Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else that J.K. Rowling created.

Warning: This story is AU due to the fact that I've ignored book five, The Order of The Phoenix because the end of book four was a much better place to start this fan fiction.

Take Backs

Chapter 2: Halloween Revisited

By Rhiane Raine

"J-James?" Remus stuttered.

This could not be James Potter. This was a sick joke. There was no way that the dead could come back to life. Someone was pranking him into thinking that his friend was here.

The man who looked exactly like James stood a bit straighter and gave a brilliant lop-sided grin. "Wha'sa matter, Moony? D' you forget how stunningly handsome I am?"

Remus was spared the necessity of answering as Padfoot cautiously padded over to the man who held his hand out for the large black dog to sniff.

"Padfoot," the James look alike whispered tiredly, though the grin had not left his face.

After a thorough sniffing, Padfoot turned to Remus and barked. Whether it was to say that the man was imposter or not, he did not know.

Remus squatted next to the dog and whispered in his ear, "What do you reckon?"

Sirius, as a dog, had a good sense of smell. When they were in fifth year, James had convinced him to polyjuice into each other for a night. Lily was not very keen on James that year but seemed to get along with Remus just fine as they had many of the same intellectual interests and prefect duties. They had brewed it in secrecy and swapped appearances before going back to Gryffindor Tower. Of course as luck would have it, Sirius had been in their dormitory practicing his transformation. He had smelled the difference immediately. The only reason that they had not told Sirius of it was because he had a hard time keeping his laughter to himself. He was bound to laugh at James pretending to be Remus while talking to Lily.

Padfoot gave a soft bark that caused Remus to roll his eyes.

"I don't speak bark, Padfoot."

To remedy the situation, the large dog bit down on the sleeve of the grinning man's robe and starting to drag him into the house. Remus, still guarded of letting some strange imitator into his cottage, followed the two with his wand trained on "James".

Remus shut the door and locked it magically. When he turned around he saw that Sirius was in his human form. The man who resembled a mudslide, stood there smiling as his friend circled him like a shark.

"Sirius, would you like me to prove that I am who I am?"

"That would be lovely," Sirius grinned.

For all that was good, Remus hoped and prayed that this twenty one year old version of his best friend really was James Potter. He could think of nothing he would like more than to have his old friend alive again, but he couldn't help but be more concerned for Sirius. If this was not James Potter, Sirius might actually fall over the edge that Azkaban had pushed him to.

"What would you like to know?"

Remus said, "Tell me of the reason we invented the Marauders knock."

"So that we would know whether the person at the door was a Marauder. If didn't hear the special knock, we had to hide all our prank items and other forbidden object that we kept in out dormitory. Nearly got caught that time when we were inventing the Marauders Map."

Sirius and Remus exchanged looks. The first answer was absolutely correct.

"What the first thing you said about Lily Evans?" Sirius shot hopefully.

"The first thing I thought or the first thing I said?"

"I can't exactly hear your thoughts, or I'd be in trouble now wouldn't I?" Sirius shot back with a laugh that sounded like a bark.

"Right, well I believe the first thing I said was, 'Bloody hell, she's got a temper!' though I distinctly remember thinking that she looked like some sort of Greek God."

That was two right. It didn't take a genius to give the answer that he thought his wife was pretty, but James had several times referred to her as some sort of deity.

"Do Prongs," Remus challenged.

This would be the last challenge. Only James would be able to transform into a stag like the one he remembered, polyjuice or not.

In an instant there was a large stag standing in the middle of his sitting room. Remus and Sirius stepped forward. It was there. A small jagged scar on the deer's upper spine. It came from their first full moon with each other. Sirius had gotten a bit rowdy and had tried to tackle James. Neither of them were quite used to their four legs yet. They had flown backwards into a tree. The shock that this stag was the same one that he'd played with almost twenty years ago was overwhelming.

James transformed back into himself just in time to watch Sirius hit the floor in a dead faint.

Remus was still in too much shock to think clearly. His knees felt weak and breath was constricted.

"E-e-enervate," Remus mumbled breathlessly.

Slowly, Sirius sat up from the scuffed hard wood floor. "Rem, did I just imagine that James came back from the dead?"

Remus nodded his head in an uncharacteristic dumb like fashion. "Yeah, I did as well."

"Well, if I'm a ghost then I'm free to haunt Snivelus. Think of all the pranks I can pull and not have to serve detentions for!" The cheeky voice of James spoke up.

Suddenly there was a quick motion of movement from the space of floor that Sirius was occupying. He had flung himself at James and embraced him a hug so tight that it could rival Molly Weasley.

"James! I can't believe it! I've missed you so much! I am really sorry! I never meant for al that to happen-"

"Padfoot, it's alright. I'm alive. You should have known that it's impossible to keep a Potter down for too long."

Sirius's only response was to tighten his hold on his best friend while whisper how sorry he was over and over.

It was a good five minuets later when Sirius finally pulled away, slightly embarrassed at his behavior. Remus decided to get his hug in before Sirius could break down again.

"It's great to have you back, mate. We all missed you more then you'll ever know."

"Thanks, Moony."

There was silence in the cottage for a few moments until Sirius broke the seriousness with one of his usual insensitive comedic statements.

"No offense, mate, but you smell. What have you been rolling in? I thought I was the dog."

James grinned. "I'm not sure what I had on me, but I got rid of most of it," he pointed to their upper torsos at he spoke.

Looking down at their chests, Remus and Sirius noticed that they too were now covered in mud and grim from the hugs they had given James.

"You'll pay for that, Prongs!" Sirius shouted playfully as he tackled James backward.

Remus watched as they wrestled around like old times before he raised his wand and cast a scourify spell on the both of them and himself. Neither of the other two noticed as they continued with their game. Remus cleaned the muddy prints and water trails off the floor before he stood up and went into the kitchen.

It seemed so surreal to have a live James Potter alive after so many years of knowing that he was gone. After having previously been thinking about how much he missed him.

Quickly, he gathered up three cups and a pot of tea that had been prepared not to long ago for dinner.

When he walked back into his sitting room with the tray of tea, James and Sirius were sitting side by side on his couch grinning at each other. Remus knew that look. It meant mischief and since he was the only person in the household, he was their game.

"You prank me and I swear that you'll both be out of a place to live!"

James and Sirius smiled up at him with an innocent look that they had practiced so much it was practically flawless.

"Now why would we prank you? I think there are other things that are much higher up on my list of priorities, Remy!" James said sounding as if Remus were a naughty kid who had said something deliberately insulting.

Still not convinced, Remus cast a wary eye over the two of them while handing them cups of tea in which they all drank in peace.

When Sirius was pouring them all seconds, James spoke up.

"What's been going on? I mean, you two look much older than me. Why is that? What happened since-"

"Prongs, why don't you tell us your point of view as it's most likely shorter? After we hear what happened to you, we'll tell you the outsiders over look, I swear." Remus said cautiously.

James set his cup of tea down and leaned back against the sofa. His young face was screwed up in thoughtful concentration and confusion.

"The last thing I remember before I...died? Was Lily and Harry. We were in the sitting room, when Harry started to cry. You know how Harry was, he never cried hardly at all unless something was absolutely wrong. Anyway, Lily tried to get him to calm down but he wouldn't. She had picked him up and was holding him, still he kept crying. I went over to help her, by rubbing his back. He kept crying, but he had ceased his wailing. That was odd behavior for Harry," James said quietly.

Sirius and Remus nodded, while exchanging a look. That most certainly was odd for Harry. There had been a time when Harry had fallen off of the kitchen counter when James wasn't paying close enough attention. Though he nearly broke his arm, Harry didn't cry at all. Though it made sense nowadays. Harry still never cried, even when he fell a hundred and fifty feet from and airborne broom with dementors all around.

"When Harry went quiet, I heard something. The wards were being breached. I told Lily to take Harry and go. He had come. No sooner than Lily left the room, Voldemort blew the door apart." James whispered.

"I told him to leave my family alone and that I would die before I let him even think about going after my wife and son. We dueled until he cast a curse on me."

Another look was exchanged between Sirius and Remus. This time James caught it and shook his head.

"Not Avada Kedavra. It was one that I had never heard before. It felt like I was on fire, burning from the inside out. After a split second it was gone and I knew no more. The next thing I remember was waking up in a casket. The lid was open and it was pouring down rain. There was about an inch standing in the bottom of it. I felt tired and exhausted. Almost like the after effects of the cruciatus curse. My body didn't seem to want to work when I tried to stand up. Even though the lid to my casket was open, I was still inside my grave. The soil that was over me had been somewhat blasted aside. I work really hard to climb out, but it was to wet and slippery to hoist myself out of that hole. I finally found my wand in my robe pocket and levitated myself up. I suppose I should have thought of that first but I was really disorientated."

James glanced at Remus then at Sirius before continuing, his voice shaking a great deal. He appeared to be preparing bad news or rather reliving it.

"When I reached the surface and I looked around I saw Lily's headstone next to mine. Our death dates were the same, but I couldn't find Harry's grave anywhere. I had thought that he would be buried with Lily like we planned, but his name wasn't on the headstone. I didn't know what to do so I tried to get my wand to point me in the direction of Sirius. It didn't work. My wand flipped out and jumped out of my hand. I picked it up and tried to apparate but I didn't have enough energy. So I tried to locate Remus and it worked. I followed my wand all day until I found it pointing at this cottage," James's voice was now heavy with grief as he leant forward and put his head into his hands.

Sirius set his tea down on the coffee table and rubbed a few circles on his friends back in a comforting manner.

"James?" Remus said carefully. "Harry's alive."