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 12: Forgiveness is a Seven Letter Word

Some of the color from Harry's face drained at hearing the voice of the Headmaster. Sirius grinned to himself. Of course he knew his Godson was concerned about getting into trouble, but there was no way that Dumbledore could get them for anything. Being unregistered animagi aside, they had done nothing illegal. As Harry's Father, James had full rights to his son's guardianship and Sirius… well; he made it only two illegal acts committed as it was against the law for Remus to harbor a convicted felon. Then again, it was Dumbledore who told him to lay low here, at Moony's cottage!

Glancing towards his friends, Sirius saw James smirk and nudge Remus ever so slightly noticeable. Apprehension and anticipation washed over him like a tidal wave. He knew that look and nudge to well. That was a Marauder's "Hey, I'm about to pull something so make sure you're watching closely!" signal.

"Sir," James addressed. He quickly shoved his hands in his pockets and lowered his face to stare at his shoes.

To the untrained eye, Dumbledore's expression made no changes but to Sirius, who had invested most of his teenage years at Hogwarts pulling as many pranks as possible just to monitor the old man's "shock"… Sirius knew Dumbledore's general look of serenity and the slight frown at the corners of his mouth told him that the man was indeed a bit surprised.

Behind his half moon spectacles, Dumbledore's blue eyes focused on James a bit longer that usual. Silently, Sirius was celebrating being the fact that Dumbledore had FINALLY either fallen for one of their pranks or had been surprised.

A motion behind the back of the Headmaster caught his attention. It seemed that Harry had caught on to the game and was trying to slink out of view.

Sirius risked a wink to Harry who grinned back.

"Well, Harry, you've certainly grown since I saw you last," Dumbledore said finally.

"Actually I haven't grown at all since you last saw me, Albus," James replied cheekily, a smirk stretched across his face so wide that it had to hurt.

Clearly puzzled, Dumbledore cleared his throat to get a hold on himself. "Are you quite sure of that? You appear to be three or four inches taller."

"Are YOU quite sure about that, sir?" Harry innocently questioned from behind.

Remus started laughing when the calm Headmaster snapped his head around to look from James to Harry.

His Godson grinned impishly as he walked over to James and stood. Except for the clothes, height difference, eye color and a bit of stubble, James and Harry looked virtually the same.

"Headmaster, as strange as it sounds, well, James is alive again," Remus explained simply.

"Ah," Dumbledore said. He took a step forward and offered his hand to James. "Well then, James you'll have to forgive my poor manners. I did not recognize you. It is truly good to see you."

"You mean you believe us!"

That wasn't the way it was supposed to work! How could Dumbledore just accept that James was alive? Though it was much easier, not having to convince him that they weren't crazy but for once couldn't Dumbledore be a bit skeptical and less understanding?

Dumbledore chuckled as if he had been listening to Sirius's thoughts and was amused by them. "I'm very sorry Mr. Black but it makes sense for this to be true rather than not. I will look into it but for now, perhaps we should sit down."

"Of course," Remus hastily waved an arm over the available sitting spaces in his living room. "I'll just put on a pot of tea, then?"

While Remus was gone, the remaining four of them found a seat and took their time in getting settled. Albus took one of the armchairs while Sirius, Harry, James sat down on the sofa respectively, leaving the other armchair open for Remus.

James leaned forward eagerly. "Dumbledore, are you sure you believe us about me being me?" Wouldn't you like to ask me some questions or maybe offer me some veritiserum?"

A smile never wavered upon his lips as the old man asked, "Would it make you feel better if I said I did?"

The couch shifted as James sat back. Sirius leaned forward to look around Harry as James grumpily settled back against the couch.

"No," he muttered. "If you believe me it's no fun at all."

Harry sniggered at his father's pouting.

"I believe you, but it would make me feel better if you were to transform into Prongs." Dumbledore said

The hazel eyes behind James's round framed glasses bugged out. A bark-like burst of laughter escaped from Sirius at the sight of James panicking. In all of the confusion they had forgotten to tell James that Dumbledore knew about them being illegal animagi.

Not one to be embarrassed for long, James stood up and promptly transformed into Prongs with a tiny 'POP!'

Harry reached a hand out to pat James between antlers. The deer leaned in to the touch briefly.

'POP!' James was now standing in front of them in human form. His hair stuck up in between Harry's fingers where his hand still lay on James's hair.

The fifteen year old blushed and withdrew his hand as James sat back down.

After Remus had passed out cups of tea, Dumbledore began to speak.

"Now that we've sorted out that James is indeed James, I would very much like to hear how he came to be staying here."

So, the three of the remaining Marauders took turns telling their part of the story from their own perspectives.

"Well, that is intriguing. I shall have to look into the possibilities as to how it became possible for James to become alive once again. The only thing left for us now is how young Harry came to be here," a white eyebrow rose as he considered each of the Marauders.

"There's not really much to say, Dumbledore," James said matter of factly. "After I came back to life and located my dear dear friends I decided to resume my guardianship over my son. I found out where he was and we retrieved him. Nothing illegal was done in the process of regaining custody of Harry so I see no reason why there should be cause for concern."

Harry ducked his head away to hide his slight grin behind James's shoulder.

"So you four know nothing about the sudden change in color scheme at the Dursley's home?" the Headmaster asked.

"Actually we would know something about that…" Sirius smiled reminiscently.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "While it was not in any way an illegal act of magic, those actions were very childish, Mr. Potter, Mr. Lupin, Mr. Black. I had hoped that you three would be above petty revenge."

The guilt that should have been present in Sirius was absent. Having been able to see the results of the Dursley's "care", he inferred for himself what their "kindness" had entailed. Instead, Sirius found himself angry that Dumbledore could just leave an infant with a family and not check to see how things were. Unfortunately, actually it was probably fortunate that James spoke before Sirius had the chance.

"How in Merlin's beard could you leave my son in the hands of a family like that! You know for a fact that Lily and I left specific wishes for Harry's upbringing and no where in them were Petunia and Vernon Dursley!" James shouted. "There was a perfectly good plan left in your hands and you flat out IGNORED IT!

"I see no reason why the instructions we left you were unfit to follow. Lils and I excluded her sister's family for a reason, Dumbledore. It wasn't over some trivial disagreement. We knew, KNEW, not just suspected but knew that they would mistreat our son simply because he was ours. We were right too! All you have to do is look at Harry and you can see how well they cared for him. Perhaps instead of talking about me taking up my responsibility for my son we should be discussing your blatant disobedience to my orders. If you didn't want the responsibility, all you had to do was say so. I'm sure I could have left my last wishes with someone else in the Order. All you had to do was tell me you were going to follow my request…" the hurt was evident in James's voice.

The last time Sirius had seen James this enraged was back in seventh year when Snape had called Lily his "mudblood whore". Sure, he had been upset the other day when he first learned of Harry living arrangements but it didn't even compare to now. The shock at finding out that Harry had been sent to Petunia and Vernon had caused a bout of accidental magic through the air, fueled by James's anger and alarm. Now that he'd gotten his brain wrapped around the situation, no magical accidents were triggered but Sirius knew his friend well enough to know that James was using more than he had to keep his righteous seething under control.

"There is an explanation for my actions, James. I cannot promise that they will make everything alright but it will put my decision into perspective for you."

Slightly interested, Sirius leaned forward as James sat back down, crossing his arms across his chest.

"After Voldemort had murdered Lily and yourself, I knew that Harry would need extra precautions to ensure his safety. If his new home were not safe enough, it would be far too inviting for uncaptured death eaters to attack. I considered the circumstance very carefully. Yes, I knew what your wishes were, but I had to make a difficult choice. If I placed Harry with a surrogate family, he would not be safe enough to withstand any impending attacks. Instead I opted to keep Harry safe from any residual Voldemort followers by placing him in the safety of his last remaining relatives."

Again, Sirius knew James was on the edge of losing his control.

"For starters," James began up again. "What was so wrong with letting Harry live with the families we specified? You know as well as I do that Frank and Alice would be able to protect him from snake scum. Out of all the aurors, Frank was on of the best. Also, what in all magical mayhem do Vernon and Petunia have that would allow them to keep Harry so well protected?" The words 'Vernon and Petunia' were spat out as if they were disgusting swear words.

The old man, looking very weary in his age, took off his spectacles to rub at his eyes. He placed them back onto his crooked nose and looked each of the Potter's directly in the eyes.

"It is a simple matter of blood. When Lily sacrificed herself for Harry's life, she left a special protection of love upon him. Her sacrifice could keep him alive if Harry were to dwell in the presence of her blood. Since Lily had to die to invoke this protection, I had to look to Lily's blood relatives to place Harry with. Petunia was the only person who shared blood with Lily, excepting her infant son Dudley Dursley.

"I'm very sorry for how things worked out but I am positively certain that had I placed Harry in a surrogate home, he would have been attacked and quite possibly killed.

That being said, Sirius shifted to look over at Remus. Their eyes met and Sirius knew that none of this was news to him. Of course, had he been the only friend left after all that had happened, he too would have tried to convince Dumbledore to let him have custody of James's son werewolf status or no. It made sense that Remus would have pleaded to raise Harry.

Rightfully he should have been Harry's legal guardian. With both James and Lily dead, Sirius convicted of numerous counts of murder, and Frank and Alice tortured to insanity, Remus was next in line for guardianship. However, with the Ministry as messed up as it was- and seemed to far worse now- the laws against werewolves were very strict against any such thing, basically prohibiting as many and all human rights as possible.

Sirius could only imagine how badly Moony must feel about the whole ordeal. He himself had spent many a times sitting in his Azkaban cell wallowing in misery over the fact that he couldn't be there for Harry as he grew up. He certainly hadn't known that Harry was living with Dursley. Well, not until he'd escaped that horrid place anyway.

"W-what about Frank and Alice?" James asked, fear of the answer evident in his wavering voice.

"There's no easy way to say that a group of death eaters tortured them to insanity shortly after your own death. They fought bravely and now reside in the long-term ward at St. Mungos."

A chocking sound came from James's throat.

"Again, I'm very sorry about the way things have worked out. I cannot change the decisions that I have made nor would I if I were presented the opportunity. It pains me to know that my choice was violently distasteful to you and I hope that you can understand why I did what I did." Dumbledore spoke in a voice so quiet and calculating that Sirius almost had to move closer to hear.

Silence met Dumbledore's last word. Then, after taking a moment to think on it, James looked up from where he had been cradling his head in his hands upon his knees. "Do you know what the worst part of it is? Regretting what happened and wishing there was a better way but knowing there were no better alternatives."

"Yes, James," Dumbledore agreed. "That is indeed the worst feeling of it all."

Few words were exchanged as they finished up their tea. When it came time for the Headmaster to floo back to the castle, he made to shake hands with them all. When he came to James and offered his hand, the eldest Potter merely ignored it. Instead he pulled the old man into a hug that Sirius supposed was the other part of their unspoken apology to each other; Dumbledore for deliberately going against James's wishes and James for blowing up at him before he understood why.

"Well, I must be getting back. I'm only a floo call away should you require anything," Dumbledore directed to them all.

"Thanks, Albus," James said sincerely.

Sirius stepped up in line and shook hands after Remus's turn.

Dumbledore smiled. "I know I told you that I had hoped you to be above petty revenge but I have to admit, that prank was quite perfectly though up and deserved."

"Better than the prank on McGonagall in seventh year?" Sirius smirked.

"No! I don't think you could ever out-do yourself on that one. She was so angry…" Dumbledore trailed off.

Those who had witnessed the prank laughed for a moment before a solemn faced Harry stepped forward and shook Dumbledore's hand very business like.

"Goodbye, sir," Harry said.

"Use this time wisely, my boy. Allow yourself some fun and please get well. I'd hate to have to give Poppy permission to etch your name permanently on one the hospital beds like she asked me to after her visit here."

Harry flushed Weasley red before replying, "Yes sir, I will."

After Remus put the wards back up around the floo Sirius placed a firm but gentle grip on Harry's shoulder.

"How 'bout a little bit of fresh air, kiddo?"

He must have known that Sirius wanted to talk because Harry nodded his head and allowed himself to be guided out the door and into Remus's backyard.

'Now we'll see just what's what with this Godson of mine' Sirius thought concernedly as he closed the door behind them.

A/N: Phew! This chapter is done. I'm terribly sorry it took me so long but you know how life sometimes likes demand attention… I hope you enjoy this chapter because I have no clue how long it will take me to get the next one written. Like I said, Life is being rather difficult right now and is demanding more attention. Soccer season has started up so I'll have fewer time to write but I promise to try for you guys. The next thing I post will have to be the next chapter for "When Nightmares Are A Good Thing" but like I said, I'll hurry. You can thank Stars Enchantress for this chapter due to the fact that she asked for it and I guaranteed it to her before I leave for Florida on my Spring Break/ Senior Trip on Friday. Thanks for reading, drop me a line if you want. I don't mind thoughtful reviews.