Tested In Fire

For my dear twin sister, CelticStar. I hope our ears always remain lined up. It makes life so much easier.

Hogwarts, 1977 (Marauders´ 6^th year)

James, Sirius, and Remus all crept slowly up the third corridor stairs under the Invisibility Cloak with two dungbombs and a small invention of Sirius´s that screamed shrilly when stepped upon. The plan was this: to distract Filch long enough that Peter could recover the Marauder´s Map from the groundskeeper.

"Why in bloody hell did we trust Peter to get the map?" Sirius asked for the umpteenth time that evening.

"We told you, Padfoot. Because he was the one who lost the map..." here Remus sighed. "Again."

"The real reason is because last time you went into Filch´s office you couldn´t help setting off a few of our more... shall we say dangerous, items," James Potter said, with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"That wasn´t my fault.. OUCH!" Sirius bit his tongue. "Damn it, Prongs, you stepped on my foot!"

"It was entirely your fault, and I´m sure Prongs didn´t mean it personally," Remus Lupin said gleefully.

"What are so gosh darned happy about?" Sirius asked irritably.

"Nothing at all." Remus was ridiculously tempted to whistle, but decided that, as they were trying, for once, not to get caught, it would probably be a bad idea.

"Do you hear that, Mrs. Norris? There are students out of bed... I wonder who they are?" Filch´s crackly voice projected over the banister of the staircase.

"Run!" Sirius whispered frantically.

All three of them took off at an alarming pace. They probably made more noise than if they had just simply walked back to the Tower, but as Sirius always said whenever a girl or his parents asked him why he did things, "It´s all for the thrill of it."

Without any further mishap, they made it back to Gryffindor Tower in one piece, safe and sound. That is, until James saw who was sitting on the couch in the Common Room, looking slightly irritated.

"Padfoot, trouble at two o´clock!"

"What are you talking about Jamesie-boy? It´s twelve-o-three in the morning. Nowhere near two o´clock yet."

Remus sighed. "It´s an expression, Padfoot."

Sirius looked indignant. "I knew that." Huffing once, he added, "I was just trying to be funny."

"Well, are you going to tell us what´s what, or just leave us hanging here outside of the portrait hole?" Remus demanded.

"It´s Lily."

"The Lily? Lily Evans? Girlfriend to James Potter for..." Sirius made a show of checking his watch. "Three months, fourteen days, and six hours?

"Sirius, you´re not helping."

"Of course I´m not. I don´t see what the big deal is, and frankly, if we stand out here much longer, NOT ONLY are my feet going to freeze, Filch is likely to wander by any second."

"Then wear shoes."

"Moony, Padfoot! Be serious!"

"Be a man, Potter. Walk in, give her a kiss on the cheek and say good night." For that, Sirius received a glare. "Or not..."

"She doesn´t know about the Invisibility Cloak!"

"She doesn´t have to know. We can all sneak by her," Remus suggested.

"That´s going to be... hard," James said with a sigh.

*****

The Burrow, Present Day

"You can´t be serious!"

"We´ve tried that already, it simply can´t be done."

"That´s because you didn´t know where to look. Of course, now that you´re out of school, we can tell you all about it. You remember that passageway from McGonagall´s office to the library, correct?"

Harry´s party was in full swing, and Ginny was sitting back and enjoying every minute of it. Sirius and Remus had been entertaining everyone for a few minutes with a story about the time the Marauders had set fire accidentally to a tapestry in the Great Hall which was supposed to be fire-proof.

"We were young and stupid. Only second years. If we had just waited a bit longer... oh, think of the possibilities! Severus´ head was a pot of grease (still is, come to think of it). Grease is flammable," Sirius said with a dramatic sigh.

Remus shook his head. "We would never have done it, Sirius. We tried very hard to keep our pranks from being dangerous to the prankees. And James would have thrown a fit."

"Dad?" asked Harry.

"Yes. He had what the rest of us liked to term a nobility complex." Ron snorted.

"I guess the apple doesn´t fall to far from the tree, aye?" For that comment, he received double glares. One from Harry, and one from Ginny.

"Lily was furious, of course," Sirius said and sighed. "Your father, Harry, was whipped."

"Tied around her little finger, he was," Remus agreed. "Not that it was a bad thing."

"Mum tried to keep you all out of trouble?"

"No, I suspect..." Remus´s eyes did a favorable impersonation of Dumbledore´s. "That she was more angry at us for not inviting her to go along." When Sirius rolled his eyes, Remus narrowed his. "Perhaps, if she´d gone along, we wouldn´t have ended up..."

"I´m sure Harry has had enough of our reminiscing for one evening," Sirius cut him off sharply.

"I suppose..." Remus gave a tragic sigh. "that some things are better left unsaid. I can´t believe you´re still sore over that, though."

"You weren´t the one that had to owl your mum to send you more pairs of trousers due to the `unfortunate incidents´ that caused them to... well." Sirius blushed a little.

Ginny, who was situated on Bill´s lap (there wasn´t enough floor space or seating to fit everyone), snorted a little at that comment.

"How about some cake?" she asked to fill the uncomfortable silence that filled the room.

"I´d love some," Mrs. Weasley said. "I can´t wait to taste what you´ve concocted this time."

"Ginny makes the BEST birthday cakes in the whole UK," Ron said proudly.

"Or Egypt," Bill added.

"Romania as well," Charlie said and dropped a quick kiss on his sister´s cheek as he went to help his mother. It was Ginny´s turn to blush, and she did so in typical Weasley fashion.

`When she blushes, it doesn´t quite reach her ears,´ Harry noted absently, and then frowned over that stray thought. What business had he noting how Ginny Weasley blushed? Get a hold of yourself, Potter, he told himself firmly.

Ginny was too busy worrying about the state of her cake to notice that Harry had his eyes locked on her, but other members of the party did, and they exchanged amused glances.

"Here it is," Molly practically sang.

"I´ll take that from you, Molly. Wouldn´t want anything to happen to it, or anything."

"You will not take this cake from me, Sirius Black, but you will sit down and wait for your turn to get a piece. After everyone else has had theirs." Sirius returned to his seat crestfallen, but Remus thought the whole episode was funny.

"That´s what you get, Padfoot, when..."

"Remus Lupin, you will wait your turn with him."

"Yes, ma´am."

Molly set the cake down with a flourish right in front of Harry´s face. With a quick laugh, he noted the Seeker that looked remarkably like him chasing after Snitches.

"Be a shame to eat him," he said absently. "He´s such a devilishly good looking fellow." Ron guffawed, and Hermione shook her head. "Well, I rather thought so."

Ginny smiled and retrieved from her pocket sixteen candles. "Here you go," she murmured as she placed them one by one in a circle around the cake. Bill muttered a word and the candles lit up.

"Go on, Harry. Make a wish," Arthur said, his arm having found its way around Molly´s waist.

Harry sucked in his breath, and blew out the candles all in one go.

"What´d you wish for?" Fred demanded impatiently.

"What else?" Harry asked as if it were obvious. When their blank looks clued him in, he grinned. "World peace, of course."

Fred and George laughed out loud, Percy shook his head, and Bill and Charlie exchanged looks. Ginny looked at him and winked, as though she were in on the secret. To appease her, and himself, he winked back.

What was going on in Ginny´s mind was a lot different than what Harry expected. She was thinking that he looked happier than he had in years. With a semi-glow about his face, and green eyes that twinkled rather than frosted over when she looked at him, he was more handsome than she had ever seen him. He was quick to exchange a joke with the twins, to discuss Quidditch with Charlie, to nod at Percy´s ramblings about work, and to look over at Sirius and Remus with affection in his eyes. Yes indeed, Harry Potter had come a long way. He was still grieving, though. She could see it in his eyes when he had a moment to himself, or when someone said something without thinking about what they were saying.

This was the true power of Voldemort. To take someone who should have been the happiest bloke on earth, with two parents that thought the world of him, would have hung the moon for him, and to try and remove all the happiness from his life. And he had damned near succeeded. He wouldn´t get to Harry in that way, as long as she was around, Ginny decided.

After a rousing chorus of "For He´s a Jolly Good Fellow" which reminded Harry painfully of the singing of the school song, Mrs. Weasley began to dish out pieces of the cake, according to behavior. Harry, being the birthday boy, received the first piece of cake, and because Ginny had baked it, she got the second. Ron made a show of being chivalrous and got Hermione´s cake for her.

"I almost forgot," Ginny said, slowly, as if she didn´t care. Immediately all the eyes in the room turned to her.

"What, Gin?" George demanded, his mouth full of birthday cake.

"Why, the most important part of birthdays."

Fred looked genuinely confused. "I thought we were having the best part of birthdays right now."

"I believe," Bill said, amused, "that she was talking about presents."

Ginny nodded. "I might have."

"I can´t believe we forgot!" Fred shouted and slapped his forehead dramatically.

"We didn´t forget," George said, "you did."

"Right then," Ron said. "I´ll just run up and get my present. Be back down in second."

The rest of the family made their excuses and went off to retrieve their presents, except for Ginny, Harry, Remus and Sirius. Making a jump for the nearest available seat so she wouldn´t have to sit on Bill´s lap again, Ginny landed next to Harry with a thump. Harry chuckled a bit, and the two of them started in on a conversation about the dangerousness of Fred and George´s birthday gifts. She began to tell a story of the time they had given her a teddy bear that tap-danced all night. Quite literally.

Remus and Sirius just sat back and watched. Most of the time, remembering was painful for them. When they saw Harry and Ginny together, though, it wasn´t quite as painful.

"So often I forget the good times," Remus thought to himself, "and there were so many good times. I wonder if they know how much they remind the rest of the world of James and Lily. They´d been friends first, too. I remember how James used to get when he talked about her. I wonder if Harry gets the same way. I have to do too much wondering. I shouldn´t have to wonder about my best friend´s son! I just wish that Sirius and I had a chance to get to know him better. Well, at least I got a chance to teach him. Sirius, now, hasn´t got much of a chance to do anything, and yet, there´s a bond there. I´m getting sentimental again. I have to learn to stop that."

"And so then," Ginny was saying, "I tried to stuff him in my closet, under a bunch of boxes and such, but he wouldn´t stop, and he kept making these strange noises, like he was trying to lift the box, you know? Well, we finally got him to stop, but I had nightmares for weeks." Harry and Ginny burst out laughing at the absurdness of it all.

"Well, my one hope is that they don´t give me something that explodes."

"That´s a lofty hope, Harry. At best, they´ll give you something to annoy other people with, at worst..."

Harry heaved a heavy sigh. "At worst, they´ll give me something innocently life threatening."

"Can something be innocently life threatening?" Ginny wondered out loud.

"Hmm. Think of Hagrid´s Care of Magical Creatures class."

Ginny snorted. "I guess that´s a good example."

"I thought it was," Harry said, and began to chuckle.

"What?" Ginny demanded.

"Nothing. I was just thinking about you having nightmares about... a teddy bear!"

"Come, now. It was a traumatizing event in my life."

"I´m sure it was," Harry managed, doubled over with laughter.

"What did you have nightmares about as a child, then?" Ginny asked, and then immediately regretted the question. "Sorry, you don´t have to answer that."

"Why," Harry speculated, "does everyone think that I´m a fragile thing? I could very easily tell you what I had nightmares about as a child. It´s when you start to get older that I start having problems."

Ginny made an apologetic noise, and Harry shook his head.

"I had nightmares of Dudley getting very, very large and stomping me with his foot."

"Stomping you with his foot?"

"His right one."

"You remember which foot he stomped you with?"

"Like you said, it was very traumatizing."

"Presents!" Ginny squealed as she saw her family members coming down the stairs laden with packages. She had left hers in the living room.

"Whose do you want to open first, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked gently.

"He´ll open ours first," Charlie said, and Bill nodded agreement. "After all, we never know when we might get called away."

"All right, then." Harry ripped into the package furiously, and came up grinning. Inside of the box was a Swiss army knife.

"You never know when you might need it," Charlie said. "I find mine immensely useful."

"I very much doubt," Mrs. Weasley responded, "that Harry is going to be mucking about with dragons, trying to get killed."

"You never know," Bill said and arched an eyebrow.

"Mine next," Percy said. Harry was a bit more careful with this one, and not quite so eager, but when he stuck his head up again, he was grinning from ear to ear, proudly displaying a book entitled, "Head Boy Diaries: An entry from every Head Boy in Hogwarts, 1841 through 1991."

"I suppose my Dad has an entry?"

"A couple," Percy responded evasively. "I can certainly say I learned a lot from them."

"Thanks, Perce."

Percy sifted uncomfortably in his seat and shrugged his shoulders. "Glad you liked it."

"Me next," Hermione said happily. "Oh, I can´t wait for you to see this one."

Because she was practically bouncing in her seat, a very un-Hermione like thing to do, he nodded and selected Hermione´s gift. "Oh, Hermione," he said, a bit lamely.

"Well, I knew you had so few pictures of us, and well, really, I just reckoned when you go to visit that awful aunt and uncle of yours, you´d want some more reminders."

Harry ran a hand over the leather-bound photo album in wonder and almost ignored Hermione´s blabbing. "It´s wonderful, Hermione."

Hermione blushed a little and nodded, then caught sight of the picture Harry was looking at and grinned. Pretty soon the three of them were laughing hysterically.

"I didn´t know you had a picture of this," Harry said between fits of laughter.

"I didn´t. Colin did."

"Malfoy the Bouncing Ferret. One of the best moments of my life," Ron muttered to himself, and received an elbow in the gut from Hermione. "I said one of the best moments, not THE best moment," he whispered.

Ginny and Harry fought desperately to keep from laughing, and then caught sight of each other and couldn´t hold it back any longer.

"Arthur and I have a present for you," Molly said quietly.

Harry´s eyes filled, but he quickly squashed the tears.

"I hope you like it," Arthur said, and handed him a relatively small note that read: Look on the clock.

Quickly, Harry got to his feet and ran to the kitchen, and stopped abruptly when he saw the clock. A new bright green hand with his name on it read "unbearably happy."

He ran back into the living room and was caught up in Molly´s embrace. "Well, dear, we do think of you as one of the family," she whispered soothingly.

"Harry, mate, why don´t you open mine up next?" With a brash gesture, Harry swiped his arm across his eyes and nodded at Ron.

He could only grin when he saw what Ron had given him. Sixteen boxes of Bertie Bott´s Every Flavored Beans.

"Ah, a man after my own heart," he heard Sirius mumble.

"Our present next," Fred and George said in unison.

"It´s not going to explode, is it?" Harry asked, slightly worried.

"No, no, of course not." George said.

"It´s perfectly safe." Fred said.

"For you," George added.

"Yes, indeed. Perfectly safe for you to use."

"Wisely, of course."

"When has Harry ever not used something wisely? Doesn´t have a mischievous bone in his body," Fred said sarcastically.

"Never gets into any trouble, does our Harry," George agreed, perfectly innocent.

Harry took the insanely wrapped gift cautiously, and then thought he ought to ask again, just to be sure. "Perfectly safe?"

"Perfectly."

"Without a doubt."

Inside was a brightly colored book entitled, "Gred and Forge´s Guide to Everything You Ever Needed to Know to Get Yourself Into More Trouble Than is Absolutely Necessary, Part the First."

Randomly, Harry opened a page and raised his eyebrows. Fred and George just winked at him and indicated that Molly was, miraculously, distracted for the moment. Or maybe not so miraculously... "You have to admit that Fred and George have style," Harry thought.

"We´re working on shortening the title," Fred said, a bit concerned.

"But we thought it was entirely appropriate," George said.

"I think it´s perfect," Harry said, amused.

"Moony and I got you something," Sirius said, after the laughter had died down a bit.

"You didn´t have to."

"We know," Remus said quietly, "but we wanted to."

Harry grinned a little as Sirius placed a flat box into his hands. When he opened up the box, he was confused. "What´s this?"

"A Marauder´s seal. Your father´s actually. Well, it´s the Potter family´s Marauder´s seal," Sirius said.

"Excuse me?"

"When we younger," Remus began, "we wanted to send letters to each other without detection, but at the same time, we wanted to know it was one of us sending the letters."

"So Moony here came up with a brilliant idea. Seals. We each had one from the time we were thirteen until, well, present day. This is James´s. You should know what the JP and the antlers are for, but I´m not so sure you´d know about the ivy. It´s the Potter family´s symbol."

"You were going to get your own, you know," Moony said, just remembering.

"The day you were accepted into Hogwarts," Sirius agreed. "I can´t believe I´d forgotten that."

"We just thought that it would be... appropriate," Moony said, a bit concerned when Harry didn´t say anything.

Blindly, Harry reached for Ginny´s hand, and he received it. "This is amazing, you two."

Ginny traced a hand over it. "It looks like it could be worn as a ring."

"It can," Sirius said, "but we always found it bulky. I don´t think James ever wore it as a ring, except for on his wedding day."

"His wedding day?" Harry asked.

"On the fourth finger of his right hand," Moony said, laughing a little, "because we were his right hand pals."

"We all thought it was enormously funny. Lily thought it was wonderful."

"It is," Ginny said. Harry caught her eyes with his, and they both smiled. Quite suddenly, Harry realized they were holding hands, and a blush crept up his cheek. No one seemed to notice, though, and they both relaxed their hold on each other.

Just then, an owl swept into the Weasley living room.

A/N: Yeah, I know I´m evil, but this took me forever to type, and I wanted to get this out to you as soon as possible. The plot thickens... and I hope to Goodness I can keep track of it all.