All Good Things

Part 5: A Little More Conversation

By Kyizi

This part is set in Harry's final year at Hogwarts, Ginny's second last year.

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Disclaimer: These wonderful characters do not belong to me, they are the property of J.K. Rowling, I'm only playing with them for a while, the only thing that's mine is this story.

Rating: PG-13 for innuendo.

Pairing: Harry/Ginny

Distribution: Ask and I'll likely say yes, but please do ask.

Spoilers: All four books will, no doubt come into this at some point.

Feedback: is a precious gift. It's nice to give ;)

E-mail: kyizi@hotmail.com

Notes: I am so sorry about the wait this time! I want to warn you, I've been doped up on Draco/Ginny, so if Harry randomly turns into Draco during this, SORRY! ;-p

Notes 2: I'm sorry this took so long to update, but this was difficult to get into, however, I'm sure you'll see that when I got started it just kept on coming. This is the longest chapter to date (although only slightly!). I hope you enjoy!

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The room was silent for what seemed like a long time. The four of them continued to stare at Harry's parents in complete awe and Ginny was sure it would have continued that way if Harry's father hadn't broken the silence.

"Well, I never thought I'd see the day that Sirius Black was at a loss for words."

Sirius laughed and Ginny was sure she could almost see the youth returning to his face. "Well, I think that given the circumstances, I'm well within my rights."

"You got old," James said with a smirk and Sirius was about to reply when Lily gasped. When they had appeared, both James and Lily's attentions had been on Sirius and Dumbledore, but it now seemed that Lily had spotted her son.

"It can't be," she said, her hand over her mouth. "That can't be my Harry."

James turned to look at his son and his eyes widened. "Harry?"

Ginny turned to look at Harry, but he didn't seem to register that she was still there, in fact he seemed unable to do anything. He was ghostly white and tears were making their way down his cheeks, but still he didn't move. She placed a hand on his and he grasped at it, but his vision remained fixed on his parents.

James tore his eyes away from his son and looked at Sirius. "It didn't work, did it? We weren't able to hide from Voldemort."

Sirius swallowed hard and shook his head. "No," he said, but he spoke so softly Ginny wasn't sure if he actually said anything at all.

"They didn't find you, did they? They didn't torture you to find out where we were?"

Sirius closed his eyes. "I only wish they had. Then you'd be safe." James nodded, but his confusion was evident. He placed his arms around Lily, who was still staring at Harry in shock.

"Our little boy's all grown up," she said, starting to cry softly. She turned to their old friend. "You did a good gob, Sirius."

Sirius shook his head. "I didn't do anything, I only wish I could have."

Lily frowned. "I don't understand."

"I know and I'm sorry."

"Where's Remus?" James asked, looking around the room. "And what about Peter? Is he all right?"

"He killed you!" Harry shouted suddenly, and everyone jumped. "He was the one that betrayed you! He took you away from me and he took Sirius away from me!"

Lily and James looked shocked. They turned to Sirius but he seemed unable to say anything and it was Dumbledore that finally nodded, confirming what Harry had said.

"I don't understand, Sir," James said, looking at his son's Godfather. "What happened?"

Sirius took a few deep breaths. "Peter betrayed us, James. He was in league with Voldemort."

"No!" Lily gasped. "I-I can't believe it. Not Peter."

"I'm afraid it's true," Dumbledore interjected. "I can see there is some explaining required, perhaps we should all sit down."

Dumbledore and Sirius sat on the couch Dumbledore conjured by the fire, as Harry joined Ginny on the couch, not letting go of her hand. She smiled and tugged him a little closer, and he squeezed her hand.

James and Lily walked around the couch and sat in the large armchair opposite them, and it was then that Ginny noticed they were solid. She had assumed they would be some form of projection, some ghostly image before them, but they actually looked as if they were real.

They spent about an hour explaining the turn of events to Lily and James, who both still seemed utterly shocked at their betrayal by one of their most trusted friends. Dumbledore had left for a while as Sirius explained most of the story from the beginning, but had returned to explain his part in leaving Harry with the Dursleys.

"My sister?" Lily asked, incredulously. "Harry was raised by Petunia?"

Dumbledore nodded. "She was his only surviving family and I believe that being raised by Muggles was in Harry's best interests. It would not do to have someone so famous raised to believe that he was the best thing since Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans."

Lily nodded slowly, but James still looked a little furious that Harry had been raised by his sister-in-law. They had obviously been introduced at some point, Ginny realised.

The story continued and still Harry sat in silence. They reached his life at Hogwarts and finally had brought the Potters up to date with everything, including the Tri-Wizard Tournament, which James was as proud of as Lily was as angered by.

"He could have been killed!"

"He was great," Ginny said, speaking for the first time. She smiled. "I was terrified watching him, but he passed all the tests so well. Especially the dragon."

"Dragon!" Lily all but yelped. "My son had to fight a dragon?" She turned to Sirius with a frown. "I'm not sure how, but this is your fault."

"What?" Sirius asked incredulously, half a smile playing on his face. "How is it my fault? I had nothing to do with it!"

"I just said I didn't know how it was your fault. But it was."

"Well, that's not fair."

"It was always your fault, Sir," James said with a twinkle in his eyes. "Remember that."

"I object. You're putting a black mark on my character here!"

"Insulting your ego more like," Lily finished with a smile.

"Harry, Ginny, don't listen to a word she says. It was always Remus' fault!"

"Well, I object to that."

They all turned to see Remus Lupin entering the room. Sirius laughed as he rose to greet his friend. They hugged quickly as Remus walked cautiously towards Lily and James. He smiled softly before turning to Dumbledore.

"Apologies for my lateness. Your owl…caught me by surprise, to say the least." He turned to Lily and James again. "I might have known you'd find some extremely complicated way to keep your information, but really," Remus smirked. "A Compu-Crystal? That's a little excessive, even for you."

"Well, I thought it was rather amusing," James said with a smile. "After all, might as well make at least one crystal ball that works."

"Hey!" Lily said, smacking his arm. "Divination is a perfectly plausible form of magic, just because you can't tell the difference between tea leaves and a dirty cup doesn't mean that it isn't real."

Ginny glared at Sirius as he started laughing, a twinkle in his eyes as he looked at her. She chose to ignore him, instead turning to Harry. "See, Harry, I told you! There's nothing wrong with Divination!"

Again, Harry said nothing and that was when it seemed to strike everyone that he had remained completely silent since the crystal had been activated. Lily and James exchanged a glance before rising and walking toward him. Ginny felt as if she should leave, but Harry's grip on her hand tightened. Lily and James reached them and crouched before their son, each placing a hand on one of his knees.


"Harry?" Lily said, softly, but again he didn't  reply. She glanced at James who gave her a reassuring look.

"Harry," James said softly. "It's okay to be upset."

"I'm fine," Harry finally said, his gaze remaining down cast. He spoke so quietly that Ginny felt her heart break. "I just…" he looked at his parents, fresh tears in his eyes. "You're not real."

Lily looked away and James sighed. "Not completely, but in a sense, we are real, Harry. I'm not saying that we're flesh and blood, because we're not, but we are real entities. We exist, we are your parents and we love you very much."

Lily smiled and turned back to her son. "We're like memories, Harry. But we can think and act for ourselves. I-I'm not sure how to explain it."

"That's be a first," James teased and she mock glared at him.

"Think of it this way," she said turning back to her son. "If you could take a copy of yourself as you are at this moment in time, and put it in a box, then close that box up, that's what the Compu-Crystal did with us. The Crystal is the device that will kill Voldemort but we always knew it would take a part of ourselves to make it work. Or in this case, all of ourselves. I'm not explaining this very well, am I?" Lily said with a frown and Harry smiled.

"Let me see if I can word it right."

"That'd be a first," Lily said with a smile.

"Vixen." James laughed. "I assume you play Quidditch."

Harry smiled. "Since first year."

"First year?" James asked, his face breaking into a huge grin. "They let you on the team in first year?" Harry nodded. "What position do you play?"

"Seeker."

"Seeker?" James asked with a smile. "Incredible. I always wanted to play Seeker, but I wasn't built for it. I grew too quickly. Luckily, I made one hell of a Chaser. Don't think I could have survived if I hadn't made the team."

Harry nodded, knowing exactly what his father meant and Ginny smiled. He finally seemed to be relaxing a little. She looked at Harry's mother to find her eyes locking with Lily's green ones. She almost felt like she was looking at Harry's eyes, only the soul behind them was different. Lily was regarding her with a small smile and a curious gaze. Ginny felt her cheeks redden, but she couldn't pull her eyes away.

"Okay," James continued. "Voldemort is after the Snitch right?" Harry nodded. "Well, your mother and I were the opposing Seekers, in a way. We had to get to the Snitch before he did. Actually, we already had the Snitch, we just had to protect it. The Crystal is like a Bludger, it packs one hell of a…"

"James! Watch your language!"

"Lily, he's fifteen."

"I don't care how old he is, you will not curse in front of our son."

"Yes, dear," James said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

"And you can stop your laughing as well, Sirius Black." She said, not even turning around.

Sirius stopped snickering. "I wasn't laughing!"

"There's no point, Sir," James said with a smile. "Eyes in the back of her head, remember."

"Yeah," Sirius said, "but why does she never say anything to Remus?"

"Because," Lily said, turning to face him. "I like Remus." She smiled and laughed.

"You're lucky I know you're joking, Lily Potter." Sirius smiled. "We all know the only reason you married James was because I turned you down."

Lily laughed again. "You keep telling yourself that, Sirius."

"Anyway," James said, shaking his head. "Right, the crystal is the Bludger it packs one…it packs a punch, the one punch that will knock Voldemort off his broom and make him hit the ground so hard it'd kill him. So I guess, we're the Beaters as well. Sirius, Remus and…well…and we thought, Peter," James looked down, the betrayal of his friend still stinging. "Well, they were the chasers. They had to keep scoring small points until the bludger hit and the snitch was safe. In fact, the whole resistance were chasers, Sirius and Remus were just the star players."

"I think I object to being compared to a Quidditch player."

"You're not the only one, Remus," Lily said with a smile.

"Anyway," James said, shaking his head again. "Did that make any more sense?"

Harry nodded. "It made sense as to why you made the Crystal, but not why you're in it."

"What better way to understand your own notes than if you're explaining it to yourself in your own words." Harry nodded. "Only thing we didn't bargain on was he fact that the copies would actually be us."

"I still don't understand," Sirius said softly. "Are you real?" The longing in his voice made Ginny's heart contract. He, like Harry and everyone else in the room, wanted nothing more than for James and Lily to really be alive.

"Not quite, Sirius," Lily said sadly. "I feel alive, I really do, but I know I'm not. I don't need to breathe, I don't need to eat of drink, and if Harry and Ginny go too far away from the Crystal, it will lose power and we'll shut down, just like they can turn us off by shutting down the Crystal at will." She looked at her son and then at her husband and their friends. "But I can feel, and I can love. So in that respect, yes, Sirius, we're real."

For Harry that seemed to be enough, and he threw his arms around his mother in the same way he'd always wanted to. Lily hugged him to her and James put his arms around them both.

"I'm so sorry we weren't there to see you grow up, Harry," Lily said into his hair. "But I am so proud of the young man I can see in you."

"And so am I," James said, placing a kiss on Lily's forehead.

It was a little while before anyone felt the need to continue, with their discussion about the war, and when the subject arose, a loud yawn from Ginny said it all. They all laughed and Ginny blushed.

"It is rather late," Dumbledore said with an indulgent smile. "Perhaps we had best continue this in the morning." There was a consensus of nods and Dumbledore stood. "Remus, Sirius, I believe it would be for the best if you were to remain in the castle, but please, Sirius, do not stray from your room unless I give you permission. It would not do for certain people to see you, even in your dog form."

Ginny knew he was referring to Professor Snape, having heard the whole story of what happened two years ago. Sirius nodded, but he didn't look too happy about it.

"I will arrange for a room for you both." He stood and walked to his door, where a house elf appeared, and Dumbledore began to relay his instructions.

"Can I ask one more question?" Harry asked, and his parents nodded. "You said that Voldemort was after the Snitch and it was your job to protect it. What is the snitch?" Harry frowned as his parents glanced at Sirius and Remus who both nodded.

"I think it's time he knew," Sirius said.

Lily nodded and James smiled, turning to face him. "You're the snitch, Harry, and it's our job to keep you safe."

When Harry looked as if he was going to ask more, Lily shook her head. "It's late, Harry, and there will be plenty of time for answers tomorrow, I promise."

Harry slowly nodded. "Okay."

There was a short silence before James tapped Harry's knee. "So," he said, glancing at Ginny. "I have one more question to ask before we call it a night." His smile turned to a smirk and Ginny wanted to hide, sure she knew what was coming. "Who's this lovely red head you've been holding on to all night, Harry?"

Ginny felt her cheeks redden, and risking a glance at Harry, she could see he wasn't fairing much better.

"James!" Lily smacked his arm with an indulgent smile. "Leave him alone." She looked at them briefly. "Besides, you know who she is. I told you she would be born."

James rolled his eyes. "Not this divination nonsense again."

"It's not nonsense!" Ginny and Lily said together, and the others laughed.

"You've got your hands full with this one, Harry," James said with a wink.

"You have no idea," Sirius laughed.

"I believe the arrangement have been made," Dumbledore said, joining them again. "Tilly will show you to your room," he said, indicating the trembling house elf by the doorway. "She will, however, take you through the back route."

Sirius and Remus nodded, and said their goodbyes, and Ginny noted that Sirius had yet to actually approach James or Lily. He smiled hesitantly at them before following Remus and Tilly out a back entrance that Ginny had never noticed before. It sprouted out from behind a large tapestry of Hogwarts that was half hidden behind the wall in Dumbledore's library.

Harry turned to his parents and smiled unsurely. Lily reached out and pulled him into a hug as James winked at Ginny over his wife's shoulder. When Harry hugged his father, Ginny was shocked as Lily pulled her into an embrace.

"He needs you, Ginny," she whispered. "Don't let him go."

"I won't," Ginny vowed, and she knew that it was true. She wouldn't let Harry go, not ever.

When she pulled back, she was happy to see that Harry was smiling at her. She reached out and picked up the Crystal from the table, holding it out to Harry, who suddenly looked hesitant again.

"It's okay, Harry," his mother said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "We'll still be here in the morning."

Harry smiled and reached out a hand towards Ginny. "Goodnight, mum, goodnight, dad," he said, and Ginny could tell he liked saying the words.

"Goodnight, Harry," Lily replied.

"Night, Har," his father said, and Harry smiled, finally placing his hand over Ginny's. There was another brilliant flash of light and when their vision cleared, Lily and James were gone.

Ginny looked at Harry, who looked lost. She took the Crystal with her free hand, turning the other one around in his, and holding onto him. "They'll be there in the morning, Harry," she said softly and Harry smiled at her.

"They really will, won't they?" Ginny nodded and they turned to face the headmaster.

Dumbledore smiled. "I will inform the staff that neither of you will be attending class tomorrow. Get some sleep, and I will see you here after lunch."

Harry and Ginny nodded, feeling more tired than they had realised. They moved to the door, stopping only when Dumbledore continued. "However, please inform Mr Weasley and Miss Granger that the same does not apply to them. They will be attending classes tomorrow."

When Harry and Ginny turned and looked at him with equal confusion, Dumbledore chuckled. "I believe you will find them under you invisibility cloak at the bottom of my stairwell, Mr Potter."

Ginny laughed and shook her head. Ron never could stand being left out. They bid Dumbledore farewell and exited the room. Ginny wasn't sure how she was still functioning after all the surprises they had had that evening. She knew that the time had come to fill in Hermione and Ron, and she knew that things were only going to get harder as they progressed, but as she glanced at Harry, she knew she wouldn't have things any other way.

He coughed her smiling at him and grinned, squeezing her hand. Ginny realised there was one thing she didn't know, and she resolved to ask Lily why she was involved, ignoring the small voice in her head that was telling her she already knew.

As they reached the bottom of the stairway, Ron and Hermione greeted them as they pulled off the invisibility cloak, demanding answers, and Ginny sighed. However much had happened that evening, there was one thing that she was certain of. Their journey was far from over.

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End of Part Five

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Yes, I made James Chaser. To my memory, his position has never been clarified in the books, and I just liked it better this way.

Please leave feedback and let me know what you thought and look out for Part Six, which I hope should be written soon :)