A/N: Don't worry, this chapter is a bit more exciting. As to Peter, you'll see him soon, trust me, you can't miss him. Oh, and the Marauders will be penpals with Harry, just to make it more interesting.
Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter, etc., etc., etc.
Dear Harry,
We've found it funny that in the month we've been training to be Aurors we haven't once seen you. Are you on a big mission or something? Or is this the fact you are in hiding?
Sorry we haven't replied to your last letter, but we've been a bit busy. They've started teaching us some higher level defense spells at the Auror's office, so far it hasn't been going great. And your father is having a mid-life crisis.
Am not!
Are too!
Come on Padfoot, is it wrong to be freaked out by the fact your son could be considered three years older than you? Oh, we enjoyed the pictures. Why did everyone look so sad in the black and white picture? You had just defeated Voldemort… again, you should have been happy.
People are being very vague in regards to information about you. Some say you're evil, others were supposed best friends with you. And why exactly does Kingsley hate you?
He's not really shy about saying so, it's bothersome. Hope to see you soon, though after a month of searching we're finding it to be as hard as you said.
With Love,
Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and Dora.
Dear Mum, Dad, Padfoot, Moony and Dora,
As to why you haven't seen me, I claim it to be because you are looking too hard. Although yes, I have several missions I'm working on and have been for a month, mainly concerning several deatheaters killed by Voldemort who escaped. And I have heard about how you are doing in your training, I am good friends with both of the Aurors training you. And don't worry, everyone messes up wandless spells at first.
Unfortunately, you are considered your death age, simply because we have taken the definition of age as the amount of years you have lived. It's been hard for the twins, one is nineteen, the other is twenty-six. And if you want to know how Jay Jamesonwhatever, is doing, he's happy and has started talking, though his first word was kitty. It will make more sense later.
As to whether I'm evil or not, it depends who you are. To the Aurors I'm a role model, to anyone who thinks the laws should be followed to the T, I should be in Azkaban or at least fired. Kingsley began hating me soon after inventing Death Rings, I'd been experimenting a bit wildly anyway and he felt that by inventing an unforgivable curse I was going to turn on the world. That and I feel that when capturing dark wizards, the end justifies the means.
Sincerely,
Harry Potter
"The end justifies the means?" Dora said curiously.
"Yes," Lily said, "It's an old saying that's the equivalent of 'For the Greater Good' which has been mainly used by dark wizards."
"It's loose meaning is that as long as the goal is reached it doesn't matter how you got there." James finished.
Sirius was looking at the letter in good humor, "Jay's first word was kitty? There has got to be an interesting story behind that."
"I'm curious as to what he means by we're looking too hard, does that mean we already know him?" Remus asked, he was answered by a round of shrugs.
"Ron, remind me not to have vases in a room where I'm teaching Titiglio." The Man said pulling a shard of glass from his left arm.
"I doubt you'll forget." With a few spells Ron had all of the glass moved into the trash. The Marauders watched as the Man pulled his wand out and use it for the first time in their presence to heal his wound quickly.
Remus stood still on the other side of the room, blushing from accidentally shattering a glass vase, which held a single black rose. He had always been adept with wand spells, but wandless spells had baffled him. The Man walked over with his arms crossed, but he didn't look mad, "Don't say the spell, just do the movement."
Remus felt silly as he moved his left hand forward with his thumb and pinky bent and palm away from him. The Man seemed somewhat surprised at his motion, and looked to the others, "Have you been doing it this way too?" The nodded and he ran his hand through his hair before taking Remus' still outstretched hand and curling the ring finger.
"You have to have the ring finger down, Titiglio is meant to protect you by hurting all without peace, which patronuses are a symbol for. So make a peace sign, put your middle and ring finger together and turn it ninety degrees. Having three means you are hurting all with glass, which is useless unless you have and evil wizard made out of glass. Try it again with the incantation." The Man was patient, and always explained why to do something a certain way.
Remus tried again, this time a gold wave pushed through the room and as it touched each person it showed their patronus. Lily a doe, James a Stag, Ron a dog, Dora a wolf, The Man's was a lion, and Sirius… flew back off his chair and hit the wall. The Man shook his head softly, but went to help Sirius up. Ron wasn't watching Sirius though, his eyes were on the Man, "Hey!"
As soon as the man looked at him they began shadowhanding.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
(Ron) What happened to your patronus?
(Man/Harry) What are you talking about?
(Ron) It's a lion!
(Man/Harry) Oh, right, that
(Ron) Why did it change?
(Man/Harry) It didn't change, I have two.
(Ron) And you didn't tell anyone!
(Man/Harry) I told Ginny! Besides it because of her it's a lion, her ani-
(Ron) is lioness, I know, I know. You're serious about this whole charade, aren't you?
(Man/Harry) I'm not Serious, he's serious
- - - - - - - - - - -
The Man had just pointed to Sirius, Ron looked angry but settled with laughing for a moment. Finally Ron just said, "I wonder how often that joke has been used."
"Too often, I assure you." The Man looked back to Sirius, "Come on, Ron will continue with the others."
Sirius followed him through the building, the Aurors office seemed to have been built in the style of a maze, but the Man had never had trouble finding anything. Eventually they came to a flight of stairs with double doors at the bottom, they went through these only to be outside. It was a small clearing near the building with trees giving them about thirty feet.
The Man walked out into the middle and looked at him, "Cast a patronus charm."
Sirius tried, he hated admitting it, but ever since Azkaban he hadn't been able to cast any kind of patronus. A silver mist floated from his wand towards the Man, but disappeared before reaching him. He received a skeptical look, "I'm not an expert, but I would say not happy enough. What are you thinking of?"
"Trying is a better word," Sirius answered he followed this with something about hanging out with James. The Man just shook his head.
"Don't think pre-Azkaban. Dementors would have sucked your happiest memories from you." His voice was even, patient. Patient to the point it almost scared Sirius.
Only two memories came to mind, he chose the one that was his memory of meeting James when he came back to life. The silver mist was thicker, and may have actually turned a dementor around, but nowhere near the corporeal patronus he needed. So he tried the other memory. There was no mist, but a large silver dog came from his wand, the same dog he remembered his patronus being during his school and Auror days.
"That's better. Mind me asking what the memory is?" The Man said as the patronus circled him and then disappeared.
Sirius blushed slightly, "Yes, I think I do."
The Man moved his head to one side, "Might as well make sure it's enough." He cast Titiglio, which made Remus' gold wave look yellow, his looked almost tangible. His patronus stood in the way and he was not knocked of his feet by this.
"Your Titiglio is a lot stronger than Remus' is. Who taught you?" Sirius asked.
"I was one of the first to learn, and you could say the inventor taught me. Besides I have had a lot of practice." The Man said softly, his cheeks getting a little red. Sirius shrugged, at least he's humble. They returned to the room, The Man obviously knew more of the spell than Ron did, he was constantly correcting everything from pronunciation of the incantation to the speed they moved their hand. By the end of the day they had all produced Titiglios that were similar to Ron's in strength making them acceptable, but paled in comparison to the Man's.
When they got home they found Regulus playing wizard's chess with Kreacher, who was apparently beating him pretty badly. They asked him why he was playing chess with an elf he answered very simply, "I've got nothing else to do, neither does he, and I get bored when I don't have my support group."
"Right." Sirius said, "And how is that going Reg?"
"It's pretty weird to tell you the truth. You hear some pretty strange stories, I could tell you a few about Grindelwald that would make your skin crawl, and some about Snape that would make you never want to go near him again." Reggie answered smiling.
"Too late." James mused, "We already don't want to go near Snape."
"All the better, he's gone senile. He's actually glad to have received an offer to work as potions master again, apparently Slughorn doesn't want to work there anymore since they banned the Slug Club." Reg was shaking his head to show how pathetic he thought Snape was.
"Who cleared Grindelwald?" Remus asked.
"Harry, he said something about Gell in our letters. Gell is his nickname, Snape doesn't want one. Anyway, he said his final attempts before dying were to make it harder for Voldemort to find…" He stopped for a minute to think, "I think that's checkmate Kreacher. He said it was some sort of weapon, but he went about it all wrong. He was very vague about the whole thing, probably because we were all at one point evil, no point in taunting us."
Lily looked curious, "So you have been talking to Grindelwald, is it true that he was friends with Dumbledore."
"Yeah, apparently they are both power obsessive, he says there's a reason that he has continually refused the position of Minister. Gell still has no idea how Harry found out about his death, it was only him and Voldemort. We choose to regard Harry with tentative thanks." He said. He would continue to hide things like that Harry had come to several meetings and had told them his sources were unnecessary, they had been cleared under Veritaserum. And while they were still wary of him, he had become friends with the young man. Snape on the other hand showed clear signs of hatred towards him. He amended Harry at the fact he could ignore his taunts saying you learned to ignore them after a while.
Nothing more of interest happened that night, except and argument between the Potters that begun with James mentioning his opinion on girls being able to prank. This egun a prank war, the boys against the girls, Sirius had Reg be on the girls side because he was close enough to being one. Regulus commented with the following statement: "Good, I don't like losing."
The next morning the three original Marauders awoke screaming, the others had gotten up early and were waiting in the dining room laughing. The three men sat angrily at the table with pursed lips, James spoke first, "Permanent?"
"For about a week." Lily said hiding giggles.
"This means war." Remus said looking at his wife pointedly.
"Thought it already was, besides, Lily's idea." Dora replied buttering an English muffin.
"Personally, Siri, I think it's an improvement." He was laughing, "Pink hair suits all of you really well.
Meanwhile, Bob Schmarmy had fell into a routine, none of it including Ireland, or potatoes, though he did often carry a potato around incase he got hungry or bored. Many people noticed him, but thought him just to be a strange old man who really likes potatoes. But in truth he was on a mission, his master had found him the day he came back, all of this would be worth it for him.
A/N: What do you think Sirius' memory is? And why is Bob back? I hope you like the pink hair, I've always wanted to see Lily and Dora prank the marauders. Please review!
