Astrophile [J.P]

Chapter 70

~ We keep this love in a photograph, we made these memories for ourselves,

Where our eyes are never closing, hearts are never broken. ~

***

Harry didn't know what to say or do. He just waited for her to either resume with the story or to burst in tears.

However when she kept silent for long, he finally asked, "how did you meet my Dad?"

"Now that is one lengthy story," she remarked disguising her feelings yet again with a soft smile, "how about you tell me about yourself first?"

"Er... I live with my aunt and uncle just a few streets away from here. I'm starting fifth year at Hogwarts and... That's pretty much all about me, I guess."

"You have no idea how opposite you are to your father. You must have taken after Lily a lot as far as nature is concerned. James would have jumped straight into a foot long explanation of himself if given the chance."

"Perhaps. I just know what I'm told about them."

At that moment, Felicity felt his thoughts as clear as if he had just spoken out loud in front of her. The boy longed for a life where he could be reconciled with his parents but that wasn't possible.

"Hey, I almost forgot. I had to show you other photographs too. Come along now, they're in there," she quickly changed the topic and took him to another room.

The room was empty except a large book shelf. On top of that shelf was a big box and it seemed as if it had been placed as such so she couldn't easily reach it.

He could tell because he had barely seen her use any magic inside or outside the house even if it was a short time he had been here. It seemed as if she deliberately lived like a Muggle.

But she took out her wand and levitated the box down, "there you go. It has all our pictures from fifth year and onwards."

There was a thick layer of dirt on top of it, apparently it hadn't been touched or moved since years. He lifted the lid and true enough inside were hundreds if not thousands of pictures, "why from just fifth year?"

She smiled, "I got acquainted with your Dad and his friends in fifth year. When I was given the task to tutor him for Astronomy since he was badly failing the subject."

"No wonder I hate astronomy too," he remarked.

She nodded, "out of all the things you could have inherited from your Mum, you took James's astronomy phobia."

"Tough luck, I suppose?"

Her smile widened, "he was a terrible student. I didn't get all Os in my OWLs because of James."

Harry flicked through the photos and it seemed to him that the woman in front of him who would smile at everything he said, wasn't quite like that in school.

In every picture, she was either frowning, scolding, sleeping, burying her nose in a book or throwing stuff at Sirius.

"I hated Sirius at first," she mumbled as he looked up at her quizzically from a photo of her and Sirius bickering down on each other, "he was an absolute walking disaster.

"Oh..." Harry noticed that it felt as if it hurt her to talk about Sirius and he realized that was probably because she didn't know that Sirius was innocent. But it didn't seem like she blamed him either or else she would have never talked about him in the first place.

"I remember we would give each other death threats every single day," her eyes flickered in nostalgia though there was a trace of sadness beneath her words, "him and I were arch rivals as far as Astronomy was concerned. It bugged me how he always knew such a lot even though he was more of a moron than James." Seeing the confused expression on Harry's face, she reformatted her words, "Oh... I mean... I shouldn't have talked about James like that in front of you, right? Now you're probably thinking that I'm crazy or something."

"No, I just... It's okay."

"Guess I got a bit too carried away."

She looked at the current picture he was holding. It was taken at James and Lily's wedding and the only photo in which Felicity wasn't in her prevailing sour mood. She was standing with Remus holding his camera away from him and laughing as he was probably asking her politely to return it.

"It's... It's been a real long time since I saw these pictures," her voice broke and he immediately looked up to see her eyes watering, "I think... The last time I took these out was more than a decade ago."

"Why?"

She wiped her eyes, looking away from him, "because it hurts. And I hate being in pain."

"I can understand," he spoke reassuringly, "you knew them so it's bound to be tough for you. Unlike me, who doesn't even remember anything."

She picked up the photographs when he had gone through all and piled them again in the box, sending it to its original place with a wave of her wand.

When at last he was leaving, she accompanied him to the door.

"Thank you for your time, Miss Latvia," he stepped out to the pavement, turning around to bid farewell.

Her voice got stuck in her throat from the familiarity of it all. James would do the same thing, turn around and then wish her goodbye with the occasional Love you too, Latvia statement.

"Harry... It's been really good meeting you. You're a lot like your parents, y'know."

"I get to hear that a lot."

"Will you come and see me some other time too? I... I could do with some good company."

"Yeah, sure. As long as it's the summer break."

"Oh, good. School would be starting soon, right?"

"Yeah. From September."

"Best of luck for the OWLs, and please don't flunk Astronomy."

He let out a little laugh, "I can't be sure of that. Would it matter to you if I flunked?"

"Yes, absolutely it would," she replied, "if you did flunk, James would win the bet that his little Prongslet has no potential for astronomy just like his Dad."

"What?" Harry looked at her in disbelief.

A small smile spread on her face, "I'm not kidding, Harry. He made that bet on your first birthday."

He smiled as well, "then I think I'm most probably flunking."

"Argh, if I had known you would take it seriously, I'd never have said that."

"Too bad," his eyes had that spark which she had so often seen in James's hazel irises, "I think I ought to make my father proud of his little Prongslet."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, Lily sided up with me on that bet."

"Oh... Then I think we'd just let fate decide. It was nice meeting you too, Miss Latvia," he waved goodbye after that and started walking down the street.

She watched him disappear at last, resting her head by the door with a soft smile on her face and tears forming in her eyes.

That day she finally met James's little Prongslet. And she knew James had been right when he had said that his son would one day make him proud.

Harry was everything James and Lily could have wished for in a son. The only tragedy was that both of them weren't around to see their child grow up and become all they had hoped and expected from him to be.

***