Lily and James potter
Chapter 14: Lily and James potter
Harry dreams...
He’sstanding in the living room of a cottage watching a man with round glasses and dark curls rock a child back and forth speaking to him with a smile. “Hey Haz, are you exited? We're going to have a game night with your uncle wormy, in honour of Halloween. You know I bet he’ll bring sweets, I’ll let you have some, but don’t tell your mama, okay?” The man said and booped the little child on the nose.
The baby who looked to be about one year old, made a gurgling noise in response then said, “ma-ma-ma!” The man looked at the child with adoration, “That’s right Haz, don’t tell mama.”
“Don’t tell mama, what?” A woman with long red hair and green eyes, walks into the room holding a large bowl of popcorn, she places the bowl down on the coffee table and puts her hands on her hips, regarding the man with a stern look.
“Oh, nothing love. I was just speaking to Haz about important father son things.” The man says innocently, looking at the red-haired woman with what can only be described as doe eyes.
“Yes, I’m sure that’s exactly what you were doing, and definitely not plotting to get a one-year-old hopped up on sugar.” She says sarcastically, but she has a fond smile forming on her face, and her eyes shine playfully.
“Your right my love, my flower, my dearest darling wife, I would never do such a despicable thing.” He says grinning lopsidedly at the woman. Then he looks down at the baby, “right Haz? Your papa would never do such a terrible thing.” The baby giggles and reaches up to the man’s face with grabbing little hands.
“Ahh! Lily, he’s always trying to rip my glasses off.” The man complains, but the grin is still on his face.
“He probably likes them because they’re shiny.” The woman says with a laugh.
The man leans down to kiss the baby on the forehead, “I love you, Haz, but your papa also loves being able to see clearly. So, if you wouldn’t mind stopping, that would be great. If it’s not too much trouble of course.” The man says with a chuckle.
“Pa-pa eyes!” The baby waves it’s hands around wildly. “Want, eyes!”
The woman shakes her head in amusement and walks up to the man to look at the infant in his arms. “Papa needs his eyes, honey.”
The man sighs and looks down at them with love in his eyes. "I'm the luckiest man on earth, With the most beautiful amazing talented powerful wife, and the most brilliant spectacle grabbing child ever known to humankind.” He declares loudly. Then he pulls the woman closer and kisses her softly on the lips.
He pulls away with a smile that may actually be able to out shine the sun. “You are the soppiest man on the planet.” The woman says fondly, then she goes up on her tiptoes and kisses him again.
Suddenly there’s a knock at the door, the curly haired man and the green-eyed woman look at each other, all of the happiness gone from the faces replaced by fear.
The room seems to darken, the air stills, the silence is deafening.
“Peter doesn’t knock.” The man says, his voice splitting the silence. There’s another knock this time it’s louder and more insistent.
The man hands the baby to the woman, “Take Harry and go, I’ll hold them of!” He says quickly, fear leeches into his words. Then he looks down at the baby, “I love you Haz, so so much.” A tear trickles down the man’s cheek. “Goodbye Lily, I love you.”
The woman stares at the man clutching the baby close to her chest, her eyes shining with tears. “Goodbye James, I love you too.” Then she turns and runs up the stairs.
The man turns to face the door, he is unarmed, and yet he still stands strong, looking ready to fight with every ounce of life in him. Tears trail down his cheeks, but he doesn’t make a sound. The door is blown open, a tall pale man stands in the doorway, an insane grin on his face.
Before the man can even say a word, a wand is pointed at his face and green light fills the room as the previously bright smiling man, crumples to the floor lifeless.
The pale man steps over the body and walks up the stairs....
~~~
Harry gasps awake, trembling all over, laying tangled in the sheets of his four-poster bed. There’s blood trickling down his face, and his heart is racing.
His dad. That was his dad. He said he loved him. He called him Haz.
His dad clearly adored Lily, the way he looked at her like she was the most precious person in the universe.
He saw his dad die, James Potters body crumpling to the floor plays on repeat in his mind.
He reaches for his glasses so he can get out of bed and clean of the blood of his face. But then he remembers these are his dad’s glasses, he was trying to grab them off his dad in the dream… and now…now Harry is holding the glasses, and he would give anything to be able to put them back on his dad’s smiling face.
He gasps back a sob. “Star?” Selena hisses worriedly.
But Harry can’t reply, the panic is rising in his chest. Not now, please not now. He thinks desperately as it starts to feel like the world is closing in on him. He can’t breathe. It’s too much. He’s suffocating. He distantly hears Selena say, “I will find the fox keeper.” And feels her slither off the bed. His heart is racing so fast it feels like it’s going to burst, he’s shaking all over, and his face is wet with blood and tears. He tries to calm down, but he finds he can’t.
Then he feels a heavyweight settle over his legs, he reaches out and feels soft fur. Then he sees the blurry form of Blaise standing in the dim morning light in the opening of his bed hangings the other boy climbs onto Harry’s bed and sits next to him.
“Harry is it ok if I touch your hand?” He asks in a calm voice.
Harry nods. Blaise slowly reaches for his hand and places, it on his chest. “Do you know where we are?” He asks softly. Harry nods shakily, unable to speak. “Do you know who I am?” Harry nods again. “Focus on the feeling of my heart beating, and the feeling of Freya laid on your legs.” He says steadily. Harry does what he says, he can feel Blaise’s steady heartbeat under his palm and the comforting weight of Freya on his legs. “Take a deep breath, Same time as I do, follow my breathing.” Blaise instructs.
He takes a few stuttering breathes, and feels the panic slowly creeping away. “I’m alive, you can feel me breathing, and so are you.” Blaise says softly.
The panic melts away, his heart rate slows down and he can breathe normally again. He’s still shaking all over and his face is still wet with tears and blood, but the extreme panic has left. He looks at Blaise shame flooding his mind, “Sorry for…that, I just…had a nightmare.” He stutters out pathetically.
Blaise waves away his apology. “I told you, I get them too sometimes, don’t apologise for things you can’t control.” He says still holding Harry’s hand close to his chest. “And I... understand, why your ashamed of your emotions. My…mother, she…she doesn’t like it when cry.” The other boy says stiltedly, looking down at the sheets and avoiding Harry's eyes.
“My uncle… he’s the same.” Harry whispers. Thinking of all the times he’s been violently punished for the crime of shedding tears. “Do you ever… are you ever scared that one day they’ll take it too far, and… we won’t survive it?” He asks so quietly that he isn’t sure Blaise heard him.
“Yes… sometimes I don’t even know how I’ve made it this long.” He admits quietly. He looks so young, face etched with quite fear, Harry has never seen fear on Blaise’s face before.
They’ve been at Hogwarts for two weeks now, and in that time, Blaise has become comfortable around Luna, Hermione, and the twins. He hardly ever retreats behind a blank mask with them. He’s confident and sarcastic around them. He’s most comfortable around Harry, they have a silent understanding. They both understand each other on a level the others wouldn’t get, they both know what it’s like to grow up surviving.
“Yeah, I… I don’t really know how I made it this long either.” He looks up and meets the other boys' amber eyes. Blaise clutches Harry’s hand and they both dissolve into hysterical laughter.
“Oh Merlin, how am I not dead!” Blaise gasps.
“I have no idea! We should be dead!” Harry giggles.
“For Merlin’s sake! What are you two giggling about, it’s 5am!” Fred groans loudly from his bed.
“N-n-nothing.” Harry manages to stutter out in between his laughs.
He stops his laughter, clutches Blaise’s shoulders, and stares at the other boy's face, his smooth dark skin and amber eyes, “This isn’t funny.”
Blaise stops laughing, and stares at Harry seriously, and says, “No, it isn’t.”
Then they start giggling again.
~~~
It takes them ten minutes to stop laughing, and multiple pillows thrown by Fred and George. Harry and Blaise decide they might as well get ready and go down to the common room, because there is no chance, they will fall asleep again.
Now they are sitting on the green sofas in front of the common room fireplace, which is lit and burning merrily, the room is empty because it’s 5:30am on a Sunday. Fred and George went back to sleep, so it’s just Harry and Blaise. They are both staring at the crackling fire in silence, Freya is laying across Blaise’s lap, Solace is asleep on Harry’s head and Selena is laying on the hearth hissing happily about being warm.
“We are severely damaged.” Blaise states suddenly.
“Yeah, did you only just realise it.” Harry replies with a huff of amusement.
“It’s nice having someone who understands.” He says quietly.
“Yeah, it’s cool. I don’t think I could really speak to the others about this stuff. Luna knows a little bit about my family but not enough to really know how bad it is.” Harry tells him with a sigh.
“My mother didn’t allow me to have friends. Being with you, Luna, Hermione and the twins… it’s like I’m in a dream, I… I feel safe with all of you. It’s the first time I’ve been around people who I don’t fear.” He says as he traces patterns in his fox’s fur.
“Yeah, me too, I didn’t have any friends before Luna, it’s strange trusting people, I still feel like someone is gonna rip the rug from under my feet and send me tumbling back to reality.” He admits.
“Yes. I hope that feeling goes away.”
“Yeah, I hope so too.”
Blaise takes a deep breath, and strokes Freya’s head gently. “What was your nightmare about?”
“My parents.” Harry replies dejectedly.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Blaise asks.
He looks down at his hands, finding it easier to speak when he’s not looking at his friend. “It’s the second time I’ve had a dream like this, the first time, it was a dream or a memory? Of how my mum died and how I got this.” He taps his scar. “This time I saw how my dad died.”
“How is it possible that you remember that?” Blaise shakes his head in disbelief.
“I don’t know.” Harry shrugs.
“Was their anything else in the dream?”
“I saw that… we were a family. That my parents loved each other, and they loved me.” He tilts his head back against the sofa and stares at the ceiling. “I could have had that Blaise. I could have had a family that loved me.” He feels a tear trickle down his cheek but can’t bring himself to care. It’s not like Blaise hasn’t seen him cry. The other boy doesn’t say anything.
“My relatives told me nothing about my parents. All I know is their names and how they look, I know that they were brave, after what I saw in the dreams.” He takes a shaking breathe, “I want to know about my parents, what they were like, about their friends and jobs, I want to know about my grandparents and the family I could have had.” He says Turning his head to look at Blaise.
“You said Hermione offered to help you find out more about them. We don’t have classes today, so let’s go find Hermione and search for information about your mother and father.” Blaise suggests.
He'd almost forgotten about Hermione’s offer; he brightens slightly at the idea. Drops of hope trickling through the sadness. “Yeah, sure. Let’s…let’s do that.”
“We should go now. There is no point waiting around, it’s almost 6am now. Hermione might be awake.” He says, nudging Freya of his lap, and standing up.
Harry stands up off the sofa too and stretches sleepily. “Selena, are you coming with us?” He hissed at the snake who is still laying on the hearth. Blaise doesn’t bat an eye at Harry speaking parsel-tongue, now that all his roommates know about his abilities he has been speaking to Selena in the dorm. So, they all got used to it. He hasn’t told Hermione yet, but he will at some point.
“Yes Star, I will come. I am intrigued to know more about your mother, she was powerful to place such strong and ancient Blood magic on you.” Selena replies sleepily.
“Do you want me to pick you up?” He asks his familiar fondly.
Selena slithers of the hearth and stops in front of him, rearing up on her tail to look at him. “You will carry me. Do you have my warm metal?” She demands. The cuff with the everlasting heat charm, Selena calls it her warm metal.
“Yes, I do.” He says with a chuckle, and pulls back the sleeve of his green hoodie to show her the cuff.
“Good.” Selena declares. Harry scoops her up and she coils around his wrist under his sleeve.
Then Harry turns to Blaise who is watching him with his head slightly tilted to one side, and a curious look on his face. “We can go now.” Harry says.
Blaise nods and they start walking out the common room and head in the direction of Ravenclaw tower. “What were you speaking about to Selena?”
“I was just asking her if she wanted to come. And she wanted to know if I had her ‘warm metal’ aka the wrist cuff I bought for her with a warmth charm on it.” Harry tells Blaise with a huff of amusement.
“It must be nice speaking to your familiar, I wish I could speak to Freya.” Blaise sighs.
“It is nice, but also Selena is the devil incarnate. The stuff she says sometimes...” Harry shakes his head in exasperation. “She talks all the time about wanting to use her deadly venom to kill Malfoy, and she thinks she’s royalty or something, always demanding things.” Harry says fondly. “Also, in her past life I think she was a really big snake, like a basilisk or something. So now she thinks she’s invincible, even though she’s tiny.” He tells Blaise with a dramatic roll of his eyes.
Blaise snorts in amusement. “You spoil her, you know that right? No wonder she thinks she’s royalty.”
“Pfft, I do not spoil her. She just… she demands things and I can’t tell her no, she spent three years locked in a zoo for Christs sake!” He says defensively.
“She has you wrapped around her tail.” Blaise smirks.
Harry huffs dramatically. “Selena, Blaise thinks you control me.” He complains in whiny hiss.
“You do what I say. Is that not control?” Selena asks quizzically.
“Jesus Christ! Selena, don’t side with Blaise.” He exclaims.
He looks back at the other boy. “She says she doesn’t control me.”
He raises an eyebrow and looks at Harry sceptically. “Yes, I’m sure that’s exactly what Selena said.”
Harry crosses his arms and rolls his eyes at Blaise, just as they arrive at Ravenclaw tower.
“One sec, I’ll call Luna on the mirror.” He tells Blaise, as he opens the locket that hangs on a long chain around his neck. He holds the mirror in front of him, and waits for a moment until Luna’s face appears in the reflection. She’s wearing pink shimmery lip gloss and silver sparkles on her eye lids, and she’s smiling at him. “Hello Harry.” She says in her typical floaty voice.
“Hi Luna, we were wondering if Hermione is with you? Me and Blaise are outside the Ravenclaw tower, I was hoping she would help me look for information about my parents.” He says hopefully.
“She’s asleep, but I’ll wake her up. Give us ten minutes and we’ll be down.” She tells them, and before He can say anything else, the reflection goes blank, and Luna is gone.
“Those lockets are amazing; do you think we could make more?” Blaise asks intrigued.
“I dunno.” Harry shrugs. “Luna’s mum made them, we could try. I guess it would be cool if we all had one. But I think it would be very complex charm work, it would take us a while to figure out.” He says thoughtfully.
Blaise hums in agreement. “I think we could do it, you and Hermione are the best at charms in our year group.”
“We can speak to the others about it. See what we can come up with, it would be a cool project.” He says.
The door that leads to the Ravenclaw common room opens, Luna comes out dressed in teal overalls that have little golden suns stitched into the fabric, she’s wearing her converses, but they’re teal to match her overalls, she must have used a colour changing charm on them to switch them from their usual pink.
She’s smiling brightly, at them and walks over to Harry and hugs him, he’s getting used to being hugged by Luna, it’s actually becoming quite comforting. Then she turns to Blaise, looks at him for a moment as if she’s evaluating his soul, and then slowly moves towards him and hugs him too. Harry notices how carefully she moves giving Blaise time to move away if he doesn’t want it. He wonders if Luna knows about Blaise’s home life, Luna always knows things about people before they tell her, some would say it’s creepy, but Harry just thinks it’s cool.
Blaise much like Harry the first time Luna hugged him, just stands there frozen, clearly having no clue what to do. Luna pulls away and smiles at Blaise softly, “Good morning to you both.”
“Morning Luna.” Harry smile back at her. Blaise is still standing frozen a shocked look on his face. He probably didn’t get much affection from his mother growing up, he hasn’t said much about his mother. He hasn’t told the others anything about his home life, but he has made quite a few dark jokes that the others don’t understand but Harry gets immediately, this morning was the most Blaise has ever said to Harry about what it's like for him at home.
Harry hasn’t told anyone about how bad his relatives are, Luna knows a little bit, and Snape knows the bare bones of it, not because Harry told him, Snape made his own assumptions and Harry just went along with it. He’s mentioned a few vague things to Blaise, but never goes into detail. Mostly he and Blaise just make jokes about it.
Blaise shakes himself out of his shock and says quietly. “Morning Luna.” Freya puts her front paws up on Blaise’s legs, and the boy strokes her head softly.
“Where’s Hermione?” Harry asks Luna.
“She should be here any second.” Luna says just as Hermione stumbles sleepily out of the door.
She’s wearing her hair tied up in a purple silk scarf, and wearing loose lilac trousers and a matching slightly cropped vest, along with a denim jacket and trainers. She also looks very grumpy. “You are lucky we’re friends, or I would boil your head in a cauldron for waking me up this early.” She grumbles.
Harry looks at her sheepishly, “Sorry Hermione. In my defence it was Blaise’s idea to wake you up this early.” He says pointing at Blaise.
“Thanks, Harry. I can always count on you to have my back.” He says sarcastically.
“No problem, Blaise. Anytime.” He deadpans.
Hermione frowns at both of them, then she points her wand at Harry and shoots a spell that feels like a bee sting when it hits his arm, she does the same to Blaise. “Jesus Christ, ow. That hurt, Hermione!” Harry whines.
“Hermione smiles at them sweetly. “I was practising that spell to use on Malfoy next time he tries to curse Luna.” Since Luna scolded Malfoy at the Slytherin table he’s been trying to catch her by surprise and get pay back. But they’ve all been defending her, and Luna has a special knack for transfiguring ears into turnips, (she’s sent Malfoy running to Madame Pomfrey the school nurse, on more than one occasion in the past two weeks.) “But you two dragged me out of bed at 6am on a Sunday . So, I’d say you deserved it just as much.” She says with a smile still fixed on her face.
“I don’t know why I thought you were a morning person.” Blaise huffs. “My deepest and most sincere apologies.” He adds grumpily.
“I’m sorry Hermione, it won’t happen again.” Harry says sincerely, looking at her with puppy dog eyes.
“It better not. I didn’t even have time to do my hair, do you know how long it takes me to sort these curls out?” She says.
“How do you get your hair to look so good? I keep trying to get my hair to stop being so messy and frizzy, but I don’t know how.” He asks curiously. He’s been wondering how Hermione gets her curls to look so beautiful.
Hermione blinks in surprise, “I thought you wear your hair like that by choice.” She says surprised.
Harry feels his cheeks heat up a bit in embarrassment. “No, I just… I don’t know how to do them differently.” He mumbles. Feeling stupid that he is incapable of doing such a basic thing.
“Didn’t your aunt and uncle ever show you?” She questions.
Luna and Blaise are watching him with concern, they know he finds it difficult to say anything about the Dursleys. “They don’t… they don’t have hair like me.” He tells her slowly.
Hermione looks at him for a moment, and then a determined look settles onto her face. “Let’s do the research about you parents now, and later I will come to your dorm and show you how to care for your hair.” She says firmly.
Harry tries to find words that will tell Hermione how extremely grateful he is for her, but his mouth feels sewn shut, so he simply nods.
“Shall we start in the library?” Blaise asks.
Hermione tears her eyes away from Harry, “Yes. We can look through old yearbooks and school records. After that we can go and speak to McGonagall.”
“Good idea Hermione.” Luna smiles.
Harry nods in agreement, and they all head off to the library. In the past two weeks they have become a sort of… friend group? Harry thinks so anyway. They’ve been studying together in the library and eating together at meal times, slowly getting to know each other. Harry thinks they all work quite well together, on the first day he met Hermione Harry thought she seemed shy. But now he knows her better…
Hermione is super intelligent, she is the best in almost every class, and she says exactly what she’s thinking, she has a sharp tongue and can be quite devious when she wants to be. She’s the one who has shot the most spells at Malfoy in defence of Luna, but she hasn’t once been caught for it.
George, is the best at transfiguration, anything McGonagall teaches, he gets almost instantly. He’s level headed, and logical, he enjoys academics, and has a soft spot for animals, though he also has thirst for mischief just as much as his twin.
Fred, is brilliant at potions, he does not enjoy studying, and sometimes is as bold as a Gryffindor. But also extremely cunning, he’s brilliant at chess, and will take any opportunity to cause chaos.
Blaise is fairly quite around most people he keeps his face blank in public, and doesn’t speak unless spoken to. But when he’s alone with them, he’s sarcastic and quick witted, very dark humour, and loves to watch chaos unfold. He also excels in all of his classes.
Luna most of the time is very aloof, she lets insults bounce off her, she gives affection freely, and knows things before people tell her, but if anyone insults someone she’s claimed as a friend, she will quite literally destroy them, usually in one sentence. (Malfoy and various Gryffindors have been the victim of this on multiple occasions) she’s also managed to get the majority of Slytherin to like her.
Harry trusts them, he feels safe with them. It feels like what he has always imagined family would be like. He cares about them all and wants to protect them, he doesn’t know what he would do if any of them went away. Luna especially, he has never in his life trusted someone as much as he trusts Luna.
He’s been enjoying his classes, potions and charms are his favourite subjects. But he’s good at any subject really. He really enjoys studying and researching things, and they had a flying lesson last week, which was brilliant! He’s decided to buy a broom over the summer and try out for the quidditch team next year.
Malfoy has become a nuisance, he is a self-centred prat who is being horrible to the twins, and downright bullying Luna. He’s also made horrible comments about Hermione just because she’s a muggle born, and he’s always insulting Harry about his choice of friends. But they’ve been retaliating so it’s not too bad.
He snaps out of his thoughts as they arrive at the library. Hermione leads them over to the table that has quickly become their favourite, it’s in the back of the library so they don’t get stared at by what Fred calls “Harry’s fans” and right near a big window so they can look out over the grounds. The small group of eleven-year-olds take seats around the table, and Hermione tells them her plan. “Okay, so we are going to go through the yearbooks and any records from around the time Harry’s parents were at school. Blaise you come with me to find them. Luna and Harry, you wait here.” She orders.
They all nod in agreement, and Hermione and Blaise disappear into the shelves of books. Luna is sitting across the table from him, she reaches out a hand and Harry takes it. “You’ve been quiet since Hermione offered to teach you how to do your hair.” She states softly.
Harry sighs, she squeezes his hand in support, urging him to speak. “My aunt hates my hair. She tried to shave it off a few times, but I just grew it back with accidental magic. She’s always told me it was hideous, a rat's nest, ‘not normal’ and I think… part of me has always believed her. I’ve always hated how my hair looked, because of her.” He takes a deep breath and looks down at their joint hands. “But then I saw a picture of my dad's hair, it’s the same as mine. But he clearly knew how to look after it, how to maintain his curls and I thought… I thought it looked beautiful. I’ve tried a few times since then to make it less-” he gestures to his messy hair “-like this, but I couldn’t do it, I just made it look worse.” He sighs, swallowing down the shameful urge to cry. “It just… it meant a lot that Hermione offered to help me. I don’t know how to tell her how grateful I am.” He admits his voice cracking.
“Harry look at me.” Luna says softly. He looks up at her, her face is calm but her blue eyes are full of a quite sort of anger. “Hermione doesn’t need your words to know that you’re grateful. I could see it on your face when she offered, and I’m sure that she could too.” Luna says with her usual floaty voice, but there’s a fierce edge to her words. “If I ever meet your aunt, things will not go very well for her.” She adds pleasantly.
Harry squeezes her hand tightly, silent thanks for always knowing what to say to make him feel better. And the huffs out a small laugh, “She would be terrified of you. I’m not even joking.” He tells her. Knowing if petunia saw angry Luna with a wand, she would run in the other direction.
“Oh, I do hope I get the chance to meet her.” Luna says with a sweet smile on her face. Harry smiles at his best friend, but he quietly hopes that, that will never happen. He does not want Luna or any of his friends to ever meet a Dursley.
Hermione and Blaise approach the table, both holding a small stack of books and papers. “Let’s start looking.” Hermione declares.
They search through the year books until Hermione finds something. “Oh, Harry, you look so much like him.” She whispers, and turns the year book she was looking through, towards Harry. It’s a group picture with names listed on either side: Mary Macdonald, Marlene McKinnon, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, James Potter, and Lily Evans. (Graduating Gryffindor class of 1978)
The people in the photo are all huddled together, laughing and smiling brightly, wearing school robes and red and gold Gryffindor ties. The two people that stand out most to Harry are his parents, they are at the centre of the picture, and instead of looking at the camera they’re looking at each other.
“They were both Gryffindors.” He says quietly, he blinks harshly to keep his tears from falling.
“They’re so young in this photo, they must be about nineteen. You look so much like them.” Hermione says softly.
Blaise leans over the table to look at the photo, “Merlin, your mother’s eyes are identical to yours.” Blaise says reverently.
Luna peers at the photo over Harry’s shoulder, “They were beautiful.” She whispers. Then she looks at Harry and reaches a hand to his face and wipes a tear of his cheek.
“Yeah, they were.” Harry breathes out.
“And look at the next page it has awards, given to students that year.” Hermione says.
Harry flips to the next page and runs his finger down the list until he finds their names, and reads aloud. “Academic excellence charms award. Awarded to Lily Evans for highest charms exams scores since 1961. Hogwarts quidditch cup of 1978, awarded to Gryffindor team, led to victory by captain James Potter.”
“Your mum had the best charms scores in two decades. No wonder that’s one of your best subjects.” Hermione says in awe.
“Your Dad was quidditch captain, that explains why you were so good in flying class even though you have never been on a broom before.” Blaise says thoughtfully.
“Yeah, I guess… I guess so?” Harry doesn’t know how to process any of this, his parents were Gryffindors, his mother was a charms prodigy? His father was quidditch captain? He can’t process it right now so he chucks it to the back of his mind. “Let’s go speak to McGonagall, then we can go to breakfast.” He declares, and stands up from the table.
Luna stands up with him, not looking shocked by the abrupt change of subject. Blaise and Hermione look at him quizzically and then both get up and follow him as he leads them out the library and towards McGonagall's office.
~~~
They arrive at professor McGonagall's office, Harry stares blankly at the door. “Do you want us to come with you?” Hermione asks.
Harry shakes his head slightly. “Is it ok if you wait outside?” He asks cautiously, not wanting to offend them.
“Yes of course it is. We’ll wait.” Luna and Blaise nod in agreement. Harry looks at them gratefully, and then knock on the door.
McGonagall's stern voice replies, “Come in.”
Harry opens the door and steps inside the office. “Good morning, Mr Potter. What can I help you with?” The professor asks curtly, from where she sits behind her desk marking papers.
“Morning professor, I was hoping… you could tell me about my parents. You taught them when they were in school, right?” Harry asks nervously.
Professor McGonagall frowns in surprise. “Have a seat Mr Potter.” She gestures to the chair opposite her. Harry sits down, and avoids the professor's eye. “What would you like to know about them?”
“Anything you can tell me professor, only if it’s not too much trouble.”
“Has no one told you about them?” She asks in her usual stern tone, but Harry can see pity on her face. He hates when people pity him. It makes him feel small and pathetic.
“No professor.” He does his best to hide the cold edge to his voice.
The professor looks at him for a moment accessing him carefully, then she sighs and pushes the papers she was marking to one side. “Lily Evans was academically gifted; her best subjects were charms and potions.” Like me Harry thinks. “She was compassionate and always ready to help those who needed it. She could also be very stubborn and fierce at times. She was head girl in her seventh year. After she left Hogwarts, she went to saint Mungo's healing academy, she wanted to become a healer. The professor pauses for a moment a pained look crosses her face.
“James Potter, was confident and a complete rascal, for seven straight years him and his friend's caused chaos for the staff, with their cursed to Merlin pranks.” She tells him, a fond look on her face. “But he also had a big heart, a lot of the staff would say he had an ego the size of his head but a heart to match it tenfold. His best subject was transfiguration and he wanted to become a professional quidditch player, he was a truly exceptional chaser, the best Hogwarts had seen in years. They got married a year before you were born.”
Harry as usual cannot process any of that now, so he stores the information safely in the back of his mind. “What about my grandparents? Do you know anything about them?” He asks.
“Yes, I do… I went to school with James’s parents. Their names were Euphemia and Fleamont, but they went by Effie and Monty. They were some of the kindest people I knew, they were always taking in strays, and they loved James deeply. They got Married after they left Hogwarts, they only ever had one child, James.
I don’t know much about your mothers' parents… Mr and Mrs Evans were muggles, they had two children Lily’s older sister, and Lily herself. Lily was the only one in the family with magic.” McGonagall looks at him, her usually stern face looks sad and tired. “That’s all I can tell you Mr Potter, I don’t know any more than that. But you could try speaking to professor Snape, I know he and Lily were friends.”
Snape? Harry thinks in shock. Professor Snape was friends with his mother? And his grandparents were called Effie and Monty? Again, he pushes all the information to the back of his mind to process later, and stands from the chair. “Thank you, professor, I won’t bother you anymore.”
McGonagall nods. “If you have any more questions, I’ll answer them best I can. And Mr potter… you’re a lot like them.”
He doesn’t know what to say to that, so he simply nods and says, “Have a nice day professor.” And leaves the room. His friends are still waiting for him.
“Everything okay Harry?” Hermione asks. Luna takes his hand and squeezes it encouragingly.
Harry exhales shakily. “Yeah. I… I know more about them.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” Hermione asks.
“Yeah, I’ll tell you about them. Let’s walk to the great hall and I’ll tell you on the way.”
Maybe if he talks to someone about them, it will make his parents memory more... real. Maybe it won't hurt as much if someone else helps him carry the burden of grieving people that are nothing more than strangers.