Chapter Five- The Door to the Past Part I
Flashback:
"Lily," sighed a fifteen year old Serena, laying on her friend's bed. "James is really starting to get on my nerves."
Lily frowned. "Your brother gets on everboyd's nerves, Sere."
Serena shook her head. "It's not just that, though, Lil. It's hard to explain. It's just... I feel as if he's been intentionally avoiding me to hang out with Amy. He should know by now that I don't care if he hangs out with her! I am so over it by now, and if he paid the littest bit of attention to me he'd know that!" she burst forth in an angry breath.
"Ah," replied Lily, nodding. "I thought it might be that. Sere, don't be jealous of the relationship James and Amy have; it's not condusive to your health, for one, and for two, it makes you sound like all your doing is bad mouthing and poking fun at them behind their backs."
"But I'm not," replied Serena, shaking her head.
Lily sighed. "I know your not, but they don't," she looked at her watch. "Time for classes."
Serena nodded, then picked up her bag and headed out of the girls dormitories.
----
Later on in the afternoon, Serena could be found studying in the library. She looked at her watch, which signaled lunch-time, but gave not heed to it. She wasn't hungry, and she really needed to get this paper done.
A little while later Serena sensed a presense sitting beside her, but didn't look up. At this point, she was already done with her weeks assignments, and had moved on to taking notes for whatever reason, on whatever subject.
"There is such a thing as a break, Sere," said the person, looking at her notes with a smile.
"It's O.W.L year, Remus," replied Serena, shortly. "Besides, it's quite obvious that I need all the hlep I can get. I'm just bearly pulling an 'O'."
Remus frowned. "If you're having trouble, why didn't you just ask one of us for help? We would've been-"
"Because," interrupted Serena, her focus now on Remus. "You guys are way too busy; besides, you heard what James told me about-"
"-how he'll only help Amy," finished Remus, slightly impatiently. "Yes, yes, the whole common room heard that. But I have a question for you; do Peter, Sirius or I look like James?"
Serena shook her head, eyes stinging. "No. I'm sorry Remy. I didn't mean to be rude." she replied, looking away miserably. "It's just not the same as if it were James helping me." then she got bitter. "I don't understand how things can come so easily to him and Amy and not to me. Maybe they're both right, Remus, maybe all I'm good for is to," she choked back a sob. "produce childen who know nothing."
Remus looked surprised. "They said that?" he asked.
Serena nodded miserablly, tears falling down her cheeks. "They also said that is only if I can EVEN produce any children," she said quietly, more tears spilling out of her eyes.
Remus glared at the table for a moment. They he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. "Your children will be the most brilliant children, Sere. They'll be able to get good grades and have fun doing it; they'll be able to compose beautiful serenades and concertos, and symphonies. Not to mention, they'll inherit your skill for gormet cooking." replied Remus, hugging her tight. "Do you ever pay any attention to what they say, do you understand me? If only they knew how special you are, Sere. They don't understand what great things you can do, and that you do do. But we, Peter, Sirius and I do, and we appreciate you for everything."
Serena hugged him back. "Thank you, Remy; I knew I could count on you to make me happy."
"No problem, Sere," he replied, planting a gentle kiss on her forehead.
---End of Flashback----
Remus was sitting at the kitchen table buried in The Daily Propeht, eating a bowl of Trix cereal.
Sirius walked in and grinned. "Something on your mind, Remus?" he asked, sitting down at the table and pouring himself a bowl of Fruit Loops. "Finding anything interesting?"
Remus shook his head. "Nothing, no. Just a comic strip about Harry that is most inappropriate that we're not going to let Sere see." he replied, putting the paper down. "But I do have a million thoughts going through my mind at the moment; I wish I had a Penseve; that would make my migraine go away."
Sirius grinned. "I'm sorry, Moony. What have you got on your mind? Maybe I can help."
Remus grinned at his old nick-name. "Perhaps you can," then he frowned. "Perhaps you can't."
Sirius frowned. "That serious, huh? Well, shoot anyway; even if it doesn't help, it'll make you feel better."
Remus grinned. "Well, okay. So, I was looking for my watch the other day; when I was going through my desk I found a few letters for Raye. I didn't think much of it, until more showed up that very same day. Well, one of them happened to be a Howler, and Raye was at work, so I opened it, because I wasn't in the mood to clean up any ash off the ground. Well, it was a male's voice, describing in very vivid detail of how displeased he was with her when they were together the other night, and then went on to describe what they did."
Sirius frowned. "I'm sorry, Remus. What are you gonna do?"
Remus sighed. "We filed for divorce the other day; our papers are being looked over even as we speak.
"That really sucks," replied Sirius, shaking hsi head. "How long has this been going on?"
"All year," replied Remus, frowning. Then he smiled. "But, then I was thinking how I could've had your wife instead."
Sirius grinned. "Whatever makes you happy," he replied. "It was really a close call, though, wasn't it?"
Remus smiled. "Ah, but I knew how much you adored her, and I would have never done anything to hurt you, because then you'd have hurt me."
Sirius let out his bark-like laugh. "It's true, too. Still, you didn't back down without a challenge, did you?"
Just as Remus was about to answer, in walked Molly, Arthur, Serena and Tonks.
Remus grinned at Serena as she sat down. He picked up the Fruit Loops box. "See the resemblence?"
Serena glared at him and threw a handful of Kicks at him. "I am NOT a Fruit Loop!" she grinned. "But, you're Loony Lupin, so you have no room to talk."
Sirius glanced at Tonks, then at Remus, and grinned. Then he leaned over and whispered something to Serena.
She giggled and said, "Is this really appropriate at the table?"
MOlly and Tonks went bright pink and Remus laughed. "They never really could keep their hands off of each other." he remakred.
This time it was Sirius's turn to throw cornflakes at Remus. "We could behave better than you and Raye! At least we weren't all over each other at the dinner table."
Remus laughed. "Did you two even really make out before you were married?"
"No," said Serena, grinning. "I swear we only ever kissed once in a very great while."
"Really?" Molly asked in surprise. "I'd have thought you'd have been just a LITTLE more involved than that."
Sirius shook his head. "Kissing is a sign of affection; and most of the time we weren't in the mood to be affectionate. It was easier most of the time to yell and scream and be obnoxious to each other than to be affecionate."
Serena looked at him. "In a really weird way, though, all the fighting, the teasing, the annyoances, WERE affection. MOst people hold hands, kiss, or whatever to show affection, and we never were real comfortable with that; so we showed affection the way we felt comfortable, by fighting." she replied.
"Also," said Sirius, swallowing a bite of cereal. "When you do all those things, it means that your a couple, and that was too much for either of us at that time. We weren't ready for everything couples do; it was a bit overwhelming. Plus, being who we were at the time. we weren't sure that we really wanted a relationship with each other."
They talked for a bit more on that subjuect, then switched to what they talked about in the latest meeting.
"I did disagree with Dumbledore about security measures," said Molly, frowning.
"So you think Harry should have NO freedom?" asked Serena. "Poor kid is already insecure enough what with being a teenager and all, but this whole him bing followed every second is making him worse. Him and I talked about it the other day."
"That may be-" started Molly, but Serena interrupted.
"MOlly, you're talking about him being followed all over the school! Albus is there for the better part of the year, and when he's not, he leaves the school in capable hands. Harry is safe there."
Tonks chimed in meekly. "I'm beginning to think he's not safe anywhere." she said, shaking her head. "And just because he is who he is, he naturally attracts a lot of trouble."
"Justl ike his father," said Molly, stbbornly.
Sirius squeezed Serena's hand underneath the table. "James never really attracted trouble," he said, still not letting go of Serena's hand. "No, he just made lots of enemies, and fast. Either they really liked him, or really hated him. Harry doesn't have that problem."
Just then they heard somebody tromp into the kitchen and quieted down in tiem for Harry to walk in.
(Harry's P.O.V)
Harry felt numb; it was the morning of the Ministry hearing, and he was totally and completely numb, completely unable to think one positive, happy thought as he went down to breakfast that morning.
He pushed open the kitchen door and saw that Mr. Weasely, Mrs. Weasely, Lupin, Tonks, Sirius and Serena were already sitting down and were talking in whispers, only broken by one of Tonks's yawns.
The moment that Mrs. Weasely noticed that Harry was in the room, the whispers died away and she ushered him forward. "Breakfast!" she said, jumping up from her chair at the table. "What will it be, Harry dear? Toast? Eggs? Waffles? Pan-cakes-?"
"Calm down, Molly," said Serena, grinning. "You're acting as nervous as he looks. Come on, Harry, come have a seat." she added, patting the spot next to her.
Harry followed his instructions and sat down by Serena, who peered at him. "Are you alright, Harry? You're looking a little green." she said, ruffling his hair a bit.
Mrs. Weasely glared at Serena; she had been trying to get Harry's hair to lie flat on his head with some water and a comb.
"Oh, forget it, Molly. James's hair never stayed flat either," said Serena, laughing as Mrs. Weasely threw the comb into the glass of water and put it in the sink. "Besides, on the rare occasions that it DID lie flat, it didn't look good. Mama always said Potter boys look best with their hair messy. James took that to heart a little too much, though."
Harry then turned to look at Serena. "Did-"
As if reading his mind, Serena laughed and nodded. "There were quite a few times that I thought James would end up in front of the Minister of Magic," then, smiling even more. "But he wasn't the only one I had to worry about."
Harry glanced at Lupin and Sirius and noticed, with a slightly more cheerful air, that they were blushing slightly.
"But, of COURSE YOU never did anything that would even remotely have gotten you into trouble, though." said Lupin, rolling his eyes at her. "There were times I'm SURE James worried about you, and that's saying something."
"Yeah," chipped in Sirius with a chuckle. "You know it's bad when you have James worried. It's even worse when you have him pacing the common room floor wondering where in the heck you are and wondering when in the heck you were going to get back, looking at the clock and freaking out when it was four o'clock in the morning."
Serena sighed lightly. "I've always said that James was too over-protective of me," she said, shaking her head. "He was more convinced that I could do no wrong than... others."
Once again, Sirius blushed, this time going slightly brighter than the last time. "Well..." he trailed off, then turned to Harry. "Sere and I didn't always get along... actually, we didn't get along MOST of the time. We were very stubborn back in school."
Serena sighed, mockingly, trying her hardest not to laugh. "And it's all because he wouldn't really tell me that he liked me. See, if he would have, I would have been nicer to him."
Lupin chuckled. "Oh, I doubt that," he replied. "I highly doubt that. Even when he evetually did, you two were still at each others throats."
Serena blushed this time. "Okay, okay, maybe you're right..." she replied.
Harry burst out laughing at the look that Sirius was giving Serena. Those two were quite the couple...
Mr. Weasely looked down at his watch. "Well, Harry, it's time." he said, standing up. He looked more than slightly out of place in his Muggle garb.
Harry ambled to his feet, the numb feeling coming back over him.
Tonks yawned again, then smiled up at Harry earnestly. "Amelia Bones is okay, Harry, she's fair, she'll hear you out."
"Don't lose your temper," said Sirius abruptly. "And be polite."
Serena had to stifle a chuckle. "You're forgetting who's son he is, Sirius," she said, grinning. "Nah, just stick to the facts, kiddo, they'll be sure to let you off."
Harry nodded, feeling slightly more cheerful, but still looked rather anxious.
"The law is on your side," said Lupin. "Even underage wizards are allowed to use magic in life-threatening situations."
Tonks looked at him again. "You'll be alright, Harry." she said, patting his arm.
"Good luck," said Lupin. "I'm sure it will be fine."
Sirius smiled grimly. "And if it's not," he said, matching his grim smile. "I'll see to Amelia Bones for you."
Serena nodded in agreement, while patting Harry's shoulder. "I highly doubt that the Minister has ever seen the likes of one hormonal pregnant woman, and believe you me, Harry, that it would be the LAST thing he saw."
"And that's NOT an empty threat," chipped in Mrs. Weasely while grinning. "Believe me, I know that very same feeling."
Mr. Weasely had to suppress a rather large cringe. "Believe ME, she knew that very same feeling. She felt it almost everyday that she was pregnant. It's not something I like to think about very often."
Serena laughed at the look that Mrs. Weasely gave Mr. Weasely. "You two are hilarious, you know that? I get a kick out of you two."
Mrs. Weasely blushed. "Well, that's good, dear." she said, frowning slightly.
"Yes, it is good," Lupin said, grinning, "because Sere doesn't like anybody she doesn't get a kick out of."
Serena rolled her eyes at him and threw another handful of cereal at him. She then looked thoughtful. "Hey, why didn't we throw this at your wedding, Remy? That would've been a lot better than-"
"Bertie Bott's," Lupin laughed. "Ah, yes. It would've been."
Mr. Weasely and Harry rushed out of the room when Mr. Weasely looked down at his watch again and noticed what time it was.
The others stayed down to clean the mess of cereal up, while Sirius insisted that he needed to start cleaning upstairs, for undisclosed reasons. He walked the stairs and went into the drawing room and sat on the couch.
---Flashback----
He stood there watching as his friend held the crying blonde close to him, his own heart constricting in painful ways. How he wished HE were the one holding her close, caressing her hair, wiping her tears away.
But he could never admit this. He WAS Sirius Black, after all; he had an image to keep up.
Nevertheless, he had seen her skip lunch and slink off to the library and was concerned about her; it looked to him as if she had been crying, and that jabbed at his heart. When he had seen her sh heartbroken, he had resolved within himself to do something nice for her and to tell her how he really felt about her.
Now, here he stood with a thing of chocolates in one hand and a boquet of pink roses in the other, his heart slowly shattering.
Without a sound he turned and walked out of the library, throwing the chocolates and the roses away in the nearest trash bin.
Later in the evening, Sirius was walking towards the kitchen, having been so upset that he missed dinner. He passed Lily and Serena on the way. They smiled to him and waved, but he did nothing, or rather, he ignored them.
He heard Lily mutter to an angry and most likely PMSy Serena, "Let it go. You two are both in a bad mood, drop it."
But, apparently, Serena did not WANT to drop it. She turned to him. "What's your problem, Black?"
He mentally cringed at the use of his surname. Without turning to look at her, he replied in a bored voice. "I don't have one."
"Obviously you do!" said Serena hotly, wanting to take her aggression out on something. "You're not even talking to us face to face. Are you too good now?"
He mentally shook his head. This argument was NOT gonna be fun. "I just had a bad day," he replied, wanting nothing more than to let this go. "And I missed dinner, so I have really low blood-sugar, so if you'll excuse me, I need something to eat."
He continued walking. He hated arguing with her when he cared about her so much.
He sensed a presence beside him, but didn't look up. "Look, Sirius, I'm sorry." said Serena, frowning. "James and Amy are really getting to me. They've been horrible lately."
Sirius sighed and shook his head. "Don't be. And don't let them get to you; they are rude to you, this I know, but don't let them get to you. Their ruining your happy go lucky self, and your letting them."
Serena snorted. "That's easy for you to say; you don't have to live with them."
Sirius looked at her. "true," he looked away. "but I HAVE lived with worse."
Serena let out a bitter chuckle. "And just who-"
He interrupted with just one word. "You,"
She stopped walking and looked at him. Her eyes filled with tears. "I didn't think I was that bad," she turned to run away, but he had a hold of her arm.
He looked at her. "It's true; everyday I felt as if I was having bamboo shoved under my finger nails. Each day felt as if nothing good came from it. I felt that I was drowning in misery. Yes, Serena, I was miserable."
She looked away. "Sirius, stop." she quietly said, trying to pull her arm away. "I get the picture."
"No, no you don't. Not at all," he said, using his other hand to cup her chin and turned her to look at him. "You know why I was so miserable? It's because you were right there the whole time; and I couldn't do a single thing about it. I couldn't tell you everything I wanted to; how much you mean to me and how much I care about you, how much it pains me to see you cry, how it makes my day to hear you laugh and to see you smile. You were always right there, and I could do absolutely nothing. So yes, Sere, I was miserable."
The two stood there for a moment, looking into each others eyes. "Sirius?" she softly asked. "Did you- did you just tell me-"
"That I love you?" he injected, smiling. "Yes, Sere, I love you."
She stood there for a minute. "What does this mean? What do we do next?"
"A little somethin' like this," replied Sirius, leaning down and clasping her lips in his.
End of flashback
Sirius was still in the drawing room, thinking hard about his and Serena's relationship.
"Hey, handsome," said a voice, making him jump. He looked up to see Serena standing there. She sat down next to him and he put his arm around her shoulders.
"Since we're the only ones in here, I'll assume you mean me," replied Sirius, grinning.
"Yeah, I guess you'll have to," Serena said, smirking. "What were you thinking so hard about? You've been a recluse for more than an hour."
"Oh, just thinking about us," Sirius replied, smiling. "I was thinking back to that one day when I first told you I loved you."
Serena smiled. "What a great day; to be told I'm loved and given my first kiss, by one of the cutest guys in school no less; how much better can a girl do?" she said, leaning her head on his shoulder. "Life for me was great that day."
"Little did we know it would change our lives the way it has," Sirius replied.
Serena took his hand suddenly and put it on her stomach. "Look, they're moving."
Sirius looked at her with a raised eye brow. "THEY'RE? You mean there's more than one?"
Serena nodded. "There has to be," she replied.
Before another word could be spoken, the drawing room door flew open and in burst a disheveled, messy haired, extremely pale Snape.
"Amy and I need your guys' help!"
Okay, so here is this chapter; I hope ya'll liked it. It was way fun to write. R&R, if you want; if not, I'm glad you've been reading. Hope ya'll have a nice day. :D
