CHAPTER FIVE
THE PROMISE
He had followed the instructions that were owled to him just the other night. They were cryptic and mentioned something about his family and their well being. Harry looked to his wand and the direction it was pointing.
Still on course. He thought to himself.
Harry had been flying over the landscape of England since daybreak. Dumbledore had cleared the emergency trip as a mere formality since Harry had actually graduated from Hogwarts three days earlier than the rest of the school. Hermione and Ron had also been given the same privilege as well just in case Voldemort tried something before they had become fully licensed practitioners.
"We're almost there, guys." He whispered into his shirt pockets.
"O-Okay, Harry ..." Hermione's tiny, fearful voice said from his left breast pocket.
"Sure thing, mate." Ron's equally small voice said from the right.
Harry laughed. "You two sound like chipmunks."
"Sod off, Harry." They both replied as if rehearsed.
Harry laughed again and looked around. He'd never been this far to the west before. The Irish Sea was quickly coming into view and before Harry knew it, he saw the large clock-tower that was mentioned in the letter.
"I see the clock." Harry said warily.
"Please be careful, Harry!" Hermione said from his pocket.
"I will, love." Harry reassured his girlfriend. "Do you guys remember the plan?"
"For the thousandth time ..." Ron said bluntly.
"YES!" Hermione finished in a monotone fashion.
Harry shook his head and smiled despite what he felt could be the last time he heard or saw his friends alive.
"Touchdown in a few seconds, brace yourselves." He said quietly.
He landed in an alley not far from where they needed to be with the grace of an eagle and as he dismounted, he took off his invisibility cloak. With great care, he held up his hands so his friends could climb out of his shirt pockets and he set them down. The two miniature versions of his best friends scrambled under the discarded cloak and invisibly returned to their proper height.
After Hermione touched his shoulder gently, signaling they were ready, Harry set off for the appointed meeting place. He arrived a few minutes later at a half-destroyed, derelict building with an overgrown garden.
"H-Harry ..." Hermione whispered to him.
Harry made a motion that indicated she should be quiet. Then he reached to his scar and pressed his palm into it angrily. A few moments later, there was the unmistakable wail of rusted metal on rusted metal and they looked to where the garden's gate had swung open.
"Here we go ..." Harry muttered so that only his two friends could hear.
They made their way to the gate with their wands drawn, Harry plainly visible and the others hidden from sight. Harry paused at the gate to let the others through and after a visible gulp, he walked through to the forgotten garden.
"Welcome to your family reunion." The high-pitched familiar voice of Voldemort greeted him. "I trust your flight was uneventful, Mr. Potter?"
Harry glowered at the one who had caused him so much pain and suffering for the past seventeen years. "What do you mean? Family Reunion?" Harry bit out coldly. "You killed my family sixteen years ago."
Voldemort smiled and waved his wand. "Oh, you didn't think I wouldn't find out about these members who slipped through my fingers?"
To Harry's astonishment the Dursleys shimmered into view. They were bound, gagged, and lying on the ground behind the Dark Lord. Each one had a look of sheer terror on their faces and Aunt Petunia's eyes widened at the sight of Harry. He looked at each one in turn and a silent resolve flashed in his eyes.
"You can let them go now, Riddle." Harry said coldly. "I'm the one you're after and they're of no consequence."
Voldemort laughed in his high pitched laugh. "Do you really think I'd give you such hope?" The dark lord raised his wand and shouted. "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Harry whipped his wand forward and countered. "EXPELLIARMUS!"
Voldemort's wand sailed cleanly through the air in much the same way as the Dark Lord himself sailed to the back wall of the garden. The killing curse had been fired harmlessly into the sky.
"I don't think so, Tom." Harry spat at the dark robed figure.
"It isn't that easy, Potter." Voldemort said with a wicked grin as his robes went slack around his now tubular body. The snake that he had become slithered rapidly at The-Boy-Who-Lived. "It wasn't them I was interested in." The snake hissed in Parsletongue.
"What?" Harry said in confusion as the snake darted towards the far wall. It slid around something unseen and Harry heard the cries of pain as the snake began to constrict his friends.
"NOOOOO!" Harry screamed as he pulled out the sword of Gryffindor. He ran as quickly as he could to the tangled trio and with a powerful swing took a chunk of the snake's flesh from its side.
Voldemort returned to his humanoid form holding his side with a grimace. Harry performed a banishing charm on his fallen enemy who hit another wall with a sickening thud. Without further word He dropped the ancient blade and began searching the grass for his two friends. Harry found them almost immediately and with tears in his eyes, he pulled the invisibility cloak from them and his legs buckled under the weight of what he saw.
Hermione and Ron were both unconscious. Their faces were white as if all the blood in their bodies had been drained form them. Harry felt at their necks and listened for breathing and fell to his backside in relief.
"They're alive." He said shakily. Harry turned towards the crumpled form of Voldemort and leveled his wand. "You're going to pay for that, Riddle." He said with such icy-coldness in his voice that he nearly winced at the sound himself. But, before he could recover, Voldemort was a scant few inches from Harry's face and grinning maniacally.
"I don't think so, boy!" He said with a hiss as he relieved a stunned Harry of the Dark Lord's confiscated wand.
"CRUCIO!" Voldemort screamed a few seconds before Harry could recover and the Dark Lord laughed in the same unnerving high-pitched fashion that Harry could never forget. "Ah, I forgot how much fun it is to watch you suffer, boy!" Voldemort taunted. He walked over and kicked Harry's wand from his trembling grasp and cast the cruciatus curse upon the young Potter once more.
Harry screamed in pure, uncensored agony as he was wracked with the familiar pain of the curse again and again. He didn't know how long it was before he could see straight before he looked up into the red eyes of his tormentor to see the triumphant smile playing across his snake-like features.
"The-Boy-Who-Lived, indeed." Voldemort spat at Harry. "I am surprised that you've lasted this long, Potter." He said as another evil grin spread across his face. "You've always been irritatingly resilient."
Again, Harry writhed on the ground in pure agony as the curse ripped through his frame twisting his arms and legs in unnatural ways. It felt as if someone was stomping with all their might on his heart, lungs, liver, any internal organ that he had. But the worst of all was the unending pain that was coursing through his head from the scar that marked his fame in the wizarding world.
Voldemort pulled Harry's gaze to his own by using a tuft of his unruly, black hair as a handle. He smiled knowingly and the evil glint in his eyes told Harry that the worst was yet to come. "Now, let's see how you react to your friends and family dying in the same exact way as your filthy mudblood mother and weak father did." He threw Harry's head to the ground and stood triumphantly.
Harry looked to the evil wizard that towered over him and gasped at the surprised look in the man's eyes. Harry blinked and saw the thin form of Petunia Dursley trying her best to hold Voldemort in a choke hold. Harry didn't think he had the strength in him but as soon as Voldemort turned to throw his Aunt from him, Harry rolled his broken body and retrieved his wand from the ground.
Voldemort turned his attention back to the broken heap that was Harry. "Now that that little interruption is over ..." Voldemort's eyes grew wide.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Harry shouted at the top of his lungs and watched the green light shoot from the end of his wand towards the Dark Lord. Voldemort's robes blew back as the whoosh of wind made contact and shortly afterwards fell to the ground in a lifeless heap after the green light struck his chest.
"H-Harry ..." Hermione gasped hoarsely as she crawled over to her boyfriend. "H-Harry ... H-hang on ..." She made it to the broken body of Harry Potter and slowly brought his head into her lap.
"Hey ..." He whispered to her, his voice unnervingly far away. "You're alright ..."
Hermione's tears splashed unceremoniously on Harry's face as he smiled weakly at her. He glanced over her shoulder and saw a very worried Aunt Petunia looking down on the couple.
"H-Harry ... Y-you saved us?" She said as her hand covered her mouth.
"O-of course ..." Harry grimaced in pain and his eyelids drooped. "W-why wouldn't I ..." He trailed off but was gently shaken awake by Hermione.
"Don't you dare leave me, Harry James Potter!" She said sternly. "Don't you dare!" She looked over her shoulder. "Ron, did you contact them?"
Ron smiled. "Poppy and Albus are on their way, along with what would seem to be the rest of the staff and the entire Auror division." He said with relief.
"Death Eaters." Harry said in warning. "Be careful."
There were suddenly several loud pops and Hermione and Ron brandished their wands at the new arrivals but immediately started laughing and crying all at once.
"Harry." Hermione said with tears of joy rolling down her face. "You're going to be ok."
"Let me see him!" Madam Pomfrey demanded. She gasped when she saw what had become of Harry. "Oh, Mr. Potter, you don't look too good."
"You should be on the feeling side." Harry tried to laugh out but grimaced in pain at the attempt. He looked around at the gathering friends and smiled weakly as the cold started to envelop him. "I'm tired." He said simply and his eyes started to close.
"Harry! Wake up!" Hermione shouted and shook him gently awake.
"Drink this, Harry." Poppy said urgently and pressed a vial to his bloody lips. Harry drank the thick, drool-like potion and gasped at the taste of rotten meat and sulfur.
"Ugh!" He choked and grimaced as waves of pain wracked his body again. "What was that?"
"With the state your bones are in you needed something more powerful than Skele-gro. This one will also heal the internal damage to your organs that you've just been through." His school nurse said calmly. "It's going to be tough for a while, but you'll recover."
Harry nodded weakly and grimaced as another wave of pain caused his entire body to shudder. He cried out and tears traced their way from the corners of his eyes.
"It's ok, Harry." Hermione cooed quietly as she stroked his hair. "I'll take care of you." She placed a gentle kiss on his forehead. "I'm not leaving your side, Harry."
Harry looked into her beautiful eyes and smiled softly. "I love you, Hermione." He said in a barely audible whisper. She smiled lovingly back at him and continued to stroke his raven locks.
Aunt Petunia knelt beside the couple and Hermione shot her a cold look. "I-I'm sorry, Harry." She said tentatively. "Sorry for everything. You saved us after all we put you through." She put a shaky hand on his shoulder and didn't flinch as his body thrashed with a new wave of pain. "I'm so sorry, please forgive us?" Tears were streaming down her face and she broke down into tears when Harry nodded quietly.
"Petunia!" Vernon Dursley barked from the other side of the garden. "We're going home!"
Aunt Petunia looked up at her husband with a pleading look then back to Harry.
"Now!" He barked furiously.
She bent and kissed Harry's forehead then looked to Hermione. "Please be there for him." She choked out. "If you need any help ..."
"Come on, woman!" Vernon shouted from right next to her. He pulled her from the ground and stomped out of the garden with his wife and son in tow.
"How could you forgive them after everything they've done, Harry?" Ron scowled as his best friend was placed on a stretcher. Ron's left arm was now in a sling and he was limping badly.
Harry smiled at his friend. "Anything's possible." He whispered and he looked back to the woman who was at his side. "Anything."
Harry, Hermione, and Lily - who was now asleep in Harry's arms - walked slowly back to their house. They had been quietly discussing the events of the evening and had come to one conclusion.
"Well, it looks like we'll be getting a letter from Snape." Harry said with a smile. "Who would have guessed that he would have taken up the deputy headmaster's position when McGonagall took over for Dumbledore?"
Hermione looked at her daughter. "She's going to be excited when she gets her letter." She was beaming. "I remember when I got mine."
"Mine was unforgettable too, I must have gotten over twelve hundred." Harry laughed quietly. "From the first letter up until Hagrid rescued me, my uncle made a game out of either burning or shredding them and smiling when he knew I was watching."
Hermione put her arm around Harry's waist and gave him a reassuring squeeze. "That's all behind you, Harry."
He smiled and looked up at the stars that were starting to wink into existence in the inky black sky. "I know. That's not my life anymore, you and Lily are."
"There's someone else, Harry." Hermione said with a smile as she beamed at him.
"Who's that?" He asked curiously.
Hermione took his hand and placed it on her stomach.
"You're kidding me?!" Harry said as his jaw hit his chest.
Hermione shook her head as an enormous smile broke across his face. "I've had morning sickness all week." She grumbled but still smiling. "It started a few days after we 'christened the kitchen.'" She smiled slyly at her husband.
Harry pulled his wife into a one-armed passionate embrace so quickly Hermione squealed but was silenced by the ensuing kiss.
"What time is it?" Lily said sleepily from Harry's arms. "What's happening?"
"Something wonderful, Lily." Harry said as he hugged his wife again and kissed her passionately.
Lily smiled. She liked seeing Mummy and Daddy happy. Again, feeling left out she hugged them both as best she could and kissed them on the cheek.
Her parents broke apart laughing and Lily looked at them in confusion. "What's so funny?" She asked after a few infectious giggles.
"Lily, how would you like to be a sister?" Hermione asked after they had calmed down. The ensuing squeal of delight brought everyone back into their fits of laughter and after they returned home, they called everyone to spread the news.
"You're WHAT?!" Ron shouted excitedly over the phone. "Luna! You're not going to believe it!"
Harry and Hermione laughed as they heard the resounding squeals of delight from their best friend's wife.
"Uncle Ron!" Lily shouted excitedly at the speakerphone. "I'm gonna be a big sister!" She laughed and giggled as Ron and Luna both howled in delight on the other end of the connection.
"How far along are you?" Luna asked excitedly after what seemed to be a tug of war for the receiver.
Hermione laughed. "I've only just found out. I'm a week along."
Luna squealed again causing Hermione and Harry to laugh and Lily to squeal in delight once more.
"We should call Mum now." Harry said with a laugh. "Give Percy our love!"
"Right! Don't want her to find out second hand, she'd kill you!" Ron said with a laugh apparently having wrestled the phone from his wife again. "You're still coming over this Sunday? You can't miss a Weasley feast, now can you?"
"We'll see you then, Ron!" Hermione chirped in happily.
"Right, now call Mum, I'm sure she's going to go nutters if she finds out later!" Ron said with a laugh. "Goodnight! Love you, Lily!"
"Love you too, Uncle Ron and Aunt Luna!" She shouted at the speakerphone.
Harry laughed as he hung up and dialed the number of his adopted mother.
"Hello?" Mrs. Weasley said curiously from the other end of the line.
"Gramma Molly!" Lily shouted happily.
"Is that my sweet, angelic Lily?" Molly asked happily.
"YES!" Lily replied with enthusiasm. "Guess what!?"
"What?" Molly laughed.
"I'm gonna be a big sister!" Lily shouted in another squeal of glee as she danced in place.
"WHAT?!" Molly shouted in surprise.
"We're going to have another baby, Molly!" Hermione cut in with a laugh.
"When? Where? What sex?" Molly fired in rapid succession, the giddiness in her voice readily apparent.
"Not for another nine months, probably St. Mungo's, and we don't know, Mum." Harry said with a chuckle before Hermione could say anything.
"Harry?! You're such a prat sometimes!" Molly said with a laugh. "How is everyone doing? This is brilliant news!"
"He can be at that, Molly." Hermione laughed as she playfully pushed Harry. "We're all doing well, we've got other news to share as well."
Lily was dancing in place again and looking expectantly from her parents to the phone.
"I think someone really wants to talk to you, Grams." Harry said with a chuckle and nodded that Lily could speak.
"Gramma Molly! I'm gonna be a big sister!" She said again with a giggle.
"You told me that, sweetie!" Molly laughed. "I'm very excited for you!"
Lily nodded even though she couldn't be seen by Molly Weasley. "And I made a snitch for Daddy and it got broken by Joshua and Mummy is going to fix it and I got really mad when Joshua broke it and Daddy really liked it even though it wasn't gold but he smiled like he did when he caught it in the picture and I'm really happy that he liked it ..." She said this all very fast in one breath.
"Whoa! That's a lot of information, sweetie!" Molly laughed again. "Who is this Joshua? And I'm sure that you made a wonderful snitch!"
"Joshua is Dudley's son, Mum." Harry said seriously. "He coincidentally goes to the same muggle school that Lily does."
Lily nodded excitedly. "He's a big bully, Gramma Molly! He doesn't let people play with the toys he likes or play on the jungle gym but Daddy took me to school and he scared Joshua and his friends away and all the boys and girls got to play on the jungle gym and think that Daddy is a hero!" She said in one breath and very, very quickly.
"Well, your Daddy has always been a hero, sweetie." Molly said, the pride was evident in her voice but it changed to a quiet sadness. "I wish Arthur were still alive to share in this wonderful news."
"Dad is, Mum." Harry said quietly. He looked to Hermione and then to Lily before he picked up the receiver. Harry started pacing slowly as he consoled the woman who had become his legal mother before he attended his seventh year at Hogwarts. "Mum, it's hard, we all miss him." He said quietly.
Hermione had gotten the hint and ushered their daughter to her bath and bed. Lily put up a fight until they had gotten to the stairway.
"I love you, Gramma Molly!" Lily shouted from the stairs.
Harry smiled at his daughter. "She says she loves you too, sweetie."
With that, the little girl gave no further struggle and dutifully went up the stairs with her mother.
"We'll see you on Sunday, okay?" Harry said tenderly. "Yeah, I love you too, Mum. Get some sleep, okay?"
Harry joined Hermione in Lily's room just as his daughter was just snuggling under the covers. He walked over to his wife and put an arm around her waist and smiled at his growing family. Hermione looked up at him and gently wiped away a tear that had escaped and was attempting to run for his chin.
"Is everything ok?" She asked quietly.
Harry bent and kissed his daughter goodnight. "Sweet dreams, Lily." He said quietly as she yawned sleepily and looked at him though half-closed eyes. Her energy spent from the excitement of the evening and how late it had gotten.
"Night, Daddy. Night, Mummy. I love you." She said with another sleepy yawn.
"Love you too, sweetie." Hermione said as she kissed her daughter goodnight.
Harry stroked her hair and finished tucking her in then rose to his feet and turned off the light. "I love you too, Lily." He said softly as they closed the door.
Harry turned to his wife and pulled her into a tender hug. "Mum is still having a hard time with losing Dad." Harry said softly to her. "I wish there was more I could do ..." He pulled back and smiled tentatively at Hermione.
"What is it?" She asked quietly.
"I think I might know a way that might help a little." He said with a smile.
Hermione looked at him expectantly. "And that is?" She asked.
"If we have a boy, would it be alright if we name him Arthur?" He asked quietly.
"But I thought we were going to name him after your father?" Hermione asked with a questioning smile.
Harry nodded. "Well, I'm named after him in a way. How does Arthur Robert Potter sound?" He smiled at her tenderly.
Tears welled up in Hermione's eyes. "You want to use Dad's name too?" She asked choking back a sob of happiness.
Harry nodded and wiped away the tears that were streaking down his wife's cheeks. "I do." Harry said simply. "He was very much a part of our lives until ..." He stopped quietly not wanting to bring back the horrible memories of that night.
Hermione pulled her husband into a hug. "I think he would have liked that." She whispered into his chest. "But what if the baby's a girl?"
"Then I'd have to say Elizabeth Molly." Harry said matter-of-factly. "This way they're all remembered."
He felt Hermione's shoulders shake as she cried into his chest.
"Shh, shh, it's ok." Harry cooed to her. "They'll always be with us, your mum and dad, my parents and Arthur. This way we'll have them around us a bit longer, ok?"
Hermione nodded and sniffed as she pulled away from his chest. "What did I ever do to deserve you?"
"I think that question could go both ways." Harry said with a slight smile. "Come on, let's get to sleep. I would like to make good on that promise to Lisa tomorrow."
Hermione nodded and they walked arm-in-arm to their bedroom and closed the door behind them.
A/N: Alright, I've decided that this story is far, very far from over. I'm incorporating a challenge from
Muddgutts into this storyline (you just read the first part of it) and I'm going to continue by adding bits here
and there. This story is not going to go away so soon :)!
Thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed this story and I hope you'll like what's written and what's
coming up :) !