"Hey, Harry?" the red head said excitedly.
"Yeah?" Harry stammered while trying to shift his gaze from the large house coming into better view.
"Where are your glasses?"
"What glasses? I haven't needed them…" he started, then stopped.
"Haven't needed them?" she replied. "Since when?"
"Um… since now?" he finished lamely. No sense in giving her an advantage that he'd had his eyesight magically corrected last September.
"Huh?" She gave him a confused look. "Well, mom's not gonna be happy that you lost them, you know."
Harry was speechless. He was still in shock. A girl that resembled his mum and calling him her brother still did not compute in his head.
"Harry!" a hysteric voice screamed. Before he knew it, he was hugged by a red haired woman who was crying on his shoulder. He heard multiple footsteps approaching.
"Huh?"
"Harry!" a bunch people called his name.
When the woman released him, what he saw made him freeze.
His mother...
Immediately he jumped back and got into a fighting hand stance. He didn't pull out any weapons, because he didn't like killing in front of children. Plus, the jerk had taken them from him. "This isn't funny!" Harry snarled.
"Harry, what?" the confused woman asked while tears rolled down her eyes.
"Hey, what's going on?" a familiar voice spoke from behind the woman, but it sounded rich and healthy.
When Harry saw the person, he couldn't help but shout. "Sirius!" Harry was overjoyed at seeing him even though he looked back at Harry strangely as if unsure why his godson would be so happy to see him. Usually it was the other way around.
"Hey squirt, where have you been and what are you doing?" Sirius asked giving him a strange look.
"Huh?" Harry noticed he was still in his fighting stance. He relaxed a bit, looking around at everyone. He didn't recognize a single face of the youngsters but he instinctively knew their names. Alex, Leon, Sylvia, Rose…
Another person came into view. Harry froze. It was his father.
"Uhhh... " Harry said, unsure of anything. He stretched his shadow senses to see what was wrong. These people couldn't be here. Only… his sense told him that there was no hatred or animosity from anyone there. Only a few had annoyance, while others had love, kindness, relief. Harry continued to look around as if in a daze.
"Harry, we've been looking all over for you. You didn't come home yesterday!" his father yelled. That's where the annoyance was coming from.
Harry looked unsure what to do so he spoke softly. "Sorry dad," he said in a low voice. He didn't know what was going on, but he decided to play along.
Everyone gave him a strange look.
"Is something wrong?" Harry asked slowly.
"Harry... " Sheila spoke up.
"You never apologize," Lily finished while looking shocked.
Harry didn't know what to do, so he shrugged. "First time for everything," he smiled weakly.
There was a moment of silence.
"Harry's hurt," Sheila said. "It's on his forehead."
"What?" Lily said, quickly lifting Harry's messy hair up to get a better view.
"I'm fine," Harry said automatically.
"No you're not," his mother replied forcefully. "Let's get you home. I'll clean it up there, out of view from the muggles. You don't feel like you need to go to St. Mungos, do you?"
"It's nothing new," Harry pleaded. The last place he wanted to go to was St. Mungos. They never wanted to release him.
"Nothing new? I beg to differ, young man. If I'm not mistaken, that's going to leave a scar."
"C'mon, Lils, you pampering him in front of everyone is going to leave an even bigger scar. Besides, scars on boys build character, and that one looks like a beaut. A lightning bolt if I had to guess. Does it hurt?"
"Not really…" Harry started.
Fwap. Harry's dad flicked the scar with a finger.
"Ouch, what was that for?"
"It hurts," James told Lily.
"C'mon kid, let's get you home. You had us all worried," Sirius said calmly, steering all the other kids back towards the house.
With an arm around her son, Lily Potter started off towards home. Harry took stock of his situation like Moody had trained him to do. Fact: no one was wearing robes. Pure blood mania usually had those jerks wearing some sort of archaic clothing. Everything his "family" wore looked new and off the shelf. His mother wore a sun-dress, the kids wore contemporary clothes he'd find Dudley possibly wearing if he were 150 pounds lighter, and James and Sirius wore shorts of all things. Their knobby knees were exposed to the air.
Fact: there were no wands in view. That was a good thing for him. That meant there were muggles nearby. That could mean that none of the pure bloods were close as they were always afraid of "muggle infection," a term Harry used to sum up their point of view much like a little girl in grade school would say a boy has cooties.
Fact: he knew the names of everyone there. He also remembered playing in the house they were headed towards. He knew Sirius lived across the street with his wife and kids.
Harry went carefully. He was fully alert. He may not sense danger, but he was cautious. His eyes were shooting around all over. He didn't think anyone noticed, but all of them noticed something was off with Harry. Only the kids looked as if nothing was unusual.
"Hey squirt, you ok?" Sirius asked.
Harry nodded. He didn't trust himself to speak.
When they approached the mansion, Harry was feeling uneasy. He tried to ignore it, but couldn't when as he was surrounded by three people that were supposed to be dead.
"You found Harry!" Remus shouted from the door of the house. He had a big smile on his face as he held the hand a young child about 3 – Lily Jr.
Make that four people that were supposed to be dead.
Heading up the stairs and through the door, Harry heard people cheer from another room. Multiple feet stomped the floor until they surrounded him.
Harry thought he was seeing things. It was obvious that the people in front of him were his brothers and sisters. What else he saw was Sirius' children and wife, a woman he had never met before. Yet knew her name was Amy.
He just gave them a blank look and analyzing each of them. He wasn't even paying attention while they were talking. He snapped out of it when most everyone else left to go do some other things that definitely didn't involve looking for Harry. He was left alone with his mother.
"Okay, dear, let's get that cut looked at upstairs. Let me get my wand," she did, "and let's see… what was that spell again? Ah," she quickly cast a diagnostic charm. "Just a slight bump on the head, that's good." She washed out a cloth and cleaned the area around the cut. "It doesn't look deep but let's not take any chances. I'll get a healing potion for you and then I want you to lie down while it works as it'll make you a little dizzy. You got that, young man?"
Harry looked at her longingly, his eyes beginning to moisten.
"Harry dear, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." She checked his forehead for a temperature.
"Errr... " Harry said unsure. "Thanks… mum," he choked out.
"Don't thank me yet. You haven't had that potion and from what I remember, it tastes awful. That was a joke, honey."
"Oh, right."
"Really, Harry, do you feel alright?"
"I'm… I'm not sure," he replied truthfully. "You said something about a potion?"
"Yes. Come on, young man. To the kitchen."
She set off on a brisk pace and within seconds they were in the kitchen where Lily rummaged through a cabinet of old-looking jars. Finding what she wanted, she gave it to Harry. "Drink up. All of it."
He pulled the stopper and sniffed it first. Constant vigilance and all that rot. It smelled non-poisonous. That was good enough for him as he downed the potion. True to her word, it tasted horrible. "Ugh."
"Now, now, to bed with you. The effects should kick in within a couple minutes. Off you go," Lily smiled.