Prologue: "He Called Her Evans."
It was a typical day at 12 Grimmauld Place, circa 1996. Harry Potter stretched lazily on the couch, staring up at the ceiling and counting the broken tiles. His best friend Hermione Granger was curled up on the armchair, reading Hogwarts: A History for the umpteenth time, and Ron Weasley, his other best friend was happily rummaging through the big armoire in the living room.
"Find anything interesting in there, Ron?" Hermione asked, not looking up from her book. Harry chuckled as he lightly flitted his finger across the air. Sixty-two, sixty-three, sixty-four…
"Nothing yet, 'Mione," Ron called out, throwing old rags out of the drawers. "Merlin's Beard, Sirius, this place is dirtier than under Fred's bed."
"Why, thank you, Ron," a voice said teasingly, causing Ron to hit his head against the armoire in surprise. Hermione, Harry and Sirius burst out laughing as a red head emerged from the closet, rubbing the back of his head soothingly.
"Thanks, Sirius." Ron grinned wryly, holding up an old picture as he flopped on the other armchair. "But at least I got to grab this, something interesting perhaps."
He sent a stare Sirius's way, and Sirius winked playfully. He grabbed the picture from Ron's hand and smiled in amusement at what it held.
It was a group of girls dressed in Hogwarts uniforms. One had gorgeous silky dark brown hair cropped in messy layers and twinkling hazel green eyes, and she grinned jokingly up at him through the picture frame. Another had jet black hair that resembled Sirius's, tied up in a long ponytail. Her dark blue eyes glared playfully from the picture, holding up a finger that should very well be censored. Lastly was a girl with lovely auburn hair, also cropped to her shoulders in messy layers. Her hand was on her hip, as if reprimanding the picture-taker, and a gleaming Prefect badge stared up at him.
"That's a hot group of girls, Sirius, who are they?" Ron leaned over, and Harry jumped off the couch to look. Hermione rolled her eyes, closing her book. She slid gracefully off the armchair to peek over Sirius's shoulder.
"Well, the girl with black hair like mine's my cousin, Andromeda. James used to call her Andy. That pissed her off like hell." Sirius chuckled as picture-Andromeda glared at him and stuck her tongue out at him. "And that gorgeous babe with dark brown hair's Samantha Livingston. God, she took my breath away." Harry couldn't help but smile as picture-Samantha pretended to gag at what Sirius said. "Last, but not the least, is probably the bossiest girl on the planet."
"Really? Worse than Hermione?" Ron grinned teasingly, earning a smack in the arm from Hermione. "Ouch! Watch it, 'Mione!"
"Shut up, Ronald." Hermione glanced at Sirius. "Well, who is she?"
"Well… James adored her. He called her Evans." Sirius smiled wistfully, and Harry's eyes widened slightly in surprise. He never pictured his mother to look that… fiery. He always imagined her to look a bit prim and proper.
"That's Harry's mum?" Hermione smiled and took the picture in her hands. Ron stood up to look for more pictures in the armoire. "Wow, she doesn't look so…"
"Stuffy?" Sirius offered. He smiled lopsidedly. "She was hotter than Firewhiskey to James. He loved bugging the hell out of her, and she kept trying to stop him."
"Found it!" Ron emerged from the closet with a box full of pictures. Andromeda's spidery writing flitted across the box cover, with Sirius's surprisingly neat handwriting beside it. "A box of memories."
Sirius held the box in his hands and smiled lightly, opening the top and seeing a bunch of memorabilia stored inside it. He held up an old Dungbomb and chuckled. "Ah, now this was a very good memory."
"Why?" Hermione wrinkled her nose. "It's an outdated Dungbomb."
"Ah, but it was the Dungbomb that led us Marauders to the girls of our dreams… Well, some of them." Sirius grinned and examined the old Dungbomb in his hand, dating back to 1974…