I stand before all three of their graves. Mum's, James and Dad's. I miss them so much it hurts. Slowly I get to my knees and sigh softly as I brush away some dirt from their graves.

Lily Evans-Potter- Beloved daughter, wife and mother. James Potter- Beloved husband and father. Severus Tobias Snape- Potions Master. Beloved father. Order of Merlin, First-Class; Posthumous.

Closing my eyes I see all three of them and it suddenly hurts to breath as a cold hand grips at my heart, squeezing with all it's might.  My throat and eyes burn with unshed tears and screams that I refuse to let out. It isn't fair! I wanted to scream. But I couldn't.  Because I've always known that...and no one would care besides.

No one cared anymore...not since I killed off Voldemort.  After I had finally fulfilled the bloody prophesy...the one I didn't even want to have hanging over my head all those years...they forgot. Not that I minded. It was nice to be alone sometimes.

I hadn't known dad that long when I lost him. I mean...I knew him. Hell...a lot of people knew him. But I didn't really know him until a year before he was killed at the hands of the monster I finally had the strength to slay.  And it wasn't until my dad died that I actually did.

He'd trained me long and hard for that moment.  I hadn't liked it but I knew the reasoning behind it...the reason for his sometimes overbearing, overprotective ways. I didn't really appreciate all of the things the man had done for me until after he had gone. 

And I hated it. Hated it that he was gone...hated that the man who I just started to love and just started loving me in return was taken away from me by a man who was just an insane megalomaniac. Sad and pitiful to the end.

My mum, Lily, had told me the day that Cedric died, that my dad was a good man. I hadn’t wanted to believe her, though I knew it was true after a while. I hadn’t really known then that he truly loved my mother, but the Halloween feast the following year, I found out the truth. Ever since the day she died, my dad had set up a memorial for her. And even though he despised the man I thought had been my father, he lit a candle for him as well.

When I asked him why, he told me. “Harry, I might not have liked the man but you knew him as your father.  He gave his life to protect you…and for that I will always be grateful. As much as I am loathe to admit it…James was…a good man. And he loved your mother dearly. Just as she loved him in return. I had been the fool by denying it.

 “But it was the truth. They loved one another. I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if James wouldn’t have talked her into forgiving me. And, I am thankful for that as well. And in the end, it was I who behaved the child, and he the man.  Not the other way around.”

I actually had to smile at that. I could never imagine my father, the feared bat of the dungeon, being childish. I still smile even to this day when I remember. My breath hitches at the memory and I lose that smile, my lips quivering as the hot tears roll unbidden down my nearly numb face.The wind whips around me, biting into my skin and burrowing deep until it makes my bones ache with it; it almost reminds me of the cold Halloween when the man killed my father.

I crouched on the floor of the dilapidated shack, hidden from sight thanks to the cloak that James had left me. Voldemort hisses at him, talking about the elder wand…and something about…Deathly Hallows. I couldn’t quite catch all of it, what with my heart pounding in my ears. Honestly, I am still surprised that the sounds of my heart beat hadn’t given my presence away…but then again, I suppose it was fate intervening.

A cold fear gripped me as I watched the man hiss to Nagini. That snake still gives me nightmares. I watched helplessly as I watched her slither over to my dad and strike him, barely managing to catch the scream that threatened to be ripped from my throat.

I watch my dad and barely notice the ‘CRACK’ of dissapparation.  When I manage to tear my eyes away from him however, I notice that Voldemort is gone. Throwing my cloak off, he began to breath frantically and crawled over to him.

“Dad,” I whispered harshly, tears threating to choke me. “Dad…please…stay with me.  I still need you,” I beg.He looks up at me, the once sharp, obsidian eyes slowly fading.

“Harry…Harry…look at me. Look at me Harry,” he whispers in a strangled voice. I can almost feel Nagini’s poison running through his body and it frightens me. God how I wished it were me! How I still wish it!

Still…I couldn’t help but do as he asked and looked him in the eyes, tears running down my own. He raises his hand slowly and takes a labored breath, cupping my cheek as he gently brushed a few tears from my eyes.

I sniffle and place my hand on his and choke back a sob.  “I need you dad…please?” I whispered, knowing that all my begging was futile. He was dying.

The man’s breaths are becoming more ragged by the minute and I can even hear the rattle in his chest. I know he didn’t expect this…yet he seems almost calm; peaceful really…as if he see through the veil as it rapidly thins before his eyes.

“My Harry,” he whispers, a faint smile lifting his lips. A real smile. I try and smile in return but bloody hell it hurts…knowing this is the last time I’m going to see and talk to the man…the last time I get to see an actual smile on his face.

“I’m sorry dad. I know you told me to stay there, but I couldn’t.”

“It’s alright Harry. I love you…and I’m pr…proud,” he whispers.  He uses what little energy he has left and gives me his memories. Once he knows I have them…he shudders his last breath and he seems to…glow. I can’t quite explain it. It’s as if…as if my mother’s spirit came through for just a moment and covered him; or as if I could see his own spirit leaving his body. Eerie…yet peaceful.And Iwept. Both then and now. 

Arms against the two gravestones, I struggle to breathe through the tears. “I’m sorry,” I whisper to no one. After a few minutes, I manage to compose myself and sniffle a bit as I wipe whatever tears the bitter wind hadn’t dried away and sigh.

“Mum, James; I…I want to thank you. For always being there when I needed it. James, I always thought of you as my dad, and even though you really weren’t, and you knew it, you still protected me as your own…like a lion protecting its cub. And mum, you died…” I pause to choke back a sob and I turn away for a second to compose myself. “You died because of me mum. I wish you wouldn’t have. I miss you guys so much.”

Turning to my dad’s grave, I sigh softly and touch my head to the gravestone.  “Hey dad,” I say with a slight smile. Sorry I haven’t come by to see you guys so often, but you know how I get.” I can almost hear him snort. Unable to stop myself, I smile. “Yeah. Can you believe it dad? I’m teaching those ‘dunderheads’ as you like to call them.  The Head Mistress, you know…Minerva. Ha! Can you believe it? She has me calling her Minerva now.  Anyways, she misses you. Even Neville misses you,” I said with a slight chuckle. I can almost see the raised brow at that and I chuckle even more. 

“You know I married Gin…so technically I’m a Weasley now.  We have beautiful kids. Three of them.  Albus Severus Potter, Lily Luna Potter and James Sirius Potter. James kind of…acts like me I suppose. Just be glad to know I haven’t given any of them my invisibility cloak yet,” I say with a chuckle.  “Lord knows what kind of trouble they would be in if they found it.

“As for Lily, she looks like my mum I suppose. Slight differences, but pretty much like her, though she does have Gin’s temper. Guess you and I were kind of alike too…going after redheads. Al looks a lot like me. Green eyes and everything. He’s in Hogwarts…second year. You’d be proud of him dad. He’s one of the few kids there that aren’t dunderheads,” I say with a smirk.

I can hear a chuckle. It doesn’t sound like it’s from me…but I can’t tell anymore. I’m so cold and numb inside and out  that I could just be imagining it. I’m so tired…but I smile as I close my eyes. I’m alone in the dark and cold…yet I don’t care. Because I can feel the love and warmth of my family. The one that I lost. And with that, the world turns dark…and I sink willingly into it’s embrace.

It took his brain a second to realize he was no longer in the graveyard…and he certainly wasn’t dead, if the crackling and popping of a cozy fire was any indication. Confused and always on guard, he slowly slipped his hand and searched for his wand…only to find, to his growing horror, that it wasn’t there.  Instead of panicking, he kept his breaths controlled and even.  Someone had been there in the graveyard with him…but who? And what reason would they have for taking him with them?

Suddenly, he heard heavily booted footsteps coming his way and stop just inches from him.  Then he heard a sigh and a soft groan as a man, definantly a man, got down on his knees and tucked the blanket securely around Harry’s shoulders.  Harry frowned inwardly at that.  It confused him. If he were kidnapped, the man wouldn’t treat him so nice.  So obviously he had no reason to worry…yet there was something pricking in the back of his mind that didn’t quite sit right about the situation.  Such as, why was he here? And who the hell had brought him? Where exactly was here?

That man…he sounded so…regrettable. And so familiar. Who was it, he wondered as he filtered the voice through the thousands or so he’d heard through the years. After a minute, it clicked. Abe. Aberforth Dumbledore. Why was he here? And what had he meant when he said mentioned a man putting him through hell, or showing himself? Merlin’s bloody beard he was confused.  Not to mention tired again from all this backward-forward thinking. Sighing softly, he fell back asleep for what seemed an eternity, though in reality it was only for another hour.

 When he finally woke up again, daylight was just barely creeping through the dingy window of the room he was in and he yawned. Slowly, he sat up and chuckled softly when he heard snores coming from the elderly man. Looking around, he found his glasses and put them on, blinking at the dark room as it came into focus, the only sources of light being the dim sunlight and the slowly dying fire.

Clearing his throat, he waited for the man to stir from his slumber and blushed a bit as the man stared at him for a second to recollect his thoughts.  As if he should be the one to be embarrassed, he thought to himself with a mental snort.  Still, at least now that they were both somewhat awake, he’d get to find out just what was going on.

Abe cleared his throat and rubbed his face.  “Mornin’ Harry,” he said with a slight smile before going into his pocket for a cigar.  “You want one?” he asked before lighting it.  When Harry shook his head, he shrugged mid puff and coughed.  “Shouldn’t be smokin’ these things anyways. Bad habit these…they’ll kill ye quick too,” he said on a smirk.

“Where’s my wand?” Harry asked after a few minutes of slightly awkward, slightly companionable silence.  He thought it odd when the man took a second to think on it, watching the aged face frown in confusion before grinning.  “Right.  Yer wand.  Here it is,” he said before tossing it to him. “You fell asleep in the graveyard. Was told were to find you and to bring you…here. The old Prince estates,” he said with a nod.

Harry frowned.  “I thought I recognized this place…but I wasn’t really sure.  Why here though? And who told you to bring me here?”

Abe shook his head.  “Can’t tell ye that now, can I? Least…not yet I can’t.  Not until he wants ya ta know.”

“Who?”

“Does it matter?” the old man asked.

Harry sighed softly.  Did it really matter? Honestly, he wasn’t sure himself, but he wanted some answers, and he was determined to get them.

“So if I wasn’t taken for anything, I can leave?”

All he did was make a potion he knew would react as soon as Nagini’s poison entered his system and…yeah.  He’s alright.”

Harry just…blinked slowly. “You’re lying,” he said after a few minutes, anger and hurt in his voice. “He wouldn’t do that to me.  He wouldn’t…wouldn’t just pretend to die and leave me alone when I needed him,” he said softly, his voice cold and even just as his father’s had been.

He couldn’t believe it…yet…what point was there for Abe to lie to him? Abe had always been honest to him before. Even to the point of being cruel at times. So why start now?

“Why would he do that?"  

                                                                                                            
“Because he knew it was the only way you’d have the strength to do what you needed to do.  He might not have wanted the prophesy to come true, but he weren’t no fool. A little daft at times, but not a fool.  Never that. And ya know he loves you lad.”

Harry looked at Abe in disbelief.  “My dad was not daft. He played a role and he played it till the day he died.  How dare you disrespect the dead?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper at the end.

“Because he ain’ dead I’m tellin’ ya.  And he is daft fer believin’ that you didn’t need him…and that Lily would ever stop lovin’ him. And before ya ask, no…yer mum’s still dead. Same with James. Sirius is another matter however.”

Harry blinked.  “You mean…Sirius is back? My godfather’s back?” he asked, getting excited.

“Not…not quite. But we’ll get to him later.  Fer now…just know yer dad’s alive. He wanted me ta keep ya here until ye were well rested…and well, you are now. So I guess you can go.”

Harry sighed softly. “Fine.  But I will return.  Count on that.  And we will speak more on this.” Getting up slowly, he winced, rubbing his lower back and getting the blood back into his legs. Grabbing his cloak, he slowly made it to the door and disapperated, not noticing that he’d left his wand behind.

As the younger man left, another man stepped out of the shadows. “He’s grown,” he said softly.

Abe looked up and smirked before groaning and shifting in the chair.  “Yeah, well, what’d you expect old man?”

The man simply smirked back before walking back into the darkness, pocketing the wand that had been left on the floor, not saying a word.