Chapter 16: Expectations Fulfilled

"We should definitely be freaking out a lot more about this," said Sirius to Aletha as they followed Remus and Danger up the path. "Screaming and running around and such. With what happened last night, and what's supposedly going to happen tonight..."

"I think we're running on shock. It will eventually wear off, and then we'll probably collapse for a few days and just react."

"Hmm. A few days in bed, with you." Sirius wiggled his eyebrows.

"You dog." Aletha pushed him playfully, then jogged to catch up with Remus and Danger.

The house echoed emptily as they walked through it. "It's as if no one lives here," said Aletha, keeping her voice low.

"No one does." Remus spoke in a normal tone. "Narcissa's gone. She freed Dobby and left."

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "You're kidding – where's she going to go?"

"Who knows," said Danger. "She's been saving money under her own name for years."

"Of course." Sirius grinned. "One of the traditional duties of the lady of the house is to keep the household accounts. Trust Narcissa to be ready for anything."

As they approached their destination more closely, conversation ceased. Remus and Danger were very quiet, and Aletha could see signs of stress on their faces. She knew better than to offer any kind of sympathy; in the state they were in, it would be interpreted as pity, and both of them hated being pitied.

Remus knelt at one place and ran his hand along a place on the stone wall, smiling slightly. "One of our little disobediences," he said. "The things that kept us sane. Every so often, when Lucius would come down to let us out at night, we would stop and sharpen our claws here."

"And we'd take our time," said Danger, the faintest spark of mischief lighting her otherwise sober eyes. "We learned just how far we could push him before he'd actually try to compel us to go, and we'd always push just a little past the danger zone. It was fun, watching him stand there and fret."

Remus stood back up and led the way to the end of the hall, which had a plain wooden door set into the left wall. He put his hand to the doorknob and turned it.

The room beyond was small, plain, and dingy. The ceiling was several inches lower than was the hallway outside, so that Remus could barely stand upright within, and Sirius had to duck. Three mattresses lay side by side on the floor, with a tangle of stained and ripped sheets lying on top. A small folding table with one leg so bent that it was barely usable, three rickety wooden chairs, and a shelf made of rough boards and bricks, with a few simple items sitting on it, completed the furnishings. A door to one side was ajar, leading into a small, rude bathroom. A window high on the wall furnished the room's only light.

No one spoke. In Aletha's case, she was simply too shaken to speak, shaken by the thought of spending all the time when one was human for twelve years in a room like this. It seemed almost worse than being in prison, even in Azkaban, because there it was obvious that no effort was being spent on comfort. Here, the contempt was visible in the mockeries of the things the room's occupants should have had.

Remus and Sirius started taking the few things off the shelf, packing them in the bags brought for the occasion. Danger was kneeling beside the mattresses. She looked up at Aletha. "Here," she said with a brave attempt at a smile. "This is where Reynard was born."

Aletha knelt beside her friend and touched her hand. She could feel Danger shaking, and knew with near certainty why.

Even that – the birth of a child, supposed to be one of the most joyous things that can happen to a couple – even that was twisted and mocked by this. What if Narcissa's child had lived? How long could they have kept him hidden? How long before Lucius heard a baby crying where no baby should be?

"We were so lucky," said Danger in a low tone. "In so many ways. I went into labor just around dawn, so it hadn't progressed very far by the time we came in, and he didn't notice. Ray was born in just an hour or two, and since we were already in mental contact, we could keep him from crying. Even now, he hardly ever makes a sound if he gets hurt or startled."

One worry off their minds. Among several million others. There were so many ways they could have been found out...

"Dobby brought us some of the nappies and things that were ready for Narcissa's child. I fed him, and we named him. Dobby promised to watch him and bring him to us if he needed to be fed in the night. Before the sun went down, we made him a nest out of the sheets, and Remus surrounded it with fire, tamed down so it wouldn't burn him, just keep him warm. He still didn't like it, though. He could feel in our minds that this meant we'd be leaving him, and he wanted us to stay, because he couldn't grasp the concept that we'd come back."

To feel your child's fear, and not be able to do anything about it. God, what a nightmare for a parent. Lucius deserves everything he's getting.

"And then, just before sunset, Dobby came and told us that Narcissa's baby had been born dead." Danger's smile was strained. "I don't remember – probably because I don't want to remember – if I'd been thinking about that. I'd hate to think that I was ill-wishing her, but if I'm being realistic, I probably was. Because that one thing changed everything. That put us in a position of power for the first time in so long. And it's awful to think that way about my own child, and hers, but I know I did."

"You did the best thing you could have," said Aletha, not sure if she should speak but feeling compelled. "And now it's over."

Danger nodded. Remus and Sirius were waiting by the door as the women got up. They filed out of the room, Remus going last. Aletha had gone a few steps down the hall, following Sirius, when she realized the Lupins weren't following them. She turned back.

Remus was standing at the end of the hallway, staring at the room. Aletha took an involuntary step backwards as she saw his profile. To a stranger, he might have looked calm, but Aletha knew him, even if she hadn't seen him in a long time, and she could read the subtle emotional signs on his face. He feared this room, and hated it tremendously, and it made him furiously angry. Probably the only thing which would inspire more of those emotions in him was Lucius Malfoy himself. And all of those feelings had been locked inside him for a very long time indeed...

"Stay back," Danger warned quietly.

Remus lifted his hands and looked at them. Then, suddenly, he thrust them out before him, as if expecting something to shoot from his fingertips.

Something did.

Aletha gasped as flame erupted from Remus' hands and roared into the room, destroying everything in its path, she had no doubt. She could feel the heat even from where she stood, ten or fifteen feet down the hall. Remus' face was slowly becoming calmer, as he poured his anger and hate out through the fire streaming from his hands, as he destroyed the relics of their years of slavery.

Righteous anger. And righteous hatred, if there is such a thing. If there is, Lucius Malfoy seems a likely candidate to be its target.

Even as Aletha watched, the torrent of flame slowed and finally ceased, and Remus turned towards them and smiled. It was a small smile, but it was genuine, not dredged up to try to make them feel better.

"Nice," said Sirius from behind her. Aletha turned to see a look of considering admiration on Sirius' face, as though he were both impressed and thinking of ways Remus might use this power. Most likely, she thought a bit cynically, he was dreaming up new pranks the two of them could play.

Three of them, if they're right about tonight...

"Thank you," said Remus casually, picking up the bag he'd put down. "Shall we?"

Ray was outdoors in the October sunlight, running and shouting with his friends, forgetful of the note which still lay in an inner pocket of his robes.

He would discover it and open it later that day.

My dear child,

I am not even sure I may use that appellation towards you. You are not, in any real sense of the word, mine. The world sees you as such, but your first loyalty has always lain (correctly, I believe) with your blood parents. Also, I have never showed you a great deal of affection, so you may not believe that you are dear to me. But you are, Reynard, you are.

I think that perhaps I would not have appreciated a child of my own body quite as I do you. We tend to treasure gifts more highly than things we obtain for ourselves. And you were a gift to me, though one that I have always intended someday to return to the givers. You gave me a great deal. Not only the position and the power that I first craved, but, slowly, other things as well. You taught me what true innocence looked like, and true happiness, and true love, simply by being an innocent, happy, loving and beloved child.

You have always been respectful and obedient towards me, and I know that I can expect no more. Your own mother and father, your lupine sister, and the friends you have made deserve your love more than I do. So I ask for only one favor from you. Do not forget me entirely. Think of me kindly from time to time.

It seems unlikely that we shall meet again for some years to come. I have always secretly wished to travel, unencumbered and free. I have been diverting money from Lucius' vault for years and placing it in my own name, to make my dream a reality. The rest of what he owns is yours, as the enclosed parchment will verify. I wish you luck in your endeavors, and I remain

Your loving mother

Narcissa

Hogwarts wasn't a large school, but it was large enough that there were occasionally people around whom one might not know. No one questioned Ray or Hermione that day, although they did get the occasional interested look.

"You shall be Sorted tomorrow," said Professor Dumbledore over dinner, which they had in the suite where the Lupins had spent the night. "I believe it is best for all concerned if Draco Malfoy and his wolf simply disappear. I shall drop a word into a few ears, and they will not be sought particularly hard. Your family has been traveling for several years," he said to Hermione and Ray, "and were unable to return to England in time for the school year to begin. But you are here now, and your teachers will be simply astounded at how quickly you catch up with your classmates."

"But sir, won't people notice?" asked Ray. "I mean, my looks have changed, but my voice is the same. Dean and Seamus are bound to realize something's up."

"We'll figure something out, Ray," said his mum. "Burn that bridge when we come to it." She wasn't eating much, Ray noticed. Neither of his parents were, come to think. They were all in human form, thanks to the stash of potion he kept in his trunk – maybe that was affecting them somehow.

"We're going out tonight, cubs," said his dad now. "You'll have the suite to yourselves. Behave, or you'll wish you had."

Ray nodded. Hermione looked slightly offended that they didn't trust her to behave. She'd had a grand day, as his mum had taken her on a "Granger girls shopping spree" at Diagon Alley, buying everything she'd need now that she was actually a student at Hogwarts. The detail of her being technically nineteen days too young was being overlooked – after all, the rule was that one had to be eleven before one started at Hogwarts, and she hadn't really started yet, she'd been more of a guest...

But he and his dad had had a still more marvelous day. It was the first time outside his dreams that they had spent a long time together as humans, free to go where they liked and do what they liked. He'd insisted on seeing everything interesting in the castle, all the secret passages and hideaways, and on hearing all the stories from Hogwarts over again.

Padfoot had joined them for a few hours in the afternoon (it seemed easiest to adopt Harry's name for him, since it was a name Ray knew well), and had told several stories Ray had never heard, most of which were not overly complimentary to his dad, and one of which had ended with his dad chasing Padfoot down a hall at wandpoint. Professor Dumbledore kept a few spare wands in his office, just in case someone truly needed a replacement in a hurry, and his mum and dad had each borrowed one of these the night before, though his mum had bought herself a new one when she bought Hermione's, and his dad would be going to Ollivander's soon.

"I believe," said Professor Dumbledore quietly to him and Hermione over pudding, while his mum and dad had a silent conversation, "that two or three young Gryffindors may be taken with a wish to wander tonight. And I also believe that Mr. Filch shall not be in the way to find them. So it remains only for them to have a place to arrive, and someone awake to receive them."

Ray and Hermione traded a quick smile. "Yes, sir," said Ray.

"You should also be aware that the Hogwarts house-elves regard the students as masters, at least to some degree," said Dumbledore casually. "However, your parents' edict still stands, and to it I shall add a wish that you disturb no one else, and that you not see too much of tomorrow before going to sleep tonight."

"We understand, sir," said Hermione, nodding earnestly. How many people, she said silently to Ray, can honestly say the Headmaster of Hogwarts gave them permission to have a party after bedtime?

Not many, I don't think. But maybe Dad and the other Marauders once or twice. I know he liked them.

Nor was that the end of the surprises. Meghan Black arrived at quarter to nine with her parents, both of whom seemed tremendously excited over something. One more press on the shoulder from his dad, and a quick embrace from his mum, and the four adults were out the door, all looking as if Christmas had come early.

"What d'you reckon?" Ray asked the girls.

"They wouldn't tell me anything," said Meghan. "But they've been funny all day. Looking at the clock a lot, and Mum was playing scales in this way she does when she's waiting for something. And Dadfoot was shredding parchment and pacing when he got back from work." She giggled. "He says I can come and see Wormtail sometime if I'm good. Do you want to know what he did to him?"

Ray nodded eagerly, but Hermione looked unsure. "Shouldn't you wait until the boys get here?" she asked.

This required a little explanation, since Meghan hadn't known the boys were coming, and in the middle of it a knock sounded on the door and Harry, Ron, and Neville tumbled into the room, heady with the excitement of being out of bed and out of bounds after hours with the personal okay of the Headmaster.

"All right," said Meghan when everyone had gotten settled. "Dadfoot took Wormtail to the Magical Menagerie and bought him a fancy cage, with a running wheel. And he enchanted the wheel, so that it records how much Wormtail runs on it. And how much he gets to eat every day depends on how much he runs."

"So he has to run, or he'll starve," said Ron. He hadn't quite gotten over the indignity of having his family play host, however unknowingly, to a traitor and murderer. "Serves him right."

"Does anyone else know about this?" asked Neville.

"Your mum and dad, and mine, and Ray's. And Professor Dumbledore, I think, but he knows everything. Nobody else."

"Except us," said Harry. "But we won't tell."

Six heads shook. The secret was safe with them.

After a little more talking, it was generally decided to be time for refreshments, and several spirited rounds of rock, paper, scissors decided that Harry would be the lucky one to do the calling.

"Kady!" he said loudly.

A house-elf appeared with a loud snap in the corner of the room. "Master called?" she squeaked, smiling at Harry. She had approached him during Hermione's birthday party and asked him very diffidently if he might be related to Mister James Potter. It turned out she remembered the Marauders fondly, and was inclined to like Harry from that moment onward.

"Yes, I did. We're having another party. Professor Dumbledore said it was all right," Harry added quickly when just the faintest trace of disapproval appeared in Kady's large brown eyes. "And we won't stay up too late. But we need some food and drinks and stuff. Can you and some of the others bring some up for us?"

Kady nodded, smiling again, and disappeared, returning a few moments later with three other house-elves, all carrying laden plates and pitchers of pumpkin juice.

"What are your names?" asked Hermione, taking a plate from one of them.

With downcast eyes, the house-elves introduced themselves as Grabe and Fips (both male) and Mitsy (another female).

"Nice to meet you all," said Neville politely.

"We'll be down to the kitchens again," said Ron, taking a large bite out of a chocolate éclair. "So we'll be seeing you."

"Thank you for all this," added Ray.

The house-elves blushed and disappeared as one.

The village of Godric's Hollow was quiet and sleepy, and always had been. There had been that excitement some years ago – good heavens, it was exactly ten years tonight, as some people realized hazily when they stopped to think – when a house on the outskirts of town had burned to the ground, with no sign of the family who had lived there, either that they'd escaped safely or that they'd died inside.

Nothing had ever been built on the lot where the house had stood. It was fenced off to keep children from wandering in and harming themselves on a stray nail or piece of rough board. The wooden fence was more than six feet tall, shielding the neighborhood from the sight of the plot of ground (which was said to be cursed). However, that same fence also blocked anyone from seeing anything else unusual that might go on there.

Such as four people appearing there out of nowhere, rigging up a large white tent, and settling in to wait, each in their own way.

Aletha pleated at her robes, rubbing them between her fingers. Sirius paced. Danger folded and refolded a scrap of parchment. And Remus made flames appear and disappear in the air. After a while, the other three stopped what they were doing to watch him, and Remus made his displays accordingly fancier, enlisting Danger's help on a few.

"It doesn't burn you at all?" asked Sirius in fascination, watching Remus run a trickle of fire up and down his arm. "Would it burn me?"

"Not if I tell it not to." Remus twitched a fingertip, and Sirius jerked slightly as the flame suddenly sprang over to him, but managed not to actually jump back.

"It tickles," he said, holding it in his palm. "And it's warm, but not hot."

Remus nodded, collecting the flame with another finger twitch. "That's what it feels like to me," he said. "And to Ray. It appears to travel father to son. Maybe if we have a daughter, she'll have dream powers."

Danger smiled. "It could always happen."

"We might think about that, too," said Aletha, twining an arm around Sirius. "We never could before, obviously, since I was supposed to be a widow, and it's too much to hope Petunia Dursley wouldn't notice. As she does everything."

"We'll have something excellent for her to notice soon," said Sirius, choosing to disregard this otherwise alarming sentiment in his wife in favor of checking his watch. "It's just eleven now."

"All right," said Danger. "Let's get started, then."

Everyone leaned back in their chairs, closed their eyes, and tried to relax. "That's good, love," murmured Danger. "Letha, not quite... Sirius, you're almost there, a little more... there, I've got you now. Come on, Letha, we're just waiting for you..."

Sirius sat up and looked around. To all appearances, the only thing which had changed was that fully half the chairs in their circle were now empty, instead of the one-third it had been a moment before. But he knew he was actually dreaming all of this. Danger was generating this dream, bringing them into it as they relaxed enough for a sleep-like state.

It had been very easy for her to recreate the tent, since she had had ample time to study it, and was in it at the moment. Her job now, as Aletha appeared in the same chair where she was sitting in real life, would be rather harder. The four of them got up and walked outside.

Danger was going to try to reconstruct the Potters' house. Her own memories of it were vague and blurred by time, and the other three weren't much better, but together they ought to be able to do it.

Suggestions of walls sprang into place as Danger paced around the plot. "The front door was here," she muttered, "and the back door was... here?"

"More to the left," said Aletha. "No, your other left."

Once they had the outside mapped out, they moved on to the interior, which sparked one or two disagreements, but they had a fairly coherent reproduction by eleven-twenty. Now they just had to figure out, as best they could, where James and Lily had been.

"Lily would have been in Harry's room," said Aletha surely. "So that's in here." She pushed the door open – this dream house was solid, allowing them access to all parts of it. "But I don't know about James."

"Downstairs," said Sirius just as surely, running down half the stairs, then jumping to the floor below. "Trying to hold Voldemort off. Probably guarding the stairs, so that would put him..." He looked around the main floor. "Here. Or hereabouts."

"All right," said Remus. "Marking the spots..."

A large flame appeared where they thought James might have stood, and Sirius heard Aletha's low sound of wonder and was sure one had appeared for Lily as well.

"Ready when you are, love."

Danger closed her eyes for a moment, and Remus disappeared. The walls of the house turned transparent. Sirius looked up appreciatively. Aletha hastily moved away, glowering at him.

Remus, in the real world, was using his connection with Danger to see the dream house superimposed on reality, so that he could place his markers in real life. Those markers would be very important in...

Sirius checked his watch. Five minutes.

It was suddenly harder to breathe than it had been, and everything seemed uncomfortably warm. What if Remus and Danger were wrong? What if Voldemort had lied to them, or changed his mind once he arrived at the house?

Then we'll know. We're adults, we can cope with disappointment.

But he had seldom felt less adult than he did at this moment. He wanted it to happen, and he wanted it to happen now...

"He's done," said Danger as Aletha descended the almost-invisible stairs. "Ready to go back?"

The Blacks nodded, and in an instant Sirius was opening his real eyes and stretching his real arms and legs. Everyone else looked as excited and worried as he felt, he noticed.

He and Remus stood one on either side of the flame which marked James' place, which faded away once they were in position. Danger and Aletha had their wands out, standing under Lily's flame, which had not faded but broken into smaller flames, scattered about the proper area of the sky and, Sirius assumed, invisible to anyone but themselves.

Moony's good with details. No need to worry.

But he did worry. He worried a great deal.

Until he heard the screaming start.

The pain drowned out conscious thought, all that was left in the world was pain and darkness and the sound of his own screams, he'd never been anything but a mass of pain –

And suddenly it was over, and he was falling, stumbling backwards, and thought and purpose came back to him in a rush.

I have to save them... I have to help them...

"Gotcha!" said a voice, and he impacted hard against someone else, someone who was apparently prepared for him, who had been ready to catch him.

Anyone who was prepared for him here must be an enemy. He lashed out, striking at the person wildly. He would not go down without a fight.

"Hey, watch it!" the other man protested, fending off his blows. His eyes were open now, but he still couldn't see very well – he'd lost his glasses somewhere along the way, and it was dark, and whoever this bloke was, he was behind him...

"Prongs! Cool it!"

The sound of his nickname shocked him into momentary immobility, and his mind caught up with his body and gave him the speaker's identity before he could act again.

"Padfoot?" He pulled away and turned around.

"Nobody else," said his best friend, whom he could now see fuzzily, grinning at him. Something seemed odd about him, but James couldn't quite identify it.

"You might need these," said another familiar voice from behind him, and a hand came over his shoulder, holding his glasses.

James took them quickly and put them on, looking at the speaker. "Moony?"

"Good to see you again, Prongs."

"Where did you come from?" James accepted Remus' hand and got to his feet. "And what the hell happened to you? You look ten years older than you did the last time I saw you."

Remus shrugged a little, then suddenly turned his head. "Not now," he said, staring into the sky. "In a few minutes."

"A few... what's going on? And..." James realized where he was, and what was missing. "What happened to my house? And what happened to..."

A scream stopped his questions immediately. "Lily," he finished, looking around wildly for the source of the cry. "Lily!"

"Wingardium Leviosa!" shouted two female voices.

The screaming stopped abruptly, and James got oriented in time to see Lily drifting to the ground in a leisurely way, staring around her. He ran forward and caught her as the spell ended, pulling her close.

"Are we dead?" she asked shakily from her place against his chest. "Because I know you're dead. Are we dead too?"

Turning to see who she was talking to, James somehow wasn't surprised to see Danger Granger-Lupin standing there. Wherever you found Moony, after all, you found Danger, sooner or later. And it was more often sooner than later.

Geez, she looks older too. What happened to them?

"We're not dead, Lily," said another voice, and Aletha Freeman-Black came around them to face them. "No one's dead here. We're all alive."

James wondered slightly at the tone in her voice, which bespoke a very powerful thanksgiving, as of something that the speaker had given up hope for. Was it for Remus and Danger? He'd certainly given up hope of ever seeing them alive again... they must have just returned, or been rescued, that night, so that the Potters wouldn't yet have heard...

But where's the house? And where's Harry?

Lily seemed to have shared his second thought. "Harry," she breathed. "What's happened to Harry?"

"He's all right," said Sirius quickly. "Harry's perfectly fine, he's alive and well, he's safe. Nothing's happened to him."

"Let's go inside," suggested Danger, pointing to a tent which had appeared in a corner of the Potters' front yard, which was now fenced off, James saw.

How did all this happen? When did it happen?

His suspicions that all was not as it seemed grew. Especially when they were in the tent, and he got a good look at all his friends.

Sirius and Aletha had the same aged look as Remus and Danger. It didn't look unnatural, though, as if they'd had a shock – it looked as if they'd just aged normally. As if...

A fate worse than death...

James carefully shunted the voice out of his mind. He'd think about it in a few minutes, when he wasn't quite so rattled.

Lily accepted a mug of tea from Aletha and blew on it. It wasn't filled quite to the top, James saw. A wise precaution, since Lily's hands were still shaking, and he suspected his own were as well. Sure enough, his mug of hot chocolate was filled a little less than he might have liked, but if it meant he wouldn't spill it on himself, he was all for it.

He took a sip of the stuff, feeling it scald his tongue slightly and warm his throat as it went down. There were exactly six chairs, he saw now, and six mugs. It was obvious they'd been expected.

But how can they have expected us? There wasn't time to expect anything. No one knew Voldemort was coming, and if they'd known, they would have come in and fought with us, not rigged up a tent and offered us something to drink afterwards!

Something is not right here.

"So," said Remus finally, breaking the silence. "You want answers, I'm sure."

James nodded.

"What is going on?" Lily burst out. "What's happened to our house? And exactly where is Harry? Who's taking care of him? I want to know, and I want to know right now!"

Everyone looked at Sirius. Sirius looked at his tea, then up at Lily. "Harry's at Hogwarts, Lily," he said. "Dumbledore's taking care of him, as much as anyone is. And your house was destroyed, as far as we know, when Voldemort failed to kill him."

"Failed to kill him?" James repeated incredulously, as Lily blanched.

"Lily, did you take a curse for Harry?" asked Aletha. "Stop it by taking it on yourself?"

Lily nodded. "Of course I did."

"That sacrifice seems to have given him protection," said Danger. "Enough protection that the Killing Curse Voldemort tried to use on him not only didn't kill him, but reflected back on Voldemort, and on your house, tearing both of them to pieces."

"But... the curse I took was the Killing Curse." Lily looked bewildered. "I should be dead."

Remus shook his head. "It wasn't the Killing Curse," he said certainly. "Voldemort didn't intend to kill Harry when he came to your house. He intended to buy himself time."

"Buy himself time?" James could see his own confusion mirrored on Lily's face. "Time for what?"

"Time to become more powerful," said Aletha. "Time to become so strong that his opponent would have no chance against him."

"Harry's a baby!" Lily cried. "He had no chance in any case!"

"Well, with your help, actually, he defeated Voldemort," said Sirius smugly. "And the Snark Lord was gone for quite a long time."

James tensed. They were close to the heart of the mystery. "How can he have been gone for a long time," he asked carefully, "when he was in our house tonight?"

Suddenly no one would meet his eyes. It was Remus who finally looked at him. "James, that was ten years ago," he said quietly. "It's been ten years since Voldemort disappeared. That was what he came to your house intending to do. To push Harry ten years forward in time. But instead he did it to both of you. We've all thought you were dead for the last ten years."

Ten years forward in time...

Suddenly everything made a sick kind of sense. The way all his friends looked older. The fence, obviously in place for a long time. The house, just as obviously demolished for even longer.

They came here tonight to wait for us. But if they thought we were dead...

"How did you know?" he asked. "That we'd be here?"

"Long story," said Danger. "Short version, Voldemort told us himself."

James felt his mouth drop open. Lily supplied the word he wanted.

"Why?"

"Overconfidence, I suppose," said Remus. "And the pleasure of knowing he could do anything he wanted to our friends, and we couldn't do anything to stop him." He smiled. "But we could remember. And we did."

"Where were you, then?" asked Lily, leaning forward. "That Voldemort would talk to you? And when did you get free?"

"And what's been happening with you two?" said James to Sirius and Aletha. "You can't just have been sitting around all this time."

In the back of his mind, he knew he would react more later, that he would be very angry at having missed out on ten years of his life, and for that matter, ten years of Harry's life. But at the moment, he was perfectly willing to accept the illusion that nothing had changed, that this was just another evening with his friends, like so many he'd enjoyed before, and that everything would be perfectly all right.

And something was telling him that last one might not be an illusion after all.

(A/N: Kudos to those who got it, and smiles to those who didn't. I think one or two more chapters to this, then an epilogue, and another AU is finished... and I shall not abandon "Living without Danger", either. It too will be updated quite soon. :cackles: As long as you review, my pretties.

Guess what, everyone – I'm legal! That's right, as of yesterday I can buy and/or consume alcoholic beverages in the United States of America. I feel so grown-up. And scared. Can I just stay in school for another ten years, please? I like it here. Oh well. That's why I want to be a teacher, I guess. I just can't give up summer vacation.)