AN- I know the last chapter wasn't very good. But I needed it to complete the second day of the potion. As you may have figured out, each day of the potion will last one chapter, and it will end when the potion wears off. (Grins) Oops, I just gave it away... come on, like the title didn't give it away. But all good things come to an end, and now that the days of Harry being an ass are done, I get to go into him getting to know his parents. These are planned, though not as much as the first three, so if you want to see character interaction, tell me!
This is better than the other chapters, because the plot sets in. Voldemort, prophecy... and setting up for two chapters from now, which is pure fluff. ^^ Awww…..
***
~It does not do well do dwell on dreams, and forget to live.
~Do you think the ones we love ever truly leave us?
~Albus Dumbledore
***
At five minutes to midnight, the two groups were the only ones left. And glances between the two were more and more frequent. Finally, Harry stood, and walked over to the group of people all now ignoring everything except for him. He stopped, and looked into the eyes of his parents.
Harry cleared his throat, and tears suddenly streamed down his face. He noticed, however, that it was the same for his mother. And his father... his eyes were close. As midnight struck, Harry finally did what the world was waiting for.
"I... My name is Harry. Harry Potter. I'm... I'm... I'm your... your son."
***
The world stopped. And for a moment in time, Harry realized what love truly was. It was what was before him. It was family, it was something that was finally there. And it was amazing, looking into his mother's eyes, so close to his own—for the first time in real life.
Dumbledore cleared his throat, and Harry blinked. He was too afraid to look away. From behind him, the older man spoke. But the words didn't matter. All that mattered was the ocean of green before him, and the salvation it brought. From fifteen years of suffrage, came now.
Lily nodded, and stood. Fear plagued her son, fear that he would lose them again, if he just broke eye contact. She smiled, and spoke in the voice that he only remembered screaming. "We're going to go somewhere where we can all talk, where we won't be interrupted, alright, Harry?"
He didn't care, as long as he was with them. As he tried to respond, all that came out was a croak. "Yeah, sure."
Harry turned, and darkness came over him, with a fear greater than anything. He didn't want to leave them, leave their comfort, even just to walk with them. But Dumbledore seemed to understand. "We'll be there in a moment, Harry. We're just headed to my office. We'll be there before you know it."
The group walked silently to the office, full of hope and prayer.
Yet they didn't notice the blonde Slytherin take off from the shadows, headed to his common room's fireplace.
***
"So you still have no information for me, Lucius? Even after I free you and your worthless companions from Azkaban, you have nothing for me?" Harry spoke slowly, deliberately, to the man in front of him.
"Master... please... the barriers are created by Dumbledore himself... they will be impossible to cross." Lucius begged.
"Cannot you come up with a better excuse," He began to mock the blonde in an even higher voice. "Dumbledore is strong, and I am a idiot. Dumbledore stands there, so I must bow to him. He is a god. And I follow a fool." The Dark Lord reverted back to his normal voice. "Is that what you say? Are you truly the traitor?"
Lucius trembled violently, as Death Eaters began to Apperate into the room all about him. "Master, no, I am not the traitor, I simply wasn't strong enough, Master, I'm sorry..." Voldemort laughed.
"Crucio," he said, calmly and slowly. The Apperating Death Eaters cringed at Lucius' fate, but all knew that to attempt to stop it would be subjecting themselves to a similar fate.
After what seemed like hours, the Death Eaters had all gathered, and the curse was pulled. Lucius lay, gasping for breath, when Harry finally gave in to the pain in his forehead and screamed.
Voldemort froze, suddenly, and walked quickly over to Lucius, then passed him. Over to a mirror on the wall, the one which Harry had seen long ago in his dreams... and Voldemort's eyes stared back at him, mercilessly. "It seems as though we have a guest, my friends." He spoke, eyes still focused into the mirror. "It seems that Mr. Potter has not yet learned occlumency terribly well."
A short laugh came from the back of the room, and the occupants all spun to meet it. Standing there was a figure, clad in black, who stood in the shadows. Yet her voice gave it away. "Harry Potter has much more to worry about now, then little occlumency lessons," Bellatrix Lestrange spoke from behind the veil covering her face.
Voldemort looked calmly to her, and Harry froze in his mind. Realizing that it was important, the dark Lord gestured for her to continue. Harry screamed, but nothing could be done to stop it.
"Apparently, a few hours ago, Potter entered the Great Hall with the young Weasley girl. And when there, after a few minutes, he walked over to a table with two very curious people..."
***
Harry woke, and flung himself onto the floor as he threw up violently. Tears welled to his eyes, just as fear clung to his throat. He could almost see the Dark Lord still laughing, still staring... and he remembered the reaction he had upon finding out. The Dark Lord hadn't believed... so there was still hope...
He turned over to his side, and threw up again. The red from his eyes still bored into Harry's own, a deep, merciless red; like blood. The ones that haunted his every thought.
Sitting up, he realized that he was not in Griffindor Tower. He was in an unfamiliar room with no real decorations, just a single bed and a small bureau holding a music box, made of a dark mahogany and adorned with a single ruby on the top. Curious, he walked over to the box, and opened it; only to find the back of a worn piece of paper on the bottom with a mirror on the top. His hands found the paper, and flipped it.
The piece of parchment was checked, black and white, obviously drawn with a quill. Harry stopped to marvel at the intricacy it held- to get it this perfect must have taken hours upon hours. However, when he held it, he realized that the white squares weren't perfect—there was a small facet on each of them, in different places. It took another moment for him to realize what it was—the boxes weren't boxes, but hidden letters. He looked closer. In the first box were two tiny smudges in the bottom two corners; a 'T'. Bringing it back to the bed, he began to read the hidden message.
As he worked, he never realized the older man watching him from the door with sad eyes.
***
Dumbledore turned his eyes from the couple before him to the door in the corner, behind which was resting their future son. Harry had entered the room with them, then had fallen into a trance—realizing what it meant and that Lily and James didn't, he moved Harry to his own room and made the decision to explain the truth to Lily and James.
They were quiet through most of the story, from the prophecy to their deaths, to Harry's first year through the summer of his sixth. He was careful not to go into any details (for instance he never told them the prophecy's words or that Sirius had been sent to Azkaban), but what he said was adequate. Dumbledore didn't know how long they would be here, and if they were to revert back to their time in an instant, he didn't want the world as they knew it to end.
Lily leaned back onto her boyfriend with a heavy sigh. Though he had left many things blank, she could infer much from it—the main point being that her son had suffered. Greatly. And there had been no one there to help him. It frustrated her; but she realized that they would be there for him now.
James broke the silence. "So basically, Voldemort's back, and he's after our son?"
"Basically. But Harry has faced him before, remember. More times that any of the three of us have, believe it or not. I trust his power, and his abilities, more than any student I've had besides Tom Riddle himself. In fact, the only thing holding Harry back, in my opinion, was the lack of support he had; he had to do what he did with only the support of his friends"
"But now he has family, to take care of him, and it'll all be better, right Albus?" Lily looked up as she spoke. If she hadn't caught anything else, she had realized that her former Headmaster was avoiding this subject. And when she asked this, he avoided her eyes. Bingo.
The older man looked up in time to see Lily's eyes light up when she asked this question. She, unlike James, had realized that he was hiding something. He raised his hands in defeat. "We don't know the truth, Lily, only that the potion that brought you back was an accident. We have our potion's master," At this point James snorted, and Lily hit him playfully, as though to shut him up. "... we have our potion's master trying to deal out the final details. However, I must warn you... the news may not be good. We should have the answers in two days; he's busy tonight."
"What the hell would Snivilus be doing on a Saturday? Surely he doesn't have any friends to go with, or even worse, a..." James gagged at the thought. "God, too rancid a thought..." Lily punched him again, though this time, not as friendly. He shot her a venomous look as Dumbledore stood.
"I'm going to go and check on Harry, give me a minute."
Though they both wanted to talk to their future son, they knew it best not to argue.
***
Dumbledore was shocked to see Harry awake, but more so to see him with the paper in his hands. He let out a small sigh, and knocked on the wood surrounding the door. Harry looked up, startled, then turned sheepishly red as he lowered his gaze to the paper in his hands. So he hasn't deciphered it yet, thank the lucky stars.
The elder man walked over and sat next to Harry, and placed an arm around him in a paternal way. The green eyes never left the paper. "I told you, Mr. Potter, curiosity is not a sin. And I don't typically go back on my words..."
"I didn't really think, professor, I'm sorry. I just saw the box, and didn't know where I was..." Dumbledore nodded.
"Have you read the message yet? It pertains to you and your current situation fairly well."
Surprised, Harry shook his head. "No, I've only gotten a bit. Only 'There's no such... I can't read the next word... as black and white...'" he trailed off, and Dumbledore took the parchment from Harry's hands. Harry watched as the older man read the paper with concentration, then place it down. Slowly, Harry turned and made his way to the doorway, and to the stairs leading down to the office.
" 'There's no such thing as black and white, merely different shades of gray. Tom Marvolo Riddle, August 6, 1945.'"
He stopped at the doorway, and couldn't bring himself to turn around. The headmaster continued. "August sixth of that year... do you know what happened, Mr. Potter?"
"Well... wasn't that the day that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan?" Dumbledore nodded, then gestured to continue. "And then, three days later on August ninth, the US dropped the second one?" Another nod. "People say it was the end of the war..."
At this point, Dumbledore raised a hand, and spoke in a hollow voice.
"The muggle war was only the outlet of our war against Grindelwald. It was on these three days that Grindlewald and I battled our three-day battle that ended the war. But that isn't the point, now is it, Mr. Potter? No... I suppose not. Tom Riddle had just finished his seventh year, just graduated, and had no job that I knew of at the time. Both of us had grown a mutual distrust for the other since the chamber's opening. And finally, the day came that we had been planning. When one of the earlier Order of the Pheonix's had the ability to end this war. I sat in my room that morning, and a letter came in. Afraid it was canceling the operation, I opened it instantly. But it was just a small letter, and this." He held up the checkered sheet carelessly. "I opened the letter, not understanding why anyone would send me a checkered sheet at this time. Upon it was a single sentence, that I'll never forget. All it said was 'When one serpent is destroyed, a stronger one will replace it, and carry on its place.' I looked at the paper, and read the message, not understanding. And I went to Grindlewald's palace, and we fought for three straight days. And when I laid the final blow upon him, I heard that same saying, about the serpent. I looked up, to the hill above us, and saw Riddle... but he was no longer Riddle. He was Voldemort by this time. And I knew. Both of us did."
Harry looked to the paper in the headmaster's hand, and shook his head. "Professor, that is a grand story, but what does it have to do with me, and my parents?"
Dumbledore smiled wistfully. "When you love someone, you forget who they truly are. You open the world for them. And you close your own. Then if something happens, your life is still closed to them..."
Anger flooded to Harry's mind. "My parents are nothing like Voldemort, Professor! And you never loved him like I love them! You even said you distrusted him. So don't you dare compare them!" With that, Harry flew down the stairs to his waiting parents.
Dumbledore leaned back, and looked into the checkered pattern before him. "You tried to warn me, Tom... tried to help me save you. Tried to help me save the only person I'd even considered family, the closest thing I had to a son, and the closest thing you had to a father. I wish I'd never gone that night, Tom. Then maybe we'd both have been saved."
***
Harry rushed into the office, and grabbed his father's arm. "Come on, I need to talk to you both. Let's go take a walk."
Stealing a quick glance to Lily, James complied, and Lily followed suit. The three of them walked quickly down to the school entrance, then out to the grounds, wordlessly. Only when they reached the lakeside did Harry collapse down beneath the same tree that James and the other Marauders had hung out beneath in Snape's pensieve.
The three of them sat in a small circle, and Harry leaned back on the tree's trunk, lost in thought. "So how much did Dumbledore tell you?"
"Just that Voldemort was after us, and Peter was our secret keeper; that we were killed, and you went to live with my sister. That you came into Hogwarts, and ended up facing the Dark Lord numerous times, and last year, you witnessed the death of someone special to you..." Lily's voice trailed off, seeing a sudden rush of pain in her son's eyes.
Harry snapped unconsciously, trying to block out the pervious year's memories. "So you know nothing, then?" Silence followed, and Harry closed his eyes. "Well if you two are going to be here with me, then you'd better know the truth..." He didn't notice the glance between his parents, wondering whether or not to tell Harry that they may not be with him for much longer. But they both could see the pain in his eyes, and that he needed to talk about everything. They nodded.
"From the time I can remember to when I went to Hogwarts, I lived with Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and Dudley. They treated me like I wasn't their family... but at least I had a home. I got my letter, and they weren't to happy, to say the least. But Hagrid came, and they didn't have much choice. I went on the train, and made immediate friends with Ron Weasley." Harry smiled in the memory, and Lily looked lovingly to James. Harry's voice was coming easier, and he was beginning to smile. To top it off, he was talking faster, and rushing, as though talking at a dinner table about his day. "We were sorted into Griffindor together, but Mom, Dad... the hat wanted to put me into Sytherin! The only reason it didn't was because I asked it to, because I met Draco Malfoy in Diagon Alley a few days before, and didn't like his attitude. So we eventually made friends with Hermione Granger, another first year Griffindor, because we saved her from a Troll!"
James snickered at the sudden look of horror on Lily's face. Harry, who was getting into the story, didn't notice. He's waited so long to tell someone, and now he could- people who actually wanted to hear his stories.
"Well, the year went on. And Professor Snape, he hated me. Because of you, it turns out." This time James began to laugh hysterically. Lily gaped, and turned to James. "What the hell did you do to him for that?" James couldn't answer because of the giggles, and Harry smiled. He could see why Snape hated the man before him- it was definitely mutual. "Sometime in all this, though, before the troll I think, Snape saved my life, though." It was Lily's turn to look triumphant, and James stopped giggling.
"We were in the Griffindor vs. Slytherin quidditch match, and I was falling off my broom because someone was cursing me, and Snape..."
"Wait!" James yelled, causing a window to slam from the general direction of the school. Lily smiled, believing her husband to finally realize that their son was in general danger, when he burst out, "You played quidditch your first year?!" Lily coughed suddenly, and moved to hit James, who wasn't paying attention; his face too full of pride.
"Yeah, Malfoy stole Neville Longbottom's rememberall during flying lessons, and I went up and caught it. McGonagall saw me, and put me on the team as our seeker." James beamed with pride, and Lily shook her head, giving up. "And so Snape saved my life. School went on, and at the end of the year, we ended up going after someone trying to steal the sorcerer's stone under the school. Hermione and Ron solved some of the locking puzzles, and both sacrificed to help me. I went alone, and eventually came across our Defense teacher, Quirrel, and he was trying to steal the stone for Voldemort! Voldemort was actually possessing him, and we spoke for the first time, and I got the stone and Voldemort tried to attack and kill me, but he couldn't touch me because of your love, mum..."
Lily looked abashed. "So when I died, I left a protection on you, and it made it so Voldemort couldn't kill you?" Harry nodded. "God... Harry..."
"So we won that, and I went home for the summer..."
"How were your grades, Harry?" Lily interrupted. James laughed.
"He played quidditch as a first year, Lil, it's okay for him to get bad grades..." Lily's now-common glare followed, and James looked down. But when she looked away, Harry could have sworn he saw his father wink at him.
"The were okay, I'm ranked #23 in my class, which isn't bad. Hermione is number one, and it pissed Malfoy off that a muggle born can be the best. But anyway, when I was at the Dursley's for the summer, a house-elf came and warned me not to go back to Hogwarts. I refused, and Ron and his brothers came and got me and took me to their place for the rest of the summer." He shook his head gently, hoping his parents wouldn't see that he glossed over the parts that made his mother's sister look bad. He had pity from the world; he didn't need it from his parents. "When we went back to school, the chamber of secrets was opened again. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time once too many times, and then to top it off, people found out that I'm a parselmouth." He ignored the sudden straitening of his parent's mouths. "But then Hermione was attacked, and Ron and I ended up going down to the Chamber when Ginny Weasley, his sister, was taken down there. Dumbledore was gone, so we had no real choice. Ron and I got separated, and I found Ginny with a boy standing with her. It was Tom Riddle... Voldemort's past form." He explained, seeing his parent's vacant expressions.
"I fought him and the basilisk, and it turned out that he'd been possessing Ginny all year though a diary she had. I won, and we went back." Once again, he left out the sword, because he didn't feel like wasting time and answering questions. "And another year passed. This time, though, a convict was after me. A convict with the name of Sirius Black."
James snorted, and shook his head at the thought of his best friend as a criminal. Lily, ever the observer, noticed a small glint of tears in Harry's eyes after saying the name. But catching onto his lack of answers, she felt it better to ignore and pretend she didn't see them.
"All year, he kept coming to Hogwarts, apparently to kill me. He..." James interrupted swiftly.
"Harry, Sirius Black is my best friend, your godfather; he'd never hurt you. He couldn't hurt a fly."
Harry shook his head. "Please, just listen... he was wrongfully imprisoned in Azkaban, because people thought he was your secret keeper. They thought you betrayed him. No one knew otherwise, but Pettigrew, who was hiding in his animagi form as Ron's pet. He escaped Azkaban, and even Remus Lupin, our defense teacher, believed him guilty. At the end of the year, we all faced each other, and they explained the truth. But Pettigrew escaped, and Sirius barely escaped with his life. So ended another year."
Harry stopped, and looked out to the lake. This time, even James knew Harry was delaying. "What about your fourth and fifth years, Harry?"
Slowly, Harry turned his glance to his father. "I rally don't want to get into it, so I'll give you the abridged version. Go to Dumbledore or Lupin if you want to know the details."
"A dark mark shown in the sky the night after the quidditch world cup started it all. Then the Triwizard Tournament was played at Hogwarts, and I was chosen as the fourth champion; a Death Eater hiding as our defense teacher ensured it. I was doing well, but all around the world, disappearances were occurring. When the third task happened, the other champion and I took the cup together. It was a portkey. We were taken to a graveyard, where he was killed and my blood was used to resurrect Voldemort. We dueled, and because our wands share a core, priori incantem occurred, or the reverse spell effect. You all came out of his wand, and blocked his vision as I ran. The minister didn't believe me, but Dumbledore stared up the Order of the Phoenix again. I went home."
James opened his mouth, but Harry stopped him. "I told you, I can't say it all again... ask Dumbledore. Let me just finish, please..."
"...and so when I was attacked by Dementors the next summer, the order brought me in." He left out the bit about the trial; it was irrelevant for the point at hand. "I lived with Sirius and my friends until school started. No one believed me, and so I kept close to my friends. The defense teacher was put in place to ensure that I didn't spread 'rumors' as they called them, so she took it upon herself to make my life miserable. I was banned from quidditch. Hagrid was eventually fired. And then, right before Christmas, I had a vision of Voldemort possessing a snake and poisoning Mr. Weasley. Except I was the snake... so everyone thought he possessed me. Snape started teaching me occlumency, and it never really worked. McGonagall was hurt and taken to St. Mungo's, Azkaban was broken open, and Dumbledore was forced out of Hogwarts... there was no one to turn to when it happened. Voldemort sent me a vision of himself torturing Sirius in the Department of Mysteries... and so I went there with Ron and Hermione, and Ginny, Neville Longbottom, and Luna Lovegood; three people from an illegal defense against the dark arts club that I formed. It turned out that he was luring me to the department to retrieve the prophecy I'm sure that Dumbledore told you about... we fought the Death Eaters, and Sirius came to help me with the rest of the Order, and he started to fight Bellatrix Lestrange, and then..." Harry stopped, choked, and started again. "And then..."
He couldn't do it, couldn't bring himself to say it. Finally, he stood, and gestured for his parents to follow. He walked to the willow, pushed aside the branches, and pointed; all before walking back to the school.
With a worried face, the two looked down to the headstone, and froze. Lily's eyes widened, and James fell over backwards and let out a long cry.
Dumbledore, who had been watching from the first word from the willow tree, shook his head, allowing the wind to wipe a tear from his eye.
***
Harry ran until he couldn't any longer, and he fell winded onto his stomach. Tears matched the dew upon his eyelids, and he raised his eyes to see the stars all above him in the glorious sunset. It was beautiful.
A small snake in the bushed caught Harry's attention, and he called for it to leave him alone in parseltongue. The snake obliged, and turned away from the grieving boy.
Voldemort slithered away, laughing at the irony of the situation.