Author's Note: Revised number 6.

a meeting with the

portrait

When he entered the common room, Draco was already reclining in one of the chairs, a hearty fire lit in the front of the room in the hearth. Harry went and joined him, sitting in the opposite chair, feeling very tired.

"So, what do we put for the portrait picture?" Harry asked, pushing aside his earlier irritation to speak to the other.

Draco shrugged. "Well, I want to put a person so we can talk to them. They have to be okay with us sneaking out and stuff."

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "But who?"

Draco shrugged, and looked at Harry. Harry looked back. When he realized that Draco was staring at him, he asked, "What?"

"You prat," Draco replied, his voice somewhat—somehow—more awake than usual; lacking that lethargic component that was always so integral to it being what it was. "Don't you ever use that brain of yours?"

"Only when need be," Harry replied caustically, yawning.  He wished he could give Malfoy a good poke in the head….

"Your dad!" Draco blurted, his eyes wide.

Harry stopped in mid-yawn and his jaw snapped shut. Shaking his head slightly, he asked, "Is that possible?"

"Yes," Draco replied, "he's dead, and all you need is a picture of them to do this!  And my father told me all about yours—he was a great trouble maker, wasn't he?"

"Hold on a moment," Harry said, rushing back to his room, a tingly feeling of giddy excitement rushing up his spine, leaving him lightheaded. He threw everything in his trunk aside, reaching for the picture album that Hagrid had made for him his first year. Running back to the common room, he and Draco both settled on the couch, side to side, and opened the picture portrait. The smiling faces of Lily and James Potter appeared in every picture.

"Which one?" Harry asked, breathless with excitement.

"One of only them," Draco replied, looking at the pictures carefully. They finally stopped at a picture of James, wearing dark dress robes and smiling, with Godric's Hollow behind him and Lily Potter beside him, and decided it was the best one to use.

"Are you sure you want your mother in there?" Draco asked rather bluntly, eyeing the muggle-born witch in the picture with mounting distaste.

"Stuff it, Malfoy," Harry replied easily.  "If she married my dad, then she probably wouldn't mind much as a portrait if we left our dorm after hours."

Going out into the outer tower, they peered at the instructions.

"This spell takes a bit of work," Draco muttered. "Put the picture on the frame." Harry put the picture in, managing to stick the bottom side in the frame and leaned it back against the blank part. It was very small compared to the big frame it was supposed to fit into.

"Then we have to say 'imagus' repeatedly while concentrating on the strongest memory of him you have." Draco frowned. "I can't do this then."

Harry didn't look at Draco. "The only memories I have of either of my parents was when they were murdered and…some recent things. Would they do?"

Draco shrugged.  "Lupin didn't write that." He paused, and added as an afterthought, "Then just concentrate on what people have told you about them. What you know of them—or conceive them to have been."

Harry nodded slightly, and positioned himself in front of the picture, a few feet away. "Imagus!" A powerful red jet emerged from the tip of Harry's wand, hitting the picture straight on. Concentrate! he told himself.

He imagined his mother laughing, arm in arm with his father at their wedding. He imagined the mischievous twinkle in his father's eyes, and his gentle smile. He imagined his mother's bright, beautiful red hair curling around her face, framing it loosely.

Draco watched as the red jet engulfed the picture, and spread to fill the blank area in the frame. A minute later, the sparkly red went away, and the picture of the young Potter couple was perfectly proportioned to fit the frame. Harry didn't notice Draco coming to stand beside him, and stared at his parents.

As the spell completed itself, Harry stood back, and breathing slightly harder than usual, he watched and felt a swelling hope that his spell had worked.

It had.

James Potter moved around, looking out of the portrait. He suddenly seemed to notice Draco and Harry gaping at him.

"Oh, look, Lily," he said wryly, pointing at Harry, "it's mini-me."

Lily Potter's face glowed. "Harry! You're all grown up!"

"Mum?" Harry gasped, his voice high-pitched and light. Just the shock of seeing a talking Lily Potter made him watch in awe.

"Yes, dear," Lily replied. She sighed. "We've died, haven't we? I'm sorry I couldn't raise you, but I'm sure Sirius did a good job." She suddenly narrowed her eyes at Harry. "He hasn't been feeding you well!"

"Shush, honey," James said. "Harry, do you play Quidditch?"

"Seeker," Draco replied for Harry, who was too busy staring to realize that someone was talking to him.

James grinned. "Excellent! I was a chaser, myself."

Sirius and Remus chose that moment to return to Draco and Harry. When they entered the round room, they stared at the portrait.

"Hi Padfoot, Moony!" James exclaimed, looking very excited. "What have—"

Suddenly, Lily interrupted, unleashing the rage of a mother upon Sirius. "Sirius?  What have you been feeding my son?  He's too thin!"

"L-l-lily?" Sirius gasped, doing a very nice imitation of someone whom had just been Petrified.

"So we've been dead for a while now," James said thoughtfully, the glee fading from the picture's face. "Hm."

Sirius stared hard at James, before shaking his head.  "You both are the guardian portrait of the dorm behind this portrait.  No one but authorized Order of the Phoenix members are allowed to enter.  You will know whether they lie or not, if anyone approaches."

James and Lily nodded, before they backed away from the edge of the portrait picture and went into the house beside them.  As portrait pictures, they knew their duty.

"All right," Remus said, smiling kindly at Harry, "time for both of you to go to bed.  It's very late."

Grumbling, Draco went through the portrait and went to his own room. However, Harry stood stock still, staring at the portrait. He suddenly seemed to shake himself out of the trance he had fallen into, and sharply looking away, he hastily went up the spiral staircase, shutting the portrait gently.

portrait

end

A/N: Done.  Not nearly as sappy, and Draco isn't abnormally nice.  The portrait having James and Lily in it is very important, but it will not play a major role in the story.  No, James and Lily are not coming back in this fic, either.  Hope you all liked it!  Leave your e-mail address in a review to be added to my mailing list.

~ Jedi Cosmos