OK…so I know that there will be some inconsistencies in this chapter, but whatever. But I don't want to say a lot more except that I didn't feel like ending the story! So that was the end of the real story…but I'm planning on writing at least 2 epilogues, I hope
A lot of you guys are wondering why I didn't write Halloween night…
I didn't because I really wanted you to get the sense (after the last chapter) that the Potters were O.K., that they knew "what would come would come" and "they would meet it when it did" (to quote Monsieur Hagrid). We already got an account about Halloween night in Deathly Hallows, and I really didn't want to spoil the good mood that was the end of Chapter 19!
But this next scene is directly after Halloween night
The wind howled. It was late at night, but the flames were still burning and the smoke was still rising. Neighbors stood at their fences talking to one another, their robes close to protect against the harsh October wind, as firemen and police surveyed the scene. Children's faces were pressed against the cold windows of their houses as they peered out curiously, wondering what caused the explosion.
"What the bloody hell happened?" One man ran out of his house and to the fence at the end of the walk, meeting up with two neighbors. "The house just blew up!"
"It's been abandoned for ages," A middle-aged woman with multicolored curlers in her head whispered. "It was probably some teenage kids, fooling around."
"Nasty hoodlums," another muttered.
The baby sniffed the cold air, and his face scrunched up again as he was enveloped in the chill. His eyes squinted into the darkness, his thoughts spinning. Flashes of green, three of them...screaming…the soft kiss he felt on his cheek and hushed words he heard in his ear before his mother screamed.
He felt miserably alone. It was dark, and all of the neighbors had gone back into their houses. He was scared, he wanted Mummy and Daddy to come and get him. He couldn't see very far, and he had never been alone on the street before.
VROOM VROOM!
The sound made Harry flinch. He shut his eyes, tight, so he wouldn't be afraid of the bright light and noise that he knew was approaching. Heavy footsteps coming his way, he cried out for his mother. A voice said his name, but it was not his mother's.
"Harry Potter, is tha' you? You poor li'tl chap…"
Two thick hands scooped him off the ground, and Harry started to sob. The stranger seemed nervous.
"No, don' cry anymo'! Uncle Hagrid's 'ere to take care o' yous'," The voice hushed, and calmed the baby. Harry stopped crying, hiccupping loudly. The stranger laughed.
"There you goes', li'l one. Poor kid, yous' all safe now."
He was flying. The wind nipped at his nose, the only part of his face not covered by his blanket, like knives. He was no longer crying, but the tears from earlier had frozen to his face. He did not know where he was, but he was close to the stars, which he liked. The stranger's beard was tickling him, and when he laughed the stranger smiled. He seemed friendly enough. Maybe he was a friend of his parent's…
A chilly breeze that seemed to emanate from the heart of the forest lifted the hair at Harry's brow. He knew that they would not tell him to go, that it would have to be his decision.
"You'll stay with me?"
"Until the very end," said James.
"They won't be able to see you?" asked Harry.
"We are part of you," said Sirius. "Invisible to anyone else."
Harry looked at his mother.
"Stay close to me," he said quietly.
Beside him, making scarcely a sound, walked James, Sirius, Lupin, and Lily, and their presence was his courage, and the reason he was able to keep putting one foot in front of the other.