Return of the Parents
By: AutumnBreeze12
Chapter 1
It was a cloudy night outside. The moon, hidden, peaked out every once in a while, only to be covered a few seconds later. A mist was forming around ruins of a house, but no one saw this happening. No one saw this happening because of the fact that no one wanted to go down that road. People who tried to walk down it would get chills and decide to go back. A rumor had started a while back that this place was haunted, but few believed this until they went down it themselves.
The people of Godric's Hollow loved to tell the story of this street. When things to talk about got few, there was always this one to tell. It had been told so many times, in fact, that no one knew the real story anymore. The tale says that once a family lived here. The family had a mother, a father and a one-year-old son. They were a happy family until a dark night. On this dark night, a man went to their house and murdered them. The father went first, then the mother. When the man got to the baby, however, something had happened. The man, upon trying to kill something as innocent as a baby, was killed himself, leaving the baby an orphan, but not before blowing up the whole entire house. It was said that the baby lived through all of this, and that the spirits of the parents still were on the streets, looking for their baby boy.
Of course, this was just one of the many versions of the story. But one thing was for sure, and that was nobody liked to go down that road.
So, when the mist surrounded this house, and only this house, no one was there to witness this weird fact. The mist slowly got denser and denser until, with a sudden crack of lightning overhead, two people slowly rose out of the ruins of the house. Anyone who had heard the story of what had happened here by the towns people would have sworn that it was the mother and the father, and they wouldn't know how right they were.
James was aching all over. He tried to open his eyes, but they were to heavy for him. He tried to move, but his body didn't seem to want to. He groaned a little at the pain that he was feeling. Then he remembered. Voldemort. He had attacked them! James, ignoring his protesting limbs, jumped up. He nearly collapsed again, and when he moved it felt as though he was moving thousand pound weights, but James did his best to ignore the feelings.
"Lily! Lily, where are you?" James called desperately. He began to look around feverishly for any sign of his wife among the ruins of his house. There was a groan to one side of him and James looked up.
"Lily! Lily, are you alright?" asked James as he ran to his wife. Well, he tried to run anyways. He was still aching. He helped her up the best he could and she looked around.
"What happened? Why is the house destroyed? Harry! Where's Harry?!" she said. She began looking around even more desperately than James. James began to help her search. After about an hour of their searching and not finding a thing they gave up. Lily cried as hard as she could on a shocked James' shoulder.
"I think that we need to visit Sirius," said James. "He'll know what to do. Peter! That lying, traitorous—" started James, but Lily cut him off.
"Let's go to Sirius and figure out what happened before we jump to conclusions," said Lily quickly. They began to walk away from their ruined house, only to fall down again from pain and exhaustion.
"Or maybe we can rest first," suggested James as they both struggled to get up again. "I mean, it is about an hour walk from here to Sirius's house,"
"I don't care! Our child has just been killed! I want some answers and I want them now!" snarled Lily.
"We're in no condition to travel right now," said James. "We'll just collapse again after a little while. Look, we can't even get up right now!" he said. It was true, they were struggling to get up, but they couldn't. They were just to exhausted from looking around for Harry and they were sore too. He supposed that was from fighting Voldemort.
Soon, both he and Lily had fallen asleep in the ruins of their house.
Remus Lupin was walking down the street. He didn't know why he was doing this; it just seemed like the right thing to do. He noticed the lack of people on the street, but recognized the air surrounding it as creepy. He knew that muggles got scared at this kind of thing.
It was almost as if something was telling him that he had to come here. He didn't want to, but he knew that he couldn't avoid it forever. He had avoided it for many years now. All he wanted to do was pay his respects and look upon the house that he had once gone to almost every day to visit his friends. He was going the house where James and his wife, Lily, lived. Or had once lived.
He was walking down their street right now. Every part of him wanted to turn back, but his legs wouldn't listen to him. They just kept walking forward. He stopped when he came to the ruins. That's when he saw them. Lily and James' bodies. They were lying on top of the ruins as though someone had just put then there. Not only that, but there was the fact that they didn't look a year younger than when they were killed. At once, Remus was confused. Their bodies should be buried under the ruins, and they should have been rotted by then.
Not wanting to, but doing so anyways, he went closer to them. He glanced at James and saw his chest moving up and down. He did a double take. James couldn't be breathing! He moved cautiously towards James. After staring at him for a moment he poked him. Not the smartest move, but it was the only thing that he could think of.
James mumbled something incoherent and turned a little in his sleep. Remus poked him again, this time harder. James cracked one eye open and looked at him. He sat up and stared at Remus for a moment.
"Remus?" he asked, looking confused.
"Yeah," answered Remus. Every part of him was screaming that this couldn't be James, that he was dead. But a part of him, just a small part of him, was saying that this was James. That he had somehow come back.
"But why do you look so different?" asked James.
"First off, I have to check that you are really James," said Remus. James looked confused but got up from his sitting position. He changed from James into Prongs and back again. No one, not anybody, can exactly copy someone else's animagus form. Remus blinked for a moment, then launched himself at James and enveloped him in a hug. That just confused James more.
"Remus, what are you doing?" said James unsurely. "Wait a moment, how do I know you're Remus? You look to old to be Remus,"
"It's been fourteen years, James. You've been dead for fourteen years," Remus still couldn't believe it. He was a bit suspicious at these people. His friends had been dead for many years now, and Remus had come to partially accept that fact, so he wasn't sure what to think right now.
"What are you talking about? I haven't been dead. I'm perfectly alive, thank you very much. Are you feeling okay?"
"No James, you've been dead. You came back! Sirius will be so happy! And we need to tell Dumbledore. My goodness, we never thought that you would come back! Not me, not Sirius, or Dumbledore or Harry… Harry! Harry will be so happy too!" Remus babbled. Remus tried to wrap his mind around all the possibilities that Lily and James being back presented… if this was Lily and James, that is.
"You know where Harry is?" said James quickly. "Hey, Lily, wake up!" James called to his wife. Lily stirred and sat up.
"What? What's going on? Who are you?" Lily said to Remus.
"It's Remus, Lily. He's said that we've been dead," said James, frowning.
"But, if we've been dead then how are we alive now?" asked Lily.
"I don't know. We should get to Dumbledore," said Remus. "He'll know what to do,"
"He knows where Harry is too," said James to his wife upon seeing her distrustful face. She instantly brightened.
"You know where Harry is? He didn't die? Thank goodness," said Lily.
"Yes, I know where he is, but it's been fourteen years. He's fifteen years old now. He isn't a baby anymore," said Remus.
"Fifteen? But we're only twenty!" said Lily. "How will we take care of a fifteen year old?"
"He'll be happy to see you. Now, let's get to Dumbledore," said Remus as he stood up. James and Lily stood up too. "Can you apparate?" asked Remus.
"I don't think so, we don't have our wands," said Lily. "Unless you want to look around here for them?"
"I think that we took them out of the house the night that you died," said Remus. "Why don't we just walk? My house is a couple of hours away though,"
"We'll walk," said James quickly. "I just want to see my son,"
"Let's go then,"
Lily followed Remus and James through a small forest. No matter how much her legs ached, she still went on. She supposed the sleeping had helped her a bit in being able to move. She should be able to go on for a little while.
She followed who she hoped was Remus. She just couldn't grasp the fact that they had been dead and their son was now fifteen years old. They had been walking for a while now and she was wondering when they would get there when they stopped at an old house that looked about to fall down. Remus motioned then to follow him and they walked inside.
"This is my house right now. I would live with Sirius, but I decided not to at the moment. They have enough going on there as it is without me causing them trouble. We have a lot to catch up on," said Remus. "We'll floo to Dumbledore's office at Hogwarts, okay?"
"Yeah," said Lily quickly. Remus was right, they did have a lot to catch up on. Imagine them being gone for fourteen years! She wondered how they had gotten back of they were dead. She hoped that Dumbledore had some answers, but she knew that the old man couldn't answer everything. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't see Remus disappear in the fire.
"Your turn," said James. Lily looked up in surprise.
"Oh, right," she said. She took a pinch of floo powder and yelled, "Dumbledore's office, Hogwarts!"
Lily spun around in the fireplace until she came to a stop in Dumbledore's office. She stepped out of the way so James wouldn't land on her and looked around. It was pretty much the same since the last time she had been there, except for a few small changes. She saw a sword in a case that hadn't been there last time.
As James came out of the fireplace and began his own examination of the office, Lily saw Remus talking to Dumbledore who was sitting behind his desk. Lily saw with amazement that the old headmaster was looking surprised. James whispered behind her, "I never thought that I would see him surprised,"
Dumbledore turned to them and said, "So, if Remus' story is true, then you are Lily and James Potter?" Lily nodded while James began to whine about Dumbledore saying Lily's name before his own.
"Well then, welcome back, I suppose. I hope you don't mind that I ask you a few questions. I can't, after all, trust you immediately,"
When Lily and James nodded Dumbledore began to ask them questions. He asked things like what their names was, how they had met, what their birth dates were, things about James' animagus form, and about Lily's sister and home life.
"Okay then. Last question. What happened on the night that Voldemort came and attacked you?"
James answered, "What I remember was that I was with Harry when I heard a bang outside. I knew instantly that it was Voldemort because he likes to make dramatic entrances. I yelled at Lily to take Harry and run and that I would hold him off. I remember him coming in and us dueling for a little bit. Then I remember him yelling 'AVADA KEDAVRA' and a whole ton of green light. That's all,"
"What I remember is that James yelled at me to take Harry and go, and I did. But when I tried to get out of the house I couldn't because all of the doors were locked. I remember him coming in and telling me to stand aside and I wouldn't have to get hurt if I just let him kill Harry. I wouldn't stand aside, so I guess he killed me," said Lily.
"Then you really are James and Lily," said Dumbledore. "I think that we should call the Order and tell them what's happened,"
"Yeah, Sirius will be really happy," said Remus. "We should tell Harry soon too."
"I think that we should wait a little to tell Harry. We should tell the Order first and let James and Lily get over the shocking changes that their friends has gone through and get accustomed to things."
"I want to see Harry!" protested Lily.
"Anyway, you won't be able to keep it from him long. He'll find out," said Remus. "It seems like there isn't anything that he doesn't know, other than school work that is."
"I'll call the Order," said Dumbledore, completely ignoring them. He went into a different room for a moment and then came back out saying, "They're all on their way. I suggest that you two stay in the shadows until I say so."
Lily moved back into the corner with James and waited. After a bit, people began to come in. Lily watched with amazement at some of the people. They all looked so different! James gave a sharp intake of breath when Sirius came in. When all of the Order members came in, Dumbledore began to speak.
"Tonight something amazing has happened," he said. An outbreak of noise came at this statement.
"Finally, some good news!" said Sirius while leaning forward.
"Ah, yes. Sirius, this will come as a shock to you while at the same time be one of the most happiest moments of your life," said Dumbledore. "I'll tell you what happened. Remus was visiting Godric's Hollow tonight and went to the Potter's house—"
"How is that good news?" interrupted Sirius.
"Shut up, he hasn't even gotten to the good part yet," snapped Remus.
"Remus was visiting the Potter's house when he saw that James and Lily's bodies were laying on top of the ruins. It turns out that they somehow came back to life," said Dumledore. The whole table was silent for a moment.
"You're joking, right?" snapped Snape.
"No. In fact, they're here right now," said Dumbledore. "You can come out now," he called to them. Lily and James moved out into the light and the Order gasped.
"How do you know that they aren't Death Eaters in disguise?" asked an Order member.
"I questioned them. They are, indeed, Lily and James Potter,"
"Count on Potter to break the rules of death," snarled Snape.
Sirius wasted no time in jumping up and hugging them. After a few moments when all the order members were done greeting them, Sirius couldn't seem to take it anymore and had to leave to collect himself and gather his thoughts.
"Anyways, we should get them to Headquarters. I think that Harry isn't there yet, so you'll have to wait to see him," said Dumbledore. Lily and James nodded and allowed themselves to be taken away from the office and to the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix.
When they got to their destination they went to a spare bedroom and, because of all of the aches and pains, added with the walking they had done, they needed rest. They had no trouble in falling asleep instantly. Or Lily did. Because James had been told that this was Sirius' house, and realized something. If this was Sirius' house why wasn't Harry with his Godfather? After a while of thinking about this, James finally succumbed to the need to sleep.
Sirius was happy. It was probably the most happiest that he had ever been in his life. He was bouncing off the walls. He couldn't sleep. He kept getting up and pacing. He couldn't believe it! James and Lily were alive! After a while another thought came along that completely diminished his mood. They were most likely going to blame him about suggesting Peter. He knew that he would have to ask for their forgiveness, and he knew that they probably wouldn't give it. He wouldn't, why would he forgive someone who made him die and miss out on the first fourteen years of his son's life? He sighed deeply. He knew he would have trouble with this, and he would have to tell him that Harry hadn't lived with him. He would have to tell him that he had gone to Azkaban.
The worst part is that he wasn't even sure if it was Lily and James. It didn't matter that Dumbledore had questioned them. What if it was imposters? Sirius wasn't sure if he could handle the pain of losing them a second time.
Severus Snape was royally pissed. He was having the worst day in the history of his life. His most hated enemy just came back to life and was going to give him the most horrible time when he figures out how he treated his son. Not only that, but Lily had to come back as well. He never really minded Lily, but he had never liked her. Trust Potter to break the rules once again.
Though, how could Potter have broken the laws of death?
The next morning James woke up with the resolution to ask Sirius why Harry wasn't here. Lily stirred next to him. She sat up and smiled at him. "Lily, I've been wondering—" started James.
"What do you want?" asked Lily instantly.
"No, I don't want anything! I've been wondering why Harry isn't here. This is Sirius' house and Sirius lives here so it only makes sense that Harry would be here too," said James. Lily thought over this for a moment. She frowned.
"You know, you're right. For once," she said. James pretended to be hurt.
"What is that supposed to mean?" he asked. "My dear Lily flower, have I ever been wrong?"
"Believe me, I can name many times when you were wrong," she said. James smiled at her. Sirius walked in at that moment and jumped onto their bed.
"Hello," he said brightly.
"Hello," said James. He looked at Sirius, and then blurted out the question that had been bugging him. "Why isn't Harry here?"
"What do you mean?" asked Sirius.
"I mean, if you live here then shouldn't he be here with you?"
"Erm, I… didn't… raise him," said Sirius.
"What? But you're his Godfather!" snarled James.
"Wait, let me explain. It was because of my idiocy that I wasn't able to raise him. I'll start from the beginning," said Sirius. "On the night you died, something didn't feel right. Like something bad was going to happen. I decided to check up on Peter and when I got to his house I found that he wasn't there. I knew at that instant that Peter was the traitor. I knew that I had made a mistake. I went to your house right away, only to find it in ruins. I saw you two dead, and Harry was there, crying. I was going take him, but I couldn't. Hagrid was there saying that Dumbledore said that he had to take Harry somewhere else. I didn't argue much; I wanted to get back at Peter. I went and tracked him down. I found him on a muggle street. I was about to kill him when Peter, with his wand behind his back, shouted to the whole street that I had killed you and then he blew up the whole street, including twelve muggles, and changed into a rat. He went down to the sewer and the ministry came and arrested me. I wasn't given a trial, I couldn't tell them that we switched secret keepers," said Sirius.
"Don't tell me," said James, "that you were sent to… Azkaban?"
"Well, I had a life sentence. Then, around two or three years ago, I saw Peter on the front page of a newspaper in his rat form. I knew it was him because he cut of his finger when he supposedly died so that they could find something of him, and this rat didn't have a finger. I could recognize him because I had seen him so much in that form. I was still sane at that time, so I broke out of Azkaban," said Sirius.
"You broke out of Azkaban?" breathed Lily.
"Yeah. First person to ever do so. I went into my dog form and slipped through the bars. The Dementors couldn't tell because they don't feel animal emotions very well," said Sirius.
"Wow. So, let me do a wild guess here, you're still an escaped convict?" said James.
"How did you guess?" asked Sirius sarcastically.
"So you weren't able to take care of Harry? Who did then?" asked Lily.
"We should get downstairs. I'm sure a lot of people want to see you," said Sirius quickly.
"Sirius, who took care of Harry?" asked Lily again. Sirius sighed.
"I think that Harry should tell you that," he answered. "In fact, I think that he should be arriving today. He'll be really pleased to see you, you know," said Sirius. James and Lily looked at each other wearily. Who had taken care of Harry? The way Sirius said it, it sounded like a death sentence. Unless…
"Sirius," said Lily sharply, "don't tell me that Harry was taken care of by the Dursleys,"
Sirius winced and said slowly, "Fine then, I won't tell you that," Lily jumped up and James looked livid. He had met Lily's sister and husband and knew how horrible they were. If Harry had lived with them, well… James didn't even want to think about it. "Come on, we should go down now," said Sirius. James followed Sirius unhappily.
As the walked down Sirius began chatting happily. They entered the kitchen and saw that everyone looked unsurprised to see Lily and James there. They had obviously been told that they were there. A few people jumped up and greeted them.
"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Potter. I'm Hermione Granger. I'm one of Harry's friends," said a girl with bushy hair. She shook their hands eagerly. Her eyes were slightly wide, as if she couldn't believe that she was meeting the dead parents of her friend.
"Hello, Hermione. Please don't call me Mrs. Potter, it makes me feel old. Just call me Lily," said Lily as she gave off a smile she hoped would relieve the girl of her amazement.
"Yeah. Same here. Except don't call me Lily, call me James," said James.
"I'm Ron Weasley," said a tall man with flaming red hair. "I'm Harry's best friend," he said with pride in his voice.
After they had all been introduced, they sat down to eat. Lily was in a deep conversation with Molly. They were talking about cooking. Fred and George were snickering about this fact. Remus and Hermione were talking about O.W.L.s. James listened for a few moments, before getting bored. He decided to ask a random question.
"Does Harry play Quidditch?" he asked the table at large. Ron snorted.
"Of course he does. He's the best in our year!" said Ron. James beamed at this fact.
"He got onto the Gryffindor house team in his first year," said Hermione.
"I thought that you weren't allowed to have brooms in your first year," said James, confusion evident in his voice and on his face.
"Just goes to show you how good he is then," said Sirius. "He bloody brilliant at it if you ask me. He's a seeker," he said, answering James' unasked question.
"When is he coming here?" asked Lily.
"We should be getting him tonight," answered Molly.
"I can't wait to meet him," said Lily.
"Believe me, you want to meet him," said Molly. "He's only the best boy around!"
"What about us?" asked the twins innocently.
"What about you?" asked Ron.
"Aren't we the best little boys around?" asked Fred.
"Yeah, we're the most innocent, none rule breaking little itty bitty children around here," added George.
Everyone at the table laughed and Molly said, "You've gotten more detentions then Harry, Ron, and Hermione put together!"
"And that really must be saying something," said Fred.
"I don't get detentions that much!" said Hermione, looking scandalized.
"Well, she couldn't say that they've broken more rules than you because that would be lying," said Sirius. Hermione scowled.
"It's not my fault," she said. "We can't help it!"
"Anyway, he's a great boy," said Molly.
"Yeah, he's nice," put in Remus.
"And interesting" added the twins.
"And handsome in his own way," added Hermione. She glanced up from her breakfast to find everyone staring at her. "What? I meant that in a friendly way! I have no interest in him!"
"Yeah, but Ginny on the other hand…" said Fred.
"I got over my crush on him!" snarled Ginny.
"You say that but…" said George, while the whole table laughed.
"To sum it up, he's a good person," said Remus.
They finished up breakfast and everyone drifted their own way. Lily was starting to panic. "What if he doesn't like me? What if he hates me? What if he doesn't think that we're who we are?" she asked while pacing.
"Calm down Lily, he doesn't even arrive for a couple more hours," stated James.
"Lily, there isn't anyway that he couldn't like you," said Sirius who was obviously exasperated with the way his friend was acting.
"But what if he's too shy and doesn't want to meet us?" asked Lily.
"Believe me, he's braver than you would ever think," said Sirius.
"What do you mean?" asked James. "You make it sound like he's faced a dragon or something,"
"Erm…"
"HE'S FACED A DRAGON?" shrieked Lily.
"I think that I'll leave now before I mess everything up," muttered Sirius as he turned to go. As he left, Lily and James looked at each other uneasily. What had happened to their boy in the years they were absent?
A/N: This is the revised version of chapter one. I made a couple of changes, and I changed the title from Returning of the Parents to Return of the Parents. The other chapters are going to be revised soon too.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter