"I'm going down there." James determinedly stood up from his seat with both Arthur and Molly following suit. "If they're not there, I'll search the whole castle if I have to."
"Dad"
They all turned around to see Harry at the doorway with Ron, Ginny and Lockhart behind him. He was covered in blood and his hair looked messier than usual.
James and Harry ran towards each other before Harry buried himself in his father's cloak. "It was scary," he began sobbing.
He had been resilient throughout his ordeal with the basilisk but when he saw his father, it sunk in to him how terrifying the whole thing was and how much he wanted comfort and feeling safe in James's arms.
James tightly wrapped his arms around Harry and stroked his hair. "Son, it's alright. You're safe now".
From the corner of his eyes, he noticed that Molly was comforting Ginny and Arthur was comforting Ron.
"Harry, Ron, Ginny, are you ready to tell us what happened?" asked Dumbledore gently.
"It was all my fault," Ginny cried as she began her side of the tale.
Harry finished the tale with his side of the story with Ron occasionally jumping in when Harry was stuck while Dumbledore and McGonagall occasionally asked questions in between. All the adults were pale when they had finished their tale and James held Harry tighter.
Dumbledore took the diary that Harry gave him with interest and explained that not many people knew Voldemort was once Tom Riddle.
"You saved her" Mrs. Weasley came over to give Harry a hug and kiss. "And you too," she hugged and kissed Ron. She then gave Ginny a mild rebuke for interacting with something that had a mind of its own and the youngest Weasley apologized again.
"Ginny, you mustn't blame yourself. It is not your fault that Tom possessed you," Dumbledore pacified her.
"But I was silly enough to write in the diary," she said.
"You did what most girls your age would have done. Now, you must rest," said Dumbledore.
"It's a good thing I told James not to get Ron a new wand for Christmas. Imagine if he had a working wand and this wretched Lockhart used it to wipe out their memories," said Molly, horrified.
"Good thing we broke the rules to fly to Hogwarts, or I would still have had a working wand for Lockhart to use," Ron pointed out.
"Well, you wouldn't be in this situation if you had just gone to Professor McGongall instead of Lockhart," said Mrs. Weasley.
"There, there. The children could certainly have made wiser choices, but they did save the day at the end. Let's no longer rebuke them," said their Headmaster.
After Dumbledore assured them that he would owl the Ministry to release Hagrid and that the petrified students would be woken up soon, he sent the Weasleys and Lockhart off to the Hospital Wing and Professor McGonagall off to arrange for the feast while Harry and James stayed back as Dumbledore wanted to have a word with him.
Dumbledore thanked Harry and said he must have showed him true loyalty for the hat to find him. Furthermore, he explained that Voldemort left a part of himself in Harry the night that he tried to kill Harry and that's why he could speak Parseltongue. This reignited Harry's fear about about being in the wrong house. However, Dumbledore made him realize that he was true Gryffindor because he had pulled out the Gryffindor sword from the hat and that even if he had certain Slytherin traits, his choice and value of Gryffindor traits were what mattered.
As James and Harry were leaving, Mr. Malfoy burst into the room nearly knocking them over. James pulled Harry out of the way just in time. Dumebloedre explained to Mr. Malfoy that they had found the culprit and it was the same person the last time. Harry could tell that Mr. Malfoy was doing his best to maintain a neutral reaction. The Headmaster went on to state the repercussions on the Weasley family if Ginny had been found to be the one responsible for the attacks while Mr. Malfoy continued to play dumb. Harry couldn't take it any longer and indirectly accused Lucius for slipping the diary in her cauldron. Lucius denied it and asked him to "prove it".
Dumbledore admitted that no one would be able to prove it but threatened Mr. Malfoy not to go giving out any more of Tom's school things or that Arthur would makesure they would be traced back to him.
Harry then got an idea and slipped his sock in the diary before running after Mr. Malfoy. "Mr. Malfoy, this belongs to you so I thought I'd return it," he said as he forced the book into Mr. Malfoy's hand. Mr. Malfoy threw it to Dobby but soon realized he had freed Dobby when Dobby found the sock. He lunged to attack Harry but Dobby protected Harry with his magic and threatened Mr. Malfoy to leave Harry alone. He had no choice but to walk away, no longer having a house elf.
When Harry went back into the Dumbledore's office, Dumbledore suggested that he, Ron and Ginny spend the weekend at their houses, given the trauma they had been through which Harry heartily accepted. He and the youngest two Weasleys left with their respective parents after the Feast.
The next day, James came into Harry's room as he was playing his play station.
"Will you pause that for a bit Harry? I need to talk to you," said James.
Harry expected this. He knew he was due for even more rebuke after how many rules he broke and how he put himself in danger. James had simply left him rest first before it. He paused his play station as his father sat at the side of his bed.
"Son, I know that you had good intentions and I am really proud of you for saving the day. But you willfully disobeyed me and put your life in danger. That is not alright. Do you realize how worried I was about you?" James's voice shook at the end.
Harry looked down, unable to meet James's eyes. "I'm sorry dad. But I really did go to the staff and heard that they left Lockhart to handle it. That's why I went to Lockhart and brought him with me."
"Yes, but you certainly knew Lockhart was useless and was only left in charge sarcastically. You could still have gone to Professor McGonagall," his father pointed out.
"I guess I didn't think that far," Harry admitted.
"Harry, this gives me no pleasure but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ground you during the summer. No flying, television, computer and play station for a week."
"I guess that's fair. Does that include this weekend? Because I was just told our final game is back on next Saturday."
" No. The first week of your summer break. I really hope you've leart your lesson to go to an actual competent adult before thrusting yourself in danger," said James apprehensively.
"I really have dad. I have learnt my lesson, I promise," Harry reassured his father.
"Alright" James relaxed. "On another note, I just got invited to be the manager of of Great Britain's team in the 93/94 Quidditch World Cup. Our first Qualifying game is this summer against The United States."
"That is great dad!" Harry hugged him. "I'm proud of you. Are any of the Pioneers on the Great Britain team?"
"I'm not sure yet. I haven't received the list of players. But I'm sure at least one or two of them are on the team. But best of all, it's an away game in LA so we still get to visit your Uncle Richard like we planned".
"Cool"
Uncle Richard was James's cousin who had settled in LA.
"Alright. I'll see you for lunch in half an hour. I love you".
"I love you too dad," said Harry as his father hugged him and kissed his forehead before leaving the room.
The school year soon ended with Gryffindor wining their final Quidditch game and finally wining their Qudditch Cup after years. Oliver Wood was ecstatic. Gryffindor also won the House Cup due to Harry and Ron receiving 200 points each for saving the day at the Chamber of Secrets and Gryffindor receiving points for their Quidditch Cup. As for Lockhart, he was at St. Mungo's with what was seemingly permanent brain damage from his memory charm that backfired.
Miranda gave birth to twins; a boy Regulus Orion Black who is called Reggie and a girl, Leia Elizabeth Black on June 25th 1993, a few days before Harry's school term ended. Harry only got to meet them once he was back home for the summer. Reggie resembled Sirius up to his black hair while Leia resembled Miranda up to her dark brown hair.
=to be continued=
A/N: I chose June 25th 1993 for the birthday of Sirius's twins as it's my exact birthday up to the year, lol.
Okay, I have previously asked regarding James/Jenny and have received mixed response. Due to the mixed response, I am giving a genuine final call. But before you lock in your answer, keep in mind, that their relationship would mostly be a background relationship and more importantly, if they do get together, it would be because James genuinely wants to and NOT because he's forced or obligated. Hence, lock in your final votes in the comments. I will count the number of comments for and against.