A/N – I'm glad that I cleared up some things for you readers; I am sorry that I got ya'll so confused!

The Cold Room

Part 2 – 13

"Are you trying to play a prank on us? Because if you are, it isn't working," Ron gave his best friend an incredulous look.

"Honest! Professor Lupin knew my parents! He wants me to live with him!"

"Harry, are you sick?" Hermione asked and went to feel his forehead. However, Harry pushed her hand away and glared at them.

"You have to believe me! I'll never have to go back to the Dursley's again!"

"Well, I can't say that this isn't a bad thing; maybe having a man like Professor Lupin around will give you an adult that you can model yourself after. Every young man needs an adult male to look up too," Hermione said.

"All right, no more psycho-crap books for you!" Ron waved a finger in Hermione's face.

"But she's right; my Uncle only cares about four things in the entire world!" Harry stood, he walked towards the empty fireplace and stared at the dead embers.

"What are those?" Hermione asked.

"Money, Dudley, Aunt Petunia, and always reminding me of what a freak I am,"

"Harry…"

"I know, I don't want to talk about it any longer – how long till potions class?"

"Twenty minutes, we had better get going," Hermione sighed.

The three gathered their bags and exited the tower. They walked in silence for a while. Ron and Hermione had no idea what Harry thought of himself. This was the first they had heard anything much of his family. Sure, he did complain a bit about going to the Dursley's for summer; they were a muggle family after all and didn't know anything about magic. What they didn't know, was that Mr. and Mrs. Dursley had punished Harry for his accidental magic.

"Did anyone get the essay for potions done?" Hermione asked.

"I finished it, Professor Lupin helped me on it – he knows a lot, and not all of it is just about defense either," Harry said.

"You are so lucky!" Ron gave his friend a smile and a pat on the back.

"What are you on about?" Harry asked.

"Oh com on! You get to live with the best defense teacher in the world!"

"Oh yeah – I forgot about that," Harry replied. The three burst out laughing, their somber mood lifting and they skipped (Almost, there was a slight spring in their steps) down to potions.

"Why don't we try snipping back at Snape?" Harry gave his friends a smirk.

"Sure, this should be fun," Ron said while Hermione glared at them. She did not approve of snipping at teachers (in general).

"Remus, my boy, I do not think this is a good idea," Albus shook his head. Remus was slightly surprised at how fast news traveled around Hogwarts. However, he decided that he really shouldn't be all that surprised. For a magical school Hogwarts was considered small, he didn't know why; the castle was big and the houses had plenty of students, however the French school was bigger than the British school.

"Look; I know that this is on short notice but I believe that this is best," Remus replied. He looked into his cup of tea that Minerva (the only other teacher there because the students had to be taught something!) had poured for him.

"I agree, Albus, we've all ready had this discussion, please stop trying to talk Remus out of this! Harry Potter must be in a loving home! You've said it before, He-who-must-not-be-named does not know the meaning of love, therefore, Harry must know that meaning," She glared.

"We loved him – Lily used to sing to him, and James would amuse him, I would read and Sirius would just act stupid – I don't think that Harry remembers Pettigrew…"

"What do you mean?" Albus asked.

"I got a letter from Sirius months ago, he said that he was innocent – I believe him, I spent too much time grieving for my friends and how everything worked out the way it did. I decided that Sirius deserved another chance, he was such a good friend, I knew he would never sell Prongs out," Remus sighed.

"Remus, this is the right thing to do, you know that, so do it," Minerva glared at him.

"Minerva…"

"Albus! I told you years ago when we were at Privet Drive that it was a bad idea to leave Harry there! I watched that woman give her son anything he desired! I was hoping that maybe you were right, that maybe she would take care of Harry and do right by him. But she didn't! Do you even notice the clothes he has? They are too big for him! And do we really know how big he is? Poppy has said on more than one occasion to me that he needs to eat more!"

"I understand…"

"I need to do this," both Albus and Minerva turned to Remus.

"I was hoping that we could ask Mrs. Weasley to take Harry during the full moon; he's best friends with Ron Weasley and I'm sure he'd love to see his friends more during the summer. I have a room all set up, I can transfigure it any way he wants, heck, if he wants it green and silver I do it! I'm sure Prongs would turn in his grave, but that's Prongs for you,"

"Albus, you can't deny that Harry needs an appropriate roll model," Minerva gave a pointed look.

"Yes,"

"That it is settled, besides, Remus has all ready talked to Harry about it he has agreed to spending the summer with Remus," Minerva smirked.

"Did you plan this before talking to me?" Albus asked.

"Yes, and I told him everything, Harry knows that Sirius Black is his Godfather,"

"Has there been any news of him?" Minerva asked.

"No one has seen him for weeks," Remus replied.

He could smell that rat, literally!

He was so close, and yet so far! He wished that he had help, he wished that he could get Moony to help him. No, Moony was taking care of Harry. Harry, his Godson needed someone; and since he wasn't going to be there for the young boy, someone had to be.

Who else was better at understanding a teen than Moony? Book-worm that he was, Moony knew things about people that even surprised his closest friends. Moony knew that James was a bit spoiled, that Peter was doubtful…hell, Moony knew that Padfoot was being a bit abused at home over summer. He had never forced Padfoot to talk about it either, it would just happen!

How he wished he had Moony there right then – he needed to talk to his old friend. Moony knew exactly what to do and how to do it. He would think through the situation and then come up with a suitable answer (like he always did) and a fool-proof plan.

If only things could be that easy once again….

"So, have you thought of a way?" Sirius asked one of his best friends. Remus Lupin had been sitting by the fire for an hour now just thinking of a plan to get back at James Potter's attackers. He had been brutally attacked a beaten up (muggle style the was what James had told them) by Slytherins (Mostly Crabbe and Goyle) and had been left unconscious in the abandoned hall way. It wasn't till the other Marauder's had used the Map to find out James whereabouts that they saw his name. Underneath the name were the red words IN NEED OF HELP.

Needless to say – Sirius, Remus and Peter got their friend to the Hospital wing and then they decided to plan their revenge after the small details that James had been able to tell them before passing out again. He would get out that morning (It was midnight now, Sirius noted) and Remus was planning it so that they would go pick him up and then they would all go to breakfast.

"I've an idea – and it'll work, the Professor's won't be able to do anything about it till it's run it's course; I have to go look at my book," Remus stood and walked towards the boys dorm. Sirius followed with a huge grin on his face, Peter just snored away in the chair he had fallen asleep in.

Remus pulled out a red bound book with French script legend-ing the title that Sirius couldn't read. Remus flipped through it till he got to the page he wanted.

"If the Professor's ever found out you had this book, they would take it away, you know that right?" Sirius said.

"Usually I would just use it to cross-reference, but a time of need deserves something special, this is for Prongs after all," Remus replied dead-panned. Usually, he wasn't one for revenge, but this time – the Slytherins had gone too far!

Padfoot stared at the fire – that had been one of the better pranks the Marauder's had pulled on the Slytherins. All that week they had watched the Slytherins go out of their way to be nice – to EVERYONE!

Once they had figured out that they had been pranked by the Marauder's – well, things had gone back to normal, but they didn't beat up on James again. They went after Pettigrew instead. The boy had gotten the record of most un-related Quidditch injuries because of the Slytherin hexes.

Padfoot thought he had deserved it.

A/N – If you are wondering why Remus has a French book – don't, it is explained in my fic The Marauder's Magical Journal – which I haven't updated in forever…but what can I say? Anyway, my theory is that Remus lived in Southern France – His family is an old Pureblood French family that have no money to their name. At one point in time they had been rich…but that had been in the seventeen hundreds. Anyway, Remus would have gone to the French school, but the Headmistress doesn't want a Werewolf there, and so Albus Dumbledore had invited Remus to Hogwarts (On scholarship or whatever the Brit equell is). If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer any, just put them in you're review or in a PM to me!

Thank you all for reading!

Ta,

Poppy