Dealing with losses and unexpected gains

By Tubbataha

Disclaimer: None of this is mine, well except the plot line and that has probably been used by some one else before, but otherwise everything recognisable belongs to JK Rowling and whom ever else own the rights to Harry Potter.

'thoughts'

"Speech"

Chapter 6

Once they had discovered that neither Harry or James had their wands on them, Harry said he would go back to No. 5 to get his as without a wand they would have no way of summoning the Knight bus. As Harry snuck in through the loose conservatory window, fortunately it appeared that the Dursely's had decided to go out for their Sunday lunch So at least was there was no one home. It was no great shock to Harry that they hadn't told him where they were going or for that matter that they had gone without him. He was however glad that he had finally persuaded James to stay outside as a lookout, it had taken a rather long and painfully drawn out conversation to explain to James that yes this was his 'home' but no they couldn't just use the floo; no his relatives wouldn't help; yes they were in fact muggles; no he wasn't muggleborn and yes it was a bad idea for him to come in as well.

He had to further go on to explain that unfortunately his owl was away delivering a message to some friends they couldn't even send a message ahead to anyone, not that Harry believed that would have done any good everyone would just assume he was having trouble dealing with Sirius' death and was there for seeking attention.

Harry finally got upstairs and lifted the loose floorboards where he hid his most precious belongings from the Dursely's and fished out his invisibility cloak which of course incidentally also belonged to the boy standing outside. Whilst Harry tucked it into the small tatty bag he found amongst the pile of Dudley's broken toys in the corner of the room, Harry did consider that it probably would not be prudent at this point it time for him to let the other boy know that he had said item in his possession. No good could come from his knowing, yet Harry felt still that he would be wise to take it just in case for knowing his luck who knew what else would happen and he didn't want to be caught again at a disadvantage.

Along with the cloak he gathered up the Marauders map which like the cloak he placed at the bottom of the bag as simply a precautionary measure. More importantly though he gathered up his wand and a small purse containing the few coins he had remaining from the previous year, as it had yet to be replenished by his annual trip to Diagon Alley. His broom would have been of little use and besides it and the rest of his school items had once again been locked up in the cupboard under the stairs.

With one last glance around the room to see if there was anything else that might prove to be useful he darted out the door and back down stairs, hoping that James hadn't manage to get him self into any trouble whilst he had been away. Some where in his mind Harry recognized how profoundly wrong it was to worry about ones father in such a way, but since when was any of family relations anything close to normal. Come on the closest thing he had to a father before now was an escape convict whom he had seen as the grim like dog probably as much as he had seen him in his human form.

'NO' Harry told himself firmly he would not think about Sirius now, he had other things to deal with at the moment. He couldn't let himself wallow in self pity, he didn't know how much time her had before the Dursely's got back and he didn't want Uncle Vernon to catch him in the house when he had been specifically told to stay outside and amuse himself for the day.

"Take your time don't you" called James as Harry made his way back round the front of the house to where James was waiting.

"I picked up a few other things as well" Harry said motion to the bag.

"Oh yeah like what?" James queried "You didn't happen to pick up any food did ya?"

Harry chuckled 'and I thought Remus said Siri was the one who always thought with his stomach'. Pain once again lance through Harry as his thoughts returned as they always seemed to at the moment to his deceased god father. He distracted himself once again by answering James.

"No food, sorry but I picked up a couple of things that aren't important but they may prove useful just in case.

James just quirked an eye brow in question, but was happy to let it past when they reached the curb and Harry pulled out his wand and asked if he was ready to go. James quickly replied affirmatively. They walked back around to a quiet stretch of curb back near the park before summoning the bus as neither had any particularly strong desire to get in trouble with the ministry today.

No sooner had Harry stuck out his wand there was a loud bang and there stood the rather odd looking purple Double Decker that was the knight bus. Both boys scrambled on and Harry turned to the conductor who he was surprised to find was not Stan to pay their fare, however before he enquire as about Stan's absence an familiar voice called out from behind him.

"And what do you think you are doing Mr. Potter?"

'No please don't let it be him', Harry plead to what ever force in the universe may be listening, 'any on but him'. Unfortunately for Harry he had no such luck as he turned round he was greeted by the sight of Professor Snape glaring down at James like he was the lowest life form on earth. James for his part was gaping at Snape his face a mixture horror and complete shock. If it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation Harry would have burst out laughing, as it was he decided it would be best to distract Snape's attention away from his shell shocked father before he could suffer any more of the greasy git's wrath.

"I'm sorry Professor Snape but a situation came up and it was decided that it would best be brought to Dumbledore" Harry tried to interject as much confidence as he could in his voice.

Snape's head shot up towards Potter's voice and he did a quick double take looking from the Potter who answered him to the Potter who stood before him a few times before recognizing the subtle differences between the two. As the meaning of these differences permeated his brain a cruel smirk slipped across his lips.

"My, My Potter what have you done now?" Snape said gleefully addressing his student. Said student however was prevented from answering his professor as the knight shot forwards, throwing both Potters down the aisle towards toilet that was conveniently located directly in their path at the back of the bus and of course the door just had to be open.

"Argg" James let out a groan as both he and Harry crashed into the small cubicle.

AN: I know I said I would get them to Hogwarts this chapter but things just did go that way, besides I kinda like this as an end point so I can now go away and work out where I am going to go from here.

Once again a big thank you to my reviewers! Thanks for sticking with me, hope you like this one.