Chapter 9: Confrontations
When Harry awoke the next morning, there were voices coming from down the hall and one was distinctly James's. Harry scrambled out of bed and tore down the hall, fully intending to barge into the young couple's room and ask where James had been last night, but stopped cold when he heard the tone of Lily's voice. It was the same angry and cold tone that his Aunt Petunia had used on him many times.
"Honestly James, I had no idea where you were!" Lily lectured. "And in these times.… You were gone for so long without so much as a fire call!"
"Lils, I'm sorry, I guess me and Sirius had some stuff we had to deal with," James explained with a sigh.
"Like I don't have anything to deal with?!" she snapped back. Harry could almost feel James wince.
"I know you do, Honey; it was stupid and inconsiderate of us to leave you. Please, let's not fight. Especially since…."
"I know," Lily agreed. "Just don't do it again."
Harry slowly started to back up; he didn't want them to think he had purposely been spying. Once, Harry had accidentally listened in on one of his aunt and uncle's conversations and it had earned him a week's time in his cupboard.
The door swung open revealing a smiling, but slightly tired looking James.
"Ah, but I'm so good at being an inconsiderate prat," he was saying, "and it comes so naturally too…. Harry!" He turned to the P.J clad five-year-old boy of him.
"Sorry we left you yesterday. How about some breakfast? I'm afraid we can't do anything terribly fancy until we take another visit to the shop; so how does cereal and toast sound?" It sounded perfect to Harry, who, more often than not, made his own breakfast back home. He also couldn't help but smile when he realized he was not in trouble. The little boy followed James down the stairs into the kitchen and watched as he poured the milk whilst they exchanged polite chitchat. Sirius and Lily were soon to follow, each looking half-asleep before taking a sip of their morning coffee.
"There's an order meeting tonight," Lily stated. "This place is a mess." The men and boy looked at her helplessly, trying to connect the two statements.
"Merlin," Lily continued, "I haven't cleaned all week! We'll have to tidy this place up before the members start arriving." James scrunched up his nose in distaste, but didn't say anything.
"I don't see anything wrong with it." Sirius said with a shrug. Lily rolled her eyes.
"Are you going blind? There's a layer of dust on everything."
"If there's as much as you say, that's going to be quite the job." Sirius commented. "Sucks to be you."
"You, Sirius Black will be helping!" Lily scolded. "In fact, I think you should de-gnome the garden."
"What?" he whined like a little kid. "They're not even going in the back yard!" He was silenced from further discussion by the look Lily gave him.
Harry had a very fun day. Sirius showed Harry what de-gnoming was, and he thought it was brilliant. They spent two hours in the back yard competing for 'De-Gnoming Champion of the World'. Harry won. Then he stepped inside to help Lily dust. They had a lot of fun singing silly little songs and dancing around. Harry then helped James do the laundry in a most unusual way: without a washing machine. Harry had lots of fun holding up the clothes while James dried them (and Harry) using his magic stick. By the time they had eaten dinner, the house almost seemed to sparkle.
"Great job, you lot. And just in time for the order meeting; they should be here in about 15 minutes," Lily said as they all stood around admiring their work. Harry smiled. He had done a lot of cleaning at the Dursley's, but it had never been this satisfying, even though he had done it alone. Never once had anyone at his relatives house told him that he did a good job. There was a creak in the hallway that interrupted their self-praising, and Dumbledore stuck his head in.
Harry liked Dumbledore, but after what Lily, James and Sirius's reactions had been yesterday, he was a little unsure. The old man stepped into the room, attracting any previous attention he had not gotten with his vibrant purple robes and unique shoes.
"Hello," he said, placing a lemon drop in his mouth. "I thought I'd come a bit early to discuss how we will be introducing Harry."
That statement shocked the little boy. Normally, at the Dursley's, he never met any strangers. His relatives were always too afraid of strange things happening, as they usually did around Harry. He felt a burst of pride that they were not so embarrassed by his freakishness to lock him away for the visit. But Dumbledore's next words dampened his mood somewhat.
"I would like to keep Harry out of the meeting and bring him in somewhere near the end. Perhaps one of you could stay with him and be filled in later? I believe that some of the things discussed will not dwell too well with his young ears. He does not need to worry about the Order's problems." Harry's heart sank at the nods of approval from the three young adults.
"I'll stay with him," James offered. "I'd like the chance to get to know him better." Dumbledore agreed with James and gazed absent-mindedly at the kitchen. Harry noticed this immediately.
"We cleaned all day. Isn't it nice?"
"It almost sparkles," Dumbledore replied fondly. Harry giggled.
"It twinkles, just like your eyes."
Everyone in the room was silent for a moment. It was well known that Dumbledore's eye's seemed to twinkle, but no had ever told him so. A slow rumble started to fill the room and quickly grew to laughter. Amongst all of the noise, they failed to hear the appearance of several of the order members entering the room. While most stood fondly in the doorway watching the exchange, one man entered forcefully, looking angry.
"What's going on?" he asked as the laughter died. "You didn't even hear us come in; what if we had been Death Eaters?"
"Hello, Alastor," Dumbledore said, greeting him. The man growled in return, barking out: "Constant Vigilance!" which made Harry jump.
"Perhaps you and Harry should move in to another room, the meeting is about to start," Dumbledore suggested. James nodded, took Harry's hand, and led him upstairs to Harry's room.
"Who was that man?" Harry asked, no longer afraid of posing a question.
"That was Mad-Eye Moody," James replied. Harry thought this was a strange name but didn't comment because he remembered how it felt when the kids at school made fun of him.
While Harry was pondering this, James stepped out of the room for a second and quickly grabbed a bag from his room down the hall. Harry had never tried wizard treats and James planned to have a lot of fun introducing them to him. He and Sirius had picked them up the day before while wondering the streets of Hogsmeade. He came back to the room to find it completely empty.
James's initial reaction was to panic. Lily would kill him. Why would Harry run off? What type of future father was he? But when a giggle met his ears, he knew Harry was hiding just behind the door. He smiled and decided to play along.
"Harry?" he said, pretending to be distressed. "Oh no, I've lost him!" There was a shuffling of feet and a giggle.
"Maybe he's under the bed?" James made a big show of leaning down and pulling back the covers, then stood again and made an exasperated hand movement.
"I've lost him for good! Lily will kill me!" There was a bang as the door slammed shut and Harry jumped out from his hiding place, shouting: "I'm here!" James pretended to wipe his forehead.
"Phew, I thought you weren't coming back for a moment there. You really had me fooled, and between you and me that's a really hard thing to do." The little boy beamed at the praise, before ducking his head and staring at the ground.
"What did you go get?"
James bent and picked up the bag filled with candy that he had placed by the door.
"I brought some candy," he declared, spilling the contents on the bed. To his dismay, Harry's face fell. "What's the matter? I could go get something else to do?" Harry shrugged never looking up.
"I'm not allowed candy."
James blanked for a second, wondering if his son had ever had candy, before jumping to the reassure him. "You're allowed to eat anything you want here, all right?" Immediately, Harry's head snapped up with a smile over-powering it. He jumped on the bed and started looking through the goodies James had brought, but even Harry's limited candy experience told him that there was no such thing as Fizzing Whizbees. He placed his hands on his hips and gave the adult a disapproving look. James gulped self-consciously; those eyes seemed to channel Lily.
"There is no such thing as these candies," Harry announced. James laughed at the serious tone of his future son.
"Then how do you explain the fact they're sitting in front of you, hmm? They are magical candies for people with powers, like you and me."
As if to prove they were safe, James ripped open a chocolate frog, caught it expertly on the first jump, and read the back of the card as he munched on the frog's head. Harry stared back in awe and before long father and son were merrily ripping open the assorted sweets and sorting through them to Harry's dislikes and likes.
A little over an hour later, a small, chubby man appeared in the doorway clasping and unclasping his hands.
"Wormtail!" James greeted him happily, patting him on the back. "How's it going? Long time no see." The man smiled back nervously.
"Hello, Prongs. They want to see Harry now."
James turned and gestured to Harry "This is Peter; he's one of my oldest and closest friends." Peter waved jerkily with his right hand as Harry met his gaze.
"Nice to meet you, sir."
Peter anxiously moved towards the door. Harry and James followed him as they made their way towards the kitchen. Harry felt butterflies settle in his stomach. Would everyone receive him as well as the chubby Peter?
As they entered the kitchen, there was complete silence, even though there were over 20 people in the room. All eyes were on Harry, and the little boy shifted closer to James under the Order's analyzing stares. After a few minutes of the tense silence, one woman in the back spoke up.
"What an adorable little boy, he looks scared to death though. Must you stare like that?" Immediately, relief and gratitude for this woman poured through Harry.
"It's hard not to, Marlene, he's a bloody carbon copy of James," said a man in the far corner wearing a funny looking hat. Everyone laughed a bit, releasing the tension that filled the room.
"He's beautiful Lily," a round-faced woman commented
"Of course he is," said James. "Like Elphias said, he looks exactly like me."
One giant of a man burst into tears.
"It's just so sad!" he said between sobs, wiping his nose on a handkerchief the size of the tablecloth. Mad-Eye Moody rolled his eyes in a manner that made Harry's stomach lurch before sighing in exasperation.
"Stop blubbering! It hasn't even happened yet."
The room lapsed into another bought of silence only to be interrupted by Dumbledore.
"I plan on doing some tests to see how this is possible, and check if it has had lasting effects on Harry. I also wish to try and figure out perhaps why Voldemort-" almost everyone in the room flinched, "wanted to kill young Mr. Potter. I also plan on trying to find out how he knew where they were, as well." There was a satisfied grumbling among the group. A man at the back spoke up next and Harry stretched to see his face.
"What will happen once all these tests are done?" The crowd turned to the headmaster again for his responds.
"We have to send him back, Gideon."
There was a cry of outrage from the order members. The same woman that had spoken at the beginning let her feelings known.
"Have you gone insane?! After what Sirius has reported it sounds like the boy was highly mistreated. You cannot send him back!" There was a muffled agreement which Dumbledore silence with his hands.
"He is not from this time; it would be far more prudent to try and change the outcome in the present than let a child from the future stay here. As it is, we are walking a thin line with the rules of time. Harry must be sent back!"
Silence met the speech as some took in the very real and serious situation they were facing. Harry noticed that Lily, James and Sirius were staring at the old mad very hard indeed, clearly stating that this discussion was not over.
"Now," continued Dumbledore, "I brought my camera, hoping that Harry might be able to take a picture for us, so we can all be in it."
He pulled out a little black box shape and handed it to the small boy. While the others got in position, Dumbledore explained to Harry how to work it. All he had to do was point and shoot. As they all stood in position smiling merrily, Harry felt a burst of pride. The Dursley's had never even let Dudley take a picture, for fear of him ruining it.
He clicked to photo and stayed downstairs for a while with the adults. He grew instantly fond of Marlene, the woman who kept sticking up for him, and laughed very hard at the stupidity of Dedalus Diggle, who was (unbeknownst to Harry) not acting. At nine-thirty, Lily told Harry to tell everyone 'good-night.' before she brought him upstairs to bed.