Harry and Ginny barely spoke to each other the next morning as they followed the smell of scrambled eggs down the stairs.
Lily looked up from the stove as they entered the kitchen. “Good morning! Breakfast will be ready in a minute; I hope you like scrambled eggs and toast. There’s milk and juice on the table and water’s boiling for tea, so help yourselves. Did you sleep well?”
Ginny mumbled something and Harry shrugged as he grabbed the carton of orange juice. Lily’s forehead wrinkled and she gave them a worried glance as she turned back to the stove. A moment later, James waltzed into the room with baby Harry.
His older self looked at the child curiously. It was so…odd, to watch himself squirming in his father’s arms and yet to be sitting at the kitchen table.
“Morning, love!” James said cheerfully as he kissed Lily enthusiastically on both cheeks. She laughed, kissed him briefly on the lips, and took Harry from him.
“Good morning to you, too. And how’s my darling boy?” She cooed at her son, watching a grin break across his round face.
“Ma, ma, ma!” he babbled delightedly, and she laughed again as she put him in his high chair. “Dear, could you see to breakfast? It’s almost ready, just make sure the eggs don’t burn,” she called from the table. However, she needn’t have bothered. James had already turned to the stove and was engaged in scraping the eggs onto a large plate. He carried it to the table and laid it down with an elaborate flourish.
“Breakfast is served!”
Harry couldn’t help the grin that formed on his face at his father’s antics, and even Ginny looked slightly more cheerful than she had a minute ago. James headed back to the kitchen, where he started stacking toast on a plate.
“Go ahead and eat, we don’t stand on ceremony here,” he called over his shoulder. He brought the toast to the table, a piece already in his hand as he set the plate down.
No one spoke for the next few minutes as everyone tucked in. The table wasn’t silent, however; rather the opposite, as forks clattered against plates and baby Harry giggled and shouted around spoonfuls of mush, most of which ended up on his mother.
When they’d all had their fill and Lily had started picking up plates, James cleared his throat and looked at her.
“Er…Lily, my flower,” he began, and she raised an eyebrow.
“Your flower? The last time you called me that you’d managed to explode a casserole all over the kitchen and we had to order take-out.” Ginny choked and started coughing, and Harry pounded her on the back while ducking his head to hide his grin.
“Er…well, I still have a bit of Christmas shopping to do…” James turned red as Lily narrowed her eyes at him.
“Left it rather late, have you?” she asked, and he nodded sheepishly. She shook her head. “Why you always wait until the last minute, I’ll never know.”
“Well, I’ve done most of it! There’re just one or two things I need to pick up, that’s all!” James said defensively. “Besides, I was thinking Harry could come along, too; you know, so he can, er, get out of the house.”
The emphasis he put on the last words seemed to bother her, and she stood. Frowning, she pulled him away from the table and into the sitting room. Harry and Ginny strained their ears to hear, but only caught a few whispered words.
“…don’t want him in the house…you’ll be alone…baby…”
Harry sighed softly. He could see the sympathetic look Ginny threw at him through his fingers as he scrubbed his face, and smiled wanly at her. Would his father ever trust him? He was only going to be with them a few more days…well, he hoped it would only be a few more days. They still had to figure out how he was going to get back to fight Voldemort. Hopefully, Dumbledore would be back tonight. Ginny laid her hand on his arm and nodded to the open doorway, and he raised his head as the voices in the sitting room continued.
“Honestly, James…what about Ginny…less dangerous? Really…”
“Lily! Don’t be difficult…” They heard a sigh.
“All right.”
A moment later, the Potters reappeared, a scowl wrinkling Lily’s face.
“Harry, my husband has some urgent business in town. He has informed me that he did not, in fact, pick up the ingredients for the turkey stuffing that I asked him for two nights ago, so he has to do it today. Would you mind accompanying him? I’m going to be in the kitchen all day, and the less people in this house, the better.” She smiled apologetically. “I’m not very pleasant to deal with when I’m cooking a large meal. And Ginny can help entertain the baby. If you don’t mind, of course,” she said to Ginny, who smiled uncertainly and nodded as the youngest Potter started banging his spoon on his tray.
The older Harry grinned in spite of himself. “I wouldn’t mind picking up a few things myself, come to think of it. I left all my Christmas presents at home.”
Lily’s scowl changed to a smile at that, and she started spooning more mush into her infant son’s mouth.
“All right, you two have fun. After you clean up the kitchen, James!” she said pointedly as he rose. He winced and sketched a deep bow in her direction before collecting the dishes from the table. Harry stood and gathered a few plates, then followed his father into the kitchen. He scraped the scraps into the dustbin and tipped the plates in the sink before turning to James.
“Look,” Harry said softly, “I know you don’t trust me.” At that, James whipped around and stared at Harry, his hand clenched around his wand as Harry continued. “I wouldn’t either, if I were you. But, I just don’t know how to prove to you that I am who I say I am. I mean, I’ll make an Unbreakable Vow that I won’t harm you or your family, if you want me to.”
James studied his face closely before speaking. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
Harry nodded. “If that’s what it takes,” he said simply.
James continued to stare at him for another moment, and then relaxed and took his hand out of his pocket. He extended it in Harry’s direction. Harry hesitated for a second, shocked at the gesture, before gripping it firmly. James shook it once before releasing him.
“Truce, for now?” he grinned suddenly. “Though I may take you up on your offer later.”
Harry grinned back. “I vow, it’ll still be good.”
James let out a chuckle that quickly turned into a belly laugh, and Harry followed suit as relief flowed through him. A few minutes later they’d managed to calm down, and the girls gave them strange looks when they returned to the table.
“Private joke,” James said airily, and Harry nearly burst into laughter again, but managed to control himself.
“I’ll just grab my coat, shall I?” Harry said before darting out of the kitchen and up to his room. He’d just pulled his coat out of the closet and had started zipping it up when Ginny entered the room. His mouth went dry almost instantly as she shut the door and turned to him with a worried frown. He couldn’t help thinking how beautiful she was, even when she was chewing anxiously on her lower lip. That led to thoughts about her mouth…he shook his head to break that particular train of thought as she began to speak.
“Harry, I don’t like the idea of you going off alone. James still doesn’t trust you! What if something happens?”
“Don’t worry,” he soothed, stepping closer and wrapping his arms around her. He felt a bit guilty, holding her like this after last night, but she felt so right in his arms that he almost didn’t care. “We’ve come to a…a sort of truce. I’ll be fine.”
“Okay, but I want you to take your Invisibility Cloak, just in case,” she said, her voice muffled by his chest. “You’ve got it with you, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I carry it with me all the time now, it’s in my coat pocket,” he answered, stroking her hair.
“Just…be careful,” she mumbled. “You should probably wear it, just to be sure. I mean, you look so much like James, people might get suspicious, and if he tries something...or you get attacked…”
“Okay, okay, I’ll wear it. Don’t worry, Ginny.” He slowly extracted himself from her, then leaned over and kissed her hesitantly on the cheek. “I’ll be fine.”
She nodded wordlessly and opened their bedroom door. He followed her to the kitchen, where they saw a still grinning James.
“Ready to go?” he asked.
“Yeah, but listen, d’you think it’d be okay if I wear my Invisibility Cloak? I mean, no one knows about me, and I look an awful lot like you…what?”
James’s cheerful expression had changed to one of surprise when Harry mentioned the cloak.
“What Invisibility Cloak? May I see it?” he asked Harry slowly. Harry pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to James, comprehension dawning on his face.
“It was my father’s…yours, really.”
James turned the Cloak over in his hands before swirling it around his shoulders and disappearing. He reappeared a moment later, shouting for his wife.
“Lily! Find my Invisibility Cloak, please, it’s important!”
He turned back to Harry, frowning now.
“But…but why did I give it to you? So soon, I mean? My father didn’t give it to me until he was old and didn’t need it anymore, and I’m not that old in your time, so…how’d you get it?” Harry opened his mouth to reply, but James cut him off, still trying to reason out how Harry had gotten his cloak.
“I must not have needed it…but the war with Voldemort’s still going on, so it’d be really useful…and you wouldn’t have joined the Order until this year… Did I lend it to you for a mission?” He looked at Harry questioningly, who hesitated before shaking his head slowly.
“I’ve had it since I was eleven,” he said in a near-whisper. James stared at him, open-mouthed, as Lily hurried down the stairs, cloak in hand.
“Here, James, is something wrong?” she asked breathlessly as she shoved the cloak in James’s left hand. He held up his right.
“Looks like I gave Harry my cloak in the future,” he said tightly, holding up the cloak in his right fist. Lily blinked, not comprehending. “It’s my cloak, Lily. It’s exactly the same, every stitch! Look, it’s even got the rip in the hem where I tore it a few months ago! I guess I never got it fixed…”
Lily seized Harry’s cloak in both hands and looked closely at the hem.
“You’re right,” she said, a smile breaking across her face. “This is proof, James! Why else would he have this if he wasn’t telling the truth! It’s been passed down in your family for generations!”
“Yes, Lily,” James said quietly. “But why does he have it now? My father gave it to me because he was retired and didn’t need it anymore. But we’ll only be in our thirties in Harry’s time. He says he’s had it since he was eleven. It was passed to me when I was eleven, but…well, wouldn’t I need it, if we’re still fighting Voldemort?”
Lily paused, the smile fading from her face as she realized what James was getting at. She turned to Harry, who avoided her gaze and stared at his shoes.
“How did you get this cloak, Harry?” Lily asked quietly. Her voice echoed in the sudden stillness, and Harry chewed nervously on his lower lip. How could he answer her without it leading to more questions? Dumbledore’s note, with his thin writing slanting gracefully across the parchment, came unbidden to his mind.
Your father left this in my possession. Use it well.
“You…you left it to me…sort of. You gave it to Dumbledore for me, in…in case I needed it,” he stammered. James didn’t look satisfied with his answer, but seemed to accept it for the moment. James handed Harry’s cloak back to him and tucked his own in his pocket. Harry took the cloak back gratefully and slung it around his shoulders, vanishing from sight.
Of Christmas Past by Chaser921
Chapter Notes: Sorry about the long wait guys; I had writer's block something awful. Thanks very much to my beta, yemeron, who betaed this for me when she wasn't feeling well. And sorry it's a bit short, but otherwise it would've been too long for a chapter. Enjoy!