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...
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In the presence of greatness, Renata found herself feeling quite nervous as she was introduced to Minerva McGonagall. It had nothing to do with the semi-permanent expression of sternness that was on the other woman's face, but rather the fact that Renata had heard so many good things about her, that it left her feeling small in comparison. She had heard many stories from James and Sirius when it came to the professor that had nearly made a career at Hogwarts serving them detention and attempting to keep them in line. But Remus told her multiple times, that they all had nothing but respect for McGonagall and as Sirius claimed, she was their mother away from home.
"It's an honour to meet you," Renata said as she welcomed Minerva inside the restaurant, offering her to take any seat that she liked. Minerva's brows raised at the idea of someone being honoured to meet her, and yet, the warm wave of flattery washed over her as she took a seat. Almost instantly, Remus, Sirius, and James joined her at the table and the way they smiled at her and the way she tried to hide her own smile from them, they truly did look like three boys sitting with their mother.
But of course, Renata didn't have all the time to sit around as she wanted to, simply because she did have a business to run, but she promised she would be back as she welcomed other people inside. Soon enough they would be reaching their occupation limits, but it meant that the restaurant was full and no matter how busy it was, it made Renata happy. She made her rounds to every table to make sure everyone was content, glancing over so often to catch sight of James and Minerva talking to one another.
At one point, James pointed in Renata's direction and she had caught it, bringing her to blush like mad before turning her head in the opposite direction. Eventually, Harry wanted to know who was the other woman outside of his mother that had gained his father's attention. However, he was too shy to venture over on his own right away as he reached out and grabbed Renata's hand. She didn't even realise that she was being pulled in their direction until she was close enough with Harry that she couldn't just turn away.
James looked up with a wild grin as he invited Harry to come sit with them and of course, he told Renata to just take a few minutes and sit down as well. Harry didn't take his father up on the offer of sitting on James's lap as it was too close to the stranger but he agreed to sit in Renata's lap to partake in the conversation.
For a moment, Minerva found herself quietly observing the three, thinking back to the last time she had seen Harry in person, he was less than a year old and had been resting in Lily's arms. She could see just how much time had past with Harry nearly going on four years old and as he sat in Renata's lap, he was whispering in her ear while looking in Minerva's direction. He wore glasses already, similar to his father, and he appeared quite content as Renata started to whisper back to him.
They appeared to be one little happy family and Minerva couldn't help but feel a sense of bittersweetness. Lily had been one of her top students, a beautiful and brilliant witch, and it had been such a devastating loss when she had been killed. However, to see that James had found happiness and that Harry was being looked over, it filled her heart with joy. She had heard plenty about Renata Abate, but most of it came from glances over the magazines and papers sold in Hogsmeade.
