A/N: Yay! Love my lovely reviewers! Marzoog! My first ever reviewer on this ficcy, and one of the faithful from the first one! Thanks! Leo, Manda and Lamina – Rest assured, all will be explained… it might take a while, but still…
And lastly, Lizawan! hahahaha May the force-er-posts be with you too! [v. tired and yet still adding ficcy here and perhaps even writing more later nao-wan face] ;)
Here's chapter 2! Enjoy!
Chapter 2: The Past Forgiven, In Part
"How did everything go?" Jem asked curtly as Remus, Aaron and Mel appeared in the living room. Mel bit her lip and Jem could see the tears in her eyes. Before her mother could question her though, she ran up to her room. Jem sighed. "That well, huh?"
"Good news or bad news?" Remus said, kissing his wife's cheek.
"I need some aspirin," Aaron said, leaving his parents alone as he bounded up the stairs two at a time.
"Oh, god, this can't be good," Jem mumbled, watching Remus collapse into a nearby arm chair. She then walked over to him and sat on the chair's arm, wrapping her arms around her husband and kissing his temple. She took a deep breath before speaking again. "Let's get it over with, bad news first."
"Sirius."
"I figured as much. What happened?"
"Let's just say that he hasn't exactly forgotten the past, and nor is he ready to forgive. Though, to tell the truth, our son gave him quite a piece of his mind." Jem shook her head. "Our daughter too, come to think of it."
"What do you mean?"
"He knew who she was… the moment she came in; he knew you were her mother."
"I was afraid of that," Jem whispered. "But it's okay, right? He didn't get the upper hand, and he wouldn't say anything in front of the children… in front of Harry-"
Remus let out a nasty chuckle. "Oh, he did… it was just lucky that they were there… you know how James is the only one that could ever stop him…"
"So I'm guessing that Harry inherited that particular gift?"
"No! Well, yes, but no. That's not what I meant."
"Darling, you're not speaking sense. What are you talking about?" Jem asked, turning Remus' face to hers so she could look into his eyes.
There was a sudden knock on the door, breaking the moment that the couple was sharing. Jem quickly got up and went to answer it, her breath caught in her throat when she saw who was standing outside. "Harry?" she breathed. He was the living image of James, which she knew from the pictures Remus had shown her, but even so, it was quite startling. Even more so when 'Harry' shook his head and grinned widely at her, raising an eyebrow at her confusion, showcasing his deep blue eyes.
"Jemina, Jemina, Jemina. What ever are we going to do with you?" An all too familiar voice said. When Jem didn't say anything in response, James decided to try something else. "Surprise! It's a boy! And a red-head!" Without a sound, Lily and Harry appeared at his side from underneath the invisibility cloak.
"Remus?" Jem managed to choke out. "Door…" she then fell into a dead-faint.
"Did she hit her head?"
"Is she going to be alright?"
"Can't you wake her up?"
"Would you just back off and leave her to me?"
"Touchy."
An exasperated sigh, a slight shift of weight, and Jemina opened her eyes. "I – I don't know what happened," she said, looking up into the concerned eyes of her husband. "I opened the door and thought that I saw-"
"Jem!" Lily cried.
"L – Lily?" Jem breathed, her hand flying up to her mouth in disbelief. "What… what's going on?" she stammered, her eyes welling with tears.
Lily's heart broke at the sight of her best friend nearly in tears, and she immediately rushed to her side, throwing her arms around Jem's trembling frame. "Jem, I missed you so much!" she cried, tears now streaming down her face as well.
The two women hugged and cried and talked in sobs for a while, causing James to roll his eyes at Remus and make the simple comment, "Women." Lily, never missing a beat, promptly chucked a cushion at his head.
Remus couldn't help but laugh. "Some things will never change."
"Thanks, Moony. Thanks a lot. Glad to know that I've still got friends like you," James said.
"Dad?" Remus and James both looked up, causing Harry to grin. "Not you, him," he laughed, pointing at James who then, very maturely, stuck his tongue out at Remus. "Anyway," Harry continued, rolling his eyes, "Can I talk to you for a moment?"
"Yeah, suppose so." James gestured toward Lily and Jem. "They're not going to be ready to talk for a while anyway." Remus nodded knowingly and watched his friend, freshly back from the grave no less, walk into his kitchen with Harry.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" James asked, casually leaning against the kitchen counter.
"Is she really my godmother?"
"Yes, she is."
"So then whatever happened, between her and Sirius I mean, it was really awful… he's never mentioned her…"
"Some things are better left unsaid, Harry."
"That certainly wasn't the case earlier today."
"It was time for Sirius to face what happened. It seems that Remus and Aaron had already made their peace… So what if Sirius has yet to do it?"
"What do you mean? What happened?"
"I don't really think that it's my place to tell you. It's really between them."
"You know, I think that I'm a very accepting person," Harry began. "I mean, considering I'm about to turn 18, I've been through a hell of a lot, to put it mildly. After losing my parents, I was forced to live with my pathetic excuse of an aunt and uncle… oh, and let's not forget the demon child. Tortured for the next 9, 10 years of my life, my entire world is turned around when I find out that everyone had been lying to me. 'Guess what, Harry! You're a wizard! Oh, and yeah, just so you know, you're a famous wizard. Everyone knows your name!' Just a little disconcerting, believe you me."
"Get to the point, Harry, because even though I do love you more than anything, I'm not going to stand here and be blamed for everything that happened to you. I wish that things hadn't worked out like that, and you have to know that I would move heaven and earth to change it all. To tell you honestly, I think that I kind of did. I just don't want to be wrongfully accused of anything."
Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Trying to articulate exactly what he wanted to say without hurting his father was more of a challenge than he had expected. "Okay, trying again. I'm not blaming you for anything. I know that everything that happened goes back to Voldemort and not you or mum. What I mean, is that for as long as I can remember, people have lied to me, or at least hidden the truth. First, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon lied about what happened to you. Then I couldn't know why everything happened to our family, then there was the Sirius issue… I had no idea who he was and what he supposedly had done until far later than I should have…
"Hell, dad, even Malfoy knew about that! And I know that his dad was a great git who was a Death Eater and knew because of that, but still, it kind of hurt. I'm sick of people keeping things from me. I'm an adult, and I think I'm able to handle it. Really, look at us! I've kept reasonably sane considering that the parents I knew to be dead for the last 16 years have managed to come back to life thanks to come pretty complicated spells that nobody else in the world knows exists!"
"That's not true!" James protested.
"Alright, fine. Dumbledore knows too, happy?"
"Yes, thanks." James grinned.
"My God!" Harry exclaimed, his hands flying immediately to his temples.
"What?"
"Now I know what they've all been talking about!" James cocked an eyebrow in question. "I'm gonna turn into you! I might as well be arguing with myself right now! This is insane!"
James couldn't hold it in anymore. He burst out laughing. "It's those amazing Potter genes at work, Harry… passed down from father to son, generation after generation. We're all like this."
"Sad, but true," Remus said, entering the room. "Now you completely understand why it was so hard to teach you, Harry. I knew what this monster was like in classes back in our day." He then looked from father to son and smirked. "So what were we arguing about?"
"What a nosy git you are?" James and Harry said at the same time. They then looked at each other and started to laugh.
"So you want to know what happened, huh, Harry?"
"Yeah, kind of. I mean, you're practically family, and with all that's going on, I'm a bit lost… being the only one out-of-the-loop kind of sucks."
"Fair enough."
"Remus, you don't have to do this."
"Dad, shut up and let the man talk."
Remus' eyes sparkled as he laughed quietly. "Your son, it seems, would beg to differ, Prongs." He then turned to Harry. "Well, I really don't know where to start…"
"The beginning is usually a good place," Harry said.
"Harry!" James exclaimed, though he couldn't hide a smile as Harry grinned defiantly at him.
"Alright, the beginning it is then…" Remus then proceeded to tell Harry about how all of them (himself, James, Lily, Jem, Sirius and Peter) were at Hogwarts together, and how all except Jem knew of his condition. He told Harry what happened after they left school, why Aaron came to live with them, and how Jem was Lily's Maid of Honor when she married James. Leaving out the bit about Angelica (deciding that it was his parents' place to tell him about that), Remus began to tell Harry about the day that everything fell apart.
"In all my experiences growing up as a werewolf, somehow I never managed to be outside I guess when a solar eclipse would take place. But that day, when we were all at lunch, it happened. Nobody else even noticed, well, except you."
"I did?" Harry asked unsurely.
"Yeah, you let out a cry when you noticed him starting to change… startled all of us," James said wistfully.
"Anyway, Sirius and James here jumped up and dragged me to a back alley so that they could change and keep me in check. Your mum, meanwhile, was trying to calm Jem down. Finally, after I had transformed back, we all apparated to your house to talk in private. Jem threw a fit, she was appalled, disgusted. You know how cruel and prejudiced people are toward my kind… It's ignorance, really, but that's not the point. Ultimately, she refused to accept me for what I was and demanded that I leave, but Sirius and James both stuck up for me. Then she yelled for Sirius to leave with her. When he didn't, she gave him an ultimatum. He would either go with her or stay with us. He had to choose. He chose to stay with us."
The three sat in a thoughtful silence for a moment until there was a sudden 'pop' and the refrigerator opened. Three heads turned to see who the intruder was.
"Don't mind me!" Aaron said brightly. "Just wanted a coke, and didn't want to interrupt Sob-Fest '98 in there," he told them, gesturing toward the living room where Jem and Lily were still crying in each other's arms.
James rolled his eyes. "Come on, Moony, let's go break them up. It's been long enough."
"Alright, but if I get clawed, I'm holding you personally accountable." James smirked at this and shook his head, leading his friend out by his shoulders.
"Penny for your thoughts, Harry," Aaron said, pulling out a chair and turning it around so he could sit in it backwards.
"What were they like?"
"Who?" Aaron asked, opening a bag of M&Ms and popping a couple into his mouth.
Harry let out an exasperated sigh and Aaron's grin widened. "Don't say it," Harry warned. "I've heard it quite enough, thanks."
"What?" Aaron asked innocently, taking another handful of M&Ms.
"Just don't start on that. Can't you just answer my question without mocking me in any way?"
Aaron laughed and tossed the bag of candy to Harry. "Sadly, I can't answer the question without mocking you." When he saw the look on Harry's face he laughed again. "Imagine yourself and your friends in about a year, that's what it was like. Well, that's what your dad was like anyway, you."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"That you are truly your father's son. Although from what dad has told me, you're a bit less trouble." When he realized that Harry hadn't touched the candy he simply shrugged and took it back. "Alright, what do ya wanna know?"
"When you met them, all of them, what were they like?"
"Well, I met your mom first. She was great, very warm and kind, you could really tell that she genuinely cared. And then, you know how I met the rest of this crazy lot… more out of necessity than anything else… Anyway, they were all a lot of fun. We had to always be careful in the house cos like, your grandmother, Marilyn, she was a crazy woman, loved her, but what a whack-job!
"She was one of the greatest babysitters I ever had, but she was very old fashioned; it's a wonder that your father turned out the way he did, not to mention what a free-spirit that sister of his was. From what everyone told me, she didn't really want Lily and James to live together before they were married, but he figured out a way to scam her: Lily had the master suite to herself and James had his own room… of course what she didn't know is that every night James would stay with Lily anyway. Almost got caught a couple times too, by her surprise visits of course… but that's beside the point."
"Wait a minute," Harry said, breaking the silence that had settled between them for a minute. "My dad has a sister?"
"Had."
"Had?" Harry croaked.
"Yeah, your parents knew that Voldemort was after them, and took a Secret-Keeper. That was Marilyn. She was killed not too long after, and then Claire, your aunt, was going to take over the post. I don't know exactly how it happened, but when push came to shove, they discovered that it wasn't Claire that they were about to perform the spell on, it was some Death Eater in disguise. It then came out that Claire had been killed."
"And so I never even got to meet either of them," Harry whispered.
Aaron shook his head sadly. "It was an awfully hard year, what with Marilyn and then the-"
"Well," Remus interjected rather loudly. "I certainly hope that you and Aaron found something to talk about, Harry," he smiled, and then shifted his gaze over to Aaron, giving him a meaningful look.