Clear as Mud Chapter 3 - Explanations

A/N: Sorry for all of the confusion! Re-reading it, I can tell that I rushed into it a bit. I knew what I meant to say, but because I already knew it, I thought I'd already written it. Does that make sense? I hope so. I also apologize for the lack of reaction in the previous chapter. I am not very happy with that, but the realization and some explanations will come in this chapter. If you are confused about anything, please tell me because it really helps when I'm trying to continue! It's really hard when you break between writing, cause you kind of loose your thread.

Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter. Same as she did before. Anyway.

Big thanks to Enter the Red Age (love the name!) for reviewing. I hope I explain this better in this chapter. I admit, the whole Seer thing is really confusing, it's hard to write too. I need to include it, though, so that the parts I'm planning make sense. You'll probably understand when I write it. Hopefully. Anyway, on with the story...

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"I think we should start with how Lily and James came to be here," Dumbledore said, looking around at the group through his half-moon spectacles. "The story is rather long, so please make yourselves comfortable."

There was an instant flurry of movement, as everyone (with the exception of Dumbledore) hurried to get one of the seats.

"Gerroff!" Harry exclaimed as Severus sat on his lap.

"Whoops!" Said Severus, jumping up. He settled for knocking Sirius out of his chair, and sitting on it.

Sirius growled, and sat on the floor, instead. Snape smirked. Arabella grinned.

"Ah, poor Padfoot!" she cooed. "Come and sit here next to me!"

The smirk on Snape's face instantly changed into one of deep hatred.

Sirius appeared to have noticed.

"Er...I'll just stay here, thanks," he said, shifting away from Snape.

Now the group were all seated.

At the end of Dumbledore's desk, sat Ginny, who was sharing a chair with Hermione, who had Ron sitting on the arm. Harry sat on the next chair, with Sirius on the floor in front of him, though still scooting away from Severus. Next to Harry, was Remus, followed by James, with Lily on his lap, and Arabella next to him. Sitting rather protectively next to Arabella, was an extremely disgruntled Severus, who was at the other end of Dumbledore's desk.

"So...how did they get here exactly? I mean, I thought that they were dead..." Harry trailed off, not quite knowing if he wanted to know the answer or not. Had they been alive all along? Was he really just kept in the dark for all these years? At the Dursleys? How could they do this?

The full impact hit, as the conversation turned serious.

James looked at Dumbledore.

"Shall I explain?" he asked. "Or would you like to?"

"I think you should tell your version of events, as I do not know all of what happened. Maybe you could help, Lily?" Dumbledore suggested.

Lily and James both nodded.

"Well," James began. "That night, Halloween, when Voldemort came, Lily was upstairs putting Harry to bed - or trying to anyway," a rueful smile played across James' face. "Always a nightmare to get to sleep..." Harry blushed. He hadn't changed much, then. "But anyway, when Voldemort came, obviously I told Lily to run..." at this point, he glared at his wife.

"But I did no such thing," she continued for him, returning the glare.

"As we know," said James, frowning. "But anyway, I tried to fight Voldemort off, but he was too powerful. And then everything went black. I thought that he had knocked me out, but it turns out that he had tried to kill me. That's as far as my memory serves, on that night." He turned to Lily. "I think you can continue?"

"Yes, I can," she said. "As you all know, the same sort of thing happened to me, but I was trying to get in his way, because he...he..." Lily trailed off, tears welling in her eyes. She looked across at Harry. "He did not want to kill Harry. He knew that Harry was powerful, and he wanted to take him over to the Dark Side. Of course, I lied to him and told him that Harry was a squib, and not quite being tops in the brain department, he believed me. I repeatedly told him that Harry was not to blame, and that I was, but he still was angry. He had spent the last year trying to kill a baby, and for no reason. The week before, James and I had a bond charm formed, so that if one person was hit with the Cruciatus curse, the pain would be half passed on to the other of us, so when Voldemort tried to kill James, he was only knocked out. Our charms were deliberately done with other people, so if one of us was knocked out, the other could still fight." Lily looked across at Sirius.

"That's when I realized that Voldemort had come. When I felt my energy drain, and as soon as I was woken up, I headed straight for Godric's Hollow. On my way there, I found Arabella lying on the floor. She was right outside where the front door had once been, so I thought that Voldemort had found her. Then I realized that Lily must have used Ara for her bonds. I awoke Arabella, and we both searched the ruins that remained." Sirius bowed his head. "We both thought that they were dead."

"We did," Arabella agreed. "Especially when we found Harry. Lily had used a protection charm on him, so that if the killing curse is fired at you, then whoever you chose to protect cannot be harmed. It makes sense now," she said thoughtfully. "The book never said that you had to die from it..."

"Precisely, and that is how we formulated the plan," said Lily. "Because I am a Seer, I knew that this would happen, so I knew that it was possible for us to find a way. That is the only reason I never gave up. That and my family," she added, smiling at Harry and James.

"So then what happened?" Ginny asked. "Who found you? Where did you spend the next 15 years?"

James then spoke up.

"We spent the next few weeks where we were," admitted James, smiling slightly. "But when we awoke, we were both far too weak to go in search of help, but then a muggle found us, and helped us. The only problem was, was that both Lily and I had severe concussion. We remembered nothing about the attack, or about anything, for that matter." James smirked at the memory.

"But, as always, Padfoot was there to save the day." Lily grinned.

"Me? What did I do?" Asked a confused looking Sirius.

"Because living with these muggles, we had nothing to jog our memories, we did not remember anything at all." Lily continued.

"Until Sirius escaped, and you saw him on television...it all makes sense..." Hermione looked amazed as she spoke.

"Exactly," said James. "And we finally started to remember who we were. What we were like. Each time Padfoot appeared on television the memories were getting stronger, until we finally realized what we had to do."

"Until I realized, you mean," smirked Lily. "This dimwit here took AGES to remember everything. We were standing outside Hogwarts before he remembered who Dumbledore was." James blushed.

"Why does that not surprise me?" asked Moony, sarcastically.

"Oh, shut up," snapped James. "Anyway, we got here, and finally managed to convince Dumbledore we were who we said we were, and here we are now!"

Lily chuckled.

"I still can't get over what you said when I told you about Hogwarts..." she giggled as she reminisced. " 'Hogwarts? What's that? That sounds like... I dunno. What are you talking about? Is it something you want for your birthday?' Honestly, James!" She giggled again.

"That was almost as funny as the time we first saw Sirius on the TV," James retorted, raising an eyebrow, and putting on a high-pitched voice. " 'I knew it! Look! James! It's him! It's Severus Black!'"

Both Severus and Sirius snorted.

"Well, I was close enough!" Lily said indignantly. "At least I didn't ask you if you wanted him for your birthday..."

Everyone burst out laughing.

"Thank you for that, James, Lily..." Dumbledore said, then his face turned more serious. "Now let's be serious, now-"

"Let's not," interrupted Arabella. "One Sirius is enough, thank you very much!"

"Ha. Ha. You are just SO funny. Not." Sirius said sarcastically.

Lily rolled her eyes.

"Let's just get on with it, shall we?" she asked, gesturing at Dumbledore.

"Thank you, Lily. I think we still have another matter to discuss. Lily. Am I correct in assuming that you are a Seer?" Dumbledore asked, turning to the young woman on his right. She nodded in confirmation. "I do believe we discussed that, a long time ago. Which explains that Harry probably is one, due to the charm that Lily performed on Harry as a baby. When you save someone's life, if the bond created is strong enough, it is possible for powers to pass between them, which would lead me to believe that Ginny did not discover her power until she came out of the Chamber of Secrets. Is that correct?"

"No, Professor," Ginny shook her head. "I have had the powers since I was about five, I think. Or that's when I discovered them, anyway."

"And you never told me?" Ron looked outraged.

"You never asked," replied Ginny, a hint of coldness traceable.

"Well, then, Ginny," said Dumbledore. "I can only assume that you were born a Seer, my dear." Dumbledore turned to the rest of the group. "This gives us an advantage over Voldemort," Dumbledore continued. "If we train Ginny and Harry, then we will have three fully-trained Seers in our ranks, and that will help strengthen any attack we can plan against him. But you must all remember: even if a Seer gets a vision, you can change the future. What they see is just a possible outcome. If we do not work hard enough, we can still fail, regardless of the visions we may have heard of. Now, where is Minerva? I thought that you were going to floo her, James?"

James winced.

"I knew I'd forgotten something..."

"Never mind. I shall speak to her now. I suggest that you all go to bed, for it is getting late, and you all should get some rest. Especially you two," Dumbledore gestured at Lily and James. "It has been a long day for you. I will see you all in the morning."

Everyone mumbled their goodnights, and Severus and Arabella took to their old appearances.

With that, the headmaster's office slowly emptied, until only Dumbledore remained.

"Minerva," Dumbledore said to the cat in the corner. "You may come out now. I would very much appreciate it if you did not spy on me like that. One would almost think you didn't trust me..."

"Why, precisely, would I trust you?" Minerva McGonagall asked, after transforming back into her human form. "When you keep something like this from me?"

"If you were listening, I do believe that I asked James to floo you. Then I realized that there was no need. I will see you in the morning, Minerva."

The finality in the old man's voice was clear, so the woman said goodnight, then left, vowing to seek some answers in the morning.

"What a night..." Dumbledore murmured to himself. "And what a day will surely follow..."

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A/N: I hope that answered some of your questions! It was quite long, but at least it makes more sense now. Review with your opinions.