Back to Black | Golden Trio Era

LIV

FIFTY-FOUR

Tensions in Grimmauld Place were exceedingly high, courtesy of the Weasleys, and it wasn't particularly enjoyable for the Blacks, Potters and singular Scammander. Everyone, apart from Thalia, James, Eloise and Sirius went to St Mungo's to visit Arthur and had returned rather downtrodden. Harry in particular. The boy didn't want to tell his family what had happened when they had asked and James didn't seem to know what to do to make his son feel better so Eloise decided to opt for something that usually cheered everyone up: the old photo albums.

Eloise beamed as she sat cross-legged on the grey sofa, Sirius sat beside her with his arm wrapped around her waist and the children on the floor in front of them, James and Thalia curled up on an armchair beside everyone. Eloise flipped open the book, gasping lightly at the very first picture that immediately transported her back to her sixteenth birthday. Her and James as babies, bouncing on their parents' knees.

"Mum and Dad." James leant forward and smiled fondly at the photograph,

"Merlin, it's been a while since we've looked at these." Eloise swallowed the lump in her throat and Sirius kissed the top of her head,

"Good old Mia and Monty." he said warmly and Eloise smiled at him before going on to the next few photos. The group were laughing at a picture of a soaking Sirius and a laughing James and Eloise when the door opened and someone walked in to the drawing room,

"Moony!" Sirius grinned,

"Just in time, mate." James beckoned him over, "Belle got out the old photos."

"Oh dear." Remus joked as he sat on Eloise's other side on the sofa, pointing at the teenage version of himself, "Christ, I was a bit weird-looking wasn't I?"

"You were gorgeous, Moony! Shut your cake hole." Eloise slapped his arm before smiling at the picture. Remus and Sirius were stood beside each other, Eloise and Robyn on their backs as they raced across the grounds. Before long, James appeared, his arms wrapped around Lily's waist as he carried her in front of him, the redhead screaming at him and thrashing around. Peter was watching from the background, whipped cream on his forehead.

"Is that Robyn?" Ginny whispered to Mia, pointing to the blonde in the photo and Mia nodded,

"Yes, she was beautiful." she smiled up at Remus who looked at the picture wistfully,

"Yes, she was." he nodded with a upturn of the lips, "Absolutely beautiful."

"With a heart of gold to match." Sirius patted his friend on the back as Eloise squeezed his hand, flipping the page and immediately laughing. It was from Sixth Year and was taken from Lily's bed by the redhead. A very suspicious-looking James was stood over a seemingly innocent Eloise as she sat on her bed but, upon closer inspection, a shirtless Sirius could be seen hiding under her bed.

"Mum!" Alfie laughed and the woman shrugged,

"It's not my fault my brother was too protective." she smiled at her husband who smirked at her.

"Your poor sister." Thalia laughed from where she sat on James' lap, "Having you harrassing her twenty-four/seven."

"Her boyfriend was my best friend who happened to tell me everything about every girl he was with before her-" Eloise fake gagged, interrupting him,

"Sorry, was just a bit sick." she smiled and Sirius snorted,

"As I was saying, I knew exactly what he was capable of." James narrowed his eyes at his best friend who grinned,

"It's not like I got her pregnant at seventeen or anything." he scratched the back of his neck and Eloise smacked his head with a smile,

"Yes, thank you for that." she rolled her eyes but soon caught sight of Alfie's face. "Because it was the best thing that's ever happened to me!" she recovered and stroked her son's hair, "It meant I wasn't stuck with him by myself." she added and Alfie smirked.

It didn't take long for the pictures to get scarcer and scarcer and soon enough, it jumped from graduation to a picture of Sirius riding a stag's back with a cigarette up his nose, Remus holding Prongs' antlers whilst being dragged along the floor...face down.

"Bachelor party." he smirked and shared a look with the boys before holding up three fingers, counting down. On one, the men threw their heads back and simultaneously shouting,

"THE BOYS! THE BOYS! THE BOYS THE BOYS THE BOYS!" they all looked rather proud of themselves but their arrogance shattered with the help of Mia's scoff,

"You had nicknames coordinating to your animagi, your whole group was called the Marauders, you created a map in your third year and yet all you could come with was: 'the boys' chanted repeatedly?" Mia raised an eyebrow and the men all scoffed, looking very affronted,

"To be fair, this was about 11 shots in, so we did pretty well for three people who struggled with the word phenomenon for 45 minutes whilst completely sober." Sirius grinned and the group of them laughed. Moving on, Eloise smiled at the - much more sophisticated - photo from her hen night: her and Lily screaming karaoke whilst Mary, Marlene and Alice danced around them. The next few photos were that of the wedding and Eloise smiled fondly,

"Eloise!" Hermione exclaimed and the woman looked up to see the children staring at the photo of her walking down the aisle in awe,

"You look absolutely stunning!" Ginny breathed and Eloise pouted,

"Thank you, darling." she looked back at the photo of her and her father, "I felt rather pretty that day...despite the complications."

Her friends laughed loudly and Fred smiled,

"What happened?" he asked excitedly and Eloise giggled, preparing herself for a story. "Well, to begin with, I had no shoes."

so there's some shit to tell ya about upcoming uploads

essentially, my james book She's a Snitch is coming to an end promptly so I am going to focus on finishing that one

in the mean time I will upload this chapter which has a second part (the wedding) and that will be uploaded some time in the next week or so and you can have the wedding chap to keep you happy whilst you wait

so if you have not read SaS then DO it's good n it's ending soon so you can read it while youre waiting for me to carry on w this book

and if you finish it then read I Already Know, my remus book which is also cute i love it.

k thanks love you bye!

get excited for the wedding chap, i cried whislt writing it