Over the next few days everyone had noticed that Sirius seemed calmer and more relaxed than usual. Whenever anyone asked the only answer he gave was that he'd talked to Harry, never giving any details, which was why Remus was currently looking for his friend. His current attitude was a complete turnaround from his usual sullen mood and much more like it was before Azkaban.

Remus wanted to know why.

He'd checked the usual places: the pool, the kitchen and the beach. He was on his way to check Sirius' room, knowing that his friend like his lie-ins, even if he hadn't really indulged this holiday.

What Remus was not expecting to see was a fully dressed Sirius lying on the bed looking through a book.

"Hey Padfoot. Don't tell me you're actually reading a book!"

"Oh, hi Moony. No. Harry… he lent me the photo album of… the one Hagrid gave him," Sirius said, never removing his eyes from the images displayed before him.

"I remember that. Hagrid wrote and asked if I had any pictures. Said that Harry didn't know what they looked like. I always wondered what happened to them."

Remus moved over to the bed, peering over his friend's shoulder to see a picture of Lily doubled over with laughter while holding baby Harry.

"I remember that. Harry wouldn't smile, so you and James started turning each other different colours."

"Yeah. It even lasted when we transformed. I ended up as a bright green poodle. I think James ended up multicoloured."

"That's right! Only his antlers were from a stuffed toy of Harry's. Lily was in hysterics but Harry just started wailing."

"Little tyke wasn't happy, that's for sure. It took Lily about ten minutes to calm him down didn't it?"

"How much do you remember?" Remus asked tentatively.

"If I'm actively trying? I can remember it all but the bad is more vivid than the good. It's getting better. Recalling events, like their wedding, Harry… It makes it easier."

"I know I've said it before but I really am sorry Padfoot. I should have…"

"Don't Moony. Everything was such a mess. YOU were such a mess, I don't blame you. Even if you had figured it out there was nothing you could have done. And I wouldn't have known whether you blamed me or not so just leave it. I wasn't you fault!"

"It wasn't yours either," Remus commented gently.

"Lily and James? No, that wasn't my fault," Sirius agreed, shocking his old friend. "Oh I know I blamed myself at first," he continued, seeing the incredulous look on Moony's face, "But after talking to Harry about the whole Cedric thing… It helped. He actually pointed out the similarities; asked me if I blamed him. I didn't of course, there was nothing he could have done. Taking the cup was Cedric's choice, just like switching was ultimately James and Lily's choice."

"Outsmarted by your Godson huh? He always was smart."

"Yeah. Remember after he started talking and got hold of the floo powder?"

"How could I forget? You, James and I were sitting there reminiscing when he falls out of the fireplace yelling Moony. I thought James was going to have a heart attack!"

"I'd never seen him turn that white that quickly!"

"You didn't exactly look calm yourself!"

"Hey, do you still have some of Lily's books?"

"I think so. Why?"

"I thought we could give them to Harry. Did you know that no one had told him about his parents? He had no idea about what they did. He didn't know about his grandparents either!"

"I've had an idea about that. It would help both of you at the same time," Remus mused, staring over Sirius' shoulder.

"Well, what's this great idea then?"

"I never said it was great, merely an idea, Padfoot!"

"Ah, come on Moony. All your ideas are great!"

"Thank you Padfoot. Anyway, I was thinking that we could put our memories of James and Lily, and Harry's grandparents in a pensive so he could see what they were like. It won't bring them back but it might give him a better idea of what they were like."

Sirius sat in silence for a moment, thinking it over. It was a good idea, but would it just show Harry what he was missing? Would it backfire and end up hurting him more?

"It's a good idea Moony but maybe we should ask him first. I mean, he may not want to see them. We could also offer to go through this with him," Sirius suggested, indicating the abandoned photo album.

"That's probably the best thing to do…" A knock at the door interrupted the conversation.

"Mum's about to give the traditional before term speech if you want to watch!" Charlie said as he poked his head around the door.

"What speech is that?" Remus asked.

"Every year she lectures us on dos and don'ts. This year she's including Harry and Hermione. It's always good for a laugh!"

"Why not? We can collar Harry afterwards," Sirius agreed.

They reached the kitchen just as Hermione left to fetch Ron and Harry.

"Hey you two, Mrs Weasley wants to see us all downstairs in the kitchen now," she said, sticking her head around Ron's door.

"Ok, we're coming," replied Harry, towards the door closely followed by Ron.

"Do you know what she wants?" Harry asked.

"Probably her traditional start of term speech," Ron responded, rolling his eyes.

"What start of term speech?" Hermione was caught off guard, not recalling any start of term speech when she'd stayed with the Weasleys.

"She gives us one every year, usually before you two arrive. She assumes that your parents and Harry's relatives also give you two speeches." Ron caught Harry's disbelieving look and grinned. "That's why she's giving both of you the speech this year."

By this time the three friends had reached the kitchen. Inside, they found Fred, George and Ginny already seated on three of six chairs with Mr and Mrs Weasley, Charlie, Bill, Remus and Sirius standing in front of them.

"Ah, take a seat," Mrs Weasley said, indicating the three spare chairs.

They sat down, feeling as though they were about to be interrogated.

"Alright, Ginny. I want you to stay out of trouble and for Merlin's sake, if you are unsure about something, take it to one of your brothers or to a teacher. And I want the rest of you to keep an eye out for her," Mrs Weasley rounded on the others which was followed by a chorus of "Yes mum!" and "Yes Mrs Weasley!"

"Alright dear, you can go. Fred, George, you are to stay through the whole of this."

Mr Weasley winced behind his wife's back and he and his eldest two sons put their fingers in their ears.

"YOU TWO ARE GOING TO GET A DECENT NUMBER OF NEWTS THIS YEAR. I'M STILL DISAPPOINTED WITH YOUR OWLS. AND NO MORE TALK OF JOKE SHOPS. We can discuss that once you leave Hogwarts."

The twins just gaped at this statement. Once it had sunk in they broke out into identical grins and jumped up, heading for the door.

"AND I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT ANY DANGEROUS PRANKS OR TOO MANY DETENTIONS!" Mrs Weasley shouted after them. Sighing, she turned her attention to her youngest son and his friends sitting in front of her.

"Ok you three. I want all THREE of you to stay out of the hospital wing. I don't want to receive any letters explaining that you've tried to save the world and are currently at death's door. You will have a nice, quiet, SAFE year. I expect to see a good number of OWLs this summer and none of you are going to miss them. There will be NO, and I mean absolutely NO, trying to save the wizarding world!"

"Does that mean no Acromantula?" Ron asked hopefully.

The Weasleys spluttered but didn't get the chance to respond.

"Or Giant chess boards?" Hermione asked.

"Basalisks?"

"DADA teachers?"

"Fluffy?"

"Voldemort?"

"DADA teachers?"

"Norbert?"

"Voldemort?"

"Trolls?"

"Dead Unicorns?"

"Merpeople?"

"Dragons?"

"Blast-ended Skrewts?"

"Centaurs?"

"Diaries?"

"Escaped mass murderers?"

"Lockheart?"

"Snape?"

"THAT IS ENOUGH!" shouted Mrs Weasley.

The trio looked at each other before ending their list.

"Don't go looking for trouble, whatever form it comes in," Said Mr Weasley, supporting his wife.

"We don't go looking for trouble. Trouble usually knows exactly where we are!" Ron protested.

"Well if that happens tell a Professor!" said Mrs Weasley.

"A DADA one?" Harry asked, grinning.

Mrs Weasley just scowled at him before hurrying off to deal with the twins, who were the likely cause behind the loud explosion heard.

This signalled the end of the conversation and the remaining Weasleys walked off, discussing Fred and George.

"Hey Harry, can we have a word?" Sirius asked, as the trio moved towards the back door, chatting about setting up a Quidditch game with whoever else wanted to play.

"Sure," he replied, turning towards his friends. "I'll meet you at the pitch with whoever you can get to join us," he told Ron.

Harry turned his attention back to his parent's friends as the door closed behind Ron and Hermione.

"So what do you want to talk about?"

"A few things actually. We were wondering if you wanted me to dig out some of the books that your mother wrote. I still have them in my attic and thought you might like to have them. They were aimed at young children but we thought you might like them anyway," Moony offered.

"That would be great! What kind of thing did she write?"

"For muggles it was mostly fantasy, changing aspects of the wizarding world. For wizarding children it was the other way around. They were very popular, but very few people remember them now," Remus explained.

"We were also wondering if you wanted us to go through your photo albums with you to explain what was going on," Sirius added, moving to lean against the counter next to his godson.

"Would you mind?" Harry asked, worried that it would upset his parents best friends.

"Of course not! We could even put some memories in a pensieve if you want."

"I'd like that. It'd beat the only memory I have of them," Harry said bitterly.

"You remember them?" Sirius asked sharply.

"When I get near Dementors… I can hear Voldemort… Dad tried to buy Mum time to run… And she…she just begged him to kill her in…instead of me. Then everything goes green and I pass out," Harry whispered, staring determinedly at the tiled floor.

"Oh Merlin, Harry!" was all Sirius could say, horrified that he remembered that much.

"At least I know how much they loved me, and that they died doing the right thing, no matter what people say," Harry replied, trying to lift the mood. "And I'd rather have that memory than none at all!" he added vehemently.

Sirius just wrapped his arms around him and held him tightly, immensely proud of him.

Unfortunately the moment wasn't to last, interrupted by a shrill shriek from the conservatory at the back of the property. The three wizards were immediately moving towards the commotion with their wands drawn. What they found was Mrs Weasley standing on a chair with a snake coiled on the floor hissing at her.

"Ssstupid human! I'm trying to sssleep! Be quiet or let me leave!"

"Umm, excusse me. They don't understand you," Harry explained in parseltounge, getting the attention of everyone in the room, including the snake.

"You can ssspeak!" replied the very put-out reptile.

"Harry, what's going on?" Remus asked, always the calm one when faced with the unusual.

"He's looking for somewhere to sleep," the teen replied, fidgeting under the scrutiny of the adults, before turning his attention back to the now silent snake.

"Why did you choossse in here? I would have thought that there were too many people in here."

"There are but it's the warmessst place I could find!" came the peevish reply.

"It's looking for a warm spot, preferably away from people," Harry explained.

"The cupboard with the boiler in is warm, and we don't really need to go in there. It's dark though," Molly offered, considerably calmer now that the snake's attention was focused elsewhere.

"There is sssomewhere dark and warm that'sss out of the way, but you'd have to agree not to hurt anyone if we let you ssstay," Harry bargained.

"I agree. Will you carry me there?"

"Ok, but try not to move too much," Harry reluctantly agreed, offering his arm to the snake and allowing it to coil itself around the limb. Carefully he stood and walked to the cupboard before kneeling and letting the snake down.

"Thanksss!" was the only reply he received before the snake slid out of sight behind the boiler.

Harry closed the door and turned around, jumping when he saw Mrs Weasley, Sirius and Remus staring at him.

"What?" he asked defensively.

"That is one of the weirdest sights I have ever seen," said Sirius, grinning slightly. "What did you say?"

"I told it that it could stay as long as it didn't hurt anyone while it's here, and it agreed," Harry replied, relaxing slightly.

No matter what happened he always felt nervous and slightly guilty when he spoke parseltounge.

"It's very interesting. I've never seen anyone use the ability," Remus added thoughtfully, ever the scholar. "Are you able to control it? I mean speak parseltounge with no snake around?"

"I've never really tried," Harry admitted. "I mean, I couldn't in the Chamber, but I might be able to with practice."

"Well, thank you for moving it. I've never liked snakes," Mrs Weasley admitted, before heading back too her cleaning.

"By the way, Arthur arrived back earlier and put your things on your bed."

Mr Weasley had apperated back to England to buy books and any other supplies that were needed for Hogwarts from Diagon Alley, as well as refilling money bags.

"Thanks Mrs Weasley!" Harry called after her, thankful for a change of subject.

"How do you two feel about a game of Quiddich?" he asked the Marauders, eager to be back on his Firebolt.

"Sure, I'll play," Sirius grinned at the prospect having played for Gryffindor at Hogwarts.

"I'll watch thank you Harry. I never played but James and Sirius raved about it!"

"McGonagall kept yelling at me to aim at all of our opponents, not just ones I didn't like!" Sirius remembered fondly.

"You were a beater then?" Harry asked as they walked out to the pitch.

"Yeah, and Prongs was a chaser and eventually Captain, although it was more of a democracy. Who are the beaters at the moment for Gryffindor?"

"Fred and George. They don't really care who they aim at, although they're usually more aggressive when we play the Slytherins!"

"But of course!" Sirius agreed, grinning.

Once they arrived at the pitch Remus moved off to join Hermione who was watching the Weasley children practising while they waited for Harry.

"We've got eight so one beater and three chasers. One is responsible for the guarding the goals and another for catching the snitch. Agreed?" Charlie called, checking on the set-up.

Everyone agreed and sorted themselves out. Charlie and Harry were the chasers and seekers, Bill and Ron agreed to be the keepers while the twins shocked everyone by agreeing to both be beaters on different teams. It ended up with Harry, Ron, Sirius and Fred against Charlie, Bill, Ginny and George, with Remus and Hermione acting as Referees and coaches for both teams.