Chapter 24

Everyone had a fun time dancing to the Weird Sisters music for a few hours. A few new songs were played and then the audience was asked to leave a note with their opinions of the new songs with the drummer. Feedback was appreciated.

At around two in the morning, Harry searched for his mum, dad, Sirius, Ron and Hermione. They all Floo'd back to Grimmauld Place and Harry gave a quick tour on the way to the bedrooms. They all agreed that two in the morning was not the right time to talk about the past. Sirius however had much to say about the drastic change in décor around the old house.

"It doesn't even seem like the same place," he said as he stared at the white and cream walls and pale blue and yellow accents. Gone were the snake head door knobs, and elf heads on the walls. In their places were standard metal ovals and Landscape paintings. The Troll's leg umbrella stand was transfigured into a normal old cast iron stand. The only thing remaining was Mrs. Black's portrait. Hermione had managed to place a semi-permanent Muffliato around the painting, but it was still covered and people were still cautious around it.

Harry gave Sirius back his suite and took a smaller room the next floor down.

The next morning, Harry woke at ten am and stumbled over to the bathroom. After his shower he walked back to his room passing Hermione on her way back from the kitchen clutching her Earl Grey tea.

"Morning, Hermione," he said. She mumbled back an incoherent reply and he chuckled.

As he entered the kitchen he saw that he was the first one down. He started a feast of pancakes, bangers, eggs, fruit, and biscuits and gravy. The scents woke Ron and he stumbled into the kitchen nearly floating on the billows of scent wafting out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

"Mmm, mate, I think I love you," Ron said as he tucked in too his enormous plate of food.

"I'm not quite sure what to say to that. I don't think Hermione wants any competition though, so you might want to stick to 'thanks' for now," Harry replied with a smile. Ron nodded his head absently as he was too involved with the pile in front of him.

"My goodness," said Lily from the door after seeing Ron shove four bangers, a whole pancake and a scoop of eggs in his mouth at the same time. She and James came in at the same time.

"Ron, please don't choke," said Hermione as she came in a refilled her tea cup.

"Mhphumpay," said Ron. Hermione shook her head and rolled her eyes, Lily looked a bit sick, and James just laughed.

"I don't care, slow down and leave some for the rest of us," Hermione replied.

"You understood that?" asked James.

"Well, you try watching the kind of display for eight years, you learn to adapt," she said.

"Imphotatad," said Ron through his chewing.

"Yes, you are. Now stop talking with your mouth full, I'm not going to save you again if you start choking again. Last time it took three Anapneo's to clear your esophagus."

"Three? He's got you beat James," said Lily. Harry laughed loudly.

"Okay, you have to tell me that one," he said.

"Well, it's not a very long story. Basically, James, Sirius, and Peter were having a bacon eating contest one day at breakfast. Sirius had fit seventeen strips of bacon in his mouth, Peter got fifteen, and your father got twenty-one before he accidentally swallowed a whole one and started to choke. Let's just say, twenty pieces of bacon spraying across the Great Hall covering everyone wasn't pleasant. It took two anti-choking spells on him. And another on Sirius who started laughing at him and choked himself."

Harry, Ron and Hermione laughed at the image in their heads of James coughing bacon on everyone, and Sirius laughing so hard he was choking. Just then Sirius walked in.

"What's all this laughing? You all woke me up," he muttered. Harry chuckled.

"Hey Sirius, I have an idea, lets have a banger eating contest, see who can put more bangers in their mouths," said Harry. Sirius shook his head.

"Nope, not happening. Not after my sixth year," he stopped and looked around when everyone started laughing at his response.

"Ah, telling stories are we?" he asked. Harry nodded through his chuckling.

"Well here's one for you. One day at lunch in our first year, our dear Lily here was goofing off. She had a nice big plate of bangers and mash in front of her and she took a nice big bite of mash—"

"Sirius stop! Not this one!" cried Lily.

"A nice big bite of mash, looked at her friend Alice and asked, 'What am I?' And pushed her cheeks together so she squeezed out a bit of mash out of her lips."

"Oh my god…" said Lily as she hid her red face. "I'm never going to live that down." Harry laughed loudly.

"After she swallowed, she shouted 'I'm a pimple!' To the whole Great Hall," finished Sirius. Everyone was laughing so hard by this point no one heard the spell being uttered. Suddenly, Sirius had a very large blemish on his forehead.

"Ow! Oi, this hurts," he shouted causing everyone to laugh even harder.

Half an hour later breakfast was finished and cleaned up.

"Hey, Harry. Whatever happened to Kreacher?" asked Sirius.

"Oh, it's his day off today," he said. Sirius's black look made him elaborate.

"After you…well, died, Kreacher became my elf. I don't know what to do know that you're actually alive, if he goes back to you or what. Anyways, last year when we hid out here, Kreacher's past came to light. We know why he's so…out of it now. I asked him politely to find Dung for us, and gave him Regulus's locket. He was so happy, he's become the best house elf ever for me. It turns out Dumbledore was right. If we had treated him kindly, he probably never would have betrayed you." Harry explained that he'd tell them the story later, he wanted to tell everything chronologically.

"Well, I'm not quite sure what we should do either. For all I care, he's your elf now," said Sirius.

They all gathered in the drawing room, after Harry had retrieved Ginny from the Burrow.

"Well, what first?" asked Harry. James and Lily shared a look.

"Start with my sister and her husband Harry. I haven't been able to get it out of my head from yesterday," she said. Harry sighed.

"This isn't going to be easy for me," he started. "I haven't told these guys everything, mostly because it's not a time I like to relive. I just want you to know a few things before I start.

"First, while Dudley was horrible in the past. I saved his life summer before my fifth year, it took us a while, but we're on good terms now. I haven't forgiven him quite yet, but we get together twice a month and talk, get lunch or something. Our relationship is improving.

"Second, Petunia wanted to be a witch. She even sent an owl to Dumbledore asking to be let into the school, despite not getting a letter. He rejection from the Wizarding World made her bitter and resentful over the years. She hates magic more than she hates anything else in the world. She couldn't decipher which she hated more, magic or the fact that her sister and nephew could do it. So her hatred for magic was transferred to you and I, mum. That's why she was so horrible to you for so long.

"Thirdly, I don't care what you do to them, just as long as you don't end up in prison for it. While I understand why Petunia did what she did, Vernon had no such reason. He deserves whatever you might do to him. I know you will do something, I had to fight it and not do anything after the war was over. I still fight it sometimes. Just, please, don't end up in prison." Harry took a deep breath catching the wary glance that went between his parents.

"We understand Harry. We'll try to keep calm, please don't leave anything out," said James.

Harry talked for several long moments on his early life at the Dursley's. He never had a complete, unbroken toy to play with. Never had good crayons, or paper. He remembered being taught his potty training at just about two years old. His aunt said they couldn't be expected to buy nappies for him until he was four, like Dudley.

He never received treats for good behavior, or learning something new. By the time he was five he could read, and count to twenty, but he was never praised for it.

If he made a sound during dinner, he didn't get desert. He was only allowed to eat what was on his plate, or what he could reach from his chair. He wasn't allowed to stand up during dinner or scoot forward to get closer to a serving bowl and they were always placed out of his reach so in the end he could only eat what was on his smaller-than-all-the-others pate.

As young as he could remember, he slept and played in the cupboard under the stairs. When he was punished he was placed in the cupboard and the light turned off, and locked in. Sometimes he was locked in for a day or two with no meals, and no bathroom breaks. That was usually after showing signs of Magic or speaking out against his so called relatives.

James and Lily sat horrified by their son's abusive treatment before he was even five years old. Sirius stared at Harry in horror. Ron, Hermione and Ginny had heard a lot of the stories over the years, but nothing as detailed as this.

"I remember the first time we brought home our report cards. They sat me and Dudley down on the couch and opened mine first. I don't know why, maybe they hoped I had done horrible and could punish me for it, or see bad grades and make me watch while they lavished praise on their idiot son.

"Anyways, I remember my teacher saying I was one of the best students in the class." James and Lily both puffed at their son's praise. He received so little of it, they could tell this teacher was a saint for saying that to their son. "In any case I don't think they expected their son to be a fat lard, and an idiot. But he didn't get very good year end grades, and I did loads better then him. They praised Dudley for trying his hardest and doing his best, and then yelled at me when I pointed out the teachers comments.

The teacher said on the card, 'Dudley is doing very poorly at his homework. He never turns anything in. He bullies the other children, especially his cousin. He in no way is as smart as Harry. My suggestion would be to leave him in this class for another year to try and see if he can improve with the motivation to make it to the same level as his cousin.' They said there was no way their little popkin was needing to repeat his first year of school. He was just getting used to learning in a new environment and he'd be ready after the summer to move on. If anyone deserved being left behind it was me.

"That night, I found my aunt tucking Dudley into bed and kissing him goodnight. She congratulated him on completing his first year of school and she was so proud of him. She was going to bring him to the toy store the next day and buy him several new toys for the summer for his good work.

"When she left his room, she saw me standing in the hallway next to my cupboard and she asked, 'What are you still doing up? Get to bed, right now.' I made the mistake of asking if I'd get a toy for my good grades. She said, 'Orphans don't get new toys. Now get to bed.' I think that was the first night I fell asleep wishing for a long lost relative to come find me and take me away and love me," Harry finished. Lily, Ginny, and Hermione were all crying softly. James looked murderous, and Sirius was staring at Harry sadly.

"I'm so sorry Harry. If I had just thought about you, before going after Peter…I'd have been there for you. You never would have had to go through all that." He shook his head sadly.

"Sirius, there was a reason I was with the Dursley's. My mum sacrificed herself to save me. I don't quite understand what Dumbledore was thinking when he changed the timeline, but I had to be with my blood relative. You couldn't have known what was going to happen when you went after Wormtail. I don't blame you at all," said Harry softly.

"Still, I could have been there for you as a frequent visitor. Made sure they were taking care of you and such."

"We never should have agreed to that damn coma idea. We could have figured out another way," James said. He punched the armrest of the sofa he was sitting on and Lily placed a calming hand on his arm.

"No, dad. Mum's sacrifice was what kept me alive all these years. If it wasn't for that, I'd be dead several times over. What you two did, kept me alive. I'm so happy you're alive, but I can't say it wasn't a good thing you were in those comas over the years. Just to name a few; as a baby when Voldemort tried to kill me after killing you two, my first year, my third year, my fourth year, my fifth year sort of, and in May this year. All those times, the blood protection and my love for you, thinking you were dead, saved my life. If you had been here, I never would have lived to see my second birthday, let alone my eighteenth. Don't feel bad about not being here for me, because technically you were."

"Harry's right. But let's move on to the next part of the story. If we sit and debate all day about this, we'll never get through all seventeen years," said Hermione. The others nodded and Harry took a deep breath and continued.

a/n: okay so i am working on chapter 26 right now, so thought i'd put this up. Sorry i didn't go into detail about the dance. I was getting irritated with the party and i am horrible at song lyrics. I really wanted to get to this chapter, and i know there are several people who wanted me to get here too. I was going to go into more detail about his early life but that risked being a little absurd and AU a little bit. If people want me to go into a lot more detail let me know now while i'm still working on it. I have a Pensive make an appearance in 26, so that should help. I'm not going to show all the big events in every book, so if there is a specific memory you want me to cover, let me know what it is, which book and what chapter would be helpful too for easy access if possible. if it's a well known thing like the graveyard, or the ministry, know that those kind of things will be shown. But if there is a small cute little memory (Like the Cho date in Hogsmeade) that isn't a very big part, let me know and i might use them. Also, am i doing the reactions from J and L well enough? should they be more outraged, or more in shock? Any thing i should be doing different? Please Review! Thanks!!