Geplaatst Harry woke up the next morning at noon. A look at Ron’s bed told him he was already downstairs. Harry put on his clothes and went downstairs to the kitchen. Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Fred, George, Mrs Weasley and Tonks were already sitting at the table.
‘Morning’, Harry said as he sat down, too.
‘M’ning’, Tonk yawned.
Mrs Weasley offered Harry a plate with sausages, scrambled eggs and toast.
‘Thanks, Mrs Weasley’, Harry said and he started eating.
‘Where is Remus, Tonks?’, Mrs Weasley asked.
‘Oh, he got off early this morning, said he had some business to do. I think he’ll be back in an hour.’
By hearing the name, Harry remembered something he wanted to ask Lupin.
When he had finished eating, Harry went back upstairs to his room. He would pack out some stuff while he would wait for Lupin to come back.
His trunk was standing in a corner of the room, waiting for Harry to pack it out.
Slowly, Harry leapt over to a big drawer, opened its doors and heaved his trunk on his bed. He didn’t really feel like unpacking, but there was nothing else he could do in this house until Lupin came back.
While he was putting some socks in the right drawer, Harry thought how he could ask Lupin.
And just then, he heard the smash of the front door. Harry ran out of the room, jumped off the stairs and stood face to face with Lupin.
‘Harry! What’s the hurry?’, he asked, somewhat surprised.
‘Erm, Lupin – can I ask you something? It’s kind of – kind of important to me’, Harry asked.
‘Sure! Let’s go and sit somewhere.’ Lupin walked over to the stairs that led to the kitchen, but Harry said, louder than meant: ‘No! I – I want to ask it in private.’
‘Oh, okay. Let’s go to the drawing room, is that OK by you?’
‘Yeah, I think so.’
Together they climbed the stairs leading to the first floor, walked down the hall and entered a room at their left. The room contained six or seven cardboard boxes and two old armchairs.
Lupin crossed the room and sat down in a chair. Harry did the same and looked at his knees, trying to avoid Lupin’s eyes.
‘Shoot.’
‘Well, er … it’s just that – I’ve always wanted to go back to Godric’s Hollow’, Harry said at once.
Lupin said nothing, but he didn’t look surprised either. After a brief silence, he sighed.
‘“I’ve been waiting for you to ask this question ever since I met you’, he said.
Harry was surprised to hear this. ‘Really?’
‘Yes. It’s normal you want to go back, and I really understand it. But please, Harry, don’t underestimate this.’
‘I’m not. But – I wanted to ask you if … if you wanted to come with me’, Harry muttered.
Now, Lupin did seem surprised. Then he smiled.
‘Of course I want to come with you.’
‘Really?’, Harry said. Lupin probably didn’t know how much this meant to Harry.
‘It’s up to me to do it, isn’t it? Now Sirius and Dumbledore aren’t there anymore …’ Lupin fell silent. Harry started staring at his knees. Then, Lupin spoke again.
‘What about tomorrow? Is that okay by you?’
Harry was surprised. He hadn’t planned the trip until next week, but he agreed.
That evening, Harry didn’t sleep well. He couldn’t stop thinking about his parents and Sirius. He wondered how his life would have looked like if they all would have been here.
Harry awoke after three hours of sleep at eight o’clock in the morning. Since he couldn’t sleep anymore, he jumped out his bed, dressed and tiptoed out the room, leaving a loudly snoring Ron behind.
When he entered the kitchen, to his surprise, Mrs Weasley and Lupin were already sitting at the table. Mrs Weasley was pooring in two cups of coffee and looked up when Harry came in.
‘Oh dear, are you already awake?’, she asked.
‘Yeah, couldn’t really sleep’, Harry said and he yawned.
‘Here, have a cup of coffee’, Mrs Weasley said as she passed the other filled mug to Harry. ‘Do you want something to eat? Eggs? Toast? Bacon?’, she asked.
‘Just a piece of toast, please.’
There was a brief silence (except from Mrs Weasley, who was preparing Harry’s breakfast) and then Lupin spoke.
‘So, are you ready, Harry?’, he asked softly.
‘I – I think so …’, Harry answered, but he wasn’t sure of his answer. ‘When are we leaving?’
‘Whenever you want’, Lupin said with a smile.
‘Here you go, dear’, Mrs Weasley said and she put in front of him a plate with two slices of toast, three jars of jam and a plate with some butter.
But even with some of Mrs Weasley’s best jam, the toast tasted like cardboard.
When Harry had finished his toasts and Lupin’s mug was empty, they both stood up.
‘So, we’d better go then’, said Lupin.
‘Okay’, Harry said. But he had forgotten something. ‘Er – Lupin? Do you have any Muggle money?’
‘Got everything.’ Lupin clapped with his hand on the pocket of his pants.
In silence, the three of them went back upstairs. When they had reached the front door, Mrs Weasley hugged Harry.
‘Good luck, dear.’
Harry nodded but didn’t speak.
‘See you later, Molly’, said Lupin. He opened the door and they stepped into the fresh air.
‘We’re going to King’s Cross’, Lupin informed Harry. ‘There’s a train every half an hour. If we’re lucky, we can take the one at nine o’clock.’
Harry checked his watch; half past eight.
They walked in silence. Twenty minutes later, they reached the train station.
Since Lupin wasn’t used to Muggle money, Harry paid their tickets. He checked his watch again; they only had five more minutes. They arrived just in time, their train had just arrived.
Five minutes later, the train was gaining speed and Harry and Lupin were sitting opposite each other, silently watching outside. Just then, Harry remembered something.
‘I just remembered – I forgot to tell Hermione and Ron where we are going.’
Lupin smiled. ‘No problem, I’ve got it all arranged.’
Harry was Lupin very grateful for that. He couldn’t picture himself telling his two best friends that he was going to Godric’s Hollow without asking them to accompany him.
It was another five minutes and the voice coming out of the speakers told them they had arrived at Paddington.
‘This is us’, Lupin said as he stood up and the train stopped. Without a word, Harry followed him out of the train, onto the platform.
It was an ordinary platform with businesspeople waiting for their train, people sitting on red benches, reading a newspaper and people running to catch their train.
Harry and Lupin went down the stairs, walked through a large hall, crammed with little stalls, then climbed up the stairs and finally reached a busy street.
Lupin inhaled the fresh air. ‘It’s not far from here. A little walk won’t hurt’, he said.
They crossed the busy street, walked several blocks, crossed another street and then turned right.
This street was less busy; there were only a few cars. It was an ordinary English neighbourhood, with nice houses and shiny cars parked in front of them.
‘It’s not this street, isn’t it?’, Harry said, observing a particular shiny and expensive cabriolet.
‘Oh, no, it’s just a little further’, Lupin answered.
Halfway down the street, Lupin turned right and slowed down.
‘This’, he said, ‘is Godric’s Hollow.’ He pointed at a sign which said “Godric’s Hollow” in fancy blue letters. Harry looked at it carefully. He wanted to go back, back to Grimmauld Place, safe and cosy. But no, not now, he said to himself, I came this far.
‘Where exactly is it?’
‘Oh, just a little further’, Lupin said. Not even a minute later, Lupin stopped abruptly.
‘Here we are, Harry.’
Harry looked up. To his right, there was a large gap between the two other houses. It was like a very big garden, but in the middle of it, there was a large, white stone, surrounded by flowers.
‘Can I - ’, Harry began.
‘Of course’, Lupin said and he looked at Harry encouragingly.
Harry felt the grass under his feet, the place where he had lived for one year. When he had finally crossed the lawn, and reached the white stone, he could see the words that were engraved in it.
In loving memory:
James Potter (°06 – 07 – 1960, † 31 – 10 – 1981)
Lily (Evans) Potter (°12 – 11 – 1960, † 31 – 10 – 1981)
Harry sat down cross-legged, facing his parents’ memorial. He didn’t know how long he sat there. It could be minutes, maybe hours. But after a while Harry felt a hand on his back and he heard a thud when Lupin sat down next to him.
And then, the words came rolling out of Harry’s mouth.
‘I’ve been thinking how it would be if they were still here.’
There was a brief silence.
‘If they would be, Sirius would still be here, too.’
‘I know, Harry. I’ve also been thinking about that.’
‘How were they like?’ Harry asked.
‘Oh, they were both very loyal. They always wanted everybody they loved to be happy.’
‘Now tell me the truth. How were they?’
Lupin smiled. ‘Well, of course they both had their less nice sides. James, for example. When he saw he had everybody’s attention, he could be quite arrogant.
‘Yeah, I noticed that’, Harry said, thinking of what he was in Dumbledore’s Pensieve two years ago.
‘Lily didn’t really have things like that. She always stuck to the rules. Unless – yes, there was this evening, our seventh year at Hogwarts. James and Lily had just started dating. James wanted her to come with him to Hogsmeade and have a romantic dinner, but she didn’t want to. She was very stubborn, but in the end, she admitted. They were almost caught when they were coming back, but they had had a lovely evening.’
Harry smiled.
‘There’s just one more thing I want to see’, he said.
‘What is it?’
‘I wanted to go to the cemetery, visit their grave.’
‘Ah, yes, of course. I think I know how we get there. Let’s go, then.’
They both got to their feet and with a final look at the memorial, they left.
The cemetery wasn’t far from Godric’s Hollow. At the entrance, they walked through a magnificent arch. After a few minutes’ search, they found James and Lilly Potter’s grave. It was a simple but beautiful double tomb. In the white stone stood engraved the same words as in the memorial stone. In front of the white stone, there were two bouquets of flowers.
Lupin stepped aside, looked around to see if anyone was watching them and waved his wand. A beautiful bouquet of flowers appeared out of thin air and Lupin gave them to Harry. He kneeled in front of the grave and placed them in the middle of it. At that moment, Harry noticed his face was wet. But it didn’t bother him, he knew Lupin understood him.
‘It’s okay, Harry. They will only be dead when they are forgotten.’
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Godverse, het lukte net zo goed, is m'n einde ik-weet-niet-hoe-loom! Ik kon de juiste zinsconstructie van die uitspraak niet vinden
NIET op de spellingsfouten letten
En nu niet zeuren, het is 4 A4-tjes lang
Eerlijk waar!
(het is tenminste voor mij begrijpbaar en dat zegt heel wat 
... !! ben benieuwd naar de rest 
