A/N: Hey! I'm back and still writing. Excellent Question # 2 from smile7499: I have a question from a previous chapter. Why did Ron freak out about leaving Hogwarts? Are we going to find out? Does it matter? Answer: Yes, It does matter. Yes, you will find out. No, I won't tell you why. It will all be in there, don't worry. : )
Disclaimer: All proceeds go to Archie, who needs a pair of drawers VERY badly, no matter how much he likes a healthy breeze around his privates…too much info…thanks.
"You lost my shoes?" Lily appeared thunderstruck. "How could you have lost my shoes?" She wasn't the only one who looked thunderstruck.
Harry's insides, which had previously been twisted in a large knot, now seemed to have, without his knowledge, all banded together in some sort of mutiny against him and dropped to the pit of his stomach, which kept leaping up into his throat at odd moments. He felt he needed to sit down. Hermione, who was looking from Harry to James to Lily and back, suddenly got a grim look of determination on her face, as if saying, "well, if he's not saying anything, there's nothing else for it."
"Hello, Mr and Mrs Potter," said Hermione, sticking out her hand. "Hi Professor, Sirius."
"Professor? Remus is a Professor? HA!" James burst into a hysterical laughter. "I…always knew you'd go legitimate on us, Moony." He shook Hermione's hand firmly, and then said, "Lily and James, please. Mr Potter brings me back to the days of me, detention slips, and Professor McGonagall."
"You've had enough," said Lily, shoving James aside and shaking Hermione's hand as well. Remus, meanwhile, was looking highly affronted.
"I haven't gone all legitimate," he said. "I did manage to lie Harry's way out of a detention from Snape, after he had gone to Hogsmeade when he wasn't…I…mean…uh…" He noticed Professor Dumbledore in the corner and stopped.
"As always, when hearing about certain escapades, I have gone temporarily deaf and cannot hear a word you are saying," said Dumbledore, carefully staring at the ceiling. Harry, whose insides seemed to have calmed down somewhat after hearing a relatively normal conversation from people who were supposed to be dead, managed to speak.
"Hello…" he stopped short, wondering what to call his parents that were three years older than he was. He felt awkward. What was he to say to people who he had only known through stories, photographs, and dementors?
"Mum and Dad'll do nicely, thanks," said Lily, seeming to sense his dilemma. "Hello Harry," she looked him up and down. "I was always afraid that I'd get a carbon copy of James for a son…and I guess I was right."
"Hey! I'm not all that bad," said Harry and James at the exact same time.
"Bugger, two James'…I'm going home." Said Lily, turning on her heel. She then grabbed Harry into a hug.
"You've grown a lot since I've last seen you," she said, grinning.
"Yeah, well, from ages one to fifteen, people tend to do that," Sirius said, butting in.
"I didn't ask for any comments from you, thanks," said Lily, putting her hands on her hips.
"Hey," said James, ruffling Harry's hair, and giving him a light punch on the arm.
"Hey Dad," said Harry, savouring the words. He had never actually called anyone Dad before in his life…and to have a Mum and Dad in the same room was rather new. Suddenly, all the awkwardness vanished.
"Dad, did you know Snape teaches here now?" he asked, thinking about Sirius' reaction to that particular statement when he was in third year.
"I've been informed…" said James slowly, grin playing about his lips.
"Don't worry, Harry, we have it all planned," said Sirius, grinning too. "You just wait…"
"The marauders are back," Hermione murmured to Lily. "I've never seen them in action…and yet…with Harry in there now, I'm scared."
"It'll be worse than your wildest imaginings." Said Lily.
~**~
"Here's our room," said Hermione, opening the door. "We don't have to share with the Gryffindor girls, we get our own." Two beds sat on opposite sides of the walls. Lily's four trunks sat neatly around her bed.
"I don't want to sound…nosey, or anything," Hermione said, "but why aren't they just giving you and James your own room? I mean…"
"Harry can't have any siblings," said Lily briskly, heading over to her trunks.
"Oh," Hermione looked down, casting around for a change of subject. She noticed Lily's shoes, plain brown penny loafers that were falling apart at the seams. "We need to go to Hogsmeade and get you some shoes," she said abruptly.
"Oh," Lily laughed, "Yes, I suppose so. We were so busy packing to leave, I just wore my oldest pair of shoes, and packed the rest…and then Sirius lost them…" she stopped. "Would you mind going shopping with me? James hates it. He'll never go, and I hate going by myself."
Hermione visibly brightened.
"I'd love to go," She said happily, "Harry and Ron won't go clothes shopping, and the rest of the Gryffindor girls are such airheads I can't stand…" she broke off, and looked at her feet. "That wasn't very nice of me. I apologise."
"Why? You're not insulting me." Lily smiled. "Wonderful. I always hated shopping with Petunia. Between insults about witchcraft, and 'Oh, Vernon will love me in this,' I could hardly hold down my lunch."
"I know," said Hermione, "I
was never good friends with Lavender and Parvati, they were always too…into the
hair and make-up, I suppose. I didn't have any friends here, until Harry and
Ron had to rescue me from a troll…"
"Troll?" Lily looked up from her trunks. "He rescued you from a troll?"
"Yes, in first year," said Hermione, sitting on her bed, and absentmindedly fiddling with the curtains. "Then he fought with you-know-who for the Philosopher's stone, fought with him again in the chamber of secrets, had to regrow all the bones in his right arm and then there was the whole triwizard thing…"
"No pranks? Nothing?"
"Not really. When he snuck around and got caught, it was normally for the benefit of solving some type of mystery. Or when he was helping out Hagrid by getting rid of a dragon. I was in on that one. That's when he got all his detentions."
"I think you need to go over this again, Hermione," said Lily faintly. "Voldemort? Again? What happened with Voldemort? Go slowly this time and tell me everything."
"You don't know about Harry?" said Hermione, alarmed.
"What about him? I can tell you he sat up on November second, smiled on…"
"No, no," said Hermione. "You know less than he did when he first came to Hogwarts. He's the boy who lived. He defeated Voldemort when he was a baby. And held him off again in first year, second year, and fourth year…and now…"
"Start over," Lily ordered. "Start from the very beginning, and don't leave out anything."
~**~
A/N: I'm sorry that this is such a bad chapter. It was awkward to write, and things will be better written from here on in. I just had trouble with this one, for reasons unknown to man. I've rewritten in three times, and now I'm just posting. I apologise, and they will get better, I promise.