A/N: Devoting a chapter to their return...
*Chapter XXXV*: I'll Be Back
Government in Chaos! Leadership missing, presumed dead!
The Daily Prophet has addressed the issue before, with the earlier editorials on the monopolization of power by Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, and the appointments of their deputies Ron Weasley, Draco Malfoy and Luna Lovegood. The latter three, according to reliable sources, are either in hiding or dead. The reasons - a desire for revenge against them that may or may not have been carried out...
With the traditional cup of coffee in hand and copy of the paper in the other, Remus was reading the daily issue with an ever so slight a hint of amusement. A second cup was waiting on the table for a certain someone -
"Prophet full of tripe again?" Tonks asked, as she walked in.
"You know it," Remus looked up at her.
Tonks grabbed her cup and sliding behind him, she bent down and kissed his cheek. "Way not to say good morning, love."
"Moi?" Remus replied with staged astonishment. "Never!"
His wife only smiled, and sat down on the chair next to him. "What does it say in there?" this time she was more serious.
"The Ministry is leaderless," he informed her with gravity. "Draco, Ginny and Luna have to take over as soon as they can."
"Is there evidence of a coup or anything of the sort?" Tonks asked with uncertainty.
"I wouldn't be surprised if there is something brewing," Remus scratched his beard.
"Don't you think something would have happened by now?" she said. "It has been too long since any of them made an appearance. And those attacks had people scared, so someone is bound to take charge."
"We will have to worry about that later," first we ought to bring back...well, you know."
Remus could not help, but be a little more emotional about this part.
Ginny and Luna had recovered nicely over the past week. The redhead quickly regained her personality, and became the vivacious person everyone knew and loved once more. For the most part, Luna slept on for hours, but eventually, she also recovered her strength.
Draco was the only one who took longer to recover fully. For about a week he mostly slept, was incoherent in communication, and ate little as well. Madam Pomfrey was compelled to spend more time with him than her other two patients. A few days ago, however, the last Malfoy rebounded significantly, and once he regained his condescending attitude, they knew he was going to be fine.
"I don't want to die ever again," he was telling Ginny when she could at last be alone with him. "You met my father. I want to kill him myself, but there's only so much you can do when he's already dead!"
"Honey, we don't have to see him for at least another dozen decades," she tried to placate him.
"Ginny, I am going to have to spend eternity knowing he is close by!" he protested. "Unless we keep bringing one another back so Death never claims us...and I remain here until the end of time."
"Why can't you settle the differences with your father?" Ginny said with frustration. "The entire time we spent there, you just kept fighting and fighting."
"You know he doesn't agree with my choice. That I should have stayed with the Dark side and be loyal to the cause."
"Well, we saw how that turned out," she rolled her eyes.
"That's what I've been trying to tell him! And my poor mother, she cannot stand him."
"Well, what can we do about it!"
"Until we're dead, pretty much nothing," he shrugged. "I suppose stick with the Order in Death...we have to find replacements sooner than later."
"Enough of this dead talk," Ginny admonished him. "They will be there when we go for a visit. Until then, we have to focus on our lives down here."
"A visit entails killing ourselves, you know," Draco said with an ironic smile.
"Don't be smart with me, Malfoy," Ginny replied with a hint of force. "We have three more people to bring back."
"Alright, alright, keep your knickers on," he rejoined frustratingly, "Just don't fancy being dead when you consider the company, is all."
"I know," she agreed. "You go back to bed, and I'll go see how Hermione is doing."
Hermione had passed the ordeal more lightly than the rest - it only took her three or four days to regain her energies, but inexplicably, she had been feeling more and more tired every day. Madam Pomfrey had been unable to find a cause, and while Hermione went about her usual daily business, she always took longer to finish it.
Ginny found her in the kitchen, sitting on a chair with a cup of coffee. It was early afternoon - Hermione did not usually drink coffee then.
"Hey, you," she greeted her older friend. "How are you doing?"
"Hey, Ginny," Hermione returned her greeting, "Not good."
"What's wrong?" Ginny's concern only grew. "Do you want to go for a nap?"
"I don't know," Hermione said, confused. "I am feeling generally weak. Ever since I brought Draco back."
"Maybe that has something to do with him taking so long to recover," Ginny reasoned. "Madam Pomfrey said nothing?"
"She thinks I'm healthy," Hermione said. "Gave me a serum too, which has been helping somewhat, but not significantly."
"Do you think you can handle another resurrection?" Ginny asked her.
"Hardly," Hermioned nodded in refusal. "I can't devote the energy to it...might finish me for good."
"Then don't worry about it," Ginny reassured her. "I can take on two of them."
"Are you sure?" Hermione objected. "I mean, I'm sure Madam Pomfrey can find a cause and I'll be on my feet soon enough to help out."
"Hermione, look," Ginny reasoned with her. "This spell affects each caster differently. For me, it takes a shorter time to recover than you. Luna took the longest, because she isn't as strong as you or me in terms of the capacity to perform it. You were on your feet in two days, but the residual exhaustion caught up with you later. In other words, you need to spend more time recovering. No need to exert yourself needlessly."
As much as she wanted to, Hermione could not argue with that logic. "You're right, Ginny," she was resigned. "I better not risk it."
"Go see Madam Pomfrey again," the redhead advised. "We'll be fine."
Hermione thanked her friend for the attention, finished her coffee, and shuffled out of the kitchen to find the mediwitch. She was clearly depressed about her condition.
Luna was feeling well enough to perform another resurrection, and Madam Pomfrey gave her approval. Ginny, fully recovered herself, explained to Harry that Hermione was not in a shape to resurrect anyone at the present, so she would volunteer to bring two back.
"But Ginny!" Harry protested. "The last time you were killed!"
"Not from the magic," she objected. "Lestrange and Dolohov did it, remember?"
"I know, I know," Harry said impatiently. "But I still think it's not a good idea."
"I brought the great Harry Potter back," Ginny told him with a smile. "Why not his parents?"
"Madam Pomfrey told me Luna came close," he told her in an undertone. "Really close."
"But I'm stronger than Luna," Ginny said. "I can handle two resurrections. I could have last time too, if it wasn't for that convenient interruption."
"I just don't want to lose you again, Ginny," Harry replied. "We care about you, and Draco would be devastated as well, if the risk turns out too great to bear."
"Harry, risk is what we do. More or less, we do rely on a bit of luck every now and then. This time, I don't think anything will go wrong."
"Can't be sure," Harry said more to himself than Ginny. "Fine! We'll go ahead with it. You'll do two resurrections, Luna one, Hermione will be resting, and hopefully by the end of today, everything will be completed."
"That's the plan," she nodded.
"Alright. We need to go to Godric's Hollow to stage the resurrections there. That's where my parents are buried...hopefully the setting will be enough to bring back Sirius too."
The preparations to go off were surprisingly quick. Luna went out and returned with the black car they had used to the previous journey to Harry's first home. Draco retrieved several old brooms from the closet under the stairs, and thus transportation for the entire Order was assured.
"Girls and women in the car, men on the brooms," Ron declared when everyone was assembled.
Harry had his Firebolt in hand, now older and slightly outdated, but still impressive.
"Who are you calling a girl," Ginny objected when she appeared to the forefront with her own broom - a Cleansweep Eight.
Her brother only rolled his eyes. "Fine. Everyone who consider themselves unfit to ride a broom, go in the car."
So in the end, Luna, Hermione, Mrs. Weasley, Pomfrey and Tonks, along with the James and Madelyn, took the car, while the rest agreed to fly around it in a protective circle.
Luna sat in the driver's seat, pressed a button twice consecutively on the dashboard, and the car rose off the ground, before it disappeared from view.
"Cast a Disillusionment Charm on yourselves!" Harry called to everyone else over the rumble of the engine.
Ready and set, the car took off, and the broom-riders followed suit.
**
"We're here!" several voices called out jovially as the quaint village came into view below.
Luna steered the car downwards and landed with a squeal of the tires in front of the Potter home. The rest landed in the front yard and dismounted.
All camouflage aside, the entirety of the Order, led by Harry, made their way to the backyard of the house, and in the direction of the olden oak tree, where James and Lily were buried.
It was a peaceful sight. The slow wind rustled the leaves above in the lazy late afternoon, and for the first time, Harry wondered whether it was right to disturb his parents. Not that he hadn't thought about it before, but ever since they expressed a strong desire to come back, the doubt resurfaced.
"Harry?" Hermione snapped him from his reverie. "It's time."
He would do what they wanted - and that was to be among the living. It wasn't in his power to make decisions for his parents, even in death.
"Let's do it."
Harry took out his wand, aimed it at the adjacent graves, and whispered a spell under his breath. The jet of white light caused the earth above the graves to rise, and two coffins hovered underneath. He flicked his wand, and both of them flew and slid to a halt in front of Ginny. Once the spell ended, the earth fell neatly back into the now empty graves.
"Are you ready?" he asked Ginny, walking over to her.
"Yes." She nodded with conviction. She extended to open James' coffin, which was closer to her, but Harry stopped her.
"Don't."
"But I need to for the spell to work."
"Did you open my coffin?" he queried.
"I did," she nodded. "Not a pleasant sight."
"Turn away for a moment," Harry advised her. "I'll do it."
That was when Remus stepped forward. "Harry?"
The young wizard turned around. "Yeah?"
"You handle your mother. I'll do James."
Harry took a second to think, but he understood where Remus was coming from, and he couldn't blame him. "Alright then," he agreed. "On three."
"One....two..."
"Three!"
The rusted hinges screamed in protest as sunlight entered the coffins for the first time in over twenty years. Harry and Remus had not turned away at all, but calmly stared down at the two bodies. No more than skeletons and dried tissue, their clothes also showed their age. James' costume was dusty and faded, and the sundress Lily was wearing had also turned a dismal grey from its original white.
Harry could not be disgusted at all. As shocking as it appeared, these were his parents - about to be brought back to life.
Ginny wasted no time in preparing herself. When the coffins were open, Harry instructed her to turn back, and when the sight met the eyes, she did not flinch in the slightest.
"Ready?"
"Yes."
A double resurrection still worried Harry. As powerful as Ginny was, her capacity was not infinite. However, she betrayed no sign of weakness.
"Enoevarb odaedeth morfesir James Potter Enoevarb odaedeth morfesir Lily Potter!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, exaggerating the necessary wandwork with more deliberate and bigger motions than the single resurrection version of the spell.
The repeated it again and again, her voice growing more hoarse with each time she did it. Her wand whipped through the air with expertise, and the storm that typically gathered when the ritual was performed, came faster and harder than anyone had seen before. Torrential rain and lightning, accompanied by thunder and an exceptionally strong wind, almost became a metaphor for Ginny's display of magical power and ability. Soaking wet, determined and still going, she did not let up on her efforts, continuing the barrage of words and wandwork to complete the task.
The rain lashed the yard with ferocity, and multiple lightning strikes hit the ground, kicking up dirt and sparks. Harry and the rest of the Order stood in silence, mindless of the storm, eyes focused on Ginny and the two coffins. Suddenly, two spheres of white light, descending too slowly to be lightning strikes, made their way down towards the two bodies. Harry interpreted these as the souls of James and Lily, and something told him he was right.
James' coffin was hit first by the ball of light, and disappeared within his remains. A few seconds later, the same happened with Lily's body. Sever tense moments later an inhuman scream pierced the wind, momentarily deafening the storm with its intensity.
James had returned.
His hand shot up through the air, decayed and broken, and before their very eyes, it began to....repair itself.
Flesh, veins and blood covered the bones; all of the grime and accumulation of time seemed to be falling away into nothingness. Skin started to appear and cover the entire hand, appearing as if it had never died.
Slowly, James rose up from the coffin. He remained sitting for a few moments, before he stood up and stepped over the edge of his last resting place. The rain lessened considerably, and the lightning also let up. Moments later, Lily rose from her own coffin, much in the same fashion.
James moved towards her and took her hand. Stunned, the Order watched on...Ginny herself had finished, and observed, shocked...
In an instant the storm disappeared and the earlier good weather returned, allowing the sun to shine properly on the resurrected forms of James and Lily Potter.
They were back.
A/N: Four down, one to go...sit tight, everyone's favourite character will be making a show next chapter.
-->