Chapter 6: Visions and Memories
"Harry," Ron whispered, "Why is it you never told us your parents lived in a mansion?"
Harry was speechless.
"Their house is...has...wow..." Ron remarked.
Harry stepped into the house and searched it with his eyes.
My parents have stepped before on the very spot I'm standing, he couldn't help but think.
As he looked at the spiral stair-case and the huge loft, he could imagine his mum walking down the stairs or both of them running through the house, teasing each other.
"Amazing," Harry muttered, stepping in further so the others could come in as well.
Harry was feeling mixed emotions about walking around the house much-less letting the others do so.
"Harry, your parents left the house to Sirius in their will, but apparently Sirius had no knowledge of this bit of information. Therefore, since you are a direct descendent of Lilly and James Potter, the house is passed on to you."
Harry goggled at him, "But Sirius left me Grimauld Place! That means I own two houses now!"
Lupin smiled at him, "Exactly."
"Well, if this is my house...all of you take off your shoes before you get on to the carpet," he said, grinning around at the group.
To his surprise each of the five of them obeyed him and he felt his face heat up.
"Let me show you to your room," Lupin told Harry, setting Hermione's trunk down and taking Harry's from Moody.
They headed up the stairs and through a long hall way, and finally to the end of another before they reached a room that had a gold plate on it that said, "Harry's Room."
Harry felt himself choke up again.
Lupin nodded to him and he slowly opened the door to reveal a fairly large room with a window, a cradle with a mobile hanging above it, a changing table, a rocking chair, and a plastic basket full of baby toys.
Harry couldn't breathe much less speak.
"You can sleep in the crib if you'd like, but I can conjure you a bed and a few accessories if that's your preference."
"I...I don't know."
"Don't know?"
"I don't want to disturb anything."
"I know, Harry, but we can put everything exactly as we found it when we go to leave."
"Are you sure?" Harry asked, tearing his eyes away from the crib to look at Lupin.
"Positive."
"Alright, let me just look around before anybody changes anything."
Lupin nodded, "I'll be sure to tell the others," he said, setting Harry's trunk down and leaving Harry to be alone.
He wasn't sure of where to begin. The house was so enormous and there were so many rooms that he felt overwhelmed.
After what seemed like hours of pondering on how to go about looking around his parents house, he finally decided that he would start at one end of the mansion and make his way to the other.
He walked quickly to the room that was down and across the hall from his.
When he opened the door his breath was, yet again, taken away.
"Hermione would love this," he muttered.
Harry stood gazing at a gigantic, cathedral-ceiling library where the shelves of books reached up to over fifty feet tall and there were rolling ladders so people could get up to the top shelf.
As Harry cautiously stepped in, paying more attention to the ceiling, which was made purely out of glass, than where he was going, he bumped into a fancy-legged wooden table. The intricate trim around the edge was what caught Harry's attention first. Then, as if burned with a match or the tip of a wand, right in the center of the table was written, "James loves Lilly," enclosed in a heart.
"Wow," Harry whispered.
Five chairs, two on each side of the table and one on the end, surrounded it and had the same intricate trim on it as the table did.
Harry touched the table and all of the sudden everything got blurry and Harry felt nauseous. Just as suddenly it all went away, but four young people were sitting at the table he was touching; apparently oblivious to his presence.
On one side of the table was a beautiful red-haired girl, no older than twenty-one, holding what appeared to be a newborn. Next to her was an empty seat.
On the other side was a young-looking and very calm Remus Lupin, but he looked as if he'd just been beaten. Harry knew better; there had been a full-moon recently.
As Harry looked at the chair next to Lupin, who had just folded his hands on the table and was now looking at them, he advanced on the ratty-looking buck-toothed Peter Pettigrew and attempted to strangle him, but it was just like trying to catch smoke with his bare hands.
Harry noticed that Pettigrew seemed nervous as he kept tapping his fingers, loosening his collar, and his eyes kept darting around the room.
"Almost done there, James?" came a voice from the end chair.
Harry looked over to see a very handsome Sirius Black. He was thin, but a healthy thin unlike he was when he died. His black hair hung around his face, but not to the extent that it was annoying. Harry couldn't help but notice that his arms were coolly crossed across his chest and he was tipping back in his chair.
Harry looked over where Sirius was looking and was pleased to see an older image of himself.
"Yes yes," James Potter said, turning away from the door in which he had just placed several sealing charms, "I just want to make sure no one can hear."
James sat next to the red-haired woman Harry had just realized was his mother.
James hair was quite a mess, but had the distinction that it had just been attempted to be combed moments before. He also had glasses, just like Harry, but they weren't as round.
"Lilly darling, let me give you a break," he said, gently taking the baby from her.
Pettigrew spoke up, startling Harry, "Are you sure he won't…" he nervously started.
Lilly quietly interrupted him but was clearly offended, "Harry is still only a baby, Peter, he won't remember anything that's said."
"But are you sure…" he started again, his little black, rat-like eyes darting all over the library.
"Wormtail, you dolt!" Sirius said, falling forward in his chair, "He's only just a few months old! How in the bloody hell would he be able to understand much less remember it?"
"The Dark Lord has powers unknown t…" Pettigrew started more quietly.
"Oh cut it out with the whole, "Dark Lord," load of rubbish! He's got a name you know! Vol–de–mort!" Sirius said, pronouncing it for him.
Pettigrew fell sideways off of his seat.
"It's all in the mind," Lupin wisely said, "If you tell yourself you are afraid of something, then you will be."
"Well then, if we're through with that," James said, "let's get down to business. Has anyone heard anymore recent new on the horcruxes?" he asked as Pettigrew gave a very obvious twitch.
Sirius rolled his eyes, "Pathetic little lump," he muttered.
Lupin was shaking his head, "No, I'm afraid not."
Sirius now looked deep in thought, "I heard he's made a sixth one, but I don't know how, where or what."
"Who did you hear it from, Padfoot?" James asked.
Sirius hesitated, "I had a little run-in with Snivels the other day and he just happened to mention that Voldemort had gotten himself another one."
The room rung with silence as everybody, except Pettigrew, stared at him, their mouths half-open.
"He only said it as he was running away from me," he continued, looking guilty, "Pity, though, we didn't get to finish our duel."
"I'm sure he was just trying to…" Lupin began.
"No, I'm sure he was…" Sirius started, but Harry never heard the rest of his sentence as it turned into a mumble.
Everything turned blurry once more and he again found himself dizzy.
"Don't touch him," he heard Lupin whisper.
Harry opened his eyes to find himself in the exact spot he had just been in only moments before, but an older Lupin, Ron and Hermione were all looking at him from the doorway.
"Harry," Ron said, looking at the ceiling, "Your parents had to have been rich…" he began as Lupin helped Harry into a chair and Hermione glared at Ron.
Harry felt just as he had in his third year after the Dementor attack.
"Tonks is going to the local store for some chocolate, Harry," Lupin told him, "Did you find out anything new?" he asked.
"Not anything you didn't already know," he muttered, feeling sweaty and sick to his stomach.
Lupin nodded, "I know. I didn't think there would be any visions I didn't know of at first. Which one was it, Harry?"
"I was there…only a few months old…and you, my dad, mum, Sirius and that blasted Pettigrew were there."
"Talking about the newly discovered knowledge of the sixth horcruxe?"
Harry nodded.
"I didn't believe Sirius for the longest time. Then a week or two later, the Order got word from somewhere that one of the Death Eaters had been brutally punished because he had let that knowledge slip."
"And it was…was Snape," Harry weakly said.
Lupin nodded, "It was Snape."
A bright-green haired Tonks suddenly burst into the room and looked quite flustered.
"Harry," she said, "I've got your chocolate, but an owl came for you too!"
Harry immediately opened the chocolate and took a bite of it even though it looked far from appetizing.
Tonks handed Harry Hedwig and she had a package for him in her beak.
"Let me see it then," he said to her as he took it from her.
He quickly opened it and took out a memory-filled bottle.
"Harry, read the note," Hermione eagerly said, handing him a piece of parchment.
As Harry read down the note and read it over and over several times, his heart-beat quickened.
"Well? Whose it from?" Ron asked.
Harry looked up at all the eager faces, feeling like he was going to retch up the chocolate he had just eaten.
He swallowed.
"It's from…" he began, looking at the sender of the note again as if there were some mistake.
There wasn't.
"S…" he couldn't finish his sentence because it was so unbelievable.
