Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, the universe in which it resides or anything to do with it. It owns me.
A/N: this can also be found under the pen name Flameintheflood
Chapter Two: Family
Here I stand on roots that deep
We laugh we cry we hurt we bleed
We're best of friends and worst enemies
We're all to blame, were all the same, make no apologies
This is my family
-Leann Rimes
"When is Sirius Black getting here?" Helen asked her big brother eagerly. "And James."
Peter smiled indulgently at his little sister and said, "Patience is a virtue. They're on their way."
Remus was coming out of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, trying to hold five cones dripping with melting goodness. Helen yelped and grabbed for her chocolate raspberry treat. She could eat so much for a small 12 year old girl.
"Hun, your hair is dipping into your cone," Remus said brushing her messy brown hair out of her face, and consequently her ice-cream. Helen smiled up at him, her face colored brown by chocolate.
"Is it true that Sirius Black disowned his family? Peeeeeter!!" Helen called to her tired looking brother who was standing right next to her. He looked at her expectantly. "Would you ever disown me?"
"Nah," He laughed. "Mum would kill me."
"Peeeeeter!"
Peter started to ask what when Helen started squealing and pointing into the air. "It's Sirius! He's on a motorcycle! That is so cool!"
Remus smiled and laughed. "Finally we get to see Padfoot's true love. And Helen, don't forget, James is up there too."
"Well, yeah!" Helen exclaimed. Then her face fell. "Wait… Sirius got a girlfriend? Where?"
"No, Sirius got a new motorbike," Remus told her. She looked so relieved and Remus forced himself not to chuckle at the 12 year olds' so predictable crush. Everyone liked Sirius. How could someone not? Remus continued to think about all the admirable things about his friend. Oh, Peter said something.
"Huh?"
"Just said that I wouldn't mind a new motorbike, or a new girlfriend," Peter said softly as the other two young men landed dangerously close to an old woman and her little dog. Under the screaming and umbrella waving of the old lady Remus asked Peter, "What about your muggle chick?"
"Well, it's hard, keeping such a big part of my life from her. You know how bad I am at hiding things."
"Indeed!" James laughed dismounting the bike that he had been riding on the back of. "You couldn't keep a secret if your life depended on it!"
"Maybe if my life depended on it," Peter said. "And I've kept quiet about tons of pranks!"
"Yeah, but you always tell Moony when me and Padfoot are planning something!" James laughed.
"Well…"
"Oh! Ice-cream!" James attacked the cookie dough ice-cream in Peter's hand. "Lovely!"
Two feet away, Sirius was telling Remus about the plans for the day, with Helen bursting in periodically with some random tidbit of 12 year old knowledge.
"So, ahem!" James cut all the excited conversation with a grand smile. "I do believe that we have a mission this day!"
Everyone else rolled their eyes but James took no notice. "We are here to redo our Padfoot's wardrobe!"
Peter snorted and Remus raised an eyebrow, "Why? I've never seen anything particularly wrong with Paddy's fashion choices."
"Don't call me Paddy!" Sirius scolded. "And, er… I didn't bother bringing anything with me from that evil house. It was all tainted with Blackness and… well in the mood of it all I kind of managed to leave everything there…"
And the crickets were silent. Then Peter started laughing. "So, you mean you washed up at the Potter Estate having forgotten everything that you own? I suppose you have your wand?
"Uh, yes?" Sirius flicked his hair back with careless grace and sighed. "So, er… first stop: Gringotts."
"Let us continue onward!" James stalked away, his cloak swishing majestically behind him. Roaring with laughter the others followed. Helen spotted a friend and departed with a nervous smile at Sirius. She promised Peter to meet them at Quality Quidditch Supplies by 4 o'clock.
The four boys strutted down Diagon Alley towards the huge marble building that looked as if it were held up by magic. They went past the "Cute little poem about killing thieves" and marched straight toward the first available goblin.
"Your name?" asked the goblin in a bored voice.
"Sirius Black," the handsome young man stated. "I'm here to extract from the family vault and create my own; self differentiation and all that."
"Do you have your key?"
"There is no key. It's high security. But I do have my wand for identification purposes."
"Your wand then, please," the goblin stated, holding out his hand. Sirius pulled his wand from his pocket and placed his wand on the counter. He examined the wand, nodded, and called to one of his colleagues.
"Munick. Assist these fine young gentlemen, please." A surly looking goblin rushed over to them and surveyed the group.
"Which is Black?" he asked gruffly. Sirius raised a finger in an arrogant greeting that spoke of his aristocratic upbringing. Munick snorted and pulled out some papers.
"What is the amount you wish to transfer to a private vault?" A quill swished in his knobby fingers.
"Er, what do you say, boys? A couple thousand gold ones?" Sirius asked his entourage. James raised his eyebrows, Peter coughed and Remus just smiled.
"Mister Black," Munick said in a surly tone, "the most that you can withdraw from a vault for the purpose of transfer without explicit direction from the vault manager is one thousand galleons. Would you like me to contact Mister Orion Black for permission to extract more funds?"
"No, thank you, that will not be necessary" Sirius said in a tone that suggested casualty, though his friends noted a tone of disgust, "one thousand will do just fine. Thank you."
"If you could follow me then, please," Munick led the boys towards the Gringotts carts. He stopped when he reached the track, "only Mister Black is allowed access to the vault. High security, you see. If you could wait outside for your friend, that would be good."
"Oh, come off it," Sirius said in mild disbelief, "they can come with me, I don't care if they see the vault."
"Mister Black, there are explicit directions from Mister Orion Black," Munick retorted, "If you would like me to contact him for permission-"
"No, there is no need for that," Sirius replied grumpily. He turned to his friends, "do you guys mind waiting for me outside? It won't take too long." Peter, Remus and James nodded and left Sirius with the goblin.
"Well, that was unfair," James complained as they walked out of the marble building into the sunlit streets, "I should've hexed that goblin."
"No, you shouldn't have, Prongs," Remus said with a smile, "you would have gotten yourself and Sirius into loads of trouble. The last thing we need is for the Blacks to know he's taking money from the family vault. Not to mention, you may have been expelled for underage magic."
"Yeah, yeah," James sighed as he leaned against the wall and ran his hand through his already messy hair, "but what are we supposed to do until Sirius is done? Who knows how long that will take."
"It won't be too long," Remus assured him as he sat down on a bench and pulled a book out of his robes and proceeded to read.
"The fact that you are reading during the holidays is just sickening, mate" James turned to Peter, "c'mon Wormtail, let's wander for a bit, shall we? Maybe we'll run into some people that we know."
"By 'people' do you mean Lily and her friends?" Peter teased. James didn't answer but ran his hand through his hair again, looked around and set off down the street. Peter turned his attention towards the reading boy, "you don't mind us leaving you, do you Moony?"
"No, you guys go ahead. I'm fine here." Peter nodded and hurried off down the street to catch up with James. Remus turned his attention back to Practical Uses of Advanced Defensive Spells. Hah, attention; his attention was back with Sirius who was probably already miles underground. What had been the final straw with his family and why couldn't he have waited another year until he moved out? He would've been of age and his family would've given him tons of money to start a life of his own. It's not like if he had waited they would've let him be poor. They wouldn't watch their son be poor.
But really, what deeply frustrated Remus was this little voice in his head that wished his house could've been the one Sirius had run away to. It usually didn't bother him that the dynamic duo were that, a duo, but now that they were living together, Remus felt… left out. He heard himself thinking this and scoffed at his immaturity. Of course the more outgoing two would be closer. Maybe he had Peter and they were the other, less dynamic second duo. Remus groaned and closed his book. He didn't want Peter. Peter was nice and everything, but he wasn't as fun, as ridiculous, as sexy as… well… Remus bit his lip and changed the path of his thoughts.
It was always obvious that Peter really followed James, the most popular one, despite the fact that Remus was the one that always helped him out and made sure he wasn't left out. But that was Remus, the glue the kept the Dog Star and the, er, Stag Star (Remus chuckled at himself) up and proud and put together. He was important.
Remus shook his head and let his thoughts drift away and he reopened his book; his mind firmly and forcedly on Defensive Spells.
***
Lily usually loved being home for the holidays. She loved the muggle ways of cooking and cleaning. She adored spending time with her mother and father. She could spend hours walking the familiar streets of her childhood. And, until recently, she had loved being able to spend time with her best childhood friend.
In the few days she'd been home, Lily had almost journeyed down to Spinner's End to talk to Severus Snape several times. She'd nearly run to him, in tears, to tell him that she hadn't meant what she'd said, to tell him that they could still be friends, that it didn't matter that he'd called her a mudblood. But she had meant it and, as much as she loved Severus, she could no longer be his friend. She could no longer pretend to not know or care what he and his friends were up to, what they aspired to. They'd chosen their paths and, as much as it hurt, it had to be that way.
And then, there was James; James, who had been the catalyst to the demise of her friendship with Severus. The arrogant prat who thought he ruled the school, who caused trouble wherever he went, who somehow managed to stay in the top of his class regardless of how little he studied and who continued insist he was madly in love with Lily.
"Stupid git," Lily said to herself as she lay back down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling, "he's too arrogant to know what love is if it were to hit him in the face."
"Lily?" Lily's mother's voice sounded from the downstairs, "it's time for dinner. Get washed up and come down, please." Lily sighed. Dinner with her family was another thing she no longer loved about being home. Petunia was also home for the summer from her first year of university and seemed to think it was her personal responsibility to point out everything abnormal about Lily's life at school and Lily herself.
Everything was already placed on the table and her family was already sitting down when Lily reached the dining room. With a smile towards her parents, she pulled out her chair and sat down.
"Well," Petunia sneered once Lily had taken her place, "now that Lily has graced us with her presence, I guess we can begin dinner. This roast simply looks delicious Mum. It's been horrid eating at school all year. The university cooks don't know how to prepare a proper meal. It is ever so good to be home. You couldn't imagine how many weird people attend university! Though, luckily none of them are so abnormal that they have to attend a secret school of freaks."
"Petunia," Lily's mother, Anne, warned, "remember what I told you about being civil?" Petunia rolled her eyes.
"It's okay Mum," Lily said with a dirty look at Petunia, "at least I'm good at something other than gossip."
"Lily," Anne warned again, "you too. I want both of you to be civil this summer. This may be the last summer your father and I have with both of you together and we don't want to remember it with pain."
"Sorry mum, sorry dad," Lily apologized and began to eat while her parents and sister talked about the muggle news. As much as Lily wanted to hold on to her muggle traditions, she couldn't seem to find much enthusiasm for muggle politics. Especially not recently with everything that had been going on in the wizarding world. The rising power and influence of Lord Voldemort in the wizarding community overshadowed whatever might be happening in the muggle parliamentary system.
"What do you think, Lily?" her father asked, interrupting her thoughts about the perils of the wizarding world.
"Sorry, what?"
"Dad just wanted to know," Petunia answered scornfully, "what you think of the new Prime Minister."
"There's a new Prime Minister?" Petunia looked at her sister with a dumbfounded look on her face.
"Yes, sweetie, there is. We were just discussing his recent political moves."
"Oh, well…" Lily stalled. She really had not been paying any attention to muggle politics and, having been at Hogwarts for the past 10 months, had failed to realize that a new minster was being appointed.
"Of course she has no idea," Petunia pointed out, "she's too busy with that freak show school."
"You know what? Fine! Ridicule me as much as you want to, Petunia," Lily exploded as she pushed back her chair and stood up, "Next time I'll make fun of you when you don't know who the Minister of Magic is."
"As if I'd want to know about that freak!" Petunia shrieked back at her sister.
"Petunia, Lily, stop that this instant," Anne scolded her daughters, "Petunia stop that shrieking; Lily sit down and finish your supper."
"I'm not hungry anymore," Lily said, turning her back on the table and starting towards the stairs. She could hear her sister's scoffing but she didn't care. She was sick of playing nice while Petunia poked fun at her new life and insulted her friends. Lily slammed the door to her room and fell down onto her bed. What she really wanted to do was talk to Severus, but that wasn't a choice. This was going to be a long summer.
***
"We're home!" James and Sirius called upstairs together once back at the Potter Estate. The four boys were all carrying bags and bags of robes, muggle clothing, toiletries, and a new Cleansweep 4. They'd have to go back to Diagon Alley for school things once they got their booklists.
Grace Potter came down the main stairs and smiled at the boys.
"Why don't you all sit down in the den, I'll have Tinkey bring us tea." They all shuffled into the other room and plopped into chairs and sofas, all nice and squishy. Grace lowered herself more gracefully into her favorite chair and made sure she knew exactly which snacks the boys wanted. She then insisted on seeing everything they had bought, just short of a fashion show.
"Well," Peter said, "it's getting late. I should probably get home. My Mum is expecting me for dinner and I have to floo over to Helen's friend's house to pick her up. For some reason, Mum doesn't think a twelve year old is capable of flooing home alone. Ridiculous. Anyways, thank you for the snacks Mrs. Potter."
"Peter, Peter," Grace laughed, "how often do I have to tell you to please call me Grace."
"Oh yeah, thank you for tea, Grace. I'll see you guys later."
"Bye Wormtail," James waved as his friend walked to the fireplace and grabbed a handful of floo powder, "Owl us frequently and never hesitate to drop by."
"I'll be here!" Sirius called, "Ciao!" The three boys waved as Peter stepped into the fire and was engulfed by green flames.
"Are you going to stay for dinner, Moony?" James asked once Peter had disappeared and the flames had returned to their normal colour.
"No, I don't think so," he answered.
"Why not, Mooooooooooony?" Sirius whined.
"I'm kind of tired, I have an engagement in a few nights that I have to prepare for."
"Oh, yeah. Well, have fun with that," Sirius said with a playful shove.
"If you'd like us to join you in that engagement, we'd love to assist in anyway," James added, "would that be okay, Mum?"
"Yes, of course," Grace answered, "Goodbye Remus. I hope to see you soon." Remus stepped into the fireplace where Peter had just been and disappeared. Sirius stared at the fireplace where Remus had just been.
"Padfoot," James said, interrupting Sirius' thoughtful stare, "we should probably get all this stuff to your room before dinner."
"Right," Sirius said, snapping out of his trance, "If we can manage it all without magic…"
"You two go along and get ready for dinner," Grace offered, "I'll have Tinkey bring your stuff up when she gets a chance." The two marauders smiled their thanks and ran off towards James' room.
"This is so exciting, Prongs," Sirius exclaimed once they'd reached James' room, "we're going to be living together like brothers!"
"We can play Quidditch every day!" James said excitedly, "I'll finally have somebody to play with again."
"And don't forget the pranks!"
"No, I could never forget those."
"And flirting. We can get ourselves flings to pass the long hours of freedom from schoolwork."
"I don't know how much I want a fling… I have Lily."
"Prongs, man, she hates you."
"That is beside the point. She's still mine. And don't tell me you don't have your eye on a special someone."
"We'll see," Sirius replied mysteriously, a faraway look in his eyes, "We'll see, Prongs." The two boys smiled at each other, thinking of all the fun they would have over the next two months. It was going to an amazing summer.