Title: Loving You
Author: Laterose
Rating: G, so far (=
Pairing: L/J
Summary: Sirius and Remus tell Harry all about his parents' wedding. Switches between timelines. Starts with fluff, ends in chaos!
Written for the Wedding writing challenge on Fawkes Ashes at http:// fawkesashes .proboards23. com/index.cgi? (without the spaces)
Authors Notes: Please be nice, this is my first ever mostly-Marauders fic. After much ooh-ing and ah-ing over prospective pairings, I decided to do a wedding story that wasn't in the least romantic, and stick it with Lily and James (= Hopefully this story will win some points for my house (Gryffindor).
NB : For the areas in the story where the timeline is current, the story is Alternate Universe. Instead of being killed, Sirius was proven innocent when Pettigrew was captured in the department of mysteries. Apart from that, this is the summer after OotP, and Harry got to go straight to Grimmauld place for the summer.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter etc belong to Ms. Rowling. DUH. All dates are in accordance with the Harry Potter lexicon timeline.
Chapter 1
28th July 1996
As the last golden rays of the sunset fell behind the tall buildings on the horizon, lights started to flicker on in the city of London. At Number 12, Grimmauld place, there was only one light lit, that of the second living room on the first floor.
Remus Lupin drew the curtains. "New moon," he said, stretching his arms over his head and behind his back. "My favourite time of the month. Long time since the old full moon, long time till the new full moon. Totally neutral."
"Mm," agreed Sirius Black, who was reclining with his feet up on a leather sofa. "Neutral, yeah."
Remus rolled his eyes and lowered himself into a comfortable armchair. "You should be in bed, Padfoot," he said, picking up a book and opening it to the bookmark.
Sirius made a negative sort of huffing noise that blew his hair out of his eyes before it settled back again.
"Well, at least get your boots off that sofa. You'll ruin it."
"Who cares?" Sirius growled. "I'm going to get rid of it all anyway."
"I know that, but some of this stuff is quite valuable," Remus pointed out. "If you treat it well you could fetch a good price for it, and then you wouldn't have to empty your Gringotts vault to buy new things."
"Correction: vaults, Moony," said Sirius, still not opening his eyes but shifting down so that his head was on the seat cushion and his boots hung over the edge of the armrest. "And I can't possibly empty them: there's the entire Black family fortune plus the compensation I got from the ministry after the trial. There's so much money that Harry's grandchildren will be able to live their whole lives without working. I doubt a little refurbishing is going to make a dent in that lot."
"I think a job like this might be a bit more than a little refurbishing, Padfoot."
"I don't want anything fancy. That would just defeat the entire object. Some nice, plain, modern furniture, some curtains that let in light once in a while, and bright murals on the walls instead of portraits."
Remus shuddered. "Murals?"
"I'm sure if I gave the Weasley twins a pot of paint and couple of brushes they could come up with something."
"Padfoot, you do not want to let those two anywhere near your walls."
"Can't see why not. Who do they remind you of, eh?"
Remus hardly had to think about this. "You… and James."
"Precisely."
"Even so, unless you want your house transformed into either a pile of rubble or a fruit basket –"
"I could help."
Sirius sat up immediately. Leaning against the doorframe was a short black-haired boy of nearly sixteen years, wearing blue cotton pyjamas at least six sizes too big for him and tied around the waist with a bit of string. For the eighth time that week Sirius resolved to get Harry some clothes that fitted him.
"I heard you talking," said Harry.
"Oh really?" said Remus, sounding amused. "From your bedroom, on the other side of the house? That's funny, because usually in this place you wouldn't be able to tell if someone was murdered three rooms away…"
"Oh, all right Professor," said Harry, rolling his eyes. "I couldn't sleep and came to see if you were talking. Is it ok if I sit up with you for a bit?"
"Sure, Harry," said Sirius, swinging his legs off the armrest to leave room for Harry to sit down.
"And call me Remus, Harry, for the sixth hundredth time," said Remus, closing his book on the bookmark again without having turned the page once.
"Sorry, Professor," said Harry with a grin. Remus frowned. "Okaaay, okay. Remus."
"See, Sirius, Harry has proper respect for the furniture," said Remus, glancing approvingly at Harry's bare feet on the dark green carpet.
"That's just because he had such a sheltered childhood," grinned Sirius. Harry snorted a little at the word 'sheltered'. "Give him a couple of years with me and he'll be bouncing on the sofa with the rest of them."
"I am nearly sixteen, Sirius," Harry pointed out.
"So?" said Sirius, looking scandalized.
"Yes, Sirius is much older than sixteen and he still bounces on the sofa," said Remus calmly.
"Hey!" exclaimed Sirius, then after a pause added: "I'm not that much older than sixteen!"
Harry burst out laughing.
"Now look what you've done," said Remus, with a sigh. "He'll never get to sleep now."
"Ah, well," said Sirius, lounging back on the sofa. "He's a growing boy, he can stay up."
"Great," sighed Remus. "Two growing boys."
"I can hold an adult conversation," Sirius insisted.
"Oh really?" said Remus, smiling at last. Harry had been sure that Remus had suddenly forgotten how to do it, and that he would be sombre all evening.
"Of course," said Sirius. "What do you want to talk about, Harry?"
Harry thought about this. "Tell me a story… about my parents."
"Well, that's an easy one," said Remus, the smile breaking into a grin.
"Bedtime stories, eh?" Sirius mused, stroking a non-existent beard. "I can do that! Right then… has anyone ever told you about how your father proposed to your mother?"
"No," said Harry, eyes widening.
"Right then…" said Sirius, taking a deep breath. He appeared to think for a minute before letting it all out again in a huff. "Um… Remus, d'you want to start this one?"
Harry looked expectantly at his ex-Professor, who sighed again and leant back in his chair.
"Oh, all right then. Well, let's see," he began. "It was the last day at Hogwarts…"
5th June 1978
It was the last day at Hogwarts and the ceiling in great hall was showing a clear night sprinkled with stars. In the far corner the moon obliterated any stars in a wide radius, illuminating the staff table in a soft, silvery light where the candles could not reach.
Other students glanced up at the ceiling and remarked on how beautiful it was. Sitting at the Gryffindor table with one elbow resting on the solid wood, I gazed up too – silently thanking any deities that might be listening for the blissfully crescent shaped moon. Because I could not miss this night.
It was my last evening at the only place I had ever had friends. The only place where, most of the time, I felt like I belonged. After this – I was on my own.
Everyone else chattered excitedly, everyone in high spirits. But most excited of all were the seventh years. This was it. Exams were finally over and in a few, terribly short hours we'd be getting on that train and going back to King's Cross station. To begin our lives.
I had turned only just turned seventeen – blast my younger status – so I'd never used magic, intentionally, that is, outside of school before. My friend Sirius, whose birthday was last June, had apparently caused as much havoc as was humanly possible in the Potter's household during the summer holidays. My other friend James hadn't come of age until November, but he'd got back at Sirius during the Christmas holidays.
Me, I'd had no experience.
As a result, the exams for me had been quite possibly the most trying academic challenge of my life – and for me, that's saying something. Luckily James, Sirius, and my other friend Peter had caught me sleeping with my head on a desk where I'd fallen asleep at three o'clock in the morning, and had taken me aside.
"You've got to lighten up, Moony," said James, looking me right in the eyes to emphasise his point. Mean. "They're just exams."
I may have overreacted at this point and can't really remember what I said, but I'm pretty sure the speech started with "Just exams?" and ended in, "You do realise these exams could determine our entire futures?"
And Sirius had just grinned at me and said: "What kind of future will it be if it's built on exam results?"
"Depends whether they're good results or bad results," I muttered, but I had to admit that my smart if non-academic friends had a point. So I let off a bit of steam that afternoon, basking by the lake with my three best friends – and Lily, James' girlfriend. They've been together now for a year, after the most unlikely get-together in quite possibly the history of the world. Lily and James hated each other for years.
That day, the day I didn't study for my exams (and there was only one of them so I remember) was the day of… the fight. It wasn't a huge fight, not by Lily and James standard, but it was enough to set James' teeth on edge, and now he was sure he'd failed his potions NEWT. Sirius told him not to fuss because according to him, it's not like potions matters. This coming from the second-best potions brewer in the year, after Snape.
Snape was eyeing me from the Slytherin table. There weren't many people there yet – I had decided to come down early. I wanted my last supper to be as long as possible. Peter kept telling me I was being a martyr. I told him to shut up.
I looked away from Snape. Even he could not ruin this, the last ever night. God, the words were like fire in the brain.
As the students began filing into the Great Hall, I looked up in search of my friends. Sirius came first, grinning all over his face like a maniac. What am I saying, he is a maniac. He grinned like that all the time, so I wasn't worried.
"What's up, Moony?" he called. "Wait, I know –"
"Shut up," I hissed at him.
"Ah come on," he said. "It's the last day."
I eyed him in a careful, scrutinizing way. It had been known to make my friend stand back before, but it wasn't working this time. He shrugged. "Okay," he promised. "No Moony jokes. Where are the others?"
I shrugged an 'I don't know' and went back to what I'd been doing before.
"You're not moping, are you?"
"Actually that's precisely what I am doing."
"What for? Tomorrow we're free, Moony!"
I glared at him. "We're not in prison."
"Could've fooled me," he said cheerfully, before noticing the look on my face a sobering.
"Look," he said. "I get why you don't want to go home. I didn't want to go home either, first five years of school, remember?"
I did remember. Sirius' mood both before and after each term ran its course was not to be tampered with. Except both this year and the year before when Sirius had been living with James' family. Lucky bastard.
"So get out of your house, come live near us and get a job that'll keep you on your feet till your forms for the Magical Research Department come through, ok?"
I was surprised less at Sirius' reassurance than his memory of what Department I'd asked to be assigned to. According to him, my original idea of a career in journalism would be sooo much more exciting.
"Whatever," I said, leaning back in my chair. "Let's just enjoy the night."
Peter and James came through the double doors together. "Hey guys!" Sirius yelled, as though they hadn't noticed us. "Over here!"
"I'll be with you in a second!" James yelled back, heading to the staff table to talk to Professor Dumbledore. No doubt last minute discussions about his NEWT papers. Dumbledore kept assuring him that they would eventually come through, but noooo, that wasn't good enough. Hey, I was worried too, but I didn't need my Potions Outstanding to get into Magical Research. At least Sirius was more relaxed about the whole thing.
Lily Evans, the main conspirator in the supposedly lost NEWT, was sitting chatting to her best friend, Sarah Nells. As usual, they were a complete contrast – Lily rather tanned with red hair that absorbed instead of reflecting light, and Sarah lit up like a candle in the glow of the torches, pale skin shining against the white-blondeness of her hair.
Sirius punched me in the arm, hard, over the table, as Peter sat down next to me. "Mooning over Sarah again, Moony?"
Peter sniggered. It was at least the sixth time I'd heard this joke and it wasn't even remotely funny anymore.
"No I am not," I informed him, sharply. "Er… James and Lily haven't made up yet, have they?"
"Nope," said Peter. I sighed. While James and Lily were 'out of sorts', the three of us were forbidden to talk to her or indeed any of her fellow 'conspirators', unless in a very dire situation, such as certain death if the rule was observed, or getting partnered in class. I had insisted on this last one. My marks were not going down just because of another squabble.
"Bad luck, Moons," said Sirius. "You can call her over the summer. Did I say summer? How silly of me. Because we're never coming back to school."
"No need to keep reminding us, Sirius," I told him, and it was true.
"The never ending summer," Sirius continued, not listening.
"Sirius, there is such a thing as work, you know."
"Oh that," he admitted. Before I could lecture him, however, James slid onto the seat next to Sirius and punched him good naturedly on the shoulder.
"The more customary greeting is 'hello'," Sirius said, rubbing his arm.
"Goodness, did I just hear a long word?" said a greasy voice from somewhere behind the other two – and there was only one person in the school who could even sound greasy. Making simultaneously disgusted faces, James and Sirius turned around. Severus Snape was standing there.
"So," said Snape, pushing a lock of oily hair out of his eyes and half-smiling. "What's the plan?"
No one said anything. Even James had to admit afterwards that this one had stumped him a little.
"I mean, it's the last day, right?" said Snape, rolling his eyes towards the ceiling. "You must have something hidden away in that little plot sack of yours?"
Sirius made to get up, but James, very surprisingly, pulled him back down. One of the factors that had led to Lily and James getting together had been a bet that had meant James being nice to Snape for a week, but that, right then, seemed like an eternity ago.
"Push off, Snape," James said calmly, turning his back on his archrival in more sense than one. Even more surprisingly, Snape did push off. He slunk back to the Slytherin table, every so often throwing suspicious glances over his shoulder.
We knew that everyone suspected something monumental was about to happen. After seven glorious years, the Marauders were at last leaving Hogwarts, and no one even considered the thought that we wouldn't go out with a bang. Looking up at the teachers' table, I saw that more than one pair of eyes was carefully trained on the four of us, sitting oh-so-quietly at the Gryffindor table. Yes, everyone suspected something was going to happen.
Except the Marauders themselves.
We'd talked about it sure, gone over millions of ideas (most of which we'd already tried) for our last stand at Hogwarts, for the biggest prank ever to be played in the history of the school. It had been James who had at last decided that the best thing we could possibly do – would be to do nothing.
Keep 'em on their toes, he'd said. Let 'em think that any second something's about to explode. And then, at the end of the evening, we'd stand up, take a bow, and thank everyone for being our audience this evening. According to James, they'd never know what had hit them, because nothing will have hit.
Sirius was not to pleased with this underhanded approach to our last night. I suppose he would have been a lot happier with a couple of dungbombs in his pocket and an insulting note tucked into the lining of his cloak – but James had been insistent. All pranks would cease the moment the feast started.
And boy, did it start. The food, as always, was delicious – the house elves, no doubt remembering all the times we'd come to see them and let them serve us, had really outdone themselves – and the dessert course in particular was spectacular – on the Gryffindor table, a life-sized lion made entirely out of sugar, on the Ravenclaw table, a chocolate eagle spreading it's wings, for the Hufflepuffs, an enormous lemon cake in the shape of a badger, and an enlarged white-chocolate cobra sat amidst the Slytherins, poised and ready to strike. The animals moved along the table, allowing the students to break pieces off and stuff them in their mouths. By the time the lion reached our end of the table, only the head was left, floating by itself. It turned to face the hall, roared once, making everyone jump, and landed with a bump on James' plate. James stared at it for a minute before breaking it into four.
Yes, it was a marvellous evening. But it wasn't over yet.
When everyone had finished eating, Dumbledore stood up. "Well," he said. "It is the end of another year at Hogwarts –" Everyone screamed and applauded, drowning out the rest of the Headmaster's sentence. He smiled and waited until we'd finished.
"I will not say much," he said, earning himself another round of applause. It was at that moment I glanced at James. He looked terrified.
"James?" I hissed.
"I will only say that I look forward to seeing you all next summer, and to our seventh years, who will not be returning, good luck."
This time Sirius, Peter and I did not clap. We were too worried about our friend, who now looked as though he was about to be sick. "James?" Sirius asked. "You okay, mate?"
"However, there is one person who would like to say a little more," Dumbledore continued cheerfully. "I now hand the stage… to our resident Head Boy, James Potter."
The hall cheered. We froze. "James?" Sirius asked, now more confused and angry than concerned.
"Guess that's my cue," said James hoarsely, standing up and pulling out his wand. With it he pointed to his throat and said: "Sonorous".