Harry Potter, quite simply, was bored out of his mind. He sat in the Gryffindor common room, on a plush couch in front of the fire, and as he did he pondered his life.

His years at Hogwarts had been... trying to say the least. Every year there was always something to disrupt his schooling and cause danger to him or those around him. Rarely if ever did he feel like he had the time to enjoy himself and laugh, caught between either completing schoolwork, or saving the school. He simply did not have the time to do many of the things he was interested in.

He flipped around and laid down across the couch completely, relaxing into the cushions as he thought to himself.

Did everyone feel this way? Was that simply how the students at school felt? It couldn't be, as many of his classmates seemed to laugh and find time to play all sorts of games and go on dates. Hell, the one time he had thought of going on a date had ended in a disaster. He would not quickly forget that day with Cho. Even if he wished he could.

It was then that a question occurred to him.

What did my parents do for fun?

Harry pondered this for a time. He had honestly not heard much about his parents. He knew his father had a love of pranks, and Sirius had told him many stories of said pranks in great detail, yet he had never heard about what his mother enjoyed doing. Nobody seemed to talk much about her. Nobody, that is, other than Professor Slughorn.

When he had met the Professor with Dumbledore, Slughorn hadn't talked about his father, he had mentioned his mother. His mother, who was brilliant with potions and charms.

Suddenly, Harry stood up. "Hermione?" He asked without turning around. He had no idea if she was there, but there was a good chance she was. She didn't like to leave him by himself when he was in an introspective mood. He appreciated that greatly.

"Yes, Harry?" Came the expected, yet distracted sounding reply from a corner of the room he knew contained a small chair and table for studying by the window.

"Do you think Professor Slughorn would be free right now?" He asked her, turning around finally.

She was sitting at the table as he had thought, working on some homework or another. Her quill stopped as she thought about his question for a moment. "I believe so, it's a weekend and any advanced classes he would be teaching should be done this close to curfew. Why?"

"I just have something I want to ask him about. I'm going down to see him, I'll be back soon."

"Alright, I'll likely still be working when you get back." She replied, her quill starting to scratch against the parchment yet again.

Harry made his way out of the tower and down the staircase to the sixth floor which held the office of Slughorn, who had refused the normal office down in the dungeons.

Knocking on the door to the office and receiving a call of "Just a moment", Harry leaned back against the opposite wall and waited. A short time later the door opened and Harry saw Slughorn poke his head out. Upon seeing Harry, however, Slughorn's eyes became decidedly nervous.

"I'm sorry dear boy, but I'm busy at the moment." He said, starting to close the door again.

"Please sir, it's not about anything like that." Harry spoke up quickly, attempting to stop him.

Despite himself, Slughorn seemed slightly intrigued at this, and hovered with the door almost closed. "What is it you want then?" He asked, almost accusingly.

"I just... well. You're the only person who's really said anything about my mother, and I.. er..." He said, stumbling over his words.

At this however, Slughorn looked aghast, almost throwing his door open in his shock to see Harry better. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"Just what I said sir. Many people tell me about my dad, about how much of a prankster he was, and that's great and all, but I realized just tonight that nobody really talks about my mom. You are really the only one who has done more than just mention her in passing."

"But surely Professor McGonagall or Dumbledore would have told you something?"

"No sir. I didn't even know that she enjoyed potions, much less was good at it until you told me when we met."

"Good at potions? That's not giving her enough credit, she was a genius when it came to brews and elixirs." He replied, still with a look of shock before seeming to debate something with himself. Eventually, he gave a small, almost pained sigh and opened the door wide. "Well, come on in then."

Harry could not help but give a big smile as he followed Slughorn into his office. When he had been in here last, the Christmas party was in full swing. The decorations had been taken down now, but the office still seemed to have the same feeling of class.

Slughorn had walked off to the side while Harry was busy taking in the room, and tapped his wand against a cauldron that had been boiling. A strange glow surrounded the cauldron for a moment before solidifying into almost a bubble, and fading away.

"There we are." The Professor said. "That will keep for a while longer. Now, Harry, what is it that you wanted specifically?" He asked, heading over to a cabinet and pouring two glasses of something. "Here." He said, handing one of them to Harry.

"Well sir, mostly I was wondering what she was like and what she enjoyed doing." He replied, looking down at the amber liquid in the crystal glass, watching the surface ripple in his hand. "My father was apparently great at transfiguration and I have a few tales of him and the Marauders-" He said.

"Aha! I knew he was part of them!" Slughorn interrupted with a wide grin on his face. "Never could we catch him or the others in the act, but we all knew it was him and his little group of friends."

Harry smirked slightly at Slughorn. "I'm not sure what you mean sir, I never said he was part of the Marauders. I don't think he would appreciate these accusations."

"Bah, rotten the lot of you. Your father may have been a prankster, but you certainly got your cheek from Lily. One of my favorites you know, she was truly astounding when it came to how she thought her way through problems. If I had to say, she was similar to the Granger girl you hang around with when it comes to answering questions and problem solving. That's what potions were to her, she told me once. A problem to be solved." He said wistfully, taking a small sip of his glass.

"What do you mean by that?" Harry asked.

"Lily had a talent for potions that I hadn't ever seen before. She might have given Professor Snape a run for his money when it came to creation of new potions. She told me once that she started by envisioning the end result the wanted, then wrote down what ingredients would readily help her along the path to the result. Then, she wrote down all the little steps for the potion, editing it as she went along. She had an instinctual understanding of how every little movement, every ingredient interacted with one another. Yes, she was astonishing indeed. And her charm work, my her charm work. Francis was beautiful." He said wistfully.

"Francis?" Harry prompted, confused.

"Why yes, my fish! It was one spring afternoon, I had just returned to my study after a rather taxing day dealing with some troublesome students, when I discovered a bowl on my desk. It was filled with a few inches of crystal clear water, and on that water floated a single flower petal. As I approached, the petal sank below the surface of the water, and just before it hit the bottom, it transformed, into a beautiful golden fish. It was beautiful magic, truly. A wonder to behold. The day I came downstairs and found the bowl empty... well." He said, his voice catching a bit at the end. He set his drink down gently on the table. "She was just like that bit of magic. A wonder to behold."

"Is... are there any stories you can tell me from when she was a student, Professor?" Harry asked desperately.

Slughorn looked at him for a moment before yet again picking up his glass and taking a swig, nodding a moment later. "Yes, yes my dear boy. I do think I can."

It was late when Harry returned to the common room. He and Slughorn had talked for well past curfew, laughing at different stories such as how his mother had gotten back at Sirius one time for catching her and James under a piece of mistletoe enchanted to not let anyone under it leave before giving a kiss to another. As this had been their fourth year, the mistletoe had not survived the night and both boys required an extended stay in the hospital wing to undue the multilayered curses that they were under.

Even almost getting caught by Snape prowling the halls as he attempted to return to the common room was not nearly enough to knock Harry out of the happy daze he seemed to be in. When Harry scrambled through the hole behind the portrait he expected to be taken to task by Hermione for coming back so late, yet there was no bushy hair to be seen.

Perhaps she's gone to bed? Harry thought to himself hopefully, eager to avoid a confrontation, no matter how minor. Hermione was scary when upset, she had a way of cutting just about anyone down to size almost instantly.

It was only after he had walked silently further into the room did he see the bushy hair he had been expecting, yet where he had expected to see it. Hermione was laying on the couch in front of the fireplace which had gone down to little more than embers now. As he watcher her for a moment he could not help but notice how pretty she was in the fading glow of the fire. A moment later he chuckled to himself at the thought and pushed it away.

Then, he realized. He was going to have to wake her up.

He certainly wasn't going to leave her down here, the common room got cold at night without the fire at the best of times, and with winter settling in that was going to be even worse. And yet if he woke her up, he knew that she was going to be on his case for staying out so late.

Sighing, Harry did what he knew he had to and kneeled down next to her on the couch. He pushed at her shoulder a few times, almost stopping as she gave a groan and turned over slightly in her sleep. "'Nuff Lav." She mumbled into the couch.

Hiding a smirk Harry pushed her shoulder again. "'Fraid it's not Lavender, 'Mione." He said. "And you're going to have to get yourself upstairs. No matter how I want to, the stairs will just turn into a ramp if I try to carry you."

He pulled back as Hermione slowly sat up rubbing her eyes, and held back a laugh at her hair sticking out to one side. "'Kay." She said, and stood up, shambling off to the staircase. Harry blinked in surprise as she turned the corner of his view, heading upstairs. Had she been too tired to realize how late it was? Maybe if he hurried...

"HARRY JAMES POTTER!" Was heard from the staircase.

"Blast."

Harry still felt his ears ringing when he woke up the next morning.

Hermione had indeed torn into him for not coming back before curfew, or even anywhere close to curfew. She had stopped only when he explained why he had gone to professor Slughorn. After a few moments of thinking, she had given a huff and let the matter drop.

However, Harry found it particularly hard to focus on schoolwork that morning while images of his mom pranking his dad floated through his head. Of all the stories he had heard last night, he had least expected that.

According to rumors Lily had decided she had enough of the Marauders sometime in their fifth year. She had set off an extraordinary prank which had left the group growing feathers sporadically for a month and then clucking at inopportune times for just as long. Nobody had seen her actually cast magic on them however, so nobody could link it to her. She did, however, seem incredibly pleased with herself when James got caught being out after curfew because he couldn't hold back a crow as the sun came up. She had supposedly laughed and called him a pathetic rooster, though she hadn't used that word.

As Harry imagined his family pranking, an idea was slowly building in his head. One that, unknown to him, would affect the outcome of the war and the lives of many.