"I've found him. It took a while, but I found him in the end."
Harry looked up from watching 'The Great Umberto' on television, as the door to the living room clicked open and a second later his father entered. A second after that and James Potter had completely disappeared from view, hidden behind a curtain of auburn hair as his wife raced to him and clobbered him with a bear hug so ferocious that Harry was reasonably certain that it would have knocked a real bear flat.
Then Harry looked away shyly, as his parents' outward displays of affection always left him awkward and embarrassed, not that they seemed to care about such things. Harry simply had to grin and bear it until they disentangled themselves from one another and came up for air.
It was Lily who spoke first when this finally happened.
"A day you said, maybe two. Not a whole week! Where have you been?!"
Harry thought this was a little unfair. His mother seemed to be interrogating his father as if he'd gone on a weekend away with friends, not snuck up to the surface to make arrangements for Harry's safe residence there.
But James seemed to agree with Lily. "I'm sorry. Things were a little more complicated than I expected. Getting into contact with Sirius was very difficult. It seems he's been travelling."
"Travelling?" Lily asked. "Where to?"
"That's the thing ... he wouldn't say. Either that or he couldn't," James mused. "It's very suspicious either way. Sirius never kept anything from me ... unless he was up to something."
"So do you still think the plan is safe? Has he agreed to get involved?"
"Agreed? He was practically euphoric!" James chuckled. "As for being safe, well, that's a relative thing. Here ... hang this on the wall. I know you were looking for something to put in that spare picture frame over there."
James then handed Lily a rolled up sheet of shiny paper. It looked to Harry like a poster or a flyer. Lily unfurled it and promptly frowned at what she saw.
"Oh no, James, I am not having this on the wall," Lily grumbled.
"Come on," James cajoled. "We don't have many pictures of our old friends around the place. Besides, I think it would be useful for Harry to see it."
"For Harry to see what?" Harry asked, as he got up from in front of the television and crossed to his parents to investigate.
"You'll see in a bit," James grinned impishly, as Lily huffed and set to task hanging the picture into a vacant frame on the wall near the door. Then James turned back to Harry. "While I was on the surface, I thought it might be an idea to get you a present, something to whet your appetite for when you start out on your little adventure. Here, I think you'll like it."
James reached into his coat and took out an object that he then offered to Harry. It was a book, a rather large book, and Harry's first reaction was to wonder how his father had stowed such a weighty tome inside his relatively small pockets. It was as if he'd somehow resized the book by magic.
Then Harry read the title. It was written in swirly silver lettering which stood out and sparkled against the handsome royal blue cover. Harry felt as if he were looking at a key to a whole new world.
"Hogwarts, A History,"Harry read in near whisper, his eyes flashing with excitement. "This is about the school? The one that teaches magic?"
James nodded. "A complete history of the old place, from the Four Founders to famous alumni, from the House Crests to secret legends. It's all there. Your mother always had her head buried in it, if I remember right?"
James flicked a cheeky grin at his wife, who rolled her eyes in reply.
"You do, as it was my favourite book," Lily confirmed. "But before you go and bury your head in it, Harry, come over here ... there's someone we think you should meet."
Harry tucked Hogwarts, A History under his arm and trotted over curiously to his mother's side. She had finished with the picture ... and Harry blinked in surprise as he clocked eyes on it. For it was a most unusual thing for someone to want to hang in their living room, and for two reasons. Firstly, the poster carried a Wanted: Dead or Alive message, urging members of the public to disclose information on the whereabouts of the vicious serial killer depicted there, a man who had been on the run for some time.
And the second, even more wondrous aspect, was that the subject of the picture was moving.
"Harry ... this is Sirius Black ... your godfather," James announced with theatrical aplomb.
Harry watched, enchanted, as Sirius Black writhed and screamed dramatically in the picture. "This is Sirius ... this is the friend who is going to look after me?"
James nodded as he grinned broadly. "I swiped the poster from a shop window on Diagon Alley ... that's a shopping district for magical people, and you'll go there in due time. But don't be fooled by Sirius' antics here ... he was play acting the whole time, hamming it up for the cameras. He was just a showman like that. Still is, probably."
James chuckled with an affection memory, but Harry had eyes only for the moving picture. It was almost hypnotic to watch, somehow more real and visceral than television or movies. Or, perhaps, it might have had something to do with the fact that Harry's godfatherwas a wanted murderer.
As extended family members went, Harry could think of few other ways in which Sirius Black could be more interesting. Of course, he hadn't killed his parents - as the Wizarding World believed - but Harry's father had suggested that Sirius had done something equally as dubious, though he had been very firm in denying all Harry's subsequent entreaties for more details. Which, naturally, simply stoked Harry's burning curiosity about the man even further.
He watched his mother as she looked fondly at the picture, which winked at her when it thought the camera - and James - wasn't looking.
"Why do you think they are still looking for him?" Harry asked. "You'd think they'd just give up, being as it's so long now."
"You don't know the Ministry of Magic," Lily replied darkly. "Did I mention that there's a Ministry of Magic? Well, there is one. And they were hugely shamed when Sirius escaped from Azkaban, the Wizard Prison. They lost so much face over that."
"Why?" Harry pressed. "People break free from prison all the time. I see it on the news and read about it in books."
"Not this one," Lily hushed, her tone dropping from grey to black. "You see, it's guarded by the most horrid of magical creatures, things called Dementors."
Harry felt a prickle of icy anxiety kiss at his skin at the mere mention of these things. His mother's words were laced with the sort of terror a young child should never hear in the voice of a parent. Harry shuddered as the feeling crossed the back of his neck.
"What are they?"
"Best description? Soul leeches," Lily explained. Harry gulped hard at the suggestion. "They feed on human emotions, and positive ones are their absolute favourite. They leave only darkness and despair behind. They are the most unpleasant things, Harry. I truly hope you never have to meet one."
Harry nodded in hearty agreement. "I can see why they guard the prison, though."
"So do most people," Lily continued. "But they are a topic of controversy, because when they punish a prisoner, a Dementor performs a Kiss on them ... and essentially eats the poor devil's soul. There is no recovering from that, and a person usually dies shortly after."
Harry shivered from his toenails to his eyelashes. He was quite sure now that his biggest fear - being afraid of the dark - had been firmly supplanted in his mind by these new terrors. He bit his lip in his fretful anxiety.
"But, you see, Sirius was able to escape Azkaban," Lily ploughed on. "Dementors are supposed to sap the will from people, making escape impossible, because the prisoners simply don't have it in them to try."
"But Sirius did?" Harry asked reverently, re-imagining his Godfather now as a sort of Dementor-defying superhero. "How?"
"Sirius is a special type of wizard that we call an Animagus," Lily explained.
"That means he can change into an animal," James clarified.
"Wow, that's so cool!" Harry hushed.
"Hey, you aren't allowed to be more impressed with your Godfather than your actual father," James teased. "I'm an Animagus too, you know."
Harry gasped aloud. "You can turn into a animal?"
"Yep," James grinned smugly.
"What is it?"
"A stag ... a great big stag. I call him Prongs."
"Do it now," Harry demanded. "Change ... I want to see."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"I can't use magic down here. We'd trigger an alarm."
"I think it's because you can't do it," Harry frowned. "Don't worry, I'm sure Sirius will show me. It's the first thing I'll ask him. So, what does he turn in to?"
"An unnaturally large dog," Lily took over. "And in his dog form, the Dementors didn't have anything like the same effect on him. He was able to endure their powers much more than when he was a wizard. The Dementors stopped sensing him, and when they opened his cell to see where he was, he slipped right past them and trotted merrily out of the front door, picking up a juicy slab of steak, that had been left to taunt another prisoner who was on hunger strike, on his way to freedom."
"I do love it when you tell tales about my brother from another mother," James quipped. "You'll love him, Harry, I'm sure of that. We all do ... even your mother. Well, sometimes."
"When he isn't being an annoying toerag," Lily frowned, though there was fondness behind her eyes.
"So ... where should I start my learning about Hogwarts?" Harry asked, lifting up his new book.
"I'd go right to the chapters on Quidditch," James, suggested.
"Quidditch? What's that?" Harry queried.
"Oh, sweet Merlin!" James cried. "It's only the best sport in the world, son! I've been so looking forward to telling you about it."
And he was off, explaining all about the positions - which were filled by seven players on broomsticks, something that Harry struggled to even imagine - and the three balls, and the scoring system, and that each of the four Houses of Hogwarts had a team, and that every year the teams competed to win the Quidditch Cup, which James talked about in ways that made it sound more important than passing exams.
"I played as a Chaser," James babbled away excitedly. "And I was the best. Just ask your Mum. She never missed a game of mine. Though I reckon she was just there to watch me rather than the match."
"You know I sometimes wonder how you manage in life, lugging that massive head of yours around all day," Lily laughed. "It's staggering that you even manage to get it through the door without taking chucks off the sides!"
Harry guffawed behind his hand, as James blew Lily a cheeky kiss, which she promptly mimicked catching and putting in her pocket.
"So, which House were you in?" Harry asked.
"Gryffindor," James and Lily chorused together.
"And that really is the best House," James added.
"What are the others?" Harry pressed.
"Well, there's Ravenclaw for all the brainy people, then Hufflepuff for all the duffers," James ticked off on his fingers.
"Hufflepuff are not duffers," Lily admonished with a little frown. "Don't listen to your father. I had lots of good friends from Hufflepuff House. I do miss them a lot."
A sad smile crossed Lily's eyes and James wore of look of suitable chastisement.
"I thought there were four Houses?" Harry pointed out, confused. "What's the other one?"
"That would be Slytherin," James answered in a spiky tone. "Or, as they are also known, The Little House o' Evil!"
"Evil?" Harry blurted. "Are they really?"
"No, of course they aren't," Lily replied, but she didn't quite meet Harry's eye when she said that.
"Though there is an old saying in the magical world," James added. "It goes - 'Not all Slytherins are Dark Wizards, but All Dark Wizards are Slytherins."
"There is no such saying!" Lily cried crossly. "Stop putting ideas into your son's impressionable young head, James Potter!"
"There is such a saying," James argued cheekily. "I invented it. So there."
"Why did I marry you?" Lily thought glumly. "There must have been another option somewhere."
"Yeah ... and he was a Slytherin," James replied cryptically.
The angry, blazing look Lily sent at James then would have incinerated a normal man, Harry was certain of that. He searched around for a quick change of subject.
"So, will I be a Gryffindor when I go to Hogwarts?" Harry asked breezily. "Because both of you were?"
"That isn't how it works, sweetheart," said Lily, throwing a last dagger-laden look at James.
"Then how do you get picked?" Harry insisted. "Is it like eeny, meany, miney, mo?"
Lily giggled at that. "Sort of ... only a magic Wizard's hat chooses where to place you, and tells you so on your first day at school."
"Oh, okay," said Harry who was starting to doubt and argue less and less about the nuances of the magical world. If there were talking hats, there were talking hats. That was just how it was. Then a worrying thought kicked into his mind. "But ... what if I'm not picked? What if it looks into my head, sees there's been some terrible mistake or something, and sends me right back home?"
Lily and James laughed fondly. Lily assumed the mantle of reassuring their son. "That wont happen, trust me. You are magical, you'll be placed in a House."
"And what if it's Hufflepuff?" Harry mumbled.
"Then Hufflepuff House will have gained a wonderful young wizard who will be a credit to their rich history," Lily smiled encouragingly.
"And who his parents are extremely proud of and love very, very much,," James added warmly. "No matter which House he gets put in."
"Even if it's Slytherin?"
James chanced a testing look at Lily, then replied, "Even if it's Slytherin. Though we wont love you quite so much if you don't get Sorted into Gryffindor!"
"James Potter!" Lily reprimanded falsely. "Leave the poor boy alone.Yes, Harry, we will love you just as much even if you get Sorted into Slytherin."
"Though if you do, you'll have to leave your school robes at Hogwarts," James said in mock seriousness. "I wont have that badge in the house!"
He let out a bark of a laugh and Harry smiled weakly. He felt a little better, but there was a spark of eagerness to prove himself that was lodging itself in his heart. He didn't want to be the first person ever not to be Sorted into a Hogwarts House. It was almost as scary a prospect as those Dementors.
Almost ...
Harry was long in bed and Lily and James were listening to music in the living room, careful to keep it down low so as not to wake their sleeping son. Which was a frustrating endeavour, as the album they were listening to was the latest release by their favourite new magical-world band, who were called The Weird Sisters. And it was borderline agony to keep driving, symphonic metal at an acceptable level. There would be no Going to Eleven tonight.
They offset their misery by taking advantage of some all-too-rare-these-days alone time, hotly kissing like loved-up teenagers on their squashy couch. All the talk of Hogwarts and Gryffindor had stirred memories in both, of similar passionate sessions in front of the Common Room Fire. At least the moving facsimile of Sirius on the wall had the good sense to cover his eyes with the placard carrying his Azkaban prisoner number.
It wasn't a spectator sport, no matter how much Lily and James tried to make it such.
At some point, they drew breath. James cleared his throat, and Lily turned seriously to her husband.
"So ... what did you find out about our other little problem?" Lily began. "How did the Hounds of Annwn get out?"
"They sensed magic," James revealed, turning down the music and shifting to face Lily directly. "It was a more powerful surge than they've ever detected, far stronger than any of Harry's bouts of accidental magic. If I didn't know better, I'd say that a wizard actually entered the city. But that's just a guess."
"Then Harry is safe?" Lily asked in hope. "We can start letting him out again? I fear a bit of cabin fever if we keep him cooped up much longer."
"I don't think that's a good idea," James warned. "The Muggles suspect something aboutHarry ... all these tests make that abundantly clear. I'm not sure how much longer we have with him, to tell the truth. I know we wanted to keep him here till the end of the year, but I just don't think it will be possible."
What little colour was in Lily's face left it in a flash. She was the shade of old porridge when she finally found her voice again.
"What makes you think so?"
"Chatter around the office," James clarified. "And there's been a van parked outside the estate for the last three days, you said. I bet if I opened it up it would be crammed with surveillance equipment. They know something's up, but who could say how far that suspicion goes."
"How long do you think we have?" Lily whispered under her breath.
"Impossible to say," James replied bleakly. "But I don't know how long we can risk second guessing it for. We might have to escalate the plan, take matters into our own hands earlier than we would have liked."
Lily gathered her strength with a steeling breath. "What are out options?"
"We have two, realistically, and neither are perfect," said James. "Plan One - we send him to your sister. She has a little boy of her own and she and Vernon might take Harry in for a few weeks, just until Sirius gets home from wherever he is. Though we might have to bribe them with most of the gold from our vault at Gringotts."
"That isn't even a plan," Lily hissed angrily. "And Dudley is far from little, from what you told me about him."
"No, and he has quite the temper on him," James added. "I went to assess the place when I was on the surface. I saw him having such a tantrum on his birthday that he kicked the wing mirror off of Vernon's car. He was not amused. Nasty little child, that one."
"Then Harry is going no-where near him," Lily insisted. "What's Plan Two? You said Sirius wont be back for at least a month. Where is he, anyway?"
"Like I said, he didn't tell me ... but it sounded very far away," James replied. "Who knows where that Veil in the Ministry led to ... could have been a parallel universe for all we know. Either way, Sirius is on his way back from there."
"But he wont be here in time," Lily mused. "So what do we do?"
"Sirius suggested Grimmauld Place," said James. "His old house-elf could provide for Harry's basic care for a while. Problem there is that Harry wouldn't be allowed to leave till he goes to get the Hogwarts Express. During my chat with Sirius he told me that the house is still riddled with dark objects and trophies. I'm not sure if Harry would be worse off there than in Privet Drive."
"What about Dumbledore? Couldn't he take him?" Lily asked pleadingly. "Maybe even put him up in a quite corner of Hogwarts for a bit?"
James looked over darkly at Lily. "I don't think I'd entrust Harry's care to Dumbledore alone unless I had no other choice."
Lily quirked an eyebrow at her husband. "You still don't trust him, do you? Even thought he defeated Voldemort?"
"Defeated him eventually," James replied cryptically. "Sirius never told me the details of the final plan, and it's not like him to keep something like that from me. It makes me uneasy."
Lily nodded as she considered James' words. "Is there no-one else ... nowhere else?"
She sounded so hopeless that James felt his heart ache at it. "Well, my last thought was that we could ask Minerva. She'd certainly keep an eye on Harry, keep him on track and out of trouble. At least until he goes to school, where mischief is everywhere. And we are related ... sort of. I'm sure if I turn on my charm I can guilt trip her into agreeing to this."
"Yes! That's it!" Lily cried. "Minerva will help us, won't she? That's brilliant, James!"
And Lily threw her arms around her husband's neck, before kissing him like it was going out of fashion.
"Don't go packing Harry's trunk just yet," James warned. "We have to ask her. Or, more specifically, I have to ask her. That's not going to be a conversation that I'm looking forward to."
"I'm sure you will do a wonderful job," Lily cooed supportively. "This is our son, after all. And who knows, if this works, Harry's room will suddenly be free ... and maybe we can start thinking about turning it into a nursery again. Pink's nice isn't it? ... I like pink ..."
James Potter's face cracked into a stupidly wide grin, firm, as he was, in his certainty that he'd never heard a more motivational speech in his whole life.
"That's an idea for another day," James smiled. "But I think we should put your plan into action before any of that. While we still have time."
Lily sighed heavily. "I still think that's a risk. Alchemy isn't directly magic, but it isn't far off. We'd be skirting with being detected if we do this."
"We'll start small, rune reading and The Emerald Tablet. Basic stuff. If Harry is going to fight Tom Riddle one day, he'll need all the power he can get. And few wizards are more powerful than true alchemists."
"What makes you so convinced that Harry has been blessed like that? Just because I was doesn't mean he will be, too."
"The fact that we've given him a Philosopher's Stone, that we've tied him into an alchemical quest, tells me that," James enthused. "But you're right ... we need to be sure. We need to take him to the pyramid ... if it responds to him, then we'll know."
"I'd better do that, you always were just my partner in The Work," Lily teased. "Alright, I'll set everything up. You go to Minerva. If Harry does trigger a response then even the Muggles wont be blind to what's happening. We might have to smuggle him out pretty swiftly if they work it out. We should be ready before we proceed."
Then they sighed heavily together, determined to cherish what little time they had left with the sleeping boy upstairs.