Moonlight

Chapter Twenty-Five

Harry



Like always, after a major battle or struggle, there was the sense of dust settling around them. As the dust settled around them now, in mid-June, the Potters invited their friends over to their home in Godric's Hollow for a little summer dinner party.

Remus Apparated just outside the boundaries of the village, near the kissing gate of the cemetery, and made his way through the village to the little house, where he saw Lily outside watering her white lilies and red roses growing in the flower bed, and the fuchsias dangling from hanging baskets. It reminded Remus of watching his mother water the flowers in her garden back at their cottage--a garden which he still tended to as an outlet to his grief, except his mother had always watered them the Muggle way (being a Muggle) by using a watering can. Lily, on the other hand, being a witch, was doing it the same way Remus did: with a wand.

After she had turned her wand on him and he on her for the customary and precautionary security check, and they had verified each other's identities, Lily's previously hardened demeanor both softened and brightened.

"What's that you've brought?" she asked him.

Remus grinned as he unlatched the gate and entered the front yard. "Just a little treacle tart I baked this morning, but you can reheat it easily of course with a charm if you'd like to serve it hot with some clotted cream instead of serving it cold," he said at length as he strode down the walk way towards her.

"On a hot day like this, I think we'll eat it cold," laughed Lily.

"I quite agree," chuckled Remus, and he gave her a one-armed hug.

Then she pulled back and touched the side of his face, though he wished that she wouldn't. "How've you been?" she asked him.

"I've--I've been alright," he mumbled, looking down at his feet.

It was a flat-out lie, he knew. His most recent transformation had to have been his worst to date, and when he'd awoken naked in the forest, he'd been covered in so much blood he'd thought he might have killed a person. However, as he'd started on his crawl back to his cottage, he'd come across the carcass of young reindeer buck nearby, and deduced that he must have hastily devoured that, and not a human.

Lily, being perceptive of people's inner thoughts, read the lie almost at once. She said nothing, but she gave him another gentle squeeze before telling him that James, Sirius, Aurelia, and Peter were already in the house, and that James was serving everyone drinks.

"Not me though," she added with a laugh. "I'm on a strict diet." She patted her stomach now eight months along in size in her pregnancy.

Remus shared her laughter and then went inside to greet the others.

James was just pouring him a goblet of wine when Lily came in from watering her plants. At that point he insisted she put her feet up. She did so after some wheedling, and James did most of the cooking, serving, and cleaning throughout the evening, except when Lily managed to sneak in and help a little. She just wasn't one to put her feet up and not do anything for herself if she could help it.

During dinner, they talked about any number of things, from current events in the wizarding war, to Quidditch, and it was times like these that Remus treasured, because he could get lost in the enjoyment of the conversation and discussion with his friends and forget all about being a werewolf, and about other things that weighed so heavily on his mind.

In the midst of their talks, Lily opened up a new topic. "So, Aurelia, I hear you and Sirius have some kind of big important news to announce?"

Sirius and Aurelia exchanged smiling glances before Aurelia turned to Lily and replied, "We do in fact." She held her hand out across the table to Lily, and waggled her fingers. Lily took them in hers and examined something glinting on Aurelia's finger. She gasped and Aurelia snatched her hand back as the two of them shared a sisterly squeal of excitement.

"I don't get it, what's all the fuss about?" asked Peter, stabbing his potato salad with his fork.

Then a smile was slowly spreading across James' face as he caught Sirius' eye. "Wait...does this mean...?"

"Yeah!" Sirius crowed, unable to contain his merriment. "Aurelia and I are getting married!"

"Wonderful!" said Remus, raising his goblet. "This calls for a toast, I think: to Sirius and Aurelia!"

"To Sirius and Aurelia!" chorused the others (aside from Sirius and Aurelia) as all of them (including Sirius and Aurelia) took a sip from their goblets.

Sirius set his goblet down and clapped James on the back. "And guess who I want to be my best man, eh?"

"Oh me?" James pretended to be surprised in a very comical way. "Why Sirius! I'd be honored!"

"And Remus, Peter, I'd like you to be my groomsmen of course, if that's alright?"

Remus and Peter grinned.

"Why wouldn't it be, Sirius?" asked Remus.

"We'd be more than happy," Peter added.

"And Lily, darling, you'll be my matron of honor, won't you?" Aurelia asked Lily.

"But of course!" Lily replied delightedly. "How could I refuse? Have you two set a date yet?"

"Not exactly, no," said Aurelia. "A little less than a year though. Sirius and I were thinking in the spring."

"Probably April or May," Sirius added with a nod.

They toasted the newly engaged couple one more time, and Remus did his best to hide how lonely he was feeling amongst them.

~

A few days later, Remus was working late into the night on prophecy labeling at his job in the Ministry's Department of Mysteries. He was down row ninety-seven, clipboard in hand, labeling five new prophecies that had just come in, using a Labeling Spell, so as not to touch any of the prophecies while doing so--otherwise he would go mad if he did, for none of the prophecies were about him. As he was just finishing labeling the fifth one, the empty space beside it suddenly filled with silvery smoke. Remus stepped back keeping clear of touching it, watching as a sixth prophecy that had apparently just been prophesied moments ago appeared and took the form of the prophecy's record inside a small glass ball like the other ones on all of the other shelves. He heard a scritch-scratch and looked down on his clipboard to see writing appearing beneath where the label for the prophecy he had just finished labeling was written down.

"Hm."

When the writing stopped, Remus read the label beside the prophecy's number before proceeding with the Labeling Spell:



S. P. T. to A. P. W. B. D. Dark Lord and (?)



Remus knew Divination to be a discipline that to him was just as foggy as the inside of a crystal ball, but for some reason this label caught his interest.

Someone just made a prophecy about Voldemort? Voldemort and...someone else...?

Shrugging it off, he performed the Labeling Spell, labeled the prophecy accordingly, double-checked the other five prophecies, and then, after one last glance at the sixth one, checked his watch, saw it was time for him to be getting home, and headed off down the hallway with his clipboard towards the main door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

15 July, 1980

July is particularly hot this year.

According to James, Lily ought to be due to go into labor any day now.

According to Frank Longbottom, Alice ought to be due to go into labor and day now too.

Everywhere there is darkness, and it urges me pen what I thought I could erase from my memory--though I suppose the only way I could really do that is empty what I am about to write into a Pensieve.

On all three occasions, having used the Auto-Thought-Recording Spell as usual on my quill to record my thoughts in my journal just in case those thoughts are my last, when James, Lily, Sirius, Peter, Frank, Alice, and I returned home barely alive, the moment I got to my journal, I would delete what it had just recorded. The three occasions I am referring to are the times when we thrice defied Voldemort himself.

The first time we were on a search for the missing Caradoc Dearborn, whom we have never found to date. Instead, we found Voldemort. He wrapped us up in a dark cloud that came off of his own body, and to each of us he whispered temptations to join his Death Eaters. What frightened me about him, besides the fact that he was a killing machine, and would probably torture us all into madness, before mercifully delivering the final blow, having us all begging for death on our knees--was how much he knew about me. It was like he could read my mind. He whispered to me in a very sibilant voice:

"Pity, really...I could have ussse for you--sssuch a dark creature like yourssself. Tell me, do they really ressspect you there at the Ministry, or do they ssseem to conssstantly sssussspect that you will turn on them like the werewolf you are...?"

And I had to admit, he was right. At the Ministry, they may have let me work there, but now, every time I go in there for work, they all look at me as if they're about ready to have me sacked on the spot. But I wouldn't give in to him. His faithful Death Eater Antonin Dolohov murdered my parents. I will never place myself in league with such a foul, cruel monster. And my friends and I managed to get away because we worked together--we proved our friendship to be stronger than all of his powers alone against us. Needless to say though, we were all quite shaken.

The second time though, we stumbled across him as we were doing a mission investigating disturbances in Albania. That one was a chase escape for our lives--again--fighting and running to get protective guards to the Albanians, both magic and Muggle, and then get right back out of there.

The third time was the worst. We had been captured, and Voldemort had decided to deal with us personally. That time Dorcas Meadowes had been with us. This was the time when he killed her. So yes, I lied in that entry I'd written shortly after the abduction of Ramirus, in writing that learning of her death simply through a report that had just come in. I lied to myself just because the truth of actually watching her die, which was how it actually happened, was just too unbearable. I feel like a coward admitting that to myself, but at least now my conscience is clear of that sin.

In any case, that third time, Voldemort proceeded then to torture us all with frightening images of watching the ones we care about most dying horrible deaths right before our very eyes. I'll...never understand how he could have done it...it was like he took my memories of Ramirus, whose probably far gone by now, either dead or a complete monster--like Greyback--and then he contorted those memories into horrible things--I had to watch as poor Ramirus screamed and transformed into a werewolf so horribly deformed, and worst of all...fell dead when he'd finished...the transformation had been too much...I'd thought it'd all been real.... He showed other ones too...he showed him to me...my own brother...bloody and torn by my own werewolf claws...my own teeth eating his flesh...and gulping his blood...his blood that's my blood...like I was eating...myself....

Like before, we managed to escape from him with the power of friendship, though we were aggrieved that we could not save Dorcas Meadowes along with the rest of us. Still, we managed to hold onto our sanity by the thinnest of threads, and in the end learned to call out to each other, and reach for one another's hand...and the rest is all such a terribly painful blur I cannot remember it. My brain simply found it too horrible for me to preserve in my recollections, and has obviously blacked it out. I'm glad my mind can be so instinctive without my help, damaged as it is, as it undoubtedly bears the presence of some sort of hidden invisible malignancy that is undoubtedly the root of my lycanthropic disease.

Though that is just my personal theory on that matter.

Yet I wonder now...how is it possible that I've kept all of these terrible memories inside of me for so long? I felt that they were so terrible I did not even want them recorded in my journals--I was too afraid to have them there for me to reflect upon them, when I did not want to reflect, did not want to remember....

What compelled me most immediately to pen this all down was because of Sirius. He's been fretting over Aurelia--well, it's more than fretting, it's outright fearful worry, because she's been on a mission that sent her to Albania--alone--and despite Sirius' efforts, he could not convince the powers at be to allow him to accompany her--to protect her--and now he's overtly frightened that she's going to run into Voldemort and die at his hands. And I can't blame him...they're going to be married, and they are so in love with each other. I must confess I've never seen Sirius happier with any other woman in his life....

Ted blinked.

Was it possible?

Had his father really been one to thrice defy Voldemort?

He'd heard from somewhere that Harry's parents, James and Lily, definitely had, as well as Frank and Alice Longbottom, whom Ted recognized as his Herbology teacher and head of house Professor Neville Longbottom's parents.

But his father?

Well, he couldn't deny the words pouring from the pen, could he? He peered very close at them, and realized with a jolt that unlike any of the previous entries, his father's handwriting in this entry was in very, very, very tight waves, especially at the part about the horrid images Voldemort had planted in his mind--which meant his hand had been shaking when he had been writing this. And he had been there when Dorcas Meadowes had died. He had read somewhere that she had been one of those killed personally by Voldemort, just like Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody...Cedric Diggory...Severus Snape...Harry's parents....

Ted rubbed his temples and adjusted his position as he lay out on his stomach on his four-poster. He could hear Rodger snoring softly nearby. But it did not keep away the terrible images of screaming and tortured cries of pain weighing heavy on Ted's mind as he unwillingly imagined his pale-faced father with long pale scars as he shrieked in torment--

Ted gasped. There was an odd squeezing in his chest, and his eyes were growing wet. For a split second he thought he could hear a hoarse voice that might have been his father's from beyond: I never meant for you to read about such horrible things, son.

"Nox," he whispered, and his lit wand tip extinguished itself.

Quiet as he could, he drew back the hangings around his four-poster and slipped out of bed with the journal. In the window he could see the waning gibbous moon high in the sky.

He pulled on his bathrobe over his pajamas and tiptoed downstairs to the common room--where to his surprise, he recognized the outline of Victoire sitting in the big mullioned window, lit by the fiery silver shaft of moonlight streaming through.

His heart cried out with joy to see her.

He leaned his elbows on the stone banister of the stairs, and for a moment he simply watched her as she sat there on the window seat, in her own pajamas and bathrobe, her knees drawn up to her chin and her slender arms wrapped around her legs.

Someday...I'm going to marry her... he decided, and a smile played at the corners of his lips, despite his current distress. Vaguely he remembered how his father had once looked upon the young Lily Evans with love as she sat upon that very same window seat, many years ago.

He heaved a soundless sigh, and silently he padded down the steps. When he got to the bottom he softly cleared his throat.

Victoire looked around and smiled at him. "Oh." Her expression turned rather pixie-like. "And what are you doing up so late?"

"Reading," Ted replied, tapping his finger on his father's 1980 journal as he joined Victoire on the window seat. "And you?"

Victoire moved her hands down to her feet and rubbed them, wriggling her toes. "Thinking." She reached up and fingered the silver phoenix pendant she still wore by a silver chain around her neck. Ted liked the idea that she loved him enough to sleep with the first birthday present he had ever given her as her boyfriend.

He waited.

"I'm thinking about...my Uncle Fred. You know...he was my Uncle George's twin...he...died before I was born...."

"Right, I remember...." Ted cleared his throat. "Erm, Harry's told me about him."

"Call me a nutter--"

"I'd never call you that."

"Ted."

"Sorry. Go on."

"Well, call me a nutter, but I think I just had a dream about him."

"How do you know it wasn't--?"

"He had two ears."

"Oh. Right. Harry told me--Harry told me that George lost one of his...in the war.... Anyway, did Fred...say anything to you?"

Victoire pinched the bridge of her nose. "I don't know--I can't remember. I thought he might've but...."

Ted thought about occasional dreams he had of his parents, especially his most recent ones since starting to read his father's personal journals. He thought of the entry he had just read...about his father finally plucking up the courage to pour out on those pages his reflections on facing Voldemort three times, and how tormenting that had all been for him...the horrible images...the pain and the suffering and the fear....

He stared out the window at the waning gibbous moon in the sky.

I never meant for you to read about such horrible things, son.

The cavity in his chest squeezed again, and his vision was blurred by what he realized were--

"Ted? Are you alright?" Victoire asked softly. She leaned over, closer to him.

"I--I'm fine," Ted stammered, trying to very casually wipe at his eyes without her noticing why he would be. His father's journal slipped from his other hand and fell to the floor with a muted thump. His palms were sweaty, and he was--

"Ted, you're trembling," Victoire said in an almost admonitory tone. "Don't tell me you're fine when you're trembling like this. And don't tell me you aren't trembling because I can tell you are."

"It--It's n-nothing," Ted lied, stooping over to pick up the journal.

He felt a soothing, tickling breath on the back of his neck that seemed to instantly ease up some of the tremors in his body. He realized that what he felt were Victoire's lovely fingertips stroking him there.

He swallowed.

"What's the matter?" Victoire asked him, kinder though, gentler.

Ted inhaled with a shudder, and slowly he began to tell her about what he had just read. He even opened it up to the page in the journal with shaky hands and pointed it out to her for her to read for herself.

She did, and while she did, Ted sat hunched over, and plunged his fingers through his hair. When she had finished reading the entry, he looked up to see that her pretty brown eyes were wide with horror and desolation.

"Ted...this is horrible.... Your father went through this sort of stuff...aside from his awful monthly transformations?"

Ted nodded. His throat closed up tightly when he tried to speak, and so he could say nothing. He buried his face in his hands. He felt water on his fingers, and knew that it had sprung from his eyes, though he'd willed it not to with gritted teeth.

Come on now...pull yourself together, Ted.

Ted sat up, breathing in deep and sharp. Though his exhalation was tremulous, he clasped his hands in his lap, determined not to let her see him so vulnerable like this, though there was no denying what he felt gliding down either side of his face. He didn't know why it was such a big deal that she not see him succumb to a mental breakdown--perhaps he thought she might think it was a stupid thing to get all broken up about it--he himself thought it was rather stupid.

And yet....

He stared at a spot on the carpet.

Victoire was quite silent. But he felt her beside him, felt her breathing with him.

"Why did such...terrible things have to...happen to them...?" he croaked.

By "them", he spoke not just for Remus and Nymphadora, his parents, but for all of those who had suffered under the tyrannous reigns of the dark Lord Voldemort and his cruel, evil Death Eaters...all of those who had suffered so that young ones like him and Victoire could live in a world free of such horror and pain. People not just like his parents, but like his dead third cousin, Sirius Black, and his godfather's parents, James and Lily Potter, and the great Albus Dumbledore even, and Victoire's dead uncle, Fred Weasley....

The list went on and on.

"Why...all those...terrible things...?" he uttered crackily, almost pleading.

"I don't know," Victoire whispered, her voice so fragile Ted thought it might shatter.

He looked up at her and saw that she had the side of her face hidden in one hand, though he could see tears like his own falling down her beautiful cheeks.

"Aw, Vic...."

"Teddy...."

They reached out and pulled each other close, enfolded tightly in each other's arms as though they were two frightened children in a tempest raging all around them. Ted stroked Victoire's hair with one hand, while the other he placed on the small of her back, pressing her to him gently, while she tightened her arms twined about his neck, burying half her face in his shoulder. As they relaxed they curled up in one another's embrace like this, and leaned back against the pillows on Ted's side of the window seat. Ted continued to stroke Victoire's lovely red hair as she laid her head on his chest. He wondered if she could feel, beneath her ear, the great glow of his heart as the two of them allowed the lachrymal glisten from their eyes to go on falling, unashamedly.

~

A little while later, Victoire could be found asleep in Ted's lap, while Ted used the moonlight streaming through the window right behind him to continue reading from his father's journal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Remus was a little bit early to the meeting that rather stormy morning, and he was a bit soaked too from the weather. His father's old traveling cloak wasn't holding up so well, and he hadn't been able to get it repaired properly, or even buy a new one since they started cutting his pay--which for some reason, when he told his friends about it, and they all urged him to go complain, he'd wagged his head and told them rather grimly, "There's no point. I've been expecting this."

Since they'd started cutting his pay at work, Remus observed in the mirror day after day as his once fine robes frayed more and more and became more and more in desperate need of repairs that he was less and less able to afford. And meanwhile, his hair was slightly thinner, slightly greyer.

It was the wolf, sipping away at his life as though instead it were a fine French wine as red as blood to be savored little by little.

So he sat down at their usual meeting table--the long one in the dining room--with his father's worn old traveling cloak hanging over the back of the chair, and, in a reflective mood, flicked his journal open to where he'd left off. He took up a quill pen and a bottle of ink--there were always ones to be found on the meeting table, as it was hardly used anymore for eating on--most anyone who stayed in the house just ate in the kitchen.

He chewed on the end of the quill a moment, and then slowly began to write. These are the words that ultimately poured from the ink from his pen like a flood stream:

31 July, 1980

Alice and Frank Longbottom just had their baby yesterday morning. A healthy baby boy, Frank announced, as he spread the word around to Order members, making stops at their houses--but with caution, of course.

They've named him Neville.

And they've named Frank's father Oswald as his godfather.

My friends and I were having dinner at James and Lily's when Frank arrived there with the news, and we insisted on a toast, which Frank led himself, to the bright and hopeful future that we were fighting for, the bright and hopeful future we all want young ones like Neville to have. Considering the stock he comes from, I think Neville will grow up to be a great wizard one day.

For the time being now, Frank will be staying home to take care of Alice and Neville, though when he must come back, Oswald and Augusta will be staying with Alice and Neville to help look after them. Though I don't think Alice will want to take too much time on maternity leave. Now that she's had the baby, and as an Auror and Order member, naturally she'll want to get "back in the game" as they say.



"Scribbling in your journal again, are we?"

Remus jerked and looked around to see Sirius, his short raven-black hair glistening with a fine sheen of rainwater, his black dragon leather traveling cloak rain-slicked, as he leaned against the frame of the door with his arms folded.

"How long have you been standing there?" he asked.

"I just got in."

"Indeed?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Okay, I've been standing here for hours, Moony," he said, pretending to be overly lustful after Remus, "because I just love to watch you write, baby!"

"Shut up," said Remus, trying not to laugh.

Sirius grinned, unpinned his cloak, hung it on the back of the chair next to Remus as though he were placing it around the shoulders of his beloved Aurelia, and sat down with his friend at the table. "You see, Remus? How'd we people be keeping sane if we didn't have our sense of humors, eh?"

Remus leaned on his elbow and matched Sirius' grin. "Too true, mate." He laid the quill aside and shut his journal. "Where's Aurelia? How's she been?"

Some of the amusement went away from Sirius' face. "Er...she made it here, anyway. But she's upstairs at the mo."

"Upstairs?"

"In the lavvy. She erm...it's the weirdest thing--this morning I wake up alone in bed to the sound of retching coming from ours. I go in and check on her, I tell her to stay home if she's feeling so poorly, but she insists she's fine. And now she's got another bout of that same nausea, hence her being upstairs in the, er...."

"The lavvy?" Remus supplied.

"Right," said Sirius. He paused. "I hope it's not serious."

"Of course it's not serious, Sirius, I'm fine."

Remus and Sirius looked around at the other door to see Aurelia standing there with her hands on her hips, her half-sopping hair darkened from gold to an almost light brown from the water. She was still wearing her black dragon hide trench coat, though it was unbuttoned. She did not appear the least bit pleased, her golden glare fixed on her fiancé. Remus could also tell however that she was slightly paler than usual.

"Oh yes, because healthy people yack up everywhere all morning," said Sirius, perhaps a little more sarcastically than he meant to. As soon as he said it, Remus could see the regret in his grey eyes at having even thought of those words, much less uttered them.

"There's nothing wrong with me," Aurelia grumbled, sliding off her rain-beaded coat, folding it over, and bunching it her arms. She went over to sit next to Sirius however, and allowed him to slip an arm around her and pull her close.

Remus looked away, reopening his journal, and he thought he heard Sirius whisper something to her, undoubtedly into her ear. Aurelia mumbled something back, and then Elphias Doge, the master of the house, appeared and Remus was saved the trouble of trying to bury himself back in his journal.

"Good morning all!" he greeted brightly.

"G'morning, Elphias," Remus, Sirius, and Aurelia muttered in discordant and unenthusiastic reply.

They too brightened a little though as more and more Order members trickled in from wherever they were coming, most of them from beyond the manor house, which meant it was starting to get difficult not to brush a wet sleeve against somebody by accident from being out in the rain that lashed at the windows amid the howling winds.

Soon the dining room was filled with the hubbub of chitchat.

"Some storm, eh?" grumbled Hagrid to Mad-Eye.

"'Some storm' is right," growled Mad-Eye. "Storm like today...this is something else."

"Arr, I'd reckon summat powerful's been a brewin' somewheres the way this is a-carryin' on...."

Meanwhile, Remus was just asking Peter about how his mother, Mrs. Pettigrew, was doing, when he noticed that it was five minutes after the meeting was supposed to have begun, and that everyone who was supposed to be here was here except for--

"James and Lily," growled Mad-Eye. "Where're James and Lily? Anybody seen 'em?"

"Last I checked they were still at home," Peter squeaked. He glanced alarmedly at Remus, and Remus exchanged the same perturbed glance with Sirius and Aurelia.

He tried very hard not to allow the icy fear that was creeping into his heart to take over him.

There was a faint rumble of thunder from outside in the distance. As lighting flashed eerily for a brief second, everyone distinctively heard the door in the front hall burst open--especially Remus with his especially keen hearing.

"That might be them!" shrilled Elphias. "Don't worry, I'll get it! I'll get it!" He hastened from the dining room, and everyone else remained silent.

"They're fine..." Sirius was muttering under his breath, while Aurelia rubbed his arm reassuringly. "Everything's fine...I'm sure...."

Yet everyone's hearts seemed to seize up as one when they heard Elphias' cry: "Oh, Merlin!"

Remus, Sirius, Aurelia, and Peter rose from their seats as one, about to draw their wands, when the door behind them flew open. There stood a cherry-cheeked and elated Elphias, babbling nonsensically with happiness, his fez bobbing on his head.

Remus and Sirius shared a fleeting glance, each silently wondering if maybe Elphias had been attacked and hit with a curse that had made him go mad.

"It's a--oh it's--wonderful--must sit down--James, tell them, tell them!" He stepped aside and stood on the other side of Peter.

James emerged from the shadows where he'd been standing right behind Elphias, and though he was positively soaked through to the bone, he was beaming. He took out his wand, pulled off his glasses, and dried the rain-fogged lenses off quickly before putting them back on and surveying all those present.

"Well what is it, James?" Sirius demanded rather hoarsely. "What's happened? Spit it out!"

James gave a laugh, euphoria bubbling about inside him, and he cried aloud, "It's a boy! We've named him Harry, after Lily's father!"

Emmeline Vance shrieked. "Wha--? You mean, Lily--Lily's had her baby now?"

"Yes, yes, Lily's had the baby!" shouted James. He laughed again, his hazel eyes bright.

The room filled with sighs of relief and cries of delight and excitement, exclamations of "Oh marvelous!" and "Congratulations!" and "Imagine that! Him and little Neville are one day apart!"

James joined his appraising friends. He hugged Peter and was so filled with happiness that he started swinging the short little man around and around as though dancing with him.

Remus, Sirius, and Aurelia laughed as Peter cried, "Waah! James! I'm going to be sick!"

"Sorry, Pete!"

James set his friend down and Peter swayed on the spot a moment before saying, "R-Right, well, c-congratulations! Wow...blimey, a baby!"

"Yes, congratulations, James," said Remus, beaming and grasping James' hand.

Then James threw his arms around him and squeezed him in a bear hug. Remus gave an, "Oomph!" from the impact. "Thanks to you, Remus, I was here to see it happen," he said, his voice cracking. Remus knew James was speaking of the night Remus had gone in and rescued James, Sirius, and Aurelia from almost certain death. Recovering from his initial surprise, Remus returned James' embrace with just as much fierce fraternal affection.

They did the very "masculine" thing of pounding each other's backs with their fists before they let go, and James moved on to give Aurelia a hug. Before he let go of her, she gave him a little congratulatory kiss on the cheek.

"You'll be a wonderful dad, James, I know you will," she told him encouragingly before untwining her arms from around his neck.

"Cheers, Aurelia," said James. He turned to Sirius.

"James," said Sirius, opening his arms.

"Sirius," said James, mirroring him.

Just like always.

They hugged like Remus and James had, with a very "masculine" fist-pound-on-the-back thing before James released his friend and said to him, "You'll be godfather?"

Sirius' beaming face slackened. He seemed utterly baffled. "M-Me?" he stammered.

"Of course you, you old barmpot--Lily completely agrees with me--no one better--"

"Yeah--I--blimey--"

James gave him another squeeze and then left him to go talk with some of the other Order members.

"Godfather, Sirius!" said Remus, clapping his friend on the shoulder. "That's a real honor, that is! Well done, mate!"

"Ditto, love," said Aurelia, giving Sirius a big kiss on his faintly unshaven jaw.

Sirius was so overwhelmed with gratitude he could only give a sheepish smile.

Aurelia wrapped one arm around his shoulders and gave him a noogie.

"Hey!" Sirius laughed. "Cut that out!" He started to tickle Aurelia and that got her laughing too.

"I think everyone's gone mad with happiness," said Peter, grinning from ear to ear. "What do you think, Remus?"

"I agree," Remus tittered, watching Aurelia and Sirius almost trying very hard not to fall over each other and knock into the people behind them. And then he wondered if the Order was ever going to have a meeting, or if they were all just going to keep on celebrating.

"James!" Hagrid pulled James into a hug that nearly crushed him, but James stumbled away, laughing so hard he could scarcely breathe. He adjusted his glasses, which had gone slightly askew and replied, "Hey there, Hagrid!"

"'Oo does Harry look like, now, eh?" Hagrid asked.

"Yeah, who's he look like?" asked several others.

"Well, I told Lily he looks like her, but she says he looks like me. Not a lot of hair, and his eyes are slate blue at the moment, but you mark my words, when they turn their true color in just a few months, they'll be as beautiful a green as Lily's! He might look like me, and I'm no fortune-teller, that's for certain, but I know...he'll have his dear mother's eyes, I just know it."

"I propose a toast!" cried Elphias Doge, who was suddenly all the way on the other side of the room, tinkling crystal goblets and holding up a bottle of wine. He poured some for everyone, and then everyone raised their glasses into the air as James said:

"To Harry James Potter, a great wizard in the making!"

~

Remus raised his fist to the front door of the Potters' house one August afternoon and knocked. He had the package he'd brought with him tucked under his other arm.

It was Aurelia who answered through the keyhole. They exchanged security questions to verify identities, and then she opened the door for him, beaming broadly.

"Remus!" she gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Lovely to see you!"

Remus noticed that she had uncharacteristic dark circles under her eyes. He said nothing of them however and returned her smile. "Lovely to see you too, Aurelia. You and Sirius are already here then?"

"Mm-hm, he's in with James and Lily. Come in, come in, you look exhausted."

Remus followed her into the front hall, and she closed the door behind them.

"Just another rough full moon," he sighed. "That's all."

Aurelia rubbed his arm in a way that made him feel a lot better than he did a moment ago. She smiled encouragingly up at him, and led him into the sitting room, where Lily sat with Sirius on the sofa, and James stood across the coffee table from them, sipping a goblet of water.

"Remus is here, everyone," Aurelia announced. She flopped into a chair next to the sofa on the side where Sirius was sitting.

As Sirius took her hand and shared a tender glance with her, he and James and Lily looked around at Remus in the doorway.

"Remus!" they chorused.

James strode over to him and gave him a brotherly hug and then clapped him on the shoulder. "Come in, sit down," he said. "How've you been?"

Remus managed a wan smile as he came in and sat down in a chair across the coffee table from Aurelia, Sirius, and Lily. "I've been better," he replied, setting the package over on a side table. He looked to see the little baby boy Lily had in her arms, wearing a blue newborn's romper. There was a tuft of jet-black hair on his head, and his eyes were closed as he sucked away at a pacifier. Remus suddenly thought of the first time he'd laid eyes on his baby brother, Ramirus, and his heart went into his throat. "Is--Is that Harry?" he asked rather croakily.

"It is," said Lily brightly. "Would you like to hold him?"

Remus considered her offer a moment. He wasn't sure how he felt about it at the moment, and so he politely refused.

Lily rolled her eyes at him. "You too?" She sighed. "I've been trying to coax Sirius or Aurelia but they won't indulge me either." She raised her eyebrows at the engaged couple beside her.

Sirius regarded the lazily squirming infant with unease. "Lily, he's so tiny. What if I break him? I've never held a baby before."

Aurelia was staring at her and Sirius' linked hands and biting her lip.

"Well, Remus has," Lily pointed out. "He's held his baby brother, right, Remus?"

"Er...yes. I did."

"Come on now, Lily, don't go pressuring them," James laughed, getting to his feet. "Can I get you anything Remus?"

"Just some water would be fine, please," said Remus.

While James got him a goblet of water, Remus plucked up his courage, rose to his feet, and crossed over to Lily, where he sat down in the chair right next to her on the sofa to have a proper look at Harry.

Baby Harry's face was a bit scrunched, with chubby cherubic cheeks. As if he knew that Remus was there to say hello, he opened his little eyes, which were still slate blue--though Remus thought he saw the slightest bit of bright green poking through, and he also thought that they were distinctly almond-shaped, just like Lily's eyes were.

Harry widened those eyes of his as if in wonder at the appearance of this strange man.

"Can you say 'Hello', Harry?" Lily cooed. "Say 'Hello, Uncle Remus'."

Harry spit up his pacifier as a baby hiccup emerged and made his tiny body quiver for a moment. Remus caught the pacifier automatically and offered it to him. Harry took it into his tiny mouth, but then he hiccupped again and spit the pacifier back up.

"Oh dear," Lily laughed lightly.

James returned with a goblet of water and handed it to Remus. Remus thanked him, and Lily asked James if she'd take Harry's pacifier, since he kept spitting it up now from his hiccups. James chuckled, and lightly brushed the side of his son's face with his fingertip before he took the pacifier from the room.

Remus sipped his water and looked down at Harry.

Harry gurgled and hiccupped again, and when he did, it was a tiny sound that went like this: "Hicca!"

Somehow it didn't seem to torment Remus that Harry wasn't his son, with Lily as his wife....

James returned but remained on his feet. He picked up his goblet of water and took a swallow.

Remus gave Harry a smile and then lifted his gaze to Sirius and Aurelia. "C'mon, Sirius, just give it a try. He's your godson, after all."

"Well...." Sirius caught James' eye.

Remus did the same.

James set his water goblet back down. "Here, Lily, let me see him." He went over to her, and he was smiling and he took his little son in his arms as a smiling Lily handed him over. "C'mon Sirius," he said to his apprehensive friend. "Harry wants to meet his godfather properly."

"Well, alright..." said Sirius rather nervously, releasing Aurelia's hand.

As Remus watched James hand Harry to Sirius, he thought he also saw Aurelia withdraw into herself in her chair. He chose not to point it out though, and instead picked up his goblet of water and took a sip.

"Aw, look at him," Sirius said in a very hushed voice.

"You see, Sirius, you're a natural," said Lily, patting his knee.

Even Remus could not suppress a grin as Harry reached up with his tiny hand and brushed the side of Sirius' face.

The only one who wasn't smiling was Aurelia, who suddenly broke into a fit of crying.

This wasn't like Aurelia at all.

"Aurelia!" said Remus, James, and Lily together in alarm.

"Love, what's the matter?" Sirius asked, crinkling his brow.

But Aurelia, with the back of her hand pressed to her mouth, shook her head and clambered out of her chair. She swept herself from the room, her shoulders shaking with chest-choking sobs.

Sirius looked up at James. "I'd better go see what's wrong," he said croakily. He handed Harry to James and hurried from the room, calling gently after his beloved fiancée.

As James gently dandled Harry in his arms, Remus asked, "Wasn't Peter supposed to be coming?"

"He was," said Lily, folding her arms. "But he owled us a bit before you arrived saying he couldn't come. An urgent call from his mother: apparently she's very ill. I hope she's alright, but I'm also really sorry he couldn't come--he hasn't even seen Harry yet."

"He will, don't worry," said James. "Remus, what's that you've brought?" He used his elbow to indicate the package Remus had set over on the side table, since his arms were full with Harry.

"Oh, er...it's just a little something I thought Harry might like," Remus admitted sheepishly.

"Remus, you shouldn't have," said Lily. "Thank you so much." She threw an arm around him in an awkward one-armed hug--awkward because they had the arms of the sofa and the chair between them.

"You're welcome," Remus said quietly when she released him.

"Yes, thank you Remus," said James with sincerity. "What do you think, eh Harry?" he added more softly to the little boy in his arms. "You want to open it?"

Harry hiccupped.

The three friends laughed and James took Sirius' spot on the sofa to sit with Lily and handed Harry to her. Remus easily Summoned the package to him with a bit of his wandless magic skills and gave it to James, and James ripped it open to find--

"The Tales of Beedle the Bard?" James lifted the ancient book from Remus' childhood out of the crinkled paper, handling it with care, as the copy was a very old one passed down from the Lupin that had first bought it for his young children, Remus' Muggle-born great-great-great grandfather, Aloysius Lupin.

Remus remembered his father had read these stories in this book every night to him from since he was about Harry's age, to when he'd been about seven--sometime after he'd been bitten by Greyback and turned werewolf in fact...when he told his father he was...too old for them...anymore....

"I remember these stories..." James breathed. He fixed his eyes with Remus'. "Are you sure you want to give this book away?"

Remus shrugged. "Hey, I don't think I'll ever have kids, and you told me your copy that you had from when you were a kid got...er...destroyed when...." His voice tailed away, but James knew what "when" he was talking about : he was talking about when James' entire family, the Potters, had all been killed last Christmas.

This however, seemed to remind James of his favorite story from the anthology. "'The Tale of the Three Brothers', the one about the Invisibility Cloak," he said, tapping the story as he leafed carefully through the book and came across it. He gave a mysterious smile. "My dad loved to tell me the story when I was a kid," he said rather quietly. "It was the one story he didn't need the book for: he knew it verbatim in his head."

Remus, who also knew "The Tale of the Three Brothers" very well, looked over at James' son.

Baby Harry gave a tiny baby yawn, reached up and tugged his tiny baby ear with his tiny baby hand.

"Speaking of bedtime stories," Remus said with a grin.

"Oh dear," Lily chuckled. "It's time I put him down for a nap." She got up, cradling Harry in her arms. "Thank you again, Remus, I'm sure Harry will love it."

"Trust Remus to get Harry a book," James joked.

"Cheers, James," said Remus, though he was smiling, and he watched as Lily carried the sleepy Harry out of the room to lay him down in his bassinet.