Hey guys! I've had this update finished since yesterday and wanted to post it then, but something came up and I wasn't able to edit it until today. Sorry about that! I am hoping to get another few chapters posted throughout the next couple of weeks before my spring semester starts, so stay tuned for those!

Also, very quickly, thank you so much to those of you who have followed/favorited this story, and especially to those of you who were kind enough to review. I genuinely do appreciate every bit of feedback you guys give and hope you continue to do so!

Harry, Ron, and Hermione entered the train's last compartment, stopping slightly short at the sight of the man asleep inside before continuing in anyway, apparently deciding they had no other option. Lily and James looked on as they took their seats, studying the man who was a stranger to them. In a perfect world, to Harry at least, he should have been anything but. Remus had known Harry since the day he was born. Had things gone differently, Harry would have known who he was straight away. Moony would have been "Uncle Remus." Instead, he had to learn who he was based on Hermione's observation of Remus' name on his case. Lily looked over at her husband, her emotions written clearly on her face. The sadness in James' eyes was unmistakable. He simply shook his head, his eyes not leaving the scene before them.

As the children reasoned out that Remus must be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Lily couldn't help but agree with Ron's assessment that at first glance at least, Remus looked as though one good hex would finish him off. She and James had kept tabs on their friend since their death, as they had with Harry, and it didn't take a Seer to know that things had not been easy for Moony in the years since he'd lost his fellow marauders, and in ways that went beyond just the emotional. He didn't even know the truth about what happened that night, and that was probably the most heartbreaking part.

Harry and his friends, after determining that their new professor was, in fact, asleep, settled into he compartment as he explained about Molly and Arthur Weasley's argument and Arthur's warning that Sirius was after him. James and Lily knew better, of course, but there was nothing that could be done about the fear that had run rampant since Sirius had managed to escape. James supposed he was grateful for the Weasleys' concern for his son, unwarranted as it was. He knew Sirius well enough to know what he was really after, and it wasn't Harry.

James and Lily paid particular attention to Remus as the children discussed Sirius' escape. While he likely had been asleep prior to their entering the compartment, recovering from the full moon the night before, both knew he was only feigning sleep at this point, listening in on the conversation instead. Even if they hadn't known him as well as they did, his subtle change in position to hear better when the three weren't looking certainly gave him away. James couldn't help but smirk. Once a marauder, always a marauder.

He knew the exact moment Remus figured out exactly who it was sitting across from him in the compartment. He also knew that he had been impatiently waiting up until that point for one of Harry's friends to say his name. When that didn't happen, Remus had carefully opened one eye the tiniest bit and peaked at the faces of the teenagers before quickly shutting it again. James knew he recognized Harry immediately from the way he tensed just the tiniest bit. And with good reason, he supposed, as there was no denying that Harry very much resembled James. He wondered what his friend was thinking that very moment and decided it was likely something very sad. He felt for Moony, as well as for Harry, and all the opportunities the two had missed out on over the years because of the circumstances. It was the people he and Lily had left behind who were truly the victims of the story. Remus, Sirius, and Harry had all suffered immeasurably at Peter's betrayal. It truly wasn't fair.

Later, when Draco Malfoy and his cronies appeared in the compartment, picking a fight with Harry and Ron, Remus was the one who ultimately saved them from trouble. When Draco brought up Ron's family, as he usually did, the redhead stood up so quickly, he knocked Hermione's cat's basket to the floor. Remus, taking the opportunity, gave a convincing snort and shifted slightly in his feigned slumber, drawing the bullies' attention to him at last and effectively ending their harassment. James snorted in amusement. Lily was grateful.

Lily, and surly James as well, noticed Remus occasionally refraining from smiling at the conversation taking place in the compartment, but he did a good job of keeping a straight face and the children continued to pay him little attention as they continued on toward Hogwarts.

Then came the dementors. In the confusion and darkness, Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley joined the rest in the compartment. Remus, after nearly being flung from his seat at the train's sudden stop, got to his feet and glanced out the window after Ron and then turned, clutching for his wand in his robes. "Quiet!" he demanded, his voice slightly horse from misuse. The anxious questions and yelps of pain as the students fumbled over one another in the dark came to an abrupt halt. Silence reigned in the compartment. "Stay where you are," Remus ordered, lighting the space with the magical flame he'd conjured.

A dementor slid the compartment door open before Remus could reach it, and James and Lily lost interest as he proceeded to dispatch it, in favor of watching Harry in concern. The moment the creature appeared, he'd gone completely rigid and had fallen from his seat, his eyes rolling back and his body twitching epileptically. "Oh my god!" Lily cried in shock, "Harry!"

It was over rather quickly. Remus' patronus was able to rid the Hogwarts Express of the dementors within a few seconds and a minute later, as he returned to the compartment, the lanterns came back on and the train began moving again. Harry was on the floor, apparently unconscious. Ron and Hermione, the second they could see again, cried out in shock and knelt down beside their friend. "Harry! Harry! Are you alright?" Hermione said desperately. Ron slapped his face a few times. Neville, and Ginny looked on in shock, as did James and Lily. Remus seemed mildly concerned, but not overly surprised, which Lily would later find odd. At the moment she was rather preoccupied.

Harry came round pretty quickly and Ron and Hermione heaved him back onto his seat. "What was that?" James asked of no one in particular.

"Are you okay?" Ron asked him.

"Yeah," Harry answered, glancing quickly at the door. "What happened? Where's that – that thing? Who screamed?"

Harry's parents looked at each other in concern, as did his companions. "No one screamed," Ron answered his friend nervously.

"But I heard screaming-" Harry began to protest. The snap of the bar of chocolate Remus had just broken interrupted him.

"Here, eat this. It'll help," he said, handing some to Harry, and then to the rest of them. He answered Harry's question about what the dementor was as he did so, and then left to speak to the driver, leaving the students to discuss the event amongst themselves.

Harry had yet to eat the chocolate Remus had given him and looked rather ill as he inquired of his friends whether they'd fallen to the floor as well. He looked rather embarrassed when they told him that they hadn't. Lily looked to her husband, concern evident in her eyes. She knew from the expression written across James' face as he looked back that he was thinking the same thing. "Screaming?" she said, "You don't think…"

James shook his head, "I don't know. I hope not. I'd like to think he doesn't remember…"

"He was so young," she whispered, looking back at Harry.

"If there was any memory that was terrible enough, it would be that one though."

Lily shook her head, hoping against all hope that they were wrong; that what Harry had seen in the dementor's presence was not a memory of that fateful night, but some other, less horrible memory. Anything was better than that. She'd never experienced a dementor's effect in person before she'd died, but she knew what they did, and the thought that Harry had been made to relive the night of his parents' murders was almost too much to bear. She didn't want him seeing that. He'd seen too much at his age already.

She sighed sadly. "My poor baby."

Thanks for reading!