Rawr. Sorry for not updating in a long time (better than over a year, though ;D) School's started again, and let's just say that I do NOT like high school.

Sorry this chapter will suck. I'm not really in a writing mood, but I feel obligated to write something.

Dumbledore turned away from the fireplace after a bit of time, in which Lily and James had seated themselves heavily on two red velvet chairs nearby in the office. The only thing on their minds was their son: Harry. He's alive.

James looked up as soon as Dumbledore was facing them again; his face was no longer blank with shock and grief. "Albus," he murmured, his voice slightly shaky, "what happened?"

Dumbledore sighed and took a seat himself behind his desk. He steepled his fingers together, looking sternly over his half-moon glasses at the once-dead pair sitting in front of him, and replied, "I was hoping you could tell me that yourself."

"No," Lily spoke up now. Her voice was steady and her green-eyed gaze never wavered from Dumbledore's face. That was the Lily he knew. She was stubborn to a fault and stuck to what she wanted, what she believed in. "I think Harry is the more pressing matter right now. If he's alive, then where is he??"

Her voice rose to a slightly hysterical shriek near the end, showing that she wasn't as calm as she appeared. She looked away, faintly chagrined, before turning back and staring defiantly at the old headmaster.

"Tell us, Albus." James's voice was low and angry. "We're his parents. We have the right to know."

Albus sighed. They would not be pleased with him. He knew that.

"Lily, James, please calm down. Your son is perfectly safe."

Lily jumped to her feet indignantly. The result was a bit spoiled when she stumbled slightly and had to clutch the armrest on her chair for support. "Excuse me, Albus, but I cannot calm down if I don't know where. Harry. IS!!" Lily clenched her fists and glared. James nodded in agreement fervently, though he did not follow his wife's example and stand up himself.

Dumbledore decided it would probably be best to just tell the couple. He might as well get it over with. He had defeated Grindelwald, and faced down Voldemort plenty of times. He could do it.

For some reason, he felt as if he'd rather invite Voldemort to the Order of the Phoenix headquarters for biscuits and tea.

Shaking his head quickly, he turned back to the young couple in front of him. "Lily, your son is safe. He is currently living with your old family members."

Lily relaxed visibly - for about two seconds. Then she stiffened. "Wait. My mum and dad died during my seventh year." Her lip trembled just the slightest bit, hardly visible, at the words, but she continued. "My only other living relative is..."

The puzzle pieces had fallen into place for James as well. "Oh dear Merlin. No. No, Albus, you didn't."

"Petunia?? You sent Harry to live with Petunia?? Good Lord, Albus, you know she hates magic!!" If James was angry, then Lily was more than just absolutely furious.

Dumbledore briefly wondered what Voldemort would think if he received a card asking him to join the esteemed headmaster of Hogwarts for tea. "Lily, please, it was for his own protection. I had hoped Petunia would hold her blood family over his dislike of magic - "

"Dislike?! She hated magic. And if that was true, she wouldn't have shunned me all those years ago, she would have come to my wedding, she would have returned my letters, she would have come and visited Harry when we invited her - "

"Lily, calm down," James said quietly. His hazel eyes were contemplative.

"You're telling me to calm down?!" Lily shrieked, stabbing a finger in James's chest. He didn't flinch.

"You don't know. Maybe Petunia got over her dislike for everything magic - "

Lily laughed bitterly. "Of course she did." She turned to Dumbledore again, her eyes narrowed in fury. "Tell me, Albus," she spat, and Dumbledore made a mental note to appreciate life a lot more if he got out of this alive. "Do you have any proof Petunia and her fat whale of a husband treated Harry well?"

Dumbledore faltered, something he didn't usually do, but then again, this was Lily Evans-Potter he was dealing with. She had escaped Voldemort three times - four times, it seemed to have turned out. This was definitely Lily, if her correct answer to his question and her fiery temper were anything to go by. "Lily, you know that I only had Harry's best intentions at heart."

"Oh, really? Then why did you send him to live with Petunia when he should have gone to Siri - " Lily froze, her eyes going wide. She put a hand to her mouth, and shook her head. "Albus. Albus," she whispered, all thoughts of Harry flying out of her mind, for the time being, anyway. "Voldemort... he must have tortured Peter to find out where we were. And then he must have killed him, and... Sirius, and Remus, and... Alice! Karen. Alyssa. The other members of the Order." Lily seemed to have suddenly rushed to the brink of hysteria again. "What happened when we were in comas?"

"You may want to sit down again," was all Dumbledore said in reply.

"Fifteen. Years."

It had been half an hour since Dumbledore had began his explanations, and James and Lily had still not wrapped their heads around the fact that they had been gone, thought dead, for fifteen sodding years.

"So Harry's a teenager now. And he knows of the prophecy. Oh Merlin, my son's sixteen." Lily shook her head. "This can't be possible. This isn't right."

"He's almost sixteen," Dumbledore corrected.

"Who the bloody hell cares? I haven't seen Harry in fifteen years! What's he going to think?" Lily felt a few tears leaking out of her eyes. This wasn't fair! What had she ever done to deserve missing fifteen years of her son's life?

James shook his head. "We need to see Harry."

"You may want to wait a bit," Dumbledore advised. "I've called an emergency Order meeting. Tonight, in approximately half an hour, to be precise."

Lily wanted to point out that approximating something was not really being precise, but said nothing. Harry was more important.

"And Sirius was in Azkaban!" James's mind went from thinking about his son, his family, to thinking about his friends, also his family. Only it turned out Peter wasn't...

"All thanks to Peter. Merlin, I didn't know he could even be capable of... we were his friends! Why did he betray us?!" James angrily wiped a stray tear off his face. He was a man, and therefore supposed to be manly, and tears did not constitute as manliness. But why had Peter...?

"And Alice." Lily rubbed at her tired, red-rimmed eyes. She had cried so much tonight. It only seemed like yesterday in which she and James had been in hiding with Harry, living a happy - even though it was during a war - enough life, and then, bam. Voldemort attacked, they died or something and came back to life or something, and, and... Harry was sixteen, Peter was a Death Eater, Sirius was in Azkaban, or had been, and Karen Waters had been killed shortly after, Alyssa Hemlock had disappeared without a trace, and Alice Longbottom had been tortured into insanity with her husband, Frank, and...

"Life is suddenly so messed up," Lily said angrily. "Why must Voldemort exist?"

"C'est la vie," James muttered, quoting something he had heard once from his mother.

Lily chuckled, but it was weak and sounded forced. "I didn't know you knew French, James."

Dumbledore sighed heavily. Such was life, yes. That reminded him (somehow)...

He stood up from his desk and walked over to the fireplace. "We have an Order meeting to attend."

Next chapter... the Order's reactions. Muahaha. Constructive criticism is appreciated. Please read and review x)

chapter edited oct 6 '08

Anonymous reviewer: A literal translation of c'est la vie is "it is the life," but it just basically means "that's life." Like, in Chinese, "zai jian" literally means "see you again," but it's just the Chinese way of saying bye.