Once again, long time no update and I'm sorry, but I was preparing for a three-year-old's party and I'm exhausted. And fat from all the party food.
Anyways, here's the next chapter! xx
James' POV
I gaped.
"He wh-what!?" I said incredulously. "He's a muggle?"
Everyone else was lost for words. The mere concept of Voldemort as a muggle astounded us all. My beautiful wife sighed.
"I was following him one day," she began. "And he was doing some very strange research. He went to a very old and dusty library and got this book called The Essence of Death. I couldn't see what it said, but he murmured a few things out loud. Things like bringing them back and magic depletion. I've always had this ability to kind of sense magic. In the room when we came back, there was magic everywhere, then it solidified into us. Me, James and Sirius. But aside from us, Remus, Natalie and Professor McGonagall, there was no other source of magic in the room. There was one less light of magic than there were people."
"You can do that?" Harry asked.
Lily nodded.
"That's how she knew when I was trying to sneak up on her" Sirius snorted. "She would just say 'Hey there' without turning round. It was really frustrating."
"I remember one time" grinned Remus. "I was talking to Lily and Padfoot sneaked round the corner. Lily whipped round and yelled in his face."
"Oh, yes" I clicked my fingers. "I remember that. I was just down the corridor and I heard Pads scream. You scream like a girl mate" I added, nudging him.
"This is nice, but we want to know the rest" interrupted Moody.
"Basically, Tom Riddle used all of his magic to give us new bodies and magic of our own" Lily explained. "Now he cannot regenerate his magic, because there is no other magic to produce more. So, he is stuck as a muggle for the rest of his life."
"So why didn't he bring Dumbledore back?" demanded Harry. "We could use him to help smooth things over."
"Because, sweetie" she said, running her hands through our son's hair. "The dead can't come back if they don't want to. Albus said it had been his time to die and he was happy with his family. He didn't really know them that well either."
"He wanted to stay because there was nothing left for him in life, except for Aberforth whom he rarely talks to anyway" I said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's best this way."
Harry nodded and said nothing more on the subject.
"What I want to know," said Kingsley. "Is what Riddle plans to do now."
"We don't know" said Sirius. "But we do know he intends to go public about what he's done. I even think he's called in Skeeter."
"That cow- sorry - woman" corrected Hermione. "Had better not twist the truth again or I swear I will expose her."
"With what?" asked Percy curiously.
"Nevermind" she said quickly.
Percy huffed, hating being left out of the loop. I shook my head and rolled my eyes at the most pompous Weasley. I had never liked Percy really, even though I had never properly met him. I put my rm round Lily and took over.
"Basically, he gave up his magic to get us back. Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't want to take the chance that you would not want to go back" mumbled Lily.
"What!?" I gasped. "Why would you think that?"
"Because you seemed content as you were" she replied, even quieter.
"Of course not!" I exclaimed. "I wouldn't pass up this chance for anything, you know that."
"I just thought that... given time, you would think that we shouldn't have had another chance, being a descendant of Ignotus and everything."
"Oh, Lily" I chuckled. "You still don't know me inside and out, but we've been together how long?"
Lily checked her watch.
"Twenty-seven years, three months, two days, four hours, thirteen minutes and nine seconds" she stated clearly.
Everyone burst into laughter and I kissed her.
"I'm glad I mean so much to you" I smiled.
"Ew, cooties" Sirius moaned.
I grinned and licked Lily's lip, making Padfoot squeal.
"Never took you as squeamish, mate" Ron commented. "But ew."
"I'm back at school tomorrow, can I borrow your notes, Hermione?" Harry asked.
"Honestly, Harry" the brunette scolded. "You can't always expect me to pick up the slack. But I'll make an exception this time."
"You're the best, thanks!" he said, grinning at her.
"We're gonna have to go to the Ministry tomorrow" I said to Lily. "Talk to a few people."
"Yes" she murmured, her eyes flicking to our son. "A few people."
"We shouldn't cause too much trouble, though" Sirius pointed out. "There's going to be an uproar anyway because we went to Hogwarts first."
"Woah," Remus was shocked. "Was that you being responsible?"
"You're right, Moony" I said. "Who are you and what have you done with our Padfoot?"
"Shut up" he mumbled and I grinned.
"I have a question" piped up Tonks. "You said something about an Ignotus earlier. I remember the name from somewhere, but I can't put my finger on it."
"It's the name of a man in the Tale of the Three Brothers" interjected Moody unexpectedly from the corner of the room. "Him and his two brothers manage to trick death into giving them three gifts. The eldest, Antioch, got a wand more powerful than any other made before. People killed him and each other for it. The second brother, Cadmus, got a stone that could bring the dead back, but it didn't work properly and he committed suicide. The youngest, Ignotus got a cloak of invisibility made of pure magic. He grew old and passed the cloak to his son."
We all stared at him.
"How do you know this?" Draco asked.
"Grindelwald was obsessed with them. Us older aurors had to familiarize ourselves with the story to arm ourselves with the required knowledge to fight him" Moody explained.
"Ignotus is my great-great-grandfather. The invisibility cloak was passed down through the generations until it reached Harry" I added. "I don't know what happened to the Resurrection Stone, but the Elder Wand was snapped recently. At Dumbledore's funeral, in fact."
"You mean, Dumbledore was the last owner of the most powerful wand in the world?" gaped Harry. "And he couldn't have stopped Tom before?"
"Things have a way of coming back to bite you in the backside if you take the easy way out" said Sirius. "If Dumbledore had used the Elder Wand to get rid of him, he would have come back through one of his Horcruxes and attacked while Dumbledore was still weak from the last attempt to banish him from the living world. That was before he turned anyway."
"So he was just being diplomatic?" he concluded. "Why didn't he know that I was a horcrux?"
"He did" answered Snape. "He said that the Dark Lord himself must eliminate the horcrux in you for you to survive. It was apparently a matter of dire importance."
"Yeah," Harry snorted. "So he didn't tell me, like any other important thing that could possibly concern me."
"Harry," Hermione pleaded. "I'm sure it was for your own good-"
"No" Lily cut her off forcefully. "Dumbledore always did things for the greater good and himself, never Harry. But don't worry, sweetie. We already roasted his hide when he joined us last year."
"Well, Lily yelled and I punched him" I corrected casually.
"You punched Dumbledore?" asked Tonks incredulously. "Were you barmy?"
"No, just pissed" I replied. "He just stood there and took it. He said he never knew the extent of the misery Harry had to endure with the Dursleys. I'm not sure, but I think I believed him."
"It was really strange, watching James punch an old and very respected wizard" remarked Sirius. "Entertaining, but slightly disturbing. I understood though. I didn't know how bad it was."
"I don't like to talk about it" Harry mumbled. "I prefer to think of the times when I didn't have to live with them."
He smiled at Ron and Hermione.
"This has gotten really rather depressing" I announced. "Party time."
I whipped out my wand and conjured eighteen bottles of butterbeer and a large cake with a big smiley face on it. I grinned as people dug in. I was best at transfiguration, but conjuration was one of my strong points too. I glanced down at Lily and frowned at the small crease between her eyebrows.
"What's wrong?" I muttered in her ear.
"Nothing" she answered. "I hope. I just sense a little bit of dark in the room. As if someone has an idea that might put a lot of people in jeopardy. I might be wrong, but I don't think so. One of these people aren't quite what they seem."
I shuddered. The last thing we needed right now was another crisis. However, I wasn't one to dismiss my wife's observations without careful thought. I resolved to look into it later. I told the beautiful woman at my side what I planned to do and she visibly relaxed.
"Let's enjoy the celebration and leave unfortunate events for tomorrow hmm?" I suggested, giving her waist a squeeze.
She nodded and we went forward to get cake, but that small unpleasant problem buried itself in a side pocket of my brain, where I could hear it whistling at me for some attention. Attention I should have given...