A/N: Due to a terribly painful personal loss in my life today, I can't guarantee the last chapter of this story will be posted as scheduled next Friday. It will be posted, but probably a week or so later than planned. These last two chapters hit a little too close to home right now and I'm only posting this as planned because a promise is a promise.
This chapter is dedicated to the sweetest, most wonderful and brilliant woman in the world who I love more than anything in the world and will miss terribly.
You have always been my greatest supporter in everything I've ever done and my best friend and I miss you so much already.
I love you.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Blinking wearily at the early morning sun, Remus waved his father goodbye and shivered as the cold wind greeted him harshly as his father Disapparated.
Pulling his thick coat more securely around himself, he left the alley and made his way across the street to the Evans house; James and Lily already waiting for him by the door by the time he found a path through the thick snow.
"Morning," his bespectacled friend grinned. "You're late, even Pete's already here."
"Really?" Surprised, Remus came to a stop before them. "I thought he wasn't coming?"
"Sirius got last minute approval from his Mum to have him join after all so she dropped him off before she left for work," being ushered out of the cold weather, Remus handed James his coat.
"Bet he wasn't too happy about that."
"That's an understatement, he's currently nursing his fourth cup of coffee to try and wake up," Lily smiled a little, looking up to him tiredly.
"And Sirius?"
"Here," came the quiet answer as Sirius came down the stairs, Peter appearing from the living room. "Morning sleepyhead."
"Morning, you're entirely too awake already for the hour and this type of weather," Remus grumbled.
"Whose bright idea was it to meet up at nine in the morning?" Peter yawned.
"We'll need to start early if we are aiming to finish today," stretching a little; James hurried to cover a yawn while Remus turned to Lily.
"What's the plan?"
"I was hoping the two of you could join Sirius in cleaning the first floor and attic. There shouldn't be anything of value left any more as Petunia already looked through everything so if you could just pack up, that would really help," Lily took a deep breath, smiling gratefully as James wrapped an arm around her in silent support and Sirius placed a hand on her shoulder.
"James and I will tackle my room as I will need to go through everything there to see what I find worth keeping," she reached up to squeeze Sirius' hand and nodded to them. "Thank you for your help, all of you."
"That's what we are here for," Remus shrugged and Peter nodded mutely, shifting a little uncomfortable as Dursley's heavy footsteps could be heard nearby as Lily's sister yelled at him to find something.
Sirius seemed to be the only one not bothered by the yelling as he pressed a kiss against Lily's temple. "I've begun boxing all the clothing, you want to bring those to that charity shop we called yesterday, too? And are you absolutely sure there is nothing you would like to keep from upstairs?"
"You already helped me put aside the few items I really wanted to have and Petunia took mostly everything else. Mum and Dad would've wanted the lot to go to charity," tears suddenly formed in her eyes. "I don't even know how to get everything to the Red Cross without using magic."
Sirius shrugged. "We use my van, though you will need to give directions as I don't know the way."
Remus turned to see a big black van parked next to an obscure sports car, surprised to learn his friend owned such a car.
"Where did you get a van?" Peter seemed to share his surprise as he pressed against the small side window for a better view.
"The toy store," at their disbelief, he shrugged again. "The neighbours would get suspicious if we didn't load anything into a car or truck. So I figured that a transfigured toy van with some modification to make it run and under an Undetectable Expansion Charm would be the best way to prevent unwanted attention."
"You're brilliant, I didn't even think of that."
"I told you we'd take care of everything. You just concentrate on collecting what you want to keep, we'll do the rest," Sirius' words made Lily look dangerously close to bursting into tears, so Remus hurriedly clasped his hands together.
"Right, lots of work to do, so let's get started."
Nodding in agreement, they all made their way upstairs.
"Should we find anything I think has any value to you, I'll have them set it aside," Sirius promised as they split up on the first floor and he led them into the master bedroom without hesitation, where several boxes were already open but still empty.
"I've already cleaned out the spare room and bathroom so we just need to finish this bedroom and tackle the attic," he informed them. "We can't use Expansion Charms on these as they'll be left with Muggles, but I've placed temporary Feather-light Charms on them to make them easier to carry."
"How long have you been working here already? I thought you left school early to take care of some properties that were sold?" Eyeing the work already done, Remus calculated Sirius must've been at it for hours already.
"I've been Apparating back and forth so I could help Lily in between meetings."
"You'll be getting a lot of practice Apparating," there was no mistaking the envy in Peter's voice; though Remus couldn't entirely fault him as the rest of them had to wait for the official delayed lessons in January to be able to pass their exam and Apparate freely like their friend already could.
But he also understood why their dark-haired companion had applied for early tests early that year as he needed to be able to travel freely to the Muggle world and back to take care of his inheritance.
To this day he still wasn't sure if the Ministry had granted him consent due to his last name or James' or because they truly understood the logic behind his application; but either way Sirius had passed his exams early already and was officially allowed to Apparate.
And it wasn't like the rest of them hadn't learned how to Apparate already; they just couldn't do it legally yet. So he wasn't quite sure why both he and Peter felt put out by their friend's official permit.
"Didn't you have to go to the Notary office yesterday?" Suddenly remembering Sirius' absence the day before, Remus ran a hand through his hair. "Remind me what you had to do there again?"
"Signing several papers to finalise the sale of a few of the last few properties I had put up for sale," Sirius said. "There are only two houses left to sell now."
"You really sold everything else already?" Awed, Peter looked up to their friend.
"Took long enough in my opinion so if you still want a house, this is your last chance."
"Thanks, but I'm good," smiling, Peter clasped his shoulder. "It really didn't take long to sell everything, though. Normally a house is on sale for several months before they find a buyer and you managed to sell over two hundred properties in that same amount of time."
"It probably helps that they're all spread out over the country and the real estate market is doing well at the moment," shrugging, Sirius sighed. "Truth be told, I'm about done with the constant travelling up and down to talk about plumbing, waste charges and rebuilding permits I know nothing about."
"The downside of being a landlord, I suppose," biting back a laugh at the glare shot his way, Remus suppressed a yawn. "Upside is that you'll learn a lot about house maintenance."
"Yeah, I could've gone my whole life without learning about some things," picking up a piece of clothing, Sirius began to fold it. "And I'm never doing any plumbing any more, people are disgusting."
"And just how do you suppose you're going to avoid doing that?" Peter inquired as he retrieved a half empty box and brought it to the bed Sirius was folding on so he could deposit the folded shirt into it.
"I've put the official handling of any maintenance and any other problems into the hands of a third party so if something's wrong with the properties I still own, I am not going to have to personally oversee anything."
"Won't that cost a lot of money?"
"Trust me, it's worth every sickle to never have to discover a single thing about clogged toilets ever again," shivering, Sirius pulled a face. "Do remind me to thank your mother for her advice, by the way."
Taking his word for it as Remus had never had to deal with a clogged toilet before, Remus moved forward to start folding clothes as well. "So now you're just reaping the benefits of being a landlord. How many properties do you still own?"
"About fifty in England, thirty in Scotland and twenty in Ireland; it are mostly apartments and houses in the city, but there are some cottages in the country as well."
Whistling impressed, Peter stopped his folding. "You're keeping all of those?"
"I don't really have a choice until the lease runs out for the current tenant. Once their lease runs out, the houses will automatically be put up for sale but there's about fifty long term tenants with no specific end date for their lease that I'm not just going to throw out of their homes."
"Fair enough, but those whose tenancy runs out, will they be kicked out?"
"They will have first buyers choice if they are interested, but else they're going to have to move as I'm not going to renew any rental contract. I've given my contract person at the Notary office power of attorney so he can accept offers and arrange everything without my input."
"Why would you do that?"
"We don't know what will happen in the future," hesitating; Sirius looked out of the window. "Chances are I might not make it out of the war alive."
"That's nonsense, you're one of the most powerful wizards I know!" Peter bristled, alarm flashing through his eyes.
"No one is invincible, Pete."
Something cold ran down Remus' spine at the serious words and his stomach turned at the solemn expression in his best friend's eyes as the other gave a wry smile; but all saliva seemed to have disappeared out of his mouth, leaving him unable to speak.
"What if the unthinkable happens and….what would happen to your properties then?" Peter asked softly.
"James will become responsible for them since he's my brother and if he's unavailable the responsibility will go to Lily and then Pandora. Though any problems will mostly be taken care of by the third party I've hired," frowning, Sirius moved to the window to close the curtains and turned on the light. "But enough of this talk, if we don't get started we will be here all day."
A sweep from his wand made all the clothing in the nearest cupboard neatly fold themselves into a box; a few handkerchiefs floating over to the bedside table.
"Should we be using magic here?" Raising an eyebrow, Remus watched as some loose Muggle change appeared out of pockets and came to rest on the bedside table as well.
"As long as we don't use magic in sight and carry the boxes out manually, we can do most of the work this way," Sirius taped the box shut when it was full and Peter hurried over to pick it up and move it to the hallway.
"I reckon Lily might've been right," huffing out a laugh, Remus took care of the second cupboard while Peter took over taping the filled boxes shut.
"About?"
"That you are brilliant," a few items of clothing left his magical grip at a movement from Sirius' wand, making Remus watch as the selected clothing settled down into two small piles on the ground before the bedside table. "What's wrong with those?"
"The left pile is in too bad a shape to be considered for donation and the right one are items I think Lily might want to keep," Sirius pulled a long garment bag out of the mostly empty closet and carefully placed it down on the ground as well. "Let's bring these to the car before we take care of the furniture."
Remus felt uncomfortably self-conscious under the suspicious glare Dursley gave them as they travelled up and down the stairs repeatedly with boxes; a sentiment shared by Peter if his twitchy behaviour was any indication, though Sirius didn't even seem to notice the man's presence as he cheerfully whistled a song.
"Pete, why don't you go to the attic to see what's there while Remus and I take care of the last items here?" He suggested after their last trip.
"Sure, how do I know what she might want to keep, though?"
"Just put everything you find on the ground, we can have a look at it once we're all there to determine if it might be anything she'll want to keep. Don't use magic there under any circumstances, though."
"Right," as Peter hurried back upstairs, Sirius turned to the closet and shrank it.
"If you take the bedside tables, I'll follow with the closets."
"Sure. What do we do with the leftover clothing?"
"They go in the garbage bag I left in the hallway by the spare room and the clothing I think Lil might want to keep go into a separate box so she can look at it back home."
It was quick work to bring everything downstairs in one go after Sirius took care of any dust remaining with a quick spell and Remus left him to undo the shrinking charms on the furniture in the van to return to the warm house, Dursley moved out of the shadows to block his path.
"You're a freak," Dursley sneered as he stared at him.
The insult was much milder than many of the things Snape and the other Slytherins had thrown at him over the years, but Remus still self-consciously flinched as he was reminded of the three fresh scratch marks running under his eye Sirius hadn't been able to heal.
"Call him a freak ever again and I will rip you apart."
Dursley wasn't the only one to heavily startle at the quiet steely voice behind them and Remus felt his stomach clench as he realised his friend had heard the insult and clearly didn't appreciate it one bit.
The aristocratic air of contempt colouring Sirius' expression made clear just how far more superior he was compared to Dursley; the quiet display of unspoken power and Pure-Blood dominance radiating from his entire being something the other man could clearly sense regardless of not knowing exactly what it meant.
A penetrating odour of urine infiltrated Remus' nostrils as steely cold grey eyes stared the inferior man down with a sure promise in them; though it took him a moment to realise Dursley was the source of the stench as the man had lost control over his bladder.
Sirius huffed in obvious disdain; moving forward to push past Dursley but the man jumped out of his way so hastily, he slipped on an icy patch of snow and landed harshly on his behind in the substance he'd only just lost with a terrified squeak.
But Sirius didn't even dignify him with a glance; the man tensing in obvious humiliation as he realised he wasn't even worth a second glance to a boy several years his junior as Sirius moved back inside without another word and Remus hurried after him.
"Siri..."
Sirius didn't respond to his plea as they made their way upstairs, though he stopped when James stuck his head out of Lily's bedroom as they neared.
"Everything all right?"
"Just putting some garbage where it belongs," the coldness had vanished out of Sirius' eyes as he smiled at James with the same warmth and gentleness Remus was familiar with.
"You sure?" James' worried expression eased up at the smile, giving an apologetic one in return. "We shouldn't need much longer to sort everything out. We've decided it's just easier to pack everything up and go over it back home piece by piece."
"Fine by me, might be less painful that way, too. We're going to the attic now and if we are done before you are, we'll get started on the kitchen."
"If you find a big red soup pan, I really would like to have that," Lily's muffled voice came from inside the room.
A single sweep from Sirius' wand caused a shrill shriek of fear from downstairs, moments before he caught the pan that came soaring towards them. "Got it."
Snorting, James accepted it when handed over; presumably passing it on to Lily behind the door he was sitting behind. "I thought we weren't going to scare the locals?"
"Some locals don't deserve any better," grinning at the muffled thanks from behind the door, Sirius moved towards the attic stairs with a little wave, making James laugh before his head disappeared and the door closed again.
"Come on, Pete's going to be worried on what's keeping us."
"Siri..." Remus reached out to grab Sirius' wrist to make him stop, intending to tell his friend he didn't always need to defend him, but the moment before his fingers made contact, he suddenly hesitated as he remembered what was hidden underneath the sleeve of his sweater.
His heart clenched and anger washed over him once more at the reminder of one of the words the Blacks had branded his friend with; the very insult Dursley had chosen to use against him.
Of course Sirius took offence to that word being used to one of his friends and would step up to defend him; his friend would never let an insult to one of them slide.
"Thank you," swallowing his intended words, he let his hand fall back down.
"He's wrong, you know," intense grey eyes met his own green ones as he turned. "You aren't."
"I know and neither are you."
Sirius' eyes softened as he looked up to Remus. "You're an idiot."
"Siri?" Closing his eyes as calloused fingers reached out to caress the forming scars, Remus swallowed at the soft voice. "Why exactly am I an idiot?"
"Because you worry too much about things," rolling his eyes, Sirius pulled back again. "I'm not upset that he used that specific word, I'm pissed that he had the nerve to insult you at all while he doesn't even know you."
"I've been insulted far worse over the years."
"And have I not made every single one of them pay if you didn't deserve it?"
"You did," warmth spread through him as he realised that was true and this time he did reach out to curl his fingers around Sirius', squeezing softly. "You're always looking out for me."
"That's what friends do, isn't it? I'm just sorry I wasn't able to prevent these from ever being made, even if they won't be as noticeable once they've scarred properly."
"Better me than you," he immediately countered, thinking of the many scars already littering his friend's body. "And you did everything you could to heal..."
"What do you think you are doing!" The shrill shriek interrupting him made them both jump and Remus quickly stepped away from Sirius, flushing as he realised what their linked hands must have looked like to outsiders not familiar with them.
Sirius however simply turned to frown at Petunia's disapproving expression. "None of your business. What do you want?"
"It is my business to know what you are doing in my house," Petunia snapped. "I don't want any funny business here."
"Then you should have asked your friends to help clean this house," Sirius scoffed in obvious disdain. "Oh wait, you don't seem to have any and since your fiancé is a worthless pile of dung, Lily asked us for help. But if you don't want our magic to help you out then that can be arranged and we'll only clean out half the house for Lily and leave the rest for you to do on your own."
Sirius turned to leave at the same time Lily's bedroom door opened again and she appeared through it, catching the terror spreading over Petunia's face; although Remus wasn't quite sure if it was because Sirius had clearly misunderstood her meaning or because of the threat he was obviously more than ready to follow up on.
"What's wrong?"
"Your sister is even more uptight than Pince. I was just talking with Sirius, but you'd have thought I was snogging the living daylight out of him with how she reacted," Remus answered before Sirius could speak, enjoying the way Petunia gaped in utter shock and Sirius glanced at him confused.
"As much as I would love to see that happening, I don't think this is the time or place for that."
"Lily!" Even though he had called it out over himself, Remus still felt a flush spread as he spotted James grinning from behind Lily.
"I should hope you'd be asking my permission before you make any kind of move on my brother, Lupin, or I'd be forced to kick your arse."
"I..."
Ignoring their teasing, Sirius turned to Lily. "Your irksome hag excuse of a sister was trying to say something, but due to the banshee like sound she produced, I didn't quite catch her intended meaning beyond that she might prefer to do the work alone?"
It took all Remus had to keep his face neutral at Sirius' biting words, realising the other was at the last threads of his patience for Lily's sister and Petunia flushed deep red in either anger or humiliation, but kept silent under the gaze of freezingly hard grey eyes.
"Petunia?" There was a flash of something in Lily's eyes, but she didn't comment on his choice of words as she turned to her sister. "What does he mean about doing it alone?"
"I….I just wanted to ask him if he would be willing to keep an eye out for Mum's wedding dress. Vernon and I couldn't find it and I want the veil for my wedding as it's been worn by the family for four generations," Petunia managed to stammer out, tensing back as Sirius shifted.
"Then you should go for glasses as it was in pain sight in your mother's closet, it's where I put it myself two days ago after cleaning out the storage and told your oaf of a boyfriend as much," Sirius' tone was calm but snippy as he ignored her obvious discomfort or even tried to be tactful. "There was no veil included and the dress itself has been damaged by what I assume were mice or moths."
"I..."
"I left it on the master bedroom floor so Lily can have a look at it to decide if she wants to keep it and possible fix it, or give it to you," he continued on, his sharp gaze daring Petunia to object but it seemed she was frozen in place.
"I'll go take a look, will you keep an eye out for the veil while cleaning?" Reaching out to squeeze his shoulder, Lily smiled at him. "It should be in an old looking brown box."
"Of course, no problem," the warm smile Sirius answered with faded as piercing cold eyes slid back to Petunia, making the woman flinch. "That is, if your sister agrees to our presence, else we'll leave her to it."
"I….yes...t-thank you f-for your help," it was hilarious to see pure terror enter her eyes at the thought of having to do all the work alone and she hurried away without another word.
"Has she been giving you trouble?" sighing at the sight of her retreating sister, Lily turned to Sirius.
"You know it's nothing I can't handle. She's no less unpleasant than usual," smiling reassuringly, he pulled her into his side. "We truly were just talking for a moment before joining Peter in the attic."
"I wish she could just act normally, but I suppose that's too much to ask," leaning into his embrace, Lily kissed his cheek. "If she truly causes trouble..."
"I'll handle it without attempting to strangle her," he hummed as James pulled both of them close, making Remus feel uncomfortably like an outsider at the affectionate display before they separated again and Sirius reached out to caress his brother's cheek. "It's fine, truly."
"Else you're coming to get us," James' eyes narrowed as Sirius only laughed before making his way up to the attic, grabbing Remus' arm as he made to follow.
"What was going on?"
"Nothing, Sirius handled it," nodding, Remus tried to give a reassuring smile, but it didn't work half as good on James as Sirius' did as the other looked at him unconvinced.
"If either of them try anything..."
"He'll kick both of their arses with his eyes closed before I'll even be able to move," pausing as it occurred to him that it might not be what James wanted to hear, he shrugged. "But once I have, I'll come warn you so you can kick their arses, too."
Squeezing his biceps in acceptance, James followed Lily to the master bedroom without another word and shaking his head at the overprotective behaviour, Remus made his own way up to the attic.
"Rem, come look at what I found!" Peter exclaimed from the cupboard he was emptying out, holding up a few of what looked like playing cards as Sirius was looking through the rest.
"What are those?"
"Football Trading Cards; they're the Muggle British sport variant of Chocolate Frog cards."
Remus assumed the explanation was for Sirius' sake as he knew very well what they were, but he couldn't help but smile at their friend's excitement as he was positively glowing as he showed them to Sirius. "They're from last season, Lily's dad got them all; even the ones I am still missing."
"I'm sure that if you ask, you can have them," chuckling at the beam spreading over Peter's face at Sirius' words, Remus moved to one of the still closed cupboards and from the corner of his eyes he could see Sirius do the same.
"Remember, no magic."
"Right."
They worked in silence for a period until a sudden muffled squeak from Sirius made them both look up to see most of Sirius' upper body disappear into a high cupboard, the tips of his shoes dangling above the ground.
"What in Merlin's name are you doing?" Peter peered into the dark space Sirius had disappeared into. "Wouldn't it be easier to remove the rest of the drawers instead of doing it like this?"
"I slipped," came the muffled reply and he coughed as his movement clearly blew up dust, making Remus raise an eyebrow.
"Slipped? On what?" Coming forward, he noticed the dark-haired boy had wiggled his way in the place of a missing drawer to reach the bottom of the cupboard.
"Probably over this cardboard," Peter crouched down to investigate a piece of cardboard laying on the ground by Sirius' feet. "There is mould forming on it so it's not surprising he slipped. Are you all right?"
"Some bruises, no doubt. I can't….." there was some more wiggling and Sirius' shirt rid up as he tried to free himself so Remus took a hold of his hips to try and pull him back; but it was immediately clear he wouldn't be getting out like that as Sirius yelped in pain.
"Let me grab my wand," reaching into his pocket for his wand, Remus paused at Sirius' immediately protest. "Why can't I use magic to help you? We're at the attic."
"There are no curtains or big enough pieces of furniture here to hide the use of magic from the nosy neighbour from next door," a bit of leg wiggling made more of Sirius' body disappear into the cupboard and it amazed Remus that his friend could fit into the tiny space so easily yet couldn't get out of it. "If I can just get rid of this junk...then I can….."
The rest of his words were drowned out by the sound of something breaking inside the cupboard.
"Noisy neighbour?"
"There's a woman who has been following our every movement at every window she can," Peter told him so turning discreetly as if to turn to Peter, Remus' eyes immediately found a woman standing at the attic window of the next house; peering in unashamed.
"Privacy is clearly overrated," frowning at the sight, he leaned closer to Peter's side to peer into the darkness. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to...can you give me a light?"
"I saw a flash light earlier," hurrying back to one of the boxes, Peter retrieved the flash light, turning it on and shining into the dark space beside Sirius' side. "It's a mess down there, isn't it?"
"Thanks. Yeah, the bottoms of the drawers have been destroyed by mice and most things fell to the bottom. Could you shine a little to the right so I can hide the flashes of my wand as I Vanish some stuff."
"Sure, but why?" Peter's shining masked the slight flashes of Sirius' wand well enough.
"Because there is something sharp preventing me from getting out the way I got in and I can't get enough grip to just break the side out with all this junk in the way."
"How are you even fitting in there in the first place, that space is tiny," James' voice greeted them as he and Lily joined them; James coming close to examine his brother's position.
"He slipped on a piece of mouldy cardboard."
"Hmm, and why didn't you just break him free magically once you realised he was stuck?"
"Nosy neighbour," indicating over his shoulder, Remus blinked as Lily honestly to god growled.
"Mrs McKensie is a leech."
"Can you pass that screwdriver?"
"Screw… never mind."
As Remus watched, Sirius and James did some complicated manoeuvring to pass a screwdriver between them and James flinched as he pulled back his arm, revealing a bloody gash and he redirected Peter's beam of light to the sides.
"There's bended nails sticking out of the sides, they're bend inwards so you wouldn't have felt them going in but they bloody hurt when trying to pull back," he told Sirius, crouching down beside the cupboard and, without any need to communicate, stabbed into the wood and began to wiggle the wood to pry it open while Sirius was clearly pushing from the inside.
In no time at all the two managed to loosen the wood enough for James to break it free completely; all of them coughing as dust flew up.
"I thought cats were the flexible ones, not dogs," grinning, James wiped his glasses clean.
"Well, you're the one who always claims I act like a cat," Sirius looked way too relaxed for someone dangling halfway upside down in Remus' opinion.
"True," consenting, James eyed him critically. "Want help getting out of there?"
"That would be much appreciated," reaching out, Sirius let James carefully pull him towards him, folding into himself without a problem as he sort of rolled into a ball to land safely in James' arms.
"James is right, you should've been a cat instead," snickering, Peter tried to brush off some of the dust of them both as both boys remained in place until Sirius got his bearing.
"Meow," grinning up to Peter, Sirius closed his eyes as James ruffled his short hair to get rid of the dust before accepting Lily's hand to rise to his feet while Remus helped James up.
Allowing James to check him over for any injuries, Sirius stretched. "Do we keep cleaning manually or can we chase the nosy peeping tom away?"
"Leave her to me," moving to the window, Lily made some obscene gestures Remus never would've expected a girl to ever use, though it was quite effective as the noisy neighbour looked scandalised before disappearing.
"Where did you learn that?"
"Dad taught me, it's what he always used to chase her off."
"What does it mean?"
"It means piss off," conjuring a piece of black cloth; Sirius covered the window with it before turning to see them all staring at him. "What?"
"How in Merlin's name do you know what it means?"
"Because her father used it in traffic any time another driver was misbehaving. He taught it to me because in his opinion it was a gesture every good British driver should know."
"I can't believe Dad taught you rude gestures," Lily choked out a laugh. "Actually, no, I totally can. It sounds exactly like Dad to do something like that."
"If it makes you feel better, he told me it's incredibly offensive and to only ever use it when driving," in unison, Sirius and James began shrinking various items so Remus and Peter stepped back to watch them work as they seemed to know instinctively which items to keep while Lily went through the items put aside.
"Hey Lil, what about this?" Pulling forth an old fashioned playpen, Sirius grinned. "Might be useful for the future."
"Gosh, I didn't even know they still had that," smiling, Lily let her fingers caress the old but sturdy wood. "The wood is splintered, though."
Inspecting the area indicated, Sirius shrugged. "I can fix that without a problem if you would like to keep it for your own offspring. I know Mum and Dad kept James' box, but it would be wise to have one in different rooms and it might be nice to have something from your own childhood for your own children."
"It would be, but I'm sure Petunia will want to have it, too."
Snorting in disdain, Sirius shrunk the playpen while James moved to a corner. "She's got enough."
"We're also taking the rocking chair," James announced as he pulled a chair out.
"I can't remember ever having seen this before," frowning, Lily inspected it. "It's in terrible condition."
"We're magical, not much is in too terrible a condition for our magic to fix," grinning, James beaconed Sirius closer. "What do you think?"
"It's not that bad, the wood isn't too badly splintered but it could use a good sanding and a new paint job. What do you want it for?"
"For you to sit in after a bad night whenever you're staying with us and we're not available for some reason," the soft words made Sirius look up. "You love the old chair in Dad's work room so I'd like to have one at our future house as well. And it would be a nice thing to sit in with any possible future children as well."
Watching Sirius inspect the chair more closely, Remus couldn't help but smile wryly as he knew James had a point. Whenever their friend had a severe nightmare, it usually helped calm him down and fall back asleep more easily if the one holding him was rocking him lightly.
"Will you actually have time to work on it, though? Between work, classes and preparing for exams, you already have so little free time," Peter noted worriedly. "Besides, don't you need to focus on your commission?"
"We'll see. We can play around with it when we have the time and else we can always work on it after graduation," speaking up before Sirius could, James twirled his wand between his fingers; shrinking the chair at Sirius' nod.
"How is your commission going anyway? You were having trouble figuring out how to make her move naturally, weren't you?"
"It's getting better, though oil will never be my preferred painting method. The layers are as good as done so I only need to add the last magical features," frowning, Sirius turned to Peter. "I've managed to get Abe to show me several memories of her so I could get a feel for how she acted and moved; though her speech will be limited. I just hope I'll be able to do her memory justice."
"Abe will be thrilled regardless of how much she can move around, she looks amazing," there was a proud smile on James' face as he squeezed Sirius' shoulder. "And your secret addition of linking the Hog's Head tunnel to the portrait will secure the passage from being misused."
"Wait…..you've seen the portrait?" shooting James a disbelieving look at his nod, Remus pouted at Sirius.
"Why is he allowed to see it and we're not?"
"Brother privileges," wiggling his eyebrows, James grinned, but Peter frowned.
"What do you mean, keep the passage from being misused?"
"The Come and Go room created the passage for me to enter the Hog's Head without notice, but after discussing it with Peeves, Hogwarts agreed on making a permanent passage that will appear in times of true need so that should the war come to Hogwarts itself, students can be evacuated through the passage and find refuge in the Hog's Head."
"That's….so the passage won't always be there?"
"It's not even there now," James said. "It only appears when asked for, like the room itself does."
"But, how would anyone know to ask for it, then?"
"Lucky find and in case of true emergency, the House Elves will inform the teachers so they can evacuate students," Sirius turned to Lily. "Is there anything else you want to keep?"
"No, Petunia already took most of what I might have wanted to have," accepting the change of subject, Lily looked around before shaking her head. "Unless there is something you guys would like to have?"
"Oh, I almost forgot. Could I perhaps have these collective cards?" Holding up his collection, Peter grinned as Lily nodded. "Thanks. And you could demand to get some of the things she took that you are interested in, couldn't you?"
"Not without causing a bigger fight than I'm willing to have over them," sighing, Lily Vanished a few more items. "It's just not worth the arguments any more. I have a few items that I really wanted to have and that will be enough."
"We could always steal what you want back when they are asleep," James suggested as he shrank the box of stuff to keep to pocket it.
"It's all right, thanks to Sirius I have their wedding rings and some of Mum's favourite jewellery as well as some other personal items and that's enough."
"I've put aside some other things I think you might want to keep, you can check them back home without your sister noticing you've got them," Sirius picked up a box of donations and following his example, they all picked up a box to move them to the van.
"You have everything you want to keep in your room?"
"Yes, we already brought everything that could be given away down and I don't want anything else from the kitchen so anything Petunia hasn't taken can be boxed as well."
"Is that twat going to do anything useful today, or is he just going to hang around?" James asked as he placed the items that had been selected to be kept in her room with the rest.
"Dursley left almost an hour ago, looking ready to wet himself," Peter revealed as he returned back inside. "What did you say to him to make him look so terrified?"
"Nothing important, but it doesn't matter if he left or not as he was utterly useless," Sirius said before turning to the door. "Petunia, the kitchen is yours to clean out while we'll do the garage and living room for Lily. Is there anything you want from the living room, Lil?"
Petunia seemed surprised that he'd heard her coming when she appeared moments later, tensing at Sirius' voice but Lily didn't seem to notice.
"I'm not sure, I'll go have a look. There is nothing in the garage that I want to keep, did you Petunia?"
N-no."
"Then you can just Vanish everything not worth taking to charity," Lily glanced out of the window. "How much more can we fit in there before the neighbours will become suspicious?"
"They won't," reassuring her, Sirius smiled. "Let's get back to work so we can get everything to charity before dark."