History in the Making
I first wrote this story during my sophomore year of college in 2010. Now, five years later and graduated, I've realized that this story needs a major edit. It was posted under my previous ff account americanidolfreak, but I had deleted it when I decided to redo it. Now I can't access that account thanks to YahooMail. Some of my other stories won't get this kind of care from me, but this particular story has stuck with me over the years. Plus I've recently discovered the chapter outline I did years ago for the sequel and have started to work on it.
The way this story was told is through flashback. We'll see Harry, Remus, and Sirius present tense from Order of the Phoenix. Just be aware, the next chapter will introduce three new characters, one is the younger sister of one of the Marauders; it is a major Marauder AU. Please do not give up on this story because of these new OCs. They will have a purpose to the story.
Christmas was coming up at Grimmauld Place, and it was the very last place Harry wanted to be.
When he weighed out the possibilities of either being there where everybody stared worriedly at him or at Hogwarts with Umbridge always breathing down his neck, he chose Grimmauld. At least Sirius wasn't treating him any differently. The Weasleys and Hermione had left for St. Mungo's to visit Mr. Weasley, and Harry had decided to stay at Sirius's childhood home, hoping to spend some time with his godfather. Sirius had all but agreed for him to hang around and the Weasleys had taken off, leaving Harry to wander the old Black home while Sirius and Remus stayed at Headquarters.
He wandered into one of the rooms they had spent hours cleaning over the summer. Looking around, he noticed a large box in the corner of the room. Intrigued, he bent down and opened it, finding several small gags and joke products, letters, scraps of parchment with several different handwriting on them, and pictures. Harry picked up one of the pictures on top, his parents' smiling faces waving back at him with Remus and Sirius on each side. By the looks of what they were wearing in the picture, it was another picture of their wedding day, something he had seen through pictures Hagrid had collected for him after his first year at Hogwarts. Shutting the box, Harry picked it up, gripping the edges of it as he made his way to the kitchen.
"What's that, Harry?" Sirius asked as Harry entered, standing up. Harry put the box down and opened it again. Remus also stood up and walked over to the end of the table.
"I was looking around in one of the rooms we cleaned out over the summer, and I found this," Harry said. "I was just wondering what it was…I noticed some pictures of Mum and Dad."
Remus looked from Sirius to Harry before looking down into the box, picking up the same picture Harry had looked at earlier. "It's some of our old things from school," he said in awe. "Pictures, letters - even notes we passed during class." He looked up at Sirius. "I didn't know you kept all of these things."
"Well, it wasn't probably all of mine," Sirius said, shrugging his shoulder. "I think the things in here are things that others…left here over time."
Harry subconsciously listened to the two discuss the contents of the box. He rummaged through it, picking up a piece of parchment that seemed to be a conversation between all of the Marauders. He skimmed it before handing it to Sirius, who took it and read it, a small sad smile coming across his face.
"I remember this," Sirius said, passing the note to Remus. "We were planning our next prank in the middle of Binns's class."
Remus scoffed. "We always planned our pranks in Binns's class. It was the only one we could get away with it."
"True."
"He was a ghost when you were at school?"
"Yeah, poor bloke. I don't think Dumbledore has the heart to tell him he's dead."
"That, or he just doesn't care," Harry muttered.
The two adults chuckled slightly as Harry continued to rummage through the box. He found a few more pictures of his parents, a few of Sirius with a girl, which he showed to Sirius. The sad smile on his face never left as he took the picture, holding it as if it would fall to pieces. The three of them continued to go through the contents of the box, Sirius and Remus pausing to relive things with Harry, which he listened intently. It was nice hearing about his parents while they were in school.
As they reached the bottom of the box, a sealed letter with Remus's name on it in very feminine handwriting lay in the corner.
"Remus, what's this?" Harry asked curiously, handing it to him. Sirius looked up from another piece of parchment that he'd been reading and at the letter in Remus's hand. He let out a heavy sigh, causing Harry to look at him.
"You know too," Remus said quietly, not looking at either of them.
"Yeah. I think so," Sirius muttered, watching his best friend closely.
"What?" Harry asked. Remus didn't respond, but instead unsealed the letter and opened it, reading it slowly. Sirius watched his best friend for a moment before looking back down at the parchment in his hand, not really reading it or even seeing it. Harry remained silent, confused at what was going on. He looked back up at Remus, who made it to the bottom of the letter. He closed his eyes and let out a slow shaky breath before getting up and walking from the room.
"Sirius?" Harry asked quietly. "Is Remus okay?"
Sirius sighed. "Harry, that letter…it brings up a lot of memories for Remus. Most are good, mind you, but, they're bittersweet for him."
"Who was the letter from?"
"That's something for Remus to tell you, Harry," Sirius said, rubbing the back of his neck. "There are some things about Remus that many people don't know."
Harry nodded, and looked back in the box, rummaging through the old pictures. A few minutes later, Remus returned still holding the letter tight in his hand, his eyes having a tint of red in them. Harry looked at his ex-Professor with a guilty look.
"If I had known the letter was bad," he began, but Remus cut him off.
"It's okay, Harry," he said, sitting down. "Really, I should be the one apologizing."
"Remus -" Remus held up a hand to silence Sirius, who fell silent.
"I haven't seen this letter in almost twenty years," Remus continued quietly, looking down at it, running a hand over the words on the parchment. "The letter just brought back a few things. A few requests that I…just haven't been able to do."
"Who was the letter from?" Harry asked curiously. He sat back down at the table, Sirius following suit, both watching Remus carefully.
Remus looked at Sirius before looking back down at the letter. "It was from someone at school. Her name was Elizabeth," Sirius said, taking the hint from his best friend. Remus looked at Sirius, as did Harry. "Everybody called her Liz for short. She, uh…was-"
"We were together," Remus finally said in a quiet voice. Harry looked back at Remus with a surprised look on his face.
"How come you've never mention her before?" Harry asked.
"While I was your teacher, I felt that there were other things more important than discussing my past," Remus said. "We still thought Sirius was responsible for Voldemort finding you and your parents at the time, mind you."
"There's many parts of our past that only the older members of the Order know about," Sirius said. "It's not that we don't want to talk about it. It's more along the lines of everybody knows and they have other things to worry about than our stories."
"How did you meet?" Harry replied, not only eager to hear more about their past. He'd heard many times about Sirius and his parent's lives while at Hogwarts, but Remus's life was a mystery to him. He looked between his ex-professor and godfather with interest.
Remus looked at Sirius and smiled sadly. "Padfoot, I may need your help with some parts." Sirius nodded and gave an encouraging glance as Remus took in a deep breath and looked back at Harry.
"I met her through someone else you probably didn't know existed in my life…"