Day Nine
Later that morning, after Hermione had taken a long, cold shower, she Apparated the group to a spot at the bottom of the canyon. They hiked for a short way through a narrow gorge with layered rock rising up as far as they could see. At the thinnest sections, James put his feet on the walls and jumped from one leg to the other to get through, making Lily roll her eyes.
"Come on, that was cool," James said after the third time he did it. "You have to admit."
"You're a show-off, Potter, that's all I'm admitting to," Lily replied. "Also, we didn't miss you almost falling on your face at the end there."
"Your dad's a child," Hermione murmured to Harry.
"I know," he replied with a proud smile.
When they reached a small opening in the gorge, Hermione told everyone to stop as she checked the map she was holding. She waved her wand to check their coordinates, compared it to the map, then nodded and turned to her right. "There."
"What's there?" Harry asked.
"Giant's Gulch."
She was pointing to a narrow passage that was no more remarkable looking than the other thin spots in the canyon they'd passed through this morning. It was barely wide enough for a large man to fit through, if he turned sideways. Harry was confused. He assumed the place they were heading was a place giants would be able to get to.
"Are you going to tell us now what 'Giant's Gulch' is?" James asked.
"It's an animal sanctuary protected by giants," Hermione explained.
"Why giants? Aren't they vicious?" Lily asked.
"Not all giants are vicious," Harry replied, a little sharply.
"I know that," Lily said defensively. "Hagrid and his half-brother are perfect examples. But as a whole, they're not the type to protect an animal sanctuary, are they?"
Harry just shrugged.
"Anyway," Hermione said, pulling the group's attention back to her, "This sanctuary was originally set up over fifty years ago. Newt Scamander, a famous British magizoologist, worked with MACUSA to find this location, ward it against Muggles, and fill it with a number of endangered species. However, after just ten years, the animals were dying out."
"Scamander," Harry said. "Why does that name sound familiar? Oh! That's—"
"The man who wrote most of the textbooks on magical animals? Yes," she finished for him. She knew he was about to mention Luna's boyfriend, Newt Scamander's grandson, but they didn't know if she was dating him in this world or even if she was a friend of theirs.
Harry shot her an appreciative smile as Lily asked, "Why did the animals die out?"
"They were being hunted for the illegal potions and animal trades. It was very convenient for criminals to have the most exotic creatures in the world living in one spot. MACUSA was about to shut the whole thing down when a local tribe of giants got involved. Everyone was wary because, as Lily pointed out, they're not known for their gentle demeanors, but MACUSA had no other options, so gave the protection of the sanctuary over to the giants.
"They ended up doing a splendid job and the population of animals has increased tenfold. The giants take their job as protectors very seriously. Everything I read said that as long as we listen to the giants, we'll be safe."
"Listen to the giants," Lily repeated, sounding bitter.
James wrapped an arm around her and said in an uncharacteristically soothing voice, "They're not going to be like the ones at the Final Battle. And if they are, we'll go straight back to the campsite."
Harry felt bad for snapping at her. She had obviously had some bad experiences with giants in the war and he hoped this wasn't a fact he was supposed to have known. "Yeah. We'll go straight back," he said, following it up with what he hoped was a comforting smile.
"Okay," Lily said, patting Harry on the arm.
"Are you sure?" Hermione asked. "We don't have to go."
"We're going," Lily said, marching toward the gulch.
"No," James called, running to get ahead of her. "I'll go first."
"Oh, okay. How chivalrous." She stepped to the side to let him pass.
James grinned over his shoulder before turning back to the gulch. "So I just—uh—step through?"
"Yeah. Just step through," Hermione called from the back of the line.
James disappeared into the gulch, followed closely by Lily. When it was his turn, Harry hesitated and turned around, about to ask Hermione to hold his hand, since he felt nervous leaving her behind, especially with the earlier talk of criminals. But he changed his mind, smiled awkwardly at her instead, and walked through.
They reappeared in a large circular area surrounded by red stone where the only two exits were the gulch they'd just walked through and a large archway at the end, which was guarded by a giant.
This giant didn't look anything like the giants that had fought at the Battle of Hogwarts. He was smiling, for one, but even more notable were the creatures surrounding him. There were a few squirrel-like creatures playing in his long, thick hair. There were two bowtruckles peeking out of his beard, and several colorful birds with over-large beaks on his arms and shoulders.
"Okay, now that is a friendly giant," Lily said once Hermione had appeared.
"No kidding," Hermione said. "He's like a giant version of a Disney princess. I half-expect him to burst into song."
"What?" James asked.
Hermione gave him a dismissive wave. "It was a Muggle reference. Okay, are you guys ready?"
They nodded and all walked together to approach the giant.
"Hello," he said in a booming voice.
"Uh, hello," said Hermione. "We're here to visit the animal sanctuary."
The giant nodded and held out his hand, which was large enough for Hermione to step onto, if she wanted, which she didn't. "Wands," the giant said simply.
"What?"
"Wands," the giant repeated, pointing to the wand in Hermione's hand. He gestured toward the archway. "No wand in there."
"You're going to take our wands?" Harry asked. "But then—what if something happens to us in there?"
The giant shrugged and said, "No wand, no animals." He began playing with one of the bowtruckles in his beard. It was clear he didn't care either way if they gave him their wands. He was just enforcing a rule to protect the animals.
Everyone looked at Hermione. "I didn't read about that," she said. "I definitely would have mentioned it."
"We're obviously not going in there without our wands," James said.
"Hang on. Let me think." Hermione leaned against the wall and stroked her chin as she thought. "I can spell-bind our wands and tie the spell to each of our magical signatures, ensuring that only we can unlock the charm."
"Fine. That'll keep people from stealing our wands, but that would still leave us without magic in there," Harry said.
"Not without magic, without wands," she corrected. "If we're in a life-or-death situation, our magic will kick in to save us. No one else has wands in there, so we're not at risk of getting attacked by humans—"
"—just giants and wild animals," Lily finished for her. "I don't like it."
Hermione nodded understandingly and turned back toward the giant. "Excuse me, sir. Are there dangerous animals in there? How will we defend ourselves against them without our wands?"
He nodded, like this was a question he got a lot. "Listen to giants. Giants keep everyone safe."
Hermione turned back to the group and shrugged. "And we're back to listening to the giants."
"Great," Lily grumbled.
"They're not exactly easy to understand, are they?" Harry said in a low voice. "It may not be as simple as he's making it sound."
James chortled while Hermione suggested, "Let's vote."
"Fine. I vote no," Lily said immediately. "James?"
"Is this one of those things where if I don't agree with you, I'm going to be paying for it for the rest of the trip?" James asked.
Lily rolled her eyes. "James votes yes, he's just too scared to say so."
"I vote yes," Hermione said quickly, before James could change his vote. Everyone turned to Harry.
Harry hesitated, then looked at Hermione. "You really think this is safe?"
Hermione shrugged. "I trust our instincts. If anything feels wrong to any of us once we walk through there, I propose we turn right back around. But—uh—I at least want to see what it's all about. I don't think MACUSA would support it if it were dangerous."
Harry sighed and handed her his wand. "Okay. Let's try it."
As she looked at his wand in her hand, Hermione recalled Lily's words from the day before. "He trusts you implicitly. I think he'd follow you anywhere."
James and Lily handed Hermione their wands next and she applied the locking spell she'd mentioned. They all practiced removing the spell, confirming that only the owner of the wand could undo it, and James complimented Hermione's vast knowledge of obscure spells again. She looked uncomfortable and Harry made a mental note to ask her later if the spell she'd used to lock their wands was experimental.
They handed their wands to the giant, who stowed them in an inside pocket of his vest, then gestured for them to proceed through the archway.
They appeared on a ledge overlooking a lush valley below. Hermione's head whipped around as she struggled to decide where to look first. The landscape alone was breathtaking. The red, layered rock surrounding the area provided a beautiful contrast to the brilliant green of the brush in the valley and the deep turquoise hue of the stream winding through the center.
There were animals everywhere and the longer Hermione looked, the more she noticed: A herd of flying horses grazing under a copse of trees, two flying creatures that looked like a mix between snakes and dragons— occamies, she thought—slithering through the air, and an erumpent drinking from the stream.
"Hermione, look at this!" Harry called from further up the ledge. She went to his side and followed his finger. He was pointing to a family of unicorns—two grown silver ones and three golden foals—walking through a small field of wildflowers. Hermione smiled and when she looked back at Harry, he was watching her, instead of the unicorns.
Lily's voice echoed in her mind again. "Every time we've seen a spectacular sight on this trip, he's looked at you, because I think he enjoys them more through your eyes."
Hermione blushed and looked to her right to find Lily watching the two of them. Lily winked at her before turning back toward the valley. Hermione was sure Lily was thinking of their conversation.
Harry always claimed the Sorting Hat had tried to put him in Slytherin because of the piece of Voldemort's soul in him, but maybe it was just in his genes. Lily was very cunning, and she had been friends with Snape.
"Hermione! You have to see this!" Harry was crouched down, much too close to the edge for Hermione's liking and all of a sudden, he jumped back, catching himself with his hands as he laughed heartily. Hermione smiled at the look of pure joy on his face.
He's not the only one who enjoys the sights more through the other's eyes, is he?
"Shut up!" she shouted in her mind as she took a deep breath and went to see what he'd found.
Several hours later, Hermione was lying on the ground at the edge of a deep pond with a waterfall flowing into it. She was enjoying the cooling feeling of the spray from the waterfall on her sun-drenched skin.
"Here, try this one," Lily said, holding a purple flower out to Hermione. Hermione carefully pulled the flower out of the stem, revealing a small drop of nectar, and placed it on her tongue. "Hmm," she said as she mulled over the flavor. "Pear?"
"I was thinking, dragonfruit."
"Oh, yes! That's what it is."
When they'd first arrived at this pond an hour ago, a family from Canada had pointed out these colorful flowers to them, explaining how the nectar tasted like a different fruit depending on the color of the flower.
They'd smiled politely and declined, not wanting to put any strange substances in their mouths without being able to cast a Poison-Detecting Charm first. But once the family was gone, Hermione had an idea to pool their magic together to create enough power to cast a weak spell on the plant.
No one knew how to do that, but she just told everyone to stand still and hold hands and after a few moments of strange chanting, had managed a weak version of the Poison-Detecting Charm—strong enough to confirm the plant wasn't deadly, but not enough to determine if it would make them sick.
Hermione had decided to take a risk and try it and was glad she had, since she was officially obsessed with these flowers. They were like honeysuckle mixed with the good flavors of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans, combining two fond memories from her childhood. One: when she'd played in the forest as a child, eating honeysuckle as she laid in the grass and watched the clouds, and the other: eating sweets from the cart with Harry and Ron on the Hogwarts Express.
Hermione turned her head at the sound of splashing and saw James and Harry walking out of the water. "You have to try that, Lil!" James exclaimed, sitting next to Lily as he wiped his glasses on the edge of his shirt.
"I don't have to do anything I don't want to do and jumping off of a cliff without my wand is something I don't want to do," she retorted, motioning toward the waterfall Harry and James had just jumped down.
"Harry and I did it and we're fine."
"Good for you two."
"Come on," James said, nudging her side with his leg. "At least go up there with me. The view alone is worth it, then you can walk back down."
"No, thank you," she said, turning to pick a yellow flower from the bush behind her.
"Please?"
Lily opened the flower, dropped the nectar on her tongue, then turned to Hermione and said, "Watermelon."
"Please?" James repeated.
Lily let out a large sigh. "If I go up there and see this 'incredible view,' will you stop pestering me?"
"Yes," he said, jumping to his feet, then reaching out a hand to help her up.
Lily brushed his hand away as she rose on her own. "Let's get this out of the way," she grumbled, marching toward the path that led to the top of the waterfall.
"Five galleons says she doesn't end up walking back down," Hermione said once they were out of earshot.
"I'm not taking that bet," Harry replied as he laid on the ground next to her. "I'm with you."
Sure enough, when his parents reached the top, they heard shouting echoing around the clearing. Harry could see his mum poking her finger into his dad's chest as they fought. Then, seemingly without warning, James pulled Lily against his chest and jumped off the waterfall with her. When they hit the water, a flurry of flying seahorses exploded into the air, chittering wildly as they flew around before returning to the water.
"James!" Lily cried as soon as she resurfaced.
"Wasn't that fun?" he asked, appearing from the depths of the pool a few feet away from her, his glasses askew. "Don't you want to do it again?"
"Do what? Tell my husband I really don't want to do something, have him agree to a compromise, then have him ultimately disrespect me by forcing me to do the original thing I didn't want to do anyway? All because he's the wizard and he's in charge and—"
James splashed her. She splashed him back and soon they were swimming around the pool and splashing each other, occasionally joined by a flying seahorse or two.
Harry and Hermione laughed as they watched his parents behaving like children. "I could see you making a speech like that," he said to Hermione.
"If you did that to me, I'd spare you the speech, pretend like I was okay with it, then once I had my wand back, I'd hex you to oblivion when you were least expecting it."
Harry raised an eyebrow at her. "Does that punishment really befit the crime?"
Hermione shrugged and cocked her head toward his parents, who were kissing now. "Your mum doesn't think so. But again, I'm pretty sure she knew exactly what was going to happen when she walked up there with him."
Harry watched his mum pull away from his dad and push him under the water, then wondered if the kiss had just been a distraction so she could do that. James grabbed hold of her leg as she was swimming away and pulled her under. By the time they reached the edge and had pulled themselves out of the water, they were both laughing.
"You want to jump again, don't you?" James asked, slightly out of breath.
"No," she said simply. Then, when James had taken a seat next to Harry, she turned to the waterfall and cried, "Race you up there!"
James let out a laugh and bolted up the path after her.
"They're cute," Hermione said once James and Lily were out of sight. She could still hear their laughter as they fought their way up the path.
Harry just hummed as he laid onto his back and closed his eyes. He adored these moments and would never be able to thank Hermione enough for giving him this gift. But the days were ticking by and soon, he'd have to say goodbye. He'd never hear his parents' laughter again. Never see his mum shoot his dad an exasperated look—at odds with the admiration sparkling in her eyes, or catch his dad playfully smacking her bum when he thought no one was looking.
"Hey," Hermione said.
Harry turned his head toward her and when he opened his eyes, he saw she'd shifted onto her stomach and was propping herself up on her elbows. His eyes darted to her cleavage for a second before he dragged them up to her face. So much for the pact he'd made earlier to not look at her body, which he'd already broken four times.
He'd had a mini panic attack when she'd emerged from the trees in the same black swimsuit the other Hermione had been wearing in the photo at the beach house during that intimate scene where the other Harry had been kissing her neck. Harry had noticed that even though the swimsuit was modest, it revealed every line of her body: her slim waist, her curvy hips, the shape of her breasts under that thin, black fabric, and her long, elegant neck, which the other Harry had got to kiss.
What are you doing? That's a lot of thoughts about something you're not supposed to be thinking about! Remember the pact. Think of Ginny!
Ginny was beautiful, too. Thin, tall, long legs, but not very curvy. He thought again of the curve in Hermione's waist and how he wanted to see what it felt like to place his hand there. And again, his thoughts were back on Hermione. He kept trying to think of Ginny, but he could never keep her in his mind for very long.
"Harry?"
Harry snapped out of his inappropriate trance and focused back on Hermione. "Er—yeah?"
"You're a lot like them, you know?" she said, cocking her head toward the waterfall. "I've been noticing it more as I get to know each of them better. You're fearless and daring like your dad, but with a good blend of caution, from your mum. You're funny and sarcastic, which is definitely from James, but also reserved, like Lily."
Harry gave her a sad smile, then looked up at the sky and closed his eyes. A tear fell down his cheek, but luckily it was on the side facing away from Hermione. He heard scratching a moment later and turned to find Hermione writing in a notebook.
"What are you writing?"
"What I just said."
"About my parents?"
Hermione nodded. "I've been thinking, we've seen so many incredible sights but we can't bring pictures back and it's not reasonable to visit a pensieve all the time, so I thought it would be good to write down all the little details from the trip. I should have started sooner, but I've been catching up."
She flipped backward and Harry saw she'd already filled out four pages. Then he noticed it was the same notebook he'd written the list of jobs in. "And you're including details about my parents, too?"
"Why not? It's all worth remembering. Even this childish cliff-jumping argument of theirs. And then—well, my plan was to clean it up and give it to you for a Christmas gift."
"Oh," Harry said, swallowing back a lump in his throat. "You're actually supposed to keep those a surprise. That's why people wrap them in paper."
She rolled her eyes. "Thanks for the tip. I guess I'll bin this gift idea and just get you something else."
"No! I want this gift. It's incredible. I'll—er—pretend to act surprised. Promise."
She gave him a shy smile, then he saw her eyes scan his body. His heart thumped. Did she just check him out? Had he imagined that? No, he hadn't, she seemed embarrassed and was determinedly looking down at the ground. He bit back a smile as he reached out and gave her a gentle kick. "Hey."
He watched her eyelashes float up and smiled when her eyes met his. "I'm glad I'm here with you. I wouldn't have picked anyone else to do this with."
She let out a nervous laugh. "No one else would have been able to get you here."
"You know what I mean."
Harry stared at her for too long. In the middle of this idyllic cove, with the red rocks, the waterfall, and the deep, turquoise pool with exotic fish jumping out every so often to say hello. With colorful flowers surrounding the area and a clear blue sky ahead, it was without question one of the most beautiful places he'd ever seen. And still, he could not keep his eyes off this witch.
She dropped his gaze. "What? Do I have something on my face?"
"Yeah." Harry lifted his hand and touched the top of her cheek. "Sunburn. Right here."
"Oh." She gave him a pretty smile, then reached out and feathered her fingers along his shoulder. "You too. That's the problem with not having our wands. Most of our stuff is shrunken, so I couldn't get a Sun-Repellent Potion. But I have a salve that will fix this up when we're back at the campsite."
"I wasn't worried about it. You have a solution for everything."
She smiled again, then dropped her hand and shifted away from him, pulling herself to a sitting position. "I, uh, have been watching this lizard," she began, motioning toward the bush with the colorful flowers. "He eats the flowers, then changes colors to match the most recent flower he ate."
"Oh. Cool." Harry sat up and looked into the bush, but couldn't see any lizards.
"I've been trying to coax him out, but he keeps hiding back there, in the shadows."
"Well, you're the lizard whisperer. If anyone can earn his trust, it's you," he quipped, nudging her side.
"I don't know about that," she said darkly. "The fire lizards turned on me two days ago."
Before Harry could respond, a cheerful scream echoed around the area. Harry turned his head just as his parents landed in the pool, splashing him and Hermione. They laughed as they wiped the water from their faces and when Hermione turned back to Harry, still smiling, he noticed she'd missed a drop of water on her lip.
He almost leaned in to lick it away. He had advanced forward a few inches and was imagining how her lips would taste—fruity, like the nectar from those flowers she'd been tasting—when he caught himself.
Stop! What are you doing?
He froze, then leaned back on his hands as casually as possible. Bloody hell. What was that? He blamed that ice cream photo he'd been looking at the other day for putting the idea in his head. He knew looking through those was a bad idea.
His parents had pulled themselves out of the water and asked if Harry or Hermione wanted to join them for another jump. Harry got to his feet. "What do you say, Hermione?"
She snorted.
"You can just come up and see the view, then walk down," he added with a wink.
She rolled her eyes and pulled the notebook into her lap. "I'm going to work on this. You go on."
Harry nodded and headed toward the path his parents had already disappeared down. When he reached the first turn, he looked over his shoulder and caught Hermione watching him. She snapped her head back down as soon as she saw him looking at her.
So, it wasn't just him. She was having a hard time keeping her eyes off of him, too. His heart fluttered at the thought, but the feeling of elation was quickly replaced by nausea. He sighed as he picked up his pace, running to catch up to his parents.
What are you doing?! Hermione is Ron's fiancée! Your fiancée's best friend! Your best friend!
No matter how he looked at it, it was bad. He told himself he'd stop these thoughts as soon as he was back in his world, but they were getting harder to control. Forgetting about them once they were back wasn't going to be possible. They were going to have to address this, and soon, before he ended up doing something stupid.
A few hours later, they were walking to the Apparition point, glad to have their wands back, when Hermione stopped abruptly on the path. "Bugger! I left my notebook!"
"Where?"
"By the pool, next to the flowers."
"What's in it?" Lily asked.
"Nothing that important. Just notes from the trip. I guess I can recreate them." She gave Harry a dejected look and he guessed she was thinking about the hours worth of work they'd done scoring that list of jobs which they'd also have to recreate.
"I'll get it," Harry said. "We're not that far away and I remember how to get to the waterfall."
Hermione's eyes lit up. "Really? Okay, I'll go with you."
"I'll go with him," James said. "You two go on ahead."
"Oh. Are you sure?" Hermione asked.
"He doesn't want to have to do any cooking, if he can help it," Lily muttered to Hermione.
James pretended to ignore her. "Let's go, Harry. If we're quick, we'll be back in time to help with dinner."
Lily just laughed as she and Hermione continued toward the Apparition point. "Oh! Pocket some of those flowers!" Hermione called after the guys.
"I'm beginning to think you left that notebook on purpose!" Harry said over his shoulder.
Harry and James found the notebook easily, tucked under the flower bush, and were walking back through the canyon, trying to find the Apparition Point, when James said. "I think we missed a turn."
"Yeah. I was just about to get the coin and ask Hermione for the coordinates."
"Hush!" James hissed. He moved his finger to his lips and cocked his head toward the wall. Harry joined him against the wall and strained his ears, then he heard it. There were low voices, which normally wouldn't be cause for concern, but they appeared to be arguing.
Harry and his dad shuffled closer to the sound, making sure to stay hidden against the wall.
"...giant 'll get yeh."
"That's what the cloak's for. You distract 'im by fightin' about turnin' yer wand in and I get in with the cloak."
"It worked for Robins las' month. And he made a killin' with them Chizpurfle fangs."
"Yeah, but he killed the blasted creature, set the giants on 'igh alert. It'll be 'arder today."
"'Ow do you get the fangs without killin' it?"
Harry was about to turn to his dad and say that they must have found some of those illegal Potions dealers Hermione was talking about when James's head bobbed forward and he slumped to the ground.
Harry looked around wildly for the person who had Stunned his dad and found him a second too late. He was a burly man, about Harry's height, with sandy brown hair. He was coming up the path the way they'd walked in, holding his wand out as he pulled an invisibility cloak off of himself.
Brilliant job, Auror Potter, Harry thought before the Stunning Spell hit him and everything went black.
When Harry came to, he was sitting on the ground with his hands tied behind his back. His dad was behind him and judging by the feeling of his hands on Harry's binds, he was awake. Harry carefully took in the scene around them.
There were four men, the sandy-haired one that had Stunned them and three others. They had the look of criminals, but Harry couldn't tell which type. The lowly, stupid ones or the ones higher up the chain, who were clever and pretty good at dueling. There was one way to find out.
Harry squeezed his dad's wrist to let him know he was awake. "Stay still," James whispered back, almost inaudibly.
At least one of these thugs was stupid because they'd placed Harry and his dad in this position, back-to-back. It was a good way to keep them upright while Stunned, but it gave them the chance to remove each other's binds, like James was doing now. Harry felt a few shocks of magic and the next moment, his hands were free. He started working on his dad's binds and had them off in two minutes.
The men, who'd been arguing, had just noticed Harry and James were awake. They were making their way back to them as James whispered, "Don't let them know you're free."
Harry had planned to listen to his dad, but then one of the men got too close and he decided not to waste the opportunity. Harry kicked a leg out and used it to swipe the closest man's legs out from under him. The man slammed to the ground and dropped the wand he'd been holding but before Harry could grab it, the second man Summoned it and now he was pointing two wands at Harry.
During the struggle, James had thrown himself at the sandy-haired man and was wrestling with him on the ground while the fourth man watched with his wand raised, trying to figure out how to help his friend. "Harry, don't—!" James was cut off when the sandy-haired man pushed him back to the ground.
Harry focused back on his own opponent. He dodged two spells, then was about to lunge for the man, the way his dad had done, when James shouted, "Harry, catch!" and tossed him a wand.
Once Harry had a wand, defeating the thug was easy. It turned out he was the stupid type of criminal. Harry cast a spell at the man's left side, missing on purpose, and causing the man to cast a Shield Charm on his left. Then Harry shot a blast of wind on the man's right, which slammed him into his own Shield Charm and knocked him to the ground.
Harry Disarmed the man and both wands he was holding flew into Harry's hands. He Stunned the man quickly, then turned and Stunned his friend next, who was still on the floor, watching the fray. Harry bound them and turned to his dad, who had just finished Stunning his second opponent.
Now that all the criminals were Stunned and Bound, Harry finally let himself relax. They'd done it. Harry gathered all the wands, finding his in the inside pocket of the sandy-haired man's vest, then he helped his dad drag the men to the wall and secure their binds.
"That was close," Harry said as he stood up. "It's lucky they weren't that good at fighting."
"They weren't," James said slowly, "but you…were." He stepped back with his wand pointed at Harry's chest. "Who the hell are you and what have you done with my son?"
