Remus was reading the paper in the kitchen when he heard a soft voice in the fireplace. "Sirius?"

With a start he realized it was Harry, and went to get Sirius at once, who immediately dropped down to the floor beside Harry's head.

"What is it?" Sirius asked as Remus knelt beside him. "Are you all right? Do you need help?"

"No," Harry said. "It's nothing like that. I just wanted to talk. About my dad."

Remus caught Sirius' eye as Harry launched into what he'd seen in Snape's Pensieve, a memory from after their OWL exams. James attacking Snape.

After a pause, Remus said, "I wouldn't like you to judge your father on what you saw there, Harry. He was only 15."

"I'm 15!" Harry interrupted.

"Look, Harry," Sirius said. "James and Snape hated each other from the moment they set eyes on each other, it was just one of those things You can understand that, can't you? I think James was everything Snape wanted to be. He was popular, he was good at Quidditch, good at pretty much everything. And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts and James – whatever else he may have appeared to you, Harry – always hated the Dark Arts."

"Yeah," Harry said, his face wavering in the flames. "But he just attacked Snape for no good reason, just because, well, just because you said you were bored."

Sirius glanced at Remus. "I'm not proud of it," he said.

Remus caught his gaze and said, "Look, Harry, what you've got to understand is that your father and Sirius were the best in the school at whatever they did. Everyone thought they were the height of cool. If they sometimes got a bit carried away –"

"If we were sometimes arrogant little berks, you mean," Sirius said. Remus couldn't help but give a small smile.

"He kept messing up his hair," Harry said, and they both laughed.

Sirius grinned. "I'd forgotten he used to do that."

"Was he playing with the Snitch?" Remus asked.

"Yeah," Harry said. "Well, I thought he was a bit of an idiot."

"Of course he was a bit of an idiot," Sirius said. "We were all idiots! Well, not Moony so much," he said, looking at Remus, who shook his head.

"Did I ever tell you to lay off Snape?" Remus asked. "Did I ever have the guts to tell you I thought you were out of order?"

"Yeah, well, you made us feel ashamed of ourselves sometimes," Sirius said. "That was something."

"And he kept looking over at the girls by the lake, hoping they were watching him," Harry said.

Sirius smirked. "Oh, well, he always made a fool of himself whenever Lily was around," he said, shrugging. "He couldn't stop himself showing off whenever he got near her."

"How come she married him?" Harry asked. "She hated him."

"Nah, she didn't," Sirius said.

"She started going out with him in seventh year," Remus added.

"Once James had deflated his head a bit."

"And stopped hexing people just for the fun of it."

"Even Snape?" Harry asked.

"Well, Snape was a special case," Remus said. "I mean, he never lost an opportunity to curse James, so you couldn't really expect James to take that lying down, could you?"

"And my mum was okay with that?"

"She didn't know too much about it, to tell you the truth," Sirius said. "I mean, James didn't take Snape on dates with her and jinx him in front of her, did he?" Sirius frowned at Harry and said, "Look, your father was the best friend I ever had, and he was a good person. A lot of people are idiots at the age of 15. He grew out of it."

"Yeah, okay," Harry said. "I just never thought I'd feel sorry for Snape."

"Now you mention it, how did Snape react when he found you'd seen all this?" Remus asked, and he saw Sirius eyes narrow as he remembered how Snape had marched into his home and told Harry he'd be giving him private lessons to stop the dreams that he'd been having, to maybe save his life …

"He told me he'd never teach me Occlumency again," Harry said, rolling his eyes. "Like that's a big disappoint –"

"He WHAT?" Sirius yelled. Harry jumped and choked on a mouthful of ashes.

"Are you serious, Harry?" Remus asked. "He's stopped giving you lessons?"

"Yeah," Harry said, his eyebrows raised. "But it's okay, I don't care, it's a bit of a relief to tell you the –"

"I'm coming up there to have a word with Snape!" Sirius stood, but Remus grabbed his arm and pulled him back down.

"If anyone's going to tell Snape it will be me," Remus said. "But Harry, first of all, you're to go back to Snape and tell him that on no account is he to stop giving you lessons. When Dumbledore hears –"

"I can't tell him that, he'd kill me!" Harry said. "You didn't see him when we got out of the Pensieve."

"Harry, there is nothing so important as you learning Occlumency," Remus cried. "Do you understand me? Nothing."

"Okay, okay," Harry said, sounding quite like James used to when Remus used to talk him out of a prank. "I'll – I'll try and say something to him. But it won't be …" Harry trailed off and then said, "Is that Kreacher coming downstairs?"

"No," Sirius said with a backwards glance. "It must be somebody your end."

"I'd better go!" Harry said, and he disappeared from the fireplace.

XXX

"D'you think he's okay?" Sirius asked. He pulled his shirt off over his head and let it lay on the floor, settling in bed next to Remus.

"I do," Remus said. "He's strong."

Sirius nodded. "Maybe we could talk to him more," he said. "About James and Lily. Then, maybe, this wouldn't have come as such a shock."

"That's good," Remus said. "When he comes back for the summer."

Sirius gave him a small smile. "D'you think he knows we're together, Moons?"

Remus frowned and thought about it. "I really don't know," he said. "He's not stupid."

"He's just not always, well, so observant."

Remus laughed. "Yeah, that."

"We've just never talked about it," Sirius said. "Minnie said he's got himself a girlfriend this year."

"Ah. James would be so proud."

"And Lily would be freaking out."

After a pause, Sirius said, "James never suspected you, you know."

Remus frowned. "Suspected me?"

"When I thought you might be the spy," Sirius said. "It was something I hated myself for, for a long time. I thought about it nearly every day in Azkaban, how Lily and James are dead because I should have trusted you. But you should know that James never thought it was you. He thought you'd rather die than betray him. He wanted to send you a letter, to let you know the plan had changed. The only way I could talk him out of it was to insist it might go astray. But he died believing in you."

Remus' throat closed. "I – Thank you, for that."

"I still miss him, Re," Sirius whispered. "Every day."

Remus took Sirius in his arms and held him close. "Me too."