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Paragons
of delight and uncertainty
by Raven
PG-13, het, Lily/James. James likes Lily. Maybe not as much as he likes Quidditch. She might like him, too - but unfortunately, Sirius, Remus and Peter have got it in their heads to be helpful. The Slytherins are less than amused by proceedings. Complications ensue. With grateful thanks to Pirate Perian for the thorough beta, to Hathor for the loan of her personality, and to Leigh, Tory and Meredith for the ideas.
The retelling of some events that did take place at Hogwarts’ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the summer of the year nineteen seventy-six, Anno Domini.
Epilogue - some time later
Some time later, another Gryffindor Seeker mounted his broomstick, kicked off from the ground and soared into the air, wind whipping through his hair as he flew. The practice hadn’t begun yet, but he was anxious to get off the ground, soaring and swooping as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
If he had happened to look in the right direction at that moment, he would have seen a long-haired wizard sitting in a deserted corner of the stands with a large black dog at his side. But the Seeker never thought to glance down, and consequently no one was looking as the dog changed back into a man and promptly sneezed. “Dusty,” he said succinctly.
“Mmm,” said the other, not looking at him. Sirius nudged him sharply. “Are you even listening to me?”
“Not really,” said Remus honestly. “Just look up.”
Sirius looked and saw Harry catch a struggling Snitch between his fingers, hold it up triumphantly, then let it go again. He gave it a few seconds’ head start, and then chased after it.
“He’s a better Seeker than you were,” Sirius commented. “You used to fly into things.”
Remus smiled briefly. “I was never Gryffindor Seeker, not really. Just once. After that, I seem to remember telling everyone that I’d hit my peak and didn’t dare play again in case I went into decline. What I don’t remember is why I did play as Seeker that one time.”
Sirius shrugged. “Something to do with Slytherin sabotage? I don’t know…”
Looking at him, Remus wondered briefly if this was something else Sirius’s twelve years in Azkaban had made him forget, but he shelved the thought. The evening air was too cool and pleasant, the setting sun too bright and warm on his skin to allow those thoughts. “He’s as good as James was,” he said after a while. “Better, even, because he’s lighter.”
“James should have seen him fly,” Sirius said wistfully.
There was a silence, broken only by the faint whoosh of fast-moving air that trailed in Harry’s wake. At length, Remus moved, standing up with some difficulty. Sirius glanced at him, amused. “Lupin, you have grass in your hair.”
“So it seems,” said Remus mildly, threading his fingers through it. It was shot through with silver now – the same colour as the wolf’s fur, Sirius noticed – but still long and shaggy, tumbling around his face. Sirius reached up and stayed his friend’s fingers. “Don’t do that, Remus, it suits you.”
Remus rolled his eyes, but he left the grass in his hair. Sirius smiled to himself. Seemingly out of nowhere, he asked, “Do you think he has a girlfriend?”
“Who? Harry?”
“Who else?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Remus shrugged and sat down again, ready to continue with the conversation. “Why do you ask?”
“He’s just about the same age as James was when he started getting moony after Lily.”
Remus grinned. “I resent that remark.”
Sirius groaned. “Oh, shut up. He’s about the age James was when he started getting preoccupied with Lily.”
“That’s better.”
Sirius ignored that. “So, do you think he has a girlfriend?”
“He’s a teenager, Sirius. They’re hardly paragons of virtue and chastity.”
Sirius glared at him. “Stop trying to avoid the question.”
“All right.” Remus sighed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he had.”
“Someone’s going to have to have a little talk with him soon,” Sirius said thoughtfully.
“By someone, I hope you mean you,” Remus replied. “You’re his godfather.”
“You’re his mentor!”
Remus shook his head and wagged a finger. “Ah, ah. You’re not getting out of it that easily. I remember Lily saying quite clearly that she wanted you to teach him the facts of life.”
“She did not say that!”
“I’m quite sure she did. Somewhere in between yelling for you not to drop him on his head and yelling that if you dared take him on that motorbike she’d have fur coats made out of both of us.”
“Just for once, can you not remember every single thing?”
Sirius’s look of utter indignation made Remus begin to laugh; after a moment, Sirius joined in. “Did we have girlfriends at that age?” he asked.
Remus grinned. “We probably did, but we grew up in the seventies, Padfoot. If you can remember it, you weren’t really there.”
“Isn’t that the sixties?”
“I don’t know, I don’t remember.”
Their laughter drifted softly upwards, blending in perfectly with the sounds of the summer evening. After a minute, Remus sighed and made to stand up. “Come on, Sirius. Harry’s bound to notice us eventually.”
Sirius snorted. “Not likely. He’s a teenage boy, since when do they notice anything?” As he spoke, he glanced up at the teenage boy in question, who was currently in a screeching dive for the Snitch. “You know,” he said, “you can just let yourself imagine he’s James when he flies, can’t you? Forget everything that’s happened?”
Remus sighed and shook his head. “Come on, Sirius. We should go.”
Sirius refused to move, watching Harry swoop and soar for a few moments more. Remus pulled at his sleeve. “Don’t make things difficult, Sirius. We have only so much time to spend here.”
“You sound like a bloody teacher,” said Sirius irritably.
“I am a bloody teacher,” Remus reminded him.
Sirius blinked. “You are an’ all, Professor Lupin. I keep forgetting…”
Remus grinned. Sirius rolled his eyes and stood up, following his friend down the steps of the stands and out into the Hogwarts grounds. Harry was still flying high above the pitch. If he’d been listening carefully, he might have heard their voices drifting across through the clear summer air.
“So, do you think he saw us?”
“Not a chance. Teenage boy, didn’t I say?”
“Yes, you did. He wouldn’t have wanted to have to talk to us, anyway.”
“Who says? We’re highly interesting human beings!”
“He’s a teenager and we’re getting old, Sirius. And quite apart from that, you would only have a convincing argument there if we both were human beings.”
“You are human, Moony.”
“You’ve run with the pack, you should know the difference. Being human is highly overrated.”
“No argument there.”
They seemed to be beyond conversation for a moment. In the quiet of the evening, the faint sounds of leaves rustling and birds singing were all that could be heard as the pair got further and further away. Harry would have had tobe listening very carefully indeed to hear Remus say, “Sirius, you’d better change back into Padfoot.”
Sirius groaned (“Always the alpha wolf, Moony!”) but he did as he was asked, his form blurring and sharpening again into that of the great black dog.
The wayward Golden Snitch chose that moment to slip from Harry’s fingers and zoom upwards, forcing him to kick off from the ground and go after it. He soared like a bird until he was high enough to see all of the Hogwarts grounds, and just as he caught hold of the Snitch again, he happened to look towards the north. Casting long shadows in the light of the setting sun were a man and his dog, walking slowly away.
The last of the daylight gleamed on black fur and golden werewolf eyes, and then a cloud crossed the sun, darkening the grounds. When the sun re-emerged a minute later, red and lower in the sky, the air was quiet and still, and they were gone.