FicWad

Title: Chronicles - Prologue 0/?
Author: Mariann
Summary: a shock and waking up from it
Rating: This part G - overall anything from G to NC-17
Pairings: Sirius/Remus, Harry/Hermione, Ron/Justin, Ginny/Ernie, Draco/Parvati, Blaise/Padma
Disclaimer: The usual --- I'm borrowing some characters from the HP universe for my own nefarious purposes. They will be perfectly alright, when I hand them back to JKR

A/N This is the sequel to "A Year In Switzerland", which is posted in its entirety on the Sirius Black & Remus Lupin Yahoo mailing list and under my pen-name Mariann's and the same title on fanfiction.net

"Swiss-verse" - I liked the universe I created with "A Year In Switzerland", but now that the kids have left school I thought I'd have to give the sequel a new title. Again it's in POV of the different characters, simply following them through their ongoing lives. I thought I could develop the single bits in a diary like style, but they are just thinking or remembering or observing their friends and family. So since they're obviously not diary entries I decided to call it:



Chronicles


31.10.1981 4.11.1981 20.8.1998 / Lily


Oh no!!! He's found us! But that means he's found Peter! Oh gods, Peter, what has he done to you? Are you alive at all? I can hear James scream for me to take Harry and run. I'm up in the nursery in a second and pick up a sleeping Harry, who now protests as loudly as he can. I hold him tightly to my chest, to muffle his cries and try to get to the back door, but there he is. Oh, he's evil! I beg for my baby's life, offer him mine, but I'm sure he'll take mine anyway. I quickly cast the "mater protectas" spell on Harry and tell Voldemort to spare Harry, to take MY life instead! He'll still try to get at my son, but he'll be in for a surprise, the bloody...

"Avada Kedavra!"

Everything slows down! I know my eyes are widened by my fear and the green flash of light hits me as I turn around to protect Harry from it.

What's this? Everything around me is white? I'm supposed to be dead, not thinking anymore, am I not? Do witches and wizards die differently from everyone else? But I'm all alone. I can sense James near me, but I can't see him in all this blinding light.

"James?" I try to call tentatively.

I'm not sure anything came out. I walk around in this white nothingness. When I get tired I lie down. It's strange, because I can't feel anything beneath me, nothing above me, nothing around me. Just white, but when I close my eyes I fall asleep and I still sense James near me.

When I wake up it's the same. Everything is white, but the sensation of James somewhere near is still there. I notice I'm not hungry nor thirsty. I feel myself and touch myself. Strange. It feels solid.

"James!" I call. Louder.

I'm getting tired very fast here. I don't know what it is, but when I wake up the next time I know James is near though I still can't see him. This time I can hear his call:

"Lily! Lily! I know you're around, I can feel you!"

"James, I'm here, I can feel you, too. All I see is white!"

"Yes, it's the same for me. I've found you, oh, Lily, that makes everything alright. But what's this nothingness?"

"I have no idea..."

We're still wondering about this "nothingness" when all of a sudden something disturbs the white. I wouldn't have believed that anything could be more beaming white, but this being is. I don't know if it's a he or a she, so I think it might rather be an "it". It approaches us and I have to close my eyes.

"What's this?" I hear James ask.

"This is where all souls arrive when they are passing on. You have to decide where to go from here. You have both been murdered, so it is up to you to move on or not."

"Do you mean to leave all behind us? What happens to us?" I ask.

"If you decide to move on you will feel and know nothing anymore. Your soul just vanishes in peace."

"And if we aren't ready to move on?" James asks hesitantly.

"Then your path will be to return as ghosts forever."

James looks at me. I don't see it, but I can feel his glance. Ghosts! That would force us to stay together forever! We could help our baby! James seems to think the same thing.

"Do we have some time to think about it?" I ask.

"You do. But be aware that while you're here for every minute you spend here, a day passes by on earth."

Shock! So much time must have passed already and when I got my senses back together I ask:

"Oh Merlin! How long has it been since we have been killed?"

"Four days and 40 minutes. Almost seventeen years have passed on earth."

"We must see Sirius and Remus! We must see how they are," James exclaims.

"Yes. We must help them if we can!" I agree.

"So be it! You are freed from this ante-room as of now!" the being tells us.

Then everything is black for a moment. I don't know how much time has passed by, but when I come around I can see James. Finally! We're both wearing our comfortable daywear robes, warm socks and nothing else, but it doesn't matter it seems. I reach out my hand and touch James. He smiles. I can feel him! Immediately James pulls me into a hug and for a moment we just hold each other tightly. Then we slowly look around. We're in a room, which looks like a very nicely furnished Muggle living room. Only one person sits on the sofa, in front of a coffee table and when I look closer, I can see it's Remus.

"Remus!" I call softly.

"Moony!" James says at the same time.

He looks up and his eyes widen.

"James! Lily! No, this can't be real! You're dead!"

James moves closer and sits down next to Remus. He smiles the broadest smile I've seen him smile since Harry was born!

"Moony! Yes, we're dead, but we just couldn't move on. We're ghosts!"

"James! Prongs, how could you? You'll be ghosts forever now!"

"Sounds good to me if I can be together with Lily forever, old boy!"

"Oh my goodness! I'm so happy to see you two! This is incredible! After all these years, oh I think I'll have to go and wake up Padfoot! Harry isn't home tonight, he went out with Hermione, oh I don't know what to do next, I'm so excited!"

"Moony! Cool it, Remus, please, we need to know! You say, Harry is alive?" James asks.

I notice that I haven't had time to tell him about the "mater protectas" spell. So it has actually worked.

"Yes, he's alive and well... How much do you know?" Remus suddenly asks.

"Remus, just hold yourself together for a moment," I tell him, "Because we need to explain what just happened. Okay?"

"Yes, please do. Or do you want me to go and get Padfoot? He went to sleep already, it's almost midnight and he has... oh, we'll tell you about that later, first we want to bring you up to speed and hear what happened to you. Shall I get him?"

"Oh, please do, Moony!"

"I'll be right back."

I have some time to look around. The room has a door to the left, which seems to lead into a study and a door to the right, through which I can see another room furnished like a living room. I get up and throw a glance into the study. There are two desks, two armchairs and a coffee table and all the walls are lined with bookcases. Two windows in each room look very homey with white curtains, held together at the bottom, leaving a triangle of the window open. Coloured curtains line the windows.

After a few minutes Remus brings Sirius into the room. He obviously hasn't told Siri what he has to expect, because the moment Sirius sees us he cries out:

"James? Lily? What the hell..."

"Padfoot! I'm so glad to see you!" James calls and rushes to give Siri a big hug.

Totally amazed Sirius returns the hug though it must feel for him like hugging air and moves on to me. Then, when we have calmed down just a bit, he says:

"Well, this is going to be a long night, I suppose."

"Yes, I think so, too. Tea, love?" Remus asks.

So they're still together. That really pleases me. And the hint that Harry has gone out means Harry is with them. Just like we wanted. I'm very happy to hear that. Once the tea is on the table, not that James and I can drink any, but the smell is lovely!, we start to explain. I tell them what happened, and that I've been able to cast the protection spell I had found a while ago on Harry.

"So, THAT's what it was," Remus says, "And then?"

"Well, then I just remember the killing curse cast on me. I turned around and it hit me from behind. And then there was nothing but white."

I relate the explanations of that being and how time passed so much faster there.

"So, if I understand this right, to your understanding you have died only four days and a few hours ago?" Remus asks.

"Exactly."

"Then you know nothing of what happened after you were killed?" Sirius asks.

"No, nothing at all. I'm sure Voldemort must have tried to kill Harry, but you telling me that Harry is here tells me that my protection spell worked and the curse must have been diverted..."

"...right back to Voldemort," Remus says with a grin.

"Really? And what happened then?" James asks.

"Well, then he was almost dead. Don't know if he could have been killed outright then, but I suppose not, because he's made a very strong spirit out of himself. But he was gone. Couldn't cast a spell anymore if his life depended on it. Most people thought he was really gone completely," Remus explains.

"But you didn't?"

"No, I was among those who thought he just fled somewhere to nurture himself and maybe wait for the help of his Death Eaters. Only THEY were mostly glad he was actually gone."

"Oh. And what happened with Harry? You took him, like we wanted, didn't you, Siri?"

My eyes get wide when I see the change in his face and posture. It seems that everything had not gone smooth. He then looks up to me and I can see tears in his eyes. Then he shakes his head sadly and starts to talk:

"No. No, unfortunately not, Lily. How do you think Voldemort knew where to find you?"

"He must have found out about Peter and tortured him," I said.

Then I remember that we wondered what happened to Peter! I'm anxious to hear what went on.

"Again, unfortunately not, Lily. Peter did not need to be forced to tell the secret. He was the spy," Remus says almost soundlessly.

James and I look at each other. Now everything starts to make sense and I start to understand why we have been attacked so soon after the Fidelius had been cast. I stare back at Sirius, because now I remember that no one knew about the switch, not even Albus Dumbledore. I dread what I'm going to hear...

"I made the one great mistake in my life apart from switching with Peter. I went after him. I got to see Godric's Hollow and when I found your bodies, Hagrid was there already and he had Harry. I didn't realise then why, but I asked to take Harry, since I'm his godfather and you wanted him to be with Remus and I, but he said no, Dumbledore had given him other orders and he wouldn't do anything else. Told me that I had to go talk to Dumbledore myself. I should have realised that this was the first thing I should have done! But I was so blind with sadness, anger and hatred, that I went in search of Peter. He fooled us! Gods, Lily, James! He must have been jubilant the day he was able to tell Voldemort where to find you! By that time Wormtail had been a Death Eater for about a year already!"

I bite my lower lip. I can't really believe it, but then I could even less believe that the spy had been Remus when Sirius and James discussed it two weeks ago. Sirius didn't know for sure of course, but he said that Remus had been gone so often.

"...The moment Peter transformed I knew I was framed. And realised that no one knew about the switch. Crouch didn't even let me speak up and say anything, he had me taken to Azkaban straight away without so much as a hearing, let alone a trial. Albus' word that I was your Secret Keeper had been enough proof for them that I was guilty," Sirius says with an almost broken voice.

Remus puts an arm around Siri and asks:

"Want me to take over, darling?"

Sirius nods and stares at his feet. If he's been sent to Azkaban, I don't really want to know what he had to endure. He's the last person who belongs there. Cheerful, loving Sirius, it's just simply unbelievable. My heart goes out to him and I can't wait to hear what Remus has to say about how things went on.

In the course of the next two hours they tell us in detail what happened. That Harry had been taken to Pets and Vernon. To my sister and her good-for-nothing husband above all people! Oh, if I see Dumbledore again he'll hear something from me!!!

"They didn't treat him well. Oh, they didn't beat him or anything, but they abused him verbally. They used him to do all sorts of chores for them while their own son was let off with anything he wanted to have or do. They never gave him anything nice, never fed him properly. The only things he had they took away and just kept him in the cupboard under the stairs," Remus says.

Oh my poor, poor baby! Harry, I'm so sorry! I'm starting to cry and James holds me close, but I know he's close to crying himself. Our wonderful little boy, Harry, who has made us smile from the first day, who only cried for food or fresh nappies, Harry, my little soul, mistreated by my own sister! I can't stop crying. This is too much. Sirius in Azkaban and Harry at my sister's. Can it come any worse than that?

"Of course they never told him a word about being a wizard. His magic started to show while he was in primary school and they punished him for every 'funny business' that happened. According to Harry they banned every word from their language that had anything to do with magic. His cousin's eleventh birthday was a milestone. The Dursleys hadn't been able to hand Harry to Arabella and had to take him along for a visit at the zoo. In the reptile house Harry looked at a python who had been motionless when Dudley and his friend looked at it, but it came to the glass when Harry was there and spoke to Harry!"

My jaw drops. Harry a Parselmouth? Where could he have that from?

"Yes, he's a Parselmouth. Albus thinks that when the curse rebounded to Voldemort it gave them a connection and Harry added some of Voldemort's powers to his own considerable magical power. Anyway, after he spoke to the snake the other boys saw it, pushed him aside so he landed on his bum and the other stood before the window. And Harry's anger made the glass window vanish," Remus says.

James, who has calmed down from the shock of our son being a Parselmouth, snickers.

"Served him quite right, I suppose."

"Yes, of course, but of course it also brought Harry into bad trouble. He was locked into the cupboard for a long time and only let out for school. They half starved him, James! It's a miracle he survived that family's treatment of him. Finally it was time for his Hogwarts letter and of course they kept it from him. But Albus had expected trouble in getting hold of Harry because Arabella had warned him about their attitude. So he had tons of letters sent to Harry's house. Dursley took his family and fled. Must have gone barmy, the fat whale," says Sirius, who takes over again.

"So Harry got his letter?"

"Only after Hagrid had been sent after them. He found them in a miserable shack on a rock in the ocean! Explained to Harry what he was and that he was taking him to shop for his school stuff for Hogwarts. Gave him the letter and took him. Harry had to stay there for a whole month more, but he made it to Hogwarts."

I sigh. At least one thing that went well.

"Only to find that he was famous for having vanquished the Dark Lord when he was no more than a baby," Remus continues, "The Defence teacher was a Quirrell, you know them, all of them brilliant and all of them in Slytherin. Well, this one seemed to be afraid of his own name, but it was all just a farce. He carried Voldemort's spirit with him! Dumbledore didn't know. But he'd been warned that someone was after Flamel's Philosopher's Stone and he had Hagrid bring it to Hogwarts to protect it there."

Then we hear the story of how Harry met his two friends, one is a Weasley, which pleased both James and me equally, and one is a Muggle-born girl, Hermione Granger, and how they got through their first year. We hold our breaths a few times. Sirius tells us the story with some help from Remus and they both sound so proud. James and I look at each other and smile.

"That's our son, Lily," James says, "He turned out well!"

"Got to play as a Seeker for the Gryffindor team in his first year, James!" Sirius says proudly.

"What? I didn't even make it in before my third!!! Yay! Go, Harry! Did he do pranks?" James asks with a gleam in his eyes.

"Well, not really. He's got more of Lily than of you in that department. Besides he couldn't play pranks, since life continued to be hard on him. Voldemort didn't just stop, even if there was another break in his activities. The next attack came from the Dursleys though. To punish him for something that happened during the summer break after his first year they locked him into the room he had, added iron bars to the window so Hedwig couldn't get out and a crazy house-elf got hold of the letters from his friends in an attempt to prevent him from going back to Hogwarts and right into the danger he thought Harry would be in if he went. But by that time Hogwarts really meant everything to Harry. And luckily he meant everything to Ron Weasley. He and his older twin brothers Fred and George managed to get him out of Number four, Privet Drive and brought him to the Burrow. Molly was the first to actually become something like a mother to Harry."

If I had thought the tale of Harry's first year was bad, then I was shocked to hear what happened in his second year. And even more about what happened in his third, in spite of the fact that I was most pleased to hear Remus had become a teacher at Hogwarts. I just know he's the right person for this job! Then they relate the whole story of Remus' first meeting with Sirius after almost thirteen years. I hold my breath when Sirius says Remus transformed and Peter was able to get away. But James and I are immensely proud to hear that Harry saved his own, as well as Hermione's and Siri's life with his Patronus! That he helped win the Quidditch Cup, that he helped Sirius get away from Hogwarts!

The most horrific story still waits for us as Sirius starts to tell us about Harry's fourth year. Triwizard Champion at fourteen!!! Oh goodness, what else? The tasks sound horrible! But they're nothing compared to the ordeal Harry must have gone through meeting a re-born Voldemort. Again, I can only cry out for my baby.

At that moment there's a slight crack and a bell rings. Sirius and Remus start to smile.

"Sounds like they're back. - Harry! Hermione! Could you come in here for a moment?" Remus calls.

They come into the front room and I can throw a quick glance on my son before he sees us. Oh, but he's handsome! He looks almost like James! The girl looks lovely. Light brown hair, plaited to a thick braid on her back, brown eyes. They are holding hands and I can see they are wearing rings. Are they engaged? Eighteen years old. They are really fine looking young people. James and I get up, so do Siri and Remus. Harry freezes in the door when he sees us. I can feel James' arm around me as we watch them both. Hermione hasn't noticed anything amiss yet and walks on inside, pulling Harry along.

"We have some visitors. And they plan to become part of our household," Sirius says with a smile.

Harry's eyes widen. I can see he's completely shocked, so I say:

"Hello, Harry! I'm sorry it took us so long to get back to you, but we couldn't just leave you all alone!"

Then he opens his mouth:

"Mum? - Dad?"

I go to him and he finally lets go of Hermione's hand. I touch him and when he notices he can touch me as well, he does and I can feel his hug and even though he won't feel a pulse from me I can feel his heart beating.

"Oh, my baby!" I sob, "I'm so sorry you had to go through all this, and it's all my own fault!"

Oh, but he's so grown, so tall now!

"Mum! MUM! No, Mum, no, it's never been your fault, it's only Voldemort's! Please, Mum!" he cries.

But he holds on to me tightly and I can't let him go. I don't even notice James, who's right behind me. Then I finally do let go and say:

"Harry, I can't really grasp all this, just a few days ago you've been a baby in my arms, now I see you - fully grown, I really don't understand it yet, but know that I've loved you from the day I knew you would come. James often joked I loved you more than I did him, but that's not true. I love you just as much and totally differently..." I babble now.

I feel James' arms around me again. He looks at Harry, who's about the same height as his father and smiles.

"I have missed all of your childhood, Harry, and I can't even express how sorry I am about that. But I see you did find people who love you and this looks like a real home."

Now Harry starts to smile. I really like this smile and he's calming down enough that we can return to sit down. He looks at James and me and says simply:

"I missed you both. So much! I never remembered the feeling of being held or loved. Only very deep down I knew you once loved me. Only when I got to Hogwarts I finally felt at home somewhere. There and at the Burrow with the Weasleys. Do you know them?"

"Yes. From the Order..." James says, "Do you know about the Order?"

"Oh, yes. We're members now, both of us and all of our classmates. How much else do you know? And what happened to you both? And, oh, I'm so sorry, how about I introduce you to my love? This is Hermione Granger-Potter, Mum!"

Again, my jaw drops. James' as well and when I look around I see Remus and Sirius snicker. They aren't engaged, they're married? But they can barely be out of school yet!

"Pleased to meet you, Hermione. Do please call us Lily and James," James says and hugs our daughter-in-law.

I'm still unable to say much. I just follow and hug her as well. She looks like a very nice girl, though she hasn't said a word yet.

"It's so good to be able to speak to you both! Harry has wanted to know you all his life and he's always been so sad about being an orphan. He loved you so much, even though you weren't there anymore," she says.

"I'm very happy to meet you, Hermione. What a lovely name you have! It's nice to come back and have another child all of a sudden!" I finally manage.

They both smile. We all settle down again and Harry asks again:

"So how much do you know?"

"Sirius and Remus have brought us up to speed until the end of your fourth year. Voldemort is really back?" James asks.

"Was!" Hermione says and smiles at Harry.

"Well, let us continue with the saga," Remus butts in and tells us about the Dursleys throwing Harry out and how he got a fugitive and an orphan to hide and Albus' idea to bring them to Switzerland.

"And that's how we landed in this house. After only two weeks here in Switzerland, we were just going to furnish the house, Albus turned up bringing Hermione, Ron and Ginny Weasley and informing us that after a Death Eater attack on both their families he thought it was best to hide them here also. He asked Sirius and I to take over their fifth year tutoring. Ginny is a year younger, so we had to bring her up to speed in a short time, so she could follow the fifth year syllabus, which she managed admiringly. Hermione had a lot to do with helping her. She practically taught her friend all the Transfigurations, Charms and Potions material. I worked her through Defence. By the time school started in September we had the house done with a lovely classroom in the middle part, but had received seven students more, all fifth years, from all four houses. The back of the house, which contained the stables was remodelled to bedrooms on three floors. A gallery above the classroom contains the entire Hogwarts library and one floor up is a large common room. After three months two more students joined us, bringing the class to thirteen."

"We had a super great time with Padfoot and Moony as our teachers. We all loved them to bits and were rewarded with tons of OWLs at the end of fifth year. We were still in danger, so we all remained here. But we were allowed to invite our parents for a while during summer and went for lots of outings, hikes, short trips," Hermione says and her eyes gleam.

"And I fell in love with my bookworm," Harry says with a grin, "Hermione's been the class genius. She's been top of the year every year and she's beaten even Voldemort's record with twelve outstanding OWLs. And of course she's made twelve perfect NEWTs as well."

"Wow! Well done!" James compliments.

"Thank you. He's exaggerating as usual. But it's true, we got together so easily. And then in November of our fifth year Wormtail turned up. We were able to catch him and have him brought to the Ministry, where they questioned him and tried him in January. Siri was finally free!"

James and I look over to Sirius. That's why he looks so at ease now. He smiles and looks at Harry and Hermione with so much love in his eyes I want to kiss him! Harry follows my glance and says:

"Mum, Dad, I just want you to know that Siri has been like my real father for me. I love him as much as I love you both and I can safely say the same goes for Remus. They've made us a real home here and once I lived here for a few weeks I knew I'd never known what a home was before."

"I'm very glad about that, Harry. We wanted you to love them as much as you love us! So many times Remus and Sirius turned up at Godric's Hollow and threw Lily and I out just to be able to baby-sit you! Some people called us bad parents for going out so often, but you had the greatest of time with the two of them. Proof was that much to my dismay your first word was Moony," James tells Harry.

He smiles and nods.

"Sirius told me about that."

"What did you mean, Voldemort WAS back, Hermione?" I ask.

"He tracked down Severus one and a half years ago. Someone had given away the secret that Severus was spying for the Order and he had to flee. Only they blocked his way back to Hogwarts, so he came here. He didn't know he could be tracked down through his Dark Mark, but the next morning, shortly after Albus had arrived, Voldemort turned up with his cronies. A dozen or so of them. By then we already had Wormtail, Malfoy and an Auror had killed Bellatrix. He couldn't get through our wards. Albus allowed Harry to have one shot at him, they had the Invisibility Cloak and Albus can make himself invisible, so they got close to the Death Eaters, took several of them down and finally had a go at Voldemort together. Killed him. Albus managed to kill the spirit. So he's gone for good now," Sirius says coolly.

"Phew! And the rest of the Death Eaters?"

"The Ministry has been cleansed quite thoroughly. There's a rumour that Fudge finally retires. Probably before someone actually gets up and makes him..."

All of a sudden there's an interruption. From somewhere I hear something like a faint little cry. Sirius is up in a moment and says:

"Just a moment, I'll be right back."

I'm puzzled. It sounded almost like a.... baby? I look at Remus. He starts to grin. Then James asks:

"What was that? If I didn't know the two of you are gay I'd say that was a baby! Are you baby-sitting?"

Remus laughs.

"Oh, we're baby-sitting alright. But what you just heard was either little Dennis Black or little Seraina Lupin."

"What?" I can't but ask, totally baffled.

"Sirius and I made a 'rash' decision last year and four months ago, on the 25th April, our twins were born. A young witch carried them to term for us. Sirius has a son, I have a daughter."

"Oh, this is sweet, Remus! May I see them?" I ask.

"Yes, why not? - Then it's time to go to bed anyway. How do you two rest?"

"No idea!" James says and grins, "it's still so new to us, you know!"

"Okay, so I suggest you might take one of the rooms in the back of the house, there's enough free space. I'll show you there after you've seen the twins."

"Thanks."

We follow Remus up a staircase and then into a room, which looks like a nursery. It has a door to the bedroom. Sirius holds a baby on his arm and gently rocks it. He smiles when he sees the two of us.

"Come in," he whispers.

Then he holds the baby up and says:

"It's Seraina. She starts teething. That's why I was in bed already, I'm the one who has this nightshift. She wakes up so often, and we have to be quick or she wakes Dennis. It's easier to just soothe one baby back to sleep than having two crying."

"Oh, she's so cute! Remus! She does come after you!"

"Very much. After the insemination we used a spell to overrule the mother's traits and give them mostly ours. Bit on the edge of legality, but we wanted to have them like us, not a stranger. It also helps to keep the privacy of the surrogate mother."

I don't dare to ask to take her. Even though I could hug Harry, I wouldn't want to drop this little one, but oh, how I long to take her from Sirius' arms. She's sleeping again and she's just so cute. He nods for the second crib in the room, which holds his son. He's only lightly covered with a baby blanket, as it's warm in the room. That's a carbon copy of our Padfoot. Little Dennis looks unperturbed in his sleep by the commotion. James is equally moved and pleased to see the two children. He looks over to Remus and Sirius and whispers:

"You don't even have an idea how seeing these babies makes me happy! We'll all leave a legacy now! I hope you have as much fun with them as I've had with Harry, for what little time I had with my son."

Remus hugs James.

"Thanks, James. You'll see a lot of Harry in the years to come and even though you're ghosts now, it will be great to have you around and to share laughter and a few tears with you again!"

And then it's really time to go to sleep. We don't want to steal any of their time to rest, they need it with the twins. Remus shows us a room, prepares it and says:

"This is our guest room. However you rest - it's yours to use when you need it."

"Thanks, Remus. That's just fine!" I say.

"Thanks, Moony! I'm sure we'll be perfectly fine in here. We need to find out a lot about that funny state of ours now."

"You'll do well, Prongs. It's so good to have you back! This is one of the happiest days in our lives after the birth of the twins and Harry's and Hermione's wedding three weeks ago."

"We want to see photos and hear more stories tomorrow!" James reminds Remus.

Remus smiles.

"We have tons! At least from the last three years. You'll enjoy them, because we've had happy times. Oh, and don't be astonished if it should get a bit crowded here, some of our students have decided to stay here until they find something of their own, a job or are out of their further studies. They apparate a lot!"

"Great! That sounds fun!"

Once we're lying down I don't remember anything until the next day, which is filled with more stories and lots of photos. We get to meet the other inhabitants of the house. And I find out that I can lift the babies. I just had to pick them from the cradle so nothing would happen if I couldn't have done it.