Samantha stared down at her father. She hadn't seen pictures before, just heard about how she looked similar to him. She could now see this was very true.

Young James ruffled his hair, making it even messier than it already was. Then, with one last look at Professor Flitwick, he turned around to look at another boy a few seats behind him.

The boy he had turned to was very attractive. He had dark hair that fell effortlessly into his face with a kind of indescribable grace. His face wore a smirk of triumph, and he and James gave each other a thumbs up.

Samantha then turned her attention to Snape, who was staring hatefully down at James and the other boy. She focused on him a minute before turning her attention back to her father, who was now doodling on his paper, first a thing Samantha had heard from description, a Snitch, and next the letters L. E.

"L. E..." Samantha muttered. The letters seemed too familiar. She had to know them from somewhere...

Snape looked down at him, watching as she figured it out.

"Hold on... L. E. doesn't stand for Lily Evans, does it?" She asked Snape.

"You'll see," Snape said coldly.

Professor Flitwick then called all of the exam papers towards him, and dismissed everyone.

Samantha, having no interest in following teen Snape, followed her dad, who joined up with the boy from before and two others, a pale-looking boy and a mousy-haired boy with a tinted nose. Snape came with her, deciding that following James and his gang was more interesting than following the teenage version of himself. Or he would follow Samantha wherever she went.

The boys were talking happily.

"Did you like question ten, Mooney?" the handsome boy who her father had turned to during the exam asked, looking towards the pale and peaky boy.

"Loved it, Sirius," Mooney (Samantha doubted that was his real name) replied. "'Give five signs that identify the werewolf'. Great question."

"Do you think you managed to get them all?" James asked in mock curiosity, although Samantha couldn't see why.

"I think so. Firstly, he's sitting in my chair. Secondly, he's wearing my clothes. Thirdly, his name's Remus Lupin..." Mooney, or Remus, said.

The mousy-haired boy finally spoke up. "I could only think of three..." he told them sadly.

"How stupid are you, Wormy, we run around with one once a month!" James cried.

"Hey, keep your voice down," Remus shushed him.

"Sorry," said James.

Samantha, who had no interest in following teenage Snape, instead followed her father and his friends. Snape did the same, and whether this was because he wanted to stay with her or he wanted to see what the four boys were doing, Samantha wasn't happy; she had wanted time alone with her father.

To her surprise, however, teenage Snape went the same direction as the four boys.

"That was too easy, I thought they said it was going to be hard," James said, playing with a Snitch.

"I'll be surprised if I didn't get an Outstanding," Sirius replied, lounging lazily against a tree.

"Where'd you get the Snitch?" asked the mousy-haired boy, Wormy (again, Samantha assumed this was a nickname).

"Nicked it," James replied casually while he let the Snitch get a foot away before capturing it again. Wormy watched him in awe.

"I'm bored. Wish it were the full moon..." Sirius complained after a few minutes of watching James play with the Snitch.

Remus made an exasperated noise, rolling his eyes at Sirius. "You might."

"This'll cheer you up, Padfoot, look who it is?" said James, pointing to Snape.

"Ah, Snivellus," Sirius smiled evilly, watching Snape.

Adult Snape glanced at Samantha for a second at the word Snivellus, but Samantha ignored him.

"Snivellus, alright there?" James called. He and Sirius stood up, but Remus and Wormy remained seated. Remus stared at his book, although he didn't seem to be reading it, and Wormy watched Sirius and James intently.

Young Snape looked silently over to James and Sirius before returning to looking at his paper.

"Hey, answer us if we talk to you!" called Sirius.

Snape, sensing danger, immediately reached into his robes to pull out his wand, but too late; James had already shouted "Expelliarmus!" and Snape's wand had flown out of his hand and landed a few feet behind him.

"Impedimenta!" Sirius yelled, and Snape was knocked off of his feet and lay, panting, on the ground. Samantha noticed that many students had now turned to watch.

"I saw you during the exam, with your nose touching the parchment, there'll be grease marks all over it, no one'll be able to read a thing," James taunted. Several students laughed. As Samantha could've assumed, teenage Snape was not the most popular.

Snape said a mix of swears and hexes, obviously trying to accomplish something, but with his wand ten feet away, there wasn't much he could do.

"Such a dirty mouth, better clean that out for you," James said. "Scourgify!"

Bubbles appeared in Snape's mouth, pouring out as he coughed and choked on them, still desperately reaching for his wand.

"Leave him alone, for once, will you?" a female voice said.

Samantha turned to look at the girl. She was the same age as the boys, around 16, with gorgeous, chest length red hair and green eyes that Samantha knew she had seen before somewhere. She looked nearly identical to Lauren, except for the eyes.

She turned to Snape, who was looking wistfully at the girl.

"That's my mum, isn't it?" Samantha asked softly.

Snape did not reply, he instead continued to watch Lily. But that was all Samantha needed.

"Evans..." James said, lowering his wand arm, a mature tone coming to his voice.

"What has he done to you?" she demanded.

"You know, it's not really what he's done, it's more the fact he exists," James replied, smirking.

"You think you're so cool, taunting everyone, getting good marks without even looking at the textbook once, but you're really just an arrogant, bullying toe rag, Potter!" Lily yelled at him.

"What?" Samantha whispered. "But... but my parents loved each other..."

"A pleasant fantasy, Potter," Snape hissed.

"Evans, I'll be willing to make a deal with you. Go on a date with me, and I'll never touch Snivellus- Severus, I mean- again," James offered.

Lily's nostrils flared. "I will never go on a date with you for as long as I live," she replied haughtily.

"Why are you showing this to me?" Samantha screamed at Snape, who's lip curled nastily. But suddenly, Snape's face turned to fear. He seemed to realize what was coming next.

"About time we're leaving-" he said hastily, trying to grab Samantha's arm to take her back to the Potions classroom, but Samantha pulled out of his grasp and instead turned to watch the rest of the scene.

Teenage Snape grabbed his wand. "Sectumsempra!" he shouted, pointing his wand at James. A gash appeared on James's face, blood splattering onto his robes, but James ignored this.

He shouted something Samantha couldn't hear, and in a second Snape was dangling upside down in the air, his robes falling over his torso to reveal skinny legs and a pair of grey boxers.

Samantha, who was sure Lily was just going to yell more at James, was surprised when her face twitched for a second as if she wanted to laugh like the rest of the crowd, but she quickly regained self control and went back to a livid expression.

"Let him down this instant!" cried Lily.

James let him down, smirking at Sirius, who immediately shouted "Petrificus Totalus!" and Snape froze like a board.

"You two are so immature!" Lily yelled at them, crossing her arms. "Leave him alone before I go report you two to Professor Dumbledore."

Sirius hastily took the curse off. "You're lucky Evans was here-"

"I don't need help from filthy Mudbloods like her," Snape spat.

Immediately, the mood changed. Lily looked confused and hurt, while James was lunging, wandless, towards Snape.

Samantha didn't get to see what happened next, however, because Snape grabbed her, and, while yelling "Enough!", pulled her back into his office.

After a few moments of spinning, Samantha stood opposite Snape, both panting.

"Why did you show me that?" yelled Samantha.

"So you can understand," Snape hissed.

"How does a memory of my father bullying you, my mother insulting my father, and you calling my mother a nasty name help me understand anything? Is that really how you want to be understood? As someone who insults Muggle-borns?" Samantha shouted.

Snape took a deep breath. "That's so you can understand that I regret neither of your parents' deaths," he explained. There was something unsettling in his voice, almost as if he was taunting her.

"It didn't help," Samantha replied, and with that, she stalked out of the office and to the Great Hall to join her friends for lunch.

Back at Privet Drive, Harry was having the best school experience he had ever had.

Mr. Lupin was very nice. He had taken an interest in Harry, although Harry couldn't figure out why. He wasn't like any of the other kids. His clothes were shabbier, having once been Dudley's, and he lived in a closet under the stairs. Harry didn't think there was anything particularly interesting about himself, but Mr. Lupin seemed to think so.

"Okay class, today we will be writing about your bedrooms. I want you to do descriptive work without overusing adjectives. Write about what your bedroom looks like, what the stuff inside your bedroom looks like, how your bedroom makes you feel, and anything else about your bedroom you want," Mr. Lupin told them one morning.

Harry sighed. He didn't want to write about his bedroom. The closet he lived in was the last thing he ever wanted to think about.

He raised his hand.

"Yes, Harry?" Mr. Lupin asked.

"Does it have to be about your bedroom? Could you write about a bedroom that you want to have?" asked Harry.

"No, that will be an assignment for tomorrow. Today we are talking strictly about the bedroom you currently have," Mr. Lupin replied.

"Brilliant," Harry muttered under his breath, pulling out a pen and paper to start writing.

About ten minutes later, Harry wasn't sure what more he could write. His room wasn't very interesting. There wasn't much to describe. He raised his hand again.

"Yes, Harry?" Mr. Lupin asked.

"Er, I'm done," he said.

"Already?"

Harry nodded.

'Let me see it, I'll see if there's anything else you can add," Mr. Lupin said, and Harry walked his paper to Mr. Lupin's desk.

Remus read over it.

My Bedroom

My Bedroom isn't technically a bedroom. It's really a closet under the stairs. It's kind of dark, since there are no windows, and it's very dusty. My bed is in one corner. It has an old, thin blanket that was my cousin's for a few years that has a few food stains on it and I often get cold in the winter because it's not very effective as a blanket. I have a small dresser made of light wood. It holds all of my clothes. It's also where I put my glasses when I go to sleep. The last thing in my room is a shelf. It's made of a random plank of wood my uncle found and it's slightly tilted. It holds a few books my cousin didn't like that I got. Since it's under the stairs, the ceiling is tilted and I can feel when anyone goes up and down the stairs. Sometimes my cousin likes to jump on the stairs to annoy me. There are a lot of spiders in my room, mostly hiding under my bed or in corners of my room. I don't like my room much, since it's where I'm trapped for punishments. That is my room.

Once Mr. Lupin was done reading, he looked up at Harry with an apology in his eyes.

"Well... that was very good writing, Harry. It really gave me the feel of your-er-bedroom. I don't think there are any improvements that need to be made, so you can go have a seat and silently read until our next activity," Mr. Lupin told Harry.

Harry nodded and returned to his seat, taking a book from his bag.

At the end of the day, Remus went to talk to Issy about Harry's writing.

He carefully knocked on the door to her classroom. She turned around from the work she was doing and smiled at him.

"Hey, come in," she said.

"I wanted to talk to you about something," Remus said, a grim expression on his face.

"Oh?"

"Harry turned this in today, and... well, just read it," Remus said, handing Harry's writing assignment to Issy.

Issy read over it, a frown growing on her face.

"They can't really make him live in a closet, can they?" she said once she finished reading it.

Remus shrugged. "I don't know. It's awful. They're awful people."

"They really are..." Issy said. There had been something on her mind for a while. She wanted to know what had happened to the other two boys in the group Remus was talking about. Remus was here, Harry's dad was dead, but where were the other two? "Remus," she said.

"Hm?"

"What happened to the other two boys you were friends with in school? What were their names?" asked Issy.

"Oh. Sirius and Peter. Well, it's complicated. Let me try to explain..." Remus said. He had to quickly think of a good, Muggle-approved explanation of it. "Well, the day after James and Lily died, Sirius and Peter met up on a street. Peter... well, Peter had reason to believe that Sirius had something to do with Lily and James's murders..." Remus explained. Now was where it got complicated. How did he explain everything that had happened that day without explaining magic as well?

"Well, Sirius didn't like this much..." said Remus. He racked his brain to remember how the explosion had been covered... gas leak, he thought. "Anyways, at that point... there was a gas leak... killed a bunch of people, including Peter... somehow, Sirius got away, but got sent to prison because of... Lily and James's murders..." Remus told Issy. He knew his story had many gaping holes, but it was the best he could come up with on such short notice.

"Wow... that's gotta be a lot to go through... losing all your best friends in the course of a few days," Issy said, placing a comforting hand on Remus's shoulder.

Remus looked down at Issy's hand, a surge of guilt running through him. Guilt of everything he had done. Not stopping James and Sirius at Hogwarts... Not being truthful to Issy... Running recklessly around with his friends during full moons... Not helping Samantha, Harry, or Lauren... And most of all, guilt of feeling this way about Issy. Guilt of wanting to be with her. He knew he couldn't; it would be stupid. Risk putting her life in danger just because he liked her? He knew he couldn't do that. He had known for a long time he wouldn't get married or have kids. It wasn't that he didn't want it; in fact, he wanted it more than anything... it was that he knew him getting married... having kids... he would put lives in danger, he would risk passing on his condition to innocent children, and he didn't want to inflict that on anyone.

Issy seemed to pick up on the fact something was off. "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked Remus.

He hesitated a second before smiling. "It's nothing. I'm fine," he assured her.

Issy didn't look convinced, but smiled back at Remus. "So," she said after a moment. "What are we gonna do about Harry?"

Remus shrugged. "There's not much we can do," he told her. Even though he wanted with all of his heart to get Harry, Lauren, and Samantha out of there, he knew Albus had his reasons for sending the kids to live there, no matter how awful the Dursleys were. Besides, where would they go if they got removed from the Dursleys? They couldn't go to Remus. He couldn't put them in life threatening danger, and even if he found a way to get around that, he didn't have the means to be supporting three kids.

"We could report them to CPS! They're making a ten year old boy live in a closet under the stairs! That's extra storage, not a bedroom!" Issy cried.

Remus felt his anger growing with every breath, but he knew lashing out would do no good. Instead he put his hand gently on Issy's shoulder. He wanted to tell her everything. But he couldn't. So instead, he said, "Listen to me. We can't go reporting them to CPS, as much as I want to. Those kids have nowhere else to go. They'll end up separated in foster care. That's the last thing they need."

Issy nodded, looking like she was in a trance. "Yeah. Yeah, okay, I won't do anything," she told him.

"Good," he nodded. And after a minute of awkward silence, the two hugged.

And Remus never wanted to let go.