AN: SO SORRY for the VERY long delay but Jamie has been away at camp the whole summer and I've been really lazy. We finished this chapter right before Jamie left for camp and I was assigned the job of typing it up and updating but, being me, I was too lazy at first and hey its summer your bound to get lazy when you've finished being efficient for school. Anyway, when I finally wasn't lazy anymore I had to start CIT and even though I wasn't lazy I came home too exhausted to do anything everyday. Hey, you try keeping control of 51 five-year olds! After that Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince came out and it didn't exactly put me in a mood to update. (I f you've read the book, which you all should have by now and shame on you if you haven't, then you understand what I mean.) Then I went to Virginia Beach with my mom and sister so I couldn't update cuz I didn't have a computer or the journal containing the new chapter. So here I am now the day after Jamie has come back (I've called her about 50 times already, on the day she came back but her mom said she was already asleep, and left a message and told her brother to tell her that I called and I still haven't spoken to her! I can't wait to talk to her so I can see how camp was and finally talk to someone about HBP! I was going crazy cuz no one in my family reads the books! AHHH!) And I am finally updating! Yay! OK enough of my excuses and rambling! On to the chapter!

P.S. Jamie if you read this sorry I didn't update when I was supposed to and when I said I was going to update in my letters! BUT the internet really wasn't working for a whole week! And I just realized I forgot to put that in the list of excuses in the AN but oh well! The readers can read it here if they read the P.S. Again sorry! Luv ya!

Disclaimer: Just in case everyone forgot (cuz it took me forever to update) we don't own Harry Potter. We wish we did, but we don't.

Here's the LONG awaited chapter…

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Chapter 6: The Ones Who Keep Him Living

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"Hermione, Ron and you of course," announced Lily happily.

"Us, why us?" asked Ginny jumping up in surprise making her chair vanish.

"Oh great! Now I have to get another one," James said agitated, while slapping his knee.

"Hey it's less time we have to spend with you," said Sirius happily.

"Because you're the ones who keep him living, as the prophecy says," explained Lily ignoring James.

"Wait a minute, what is this prophecy you're talking about?" questioned Harry.

"Well, we've got to tell sometime or else he'll be totally clueless," said Sirius.

"Yes, you're right," agreed Lily.

"That's because I'm always right," said Sirius arrogantly, while standing up and puffing out his chest.

"You wish," said James rudely.

Sirius was giving James such a dark stare that he didn't notice his chair had vanished when he stood up. When he went to sit he fell backwards, hard on his bottom. James began laughing as hard as humanly possible while Ginny made a choking nose to keep from laughing and Harry and Lily just rolled their eyes. James was laughing so hard that he toppled forward off his chair causing it to vanish.

"Damn it!" he exclaimed when he had finally calmed himself enough to sit again and realize his chair was gone.

"So…the prophecy," said Lily giving James and Sirius a warning glare before turning her focus back to Harry, "The power the Dark Lord knows not will arise again to the one with the power to vanquish him…It lies in the hands of those who gave the boy life and draws its strength from those who keep the boy living…The desire of two hearts will be the key to open the reflection of his past…The power to destroy the Dark Lord forever will arise again…As the ninth month is born the spell will be cast."

"You memorized it?" exclaimed James and Sirius simultaneously.

"Yeah. At least one person had to," said Lily.

"How do know we didn't?" asked James defensively.

"Fine then. What's the prophecy?" demanded Lily standing up and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Uhh…The power to defeat the Dark Lord will awaken again," started Sirius.

"It's in the hands of his…parents," continued James.

"And grows from…Hermione, Ron, and Ginny," finished Sirius.

"There, there's the prophecy," exclaimed James.

"Nice try guys," said Lily with a hint of laughter in her voice.

"Do you realize how far from the prophecy that was?" Ginny asked with superiority.

"Not that far," said Sirius defensively, "maybe just a mile," he continued in a small voice.

"Yeah sure, more like ten," replied James.

"You said it with me!" exclaimed Sirius throwing his hands over his head.

"Ignore them," suggested Lily to Harry and Ginny, "here's the instructions on how to perform the spell," she said handing then a thick roll of parchment.

"I just went along with it!" yelled James, hands in tight fists by his sides.

"Now remember you need all four of you to perform the spell. Ron, Hermione, and you two," reminded Lily.

"What are you talking about? You always pick fights with your wife!" screamed Sirius.

"You can get Dumbledore to help rehearse the spell, but when it comes to the real performance it must only be the four of you," explained Lily.

"Are you saying I'm a bad husband?" demanded James.

"That's exactly what I'm saying!" retorted Sirius.

"SHUT UP!" roared Harry standing up stiffly. "You two are just like Hermione and Ron, fighting way too much!" he scolded James and Sirius still fuming.

"Which one's Hermione?" asked Sirius?

"Umm…," Ginny said moving her finger between James and Sirius, "you! Definitely you!" exclaimed Ginny, throwing her finger at James.

"Ha-Ha!" Sirius laughed at James.

"Oh my God," groaned Lily.

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After an awkward silence in the room with the Mirror of Erised, Hermione finally spoke. "So this is the Mirror of Erised," stated Hermione back towards Ron who was sitting against the wall.

"Yeah it is," said a bored Ron facing the mirror with one of his best friends in front of it.

"But I'm not sure what the inscription says across the top. It's in a language I don't know," said Hermione, annoyed that she didn't know something for once.

"It says, 'I show not your face but your heart's desire'," said Ron proudly.

"Wow! You know something I don't? That's strange!" said an amazed Hermione.

"It's called Drawkcab Language. AKA read it backwards," explained Ron.

"So if it shows your desires, what do you see?" asked Hermione trying to start to deepen the conversation.

"Uh, I, umm, see…my desires," said Ron, while trying to hide his blushing ears by scratching the back of his head.

"Really? I never would have guessed. Care to elaborate on that a bit?" suggested Hermione.

"Not particularly, it's a little personal. I mean it's my desires," said Ron.

"Well mine is too," said Hermione.

"That doesn't make a difference," replied Ron standing up and moving a few steps closer to Hermione until he sit back down again.

"Well how about we tell ours to each other," suggested Hermione.

"Oh fun! We'll share our feelings like little girls!" exclaimed Ron sarcastically.

"So what's yours?" encouraged Hermione.

"Um, I've liked, well loved according to the mirror, this person for a long time. I've just never been brave enough to say it," started Ron.

"Me too," she said quietly. "Is it Harry?" she asked in a mocking voice.

Ron laughed, a bit nervously, but grateful for the joke. "No, it's not Harry."

"Then who is it?" Hermione encouraged once again, a curious smile spreading across her face.

"You first," stalled Ron.

"Fine, we'll say them at the same time. On the count of three," ordered Hermione who began to count at Ron's nod, "one-two-three."

"You," they said together, eyes widening in disbelief. Hermione's less than Ron's since she knew…somewhat.

Then, without knowing what she was doing, Hermione had taken the few steps between herself and Ron and planted her lips on his. For a moment Ron hesitated in returning the kiss, but then he did. Hermione found this as quite a shock, not that he had returned the kiss, but the way he did. He was gentle and slow and yet the way he kissed made her want to kiss him more and more.

But in obligation, she ended it pulling away slowly so she could ease out of the extreme happiness that filled her in those few moments. Ron looked up at her with wanting and confusion showing in his big blue eyes, clearly not wanting to stop.

"I know, me neither," Hermione said lovingly to Ron, answering the question his eyes asked, "but we have to watch the mirror," she continued, grabbing his hand and pulling gently indicating for him to stand up. He stood up easily to his full height of 6'2" swiveling around in front of Hermione blocking the mirror from her view.

"Come on, I don't think they're going to show up for a while. We've got some time," complained Ron. Looking down into those honey brown eyes of hers was too much, so he bent down extremely low, and Hermione taking the hint stood up on her tiptoes trying to reach his lips from her height of 5'6". After a long, breathtaking kiss, they finally parted, breathing rapidly from the lack of oxygen during the kiss.

"This is going to be hard isn't it?" Hermione asked giggling, referring to their height difference.

"We'll find a way," replied Ron chuckling.

Hermione peaked over Ron's shoulder at the mirror and a surprised look came over her face.

"Harry?" Hermione exclaimed. At that Ron jumped away from Hermione to face the mirror, obviously not ready for anyone to know about their newly forming relationship.

"Hey what about m…" Ron started but stopped when, to his surprise, he saw Harry too. "Hermione, I didn't think I was actually going to turn into a girl when I shared my feelings."

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"So what do we do now seeing as we've got everything taken care of?" Harry asked his mother with a hint of excitement in his voice at the idea of learning more about them.

"At least I have a wife," said James starting the argument with Sirius again.

"I guess we wait for the mirror to open again," Lily answered.

"Well excuse me, but in case you haven't noticed there aren't many free women in Azkaban," Sirius said defending himself.

"Do you two ever stop?" asked Harry in what he hoped was a scolding manner but was betrayed by the smile that appeared on his face.

"So are we going to stand the rest of the time or get more chairs?" Ginny asked Lily starting the conversation and ignoring Harry, James, and Sirius.

"Gees, Sirius does my son always have such a high temper?" asked James in a joking tone just to annoy Harry.

"Only when it's something serious or me. Ha-Ha! That's so funny!" explained Sirius, clearly not realizing that James' question was a joke.

"I don't always have a high temper. I just did before because I knew it was really important that I know everything about my power and the spell. I can have fun and be funny… I mean, you don't even know me," said Harry immediately hating his choice of words when he saw the pained look in his mother and father's eyes.

The mood immediately changed from that of happiness and jokes to that of a longing sadness and Harry wished more than ever that he could have not said those last few words, You don't even know me. That he could have left without that, what he now knew was unavoidable, feeling of longing, and pain of unachieved possibilities and unanswered questions.

"We know," said Lily trying hard not to let tears appear in her eyes, "but we want more than anything to know you."

"More than anything," repeated James. "You're our son and we don't even know who you are or how you're doing or who you love or any of those things and it pains us to know this."

"But you can get to know me now, right?" asked Harry with eyes full of fear at the prospect of not getting to know his parents and them not getting to know him, "And I can get to know you."

"I don't know if there's enough time," said Lily finally unable to keep the tears from surfacing.

"Of course there's enough time," said Harry desperately, "I'll stay longer if I have to, but I want you to know who I am and I want to know you… I want to know my own parents!" exclaimed Harry with an unfunny, bitter huff.

"Fine, ask us something or tell us something. Anything," said James staring at Harry with a loving sadness knowing that there could never be enough time to know each other unless they could spend the rest of their lives together. But that wasn't possible.

"Okay," said Harry trying to think of anything, anything at all to tell his parents. "I'm..."

"Harry?" Harry was cut off by Hermione's surprised voice.

"Hermione?" said Harry confused looking around for her until he saw the shape of the mirror and her and Ron standing in front of it. "No," said Harry realizing what this meant.

"Harry we have to go," said Ginny who had obviously been crying.

"No we don't, I'm going to stay," said Harry.

"Ginny's right Harry, you have to go," said Sirius with the bravest face he could muster.

"There will never be enough time," said Lily with a cracking voice.

"Yes there will if I stay," said Harry defiantly trying desperately to make them change their minds and see that he needed to stay.

"No there won't," said James struggling to get the words out because he desperately wanted him to stay too, "the only way we could know eachother is if we spent our lives together, but that can't happen and somewhere inside you I think you realize that too."

"But why, why can't I stay and be with my parents? I want to be with you," said Harry frustrated.

"You know why," said Lily.

"Right," said Harry bitterly, "I have a prophecy to fulfill. I have to save the wizarding world once again… It's not fair. Other children know their parents their whole lives. They know them so well sometimes they even know what they're thinking. I don't even know my parents' middle names. Sometimes I think I would rather I have died with you than never get to know you."

"Don't say that Harry," said Lily sternly. "I sacrificed my life so you could live and if you think I should have stepped aside and let Voldemort kill you and then kill me after then you're wrong. I would never change what I did, never in a million years. Harry you have a life and you can't spend it wanting to be here with us .If you think your life isn't complete because you don't have us than you're wrong about that too. Because you have a family. If you just look around you'll see that you have people who care about you and love you and who would be willing to give up their lives for you like we did. I'd rather you have a happy life without us in it, than no life at all. And besides you're not without us completely, we'll always be right here," said Lily while placing her hand on Harry's heart.

"And I'll be in the mirror," said Sirius making them smile despite themselves.

"And after you've lived a full life, we'll be waiting here for you and then we'll have all the time in the world to get to know eachother," said James. "But you have to promise you'll live your life to the fullest," he said with a stern look.

"I promise," said Harry with tears streaming down his face.

"Now, you need to go before we change our minds," said James giving Harry a loving fatherly hug.

"Goodbye Harry," said Sirius giving Harry a warm hug, "they're not that interesting anyways," Sirius whispered in Harry's ear. Harry smiled.

"I'll see you soon Harry," said Lily holding Harry in a hug that said she never wanted to let go, "my beautiful, baby boy. Don't be afraid to tell her you love her," she whispered in his ear and giving him a motherly kiss on the forehead. Harry didn't have to ask who she was referring to.

"Harry, Ginny! Come on you need to get out of there," came Ron's voice.

Harry walked backwards, numbly towards the mirror not daring to take his eyes off his mother and father. When he reached the mirror he felt Hermione's hands wrap around his arm.

"We love you," was the last thing he heard his parents say before he was once again pulled through the Mirror of Erised.

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The last bit of this chapter is very different from what Jamie and I originally wrote but I started typing and this is where I was taken. What we had before is almost the total opposite it's all corny and happy. He he! Sorry Jamie for changing it without asking! If you hate it just let me know and we can change it back! Luv ya!... HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE IS THE BEST BOOK EVER!... Sorry I had to get that out of my system :) Please R&R everyone!