Harry Potter and the Forest of Shadows

Harry Potter and the Forest

Of Shadows

Harry awoke the next morning, in pleasant warmth. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and sat up, sliding on his glasses.

His mouth fell open at the sight of the room he was in. The bed was a gigantic four-poster with mounds of silken gold and red sheets and a fluffy down comforter to top it off. Behind him were what looked like hundreds of pillows propping him up.

Slowly he climbed to the edge of the king-sized bed and let his feet dangle just above the stone floor. Staring around the room, Harry saw a fair-sized fireplace, a bookshelf stuffed full, an old antique dresser and desk, three windows that were at least five and a half feet high, and pictures covering the walls.

Behind one of the two doors he found to be a closet, and the other to be an exit.

Sitting on top of the dresser were two books (100 Pranks for Enemies- And Friends, and Defense Techniques), an old-fashioned oil lamp, and a picture. Harry picked the photograph up, smiling.

Younger versions of Remus and Sirius were laying stomach down on a bed with Harry's father. Remus was sitting in the middle and Harry's mother, Lily, on top of him. The woman that had cleared Sirius' name was sitting in front of the bed, a child version of Rosemary in her lap. Sirius' hands were playing with her hair.

Making sure James was looking, Lily leaned down and kissed Remus. He looked up at her unimpressed but James jumped up and pounced on her. They wrestled for a minute while the others rolled their eyes. Lily ended up pinning James down by his wrists and started singing a song. Everyone burst out laughing but she kept on singing. Finally she stopped, leaned down and kissed her husband deeply.

Harry jumped as the curtains snapped back, supposedly on their own. Sunlight streamed through, lighting the whole room up. He

couldn't see much outside except for a wood in the far distance.

"Like your new room?"

Harry twisted around to find Sirius leaning up against the doorframe.

"What?"

It couldn't be his new room... Could it?

"Your room. Do you like it?"

"My room? This is mine?"

"Says so on the door," Sirius shrugged.

Harry looked on the front of the door and saw a plaque on it that said Harry's Room.

"Happy birthday, kid."

Sirius smiled as Harry hugged him tightly and returned the gesture. When they broke apart, Sirius led him out of the room and into the hall.

"Where are we?" he asked curiously, staring at the walls and ceiling. "Not Grimmauld Place?"

"Hell no." But he looked over and saw Harry smiling. Sirius grimaced and ruffled his godson's hair. "We are at the Noble House of... the Mullins'."

"Who?"

"We had an old school friend- Cassy Mullins. She died a while back."

Harry saw pain filter into his godfather's eyes and changed the subject.

"Where are we going now?"

"To wake Moony up." A devilish grin was pasted on Sirius face as he pulled out a party horn and tiptoed into a room on the left side of the hall.

Harry cautiously followed, scared of what Lupin's reaction was going to be.

Sirius was right by the bed when he started blowing as hard as he could on the horn. Remus sat rod-straight up, and stared at Sirius who was still blowing happily. Harry couldn't help but smile.

"I didn't want to have to do this," Remus said, producing a picture from a drawer beside his bed.

When Sirius saw it, he immediately stopped, tore the picture from his friend's hand and threw it into the meager fire.

Harry's face fell; he had desperately wanted to see it. "Harry," Lupin said, turning to him, a pleasant smile on his face. "Happy birthday. Now, for your breakfast all we have here is sugarcoated cereal. If you would like some meat, and if I have your permission, I'm sure your godfather would make a fine meal."

Harry laughed out loud. "Sorry Remus, for some reason I happen to like him."

Remus looked down at the dog whom was currently looking up at him, tongue hanging out and panting. "We're going to have to put a collar on you," he said and led Harry out of the room.

Harry was marveled at the castle-like house that he was being led through. The whole house was gothic structured with beautiful paintings everywhere.

They finally reached an entrance hall as big as Hogwarts' with a huge marble staircase leading down to what was so shiny it could be mistaken for a glass floor.

"Wow. This is where we're going to live."

Remus smiled, walking over to one of five large oak doors and pulling it open.

Inside was a spacey kitchen. Unlike the rest of the house, it looked just like a regular kitchen, only bigger.

A wooden table with four matching chairs was in the very center. Along the back wall were all the appliances: a sink, refrigerator, stove, and oven. Above the basin was a homey-looking window with navy curtains, matching the gray walls.

On one of the sidewalls was a drying rack for dishes and cabinets, a countertop separating a top row and a bottom row. On the other side were two more oak doors, and a dumb butler. Coming off from about the middle of the cabinets was another countertop; one side had higher chairs for a bar and the other another countertop.

Remus walked straight to the refrigerator. Harry stood staring for a minute before Sirius pushed him gently forward.

"Sit down," he said, sitting in one of the high chairs. Harry followed.

"Okay, what would ya like?" Remus asked, putting a carton of eggs, butter, bread, bacon, and pancake mix on the counter.

"Er- eggs and toast please."

Sirius laughed.

"What?"

"Nothing," he said, shaking his head, still grinning.

Remus joined them, putting plates down in front of all three of them.

"After breakfast, we'll show you around the rest of the house," Sirius said, downing his orange juice. "It's pretty big and should take a while to show you everything. But don't worry, you'll get used to the size. That should leave just enough time for everyone to get h- OW!"

Remus' lips were pursed as he glared at Sirius.

"Who's everyone?" Harry asked.

"No one," Remus answered quickly.

"But if everyone's no one then no one is someone."

"But if someone is no one than we're back to where we stared. No one."

"Oh, but if someone is no one and there are a bunch of no ones than that's a bunch of someones which means that that's everyone."

A knocking on the window broke the argument as Remus let an unrecognized tawny owl in. He put five knuts into the purple pouch around the owl's leg and closed the window back after it flew off.

He unraveled the newspaper, scanning the headline. "Sir, come look at this," he said.

Sirius took the paper from Remus and read the headline. He smiled and muttered, "About bloody time."

"What?" Harry asked.

"Fudge was impeached. There's a new minister."

"Who?"

"Me."

Harry twisted around in his chair to the door they had entered

from. A woman with auburn hair to her shoulders was leaning against the doorway. Her complexion was a clear, tanned one. She was wearing deep purple velvety dress robes. Her lips rosy lips were curved into a smile and her blue eyes were dancing with laughter.

"Hi Siri," she said.

"That's all that I get?"

She laughed and ran to hug him tightly. They held onto each other for at least a minute before letting go.

"Hi Remy." She then hugged Remus for a few seconds and stared back at both of them before turning to look at Harry.

"My name's Kammy Waller. You can just call me Kammy or Kam. Your parents would kill me if they knew you were calling me Mrs. Waller." She shuddered.

Harry smiled and said sheepishly, "Nice to meet you."

"So, you're the minister-er-ess?"

She laughed. "Yea. Kyle wanted to apply to be an auror to get some inside info for Dumbledore, but figured someone had to turn the

Ministry around."

"Where're you staying?" Sirius asked.

"Oh, James' parents' old summer home. It's unnaturally clean."

"Which one?"

"The cliffy one; in Monaco."

"Oh, yea. Cool. So are you staying?"

"I was planning on it. It wasn't just a spontaneous thing that i showed up on Harry's birthday."

Harry smiled. He had never had so many people care about him before; even someone he didn't know had shown up.

Kammy went upstairs to change while Sirius and Remus showed Harry around the rest of the downstairs. There was a gigantic dining room with a thirty-foot high ceiling and four floor-to-roof windows covered with heavy black curtains.

Connected to that was a Sitting room with a warm fireplace and many other grand objects including antique furniture and a grand case piano.

On the other side of the house were two studies and an elaborate bathroom. In between the two studies was another living room, much more leisure and didn't look like a mueseum. At the end of that room was a small door Sirius had to point out that led to a very out of place muggle gameroom with a television, video games, pinball machines, a large collection of movies, and beanbags and overstuffed chairs and couches to lounge in.

As they made their way back to the leisure living room, Harry heard hushed whispers and was very taken aback as people jumped at him shouting out things such as, "Happy Birthday," or "Surprise".

Harry's smile was wide as he stepped farther into the room. "What is this?"

"We thought it was about time you had a birthday party," Hermione said, smiling.

The whole room seemed to have been decorated in less than a couple of minutes; the Weasleys, Hermione, Rosy, and Kammy were in the room.

Sirius led him into the room. Hermione and Ron were sharing a chair; Ginny was sitting between Fred and George on one of the love seats; Kammy had changed into jeans and a t-shirt and was sitting on one of the couches with Mrs. and Mr. Weasley and Rosy.

"Thank you," he said turning to Sirius and Remus; he knew they were the ones that had planned it all.

"You're welcome, kid."

"Oh, and, Harry," Remus whispered, pulling him aside, "do not drink the punch."

"Why?"

"Just... don't."

Rain pattered on the larger-than-life windows as everyone sat in a grand dining room with a mahogany table about half the size of a Hogwarts house table, eating cake.

Kammy was about to take a sip of punch when a great bubbling noise issued from it and Harry found out exactly why Remus had admonished him not to drink the punch.

She fell backwards in her chair as the punch exploded all over her, covering her in red sticky. "Sirius," she growled.

Not looking, Kammy threw her slice of cake at who she thought was Sirius but it ended up hitting Ron square in the face.

"Oh it's on," he said and chucked his piece at Kammy but she ducked and it hit Sirius.

"Loser," Sirius said and made to throw a piece at Ron, but Ron dove under the table pulling Hermione on top of him so the cake landed in her chair.

Harry, Ginny, Fred, and George followed them under the table and to the other side where the marvelous cake was sitting. All of the kids took handfuls of cake and tossed them at the adults.

Anyone that had just been watching the spectacle was now joining the war of the cake. The kids had been winning until the other side captured Harry.

He let out screams of laughter as Sirius tickled his ribs. "Y'know, people always say you're like your father, but you're too much like your mother."

When Harry's side had finally surrendered with a white napkin, Sirius let Harry go.

Harry stood up, his sides aching, and took a lick of the cake. "Hmm, good cake. Such a waste."

Pieces from everyone flew at him.

"Open mine first, open mine first!" Sirius shouted in a high-pitched girly voice, jumping up and down on a chair.

"Creepy," Harry said, taking the small present from Remus.

"It's from Sirius and I," he explained as Harry unwrapped the box and opened it. An old-fashioned key lay on soft padding.

"Wow," Harry said, standing up, "a key. It's what I've always wanted." With that, he pretended to faint.

Sirius kicked him in the shin. "It's a very important key, right Moony? We'll show you later."

Anticipation settled into the pit of his stomach as he opened the rest of his gifts. Fred and George had given him a troublemaker's kit and assurance he could come in anytime and get anything for free. Ron had given him a personalized snitch while he received a wizard radio from Hermione.

From the Weasleys he got clothes ('instead of those rags you're wearing' Mrs. Weasley had said).

Kammy placed a scrapbook busting at the seams in front of him. On the cover was the title The Marauders. Harry flipped through it, scanning the pictures, maps, plans, and small notes. So far, he enjoyed this present the most- a legacy of his father and his friends.

Finally, Rosy handed him a small box that looked like one of the boxes Aunt Petunia had received a ring from Uncle Vernon in- he needed to remind himself to asked Sirius what had happened to Dudley and Aunt Petunia whom he remembered seeing at the Burrow last night.

Inside the box was an amulet, exactly like the one Rosy constantly wore. "Er- thanks," he said, not exactly sure how to receive a piece of jewelry.

"I'll explain that later," Sirius spoke up and took the jewel from him, taking a half-glance at Rosy.

After everyone had fallen into his or her own conversations, Ginny led Harry into the kitchen where they went out the back door. They walked through tall grasses before arriving in a small courtyard situated in the nook of the side of the manor. Ginny sat down and pulled Harry down with her.

She handed him two small wrapped objects and smiled. He unwrapped the first, crossing his legs.

It was a thick golden coin hanging on a silver chain; the gold looked real.

"Ginny, what is this?"

"I made it... I've been working on it for a few months now. And I finished it last night."

Harry looked closely at it. On each side of the coin were two pieces of rope bonded tightly together. Coming from the ends of each rope was on single drop of blood. Framing the edges were three Latin words that Harry didn't recognize.

"What do these words mean?"

"One says trust; one says love; one says faith; and one says protection. It's a protective talisman."

Harry gazed at in wonder. They were supposed to be extremely hard to find and even harder to make. "You made this... for me?"

"Yea," she said. "I figured some protection and maybe a little bit of luck wouldn't hurt you."

He slipped it over his head and started unwrapping the next gift. It was what looked like a stone with an indention in the middle.

"What is this?" he asked again.

"A pressure stone. Whenever you're frustrated or angry, you rub your thumb on it and it takes away some of the pressure. I thought you might need that even more than the talisman.

Harry laughed wearily and pulled her close. "Thanks Gin," he muttered into her hair.

"You're welcome, Harry.''

It got dark as everyone finished off their dinners so Remus conjured up a bunch of faerie lights; Sirius walked back into the house to get the second part of Harry's present.

He came back carrying a brown wooden box with incarnate engravings on it. The steel key Harry had unwrapped earlier fit perfectly into the keyhole.

Everyone leant forward to see what was concealed. Mrs. Weasley started laughing when she saw what it was.

"I gave Lily and James that for their fifteenth birthdays. I fear to see what's on it though."

"What is it?" Harry asked, looking at it closely.

"It's called a Rebisco," Hermione said with deep interest. "They're supposed to be very uncommon nowadays."

"Well they weren't back in the '70s. Let me tell you, we had more fun that is possible with this thing. Bring it over here, Harry,"

Everyone followed as he set it on the grass and settled down in front of it. Sirius spun what looked like a strip of muggle film to a certain point, leaned back and watched as a blank screen came up. For a moment of disappointment, Harry was sure it hadn't worked, but that feeling ebbed away as voices came from nowhere.

"Ow, James that was my foot!" a feminine voice said.

There was a small silence except for two people laughing and then a deeper voice said, "I'm trying to see your point. Where is it?"

"Shut up."

A fuzzy picture came into view that showed three people lounging on two hospital beds pushed together. One was a carbon copy of him- his father. And another was his mother. The last was a younger version of Remus Lupin, his hair completely brown, a smile on his face, and his gray eyes alight with laughter. Though the window showed that it was the middle of the day, all three were wearing pajamas.

"Ah, Prongs, be nice to her," Remus said, throwing an arm around Lily's shoulders.

"Yea, Jamsie-boy. She might decide to give you that nice little jewel back."

The camera moved back, showing a pale, but good-looking Sirius smirking at his best friend. He too was wearing the pinstriped pajamas, but the top half buttons were open (isn't that a good image?) revealing white bandages across his chest.

"Sirius, I can fix that in a snap. Just let me see it," Lily said exasperatedly.

"But I want to stay in here with you Lily," he whined, sitting up a little.

Remus and James went into coughing fits with words sneaking up that sounded an awful like 'suck up'.

Sirius glared at them, but nodded his head to Lily. With certain tenderness she unwrapped the bandages and laid a hand across a nasty looking gash. When she removed her hand, it was gone.

Harry stared in amazement. His mother had been a healer.

"There, isn't that better?"

"Much. But how am I going to stay in here?"

"Oh don't worry. I'm sure I can think of something."

Sirius gulped and moved back as Lily advanced. "Lil, what're you doing. Lily, stop."

When she finally reached him, the screen went blank.

Remus and Sirius were laughing as the projector moved to a different recording.

"Were ya'll really like that?" Harry asked.

"All the time, kid."

Harry's attention was drawn back to the screen as words flashed up: For all the future Marauders...

Quickly he looked back at Sirius and Remus whose eyes held a deep sadness as a person began to sing and a stage appeared with fifteen year old versions of James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, and two other girls he didn't recognize.

"How the hell'd we wind up like this, and why weren't we able," James started.

"To see the signs that we missed and try to turn the tables," Sirius sang.

The screen flashed to Remus, James, and Sirius screaming at each other, but Remus' voice continued in the background as Sirius walked off. "I wish you'd unclench your fists..."

Once again it changed and it was definitely his mother's voice singing as she threw clothes into a suitcase, as two girls stood crying and a third watching in the shadows as she closed the suitcase. "And unpack your suitcase, lately there's been too much of this-"

Remus started again as a picture of him standing in a doorway, hugging Lily popped up. "-But don't think it's too late."

The two unknown girls started to sing, "Nothing's wrong, just as long as you know that someday I will..."

Various pictures of the six of them laughing together came up, as all started to sing.

"Someday, somehow, gonna make it right but not right now. I know you're wondering when. You're the only one that knows that. Someday, somehow, gonna make it right but not right now, I know you're wondering when."

And, a picture of all of them reaching up to the middle to clink crystal glasses together as a toast.

The next part was played out like a play as Lily, Sirius, and one of the unknown girls began to sing, "Well I'd hoped that since we're here anyway, we could end up saying, things we've always needed to say, so we could end up staying."

Lily was running down one of Hogwarts' corridors, tears streaming down her face. She reached the infirmary where Sirius was slumped on the floor sobbing. She began screaming and hitting him, but all he could do was hold her close.

The next scene that came up had one of the girls, breathing heavily as

Lily held her hand and Sirius smoothed the sweat-drenched hair from her face. As a particularly loud drum beat happened the hand went limp in Lily's.

"Now the story's played out like this, just like a paperback novel, let's rewrite and ending that fits instead of a Hollywood horror. Nothing's wrong, just as long as you know that someday I will..."

The pictures grew darker, but all of the friends, kept on laughing and there were a few of his parents smiling at each other or kissing.

"Someday, somehow, gonna make it right but not right now. I know you're wondering when. You're the only one that knows that. Someday, somehow, gonna make it right but not right now, I know you're wondering when. You're the only one that knows that...!"

Pictures flashed by. The crystal glasses clinking together. All of the Marauders rolling around, laughing. Lily sobbing into Sirius' chest. James staring at his bride as she walked down the aisle. Sirius throwing Harry's baby version into the air. Green light. Sirius hugging the girl he had sat by as she died. Remus smiling through tears at Lily whispered to him, smoothing back the hair from his face. James and Sirius hold Lily back from punching Lucius Malfoy. A desperate look on a mother's face as she held her child close on last time, begging for mercy.

And then the screen went back to the stage to show all of them smiling happily and care freely.

"How the hell'd we wind up like this, and why weren't we able."

"To see the signs that we missed, and try to turn the tables."

"Now the story's played out like this, just like a paperback novel.''

"Let's rewrite and ending that fits, instead of a Hollywood horror."

"Nothing's wrong..."

"Just as long as you know that someday I will..."

"Someday, somehow, gonna make it right but not right now. I know you're wondering when. You're the only one that knows that. Someday, somehow, gonna make it right but not right now, I know you're wondering when."

Broken crystal lay on the ground, droplets of blood staining it. And Harry stared at, tears blurring his vision.