Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Almost Perfect ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I don't own it if I did I wouldn't have to save up for things I would already have the money.

 

I'm sorry if there are any mistakes I kind of rushed through this chapter…. I read through it to see if I could find any mistakes I couldn't see any but if there is any sorry and your welcome to tell me so I can fix it.

 

Chapter 1:

 

Dumbledore had, had enough shocks, just in the past two weeks to last him more than a lifetime so when he saw James Potter standing in his office he thought he had gone crazy from all of the stress he had been put under in the past two weeks. He wasn't sure that he had not gone crazy until James had invited himself into the room, sat down in the chair in front of his desk, and looked up and said, “ Hey Professor.”

 

Dumbledore made his way over to his desk, where James had just taken a seat. He was speechless a first and then when it finally sunk in that James Potter, a man who was supposed to be dead was sitting in his office, he started interrogating him. After about two hours of interrogation Dumbledore was satisfied that the person sitting in front of him was indeed James Potter.

 

The last hour of the interrogation was mostly James telling Dumbledore about how and who he spent the last seven years with. While James was talking Dumbledore temporarily forgot all the stress that he was under.

 

In fact he had even offered James a lemon drop, something he hadn't done since the minister came to visit him a little over two weeks ago, and James having lived among muggles the past seven years had grown to like them and took Dumbledore up on his offer.

 

They were sitting and talking while drinking tea and eating the occasional lemon drop, while Dumbledore answered all of James' questions about what had been going on in the while he was with the muggles.

 

Dumbledore would have stayed in his stress free mood had James not starting asking about his friends and family.

 

“ What happened to Lily and Harry?” asked James it was something that he had wanted to ask ever since he had walked into Dumbledore's office, but he couldn't bring himself to because he was afraid of what the answer would be.

 

At this question Dumbledore sighed and the smile that was on his face wasn't there anymore, he knew that James would ask that question but he had hoped that it wouldn't be so soon.

 

James was watching his former headmasters face and was saddened and disappointed when he saw the smile vanish, he knew that it meant his wife and son were dead so he decided to ask another question, “ what about Sirius and Remus?”

 

Dumbledore looked at James when he asked this and figured out what he thought, “ it's not what you think James,” he said smiling faintly as he watched James mouth drop open.

 

“ You mean they're alive?” asked James not wanting to believe in case it wasn't true.

 

“ Not both of them James, but Harry is alive,” said Dumbledore.

 

James was disappointed that Lily wasn't alive, but shocked and glad that Harry was and immediately started asking questions about him, “ Where is he? How is he? When can I see him?” he said and would have kept going if Dumbledore had not put a hand up to silence him.

 

James was worried because once again all traces of happiness were gone from Dumbledore's face and he had the same look he had when he first arrived. “ He was living with Lily's sister until a few days ago, we think that Sirius kidnapped him after breaking out of Azkaban two weeks ago and we don't know where either of them are.” Explained Dumbledore.

 

It was James' turn to be speechless now Sirius in Azkaban and he kidnapped Harry, and the fact that Harry was living with Lily's sister was a lot to take in at one time. “ Why was Sirius in Azkaban in the first place?” asked James when he could make his mouth work again, James and Remus had always told Sirius he would end up in Azkaban but they were just joking.

 

Dumbledore was shocked that James asked why he was in Azkaban and then asked, “ Sirius was your secret keeper wasn't he?”

 

James stared at Dumbledore for a moment before remembering that they didn't tell him that they had switched. “ No, we switched Peter was our secret keeper.” He said hoping that they didn't lock Sirius up because of him.

 

Dumbledore looked at James for a moment and then sat and thought for a moment, “ well,” he said after thinking, “ that would explain why he killed Peter.”

 

James looked at Dumbledore thinking he was joking but saw he was not and finally nearly shouted, “ Sirius did what!?”

 

Dumbledore looked at James who was now pale and looked sick, “ He killed Peter and eleven muggles that were in the way.” Said Dumbledore, “ that's why he was in Azkaban.”

 

James was still pale he knew that Sirius might have been mad enough to kill Peter, but not eleven muggles too it just didn't sound like Sirius but he decided to drop it for now, “ so Sirius broke out of Azkaban and you think that he kidnapped Harry.” He said just to be sure.

 

“ Yes,” said Dumbledore with what sounded like regret in his voice, “ I didn't believe he would be able to get to Harry, so I didn't take any extra precautions, but I was mistaken and that's why he was able to get to Harry.” He said still sounding regretful. “ Arabella Figg warned me that he might be able to get to Harry but I didn't listen to her. She also seemed concerned about the care he was receiving from his aunt and uncle and now so am I that they show no signs of remorse that he is gone and don't seem to care what happens to him.”

 

James looked angry that Petunia didn't care about the well being of his son and confused at the mention of Arabella he waited for Dumbledore to explain further and when he didn't had to ask, “ wasn't Arabella Figg in the Order?”

 

Dumbledore merely nodded and waited for James to continue and make his point.

 

“ So why was she concerned about Harry, why did she know where Harry was?” asked James still confused.

 

“ She volunteered to live near Harry and keep track of him and to alert someone if anything were to happen to him.” Said Dumbledore answering James' questions.

 

James was going to ask why she didn't do anything to stop Sirius from taking Harry before she remembered that he was a Squib and instead asked, “ So how do we find Sirius and get Harry back?” he was worried about his son, it wasn't that he didn't trust Sirius it was that he didn't know how sane Sirius would be after seven years with Dementors.

 

Dumbledore looked at him before saying, “ the Minister of Magic and I have talked about it and we have agreed to put it in the paper and……”

 

James interrupted him before he could finish, “ you mean that's all your doing to find my son and he could be hurt or something and what if Sirius doesn't have him?” he asked almost screaming by the time he finished he was angry that they weren't doing more to find Harry.

 

Dumbledore sighed he thought that James might react this way until he heard all of it, “ I would have liked to do more publicly but the Minister of Magic is unwilling to do anything more because he is ashamed to admit that Sirius Black escaped from right under his nose and because of this he was able to kidnap Harry Potter. I however unlike the Minister am at least trying to do something. I sent a letter to Remus asking him to keep an eye out for Sirius and to see if he knew of any place he might hide. I also contacted some old Order members and asked for help finding them.” Said Dumbledore making sure that James knew somebody was doing something to find his son.

 

James took a deep breath and calmed down after he heard that something was being done to find his son and Sirius. “ So,” he said after calming down, “ how is Remus anyway.” He said deciding to ask about his friend.

“ Not so good I'm afraid, after the funerals he turned into a recluse and we haven't seen or heard from him since. He did ask to be left alone before he left, but I think he would like to know that Sirius has escaped and kidnapped Harry.” Explained Dumbledore. “ Maybe after we find Harry you could pay him a visit and see if you can get him to rejoin the rest of the world.” Said Dumbledore.

 

James just nodded in agreement he was thinking about something, “ How did they have a funeral if I didn't die, they couldn't have found a body if I didn't die?” asked James wondering about that.

 

“ Well, James, your house was destroyed and it's amazing that they found anything in the ruin, including Harry,” Explained Dumbledore, “ when they didn't find your body they figured it was destroyed along with the house.”

 

James again just nodded, “ Have, or, did you ever go to see Sirius?” asked James wanting to know if Dumbledore knew whether or not Sirius was sane after all his time with the Dementors.

 

“ No, I'm afraid I haven't visited him.” Said Dumbledore, “ I haven't had a reason to visit him.”

 

James was disappointed to hear this because he wanted to know how sane his friend was so he would know how safe Harry was, “ So you wouldn't know if Sirius was sane or not?” he asked wondering if he would know even if he hadn't visited him.

 

“ Actually,” said Dumbledore, “The Aurors that have seen him and the Minister of Magic all say that he is still very sane.”

 

James' hopes lifted upon hearing that, if Sirius was sane then he had nothing to worry about he knew Sirius wouldn't harm Harry. “ That's good then,” said James feeling very relieved, “ If he's sane he won't harm Harry.”

 

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at this, “ are you sure about that, James?” he asked, “ he killed eleven Muggles because they stood between him and Peter, are you sure that he won't harm your son.” He said reminding him what Sirius had done.

 

James stared at Dumbledore before saying, “ do you really believe that Sirius would do something like that, Sir?” he asked.

 

“ No James I don't believe that Sirius would do something like that and I was shocked when I heard that he did but he did do it.” Said Dumbledore, “ and you're not in school anymore so please call me Albus.”

 

“ Well I'm sorry, Albus, but I don't think that Sirius did it, I mean he may have killed Peter, but not all those Muggles.” Said James making it a point to call his former headmaster Albus instead of Sir even though it felt weird to do so.

Dumbledore just shook his head and sighed at James' stubbornness he didn't think there was anything he could say to convince him that Sirius did in fact commit those crimes, and then again he considered the fact that Sirius never had a trail and that somehow he could be innocent. He decided not to tell James that Sirius hadn't had a trail and wait until they found him and see if they could get him one.

 

James was angry that Albus thought Sirius was guilty he knew that if Sirius did something like that he would have gone crazy in Azkaban, the fact that he wasn't crazy should have told Dumbledore that something was wrong.

 

They both decided to drop the subject for now and James could tell that Dumbledore was relieved that they had changed the Subject.

 

They sat and talked for the better part of an hour. James asked a lot of questions about Hogwarts and Gryffindor he asked about he teachers too, Dumbledore answered most of his questions and was getting ready to answer a question about how the Gryffindor Quidditch team was doing when his office door opened admitting Severus Snape followed closely by Minerva McGonagall.

 

James' mouth dropped wide open that was someone he definitely didn't expect to see anytime soon, in fact he would have been just fine had he not seen him, and couldn't stop himself from saying very loudly, “ what the hell are you doing here?”

 

Severus Snape was in a bad mood, though someone might argue that he was always in a bad mood, and being yelled at by someone didn't make his mood any better and he started to snap back that he taught here but looked up and saw James Potter. For possibly the first time in his life Severus Snape was speechless, there was no way that the person sitting there with same look of unmitigated horror that was probably on his own face could be James Potter, he was dead and dead people don't come back to life. When he regained his voice the only thing he said was, “ You.”

 

James then started to say something sarcastic and rude that probably would have caused a fight to break out in Albus' office, but Dumbledore managed to stop James from saying it, stop Minerva from having a heart attack from the sight of one of her old students that was supposedly dead sitting in front of her, and stop Severus from cursing him all in one go.

 

Albus conjured two cups of tea for Severus and Minerva both of them were laced with calming potion for two very different reasons. Minerva took a few sips and stopped trembling, but Severus however looked at his and then Dumbledore knowing that there was calming potion in it. A few minutes later though he decided to take a drink of it anyway and when Albus was satisfied he started to explain to the both of them how and why James Potter came to be in his office.

 

It took nearly two hours because James and Severus kept getting into arguments and both Severus and Minerva had an abundance of questions to ask and it was dark by the time they were finished answering all of them.

 

Minerva was delighted to have one of her best Transfiguration students back and actually hugged him, but then returned to her usual stern self.

 

Severus however was not overjoyed he in fact was horrified. He had loathed James Potter ever since the first time he had met him, and he wished that he had never recovered his memories.

 

Dumbledore however had guessed that the both of them would have trouble getting along and asked them to stay away from each other and asked James not antagonize Severus.

 

James was still having a hard time trying not to laugh at the thought of Severus Snape teaching, he was good at potions James would give him that, but he bet everything he had that half the students were scared to death of him.

 

Finally James couldn't hold it in and he just started laughing, which caused everyone else in the room to stare at him even the portraits. “ Sorry,” said James when he calmed down, he had laughed so hard that he made his sides hurt.

 

A few minutes after James out burst they got back to discussing what they should do about James. James was a little angry with this and asked why he couldn't just stay here, he was also mad because they were all talking about him and he barley got a say in whatever they were planning and it was about him.

 

Albus and Minerva had decided it would be best to let somebody else decide what would happen to James. Severus however for the first and probably last time agreed with James it was his life let him decide what to do with it, as long as it didn't involve him he didn't care what James Potter did.

 

In the end with lots of arguing from James they decided that James would stay here tonight and tomorrow he would go with Albus to see the Minister of Magic, who James was told that it now Cornelius Fudge.

 

James couldn't wait to see the Minister and give him a piece of his mind about doing next to nothing to find his son.

 

James was now listening to Minerva and Albus debate about the people that James had lived with the muggle's. Minerva had pointed out that James just couldn't vanish now that he remembered who he was and where he was from because they would think he had gone missing.

 

Dumbledore however said it wouldn't take that much time or energy just to make them forget that James had ever been there or to make them think that someone had finally come looking for him and he left with them.

 

James had refused to let him do that though because they were his friends and he didn't want their memories altered or erased.

 

Finally they had everything figured out and Dumbledore was getting ready to show James to a guest room and say good night to Minerva and Severus when he found that Severus was not in the room anymore but had left a note on his seat.

 

Albus,

The reason I came up here was to alert you that most of the school's stores of potions ingredients are running low and that it might be a good idea to re stock them before school starts up again. I would have stayed to listen to you babble on about Potter but seeing as I couldn't care less, I left to things that I do care about.

-Severus

 

 

“ Well he's just as grumpy as ever isn't he?” asked James reading the note over Dumbledore's shoulder.

 

Dumbledore didn't say anything, and led James to the guest room in complete silence, “ Goodnight James I would try to get some sleep as you are probably going to have a long day tomorrow.” Said Dumbledore opening up the guestroom by saying ` Sweets ' and ushered him in.

 

James on the other hand did not take Dumbledore's advice and stayed up late thinking about everything that had happened just today, mostly he thought about Harry and Sirius he would strangle Sirius the next time he saw him if he wasn't taking good care of Harry.

 

Needless to say when James was woken up bright and early to see the Minister he regretted not going to sleep earlier, and he would regret it for a couple of days because for him sleep would be scarce in the coming few days.