Lily's Charm- Severitus fanfiction

Memories

1996

As soon as they had all Flooed back to the Burrow, Harry turned eagerly to Ron’s father. Mr. Weasley smiled warmly at him.

“Why don’t we remove the shield in your room and then you can have some privacy,” Mr. Weasley suggested and Harry nodded gratefully; he hadn’t wanted to ask the others for some time alone. He was after all the Weasleys’ house guest and Harry didn’t want to be rude.

Hermione looked like she wanted an invitation from Mr. Weasley as well. Harry figured she wanted to watch Ron's dad remove the stasis shield but since Harry didn’t want everyone crowding around, he turned away from Hermione, hoping she would understand and with ill-concealed excitement, Harry followed Ron’s dad quickly up the slightly crooked Weasley staircase to the room he was sharing with Ron, his parents’ Pensieve held firmly in his arms.

Hermione sagged slightly at the snub and even Ron seemed like he wished he could have followed Harry. Mrs. Weasley smiled fondly at Harry’s retreating back and then left the room quickly to tend to dinner. Ginny, still standing near the fireplace, watched Harry until he was out of sight and then with a small smile, suggested that her brother and Hermione join her for a walk outside.

Ginny didn’t want Harry to be interrupted and she knew Ron too well to simply leave her brother inside waiting for his best mate to share something Harry might not wish to share. And so, with a grumbling Ron and a fidgeting Hermione in tow, Ginny made her way outside into her family’s gnome-filled garden.

Harry and Mr. Weasley reached Ron’s door faster than Harry had expected to and he felt a familiar twinge of nerves in the pit of his stomach. Of course, he could hardly stand to wait any longer to see what was in the Pensieve, but the idea was a bit disconcerting all the same. The last time he had been inside a Pensieve had been in Snape’s private office and that experience alone made him slightly wary of another trip into a Pensieve.

Harry was worried too about what kind of memory he might see. His last glimpses of his parents and of his father in particular, had not been pleasant ones. In fact, even after Sirius and Remus had assured him that his father had in fact been a good man, Harry was not entirely convinced. But, he was even more worried about the blatant animosity he had witnessed between his mother and father. Of course, Ron and Hermione hadn’t always gotten along and yet Harry felt it quite likely that the quarrelsome pair would somehow manage to pair up…eventually anyway.

With that somehow comforting thought, Harry placed the heavy stone receptacle on Ron’s low bureau and then backed away, making room for Mr. Weasley, who stepped up to the Pensive, his wand drawn.

“Aufero Contego,” the older man commanded lightly as he ran the tip of his wand around the Pensieve’s hard rim. The same bluish haze lit the Pensieve’s round opening and then it flashed brighter than it had in Gringotts for a brief second before vanishing completely.

Mr. Weasley smiled again at Harry as he slid his wand up into his right sleeve. He clapped a warm hand on the young man’s shoulder briefly and quietly left the room, closing the door discreetly behind him.

Harry bit his lip, the nervousness almost overwhelming him before he gathered his considerable Gryffindor courage and thrust his head into the Pensieve. Harry felt the familiar icy falling sensation as he was hurled forward and then suddenly, he was standing in a brightly lit room, staring at a blank white wall.

Harry turned around and almost yelped in delight. The pretty red-haired woman leaning back in a bed with crisp white linens was most definitely his mother. And she was quite a few years older than she had been when Harry had last seen her in Snape’s Pensieve.