"No one would have made me a prefect, I spent too much time in detention with James. Lupin was the good boy, he got the badge."

"I think Dumbledore might have hoped that I would be able to exercise some control over my best friends," said Lupin. "I need scarcely say that I failed dismally."

Harry's mood suddenly lifted. His father had not been a prefect either. All at once the party seemed much more enjoyable; he loaded up his plate, feeling unusually fond of everyone in the room.

The Order of the Phoenix

.***.

Ron knocked softly on the door in Grimmuald Place and heard Buckbeak's low screech and an equally low shh, it's all right. And then a louder, "you should've taught Care of Magical Creatures, Moony," and then finally a, "come in!"

Sirius's bedroom was decked out wall to wall in Gryffindor scarlets, it was the brightest spot in the house. Sirius and Lupin were sitting on the floor, books spread and chicken bones spread out in front of them, backs resting against Buckbeak's enormous flank. For a moment, Ron could imagine them as Hogwarts students, the easy way their arms rested against each other, Sirius's smooth cheeks when he laughed.

"What can we do for you, Ron?" Lupin asked. Sometimes he still sounded like a teacher, and Ron felt like he hadn't done the assigned reading.

"Well," he felt suddenly self-conscious, the notebook too big in his hand. "You know it's Harry's birthday next week?"

"I should think so," Sirius laughed, "I was there!"

"Ron's talking now," Lupin reminded Sirius, who looked like he had to make an effort to shut his mouth.

"Actually, that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about," Ron closed the door behind him. He was almost sure that Harry was helping with lunch downstairs, he and the twins assigned to KP for the day, but still he liked the extra protection of the door being closed. Blimey, this was embarrassing. "I, you know, it's not like I could get him anything cool. He'd be able to get something twice as good for himself."

Sirius looked confused but Lupin was nodding in understanding. He'd grown up with a Potter for a friend, after all, and the Black house, bleak as it was, dripped with money, and then there was Lupin, in his ragged clothes.

"So I thought - I mean, he'll be fifteen, it's a big deal - I thought maybe I could get him a book? I've been asking Mum and Hagrid for stories about, you know, Harry's mum and dad, but you two knew them best." They were just looking at him and Ron shifted his weight uncomfortably. "Harry doesn't talk about it, but I know he'd like to know more about them. I would."

Lupin said, quietly, "Ron..." and Ron was sure that he'd done something wrong, overstepped some line, because it wasn't like they talked about James and Lily a lot, right? They were like, mythical people, like people from a book, but Ron had done the math once and worked out that they were twenty-one when they died, which was Charlie's age, which wasn't old at all.

But then Sirius said, "That's the best idea I've ever heard!" He turned to Lupin, "why didn't we think of it?"

"Because Ron's a better person than we are," Lupin smiled at Ron, who felt his ears turning red. "It's a very thoughtful present."

"Oh, well," Ron said, "I'm sure I'll muck it up somehow."

Sirius gave him a long look, and then shrugged. "What do you want to know?"

"Anything," Ron flipped open the book, taking out the quill and ink. "Anything you remember. What was it like when Harry was born?"

Sirius chuckled, folding his hands behind his head, a thinking position. "James was on a double-top-secret mission with the Order, and sent me and Moony to keep an eye on Lily, who would have been fighting too except she was very pregnant."

"And on bedrest," Lupin chimed in.

"Right. And on bedrest, because she'd lost the other baby." He noticed Ron's expression and nodded, "Harry was supposed to be a twin, write that down. James cried for hours when the other baby died."

"It died twelve weeks in," Lupin interjected, "lots of pregnancies start off as twins. But Lily was being watched, because the old witch who was acting as midwife was afraid of losing Harry, too. We were both with Lily when her water broke."

"Couldn't get a hold of James," Sirius said, merrily, "so we took her to her witch. Do you remember that old bat's name?"

"I wish," Lupin said.

Ron scribbled as they told him the rest. How they kept claiming rights to naming the baby, since they were there and James wasn't. How when Harry was born, so impossibly small, he already had a head of hair, black as his father's. How James cried more than Lily, telling his friends over and over again that he couldn't be a father even as he did everything a father was supposed to do.

"Merlin," Lupin said when the story was over. "They were so young."

Sirius made a noise halfway between an uh-huh and a moan, and Ron thought that they were young, too, and had just lost two-fifths of their friend group in one night, and another fifth turned Death Eater, and another fifth sent to prison for murder, and Lupin just left alone, suddenly friendless, and it was the saddest thing Ron had ever thought of and so he sat on the floor next to the older men and nudged Lupin's knee with his, because the man was no longer his teacher, and seemed to need some friends.

"James took detentions for me," Sirius said, obviously trying to change the subject. "We had this slavedriver of a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Strangel. Remember him, Moony? Hated the Blacks on principle. And. You know. Me too. But we were...third years? Second years? I mean, we were really kids, and he put me in detention night after night, scrubbing cauldrons with this stuff that made my skin peel and it happened for weeks and weeks and finally James saw me crying in my sleep and started being this menace in Strangel's class, and James was many things but he was always a terrific student. Got the worst marks, that year, and I wasn't scrubbing cauldrons anymore."

"I don't remember that," Lupin said. "James acting out, I mean. I remember you crying. For weeks, only when you were asleep." He was quiet for a long moment. "Damn near broke my heart."

"You're such a softie."

"Lily could sing." Lupin picked at a loose thread in his pants. "I've never heard anyone sing like her. And she was clever, but you already knew that." His eyes got this far-away look. "She used to commandeer the kitchens to bake us all cakes. Our seventh years, we all got birthday cakes."

"First time I ever had one," Sirius said.

"We didn't know that, or we would've made you a cake every year," Lupin pointed out, "you were living with three boys, mate. We don't just pick up on those things."

"James could've been Chaser for England," Sirius said. "Harry looks just like him when he flies."

"When did you see Harry play Quidditch?"

"When you were teaching. I went as Padfoot. Don't look at me like that, Moony, someone had to watch out for my godson."

Ron was still scribbling things down, but looked up, quill lowering, when Lupin spoke, voice so quiet and angry that it didn't sound like him at all. "Are you accusing me of not looking after Harry? Because I tried, after you were hauled away. I tried to convince Dumbledore to give me custody, but he insisted Harry go to Lily's sister." Lupin scrubbed a hand over his face, and he looked young again. "He said something about blood magic, whatever that is, but you and I both know he didn't want the werewolf looking after the Chosen One. Even though Lily never spoke to her sister, and I knew Harry from the day he was born. But I swear I tried, Sirius. I used to go to Surrey all the time, watch him trim the hedges and mow the lawn. One time that oaf of an uncle took a swing at Harry with a frying pan and I went back to Dumbledore. Begged him to let me take Harry, raise in him in the Wizarding World. Raise him anywhere, as long as he was away from those muggles."

Lupin drew his knees up to his chest, not looking at Sirius. Both men seemed to have forgotten Ron was in the room. "And then new anti-werewolf legislation was passed," Lupin said, quieter, "and I couldn't get work anywhere. Not as a wizard, and Surrey was starting to get suspicious of this hungry-looking young man ogling little boys every week. I had to leave. And I hated it, because we always promised James that we'd take care of Harry if anything should happen during the war. And then something happened, and I couldn't even take care of myself."

Sirius looked like he'd been hit over the head by something heavy. "Moony," his words raspy. "Remus...I don't blame you for that. James wouldn't blame you and Harry certainly doesn't blame you. You did the best you could, and you watched over Harry when he needed you and," Sirius touched Lupin's knee, very gently, "it must have been hard. To wake up, the day after it happened, and realize we were all gone. No one could have done better after that."

Lupin made a noise halfway between assent and a sob.

"I told James you should be godfather," Sirius said, his voice so full of fondness that Ron had to look away, afraid he was seeing something private. "Mr. Prefect. You were the responsible one."

"Hardly," Lupin said. "I could never keep a leash on you or James." He looked at Ron, and Ron realized that in an effort to make himself seem inconspicuous he'd stopped breathing sometime during Lupin's story. He sucked in a breath. "You and Hermione will do just fine, I'm sure."

Ron shrugged. He still didn't know why he'd been made prefect, when Harry was so much more than he was. And he certainly didn't think he'd be good at laying down the law. He wasn't bossy, like Hermione, or a natural leader, like Harry. He was just Ron.

"Now," Sirius clapped his hands in an obvious effort to lighten the mood. "You need some stories about James and Lily? Have you ever heard the tale of the first time Lily saw Moony as a wolf?"

"Don't make fun of her," Lupin smiled, "you weren't much better. You screamed so loud I thought you'd wake the Giant Squid."

"Yeah, but I was fourteen and Lily was, like, five years older when she saw it, so I plead childhood fears."

"Are you calling me frightening?"

"I'd never disparage your furry little problem! Write this down, Ron..."

The two launched into story after story. About James and Lily's first date. The time the Order found out Lily was pregnant, and tried to stop her from fighting. How James used to get jinxed in the hallways by sons of Death Eaters, and it culminated in a duel that involved most of Gyffindor, Slytherin, and the third floor of Hogwarts. And through it all they interrupted each other, embellished, went off on tangents about being in school while Voldemort was at the height of his power, remembered old friends and girlfriends. Sirius dug through his drawers until he found pictures pressed between the pages of an old book. Lupin drew a sketch of the Whomping Willow and Shrieking Shack in Ron's notebook.

A pounding on the door interrupted Lupin's story about one of the many nights James spent in the Hospital Wing. "Dinner!" Fred or George called, feet already thumping away to spread the word to the rest of the house.

Ron flipped through the book, the pages and pages he had, so many more stories than he'd expected. "You know," he said, "It sounds like you had a lot of fun,"

There was a long silence, and Ron began to think that he'd said the wrong thing again. And then Sirius laughed, a rumbling, clear sound. "You're right," he said, "I guess we did."

.

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we've got a lot of requests for ron being splinched and that's coming, pinkie swear, it's just that this idea that no one wanted got in the way. thanks again for the reviews. i swear this fic must be read by all the 90s kids who are still too emotionally invested in Harry Potter.