Edited: July 24, 2012
You have heard me mention the stories of some of the people in Harry's life. These are a few of them plus some new ones, it's sort of like a 4 in 1, and I am sad to say that this will be the final chapter to this collection of one-shots. Read On!
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"Sirius Black was the greatest godfather anyone could ask for Teddy." Said Harry smiling at the thought of him. Teddy had been rather curious about his own godfather's past and Sirius Black was the first person he wanted to know about.
"Come on Uncle Harry, no godfather could be better than you!" said a fifteen-year-old Teddy Lupin nudging him in the arm. He made his hair change colors rapidly to make Harry laugh.
"Well, you know the story of the Marauders I presume? Sirius was Padfoot, the illegal, giant, black dog animagus." Harry said chuckling.
Teddy grinned thinking of Lily's black fluffy stuffed dog that was also named Padfoot. Her stuffed animals never left her sight and even though she said she didn't have favorites, Teddy was pretty sure Padfoot was at the top of her list.
"After Hogwarts…Sirius had a rather…troubled life." Harry frowned, contemplating what to say next. "He umm…blamed himself for my parent's death you know."
Teddy's face fell. He knew Sirius and James were the best of friends. Why would he ever have reason to blame himself for their tragic murder? Was he perhaps guilty that he wasn't there to stop everything from happening? Or was he just saddened about his friends' death?
"Everyone who knew of the Potter's going into hiding assumed Sirius would be their secret keeper…Sirius suggested that they choose Peter instead for that reason. He knew no better though…"
"Wait, if everyone thought Sirius was the secret keeper then what did they think when Voldemort came to your house?" asked Teddy, knowing the answer, but not really wanting to hear it.
"They all assumed he was the one who betrayed their trust…" Harry sighed. "The only real thing Sirius did wrong that night was go after Peter Pettigrew when he figured out what happened. Peter blasted the whole street apart and faked his own death. Sirius was also blamed for Peter's murder of the thirteen muggles who were present…he was thrown into Azkaban without a trial."
Teddy fiddled with the fabric at the end of his cloak and scowled. He knew the Ministry had been corrupt, but not to the extent were they wouldn't even try a man who could have been innocent. He did realize that the chances that Sirius was innocent were very slim though.
"Twelve years…it was twelve years before Sirius did the impossible…he escaped and all this time I never even knew I had a godfather. I was in my third year." He said. Teddy grinned of course a Marauder would be the first to escape Azkaban!
"Isn't that when dad was teaching?" Teddy asked innocently hoping to hear of his father.
"Yeah, Professor Lupin was great." Harry said smiling back. "I went through the year thinking Sirius Black was trying to murder me believe it or not." He said ruffling his hair with his hands. It stood up on the ends more than usual.
"Yeah, I'm sure your dad's best friend, your own godfather, would love to kill you in your sleep." Teddy said sarcastically.
"Hey, I had no idea about most of that stuff, give me a break!" Harry said enjoying his time with his godson.
"At the end of the year, Sirius finally revealed himself to me in the Shrieking Shack. He also revealed that Scabbers, Ron's pet rat, was actually Peter." He spit out the name Peter like it was acid on his tongue. Uncle Ron had mentioned that his old pet rat was the infamous Peter Pettigrew several times to Teddy so Harry didn't expand on the topic.
"The next two years, I actually had someone, besides the Weasley's, that I could call family. Due to the world still thinking him as an insane mass murderer, Sirius was locked up in his childhood home, which he absolutely loathed, never really able to help. He was cooped up and wanted to get out of the house. I was tricked by Voldemort," Harry's hand drifted over his faded scar, " It caused Sirius to rush to the rescue…the outcome was exactly what I had been trying to stop. He got killed because of my foolishness." Harry stuck his head in his hands, wanting to hide his awful grimace from Teddy.
"You weren't the one who shot the killing curse where you?" Teddy asked in a demanding voice, trying to prove a point. Harry shook his head. "If you didn't shoot the curse, you have no reason to blame yourself, just like Sirius had no reason to blame himself for the death of Lily and James Potter." He finished in a strong, clear voice that told Harry that he meant every bit of what he said.
"Sirius died a hero…for so many reasons." Harry said grimly. Teddy's hair flashed to its natural sandy blonde. Sometimes his emotions took over and for a split second he couldn't control his metamorphmagus powers.
"Your right Harry, Sirius was an amazing godfather."
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"Hey Dad! Mommy took us to Muggle London with Aunt Hermione and they let me buy these spectacular sweets! They're the best I've ever had!" Albus said. He was practically bouncing off the walls.
"That's great Al, what are they called?" Harry asked ruffling his eight-year-old* son's hair.
"Lemon drops! Do you want to try one?" he asked innocently.
Harry found this incredibly amusing and almost collapsed to the ground with laughter. Laughing felt amazing since he hadn't done it in so long. For a moment he forgot about the bags that must be under his eyes from nights without sleep or the fact that he had a boatload of paperwork to do. Once he calmed down he grinned and plucked the yellow hard candy from Al's hand.
"Thanks Al…did you know that lemon drops were Albus Dumbledore's favorite treat? He used to always ask me if I would like one." He said still smiling. Albus smiled back, glad that he had something in common with his namesake.
"Daddy…can you tell me about Dumbledore?"
Harry glanced at the battered watch he was given on his seventeenth birthday and decided he could spare a few minutes and tell his son about the man that he had always admired.
"Where would you like me to start Al?" he asked.
"When you first met him!" Albus replied immediately.
"Well, I assume I first met Dumbledore when I was a baby…the first time I met him that I can actually remember was in my first year…towards the end. He was understanding and was able to answer quite a few of the questions I had. As the years went by, I found myself in his office more and more often." Albus giggled at that. "Before my sixth year, Professor Dumbledore asked me to help recruit the new Potions master, once school started he began to give me private lessons."
"Lessons about what?" Al asked. Harry paused for a moment.
"Lessons about how to defeat Voldemort. Dumbledore was brilliant, he always spoke in riddles, but without out him, your world would be very different. He died at the end of my sixth year."
"Because he was old?"
"Something like that Al…I'll explain more when you're older."
"So you never saw Dumbledore again?"
"Oh I saw him again…but that's a story for another time."
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"Dad, I was in The Room and I came across a picture I didn't recognize. He said his name was Colin…he has a camera like mine!" Lily said as she walked into her father's office. She was referring to the Room of Frames that she had discovered when she was eight. Lily was now 9 and a half and she was turning into quite the young lady.
"Oh yes…Colin Creevey, he loved taking pictures with that camera of his. I was his favorite subject actually." He chuckled and looked back to his Quibbler.
For Lily's ninth birthday Hermione gave her an old-fashioned muggle camera. It never left her side and at times, Harry was reminded of Colin even before Lily brought him up. She would snap picture after picture and Harry had to add a new room to their floor plan for her to use to develop them so that they would move. Lily's wall was littered with pictures of her family, the garden, Godric's Hollow, and random things around the house.
She snapped a picture of her father reading before asking him another questions.
"What was Colin like? Colin didn't tell me much because he was trying to take a nap and Uncle Sev told me I should ask you." She said.
The only pictures Lily couldn't put on her wall were the ones she took in The Room since Al and James still had no idea that it existed. There had been several close calls when the two boys had discovered where the floor plan was, but Harry was always able to get it back before they actually looked at it. Harry was the only one who was allowed to look at it and he was the only one who could add to it. Ginny had seen it several times, but she didn't really care so it wasn't often that she looked at it.
Harry on the other hand spent hours marveling at the work of magic that that plan was. He would make new rooms and see what they would look like before he would erase them and create others only a tenth of the rooms he added ever stayed on the blueprints for more than a few days.
Lily had a knack for discovering rooms and she loved to share the new ones she found with Harry. One time he decided to surprise her so he created a room filled with photo albums to see if she could find them. The albums were filled with pictures taken throughout Harry's life after Hogwarts; Colin's family supplied a lot that were from Harry's years while he was there.
Harry shook his head and started to answer Lily's question.
"Colin was enthusiastic and a true Gryffindor. He came to Hogwarts in my second year and I often found myself cornered by him and his camera. He was full of questions and was not bad at defense…he was in the DA I once told you about. You remind me a lot of him Lils…you two could probably become good friends. That picture was from when he was 14, that's only a few years older than you are."
"Yes, I'll have to go and talk to him sometime soon." She said nodding. She took another picture of Harry and laughed.
"How did he die?" she said quickly as if it was a very normal question…and for her, it was. All the pictures in the Room of Frames were of those who had passed. Lily often asked how they got to be in the room.
"It was in the final battle, his parents had pulled him and his brother out of Hogwarts in his sixth year, but he came back to fight once he got the message." Harry said answering simply. Lily nodded in understanding.
"You know, he might be awake now, you could go see him if you'd like." He said.
"Ok" Lily replied, she left the room and Harry heard her footsteps grow softer as she made her way down the hall.
Lily pulled the door open to the Room of Frames and waved to Uncle Sev as she walked by. She grinned at Uncle Fred and snapped a picture of the happy Marauders, she smiled at Grandma Lily's picture and said a quick 'hello' to Professor Dumbledore. Colin's picture frame was in the back of the room. She finally arrived to see him awake.
"Hullo Colin" she said…it was the start of a good friendship.
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You could hear the waves beating against the shore and several birds squawking across the water. James also heard the sound of his cousins playing tag about a hundred meters behind him. He was lost in thought and didn't even notice Harry, his dad, sit down beside him.
"Knut for your thought?" Harry said quietly.
"Nah that's okay, you can have it for free," James said laughing, "Dad, who's Dobby? You're always going to that little grave when we come here and sometimes Auntie Luna (who is Lily's godmother) mentions him. Who is he?"
"Dobby was one of my good friends…he had actually saved my life multiple times and was always there to help me. I first met Dobby before my second year at Hogwarts, he appeared in my room and warned me that I shouldn't go, but Hogwarts was my home so I went anyway. I wasn't to fond of Dobby that year because he might have almost killed me once or twice, but I ended up freeing him from the Malfoy's."
"Oh," said James, looking kind of confused.
"After that Dobby went to work at Hogwarts. He helped me obtain gillyweed in my fourth year, he showed me the Room of Requirement in my fifth year, and he tailed Draco Malfoy for me in sixth…for good reasons!" Harry added after seeing the look James was giving him.
"Anyway, I specifically told him to never try and safe my life again after second year, but he still rescued us from Malfoy Manor. All of us; me, Hermione, Ron, Luna, Mr. Ollivander the old wandmaker, and Dean Thomas, a boy in my grade. We would have died if he didn't come…it took his life though. He apparated us here and I buried him as soon as we got here, by hand."
"That's really nice, to care for a house elf so much. That's probably why you like Candace (the Potter's paid house elf) so much, because she reminds you of him, I heard you call her Dobby before." James said looking at Harry.
"Yeah, maybe."
"JAMES! Come and play hide-and-seek with us!" yelled little Molly who was running over followed closely by Lily (Molly and Lily were good friends).
"I'm coming!" he said. He stood up and took off towards them. With a wave of his wand Molly and Lily were floating in the air by their ankles and giggling madly.
"JAMES! No underage magic! Just because the Ministry won't catch you here doesn't mean mom won't catch you either!" Harry yelled at his retreating son who now had Lily and Molly over his shoulders, for the age of twelve, he was a strong boy.
Harry sighed and smiled at the same time. He glanced towards Dobby's grave and then got up to join his family. All was well.
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*This was a few months before Albus entered the pensieve in Family of the Cloak: Looking Back
Well, it's finished! I want to thank all my readers and reviewers! Oh and those of you who haven't reviewed yet, I want to hear what you have to say about this story! Feel free to read all my other stories over that time! Please Review and tell me how you think THIS story turned out!
