Another Golden Year
Part 5
A/N: Thank you all who have read, and reviewed, as always . I always love reviews, and feedback, and emails, all are great! *Insert enormous hint here* By no means stop reviewing!! I always love reviews!!! Sorry about typos, if you find any. I could really use a pre-reading person... what do you call them again? oh, never mind! I had one once, but she sort of disappeared . Anyway, enough babbling, on with the fic!!!!
The problem nagged at Harry all through the rest of dinner . He couldn't eat, he couldn't even tell Ron or Hermione, because that would make the others suspicious .
He went up to the common room before supper was over. He told The Fat Lady the password, and climbed through the hole. Harry passed Lily as he went up the stairs, but didn't notice, he was too deep in thought. He jumped a bit when he heard a voice call "James!?"
Harry whirled around and found Lily at the bottom of the stairs . He looked at her and his legs wobbled . He noticed it was the first time he had actually looked at her this way...
As his loving mother .
"James," she said quietly, " I want to tell you something.. or ask you.. or..." She trailed off .
Harry nodded for her to tell him .
"James, there's something wrong... I think.." It was very easy to tell that she was nervous . Her hands were clasped together oddly, and she was moving them, and scrunching them together in an agitated fashion .
Harry nodded again, speechlessly . Had she figured out?
"I mean, like... really." She flung her hands out of the jumbled knot she had created herself .
He nodded again, still at a loss for words .
"I-I-I....what happened?" She stuttered .
Harry had no doubt now that she had figured everything out. He didn't even bother to nod this time, just stared at her eyes, and for a moment, he thought he was staring into himself .
Lily twitched her head as if she wanted him to say something . Harry opened his mouth, but when no sound emitted he closed it .
They stood for a long while, just looking into each other's eyes .
"Lily, I'm fine." He said, or rather croaked .
Lily half ran up the stairs, and hugged him . "I'm glad.." she said, although she didn't sound glad at all, in fact, she sounded more worried than when she had first spoken to him . Had it been that she had noticed something new? If so, Harry was surely toast .
Harry felt the warmth of his mother's hug, and hugged her back . He then continued up the stairs to his dorm, to search for his father's invisibility cloak, desperately hoping his father had owned it at his age .
* * *
Lupin was in the dorm, although Harry didn't know why . He thought for a split second of asking him if he knew the whereabouts of the cloak, but decided against it . He wasn't even sure if James owned the cloak yet .
He searched everywhere! Under the bed, in the closet-Everywhere! The cloak was nowhere to be found . He searched again, frantically, yet nothing gave him even the slightest clue that the cloak was even there at all.
"Looking for the cloak?" Remus asked timidly, producing a silvery cloak from under his pillow .
Harry starred at him, confusedly ."Why's it there?" He asked, a look of bewilderment on his face .
"Ummmm...." Lupin stuttered, "I... ummmm..... thought Pettigrew, would... ummmm... try to steal it....yeah..."
Harry raised his eyebrows.
Lupin opened his mouth, as if to say something more, but then shut it, and held out the cloak for Harry to take .
The silvery threads were soft, as they were in his days, and it seemed as if the cloak would never be worn by time. It was perfect . And Harry knew that it would always stay that way, no matter what it went through . The cloak, as always, was almost transparent, and he could see through the magical fabrics to his hands . Yet, if he blinked, his hands were no longer there, and only remained if he continued to think they existed .
Harry made his way to the door, and just as he had pulled it open, Remus spoke.
"James?"
"Yeah?" Harry asked, turning around.
"...good luck..." It didn't sound at all like what Remus was about to say in the first place . And Harry wondered if something important was being kept from him .
"I'll be careful." Harry said with a nod, something he seemed to have a habit of doing lately .
Remus nodded again, and Harry stepped through the door into the common room .
* * *
"You there!" Called Lily up the stairs, as soon ad Harry stepped out the door . He didn't even glance at her, after all, she knew his name, and if she was speaking to him, she would most likely mention it .
"You!" she called again . This time Harry looked up, but turned away almost as soon as he had . She obviously wasn't talking to him, she thought he was James...
Didn't she?
"Yes you!" She called . "The one who looks like James!"
Harry stared hard at her, awestruck and made a muffled questioning sound, which sounded something like "Eeeep?"
"You have green eyes." She began to explain.
He nodded, and she giggled as soon as she saw this motion . Harry automatically felt silly, realizing that he must be nodding an awful lot lately .
"And James doesn't nod like that," She added, "He nods with his neck."
Harry was surprised at how well she knew him, but not as surprised as he thought he'd be, after all, they were, no, will be married . That was something that bothered Harry very much, should he speak of the future in past tense, present or future? Are married? Will be? Were?
"I'm James!" He protested, trying to sound convincing . It obviously didn't work .
Lily laughed, loudly . "Come on!" she said.
"Well if I'm not James, then who am I?" He argued, trying desperately to hold up his end of the debate .
"I-I... don't know...." Lily said, worriedly .
Harry stifled a laughed. She thought he was going to hurt her!! But then he remembered that she didn't know anything about him . For all Lily knew, he was Lord Voldemort using a poly juice potion .
"Don't worry." He assured her, "I'd never, ever hurt you."
"And should I believe you?" she pushed, adopting a tougher air, "Who are you, anyway?"
Harry couldn't tell her, it would ruin the future! Or would it? Confused thoughts swam around in his brain for what seemed like hours, but was probably only seconds .
"I'm your son!" He blurted out, half without realizing it . She gapped .
"And I can't stay long, you know-to explain . 'Cause I've got to save Snape!"
Lily's jaw dropped even more .
"And James, too!" He added . "So you'd better pray that what ever I'm going to do works, because if it doesn't..." He trailed off .
For a long time, all Harry saw on Lily's face was a look of confusion, as if he were speaking Japanese, but then her look turned to understanding and she nodded . But before she could open her mouth to ask him anything, he ran out the door .
* * *
Remus Lupin sat down on his bed with a thud . His plans were ruined! There was something he hadn't told Sirius or James- or anyone, for that matter! Tonight was the full moon .
He had been planning to take James' invisibility cloak and transform in another passage but now that James had it he was helpless! He stared down at his watch... an hour and a half until the moon came out- and then.......
* * *
Lily sat down in a huge armchair, facing the fire . Her back was to the rest of the Common Room, and no body could see that she was even there unless they were very close . This was good, Lily didn't want to be disturbed, she only wanted to think.
"I'm your son!"
Those words rang in her ears as questions buzzed around in her head . Was he really? And if he was, how did he get here? As far as she knew, she had no son in this day and age, and desperately hoped not . Lily was so deep in thought, that she didn't even hear when the portrait hole swung open .
"Who's in here?" Came a voice which startled Lily so much that she almost jumped out of her chair .
"James? Where are you?"
This time Lily recognized the voice . It belonged to Avery .
"James isn't here!" She yelled defiantly .
Avery wheeled around, searching for the voice . But he found nothing .
"Who are you?" he asked, the slightest quaver in his voice . Lily smiled at this, but having had her fun, she stood up.
"You know me." she said simply . And then, with a lot more force than you would have thought her to posses, "Now tell me why you're here!"
Avery didn't answer .
"Why are you here?" she snarled, something which was quite unexpected of Avery .
He gave a small flinch, and opened his mouth . Sadly for him, all that emitted was a croak .
"Unless you are to dumb to notice.." Lily began, pulling out her wand and walking towards him . "This is the GRYFFINDOR Common Room!"
By now, Avery's face was white . Lily laughed in her head, she would never have thought him to be afraid of her . It was obvious that she was a tad more aggressive than she seemed .
"Get out, now!" She barked, moving her wand into attack position ."You know I'm top in charms, as well as Defense Against Dark Arts, so I suggest you leave if you don't want to be cursed . "
When Avery didn't move she raised her wand higher, and began to mutter incoherent words under her breath . Although they were not those of a spell, they certainly had the right effect . Avery turned quickly and scurried out of the Common Room . Lily smiled satisfactorily .
"He sure left in a hurry!" Came Lupin's voice from up the stairs .
Lily laughed and Remus attempted a weak smile .
Neither of them were quite in the mood to chat, so each sat in an armchair, and resumed their confused thoughts .
* * *
Harry slipped on the invisibility cloak and walked out into the darkness .
It was easy, he had decided . All he's have to do was freeze the big tree and open the passage . That way, Snape and James would both escape and neither of them would see him, so that was okay .
Only one problem remained . How long would he have to wait until the coast was clear? He knew that even the open field was extremely busy at night . Small animals from the forest were known to leave their homes at night, Hagrid had once told him so .
When Harry thought he was free to open the passage, he approached the tree cautiously . For a moment he paused, wondering if the tree could see, and if so, was he in its line of view? Could it see through the cloak?
Instantly the tree began to flap wildly, and Harry took at step back . Well, it could sure see something .
Harry began to look around for a branch to pause the tree with, and finding nothing, snapped off a long branch from one of the trees near the Willow. He was just leaning in to prod the right knot when Hagrid, walking dizzily, stepped out of his hut .
Harry stopped .It would be completely and utterly stupid to pause it now, because for sure Hagrid would see the tree, which had been thrashing madly only a second ago, suddenly stop, and drunk as he may be, he would notice something odd for sure . It was best not to take any chances .
So, Harry waited a good while, as Hagrid dizzily staggered up to the school doors, opened them, went in, and shut them again, a loud, door closing echo vibrating in his ears .
He picked his stick up again, and was about to poke the knot yet again, when two figures emerged from the school .
In the darkness, Harry could just barely make them out, one was Madam Pomfrey and one was... no... it couldn't be!
Harry's heart sank, the other figure was Remus Lupin and that could only mean one thing, he was about to transform .
As Lupin descended into the tunnel Harry let out a silent cry, a cry of despair .
A/N: Please review to tell me what you think . As I said earlier, I love feedback!
Also, I know I've had some very good reviewers out there, but I've never took the time to thank them, so I guess now I'm going to thank every single one of you, even if it takes a million years!!!!
corneliusfudge, Misty A. Potter (You're back, I love you!!!! Write something!!), MAYAGURL (Or else? Well, hopefully this gives you a reason not to kill me), CL, Cateroo (I think there will be some "chew chew twist" soon), Lady Bug, Hermonie (only one who reviewed 3!!! Thank you sooo much!), Kahlan, Adelina, Jedi Kacee, Taiora, Anya, Jausserande Shadowstar (spelt right?), Butterflygurl (Mean? Me? hmmm... well, I don't actually want him to die, I just thought it would make for a nice story, and I'm glad I succeeded in making you sad! ), California Love, Lisa Cove, Am, Clare, Audra, My Friend Cat (We all know you're secretly Cateroo... oops, I guess I revealed your secret identity!! Who cares.. hopefully you don't hate me for life tho..), ~*Ginny*~, NortylaK (2am? hmmm... I guess fluff does come in handy sometimes), Kelzery (Actually, I think I will . I started writing one, but before I could save it "This program has preformed an illegal operation and must be shut down" .... and then the whole story died..:( ). And yes, I know that some of you reviewed more than one story and I only put you on the list once, just know that you all get double the thanks! Also, if there are some of you who reviewed, but aren't on the list, just know that I thank you very much!!! Also, to those who wanted to know, what Ginny painted in The Forest Of Dreams will be revealed in the sequel, when I get around to doing it, of course!
And remember, be a responsible reader!!! ;)