A/N – Okay, this is the first to last chapter of this fic! I decided to make it an even twenty chapters. Aren't I smart! Or smarmy…oh well! Oh, and it's back to my flashbacks! Hahahahaha!
The Cold Room
Part 2 – 19
"Hey! There goes Loopy Lupin!" a Slytherin laughed; Remus remembered the overly obese boy from his potions class that he took his with best friends. His name was Donald Egbert, he had dark hair and eyes and his face was covered in zits. Remus knew that Egbert was making fun of him because Egbert felt bad for himself. This theory was usually one that was right all of the time, because his Mum had said so; and Mum's were always right!
Either way, Remus gave him a slightly raised eyebrow before going on, he had two huge books in his hands and he had a mission to accomplish. That was basically coming up with a better plan than his friends. James and Sirius usually came up with the most brilliant plans (though he wasn't going to tell them) however, sometimes he had to make them un-dangerous. Peter usually went along with him when it came to non-dangerous plans.
"Loony Lupin! What are you doing out here without you're friends?" Egbert had come up behind him and twirled the young Werewolf around. Lupin gave him another raised eyebrow. Obviously he would just have to deal with this idiot!
"Excuse me, whatever are you talking?" Remus asked; he wondered if playing dumb was the way to go about this. Maybe it was, Egbert certainly looked confused.
"You know what I mean! You're the one who put the hair changing solution in our goblets at breakfast this morning!" Egbert cried. By this time groups of students had stopped to listen into the conversation.
"Me? Egbert, you know just as well as I do how horrible I am at potions!" Remus said, which was the truth, Peter was actually the brilliant one at Potions!
"Don't mess with me Lupin! I know you did it!" Egbert whipped out his wand. Remus looked at him and was not impressed by the childish behavior.
"Sorry, but you got the wrong person; why don't you go talk with Snape?' Remus asked, then he turned and started to walk away. His sense glared at him just then, he turned to face Egbert once again. Remus threw up a shielding charm…without his wand.
"W-what?" Egbert looked very surprised.
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?"
Professor McGonagall looked very angry; maybe she had been talking to Slughorn, but whatever it was, she didn't mind yelling.
"Professor! Egbert attacked Lupin!" a Ravenclaw spoke up.
"And Lupin did a shield charm! He didn't even have to use his wand!" a HufflePuff looked on in awe at Remus who was blushing. McGonagall looked stern but Remus saw the joy in her eyes.
"You two, come with me," she said. Her office wasn't far and Remus wasn't really worried about what might happen, after all he had tried to walk away from the fight, Egbert just wouldn't let it go. Not to mention that it was Egbert who had started the search for the insufferable Marauder's in the first place.
"Harry, are you almost ready?" Professor Lupin looked at his charge, Harry had his trunk beside him, all packed and ready to go.
"Yes, sir," Harry smiled; he wasn't exactly sure what to do, nor what he should do, or how he should do it. But Professor Lupin smiled at him and threw a hand full of powder into his own private fireplace.
"Moony's Cottage!" was the address given. Then, Remus shrunk Harry's trunk and he directed Harry into the fire place; "We'll do this together, just so you know where we are going," Lupin smiled. Harry felt embarrassed; he wasn't a five year old!
However, he didn't say anything as they passed loads of grates, Harry shut his eyes at the twirling sensation that he hated! Finally, they stopped and Harry all but fell over the threshold into the cottage. When he righted himself, he was slightly surprised at his surroundings.
He stood in the living room; there was an old red couch in front of him with a red and gold knitted blanket lying in a position that suggested that it had been thrown there. On either side of the couch were two midsized, red, wing back chairs. Sitting between all of the furniture was a coffee table (that was really beat up) with a few books stacked here and there. The rest of the room had shelves of books, a desk with parchment and quills sitting all about it, and moving pictures.
The only entrance to the living room led to the foyer and then stairs led up to the second floor while a short hall way led to the kitchen and back entrance. There was dust about everywhere, which testified to the fact that Professor Lupin had not lived there in a while.
"Sorry about the mess," Lupin said as he sent a scurgify-ing spell throughout the room.
"I wouldn't think of you as….forgetful," Harry said, the clutter of the living room reminded Harry of Professor Higgins from My Fair Lady (which he had seen a little bit of on his cousin's muggle television set when he was younger).
"Normally I am much more put together, but I left in a hurry you see," Lupin supplied, and then he disappeared to the kitchen. Harry put his trunk to the side, Lupin would probably show him around later. Harry smiled, he liked this place, he could see himself spending long boring afternoons in this very room!
"Mr. Egbert, would you like to explain to me what exactly you were doing?" McGonagall glared at the Slytherin.
"I was just asking him some questions!" Egbert said.
"More like accusing me of putting the hair changing solution into their goblet's this morning, which I did not do," Remus muttered
"Do you have any proof?" this directed to Egbert.
"No, but Severus said…"
"I don't particularly care about what Mr. Snape said; I want to know why you attacked Mr. Lupin,"
"He wasn't giving me the answer that I wanted, so I thought that if I hexed him that he'd do what I expected," Egbert said.
"That sounds like a very Gryffindor thing to do; however, it is no excuse," McGonagall glared.
"But.."
"I don't want to hear it! A week of detention, with me, now get out before I make it two!"
Donald Egbert ran out of the office, almost wetting himself in the process.
"Remus? Mind explaining to me why you did wandless magic?"
"I can't, well, not really explain it the way you probably want it; all I know was that I knew I wouldn't be able to pull out my wand, so…it just happened, like accidental magic, but I did in intentionally," Remus looked down at his feet.
"It is nothing to be ashamed of, some wizards can do it and others can't,"
"I know, but aren't only dark wizards supposed to do it?"
"No, Wandless magic is the same as any other magic; you can use it for good, or you can use it for bad, you only wanted to protect yourself, you used it for good,"
"Thank you, Professor!" Remus smiled. He had noticed recently that he could do wandless magic when he really felt like it. He had talked to his friends about it, they thought it was brilliant and knew it would come in handy when they played pranks.
Professor McGonagall thought it a privilege and a blessing!
"It is quite all right," was the reply Remus got before he left the office.
"This is you're room; I can transfigure it into anything you want," Lupin said. He and Harry stood in a wonderfully sized room with a queen sized bed, a chest of drawers, a desk and a closet. The bathroom was across the way and Lupin's own room was just down the hall.
"It's brilliant! Er – were you in Gryffindor, by any chance?" Harry asked, everything in the room was either red or gold.
"Yes, so was Sirius and you're Dad, but you probably all ready knew that,"
"It's all right, Professor," Harry smiled.
"I love that title!" Lupin smiled; Harry laughed at this and shook his head.
"Dinner will be ready in an hour," Lupin said as he left Harry to unpack and explore his room.
The first thing Harry found were old school notes in an untidy scrawl that reminded him of his own. At the top of the notes was his fathers name, but these were mostly old conversation between James, Sirius, Peter and Remus when they were in school. Harry assumed that these happened during History of Magic! That was the only class anyone would get away with writing notes to each other in!
Harry couldn't help but read one of the notes – it read….
Padfoot! Wake up! – Prongs
What is it? – Padfoot
Wormtail is asleep! Let's wake him up! – Prongs
What are you two planning now? – Moony
Oh! Don't be too put out! – Prongs
OI! PRONGS! WHY'D YOU DO THAT! – Wormtail (there were watermarks about the edges of the parchment, Harry wondered if his Dad dumped a bucket of water onto Pettigrew)
Oh no! you got my notes all wet! – Moony
The best way to wake someone up is by throwing a bucket of cold water over their heads! – Padfoot
You both are git's! – Wormtail
SHUT UP! – Padfoot, Prongs and Moony
Harry grinned – these were entertaining! He wondered if Professor Lupin would mind him reading these notes. But considering that the notes had been laid a-top the desk, Harry wondered if they had been placed there just for him!
At a call from down stairs – Harry rushed out of his bedroom and jumped the stairs as fast as he could. Dinner was ready and he wanted to talk to Lupin about those notes!
In the dorm room, the Marauder's were gathered before they pulled off their huge prank of the Christmas season!
"Egbert? Isn't he in potions class?" Peter asked.
"Yes, and he accused me of putting that potion in their drinks this morning," Remus sighed.
"How's he come to that conclusion? You're terrible at potions!" James grinned. Remus threw a pillow at his friend, which was right on the mark.
"Obviously he doesn't pay attention!" Sirius remarked.
"No doubt about that!" James threw the pillow back at Remus.
"AND you did wandless magic! That is so cool!" Sirius lamented.
"I got a couple of books about it! I think that if I practice more I can master it," Remus smiled. This was the only thing about himself that he was even remotely happy about.
"That is so cool!" James agreed with Sirius' earlier statement.
"However, that's going to have to wait, we have to pull off our prank!" Peter said.
"This is going to be totally worth the danger!" Sirius grinned.
"I still think this can expose us," Remus muttered.
"That's why we're doing it!" James smacked Remus, who whacked him with a hard book.
"Hey! What'd you do that for?"
"Because you deserved it!" was Remus' happy reply.
"Sure you can read those notes; I really don't know why I kept them anyway," Remus replied. They sat in the cozy kitchen, the fire going merrily to ward off the cold, and a meal of baked potatoes and ham before them. Harry liked the atmosphere, it was homey and he liked it!
"Thanks! Er – Did Dad dump a bucket of water over Pettigrew's head during History of Magic?" Harry asked.
"Yes, they did that to me on a few occasions too, come to think of it," Lupin replied.
"No one's tried that on me," Harry said.
"We did a lot of things to each other – once I turned you're Dad's hair pink! He went around like that for a week before he apologized to me and I changed it back for him,"
"How'd you do that?" Harry asked. Lupin was all too happy to explain it too Harry.
"Watch where you're going!" Sirius muttered, Remus had rammed into him when he had stopped suddenly.
"Sorry," Remus muttered. Sirius gave him a grin and then they stole quietly into the kitchen. The House Elves must have gone to bed, or gone somewhere because the kitchen was abandoned. Sirius looked into the public supply of pumpkin juice.
"This is so overly done," Remus sighed as he and Sirius added the potions to the drink. Sirius gave a look at Moony, who completely ignored it.
"This is different!" Sirius said.
"Yeah, maybe," Remus had to agree with his friend.
Christmas was only a couple days away – Lupin and Harry had gotten out the old Christmas decorations and had gone out into the French forest to cut down a rather thick, but nice tree. Remus magicked pixie lights about the tree and they both put up the red and cold ornaments.
"This was always when Padfoot would come in and start singing Christmas and make a mess of everything," Remus sighed.
"When will he come?" Harry asked.
"I don't know – he said something about picking some things up," Remus smiled.
"I don't have anything…"
"You don't need to get anything,"
"I feel stupid not doing it,"
"If it will make you feel better, there are some owl order forms on the desk over there," Remus said.
He and Harry finished decorating the tree and the living room; Remus went to his room for a nap, he was almost always tired, while Harry made himself some tea and pursued the order forms. He settled on a couple of safe presents for Sirius and Lupin – he also got a present for Ron and Hermione.
He sent the allotted money and the order forms with Hedwig, who didn't mind the late afternoon trip.
Sirius was glad when he finally saw the warmly glowing windows of Moony's cottage. He was hungry and he needed something to eat; he hoped that Hagrid wouldn't think it weird that Snuffy had disappeared just the week before. He didn't think that Hagrid would mind at all – he had played it safe by disappearing even more day by day till he just wouldn't show up at night, at least, not till late.
Sirius, popped into his human form and made the rest of the way to the cottage. He knocked on the door and then sagged against it; he was so tired. He was expecting Remus to answer the door, however, when the door finally opened….he had to grin at the green eyed kid.
"Hey kiddo,"
"Black, come in," Harry said. He swiftly made some tea for Black and Lupin then he disappeared up the stairs. A few minutes later, as Sirius helped himself to a second cup of tea, Lupin and Harry entered the kitchen.
Sirius and Remus immediately hugged each other.
"Are you all right?" Sirius asked.
"Why are you asking me that when you are as thin as a stick and in need of a shower?" Remus smirked.
"Oi! You wound me!" Sirius laughed.
"But he's right," Harry put in, reminding the two adults that he was still there.
"All right, can I borrow the shower then?" Sirius asked.
"Its right where it has always been," Remus smiled. Sirius smiled back; as he passed through the kitchen he ruffled Harry's naturally messy hair.
"Hey!" Harry gave a glare, but Sirius just laughed.
"Don't worry, Harry, you'll get used to him," Remus chuckled.
"Sure, and how long did it take you?" Harry asked.
"Seven years," Remus replied with a shrug. He left Harry alone in the kitchen goggling like a goldfish.
The day passed relatively happily and Harry got his rush order back within record time. Obviously his name pulled a lot of weight and the people from Diagon Alley did not mind catering to him on such short notice. He took his presents up to his room; Lupin helped to fend Sirius off. Sirius only wanted to know what his present was, but Harry refused to tell him and Lupin had to drag Sirius off to help him with dinner.
Harry wrapped his presents up; then he went to join the Professor and Godfather in the kitchen. It was still weird, knowing that he had family, and yet, he didn't know exactly what to do around the man.
But Harry was happy with the situation as it was anyway!
A/N – I think this is long enough! If you have any idea what I am doing in the flashbacks, please tell me because I have no idea! This chapter is 8 long boring pages. I am sorry about that! And I swear that there will be Harry/Sirius/Remus bonding next time! I have too tie up some lose ends in the Epilogue. I hope that you enjoyed this! THE longest chapter in this fic!
Ta,
Poppy