Extraordinary

Looking back at photos from a happier time, when no one had died or killed anyone. It's a shame she couldn't remember back that far.

"Hey Moony?" Em, now ten years old, asked her godfather who was dosing in the armchair by the fireplace.

"Hmmm?" he hummed in reply.

"What was it like back then? You know, when we were all together?"

"Well," he woke himself up a little, sitting straighter and continuing, "everyone was a bit grumpy and snappy but you had the uncanny ability to make people get along..."

The cosy Potter house, though spacious, seemed to be rather small to fit this amount of people. Everyone bustled about the place, in one room and out the other. It was lively but not at all cheery for most had just come back from missions, or 'quests' as the Prewett twins called them, and were injured or in a bad mood. Today they were to report back what they know and then return to their 'quests' only to report back in another month.

Yes, it was quite sullen and flat in the Potter house until the crack of apparation was heard just outside the door indicating the arrival of someone. The door creaked open and it was none other than Remus Lupin and his goddaughter Emeelia.

The atmosphere once again bright and cheery, everyone laughing at the Prewett's stupid jokes, and Lily and James' unintentional slap-stick comedy. Overall, everyone seemed to be enjoying spending time with other members of the Order which was almost never true. Most couldn't stand each other, take Marlene McKinnon and James Potter for example. On a good day, the best they usually did was glower from across the room but today they had partnered up in taking care of the children.

These children were Ronald, Fred, George and Em. The latter two appeared to be enjoying themselves with some crayons whereas the first was bawling. Ronald had most likely hit Fred who then retaliated by pulling his hair. The two volunteer babysitters had no idea what to do. So Prongs was panicking about how good of a father he could be without knowing what to do about a crying child.

The six-month-old Em crawled over to the crying child, Marlene watching intently, and handed him a crayon and made a scribbling motion to indicate what to do. His tears slowed and slowed until they had stopped coming all together and all four children were happily scrawling all over the place.

Prongs and McKinnon, just happy that they had stopped crying, did nothing to stop them from doodling all over the walls.

"I feel bad for doing that to Lily's walls..." Em said. She was now sat cross-legged in front of Remus' chair.

"She was fuming, but not at you. At James and Marlene for letting you." he chuckled.

"Of course, there was the first time you met Padfoot and Prongs..."

The Potter's garden was beautiful. Multitudes of mundane and magical flowers scattered in beds that lined squares of grass. It opened out into a wide expanse of forest, perfect for animals to run around in.

That's exactly what they did. Sirius and James as Padfoot and Prongs, if they weren't in the house annoying Lily or entertaining everyone, were often found roaming the woods.

Four children, three ginger and one with lavender hair, were sat on a picnic blanket underneath a large oak tree in the garden. The sun was high allowing for a warm summers day without a single cloud to ruin it.

A basket full to the brim of homemade sandwiches, courtesy of Mrs Weasley and Lily, was slowly being emptied by the four. The older of them were trying their hardest to climb the tree but, being only three, couldn't reach the first branch.

Once realising there wasn't much to do out here other than fail at climbing and annoy their little brother, Fred and George went back inside the house to find their Uncles Fabian and Gideon. The two remaining just sat and ate sandwiches to their heart's content. That is until they heard a dog's barks and yips coming from the woods.

Bounding, galloping and tumbling they came, making a hell of a lot of noise in the process. A large shaggy black dog and an unkempt looking stag exited the trees and towards the children. Being quite startled by the animals, and rightly so, they cried. Ron more so than Em because that kid is a wimp, but I digress.

The animals came closer until they were in reaching distance. And so as any curious child would do, Em reached for the dog's fur. Once she did so it was as if she knew who it was. She stopped crying and buried her face in its warmth and laughed. The laugh that made the sun smile, the laugh that warmed even the coldest of hearts. She was laughing at nothing in particular, as most babies do, but the laugh made the dog 'laugh' too.

He shifted, fur becoming less and less like fur until it felt like cotton. He was sat cross-legged with Em clinging to his side, Prongs still stood behind him. She looked up at him with a look of recognition, she knew this was the dog she was just petting. Clambering into his lap, she babbled with the few words she knew.

"Padfoot...fluff. Dog...Padfoot."

Prongs trotted closer to his friend and leaned his head down to the child in his lap. Her small hand reached for his face as it shortened and shifted back to James. She gasped but her hand still reached for his face and he didn't stop her. She gently ran her hand over his face before snatching his glasses and placing them on her own face.

She felt the rumbling of laughter from Sirius' chest vibrate her whole body. He tousled her hair and patted beside him, telling James to sit down. Ron was just munching on a sandwich, not bothered about the scene playing out in front of him.

Remus came to the back door to fetch the two but when he saw them with his goddaughter, he quickly summoned a camera and captured the moment. The flash of the camera caught the friends attention and they finally noticed Moony in the doorway laughing at them.

"Do we still have that one?" she said while excitedly flipping through the album.

Sitting forward and grabbing the album from her he said thoughtfully, "We should do...aha!"

He passed it back to her pointing at one with the two men sat under a tree with her sat in Sirius' lap. The three were laughing and then looking at the camera before they went back to laughing. A few pages later a picture labelled 'Em's first birthday' caught her eye.

"Remus, what happened in this one?"

He looked intently at it. Remus, Sirius, Em, Fred and George were the ones in the picture and presumably, Molly had taken it. The three kids were sat in a sea of wrapping paper varying in colour, they were throwing it at each other and the two adults. Moony was sat next to Emeelia and Sirius was sat on the settee behind.

"Well, you woke me up early because you were extremely excited about presents..."

"Moo-ney! Moo-ney!" the girl shouted, bouncing on his bed hoping to wake her godfather.

"Happy Birthday," he said groggily, sleep still evident in his voice. The girl refused to stop bouncing so he sat and continued, "I'm up, I'm up."

He picked the girl up and settled her on his side and made his way downstairs into the living room, where Sirius was already sat reading the Daily Prophet.

"Morning," he said passing Remus a cup of tea and taking Em from him, "Happy Birthday, sweetheart."

She giggled and hugged him, her small arms wrapping around his neck. It was only eight o'clock so more people wouldn't be arriving for a while. Her presents were sat, waiting to be opened, on the dining table in the kitchen.

"Can I open presents?" she pleaded.

"I don't know, can you?" came Sirius' reply.

She ran as fast as her one-year-old legs could carry her. Isn't it lucky that magical children develop slightly faster than muggle children? She looked at the presents on the table and reached for them, then, deciding she was too short to get them, pulled a chair out and climbed up to get them.

One by one, she brought each present into the living room and once she was finally done, she sat next to the pile she'd made. She looked back at the two men on the sofa, silently asking for permission. Remus gestured to them and nodded encouragingly prompting her to start ripping the paper off of them.

These were only from Remus, Sirius and any Order members who were a little busy at the moment. The most prominent being the Prewett twins who'd given her a book with an interesting cover, some sweets (ones that they were warned not to give her because of how energetic they made her) and a muggle hand buzzer.

Remus had gotten her some books for him to read to her before bed and some new clothes. There was one present that he said he had made himself for her for when she was a little older. Other than that he had gifted her some of his own records which she seemed to really love.

Sirius had gone mad with presents. A mini leather jacket to match his, more records, sweets and, amongst others, something that went with the present that she couldn't have yet. She was already up to her ankles in wrapping paper without anyone else's presents.

Remus pulled out his wand and with a wave, he vanished the paper. The girl was still looking at the book from the Prewett twins so he asked her what it was.

She brought it over and handed it to him, "Can you read it please?" she asked sweetly.

"101- this will be good fun. 101 Pranks for beginners," he stated, a laugh playing on his lips.

"There's a note inside: Hope this comes in handy princess, have fun with it! - Uncle Fabian and Gideon.

The best pranks are harmless, such as:
Hide items and leave riddles and hints as to where they are
Put ice down their shirt
Glue their cup to their hand
Swap the sugar for salt and vice versa."

Remus sent a wink at Sirius, the first time that signal had been used since their seventh year at Hogwarts. That little wink always brought disaster. The little wink meant Prank War.

The thing about Marauders Prank Wars (TM) is, they can last for one hour or a whole year. They only end when the other surrenders and it's practically a death wish to surrender because whoever is the first to surrender has to do whatever the others say for however long the Prank War lasted.

Usually, teaming up is banned but considering there was a one-year-old joining in, well, that would've been mean, wouldn't it? So, to pass the time before the rest arrived they pranked each other non-stop. It started innocently enough with salt instead of sugar on Sirius' pancakes and then chilli chocolate instead of regular chocolate for Remus. (No, I don't know why Sirius just has chilli chocolate.)

But then things escalated and they were in a war zone. The table was flipped on its side and that was where Sirius had set up his base camp.
The sofa was also laying on its side which is where Remus and Emeelia where hiding. While the adults were using magic, Emeelia had come up with squeezy bottles of food, some really cold ice cream and a little bit of accidental magic to use.

The walls and floor were littered with food and scorch marks from the numerous things that were launched haphazardly across the room. This was when others decided to turn up. The small cottage looked like a bomb had hit it when McGonagall and Dumbledore walked through the front door.

Remus and Em peeked over the top of the settee to see who had come in only to see McGonagall had grabbed Sirius by the ear.

"What. Exactly. Is. Going. On. Here. Mister. Black?" she demanded in her stern voice.

"Well, we uh... REMUS STARTED IT!" he admitted before hurrying to get away from her. It was as if he thought he'd get a detention.

The two ducked behind their shelter as they heard her steps coming closer to their position.

"Is that true, Mr Lupin?"

"Yes but only because we wanted Emeelia to have fun and try out some pranks from the book Fabian and Gideon got he- I'm sorry." he apologised, hanging his head in shame.

"If I could, I'd take house points from you and give you a detention but I'll have to wait for Emeelia to get to Hogwarts," she said, glancing at Em.

The girl smiled innocently at the professor who, surprisingly, smiled back. Dumbledore clapped from the kitchen and waved his wand, returning the place to its former state.

The Weasleys arrived only a few moments later and with them came more presents. Em spent most of the day playing with the twins or the presents she got that day.

It was later in the evening when the tapping of talons on a window caught everyone's attention. An owl, that was recognised by Sirius as the Potter's owl, had a small package and an envelope attached to its leg.

Remus thanked the bird and took the items from it.

"It's a birthday card for Emeelia. It says:

To Mini Moony,

Happy Birthday we're sorry we can't be there it's a miracle we could even give you these anyway,
we hope you have a great first birthday!
Moony and Padfoot better give you a huge hug and kiss from us, alright?
We love and miss you so much
from James and Lily
P.S. I (Prongs) made the gift myself. Hope you like it Mini Moony!"

he read before putting it on the mantlepiece with the others.

He handed the package to Emeelia, or Mini Moony in James' words, to open, which she did immediately.

What fell out of it was a silver chain necklace with a charm dangling from it. She held it up to look at but seeing the engraving on it she passed it to Remus to read for her.

"Remus, Sirius, James, Lily." he read the listed names and passed it back to her.

She noticed the stars and patterns behind the engraving and smiled. She had always loved the night sky, especially when the stars were out. She handed it back to Remus who understood she wanted him to put it on her. He unclasped it and put it around her neck as she lifted her hair. Once wearing it, she turned towards Fred and George who were sat next to her.

Together they chorused, "Pretty!" with George continuing, "I'd want you to be my girlfriend!"

The adults laughed, Sirius saying she'd have boys chasing after her at school and tousling her hair. That's when Molly took the picture of the four, no one noticed the two names that appeared on the necklace until...

She looked down at her necklace, seeing that it didn't have four names on it anymore, at least, not the four names from the story. She checked the picture and saw there were six names, not four. Had Remus remembered wrong? She thanked Remus for the re-telling and went to put the album away.

The necklace had said James and Lily until they had died... But as far as Em could remember Fred and George had always been on the necklace.