A/N: Omigosh more reviews! Thank you! It definitely helps power my author batteries lol. To Lizzy Lovegood I just want to mention that no, there will not be anything happening between Selene and Sirius. You might have overanalyzed Sirius' way of acting towards her because I said he was flustered. That's just because he's a bit awkward socially and well, wouldn't you be awkward when dealing with people after having sat alone in a cell for 12 years? So his people skills are rusty that's all. There will be no relationship between the two. I'm sorry if I lead you in the wrong direction. I have always planned it this way and will continue to plan it this way. Though I have to admit, I've grown fond of her and will be using her a bit more then I planned to already. I've even thought up a good back-story, just in case *wink*. But unless there's a clamoring for more Selene, she'll remain where she is now, as the maid lol. To omega13a I must say thank for the idea of freeing Kreacher. It's so simple; I don't know why the thought never crossed my mind! Now I can get rid of him for a legit reason. Thank you.
Harry re-entered his new bedroom and sighed. It needed a lot of work, but Harry could already picture himself happily living here. He could almost see his imaginary self, lying on the bed, sitting at a desk doing homework, getting dressed in a corner. Yes, he thought, I will definitely enjoy it here. He approached Hedwig's cage as the owl let out a hoot.
"So you like it here too?" He asked her. The owl hopped from foot to foot to show her approval.
He carried her cage to the window and moved the remnants of curtains feasted upon by moths aside. The window was dingy, like everything else in the house, and kept out nearly all the sunshine. If Harry did not know better he would have said night had fallen. It took a few tries but after a couple of minutes Harry finally managed to pry the window open. Hedwig nibbled his finger affectionately before she flew off. Harry placed the cage on the floor and watched her fly out of sight before turning back to the room. He could hear Sirius and Selene walking about outside his door. He could almost make out Selene's exclamations of surprise and horror and Sirius' mutters of apology as they passed by to view the other floors.
Harry walked to the bed and sat on the edge of it, opening the truck at his feet. He surveyed the mess that was his belongings and frowned. Everything really needed to be sorted out. He began to unload his clothing and books into piles on the floor.
Harry was unsure how long he sat there organizing his things, but he had managed to get achingly close to the bottom of the truck. He had just pulled out a stack of old assignments and was tossing an old Potions essay into the rubbish pile when a soft knock came from the door.
"Come in," he called, dropping his parchments to the floor.
"Hey, kiddo. Sorry about that," Sirius said while entering the room.
"Who was she?"
"Ah, well, she's going to be helping out around the house. I couldn't stand the thought of living with Kreacher again. I just had to set him free, stupid bugger."
"Who?"
Sirius grimaced. "My mum's old house-elf. We're much better off without him, believe me. After living with him for so long I couldn't stand the thought of another house-elf. That's where Selene comes in. Dumbledore found her, said she's eager to help out. Apparently she's pretty talented and performs a wicked cleaning charm. Though if she's so smart I don't know why she's so happy to work as a maid," Sirius shook his head and added, "she'll be making our meals too."
"You can't cook?" The thought of his godfather not being good at something came as a bit of a shock to Harry. Sirius shrugged.
"You can judge for yourself when I attempt to make us dinner tonight."
"I can cook," Harry cried, eager to do something for his godfather. He hopped to his feet, "of course it's only toast and bacon, maybe some eggs. I have a knack for TV dinners too, but I doubt you have any. Only, I have to do it the muggle way."
Sirius frowned. "How do you know how to cook like a muggle?"
"Aunt Petunia made me cook for her from time to time."
Harry shrugged and Sirius frowned even more. What sort of woman made a child cook for her, when he could be outside enjoying his day? Sirius was sorely tempted to ask why Harry had never thought of adding poison to the food, but thought better of it.
"Tell you what kiddo, I'll do the cooking and if it comes out absolutely, a hundred percent inedible, then you'll have a go at it."
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Harry sat at the table in the kitchen watching Sirius attempt to make a pot of soup. They had to eat in the kitchen, Sirius said, because the dining room was an absolute mess. Harry did not mind, though he was not sure he could say the same of Sirius' cooking skills. An unrecognizable odor wafted out of the pot, which contained an even stranger colored liquid. Now Harry understood what Sirius had meant. He wondered if it was all together wise to eat something made by his godfather. Sirius filled two bowls with the soup, if it could be called that, and set them on the table. Harry gulped at the sight of the odd, bubbling concoction. Wearily picking up his spoon, Harry poked at a bubble that popped with a weird gurgling noise. It just might eat me before I get the chance to eat it. Sirius let out a small cough.
"Uh, perhaps I ought to try it first?"
He looked nervously down at his bowl. Harry watched as his godfather swallowed a spoonful of the soup stuffs. When Sirius did not faint or vomit, Harry took it as a good sign.
"It's not so bad. Pretty decent by my standards, actually. Go on and try it. It's much better than it looks."
Harry wondered how such a thing were possible, as he glanced back at the soup that he could have sworn had been an off-green but was now a vibrant orange. Seeing Sirius continue to gulp soup out of the corner of his eye reassured Harry a touch. He lifted his spoon to his mouth and found that Sirius had been right. For its strange odor and unexplained color change, the soup was surprisingly edible. The two finished in silence and Sirius produced a couple chocolate bars for dessert.
As Harry munched his chocolate thoughtfully, he glanced about the grimy kitchen. He would be more than happy when Selene cleaned it up and prepared their meals. As he wondered what house the girl had been in, the thought of another's time at Hogwarts crossed his mind. He turned to face his godfather.
"Hey, Sirius?"
"Yeah kiddo?"
"I was just wondering, what was my dad like?"
A wide grin split Sirius' face, exposing his chocolate covered teeth.
"James was amazing, truly the best mate a bloke could ask for. Your father really valued his friends. He was always looking out for us. He was more of a brother to me than my own really. He was a brilliant student too, but he liked to put his talents more towards troublemaking than being helpful. Course Remus always tried to stop us. Didn't last for long though, he usually gave in to his inner prankster as well."
Harry's grin mirrored his godfather's. "What sort of pranks did you pull?"
"Oh, you know," Sirius said nonchalantly, "charming doorways to allow everyone but Slytherins through, hexing Snape, bewitching suits of armor to demand that students answer questions in order to pass, jinxing Snape, changing the school calendars to give us more days on break, cursing Snape, the usual."
Harry laughed. He could almost picture his father and friends, the Marauders, running amok at Hogwarts, causing trouble left and right. Sirius did not want to give Harry too many bad ideas but at the same time, he could not hold himself back. Harry was so excited to hear about his father and, truth be told, Sirius loved to remember their time together.
"What other things did you guys do? I have the map you made."
"Really?" Sirius sounded so delighted. "Figured out how to work it did you? Prongs would be so proud to see his kid sneaking out of school. Let me tell you about one of James' better pranks."
Harry leaned towards Sirius, eager to hear of his father's prankster ways.
"We levitated this one kid, Bobby Parks, and his mattress out the window and to the top of the Astronomy tower one night. He slept straight through it! You should have heard his screams the next morning. Could've broken all the glass in the castle. Everybody kept asking who the damsel in distress was! McGonagall was beside herself. We tried to explain that we were merely practicing the levitation charm we had learned in class the day before and it had gone awry but she wouldn't have it."
Harry's laugh was uncontrollable, but it was nothing compared to Sirius'. Sirius nearly fell out of his chair, he was laughing so hard. Harry had never seen his godfather so happy. Lost in his nostalgia, Sirius looked positively ecstatic. Once Sirius had recovered from his laughing fit, Harry asked, "Why'd you do that though? What'd he do to you?"
"Oh, he insulted Peter or something like that," Sirius replied airily, while waving his hand about.
Harry bit his lip and looked towards the floor. Bobby Parks had insulted Peter. Peter had been his father's good friend at school and yet, years later, Peter had handed James over to Voldemort. He had even framed Sirius for murder. Harry looked back towards Sirius. Why had he done those things? He had to know. He hesitantly opened his mouth, searching for the right words.
"About Peter… was he, well…"
"An okay guy? Of course his was. Never in a million years would we have thought it possible for him to betray us. If someone from the future had used a time turner to visit us at Hogwarts and warned us of his betrayal, we would have laughed in his face. James possibly would have even hexed him. He took it to heart when someone insulted one of his friends."
"So he wasn't that bad?"
"Not at all. His academic record wasn't so great, but heck, even James and I weren't tops all the time. We had nothing on Remus. He was great for going on kitchen raids with though. And when we didn't have time for a kitchen raid, you could always count on Peter to have some sort of food on him. He was always eager to help carry out a prank. He even came up with a few great pranks himself. He was constantly itching for an adventure. Well almost always. He was a tad hesitant about the animagus thing. But he did it for Remus. He was excited to help a friend out…"
Sirius paused, his eyes far away, searching for something. He sighed.
"I don't know why Peter went to Voldemort. Maybe he wanted more power. He had always been average. Or maybe he was scared. Maybe he was more of a coward than any of us realized. Perhaps he wanted to be friends with the smartest, strongest kids in the school yard. Maybe that's why he followed us endlessly. Maybe that's why he followed the dark lord."
He sighed again, bowing his head and hiding his face from Harry's view.
"I can't explain why Peter did what he did. I'll probably never know. All I know is he betrayed us and there's no taking it back. After everything we did for him, everything James did for him. Even Lily… she had been so sweet to him. She was always kind to James' friends. Except me."
He let out a strangled sounding laugh. Harry tilted his head to the side and frowned.
"My mum didn't like you?"
"Oh no, she liked me. Maybe not the things I did, but she sure liked me. She just had an odd way of showing it."
Before Harry could ask what that meant, he noticed Sirius' shoulders began to shake. Harry sat there dumbstruck. He had never seen an adult cry before. He was at a lost for how to act.
"It's getting late," Sirius said, in a shaky voice. "Why don't you go to bed boyo?"
His voice cracked on the last syllable and Harry murmured an agreement. He stood and walked past his godfather's hunched form to the door. He stopped and turned to the sobbing man. Not moments before Sirius' face had been lit with happiness, and now it sounded as though he might drown the world. Harry felt torn. He wanted to comfort his godfather, say something to him, but what? What do you say to a man who had lost his best friend and another good friend in one night? It's okay, you still have me. Somehow, Harry doubted that would help ease the man's pain. The thought of having to care for his dead friends' son would probably just make things worse. The world was cruel to take his friends and leave such an obvious reminder of them.
Harry turned back to the door and left the kitchen. His feet felt like lead weights upon the stairs. His head felt like it was swimming and his stomach was nauseous. Harry doubted Sirius' soup was the cause. He went to his room feeling useless, Sirius' misery weighing down upon him.
A/N: Wow, I hadn't planned for it to take such an angst-y turn there. I was happily writing about the Marauders one minute and the next thing I know, my story's run away from me and taken a turn down Depression Alley. Geez. I'm sorry about that, guys. It'll be much happier next time, I promise. That is if my story doesn't take on a life of its own again. Other than that, I'm quite proud of this chapter.
I just have to add that Bobby Parks is a random student I made up for the Marauders to bother. You won't find him in a Harry Potter encyclopedia. And if (against all odds) you do happen to, please tell me so I can change his name. I must have subconsciously channeled Ms. Rowling and I'd rather not have to steal- I mean borrow more of her characters if I can help it. It makes me feel like a bad person lol.
As for Peter, well I can't help but feel that he doesn't get enough credit. Or at least Kid Peter doesn't, Adult Peter is a different story. He had to have been a pretty nice guy if he was included as one of the Marauders. I mean come on; he hung out with James Potter and Sirius Black! He had to have some ounce of cool at one point in time.