Disclaimer; Nothing in this fic belongs to me, They belong to J.K Rowling.
A/N;This chapter is pretty long, just like I promised, but the next chapter is even longer.
And I also want to thanks all of those who reviewed and put this up as a alert, but what disappointed me was the lack of reviews for the last chapter, it wasn't ven half as much as the first chapter. I know that I shouldn't complain, but since the number of reviews have gone down it makes me wonder if the story is also going down instead of up. and that might be the reson why it sometimes can take long time to update. so now you know... enjoy this chapter.
Chapter Three; Being Back, An' All That
As the Christmas vacation and the next following months happened, Harry thought a lot about his father and Jessica; they especially came into his mind when he saw Fred and George, which was quite a lot. He wondered how it must have felt for his father to lose his twin. It must have been awful to go through something like that.
He hadn't told anything about this to Ron or Hermione, he told them what he had talked to Professor Lupin about and such, but never told them that His father and Jessica were constantly invading his mind. Those thought were also often followed by Sirius Black, it hurt in him to think about what he had done.
He didn't tell Professor Lupin either that he thought about them a lot. Like the Professor had promised Harry, he started to help Harry work on his protection against the Dementors; it was a spell that was slightly hard to work since Harry's mind was constantly filled with sad and unhappy thoughts. Nothing really big concerning Sirius Black happened, except from the firebolt he allegedly sent to Harry as a Christmas gift and when he attacked Ron after the Quidditch game toward Ravenclaw.
When the day of May sixth arrived had neither Jessica, His father nor Sirius Black invaded Harry's mind for quite some time, it was mostly filled with the happiness of winning the Quidditch Cup, finally!
Today it was Friday, the only lesson they had this morning was Defence against the Dark Arts, then it was time for lunch and two lessons more before the third year Gryffindor students could relax and finally start their weekend.
Harry felt tired and sleepy when he sat down next to Ron that morning and took out his text books. And Professor Lupin started his lecture.
"... And so you can find these rather particular creatures near wells and other waterholes." Professor Lupin talked as he was unexpectedly interrupted by a knock on the door, which, without invitation, opened and revealed Professor McGonagall standing in the door way. "Professor?" Professor Lupin said, wondering what she might want.
"Something happened this morning." She said out loud as she quickly approached the desk where Professor Lupin stood.
Just like everyone else in the classroom, Harry noticed that Professor McGonagall seemed... Happy, in a lack of better words. He exchanged a look with a mildly confused Ron.
When Professor McGonagall came up to Professor Lupin she leaned forward to him and spoke in a low voice so that nobody else would hear. After she had said a few words a smile appeared on Professor Lupin face.
"What d'you think happened?" Ron whispered to Harry. "They captured Black?"
"Maybe." Harry answered and found himself feeling happy to hear that, they finally captured Black, a relief spread through his body.
The silent conversation between Professor McGonagall and Professor Lupin continued for a few minutes before Professor McGonagall, just as quickly as she came, turned her heels and left the class room. Professor Lupin turned toward the expectant class.
"What happened? You finally captured Black?" Seamus asked out loud.
"Sorry, but no." Professor Lupin answered. The relief in Harry sank and he came right back at feeling miserable. Professor Lupin turned around to his table and picked up a large pile of parchment from his desk. "Now I'll give you back your Vampire Essay and then you'll be free to go."
"But Professor..." Hermione spoke up. "The lesson just started ten minutes ago."
"Miss Granger." Professor Lupin answered smiling. "You are welcome to sit here the rest of the hour, but I can promise nobody will be here to keep you company."
Some muffled laughs came from around the classroom.
Hermione didn't answer after the response; she blushed slightly, took her essay and stuffed it into her bag without looking at it. The last one to get the essay was Harry, when Professor Lupin put it down in front of Harry he said. "Harry, I need you to stay behind, I need to talk to you about something."
"Okay." Harry answered and wondered what it might be that he wanted to talk to Harry about. After his classmates had walked out through the door he stayed behind and walked up to Professor Lupin's desk. "What did you want to talk about?"
"It's about Jessica." Professor Lupin said and instantly did about a thousand horrible and catastrophic thought appear into Harry's mind about what might have happened to her. But then he remembered the smile on Professor Lupin's face and he reckoned that it couldn't be anything bad and calmed down. "Professor McGonagall told me that about tree o'clock this morning Jessica, she... Woke up." He finished with a smile.
Happiness and joy suddenly filled Harry up and he couldn't keep himself from smiling. "Really?" He asked. "Wow, she's... she... Is she... Normal?" Harry stumbled with the words.
"Yes, she's normal. According to McGonagall have the healers said that she's in perfect health and will be able to return to normal life without any problems." Professor Lupin continued. "I'm going to go to London to meet her and tell her about... Everything."
The smile on Harry's face suddenly disappeared, it couldn't be easy to tell Jessica how much the world and everything has changed since her days.
"And then will it be just a matter of time before you'll get to meet her." Professor Lupin said. "She's your aunt after all." Putting an emphasis on the word aunt.
"Right." Harry half smiled. "She's my aunt."
"So, you'd better get going so you can tell Ron and Hermione, or do whatever you want to for the rest of the hour." Professor Lupin continued. "I need to get going."
"Yes..." Harry said. "You should get going." He nodded to himself as he turned around and walked out of the classroom, feeling the happiness bubble up inside of him again.
XXX
Remus Lupin had many times visited St Mungos Hospital during the last 12 years; he knew that he'd probably be able to find the room where they had put Jessica even if he couldn't see. The door to her room was open, and he didn't hesitate before he walked into the room.
On the bed she sat up, her back was turned toward him and in front of her another person sat, a black man, Remus recognized the man but at the moment could not seem to remember the name of. He was the one who noticed the Remus had arrived, because he stopped talking and leaned to the side to see who had arrived.
Jessica also turned around to see, when she saw who it was her face shone up and she stood up and approached him. Once she came in front of him she hugged him. Remus on the other hand was slightly surprised by the hug, but eventually welcomed it.
"Hi Remus." She said when she stepped back to take a good look at him.
"Hey Jessica." He responded.
She took a few steps back from him and then turned to the other man in the room. "This is Kingsley Shacklebolt, I don't know if you know him. He used to work with Frank." She introduced him to Remus.
"We've met." Remus responded as they shook hands.
"Oh, well, Kingsley has been keeping me company for this past hour or two, and..." Jessica started; she sat down on the bed first. "I asked him to tell what have happened during these past 16 plus years." She paused for a moment, not believing that it could have been that long. "And quite a lot have happened, don't you say?"
Remus felt a slight relief when he heard that Jessica had already been told about everything, at least now he didn't have to tell her.
"How are you taking it?" He asked Jessica, figuring that it must be pretty hard on her, almost everyone she knew and loved back then are either criminal, dead or at the mental ward.
"It's all a dream and I'm just waiting for me to wake up." Jessica said to him. It felt like a dream to her, this was not how she figured that the future would be like.
Remus didn't object to her way of thinking, he could understand how she must feel.
"I should go now." Kingsley Shacklebolt said. "You should contact me if you remember anything else about that night." He turned to Jessica.
"I will." Jessica promised him as he walked out.
"Remember what?" Remus asked Jessica once Kingsley Shacklebolt had disappeared.
"About that night when... before I ended up here." Jessica explained to him. "But I just remember walking outside with James; we were talking about me... and Sirius, then everything went black, and next thing I knew I woke up here."
Remus nodded and sat down on the chair Kingsley had earlier occupied. "I know that the world is different."
"Very different," She responded. "There's so many thing that just doesn't make sense. Like... Sirius for starters. It doesn't make any sense, why... why would he do so to James, and Lily. And I also can't believe that James and Lily got married. How did that happen?"
"After you... went into this state, James sort of broke down," Remus explained to her. "He stopped talking to people, he sort of came into a ghostly mood. And later on Lily became the only one he talked to, and all of the sudden they found themselves becoming friends and later on in love."
"Wow, and now they have a son together." Jessica answered. "Little Harry, how old is he?"
"He's 13, turning 14 July 31th."
"Wow," Jessica said. "You're his teacher." She smiled at that, but her face was still full of sorrow.
"Yes." Remus answered.
"I never thought that you'd end up being a teacher," She continued, she looked down onto her knees before she looked up at him again, not smiling anymore. "What's going to happen with me?" She asked him.
"I don't know." Remus answered truthfully.
"I still have six months left in school." She continued. "It's not like I can get any good job without my N.E.W.T's, and... There is so much unknown in my future now."
"What about your ambition to become an Auror, you can still do that."
"What's the idea now, when... three of the four people who inspired me to do that are..." She suddenly interrupted herself. She took a deep breath and pulled her hand to her cover her mouth, she looked like she was on the verge of crying, but no tears came. "Is it really true? What happened to Frank and Alice? I can't believe it; in a thousand ways is it like with James and Lily."
She shook her head. "The two of them also got married, it's so cute, couldn't think of a better girl for him."
"Yeah, their Son Neville's in Harry's class."
Jessica half smiled.
A knock came to the door. And when Jessica turned around to see who it was, the door opened and reviled Professor Dumbledore.
"Hello, I see that you are well Miss Potter." The Professor greeted her.
"Yes, alive and kicking." Jessica answered.
Professor Dumbledore smiled. "That's good news. I presume that you are wondering why I'm here."
"You presume right Professor." Jessica responded. She had only met Professor Dumbledore once earlier, and then had he been rather infuriated. It was in Jessica's fifth year and she had been subjected to a rather dark curse, it was so that this unknown person had put out a curse on the floor in one of the school hallways and Jessica's feet were in contact with it. The result was that Jessica couldn't walk and were under a lot of pain because of this, eventually was she able to walk again, and her feet didn't hurt anymore, but that wasn't until after three and a half months.
Dumbledore had been infuriated by this; he wondered what kind of student would even consider using this kind of Dark magic, and especially to a student. Jessica said that she didn't know who might be behind it, but that was a lie, she knew who had put up that curse. But she had lied for that person because of his own protection, not from Dumbledore, but from James and Sirius, especially James.
"Yes, well, I'm here on the behalf of your education," Professor Dumbledore explained. "You still do have six months left on your seventh year and taking your N.E.W.T's exam now would be in a very short notice and nearly impossible. So in that case I am bringing you two options."
"Okay." Jessica nodded; she had a tad idea what the options were.
"The first option is that you come back to school now and get put into the sixth year Gryffindor Class, just so that you can get to know the people you'll be having your seventh year with, which is next year." Dumbledore said. "The second option is that you wait until the same class have just about six months left of their education and then come back."
Jessica thought over these options, she knew which one that she obviously would choose. She glanced at Remus first before she answered. "I'd like to go with the first option, so I can get to know my classmates, and such."
"Alright, it will be a delight to have you back at school." Professor Dumbledore answered.
XXX
Two hours later and a clearing from at least three different Healers, Jessica Potter was free to leave the place. She was currently back in her room; there was a bag with some of Jessica's clothes in it. She could see that it was her mum who had packed this bag. The clothes in it were in three different settings, one for every kind of weather. Sadness came to her mind at the thought of her mother, and what she must have been through losing her daughter, her only daughter.
"Remus." She said and turned toward him. "What happened to my parents, how did they die I mean?"
"Um, Your father he..." Remus started. "August, barely a year after you, went into this state. Your father died of a heart attack, and losing both Daughter and husband in less than a year set your mother in a depression, which led to her also dying, naturally, it was about six months before Harry was born."
After Remus finished talking Jessica didn't respond, she had now turned away from him, she started to look further down the bag, trying to find something to wear.
"If I'm going to be at Hogwarts for the next few months, I need books and a school robe, and such." She told him.
"Yes, and more of your clothes can be found at your home, if feel like going there." Remus answered her.
"No," Jessica shook her head. "I don't feel like going home, I will be fine with these clothes as long as I have a school robe." She hoped to push off going home until she really had to, hopefully until the summer vacation started.
"Okay then, we should get going if we are going to make it to Diagonally before it's too late." Remus answered.
Jessica nodded, she finally turned herself toward Remus, and she held a pair of knee-length jeans and a Union Jack tee (which means a tee with the English flag on) in her hand. "Yeah, I'll be ready in just a minute." She said and walked into the bathroom to change clothes.
Inside the bathroom Jessica looked at herself in the mirror, apparently had the fact of that no blood had been pumping around in Jessica's body caused that her skin had become white. And the white skin didn't look any better because of her Black hair. All she needed was a pair of sharp teeth and she could probably fool the world with that she was a vampire.
"Oh Merlin, I look like a bloody Porcelain doll." She muttered to herself.
The May sun was shining rather brightly onto Jessica's clothes and it felt rather wired with the bright sun warming up her black Jacket.
"It's supposed to be December and snow everywhere. Not sunny." Jessica said to Remus when they were just a few streets away from The Leaky Cauldron.
"Times have changed." Remus answered.
"Is Tom still the owner?" She asked when they came into sight of the place.
"Yes, and getting rather old."
The Leaky Cauldron hadn't changed that much since Jessica had been here the last time, the difference was that there was newer and wholer furniture in the place. Today it was empty though, almost empty, the only customer was an old man sitting by the bar, drinking. Lunch hour had been over since long and it was probably why the place looked deserted. When Jessica and Remus walked past the bar, the man turned around to look at them, but Jessica turned her head around so that he couldn't see her face.
The main street of Diagonally was certainly not deserted, but it wasn't lively either.
"We need money first if we are going to buy things." Remus told Jessica, but then noticed that Jessica hadn't listened, her eyes had caught something. Remus followed her look and saw what she was looking at. It was a wanted poster for Sirius. "Jessica." He said and softly shook her shoulder.
"What?" She looked up at him.
"We need money first." Remus repeated to her.
"I've got money." Jessica said. She had found a bag of money in the bottom of the bag, figuring that her mum had also put it there. "I think that it should be enough for what I need."
It was enough for what she needed. Less than an hour after coming to Diagonally, both Remus and Jessica walked out of there with all the Jessica might need for the one and half months she was going to be in school.
Most of the things that Jessica didn't understand with the world now was clothing related. First was the fact that everything that she knew about fashion was out of fashion, the second thing was the new regulation about the length of the skirts on the uniform. So when Madam Malkins told her that the skirt wasn't allowed to be shorter than four inches above the knee, Jessica became shocked, because the skirts the girls wore when Jessica was in school could be as short as you wanted them to be. This often was an inch under your bottom.
And that was pretty much all that she needed, since she had already finished her sixth year, she didn't need any books, or if she did, she could probably borrow one or look with someone else. What Remus and Jessica talked about was the changes in the Hogwarts staff. When Remus told her that Snape had become a teacher, the world around Jessica collapsed. In the past had she had some problems with Snape, over those that James had with him of course. But she didn't want to talk about it. There were a lot of things that she didn't want to talk about.
The plan for getting back to Hogwarts was that they'd get there by floo, using the Leaky Cauldrons network to get to Professor McGonagall's office. Using the floo was exactly as uncomfortable as she remembered. Spinning very fast, she caught blurred glimpses of other Wizarding rooms, which were whipped out of sight before she could get a proper look; then she was slowing down, finally stopping squarely in the fireplace in Professor McGonagall's office.
"Jessica..." Jessica heard somebody say when she stepped out of the fireplace. She turned around and saw Professor McGonagall sitting by her desk.
"Professor." Jessica said happily when she saw the professor. She had always like Professor McGonagall, she didn't really know why though. "I'm glad to see that you haven't either aged a bit during these past 16 plus years." She added to the Professor. She stepped away from the fireplace and started to brush of the sot on her jacket.
"Here, let me help." Professor McGonagall stood up and helped Jessica brush off her back. "And save the flattering until you are in trouble."
Jessica didn't respond, she just smiled, because right after this Remus came out of the fireplace.
"Hello Remus." Professor McGonagall greeted him.
"Professor." Remus responded with a nod. "Aren't you supposed to have the Gryffindor third years now?"
"In ten minutes." Professor McGonagall answered. "You want me to send Harry to your office?" She added.
"Yes, that would be kind of you." Remus answered the professor.
"Then I'll do that." Professor McGonagall answered.
"Great." Jessica said. "I can't wait to meet Harry." But yet again, her tone didn't seem happy.
Before McGonagall walked out of her office she turned to Jessica. "I'm happy that you are back, Jessica." She said in slightly less stiffer tone than her usual voice.
"I'm happy to be back." Jessica smiled. She was mentally wondering why Professor McGonagall continued to call her Jessica, over all of her years of having Professor McGonagall as a teacher, she had never heard her call Jessica by her first name. It was always Potter or Miss Potter, and also often with an exclamation point afterwards.
On the walk to Remuses office, Jessica got the strange feeling that everybody was staring at her, and then whispering about it behind her back. It made her feel slightly paranoid.
"Everybody is staring at me." She said in a low voice to Remus, but he just smiled at this.
"Maybe they wouldn't be staring as much if you were wearing your school robe." He answered.
She looked up at him. "And here I thought that you were going to say that it's because I'm looking gorgeous." She said with a smirk.
Remus laughed at this. "Here's my office." He said and pointed toward the classroom door.
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