Author's note: :cough: Being sick is never fun. Here I am, lying in bed while writing away on my iBook....nothing to do but write a fanfic...lolz. Well, the bad news is, now my Thanksgiving Break is shot, but oh well I need r/r anyway.

Well, this just may end up being the last chapter (depending on whether the conclusion comes to me or not), so it was fun, lots of fun, and I love you all for sticking around! Thank you! Tell your friends about this fic and me...

Speaking of this fic, anyone see the HP movie, yet? This fic is rather shot from Lily being alive and everything (I won't say anymore for those who haven't seen it yet), but I did pat myself on the back for calling the fact that Lily DID look like JKR :D

C ya~Jerry.

Harry returned in Dumbledore's office, nearly landing on Hermione, who just fell out of the fireplace, also. Harry stood hoisted Hermione off the floor, and she in return helped brush ash off him. Harry saw Ron in the corner, and when their eyes met Ron came over and helped her brush soot off Harry. Harry would've returned the favor, but neither Ron nor Hermione were as filthy as he.

As soon as they were done, Dumbledore returned via the fireplace. He was hardly dirty at all; a few brushes at the sleeves and Dumbledore was clean from all ashes. Harry looked at Dumbledore and saw he seemed sad, though that wasn't quite the word Harry was thinking of.

"Professor Dumbledore?" Hermione said.

Dumbledore turned to Hermione. "Yes, Miss Granger?" he said wearily.

"You seem...distressed," Hermione said. "Are you all right?"

"Oh...look, I," Dumbledore buried one of his long-fingered hands in his head. He massaged his forehead a few times, slowly closing his blue eyes and opening them again. Dumbledore then took off his golden spectacles, wiped them on his robes, and put them on again.

"Yes, Miss Granger, I am rather distraught. At times the battle against Voldemort can run down even someone like myself. Our battle is as long and hard as it is distressing. If I may, I would like to talk to Harry for a moment. If you and Mr Weasley would not mind going to the Gryffindor common room while I do so?"

"Yes, Professor," Hermione and Ron muttered. Clutching copies of their books, Ron and Hermione headed downstairs to the Gryffindor common room.

Harry turned to Dumbledore. "I–I wanted to thank you for letting me go today," he said quickly, stumbling on his own words. Harry did not mean to say that, to express his gratitude right then, when Dumbledore seemed so upset for once, but Harry did not know what else to say.

"Oh...you're quite welcome, Harry. I am certain you and Mr Weasley are, after all, always looking for an excuse to escape Potions anyway, correct?"

Harry grinned.

"Harry, I know that as much joy and exuberating as you've felt today, this day must've also been painful. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe I saw a rather sour look on your face as you were leaving today."

Harry nodded and looked away.

"Harry...a lot has been taken away from you when you were a year old, and in the most brutal manner as well. You have been destined for greatness before your birth, you could not have asked for a better set of parents; your place in this world is with them, surrounded and encouraged with their love. Instead you have grown up abused by the Dursleys and inferior to Muggles surrounding you. What has been raped from you...it all comes down to Voldemort...Voldemort, who is as terrible as he is powerful.

"But Harry, your mother learned something that night, and that is, love always prevails. Always." Dumbledore's eyes met Harry's as he said that last bit.

"But...how did she survive? How?" Tears filled Harry's eyes. "And why did she leave me?"

Dumbledore looked at Harry with utter sympathy and sadness in his eyes. "Perhaps it is easier to answer one and the other at the same time...on that night, Harry, your mother did a very brave thing...she looked at Voldemort straight in the eye and said, 'not Harry, don't kill Harry.' Your mother demonstrated the same type of courage as you did last spring, actually.

"Voldemort once said to someone I know that he always admired courage...but not even courage saved Lily that night. When Voldemort rounded on your mother and cast the Killing Curse, Lily believed in what she was doing so much that she overcame death. Her spirit was stronger than Voldemort's spell, and she managed to resist his spell. But, part of me thinks that she used you, Harry, that night, through your eyes."

Harry looked at Dumbledore. "How do you know about our eyes?" he asked.

"Why, I was the one who looked it up for her," Dumbledore said, looking at Harry with a newfound curiosity. "When you were a baby your mother was noticing how you seemed to look beyond her, so to speak, so I investigated it for her and found that your eyes were linked...not the first pair of wizards to have what's called Mindwires, but it is still a rarity in our world. The strangest was, believe it or not, with Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw."

Harry listened to Dumbledore with interest.

"Your Mindwire is what saved you that night," Dumbledore said. "Avada Kedavra is a dangerous curse...which is why no living has survived it. But your mother and you, together, were able to survive Voldemort's curse...your spirits were stronger than his evil.

"I do not understand how you two managed to deceive Voldemort all these years, for he obviously believed your mother was dead...he testified it several times to you. Still, I believe this is also what has been keeping your mother safe, because we know that if it weren't for you, she would be dead; if it weren't for her, you would be dead. She's been protecting herself and you by having you live, because she knew that if you were ever in trouble, she could save you through your Mindwire, without Voldemort knowing."

Harry thought about it.

"And that is your secret, Harry. Between you and your mother, you are so strong you could rule the world, because two minds will always be more powerful than one. At the time you are the most powerful human to live, together. Voldemort realized this power–which is why he was after you. When Lily resisted what he offered you both that night, he choose to kill you, and he failed."

Harry listened to those words with a hollow sadness. "So...my mother wants me to keep this power, but she does not want to jeopardize both our lives again, so she's been hiding..."

"...Until you defeat the Dark Lord, many wizards will be hiding," Dumbledore said. "And some for better reasons than simply your protection."

*

A/n: Harry did not understand the reality of Dumbledore's words until after he defeated Voldemort, after his seventh year. At that point his mother's books really did take to the Muggle world, much to everyone's amusement and surprise, and in the first edition of her fourth book, well after Harry graduated from Hogwarts and it was safe for him to live with his mother again, and she revealed herself to the wizarding world through the first edition of her fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was subtle, but anyone who knew Harry would know that neither of Harry's parents came out of the wand that fateful night...although the Priori Incantum phenomena did occur, you see. But, neither Lily or James were involved any such occurrence...indeed Hogwarts' sole Champion, Cedric Diggory, and Bertha Jorkins came out of the wand, as did the Muggle, Frank Bryce...

But that is not why I had to update this fic at the end with an author's note. Because, you see, I could not leave you, dear readers, wondering whether Harry really did defeat Voldemort at the end, and whether he is happy right now, as I write. Well, I will leave Harry's final victory against Voldemort for Lily to reveal, in a few years, but I thought you might just like to know this part of the story, until then:

The Harry Potter craze had reached its peak. Harry lived with Lily, happy, alive, and, most important, with no fear of Voldemort, who was dead, his followers punished, repented or dead with their master. Lily had revealed herself as and had rebuilt the house at Godric's Hollow, where she lived when she wanted to escape "those crazy Muggles," as she said once.

Harry lived nearby, and he regularly visited his mother, the other side of his Mindwire. What Harry did for a living I cannot say, because again, that is for Lily to reveal. But, on with the muffins…

One day Harry was visiting his mother for tea, when she approached him with a strange question:

"Harry," she said. "Do you remember anything about the night Voldemort attacked us? Anything at all?"

Harry looked at his mother quizzingly, and he set down his tea and pursed his lips in thought.

"Green light, you screaming, something about Father shouting for you to take me and go...lots of high-pitched laughter...more green light..." Harry listed terrible memories of the past.

Lily nodded. "I don't recall much of it, either," she said. "Reason being, after Voldemort's defeat, you and I both passed out...the effort of staying alive nearly killed both of us. When I woke up I saw Hagrid picking you up, and Sirius' motorbike in the sky...I remember someone dragging me away, and telling me to be at peace, but I do not recall anything else. I was out of it."

Harry nodded. "Go on. Why are you saying this, now?"

Lily Potter looked at Harry. She then set down her tea, also, and swiftly went over to her computer...most wizards still did not understand why Lily had a computer, but she said it was very necessary for keeping in touch with her publishers, so no one bothered her about it...

She clicked on something and words came up on the computer...Harry saw her type "www.fanfiction.net," though he did not understand what she was doing. Harry did have some understanding of computers, but Dudley never really showed him how to use the Internet, and apparently that was what his mother was using.

"Mum, what are you..." Harry began, but Lily shushed him. She typed something else, Harry didn't see what it was, but she pulled up a story of some sort.

"This story caught my eye," she said, turning back to Harry.

Harry continued to look puzzled.

Lily sighed. "On web sites, amateur writers like to write what are called fanfictions, in which people write stories inspired from what they have read, seen, or heard...perhaps it is better that you do not know what sort of fanfictions get inspired, you would be shocked at some of what some writers have written about you! But, I must say, there are many good ones out there, too, some that I wish did happen in your life...

"One fanfiction caught my eye, called 'About the Author,' not because of the name, but because the synopsis, well... struck me. Harry, I want you to read it. Go ahead. Right now."

Harry read the story, and as he did, he found that not only was the story correct, word for word (aside from Platform Four and Three Ninths being Platform 11), it was almost as though someone was watching Harry and his mother the entire time.

"But who...? Ron? Hermione?" Harry asked when he finished.

"No...neither Ron nor Hermione would know the story that well...I had a feeling about this author, and encouraged him to write with each chapter he uploaded, and toward the end he petered out. So I left him one last word of encouragement, under a name that would only slightly give me away, because I knew he was despairing of getting any leads."

"You knew it was a him?"

"Yes, my child, because only one person would write the story, someone who was trying to signal us, the same way I signaled you. Someone who is alive, but had to hide, too, until Voldemort was dead for sure."

"I don't follow," Harry said.

Lily Potter smiled. "We may have dodged the curse, but we were not the ones that caused the second flash of green light that night. It was the third person in the house, the one who told me to take you and leave...but I wouldn't leave him just as he wouldn't leave us...he watched us survive, and then he killed him when the target was open and he knew we were safe..."

The doorbell rang.

Harry looked over at his mother. He hugged her, lightly, of course, and he only wished that Jessica were not at Hogwarts for this moment...

Oh, and let me add, my dear Lily, I love you, too.