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omgrachwrites · 3 years

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The Princess and The Duke - Chapter Seven

Pairing: Sirius Black x Reader

Summary: As the Princess of Spain, you were always supposed to marry King James of England to make an alliance between Spain and England. When he marries a woman at his court for love, you are married off to his best friend, Sirius Black the Duke of Bedford to keep the alliance. However, the court is riddled with secrets and a rebel in the North starts to rise against the Throne. Royal AU.

Warnings: fluff, angst

Words: 2527

Disclaimer: This gif doesn’t belong to me!

A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this part, please let me know what you think and let me know if you would like to be tagged! I love you all! xxx

Chapter Seven - You Must Love Me

The sun was just rising as you took a deep breath and took another leisurely stroll around the expansive beautiful grounds. You shuddered in the cool early morning air as you placed your hands on your stomach, smiling slightly. For the past couple of days you had made an extra effort to wake up early, before you had to do your duty to the Queen and before Sirius woke up. You had always managed to return to your chambers while your husband was still deeply in the land of sleep.

You didn’t want him to worry, a long walk just made you feel so much more comfortable and it seemed to calm the child that had been growing inside you for the past couple of months. You hadn’t even told Sirius that he was going to be a father – though you knew he would be delighted – and you certainly hadn’t told the Queen. You were waiting for the right time.

You sighed happily as you dipped your feet in the cool water of the stream that ran through the grounds as you watched the sun rise, splashing pink all over the white sky, it was a beautiful sight to behold. You were contented with watching the sky for a few minutes before you decided to retire to your chambers.

Sirius was already awake when you got there and he was standing in front of the golden looking glass with an open shirt as he got ready for his day. As the door closed behind you, your husband glanced at you and he gave you a warm smile. You gulped as you tightly smiled in return, a strong sense of guilt washing over you.

“Good morning beautiful, where have you been?” he asked as he walked over to you, pressing a gentle kiss against your lips.

He didn’t look angry, he just looked curious, “good morning,” you smiled, “I was just taking a couple of turns around the grounds.”

“Couldn’t you sleep?” Sirius asked and you decided that now was as good a time as any to tell him.

“I couldn’t because I was uncomfortable, because,” you hesitated biting your lip, “I’m pregnant and it’s hard to get comfortable with a baby growing inside me,” you smiled fondly at your stomach, you were so happy. You were ready to be a mother.

Sirius gasped, his eyes growing wide before he grinned and ran to you, scooping you up in his arms, making you giggle as he spun you around and kissed you, “I’m going to be a father! We’re going to be a family. I’m the happiest man in all of England, no, I’m the happiest man in the world!” he pulled back to look at you, his eyes brimming with tears, “I love you, Y/N.”

You beamed and kissed him as he placed you back on the ground, cupping his face, “I love you too.”

“When did you find out?” Sirius smiled as he took your hands, bringing them to his lips, making you smile.

“About a month ago, I knew something was amiss when my monthly course didn’t come. The doctor confirmed that I was with child, I would have told you sooner but I know that you’ve been working incredibly hard for King and country, and I didn’t want to distract you from your work too much,” you smiled, you still felt a little worried about telling the Queen, you weren’t entirely sure how she would react to the news.

Sirius shook his head as he kissed your forehead gently, “you don’t have to worry about distracting me,” he pulled back to look you in the eye, “but I can tell that you’re worried about something. What is it sweetheart? Please tell me.”

You sighed as you pulled away from your husband and you rubbed your hands over your face as you sat on the edge of the bed, “how am I going to break this to Lily? When shall I break it to her?”

Sirius bit his lip as he got on his knees in front of you and took your hands, “I think you should tell her today. The festival starts today, maybe she’ll be in a good enough mood for you to tell her, but you have to tell her Y/N,” you nodded and kissed his cheek, you knew that he was right.

A couple of hours later you were brushing out Lily’s flaming red curls as you helped her get ready for the festival. It was all happening on the front lawn, there was to be musicians, dancers and fortune tellers, it was going to be a beautiful, exciting day. However, dread still sat in the pit of your stomach like a rock; you still hadn’t told Lily that you were pregnant.

How could you tell her, when she was having trouble conceiving a child? But as it turned out, you wouldn’t have to say anything, “Y/N, are you alright?” she asked, catching your eye in the mirror, “is Sirius being awful?”

“No! No, of course not,” you hesitated, taking a deep breath, “I’m pregnant your Majesty.”

There was a second when your blood ran cold because all Lily did was stare at you. You finally relaxed when Lily grinned in delight and turned to face you as she processed your words, “you are? Oh, Y/N! That is simply wonderful; you’re going to have a baby! Congratulations,” she pulled you into a tight hug and you relaxed into her arms.

It felt like a great weight had been lifted off your shoulders, “thank you, Your Majesty,” you held onto the Queen tightly, burying your face into her sweet smelling hair.

When Lily pulled away her emerald green eyes were rather misty and she smiled at you kindly. She must have seen the great look of relief on your face, “were you nervous to tell me?”

You flushed and nodded, deciding that it was better to be truthful, “I was,” you admitted.

Lily smiled as she held your hands, “oh, Y/N, you really had no reason to be. Mine and James’ time will come but this time is for you and Sirius, and I’m so excited for you both.”

You could tell she was sincere and you smiled, “thank you, Your Majesty.”

Lily nodded, “of course, now let’s get down to the festival, we shouldn’t keep everyone waiting.”

It was an exceptionally beautiful day, the sun was warm and pleasant as you, Lily and Sophia walked across the front lawn. It was like something from a pretty summer dream. You grinned as you greeted Sirius with a kiss, King James also congratulated you on your pregnancy, though he looked rather melancholy as he did so. There were so many fantastic things to see and do, there were delicious foods from far off lands and Sirius especially enjoyed the best Gin that London had to offer. He offered you some but you refused, you wanted your baby to be as healthy as possible.

Sometime in the afternoon, Lily stole you away from your husband and linked arms with you, leading you over to where a wordsmith was creating a sonnet. The sonnet was about a beautiful Queen who had been kissed by fire and a beautiful Princess who spoke in a pretty foreign tongue. It was all very charming.

“Y/N!” Lily gasped “there’s a fortune teller!” she giggled and the wordsmith was quite forgotten as Lily pulled you over to the table. You thought that fortune tellers were charlatans.

Lily beamed as she sat opposite Madam Trelawney, a small woman with huge spectacles. As soon as Trelawney took Lily’s hand a dark shadow passed over her face and she went rigid, “you will have a child,” Lily gasped with delight, “but you will never see him grow old, I see a man, a hooded man, a snake and a traitor! A traitor!” she wailed.

Lily gasped with terror, “that’s enough!” she pulled away her hand and Trelawney’s face relaxed and it looked like she was coming out of a trance.

You knew that Trelawney was a charlatan, it made you angry, fortune telling and magic was merely a charade to trick the vulnerable. Before you could diminish the Queen’s worries she let out a little sob before running back up into the castle.

You felt your blood boil, it was cruel to get Lily’s hopes up and then cut them down, “you should go,” you said curtly to Trelawney before going after your Queen.

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Sirius raced down the castle hallways as he hurried to the King’s council meeting, he couldn’t believe that he was late. He knew that James wouldn’t really care that much but Lucius Malfoy was insufferable and he liked to manipulate the King. Malfoy was only on the council because he was a rich, powerful man with an army and the King preferred to keep Malfoy on their side so he wouldn’t send his army against them.

It had been such a pretty morning, the sunshine had shone through the linen curtains, casting the room in gold light and Sirius woke up with his arms around his wife. He was so happy that Y/N was pregnant; he didn’t know what it was but watching her walk around knowing she was pregnant with his child made him want her even more. He had lost track of time.

As Sirius reached the door to the council chambers he heard the Lords arguing over something and Lucius Malfoy’s was the clearest one of all. Sirius looked through the ajar door to see James leaning back, his fingers folded on the table as he watched his Lords argue, a slight look of amusement on his face. Malfoy was standing up with his hands flat on the table and he glared over at Remus. Sirius started with a jolt when he saw how angry Remus looked.

Sirius slipped into the room and James glanced at him with a look of relief on his face, “sorry I’m late your Majesty, I was with Y/N,” he admitted and Malfoy scowled over at him.

James bit his lip as he sat up straight, “is she alright?”

Sirius nodded and looked at him knowingly, “yes she’s just sick.”

Malfoy scoffed, drawing Sirius’ attention as he glared at Sirius, it looked like his cold eyes were on fire, “can we please get back to the business at hand?” he banged on the table lightly.

“Which is what, Malfoy? Maybe you should both sit down, you’re making a show of yourselves,” Sirius heard Remus sigh as he sat down and Malfoy reluctantly followed suit, hissing through his teeth.

“Your brother has been in Cumbria for the past couple of months and we haven’t heard a word from him, who knows what havoc is going on up there? How do we know he hasn’t joined them?” Sirius bit back a laugh at Malfoy’s words, he knew that Malfoy wasn’t worried about his King or his country, he was only worried about himself, “we need to send another spy up.”

“Maybe we do,” James agreed, “but it won’t be you Malfoy, no matter how many times you bring it up, I will not give you leave to go up to Cumbria,” James made a smart move, he couldn’t afford to lose so much power. “Duchess Y/N has also sent some of her father’s men up there and we haven’t had any more news of trouble since.”

“We can’t trust them, we can’t trust any man who isn’t our own,” Malfoy mused and his allies nodded as he looked over at Sirius, “you go. King James trusts you with his life, Black. So, you go.”

Sirius clenched his jaw, it was true that they had had no news of trouble since Regulus left; Regulus sent him a letter telling him that all was well. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t still some danger brewing, “I can’t go.”

Malfoy let out a cold cruel laugh, “why not? Do you not want to do your service for your King and your country?”

Malfoy was really getting on his nerves, one more word from him and Sirius would have no choice but to lean over the table and show Malfoy what he really thought of him, “because my wife is pregnant! Unless there is war there is no way that I’m leaving her side,” Malfoy scowled and looked away, folding his arms, “I’ve had word from Regulus; he tells me that all is well, in Cumbria at least. We still have our own fair share of enemies.”

James nodded, “then that will have to be enough for now, if we hear of any more trouble I will send another spy up but it won’t be you Malfoy.”

The rest of the council meeting continued without a hitch, the French King had sent a letter to James, proposing a summit where they could sign a treaty in a couple of months. By the time the council meeting was over, Sirius was hell bent on seeing his wife, he wanted to kiss her and wrap his arms around her and just forget about how much he hated Lucius Malfoy. He found her in their chambers taking a bath and Sophia was by her side. When Sophia noticed Sirius she curtseyed to him before leaving the room.

Sirius smiled as he removed his clothes and got behind his wife in the sweet smelling bath, she hummed happily as he wrapped his arms around her, his fingers stroking over the swell in her stomach. He couldn’t wait for his child to come; he just hoped that they would be happy and healthy. Y/N giggled as Sirius moved her wet her out of the way and kissed the back of her neck, she turned slightly, her fingers on his jaw as she brushed her lips against his lovingly. Sirius sighed against her mouth, he loved her so much.

“How was the council meeting my love?” she asked, running her fingers up and down his arm slowly and gently.

Sirius sighed as he held back a sigh, “Malfoy was being insufferable as usual, he was trying to make James send him up to Cumbria, you know what he’s like, he will always look out for himself. When James refused to send him, Malfoy turned it all on me, said that I should go.”

Y/N tensed up and Sirius could feel the worry almost radiating off of her, “what did you say? Are you going?”

Sirius made a small noise as he pulled her closer, holding her tightly, “I promised that I would stay by your side and I intend to keep that promise. Unless we go to war with Scotland or France then I’ll be right here by your side.”

At his words, Y/N relaxed into his chest, “I love you Sirius and I can’t wait until we have our baby.”

“I love you too my darling,” he kissed the back of your neck, “I’m counting down the days,” when James had offered Sirius up as an alternative match for the Spanish Princess, he couldn’t foresee just how happy she would make him.

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@smiithys @elayneblack @amelie-black @siriuslyjanhvi @pregnant-piggy @lindatreb @mabelle-cherie @hxrgreeves @britishspidey @mads-bri @classicrocketqueen @sxtansqueen @hufflepuffzutara @missmulti @bruxa0007 @ourstarsailor @fific7 @galwithbluethoughts @2410slb @sunles @krismeunicornbaobei

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futurebicon · 4 years

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While I work on a longer fic I decided I would share some headcanons I had about our boys

Mentions of child abuse, anxiety, depression, foster care, injury

Sirius has social anxiety, like bad social anxiety but because of his upbringing he’s master hiding it.

Sometimes it’s gotten so bad that it made him get physically sick.

Remus is really the only one who knows about his anxiety. And he’s also the only thing that can calm him down.

Sirius also has bad depression. He refused to tell Remus about it until Remus found his anti-depressants one day. He’s so scared of people finding out it’s not even in his medical records.

All of the Cubs also have depression from having to hide their sexuality. Leo has it the worst out of the three of them and it still sometimes hits him.

The reason Dumo adopts everyone and makes sure that they all have somewhere to go is because he was raised in foster care after his parents abandoned him at 7 years old.

He never wants any of them to feel the way he did.

Adele Dumais is bi.

Sirius cried watching Call Me By Your Name. (So did the Cubs)

The entire team cried watching The Notebook and Titanic

To this day they will still randomly launch into a rant about how there was enough room on the door.

The reason Sirius has such a long routine and it has so many different parts is because he started doing it when his depression and anxiety got bad or his parents where worse than usual.

Remus still gets pain in his shoulder from Greyback.

The team destroyed Greyback when they played his team.

Remus acted like he was bad at them for it but was also really greatful.

Remus has anxiety from Greybacks attack. He jumps everytime someone puts a hand on his shoulder or bumps into it. He panics badly when someone corners him. Even if it’s just when he’s in between two walls in the PT room and someone walks up to him to ask for something.

But like Sirius he’s good at hiding it.

Sirius loves Julian. He asks Remus all the time to invite his family up and when they’re there he helps Julian practice on his rink.

Remus’s heart explodes everytime he sees it.

Sirius always pecks Remus’s lips when he gets on or off the ice.

If Sirius is off the ice for a while Remus rests his chin on his shoulder.

The fans think that the two of them are adorable.

A lot of them have told them that they changed their views on homosexuality.

When the Cubs come out so many other poly couples come out as well and thank them for making polygamy a more common thing.

As much as James loves his blue Gatorade he has no idea what flavor it actually is. It’s just...blue Gatorade.

The entire team has ADHD. Like, all of them. Ranging in severity from James level to Remus level.

Sirius doesn’t seem like he has ADHD because his parents.

But he definitely is.

Remus sees it the most and is glad that he’s comfortable enough to fidget or rant about his interests to him or talk so fast Remus has no idea what he’s saying.

He also fidgets with his necklace a lot.

Lily and Nat are bi (?)

The team argues over the stupidest stuff all the time. They’re biggest fight to date is the debate over whether or not water is wet.

“Water is a noun. Wet is an adjective. Nouns describe adjectives. Adjectives are not nouns. You don’t go to the ocean and say ‘Wow that’s a really wet ocean.’ Water in and of itself is not wet. Water makes you wet. Fire isn’t burn, fire burns things. Wet is a form of being. Water is what causes the being”

They didn’t talk for 3 days.

Remus is actually a really good artist

Sirius can sing. Like sing-sing and play guitar.

He started strumming his guitar when some of the team was over. He forgot they were there and started singing.

James took a video of it and posted it on Instagram. Sirius beat him up with a shoe.

Logan has the most sensitive neck in the world. Like a simple kiss makes him moan.

The boys use it to torture him constantly. If they’re in the locker room they’ll kiss it, Logan has to bite his cheek to keep quiet.

They’ll also bite it in the locker room. Logan feels like he’s going to combust when they do.

They can never just make out because while ones kissing them the others on their neck.

And Logan is L-O-U-D

Leo and Finn love it so it always turns into more.

Sirius takes Remus’s last name when they get married, saying that it will finally free him from his family.

He changes it for his hockey jersey as a final fuck you to his parents. The fact that it wasn’t their name at the top of the NHL best players list.

When Sirius and Remus get married Sirius gets baby fever, like badly.

He’s tried to take Harry multiple times.

Everytime he sees a baby in the crowd, especially baby girls he points them out to Remus and tells him he wants one.

“I want that one.”

“Sirius you can’t steal that baby it’s illegal.”

“But I want one”

Remus always responds with “Later” Sirius kisses his cheek and says that he wants one sooner than letter.

They eventually do start the adoption process and adopt a 7 month old baby girl.

They name her Avyanna Verena Lupin

Sirius’s biggest fear now is turning into his parents.

Everytime he says something to her that his parents told him, even if it’s a normal parenting thing. Or anytime he shouts at her because she’s doing something bad or dangerous Remus holds him as he cried that night.

Remus is scared that Sirius fear of this will grow worse the older Avyanna gets.

The team adores all the baby’s.

Sirius teaches her how to skate the second shes able to stand. She skates by herself before she walks by herself.

Family skate is much more fun when you have your own kid.

@lumosinlove

I might make another if I get anymore ideas but I thought I would upload this until my longer fic is done. Please continue to send in more asks. The ideas you have are amazing.

#lumosinlove #sweater weather #oknutzy #coops

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accioxreparo · 4 years

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the Talk | g.w.

part one // baby fever | part two // the Talk

synopsis: You and George did everything young. It was only fitting that you two talk about having kids when you did.

pairing: George Weasley x reader

warnings: brief mentions of the war, a touch of angst but mostly fluff

a/n: wow this is ended up being so much longer than originally planned. I really wanted to get in more backstory though so here we are. Let me know what you guys think about the format cause...I kinda like this little hybrid thing?

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You and George did everything young.

You had just turned 13 years old when the two of you went on your first date.

It was the summer before your third year and the two of you snuck out one night to go to a festival happening in a neighboring muggle town. You still have the moon shaped necklace George had bought you that day. He still has the sun shaped one you bought him. The gifts weren’t planned but it was the first time you saw how truly perfect the two of you were together.

You had your first kiss a few weeks later the day you returned to Hogwarts. It was in one of the courtyards and there was nobody else around. Now the details of it were a little fuzzy but you could still remember the awkwardness of it all.

The first time you talked about getting married was at 16.

It was more playful than anything else. You’d both drunk just a bit too much firewhiskey during the post-Yule Ball party thrown in one of the abandoned rooms. You’d toppled over together on one of the couches in the common room and you found yourself giggling when you saw how George was staring at you. “What are you thinking about?”

He had pulled you on top of him, resting his hands on your hips as he peppered kisses all over your face. Finally he pressed a soft kiss on your lips and gave you a dopey sort of grin.

“About how pretty you look. And about how one day we’re going to be dancing just like we did today but you’ll be wearing this huge, puffy white dress that you can’t stand but that you wore because my mum said you looked like a princess in it. And I’ll be wearing my fanciest dress robes or maybe a normal suit. Either way it won’t matter because I won’t look anywhere near as good as you will.”

You had smiled and kissed him again, a little longer this time. When you pulled away your forehead rested on his and you both had to resist the urge to just forget the conversation and continue the kiss. “That’s a wedding you’re talking about, Georgie.”

“I know,” He had said it with complete ease. “We’re going to have one of those for us one day.”

It was only a few months later, now at the age of 17, when George decided he was going to ask you to marry him for real.

Ever since the end of the Triwizard tournament he’d been filled with this nauseating feeling that nothing, absolutely nothing at all, was guaranteed.

The events of that day were stuck in his mind. He could remember the feeling of you shaking in his arms as you cried upon finding out Cedric had died. He could remember being confused at your reaction until you told him the two of you had been friends once but you couldn’t remember the last time you had a real conversation with him

It was with a completely clear mind that he got out of bed at precisely 6:21 AM and wandered through the house until he found his mother sitting at the kitchen table reading the newest edition of the Daily Prophet.

“Can I talk to you?” George had asked before she got the chance to say anything.

Molly had immediately grown concerned by the much too serious look on his face. Not to mention the fact that he’d never once asked a question like that. Nonetheless she still put down the paper, smiled softly, and put her full attention on him. “Absolutely, dear.”

“What if I,” George had avoided all eye contact, instead focusing on fiddling with the hem of his shirt, one he’d only just stolen back from you. The thought made him smile, giving him the courage he needed to finish asking his question. “What if I asked Y/N to marry me?”

That definitely hadn’t been what Molly was expecting him to say. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t see it coming though. For six years now she’d seen the way he was around you. For four years you’d been tied at the hip, bringing out the best in each other. This felt like just the right step. “Well you’re both of age now if that’s what you want to do.”

“But what do you think about it?” That was the part he was really nervous for. “I don’t want to wait any longer. After everything that happened this year I just want something I know is good and real. Something that,” His voice is softer then, more vulnerable. It surprises even himself. “Something that nobody else can take away from me.”

And Molly understands completely. She’s been there before, seen all of this happen once already. There’s not a single part of her that wants to argue because she trusts and believes in both him and you wholeheartedly.

So she gently rests a hand on top of George’s, which are still pulling at his shirt, and he looks up to see her smiling at him. “I think it’s a wonderful idea.”

He asked you that same night.

He actually didn’t even make it halfway through breakfast before telling Fred, Ron, and Ginny, all of whom were completely ecstatic. They loved you after all.

The four of them had been bouncing ideas off each other all day long while Molly had disappeared into the attic to dig through a bunch of boxes, not telling any of them what she was looking for.

They’ve got no less than five different speeches and approaches planned by the time Arthur gets home from work. Nobody can get the news out fast enough and though he’s a little surprised, he expresses his own joy at the news. He helps them brainstorm and soon they have a sixth plan thought out.

“When are you gonna do it then?” Ginny is the one who asked excitedly. “Don’t know. Soon I guess,” George glances at the time and stands up. “Actually supposed to meet her at some place in London in a few.”

He disappeared up the stairs to find where he left the address you’d given him and just as he’s found it Molly walks into the room.

She hands him the object she’d been searching for. A ring with a diamond in the middle and golden flowers laced all around the band. One she says has been passed down through the Prewett family for as long as anyone can remember.

He takes it with a soft thank you and a smile telling her it’s perfect as he pockets it, too afraid to leave it lying around.

When he gets to the address you gave him he’s a little surprised when he finds you sitting on the sidewalk with a book in your hands. It’s with an amused grin that you pull out your wand and before he knows it a building is appearing out of nowhere. You tell him it’s 12 Grimmauld Place, the House of Black, and that’s where you’ve been for a few days now helping Sirius, Remus, and Tonks fix it up

The entire time he’s there, exploring the rooms and wandering the halls beside you, the ring lies in his pocket and it feels heavy, as if reminding him it’s there.

He actually didn’t mean to ask you when he did.

You were right there though and the ring was in his pocket and he couldn’t think of anything else.

You were both curled up on the couch in the living room. There was that familiar light, a glint in your eyes that he absolutely adored seeing and you were telling him a story about what had happened the day before while at Tonks place with a huge smile on your face and he just couldn’t help himself.

“What are you thinking about?” You asked him again when you found him staring at you, much like that night just a few months ago. This time, though, you were both completely clear headed.

“About how I want to ask you to marry me.”

That caught your attention. Almost immediately you felt butterflies grow in your stomach and slowly you sat up, turning to face him. George was completely serious. You were at a strange loss for words. “You - I - what?”

He gave a soft laugh at the confused look on your face and sat up himself, pulling the ring out of his pocket as he did so.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I don’t know what to feel because after the tournament it's like every moment is fleeting. Everything suddenly feels temporary and that scares me. There’s only one thing I do know and that’s that I don’t want this, us, to be temporary. Every single thing that I feel for you, that’s all real. It always has been. I want to be with you for as long as you’ll have me, I’ve never been more certain of anything else in my life. Will you marry me, Y/N?”

“I-” You’re at a loss for words and also painfully aware of three very shocked people standing in the doorway of the room. Despite the surprise you know your answer right away. You’re absolutely positive this is what you want too. “Yes.”

George hadn’t been planning to ask then and he hadn’t really thought of how he would react. So he can’t help but be happily surprised when you agree. “What?”

“Yes, you tosser,” You laugh and happily kiss him, effectively bringing him back down to earth, though he swears he’s still dreaming. It seems too good to be true. “I’ll marry you.”

The memory of you two getting engaged isn’t just of you two in the living room of 12 Grimmauld Place. It’s also of Sirius and Tonks shouting and jumping around in excitement before either of you can get another word out and of Remus scolding them both about ruining your moment.

It’s your favorite memory of them.

Especially because less than a year later, still at only 17, just a couple days before your birthday and a month before you’re to be married, Sirius died.

He was perhaps one of the only people you had never once doubted. All it took was you giving him wide, puppy dog eyes and he was immediately rendered incapable of lying to you, a fact even he found amusing.

He and Remus were both named your godfathers for a reason and you knew that very well. Even as a child you would brave the halls of Azkaban just to go see him no matter how much Remus didn’t want you to. He couldn’t argue with you, though, because he always ended up giving in much too easily.

You trusted Sirius with your life and he’d wasted too many years inside that prison and maybe that was why you had asked him to walk you down the aisle. To remind him of what was good and pure and happy.

He never got that reminder. Instead you were burying him the weekend after your birthday.

George had been at a loss about how to comfort you over Cedric’s death and he was at an even bigger loss now. He himself had grown rather close to Sirius over the last few months while spending late nights awake with the two of you and struggled to deal with the news of his death alongside you.

You guys have a strong support system though. There’s never a moment either of you is alone and you know that. It hurts to have to move on but you do.

If anything you’re more certain than ever before that this, your wedding, marrying George is exactly what you want.

So you do it. At 18, a month after the date you had originally planned, you and George get married.

It happens in the large backyard of the cottage you’d grown up in with Remus. It’s late summer and the tree in the backyard is covered in blossoms and you could not have imagined a more perfect place to have your wedding.

The ceremony and reception were meant to be small and intimate and they are but they also end up more extravagant than you could’ve imagined. You find out as all the decor and outfits and food is arriving that Sirius had taken the liberty of getting you and George only the absolute best.

You’re sure you’re handling the last surprise you have from him well until the day before the wedding. You’re in the backyard alongside Molly, Tonks, Ginny, Hermione, Fleur, and Andromeda when you get an unexpected visit from a goblin from Gringotts. He hands you an envelope and a small brown package and tells you that they were given instructions in Sirius’ will to deliver it to you.

You break down the moment you open the letter to see loopy handwriting that you recognize immediately

Y/N, I understand that you wanted your wedding to be more about the two of you and less about the decorations. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years it’s that there’s no time like the present. I like to think you’ve picked that up from me and of that I’m proud. Therefore I hope you don’t mind me spicing things up a little. Oh and these are my gift to you because my favorite goddaughter will have the best if I have anything to say about it. And her soon to be husband too I guess and I like him, I really do, but these are mostly for you. Hope you like them as much as I liked picking everything out. -Love, Sirius

Your hands shake as you open the package to find a pair of elaborately engraved wedding bands, the ones you’re to use tomorrow

And you have to laugh because even when he’s not there anymore Sirius really does just know you that well. They’re perfect and you’re positive he knew that when he picked them out. A little card falls out of the envelope and you smile through your tears at his final note to you.

You’re ready.

Everything you and George did you did young so it was tragically fitting when the war came around and you two were only 19 years old

Even now, only a year after everything ended, you remember the plots and the fights and the flashes of light coming at you from every direction.

You remember running for your life and hiding in whatever corner you could. You remember not being sure if your friends were dead or alive.

But most of all you remember everything you lost.

Remus. Tonks. Fred. Sirius. Cedric.

In just a year it seemed like everything had been torn from your hands, your world turned upside down. It took you a while to properly grieve what you lost.

You had George, though.

And yes, there were nights where neither of you could sleep, still clearly hearing the echoing of loud bangs all around you, flinching at even the smallest movements with your wand gripped tightly in your hand, but never once were you alone.

“What are you thinking about?” You ask George one night after a particularly bad nightmare. Your face was stained with dry tears, your eyes bloodshot, and when you spoke your voice was hoarse. He had wrapped you in his arms tightly and held you until you stopped crying. You felt safe with him. It made the nightmare of losing him alongside everybody else that much worse. You wanted to hear his voice. Needed to hear it. Needed to know he was still there.

“About how much I love you,” George had answered honestly, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of your head. “And about how we’re going to be okay.”

You knew how to handle loss now, that was simply a side effect of the war.

Just a few months after the fight at Hogwarts you were taking a position at St. Mungo’s to help those also struggling with everything after the war

Now, a little over a year later, you were spearheading major changes in St. Mungo’s, helping to make all sorts of care more readily available. Everything from providing wolfsbane to those who couldn’t afford the ingredients on their own to support programs for everyone, adults and children alike.

You’d been busy and maybe that’s why you put off having The Talk with George at first. But eventually two weeks passed by and nothing had changed. There was still an ache that filled your body every time you dropped Teddy back off with Andromeda. That weekend when you were all at the Burrow you didn’t even realize you were practically glued to Fleur’s side.

You also don’t notice the way George is watching you every time you hold Vic in your arms. This image of a little toddler running around your apartment with his hair and your eyes keeps playing in his mind and he smiles every time.

It’s not until you two get home late that night that you try to work up the nerve to bring up the topic. You’re sitting on the couch, comfortably leaning against George while some music plays in the background

“What are you thinking about?” George asks when he sees the look on your face. He can read you inside and out and knows you’re conflicted about something. He’s just not too sure what it’s about though he has a vague idea.

You turn to look at him and figure now is as good a time as any to tell him what you’ve been thinking. “About how I want us to have a baby.”

For a second he doesn’t say anything, simply taking a moment to mull over your words. Finally he shifts a little bit so it’s easier to bring you closer. “Y/N, love -”

“I think it’s the right time,” You start talking again before George can continue. “I know you’re trying to expand the shop and I have a ton of things going on at work but I really do think we can do this. I thought it was just cause we’ve been around Teddy and Vic so much lately but it’s more than that. I think it at least warrants a conversation. I can’t imagine making a family with anybody else.”

A silence hangs in the room but its not uncomfortable. Slowly a small, partially amused smile grows on George’s face and he only stares at you as if waiting for you to say something else. “Are you done?”

He watches you nod and bite your lip, a nervous habit you’ve had for as long as he can remember. He reaches forward and gently removes your bottom lip from between your teeth, still holding your face in his hands so you’re looking right at him. Then he kisses you softly and when he pulls away he smiles at the sight of your eyes still closed, a relaxed look on your face.

“I was actually going to agree with you since I’ve been thinking the same thing.” George admits, laughing as you beam up at him excitedly. “As long as you’re ready to do this I think it’s worth trying.”

Honestly you weren’t sure what you were expecting. Maybe a talk about how you’re both still young, some mention of the fact that you were both doing a lot at the moment. But you and George are on the same page. A baby of your own is something you both want and you suppose that’s the way it should be.

“Alright,” Your smile widens and you’re the one who kisses him again. He’s as excited about this as you are, you can tell. “Looks like we’re gonna try to have a baby.”

#oof that awkward moment when you forget to add tags #okay here we go now #hp fanfic #harry potter imagine #harry potter headcanon #harry potter fanfiction #harry potter fanfic #harry potter fic #george weasley x reader #george weasley x y/n #george weasley imagine #george weasley fanfiction #george weasley #my fics #fic: baby fever #fic: the talk

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angelicamerlinbarnes · 3 years

Text

Minerva Mcgonogall & Albus Dumbledore’s QPP Rules & Boundaries as discussed and mediated by Remus Lupin:

QPP = queerplatonic partnership

Mcgonogall

Dumbledore

Remus

Hand-holding is only permitted if one of us is dying or we’re high.

Teatime shall only be interrupted by an life-threatening emergency. (Sirius Potter Lupin and Remus Lupin’s deteriorating mental states count as emergencies.)

No gossip about students’ love lives shall be withheld without proper reasoning, which must be backed up by sufficient evidence and/or three eyewitnesses.

Grindelwald Gellert Grindelwald will not be privy to any of my secrets, Albus.

Albus is not allowed sweets of any kind after ten p.m.. That was one time. It was not, dear.

If you touch my hats without permission I will end you.

Newt Scamander belongs to Albus or Minerva every other week. One person’s week may not be interrupted by the other under any circumstances.

Sleepovers are limited to three times a week and will not occur on Sundays, Mondays, or Tuesdays. Remus Lupin is always invited. Fine, then I’m inviting Severus Snape. Fine by me, Minnie. Fuck you, Albus.

Nicknames are absolutely forbidden.

Albus must lock his idiot bird away during our visits. Why? Don’t ask stupid questions, Albus.

Friday nights are reserved for dancing. Only to record players. And with the understanding that any singing of yours will result in a swift Silencio. You’re no fun. You married me. And I regret it every day.

Any jokes regarding Albus’ unappreciation of me will result in the expulsion of his tea into the lake that houses the squid. You bitch. Say sayonara to your Earl Grey, Albus.

On friend-dates in the Muggle world, bets must be placed on how many people will mistake us for a couple. Minimum stakes are mild annoyance; highest stakes are complete and utter humiliation at the hands of the Marauders without punishment. I will get you to expose your collection of smutty “novels” one day, Albus. And I will be sure to remember that as I hide exploding dragon eggs in your precious hat collection, Minerva. I am not afraid to slap a bitch, Albus.

If Sirius Potter Lupin cries, for ANY reason, Albus must cancel all classes for the day. He can’t find out about this rule. Oh please. I’ve already spoken to Remus and Regulus and they’ve agreed to keep it from him. Besides, this parchment is under strict instructions to burn itself should he ever even graze it with his sticky little fingers.

Minerva will buy Albus donuts with pink frosting and rainbow sprinkles without complaint, and all deluxe versions of every Taylor Swift album without question. I’m not going to argue with you, Albus. That woman is a goddess amongst mortals. So disappointing, her lack of magic. I would have loved to teach her. We all know I would have been her favorite. Oh shut up, you wheezy old bitch.

Albus is forbidden from borrowing any of Minerva’s gowns. ANY of them. The last time I let him wear one he stretched it so far it hung off my frame like a frumpy old sack. Are you calling me fat? Of course not, Albus, I am merely pointing out that perhaps you should stop celebrating at holiday feasts quite so enthusiastically.

Minerva will accompany Albus to at least one visit to his husband per month. I did not agree to this. Too fucking bad. You know Grindelwald and I don’t get along. Whatever, you’re both stuck with me. You have to at least be able to tolerate each other for an hour. I regret you. I know.

The name of Minvera’s favorite book shall not be spoken aloud, sung, or written down. Why? You don’t want anyone knowing how much you enjoy reading about Avada Kedav OKAY FINE.

Albus concedes that Minerva is always right, no matter the argument or the circumstance. I do not. Albus, dear… Fine. Bitch. I could kill you. They’d acquit me and you know it. If I killed you they’d thank me. I’ll tell Grindelwald you won’t be joining him in Azkaban, then. Wait… Yeah. That’s what I thought.

This list may be altered at any time by either Albus or Minerva so long as there is a communicated understanding of why so. Until said altering is necessary, if said altering is necessary, this list will be kept in the safety of Albus’ giant unnecessary waste of space obscenely expensive important to my mental stability ball. I NEED IT MINERVA. You do not. Oh shut it you batty old witch. ALBUS!

The violation of any of these rules will result in immediate war. For the safety of Hogwarts and all its students, please take care to act within the boundaries you both have set. Best of luck.

Signed 1973

Minerva Mcgonogall (fed up with Albus’ bullshit)

Albus Dumbledore (has a collection of glitter he’s not afraid to use)

Remus Lupin (exhausted acting lawyer who wants a raise)

#mcgonogall &x dumbledore #&x meaning qpps #grindeldore #albus dumbledore #minerva mcgonagall #sirius black #remus lupin #harry potter #i'm not even sorry #here enjoy MY brain's version of crack #this is me trying to be funny #did it work???#either way #have a nice day y'all #try not to kill anybody #i know it's hard #but try

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enbysiriusblack · 3 years

Note

Remus and james

(one of my favorite friendships<3)

Remus and James:

they act like an old married couple all the time, knowing everything about each other and telling people embarrassing stories about the other one

Sharing clothes all the time, they're the closest in size so they practically share a wardrobe (although some things that James owns, remus would never wear)

Bi buddies, that is a duo nickname James came up with for the 2 of them

when they argue they always go to other people and ask for their opinions, like when they were arguing about Remus' poor diet, they went to like every other gryffindor to get their opinion and if they agreed with James, remus would get mad at them and if they agreed with Remus, James would get mad at them

So people just ran away when they saw Remus and James approaching them with determined looks on their faces and their hands not held together

Oh yeah, they always hold hands when they walk next to each other

The amount of jokes they make about being attracted to each other... Sirius gets very jealous (of both of them)

Star wars. They love it sm. Its their favourite movie. They kept dragging Sirius and Peter to watch it every day during the summer

Gryffindor quidditch captain and quidditch commentator being best friends?? So much biased comments and inside jokes at every quidditch match

#also same.. i love them sm #marauders era #james potter #remus lupin #marauders

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fandoms-writer · 4 years

Text

The Storm Outside

This is my first Sirius Black (Marauders era) imagine. This idea just popped in my head, and I thought it was cute.

Word Count: 1200+

Warnings: none, it’s just fluff

Rain was still splattering against the Gryffindor girls dorm window, continuing from the storm of last night, and it seemed like it was only getting stronger. The sky was still a mix of blue and grey with the occasional flashes of lightning. You would normally be in a good mood due to storms being your favorite type of weather, but today it only made your mood worse. You didn't get much sleep last night, due to studying for multiple tests during the next week, and you must’ve fallen asleep while studying for potions.

You stayed in bed for a couple more minutes until you decided to drag yourself out of bed. Your body was sore in places you didn’t even know could be sore, you head felt like someone kept hitting it with a frying pan with each step you took, and you could barely walk in a straight line. You finally made it to the bathroom, not without walking into the door first. You splashed some cold water on your face to try to wake yourself to the point where you could keep your eyes open for more than 2 seconds. You then got ready, but didn’t know if anything matched, and to be honest, you didn’t have the mental capacity to care.

As you were walking down to the common room, you heard your boyfriend talking to someone, and as you got closer, you could tell that he was talking to 2 people, James Potter and Remus Lupin. You slowly descended the stairs while gripping the railing so tight that your knuckles were white because if you let go, you were pretty sure you would fall down the rest of them. You eventually got to the bottom and slowly made your way to where the boys were.

“Good morning darling,” said Sirius, sounding like he put an amplifying spell on himself.

“Too loud,” you replied while covering your ears with your hands.

James then decided that it was a good idea to chime in and say,”someone’s not in a good mood.”

“James, I swear that I will hex you,” you said bitterly while Remus just laughed. You normally would’ve said something to him also, but you just couldn’t.

Making your way over to your boyfriend who was sitting on the couch, you walked over and plopped yourself onto his lap and curled up while hiding your face in the crook of his neck. His one arm went to your waist automatically, and his other smoothed down your hair that most likely looked like a tornado hit it.

He then asked if you were okay which you just shook you head no to. He then said,”Darling, are you drunk?”

You finally looked up into his grey eyes, hit his shoulder, and exclaimed,”I just woke up!” which wasn’t a good idea seeing as your headache got much worse after that.

“Alright, alright,” he said with a chuckle,”are you sick then?” He then proceeded to feel my forehead with his hand and said,”Love, you’re really hot.”

“Thanks, you're not too bad yourself Black,” you said while smirking at him. In return, he just rolled his eyes, but still had a little smile that you knew he tried to hide which only made you smile more.

“I'm trying to be serious here.”

“Aren’t you always Sirius?’ you asked very innocently while also trying not to laugh in hopes to not make your head actually burst.

He only shook his head while saying,”You’ve been spending way too much time with me.” You just silently laughed at that. “You need rest Love,” he continued,” you almost fell twice coming down here, and there’s no way that you’re going to be able to stay awake, let alone pay attention in class.”

“I don’t pay attention in class anyway because certain classmates,” you said while looking at the three boys in the room,”decide to distract me. Besides I have multiple tests this week and I need to learn.” You then tried to get up and out of your very strong boyfriend's grasp, but he only tightened his hold on you.

“Nope, not happening,” he said while kissing your forehead. “This is what’s gonna happen. I'm going to carry you up to my dorm, and we are going to go to sleep.”

“You can’t do that! What about my notes? What about my classes? What about your classes? Can you guys back me up here?” I questioned while turning to face Remus and James hoping that at least one will see reason.

“I can give you my notes y/n. Sirius is right, you need rest,” Remus said avoiding my glare.

“He’s right, you look like crap,” added James.

“Thanks James, I really appreciate you telling me what I already know.

“Besides, it’s not like Sirius would actually pay attention,” he continued.

“He’s not wrong love, I never pay attention especially when I sit by a beautiful girl that distracts me without even trying,” he said while you just blushed furiously. “I also know that as soon as I would leave the room, you would get up and head to class. So it’s settled, I’m staying.” You just huffed in annoyance, partly because you knew he was right about you leaving right away and partly because you were just annoyed.

“As fun as it is to see you 2 argue like an old married couple,” James started,”we gotta head to breakfast before class. Have fun!”

“See you later, and I’ll give you the notes at the end of the day y/n,” Remus said while you just smiled at him as a thanks since the arguing has left your throat sore.

After they left, Sirius picked you up which startled you, and he just laughed when he felt you stiffen. You just glared back since he moved you from your very comfortable position. He walked the up the stairs to the boys dormitory, and made his way to his room. He sat you down on the bed and went to change into some sweatpants. He came back and handed you one of shirts, you decided that it was just another one to add to your collection of his shirts that you have in your room. You changed out of your school robes, and put on his shirt.

He was already laying in bed with one arm behind his head and his other on his side waiting for you. As much as you were against it, any chance to see him without a shirt is a win to you.

“Like what you see darling?” he remarked while looking at you.

“What can I say? The view’s pretty nice from here,” you replied and he just laughed.

“I could say the same thing,” he added.

You finally made it to the bed and snuggled up close to his side. You had one arm over his stomach, your head on his chest listening to his heartbeat, and your legs were tangled together. He had an arm wrapped around your waste, and the other holding the hand of your arm that was on his stomach playing with your fingers.

You were already drifting off when you heard him say,”I love you darling.” You smiled and softly said,”I love you too, and thank you.” He just kissed your head, and you both drifted off to the sounds of the storm outside and each others breathing.

#sirius black x reader #sirius black #young sirius black #young sirius black x reader #sirius black imagine #young sirius black imagine #remus lupin #young remus lupin #james potter #marauders au #harry potter #harry potter imagine

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speedygal · 4 years

Text

Things that def would have happened if Dumbledore was kicked out of the order had it been Harry falling through the veil:

-Sirius Black or Remus Lupin being the voice of reason.

-Sirius or Remus sharing the same brain cell on missions.

-The entire order balking at one of Dumbledore’s suggestions in a letter that he sent them.

-Sirius having Nymphadora take on Harry’s form during extremely secret mission.

-Remus learns it is to taunt Voldemort; Harry may be dead but his character and his voice are immortal. Remus just bawls.

-Death Eaters alike think Voldemort is going insane as he starts arguing with thin air or in a empty dark room in the Malfoy house or wherever because of Nymphadora’s taunting.

-Nymphadora laughs when it happens when she doesn’t do the taunting.

-Everyone is becoming sure that Voldemort is losing it day by day, his mind cracking, over the death of the-boy-who-lived.

-Hermione and Ron free the dragon, “For Harry!”

-Dumbledore. Not dying. Like. At all. Just goes into deep hiding without anyone knowing except for Remus and Sirius.

-Malfoy defecting to the order.

-Malfoy is disowned by his father.

-Sirius sends a letter to Malfoy regarding the hiding place of the hide out that promptly burns away after Malfoy reads it. And Malfoy floos over.

-They talk about their differences and similarity and how James welcomed him into his family and so did Harry.

-Malfoy talks, “I keep expecting Potter to come through the doors to the dining hall, triumphant, disheveled, but alright. He always comes back. And he never does.”

-Sirius hugs Malfoy, “So do I.”

-Nymphadora gets into a poly relationship with Sirius and Remus a year after Harry’s fall.

-Sirius favors watching Remus and Nymphadora as part of the relationship when they’re in bed. He enjoys the role because he gets so many happy memories to make for when he needs to make patronuses against the dementors. So many to make up for what he lost at Azkaban.

-Nymphadora and Sirius take turns weirding out Snape by poly-jucing (or either shapeshifting) as the other during the war. And contradicting what they had just said earlier in the same room.

-Snape is irritated.

-The order snickers.

-Sirius gets the mirror back, including the cloak of invisibility, and the scrapbook.

-Molly slips in newer photos of Harry and his friends after she ‘accidentally’ brings it home and returns it.

-Sirius is touched.

-Remus points out there is a photo that one of the order took of Sirius hugging Harry.

-Sirius cries.

-The last photo at the back is a magical artistic rendering of Harry and his parents waving at anyone who looks (Hermione suggests Malfoy drew it, Ron asks around his family and they don’t know where it came from), happy, together.

-Remus is worried about Sirius being a third-wheel. Sirius makes a patronus then his patronus runs around Remus in the middle of a argument about dumping Nymphadora. And Remus realizes, Sirius is okay with his part in the relationship.

-Remus uses that memory in the battle of Hogwarts to protect a group of first years from Dementors during the escape.

-Sirius is legally declared Teddy Lupin’s Godfather after his birth.

-Remus and Sirius raise Teddy after the battle of Hogwarts.

-Somehow, Crookshanks walks into their lives and doesn’t walk out of it.

-Sirius has a panic attack on Halloween night about losing Teddy.

-Crookshanks grounds him when Remus is on a errand.

-Remus and Sirius get married in the Wizarding world after Wizardly social services tells them, “You need to be married in order to have custody.”

-but really they are just pulling the leg of the Lupin-Black couple.

-Wizardly social services are shocked upon seeing their wedding announced.

-”Huh, they really went through with it.”

-Years later, Dudley has a kid who is wizardly and seeks out Sirius (Dudley approaches him with a swollen eye and bruises all over to tell the tale of searching for him) at a biker bar.

-Sirius is amused and helps him navigate getting Hogwarts supplies for his child

-At this point, Petunia and Sirius aren’t on speaking terms. When they do encounter, Petunia doesn’t even know what happened to Harry. And she shrugs him off after being informed of how he died.

-It takes knowing that Teddy and Dudley’s child is with him not to hex her.

-Ginny keeps several clumps of Harry’s hair and goes on a personal project that spans a couple decades to have his children much to the shock and eventual acceptance of the former Order.

-She makes two of them in total then asks for Remus’s and Sirius’s help in giving the boy a first name and goes to Hermione and Ron about the child’s middle name.

-Sirius and Remus pipe up immediately without needing to think a second more, “James.”

-He is named James Sirius Potter.

-Ginny names the little baby girl Lily Luna Potter.

-Malfoy is outraged as a healer about what she did. Sirius is incredibly flattered and feels old at this point.

-Ron and Hermione name one of their children after Harry.

-Snape goes on to become part of a effort that rescues neglected and abused Wizarding children. His icy cold demeanor is perfect for the role when searching for the telltale signs.

-He even checks for the Lupin-Black residency when someone accuses them, Sirius is outraged, Snape is annoyed and files back to the agency that the family is suited for the child.

-The person who filed the complaint is tracked down by Sirius and discovers it is a Death Eater who hadn’t been part of the battle of Hogwarts. Sirius discovers it’s Peter and Remus joins him. They go to the old hiding place of the rat, wand in hand, with Moody and capture him.

-Peter doesn’t stand a chance and stupefied after a disastrous duel that destroys the hide out.

-Peter has a trial, sent to Azkaban, right in time for James’s Hogwarts letter.

-Remus is back teaching at Hogwarts when James comes in and Sirius comes over to hand some lunch when he sees James and almost thinks he is their James resurrected. But it is a very brief moment as he sees for a single moment.

-Sirius and Remus have a moment in Remus’s office and hug.

-After eighteen years, Teddy finally learns what Sirius’s secret occupation is; writing about war in fantasy settings to help him cope with what happened in the last two wars and publishes it in the muggle world. And how things could or should have gone. It’s pretty extensive book series that qualifies as epics.

-One day Dumbledore’s death is announced and the former members of the Order dare not to attend his funeral.

-Teddy lets the dirty laundry out in disgust.

-Dumbledore’s legacy is forever seen in a different light.

#wolfstar #sirius black #remus lupin #teddy lupin #nymphadora tonks #Harry Potter #Hermione granger #ron weasley

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twoidiotwriters1 · 4 years

Text

July 5th, 1981 (WITT One-Shot)

A/N: It’s my birthday but so is Mel’s!! I wanted to post something, it also works so you guys can know Matthew a little better, I’m gonna do more extras like this for sure, but it might be a while before I post another. -Danny

Words: 2,688

Warnings: It’s not proof-read bc it’s my birthday guys I don’t have the time jsdsfjs also this has a sappy ending, sorry not sorry

Series’ Masterlist

July 5th, 1981.

It was quiet, this wasn’t how she had pictured her daughter’s first birthday would be.

When she was younger, her parents would always throw the biggest parties, that stopped once she went to Hogwarts, but they would always send howlers singing ‘Happy Birthday’ and she would always die of embarrassment. Now she would give anything to receive one again.

‘This is not about me’, she quickly corrects. ‘Today all that matters is that we’re together.

Emily was nervous though, James and Lily were supposed to remain hidden but they had found a way to convince Dumbledore to help them get to Matt and Em’s house so they could celebrate both, Mel and Harry’s first birthday together.

Harry’s birthday was actually way after Mel’s, but is not like they could really be moving places all the time, not when they knew there was so much at stake.

So there she was, nervously waiting for Lily and James to arrive with their son, Matthew and Sirius escorting the family to give extra security.

“Em, if you keep messing with Mel’s ribbon she’ll bite your hand,” Remus warned her calmly. “They’ll be here soon, don’t worry.”

“I don’t worry about them being late,” She said, putting her daughter back in the playpen. “I worry about… you know, the journey.”

“They’ll be fine,” Remus shook his head. “Didn’t Matthew just got promoted to Head Auror?”

“Yes, and if you ask me that’s the biggest nonsense I’ve heard.”

“Is it?” The man raised a brow. “Thought you’d be happy.”

“I am,” Emily brushed it off, “you know this didn’t make Matt happier, every day he talks about murders, accidents… Now I understand why my mother hated so much when my dad would talk about that in front of me.”

“Listen,” Remus stood up and put a hand on her shoulder to stop her rambling. “There’s someone at the back door…”

Emily ran to the kitchen then, she walked in the exact moment James and Lily were taking off the cloak, little Harry clinging to her Mother’s neck.

“Where’s Matt?” Emily asked a bit too frantically.

James let out a short, sarcastic laugh.

“We’re happy to see you too, Mily.”

“Don’t be mean, you’d be asking the same thing if it were me the one who left hours ago to pick up some friends,” Lily scolded him, then she turned back to Emily. “He’s with Sirius making sure no one followed us, they’ll be here in a moment.”

“Okay,” Emily nodded, though she still looked nervous.

“Hey!” Remus walked in, he was holding Mel and the little girl was playing quietly with the hem of his sweater. “Thought you might want to say hello to the birthday girl…”

“Hey there, little Em!” James was the first to stir into action, he quickly made his way over to the baby and stole her from Remus grip. “Blimey, I saw you last week, but I could swear you weren’t this big!”

“She looks so much like you, Em”, Lily smiled, walking over to her husband and holding Harry a bit more closer to his father so the babies could see each other.

“Only on the outside,” Emily shook her head, “She’s all her father, that one. Trust me, she’s so quiet I barely register when she’s around.”

“Give her time, once she learns how to speak you’ll have her giving out orders like the bossy girl she’s destined to be, just like her mother– aren’t you, love?” James smirked, tickling the girl’s belly.

The little girl laughed, Harry’s attention was inmediately drawn to the sound and he reached out to touch the girl’s face. Lily pulled him back with a laugh.

“Easy there! We don’t want you fighting like last time”

“Fighting?” Emily asked, her attention abruptly leaving the window and turning to face the young couple. “Matthew never mentioned they fought”.

“Well, that’s cause it’s a baby fight, they don’t count,” James explained.

“Are you talking about the time you and Sirius got mad for a day because you stole his chocolate frog?” Matthew walked in, followed by Sirius. “Cause that sure was childish.”

“Newsflash, asshole. We were children,” Sirius hit the back of his head.

Matthew walked straight to the faucet to wash his hands, but just as he was about to start, Emily let out a loud, exasperated breath.

“Matt!” Emily rushed over to her husband and gave him a firm kiss on the cheek, she cupped his face with both hands and examined him carefully, causing him to laugh.

“I left for just an hour love, I’m all right…”

“She knows that, she’s just checking if you finally got some brains inside that huge head of yours,” James teased.

Matthew threw him the cloth he was using to dry his hands and James yelled.

“Hey! I’m holding your daughter!”

“Not anymore!” Sirius quickly took the baby in his arms and started to twirl around the way he knew would make her laugh non-stop. “How’s our little Em doing, huh?”

“She has a name, you know?” Emily said, crossing her arms.

“Right, a name that’s derived from a nickname Matthew gave you in school,” James shrugged. “So it’s the same.”

“Enough, give me my child, Sirius,” Emily huffed.

“No!” Sirius held onto the baby tighter. “This is the first time I see her in weeks, give me a moment.”

“Who knew Sirius would turn out to be such a fan?” Lily laughed. “Never thought I’d see you grow attached to a baby until Mel and Harry were born.”

“Not me, that’s certain,” Sirius raised a brow, his eyes softening at the way Mel would giggle.

“Shall we start the party, then?” Remus asked. “I’m starving.”

“Unexpected,” James snorted.

“Shut up, Prongs.”

Most of the group moved to the living room, Emily stopped James and Lily at the doorframe.

“Sorry for not saying hi,” Emily sighed heavily, “It’s just… waiting has never been my favorite hobby.”

“Tell me about it,” James said, she knew he hated having to stay at home instead of fighting along his friends, but his family came first and Harry was in danger, Emily was feeling exactly like him, having to stay so she could take care of Mel while Matthew was out…

Emily hugged both of them quickly before guiding them to the living room.

“Okay, but which one do you think will be the real trouble maker?” Sirius asked to the group.

He was sitting on the floor right next to Harry and Mel, who were playing loudly, unaware of what the adults were saying.

“Oh, Harry for sure,” Emily said, at the same time Lily replied ‘Mel, certainly.’

“What?” They asked at the same time.

“What makes you think my daughter is the right choice?”

“What makes you think my son is?”

“Oh, are you about to fight? Should I take the kids upstairs?”

“Shut up, Sirius!”

“I think you’re both wrong,” James replied. “You think that with a mother like Lily and a father like Matt our children have any chance to misbehave?”

“Oh, you think that with a mother like Emily and a father like you they won’t be tempted to go behind our backs?” Matthew raised a brow. “That’s bollocks.”

“You know, as long as they don’t set their rooms on fire or something, I think we’ll manage,” Lily said with a shrugged.

“What if they start dating?” Sirius asked excitedly.

“I mean, eventually they will–”

“Hold on, who said anything about dating?” Matthew perked up. “My daughter has no reason to be thinking about dates until she’s nineteen, eighteen at best.”

“Shut up, Ruddy, you asked me on a date when we were fifteen.”

“Yeah, and how did that turn out, huh?” Matthew asked pointedly.

“Dunno, with you marrying the girl of your dreams?” Emily teased him.

Matthew’s cheek reddened, a knowing smile on his face.

“Yeah… but that’s not the point! You’re cool with letting some boy take advantage of Mel?”

“Not if we raise her right, no boy will have a chance.” Emily smirked.

“What if it’s Harry?”

“What?”

“What if Harry’s the one who asks Mel on a date?” Remus asked.

A heavy silence fell onto the group, everyone looking at Remus as if he’d said something crazy.

“Oh c’mon,” The young man rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me this is the first time you think about the possibility?”

“You know what?” James said from his seat. “That’s not such a dreadfull idea, is it?”

“What?” Matthew’s head turned so fast Emily thought he’d hurt himself.

“Think about it, Ruddy!” James laughed openly. “Are you saying my boy’s not good enough for your baby?”

Matthew opened his mouth and closed it again, he looked at Emily looking for support.

“That’s an lovely idea, actually,” Emily grinned. “We know Harry’s parents already, so that’s one thing we don’t have to worry about!”

“No, that’s exactly the thing that we should worry about,” Matthew raised a brow.

“I could say the same,” Lily said, shaking her head in disbelief. “I still remember that time Emily put blue dye on my juice just because I called her lazy.”

“That doesn’t mean Mel would be the same!” Matthew defended.

“Thanks for that, love,” Emily scoffed.

“What about James?” Sirius offered. “He’ll tell Harry all about our outings and Harry’ll get ideas.”

“Padfoot!”

“Guys, guys,” Remus stopped them, regretting being the one who had caused the argument. “Calm down, this is all just in our heads, there’s no way Mel and Harry will end up together– Merlin, I mean, they’ll grow up like brother and sister!”

“We can take care of that,” James suggested. “You know, just don’t let them get too comfy around each other…”

“If you want them to date shouldn’t it be the other way around?”

“Listen Prongs, no offense but I’m with Remus here, there’s no way my kid will end up falling for your Harry, she’s too smart.”

“She’s a one-year old baby that can’t eat on her own, what are you talking about?” James argued.

“I bet ten galleons Mel and Harry end up together,” Sirius interrupted.

The group fell silent one more time.

“Ten that they won’t,” Lily said suddenly.

“Evans!” James exclaimed in outrage.

“I’m in!” Emily said. “I’m with Sirius on this one.”

“I’m with Lily,” Matthew replied, giving his wife a look she knew was meant to be challenging.

“Okay then, I’m with Mily and Padfoot,” James huffed. “And you two are nasty traitors, can’t believe you don’t want us to be one big family.”

“We already are, Prongs,” Remus smirked. “Look at these lovely little siblings,” He pointed to the babies.

“So you’re with Lily, are you?”

“Obviously,” Remus snorted.

“Can’t believe you’re Mel’s Godfather,” Emily said dramatically. “You clearly don’t want what’s best for her.”

“Awwe, thanks, Mily.”

“No problem, James.”

“You two are unbelievable,” Lily rolled her eyes, standing up.

“Where are you going and can I go with you?” Matthew asked, giving his wife a playful, angry look.

“To get a drink, if I have to spend a whole afternoon with Sirius, James and Emily planning my son’s wedding, I won’t do it sobber.”

“Well, Happy Birthday Mel, I guess I just got you a husband!” Sirius chortled.

“Wait for me!” Remus said, quickly following Lily and Matthew to the kitchen.

“We had a great time, really,” James said, holding a sleeping Harry in his arms.

“Even if your wife revealed she doesn’t want us to be part of the same family?” Emily teased.

“Oh, she’ll end up loving the idea, trust me,” Jame said with a smile, “just wait for them to start school, she’ll be begging us to set them up.”

Emily laughed.

“I’m just teasing, but I mean it though, I know your Harry will be a great boy.”

“I know, and Lily thinks your daughter will grow up to be amazing, you and Matthew are great. And you know Harry adores Mely, Lily sees that.”

“Yeah, well… she’s the only other baby he knows.”

“Not for long though,” James sighed, staring down at his son, a worried, yet hopeful look on his face. “Soon all of this will be over, won’t it, little guy?”

“Let’s go James!” Lily called from the door. “Harry needs to sleep!”

“Coming!”

When Emily and him arrived, Sirius waited until Lily and Emily said their goodbyes and then covered the Potters with James’ cloak.

“I’ll go with Sirius, you can stay,” Remus assured Matthew, when the man started to argue back, their friend shook his head. “Stay. Emily needs you, Sirius and I will make sure James and Lily get home safe, right Paddie?”

“Sure thing,” Sirius winked. “See you next Sunday!”

“Thank you,” Emily held onto her husband’s hand, squeezing lightly. “Thank you for everything.”

“It’s nothing,” Remus brushed it off. “Next year, Mily. You’ll see…”

Next year. It felt so far away, so fragile to be an actual promise. Next year everything could be different, yes. That didn’t mean it’d be better, but it didn’t mean it’d be worse either.

Once they were alone, Matthew and Emily sat on their bed, a sleeping girl between them. Mel hadn’t been sleeping in her own room since Matthew started to watch over the Potters’ house. It gave Emily something to hold onto, Mel was her hope of a brighter future.

“You’re so good to Mel,” Matthew said suddenly, bringing her back from her swirling thoughts. “She… I know it’s hard, I don’t like being away most of the day, but you know… they’re my family too.”

“I know,” Emily smiled, reaching out to hold his hand. “That’s why I don’t ask you to stay, so you don’t have to choose.”

Matt stared for a long time at their sleeping baby before quietly replying.

“I would choose you in a heartbeat,” He swallowed the lump on his throat, feeling terrible for admiting that out loud. “You know I would.”

Emily sighed.

“Of course I do,” She replied quietly. “But then you’d never forgive yourself if something were to happen them. I’ll never force you to pick a side, Matt. We’re all fighting in our own ways, as hard as we can. We’re all doing our best.”

“Next year this will all be over,” Matthew put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer, careful so Mel wasn’t uncomfortable between their bodies. “This will all be a bad dream.”

“Please,” Emily blinked back the tears, “don’t give me hopes, Matt… I know you want it to be true, but please…”

“She’ll be safe,” He cleared his throat. “Mel will live through this, and she’ll grow. I promise you that.”

“What about you?”

“Me…” She couldn’t see his face, but she was almost certain Matt was crying. “Well, if I don’t make it, tell Harry he’s got my blessing to woo Mel all he wants.”

Emily laughed, it came out a bit drowned, but it still sounded like a happy one.

“I thought you didn’t want that for our girl?”

“It doesn’t matter what we think though, does it?” Matthew sigh. “They’ll grow up and eventually they’ll fall in love– whether if they fall for each other or a total stranger, that’s out of our control. Whatever happens, I hope she finds someone who will love her the way I love you.”

“I that case, I pitty the kid that will have to endure that job,” Emily raised a brow, “they’ll have to chase her around for six years and then wait that one day, maybe, she’ll agree to date them.”

“Any Sultens girl is worth the wait,” Matthew squeezed her shoulder lightly, a loving gaze adorning his features.

“And any Dumbledore is worth the trouble,” Emily teased, then looked down at her daughter, who was peacefully sleeping beside her. “Happy Birthday, little one.”

Matthew brushed a lose strand of hair away from his daughter’s face and beamed at how tiny her hand look above his.

“Happy birthday, love.”

Taglist.

@tiphareth2018 @vampiregirl1797 @siriuslysirius1107 @celestialhayi @mikariell95 @omiwashere @thesuitelifeofafangirl @tomshollandz @steve-thotgers @kylosleftbuttcheek @reverse-hxlland

#twoidiots writing #hp fanfic #Harry Potter #harry potter fanfiction #harry potter xoc #WITT fic #hp hidden moments #james potter #Lily Evans #sirius black #Remus lupin

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seaweedbrain404 · 3 years

Text

Wolfstar Au: A Guide to Parenting, Friendships and Heartache (pt1)

read the rest on ao3

Still, he felt it wasn’t fair to him, they had been married nearly a year but had been dating for years and years beforehand. It wasn’t fair to him or Anna’s parents because all three, Anna and his parents were dead. Remus, Marie and Edward were forced to navigate some sort of way to raise the baby by themselves. Of course, it should’ve been all Remus but Marie and Edward were just too nice. He felt they had a sense of duty or maybe a love for their grandson that made them do it.

Either way, they were suffocating. Always up in Remus’ business and he felt horrible for thinking that because without them, the past few years would’ve been hell. Now, Teddy was six years old and Remus needed to get the hell out of the small town that was nestled in the back-arse of nowhere in Wales. Sure, he would certainly miss the beautiful scenery and his job at the local chipper but it was time for a change. That time was now.

Remus picked a cheap apartment somewhere in Liverpool, bid his in-laws goodbye and packed up shop. One of the reasons that Remus chose Liverpool is because he had to drop out of college to help support Teddy and now he was considering going back to actually get a degree. It didn’t escape him that he still had Teddy to think of but he couldn’t just stay on a job that just paid minimum wage and kept them threading above the poverty line for the rest of his life. It was now or never.

It was all these things Remus was thinking about one night, months after they had arrived. He had gotten a job but he hadn’t started night school like he’d wanted to. Teddy was tucked away, asleep in bed when Remus made his fourth cup of tea that evening.

He knew he needed to hire a babysitter. The thing was, he wasn’t sure who to trust with Teddy. Besides, it wasn’t like he had sufficient funds to hire anyone until now. Earlier that day he put a notice on the board downstairs, hoping that if he had to trust someone then it would be someone from this building.

The clock showed 2:30am when Remus finally retired to bed, checking in on Teddy before doing so.

The next morning, the school run was as normal as ever. Teddy was in Year 1 and was getting on exceptionally well, despite having moved school just under halfway through the year. Remus was glad about this, at least he hadn’t unintentionally messed his kid up.

“Daddy?” Teddy asked through a mouthful of toast that morning.

Remus looked up from his tea, ready to give his son full attention.

“Can I have a friend over?”

“A friend?”

“Yeah, his name is Harry and he’s really good at Lego”

Remus thought for a moment before responding, Teddy having a friend over seemed like a good idea, especially since this was the first time he’d ever heard Teddy mentioning anything about a friend. “Well, I don’t see why not but I’ll have to talk to Harry’s mummy or daddy first, okay?”

“Okay” Teddy grinned at him, wolfing down the rest of his toast.

“Daddy, why do I have to wear this?” The 6-year-old grimaced as Remus helped him do the buttons on his coat.

“Because, in school you have to wear a uniform”

“But whyyyyy” Teddy took Remus’ hand as they walked out of the flat, waiting patiently as Remus locked the door behind them.

Remus just smiled and shrugged.

Teddy didn’t let the silence linger for long as the two walked down the street towards the school. “Daddy, why don’t we have a car?”

God, it was moments like these Remus wished social class didn’t exist because how do you explain to a 6-year-old that the reason they don’t have a car is because Remus works a minimum wage job, having to support himself and a small child.

“I don’t really like cars” He said instead.

Teddy cocked his head to the side, looking up at his father. “Why not?”

“They’re too noisy and they make the air bad”

“Oh, I guess it’s okay to not have a car then”

Remus let out a light laugh, never a dull moment with Teddy.

“Harry said I could go over to his as well, that’s why I asked if he could come over too” the small boy said, in reference to their conversation over breakfast.

“Mmm… we’ll see, I still have to talk to his mummy or daddy”

“Yeah- oh look!” Teddy stopped dead in his tracks at the school gates, pointing to a boy about his age with dark hair and round glasses. “That’s Harry daddy, I have to go!”

“Wait- do I not get a hug and a kiss before school?” Remus crouched down, eye level to Teddy.

“Oh, sorry I nearly forgot” Teddy turned around and hugged his dad tightly. Remus gave him a kiss on the forehead before letting him. “Bye daddy!” He called, already running off.

Remus watched Teddy run up to the boy he pointed at earlier and tackle him with a hug, which was eagerly returned. He had a small smile on his face when he felt someone tap his shoulder.

“Are you Teddy’s dad?” He was face to face with a red haired woman with green eyes, she had a kind smile on her face as she held out her hand.

Remus shook it. “Yeah, yes I am”

The woman smiled wider. “Brilliant! I’m Lily Potter, Harry’s mum- Harry has been going on about Teddy for ages”

Remus didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t realised he’d be known as ‘Teddy’s dad’ instead of Remus. It was a surreal moment before he realised he hadn’t introduced himself. “Remus Lupin, Teddy mentioned something about a playdate?”

“Oh yes, would you like my number?” Lily asked and kept talking as Remus produced his phone from his pocket. “We can work out the time later but how does Saturday sound? I don’t usually work weekends so any day is okay for me” she handed Remus back his phone, shrugging a little.

“Thank you… I’ll get back to you on that one, Saturday should be fine” He smiled and waved a little, walking backwards before turning around.

Remus felt a little lighter as we walked into work that morning. He worked in a small bookshop with very flexible hours and shitty pay so it was both a curse and a blessing. The owner even let him bring Teddy in during the weekends and after school if he wasn’t finished his shift. Teddy liked the picture books and the ones with dinosaurs the most.

About halfway through the shift, Remus’ phone rang. At first he thought maybe it was from the school and something horrible had happened but then he saw the number onscreen; it wasn’t saved so it couldn’t be the school.

“Hello?”

“Hi, is this Remus Lupin?”

“Um- yeah”

“Cool, cool…. listen, I saw your notice downstairs and I’m wondering if the babysitting position is still available?”

So that’s what this was about. Remus hadn’t expected anyone to respond so quickly and eagerly. “Oh! yes, yeah it is”

“Great, I’d love to take it so”

“Okay um, thank you Mr….”

“Sirius Black, I live just across the hall…. I can start whenever”

“Right, oh, can I get back to you? I’m not sure what day I’ll need it but it’ll only be once a week and then we can talk fares then too”

“Sounds brilliant, cheers”

“Cheers” Remus replied, then heard the other man hang up.

“Ooooo…. you look cheery after that, who was it?” His coworker, Alice, gave him a wink.

“I got a sitter sorted for Teddy so I can do night classes”

“Oh! that’s lovely dearie” She pulled Remus into a quick tight hug. Somehow Alice Longbottom always seemed to hug him. In fact, she always seemed to hug anyone she was half familiar with.

The rest of the shift went blissfully even when Remus went to collect Teddy and brought him back to the shop to finish off the last few hours of his shift.

“Daddy, did you talk to Harry’s mummy?” He asked suddenly.

“I did” Remus answered, sorting through some of the front shelves. He looked over at Teddy, who was sitting on top of the counter besides the till. Alice had put him up there, despite Remus telling her to just leave him sit on the floor.

“Annnnnd?”

“She said Saturday and I said Saturday was okay”

“Yay!” Teddy jumped off the counter, which considering the fact the counter was a lot taller than him and he was 6-years-old was enough to give Remus a small heart attack and scold him.

“Teddy! you can’t do that, you’ll hurt yourself” He chided the child who had wrapped himself securely around his father’s leg.

“But I didn’t hurt myself”

It was too hard trying to argue with a child and Remus resorted to shaking his head. “I know but you might, I’m just worried” He said, bending down and picking him up.

“Why are you worried?” Teddy asked, taking Remus’ face between his small hands.

“I’m your dad, that’s my job” He said before blowing a raspberry into Teddy’s stomach which made the boy giggle and squeal with joy, and putting him back down. “Now, let me finish this so we can get home starfish, okay?”

“Okay” Teddy nodded in agreement, starting off towards his favourite picture books.

Remus continued filling the shelves when he heard Alice speak next to him. “You’re a good dad, y’know Remus”

Remus smiled slightly. “I try my best”

“I just hope Frank will be too, I’m thinking of having a baby with him” She confessed, smiling a little madly.

“I’m sure Frank will be great, he sounds lovely from what I’ve heard”

The rest of Remus’ shift flew by and soon, the father and son duo were walking down the street again.

“What’s for dinner?”

“I was thinking pasta”

“Are you going to try and make the one with the weird green sauce again daddy?”

“Pesto, and no, I know you like the red sauce”

“That’s okay then”

A brief silence settled between them before one of them broke it and this time it was Remus.

“Teddy?”

“Yeah, daddy?” The small boy looked up at Remus, putting a hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun.

“How do you feel about a babysitter?” Remus asked cautiously.

Teddy seemed to think about this for a moment. “Why would I need a babysitter? I have you”

Remus smiled a little at that. “I want to go back to school- grown up school, college, and I’d go late so a really nice man will come mind you for a couple hours and put you to bed and then when you wake up in the morning… I’ll be home again”

Teddy was quiet for a long time again. A bit too long for Remus’ liking but eventually he nodded. “Yeah, I think that’s okay”

So, just like that, Remus and Teddy walked home the rest of the way with Teddy telling him everything that had happened in school that day.

Once they returned home, Remus started on dinner and Teddy did his homework at the kitchen table. All was well. Bathtime then bedtime rolled around quickly and soon Remus was the only one awake.

He turned on his laptop and started browsing night classes. It was still early enough in the school year for him to join. He wanted to find a course that took place once a week and would teach what he wanted. It took a while and once he found it, he realised it would take him far longer to complete his degree than he initially thought. That didn’t deter him though because he sent a text to Sirius Black, asking if Thursday worked for him. Thankfully, the response was very enthusiastic.

Wednesday went by like a flash. The pair got up, had breakfast and when Remus dropped Teddy to school, he spoke with Lily again. They arranged a time for Saturday and then Remus was off to work again.

“Remus?”

He looked up from the till and gave Alice a small smile. “What’s up?”

Alice looked a bit sheepish, fidgeting with her one of her rings. “Would you and Teddy like to come for dinner sometime?”

Remus opened his mouth to answer but Alice cut him off.

“It’s just that, Teddy’s so good and Frank is thrilled about the idea of a baby but he says he’s really scared and I thought maybe if you two came for dinner, you could talk to him and maybe he could see how wonderful Teddy is”

“Oh-“ Remus paused, scratching the side of his neck. “Yeah, I guess we could… I mean- I don’t see why not, Teddy adores you so I’m sure he’ll behave”

Alice smiled widely, pulling him into another one of those tight hugs. “Thank you Remus! I don’t know what I’d do without you”

The rest of the shift passed quietly, not many people came to the bookshop and so when it was time to pick Teddy up, Alice told Remus to just go home.

“If I need anything, I’ll call you” She reassured him, pushing him towards the door.

“Alright, alright, I’ll see you tomorrow”

#marauders #the marauders #remus lupin #teddy lupin #lily evans #harry potter #marauders au #marauders fic #hp marauders #modern marauders #marauders fanfiction #wolfstar au #background jily

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silversoulstardust · 4 years

Text

wolfstar secret santa

Merry christmas and happy holidays! This is for you, @ms-stony for @wolfstar-secret-santa . I decided to carry on an abandoned project and incorporate a little bit of accidental confession and a family unit with Harry. I hope you like it! :)

**********

“When this is over, we’ll be a proper family.” – Sirius Black to Harry Potter, Order of Phoenix

I took this line to heart and made it happen. A canon divergent where nobody died in the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange at the Ministry of Magic. Harry was back home to his godfathers on winter break and learned how they fell in love.

************

It was a calm wintry night at the Lupin-Black household at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Harry was back from Hogwarts for the winter break and the house became more lively than usual with just the two of them; Remus and Sirius. They had their warm soup, fresh sourdough bread and roasted chicken with gravy for dinner and everyone ate till they were full; stomach heavy with food as they filled each other with stories they had missed. Remus didn’t want to discuss the Order too much during this good time, so it was mostly Harry talking about his adventures and shenanigans he was up to with Ron and Hermione. A professor that he was; Remus interjected once in a while and gave Harry a warning shot when his story was about them doing something that were borderline endangering themselves, but Sirius always came into Harry’s defense. “Ah come on, Moony. Live a little. What’s life without a little risk? Isn’t that right, Harry?” And the boy nodded with excitement at Sirius’s statement. He smugly smiled in Remus’s direction as he stuffed himself with more chicken. Remus shook his head, helpless, but there was a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. It was like having James with them all over again. His logic was outnumbered.

Afterwards, Remus made all of them a steaming mug of hot cocoa topped with marshmallow and he made sure to put a little extra marshmallow for Harry. The boy had gone through traumatic and abusive childhood at the Dursleys, Remus was adamant to make him feel welcomed and loved in his household. It was Harry’s first time returning to this place for holiday after Remus had properly moved in and he wanted to make Harry feel at home. He settled on the couch in front of the fireplace and set the mugs on the coffee table, pulling out the book he’d been reading. Like a magnet, both Sirius and Harry brought their own reading material and settled around Remus. Sirius had his head on Remus’s lap, lying on 2/3 of the couch whereas Harry sat on the ottoman, looking through an old photo album he had already seen few times before. Remus held his book up with one hand as he had another of his mindlessly caressing through Sirius’s tuft of black hair. They sat quietly like that for a while, enjoying each other’s company in comfortable silence with the sound of fire cackling in the background. Harry observed alternately between the two adults, looking like he was ruminating something in his head but yet to come with words to express it. Soon enough, he cleared his throat for attention.

“Hey Remus, I was wondering about, about something,” Harry’s hands held up an old photobook from Remus’s Hogwarts years. He could see a couple of photos of Lily and James at school, the Marauders line up, James’s quidditch practice, Lily and Remus beaming with pride showing off their prefect badges with a little smudgy handwriting that read ‘nerds’ scribbled at the bottom. At the bottom most left corner of the album was a photo of young Sirius Black and Remus Lupin with arms around each other’s shoulder in a half hug stance, head pressed against one another, blissfully smiling into the camera that their eyes appeared closed. “I’ve always heard stories about how mom and dad fell in love and got together, but I don’t think I’ve heard about…. yours and Sirius.”

The book Sirius was reading slipped on his face with a loud thud at the question. Remus who was clearly caught off guard by Harry choked on his own spit.

“What makes you think we’re together, Harry?” teased Sirius as he peered over the book. “We could just be an unnaturally close friends, you know. The kind that don’t mind living together, sharing beds and sometimes arguing like old married couples.”

Remus rolled his eyes with affection.

“Oh come on padfoot, I might be as dense as a brick wall sometimes,” exclaimed Harry with vigor, “but I can also see there’s something more than just friendship here! Okay maybe Hermione had to point it out at first. But I also saw how you guys look at each other and I would never look at Ron that way. I’ve seen it in couples at Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop before they snog each other into oblivion.”

Sirius barked with laughter. “Well we didn’t want to scare you off and make you uncomfortable, Harry. We plan to tell you when you’re older.”

“You must understand that it is not an easy subject to broach, Harry,” added Remus as he closed his book and stuffed it on the side of the couch. He continued running his fingers through Sirius’s hair. “Most people would avoid ‘the talk’, and even in muggle world they’re still scared to discuss and accept it. We have come a long way for sure, but bigotry, sadly, still exist. There’s this popular phrase they use – God said Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”

Sirius huffed, but did not comment further.

“Well I’m not most people, am I?” Harry looked up; his burning gaze locked with Remus’s. “I’m your godson. Your best friend’s son.”

Remus felt warmth enveloped him with the acceptance. “You really are your parents’ son, aren’t you Harry? Lily was the first person who knew about us back in Hogwarts and she was so thrilled.”

“James was a little stunned to know about us though, right Moonbeams? Can’t believe we’ve been snogging in secret under his nose for the entire year before he accidentally caught us in a broom closet when he tried to hide from Filch,” Sirius grinned at the memories.

“That’s right, that was in our sixth year,” added Remus nostalgically. “But you actually made your advances at me earlier than that.”

“What did he do, Remus?” Harry sat forward, turning to face Remus to listen to his story intently. He put down the photo album in exchange for the cocoa drink in his hands to keep warm, sipping it from time to time. “Nothing too, er – explicit, please.”

“On our third year, Sirius actually let it slip that he liked me.”

Sirius hoisted himself by the elbow and frowned at Remus. “No, I did not! We didn’t secretly fu – date each other until our fifth year and didn’t make it Marauder official until sixth.”

“Calm down, Pads,” Remus pushed Sirius’s head back on his lap. “Yes, that’s the fact, I’m glad you haven’t forgotten despite Akzaban,” – Sirius winced at the mention of his twelve years wrongful imprisonment as Remus continued – “I’m talking about Christmas eve.”

“What Christmas eve?”

“Well it was on our third year Christmas eve, when we were the only one left in the common room of Gryffindor Tower. Initially all of us were planning to stay over the holiday together, but James’s mother suddenly fell ill, and Peter’s parents tempted him with imported exotic food for Christmas dinner. They bailed on us at the last second. Only you and me left then, and I too contemplated on going back home to my parents but I knew you would rather stay alone in school than going back to this house –“ his eyes wondered along the length of the ceiling and around the room, “ – to Walburga and Orion, to your parents. So I stayed to accompany you.”

“How noble you were, Messer Remus,” Sirius closed his book and put it aside as he pushed himself up to sitting position facing Remus. “But I don’t recall this memory.”

He chuckled. “I doubt you would. You were sick and drowsy half the time. Have you no recollection at all?”

Sirius scratched his beard, frowning. “No. I didn’t do anything bad to you, did I?”

“On the contrary, I was the one who did you harm, Sirius,” he patted Sirius’s hand and left it there. “You suddenly came down with flu that very evening but refused to go disturb Madam Pomfrey because you said she’s human and need holiday with her family too, so I gave you muggle cough syrup my mother had packed for me at the beginning of the year.”

“And?” Harry exchanged curious look with Sirius, equally excited to know the rest.

“And, well, let’s just say, you should be glad you’re not a muggle. You see, probably because your body is not used to it, the medicine had more affect than just drowsy. It made you braver, more honest, more raucous than usual. Like a drunkard. It turned off your brain filter for a couple of hours before you succumbed to the drowsiness and slept through the night.”

“Hmmm. And what did I do in that few hours, Moony?”

“You took down one of Gryffindor’s wall flags and put it on as a cape, climbed on the furniture in the common room as you declare to the world that you’d protect me and the marauders against animals, aliens, wizards and muggles alike, even if you had to die while doing so. You tried to fight the lion statue in the common room using a ruler, Sirius. All because I was laughing at your antics too much and stumbled against the poor statue, you thought it was hurting me. Imagine you stabbing a stone with plastic ruler until it bent and break. You cried because your sword was broken. It was sweet of you, really.”

Sirius was giddy with laughter. Remus continued his story. “When I managed to pull you away, you turned to look at me, face inches away from my own. You stared into my eyes and went still for a moment, told me you like me more than you like warm soup on winter evening, assured me that I’m the most beautiful person on earth, squished my cheeks and ….well, we kissed. It was more of a quick peck on the lips, but we were thirteen years old then and it was a big deal. But you were …under the influence of cough syrup. I was happy it happened but quick to dismiss it. I’ve never told a soul about this until now. And to think about it, I probably slowly fell for you after that incident, eventually became completely besotted in our fifth year.”

Sirius laced their fingers and raised it to his lips to kiss Remus’s knuckle. Remus was slightly nervous at the openly displayed affection he was having with Sirius in the presence of other people, but he realized how silly it was to think that way as Harry was impassive to the action, draining the last of his hot drink in the cup. “You were closer with James since the beginning, Sirius, but with me… after that incident I noticed how protective you were of me. Probably without you realizing it. Always up for a dog fight with people who teased me at school. It was you who always stayedback to watch over me after a nasty transformation. Last one to go and first one to arrive around the full moon. Patched my bloodied body and learned some spells from Madam Pomfrey to mend simple wounds and broken bones. The first to suggest to the others to learn a branch of difficult magic and transform into animal to ease my transformation. Even before we were involved romantically, you’ve always been looking after me.”

“And I’ll do it again in a heartbeat,” Sirius cupped his cheek. “Harry, close your eyes lad.”

After being certain that their godson had closed his eyes, Sirius pressed his lips against Remus’s, soft and gentle but with firm assurance. His warm hands slid down Remus’s neck and further down to pull him closer by the collar of his jumper as the kiss deepened. Remus mirrored him and did the same, crumpling Sirius’s shirt in his hands. It was Harry’s loud throat clearing that they broke apart, slightly ashamed for losing control in front of a kid. Harry peeked in between his fingers to see if it was safe for him to open his eyes again. “Please save it for later Moony, Padfoot. When I’m dead asleep and can’t hear a thing.”

“Well,” Sirius tried to sound casual as he straightened his shirt, “if there’s one thing that’s changed since then, is the fact that I no longer dread to be here in this house on Christmas holiday. I have a family now,” he beamed alternately between Remus and Harry, sounding terribly fond.

Harry was taken aback by Sirius’s words but was quick to snap out of it. He couldn’t contain his joy shot up from his seat, depositing himself on the couch between Remus and Sirius. The boy threw both of his arms around their shoulders and pulled them close, grinning from ear to ear. “That’s right, we’re a family!”

In the time of an impending war loomed over them, Remus couldn’t thank Merlin enough for his stroke of luck to have had Harry and Sirius in his life. All the darkness he went through in his life felt worth it now that he was here in this moment with them, like the presence of light at the end of a tunnel. For a first time in a very long time, he look forward for the future; to more time with Sirius, with Harry. Remus echoed under his breath; a smile stretching across his face.

“A family.”

#wolfstar #sirius x remus #wolfstar secret santa #Sirius Black #Remus Lupin #harry potter series

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halothenthehorns · 4 years

Text

THE MIRROR OF ERISED

Lily nodded as she took the book, checked her spot, then closed it and eyed her son briefly before saying, "I'm keeping my promise son. You wanted to know about Snape," she sucked in a huge breath and said, "so here it goes."

She was the only one who spoke for almost a solid half hour. The three boys didn't trust

themselves to speak on the matter without cursing something in the process. When she was finally done, ending with the last bit of information they knew about Snape's current whereabouts, or thought they knew since they were rumors, she looked pleading at her son, begging him to understand what these other three just couldn't. There was too much bad blood between the lot, but Harry didn't have to inherit his father's grudge, simply based on this books facts about him.

When she was done, Harry nodded slowly to himself, rubbing his temple again. Everything his mother had just told him came as a surprise, but he also got that feeling again. The one he had when they had told him Remus' story. He felt right again, whole, like another part of his life was explained. Then he met his mother's eyes, and said to the room at large, "alright. I'm not going to say anything then. I'll wait until these books are over before making a final judgement call."

Lily beamed and threw her arms around her son, thanking Merlin she had such an understanding boy.

Then when she leaned back from the hug, she stood up, marched over to James in the chair, and practically dragged him into the kitchen.

Once in there and hopefully out of earshot of the others, she said, "I'm sorry."

James blinked, he hadn't been expecting that. Before he could say anything though, she kept going, "It's just that, I have to believe Sev wouldn't do this. You know counter curses are done in the same manner, and-" her voice caught on a catch in her throat.

Taking this moment, James cut in with, "Lily I'm not mad at you for defending him. Lord knows if I was, I'd never not be mad at you." She made a face at him, but he pressed on, "I was just hurt when you made it seem like you were going to stand there and do nothing when it said he was going to kill our son."

Lily shook her head hard from side to side, her hair whipping into her face as she spluttered, "No, I would never!" Then, when she saw the look in those hazel eyes, he still looked beyond hurt and unbelieving she rushed on, "I was just trying to get you to see that, you have been wrong about him before. At least try to do what Harry is, give him these seven years at school to prove that he's not the man you think he is."

James' face scrunched up. He would never like Snape. How could he, when James still had a lurking fear that one of these days he was going to come and try to take Lily away from him, for good this time. He had never shared this fear with anyone, but it still lurked in the back of his mind every night like a growing fungus. He thought his friends would tell him he was ridiculous, and Lily would probably slap him for suggesting she couldn't handle herself and take care of her own life. Still, to appease an obviously upset love of his life, he did promise her this.

They made their way back into the living room to find a rousing debate between these three boys, Sirius and Remus were trying to convince Harry that it was a great idea for him to go and pull a prank or two at school. Despite the fact that Harry was out of school and could do no such thing, or already had with no influence from them.

Harry was laughing along and trying to explain that he really thought this was a bad idea, but without any real force in it. He seemed to be enjoying just sitting and talking to them at all.

When the two parents reentered the room, Harry went quiet and looked at the two as if fearing they would start arguing again, while Remus and Sirius took one look at them and began gagging at once.

"Please," Sirius choked, clutching at his throat, "please at least leave the room if you two are going to start making out again."

"We're begging, save poor Harry's eyes from such a sight," Remus agreed in disgust.

Harry was laughing again at once, while the married couple took their spots on either side of him.

James and his two friends began bickering at once, the two of them arguing that this was how they made up all the time in seventh year, while Lily looked about for her place.

Once she found it, she began reading.

Christmas was on the way.

And immediately frowned with concern. Fragile as she felt right now, she might just burst into tears all over again if Harry, A) went back to the Dursley's house and was ignored or B) stayed at an empty castle for the holidays.

The other three looked just as concerned about this, so Harry was quick to say, "I have a great feeling about this Christmas."

At their astounded looks he said, "Really. I think I get a wonderful gift, several actually."

When they all beamed at him with pure joy, Harry decided to decline mentioning that there was something else that happened on Christmas that had been bothering him since he'd laid eyes on his parents. This was not the first time he'd seen their faces, of that he was sure, but like the book had said the Dursley's had no pictures of them. Then why was he so sure on this day that he might just get his eleven year old wish?

Brushing it off, he let his mother go on without a fuss.

Days in December were usually seen snow covered. The lake was frozen over, and the Weasley twins got into trouble for enchanting snowballs to follow around and bounce off of Quirrell's turban.

"An old favorite gag of Peter's," James laughed.

Owls that managed to get through the storm had to be nursed back to health.

"Poor dears," Lily muttered.

Potions classes were the worst, as students were forced to huddle around their cauldrons for their only source of warmth.

"Yeesh, at least Slughorn put warming charms in there," Sirius grumbled, shivering a bit himself at the sound of that.

Malfoy was his usual self, loudly making the comment how he pitied students who had to stay at school for Holidays because they weren't wanted at home.

"You really shouldn't talk about yourself like that," Remus snapped, anger bubbling up in him again at once.

Harry wouldn't let himself feel dejected at Malfoy's snip, instead beamed over at a man he really was starting to think of as his Uncle, not that he had anything real to compare the feeling to, but it felt right all the same.

Malfoy had been furious Slytherin had lost its match,

"A real pleasure I'm sure," Sirius grumbled.

and had tried to run the joke that Harry would soon be replaced with a frog on his team.

"I'm sure it wasn't any funnier to them then it is to us," Lily said, rolling her eyes at these childish antics.

Nobody else ever laughed along though, to impressed with Harry having stayed on his broom the way he had, so Malfoy had resorted back to picking on Harry for not having a proper family.

James grit his teeth so much that it was starting to hurt. He was really beginning to hate this Malfoy brat almost as much as he hated Snivellus. He would always take jabs at all four of them, he and Sirius for being rather spoiled and rich, and Remus for his lack thereof. Still, he kept himself quite, for now, no sense in fighting with the book at least.

Harry was just wondering why Malfoy had made that leap. It was true, but as Harry had never even really spoken to anyone outside of his two friends, Malfoy had made quite the pompous jump that Harry wasn't spending his first Christmas back with anyone, made him unwanted at home. He wasn't wrong, but the oddness was there all the same.

Harry didn't deny the fact that he was staying at school for the Christmas break,

"Can't decide if that's a relief we won't have to hear about them, or depressing he's going to be in an empty castle," Sirius sighed. He and Remus had always stayed at school together, while James and Peter had nearly always gone home during the holidays.

"Go with the first one," Remus sighed, running his hand threw his hair sadly.

and Harry was looking forward to the holiday for once. That had a lot to do with the fact that the Weasley's were all staying as well, since Ron's parents were going to visit Charlie in Romania.

"Oh, that's wonderful," Lily beamed, while all of the boys perked up at once as well.

"This really is going to be fun then," Remus and Sirius both said, remembering back to all the times they'd had in an almost deserted castle, with tons of victims that weren't expecting a holiday prank.

Nobody bothered to ask why Charlie's siblings hadn't come along, they were sure the parents just wanted to spend some time with just one of their children on a holiday.

That day as they exited the dungeons they came into the entrance to find Hagrid hauling in some huge fir trees. Ron offered help, but Hagrid told him he had it handled, as Malfoy walked by and mocked Ron for that probably being a nicer tree then his family could ever afford.

"That boy has no boundaries," Lily said in disgust, while all four boys looked like they dearly wanted to punch Malfoy in his face.

Ron made a dive at Malfoy just as Snape came up the stairs.

"Gah, can you say timing," Sirius snarled, really he hoped someone had a chance to shove it to that kid soon.

Snape tried to tell Ron off, but Hagrid stepped in and said that Malfoy had been insulting Ron's family.

"Thank you Hagrid," Remus said to the ceiling in relief. If he had to deal with another instance that Harry got in trouble because no one was there for his side, he might have lost his temper again.

"I meant what I said before," James said, "Hagrid is my favorite person in Harry's life right now."

"He certainly seems to be keeping an eye on him," Lily agreed fondly.

Sirius was still disgruntled Ron hadn't had the chance to punch Malfoy.

Snape clearly didn't care, still docking points from Gryffindor before shooing them all away.

"Merry Bloody Christmas to you to," James hissed in disgust.

Ron was grinding his teeth in frustration as Malfoy walked away, wishing he could get back at him,

"And I can't wait to hear all about it," Sirius said brightly.

Harry corrected saying he hated both of them, Malfoy and Snape.

"And I don't blame you one bit," Remus agreed.

Hagrid tried to cheer them up, reminding them it was the holidays after all, and invited them into the Great Hall to see the decorations. Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were inside, hanging golden streamers and bobbers everywhere, and Hagrid was dragging in the twelfth tree that towered around with magical decorations.

"The castle always did seem even more magical when they decorated it," Lily agreed fondly.

They admire the decorations for a few moments before Hermione reminds them they need to run off to the library. Harry and Ron agree, and Hagrid reminds how close it is to the holiday for them to be doing homework.

"Nah," James said, "we always tried to get as much homework as we could done, so we could enjoy the actual break."

"I'm rather impressed," Lily admitted.

"Sure, we needed all the time we could get to plan out some of our ideas," Sirius agreed.

Lily then chose to roll her eyes at the ceiling.

Harry tells him they weren't doing school stuff, but trying to find information about Nicolas Flamel.

"Oh," all four of them said.

"Yeah," Harry said sheepishly, "I didn't have Dad to tell me who he was, so we had no idea what we were doing."

James momentary pride and thrill at hearing his son refer to him like that for the first time in his life didn't quite cover the fact that all four adults grimaced at the comment, so to change the subject Harry asked, "You said he was an alchemist? What's that, what do they do?"

James gave himself a little shake before answering, "err, I think mainly there goal is to turn metal into gold. It's a really shrouded branch of magic, which is why Flamel's card is so bloody rare. Had to nearly pay my weight in gold for the thing. His card didn't say much about it, just talked about his interests and his wife."

Harry nodded along and then asked, "So, you don't know what Flamel has to do with this then?"

"No," he admitted, shaking his head, he hadn't had much time to think on it really, but now that he was, all he could come up with was, "I know a lot of papers mentioned he and Dumbledore were working on something together, but I've no idea what. This was years ago to, I don't even think my parents were born, but really I've no idea."

Harry nodded in disappointment, as did the others. None of them had even heard of Flamel, so they had no idea what was going on.

Hagrid was shocked, demanding to know why they'd do such a thing. Hermione says they were just curious is all.

"Oh I'm so sure," Remus snickered, no person in their right mind would believe that.

Harry agrees, then admits his frustration that he was sure he'd read that name somewhere else before.

"Oh Harry," James said laughing, "now you see the importance of reading your Chocolate Frog Cards?"

Harry nodded, hoping his younger self would remember this as well soon. He already had a slight headache from remembering all the books they had sorted through.

Hagrid refuses to say anything else about it, and Ron just shrugs and says they'd have to find out for themselves then.

Lily couldn't help but smile indulgently at this. She knew better than to berate about their curiosity, she would have to admit even she would have done exactly what they were doing now.

They had been looking in the library for that name ever since Hagrid had let it slip, but the problem was they had no idea what he may have been famous for to get into a book.

"There's a new saying," Sirius laughed, "looking for a wizard in the library."

"I can't even imagine that," Remus said in disbelief, "stumbling through books and hoping to come across his name."

"We didn't have a better idea," Harry defended.

The library was huge, tens of thousands of books on every subject imaginable, so they had no idea how to start.

"You could look until your seventh year and still not get through half of them," James agreed.

Harry balked at him, had they done this? "Maybe, but I really think I find out about him over

Christmas." Yet he wasn't so sure. Perhaps he was wrong, and they really never did find out the mystery of the tiny package.

Lily simply decided to keep going, Harry was now looking quite discouraged, and she really was feeling bad for him.

Hermione tried to do it by sorting through subjects, while Ron wandered around and grabbed books randomly.

Remus laughed, saying, "good a system as any I suppose."

Harry on the other hand wandered back towards the Restricted Section. These were books for the higher levels of learning, filled with all manner of Dark Magic for advanced Defense Against the Dark Art's classes. Harry wasn't allowed to just search through these though, as you needed sign permission to get back there.

All four adults were now frowning, hoping dearly this object had nothing to do with that section. If it did, it would only heighten there worry about what was being kept in a school full of children.

Harry was interrupted from his mental speculation by the librarian, Madam Irma Pince, asking from behind him what Harry was doing. Harry said 'nothing,' and she snapped that he could get out.

James huffed at that, muttering, "she never did like students. Why she works with them is beyond me."

"Can you believe an adult would actually yell at someone to get out of a Library," Sirius laughed, "that's as backwards as it gets."

Harry wished he'd come up with some better excuse, but left the library anyways. He and his friends had already decided not to ask her for help,

"But I bet she'd know in a second," Lily sighed.

They were sure she'd know where to find Nicolas Flamel, but they didn't want the news getting around to Snape that they were asking.

"Now you're just being paranoid," Remus laughed, "since I doubt Snape would even think to look in on you lot looking up some old name."

"We were being cautious," Harry defended, feeling stupider by the minute.

"Don't worry love," Lily said, patting him on the cheek, "they're only messing with you. I'd be more worried if they didn't."

Harry relaxed at once, smiling around at them all again.

Harry waited outside the library without any hope that Ron and Hermione would come out with any better luck. They'd been looking for two weeks now to find this guy, but it was hard going when all they really had were odd times in between classes and Madam Pince breathing down their necks. Harry knew what they really needed was a long, unsupervised period of time.

"So you plan on spinning the whole of your break in there?" James asked in disgust, "really Harry, someone in that school needs to teach you how to live."

"Oh I doubt they will," Sirius replied for Harry, "have you ever known any eleven year old that can focus during the Holidays?"

"I seem to recall us getting some of our best work done then," Remus argued, glimmers of

mischief appearing in his eyes.

"Yeah, but that was something we actually wanted to do," Sirius finalized.

Harry's guess was right, Ron and Hermione came out a few minutes later with dejected looks on their faces. Hermione prompted the two boys to keep looking while she went home for the break, and to send her an owl if they find anything. Ron suggest Hermione could ask her parents if they've heard the name, but Hermione tells them they wouldn't know because they're dentists.

"She could still ask them," Lily said, thinking it over, "Muggles do actually know some famous wizards, like Merlin for example."

"Still, if we haven't heard of him, I doubt a couple of Muggles would have," James said with a shrug.

Lily couldn't argue with that.

Once the holidays had started, Ron and Harry were having too good a time to think much about Flamel.

"Saw that coming," Sirius chuckled.

Since practically the rest of the school was gone, they had the run of the common room and spent days next to the fire toasting anything you can spear, and plotting ways to get Malfoy expelled which weren't always plausible but always fun.

"Brings back all the good memories," Remus chuckled.

"You stayed behind during break?" Harry asked curiously.

"Oh yeah," Sirius nodded along with his friend, "Moony and I always did."

Harry bit his lip, wanting to ask why, but feeling it was a bit rude, but then Remus answered for him anyways, "my parents loved me dearly, but it was very hard for them to ah, take care of me during the holidays. The school was much better equipped, so I chose to stay there."

"I hated my house," Sirius said in bright tones, "so I always kept around to keep him company."

"I went home most years," James added on without being asked, "my parents pinned for me if I was gone too long."

"You would think they'd be glad to be rid of your big head," Lily muttered.

James kept going, pretending he hadn't heard that, "and Peter always went home as well. His mother doted on him like no other."

"Poor thing, she's been sick for a month now," Remus said sadly, "which is why we haven't

blamed him for not being around too much."

Harry nodded along sadly, and then let his mother continue reading when she realized how depressed the other boys were getting.

Ron also started teaching Harry how to play wizards chess which was just like Muggle chess, except the pieces moved on voice command.

"I've never been any good at that game," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"You were always too impatient to learn," Remus chuckled.

Ron had been using his for so long they responded on command, while Harry played with a set Seamus Finnigan had let him borrow, and they didn't listen to him at all.

"See, it's not just me," Sirius cried.

"You can't blame it all on the pieces," James laughed, "just admit you never could remember which way the pieces went."

Sirius huffed and crossed his arms, mumbling something about ganging up on him.

Harry was having such a good time that on Christmas Eve he went to bed looking forward to another fun day, though not actually expecting any presents.

Lily pursed her lips but quickly read on, keeping Harry's words in mind.

As much to Harry's surprise as anyone, he was awoken by Ron the next day to find a small pile of wrapped gifts on his bed. Harry exclaims his surprise and Ron just laughs, asking what did Harry expect, turnips?

Not one of them could think of a thing to say to this. They were all too pleased that Harry had a proper Christmas at all to mock Ron's comment.

The first parcel contained a whittled flute, with a note from Hagrid.

"You have a musical talent we don't know about?" Remus chuckled.

"Doubt it," Harry laughed himself, feeling warm all over at these feelings.

Hagrid had obviously made it himself. When Harry blew it, it sounded a bit like an owl.

"Maybe you could use it to call your bird to you," Sirius chuckled.

The second wasn't as well received. It contained a fifty-pence piece from the Dursley's.

"Friendly," Harry said, thinking privately that was the nicest thing they'd probably ever given him.

All four adults gritted their teeth in frustration, but Harry was clearly in too good a mood, and they refused to let their moods be sunk as well.

Ron was fascinated with the muggle money, having never seen currency shaped like that.

"I'm guessing he's never seen muggle money then," Lily smiled.

Harry lets him keep it, then turns back and wonders who the other present could be from. Ron points out one package that he suspects could be from his mother, as Ron may have made the comment Harry wasn't expecting any gifts.

"It's official," Lily beamed, feeling close to tears at the way the Weasley's had taken Harry in, "we are taking Harry over to the Weasley's as soon as we're done here."

"Might be a bit odd," Remus said, trying not to laugh, "we've never been formally introduced. You just want to show up on the doorstep?"

"I'll think of something," Lily said with confidence, and James chuckled to himself, not

begrudging her this at all. In fact they were all thinking to themselves that they really needed to come up with a way to thank both Hagrid and the Weasley family.

Harry did indeed get a sweater knitted by Mrs. Weasley. He also got a box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione.

"Best kind of gifts you can get," Sirius chuckled.

Harry unwrapped his last present to have something silvery grey fall to the floor.

"No way," all three boys breathed. It was impossible, that was locked up in the house, right now.

Puzzled, Lily gave them an odd look, but she couldn't deny she was thinking the same thing.

Harry groaned slightly, pressing his fist to his head in pain, but quickly shook it off at their

concerned looks, saying, "I, I think I know what that is. I don't-" pursing his lips, Lily decided to quickly read on before Harry pressured himself too much.

Harry tries it on and finds it to be an invisibility cloak.

"It can't be mine," James said, praying that he was wrong, that his son really had been able to inherit his birthright, "my cloak is here in this house."

"How many invisibility cloaks can there really be though?" Sirius breathed, leaning forward

eagerly.

"Perhaps Hagrid found it when he took Harry," Remus offered.

"It's possible," Lily murmured, "we might have tried to hide Harry under it, but of course he

would have been crying..."

All four of them were getting exceptionally pale the longer they thought about this, but James still managed to say, "yes, but then why wouldn't Hagrid have given it to him with the flute?"

They were all stumped, and Harry was fighting back the urge to be sick, the building tension in his head from knowing the answer, yet not being able to grasp it...

Lily decided to read on, hoping they would get an answer.

Harry eagerly put it on and then looked into the mirror to find he had vanished.

"Quite a shocker at first," Sirius agreed, wanting to laugh as he thought back on all the times he'd snuck up on people in that.

A note had fallen out of the folds,

"Explaining everything to him I hope," James muttered, shifting his weight around in agitation.

and Harry read it to find that his father had left this cloak in someone's possession before he'd passed away,

"I did what?" James balked.

"No one even knows it exists except for the people here," Sirius spluttered.

"And Peter," Remus added on quietly.

Everyone got very quiet as they all thought of something at once. Peter hadn't been hanging around them much lately, Peter had asked to borrow James cloak for a few missions for the Order, what if, James sucked in a deep breath and said, "what if Peter's still alive? He could have borrowed my cloak, but there are a million reasons why he wouldn't be here, or even heard about us dying for ages."

The others all exchanged looks, then Remus asked, "but then why wouldn't he have come looking for Harry?"

James swallowed thickly, but he had no answer for that. None of them did.

Lily reached around Harry to give James shoulder a soft squeeze, saying, "I guess we won't know until we find out, yeah?"

Nodding numbly, he didn't protest as Lily kept going. All three boys had a mix of feelings they were sorting through. Honestly, it may not have been Peter, but even Remus or Sirius in the same circumstance, but it still didn't answer the question of where they would have been for the past eleven years of Harry's life?

and that the person was now passing it along to Harry. There was no signature, and Harry couldn't help but wonder who'd sent the cloak.

"We'd all like to know that," Sirius grumbled.

Wondering if it really had once belonged to his father?

"Oh, I've no doubt about that," James murmured.

But before he could do much else the twins made an appearance, and Harry stowed it away, not wanting anyone else to know about it quite yet.

"Can't blame you on that one," Remus agreed, "James didn't show me that thing for almost six months."

The twins were wearing sweaters as well, one with the letter F, the other had a G stitched into it.

"They switched those," James said at once.

"Unless they didn't, because they knew one would assume they would switch those," Sirius laughed.

"Unless they thought you would think they hadn't switched them, because they knew people would think they had, so they did switch them," Remus joined in, smiling at the inept sentence.

"Please," Lily begged, "don't do this to me? We'll be here for an hour, and I doubt we ever really find out."

"Oh fine," James huffed.

Fred comes over to investigate Harry's sweater and claims it was better than theirs,

"Oh, I doubt that's true," Lily said at once.

while George turns his attention on Ron and demands to know why he wasn't wearing his. Ron groans that he hates the color maroon,

"I'm sure it clashes with his hair marvelously," Sirius laughed.

while Fred points out that Ron doesn't have a letter on his. Obviously that was because Ron didn't forget his name, unlike the twins who knew their names where Gred and Forge.

"I'm sure that's exactly what your mum intended to name you," Remus cackled.

Percy stuck his head in then, claiming they were making too much noise.

"It's Christmas," James frowned, "really, does this boy ever have fun?"

The twins notice at once he isn't wearing his sweater either, and demand he put it on despite Percy's protests.

"Well you should wear it anyways," Lily huffed, she thought it was a lovely and sweet idea.

They then insist Percy will be sitting with them at dinner and march him back out of the room in between them.

"I'm sure he loved every moment of that," Sirius laughed.

That night at dinner the school went all out on the holiday feast, including sets of wizard crackers. When you pulled one the whole thing exploded, releasing prizes inside. One set released some mice that ran every which way.

"Ew," Lily crinkled up her nose, picturing all those mice running over the food.

"I'm sure they made Mrs. Norris happy though," Remus chuckled.

At the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped out his hat for a bonnet,

"Lovely mental image," James laughed.

and Harry could see McGonagall talking happily with Hagrid, both of whom had clearly been heavily drinking. At one point Hagrid leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek, causing her to giggle.

"Ugh, take it back," Sirius cried, pressing his fists to his eyes.

"All the teachers have clearly indulged too much," Lily said, crinkling up her nose again.

Harry had got his own set of rewards from the crackers, including his own wizard chess set, and a grow your own warts kit.

"We always used to get great prank ideas from those things," Remus laughed.

Those mice had disappeared, and Harry had a feeling they would turn into Mrs. Norris' dinner.

"See, even the evil cat's happy on this merry day," James chuckled.

Then all of the Gryffindor boys went outside and had a wild snowball fight until it got to cold and dark, then went upstairs where he and Ron played a game of chess. Percy tried to help, which ended up doing more harm than good.

"Poor Harry," Remus agreed, "I can't stand when people try to backseat play me."

"Well, you can't blame that one on me," James and Sirius both said.

That evening Fred and George somehow got a hold of Percy's prefect badge, and he chased his twin brothers around the common room trying to get it back.

"Wow, why didn't we ever think of that?" James whistled.

"Because I would have killed you both," Remus said pleasantly.

It had been the best Christmas of Harry's life, but something had been nagging in the back of his head all day. Who had sent that invisibility cloak?

"I really hope you figure that one out, soon," James pleaded, eyeing his son for any trace of remembrance.

Harry was shaking his head sadly from side to side, as mystified as they were.

That night after everyone went to bed, Harry creeped out of his own and tried the cloak on again.

"You have more restraint than any of us," Sirius told him, "I would have run around the castle first thing when I found it."

Standing there, invisible in the darkness and the folds of his new cloak, an idea came to Harry. He could go anywhere in the castle, and no one would ever know.

"Well that's going a bit far," Remus said lightly, "it makes you invisible, not impervious."

"I just hope Harry doesn't use it to sneak into classrooms, and set up a trap so that when a certain student sat down-" Lily began hotly.

"That was never proven," James declared, pointing wildly at her.

Lily just rolled her eyes at all of them.

He considered waking Ron and taking him, but then decided he'd use it alone this very first time.

James shrugged, saying, "Nah, I used it at home by myself all the time, I took Sirius along with me our first night there."

"Which is how we got caught," Sirius chuckled, "I'd never used the thing before, and we weren't used to sharing yet."

"You two still don't know how to share," Remus rolled his eyes.

He pondered for a moment on where to go, before settling on the Library.

"Really?" All three boys demanded in disgust.

"The whole of Hogwarts, and you choose to go in there?" James demanded, looking faint.

"That's a waist of the cloak," Sirius agreed.

"Leave him be," Lily said before Remus could jump in, "the Library has been on his mind for weeks now, I don't blame him for that being his first thought."

All three boys muttered a bit more, but Lily wouldn't hear it and just moved on.

The Restricted Section was at the back of the library.

"Well that's not so bad," James said, picking himself back up slightly, "at least he's doing

something he couldn't do during normal school hours."

Lily rolled her eyes, honestly why these boys wanted Harry to be a rule breaker was still beyond her, but she couldn't fault Harry for his curiosity driving him to this place.

Harry stepped over the bit of rope separating this spot from the rest of the books and began inspecting the titles. Then he heard some whispering, and it seemed to be coming from the books.

"Might be," Remus said curiously, "I doubt Pince used more than a bit of rope to make sure no one snuck back there."

"Good point," Sirius said slowly, "there really might be a spell on those books."

Now very curious, Lily read on.

Harry chose one thick tomb from the shelves and let it fall open in his lap, only for the book to start screaming in his face.

"Oh my gosh," James gasped, before laughing his ass off.

"Of all the rotten luck," Sirius cackled.

"It's not funny," Harry mumbled, rubbing his ears in remembrance, "that thing gave me a heart attack."

All three boys were still laughing at this spot of misfortune, even Lily wanted to bite her lip to stop from laughing for a moment, before she remembered, "you know this most likely summoned Madam Pince."

That dried up all of their laughter pretty quickly, James noting, "well, look at it this way, can you really imagine Harry getting into much trouble for sneaking into the Library?"

"McGonagall might reward him again," Remus agreed, his voice still trembling slightly with

laughter.

Harry put the book back and made a break for the door, only to find Filch blocking the entrance.

"Really, I swear that man doesn't sleep," Sirius said in disbelief.

Harry had to sneak very carefully past him, the books scream still ringing his ears.

"What a first use," James chuckled.

"I'll give you credit, we never thought of that," Remus agreed.

Harry stopped in front of a suit of armor. He'd been so busy getting away from the library, he hadn't been paying attention to where he was going.

"That's like, the third time you've made that mistake," Sirius said in disappointment.

"Well he's gotta learn somehow," James said sadly, wishing that Harry would find another of his treasured objects.

Harry knew there was a suit of armor near the kitchens, but he knew he was several floors above that.

"There are suits of armor all over the castle," Lily said in confusion.

"Yeah, but this one was posed a certain way," Harry tried to explain.

"Okay, that makes sense," Remus agreed.

Before Harry could think long on it, he heard voices coming from behind him, and

recognized Filch telling someone that there had been an intruder in the restricted section.

"Where did you inherit all this bad karma from?" Remus demanded.

"I think it's retribution for you lot," Lily said primly, "that karma's getting back at Harry for all the stunts you pulled at school."

"Don't say that Lily," James said, clutching his chest in pain, "I'd never forgive myself for that."

"I think it's just Harry's ignorance," Sirius said bracingly, "things should get better the longer he's at school."

He saw that Filch was talking to Snape as the pair came around the corner, and Harry realized that though they couldn't see him, the cloak didn't stop him from being solid.

"Well I'm glad you figured that out beforehand," James snickered, "I remember when Peter first got the cloak on his own, he ran straight into a wall."

"He still claims it was an accident and he tripped, but come on," Remus agreed.

Harry quickly backed into a partially open door, managing to do so without moving it.

"See," Sirius said brightly, "he's learning already."

He waited several moments to make sure the pair of them were gone before glancing curiously around the room he'd been hiding in, to find it only housed a mirror.

"Well that is odd," James agreed, "who stashed a mirror in a classroom?"

None of them had any idea, so Lily read on, expecting Harry to shrug it off and ghost out of there. They'd probably never get an answer, and with any luck Harry would go back to the common room without another incident.

There was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

"Could you try saying that in English," Remus said, going a bit cross eyed.

Lily was frowning at the words, saying, "No, that's how it's spelled."

"You think maybe it's a different language?" James asked, leaning around Harry to look.

"None that I recognize," Remus said.

They all passed the book around, taking a look at the odd inscription, but none of them had a clue what it could be, until Sirius said slowly, "Hang on, this first word is backwards."

"What?" Remus asked, leaning over to see what he meant.

"See here," he pointed out, "Erised is Desire spelled backwards, that's the only word though, dang it," he muttered scanning through the rest of it.

"Well maybe," Remus said, taking the book from Sirius, then getting up and going into the

kitchen, when he came back, he had a quill and fresh parchment, and he then scribbled down the sentence in the same manner.

At first, they still couldn't make any sense of the words, but then Remus said slowly, "I think I've got it. The words aren't spaced right, but if you fix it like this, it reads 'I show not your face but your heart's desire' unless you can find another combination that works?"

James took the paper and looked at it, then at the original and then nodded saying, "No, it makes sense."

Lily and Harry had been sitting there, watching them all with fascination. Lily spoke up, "That was brilliant. I can't believe you three worked that out."

"What, did you think we got through school on our good looks alone?" Sirius quipped.

Smiling around at them, Lily decided not to press the issue, and so she took the book back, rereading that line, and still shaking her head in disbelief, she kept reading.

Curiosity winning out, he walked closer, only to freeze up and clap his hand to his mouth to stop himself from screaming.

"What, why?" They all said, in a panic at once, they really didn't want to deal with yet another deadly situation already.

"Because I wasn't alone," Harry whispered, so quietly to himself none of the others even heard him.

He was looking into his reflection, which still should have showed an empty room, only to find it full of people.

"Now what on earth?" James demanded, blinking in shock.

"That's impossible," Sirius said, "nothing has ever been able to see through the cloak."

"That's what you caught on," Remus stated, looking stunned, "how about the crowd of people in the room?"

Lily was looking expectantly from Harry to the book, but Harry was clearly not listening to any of them. He was rubbing his temple furiously, whispering, "It's them, I knew I'd seen them."

Pressing on loudly over the still bickering boys, she knew by now the best way to settle her son was to just complete the memory.

Harry glanced around himself again to confirm the room was still empty before taking a look back at the object. Perhaps its trick was that it showed people, invisible or not?

"Possible," James said slowly.

"But wouldn't you have bumped into one of them?" asked Sirius.

Harry reached behind himself, and if she'd really been there he would have been able to touch a woman standing right behind himself. There was nothing but air there, which meant these people must only exist in the mirror.

"Don't touch it," Remus said at once, going pale as a sheet, "it could be some trick, and you fall through and get stuck in there."

Now they were all looking very concerned, wanting to egg Harry out of that room, knowing it was pointless, so they instead comforted themselves with leaning in very close to their Harry.

The woman was very pretty. She had dark red hair and green eyes; eyes just like Harry's.

Lily stuttered a bit, glancing up at her son with shock etched into her face.

"Oh," James whispered, looking from Harry, to Lily, to the book and back again like one of them was going to scream 'got ya.'

"Well, that was unexpected," Sirius murmured.

"I stand by what I said," Remus gasped, coming out of his shock, "It could still be a trick,

personalizing it to a particular wizard."

She was crying as she gazed down at Harry with his eyes in her face. Smiling, but crying.

Lily looked like she was about to start crying herself, but her voice remained steady as she kept going.

The man beside her was taller, with black hair that stood on end, just like Harry's.

"I don't like this," Sirius moaned, his head dropping into hands as he shook it back and forth, "I really don't like this."

"My poor boy," James whispered, giving Harry a quick hug. This was, by all accounts, the first time Harry was laying eyes on his parents, and it was through a mirror. A possibly dangerous, dark object, that could suck his soul out or something equally as awful.

Both Sirius and Remus and Harry looked like they were going to burst into tears right along with Lily, but Harry was the saving grace as he said, "Remember. I'm here, and I know you guys now. I-I'm sorry you have to hear about this-"

"Don't," Lily interrupted, bucking up her own strength when she saw her son's face, "this is what we wanted. To hear about your life, the good and the bad."

"This just happens to be an awful mix of both," Remus muttered.

Harry had been edging closer to the mirror this whole time in fascination, his nose nearly touching the glass now.

All four of them shivered in disgust at this, they still didn't want Harry touching that thing.

Aloud he whispered for the first time, Mom? Dad?

Then they all shivered again, as they realized this was probably the first time in his life he had been able to utter those words. Sucking in a deep breath, Lily forced herself to go on.

They did not respond, but just continued to stand there smiling at him. Around them were other people with physical features Harry recognized in himself, Harry's family that he was seeing for the first time in his life.

Both James and Lily fought back fresh waves of pain when they realized that this was most likely their parents, others that Harry obviously had never seen.

Now Harry had his face pressed right up to the mirror, like he was hoping to fall right through and be with this image.

Lily's breath hitched slightly as she read that, this being her worst fear since this had started, and she didn't give the others a chance to panic as she blasted on.

Harry stood there for an indeterminable amount of time before a distant noise reminded him where he was. He glanced around with worry that he may be caught and decided it was time to leave, but whispered he'd be back to the mirror before he left.

"Oh thank Merlin," they all breathed in relief.

"Okay," Remus reassessed, "you're clearly drawn to it, but any person in your situation would be..." he trailed off, still trying to figure out the magical property of this object.

"I show not your face, but your heart's desire," Sirius repeated.

"So that's all it will do," James said slowly, "It will just show you what you want most in the

world."

"I still don't want you going back," Lily said quietly, "I'm afraid you'll waste away your life

staring at that."

"Can't do anything about it now," Sirius muttered.

Lily decided to agree with him, so pushing back the rest of her rising emotions, she kept reading.

The next morning Harry was telling Ron about what he'd found, and Ron was expressing his desire to see Harry's parents.

"I don't think it will work like that," Remus said at once, shaking his head.

"Well, we didn't know that then," Harry said, shrugging, trying to remember what Ron did see, and as always, coming up blank.

Harry agreed he'd like to see Ron's family to, and Ron waved him off saying he could see them whenever he came around. Then he wondered if the mirror only showed dead people.

Sirius made an awful noise, somewhere between a snort of mirth and a scathing rebuke.

James interpreted that noise pretty well, and said for the others, "That was the most tactless thing he could have possibly said, and yet Sirius may have said the same thing."

"It did pop into my mind," he admitted.

Then Ron voiced that it was a shame Harry hadn't found anything out about Flamel. Harry hardly noticed, thinking so what if Snape got the Stone. Who cared about Flamel, he was going to see his family again that night.

All four adults exchanged uneasy looks, Remus saying, "may have spoken to soon. What if this thing has a compulsion about it, and you'll eventually just waste your life away in front of it."

"I know I don't do that." Harry said at once, he felt he wouldn't have the same feelings about that mirror if he had. Right now, he mostly just felt a sense of loss, he'd have like to keep that mirror back in his life, so that he could see his parents whenever he wanted, but he was also thinking there was something else. Something important about this mirror, but it didn't involve him, or Ron.

Nodding and feeling reassured, Lily kept going.

Harry's biggest fear is that he may not be able to find the mirror room again.

"That reminds me," James said, "what on earth is that mirror doing there?"

"Could a teacher have left it there, and they're going to use it in there next class?" Remus offered, "Quirrell for example, could be teaching his seventh years about dangerous objects."

"Well, since we've still no idea," Sirius rolled his eyes, "how about we just see if Harry can find it again first."

That night he and Ron spent hours wandering around the castle on the hunt for it, and just as Ron wanted to give up, Harry spotted the suit of armor and led Ron inside the room.

None of them could really decide how they felt about this. They were happy beyond belief that Harry really did know what his parents looked like, before now anyways, but they still feared what this mirror's true power was. Nothing for it now though.

The reflection still proudly showed all of Harry's family, beaming at the sight of him.

"Well at least it's accurate," James beamed down at his son as well, trying to play that off as a joke.

Ron however couldn't see anything, so Harry moved out of the way, effectively erasing the image he saw, and putting Ron in the center.

"That sort of makes sense," Remus agreed, nodding along, "it will only show the person standing directly in front of it."

"Now, let's see what Ron sees," Sirius said a bit eagerly.

Ron however didn't see his family, but himself standing alone wearing a head boy badge.

"That's his heart's desire," James snorted, "he's hardly shown any ambition, the opposite in fact if his attitude towards his Perfect brother is to go by."

"Let me keep going," Lily scolded, she had a bit of an idea where this was going.

He also had a Quidditch Captain badge, and was holding both the Quidditch cup and the House cup.

All eyes cleared from confusion now.

"Oh," Sirius said sadly.

"Yeah, I can see why Ron would want to be the best of all his siblings," Remus agreed with a small frown.

James let out a low, throaty whistle, saying, "damn though, I was Head Boy and Quidditch

Captain, and the responsibility of all that nearly made me go bald."

"It made you easier to be around though," Lily chuckled.

"Moving on," Sirius said quickly, not wanting the couple to start making googly eyes at each other.

Ron eagerly asked if the mirror was showing the future,

"We can only hope," James said sadly.

and Harry pointed out that as his family was dead, it wasn't likely. Then he told Ron to move, because he wanted to see his parents again. Ron wanted to stay put though, and they began arguing loudly.

"Comparing the two, yeah I've got to give you your do Harry," Sirius chuckled.

"Leave Ron be," Remus defended, "I'm sure anyone would want to stand around and look at that thing forever if they had the chance."

None of them mentioned what they were thinking now, what would they see?

Then they heard a noise outside the room, and quickly ducked back under the cloak just as Mrs. Norris came into the room. Both Harry and Ron wondered at the same time, did the cloak work on cats?

"Yep," all three said at once, while James elaborated, "but they can still smell you, and hear you. You've got to be very careful around her, cause if you don't fool her, she'll still run off for Filch."

"Or just bark at her," Sirius snickered.

It seemed to, as she turned and left.

"Good," all four of them said, they really didn't want Harry getting caught again, even Lily

couldn't deny her son this reason for being out of bed.

Ron convinced Harry to go back to bed then, and he did so reluctantly. The next day Harry lay around, clearly not interested in doing anything, and Ron guesses correctly what's on his mind and tells him not to go back to that mirror.

"Well that's surprising," Lily said, "I'm surprised Ron isn't demanding he can go with you."

"Yes well, Ron can simply conjure up that image in his head whenever he wants," James pointed out, "whereas Harry wants to be able to memorize his a bit more."

Harry grumbles that Ron was starting to sound like Hermione.

"Because he's being cautious," Remus rolled his eyes.

Ron insisted he was serious, Harry shouldn't go.

Sirius opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but Remus quickly picked up a pillow and smothered him before he had the chance.

Harry ignored his advice though, and that night he put his cloak back on and went in search of the mirror again, this time not running into anyone along the way.

"Lucky," Sirius said, finally shoving Remus off of him.

He finds the mirror easily enough and throws his cloak away, eagerly running forward to look into it for hours, when a voice behind him pointedly asks that Harry's back again.

"Who on earth?" James yelped in shock.

"I've no idea," Sirius and Remus both said.

"It couldn't be a teacher," Lily muttered, "he said 'again' so, whoever, knows he's been there before..."

Harry cleared his throat a bit, and then pointed at the book, smiling slightly. All four jumped

guiltily, then James eyed Harry a bit. He had a look on his face, like he might actually remember what was coming this time.

He didn't, but he had a good feeling about this meeting, which is why he was so unconcerned.

Harry turned on the spot to find Dumbledore.

"Dumbledore?" they all said in shock.

"I didn't even know he left his office," Sirius said in surprise.

"Don't be daft," James rolled his eyes, "he's got to use the loo at some point."

"Really you two," Remus shook his head in disbelief at them, while Lily ignored them

completely.

Harry felt nervous as he blurted out he hadn't seen him, but Dumbledore didn't seem mad though, but was instead smiling as he told Harry how narrow sighted people could be while invisible.

"Well you don't seem to be getting in trouble," Sirius said brightly.

"Remember that time he caught us rigging up one of the statues, and he actually believed Peter when he said we were just admiring it," James laughed.

"I thought he had lost his marbles," Remus agreed.

"So you lot are saying Dumbledore, the headmaster of this school, let's his students get away with breaking the rules?" Lily demanded.

"Yeah, seems like it," all four boys said.

Then he points how Harry found the Mirror of Erised.

James snorted, saying, "well that's a clever name."

Harry admits he didn't know it was called that, and Dumbledore prompts that he does know what it does, yes. Harry starts to say that it showed him his family, and Dumbledore interrupts to point out that it shows Ron as head boy. Harry starts to ask how he knew that,

"How long has Dumbledore been coming there?" Remus demanded.

"And how did Harry never spot him?" James demanded.

"Search me," Lily said, shrugging.

and Dumbledore tells him he doesn't need a cloak to become invisible.

"Well that's true," Sirius agreed, "there are plenty of ways to pull it off."

"But mine is still the best," James jumped in at once.

Then he goes into detail of explaining that the mirror only shows what you truly want to see. Harry never knew his family, and so he saw them, while Ron wanted recognition without being overshadowed by his brothers.

"Well that was kind of depressing," Sirius said, frowning a bit.

"Dumbledore has this way of saying things that sound really smart, but tend to be barmy," James agreed.

Then he tells Harry that the mirror will be moved, and that Harry shouldn't go looking for it again, but if he ran across it now, he'd at least know how it worked.

"How many mirrors do they have hanging around that school?" Remus asked, that had felt a little ominous to him.

"I think he was just in teacher mode then," Lily suggested, "preparing Harry for the future and all that."

Harry was feeling very frustrated all of a sudden, for some reason knowing quite well that he would come across that mirror again. Why though, he still had no clue.

Then he tells Harry to go off to bed. Harry asks if he can ask one more question, and Dumbledore points out he just did, before granting him one more.

"I hate it when people do that," James grumbled, "it's like they're mocking you for using your manners."

"That's why I just blurt out whatever I want," Sirius said happily.

Harry asks what Dumbledore sees in the mirror, and Dumbledore tells him socks.

"Err," Remus said, looking at Lily oddly, "want to run that by me again?"

When she did, all five of them exchanged looks and said as one, "Liar."

Harry felt frustrated, shaking his head from side to side. Would this feeling ever go away? Why did he know that answer, but couldn't actually seem to answer it himself?

The other four adults just felt a little frustrated, Lily even saying, "Well that hardly seemed fair. He knew Harry's."

"It is a personal question," Remus disagreed, "I can hardly blame him."

"Of course we would tell you Harry," James told him, "If any of us actually knew of course."

Lily shrugged, slightly agreeing with Remus, and completely behind James on that.

Harry just stares, and Dumbledore says that another Christmas had come and gone and he didn't receive a pair.

"Well you can expect five lovely pairs this year," Sirius said brightly.

Harry chuckled at his antics, then pondered for a moment why on earth there was an importance to socks in his life? Not relating to Dumbledore, but someone else... it was gone as soon as the idea had come.

It was only as he crawled into bed later did Harry reflect that Dumbledore may have been lying, but then again, it was a personal question.

"At least you acknowledge it," Lily approved.

"My turn," James said brightly.

Remus rolled his eyes but held his tongue.

#Harry Potter #The Life that Never Lived #complete #fanfiction #bookhater

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mariposalass · 5 years

Text

A Moment into Forever

Summary: A friend and an adopted brother join hands in marriage in early July, and Mari couldn’t be any prouder of the two.

Notes: It’s the Love Beyond Magic wedding, and you’re invited to read this story along. Here’s a quick reference masterlist related to the wedding event: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Also, huge shout outs to @husband-of-lucoa, @moonkiss-kid, @jenny-snoopers-world, @jaklovemail, @self-shipping-angel, and theselfshippingwitch (I can’t seem to tag you properly for some time) and their f/os for the guest cameos in this story.

Setting: Zellerbach Garden of Perennials at the San Francisco Botanical Gardens in San Francisco, California and Mari and co.’s house in Daly City, California; July 7, 2019

Tags: crossovers, Love Beyond Magic, self shipping, fluff, wedding, guest cameos, few mentions of character death

Morning arrives at the Tan residence one July Sunday, there is so much activity to get the last minute things done: from setting up the backyard for the reception to getting some of the food cooked to the bridal party needing to get ready for the big day. The ladies (Issa the bride and bridesmaids Mari, Kairi, Hermione, and Issa’s old friend Mona Roque) had their makeup and hair done by some friends led by Michiru Kaio in the master bedroom on the ground floor while the guys (Harry the groom and the groomsmen Ahkmenrah, Kirby, Ron, and Issa’s old friend Samuel Hidalgo) got ready inside in what will be Harry’s former room with Kirby on the second floor (the couple would move into the master bedroom after their brief mini-honeymoon out of town). There are exchanges of encouragement and stories and a bit of shenanigans here & there, but it went all smoothly.

After everyone got ready and got dressed, Mari and Kairi escorted Issa out to the porch at the now mostly decorated backyard of the house for the first look and bridal party photo shoot. The girls, the bride wearing an ivory spaghetti strap blouse, a long blush tulle skirt, and black chunky heels, whereas the two bridesmaids (along with Mona and Hermione) are dressed in embroidered blush dresses, chatted for a bit about what is going to happen. Her hands are tightening their grip onto her pink and white floral bouquet out of nervousness, although her face didn’t show that much at all with her trying to remain calm before the first look and bridal party shoots.

“So, today is finally here,” Mari spoke up first, “The day you two are getting married.”

“Absolutely, sis,” Kairi smiled before turning her attention to Issa, “Harry is so going to be floored once he gets down here to see you. I mean, we managed to hide your outfit for a couple of weeks without him catching onto it yet. He’s usually the one who couldn’t his nose away from any secretive stuff.”

“Gee, thanks guys, we all need it,” the slightly nervous bride thanked her soon-to-be sisters in law, “Come to think of it though: I’m just as surprised as you two that we hid it so well, he didn’t even bother to ask us.”

“Not a problem,” Mari noted, “I guess we did it so well indeed.”

“I can’t wait to see his reactions to you in a top and skirt rather than a dress,” Kairi giggled at the thought of her older adopted brother having dropped jaws upon seeing his future wife in a different outfit than he had imagined from the white lies they have given onto him for the last couple of weeks.

“Well, dream harder, Kairi,” Issa rolled her eyes a bit with a shrug, “I’m placing bets that he’s going to wear his eyeglasses all day long and forgetting to fix his hair for today.”

“Quick, everyone, the groom’s coming!!!” Mona’s panicky voice soon alerted everyone that Harry’s about to go to the backyard porch, sending everyone to hide from his line of sight.

“We need to go before he catches us,” Mari told Issa as she and Kairi went back inside to the master bedroom.

“Or else,” Kairi chimed in.

“Okay, girls, just don’t heckle at him on your way out,” she reminded them in advance.

Both girls nodded as they went back inside, leaving Issa alone to have some peace and quiet before he shows up. Good Lord, it’s been nearly a decade when they first met? Nearly a decade of dating has come by and it was so surreal to think that it would lead to this moment.

The memories were coming back to her in flashbacks in a film: the first awkward meeting, Harry’s major heartbreak from breaking up with Ginny and disowning his canon realm, the first awkward date, bonding over their hatred for tight enclosed spaces, the upset that she has to go college and get a job at the newspaper company they work for ahead of him, countless times of flirting with each other, a couple of times they would argue and yet make it up afterwards, the multiple dates and trips together, the many sleepless nights working on articles and races against the deadlines, that little engagement surprise at Ron and Hermione’s wedding a few months back. It must have taken a few minutes to go over them, but it felt like an eternity for her.

Just as memory lane keeps running in her mind, a familiar English male voice soon woke her up from its trance, “Hey, I thought about of dropping by before the whole thing starts. Just to, you know, not to get so tense about the day ahead of time.” Issa turned around and she was quite happy to see that he was there: the man she’s going to tie the knot with, the brother of two of her dearest friends. Harry James Potter looks absolutely dashing on today: his bangs have slicked back with gel, he managed to sneak in contact lenses (again, but he’s getting better at wearing them in a near daily basis nowadays), the scar has been partially concealed with a little bit of concealer, and this is so un-Harry-like as if the guy was trying too hard to look good for her. But still handsome nonetheless.

And like the rest of the guys who’s not Kirby, he’s wearing an ivory white dress shirt, gray dress pants, and brown shoes, finished with a layered owl feather and gold-tone wiring buttonhole. Unlike the rest of guys though, he does have a suit jacket on that matches the pants in color & fabric where the buttonhole is attached onto and a blush tie that compliments her skirt.

She was totally floored by the whole look he has pulled off, and she couldn’t help but to blush hard behind her hand. Harry, on the other hand, was stunned by how lovely Issa is as well: to be honest, he was expecting her to wear something more white and in a form of a dress if you asked him beforehand, but the top and skirt combo is quite a welcoming refresher from the amount of white dresses he has seen on brides in many of the weddings he, Issa, Mari, Kairi, and, yes, even Kirby have went to in recent years.

Her hair has been styled into a messy bun with braids, the makeup was done well for even amateur standards (thanks in part of Michiru’s clever skilled hand), he could even sworn that he could sniff some of the perfume she usually has on, but beyond that, it probably has to do with the sweet elegant aura and grace she always gives off that makes her unorthodox bridal outfit more stunning in his eyes in a good way.

“I see that you decided not to give up on the old locket for the big day as well,” he admitted to her when he noticed that the silver heart locket necklace she usually wears being a stand out from the other pieces of jewelry that are in gold before solemnly pondering on the significance, “Perhaps your cousin would’ve love to be here to see this day happening if she was still here on Earth.”

“Yeah, I wish Serena was here to see us getting married,” she smiled back while holding back the tears with the mention of her late beloved cousin bringing back old memories before bringing up another thing near and dear to his heart, “She was unfortunately ill for most of her life, I afraid. I guess the same can be said for Uncle Sirius and your parents if they weren’t, you know, killed off too soon, right?”

“Same, same,” he agreed as he too tried not to shed so much tears before the ceremony could even begin.

As the two were finishing up on the remembering the dead, they soon got distracted when they overheard giggling and cheering from their friends and family: including the bride’s parents and relatives coming in from the Philippines and the entire fam bunch & circle of friends with a co-worker of theirs taking the pictures as discreetly as possible. Issa’s dear old best friend Jenny and her feline detective husband Snooper are also present along with their respective families and with some new family members, including a pair of genius tech prodigy brothers and a friendly bear & his bird lady friend.

What surprised the groom the most was that some of the people he knew did actually travel from the UK to Daly City via San Francisco. He was surely expecting that many from his neck of the woods not to come besides Ron & Hermione who arrived a few weeks ago to help out in the last stages of planning and Sayeko, Levi, Erwin, Mike, Zoe, and Levi’s father Roland who had agreed to come to the event, even especially with Ginny understandably choosing not to go not as to rub things between them on the wrong way, but seeing Remus, Tonks, and Teddy being at the house before heading for the ceremony is more than welcome. The last living Marauder gave Harry a warm hug, Tonks kindly gave him a few words, and Teddy happily proclaimed to everyone present that Issa will become his godmother upon marrying his godfather, which actually everyone giggling and laughing at the coincidence.

And the most surprising of them all was that his biological cousin Dudley Dursley of all people arrived from his current place at Manchester, England to California out from Mari’s invitation and Luna was there as well. He’s well aware that he and Dudley have made amends and still sending correspondence over mail and calls & that these two are dating each other for some time, but the fact that both of them are here in one sitting has flooded him with gratitude that he hugged Mari tightly out of happiness Dudley even admitted he was worried about coming to the wedding in the first place out of fear, but Harry does appreciate the effort he and Luna made to come over nevertheless.

After the bridal party and family pictures have been taken at the backyard, everyone headed out to the San Francisco Botanical Gardens and into its Zellerbach Garden of Perennials for the ceremony. The garden within a city park is already filled with a diversity array of plants and flowers from around the world that wasn’t necessary to decorate the whole place like crazy (and also to comply with state & city forests and parks rules), but there’s a small ceremony table under the gazebo shade and a God’s Knot set with three differently colored ropes hanging onto a small ring which in turn is hanging onto a wooden peg. There’s also a park ranger on hand as accordance to the rules. Because both fathers on both sides have leg injuries, both sets of parents choose to sit down before the ceremony begins.

After some moments of quiet talk and waiting, the ceremony begins: the first one to walk down to the gazebo was the Doctor, dressed in black & white and carrying what appears to be a rolled up scroll of psychic paper, then next came Harry trying to not worry so much as he headed for the gazebo on his own, the first 3 sets of groomsmen and bridesmaids went down in pairs (Ron & Hermione, Mona & Sam, and Kairi & Ahk) went next with the ladies carrying black lanterns in lieu of flowers, and Mari soon arrived, a black lantern on one hand and a wagon carrying Kirby on the other, walking down towards the gazebo while Kirby waves and squeaks out ‘Hi!’ at people as he guards the wedding bands inside a small box.

As Mari walked, she could see a couple of guests smiling back at her: Dylan, Palutena, and Lucoa are there with their ever-growing clan of children (the threesome waved at her when they caught her attention), Oaklyn is also present alongside Jade (who’s trying not to visibly tear up too soon) on the right side next to the grass ‘aisle’, Sayeko and Levi are not too far behind along with Erwin, Mike, & Hanji and Roland is also present, not wanting missing his late friends’ child’s big day, Jords is also present with Tess, giving her two thumbs up, Snooper and Jenny, together with their respective families, are on the left side of aisle, giving her a friendly wave, then there’s Violet and her fiance Jonah Heston, both of them gave her a warm encouraging smile.

Once the bridal party settled down on their seats and people’s talks began to quiet down for a few minutes, Issa comes out of the entrance of the garden, bouquet in her hands and wide grin on her face. Everyone watched on as she went down the aisle on her own and approached the gazebo where the ceremony is about to start. When she got near to it, Harry decided to go down the steps to meet up with her; both of them then got the other’s hand and went up the gazebo before facing the Doctor who is already prepared for this very day.

The whole ceremony begins as the Doctor unfurls the scroll of psychic paper (but it was actual written words on it unlike its predecessors, he must have modified it for this day) and begins to talk to the crowd present, “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the garden heart of the City by the Bay to witness the marriage between these two young persons...” He then turned to speak to the couple and spoke, “Harry, Issa. The fact that we’re all here with you today as you make a commitment and start a new chapter in your ever-growing love story and it has formed an intersection in all our lives and it wouldn’t been made possible if your souls haven’t met nearly a decade ago.”

The Doctor continued on his talk for a bit, asking for remembering the loved ones no longer present, daring people if they don’t want the marriage to happen (no one actually did), and then he asked Mari to do a reading of a poem they had picked before he picked up where he last left off, “A marriage is a voluntary and full commitment, made from the deepest sense to the exclusion of others and entered into the hope and desire to last for a lifetime and beyond that. Before you can declare your vows to each other, I would ask you two that you confirm that you’re intending to marry each other today. Now face each other and join hands?”

Both man and woman turn to face each other and join their hands as the Doctor began to ask Issa first some important questions, “Issa, do you come here freely and with no reservations to give yourself to Harry in marriage? Do you promise to love, honour, cherish, and protect him, forsaking all others and holding only onto him forevermore?” She bravely and calmly answered back, “I do, Doctor.” He then turned to Harry asking the same thing, “Harry, do you come here freely and with no reservations to give yourself to Issa in marriage? Do you promise to love, honour, cherish, and protect her, forsaking all others and holding only onto her forevermore?” He also reply the same way she did earlier, “I do, Doctor.”

The Time Lord asked for Kirby to bring up the wedding rings and the little puffball dashed in, holding a small wooden box towards the Doctor and offering it to him. Kirby squeaked ‘Poyo, poyo,’ as the Doctor gives him a cheeky little smile and picks up the box from his stubby little arms. Opening up the box reveals two gold rings: one was a thin ring with a curvy v-shape central arc studded with diamonds, the other was a sleek number with an elevated satin brush finish and polished bevel edges. The rings were then blessed by family, friends, & guests present before the Doctor picked them up & gave a ring each to Harry & Issa and the rings are exchanged among the couple themselves.

The Doctor then starts the next part of the ceremony: The God’s Knot unity ceremony. Harry takes the ring of rope strands from the peg on the wood board and holds onto it as Issa braids the three strands together while the Doctor goes on explaining their significance & symbolism. Once the bride was done braiding the strands with a knot, they went to sign off the all paperwork and the Doctor proceeded into making a quick charge to the couple before finally concluding the event by saying, “Alright then, by the powers vested onto me by the powers that be and the cities of San Francisco & Daly, I can finally declare you two as husband and wife. Harry, you can now...”

He wasn’t even done finishing his sentence when he saw the two finally kissing as a married couple, this quick smack of lips from the now married couple actually gave him a good chuckle, the three of them knew that people are getting impatient to get to the reception by this time. Finally, the ceremony was done and everyone present cheered on as the newly wedded Mr. and Mrs. Potter get out of the garden to have some alone time and soak in the moment.

The backyard has decked out for the dinner reception: not too fancy, but still sincere and sweet as the couple didn’t want all the silly trappings of a normal wedding in their own. Tables were spread out with the dance floor right on the middle and a lounge area besides it, a makeshift photo booth made by Kairi and Karina is also in place with a ton of props and accessories to choose from, the dinner buffet table and drinks station were stationed on the porch for easier access, and some games are available for guests to play with. Dylan’s butler Edgar and Belle’s neighbor Mrs. Potts oversee the catering service with the food and drinks made by a couple of the guests and wedding party members who offered to help in.

As everyone settles in for the party, lights began to light up as the sky enters into the dark night and, since all tables are positioned for everyone to get a good view of the dance floor, guests couldn’t help but to gush and admire the newly wedded couple dancing to Ne-Yo’s Miss Independence. After the first dance, those wanting to dance the night away are more than welcomed to the dance floor and many surely did like the soon-to-be-wedded Hestons, Oak & Jade, Jords & Tess, and Dylan & his goddess wives. Some of the guests who weren’t into dancing still have a fun time playing games, chatting to other guests, have a great dinner, and taking a ton of photos at the photo booth. Some of the bridal party also chatted with some of the guests. Even Kirby enjoyed himself doing his famous Kirby dance in one segment with two other copies of himself as backup dancers, which got everyone going aww and admiring the adorable puffballs’ dancing.

Now by this point, people were expecting a bouquet toss from the bride anytime soon, but for many single Filipinas, this was a major nightmare: being asked to catch a bouquet is like the kiss of death and they won’t have any of this bouquet toss nonsense, not even Issa’s remaining female cousin Nicola was looking forward to it. But unexpectedly, the bride already made her decision: instead of making all the single ladies to catch her bouquet, she called in Mari to the dance floor and gave her bouquet to her instead. This random act of kindness did flustered Mari by a ton, and it touched her so much, considering she WAS the one who got her best friend and her adopted big brother together in the first place.

After a long flustered speech and being socially awkward to a fault, the assistant librarian went back to her seat and was greeted by Philip who was sitting next to her even before the bouquet honor. He looks rather impressed by her talk despite being understandably nervous in front of the public.

“You did well over there,” he kindly praised her speech conviction as she settled down back to her seat.

“Gee, thanks,… Pip,” she blushed in between words.

“Don’t feel too flustered, my dear: everyone here thought it was really good,” Philip replied back before he soon realized that she was able to say his usual nickname, “By Jove, Mari. You managed to muster the courage to use my nickname without fear.”

“Uh… I actually did?” Mari’s eyes widened up in shock.

“Oh yes absolutely. But I’m not mad at you for saying it, I’m actually quite flattered,” he smiled back before he continued a little bit, “Oh, I think I might have something for you ahead of your birthday as well.”

“Yeah, what is it?” she was getting a little confused of his last sentence before her lips were greeted by his in contact; the reaction was of shock, joy, and feeling rather amused.

“Whoa, what was that for?” Mari gasped with her right hand cupping her mouth in surprise, her face turning red in disbelief.

“Now that, Mari, happens to be a kiss,” he cheekily winked back at her.

Unbelievable, her first kiss in Harry and Issa’s wedding. The feeling didn’t sink in her mind yet and she has not that many words to describe this beyond she found it quite estatic. She couldn’t keep her eyes off of Philip, or Pip, or whatever you want to call him as, until Uncle Gru informs everyone that it’s time for the bubble send off and everyone grabs their bubble tubes and circles the couple around as they head off to their mini-honeymoon (the big one will have to wait for later) out of town. After a quick countdown, all the guests start blowing bubbles at Harry and Issa while they walked out of the house and into the car for the trip.

With that one chapter finally recorded in her mind, Mari couldn’t help but to feel happy for both of them so much, knowing that they will have many great years ahead of them and their future no matter what the past and fate told them otherwise. And there is another thing that is also crystal clear: her future with Philip is also looking rather just as bright as the backyard string lights and lanterns that lit up the sky that night…

The End

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