The last few weeks had gone by fast. Last week, they had gone to Grimmauld Place, just to be safe. Harry and Ron were always outside, practicing Quidditch while Hermione and Ginny sat outside and watched them sometimes, in deep discussion. Soon enough, it was August 31st and they would be going back to Hogwarts tomorrow.

That day, Ginny and Hermione had decided to stay inside, for it was very hot. It was about one o'clock when Harry and Ron saw the two girls coming outside with food. They was the food, looked at each other, and grinned. They started towards them on their brooms, as fast as they could. As they got closer, they could hear them screaing and telling them to stop. Just before they hit them, they swooped upward and did a little loop, laughing uncontrollably and landed.

"You should have seen the looks on your faces," said Ron, still laughing.

They went and sat down by the lake in the shade and ate the delicious sandwicheds that Mrs. Weasley had made them They started talking about Hogwarts and then Harry and Ron got developed in their own conversation about Quidditch and Ginny and Hermione about who know what when Ginny suddenly said, " I wonder who the new defense teacher is?"

"I don't know but anyone other than Umbridge is fine with me," said Ron, taking a bite out of another sandwich.

"Maybe it'll be Remus again," said Hermione.

They talked a little more befor Harry suggested that they start practicing again. So the two went back out to the field and started up again. Ginny and Hermione went back inside to talk somemore, giggling as they went.

~*~

By six o'clock, Harry and Ron had gotten quite tired and decided to go iside. Mrs. Weasley told them that dinner would be ready in an hour. So Ron and Harry went upstairs. Ron fell on his bed to take a nap.

"Wake me up for dinner, ok Harry?" said Ron.

"K," said Harry and walked off to take a shower.

Afterwards, he plopped himself down on his bed. He had nothing to do. He looked around in his trunk for his photo album when he saw a journal. His FATHER'S journal! He had totally forgotten about it! This was the perfect time to read it. But where? Harry was sure there was a secret room or two in Sirius's house that he could find to read his father's journal. He got the journal, put on his invisibility cloak and went down the stairs, only to see that some of the Order, including Moody, were sitting at the table.

"Oh no," thought Harry, "Moody will see me and say something. I've got to find a way to tell him not to."

Harry tiptoed very slowly downstairs. He could see Moody's eye traveling around the house. Just as he was going past the door, it stopped dead on him.

He mouthed Moody a, "No!" and waved his arms for him to stay quiet. Harry started towards the basement door when he heard Remus say, "Is something wrong Moody? Is someone there?"

Harry froze and waited for Moody's answer.

"No, everything is fine," he said, and Harry started down the stairs again. He felt the wall for any loose spots that might reveal anything. Then he thought, "Maybe it's the same thing as on the Marauder's Map. Maybe they had a meeting place."

"I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good," said Harry.

Suddenly, he heard something moving. He turned around and saw a portrait moving. He walked inside and down the tunnel as the picture closed behind him. He pulled aside the drape in front of him. He gaped at what he saw. A beautiful room with couches, a granite fireplace, shelves filled with books, jars, and of course old pranks and dungbombs from Zonko's and much more. He would have to look around later.

He sat down on the couch and tried t open the journal. It wouldn't budge. He tried pushing the cover with his finger but nothing worked. He put it in his hand to turn over and look at the back and it suddenly opened. So he had to use his palm. All of the pages were blank. Just then words scribbled on the page.

"Hello, who's there?"

Harry quickly scrambled around the room for a quill. He wrote down, "Yes, it's Harry."

"You mean Harry, my son?"

"Yes. I'm sixteen now. Remus gave me this for my birthday."

"Where are you?"

"I'm at Grimmauld Place, Sirius's house."

"Oh, you're in the hide out, aren't you?"

"Yes. Did you know that Peter betrayed you?"

"Yes. I can't believe htat rat was with Voldemort the whole time. And we trusted him. It makes me so mad."

Harry suddenly heard footsteps above him.

"Dad, I have to go, I think Moody might be coming down to find me."

"Ok, well I'll talk to you soon I hope?"

"Yes, probably tomorrow. Bye."

He closed the book and started to look around. His seeker senses caught something shiny on the shelf behind him. He turned around to see something. A pensieve! It must have been Sirius's thoughts. Maybe he could find out more about his father. If only he could have a peek. Harry looked into the pnesieve. He was swirled into Sirius's thoughts. He was in a room with two people. But where was Sirius?

(Ok just wanted to tell you all that the parts that Harry sees in the pensieve are not my writings, but another fan fic call Memories by byebyebirdie!!)

"Hey, Mr. And Mrs. Potter," Sirius greeted, walking in the back door.

"You never knock anymore, do you, Sirius?" Scott Potter stated with a chuckle, sitting at the kitchen table reading a newspaper.

"No need to. He practically lives here," Caroline Potter said laughing, fixing lunch for both herself and Mr. Potter.

"Hey, this was my home once," Sirius said laughing. Sirius' mother, the only parent he was living with, died when he was twelve, and the Potters took him in for the next five years until he moved out to live in a simple, non-expensive, tiny, but cozy, home in Hogsmeade. He lived there with his roommate, Lily Evans, who was atually dating James Potter at the time. Lily and James had been dating for about three years-off and on-come June 1, and they only just got serious about a year earlier.

James attends London University for Dark Art Magic, studying to be an Auror on a Quidditch scholarship. James was in his second year of college, at age eighteen. Sirius was already nineteen, having his birthday on January 12 and Lily was only eighteen since her birthday was on May 22.

"I think we still have Potato Chip bags and soda cans lying around from when you lived here," Mrs. Potter said laughing.

"Is James around?" Sirius asked, cracking a smile.

"Sorry, Sirius. I think he went to Diagon Alley with Remus," Mrs. Potter answered. Remus Lupin was another good friend of theirs who was nineteen, at the time and who was a sea trainer, working with sea monsters at Sea County, right on Juniper Lake, a lake full of sea monsters and other magical sea creatures.

"Didn't he just get back?" Sirius asked laughing. It was James' Easter Break for the next two weeks, and also his birthday, which was in a week and two days (April 20), and James had only arrived minutes before Sirius got to his house.

"Yeah, about an hour ago to say a short hello and a good-bye. Remus is leaving for Argentina on Tuesday, and he's pretty busy packing up and he's having dinner with Peter or Lily or someone tomorrow, so they both thought that it was best to just go now," Mr. Potter explained. Remus is going to Argentina on a business trip where he'll be able to work with tons of other magical sea creatures, mostly lake squids, not found in Juniper Lake.

"And they didn't even think to invite me!" Sirius said, pretending to be hurt.

"Weren't you the one who made the waitress cry at the last restaurant you were at?" Mr. Potter said with a goofy grin.

Sirius laughed. "Okay, well I'm going to go see if I can find them. Maybe this time I'll be able to make two waitresses cry!"

"Here, take two brownies," Mrs. Potter offered.

"I don't know." Sirius trailed off.

"Sirius Black, are you turning down food?" Mr. Potter asked.

"No, I'm just not sure if two will be enough," Sirius said, grabbing a few brownies.

All three of them laughed, as Sirius left the kitchen and apparated to Diagon Alley.

He found Remus and James sitting in a booth at the Fruitfly, a restaurant, laughing and talking.

"Sirius!!" James cried, jumping out of his seat, and running towards Sirius to give him a huge hug.

"It's been too long, Prongs, my man!" Sirius cried.

"Hey, it isn't my fault I've been busy with so much paperwork and research projects for the past four months that I really haven't had much time to visit."

"Hey, you're the only one of us who goes to college," Sirius pointed out.

"Not true. Savannah goes to college," James pointed out.

"Well, I meant out of Peter, Remus, you and me," Sirius explained. "God, I haven't seen Savannah since the Labor Day picnic last year."

"That long?" James cried.

"Yeah, remember, she was visiting relatives on Christmas this year so she left Christmas Eve night, and I had the Winter Break work project so I flew in on Christmas morning? We just missed each other."

"The last time I saw her was on Valentine's Day briefly when she came by to talk to Lily when she was at Peter's and my apartment," Remus explained. "She hasn't changed at all. Still young and still beautiful."

They all laughed. Savannah Turner was Lily's best friend and a good friend to the rest of them. She was tall, thin and beyond gorgeous. She was about 5'7" and 120 lbs., with long, shimmering, honey-blonde hair and stunning baby blue eyes. She attends Montreal Arts University for Witchcraft and Wizardry in Canada so they never really got to see her much unless she had the time to ride her broomstick over to London to hang out with them. And it wasn't much time considering college takes up so much concentration, especially since she's studying to become a singer, which means audition after audition after concert after concert after recital after recital after tour after tour, etc. etc.

"I think Lily, Peter, Savannah and I are having dinner tomorrow if either of you want to join us," Remus suggested.

"Can't. I have a meeting tomorrow night," Sirius said with a sympathetic look. He was the half-time Transfiguration Professor at a private school outside of Vanhoover, England, a city a few miles past London, called Marmalades Academy for Wizardry. Luckily for him, there was another teacher that he shared his teaching hours with, so he only worked in mostly the mornings, except for Mondays in which he works full-time, in return for Professor Randy Dalton working on Saturdays for hall duty. Unfortunately for him-or maybe it was fortunate-all the girls in the school were practically in love with him, which made it all the much harder to teach. Professor Dalton was probably sixty years old, hard of hearing and balding.

I'm going up to the Ministry Offices to work with Head Auror, Sir Ardamis Sephilia on some Auror work he wants me to look at tomorrow," James explained.

"That's great!" Remus cried.

"I hope so. I don't want to get my hopes up, but Sir Sephilia was kind of giving me subtle hints as if to say I have the chance for the open Auror position at the London offices."

"That's great, James! Why didn't you tell us!?" Sirius cried.

"Because I'm so nervous I'm going to screw something up tomorrow," he explained.

"You won't screw things up," Remus encouraged. "You're one of the best Auror majors that anyone will ever meet."

"Thanks, guys. Now, if I don't see Lily soon, I think my head's going to explode," James said, quickly changing the subject, too worried to think about it anymore.

"Does she know you're home?" Sirius asked. "Lily hasn't mentioned anything about you."

James grinned evilly. "I really wanted to surprise her. We've been sending mail back and forth to each other and she's been telling me she's been having a rough time trying to find a job that balances out with her internship at the Daily Prophet so I figured I'd pop by; a good surprise would make her smile and forget about it."

"So what's the good surprise you got her?" Sirius said jokingly. They all laughed, including James. It was good to talk to Sirius again. Sirius hasn't changed a bit since Hogwarts-still goofy, hilarious, fun, and a major prankster.

"Yeah, well I'm surprised she's lived with you for the past four years without killing herself," James said. They all laughed again.

"Let's ride by broomstick," Remus suggested.

"Sounds good to me," Sirius said, grinning, who hasn't had much time to get out and ride around on his broomstick. "Accio Lightening Streak!"

"Accio Z-2 Revolver!" James cried.

Accio Stripper 4001!" Remus cried.

~*~

"I'm hooooome!" Sirius said, not bothering to knock on the door.

Lily was in the dining room checking the mail when he came in so she couldn't' see him or anyone else he was with. "Hey, Sirius. Why are you back so soon? I thought you said you were heading to Hogwarts to stop by and see Dumbledore. I figured you wouldn't be home for hours!" she cried.

He stepped into the dining room where Lily was and chuckled. "I was heading there actually, but I made a little stop along the way and ended up not going there instead."

"Oh, and where did you stop?" Lily asked, still shuffling through the mail. "And please don't say Tamara Mitchell's house. I do not need that woman in my house again."

"Aww, come on, you know you loved her."

"Loved what? The way she'd constantly tell me my food was way too overcooked, or the way she'd rearrange my furniture?"

Sirius laughed. "Okay, okay, so Tamara wasn't a smart decision."

"Sirius, none of your women were smart choices."

"I like how you call them my women," Sirius teased. "It makes me sounds superior."

"No, it just makes you sound like a player," Lily rephrased teasingly. "Besides the women you've been with don't make you look superior."

"Hey, what about Georgette?"

"You mean the skinny blonde hoe, who was probably a size.negative ten?"

"Wow.she was hott."

Lily rolled her eyes at him. "Will you ever date a girl because you like her and not her looks?"

"Hey! I've dated Savannah. She may be beautiful, but she is an awesome woman."

"Okay, okay, I'll give you Savannah. But she's the only one."

"What about Rebecca? I thought you liked her."

"I did for a while.until she started living here! It isn't exactly.fun to wake up and see a half-naked girl sitting in my kitchen eating pancakes."

"Hey, you've got her all wrong!" Sirius said. "Sometimes she ate waffles." That made Lily burst into laughter.

"Okay, we definitely got a little side-tracked. Where did you stop this afternoon?" Lily asked.

"Huh? Oh!!" Sirius cried, forgetting about James. "Well.I have a surprise for you," Sirius said with an evil grin.

"Uh-oh. No, I don't want it. The last surprise you brought home was a dog and you ended up having to bring it back to the pound because it chewed up my living room."

Sirius laughed. "It's not a dog."

"No cats either."

"No gerbils, rats, owls, rabbits, mice, snakes, frogs, snails, birds, guinea pigs, pigs, chickens, elephants-"

Sirius laughed hysterically. "You actually think I'd bring an elephant into the house!?"

Lily gave him a look. "Sirius.Minnie and Daniel had your own wedding cake made especially for you at their wedding. I would not be surprised if you had an elephant sitting in the driveway right now."

Sirius laughed. "Well.how about a giraffe?"

"No!" Lily said, laughing.

"Damn, the zoo won't be happy to take it back," he said turning around.

"You're kidding me," Lily said unbelievably.

"Of course I am! It's actually a gorilla."

"So is it your brother or your father?" That made them both laugh.

"Okay, moving on," Sirius said. "I'm sure you'll love this surprise."

"I better or else I'm throwing you out with whatever it is. What is it?" Lily said eagerly while laughing.

Immediately a head popped into the dining room with a grin on its face.

"JAMES!" Lily cried dropping the mail on the table, letting some of it slip to the floor, as she ran to the man she loved to death, always and forever. She wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck as she pressed her cheek against his cheek. A second later, they were engrossed in a long, but passionate, kiss that they had both waited too long for-four months to be exact.

"God, I've missed you," James said breathlessly once they pulled out of the kiss and the hug.

"I wish I could see you more."

"Yeah, so do I. But I can't apparate on school grounds, and I don't have the time to hop on my broomstick like I did in the previous years," James said sympathetically.

"I know it's not your fault. It just sucks, that all."

"Hey, think about this, though: I only have three more months left of school and I'm all yours for the summer!"

"The next three months will be annoying as hell though. We'll be so busy that we won't even be able to write to each other much anymore. Besides, you being here would make everything a whole lot better," Lily said, suddenly remembering her dilemma.

"Did you get any more job applications today?" Sirius suddenly piped in.

Lily sighed and shook her head. "No, because no one is open on a Sunday afternoon or a holiday! So today just sucks!" she said with frustration.

You'll be fine," James soothed, stroking her hair. "Let's not worry about it for now. Let's just go celebrate me being home."

"Celebrate? Why is that something to celebrate?" Sirius asked, and they all laughed.

~*~

Harry came out of the pensieve. He felt like he had only just been there for a few minutes. He turned to look at the clock and saw that it was 9:00. He couldn't believe that Sirius had gone through that much. He couldn't wait to find out more. But when? He was going back to Hogwarts tomorrow. He would have to wait until Christmas vacation then. Oh no, they must all be looking for me," thought Harry.

He grabbed the journal, his invisibility cloak and ran upstairs to Ron's room where he took off the cloak and came downstairs.

"HARRY, WHERE IN THE WORLD HAVE YOU BEEN?" screamed Mrs. Weasley.

Before he could respond, he heard Remus's voice.

"Harry, where were you? We were looking all over for you," said Remus.

He looked down. He didn't know what to say. He didn't want to tell them about the room and the pensieve because then they would always bother him. He looked up at Moody, not sure what to say.

"I.I was downstairs and I uh.fell asleep," said Harry.

"Well how come we didn't see you then?" asked Mrs. Weasley.

"Because I had my invisibility cloak on, I didn't want anyone to bother me because I was really tired. I needed some sleep," said Harry.

"Ok Harry but next time you should tell us," said Mrs. Weasley, still in shock.

"Potter, can I talk to you for a second," said Moody, guiding him out of the kitchen.

Harry followed, knowing what Moody was about to ask him.

"Some sleeping, huh Potter?" said Moody sarcastically..

"Well, I was looking for some place to read my dad's journal with out anyone bothering me," said Harry.

"I see. My eye saw you downstairs in a room I've never seen before," said Moody.

"It was the Marauder's secret room and I was looking for somewhere to go. But you won't tell anyone else about anything I told you, not even Remus right?" asked Harry.

"Of course, just tell me next time before you go," said Moody.

"Thanks," said Harry and ran upstairs only to find all of the Weasley children plus Hermione looking worried.