James and Harry walked into the room laughing loudly. Harry had been telling him about Umbridge and Peeve's 'friendship'. Their laughter was interrupted by the sound of the clock chiming. Time had passed extremely quickly. They had been there for hours. The room was silenced by the chimes. Lily walking in grabbed James' hand who pulled her in close. Everyone waited for Dumbledore to break the silence. But it wasn't him who spoke.
Hagrid, who had spent the last hour drinking with Sirius, rose from his chair. He walked over to a beam that had a dent in it from the last time he was here and rose up to his full height. "I know tha' we'll all be leavin' soon. And with tha memory things we won' all remember this the same. But I am so proud to have spent this time wi' you lot." He swayed slightly as he blew his nose, very loudly, into the floral handkerchief he had in his breast pocket. "When I firs' took young Harry 'ere to Diagon Alley I knew there an' then that he would do great things. Bu' I should've known already. Cus you lot" He looked at James, Lily, Remus, and Sirius in turn "You lo' are great and do great and " But he couldn't continue for he had sunk into a chair and was sobbing into his hankie. Ron stood up, a hand on Hagrid's shoulder he raised a glass. "To you lot".
"To you lot" the room chorused.
Dumbledore wiped a tear from his cheek. "Beautifully put Hagrid." Hagrid hiccoughed in response "Alas, it is time to put things in order."
Sirius nodded at Dumbledore. "Harry come with us. We've got something for you." Sirius lead his godson out the room followed by Remus, Lily and James.
Harry coughed as he entered the dark room. "Lumos" Sirius and James were grinning at one another whilst Lily visibly rolled her eyes and sat down in the corner of the room. "Harry" Began James "We'd like to welcome you to Marauders head quarters" Ignoring Lily's mutterings about grown men James began to explain to Harry that this was where he and Sirius used to camp out and come up with ideas for pranks. "Pft" interrupted Sirius "More importantly this is where Moony came up with the idea for the map." Remus laughed still in disbelief that Harry had ended up with it after all these years.
"But what we really wanted to show you Harry is this." Sirius moved aside the box of broom repair stuff and lit the back wall. Lily sat up at this and stood next to Remus.
"This is a family tree…" Harry whispered.
"This is our family tree." Corrected James. "It's small but it'll grow" he finished with a smile. James reached behind him for Lily's hand "Today we're going to add your name."
"It's a charm that'll reappear once you're born." Lily answered Harry's concerned look. With one quick swish of her wand and a quite mutter Lily had engraved Harry's name in gold into the wooden wall. Harry James Potter. Silently, Harry traced the letters.
He stood back to take in the whole tree. His gaze rested upon Remus' name and he struggled with the temptation to tell him about Teddy. Turning around to face the Marauders and the tired but young and happy Lupin he understood that in this case, he didn't need to know.
"We made this the week I ran away from home. It was clear I wasn't going back. My mother had erased me from the tree. So we made a new one" Sirius finished with a grin. It was at this point that Lily left the room silently. Harry turned to follow her. Allowing himself one last look at the tree he felt a rush of anger and betrayal rise up as he read the one name he wanted no relation too. Peter Pettigrew/Wormtail. Vowing to erase that name from the tree as soon as possible Harry followed the Marauders out of the attic.