Chapter 4.
Minera was on guard at the entrance to the chamber, her wand was gripped so tightly in her hand that her knuckles were white. She was listening for any small sound or movement, although she didn't know what she would do in front of a basilisk if one were to come out of that passageway.
She heard footsteps coming from down the hall, a lot of footsteps. Amelia Bones turned into the bathroom along with about twenty aurors behind her. "Minerva, what in Merlin's name has happened?"
"It's a long story Amelia, I'll give the condensed version for now. We had discovered another attack and writing on the wall that I'm sure you've seen on your way here." Minerva explained while still keeping her ears open towards the passageway.
"We had discovered a child was taken by the monster into the chamber of secrets, Ginny Weasley was the only child not accounted for." Amelia let out a small gasp knowing that Ginny was a first year, that poor child.
"That's when her brother Ronald made his presence known as he and Harry were looking for a professor to pass along new information that came from Miss Granger of all people, I swear even petrified that girl is bloody brilliant." Amelia nodded at that as she too was amazed at the child her niece spoke so highly of.
"Anyway, it turns out Miss Granger had a pretty good idea on what the beast was and even how it was moving about the school unseen. It's a basilisk Amelia, and Dumbledore took a small army down there to rescue Ginny. Ron and Harry were part of that army, only Ron has come back up so far with one of your aurors. Passed out cold at the sight of what your auror described as a fifty-foot skin of a snake." Minerva paled just thinking about it.
"Who else is down there with him Minerva?" Amelia now ascertained she was going to do a rescue mission of a rescue mission so needed a proper head count.
"Albus, Severus, Pomona, Harry, one of your aurors, Goldfinch I think he said his name was, and all of the house ghosts. Peeves blew past me leading Fawkes a bit ago too so I can only imagine the horrors that lay below." Minerva said while tearing up.
"Right." Amelia said before turning around and giving instructions. She had just gotten her aurors set up into strike teams when they heard the cry for help of a little girl. Ginny Weasley came trudging up the stairs, her clothes filthy and her hair wet.
"Oh thank Merlin, you need to help! Harry beat the basilisk, but he's hurt! Everyone else is petrified." Ginny cried while being wrapped in her head of house's arms.
"Estelle, would you please take Miss Weasley to the infirmary and let them know we will be coming shortly with more patients." Amelia said to a kind looking auror to her right.
Opening her arms to Ginny, the witch in question led her out of the bathroom. "Right then" Amelia turned to the entry way into the chamber and with her voice amplified by her wand she spoke, "Peeves we need your assistance please"
Not sure if it was going to work, as Peeves listened to no one, but if he flew down to assist, he might be open to helping them find the location faster than them stumbling around multiple tunnels.
A ghostly wail came from the chamber followed by Peeves rushing up the flight of stairs. "Hurry Bonesy, wee little Potty isn't doing so well." Peeves said before turning and rushing back.
Minerva followed without hesitation anymore, one of her cubs was in trouble, not only one of her cubs but a child of one of her favorite cubs to boot. James always held a soft spot in Minerva's heart, three of the group of four did actually now that she thought about it.
James, Sirius, and Remus were amongst some of her favorite students, no matter the trouble and chaos they caused. Introducing Lily to that bunch made her heart soar. It was Peter she had the problem with, always was a sell out in school, no matter how dedicated the other three were he was a weak little boy who used his friends to his advantage.
Shaking her head clear of the thoughts Minerva saw the circular door with all the snakes open where Peeves just disappeared through. Running as fast as she could she suddenly found herself at an immediate full stop, causing Amelia and several aurors to jar into her.
Amelia glanced around Minerva to see what had caused the abrupt stop when she saw the snake, it must have been sixty feet at least. Sitting there dead with a sword sticking out of its mouth.
Worried that Harry was underneath the beast she called for one team to investigate the snake when she heard Minerva's tear fill voice, "Amelia, look."
Pointing to the opposite side of the snake she gasped. Standing there was a group of three people, two of which she thought she would never see again. Tears filled her eyes as she watched the family hug.
"Oh my lord." Was all she could say. Her aurors, not realizing the importance of the group they were watching, gazed around the chamber and alerted her to the others.
Amelia snapping back into commander mode issued orders before grabbing Minerva's hand and walking towards the Potters.
"James? Lily?" Minerva asked softly as she approached.
Turning his family as a unit James faced his old head of house and smiled. "Well hello Professor, long time no see"
The smile on his face was pure James, she couldn't help herself. "James Fleamont Potter you explain yourself right now" letting her Scottish brogue out.
Laughing he finally released his family to walk over and hug his favorite professor. "It's a very long story Minnie, but we are so happy to be back. We will tell you everything once we get out of this chamber and into a proper room.
Releasing her he turned to Amelia, noting her uniform. "Well then, I was going to say howdy partner, but it looks like boss lady is more appropriate, how are you doing Ami?"
Smiling she resisted hugging him, knowing what needed to be done first. "Your badge number Potter?"
Raising an eyebrow, he stared at her then softened his gaze, he understood the protocol, hell he helped write some of it.
"7688375" James replied.
"And our safe word?" Amelia asked.
"Well, that's kind of kinky, and private, but it's Habanero" he laughed at his own joke, catching his friend as she launched herself at him.
"Ami, you do know he's my husband, what is all this with safe words and spicey things?" Lily asked with humor in her tone.
Laughing Amelia released James and hugged Lily. "I can't believe it's really you!" she cried.
"Harry, Peeve's said you were not well off, are you injured?" Amelia asked suddenly scared that they were wasting precious time that Harry might not have.
"I was Madam Bones, I was hit with a fang from the basilisk, but Fawkes cried into my wound and the poison blob," He said pointing to the floor "Popped out and the wound healed itself."
"Of course, Phoenix tears carry immense healing powers, they normally will only cry for their masters, you must be very special Harry." Amelia said.
One of Amelia's aurors, a tall dark-skinned wizard with a deep voice spoke to the group. "Holy smokes, Potter? Is that really you?"
"Yes Shack, it's good to see you!" James spoke as he shook the wizard's hand.
Turning to Amelia, Kingsley gave his report, "All victims accounted for," eyeing the Potters he added, "Plus two. We are in the process of levitating everyone upstairs to the infirmary. Peeves is actually assisting with the ghosts."
Amelia looked around and saw that the chamber was cleared and nodded.
"Harry has right by defeat to the snake, as he is the one who slayed the beast. It is his to do with what he wishes." The tall wizard then turned to Harry.
"That is one of the largest basilisks in known magical history, if I were you, I would get in contact with the goblins to sort it out."
Squeezing his shoulder James answered for his son, "We will get to that shortly, lets head up and see about your friends."
Nodding Harry, not risking being separated from his parents again, held tightly to his mother's hand, looking back frequently to make sure his dad was still there.
The group walked into the infirmary where Poppy was running around setting up screens and telling aurors where to place patients when her eyes caught sight of the Potters and she screamed.
"Calm down Poppy" Minerva scolded although she was smiling, she knew she wasn't the only professor who listed James and Lily as favorites.
"How are you… it's not possible… what in Merlin's name? Oh, Harry are you alright?" Poppy was trying to process everything, but in the end the children came first as she ushered him into a bed to inspect him.
Lily followed Harry, she didn't have a choice he wouldn't let go, James sidled up to Amelia and asked for a word when she had time. She nodded and explained she needed to set some things in motion but will come to find him when she was ready.
James joined his wife and son after thoroughly hugging his favorite healer.
"Harry, I would like for you to give a full recount of what happened down in the chamber to Amelia when she gets here. Leave nothing out, and I mean nothing." James said while eyeing his son.
"In turn we will tell you in full detail our story and how we came back. Understood?" Harry nodded to his father and replied with a "Yes sir."
James smiled at his son, "No sir Harry, I'm your dad, sir makes me feel so old!"
Harry laughed but then noticed something strange so asked about it. "You're aging?"
Lily laughed, "That's not polite sweetheart, but yes we are going to continue aging until we reach where we are supposed to be. Now tell us about your friends."
Harry talked to his parents for what felt like hours, explaining everything about Hermione and Ron, his life at the Dursleys, his first year at Hogwarts and his encounter with Riddle/Voldemort.
The whole time his parents nodded and smiled, he got the funny feeling they knew everything already but wanted him to be able to talk and soak up time with his parents, distracting from his recent battle and the fact that he was in the bed next to Hermione who was still made of stone.
"Alright Potter" Amelia said walking over, I have a few minutes to talk before some members from the department of mysteries get here with some restorative draught.
Dumbledore is temporarily relieved of his duties due to being petrified so Minerva is the head of the school right now. She asked for assistance with the restorative potion as she no longer wanted to wait for Hogwarts to produce their own.
"Smart move" James said eyeing the bushy haired girl his son was staring at. "How long does it take to work?"
"Should work rather quickly with the children considering their body size, the adults will take a little longer, maybe an hour or so to fully awaken. We are unsure on the ghosts, which is why the department of mysteries is coming to assist." Amelia said just as the doors opened and the hooded figures walked in.
"I will never get used to their uniforms" Lily said sourly. "Honestly they look like a version of the KKK.
James didn't know what the KKK was, but Harry seemed to know and shook his head in agreement.
"Change the robes from black to white and put a pointed hood on it, that's what we are talking about honey, they are completely different, but the intent is the same, to prevent anyone from identifying them." Lily explained to the confused look her husband sported.
James would have to ask questions later, Harry had popped out of bed and sat next to Hermione, holding her stone hand in his as madam Pomfrey admitted the dosage to the stone witch.
James glanced at Lily who had a tear in her eye, it seemed Harry like him knew early in his Hogwarts career who he wanted to be with in life, but it just hadn't caught up to him as fast.
James surrendered himself to memories long ago, a black-haired boy, rather spoiled being the product of an only child from an ancient and noble house, trotting his way down the train when he spotted the pretty red head in a compartment talking to a boy with rather long greasy hair and a hooked nose.
James pretty much knew from that moment that she was going to be his wife. It took him seven years to win over her heart, but he succeeded.
Smiling at his same beautiful red headed witch he sat beside her on Harry's bed and watched his son.
Harry was excited, so excited he almost couldn't sit still. He was going to get to introduce Hermione to his parents! Then a thought occurred to him, the Grangers, they had just spent all that money on him. They had made plans for the summer holidays. He didn't want to disappoint them.
Feeling Hermione squeeze his hand he looked down into her worried eyes. "What's wrong Harry?" she said softly.
"Nothing is wrong Hermione, we did it! The basilisk it's gone! I killed the beast, Ron feinted at the site of the shed skin, but I killed it for you." Harry declared in a soft whisper "It can't hurt you again Hermione."
The petite witch smiled up at Harry, squeezing his hand. "I knew you would Harry, you've always been brave, and ignore the rules. I do believe I specifically put on the piece of paper to find a professor." She said laughing.
"I did! But it took them all out, Dumbledore included!" Harry said to Hermione's shocked expression. "Well, I mean it petrified them, we did have a plan in place."
Her hand squeezed his again as she moved to sit up, Harry hovered around her helping and stuffing pillows behind her back, asking several times if she was comfortable, making his parents smirk.
"I'm fine Harry, honestly." Hermione protested after she was sitting up.
It took her a lot of strength, and she felt drained but was ultimately relieved that Harry was okay. She couldn't help fretting about him, so she understood him checking on her frequently. They had grown a lot closer this year, Hermione didn't know what it was exactly, but she knew she felt different with Harry than she did with Ron.
It was at that realization that she looked around the room realizing Harry said he had fainted. It was that glance that caused a shock to run through her for sitting to her right was an older couple probably around her parents' age. The wizard looked almost identical to Harry, the only difference being their eyes, which were displayed on the red headed woman sitting next to him.
"Harry!" Hermione gasped.
Grabbing her hand again Harry smiled, "Hermione, I would like to introduce you to my parents Lily and James Potter" glancing at his parents he continued, "Mum … Dad, this is Hermione Granger my best friend."
"It's nice to finally meet you Hermione dear" Lily said with a smile as James nodded.
"It's nice to meet you too Mrs. Potter …" Hermione started.
"It's just Lily dear, Mrs. Potter is James' mum" the redhead said laughing.
"Yes ma'am, if you don't mind me asking how you are alive?" Hermione was blushing something fierce as she asked this question. She was rather nervous that she would tick off Harry's parents and he would hate her for it.
Squeezing her hand once more Harry piped in, "Yeah, I would like to know too, one moment I was dying, then I wasn't, and you were there."
Hermione squeezed his hand so hard Harry had to look at her, "Dying Harry?"
"I'll explain later, one miracle at a time." Harry quipped.
"Let's wait for Amelia to finish up here and we will all sit down together, how does that sound?" James asked.
The kids nodded just as the infirmary doors flew open and Molly Weasley was running down the aisle searching for Ginny, Ron, Harry and Hermione.
"Amelia, the kids the kids? How are they? Are they safe? You said Ginny was taken? What about the boys did Harry and Ron search for her, oh they always go against what I tell them" Molly was so stricken with grief she didn't see Harry and Hermione sitting up perfectly fine, never mind the two senior Potters.
"Calm down Molly the kids are fine, thank-you for worrying about them" Lily said calmly.
"Oh no worries Lily, I love all the kids as though they were mine, I mean poor Harry lost his pare….." She stopped mid-sentence eyes wide, which made Harry and Hermione chuckle.
"LILY?!" Molly wheezed before looking over towards James.
"JAMES!"
"Oh Harry, I'm so happy for you!" And before he could comprehend anything he was in a famous Molly hug patting her back as he stiffened up.
"Oh the Grangers are going to be so pleased and happy for you dear." She said as she released him.
Harry froze up a bit, "You really think so? They just spent all that money on my room…"
"That's a load of tosh and you know it Harry, of course my parents would be happy for you, thrilled that you won't ever have to deal with those Dursley's again." Hermione shot at him.
Harry sighed a sigh of relief; his parents could see the thought of disappointing Hermione's parents did a number on him.
"We will certainly be handling the Dursley situation once we are cleared and have had a few comfortable days at home to decompress." James said with a snarl.
"How do you know about the Dursleys?" Hermione asked.
"You always were quick as a whip Hermione, patience though dear, we must wait for Amelia." Lily said with a smile.
"Molly, Ginny and Ron are both over there, I do believe Ginny is undergoing some treatment from being possessed and Ron should be waking up shortly from a feinting spell. Once Ron is up and moving if you could please bring him and yourself over here that would be wonderful. We shall explain to everyone at once." James spoke as he nodded to a set of dividers across the way.
"Of course," was all Molly could say, her children were injured, possessed? Poor Ginny. She started to walk over but paused briefly to send off a patronus to her husband, he really should be here.
It took a few hours for everyone to get settled in. James and Lily had asked for someplace private and Poppy offered her office.
The only people who were still made of stone were Dumbledore and Snape. Lily didn't want to deal with Snape quite yet and asked that Poppy withhold giving him his dose till after they left. As for Albus although he was given the restorative draft it was taking longer for him to come out of it, most likely due to his great age.
Minerva, Amelia, Poppy, Molly, Arthur, Harry, Hermione, and Ron were all packed into the small office with James and Lily.
"Now, I know most of you if not all are wondering how my beautiful wife and I managed to defy death." James started and Lily blushed.
"It's all rather simple when it boils down to it so, when we found out we were being hunted we set up a number of security plans as most of you know. We moved around a lot, partook in several rituals, and even evoked a secret keeper."
Lily took over for a bit, "The secret keeper was supposed to be Sirius Black, but we noticed that no matter our plans and how many times we changed them Voldemort always found out. That led us to looking for a snake in the grass."
"At first, we suspected Remus, to which I'm ashamed to say, he is and always will be loyal. Remind me to ask later love what happened to the blokes since they obviously didn't get Harry." James said to his wife.
"Anyway, we went through each person we could think of before landing on Peter Pettigrew. He was always the weak link of the Marauders, what my buddies and I called our group." James chuckled as everyone was hanging off his every word.
"So Peter, you see, was a snitch. He was never loyal, the only reason he was friends with us was because we were 'popular' so to speak, we had influence with two of us in line for head of house status at the time both to ancient houses."
Pausing James looked towards the Weasley's his face turned ashen, "Speaking of Peter, Ron, where is Scabbers currently?"
Ron grew bright red, "How do you know about Scabbers?"
"In due time my dear boy, but where is your rat?" James asked with an urgency.
"In his cage currently, he's been a little troublesome lately eating all my snacks." Ron said.
"Good good, Amelia, would you please send one of your aurors to Ron's dorm and grab that cage please? Make sure they reinforce it so that an animagus can't break it." James asked.
"Of course, Kinglsey" Amelia called and gave implicit instructions to the tall wizard.
"Thank-you, you see Peter Pettigrew is an animagus. His form, much like himself, is a rat."
The Weasley's gasped and Ron turned pale.
"Yes, he's been living a long time for a common garden rat, hasn't he?" James said with a smile. "No worries we'll get him before he even knows it's time to run."
"James, are you saying that Pettigrew for one isn't dead, and for two was your secret keeper, not Sirius Black?" Amelia thought she kept up with his story rather well.
"Yes. What do you mean not dead?" Lily asked out of curiosity.
"Well, if that rat is in fact Peter Pettigrew,"
"oh it's him alright" James interrupted.
Nodding Amelia continued, "well then we arrested and accused the wrong man eleven years ago. Sirius is in Azkaban and Pettigrew has an Order of Merlin, posthumously."
"WHAT?!" James bellowed. "YOU ARRESTED SIRIUS? That's why he wasn't around for Harry…"
"Yes." Was all Amelia could say.
"Well, why didn't it come out in the trial that he wasn't secret keeper, we laid out our Will specifically for that reason, he also would have testified under veritaserum for custody of Harry." Lily asked.
"James, Lily, let's circle back to Sirius after your story, I'm not saying forget about it I'm saying let's talk afterwards, maybe more pieces of the puzzle will become clear for me to better answer you." Amelia said cautiously.
Agreeing to her terms James looked at Lily who wrote it down on a piece of paper, along with Alice and Frank Longbottom, they needed to know why Harry didn't go to the people he was supposed to go to.
"Okay where was I then? Oh Yes... we knew Peter was the spy in our camp, Lily even saw his death eater tattoo once by sheer accident. We were starting to get sick of moving around, it wasn't good for Harry and Sirius was getting antsy. We decided to set a trap."
James went over their plan to set Pettigrew up as Voldemort's down fall, Lily had found a ritual in the Potter library, ancient families often had spells and rituals that were unknown to others, and this happened to be one from James' great-great-great grandfather.
Essentially it was a ritual to protect the ancient line should any harm come to the family. Back then there were massive outbreaks of wars between families and countries, the ICW actually started because of such wars.
The ritual took about a week to complete, lots of prep work went into making sure everything was done down to the letter.
"To activate the ritual James would have to willingly place himself in front of the enemy to protect his family, I in turn would then have to defend the protected one and beg for his life, thus giving my life to protect my child. It wasn't hard to do, outside of having to hear my husband perish."
"I was the lucky one in that scenario getting to go first." James said.
"Anyway, when we were struck our souls remained behind and the bodies left became duplicates, the real ones stored in the process of the spell that Voldemort unwittingly started." Lily looked towards James before continuing.
"We were supposed to come back the moment Voldemort tried to kill Harry, our protections were all around him, he was never in any harm from Voldemort. The deal with the spell is to trade your enemy's soul for your own, which didn't happen that night." Lily said with a frown.
James picked up where she left off, "Voldemort had planned his own ritual for that night, he started the process to use Harry as a sacrifice to create a horcrux."
No gasps went up telling James and Lily that the group themselves didn't know much about the abhorrent ritual.
"Basically, Voldemort wouldn't be able to die, his soul would be tethered to the earth because he stored a bit of it in a container or host." Hermione explained. "I was doing some research into Salazar Slytherin when I came across a very small passage about it, as he created that particular ritual."
"Smart girl" Lily said with a smile. "Yes, it meant he wasn't able to die there for there was no soul to give to death to spare ours. We ended up in a limbo, we could see everything that was happening to Harry, but could do nothing to warn or comfort him." Lily pulled Harry closer in an embrace.
James finished up the tale, "We realized that Voldemort had created multiple soul anchors already which is why Harry essentially became a horcrux unknowingly. Now Horcruxes are extremely hard to kill, triple that in a living host without actually killing the host."
"When the memory of Tom Riddle aka Voldemort sent that basilisk after Harry and the fang lodged in his arm the horcrux was what it killed first as it was the owner killing it off. Once the horcrux was done for then the venom would reach out to attack the body, thankfully Fawkes was there to cry tears into the wound at just the right time."
"She's a smart bird that phoenix" Lily said, "Even if her owner is a nitwit."
"The horcrux being removed from Harry allowed our ritual to move forward and so here we are." James said with a smile. "We of course came out as twenty-year old's and have now magically aged to our proper age."
"So, you and Lily, without telling anyone, set yourselves up as pigs to slaughter all in the name of ridding Voldemort for the country?" Amelia asked shocked.
Sighing James responded to his old partner, "Yes Amelia, but we don't want a bloody order of merlin for it, we simply wanted a safer life for our son, one which thanks to Dumbledore he didn't get."
Amelia nodded; she knew James didn't like being the center of attention any more than she did.
"Now Amelia, since we have everyone here, I have a few questions if I may?" Lily asked politely.
"Of course, Lily" Amelia said just as a beautiful lynx patronus floated thru the door, Kingsley's deep baritone voice coming from the cat spoke "We have him ma'am, he will be taken to a safe house, we shall keep him in his rat form until such time as we want to interview him. I did verify it was him before turning him back into the rat that he is."
And just like that the lynx dissolved into thin air.
"Well, that was easy for once" James said with a smile while ruffling Harry's hair then looking towards the red head who looked slightly shocked. "We'll replace your pet Ron, don't worry"
"Thank-you Mr. Potter, sir, but I think I'm good on the pets for a while… I just realized I shared a bed with a full-grown man for the last two years." Ron now even more pale sank into his mother's embrace.
Amelia took action right away, "That is a good point Ron, Arthur would you like to press charges against him?" she asked the balding red headed father.
"Hell yes I want to press charges, he was in the home of a department head, illegally I might add, and who knows what he did to my boys or what he heard, he was Percy's rat before Ron's." Arthur spit out.
"It will be delt with Arthur, I promise." Amelia said with confidence before turning to Lily, "Okay Lily fire away I will attempt to answer as best as I can, but please realize that I just took over as head of the department roughly three years ago from Barty Crouch after his wife and son died in short succession."
Lily nodded in understanding and started with Remus, Amelia explained that Dumbledore prevented him from contacting Harry in the muggle world due to his lycanthropy, which started Lily spitting tacks, she was extremely protective of Remus. Asking if Amelia knew his whereabouts came up with nothing, he had dropped off the map after their deaths and being denied access to Harry.
Looking at her husband he now started a list, drawing a square box and writing Find Moony next to it. Hermione offered to take over for him as writing lists was one of her favorite things, he gladly handed off the parchment and quill to her smiling.
His jab of "Oh Harry, I like her" made Harry and Hermione both blush crimson.
"Okay, now what about Sirius." Lily asked.
Amelia sighed; she knew the Potter's weren't going to like this at all but continued anyway.
"After checking that Harry was alright, as reported by Hagrid, Sirius ran off after Pettigrew, he too must have had his suspicions because he tracked the rat down into an alley way. From eyewitness accounts, from muggles no less, Sirius reportedly cast a bombarda spell at thirteen bystanders before killing Pettigrew himself. All that we found was a finger from Peter."
"Okay so why didn't anything come out in the trial, if they could tell there were thirteen bystanders but only a finger of Peter why wouldn't they question him under veritaserum?" James asked, knowing the protocol from going through auror training.
"He never had a trial." Molly pipped up. "Several people pushed for him to have one, he was an heir to the house of Black even if his own mother tried to disown him, but it didn't matter Crouch and Dumbledore together with the minister Bagnold at the time threw him straight into the high security wing of Azkaban."
"WHAT?!" James exploded.
"Amelia, you will get us a trial at the ministry of magic, and we will be releasing Sirius from that hell hole. I want Remus there for the trial and for all the people responsible to be involved as well. We will be pressing charges." Lily said much calmer than James.
"Yes Madame Potter." Amelia said formally, knowing this required etiquette of which her position demanded.
Lily hated titles but it needed to be done, James and herself were now head of the Potter family once more, they would need to act like it.
"We would like to set up a meeting with the Minster of Magic Cornelius Fudge, let's set it for tomorrow, tell him to clear his schedule if need be but don't tell him who he's meeting with." She had an evil looking grin on her face, "Give him some story about an Ancient and Noble house needing to talk with him and let him flounder when he sees us"
James then looked towards the kids and then towards the Weasley's "Thank-you for protecting and helping Harry you two, I truly appreciate it, and for grabbing guardianship away from Dumbledore, not sure how he got it in the first place considering Amelia is alive and well. How did you get the Dursley's to sign the paperwork?"
Molly laughed at his question, "The Grangers are scary people when they want to be, they have the Dursley's by the neck right now for child abuse, the only reason they aren't charging is because Harry would most likely become a ward of the Queen."
Lily nodded. "Right then, we would like to speak and meet with your parents Hermione, we know them from the side lines and watching this last year as they watched over Harry, we would like to thank them and repay them for their generosity."
"I'll write a letter home right away!" Hermione squealed, happy to have her parents meet them.
"Oh no need for such slow communication dear, Molly, would we have your permission to take Miss Granger out of school please, there's what a week left, and testing is already done?" James asked kindly.
"I don't see why not, she would be going to her parent's anyway" Molly smiled turning to Minerva she said, "Professor, I would like to remove Hermione and my children from school this week as they have all had a rough go of it, Ginny will also be required to see a specialist at St. Mungo's. Percy may stay if he wishes to finish out his prefect duties."
"I'll have the paperwork drawn up for you both" Minerva said before standing and leaving the office.
"Right, so here's what I would like to do" James started
The group set the plan in motion, Lily and James would take Hermione home and hopefully convince her parents to take a few days off. They will then return to Potter Manor to recharge the wards and check in with their house elves.
James saw Hermione add a to do to the list, leaning over he read, ask about house elves – Dobby.
Curious, that will have to wait till later. After they got settled at Potter Manor there will be quite a lot to do and the Potters wanted the Grangers involved in everything they did. There was the meeting with the Minister, finding Moony, freeing Sirius. It was going to be a busy start to the summer.
"Molly, why don't you call your boys down so we can properly meet and then we can host them over the summer to give you and Arthur a nice vacation, I'm most interested in meeting your twins." James laughed.
"You would be wouldn't you, well maybe you could get them to at the very least not get caught quite so often." Minerva said coming through the door and handing the permission slips out. "Molly, Percy requested to stay at school and ride the train home. Said he would apparate home from the station."
James laughed at that, before she added. "Oh, by the way, the twins might have discovered a certain map that they confiscated out of Filch's office. You may want to ask them for it back." She winked at his shocked face.
"You knew?"
"Of course I knew, I knew almost anything you three would do, how do you think you didn't get into trouble so often huh? Getting points take away from my own house, most certainly not we would consistently be at zero with you lot." She said with a wicked smile. "The twins need a little fine tuning; they don't have a Mr. Lupin's subtly to assist."
James laughed. He was most certainly looking forward to meeting those two in person.