Team

Falmouth Falcons

Position

Captain

Main Prompt

A black cat – Write about seeing through someone else's eyes.

Word Count

1,963

Story contains mentions of death

Harry hadn't been able to sleep after his talk with Sirius earlier in the day and was therefore awake when he heard the familiar voice over his friends' snores.

"Harry Potter must wake up," came the whispered squeak of a house elf beside his bed.

He drew back the curtain and shoved his glasses onto his nose. "Dobby? What is it?"

"Harry Potter must go to the headmaster's office," the elf said, passing on his message.

"Why? Has Professor Dumbledore returned?" he asked, already swinging his legs over the side of the bed to slide his feet into his slippers.

Dobby shook his head. "Not the headmaster. Dobby must tell no one, not even Harry Potter."

Harry hurriedly pulled the cloak and map out of his trunk, he knew the reason behind the secrecy, Umbridge seemed to find out everything. "Were you given the password, Dobby?" he asked from the door.

The house elf nodded. "Butterbeer," he said simply before snapping his fingers and disapparating with a pop.

Harry disappeared under the cloak once he reached the empty common room and checked his map before climbing through the portrait hole.

Harry periodically checked the map but found that he had little trouble navigating the corridors that night, only having to dodge the caretaker once.

When he reached the stone gargoyle and checked his map once more, paying attention for the first time to the name that was in the office just above him. Though he was disappointed that Dobby had been right about it not being the headmaster he was just as happy at seeing the name of his old teacher and one of his dads best friends.

He pulled off his cloak and gave the password before ascending the stairs and pushing open the door at the top.

"Hello, Harry," Remus said as he turned away from the Pensieve that stood on the desk in front of him and smiled. "How are you?"

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked as he crossed the room towards Remus, taking in how much more tired and shabby he looked in just the few months since Christmas.

"Sirius told me about your talk, and I thought it might help if you saw some more memories of James. Dumbledore agreed and loaned me the use of his office. Sorry for the cryptic message, but the elf was the most secure method I could think of, and he was more than willing to do it," Remus told him.

"You didn't have to do all that. Sirius already cleared up the things that happened between my dad and Snape."

"Professor Snape," Remus corrected and turned back to the desk. "Sirius had a different relationship with James than I did." He dumped the contents of a vial into the swirling silver liquid. "They were seen as brothers and equals, partners in crime if you will, while I was always viewed as an outcast, everything they were not, and people would even question my bond with your father."

Intrigued, Harry now approached the basin as well. This was a side of his father he rarely heard people speak of, and he wanted to know more.

"Go on, I'll be right behind you." Remus motioned for Harry to enter the pensieve ahead of him.

Harry put his face into the basin and felt the office lurch away as the cool silver liquid swirled around him and turned black.

When his surroundings rematerialized, he found himself sitting in an empty compartment of the familiar train.

A young boy soon rushed past Harry and stuck his head out a window, presumably waving to his family.

"I was so excited to start school, of course, but I hadn't been away from my parents for nearly 6 years." Remus was now sitting across from him, beside his younger self, as the train started to move and he too got settled on the seat.

Harry got a closer look at the boy, the faint scars already lining his young face. Although his clothes were a size too big and patched in a number of places, they were neat, showing signs of something that Harry hadn't known before his first visit to Ron's: a mother's touch.

The young Remus pulled out a book to read, but it wasn't long before another boy opened the door and grinned. "This spot taken?" he asked, already sitting down. "I'm James, James Potter."

Remus just watched the other before introducing himself somewhat nervously. "R-Remus Lupin," he said as he fidgeted with his book.

"I wasn't actually a shy child." The adult Remus spoke again. "But I hadn't had much interaction with other children during my formative years."

James watched the boy for a moment. "Have you ever been away from home before?" he asked, receiving a shake of the head in response. "Then just stick with me, and you'll be fine." He grinned.

"He was my first real friend, and because of him I started to come into my own as a person and I quickly learned to love school." Remus said before they turned their attention back to the two boys, who had started talking again, or more accurately James did most of the talking.

"My dad was in Gryffindor, so that's where I want to be," James told him. "What about you?"

The younger Remus shrugged. "I don't really have a preference I guess."

"Yeah, I suppose they're all okay, except Slytherin, you can't end up there," James snarked. "But I hope we're in the same house, that would be fun."

"Truthfully, Ravenclaw had been my top choice at that point, and the Sorting Hat agreed that I would have done well there." The adult Remus spoke up again. "But I think it sensed my desire to be with my friend."

The train faded away and dissipated around them before they found themselves standing in the boys' dormitory.

A second after the room solidified, a slightly older Remus entered. Harry thought it must have been just after the full moon, recognizing the tired look.

He crossed the room to a bed and opened the trunk before packing its contents into an old duffle bag.

"What are you doing?" James asked from the doorway a few moments later.

"Packing," Remus said simply as he kept going. "What are you doing here?"

"I was going to bring you a snack, but Madam Pomfrey said you were let go and you weren't in the Great Hall." James walked over to the other and sat on the bed as he offered Remus a pumpkin pasty with a grin. "C'mon, I got two and can't eat them both myself."

Remus stared briefly before sitting beside him and crossing his legs as he ate. "I know you guys saw me," he said after a few minutes.

"Does it matter?"

"You know about my condition! Don't you hate me now?" Harry could see the fear and hurt in Remus's eyes as he asked this.

"It's not that bad, you just have a-" James paused and leaned back on one hand as he searched for the right words. "You just have a furry little problem." He grinned, seeming proud of himself.

The younger Remus looked surprised but soon laughed. "I guess that's one way to put it."

"Your father was the first person outside of my parents and a few teachers to learn my secret." Harry had to tear his eyes from the two boys to look up at the adult Remus beside him. "He and Sirius quickly started teasing me about it, but I didn't mind. They teased everyone, and it made me feel more normal than I could remember feeling before."

When Harry looked back, they were still in the dorm but the teens were now sixteen and Sirius sat on the bed, tending to a wound on James' shoulder while Remus paced.

"This was such a bad idea! Why did I ever listen to you two idiots?" Remus scolded them.

"It's not that big a deal, Moony," James said dismissively.

"Of course it's a big deal! I hurt you, and it could have been so much worse! What if you hadn't been able to control me?"

James got up and placed his hands on his friend's shoulders to force him to stop. "I'm fine, it's just a scratch. Besides, you didn't hurt yourself for once." He gave him the usual wide grin. "If this is what it takes, then I'm willing to bear a few scratches."

Remus stared at his friend for a while before relaxing and nodding slowly.

James grabbed a clean shirt and pulled it on before Sirius draped an arm around each of their necks. "I'm starved, let's get some breakfast," he said before the three of them headed downstairs.

"I hope that gave you some insight into who your father really was." Remus smiled softly. "I have much more I can show you, but we'll have to save those for another time. I don't want to get you–"

Remus was cut off when their surroundings faded once more, though this time they went to a place Harry had never been. They were in a cemetery and by the solemn crowd Harry figured that they must be watching a funeral.

"This is my mother's funeral," Remus confirmed after a couple minutes. "I must have been thinking of it when I extracted the other memories. She died shortly before your parents went into hiding, and this was the last time I saw them."

Harry looked around until he spotted the much younger adult Remus standing by the grave. James and Lily stood on one side while an older man who must have been his father stood on the other.

"I was sent away on a mission a couple days later. When I got back your parents were gone and my father was dying," he said softly.

Harry took a few steps closer and saw that Lily was hugging Remus's arm as she tried to comfort him. James didn't seem to mind and although it was an accident that he had seen this memory, to Harry it was the best one.

"Your parents were close to my mother. We didn't have much but she treated every young person as though they were her own child." When the crowd had gone, Lily kissed Remus's cheek, and James squeezed his shoulder before taking her hand and leaving him to take care of his father.

The two were silent as the graveyard disappeared and the office rematerialized around them.

"You see Harry," it was Remus who broke the silence. "James and Professor Snape might not have gotten along and he was definitely an idiot at times, we all were, but your father wasn't a bad person." He said as he turned towards Harry and smiled.

"Thanks for showing me this," Harry replied with a smile, his gaze lingering on the pensieve. "Maybe we can talk about them more when this is over," he said as he headed for the stairs to leave.

A fully grown Harry watched his younger self leave the office before the scene froze. "I'm sorry, but this is all I have," he said to his godson, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Your father was a lot older than me, so I didn't know him until he was grown."

Though he wouldn't attend Hogwarts for another three years Professor McGonagall had allowed Harry to use the pensieve as a birthday treat for the boy.

Teddy kept staring at his father as the past faded for the last time. "Can I watch it again?" He asked.

"Maybe some other time, Ginny's been planning something special and we don't want to keep her waiting," he ruffled the boy's blue hair before leading him out.