The Lupin house was unusually busy. Usually, they would be relaxing the day after Christmas and munching on the previous day's leftovers. His mother would usually be found curled up next to the fire reading a new book about Roman Mythology that she got from her husband. The said husband would probably be Remus would be cooped up in his room reading all the new books he got for Christmas. But this year was different.

"Remus, is your room clean!" His mother shouted from the kitchen where she was preparing a feast.

Remus rolled his eyes, "Mum, when was the last time it was dirty?" He asked as he walked into the kitchen to steal some chocolate frosting off the cake. He had just reached his hand out when a spatula came out of nowhere and wacked him on the hand.

He yelped and jumped back, holding his hand in pain and shock and regarded his mom with wide, shocked eyes, "Mum! How dare thee attack thy first born son!" Remus said in a scandalized voice.

She put her hand on her hip and gave him a look. He had the modesty to look sheepish, shrugging as if to say 'what can I say?' before he navigated his way through the kitchen to grab a banana for breakfast. He sat down on one of the chairs and looked at the food his mom was making.

"Mum?"

She didn't even pause while she was basting the turkey, "Hmm?"

"Are you planning on feeding all of Hogwarts with this food or the entire Ministry?"

She laughed softly and turned around and put her hand on his face gently, "I just want everything perfect when your friends and their families get here. Your father and I never thought you would have all these friends, so we wanted to go all out for this."

The tops of Remus's ears turned red while he rolled his eyes, "The faith you have in me astounds me."

"Remus," she said sternly, "You know that's not what I meant. With your…condition… and Remus, no matter how much you try to deny it, you were really shy when you went to Hogwarts. But then you got sorted into Gryffindor and met your friends and they've changed you for the better. I couldn't believe it when I saw Ursula jump up and give you a hug on the train a year ago. That was when I realized my baby had real, true friends; something that I had only dreamed of happening. Now the only thing that you need to worry about is them finding out, but I don't think they will any time soon so you have some time…what's with that look?"

As she spoke Remus's face had changed from embarrassed to guilty.

"Well, you see mom, they kind of know about the werewolf thing." He said, looking anywhere but at her face.

The silence was deafening. The color drained from his mother's face. She swayed on her feet and she grabbed onto the counter. Remus jumped up and went to steady her but she held her hand out to stop him.

"Please, please, please, tell me you are merely jesting," she begged of him.

He shook his head but began to frantically explain, "No, no they know. I didn't actually tell them, well I did, but that was only after Ursula figured it out. You see, they knew I was lying about something and they got mad at me but then Ursula somehow put all the dots together. She confronted me and said that she didn't care. With her encouragement, I told everyone else. They accepted it Mom! They actually help me when I need to think of excuses or alibis when I miss class," he said frantically, horrified that his mother was reacting like this. He should have never told her like this.

She didn't have time to respond before the door bell rang. Mr. Lupin shouted from the front room, "I've got it!"

Remus's mom was still staring at him, completely and utterly horrified. He had no time to explain before the revolving door slammed open and James walked into the kitchen, not even realizing that there was an adult in the room.

"REMUS! My good friend, great to see you! So I've been plotting about what we are going to do once we get back to Hogwarts. I struggled for days unable to figure it out but I refused to accept defeat since I am the amazing James Harold Potter. Then suddenly, it hit me like a bludger. Listen, I have an absolutely brilliant plan to break into Slughorn's store to see if we can find something to help your furry little problem. It might involve you, me, and Sirius getting detention but I-"

"Furry what?" Remus asked shocked, unable to comprehend everything James was saying at such a rapid pace.

James dismissed it with a wave of his hand, "I thought we needed a little code between us when discussing this at Hogwarts. We can't go around announcing you're a werewolf to everyone, you know? Anyway back to this plan; it's bloody brilliant! There is absolutely no way that any of this can go wrong. As an added bonus, we get to get Snape and possibly, now I know this is a stretch, but we might be able to get Avery in this somehow."

"James," Remus sighed in exasperation. His mother was right behind James looking at him in awe and shock.

James followed his friend's gaze and turned to face Mrs. Lupin. The hazel eyed boy was nonpulsed.

"Hello Mrs. Lupin, nice to meet you. I was just speaking in code. A detention means an Outstanding in our homework and breaking in means…um, Remus why don't you explain to your mother what breaking in means."

"Um, it's, getting extra credit in potion?" Remus finished the sentence like a question.

James facepalmed and started muttering things about thinking on your feet. Remus took immediate offence to that,

"I can think on my feet! I'm the one that got you out of detention with McGonagall when you sent your canary at that Hufflepuff girl in the hallway!"

"In my defense I was aiming at some sixth year Slytherin but Peter knocked into my arm!"

"With that aim, you couldn't hit the broadside of the castle!"

"Like you could do better!"

"I can! Remember when we had the mock duels? I was able to disarm you!"

James looked indignant, "So what? I transfigured your book into a miniature tree in Sprout's class the next day! Couldn't read anything after that could you?"

The two boys were going at it so they didn't hear the door to the kitchen open as Mrs. Lupin left and two other's walked in. The two red heads were leaning against the wall and regarding the two bickering boys.

"How long do you think they will go at it?" Ben asked Elyse loudly.

Elyse shrugged while she was holding back her laughter, "Eh, teh's boot really stubborn…" she trailed off.

Remus and James stopped and turned to see their friends.

"Violin boy! Me Leprechaun! You're here!" James went over to them and gave Elyse a quick hug before giving Ben a half hug, half handshake guy greeting.

"Where's everyone else?" Remus asked, wondering if the rest of his friends showed up while he and James had been bickering.

Ben shook his head, "Peter is in the front room. Ursula and Sirius aren't here yet."

"About those two," James said, looking annoyed suddenly, "does anyone know where they are? They wrote me a letter saying they were alive and safe but the prats never told me who took them."

The boys all shook their heads in a convincing lie but Elyse couldn't hold back a smirk. James caught the look and turned on her, "You know." He accused pointing a finger at her.

She slowly inched towards the door, "No I don't."

"Yes you do! Ursula definitely told you! You girls tell each other everything!"

"I's sworn teh secrecy."

With that she darted out of the room. James sprinted after her, his speed increased compared to last year from Quidditch practice. Elyse's laughter echoed through the house while she ran into the front room. All of the adults tried to avoid the running teens. Elyse ran around Peter, using him as a human shield from her faster and more athletic friend. Peter, the poor boy, was so confused at what was going on so he just stood there, terrified. James was able to just brush his fingers against Elyse's arm so she sprinted around the left of Peter and towards the door. At that moment, she ran straight into the trio that just walked in the door.

A tall man held her shoulders so she didn't topple over. He laughed jovially as he set her straight on her feet.

"You must be Elyse, Ursula told me about you."

"Nice teh meet yeh sir," she said with her twinkling eyes.

James had stopped running and he looked at the elder Black with suspicious eyes, "Who are you?" James asked softly.

"You must be James. Messy hair and an attitude. Please to meet you. I'm Alphard Black. I'm the nice uncle."

James smiled, accepting the man immediately, and stuck his hand out for him to shake before he was violently yanked back by his father.

"BLACK! YOU STAY AWAY FROM MY SON!" Harold Potter brandished his wand at the new adult in the room as he pushed his son and Elyse protectively behind him.

Alphard did the same, standing in front of Ursula and Sirius while pulling out his own wand.

"Potter, I see we meet again."

Ursula stared in horror at the two men looking as if they were about to hex each other into oblivion. Uncle Alphard had always been calm (minus when dealing with his sister or extended family) and never showed aggression towards anyone else. Mr. Potter, while she didn't know him as well as James did (who looked equally horrified at his father's behavior) she never thought that he would act like this.

"You two know each other?" James asked in a strangled voice.

Mr. Potter's eyes never left Alphard's, "James, I want you to step away right now. You too, Ursula, Sirius; I don't want either of you to get hurt."

James, never doubting his father, immediately took five steps backwards but he still demanded to know how they knew each other.

"Your old man never told you? We were in the same year in Hogwarts. Different houses, of course, but we ran into each other from time to time," Alphard said menacingly as he jabbed his wand at Mr. Potter but never actually said a spell.

"Ursula, Sirius, get by James. This is the last time I will ask you." Mr. Potter's voice was tense and left no room for argument.

Sirius quickly ran between the two men to move next to James and Ben. Ursula, however stopped inbetween both men, "No, stop it this instant!" She ordered both men.

Out of seemingly nowhere, James grabbed her arm and pulled her to his side, "You don't want to get involved," he whispered in her ear as he held her against his body.

"This has gone on long enough, don't you think Alphy?" Mr. Potter taunted.

Something flashed in Alphard's eyes, "I quite agree, Harry," He sneered right back.

Mrs. Potter covered her face with her hands and Ursula swore she muttered, "Not again."

Suddenly, two bursts of blinding light erupted from the two men's wands.

"NO DAD!" James shouted but he turned away at the last second to cover his eyes. Ursula and Sirius had to look away too, for the light was simply too bright. When the dust settled, the young, almost teens turned around to see what befell their relative. Their mouths dropped open.

Alphard was…green. His skin had turned Slytherin green while his eye brows and a new, Dumbledore-like beard, were now a neon yellow. Mr. Potter was also a little different to say the least. His thick mop of silver hair was now fuchsia with feathers sticking out of it. His robes were covered in Technicolor feathers and his skin was yellow with purple pok-a-dots. The two men regarded each other before bursting out laughing and embracing each other like long lost friends.

"What the hell just happened?" James asked quite loudly.

Ursula was glad that he did ask; she was worried that she was the only one that didn't know this.

The two men, their arms over the other's shoulders, turned and Alphard began to explain, "You know that friend in Gryffindor I mentioned in that first letter I sent you?"

"Your best friend in Hogwarts was James's dad?" Sirius asked in shock. Sirius looked at James, surprise and complete disbelief plain on their faces.

Ben looked between the older Black and Potter to the younger ones and burst out laughing at their similar features. It was like looking into the future. They both had similar facial features of their male relative and even picked up some of their mannerisms. It was slightly eerie.

Now it was Mrs. Potter's turn to explain, "They were quite close, close as a Slytherin and Gryffindor could secretly be. They still occasionally get together and they act like they are still seventh years running around Hogwarts; like no time has passed at all."

Alphard smiled at Mrs. Potter and broke away from his friend to kiss James's mom on both cheeks, "Ah, Eva, still as beautiful and radiant as I remember."

James shook his head in sheer disbelief, "My dad, best friends with a Slytherin…impossible…" He trailed off, still shaking his head as he disappeared into the kitchen. The rest of them followed him to leave the adults to talk (and change themselves back to normal colors) about all the boring things in the wizarding world.

Later that night after presents had been exchanged and dinner had been devoured, the young Gryffindors found themselves sitting out on the back porch the adults put a warming charm on.

"So, I mentioned to Remus earlier that I had a brilliant idea on how to get into Slughorn's personal stores to get those 'dark books'; complete rubbish if you ask me, they aren't that dark. Now, what we need to do is get Peter to be partnered with Snape for potions-"

"What? Why me?" Peter whined.

James gave him a look that silenced him immediately, "Not that you should question it, but we need this to seem believable as possible for my plan to work. We are going to blow up Snape's potion but it would be too obvious if one of the top student's caldron's blew up brewing a simple potion. We need to do this when Remus is still in class. When's the next full moon?"

"It was the first day of break so we have some time," Remus told him.

James just nodded once before going back to explaining the plan, "With Remus still there, he will work with Ben. You two need to be in Sirius's usual spot, okay? We don't want to raise suspicion. Then Sirius and I will sit right behind Snivellus and Pete." Peter whimpered, "When the time is right Sirius and I will drop a Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Firework in the potion. The explosion will give Ursula and Elyse time to get under the invisibility cloak and sneak into the store. From what I'm able to gather, the stuff on dark curses and maladies are in the back corner. Grab whatever you think looks promising, understand?" the two girls nodded solemnly though the effect was ruined when they low-fived each other and they both ended up smirking.

James rubbed his hands together, "Perfect. Now we just have to get back to Hogwarts."

None of them could wait.

Hello again you wonderful readers you. I know you're out there but only two of you are reviewing. I have the statistics and there are about 50 people reading this story at the moment and while that may not seem like a lot, there are still 48 people not reviewing! Tell me what you think people! It seems quite unfair that only two people have reviewed the last twelve or so chapters. It's quite sad to be honest. So...

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