Harry Potter and the Return of the Parents

Chapter 8: Murderers and Mirrors

He came to a halt in front of the wardrobe door, on which teen Sirius had pinned a static muggle poster of a mostly-nude woman posing on a large motorbike.

"Got to question your taste though" he said, smirking. Sirius responded with mock-indignation.

"I don't know what you are talking about," he said. "I'm perfectly entitled to have innocent pictures of motorbikes on my bedroom wall."

"It was the motorbike I was referring to." James winked shamelessly. "I don't see anything wrong with the woman." He chuckled as Sirius shook his head in disapproval.

"Now, now, Jimmy-boy. You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

"I kiss your mother with this mouth" came the reply from deep within Sirius's wardrobe, into which James had ventured at the sight of a quidditch poster.

***

James extricated himself from the wardrobe and made his way over to the desk at which Sirius was sat. There was a photograph on the wall behind him – the only one James could see – which Sirius seemed to have been staring at when he came in. He bent down to have a closer look, Sirius sliding back and out of his way, and realised that he recognised it.

In it, four boys in school uniform stood together in the Hogwarts grounds. It had been taken on a beautiful day, and the sunlight captured by the camera fell across the boys' laughing faces and silhouetted them slightly against the glittering lake behind. James himself was stood in the centre, young and care-free as only a child can be. To his left was Remus, uniform familiarly shabby and ever-present tiredness on his face. In this moment, however, the young boy looked as relaxed as James ever remembered seeing him, the delight on his face overshadowing its weariness. James remembered with a twinge of his heart how he used to love seeing his friend wear that expression, especially when he could know he was partly to credit. From the look of the Remus he had met today, the man probably hadn't smiled like that in fourteen years; longer, even, because James knew first-hand how trying those years initial years after Hogwarts had been. Even his apparent euphoria at the Potters' return had been unable to completely shift the downtrodden and so completely exhausted look that blunted Remus' eyes.

On James' other side – leg cocked casually, elbow resting on James' shoulder – was Sirius, confident grin leaning just slightly towards an arrogant smirk, as it always had in those days. James used to know every one of those smiles, as though he had unconsciously catalogued them in his head. Arrogant smirks, mischievous smirks, the smirk he wore when taunting Snape or when he got defensive. The charming smile he used to get out of trouble, the instantaneous grin when one of his friends amused him. The canine laughter, always coming out in snorts or barks or uncontrollable howls. And then there was the holy grail, what James had privately christened his 'Marauder smile', because it only ever appeared after a full-moon out in the grounds with Remus. It was his carnal smile, nigh-unshakeable in the first few moments after returning to human form, when they were still high from the adrenaline of the night, and his eyes were still slightly feral and his grin showed just a few too many teeth. Sirius' face was stiffer now, out of practice, and James wondered whether he wouldn't have to start a new catalogue for frowns.

He finally dragged his gaze across to Sirius' other side to where Peter stood, small and mouse-like, even in human form. Peter always had been the slightly sore thumb, more nervous, more timid than his peers. But James had always thought that difference was what made them so strong; Peter's odd-ball nature was part of the group, as much as Remus' quiet intelligence and Sirius' spontaneity. He had never for a moment thought Peter might have felt as out of place as some thought he looked. Was that their fault, James wondered? Could he have done more, to let Peter know he belonged, he was loved? Perhaps he had only been fooled by the contentment on picture-Peter's face, the smile that said Don't worry, I'm happy. I won't betray you.