Chapter 1
“Ron! ‘Mione!” Harry ended up shouting out to the boat as it came in.
“Harry!” They shouted back in unison, scrambling to get out after not seeing each other for a little bit over a year. However, Hermione quickly runs back to the boat to grab their suitcases.
“Mate, honestly you don’t know how long I've been waiting to see you and this place. It’s hard to believe we’ve never been to visit with how much you’ve told us” Ron starts rattling off about how he wants to see the entire island.
“Well, we'll make it happen but I believe there’s a reopening first to sort out”, the rough voice of James Potter comes from behind his son, reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder.
“Now, Harry help them sort their things out while I have a little reunion”
James starts to make his way to three men, two of whom start sprinting towards James the moment they see him.
“PRONGS!” Sirius screams while jumping onto him, wrapping his legs around James’s waist while Peter hugs him from behind, attempting to pick the other two up. However, he does not achieve this and they all collapse by the time Remus walks over with all of their things.
“We saw each other two weeks ago guys” Remus reminds them.
“Yeah but like, that was on the mainland, and it was for only two hours,” Peter explains like it is obvious
“And it was in a coffee shop. Do you think I can do this in a coffee shop Moons? No, I cannot” Sirius chimes in.
“Get off me you wankers, I can’t breathe while you explain how much you love me,” James says from underneath Peter and Sirius.
Remus pushes past them and holds a hand to James who takes it, to pull Moony into a crushing hug where they are quickly joined by the other two.
They stand like that for a while before Harry comes rushing through to hug each of his uncles and the group eventually piles into James’s old pickup with Remus sitting in the passenger and everyone else climbing into the back. Without fail, Sirius gets up as James starts driving, arms out, screaming out lines from the Titanic, with Harry there trying to drag him back down.
“For god's sake Mary, I don’t know what he could want, but I miss who used to be one of my closest friends and if he wants to be friends after all this time then so be it.” Lily goes off to her wife, while she is lugging their suitcases towards the community bus.
“Lils I know, you don’t think I miss him too? The whole gang? I’m just saying to be wary, you don’t know what he wants. The stress of all thi-”
“Yes, I know, I know. It was dangerous to come here in the first place, and it could be stressful for the baby. I shouldn’t have brought you here pregnant but I had to know. Thank you for coming”
“I would’ve come along anyway. You know I'll always support you, no matter what.”
“I know, thank you, I love you”
“I love you too, now let's go find James Potter”
“Listen, Evan, this will all go smoothly on the fact that I’m supposedly a distant cousin.”
“Reg, what if they recognise you?”
“Why wouldn’t they recognise him?” Came a much younger voice, with platinum hair hidden under a cap
“DRACO! What the actual fuck are you doing here, and I know full well that your mother did not approve it. What lie have you told her and how did you find out about this?” Regulus starts scolding Draco while grabbing their bags, gesturing for his nephew to do the same.
“Staying with Blaise for two weeks and Barty taped it on your fridge when I was over last”
“Curse him and his fucking ADHD” Evan had started holding up his phone to call Barty
“There’s no signal Ev, there’s a payphone in the town.” Regulus has started to carry their bags towards their bus.
“How do you know that? Also, why are we here?” Draco is beginning to question what his mother's cousin is doing on a remote Greek island.
“Kid, we’ll explain it all later but is anyone else here with you?” Evan turns around to face Draco, looking down with a hard stare.
“No. No, I didn’t tell anyone I promise. I was just worried you were going to leave again but I didn’t want to worry anyone if I was wrong” Draco twists his body to look past Evan to where Regulus is standing, who is looking at the island in wonder.
“Harry.” Hermione stops with her bags, Ron panting behind them.
“Yes, Hermione?” Harry turns around to look at her, a grin on his face.
“What have you done?” His smile grows even wider
“Whatever do you mean, my dearest, most amazing bestest friend Hermione?”
“Mate, you have that - that look on your face when you’ve done something fucking stupid and it ends up turning to shit” Ron cut in, finally catching up. That wipes the grin off Harry’s face. He turns around and continues winding his way through the hotel.
“It wasn’t stupid this time, it's important” He finds their room and shows it to them. Ron chucks his bag down and Hermione picks it up to both of their bags in the closet before shooting him a look.
“Okay so maybe it was a little bit stupid, but it’s one of the rare situations where anything I do about it would be considered stupid.” He gestures to follow them back to the main house.
“Have we considered not doing anything about it? Maybe sometimes leaving it is the best thing?” Ron said while trying to keep up with Harry who was practically jogging back towards the house.
“Depends what it's about. Harry what the fuck is this about?” Hermione is running every few seconds to keep up with him, as they finally reach the house that’s slowly falling apart. As they go through the corridor, they finally get to Harry’s room where he doesn’t say anything. He starts rummaging through a box that he’s hidden under the bed. Harry pulls out a plain hardcover diary with the words scrawled ‘Summer of 1997’.
“Harry, you weren’t even born in 1997, this isn’t yours” Ron immediately points out, while Hermione has connected the dots and slaps her forehead.
“God, please tell me, you didn’t steal your dad’s diary”
“Ok, I won’t”
“Really Harry? That’s not right!”
“I mean, if my mum had a diary, I’d probably snoop through it”
“And if your hypothetical kid snooped through yours”
“Fair point, it's why I don't have one”
“Guys, you don’t even know why”
“Ok you’re right, why?”
“I’ll tell you once we get down to the beach, I don’t want Dad to find out. “
Hermione glares at him before trudging off while Ron starts to look at the diary with curiosity. They run down through the bushes, taking a path that ends up putting twigs in all their hair.
“Now Harry, tell me why you invaded your Dad’s privacy and looked through his stuff then stole his diary from before you were even born.” She looks at him, more curious now than ever while tying her curly hair up into a bun. Harry takes a deep breath before looking around and opening the diary.
“I found my mum”
“So what are we getting started on, boss?” Peter looks towards James, wanting to help with the re-opening of the hotel.
“Uh-uh-uh. Prongsie here has bags the size of Jupiter. If there’s anything we’re helping him with, it’s how to relax” Sirius hunts through his bags before finding what he was looking for. They all peer at him curiously before he pulls out three bottles, of champagne, white wine and a whiskey.
“Champagne for me and Prongs, Wormy I finally found your weird wine Wishlist, whiskey for Moons”
“Sirius Lupin, I could fucking kiss you”
“Save it for your cookbook fans, speaking of which, did I see something on your Instagram about a proposal?” Remus replies before Sirius can. They all look to Peter.
“Oh! Molly was lovely, I think it was a joke because her husband was standing next to her with their kids. It’s not that big of a deal, I've gotten three before”
“Wormtail, you are just terrible, leaving those poor people at the altar”
“What about James? I bet you’ve rejected nearly everyone on this island” James shoots a glare towards Peter before taking a sip of his drink
“Not that many people have asked me out, and I did go on a date once, may I remind you.”
“Yeah, then you ran out 5 minutes because he ‘was far too young’. He was our age.”
“He made three pop culture references! In those 5 minutes,” James tried to defend himself before they burst out laughing.
“And did you get any of them?” Remus asks
“One.”
“And did you get it because Harry showed it to you after?”
“He showed me before.”
“See this is what I mean Prongs, you’ve got to relax, put yourself out there. Your thirty-four and you haven’t dated anyone since you got Harry”
“I don’t need anyone alright, I need to fix this place up. Speaking of which, there’s a crack in the court-“ James goes to stand up before they all take a hand to push him back down.
“The crack in the courtyard will wait, have some champagne and fucking take a breath James” Remus looks at him expectantly before James takes another sip.
“Maybe.”
“We have to find him Mary, god I've got to sort this out”
“Lily, my love, we will find James, just wait for me please”
They walk up to an eccentric man in a bar and Lily holds up an old photo of James,
“Have you seen this man, he invited us t-“ she starts but gets cut off by the odd man.
“Oh yes! James the Heartthrob! Oh, finally he has friends who are women! Anytime I see him, he is working or with his son. Or those friends of his. You must go up the hill, towards the east. You will find his hotel, he will be there somewhere, working always working” The man starts to go on about how James has rejected half the island and seduced the other with his good looks. Mary looks ready to cry or laugh and Lily doesn’t know which, possibly both.
“Ok thank you, Mr- “
“Lazaros, please”
“Thank you Lazaros”
They leave the bar and promptly burst into laughter, Mary grabbing the wall to steady herself.
“James the Hearthrob!”
“He was easy on the eyes, but the whole island?”
“And he has a son apparently?”
“I knew about that one, Harry I think his name is.” Lily averts her eyes and starts walking up towards the stairs that could possibly resemble Hell.
“Really? Huh, I wonder when that one happened”
‘He’d be 18 in two days’ Lily thinks to herself.
“Same, we’ll have to ask.” She replies instead.
It seems as if the stairs go on for hours, and eventually the couple stops talking, focusing on moving upwards. When they finally get to the top, they both sit down just to breathe. When Lily looks up, she sees a boy with dark skin, round black-rimmed glasses, and the second most unruly hair she’s ever seen. Then suddenly next to her comes up a man who goes still once he sees Harry.
“ James” He breathes out
“Sorry, what?” Harry looks between them confused.
“You look like James, is what I said. Almost the spitting image of him.”
“Except for eyes,” Lily adds in.
“Sorry I hate to ask, but who are you guys?” He looks in between them, something with hope towards Lily.
“Lily Evans”
“Regulus Black”