Disclaimer: The canon characters of this fic are the property of JKR, though the plot is (for the most part) mine. Hobbes is a part of Calvin and Hobbes.
A/N- If you haven't reread chapter One, do it now, it has been fully rewritten and don't skip the Author's Note….this chapter is a bit perkier than the last one.
THE LAST HAPPY BUTTERFLY
Prologue Part Two: Three Years Later
Sirius picked up the clothing on the floor, grumbling, and tossed it down again in aggravation. His wand was still missing. It had been missing all morning. Even though he had managed to find two old cloaks, a cauldron, three vials of energy potion, a quaffle that had been missing since he was eighteen, and a molding sandwich he was certain was from a different decade, until he found his wand, he planned to remain tense and scared witless.
He was the only person in the house who could really defend anything, and even with the dozen or so charms and spells on his house, he still wanted his wand back.
Harry and Alex claimed to have no idea where it was, even when Sirius threatened their 'secret' Candy Stash.
Sighing, he rose up from the crouch he was in, and forgot a small, almost trivial detail: He was underneath a desk.
His vision blurred for a few seconds as a slue of rather eloquent curses streamed from his mouth. The entire back of his head was throbbing, and he touched it gingerly, shocked to find he wasn't bleeding. It was his firm belief that anything that hurt that bad should at least leave a scar so you could later get pity.
He crawled out from the desk and collapsed into the ancient leather chair. "Ow." He said as a close to his painful experience. Glancing around the room with every intention of leaving since his wand was not here either, he started at the sight of one of Lily's old photo albums.
Even before she had started dating James she had bought, stolen, taken and begged for photos of the Marauder's antics.
She claimed she had been saving them as blackmail.
James claimed she had just been denying her true emotions.
She slapped him.
Sirius chuckled and opened it. The first picture was from their first year, right after the sorting. It was in the Gryffindor common room. Sirius was off by himself, still thought of as a 'Slytherin who'd conned the sorting hat.' Lily was already yelling at James. James was looking confused. Remus was pretending he was invisible, and everyone else was cheering Lily on.
The next was of their first prank, about three months into the year. James had accepted that Sirius was a real Gryffindor, and they had managed to find a charm that made anything it was cast on float just out of arm's reach.
In the next Lily was yelling at James again, and Sirius was looking just as scared.
He flipped through and found the pictures of their second year when the Marauders started to form. By the third year it was obvious that they were best friends. He reached a series of photos that had been taken over a two week period of every time Lily and James had started fighting.
There were over three dozen.
At the end of their third year they had made the rather horrid mistake of pranking Lily specifically. It really hadn't been much, just a simple spell that put her mental thoughts out loud. They had gotten a week of detention, but she had gotten two for what had been accidentally said.
Her retaliation was to locate a charm that made James' already disastrous hair look vaguely like he had been electrocuted.
Their pranks were thrown back and forth for the next month, Sirius laughing along with whoever had done the better job, until he reached the last photo of the year. James and Lily were grudgingly shaking hands while all of their friends—James' behind him, and Lily's behind her—glared and forced them too. Everyone in the photo, excluding the two at the center was atomic pink from head to toe.
Sirius almost fell out of his chair when he saw it. It had taken the collaborative efforts of the entire Gryffindor Third-Year class to find a counter curse.
He could identify when they had worked out about Remus, because the pranks were all designed around getting them the Restricted Section books they needed.
Merrily, Sirius flipped through until he was at the end of the fifth year. Peter was puffing his chest out and standing on a chair to get enough height and pointing his wand comically at Remus who had one hand thrown melodramatically across his forehead.
Peter looked a bit like he was serious, but to Remus it was just for fun.
Swearing, he slammed the book shut, rammed it back onto the shelf, decided to hell with the wand and walked towards the kitchen in search of strong liquor.
At the door he stopped and listened to the mayhem inside.
"No, oh no, oh no, oh no, Harry, what did you do?"
"Nothing."
"It's everywhere!"
"I know Allie, I know."
"Help me get it off, Sirrie will come down soon."
There was a crash of glass breaking and a short yelp from Alex. As Harry shouted, Sirius' instincts took over and he rushed in, only to stop abruptly.
Alex and Harry both stopped and looked up at him with wide eyes, caught red-handed.
Unfortunately, literally.
There was a layer of flour over every surface in the kitchen. Harry looked like he was going gray, while Alex just looked like a ghost.
Every pot, pan, bowl, spoon, measuring cup and towel in the house seemed to have been used.
The faucet was slowly dripping into the overflowing sink.
Every cabinet door was open.
There was a large splash of red goo on the floor amid the glass shards, both Alex and Harry seemed to have dough from their fingertips to their elbows with a special coating of dark red frosting on their hands.
They looked terrified.
"What happened?" Sirius asked as though it were a regular occurrence.
They exchanged a glance and Harry climbed off the footstool, disappearing behind counter before triumphantly carrying an enormous cake over to the table, where he set it down with a broad grin. It was dark red with gold around the outside and a sloppily done Gryffindor lion in the center. "We baked you a cake. Happy Birthday, Sirrie! We don't have any ice cream, but it still'll be good!" Harry had a severe ice cream fetish.
"You did this all by yourself?" They nodded happily. He pulled them into a tight hug, ignoring the mess they were, and said, "I'm so proud, but how did you do it?"
"With your wand!" Harry answered cheerily.
"And where is my wand now?" Both of them looked to the other. "Is my wand inside the cake?" Sirius asked slowly.
"Oh, no, it almost was, but Allie caught that before we baked it. We put it…er…er…oh yeah!" Harry ran over to the barrel of flour and stuck his arm in up to the shoulder. Finally, amid a cloud of white powder, he drew it out and ran over with it.
"Harry, why was it in the flour?"
"Umm…I'm not sure anymore, but I bet it made sense at the time."
"I bet it did." They all nodded happily, and Sirius used a quick scouring charm to clean the kitchen. He retrieved a few dishes and forks, cut the cake, and served them each a piece.
Incredibly, and against his expectations, it was wonderful. He congratulated them again, and they beamed under his praise. When they were finished, and after several minutes of promises that it was alright to have leftovers, Alex sat up, clearly trying to look mature and said gravely. "Sirrie, will you try to be happier now? You're always sad, and we want you to be happier. Please be happy, Sirrie."
He smiled, "I'll try. I could never deny a lady."
A sudden thought occurred to him, "Do you two want to go to Diagon Alley today?"
Their cheers answered his question.
"Please can we look at the brooms? Please, please, please, please pretty please with a cherry and whipped cream and chocolate syrup and ice cream and caramel and sprinkles and marshmallows and cookies and candy and—"
"Yes Harry, we can look at the brooms." Harry cheered. He and Alex walked down the center of Diagon Alley hand in hand, under orders not to lose one another. "What do you want to do Alex?"
She shrugged.
Harry was still skipping a bit and bubbled, "Come on Allie, where'd you wanna go?"
She shrugged again, "Brooms're fine. Need to think." Sirius frowned. She was always shy when she was around large groups. At home she was anything but subdued, and caused twice as much trouble as Harry did. Alex reminded him of a Muggle Cartoon he had seen Lily with one time. 'Hoobes' or maybe 'Hobbes.' Something like that.
They walked into the newest Quidditch store on the street: Quality Quidditch Supplies. There was an enormous sign over the door proclaiming a Grand opening and the introduction of the newest hot broom on the market: the Nimbus 1001.
Shoppers, children and Quidditch fanatics alike were crowded around the case ogling the shining broom. It certainly outdid the Nimbus 1000, and made the Cleansweep 6 look like a muggle contraption. The old broom rivalries would only increase in the face of this new technology. Sirius left the pair with their noses plastered to the glass and sought out the manager. "How much is it?"
"Seventy Galleons."
Sirius' eyebrows went up. "That's not too bad."
"Yes, it's one of the reasons Nimbus is doing so well. The Comet 190 can break eighty-five easily but is over ninety galleons. The Cleansweep 6 can barely make it to ninety mph and they're asking seventy-five."
"Just how fast does this one go?"
"Josef Wronski—that new Polish Seeker, crazy, he is, clocked it at one-ten in a dive. But, like I said, he's crazy. Sane people could probably manage to break a hundred though."
Sirius chuckled. "I guess this is the end of Cleansweep and Comet."
"Don't count on it, sir, we've heard rumors of brooms being tested in the Americas. They have cliffs there long enough for the Seekers to really have fun with. Excuse me." The man slipped back into the crowd to greet more customers, and Sirius gathered the pair, practically dragging them away from the display.
Harry waited until they were a few steps away before starting to beg. "Please can I have one Sirrie, pleeeeease. Please. I really, really, really, really, really, really want one."
"Where would you fly it?"
"Inside." He replied stubbornly even as he saw why he couldn't own one. "Fine, Sirrie, I don't need one." He paused, then started again, perfectly perky, "Can we get ice cream?"
"Harry we just had cake."
"Yeah, but it's your birthday and you need more dessert. Let's go, ice cream, ice cream, ice cream, ice cream. Please. Oh, I mean for you, for your birthday. 'Cause it's really hot and ice cream- cold ice cream- would be soooo good right now. Chocolate with fudge on top, all smooth and nice and so, so good. Little crunchy candy, and walnuts that you can nibble on. Bits of squishy marshmallow that ooze around your mouth. We should really get some ice cream, doesn't it sound good, Sirrie?"
This kid could convince Voldemort to buy ice cream. "Yes, it does Harry. We need to stop at the bank first though. Come on Allie."
Harry stopped walking and glared, it was far more threatening than he would have expected from a five year old. "Allie is my name for her. You can use Alex or Alexandra, but not ever Allie, that one is mine."
For several second Sirius could only stare back at the boy. He had Lily's temper alright. Finally he apologized, promised to never call her Allie again, and led them to Gringotts.
The train ride was as unpleasant as ever, but Alex was starting to cheer up and sat at the front with Harry, letting the breeze hit her in the face.
They left with a full purse even though Sirius' account was quickly emptying. I can go back to work once they're older.
Harry skipped down the street, thrilled to be going to Florean's. They found a table and Sirius pulled out a chair for Alex to climb into, but she wasn't there. He swallowed and screamed at himself to remain calm. "Harry, where is Alex?" His voice squeaked at the end. So much for sounding calm.
"She's looking at the stick shop."
"The what?"
"That old store at the end of the street. The stick—wand—shop I mean, don't worry, she's fine. Allie says not to worry. Can we get ice cream now?"
Sirius shook his head and latched onto Harry's hand, jogging with him back down the street to Ollivander's. Harry complained most of the way, but eventually succumbed to silence. They broke through one last group of shoppers and found Alex staring at the wand on the pillow. Sirius lifted her off the ground in a hug. "Alex, never leave like that again, ever. Do you have any idea how scared I was? Tell me where you are all the time, do not just—"
"I've thought now. I want to go in here."
Sirius shook his head, wishing it would stay up to speed. "What?"
"You asked where I wanted to go. I want to go in here. Harry, come with me." Having already been set down, she pushed the door open. A bell rang and Ollivander stepped from the shelves. Sirius and Harry followed quickly, and the old man surveyed them with misty eyes. "Hello." Alex said politely.
"Miss Lupin, how are you?"
"Good, how did you—"
"I recognize your eyes, just like I recognize Mr. Potter's eyes and hair. For that, how are you Mr. Potter?"
"I'm good."
"And you Mr. Black?" Sirius nodded, "You'll be here to get them their wands."
"Well, actually—"
"Of course you are. Let's begin. Which are your wand arms?"
"Right."
"Right."
"Very good, wait here then." He flicked his wand and a two measuring tapes jumped from the table. "Mr. Black, are you looking for a new wand, or is your original one holding up? Mahogany, eleven inches, and dragon-heartstring wasn't it?"
"It's fine."
"Very good, now you two, stay there and we can start testing. Miss Lupin, we'll begin with you." He opened a box and handed the wand to her. "Willow, phoenix feather, eight inches. No? Here, ten inches, dragon heartstring, ash. Try it with Maple. No?" The old man he returned with a dusty box from the back and several others under his arm. Sirius was still in shock by the door, watching as his four-year old godchildren searched for their wands.
Alex looked at the wand in the box and shook her head, "I want that one."
"Which, Miss Lupin?"
"The one on the pillow."
"M'dear, that wand has sat there since the thirteen hundreds, no one has ever matched it. It is a keepsake more than a useful object."
"I want it." She stared up at the man, and he shrugged. He lifted it cautiously from the pillow and handed it to her. Alex smiled the second it was in her hand and she gave it a short wave; silver sparks shot out of the end.
Sirius jumped as he saw it, but Ollivander was hiding a secretive grin. "Nine inches, Willow, Unicorn hair. A very fine wand Miss Lupin."
Silence reigned for a few moments before Alex pushed Harry to where she had been standing. If Alex's search had been unique, Harry's could outdo it in length. For more than an hour Harry stood in the middle of the room flicking wands through the air and watching as nothing happened. The pile on the chair grew until it wobbled back and forth, then grew some more. Finally Ollivander half disappeared into a shelf and emerged with a tired box. "It must have fallen back there." He apologized.
Harry picked it up and waved it apathetically, expecting the same nonexistent response. Red and gold sparks exploded out of the end, and Sirius couldn't help but think of Gryffindor. "Holly and Phoenix Feather, eleven inches, Mr. Potter, very supple, and very curious."
"What do you mean?" Sirius asked as the wands were bought.
"I have never forgotten any wand I have ever sold, Mr. Black. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in that wand, gave another feather—just one other. It is very curious indeed that Mr. Potter should be destined for that wand when it's brother gave him his scar."
"Voldemort?"
"Indeed. As I said, quite curious. Mr. Potter it seems is destined for great things."
"Sirius," Alex asked behind him. She and Harry had been comparing their purchases, "Can we go home, I have a headache."
"Of course, Alex, let's go now."
Harry waved to Mr. Ollivander before turning on his Godfather and bubbling out, "Sirrie, can we stop and buy some ice cream on the way back?"
I'm looking for a beta if anyone is interested. I can't see my own mistakes very well. Send to my email account.