Disclaimer: Harry Potter's universe does not belong to me.
Remainder:
Henry Evans is James Potter
Damien Evans is Sirius Black
Mary White is Mary Evans

Chapter 7: Year's albums

The first day of school, the library was empty except for some Ravenclaw's students. Some things never change. Mary, Damien and Henry took place and while Damien and Henry went to search the year albums, Mary went to search for the History books. She was surprised to see that there were more books talking about the second war than the first. Obviously, it was still fresh in the people's memories. Then her eyes were attracted to a book with a colorful cover. Usually books about History and particularly about the war had dark covers and a gloomy aspect, but not this one. The book's title was The Broken Generation, written by Ron and Hermione Weasley. Mary took the book and went back to the table. Henry and Damien were still not back, so she sat down and start reading the book.

"... Me and my husband won't talk about heroism and great battles. We won't talk about battles and about victories in this book. We want to use this opportunity to honor the memory of the fallen students of Hogwarts. We were children, thrown in the middle of war, use as bait to threatened our families, ranked because of our blood. We fought as we could and too many of us died doing so. All the students of Hogwarts couldn't get out during the final battle and paid the price of a war which wasn't us to fight. In this book, we are going to tell you what happened since the return of Voldemort until his death. We are the Broken generation and this is our story..."

Mary was so absorbed by her reading that she didn't notice Damien and Henry getting back, with the year albums.

-"Mary?" called Henry. "Did you found something?" Mary raised her head and smile at her boyfriend.
-"Yes, I found this book, written by Rose's mother. It talks about the students mostly I think...It look interesting but I just start reading."
_"We found the albums" said Damien. And Mary closed the book to look at the album with the two men.

Damien open the first album, from 1991. On the first pages, there were pictures of each houses, every year confounded and then year by year. On the Gryffindor's first year picture, in the front line, Harry Potter was standing. He was small for his age, but he looked a lot like James. With green eyes. Mary's eyes. She was the mother of James's son. This knowledge was making her happy and sad at the same time. Happy because it meant that she would marry the man she loves, and sad because it also meant that she lost her son. Were she and James living in this world, somewhere grieving over the death of their son.? Had they other children to look out for? Were they dead?

The next pages were dedicated to the recompenses given during the year, there were pictures of divers students and teacher standing and holding cup, with smiling faces. Then, they were pictures of the Quidditch's team. And a short description of each player. And then, again, there was a picture of her son. Youngest player in a century, seeker for Gryffindor, catch the snitch at every game. Harry was indeed James's son, she thought smiling. And Henry was beaming at the picture.

The latter pages were dedicated to the seventh years, just like muggles high school they were a quote under each picture and what they were going to do after graduating from Hogwarts. After the graduating student, there was a description of the staff. Dumbledore was still headmaster and he didn't seem to have age a bit. He still had a long, white beard and sparking blue eyes behind half-moon glasses.

- "Hey Prongs, look! The greasy git became a teacher! I can't believe it" said Damien, looking disgusted, as he stared at one picture.

Severus Snape. Henry shifted uncomfortably on his chair. Severus Snape was still a tense subject between him and Mary. He knew that the man was special to his girlfriend. It took time but she ends up talking about her relationship to Snape and Henry started feeling bad about how they treated the man during school. Even if Mary never said so, sometimes he was wondering if Severus Snape becoming a Death Eater was not his fault. Obviously, the man had a thing for dark magic and stuff but he couldn't be that bad or Mary wouldn't have been friends with him. And he knew that Mary was still suffering from the betrayal of her best friend. He looked at the picture in the year album, the man hadn't change much. Still the same hair, still not smiling. He was looking straight in the camera, defying anyone to mock him.

Mary closed the 1991's album and took the next one, the cover was the exact same, except for the date engraved in it.
Harry's second year, 1992. He was still very small, and almost sickly pale. He was between a bushy haired girl and a redhead boy in the annual houses picture. Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley said the legend. Mary knew that her professor had known Harry but seeing them together in a picture was totally different. They looked so young, innocent. The girl in the picture was not the same than the woman she had seen. They were no shadows in her eyes and no worry wrinkles between her eyes. Actually, she looked like her daughter in this picture.

Of course, Harry was still on the Quidditch team, and there was picture, of him flying and catching the snitch. Henry was looking at the pictures in an awe, following with his eyes his son zooming in and out the picture.

- "Wow, Prongs, he might be even better than you!" said Damien, grinning like crazy. Mary chuckled. She was not a big fan of Quidditch but she could not not feel proud when looking at her son.

1992 was also the year Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley won their Special Award for Service to the school. Damien and Henry had saw the medals in the trophy's room in the morning, but they wanted to know more. There was a picture, with Harry and Ron holding their Trophies. Ron was beaming, holding his trophy proudly and puffing his chest while Harry was shyly hiding behind his friends, never looking at the camera.

Under the picture, there was a short explanation about how Harry and Ron had found the Secret Chamber and save Ron's sister's life. There was although some journal's articles related to the case, and the list of the petrified children. Hermione Granger was among them.

The 1993's year album, was not very different from the two first. Harry was still on the Quidditch team and Gryffindor had won the inter-house cup. Damien and Henry had cheered loudly (and almost been kicked out of the Library) at the picture of Harry and the team holding the cup a big smile on his face.
They had also discovered that Remus was the DADA's teacher this year, meaning that at least one of them was well and alive. In the picture, Remus had looked old and tired but they had wanted to believe that it was only because of Remus werewolf condition. None of them had formulated yet, but the three of them were growing anxious about their future.

The 1994's year album was oddly bigger than every other albums. It was thicker. The first half of it was like the others but at the end, instead of the Quidditch results there was the Triwizard Tournament. Of course, Mary knew what the tournament was, but it was supposed to have been cancelled almost 100 years ago because of the high number of injuries and even death of the participant.
At first, there was a short introduction, explaining the rules of the game and the reasons behind his reinvestment (something about magic international cooperation). The next page was about the participants. The first page was about the student from Durmstrang, Viktor Krum. Then there was the student from Beauxbatons, Fleur Delacour. And last, the student from Hogwarts. Except that there was two students: Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter. Once again Mary was sitting there, looking at the picture of her son, she hadn't met yet. For the students, under the name of their school, there was a brief introduction, how many OWLS they got, their talents, the prices and competition they won. Under Harry's name, nothing was written. In the picture, he looked small and afraid. Mary turned her head and locked her eyes with James. She could see the same fear in his eyes, as she was more and more convinced that something was wrong. She took the book from Sirius's hand, and flipped the pages about the tournament faster, she wasn't interested by anything else than Harry's safety. There was journal's articles, pictures of the three tasks (Mary could swear she had see a dragon). The last page was showing Harry receiving the cup, and shaking hand with someone who was probably the minister of Magic at the time. Dumbledore and McGonagall were in the picture too, but none of them were smiling. Mary understood why when she turned the last page. Cedric Diggory hadn't made it out alive of the tournament. He had died and the last page was a memorial page. There was a big picture of Cedric. The official one, in his Hufflepuff's robe, smiling and waving to the camera. Then there was a paragraph written, probably about the young man. But Mary couldn't stop looking at the picture. The young man in it was so full of life. He had a life to live and now he was dead, buried somewhere. And Mary couldn't stop thinking that he could had been Harry. Tears started rolling on her cheeks. James took her hands and close the book.

-"Let's go Lils, I think it's enough for today" James's voice was steady but Mary could see, he was also shaken. He was paler then usual and his eyes were lost.

-" Yeah, you are right. It's almost curfew anyways...let's go back to the common room." agreed Mary. She got up and started to gather the books. Doing so she saw the book The Broken Generation. While Damien and Henry went put the books back she decided to borrow the book, so she could read it later.