.
"Hey!" James snapped. "Don't mock my son and grandfather's name."
Lily reached over and gave him an apologetic look for her sister.
Sirius on the other hand had something a bit more vocal to say, "Well it's a hell of a lot better than Dudley."
"Wow, thanks," James grumbled under his breath, now knowing he didn't want to be associated with these people either no matter their relation to his wife.
"His wife's related to a witch," Sirius said in disbelief. "How could it not affect them?"
"He's not the sharpest tool in the shed is he?" Lily asked.
Lily frowned as a new thought occurred to her upon a narration shift. "If my sister still hates me, what do they have to do with our world? If we don't even make up, my son will have little, if anything, to do with them."
James just shrugged and slung his arm around his wife as Remus read on.
When the context went back down to the cat, which had stayed still for hours until a man popped out of the ground, everyone except Remus was grinning, though he was frowning in thought as he asked, "now how did he manage to apparate without the cracking noise being described?"
"He probably apparated too far away to hear the noise and disillusioned himself to walk there, don't change the subject Remus. Admit it's an animagus now?" Lily asked.
Remus sighed in irritation before admitting, "Yes, alright. But why's McGonagall there?"
"What makes you say it's McGonagall?" Sirius asked in surprise.
"What other cat animagus do we know? And with those markings," Lily pointed out.
"Yes, because there's no such thing as an unregistered animagus," James sniped.
"When are you three going to register then?" Lily snapped, throwing him a dark look.
James and Sirius exchanged uneasy looks before Remus quickly jumped in, "Give it a few more years Lily, it really is quite advanced magic, and we've only been out of a school for a bit."
Quickly trying to change the subject Sirius said, "There could have been other animagi that we don't know of, or haven't transformed yet. We don't know when this is taking place."
Lily disagreed it couldn't be too much later, considering the earlier detail of how close in age the two cousins seemingly were.
James bypassed that and instead snapped his fingers saying, "I got it, what if Dudley's a wizard? It's a diluted line, but it could be. Might even explain why they're in this. Petunia will have to make up with you." Lily looked all too pleased with this statement while Remus and Sirius looked disgusted that a spoiled child would be around their little Marauder Junior.
"That sounds like Dumbledore," Lily said in surprise when Remus had kept going to describe more. "Now why are the both of them there? Surely you would just need one wizard there to test a young one."
"Come to think of it," Remus said slowly. "Why would anyone need to be there at all? Isn't there some kind of magic quill that says whether you can go to Hogwarts or not?"
He got no answer, none of them had ever spent the time to question this before. Stumped again, Remus went on.
"Cool!" all three pranksters breathed together at any kind of device to diffuse light, now they were hearing Dumbledore had one!
Lily raised a sharp brow in surprise. She, like the boys, was quite impressed with this bout of magic, though for a completely different reason then the trouble they could cause. She'd never heard of magic that worked with electricity, most magic actually caused electricity to not work properly at all. She couldn't help but wonder if this was an invention of Dumbledore's own making, and hoped it came up again.
"Told you it was McGonagall." Remus said with a grin.
"No one disputed that." Sirius huffed.
"You did." he reminded him.
"Not after you said- oh just shut up Moony."
"How can I shut up if you want me to read?" He asked with a wicked grin. Sirius satisfied himself with a scowl but with a monumental effort resisted arguing the point when his eyes flickered again to the stranger in this room..
James let out a slight snicker upon a question of McGonagall's identity as he demanded, "why wouldn't he know? I've heard that Dumbledore himself was the one who trained her. Plus wouldn't the headmaster know what his employee looked like when she transformed?"
"It was dark," Lily said with a shrug, still more distracted by the story and wanting to move this along, "I'd be mildly surprised as well."
"But why was she on some brick wall all day?" Lily begged the book at nothing but roundabout answer's.
"Wonder why he wouldn't have just apparated straight there?" James puzzled, those parties that kept being mentioned didn't seem that big of a deal for Dumbledore to stop in on.
"Maybe he was checking out some local information?" Remus shrugged.
"Maybe not," James agreed on the point of Deaduls Diggle having no sense, "but he's the nicest bloke you'll ever meet."
"You know, it's probably better that the wizards weren't trying to dress like Muggles," Lily pointed out, a friendly smile in place like she was trying to counter Mcgonagall now. "Seeing as they don't do that good of a job anyway."
"Hey!" James pouted. "I do an alright job."
"Yeah, after your wife dresses you." Sirius mumbled, glad he was far enough away that James could only glare at him, seeing as the parents were trying to refrain from cursing anyone with their son in the room.
When Remus finally reached the part of what must be the true conversation, McGonagall confirming to Dumbledore You-Know-Who as gone, and Dumbledore agrees; everyone exhaled a breath at the same time, none of them willing to admit that they'd still had doubts of this truth. Now that Dumbledore had said it, it had to be true!
Yet it only raised more questions on everything else going on, and with still more of an uneasy look at their intruder, Remus couldn't let the others celebrate much at all as he kept going.
"Why not?" Sirius asked, knowing he'd have taken that Lemon Drop on the spot, and didn't understand McGonagall's denial of it. "Any time is a good time for sweets."
"Sirius, you would stop in the middle of a motorway to pick up a Bertie Bott's Bean." Lily pointed out.
"Your point?" He demanded and Lily just rolled her eyes.
"I'm with Dumbledore on that," James agreed. "Never really did get why people don't say his name. Just gives him more power."
"You have to look at it from another perspective," Lily told them all. "Others who have been personally affected by the war have more reason to fear something. Saying Voldemort's name is like talking about a great war, don't talk about it don't think about it."
"That doesn't make any sense," Sirius argued back. "It's still going on, people are still dying. Not talking about it doesn't stop that."
"We could spend all day having this argument," Remus pointed out. "Why don't we finish this first hmm?"
"Fine," the others grumbled.
As McGonagall countered that Dumbledore could stand to say his name because he was the only person Voldemort feared, Remus was unsurprised that Dumbledore countered Voldemort had powers he never would. "That's only because he's too good of a person to use them," Remus said stoutly.
When Remus inadvertently repeated himself through McGonagall, his friend instantly pounced. "So Professor Lupin, tell us the exact wrist movement of a switching spell."
"Shut up Padfoot." Remus snapped, trying to pretend he didn't like the ring of that title. "You know it was true."
"Yeah, but I didn't mimic a teacher now did I?" Sirius demanded right back.
"Just you wait," he grumbled.
"I'd like to hear this myself," Sirius admitted, then quickly pressed on as James opened his mouth. "You know the real reason Voldemort's gone."
While James pouted Remus pointed out, "Well, if you guys would stop interrupting me maybe we could."
"You've been talking just as much as we have," Lily told him sternly and instead of commenting on that Remus carried on reading.
Remus seemed to instantly regret this, as he was forced to stutter out the apparent plan to come find his friends in Godric's Hollow.
Everyone in the room flinched hard at that, while a white looking James whispered, "I was joking, really I was. What did I do to have Voldemort coming after my family?" Sure he was in the Order, sure every member was a target, but what had changed to make the threat suddenly much more real than just being told that?
He looked desperately at his friends, as if begging one of them to tell him that he'd heard wrong.
Giving himself a slight shake, Sirius told him stubbornly, "I doubt you did anything to put anyone in danger James. Just read on Remus, I'm sure there was some sort of misunderstanding."
What was once a flinch could have counted as a convulsion, Remus actually looked like he was going to be sick, never again wanting to have to say his friends were dead.
"Li-like I said," Sirius managed shakily. "Mis-misunderstanding. Not true, McGonagall just heard wrong is all."
"There's still no proof this is real," James said quickly, as if determined to find a flaw in this. "Couldn't be too hard to find Petunia's name somewhere. This could be fake."
Nobody appreciated the confirmation Dumbledore seemingly gave, but with James' words in mind, Remus was able to go on in a still audible voice.
James somehow managed to get out a weak chuckle, an echo of his old laugh, as he said, "Well, it's nice to know she really did care."
"Course she did," Lily mumbled, looking down at her son in fear. "At least, about me anyway, she loved me because I was her favorite student. She's actually pleased to hear you won't be causing any more trouble."
'So that's why he married you' Sirius thought 'even learning that you might die, you can still joke around.'
There was an odd, pointed silence after this little speech of that nights events. Every eye in the room was either on the little baby in Lily's lap, or the black haired youth still passed out on the couch. No one could quite believe it; no one wanted to believe it. A world without Voldemort, free of fear and prejudices, yet at what cost? Remus was now trying to read as fast as he could, wanting to get a confirmation one way or another, fake or real?
The explanation was helped along by nothing involving McGonagall's questions, especially of how Harry survived.
"Yes little Harry, do tell," Sirius said quickly, looking for any excuse to get the solemn feeling out of the room. "The world's just dying to know your secret."
"Now's not the time Sirius," Remus spoke softly, but it was a clear reprimand that Sirius took, well, seriously.
"Why wouldn't that make sense?" James asked, at the mention of Dumbledore's planetary watch, glancing down at the one on his wrist.
"Not to Muggles it wouldn't." Lily reminded him, happy for any chance to get her mind off of this depressing subject. "
"Yes, but no one here's a muggle." James stated to which Lily just shrugged, unable to really answer that.
"That was dangerous," Lily snapped, fear for her child rearing its head at the news of why exactly McGonagall was there. "Hagrid shouldn't have told a single living, or non-living, soul about where my baby was. He might not have really known it was McGonagall he told. Could have been a Death Eater out for revenge couldn't it?"
"Calm down Lils," James said gently. "You know Hagrid's a bit gullible with a loose tongue. I'm sure he didn't mean any harm. In fact, Dumbledore might have said it was okay for Hagrid to tell McGonagall." Lily huffed and did not look keen on taking this answer until it was confirmed.
"If she didn't know why he was coming there, then why was she there?" Remus asked.
Lily wasn't very happy about thinking on this, but offered, "well if, if we had died-" she hardly got the words out and flinched terribly but kept going, "then possibly McGonagall may be there for my sister's protection. The whole Order does know I've a muggle sister, it couldn't have been that hard for her to find out and check on them for me."
"That was, nice," Sirius struggled to say, not really agreeing this should have been a top priority, but it made as much sense as anything.
The three boys slumped their shoulders at the reminder those Muggles were Harry's only family, but Lily looked even more panicked now. "Is he insane? My sister hates me and everything to do with Magic! This book has proven that so far, why would he send my son there?"
"Well like he said," James said quietly. "Voldemort's probably done my parents and yours in by now."
"That's right comforting that is!" Lily snarled, while James raised his hands in surrender and edged away slightly.
"I take back every bad thing I ever said about McGonagall." James muttered.
"That's a long list," Remus reminded him. "She did manage to catch us in the act quite a bit."
James shrugged and admitted, "She's trying to keep my son away from them, I take it all back."
"I'm with her on that one," Sirius said making a face at a letter involved in any of this. "Would it go something like Dear Muggles, this kid's a wizard who defeated an evil and powerful wizard, look after him until I can bother coming back, lots of love, Dumbledore ?"
Lily rolled her eyes at his antics and said, "Sirius, she already knows a bit about the magical world. It wouldn't be like that."
"Not the point." Sirius reminded her.
"That sounds right nice that does." James said with a cocky grin, rather pleased his name would be so well known, clearly looking for any stance of doing so even at the news of his sons supposed fame in detail by McGonagall.
"I think you missed the point of that statement James," Remus told him calmly, "but as Dumbledore's about to say it himself-" he turned his attention back to the printed words.
"Oh." James deflated. "Yeah I guess that would be a bad thing."
"'Guess?'" Lily hissed. "'A bad thing'? James Potter would you really want to be famous for this?"
"No." he admitted, mentally thinking he should put a bit more thought into what he said before he said it now.
"That's going a bit far." Lily said slowly. "I know Hagrid's heart is the right place but, well, he can be a bit careless."
"Oh Lil's, you worry too much." Sirius said brightly. "Hagrid's the best kind of protection Harry could ever ask for. You've seen the size of that bloke."
"Who hasn't?" James agreed.
"Argh!" Sirius groaned when Lily had essentially said the same thing as McGonagall. "Now we've got two bloody Professors in the room! You have no idea how horrid Professor Potter sounds."
"Be nice." Lily snapped, blushing slightly at that.
"If it makes you feel any better," Remus said slowly. "You could just call her Professor Evans, use her maiden name."
"No way!" James barked. "Do you know how long it took me to get Lily to admit that Potter was her last name now?"
"So you'd rather one of your family be a teacher then?" Sirius egged on.
James seemed to be in a physical pain at this dilemma, but Remus decided to ignore him for now.
"Gotta love these books descriptions anyway." Sirius laughed. "That's Hagrid to a T."
"Can't wait till they do yours." Remus muttered, thinking of all the lovely adjectives that would boost his friend's ego another few degrees.
"What?" Sirius yelped in shock. "Why the hell would I give Hagrid my bike? I won't even let Moony drive it."
"Yet you encourage a four month old to hold on to the handlebars." James reminded him.
"Now that I think about it," Remus said slowly, "why would Harry have to go there at all? Sirius is his Godfather, which entitles him to be caregiver should anything happen to you two."
That had the others stumped until Lily snapped her fingers and said, "Maybe they have to deal with the legal side of this first, make the paperwork go through for Sirius to adopt Harry, and Harry has to be with relatives until then."
"I guess." Sirius grudgingly accepted. "Though that still doesn't explain why I gave up my bike."
"You know it puts him to sleep," James suggested. "Hoped it would calm him down in the meantime."
Accepting this for now, Remus went on.
"What?" Lily yelped, scanning the hairline of her beautiful baby frantically. "He doesn't have a scar."
"That's proof right there that these books are fake." James exclaimed, a smile cracking over his face.
Hating every movement he was making, Remus made to stand up and go towards the kid on the couch, but Sirius stood up and stopped him with a hard look in his eyes. "Wait until the chapters over," he glanced at the book in Remus' hands and decided, "There's only a bit left. Let him have some peace until then." Remus did not agree, but thought it best to finish this chapter before their world really did go to hell.
Lily pursed her lips, hardly paying attention as he kept going, thinking 'well if Voldemort hasn't come to attack us yet, and Harry's still a baby in this, then maybe...'
"Interesting," Lily muttered sarcastically, not at all caring of any of Dumbledore's odd birthmarks. She wanted this to be done with already so she could have a proper look at what could be her future son.
"Aw, that's so sweet." Lily said sadly, her attention well caught on this bought of emotion from Hagrid. "He cares about my little baby."
"Who doesn't?" The others agreed, Sirius even so depressed he didn't even think to make a dog joke.
"Well that's nice too." Remus agreed with Hagrid's explanation for his tears. "Glad to know you two will be missed."
"Was that supposed to make me feel better?" Lily questioned.
"It made James feel better," Sirius pointed out. "His life's goal is to end up on a Chocolate Frog card."
"Haha, very funny guys." James said gazing down at his son without looking up.
"Remind me never to go to McGonagall for comfort." Sirius muttered with a frown, not even wanting to think how he would be feeling right now.
"Why would you?" Remus asked, slightly disturbed at the oddity of that sentence anyway.
Lily's eyes narrowed in suspicion for the start of what Dumbledore was doing with her child there, but she held her tongue to see if what she was thinking was true.
"Well I should hope so." Sirius grumbled, trying to find something else to think about rather than the situation at hand, and the return of his bike to him was even a moments distraction.
Upon McGonagall merely blowing her nose in response to Dumbledore's parting words to her,
"You think that means 'Yes sir', or 'I still can't believe what you're doing'?" James asked with a straight face.
"The second go with the second. It makes me feel better." Remus advised.
Remus did stop in surprise, but Lily best vocalized what he'd just told them.
"Oh for Merlin's sake." Lily hissed, while the other three looked on at her in shock.
"Something wrong Lily Flower?" James asked with some concern, she looked quite deranged.
"I've just found out my son's going to live with my sister who hates me, we're both dead, and now they've left my son who has an injury on his forehead ON THE DOORSTEP!" Hickory streaked away from the couch and curled up on top of the mantel to glare down at the lot of them. Little Harry woke up with a startled wail and looked around for the source disturbing his play mate.
James and Remus tried to make soothing motions with their hands but she was on a rampage, she even thrust Harry into James arms so she could stand up and continue. "They even said it was going to rain that night. What were they thinking! They could have done something, anything, other than what they just condemned my only boy to."
"Lils-" James started, but Lily did not seem in the mood to calm down, she stalked over to the body on the couch, determined to get this proven once and for all. Before she got too close Remus begged.
"Come on Lily, one more paragraph, see?" He even flipped over the book so she could see it. "Let me read this aloud, and then you can have it out, alright?" Seething, she hovered over the body with narrowed eyes, and fearing for his health Remus quickly read out.
"Sounds like a lovely first few days," Sirius muttered without thinking, and then hopped backwards onto the fireplace in shock at the look Lily gave him.
When Remus looked up to indicate he was done, Lily rushed forward and pushed back the long black bangs that would reveal their destiny.
In trying to find the bright spot in this happening to me as I'm want to do, I tried to consider this a good thing in that I was forced to go back and edit these old previous chapters. Aside from going back and making sure some grammar mistakes were updated, I never did much, and now I feel as if the commentary at least flows better and feels a bit more natural. Promise the next chapter up in two days time, and the pattern will continue until the fifth book is complete, where you will then get a notice of next.
Also guys, I need some brutal honesty here. Is this style still coherent? Did you follow along? Should I try some other methods? Is there anything I can do to still make this a good read?
* Couldn't resist, you all still know what it is.