Disclaimer: I do not own or have any rights to Harry Potter.

I hope you enjoy this story that I got from katie13 (yes another one) that she said that she had never put up on this site.

Chapter 43

Harry yawned and stretched lazily as he woke up. He was in a good mood. For a second, he couldn't quite remember just WHY he was so happy, but he was. And then he remembered- his parents were alive! And they were in the house!

Grinning to himself, Harry jumped out of the bed and dressed quickly. He walked downstairs into the kitchen.

Sirius was already there, frying bacon in a frying pan.

"Morning, Harry!" He smiled, giving Harry a huge hug, "Happy birthday!"

Harry's eyes widened. He had completely forgotten- it was his birthday?

Sirius laughed loudly at Harry's expression: "Don't tell me you forgot your own birthday! Really, Harry. You're getting forgetful in your old age."

Harry grinned and quickly ducked out of the way as Sirius tried to muss up his hair.

"At least I don't burn my bacon," he said meaningfully.

Sirius looked confused, "Harry, what are you- oh no!"

Harry laughed loudly as Sirius hurriedly took the pan from the stove and tried to minimize the damage with his wand.

"So, er-"said Sirius, embarrassed. "- what would you like for breakfast, Harry? Aside from bacon?"

Harry thought for a minute. He was slowly getting used to the fact that he was allowed to actually chose what he wanted for breakfast, but it still caught him off-guard sometimes.

"Pancakes," he decided.

Sirius grinned in relief. Pancakes were the only thing he was actually good at making.

He pointed his wand at the stove, and about five minutes later, a huge pile of chocolate-chip pancakes appeared in front of Harry.

Harry waited dutifully while Sirius made his own stack, and two more for his parents, before digging in happily.

"So, Harry, what would you like to do for your birthday?" asked Sirius.

Harry thought for a minute. He felt a little uncomfortable. Nobody had ever made a big deal out of his birthday before.

"Can I have Ron over?" Harry suggested timidly, "And Hermione, maybe?"

"How about we have them spend the night?" Sirius suggested.

"That would be brilliant!" Harry said happily. "Thanks so much, Dad! I'll go write to them!"

Sirius nodded, but then shook his head.

"One minute, Harry. How about we go to the zoo today? You told me you'd only ever been to the zoo once before. And Ron and Hermione can come over for the party, later."

Harry stopped short: "What party?"

Sirius grinned. "Your birthday party, of course." he said matter-of-factly.

Harry suddenly felt uncomfortable again.

"Sirius, you don't need to throw me a birthday party," Harry said.

"But I want to," Sirius said firmly.

Harry felt a small, happy smile tug at the corners of his mouth. Sirius beamed back.

"Harry, why don't you go and wake up your parents?" He winked at Harry and handed him a package of Weasley Wizard Wheezes' no-heat, wet-start, password-protected, extra-loud fireworks.

Harry grinned evilly. He went to the bathroom and quickly wet the fuses. Then, he crept into his parents' room. They were sleeping peacefully, entangled in the bed sheets.

Harry allowed another evil little smile to cross his face and carefully placed the fireworks all around his parents. Depositing the last one right between his parents' heads, he slipped out of the room and closed the door almost completely.

Then, he quickly said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!" closed the door and raced down the stairs.

Harry and Sirius listened with bated breaths.

"Five, four, three, two, one-" counted Harry quietly.

BOOM

The house shook with several loud explosions, and red, golden, green and silver light could be seen through the key hole and the crack between door and floor.

Several shrieks could also be heard.

Sirius and Harry doubled over with laughter.

"PADFOOT!" yelled Lily and James from upstairs.

Harry and Sirius laughed even louder.

Ten minutes later, when Lily and James finally came down the stairs, looking slightly disgruntled, they had still not been able to calm down.

"Why did you do this?" asked James, scowling at Sirius. Harry got the impression that he was more miffed that he had been pranked than angry.

Sirius smiled innocently. "I didn't do it," he said in a sing-song voice.

Lily and James stared at him in disbelief.

"I did," said Harry, somehow managing to remain straight-faced at the stumped look on his parents' faces.

There was a small moment of silence, then Sirius snorted and he and Harry started laughing again, just as Lily came out of her stupor and yelled,

"What?"

James sank onto a chair with a groan as Lily continued glaring at Sirius.

"Padfoot, what have you been teaching him?" he asked, half-exasperated, half-serious.

"Nothing," said Harry with a grin, "I came up with that by myself."

His parents shook their heads in disbelief. Sirius looked at his watch.

"Harry, why don't you go brush your teeth?" suggested Sirius.

"Will do," said Harry, and with a mock salute at Sirius and a grin to his parents, he sprinted up the stairs. Sirius turned to face Lily and James with a soft smile on his face.

"You two should eat breakfast, we're going to leave soon."

"Leave?" asked James, raising one eyebrow.

"Yes, leave." said Sirius. "We're going to the zoo, since its Harry's birthday today and he's only been once before."

"Oh," said Lily, quietly. She and James looked slightly uncomfortable. They hadn't known that it was Harry's birthday already.

They ate quickly and mostly in silence, then Lily went upstairs to talk to Harry. James turned to Sirius with a serious look on his face.

"Padfoot, did the Dursleys leave anything in the trust for Harry?" asked James.

"I was hoping that we could talk about this tomorrow," said Sirius quietly.

James regarded his best friend for a few moments. Finally, he nodded.

UPSTAIRS

Lily knocked on Harry's door.

"Padfoot?" came Harry's voice.

Lily smiled slightly, feeling both happy and sad that Harry and Sirius were so close.

"No, Harry, its me." she said.

"Come in, Mum." Harry said, and it warmed Lily's heart to hear her son call her that.

She opened the door carefully and walked into the room. Her son was sitting at the desk, writing something on a sheet of paper. Lily wondered fleetingly what it was. A letter to a friend? Maybe a diary, even?

"Hi," Lily said quietly as she sat down on the edge of Harry's bed.

Harry put the paper into one of the desk drawers and smiled at Lily a little hesitantly.

"Hi," he said back.

There was silence for a while, growing more and more awkward.

"Do you want to talk?" asked Lily finally, more to break the silence than anything else.

Harry opened his mouth, hesitated, and shut it again. He bit his lip lightly and lowered his gaze.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "But I'm not ready to talk. Not yet."

Lily felt a wave of sadness and understanding run through her. She smiled a little sadly.

"It's alright," she told the dejected-looking Harry. "I understand."

Harry's head flew up again.

Lily managed another, more sincere, smile as she walked up to her son and hugged him gently. Harry stiffened in the embrace at first, but eventually relaxed and hugged her back. It felt good to be hugged like this, by his mother.

Lily smiled at him again as she left the room and walked down the stairs, her heart, and Harry's, a little lighter than before.

A few minutes later, Harry arrived downstairs as well.

"Are you ready to go?" Sirius asked with a smile.

"Sure," said Harry, enthusiastic at the prospect of visiting the zoo again.

"Just one minute," said Lily, "James and I need to make sure that nobody can recognize us."

"Why?" asked Harry, confused. Was Lily and James's presence a secret? Were they hiding from Voldermort? Sirius smiled, reading Harry's thoughts.

"Don't worry, Kiddo. It has nothing to do with Voldermort. Though it is not very probable that anybody who remembers Lily and James will be in the muggle zoo with us, we still have to make sure. Muggles don't, and can't, know about the Year of the Dead."

Harry nodded doubtfully.

"It's just a quick spell," said James, smiling at his son. Harry nodded again.

Sirius drew out his wand and, with a perfectly straight face, performed the spell on James.

Immediately, James's black hair changed to green, his eyes were an eerie shade of yellow and framed by hideous, pink plastic glasses.

Harry, Lily and Sirius doubled over in laughter as James looked around for a mirror frantically. When he found one in the kitchen there was a terrible scream, followed by a:

"SIRIUS BLACK! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

But before James could even reach him, Sirius waved his wand again and James's hair changed color to brown, while his eyes darkened to a dark shade of blue.

Sirius completely ignored the still fuming James and changed Lily's hair color to blond and her stunning, green eyes to brown.

Then, still chuckling merrily (or, in James's case, trying hard to look angry,) they left the house.

The four of them got into the car, James and Lily decided to sit in the back while Sirius drove and Harry sat beside him.

The drive to the zoo wasn't a long one; Harry sat quietly most of the time and listened delightedly to James and Sirius's light banter, while Lily kept scolding them playfully.

Sirius paid for all of them and they entered the zoo without any problems. Harry smiled in delight as he enjoyed what was his first ever undisturbed visit to a zoo with people who loved him.

They passed the lions, tigers and giraffes, then the elephants, hippopotamuses and apes. Harry snickered as he noticed for the second time in his life how much one of the gorillas resembled a dark-haired Dudley. They all had a good laugh about that.

On their way to the reptile house, Sirius pulled Harry aside.

"Harry, this is for you," he said and handed Harry some money- the muggle kind. Harry stared at the coins and bills uncomprehendingly.

"Why?" he asked. "Why are you giving me money?"

"Because I want to," said Sirius firmly. "You're my godson, so I'm allowed to dote on you. Besides, you may need some muggle money sometimes in your life, and I noticed you didn't have any."

Harry hugged Sirius wordlessly and the two of them went on to the reptile house, where Lily and James were waiting for them anxiously.

"What happened?" asked James, searching both his best friend's and son's faces for any sign of harm.

"Nothing special," said Sirius with a smile and pulled them into the house. They looked at the different kinds of snakes for a few minutes and went deeper and deeper into the reptile house- when suddenly, without any warning, Harry paled and hid behind Sirius.

Sirius frowned and looked around worriedly: "Kiddo, what is it? What's wrong?"

Harry said nothing but kept staring to somewhere on his right-hand side. Sirius followed Harry's gaze with his eyes and realized immediately why Harry had reacted the way he had.

Out of all the days they could have come to the zoo, the people he was looking at had to chose the same day as him and Harry and Lily and James.

Out of all the minutes they could have picked to enter the reptile house, these people had to chose these. Out of all the people who could have been to the zoo at that moment, it had to be them.

For Sirius was looking at Vernon, Petunia and Dudley Dursley.

Lily and James noticed Sirius and Harry's preoccupation of the mind and recognized the Dursleys as well. Lily's lips thinned as she laid eyes upon her sister for the first time in more than fifteen years.

Meanwhile, Sirius had pulled a reluctant Harry out from behind him.

"Harry, calm down, they can't hurt you anymore," he said intently.

Harry looked up at him with such a heartbreakingly vulnerable expression that Sirius could feel something inside him clench tightly and painfully.

"Promise?" Harry asked in a soft voice.

"Promise." said Sirius.

Seeing that Harry still looked unconvinced, Sirius came to a quick decision.

"Harry, would you like to see Vernon go really, really pale?" Sirius asked mischievously.

"How?" Harry asked doubtfully. "I've only ever seen him go very, very purple."

"Prongs and I could scare him for you," Sirius suggested and shared an evil grin with James.

Harry watched them with a calculating gaze: "Yes," he said. "Try it. I want to see."

"Great," said Sirius and rubbed his hands together, looking as though Christmas had come early. Harry almost felt sorry for his uncle, almost.

"Let's look at the animals first, though," said Lily with a dirty glance at Sirius and her husband. "Knowing those two, they'll probably get us thrown out and permanently banned from the zoo."

Harry had to grin and agreed, so James and Sirius were forced to, too. Harry couldn't help noticing that they looked a little disappointed.

Just when Harry turned to loom at one of the big snakes a few minutes later, he was pushed to the ground roughly. Whirling around on the floor, Harry came face to face with Dudley, his aunt and uncle behind their son.

"Hey Scar-Face, what are you doing here?" sneered Dudley.

"Boy, who took you here?" Vernon hissed almost at the same time. "I swear, you wretched, little, good-for-nothing freak, if I find that you stole our money, you will be sorry! I won't be held responsible for my actions, you filthy, little thief-"

Two strong hands grabbed Harry and hauled him back to his feet gently. Sirius, James and Lily had stepped up to them.

"Hello, Petunia," Lily said in a voice so cold that it could have frozen icebergs.

Petunia paled and backed away slowly, recognizing her dead sister despite the fake hair and eye colors.

"I- I'm not seeing this," she whispered, white and trembling, pointing a shaking finger at Lily. "You- you're not real. You're a ghost. You're not there. You- you're dead!"

Lily grinned ferally, making Petunia squawk with fear. "No, Petunia, you're wrong," she said calmly, "I WAS dead. I am back now, for a whole year, and-" her eyes turned cold and her voice so sharp that it could have cut steel "-I know what you did to my son."

Petunia went pale. If her sister knew… truly knew how she had been treating the little freak…

"Your son should say he is sorry for pushing my son," said James, his voice just as cold as his wife's and his eyes glittering dangerously. Dudley gave a little squeak of fear and sidled behind his mother, his hands clamped firmly on his backside.

Uncle Vernon went purple with rage at the command.

"You-" he sputtered, "You freaks… you dare to give my son commands? We've taken your wretched little excuse for a son in, fed him, clothed him and sheltered him out of the goodness of our hearts, and now-"

"During the Year of the Dead Lily and I will be with Harry," interrupted James, his voice now so cold that even Uncle Vernon had the sense to shut up.

Suddenly, a terrible pain shot through Harry's scar. He gasped and sank to the floor, pressing his hands to his forehead. Lily crouched next to her son with an alarmed cry as Harry started to writhe on the floor in pain.

Sirius, on the other hand, had pulled out his wand alongside James, knowing only too well what the pains in Harry's scar meant.

There was a series of pops and all around them, Death Eaters apparated, shooting hexes and curses at random at the screaming muggles.

Sirius could see Voldermort among them, though he had not spotted them yet.

"Sirius, drop the spells," said James tightly.

"We need help," Sirius observed calmly as he cast the appropriate counter spells and their disguises faded.

Lily jumped up and pulled out her wand and a crystal she carried around her neck on a fine, silver chain.

She clutched it firmly in her hands and murmured, "Voco Albus Dumbledore! Adiuva!"

The crystal glowed once in confirmation and she dropped it gratefully.

"We need to hold him off until the Order gets here," Lily whispered frantically. "Help is on the way."

Harry picked himself up from the ground with a big effort. His head hurt terribly, his hands shook and his vision swam.

"St- Stupefy," he muttered and directed his wand at one of the Death Eaters. The curse was sluggish and weak in comparison to his usual standards, but it worked and Harry was grateful.

Harry looked around for his parents and Sirius and felt panic rise inside him when he realized that in the confusion, he'd been separated from them.

Harry whirled back around and saw that the Death Eaters had identified the source of his spell and were coming at him in a big group.

Harry opened his mouth to scream for help, but before he could muster enough energy, a pain like none he had ever felt before shot through his scar. Harry gasped as his knees buckled.

"Potter," a cold voice hissed behind him. Harry recognized it immediately. It was the voice that haunted his nightmares.

"What do you want?" Harry's voice came out sounding shriller and more panicked than he would have liked. Voldermort's high, cold laughter sent shivers down Harry's spine.

"Isn't it obvious, little Potter?" Voldermort mocked him. "I want to kill you."

"I won't die," Harry said with more bravery than he actually felt. Voldermort simply laughed again.

"Goodbye, little Potter," Voldermort sneered and pointed his wand at Harry.

"I won't die," Harry repeated tremulously, trying to make himself believe what he said.

"Avada Kedavra."

Harry threw himself to the side and the green light bounced uselessly into the stone floor.

"Expelliarmus," he gasped out. The spell took Voldermort by surprise and almost succeeded in disarming him, but Voldermort composed himself in the last possible second and brushed the spell aside. He looked extremely angry. Harry shuddered.

"Crucio," Voldermort hissed. Harry rolled away once more.

"Petrificus totalus," he countered. Voldermort laughed nastily and stepped aside himself.

"What, little Potter," he taunted, "Afraid of using the bigger stuff? Crucio!"

This time, Harry was not fast enough and the spell hit him. He screamed as he once more felt the terrible pain he had first experienced in the graveyard a few months before.

"Reducto!" Harry almost didn't hear the bellowed curse, but he was aware that the pain stopped instantly, leaving behind only a dull, familiar ache.

Voldermort cursed and apparated away with a sneer in Harry's direction.

The red-haired man who had saved Harry stepped up to him and offered his hand.

"Are you all right, little one?" he asked concernedly, and Harry allowed himself to be pulled to his feet.

Harry assessed himself briefly; aside from the post-Cruciatus ache he seemed to be fine.

"Yeah," he answered wearily. "Um- thanks. Who are you?"

CLIFF HANGER! ^-^

What do you think? This chapter is 20 pages long! See, this is the reason why you had to wait so long for this chapter! But was it worth the wait?

So, do you like? Please give me some ideas for the mysterious man! Do you want him to be Harry's love interest and in the future, lover/mate? PLEASE TELL ME WHERE TO GO FROM HERE!

Please rate and review ^-^