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The Years After	By : Araea Swiftwind Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male Views: 2598 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I make any money off the writing of this piece of fiction. The views expressed herein do not in any way reflect the views of J.K. Rowling or Warner Bros. and their affiliates.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
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Part 16 – Chapter 14 - Sept. 18, 1992

It was the day after they had woken up and Lily and James were a bit tired from their trip from the continent back to England. They were still too weak from years of sleep to apparate, so they had taken the floo to the coast, and decided to sail from there. It was a long journey—though not as long as it would have taken a Muggle to travel the same way—but well worth it. They were awake now, and able to search for their son. Dumbledore didn't know anything was different, and so they wouldn't have to worry about his interference.

Everyone had their own ideas for where to start looking, but eventually they decided that first, they needed a place to crash and recharge. Remus still had a place near Godric's Hollow, but no one really wanted the reminder. Sirius suggested his parents' old home in London, at Grimmauld Place. It hadn't been used for years, and no one would think that Sirius would want to revisit it, what with the falling out he'd had so many years before with his parents. The only place Lily and James had was the house in Godric’s Hollow that was all but destroyed, so that was obviously out as well. With only one real, quick, choice they headed off.

The trip to London was a bit long and uncomfortable, but it gave the group time to rest and think over their options for finding Harry. All of them wanted to start looking right away, but once they actually stepped foot into Grimmauld Place, they realized that if they were going to live in the musty old home, it would need some work.

No one had been in the house since Sirius’ parents had died, and while there was a house elf in attendance, he was old and didn’t actually clean anything so much as he looked at the old artifacts and mumbled to himself. Sirius tried asking, telling, and yelling at the creature to get him to do some actual work, but nothing made a difference on the creature’s behavior. As far as the little thing was concerned, his true masters were dead, and the disgraced son wasn’t worthy.

In the end, each adult had to find some cleaning supplies and tackle the mess on their own. There were several floors in the town home, so each adult took one and got to work. Remus was on the top level. Up there was attic space and a few small bedrooms. Much of the fabric up there bore holes and doxie nests. Removing the nests and fixing the holes took Remus hours. But once he was finally finished, the place looked much better, and was definitely habitable.

Sirius was settled on the floor below Remus. This was the level his old bedroom was on. There were a lot of memories on this floor, and most of them weren’t good. The hardest part about cleaning this floor for him, however, is when he got to his brother Regulus’ room. Regulus had died years ago, at only 18 years old. He had been in the service of the Dark Lord, and went missing one day. No one ever found out what had happened to him, but he was presumed dead. For Sirius, going into his brother’s room was almost sacrilegious. Even though Sirius and Regulus had different ideals, they were still brothers. Sirius loved Regulus more than just about anyone else. He hated that his brother was so taken with the Dark Lord. As far as he was concerned, it was the Dark Lord’s fault that Regulus was dead.

James had taken the second floor. On that floor, there was only one bedroom, but many other rooms used for entertaining guests. The bedroom had belonged to Orion and Walburga Black, Sirius’ parents. James didn’t really want to go into their room, but it needed to be cleaned, so he bit the bullet and just got it over with. It didn’t take him too long to get it livable, so he quickly moved on to other rooms, such as the drawing room and the library. Those rooms were interesting, and filled with many Black artifacts. Some of them were emanating dark magic, but most of them were of historic value. James carefully contained the contaminated things, but didn’t know where to move them to. He left the library quickly and walked over to the staircase.

“Sirius!!”

Sirius was trapped in some rather painful memories of his time in his family home, so he didn’t hear James right away. His mind was being tortured by scenes of his mother’s cruelty, of his father’s indifference, of his dear brother. Tears slowly leaked out of his eyes as he remembered every painful moment.

“Sirius?” James, having given up on yelling up to Sirius, climbed the stairs and went to find his friend. Sirius was just standing in the middle of Regulus’ room, staring off into space. James walked up next to him quietly, so as to not startle the man, and gently placed his hand on the other man’s shoulder.

The tortured man jumped slightly and blinked his eyes, startled despite James’ attempt at sparing him. Sirius looked around for a moment to get his bearings, then turned to his friend.

“James?”

“Hey. Sorry to bother you, Siri, but I found some dark artifacts in the library. I contained them, but I didn’t know where I should store them until we can get them to the ministry.”

Sirius shook the last of the memories from his head before he responded. “Oh, um…I guess we can store things like that in the attic. Remus should be up there right now. Go ahead and hand them off to them. He’ll make sure they are safe up there.”

James smiled at his friend. “Thanks, Padfoot. Are you all right, though? You seemed pretty haunted when I came in.”

Sirius gave James a tight smile, but answered as positively as he could. “Yeah, of course. I’m fine. You know, it’s just this house…”

“That I do. If you feel like talking, you know where I’ll be.”

“I’ll let you know.”

James wasn’t so sure Sirius would actually come to him if he needed someone to talk to, but he could pretend as well as anyone. He gave Sirius a last pat on the shoulder, then went back to work.

O_O_O_O_O_O_O_O

Lily had been given the ground floor to take care of. The only things down there were a parlor, powder room, and the kitchen. It didn’t take her much time to get everything cleaned up. She was quite handy with household spells, and it was mostly dust and cobwebs she needed to remove. There was one doxie nest in the parlor, but she took care of that without any incidents.

Because she got things taken care of so quickly, she decided to make lunch for everyone. There wasn’t much in the house by way of food, so she popped out for a bit to grab a few things. By the time the guys were done with their tasks, there was a platter of sandwiches and pasties on the table, and a pitcher of cold juice waiting.

After they had eaten their fill, they revisited the idea of where to start searching for Harry.

"Well, if you were going to kidnap and hide a child, where would you put him?" Sirius asked.

"Someplace no one would look, obviously," Remus answered.

"But, where would that be?" He asked again.

"I don't know..." He answered again.

James rolled his eyes. "Well, let's go about it this way...where would be places that someone would look?"

"At Hogwarts," Lily answered at once.

"With someone in the Order," Remus supplied.

"With us..." Sirius said gloomily.

"Well, obviously that one's out," James snapped.

"Sorry...just miss him..." Sirius responded.

James' face softened. "I know, we all do. But dwelling on it isn't going to help us locate him."

Lily, not liking the way the conversation had turned, suggested, "Why don't we ask someone?"

"Like who? Dumbledore has everyone in his pocket," James said cynically.

"Not everyone..." she hinted.

"Who?" he queried.

With a smile she answered, “Minerva...she stands up for what is right before she stands up for what Albus says..."

"That's true," he replied slowly.

"And Severus," she added.

That got a stronger reaction out of her husband. "No, absolutely not. I am not going to bring Snivellus into this."

Lily frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "James, come on. If he knows anything about where Harry is, wouldn't you want to know?"

The messy-haired man sighed. "Only because it's Harry."

"Why don't you write Minerva, and I'll write Severus," she placated.

"Fine. But only tell him the bare minimum."

With a winsome smile, she replied, "Whatever you say, dear."

O_O_O_O_O_O_O_O

Dear Minerva,
            I'm sure you'll be shocked to see who this is from. I'd be shocked myself if I weren't in the position I'm in now. But now isn't the time to let our emotions run away with us. Lily and I have just awoken and I had a bad feeling that someone close to us is not being truthful. I wonder if you know anything about that? If you feel like sharing, please respond immediately.

- J.P.

O_O_O_O_O_O_O_O

Dearest Severus,
            It's been an age since we've spoken, hasn't it? I know it must come as a shock to be hearing from me now. It was a miracle, really. One minute we're asleep for eleven years, the next some 'anonymous healer' has found a cure. Strange, how those things work, isn't it? Anyways, that's not really what I wanted to speak about, at least not right now. There is a more pressing matter that we need to deal with. My son. Please, tell me all you know on the matter. I don't remember much from that night, and I'm sure you can fill in the blanks.

Thank you, Severus.

- Lily

O_O_O_O_O_O_O_O

James,
            I sincerely hope you are somewhere safe. Things are not as they should be. I don't know much, only that strange things have been happening around Hogwarts for the last eleven years. I was surprised when he didn't show up for classes last year, and I wasn't the only one. But the person who should have been most upset seemed as happy as a clam. I recommend speaking with Severus, as I'm sure he could tell you much more than I about the situation. If I'm not mistaken, it was he who arranged for this conversation to be possible.

- Minerva

O_O_O_O_O_O_O_O

Dearest Lily,
            May I first tell you how irrevocably sorry I am. If not for me, this situation would not have happened. I was a fool in my youth and made more mistakes than I can count. Now, however, I wish to remedy the situation. I know much about that which you asked. I'm afraid that I can't tell you much in such an insecure method. Meet me in Wiltshire for Christmas and all will be made clear. I know the wait is long, but it will be worth it in the end. It is so good to hear from you, Lily. You will never know how good.

-Severus

O_O_O_O_O_O_O_O

Lily finished reading her letter and set it delicately on the table. Severus had been her dearest friend since childhood. His defection to the Dark side had hurt her immeasurably. But now, perhaps, things could be different. If Dumbledore wasn't who he said he was, perhaps neither is Voldemort. She looked away from the crisp parchment and up at her husband. "James, what did yours say?"

"Minerva recommended speaking to...Severus. She says that he's the reason we're awake now and that he mostly likely has the details we want."

"I had thought so. 'Anonymous healer with a potion'...smacks of Severus. He told me that he could inform me of much, but we have to wait until Christmas. He says it's not safe to tell me through owl post."

James frowned unhappily. "Christmas? And how is he going to tell you at Christmas? Did you tell him where we are?"

Lily felt that sometimes, her husband was a real idiot. "No, James. Keep your pants on. He told me to meet him in Wiltshire."

"Where in Wiltshire?"

She looked sheepish. "Um...he didn't say."

"Then how in the hell are we supposed to meet him there?" James yelled, though not as loudly as he could have. He was frustrated, not angry, and he didn't want to upset his wife.

"I think it was a clue, as much as a location," Lily chanced.

"A clue?"

When he didn't shout again, she continued. "Yes...he must have thought I'd be able to figure out the exact location. We have until Christmas, after all, and I was the brightest witch of our age..."

James frowned again, but knew that if anyone could figure it out, it was her.

O_O_O_O_O_O_O_O

Lucius,
            I'm writing to inform you that we will be having a couple of extra mouths at Christmas Dinner. Please inform the Dark Lord that everything went according to plan. And make sure Harry is dressed well before they arrive. It wouldn't do to make a poor impression. I'm sure that Our Lord will be able to fill in anything you need clarifying.

- Severus
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The Years After