SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1D/C: I don't own anything.
A/N: Ok, I gotta clear something up. Frodo Baggins and Harry Potter probably aren't related. I made that up because I was too lazy to make up something on my own, and as a LOTR fan I thought of it for fun. And if they are related, then God help J.K. Rowling!
For those of you who care, the reason I haven't written in a really long time is because I am currently going through an emotional depression and server writer's block. I have many good reasons for my depression:
1. My cousin died. They aren't for sure if it is murder or suicide. I knew him very well, and his death hurts me bad.
2. The government of my state is threatening to close down a number of small schools. My school is on the hit list. If my school does close down, I would go to a school far from the rest of my friends.
3. My aunt, the one person in the world I would give anything for, is currently going through depression as well. Her house is currently falling down around her, and she does not have the money to fix it.
These are just a few of my many reasons, so don't expect many things for me for a while. Please enjoy.
Family Portrait
Chapter Nine: Christmas (Part Three)
J-chan
"He looks so angelic when he's sleeping."
"You do to, when you're a dog." Sigh, what was I expecting?
Harry had fallen asleep, seeing as though its three in the morning, I don't blame him. However, he was going to wake up if Remus and Sirius didn't stop arguing. How they live together I do not know. But I think Harry might appreciate it if I take him to his room. And I do...He really does look angelic while he's sleeping. I sat him down gently before walking back into Remus' living room.
"Ok, now were getting out the Egg Nog..." Sirius said, jumping over the couch to get the spiked Egg Nog, nearly giving Remus a heart attack while he's at it. I laughed. Harry did describe him well...like the parent of a teenager...Oh, does that describe Remus...
"DON'T YOU DARE SPILL A DROP OF THAT ON MY COUCH!" Remus yelled, watching Sirius trying not to make a mess. He's actually sort of graceful when he tries. Sort of.
"Now, in your letter, Richard, you told me you had something to tell me and Sirius about, but couldn't in your letter. What was it?" Remus asked, sipping his Egg Nog carefully. This probably wasn't the best conversation to be having drinking spiked Egg Nog, but it was fate and you can't change that.
"Alright. You win. No point in lying to you...Ok...I'm James' father." Remus' mouth dropped, so did Sirius'. (A/N: You know what I've noticed? All the Marauders, save Peter, their names end with 's'. Sirius, James, and Remus...Weird...ok, back to the fic.)
"No your not. James never knew his father. He died or something when before James was born." Sirius said, just as I had expected him to. I shook my head dreadfully.
"Faith...James' mum, was very young whenever she gave birth to James, correct?" I asked, and the two living Marauders shook their head yes, not understanding. "She probably hung out at a lot of pubs, right?" Sirius shrugged his shoulders, but Remus shook his head yes.
"How old do you think she would be if she was alive now?" Sirius' face turned to one of pure hatred. Unlike most living, breathing adults, he probably hasn't done any math since grade school.
"I dunno. Old?" Gee, isn't he personal?
"57, actually. Same age I am. We were in the same year at Hogwarts..." And so begins a very long story...
***
"So, your James' dad...His real life dad. Wow..." Sirius said, sipping his Egg Nog carefully.
"Did he ever know?" Remus asked. I'm not for sure if he believes me or not.
"No. I just found out a few months ago...I pray that if he did know, he would have at least told me. Then again, Dumbledore seem to have known for a long time, neither of them made any sort of effort to inform me of my parenthood, so who knows." Hate to be that way, but it's the truth.
"It's done him a lot of good, now that he's been dead for fourteen years." Remus said hatefully, leaning back tiredly. I forget just how much that kid's lost. For thirteen years the poor guy molded his own mind into believing that Sirius is a murderer, and that James, Lily, and Peter are dead. Then he becomes a teacher, (why anyone would take the position without being forced is anyone's guess.) And has to live with the fact his murderous friend has escaped. He also has to see one of his best friends' son for the first time in his life since Harry was a baby, deal with the fact that he's a werewolf and if any of the students found out, he might be out of a job again, and in the end find out that Sirius was innocent, and that Peter was still alive, (And a Death Eater, too.)
"Don't think too much on that, Richard. Remus is always hateful after a transformation." Sirius whispered in my ear, laughing a little. I laugh a little to, but it might just be the spiked egg nog.
"Well, glad to know your James' long, lost daddy and all, but what does that mean for us?" Sirius asked, this time out loud. Remus kind of gave me a curious gaze, wondering the same thing.
"I'm adopting Harry, and as his godfather/father's close friend, I thought you might want to know." I said, and Remus shook his head with accepting eyes.
"Your adopting him? Great! Glad to hear it" And so much more small talk began.
***
"Come on, Sirius! If we miss the train, I'm going to kill you!" Remus shouted hatefully. A day later and he still didn't feel well, you can tell it on the man's face. Seeing as how Sirius and Remus didn't even know what day it was, they still had some Christmas shopping they needed to do, so we were all going back to Hogsmeade. I told them that if they would have thought of that sooner, we could have met them there. Ooh, I was going to hurt them! But not Remus. He seems to be angered at every little thing that moves. He's not normally like this on days after the full moon, he's usually just tired. So I decided I was going to talk to him.
"Remus, what's wrong? You don't normally act like this, even Sirius has noticed. Is something troubling you?" I asked softly, once Sirius and Harry were on the train. He stopped, taking his breath in deeply, turned and looked to see if anyone was watching, and then looked back at me.
"Two days ago I got a letter from my brother. He's coming to visit in a few months." He whispered gently, his head hanging low.
"That's good, isn't it?" I asked. I was an only child, and would have wanted nothing more than a brother or sister when I was growing up. I just don't understand how brothers/sisters fight like they do.
"No, it's not. I hate my brother. We're twins, but we are nothing alike. At school he used to make me do his homework and be the center of a ton of his pranks, and I did it only because he threatened to tell the entire school I was a werewolf. He was in Slytherin, and I was in Gryffindor. He got the better of the deal, of course, due to the fact that half of my family has been in Slytherin. When my parents died, they left everything to him, when it was me who couldn't get a job and needed the money. He became a Death Eater, and I spent half of my life trying to stop them. We haven't talked to each other in fifteen years, and all of the sudden I get a letter from him telling me he's coming to visit? I'm a little more than worried that... that he'll kill me, or Harry, or reveal Sirius' secret. You understand, right Richard?" He asked, shaking in worry. I see his point. Having a Death Eater for a brother must not be fun, considering I am one. Or used to be, I'm not for sure anymore. I shook my head yes.
"I don't know what to say, Remus. Except for the fact that you've gotten yourself in a bugger, that's for sure. Is there no way you could talk to him, try to reason with him?" He shook his head.
"No. He didn't leave a return address. And the stupid owl I have couldn't find water in the ocean." Remus said. I knew Romulous Lupin. It wasn't really that he was a bad kid, it was just that he hung out with the wrong crowd. People like Lucius Malfoy, Severus Snape, Evan Rosier...people of that sort. It seemed that once the Sorting Hat had put him in Slytherin, there was no hope for him. He hated Remus, with a purple passion. It's a wonder he even knew Remus' name.
"I wish I had words of comfort, Remus, but I don't. But you don't need to take your anger out of Sirius and Harry. Why don't you tell them..." Remus snorted in the middle of my sentence.
"Sirius doesn't even know I have a brother. He won't admit it, but he half-heart believes that I'm a traitor. If he knew my brother was a Death Eater, then..." Remus' face went cold. Sirius turned up right behind us, a usual happy grin on his face. However, he seemed to hear a little of our conversation, so you could see curiosity in his face.
"Come on, slow pokes! The train is going to leave!" We took his advice, and turned to leave.
***
Hogsmeade was, and would always be, beautiful at Christmas time. The snow fell lightly on the ground, making the entire place feel just as magical as it actually is. We had all separated, because most of us needed to shop for the other. We all agreed to meet in Three Broomsticks at 2:00, and it was high noon. Harry and I were looking around at the different shops, talking about different things. Finally, it was the right time to ask him the one question I've been needing to for quite some time.
"Harry, what do you want for Christmas?" I asked, and he had a thoughtful gaze on his face. He looked up into the store window, and back at me, his face innocent and free.
"A home for the summer. Away from the Dursleys. But you've already given me that, so I don't exactly know what to say. Anything will be fine." That was sweet. Sorta makes you melt, doesn't it? The light snow only made my grandson look more like the angel he really is. I sometimes wonder if he really is an angel in disguise. He's done so much good for the world as a whole...Defeating Tom...converting me away from my evil ways. I wish there was something I could do for him. I know! I'll make the kid the best damn racing broom in the entire world! One of a kind! That'll be great...I wonder if Remus has any wood...Wait a second! Of course he has wood, he lives in a stinken forest!
Well, I got so carried away by my idea of making Harry a racing broom that I didn't notice anything around me. When my senses finally came back to me, I noticed something terribly wrong...Harry was gone!
**
It took me a while, but eventually I found Sirius and Remus. (Apparently it had been a while since Sirius had been in Zoinks..) When I told them that Harry had disappeared, Remus went frantic. (I seriously question his mental stability.) But that wasn't important right now. Right now, we needed to find Harry. How could I be so stupid to let my eyes leave him? Especially with Tom as he is...Any one of his loyal subjects could Appartate (A/N: Is that how you spell it? I can't remember...)into Hogsmeade and grab him while I wasn't looking. We looked up and down, to the left, to the right, and all the places in between Hogsmeade for Harry. We even, (Me and Remus. Sirius barked.) Stopped and asked people if they had seen him. Apparently, no one had.
Careless in my way of searching for Harry, I ran into someone. I didn't even stop to say I was sorry, I just ran. It was when that person called out my name did I notice.
"Richard!" At that, I stopped, hoping it was Harry. I turned and looked at the holder of the voice. Nope, wasn't Harry. But it was the next best thing.
"Ron! Listen, you've got to help us! Harry's missing!" The young Weasley's eyes widened.
"Missing? How'd..." I grabbed Ron's arm harshly.
"That's not important now! Point is we got to find him!" Ron knew when to shut up. He did as he told, running around the entire wizarding village with Remus, Sirius, and I. Eventually we split up, trying to cover more ground. About an hour later, we heard a distinctive bark that could only be Sirius'. And I began to run.
I ran, too. I ran faster than I've ever ran in my life. I wasn't the only one. A minute or so later Remus and Ron were running with me. We ran across all of Hogsmeade, finally finding the large, black mutt in one of the more abandoned alleys.
At first, I didn't know what Sirius was barking at. It appeared to be a woman with a long, black cloak. But then, as she moved, I saw what was causing Sirius to bark.
It was Harry, knocked unconscious.
Ron and I were hovered over Harry, checking to see if he was okay. Apparently he was still alive and kicking, but knocked unconscious by a powerful sleeping potion. But Sirius didn't stop barking. And the woman in the cloak didn't move, either. Once we were sure Harry was okay, we stood up, eyeing the woman carefully. Sirius jumped into her lap, barking loudly.
"Geroff, Sirius Black." The woman said, and for the first time, we could see her face. She was relatively pretty, too. Long, flowing black hair. Very pale skin that almost looked unnatural next to the snow. Large eyes that were a beautiful color of blue.
Sirius stopped, shocked at how the woman knew who he was. Ron, a little shocked too, walked towards Sirius, rubbing his snout like any boy would to his dog. Remus didn't say a thing, but I had a feeling he knew who the woman was.
"Don't even act surprised, Black. Same to you, Lupin." She held her cloak close to her face, trying to hide herself.
"Nara? Nara Yin? It can't be!" Remus said, and Sirius barked a loud bark that could only mean the same thing
"Why not, Remmy? This mutt you own is on World's Most Wanted list." She said, rubbing Sirius scalp playfully. Surprisingly, Remus' face turned a wonderful shade of pink.
"One thing, don't call me Remmy. Number two, the reason I'm surprised is because your supposed to be banned from all of Europe." Remus said, and Sirius barked in agreement.
"It'll take more than Fudge to keep me out of London. I'd be a little more grateful about me, too, Remmy. It was me who saved the boy." Nara said. That was a shocker..
"Then I'm forever in your debt, Ms. Yin. However, curiosity takes it place. How did you save my grandson?" I asked. Nara smiled.
"Death Eaters. It was too dangerous to Appartate with such precious cargo. Too dangerous to walk into Three Broomsticks and use Floo Powder. They were planning to use this secret passageway," She said, moving so that everyone else could see the trap door she was standing on. I shook my head yes. As many of the times I had used that to get out of Hogsmeade, the answer should have been clear to me. "The sleeping potion is a little of my doing. I had planned to hit the Death Eaters, but I hit Harry instead. He'll be up in a few minutes." She said, grinning as she did.
"Tell me, Nara, what does a vampire such as yourself doing down such a dark alley?" Remus said. Ron, whom for a second I forgot was there, eyes widened. So she's a vampire, ay? That would explain the dark cloak and her looks.
"Wouldn't you like to know, Remmy?" She said harshly, and she turned to leave when Ron stopped her.
"Um, ma'am..." Ron called out, just a little freaked out. Nara stopped and turned to look at Ron, eyeing him questionably.
"Why are you banned from Europe?" He asked, and Nara's face eased a great deal. She even laughed a little.
"I bit a few people, one of them on accident. The other two on purpose." She said, revealing her fangs. Oh yeah, she was a vampire... Rather than turning to leave, this time she walked up to Remus. Much to my surprise, she kissed him lightly on the cheek. Remus face turned, if possible, redder.
"This isn't the last you'll see of me, Remmy dear." She turned to Sirius, and she rubbed his head gently.
"I'd kiss you too, Siri, but I don't do dogs." Sirius licked her face playfully, and she pushed him down off of her. She turned to me, Ron, and Harry, who was just starting to awake.
"Pleasure to meet you, Harry Potter's grandfather. And you two, curious." She said, placing her finger on Ron's nose. "Take care of the boy. Voldemort is not through with him yet." And with that, she transformed into a bat and left. This was definitely going to be a strange year...
**
"Ron, why exactly were in Hogsmeade? It's the first day of the holidays!" Harry asked, fully awake. Ron shrugged his shoulders.
"I was planning on going home, but as it turns out, my parents are away on holiday in Whales, visiting some distant relatives of mine. So now I'm here alone..."He sighed loudly, and Remus smiled.
"If it's alright with the headmaster, you can stay with us at my house for Christmas." Remus said, and Ron's face lite up like a Christmas Tree. So did Harry's. Sirius barked loudly in response as we all walked up to the school. Sirius, Harry, and Ron ran ahead, almost ready to pack Ron's things. Remus smiled weakly, so I put my hand on his shoulder.
"It seems to me, Mr. Lupin, that for the first time in either of our lives, we are going to live with a houseful of kids on Christmas." He laughed, and I did too.
"You gotta count Sirius as well. He's like a kid times two. Not a serious bone in his body. Seriously!" Remus said, and we both ran to catch up with the kids.
***
I woke up for one reason, and for one reason only:
"SIRIUS BLACK! HOW DARE YOU PULL A PRANK ON ME? I DON'T CARE IF IT'S CHRISTMAS, I HALF-HEARTILY AM READY TO GO UP TO FUDGE AND TURN YOU IN, YOU MANGY MUTT..." That would be a very good reason. And because it was Christmas morning.
I rolled out of bed lazily. I slipped my glasses onto my nose, and I walked into the living room quietly. Harry and Ron had awoke to Remus' screams as well. All three of us sat there until eventually Sirius, (in human form) walked out of the back room.
"Geesh. All I did was spill a lot of ice water on him... And it was just to get him out of bed! Come on, it's Christmas!" Sirius said, and we all laughed lightly. A few minutes later Remus rolled out of the bathroom, wearing new clothes and his head was wrapped in a towel. We all sat down, and in a few short minutes, Remus' living room was covered from head to toe in wrapping paper. Only once everything was open did I speak.
"There's something outside for you, Harry." I spoke lightly. Harry, with Ron (Who was curious) ran outside. Remus, Sirius, and I followed behind them.
"Wow! A custom made broom! Those are very, very expensive! Who..." Ron yelled, and then turned to look at me. I winked at him, and he smiled.
"Not when you make them yourself. Go on, Harry, try it." I said, and he held the broom tightly in his palm. In a few short seconds, Harry was in the air, looping around Remus' house. He looked like a large blur, and I took that as a good thing. When he finally flew down, he smiled at me.
"Thank you so much, Grandpa! This is the best broom ever! It flies like..." And his voice wandered a little, complementing the broom I had made him. I was happy for him. I just can't help but wonder how long this happiness of mine will last...
A/N: Whew! It's done! Finally! Anyway, I need to ask you, the reviews, a quick question. It's coming to the time when every fanfic author must ask themselves a simple question: Sequel, or no sequel? That's what I want you to tell me in your review! Please...