You Will Always Come Home

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Chapter 3:

Dudley finally left, and James felt he could breathe easier. Layna kept giving him side looks wondering what was wrong. After a while James just went to the bathroom for a bit of fresh air.

James was so preoccupied with his thoughts he didn't even pay attention to where he was going and went into the wrong room. The room looked as though no one had been in it in quite a bit of time. There was a thick layer of dust over everything, but what really intrigued James was the trunk at the end of the small bed.

Out of everything in the room it was the only thing that seemed to have been open lately. James knew he shouldn't, but something about the trunk seemed just really intrigued him. He opened the trunk, and the first thing he saw looked like a photo album.

He opened the album, and there were a bunch of pictures in the front that had never been put in the pages. James picked up the pictures, and turned the first one around. The picture was of the same guy that he'd found in Layna's bag. But the people with him made James gasp. It looked just Fiona's friend Jackson's parents just younger, and they all seemed really happy together.

James was just shocked, but he tried hard to keep his wits about him. He left the room, and braved the crowd to find Layna, and to just get home. He wanted to get as far away from the Dursleys for now. Too many weird things were happening right now, and it was freaking him out.

"Layna, I think it's time we left, we really need to talk," James told his wife hurriedly.

Layna just gave him a weird look, but didn't say anything, and she followed James to the front door to escape. Hopefully without Mr. Dursley noticing them. Luckily they made it out, and headed for the car. Layna seemed a bit angry, but she didn't say anything.

For about five minutes there was a tense silence, and Layna was just getting angry. Finally she voiced her irritation, "James, what's going on?"

James looked to his wife and back to the road. He let out a long sigh, "When I went to the bathroom, I took a wrong turn and stumbled into this room."

Layna gasped, "The room!"

James arched an eyebrow questioningly. "What do you mean?"

"The first time we came here, I went into this room where I found this picture," Layna rummaged in her purse. She pulled out the picture that James had seen that morning three months ago.

"I saw that picture, when I was looking for a band-aid one morning," James whispered. "That was when I had the dream where they said a name."

Layna's eyes widened. She was shocked, but she tried to hide it. Before she could speak, James started talking again. "I found another picture."

James handed Layna the picture. Layna gasped as she looked at the picture. She didn't know what to say. The rest of the drive home was in complete silence, and they drove around a bit to kill some time.

Layna felt as though she were suffocating in the tension. There was nothing to say, but it felt as though there was. James would never ask Fiona anything about some things, but Layna wouldn't give it a second glance. She wanted to know what was at the bottom of this.

* * *

The kids had fallen asleep on the couch and on the floor. Meg and Fiona were watching TV, and seemed really engrossed in what they were watching. James and Layna said hi, and gave a brief version of events at the Dursley's, but they didn't mention anything about the picture. Fiona was exhausted and headed for bed.

Once they heard Fiona close her door, and they'd put all the kids into their beds, Meg and them spoke briefly, but Meg realized they needed some time alone. She went to her 'room,' and James and Layna finally got some down time. James secretly didn't really want to say anything more on the matter, but Layna was adamant about it.

"We need to know!"

"No, we don't, I don't think it would be in mine, yours, or in anyone's best interest," James said quietly. "I don't want to know, and it's not our number one priority."

Layna just shook her head. "You out of everyone should be the most eager to find out more, but you're the one backing down. You've been wondering for more than fifteen years!"

"Layna, just drop it," James said sullenly. "There is no way in hell that I have anything in common with that world other than my daughter's a witch. If I were this all-powerful wizard I would be doing ten times the things Fiona's done.

"Yeah maybe I look somewhat like him, but we have completely different hair, eyes, and skin tone!" James continued his voice rising with each word. "I wish you would just leave it be."

Layna was shocked. James had never yelled or anything close to that, except at work, but not to her or the kids. He was the kind of man who rarely raised his voice. Layna just crawled into bed, their backs against each other, and soon they both fell asleep in each others arms; a silent forgiveness between themselves.

* * *

Remus Lupin had been able to leave for Christmas again this year, and he would be spending it with the Weasleys. Molly had been resolute about him coming and so had Ron and Hermione. They told him that the kids loved him, and that it wouldn't be any bother for him to come at all.

The Monday after all the students had left, Remus left the castle for the smog-ridden air of London. He had brought his briefcase with some exam papers he still had left to grade. He needed to hurry and finish with grading before he fell too far behind since a few days before orientation had been the full moon.

As he was walking through London, he took a wrong turn for the Underground. He found himself in a residential area. Pretty soon he found himself wandering along the street when he saw one of the street signs. Grimmauld Place. There were so many memories with just those two words. The summer before Harry's fifth year, the Order of the Phoenix, and the year Sirius died.

Remus took a deep breath. He always wondered what had ever happened to Harry. A few weeks after Voldemort's demise hey found many dead Death Eaters, but they never found Harry's body. Some were still alive, but just barely. They had been able to revive a couple of fellows to get the names of so many others.

But the past was the past, and there was nothing that he could do to change it. He lost practically his whole family, James, Lily, Sirius, and then Harry. He would have never believed he would have been the only marauder to survive through his thirty's.

Turning away from the street he head towards the Underground, taking the same route he had done years ago when he ran into someone. The man seemed to be in quite a hurry, but he stopped and helped Remus up.

"I'm very sorry sir, should've been a bit more careful," said the man.

Remus then got a good look at the man, he looked so familiar, but, at the same time, he looked very different.

"Not a problem," Remus said, and gathered his briefcase.

The man began helping. Remus kind of stared at him a bit. He had the same colour brown hair and eyes, but his face was cleanly shaved. He had on reading glasses because he had a pamphlet of sorts in his hand. Suddenly a picture of James crossed his mind. Just change the hair colour and lighten the skin, and they would be identical.

The man then bid him goodbye, and he disappeared in the crowd once again. Shaking his head, Remus headed in the opposite direction to the Underground.

* * *

Early Monday morning after James had given Layna his goodbye hug and kiss. He was walking along the street quickly. He had to shave his goatee since they would be on site, and some of the chemicals and such were dangerous. The likeliness between him and the young man in pictures was more obvious now that he no longer had a goatee.

He had run into a man on the street. The man seemed to recognize in some weird way, but James had pushed the thought to the back of his mind. He must have been imagining it because of what had been happening lately.

Any ways he was running late for work, and Dursley had been hounding on everyone lately. They had been running late with this, and James would be working all this week, so he was very lucky that Christmas Eve fell on a weekend.

When James finally made it to work, he felt as though he had been run over by a bulldozer. Mr. Dursley was angry about something or another, and James quietly snuck into his office, printed his ideas from emailing them to his work, and set off to Dursley's office before they would be going to the work site.

Mr. Dursley, however, decided that he wasn't going to change his mood for anything. "These ideas are stupid! They have no thought pattern."

James felt anger well up inside him. "I took time away from my family to write these, and they are some of the best things I have ever come up with."

"Well, I want you to redo them, and in the meantime learn some manners."

That really set James off. He was a man who thought things rationally, and he very rarely got angry with any one. In a very cool, calm voice he said, "If that is the way you are going to look at it than I might just leave."

That hit something in Dursley. He then became angrier, and his face was turning a nasty puce colour. "I will not tolerate that kind of attitude, but you are a great component to this company."

That speech, however, just angered James more, and then something happened. The Chinese stress balls Mr. Dursley had been using just disappeared. Dursley began to look visually frightened but angered even more.

"What the hell are you playing at?" Dursley growled he seemed to be looking at James in a weird way.

James just shocked by what had just happened, and he left the office as fast as he could. Dursley didn't even call after him or anything.

* * *

James collapsed onto a park bench. Fear and anger were flooding his body, and he was frightened. Had what he had just done been magic? It was impossible to think so, but James shook the idea away very fast. Whatever had just happened in there, must have meant nothing because James couldn't do magic. Right?

James was lost in his thoughts. He had never done anything like that, but he had to remember that he never really gotten that angry before. In some odd way he felt as though he stood in that same position before. Actually while he was staring at Dursley after he said the last thing, he visualised a younger Dursley yelling at him.

What did all this mean? Of course he wanted to know his past, but to tell the truth he was utterly frightened. What of the people who were his real family didn't want him? There were just so many unanswered questions flying through James' head. After sitting there for a bit longer, James got up for a bit of a walk.

He started walking towards a more residential area around GDC. Walking amongst the houses he stopped and looked at one street. Grimmauld Place. That sounded familiar, but many things did to him nowadays. As he walked down the street, he started subconsciously counting the houses.

He noticed that there was no twelve, and for some odd reason he felt as though there ought to be another house in the small space between numbers ten and fourteen. Shrugging James pushed on the subject of houses to the back of his head and went on down the street.

After a while James made his way to one of the many Underground stations. He wasn't quite so sure how he'd gotten there, but he left the matter alone, and boarded the next train bound for Little Whinging.

* * *

Layna was worried. She had just gotten a very distressing phone call from Mr. Dursley. She had never heard the man so angry, and it made her a bit frightened. Mr. Dursley had told that James had just walked out of his job, and unless she could get her husband to see sense, he would be out of a job.

Layna didn't know what to do. The call had been over and hour ago, and there was no sign of James being home anytime soon. The kids were outside playing in the snow with Meg on the front porch watching over them.

Mr. Dursley also told her about how angry James had seen, and he sounded quite angry too. James had never been that angry, except when he was in the hospital the first time he had woken up. He was really just frustrated, but Layna had never heard her husband yell.

* * *

By the time Remus got to Ron and Hermione's house, which was in the village of Ottery St. Catchpole, dark was beginning to set in. He could see their house with the warm golden glow coming from the windows.

Before he even reached the house, a small girl came out, Lucy Paige. She was the youngest of the Weasley's for now until Hermione had the new baby. She had her mother's hair, but she had Ron's clear blue eyes. She looked down the street and saw Remus coming, a big smile lit her face.

"Uncle Moony!" and she hurtled into Remus' arms.

Remus was almost knocked down by the small girl. "Hello, Lucy."

Lucy squealed. "Mummy and daddy are waiting inside."

Remus let Lucy lead him into the house. He had a smile on his face. Ever since their fifth year, Remus had always been considered part of the family. Before they had even reached the house, Hermione came out, an apron tied around her once again disappearing waistline.

"Hello Remus, seems like someone managed to find you before us," Hermione said, a smile on her face as her daughter had her hand gripped onto Remus'.

"Is Ron inside with the others?"

"Yeah, we were making cookies. Fred's over with Elissa as well," Hermione informed, her eyes darkened a bit by the thought of Elissa's childhood.

(A/N: Elissa is Charlie's and his wife Claudette's daughter, and they killed by death eaters when she was six. She's a Gryffindor sixth year and a prefect, and she lives with Fred who's still a bachelor.)

"She's grown up quite fine with Fred, she's a bit more like Percy than Fred as everyone was afraid of," Remus said, his amber eyes a bit alight.

Hermione just nodded in agreement. Remus followed her inside, and was attacked by three more kids. Ainsley, Lucy's identical twin, Robert and Dawn the other set of twins, got into a huge pile with Lucy and Remus.

"Hey, hey, I'm not as young as I used to be," Remus joked.

The kids let go of Remus; their huge smiles painted on their faces. They are growing up too fast, Remus thought. Ron came out of the kitchen then, Jackson and Lana following closely. They seemed a bit awkward around him because of school.

"Fred is in the kitchen, so we better hurry back in before he and Elissa blow up the kitchen," Ron said simply, a smile tugging at the edges of his mouth.

The kids went with Ron back into the kitchen while Hermione took Remus to the guest room. The room was really the room for the new baby, but they hadn't changed it yet.

"We're a bit behind on the decorating, but everyone comes over so we just keep as a spare room," Hermione explained. "This will be the new baby, Lana, and Dawn's new room."

Remus nodded. "How far along are you?"

Hermione's face glowed with mention of the baby. "Five months! She's due in April."

It made Remus so happy to see that everyone else was happy, but he could tell that Hermione was pained about not having Harry here for another child. Her maternal glow for another baby seemed a bit darkened. Harry was probably the closest thing to a brother Hermione ever had other than Ron's older brothers, but hers and Harry's relationship was special.

"We're in the kitchen, and I better go down before they all ruin my kitchen," Hermione said, and she disappeared through the doorway.

Remus sat on the bed, his ragged bag on the floor next to the bed. It wasn't fair that Harry wasn't the person in this room, or at his house with his family getting ready for the big Weasley Christmas. Remus suddenly had a picture of a much more grown up version of Harry, just James with green eyes. (A/N: *sigh* It's just so sad! *fat tear rolls down face*)

Deciding the brooding about the past wouldn't do him any good, Remus headed for the kitchen to help with cookies. And to help Hermione keep everyone from ruining the kitchen.

* * *

Once James finally made it home, Layna was waiting impatiently on the porch. She was a bit angered by the fact he hadn't phoned or anything.

"Dursley called over two hours ago saying you walked out," Layna said when James got onto the porch.

James just nodded his head. He didn't really want to talk about it. "Let's just go inside."

Layna looked very pissed, and she wasn't going to let the matter go lightly. "What did Dursley do that was so horrible that this time you decided to leave?"

"It's not what he did, but what I think I did and how he reacted," James said quietly.

Layna quieted. "What do you think you did?"

"Well, he got me very angry, I don't think I have felt that much frustration and anger in such a long time," James explained. "And then his Chinese stress balls disappeared, and he just gave me this weird look, as though he knew everything."

Layna was taken aback by the statement. Why would that freak Dursley out? "Are you sure you just weren't seeing straight?" Layna asked, a bit quieter and anxious.

"No, after it happened he said, 'What the hell are you playing at?'" James said, a bit subdued. "Listen I don't want to talk about it right now. Can't we just go inside?"

Layna just went inside and didn't say anything. James followed her after a while; his mind on many other things. What had Dursley meant by that statement? But James wasn't given anymore time to dwell upon the subject since he was attacked by four bullets, two with dark hair, another with lighter hair, and one was red hair.

"Daddy!!!," squealed Lily and Danyella, wrapping themselves around his waist.

James couldn't help but laugh as he gave everyone a huge group huge. Fiona was standing behind a bit, acting as though she were a but too old to attack her dad upon his arrival as she used to.

"Hey, seems like Fiona thinks she's too old to join in," James whispered, mischievous grins appearing on normally angelic faces, well sometimes.

Fiona then just gave her father a quick peck on the cheek, and left him to deal with her younger siblings. She retreated into her room where she began getting out some of her homework things. She took out some parchment and a quill and began her History of Magic homework.

After several minutes of staring at the same paragraph, Fiona gave up and just started flipping through the pages. As she flicked through the pages, one of the stories caught her attention. It was in the back of the book, but it was all a history of Harry Potter. Fiona skimmed trough it, not noticing much. One line caught her eye. It spoke of his school years, and his best friends, but they briefly mentioned his other family. Fiona had to read the line several times to believe that she wasn't just reading wrong.

Harry normally spent his summers with his mother's sister's family the Dursleys', who are muggles.

No wonder the Dursleys seemed so uptight about my family, Fiona thought grimly. Fiona pushed the thought of telling her parents; it was just too weird and freaky to say the least. Fiona shut the book as she heard her mother summoning her for dinner.

***Christmas Day***

Having seven kids and only four adults kept Ron and Hermione's house busy during the morning hours of Christmas Day. Everyone was bustling about, last minute gift-wrapping and many other problems. Hermione was busy trooping all the kids about the house making sure everyone was wearing their own clothes and were kept away from the 'gift-wrapping room,' as Fred dubbed Ron and Hermione's bedroom. He and Ron had locked themselves in getting some free time in as well as gift-wrapping.

Remus and Elissa were helping Hermione with the kids, so for now Lucy, Ainsley, and Dawn were outside making snow angels, and Robert was following Remus around like a puppy. Jackson and Lana were busy a snow fort, and Robert wasn't too keen on helping knowing they could be merciless with snowballs.

They were due at The Burrow at two with everything. They would be going in two cars Ron, Hermione, and both sets of twins in their car, and Fred, Elissa, Remus, Jackson, and Lana in the other. Remus was just hoping Fred was okay with a car.

At one Hermione began gathering the troops, putting rowdy kids into the cars, and helping her husband and brother-in-law pack all the presents into the car boots. After fifteen minutes of putting everyone into cars, they headed for the hidden dirt road that would take them to The Burrow.

***Fiona***

Fiona awoke to Lily and Danyella's shrieks of delight. Her hand went for her nightstand where her glasses were and put them on. At the foot of her bed, there was a small pile of gifts. Fiona gathered them up to take them to put underneath the tree.

"Who gave you the presents?" Lily asked eagerly.

"My friends," Fiona said simply.

Lily and Danyella giggled loudly behind her as they dropped off the presents, and made their way into the kitchen for Christmas breakfast. Starting her normal chores, Fiona grabbed the dishes and began setting the table. Lily and Danyella following Fiona with the silverware whispering to themselves giggling the whole time.

At around nine thirty, everyone was in the kitchen, either sitting at the table seeing who make the most bubbles in their chocolate milk or putting food onto dishes. James was trying to quiet the boys with their raucous playing, and Fiona was sitting next to her sisters exasperatedly trying to quiet them down.

Layna and Meg came in the dining room with the food, and all the noise went down. After everyone was situated, the room was filled with sounds of silverware clashing and the sounds of five satisfied kids. There was very little conversation at the table. The adults were talking in their own conversation, Damion and Christopher were busy guess what gift's they had gotten by the size of their packages, and Danyella and Lily were bugging Fiona about her Christmas parcels from her friends.

" I've already told you two, Jackson is only my friend, and I do not think of him in that way!" Fiona told her sisters exasperatedly.

Danyella and Lily giggled then moved on, noting to bug Fiona about this 'Jackson' later. Fiona, however, was thinking about what Jackson could have gotten her. She kept thinking back to that time they had gone into the trophy room. That picture of the Quidditch team just kept coming back to her, and since her dad had just recently shaved off his goatee, and he resembled that picture of Harry Potter more so than he had before. It was highly disturbing and made Fiona nervous.

"Clean up the table and we will commence opening presents," Fiona's dad said standing grandly at the front of the table.

Everyone began with their chores as they had before, and Fiona's duty this week was picking up the table, so she was picking up the dishes and putting them into the sink, where Danyella and Lily were washing them with their grandmother. James was getting the boys calmed down and took them into the living room to start separating the presents into piles.

***Jackson***

The Annual Weasley Christmas, or as Jackson liked to put it the time when everyone met up at granma and grandad Weasley's. There was now over twenty Weasleys and the family just kept getting bigger. Jackson and his siblings looked forward to Christmas since it was the only time their family ever really got together.

There was just one problem. With his parents there always seemed to be a slight damper on the holidays because of their absence one of their best friends, Harry Potter. They let his memory get in the way with them, but they never spoke of him, it just hurt too much. Jackson had to get his uncle Fred to tell him about Harry.

Hermione loved the big Weasley Christmases, but since Harry had passed away, the holidays just weren't quite as happy. Harry ought to be here, enjoying the holidays with his own family and playing with their children, but he wasn't, and Hermione didn't want to let herself believe that he never will be. Fifteen years had gone by, but you never know.

She and Ron almost never talked about him, but this year he couldn't stop thinking about him. Fiona Harrison had just sparked something back in her, she looked and acted so much like him. Her father may not have looked like Harry, but the way he held himself was the same and he just seemed to fit. Urgh! Maybe it was just the hormones speaking, but Hermione was afraid to let go, it had always been her problem. Maybe one day she would be proven wrong, but then again who knew.

***Fiona***

Unwrapping Christmas presents was always big fun in the Harrison household, and all the kids were playing with their toys or, in Christopher's case, sleeping from the excitement. Fiona had received great presents from her friends. Jackson had invited her to the New Year's bash his family would be having. Her parents said yes, and she immediately owled Jackson back, wondering how he would be coming to get her.

Fiona looked around the room taking in the happy moment of her family, and noticed that her sisters were not in the room at that moment. Guessing they were just playing with their new toys in the room, Fiona settled down with a book from Jackson about Quidditch.

Fiona began to get really into her book, when Damion started playing with his robot thingamabobbers, the things were really loud, so Fiona retreated to her room to read. Inside her room, though, she found her sisters going through her homework for History of Magic. They were looking at the back page where there was information about the war from fifteen years back.

"What are you all doing with my stuff?" Fiona asked angrily, her eyes flashing green.

Lily and Danyella jumped, having not heard their sister come into the room. "There is a picture of a guy who looks just like dad," Lily said pointing to the page. "You look like him too."

Fiona grabbed the book out of Lily's hand, and looked at the page with the picture of Harry Potter in full Quidditch regalia. "That doesn't mean anything."

Danyella scoffed, "Then why don't we have any other family other than Granma? Dad doesn't have any parents."

"I'm sure he does, but he was adopted, remember?"

"Then why does he look so much like them, and you, and Lily?" Danyella said, grabbing the book back. She flipped back to the page before with a picture of the Potter family. "His mum looks just like Lily and her names is Lily too, and look at his dad."

Fiona looked at the page, noticing the picture of Lily and James Potter waving eagerly, showing a small bundle with a tuft of jet-black hair. She had never seen this picture, and when she saw Lily, well, it looked like Lily, they seemed to be one and the same.

Fiona shook the thought from her head. "Coincidence, many people look alike, it doesn't mean anything," with that she grabbed the book from her sisters, shoved it into her trunk, and locked it. In the back of her mind Fiona wondered if maybe they were right, because it just seemed so right, but wrong at the same time.

Fiona stewed in her own thoughts not knowing that her parents were having the same thoughts as well.

* * *

Layna kept a close eye on her husband Christmas morning, looking for some sign about the previous week's events at work. He had gone into work the next day and apologized profusely to Mr. Dursley. That wasn't what really bothered her though, James had been slightly out of it all week, whether it was from work, the events that seemed to keep nipping them at the heels, or a combination, she couldn't tell.

James seemed happy enough, but Layna noticed moments when he would look at their children in a certain way as though he were searching for something. She thought maybe he was looking for some resemblance between them and Harry Potter, and wondering if there really was a connection.

You're kidding yourself, she told herself. Stop being paranoid! she stood up and followed Fiona who had just left to go to her and her sisters' room. As she passed the girls door to go into her and James' room, she heard arguing.

"His mum looks just like Lily..." Layna thought they must have been talking about something else, and left it alone making her way to the bathroom for a long hot bath.

* * *

In two hours, Jackson and his dad would be coming to Surrey to pick up Fiona, and she was nervous. She hadn't met the whole Weasley family yet, but she felt slightly nervous about it. What if they didn't like her, or they judged her on the fact that she was muggle-born? Get a grip, she admonished herself, everything ought to be okay.

She had explained to her parents about floo powder, but as she had explained to them, her father shocked her by absentmindedly saying they ought to make sure there was a fire in the fireplace. She hadn't even told them about it being through the fireplace, so when he said that she was quite shocked. He just shook it off and said it was a lucky guess, but her mum kept giving him these weird sidelong glances.

At ten minutes till five, Fiona was sure she was going to lose her mind from waiting. When, suddenly, smoke began to come out of the fireplace, and ungracefully came out a soot covered Jackson. He picked himself up, and when he saw Fiona he smiled.

"Hey Fi!" he said moving over just in time as another figure made their way out of the fireplace. Ron Weasley, Jackson's dad, came out of the fireplace quite a bit more gracefully than his son.

While two wizards tumbled out of the fireplace, James came out of the kitchen. He saw the two Weasley men come out of the fireplace. It looked really familiar to him, but he wasn't quite sure how or why.

Ron was busy getting Jackson to help Fiona with her trunk since they would be taking her to the platform as well. He looked up and saw James there, and had to pause to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. The man looked just like Harry. The only difference was his hair and eyes, but his face and the way he held himself hadn't changed one iota, and he looked more like Harry this time than he had before because his face was cleanly shaved.

"You will be taking her to the station right?" he asked, catching Ron off his guard.

"Er, yeah, we will," Ron said, the voice was the same too, slightly deeper and throatier than it had been before from age, but it was pretty much the same. "You don't mind that?"

"Nah, I'm pretty sure she likes not having her old man take her," James smiled and ruffled his daughter's hair.

Fiona's eyes flashed green and she said, "Daaad!" and moved his hand.

James gathered his daughter into a big hug, and said, "Post us often." Fiona gave her dad a small smile.

"Well then, I think we ought to show you how to use Floo Powder," Ron said.

Jackson grabbed some sand-like stuff out of his father's hand, threw it in the flames and shouted, "Ron's Pad!"

Ron looked a bit sheepish about the name, "I had just gotten out of school when I picked it," he explained. "You throw some powder into the fire, step in and say the place where you're going, and keep your arms tight into your sides."

Fiona nodded, doubting the way she was to get to Jackson's house, sounded kind of dangerous. She gathered her courage, she wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing, threw the powder, and went up the flames. James held his breath wile his daughter went through, but he let it out with a sigh of relief.

Ron hadn't yet left, and James looked up. Ron was a few inches taller than James, so he had to look up to him a bit. "I'll make sure she owls you all how she doing," Ron said, rather hesitantly.

James shook himself out of his reverie, "Yeah, thanks."

With that they shook hands, and Ron made his own way back home.

* * *

Fiona rolled out of the fireplace, her ears ringing slightly. Jackson extended his hand to her and helped her up. "Kind of rough the first time." It was more of a statement than a question.

Fiona just nodded, trying to wipe the worst of the soot off her clothes. "You all didn't say it was gonna be so rough."

Jackson laughed, "Mum hates flooing, she almost always apparates, or she uses a muggle way to get to somewhere. That's actually the only reason we have a van, but it's magically bigger inside so we can all fit quite comfortably."

Fiona gave him a small smile her anger deteriorating. "Well, I really wasn't expecting that."

Jackson and Fiona didn't have much time together, because Hermione came in just then. "I heard voices."

Fiona turned around, and saw Professor Weasley in muggle clothes, an apron tied loosely around her growing belly. Definitely not expecting that Fiona stared, but her attention was distracted by Ron coming gracefully out of the fireplace.

"Hello everyone," he said amiably, a bit too amiably in Hermione's opinion.

"Hello," Hermione gave her husband a big hug, well as big a one as her growing belly would allow. "Jackson, dear, show Fiona to her room like a nice boy."

Jackson waved Fiona away from his parents, rolling his eyes.

Once Fiona and Jackson were out of hearing, Ron began to tell Hermione about meeting with Fiona's dad.

"It was almost like déjà vu!! He may have different coloured hair and eyes, but his face hasn't changed one iota, and he sounds like him," Ron took a breath. "when I was getting Fiona's trunk situated, he spoke, and it was almost like Harry was there again."

Hermione sighed and sat down in the nearby couch, Ron following her. "I knew there was something about him from the moment I met him," Hermione said silently. "He was the man who walked out when we were telling all the muggle-born parents about the Wizarding World. I'm just so used to separating myself whenever I talk about the war, but when I followed him outside he made want to grab him and tell him that I knew who he was. But you could tell that he didn't know any of this."

Ron put his face in his hands, "What if he is him, and Fiona is his daughter? What if?"

Hermione rubbed her husband on the back. "We may never know. I mean how can you just grab some guy who looks like Harry and say he is. He could just be some random person who happens to look like him."

Ron shook his head. "No, I think he is the real thing. He seemed to be wary of me, as though I would do something, and the way he watched Fiona do the floo. It was just, I don't know, like he was trying to figure out who I was but was too scared to do it at the same time."

"Well maybe we could get Jackson to ask Fiona some questions," Hermione said, trying to reassure herself and Ron.

Ron put a hand on Hermione's bulging belly, "How is she doing?"

Hermione gave a small smile, "Great, she missed her daddy."

Ron smiled and thought, Harry, mate, where are you and why won't you come home?

* * *

Jackson led Fiona upstairs to his sister's room where she would be sleeping. "You will be sleeping with Lana."

Fiona nodded, putting her trunk at the foot of the bed. "How was your Christmas?"

"Fine, we had our normal Christmas with all of us Weasley's at granma and grandad Weasley's. Probably the only time our whole family gets together."

Fiona nodded, "Ours was quiet, just the seven of us and Nana Meg, my mum's mum."

Jackson felt slightly awkward, but then he asked, "Where's your grandad?"

"He died a couple of years ago, I was only nine, it'll be three years this summer," Fiona explained. She went on though, "My dad doesn't have any parents. He was adopted when he was seventeen."

Jackson seemed a bit startled by Fiona's blurt. "So you don't know who your dad's family is," it was more of a statement than a question.

"No, mum assumes that my sister Lily and I look like someone from his side of the family since we don't know anything about them," she paused, "but that's not what's really bothering me. I, er, saw a picture of Harry Potter, and well he looks a lot like my dad," she said hesitantly, and just above a whisper, "and me."

Jackson didn't know what to say. It was just so sudden, and he knew that his parents were talking about the same thing. He heard them talking at night about Fiona's family, and the resemblance between Fiona's dad and... him.

"Er, would you like to talk to my parents about it? They were very good friends with Harry and I'm sure they would know what to look for," Jackson said, not liking his very confident friend so lost.

"No!" Fiona said quickly, "Er, I don't think that would be a good idea."

Jackson nodded. "But," Fiona said quickly, "could you ask them about.. the Dursleys."

"Aren't they Harry Potter's only living relatives? I already know about them, why?"

"Mr. Dursley is my dad's boss, and he seems to really not like him, and he seems to know him in a way, or at least very wary of him. Mum told me that he won't stop asking about what school I go to, and since we can't tell him about Hogwarts, we've had to lie, but he's really suspicious."

Jackson's red eyebrows almost disappeared in his bangs. "You're serious."

"Yeah. I've never met a more annoying man. All my dad's co-workers like us, but Mr. Dursley is a class A a-hole!!" Fiona said vehemently.

"Hmmm, well from mum and dad's description of him that sounds about right. Is really beefy and has a big moustache?" Jackson asked eagerly.

Fiona's face lightened up. "Yeah, and his wife is really thin and her face looks like a horse."

They fell down into the bed laughing. Looking around Fiona realized she hadn't seen any of Jackson's sisters or brother. "Where are your sisters and brother?"

"Oh, they're helping Granma with getting The Burrow ready for the party, and Ainsley and Lucy are taking a nap in their room."

Smiling to each other, Fiona and Jackson made their way to the living room where his parents were busy getting everything ready for the New Years party.

"Hey mum," Jackson said sitting in one of the stools at the kitchen table.

"Could you help your father move those sweets into the basket," Hermione told her son. Jackson rolled his eyes, but he got up and began helping his dad put his mum's homemade candies.

"So, Fiona, how was your holiday," Hermione asked, putting all her supplies back up in the cupboards with mainly magic.

Fiona hesitated a bit, then said, "Fine, it was really peaceful."

Hermione turned to Fiona, her eyes very kind and understanding. "I'm muggle-born, and I know how hard it is to go back home after you've doing something so completely different than them. You know you can call me Hermione here, but I'm Professor Weasley back at Hogwarts," she said with a mischievous smile. " I wouldn't want to ruin my strict Transfiguration teacher demeanour."

Fiona finally managed a small smile of relief, "You're really different here than you are at school."

Hermione laughed, "I sure hope so, it's taken me a long time to loosen up, but I can still make people quiver by being absolutely no nonsense."

The kitchen filled a bit of an awkward silence that Fiona finally broke by saying, "I actually didn't believe you were pregnant, but it's obvious now."

Hermione touched her expanding waistline, a secret smile on her face, "Makes it kind of weird when the most strict teacher has kids and has another on the way. Maybe there are more to us teachers than you all seem to think. Though us Hogwarts professors actually do live in the castle, but we're special."

Fiona laughed, really happy that she wouldn't be stuck with very strict Professor Weasley, but when she was joking around and, well, just acting like a normal mum. It made her seem very real and just normal.

* * *

The Weasley van was slightly crowded with all the stuff Hermione and Ron had stuffed into it for the party. Fiona and Jackson were in a very animated conversation about the house Quidditch teams. Ron smiled to himself as he listened to their playful banter. They were very good friends, that much was very obvious, but he wondered about what kind of life they would lead after Hogwarts. There was no longer a war, but you never know when some idiot could do the same as Voldemort.

There were tonnes of people at The Burrow, quite a few kids were having snowball fights. What really struck Fiona as amazing was the house, it was very tall and was obviously held up by magic. Before Fiona could really take in everything, and elderly woman called through the door.

"Ron, Hermione, it's about time you made it," she said, quite robust for her age. Her vivid red hair was mainly silver with age, but she was just as active as any of the younger people there.

"Yes, mum we came, with lots of sweets, Hermione made candy," Ron told his mum.

Mrs. Weasley smiled at her daughter in law, and then put a hand on Hermione's growing belly. "Oh, another grandchild."

Jackson and Fiona came from the other side of the car, carrying a basket each of candy. Ron took it from them and started levitating it to the house. When Mrs. Weasley saw Jackson she gave him a big hug, and got on her tip toes to kiss his cheek. Jackson was taller than Fiona who was just short of five feet, and he was only half a foot shorter than his mum who was five foot nine. Fiona assumed Mrs. Weasley must be five foot, because she just a bit taller than her.

"Oh," she said when she saw Fiona, "you must be Jackson's friend."

Before Fiona could say anything, Mrs. Weasley enveloped Fiona into a very big grandmotherly hug. She then held her out at arms length, taking in what Fiona looked like. "Welcome to The Burrow, and the wizarding world, I'm sure Arthur, Jackson's grandfather will drown you with questions about muggles."

Fiona just laughed, and followed Jackson to The Burrow, him falling back to talk with her. "She's very out there, huh?"

Jackson laughed the bit of anxiety left his face, "Yeah, she's really out there. But I think she looked at you as though she were looking for something."

"Yeah, I wonder if someone told her my resemblance with, well, you know," Fiona said quietly.

Left in his own thoughts they made the rest of the way to The Burrow, but just at the door Jackson stopped Fiona, "Remus is here too, er, Professor Lupin, I mean."

"Really, and what do I call him since we're not in school?"

"Moony," Jackson said simply, "We all do, or at least us kids. Though it is slightly awkward now that Lana and I go to Hogwarts and we see him as 'Professor.'"

Laughing they made their way into the house which was full of hustle and bustle as everyone made last minute changes about the house, putting up crepe paper and other things. Fiona had never seen quite so many red-headed people all at once.

She did see Elissa and Frank who were both in Gryffindor, there were other familiar faces, but Fiona was busy helping put the candy into little balloons that had been magically set to go off at exactly midnight. However, what shocked Fiona were the multitudes of pictures. There were lots of pictures throughout the house, the living room especially, but there were quite a few pictures of Harry Potter. He usually seemed happy with his arms wrapped around his friends, all three waving happily. One picture however stuck her the most, it looked to have been not long before the final battle, someone had caught him in when he didn't necessarily want his picture taken. His glasses were mid-nose, an eyebrow quirked in slight annoyance, but the bright green eyes were smiling, but slightly ghostly, and his mouth was in a small half smile half smirk.

What frightened her the most was how she knew that expression. That was the exact same expression her dad would get whenever they caught him in a funny moment and he was busy working. Just change the eyes and hair, and add a few lines, and it would look exactly the same.

"Fiona?"

Fiona jumped, and saw Jackson behind her. "Are you okay Fi?

She shook her head, "Nothing just looking at the pictures."

Jackson looked at the picture she had been looking at. "Mum loves this picture," he stated simply. "She won't look at it though. She," Jackson swallowed, "she says it makes her so sad that he's not here, with his family where he ought to be."

Nodding Fiona looked at the picture, seeing pretty much herself reflected in the picture. People said she had 'porcelain' skin, and when her hair darkened she looked very foreign, but it was different. Both her parents had skin that tanned and didn't just turn red, and their hair was light, Layna's was light brown and James slightly darker. They assumed Lily got her red hair from Nana Meg. Fiona shook the thoughts from her head.

"So when am I going to meet the great Weasley family?" Fiona asked, a small smirk on her face.

"Well, if you come with me, I think we can begin introducing you to everybody," Jackson said, taking her hand and leading her outside, where most of everybody had set up a snowball fight, with forts.

* * *

James had been really freaked out by the floo. It just looked so familiar, and he kept having this mental image of going through the fireplace and these green flames. It was all so surreal. He kept his suspicions away from Layna. He didn't need her to worry anymore than she already did.

Layna did, however, know that something had happened to make him feel odd, but she didn't know what. James had kept to himself all day, staying mainly in his 'office,' or the little section of the living room devoted to the computer, where he sat glaring at the screen, his mind obviously elsewhere.

Damion, Danyella, Lily, and Christopher were making a sport outside in the snow. They were having a snowball fight, boys versus girls, but it seemed as though Lily and Danyella would win. Sighing she sat on the porch watching her children enjoy themselves, but worried for her husband.

* * *

Fiona had met Jackson's uncle Fred first, and he had been the most outrageous person she had ever met. He had been enchanting the snowballs to follow random people. What really made Fiona remember him was the fact that he looked at her oddly, as though he too were searching for something. When he'd asked about whether she was muggle-born, he seemed slightly shocked.

They had begin helping Russell and Evan with making more snowballs trying to overcome the Weasley twins, Fred and George.

"Hey, Fi, get as many snowballs as you can possibly make!," Russell told Fiona, getting into the spirit of the game.

Fiona couldn't quit laughing as she was being mercilessly pelted by snowballs, though the other side wasn't doing much better. Everyone kept pelting each other with snowballs, and eventually most of the adults had joined in. Fiona had gotten introduced to uncle George, Bill, and Percy.

The night was very fun and Fiona spent most of her time outside with Jackson, throwing snowball at his cousins, aunts, and uncles. Hermione watched Fiona and Jackson play and smiled to herself. Molly looked over and looked at where Hermione had been looking.

"She looks a lot like Harry, eh?" Molly asked, catching Hermione off her guard.

"Er, yeah," she said putting her mind back on helping make the candy.

"You mustn't act shy like that Hermione Granger Weasley, I can see those clogs ticking in that large brain of yours," Molly joked, then she softened. "I do see how it made you wonder though. She acts almost just like him and looks just like him as well. Have you met her parents?"

Hermione jabbed an angry fist into the taffy she was kneading soft. "Yes, they came for orientation, and he reminded me a lot of Harry, it felt almost as though he was there in the room with me, but under the disguise of someone else. Ron saw it too."

Molly nodded, "I know you two miss him a lot, and the fact that they never found his body hurts, but maybe you both ought to let old ghosts die. Its been almost sixteen years if he was still out there he would have at least let us know he was okay. But that's just it he isn't and you and Ron need to both move on, for them," she added, putting a comforting hand on Hermione's growing belly.

Hermione sighed, sitting in the seat next to her, letting her hands fall in her lap, looking at her shoes. "We have, or well we had. But seeing Fiona was just, I don't know, she made us think... wonder what may have happened to him. What if he is still out there, unknowing of who, or what he is, or, or-"

Molly cut her off, "We could fill all the parchment in the world thinking of all the, 'What ifs,' but we have to go on, and if he is still out there or finds us then that just makes it better, but he isn't from what we can tell, and we have our own lives to lead."

Molly handed Hermione a kerchief, seeing the tears of sadness coursing down her cheeks. Giving her a big hug she whispered in her ear, "Being pregnant doesn't help matters either, I would know.

Hermione laughed then, in spite of the seriousness of the conversation. "Oh, Molly, thank you so much, now lets just hope I can get your stubborn son to listen to me."

They laughed and all was good. Hermione let Harry go for the night, and just thanked god for the good life she knew he did have with her, Ron, all the Weasleys, and all the other people who loved him more than he would ever know. The party went off without a hitch, and she and Ron enjoyed taking only five very sleepy children home, Lana and Robert had gone home with their relatives.

A/N: see the read button down there? Go on push it, you know you want to!