Hey everyone,
I know you're not going to believe it, but we're going to cut away from the Lea's parents storyline for a short minute. Just for this chapter, though as it's going to cover Harry and the others visiting the Hollow. Once they return to the Garden, I am going to make it so that Ansem has also tracked down the father's location and that he has sent Roxas out to find him. And this time I don't have the same reasons for keeping the father's name secret as I did with the mother.
It's a surprise,

Venquine1990


Chapter 41
Happy New Year

31st of December 1995
Godric's Hollow, England
Harry's POV

Lea had, after I had stopped screaming to express the emotions racing and raging through me, faked the need to cast a Cure spell on his ears to stop them from ringing before taking me to first Isa's place and after that the homes of our other friends. We had gathered them all together at the tables where Poppy brought us the papers and I had been the one to share the good news with them. To my surprise, all but Isa had been just as shocked at this as I had been.
Even dad had been amazingly surprised, but thanked Lea after he overcame his shock and muttered: "I should have remembered. Soul Bonds don't count for the rules of inheritance, not even for families who do think it should. That damned bastard title." And the thought that my child, even while the baby had been recognized as a secondary Heir by my own father, might not inherit had it not been for this engagement had terrified me.
But only after a few minutes of everyone overcoming their shock and with the elation starting to sink in with everyone, was it Hermione that suddenly asked: "But wait, Harry, where – where is your ring?" And both Lea and I turned bright red as we admitted that we had both been so happy and excited to share the news that Lea had just put the ring back in his pocket and we had left for Isa's. After this Lea had pulled the ring back out and I had gotten my first real good look at it. And right away I felt the same love for the ring as I felt for Lea the first time I saw him.
The ring is just gorgeous as it's made of amber with a single red ruby at the center and gorgeous clear diamonds around the ruby. Yet what really sells the ring is the fact that a bit of each diamond has been cut out, all of them at random spots and that a small bit of an emerald gem has been inlaid into the open spots. And yet, even as random as the spots are, there is still a bit of a pattern to them, which is something I love even more about the whole thing.

And right now I am very glad that Lea decided to do this the other day as I don't have the ring on my finger but I am holding it tightly in my hand, needing it like a lifeline as I am planning to do this. Lea decided he would be the one to create the portal to Godric's Hollow and Ansem the Wise offered to come with, saying: "There will be moments where you will need your father, where Remus will not want to intrude upon your time together. He does not deserve to be there alone when that happens. I will accompany you for those moments."
All three of us are very grateful for this and while we had wanted to invite Damian to come along, they boy had made a very significant point as he said: "My adopted mum gave me the chance to say goodbye years ago, just before I started Hogwarts. This is your chance to say goodbye, both to the lies you believed for all these years and to the friend and family you lost so long ago. I'd rather just stay part of your present and future than interfere in your past."
Yet he had still agreed to remain with Lea until we returned. And while I have been mentally and emotionally preparing for this moment for weeks, I still find myself feeling very grateful for the fact that they are only a single button on my Gummi Phone away and part of me is even wishing that I was back with them instead of here. I had known that Godric's Hollow was still in ruins, but the sight of it, the sensation of feeling those Glamour charms, still leaves me breathless with shock.

Yet the reason behind this is not the one I had been expecting, which worries me more than anything else I have gone through this past year, even the trials that both my father and I faced earlier on in the year. Ansem the Wise, with help of Remus and Tron, a being that apparently lived in a world inside the computer that helps run the going-ons of Radiant Garden, had managed to get the portal located in a small side alley between two buildings on the edge of the street in which the house was located and we have passed through it and moved onto the ruins themselves.
But while dad seems to falter, while his gaze is obviously locked with the house but his eyes seem unable to actually see it for what it is now, while there are tears slowly running down his eyelids and cheeks, I shock myself as I suddenly make a realization. All this time, after all these years, now that I finally have the chance for this, now that I am standing face to face with the place where I lost everything that was dear to me and my youth – I feel nothing.
Where I had expected to feel pain, loss, heartache, a need for all this to not be real, a desire to see my parents walk out that ruined front door, a fantasy of what life might have been like had that night not occurred, I don't feel anything. I don't feel my heart skipping a beat in awe at the sight, I don't feel my heart aching at the sight of what might have been, I don't feel my heart bleeding over the loss I suffered so long ago. All I feel is an urge to be near dad, to be there for him and to comfort him now that he is finally doing this.

"What is wrong with me?" I try to silently whisper as I don't feel the desire to pull dad out of his trance-like state. But while dad doesn't hear me, Remus moves a little closer and asks: "What's wrong?" And while tears do start to prickle beneath my eyelids, I know that they're not tears of loss or pain or heartache; they're tears of self-hate and disgust. "I – I thought I'd have trouble coming here. That if I saw this place I would cry tears of what I had lost, but –."
I try to say it, I try to say the words, I try to express to the werewolf that I don't feel anything of what I thought I would feel upon coming here. But those two words feel like a gag that is keeping me from speaking and so, in an effort to make him understand, I whisper: "I only care about dad." And I close my eyes, letting the tears fall and hoping desperately that the man will understand that I mean Sirius and not James – and that he won't hate me for it.

"I was expecting this." Ansem the Wise suddenly says, shocking the both of us and I turn around to face him. "Harry, from what I've learned of you in the past few months, you lost Lily and James before you had any real conscious memory. You only really remember the night they were killed and the others have so often spoke of your parents and their greatness, that they kind of stopped being people, that they stopped being human.
You coming here, therefore, doesn't really mean much as it's more like, no offense, what everyone else experienced – when they get to meet you after grow up hearing about your Legend, about the Boy-Who-Lived. Coming here makes Lily and James and the night they died a real thing, a real fact, but because you only know them from stories and one horrific memory – you don't really have anything substantial to be missing.

Not to mention one other important fact." By now I am looking at the man in desperation, knowing that he means well with his words of wisdom but only growing to hate myself more and more as he speaks. The man comes closer and crouches down a little to be on eye-level with me as he says: "You grew up – unloved. You never truly experienced love until Lea came into your life. And the same day he did, you got a new father, a new family.
You don't feel what Remus and Sirius feel, because you were given the chance for closure long before you came here. When you accepted Sirius as your father and Damian as your brother, you told James It's okay, I'm okay, you can move on now. And in your heart, he did. They did. That's why you're not experiencing the same things they are. To you, Lily and James aren't as real, because Sirius, Remus, Albus and the others never really made them real to you.
But there is one thing that is real. The bond you share with them. It may not be as strong as Sirius and Remus had with James and Lily, which is impossible thanks to their ten years of friendship, but they are. They are your bond, Harry. Your bond to Lily and your bond to James. They are what links you to your parents and vice-versa. And that's just as special as the friendship they had to give up on all those years ago, at least in my eyes."
By now the tears of desperation have changed into tears of gratitude and I give the man a warm smile before turning to Remus. Only for my eyes to widen as I realize that the man is no longer standing with us. "He left to support Sirius, who went inside. Funny, don't you think? I came with you guys because I thought I'd need to support Remus, but it didn't turn out that way." At this I can't help but snort and mutter: "The story of my life." As I turn to face the Glamored ruin and whisper: "Help me through this?" And while he's behind me, I know the man nods at me.

At the same time
Sirius' POV

"Where's Harry?" I ask, only now realizing where I am as the last few minutes have been a blurry vision and an emotion turmoil and Remus smiles at me as he says: "We – kind of failed him, Sirius. We talked James and Lily a little too much into the high heavens, to the point that, bar his own memories of – that night – they're just not real to him. They're the kind of invincible heroes that parents usually tell their kids in bedtime stories.
He's outside with Ansem the Wise, who is currently explaining to him why this is and why it's alright that he feels like this.""Is it really?" I can't help but whimper and Remus pulls me close in a sideways hug as he says: "It is, pal. James and Lily wouldn't want either us or their son to live in the past. They'd want us to move on, to take Harry in, to raise him as our own. They'd basically want what we've been doing these past few months."
"That's what they died for." I whisper, more so to myself than to Remus, but while my head is down and my eyes are closed, I just know that my friend is nodding in agreement with me before he says: "And that's a good thing, Sirius. Think about it. Think about how happy you felt when Harry first gave that name to you, when James, through him, passed on the torch to you, so to say." He releases a deep breath and mutters:
"And who knows. Maybe seeing their graves or seeing this whole thing when Gerard and the other Unspeakables are done will unleash a different kind of reaction out of Harry." But while I know that the man is saying this to cheer me up, I snort and mutter: "I doubt it. Too much time has passed for that. But – not enough to introduce the baby to his or her grandparents." To this Remus hits me on the shoulder and says:

"You unstoppable prat. You just want Harry to reveal the gender." I laugh at this and give him a stomp to the arm back as I say: "Like you don't. I know just fine how badly you wish that Moony could help you smell out those things. You were the same way when Lily was expecting Harry and keeping his gender a secret." We both laugh and as we sigh and turn to look at the ruined nursery, which unsurprisingly is the one spot Snape actually left alone, I mutter:
"We can't leave it like this." And Remus mutters: "Not even after the Unspeakables are done fixing everything?""It's not what they died for. A place that is just going to be lost to the sands of time, just because people want a monument that almost no one ever comes back to? If they want what we want, for James and Lily to be properly honored, they need to change how they're going to do that. And they'll need our help for that.
James and Lily deserve a respectable place to be remembered and Harry's child deserves to, if he or she ever chooses to, visit someplace that really brings respect to what their deaths meant." And as I say this, I notice Remus' eyebrow going up, which makes me know one thing. "You have an idea.""I might just. Let's head back down, Sirius. I'd rather discuss this once we get back to the Garden. I might be the one with the idea, but I shouldn't be the one to decide to execute it."

I nod and as we reach back downstairs, me noticing how there is a large wet spot now staining the carpeted floor at the bottom of the staircase, Harry and Ansem walk in, Harry shocked to see us walk down. The boy's head turns down, but I walk over to him and pull him into a warm and comforting hug as I whisper: "It's okay, son. I know them, they understand. They're probably happy, glad that you're done mourning them, that you're ready to just focus on your own future."
Harry returns the hug and I can easily sense, in the way he wraps his arms around me, how grateful my son is for my understanding. "Let's go visit the graves. James' body might not be in there just yet, but it wouldn't hurt." Remus tells us and the three of us nod at him. And while more and more people are now coming out of their homes, some of them already lighting up fireworks and congratulating each other, we remain ignored thanks to the Notice-Me-Not spells.
Ansem the Wise obviously feels quite amazed at seeing how people just completely walk past us without even noticing that they are passing anyone, but the rest of us are just too focused on passing all of the houses that are actually inhabiting and reaching the graveyard, on ending the night and the last year the proper way. And while we are invisible, does Remus still leave enough Galleons for all four of us for the landlord to ensure our privacy. And after this I undo the charm, the landlord looking startled, but nodding in understanding.

And when we reach the graves, a small smile adorns my face as I notice that we're not the first ones here. There is a field surrounding the two graves, obviously meant to cover them from sight, yet the field doesn't seem to affect our sight. And standing close to the edge of the field is Gerard, actually dressed in official looking robes instead of his usual Unspeakable robes.
"Happy New Year, you lot. I know James' body still needs work, but I put him back nonetheless, just for tonight." The man tells us, shaking each of our hands and Harry and I both whisper a silent word of gratitude over hearing this. Then, while Remus checks his watch and while I know that Ansem is using his Gummi Phone to let Lea know that we have changed locations a little, do I nudge Harry over to the grave, already knowing just what Remus' watch just told him.
And while, in my mind, I start to count down the last half a minute before New Year, Harry sends me a grateful smile, moves into the field and crouches down in front of the two graves. And just as, in my mind, I reach the end of the countdown and whisper: "Happy New Year, my friends." Do I see Harry lie one hand on his stomach and another on the ground between the two graves as he says: "Mum, father, it's me – and I brought your grandchild with me too. We both love you very much. Happy new year, both of you."
And while I don't feel the same sensation as I did on the day of my trial, while I don't feel like some warm presence has enveloped me one last time before leaving me, I still feel pretty confident of one thing. The Spirits of my best friends are here with us tonight, they might as well be standing either right behind their – and my – son or in front of him. Either way, I am confident beyond words that they are smiling down – at my son and his child. I know, because I'm doing the same thing right now, even as Remus gives me another warm sideways hug.


Happy new year, you lot.
And I have no doubt that some of you probably hate me over the whole thing with Harry and how he didn't feel anything over returning to Godric's Hollow. Personally, I think I gave a pretty good couple of reasons as to why, but to be honest, I just didn't feel like being cliché. Everyone and their mother who writes about Harry going back there makes it all about hurt and comfort and I didn't feel like doing so. This story has been negative enough as it is.
And we're not done yet,

Venquine1990