Jupiter | Harry James Potter

xxiii ; the photo

"There's Sirius right in the center."

Seeing Sirius in the photo made my eyes light up. He was not nearly as skinny, and he was dressed in a large leather jacket and jeans. His black curls were tamer than they were yesterday, and he had a small choker around his neck.

"Marlene McKinnon. The woman that taught me to heal myself after a moon. She died a few weeks before Lily and James." He said, his finger on the woman below Mary. Marlene had a fake blonde shag cut, and a short-sleeved gray t-shirt.

There was one more woman in the photo.

"Isla Romano. Your mother." Lupin sighed, handing me the photo. She had long, brown hair that reached past her leather jacket. She was crossing her arms and looking in the same direction as Marlene. I tried to think of what they could've been talking about before the photo.

It wasn't moving, since it looked like they were in Muggle London, but I could still feel the magic within the portrait.

"Thank you, Professor." I said, holding the photo like it would break if I made one wrong move.

"Treat it well." Lupin smiled as he stood in the doorway, holding his suitcase again. "That's the Marauders." He turned and headed down the stairs.

"He was supposed to be my dad." I sighed to Harry, watching the doorway he left out of.

"That's odd. I can't see it." Harry shrugged as he stared at the photo in my hands.

"If I try hard enough I can." I said.

"You know, I would've fought you for this if it didn't have your mum in it." Harry said, giving the photo one last look before he went over to the closed map on the desk.

"Yeah, I know." I laughed. I thought about putting the photo in my pocket, but I chose not to. A part of me wanting to keep the photo in my hand for as long as possible. It seemed to be the closest to my mother that I would ever get.

"Your mum's really pretty." Harry said as he picked up the map and threw it in his messenger bag. "You look just like her, you know."

"You think?" I asked. I could feel my face heating up again, but not in the same way Professor Lupin had caused it to.

"Yeah. You're pretty much identical." Harry said, grabbing my wrist to see the photo. He didn't try to take it from me. "Right down to the eyes. Now come on, we've got a train to catch."

-

"I went to see Professor McGonagall while you two were at Lupin's. I've decided to drop Muggle Studies." Hermione said as we found a compartment on the train. Luckily, there were no teachers inside this one.

"But you passed your exam with a three-hundred and twenty percent!" Ron gawked as he let himself fall onto the cushioned seats.

"I know." Hermione sighed irritably as she sat next to him. "But I can't have another year like this one. That Time Turner was driving me mad. I've handed it in. Without Muggle Studies and Divination, I'll be able to have a normal timetable again." Hermione had dropped Divination a few minutes after I broke the crystal ball and ran out.

"I still can't believe you didn't tell us about it." Ron pouted, crossing his arms like a toddler. "We're supposed to be your friends."

"I promised I wouldn't tell anyone." Hermione said. "Oh, cheer up, Harry!"

Harry, who was sadly watching Hogwarts fade from view, quickly snapped back to reality. "I'm okay. Just thinking about the holidays. Speaking of which, Jo, where are you gonna live? I could ask the Dursleys', I reckon once I tell them about Sirius, they'll be too scared of me to say no."