Chapter 76

Welcome Home

The Hogwarts express had never been intimidating to Sirius. Never. Even as a kid when he'd come to see his cousins off, the train had looked awesome to him. He'd never understood why muggleborns, and admittedly Remus, had thought the train was scary their first year. It was just a train after all.

He knew now, looking at the train, that it was the idea of going somewhere you'd never been before that was terrifying, rather than the actual train itself.

James rolled his eyes at his friend's hesitation. Sirius had to be the most dramatic person he'd ever met. At least the most dramatic boy anyway.

"Are you coming, or not?" James asked standing just outside the train's entrance. Sirius quickly entered the train following Remus and Peter to their normal compartment, James was close behind.

Sirius' nervousness faded relatively quickly as the train drew farther and farther away from Hogwarts. James' reminders that his parents had been glad to invite Sirius over helped quite a lot.

And before they knew it Kings Cross Station was in view and they were grabbing the bags they'd brought with them and heading off the train.

"Mum! Over here!" James called waving over the top of a few first-year girl's heads, who giggled giving Remus the impression that at least one of them had a crush on James. Which wasn't all that uncommon among the first years.

Euphemia Potter waved back as they all tried to make their way to each other. When they finally managed; hugs were shared between parents and their children, with Sirius simply watching and giving a polite, if not a little nervous, hello to anyone who greeted him.

"Oh, it'll be wonderful having one of James' friends over for Christmas. Just wonderful." Euphemia rambled on as they headed out. James discreetly rolled his eyes at Sirius who responded by laughing just as stealthily. They reached the outside of the Station but didn't part ways immediately, Euphemia and Mrs. Lupin had gotten into a conversation that absolutely had to be finished.

In other words, they were swapping recipes.

"Girls are weird," Sirius concluded to James as they waited, causing the others to laugh.

"Still haven't gotten over the cootie phase yet, Sirius?" Lyall Lupin asked, leaning against a car and subconsciously playing with the reading glasses in his trouser pocket.

"What are cooties?" Sirius responded simply, not quite understanding why his response made Lyall laugh even more.

"Never mind, kid. You'll grow out of it eventually." He said with a smile directed at Fleamont Potter.

"Not looking forward to that," Fleamont smirked. "He'll be as popular with the ladies as I was. I can just tell."

"Dad! Shush!" James whined clearly embarrassed by his father's words. Fleamont just laughed but did as his son said.

Mr. Lupin looked at him with surprise, Remus would have received a smack in the mouth if the boy'd talked to him like that.

Nothing good ever came from spoiling a child like that.

"Girls, are you about finished? I'd like to get home before Christmas please." Mr. Potter said with a teasing impatience.

"You will wait until we are good and ready, Fleamont," Euphemia replied sternly. "Honestly, these men."

Hope laughed. "They won't be complaining when they're eating our recipes."

"Let it be known that I didn't say a word," Lyall added, mostly to his wife. He walked over and put his arm around her. She rolled her eyes but made no attempt to remove his arm.

James and Sirius were grossed out, but Remus, despite the fact that they were his parents, just seemed happy.

It was the first time his mother had let his father hold her like that since she found out he was a wizard. Things were finally starting to be normal at his house.

Well other than the magic.

When Remus got home things looked different. The ivy was finally starting to grow up the wall, something Hope had tried to do since Lyall had built the house, something that he was pretty sure was more due to magic rather than his mom's green thumb.

The inside showed signs that she'd finally decided he's been punished enough as well. The house looked exactly as she had dreamed it would (with a few magical flairs thrown in.) He knew because she'd drawn pictures to show Lyall her plan for the house. He had a little input on the house, but he mostly just went with whatever she wanted. She was a lot better at decorating than he was, evidence being his study was always a mess, while the rest of the house looked lived in at worst.

Remus always admired how she was able to make everything look perfect, despite their lack of income.

Lyall gave him a wink that told him everything he needed to know. He laughed.

It was all Lyall's biggest 'I love you' present ever. (And probably what got her to finally let him off the hook.)

"Go ahead and put your things away while I start dinner," Hope told Remus distracting him from his private conversation with his dad.

"Yes, mum." Remus nodded and went up to his room to unpack the things he'd brought. He didn't need to ask to know what she was making. She always made his favorite food on his first day back.

His room was mostly the same, just a little cleaner than he'd left it. It was a rather plain room, not very big, but it was his. He didn't have many decorations, it wasn't like he had any desire to put a poster of a musician or sports star on any of his walls. He wasn't really into that kind of stuff. He did have quite a lot of books, as that was how he kept himself busy when he didn't have friends.

He didn't really need so many anymore. He should probably give some away.

Remus was still smiling at the thought when his mother called him down for dinner.

James was surprised by Sirius' reaction to his house. Very surprised really. He was pretty sure the Blacks had just as much money as the Potters.

So why exactly was Sirius staring at the Potter mansion like it was the biggest house he'd ever seen?

The home itself was only three stories high. Not including the two underground floors that the surrounding muggles didn't even know existed. It was wide, though, about twice as wide as any other home in the town.

It wasn't wide for the sake of many rooms, though there were more above ground rooms than most houses, it was wide because the rooms themselves were large.

The living room was in itself two stories high. With gorgeous red wooden floors that would almost be a sin to cover up with carpet and furniture made from a dark brown wood that matched the floors, but wasn't the same color.

The furniture itself didn't look comfortable, but sitting on it proved just the opposite.

And there was a chandelier in nearly every room, even the bedrooms. Though the bathrooms were exempt from this, even they looked fancy. It was like something you'd read about in a medieval fairy tale.

To James, it was worth nothing more than a shrug.

Sirius was pretty sure he could hate James for that if they weren't best friends already.

It wasn't really the size Sirius envied, nor the sheer pricelessness of the place. He was used to size from being at Hogwarts, and literally everything in the Noble House of Black was of expensive taste.

It was how roomy, homely, and warm the place was that made Sirius envious. The House of Black was tight, closed, and cold. The rooms seemed to be small just for the sake of making one feel claustrophobic.

Sirius shook his head at his spoiled best friend and let James lead him to the bedrooms. James took him to his own room then led him to a few of the guest rooms nearby, letting Sirius choose what room he wanted.

Sirius didn't need to answer. James knew him far too well, they simply looked at each other for a moment and James laughed. Just as Sirius exited the room to put his stuff in the room he chose he heard James ask his father...

"Can we move one of these beds into my room?"

A/N) First off, thanks to japanicana83 for beta reading this for me. If this chapter is better quality than the previous you have him to thank.

Second about the actual chapter, I love Remus' family and home! I pretty much gave him my dream life, minus the lack of friends as a kid, to make up for him being a werewolf. I love cottage homes surrounded by forest and plant life. I just love it. His parents rock too.

I'm thinking about putting a top ten pet peeves in Marauder fics down here. Or like tips on writing them. There are quite a few things that just drive me nuts! when reading a Marauder fic. Would that irritate you guys? Or would you like to see what I'm not going to do with this story? ^_^

Edit (5/3/2016) Changed the Potters names.