Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who favorite, followed, or reviewed the last chapter!

I own nothing. Unfortunately.

Remus heaved a sigh of relief. He had been working on this particular project for weeks. And, finally, he was done. He ran his hand over the spines of the journals in front of him.

They were records of his year-long trip around the world. The only thing, besides the sizable amount of gold now in his bank account, that he had to show for the trip.

Some of them were rather useless, of course. It hadn't taken Remus long to realize that his employer, Mr. Boyden, was less of a magical creatures researcher and more of a wealthy old man who was bored with his sedentary life in London. Mr. Boyden had filled pages upon pages with notes from their various locations and had graciously given all of his journals to Remus at the end. However, Remus had soon realized that his employer was more interested in the mundane than the magical. Remus' personal favorite entry was a three page long description of the giraffes that they had seen on a safari.

Despite the uselessness of Mr. Boyden's journals, Remus himself had collected much valuable information. He was, by no means, the next Newt Scamander, but he now felt as though he had a much better understanding of magical creatures as a whole. He wasn't quite sure how this knowledge would be useful, but he supposed that it would come in handy at some point.

"Moony? You ready to go?" Sirius called.

"Just a minute!" Remus called back.

He had missed his friends more than he could say. It was the longest time he had ever spent away from them. Even during that awful time in the war when he had been with the werewolves, he had still been able to see his friends occasionally.

While he was gone, nothing seemed to have changed. And yet, things were different.

The friendship among the Marauders had survived the year apart remarkably well. They had fallen into the easy camaraderie they had experienced before. But Remus found that his friends themselves had changed. Matured. Especially Sirius.

One of Remus' biggest regrets about the year had been not being there for Sirius after his break-up with Zara. Sirius' brief note about the incident had worried Remus, and Lily's longer letter hadn't done much to alleviate that. Sirius had not written for nearly three months after the incident, and even though Remus knew that his friend was in good hands, he had been anxious about the situation.

But then Sirius had begun writing again, and, while his letters had not been very descriptive, the werewolf had immediately noticed that Lydia was rapidly becoming a prominent fixture in his friend's life.

Remus had been back for a couple of weeks. He hadn't met Lydia officially yet, but from the way Sirius had been talking about her, he knew that his friend was falling in love with her. It seemed, however, that the Animagus was being incredibly patient about the whole thing, not pushing Lydia into a relationship she was not ready for. It was a level of maturity that impressed Remus.

"Seriously, Moony, we're going to be late!"

Remus hauled himself to his feet. "Coming!"

Platform 9 ¾ was much as Remus remembered it, busy and bursting with families saying their good-byes and loading their excited children onto the train. Images of himself as a student floated through his mind. Had he really been that small once?

"All right, Harry. Do you have everything? Did you pack your clothes? And your books? And-"

"Yes, Mum, I did." Harry fidgeted as he looked around. Remus could tell that the energy on the platform had seeped into the boy. But Lily had her hands on his shoulders, and it wasn't hard to tell that she was fighting back tears.

"Are you sure, love?"

"Lily, since you helped him pack, I am confident that he has everything," James said, intervening. He placed a hand on Lily's arm. "It'll be fine."

The two looked each other in the eye for a second longer than what was probably necessary. Harry shifted uncomfortably. Sirius stepped forward and pulled Harry gently away for his mother.

"Have fun, Harry, okay? Don't listen to what your mum or Moony. Have fun at school. You have a legacy to uphold, you know?"

Harry nodded enthusiastically, a smile lighting up his face.

Remus rolled his eyes and stepped closer. "Ignore Padfoot, Harry. He's never been a good influence."

"Oh, come on, Moony! The kid needs to have some fun."

"Yes, Padfoot, but he also needs to focus on school."

Harry looked incredibly amused at his surrogate uncles' bickering. "I can do both, you know!"

"Of course you can," Remus said, smiling. He pulled the boy into a hug after noticing that Lily and James had finished having their moment. "Take care of yourself, all right, Harry?" Remus felt Harry nodding against his chest, and he spent a moment wondering when the boy had gotten to be so tall.

Remus stepped back, allowing Sirius to hug Harry, and the werewolf suddenly realized that he had not seen his own godson. He looked around until he spotted the younger boy leaning up against one of the walls. He was surprised to see the dejected look on the red-head's face.

"Julian?" Remus asked as he sidled up to his godson. "What's going on?"

Julian shrugged.

Remus slung his arm around the boy's thin shoulders. "Is something wrong, Julian?" He could feel the boy tense at the question. He waited a moment. His godson had never excelled at keeping his feelings bottled inside of him.

"I don't want Harry to go to Hogwarts," Julian said so quietly that Remus barely heard him.

But then it made sense to him. For the past week, everything had surrounded Harry and his departure to Hogwarts. They had shopped at Diagon Alley, several times in fact, for Harry. They had all helped pack Harry up. They had thrown a party for Harry.

But Remus suddenly realized how Julian must be feeling. Ever since the younger boy had been born, the two Potters had never been apart for more than a day. They had done everything together. And now, with Harry going away to Hogwarts, they would be separated. The older boy would be going off, experiencing new things, making new friends, while the younger boy would be staying behind.

He tightened his hold on his godson, desperately trying to determine what to say. There had been so many times over the years that he had felt inadequate as a godfather, but he was determined to try his hardest.

"It'll be strange without him, won't it?" Remus asked quietly. Harry brought with him an abundance of energy and sass that he could only have inherited from James and Lily.

Julian nodded. "I don't want him to go," he said again. Remus hurt to hear the pain in his voice. "What if he forgets about me?"

"He could never do that," Remus reassured the boy. He knelt before him, hands on his shoulders. "Listen, Julian, Harry loves you. You're his little brother; nobody can ever replace you. Yes, he's going to go to Hogwarts and have a lot of fun, but it won't be long now before you're at Hogwarts with him. In the meantime, you can have fun here."

"Really?" Julian looked skeptical, as if Harry's leaving would drain all of the fun out of the house.

"Sure!" Remus exclaimed enthusiastically. "You'll have your mum and dad and Uncle Padfoot and me all to yourself."

"I will?" Julian asked, looking excited for the first time this morning.

"Yes, you will. All to yourself."

"Can we plan pranks to play on Harry?" Julian asked, bouncing up and down on his toes.

Remus chuckled. "Of course, we can."

His words were rewarded with a bright smile from his godson. The boy opened his mouth, no doubt to start planning some massive prank, when Harry came over.

"Julian." Harry pulled the boy off to the side and wrapped him in a big hug. The two had a lively conversation in whispers that Remus couldn't quite make out, but he found that he didn't need to. This was, perhaps, a moment that did not need to be intruded upon.

Before long, they were loading Harry's trunk into a compartment. The adults and Julian stood on the platform, waving as the train slowly pulled out of the station.

"Dad?" Julian asked.

Nobody sniggered as James furiously rubbed at his eyes before turning to his younger son.

"Yeah, Julian?"

"Can we send Harry a Howler if he isn't put in Gryffindor?"

Remus sighed. Gryffindor loyalty was apparently hereditary.

Lily opened her mouth, no doubt to tell her son they would support Harry no matter what House he was in, but James beat her to it.

"Mate, we can send Harry a Howler even if he is put in Gryffindor."

"Awesome!"

Remus hung back a bit as James, Julian, and Sirius talked animatedly about what to include in the Howler. Lily slowed her pace until she was beside him and threaded her arm through his.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

Remus looked at her in confusion. "For what?"

"For whatever you said to Julian. I was so focused on getting Harry ready that I didn't even notice that something was going on with Julian, but as soon as I did, you were there to help him. So thank you." She paused for a moment, looking at him contemplatively. "I'm glad you're back, Remus."

"Me too."

The trip had been an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A wonderful, spectacular opportunity. But for all the excitement it had brought, it paled in comparison to being here with his family.

Harry love, I'm sorry. I tried to stop him.

HARRY JAMES POTTER! THE GRYFFINDOR LEGACY CONTINUES! SIRIUS AND I-

WOO-HOO! EXCELLENT JOB PICKING GRYFFINDOR, HARRY!

YES, SIRIUS AND I ARE SO PROUD OF YOU! REMUS IS TOO, BUT HE DIDN'T WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN A HOWLER AND EMBARRASS YOU!

EMBARRASS YOU? HA! WE WOULD NEVER EMBARRASS YOU!

THAT'S RIGHT, HARRY! OH, THIS THING HAS A TIME LIMIT, APPARENTLY. ANYWAY, WE ALL LOVE YOU AND ARE PROUD OF YOU AND CAN'T WAIT TO HEAR ABOUT ALL OF YOUR MARAUDERLY ADVENTURES.

Harry's face was flushed quite red, but it was worth it to see the horrified look on Professor McGonagall's face at his father's last words. This was going to be a good year.