Chapter Twenty-Five – The-Boy-Who-Grew-(Again)

In this fanfic I've decided that Voldemort only split his soul twice, once into Nagini, and the other into Harry. It's easier and works better, so all that has to been done to kill him is kill Nagini and well… you'll see. Also sorry for the long wait but this summer has been crazy! I just started uni and this is the first time I've had a chance to do any writing!

For a few weeks after Cedric's death and Voldemort's rebirth everything was chaotic. The children finished their exams and were then sent home early for the summer holidays. James, Remus and Sirius were barely seen they were so busy scouting down rumours. At one point Harry and Ethan, who were staying with the Weasleys didn't see their father for two weeks.

It was a hellish summer, Harry was plagued with nightmares, not only of Cedric's death but of other deaths, deaths he had not seen, but deaths that he knew happened. He was watching them through Voldemort's eyes and it terrified him to no end, he only told Nox, terrified of what anyone else would think.

When their father returned from his mission he was pale and drawn and flinched at most loud noises, but slowly things returned to a shadow of normalcy. James became the man he had always been and Remus and Sirius moved in with them at Potter Manor for safety.

It was then that he and Ethan were told of the Order of the Phoenix, an organisation set up to fight Voldemort, neither of them were allowed to join no matter how much they protested.

….

The next year at school held too many bad memories for Harry, the students avoided him like the plague and he knew there were rumours going around that he killed Cedric, Cho Chang burst into tears anytime she saw him. His friends and his brother were his only comfort; they helped him through the year, comforted him after what they thought were nightmares and walked him between classes after Seamus Finnegan had tried to attack him in the halls.

It was after this attack that he had made his newest friend, Luna Lovegood. An interesting girl with long dirty blonde hair and a floaty attitude towards life, yet she saw through most things and could get to the heart of a problem in moments. She had instantly clicked with Daphne and the two had become quite close.

…..

That summer was just as bad as the first, worse still for the fact that now James knew of his visions. Harry had woken up screaming about 'not killing the children'; Voldemort had attacked a muggle nursery and killed all of the children there. He was now not allowed to sleep alone for the frequency of the attacks and Harry's nightmarish visions of them.

…

One night Harry woke and ran straight to the fire ignoring the calls of his father and brother.

"Snape! He's hurt! He was found out! We have to help him!" He screamed nearly incoherent as Ethan pulled him away from the fire with wide eyes. "WE NEED TO HELP HIM!"

"Harry there's nothing we can do now, we just have to wait." James said softly but his voice was shaking with his own emotions.

They sat up for the rest of that night, James had contacted the Order and Remus and Sirius had come down to sit with them for support. It was in the wee hours of the morning that they finally got an owl from Dumbledore, they had managed to find Snape in time, catching a few Death Eaters in the process but Voldemort had escaped. Snape was grievously injured. James had asked to have Snape stay with them throughout his recovery since he did not have anyone to look after him at home and the Order was too busy to worry about him.

Snape was unconscious for the best part of a week, he had had numerous Cruciatus and cutting hexes cast at him and he didn't react to anything when he did wake. It was all they could do to hope that he hadn't been irreparably damaged like the Longbottoms had been. Nothing they did got any reaction from him, Harry even invited the Malfoys' over to try and break him out of his stupor. It was the first time he had seen Mrs Malfoy cry when her friend wouldn't even look at her.

Harry spent long hours speaking with the unresponsive Snape, and when he ran out of things to talk about he told him about his nightmares, his visions, even the feelings he had for Draco.

It was after two weeks of this Snape that James snapped. It was at dinner and Snape had been brought down hoping to get him to eat something, he had been living off nutrition potions forced down his throat for far too long. James slammed his cutlery down making everyone jump and stare at him as he stormed over to the Potion's Master.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!?" James shrieked. "Answer me! Look at me dammit! This is not the Snape I know! Answer me Snivellus!"

And with that he had swooped down and kissed Snape firmly on the lips, no one knew quite how to react in the long moments after that. James pulled back a heated glare on his face as they all watched Snape closely and for the first time they saw the tiniest emotion on the potion master's face, a slight frown tugged at his forehead and his lips turned down.

"Po-Potter." Snape stuttered out weakly as he shakily climbed to his feet. The whole room held its breath.

"Severus…" James whispered in awe, his glare vanished.

"Don't call me Snivellus." Snape managed to hiss out in a weak imitation of his old snark.

Sirius burst into laughter at that and soon the whole room, aside from Snape, followed.

Snape slowly came back to his old self after that, though he did have a problem concentrating for long amounts of time on anything and he could only eat small amounts but he managed to even insult Sirius now and then which the silver eyed man could admit that he'd never thought he'd miss.

James spent a lot more time with Snape after that and one evening Harry caught them in one of the smaller parlour rooms sitting on the same sofa conversing softly. A grin lit up his face and he ran to tell Ethan. It seemed that they hadn't needed to meddle after all.

…

Sixth year started and ended much as Fifth Year had, with an increasing number of Death Eater Attacks. A devastating blow was hit to the Weasley family when they found out that Percy had joined the Dark and an even more devastating blow was hit to Blaise when his fifth step father was killed in a raid, he had been the only 'father' aside from his biological one that Blaise had allowed himself to get close to and both he and his mother were grief-stricken for weeks.

It was after this that both Harry and Ethan and their friends decided they could not sit back and watch as the world turned to ash around them. With the help of Fred and George they listened in to all of the Order meetings.

….

The war truly began in their Seventh Year.

That will be all until I post the sequel! Mwahahaha (Sorry but it would end up being waaaaaay too long if I left it as one story) Have no fear! It'll be posted soon hopefully!