Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series belongs to J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros. Inc., Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Raincoast, and any other affiliated party.
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"He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken."
Isaiah 25:8 Chapter 11: The Rider on the Stag
For a moment, everybody was absolutely silent. It seems as if people were in complete shock of the timely arrival of the rider on the stag.
"Is it just me, or does that rider's voice sound very familiar?" whispered Remus.
"I personally can't believe who that stag looks like," whispered Sirius.
"Sorry, I'm late," said the rider, "but it took some time to get here from London, we should've never gone there. And you can't apparate on Hogwarts grounds."
Ron was speechless, as he sat there on the ground in front of the rider. "W-who are you?" he finally managed to splutter out.
The rider didn't need to answer, for at that moment, due to the blow of the club on the shield charm, the rider's helmet cracked in half and fell to the ground. Long, wavy, dark red hair flowed out and a pair of very familiar emerald green eyes shone warmly toward Ron. The rider gasped and brought her hand to her mouth as she realized that her helmet had fallen off. She muttered, "Oops," and looked a little red.
Everybody present gasped as they recognized the rider, and Sirius and Remus looked particularly shocked. "Its not possible!" screamed Sirius. "It can't be her!" It was. The rider was none other than Lily Evans Potter!
Lily looked around and shrugged. "Well, I suppose the cat's out of the bag," she said. The stag nodded. As soon as Lily dismounted the stag, the stag transformed into a man who was wearing the exact same armor and cape as Lily, but looked identical to Harry, except that he had brown eyes and no scar. It was James Potter!
By then, absolutely everybody on the battlefield was speechless. Sirius and Remus looked at Lily and James with shock and disbelief in their eyes while Snape looked horrified.
James looked around. "Well, as much as I'd love loved to catch up with everybody, I think we need to take care of this giant," he said. James made a gentleman like bow toward Lily and gestured toward Fanir. "Would you do the honors, Lily?"
"Why Prongs, I would love to," said Lily. She slowly walked up to the giant and pulled a wand out of her armor. She looked up at Wormtail and said, "Peter."
Wormtail, who had been speechless up till then, suddenly started screaming hysterically with terror. "Lily?! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! NO, IT CANNOT BE!!!" He started shaking his head fiercely in a gesture that could only be described as extreme guilt.
Feeling Pettigrew's hysteria, the giant seemingly panicked and swung his club down toward the ground in a single powerful blow, leaving a crater about the size of a car. Lily however, used a burst of magic to propel herself forty feet into the air, thus avoiding the club. She landed on top of the giant's head, pointed her wand at the top of the head and shouted, "Maximus Stupefy!" The giant fell over unconscious with a mighty crash.
Wormtail was pinned under the giant's right arm. He tried to struggle out when he suddenly saw a shadow over him. He wearily looked up to see James standing over him looking menacing.
"Why hello, Peter," said James with a grin on his face, yet strong malice dipping in his voice. "I wanted to talk to you about something."
"J-James?" mumbled Pettigrew, looking terrified.
"Tell me, Peter. What were your words again when you agreed to become our secret keeper? That we could trust you with our lives?"
"James, I-I..."
"I trusted you with my life, Pettigrew!" yelled James. He rammed his fist as hard as he could into Pettigrew's face. Wormtail was promptly knocked out. James walked over to Lily and said, "Do you know how long I've waited to do that?" with a grin.
Lily grinned and nodded. She turned to all the resistance fighters who were still speechless and said, "I think we owe them an explanation." James nodded. They made their way to Sirius and Remus.
"Hey, Padfoot, Moony," said James. Sirius and Remus simply stared at them, still shocked.
Finally, Sirius managed to splutter, "J-James...? L-Lily...?"
"Is...is it really you?" asked Remus.
Lily nodded and smiled. "Trust me, Remus. Its really us."
Remus and Sirius looked over James and Lily for a moment. They both appeared to be in their early twenties, the age they were when Voldemort murdered them, 17 years previously. Suddenly, Remus and Sirius smiled widely, and they pulled Lily and James into fierce hugs, laughing with pear mirth while tears of joy streamed down their eyes. As if on cue, all of the resistance fighters, except Snape who had a neutral look, ran forward and either pulled Lily and James into hugs or shook their hands.
Snape walked up to James. James turned to him and put up a neutral look on his face.
"Potter," said Snape in a neutral tone.
"Snape," said James in a similar tone. He brought his hand out, and Snape slowly shook it, both still wearing neutral expressions.
"But James, Lily, how is this possible?" asked Sirius.
"I believe I can answer that," said a voice coming from the castle. The resistance fighters all whirled around and gasped to see none other than Albus Dumbledore walking toward them.
"Headmaster?" asked McGonagall with slight hesitation.
"Professor?" asked Hagrid. Dumbledore nodded with a merry twinkle in his eye. In a matter of seconds, all of the resistance fighters were gathered around Dumbledore, either showering him with questions or shaking his hand and welcoming him back.
"Please, please, one at a time," said Dumbledore, still smiling. "As many of you know, I was over seeing Harry Potter's training in the Battle Wizard training facility in the Himalayas these past two years. I myself have just completed my own battle preparations there and was finally able to return. Now about Lily and James..." Dumbledore smiled at them. "Do any of you know what is one of the most amazing abilities of a Battle Wizard?"
Ron shrugged an said, "Uh, no. That would be something Hermione would know."
Dumbledore smiled and said, "Although it is not fully known to other people, the most amazing ability of a Battle Wizard is the ability to temporarily resurrect the dead for a month for a specific purpose. Harry raised Lily and James to help us in our fight against Voldemort."
Sirius and Remus turned to James and Lily who nodded. "So, you haven't really come back, have you?"
Lily sighed and said, "No, we'll fade away again after the month is up."
"But that's not going to happen for some time," said James with a grin. "So all of you are stuck with us for a while."
At that moment, there was a strong gust of wind. The resistance fighters all looked up to see someone flying toward them on a broomstick. The resistance fighters all held their breaths but released them when they saw it was Harry Potter with what looked like a large bundle on his back.
Harry landed about couple of meters away from the resistance members. He looked around at the bodies of all of the Dark Forces before he caught sight of James, Lily, and Dumbledore. "You were attacked?" he asked.
"I am afraid so," said Dumbledore. "But the members of the resistance were able to fight them off."
"With a little help from your parents," said Ron looking excited.
"Oh come now, we didn't really do anything," said James. "Just knocked out a giant. And it was Lily who did that." James beamed at Lily who smiled back at him. They kissed each other briefly.
"So, Harry," said Ron walking up to him, "where did you go?"
"Well I was looking for someone," said Harry as he gently nudged the "bundle" on his back. The "bundle" timidly lifted up a full head of long bushy brown hair.
Ron gasped and asked, "Hermione?"
"Hello, Ron," said Hermione a little shyly. She glanced at Harry unsurely who smiled and briefly kissed her.
At that moment, all of the resistance members dashed up to Harry and Hermione, all highly overjoyed for what had suddenly turned into the happiest day of their lives.
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A few days later, Hermione was in a new wheelchair, in the stands of the Quidditch pitch. She was watching Harry and James, playing a mini-game of Quidditch with just the Seeker and Chaser. The idea was that James had to score at least sixteen goals before Harry could catch the snitch. The bludgers were flying around trying to knock them off their brooms as they flew around each other, James trying to get the quaffle through the hoops while Harry searched for the snitch.
Hermione glanced up at Harry who was zooming around on his Firebolt, chasing the snitch around. She had never seen Harry so happy and joyful as he zoomed around playing Quidditch with his father.
"They're so much like children," said a voice next to her. Hermione looked up to see Lily sit next to her. "Hello Hermione, how are you doing?"
"Feeling a little worried," said Hermione as she glanced up at Harry. She winced when a bludger nearly hit him.
"I know exactly what you mean," said Lily. "There were so many times back in school when I just worried myself to death whenever I saw James out on the Quidditch Pitch." She also winced as James dodged a stray bludger. He and Harry were laughing as they continued zooming around in the air.
"I've never seen Harry so happy before," said Hermione. It brought so much joy to Hermione to see Harry so happy to finally be with his parents, however brief that time might be.
Lily sighed sadly. "Harry's missed so much," she said. "He never deserved growing up without us. James and I should've been there with him." She turned toward Hermione and asked, "What is he like from your point of view."
"Harry is the most amazing person I ever met," said Hermione. "He's selfless, kind hearted, and never asks anything for his fame. He always thinks about others first, but its sometimes so amazing that he grew up that way when he could've grown up to be cold and cynical because of his upbringing, or maybe arrogant because of his fame."
Lily smiled and said, "You love him, don't you?"
Hermione looked up at Lily in mild surprise to hear this coming from Harry's mother, but she smiled and nodded, a faint blush settling on her cheeks.
"James and I have always been looking over Harry, even when we couldn't be with him," said Lily. "I've seen the way you look at Harry, it's the same way I used to look at James when we were in school." She suddenly stood up, walked over and kneeled in front of Hermione. She placed her hands on Hermione's shoulders and looked intensely into Hermione's eyes, her green ones gazing into her brown.
"Lily?" asked Hermione a little timidly.
"Hermione Granger," said Lily with a smile on her face. "I would be honored if you became out daughter in law."
Hermione gasped and spluttered, "W...what? I...I...I..." She wasn't able to continue for at that moment, Harry and James touched down right next to them.
"Hey, beautiful," said Harry with a smile. He leaned in toward Hermione but Hermione backed away a little, blushing furiously.
"Harry, we're in front of your parents."
Harry glanced up at Lily and James. Lily winked at Harry while James wrapped his arms around Lily and grinned at his son.
Harry grinned and said, "Who cares," He leaned forward and kissed her passionately. Hermione smiled and kissed him back, equally as strong.
"That's my boy!" crowed James.
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A/N Well, did you like this chapter? I hope it was enjoyable. At least, you all finally found out who the rider and the stag are (vast majority of you were correct). So, please R/R this chapter. Next: You will finally get a full explanation of what a Battle Wizard is.