Tonks opened Harry's room door and poked her head inside. As a bubble-gum pink lock fell over her face, she saw Remus and Harry asleep. Harry seemed fast asleep but Remus was struggling in his sleep. Tonks silently walked to Remus' chair, placing the rebellious lock behind her ear (the rest of her hair was in a turquoise ponytail except for two pink strands). She leaned over and whispered in his ear 'Remus, wake up'.
His struggling stopped and reluctantly opened his eyes. A smile came over him as he saw Tonks' bright purple eyes smiling at him too.
'Good morning, sleepy head' she whispered 'It's around ten in the morning!'
'Sorry, Is just that I stood until late last night' he said as he walked to the corner where they could talk without waking Harry up.
'Oh... tough time with Harry's questions?'
'Worse... my questions' he said, sighing.
Tonks held his hand with one of hers and with the other scratched his palm sweetly. He smiled at her. 'I love when you do that' he said, making her blush a little.
'I know, that's why I do it'
Remus leaned over and kissed her lips.
'Do you wanna come home for dinner?' she asked, still stroking his hand 'I swear I won't cook!'
'Ok... but I have to come to stay with Harry for the night, so I'll leave quite early' he replied.
Tonks sighed, but smiled. 'Ok, Remmy'
'That's not fair' he complaint suddenly
'What?' she asked quite confused.
'How I am supposed to call you?'
'Tonks?'
'It's too formal! I love you, I don't want to call you by your last name!' said Remus. Tonks flinched a bit for his words.
'Don't you dare to call me Nymphadora!' she warned immediately.
'Well... how about, hum... Gosh! I dunno! I can't think of anything from your name!'
'How about "Sweetie" or "Muffin"?' proposed a voice over her shoulder. They looked at the bed and saw Harry grinning at them.
'You meddlesome pest!' said Tonks walking to his bed 'How are you doing?'
'Not as good as you two'
'Harry, stop that already!' said Remus who was blushing profusely.
After lunch, a while later, Remus announced his departure and Harry covered himself with the blankets one more time as Remus and Tonks kissed.
'Bye, Muffin' he heard Remus saying and he laughed silently in his hideout.
He was beating Tonks in a wizard's chess game, when the healer came, and told Harry that the next day, they would take his bandages out and he could go home.
'Does home still means Privet Drive?' asked Harry unwillingly. Tonks shook her head.
'Home means Grimmauld Place now' she said 'You know although Remus is living there, the whole place is at your name...'
Harry grinned at the thought of it, he had serious changes to do to that place...
After spending almost all the afternoon with Tonks, Hagrid came and he stood with Harry until Remus returned. Harry was very happy they didn't want to leave him alone too much.
Hagrid left right away and Harry requested the last memory but Remus refused.
'Let's change the order here, ok? First I tell you one and then I read, what do you think about it?'
Harry sighed 'Why do you ask if you're going to do it your way anyway?'
Remus smiled 'That was the most 'Sirius-ish' thing you could have said'
'Thank you, now tell me something good'
'Alright, this time I did my homework... I'm going to tell you about the first time I saw your parents, Nikki and Cassie... September first, 1971'
Harry grinned excitedly, this was gonna be great.
'Well... I remember it as if it was yesterday, Platform 9 ¾ was crowded as every September 1st, I didn't know anyone so I quickly got into the Hogwarts Express, took an empty compartment really near the end of the train and made myself at home but even before it started moving...
Remus was already sitting and reading his charms book for the tenth time, when he heard a scream, laughter and hurried footsteps. His door flung open and two boys with trunks ran inside. Both with jet black hair, but one's was really messy and the other's was perfect in every way. They were laughing and trying to catch their breath when they noticed Remus, looking at them from over the book.
'Oh, Hello' said the boy with messy black hair, turning to Remus. He had bespectacled hazel eyes. 'I'm sorry we ran in like this... are this seats taken?'
Remus shook his head and the other boy, with deep blue eyes stared at him.
'Are you a first year?' he asked. Remus nodded. 'We're too... I'm Sirius Black, and this is James Potter' he stretched out his hand to shake Remus' and smiled.
Remus smiled back timidly 'I'm Remus Lupin' he said now shaking James' hand.
'What happened out there?' he asked them. Sirius and James grinned.
That exact second an older blonde girl opened the door, she looked at Sirius with pure hatred.
'What did you do to Lucius' hair?' she asked him.
'I don't know what you're talking about, Narci, I haven't seen your albino boyfriend today' said Sirius, looking incredibly innocent.
'Don't give me that, little twit, I know it was you and the Potter kid a minute ago!'
'I'm sorry, miss, but Sirius, James and I have been here for quite a while' interrupted Remus. James looked at him smiling widely. Narcissa snorted, and casted a deadly glare to Remus 'I don't know who you are yet, kid, but I'll be watching you... and you two too!' she said before banging the compartment door closed.
'Thanks, mate!' said James immediately, beaming at Remus. 'Narcissa would have given us detention even before reaching the school grounds...'
'I'm sorry for my beloved cousin behaviour' said Sirius 'but you... are our hero! Thanks, Remmy!' said Sirius hugging him. Remus couldn't help but laugh and hug him back. That was the first hug given to him by a friend.
'Forgive my demented friend' said James 'I swear he's not gay, he's just... demented'
'It's ok' said Remus 'So, what did you do to the albino's hair?'
Sirius and James laughed again and after telling Remus how they have transfigured Malfoy's hair into jelly worms, he was laughing too.
The train set off, and not a minute had passed after James had poked his head back into the train after waving at his parents, when a red-haired girl with her trunk opened the door. James stared like hypnotised. The girl smiled at them.
'Is there room for three more first years?' she asked.
'Three... I dunno' began Remus but Sirius elbowed him.
'Sure! There's always room for beautiful ladies!' said Sirius, bowing. The girl giggled and went to call her friends.
'Rule no. 1, Remmy, always welcome girls into your compartment'
'Rule no. 2, try not to call me that, Siri' he said joking. James woke from his trance...
'Who was that?' he said
'Dunno' shrugged Sirius 'but we'll find out soon'
The red-haired girl returned with two more girls. One had long fair hair and bright yellow eyes and the other one, had long black hair and dazzling green eyes, just like the red haired girl. James stared at her one more time.
'I'm Lily Evans, they are Cassiopea White and Nicole Meadowes... we're first years too'
Sirius got Nicole's hand and kissed the back of it 'My deepest pleasure, Sirius Black, at your service'
'Oh... you're a Black?' she asked taking her hand away and looking at him in disgust. Cassie was looking at him too in anything but disgust.
'We better go, Lily' said Nikki taking her red haired friend 'We'll find other seats'
'why?' asked Remus
'Because she's a muggle-born and he's a Black!' mouthed Nikki to him, as she dragged a confused Lily and a drooling Cassie with her.
Sirius sighed 'Stupid last name...' he said. James put his hand over Sirius' shoulder.
'Come on, Sirius, not all of them flinched for your family... the one with yellow eyes didn't seem to care' he winked.
'I can't believe you noticed!' said Remus 'I thought you were too busy checking out Evans'
'I'm multifunctional' he said simply and then smiling stupidly he added 'Did you see her eyes?'
'As if someone couldn't!' said Sirius 'But the dark haired... Nicole? She was burning... I can't wait to see her grow boobs...'
'Sirius!' yelled the other two.
'What? She will...'
They kept talking about the girls until the door opened again. A fat blond boy was standing there.
'Oh! Hello, James!' he said, blushing a little.
'Hey, Peter' said James in a bored voice.
'Can I sit with you?' he asked, really excited.
'Erm... sorry, Peter, there's already someone here...' said Sirius.
'I can't see anyone' said Peter looking confused
'That's because we were practising invisibility charms' said James, pointing at Remus' forgotten book.
'Oh...' he said, he sounded really disappointed. 'Well, bye then' and he closed the door.
'Loser' said Sirius as he left.
'Who was that?' asked Remus
'That's Peter Pettigrew, he's from a very important wizard family but he's a geek' said Sirius.
'How about you?' asked James 'Are you from a wizard family too?'
'Yes, but it isn't that important' he said
'I figured' said Sirius 'Otherwise we would have met at one of my mother's stupid cocktail parties as I did with James and Peter'
'Is your mother one of those who cares about blood's purity?' asked Remus.
'Yep, that's right... The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Toujours pur' he said ironically 'Pure my rear end'
'That's just stupid' said James, Remus agreed and then they went to buy some candy from the witch in the hallway.
There they met Peter again, but he wasn't alone. A boy with greasy black hair and a huge nose was cornering him with two cronies.
Sirius and James hurried to where they were with Remus.
'Is something wrong, Peter?' asked James, from behind Snape. He turned around to face him. The other two flinched but he didn't.
'Well... if it isn't blood-traitor Potter and his blood-traitor friend Black, the disgrace of his family!' he said coldly.
'Good to see you two, Snape' smirked Sirius 'Now, leave our friend alone or pay the consequences'
'Ooh, I'm so scared' he said 'And who's that? Another blood traitor or a mud-blood?'
'I'm blood-traitor Lupin, nice to meet you, now, leave Peter alone'
'Why should I?' asked Snape 'I'm not scared of you, you can't hurt me or...' But before he could say anything else, Sirius' wand was out and with a triumphant face as Snape's friends ran away, he said 'Locomotor mortis!'
Snape's leg were magically tied together and he fell on his nose, which started bleeding. His eyes filled with tears and he started weeping.
'Look! He's crying!' said James pointing at him and laughing as everyone else that had gathered around.
'Nah, he's just snivelling' corrected Sirius 'Let's go buy candy' he started going to the next wagon where the candy witch was, without removing the charm from the weeping boy.
'Bye, Snivellus' said James looking at him in the floor, following a chuckling Remus and an amazed Peter.
In the other wagon, Peter didn't stop looking at them in awe.
'Is the seat still taken?' he asked, hopefully. Sirius looked around and saw Cassie, going out to buy candy too.
'Of course, Peter' he said immediately and waved at Cassie 'Cassiopea!'
Cassie, went straight to him, smiling.
'Hi again' she said.
'Cassiopea, I want you to meet our friend Peter Pettigrew' Peter smiled and Cassie looked at him trying (not succeeding, but trying) to hid her disgust.
'Erm... hi'
'Ok, we'll go back to the compartment to keep practising charms' said Remus and got Cassie into their compartment.
'What was that?' she asked.
'Sorry, but neither James nor Sirius wanted him to sit with us so we said you were here'
'Oh... ok. I don't know your name yet!'
'I'm Remus. Remus Lupin'
'I'm Cassiopea White, but you can call me Cassie, my name is too long' she said shaking Remus' hand. Remus smiled.
'Your friend... Sirius... is he a muggle hater?' she asked
'Oh! No... that's just his mother' he explained
'That's better, isn't it?' said Sirius entering the compartment with James, both loaded with candy. 'I'm not stupid like she is, don't worry, you're friend Evans is safe' he grinned at her and she blushed a little.
'Ok... I better go, Lily and Nikki must be getting worried' she smiled at them 'Bye, Potter, Lupin... Black' she said and left.
James left, after having most of his candy, to look for Lily. He returned some minutes later, with blood coming from his nose.
'What happened?' asked both Remus and Sirius
'Well... we didn't "hit it off", but she did hit me'
Sirius shook his head 'You don't know how to deal with girls!'
'Oh... I forgot you were the ladies man!' he said sarcastically.
'As a matter of fact I am!' he said, looking offended. Remus and James looked at each other, shaking their heads.
'Well, what went wrong?' he asked trying to get away from the subject.
'The Snape kid came' said James 'and I just placed a sign on his back saying "git" and she got all mad and git-protective and... I... pinched her behind as she left'
'You what?!'
'Groped her' he said looking down.
Remus and Sirius were laughing really hard at their blushing friend.
'Oh! Shut it Sirius! You would have too! You didn't see her!' he said defensively
'Nu uh, you're the pervert! I'm the ladies man and Remmy here is the intelligent one... oh! And Peter is... well, he's Peter'
'What did we said about the Remmy thing?' said Remus
'Oops, sorry Rems, It just slipped out' he grinned 'I mean, we're already a gang!' The other two smiled at Sirius who was grinning with his arms opened.
'Ok, but clarify that I'm the pervert but not the stroke!' said James as the train began to slow down, arriving at Hogsmeade Station with the Marauders for the first time.
'Dad groped Mum the first time he saw her?' asked Harry
'Nope, the second'
Harry shook his head 'and you fell immediately for Cassie too?'
'No, I fell for her in our fifth year when we both were terribly scared for the OWLs and spent a lot of time together studying' Remus said.
'Oh... but you were friends right?'
'Nah, we were just classmates... the only one who was really a friend with one of the girls was your father, with Nikki'
'Yeah?'
'Uh huh, they became good friends in the second year when they got in the Quidditch team... and Cassie was always kinda tailing Sirius... but she wasn't the only one, they were tons'
Harry laughed 'and you and dad?'
'Your dad was popular too, but I wasn't... I was Potter and Black's friend'
'I bet you weren't just that'
'You're right... I was also one of the top of our class, after Cassie, your mum and a Ravenclaw girl... Robin Moore' he smiled a little
'Who was that?'
'Your father's cousin and my first girlfriend'
'Before Cassie?'
'Yeah, I wasn't Peter, you know? I did have girlfriends'
'When was that?'
'We dated a few months in our fifth year, but we broke up when I fell for Cassie... near the OWLs '
'Oh... what was she like?'
'She had short brown hair and sky blue eyes... she was pretty, but not like Cassie... Cassie was beautiful'
'Ok... how about you reading me the memory, hu?
When Remus finished thinking if he should read, just to bother Harry, and after being elbowed by him, decided to read.
Harry was ready to finally listen to Cassie's memory... or at least that was what he thought.
Before starting, Remus warned him.
'This was very important for me... it still is but remember it happened already and there's nothing that could have been done to change it, ok?'
Harry nodded, confused and scared at the same time... He definitely wasn't ready for what was about to come.
When Remus finished reading, that part was still ringing in Harry's head.
* "Cassie said 'hum... well, I guess I might be a little pregnant...' looking directly into Remus' eyes."*
Remus was looking at anything but Harry with watery eyes... Harry just sat there thinking for a while and then hugged Remus. Remus' tears finally were shed but quickly wiped.
'You know, Harry? Sirius told me back then that everything happens for a reason... but most time we don't know it... we're meaningless to the world's fate but the world's fate must not be meaningless to us... you'll never know what is destined to you, and you must keep going, even if your friends, your fiancée, and even your child is taken from you... you still may have a reason to exist, the simple hope of making someone happy or just to don't make even more miserable the ones that are still among you, remember that Harry and I'll tell you something more, I clearly remember your mum's favourite poem...
If I can stop one heart from braking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin,
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.'
Harry stood silent looking at Remus, respect growing in his heart as it never did before. Respect for his mum, his dad, and everyone that had given his or her life for others and even more for Remus, who had given things more valuable than his own life. To get... what? Nothing but peace.
His struggling stopped and reluctantly opened his eyes. A smile came over him as he saw Tonks' bright purple eyes smiling at him too.
'Good morning, sleepy head' she whispered 'It's around ten in the morning!'
'Sorry, Is just that I stood until late last night' he said as he walked to the corner where they could talk without waking Harry up.
'Oh... tough time with Harry's questions?'
'Worse... my questions' he said, sighing.
Tonks held his hand with one of hers and with the other scratched his palm sweetly. He smiled at her. 'I love when you do that' he said, making her blush a little.
'I know, that's why I do it'
Remus leaned over and kissed her lips.
'Do you wanna come home for dinner?' she asked, still stroking his hand 'I swear I won't cook!'
'Ok... but I have to come to stay with Harry for the night, so I'll leave quite early' he replied.
Tonks sighed, but smiled. 'Ok, Remmy'
'That's not fair' he complaint suddenly
'What?' she asked quite confused.
'How I am supposed to call you?'
'Tonks?'
'It's too formal! I love you, I don't want to call you by your last name!' said Remus. Tonks flinched a bit for his words.
'Don't you dare to call me Nymphadora!' she warned immediately.
'Well... how about, hum... Gosh! I dunno! I can't think of anything from your name!'
'How about "Sweetie" or "Muffin"?' proposed a voice over her shoulder. They looked at the bed and saw Harry grinning at them.
'You meddlesome pest!' said Tonks walking to his bed 'How are you doing?'
'Not as good as you two'
'Harry, stop that already!' said Remus who was blushing profusely.
After lunch, a while later, Remus announced his departure and Harry covered himself with the blankets one more time as Remus and Tonks kissed.
'Bye, Muffin' he heard Remus saying and he laughed silently in his hideout.
He was beating Tonks in a wizard's chess game, when the healer came, and told Harry that the next day, they would take his bandages out and he could go home.
'Does home still means Privet Drive?' asked Harry unwillingly. Tonks shook her head.
'Home means Grimmauld Place now' she said 'You know although Remus is living there, the whole place is at your name...'
Harry grinned at the thought of it, he had serious changes to do to that place...
After spending almost all the afternoon with Tonks, Hagrid came and he stood with Harry until Remus returned. Harry was very happy they didn't want to leave him alone too much.
Hagrid left right away and Harry requested the last memory but Remus refused.
'Let's change the order here, ok? First I tell you one and then I read, what do you think about it?'
Harry sighed 'Why do you ask if you're going to do it your way anyway?'
Remus smiled 'That was the most 'Sirius-ish' thing you could have said'
'Thank you, now tell me something good'
'Alright, this time I did my homework... I'm going to tell you about the first time I saw your parents, Nikki and Cassie... September first, 1971'
Harry grinned excitedly, this was gonna be great.
'Well... I remember it as if it was yesterday, Platform 9 ¾ was crowded as every September 1st, I didn't know anyone so I quickly got into the Hogwarts Express, took an empty compartment really near the end of the train and made myself at home but even before it started moving...
Remus was already sitting and reading his charms book for the tenth time, when he heard a scream, laughter and hurried footsteps. His door flung open and two boys with trunks ran inside. Both with jet black hair, but one's was really messy and the other's was perfect in every way. They were laughing and trying to catch their breath when they noticed Remus, looking at them from over the book.
'Oh, Hello' said the boy with messy black hair, turning to Remus. He had bespectacled hazel eyes. 'I'm sorry we ran in like this... are this seats taken?'
Remus shook his head and the other boy, with deep blue eyes stared at him.
'Are you a first year?' he asked. Remus nodded. 'We're too... I'm Sirius Black, and this is James Potter' he stretched out his hand to shake Remus' and smiled.
Remus smiled back timidly 'I'm Remus Lupin' he said now shaking James' hand.
'What happened out there?' he asked them. Sirius and James grinned.
That exact second an older blonde girl opened the door, she looked at Sirius with pure hatred.
'What did you do to Lucius' hair?' she asked him.
'I don't know what you're talking about, Narci, I haven't seen your albino boyfriend today' said Sirius, looking incredibly innocent.
'Don't give me that, little twit, I know it was you and the Potter kid a minute ago!'
'I'm sorry, miss, but Sirius, James and I have been here for quite a while' interrupted Remus. James looked at him smiling widely. Narcissa snorted, and casted a deadly glare to Remus 'I don't know who you are yet, kid, but I'll be watching you... and you two too!' she said before banging the compartment door closed.
'Thanks, mate!' said James immediately, beaming at Remus. 'Narcissa would have given us detention even before reaching the school grounds...'
'I'm sorry for my beloved cousin behaviour' said Sirius 'but you... are our hero! Thanks, Remmy!' said Sirius hugging him. Remus couldn't help but laugh and hug him back. That was the first hug given to him by a friend.
'Forgive my demented friend' said James 'I swear he's not gay, he's just... demented'
'It's ok' said Remus 'So, what did you do to the albino's hair?'
Sirius and James laughed again and after telling Remus how they have transfigured Malfoy's hair into jelly worms, he was laughing too.
The train set off, and not a minute had passed after James had poked his head back into the train after waving at his parents, when a red-haired girl with her trunk opened the door. James stared like hypnotised. The girl smiled at them.
'Is there room for three more first years?' she asked.
'Three... I dunno' began Remus but Sirius elbowed him.
'Sure! There's always room for beautiful ladies!' said Sirius, bowing. The girl giggled and went to call her friends.
'Rule no. 1, Remmy, always welcome girls into your compartment'
'Rule no. 2, try not to call me that, Siri' he said joking. James woke from his trance...
'Who was that?' he said
'Dunno' shrugged Sirius 'but we'll find out soon'
The red-haired girl returned with two more girls. One had long fair hair and bright yellow eyes and the other one, had long black hair and dazzling green eyes, just like the red haired girl. James stared at her one more time.
'I'm Lily Evans, they are Cassiopea White and Nicole Meadowes... we're first years too'
Sirius got Nicole's hand and kissed the back of it 'My deepest pleasure, Sirius Black, at your service'
'Oh... you're a Black?' she asked taking her hand away and looking at him in disgust. Cassie was looking at him too in anything but disgust.
'We better go, Lily' said Nikki taking her red haired friend 'We'll find other seats'
'why?' asked Remus
'Because she's a muggle-born and he's a Black!' mouthed Nikki to him, as she dragged a confused Lily and a drooling Cassie with her.
Sirius sighed 'Stupid last name...' he said. James put his hand over Sirius' shoulder.
'Come on, Sirius, not all of them flinched for your family... the one with yellow eyes didn't seem to care' he winked.
'I can't believe you noticed!' said Remus 'I thought you were too busy checking out Evans'
'I'm multifunctional' he said simply and then smiling stupidly he added 'Did you see her eyes?'
'As if someone couldn't!' said Sirius 'But the dark haired... Nicole? She was burning... I can't wait to see her grow boobs...'
'Sirius!' yelled the other two.
'What? She will...'
They kept talking about the girls until the door opened again. A fat blond boy was standing there.
'Oh! Hello, James!' he said, blushing a little.
'Hey, Peter' said James in a bored voice.
'Can I sit with you?' he asked, really excited.
'Erm... sorry, Peter, there's already someone here...' said Sirius.
'I can't see anyone' said Peter looking confused
'That's because we were practising invisibility charms' said James, pointing at Remus' forgotten book.
'Oh...' he said, he sounded really disappointed. 'Well, bye then' and he closed the door.
'Loser' said Sirius as he left.
'Who was that?' asked Remus
'That's Peter Pettigrew, he's from a very important wizard family but he's a geek' said Sirius.
'How about you?' asked James 'Are you from a wizard family too?'
'Yes, but it isn't that important' he said
'I figured' said Sirius 'Otherwise we would have met at one of my mother's stupid cocktail parties as I did with James and Peter'
'Is your mother one of those who cares about blood's purity?' asked Remus.
'Yep, that's right... The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Toujours pur' he said ironically 'Pure my rear end'
'That's just stupid' said James, Remus agreed and then they went to buy some candy from the witch in the hallway.
There they met Peter again, but he wasn't alone. A boy with greasy black hair and a huge nose was cornering him with two cronies.
Sirius and James hurried to where they were with Remus.
'Is something wrong, Peter?' asked James, from behind Snape. He turned around to face him. The other two flinched but he didn't.
'Well... if it isn't blood-traitor Potter and his blood-traitor friend Black, the disgrace of his family!' he said coldly.
'Good to see you two, Snape' smirked Sirius 'Now, leave our friend alone or pay the consequences'
'Ooh, I'm so scared' he said 'And who's that? Another blood traitor or a mud-blood?'
'I'm blood-traitor Lupin, nice to meet you, now, leave Peter alone'
'Why should I?' asked Snape 'I'm not scared of you, you can't hurt me or...' But before he could say anything else, Sirius' wand was out and with a triumphant face as Snape's friends ran away, he said 'Locomotor mortis!'
Snape's leg were magically tied together and he fell on his nose, which started bleeding. His eyes filled with tears and he started weeping.
'Look! He's crying!' said James pointing at him and laughing as everyone else that had gathered around.
'Nah, he's just snivelling' corrected Sirius 'Let's go buy candy' he started going to the next wagon where the candy witch was, without removing the charm from the weeping boy.
'Bye, Snivellus' said James looking at him in the floor, following a chuckling Remus and an amazed Peter.
In the other wagon, Peter didn't stop looking at them in awe.
'Is the seat still taken?' he asked, hopefully. Sirius looked around and saw Cassie, going out to buy candy too.
'Of course, Peter' he said immediately and waved at Cassie 'Cassiopea!'
Cassie, went straight to him, smiling.
'Hi again' she said.
'Cassiopea, I want you to meet our friend Peter Pettigrew' Peter smiled and Cassie looked at him trying (not succeeding, but trying) to hid her disgust.
'Erm... hi'
'Ok, we'll go back to the compartment to keep practising charms' said Remus and got Cassie into their compartment.
'What was that?' she asked.
'Sorry, but neither James nor Sirius wanted him to sit with us so we said you were here'
'Oh... ok. I don't know your name yet!'
'I'm Remus. Remus Lupin'
'I'm Cassiopea White, but you can call me Cassie, my name is too long' she said shaking Remus' hand. Remus smiled.
'Your friend... Sirius... is he a muggle hater?' she asked
'Oh! No... that's just his mother' he explained
'That's better, isn't it?' said Sirius entering the compartment with James, both loaded with candy. 'I'm not stupid like she is, don't worry, you're friend Evans is safe' he grinned at her and she blushed a little.
'Ok... I better go, Lily and Nikki must be getting worried' she smiled at them 'Bye, Potter, Lupin... Black' she said and left.
James left, after having most of his candy, to look for Lily. He returned some minutes later, with blood coming from his nose.
'What happened?' asked both Remus and Sirius
'Well... we didn't "hit it off", but she did hit me'
Sirius shook his head 'You don't know how to deal with girls!'
'Oh... I forgot you were the ladies man!' he said sarcastically.
'As a matter of fact I am!' he said, looking offended. Remus and James looked at each other, shaking their heads.
'Well, what went wrong?' he asked trying to get away from the subject.
'The Snape kid came' said James 'and I just placed a sign on his back saying "git" and she got all mad and git-protective and... I... pinched her behind as she left'
'You what?!'
'Groped her' he said looking down.
Remus and Sirius were laughing really hard at their blushing friend.
'Oh! Shut it Sirius! You would have too! You didn't see her!' he said defensively
'Nu uh, you're the pervert! I'm the ladies man and Remmy here is the intelligent one... oh! And Peter is... well, he's Peter'
'What did we said about the Remmy thing?' said Remus
'Oops, sorry Rems, It just slipped out' he grinned 'I mean, we're already a gang!' The other two smiled at Sirius who was grinning with his arms opened.
'Ok, but clarify that I'm the pervert but not the stroke!' said James as the train began to slow down, arriving at Hogsmeade Station with the Marauders for the first time.
'Dad groped Mum the first time he saw her?' asked Harry
'Nope, the second'
Harry shook his head 'and you fell immediately for Cassie too?'
'No, I fell for her in our fifth year when we both were terribly scared for the OWLs and spent a lot of time together studying' Remus said.
'Oh... but you were friends right?'
'Nah, we were just classmates... the only one who was really a friend with one of the girls was your father, with Nikki'
'Yeah?'
'Uh huh, they became good friends in the second year when they got in the Quidditch team... and Cassie was always kinda tailing Sirius... but she wasn't the only one, they were tons'
Harry laughed 'and you and dad?'
'Your dad was popular too, but I wasn't... I was Potter and Black's friend'
'I bet you weren't just that'
'You're right... I was also one of the top of our class, after Cassie, your mum and a Ravenclaw girl... Robin Moore' he smiled a little
'Who was that?'
'Your father's cousin and my first girlfriend'
'Before Cassie?'
'Yeah, I wasn't Peter, you know? I did have girlfriends'
'When was that?'
'We dated a few months in our fifth year, but we broke up when I fell for Cassie... near the OWLs '
'Oh... what was she like?'
'She had short brown hair and sky blue eyes... she was pretty, but not like Cassie... Cassie was beautiful'
'Ok... how about you reading me the memory, hu?
When Remus finished thinking if he should read, just to bother Harry, and after being elbowed by him, decided to read.
Harry was ready to finally listen to Cassie's memory... or at least that was what he thought.
Before starting, Remus warned him.
'This was very important for me... it still is but remember it happened already and there's nothing that could have been done to change it, ok?'
Harry nodded, confused and scared at the same time... He definitely wasn't ready for what was about to come.
When Remus finished reading, that part was still ringing in Harry's head.
* "Cassie said 'hum... well, I guess I might be a little pregnant...' looking directly into Remus' eyes."*
Remus was looking at anything but Harry with watery eyes... Harry just sat there thinking for a while and then hugged Remus. Remus' tears finally were shed but quickly wiped.
'You know, Harry? Sirius told me back then that everything happens for a reason... but most time we don't know it... we're meaningless to the world's fate but the world's fate must not be meaningless to us... you'll never know what is destined to you, and you must keep going, even if your friends, your fiancée, and even your child is taken from you... you still may have a reason to exist, the simple hope of making someone happy or just to don't make even more miserable the ones that are still among you, remember that Harry and I'll tell you something more, I clearly remember your mum's favourite poem...
If I can stop one heart from braking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin,
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.'
Harry stood silent looking at Remus, respect growing in his heart as it never did before. Respect for his mum, his dad, and everyone that had given his or her life for others and even more for Remus, who had given things more valuable than his own life. To get... what? Nothing but peace.
