Wow! Thankyou peeps for all the wonderful reviews! They were fabulous. I got ten reviews in less then a day! hugs YAY! So I went ahead and spent the past few hours typing this and the next chappie. This way I wont fall behind (But chappie three will have a reasonable period of time between posting, at least a day.)
For those of you who wanted that link to the potterpuffs cartoons, I'll put it in my profile because it wont let me post it in my story's footnotes. But I'll do that later.
Back in Dumbledore's office, Peter Pettigrew had been given three drops of veritaserum, and the professors and headmaster present were certainly not pleased with the information that had been forthcoming.
Pettigrew had switched over the previous year, because it was safer. Yeah, you get hit by the occasional crucio, but light wizards don't aim to kill their enemies, whereas death eaters do.
When the issue came up about sending Pettigrew to azkaban though, McGonagall had to drop another hint, saying she had found out Pettigrew's animagus form - being a rat -Wormtail.
Pettigrew of course, didn't loose his chance at getting his friends in trouble. Telling the others that Sirius and James were animagi too.
Both Dumbledore and Snape looked surprised by her knowledge, but it was decided that azkaban was currently out of the question, as he could just slip through the bars. Dumbledore offered to speak with the Minister the next morning, keeping Pettigrew locked away until then.
"Another thing, you didn't seem surprised about Peter being a death eater. If you'd found out earlier then why didn't you tell me before, or even after the meeting? How did you find out?" Dumbledore had caught on fast, but McGonagall had already thought ahead.
"Remember at the beginning of the meeting, when I collapsed?"
"Yes"
"I had a… I don't know. It wasn't a vision" her face turned into a scowl "Definitely wasn't anything like divination. Stupid subject." Realising her audience, she continued "I don't know, I just suddenly knew. And I knew if it weren't dealt with tonight, something bad would happen. Sorry I didn't handle the situation better, Albus."
"Yeah, now Dumbledore's going to get a heap of requests to deal with me" Snape sneered.
She hung her head, pretending to be sorry. McGonagall was, in fact trying to keep the attention away from a certain baby. She should have known it was futile.
"Ah yes. But it seems we got lucky tonight" Dumbledore replied warmly. "Seems Harry is quite the smart little baby." Snape's head shot up, remembering his attempts at legilimency
"Headmaster. That baby isn't Harry Potter. I think he's being possessed or something." Dumbledore raised his eyebrow as Snape continued.
"No baby his age should be able to say something like 'snake arm'. He's only started recognising words like 'bottle' or 'sleepy' these past months. I wanted to know how he found out about Pettigrew when none of us realised. I used legilimency on him."
Dumbledore smiled, amused. His eyes twinkling. "And what did you find?" But the answer wiped the smile right off Dumbledore's face. "I couldn't pass his occlumency shields, Headmaster."
"What?" Barely anything left the Albus Dumbledore speechless, but Snape had just managed it.
"His occlumency shields were too strong. They were stronger then the ones I manage. I could go as far to say they're at least as strong as yours."
Both Dumbledore and Minerva had paled at this news, even if it was for different reasons. McGonagall tried to calm the rapidly escalating situation. "Maybe the boy is a natural Occlumens. They're rare, but they exist."
"No" Snape cut in, "When he felt me trying to enter his mind he reinforced the shields. It was quite deliberate."
"We will have to watch the situation. For now he helped us find a traitor in our ranks. But we should find out what is going on after we've sorted this business out with you." Dumbledore said of Snape. You cannot make the mark disappear, but I happen to have a muggle-born friend who's parents work designing costumes and disguises for movies. Maybe they could help?"
"You have friends to help in whatever ridiculous plan you think of; it's a whole bloody network! If you can't hide it by magic, what help is muggle means?" Dumbledore smiled at Snape's response.
"We had better be going, its getting late and we have to have it done by tomorrow. Minerva dear, if you'll excuse us." Dumbledore swept out of the room followed by a scowling potions professor.
Back in the guest chambers, Harry had managed to sneak Lily's wand out of her holster without her noticing, which was no easy task. He then hid it in his own clothes. It might actually have been successful if James hadn't changed Harry into his Pyjamas.
Upon finding the wand, James called out to Lily, jokingly. "Hey Lily flower. What are you doing giving Harry your wand?"
"What? Oh, Harry, this is a big kid's toy. No touchy, okay?" Harry decided to just make a gurgling noise in response.
"Prongslet's already following in the footsteps of us marauders." Sirius grinned.
Lupin however looked thoughtful. "When did Harry begin to develop a proper vocabulary?"
"What are you talking about?" James laughed. "He's gurgling, he needs so many words for that." His voice tinged with sarcasm.
"No, earlier. Harry said 'snake arm'. I didn't even know Harry had seen a snake to recognise it, let alone use the word."
Even Sirius looked thoughtful at this last comment. "He did take ages to learn to say 'Padfoot'. He still has trouble."
Lily just smiled. "Maybe he's having a learning spurt. We should go to Flourish and Blotts to buy some children's books."
They all grinned at Lily's thinking, and agreed a trip to Diagon Alley was in order. Harry himself was grinning as he was placed in his cot. No one suspected anything; and if I have one night of nightmares, it won't arouse suspicion. He'd just have to steal a wand soon. With that Harry rolled over and went to sleep.
………
The final attack. All had fallen in Voldemorts reign; only Hogwarts had kept Voldemort at bay, but now just a handful of people stopped even that from being overtaken by the dark forces.
Hogwarts had been turned into a refugee hideout for muggleborns, half-bloods, and even lightside pureblood children who had lost their families to Voldemort's attacks.
Voldemort was killing the older children and the last remaining aurors. Now anyone who had the will to cast the killing curse did so. Light or dark, it didn't matter. They were the last defence for the younger children still inside.
Severus Snape stepped back from the ranks of death eaters, and suddenly started shooting off as many Aveda Kedavras as possible. He managed to get fifteen death eaters down before someone hit him with the same curse.
As the curse flew toward him, Harry watched the grim determination in Snape's eyes as he lashed out with his entire magic - and life force - and killed all the other death eaters near by.
His life force spent, Snape collapsed; dead before the curse had a chance to reach him. Harry was devastated. Snape had given his life for the light side, even though only a select few even knew he was a double agent. Snape and McGonagall were his last close companions still alive, and now Snape was gone.
……
"Nooooooo!"
Harry awoke screaming; as he had guessed he would. He quickly silenced himself, hoping no one had heard, but Lily came running over to the cot and scooped him up, rocking him gently
"Oh, my poor baby. Were you dreaming about mean little Peter? He did give you a fright last night. You've gone all pale, and you're shaking, maybe we should take you to see Poppy Pomfrey?"
Harry just schooled his breathing back to normal pace and practiced his meditation to clear his mind, as he had learned in occlumency training.
"You're really sickly looking, maybe we should see Poppy now, whatever it is it came on quickly. Is my poor baby getting sick? Yes you are; yes you are." Lily started cooing in a baby voice.
She changed his nappy - Harry cringed at needing one - before letting James know where she was going. By the time they reached the hospital wing, Harry was back to looking like a happy, healthy baby, but Lily insisted on a check over.
"He woke up screaming bloody murder. And he was pale and shaking. He looked positively unwell. Oh, I was so worried…" Lily stopped, realising she was rambling. Madam Pomfrey muttered, waving her wand at Harry and a chart filled with stats appeared in the air.
After going through them Madam Pomfrey declared Harry in perfect health apart from a slight nappy rash. Harry blushed furiously hearing this, but neither woman noticed.
"Sorry about keeping you up for nothing then" Lily apoligised
"Oh, rubbish, I'd just finished with some students anyway. Thought it would be okay to duel in the trophy room. I suppose this is one time I'm glad filch found them, or else it could've been much worse."
"Actually since you're going that way, could you give this to Mr Lupin? It's the pain relieving potion he asked for, for next week." Madam Pomfrey handed Lily a small vial, which she took gingerly.
He doesn't have wolfsbane yet. Harry reminded himself. Well If I'm going to change things anyway, I'm sure it wont matter if he gets it a few years early. I'll speak with McGonagall about it, he decided.
Lily took Harry back to his cot, though it was almost morning and Harry didn't bother trying to go back to sleep. Lily seemed to realise this and warmed a bottle for him, as she hummed softly to herself. The next person up was James.
Okay, he loved his parents, but they immediately went all mushy on him. They were kissing each other and snuggling happily. Gross. They're like Hermione and Ron with their public displays of affection.
Harry let out an undignified squeal and the couple pulled apart so Lily could hand over the bottle. Okay, I'm a baby, but this sure is nice. He started drinking, but about halfway through the bottle Sirius entered the kitchen.
Harry dropped the bottle and reached out from the high chair he had been placed in. "Pa-Foo-" Padfoot Harry had taken the pronunciation from his second set of memories. It was weird remembering things as if he was a baby, and yet understanding them as an adult.
Sirius picked him up and spun him around, Harry just laughed gleefully as he got a piggyback, all nightmares momentarily forgotten.
"Guess what Prongslet! We're going to Diagon Alley today. C'mon, we gotta go get dressed now, don't we?" And Sirius took him to get changed as Remus crawled out of bed.
Next chappie: Moldywart turns up in Diagon Alley... Sorry, but I had to tell you, I realise it is a bit of a cliffy in saying that but hey.