Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hufflepuff Boys' Dormitories, Hogwarts, Scotland, 13 December, 1991
"Hawwy."
"Henwy."
The feeling of falling out of his own mind accompanied him once more. He shuddered.
Three months and he still couldn't remember anything else about Harry. They were brothers, or so he assumed, and this was all that was left of him.
He thought it odd that he could only have one memory of a brother. He found it really odd that his parents had never mentioned Harry. Not once. He'd looked the modified Rememberall specifically looking for mentions of any Harry's. There were none.
He'd owled his mum and dad, casually mentioning a Harry who was in one of his classes. The response was unsettling, asking a lot of weird questions about Harry and his family.
He'd replied that he couldn't remember and, gathering his courage, had finally told them he was in Hufflepuff. Amazingly enough, his dad had congratulated him enthusiastically. He said that the Hufflepuff's were nice blokes.
Henry then told his parents about his new friends. They seemed uneasy that the "boy-who-lived" (oh, how the Potter's hated that title) should be friends with so many Slytherins, and his mother had scolded him for the pranks.
His dad sent a separate letter that praised the pranks and suggestions for future ones.
He wondered what it'd have been like if he'd had a brother.
Potter House, Godric's Hollow, England
"JUST A SMALL TOWN GIRL, LIVIN' IN A LONELY WO-ORLD! TOOK THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN GOIN' ANEEEEEEEEEEEWHERE!"
"Oh, James, what're you singing now?" Lily sighed, sinking into the chair.
"Journey, love. JUST A CITY BOY, BORN AND RAISED IN SOUTH DETROIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!"
Lily grumbled and snatched the coffee out of his hands. He grinned, kissed her lightly on the cheek, and turned back to the french toast.
"I remember that song!" Lily said, perked up by her coffee.
"That's how I know, the song, Lily," he said wryly.
She stuck her tongue out at him and sipped her coffee.
He chuckled and dropped a few slices of french toast onto her plate.
She sifted through the mail and came upon a letter from Henry. "Oh, we got another letter from Henry, James."
"Yeah, we got it last week, I think."
"You didn't tell me?!" she yelled.
"I, ah, forgot," he said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
She tossed a piece of toast at him, which he transfigured effortlessly into a cardinal. She snorted at him and opened the letter.
The kitchen settled into a rare silence, with Lily reading and James eating his toast as fast as he could.
A few minutes later, she broke the quiet with a cry of, "Oh, bloody hell!"
"What's wrong?"
"Henry's been invited to his friends' Christmas Eve party," she cried, shaking the parchment in his face, knocking his glasses askew.
"What's wrong with that?" he asked, bewildered.
"His friends Adrian and Draco Malfoy's Christmas Eve party."
"Oh, bloody Malfoys! I forgot he was friends with them."
"And he really wants to go. Apparently all but one of his friends are going, and he's really looking forward to it," Lily read on.
"Bloody hell," James swore.
"What do we do? I know how you feel about the Malfoy's-"
"We should go, even if Lucius is a git."
"James!"
"Lucius gave me and Siri- someone else detentions for breathing too loudly in the Great Hall!" James cried.
Lily squeezed his hand when he mentioned their old friend. James got depressed whenever his former best friend came up.
"James, I'm sure he's fine."
"Course he is. He's at Hogwarts with Dumbledore, what could be safer?" he replied, avoiding her eyes.
"You know I wasn't talking about Henry," she said.
"Lily, not today. Pease not today," James asked quietly, hazel eyes anguished.
"When, James? When?! It's been ten years, and you haven't tried to find Sirius and you certainly haven't tried to speak to Remus!" Lily said hotly, her face turning red. "You can't just pretend you never knew them!"
"They act like they don't know me!" he yelled.
"Because you've never tried!"
"Because I'm too ashamed!" he screamed, standing up so abruptly that his chair flipped over.
Lily was taken aback.
He leaned back against the wall and sank to the floor. "I'm so ashamed of what I did, Lily. I broke the vow. We swore to never hurt one another, and never to betray each other!"
"You didn't betray anyone, Peter did."
"In a way, what I did to him was worse. Sirius never had someone who loved him, really loved him, until we had the boys," James swallowed thickly. "And when we named him Harry's godfather, he told me that it was the happiest day of his life. And I took that away, when I knew how much it meant to him! I snatched away the only thing he'd ever loved and been loved by."
"We did what was best, James."
"What if we were wrong, Lils? What if we made a mistake?"
"I think we could fix it."
He shook his head. "I think it might be too late."
Okay, a bit of potter angst.
I love Sirius, and this part actually got me a little choked up.
Yeah, yeah, I'm a weeper.
Anyways, read and Review!
