Chapter Two by Morsmordre

A/N: Here's the second chapter of the rewrite. ;) Let's keep our fingers crossed that all the chapter seven reviews and stuff stay, hmm? ;) REVIEW!!!

Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office, pondering on Voldemort's resurrection. He had tried to convince the Wizengamot and other people at the Ministry of Magic that Voldemort was back, but some had simply laughed at him, and others (such as Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic,) had declared that he was trying to cause trouble and trashed him in the Daily Prophet.

Suddenly the fire in his office glowed green and two figures tumbled out of it: Remus Lupin and… was that James Potter???

"Hello, Professor," Remus greeted Albus Dumbledore. "It turns out James is alive after all."

Dumbledore smiled and shook his head. "How many times do I have to tell you, Remus, it's Albus. I am no longer your teacher."

Remus smiled slightly. "Well, old habits are hard to break, I guess. And let me repeat, James Potter is alive."

Dumbledore stared at the man standing next to Remus Lupin. He certainly did look a great deal like James Potter. Perhaps that really was him.

"Are you positive?" Dumbledore questioned sharply, looking over his half-moon spectacles at the man.

"Quite positive," Remus answered.

The man—James Potter—smiled at Dumbledore weakly.

"In that case, welcome back to life, James," Dumbledore replied calmly. (James shook his head. "I always knew nothing could shock him.") Then to Remus, he (Dumbledore, that is) said, "Tell me what happened."

Remus explained the whole situation, which took a while. When he had finally finished, Dumbledore inspected the two men again.

"You have been through a great ordeal, James," he said finally. "Has Remus told you about the Order of the Phoenix?"

"He mentioned it," James finally spoke up. "And when do I get to see Harry?" he demanded. "Where is he living? With Sirius?"

"He is living with his aunt and uncle, his last living relatives," Dumbledore told him. "The Dursleys."

"WHAT???" James roared, jumping up from where he had been sitting next to Remus. He was no longer looking weak and dazed. Now he just looked angry. "They hate magic, and they hated Lily and me! You know that!" He pointed an accusing finger at Dumbledore.

"I shall explain everything about that later," was all Dumbledore would say about that matter. "Now I think Remus should update you with information about what has happened over the past fourteen years while you were gone."

James glanced at Dumbledore, and then at Remus, who nodded. Heaving a sigh, James sat back down.

"OK," Remus began, heaving his own sigh as well. This would take a while. "It's like this…"

After Remus finished his explanation, James sat, stunned, staring at him. Finally he managed to say, "Sirius was locked up in Azkaban for something Peter did?"

Remus sighed and nodded. "Twelve years."

"I'm going to kill him!" James snarled, clenching his fists. He immediately began thinking what exactly he would like to do with that rat—until he remembered that Dumbledore and Remus were still in the room. He glanced at Dumbledore sheepishly. "Er, sorry, Professor."

Dumbledore smiled sadly at him. "I can understand your anger."

"That's the understatement of the century," James mumbled, but softly so that Dumbledore couldn't hear him.

"Now I think Remus should go and tell Sirius about this at Order headquarters," Dumbledore continued. "Otherwise he might be too shocked. After all, to everyone else you have simply arisen from the dead."

"I guess…" James muttered.

"I'll see you soon," Remus said to him. He picked up a handful of Floo powder, tossed it into the fire, and called out, "Order of the Phoenix Headquarters!" Then with a whoosh he was gone.

Sirius Black looked up from where he was seated—in a chair at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Remus Lupin, his best friend, had just stumbled out of the fireplace.

"Hi, Moony," Sirius said, looking up from the Daily Prophet that he was reading.

Remus looked at him for a moment and then said, "Are you sure you're sitting down? Because this will come as a real shock to you."

Sirius put down the newspaper. "What," he said flatly. It wasn't a question. "Did Voldemort murder Dumbledore?"

"Well, you could at least sound a little sadder about it," Remus remarked. Seeing the look on Sirius's face, he backtracked quickly. "No, that didn't happen. I'm just saying, if it did, you could look a little sadder about it."

"Then what happened?" Sirius was more interested now.

"Do you promise not to attack anyone in Dumbledore's office, even if you think he's a Death Eater in disguise?"

"Promise."

"Swear to me."

"I swear on Wormtail," Sirius said.

"Wormtail isn't worth much to you, so it doesn't really matter."

"My God, I swore already," Sirius muttered. "Isn't that good enough for you?"

"OK, OK," Remus apologized. "Sorry."

"It's OK,," Sirius shrugged. "So are we going to Dumbledore's office?"

"Yes, I can explain everything there." Remus pulled out a handful of Floo powder, and tossed it in the fireplace. "Let's go."

So they did.

When Sirius stepped out of the fireplace after Remus, he drew his breath in sharply. That couldn't be…

James???

"Padfoot!" James threw himself at Sirius and nearly crushed his ribs in a hug.

"Owwwwwwww!" Sirius complained, but he was grinning. He glanced at Remus, who was smiling.

"How—? What—?" Sirius glanced at Dumbledore, who was smiling. "James is alive???"

"You idiot," said James, grinning too. "That's what they call walking and talking and breathing and such."

"How are you alive?" Sirius very much wanted to know. "I thought Voldemort killed you fourteen years ago."

"Well…" Remus began. "It's like this…"

After Remus finished his very long explanation, Sirius blinked a few times and then turned to James. "But what was that spell Voldemort put on you?"

Dumbledore cleared his throat, and everyone turned to him expectantly. "It was invented by Voldemort," Dumbledore explained. "It's called the Freezing Charm, and Hellophorus is the incantation…"

"So it's the Freezing Charm. It freezes a person's body," Sirius repeated Dumbledore's words slowly. This was an awful lot for an escaped convict to take in for one day: that his dead best friend was really alive, and learning about a complex curse invented by the most evil wizard on the face of the earth.

"Right," Remus agreed. "It's a lot like Avada Kedavra—only instead of killing the person, it freezes the person's internal organs so they stop like the person was dead. The person stays in a coma until the caster of the spell awakens him, and if the caster dies, the victim dies as well."

"So Voldemort awakened you?" Sirius looked at James, then back at Dumbledore. "Why?"

"It may have something to do with his resurrection," Dumbledore mused, more to himself than to any of the other men in the room.

"Resurrection?" James leapt out of his chair again, knocking it over once more. His two best friends winced slightly. James could be as scary as Lily when he was really angry. "What do you mean, resurrection?" he continued suspiciously. "You never told me anything about a resurrection."

"I think Harry should be the one to tell you, seeing as he was there to witness it," was all Dumbledore would reply.

OK, now James was really furious. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, HARRY WITNESSED VOLDEMORT'S RESURRECTION???" he roared.

Remus and Sirius both flinched, before Remus barked, "James! Shut up and sit down and let Dumbledore finish!"

James glared at Remus before sitting down and heaving a sigh. "Continue."

"Did I explain why Harry didn't die that night?" Dumbledore asked.

James shook his head.

(Enter Dumbledore's explanation because I'm too lazy to type it.)

"So Lily died to protect Harry?" James almost-whispered. "That sounds like Lily. She would do that."

"She did," Remus said in a rather strained tone of voice.

"So what happened to Voldemort to make him have to be resurrected?" James wondered aloud.

(Enter Dumbledore's second explanation—jeez, he has to explain a lot of things, doesn't he? No wait—don't answer that; that was a rhetorical question.)

"So Harry defeated Voldemort?" James shook his head. "When he was one year old?"

"Partly," Sirius, who had been quiet for quite some time, spoke up. "But Voldemort just lost his body; his spirit was still there, hiding somewhere. And he got his body back about a month ago."

"So there's going to be a second war…" James sighed. "Does Harry know about the prophecy?"

The look on Dumbledore's face confirmed his worst fears. "You didn't tell him?" James whispered, more to himself than to Dumbledore.

"He's not old enough to know," Dumbledore defended his actions.

"He's fifteen, for Merlin's sake!" James snapped, annoyed. "When I was fifteen I—" he broke off and glanced at Sirius, then Remus. They both nodded.

"—became an Animagus," James finished, looking down at the floor.

"Yes, Sirius told me about that," Dumbledore said, smiling. "Quite an accomplishment for a fifteen-year-old."

"Three," James mumbled. He remembered Peter, and white-hot rage soared through him. "Where's W—Pettigrew? Is he still alive?"

Sirius and Remus both looked at each other, then at Dumbledore. "I think you'd better let Harry explain that," Remus finally said.

A/N: OK, I'm done with the reposting! Like I said, let's keep our fingers crossed that the reviews don't disappear… (hint, hint) Please review!!!