A/N: And so the moment some of you have waited for has arrived. I hope it was well worth the wait.
It had been a few hours since Remus had left to collect Harry. Dumbledore had finished with lecturing Sirius and left, leaving Sirius alone with Lily and James.
"What is taking so bloody long?" Sirius grumbled as he stared at the clock in the parlor.
"How do you think Harry would react when he sees us?" Lily asked.
"I honestly have no idea," Sirius admitted. "He may not believe Remus until he sees you," he answered. His brows knitted together with thought. "Although, you might want to prepare for the event should he decide to attack you. Never mind magic, he has a rather nasty right hook. Not to mention that he's right touchy when you both are concerned, he may think your imposters and in that case, put up your defenses," he said.
"But would he recognize us?" James asked.
"Oh, don't even doubt that. He has a bunch of pictures of the two of you. In fact, he keeps one in a frame beside his bed every night," Sirius assured them. "Don't ever doubt that you've been far from Harry's mind for a minute."
A minute later the front door opened and it sounded as though two people had walked in, one lagging a heavy trunk behind them. "You can just leave you're trunk here, Harry," Remus's voice said.
"I'd rather start unpacking if you don't mind," a younger male voice replied.
"Very well. Your room is the first door on the left, third landing," Remus instructed.
The sound of a trunk being dragged upstairs and that of an owl could be heard as Remus joined his friends in the parlor.
"Well? How did it go?" Sirius questioned.
"Not as well as we had hoped, I'm afraid," Remus told them. "He resisted the idea at first, but he'll come around. However, there is a more important matter that I need to address before he comes back downstairs," he informed them.
"What happened?" Sirius asked, alert.
"I was rather disturbed by something that Harry had said to me while I was there," Remus began. "Oddly it started with an offhand comment he made as he nicked some food and offered some to me. He said he was forbidden from eating it and when I questioned this, he amended that it didn't extend to the scraps," he started.
"They starved him, I already knew that when I saw how skinny he was after I escaped," Sirius said as if this were obvious. "He sent out help letters last year, asking us all to send him some food because that cousin of his was being forced to go on a diet," he explained.
"They starved him?!" Lily gasped, outraged.
"I'm afraid that it goes far deeper than that," Remus stated gravely.
"How so?" James asked.
"Sirius, you gave him a pocket knife for Christmas?" Remus asked.
"I did, it can unlock any lock," Sirius confirmed.
"Well, I was just told that he had used it to defend himself against Vernon Dursley's sister because she had moved to strangle him just prior to my arrival," Remus informed him. He had to silence Sirius' outraged response by holding up his hand before continuing. "He remains tight lipped about anything else when I questioned him further. However, as he was packing I did an inspection of the house. I've found evidence that he used to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs and his room serves as a prison cell. There were bars on the window and the door locked from the outside. There was also a cat flap in the door where small amounts of food and drink might have been slipped through," Remus disclosed. He leaned forward. "What disturbs me the most is how casually he speaks about it, if he does at all. It's like it doesn't affect him. I cannot fathom what Dumbledore was thinking in placing Harry in their care," he said.
Their conversation was halted when they heard footsteps coming down the stairs and Harry appeared in the doorway, looking straight at Remus, ignoring who else was in the room. "I want to let Hedwig outside to hunt, is that okay? Or will it interfere with the fidelius charm?" he asked.
"It's shouldn't do any harm, so long as she is careful and stays local," Remus answered.
Harry turned to go back upstairs when Remus called him back in. "Ah, Harry, don't you want to say hello to someone?"
"Hello, Sirius," Harry stated, acting as though he had just noticed Sirius, but the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes said that he was clearly upset with his godfather. Without another word, he turned and left the room.
Sirius turned to Remus. "I get the feeling that he's upset with me," he stated.
"A bit," Remus agreed.
"A bit?" Sirius drawled. "If his eyes were an Avada Kedavra, I'd be dead right now," he stated.
"Don't be so dramatic, Sirius," Remus responded.
"I don't think Harry has ever been this mad at me," Sirius complained.
"Are you forgetting when he attacked you?" Remus asked.
"That was different, he didn't know the truth then," Sirius dismissed.
Neither one of them noticed when Lily and James had left the room.
Harry found the room that Remus had described, noticing the two twin beds in the room. He also noticed the dark decor and the snake doorknobs. The room he was in seemed to have not seen an occupant in decades. He wondered why Sirius' house was so dark. Remus had briefly explained to him that Sirius had inherited this house from his parents and that Sirius' family wasn't the nicest of wizards. Harry had a few guesses as to what kind of family the Blacks were.
Not wanting to face the people downstairs, Harry busied himself with unpacking, stacking his schoolbooks on a desk, stuffing clothes into a dresser and leaning his firebolt against the dresser. He had posted his calendar on the wall where he counted the days until he returned to Hogwarts. He also put up his Gryffindor paraphernalia on the walls as well. He had let Hedwig out to hunt and was putting up a Gryffindor banner when there was a knock on the open door. Harry briefly turned, expecting Remus or Sirius to be standing there. Instead, there stood two people who shouldn't be there. Remus had prepared him, but Harry froze when he saw them close up.
Harry wasn't the only one frozen where he stood. It seemed like much time passed as the three of them stood in silence, Harry looking at Lily and James while Lily and James looked at him. They were all at a loss as to what to say. Harry had imagined this meeting for as long as he could remember. No matter which scenario he came up with in his mind, he was ill prepared for the reality. For Lily and James, they had no clue as to what they should say to Harry; who, in their minds eye was still a baby, yet stood before them as a teenager.
Harry was reminded of the time he had discovered the Mirror of Erised during the Christmas holidays in his first year. To the first time he had been given a glimpse of his parents. He automatically knew who they were then and briefly felt elation at the thought that they stood beside him. His elation had only been replaced by immense loneliness when he realized that their being there was merely a trick of the mirror. When Remus had told him of their return, Harry didn't want to believe it. He didn't dare hope that it was real, but as he stood there staring at them, he knew. He knew without a doubt that it was really his parents standing there. The only thing was that he had no idea what to say, everything seemed so insignificant. He had no memory of them and lived his entire childhood without any true parental figures that he didn't know how to proceed. Should he go over to them and hug them?
Instead he settled on a common icebreaker. "Hello." It was possibly the least meaningful thing to say at the time, but all other words had escaped him. Luckily, he wasn't the only one to feel this way.
James ran a hand through the back of his hair, glanced at his wife and uttered the awkward, "Hello."
More silence followed until Lily spoke. "May we come in?" she asked.
No one had ever asked that question so it took a few minutes to register what she was asking. It dawned on him that he was actually in his own room, his own space and someone was actually asking permission to enter it. The entire concept was just too alien for him. He didn't let that fact show, instead, he mentally shook himself. "Er...yeah. Come in," he finally said. He stood there between the two beds and the dresser as he watched them enter. His eyes automatically followed his mother as she walked towards him.
Lily tentatively reached out towards Harry, almost afraid that if she touched him then he would disappear. She gently cupped his face in her hands, her fingers brushing wasps of his hair. Which was so much like James' hair, only Harry's seemed in bad need of a haircut as though he hasn't had one in a long time. She smiled as she searched his face hungrily, as though she would never be able to look at him enough. "You've grown so much," she said softly, both sad that she wasn't there to see it and happy that he had survived that night to grow up.
Harry couldn't speak. His eyes feasted on her, and he thought that he would like to stand here like this and look at her forever, and that would be enough. Swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat, he said the first thing that came to him, "I haven't noticed."
Lily smiled even further and brushed the fringe from his forehead, seeing for the first time the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. Sirius had told them about the scar and the sight of it both made her uncomfortable and worried at the same time. She touched the tip of her forefinger to it softly. "I used to kiss your forehead here every night when I put you to bed," she told him.
Harry let the words sink in and filtered them away for another time.
"You're in Gryffindor," James said as he glanced at the memorabilia on the walls. "There wasn't a Potter who wasn't in Gryffindor that wasn't one by marriage."
"I've heard that houses run through families," Harry said, the moment between he and Lily having passed.
"Generally, it does. But there have been cases where the rule is null in void. It mostly depends on the individual. Look at Sirius..."
"What about me?" Sirius asked, appearing in the doorway.
"The subject of Hogwarts houses and families came up," Harry said, not looking at his godfather or anyone else for that matter.
"Ah," Sirius said. "Well as you can see, I'm the Gryffindor in a long line of foul Slytherins, much to my mother's horror and shame," he said. "Moony is going to get something for supper, any requests?" he asked, coming to the excuse he had for coming up here.
Harry shrugged. "I don't care," he said.
Sirius eyed his godson. "I told Remus to pick up some treacle tart, I know that it's your favorite, Harry," he said.
Harry moved to continue to unpack, throwing some socks into a drawer. He didn't respond to Sirius.
Sirius frowned and met James' gaze head on. Lily was too busy looking at Harry, but standing off to the side. Sirius took note of how much more messy James' hair was and he knew that his friend's nervous habit had shown itself. "Moony wanted to finish that conversation from earlier before he left," he said, offering his friends a way out of the awkwardness. He nodded towards Harry as if to say: I've got this.
James took a moment before nodding, getting Lily's attention who met Sirius' eye, who gestured to Harry, and she understood. Sirius would talk to Harry to gauge his reaction to seeing them and to see what he was feeling. After all, Sirius knew Harry better than Lily and James.
Once they were alone, Sirius settled himself on one of the beds, leaning against the headboard, his legs stretched out before him on the faded emerald velvetine bedspread and his arms crossed behind his head. "I should send someone to get new bedding and such for here," he noted. He watched as Harry neatly piled his schoolbooks on the desk and arranged his rolls of parchment, inkwells and quills along the surface of the desk. "I get the feeling that you're mad at me," he said.
"You think?" Harry said sarcastically as he threw another sock in the open drawer.
"So lets talk about it," Sirius said.
"How come you didn't tell me?" Harry asked, finally turning to Sirius.
Sirius didn't need to ask to know what Harry meant. "You know why," he patiently said.
"You could have hinted at it in your letter," Harry argued.
"Would you have believed me?" Sirius asked.
Harry thought about it for a minute before replying. "No, I wouldn't have," he finally answered.
"I don't blame you. If I wasn't there myself then I wouldn't either," Sirius said.
Harry sat down on the opposite bed. "It's really them, then, isn't it?" he asked rhetorically.
"It's really them," Sirius confirmed. "You have what you've always wanted, you know. Are you happy?" he asked.
"I don't know yet," Harry answered.
Dinner was served in the kitchen as Sirius stated that it was the warmest place in the house. Harry had the distinct impression that he didn't mean it in the temperature sense. Harry took a seat next to Sirius as Remus unpacked the takeout. Lily and James took seats across from Harry and Sirius while Remus took the end seat. They exchanged pleasant chit chat as they ate with Lily and James asking Harry about his time at school and later they idly chatted about light subjects until finally they all pushed their plates away when they finished eating.
Sirius sent the dishes over to the sink where they began washing themselves before he turned to Harry in all seriousness. "Okay, Harry: what do you want to know?" he asked.
Harry took a deep breath and asked the question that he had been obsessed with since he left Hogwarts. "Where's Voldemort?" he asked looking around. "What's he doing? I've tried to watch the Muggle news, and I haven't seen anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything."
"That's because there haven't been any funny deaths yet," Sirius answered. "Not as far as we know, anyway: and we know quite a lot."
"More than he thinks we do, anyway," Remus said.
"How come he's stopped killing people then?' Harry asked, "I know that he's murdered more than once in the last year alone."
"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself," Sirius answered. "It would be dangerous for him. His comeback didn't come off quite the way he wanted it to, you see. He messed it up."
"Or rather, you messed it tip for him," Remus said with a satisfied smile.
"How?" Harry asked, perplexed.
"Because you weren't supposed to survive!" Sirius told him pointedly. "Nobody apart from his Death Eaters was supposed to know he'd come back. But you survived to bear witness," he explained
"And the very last person he wanted alerted to his return the moment he got back was Dumbledore," Remus said, "And you made sure Dumbledore knew at once."
"And how has that helped exactly?" Harry asked.
"Are you kidding?" James said incredulously. "Dumbledore is the only one that Voldemort ever feared. Haven't you ever heard that before?"
Sirius threw his friend a sharp look before responding to Harry's question. "Thanks to you, Dumbledore was able to recall the Order of the Phoenix about an hour after Voldemort returned."
"And what is the Order of the Phoenix?" Harry asked.
"The Order of the Phoenix is a secret organization dedicated to fighting Voldemort and his followers," Lily explained patiently.
Harry looked directly at Sirius. "Is this the old crowd that Dumbledore spoke of when he sent you to alert them?" he asked.
Sirius nodded, "Yes."
"So, what's the Order been doing?" Harry asked, looking around at them all.
"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort can't carry out his plans," Sirius explained.
"How d'you know what his plans are?" Harry asked quickly.
James was impressed by the way Harry kept firing off questions. "You're a very shrewd one with the questions aren't you," he said.
Harry looked at him. "I guess," he said.
"Dumbledore's got a shrewd idea of what Voldemort is after," Remus answered Harry's question, "And Dumbledore's shrewd ideas normally turn out to be accurate."
"So what does Dumbledore reckon he's planning?" Harry pressed.
"Well, firstly, he wants to build up his army again," Sirius began. "In the old days he had huge numbers at his command: witches and wizards he'd bullied or bewitched into following him, his faithful Death Eaters, a great variety of dark creatures. You heard him planning to recruit the giants; well, they'll be just one of the groups he's after. He's certainly not going to try and take on the Ministry of Magic with only a dozen Death Eaters."
"So you're trying to stop him getting more followers?" Harry deducted.
"We're doing our best," Remus admitted.
"How?" Harry wanted to know.
"Well, the main thing is to first try and convince as many people as possible that Voldemort really has returned, to put them on their guard," James answered as though this was obvious.
"It's proving tricky, though," Sirius added in.
"Why?" Harry pressed.
"Because of the Ministry's attitude," said Remus said simply and handed Harry a copy of the daily prophet where the front page was a picture of him with the headline: THE BOY WHO LIED.
"He's been attacking Dumbledore, as well. Fudge is using all of his powers, including his influence at the Daily Prophet, to smear anyone who claims the Dark Lord has returned," Sirius continued. He shifted in his seat so that he was looking directly at Harry. "You saw Cornelius Fudge after Voldemort came back in the hospital wing, Harry. Well, he hasn't shifted his position at all. He's absolutely refusing to believe it's happened."
"But why?" said Harry desperately. "Why's he being so stupid? If Dumbledore -"
"Ah, well, you've put your finger on the problem," Remus said with a wry smile. "Dumbledore."
"Fudge is frightened of him, you see," Sirius continued as though he found the situation quite funny.
"Frightened of Dumbledore?" said Harry incredulously as though it was the most ridiculous thing in the world.
"With good reason, I'd be scared of him too if I were on the opposite side of the war. Dumbledore may seem kindly and harmless but no one in their right mind would willingly face him a duel," Sirius told him.
"The Minister thinks Dumbledore is after his job. Frightened of what he's up to, thinks he is stirring up trouble to discredit Fudge so he could overthrow him. He has convinced himself that Dumbledore wants to be minister of magic," Remus said.
"But that's insane! No one in their right mind would believe that Dumbledore…" Harry burst out.
"Exactly the point!" Remus said emphasizing it by pointing a finger in the air. "Fudge isn't in his right mind. It's been twisted and warped by fear. Now fear makes people do terrible things, Harry. Now, the last time Voldemort gained power he almost destroyed everything we hold most dear. Now he's returned, and I'm afraid the Minister will do almost anything to avoid facing the terrifying truth. Now anyone in their right mind would know that Dumbledore never wanted the Minister's job, even though a lot of people wanted him to take it when Millicent Bagnold retired. Fudge came to power instead, but he's never quite forgotten how much popular support Dumbledore had, even though Dumbledore never applied for the job," he explained. "Deep down, Fudge knows Dumbledore's much cleverer than he is and a much more powerful wizard, and in the early days of his Ministry he was forever asking Dumbledore for help and advice," he continued, "But it seems he's become fond of power, and much more confident. He loves being Minister of Magic and he's managed to convince himself that he's the clever one and Dumbledore's simply stirring up trouble."
"How can he think that?" Harry angrily said. "How can he think Dumbledore would just make it all up -that I'd make it all up?"
"Because accepting that Voldemort's back would mean trouble like the Ministry hasn't had to cope with for nearly fourteen years," Sirius told him bitterly. "Fudge just can't bring himself to face it. It's so much more comfortable to convince himself Dumbledore's lying to destabilize him."
"You see the problem," Remus said. "While the Ministry insists there is nothing to fear from Voldemort it's hard to convince people he's back, especially as they really don't want to believe it in the first place. What's more, the Ministry's leaning heavily on the Daily Prophet not to report any of what they're calling Dumbledore's rumor-mongering, so most of the wizarding community are completely unaware anything's happened, and that makes them easy targets for the Death Eaters if they're using the Imperius Curse."
"But you're telling people, aren't you?" Harry wanted to know, "You're letting people know he's back?"
They all smiled humorlessly. "Well, as everyone thinks I'm a mad mass-murderer and the Ministry's put a ten thousand Galleon price on my head, I can hardly stroll up the street and start handing out leaflets, can I?" Sirius told him restlessly.
"And I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the community," Remus added in, "It's an occupational hazard of being a werewolf."
"And since up until three weeks ago, your father and I have been, well...dead, we can't exactly go out there and start spreading the word now can we," Lily told him.
"Arthur Weasley and other members of the Order who work within the ministry would lose their jobs if they started shooting their mouths off," Sirius continued.
"It's very important for us to have spies inside the Ministry, because you can bet Voldemort will have them. He had many of them the last time," James explained.
"We've managed to convince a couple of people, though," Sirius said, "My cousin, Nymphadora Tonks, she's an auror for one and she's in her early twenties so she's too young to have been in the Order of the Phoenix last time, and having Aurors on our side is a huge advantage. Another auror, Kingsley Shacklebolt, has been a real asset too; he's in charge of tracking me down so he's been feeding the Ministry information that I'm in Tibet."
"But if none of you are putting the news out that Voldemort's back -" Harry began restlessly.
"Who said none of us are putting the news out?" James said in exasperation. "Why d'you think Dumbledore's in such trouble then?"
"What d'you mean? What trouble?" Harry asked.
"They're trying to discredit him," Lily told him patiently. "It was in the Daily Prophet last week, do you get it?" Harry shook his head so she continued. "They reported that he'd been voted out of the Chairmanship of the International Confederation of Wizards because he's getting old and losing his grip, but it's not true; he was voted out by Ministry wizards after he made a speech announcing Voldemort's return. They've demoted him from Chief Warlock on the Wizengamot - that's the Wizard High Court - and they're talking about taking away his Order of Merlin, First Class, too," she explained.
"But Dumbledore is taking it in stride, he says he doesn't care what they do as long as they don't take him off the Chocolate Frog Cards," James said grinning.
"It's no laughing matter," Lily said sternly as she looked at her husband.
"I think it's very chipper of him considering the situation," James countered as he met his wife's stern gaze head on.
"If he carries on defying the Ministry like this he could end up in Azkaban, and the last thing we want is to have Dumbledore locked up. While Voldemort knows Dumbledore's out there and wise to what he's up to he's going to go cautiously. If Dumbledore's out of the way - well, Voldemort will have a clear field." Lily argued.
"But if Voldemort's trying to recruit more Death Eaters it's bound to get out that he's come back, isn't it?" Harry asked desperately.
"Voldemort doesn't march up to people's houses and bang on their front doors, Harry," Sirius told him calmly. "He tricks, jinxes and blackmails them. He's well practiced at operating in secret. In any case, gathering followers is only one thing he's interested in. He's got other plans too, plans he can put into operation very quietly indeed, and he's concentrating on those for the moment."
"What's he after apart from followers?" Harry asked swiftly. "Besides trying to kill me that is." He thought he saw Sirius, Remus and his parents exchange the most fleeting of looks before Sirius answered.
"Stuff he can only get by stealth," Sirius said slowly. When Harry continued to look puzzled, he said, "Something he didn't have last time. When he was powerful before."
"Sirius..." James warned, his eyes on Harry.
Sirius said no more, knowing that it was no longer his place to continue. He did meet Harry's questioning look, silently conveying that there was much more.
Harry refused to let the subject drop. "You mean, like a weapon?" he deduced from the look on Sirius' face. "Something worse than the Avada Kedavra -?"
The table grew very quiet as James shot Sirius a look that clearly meant that he wasn't to say a word and Remus plastered a blank expression on his face.
Lily however reacted the strongest, suddenly furious, as she stood up, walked around the table and put her arms around Harry protectively. "No! That's enough. He's just a boy! You say much more and you might as well induct him into the Order straightaway," she said fiercely.
Harry shoved away from her protective embrace and looked around the table determinedly. "Good! I want to join. If Voldemort's raising an army, then I want to fight!" he announced.
There was a collective amount of firm "NO," from all four adults.
"Why not?" Harry said hotly.
"The Order is comprised only of overage wizards," James told him. "Wizards who have left school," he added, "There are dangers involved of which you can have no idea. I believe Lily is right, we've said enough."
Sirius half-shrugged but did not argue, he did however meet Harry's eyes in silent communication.
"I think it may be time for you to go to bed," Lily said looking directly at Harry.
Harry ignored her and jumped on what James said. "It's not like I haven't been in dangerous situations before," he said and stood up. "Four years ago Voldemort tried to get the sorcerers stone so he could come back. Dumbledore hid it in Hogwarts and Voldemort possessed one of the professors to try and get it. The only reason that Voldemort didn't get it is because I got to it first after no one believed me when I told them that someone was trying to steal it. Three years ago Lucius Malfoy gave Ginny Weasley Voldemort's old school diary which he used to possess her into opening the Chamber of Secrets and release the basilisk into the school. Ginny would have died if Ron and I didn't force Lockhart to go down there with us to rescue her. I nearly died fighting the basilisk and if it wasn't for Fawks arriving when he did I would have! Last year I had to participate in the Triwizard Tournament because Barty Crouch Jr entered my name in the Goblet of Fire as a means to trap me in that graveyard so Wormtail could help Voldemort return by taking my blood.." he listed off. "I don't know why Voldemort wants to kill me but he obviously wants me dead and he won't stop trying until I am dead. I'm not going to just sit back and let whatever happens happen when I can be actually doing something," he told them stubbornly.
"No one is denying that you are capable of fighting, Harry," Remus said calmly.
"If we let you join the order then we would be deliberately putting you in more danger than you already are in. None of us are willing to take that risk," Sirius told him reasonably. "We want you to be safe."
"How is it safe for me to be some kind of sitting duck until Voldemort decides to attack?" Harry argued. "If I was actually doing..."
"No!" James snapped. "You're not joining the order and that is final."
Harry looked around at them with a mutinous expression. "If Voldemort is just laying low then it won't be for long. He's going to make a move sooner or later and when he does, I'm going to fight," he told them stubbornly.
"I think we should all just drop the subject for the night and sleep on it. We can return to this at a time when we all have a clear head," Remus intervened before things got out of hand even further.
"Right, it's late, so bed," James agreed and looked at Harry.
Harry, feeling mutinous, stared back. "I'm not tired," he said stubbornly.
Sirius caught Harry's eye and offered him subtle wink. "I wouldn't argue with marching orders," he said.
Harry got the hint before sending a glare around the table before he stood up to leave. He paused at the top of the stairs and looked down to see that Lily was watching him before he continued onto his room. Once there, he opened his trunk and pulled out his invisibility cloak and threw it over himself.
He quietly made his way back down to the kitchen to find the door had been closed and he could hear voices. His godfather's voice was loud and clear.
"Harry has a right to know!" he argued.
"It's not your place to decide that!"
"Sirius has a point, James."
"I don't care if he does, Remus."
"He's just a child, he shouldn't have to face this bordon."
"Harry stopped being a child long ago, Lily."
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
"What Sirius is trying to say is that Harry has faced much..."
"I think my point is loud and clear, Remus."
"And it's not your decision, not anymore!"
"And don't you think Harry deserves to know why Voldemort has targeted him?"
"When we heard about the prophecy, we swore to keep it secret."
Harry back away and fell against the wall with a thud. Prophecy? Harry stared at the door in shock, keeping himself as still as possible as the door was opened and Remus poked his head out, his eyes fell on the spot where Harry was pressed against the wall, invisible. Turning back into the room, he said, "It's just Kreacher," he said. "Nonetheless, I think that we should conclude this argument for a later time."
"You'll see that I'm right sooner or later," Sirius said to Lily and James.
The door closed again and Harry could hear the scraping sounds of dishes being put away. With his mind reeling, Harry made his way back upstairs where he tore off the cloak and stuffed it back into his trunk and quickly changed for bed. Falling into bed, his mind went wild with thought about prophecies and what it could possibly connect to the argument downstairs. He instantly thought of Professor Trelawney's prediction at the end of his third year and how it came true. But what kind of prophecy did his parents swear to keep secret?
Lily and James went to bed that night around eleven and laid in silence for a while before Lily decided to break the silence. "Are you asleep?" she asked.
"No," James answered.
"He's all grown up," Lily said.
"Yeah," James agreed.
"Seeing him, hearing him speak, it makes everything all too real," Lily said quietly.
James rolled over to face her. "I know what you mean. I used to imagine what he would be like at this age, how he would have turned out," he said.
"He doesn't seem any happier than we are," Lily observed. "I don't want to think about what could do that to him."
"I know, I don't want to think about it either. We should just put it from our minds I think," he told her.
"Do you think that we should at least pretend that everything is okay?" she asked.
"Do you think that would be best?" he asked.
"I don't want to add to his plate that we're not okay," Lily told him.
James nodded. "Then from this moment we should act like nothing has happened, pretend that we're happy to be back. Who knows, maybe one day we'll convince ourselves as well," he said.
"I hope it works,' Lily said quietly.
Dumbledore sat behind his desk, thinking over the new developments of the day and their complications. He realized that he had known that something like this would happen. It didn't take too much genius to figure out what Sybil's premonition meant on a basic level but the rest needed to be figured out and as soon as possible.
The moment that Sirius had shown him that book, Dumbledore knew what he would do with it. Dumbledore understood the risks to such magic and had tried to caution Sirius from acting on what he had found. Alas, this was Sirius Black and Dumbledore had hoped that this once that Sirius would listen to reason. Now, however, it was done and Dumbledore had to find a way to deal with whatever consequences would arise.
Dumbledore tapped his wand to the pensieve on his desk and the image of Sybil Trelawney appeared and she uttered the same words that occupied Dumbledore's thoughts since he had heard them.
"THEY WILL RISE AGAIN. AS THE NEW MOON RISES IN THE SIXTH MONTH, THE WILLINGLY SLAUGHTERED AT THE HANDS OF THE DARK LORD WILL RETURN TO THE ONE WHO NEEDS THEM. THEY WILL RISE AGAIN AND THEIR POWER WILL BE UNMATCHED. THEY WILL RISE WITH THE POWER THE DARK LORD CANNOT TOUCH OR CONCEIVE AND THE DARK LORD WILL FALTER AT THEIR HANDS."
Dumbledore knew without a doubt who this prophecy spoke about, but he also knew that prophecies were self fulfilling. The only way that a prophecy can be fulfilled is if the subject or subjects chose to act on the prophecy in question.
So now begs the question: what to do now that the prophecy has been activated by Sirius raising Lily and James Potter from the grave? Dumbledore would have to inform them of the prophecy, there was no other way. But first, he must try to understand it more. The power that the Dark Lord cannot touch or conceive, what was that? Love? Dumbledore was not completely certain. But the Dark Lord will falter at their hands. Does this cancel out the prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort or is this not as literal as it seems?
Dumbledore was not yet certain of where to go from here and he would need to tread carefully for now until more is revealed. He would inform Lily and James of the prophecy once Harry was safely on the train to Hogwarts. But now, he must prepare his staff for Dolores Umbridge's arrival. Dumbledore was certain that she would prove to be problematic to Hogwarts: both to his staff and his students. The heads of houses must take care to manage their students more for the student's care. Dumbledore was well aware of Dolores Umbridge's reputation and personality. The Minister could not have used a more venomous snake for his agent at Hogwarts.