Memories

Chapter 2

*

The First Memory

***

It was nice and warm. There were candles everywhere, and the whole little house was decorated for Christmas. A large Christmas-tree was decorated as well, and the angel on the top was quietly singing.

There were four people sitting in the two sofas in front of the fireplace. They were cheerfully chatting about everything and anything, totally happy and carefree. There were torn wrappings of presents all around them, and a tawny cat was playing with one sheet of the papers.

"Look who's smiling to Mommy, who?" chirped a redheaded woman, holding a little, dark-haired baby on her arms. "Is it Mommy's big boy, is it? Oh yes, it's Harry! Oh, what a big boy he is!"

"Don't worry, she isn't dangerous," the man next to her said soothingly to their two guests. "At least not much, as long as you don't try to get Harry away from her."

"Shut up, James," said one of the men sitting on the sofa opposite to the tiny family. He had long, light brown hair, tied on a ponytail, and the fire was making his amber eyes shine. "You know you're just as bad yourself."

"As well as you are, Moony, my dear," the last person said, patting gently the light-haired man's shoulder. "And I'm guilty as well. Who could resist that baby charm?"

Harry blinked when he looked at the people in front of him. His parents, he himself and Remus and Sirius, obviously. It was very disturbing to see himself as a little baby, in the arms of his long-gone mother.

He looked at the people more attentively and blinked again. His own parents were just like he'd seen them in many photographs, there was nothing weird there. But his "uncles"... They just didn't seem to be right, in some way.

He tried to see what exactly was disturbing him in their appearance. He soon found something odd in both of them.

Remus looked even more shaggy than usually, his hair had lost its usual shine, and his eyes didn't seem to be a half as clear amber colour as usually. Harry didn't understand at all. It couldn't be his usual appearance in this age; he'd seen much enough photos of all the Marauders to know that this wasn't right.

Sirius was also different here, but in opposite way. Harry couldn't recall seeing his hair ever so black and shiny and soothe, nor had he seen his godfather's eyes so pale and clear blue in the whole time he had known him. The Animagus seemed to be taller than usually, and much more muscular, and generally more... beautiful. There wasn't another word for it.

Then it hit him. 'This has to be Remus's part of the memories,' he understood. 'Of course he remembers himself worse and Sirius better than they actually were.'

He looked at the events in front of him, secretly very excited to see his first - and last - Christmas with his parents.

Little Harry was now in Sirius's lap. The man was shamelessly cooing to the baby just as senselessly as his mother had done. Remus was looking at them with a tiny smile in the corner of his mouth.

"You'd make an excellent father, Sirius," James laughed. "Although I really doubt that you'd ever be able to raise law-abiding children."

"Are you saying I'm a criminal?" Sirius asked, playing insulted. "You'd better take that back!"

"You know very well he didn't mean that, love," Remus chuckled. "He was just referring to your - let's say, interesting attitude towards any rules."

"I'm not that bad, am I?" Sirius asked, grinning.

"Oh, yes you are," James said. "Everybody knows that, Paddy, old pal. Heck, if in the graduation the Headmaster referred to you as 'the Detention Champion of Hogwarts,' one could maybe think you don't have the best relationships with authorities..."

"Yes," Sirius grinned. "And still I'm supposed be the one who makes sure that other people are following the rules."

"Of course," Lily snorted. "You know every way to break the rules. You're a dream Auror. No criminal can make up anything you haven't thought about already."

The discussion would maybe have lead to even more interesting statements, if only little Harry hadn't begun to cry. Sirius tried to calm him down, but his attempts were pretty useless. Lily was just about to take her son from his godfather, but Remus got him first.

"Let me try," he said, before focusing all his attention to Harry. He rocked the little boy on his arms, whispering a little lullaby to him. Slowly Harry stopped crying, then he yawned a couple of times, and soon he was asleep.

James gave him a wide smile. "Unbelievable," he breathed. "Even I can't calm him down if he's crying. He only accepts Lily."

"Right," Lily smiled while taking the sleeping baby from the smiling werewolf. "If Sirius would be a good father, then you'd make an excellent mother!"

They all laughed. Sirius wrapped his arms around Remus's shoulders, and the werewolf rested his head comfortably on Sirius's shoulder.

The four friends continued discussing everyday topics. Harry didn't listen very carefully. He only enjoyed the warm and comfortable atmosphere, really wondering if he was in the right memory at all. How could this ever be painful?

At last a part of discussion caught his ear. "It's really a pity Wormtail couldn't come," Sirius said.

"Right, Paddy," James replied with a nod. "I hope his mother will get better."

"His mother will get better," Remus echoed and snorted. "Why does this sound so familiar to me?"

"Eh, forget it, honey," Sirius replied, fiddling with one of Remus's light brown tresses. "It isn't very likely that he'd be a werewolf as well, right?"

"Because we are on the topic," James said, "I'd want to say I'm sorry I wasn't there the last full moon, Remus. And because Peter wasn't there either, it was just you two, right?"

The two men glanced at each other and smiled slightly. Then Sirius put on a mysterious expression, a mischief playing in his eyes. "Actually," he said, "no transformation took place on the last full moon."

James and Lily both stared at him. "I beg you pardon?" James said, looking very shocked. "You didn't say that, did you?"

"In fact, I did." Sirius glanced again at Remus, who smiled warmly at his husband. "Do you remember what we talked about few months ago? About some Ministry thing?"

Lily seemed to be thinking very hard. "You two were accepted to..." Her eyes widened suddenly. "Now I remember! You were accepted to Ministry's Male Pregnancy list! You - you don't mean -"

"Yes, he does," Remus grinned. "I and Sirius, we're going to be parents as well as you are. If we've counted right, she will be born some time after Harry's first birthday."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Lily exclaimed. "I'm so happy for you both!" She gave them a beaming smile.

James smiled as well. "Congratulations," he said happily. "If anyone deserves that, it's you two. You've both had a childhood terrible enough. I'm glad it's your time to be happy."

"Thank you," Sirius smiled. "We're glad about it as well, you know." He enveloped Remus into a tight embrace. The werewolf snuggled up to him, looking just as comfortable as Lily did sitting next to James.

They started talking about the news, but Harry didn't hear anymore. He room was swinging in his eyes. He couldn't concentrate on anything, and there was only one sensible thought in his mind, 'What happened to the baby? What happened to the baby?'

Harry closed his eyes, trying to focus on that thought. When he opened them again, he was in another memory.