CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: WHAT HAPPENS AFTER
"James!" Lily screamed as they galloped right through the spot where Lord Voldemort had been standing a moment before. Moony had collided with the Dark Lord right before Prongs had, knocking him flat.
Her scream turned into laughter as they galloped onward.
-x-x-
Sirius was standing, looking dazedly at Tonks as if she were an alien. Maybe it was her green hair, or maybe it was because all he could remember in the last five minutes was him running away from Moony, seeing Dumbledore somewhere, turning back into a human...and that Tonks had been waking him up. Or...he wasn't so sure he could call it "waking"...since he hadn't seemed to have been sleeping. He'd been standing up.
"You alright, kiddo?" She said, chuckling.
"What happened?" Sirius said, trying to keep his balance and his feet.
"Dumbledore froze time." She saw the shocked expression on his face and laughed, "I know. I never knew he could do it either."
Sirius, still confused, looked around. Orange and pink shadows lay over the barren land. The yellowish clouds were suddenly golden. The sun was coming up.
Moony walked up to him and laughed along with Sirius at all the Death Eaters, in the middle of elegant and dramatic wand formations. The Order of the Phoenix members were milling around them, talking or taking orders from Dumbledore.
Moony took hold of Sirius' sleeve like he was a five-year-old needing to be led around, and took him to the edge of the patio where a stone wall stood tall enough for them to sit on. Sirius looked at him. His robes were ripped in some spots. Sirius smiled a bit.
"You helped us, you know." He said.
Moony smiled, was about to say something, but was interrupted as Hermione, Ron, Snape, and Wormtail wandered up. Hermione said, "Well, we're not much use. Professor Dumbledore says that we need to hurry to go ahead and get everyone out before the spell wears off. He's just sent Professor Snape to go get Professor Lupin and he's gone to go find Harry and his parents..."
"Where did they go?"
-x-x-
Peter Pettigrew almost flinched as he picked up the smooth fabric of the Invisibility Cloak. He stroked it as if it were a cat or some other furry animal who he was particularly fond of, suddenly smiling for the first time in a long time.
Peter was old and bald. Stress had given his face wrinkles and made him thin. He was angry and treacherous, but he could still somehow remember better times. Under this cloak he'd spent his first adventures as a child.
He began to walk, barely realizing where he was going as he remembered times when he didn't feel like something dirty and rotten.
When he saw Dumbledore he almost ran for it. But he didn't. Dumbledore spotted him before he had enough time to do anything.
The old man came forward as if expecting Peter to run. Peter could see the kindness in his eyes and...something else that he didn't want to linger upon.
Dumbledore stopped directly in front of Peter Pettigrew, towering over him. He held out his hand kindly, not rudely. Peter looked for a scrap of hatred in those twinkling eyes as he handed over the cloak, silently.
And with a little smile, Dumbledore left.
Peter could never know who was the better leader between Dumbledore and the Dark Lord.
-x-x-
"So this is what we died for, huh?" James whispered.
"I guess so." Lily said, just as quietly.
Neither of them sounded resentful in the least toward their sleeping son. Harry had a very large bump on his head, scrapes on his elbows, and his knee was torn in a spot that, James felt, if he were a Muggle he would never again gain the ability to walk properly.
Both had been surprised to find, after a frantic search for injuries, these were Harry's only maladies.
Both were very very tired.
James' back ached from carrying at least two hundred pounds on his back. He vaguely wondered how Lily was feeling from dragging Harry up off the ground with her slender arms.
"I'm glad we did this, James." Lily said. They both looked at Harry, then at each other as if knowing for certain what the other was thinking.
James leaned in toward Lily, heart throbbing his in throat. Lily didn't move as he planted the tiniest kiss on her lips.
When they both leaned back enough to look at each other neither said a word.
"Ah, there you are."
James jumped about a foot in the air. "Oh...Professor Dumbledore..." Lily said in a voice too high pitched and flustered sounding.
Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling maddeningly bright. James wanted to say, "What did you see?"...but instead he said, "Hello, Professor."
"Good to see you both in good health, if not perfect." Dumbledore said, smiling as his eyes roved over their bumps and bruises and Lily's patched up arm. He moved over to Harry and, without a word to either Lily or James, woke the boy up.
Harry moved with a very weak aura as he looked around at them all. His eyes were muddled and confused.
"How are you, Harry?" Dumbledore asked kindly.
"Fine." Harry croaked. It was plain to all of them that this was only halfway true.
Dumbledore lifted his wand and a stretcher appeared next to them, which Harry was promptly lifted onto.
"What's wrong with him?" James asked.
"He's just tired." Dumbledore said as they started toward the patio. "Oh, yes–I needed this give this back to you, James." He fished in an overly large pocket and found James' Invisibility cloak, handing it back to James and turned away, Harry following him tiredly on his stretcher.
-x-x-
There was a rush as everyone came to meet them. Ron and Hermione virtually ignored Lily and James and headed for Harry. Neither of them minded much.
Sirius, Moony, and Wormtail all started talking to James at once, explaining what happened and the whole situation with the motionless Death Eaters. Lily smiled the tiniest bit when she saw James look at her before agreeing to follow his friends to their self-proclaimed designated spot on the low wall to the east.
Snape looked at her as well before following them at a reasonable distance.
Suddenly Lily felt much warmer toward all these people. It was a shame, she realized, that she would soon be forgetting all of this. Even if it had possibly been the worst night of her life, she regretted that she would be forgetting–
–be forgetting what? James?
Yes.
Simple as that.
Lily looked at the assorted people around her, milling around and looking important, then at James and the Marauders. He and Sirius had found a new sport of knocking over the completely motionless Death Eaters like dominoes.
She could learn to love him.
-x-x-
Peter watched from the shadows.
Lupin was back with Severus Snape. So he had been the spy. Doubtless Peter's master already knew. He didn't think he would've told Lord Voldemort, in any case.
Peter looked down at his silver hand, flexing it, as Dumbledore started sorting everyone into groups and explaining how they were going to get out of here. You couldn't apparate out of here. Many of the Order of the Phoenix started walking.
He looked up when Dumbledore grouped together the children and got a portkey ready for them. Dumbledore saw him in the middle of his counting. Peter retreated into the shadows, but Dumbledore merely smiled that irritatingly superior smile.
-x-x-
"I love you." James whispered in between "2" and "1" of Dumbledore's counting. It was the only chance he got between friends and whisking away in a swirl of color.
-x-x-
After dropping off the Marauders, Lily, and Snape without much trouble, Ron and Hermione followed Dumbledore to the Hospital Wing. Harry had gone to sleep on the stretcher, looking much worse for wear.
Dumbledore dropped them off and Madam Pomfrey bustled around them, setting a couple of potions on Harry's bedside table that said plainly, "You will give this to him the moment he wakes up."
And wake up he did. They'd been sitting with him unattended for fifteen minutes when he woke up. He just opened his eyes and looked at them.
"Want to know what happened?" Ron said quietly, hoping not to catch the nurse's attention.
"No." Harry croaked. "Not yet."
They just looked at him.
"I have to tell you about what powers I have that the Dark Lord doesn't."
-x-x-
When James had gotten into his cot, he had every nerve set on going to sleep, but something stopped him.
He'd just remembered why they were there.
He'd wanted to find out if he really had kissed Lily.
He smiled at himself.
He certainly had. He would make sure of that.
-x-x-
When everyone woke up the next morning sleepy warmth seemed to cling to every bit of their skin. No one felt like getting up–except James. He lay in his cot, awake a half hour sooner than everyone else, thinking. He knew what he had to do.
And he decided to work it out as soon as Harry came into the room.
"Harry!" James said, springing up. Everyone else groaned with sleep.
"What?" Harry flung back, clearly confused as to why James was so...springy.
James was right next to Harry in a flash, high spirits suddenly gone. "I need to talk to you."
Harry nodded and set down the tray of food on a nearby table, leading James out into the deserted corridor. James wondered vaguely why he didn't even question him.
"Harry, you can't put a memory charm on me."
Harry sputtered. "What?"
"You have to skip me over or something, because if you don't then none of this would've happened and I might never marry Lily and you might never be born and..." He was suddenly smiling with the insanity and the brilliance of it. "Don't you see?"
Harry remained silent.
"Well, I guess not. But, here, let's see if this works for you." He took a deep breath and continued, "I've grown up. I don't know what you thought of me, but I swear, I was a kid before last night happened. I think there's a chance for Lily and I–only a chance–if I can remember this. Now I know what my feelings mean, and that there's even the slightest chance of us getting married...and...Harry...if we don't get married...you're not being born."
He swallowed.
Harry just looked at him.
"There's more of a reason behind this, isn't there?" Harry asked suspiciously.
James smiled. "Smart. Yes. But it would take forever to explain."
"Do you know what this means Dad? It means that you're going to remember me. You're going to be thinking of all of this on the day you die. What if you try to change it?"
James smiled knowingly, a bit like Dumbledore in fact. "Harry, I've learned a lot about time travel today...might even write a book about it, who knows. I do know, now, that you can't change the course of time. It is how it is. It's not something that changes as you will it. Time is like life itself. However much you try, it's not something that's going to change at the snap of your fingers."
"Meaning...?"
"I couldn't change it if I wanted, young Harry." James laughed.
Harry chuckled with him. James' laughter died as he realized that he hadn't seen Harry really laugh or smile so much since he'd gotten here.
"And that's another thing," He continued, "You need to lighten up."
"Huh?"
"Smile some more, laugh some more. It's not helping you or anyone around you when you pull this angry attitude. Why do you think Dumbledore's always laughing?"
-x-x-
"You know what, Siri...I'm starting to think that fate's got it in for us." James said laughingly ten minutes later, joining the lot of them to breakfast.
"How right you are."
Sirius and James chinked glasses of orange juice together and laughed.
"Still," Said James after taking a long swig of the tangy juice, "I hope I can remember this someday."
-x-x-
Harry was bringing them back, as before, and he was giving them time to hang around until lunch before he did it.
He'd decided to eat with them, was missing a class to do it, but didn't mind too much. It was potions.
He could see minuscule changes in everyone's faces. Everyone looked just a little bit older. It somehow suited Snape, as if he was born to look just a bit tired and quite a bit smarter. It bothered Harry how Snape kept looking over at Lily, as if expecting something from her. Harry saw something more than dislike in his face, and liked that even less.
James and Lily kept looking at each other, so Lily didn't notice these weird looks she was receiving from Snape. Wormtail was squirming in his seat, looking uncomfortable under a glare that Sirius had seemingly sent at him for no reason. Moony was looking off into space, smiling slightly
Harry wondered what was on everyone's mind...
-x-x-
Harry knocked on Dumbledore's door after, once again, having to guess the password into the old headmaster's quarters. He waited.
When the door opened no one was behind it. Harry stepped into the office, feeling the familiar pang of guilt when he saw that Dumbledore still hadn't replaced the many trinkets and tables that Harry had destroyed the previous year.
"Yes, Harry? Feeling better?" Dumbledore said from behind his desk. He was stroking Fawkes, who stood on his desk. Fawkes laid a beady eye on Harry and let out a soothing note. Harry smiled.
"Yes, I'm okay." Harry said, "I was wondering if there was anything that we might've forgotten.
"Ah. I did want to tell you something Harry." Dumbledore said, standing up and looking down at Harry with a smile. "I wanted to ask you to do a favor for me..."