Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, it is the property of the brilliant J.K Rowling. This story is the product of her marvellous characters and world and my imagination.
Summary: Harry's desperate to know more about his family but doesn't know how to ask. Sirius and Remus long to talk about James and Lily with Harry but are wary of upsetting him. Hermione thinks they're all hopeless and does her best to help.
No one seems to talk about James and Lily Potter.
That's what Hermione thinks to herself after Harry has been at Grimmauld Place with them for a week.
It's strange because she knows how much Harry longs for more information about his parents, and how much Sirius and Remus miss their friends and love to reminisce. But it's like there's a mutual pact on both sides not to mention their names. And when they do slip up it's quickly covered up and they all forget.
It takes her a little time to realise that Harry doesn't know how to ask for information. She curses the Dursleys in her mind for being horrible people who made her best friend afraid to ask about his own parents for fear of being ridiculed or shouted at. A rule-abiding girl she may usually be but she thinks she might make an exception for them – she has a strong urge to visit once she's of age and give them a significant piece of her mind.
She works out at the same time that Sirius and Remus aren't sure if raising the topic of James and Lily will upset Harry. It makes her so sad to realise how much the three who should have been family are close to strangers. It upsets her to think that Harry missed out on growing up with two people who would have loved him unconditionally rather than the Dursleys, who saw him only as a freakish and onerous obligation.
She doesn't want to meddle. She can be pushy and bossy, she knows that, but family (and Harry, Sirius and Remus are family) is delicate and she's wary of messing things up further.
But none of them make any progress and it frustrates her beyond belief and she just wants them to talk.
She starts small. Has conversations with Harry within hearing of Sirius and Remus about how he really wants to know more about his family. They aren't stupid and they get the hint quick enough.
That night there's a story about James' first attempt at asking Lily out, in their second year. It's a hilarious story involving a choir of a dozen house elves, some very bad poetry and the discovery of the ironic fact that Harry's mother was allergic to lilies. It's the liveliest evening they've had so far at Grimmauld Place and Hermione longs to have it repeated.
The stories come and go over the time they spend at Sirius' family home before returning to Hogwarts. They stop a few days before September 1st and Hermione sees Sirius' dejection.
A month or so ago she would have thought he was being selfish, but she sees now how much he loves Harry and how hard it is to have his godson leave while he has to stay in a house he hates.
On the morning of their departure Hermione tells him that she'll make sure Harry writes and the smile Sirius gives her lights up the whole room and makes him look like the young man standing next to James and Lily in their wedding photo.
She vows to do more to help.
Hermione's friends can all attest that when she believes in something she gets very enthusiastic about it (SPEW for example).
And she believes strongly in the importance of Harry having a family.
He has friends but she thinks some trustworthy adults in his life will do him a world of good. Hagrid is great, but not exactly what he needs. Dumbledore is a figure of awe to her but she does think he's a little too mysterious and distant to be a true support to Harry, especially now he's apparently avoiding him.
She sees Sirius give Harry a small parcel when they leave and yes she's a little nosy but when she asks him on the train what it is her motive is mostly to get him talking about his godfather.
Sirius (and Remus too) need to be fresh in his mind – Harry is good at writing letters and his missives are always entertainingly full of dry, sarcastic wit. The problem is that he forgets to write and has to be prompted into sending something. Hermione has no problem reminding Harry to write to her but Sirius and Remus are more cautious and unsure about interacting with Harry so Hermione decides she'll have to prod her best friend on their behalf.
She gets a better return than expected on her question when Harry opens the package to find one of a pair of magical mirrors. Seeing Sirius and Remus face to face will certainly be better (and less able to be intercepted) than letters, and a conversation was a much easier way to share stories and memories than letters were.
Harry tries the mirror out straight away and as he talks away with his godfather and pseudo-uncle Hermione feels great satisfaction at the beam on her best friend's face and the happiness she can hear from Sirius and Remus when they speak.
Her plan is definitely working.
When they start Dumbledore's Army Sirius is so enthusiastic about it that Hermione is a little cautious to begin with. Sirius can be reckless and with Umbridge around they can't afford to get caught.
She chastises herself almost immediately. The DA was her idea and it's sort of her fault it got as big as it did – Harry had thought it would only be a handful of them and the large group was a bit of a shock for him.
Besides, she looks at Harry's nervous face, eager for approval, and knows why Sirius is being so positive about it all.
It's kind of fun anyway, breaking the rules. She starts to realise the thrill the Marauders must have gotten from it all. She idly mentions it one evening to Sirius and Remus when she and Ron join Harry for his nightly mirror conversation with them. They both smirk at her, an expression she's used to on Sirius but which seems almost foreign on Remus (who is often still Professor Lupin inside her head).
Remus tells her that it's all downhill from here on out with an air of experience, and says soon enough she'll be the one pranking the Weasley twins rather than the voice of reason.
She tells him a little indignantly, but with a smile on her face, that she doesn't think it will ever go quite that far.
They all start laughing and Remus tells them all the tale of his epic prank in sixth year while Sirius pouts playfully as he recalls how he and James had been saddled with the blame and Remus had managed to escape scot-free.
Hermione muses on his words. After all, no one ever suspects the model student. Perhaps …
But no, there's no time for her to get into mischief at the moment. Especially not with Umbridge lurking constantly.
Maybe one day when things are less crazy. It would certainly be something to see Fred and George's faces after she pranked them.
Hermione likes to be prepared. With presents for example – when she sees something that suits someone she'll buy it and save it for Christmas or their next birthday.
An idea for a present for Harry comes to her before the summer is over. He has the photo album that Hagrid gave him in first year, but it's mostly full of photos from after Hogwarts finished and none of either James or Lily's childhoods. There's a lot missing so she wants to make him a scrapbook with more pictures she might uncover and perhaps details or awards his parents received at Hogwarts or clubs they were part of.
She gets the scrapbook on their first Hogsmeade trip, before she goes to meet up with Harry and Luna for the interview with Rita. She isn't sure she'll get what she's looking for – the wizarding world often lacks the choices you can find in the muggle one – but Hogsmeade caters a lot to the students that visit and since a lot of them desire to document their Hogwarts experience there is a surprising array of scrapbooks and associated paraphernalia. She gets everything she wants and more.
For most people it would be hard to add researching photos and details about two Hogwarts students from almost twenty years previously but Hermione is a master at time management even with classes, homework, OWL revision, looking after Harry and Ron, and helping with the DA.
She likes it, finding out more about Harry's parents. She feels guilty for a while because she is discovering everything before him, but she'll give it all to him soon enough so she goes back on with her research.
She finds photographs from a number of editions of the school newspaper (which stopped running in 1985), the 1978 Hogwarts Yearbook and official team photographs. James was a chaser for the Gryffindor team from his third to seventh year (and captain for his last two years as well), and Hermione is pleased to find images of Sirius there too playing Beater. Lily was in a lot of clubs – Charms, Potions, something called the Slug Club, Ancient Runes, Duelling and more. James wasn't quite so prolific, possibly too busy with his Marauder pranks and attempts to become an Animagus, but she sees him in pictures for the Transfiguration and Duelling clubs, as well as showing up as Lily's Slug Club date in their seventh year.
She copies every image she can find of James and Lily, as well as those she spots of Sirius and Remus. She gets copies of articles Lily wrote for the school newspaper and official reports of some of the most amusing Marauder pranks.
She even goes to some of the professors who taught them and manages to wrangle copies of a few essays James and Lily did that remain stored. Harry doesn't know what his parents' handwriting looked like, or the way Lily had a tendency to ramble in her explanations while James got straight to the point. She can give that to him, some small reminder of the fact that his parents existed, that they went to the same school he now loves and that his messy scrawl is like Lily's (James surprisingly had the better handwriting) and his succinct way of writing is just like his father's.
So she goes on for almost four months, watching as Harry talks nightly to Sirius and Remus, slowly gets to know them and hear more about his parents, preparing the scrapbook and working on her OWL studies and the DA lessons.
Umbridge is an absolute nightmare and when Harry gets a Quidditch lifetime ban from her Hermione worries he's going to go completely spare. She's so thankful for the DA, and especially the mirror that allows Harry to talk with Sirius and Remus because she is almost positive that Umbridge is reading through their mail and if Harry had to stop communicating with the two wizards she thinks it would be the straw that broke the camel's back.
But thankfully he has the mirror and Hermione can see the little family get stronger and rejoice in Harry receiving the familial love he's so often lacked.
She always takes pride in a well-executed plan but this one is probably her favourite yet.
Hermione feels excited in the run up to the Christmas holidays, imagining Harry's reaction to her gift. Patience is a virtue she possesses in some respects (but not in regards to waiting to read a new book she's interested in or learn some new magic) and she can wait but she really is eager to make sure he likes it.
Then Arthur Weasley is attacked and it puts an air of seriousness on the whole holiday.
She doesn't let it stop her though. She makes a stop at Privet Drive like she planned (making sure it is during the day so Vernon Dursley is at work) to get copies of some pictures of Lily as a child (she managed to get some of James from Remus, who has a store of some of the Potters' things). Petunia Dursley isn't particularly accommodating when she realises Hermione is one of Harry's friends but she does have a fear of magic and while Hermione doesn't exactly like to capitalise on that she doesn't have many other options. Besides, she thinks she sees some spark of familial feeling in Petunia in regards to Harry – she is scared of her nephew and she doesn't like him really but once upon a time she loved her sister and so she hands over the photos with little grumbling as long as Hermione promises to have them back in perfect condition in an hour.
She tells Harry and Sirius, when they greet her at Grimmauld Place, that her plans to go skiing with her parents and then her changed mind were the reasons behind her lateness – she can't spoil the surprise.
Arthur is on the mend soon enough and everyone sits around to eat Christmas lunch happily.
There are some complaints about having to wait until after they've eaten to open presents (mostly from Sirius, who is behaving like an overgrown child in the most endearing way).
The presents are handed out and everyone rips open paper and exclaims over their gifts. Hermione smiles at all the ones she receives (books, clothes, books, trinkets, books) and makes a mental note to avoid the twins when she sees some of the things they've received from Sirius and Remus, perfect for pranking opportunities (the memory of their awe and near-worshipping when they found out Sirius and Remus were two of the Marauders is still amusing enough to make her laugh even six days later).
It's Harry she watches most though.
She sees his face as he opens her gift. Confused at first, wondering why she has gotten him a huge book.
Then there's the shock as he sees the pictures, the awe as he traces the faces of his parents.
She feels tears welling up. She's not usually so easily emotional but Harry is her best friend and she's worked hard on this idea and she's so ecstatic that he seems to like it.
The enthusiastic hug he gives her about ten seconds later confirms it and she beams when he rushes off to show the scrapbook to Sirius and Remus, who look over to her with soft, thankful looks when they realise what she's given Harry.
She sees them, all settled onto one of the sofas and leafing through the scrapbook together. It's a slow process – Sirius and Remus seem to have a story to go with almost every page.
They don't look like three awkward people with a shared link to Lily and James Potter. They look like a family.
Her work is done and she couldn't be more pleased about it.
This is it for this story but I have a headcanon for this fic that Harry opening the mirror earlier means he uses it after his vision instead of Umbridge's fireplace and realises Sirius is safe. The Order send a team to the Ministry to confront the Death Eaters, Voldemort arrives and the Ministry find out he's returned like that. Sirius' survival has repercussions so Remus, Tonks and Fred also survive and they all live happily ever after.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.