I wanted to post a chapter yesterday, as it was St. Patrick's Day, but I didn't have the time. I hope this makes up for it. This chapter is dedicated to reviewer omega13a
December arrived, with a great deal of snow. James spent two 'detentions' with Snape, which involved hearing stories about Lily Potter while helping brew potions. James enjoyed the stories and reflected that he his personality was more like his mother's, other than his penchant for playing pranks. However, he hadn't played any other than one to get back at Stuart since he'd been in Hogwarts, and the ones he had played before were all harmless and never targeted at a single person. Of course, most of his father's attention-seeking had been mainly to try to get Lily to notice him, but it hadn't worked well. It was a good thing that James Potter finally got his act together in seventh year, or Harry Potter might have never been born, or have a different father in any case.
A week into December, two visitors came to the school. After speaking to Professor Dumbledore, they sought out Mari. "Hello, Mariko," said the woman in accented English. "I am Yukimi Hirashi, a cousin on your father's side of the family. You may call me Aunt Yuki."
"And I am Tomikazu Hirashi, her husband," said the man. "You can call me Uncle Tomi."
Mari frowned and was not overjoyed to meet relatives. "Where were you for the past five years? After my parents died, I got put in an orphanage, since I didn't seem to have relatives in Great Britain. While Sunnybrook Orphanage was a nice place and I made two best friends there, it would have been nice to have relatives raising me instead."
"We're sorry, Mariko, but none of your Japanese relatives were notified about your parents' deaths," explained Aunt Yuki gently. "We did not find out until our Christmas presents to your family got returned to us. Then we started looking for you, but the Muggle authorities in Britain would not tell us anything about your whereabouts. The wizarding world had no idea where you had gone, either, so in the end we gave up the search and decided to wait until you were of age to attend Hogwarts, when it would be easier to find you."
"Fine, apology and explanation accepted," said Mari. "But don't think about taking me to Japan. I haven't spoken much Japanese since I was six, so my speaking it is bound to be rusty. Furthermore, I'm a British citizen and I like it here at Hogwarts. I also don't want to leave my friends."
"We have no intention of taking you back to Japan," said Uncle Tomi. "Your cousin, Reiko Kishi, Japan's Minister of Magic, also asked us to be her ambassadors in Britain for the next ten years. So our family is in the process of moving here. Our children will attend Hogwarts, rather than the academy of magic that is outside Tokyo, and we would like you to live with us."
Mari regarded her 'aunt' and 'uncle' for a moment, and then nodded. "All right, I'll move in with you, but on the condition I get to visit my friends and they can visit me, Uncle Tomi."
"Of course, dear," said Aunt Yuki. "We really are dreadfully sorry that we didn't find you earlier and take you in, Mariko."
"It's Mari. Nobody calls me Mariko except when they're annoyed or mad at me, Aunt Yuki. How close of a cousin are you?"
"What is the term in English?" asked Aunt Yuki, a slight frown on her face. "Well, my mother was your oji-san's sister. Your oji-san that was your mother's father."
"That means you were first cousins to my mother," answered Mari. "And that would make you my first cousin-once removed. Your children would be my second cousins. What about the cousin that is the Japanese Minister of Magic?"
"Her oji-san is the brother of your father's oji-san," responded Aunt Yuki. "You know, the one that decided to move to Great Britain after the First World War."
Mari did a quick calculation and concluded, "So she would be my second cousin once removed, then. What do I call her?"
"In public, Minister Kishi," replied Uncle Tomi. "In private, Aunt Reiko, though she does not feel old enough to be an aunt. She is twenty-eight, Japan's youngest Minister of Magic ever, and was elected four years ago, at the age of twenty-four."
"How did that happen?" asked Mari, shocked. The youngest Minister of Magic Britain ever had had been thirty-one at the time of his election.
"Well, the previous one died of dragon pox, and Reiko, who was steadily rising in the Ministry, was the only one everyone agreed on. The, I suppose the best translation would be Parliament, thought that due to her young age, they might be able to control her somewhat. Well, she quickly showed them that she wasn't going to be controlled by anyone, and as most of the wizarding population in Japan love her, she was able to remain in office."
Mari found herself liking her cousin, or at least respected her a great deal, despite never having met her. Any female that proved that she was just as capable as a male, or more so, automatically gained Mari's respect, unless she did it in an unethical way. That was why Mari's role models and heroines were women like Joan of Arc, Emmeline Pankhurst and the other suffragists that helped win British women the right to vote, and of late, Artemisia Lufkin, the first female Minister of Magic in Britain.
Aunt Yuki then proceeded to explain that she and her husband were in the process of house-hunting, and would hopefully settle by Christmas. When the holidays were over, her two sons would attend Hogwarts. Her daughter wouldn't, as she was only nine. If they had settled in a house by the time Christmas holidays had started, Mari was invited to join them.
"Thank you, Aunt Yuki, but I already made plans," said Mari politely. "My best friend, James Lydell, and his two siblings, discovered that Sirius Black is a distant cousin of theirs. He invited them and me to spend Christmas with him and his friend Remus Lupin last week and we've accepted." This actually was the truth. Sirius needed a reason to adopt James and his 'siblings' and so planned to claim that they were related to him. However, he had to do some searching, or at least appear to search, first in order for the claim to be believed. Remus had joined in the search and discovered that the Lydells really were related to the Blacks. One Isla Black, a few generations ago, had married a Muggle named Bob Hitchens, thereby causing her to be disowned by the family. They had a son, who in turn had a daughter that married one Caleb Lydell.
That made Stuart and Stella third or fourth cousins once removed to Sirius. As he was the only relative that could adopt them, he had the excuse to adopt them and James. His cousins certainly wouldn't take them in. Narcissa had married Lucius Malfoy and they would certainly never adopt halfbloods, and Bellatrix was in Azkaban with her husband. Andromeda was the only one that could, but she probably wouldn't want the hassle of raising more children, considering that her daughter was grown and in training to be an Auror.
"All right, then," said Aunt Yuki. "We'll go to the orphanage you're living at in a few weeks and make arrangements to adopt you, Mari, so you can move in when the summer holidays start."
Five days before the holidays started, Unity finally found out whom Nicolas Flamel was. In desperation, James had sought out Stella and said, "I heard the name Nicolas Flamel somewhere and wanted to know who he was. Could you help me, since you're so smart and everything?"
"He's an alchemist," she responded. "He's mentioned on the back of Dumbledore's chocolate frog card, you know. 'Dumbledore is famous for discovering the twelve uses of dragon blood and his work on alchemy with his partner Nicolas Flamel.' Something like that. I don't remember it exactly."
With that information, Unity was able to ask the Room of Requirement to provide them with books on alchemy and alchemists. After each taking a book and going through it, they were able to find out what Nicolas Flamel had to do with what was being guarded at Hogwarts, According to the book that Daphne had picked, he was the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone, which could turn any metal into gold and produce an elixir that would make the drinker immortal.
It became apparent that the Philosopher's Stone had been held at Gringotts, but then got moved to Hogwarts for better safekeeping, which made sense considering the break-in on the bank. It was lucky that it had been removed before the break-in, according to the article in the Daily Prophet.
"But why would such an object be hidden in a school full of students?" asked Parvati, frowning. "Yes, Hogwarts is the safest place to hide something besides Gringotts, but it can be dangerous. If someone's after it, they'll just target the school and that could bring danger."
"But there are bound to be other protections besides Fluffy," pointed out Susan. "And I'm sure that Dumbledore has everything under control."
"But the troll," protested Su. "The only way it could have gotten in was if someone let it in. And the only logical reason for it to have been let in is to be a distraction."
"Well, I'm sure Dumbledore knows that and is keeping a close on things," said Blaise. "Since he seems to know everything, except where Harry Potter is and a couple of other things."
The matter was dropped, since Blaise had made a good point, and the discussion turned to what to do for Christmas presents. They could hardly have each person get a present for everyone else, because that would mean each member would end up having to get twenty-nine gifts. None of them could afford to do that, unless the gift was something that cost only a few Knuts. Also, the receiver of the presents would have to deal with unwrapping twenty-nine presents and finding a place to store them. In the case of the Slytherins, other than Mari and Ron, they would have parents who would raise eyebrows at all the gifts and wouldn't be happy that half came from Muggleborns and halfbloods.
In the end, each person contributed one Galleon and twelve Sickles. Twenty-nine people would collectively come up with a few gifts to give the thirtieth person, which mean that each person was spending one sickle on each individual member of Unity. That solved the difficulty of Christmas presents. As they had done the same thing regarding birthday presents for Hermione, Anthony, Claire, and Theo, they decided to continue for all future birthdays. Best friends could get individual presents for each other, however, such as the case with Daphne and Tracey, and Kyle, James, and Mari.
The holidays then arrived and almost everyone returned home for the holidays. Ron originally wasn't going home, as his parents were going to visit his brother Charlie in Romania, but then Sirius had invited him over, as he was a friend of James and Mari. Sirius also invited Fred and George when he heard that they were pranksters and knew the layout of Hogwarts better than anyone, except for the Marauders and maybe Filch.
Unity expected to split up, since none of the train compartments could hold thirty people, but to their utter surprise, the very last compartment was large enough to hold the group. They supposed that it must have been magically expanded on purpose for them.
They talked all throughout the ride and played games of Exploding Snap and chess. Hanging around the rest of Unity had made Greg and Vince smarter, though they certainly weren't as smart as a Ravenclaw, much less Hermione or Mari, who were currently the top students in the year. However, they were quite nice, despite being a little slow, and were happy not being Malfoy's lackeys.
Sirius and Remus met James, Stella, Stuart, Mari, Ron, and the Weasley twins at King's Cross and took them to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, which was the Black family home. It had been cleaned from top to bottom during the past month and a half to make it habitable, and many of the Dark objects had been thrown out or delegated to the attic. The only thing that couldn't be thrown out was the portrait of Sirius's mother, since it had a Permanent Sticking Charm on it.
Everyone got settled in and then went downstairs for dinner. Sirius started playing with some of his food to make the kids laugh. Remus shook his head. "When are you going to grow up, Padfoot?"
"When I want to, Moony," responded Sirius with a laugh.
At that, Fred and George set down their forks and stared at Sirius and Remus. "Padfoot? Moony?"
"Oh, that's our nicknames for each other," answered Remus. "We came up with them while we were at Hogwarts, along with our two other friends. We called ourselves the Marauders."
"Did you guys create a map of Hogwarts?" demanded Fred eagerly.
Sirius nodded. "The Marauder's Map. Unfortunately, Filch confiscated it at the end of our seventh year and we never got it back. At least it was wiped blank, and I doubt Filch worked it out."
"We have the Map!" exclaimed George. "We found it in our first year." He and Fred went on to explain how they'd been hauled to Filch's office for setting off Dungbombs and noticed a drawer marked "Dangerous and Illegal". Naturally, Fred set off another Dungbomb for a diversion and the twins took a quick look in the drawer. The Marauder's Map was one of the things they took out. After some trial and error, plus some hints from the Map, they worked out how to use it.
"Well, I can't think of anyone better to have the Map," said Sirius with a grin. "Besides Harry Potter. His father, James, was Prongs. Wormtail is the traitor Pettigrew."
Everyone made faces at the mention of Wormtail and Sirius continued, "Though I would like it if you let James use it whenever he needs it, Fred and George."
George looked at James, then Sirius, and finally back at James. A look of comprehension dawned on his face. "You're Harry Potter! That explains why we saw the name on the Marauder's Map a couple of weeks ago! We were carrying out a prank and we checked the Map to see if anyone was coming. We saw a bunch of names of people in Unity leaving the seventh floor, and the name Harry Potter was among them. At first Fred and I thought the Map was malfunctioning, but then we wondered if maybe Harry Potter was at Hogwarts, just under a different name and appearance."
"You're mistaken," said Stuart flatly. "I think I'd know if my brother was Harry Potter."
"I only want James to have access to the Map because he's related to me and has played pranks before," Sirius explained hastily. Which was technically true, since James's paternal grandmother, Dorea, had been a Black before her marriage to Charlus Potter.
The twins and Ron accepted this, though George still looked slightly suspicious.
After dinner they all decorated the Christmas tree that was in the living room and laughed at Sirius's slightly off-key rendition of "God Rest Ye Merry, Hippogriffs." That was followed by a few games and then everyone went to bed.
The next two days were full of fun and games. Sirius charmed some mistletoe to hang over people's heads until the person under it kissed someone else. That didn't last very long, for he soon realized that Mari and Stella were the only girls around and anyway, Mari was only eleven. Though it was certainly amusing to see James screw up his face and kiss Mari on the cheek when it was his turn. He turned red right after and had to endure teasing from everyone else. Mari managed to escape being teased, for she had kept her composure and hadn't blushed at all.
On Christmas Day, James woke up early and in his excitement roused everyone else. None of the others minded and the group gathered around the tree to open their presents. James got Quidditch gear from Sirius, a photo album full of pictures of his parents and the Marauders from Remus, the book Quidditch Through the Ages from Stella, a small box of joke items from Stuart, a box of Chocolate Frogs from the Weasley twins, and a green jumper and box of fudge from Mrs. Weasley. She made jumpers every Christmas for her family and apparently decided this year to include Ron's friends on her list. James wondered if she had made jumpers for everyone in Unity and wondered how she would have found the time to make thirty jumpers if she had. She probably would have had to enchant the knitting needles to knit on their own in order to make so many.
James opened his final set of presents, which were from Kyle, Mari, and Unity. Kyle's gift was a journal and Mari's present a camera, two rolls of film, a potion to develop the film in so that the photos would move, and an album with the first two pages full of pictures of Unity. The gifts from Unity were a notebook (everyone got one and they were all connected to each other to be used as a method of communication), a box of chocolate, and a book on European Quidditch teams.
When Ron, Fred, and George had left the room, Sirius gave James one final present. "This belonged to your father. He left it with Dumbledore before his death. I got Dumbledore to give it to me."
"How did you arrange for that to happen?" asked James curiously as he unwrapped the gift.
"Well, Dumbledore always intended to give it to you once you were found," replied Remus. "Sirius just asked for it on the pretense that he might need it in the search for Harry Potter, and that he wanted to be the one to give it once he found Harry."
James nodded and took out a cloak made of some sort of shimmery material. "What is this?"
"An Invisibility Cloak," said Sirius, grinning. "The Marauders used it to get food from the kitchens, carry out our pranks, and wander about the school and grounds after curfew."
James tried it on, an awed look on face. Stella shook her head and said, "Try not to cause too much trouble with that cloak, James. And definitely don't let Dumbledore see it. If he find out that you have it, then he'll realize that you have to be Harry Potter."
"I'll be careful, Stella," said James, removing the cloak and folding it up. He went upstairs to put his gifts away. In his room, he got dressed in jeans and his new jumper and then went downstairs with everyone else for breakfast.