Memories

Memories

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Chapter 1

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Welcome Home

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It was the beginning of summer holidays after Harry's fifth year. For the first time in his life, Harry was eager to leave Hogwarts.

He had a good reason for this. Peter Pettigrew had been caught during the Christmas break. Dumbledore had managed to make the Ministry have a proper trial. And, eventually, Sirius had been set free.

At first he had been more than a bit shocked when he had revealed the truth about Sirius and Lupin's relationship. The truth being that the two were married - had been for years, apparently. After a while he had begun to cope with it, and even homophobic Ron had at last came to terms with it - although not without a lot of whining. The Trio had also learned to call Lupin by his given name - something that had took long time especially from Hermione, who still felt a bit odd calling their former professor simply "Remus," not "professor Lupin."

So now Harry was returning to a real home for summer - Sirius and Remus's house. Sirius had sent the adoption papers to the Ministry at the same day he had been proved innocent, and around May, Harry Potter had finally become Harry Black. He had been given the choice between keeping his own name and changing it, and he had chosen the latter. Sirius was the nearest to a father he could remember having, after all, since he had no memories of his real parents. Therefore it was only logical that he'd take Sirius's name.

As the train arrived to the King's Cross, Harry felt odd. He wouldn't be returning to Dursley's. When they got out to the station, he immediately recognized Sirius's tall form in the crowd next to Mister and Mrs. Weasley's red hair. When they got nearer, he saw that they were talking with Hermione's parents, who looked quite cautious, but were still happily participating the conversation.

As he, Ron and Hermione reached the adults, Sirius immediately pulled him into a tight bear-hug. "Harry!" he exclaimed before the boy had even opportunity to open his mouth. "It's good to see you."

Harry stepped back a bit breathlessly before replying, "It's good to see you, too, Sirius. But where's Remus?"

"Yeah, where he is?" Ron asked. "I thought you'd both come to fetch Harry."

"He's already waiting at home," Sirius smiled. "He felt a little bit tired."

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed. "Nothing serious, I hope?"

"No, no," Sirius laughed. "Remus is just fine, believe me. No reasons to be worried. As I said, he's just tired." Then he turned towards Harry again. "Shall we go then?"

Harry smiled and nodded. He felt weird as he followed his new adopted father out from the station. There was a new, black car waiting for them, and Sirius shoved Harry's trunk to the backseat.

"This is gorgeous!" Harry exclaimed. "How did you get this?"

"Well, my family was not one of the poorest," Sirius grinned as the settled down in the car. "And I got a huge compensation from Ministry for my years in Azkaban." His expression darkened for a while, but then he laughed again. "Remie's eyes nearly popped out when he saw this. He gave me at least half an hour of lecture how I shouldn't use money so carelessly, but for some reason he didn't say anything as I purchased the house we're living in."

Harry chuckled. Lecturing about Sirius's behaviour sounded just like Remus. Whenever he had the opportunity to see the two men openly together, Remus was always saying something about Sirius's actions. The black-haired man, however, never seemed to even notice those remarks, and Harry was quite sure that Remus said them more for custom than for being really distracted by his husband's behaviour.

It took quite some time to arrive to Sirius and Remus's apartment. It was a big house, more like a mansion, outside the town. Harry never ceased to wonder just how much money Sirius had.

"You can leave your trunk to the car," Sirius told him as he stopped the car. "The house-elves will get it inside."

Harry nodded, rising from the car. Still eyeing the house wonderingly, he started walking towards it beside Sirius. His godfather seemed to notice his amazement, but merely chuckled, not bothering commenting on it.

As they stepped inside, Sirius stopped for a moment. Then he turned towards Harry and said, "The kitchen is over there. Go ask the house-elves something to eat, you're surely hungry. Come to the living room then, there's something I'd like to show you."

Obedient as ever, Harry indeed went to the kitchen. A couple of over-enthusiastic house-elves prepared him a chicken sandwich, which he soon ate - Sirius had been right, he was indeed hungry. After finishing the sandwich, he asked the house-elves for some directions for the living room, then left the kitchen.

When Harry came to the living room, he, for his great surprise, found Sirius standing there with a wide stone bowl. There was some silvery glowing liquid whirling in the bowl.

"I'd like to show you some memories," Sirius said, with an unusually serious voice. "I'm sure you know what a Pensieve is. I found this one from the attic in the oldest of my houses."

Harry nodded, not sure what to say. "So they are your memories?" he asked after a while.

"I and Remus's, both of us," the other Gryffindor replied with a nod.

"If they're both of your memories, why Remus isn't here?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"Remus... didn't want to be here when you see these memories."

"Why so?" Harry asked, astonished. If it was Remus's memory as well as Sirius's, one would think he wanted to be present when it was showed to anyone, right?

"It's pretty painful, Harry. It is to both of us, but much more to him. You'll understand after you've seen this."

Harry nodded, feeling slightly nervous. If it was so painful, was it really necessary that he would see it?

Sirius nodded to him encouragingly. He took a deep breath, then bent forward. He pressed his face to the silver mist, thus entering the memories.