Chapter 5b
Snape closes the potion journal he had been staring at for the past one hour. He knew McGonagall had already spoken to Potter about his…. He can't even think of them without remembering that night.
Snape was stunned at seeing the knife in front of his eye that hadn't been there a moment before. James said "you shouldn't have tried to enter our brains without permission. Its rude." Snape gulped. No one had been able to catch the fact that he was an accomplished Leglimens, a skill he had learned was essential in his survival with the Dark Lord. As these thoughts, crossed his mind, the knife he saw wobbles and slowly disintegrates as if the individual was unable to sustain the knife's form. He glanced at Dumbledore who had a serene expression on his face but his fingers make a circling motion indicating that he is analysing the situation. Snape looked at James who seemed to be expecting something and gritted out an apology. James brightened up and said "Its okay, I know you don't trust us yet. But I would really like to see the head wound." Snape became aware of a throbbing at the back of his head that seemed to be edging on the borderline of bothering him. As James said the words, everyone except himself, Dumbledore and McGonagall looked at him with an amused expression. Lily gave a slight smile and said "It seems that we have gotten on a wrong foot here. Why don't we redo all of this? Can you please let James look at your head or he is not going to stop obsessing over it?" Before Snape gave his permission, James had immediately gotten up and walked up to Snape, going behind him. He touched the spot, and Snape flinched as the spot where that man hit the gun was still tender and the next second Snape felt a warmth pass through him and when he touched his head, the spot was no longer tender. Stunned, Snape mumbled out a thank you and James nodded his head his expression now pale as if he expended some energy. He walked back to the sofa, and sat between Lily and the metal arm man and both held his hand. The red- headed woman who by now was sitting near on the armrest of the single seater sofa where the man who has a greenish tinge on his skin had sat on said "well, it seems that you don't know about us, since you were immediately on the offensive as soon as you arrived."
Dumbledore said "I must confess that we were rather surprised when we arrived so we reacted in an offensive manner, I do apologise for that. As to who you all are, then I must reassure you that I do have an impression of who you all are although I don't know your names personally and that's because I recognise one of you only and that is Mr Stark. I must say it is rather an honour to meet the Avengers." Tony grinned as everyone rolled their eyes not at all surprised that he was the only one recognised. Everyone then introduced themselves. The blond man with the blue eyes and standing next to Tony is Steve Rogers. The man with the metal arm is Bucky. The red headed woman sitting on the armrest of the single seater sofa is Natasha. And the man sitting on the single seater sofa is Bruce.
Tony then taking the reins of conversation in his hand "Well you know who we are but we don't know who you all are and how do you know our dear Layla and Jameson. Seeing the expression of confusion in their face, Lily said "My name is Layla." James said "My name is Jameson." Dumbledore asks "And you don't remember us at all?". Both Layla and Jamieson shook their head. McGonagall asks, a slight anxiety in her voice "you remember someone?". Both Layla and Jamieson looked at each other while Bucky squeezed Jameson's hand. Layla said still looking at Jameson and Bucky "A boy. We remember a boy." Jameson continued "His laugh. How he used to clap his hands and reach for us immediately when we enter his room. He never cried. Always a smile on his face." Layla said "then something wearing a deep hood attacked us one night. Jameson tried to protect us and I did something with my blood before that hood entered the room. But even then, I couldn't protect my boy. The last thing I remember is seeing something pointy pointed at our boy." Everyone is silent as Layla's hands started trembling. Jameson shifted Layla to the middle and both Jameson and Bucky caught her hand between both of their hands. She took a deep breath and calming herself down said "He is our son. Right? That 's why you made him stay here. Because Petunia is my blood relative and I was the one who casted this blood protection charm." Dumbledore simply nodded his head. Dumbledore introduced himself, McGonagall and Snape by names but just said that he and McGonagall were their school teachers whereas was a student in their batch . He explained how Voldemort had targeted them never giving the reason of why they were targeted. Snape could see that the Avengers had questions but respecting Dumbledore allowed him to finish his story.
McGonagall then removed a photograph from her pocket and smoothing it out gave it to Layla. Jamieson took the photograph and Layla, Jamieson and Bucky looked at the photograph. Tony peered over them and said "the photograph is moving." Dumbledore said "yes, our photographs usually are this manner. Harry is…." Layla, Jameson and Bucky pointed and Jameson turned and showed the exact position of Harry in the middle of the Quidditch team "the boy with the brightest eyes." McGonagall smiles and said "the photograph was taken after Harry's first Quidditch match as the Gryffindor seeker. The boy is just like you James. Extremely talented." Jamieson said "My name is Jameson, not James." McGonagall's smile went from her face. Jamieson said "I want to be this James that you speak of but right now I can't be him nor I think that I can ever be that James again. Mine and Layla's life has changed too much and we have been through too much to go back to being this James and Lily. I don't think that I can go back to that person also. So, I do request you not to call me by that name."
Bruce then spoke up remaining silent all this time, "Have you got any of Harry things even from the house? We would like to have a DNA sample to check." Snape snarked out "seems like you don't trust us." Natasha said "No, we don't". Steve looks at her irritatingly and said "you have verified Layla and Jamieson's identity through your means. But unfortunately, you are also unknown to us. And as you know as Avengers also we face multiple threats on various fronts. So, we do believe you but I do think that we should also double check from our side also." Dumbledore said "while, I do understand your question and I am familiar that one of the ways in which we can get a DNA sample is by blood, but you must understand removing blood in our world is unheard of. Asking someone for their blood will raise question." Layla said "We don't need it. We know he is our son." Steve said "Layla."
Layla said "No, I know he is my son. And right now, the DNA testing is just a formality which we can do later on okay. Please Steve. No". Steve nodded his head with a sigh. Dumbledore taking out his wand, said "I would like to check if there is any trace of memory charm on yourself." Jameson asks "Memory charm? Sounds like a charm that tampers with our memories." Snape said "That is exactly what it does." Layla nodded her consent and Dumbledore cast the spell that detected the use of memory charms. No trace was found. Dumbledore frowned and said "No trace of memory charm. Can you tell us the first memory you had and where you were when you woke up?". But right before Layla could say anything, everyone's phones buzzed. Tony taking his phone immediately said "Avengers Call. Its Ross. He needs all of us to come in." Everyone stood and Layla said "we have to leave. How do we contact you?". Dumbledore said "I will send a bird. Give your letters to him." Layla nodded her head and as Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape watches, Tony presses a button. As the Avengers walk out of the living room and outside the house, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape follows them. Seeing them look up, they see a giant steel aircraft appear out of nowhere and land in the middle of the road. No noise came from the engines. The entrance door opens at the back of the aircraft, and all the Avengers gave their goodbyes to Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape with Jameson giving a smile to Snape's grumpy expression. Layla hesitated looking back but after sharing a nod with Jameson, she goes behind Jameson as both of them were the last ones to enter the aircraft. The aircraft lifts off, silent as the night and as it flies into the skies, slowly disappears until no trace is remained of the aircraft supposedly flying.Snape asks "How?" not able to utter another word. Dumbledore, just looks at the spot where the aircraft disappeared with a contemplative expression.
As Harry folds his letter, he hopes that his letter does not sound to childish. Glancing around the common room, he sees that the sun is almost rising. Getting up from the chair where he had sat all night drafting the letter, he went up to the boy's dormitory and gets his Invisibility cloak. He drapes it around himself before leaving the common room and heads to the Owlery. Reaching the Owlery he whistles Hedwig and as Hedwig flies and perches, he ties his letter around her leg. He feeds her some owl treats and tells her "Find my parents, Hedwig." Hedwig nods her head as if she understood him and patting her head, he lets her flies into the sky. He turns back to go back to Gryffindor common room and didn't see her turn a left and fly towards some windows situated near the Astronomy tower. Reaching the window, she taps continuously on the window, until it is opened by a man whose expression denoted his nervousness as he pushed his bespectacled glasses up his nose. The woman whose green eyes seems so familiar and she lets out a hoot as the woman pats her head. Layla said "Is it?". Jameson said "Its' Harry's letter."