"Woah, what's all this, Evans?" James asked as Lily set down several sturdy cardboard boxes on the floor of the lounge. He squatted down next to one and opened the flaps, pulling out a flat piece of cardboard with an image of five very strange-looking young men. "Through The Past, Darkly," he said aloud, turning it over to look at the other side.
"It's a record album. I've told you about those," Lily said, taking it from him and running her hand fondly over the cover. She looked at the back of it and James could see her eyes moving as she read the song titles, a small smile on her face.
He took it back from her and read the song titles himself. "Oh, Let's Spend The Night Together. I like the sound of that one!" he said, raising his eyebrows at his wife, grinning at her pretty blush.
"James, you're terrible. Give me that." He handed it over and looked in the box again, pulling out another album.
"Pet Sounds," he said, wrinkling his nose. "Why are there goats on the cover of this one? Were they part of the band?"
"No, silly. This is the Beach Boys. This is one of my favorites."
"Beach Boys? They look more like Beach Men. That one's going bald and has a beard."
"You leave Mike alone. He's had a hard time of it." She took the album from him and looked in the box, long fingers quickly flipping through the records. "Here, you'll like this one," she said, handing him one that had an image of a man bent over with an enormous bundle of sticks tied to his back.
"Led Zeppelin … four?" he said, looking at Lily doubtfully.
"Yes! Here, let's get this hooked up and I'll play it for you, all right?" She opened up another box, this one containing an alarming jumble of wires and pulled out a square flat box with a clear plastic lid.
"What's that?"
"It's my record player," Lily said, setting it down on the little coffee table. "Well, technically it's Tunie's, but she was throwing it out, so I guess it's mine now." She looked at the boxes of records and shook her head. "These are all hers."
"What happened?" James asked, alarmed at her distress.
Lily sighed and shook her head. She'd been very surprised to run into her sister when she'd gone to their mum and dad's to get the last of her things. "Tunie," she'd said, happy to see her sister again.
"Lily," Petunia sniffed, closing the flaps on a cardboard box.
"What's that?" Lily said, nodding at the box on the bed.
"Just some old rubbish I need to get rid of." Petunia put her hands on her hips, plainly waiting for Lily to move out of the way.
"What rubbish?" Lily's eyes darted around the room she used to share with her sister, remembering giggled secrets shared underneath bedcovers. Something that stopped once she started attending Hogwarts. "Where are your records?"
Petunia rolled her eyes and picked up the box. "Lily, I'm a married woman. I'm running a house now. I don't have time for childish things like records. Now let me by."
"Oh, Tunie! But you love them! The Rolling Stones, The Beatles … we used to listen to them together!" Lily said, feeling her heart plummet. Whenever the two of them were at odds, listening to music could bring them together … at least until the next argument.
"Trappings of childhood," she said haughtily, crossing her arms.
Lily narrowed her eyes and crossed her own arms. "It's because of that Vernon, isn't it? He doesn't like rock and roll and doesn't want you to like it either."
Petunia gasped indignantly. "You leave my husband out of it!"
"Tunie, I love you and it hurts to see you bend yourself so, just for him!"
"I do no such thing! Vernon and I are in agreement on everything." She narrowed her own eyes and looked down her nose at Lily. "And what about you and that no-account you married? Does he even have a job yet?" She shook her head. "I shudder to think of the unnatural things the two of you get up to together!"
Lily took a shocked breath. "There's nothing unnatural about magic and you know it! You begged me to get you into Hogwarts and you cried when Dumbledore wrote you that letter!"
Red flooded Petunia's face and her expression hardened. "I can't believe you'd bring that up," she hissed, voice full of venom. "Fine. You take these. At least one of us has grown up and moved on." Before Lily knew what was happening, Petunia had pushed past her, nearly knocking her into the doorframe, her steps fading down the hallway.
"That Vernon she married. He wouldn't have them in the house, so when I went by Mum and Dad's to get the rest of my things, they were there ready to be binned." Lily plugged in what James presumed were the speakers and then the long cord into the wall socket. "It's too bad. She really liked all of this stuff."
"Well, it's her loss and our gain, then, isn't it?" James said, taking the vinyl record out of the sleeve. Talk of Vernon made him twitchy. "Let's see what this Led Zeppelin is all about, shall we?" He watched closely as Lily carefully took the black disc from him, watching how she held it without touching the surface and set it onto the player, moving the long arm over and setting it gently onto the surface as it spun around.
Lily sat down next to him on the floor, smiling in anticipation as the sound of a guitar and a panting dog filled the lounge. James listened, spellbound as the song erupted around him. "Hey, hey mama said the way you move, gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove!" His pulse racing, James felt like every single hair on his body was standing up and when the song was over, he groped for his wand.
"What did you think?" she asked with a grin.
"Sirius needs to get over here right now," he said, quickly sending out his stag with a message. Got something amazing for you. Get over here RIGHT NOW.
Harry looked around the flat he and Ron had occupied for so long, hands on his hips. If you'd asked him, he would have said that they didn't have all that much stuff, but he was finding that he was dead wrong.
How in the world did we accumulate all of this … crap? he thought as he stood in the middle of the lounge. It was just two mates.
He looked in Ron's bedroom. Bed, desk and chest of drawers were still there. "I don't need any of that stuff up at Hogwarts. Hermione's quarters are fully furnished and you should see the closet! It's bigger than this bedroom!" he'd said when he was down in London, getting the rest of his things.
"What about for the place you and Hermione are getting together? You'll need this stuff then, won't you?"
Ron looked away, rubbing the back of his neck. "Um, well, Hermione doesn't really like the bed."
"Is it too soft or hard? That can be changed," Harry said, nonplussed.
"Not exactly." He avoided looking him in the eyes and sighed. "I've had a lot of fun in that bed. Without Hermione."
"Ah. Got it. No worries, then. I'll find a place for it at Grimmauld."
"Thanks, mate," Ron said, clapping Harry on the shoulder. "See you at Mum's, yeah?"
"Harry? Where are you?" Ginny called from the lounge.
"In here," he called back.
"What are you doing in here? Didn't Ron take anything?" she asked, looking at the furniture in the room in dismay.
"No. He said that Hermione's quarters at Hogwarts is fully furnished and that, um, she doesn't like the bed."
"What's wrong with it? Is it lumpy?" Ginny asked, sitting down on the bare mattress and bouncing up and down experimentally.
"It's perfectly fine except that your brother has shagged loads of birds that aren't Hermione in it," he said, grinning when Ginny abruptly sprang up.
"Ugh, well I can hardly blame her then." She looked up at Harry, a speculative look on her face. "Maybe we should get rid of your old one and get a new one for our room at Grimmauld, then?"
"You do realize that most of the women I've shagged in that bed have been you?" Harry said, kissing her forehead.
"Most?" she asked with a raised eyebrow, grinning at Harry's shrug. "Well, what are you going to do with all of this then?"
"I told Ron I'd find a place at Grimmauld for it."
"Don't let him do that to you! That place has enough stuff already. Donate it to a charity shop."
"But then I have to clean it and transport it and fill out paperwork for taxes …"
"Really?" Ginny waved her wand and a loud whooshing sound filled the room. "There. Sanitized. Shrink it, Apparate, unshrink, donate, done," she said, dusting off her hands with exaggerated motions. "Do it in the middle of the night if you want."
Harry shook his head, chastising himself for not having thought of that already. "You're right."
"Oh, what was that?" Ginny asked, cocking her head towards him. "Say that again?"
"You're right," he said with exaggerated slowness grinning as she bowed.
"I'll never get tired of that. Now, what are we doing with all of this stuff? How did you and Ron accumulate all of this?" She walked out of Ron's old room and stood in the middle of the lounge, echoing Harry's earlier hands-on-hips posture.
"Dunno," Harry shrugged. "Little of this, little of that. Some of this is your stuff, too."
"Why would I have anything here?"
"I don't know if you've noticed, but you tend to leave things and steal other things."
"I do not," Ginny said, crossing her arms across her chest. "I can't believe you've just accused me of common thievery!"
Wordlessly Harry pointed to the bookcase. There, next to the wireless were several objects, all lined up neatly in a row. "Every time I found something, I put it there, hoping you'd remember you'd left it and collect it."
Ginny stepped closer to the bookcase, looking at the items. "Oh! I wondered where these had got to!" she said, picking up a pair of sunglasses. I nearly drove myself spare looking for them when I packed up my flat!"
"Well, there they are, cluttering up my shelf. Kindly take those and the others with you."
Defiantly, she set the sunglasses back on the shelf, making sure they were lined up neatly with the others. "All right, Potter, so I've left a few things here and there. That still doesn't change the fact that you called me a thief." Harry looked pointedly at the plaid button-down shirt she was wearing over a UCSF tee shirt. "Clothes don't count!"
"Clothes definitely do count. I know you've got some of Ron's."
"They're comfortable to sleep in," she said defensively.
"Because they're huge on you. Just buy your own giant shirts."
"That's ridiculous," she snorted. "Why would I buy my own when I can just nick one of Ron's?" she said, utterly unable to keep a straight face. "And stop changing the subject. What are you getting rid of? What's going to number twelve? Are you bringing anything to San Francisco?"
Harry sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Well, we don't need any furniture in San Francisco, so all of this can go to number twelve," he said, waving his arm at the dark leather furniture in the lounge. "The bookshelves, too."
"All right. What about the books?" Ginny pointed her wand and little yellow tags flew out, attaching themselves to the furniture destined for number twelve.
"Some I want to take, some can go to the Grimmauld library. I'll sort those."
"Dishes? Kitchen things?"
"Hmm, well, there isn't really anything special I want to keep. Just basics, really. I think we can donate all that." More tags flew out, red this time, and shot into the cupboards where Harry presumed they were attaching themselves to the jumble of dishes stored within.
"And what about all that?" Ginny pointed to a low entertainment center. A Muggle stereo sat on top and the shelf underneath was full of record albums.
Harry looked at it, feeling a wave of nostalgia wash over him. He sat down on the floor next to it, running the tip of his finger along the spines of the albums, band names and titles catching his eye. "I haven't looked at these in a long time," he murmured, sliding one album out.
Ginny sat down across from him, looking at the record curiously. "I don't think you've ever really shown me these. Usually you were playing the CD things. Where did you get these?"
"Most of these were Mum and Dad's," Harry said, flipping the album he was holding over to look at the back.
Even more curious, Ginny slid one out, looking at the title. "Their Satanic Majesties Request," she read aloud, looking at the picture. "Harry, are these blokes wizards?"
Harry looked at the picture and smiled. "Nah … well, Keith might be—he's survived an awful lot, but the rest are Muggles. They're just wearing those hats to get attention."
Turning it over, Ginny read the names of the songs. "Look, this one says 'Lily' next to it," she said, pointing out the name written next to She's a Rainbow.
"Yeah, Mum and Dad didn't give a lot of thought to future collector's value. Some of these have all sorts of stuff written on them. Look at this one." He handed her the one he'd been looking at.
"A Night At The Opera." She turned it over and grinned. "This has practically got a book written on the back!" She eagerly read the notes, seeing 'Sirius's favorite' scrawled next to a song called Bohemian Rhapsody. One called simply ''39' had Lily's name next to it. "Oh, I'm not surprised he liked this one," Ginny said, showing Harry where someone had written 'Sirius' next to I'm In Love With My Car. Whoever had made the note crossed out the word "car" and written in "motorcycle".
"Yeah," Harry said with a fond smile. "Here's one you know." He handed her Rubber Soul and Ginny quickly looked at the back, smiling at the names written next to songs that she was becoming more and more familiar with.
"Your mum and I have the same tastes," she said, seeing 'Lily' written next to If I Needed Someone. She smiled wistfully when saw Lupin's name written next to In My Life and scowled when she saw 'Peter' written next to You Won't See Me. Well, that's not one of my favorites anyway, she thought resolutely.
Another name written on the back caught her eye. "Oh, what's this?" She showed the album to Harry, pointing to the name written in the upper left corner. "Petunia Evans?"
"I know! Surprised the hell out of me, too." Harry shrugged. "She was a teenager, once."
"I wonder what happened?"
"If I had to guess, I'd say Vernon happened. Can't have any of that rock-and-roll nonsense in his house. Oh, you should have seen his face when Dudley would play his music too loud. He'd never say anything to his precious little boy, but you could tell that he could hardly stand it." He smiled, eyes distant as he recalled a memory. "There was more than one time that I caught Aunt Petunia's toes tapping, though."
Ginny set the Beatles album aside and picked out another one. "What's this one?" she asked, holding it up.
"Oh, that's Zeppelin Four. That's a good one," he said, taking it from her and looking at the back of it.
"Zeppelin what?" Ginny looked over his shoulder, reading the scribbled names and notes on the back. She saw "James" and "Sirius" and the occasional "Remus" with things like "The best!" and "Hell yes!"
"I didn't get you any Zeppelin, did I? I didn't think you'd like them. Shall we take a listen?" Harry slid the record out of the sleeve and turned on the stereo. He looked at the label on both sides and nodded, setting the record on the turntable and picking up the arm, setting it down carefully.
Ginny sat back, wrapping her arms around her knees as she listened to the opening guitar, feeling a shiver at the words, "Made up my mind to make a new start, Going To California with an aching in my heart." She cut her eyes to Harry, feeling a warm glow as she saw him reading over the notes his parents had left on the back of the record album.
Closing her eyes, she listened to the song and the one that came after, easily envisioning Lily, James and their friends sitting in the young couple's lounge, laughing, talking and listening to music. I wish I'd been able to know them, she thought as the record ended and the arm automatically moved back to its home. She thought of Sirius as she'd known him, a bitter man damaged by his years in Azkaban and the deaths of his best friends in the world. Seeing the songs he liked gave her a better sense of the man he used to be.
"What did you think of that?" Harry asked, breaking into her reverie.
"I'll have to hear more, but these Led Zeppelin blokes seem like they're on to something," she said, making him snort. "Where did these all come from?"
"They were in my parent's vault. Someone salvaged what they could from the house and put it in there. When I got the key, I went and found them." Harry shrugged, looking through the records before pulling out another one. "You'll like this one," he said, handing her the empty sleeve.
"Rumours. Oh, Fleetwood Mac. I've heard of them." She turned it over, avidly reading the scribbled notes on the back of this one, noticing Lily's name up in the corner rather than Petunia's. Many of the songs had several names written next to them. Obviously, a popular choice.
As the album played, Ginny searched through the other albums, eager for more glimpses into James and Lily's life, feeling like she was uncovering long-buried treasure. She slid out Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys, impatiently flipping it over to the back as Harry sang along with Don't Stop. Her eyes fell on the title of the first track and she saw a new name, 'Harry'.
"Oh," she said softly, making Harry look up. Feeling like she'd been caught snooping, she clasped the album to her chest, sure she was red as a beet.
"Let's have it," he said, holding out his hand. Reluctantly, she handed him the album and watched his eyes skate over the notes. He stopped the Fleetwood Mac album, cutting Lindsay Buckingham off in the middle of Don't Stop and carefully put it away, putting Pet Sounds in its place.
A moment later, the bouncy intro to Wouldn't It Be Nice filled the room and Harry stood up, holding his hand out to her. Ginny took it and allowed him to draw her up to her feet, following his lead as he danced her around the flat.
"Wouldn't it be nice if we were older?" he sang, swinging her around the pile of records they'd made on the floor. "Then we wouldn't have to wait so long, and wouldn't it be nice to live together in the kind of world where we belong!" He gave her a grin and spun her around, pulling her back close to him as she erupted into giggles.
As they continued careening around the flat, Ginny felt sure that James had sung to Lily as they danced around the cozy little cottage in Godric's Hollow. Did they dance with baby Harry as well? They must have, she thought, a vision of James carefully cradling his son in his arms as he gently swayed to this very song.
The song ended and Harry made her laugh by dipping her over backwards and then pulling her back up, kissing her soundly. Ginny rested her hands on his shoulders, looking into his sparkling green eyes, glad to see nothing but joy. "Clearly that is one of your favorites!" she said with a grin. "I wonder how they knew?"
Harry shrugged, hands on her hips as they continued to sway slowly to the next song on the album. "Dunno. Maybe I waved my arms around or made a face?" he said, deliberately crossing his eyes.
"More like you finally stopped crying when they played it!" Sighing, Ginny laid her head on his chest, a feeling of utter contentment coming over her as she listened to the soft rumbling of his singing against her ear. I wonder if Lily ever sang to James?
The song changed again and Harry stilled, kissing the top of her head. "All right?"
"Yes." She looked around the flat, eyes falling on the scattered albums. "We've made a bit of a mess. And we've got a lot of work to do still. What time are we meeting Andromeda?"
"I told her six," Harry said, looking at his watch.
"Well we'd better get a move on, then. Come on, you sort through those books and figure out what you want to take back and what you want to leave at number twelve." Ginny gave him a smack on his bottom, grinning at this startled jump.
While Harry tackled the book case, Ginny conjured up several sturdy boxes, carefully setting the fragile record albums inside. The first side of Pet Sounds was over and Ginny carefully lifted it off the turntable and slid it back into the cardboard sleeve, once more looking at the notes on the back. Casting a quick glance at Harry, she gave a quick flick of her wand and nodded. Wouldn't It Be Nice had two names next to it now.
"You've been holding out on us, Evans!" Sirius said from his prone position on the sofa. He swept back the curtains of sleek black hair from his face, fixing her with a disapproving glare.
"I've done no such thing, Black," Lily said indignantly, shoving his feet off the sofa cushions and sitting down in their place. "I've told you about rock and roll."
"But you never played anything for us."
"Well, I didn't exactly have Muggle records or a record player up at school, now did I?"
"They probably would have exploded," James said, looking through the boxes for something else that looked interesting. "The Sound of Music?"
"Oh yes! Put that one on. You'll love it!" Lily said, practically bouncing up and down on the sofa.
James looked dubiously at the cover with a lifted eyebrow, but obeyed his wife and settled it on the turntable, setting the needle down as if he'd been doing it for years instead of one afternoon. Lily covered her mouth with her hands, hiding her smile as she watched James and Sirius's faces go from anticipation to confusion and finally frank dismay.
"Lily, I do not love this," James said, looking at her reproachfully as she cackled in glee.
"How can you not? The hills are alive, with the sound of muuuuuuusiiiiiiic," she sang in an untrained soprano, dodging the pillow Sirius tossed at her.
"Shut that off, James! There's got to be something better than that in there." Sirius rolled indolently off the sofa, folding his lanky body down on the floor next to James, rooting around in the box for something more to his taste. "Opera?" he snorted, pulling out a mostly white album.
"Oh, that's a good one! Here," Lily said, springing up off the sofa and settling down between the two men. "Put it on the first side, track three." She handed it to James, taking back The Sound of Music.
"Now that's more like it," Sirius purred as the sounds of wailing guitars and crashing drums emanated from the speakers. "What's this one called?" He picked up the album sleeve and peered at the track list.
"I'm In Love With My Car," Lily said, pointing it out. "I thought it was appropriate for you."
"Faugh, I don't have a car." He pulled out his wand and tapped the song title with a flourish. The word "Car" was crossed out and "Motorcycle" was written next to it. "There. That's more like it!"
Lily sat back and watched the two young men, feeling a thrill in her belly when she caught James's eye as he glanced up from another album. Sirius sat, utterly enraptured by the sounds of Bohemian Rhapsody. She cut her eyes at him and glanced back at James, sharing a secret smile.
The song finished and Sirius let out a sigh. "That was amazing," he said, sweeping the hair out of his eyes once more.
"You think that was amazing? You haven't heard anything yet, Black." Lily shuffled through the box of records until she found what she was looking for. Opening the record album like a book, she took out the second disc, handing it to James. "Track three, if you would."
Sirius took the record sleeve out of her hands. "Tommy? Who're The Who?"
"A group of blokes that are about to become your favorite band," Lily said, leaning into James's warmth as the powerful guitar of Pete Townshend practically shook the room.