Unforeseen

By Neurotica

Ten

Sirius and James stared at him with wide eyes, their mouths slightly open as Remus slipped back into unconsciousness. They couldn't have heard what they thought they had. Remus had to have been hallucinating, probably from his injuries from the night before. There was no other explanation for it. Peter Pettigrew was dead…

"But how often is Remus wrong about anything?" James said quietly as he sat with Harry in his arms. "And it's not like he doesn't know our scents like the back of his hand."

For a second, Sirius considered asking how a person could know a scent like a hand, but resisted. "Maybe he just had a dream or something after he… you know… tore himself up…"

"Well, there's one way to find out," James said. "Remus was in the Shrieking Shack. If someone else was in there, Wormtail or not, we'll find out."

As soon as they could, the two wizards went to Dumbledore and James reluctantly left Harry with the headmaster – he didn't want his son to see the Shrieking Shack, especially not if there was someone still there. They took the familiar path through the Hogwarts corridors out on to the grounds and walked silently to the Whomping Willow. Sirius found a long branch and bent down to hit the knot on the side of the tree's trunk, freezing the branches that were trying to hit them. James went first down through the hole that led to the tunnel, and his best friend followed just behind him.

"Lumos," they said in unison, the tips of their wands lighting.

Sirius led the way down the tunnel, ducking and stepping over obstacles in his way. They reached the far end of the tunnel and pulled themselves through, facing the stairwell that led to the second landing of the Shrieking Shack. "Looks the same as it always does, doesn't it?" Sirius said quietly.

James nodded, looking all around them for any signs of someone else having been there in the night. All he could see was spots of freshly dried blood that he was sure belonged to Remus. The two Aurors began their search, using their wands to tell them who had been there in the last twenty-four hours, human or animal. They did find traces of rats, but that was all they were – rats.

The pair spent a good three hours searching every corner in every room and every inch of the floorboards before they met at the bottom of the stairs. "Remus was the only one here," James told Sirius quietly. "Poppy was here this morning with Dumbledore, but there was no one else in this place last night."

Sirius nodded. "I didn't find anything, either. And I used that spell Mad-Eye showed us that counters other spells trying to hide tracks of wizards. It just sort of bounced back at me."

James sighed. "So either Moony's lost his mind, or he just bled so much that his mind was playing tricks on him."

"I'll go with the latter. I'd rather not think my best friend has lost his mind."

James snorted, grinning a little. "We all lost our minds the moment we met you, Padfoot."

The other wizard rolled his eyes, his lips twitching. "Can we get out of here now? I don't know about you, but after not having been here for four years, this place has gotten a little creepy."

"What, are you afraid of the big bad ghosts?" James teased as he pulled himself through the hole in the wall leading back to the tunnel. "Don't worry, Padfoot, I'll protect you."

"Sod off, Prongs."

Remus sat in his hospital bed, staring across the room out a window, brooding. Night had come, and Sirius, James, and Harry had headed back to the cottage for some shuteye. After he'd woken some five hours earlier, Madam Pomfrey had done every diagnostic spell known to wizard-kind on him to make sure he was healthy. When she'd finally been satisfied, she'd retreated to her office, leaving Remus and his friends alone. They told him that they'd gone to the Shrieking Shack, that they'd done every charm they could think of that could reveal that someone else had been in there with him the night before, and had found nothing.

Neither of them had said it aloud, but Remus got the feeling his friends thought he'd gone a bit mental. How else would he have been able to sense the presence of his dead ex-best friend? It was frustrating to think that he knew what he'd seen and heard and smelled, but his friends didn't believe him. Or maybe they just didn't want to believe him. If Wormtail was somehow alive, if he'd somehow survived the blast at the Potters' home in Godric's Hollow back in August, it was sure to only bring about more grief and anger and the need for revenge. Remus didn't want to believe that Wormtail had survived. He wanted to put this whole ordeal behind him and go on with life as best as he could. He wanted to see James break out of his depression. He wanted to be normal.

There is no such thing as a normal Marauder, Sirius used to say when Remus confided in his friends about his fears of the outside world's reactions to his being a werewolf. That was what had been great about Sirius and James. They'd never thought of him as a werewolf, as a vicious man-killing beast, but as a friend and brother.

But Sirius and James wouldn't have lied about not finding anything in the Shrieking Shack. Maybe Remus had just been hallucinating. The smells of his friends were all around that old place. Something about last night could have triggered the smell of Wormtail and made Moony think the rat was there somewhere.

And maybe Kneazles fly…

Remus did not hallucinate – the first time he'd tried Firewhiskey with his friends in sixth year didn't count. But someone had been in the shack with him the night before. Whether it was Wormtail or not, he wasn't sure, but he definitely had not been alone. This wasn't one of those situations in which Remus wanted to find out he was right and then go rub it in the faces of his friends (not that he would do that anyway); deep down, he hoped he really had been hallucinating, or his mind had been overreacting during his transformation last night.

Remus sighed, looking at the clock over the large oak doors of the hospital wing. It was going on three in the morning, and if he didn't fall asleep soon, it was a sure bet that Madam Pomfrey would peek in on him and force a Sleeping Draught down his throat.

Over the next few days, after Remus had been released from Madam Pomfrey's care, no one mentioned what Remus thought he'd seen on the full moon. Remus thought James and Sirius were only doing it to save his feelings – or maybe they really did think him mental, and mentioning Wormtail would send him over the edge. But James and Sirius were just as mind-boggled as their friend was. They knew he'd never lie about something like that, and he could very easily tell the difference between his mind playing tricks on him and the real thing. If Remus said Wormtail had been there on the full moon, then they were inclined to believe that Wormtail had been there on the full moon.

But that didn't do much of anything for the two wizards' comfort. There'd been no sign to show them Remus had had company that night, and the spells they'd learned in Auror training didn't fail. Then there was the mystery of how Wormtail would have survived the night of Lily's murder when nothing else in or around the house made it out of the explosion.

All that was found was a finger…

Sirius sat in his cubicle in Auror Headquarters, two seconds from beating his head against the desk. He had a stack of parchment in his inbox as tall as Harry, and he hadn't started on any of it yet. Any second now, he was sure Mad-Eye would realize he'd been spacing out again and start yelling about slacking off. Reluctantly, Sirius grabbed a quill, dipped it in black ink, and pulled of the first roll of parchment from the pile. He unrolled it and tapped it with his wand to make it lie flat, and read some nonsense about false Death Eater reports.

He did this for about three more hours until his mind registered that the grumbling noise in his cubicle was not that of his paranoid supervisor, but his stomach. Looking at his wristwatch, he could see why – it was an hour past lunchtime.

Gratefully, he sighed and tossed his quill onto the desk, retrieved his wand and cloak, and left Auror Headquarters in search of food. The lifts reached the Atrium level, and he waited for the grilles to open and for the others to exit before following them out. His brisk pace to the fireplaces slowed down and his eyes narrowed as he spotted a familiar form by the Fountain of Magical Brethren. The wizard beside the fountain turned and spotted the Auror – he gave a quick smirk before turning back to his conversation with a sallow-skinned wizard who Sirius recognized as Broderick Bode from the Department of Mysteries. The real mystery here was why Lucius Malfoy would be conversing with an Unspeakable.

Well, that's a bit obvious, don't you think? He thought. He's trying to get top-secret information…

No one else in the Atrium paid the two wizards any mind. Sirius finally realized he couldn't just arrest a man based on his being present in the Ministry and speaking with a Ministry official – no matter how much he wanted to – so, very reluctantly, he continued on his path to the fireplaces and Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron.

"Daddy!" squealed Harry as James tickled him mercilessly on the sofa of Remus' living room. The boy's face was beet red from laughter as James' fingers wreaked havoc on his tiny ribs.

"What are you doing to that child?"

James ceased his attack on his son and turned to find Remus leaning against the doorframe to the kitchen. "He started it," James said, pointing down to Harry. "He tried to steal my glasses."

Remus chuckled and moved to sit in the armchair. "Maybe he's just testing him out. Doesn't bad vision run in the Potter family?"

"Indeed it does. Every male born in the last six generations has had to wear glasses," James confirmed, scooping up his soon who was still giggling uncontrollably and trying to tickle his father. "I was always hoping he'd get his vision from Lily's side of the family. From what photos I've seen, not one of them had to wear these ruddy things."

"I don't know, Prongs, I think they rather bring out your eyes," Remus teased.

James glared at him. "Sod off," he said, covering Harry's ears. "Lily once tried to convince me to get those Muggle things that you stick in your eyes and they improve your vision…"

"Contacts?" Remus said. James nodded. "My mum used them. But you have to actually touch your eye to get them in…"

James made a face. "I know. Lily finally explained how they worked, and I told her I'd stick with my glasses."

Remus chuckled. "So have you spoken with Mad-Eye about going back to the Ministry?"

"Yeah," James nodded. "He says he'll be happy to have me back. Says someone's got to control Sirius."

"And he thinks that someone is you?" Remus said dryly. James shrugged. "I don't think anyone in the world could control Sirius Black."

"There were a few people who could," James said fairly. "You always knew how to make him feel bad about things."

Remus rolled his eyes. "That's not controlling, that's me trying to keep my prefect badge. And when it really counted, my making him feel bad didn't work, did it?"

"Are you referring to anything in particular?"

The other wizard shrugged, looking away.

"Remus, he apologized for the Snape thing. You can't still be holding that against him," James said.

Remus turned back with his eyebrows raised. "I can't? Really? So the fact that Sirius pulled a 'prank' that involved me nearly killing a person shouldn't matter?"

"That's not what I said," James said warily. "Look, Sirius was being an idiot. His pinnacle of idiocy just happened to be in sixth year and involved whatever he could use. I'm not defending what he did, and if you'll remember correctly, I didn't talk to him for a month. All I'm saying is that a lot has happened since then, and one incident shouldn't be held against him."

No, there are a lot of bigger things to hold against him, Remus thought darkly. He loved Sirius as a brother, and he would defend Sirius to the death, but there were times when Remus wanted to strangle Sirius within an inch of his life.

"Evening, gents," said the topic of their conversation, entering the living room. "What's going on?"

Remus and James exchanged a glance, the latter silently begging Remus not to bring up old subjects. "James and I were just discussing what to do for dinner. Any suggestions?"

While Sirius rattled off all the things he wanted to eat, James gave Remus a small smile, and Remus returned it. They could deal with Sirius Black's idiotic history another day.

Christmas was quickly approaching, and James was slowly slipping back into depression. A week before Christmas day, Sirius had gone out and found a large tree, far too large to fit in Remus' living room, and ended up enlarging the ceiling to make it fit, much to Remus' exasperation. Even Harry was getting into the Christmas spirit. He set up his playthings just in front of the tree, and spent most of his time staring at the lights and bulbs. One of Sirius' contributions to the tree had been a tiny golden bird that flew around the branches every so often, and Harry could be seen trying to catch it when the bird got low enough to him. He managed once or twice, much to the child's delight. Both of James' best friends made a big deal about getting him involved in decorating the house and the too-large tree, and when he was busy he was fine. But when the three friends sat around the fireplace, sipping eggnog, James' eyes adopted a glazed look that Sirius was sure was caused by unshed tears.

On Christmas Eve, the Marauders and their little junior Marauder gathered in the living room after a surprisingly delicious meal prepared by Sirius – he'd told his friends they weren't allowed in the kitchen, because they would only ruin his concentration. James sat on the floor against the sofa, staring into the fireplace with a sad frown on his face while Sirius laid on his stomach with Harry, and Remus relaxed in his armchair. None of them said much of anything for an hour or so, all wondering if Christmas would be the same this year as it had been last year.

This would, obviously, be James' first Christmas without Lily since they'd been together. The holiday had been the witch's favorite, and she'd always gone to extremes to make sure her friends had as much fun as she did. In the background, Christmas music was playing softly from the wireless. Sirius kept looking away from Harry to sneak glances at James as the wizard sipped his drink and thought.

"So do we want to open presents tonight, or wait for morning?" Sirius asked a bit awkwardly. Remus started, tearing his eyes from the orange and yellow flames in the fireplace and looked at him. James didn't bother.

"It's up to you two," Remus said hoarsely. "Either way is fine by me."

"What do you think, Prongs?"

Slowly, James turned to him. "Well, the three of us always opened gifts on Christmas Eve, and waited for morning for family exchanges, but…"

Sirius didn't need him to finish the sentence. None of them had any family worth mentioning any more. Except for each other, Sirius corrected himself. Sirius hadn't seen his family in six years. Both James' parents and Remus' parents had died before they'd even gotten out of Hogwarts. It had always just been the three of them, if Sirius really thought about it. Lily had completed their mismatched family, but now that she was gone…

"Pa-foot!" said Harry's happy voice, tugging on the wizard's arm. Sirius turned to the boy and found him trying to stand and walk over to the tree and presents.

"I suppose we don't need to ask Harry for his vote," Remus grinned. "Come on, James, first one is yours."

James sighed, but joined his friends beside the tree. Harry was standing over the carefully wrapped presents with Sirius' help as he strategically selected the gift he wanted to hand out. He finally picked out a flat one with dancing snowmen on green wrapping. Turning carefully with the present, he handed it to his father.

James smiled and pulled Harry into his lap. "Thanks, mate," he said, kissing his son's head. "Is this from you?"

Harry nodded and pointed at the gift. "Open," he demanded.

The wizards laughed, and James did as he was told. Sirius looked on anxiously. Before the paper had been torn off completely, the laughter on James' face died and he gulped heavily. It was a framed picture that Remus had found in a box in his basement. All the pictures James had of his family had been destroyed when his home had exploded, so Sirius thought this would be the perfect thing for him. It was Lily, James, and Harry only six months after the boy was born. The three of them were in the backyard of their home in Godric's Hollow. James had his arm around Lily, who held Harry up so that both the camera and his parents could see him. They all looked happy to just be together, and the rest of the world didn't exist. Sirius mused that was how it had always been for the Potters. They had each other and nothing else mattered.

Slowly, James removed the rest of the paper from the photo and looked up at his friends. "Thank you," he said hoarsely. Remus and Sirius nodded. "And thank you, Harry," he added to the child who was looking at him expectantly. "Who's this?" he asked, pointing at Lily.

"Mummy," Harry said, smiling widely at the photo.

"Yes, that's Mummy," James said quietly, staring at the picture. After a long moment, he set the photo aside and looked up at his friends. "So, who's opening one next?"

Christmas morning was a rather lazy time in the cottage. The wizards all slept until ten o'clock, and when they did get out of bed, none of them were too keen on doing anything. Harry, however, had other ideas for the day. Just after breakfast, while Remus was drinking his morning coffee and reading the Daily Prophet, Harry came into the kitchen with his heavy jacket on and socked feet.

"And just what do you think you're doing, young man?" Remus asked in a mock-stern tone. Harry wasn't fooled – he giggled at the wizard.

"Ow-side," he said in his own language.

Remus looked at him for a moment until realization dawned. "Oh, you want to play in the snow, Harry?"

Harry nodded.

"Hmm…" Remus said. "Well, we can't exactly go out without your father and godfather, but they might not want to play. You want to change their minds?"

Remus wasn't sure how much of this Harry really understood, but he nodded eagerly still, grinning widely. "All right," the wizard smiled. "First, let's get you properly bundled up." Remus went to the front hall and got Harry's snow pants, boots, mittens, scarf and hat (James would kill him if he let Harry catch cold), and starting dressing Harry for the cold winter weather. Harry started squirming when Remus tried to get him into his snow pants, he shoved his feet in the wrong boots and couldn't get one foot out again, and he lost a mitten somewhere in his coat, but eventually the two of them were all dressed up and ready to go.

"Now wait here…" Remus told Harry. Remus stood and went to the back door and opened it; he could see a foot of snow had fallen in the backyard overnight. He scooped up two large handfuls of the white powder and packed each handful into a tight ball before going back inside. Signaling for Harry to be quiet, Remus entered the living room, where his best friends were on the verge of falling asleep to the music on the wireless. Without warning, he hit each of his best friends dead in the face with the cold snowballs. The effects were priceless. Sirius sat straight up on the sofa with a yelp as the snowball hit him. James fell out of his armchair where he'd been dozing with a surprised scream.

Meanwhile, Remus was doubled over in laughter and Harry was wandering in to see what had happened. When he found his father on the floor, face covered in snow, he said, "Daddy wet," with a loud giggle.

James looked up at Remus' red face with a raised eyebrow, and then over at Sirius who was wiping snow out of his eyes. "Padfoot," he said solemnly.

"Yes, Prongs?" Sirius said in the same tone.

"This is war."

"That it is."

The two wizards stood in a flash and Remus just had time to snatch Harry off the floor and run out the backdoor before the Aurors caught up with them. The snowball fight that followed was one for the record books. Remus and Harry built a snow fort on one side of the yard while Sirius and James used shield charms as theirs. When Remus complained that it wasn't fair that they had two wands while he only had one on his side, they took the charms down and were forced to use more primitive means for protection. They tried to stand behind a large tree while Remus launched snowballs at them, but this ended with James pushing Sirius out, and Sirius getting hit with two snowballs, one right after another, in his chest.

Harry really showed his Marauder spirit later in the morning. He left the protection of the snow fort, where he'd been packing snowballs as best he could with his small hands for Remus, and ventured out in the middle of the "war zone". He tripped and fell face first into the snow, and started to cry. James called a timeout and ran to his son. He picked Harry up to comfort him and found himself eating snow while his son giggled loudly and attempted to run back to the snow fort.

The fight was declared a tie by noon when they all found their fingers frozen. Sirius led the way gratefully back into the kitchen where hot chocolate was prepared, and clothes were dried off. James carried a tray of steaming mugs and a sippy cup with mildly hot chocolate for Harry into the living room where the fire was roaring, and sat happily on the sofa.

"I can't remember the last time I did that," he said, watching his son doze off beside him.

"Sixth year," Remus said promptly, taking one of the mugs from the tray. "Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw."

Sirius barked a laugh. "Oh yeah," he said. "And the Slytherins who wandered out kept trying to sabotage us."

"When did they not try to sabotage us?" James grinned. "I remember that now. Didn't Emmeline hit you in the eye, Remus?"

Remus shrugged. "Probably. I got hit a lot that day."

"I do remember a snowball hitting James, and Lily throwing one back and hitting the Ravenclaw in the face. That guy went around school for a week with a red mark on his cheek."

"She charmed it with red dye," James said. "You couldn't see it in the snow, but once it hit him, it stayed."

Sirius laughed loudly. "That's brilliant," he said. "You know, with her aim, I never understood why she didn't join the Quidditch team."

"Couldn't fly," Remus said. "Hated it, didn't she, James?"

James nodded, smiling widely. "First time I ever took her out on a broomstick, she begged the whole time for me to land. Of course, that may have been because it was raining and windy, and we were flying over the Hogwarts lake."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "How romantic," he said sarcastically.

James threw a pillow at him.

"You need to find something else to throw at me, mate," Sirius said, using the pillow to cushion his head as he lay back on the floor. "Pillows are getting old."

James threw one of Harry's plastic blocks at him.

"Ow," Sirius groaned. "Prat."

The rest of the day was spent recalling stories from their Hogwarts days, and memorable pranks involving anything they could think of. Though it was obvious James was thinking about Lily, Sirius and Remus could see quite clearly he was making amazing progress.

And it'll only get better from here, Remus thought, smiling to himself.

AN: And it seems some of the fluff has bled over from Resolutions to here. But just as it was in Resolutions, it's not going to last here either. The next chapter will be skipping ahead some time. When it'll be updated, I have no idea. Sorry about the two month hiatus (again), but writer's block was killing me. For those wondering about Complicated (Anne), I'm having a worse time with that than I did with this. However, I'm having no such problem with Resolutions, and that will be updated within the next few days. So until then, please review. Thank you for your patience with this story!