A/N: Well, whaddaya know. I'm updating in a week.

All right, here's the deal:

I update in a week—like now—if I have enough time and if you people (readers) are extremely lucky.

I update in two weeks if I don't have too much to do.

I update in three weeks if I have a considerable amount of homework or extracurricular activities.

I update in a month if I'm rather busy and stuff—not just rather busy, but perhaps extremely busy.

I update in over a month if I'm extremely, extremely busy and lazy to boot.

I don't update for over a year and I can pretty much guarantee you either I'm abandoning the fic (which I don't plan on doing), or I've died.

And then, even if I did die, Clara can take over.

Not that I'm saying I'll die, of course. Because I won't. Not any time soon, anyway.

Here is the chapter. Warning: There is another flashback in here. It's just to take up space, but I like it nonetheless. Dolores Umbridge and Lucius Malfoy are both featured… shan't say no more, or I'll give it away! Hehe. (That grammar was incorrect on purpose, just to let you know.)

Chapter Seven of "Returning to Life" by Morsmordre

James was rather upset when he heard of Harry's reaction to the news.

"So does he hate me? Or blame me for 'dying?'" James moaned. "I knew it! He does, doesn't he?"

"No, he doesn't," Sirius tried to reassure him. "He just needed some time to think about it. I'm pretty sure he was shocked when he heard… you know, because he was used to the fact that his dad was dead. I guess hearing that he's actually alive must have been a great shock and all, and he needed some time to adjust to the fact."

James was not very convinced, but he dropped the subject.

"So when can I see Harry? And do I get answers now?" he asked hopefully.

"You'll see Harry soon… probably tomorrow. And you'll get your answers from Harry," Sirius answered both questions.

James nodded, but was unable to suppress the groan that escaped from his lips.

Anna was busying herself with reading another book in one of the many rooms of Grimmauld Place when Dumbledore walked into that very same room.

"Miss Berkley," he greeted her.

"Albus," she returned stiffly—she hadn't completely "forgiven" him for tricking her into coming back into the wizarding world.

Then Dumbledore said something completely unexpected. He asked, "Would you like to take the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching position at Hogwarts this year?"

Anna was caught off guard. "Me?!" she sputtered.

Dumbledore nodded serenely.

"Me, teaching students? Are you getting mad in your old age?"

Anna knew this was a bit rude, but she didn't really care right now.

"You were a teacher in a Muggle school for the past fourteen years, last time I checked," Dumbledore explained.

"I didn't like it," Anna growled back. "And I don't want to teach a bunch of sniveling brats how to defend themselves against Dark creatures and Death Eaters."

"Why not? You'd be the best person suited for the job. You were an Auror before you left the wizarding world fourteen years ago, were you not?"

Anna digested this information.

"That's true," she admitted. "But why me? Isn't there someone else out there better suited for the job?"

"No," Dumbledore replied, shaking his head. "The Ministry does not believe Voldemort is back."

Anna blinked. "I know that. What does that have to do with anything?"

Dumbledore ignored the question and continued speaking. "They think Harry and I are making up stories and trying to overthrow their government."

"That's ridiculous," Anna muttered.

"Yes, it is, but that's what Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, believes. So they are ridiculing Harry, and taking away positions of power from me. Now they are trying to enforce the Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic as the Defense teacher at Hogwarts. If I don't find a teacher soon, we'll have to use her."

Anna nodded slowly. She understood this… It wouldn't be good to have a Ministry lackey teaching at the school.

"Who is this undersecretary?" Anna wanted to know.

"Dolores Umbridge. Do you know her?"

Anna nearly choked. "Dolores Umbridge?!"

"The very same. Do you know her?" Dumbledore repeated the question.

It was all Anna could do to refrain from rolling her eyes. Dumbledore knew the answer to that question, and that answer was: Did she ever…

Flashback

"Look at this!" Maggie Jules, one of Anna's best friends, seethed. She shoved a newspaper—an edition of the Daily Prophet—under Anna's nose. "Look at this…" She trailed off, her rage apparently too great for words.

"Whoa, chill," Anna retorted, taking the newspaper from Maggie's trembling hand and scanning the article. A frown marred her brow.

"Can you believe that… that bitch?!" Maggie sputtered. "Who does she think she is?"

"Dolores Umbridge?" Anna offered. "Perhaps she thinks she's Dolores Umbridge…?"

Anna trailed off as Maggie snatched the paper back and stormed out of the office Anna was currently in—the office Anna worked at as an Auror. "I'm going to pay that bitch a little visit…" Maggie snarled.

"Oh no you're not. Not if I have anything to say about it," Anna warned. Maggie was incredibly scary when she was angry—most people didn't regard the light-brown-haired, blue-eyed, sweet ex-Gryffindor as a threat, but when she was angry… Well, let's just say that her anger could rival Dumbledore's. And that was definitely saying something.

"Oh yes I am," Maggie shot back, speeding up. Her fists were tightly clenched, her knuckles were white, and the poor, innocent newspaper in her hands was getting crumpled up.

"You're a Healer, Maggie, and that Umbridge woman works at the Ministry and is on the Wizengamot! She has way more influence than you—if you go and attack her, she'll have you arrested, you know that?"

"I'm not going to attack the cow or anything… I'm only just going to have a few words with her," Maggie spat, stressing the word "words."

The two women were now out of the office and waiting for an elevator to come.

"You are not, Maggie. Not. N-O-T."

"Oh yes I am, Anna. I am. Am. A-M."

The doors of the elevators dinged, and they opened. A bunch of those Ministry memos flew out and Anna ducked. Maggie grabbed her by the arm and pushed her into the elevator.

"I am going to kill her," Maggie murmured.

"You just said you weren't going to do anything but have a few words!" Anna snapped. "I don't want one of my best friends going to Azkaban!"

The two women stopped their argument when they suddenly realized just whom they were standing next to in the elevator.

"Malfoy," Maggie growled.

"Jules," the blonde aristocrat returned, his pale, pointed face twisted in a sneer.

Lucius Malfoy was under the Aurors' list of people to watch, since they were suspected of being Death Eaters. It was really too bad that Malfoy had so much influence at the Ministry of Magic.

"So why are you here, Malfoy?" Maggie taunted, lowering her voice so the other people in the elevator wouldn't hear. "Why aren't you reporting back to your master?"

"I do not have a master, Mudblood," Malfoy ground out, his teeth gritted. "Malfoys are their own."

"I am not a Mudblood. I'm a halfblood," Maggie snapped.

Lucius said something decidedly unaristocratic about "Mudblood filth."

"Take that back," Anna snarled at him. "Take that back, you filthy Death Eater scum."

Malfoy turned icy cold eyes towards her.

"I don't recall speaking to you, Berkley," he said smoothly. "Too bad you're a blood traitor. You could have made a fine servant to the Dark Lord, just like your sister."

CRACK.

Anna had slammed her fist into Malfoy's jaw, her face white with rage.

"Don't ever talk about my sister again. Do you understand me, you bastard?" she hissed.

Malfoy glared at her and clutched his jaw as all the other occupants of the elevator stared at them in shock. But before he could bite out a nasty reply, the elevator doors opened again, and Malfoy stepped out this time.

"You will pay for that," he sneered (he had great difficulty doing this with a broken jaw, Maggie realized with glee), before the elevator doors slid shut.

Everyone else in the elevator was still staring at them.

"What are you looking at?" Anna asked rather rudely, and they quickly averted their gazes.

"That was brilliant!" Maggie chortled as the elevator started up again. "The look on his face was priceless!"

But as soon as the two friends stepped out of the elevator onto the floor Umbridge's office was located, Maggie's face became a storm cloud once again.

"Wait until I give her a piece of my mind," she seethed, and sped up again.

It looked like other people had the same idea. A tall, thin, stunning girl with white-blonde hair was standing in the crowd around Umbridge's office, her pale skin flushed with anger.

"I'm part-Veela, but I was raised here in Britain just like anyone else!" she screeched. "I'm no danger to anyone, but because of this new… this new Magical Labor Act you passed, I'm to be fired! How is that fair?!"

"Very," said a woman who Anna presumed to be Umbridge in a very nasty tone of voice.

The first thing Anna thought when she looked at the woman was that she looked like a toad. She was short, squat, and most of all… very ugly.

"Look, listen here, Umbridge!" Maggie snarled, throwing herself into the fray. "I'm not a half-breed or anything like that myself, but my boyfriend is! He's already having trouble finding work because of that! How dare you pass a… a law saying he's not allowed to find work or be hired?! What is your problem, you… you toad!"

Umbridge's face had gone a nasty shade of puce. "Half-breeds do not deserve to live," she spat. "They're all monsters."

"Why, I ought to hex you right here and now," Maggie shot back, her own face turning a rather red shade of… er, red. "With stupid, bigoted prejudices like the ones you have, why don't you just do us all a favor and kill yourself?!"

There was a shocked silence after those words slipped out of Maggie's mouth. No one had probably ever dared to speak to Umbridge that way before.

"Why… you," Umbridge stammered, clearly shocked, too. "You… take that back!"

"I will not," Maggie spat back in her face. "It's the truth."

"Making a ruckus like this right by the Minister's office…" Umbridge gestured to the office of Bartemius Crouch Senior, the Minister of Magic, which was by hers (her office, that is). "You are very disrespectful! You're no better than a filthy half-breed like your werewolf of a boyfriend, as you put it…"

Umbridge's words were cut off with a shriek as Maggie whipped out her wand and shouted out a ferocious hex—the Bat Bogey Hex, to be precise.

"Do I look like I give a fuck?!" she retorted. "Do you think so, you evil cow? No, toad would be a better word to describe you… Toad, cow, bitch… it's all the same to me. I absolutely despise you, you—"

"Miss Jules!" It was Senior Auror Moody, who had come to break the whole thing up.

And the only thing Anna could really think was, Thank God. If that continued, Maggie would've landed herself in Azkaban.

End flashback

"Of course I know her," Anna said carefully, trying hard not to think about her now-deceased friend.

"Well, it would not be good to have her as a teacher at the school, wouldn't you agree?" Dumbledore continued calmly.

Anna sighed. She had lost this round to Dumbledore… again. "Fine. I'll be the Defense teacher."

Dumbledore smiled. "Very good! Lemon drop?" He offered her the tin can.

Anna wanted to strangle someone. "No thanks."

Harry just couldn't believe it. He really couldn't believe it. It wasn't possible. His father was dead. How could he be alive?

But Sirius said he was alive…

But it wasn't possible!

Harry thought about what Sirius had said… that his father had been placed under some sort of spell that made everyone think he was dead. Maybe that really was true…

Not possible, argued the logical side of his brain. Definitely not possible.

Would Sirius come and tell you this and get your hopes up if he wasn't positive? retorted the other part of his brain, the part that desperately wanted to believe Sirius.

Maybe he was fooled!

Maybe not.

Argh! Harry shook his head, hoping to clear up his jumbled thoughts. He finally made a decision… he would see this person who claimed to be James Potter and he would judge for himself if this person was James Potter or an imposter.

He went downstairs to relay the information to Sirius.

James was still wondering and worrying—but mostly wondering—about his only, now grown-up son, when Sirius came into the room. "He's ready to see you," Sirius said quietly.

James jumped up from his chair, his heart pumping. "R-Really?" he croaked. His mouth felt dry, and he suddenly had a strange desire for a drink of water.

A wry smiled spread over Sirius's face. "He wants to see if you're an imposter or not."

"Oh." James bit his lip and nodded. Before Sirius could say another word, James had raced out of the room and towards the room Harry was staying in.

His heart still pounding, James knocked three times on the door.

"Come in," he heard a voice say.

His heart threatening to burst out of his chest, James opened the door.

A/N: Hehe… cliffy! You'll just have to wait til next time to see.

Hmm… I wonder how many death threats I'll get…

Basically, just review, will ya? It was a bit rushed, to tell you the truth, so I may edit it again and repost it sometime. So don't be surprised if you get an alert and it's really not another chapter. (But check, just in case:D)

Review!

-Morsmordre