It Meant Family

25th of September 1993

"We may not live to see our glory, but I will gladly join the fight [...] And when our children tell our story, they'll tell the story of tonight [...] Raise a glass to the four of us, tomorrow there'll be more of us, telling the story of tonight." - The Story of Tonight, Hamilton

Hogwarts, Scotland

Ron shoved the door open and it slammed loudly on the cold stonewall of the boys' dormitory, he had Scabbers in one of his hands, holding him against his chest. He turned around to see Hermione walking in behind him and shutting the door with just as much strength.

"I'm not getting rid of him, Ronald." She shouted furiously and offended. Harry pulled the tip of his bed curtain open and saw his friends causing a scene in the middle of the room, Seamus and Dean watched them annoyed from the bed where they sat together playing Exploding Snap and Neville shot his head up from the Herbology book he read, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"He's a dangerous beast" he screamed back "and Scabbers was here first. It's only fair." Harry let go of his screen and it fell back in place, he tried to pretend to be asleep, tired of his friends' unending pet war, always so eager to involve him, but it was too late, they had already seen him and marched towards his bed, depriving him of his peace and privacy.

"Harry," demanded Ron, as he pulled open a side of the curtain, allowing the light to flood his friend's previously dim corner of the room "tell Hermione she has to get rid of her murderous cat."

"No," Hermione pleaded furiously, "tell Ronald he's being unreasonable."

"Nox." Harry watched the light at the tip of his wand go out and placed it next to him, he closed the wooden box on his chest and sat up fixing his pyjamas, before turning to his friends with no patience left in his eyes. "You're both being unreasonable." He turned to Hermione, "Yes, cats are predators, but they're not stupid, they can be educated" than to Ron "and you shouldn't ask your friend to give away her pet, especially when you know that, if the situation was reversed, you wouldn't be willing to get rid of yours."

"It's not the same." Complained Ron and the screaming match reignited, no one could understand what they said, their voices filled up the room with discomforting noise and Harry reached forward, grabbing his curtain to pull it closed, unwilling to deal with the drama, but Hermione stopped him, before he could make himself alone again.

"I'm sorry." She smiled apologetically, he looked at them for a while and she elbowed Ron in the ribs.

"Yeah," he cleared his throat "sorry, mate." Harry shrugged, running his fingers through the engravings of his box. "What's that?" Ron pointed at it, noticing it for the first time.

"Pictures of my parents." He moved to the side giving his friends space to sit next to him.

He propped the box open and pulled out a photograph, he showed them the back first, it had "Hogwarts, 1997" written on it. He turned it around and watched the seven young Gryffindors standing next to each other in front of the Quidditch Pitch, slightly off centre.

On the far left corner was the second tallest of the group, a long haired, white, blond woman, wearing a quidditch uniform with a bat on her right hand leaning over her shoulder. Her left hand hid behind another girl, considerably shorter with feathered hair and sepia brown skin, she wore the school uniform perfectly, but without her robe. The girl next to her had the same height, but her afro hair made her seem a bit taller, her skin a deep brown with a warm undertone, she had no vest, her shirt was untucked and her tie far too loose, her arms hanged lazily over the shoulders of the girls next to her.

In the middle stood the shortest of the group, a girl with reddish light skin, straight, shiny copper red hair, bright green eyes, full uniform and a Head Girl badge, hugging a book with both arms and leaning her head against the boy to her right. He looked a lot like Harry, brown skin, untamed hair, glasses and not remarkably tall, he wore his quidditch uniform too, but the robe was untied, showing his shirt underneath it, one of his arms wrapped around the waist of the girl to his left.