Book 1: Nepenthe
Book 2: Halcyon
For those that survived the war and carried on, happiness was waiting for them just around the corner, they simply had to find it. For James Potter, it took a wrong turn to end him in the right place where he met Ren...
"Wh-where did you get this picture?" she asked pointing to one as James walked over with a knowing grin.
"Your brother gave it to me," James told her, leaving Renata to shake her head and mutter something under the lines of " of course he did" under her breath. "Come on, Ren, it's a beautiful picture, look how cute you are!"
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
James didn't understand why Renata fretted over the picture, but he believed it was just to the embarrassment of seeing childhood photos again. However, that was special as Adelmo had pointed out when he found it going through some things in his own flat. The photo had been taken at the grandmother's house when they were younger so that happiness displayed on Renata's face was genuine. They had no quarrels or issues with their grandmother and James remembered that Renata spoke fondly of her "Nonnina" when she visited Parma.
Since Renata didn't have anywhere near an ideal childhood in general, so to capture a moment where she appeared genuinely happy, James wanted to keep that and display it in their home, alongside pictures of Harry running about with a bright smile.
"You and Harry look adorable in your photos but..." she grimaced for a couple of seconds before looking back at the picture, " I remember that dress. I picked it out myself. I thought it made me look older. I had a pair of white gloves that I used to wear with it whenever I had lunch with Nonnina, thought we were so sophisticated. Thank goodness, I wasn't wearing the gloves when this was taken."
James chuckled before wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "I think you look beautiful, Ren, back then and now. You're just going to have to come to terms with the fact that you're a gorgeous person. Now, don't dwell on the pictures, go explore the rest of the home with Harry. Go look at the rooms!"
When Sirius walked over, he face was still a bit red from the hit, but he didn't seem to be in a foul mood as one would expect. He realised after the hit that it probably wasn't the best idea of his to jump out at Renata. Especially after all she had been through, jump out surprises probably weren't going to be a thing for quite some time. As Renata and Harry disappeared upstairs to explore further, Sirius glanced around before looking over in James' direction.
"So, when are you going to tell her that you modelled the living room after the Gryffindor Common Room?" he asked with a chuckle. "I see that you failed to mention that."
"Well, with the hope that Harry will get into Gryffindor, I'm just waiting for his first Christmas after he comes home from school and tells his mother all about how the Gryffindor Common Room is just like home."
"You're going to wait until Harry is eleven years old to pull that off?"
"Yes."
"I admire your dedication, Prongs," Sirius said with a shake of his head, " because I would not have the patience for that."
"And that's what separates the men from the boys."
