Hiraeth

8

"So.... How are you two doing?"

"We're doing good, thanks for asking, Briar. How are you?"

"I'm good, a little shocked. But you know." she replied back to the redhead woman that was now sitting with her husband on the chairs next to the sofa.

"This is very awkward so I'm gonna ask. Are you going to explain or should we move on?" Briar announced, breaking the very uncomfortable silence.

"Are you fine with us not explaining it?" James asked, making Briar reply back saying "Yes, of course! It's your decision. You don't need to right now."

"Oh, well then, we won't be explaining right now," Lily said, still a little hesitant. After hearing this, Briar moved on and changed the topic. "Okay so... back to the photo album. Lily and James, I brought newspapers that I'm sure uncle Regulus will explain to you. But, let's look at the photo album." She opened the photo album keeping it in the middle while explaining the pictures, not realising this big grin that Regulus had on his face.

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"Oh, and this one is when I pranked Potter with Fred and George Weasley. The twins wanted to make his hair bright pink, hex the teachers and blame it on him, but we ended up changing all his clothes and hair to green, and whenever he said something bad about Slytherin house or one of the Slytherins it would turn into a compliment. So for the rest of the day, whenever he tried to talk to me, he would say things like "You're so pretty, Black' when instead, he wanted to say that I'm petty. He did start swearing in Minnie's class though.. which landed him detentions, so that was a bonus." She explained pointing to a picture which showed a very furious Harry, and a laughing Briar. However this explanation confused the potters.

"Wait.. aren't you and Harry friends?" James asked the girl.

"Oh, no. We hate each other. He thinks I'm a bitch and unworthy of love and Sirius. I think he's an attention-seeking whore, who stole my father from me. Or maybe Sirius just doesn't like me, but oh well! But in the end, we aren't friends." She replied back, not really caring for her language.

"Wait- what? What do you mean 'unworthy of love and Sirius' and 'attention-seeking whore, who stole my father from me'? I'm confused" and it was true. James and Lily looked really confused. So, Briar just decided to tell them the overview, not wanting them to hate their child.

"Well, when I was staying with Sirius, he preferred Potter over me and always ignored me because of him, and then called him 'the child he never had'- in front of me- by the way, and then we argued and I said a lot of stuff... and I left. And all while that, Potter didn't like me so he said some stuff." She explained briefly.

"What type of stuff did he say? What did you and Sirius fight about? And was Moony there? Did Moony stop Sirius?" James asked frantically.

"Listen. A lot happened.. and I don't want you to think anything bad about them. They're your best friends and Harry's your son. It was nothing. Let's move on" but when Briar said this, it caused James and Lily to fight back and they eventually convinced the girl to tell them everything, in return for them telling her how they lived.

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"- and basically we've always just hated each other. We have fights like everyday, but it's fine.
He just gets on my nerves when he says something bad about the Malfoys or Slytherins. They raised me and loved me. They think of me as their own child, and all the Slytherins have loved me like their sister. But he and his posse have to talk shit about them. And not just them, but he tried to talk to shit about uncle Regulus as well. Like bitch, shut the fuck up, he's in no position to say anything when he doesnt know anything except for the lies. I'm sorry to say this, but Lily and James, he kinda deserved what the Dursleys did to him."

"What did they do to him? Please tell me they treated him nicely!" Lily asked, face filled with concern.

"Okay I'm gonna be blunt. They gave him a small cupboard under the stairs to sleep in. Old clothes of Dudley, who is their son. Leftovers for food. They always scolded him. And they told him you died in a car crash." She told them remembering all the things he told everyone, gaining sympathy.

"Oh my god! I cant believe they would do that to him! I know they hate me but they could've at least treated Harry right. But I'm so sorry, Briar. I never thought Sirius would do that! And Moony didn't even stop him? I'm also sorry for Harry. I don't know what to say to you, but I'm really sorry briar!" Lily told her, reaching out to hold her hand.

"Oh no, it's fine, Lily. Obviously I was hurt, but it's fine now. I don't really care, I have my friends and I have the Malfoys. I have all I need." She replied, squeezing the redhead's hand, assuring her it was fine.

"No, it's not, Briar. I get that they hate the Malfoys.. but they took care of you. They're your family and Harry can't just insult them. I don't like the Malfoys either, but it doesn't mean I will insult them. Instead, I'm grateful to them for being your family and raising you to be such a strong woman." Regulus interjected into the conversation. His words made Lily and James nod their heads in agreement.

"It's fine. Now, let's move on." She dismissed them, giving Regulus a smile and turning to the Potters, expectantly.

"Okay, well, a few weeks before Halloween, Regulus reached out to us about the mole in the order." Lily started now holding James hand. "He told us that the betrayer was Peter and that he was telling you-know-who everything, which is why there were Death Eaters every time we went somewhere. We didn't believe him at first, but then, it started to make sense. Peter had turned Sirius and Remus against each other. He was the reason Fabian and Gideon were ambushed and murdered. He was the reason Dorcas, and Marlene were murdered. And he was going to get us murdered. We then sent a letter to Regulus and we then met up. Obviously, we had to meet in secret, so we met in America, in a safe house. He told us everything, and told us an approximate guess on when you-know-who would attack." Lily stopped again, taking a deep breath. James squeezed her hand and continued for her.

"We decided to have fakes. So we talked two wizards, who were already dying, and they agreed to do this for us, we basically had them act like us. We would take turns taking care of Harry. It was a one day thing. One day, they would take care of him and one day, we would. and when you-know-who came.. he murdered the man and woman, and he tried to do something with Harry, who was with them that day but I think he failed. We have stayed here with Regulus ever since we came back from that meeting with Reggie." He finished, sitting back, pulling Lily into his side.

"Well, that's a lot. Umm, I'm sorry you had to go through that. It must have been a shock to hear about what happened that night. I'm happy you two are alive. You seem like really nice people." She replied to the story before adding "But... does Dumbledore know about you three?" Before one of the potters could reply, Regulus did.

"No. He doesn't. And I don't want him to. He's going to ruin everything if he finds out. That's all he does." he said bitterly, getting a reply from Briar, which was "Agreed! He needs to stop butting into everything. We get it, you're Dumbledore, the ex-boyfriend of Grindelwald who is also probably the inspiration of you-know-who. But he needs to stop being such a biassed piece of shit."  She rambled on about her hatred for the old wizard. Shocking everyone In the room.

"Wait, Dumbledore dated Grindelwald?" James asked

"Yes, you didn't know? They were planning to take over the world, or something, but Dumbledore came back to his senses and dipped. They had this big fight and stuff, "Briar replied back.

"What? Dumbledores gay?" James burst out. "What no! We used to make jokes about him but we never knew he was actually gay?!? Why'd we never know?" At this point everyone was laughing at James, while he looked hurt and offended.

"Oh yeah he was a fruity little shit. Pretty sure still is" regulus replied to him coolly. "What! Even you knew?"

"Calm down James. Its okay most of Hogwarts children still don't know yet" she lied, comforting the grown man.

For the rest of the time, they looked through the photo album, while Briar explained everything to them. The three adults got to know a lot about the outside world, and about the young girl. All while Briar learned about their life. They made jokes and laughed with each other.

Okay so. Thoughts and stuff, have a good weekend -author :)