A Second Life
Summary; in the long term ward at St Mungos is there a door, with a secret behind it. The name on sign is in pitch black letters, and it reads "J. Potter". Who is behind the door? What is it that they haven't told Harry?
Disclaimer; Nothing in this story belongs to me...
Chapter Thirteen: The World Cup; Cliff Note Version
Harry was really getting used to transporting himself by using the floo-network, but it was still far away from his favourite way. His head felt dizzy after all the spinning when his feet hit a halt at the right destination. Harry opened his eyes and stepped out of the fire place at the Burrow.
At one end of the kitchen table three of the Weasley boys sat, one of them was Ron and the other two Harry didn't know, but since they were also red-haired and older, Harry assumed that they were Bill and Charlie, but he didn't know who was who though.
"Harry." Ron stood up and walked over to Harry. "You are early..." He added a bit surprised and took both the bag from Harry.
"Yeah..." Harry said. "Jessica will be right behind me."
"How are you doing, Harry?" Asked the nearer of the older brothers, and held out a hand, which Harry shook, feeling the blisters and calluses under his fingers. This had to be Charlie, who worked with dragons in Rumania.
Bill got to his feet, smiling, and also shook Harry's hand.
Harry wasn't so sure what to say, he felt a bit stupid just standing there smiling. But he didn't have to worry about that for long, because at the same moment Jessica arrived.
"Hey Jessica." Ron greeted her.
"Hey Ron." Jessica answered back before also being greeted by Charlie and Bill.
"I thought that I heard something from the kitchen." Mrs Weasley entered the kitchen. "Hello dear." She said as gave Harry and Jessica each a hug.
"Um, mum..." Ron suddenly said, like he had forgotten something. "I forgot to tell you, Harry also wrote that they would be bringing dessert."
"You forgot to tell?" Jessica asked Ron, not entirely believing it.
"Well, I had a lot of things on my mind." Ron claimed in self-defence, his ears turning red because everyone was looking at him.
"Anyway, the gesture is very appreciated," Mrs Weasley said and took the pies from Harry and put them on the table, Jessica followed the gesture and put hers also there. "There was absolutely no need."
"But we were glad to do it, as it turns out Harry is a natural in the kitchen." Jessica said smiling with one of her charming smiles.
"Harry." Hermione said as both she and Ginny entered the kitchen. She looked very happy to see Harry, since the first thing that she did was to walk up to him and give him a hug. "I thought that you wouldn't be arriving until later."
"I'm here now." Harry answered her.
"Yeah, I'm just..." Hermione said, but stopped herself, not so sure what to say, instead she turned to Jessica. "Hi Jessica, Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay, are you alright?" Jessica answered; she noticed a certain tenseness in Hermione.
"I'm terrific." Hermione answered.
"Why don't you show Harry where he's going to sleep?" Mrs Weasley said to Ron.
"Harry knows where he's sleeping." Ron pointed out. "In my room, where he slept..."
"Why don't you show him anyway?" Mrs Weasley said in a this-is-the-end-of-the-discussion-tone to him. "After that you can help me set the table." She then added in a more cheerful tone.
"Right." Ron muttered and started to walk away.
"Why don't you stay down here Jessica?" Mrs Weasley said to Jessica, pulling out a chair for her.
"Okey." Jessica said as Harry, Hermione and Ginny followed Ron up the stairs.
"Bill, Charlie, why don't you go outside and pull out the tables?" Mrs Weasley told her two oldest sons who left for outside without complaining. "How are you feeling, Jessica?" Mrs Weasley then asked Jessica as she continued with the cooking.
Jessica was first baffled by the question but then she reckoned that Mr Weasley must have told his wife about Jessica's pregnancy. "I'm generally fine, have quite the morning sickness." She answered her, feeling quite touched by her concern.
"That's good. Morning sickness is actually a sigh that everything is good." Mrs Weasley continued.
"How nice." Jessica said ironically. She'd better remember that in the morning.
"Before you know it are most of your children all grown up and not listening to you anymore." Mrs Weasley sighed, probably thinking of her own experience.
"What's Percy doing these days?" Jessica changed the subject. "Does he already have a job or is he looking?"
"Oh Percy pretty much already had a job before he left school..." Mrs Weasley started talking about Percy and his job. Jessica didn't listen that closely; she was busier looking around in the room.
Not before long did both Hermione and Ginny come down the stairs, the boys were not so long behind.
Mrs Weasley told the two of them what they could take outside for the tables.
Hermione looked at Jessica shortly before talking up the dishes and walked outside in a rather hurried pace. Jessica got the feeling that something was wrong with Hermione and got up and walked after her.
"Hermione, wait." Jessica said as she grabbed Hermione by the arm. She had just walked through the door. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong." She answered looking down at the ground.
"Hermione!" Jessica responded in a slightly warning tone.
"Jessica." Ginny had appeared behind the two of them. Jessica let go of Hermione's arm immediately. "Fred and George over heard mum and dad talking about you a few weeks ago." She said, walking now a bit closer to them.
"What were they saying?" Jessica wondered. Were they saying something bad? Did they know something about her that she didn't?
"Dad told mum that you..." Ginny said hesitating to continue. "That you were pregnant."
Jessica felt relieved when they told her. She had been worried that it would be something else, but it was only this. "Oh." She said with a calming breath. "And your brothers had to tell everyone?" Her calm turned into panic, she needed to tell them that she didn't want anyone else to know, especially at school.
"Not really." Ginny continued. "Fred and George asked Ron about this. I overheard and later accidentally told Bill and Bill told Charlie since the two of them don't have any secrets from each other."
"Oh, but everybody still knows..." Jessica enlightened Ginny.
"Percy's the only one who doesn't know." Hermione said. "At least I think so."
"That doesn't really count." Jessica muttered. "Just so you know... I don't really want the whole world to find out before I'm ready, Right?"
Both the girl nodded.
"Just one more question?" The little red haired girl asked. "Who's the father?"
"Oh." Jessica didn't quite know how to answer that, Ginny didn't know about Sirius so she wouldn't understand. "No one you really know. I got Pregnant before my coma."
Both Ginny and Hermione seemed fine about the answer, but Jessica felt pretty certain that Hermione had her suspicions that Sirius was the actual father.
XxXxXxX
It surprise Jessica how easily she got along with the Weasley family. She had fun at dinner, talked, laughed and ate. Mrs Weasley was an amazing cook and everything smelled and tasted wonderful.
The conversation wasn't that bad either, she mostly talked to Charlie and the twins about Quidditch and she got a much clearer picture of the world of Quidditch had been like over the past twenty years.
When she had spoken earlier with Mrs Weasley about Percy's job she knew that she should have listened to what the older woman said, because Jessica nearly choked on her food when Percy talked about who he worked for.
"Are you alright?" Harry asked her concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Jessica said, holding her hand over her chest. "I just didn't know they still let that Idiot rummage around in the ministry." She continued to on one particular.
"Excuse me," Percy Weasley turned his attention toward her. "Did you just call Mr Crouch an Idiot?"
"Yes." Jessica said without showing any sign that it might be bad to call Mr Crouch an idiot, like it was completely normal.
"On what grounds?" Percy continued.
"On the ground that he's harsh and let's his work rule over his life, which quite drastically affected both his wife and son." She said.
"Do you even know Mr Crouch?" Percy asked.
"I knew his son." Jessica finished. And this seemed to be the end of their conversation, neither of them said anything more to each other on the rest of the evening.
Harry wanted to ask Jessica more about Mr Crouch and why she didn't like him, but he didn't want to do that as long as Percy was around.
The evening soon came to an end and it was time for everyone to go to bed, they had to get up quite early the next morning. Only Harry was staying the night at the Weasley's, and since Jessica couldn't apparate safely anymore were she to come to the Weasley's the next morning and follow with them to the world cup.
The world cup wasn't as fun as Jessica remembered it. It was sure going to be a good memory but it would always be tainted by the terrors that happened later at that night. It was strange that it would happen just this night and that the Death Eaters would suddenly disappear when the Dark Mark appeared up in the sky, shouldn't they have been dancing around in joy and praise the Dark Lord once the Dark mark was up in the sky. But if it wasn't the Death Eaters who made the Dark Mark, who was it?
Once they all got back to the Burrow and managed to calm down a very worried Mrs Weasley, things started to finally calm down for the first time in over twenty-four hours.
Jessica stayed with the Weasley's for the rest of the day, but at the end of it she had to go home. She and Harry had decided that Harry was going to stay with the Weasley's for the rest of the summer.
Mrs Weasley had made it sure to Jessica that she was free to stay with them for a few days, but Jessica said that there was something that she had to do.
For several months now had Jessica been alive without James around, and for several months had she felt this loneliness inside her soul. It was hard for her to realize that her brother was gone and she needed some proof, some closure.
The sun was hidden behind murky clouds and rain could arrive at any minute.
The weather seemed fitting for the situation. Like the sky was feeling her pain, her sorrow.
'James Potter'
'Lily Potter'
It was strange reading Lily Evans as Lily Potter. Jessica smiled a little to herself; it was still as funny as before that James had gotten married to Evans, his arch nemesis.
"Hey James." She said, feeling a bit pathetic for talking to a pillar with a bit of fancy writing on it, but it did make her feel better. "It's been a long time."
She dropped herself down to her knees in front of the grave. "I slept with your best friend." She confessed. "On that day when you, mum and dad were out... Sorry, I'm sorry that I lied to you about that."
She took a deep breath, as if she was waiting for him to speak. A few small tears escaped from her eye. She missed him so much... "Harry's a great kid... you'd be proud over him, I know it. He has so much of Evans in him. I can't believe that you actually married her, I don't really mind having her as a sister in-law..."
She quieted down again. She put one hand over her baby bump. "Gonna have a baby... It still freaks me out; I wish that you were here to help me, to be my supportive pillar through all of this."
Once she had said this there was nothing that could stop the tears, they just came falling down her cheeks as if they had a will of their own. She didn't speak any more. She sat there quiet, rocking back and forward, staring at the pillar.
She couldn't quite explain it, but the visit to her brother's grave made things easier for her. She somehow knew that things could only get better from now on.
A/N; I'm very sorry again for the very late update, truly I am. It will take time, but I promise that I will try and do my best to finish the story. Please review and I would love it if you also made a comment about the new Harry Potter movie.... I didn't have any high expectations so I LOVED the movie. My little sister didn't though. :o)