Professor Puffapod's Plants
sweaterweather21
Summary: An old trunk found in Sirius's bedroom gives Harry an unexpected perspective on the lives of his parents. / a collection of James and Lily's school essays from their time at Hogwarts \\ essentially a love story.
Author's Note: Hello! It's been a while since I've been working on fanfiction and when I suddenly got some inspiration to write, this fic was here for me! I started it a few years ago, and my idea was good but my writing was atrocious. So I've decided to polish it (aka basically rewriting the whole first chapter) and finish it off! I promise this will be the last time I annoy you with my stupid ramblings before I get to the story, I just wanted to introduce the story a bit. And before I forget, an extra special thanks to the lovely sarcastic sister M. Rose10 for some quick beta-ing. Thanks so much Mads :)
Universal Disclaimer: (This applies to all chapters, as I am forgetful most of the time) I do not own Harry Potter and characters; they are all of J.K.'s creation.
Chapter 1: Prologue
Harry stared at the door for what felt like a millennium. On second thought, he should've brought someone with him. But in classic Harry Potter fashion, his obstinate ways got the best of him; he had insisted on doing this by himself, after all. He thought of sending a Patronus to Ginny, but she had taken an extra assignment covering a Quidditch playoff game. Ron and Hermione crossed his mind, but it was a Monday after all, and they usually reserved those for date nights.
He closed his eyes briefly. He would have to do this by himself. It was probably better this way anyway.
With a deep breath, he opened his eyes and faced the door head on. It was just as grim and foreboding as Harry remembered it. It was made of what had probably been an expensive piece of mahogany, carved with elaborate designs and festooned with an ugly gold knocker.
A simple "Alohomora!" opened the door; as a favor, Bill had stopped by previously to remove all the enchantments on the entrance. Harry took a small step inside, surprised by the eerie quietness of it all. A familiar feeling of unease crept over him. He had never liked this place.
Kreacher had died a few years ago, and subsequently 12 Grimmauld Place had fallen into disrepair. The putrid stench was thick in the air, and the outdated wallpaper was peeling. A rusted chandelier swung unevenly back and forth, half of the lights burnt out.
Not wanting to linger much longer, Harry made his way forward. As he passed the portrait of Walburga Black on the wall, her sleeping form woke up and immediately commenced screaming obscenities about neglect and blood traitors. Harry ignored her, and ascended up the staircase toward Sirius's old room.
The whole purpose for Harry's visit was to collect some of Sirius's personal items. A few months ago, with all three of their kids away at Hogwarts, Harry and Ginny had decided to undertake the process of remodeling Grimmauld Place. They weren't sure what they planned on doing with the property once it was finished, but they agreed that it couldn't remain in its current state. They had already had specialists in to take care of the dirty work: a librarian to sort through the immense library and purge the all of the dark books, an enchanter to dispose of the dark artifacts lying around the house, and a magical exterminator to get rid the vermin that had infested the house. Grimmauld Place was ready for a complete overhaul, until Ginny had reminded Harry that he hadn't been through Sirius' room yet.
Harry had put off the task for a few weeks before Ginny brought it up again, asking if he wanted her to come with him. Harry had refused. He was a fully grown man now—surely he could handle the memories of his godfather by himself?
That was how he now found himself standing in what had once been the bedroom of a teenage Sirius Black.
Surprisingly, his first reaction was to grin. The posters of the muggle biker girls had stood the test of time; they were still attached to the Gryffindor-red walls with a Permanent Sticking Charm.
There was a bit of random clutter around the room, but not as much as Harry had expected. He guessed that after Azkaban, Sirius didn't have much time to obtain too many possessions. There were mostly things from his teenage days, some old textbooks and magazines, the odd article of clothing, and random bits of parchment.
Harry picked up an old broomstick, figuring he'd let Albus keep it. He had his own broomstick of course, a nice one at that. But Albus was the curious sort, and Harry thought he'd enjoy looking at the older broom and examining the charms on it and such.
He picked up a couple of dog-eared pranking guides with notes in the margin for James. He hesitated for a moment, knowing that if he gave James the guides his mischief-making pastime at Hogwarts would no doubt increase exponentially. However, in the moment all Harry could think about was how excited James would be to receive the guides. He was always asking about the Marauders.
He snooped around for a few more minutes before finding a worn picture frame. He flipped it over to find a picture of the Marauders in front of the Whomping Willow. Looking closer, Harry estimated that it was probably taken around their fifth year. The four boys were all laughing and pointing to something outside the camera's range. Harry smiled at the image for a few seconds longer before putting it in his bag and giving the room a final glance.
However, a small trunk partially hidden underneath the bed caught his attention. The trunk was didn't have a padlock, but was latched shut. Curiously, Harry opened it.
The trunk seemed to be filled with many pieces of aged parchment, bundled and sorted in an almost organized fashion. Harry almost disregarded the trunk as a set of old school papers until he noticed a small note stuck to the top of the inside lid. On it, written in a girl's fancy cursive, were the words "Happy Anniversary Lily and James!"
Immediately intrigued, Harry picked up the next piece of parchment that had been sitting on the top of all the rest of the papers. It turned out to be a longer note in the same handwriting.
Dearest Prongs and Lily-flower,
Even though we tried to keep it a secret, it was obvious that there was a bet going around during Seventh Year over when you two would finally get together. It should be noted that it was the one and only, charming and fantastically good-looking Sirius Black who won that bet with his awesome powers of prediction.
All right, that's enough Sirius. We all know you had a T in your Divination NEWTs.
But anyway, what I was trying to say before Sirius interrupted me was that during our Seventh Year at Hogwarts, we essentially watched the two of you fall in love. As disturbing as that might sound to some people, it was sweet that after all those years of constant screaming and food fights, you two finally realized that the passionate feeling you shared wasn't hatred, it was love.
Okay, I'm sick of your sap Cal. The point is, when we got the announcement that you two are going to celebrate your first anniversary on Tuesday, we realized that we forgot to say "WE TOLD YOU SO!" We all knew back in first year when James wouldn't stop pulling Lily's pigtails that you were meant to be. So this present is basically proof that we were right the whole time.
I'm not saying I disagree with Sirius, but to put it in nicer words, this present is an interesting collection of items from your Hogwarts that can be a reminder of how you two finally got together.
We hope you appreciate this! We had to employ several interesting methods to gather all the objects in this trunk.
Love you two goons,
Calpurnia Ember & Sirius Black
There was no way his curiosity would stop now, so Harry carefully unrolled the first piece of parchment in the trunk.
a/n: And that's the first chapter! I promise the ensuing ones will be much longer, this was just to get things started.
I'd love to know what you think! Please leave a review – what do you think is written on the parchment? That's kind of a dumb question considering you know the answer if you've read the summary, but I'd like to hear your opinion all the same :)