the story

me and my friend

After the visit to Remus' house, the bedtime stories seemed to die down. Not on purpose, of course; Harry was getting older and more independent, and it took a lot more than just a story to wind him down for bed. As for Lucy, she found herself having told most of the stories that stood out to her. She still talked about James and Lily, and of course brought up Remus every now and then, but by the time Harry was nine, the bedtime stories had become very few and far between.

It wasn't until Lucy was trying to put something together for Harry's tenth birthday that she found herself thinking of two stories, both of which seemed to center around her second brother and one of her closest friends.

A week before July 31st of 1990, Lucy was sat down in the living room while Harry was in his own bedroom, probably playing with building blocks or his very worn down stuffed hippogriff that he refused to let go of. She had all of their family photo albums sprawled out across the floor in front of her, wanting to piece together a little book specifically for Harry that he would be able to take to Hogwarts the following year. Most of the photographs she had picked out were of his parents, but of course she had picked out a few group pictures of the Marauders and a picture of Remus and her together. She did her best to leave out two of the Marauders, only because she found that she hadn't told Harry many stories of the two on their own.

Lucy jumped a little bit as she heard small feet pattering down the stairs, shoving her present-in-progress underneath the couch before looking up at Harry with a small smile. "Whatchya doing, bug?" she asked, gathering up a few pictures and tucking them away so she wouldn't ruin his surprise.

Harry gave her a tired shrug, rubbing at his eyes with his small fists as he made his way over to his aunt. "Witherwings got tired and made me put him to bed; now I'm bored," he informed his aunt, moving over to her and plopping himself into her lap. Lucy chuckled softly, kissing the top of his head and combing his fingers through her hair.

"Well, I was just looking at some old pictures of your mom and dad," she told him, and he immediately reached for the first large book in front of him. He grinned a bit at the picture on the front of his parents dancing around a fountain, and Lucy made a mental note to add that into the book she was compiling for him.

Harry began to flip through the thick pages haphazardly, his aunt carefully straightening them out so they didn't get wrinkled. Harry slowly made his way through the pictures, until he tilted his head to the side when he came to a large group picture. He stayed on it for a moment, long enough for Lucy to become curious as to what he was thinking.

"What're you thinking?" she asked him quietly, pushing up his round glasses that were slipping down his small nose. He was at a section of a few wedding pictures, some of which were missing since Lucy had already picked them out.

Harry pressed his fingers to the photograph, focusing on two men in tuxedos who were laughing; one had longer, jet black hair with his arm wrapped around James, and the other was a slightly chubbier man who stood beside Remus, who was ruffling up his sandy blond hair. "I don't know them," he stated, glancing back up to his aunt.

Lucy nodded gently, giving him a slightly weak smile. "Well, that man is Uncle Peter, or Uncle Wormtail. This one is Uncle Sirius, or Uncle Padfoot," she informed him, swallowing thickly at the thought of having to explain where they were to him right now.

"Oh! Uncle Padfoot turns into a dog!" he exclaimed, nodding gently as he finally understood who he was. Lucy smiled and nodded again, flipping the page to reveal a picture of Sirius and James together on what looked to be their last day at Hogwarts.

"Is that him again?" Harry asked, turning most of his body around to look up to his aunt. All she did was nod, looking down at the photo with a small smile. "Yeah, it is," she told him, chewing on the inside of her cheek.