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angelicamerlinbarnes · 4 years ago

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Albus Dumbledore being an awesome teacher and human being

Bubblegum Bitch - MARINA

(Imma be honest with y’all, it’s mostly just him being a crackhead.)

He tells stories about Grindelwald, about their marriage and their beliefs and their lives together. All of the stories have lessons - sure, a lot of those lessons are about how NOT to make pasta, but they’re still lessons!

He likes to matchmake students using seating charts and certain magical spell assignments. He’s very good at it. I mean, he’s shit at figuring out who likes each other, but he is great at meddling, so Mcgonogall tells him who to mess with and he does as he’s told. They make a great team (and are invited to a lot of weddings). Couples they’ve helped include but are not limited to: Dean and Seamus, Luna and Ginny, Hermione and Harry and Ron, Sirius and Remus, Peter and Maxwell Needles, Peter and Regulus (that was later), Lily and Severus and James, Fred and Lee plus George and Lee, Charlie and Newt (queerplatonic), Leta and Newt (queerplatonic), Harry and Luna (queerplatonic), and Sirius and James and Remus (queerplatonic). They’ve been very busy.

He and Mcgonogall have teatime almost every day. They talk about their students and work on their matchmaking plans. There’s a lot of sass and deadpanning involved. Sometimes they invite Remus, Sirius, and James. (Not Peter. He doesn’t need the same level of torturing that they do.) Bubbles of all shapes and sizes and colors float around the room the whole time. It’s fantastic.

He accepts gossip in exchange for extra credit. He’s a really good secret keeper too, so a lot of students go for it. (It hasn’t broken any friendships. There’s an understanding among the student population that Dumbledore is like Ms. Potts from that Muggle film Beauty and the Beast - well-meaning and trustworthy, but terribly, terribly bored.)

Everything in his classroom is pink. And glittery. And covered in sequins. Once a student asked him why and he just smirked for a solid minute before whispering, “Lemonade.” (As if that makes any fucking sense.)

He once taught class in a full-fledged glittery ballgown that faded from light pink to deep purple. He did not once acknowledge it or act like anything was out of the ordinary. One student raised their hand and asked timidly, “Professor? Why are you wearing a ballgown?” And his brow furrowed as he frowned, looked down at himself, and muttered, “Thought it was a bathrobe.” (Harry does not let him live this one down. His dad is not much help - Severus took many, many pictures.) (Not that it mattered. On Wednesdays Dumbledore wears pink (glittery ballgowns).)

He speaks to kids who have parents, friends, and relatives in prison, whether for being Death Eaters or otherwise. He chaperones visits to Azkaban for them so they can see their loved ones. He casts protective and invisibility charms on them so only the one they’re visiting can see or hear them, and he teaches them Patronuses (with Remus’ help, of course). He often spends these visits on the other side of Grindelwald’s bars, playing wizard’s chess against him. (Sometimes Grindelwald gives him flowers. It always makes Dumbledore smile. There may be no one left in the world who understands why they love each other, but they don’t need to understand it for it to be true.)

He stands at the front of the classroom and makes funny faces during tests and waits to see how long it takes for a student to look up. His latest record is seven minutes.

When he’s teaching Grindelwald’s history, he makes snarky comments about his husband. They range from “I mean really. Who the fuck thought wizards ruling Muggles was a good idea?” (Rest in peace that one student who thought it was a good idea to say, “You did, Professor.”) to “Honestly, that man has no concept of romance. I ask him for a nice night out and he takes me to a Muggle rally about witchcraft and tries to impress me by playing practical magical jokes on the speaker. A toddler could do that.” (He often gets mushy during those stories though, usually trailing off like “But that time he took me to my childhood home for my birthday was sweet… brought me flowers for Ariana’s grave and everything. Sure, he killed her, but… he has a sweet side…” and from there on out he’s basically a lost cause and you might as well go to your next class because he’s not going to stop humming that fucking Elvis song).

He “loses” his glasses all the time by casting an invisibility charm on them and forces his students to search the classroom for them when they’re on his face the whole time. He thinks it’s funny. Harry does not. (But Severus and Mcgonogall do, and that’s really what matters.) (Severus and Mcgonogall and Dumbledore are a fantastic trio full of snark and sarcasm and shit, I have just decided.)

He makes little animals out of multi-colored magical dust and they fly around the classroom and perch on his favorite students’ heads. Once a dragon fell asleep on Newt’s head and wouldn’t leave even when class was over. Newt had to wait for the magic to wear off so it would disintegrate. (Of course, he had named it by that point and had a meltdown when it disappeared, so Dumbledore recreates the dragon (Robert) every class and just lets Newt coo at it, even during tests.)

He conjured and charmed two giant (I mean Egypt half-animal half-man guard statue size giant) fluffy pink teddy bears that are alive and stand on either side of him like bodyguards during class. A Slytherin student punched one in the stomach once and it vomited enough M&Ms over their head to completely bury them. The student’s partner, a Ravenclaw student, punched the other one in an ill-advised burst of illogical thought and received the same treatment, but in Skittles. (Luckily their Gryffindor aro-ace friend and nonbinary Hufflepuff friend stayed after class and ate until they could move again. Safe to say no one has dared punch the bears again.) (Though I hear they do give very good hugs. And they eat homework if you ask nicely enough!)

He has a bunch of cloaks that act as portals to realms like Merlin’s Celestiums (S.G.E., Soman Chainani). He gives one to each student for tests, and they are transported to their ideal test-taking environments, complete with whatever song they feel like listening to at any given minute playing all around them. Unsurprisingly, his students have the best grades in all of Hogwarts. (He also has a secret cloak that he uses for himself, to see Grindelwald. Grindelwald has his own matching one so he can always make it home for Thursday date night.) (They have been caught. Of course they have. But no one is going to challenge Dumbledore for his right to see his husband, even if he did marry a murderer.) (Sirius and Remus used to steal the cloak for their own dates. And later on James would steal it to take the two of them on friend-dates. Inspired by that, Dumbledore made a special cloak for Mcgonogall that he gifted her on her fiftieth birthday. The smile she gave him then is his favorite of all time.)

He bickers with Fawkes constantly. This often evolves into full-fledged screaming matches with spastic hand gestures, gratuitous spit, and angry hops on both sides. Once Dumbledore drew wand on his “useless babbling bastard of a bird”. No one has bothered to tell Dumbledore that Fawkes probably can’t understand a word of their arguments. (They do evacuate the classroom when these fights start though. The last time they stayed their hair was gone for a week, and when it grew back it was glittery and pink.) (Harry looked especially fantastic. Sirius thought he looked great. He laughed until he was in tears. Harry was not amused.) (Remus was.)

Sometimes he’s absent from class and Mcgonogall teaches them instead. When asked if he’s alright, Mcgonogall simply answers, “My partner is away on personal business for the day. Now, turn to page -” Soon enough people figured out that “personal business” meant “conjugal visit with Genocidal Maniac Husband™ in prison”. They stopped asking.

He gives all of his students the red button test (without knowing what it does, do you press the red button?). Those who pass get automatic A’s and a lollipop. Those who fail get a talking pet pygmy puff. The thing that usually trips people up is that Dumbledore considers the “correct” answer to be pressing the goddamn button. (Seamus is the only one who has ever passed (enthusiastically too!). Newt half-passed because Niffy the Niffler sat on it.) (Sirius and James would have passed too if they had not been the life partners of one Remus Lupin, whose creativity with threats and extensive curse-word vocabulary rivaled Mcgonogall’s even at the tender age of fifteen.)

He has floating war maps just lying around. He plays battleship with his students on them. What he neglects to tell them is that their moves have actual consequences in the world, as the maps are magical and reflect real battles and places. When Harry finds out (he blew up Denmark, completely unawares) he shows up at Dumbledore’s door soaking wet at five-thirty in the morning with a newspaper, his fists clenched, his face red, and his chest heaving. He wouldn’t stop glaring for weeks. (Alas, Dumbledore’s glorious beard has great resistance to fire spells.) (Following an incident involving the original four Marauders in their third year. Shhh… we do not speak of that.)

He has a habit of walking into random classrooms, gesturing for a student to come with him with his finger, and then taking them to his office for teatime. He usually asks them inane questions about a specific theme (fish, pasta strainers, socks, throw pillows, mooses, etc.) for hours until finally dismissing them. It drives Mcgonogall crazy. (She’s yelled at him plenty for “kidnapping students to ask them questions you know you could easily find on that Muggle infer-het thing! They have exams, Albus -” but he just smiles at her while calmly sipping his tea and she always ends up collapsing in the chair across from him with a sigh, taking the tea from his hands and chugging it before wiping her mouth, slamming it down on the desk, and asking, “So. Fish. What’s up with them?” and Albus just beams.)

He spends half of his class lessons babbling on about how Merlin was gay for Arthur and Arthur was gay for Merlin, but not in long tangents. Just a bunch of random comments without context, warning, or explanation. (He mentions “poetry” a lot and waggles his eyebrows for some reason, so… what’s up with that? (Merlin BBC))

He overshares A LOT about his and Grindelwald’s lives. It’s a problem because 90% of the time it’s something sweet or innocent like “Oh, he brought me a tiger lily that bloomed open to show a gold and ruby ring nestled inside on our first anniversary. That’s how he proposed to me” and “He used to hum while he did the housework, you know? He’d stand in the middle of the house and close his eyes and just hum. Almost entire symphonies too, just waving his wand in the air like a conductor” to “This one time in bed he…” and there is NO warning. The amount of things these poor children’s ears have had to endure… (*shakes head in mock disappointment*)

He often cooks during class using wandless magic. The pots and pans heat themselves and float around in the air. Sometimes Dumbledore dances and then they start dancing too. He whistles and creates a base beat for the sizzling, popping, clanging, and other kitchen noises to follow. This usually happens during tests. Oh joy.

He leaves the windows open when it rains, but somehow nothing ever gets wet. Harry and Hermione have a theory that it’s protection charms. (Really it’s a spell Severus made up when he was drunk because he was angry that umbrellas don’t have enough room under them for three, and he’s always been the most self-sacrificial person in his marriage.)

He regularly makes bets with Mcgonogall about the students’ love lives. Not money, but little things the other doesn’t want to do or buy. Dumbledore usually has to handle the Marauders’ detentions or give up one of his teddy bear guards for Mcgonogall’s experimental enjoyments. Mcgonogall has to do something embarrassing or let him borrow one of her glittery hats. They should really stop making bets at this point; the stakes and the winners are dreadfully predictable. He always wins when the bet is on a student’s sexuality or gender and she always wins when the bet is on who a student will end up with. Nonetheless, the bets continue. So too does their grumbling amusement.

He figured out how to make a broom invisible when he and Grindelwald first fell in love, so they could be showy with each other at their Greater Good rallies. They later used it for dates, prison breaks, and daring escapes complete with kisses under the moon. Once Grindelwald went to Azkaban, Dumbledore used it to find some privacy where he could grieve. Now, he uses it to travel around his classroom and Hogwarts and trick everyone into thinking he can fly by sheer will. Only Mcgonogall knows his secret. (And Severus, but Dumbledore doesn’t know that because he told him when he was black out drunk. So.)

He lets pygmy puffs sleep in his beard. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.

He once taught class while teetering on his feet because he had somehow gotten himself tangled in Christmas lights from shoulders to ankles and couldn’t move. (Sirius wandered in and saw this, cried he was laughing so hard, and then warbled his off-key way through as many Christmas carols as he could remember for the rest of class.) (Dumbledore tried to Silencio him but just fell over trying to make the wand movement. He broke his nose. Sirius almost had a panic attack because he couldn’t breathe from how hard he was laughing. By the end of this he had curled up in a fetal position on the floor, Remus was lying down next to him and muttering jokes to him, Mcgonogall was trying to fix Dumbledore’s face, and Severus had taken over the class. Not that they got much done - James was visiting that day. And him, Sirius, and Remus all laughing about the same thing rarely leads to a quiet and calm learning environment.) (They gave him a joint present of rainbow Christmas lights for his birthday - “Happy Gay Day, Professor!” - and he was not amused.) (Grindelwald was though. So was everyone else.)

He tends to mix up holidays in his head and often decorates for the wrong one. He goes all out too. He’s kind of a disaster, and so is his classroom. It became such a problem that the Marauders actually took pity on him and made him a very big calendar with all the holidays marked on it in glitter and fake jewels and flowers. It sits behind his desk and occasionally works.) (Occasionally.)

He’s queerplatonic partners with Mcgonogall. They held a friend-wedding and forced Severus to be the flowergirl. Harry officiated, Remus was Dumbledore’s best man, Sirius was Mcgonogall’s, James wasn’t given a job cause he was crying too much, Lily was in charge of taking care of James, and Peter was the ring bearer (he only lost them TWICE and they were ring pops anyway). Mcgonogall screeches at him a lot and Dumbledore can be depressive and neglectful because he misses Grindelwald but they love each other so it works. (And they’re the prime source of advice for James, Sirius, and Remus regarding their own queerplatonic relationship, for better or for worse.)

He puts his feet up on the desk even though it’s bad for his knees. Mcgonogall told him it’s bad for his knees and he has stubbornly put them up there every class since. (His knees are killing him but he will not give in to “a paranoid, batty old witch who doesn’t know shit about what’s good for me and wouldn’t if she was hit with an Imperio and I told her -” “I’M YOUR FUCKING PARTNER, YOU BLASPHEMOUS ARROGANT BRAT OF AN OLD FART!”)

Instead of walking around his classroom, he struts. (Yes, it worsens his knees.) He does strike poses, he does make obnoxious expressions, and he does look fabulous. WORK! (Yes, that was a Hamilton reference.)

He once taught class without a face because Mcgonogall cursed him for “fucking up the alphabetical organization of my tea, you old twit. Honestly, Albus, it’s not that hard”. (How did he teach without a mouth, you ask? Easy, he used intermediate BSL (deaf students, plus Azkaban isn’t great on old men’s ears and he and Grindelwald are both gettin’ up there) and Sirius interpreted.) (Incredibly wrongly, crudely, and foul-mouth-ly, but nonetheless he interpreted.)

He has difficulty understanding the straight people in his class. He is fully accepting of everyone and wants the best for all of them, but when it comes to relationship advice, he’s shit.

Excerpt pulled from Pensieve of a conversation he had with a student who identified as female:

Dumbledore: “So your boyfriend is a dick, is what you’re saying?”

Student’s best friend: “Yes. Merlin, he’s such a dick. Would you believe he -”

Dumbledore: *looks at student and points to her best friend* “Why don’t you just date her?”

*cue red faces and sputtering*

(They did not take his advice.)

He wears bowties ALL THE TIME. If he’s not wearing a bowtie, there are bows in his hair and tying the ends of his beard together. Once he wore pigtails. It was great.

He has a habit of bursting into song randomly and performing full-blown Broadway musical numbers (yes, he can rap Guns and Ships at full speed). This usually involves all of the complex moves to be expected in a musical - dramatically climbing up the stairs while looking forlorn, leaping onto the desk and squatting as you launch into a whispered limerick, speedy costume changes - you know, the works. Sometimes Sirius and James back him up, if they’re there. Severus will take over teaching with a bored look on his face (“What are you looking at, Harry?” “Dad, there’s -” “I don’t see anything interesting happening, Harry.” *glares*) while Mcgonogall screeches at Dumbledore to “GET THE FUCK DOWN, YOU NARCISSISTIC HEATHEN!” It’s a problem.

When the Marauders challenge the dress code, Dumbledore is the first Professor to encourage it. While Sirius is perfectly confident in a skirt and Regulus isn’t far behind (neither is Severus, surprisingly), James and Remus are far more insecure. Dumbledore wears a tutu to class one day to show his support, and Remus wouldn’t stop smiling the rest of the day. (James just turned bright red and beamed when Sirius started laughing.) He also backed Lily up when she wore pants (along with Marlene, Dorcas, and Mary) by convincing Mcgonogall to wear pantsuits for a week. (Sirius, despite being a hardcore gay, was quite affected by this. Remus did not appreciate the water spit in his face and refused to kiss Sirius for a week.)

He plays Cecily Smith (Will Connolly) on the ukulele on late nights and stares out at the stars thinking of Grindelwald. Sometimes he forgets to turn off the Sonorus from earlier that day and ends up broadcasting his little song to the whole school. Sirius and Remus will dance to it in the common room while James watches his partners with a happy smile on his face (and Peter sleeps, because he’s tired and doesn’t force himself to stay up simply for the purpose of being cool or finishing that one assignment that isn’t due for another two weeks) (I’m sorry, do you feel called out?).

This man has weed brownies stashed away in his desk and he does eat them during class. He also offered one to Remus once, who is the only student that knows about the stash and tends to use marijuana for medical purposes (helping with anxiety and pain regarding the full moon, courtesy of my beautiful girlfriend who has never read nor seen Harry Potter but nonetheless insists to me that Remus Lupin is a stoner who wears red beanies). This prompted Sirius to ask for one, which Dumbledore refused, but then James joined in and they started a riot by standing on their desks and pumping their fists in the air and screaming, “BROWNIES FOR ALL!” while Remus giggled into his hand and was no help at all, so Dumbledore gave them each a brownie just to shut them up. (Sirius wouldn’t stop rambling about how pretty Remus’ eyes were, James was babbling on about unicorns, Severus was hissing at something no one else could see, Regulus was hissing at the same thing for some reason, Peter was crying because he couldn’t tell the difference between hamsters and gerbils and guinea pigs, and Lily was muttering pi under her breath until she fell asleep.) (Mcgonogall was unimpressed.) (No teatime for eight weeks. Damn.)

Dumbledore cares about all of his students, however little he shows it. He wants them to lead a better life than he did. And maybe fall in love with better people than he did.

#albus dumbledore #albus wulfric percival brian dumbledore #mcgonogall &x dumbledore #&x means queerplatonic i have just decided #grindledore #wolfstar #james &x remus &x sirius #severus & mcgonogall & dumbledore #james x lily x severus #albus dumbledore is a crackhead 2021 #i dunno please enjoy this shit #i'm really fucking tired #harry potter #have a nice day y'all

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sirisuorionblack · 3 years ago

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Hello 👋 I was wondering if you could write about Remus Lupin bitting one of Harry’s friends, and they’re relatively alright with it but lovely Remus hates himself for it- a bit of angst but with happy ending?

Family

Remus Lupin x Sirius Black

Summary - The marauders are back at Hogwarts at the age of 34 for yet another adventurous night after years but this time it didn't end rather well but Remus had his family.

A/N Okie so this was a wonderful idea and I just had to write it and I might have tweaked my request status a bit. But, anyway, a few things before you start, everybody is alive, no voldy, no nothing. And since you didn’t specify which one of Harry’s friends, I naturally went for Ron to add in the drama. Also, this happens in their third year and Remus and Sirius are well, married, sorry if it isn't a pairing you are comfortable with. And this may be a bit rushed, idk but I loved it tbh.

Remus ran his fingers over the scars on his knuckles. Remus was gifted with such a beautiful life, his friends and family so close to him, leading a life filled with love and happiness, the sound of innocent laughter always echoing in his ears no matter what.

Over the years, he and his best friends had grown from adventurous teens to adventurous adults, still spending every full moon like a tightly-knit pack, running into the woods and barking in their animal forms. They had never grown out of it and Remus was more than grateful for it. It was truly a wonder, regardless of how much they had grown, married and having kids of their own, never spared a thought if any other was in need of help.

Thirty-four. It was bewildering how he managed to pass twenty-seven years tuning into a full-on beast with insane thoughts and no memory of his human self, only noticing the stag, dog and the rat that managed to keep him accompanied no matter what. He pitied the wolf at times, he would never have the chance to know what love is, never understand how people care about others and would protect their loved ones.

Remus knew what love is, Sirius taught him that like his life depended on it. Remus shivered every time he thought about this. They were no longer the playful and traumatized teens, they were adults with responsibilities now and it was terrifying. But Remus found comfort in the very aspect of it, teaching and just as his friends insisted he did become the Defence Against Dark Arts professor and he more than just loved it.

And now after years, they were back in the shrieking shack for the next full moon, this time, honestly dreading it. Remus suspected that Harry and his friends were rather curious about their shenanigans in the shrieking shack. Harry, of course, knew that Remus was a werewolf he had known it ever since he was realised, his father, Moony, Padfoot and Wormtail would go missing for hours and then his mother would be with Uncle Moony, treating all the new scars that Harry was told is a sign of bravery from a young age by his godfather.

For some odd reason, Dumbledore had requested that Harry must not know was that it was his very own Uncle Moony spending his night away in the shrieking shack for which Sirius had reasoned was solely for the drama it ensued.

“Moony, stop fretting,” James said, patting him on the shoulder and pulling him away from the window sill he was standing before, “It is Harry we are talking about, I think he would be rather cautious,”

“That’s the stupidest things you have ever told in your whole life, Prongs,” Sirius commented, smirking and looking out of the window, to see when the full moon rises.

“Hey!” James glared at him, “I mean, yes, he could be a curious little shit but he is…good,”

“This is not about if he is good or not, James,” Remus snapped. He took a deep breath and sat on a chair that had been placed near the wall, away from the three of them.

“Right, sorry,” James said, looking at him apologetically and remained silent giving Remus an opportunity to continue, “Just like you said, he is a curious child and his friends almost give him a run for his money and there is so little chance to no chance that they would not be coming here to “find out“ what’s going on! And like what if I accidentally hurt someone!?”

Remus shuddered as he said those words. Contrasting how he was speaking moments ago, he looked up to see Peter, James and Sirius looking at him and he fixed his eyes to Sirius’ and he whispered, “They could die or even worse become a monster like me,”

“Moony, enough,” Sirius said, calmly, drawing the attention to himself rather than Remus, “The full moon will be in minutes, there is nothing we can do,”

“Remus,” Peter sighed, emerging from the corner he stood in, “First of all - you are not a monster. Second of all - we are here, nothing wrong is gonna happen,”

”What if something does?” Remus argued. He didn’t have to see to know that Sirius closed his eyes to calm himself down.

“Sirius, do you hear yourself!?” Remus stood up abruptly, “Your words drip with irresponsibility!”

“It’s not irresponsibility, Moony,” he said, motioning Peter to take over as he walked towards Remus, “it’s the reality. What do you think we should do, then?”

For once, Remus Lupin was out of ideas. He didn’t know what to say but he knew Sirius was right, there was almost nothing they could do other than control the wolf and every full moon they deal with would be a unique tale of itself, never certain of what could happen. It was woven with time.

“It’s time,” Peter said, grimly. Remus took a shuddering breath and fell into Sirius’ arms, who was still in his human form, unlike the stag and rat, watching their moves carefully.

Remus was right. In the Gryffindor boys’ dormitory, Harry Potter laid wide awake, staring at the ceiling, the noises in the shrieking shack and the tales about it resonating in his mind. He was confused about what might be there and curious to find out when nobody would tell him the truth although they seemed to know. And today, they would unveil it.

James was rather happy that the full moon would end in a couple of minutes but he was not allowed to stay that way when he saw the wolf stop dead in tracks, sniffing the air. They all behaved rather weirdly, sometimes hilarious, in these forms but this time, it seemed different, like the wolf had encountered something out of order.

The stag and the dog stood cautiously, ready to pounce any moment while the rat, discreetly moved in the direction of the wolf’s sight and to a bush. They could hear whispers and murmurs as the animals and humans stood still on both sides, afraid of what might show and for the first time they all saw the wolf stand so extremely still.

And then slowly, a mess of unruly, jet black hair emerged from behind the bush. The wolf took deep, rapid, breaths that almost sounded like growling, bared its fangs.

The black hair further raised until they could see the bright green eyes, behind the round glasses and the wolf noticing the presence of the human, pounced.

The dog was rather quick to act and jumped on the wolf, redirecting its path but a stag and a dog wasn’t enough for the wolf to be distracted from its meal. Hunger in the pit of the wolf’s stomach derived its senses insane.

Harry stood up to his full height, wide eyes watching the wolf push a familiar black dog away from itself and leapt forward, fangs sinking into the flesh before it blacked out, falling to the ground.

He is going to get an earful from his father.

“Careful, Mr Lupin,” Madam Pomfrey rushed to him as Remus tried to sit up and take a look around. She gently pushed him back to a sleeping position on the hospital bed. Through half-lidded eyes, he frantically murmured Sirius’ name over and over again.

“Hey, hey, calm down, love,” Sirius was at his side, holding his scarred hand. Remus held onto it tightly and asked, “What happened?”

He could see Sirius hesitating to tell him and the vague memories remaining in his head from the night was not doing him any better.

“Sirus, please tell me what happened!?” He asked, anxiety rising in the bit of his stomach, the nasty churning feeling retuning. Sirius gently pushed the strands of hair from his forehead and leaned up, pressing his lips to Remus’ forehead.

“Th-the kids-” Sirius started just for him to be interrupted as Remus sat up, abruptly. He didn’t have time to sort out his chaotically, messy feelings and the one thing in his mind was what happened to the kids.

“Moony, Moony,” Sirius hurried to calm him down that, if anything, just made Remus panic even more in his hazy state of mind. Sirius placed his hands against Remus’ shoulder, pushing him gently to sit on the edge of the bed when he tried to stand up.

“Nobody is hurt, Remus,” he said, crouching a bit to look at Remus in the eyes but sighed with a pang in his chest when he saw Remus’ eyes unfocused and roaming above his head, at the various hospital beds.

Remus gasped and his heart sunk to the bottom when he saw the bed surrounded by kids and adults. It was Ron Weasley. His teeth had sunk into the boy’s shoulder blades where he could clearly see the bandages wrapped tightly around. He couldn’t imagine the pain the poor boy would have felt.

Remus Lupin felt like a terrible monster.

Why him? Why is it always him!? Just when he thought everything would be alright when he began to let himself wallow in the joy of being back at Hogwarts. And because of him the boy, merely thirteen, would have to become a monster every month.

“You are awake,” James, who seemed to have been outside the hospital wing, rushed to him, "Oh, thank gods-”

”I told you this would happen,” Remus whispered, hoarsely, staring at the foot of the empty bed before him. His mind was racing with unwanted thoughts. He felt mad at himself, at his friends, at the kids but was immediately engulfed in a pang of even bigger guilt.

A dry sob involuntarily escaped from his lips. He couldn’t understand how Greyback did that to the kids when here he was dying with guilt. He didn’t dare think of that one terrible evening when he was just seven.

Remus struggled to take a deep breath. “Moony, look at me, please,” Sirius said and these words in Remus’ head felt like a command. He slowly raised his head to look into those mesmerising grey eyes, sparkling like they always did in the sunlight. Those grey eyes were the only ones that had the ability to calm him down in seconds yet he found it difficult at the moment to regain his normal breathing pace.

“Hey, it's alright. I am here. We all are right here,” Sirius pushed the strands of hair out of his face as Remus tugged at his own shirt, as though it would help him breathe properly.

Sirius looked at James who immediately moved to the nearest window, pushing it open. The gush of fresh, cold breeze for some reason warmed his shattered heart. Remus, although still shaking, managed to take deep breaths.

“Listen to me, alright?” Sirius said, cautiously and slowly, “Nothing is wrong, everybody is doing good - I said you to just listen, Lupin. Ron did get a few injuries but, thankfully, since it was time for you to transform back, the bite was equivalent to that of a domestic dog or something,”

Remus didn't have the ability to comprehend what he was saying and just gawked, opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

Sirius smiled gently, looking at Remus’ wide, confused eyes. “Ron will not transform every month. You didn’t “ruin“ his life, which I am sure at this point you have confirmed. And Madam Pomfrey had down all the necessities so he would be alright in a couple of days,”

“Oh,” Remus breathed, chuckling lightly but happily. Ron was alright. He was alright! He wouldn't turn into a monster every month, he wouldn't have all those hideous scars, he wouldn't be weak every other day, he wouldn't seem to look way older than he actually was. He would be able to lead a peaceful childhood.

James sat next to him while Peter sat on the bed before him, “Now you might be wondering why is Molly crying buckets when her son would be alright,”

“No, I’m not James,” Remus rolled his eyes, pushing James away and shaking his head with a light smile. He discreetly wiped the tears forming in the edge of his eyes.

“Uncle Moony!” Harry yelled, and ran to his uncle. Remus tried to stand up as his nephew rushed into his arms, the boy holding onto him so tightly. Remus slowly wrapped his arms around the boy and felt Sirius stand up behind him, providing support to his weak frame.

“But you should ‘cause I have prepared an answer for it. If you are not asking me why then Padfoot go ahead,” James said and watched with a smirk as Sirius cleared his throat, and asked, “Why?”

”Thank you very much for your certainly not forced question - it is because she is a mother!” James said going jazz hands just for him to be hit with three pillows.

“I’m sorry, Uncle Moony,” Harry whispered into his uncle’s chest, feeling guilty as ever. He heard the man sigh and the arms wrapped around him grew tighter. Remus took off Harry’s askew glasses and whispered, “It’s okay to me, Haz but your mum,”

Harry giggled, burying his face into Remus’ chest, “I love you, Uncle Moony,”

“I love you too, Haz” Remus ruffled the boy’s already messy hair.

"Wait!" Peter said, jumping up and stood beside Harry, smirking, "Can we, I dunno, take points from him?"

"No! that's stupid!" James complained, shaking his head, "Gryffindor needs to win the house cup. We can ground him or something but not take away points,"

"Yes! Can I ground him, please?" Sirius asked.

"No,, absolutely not," Remus said, holding the boy closer to him, "Nobody is gonna ground the poor boy. Leave him alone,"

"Gah! You're no fun, Moony," Peter said, shaking his head in disapproval.

James, after controlling his laughter said, “Also, Harry, your mum told me to yell at you as a favour for her and she would do her job when you come home for break,”

"Uncle W," Harry said, making Peter chuckle at the nickname the boy insisted in calling him saying it was too weird calling his uncle "Wormtail", "I will steal your cheese sticks,"

"No," Peter groaned, dramatically, "Cheese sticks, my weakness,"

“But you won’t yell at me, dad,” Harry said, pulling away from Remus and putting his glasses on.

“I will,” James said, seriously.

“It is not that you won’t, Prongs,” Sirius said, from behind Remus, “It is that you cant,”

“Oh shut up,” James said, rolling his eyes.

Remus couldn’t help but allow his eyes to skip towards Ron every often and harry, of course, noticed it. “Ron is alright, Uncle Moony. He was actually saying it doesn’t hurt much anymore and he was rather bewildered why his mother was crying too. Oh! he also says you guys were so cool yesterday,”

“We know, prongslet, we are the coolest people ever to exist,” Sirius flipped his hair, dramatically. Harry laughed.

Remus took a deep breath. He would never forgive himself for what had happened, but he had his family with him and they sure would make him forget it. These wonderful people were his family.

#remus lupin #sirius black #james potter #peter pettigrew #harry potter #ron weasley #hermione granger #remus lupin x sirius black #wolfstar #remus x sirius #domestic wolfstar #wolfstar raising harry #jily #remus john lupin #sirius orion black #hogwarts #harry potter fanfiction

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theleftovertaco · 4 years ago

Text

April Fools

I’ve always wondered if April Fools existed in the wizarding world. I’ve come to the conclusion for this fic that it doesnt so the reader can introduce the Weasley twins to it. Chaos ensues. This takes place in harrys 3rd year and the twins 5th year. Technically you would be in 5th year as well, but your gender nor house are specified.

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You were writing your potions essay in the quidditch stands when an identical set of loud voices brought you out of your trance.

“Hey, short stack.” Fred and George flew up to your section.

“Oh look, it’s the demonic duo.”

George smirked, “Because we’re so devilishly handsome?”

“No, because your both so ugly that even Jesus couldnt save your face so satan had to take you.” You heard two squawks of indignation but continued on.

“Also, I’m not that short. Y/H is average.”

“Ah,” Fred sat down to your right, “but your shorter than us, so your short.”

“Everyone’s shorter than you two beanstalks.”

“You’re still short.” You stuck your tongue out at George and he mirrored you.

“What do you two want?”

“I’m hurt... always assuming we want something..” Fred trailed off.

“Yeah, we can’t have a conversation with our best friend?”

“I feel betrayed.”

“Depressed.”

“Cheated!”

“Is our friendship a lie?”

“Enough!” You giggled out.

“You don’t have to need something, but you stopped in the middle of practice for a reason.”

“Well... Gryffindor team likes to listen to music when we practice right?” Fred leaned in and put his chin on your shoulder.

“Ok and?”

“Well, all we have is Celestina Warbeck music and your muggle music just is much better than ‘a cauldron full of strong, hot love’”, George sung that last bit.

“So we wanna know if we can borrow your CDs and player?”

“Flawless impression. Yes you can use them, I’ll bring them out next practice. Though honestly, I really ought to get you one of your own so you don’t have to keep asking every time u want to listen to music.”

George hummed in agreement next to you.

“Maybe that’ll be your birthday gift. When is it anyways... I’ve known you two for almost a year and you never told me.”

“It’s in about a month. April 1st.” George confirmed.

You let out a bark of laughter. “Yeah, that checks out.”

You got a rare pause of silence.

“What do you mean ‘that checks out’?” Fred looked honestly confused, and so did George.

“Are you both messing with me? You have to know what holiday is on April 1st right?” They shook their heads no.

“Really? Hold on a second let me ask Hermione if she knows anything. ‘Mione!” You got her attention from a few stands over and she jogged over to the three of you.

“Yeah, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, can you answer a question?” She nodded and you continued, “ without saying it out loud, you know what holiday is on April 1st, right?” She nodded again.

“Yea, why is that relevant?”

“Because they don’t!” You motioned frantically to the twins behind you and Hermione shook her head.

“Do not tell them they don’t need another reason to go around causing more chaos.”

“Oooh,” Fred lifted up his head in interest, “this sounds interesting. What holiday is on April 1st that we don’t know about?”

Hermione shook her head as Harry flew over and dismounted. “What’s going on, practice is over, why aren’t you lot leaving?”

You turned to him quickly, “Harry, without saying it, you know what holiday is on, April 1st, right?” He nodded before realizing what was going on and started laughing.

“Don’t encourage them Harry!” Hermione pushed him slightly.

“Why not? It would be funny to see what they do with that.”

Fred and George were getting frustrated, “With what?”

“Don’t tell them, Y/N!”

“Tell them, Y/N!” “Tell us, Y/N!”

“Ok ok I’ll tell you!” You conceded and Hermione threw her hands up in exasperation and left to collect her bag.

“On two conditions!”

Fred and George whispered to each other for a second before turnin to you and nodding.

“Of course.” Said George with a sly grin.

“What are these conditions?” Fred finished for him.

“Number 1. When I tell you the holiday, I get full immunity from the days effects.”

“But of course.” They spoke in unison

“Number 2. Anyone asks, I had nothing to do with this.”

Fred shrugged, “That’s fair. So, what holiday is on April 1st?”

You grinned before replying, “April Fool’s!”

“What is April Fool’s?” George’s eyes went wide.

“A holiday dedicated to playing pranks on people. Muggles prank their friends, family, teachers, principal. In my primary school one of my friends put a bunch of live chickens in a teachers car.”

They looked at you with pure glee.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” Fred and George each planted a kiss on you cheek and ran off.

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Fred and George dropped into the library chairs in front of you two weeks later.

“So we were thinking.” Fred grinned from the chair closest to you.

“And since you were the one to tell us about this glorious holiday, you should be part of the celebration.”

“No.”

“Why nooooot?” George whined, setting his chin on the table and looking at you with his best puppy eyes.

“I’m not going to get in trouble for a holiday and besides, its your holiday. You don’t need me interfering.”

“But we want you there so you should do it, right? And you wouldn’t be interfering. Please?” Fred joined his brother in puppy eyeing you.

You sighed and nodded in agreement.

“Yay! So we were thinking that maybe we could pull something minor on each of the teachers and then something major on the whole school. What do you think?”

“It could work, but you would have to tailor it to each teacher. Snape can’t stand background noise and high pitches, McGonagall hates being even remotely interrupted, Flitwick can’t stand his bookstack being messed with, and Lupin, for whatever reason, doesn’t like fish.”

“Fish?” George tilted his head like a confused puppy.

“Yeah, he thinks they’re gross or something.”

They both nodded before Fred spoke up, “Ok, so what are you suggesting?”

You thought for a moment before responding, “For snape, I have this little old transportable music player. We could charm it to follow him around and play a bunch of kazoo noises in the background. The more he tries to get rid of it the higher pitch and louder it gets.”

“Ooh, I like that. What else?” George nodded for you to continue.

“We could find a spell where every time McGonagall tries to speak, she gets interrupted by, I don’t know, a horn or something? Flitwick I don’t really have anything.”

“I like the way you think.” Fred grinned and added in, “ . We could turn Lupin’s class into a tiny lake and fill it with fish while he’s up in his office?”

George nodded, “And we could make Flitwick's stack fly around the room while he’s on it?”

“You’re both evil. It’s fantastic.” You high fived them and the three of you left to enact your plans.

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The next two weeks were a never-ending whirlwind of prank planning and late night kitchen runs, but finally the three of you were done. The plans were set up and now all there was to do was wait.

First class of the day was McGonagall’s and the three of you walked in trying to wipe the grins off your face.

“Good morning class, please turn to-” *HONK* Your professor whipped her head around to see where the sound was coming from to no avail. She shook her head and continued on.

“As I was-” *HONK HONK* “Where is that noise coming from?”

The class stifled laughter as she ran around looking for the origin of the honking.

For twenty minutes.

“I swear to” *HONK*

“Oh for the love of” *HOOOOONK*

Eventually McGonagall grew tired and dismissed the class half an hour early.

Snape was next on the hit list.

Your professor strode into the classroom, looking obviously annoyed. A tiny radio followed after him playing a nonsense tune with kazoos. The class burst into laughter but was promptly shut up by a particularly harsh glare.

The next hour was trademarked by Snape repeatedly trying to destroy the radio physically or through magic while he had the class make a healing potion. The noise just got louder and louder and when the bell rang for the last class before lunch Snape barked at everyone to “GET OUT NOW”.

At lunch, you, Fred, and George each grabbed a sandwich and an apple and were about to rush out to have time to set up Lupin’s prank when Harry, Ron, and Hermione stopped you.

“The radio in Snape’s class, who’s bloody idea was that?” Fred and George pointed to you and Ron responded with a high five.

As you three left you could hear Hermione reprimanding Ron for encouraging you.

Lupin’s class took time to set up, but he always took lunch in his office and rarely opened the door.

The three of you placed a tiny device in the center of the floor, rushed out of the classroom, and waited.

You heard a loud BANG and then a stream of curses before running off to hide.

By the time you three returned for class, a student had opened the door to find Lupin taking refuge at the staircase and yelling that class was cancelled for the day and to read Chapter 17!

This brings us to Flitwick’s class.

The plan for his had already been enacted. Since when the three of you stepped into his class, he was clutching onto Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 and yelling out instructions while also asking that someone help him down.

You three took pity halfway through class and found a ladder for him to use.

The four pranks had gone off without a hitch, now you just needed to pull of dinner and everything would be perfect.

Fred and George snuck into the kitchens and as food was being prepared to go out, they placed a few drops of a specialized potion on about half of the platters.

So they reconvened with you at dinner.

You each sat there, and then you waited as people dug into their food.

After about thirty seconds the chaos you had been waiting for occurred. Half the Great Hall turned into various zoo creatures, all frantically running around the tables and crashing into people. The human half of the hall was torn between laughing and running.

They ultimately settled on running.

As everyone cleared out of the hall, the students were ushered back to their respective dorms, and the three of you escaped to the kitchens.

As soon as the portrait entrance was closed, the three of you looked at each other before bursting into laughter.

“AHAHAHAHA- OH that was BRILLIANT!” You half screamed.

“Did you see the look on Sprouts face when Snape turned into a peacock? A PEACOCK!” Fred screeched, nearly on the floor.

“I don’t know if we could ever outdo that!” George replied, who was on the floor.

Eventually the three of you calmed down and you caught your breath to reply.

“Knowing you two, you could. Before we leave, come on. I got you something.”

You brought them over to a table in the middle of the kitchens where two cupcakes and a CD player was set up, along with around 10 CDs next to it.

“I completely forgot about that!” Fred exclaimed.

“Thank you so much!” George and Fred leaned down a little to hug you at the same time.

“Uh, guys, getting a little crushed here.”

“Right, sorry.” George detangled himself from the hug.

“I’m not, gonna keep crushing you.” Fred squeezed tighter.

You laughed and hugged him back.

“Happy Birthday.”

#fred weasley #fred weasley x reader #fred weasley headcanons #fred weasley imagine #george weasley #george weasley x reader #george weasley headcanon #george weasley imagine #harry potter #hermione granger #ron weasley

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savegalkissy · 3 years ago

Note

Asfddgfcgfc been having a brain empty moment for a bit but been thinking about why I find the stuff with Tomoe so interesting (for other than the angst potential) and I think I know why but I’m curious to hear your thoughts on that :o

Type those thoughts before you lose them anon, happens to me all the time

I’ve explained it somewhere else but to me a big part of it is that it gives us a more human look at Lupin, and a sort of area to play in within the blank expanse of “potential backstory” and negative continuity

You can even see that in how they formulated Tomoe as a character. His mother being Japanese was sort of a given, just cause he’s seen as a Japanese person or half, but his name comes from his (somewhat confirmed) father of Lupin ii. So if you’re going off purely lineage issues, then you have the basics for a character there.

I’m doing the same thing, with traits more concrete than those. Lupin is an attention seeker. He’s a thrill seeker. He’s a womanizer. That speaks to someone who didn’t get a lot of love in his childhood, or at least was encouraged to do reckless and crazy things. You see it even Monkey Punch’s work, there’s never really a storyline where his family life is, to put it kindly, healthy.

As her own character, Tomoe is manipulative, but non threatening. She’s deceiving, but seems genuinely earnest in her desire to have Lupin as a son. She reminds me a lot of Fujiko (apt for other reasons), except she’s not a thrill seeker or as much of a risk taker. She is a lot like Lupin, I think, a character who probably herself had a cold upbringing, where the only way get attention was to stand out in being exceptional. But her area as a teacher, who trains other people? Her general reclusiveness, and the fact she stays in the shadows? She wants to be loved, yes, she has many students to help fulfill this desire, but it feels like she was scorned of whatever main goals she had when she was younger.

Now put them together. If she had any grand plans with him, she didn’t seek to do them immediately, and even gave him the information he sought, albeit manipulatively. It seems like her whole mess with lupins mind was not really just about Lupin. Even in the parts I find lacking with her in the final episode, saying she’ll get more women, being generally uncaring even in her own death, and laughing like a mad man, add to her characterization (I just wished they’d do em better).

Messing with people’s lives? Bid for power and control = lack of control in her life at some point

Not actually taking any roles of authority? Inherent passivity = passive characters usually are so to simply just survive = hyper aware of dangers present with these roles

Hypnosis and manipulation? A sense of entitlement that she knows what’s best for people = pride and ego she ‘humbly’ doesn’t show off, and an implicit trust in herself and her own mind

I could go more in depth about where I feel then, she fits as both a potential story asset and plot device but also as a characterization tool for Lupin himself and how she fits as part of those traits he has, but I’m trying to write that and have written a few ideas before!

#my asks #lupin iii #lupin the third #keysmash anon

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mirkwoodshewolf · 4 years ago

Text

Family reunion; Sirius Black x daughter teen reader

*Author’s note*

Okay so this is my first Harry Potter fanfic in awhile so if I get anything wrong, I apologize in advance. So this takes place during POA and I know it kinda drags along in some parts but I promise it gets better in some parts. Now idk if I'll make a sequel to this part, maybe with enough encouragement from you guys, maybe I'll get around to writing a part 2 that takes place during Order of the phoenix. But for now please enjoy this oneshot of Sirius Black.

Warnings: Swearing, mild violence, death of parent(s), bit of angst and fluff.

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things

@waddles03

@psychosupernatural

@ixchel-9275

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels

@queen-paladin

@platawnic

__________________________________________________________

If you had told me that when I first walked through the halls of Hogwarts that in my 5th year that I would reunite with my dad, honestly I would believe it. I always believed my father was innocent, even at just 3 years old I remember that night very clearly. Because it wasn’t just the night that my godfather James and god mother Lily were killed, but my mother was also killed that day.

I saw with my own eyes (my mum had borrowed my godfather’s invisibility cloak to hide me) as Peter Pettigrew killed my mother with the ultimate unforgivable curse. I remember crying over her dead body pleading for her to wake up, I remember daddy walking in and seeing us on the floor and him crying alongside me.

I especially remember when he left me at uncle Remus’ place for protection to go hunt Pettigrew only to be framed for murder of not only him but 12 muggles.

Since then my uncle was next in line to take care of me should anything happen to either my parents or godparents (my mum had no other living relatives and my dad wanted to ensure that I had no ties to the Black family tree should the worse happen).

For years I’ve been under my uncle Remus’ care who believed every word the Ministry said about my dad. He didn’t want to but the evidence was stacked against my dad (even though no deep investigation had been made).

Anyways—oh wait I’m getting ahead of myself. I tend to do that a lot. The name’s (Y/n) Lupin-Black, I’m currently a 5th year Hogwarts student in Ravenclaw (my mum’s house). Even though I’m in Ravenclaw I’ve been friends with the Weasley twins Fred and George since our first year when the two of them stole my notes and wouldn’t give it back till I could tell them apart.

Amazingly I did and since then they’ve stuck to me like glue. The three of us do cause a bit of trouble at times (I get my mischievous side from my dad and brains from my mum, according to Gryffindor’s head professor, Professor McGonagall).

I also have an ability that I also inherited from my dad. I am a legal animangus, in fact I’m the youngest animangus the Ministry ever recorded.

It took a lot of hard work and training in order to focus but by my second year I had mastered the ability. My animangus form is a puma, and I’ve used it to help with my uncle’s—condition. In fact that was the reason I wanted to become one.

He was at first against it but with a letter recommendation from Professor McGonagall and my head of house, Professor Flitwick, my uncle had no choice but to allow me to go through it.

Now as a 5th year, things have been—hectic these past few years since Harry Potter came to Hogwarts. The Chamber of Secrets had been opened last year, and we had an incident with a troll, lost 2 DADA professors (but what else is new with that), but this year my uncle is the new professor for that class, and so far according to the Golden trio, everyone loves him.

But back to this story about my dad. This year everyone at Hogwarts was on alert because my dad had escaped from Azkaban, the first ever wizard to ever do such a thing. Now our school was to be housing for the Dementors until my dad was found and captured.

I tried to keep a low profile about it but at nights whenever I helped my uncle out during his ‘wolf-trots’ I would also try to see if I could find my dad.

Then one night it happened.

I was out with uncle Remus but I had lost trace of him through the Forbidden forest. As I walked along in my puma form, my ears soon picked up the sound of barking. Not werewolf barks, they were—dog barks? But why was a dog all the way out here? Dogs are the sort of creatures allowed within a mile of Hogwarts, nor can they get pass the barrier.

I raced on ahead and when I stood over a cliff but lowered myself down behind the rocks. There I saw a scruffy, lean, but massive black dog barking at a few Acromantulas. God I hate those things, I don’t care what Hagrid says, spiders can’t be trusted! And I was right because right now this dog was being attacked by about seven of these things.

As one of them knocked the dog down and pinned it to the ground, ready to bite it and fill it with its venom, I let out a protective roar. The spiders all looked up at me and I leapt down from the cliff and stood protectively in front of the black dog.

With a slash of my paws, I struck one of the spiders across it’s many eyes before biting down on it and tossing it like a paper ball. I then leapt forward and pinned one of the other spiders down. Another one tried to attack me but as it reared upward, the dog suddenly came up and rolled around with the spider.

I bit the head off the one I had pinned before racing across and swiping the legs off another one. Soon realizing that they couldn’t win since a few of their siblings had already fallen, the rest of the spiders retreated back into their burrows and caves. I let out a loud and aggressive roar before turning towards the dog.

We walked towards each other till we stood face to face of one another. As I stared at this dog, something about it was familiar to me. Through the scruffy, madded fur and the very lean body I looked into it’s eyes and if I were back in my human form I would’ve gasped.

This wasn’t any ordinary dog, it—it was him. My dad. Of course this was his animangus form, I remember! All the times he’d chase me around in his dog form when I was little, our nights curled up under the stars whenever mum wasn’t home, it was him!

My ears bent back as I sniffed at him. When he noticed that I wasn’t any ordinary puma, he came up and sniffed around me. He let out a surprised grunt as his ears perked up and his tail went up as it softly began to wag.

I leaned my head up against his letting out a loud, affectionate purr and he nuzzled against my head as well. His paw would reach up and lightly touch the side of my head, almost as if he were embracing me. We continued to nuzzle each other and I knew that if we could both show our human forms, we’d both be weeping hysterically as we’d hug and kiss each other.

But for now, our animangus forms would have to do. As his head rested on my chest, I licked down his neck where I had seen a pretty bad scratch. I licked his wound when we both heard the sound of a werewolf’s howl. Uncle Remus.

We both turned towards the direction of the howl before looking back at each other. Dad gave me a gentle nod. I looked between him and the direction of the howls hesitantly while giving him sad eyes. How could I leave him when I just found him after 12 years. He came up to me and licked my muzzle up to behind my ears. He then backed up and let out a couple of confident yet soft barks.

I nodded and nuzzled him again purring before licking his face affectionately. I backed up and walked to where uncle Remus was but turned back to dad one last time. He let out another bark before I let out a low meow before racing on ahead to find uncle Remus.

That was over a month ago, but here is where our story truly begins. Harry and his friends were slowly starting to piece together the story of my dad and Peter Pettigrew but with some straying doubt from my uncle, Harry still believed that my dad betrayed his parents and sold them to Voldemort.

I myself have tried to get him to see that my father wasn’t a threat but Harry has shut himself away from me. He’s called me practically every name in the book and refuses to listen to me, hell he barely can even stand the sight of me. Ron’s also elected to ignore me and treat me just like the school and the whole wizarding world has treated my dad.

Hermione on the other hand tolerates me just a bit more. She wants to believe what I have to say but due to the 12 long years of ‘evidence’ against my dad, she can’t seem to fully understand why the wizarding community would lie about framing an innocent man.

I sat alone by the Black lake looking up at the gloomy sky and stared out into the still, calm lake. I let out a heavy sigh when I heard a voice behind me.

“You should really started heading back to the castle, it’s almost curfew time.” I turned around and there stood uncle Remus. “And I would hate to give my niece a detention.”

“Please. You couldn’t find it in your heart to ground me for a week when the Weasley twins and I exploded the supply closet in the potions classroom in our second year.”

“Yes but I did give you a stern good lecture about messing with those chemicals.” He sat down beside me on the rocky surface and stared out the lake alongside me. “This reminds me back to my years at school with your father and the rest of my friends. We always snuck out here to this lake for late night swims.”

“Now, now uncle don’t go influencing me. You never know I might just run it by the twins.” I teased.

“(Y/n).” he started in that lecturing manner of his.

“Kidding, kidding. I know of the dangers of this lake.”

“Plus I never approved of us coming here to swim. It was always James and…….” He trailed off.

“Uncle do you really believe dad did what people said he did?” I said as I looked up at him. He sighed deeply and said in a soft manner.

“As much as I want to believe it didn’t happen, I wasn’t there to say it wasn’t your father.”

“But I’ve told you countless times about my mother’s death! I saw with my own eyes who it was that killed her.”

“And I don’t doubt that. But with your godparents and those 12 muggles……your father’s family ties…..”

“Don’t define him! That’s why he made sure to not let anyone of the Black family tree get custody of me! Why he made sure that you were to be my guardian after papa James and mama Lily died!”

“If I‘m being honest he shouldn’t have done it to begin with.”

“Because of your condition?” he went silent. “Uncle……I never cared about that. You were never a monster to me. Why do you think I studied to be an animangus?” he turned to me.

“I’m just thankful you didn’t do the same thing your father did. Going ‘bout it the illegal route.” He cupped the side of my face, “You know Harry’s not the only one with his parent’s appearance.” I smiled solemnly.

“I know. My mother’s face but I have my father’s eyes.” It’s true. Throughout all my life I had been told of people, especially uncle Remus here that I look practically identical to my mother, my eyes however are just like my father’s.

“I wish that she did get to see the women you grew up to be. She would be very proud of you.”

“Sometimes I—fear that I’m starting to forget about her.” I admitted to him. Uncle Remus stroked my hair and allowed me to rest my head on his shoulder as an arm wrapped around me.

“Just think of how you succeeded throughout your schooling. That’s your mother right there. She was far too clever for her own right, even more than me. I’ll even admit that at times I was jealous of her at times.” We both softly laughed.

“I do recall dad telling me some of your little competitions you and mum used to do to prove just who was the most clever. She always beat you.”

“Not at everything!”

“I’m kidding. I know you did beat her at some stuff.” I looked up and saw my uncle looking toward the sky. He almost seemed deep in thought about something. “Uncle? Uncle? Uncle Remus?”

“Hmm? Oh sorry love. But back to the reason why I came here; even though I am your uncle and guardian, I’m still a professor at this school and I order you to get back to the castle.”

“Yes Professor Lupin.” I said as I got up and walked away. However I snuck behind a tree because I wanted to see just where he was going.

If he wanted me to get back to the castle so urgently, why not just take me all the way there himself? What’s he up to? So I quietly followed behind him in my animangus form. Sticking to the shadows and any tall shrub or bush to hide myself from my uncle, I crouched down low behind a rock as he now stood before the Whomping willow tree.

He took out his wand and said a spell which made the tree go still. Once the branches went still, I saw him enter inside a small entrance of the tree and I quickly followed, now phasing back into my normal form.

I noticed that this place now suddenly looked like some sort of shack. It was haunting and creaks and groans were heard all around me. I reached out for my wand but before I could even grab it, I felt something touch my neck and a low, graveled voice said.

“Don’t. Move.” Ahh bollocks!

“Professor Snape.” I said lowly, trying to not be a threat. Yeah much like my dad, Professor Snape pretty much hated me since day one (I’m pretty sure he hates every student that isn’t a Slytherin).

“Sneaking out past curfew, allying in your father’s hiding, I would have the right mind to have you expelled from Hogwarts and have you be taken to Azkaban alongside your fugitive of a father.” Oh man did I really wanna punch him at this point.

“Professor you know he’s—” I felt his wand press harder against my neck as he hissed in my ear.

“It’s your word against the Ministry’s. Now follow me and do as your told.” Knowing I had no other choice, I allowed him to lead me up the stairs where I heard my dad’s voice say.

“Peter Pettigrew. And he’s in this room! Right now!”

“Take your wand out, and if he’s armed, disarm him.” I took my wand out and as my dad was calling out for Peter to come out, I stepped forward and cried out.

“Expelliarmus!” I saw as a wand fell out of my dad’s hand and that’s when my dad turned to me in shock.

“(Y/n)?” he gaped at me.

“(Y/n) what are you doing here?! I thought I told you to go back to the castle!” uncle Remus said.

“You should’ve realized that she’s more like her father in every way. Including disobedience.” Professor Snape soon made himself known as he now aimed his wand at my back, making sure to let my dad see it. “Vengeance is sweet. How I hoped to be the one to catch you.”

“Severus—” my uncle started off. Snape sent him one dirty look and as usual my uncle submitted as Snape hissed out.

“I told Dumbledore you were helping an old friend into the castle and now here’s the proof.”

“Brilliant Snape. Once again you put your keen impenetrating mind to the task, and as usual it comes to the wrong conclusions. Now if you’ll drop your wand and step away from my daughter, Remus and I have unfinished business to attend to!” his wand moved from my back to my throat.

“Give me a reason. I beg you.” He challenged my father.

“Dad.” I pleaded with fearful eyes.

“It’ll be alright darling.” He assured me. His eyes then turned cold as he stared at Snape. “It’s one thing when you put your nose where it doesn’t belong, but when you force others to do your dirty work for you, that’s where I draw the line. If you don’t let my daughter go now, then I will show you a reason why I belong in Azkaban!”

“Sirius don’t be a fool.” Uncle Remus said.

“Well he can’t help it Remus it’s habit.”

“Quiet Sirius!”

“Quiet yourself Remus!”

“Listen to you two quarreling like an old married couple.” Snape said but that’s when dad sassed back at him.

“Why don’t you run along and play with your chemistry set!?” I was then shoved out of the way as Snape now had his wand right at my father’s neck now. I fell to the ground but was quickly brought back up and held in my uncle’s arms.

“I could do it you know. But why deny the Dementors? They’re so longing to see you. Do I detect a flicker of fear? Oh yes, a Dementor’s kiss, one can only imagine what that much be like to endure. It’s said to be unbearable to witness but I’ll do my best.”

“Severus please.” My uncle tried to reason with him again. Once again Snape glared at my uncle and sneered once again.

“After you. Then we can deal with that rebel daughter of his next.” The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife before suddenly Harry called out.

“Expelliarmus!” then Snape went flying back towards an old rotten bed which collapsed right on him.

“Harry what did you just do?” asked Ron.

“You attacked a teacher!” Hermione exclaimed.

“Tell me about Peter Pettigrew.” Harry demanded as he pointed his wand at my uncle and I.

“He was an old school friend of theirs.” I answered him.

“No. Pettigrew’s dead. You killed him!” Harry said as he now pointed his want towards my dad.

“No he didn’t. I thought he was too till you mentioned seeing Pettigrew on the map.” Uncle Remus said.

“The map was lying then!” Harry argued.

“The map never lies! Pettigrew’s alive! And he’s right there!” my dad said before pointing towards Ron.

“Me? He’s mental!”

“Not you Ron! Your rat!” I told him.

“Scabbers? But he’s been in my family for—”

“12 years?! Curious long life for a common garden rat. He’s missing a toe isn’t he?”

“So what?” demanded Ron.

“All they could find of Pettigrew was his……” Harry started off.

“Finger.” Both my dad and I said. The two of us looked at each other and softly smiled before my dad continued.

“The dirty coward cut it off so that everyone would think he was dead. And then he transformed into a rat!”

“Show me.” Harry ordered. At this point my dad went to grab Ron’s rat but of course he refused to let go. Once he managed to get Pettigrew out of Ron’s grip, Ron pleaded for my dad to leave Scabbers alone. Hermione and I held him back so that my dad and uncle could finish the job.

Unfortunately Pettigrew was too fast for them to get a good shot to change him back. So I quickly whipped out my wand and right as the rat went for a hole in the wall, I shot the spell and he soon morphed, for the first time in over 12 years, back into the stout, pudgy man that killed my mother.

My dad and uncle pulled him out of the wall and for the first time, Harry, Ron and Hermione saw Peter Pettigrew, the real man behind my father’s framed crime and the person responsible for Harry’s parent’s death and my mother’s killer.

“Remus…….S-Si-Sirius? My old friends.” Pettigrew praised before trying to make an escape for it, but they wouldn’t have it. When his eyes soon lay on me, I felt my blood boil. “Ohh little (Y/n). So much like your mother, and with your father’s eyes. You remember me right? Your old uncle Pete—” as he came closer to me, I allowed my puma claws to come out as I scratched him across the face. He whimpered as blood now began to seep down his face.

“You have no right to talk to me!” I growled at him. “I saw what you did that night! I WAS THERE YOU BASTARD!! YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!!” this time Ron and Hermione had to be the ones to hold me back from tearing that rat apart.

He shielded away from me in fear before turning to Harry who was just stunned in shock.

“Harry, look at you. You look so much like your father. Like James. We were best friends you know……”

“How dare you speak to Harry!” my dad hissed protectively. “How dare you talk about James in front of him!” soon the two of them had Pettigrew pinned by the piano, their wands at the ready.

“You sold James and Lily to Voldemort didn’t you!?” my uncle demanded.

“I didn’t mean to.” Wept the rat man pathetically. He then began to go off on a ramble of how Voldemort was powerful and had weapons we had no idea he possessed. “What would you have done Sirius? What would you have done?”

“I would’ve died! I would’ve died rather than betray my friends or the woman I love!” my dad exclaimed as Peter tried to make his escape. Harry blocked his escape but Peter whispered into his ear about something.

Finally I decided to step in and I pulled the rat away from my godbrother and aimed my wand at him. Without even hesitating my father and uncle joined at my side and I said.

“Then you should know uncle. That if the Dark Lord didn’t kill you, then we will!”

“No wait!” Harry exclaimed. My breathing sharpened as I said.

“Harry, this bastard……”

“I know what he is (Y/n). But we’ll take him to the castle. Together.” He placed his hand on top of mine and he softly whispered, “Would you mother want this?” I looked at him, tears starting to form in my eyes.

I turned back to Pettigrew who was now on his knees praising Harry for his mercy.

“Bless you boy. Bless you sweet boy.”

“Get off!” Harry snapped. “I said we’d take you back to the castle. Afterwards the Dementors can have you.” oh now this I like. The traitor’s face turned from pure bliss to absolute horror as he fidgeted fearfully trying to make himself smaller.

After leaving the Shrieking Shack and exited out of the Whomping Willow, I watched as my dad walked ahead and stood to look up at the school.

I looked to Harry and gave him a soft nod. His eyes showed hesitation but with a gentle shove he walked towards my father and I watched as the two of the proceed to talk with each other.

“You knew he was innocent?” Hermione said to me.

“Yes, I did. As I said back there it wasn’t just uncle James and Aunt Lily that died because of Peter. I was there to see my mother die right before my eyes. She had the invisibility cloak at the time, probably stole it from uncle James just to spite him or something. But she hid me with it and I saw as Peter came in and killed her with the last of the unforgivable curses.”

“I’m so sorry (Y/n). To think you had to see something like that.”

“We’re sorry we’ve been wankers to you about this (Y/n). Harry and I especially, can you forgive us?” Ron said. I softly smiled and ruffled his hair.

“There’s nothing to forgive Weasley. Although you’re gonna have to do a lot of kissing up to your brothers Fred and George. They’ve been wanting to slug you for your behavior towards me.”

Then something happened that I wished never did. The clouds slowly began to move away to reveal the full moon. Oh no!

“Uncle Remus!” I exclaimed but it was too late. He was starting to transform into his werewolf form.

My dad quickly ran up to him trying to hold his transformation back, but it was no use. The agonizing groans and screams coming out of my uncle as his bones snapped and broke before changing and morphing to fit his upcoming werewolf body. And to make matters worse, Pettigrew seized that opportunity to escape from our grasp.

Even though Harry disarmed him with an Expelliarmus spell, it still didn’t stop the rat from turning into true form before making his escape. My dad knowing he couldn’t hold uncle Remus any longer told us to run.

Soon my dad was thrown down the hill and I exclaimed out.

“DAD!!” I quickly ran towards uncle Remus hoping I could knock some sense into him before his final transformation came around. “Uncle Remus you can fight it! The monster does not control you, you control it! Fight it! Think harder on your human senses!”

Just like my father, I too was sent down towards the hill as the last thing I heard was the sound of my uncle’s werewolf howl.

When I opened my eyes, I saw myself in Madam Pomfrey’s nursing wing.

“(Y/n), oh thank goodness you’re awake. Can you stand up?” Hermione’s voice said over me. My vision finally came back and I said.

“What happened?”

“There’s not a lot of time to explain (Y/n) but your dad’s in serious danger. The Dementors are going to suck his soul.”

“What!?” I said fearfully as I shot up. “They can’t do that. He’s innocent!”

“Which is why I need to ask if you can stand and walk?”

“Yeah I can but why?” she pulled me up from my bed over to Harry who stood at the center of the room.

“Sorry Ronald but you can’t walk.” She then took a necklace out from her shirt and placed the chain around Harry and I before holding out what looked like a mini-hourglass.

The pendent began to spin around and soon right before our very eyes, the world around us seemed to go backwards. Night turned into the gloomy afternoon once more as the medical wing was now abandoned and Hermione stopped the pendant’s spinning and she said as she took the chain off of mine and Harry’s neck and tucked it back into her shirt.

“Where were we at this hour Harry?”

“Uhh going to Hagrid’s I think.”

“And (Y/n) where were you at this time?”

“I was down at the Black Lake with uncle Remus, why?”

“Alright come on!” she took off running. Harry and I ran after her confused asking her just what was going on.

That’s when she explained to us about the time turner necklace she had been given by Professor McGonagall, and she explained to Harry that that was how she was able to do all her classes this term.

So throughout the day we went down to Hagrid’s and I even got to see Hermione sucker punch Malfoy right in the nose (which I praised her on). We went down to Hagrid’s hut and we made our plan to save Buckbeak the Hippogriff (apparently Professor Dumbledore said that more than one life could be spared today).

As the day went on, it was nearly time to try and save my dad. So we sat just down the hill from the Whomping Willow. We watched as uncle Remus came in and made the tree stop it’s swaying for a brief moment before entering inside, followed by me shortly after him.

“Wait you’re also an animangus?” Harry asked me.

“Surprised?” I asked him.

“When did you become one?” asked Hermione.

“I was roughly around your age when I took my test before the Wizard council to get my official license. They said I was the youngest registered animangus there ever was.” I looked up and said, “And there goes Snape. Right in after me.”

The two young teens turned and saw that Snape did go in shortly after me.

“Now we wait I guess.” Harry said. We all made ourselves comfortable because we knew it would be awhile before we all left the Shrieking shack and came back before the Whomping Willow.

Then after seeing us come out, I watched as Harry went down to talk to my dad and that’s when he told me.

“You see me there talking to Sirius? He had just asked me to come live with him, you as well (Y/n). He talked about you and your mother a lot. As well as my parents.”

“I know. They were really good friends Harry. Even at just 3 years old, I knew my dad would never have betrayed yours. Never, not even if he were tortured. That’s why he named your parents my godparents.”

“I guess we were meant to be siblings either way.” I softly grinned at him and ruffled his hair before pushing his glasses back up his nose.

“I remember be so excited to have a younger ‘sibling’. Though I’ll admit I wanted you to be a girl, but you eventually grew on me.” Hermione giggled while Harry turned away embarrassedly.

Then that’s when the trouble began. We saw uncle Remus transform into his werewolf form, the fight between him and my dad (who was in his animangus form), and then even be chased by him when Hermione howled to stop him from attacking Harry.

I phased into my animangus form to protect Hermione and Harry in case my uncle came around to find us. When he did, I stood protectively in front of my brother and Hermione snarling and roaring at him. But before we could charge at each other, Buckbeak had came in and fought my uncle off.

Man poor uncle Remus is having a really rough night. I then felt a coldness in the air and when we looked up we saw the Dementors flying towards where my dad must’ve been at after the fight with uncle Remus.

I gestured for Hermione and Harry to get on my back and once they were on, I raced on ahead and we stopped across the frozen lake and we all watched with horror as the Dementors began to suck out both Harry’s and my dad’s souls.

“Now just wait Hermione, my dad will come. He’ll be standing right there.” Harry said as he got off my back and walked a few steps ahead of us. Hermione and I looked at each other sympathetically and she got off my back as well and stood beside him.

“Harry—your dad’s…….”

“Dead I know but just watch. He’ll cast the Patronus right there. Just like he did before.” We waited and waited but all we saw were my dad and Harry dying right before our eyes.

“You’re dying Harry. Both of you.” I said as I morphed back into my normal form. God I had heard of witnessing a Dementor’s kiss is something awful but—god this was torture. I wanted to step in and save my dad and Harry from the Dementors but what could I do? I’m not strong enough to conjure a Patronus charm, plus I would be outnumbered even if I tried any other spell I could name.

Next thing I saw was Harry racing forward to the spot where he said his dad was standing at.

“Harry!” Hermione called out but I wrapped my arms around her to stop her from racing towards him and that’s when we saw him lift up his wand and exclaim.

“EXPECTO PATRONUM!” Soon a bright light came from out of his wand and a bright wave of light shot out, which sent all the dementors away, saving Harry and my father from a terrible fate.

As I stared at my godbrother, I couldn’t be more proud of him. Not even I was able to conjure up a spell like that at his age, hell I can barely do it now. He truly was a gifted young man, and I couldn’t be more proud of him.

After saving himself, we were now flying on Buckbeak heading for the highest tower where my dad was being kept. I was sitting right behind Hermione while she was terrifyingly holding onto Harry for dear life.

“You were right Hermione. It wasn’t my dad I saw earlier. It was me! I saw myself conjured the Patronus before. I knew I could do it this time because—well I’d already done it. Does that make sense?”

“No! But I don’t like fly-AHHH!!!” She screamed as Buckbeak took a dive down towards the school, while Harry and I were cheering our heads off.

When we reached the tower, there we saw locked up in a cage, my dad looking forlorn as he awaited his fate. He quickly turned to us and I took out my wand and pointed it at the lock as I proclaimed out.

“Alohomora!” the doors unlocked and swung wide open. “C’mon dad, we’re busting you out of here.” I extended my hand out to him and he immediately took my hand.

The four of us now flying on Buckbeak with Hermione up front, me behind her then my dad and Harry.

And for the first time in 12 years, my dad finally felt free as a Hippogriff flying high in the sky. Never have I heard him sound so happy and it brought a smile to my face as I heard him cheering.

We landed in the garden wing of the school and as my dad helped Hermione as well as me off of Buckbeak he said as we walked towards the corner of the garden.

“I’ll be forever be grateful for this. To the three of you.”

“I want to go with you.” said Harry.

“One day perhaps. For some time my life will be too unpredictable. Besides, you’re meant to be here.”

“But you’re innocent.”

“And you know it Harry.” I told him. “Just like I’ve always known.”

“She’s right. And for now that’ll do.” As Hermione left the three of us to have our little family moment, my dad then turned towards me. He stood before me and gently cupped each side of my face. His calloused thumbs stroking my cheeks as he said to me, “I expect like Harry you might be tired of hearing this, but you are a splitting image of your mother. Except your eyes, you have……”

“Your eyes.” I finished for him. Tears flickered in my eyes but I tried to hold them back. “I’ve only dreamed of something like this happening, and—even now I fear this still feels like a dream.”

“I’ve told you once when you were little; Dreams can feel like many things. Whether to make us feel happy or afraid, but in dreams you can never feel what is happening to you. So this, right here, is real my darling kitten.”

He took my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. When I felt it, I knew that this was real. My dad was free, he was here, and he was right in front of me. I embraced him as tightly as I could, burying myself into the ragged cloth of his prison uniform. Slowly a few tears dripped from my eyes one by one as I felt my dad embrace me back just as tightly while rocking me from side to side.

“I’ve missed you so much dad.”

“Not as much as I’ve missed you. I’ve missed so much of your life. You were just a little girl when I was taken away and now I’ve seen you’ve become a beautiful young woman, just like I’d hope you’d be. Your mum would be so proud. Just as I am. I’m so sorry I put you through this.”

“I know why you did it dad. If I were older I would’ve done the same thing. I just……wish none of this had to happen.”

“As do I kitten. As do I. There hasn’t been a day that I don’t regret leaving you like I did. I made you lose both your parents.”

“That’s another thing I’ve inherited from you.” he looked at me confused. “Uncle Remus has always said I did get your stubbornness.” He softly chuckled before grabbing the back of my head and pressing his forehead against mine.

We stayed in that position for what felt like forever till he pressed a kiss to the center of my forehead before he guided me over to sit next to Harry. He knelt down before the both of us as he said to us.

“It’s cruel that I got so much time with James, Lily and (m/n) and you both so little. But know this. The ones that love us never really leave us. And you both can always find them,” he then placed his left hand over Harry’s heart while his right hand pointed towards mine, “In here.”

Dad stood up and walked over to Buckbeak and mounted on top of his back once again, gently gripping onto the chained reins. As Harry and I came up and stood beside Hermione, my dad complimented to her that she was indeed a bright witch for her age.

Buckbeak then reared as he let out a proud roar before taking off running before flapping his proud wings and taking off high towards the moon with my dad on his back.

Two souls finally free from the law.

The clock tower began to gong loudly and that’s when Hermine told us we needed to get back to the hospital wing. We quickly raced towards the medical wing before the last strike of the belltower.

We saw Professor Dumbledore with his back towards us as he peeked through the doors before closing them.

“Well?” he asked us.

“We did it. They’re free.” Harry said.

“Did what? Goodnight.” The headmaster gave us a wave before descending down the stairs. Oh that crazy old man. The three of us walked towards the door but before we went in, we had to watch ourselves disappear to start the whole rescue all over again. Once we disappeared, that’s when we came in the room.

“How did you get there? You were just over there. And now you’re there!” Ron said to us in shock.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Ronald? Do you Harry? (Y/n)?”

“No clue. Maybe you should have your head examined Ronny, think you might be going mental.” I teased.

“Yeah Ron. How can people be in two places at once?” Harry joked alongside me.

Things after that were pretty crazy. After it had been leaked out about my uncle’s condition (damn you Snape!) my uncle resigned as professor at Hogwarts, Harry had gotten the new firebolt broom (curtesy of my dad) and he got to test it out.

I was in my bedroom just finishing the last bit of my packing to return home for the summer when my owl Arella came flying in. Her familiar grey and white feathers ruffled as she landed on her perch and she made her trilling sound.

“What have you have there, girl?” I noticed she had a small jewelry box tied to her back along with a note in her beak. I took the note then untied the box from her back as she shook herself out and ruffled her feathers.

I set the box down and opened up the note and inside was a letter written in my dad’s hand writing.

My beloved kitten,

This once belonged to your mother (I gave it to her just shortly after you were born) and I figured she would want you to have it. Keep it close to your heart and her memory will never leave you.

Your father,

Sirius Black

I set the note down and opened up the box now and inside was a necklace. It was a silver heart-shaped locket and I noticed a little button at the side of it. I pressed down on it and it opened up to reveal something that not only broke my heart, but also filled it with joy.

The moving picture inside was my mother holding me as a baby. Her wide smile as she held me in her arms, her eyes filled with nothing but love. When she looked up and her smile softened, I really did get to see what my uncle and dad were talking about.

I really did look like my mother. Same hair, same mouth, same face, almost everything was of my mother. A single tear fell down my cheek as I kissed the picture and held it close to my heart.

Soon I began to get brief flashbacks of various moments with my mother. I remember how she’d always sing me to sleep while having the windchimes of various creatures softly ring above me. The way she’d make breakfast, and how we’d play together at papa James and mama Lilly’s place.

I unhooked the chain and placed it around my neck and saw as the heart shaped locket actually rested against my own heart.

“Thanks dad. And thank you mum. I miss you, but you can rest easy now. Dad’s free.” I said as I stared up at the sky holding the locket closer against my heart.

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writesowhatnext · 4 years ago

Text

the human world, it’s a mess // remus lupin

Summary: reader is part-mermaid and their boyfriend, Remus’, friends are all-stupid

Request: yooo what about a remus lupin imagine with a hufflepuff reader and maybe she’s half mermaid and they prank her by throwing water at her because she always avoids contact with rain and such and she just gets angry at them and avoids them for a week and as fluffy as it can be please, hope you have a wonderful day!

A/N: this is so far from what I would usually write but I actually enjoyed it so much so I hope it’s okay :))

Reader: unspecified, half-mermaid

Warnings: bullying (sort of?), swearing

Remus was not unobservant by any means; he had definitely noticed that you never went out in the rain. He had also noticed your aversion to the Black Lake and even your absolute hatred for snow, even though he’d often see you looking out of one of the large bay windows of Hogwarts, gushing about its beauty.

“Why don’t you ever go out there?” he asked one day, settling his hands either side of you on the window frame, his chest against your back as you looked over at the snowy landscape. You smiled at the feeling of his lips against your neck, pressing sweet kisses to the skin above your collar.

“I can’t,” you said simply, turning around and wrapping your arms around his neck, playing with the longer strands of hair at his nape.

“And why’s that?”

You pursed your lips, admiring his quizzical expression as you pushed some of the hair from the front of his face.

“Because I’m half-mermaid,” you said before a frown hunched your brow. “Merperson.”

Remus stared at you for a moment, not fully convinced that you weren’t having him on. You noticed his confused head tilt and laughed, cupping your hands around his neck and ghosting your thumbs over his cheekbones.

“Dad was a wizard. Mum was a mermaid; typical star-crossed lovers… I don’t ask about the specifics, mind.”

He snorted quietly at your words before pressing a light peck to your lips.

“That would explain why you’re so radiant, wouldn’t it, love?”

You only smiled, which, in his mind, only further solidified his firm belief that you were the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

Many people knew about your parentage, it was hardly a secret. You never hesitated to tell them about your parents falling in love despite the rocky history between mermaids and wizards, finding the whole ordeal quite romantic. People were always confused, at first, because some had seen or seen pictures of the mermaids in the Black Lake, and, perhaps fairly, couldn’t understand the appeal of a demonic fish. You thought it was a shame, though, that nobody ever learnt about freshwater mermaids in Care of Magical Creatures; if they did, you were sure you’d have much fewer questions to answer about your Father’s mental state. Despite the weird looks you sometimes received, and the occasional joke thrown your way from Slytherins trying to rile up a Hufflepuff, you never kept it a secret: it was part of who you are and you’d never doubted that decision until the incident by the lake.

Really, you were only there because Remus had begged you to come. You’d been busy all week with prefect business and he’d missed you terribly, eager to see you whenever he could. He and his friends were hanging around by the edge of the lake, basking in the rays and splashing around in the water. You made sure to stay as far away from the water as possible as you lay on the grass, a couple feet from Remus and Lily. Being in a different house, you didn’t see too much of his friends. Peter, you liked because he was always keen to help you in Herbology, a subject you sometimes struggled with thanks to Remus’ little whispers and kisses and fleeting touches distracting you. You didn’t know James or Sirius that well, a little wary of their reputations, but Lily was actually a close friend, or so she’d become since you and Remus started dating. She was always kind to you, and extremely funny, especially when it came down to turning down James’ many advances.

The day was lovely at first and you found yourself feeling foolish for avoiding the lake so stringently; it was going perfectly fine. The sun was shining, there was laughter in the air and you were with your favourite person in the world. It seemed perfect.

Too wrapped up in your book on World War One (an assignment from Muggle Studies), you barely noticed Sirius and James’ splashing grow quiet. Remus was reading his own book, lying on his stomach with his elbows denting the grass by your knees. He looked lovely in the sunshine, the light warming up his hair and skin. You wondered absentmindedly whether he’d ever want to cut his hair short, hoping he wouldn’t. You had somewhat of a personal attachment given the number of times you’d run your hands through it. You only tore your eyes away from him when you saw Sirius and James running towards you with a large bucket. A very large bucket. A frown creased between your brows as you sat up.

“Where did you get that-“ you began, before icy cold water lapped at your skin, clinging to your hair and drowning the book in your hands. You froze, too in shock to do much but blink up at the laughing boys.

“Excellent stuff,” James snickered, pushing Sirius playfully. Your cheeks heated up in embarassment.

A shiver flooded though you before you felt a pulling at the skin under your ear and your right hand slapped against your neck, dropping your book as you tried to process what was happening. Remus was staring at you, as was Peter. It felt like the whole school was watching you, though, as you rushed to your feet. You could barely hear Lily shouting at James and Sirius, too focused on the way your left arm, drenched with water, began to shine iridescently in the light, perfectly shaped scales appearing. You moved your hand to cover it, stumbling backwards slightly at an attempt to hide. Your neck stung for a second as the air hit the newly formed gills and you found yourself swallowing hard, not quite believing this was actually happening. Remus stood up, only looking at you, his mouth wide open and hand outstretched and for the first time ever, you felt ashamed of who you were. Embarrassed. As tears began to fill your eyes, you looked at him one last time before turning on your heel and sprinting into the castle, desperate to be anywhere but there.

You were sad, actually, and more than disappointed that Remus hadn’t come to find you. Albeit, you’d been avoiding him for days, but you couldn’t shake the feeling that he was disgusted by you, by what had happened, and all of your friends noticed the toll it took on you. Even the sunny atmosphere of the Hufflepuff common room did little to improve your mood; you spent most of the time between lessons hiding under your bedsheets and avoiding not only Remus, but the world.

When you heard the knock at your door, you sighed, not in the mood for conversation or food that the kitchens were serving for dinner.

“Go without me,” you insisted to your friend, sighing loudly. “I’m not hungry.”

You turned over, throwing the sheets over your head and snuggling into your pillow, hoping the world would leave you alone for a little bit.

The door opened quietly and you frowned, turning over, about to speak when you saw Remus, standing there bashfully with flowers and a basket full to the brim with chocolates and other delightful things you couldn’t quite make out. Your mouth dropped open as he stared at you, shutting the door with his foot. You swallowed, hands bunching nervously in the sheets under your arms.

“What’s that?” you asked quietly, nodding towards the basket.

“An apology from Sirius and James,” he said, dropping it next to him before fishing out your book, now dry, from his robes and placing it on top. You were pleasantly surprised that they cared enough to apologise, and rather touched. He stepped closer and your eyes trailed to the bright yellow sunflowers in his other hand.

“And those?”

“An apology from me,” he said, huffing as he sat on your bed, right next to your feet. His close proximity hit you hard as you suddenly realised how much you’d missed him.

He looked down, frowning, before turning to you and placing the flowers on your bedside table. You followed his hands, not yet ready to deal with whatever emotion would be lurking in his golden eyes.

“Sweetheart, please look at me.”

His voice was soft and all your resolve melted away at his tone, your eyes meeting his immediately. Something stirred within you at his desperate expression and, as if seeing your face was all he really needed to draw him out, without a moment’s hesitation, he erupted into a flurry of words.

“I’m so sorry they did that, love, they’re such gits sometimes and I promise you I had a go at them for it – and so I should have! They never should’ve done that to you and I promise they wouldn’t have if they’d known how much it would’ve hurt you; they’re arseholes sometimes, but they’d never really want to hurt anyone, especially you. And I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner to see you, I thought I was doing the right thing by giving you space, but then Lily said I was being a moron which, well, I didn’t realise, obviously, and she said that even James would’ve known that that was a shit idea and-“

He stopped speaking when you giggled, a cheerful sound that made his chest ached with how much he’d longed to hear it. You couldn’t help but laugh again at his surprise and slowly, you reached over to him and placed your hand over his on the bed, squeezing it lightly.

“It’s okay,” you whispered, leaning forward onto your knees so you were closer to him. Ever so gently, you leant over him, pressing a soft kiss to his lips, relishing in the way his eyes fluttered shut at the contact.

“I’m sorry too,” you said, tucking your hair behind your ear and biting your lip as his hand grasped yours and his thumb began to rub circles on the back of it. “I shouldn’t have run off, it just scared me so much and I thought you would hate me or think I was gross or weird-“

“What?”

You were caught off guard by the harshness of his voice. He must’ve noticed the surprise in your eyes and he shook his head, his other hand reaching up to pull the back of your neck towards him so he could rest his forehead on yours.

“You, you’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met.”

A lump formed in your throat at his earnest words and you blinked as he let go of your hand so he could use both to cup your face.

“And I love every single thing about you. And I’m sorry I saw you when you didn’t want me to, but even drenched in water, I loved everything about you.”

You smiled widely and he felt his heart stop for a second. Without another word, he sighed and pulled away, kicking his shoes off and crawling over the bed. You followed him, leaning back so that he could move under the covers, watching him almost tentatively.

“How could I not?” he whispered, throwing his arm around your waist as you lay down next to him, pulling you into his chest and pressing a feather-light kiss to your neck.

“Even the gills?” you said, only half-joking as he chuckled into the skin of your neck where his head was burrowed.

“Even the gills.”

His nipped at your neck lightly with his teeth, enjoying the sound of your laughter at the sensation, cherishing the feeling of his arms wrapped around you, holding you close to him.

harry potter tag list:

@creator-appreciator

@loveisblindness

@decadentwastelandtrash

@xinyourdreamsx

@brainlesspasta

@hariosborn

@rexorangecouny

@staringmoony

#remus lupin #Remus Lupin x reader #Remus Lupin imagine #marauders imagine #Harry Potter imagine #harry potter #writing #imagine

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babyrosegold · 3 years ago

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having my annual halloween/fall reemergence into the wizarding world and there’s something that’s always bothered me that I fully realized the extent of this time around... about remus lupin and how harry is placed with the dursleys after everything went sideways in the first war so if you don’t want to feel pain, keep scrolling.

first, we all know based on the relationship that the marauders had and the deteriorated relationship lily had with her sister that the potters would’ve wanted harry to grow up in a caring and loving household (which was clearly established to not be the dursleys, given lily distancing herself from them and mcgonagall’s observations). obviously sirius would’ve been the first choice being godfather and all, but that is eliminated due to the chain of events with peter, which is a whole separate issue that could’ve been avoided. but since that did happen, why would those that were close to the potters and understood the situation (ahem dumbledore, mcgonagall, moody, etc) not fully shift to remus lupin becoming harry’s guardian??? it’s not as if that would have been hard to accomplish considering the dursleys wanted no part of the potters lives anyways. it’s actually downright disrespectful to remus as well as lily and james and here’s why.

second, despite dumbledore knowing that remus lupin is a good man and repeatedly reinforcing this belief to him, he basically walks back on all his affirmations that remus isn’t inherently dangerous and implies he has no confidence in remus, taking the opposite course of action by placing harry with the dursleys. remus was close with both james and lily so he likely would’ve known all about the strained relationship between them. so dumbledore let remus, who has always had doubts about his ability to be a force for good, join the order and proceeded to use his condition to dumbledore’s advantage, which of course was necessary to the fight, but then considered him unfit to have a crucial role in his best friends’ son’s life. no doubt remus was a mess dealing with the aftermath of losing james, lily, and peter, and sirius’ betrayal (he thought at the time). but instead of offering to help remus, he deems him entirely incapable of ever being a good guardian for harry. he’s spent so much time building up remus’ confidence, and based on context was in a great place while part of the order, just to shatter it.

of course this seems to have a lot to do with the fact that harry’s suffering growing up would have been minimal compared to what he got by being placed with the dursleys. dumbledore basically decides it wouldn’t be enough to grow up with a werewolf as a father figure, which probably would’ve developed empathetic and caring traits, instead placing him with a family that would harbor resentment and vengeance within him. living with remus was absolutely possible with help from others, during full moons and such, because people like mcgonagall or the weasleys or others familiar with the order would’ve been happy to help out. and since dumbledore had established trust in snape, he could’ve ensured potion for remus was always available. growing up with remus would’ve been hard but in a very different way. but it would have been more loving and fulfilling, supporting harry’s development as a human being which is what james and lily would have wanted. but dumbledore wanted to keep harry vulnerable and easily influenced, not hesitating to disrespect james and lily’s wishes to do things the way he thought was the best course of action.

instead dumbledore lets remus live with the belief that he should be isolated from his best friends’ son and many others by extension. when it came down to it dumbledore acted selfishly and threw remus under the bus when he could’ve given him a reason to keep trying to be better. the entire time dumbledore knew remus lupin he was emotionally manipulating him. giving him support so that he could attend hogwarts, encouraging him to join the order, just to completely abandon him right after he lost everyone close to him. then he had the audacity to seek remus out when it benefited him and a position needed to be filled at hogwarts (conveniently when sirius had escaped azkaban). it seems he never wanted to give remus a position to reinforce his belief in his abilities because he hired gilderoy freaking lockhart before him, who dumbledore had to have known was immensely unqualified. he took shots at remus’ self worth even when he wasn’t directly doing it. and it had lasting effects on remus (i.e. having a literal panic attack and running off for a hot second when tonks is pregnant). I’m just thinking about how much would’ve been different if remus and harry had gotten the chance to have that family bond with each other after all the awful things that happened in the first war. and dumbledore completely prevented it.

anyways this is a remus lupin defense post and an albus dumbledore slander post. the potters and my mans moony deserved so much better. thank you and goodnight.

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urupotter · 4 years ago

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Fic review: The Long Road Home

By Penelope Muir

This is probably the longest fanfiction I’ve ever read, sitting at a ginormous 861k+ words. With some stories such a high word count would make me wary of filler, yet that is absolutely not the case here. This is a fic where every word adds something to the story. Some spoilers will appear in this review, so read at your own peril.

The story is a snily AU where the point of divergencd is Voldemort chose the Longbottoms, and Neville became the boy who lived, and Bellatrix Lestrange tortured James Potter into insanity. Also Regulus lived through his attempt to take down the Horcrux (I don’t quite remember how this happened).

The story’s main strength is the time it takes with each of its characters. A big flaw of many snily stories is that they try to gloss over Lily’s relationship with James. Not so here. Lily loved James, and she spends a long time grieving him and trying to find a solution to his mental health. Letting go of James is something that Lily finds extremely difficult and takes her years, and even puts strain on her other relationships. It makes the moment when she finally lets go all the more touching and realistic, and makes it her subsequent relationship with Snape all that more powerful and realistic.

Lily is a very interesting character in this story. Her main character flaw is to pursue her desires with little consern for the consequences. This tends to bits her in the ass over time, and makes her feel human and flawed.

This Snape might feel OOC in that he is too nice, yet this is completely understandable. Canon Snape was utterly full of self loathing and guilt. While this Snape is still guilty over his tiem as a Death Eater, he is not as guilty due to not having caused Lily’s death, and the characteristic self loathing is understandably missing. So him being nicer makes sense, and it would actua be a flaw if he wasn’t

Sirius Black and Remus Lupin are also incredibly important characters, having bonded with Lily on grief over James state. Sirius steps into James role as Harry’s father figure and Lily’s protector, as he had once promised James he would, should the worst happen. Sirius relationship with Harry is wonderful. It’s honestly among my favorite parts of the fic. He loves Harry with all his heart, and Harry loves him. He is Harry’s role model, like he was in canon, but in a much much healthier way, due to not having been destroyed by Azkaban. He truly becomes the man he had the potential to be. Remus is also entertaining, constantly providing kindess and advice which no one ever listens to (lol). His relationship with Sirius is very strained, due to Sirius having suspected him of being the spy during the war, and how they patch things up is interesting to read.

Other vital pieces where Regulus Black, and Penelope’s two main OC’s, his son Malachi, and Julia Bradbury, his main love interest in this story. The Regulus characterization is great in this story. His inner pain which he hides under a veneer of charm and humour, his guilt and self loathing which he struggles to let go. I enjoyed his character arc a whole lot. Malachi was another character I loved. His struggles with defining his identity separately from his father, his relationship with his father’s past and ideas, developing his own identity and belief, even when in conflict with Regulus, where great.

The prose is good. Nothing out of this world, but it works for the story, and I only remember one time where I felt that something was phrased awkwardly (which for 861k words is great!)

I do have some criticisms

Julia, on the other hand, I found rather... dull. There was no struggle or conflict that she was involved in that I found interesting, and her parts where the parts I least enjoyed.

Eugene Hopkins, one of the villians, while interesting, could have been executed better. He seemed wierdly fixated on Regulus Black, seeming to hate him even more than he hated Voldemort. His whole philosophy of revenge without the possibility of forgiveness would have been much more powerful if he had applied it to every single death eater. If he had compromised with Regulus to defeat Voldemort, and after that had tried to kill him, while he would have still remained a villian, he would have been much more sympathetic.

Another slight criticism I have is that Voldemorts return was kind of unexpected. An occasional Wormtail pov could have added tension, and made it so that Voldemort’s return didn’t feel like it came out of nowhere.

Finally, while not really a criticism per se as I understand why she didn’t take the story in the following direction, there was still a decision that I wish she would have taken. There is a moment where the possibility of James being cured is raised. This doesn’t end up happening, and I rather wish it had. It had all the basis for an amazing character arc. James waking up as a 21 year old in a body in his thirties. Having to live in a world that has moved on, struggling to reconnect with a son who never knew him. With a wife who has moved on, with Severus Snape of all people. Having to move on himself, and perhaps find new love. Expected to be as mature as a man in his prime, while mentaly being 21. It could have been amazing. I understand why she didn’t do it. It would have been too much to juggle, and probably 150k words or more would have be added to the story to do the character arc justice, and the story was already absurdly long as is. Better to not do it at all than risk messing it up. Still, it could make an interesting AU of an AU to explore later.(wink wink nudge nudge).

All in all, I heartily recommend this fic. It’s great fun, and has some amazing characterization that I feel everyone can enjoy. It’s also absurdly long, which is a big plus for those who are starved for content.

The story is completed and can be found on fanfiction.net or Ao3 the links on @penelopemuir blog.

#harry potter #hp #fic review #hp fanfic #penelopemuir #the long road home #severus snape #lily evans #snily #sirius black #regulus black

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sorenskyhigh · 4 years ago

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Heyyy! I saw you take requests! Imagine: werewolfves, vampires, winged humans and other fantasy/mythological creatures exist (Dungen&dragon races maybe?), What would your favorite Karasuno character(s) be? And, already a happy new year! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧

Happy New Year!🎉🎆 I think I'm gonna do all of Karasuno bc they all deserve love and I just love all the Haikyuu characters!!!!! And thank you for putting in a request this is my first!!!!!! Wooohoo!!

Karasuno as D&D

(Or what I think they would be)

Daichi Sawamura

When I think of Daichi I think of a very stout, hardy person.

I know he's 176 or so cm but he's very built and in personality and physical build, sturdy

I also see him very hardworking

Daichi seems very dependable but in a chaotic way

Like he really wants to help but he also simultaneously has NO idea what he's doing

But also I can see him loving the world, people, and animals and nature

A protector but maybe a slight loner or the leader of a group, no inbetween

I honestly think he would be either a Dwarf (the only problem I have with this one is is that I don't view Daichi as a materialistic person like a Dwarf to want gold everything and whatnot) or a Firebolg

I feel either of these could fit him since they are very hardworking and sturdy people. But I lean toward firebolgs more since they are kinda calmer natural people if that makes sense??????

Daichi by no means is a calm and just no worries kind of guy but, I feel like he does have a slow and steady wins the race

Daichi is wise and strong and could live a calm and natural life like a Firebolg

Living with the animals and helping them but also living with a tribe of his people

Koushi Sugawara

I look at Suga as a very loving person that in his own chaotic way tries to help everybody

A mom friend if you will

I also see him getting close with few people a being very ride or die

He also seems a bit like a home body, like he enjoys staying home and being comfortable

Thats why I chose either a Gnome or Hafling

Gnomes are of a tight knit community and are very enthusiastic about life. Learning and building what they can

Building things to help their community and ending the day with a well earned drink with friends and family

Haflings love home comforts

Sitting by the fire and reading a good book

Doing some gardening and whatnot

But some travel and learn and grow intellectually

I think either of these would suit Suga

I can't stop imagining him as a Gnome with little goggles as he works on something small and metal with gears or him sitting in little Hafling attire or some pjs by a fire with some mead in one hand and a good book in the other

Asahi Azumane

I view Asahi as one of my personal favorite tropes of really big and scary but actually a sweet, bumbling mess/really small and adorable but could actually tortures you in a million different ways

Asahi is such a gentle giant but can get serious when he needs to

I also see him as someone very natural and loves nature/animals

That's why I picked either Triton or Genasi (the only thing about Genasi is they're super confident and Asahi very much is not)

Triton are water folk and outsiders (people think Asahi is scary and unapproachable)

They also have good relations with giant seahorses, Hippocampi, and sea lions

Can you imagine Asahi riding a Hippocampus with his gorgeous hair flowing in the waves of the water 😳 muah *chefs kiss* majestic

Anyways 😆

I also see him as a Genasi because they're kinda mysterious people with such a strong connection to nature and elemental energies

But I think he would specifically be an Earth Genasi bc they don't tend to make rash and are superior in strength and solid power

Yū Nishinoya

The little adorable ball of thunderous chaos

Noya seems like someone who loves to cause chaos but NEVER hurt anyone

He wants to have a good time but most people can't quite handle his version of a good time

Thats why I chose Satyr for Noya

Satyrs have the loose construct of a civilization and the wild urges of animals and beasts

Noya is a very independent person but will stick to very particular people

Satyrs are similar

They also view everyone as either a body to dance with, poor soul the mess with, or a sober mind to get absolutely hammered with

Ryūnoske Tanaka

Ryū is just such an awesome character to me

He is the real ride or die never gonna give up on you kind of person

I am not throwing any hate onto the other second years IN THE SLIGHTEST but Ryū did stay the whole time

And yet he seems, to me, to constantly need to prove his self worth

This is why I think he would be either a Human or a Lizardman

Humans are a young race and feel like, in their short lives they need to prove themselves

This drive causes them to be adaptable innovators and pioneers

Bu~ut I also think he would be good among the Lizardfolk

They have their own set of personal rules that they live by that aren't exactly conventional to most other races

Also they can be very food driven who isn't tho

Chikara Ennoshita, Hisashi Kinnoshita, Kazuhito Narita

All three give off similar vibes to me (not just cause they're background characters)

All three feel pretty chill and laid back but like their hardworkers once they have the right motivation

The three of them seem passive as well

Doing what they're told without much question but also like severe outsiders (I know they close themselves off from the others on purpose a bit bc they left and feel guilty)

So I chose Changelings for these three

Changelings are generally harmless, passive beings without interest in other races political affairs

But bc of this most others find them not trustworthy

They kind of don't have their own culture and just slip into other societies

I feel like these three did this with the volleyball team bc they didn't show them ever having some kind grand dream or ambitions

They just kind of float along with certain people they're comfortable with

Tobio Kageyama

Kageyama is a very independent character at heart

It's not that he WANTS to be a lonely necessarily, I feel, but that he wants to prove himself so much and constantly that he pushes people away

Even after he learned about relying on people and what it means to be a team

He stills feels like he should be able to do it himself

I feel like there is an ever constant duality in him

That's why I think he'd be a Half Elf

Human/elf mixes never really belong anywhere bc they either age faster than there elven peers or watch as their human loved ones age and die off much faster than themselves

This is why Half elf/humans keep to themselves

But for Kageyama, I feel if he had never met Hinata, Daichi, Suga, Ryū, or any of them, he would've isolated himself on accident from everyone

Shoyo Hinata

Shoyo is very impulsive but does extremely well with others

He is definitely social and NEEDS to have other people to watch his back

He has shown to be aggressive and super competitive with other players

But he forms strong bonds with those he really cares about

I feel like he would be, specifically a Longtooth Shifter

These shifters specifically are aggressive towards others they are not close to

But are deeply invested in those they have chosen to share their time with

They also are Lupine/dog based beings

And Shoyo definitely has a very dog like personality

They also are more pack oriented than other shifters

They have teamwork and group fluidity

Kei Tsukishima

Tsukishima a very stereotypical character but written in THE BEST WAY

He's that stereotype of antagonist to ally or prude outcast to reliable friend

This was caused by the circumstances of him finding out the situation with his brother

So he decided that no one could be trusted with Yamaguchi as an exception

Elf or Tiefling, did you really expect anything else? 😜

Elven people are very reserved a set themselves apart most of the time from other races, generally thinking of them as inferior or untrustworthy to be around the knowledge Elven people possess

Like Tsukishima they think themselves above other beings with a few that choose to live with with humans

Tieflings are forced away from other races

Because of a past sin that has changed them to look slightly different from others, they are shunned

I relate what happened when Tieflings became a different bloodline of humans to what happened between Kei and his older brother Akiteru

Tsukishimas rejection of companionship is something he does himself, but it is a form of mistrust towards others to not lie to him like he once was

Both Elven and Tieflings are very intelligent in their own differing ways

Elven are very well read and prestigious

Tieflings are good at slight of hand and swindling others bc of the rough cards they've been dealt in life

Tadashi Yamaguchi

Tadashi is a very different person than from what people make him out to be

Everybody makes him out to be an uwu ooga booga baby child that needs protecting

But he's not

That's not to say he doesn't have a large, warm and welcoming heart but he's NOT weak by any means

He's strong and he eventually becomes independent from Tsukishima and doesn't have to be codependent

Tadashi Yamaguchi is an amazing hardworker that is learning about the world and is trying to better himself slowly day by day

But there is the soft, kind and helpful side of him that would just do anything for a struggling stranger

That's why I chose either a Tortle or Kobold

I see him being maybe a Tortles that lives a simple life filled with schedules and living a very ritualistic life

They live simply and are very personable beings

But there's also Kobolds who are dragon like creatures that are INWARDLY aggressive but are industrious beings

They hate larger beings as they're short but will show respect if need to but would show backhanded and passive aggressive ways to show their displeasure

They also don't like direct confrontation and would rather entrapt another creature or being than directly fight them

They are also cunning and have a knack for plan making with which they share through out their entire tribe

Kiyoko Shimizu

I see Kiyoko as a very dependable person but also very independent and very strong and strong willed

Basically a feminine icon, honestly

She can do just about everything but seemingly has her own agenda

You're very lucky if her agenda should happen to align with you and your goals because she is an indestructible force not to be dealt with lightly

And yet, she is above all else a women

Feminine, beautiful, and incredibly amazing (as all women are)

I chose Aasimar for Kiyoko

Aasimar are beings that are often descendants of celestial or higher beings

They generally hold good morals and are justice deliverers

They generally serve a guardians of law that strike at evil, lead by example, and dish out justice where it is needed

They are cautious of others and sometimes misunderstood as they did what they do what they believed to be right

Aasimars are also extremely empathetic and are often times hurt by the prejudice they suffer in early years as many don't like what they don't understand

Hitoka Yachi

Yachi IS NOT THE SOFT, DEFENSLESS, CRYBABY EVERYBODY MAKES HER OUT TO BE

Yachi is shy and nervous but that is only bc she was accidentally persuaded into an intimidating world of giants

And for a short and petite framed girlt hat is TERRIFYING at first

But Yachi stepped up to the plate and batted away everyone's shit expectations for her because she rose to become an amazing manager for the team

She became independent from her mother's harsh ideas of her and showed her how powerful she can be

She may be small but she is truly mighty

This is why I picked Centaurs for her

Centaurs are the swiftest out of the humanoids and build peaceful communities

They hunt what and where they wish, as they generally move after a few years in one place, move

They highly value personal choice and individuality among their tribes

They also love and worship nature, many wanting to devote themselves to a higher power and/or become druids

They generally bear no ill will towards anyone unless the opposers strike first

Thank you @popcorntime-doodles for giving me my first request I hope you like this and I hope I did a good job

Again this is just my opinion and how I see the characters and the many races of D&D

Also again I do request I have a character masterlist in my bio ❤

@multifandombrainrot @kneecapstealingalien @akabxne @jiheonity @weareallhumans123 @smallmangi @canadian-crow @just-jellyfish @immiamarais @i-need-coffee-now-pls @foreveryoung050 @kuroos-world @luminasapphire @silverfire6 @shadowsbutdead @ghostexhibit @simpfornishinoya @goshikisimp @anothershadeofpink @mestayanon @japoga

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halothenthehorns · 3 years ago

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TLTNL- THE BEETLE AT BAY

"Oof!" Harry gasped in surprise, as Sirius had at once tackled him out of sight of the front window. At the same time, a spell blasted him from a side he couldn't even see so it must have been done silently, and then the baby was crying in surprise as Remus all but Apparated to the kitchen, wand clutched as tightly as the infant.

There was not a second more to react as the front door opened obnoxiously and an unfamiliar voice called out, "hey, Potter, you home? Mr. or Mrs. I don't really care right now-"

"Dammit man, you nearly gave me heart failure," James gasped, lowering his wand as a Weasley poked his head into the living room for the source of the voice.

At least Harry was quite sure of the last name, even not recognizing the man. He had the same vivid red hair of his best friend and a splash of freckles across his face. There was even something familiar about the stocky build and crooked grin that reminded him of, Fred?

"Gideon, what are you-"

"Black!" The man interrupted in exasperation.

Sirius straitened uneasily from crouching over Harry, but his grin flipped at once into place, even as Harry lay completely still he couldn't spot a trace of concern in his godfather. "Do you knock much? This is my best mate's house, not yours."

"Your own fault for leaving the door open," Gideon shrugged without remorse, a clear mocking expression he'd shocked the man so bad he'd rolled off his seat. Then he cocked his head to the side and looked to the kitchen where the infant's crying was just now subsiding. "Lupin here too? You couple a wankers, you four realize you missed an Order meeting last night? I got sent over here to find out why, and inform your best mate you missed your check in."

Sirius managed to scowl while looking properly chagrined. "Right, about that, err, Remus had a bit of a rough night so we came straight here, and he's only just woken up so I was staying behind to check on him."

"And all three of you had to do that eh?"

There wasn't real skepticism in his voice, but it was clear he found something off. Lily must have noticed, as she stepped forward and started ushering him to the kitchen. "Well he's in there making some tea now, you and Sirius join him to get this mess out of the way."

Sirius gave an exaggerated yawn, and an even more exaggerated shake as he walked over Harry, following them out. James cast one more uneasy look where he'd last seen Harry before following, considering he didn't have a suspicious reason not to.

Harry stayed where he was, not moving an inch, yet his heart still thudding so loudly he was grateful it hadn't given him away. He finally shifted his eyes down and saw that he'd been disillusioned, likely missing the cold sensation from his rush of shock.

He could very faintly hear voices from the kitchen, certainly surmise the easy tone they were all using which was probably what had stopped Remus bolting out the back door in the first place if that's what he'd heard from here. He started to worry when he grew stiff from his position, wondering how long disillusionment charms lasted, and very much wishing he'd asked Moody to teach him the spell when he'd had the chance. Dare he make a move for the Invisibility Cloak while he had the chance? He wasn't even sure his wand would work on the false wall, but it was better than lying here waiting to be discovered, he didn't know what would happen to his family if he was, let alone him.

He'd just convinced himself to at least go hide in the bathroom rather than the middle of the floor when he heard scraping chairs and voices back in the hallway. He checked one last time to make sure he still blended with his surroundings as Gideon's voice said, "-let this happen again, you'll have Dumbledore start questioning you lot. I warned him about something like this happening, you lot ain't even thirty yet-"

"I resent that!" Sirius snapped.

"And resemble it," he heard Remus mutter even more quietly.

"I promise Gideon, it was a one time thing," Lily spoke over both of them.

"We've far too much invested in, affairs," James agreed, an edge to his voice that made Harry's skin crawl as he remembered who all his family wanted to have a word with involving the Order.

Something of this must have meant something to Gideon as well, his tone just a touch more understanding now, "alright then, happens to the best of us."

Harry heard the door open again, before Gideon said his last piece, "well you lot look after yourselves." Then in a much more affectionate tone, "and have the little guy come over some time," he made a little coo noise and the baby responded back with a giggle. "Molly'd love the company."

"It's on my to do list," Lily promised, before there was a snap, and quiet came.

"I should at least get to have the privilege of shoving his wand up his arse," Sirius muttered as he stomped back into the living room. "Scaring the bleeding piss out of us."

"Maybe if Remus would stop losing his keys, I'd actually lock the door once in awhile," James rebutted good naturedly.

"It's hard keeping track of the one key." He protested, "we don't use one to lock our flat, you know that, it was an Apparition only. Why do you think it was so cheap?"

"I keep offering to give him one to my bike, but for some reason, he makes that face," Sirius snickered.

They hesitated for one more moment, Lily hovering next to the window just to be sure, before she hissed, "Harry?"

"Yeah," he called back just as softly, "still down here."

She took a moment to aim carefully, and then Harry sighed in relief as he got to his feet, shaking his limbs to get some feeling back.

"So that's Gideon Prewett eh?"

"Far as we know," Sirius rolled his eyes, "or it could have been Fabian, they're as bad as Fred and George with that gag of theirs, but they're a tad less fun about it when you swap them, so I think Prongs guessed right."

Harry hesitated uneasily before whispering, "did I get you guys in trouble?"

James said no at once, but Lily sighed and admitted, "it did look suspicious, Remus' full moon was four nights ago after all, but as long as we've been with the Order now I think we worked it out alright."

Harry still fidgeted guilty, but James seemed determined to wave the whole thing off now as he collected the book that had fallen to the floor. "Honestly Harry, don't worry about it. Besides, the faster we're done with these things, the faster that you can meet the Order yourself and this whole mess can be sorted out."

Harry was still worried though. Gideon may go back and tell everything was okay, but what if someone else came to check on their absence, a particular rat who would be very confused why his three best friends had skipped without mentioning it to him? But he'd said the last time, hadn't he, he wouldn't be back around for quite some time, and hadn't disclosed why. Would this change things, make him come back around sooner? Harry wasn't even sure if he wanted that to happen or not...

James was already flipping back through chapters looking for his place, Lily sinking down in relief beside him. Remus and Sirius exchanged one last look before glaring at the door, as if daring it to do that to them again before they took their seats back as well. Clearly outvoted, Harry returned his attention back to this, for now.

Harry's question was answered the very next morning.

James grunted in agitation, he hadn't really wanted an answer to this, but he supposed it was some kind of good thing he was getting one so soon instead of having to wait forever like every other question he had.

It was found in Hermione's Daily Prophet, the moment she'd flipped it open she'd yelped in shock startling everyone in hearing range.

"That was not encouraging," Sirius muttered, his face already twisted with dislike before he got an explanation.

Hardly waiting to be asked, she laid it down flat for the boys to see, and it wasn't a pretty sight.

Gazing up at them were ten black and white pictures, each with a caption underneath of the crime for why they'd been sentenced to Azkaban.

James's voice hitched in his throat, gazing with unfiltered fear at that last word before glancing wordlessly at his best mate, whose features had turned icy at the reminder of the place. He had not a clue what this could be about, but he already felt who this was going to be hardest on. If Sirius' name came back up in conjunction with that prison again, he was probably going to have to resuscitate him what with all the terrible fears he'd been feeling of being cooped up back in Grimmauld place.

A man with a twisted face named Antonin Dolohov was convicted for the brutal murders of Gideon and Fabian Prewett.

Even having been one of the first people they'd found out we're going to die, somehow having just had some morning tea with the man still made this news feel sharper. It was made all the worse they could put a name to the man who would do it. For Harry it felt even worse, he could feel that thorn in his mind promising the violence wouldn't end. Names and fears crowded together inside him that he had no hope of understanding, and he was almost grateful for it.

Also Algernon Rookwood, a pockmarked man whose picture looked rather bored, his crime; being convicted for leaking Ministry of Magic secrets to You-Know-Who.

Harry shivered hard at the reminder of that name, red fumed memories tainted and waiting to throw him into a deep abyss if he dared peak.

The one who stuck out to Harry the most was the woman, with long dark hair and a disdainful smile. Like Sirius, Azkaban had not fully taken away her once beauty, but the features were now more of a veil.

Sirius continued to grow more sallow in here until he resembled a bleached copy of himself at the idea of retaining any features from the woman who would do that to someone he considered a friend. He wanted to be mad, to rage at Harry he was nothing like that excuse for a human being, but as of now he was afraid of feeling anything in fear of drawing dementors here.

Harry wanted to catch Sirius' eye, in that moment he was desperate for his godfather to look at him for a promise that everything would be okay again no matter how much he got angry when they tried to do it, but he needed one now. Sirius wouldn't look at him though, he wasn't looking at anyone, but instead he was watching the fire, eyes unfocused as if he weren't even here.

Bellatrix Lestrange, convicted of the torture and permanent incapacitation of Frank and Alice Longbottom.

Lily spluttered for a moment before starting to twist some hair around her fingers in agitation. She didn't like that was just posted on the front of a paper where you could also find the morning weather. It felt callous, all of those had! Neville had clearly not told many people, and now it wouldn't be hard for them to put the pieces together.

Finally Harry tore his eyes away from the front cover to notice the headline above the images: Mass Breakout from Azkaban, Black 'Rallying Point' for Old Death Eaters.

"Why would they use Bellatrix's maiden name," Remus forced out quietly, his face already simmering below shouting levels if he used anything else.

James had no response. No wisecrack came to mind, no utter of denial was enough to cover this.

Lily felt a mess of things well up in her, not least of which was she wanted to weep for him and what this could mean. What if they finally acknowledged Voldemort was back, but they tried to blame it all on Sirius! He'd escaped and a year later Voldemort had returned, she could easily envision the Ministry making that leap after this new slander, and she'd want to return the favor by tearing their throats out!

Sirius looked slowly around at them, Lily opening and closing her mouth but nothing getting through, James and Remus threatening murder again, Harry's visible outrage, and he smiled. He could feel what a lopsided, twisted thing it was considering this wasn't funny, but he could also imagine reading this news at Grimmauld place and sitting there all alone feeling everything they were, in his own shadowed corner. So he started giggling.

"Padfoot, I swear-"

"No, no," he ducked as Remus actually moved to start smothering him. "I'm not for the reason you think I am, I swear! Just, just keep going Prongs," he managed to insist past his hysterics of gratitude he wasn't alone now.

The best thing in the world was his best mate scowling at him, but then there was just the smallest spark of understanding in his eyes and he kept going.

Harry made to start shouting in outrage about this, but Hermione quickly shushed him and urged him to read the whole thing.

Harry grudgingly did, finding it to say the Ministry of Magic had announced last night the mass breakout from Azkaban.

"How?" Lily's voice broke over the word, in fear or anger they still weren't sure. "I honestly, I just can't believe this, what is happening!"

"The world's joining the toilet," Sirius offered, still with that insufferable look in place Lily wanted to curse off. Of all the times for Sirius to force his sense of humor on them! Never mind that she almost found it a comfort he could laugh in the face of this again, even if it was going to drive her crazy instead.

Speaking to reporters in his private office, Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic,

"Oh trust me, we're all well aware," Remus said in disgust, still eying Sirius with concern at his forced bravado through all this. He couldn't play off forever this wasn't getting to him, and Remus was getting worried what he'd really do when that happened, most likely much worse than just leaving this place and being knocked out again. James was clearly going out of obligation for his son at this point to get through these, otherwise he probably would have quit at the start of three out of sheer anger for what was being done to his friends. It somehow managed to keep getting worse. Remus just wished he had something more to offer than to be angry for them. He was already a useless waste in this future, he should be able to do something for them in here!

had confirmed this fact and already informed the Muggle Prime Minister, being quoted as saying we they found themselves in much the same position as two and a half years ago when Sirius Black performed the same thing, and they did not believe the two instances were unrelated.

"I mean, under other circumstances, I can't even blame them for that one," Sirius had his head cocked to the side, ignoring his double vision from forcing himself to pay attention to this rather than the screaming rant he really did want to give.

An escape of this magnitude suggested outside help, and they must remember that Black, as the first person ever to break out of Azkaban,

"You mean they never even reported Jr.!" Harry spluttered in outrage as he realized this. "How- they actually managed to cover that whole thing up!"

He didn't get an answer, and he wasn't expecting one. He knew with the Ministry trying to discredit Dumbledore at every turn now that anything he'd had to say would be tarnished, but it was maddening they wouldn't admit to one single thing they'd done wrong in the past two years of his life, what else were they covering up?

would be ideally placed to help others follow in his footsteps. They thought it likely that these individuals, who include Black's cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, have rallied around Black as their leader.

"I never even captained the Quidditch team, what makes them think I can pull this off?" Sirius asked with an insufferable attempt at politeness, every one of them now fighting the impulse to hit him themselves already.

They were doing all they could to round up the criminals,

"Because that worked out so well the last time," Remus sneered.

and begged the magical community to remain alert and cautious. On no account should any of these individuals be approached.

"Paper was finally done," James told them in clipped tones, realizing that was all the information they were going to get on this for now.

Lily had finally collected the energy to finish her outrage. "How did this happen? They can't get away with this one, they just can't! No one will buy the dementors just stood by and let this happen, inside job my arse! The dementors defected, there is no other explanation! In piling up their own lies, they're only forcing people to see the truth that much sooner!"

"I find it a bleeding miracle this was put in at all instead of what type of crumpet Fudge had for breakfast," Remus agreed.

"There's no way they wouldn't get caught if they didn't report something like this," James disagreed critically. "Even with the very low amount of check ups that go into that place, they clearly decided it was better to stay ahead of this in case one of them was spotted."

Harry didn't have the air to add in, he was still too focused on his own deep seated worry. How things kept getting worse rather than better as he sat in school and did nothing. The DA was the only way he could fight back, and it didn't feel as if it would help for much longer before something irreversible happened because of all this.

Ron said for Harry this must have been what Voldemort was so happy about last night.

Harry rubbed furiously at his temple for the reminder he hadn't needed from Ron.

Harry was still the most outraged Fudge was blaming this on Sirius!

"So much for being in Kolkata," James murmured, heart tightening painfully as he envisioned them grabbing back one of those convicts, the entirely wrong one! If Fudge got wind something was up in the Auror department and Sirius was much closer to home...but no! Sirius was fine, the Order would look after him and he'd keep his nose safe because he had to!

Hermione bitterly pointed out he had no other options, he could hardly go back now and apologize Dumbledore had warned this would happen.

"That didn't make any of this any better," Lily said through gritted teeth, even when this one wasn't Hermione's fault.

Hermione ripped the paper open to continue reading further on the subject through other pages, the faces still blinking at them from the front page. Harry glanced around him, but saw no other students seemed remotely concerned at this topic, but then he supposed, hardly any of them took the paper. Conversation around him still swelled about homework and Quidditch, not that Voldemort's ranks had swollen.

Sirius felt a bitter sigh escape him. What he would give for Harry to be the same way, to just be reading about his pup complaining about a normal detention and wondering who next to pull mischief on. The poor kid ran a terrible life that only seemed to be getting worse.

The staff table was a much different story. McGonagall and Dumbledore were leaning in closely and whispering urgently, and Sprout was so engrossed in the same cover as Hermione she didn't even realize her breakfast was dripping into her lap. Umbridge, instead of her pouchy eyes sweeping the hall for trouble as usual, was throwing the rest of the staff nasty looks.

"Well that can't be good," Remus muttered, wondering what new form of evil she could pass in the farce of a decree in her efforts to stop them talking next.

Hermione whispered another shock, and Harry demanded what just as loudly as last time, starting to feel jumpy.

"At this point I can't even blame you," James agreed, his eyes trying to skip ahead lines now to see this new misfortune as well.

Hermione stated it was horrible, lying it down flat for them again, the two boys leaning in to read the new headline: Tragic Demise of Ministry Worker.

"Who would have thought I'd ever be grateful it's not another headline about me," Sirius sighed.

The article read; St. Mungo's Hospital promised a full inquiry last night after Ministry of Magic worker Broderick Bode, 49,

Sirius grumbled in agitation he still couldn't place where he'd heard that name before. Wait, had it something to do with those Ministry- "Chicken!" Sirius suddenly burst out for no discernable reason other than to interrupt.

"Sirius, we just had breakfast-" Lily said in exasperation, but he ignored her as well, babbling at top speed with a look of relief on his face. "I remember where I heard Bode's name, that bloke from St. Mungo's who couldn't talk, or was just starting to talk, whatever! Fire breathing chicken, he was in the elevator on the way to Harry's trial!"

There was an echoing silence for a moment before Remus told him, "you're mind works in the strangest way."

Sirius shrugged in relief, finally satisfied that odd tickle was gone from his brain.

Oddly though, this made Harry start to frown again with unease. Just what was it about the name Bode he was supposed to be remembering? Sirius was lucky he'd had his moment, because Harry struggled with every one of his.

was discovered dead in his bed, strangled by a pot plant.

James couldn't help his brows creep with interest at this, understanding now why it had distracted Hermione from the larger matter he was still plenty outraged about. This was certainly...new.

Healer Strout, overseer of Bodes Ward, was suspended with full pay while the investigation took place, her statement being that the plant had been anonymously delivered over Christmas break. Bode, who had been hospitalized as incapable of caring for himself, had been steadily improving so had been encouraged to handle the plant himself, neither realizing the Flitterbloom it was supposed to be was in fact a cut of Devil's Snare. The moment Bode had attempted care, he had been throttled to death.

Remus scrutinized this for a moment before finally blurting out, "you must be kidding. Why did someone kill a mental person?"

"You got me," James agreed before shushing him for the rest.

St. Mungos is as yet unable to account for the presence of the plant on the ward and asks any witch or wizard with information to come forward.

"Now I'm done," James finished.

"Yes, thank you for that wonderful conclusion," Remus snipped before pressing his point. "I mean it, the bloke couldn't say his own name, what on earth was the real story there?"

"I really wish we knew," Sirius grumbled as he ran his hand through his hair in agitation, always feeling like he was missing part of the story, even the ones he was involved in.

Harry was horrified they hadn't recognized the plant while they'd been there, they'd experienced it first hand.

"Oh Harry no," Lily said at once. "You can't be blamed for this, it would have happened whether you'd been there or not-"

"But we were there," Harry stated. "What's the use of being around if not to help when we could have."

"For the same reason you can't stop every man jumping in front of a bus," Lily said, her tone itching towards real concern. "Things happen around you Harry, but it's not your fault if you couldn't stop them."

He only nodded to appease her, but not for the first time wondered just what good he'd ever done anyone.

Ron said back at once it was no one's fault but the person who sent it, then asked of no one who didn't check the plant they were buying.

"Oh Ron can't mean that one," James rolled his eyes. "He must know as well as anyone this was no accident."

"Maybe it could have been though," Lily strained to keep some peace in any life. "Deliveries get mispackaged, what if this was supposed to be sent somewhere else, and that Healer truly wouldn't know the difference if she'd never touched it herself."

James took a moment to appraise her, see her desperate plea for something not to be hate and murder, and nodded slowly. "You're right Lils, accidents do happen out there."

Lily leaned into him with one knot of unease finally releasing her, more grateful than ever to the man she'd married.

Hermione told him now he was being thick, this was no accident, but a clever murder. Being sent anonymous meant no one would even know who, but the real question was why?

"Congratulations! Someone helped beef up security at St. Mungo's, they probably won't be accepting anonymous gifts now!" Sirius jumped in and tried to praise this situation, Lily scowling at him for what she thought of as sarcasm. Sirius just huffed he wasn't appreciated enough.

Harry's mind went back, to when he'd first met Bode, at the Ministry of Magic when he'd been with Arthur.

"How do you still manage to remember things before me," Harry huffed.

"It's alright Harry," Sirius said bracingly, "as my wondrous friends so frequently point out, my mind is a steel trap that forgets nothing."

"I said you're an idiot who who can't remember anything except when the next meal is," Remus corrected.

"Actually you told him his mind works in strange ways, I think both count here," James grinned, actually grinned at his two friends, every second of his life now set on the idea he'd never have to go without seeing this.

"It was implied," Remus rolled his eyes while James swallowed a laugh and kept going.

Ron's mouth opened with surprise as he finally recalled where he'd heard that name, his dad had mentioned it! Bode worked as an Unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries!

"Oh," they all muttered, rather forcefully dropped back into the story at the mention of that.

"Well, that just made a lot more sense," Lily shivered.

"He was working with the Death Eater's to try and get this mystery thing out of there as well, but something went wrong," James concluded.

"So someone silenced him," Remus agreed.

James gave an apologetic look to Lily who was frowning deeply at all of this, and he could honestly understand why. He could feel more every day what would happen to his friends and how it was getting to him, the same thing was happening to her on the wider scale of the world, all the injustice that never ended. He tried to hurry on, wanting to hear about a lesson already, anything but Hermione finding another article in the paper.

Hermione continued glaring down at the paper, before suddenly jumping to her feet.

Ron asked where she was running off to, but she hardly took notice as she grabbed her bag and walked away, muttering she was the only one who could.

"I love it when she does that," Sirius said, only half being sarcastic now. "It usually means something's fixing to happen that I like."

"I just wish she'd explain before she goes off," James agreed, still scrutinizing that one, but pleased one of his wishes had come true, at least in the short term.

As she vanished the two got up as well, though headed out into the Entrance Hall. Ron told he hated when she did that, it would only take her a few seconds longer to explain, but was cut off as they ran into Hagrid.

He was pausing in line as well, and still looked as heavily bruised as when he'd first returned, a new cut even across his nose.

All five of them felt their faces fold in concern at the same time. If they could have an answer to something going on, they wished it was whatever had really happened to Hagrid, as clearly it was still affecting him.

He greeted them casually enough, too casually as he tried to say he was busy with some salamanders, lessons to prepare, but finished on a mumble he was on probation.

"I wish I was more surprised," Remus snapped.

"Still plenty disgusted by it," Sirius sneered.

Ron shouted in protest of this, before several students looked around in surprise, and he repeated himself in a whisper.

"I sincerely doubt it's a secret," James scowled. "Surprised Umbridge hasn't posted that news as the headline herself."

Hagrid said he'd expected it, they may not have noticed, but his inspections hadn't been going that well.

"What I saw was a prejudice loogie who needs to have a run in with a spit already," Lily said flatly.

He dismissed himself quickly, clearly still not at all in the conversation. Harry watched him go, wondering how much more bad news he could stand.

"Oh please stop tempting fate Harry, it usually dumps twice as much back," James sighed.

The fact that Hagrid was now on probation became common knowledge within the school over the next few days, but to Harry's indignation, hardly anybody appeared to be upset about it,

Harry looked nearly as affronted as the news Sirius was being blamed for Voldemort's doing. What was wrong with people they couldn't see who was in the wrong with these things!

Draco Malfoy seemed positively gleeful.

"I hope he keeps that expression when I create The Amazing Bouncing Ferret, the Squeakquel," Sirius vowed.

As for the Death of Bode, only the trio seemed to know or care about that.

"Well that I actually believe," Lily sighed. Not many people read the paper for any of the important stories, which is probably why the Ministry still published them, to claim they were keeping people informed in as little detail as possible.

What did become the hot topic of the school, was the news finally being passed around of the ten escaped Death Eaters. Rumors and fear quickly went wild, many fearing and claiming to have already seen them in Hogsmeade, and hiding out in the Shrieking Shack as Sirius Black had once done.

James had to pause there to reread that one, mostly for the Shrieking Shack line.

"Did the whole school find out about me being in there?" Sirius demanded in confusion.

"Peeves spread it around," Harry confirmed. "Of course the whole thing got jumbled, I even heard one girl telling you were actually the ghost haunting that place, but now most people are aware it's somehow connected to the grounds and you can get in and out of there some way. Never heard anything more clear than that."

"Well thankfully we'll never get a repeat of any kind of Sirius' incident," Remus said with absolute confidence. "The Death Eaters aren't stupid enough to come after the school with Dumbledore here."

James tried to nod in agreement, but instead managed to let his glasses fall of his face he was jerking so much. He quickly put them back and kept going loudly before Sirius could suggest, again, he permanently stick them in place, no one noticing a similar reaction passing over Harry.

Those who came from wizarding parents had grown up hearing the names from the paper with as much fear as Voldemort's, and relatives of the victims were among the students, and were now receiving some gruesome form of celebrity status.

"Maybe this'll make them all realize how Harry feels," James said grimly, he still couldn't think about his son's fame without a whirl of emotions, none of them good.

Susan Bones, whose uncle, aunt, and cousins had also been in the paper with their captors crime posting, told Harry how horrible it was, she didn't know how Harry stood it.

"I guess the empathy's kind of nice," Lily said grudgingly.

"Still wouldn't have asked for it like this," Harry said softly, he'd never want anyone else to know what it felt like to be him.

Harry also had a new upsurge of mutterings around his name, but to his surprise, they held a new tone. Now he caught a hint of curiosity in the whispers. Like Hermione, the rest of the school had come to the conclusion the Prophet's line of the news had left some holes, and they were starting to fear the real answer was the only other one, what Harry had been saying.

"Would you look at that, they've grown brains," Remus politely applauded.

"Only took them half a year, guess they can't all be as rational as us," Sirius smirked.

"I think you meant orotund," Lily pleasantly corrected.

Sirius frowned, not recognizing the word, but sure by her tone he knew the meaning so scowled at her for good measure.

She continued by ignoring him, "I'm just happy it's happening at all, I've sympathy for them not wanting to believe it even when it was in their face."

"How was that nicer than what they said?" James politely asked.

"I didn't try to insult the students while praising myself, you lot do that enough yourself," she smirked.

Harry was laughing too hard for the argument to keep going with any amount, so James rolled his eyes before continuing.

It wasn't just the students with a new mood, the teachers were now commonly seen clustered close together in corridors talking in low whispers, though quickly breaking apart when they saw anyone approaching.

"Must be as hard for the teachers as it was for Harry to find a moment of not being watched by the toad," Remus said in sympathy.

Hermione explained they could hardly talk in the staff room with Umbridge around.

Ron asked if they knew anything extra, and Harry said if they did, they couldn't tell even if they wanted to. Not after, what Decree where they on now?

"Oh no," Lily mouthed in horror as James read out a new level of idiotic.

That very morning, new Order of the High Inquisitor Notices had been posted around Hogwarts; stating teachers were hereby banned from discussing anything with students that was not strictly relevant to their assigned subjects.

"I was joking!" Remus spluttered, hardly pausing for breath as he explained his earlier thought. "Merlin, I think I'm more insulted I'm still surprised she's doing this!"

"I'm more insulted she keeps getting away with it," Lily corrected with pure disgust.

This had at first caused a wave of amusement for some students, Lee Jordan happily pointing out to the woman herself when she'd caught him and the twins playing Exploding Snap Umbridge couldn't say anything about it because it wasn't to do with Defence.

"Thank you!" James burst out with pride. "Finally, someone really showing Umbridge just how ludicrous all of this was, I was beginning to fear everyone in this school was just playing along with them!"

When Harry next saw Lee, the back of his hand was bleeding rather badly.

Harry watched them all hiss at the reminder of that, he rubbing at the back of his hand again in sympathy.

Harry recommended essence of Murtlap.

Harry had thought the breakout from Azkaban might have humbled Umbridge a little,

Sirius gave a hollow laugh for such a dream, when he more envisioned chucking her into Azkaban instead. He didn't need dementors there, she could just rot in a cell and left to die and he'd be happy.

Instead her fury had intensified, and she seemed determined to bring every aspect of life in school under her control. Her goal of now was clearly a sacking, and the only question was who first, Hagrid or Trelawney.

James groaned loudly in pity for the two of them. Neither were, ahem, perfect teachers really, but neither had ever done anything so bad as to deserve this! Okay, so maybe Trelawney had irked them one too many times, especially last year when Harry'd had that dream in her class. Okay, Hagrid and those Skrewts had crossed the limit of what he should be bringing to class, but the real trauma was that Snape wasn't on that list! He'd done far worse than the two of them put together, where was his sacking slip!

Every single class of theirs was now overseen by Umbridge and her clipboard. This caused Trelawney to act near hysterics at all hours, being interrogated about ornithomancy and Umbridge insisting she predict the students answers before she gave them while also wanting first hand experience of crystal gazing and rune stone readings.

Lily groaned in sympathy though. Not even liking Trelawney she would have long since stepped in and told Umbridge to march herself back out and go do her own work, though in her opinion it only showed how much effort Umbridge had to put into her own classes to be seen in so many others.

Harry thought Professor Trelawney might soon crack under the strain. Several times he passed her in the corridors -

Remus frowned in confusion, easily remembering her rarity of doing this from all of Harry's previous years.

which in itself was a sight as before she rarely left her tower, but could now be seen walking through corridors, wringing her hands and muttering to herself, while smelling like sherry.

"The poor broads as crazy as I always said she was," Sirius said, but there was nothing but sorrow in his voice. Even after the prophecy she'd declared that had nearly ended his life, this wasn't exactly what he would have wanted to happen to her in return. He wouldn't wish that toad on anyone.

Harry would have felt sorrier for her, but if it was between her and Hagrid, he knew who he'd pick.

"Yet the probability of both being gone is far more likely, as he said, it was only a matter of who first," Remus muttered for himself.

Unfortunately, Hagrid wasn't doing much better. He'd finally taken Hermione's advice and had shown nothing more dangerous than a crup for their class, but was still very distracted during lessons, answered easy questions wrong, and often trailed off in the middle of sentences while glancing anxiously at Umbridge. This was all made worse by the fact he'd forbidden them from visiting.

"It felt like he'd never even come back," Harry whispered.

Lily bit hard at her lip, wanting more every moment to go to him and wrap him tight in her arms, promise this would somehow get better, but they were all running out of that assurance the more Umbridge did.

Insisting if she caught him, his job would be in even worse jeopardy, and they'd all be in even more trouble.

Harry felt as if Umbridge were steadily depriving him of everything he loved of Hogwarts; first letters from Sirius, then his Firebolt and Quidditch, now she was even trying to keep Hagrid away permanently.

James had tensed more with every line, unable to imagine his old school falling into such a grim form of itself for his son, the one reprieve he'd ever had in his life.

He took his revenge the only way he could - by redoubling his efforts for the DA.

The news of the ten Death Eaters had spurred his group into working harder than ever, but nobody more so than Neville.

While unsurprised by this, they all wanted to praise Neville in that moment for taking this the right direction, rather than curling up in a corner and crying as he was entitled to do at that woman escaping back into any section of his life. He had something to fight for now.

He had not spoken of seeing them that day at St. Mungo's, and taking the lead from them, neither had they. Yet the change was obvious to all in the DA, as with every new spell he hardly spoke a word to anyone, his face screwed up with concentration regardless of injuries or mishaps, it was almost unnerving. The only person mastering them faster now was Hermione.

Lily almost threatened to tear up at this news. She'd always known Neville had more potential in him than Harry had ever seen, but now she thought of how proud Alice would be of her son just like she was for her own. The idea Alice may never get to say it to her child just like she hadn't in this future felt unbearable.

Harry wished he were progressing as much with his Occlumency, on the contrary, he felt he was getting worse each week.

James shivered in unease, he hadn't found that possible!

Before he'd started, his scar had prickled occasionally. Now it was a constant feeling of being nettled, and he often felt great mood shifts that had nothing to do with his own surroundings.

Remus could feel his mouth opening in horror at the idea, and quickly scrambled to cover the expression, but Harry had seen. "Okay, so I won't lie," he confessed to his pale nephew. "The fact that I have no clue what that means is..." he faltered, but no word seemed right. "Doesn't make you any less to me," he finished meeting his eyes.

Harry relaxed back with a chagrined nod he'd thought otherwise for even a second, while Remus was still stunned what he thought clearly meant as much to him as James or Sirius.

His recurring dream had turned into a nightly occurrence of traveling down the dark corridor. Upon complaint of this to his friends, Hermione had suggested it was like a fever, it would be worse before it got better.

"I'm getting the feeling this Occlumency is another symptom rather than a cure then," Harry huffed, he still couldn't feel any good came of this.

Harry said flatly Snape's lessons were only making it worse! He was sick of walking down that corridor, he wished it would open already!

Hermione scolded that wasn't funny,

"He wasn't trying to be," James rolled his eyes, honestly sympathetic to Harry's problem and wishing this would come to ahead already, this building tension of what this thing could do was going to drive them all mad faster than Umbridge.

Dumbledore didn't want him dreaming about that at all or he wouldn't have asked Snape to do this, he just wasn't trying hard enough.

"Lets see her try it!" Sirius spluttered in protest for her jab. "It's no walk in the park having your brain cracked open, let alone by such a detested insect!"

Harry snapped back he was trying, lets see her do the same, having Snape in her head, it was not a laugh!

The two exchanged an amused grin, while Remus grumbled no one needed Harry furthering Sirius' never ending idiotics.

Ron voiced the suggestion that maybe Snape wasn't trying to help at all.

The worst part was, the Marauders had been wondering much the same thing. They hadn't said it aloud, never let the idea come to fruition, but it made too much sense to them. They didn't trust Snape, and they never would, certainly not with something as important as this. Now, with Ron saying it for them, James forced out the words slowly and clearly to help put together his own train of thought past curses.

Maybe he was doing the opposite, opening Harry's mind for You-Know-Who.

Hermione told him to shut up. How many times had they suspected Snape? Dumbledore trusted him, as did the Order, that should be enough!

James turned pasty in shock of remembering who was in the Order and Dumbledore trusted, and his own fate because of it. James wasn't even sure if he could trust anyone outside this room again, let alone anyone Dumbledore said should be good enough.

"Not for me it's not," Sirius barked, entirely wanting Hermione to shut up instead. "I've never seen evidence against him either! Dumbledore's word isn't good enough for this, not with what Harry needs right now."

Lily kept herself calm, and quiet. She only agreed with Sirius on half, she did want that proof of his loyalty, he had done to many questionable, terrible things that she now needed something she never thought she would. She almost wished Ron hadn't said this, because now she couldn't get the idea out of her head, this certainly hadn't occurred to her. She'd thought her old friend was finally doing some irrefutable good helping her son with this, but the boys were right, they had nothing to show for whose good.

Ron insisted he used to be a Death Eater, they never had proof he'd changed.

Hermione said they had to trust Dumbledore, if not him, then they couldn't trust anyone.

"I hope that's not true," James whispered for himself. That small ember for the life of one of his friends had died out never to be seen again, but he still trusted his real friends, his wife. He used to trust Dumbledore irrefutably, but that no longer felt as real either, and he knew he'd never fully get that back after all this. If that's really where Hermione stood, he pitied her.

With so much going on, the month of January flew by, and before Harry knew it, he was looking at February fourteenth, a whole warm spring day spent in the company of Hogsmeade, and Cho Chang.

Sirius made such an enthusiastic noise Harry startled away from him, his eyes already narrowed at all of them and fighting back the urge to wrestle the book away from his father.

"Dad, I will-"

"No." James said at once without looking up.

"But I-"

"No." Sirius cut in, a smile already lighting his features as he looked at the object like it was gold.

"What if I-" Harry tried desperately.

"No." Remus crossed his arms and watched him as if he'd gone insane trying to ruin their fun.

"Can't I-"

"No," all three Marauders said at once.

He looked desperately to his mother, but she could only shrug helplessly for her poor boy, only wishing for a moment she could be more sympathetic, but that vanished in moments as she was honestly just as eager to hear this.

"Well I don't need to-" he started getting to his feet and contemplating drowning himself in the bathtub until this was over, but was again intervened.

"Don't you even," Sirius cried in protest, wrenching his elbow back into his seat before he'd even managed to stand. "Your reactions are half the fun!"

"Only half," he muttered, pulling restlessly, but Sirius wasn't letting go, now waving James on eagerly so they could all hear about Harry's first date.

He hadn't much time to talk to Cho up till this point, and now he'd have to find some way to talk to her for a whole day.

He dressed very carefully the morning of.

Sirius was already opening his mouth with a now familiar look that promised Harry would soon wish to be deaf and invisible. "I am begging you-"

"Harry, we haven't managed to stop him in the amount of years in our life, you hold no chance," Remus pleasantly informed him.

Sirius hadn't acknowledged either one of them as he blurted, "hope you got one of those mirrors offering advice, you're going to need it!"

James already burst out laughing while Harry finally got his elbow free, and spotted the cat snoozing under the table. He scooped Hickory up and placed him on his lap, scratching at his ears and making him purr loud enough Harry hoped to drown them all out instead.

They arrived at breakfast to see Hermione impatiently watching the owls arrive, and she seemed to get what she was wanting, an unfamiliar bird perching in front of her. She eagerly ripped the envelope open saying it was about time, she'd needed it today.

"I'm guessing this has to do with what she walked off about earlier," Remus cocked his head to the side, more easily distracted than the others about what Hermione was doing.

"Brilliant deduction," Lily rolled her eyes at him while the other two shushed them, trying to get to far more important matters.

Whatever it was, she declared it as important, and asked if Harry'd meet her at the Three Broomsticks at midday.

Harry was uncertain, saying Cho might be expecting him to spend the whole day with her, they'd never discussed what they were doing.

Harry squirmed with discomfort, this wasn't working and the cat glared at him and kneaded his claws into his shin. He roughly pushed the animal back off of him, thinking now everyone in here was enjoying themselves more than him.

Lily frowned at her son being so rough with her cat, but as the boys were still lightly snickering over something so minor, she couldn't find it in her to scold him for that.

Hermione said she didn't care if Cho came, but she really needed him to come.

Harry agreed, then asked why, but she said she'd explain that later and ran off to send a reply.

Harry asked if Ron was coming, but he looked glum.

"Here I was wondering if he and Hermione were going to spend the day alone," Sirius muttered to Remus suggestively, who nodded in agreement as he'd thought the same thing.

He however couldn't come at all, Angelina was having them spend the whole day training, though he didn't see how it would help, they were the worst team.

James felt his mood take a downpour at once, somehow finding a new way to be depressed about this every time he realized why no more Quidditch practices had been mentioned!

He couldn't understand why Angelina wouldn't just let him resign.

"I wouldn't either," James said sharply. "He's clearly good when he sets his mind to it, he just needs to work on that far more, clearly Angelina isn't much help if he's still thinking the exact same way as the last time we heard about this."

Harry couldn't hold much sympathy for him, as at least he was flying at all. They departed with a touch of frost, and after attempting to flatten his hair and checking his reflection in a teaspoon,

James was so agitated by the conversation, he poured every last drop of his enthusiasm into reading that, and though Remus and Sirius didn't laugh as hard because they were just as annoyed at the reminder, Harry suddenly wasn't so put out at them taking the mickey out of him for this. It was certainly better than anything else they'd been hearing about lately, so he finally fixed a smile into place and prepared himself for all the ribbing they'd give.

and proceeded alone to the Entrance Hall to meet Cho, feeling very apprehensive and wondering what on earth they were going to talk about.

"Well we know you already have something in common," James said, still a bit briskly for the Quidditch reminder, but clearly forcing himself to remain in his good mood.

"Yeah, yeah you're right," Harry eagerly agreed at once, still trying to force himself to join in on their fun.

He greeted her uneasily, and she gave just as awkward a reply back as they joined the que to go outside past Filch without speaking more.

"This is going to be a very short outing if that continues," Sirius' grin managed to keep stretching, it looked almost painful.

"Young love," Remus giggled at the awkward look Harry was clearly trying hard to keep repressed now.

It was a relief to reach the soft grass, but there was a sharp pang as Harry still couldn't help glancing to the pitch where he could see Ginny skimming the edge of the stands on her broom, looking for the Snitch.

Harry felt the same sharp pang in here, temporarily distracted in confusion that he'd much rather be playing a game than on a date with a girl he'd had a crush on for so long.

Cho asked if he missed it, noticing where he was looking.

Harry agreed at once, and she asked him if he still remembered the game they'd played against each other in third year.

"Vividly," James beamed.

Harry agreed she'd kept blocking him, Cho giggling in remembrance how Wood had yelled at him for being a gentleman and Harry should knock her off her broom.

"And look at you pup, still a gentleman considering you never did it," Sirius grinned.

"Not everyone can say the same," James smirked.

Lily opened and closed her mouth, not sure if she wanted to know what that comment meant, but James didn't pause long enough for her to ask.

Cho asked if it was true he'd been taken on by Pride of Portree.

"No, it was Puddlemere United," James recalled.

Harry corrected no, it was Puddlemere United, he'd seen him at the World Cup last year.

"Why do you remember that?" Lily muttered.

Cho remembered she'd seen Harry there too, and they quickly began chatting about that game, which carried them all the way through the school gates.

Sirius offered Harry a triumphant grin for catching such a light hearted conversation that could last them for hours, and could easily branch into other things. Harry really had picked a good girl, he still wasn't sure what Lily and James ever found to talk about considering she had no fondness for the sport.

Harry could hardly believe how easy it was to talk to her - no more difficult, in fact, than talking to Ron and Hermione -

"That's really good," Lily encouraged. "After the first few awkward moments, talking really should be the most natural part."

yet it only lasted until they ran across Pansy Parkinson, who began shrieking with giggles at the sight of them, telling Chang at least Diggory had been good-looking.

Both parents looked honestly offended at that, Remus having to bite hard on his tongue to stop from laughing at their faces when Harry at once shifted guiltily at the reminder.

She walked away still laughing loudly, leaving the two in another awkward silence, both forgetting what they'd been talking about.

James groaned in sympathy for Harry before telling him, "then you either compliment her, can start another conversation easily enough, or you curse them as they walk away-"

He ducked just in time as Lily tried to smack him, shaking her head affectionately at her husband.

Harry chuckled, just a bit, at the friendly advice.

He tried to ask where she'd like to go, and when she offered up nothing, they began wandering around aimlessly.

In the window of every shop were posters of the escaped ten Death Eaters.

They all shivered in disgust of that reminder, still on some level picturing this happening to Sirius even if his heat had cooled down. This resurgence could still cause a mess of problems for the man who didn't deserve it.

On the bottom was a note, promising a thousand-galleon reward for anyone who had information leading to their capture. Cho gazed at the picture for a long moment, before saying it was funny.

"Not the word I'd use," Remus said bitterly, with a touch of confusion, what was Cho getting at?

She remembered when it had been Sirius Black on the loose, and this place had been swarming with Dementors. Now there were ten out, and no Azkaban guards in sight.

"Oooh, I like her," Sirius began snickering harder than ever, his eyes gleaming at her logic, plus a darker something at the reminder he was still refusing to acknowledge. "We really could use her around, mind like that."

Harry gave an absent smile, happy to see they clearly still had a liking for Cho, but even as he gave his ring a little twist he tried to understand if this feeling of loss really was for this first date, or for someone he still couldn't place yet.

Remus wasn't as convinced, as at the time the Ministry had believed they knew where Sirius was going and why. They were half wrong, but it still would have had merit to post some guards for something so extreme happening, preferably something more reliable than dementors. This, he supposed, was just another level of showing how much the head of the Ministry cared, which felt non existent at this point.

Harry agreed that was weird, but he wasn't sorry. He did feel the significance of their absence, first in letting the Death Eaters escape, now not around to look for them, it seemed they really were outside Ministry control.

"Because that's right comforting," James grumbled, still feeling disgust for the dementor attack of Harry's over the summer. While still odd, it seemed the explanation really was they'd been acting on their own in that Muggle place.

A chilling rain started coming down on them, and Cho changed the subject by asking if Harry wanted to go get some coffee, he agreed, but asked where to find that?

She gestured to a place called Madam Puddifoot's, just past Scrivenshaft's.

"What's this now?" Sirius ruffled his brow in confusion.

"Never heard of it," James almost snapped, insulted at once this girl would know something about their place.

"Relax you two," Remus wished he could protest more the put out look in place, but he was feeling as off as his friends. "Don't be naïve in thinking they wouldn't have added a few more shops over the years."

They exchanged one more annoyed look before James kept going with some interest now, placing the shop in his mind easily enough as just an empty bit of space and curious to add to it.

The entrance was not inviting, as Harry found every surface covered with frills and bows, the place unpleasantly reminding him of Umbridge's office.

Sirius wretched at the very idea, even Lily found this undignified, though perhaps more because of the comparison than anything.

Cho told him she found it cute.

"There is no correct answer to that," Remus groaned.

Harry agreed unenthusiastically.

"Suppose that's the best he could do though," James sighed.

Cho said it had even been decorated for Valentine's day, gesturing at the cherub's along the ceiling that were dropping heart shaped confetti everywhere.

"I honestly would have called that as original decorations," Harry said, his face squished up in remembrance.

They sat down at once of the few seats available near the window, Harry choosing to look around more than keep awkwardly smiling at Cho, and found the place to be made up of couples. He spotted Roger Davies, the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain, holding hands with a pretty blond girl.

"At least he's not still strung up over Fleur," James chuckled.

"Ooh, I think Cho knew exactly what she was doing," Sirius sighed.

Harry wasn't paying him too much mind, even if he would have agreed, as he tried to subtly watch his parents and how they'd effortlessly been holding hands most of the time they were in here. Even the idea of wishing Cho were here so he could as well was starting to make his palms sweat.

Perhaps Cho would expect him to hold her hand.

"That's a rather common first date practice," Remus agreed.

The wild look on Harry's face made it clear this was news to him.

"Err, Harry dear," Lily began cautiously, "has anyone ever, I mean to say, who-"

The growing look of horror was a pretty clear answer.

"No one ever talked to you about what happens after the date," James stated bluntly.

"Clearly even during the date," Remus muttered.

Harry kept watching them in exasperation like it would click together for them without his having to say so, but it was clear at least his mother wanted an explanation for this while the other three were just curious. "Okay fine," he groaned, "no, it's not as if I ever chatted about this! Heard some things from older students, some of the guys from the dorm say a few things that stick. Most everything I've really heard was from Ron," he couldn't help stammering even if he wasn't too embarrassed at least explaining the highlights. "Whatever his brothers told him, some things I heard Mr. Weasley say, I thought it pretty clear I was making it up along the way. You really want details?"*

"Nope," James said, more than satisfied, even if still a little resentful this was yet another thing he'd been deprived of, as he kept going loudly before Lily could argue the point.

The matron came over, Madam Puddifoot herself, and Cho ordered them two coffees, while behind her Roger had moved on to kissing his girlfriend over the sugar bowl.

Harry was cringing into his seat, never in his life wishing more that his dad would skip some parts already!

James didn't seem particularly phased by what other random people were doing, he was more curious if Harry was going to progress that far, if remembering kissing Cho would finally set off some spark in him that would declare who that ring connected to. It hadn't the first time though, so he wasn't holding his breath, and instead was just going with curiosity now what Harry would learn from all this.

Harry wished they wouldn't; he felt that Davies was setting a standard with which Cho would soon expect him to compete.

"Oh I doubt that," Sirius shook his head, "most girls are far more involved with their own affairs."

"Really?" Remus said in surprise. "I thought they were more observational, in fact I'd be thinking the same as Harry."

"Oh no, they're watching your every move to see if you're watching their every move," Sirius said wisely.

James was watching curiously. Considering the many dates Sirius had been on, and just as many failed attempts, he was never sure how much Sirius wasn't just making all this up on the spot.

He looked to the ceiling instead, and received a face full of confetti.

"That timing," Lily began giggling anew as Harry's face puckered with indignation.

He tried to start a conversation about abusing Umbridge, but this was passed around the DA so often that ended quickly, so his mind scrambling desperately for something more to say, he brought up that Hermione wanted them to meet up later at the Three Broomsticks for lunch.

Cho raised her brows as she asked he was meeting Hermione Granger today?

"That's what he just said," James rolled his eyes, while Sirius hummed in concern, easily recognizing the dangerous tone without even being there. It was never a good sign when the question was repeated back.

Harry said yes, but he hadn't been given a reason, but Cho had explicitly been invited.

Cho said that was nice, but her tone didn't at all convey this, she now looked forbidding.

"Oh dear," Lily said, quickly catching up to why Sirius was shaking his head at this display.

"What did I do?" Harry demanded of them.

"Cho's jealous of Hermione," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"A bit founded, honestly," Lily winced. "All those stories last year, well it's not as if she knew them not to be true," she said quickly at Harry's affronted look for Skeeter's articles being brought up again. "Plus you've been friends with her for ages, now bringing this up, I can see how she'd take that the wrong way."

"I wouldn't bring a date to a girl I fancied, I'm not that oblivious!" Harry protested. "I was trying to enjoy spending time with Cho, just, trying to find something to say."

Considering James had lived through several similar conversations of Sirius trying to partake advice, James saved Harry from having to hear any further and hoped his son wormed out of this fast enough on his own.

They passed into an awkward silence then, Harry still watching her hand that was resting on the table. It was amazing he'd never had difficulty reaching for the Snitch, but it felt immensely different to reach his hand across the table.

James gave a breathy laugh as he eyed that before nodding at his son. "I find it a fair comparison."

"Can't have been that hard for you," Harry rolled his eyes, "considering all I've heard about you trying to ask her out, this bit must have been a breeze for you."

"Hardly," Remus snorted as James turned chagrined. "Poor bloke was so stunned Lily finally gave him a chance, he somehow turned into more of a blithering idiot when she acknowledged his attention."

James didn't bother to deny this, shrugging without remorse. "It did help she'd already seen me making a fool of myself to get this far, so I couldn't screw up so badly at the firsts."

Lily was just happy Harry was finally relaxing and actually chatting with the boys about this, clearly forcing himself past his embarrassment had finally led them to stop snickering away like total idiots and now she could really gage how he felt about all this. She was surprised at how, lax he was. She was genuinely starting to wonder if this thing with Cho was going to go anywhere, he'd been more happy about having his memories of learning all the Weasley's names restored rather than a first date with a girl who could possibly be his wife.

The moment he'd finally seized his opportunity, Cho took her hand from the table, and was now watching Roger kiss his girl as well with mild interest.

"There you have it, all of Padfoot's advice is officially null and void," Remus said in triumph.

"You certainly weren't singing the same tune in school," Sirius huffed, hardly looking abashed Cho was doing the opposite of what he'd been thinking.

"You're an idiot," was the only response he seemed to have for that.

She told that Roger had asked her out a couple of weeks ago, but she'd turned him down.

"Now who's bringing up other people on our date," Harry threw his hands up in exasperation.

"She's trying to make you jealous," Lily assumed. "After you brought up Hermione, that's her idea of a comparison."

"I've never asked Hermione out," Harry spluttered.

"That's what she thought you meant," Lily explained.

"Well why couldn't she have just said that, I would have told her. I had no idea why she brought that up!"

Lily just shook her head at her poor son. If she could have, she would have been whispering all this in his ear, to help him understand, but she also recognized he would have to figure all this out in his own time regardless. He clearly already had, considering.

Harry, who had grabbed the sugar bowl to excuse his sudden lunging movement across the table,

Okay, maybe all of their humor wasn't gone, all three cracking up at the description, Harry even offering a smile for his poor attempt.

couldn't think of anything to say to this, did she wish she was that pretty blond girl with Roger now? Why had she said yes to him then?

"Pity?" Sirius clearly thought he was being helpful. "She knew you had a crush on her and she's trying to make someone else jealous."

Harry's eyes popped, he looked half affronted and half confused now, while Remus smacked him upside the head.

"What?" Sirius protested, "I was just being honest. Better than saying she only did cause he's so famous."

"You are not helping," James enunciated clearly for his idiotic friend while Harry huffed and rubbed at his temples, clearly trying to remember if he recalled any of those things. James glanced at Harry, but he was now so distracted he wasn't sure if Harry was even still listening, so he kept going to try and find the point of this while Harry was still distracted.

Harry had nothing to say to this, while Cho continued she'd come here with Cedric last year.

"Oh this is even better," Lily groaned, "now she's reminiscing about their elephant."

"Really starting to feel better about my dating life," Remus muttered.

Harry missed what he'd said as his mother's words caused another level of distraction, now looking dispirited about the whole thing for a whole new reason other than his family's mockery.

Harry felt his insides ice over as Cho kept talking with a higher pitch now, asking if he'd mentioned her before he died.

James had hardly gotten that out before shuddering at the idea of what Cedric's last thought must have been. What his own would have been...He shook himself to clear that away and turned solemn eyes on his son, never having wanted to say more to him but having no place to start.

Harry clearly didn't want to talk about this though, his jaw tightly set and all but glaring at the book for never ceasing to remind him of this when all he really wanted to do was forget it all again. That wasn't going to happen though, the moment he'd realized the thought had crossed his mind he'd even felt ashamed for it, Cedric's death was to be remembered for the same reason his trip to the Mirror of Erised was. Bitter, unattainable pain that pushed him to be better at his own life.

James took a careful breath before continuing quietly, looking forward to this as much as he was hearing more about those escaped prisoners. He had no desire to hear about Harry explaining Cedric's last moments to Cho...

This was the last thing in the world Harry wanted to talk to her about, and he tried to say so, there wasn't much time for him to say anything. Then he asked about what had happened at the latest Tornados game.

"Oh it is far too late for changing the subject," Sirius told him with sympathy while Harry's horror had switched to dread. A huge jumble of emotions leaving him more unclear than ever what he was supposed to be feeling about this moment and Cho in general.

To his horror, he saw that her eyes were swimming with tears again.

"I don't suppose this'll just pass into a relapse of the two of you kissing, and finally a skip scene," Remus pleaded just a bit desperately.

"Fingers crossed," James winced for his poor son.

He desperately leaned in and whispered to her he didn't want to talk about this right now, but this was apparently the exact wrong thing to say.

"Really, why?" Sirius yelped, starting to look jittery as he glanced from Harry to the book, no advice in the world would help him out of this mess.

"Couldn't tell you, thought you were supposed to be telling me that," Harry said miserably, he wanted this to be over already, even more than when it had started somehow.

She got out between stuttering's and the beginnings of tears trickling out she needed to talk about it, didn't he understand? Surely he needed to talk about it too.

Lily started to look affronted for her son. She knew what Cho meant of course, but there was an entirely huge difference in dating Cedric and watching him die. Of course they both needed to talk about it, but not while they were trying to move past it during this moment of the two romantically trying to start up!

Everything was going nightmarishly wrong; Roger Davies's girlfriend had even unglued herself to look round at Cho crying.

"Now's the time you try to take this outside," James winced. "She really is something, dragging this out in public."

"I'm sure by this point what Sirius said is actually some form of true, she's not paying attention to a thing but herself by this point," Remus groaned.

Harry tried to agree in a low whisper sure he did, to Ron and Hermione, but-

Cho turned into shrieks of outrage as she spluttered of course he talked to Hermione Granger!

Harry's mouth gaped open as he vividly remembered this nightmare returning. Now thanks to his mum, he supposed in some skewed way he knew why that would bother her, but it wasn't like that at all! He wouldn't have started screeching if she'd gone and said she'd talked to one of her friends about this, what was the difference? "Why was she bringing this up at all?" Harry hadn't realized he'd demanded that out loud until they all winced for his tone and the baby in Remus' lap fussed uneasily at the sharp voice.

"I'm sorry Harry," Lily sighed, wishing she had a better answer. "My best guess is she was trying to make you sympathize with her to keep your attention, but it's not as if we have insights into her mind, we really are guessing."

Harry nodded morosely, muttering an apology for half yelling at something that was entirely not their fault.

James waited patiently for his son to settle back down in Remus' lap before pressing on with a look clearly saying he'd like to change the subject last page.

Cho gasped he wouldn't talk to her about it? Well then they should just leave and he could go talk to Hermione Granger like he obviously wanted to!

"This is just getting better and better," Sirius sighed.

Harry just looked at her with bewilderment, and wished Roger would seize his girlfriend and starting kissing her again rather than ogling them.

"There's a sentence I've never been privy to," James paused to gaze at that line even if he did sympathize with his son for it.

She told Harry to just leave already, if he was going to make arrangements meeting up with other girls, then even asked how many there were after Hermione?

"That is the most ludicrous thing!" Remus spluttered. "Now I'm wondering if she took something before this outing!"

"She's upset," Lily scolded him, even if she was still more wishing Harry would do more to comfort the girl, it wasn't really his fault both were mutually making this worse.

"She's just shouting nonsense at him now," Remus insisted, "even Sirius was never so loony to pull something like that."

Sirius couldn't decide if he was supposed to be insulted for a moment, but James was going loudly over them, knowing no answer to this would help Harry.

Harry at once said it wasn't like that, and feeling so relieved at finally understanding where her anger had come from, he laughed. A split second to late, he realized this was the worst mistake yet.

"Credit for trying?" Sirius offered, for now ignoring Remus. "I always try to make others laugh in these kinds of situations."

"Merlin help you if you start acting like Sirius in any situation," James rolled his eyes.

Cho sprang to her feet. The whole room was quiet and everybody was watching them now.

"So happy to be of their entertainment for the day," Harry groaned.

"If it's any consolation, you've now set for them how their dates shouldn't go," Sirius clearly thought he was being helpful again, while Harry eyed him with concern since he wasn't sure if Sirius meant this. If he did, maybe his godfather had head trauma.

She dramatically told him she'd see Harry around,

"That about covered this whole instance since you stepped in there," James agreed.

and still crying, stormed outside into the rain.

Harry threw a Galleon on the table before trying to go after her,

"More than I would have done," Sirius rolled his eyes. "That little tabloid needs a chance to cool down."

"Did you just call her a tabloid?" Lily asked in confusion, already feeling insulted on Cho's behalf for whatever he could mean by that.

"Yeah, dramatic and showing off," Sirius grinned like he was being clever.

Remus was too busy watching him in disbelief, and missed Lily's expression saying she wished he'd take another swing.

but she had vanished. Harry didn't understand what had just happened, half an hour ago they'd been getting along just fine.

"Oh how things can change," James agreed, though he said this more with an air of cheer as he glanced adoringly at his wife.

He muttered about women all the way back up the street,

Lily went from grinning at her husband to scoffing at her son, who looked properly sheepish, though in his silent defence there hadn't been a chance his mother would be around to hear that when he'd said it.

muttering about what she'd brought all that up for, who wanted to talk about things that made them a human hosepipe?

"Oh Merlin, he really is acting like Sirius now," Remus groaned, that was too reminiscent of how Sirius came back from failed dates.

"I'm still on Harry's side for this," James frowned at that. "She did seem to bring this on herself."

"Stop, the lot of you," Lily frowned at all of them. "Cho was trying just like Harry was, things got away from them. I still hope they'll patch it up."

Harry grimaced at the idea of this. His liking for Cho, which had always been the smallest part of his memories returning, felt more insignificant than ever, and he really didn't have much feeling for his mother's words other than more dread.

He made it to the Three Broomsticks early, but decided to go in anyways and find someone to chat with until Hermione arrived. He first spotted Hagrid. He looked as miserable as Harry felt though, gazing into his tankard and not even realizing Harry's approach.

While the others had brightened just a bit, Hagrid was always fun to talk to and his departure and even return had only been depressing so far. They were hoping for just a small moment of fun, but this wasn't an encouraging start.

Only Sirius had an idea of why James was looking forward to this least of all. If Hagrid started imparting girl wisdom in his steed, he wasn't sure how long he could fake not being annoyed at it.

When Harry did get his attention, he asked how he was doing, and Hagrid was clearly lying when he said he was fine; next to his still battered appearance, Harry didn't feel he had much to complain about.

"True, his relationship with Maxime seems to be going well," Sirius said brightly. Harry rubbed his face into his hands in exasperation while Remus told him he had a one track mind, Sirius ignoring both of them.

They sat in silence for a few moments, though at least this didn't feel awkward to Harry, until Hagrid spoke up they were both in the same boat.

"Err," Lily muttered in confusion, wondering where Hagrid was going with that, and still somehow wishing for that pleasant chat.

Both outsiders, both orphans.

James's slight scowl turned into a grimace instead. He would have taken being annoyed at being replaced rather than the abrupt reminder of why he would be replaced!

If their parents had lived, things would have been different.

"Yeah," Harry whispered, ducking his head. It was too hard to look at them all for a moment, to realize yet again his living in this moment never should have happened, but by some miracle it had. Hagrid had never been granted such a gift to see his parents again.

Family was important, blood was. He wiped a trickle of it from his eye.

"Oh the poor dear," Lily crooned, feeling her own eyes start to sting. Hagrid did seem a bit off since he'd come back, and she suddenly wondered if this was why! Being surrounded by giants, hearing the fate of his mother, his only relation was dead! She knew Harry often felt like an outsider in the magical world, she often did as well being a muggle-born, Hagrid must have it even worse not truly being apart of any world!

The boys could only awkwardly agree. They felt bad for Hagrid, but anything to say about it felt heartless or lost on them. Only Remus could have possibly sympathized, and he hadn't spoken to anyone about this except his friends, so he wouldn't have dared tried now when Hagrid was clearly in such an off time.

Harry asked where he'd gotten all those injuries?

"I can't even blame you for that one," Sirius said with a hard catch to his voice.

Harry almost wished for his advice back, that was easier to handle than a Sirius who was yet again forced to relive what would happen to his best friend, to his own future, all because of Harry.

Hagrid looked confused at the abrupt change, asking what injuries?

"Those jabs to the heart you keep dishing out," Remus muttered sourly, glad Hagrid wasn't around to hear that, he didn't mean it.

Harry needlessly gestured to his face, and Hagrid brushed off those were just bumps from his job.

"Hagrid's as good as ever managing his secrets," James tried to force more sarcasm to his voice than the edge that was still present.

Then he abruptly left, Harry watching him feeling more miserable than ever. Hagrid was hiding something, and wouldn't accept help, what was going on?

Harry had to concentrate for a moment on remembering to swallow past everything that had happened. He wished he could be of some help to Hagrid, but he also had a really bad feeling for whatever was this notion in him he was sure to understand this eventually.

He couldn't think on it long, as he turned to hear his name called, by Hermione.

She was sitting a few tables away from where Hagrid had just been, with two of the most unlikely drinking buddies, Luna Lovegood and Rita Skeeter.

James spluttered like he'd been clocked in the head by a Bludger! Even Lockhart hadn't thrown him off as badly as this woman making a reappearance!

The other three made much the same noise, this day really couldn't get any stranger could it?

"I have never been happier for Hermione's existence!" Sirius declared. "I need an explanation for this Prongs, now!"

It still took him a few moments to find his tongue and continue. He hadn't expected to ever hear from this woman again, or if she had crossed his mind he'd have liked to think her in a cart load of trouble, not having a drink back at Hogwarts!

Hermione greeted him that he was early, and wasn't expecting him for another half hour.

"Drama explanations for later, answer for why there's a cockroach at the table now," Sirius insisted, fighting back the urge to snatch the book away from him already.

"I'm going, I'm going," James muttered, only going slower in responding, so Remus elbowed Sirius hard before he could retort.

Rita's attention was caught at once, staring avidly at Harry while confirming this was a girl?

"What if it is a bloke named Cho?" Lily rolled her eyes.

"That would be an even bigger news line, if possible," Harry said deadpan, James shushing them both without looking up.

Hermione snapped it was none of her business. Skeeter at once put back her Quick-Quotes Quill she'd been reaching for, looking like she'd been force fed Stinksap.

"Now there's an idea," Remus couldn't stop himself snickering at the idea, though quickly stopped at Sirius' glare.

Harry asked what his friend was up to.

"Finally," Sirius yelped, James taking a moment to look at him in exasperation for still managing to delay this further.

Skeeter told Little Miss Perfect had been fixing to explain that upon his arrival, before waspishly asking if she was allowed to even talk to him?

Hermione coolly responded she supposed.

Unemployment had not been suiting Rita. Her once elaborate curls hung lank, her nails were chipped, and there were some jewels missing from her glasses.

Lily didn't care how mean spirited her giggle was, the woman deserved it with all she'd done.

While Hermione was distracted, Skeeter leaned in close and whispered to Harry if she'd been pretty?

Hermione snapped one more word about his love life and the deal was off.

"What deal?" All four of them said in exasperation.

James looked up slowly from the book, saying clearly, "well if you'd stop interrupting me, maybe we'd know by now!"

Remus ignored him and instead started speculating with that little bit, "Hermione's not really going to let Rita out from under her thumb, I can't imagine what would be worth it!"

"There's not going to be a time that's possible," Lily scoffed. "Hermione will always have the first word of Rita's secret."

"I can't believe Skeeter hasn't fixed this herself by now," Sirius said with puzzlement. "It's been plenty of time, surely she's at least started the process of registering herself as an animagus."

"I thought she was still in a jar in her dorm and never got the chance," James pouted even if he knew it not to be true, Hermione had said she was going to release her, but he could enjoy the idea in the meantime. Then he cursed at himself for playing along when he'd wanted to keep going.

"Maybe Prongs has a point," Remus agreed, "Hermione could have dumped Skeeter in the middle of nowhere, made it a real hassle for her to be doing anything to do with the Ministry in the meantime."

"Eh," Sirius said, unsatisfied with this answer, but it was the only one they were going to get as James kept going.

Rita demanded what deal? Oh one of these days, she trailed off with a threatening huff.

"She says that like it's supposed to be so intimidating," Harry rolled his eyes. Even at her worst, Harry had only ever been outraged at her for further inconveniencing his life and making Hagrid's life more miserable, but never to the level Skeeter clearly found herself of menacing.

Hermione said with indifference yes, one of these days Skeeter would go back to writing horrible stories, but to find someone who cared about that.

All five of them got a laugh out of that, finally, this whole chapter had felt like a walking disaster, so this was a brilliant relief to them all.

Skeeter slickly responded the Prophet was running plenty of stories without her help, then turned to Harry and whispered how that made him feel? Betrayed, misunderstood?

Angry, Hermione answered for him.

"Usually Hermione answering for people drives me nuts," Lily grinned, "but somehow she's made this time funny."

"Circumstances," Harry shrugged, he'd had no problem Hermione deflecting this for him.

He'd told the truth and they'd called him a nut instead.

Skeeter said of course they had, he'd screamed You-Know-Who was back and was the sole witness with no other standing other than Dumbledore.

Harry snapped back he wasn't the sole witness, there had been a dozen Death Eaters their as well, then asked if she'd like their names?

Rita said she'd love them, again reaching eagerly for her bag and looking at Harry as if the most beautiful thing ever.

James rolled his eyes in disgust even if Skeeter finally was doing something they approved of. She certainly wasn't going to be able to spin it in the way it should be, leaving them still baffled as to why she was there.

She even began writing the paper as she took out ink and parchment, muttering the headline Potter Accuses, subheading of Harry Potter naming respectable and prominent members...

"Yep, there it is," Lily said in clipped tones. Even Skeeter managed to make the actual truth into a spectacle. It was a gift, if a waste of one.

Then she froze and turned acidic eyes back on Hermione, stating but of course Little Miss Perfect wouldn't want that.

Hermione responded sweetly that's exactly what Little Miss Perfect wanted.

"Don't indulge her Hermione!" Remus scolded.

"The name, which I can't even deny is a little funny, or the idea?" James arched a brow at the book.

"Both," Sirius had his head cocked to the side as he tried to wrap his head around where Hermione was going with this.

Rita and Harry gaped at her, while Luna was sitting back in her seat, humming Weasley is our King, and apparently paying no attention.

"Hey!" James yelped in outrage. "I thought Luna liked Ron!"

"Maybe she really does wish he were her King," Sirius inserted, though still confused.

Harry had a torn look in place, a bit miffed at Luna as well even having the knowledge she'd never mean it the way Malfoy did. What was it about this song he was so sure shouldn't really be a bad thing? He was sure if Luna was humming it, maybe she'd even added her own lines so they weren't insulting his friend-wait-

The idea was turned off as James kept going, to Harry's relief, as he was starting to feel that all too familiar pounding back in his temple.

Skeeter confirmed Hermione wanted her to write about Harry's report of You-Know- Who's return?

Hermione corrected she wanted Skeeter to tell the truth, all of the facts, exactly as Harry says them.

"But, where's the proof she will?" Lily demanded, clearly thinking she'd found a hole in Hermione's plan even if there was a warm feeling for the idea. "I give her merit, trying to post Harry's story out there, but-"

"Luna's dad!" Sirius yelped with a huge smile, ignoring Lily's scowl he'd cut her off, she should be thanking him. "Remember, he believes Harry, he'd never post anything like Skeeter was trying for, but he'd put up the truth! And this woman, being the horrid but reputable source she is, puts the credibility as opposed to his other stories," he trailed off with a brilliant smile.

Lily found the plan so ingenious she even stopped scowling at Sirius.

"That's brilliant," Remus breathed, watching the grin unfurl on Harry's face. "That's, wow! Wait, what even made her think of this so much later?"

"Who cares," James said in a sing song voice, grinning boyishly. Finally something was going right for Harry!

Remus was still blasted as he remembered it was Hermione seeing those ten Death Eaters that somehow prompted this, though he wasn't clear how she'd connected all those dots to this, but he wasn't going to knock the idea either so let it go. He was still just a teensy bit worried, vividly remembering the cock and bull about Sirius for one that had so gotten their hopes up for the briefest moment. He wasn't entirely sure how this was going to help Harry, how far could Skeeter's word really stretch?

Harry would tell her everything that happened the night Voldemort had returned, Rita jumping so badly at the name she spilled Firewhiskey down herself.

"My new favorite reaction," Remus nodded, his eyes still wide from shock.

Skeeter told Hermione the Prophet would never run it.

Sirius' grin took a hard edge, nearly predator like from this woman clearly not having learned her lesson, still trying to talk like this about his godson. They weren't even there and they'd realized where Hermione was going with this before that woman had, shows how smart she really was compared to that 'silly little girl.'

Now if she could write the story from her angle, considering how delusional the public found him-

Hermione snapped they didn't need another story about how Harry'd lost his marbles! He needed the truth.

Rita scolded there was no market in the truth.

Hermione said irritably the Prophet only printed what Fudge wanted them to?

"Finally someone says it out loud," Lily scoffed.

Rita gave Hermione a long, hard look. Then, leaning forward across the table towards her, she said in a businesslike tone,

"Well that's a new one," James scrunched up his nose at this woman trying to act like a professional instead of what she really was.

that yes, Fudge was a heavy hand in what was printed, but the fact remained the same, no one wanted to hear You-Know-Who was back.

"And pandering to that idea makes it all better," Remus said acidly.

Hermione said scathingly the Daily Prophet only existed to tell people what they wanted to hear?

"It used to not," James said in disgust, still having the urge to discontinue his own even when they hadn't started doing this yet. Just knowing they one day would because of whatever means Fudge was using was revolting enough to him.

Skeeter said back the Prophet existed to sell itself, calling Hermione a silly girl.

"Oh so we're back to calling her that now," Lily said through gritted teeth.

"I note the change happened after Hermione made her point," James sniffed.

Luna finally piped up then her dad found that an awful paper, he published what he thought people should know about important things, he didn't care about making money.

Rita was not impressed, asking if her father worked for some stupid towns letter then? Twenty-Five ways to Mingle with Muggles?

"I want to subscribe to that now," Sirius said flatly. Harry couldn't help a grin at him doing such a thing out of spite, even if he admired the idea of why.

Luna corrected The Quibbler.

Rita started laughing so loud, people looked around in alarm.

All five of them almost cracked a smile for such a reaction, though perhaps not a kind one, to be in on such a joke. They didn't like agreeing with Skeeter, it left a nasty taste to acknowledge for even a second she had a point, but it was still miles better than anything she'd ever conceived.

She calmed down enough to state she could manure a garden with the contents of that rag.

"That's assuming you have a heart long enough to keep anything alive," Lily sneered.

Hermione inserted this was her chance to give it a boost then.

Skeeter let out another whoop of laughter as she realized Hermione wanted Potter's story taken seriously in The Quibbler!

"They did take my name at The Quibbler," Sirius batted his eyes innocently, Harry starting to laugh as hard as Rita just had much to the others exasperation at wondering why Harry still did.

Hermione insisted people would give it a chance. The Prophet's account had left too many holes, people would still be looking for a real source of information, even from a, she paused and looked sideways at Luna, finishing even from an unusual magazine.

The others couldn't help joining in on Harry's suddenly giggly mood. Too long they'd been hearing nothing but disaster and pain on him, yet finally Hermione had wrangled together something of far more use than they'd yet seen anyone else trying to do!

Skeeter remained quiet for a long moment before grudgingly stating what if she did it? What would she be paid?

Luna answered nothing, people offered stories to her dad's paper for honor.

Rita again seemed to find that Stinksap smell in her mouth.

"Please continue giving them ideas," Lily giggled, noting how all the Marauders got a particular look on their face for this description.

Demanding that she was to do this for free?!

Hermione agreed easily she would do just that, or she'd find herself with an insider's knowledge of Azkaban with a nice big Prophet article of her own covering her unregistered Animagus status.

That jab was harder to laugh at for the reminder of James and Sirius' own current problem, making them all the more glad they'd never incurred Hermione's wrath at any time.

Rita looked as though she would have liked nothing more than to seize the umbrella sticking out of Hermione's drink and thrust it up her nose.

"I'm sure many people would stand in line to see," Lily rolled her eyes. "Isn't it nice to underestimate people."

Through gritted teeth, she finally stated she had no choice, and finally did take her writing things out.

Luna said her dad would be pleased cheerfully.

Hermione turned to Harry and asked if he was ready to tell the public the truth?

"I would like to take a moment to recognize Hermione just, volunteering you for this," James frowned at this. He'd just had a big problem with Cho because she'd just assumed Harry would want to talk to someone about this, now here was Hermione foisting the same thing on him.

Lily couldn't help but agree rather sourly, "you've hardly spoken a word of this to them at all after the first night, she really is putting you on the spot even with the best of intentions."

Harry considered for a moment, really thinking why he wasn't angry. "I suppose, Hermione wasn't, you know, pushing me to do this, you know. If I'd said I wasn't ready, well she wouldn't have been happy and would have badgered me to do this because it's the right thing," he acknowledged after seeing their skeptical faces, "and I trust her, so even though it was hard to talk about it again to someone I didn't even like, well finally being able to push back like this felt, right." He finished triumphantly, before his brow creased and he really thought out, "Cho just sprung it on me, and so did Hermione, but at least my friend knows where I'm coming from, and she won't start crying over it," he finished with a bit of a shudder, causing Sirius to suppress a snort that was what Harry was so on one particular side with.

James hummed in agreement before finishing, simply thinking Hermione will be Hermione.

Harry agreed without much enthusiasm as the Quick-Quotes Quill was set in front of Rita again.

"Well that was done," James announced, happily tossing the book along to Sirius.

HPHPHPHP

*I'm really not going into further details about this guy's, not even in the next book. The idea of who gave Harry 'the talk' had been on my mind since the third book when Cho showed up, but to be perfectly honest I was never given 'the talk' either, I didn't exactly grow up in a conventional household and was never sat down about this. I figured it out as I went along and grew up, though I had access to the internet which wasn't something Harry was privy to, I figured this is as good an explanation as anyone's going to get so let's leave this one be.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #The life that Never LIved #Marauders #Jilly #James Potter #remus Lupin #Siruis Black #Lily Potter

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