Change the Future

*POA 5*

First Hogsmeade weekend

Harry and Remus are walking along the bridge.

"Well, don't feel too bad. I was roundly disappointed the first time I went."

"Really?"

"No. I was just trying to make you feel better. Honeydukes' sweets are the best in the world. Their Pepper Imps are so strong you smoke at the ears. And Zonko's Joke Shop may be dangerous, but you can't beat their Stink Pellets."

"Seriously Remus, that's not going to make him feel better" Lily says shaking her head.

"I was hoping to watch Rory's date" Marlene says smirking at James and Sirius.

Harry nods glumly.

"Not to mention The Shrieking Shack, which, according to Hermione, is the most severely haunted building in Britain."

"Yes, that too"

"Professor, can I ask you something?"

"You'd like to know why I stopped you from facing the Boggart. I should think it'd be obvious. I assumed the Boggart would take the shape of Lord Voldemort." Harry frowns. Lupin studies him curiously. "But clearly I was wrong."

"I did think of Voldemort first. But then, I remembered that night on the train and the
Dementors"

"Well, well. I'm impressed. That suggests that what you fear most of all is fear. Very wise."

"He even sounds like a teacher" Sirius laughs.

"Before I fainted I heard something. A woman. Screaming."

"Dementors force us to relive the worst memories of our lives. Our pain becomes their power."

"I think it was my mother. The night she was murdered."

"Oh dear" Lily says as Alice and Marlene pull her into a hug.

"The first time I saw you, Harry, I recognized you immediately. Not by your scar. By your eyes. They're your mother Lily's. It's strange how you look just like your father but with your mother's eyes and Rory looks just like your mother with your fathers eyes"

James looks at Rory and notices her eyes for the first time.

"You actually do have my eyes"

"Seriously I've been here since yesterday and you've only just noticed" 

"Yes I knew your mother.  She was there for me at a time when no one else was. We used to talk for hours. She was not only a singularly gifted witch but an uncommonly
kind woman. She had a way of seeing the beauty in whoever she met, even and perhaps most especially when that person couldn't see it in themselves. Which perhaps explains her affection for your father. James had, shall we say, a certain talent for trouble. A gift, rumour has it, he passed on to Rory and sometimes you." Harry smiles "I could tell you stories and there are many about your parents, Harry  but know this. They lived. Every moment of every day. You should know that. That's how they'd want to be remembered."