Chapter Text
1 Year Later…
The sun was bright; the sky a clear, cloudless blue. Gulls swooped and called over the heads of hundreds of shoppers filling the pavement of Carnaby Street. The air was fresh that June morning —the heat of summer a few hours off. A small group of shoppers moved leisurely along the market stalls and shops.
Two men, one with faded brown hair liberally streaked with grey, and the other with long raven-dark locks, walked side by side by side, stopping every now and then to sort through stacks of records and books, chatting with the shop owners. Sirius and Remus often looked up to feel the warmth of the summer sun on their faces, and every now and then, Remus would whisper something low with a wry smile and Sirius would erupt into barking laughter before reaching up to steal a kiss.
Ahead of them walked an older woman with long brown hair, holding hands with a five-year-old boy with curly, turquoise hair. Andromeda bought her and the child ice cream cones, and when the boy’s chocolate-rainbow swirl started to melt, Andy leaned in and licked the sticky stream that trailed down Teddy’s cone. Teddy giggled and pinched Andy’s cheek as if she were the cheeky one.
At the very back of the group were a young couple. The young boy was tall, with glasses and short, spiky black hair and a peculiar lightning-bolt scar was visible on his forehead. He withdrew a rose out from behind his back for a girl with auburn hair—flaming in the bright sunlight—who grinned and kissed him as she took the flower. Ginny laughed and wrapped her arm around Harry’s elbow, “Merlin, do I love London!” she exclaimed and Harry smiled at her, thinking: I can’t wait to explore it all with you.
It was mid-afternoon, the daytime warmth at its peak, when the group Apparated to Ottery St. Catchpole, and climbed the hill to reach the orchard behind the Burrow. They made their way through the trees to the makeshift Quidditch pitch. Under the dappled sunlight at the edge of the trees, the others had laid out picnic blankets.
The Weasleys, Molly, Arthur, Bill, Fleur, Charlie, Percy, George, Ginny, and Ron, were joined by Hermione Granger, Lee Jordan, and Gabrielle Delacour. Fleur’s youngest sister had been staying with Fleur for the past month due to the newest arrival.
Victoire Delacour was born on the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts. She was a month old now, and already had flowing silver locks upon her small head.
“Come and ‘ave a look, leetle one!” Fleur called to Teddy, holding the baby wrapped in a pale blue blanket in her arms.
Teddy bounced over and plopped to his knees on the picnic blanket beside Fleur, leaning over to peer under the blanket’s hood, “Oh! She’s pretty!”
A moment later, Teddy’s hair was flowing and silvery-blonde, his cheeks cherub and peachy. Fleur cooed enough worthy for two beautiful babe faces, “Vonderful, Teddy! You are a vorthy match for ‘er.”
Bill choked on his butterbeer, and sat straighter beside Fleur, “Bit too soon for that!”
Fleur laughed throatily, “But they vill be at ‘Ogwarts together one day…”
“He’s five years older than her!” Molly interceded, offering Teddy a custard tart, which he took happily after first trying to offer it to Victoire.
“I’m five years older than you…” Arthur said with a smile and Molly blushed.
Shortly, teams were made and set off on the Quidditch pitch. Sirius, Harry, George, and Ron, against Ginny, Bill, Lee, and Charlie with Percy as referee.
Teddy was chatting away with Gabrielle and Fleur, making faces to Victoire, and Remus lounged back on the picnic blanket beside Molly, Arthur, and Andy.
She smiled as she walked up to him, “Hello, Remus.”
“Hello, Hermione,” He said back, “Alright?”
She nodded and sat cross-legged on the blanket beside him, pulling out a shiny hardcover book from her bag, “I’ve read it cover-to-cover twice already!”
Remus felt his cheeks blush as he looked down at the midnight cover. As per his request, the book did not show the Full Moon but rather he and Sirius’ side profiles, back-to-back, with the silhouettes of Prongs, Padfoot, and the wolf over their heads beneath title—
The Dog and the Wolf: Lycanthropy, Animagery, and Queer Love in Magical Britain, c. 1960 – Present
The Story of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, interviewed by Willa Wetherbee
Remus couldn't help but deflect, “Only cover-to-cover twice? Pre-law manuals keeping you quite busy?"
Hermione swatted him with the book, "As a matter of fact they don't! It's all so arcane and honestly bloody useless—"
"What did you think of it?” Remus asked, motioning toward the hardcover in her hand.
“Oh, it was fascinating, Remus!” She started eagerly, “So enlightening! And all of the information you and Sirius explain in here must be so useful for the trainees at the Lupin Lycanthropic Center in Hampstead Heath!”
Remus smiled, “Indeed. Although Ayala and Diana supply plenty of first-hand accounts, I’ve been told. Although I’m sure the Animagery Office is swamped with hunting down underage imitators of Prongs and Padfoot…”
“It’s so wonderful to hear your story, Remus,” Hermione said earnestly.
Remus looked down and plucked a stem of grass into the palm of his hand, staring down at the fresh green stem laid beside an array of scars, “Perhaps. But there are so many stories to tell from the here and now, are there not?”
Hermione playfully swatted his shoulder again, “Of course there are, Remus! But reading what those before us did…how their actions led to the present…to understand what forces they fought against—that is important too. To know our heroes; to acknowledge them. You and the Marauder’s…all you went through…” she shook her head, trailing off.
Remus smiled wryly, “You were born a ready-made law apprentice, Hermione. How’s the flat hunting going?”
She blushed and shyly smiled at the compliment, “Well, I want to be as close to Vauxhall as possible—for the easiest commute to the Ministry of course—”
Remus chuckled, “Soho is well close. Ginny’s got her eyes on a place in Chinatown she told me this morning—”
“Chinatown!” Hermione squeaked, “But it’s so noisy—!"
“You’re only a young person living in London once, Hermione,” Remus told her with a wide unabashed smile, “And living with friends no doubt; you, Ron, Ginny, and Harry. Besides, how do you think I travel from Hope's Cottage to Hampstead for the clinic? How do you think Sirius and Andy get to their new Muggle and Magical music shop in Diagon? Are you a Witch or what, Hermione?” He added with a wink.
She grinned back and slapped him harder on the shoulder this time, “Alright, I’m a Witch! I’ll bloody Apparate or Floo or—”
“Ride a broom?”
Hermione outright smacked Remus properly this time, “You first, Lupin!”
Remus turned to focus back on the Quidditch match. He watched as Sirius hit a Bludger directed from George so high over the pitch that Lee had to shoot directly skyward to reach it; Sirius zoomed around the pitch, barking his laughter, and high-fived Harry as he flew past him. Harry and Ginny, meanwhile, had been so distracted by watching the other that Remus had noted the Snitch had flown by Harry’s ear twice already.
“Go on then,” Remus said, rising smoothly to his feet and offering Hermione a hand.
On his picnic blanket nearby, Teddy leapt up, “What are we doing, Dad?”
A few moments later, Remus sat astride the spare Numbus-2000 Bill had lent him, with Teddy sitting in front of him, both of them holding tight to the broomstick. Hermione kicked up off the grass and wobbled up into the air with encouraging words from Ron and Ginny. Remus gently lifted himself and Teddy skyward, and soon the summer breeze was lifting their hair and the wind was licking their cheeks and Teddy was giggling as Harry flew past.
And then a blur of black was soaring in circles over their heads until Sirius abruptly paused—floating in mid-air in front of them.
Sirius was smiling so bright that Remus was certain that the overwhelming rising warmth inside his chest must be due to Sirius’ radiance alone.
“Well time for a golden age, eh Moony?” Sirius said, lifting his face to drink in the golden rays of the sun.
Little darlin’, it’s been a long, cold lonely winter
Little darlin’, it’s feels like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo
Here comes the sun,
And I say,
It’s alright
Nineteen Years Later...
Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first of September was as crisp and golden as an apple, and as the little family bobbed across the rumbling road toward the great sooty station, the fumes of car exhausts and the breath of pedestrians sparkled like cobwebs in the cold air. Two large cages rattled on top of the laden trolleys the parents were pushing; the owls inside them hooted indignantly, and the redhaired girl trailed tearfully behind her brothers, clutching her father’s arm.
“It won’t be too long, and you’ll be going too,” Harry told her.
“Two years,” Lily sniffed, “I want to go now!”
The commuters stared curiously at the owls as the family wove its way toward the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Albus’ voice drifted back to Harry over the surrounding clamor as he scanned the barrier for the other family that would be joining them before they crossed over. The sons had resumed the argument that they had started in the car.
“I won’t! I won’t be in Slytherin!”
“James, give it a rest!” Ginny said to their eldest son.
“I only said he might be,” James said, grinning at his younger brother, “There’s nothing wrong with that. He might be in Slyth—”
But James had caught sight of his mother’s eye and fell silent. The five Potters approached the barrier and then Harry spotted them, making their way toward them around the crowded station.
A mass of filthy, matted hair hung to his elbows. If eyes hadn’t been shining out of the deep, dark sockets, he might have been a corpse. The waxy skin was stretched so tightly over the bones of his face, it looked like a skull. His yellow teeth were bared in a grin. It was Sirius Black.
“Morning, you lot!” Sirius crowed as he reached the family, throwing his arms around Harry and then bending low to hug each of the children in turn. His hair was to his shoulders as always, and an enviable tone of raven-black even in his sixties. Smile lines now framed each dark, shining eye, but Sirius had never stopped shining as bright as the Dog Star. Harry figured he never would.
The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of Wizard’s robes that had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though quite young, his light brown hair was flecked with grey… there was a soft, crackling noise and a shivering light filled the compartment. Professor Lupin appeared to be holding a handful of flames. They illuminated his tired, grey face, but his eyes looked alert and wary.
“All sorted?” Remus asked Ginny and Harry as he approached, smiling warmly. It was a week until the Full Moon, but Remus had been an Alpha for many, many years now. His hair was now fully and completely grey, and more lines deepened and aged his face, but there were no new scars and he walked with a preternatural grace and strength that was never weakened, never sated, with each Transformation. The Lupin Lycanthropic Clinic had been highly successful as well with aiding their patients’ Transformations with each new discovery. Ginny assured Remus that they were all ready for the train as Remus hugged her and Harry, and then took his turn greeting the children. Remus was still a head taller than any of the adults, except of course, for Teddy.
“Oolright?” Teddy said, exaggerating the accent as he high-fived James, patted Albus on the back, and imitated Lily’s own face back at her for a heartbeat (before any Muggle noticed). Lily giggled; her sadness momentarily forgotten.
Teddy had left Hogwarts a few years before—after being Sorted into Hufflepuff and after being made Head Boy (the last of which still grated against Sirius if you got him tipsy enough to admit it, and Remus would gloat if given the same amount of drink). Teddy still sported his turquoise curls and retained his Metamorphmagus abilities, and was now working for the Department for Magical Creatures, and was tall and lanky in the same manner in which Remus was. He had also begun Transforming with his parents each Full Moon since he turned seventeen.
His Animagus form was—of some surprise to Remus but none to Sirius—a wolf.
“Let’s go!” James said once all the “Good morning’s” and “How are you?’s” were finished. He took the trolley from his mother and broke into a run. A moment later, he had vanished.
“You’ll write to me, won’t you?” Albus asked his parents immediately, capitalizing on the momentary absence of his brother.
“Every day, if you want us to,” Ginny said.
“Not every day,” Albus said quickly, “James says most people only get letters from home about once a month.”
“They wrote to James three times a week last year,” Remus told him with a wry smile.
“And you don’t want to believe everything he tells you about Hogwarts,” Harry put in, “He likes a laugh, your brother.”
“Wonder where he gets it,” Sirius said, “Real mystery, that one.”
Side-by-side, Harry and Ginny pushed the second trolley forward, gathering speed. As they reached the barrier, Albus winced, but there was no collision. Instead, the family emerged onto Platform 9 ¾ which was obscured by thick white steam that was pouring from the scarlet Hogwarts Express.
“Where are they?” Albus asked anxiously, peering at the hazy forms they passed as they made their way down the platform.
“Just up ahead,” Remus assured him, pointing the way forward.
Soon, a group of four people emerged from the mist, standing alongside the very last carriage. Their faces only came into focus when Harry, Ginny, Lily, Albus, Sirius, Remus, and Teddy had drawn right up to them.
“Hi,” Albus said, sounding extremely relieved.
Rose, who was already wearing her brand-new Hogwarts robes, beamed at him, “Hi!”
“Parked all right, then?” Ron asked Harry, “I did. Hermione didn’t believe I could pass a Muggle driving test, did you? She thought I’d have to Confund the examiner.”
“No, I didn’t,” Hermione said, “I had complete faith in you.”
“As a matter of fact, I did Confund him,” Ron whispered to Harry as they lifted Albus’ trunk and owl onto the train, “I only forgot to look in the wing mirror, and let’s face it, I can use a Supersensory Charm for that.”
Back on the platform, they found Lily and Hugo, Rose’s younger brother, having an animated discussion about which House they would be Sorted into when they finally went to Hogwarts.
“If you’re not in Gryffindor, we’ll disinherit you,” Ron said, “but no pressure.”
“Ron!” Hermione cried.
“He doesn’t mean it,” Teddy told the kids, laughing as he turned. Clearly, he had spotted someone he had hoped to see, because Teddy strode off into the mist with his shoulders back. Sirius gave a chuckle and flashed Remus a knowing smile.
Remus smiled back but seemed distracted; he caught Harry and Ron’s eyes and then nodded covertly to a point some fifty points away. Harry, Ron, and Sirius’ gazes all followed to look at the three people that stood in sharp relief against the shifting mist.
Draco Malfoy was standing with his wife and son, a dark coat buttoned up to his throat. His hair was receding somewhat, which emphasized the pointed chin. The new boy resembled Draco just as much as Albus resembled Harry. Draco caught sight of them, nodded curtly, and turned away.
“So that’s little Scorpius,” Ron said lowly, “Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother’s brains.”
“Ron, for heaven’s sake,” Hermione said, half-stern and half-amused, “Don’t try to turn them against each other before they’ve even started school!”
“You’re right, sorry,” Ron said but unable to help himself, he added, “Don’t get too friendly with him though, Rosie. Granddad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pureblood.”
“Hey!” Sirius and James said at the same time.
James had re-appared, and evidentially divested himself of his trunk, owl, and trolley, and was evidently bursting with news.
“Teddy’s back there!” James said breathlessly, “Just seen him! And guess what he’s doing? Snogging Victoire!”
Sirius clapped James on the back of his head, “Oi! Don’t snitch!”
James still gazed up at the adults, evidently disappointed by the lack of reaction, “Teddy! Teddy Lupin! Snogging our cousin Victoire! And I asked Teddy what he was doing—”
“You interrupted them?” Ginny said, “You are so like Ron—”
“—and he said he’d wanted to see her off! And then he told me to go away. He’s snogging her!” James added as though worried he had not made himself clear.
Remus clicked his tongue, “Old news, chap. But you’ll get there one day soon, eh?”
James gapped up at him, confused and shocked. Remus just smiled and shrugged.
Harry checked the battered old watch that had once been Fabian Prewett’s, “It’s nearly eleven, you’d better get on board.”
“Don’t forget to give Neville our love!” Ginny told James as she hugged him.
“Mum! I can’t give a professor love.”
“I did,” Sirius said, looking at Remus and winking. Remus looked torn between two very different means of getting Sirius to shut up.
“But you know Neville—"
James rolled his eyes, “Outside, yeah, but at school he’s Professor Longbottom, isn’t he? I can’t walk into Herbology and give him love…”
Shaking his head at his mother’s foolishness, James vented his feeling by aiming a kick at Albus, “See you later, Al. Watch out for the thestrals.”
“I thought you said they were invisible? You said they were invisible!”
Remus patted Albus’ shoulder and assured him that yes, all good thestrals are properly invisible, as James merely laughed, permitted his mother to kiss him, gave his father a fleeting hug, then leapt onto the rapidly filling train. They saw him wave, then sprint away up the corridor to find his friends.
“Thestrals are nothing to worry about,” Harry said, turning to Remus and Albus, “they’re gentle things, there’s nothing scary about them. Anyway, you won’t be going up to school in the carriages, you’ll be going in the boats.”
Ginny kissed Albus good-bye, “See you at Christmas, love.”
“Bye, Al,” Harry said as his son hugged him, “Don’t forget Hagrid’s invited you to tea next Friday. Don’t mess with Peeves. Don’t duel anyone till you’ve learned how. And don’t let James wind you up.”
Sirius and Remus were chatting away with Ginny, Ron, and Hermione, and Teddy was off still surely snogging Victoire, so the question that came was just for Harry.
“What if I’m in Slytherin?” The whisper for his father alone, and Harry knew that only the moment of departure could have forced Albus to reveal how great and sincere the fear was.
Harry crouched down so that Albus’ face was slightly above his own. Alone of Harry’s three children, Albus had inherited Lily’s eyes.
“Albus Regulus,” Harry said quietly, so that no one but Ginny, Remus, and Sirius would hear—although they were tactful enough to pretend to be waving to Rose, who was now on the train, “you were named for two heroes of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably one of the bravest men you could ever know.”
“But just say—”
“—then Slytherin House will have gained an excellent student, won’t it? It doesn’t matter to us, Al. But if it matters to you, you’ll be able to choose Gryffindor over Slytherin. The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account.”
“Really?”
“It did for me,” Harry said.
He had never told any of his children that before, and he saw the wonder in Albus’ face when he said it. But now the doors were slamming all along the scarlet train, and the blurred outlines of parents were swarming forward for final kisses, last-minute reminders. Albus jumped into the carriage and Ginny closed the door behind him. Students were hanging from the windows nearest them. A great number of faces, both on the train and off, seemed to be turned toward Harry.
“Why are they all staring?” Albus demanded as he and Rose craned around to look at the other students.
“Don’t let it worry you,” Sirius said, “It’s me. I’m extremely famous.”
Albus, Rose, Hugo, and Lily laughed.
Remus elbowed Sirius in the ribs and he barked his laughter, crowing out, “Oh come on, Moony, I am famous! And we’re famous authors and activists! We’ve been 'out' for nearly eighteen years, married for about the same—”
Remus nimbly snatched the collar of Sirius’ graphic t-shirt—this one was for a Muggle band called The Talking Heads (“and oh, look, they named a band after you Sirius,” Remus had said when he’d seen the album in Sirius and Andy’s Diagon shop)—and kissed Sirius full and hard on the mouth for the staring crowd.
They broke apart to chitters and gasps; there was even a smattering of applause from a stunned family close by on the platform. Sirius had the gall to bow.
The train began to move and Harry walked alongside it, watching his son’s thin face, already ablaze with excitement. Harry kept smiling and waving, even though it was like a bereavement, watching his son glide away from him…
The last trace of steam evaporated in the fresh Autumn air. The train rounded a corner. Harry’s hand was still raised in farewell.
“He’ll be alright,” Ginny murmured.
As Harry looked at her, he lowered his hand absentmindedly and touched the lightning scar on his forehead.
“I know he will.”
The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years.
All was well.
Now I've been happy lately
Thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be
Something good has begun
Oh, I've been smiling lately
Dreaming about the world as one...
Oh, the peace train take this country
Come take me home again