Impossibilities

Chapter 14 - Some Other Beginning's End

Disclaimer - what's yours is yours, and what's yours is mine, and what's mine is mine... ergo... everything is mine... nah... actually I don't own anything but the plot, and even that at times is someone else's.

A/N: Since its been such a long time I figured you guys would need a quick summary to get you back into the swing of the fic:

Remus discovers James is alive and brings him back to his house where James explains things to him and Sirius as best he can. Meanwhile Wormtail is on a mission to capture Harry and bring him to Voldemort. Wormtail is too late as the Weasley's come to collect Harry from Privet Drive before Wormtail can make his move. Wormtail attempts to strike again at the Weasley's while the twins, Ron and Harry are playing Quidditch. Harry ends up taking the Killing Curse for George, but he miraculously stays alive. At this same time Cedric and Lily appear to have come back to life as well... Harry's meets his father when he gets back to Hogwarts and Hermione finds out as well. Harry's scar starts bleeding and Wormtail defies Voldemort and attempts to escape... just as Sirius finds Lily, Cedric, and Mundungus in a hidden corridor...

whew... on with the fic.

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"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." - Matchbox 20, "Closing Time"

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Sirius stood momentarily frozen in place as his eyes slowly adjusted to the sudden intense brightness emitting from the end of his wand. A young man stood before him, his face a mask of surprise. Sirius relaxed slightly, it was only a kid, probably some student out to play a prank.

"Shouldn't you be in your dormitory?" Sirius asked sternly. It's all in the attitude, let him think you're in control...

The young man continued to stare, he blinked several times then whispered in a voice full of surprised disbelief, "You're Sirius Black."

"Um, do I know you?"

"I don't believe it. You're- You're Sirius Black, the... the murderer!" The boy's eyes were becoming frantic.

Sirius fought not to panic himself, this wasn't anything serious... just some kid- simply throw him off the trail, scare him with detention- nothing to it, piece of cake. "Now really, can't we talk about this calmly and rationally?"

"Calm? You want me to be calm- a wanted criminal is asking me to be calm." The boy's eyes twitched and Sirius could see him tensing with nerves, "I'm talking to insane murderer who wants a rational conversation!"

Sirius took a cautious step towards the young man talking calmly, "I assure you I've never killed anyone in my life... I jus- arg!" Sirius broke off abruptly

With a crazed yell the boy had launched himself at Sirius, tackling him to the ground and was frantically trying to grab his wand.

"What do you think you're doing? Get off me!" Sirius shouted indignantly, "Hey, THAT'S MY WAND- give it back!" Sirius attempted to shove aside his assailant aside, "Give it back!"

"Not likely!" his capture retorted, holding the wand triumphantly out of his reach.

"Look, I don't know who you are or what you are doing wandering around here all alone, but-"

"That's enough Cedric," a new voice spoke from a shadow down the hall.

Sirius started, he could have sworn there was no one else in the corridor. They must have hidden before his eyes adjusted. This made things much more complicated - one kid he could handle, but a whole group?

The young man, obviously Cedric, scowled in disbelief in the general direction the voice had come from, "What have you been doing... don't you realize who this is?" He turned back to his captive, but Sirius was oblivious to whatever else Cedric wanted to say.

The owner of the voice had stepped away from the shadows and stood eyeing the two men sprawled at her feet with a look of faint amusement. She raised an eyebrow incredulously at Sirius.

"A tough guy like you disarmed by teenager, imagine!"

"Lily?" Sirius asked slowly, his voice sounding strained, "Lily... is that really you?"

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Madame Pomfrey, Head Nurse of Hogwarts School, planted herself firmly between the curtain enclosed bed behind her and the worried redhead frantically trying to work his way around her.

"I understand your concern Mr. Weasley, but I must ask you to return to your room."

Ron peered anxiously over her shoulder and attempted another step towards the bed. "Are you sure he's going to be alright?" He asked for the umpteenth time, "He looked really bad."

Madame Pomfrey steered Ron purposefully towards the door, "I'm sure Mr. Potter will be fine if you would let me go and attend to him." She gave Ron a not so gentle push into the hall. He turned around to continue his argument but found himself facing an already firmly closed door.

Ron glared purposefully at the door for several minutes, but it remained resolutely closed. With a heavy sigh he turned and began the long trudge back to the Gryffindor Common Room.

What a way to start the school year.

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SLAM!

The regular buzz of activity in the fifth year girls dormitory was suddenly broken by a loud noise of a book being slammed violently shut.

"Sorry," whispered Hermione, gently setting the large book she'd been reading on her bedside table. A few eyebrows rose questioningly but the stares slowly shifted and conversation resumed.

Tip toeing out of the room as inconspicuously as possible, Hermione headed down the stairs to the Common Room two at a time. Her eyes searched the chattering crowds impatiently, trying to locate her two best friends.

Fred and George sat at one table, heads together and plotting animatedly. Angelina Johnson stopped by their table and whispered something obviously mischievous by the way the twins' eyes suddenly lit up.

Colin Creevy sat in the center of a group of first and second years talking enthusiastically. From the few phrases that drifted across the room, Hermione decided it was probably some highly exaggerated version of one of Harry's adventures.

Forehead furrowed, Hermione continued to scan the room, but could not spot Ron or Harry anywhere amidst the crowd. Deciding they must have already gone to bed, Hermione had already started back up the stairs when the Common Room door swung open. She glanced back to see Ron climbing through, a very perplexed look upon his face.

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed breathlessly, hurrying over and startling the redhead back into reality, "Have you seen Harry?"

Ron muttered something incoherent and steered Hermione towards a quieter corner of the Common Room. Rolling her eyes and sighing in exasperation Hermione waited expectantly for Ron to continue.

"It's his scar..." Ron whispered anxiously. He ran a nervous hand through his hair, a habit he'd acquired from Harry, "It was bleeding!" His eyes looked anxious, "I don't know what happened, he seemed fine before... but then out of nowhere..."

Hermione attempted to disentangle Ron's ramblings. She cautiously pulled her friend down onto a chair and drug over another one so she was sitting across from him. "Slow down and start over," she said calmly, "What happened to Harry?"

Sinking back in his chair Ron took a deep breath and tried to organize his thoughts. With an obvious effort he began to explain as calmly as he could about following Harry out of the Common Room and the bleeding scar. Hermione listened attentively, nodding and prodding him along.

"...and Madame Pomfrey says he'll be fine, but she wouldn't let me talk to him... and I don't understand what's going on..." Ron paused and wrinkled his forehead in thought before adding, "I know his scar has hurt before, but this is different- I mean bleeding is just-" he cast around for a word, "-this means something..."

"I'm sure Madame Pomfrey has it under control..." Hermione's sentence trailed off uncertainly. Ron looked up and his met Hermione's eyes. She face was tight with worry, but her eyes appeared distant and calculating.

Frowning Ron asked, "Do you know anything about this? You don't seem all that surprised."

Hermione suddenly found an invisible piece of dirt under her nail very interesting.

"Ron, did Harry tell you anymore about why he and I were late getting back?" Hermione chewed her bottom lip subconsciously. The cogs inside her head were whirling like mad and pieces of a giant puzzle were slowly clinking into place, but the whole picture was still unclear.

Ron settled more comfortably in his chair his mind momentary pulled itself away from images of blood covering his best friend's hands and the unfocused gaze of his Harry's eyes. "No," he replied slowly, "He said he's talk about it later... after he went to the Hospital Wing."

Hermione gnawed her thumbnail having moved on from chewing lips as her anxiety mounted. It seemed that Harry had been planning to tell Ron about James, but she couldn't be sure. It seemed best not to introduce the subject now.

"Look," Hermione began slowly, "I think I might have an idea what's going on..."

Ron raised an eyebrow, "Yes..."

"Well, I was reading this book-"

A snort.

Hermione scowled at Ron her voice rising with exasperation, "This is serious Ron!"

"Sorry," Ron muttered a flush spreading across his cheeks, "You were reading a book... continue."

After watching Ron for several moments, as if to see if he was really paying attention, Hermione continued, "Well did you ever wonder why the Killing Curse works the way it does?"

Ron paled visibly, "What's to know? It's illegal, it kills people, end of story."

"Yes, but it doesn't always kill people does it... do you know why that is?"

Hermione was getting excited. This is what she'd come running into the Common Room to explain. Except she'd meant to tell it to Harry, but Ron was going to have to do. She hardly waited for Ron to shake his head an empathetic 'no' before plowing onward.

"Well I don't know for sure, no one does, but I've got this theory." Ron remained prudently quiet and Hermione continued, "This book was explaining the three primary parts that make up the essence of an individual. There's the physical body and there's spiritual or mental part of the person, but there's one other thing that most people tend to over look. In order for a person's mental side to remain attached to their physical side they need a type of bond-"

Ron cut in with a sigh of irritation, "Hermione where are you going with this?"

She shushed him impatiently and continued on unphased, "From what I've read it seems that the Killing Curse works by separating the bond from the person. Because of this the mental and physical aspects of that person cannot remain connected and the person dies. The only thing is- by separating the parts you kill the physical side because the body cannot exist without the mind... but does that mean the mind can't exist without the body?"

Hermione paused once more, apparently having reached the epitome of her rant, "And what if... what if there was some reason the bond was not completely destroyed when the curse was fired... what if there was a way to reconnect all three parts?"

Ron raised an eyebrow incredulously, "This is a rhetorical question isn't it?" Hermione scowled at him and he heaved a sigh, "Right- fine, look... what exactly are you saying?"

Hermione took a deep breath, "I think what you just told me about Harry might be directly related to this."

Ron stared blankly at her.

"I'm not making sense am I?" Hermione asked.

"You think?"

Hermione brain whirled at double speed as she made some quick decisions. "Come on, Ron," she said decidedly, grabbing his arm and steering him towards the door.

Ron resisted, attempting to pry his arm from Hermione's grasp, "Haven't we been out and about enough tonight?"

Hermione didn't bother to look back at him, but continued to drag the protesting redhead towards the Common Room door, "This is important. We need to see Dumbledore."

"We do?"

"Yes."

With that final word the portrait slammed shut behind them.

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Lily sighed as she looked down at Sirius.

Cedric had cautiously stood up and brushed himself off and was now standing a bit off to the side holding Sirius' wand uncertainly in his fingertips. Sirius seemed oblivious to the fact that he was still laying on the floor or that his wand was still in Cedric's possession. He simply stared at Lily with some strange mixture of disbelief, fascination.

"Look Sirius," Lily began uncertainly, "I know you probably aren't going to believe me, but-"

Sirius didn't seem to hear her. He was slowly climbing to his feet never letting his eyes leave Lily's face. His eyes were sparkling and his face was flushed with astonishment changed to barely contained excitement.

"Sirius?" Lily asked again uncertainly... she'd expected fear, disbelief, shock, even anger in her first confrontation, but not excitement... not acceptance.

Before Lily could say another word Sirius had rushed forward picked her up in a huge hug and whirled her around. After a moment he set her down on her feet, put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her soundly on the mouth. "Don't tell James I did that," he said with a wink, "but God its good to see you."

Lily stood there in shocked surprise for several moments. She forgot to even be surprised by her warm reception... she forgot to admonish Sirius for the kiss... she forgot everything else after Sirius' first statement.

"James?" she whispered, "James is here?" She clutched Sirius' arm, "Where is he?"

Sirius gently tried to pry Lily's fingers from his arm. "Yes, he showed up a few days ago." He grinned again and shook his head in mild astonishment, "Boy to you two have some explaining to do."

Lily nodded distractedly, still trying to collect herself. The sense of relief was enormous, she hadn't even been fully aware of the fact she was worrying about James.

Sirius hooked his arm around hers and threw a friendly arm around Cedric's shoulders who had been watching the exchange awkwardly off the one side.

"Let's go find Dumbledore," Sirius said, "Pass me my wand, lad... there you go. What? Gus? He's here too? Well the more the merrier, come on out Gus. Hello, how are you. Good? Good. Let's go- no not that way, honestly..."

The group continued down the corridor in a ring of wandlight, leaving only dust and shadows in their wake.

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Peter gazed up at the moon. It was nearly full. There was something about full moons- some special feeling they inspired that he couldn't quite shake. It reminded him of the past. Of other times, times when things were less complicated- before the first mistake was made.

What was the original mistake?

Simply really, Peter grew up. He began to understand that not everything in life was straight forward. People always told him to make his own decisions... so one day he did.

That was the second mistake.

But people also told him that you should make the best of what you had. Well Peter was stuck with his decision so he decided to make the best of it. He had closed his eyes and forgotten about the moonlight, forgotten about his friends, focused his life on one thing... in the hopes that one day it would all pay off.

Third mistake - Voldemort never paid off. Life never got better... it got worse. Before he knew it he was staring at dark-haired figure lying still on the ground. After that he lost count of the mistakes...

But he did remember his last one... the one that ended with yet but another dark-haired figure lying on the ground.

Repetition is boring. Peter was tired of being bored, he wanted adventure, he wanted a challenge. He wanted to be given a second chance.

Peter winked conspiriously at the moon. Things were going to change. In fact they already had. Peter had laughed once, and he fully intended to laugh again.

With that final resolute thought Peter morphed into his rat form. Casting a glance over his shoulder at the whole he'd made to climb out of his prison he headed off into the nights, intent on having a word with Dumbledore. Thoughts of how to do this were trivial. Peter had a goal, and he wasn't going to fail again.

He had an old promise to make good upon.

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A/N: A THOUSAND APOLOGIES OH PATIENT ONES! I'm VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY sorry I took so long to update. I really don't have an excuse, school just seemed to overtake me and one thing led to another. I'd actually started this chapter with full intentions of getting it up in a week or two. Instead it sat on my computer for about almost 5 months... SORRY SORRY SORRY. I'm going to try very hard to get the next bit up next weekend. I HOPE I can manage.

A million thanks to all reviewers... you might not believe it but all your complaining and prodding and encouraging really did pay off. If it weren't for you guys I would have given up and forgotten about his fic a LONG time ago. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.