A good Beginning (Harry Potter)

Chapter 12: An infant's curiosity

Today was a Sunday, Sirius and Remus had gone to Potter Manor for Sunday brunch, Lily and James were very anxious when Harry wasn't writing to them. Suddenly the heard squawk and they all turned their heads to see the beautiful snowy white owl gracefully gliding onto the table. everyone grinned as they recognised this owl to be Harry's.

Remus untied the letter the letter from the owls leg, grabbed some owl treats or it, opened the letter and began to read it.

'Dear mum, dad, Sirius and Remus,

I haven't written to you in a week so I'm going to some it all up in this one letter instead of sending all of you different letters. Hogwarts is awesome, thanks so much for sending me a new broom, it feels so smooth, but swift at the same time. I missed a bit of my first Quidditch practice because of ruddy Snape; that slimy git should learn how to make himself liked by someone who isn't in Slytherin'. Everyone but Lily began to howl with laughter.

'He truly is your son James' Sirius quipped whilst Lily tried to fight off a grin which was slowly spreading on her face.

'I got a detention from him, he randomly asked me what a bezoar was, I said that it was the kidney stone from the gut of a lamb instead of a goat. Turns out that bezoars are a topic studied in O.W.L.S potions; it doesn't matter though because everyone was very happy when we started Quidditch practice' Remus said. Everyone scowled at this

'Were lucky that he has your brains Lils, imagine how much more embarrassing it would have been for him if he didn't know what a bezoar was at all' James said.

'I'm going to write a letter to Severus' Lily scowled

'You mean Snivellus' the three marauders muttered in unison

Remus continued. 'A lot of the other houses came to watch so that they could see what I was like as a player. Oliver let loose 5 snitches and I caught them all in 15 minutes; honestly, by then end of the practice all the teams were quaking in their boots. Make sure that you guys come for my first game' Everyone grinned at this part of the letter.

'I knew the kid was good, but I didn't realise that he was this good. 5 snitches in 15 minutes! He's even better than you James!' Sirius exclaimed with a grunion his face.

'In all fairness we can't really be compared because I was a chaser' James defended himself whilst Remus and Lily chuckled at the man's denial.

'Professor Dumbledore must have told you guys about the little run in that I had with a troll on Halloween' Everyone in the room, Luky and Lichy including, gasped at this.

'Troll, what troll!' Lily shouted

'Calm down Lils, I'm sure he'll explain' James said.

'Professor Quirell came running into the feast claiming that a troll had come into the dungeons; I would have thought that the DADA teacher would be able to fend off a troll, but he seemed completely incompetent, I mean honestly why even employ the idiot.'  Sirius burst out laughing.

'Anyway, the reason why went to fight the troll was because Hermione was in the girls bathroom because of some nasty things Ron said about her when he thought she wasn't listening, she was obviously. We went to help her out of there or to warn her, but when we got there the troll was already there in the bathroom, so I knocked it out' ,the marauders and Lily all murmured in admiration.

'He's more skilled than James and more humble than Lily, the kid's great' Remus said softly before turning his attention back to the letter.

'This is one of the parts which I need some advice on, when the teachers arrived, Snape had some vicious slash marks on his leg. It took me a while to figure out where I had seen them before, but then it clicked, that was from the big three headed dog'. They were all quite startled; why did Harry know about a three headed dog? Remus continued to read the letter aloud.

'I was running from Filch in the middle of the night, for reasons that do not concern you(especially mum), when I found myself in the 3rd floor corridor. I opened the door and what was facing me was a massive three headed dog; I ran for it, don't worry, but before I ran I saw that it was lying over a trap door.'

'Wait just a bloody second! He was running for his life but cared to look at the dog's feet? Kid's got the same sharp eye that you have Lils' James said.

'I don't care that he saw the trapdoor, what I care about is why it shouldn't concern me that he was running from Filch in the middle of the night!' ,Lily said whilst seeming very flustered, 'I swear if he has become just like you guys were, I will hex all of you into the oblivion!'. Sirius was cheekily grinning at this comment.

The group continued to read on and were surprised that the dog was Hagrid's, and started talking amongst themselves in worry, but immediately stopped when they read the next part of the letter

'Do you remember last month where there was that article about a Gringrotts vault broken into, I reckon that is what it was guarding, and that is what Snape was after. I know its a wild theory but I think that he let the troll in as a distraction so that no one would realise that he slipped off to the third floor. A part of me is even thinking that he's doing this for Voldemort, which would be very ironic that Voldemort tried to make his move on the 10 year anniversary of his downfall, maybe that's a little too farfetched'. The room was very quiet, so quiet that one could even hear a pin drop, the only noise in the room was Sirius shuffling uncomfortably.

'Why is he blaming Severus?' Lily said, breaking the awkward silence.

"The guy was a death eater Lily and Harry doesn't even know; I'm not worried about Snape, what I am worried about is if Harry really is right, it can't be a coincidence that a vault was broken into but nothing was there. Maybe Dumbledore saw this coming and that really is what the dog is hiding" Sirius said, any hint of mischief had now left his voice, making him seem dead serious.

"Sirius could be right Lily, it also can't be a coincidence that it is on the 10 year anniversary as well" Remus piped up whilst Sirius nodded in agreement; Lily turned her head to James to see him giving a look saying that he agrees with his brothers whilst Lily just sighed. Remus once again continued. 

'There is one more very serious thing I need to discuss: Peter Pettigrew' , everyone froze at the mention of the man's name, 'Ron has a pet rat named Scabbers, he was passed down to Ron, the rat has been in the Weasley family for over 10 years. That's way too long for any rat to survive right? Well anyway when Ron handed me the rat on the first day, I saw that the rat had markings as if it were wearing a blazer, I haven't done anything yet because I'm looking for the map before I have hard evidence'. Anger was burning on all of the faces of the adults.

"The traitorous idiot!" James growled.

They read a bit more and their theories were confirmed when they read the date that Percy found Scabbers. They laughed slightly at Harry's remark about their mental ages and were quite proud when they found out that Harry had finally mastered the grindolow. Although they were happy with this part of the letter, in the back of the mind they were all thinking one thing, what if all of Harry's suspicions were true.

The silence was broken when they heard another owl squawk; they all turned to see a school owl with a letter on its ankle.