CHAPTER ELEVEN: AFTERMATH
Everyone just stared at the ghost in shock. Harry simply because the ghost existed, the death eaters because their master was dead. The ghost was in a state of shock too, presumably because he had died but also because he had come back as a ghost afterwards. No one dared speak until the ghost had spoken, if only because they didn't know what to make of the spectre in front of them. The ghost himself spent a few minutes examining his new translucent form, a slight smirk indicating that it had Voldemort's seal of approval. Not that he looked much like Voldemort, as the ghost seemed to have adopted the form of what Tom Riddle would have looked like had he not undergone his transformation, rather than the ugly snake-face of Lord Voldemort. Next he turned his cold intelligent eyes to his surroundings, searching for the person who had cast the curse. Twice the gaze swept past Harry's hiding place in the dark alleyway, before it fell on him a third time and he was spotted. The former dark lord's eyes bored into him intensely for a few seconds before he spoke, stripping away all pretences and revealing the very essence of his soul.
"Ah," he said. It was not the charming voice of the young Tom Riddle, nor the serpentine hiss of Lord Voldemort but a deep aristocratic voice that was full of intelligence and authority, the voice of a leader, "I should have known it would be you. Come on out, Harry Potter, I cannot hurt you as a ghost."
"No," Harry responded guardedly, "You may not be able to hurt me but they can." The exhaustion of defeating Voldemort had been replaced by a sense of wariness. He had responded to the ghost's intense gaze with a glare of his own, he was not going to trust the ghost until given a reason to do so, besides even if the ghost was trustworthy and relatively harmless the death eaters were most certainly not.
The ghost smirked at Harry before turning to his followers, whether this was intended as a taunt or a compliment the raven-haired boy did not know, "My death has released you from your bond of servitude," he declared, "Go spread the word among your brethren. I will lead you no longer."
The death eaters disapparated, leaving only one man behind, who Harry assumed to be James Potter. His assumption was proved correct when the death eater removed his mask and pulled down his hood, "It's OK," he said happily, "They've all gone. You can come out now." Harry complied.
"You have him?" he asked the man the world believed to be his father. He didn't to name the person who he was referring to. James produced a grey rat with a missing paw from somewhere inside his robes, it was asleep, a slumber that Harry knew to be magical. Harry smiled; Sirius would be free by morning assuming of course that the dog animagus didn't kill Pettigrew first, "Good. Now we have to get him to the Ministry without Sirius seeing him"
"Where's Sirius?" An anxious James asked. Like Severus and Remus, Sirius was supposed to be protecting Harry from the death eaters, "What about Severus and Remus?"
"In the Three Broomsticks fighting some death eaters." Harry replied, his calm tone belying his concern for the safety of the three men. He had forgotten about that particular fight in the rush to ensure he got Voldemort, but now that the dark lord had been defeated he couldn't focus on anything else, especially because Sirius had been forced to reveal his animagism in order to aid in the fight. As an Azkaban escapee aurors had been given orders to kill Sirius on sight and Harry wasn't sure whether his part in fighting the death eaters would prevent this order from being carried out.
"What!" James cried, he looked extremely alarmed, "I told him to remain in dog form so he wouldn't be caught, but he bloody well ignore me, the stupid prat." He ran off up the street, intent on saving his boyfriend. Harry sprinted after him, to prevent him from doing something stupid, such as being seen.
"What do you think you're doing?" he yelled after him, causing James to stop running momentarily and turn back to Harry, "Do you want to be seen?"
"I don't care," James replied hurriedly, "Padfoot and the others are in danger and I intend to help them."
"You can help them better by giving me Wormtail and staying out of sight," Harry responded sternly. If someone were to see James then questions would be asked, and the whole truth would come tumbling out, there was the same risk if the Ministry caught Sirius, gave him a truth potion and asked the wrong questions. At least Wormtail knew nothing of Harry's true parentage, and even if he did know that James survived he wouldn't know where James Potter was after tonight's events. All this meant it was imperative that Harry, with his father's help, got Wormtail to the Ministry as soon as possible.
"Fine," James replied grumpily handing the rat animagus over, "But I'll be watching you, ready to step in if something goes wrong." Clutching the sleeping rat in his hand, Harry ran off as fast as possible towards the inn, James following behind.
The ten death eaters had all been subdued when he got there, and from the looks of it without the assistance of any aurors either. Unfortunately that hadn't reduced the tension, if only because of the presence of a certain escaped convict, and by the looks of things a lynch mob out to kill him. Harry had forced to do a double take when he had seen his father acting as a human shield for his worst enemy. Remus was standing by the door, presumably trying to stay out of the way while waiting for Harry.
"Stop," Harry yelled at the top of his voice stopping in front of the small crowd who were trying to confront Sirius, "He's innocent. He's not a death eater. I can prove it."
One of the men in the crowd laughed, "I would have thought Harry Potter would be the last man defending Sirius Black."
"Let him speak, Jack," another man answered, to general agreement. It was the man who Harry had saved earlier, "If Harry Potter thinks he's innocent then we should listen. He's the one most likely to know the truth after all."
"Fine," the man named Jack relented, but not before protesting stubbornly about the pointlessness of listening to Harry, "But I worked on the original case, I know he's guilty."
"Good. Then you'll know all about the Fidelius Charm that my parents used, and that Sirius was my parents' secret keeper. Saves me having to explain the whole story for you" Harry pronounced. He made it sound as if retelling the whole story surrounding his mother's death was a tedious chore. Jack nodded, confirming Harry's assumption, "What you don't know is that my parents' switched secret keeper at the last minute and for some stupid reason didn't tell anyone."
"We thought it would be the perfect ruse," Sirius protested from where he was hiding in the corner. He had interpreted Harry as being bitter about the change and was trying to defend himself, "Who would think that we would someone as weak and cowardly as Peter Pettigrew?"
"So you went after Pettigrew, and blew up the whole street while killing him," Jack theorised, from his tone it was clear that he did not believe Sirius.
"No," Sirius spat bitterly, "I intended to kill him but the little rat got the better of me. He faked his own death, and scampered into the sewers in his animagus form, to live among the rats."
"Nice story," Jack sneered. He wasn't the only one to doubt the story, "But if Pettigrew's alive where is he?"
"In my hand," Harry retorted coldly, putting the rat with a missing paw on the table. He looked directly at Jack to prove his identity, "Do what with him to prove his identity, just don't kill him and don't let him escape."
Without a word Jack and another man stepped forward from the crowd, and cast the same spell, which Remus and Sirius had used, that night in the shrieking shack at the end of Harry's third year, revealing a short, plump man wearing death eater robes. Jack ripped off the mask to reveal the hated rat face of Peter Pettigrew, the man who had murdered Cedric Diggory, framed his godfather and betrayed James and his mother. Jack looked extremely shocked. Harry was also surprised to notice how calm Sirius was when confronted with Pettigrew, although his face was the perfect expression of the utter loathing and contempt he felt towards Wormtail he wasn't actually trying to kill or harm him, like he had been threatening to do since the issue had been raised.
James had been somewhat exasperated with the group's willingness to forgive him, but not Wormtail for their roles in Lilly's death. James regarded Wormtail's betrayal as being his fault, as he had been the one to recruit Pettigrew and that as a consequence the rat animagus' crimes had been his fault. Not that anyone brought this argument, in the slightest, not least because they believed the argument to be nonsense. At the end of the day Wormtail's decision to join the death eater's was his own, whether James recruited him or not. It wasn't as if James had him under the Imperius Curse. More importantly, however, was the fact that James had clearly repented for his crimes, the huge amount of guilt he felt was obvious, while Wormtail had not, and not just because he was too scared to do so. As far as Harry could tell Wormtail genuinely believed he had done nothing wrong.
"He's got no dark mark," Jack concluded eventually still desperately trying to prove Sirius' guilt, "All death eater's have one."
"Not any more," Harry replied with a broad grin, "Voldemort is dead. His body is lying in the street outside the post office. Go see for yourself."
"You did it!" Sirius exclaimed joyfully, leaping from the corner over to where Harry was standing in the centre of the room, "You actually defeated Voldemort?"
Harry's grin got even broader as he confirmed his statement, "Yes," he said, "And my scar's gone too." His exuberant godfather pulled him into a fatherly hug. It only lasted for a few minutes before he transformed into his dog form and ran out of the door and down the street to where Voldemort's body lay. By this time the pub was virtually empty, even Madam Rosmerta had gone to see whether Harry had been telling the truth. In fact only the two Snapes were left now.
"Well done, Seb," Severus said, he was smiling, a look that seemed strange on his pale face, "I'm proud of you." There was more than pride in the look that Severus gave his son; it was filled with love too. It was a look that always made Harry feel tingly and grin stupidly, especially after being denied any love while growing up. Not that Harry needed much affection, like his father he was not a particularly emotional person, but it was nice all the same. It was also affection that Harry returned in spades.
The moment passed all to soon, allowing Severus to escort Wormtail to the ministry using Floo Powder. Harry stood there in silent contemplation for a few moments thinking about was to come.
"It's time." James said from the doorway, startling Harry in the process. He hadn't noticed him standing there.
"You sure about this?" he asked in response. He already knew the answer to this, the look of determination, and happiness on James' face spoke volumes, but it was only polite to ask.
"As sure as I'll ever be." James replied, his voice matching the look on his face.
They both dug a vial of a potion out of their robes. James' turquoise mixture was the only known, permanent de-ageing potion which also affected someone's memories, while Harry's aquamarine concoction was an anti-glamourie potion, mixed in with potion that corrected his magically altered his eye-sight. They drank their potions simultaneously, they both tasted disgusting, and they both worked.
Harry recognised the fifteen-year-old James Potter from the photos he had seen. And as everyone had previously told him Harry Potter did look pretty much identical to his father, except for the eyes of course, but once they were altered no one would be able to tell the difference, except possibly Ron and Hermione. It was personality that was the major concern, he just hoped everybody accepted the more carefree attitude that Harry was bound to have, but apart from that he knew James would be able to play the role of Harry Potter perfectly. Harry on the other hand had more reason for concern, not least how would everyone react to him as the son of their hated Potion's Master. But at least nobody had heard of Sebastian Snape and that everyone knew he, as Sebastian, was his father's son, two things that would make his existence as a Snape far more enjoyable. First, however, he had to inform a thoroughly confused James Potter of his circumstances. That was the only problem with the plan; the potion that had de-aged James by twenty years had also wiped his last twenty years of memories. The boy in front of him wasn't just fifteen years old in body he was fifteen years old in mind too.
"You wouldn't be looking for some glasses would you?" Harry asked, handing James his old glasses, he didn't need them now, but James did. The adult James had worn contact lenses, not glasses, which Harry assumed must have fallen out during his de-ageing.
"Thanks," James said absently, putting them on, "They're perfect, except for the frames."
"Hi," he said once James had taken in his surroundings. Understandably he looked extremely surprised to see himself in the Three Broomsticks considering in his mind he'd been in Hogwarts moments earlier, "I'm Sebastian Snape, son of Severus Snape and Lilly Evans. Welcome to the future." James looked even more surprised.
That's all folk's, except for the trailer for the sequel which will be called Deception of the Redeemed.
Voldemort's dead, Harry Potter is acting strangely, Snape has a son, there's a new student from the past and Something is threatening Slytherin House. So why does no-one seem to care? Can three Slytherin 5th years, set aside their mutual loathing and save their house, with the aid of their girlfriends? Sequel to Redemption of the Deceivers, starring Snape's Son! Harry, Disguised as Harry! James, Draco Malfoy and a mystery Slytherin. Pairings: Harry/Hermione, Draco/Ginny, Cho/??, James/??(Slash Pairing).
Coming sometime between June and Christmas.
Reignbow: I wouldn't classify water as a potion, you don't add magical ingredients together to create it.