Harry Potter and the Year After

Chapter Forty-six: Midnight

Chapter 46: Midnight

Memory after memory was basically the same. People in shops in Diagon Alley, people in London, people speaking foreign languages--in one, Hermione translated the French the people spoke--all of them spoke Voldemort's name and then they were dead soon after.

With each time they exited the Pensieve at the end of the memory, Harry, Ron and Hermione became drunker and drunker on Firewhiskey.

Finally, after less than an hour had passed, they were down to the last memory. They didn't need to speak to each other. Ron handed it to Harry. When he did, it glowed a faint golden color in Harry's hand.

Ignoring this, Harry gently poured the memory into the Pensieve.

Tears welled in Harry's eyes. He was too drunk for his brain to clearly think about whether he actually wanted to see this memory or not, so it was simple. He shouldn't watch this. But he was going to.

Even drunk though, he knew he would keep this memory forever.

Harry, Ron and Hermione stood next to the fireplace in Harry's parents' house in Godric's Hollow. Before them, James sat with a sleeping child in his lap, but he was staring at the clock above the fireplace. Lily sat next to them with the baby's little feet and chubby little legs stretching into her lap. Really, Harry thought as he looked down at the memory of himself, he wasn't a baby. At least, he hadn't been as small as Teddy. Rather, he had been a toddler. He suddenly wondered if the memories he'd thought he made up of his parents might actually be partially real...

Lily leaned down and rested her cheek against James' shoulder.

"I just can't believe he's dead," James said, "I just can't believe Sirius would do that... It had to have been someone polyjuiced to look like him. This is all a trick. It is Halloween after all."

"It won't do any good to dwell on it now, love," Lily said, tears falling from her eyes as she blinked.

"I know... I know..."

"You remember everything Dumbledore said, right?"

"Yes. I gave him the Invisibility Cloak so he could give it to Harry someday."

"Oh, God," Lily said, closing her eyes. James kissed the top of her head.

Harry couldn't take his eyes off of his parents. He wanted to run at them and tell them to leave, tell them to run and forget him if they needed to. He wanted to draw his wand and kill Voldemort but he couldn't force himself to move. Instead, he memorized every strand of Lily's hair, every glance that his father made to the clock, down to the baby on his father's lap, and to Lily. It was as though time was standing still. Harry hardly remembered that Hermione and Ron were there with him.

A chime sounded softly twelve times from the clock over the fireplace and both Lily and James sat up straighter, as though it had been an alarm clock.

"It's midnight," Lily said glancing back over her shoulder toward the front door. "Maybe Dumbledore was wrong..."

But then there was a beam of light shining through the keyhole of the front door.

"Go upstairs with Harry. I'll stay downstairs and hold him off!" James was on his feet. He handed baby Harry to Lily, kissing the baby's head quickly as he did. Cradling the child against her chest, who was now crying, Lily kissed James hard.