"I'll arrange rooms for you first," Little Sirius said to them, "Come on, follow me—"
They made their way up the stairs; it's fair to say that the Black family house is quite large, and at least, allocating a room per person isn't a problem.
"I have no objection!" Walburga's portrait shouted loudly, "I don't mind letting Mr. Potter have the master bedroom either!"
"Thank you, ma'am." Harry nodded politely in response.
Which made Walburga immensely pleased.
Even as a ghost, Pabi was assigned a room; as for Harry and the others, there's no need to mention, even if the master bedroom wasn't assigned, there were still enough rooms for each of them to have one.
Vivi said nothing, but her expression clearly showed that she was up to something.
Just as Little Sirius emerged from a room, he came out waving a crumpled piece of parchment.
"Harry, Harry," he said excitedly, "Look what I found— look."
Harry took the parchment; it was a handwritten letter, with elegant handwriting, which read:
[Dear Bigfoot,
Thank you, thank you for the birthday gift you gave to Harry! It's his favorite toy. Even at just one year old, he's already flying around on the toy broom. He looks so happy. I'm attaching a photo for you to see. You know the little broom can only hover two feet off the ground, but Harry nearly managed to crash into the little cat and almost broke a hideous vase, which Penny gave me as a Christmas gift (not complaining). Of course, James finds it all very amusing, saying that this child will be the next Quidditch star, but we had to pack away all the ornaments and keep a constant eye on him while he flies.
We had a very quiet birthday tea party, with only Old Bashida in attendance. She's always been so good to us and especially dotes on Harry. It's a pity you couldn't come, but Phoenix Society comes first, besides Harry is too young to understand birthdays! Being cooped up here, James feels a bit stifled, although he tries not to show it, I can tell— the Invisibility Cloak is still with Dumbledore, so he can't sneak out. If you could visit, he'd be so happy. Little Worm came over last weekend, and he seemed a bit down, but maybe it's because of the news about the McKinnon. I cried all night after hearing it.
Bashida often comes by; she's a fascinating old lady with so many stories about Dumbledore, it's truly unimaginable. I don't know if he'd be pleased to hear them! Honestly, I don't know how much to believe, it's hard to trust Dumbledore.
Lily]
Harry felt as if he'd been hit with a heavy blow; he never thought he'd see a letter written by his mother.
Since he can remember, aside from the memories in the Meditation Basin, this was the closest he had come to his mother.
He read the letter again, just gazing at the handwriting was enough to satisfy him.
"What are you looking at?"
Vivi leaned over, pressing against Harry's back, her warm breath brushing against his neck.
But Harry couldn't be bothered with the charming scene behind him; all his attention was on his mother's letter.
"Oh, it's Lily's letter." Vivi reached out to ruffle Harry's hair but said no more, simply accompanying him in reading the letter from behind.
Little Sirius took a deep breath when he heard Vivi's reference to Lily.
A naturally wicked Slytherin girl!
Ha, calling Lily directly like that…
I must get hold of the Resurrection Stone! Let Lily see what kind of woman Harry has chosen as his daughter-in-law!
I must let Lily see the wickedness of this Slytherin girl!
"This is Mom's handwritten letter."
After a long while, Harry exhaled, rubbed his eyes, and said, "I've never seen a letter she's written before, the closest I've been to her was seeing her in the Meditation Basin…"
"You've seen her in the Meditation Basin?" Little Sirius asked suspiciously, then realized, "Oh, I know, it was by the Black Lake that time, right? Fork and I suspended Old Snot Spirit to see his filthy underwear that time—hey, you don't know how embarrassed Old Snot Spirit was, that was also the beginning of his complete falling out with Lily…"
"I recall he went to the Gryffindor common room looking for Lily afterwards, but was severely scolded by her—"
"Lily wasn't like that, Mr. Black." Vivi smiled, "Your account is a bit exaggerated, she merely, politely, distanced herself from Professor Snape—"
"How do you know?" Little Sirius leaned back tactically.
Vivi held Harry from behind, resting her chin on his left shoulder and flashed a playful smile at Little Sirius.
"Guess?"
Even if you beat Little Sirius to death, he would never have guessed that Lily personally told Vivi about this incident.
"They had a cat." Harry sighed, saying to Vivi, "See that? It says there that when I was little, I almost crashed into the cat while riding a broom… Just don't know where that cat is now; I didn't see it in Voldemort's memory, maybe it ran away?"
"It's possible." Little Sirius said, "But if the cat ran away, it ran away, I never liked it; despite Lily being so good to it, it used to get mad at her, once it nearly scratched her."
"If it were my cat, it might have been taken away by Death God already." Vivi snorted.
"Taken away by Death God?" Harry tilted his head and asked.
"Don't you get it?" Little Sirius said in a serious tone, "A wicked Slytherin like her would definitely use an Avada Kedavra on that poor kitty!"
"What else?" Vivi laughed softly and brushed her nose against Harry's cheek, "The Avada Kedavra spell doesn't inflict any pain on its victims, isn't that a form of humanitarianism?"
Little Sirius suddenly found himself speechless at that.
She makes such a valid point that I have no words to counter…
"That spell is very evil!" Little Sirius tried to save face, "You can only use it with lethal intent…"
"What else did you think, that you were going to do it with love and peace?" Vivi looked at him inexplicably, "You're a Black, don't tell me I have to teach you such a principle?"
Little Sirius took a deep breath…
"Little Worm?" Harry interrupted the argument between Little Sirius and Vivi, "There's talk about that traitor here, isn't it? Peter Pettigrew… I saw in my mom's memory that she liked to call him Little Worm, and she liked to call you Banban—"
At Harry's words, Little Sirius's expression softened immediately.
"That did happen." He nodded, "We all liked him at the time… hmm, Lemy said it well—Lily did indeed raise four sons—me, James, you, and then there's that disgraceful traitor…"
"Maybe by then, he was already betraying my parents." Harry sighed, "Seeing him depressed at the time, I think it must have been due to this— fearing mom would find out he joined the Dark Demon King, isn't that why he was so despondent?"
"Long before you were born, that traitor had already sided with the Dark Demon King." Little Sirius said fiercely, "But no one ever imagined he would betray James and Lily! Yet he wouldn't face any harm! We never let him participate in any battles… We knew he was cowardly…"
When Little Sirius mentioned Peter Pettigrew, he seemed to lose control of his emotions, cursing and hitting the wall, then turned and headed for his bedroom—as if intending to erase every trace of Peter Pettigrew.
Meanwhile, Vivi paid no mind to Little Sirius; she was entirely focused on planning that night's surprise attack—
She simply had to spice up the Mind Sealing Spell practice for Cassandra and Harry! she thought with relish.
(Seeking monthly votes)