CHAPTER 31: Return of the Marauders

"Don't forget about me!"

"Yes, Harry, don't forget your mother." Harry was holding back tears as he found the package where his parents voices were coming from. He opened it carefully and saw a portrait of his parents smiling back at him. The portrait wasn't unlike the one of Sirius' mother, but his parents weren't yelling.

"I guess this means we're dead, right Lily?" The redheaded woman nodded to her husband.

"Excuse me, Mr. Potter, but technically you aren't allowed to take anything out of this vault until you come of age. I believe, however, we can find a loophole to allow you to take this one thing with you." Harry turned to see Griphook with a very serious look on his face.

"Thank you."

"Please, don't mention it Mr. Potter. Would you like some more time or should we proceed to your personal vault?"

"Let's go to the personal vault, I want to see how much you've spent." James said with a laugh. Harry carefully carried the portrait back to the mining cart, where they sped off towards Harry's personal vault. When he entered James gave out a low whistle. "You haven't spent much, have you?" Harry shook his head, barely able to speak.

"I haven't had much of a use for it in the past."

"What do you mean, Harry. Who's been buying all of your things for you?" This time it was Lily.

"Nobody. After you died Dumbledore put me with your sister, Petunia. I didn't know anything about you, or me for that matter, until Hagrid came to deliver my letter."

"HE LEFT YOU WITH THOSE MUGGLES!" James roared, clearly this wasn't the plan.

"Harry, Dumbledore told us that if anything happened to us, which obviously it did, he would find a loving family to take care of you and protect you. I hardly think Petunia would've cared for you." Lily said.

"No, they didn't. They almost wouldn't let me go to Hogwarts either. Hagrid had to, well, convince them."

"I always did like Hagrid." James said with a smile. "You want me to have a talk with the muggles? I'm sure a talking portrait will scare them."

"It would have I'm sure, but they were murdered this past year by Voldemort." The parents traded a worried look.

"So he's back then?" Harry nodded.

"He killed you on Halloween, but when he tried to kill me the spell rebounded and he lost his body."

"But…how is that possible? We have no idea what happened just before or after we died, our imprints were taken just after you were born and we went into hiding."

"You made it possible, mom. You died trying to shield me from Voldemort, your love created some sort of shield that protected me from him."

"So he can't touch you?"

"He can now. Wormtail did some ceremony to help him get his body back and used my blood. Now that my blood is a part of him he can touch me."

"So Peter really did betray us, didn't he?" Harry nodded solemnly before going back to looking at his vault. Harry thought it was time to open some of the other packages Sirius had left him.

"Didn't I tell you not to open that yet?"

"Sirius, you old dog! Where are you?" James yelled.

"Over here, Prongs. Harry can you unwrap me?" Harry saw that the voice was coming from a box in the corner. When Harry unwrapped the box he found a portrait of Sirius.

"So I really am dead then? Man, this sucks!"

"Watch your mouth, Sirius."

"Sorry, Lil. So Harry, did Remus give you the motorcycle?"

"Yea, it's amazing!"

"Harry James Potter, you are not to be riding that motorcycle around! Right James?" James, however, didn't share her enthusiasm.

"Come on, Lilly. You didn't mind it when I took you for a ride." He joked, this earned him a glare.

"Look, I'm going to take you guys home now. We can catch up when we get there, ok?" All three agreed and Harry wrapped them up again and followed Griphook out to the cart. After reaching the lobby Harry nearly broke into a run to get to Ollivanders. He was hoping he wouldn't have to wait long so he could get back to Godric's Hollow and put up the portraits. When Harry arrived at the wand makers Ollivander had obviously just finished with the wand. He was talking to himself in excited whispers as he re-measured every aspect of his creation. When Harry walked in he nearly jumped out of his seat.

"Mr. Potter! I'm so glad your back, I've finished with your wand, Holly, eleven inches, nice and supple just like your current wand. I thought you might like the wands to look the same so nobody could tell the difference unless you were holding both. This wand, however, is a bit more potent." Ollivander excitedly thrust the wand into Harry's hand. Harry felt a surge of energy as he gripped the wand and when he gave it a quick flick it shot red and gold sparks so bright that Mr. Ollivander had to shield his eyes. A few people passing by the shop even stopped to take a look at what had made the store shine so brightly. "I dare say that this is one powerful creation, Mr. Potter. I wonder if you'd give a slight demonstration?"

Mr. Ollivander asked him to aim for a small bowl sitting on top of his desk and use the redactor curse to blow it up. Harry took careful aim and blew away not only the bowl but the entire desk as well, Ollivander nearly fainted. Harry quickly repaired the desk and bowl and turned to the elderly wand maker.

"Mr. Potter, I can honestly say I have never seen such power in one so young. I understand that much of it comes from the wand, but the wand is but an extension of yourself, this particular magical core just allows for much more energy to pass through it, you still supply all of the power." Harry went to pay for the wand but Mr. Ollivander insisted that giving him the extra basilisk fangs to work with was payment enough. Under normal circumstances Harry would have argued, but he had more pressing matters to deal with.

As soon as he got out of the shop he saw the unmistakable figure of Alastor Moody making his way through the crowd. Ducking back into the shop Harry peered through the crowd and picked out two more Order members in a matter of seconds. Dawlish was harder to pick out, as he had his hood up much like Harry, but the strings of sandy hair that were clearly visible in certain lights gave him away. Unlike Dawlish Mudungus Fletcher was very easy to pick out of a crowd, unfortunately he recognized Harry right away as well. The thief looked around discretely before nodding his head towards a nearby alleyway. Harry waited for Dung to disappear and for Alastor and Dawlish to be watching something else before he walked briskly from the shop and into the alley.

"You put quite a fright inter Dumbledore, 'Arry." Harry smiled and pulled back his hood.

"That was the plan, Dung. Unfortunately he's kicked me out of the Order meetings."

" 'e did what?"

"You heard me Dung. I've found out about a few of his manipulations and called him no it. I guess he doesn't want me turning you guys against him now." Harry saw the outlines of a plan coming into shape in the back of his mind. "I don't want you to tell anyone else either, Dung. Not until I say so at least."

"Well, it's too late for me, I'm already with you, 'Arry, so I'll hold off on tellin' anyone else for the moment, too. Albus told us, in no uncertain terms, to make sure we caught you and brought you back with us. He sent me because he thought you might be in Knockturn Alley. Dunno why he'd think that though."

"Because I was in Knockturn Alley. It's a long story, so are you going to bring me in?"

"What you think? Course not, 'arry, but this news about you bein' kicked outta the order is interesting. I think I can help there. Now get outta here before they realize I'm missing." Harry nodded and watched the man walk cautiously out of the alley. As soon as he was gone Harry dissaparated, reappearing seconds later in his house in Godric's Hollow. He ran up to the master bedroom where he quickly unwrapped the two portraits and hung hem over the king size bed.

"Look Lily, it's my bachelor pad!"

"Shut up, James. This was our home."

"Yea, but now it's Harry's bachelor pad." Harry had to laugh, they seemed more like teenagers than any parents he knew. "While we were traveling Sirius filled us in on most of what happened after we died, he also tells me you're an incredible flier."

"I'm ok I guess."

"OK!" Sirius bellowed. "YOU'RE BRILLIANT!" Then, in a much softer voice he continued. "If you were around back when we were in school you would've been able to grab the snitch out of the air before Prongs here could have." James looked almost mad.

"It wasn't my job to catch the snitch!"

"Maybe not but you did carry that thing around with you all the time." James just laughed.

"I forgot you were always mad that you couldn't get it from me."

"Boys would you two stop bickering, I'd like to talk to our son." All attention was turned back to Harry, who had a smile on his face and a single tear running down his cheek. "So why did it take you so long to get to the vault?"

"Er- I only just found out about it on Christmas, that was yesterday."

"WHAT? Dumbledore didn't tell you?"

"Dumbledore hasn't been telling me a lot of things, Dad. He didn't tell me about the prophesy until I found out about it for myself, he hid me away from the wizarding world and didn't tell me who you guys or even who I was. He didn't tell me that he spikes the students drinks with a tracking potion to keep tabs on them-"

"So that's how he always caught us, Prongs?"

"I reckon so, Padfoot old boy."

"Harry, mind if I ask a question?" Sirius asked, fidgeting slightly in his frame. When Harry nodded he continued. "How did I die?"

"Voldemort used our link to send me pictures of you in the Department of Mysteries being tortured. When I got there I didn't see you, but I saw the prophesy. I picked it up and an all out battle between me, a few of my friends, and death eaters ensued. The prophesy got destroyed and it looked like we were about to lose when you, Remus, Moody, and a few others appeared. Bellatrix hit you with a stunner and you were knocked through a veil where supposedly the dead are trapped. I tried to duel Bellatrix but that was when Voldemort showed up. Dumbledore came and captured most of the death eaters, than dueled Voldemort. Bellatrix and him dissaaparated just as the ministry workers started showing up." The room was silent before Harry asked the question that had been on his mind ever since seeing his first wizarding portrait. "How is it that you guys know so much? I mean in the muggle world portraits are just pictures, they don't talk let alone remember things."

"You really were sheltered from wizard life for a long time, weren't you, son? Before a wizard dies he can choose to leave an imprint of himself along with his will. When the imprint is taken it retains all the memories and quirks and characteristics of the wizard up until that point. Your mother and I made our imprints a few weeks before Halloween, so the last we remember of you is as a toddler. Portraits can learn new things, however, so we won't just forget everything you and Sirius have told us." Lily took over from there.

"In our will we left instructions for our paintings to be commissioned, wizard painters use the imprints of dead witches and wizards to make portraits that seem alive. Just remember, Harry, we aren't alive and you shouldn't spend all your time with us. If I think you're neglecting your life we will up and leave these portraits." Harry nodded and wiped away another tear.

"In fact I'm making you leave right now, after you answer one question." Harry looked at his dad and waited for the question to come. "You have a girl yet?"

"James!"

"Now Lily, I think it's important for us parents to know who our son is off snogging." Lilly gave another exasperated look, but was obviously eager to here Harry's response as well.

"I was dating a girl named Parvati Patil, but that didn't exactly work out. Now I'm dating Ginny Weasley." Harry's parents looked over towards Sirius.

"Good choice, Harry. I always did like Ginny." Then looking back towards James he added. "She's a looker too, a year younger than Harry here but quite stunning nonetheless. She reminded me a bit of you, Lily. Only she's more like me and Prongs than you." Lilly stuck her tongue out at Sirius, who just laughed before getting a pensive look on his face. "But what is it with you Potters and red heads?"