"Remus," Lily breathed, slowly moving off the chair's armrest.

"I've been waiting a long time to see you two," Remus said, a grin equally as wide as Dumbledore's spread across his aged face as he made his way to where Lily was standing in shock. She moved suddenly, running into him with a burst of speed. He stabilized her when she finally ran into him.

"Oh, Remus, it is so good to see such a familiar face," Lily breathed into his worn coat, wrapping her arms around the man she had known so long ago. She took a step back from him, her hands moving to his face where a large grin was still plastered. Her bright-green eyes surveyed every inch of his face, taking into realization that he was no longer the youthful intelligent troublemaker she had befriended all those years ago in this school's hallowed halls. "You look so different."

"As do you, Lily. And you as well, James." he added, stepping around Lily to take in a better view of his hunched over friend.

James' head still rested in his hands, but his soft sobs had slowed to a stop. He strained his head as he made his way to look around the back of the dark, thick wooded chair.

"Remus? Is that really you?" James said, moving as slowly as Lily did when she first saw his figure.

"The one and only." Remus said, still grinning as he walked steadily towards his long-gone friend. The two men embraced strongly when they finally made it to one another.

"I didn't know when I would see you again!" James said his arms gripped firmly around his best friend.

"Well now you no longer have to wonder. We're all back now, well almost all of us."

"Right," James said, slowly sinking back into his funk, upset over the loss of his friend.

"We're going to get him back, sweetheart." Lily said, having made he way back to him.

They stood there, looking between the three of them for a while with both Lily and Remus resting hands on James' shoulder out of comfort for the somber man.

"We will find a way, James," Dumbledore said, both his hands on his desk assisting him as he rose out of his large desk chair. He slowly made his way around the large oak desk and down the few stairs to opening below. "I'm afraid I must leave you for now. The student's have arrived and I have been informed that I must now make my way to the beginning of the year feast." The old wizard's eyes twinkled at the trio before he slipped out the door— his head only popping back in again for a moment.

"The hall window's that look in on the feast would be a nice spot to continue this reunion, do you not agree?" And with that he was gone— the sound of scraping stone echoing from the hall.

"What on earth did he mean?" Remus asked, his eyes having followed the headmaster to the door.

"Harry," James and Lily both exhaled, perking up as they did so.

"It's his first-year Remus!" James exclaimed, "The sorting!"

James excitedly grabbed Lily's wrist, pushing the headmaster's door open and bolting down the stairs, Remus following eagerly behind. The three of them rushed through the halls, which felt longer than they had on their way up. The noise of eager students led them through a passage way to where they saw a small group of first year students gathered— the untamable black hair standing out, especially next to the bright red that accompanied it on the right.

"He's there," Lily whispered to Remus, pointing to where Harry was amongst the students.

Remus nodded, smiling a little as he recognized the young version of his friend. "He's certainly grown, hasn't he?"

"Like you wouldn't believe— he's more remarkable than we could've hoped for," Lily began, her eyes not leaving her son, her face beaming.

Worried that one of the many first years would catch their eyes; James tugged his wife and friend back behind one of the stone statues of the entrance hall. The student's though had their attention diverted only moments later as a witch dressed in dark emerald robes emerged from behind the overwhelmingly large oak doors that led from the entrance hall to the great hall beyond.

"We're ready for you now," the Professor stated, her eyes glancing around the room. Her expression slid into a small smile when her eyes caught James', but it vanished once again as she led the students to the sorting. They filed out slowly from behind the statue making their way across the where the light from the great hall fled into the hallway.

The great hall was by far the grandest room within the castle with its enchanted ceiling that clearly depicted the summer night's sky, mesmerizing students, both old and new that were gathered beneath it. The four long dark mahogany tables that stretched the length of the hall had eager pupils that were awaiting the sorting just as much as the three adults looking in were. It was odd for them to be standing here observing after all their years being gathered at the same tables watching as their new peers found out about their new Hogwarts home. All three of them had had the honor of escorting the youngest member's of their Gryffindor house, telling them all about its history and the exciting times they would anticipate throughout their years at Hogwarts. James took in all the students, trying to see if he recognized any who might belong to some of his own Hogwarts peers. His eyes darted along the Gryffindor table stopping when they landed on two red headed boys whose head's were pressed closely together as they leaned over the table conversing with another student. James elbowed Remus, who too was observing the students, and nodded towards the boys. Both the grown men grinned mischievously as they remembered the numerous times they too sat in a similar position to the boys, ignoring all the speeches and hustle and bustle around them as they fully immersed themselves in whatever plan they were thinking up next. The grins faded over time though as they both came to realize once again that their own important third member was missing from their presence. They continued to gaze around the hall, Remus' and James' eyes settling in on Harry as he listened to the song the sorting hat had just begun to sing. Lily's eyes remained a skewed as she took in the staff at the head table, freezing when her gaze finally fell on her childhood best friend who sat not a few seats away from the headmaster. James, whose own hand was still gripping onto his wife's felt her tense.

"Lils, are you alright?" he asked quietly, trying to avoid bringing her present state to Remus' attention.

"Look there," she mumbled softly, her eyes still locked on Severus' form. James allowed his gaze to follow hers. He saw the man at the head table, himself slightly taken aback by his presence there.

"Why is he here?"

"H-he was a good student, James, it's not completely bizarre that he would be here, teaching. Teaching students… teaching Harry." Lily responded, a little more responsive at last.

"He'll be teaching Harry," James muttered, repeating the last words Lily had spoken. He snapped out of it quickly though, "He can't teach Harry, Lils. He's going to hate him because of me— you know he never got over the fact that I was the one who got to marry you."

"James," Lily said, smiling a little as she did so, "It's not up to you as to who teaches Harry— its not like in the muggle world where you may or may not have the ability to request your child's professor's. It's up to Harry now to not follow in your footsteps when it comes to Severus."

"Hey!" James said, pretending to be slightly taken aback by his wife's reference to his school days. "I changed."

"I know, darling," Lily said, squeezing James' hand.

"Guys, it's him!" Remus said, the excitement coming through in his voice.

James and Lily's head's both flung back towards the window through which they were looking through. At the front of the hall, slowly making his way up the stone steps to the stool awaiting him was Harry.

"He's nervous," James observed.

"Of course he is, it's the sorting," Remus responded.

They watched as Harry sat shaking slightly on the stool, eagerly waiting for the sorting hat to be placed on his head. Lily giggled slightly behind her hand when she saw her son jump a little as the hat began talking quietly to him. She could tell that he was overwhelmed by whatever information the hat was presenting to Harry about the houses for which he would be most suited.

"It's going to announce it soon," Remus reported, who had been watching the hat do it's thing the whole night. And he was right.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the worn hat bellowed out across the hall.

James and Lily smiled contagiously as they watched him jump from the school and towards his new house table that appeared as though it had quite literally burst from excitement when the hat announced that "The Harry Potter" would be joining the Gryffindor ranks. Their son's smile was quite unlike they had ever seen.

"They accept him, James. He's going to finally have real friends," Lily said, glistening like the Great Hall's ceiling.

Relief had flooded over both of the Potter's as they saw how excited his new school mates were to have him, such a change from many of the kids at his two previous school's that had cast him as an outcast without so much as a "hello".

They continued to stare in at the hall for a moment longer, watching the final few first-years get sorted into the various houses, only turning to leave when Dumbledore had finally said the few words that signaled to the house elves below that the students were ready for their feast.

As the food appeared, James and Lily once again were thrilled by their son's own excitement at the world around him— how happy he looked to be there, in the school they both loved so much.

"Well how about that, the little lion is truly a Gryffindor now," Remus said, bemused. He turned away from the windows and down the steps to the entrance hall, hands in his pockets as he made his way.

Lily and James followed behind him, smiles still spread across their faces.

"We should get going before the end of the feast," Lily said, checking back to look at the hall doors.

"Remus," James began, jogging a little to catch up with Remus, "Where are you staying right now?"

"Oh, well I'm just in a small place in a town not too far off from here actually." Remus said, scratching the back of his head out of nervousness. "I thought it would be far enough away from people during the full moon, you know?"

"Would you like to come to dinner?" Lily asked, coming up behind them.

Remus looked between his two friends, watching as they both nodded and grinned at them trying to further convince him to come.

"Are you sure?" he asked timidly.

"Of course, Moony," James said, pulling out his old nickname.

"We have so much to catch up on, Remus. We would love to have you come." Lily added.

"Sure, yes, that would we wonderful." Remus finally agreed.

"Perfect," Lily said, happiness just beaming from her as she started making her way back to the grounds.

James clapped a hand on his friends back and soon the two began following Lily to the Hogwarts gates. As they passed the Whomping Willow, Remus and James both reflected a bit on their times on the grounds on the moonlit nights, retreating to this very spot. They laughed for quite a while about all their adventures— barely able to get a breath out after a while. By the time they had reached the gates where Lily was waiting with a smirk on her face, they had tears streaming down their faces, both of them supporting one another so they wouldn't fall over with laughter.

"Are you two ready yet?"

"Y-Y-Yes!" they both chorused.

"Then come on," she said, stepping forward to grab both of their arms before apparating away to the Potter's home in London.

Music flowed out from the kitchen onto the back deck where the two men were gathered, discussing methods in which to get their best friend out.

"Lils and I alone could prove that he wasn't our secret keeper, we can at least get him off that charge if they put us under veritiserum." James contemplated; Remus was sitting at the porch table scribbling all their options down.

"Dumbledore could convince Fudge, I'm sure. We could go down to the Ministry this week, get Dumbledore to come. He wouldn't refuse this," Remus said, head still looking down on the paper in front of him.

"What if he did? What is our next option?" James added. "We need to get him out of there."

"I know, I know. I keep trying to figure out our options with this—you and Lily are his best chance for getting off the charge of betraying you. All you have to do is testify."

"Done, Lily would agree in a heartbeat. What about the murder charges you mentioned?" James said, scrimmaging through the papers they had gone to grab from Remus' place. He was trying to find the issue of the Daily Prophet that stated the exact charges that had placed their best friend in Azkaban. "Here, he was sentenced to life for… murdering 12 muggles and Peter. We both know Sirius—he wouldn't have done that. No way would he have killed Peter."

"It's hard to know what to believe, James. We all thought we knew who Peter was and you and Lily both thought you knew who you were putting your faith in when you went into hiding."

"If Peter could deceive us, then so could…"

"James, neither of us believes it. I only did at the time because I didn't know what had happened to either of you and Harry, and he was the one who I believed at the time to be protecting you three." Remus said, his head still shaking at the thought.

"We would have thought the same had it been you in hiding, Moony. But you're right. Sirius was like a brother to me, he would never have done that—he loved Harry too much to put him at risk of growing up alone."

"We're agreed then—he didn't do any of it. Now what?"

"We go to Dumbledore then Fudge—they can't deny him this trial any longer." James said, fist banging down on the table.

"Ok, we do that. I'm wondering though whether or not we can get him off for all of it just by simply putting him under veritiserum…"

"It would work to an extent, but I think there will be issues that will have to be resolved."

"What do you… oh! Peter…"

"Where did he go then if he was supposedly murdered by Sirius?"

The two men sat in silence for a while. Music from inside still found its way to the porch through the open doors and windows. James could make out Lily's shape as she stood at the sink in the kitchen, cleaning up what had been an eventful dinner amongst friends. She turned for a second, as if realizing that the chatter from the porch had come to a standstill. Still humming whatever tune she had been singing, she made eye contact with James before she motioned for him to come in.

"Why don't we call it a night here, Remus?" James said, already trying to organize their paper mess.

"Yes, alright."

Slowly they managed to organize all of the old papers and news clippings and their own plan of events into a pile before they slipped into the house. James carried their 'Sirius' pile up the stairs to his office on the second floor.

"How's is it?" Lily asked Remus, who was still standing in the kitchen, trying to see if Lily needed any assistance.

"It's going. I guess it's hard to figure out how to overcome all the roadblocks of the ministry until we try to jump the first one."

Lily laughed a little. "Yes I guess that is true. So a trip to the ministry is in your future?"

"Inevitably so it seems," Remus said, grinning himself a little, before his smile faded into a long yawn.

"You've had a long night, come," Lily said to Remus, after placing the last dish away in the cupboard. She gently pushed him forward from the place in which his feet were planted on the tile floor. They walked in silence through the house to the third floor, only interrupted by the yawns they both had begun to make.

When they finally reached the third floor of the house, Lily directed him to the room whose door lay directly across from the landing.

"You're home is quite beautiful, Lily." Remus said, having admired every inch of it since his arrival earlier that evening.

"Thank-you. It took some time to create but it's home, you know?" Lily said, smiling. She had stopped before the door and turned to a smaller one down the hall. She came out of it only moments after opening it, with her arm's full of sheets and blankets.

"Sorry, I stripped the bed down this morning before we left, I completely forget—don't mind me for just a minute." She said, apologizing as she opened the door to the room.

Remus took in the Spanish Blue room. It was a small room but big enough for the boy who he knew had lived here almost all his life. The walls dawned a few pictures displaying monuments of London and various school photos, but the rest that remained all had pictures of a dark haired, emerald-eyed boy with glasses and a lightning shaped scar on his forehead goofing around with his parents. As he walked around the room, his eyes got teary when he saw the photos with Lily and James as they kneeled beside their young son who was dressed to impress in his sharp school uniform on what he undoubtedly guessed was one of many first day's. In other's he saw them together on beaches or James and Harry playing around at the park—it was in these it was most evident just how much the young boy resembled his father. He stopped and stared for a while at the picture on the nightstand, that James had picked up just days ago himself, which held a photo of a young Harry engulfed in a hug from behind from Lily who was smiling brightly as her son's head rested on her arm which was being held by both of the boy's own.

"What was it like?" He asked quietly.

"What was…?" Lily began, having just put the pillows back on the bed. She stood for a moment to take in Remus, having noticed his movement, but not necessarily what he was looking at. She saw that his gaze was directed towards a photo that was non-moving but had happiness radiating from it nonetheless. She smiled a little, recalling that particular memory in her mind. "Oh, you mean being away? Well, it was hard at first, but it all happened rather quickly. James had the harder time, having never lived a truly muggle life before, unlike myself. Dumbledore helped us out quite a bit though, especially by landing us in this house. He thought it would be best if we lived in a neighborhood that was strictly muggle, and in a busy area because he believed that if anyone was looking for us, we wouldn't be in the center of it, let alone the center of London. The job part was trickier—we needed to be like muggles. Albus knows quite a few people in high places, and a few of them had held respectable jobs in this world for quite some time. He got us in with them and places they had worked. Growing up I had always wanted to be in healthcare. I had wanted to work for St. Mungo's but I couldn't given our situation. I got the next best thing with my job, working as a nurse at the hospital down the way. James had a tougher time yet again because it's so different having to use technology to get daily tasks done as opposed to magic, but he adjusted so well over time. I don't know if he told you but he works at Insurance firm, and he recently got promoted to a manager position. It all sounds weird I'm sure…"

"A little," Remus chuckled. "I would never have imagined James at such a job."

"Neither did I. But we had no choice. Harry needed us to live normal lives, be involved in his muggle life while he lived it. We couldn't have him going to school only to be asked about his home life and him not be able to answer that in a typical way. It'll be nice to go back."

"We've been waiting long enough." Remus said, a grin tugging at his mouth.

"So have we," Lily said smiling a little as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I think James is just excited to get back on his broom again, literally. Anyways, here is a few extra blankets in case you get cold, or in case you want the window open—night's are a little chilly."

"Always the mother, Lily," Remus said, chuckling as he took the blankets from her grasp. He placed them at the foot of the bed before standing up and walking Lily to the door.

"How did the planning really go, by the way?" Lily asked, turning back after she had made it a few steps down the hall. "To get him out?"

"I'm sure James will fill you in in the morning," he started, still grinning a little as he held the door. "It is going well though—he will be out before we know it granted we get in touch with the right people. He's an innocent man in the worse place imaginable—I think our case is persuasive to say the least. Goodnight though, Lily. I really am glad to have you both back."

"You too, Remus." She said, waving slightly before she entered the door at the end of the hall.

*Disclaimer: all the recognizable J.K. Rowling Harry Potter content is fully her work and I take no credit for it. The rest is my own imagination. Please feel free to review if you have time, and I would like to thank everyone who has followed, favourited, reviewed and read my story—it means the world to me that you have taken the time to do so. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I hope to update very soon! All the best~