Title: Harry Potter And The Return Of The Marauders
Pairings: JP/LE
Rating: R
Parts: 13/?
Warnings: Post-OOTP, has spoilers. Do not read if you haven't read the 5th book! Also has Child Abuse and Rape
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns all the original Harry Potter characters and settings. Everything not owned by her is mine.
Summary: AU – Harry's Parents come back with Sirius. A few surprises, with new powers, new romances and new problems.
Key: "…" – Talking
'…' – Thinking
… Parseltongue
… Phoenix
Authors Note: Well. Only a few more chapters left.
Chapter Thirteen – Cure, Results, And A Surprise
The Shrieking Shack
Three men sat around an old dusty room. Even though only one was a werewolf, the other two were there for moral support. One of the men, with messy black hair and glasses, was arguing with the other dark haired man. The third man was simply watching in amusement.
"I can't unlock the door, Paddy! I don't know the counter curse for it! If I did, I'd unlock it!" exclaimed James.
"Well, bloody hell, why would they want to keep us here anyway?! It's boring. Remus! Do something. Pleeeaaase!" begged Sirius.
"Actually, I don't think I will. I think I know why it's locked. But-" Remus was cut off as the full moon rose. With a pop, his two friends became a stag and a grim-like dog.
Even though the Wolfbane potion dulled the pain a bit, it still hurt like mad. Remus let out a blood curling scream, that soon changed to a howl. He suffered his bones breaking, rearranging and growing. His face became longer, his ears moved to the top of his head, a tail sprouted from his spine and his body slowly became covered in silver like fur. When his transformation finished, the wolf lay there panting, waiting for the energy to get up. He slowly became aware of a cold nose gently nudging him. He lifted his head and gave the dog a wolf grin.
As he pulled to his feet, the door opened and two figures walked into the room. Moony blinked at them. James and Sirius had transformed back and were about to start a yelling match.
"Shut up," Harry snapped, leaving everyone staring at him in shock. He held his hand out to the potions master, and was handed what he was silently asking for. He knelt before the werewolf and smiled at him. He placed the bowl in front of the wolf, and carefully poured the potion into it. Just as the last half of the potion was poured in, Harry pulled out a fine powder and gently sprinkled it into the potion. He stepped back and watched. After a few seconds it bubbled slightly and he nodded, "Drink that, Moony."
Moony looked at Harry a little apprehensively before stepping forward and slowly lapping up the potion. He whimpered when he accidentally licked the bowl. When he was finished he sat back and stared at Harry. Harry was silently staring at his watch, waiting. He grinned when Moony hiccupped, then became Remus.
"Congratulations, Moony. You're no longer a werewolf, but an animagi!" grinned Harry.
Remus stared in shock at Harry for a moment before turning back to the bowl before him. Everyone watched silently as he reached out and stroked it with a finger. He slowly picked up the bowl and just stared. He couldn't believe this was happening. Since the day he'd been bitten, he'd wished, prayed and hoped for a cure. Now, there was one, and he was cured. He'd no longer have to deal with the painful transformation, or the week of sickness the full moon caused him.
Remus slowly stood up and stumbled over to Harry, pulling him into a hug. He whispered quietly, trying to hold back tears, "Thank you."
Harry nodded and pulled back. Then looked at James and Sirius before snickering, "Well. I don't think I've ever seen you look any stupider, mind you. One day I'm going to eat my words."
"Mr. Potter. We have to document this and discuss what else we are going to do with this potion," Snape spoke. He turned to Remus and nodded, "If there are any side affects, let us know as soon as possible."
With that, Harry and Snape left again. Remus turned to his friends and grinned happily. Sirius took a step forward and pulled his friend into a hug. He clung to his friend and muttered softly, "No more painful transformation. No more sickness. No more secrets."
James smirked, "You know, now we have to teach him how to become that wolf."
Sirius nodded, "Well, the simplest way is to picture a wolf in your head, and try to picture yourself transforming into it. It shouldn't hurt, but it may be a little awkward the first few times. Don't worry if you can't keep your human mind, it should happen the first time. It'll take a few minutes to get your mind in control, but when you do, try and change back. It's the same way as become the wolf, you just picture yourself instead."
Remus looked nervous, but nodded anyway. All his previous transformations had been horribly painful, so it was only natural he'd be apprehensive about transforming on his own will. He took a deep breath and pictured a wolf in his mind. It had no details, no color, nothing special. Slowly the wolf in his mind started change. It was silver, with amber eyes and seemed to grow a bit. Concentrating on the image, he pictured himself slowly becoming the wolf. It took a few seconds before he felt it. The itch of the fur, and the gentle shifting of his bones. He back curved forcing him to all fours. His legs shortened and his arms lengthened. A tail delicately sprouted from his backside, and his face lengthened. He was amazed that this didn't hurt, but figured it was because he wanted to change, and his body wasn't fighting it. When he became the wolf before, his body had been fighting it, he knew it. This was actually nice. After he transformed he lost control of the wolf. He lunged at the door, trying to escape, only to be blocked by a big black dog. He growled at it, trying to make it move out of the way. When it didn't, he lunged at it. After about fifteen minutes, he regained control of his mind, and blinked. He nudged his friend and whined an apology. The dog changed back to Sirius and smiled, "Change back, Moony."
This time, the transformation was a bit faster. He smiled at his friends afterwards. He sat down and just smiled. After awhile, he spoke, "It's amazing. I can't believe I'm cured, and to top it off, I can still become Moony. It doesn't hurt or anything," Remus looked like someone had handed him the world. His face was glowing with happiness, and his eyes seemed to shine like the moon.
James and Sirius sat on either side of Remus and grinned. They knew sooner or later they'd have to head back inside, but for now, they just wanted to stay with their friend.
Remus looked at them, "How am I ever going to thank them for this?! I can't pay for it, and I don't have anything to offer and-"
"You're family," smiled James, "Harry would've done the same for us if it was the case. He loves you, you're his uncle, so to speak. I'm sure that's his gift to you for helping him through some of his rough times."
Sirius nodded, "He's right. I'd do the same. Now, we were supposed to look for side effects."
"I don't think there are any, but I think I still have the wolves senses," spoke Remus. He stood up and calmly lifted the bed and moved it. He sniffed and wrinkled his nose, "Yep, still got them."
They other two rose and dusted themselves off. Sirius nodded, "Let's let them know. It took you about half an hour to transform anyway. I'm also hungry, so let's go!"
They all headed out of the shack to towards the castle, as they went James grinned, "You do now, that now we can go romping through the forest anytime we want, right?"
Two identical grins met him, and they all continued on their journey, debating whether or not to invite Harry with them.
The Dungeons, while Remus's transforms"What are you going to do though? Most werewolves don't have the money to pay for the potion, and a lot of werewolves are hermits now, simply because they are outcasts," Harry spoke.
"I'm not sure. We can't just give it away, some of the ingredients are too expensive to do that. And-" began Snape.
"We don't have to worry about money, Snape. I have the founder's vaults, remember? And don't forget that my parents and Sirius would help out if needed. So I guess that was a dumb question. Are we going to involve the Ministry though? They may mess it all up," Harry frowned, "But we'd need to put this in the papers so other's could see it."
Snape nodded and sat as his desk. He drummed his fingers softly on his research papers, a pensive look on his face. He looked at Harry to see him frowning in thought. He thought for a moment more and nodded, "We can involve the Ministry, but we'll make it clear that we are in charge of the project. I refuse to have some dunderhead ruin the potion and kill someone," he sneered.
Harry laughed softly, "So we contact the Ministry, let them know, and then what? The students come back soon, we can't exactly use the school to administer the cure."
Snape looked at him, "Well, what else to you expect us to do? It's not like we have another building we could use."
"Hmm…" Harry looked at the door as the Marauder's walked in. Remus told them briefly that so far, nothing bad had happened. He told them about still having his wolf senses and his first transformation. Snape wrote down all the information he was given, while Harry stared at his father. Finally he spoke, "Dad, do we have any other houses that aren't being used? We need one. It needs to have lots of rooms, potions labs and a ballroom of the sorts, so we can explain things to people."
James stared at his son for a moment, "Yes, we do. It's not far from here either. Why?"
"The cure," was all Harry would say.
Snape looked at Harry calmly, "We need to get the brewers as soon as possible, it takes a month to brew the cure, and it will take days to brew enough of the Wolfbane Potion to ensure no one tears apart the furniture. Now, after they're cured, what happens?"
Harry leaned back and contemplated the question, "I'm not sure. I suppose giving them 200 galleons would help them out. They could find a small place to live and possibly get jobs. But how would the world react to ex-werewolves?"
"They'd either accept them, or continue hating them," stated Snape.
"We need to get that article out, soon. I'll drop by tomorrow, and we can write out what we're sending the Minister. We need to write out a contract as well, we don't need him trying to steal our work," Harry said, "We will not send them ingredients or recipes. I don't care what Fudge says, I don't trust him. If he wants proof, we'll let him hang out with Moony during the full moon."
The Maraurders were staring at the two in a cross of awe and horror. Awe, because they were getting along. They were working on making things easier for some of the minority of the wizarding world and seemed to enjoy planning how they were going to push the ministry to do what they wanted. Horror, because they were threatening to use one of their numbers to prove what they've done, instead of simply giving the minister what he might want.
James looked proudly at his son, who had become quite the leader. He could see that his son was going to be able to make a difference where it was needed. Sirius smirked at his godson, simply proud of him for being who he was. Remus just smiled. He knew there would be a lot of people who would appreciate what the boy-who-lived and potion master of Hogwarts were doing.
Sirius leaned over and placed his hand on his godson's arm, "We need to get to bed, Kiddo. We go back to Godric's Hollow tomorrow."
Harry stood up and shook the potion masters hand, and smiled gratefully as Snape offered to write to the ministry without his help. He pried a promise from the Slytherin, insuring that he'd get word on whatever Fudge says or does. James gave Snape the address to the house he had told his son about, then the four Gryffindors left Snape's office and headed off to bed.
Godric's Hollow – A few day's laterThe day after the full moon had been an interesting one, to say the least. Fudge had completely blown his top when they refused to do as he said. He had even threatened to arrest them for it, which hadn't gone over well with anyone. After a day of arguing back and forth with owl's, they finally got Fudge to agree to their terms. Now, at the old Potter Mansion, over 200 witches and wizards were brewing potions for the werewolves that were sure to come.
The Daily Prophet had made a big deal out of this discovery, and they'd gotten a lot of good feed-back from it. The Quibbler had even posted an article about the cure. In both article's, it had been asked that the werewolves send owl's, letting them know if they were coming. Simply so they could insure that there was enough potion. Overnight they had received over 300 notices, and more were pouring in by the day. Harry had ended up hiring more witches and wizards to simply sort through the mail.
Harry remembered seeing Potter Mansion like it was yesterday. The mansion was more like a small castle, an impressive small castle. It was magically built, with over 4000 rooms, kitchens, and a massive ballroom. The dungeons had been magically modified, and were simply potions labs. After the tour he'd been awed. The Mansion, well castle, rocked.
Harry sighed, knowing he'd have to get out of bed. Today he was getting the results of his NEWTs. He really, really hoped he'd done well. He'd talked to his parents about becoming an auror, and had shocked them by refusing to train as one.
-Begin Flashback-
"Mom, Dad, can I talk to you?" asked Harry, somewhat nervously.
He parents glanced at each other then nodded at Harry. They all stood up, and silently made their way to the study. Harry nervously paced before his parents, who had taken a seat as soon as they'd entered the room.
Harry looked at his parents, "I've been thinking. With all this fighting with Voldemort and his death eaters, I don't want to be an auror anymore. I think…" he faltered for a second and glanced at his parents. They smiled and nodded, encouraging him to go on. Harry sat down and took a breath, "I think I want to be a teacher."
James looked mildly shocked, though when he thought about it, he shouldn't have been. His sons entire life had been consistent with him either fighting for his life, or his friends. He had dealt with a lot of dark wizards. What shocked him, was that his son wanted to teach.
Lily grinned happily. She didn't want her baby to go into such a dangerous business. This fighting with Voldemort was more then enough for her to deal with. She looked at her son and asked, "You think?"
"Well, I'm not sure. See, I think I could do it, but I'm not sure. I could possibly end up like Snape, and wish to curse all the students whenever they make a mistake, or I'd really enjoy it. I'm really not sure," sighed Harry.
James smiled, "I'm sure you won't become anything like Snape. Talk to Professor Dumbledore, after you get your results, and see what he says."
Harry grinned, "They should be here tomorrow!"
Lily nodded, "Yes, they should be. And you should be getting some rest, young man."
Harry smirked and headed off to his room.
-End Flashback-
Harry stumbled down the stairs, and glared at the amused looks he was getting from his family. He sat down in his seat and glanced down at his plate. On it was an envelope with the Hogwarts seal. He quickly ripped it open and read it.
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
HEADMASTER ALBUS DUMBLEDORE (ORDER OF MERLIN, FIRST CLASS, GRAND SORC.,CHF. WARLOCK, SUPREME MUGWUMP, INTERNATIONAL CONFED OF WIZARDS
Dear Mr. Potter,
The following are the results of your NEWT examination. Please read through them and contact your head of house for any additional information you may need.
During your fifth year, you were interviewed, and asked about becoming an auror, if you have changed your mind since then, and no longer wish to follow this career path, please contact your headmaster and head of house to change your preferences.
Sincerely, Professor McGonagall
NEWT RESULTS
Key-
Outstanding: 2 NEWTs
Exceeding Expectations: 1 NEWTs
Acceptable: 1 NEWT
Poor: No NEWTs
Dreadful: No NEWTs
Troll: No NEWTs
Transfiguration-
Theory: Exceeding Expectations
Practical: Outstanding
Total: 3 NEWTs
Charms-
Theory: Exceeding Expectations
Practical: Exceeding Expectations
Total: 2 NEWTs
Care Of Magical Creatures-
Theory: Outstanding
Practical: Outstanding
Total: 4 NEWTs
Herbology-
Theory: Acceptable
Practical: Exceeding Expectations
Total: 2 NEWTs
Potions-
Theory: Outstanding
Practical: Outstanding
Total: 4 NEWTs
Defense Against The Dark Arts-
Theory: Outstanding
Practical: Outstanding
Total: 4 NEWTs
Dueling-
Practical: Outstanding
Total: 2 NEWTs
Overall Total: 17 NEWTs
Congratulations.
Harry stared at the parchment for a few moments before slowly looking up at the waiting faces of his family. Without changing his expression, he handed his results to his father. Everyone crowed around behind James to read over his shoulder. Harry grinned happily as Sirius let out a whoop of joy. Suddenly he found himself being pulled out of his chair into a bone crushing hug. He hugged his godfather back, before Remus took his place, then he hugged his parents.
"Seventeen NEWTs!" cried out James, proudly.
"I need to contact Dumbledore though! So, let me eat!" called out Harry.
He was trying not to laugh as the Marauders started dancing around. Lily smiled and gave her son some bacon and eggs. Harry ate quickly, then left to see the headmaster.
Hogwarts, Headmasters Office
Harry stumbled out of the fireplace, to arguing voices. He was amused as he realized that Snape was refusing to teach the younger years.
"I refuse, Headmaster! They are all dunderheads! I have no patients for them!" snarled Snape.
"I could teach them," said Harry, calmly.
Both men spun and stared at Harry. He grinned and moved across the room to sit down in one of the overstuffed chairs stationed before the headmasters desk.
"What do you mean, Harry? I thought you wanted to be an auror," questioned Dumbledore.
"I have enough dealings with dark wizards. Voldemort and his death eaters are more then enough for me. I think I want to teach though, but I'm not sure. I really enjoyed teaching the DA last year, so…" said Harry, trailing off.
Snape nodded, "He could teach them, Headmaster. He has the marks for it. I will give him the syllabus for the first three years."
Dumbledore looked at both men before him and contemplated this situation. He knew Snape never wanted to teach defense, contrary to popular belief. He nodded slowly, "Alright. Harry, since you are here, would you be willing to take these to your parents, Sirius and Remus please?" he handed four envelopes to Harry.
Harry grinned and nodded, "Thank you, Headmaster."
Snape turned to Harry, "Expect my owl in a few days."
With that Harry went back home.
Godric's Hollow
After Harry left, the adults turned and looked at each other. They were still shocked over his marks. They were also proud.
"We should throw a party!" exclaimed Sirius.
"No, we should just have a night with the family," said Lily.
Remus nodded, "He'd probably enjoy that."
They discussed what they were going to do for awhile, when Harry came back. He smirked at them, "I'm teaching Potions to the First through Third years. And these are from Dumbledore," he handed them the envelopes.
They all opened them and read. James blinked and looked at Sirius, only to find Sirius staring back. Remus and Lily were frowning a little. Harry simply waited for someone to speak.
"Sirius and I are going to be teaching Dueling," said James, blinking with shock.
Sirius grinned, "Well, we were the best duelists for a time."
Lily smiled at them then turned to Harry, "Remus and I are going to be teaching defense."
Remus nodded, "Looks like it."
Harry grinned happily at his family. They told him of the plans they made and Harry agreed to them. They spent the rest of the day laying around the house, watching T.V or discussing random topics.
It was after dinner when Lily decided to drop the bomb. She put away the dishes and asked the men to stay seated. She took a breath and looked at them all, "I'm pregnant."
Note: mw ahaha! Cliffhanger! Thank you for all the reviews! I will update as soon as possible!