Exchanges

Chapter Three: "All Sane Men, Turn Back Now!"

"James?" The room was dark. It was as if someone didn't feel they needed much light. "James?"

"Lily." A warm hand slipped into hers. "I'm here."

"James!" Lily turned in the direction of his voice. "Where are-oh, there you are! You're alive! How...?"

"Do you remember the Doomsday Dread project?"

She frowned for a moment, and then she stared at him with wide eyes. "We died?" He nodded. "And now we're back?"

"Yep. You and I, and also the Bones, Prewetts, Jolneys... A whole bunch of people, about twenty, all told. It worked, Lily."

She continued to stare at him. You and I... When Voldemort had cursed her, he had taken two other people, as well. Only one of them had been on the Project. "James?" She hadn't meant to whisper, but that was how it came out. She pressed a hand against her stomach. "James, what about Harry?"

He looked away, first at the door, then down at his hands. He sat still for a bit, eyes closed, and then looked up at her. "I haven't dared to ask... it's not exactly likely he got away, though, is it? Did it look like he would?"

Tears filled Lily's eyes. "No. Voldemort killed him, James, he must have. Oh, James!" The tears were spilling down her cheeks, now, and she threw herself into his arms, sobbing. He held her while she did, and occasionally, a tear dripped down onto her hair.

It had finally happened: Dudley would be starting on the same day as Harry. That meant that Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia would have to have someone else drop Harry at Platform Nine and Three Quarters, because they always drove Dudley up to Smeltings themselves, and would be leaving very early in the morning.

So, Harry would be taken over to Mrs. Figg's house that morning, and then they would drive to London. And while this meant he would probably have to look at yet more pictures of her cats, it also meant that the Dursleys could not, at the last minute, refuse to take him.

"Foxfire." She looked up from her desk, on which was scattered a disgustingly large amount of paper: course schedules, syllabuses, and lesson plans from previous years.

"Yes, Pro-Dumbledore?"

"I trust you got an owl on the successful completion of the Doomsday Dread project?" Fox nodded. "Were you aware that the Potters were also on the project?"

It took a moment to sink in. "Oh! You mean... they've... they're..."

"They have been reanimated. Now, however, the problem is where to put the people who were on the project? They were and are very high-profile."

"And?"

"It has been decided that certain members will come to Hogwarts, including Lily and James. I would like you, as a fellow member of the Project, to come to the meeting."

"I would be honored."

Snapdragon Black relaxed into chair. It hadn't taken much to find the most comfortable spot in the library-all she had had to do was ask the librarian. Madam Pince had been most helpful, telling her that if she pulled a certain book on the back bookshelf, there would open up a huge reading room with a large fire, table, chairs, and a large jar of sweets. She wondered why the woman had been so flattered to be asked; surely the students here knew how to ask for help?

Having finally found and requested help of the Potions instructor (who had, now that she thought of it, also looked rather surprised to have a student request help) she felt like she might not make a total fool out of herself in that class. He had recommended that she also find a fellow student to help her learn.

She was just going over her notes on the summer homework of History of Magic (a very biased class that she suspected might be even more boring than its textbook) when the door to the room opened. The headmaster, looking very surprised, stood in the doorway, followed by Snapper's mother, a very strict looking witch in tartan robes that Snapper didn't know, and a very small wizard that Snapper recognized as Professor Flitwick. "Hello," she said.

"Hello. Miss Black, I am terribly sorry, but I must ask you to continue your studies elsewhere. We need to use the room for a private conversation."

"No problem. I'll just take these up to my room. Goodnight all!"

"Goodnight, Miss Black."

"Goodnight, Snapper." Her mother gave her a quick hug on the way past, and Snapper smiled up at her.

She did go up to her room, a small room near the Infirmary, but instead of staying there, she went back down to the Great Hall. She had been spending her nights exploring the castle-it wasn't every day that one got the chance, after all, and she wanted to study while her mind was alert for the day. Although she supposed it would be every day, now.

She passed a statue of a very puzzled-looking wizard whose name probably began with a "B", judging by the worn-away inscription on the bottom of the plaque. Two suits of armor waved to her as she passed, and she decided to turn back.

Her stomach growled.

Snapper looked at the armor on her left. She looked at the armor on her right. The armor on her left waved again. "Well, my chivalrous fellows! Care to guide me to the kitchens?"

Really, it was pitifully easy to find your way in a new country-all you had to do was ask nicely.

"Hogwarts!" James cried, and hurtled into the flames. When he emerged out the other side, a group of thirteen people were waiting for him. Four were professors at Hogwarts; McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout, as well as Dumbledore himself. Three of them were Lumiosi women: Foxfire and Star, and one who had also been on the project, Emeline. The rest had come through the fire before him.

"Well, it looks like we're all here," said Star. "Directions, Albus?"

"Straight to the point... a Lumiosi woman to core, Star. Would you please check everyone here over for me? I would like to be certain that they are suffering no ill-effects. As for all the people who were on the Project..." The piercing gaze that James had grown to know so well over time swept the room. "I would like all of you to guard this school during the year."

This was pretty much what James was expecting; they'd been told that much was coming back at the Project headquarters.

"Some of you I will ask to patrol-Joanna, Emeline, I believe you are Invisibists? Then I will ask you to patrol the school invisibly. The rest of you will use another way of hiding yourselves."

A thought occurred to James, and he spoke up. "What about my cloak?"

Dumbledore smiled. "My apologies, James. That is no longer in my possession."

James stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"When your son entered this school, I thought it would be appropriate to pass it on to him. I did not think that you would have any objections to this, or I assure you, I would not have done it."

A hundred things were going through James' head. He felt like there was something sitting on his chest, keeping him from breathing and making his heart beat faster, faster, faster faster faster-

"When who entered Hogwarts, Albus?" choked out Lily.

Dumbledore's eyebrows shot up. "Your son. Harry Potter." He bent towards them, as if wondering if they were quite right in the head.

There was silence in the room, and then from beside the door, Foxfire Lumiosi spoke up suddenly. "James. Lily. Did no one tell you that he lived?" Mutely, they shook their heads. Fox gave a little shake. "Well. He did. He's rather famous for it, actually. As closely as we can tell, You-Kn-" She glanced at Dumbledore. "--Voldemort succeeded in killing the two of you, and then tried to kill Harry. Well, somehow the curse reflected off of Harry back onto Voldemort, nearly killing him and draining him of all his powers. The day became Liberation Day, there was dancing in the streets, shooting stars, bonfires, et cetera. And Harry... everyone in the wizarding world knew his name, Lily, James. Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived." She looked around the room, then gave another little shake and smiled sarcastically, breaking the mood. "And I have the dubious pleasure of teaching him Defense Against the Dark Arts in less than nine days! Wish me luck!"

James stared at her, and sank his head into his hands. "I didn't even realize he was alive." He looked up, angrily. "I can't believe no one told us!"

"They probably didn't know we thought he was dead. They surely wouldn't wish us to think so from malevolence, would they?" James found himself exceedingly glad that Lily was there; one of them need to be able to think clearly. "That explains all those cryptic comments about last June that we overheard... Do you remember, everyone was saying it. Voldemort was defeated, and now he's back because of something that happened in June, right?" Dumbledore nodded. Lily leaned forward. "What happened? Tell me, Albus!"

He told them. By the time he was finished telling them, Lily had her head pressed hard into James' shoulder.

When he had finished, Sarah Jolney cleared her throat and changed the subject; she never had been terribly comfortable with large displays of emotion, and one was obviously coming on. "Albus, how were you planning on having those of us who aren't Invisibists guard Hogwarts? We aren't exactly inconspicuous, are we?"

"Actually, Sarah, I was thinking of having you disguise yourself as students, and enroll in the school."

"How?" That was Clarence, her husband. "I assume we will be donning glamouries? Otherwise, we would stand out a bit."

"Indeed, I was in fact thinking of glamouries. Less painful than Polyjuice, for one thing. I also hear the taste is much better."

"The taste is nothing at all, Albus." Joanna Bones, this time. "How were you planning to explain our sudden presence?"

"I thought that some of you could simply enroll as first years... tuition on us, of course. The others might be transferring in... there will be rather a lot of people doing that, and a few more would not be noticed."

"So that's why you three are here," said Patrick Bones, looking at McGonagall, Sprout, and Flitwick. "You might have to have us in your house."

"Precisely."

"One short, aren't we?" asked James.

"Someone will have to be in Slytherin, it would be silly to not keep an eye on them." That was Lily.

"Who's heading Slytherin?"

"I see you two are thinking for each other again." James looked up sharply. The door had opened as they were speaking, and Severus Snape had entered. "I apologize for my lateness," he said to Dumbledore, "I could not leave that potion unattended."

"I understand," said Dumbledore, "Is it complete?"

"Almost."

"Good." Dumbledore turned to face them again. "One of you will, indeed, need to be a part of Slytherin House. I had thought that might be you, Clarence..."

"No. I'm not a good enough liar." Severus' eyes narrowed. "I'm talking about acting, Snape, it wasn't a slur against your house."

"I'll do it." It was Lily. "But I'm not going to be a Slytherin and a first year; I'll be in whatever year Harry is in."

"That sounds very fair. I trust you will show her to the Slytherin Dormitory, Severus?"

"No. As a new student, she will naturally not know where they are. I'll have one of the Prefects show you were they are."

Lily nodded. "And I'll need to be updated on recent history; and also, I need a good background family. In Slytherin, a slip of one of those might be fatal."

"I will arrange for both of those. Does anyone else want to 'transfer' in?"

"I do." James didn't want to completely isolate himself from Lily.

"Agreed. There should be no problem with you being in Gryffindor; what year?"

"I don't care. Something pretty close to whatever year Lily will be in. And Harry."

Snape spoke from beside the door. "I would advise against having him in the same dorm as his son, Headmaster." Hah! Thought James. I knew he'd be a Gryffindor!

Dumbledore looked piercingly as Snape, then at James. "I would agree. Perhaps a year above? I find I do not wish him in the same year as the misters Weasley, either." Every teacher in the room shuddered.

Snapdragon stared at the bustling kitchen. Mississippi Bay had house-elves that worked there; however, there were no where near this number. Given the relatively small size of the school (roughly four hundred students total, over the course of seven years, as opposed to six hundred, over the course of four) it was astounding to see how many house-elves there were. "This place is going to kick butt! I can't wait 'til Cassie and David get here," she whispered.

Eventually, it was decided that Clarence and Patrick would be in Ravenclaw, Sarah would be in Hufflepuff, Lily in Slytherin, and James in Gryffindor. Emeline and Joanna would be patrolling invisibly, and would have rooms in the empty dorms under the Divination tower that no one ever used.

"All that remains," said Dumbledore, "Is to find a way to get you onto the train. I admit, here I am at a loss."

"We could sneak on," offered Patrick, "I hear James would be rather useful for that."

"We could sneak on. It seems like an awful lot of pointless bother, though." James looked at Dumbledore. "Personally, I recommend having us get to the station from Diagon Alley. We'll Floo, it's easy enough."

"I didn't realize that one could Floo onto the platform," commented Lily.

"You can. There's a fireplace on the far side of the train that's just for that, in case your family doesn't have access to a car."

"Why don't we just Floo from here, then?"

"Because there's an alert on the fireplace. If someone Floos from Hogwarts, then a siren will start sounding."

Professor Dumbledore looked hard at James. "I'm surprised; I wouldn't think that Dippet would have done such a thing."

"Dippet didn't, Dumbledore; Sirius and I did in our fourth year. We were going to pull some prank or other at the platform, and didn't want to be taken by surprise if a teacher came in."

"You did your usual thorough job at the prank, then. I will have that removed, and then you will all Floo onto the platform from here."

"Pleased to."

"Very well, then. I will take you all to your rooms... The Divination Tower is going to be getting a lot of use from now on, I'm afraid..."

He showed them all to their rooms (the ones who were enrolling as students would also be in the tower for the night). Just as Dumbledore was beginning to leave Lily and James' room, Lily called him back.

"Albus, there are a couple things I wanted to talk to you about..."

"For one thing," chimed in James, "We would like to see Harry as ourselves."

"It's not right to let him think us dead..."

"...And I don't want to be separated from my son for the rest of time."

Dumbledore held up a hand to cut them off. "I will make no promises; however, I will contact the one taking him to the station."

Both of them nodded, disappointed but unsurprised.

"What was the other thing that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Professor-" Dumbledore's eyebrows shot up; usually, Lily called him "Albus." "I'm going to need to take about a month off in December." "Why?" he asked, a reasonable enough question. Lily ducked her head and turned red.

"Because... because... Oh, just trust me, I'll need to!" She looked very upset, biting her lip, her hand pressed to her lower stomach.

"Very well. I will think about ways to arrange it. We have time." Lily nodded.

"For once, that's on our side."