Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 66 ⚡️

The logs exploded into emerald-green flames immediately, and Vega knelt next to the fire to call out the address – "Number twelve, Grimmauld Place!" Harry remained clueless as to what to do and in the end, Vega sighed and pushed his head forward into the flames, the rest of his body still out behind him in the office.

Vega took out Marauder's Map from Harry's schoolbag and opened it, muttering a quick – "I solemnly swear I am up to no good," and she found Umbridge still rushing away from the office, and that was perfectly okay for now.

It didn't seem like there was anyone around the office, and Vega tried to look for Fred and George but they seemed to have evaded being caught for now. She glanced toward her friend, who was now in a conversation with Lupin and Sirius.

Very faint it was but Vega could listen to them talking while she kept her eyes trained on the surroundings of Defence Against Dark Arts office.

"Sirius?" Harry asked.

"Harry!" Lupin exclaimed. "What are you – what's happened, is everything all right?"

"Yeah," Harry replied. "I just wondered – I mean, I just fancied a – a chat with Sirius,"

"I'll call him," Lupin said. "He went upstairs to look for Kreacher, he seems to be hiding in the attic again... wait, I'll get him,"

Lupin seemed to have left to get because it was quiet for a few minutes, and Vega continued to look around on the map, relieved to see that Umbridge was still in the Entrance Hall. Then, Sirius seemed to have arrived.

"What is it?" Sirius asked urgently. "Are you all right? Do you need help?"

"No," Harry replied. "It's nothing like that... I just wanted to talk... about my dad..."

Vega stopped and turned to look at his kneeling body in surprise – she had not expected him to talk about his father of all people. Bu then Harry plunged into a story about how he used Snape's Pensieve to watch a memory that involved the Marauders and Snape fighting with each other and Lily Potter telling James Potter that she hated him.

Fred said we've got twenty minutes...

When he had finished with his story, neither Sirius nor Lupin spoke for a moment. Then Lupin spoke up rather quietly, "I wouldn't like you to judge your father on what you saw there, Harry. He was only fifteen –"

"I'm fifteen!" Harry responded heatedly, and Vega felt like his argument was fair – but then again, if their children saw their interactions with Malfoy without context, they would think the same of them.

"Look, Harry," Sirius replied placatingly. "James and Snape hated each other from the moment they set eyes on each other, it was just one of those things, you can understand that, can't you? I think James was everything Snape wanted to be –

"He was popular, he was good at Quidditch, good at pretty much everything. And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts and James – whatever else he may have appeared to you, Harry – always hated the Dark Arts,"

"Yeah," Harry said. "But he just attacked Snape for no good reason, just because – well, just because you said you were bored," he finished with a slightly apologetic note in his voice.

"I'm not proud of it," Sirius told him quickly.

"Look, Harry," Lupin said. "What you've got to understand is that your father and Sirius were the best in the school at whatever they did – everyone thought they were the height of cool – if they sometimes got a bit carried away –"

"If we were sometimes arrogant little berks, you mean," Sirius interjected.

"He kept messing up his hair," Harry said in a pained voice, and Sirius and Lupin's laughter came through faintly to Vega.