Responses:

Eleena Thea: I'm glad!!!  Keep reading!

Ginnygal189: I already have the prologue and 2 and a half chapters but its not about Harry and James bonding.  I have decided that right now, with where my writing is, I cannot continue this story without seriously losing the plot. 

Person: hello, person.  I'm glad you love this story and The Secrets we keep!  I will keep that one up eventually, with the release of OotP I have a few things that I need to work out, but don't worry, I will.

Alli: Don't be sad that the story is almost over, if a story goes on and on and on then it gets old and you don't love it as much anymore.  I would like to continue writing this story, focusing on this people, but I feel like I can't without seriously losing the plot, as already stated.  I am doing a sequel, don't worry, and I'm in the process of writing it now.  I'm very glad that this story is the one your into, you're one of my favorite reviewers! ;)  I hope this chapter lives up to the standard you have set.

Lily-pad: I just realized that I had reviewed your story. LOL, I'm slow.  I'm glad you like it.

Elfmoon87: The twists the turns the turmoil!

Jessi Black: Another favorite reviewer!  I am going to go ahead with the sequel because it is fresh in my mind and I wan to.  Haha, okay, just stating.  Don't worry! 

A Little Note:  Here it is everyone, the last chapter.  I have finally finished a fic.  This is my first ever complete fic. I'm so proud yet so sad.  I'm proud because I am actually happy with the way I ended this and I hope that you like it.  But I'm sad because it means that this is over.  Oh well, there's a sequel following Sirius on the last two days of his free life.  It is intertwined with this story though you don't have to read this one to understand the other one.  Sequel information will hopefully be available tomorrow.

Rating: PG-13…. Because

Chapter Seven- The End of Then

            Harry was never quite sure what woke him up from his faint, for the pain that seared his head that morning began a few moments later.  His aunt and uncle had the decency to put him back in bed, but that was about it.  They had left him unattended, shivering in his faint, crying out every so often about someone names James or Remus.  But they didn't care, so long as they received a nice long beauty rest.

Harry grabbed his glasses from his night stand that he had never bothered to put on during his spell that night.  He shoved them over his nose, the room came into focus only to have it blurred again by the searing pain that hit him at that moment.  It was sharp and his he reached up to the scar to make sure that it hadn't split open again and began to bleed at the shear white hot pain.  He shoved his fist into his mouth to stop from screaming and let out a low moan of pain instead.  Someone was opening his door, he began to breathe deeply and uncontrollably, someone was talking to him, he heaved in a breath feeling a sharp pain now in his chest. 

            "Are you sick?  I'm getting my mum," Dudley said harshly. 

            Harry opened his eyes fleetingly before responding, "No, Dudley its alright."  His voice was barely audible through the harsh gasps that Harry was breathing in.

            "What are you talking about, is that man dead?" his voice was shaking, he was terrified, but even though he hated Harry with every ounce of his fat body, he couldn't let him, die.  He had a heart, no matter how small.  And he had never quite recovered from his bout with the dementors last year, he was shaky and hardly ever happy.  His friends had left him, called him nutters, and moved on.

            "No," Harry's voice was far off and didn't sound like his own.  This had only happened to him twice before.  "Voldemort's angry, very furious with someone because he got away.  He transformed into a werewolf, it's the full moon, they forgot.  Something about the house keeping him a man until he was ready.  Odd."

            "You're raving, I'm getting mum," Dudley said shakily.  Harry didn't do anything, he put his head against the wall and sighed. He had finally begun to breathe normally again, James wasn't dead, he was okay, and Voldemort was mad.  Very mad, it seemed, even more, if that was possible, then last year when his plans to steal the 'weapon' had been thwarted once again.  Something had gone horribly wrong and it seemed that finally he was about to be defeated.

Harry watched the fan spin round as Dudley left the room.  Harry didn't know whether or not Dudley had gone to get his parents, they never came in and Harry was very grateful.  His father was okay, but something seemed to be wide of the mark, something wasn't fitting.  He knew, that now, things would never be the same, things had gone horribly wrong.

***

            James awoke that morning lying among pine needles and sharp pointed leaves. Sunlight poured over him through the branches of the forest and a tall handsome stag was licking his knee of blood he had acquired the night before.  It took a moment to register before he shot up and realized what had happened.  He looked around, felt his nose and mouth, there was no blood on it, he hadn't killed last night.  He looked down at his knee and wiped away the blood.  More spilled out of a deep gash and he tore off a strip of his cloak and wrapped it tightly around the gash.  He lifted up on his knees and winced with pain.  The stag had long since ran away.

            "Harry," James whispered. 

            A deep, pleasant voice came from a tree somewhere over to the left, "Is safe at his aunt and uncle's house."

            James breathed deeply in relief, "Dumbledore?"

            "Yes, James.  I came over as soon as I received a very interesting letter from Petunia Dursley," he said calmly.

            "That hag that's Lily's sister?" James said shocked. 

            Dumbledore looked at him sternly for a moment, "Yes, James.  But I would wish that you would put such things behind you, we are all going to have to be united now."

            James smiled, "I know.  Sir, I saw Harry back at the Riddle house, how did he get away?"

            "Harry," Dumbledore began, his white beard glimmering, "was never at the Riddle house to begin with.  Voldemort had no way of retrieving him from his aunt and uncle's and I had had sense enough not to let him come visit you right away.  It was a bluff, a memory.  Tom is a very powerful wizard, sometimes I fear, more powerful than I, but his weaknesses, it seems, are many. 

            "He reflected the Harry of your nightmares onto the floor in front of you, only you could see him and his Death Eaters played along," Dumbledore picked a flower that was growing at his feet, smelled it, and then laid it down sideways onto the ground, it was a lily.

            "I saw them," James said simply, not taking his slightly yellow eyes off the lily.

            Dumbledore adverted his gaze from the lily, "Who?"  He didn't know about the memories.

            "Lily, Remus, and Sirius," James said, looking down at his feet.  Dumbledore blinked, being sure that he had heard correctly.  "They were memories too, reflected onto the house, the next best thing to bringing them back to life."

            Dumbledore nodded, "Yes, that house, is, is extraordinary.  It amazing me at the worst of times."

            "When can I see Harry, sir?" James asked.  "Now sounds really good, I must say."

            The old professor nodded, "Yes, now would be alright I suppose."  And with a flick of a wand, the clearing and the trees disappeared from around them and  were replaced by the rows of identical houses that was Privet Drive.  "Well, here we are."

            A wide, sad smile spread across his face, "Yes, here we are.  After you, Professor."

            Dumbledore walked forward and rang the doorbell, "Interesting muggle contraption, isn't it?"  He stood next to James and they waited.  They heard a thundering step as someone came to the door, it was Uncle Vernon. 

            He stopped dead in his tracks, "Don't come near me and my wife.  We know you're a murderer!"  He pointed at Dumbledore.

            James stepped forward, "He's no murderer… and all I want is to see my son!"

            "You're son?" Vernon spat.  Dumbledore stood back a little as Mrs. Number Seven looked out her window.  He waved his wand silently under his robe and she turned away. 

            James took another step forward, "Yes, I want to see Harry." 

Suddenly a voice came from the hall, "Dumbledore?"  Harry had caught sight of Dumbledore's beard outside his window. 

James smiled as Harry's gaze moved from his old, growing older by the day, professor and then, him.

"Dad," Harry said, rubbing his eyes in disbelief.  "What are you doing here?  I thought that you were dead."

Dumbledore and James both looked at Uncle Vernon who backed away, taking the warning, "No, I didn't die.  I escaped."  And Harry strode forward in three steps and embraced his father for the first time in fifteen years. 

James let go and looked into Harry's eyes, Lily's eyes, "Sirius says hello and your mother sends her love."  It took a moment to register and James let out a laugh at Harry's look.  Dumbledore suddenly appeared at their side, Harry hadn't even realized that he was gone. 

"Better be going," he had Harry's trunk in his hands.  And they walked out to the street, Harry hardly turning to wave a small goodbye to the shocked looking people he called relatives.  Bang!  It was the Knight Bus.  They clambered aboard, enduring the usual comments from Stan and sat on one of the poufy armchairs.  And though Harry knew that something was still not right, he understood that he was no longer alone.  He was going to go see his best friends and to top it off, his dad was with him.  Harry's euphoria would last him the rest of the summer and his father began to catch up on fifteen years worth of parenting.  And Harry, though annoyed occasionally with his dad's ranting, he was just glad to have a father back. 

One night, while visiting the Weasley's near the end of August, Harry went up to bed early. He had climbed into the pallet that was set up on the floor for him and looked up into a star constellation that he had always had a special place for.  The moonlight and starlight embraced him, covered him, blanketed him it seemed in protection.  And just as his eyelids began to droop he looked up and could have sworn that he saw three figures standing above him.  One with flaming red hair and vivid green eyes, another with black shoulder length hair and pale eyes, and the third who looked exactly like Harry. 

((with love from Sirius, his sheep, and Lu))