The Marauders: Year Six #Wattys2017

The Best Thing Ever

The Best Thing Ever

"....and then they told me about how Mrs. P was almost married to my dad and on the wedding day Mr. P showed up in the invisibility cloak to save her and he fought my father and stole her away. They erased everything about her being Mia so that the Blacks could never find her, so she'd be safe with him and they could live happily in peace and have James - the bugger - and all that!"

Sirius was ecstatically hissing the whole tale to Remus and Peter as they sat in the alcove off the Trophy Room Passageway with the 1953-54 yearbook open to the page of Charlus and Dora at the Yule Ball in their seventh year. James had been brought off to McGonagall's office to talk with his parents as well and the moment class had let out, the other three Marauders had charged at full speed for the privacy of the passageway alcove to go over what had happened. "My dad was apparently really pissed when he heard Mia was seeing Charlus in school," Sirius continued, looking down at the photo. "He was long since finished Hogwarts, but he heard about it and he threatened to kill Charlus for seeing his betrothed and Charlus apparently broke up with Mia not long after because of it."

Remus stared at their happy faces in the photo. "Wow."

"So wait." Peter looked confused. "Are you and James brothers, is that what's happening?"

Remus said, "Cousins, Peter."

"Nearly the same bloody person by the sounds! If it hadn't been for Charlus -- she would've married my dad and then neither James nor I would have existed. Some weird hybrid kid would be here!" Sirius paused, a memory flitting through his mind from years and years ago... he smirked, "A Jiriamus or a Sirames, if you will."

Remus smirked, remembering the comedic team that had been James and Sirius in third year.

Peter said, "Weren't you cousins already?"

"Most pureblood families are," Remus said, "But more distantly than this."

"Besides, Pete, it's just cool, alright? What a bleedin' fantastic story that is, isn't it? Like fairy tale-esque. My dad's the bloody dragon and Mrs. P's the princess and Charlus the knight in shining armor and --" Sirius was very excited about the whole thing - so much so that this summary made him shiver with glee. "It's the best thing I've ever heard. The ultimate fuck you to my father! I wonder what he thought when I ran away from home and he found out I was living with the bloody Potters - with Charlus Potter, the very one he'd lost Mia to."

Remus said, "It makes them even more brave for helping you."

Sirius remembered the hesitation in Charlus Potter's voice, the worry he'd had that very first night, so many years ago, when he'd showed up in snow-soaked trainers on the Potter door step. He remembered Charlus worrying about the Blacks coming to call on the Potter house. The danger of that was even more real than he'd ever known then.

Peter was leaning over to look down at the photo. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. Why couldn't it have been Honey that had this sort of connection to James's parents? Or Cecil Pettigrew that had rescued Dora from Orion? The last thing that James and Sirius needed was another reason to be closer, to exclude him, Peter. And this was only tightening up what was already such a very close friendship. Between how close James and Sirius were and Remus shagging Sirius, there was no hope of him, Peter, ever getting any closer than he already was. It made his belly knot up and his palms sweat to think that this was just one more way that he was the outsider looking in. Never one of them, just someone who tagged along with them. That's all he'd ever been.