Sirius knew which story was next so he declared, "I want Moony reading this one."
Remus already knew which story it was before he even glanced at it, throwing a disgruntled look at Sirius for doing this to him.
"You really think you're funny, don't you?" James asked of Sirius when Remus read the title.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sirius batted his eyes with innocence that fooled no one. "Though I suppose Harry could read this one," he amended, eyeing his godson with that same look in his eye, "the joke still applies-" Remus smacked him upside the head and only then agreed to read it just to spare Harry that stupidity. Sirius' humor was still just a touch shot from, well before, but at least he was still trying, and that meant the world to them, which was the only reason Remus was going without protest.
"Something I won't contest," James agreed with that same look upon his wife he'd given her at thirteen.
"He has no idea," Lily said with nothing but affection as she brushed back the bangs from her infant who just smiled on at them all.
Remus grumbled a bit at the idiot, both in the story and Sirius having forced him to read this one. Sirius, either oblivious or ignoring him, just tried to keep waving him on.
"Well that was depressing," Harry muttered, growing more unsure by the line why this was a children's novel of all things. What child didn't love? Even he had wanted to in his youth despite not having anything around to cherish. The other two had been simple enough in their lesson, but this one felt more like a gruesome tale that maybe Beatrix Bloxum should have gotten her hands on.
"Welp, guess an execution's in order," Sirius eagerly rubbed his hands together.
"Are you sure you shouldn't be the one reading this?" Remus demanded after smacking him.
"Priorities," Lily muttered snidely.
"Credit for trying?" Sirius offered with a mocking grin, wanting to spit in this warlocks face for reminding him of his family's very similar choice in selections.
James couldn't help but mock applaud the book not even trying to be subtle at how ridiculous that was.
Lily honestly couldn't help a little sigh of pity for this warlock and what he'd done to himself, the poor girl had no idea what she was getting herself into.
"Then clearly she's never met Sirius," Remus grumbled.
"Moony, that was just hurtful," Sirius poked out his lower lip at him.
"Then don't make me the butt of your idiotic jokes," Remus snipped back.
"Ouch, ice cold that one," James said with an old expression, still vividly able to hear Lily say such things to him.
"I'm sure they'll both come around," Lily said gently, giving his hand a squeeze, confident that was to be the moral end to this story.
James just gave her an uneasy smile and didn't reply.
"Eww," Harry crinkled his nose at the idea of such twisted magic he hoped was only a myth.
Lily's brows crept up in concern, that sounded ominous. She was being silly though, this was a kids novel, and already on the bleaker side she was still confident something nice would come of this.
"Eww," Harry and Lily coursed together that time.
"That is a bit more detail than I was told," James agreed conversationally. "My parents always made it seem like the maiden had simply gone to sleep and he was trying to tear his heart out first."
"Because that's so much better," Sirius snorted while Remus tried to ignore them all and get this over with.
"Wait, that's it!?" Harry blurted. "Just like that, they both died."
"Pretty gruesome, yeah," James agreed with a wince. "That's not one my parents told me tell I was nearly too old for bedtime stories anyways. Needless to say, this did rather put me off them."
Lily's hold on James tightened for a new reason, shaking her head in disgust at this little tail. She wouldn't stop James from sharing it with their child, but she failed to see why this was written.
"Why does that not surprise me," Sirius scoffed. "The dark and creepy one survived all the retellings involving ripping hearts out, just like my family loves!"
"Was he trying to be invulnerable?" James scratched absently at his ear. "I thought he was just making it so he couldn't be a fool in love."
"I'm sure a Death Eater would have agreed with the Warlock though," Sirius muttered, well aware most of them saw love as a weakness itself.
"Thank you for that nightmare," Lily shivered now picturing the Death Eater practice of removing hearts after a battle won.
Harry flinched hard and had to fight the urge not to bury himself back into Sirius' side, instead forcing himself to be content merely watching him nod in agreement to that. The words just echoed to much from what Dumbledore had told him, that day, and he never wanted to think of that again so long as he had his godfather with him now.
"I don't see why," Lily said, her eyes sparking with challenge. "We use magic all the time to manipulate the various emotions, I'm sure someday it would just take the proper-"
"Should I be worried you slipped Prongs some of this, and now you're just taking notes on the results," Sirius interrupted with a calculating look.
Lily stuck her tongue out at him without acknowledging that.
Harry though, couldn't help but ask in intrigue, "why would you want to perfect a love potion? Even the temporary ones cause enough of a problem." He couldn't help but feel like he was speaking from experience on that one, though he had no clue why.
"It's the principle of the matter, the practicality of using it in certain situations so long as there's a way to reverse it as well. For example-"
"Oh honestly, she'll go on all day about this," Sirius sighed. "Can't you just finish Remus."
He looked relieved enough to do so, though Harry felt rather disappointed.
Harry felt such a sharp stab to his mind he howled in pain, hand fisted into his hair above his temple at the white hot flash until a now familiar voice broke through and he was finally able to focus on something else.
"-have no clue what could have set him off again-"
"My guess is something related to Voldemort-" That was Sirius, he was sure of it, but wait, he didn't find out about the Horcruxes when Sirius was still alive- his brain felt like it was on fire, alight with the pain from too many things colliding that shouldn't be... he forced himself to pain attention to the words, the tone, which sounded tensed and stressed but still alive, that no ghostly echo ever could produce. "Last time he hurt this bad always seems to have something to do with that madman."
Still shivering as if coming from a deep cold sickness, his blurry vision took several moments to focus even with his glasses still in place. He found them all watching him closely, looking pale and as stressed as he, but none of them had a single clue what a Horcrux even was, let alone why Harry had reacted so harshly to it. He continued to rub at his scar and shift heavily in place far longer than he ever had before, but finally he just tried to wave them on, the silence only helped the ringing in his ears to remain so loud.
Remus only got through that out of pure shock they actually got an answer right away, admittedly a very tiny mention of one, but an explanation none the less. Then he was left with his mouth hanging open.
"That's disgusting," Lily stated at once, her nails digging into James's arm, her brow creased heavier than ever as the words spun through her mind.
"You can divide your soul?" James said slowly and carefully, testing the words and trying to put it together in his head with an actual act, a practice.
Harry tasted copper in his mouth. Far from looking pleased at actually getting an explanation of this, he looked more likely to be sick than ever at being told what these things were, and the scar upon his forehead seared like a brand in his mind. He kept running shaking fingers over it as if at any moment it would fall right off. There was something vitally important to his life being put into words right now, and yet still he could feel that key piece missing, the full picture not yet drawn together.
"Well as vastly disturbing as this is," Sirius grumbled with a mock attempt at chipper, "can we please change the subject. I don't know why Dumbledore brought it up, but it's not doing us any good."
They were all starting to get a little panicky Harry had been so still and silent for so long, this was never a good sign and now Sirius hoped his errant comment was more wrong than ever. This had nothing to do with Voldemort or anyone, Harry was just reacting to something he'd had to learn about later in an actual non dangerous way...because that wasn't wishful thinking.
Sirius kept shifting uneasily in place, brushing against Harry and making an exaggerated face for this description, though no one was paying him any mind. Even this eerie kids tale couldn't hold the weight it had moments ago after such a small description to Harry caused something so monumental to happen in him.
"Anyone would," Remus muttered, flipping the page absently and still hardly paying attention to what he was saying. They'd taken a break to read these silly novels for some relaxing time, now Harry was looking sicker than ever. They truly just couldn't do one nice thing for him!
"Profiting," Lily muttered sarcastically, retracting her nails from James to cross her arms, still in a fit for this whole bloody part.
Remus couldn't help but snicker a bit at this, muttering, "sleepwalking to keyholes, why didn't we ever think of that."
"We used far better excuses," Sirius scoffed.
"That hardly worked any better," James sighed.
"There's the first bit of good news I've heard in a while!" Sirius cheered.
"Granger?" Harry arched a brow in surprise, more than pleased at this sudden change of topic.
"We may have just found Hermione's long lost wizard relation," James agreed with a nod.
At Harry's puzzled expression he elaborated, "while Muggleborns are classified as coming from two nonwizard parents, it truly is impossible for an actual Muggle to produce a wizard without something in the bloodline holding the magic. Diluted and often for generations absent, but at some point along the way one of Hermione's parents family members had to have been a wizard at some point."
Harry felt a funny niggling in the back of his mind, like this fact shouldn't surprise him as much as it did, like he somehow knew that because of some other Muggle in his life...but he shook his head and just chuckled along with Remus when he pointed out, "or it could all be one big fat coincidence of last names again."
"Also true," James agreed.
Remus cleared his throat harshly as he shoved the book to Sirius with a scowl. "Are you happy now?"
"Immensely," Sirius agreed with that wide eyed innocence that had never fooled anyone. "Hopefully this tale has cleared your mind and mended your own heart, and you'll put it back where it belongs!"
"You'll be my first victim," Remus promised.
Harry nibbled at his lip sadly as he watched the pair. It wasn't hard to work out what Sirius was really saying, and Harry had a funny feeling his godfather would be getting his wish sooner than later as his eyes lingered on his next year.