Can I Call You Dad

Chapter 4

The sun shone in his eyes and Harry squinted himself out of sleep. He sat up and rubbed his eyes before he felt around the nearest bed side table for his glasses; which he put on. His room was draped in light gold as the sun slowly rose over the French mountains. Over the floor were strewn clothes of different kinds and books. Homework lain undone and Harry was happy. Remus never did tell him to clean it up at all!

Harry bound out of bed and pulled on some clean clothes before making is way to the kitchen; he saw Remus bent down in front of the kitchen fireplace, talking to someone.

"You see, I need a place for Harry to stay while I'm…indisposed," Remus was saying.

"Oh, you poor dear's! of course Harry can stay with us! Ron would love it!" the other replied.

"Thank you, Molly, I appreciate it," Remus smiled, and then the connection was terminated. Remus rubbed stray soot off of his new robes as he stood.

"Ah, Harry, good morning!" Remus said happily.

"What were you and Mrs. Weasley talking about?" Harry asked.

"Oh, I need a safe place for you to stay during the full moon; Molly knows what I am, and I asked her if she would mind you staying with them for that week," Remus replied.

"Will you be all right?" Harry asked.

"Of course I will be, I've been doing it longer than you've been alive," Remus chuckled.

"Oh, all right then," Harry nodded.

"Let's have breakfast, I'll tell you the rest of that story…" Remus trailed off, getting down a pan from a hook on the wall above the stove while Harry got out the eggs and bacon.


They had waited two weeks into the term before they played their prank. It took that long in order to make the potion and they also had to test it out; it worked on Peter and so they figured that it would work on the Slytherins.

James and Sirius were the ones who snuck into the kitchens and slipped it into the pumpkin juice; Remus and Peter kept watch and then they went to get their howler ready for delivery. This may be a prank, but this was seeking justice! And the Marauder's wanted justice more than a prank well played out (though the prank was a plus).

When morning dawned and everyone gathered in the great hall for breakfast; the Marauder's smirked at each other as they sat down. Everyone knew that Slytherin had cheated at the last Quidditch game, but no one could prove it! Until now, that is…

The howler was delivered to Malfoy, who was in his seventh and last year of Hogwarts – he of course knew that the howler would do want it wanted and so he ripped it open.

"Mr. Moony says' good morning to the Slytherin Quidditch Team!

Mr. Prongs would like said team to answer a question..

Mr. Padfoot says that it is a very important question!

Mr. Wormtail asks that the team answers truthfully…

DID YOU, THE REPRESENTATIVES OF SLYTHERIN QUIDDITCH TEAM CHEAT ON THE LAST GAME OF THE SEASON THAT TOOK PLACE LAST TERM?"

With a resounding yell the whole of Slytherin table yelled – "YES!"


"What did McGonagall do?" Harry asked; they were half way through their meal.

"She took the Quidditch cup away from them and Dumbledore awarded it to us Gryffindor's. We were second in the running for the cup; and Slytherin lost two hundred points and the Quidditch team got detention for six months of that year. I believe that it was the first detention slip Malfoy ever got!" Remus snickered.

"Wow, that was brilliant," Harry grinned.

"You sound just like Sirius,"

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Harry asked.

"Good, of course!"

"Good!"

Remus put his coffee cup down and went to the kitchen fireplace mantle; there were many nick-knack's on the mantle and a muggle painting(1) of a tractor in the middle of a field with storm clouds and mountains as the back drop. However, what Remus brought down and put in front of Harry was nothing like that boy had ever seen.

The box had many, many, carvings on it; on the top that was the subject of the carvings was a lily, to the side were more carvings of roses; and on the front panel was Harry's Mother's name.

"Lily would always play that for you at night, it always calmed you," Remus said.

"This was my Mum's?"

"Didn't you see the name?" Remus smiled. Harry opened the box and a nice tune came out of it while a yellow garbed ballerina pirouetted to the music. Harry scrunched up his face – but he couldn't place the tune.

"What song is it?" Harry asked.

"It's called 'Somewhere over the Rainbow'(2) it's from a muggle movie," Remus replied.

"Wow, this was my Mum's!"

"If you look in the small jewelry bag, you'll find something special," Remus said.

Indeed, in one of the earring holders of the musical box, was a black silk bag. Harry picked it up and opened it. Out came two rings, one had three diamonds and the other one had one diamond.

"Those rings are Potter family relics; when the oldest of the family reaches a certain age, they get the rings, James got them when he was fourteen, his mother and father died after his third year, and so he got them a bit early, I thought I'd continue the – rather bad timing," Remus sat down.

"Wow,"

"Just wait till you get a gander at you're family vault; James let me see it once, it was grand," Remus replied.

"I have more money?"

"All the old families do," Remus shrugged.

"What about you?"

"My family has never lived in England or France, we came from Greece, our name evolved many times till we got the current one, we've always been a poor family; in fact, I went to school on scholarship," Remus replied.

"I never knew that," Harry shook his head.

"Well, the Potter family has always lived in Europe; they used to have many contacts in the Ministry and a Samuel Potter even sailed on the May Flower to the New World; he was the one who incited the Revolutionary War and he helped Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence,"

"I never knew that either," Harry said.

"I think I have a trunk of books up in the attack; James knew that there was a chance that he might not make it through to see the end of the first war, so he asked me to keep some books and other things safe for you," Remus said.

"I'll have to take a look then," Harry said.

"Yes, I'll have to go look though, I can't remember exactly where we put it all," Remus muttered.

"What else did Dad leave me?"

"Oh, I can't remember, I think there are a few robes with your Potter family emblem; books, more jewelry, and his personal journal,"

"Dad had a journal?"

"Yes, his last entry was made on the day he died, it automatically conjured itself in my personal library, I put it with the rest of the things that were kept for you; it was the one way that I knew that James and Lily where dead,"

"I'm sorry,"

"It's all right, its Pettigrew's fault,"

"I know, but that doesn't change a thing,"

"No it doesn't, but when Sirius is able to take Pettigrew to Dumbledore, everyone will know the truth," Remus said.

"And then Sirius can come home and we can have fun!"

"Indeed, now, what do you want to do?" Remus asked.

"I think that we should enjoy the summer," Remus said. Harry agreed with him.


"James are you sure you want me to keep this stuff?" Remus asked his best friend as he took a look at the old school trunk.

"I can't explain it, Remus, but I have this feeling that I won't survive this,"

"I know, you've had it since little Harry was born,"

"If I don't survive, and Lily doesn't survive, than I want you to make sure that Harry knows about us, all the funny and embarrassing stories you have on me, and the one of Lily where she hexed me, and even our wedding!"

"I will, and so will Sirius,"

"I know, I can't tell you how much it means to me that I have you as a best friend; you're the best," James looked down at his feet.

"I'll do my best, I won't die till Harry knows everything,"

"Thank you,"


1 – The painting is based on one that my Granddad painted.

2 – I have a porcelain doll from my Birth-Mum that plays' 'Somewhere over the rainbow' and the movie is 'The Wizard of Oz' but I figure you all ready know that!

Didn't quite reached the page length that I wanted – but I hope you all liked it anyway! Oh, I don't know anything about the origins of the name. But names tend to change as time goes on, that's my reasoning behind Lupin's family history.

Ta,

Poppy