Chapter Thirty One: A Conversation with James and Lily
Easter break came, and with it four days to spend at Potter Manor. Normally, the students didn't leave Hogwarts for this holiday, but Dumbledore allowed a few to leave, among them, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny. They flooed back to Potter Manor directly from Dumbledore's office with Remus Lupin close behind them.
They were greeted by the Grangers, who were as open and generous with their hugs as Molly Weasley. Hermione had tears in her eyes upon seeing her parents, and the knowledge of what they had been through resurfaced. Her father held her tight, tears in his own eyes as he witnessed her relief at seeing them. Ron stood awkwardly nearby, wanting to comfort her, but knowing that Hermione needed her Mum and Dad more than him at the moment.
Harry shook hands with Mr Granger with one arm around Ginny. Ginny smiled happily, and the Grangers looked rather embarrassed.
"Harry... we're terribly sorry..."
"For?" Harry was confused.
"Well... thinking that you and our Hermione..." Laura flushed. "It's just... for five years, you were all she spoke of..."
"Only because I was constantly in trouble that Hermione was constantly having to help get me out of," Harry laughed.
"Well..." Laura glanced at Ron, then to Ginny. "Your brother...?"
"He and Hermione have... well... I'm sure Hermione will tell you," Ginny flushed.
"I'm sorry..." Laura addressed herself to Ginny this time. "At Christmas... well, we thought... we rather thought that you and Harry were just... because your families are so close..."
"Understandable, considering what you believed about Hermione..." Ginny said.
Laura looked at Harry, then back to Ginny. "Yes... yes, but I can see now... well. Your aunt is in the kitchen, Harry... she insisted that we greet you first and let her finish up the preparations for lunch... shall we...?"
"Yes... I'd like to see her," Harry nodded. He'd promised Dumbledore he'd speak to Aunt Petunia today. He had to find out if she'd remembered anything. "Has the mediwizard been lately?"
"Yesterday," Laura nodded. "We take her to him, actually... Bill Weasley didn't want people coming and going from the house... too many times resetting the wards, I think he said."
Harry was amazed at how easily Laura Granger had taken to this world... it really was shocking. But then, these were Hermione's parents, and Hermione was no slouch when it came to learning new things... why should they be?
"No problems with the floo?" Harry asked.
"None," Laura smiled.
"Bloody brilliant way to travel, if you ask me," David Granger laughed. "Much more efficient, quicker... and not a bit of fossil fuel burnt..."
Hermione laughed, hugging her father close as they moved towards the doorway leading to the main hall and the kitchens beyond. She reached out and took Ron's hand, smiling up at him as she did so.
Harry knew from the look on Ron's face, at that moment, he'd follow her into the fires of hell. Ron was nothing if not loyal and devoted to those he loved. Hermione, it seemed, now topped that list.
Aunt Petunia was standing at the sink cleaning vegetables as they walked in. She glanced over at them, and Harry gasped.
This did not look like his tightly wound, bitter aunt. This woman... her hair lay on her shoulders, golden and glowing, and her eyes were soft. She was wearing robes! This woman had a look in her eyes...
Happiness.
"Aunt Petunia?"
"Harry!" she smiled, drying her hands on a towel and moving towards them. She paused in front of him and then reached up to hug him.
Harry stiffened, and Ginny's hand, still clutched in his own, tightened as she felt his reaction.
"How are you?"
"I'm just fine, thank you, Harry. How is school?"
"Great... just... great. Mrs Granger told me you saw the mediwizard yesterday?"
"Yes... he says I'm physically fine... and that everything else ought to be falling back into place shortly."
"Well, that's... good," Harry swallowed and glanced over at Remus, who had a rather odd look on his face. His eyes met Harry's and he nodded, almost sadly.
So that was it, then. This was Petunia Evans, the girl she had been before she met Vernon Dursley. Harry suddenly felt very, very sad.
"Aunt Petunia... I'm hoping that we can talk later... there are some things that we need to discuss."
Petunia smiled at him, her eyes held the smallest flicker of uncertainty, but then it was gone, and she nodded. "Of course... whatever you need."
"Good," Harry smiled uncomfortably. How was he ever going to...
"Harry?" Ginny looked up at him. "Maybe we should... freshen up... before lunch?"
Taking a deep breath, he followed her from the room and through to the front hall, where she led him up the stairs and immediately down the hall and into his room.
As he took several deep, calming breaths, she went into the ensuite where he heard the taps running. She returned a moment later with a glass of water.
"Are you going to be okay?" she asked softly, taking the glass from him after he had gulped it down and leading him to the bed where he sat down heavily.
"I'll... that was..."
"I know, Harry... I know..."
"She's nothing like she was... is this what Vernon Dursley did to her?"
"Harry... you can't dwell on that."
"You don't understand, Ginny..." He turned anguished eyes up to her. "Dumbledore wants me to speak to her... he wants me to make her remember... and I'm not sure that I want to be the one to bring that all back to her!"
There was something that Harry had to do before he spoke to his aunt, and this conversation might prove to be much more difficult. He had to speak to the portrait of his parents.
They'd been home an hour, and, upon their return downstairs, Laura Granger had cornered him in the dining room.
"Harry, I need to tell you..."
"Yes?"
"Professor Dumbledore warned us to keep her out of the study..."
"Why?"
"He was unsure of the reaction of certain... paintings... in there," Laura's eyes clouded for a moment. Harry could tell that she was uncomfortable with the magic that allowed a portrait of a dead person to speak to her.
"Ah..." Harry nodded.
"I'm not sure why they would react badly..." Laura looked at him. "But we've done as he asked. He left us a key, and we've kept it locked."
Harry nearly laughed. A key in a wizarding household? How odd.
"Harry?"
"I'm sorry..." he glanced up at her, and then back down at the key she'd placed in his palm. "Has Hermione told you anything about my family?"
"Only that your parents are dead and that you were raised by your aunt. She's told us that you... well, that it wasn't a good situation for you... but your aunt doesn't seem..."
"My aunt is very different now," Harry nodded. "That's part of what is making this so confusing. My aunt and uncle didn't want me there... they have a son my age... it was a difficult situation. My parents would never have placed me there by choice... but the person they had appointed to take care of me... be my guardian should anything happen to them... well, you've heard of Sirius Black?"
"Yes," Mrs Granger's eyes clouded. "Hermione told us."
"Well, he was my godfather. Understandably, he couldn't take me, so I was placed with the Dursleys... My aunt was a very different person before she married Vernon Dursley... I believe that we may be seeing that person now... but when I was a child... well, Vernon wasn't a very nice person, and she did what she had to..."
"Oh, Harry..."
"I'm fine... really... but my parents didn't think much of Vernon... or Petunia for that matter, after she married him. My father especially..." Harry swallowed. "Well, there is a painting in the study... a painting of my parents that is... animated. They can talk. Knowing what they know now about how I was raised, and what happened to me in the Dursley household... I'm sure you can imagine why Dumbledore was eager to keep my aunt out of that room?"
"I see," Mrs Granger nodded. "She's not been in there, Harry."
"Well, she will be, this afternoon."
"What?"
"You'll have to learn, Mrs Granger, that as great as Professor Dumbledore is, sometimes his... judgement... can be skewed. I'll speak to the portrait of my parents... but I have to speak to Aunt Petunia today, and the study is the logical place to do that."
Which found Harry standing in the study, the door locked behind him with privacy and silencing charms on the room, staring up at the portrait of his parents.
"Harry? What is it?" Lily asked.
"There are some things I need to tell you."
"Petunia is here," Lily said softly. James grimaced.
"How did you...?"
"We can move about the Manor, Harry... from painting to painting. We've seen her."
"I see."
"Why is she here?"
"Because Death Eaters attacked and destroyed their home in Surrey," Harry said flatly, sitting down on the sofa facing them.
"Oh..."
"Uncle Vernon was killed."
"Oh!" Lily's hands covered her mouth, tears sprang to her eyes.
"Don't cry for him, Lily," James' voice was gruff. "He wasn't worth it."
"I'm not crying for him, James... I'm crying for her!"
"In the attack..."
"The boy? Dudley?" Lily asked.
"He's fine... he's living at the school right now, but he thinks he's in his house on Privet Drive."
"But didn't you say it was destroyed?"
"Dudley isn't the sharpest tool in the shed," Harry sighed, rubbing a hand over his eyes in an unconscious gesture he'd picked up from Ron.
"And Petunia?" Lily asked. "She's content to leave him there?"
"Umm..." Harry swallowed. "She doesn't exactly know."
"What?"
"She... she can't remember anything."
"Anything?"
"She... she thinks... or she did when she woke up... that she's nineteen... that the attack was the attack on her parents... she knows now that twenty years have passed... that you're dead... but she hasn't remembered anything of her life in the interim."
"Oh, Harry..." Lily said softly. "She has to be told."
"That's why I'm here at Easter, when normally, I'd still be at school. I have to tell her... but I need to talk to you two... before."
"Why?" James asked.
"Um..." Harry flushed. "I thought it might be an idea to let you know that... she doesn't remember anything... and I need you to... not say anything to her when I bring her in here to talk to her."
James snorted.
"Dad... I mean it... I need to tell her some things... and she's probably going to remember some things... and I don't know what her reaction is going to be... and I..."
"It's okay, Harry," Lily said gently. "We'll stay quiet."
"You don't have to stay quiet... just understand that she doens't know what..."
"What?" James asked softly. "She doesn't remember how horrible she was to you?"
Harry took a deep breath. "I understand a lot now. A lot of things I didn't. Her life hasn't been easy, and I'm not making excuses for what... well."
"It was bad, though... wasn't it?" Lily asked, her voice soft. "It was very, very bad."
"It was mostly Uncle Vernon... although..." Harry glanced away. "I understand now. It was hard to when I was little..."
"Harry..." James began.
"I..." Harry looked up, determined to be honest. "I was put there the night we were attacked... the night you died. Other than school and this past summer, I've lived there ever since."
"We knew all that."
Harry looked startled. "I... I thought..."
"Remus told us, Harry."
"Oh." Harry looked back down at his hands. "I'm sorry."
"For?"
"I should have told you. I just didn't..."
"You didn't want to worry us?" Lily smiled. "Harry..."
"I know," Harry nodded, tears coming to his eyes.
"And this past summer?" James decided to change the subject. "What happened to change things this past summer?"
"I turned seventeen," Harry shrugged. "Sirius had left me his bike for my seventeenth..."
Lily gasped, but Harry continued.
"So, I left. Dumbledore had insisted on my going back there every year... something about blood protection... but it was more to keep Aunt Petunia in touch with this world..."
"Bugger!" James spat.
"Dumbledore had made a promise... to my grandparents..." Harry turned his eyes to his mother. "He had made promises he had to keep. I don't blame him."
"Well, you bloody well should!" James cursed.
"Dad? It's not worth it. It's over. I'm... I'm happy now. I don't have to live with Vernon Dursley any longer... I don't have to go through that. I'm of age, and I have the Weasleys... I have Ginny. I have family, Dad. Remus is here, and he's great. Hermione... well, the blood thing in the forest with Aunt Daisy essentially made her my sister. I'm happy. I can afford to forgive an old wizard for keeping a promise he made thirty years ago."
"But..."
"The minute I get this thing with Voldemort over with, I'm going to ask Ginny Weasley to marry me," Harry's voice was strong. James and Lily looked down on him. Lily with a smile, James' frown fading until he, too, grinned.
"Good choice, Harry," he nodded. "She's fiery... like your mother. You'll never be bored."
"I need to tell you something else," Harry said. "I've spoken to Dumbledore... and... well, if I don't manage to do what I'm supposed to do about Voldemort... this house and everything else is going to Ginny and her family."
James looked concerned for a moment. "Harry... Remus...?"
"Remus is fine, Dad... Sirius left the Black house and most of his money to him. He'll be fine."
"Really?" James smiled. "I rather thought that pain in the ass cousin of his, Bellatrix, would get it all."
"I should hope not," Harry growled. "That pain in the ass cousin of his is the one who killed him."
Lily gasped, and James' eyes darkened. "Bellatrix killed Sirius? Her own cousin?"
"Yes. And she took great joy in it," Harry said darkly. "She laughed..."
"Harry?" Lily looked at him, shocked. "Were you there?"
"Yes," he nodded. "Sirius died in the Department of Mysteries... he..."
"He what?" Lily looked at him oddly.
"I... he fell through a Veil... in this room... Bellatrix cursed him... it hit him in the chest and he... he lost his balance and fell through. I tried... well, Remus... Remus stopped me..."
"Thank Merlin for Remus," James muttered. "Harry... I had no idea... I'm sorry."
"You have nothing to be sorry for," Harry shrugged. "It's over. I have Ginny... I have the Weasleys... and Hermione... and Remus, of course. I'm fine. Really, I am. But I have to talk to Aunt Petunia... I have to tell her... I have to tell her about Dudley, and... other things..."
"Other things?"
"She doesn't know that she was ever married... and she doesn't know that she's a now a widow."
