Are You Coming?

Chapter 11

"Dad, can I have some more bacon?" Harry said, bouncing up and down in his chair.

It was Saturday and James had promised they would play Quidditch for a while before he had to crack on with some more work. It was more than a little obvious that Harry was very excited. They were sitting in the dining room with one of Eve's superb fry-ups. James had a big pile of parchment sitting by his coffee mug but he had given up trying to read it.

James placed two more rashers on the side of Harry's plate. His son continued his description of the previous evening's events, as if forgetting that James had been there too. He smiled at Harry's detailed account of how he'd caught the snitch before his father as he took a swig of strong, black coffee.

"I will beat you today!" James exclaimed, his tone light. "You just had beginner's luck yesterday."

Harry gave a small laugh. "Don't lie, Dad," he commanded, "I won fair and square!"

James gave a chuckle. "We shall see," he said, taking a bite of toast. "Eat your food and then we can go outside."

Harry ate the rest of his food quickly and in silence.

"Come on, Dad! Hurry up!" he exclaimed when he saw the James' plate was still half full.

James exaggerated eating his food slowly, watching Harry become really agitated.

"Dad!" Harry half whined. "Please!"

James hid a smirk as he chewed. He drank some more coffee, watching Harry's eyes glittering in excitement.

"Sir," Eve said, entering the room. "There's a young lady and gentleman here to see you."

James frowned, wondering who could possibly be here to see him on a Saturday morning. "Show her in." He turned his attention back to Harry, who was now fidgeting in his seat.

"Harry," he laughed, "we will go outside in a minute!"

He heard footsteps on the hallway's wooden floor, followed by Harry's groan that his father was going to be distracted.

"He's just in there," Eve said from the doorway.

"Harry!" a woman's voice exclaimed from behind him.

His son seemed to forget his excitement momentarily and rushed to the other person with a cry of "mummy!"

James turned slowly in his seat to gaze at Lily. Her creamy skin was slightly darker due to the sun from her holiday and her hair seemed lighter. But James still thought she looked beautiful. Her bright emerald eyes were unsure as she held their son in a close embrace. She lowered her gaze from James' unblinking one and busied herself with looking at Harry.

There was a cough from behind her and James' eyes rested on Scott. "Lily, make this quick, we need to get going," he said sharply and James' eyes narrowed at him.

Lily nodded. "Ummm… where's Harry's stuff, James?" she asked, her voice shaking slightly.

"What?" Harry exclaimed. "What's happening?"

"We've got to go, honey," she said, shooting a glance at Scott's harsh features.

"No! We can't!" Harry cried out, stepping back from his mother. "We can't!"

"We're going, now!" Scott snapped, folding his arms across his chest and widening his stance.

Harry's eyes widened and he looked tearfully up at his mother. "N-no," he said again. He looked at James for guidance.

James forced a steely frown onto his face, determined to hide the tears that were welling in the back of his own hazel eyes. "Your mother's right," he said resolutely. "It's time for you to go home." He turned his back on his son and called out for Eve. "I need you to fetch Harry's stuff from the spare room," he said.

Harry felt a single tear tumble down his cheek. He'd thought his Dad had changed. He thought he cared for him. But he was wrong. He meant nothing to his dad. And that would never change. His mum took his hand and led him to the door as Scott took his things from his dad.

They stood on the front steps of James' mansion to say their awkward goodbyes. James approached Harry and bent to his height. He stroked back his son's dark hair, gazing at his face tenderly. Harry noticed his eyes were glistening with tears too.

"No matter where you are, you'll always be my son," he said quietly, so that no one else could hear. "I'll always be there for you when you need me."

Harry stepped forward into his father's arms and hugged him tightly and desperately. Next thing, he was being pulled away by Lily, wishing that he didn't have to leave.

"Mum," Harry started quietly.

It had been a week since Lily had arrived home from her holiday with Scott and everything had gone back to normal. Everything except that Harry was desperately missing his father. He no longer cared that his father had turned his back on him and let his mother take him home without any argument. He just wanted to see him.

"Yes, Harry?" Lily answered.

They were walking home from school. A journey that they'd made everyday since Harry had started the school last year. At the moment they were talking their usual short cut through the park. His mum looked flustered. She'd had an argument with Scott that morning- Harry didn't know what it was about but she hadn't been happy all day.

"Can we… could we go and see Dad?" he asked quietly. "Not today, but soon?"

Lily gave a tense sigh. "Harry," she started, pausing to look at him and bent to his height. "I don't think we should see your father for a while."

She began to walk again but Harry didn't follow her. He frowned, feeling tears prickle in the corner of his eyes. Why didn't his Mum understand this?

"Hello, Potter," a voice appeared.

Harry spun around and was met by the gloating face of Draco Malfoy, the last person he wanted to see right now.

"Heard about you Dad," he said gleefully. "Heard that he doesn't want anything to do with you anymore…" Malfoy took a step closer to Harry and Harry instinctively took a step back from him. "I don't blame him, though… you must've been such a disappointment to him…"

"S-shut up, Malfoy!" Harry snapped.

"What did you say?" the blonde boy growled, his eyes narrowing at Harry.

"I said 'shut up'," Harry repeated fiercely, "you don't know anything about my Dad!"

"Get out of here, Snotter, you don't want to get into a fight with me," Malfoy said, laughing cruelly.

Harry made a fist, just like men do, when they are angry, on muggle television programmes. He swung at Malfoy and was surprised that he felt satisfaction when his fist connected with the other boy's nose. Malfoy grabbed the top of Harry school sweatshirt and pushed him. Harry fell and Malfoy jumped on top of him. Harry's hands connected with the other boy's face and he tried to push him off.

"Harry? Harry?" he heard his mother's panicked voice, searching for him.

He successfully pushed Malfoy off him and they pushed against each other. He heard his mother's voice come closer.

"Harry!" she exclaimed when she saw him fighting with the other boy. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw his mother step forward, placing her hands out in front of her to separate them. "Stop!"

The next moment, several cloaked and masked figures shot out of the trees. Lily grabbed her wand out of her pocket and told the two boys to get behind her. The figures drew their wands and aimed them at Lily. She ducked their spell and retaliated with one of her own. But her 'stupify' spell bounced of the cloaked figures shielding spells and hit her. Harry watched in horror as his mother fell backwards, unconscious.

At the loss of his protection, Malfoy gave a scream and ran off in the opposite direction. Harry bit his lip indecisively. He couldn't let these people get to his Mum, they might kill her. But what could he do against this many trained wizards. He grabbed his mother's wand and stood up straight, glaring at the figures.

"Stay back!" he told them, pointing the wand at them more bravely than he felt.

One of the figures began to laugh. "Or what?" he asked, his voice cold. "What will you do? You are no match for a Death Eater, child." He raised his wand at Harry.

Harry began to run. He could hear them laughing as they followed him, exclaiming that this was "so much fun!" He gulped, speeding up and looking for somewhere to hide, terrified what they would do to him if they caught him.

He suddenly realised he had run straight into the iron fence that surrounded the park. He was cornered. He was going to die. There was no escape.

Then over the fence behind him flew three figures on broomsticks. Harry gasped; he really was surrounded now. He felt himself shaking all over but tried not to show the cloaked people. Then the figures that had come from behind him pushed past him and removed their cloaks. Harry gave a sigh of relief as he realised it was his Dad, Remus and Sirius. He was going to be okay. His Dad would make sure he was safe.

Harry stayed back against the fence as his father and his friends shot curses at the people who had called themselves 'Death Eaters'. The fight didn't last long and soon the cloaked figures retreated in the opposite direction.

"Harry!" James exclaimed, his voice sounding relieved as he bent to pull him into a hug. "Where's you mother?" he asked.

"She got hit by a spell," Harry said weakly and James looked worried, "but I don't think she's dead."

"Where is she?" James asked, taking Harry's hand and sounding tense.

Harry rushed to show his Dad where his Mum was. James got down on his knees beside her and muttered a few spells under his breath. All Harry could do was watch and pray that she was going to be okay.

After what seemed like forever, Lily's green eyes fluttered open. She looked up into James' hazel eyes, feeling very safe, though she couldn't work out why. Slowly she realised where she was and what had just happened. "Harry?" she called out, terrified. "Where's Harry?" she asked James impatiently.

"He's just here," James said, helping her to her feet. Lily rushed to give Harry a hug and James slowly walked over to him. Harry pulled away from his Mum and gazed at his father, nervously.

James reached out to hug Harry. "I'm so proud of you," he whispered into his son's hair. "So very proud." Harry hugged him tighter and felt a wide smile stretch across his lips. His Dad was proud of him!

After a few moments James picked Harry up, stood and shared a smile with Lily. She felt herself drawn to his gaze and was unable to look away. James took a step closer and looked over Lily's face to check she was okay.

"Lily!" a man's voice yelled from behind them. "Lily, you're late! I expected you home over an hour ago…" Scott trailed off as he realised James was there. "What are you doing here, Potter?"

"Death Eaters," James said coolly. He passed Harry to his mother and made a step towards Scott, his eyes flashing.

"As I said, Lily, it's time to go home," Scott snapped, grabbing her arm. He paused to send a final glare to James. "If you come near her again," he said coldly. "I'll kill you, you bastard."

Harry tried to reach out for his Dad, but he had already disapparated. He hated Scott more than anything at that moment. And he just wanted to be with his Dad.

I wish I was better at action scenes lol... I hope it was okay.

As always, sorry for the long wait... there's only a couple of chapters left, so I hope to get it finished soon- then again I said that last time I updated.

Thanks for all your support and I shall do my best to get this finished.

Love JLF xx