Lionhearts | hp. ✓

Year 3 | Kissed By Shadows

     "Well, don't feel too bad. I was roundly disappointed the first time I went." Lupin carried on the previous conversations

     "Really?" Harry asked.

     "Liar." Lily accused.  They continued on their stroll and Lupin chuckled.

     "No. I was just trying to make you feel better. Honeydukes' sweets are the best in the world. Their Pepper Imps are so strong you smoke at the ears. And Zonko's Joke Shop may be dangerous, but you can't beat their Stink Pellets."

     Harry nodded glumly, "Not to mention The Shrieking Shack, which, according to Hermione, is the most severely haunted building in Britain."

     "Yes, that too..."

     "Professor, can I ask you something?" Harry asked.

      "You'd like to know why I stopped you from facing the Boggart." He continued off of Harry's surprise, "I should think it'd be obvious. I assumed the Boggart would take the shape of Lord Voldemort."

   As Harry frowned, Lupin noticed that Lily was deep in thought at his words, as if she were trying to figure something out.

     "But clearly... I was wrong."

     "I did think of Voldemort first. But then, I remembered that night on the train... and the Dementors..."

     "Well, well. I'm impressed. That suggests that what you fear most of all is... fear." Lupin responded, "Very wise."

     "Before we fainted... we heard something." Harry spoke, glancing at Lily who joined the conversation. "We heard the same thing: a woman. Screaming."

     "Dementors force us to relive the worst memories of our lives. Our pain becomes their power."

     "Lily thought...." Harry began. Lupin looked at her and she let out a sigh, as she stared off of the bridge and at the view. think it was my mother. 

      "It was our mother. They were her screams from the night she was murdered." She spoke up. Harry looked up and found Lupin was studying them.

     "The first time I saw you two, I recognized you immediately. Not by your scar, Harry, but your eyes. Not to mention you look exactly like your father when we were your age." He said and looked at Lily, "Lillian, you were named after your mother because you were her spitting image; the red hair and her eyes, which you both share."

     They looked at him and he smiled, nodding.

     "Yes. I knew her. She was there for me at a time when no one else was. We used to talk for hours. She was not only a singularly gifted witch but an uncommonly kind woman." He smiled, his eyes glazing in memory, "She had a way of seeing the beauty in whoever she met, even -- and perhaps most especially -- when that person couldn't see it in themselves..." He then looked at Lily who averted her gaze again.

     "Which perhaps explains her affection for your father. James had, shall we say, a certain talent for trouble." He brightened the mood, "A gift, rumor has it, he passed on to you two."

     He turned and eyed the twins vaguely, to which Harry and Lily. replied with a vague smiles.

     "I could tell you stories -- and there are many about your parents -- but know this..." He eyed them intensely, "They lived. Every moment of every day. You should know that. That's how they'd want to be remembered."

     Harry and Lily looked at each other, but Lily was the first to look away as she became lost deep within her thoughts once more.

⚯͛ ⚯͛ ⚯͛ ⚯͛ ⚯͛