Chapter Text
Sirius was the first to arrive, and the children piled around the exhausted auror who smiled and laughed with them. Telling them stories and playing games with them seemed to tire them out. James set them up in the guest wing, sharing the largest between seven children.
Cake and popcorn were sent up for them as snacks while they played whatever board games or card games via house-elf, Snappy. Soon after, Remus joined them as they made their way to the lounge room to relax.
Sirius slumped down into the couch between Remus and James, letting out a bone tired sigh. Remus smirked and ruffled his hair but James’ mind was far-away, lingering on Severus.
“How was work, buddy?” Remus asked Sirius, who shifted so that his head was on Remus lap and legs on James lap.
“Well, good and not good,” Sirius said with an air of exasperation. His lips pursed as he contemplated his own words,
“Actually, it’s fucking shite.” James looked at him and Remus with knitted brows.
“Can’t be Deatheaters. For the most part, they’re all dead and gone.” James said, matching Sirius' exhaustion as any man who’d spent a day wrangling twelve and eleven year olds.
“Nah man, worse.” Sirius let out another sigh as Remus stroked his hair.
“I can’t tell you, either way, but you’ll hear about it tomorrow. Anyway, how was your day, Remus? James?” Sirius asked,
“Mine was normal. Work was alright, we had more clients than usual today and Lady Malfoy stopped by the café. Did you know Snape moved in with them?” Remus asked the room and Sirius sat up, knocking Remus in the chin.
“What? No way,” Sirius said,
“Yeah, that makes sense. Snape dropped Draco off this morning. I figured something like that must’ve happened.” James answered
“Wait, James we’ll get back to that anyway, what else did she say, Moony?” Remus shot James a questioning look as he carried on,
“Snapes home is being modified and it’s uninhabitable so he’s staying there for a few months while they work on it.” Sirius frowned at him as he righted himself in the seat.
“Shouldn’t take that long, just a flick of the wrist and it’ll be right as rain in days.” Remus smirked at Sirius' general disconnected understanding of muggle society.
“No, muggle dwellings have a lot more bureaucracy surrounding ‘em.” Remus explained before turning back to James.
“So Snape was over this morning, anything interesting happen?” Remus asked as Sirius turned to face James too. James let a slow grin fill his face as he recalled the events of the morning.
“Yeah actually. It was bloody awkward but I guess you could say we cleared the air a bit.” Sirius leant forward motioning his hands for James to continue as Remus stood to pour himself a drink.
“Turns out, we didn’t influence Snape's decision to leave.” James said,
“Fuck off, the letter,” Sirius said when James interrupted him.
“Means shit all. Snape told me this morning he had to move anyway. After his dad died, he had no more living relatives in the UK. So he moved to France with his mum’s side of the family,” James laughed as Remus brought back a glass of firewhiskey for the other two men and himself.
“Yeah, so he moved to France and transferred schools. The letter was apparently a last ditch effort to get back at Lily.” James chuckled at the looks on their faces,
“That, but. All this time, all this, this guilt I’ve been carrying. What for?” Sirius said as James shrugged. Remus sat down again.
“We should have seen it coming, I’m sure Headmaster Dumbledore would’ve made an announcement if something did go seriously wrong,” At those words, Sirius face became bitter,
“Would he?” James asked,
“He didn’t do anything when we inflated Bertrams’ head that one time.” Sirius only nodded at James' words and Remus frowned.
“Well, he announced every time a student lost family during the disappearances. You know, like Marlene.” Remus said,
“Right, but that was after Snape left. Anyway, I asked if he wanted to hang out sometime and catch up, proper. He said it’d be fine sometime.” James said,
“Are we included? Do you think he would mind seeing us?” Sirius asked
“I didn’t ask, sorry Padfoot. I’ll ask next time.” Remus smirked,
“Well, now what? I don’t really know what to feel anymore. All this remorse I’ve built up over the years has nowhere left to go, do I still apologise to him or do I just move on?” Sirius asked no one in particular,
“We should still apologise, even if he hasn’t been carrying a torch of revenge all these years. It won't hurt to say it anyway. Who knows, maybe he won’t forgive us,” Remus stated morbidly,
“Shit, I don’t remember if I said sorry or not.” James said with wide eyes. His posture was rigid with tension.
“Set a date, get in touch and ask him to dinner. We can all go.” Remus said, James and Sirius both perked up, twin grins painting their faces.
“Damn, that makes my job harder then,” Sirius said, rolling his neck and shoulders.
“Why?” James asked, suspiciously.
“What can you tell us about that?” Remus asked.
“All I can tell you is that it involves Peter.” Both James and Remus stiffen at the mere mention of his name. The traitor, Peter Pettigrew.
Peter wasn’t an outsider, like most believed. The duffer, the hanger-on or even the suck-up. Peter was for all intents and purposes, their friend. Who laughed and joked, who spent full moons with them. He knew all there was to know about James, Sirius and Remus.
He stood by James' side and cried in sync at Fleamont and Euphemia’s funeral. An anchor just like the other two men. So when Lily died that fateful night, on October 31st, 1981, James couldn’t believe Peter would do that. The reality of it was abominable. And yet, that was the truth. With resignation, James stood.
“I can’t deal with this tonight, sorry guys. I’m off to bed.” With that, James left the room and headed off to bed. Whatever it was, he'd know in the morning.