The Life that Never Lived ? (Chamber of Secrets)

THE WHOMPING WILLOW

Remus took the book from him, unable to stop himself from smirking back and saying, "Remembered me this time did you?"
Harry blushed slightly but quipped right back, "Well maybe if you didn't try to snatch it away from everyone else!"
All four of them laughed appreciatively at that, happy to see that Harry was finally beginning to joke around with them a bit more.
"A first, I'm sure," James muttered to himself, determined not to be let the misery linger.
It was official. As all four of them winced, they then knew that it was never going to get easier hearing that kind of comment. Yet they smiled all the same, happy Harry had a good time with his friend.
"None, if I can hope," Lily muttered. "Because with any luck, the Weasleys will just pick you up from the train station at the end of the year."
Harry grimaced, knowing full well that wasn't going to be the case, but hoping along with the others all the same.
"I think she's spoiling you," Sirius said a bit cheekily.
"Like you're any better," James snorted. "I've seen you giving him sweets every time you think Lily's not looking."
"Thanks for ratting me out!" Sirius huffed, while Lily looked around at him and said: "Sorry, wasn't listening to that, what were you saying?"
None of them could suppress a smile at this, while Remus decided to keep reading, grinning broadly.
"With so many people running around, I can imagine," Lily agreed.
"Ouch," Sirius winced.
"Why?" Lily asked. "She already knows it can fly? What more harm could it do her to know you enchanted it to do that?"
"Avoiding a confrontation?" James offered.
"A five seater car couldn't possibly fit eight people without magic anyway. Does she really think all muggle cars are like that?" Lily asked in disbelief, still stuck on the previous topic.
"Wizards tend to be as ignorant about Muggle things as Muggles are about Wizard things," Remus replied with a shrug.
Sirius chuckled and said, "Let me guess, someone forgot something."
"I'm surprised his parents went back for that," Lily said.
"He told them it was something else, but I saw him shoving that in his pocket," Harry said, grinning.
"Now that's actually important," James agreed. "What with him being on the Quidditch team and all."
"His parents could have sent it to him," Lily rolled her eyes.
Harry felt an odd tightening in his gut at the mention of this, yet all of the adults were shaking their heads and continuing to laugh at this, James and Sirius wondering what Percy would demand the car be turned around for next.
Surely this had no real importance.
"That is cutting it pretty close," Lily agreed.
"I'm sure they all get on just fine," James reassured.
Harry had already relaxed again, ignoring his last odd feeling. He was sure his father was right, he made it to Hogwarts that year. So why did he feel yet another tightening in his gut, like he was trying to brace himself for some kind of impact? Surely nothing too bad happened in a train station?
"Crash?" The other three without the book (or vague memories) yelped in shock.
Remus looked up from the book, to Harry who was massaging his ribs in remembered pain, and asked, "What does it mean, crash? Surely you made it through the barrier, and ran into someone?"
None of them believed this however, Harry looked very disgruntled and confused at something, and said, "No. We crashed. I don't know why, but we missed the train. Someone stopped us, or..." he trailed off, looking frustrated again.
The four of them exchanged uneasy looks, but then Sirius said, "I'm sure the Weasleys noticed that the two boys didn't make it. They'd have apparated outside the station as soon as they realize
what's going on, then they'd come back inside to figure this out."
Harry dearly wanted to correct him, and tell him no such thing happened, but as he had no idea himself what did happen, he let Remus keep going.
"That owl must have felt so abused, all summer," Lily said sadly.
"It's not like they chucked her over there on purpose," James huffed.
All four of them released uneasy breaths, yes Harry had said that he missed the train, but they didn't really like hearing this confirmation.
"Why would you need it?" Remus asked.
"I've no idea why Ron asked," Harry said honestly.
Instead of getting angry at yet another reminder of those twats, James pretended to faint in shock and then gasped, "You mean they gave you some, ever!?"
Harry chuckled at his antics, "Yeah, I was out shopping with Petunia and Dudley, and Dudley kicked up a fuss and said he wanted to go across the street and get a toy. So Petunia gave him
some money, and he ran over there. This woman on the street was watching, and when she saw that it didn't look like I was going to get any, she asked me really loudly, 'what are you going to
get over there?' Petunia gave me a bit, and pushed me off after Dudley to get me out of the way."
All four of them were genuinely surprised Harry had so openly told them this, and pushed their anger at this little story out of the way, happy that Harry was starting to open up more.
"Never tried that," Sirius laughed in surprise. "Wonder if it would have worked if something wasn't wrong?"
"Should be no time at all," Lily said, trying to calm herself more than anything. "Once the train's left, they've no reason to stick around. They might not have even noticed you two didn't get on the train, so it might be best if you two just went out to wait by the car, just in case."
Harry went bright eyed for a moment, muttering something about the car, but they all knew by now Harry couldn't really tell them one way or another what happened until after the fact.
Lily beamed at Harry, happy he seemed to have been thinking along the same line as her.
"I don't think I like that reaction," James said at once, his mind going right where he was sure Ron's just had. His two friends exchanged uneasy looks as well, hoping Ron really wasn't
thinking what they were thinking.
"What!" Lily yelped. "He must be joking!"
"Afraid not," Harry said, rubbing his temple, but grinning like a fool now. "I think we do just that, and it was a blast for a while."
All four adults just sat there, staring at Harry like he had suddenly gone crazy.
"You do know that's illegal right?" Remus began.
James snorted and gave his friend a disbelieving look, "Of course he wouldn't. Ron would though, which makes it all the more ridiculous that he was the one to suggest this stunt."
Harry frowned at them, "What's the big deal? Mr. and Mrs. Weasley can apparate back home, and since the car belongs to Ron's family it's not technically stealing. How else could we have gotten
to school?"
"I can't believe I'm the one saying this," James said, privately wondering if the world had just been flipped upside down, though he felt it would be better if he said it rather than Lily. "But it is illegal! There's making trouble now and again, and then there's flying a car across Britain in plain sight!"
"It has an invisibility booster!" Harry defended. "Mr. Weasley just mentioned it. Besides, what's the difference between that flying car, and Sirius' motorcycle? Didn't Hagrid take me to the
Dursleys', across Britain, on that?"
James and Remus shut up at once. It was one thing lecturing Harry on what was illegal, since he didn't actually know better, but Sirius on the other hand knew full well what he was doing, and he
was a big boy who knew the consequences of his actions. Plus, Sirius was always more careful then these two twelve year old's were likely to be.
Sirius opened and closed his mouth several times, but no noise came out. Lily narrowed her eyes dangerously at him all of a sudden, and said in a deadly whisper, "You told me you got that thing cleared!"
"Ah, I went to a Muggle DMV and got it registered, you know in case I ever got stopped," he said, unable to help stammering a bit.
"Sirius Black, you told me that bloody thing had been registered as a charmed object, through the Specially Charmed Objects department!"
Harry just blinked, feeling bad he'd clearly just gotten Sirius into trouble, and also noting no one had answered his question. The two of them sat arguing for a few more moments, Sirius insisting his bike was different, since it wasn't nearly as big as a car, or as noticeable, plus he only flew it at night!
Lily was furious with him, he was already an unregistered animagus, and had been for years, now he had gone and done something else stupidly illegal. It was only when Lily yelled, "You're going to get your arse thrown in Azkaban if you keep this shit up!" did James finally cut in; "Lily, relax. The bike's not really the main issue right now is it? It's not even here right now."
He ignored Lily as she muttered, "and it never will be."
"So how about we get back to the book yeah? I want to see Harry make it to Hogwarts alright, car or no car."
Lily sighed in defeat, but relented for now. Remus hurried back to his reading, knowing full well this argument was far from over, and hoping to hurry on while he could.
Harry gave Sirius an apologetic look, mouthing 'sorry' at him. Sirius, while still looking rather harassed, smiled right back. He didn't blame Harry for that, Lily was bound to figure out about the bike eventually.
"I wouldn't call not being able to get to school a 'real' emergency," James said, trying to toss some humour back into the heated room.
Remus couldn't help but chuckle for real at that, and said, "Remind me again, did Ron want a career in the Ministry? Cause if you ask me, he's off to a great start."
All three boys laughed.
"I'm just impressed he knew it was in section nineteen," Lily said, cracking a smile once more.
They all sighed in defeat. Harry had already admitted to them that Ron's idea was exactly what they had done, but it didn't make them feel any better hearing that out loud.
"That's a problem I didn't think of," Remus agreed. "Since the twins drove it to Surrey and back, we had no idea if Ron knew how to. Not to mention, they don't exactly have Hogwarts' address."
Harry smiled at him and said, "Ron knows what he's doing."
"Clearly not," Lily huffed, wanting dearly to remind her son of the 'illegal' part of this. Then she blinked, and realized she'd never fully explained that part, having instead started yelling at Sirius. She would have to explain the problem fully to Harry after this chapter, and to Sirius too it seemed.
"Fun experience, huh kid?" Sirius asked, unable to help grinning over at him despite how worried he was Harry might get in real trouble for this. It was clear the two twelve year olds hadn't thought this thing through.
Lily narrowed her eyes dangerously, still pissed at him beyond belief, and unwilling to admit she was a bit worried for him as well. The ministry already had a dark eye on him, because of what
his family had done. Now he seemed to be doing everything possible to get himself into hot water!
James and Remus would be heartbroken if Sirius did get into real trouble, but none of them took her warnings, no pun intended, serious!
"Uh-oh," all five of them said at once.
Lily went from furious to worried in an instant, asking, "Invisibility charms wear off like any other, how long ago did Arthur put that on the car?"
"I've no idea," Harry groaned, unable to believe his bad luck.
"Don't suppose you decide to land, and give the whole thing up?" Remus asked.
Harry didn't even bother to answer that.
Harry blinked, wondering why a giant snake would seem so odd of a reminder of his second year. All of his family around him still looked worried sick, probably fearing he was going to get caught
doing this. He had a stronger feeling that they might just be right, but he still didn't get what the big deal was.
"I remember that feeling," Sirius said, sharing a smile with his two friends, though still not relaxing. He wouldn't feel confident Harry wasn't out of trouble until at least a week after this incident.
"What's an airplane?" James put in, slightly put out that Ron clearly knew what that was and he didn't.
Remus tried to think of the most basic way to explain them by saying, "err, they're like cars in the sky. They've got wings that propel them on fuel, and are used to travel muggles long distances."
James nodded happily at the explanation, and then chuckled a little harder now that he got what Ron meant.
"That, I can imagine, would satisfy Ron," Sirius agreed, chuckling.
"Planned on leaving it on the front lawn did you?" Remus asked, trying to fight back a smile, and attempting to remain analytical about the situation.
"Well, we did intend to give the car back to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, so we weren't going to try and hide it," Harry shrugged, as far as he and Ron were concerned, they'd had no reason to think about it.
"Just thought of something," Lily said briskly, rather annoyed the three boys, while having been upset at first, now seemed to have brushed the severity of the issue out of the way already. "What do you think Arthur and Molly are thinking when they've come out and found their car stolen?"
Harry knew the answer, having asked Ron this, "Ron said not to worry about it, that they might not have gone back to the car at all. They might have just apparated back home, and left the car
there until the beginning of next summer anyway," he said quickly.
Lily highly doubted this, just because they didn't need the car doesn't mean they were just going to leave it laying around, but there was no sense in arguing the matter.
"Do anything for long enough and the fun wears off," James agreed.
"I've been thinking about that as well," Remus said, in response to Harry's question. "And I'm wondering if it might have been Dobby again?"
All four of them looked at him, then after a moment's pause, Lily said slowly, "I suppose, if he realised his first attempt to get Harry to stay away from Hogwarts didn't work, he might try
something as witless again."
"I don't buy it." Sirius scoffed. "That house-elf's already gone and done some really weird things, apparently without his master's permission. How would that even work? Just because Harry
couldn't get on the train doesn't mean he couldn't get to school by some other way."
"Just because Harry got in trouble at home doesn't mean he couldn't go back to school." James
argued back, on Remus' side it seemed. "Dobby clearly doesn't know how these kinds of things
work."
Sirius still didn't look very convinced, but he said, "Well, I don't know. I guess I can't think of anyone else trying to stop Harry getting to school...but it still seems unlikely."
Harry sat watching them, rubbing his temple, and wishing he could put an opinion in. Every time he opened his mouth to try though, the sure feeling he had disappeared, leaving him muddled and
confused. Were the effects of this memory charm ever going to leave him be!?
The others it seemed had stopped turning to Harry in hopes of getting an answer out of him, realizing it only pained the poor boy. It wasn't going to stop them from theorizing the outcomes though, that was just in their nature. So when they ran out of options, the reading continued.
"Uh-oh," All five of them muttered again, Harry suddenly having a very bad feeling about that noise.
"My bike runs off of magic, I'd think Arthur's car would be the same," Sirius said slowly.
"Yes but how long have you driven it without a break?" James asked uneasily, "We all know that train ride is a good seven hours, at least. How far has that car gone in one go?"
None of them had an answer, and only hoped Hogwarts would come into sight, soon.
"There's that answer," Lily muttered, not liking this confirmation.
"How long has Arthur had that car?" Remus asked, more in surprise this time. "Ron didn't turn those on did he?"
"No," Harry said, very puzzled by this, and he had never asked Ron why that happened either. "Why?"
"Because," James answered. "All items that are enchanted will gain a mind of their own after some time. There might be nothing wrong with the car at all, it just doesn't want to travel anymore. The bloody thing might drop out of the sky and land just because it feels like it."
"How long have you had your bike?" Harry asked Sirius, now just curious, and trying to change the subject, since his dad saying that had sounded way too familiar for his liking.
"Back when I was eighteen," Sirius shrugged, "I've been tuning it for ages, but I think it's still new enough I don't have to worry about that," he explained.
"How long does it take for that kind of thing to happen?" He asked, prodding deeper, his natural curiosity beginning to come out.
"Depends on the object, how heavily it's enchanted, how long it's been under magic use, etcetera." Lily said, "There's no real time limit, and even the amount of consciousness the object grows
varies."
Harry nodded, still very curious about all of this, but decided not to ask anymore, as it seemed Remus wanted to keep going now.
The four adults gave a breath of relief, sure the car would last that long. Harry on the other hand didn't relax one bit.
Much like the people in the room, all of whom were tensing up in unease. Harry hadn't even made it to school yet and they were already nervous again!
"Shit," Sirius hissed.
"Car crash wouldn't kill them," Remus reminded them all bracingly, looking rather white himself, "and they're on magical grounds now, shouldn't be any more unpleasant than, say, falling out of bed."
"Unless you run into a mad tree," Harry muttered, trying desperately to remember why that had come out of his mouth, but the others looked far more relaxed at Remus' cool reminder, so they didn't seem to notice.
"Shit," James muttered this time, wincing in fear. He didn't like that mental image one bit.
"That's not even a spell," Lily moaned. "What good did he think that would do?"
"He was panicking," Harry defended, dearly wishing he could tell Ron to put his wand away for some reason.
"Too late!?" The three without the book yelped.
"Crashing into a tree is much worse than just landing on the ground," Sirius grumbled.
"I'm still fine," Harry reassured, fidgeting like crazy now. What about this tree was bothering him so much?
They all sighed in agreement, happy that Harry had finally landed at least.
"Is Ron okay?" James asked in concern. If Harry walked away from this with a small bump, he would take that as a blessing, but they had no idea how badly Ron had been hurt.
"I think Ron broke something," Harry muttered, rubbing his forehead in disdain. "I know it bothers him the rest of the year."
The four of them shared a very uneasy look. If Ron had been hurt so badly it was a permanent injury, hopefully it wasn't something as awful as losing a limb! Ron's parents would go crazy, they might even pull him out of school for a time, which would be awful for Harry, and Hermione too. The three kids were obviously close.
Shaking himself, Remus forced himself to read on, hoping he was exaggerating Harry's words.
"Oh," they all said, looking quite relieved.
"Well that sucks," Lily agreed. "But you can buy a new wand. I was thinking of something far worse."
Harry smiled, pleased himself his friend was alright, but then said, "Yeah, but he doesn't get a new one this year. It bothers him all year, but there's something odd, I think it does something." He trailed off, then rolled his eyes in frustration, just waving Remus on when it was clear he couldn't think of anything else.
"Nope," Sirius said sadly. "Once you break a wand, that's irreparable."
Harry grimaced, wondering why his instinct was to disagree with Sirius, but nodded to show he understood him now.
"What?" Lily yelped.
"Did you land next to the forest?" James asked, mentally trying to map the grounds in his head and gauge the boy's position. "Startle something in the forest?"
Harry pursed his lips, knowing that wasn't the correct answer. Why did he feel like it had something to do with a tree again?
"A branch," Sirius groaned, looking like he himself had just been slugged by a tree.
"Of all the bloody places you landed," James muttered, looking sick to his stomach.
Remus had gone pale and shaky, if that stupid tree hurt his little cub he'd feel so guilty, it was only there because of him after all!
Lily didn't like the way they all seemed so upset by this turn of events. She had never gotten close enough to that tree to find out what kind of damage it could really do, but it seemed able to beat up a car easy enough, so she didn't want to know what it could do to a student.
After a few more moments of tense fear, Harry gently nudged them all on, and Remus shook himself out of his shock to read.
"What kind of tree does that?" Harry asked, trying to distract them once more.
"A Whomping Willow," Lily answered, when it looked like the boys were still too upset to.
"We would crash into a tree that hits back," Harry chuckled weakly, but none of them laughed, still too afraid, knowing first-hand the kind of damage that tree could do.
'Why did I have to get this chapter?' Remus mentally began yelling at himself, he would never forgive himself if this stupid tree got his cub and Ron hurt! He should have had Dumbledore rip it up after he left school!
James and Sirius desperately wanted to point out to Harry a way they could stun the tree for a moment so that they could make a run for it, but knew it was pointless as for the moment they
were reading a book, and not actually there with him.
Lily clutched Harry's hand again, just wanting some reassurance her boy really was okay, and not currently trapped in a car being beaten by a tree.
"Wish it did rip its roots out," Sirius huffed, colour beginning to return to his face.
"Don't blame the tree," Harry shrugged, "we did hit it first."
They all gave him looks of disbelief, Harry was some kind of person if he could sit there and defend something that could have done him a serious injury, but now that it seemed they had
gotten out of there without a scrape, they instead thanked that blasted car for its timely actions.
James let out a low, throaty whistle, "I guess that car has quite the mind of its own, more than I thought, if it can kick its passengers out like that." He said, looking reluctantly impressed.
"Are you listening to this Sirius?" Lily asked briskly.
"Sure," he said with a shrug, managing a small smile for her, "don't run my bike into the Whomping Willow. I don't know why you thought I'd need to remind myself of that, but if it makes you feel better," he trailed off. She huffed and tossed a pillow at him again, which he easily caught and then laughed at her fully, finally releasing the tension from the room.
"She didn't come to see me for ages," Harry remembered.
"Well, she did kind of go through a lot that summer," Lily said fairly.
"But she did forgive you right?" Remus asked, trying not to laugh. "After all, an owl that doesn't like its owner isn't one you'd want to have around."
"Yeah, she does," Harry said, smiling now at the confidence he felt in that simple sentence.
"Where did it go?" Sirius asked in surprise. "I thought it would just die on the front lawn?"
Harry pursed his lips, knowing he couldn't answer no matter how much he wanted to.
"Didn't think of that," Lily agreed. "I guess now the Weasley's can't get their car back."
"I'm sure Arthur can get another one," James shrugged.
"I'm sure Molly won't let him," Remus snorted. "After all the trouble this one's caused."
Still none of them except Harry laughed at that joke, not finding it any funnier when Ron said it.
"Did you make it there before or after the train?" Sirius asked.
"After," Harry said, pondering for a moment and saying, "Yeah, I think we look into the Great Hall, and see the students being sorted," he shrugged then, just happy he could remember this odd
detail at all.
"How did Remus get a singing chapter again?" James huffed.
"I don't think I hear the hat's song," Harry said, running his hand through his hair, "I don't hear it again for a while anyway."
They shrugged, accepting that Harry must have walked into the Great Hall after the sorting had already started.
Then a grin cracked over Sirius' mouth as he said, "That means you got away with it!"
"What?" Lily asked.
"Harry got away with what he did. None of the teachers should notice the difference if Harry and Ron come in a little late, they can lie and say they were held up on something. Unless Molly and Arthur know for sure that Harry and Ron took their car, no one should know about what they did!" he finished, sounding far too excited as far as Lily was concerned.
Remus and James looked rather pleased Harry wasn't going to get in trouble, but Harry and Lily disagreed, each for their own reasons.
"Still a very happy memory," James laughed.
"With any luck, sacked!" Sirius whispered for Remus alone. Despite admitting he had been wrong last year, he hardly liked the man even now.
Remus grinned at him and couldn't help but agree.
"I'm sure the feeling is reciprocated," James said, unlike his friend he hadn't bothered to keep his voice down, earning a dirty look from Lily.
James threw Lily a superior look, though she just rolled her eyes. Surely, she thought, Harry was just exaggerating.
"Bollocks!" All four boys hissed.
James continued, "Of all the teachers who would have come outside right then!"
"Really, I'm not surprised a teacher did come outside." Lily said with a shrug. "The only reason that car made it past the magical wards of the school is because it was magical itself. Still,
Dumbledore would have been alerted something had come through, and I'm not surprised he sent a teacher out there to have a look."
"That's why you rolled your eyes at us!" Sirius huffed. "You knew Harry hadn't gotten away with that car thing."
Lily smiled innocently at them, and Remus just decided to read on.
"Where do you think he's leading them?" James asked in confusion, noting that wasn't the way to McGonagall's office.
"Filch's office maybe?" Sirius offered.
"He's a teacher now you twits," Lily huffed. "He has his own office."
"Why am I not surprised he chose one in the dungeon," Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Slughorn's was down there too," Lily rolled her eyes back at him. "He probably just inherited his."
"Doesn't answer what I was thinking," James cut in. "Why wouldn't Snape just take them to McGonagall's office, then go and get her? They're in her house, it's her responsibility."
Lily just shrugged, she didn't have an answer to that.
"Just like his heart," Remus whispered to Sirius, his mouth twitching.
Since Remus was the one reading, Lily very obviously noted this, and though she couldn't make out what he said, she had a good idea, so she gave them both dirty looks for good measure.
James huffed, and then gave Lily her own dirty look. "You see why we don't like him, he's not acting any better now than he was in school, always jumping to the worst conclusions."
"Well he was usually right about you," Lily snapped back, though she herself couldn't deny that Snape was out of line that time.
"Of course they don't get a chance to explain," Sirius huffed.
"How did he know about the car?" Harry yelped in shock.
"Not sure," Lily said, rather surprised herself. "The spell would have said something entered that shouldn't have, but not the exact object."
"Maybe Arthur forewarned the school the boys might be showing up in it?" Remus offered.
"Crap," all four boys groaned.
Lily looked rather upset herself, wanting to point out that she was right that they couldn't get away with it, but not any happier to hear that Harry could get into real legal trouble.
"Well that's not so bad," James said in a false hopeful voice. "It couldn't be too hard to track them down and fix."
Lily gave him a scathing look and said, "That's not the point James. The whole fiasco will be hell for the Ministry to clean up, and Harry and Ron could still be facing charges for breaking the law."
James flinched, and Harry was beginning to feel real fear. Was this bad enough to get kicked out of school? Sirius and Remus noticed this, and while Sirius gave Lily an annoyed look for scaring her own son like this, Remus reassured him. "Don't worry Harry. I don't think you'll be more then warned again, being underage. Fined at most. It's not bad enough to be kicked out of school or anything though."
Harry looked relieved, while Lily looked mortified about scaring Harry so much. She did help make the laws though, so she felt it was her responsibility to inform Harry of these things, along
with the overgrown children too it seemed.
Lily pursed her lips, hoping dearly Arthur wouldn't get in trouble for this. It wasn't his fault Ron and Harry did what they did after all. Harry did look contrite enough now though, so she didn't say anything aloud.
"Oh like you care about that!" Sirius snapped. "You're probably holding yourself back from thanking them for it!"
"You should have done that in the first place," James huffed, still annoyed by the whole thing.
"Probably the second," Sirius laughed. "You haven't really done too much to get on her bad side to be honest."
"Oh come on now," Lily rolled her eyes. "She wouldn't have cursed you."
"Just a reaction," Harry shrugged, better safe than sorry.
"Bet that ruined Snape's vibe," James laughed.
"Anything can be obvious with the benefit of hindsight," Lily was the one to say to her gobsmacked son. She thought he now understood the full repercussions of what he had done. It was obvious he at least now felt guilty for his actions, though she was still determined that she would explain fully to him the whys and wherefores later.
Before Remus could continue this time, the alert charm went off again, and James jumped to his feet to go fetch baby Harry. He came back in cooing to his son, asking him if he was hungry. It
took James no time at all to get the baby's lunch ready, and to get himself re-seated and feeding so that Remus could continue.
Sirius had to cough to cover a laugh, never growing tired of his old teacher's wit.
Harry looked stunned at this turn of events, but he was the only one. Remus was nodding and saying, "Yeah, something like this, I'm not surprised Dumbledore would have to at least make an
appearance."
"He can have that effect," Sirius grimaced in remembrance at that look.
All four of them snorted in disbelief at this, but didn't bother to interrupt, Harry must know that Dumbledore wouldn't have bought that.
"Well, I'm clearly not the only one who was thinking it," Harry said, feeling relieved they had been wrong.
"Not today," Sirius snorted.
"Reassuring," James laughed.
"Shut it," Remus grumbled before Sirius could but in, quickly reading loudly to cover up the old joke.
"Ouch," Remus winced.
"He certainly got his point across," Lily said, noting Harry's suddenly very concerned look.
All three boys couldn't help but snort at this, rather annoyed all the same at him.
"Tosser," James huffed, like he cared about that tree, he was clearly just looking for a reason to get Harry into trouble.
"Still better than Snape," Sirius said with a shrug.
"Aw," Lily cooed. "Reminds me why I liked her so much, she always did care about the students first."
"Snape didn't even mention that," Remus agreed.
Harry beamed with pride, while the others simply looked pleased.
Remus couldn't read all of that without half laughing through the whole thing.
James laughed boyishly, though the baby in his lap didn't seem to take notice as he was still eating eagerly. Grinning from ear to ear he said, "I feel I must applaud that, as I just had a very fond sense of Deja-vu myself of all of our awful excuses as to why she shouldn't take away points."
"Did they ever work?" Harry asked.
"Sometimes," Sirius said, eyes shining with his own remembrance. "Depends how much thought we put into it. Honestly, she might just let you get away with that one."
Remus read on gleefully, knowing one way or the other he was just as proud of Harry as his two friends.
"Oh yeah!" Sirius cheered, throwing his arms in the air. "He got away with it!"
Lily decided she couldn't be mad either, Harry just seemed so happy that he had made these boys day.
"I'll take that," Remus said with a shrug.
"Better than anything else that could have happened," James and Sirius agreed.
"Well that was depressing," James rolled his eyes, shifting baby Harry around a bit.
"That's probably true," Lily agreed.
"Like the rest of the school won't find out anyway," James snorted. "Didn't last year prove that?"
"Uh-oh," Sirius said, feeling like laughing.
"No one told them the new password!" Remus said, trying to fight back laughter himself.
"Do you suppose they did it on purpose?" James asked, smiling with mirth. "Remember that time we got back at daybreak one morning, and the password had changed overnight, and no one told
us? I swear McGonagall had done that one on purpose."
"How did you get in?" Lily asked.
"Slept out in the hallway," Sirius said with a shrug.
Lily pursed her lips, but she was trying hard not to laugh herself. Harry looked rather annoyed at all of them, he didn't think this was funny at all.
"I bet she was really confused during that train ride," Remus said. "She probably looked all over for them, and got really confused when she couldn't find them."
"Well, you weren't expelled," Sirius said lightly.
"Then you should have told them the point before you told them the password," Lily laughed.
"Wish we'd thought of it," the three pranksters said in reverence. Now that it was clear Harry wasn't really going to be punished for this stunt, they were as impressed as the rest of Gryffindor house with what they had done.
Sirius let out an extra loud laugh at that, saying, "They think they did it on purpose. Now they're jealous."
Lily rolled her eyes at the lot of them, but was smiling fondly as well. Harry at least seemed to be enjoying the attention the boys were giving him now.
"Thank Merlin for you noticing that," James said, as baby Harry finally seemed to be done, and so James scooped him up and put him on his shoulder to start burping him.
"Well she's clearly just as much fun to have around," Remus chuckled, remembering how she was at the start of last year.
"Glad you're going to enjoy this year more than last year," Lily sighed, hoping fervently the Whomping Willow was the worst thing she'd have to deal with.