Harry got up early the next morning, traipsed downstairs and found Hermione waiting with a solemn expression on her face and Ron half snoring in his toast. He awoke with a start and looked at Harry seriously through sleepy eyes. They nodded to each other and Harry pinned a letter to the cupboard, explaining they would not return for some time.
As they set out Harry took one last look at the Burrow, hoping against hope he would live to see it again. He noticed a figure with long red hair at one of the windows. Ginny was watching them, sadness and worry reflected in her hazel eyes. She gave him a small nod and retreated back inside.
They apparated to the train station and got a ticket to Tutshill.
"Well" said Ron as they sat on the compartment. "It's not the Hogwarts Express, but it'll do" Harry and Hermione nodded in agreement as the train started moving. "By the way, Harry" muttered Ron "happy birthday"
Ron and Hermione grinned as they pulled out presents. Harry shook his head and smiled. He couldn't believe they'd thought of presents at a time like this.
Harry unwrapped Ron's present first. He gasped as he revealed a glimmering silver watch, with lots of dials and buttons. "Thanks, Ron!"
"It's from all of us" said Ron, and by this Harry knew he meant all the Weasleys. "It does loads of things. It stores things, it's got a blade that cuts through anything, it's got an unbreakable wire, it takes photographs, and its got a brilliant anti-burglar alarm, look…" he showed Harry the burglar alarm, witch resulted in the burglar having his hand burnt until they gave back the watch. After thanking Ron, Harry turned to open Hermione's present. He expected it to be something to use as a weapon or to protect him, like Ron's present, but found himself proved wrong as he pulled out a beautiful glass pensieve.
"Wow!" Harry breathed "I- thanks, Hermione!"
"I thought you might need one of those" smiled Hermione.
"A pensieve!" gasped Ron, his eyes popping "but- aren't they really rare?"
Hermione just grinned and sat back in her seat.
*
"This is it" thought Harry and he took a deep breath. Hermione rubbed his shoulder soothingly as they stepped into the presence of the Potter residence, Godric's Hollow. They had got off the train at Tutshill and followed directions for Godric's Hollow. The village itself was quaint and quiet, a half muggle-half wizard community, with a magical barrier separating them, like at Diagon Alley. But they had headed to a lone house on top of the hill, overlooking all of them. And this was where they were now, in the back garden- turned graveyard of Lilly and James Potter. Harry's breath hitched in his throat as he spotted the two gravestones and he ran over to them. He kneeled down to read the words.
Lilly Potter
Beloved mother, wife and fierce friend
1958-1981
Harry took a shuddering breath as he glanced at James's stone.
James Potter
Adored father, husband and loyal friend
1958-1981
Marauders to the end, eh prongs?
Harry had to laugh at that last bit, despite the emotion welling up inside him. So this was where his parents were, lying 6 feet under the earth, instead of going about their daily lives, living and breathing as they should be. "Hi Mum" he whispered "hi Dad."
And then he talked to them. Just talked. He told them about his life; how his aunt and uncle had never told him about magic until Hagrid showed up on his eleventh birthday, how he had been sorted into Gryffindor, how he had defied Voldemort four times, how he had led the DA, how he had been given the task of finding Voldemort's horcruxes. Ron and Hermione were watching, but he knew they wouldn't judge him as mad for talking to those who could not hear him. They understood.
A chilly breeze whipped his hair. Ron and Hermione had been waiting patiently behind him, and as he got up Hermione put her hand on his shoulder.
"Harry?" she whispered. He took a long look at his parent's final resting place and turned to the house.
"Come on" he muttered. They unlocked the door and stepped inside. It was deathly silent, and looked as though nothing had changed since that night 16 years ago. Harry gazed in awe at the room around him. There were pictures lining the wall. Harry went to look at these. One was of a pretty woman with long red hair and brilliant green eyes, who was holding a baby in her lap. She smiled lovingly at the baby, who had similar eyes but a patch of fuzzy jet black hair. Another was of four people, Lilly, James and two others who were unmistakably Remus and Sirius, all laughing and shouting. This was probably at New Year or Christmas, as they all had wine glasses and James was wearing a paper hat and Sirius had a party popper. Harry smiled as he looked around the room. It was very comfy looking; it had two leather sofas, a small coffee table and in the middle of the room was a play mat, brightly coloured and even a few battered stuffed toys were scattered around it. Harry picked up a stuffed lion with its eye hanging on a thread and knew instantly it felt familiar. He set it back down and headed upstairs.
As he made his way up, he saw unmistakeable signs of struggle; an upturned table, a smashed vase, huge, dirty footprints in the carpet….
"This must have been where it happened" thought Harry grimly, as he turned into a room. There were many soft, cuddly toys on the shelves, though some had been knocked off in the fight, and a cot in the centre of the room. The wall paper was bright blue with little snitches and brooms flying around and there was another play pen in the corner. "My room" thought Harry, looking behind the cot, half afraid he would see a dead, rotting body… "I'm not going to think about it" he thought.
The next room must have been James's and Lilly's. It had a cream king-sized bed and cream curtains, but the wallpaper was red and gold striped. Harry grinned as he looked around the photos. There was a picture of them getting married, a picture of them in Hawaii… "What's that?" thought Harry. He turned to look at a massive, aged piece of parchment behind a glass casing, and gasped as he saw it was a family tree. It was similar to Sirius's, but beside the names it had a little animal. On his (his stomach leaped at this) there was a little lion wrapped around a G. "Ah, it must stand for the Hogwarts houses". He looked around. Mostly there were Gryffindor, but there were quite a few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, and (Harry was displeased to see) his own great-grandfather had been a Slytherin. He found he could remove the glass and take the parchment out, so he sat on the bed hungrily taking in every detail.
He looked at a little character in the corner, like a stick man. It was waving a minute wand, a bit like on the Marauder's map, and a speech bubble said "tap the name". Harry took out his wand and tapped on Lilly Evans. Suddenly the map started rubbing itself out, as though someone had an invisible eraser. Harry panicked for a second, thinking he'd destroyed it, when it started writing itself again, but this time the people were different. Where it had ended at Lilly's parents before, it now had a family line of muggles stretching to the middle ages. "Brilliant!" thought Harry as he tapped back on his own name. He studied the map carefully, revealing there were Crouches, Longbottoms (Harry smiled), Blacks and Prewetts on the tree. His stomach did a somersault as he found he was very distantly related to the Weasleys, But he groaned as he saw he was also very distantly related to the Malfoys.
As he studied his own name, he saw there was a thin line, like the one used to represent two married people, but it was extremely faint, as tough someone had drew it on and rubbed it off again. He looked across the thin line to see five names, also as though they had been drew on with a very sharp pencil and rubbed out.
"Engorgio" Harry whispered, pointing the wand at the paper, so he could read the names. The family tree swelled so Harry could just make out the names. The first one read: Ginny Weasley. Harry stared. What did this mean? Another three of the names were: Cho Chang, Luna Lovegood and Parvati Patil. Harry was confused. Did this mean he was going to marry one of them? And if he was, what were the others doing here?
"It must be all the possible girls I could marry!" Harry realized. Ginny and Cho were obvious; he had taken Luna to Slughorn's party last year and Parvati to the Yule ball. "But that doesn't mean I fancy them all!" Harry thought incredulously. He noticed there was one other name, but it was so faint he couldn't make it out. "Engorgio!" Harry whispered again, and the tree swelled to a very large size. He could just about see the name now.
He choked on thin air. Hermione Granger.
"Hermione?" he whispered, stunned. Why would it have Hermione on the tree? It couldn't… he didn't think of Hermione like that, did he? And why would it put her there? And why was her name fainter than the others?
He shrunk the map and pocketed it, his mind pondering over what he had just read. He glanced around the bedside table and saw a yellowing letter, fragile with age. It was unopened, and as he took it he noticed it read Prongs in Sirius's writing. Heart racing, Harry gently pried open the last letter Sirius had sent his father.
Dear Prongs,
How are you? Lils ok? How's the sproglett? Well, hopefully you'll be able to answer these questions when I come visit you at Halloween.
Harry fought back tears. He knew that the Halloween Sirius was talking about would be the one where, instead of trying to scare him with a Halloween mask, he would find his best friends dead.
But I have big news. It can't wait till we meet again; I have to tell someone… James, I have a sister!
Harry gasped and the parchment slid out of his fingers a little.
Well, half-sister. She was born just before my parents dated. If my Father new about her, he never told my Mother. Anyway, her name is Rebecca Alison. She has my father's last name. I'll tell you more at Halloween, I want to find as much as I can about her.
From Padfoot.
Suddenly he heard a scream. He stuffed the letter in his pocket and drew his wand.
"Harry! Ron! Death Eaters!" he heard Hermione shout. He and Ron got there just in time to see Hermione dodge a curse and shoot a hex at the same time.
"Stupefy!" Ron got a Death Eater in the back, but now 2 of the six Death Eaters turned on him. "Oh, crumbs!" he muttered as they chased him outside, the three of them firing off curses spontaneously.
Harry levitated a chair until it collided with one of the Death Eaters heads, knocking him unconscious. So now it was just the two Death Eaters against him and Hermione. Harry winced as they managed to destroy some of his parent's furniture. He shot a curse at one of the Death Eaters, making his legs twist above his head in an odd sort of back-flip, and they locked themselves around his neck.
"VULNEROS SOMNIUM!" shrieked the other Death Eater, in a voice Harry recognised as Bellatrix Lestrange's.
"Harry! Look out" Hermione cried as a streak of orange light shot at Harry. In a graceful kind of leap she flung herself into his arms, but the curse had hit her and Harry was tackled to the ground. Bellatrix shrieked with laughter, and Harry watched in horror as part of the ceiling fell down. He barely had time to utter a protego when loads of plaster fell on him and Hermione.
"Hermione?" he whispered squinting through the tiny amount of light. She didn't respond. Although they were buried under what seemed like a ton of ceiling he could tell she was unconscious. The plaster was heavy and he could hardly move, and he was lying directly on top of her, literally nose-to-nose. "Hermione, wake up!" but she stayed silent.
"Brilliant!" he thought sarcastically. Bellatrix cackled madly.
"Ahaha! I've got them! Where's Draco? He should have been here with us!" But suddenly there was a crash and Harry heard the yells of Remus Lupin and the crackles that indicated them duelling. He heard Bellatrix let out a strangled cry and a pop that meant she had disapparated. He finally felt the plaster being removed from on top of him and was never happier to see Lupin's face. He staggered to his feet.
"Are you ok, Harry? What happened to Hermione?" He stared worriedly at Hermione's limp form.
"I- I don't know, she got hit by one of the Death Eaters curses" he watched as Remus dragged Hermione so he was supporting her.
"It's not safe. We need to get out of here." Remus dragged Hermione outside.
"Err, aren't we apparating?" Harry asked.
"Oh no. we're using something quite different. We're using Sirius's bike"
*
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