AN: An adult character is emotional in this chapter so more cursing than usual. My bad, but it doesn't work without it, IMHO.

Chapter Nineteen: Godric's Hollow

"We were idiotic children," His voice was raspy, face pale and gaunt, but his eyes were alert, fierce. "Even with death surrounding us, we were sure we would be the exception, that we would beat the odds and make it through, alive and whole. Obviously, we were wrong."

Sirius paused for a moment and smiled as he gestured to the modest two-story, timber-framed cottage that sat across the road from where they stood. "Despite the properties your father owned, the money he had in his vaults, this was your parents' favorite place in the world. Probably because this is where they had their honeymoon, where their marriage began. With the war going on, they had wanted to stay close. They had planned to take a long vacation and travel to Potter properties around the world after the war, but they knew it would be awhile. That's what gave Lily the idea to turn the empty properties into resorts, so they wouldn't languish while they were empty and to give the house elves people to look after. Lily, you have to love her, she was so middle class. Despite the Potter fortune, she always wondered what if, always looked for back up plans, in case one business venture or plan fell through. 'You never know,' she always said. Lily always, always had a backup plan. You Harry are living proof of that."

Harry cocked his head and turned to look at Sirius curiously, but he didn't speak. He didn't want to interrupt the moment and knew Sirius was lost in his memories. Although Sirius's gaze hadn't left the cottage, he must have noticed the gesture because he stepped closer and hooked an arm through Harry's.

"Lily came to me once with this book she'd found in the Potter Library on old magic, family magic. She was unfamiliar with the concept and was intrigued. As a muggleborn, she wouldn't have known. The British Ministry declared old magic and family magic dark, and stopped teaching it. You won't find books on the subject in bookstores or the Hogwarts Library. Those type of books were banned well before I was born," Sirius snorted with derision. "Around the time Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald and began gaining power, my mother always said. Damn, the old harpy was right about some things, bitter pill to swallow you know, to learn that most everything I had thought about the world, and people in this world, was wrong."

Sirius paused and shook his head as if clearing away the cobwebs. "You will only find books on old magic in family libraries. She knew I would know about it. James was coddled growing up, so I doubt Charlus and Dorea taught him this stuff. The book she found was about sacrificial magic," Harry gasped and Sirius nodded even through his gaze hadn't moved from the image in front of them. "Yes, there is a charm one can perform to save the life of a blood relative. You're essentially giving up your life, your magic for your loved one. Love, after all, is the most powerful magic in the world. When you're filled with love and cast magic, it's like what muggles call an adrenaline rush. It makes whatever magic you cast stronger than what it would've been otherwise. It is the purest form of magic there is. There's a reason why it takes an expression of happiness or love to fuel a patronus charm.

"When I saw you after, when I saw you survived, I knew Lily's plan worked. So don't be sad Harry, she knew," he said gruffly. "Don't buy into Dumbledore's half-formed theories. Lily knew what she was doing when she gave her life for yours, as did James. I imagine when Voldemort appeared James decided to face him to buy your mother time to cast the charm. James was a master in Transfiguration but was just average in Charms, and Lily was the opposite, so it was decided if it came down to it, she would cast the charm. It was the backup plan if everything went belly up and everything went according to Lily and James's plans until I arrived on the scene and screwed shit up. I let my emotions get the best of me. Instead of spiriting you away, I gave you to fucking Hagrid of all people and went after the rat. I fucking trusted Dumbledore. I'm so sorry, Harry," Sirius ended, tears only now beginning to pour down his face.

Harry wrapped his arm around his godfather's waist, snuggling up against the arm wrapped though his as he leaned against Sirius's side, since he wasn't tall enough rest his head on Sirius's shoulder. Any residue anger he felt against Sirius faded away as he realized he wasn't the only one who had been screwed over by Albus Dumbledore.

"You're an idiot," he said fondly. "I'm glad you're here with me though."

"You sound like Lily," he grumbled. "James's looks and Lily's personality, you have. Deadly combination." Sirius shook his head and closed his eyes. Harry thought it obvious Sirius felt overwhelmed right now. "I'm glad I'm here with you too, even if I have to face . . . this again." Harry felt Sirius shudder at his side. "I see this cottage in my nightmares."

Lords Harrison Potter and Sirius Black stood in front of the ruined cottage at 1 Church Lane, situated on the edge of the village in Godric's Hollow, West County England. The majority of the cottages second floor had been blasted away, most likely from when the killing curse rebounded from Harry into Voldemort. Debris from the blast still dotted the front lawn. The two-story, six-bedroom cottage-though modest compared with other Potter properties-was the largest in the village. A solitary street torch sat outside the cottage and illuminated the street and home. This cottage, his family's property, heralded one's arrival into Godric's Hollow, one of the oldest wizard settlements in Great Britain. Potter Cottage was rumored to be the site of Godric Gryffindor's home. The Potter cottage sat kitty corner to the village church, graveyard, and rectory. From Potter records, the cottage had been a wedding present to Honour Potter, back in the 1600's, so she did not forget her wizarding roots despite being born a squib and educated in non-magical traditions. Honour lived in the cottage with her family and upon the death of she and her spouse, the cottage reverted to the Potter Family who had used it off and on throughout the generations.

And Dumbledore and the ministry stole it from him and had to gall to turn his family property, his legacy into a national monument. Harry grew furious just thinking about it.

"Are you ready," he asked Sirius.

"No, but it has to be done."

Harry nodded and they both crossed the street. Once Harry reached the home and touched the gate a sign appeared. Obviously done by the ministry, the sign stated that the house had been preserved in its ruined state to serve as a reminder to the violence that tore apart his family.

"As if they had the right to touch or destroy anything," Harry growled.

"Bastards," Sirius agreed.

Once he reclaimed his home, he had the warders at Potter Corporation re-ward the property. For now, he and house elves bound to him were the only ones able to enter. He wondered what they had taken from his home.

"Dumbledore 'regifted' the Potter Family invisibility cloak to me. Do you think he stole it from the house after my parents died?"

"No, James let him borrow it when Dumbledore came across it by accident. James was usually better at hiding the cloak from outsiders, all things considered. You know it's a hallow, right?"

Harry nodded. "I recently found out."

"Good. He knew Dumbledore figured out it was a Hallow and played ignorant when Dumbledore asked to borrow it. He knew it wouldn't work properly for him, as he was not a Potter. I bet that's the only reason Dumbledore gave it back to you, because he couldn't truly wield the Cloak of Invisibility. While the cloak can make anyone invisible, when a Potter wields the cloak, they become virtually impervious to sight, sound, smell, and spells." A fond smile crossed Sirius's face. "Believe me James and I tested it out one summer, had a blast doing so. When he wore it, he was invincible, when I wore it, it was just another invisibility cloak, same as if we both used it. It only accepts a Potter, even if a Potter is underneath it with someone else."

Loving the insight, Sirius was providing about his parents, he banished the stupid ministry sign and strode through the gate of his family home. He and Sirius had to levitate several pieces of timber that had fallen in front of the door to enter the home. Once they walked through the front door, Harry gasped. He had expected the place to be picked over by wizarding vandals, but the cottage had been perfectly preserved. Halloween decorations were still in place; elaborately carved jack-o-lanterns looked as if the holiday were only yesterday, their candles still burning. If someone had stolen something, at least they hadn't trashed his home doing so.

Harry followed Sirius through each room of the cottage and listened to his father's best friend describe stories of what he remembered about the home and family as he touched objects that had belonged to his parents during the last few months of their lives. They methodically went through every room. In the end, Harry had only taken three things with him, a photo album that detailed his parents' lives while they were in hiding, a necklace with a lily charm Sirius had said had been the first present James had given Lily, and finally, a large, nearly life sized stuffed stag animal Sirius had said had been his favorite toy as a baby. The rest he would have his house elves box and deliver to Castle Potter so he could go through later.

Leaving the cottage, they walked across the street to the graveyard and wandered the graves until they found his parents. It took a while but they finally found his parents' plot. Underneath a double headstone were his parents' names, dates of births and deaths, and the inscription, 'the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.'

He and Sirius stood silently before their grave. Tears ran down Harry face as he looked at his parents' final resting place while thinking of everything he had lost that Halloween night. He could feel Sirius shaking beside him, but when he looked up, instead of finding Sirius shaking with grief, the man's body shook with barely suppressed anger. Had he cracked? Had this been too much for the man all too recently released from prison? Uncomfortable, Harry turned to face his godfather.

"Sirius?"

"This isn't what they wanted," Sirius snapped. "Hell, we were twenty years old, what twenty-year-old would want this melodramatic shit on their tombstone. That fucker turned your parents' graves into his personal manifesto. That manipulative bastard, no wonder the Blacks were dark."

From the look on Sirius face, from the way his body just wouldn't stop shaking with rage. Harry could tell his godfather was within moments of blasting the damn thing to pieces and storming off to murder Albus Dumbledore. He grabbed Sirius's wand arm before the furious man could act.

"Calm down, Sirius. We'll fix it," Harry spoke slowly as if to a child. "I'm moving them to the Castle where all the Potters are buried anyway. What did they want?"

Sirius took a deep breath and nodded. "It started as a joke," he began, his voice sounding far away and somewhat vacant as although his mouth was speaking, his mind and body were stuck in the past. "Voldemort and his minions had just destroyed Potter Hall not knowing James and Lily had recently moved back into the Castle to get it prepared to become some muggle tourist attraction thing Lily had dreamed up. This was before the prophecy, before you had been born. Back then, Voldemort was after us, because we fought against him. James and Lily had recently dueled him to a standstill and I guess destroying Potter Hall was his way of taking revenge on them for not dying." Harry nodded. "So, we were all at Potter Hall, and Remus was going on and on with his bookworm crap, which he does whenever he's nervous and can't deal with a situation. He was worried Voldemort would target the Castle next and he'd lose his pack. So here Remus was sprouting out random, useless facts on the odds of it occurring again annoying the crap out of us, while we were trying to wrap our heads around what just happened. After a while, James got fed up with Remus's shit, and snapped, 'Look C-3PO never tell me the odds.' We just looked at each other and began cracking up, you know. You've seen Star Wars, right?" Harry smiled and nodded. "The tension before that had been awful. Here we were standing in James's family home, where all the memories of his parents who he adored were and the death bastards destroyed that, all those memories. It was . . . bad, next thing you know we were laughing so hard we were rolling around the floor with tears falling down our faces. So James said, when I die that is going to be my epitaph. Meanwhile, Lily who had been upstairs boxing anything salvageable to take to the vault comes in, sees us goofing off, and asks us what's going on, you know. She was pissed, and well a pissed off Lily Potter was a scary sight to behold. We tell her, and then she shoves these boxes into our hands and says that she's going to hex us if we don't get back to work and her epitaph was going to be 'do or do not, there is no try.'"

Harry of course burst out laughing, and Sirius joined him. So there we were standing in front of Harry's parents graves laughing their heads off. For the first time in a long time, Harry felt relaxed and it was thanks to Sirius Black. Harry looked up at his godfather and gave him the brightest smile imaginable. For the first time, he could see that things were going to be all right. Sensei and his parents were right. He wasn't alone.

"Thank you Sirius."

"Anytime, pup." Sirius wrapped him up in a hug and they stood there for a while wrapped in each other's arms. "I miss them."

"We have to move on. Besides, they're still with us," Harry said positively.

"Yeah, they are. James and Lily would kick my ass if I continued to wallow. Life to live, women to conquer, you know all that rot." Sirius wiped teary eyes and seemed to get a hold of himself. "I'm starving pup."

Harry laughed. "Me too. Time to get back to the castle."

With one last look at his parents' graves, they disappeared.

Author Notes:

*Hey, I'm a day early. A storm is supposed to be coming my way so I thought I'd post this now just in case my power goes out tonight.

*I know this chapter is short, but the story flow would've been messed up if I added more.

*This is one of my favorite chapters so far, so I hope you like it. However, when I think a chapter sucks, you guys love it, so since I like this chapter it probably means you guys think it sucks donkey doo doo.

*This chapter is a prime example of how reviews help. Chapters and chapters ago, someone made a comment about Harry and Sirius and Remus and their relationship. While most of what they had said didn't pertain to my story, I did realize that I had glossed over the reconciliation of their relationship. (Though the story is unedited, the rough draft of this is complete) So ever since then I've been slowly building up to Harry forgiving and accepting Sirius and Remus which I finally did here. This was a new chapter I had written last Tuesday. I thought it was going to take forever and was going to be like watching paint dry, but writing this took me about an hour and I had to do very little editing.

*Next up . . . is a time skip so guess who will be probably be making an appearance. LOL. Have a great week.

*As always, so do not own Harry Potter or Ouran High School Host Club.