Book Three: The Heir and The Champions

XXXIII - Judgment

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He was sitting in a room, a room he knew but couldn't remember staying in, the gaping hole in the roof with the crushed crib by the window was a dead giveaway of where he was. He sits in a comfy chair at a desk with a bookshelf to his right stuffed with books with ancient greek on the spine of them, his bed was messy with thick warm blankets and pillows thrown about on it. A few wizard posters were tacked up on the wall with Quidditch teams and different monsters animated on them, some monsters had large X's drawn through them. He was confused, why was he here? Why did everything look so different?

He sees something move out of the corner of his eye, a shadow on the wall behind the wreck of the crib, something hiding and watching him. He moves to stand to see what it is but is stopped by a voice calling out for him.

"Harry!" the familiar voice says, "Are you up there?" it asks, confusing him even more because he knew that voice though the only real time he had ever heard it was in nightmares begging someone to kill her and not him.

The sound of footsteps on the stairs echo out before the door to the room opens and she walks in, her emerald green eyes taking in the room as she tucks her fire-red hair behind her ear, she turns and sees him, and she freezes all for a moment, and a smile slips on to her face, "There you are, Harry," Lily Potter says softly before she takes a deep breath to steady herself, "Well, are you all packed and ready?" she asks him.

"Packed?" he asks confused, was he going somewhere?

"Of course silly, Atalanta is going to be here in a few minutes to pick you up," Lily says as she walks over to him, stopping just before him, "You're going off with the hunt for a few weeks, remember?" she asks.

He didn't, he knew Artemis wanted him to come to America for a hunt over the summer holidays, but it wasn't June yet, was it? He frowns as he looks around the room again, trying to spot the shadow.

"I-I…" he says trailing off before looking back at his mother, the confusion must have been evident on his face, because she frowns down at him, opening her mouth to say something but stops as there was another knock on the door and they both turn to look at the man who pokes his head into the room with a roguish smile on his face. His hazel eyes hiding behind his coke bottle glasses slide from looking at Lily to him sitting down and he lets out a sigh.

"There he is," James Potter says softly, before putting his palm on the door and leaning on it, his smile stretching even further as a proud look overcomes his face as he looks at him, "Hey Champ, Atalanta is here, portkey prepped and waiting," he says, his smile faltering a bit as he speaks.

He looks back and forth between the two of them, they looked so young, not much older than himself, with youthful faces and eyes filled with a mix of pride and pain, "I-I don't-" he says, why were they here? They couldn't be here, they were, they were…

Lily kneels in front of him, reaching out with a hand to cup his face, "Harry, dear, you-you can't avoid it forever,..." she says before pausing for a moment, her eyes flickering to the crib and then back to him, "She's your mother too," Lily whispers to him, "She loves you just as much as I do, and-and she wants to see you as well," she says, her lips pressing into a thin line and she looks like she was holding back tears, "and maybe, just maybe, she would like to hear that you feel the same way because I know you do," she says, her lips turning up into a smile, "and that's okay Moonshine," she says softly.