|
|
Post by Candy Redwood on Nov 20, 2009 9:23:25 GMT -5
Marauders and Lily read Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Harry Potter or the characters in it.
A/N- Yes it’s been done a THOUSAND times before but I wanted to try it out myself… so yeah. Sorry if it’s horrible or whatever. Haha I try my best anyway. So yeah… I might be able to get all the books done but it depends because I’m quite busy with college and such. I’ll update as often as I can though.[/b]
It was a relatively normal day in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The sun was shining, the giant squid was lounging happily by the lake, the marauders were in the library...Wait….What?
That’s right. James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin were all in the library, poring over books. Sounds impossible I know. But it IS N.E.W.T year after all… and Remus made them do it!
“Booooring!” Sirius whined, shutting a book with a snap. “Why do we have to do this Moony?”
“Because the N.E.W.T’s aren’t far away Padfoot.” An irate Remus Lupin replied.
“Ah but Paddy’s right Moony.” James Potter shrugged. “We already know this stuff.” He boasted proudly.
“I thought you were deflating your head this year Prongs.” Remus muttered, annoyed.
James seemed to shrink slightly.
“I am…” he muttered, frowning and running a hand through his messy black hair. “But she just won’t give me a chance!”
“Who? Evans?” Sirius asked, leaning back on his chair and putting his feet up on the table.
“Of course.” James replied, a dreamy look in his eyes.
“Uh oh.” Sirius smirked. “He’s gone into day-dream mode again.”
Remus sighed and stood up. He shook his head and walked to a bookshelf.
“Oi! Prongs! Evans is stripping for you!” Sirius grinned.
James snapped out of his day-dream and looked around with wide eyes then scowled at Sirius who was laughing heartily.
“Git.” He muttered.
“Where’s wormy again?” Sirius asked, looking bored once again.
“He said he had family business.” Remus said, walking out from the bookshelf clutching a red book, a strange expression on his face. “Hey James…”
“Yeah Moony?”
“You don’t happen to have a relative named Harry Potter do you?”
“Harry Potter? Erm… no mate, sorry.”
“Well…” Remus stopped and showed them the book titled ‘Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone’
“Bloody hell he looks like you Prongs.” Sirius gaped, staring at the boy on the cover of the book.
James nodded, speechless.
Remus looked at the date of the book’s release and his eyes widened.
“This was released in 1999” he hissed.
“AWESOME!!” Sirius yelled, causing the librarian to rush over to them, a look of fury on her face.
“Get out of here!” She hissed with narrow eyes and waved her wand, causing the boys possessions to fly after them as they sprinted out of the library and hit them repeatedly.
“MY FACE!” Sirius screamed, distraught. “NOT MY BEAUTIFUL FACE!”
James was laughing at Sirius reaction but also trying to avoid being hit.
After 5 minutes everything had calmed down. Remus, looking relieved, pulled his bad over his shoulder and looked as his friends expectantly.
“Well?”
“Well What?” James asked, smirking at Sirius who was looking extremely grumpy.
“Are we going to read the book?” Remus asked slowly, like you would to a small child.
“Oh! Oh yeah!” James grinned.
“Yeah I wanna hear about Prongslet!” Sirius chortled.
“Prongslet?” James asked, bewildered.
Sirius nodded. “He’s probably your kid from the future or something.”
James shrugged. “Could be possible…” he replied. “So where should we go?”
“The room of requirement!” Sirius suggested happily.
Remus smiled and nodded. “That sounds good.”
The 3 friends made their way toward the seventh floor corridor but were intercepted by an annoyed looking Lily Evans.
“Hi Lily!” James said, his face lighting up.
“Ja…Potter.” Lily corrected herself. “Black. Hello Remus.” She smiled at the sandy haired boy and he smiled back.
“Well it was nice to see you Evans now if you’ll excuse us…” Sirius said and tried to dart past her but she glared at him suspiciously.
“What are you up to Black?” she asked coolly.
“That hurts Evans!”
“Shut up.”
“We’re just going to read a book we found Lily” James said eagerly.
Lily stared at them in disbelief.
“You two…are going to read…?”
“Yep!” Sirius and James grinned.
“You can come along if you like Lily” Remus offered.
“Sure…” Lily said slowly. “It has to be pretty interesting if those two are willing to read it.”
Eight minutes later, the 4 teens were sat in a room which resembled the Gryffindor common room. The boys had quickly explained to Lily what they had found and she too seemed interested in the book. Remus had offered to read first.
He cleared his throat and opened the book to the first chapter.
“Chapter one: The Boy Who Lived…”
|
|
|
|
Post by Candy Redwood on Nov 25, 2009 7:59:51 GMT -5
Chapter 1: The boy who lived.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Harry Potter or the characters in it.
“The boy who lived.” Remus Began.
“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”
Sirius pretended to fall asleep on James’s shoulder, snoring loudly. Lily threw him a heated glare and he sat up straight looking nervous.
“I guess they’re muggles” James said thoughtfully. “But what are they doing in this book?”
“Maybe if you let Remus continue we’d find out.” Lily said waspishly.
Remus shook his head and continued to read.
They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense.
Sirius opened his mouth to insult the Dursleys but one glare from Lily silenced him immediately.
Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills.
Sirius and James frowned and looked at Lily and Remus expectantly, wondering what on earth drills were.
Lily groaned. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not important.”
Lily had been thinking about where she had heard the name Dursley before. It was her sister’s boyfriend’s last name. She frowned to herself, not liking this at all.
He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours.
Lily grimaced. That definitely sounded like Petunia.
The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.
James and Sirius were cackling with laughter when they heard the name of the Dursleys son. Lily and Remus grinned slightly.
The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn’t think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.
“Oi!” James yelled, indignant.
“There’s nothing wrong with the Potters!” Spat Sirius.
“They’re better than you could ever hope to be.” Remus growled.
Lily stared at them, marvelling at the strength of their friendship. They really were close.
Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley’s sister, but they hadn’t met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn’t have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish
“I’m not good for nothing!” James yelled.
“James you don’t even know if this is about you.” Lily sighed, shaking her head.
James however, was just staring at Lily.
“…What?” Lily asked, uncomfortable.
“You called me James.” The stag animagus grinned.
Lily simply shrugged indifferently and nodded to Remus.
as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn’t want Dudley mixing with a child like that.
James scowled but wisely stayed silent.
When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work,
“Most boring tie? Why would he wear a boring tie?”
“Because he’s a boring person padfoot.”
and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.
“Brat” Sirus and James muttered and Remus nodded in agreement.
None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.
At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.
Sirius frowned. “He’s wasting perfectly good food!”
Lily pinched the bridge of her nose and pursed her lips in such a McGonagall like fashion that Sirius promptly shut his mouth.
“Little tyke,” chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four’s drive.
It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar — a cat reading a map.
“Minnie!” Sirius and James exclaimed gleefully.
“It’s PROFESSOR Mcgonagall Black, Potter.” Lily snapped. “Stop being disrespectful. And you don’t even know it’s her.”
“2 galleons.” He grinned.
Nobody answered him
For a second, Mr. Dursley didn’t realize what he had seen — then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn’t a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive — no, looking at the sign; cats couldn’t read maps or signs.
“That’s what you think” Sirius said in a sing-song voice.
Remus sighed heavily, deciding not to comment
Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day
“How exciting.” James said sarcastically.
But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn’t help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.
“That’s not strange” James said looking confused.
“It’s strange for muggles.” Lily sighed, sounding exasperated.
Mr. Dursley couldn’t bear people who dressed in funny clothes — the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdoes standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together.
“What happened?!” Sirius yelled.
“Let us read and maybe we’ll find out!” Remus replied, patient as always.
Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren’t young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt —these people were obviously collecting for something… yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.
“The man sure loves his drills.”
“Shut up Prongs.”
Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn’t, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. He didn’t see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at nighttime. Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.
“Charming fellow” Sirius remarked dryly.
“What a productive day.” James continued.
Lily managed a small smile at that.
He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he’d stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the bakery.
Sirius and James started to laugh at that.
“What a fat git.” Sirius chortled.
“Black.” Lily warned.
He’d forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker’s. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn’t know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn’t see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.
“The Potters, that’s right, that’s what I heard —”
“ — yes, their son, Harry —”
“I wonder what happened…” James frowned, he was 100% sure that Harry was his son and he was quite concerned about why wizards in the street would be talking about him.
Mr. Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.
He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his mustache, thinking… no, he was being stupid.
“There’s a surprise!” Sirius laughed.
Potter wasn’t such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn’t even sure his nephew was called Harry.
Lily looked disgusted. “He doesn’t even know his nephews name? That’s horrible!” she frowned slightly, this man seemed more and more like Petunia’s boyfriend Vernon…she just hoped she was wrong.
He’d never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold. There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn’t blame her — if he’d had a sister like that…
Lily bit her lip slightly, staring at the floor. Mrs Dursley sure sounded like Petunia…
but all the same, those people in cloaks…
He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o’clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.
“And squashed them.”
“Sorry,” he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn’t seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, “Don’t be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last!
Silence
“He’s…gone?” Lily said slowly.
Sirius and James broke out into grins.
“YES! WHOOO!!! NO MORE MOLDY VOLDY!”
Remus grinned and cheered along with them and even Lily laughed and joined in.
Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!”
And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.
“You mean his arms fit?” Lily asked scathingly and the boys looked at her shocked.
Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was.
“That is pretty careless of them, to call them muggles in front of them.” Remus frowned.
He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn’t approve of imagination.
“What a guy.”
“Shut up paddy”
As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw—and it didn’t improve his mood — was the tabby cat he’d spotted that morning.
“She’s been sat there for that long?”
It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.
“Shoo!” said Mr. Dursley loudly.
The cat didn’t move. It just gave him a stern look.
James and Sirius shook their heads fondly.
“Ahh…the stern look…”
Was this normal cat behavior? Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.
Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door’s problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word (“Won’t!”).
“Like father, like son” Sirius chortled
Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:
“And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation’s owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern.” The newscaster allowed himself a grin. “Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?”
“Well, Ted,” said the weatherman, “I don’t know about that, but it’s not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they’ve had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early — it’s not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight.”
Remus frowned.
“That’s really very careless of them.”
Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters…
Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good.
“The tea?” Sirius chuckled.
James and Remus rolled their eyes.
He’d have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. “Er — Petunia,
Lily shrieked, her eyes widening.
“What is it?” James asked, startled.
“Petunia… that’s my sister…” Lily practically whispered. “Her boyfriend is called Vernon Dursley…”
James face broke out into a huge grin.
“YES!” he yelled triumphantly. “I MARRY LILY!”
Lily scowled. “I won’t believe it until I see the words ‘Lily Potter’”
dear — you haven’t heard from your sister lately, have you?”
As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn’t have a sister.
Lily looked saddened at that.
“No,” she said sharply. “Why?”
“Funny stuff on the news,” Mr. Dursley mumbled. “Owls… shooting stars… and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today…”
“So?” snapped Mrs. Dursley.
“Well, I just thought… maybe… it was something to do with… you know… her crowd.”
“Her crowd??” Remus snapped, looking angry.
Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he’d heard the name “Potter.” He decided he didn’t dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, “Their son — he’d be about Dudley’s age now, wouldn’t he?”
“I suppose so,” said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.
“What’s his name again? Howard, isn’t it?”
“Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me.”
“It’s not a common name” Lily said quietly. “I like it.”
James grinned at her but she pretended not to notice.
Oh, yes,” said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. “Yes, I quite agree.”
He didn’t say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.
Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did… if it got out that they were related to a pair of — well, he didn’t think he could bear it.
“Git.”
The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind… He couldn’t see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on — he yawned and turned over — it couldn’t affect them…
How very wrong he was.
Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn’t so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.
“I don’t understand how she could have sat so still for so long!” James said, shaking his head.
A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you’d have thought he’d just popped out of the ground. The cat’s tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.
Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt.
“Dumbledore” they all chorused with a grin.
He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man’s name was Albus Dumbledore.
He clicked it again — the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn’t be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn’t look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.
“Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall.”
“Knew it!” James laughed.
Lily shook her head at him.
He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled. “How did you know it was me?” she asked.
“Well it was pretty obvious” Sirius scoffed
“My dear Professor, I’ve never seen a cat sit so stiffly.”
“You’d be stiff if you’d been sitting on a brick wall all day,” said Professor McGonagall.
“All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here.”
“I bet we’re at one” James smiled and the others nodded their agreement.
Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.
“Oh yes, everyone’s celebrating, all right,” she said impatiently. “You’d think they’d be a bit more careful, but no — even the Muggles have noticed something’s going on. It was on their news.”
She jerked her head back at the Dursleys’ dark living-room window. “I heard it. Flocks of owls… shooting stars… Well, they’re not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent — I’ll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense.”
“I think he’s great” James laughed. “Hey Padfoot we should do that! Make loads of shooting stars in the great hall or something.. for the end of the year.”
Sirius nodded. “Make something memorable.” He grinned.
“You can’t blame them,” said Dumbledore gently. “We’ve had precious little to celebrate for eleven years.”
“Wow” Lily said softly. “Eleven years.”
“I know that,” said Professor McGonagall irritably. “But that’s no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors.”
“She’s right of course” Remus nodded. “It’s extremely careless to do that even after receiving such amazing news.”
She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn’t, so she went on. “A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?”
“It certainly seems so,” said Dumbledore.
“Brilliant” James and Sirius cheered.
“We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?”
“A What?”
“A what?”
“You’re more like Minnie than we though Padfoot.”
“Shut up.”
“A lemon drop. They’re a kind of Muggle sweet I’m rather fond of.”
“No, thank you,” said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn’t think this was the moment for lemon drops. “As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone —”
“My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this ‘You-Know-Who’ nonsense — for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort.”
“Fear of a name, only increases fear of the thing itself” Lily and Remus chorused then looked at each other and grinned.
Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. “It all gets so confusing if we keep saying ‘You-Know-Who.’ I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort’s name.” “I know you haven’t,” said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. “But you’re different. Everyone knows you’re the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of.”
“You flatter me,” said Dumbledore calmly. “Voldemort had powers I will never have.”
“Oh please!” James sighed, exasperated. “Dumbledore is WAY more powerful than Moldy Voldy.”
“Only because you’re too — well —noble to use them.”
“It’s lucky it’s dark. I haven’t blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs.”
“Ugh!” Sirius said, laughing along with James.
Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, “The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what they’re saying? About why he’s disappeared? About what finally stopped him?”
It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever “everyone” was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.
“What they’re saying,” she pressed on, “is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric’s Hollow. He went to find the Potters.
James turned pale.
“He came to find me and my family?” he said blankly, suddenly fearful.
The rumor is that Lily and James Potter
James suddenly perked up.
“YES!” he yelled, punching a fist into the air. “I MARRY LILY!” he laughed and started to dance around the room.
Lily groaned and covered her face but she was smiling slightly.
“I guess you aren’t THAT bad” she said slowly and James looked exuberant.
Remus however had turned pale, having read ahead. He licked his lips slowly and re-read the sentence slowly.
The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are — are — that they’re — dead.”
Silence greeted his words. Remus had let the book fall out of his hands and to the floor with a dull ‘thunk’ Lily and James sat, white faced and shocked and Sirius stared at the book disbelievingly. No way Prongs and Lily could be dead.
Lily suddenly bit her lip to stop herself from bursting into tears and immediately James was by her side, an arm around her. Instead of pushing him away, Lily leaned into his embrace, shaking slightly.
“Carry on please Remus” she whispered in a broken voice and James nodded.
Remus picked up the book, flipped to the right page and continued.
Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.
“Lily and James… I can’t believe it… I didn’t want to believe it… Oh, Albus…”
Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. “I know… I know…” he said heavily.
Professor McGonagall’s voice trembled as she went on. “That’s not all. They’re saying he tried to kill the Potter’s son, Harry.
“NO!” Lily and James yelled out.
“He went to kill my SON?” James bellowed, furious.
“My poor baby…” Lily whispered.
Sirius and Remus were torn between sadness and anger.
But he couldn’t. He couldn’t kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they’re saying that when he couldn’t kill Harry Potter, Voldemort’s power somehow broke — and that’s why he’s gone.”
“Wow…” James said slowly before breaking into a huge grin. “MY SON DEFEATED VOLDEMORT!”
Lily was stunned. “But how... how did he… Wow.”
Dumbledore nodded glumly.
“It’s — it’s true?” faltered Professor McGonagall. “After all he’s done… all the people he’s killed… he couldn’t kill a little boy? It’s just astounding… of all the things to stop him… but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?”
“That’s exactly what I want to know” Lily said and the others nodded in agreement.
“We can only guess.” said Dumbledore. “We may never know.”
Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, “Hagrid’s late. I suppose it was he who told you I’d be here, by the way?”
“Yes,” said Professor McGonagall. “And I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me why you’re here, of all places?”
“I’ve come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They’re the only family he has left now.”
“What? NO!” Lily bellowed, looking furious.
James looked equally as angry but tried to calm Lily down.
“Lily it’s ok – “
“No James! No it’s not! Petunia hates me because I’m a witch! She’ll just neglect Harry! I don’t want him there! I don’t want him with Petunia and her stupid husband!” She almost broke down and allowed James to hug her again.
James looked at Sirius and Remus.
“Will you guys promise me that if anything happens…you’ll look after Harry instead of them?”
“Of course mate” Sirius said quietly, his face solemn and Remus nodded.
“You don’t mean – you can’t mean the people who live here?” cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. “Dumbledore — you can’t. I’ve been watching them all day. You couldn’t find two people who are less like us. And they’ve got this son — I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!”
“It’s the best place for him,” said Dumbledore firmly. “His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he’s older. I’ve written them a letter.”
“A letter?” Lily said in a deadly voice. “Petunia isn’t going to take any notice of anything written to her in a letter sent by a ‘freak’”
“A letter?” repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. “Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He’ll be famous — a legend — I wouldn’t be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future — there will be books written about Harry — every child in our world will know his name!”
“Exactly.” said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. “It would be enough to turn any boy’s head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won’t even remember! Can you see how much better off he’ll be, growing up away from all that until he’s ready to take it?”
“He has a point” James said slowly.
“But still…” Lily frowned. “Petunia won’t look after him properly..”
Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, “Yes — yes, you’re right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?” She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.
“You think it —wise — to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?”
“Hagrid’s awesome though” Sirius protested.
“I would trust Hagrid with my life,” said Dumbledore.
“I’m not saying his heart isn’t in the right place,” said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, “but you can’t pretend he’s not careless. He does tend to — what was that?”
A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky — and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.
“Awesome!” James and Sirius yelled
If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild — long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.
“Harry…” Lily whispered, leaning further into James’s embrace.
“Hagrid,” said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. “At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?”
“Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir,” said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. “Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I’ve got him, sir.”
“It’s mine!” Sirius yelled gleefully. “YES!”
“Shut up Padfoot” Remus sighed, annoyed.
“No problems, were there?”
“No, sir — house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin’ around. He fell asleep as we was flyin’ over Bristol.”
Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.
“Awww…” Lily cooed softly and Sirius rolled his eyes.
“Is that where —?” whispered Professor McGonagall.
“Yes,” said Dumbledore. “He’ll have that scar forever.”
“Couldn’t you do something about it, Dumbledore?”
“Even if I could, I wouldn’t. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground.
“Erm…Didn’t need to know that” Sirius said, laughing.
Well — give him here, Hagrid — we’d better get this over with.”
Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys’ house.
“Could I — could I say good-bye to him, sir?” asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.
“No need for the dog reference.” Sirius huffed, causing him to receive two glares and one curious look.
“Shhh!” hissed Professor McGonagall, “You’ll wake the Muggles!”
“S-s-sorry,” sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. “But I c-c-can’t stand it —Lily an’ James dead — an’ poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles —”
“Hagrid has a good heart” Lily smiled.
“Yes, yes, it’s all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we’ll be found,” Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry’s blankets, and then came back to the other two.
For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid’s shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore’s eyes seemed to have gone out.
They all frowned at that.
“Well,” said Dumbledore finally, “that’s that. We’ve no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations.”
“Yeah,” said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I best get this bike away. G’night, Professor McGonagall — Professor Dumbledore, sir.”
Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.
“I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall,” said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.
Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.
“Good luck, Harry,” he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.
A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours’ time by Mrs. Dursley’s scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley… He couldn’t know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: “To Harry Potter — the boy who lived!”
“That’s the end of the chapter” Remus said heavily, putting the book on the table. Lily reached over to pick it up.
“Anyone mind?” she asked and received a negative. She smiled weakly and turned to the next chapter.
“Chapter two: Vanishing Glass…”
|
|
