An unfamiliar grey owl tapped the Potter's window a few times. A man with messy black hair and glasses opened the window to let the bird in. The owl dropped a letter inside the man's hand, and then flew away again.
'To Harry Potter,' the letter read. The man, who was in fact Harry Potter, opened it. It said:
'Hello Harry,
this might be a bit weird, since we only have met briefly once. I'm Mary MacDonald. When we met a few weeks ago, at the ministry of magic, I promised I would reach out to you. That's why I've sent this letter.
About a month ago, I found some old pictures from my time at Hogwarts. Originally, I was planning on looking through them with Remus, but that's sadly not an option, so I figured you might be interested.
If you want to, I'd like to invite you to my house soon, to share the pictures and their stories with you.
Greetings,
Mary MacDonald'
Harry quickly wrote a response, saying that he'd love to. His kids were at school and he didn't have a lot of work to do at the moment, so he had a lot of time to catch up with this old friend of his parents.
A few days later
Harry knocked on the door of Mary's house. He was pretty excited to hear some stories about his parents, since he had not known them very well.
After a few seconds, Mary opened the door. She looked almost the same as last time Harry saw her, apart from the lack of tears on her cheeks. "Hello Harry, come in," she said.
After a few minutes they were both sat on a comfortable couch in the living room, with some tea in front of them. Mary then picked up a bunch of pictures from a table next to her, and showed one of them to Harry. The picture showed two people, a red-haired girl and a boy with messy black hair, the same kind of hair Harry had. They were sat with their back to the camera, probably unaware of a picture being taken. Since it was a magical picture, Harry could see their mouths moving like they were talking.
"This was in seventh year," Mary told him. "I think Sirius took the picture. He was the only one that dared to do something like this while Lily and James were having a romantic moment." Harry chuckled at that, it definitely sounded like something his godfather would have done. Mary and Harry looked at the picture for another minute, before Mary put it away and picked up another one.
On this picture were a few more people. Harry didn't recognize some of them. Of course, Mary did.
"That's me," she said, pointing at a young girl on the left. The girl was quite pretty, with tan skin and dark hair, but unusual bright eyes. The woman sitting next to Harry had the same bright eyes of course, but they had lost their spark. Harry supposed it was because of her trauma and the war, and felt incredibly sorry for her.
Mary continued with describing the picture: "Here you have Lils and James of course." Harry had recognized his parents straight away. They were holding hands and smiling at each other and the camera. He found that they looked quite cute.
Next to James, Harry saw Sirius and Remus. Sirius had wrapped his arm around Remus' waist, while Remus threw an arm around his shoulder. They looked very happy.
The girls next to them, Harry recognized vaguely from a picture Moody had shown him, a long time ago. The taller girl pressed a kiss to the other girl's cheek. "What is it with all the couples?" Harry asked jokingly, causing Mary to chuckle. "That's Marlene," she said, pointing at the tall blond girl. Her hair was short and she wore a lot of earrings. She looked quite cool. The dark skinned girl next to her looked a little less rebellious than Marlene, but looked almost as cool, and certainly as pretty. "That's her girlfriend, Dorcas," Mary explained.
The last person in the picture was someone Harry wished not to be there. Mary sighed, clearly thinking the same. The chubby blond boy in the corner was Peter Pettigrew. If you looked at that boy, with a sweater on and candy in his hand, you wouldn't believe he would betray all the other people in the picture. But yet he did.
They moved on to the next picture. In this one there were two people, sleeping on a red sofa, probably in the common rooms. Harry was a little confused when he saw his mom cuddled up with Remus. He looked at Mary, who explained: "It was that time of the month, for both of them. Their boyfriends, James and Sirius had quidditch practice, so Lils en Remus had to comfort each other. I saw them and I couldn't resist taking a picture," she laughed.
"Were they close, my mom and Lupin?" Harry asked. Mary answered: "Oh yes, really close. In our first couple of years at Hogwarts me and my friends befriended Remus. Lily and him were especially very good friends. Although he was friends with the other boys as well, Remus agreed with us on the fact that they were acting quite spoiled or cocky sometimes. In fourth year, the boys matured a bit and we befriended them as well."
Mary smiled and grabbed another picture. Sirius and Marlene were in it, dancing ridiculously. Both Harry and Mary laughed. "In sixth year, both of them were big fans of ABBA. This was one of their weird shows, they were probably singing along to dancing queen or something," Mary said, looking like she could hear the music through the picture. Harry laughed once more. It looked so funny, Sirius and Marlene, both dressed in leather jackets and earrings, being obsessed with ABBA.
Mary poured Harry and herself another cup of tea. They looked at one more picture. It was taken on a muggle camera so it wasn't moving. In the picture were seven teenagers sitting by a campfire. In the background you could see four tents. Dorcas was playing on a guitar, with Marlene's head on her shoulder. Peter sat in the middle of the group, eating marshmallows. Lily and James were holding hands and blushing. Sirius had an arm around Remus, kissing him on the cheek. Mary was nowhere to be seen, Harry supposed she had taken the picture.
"The summer before seventh year we all went camping," Mary said. A tear rolled down her cheek at the happy memories. "It was the summer your parents got together, as you can see. It was a wonderful week. But all the couples were sharing tents, so I had to share with Pettigrew! That guy snored!" Harry laughed at this exclamation.
Sadly, Harry had to go home. He hugged Mary goodbye, while she told him he should visit again soon. "I have a few more pictures, and maybe some letters to show you!" Harry promised her he would, before apparating back home, still thinking about all the stories she had told him and the ones she will tell him another time.