Hermione and the Watch Part 20

Lily looked up from her notes as she caught a flash of fire out of the corner of her eye. She stared at the white and blue phoenix holding a letter that was sitting on her table. “Is that for me?” she asked numbly, shocked almost into speechlessness.

Hedwig dropped the letter and pushed it toward her with her foot then nodded.

“I’m going to take that for a yes,” Lily said as she carefully reached over with a trembling hand and grabbed the letter, half expecting it to be a mistake. “Lily and James Potter…” she trailed off as she reread the names on the envelope to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. She turned and looked toward the kitchen. “James, we have a letter!”

“A letter?” Rose called out as she walked into the room from the bathroom, red hair still wet from her shower. “From whom?” she asked curiously, wondering why her mom was so excited.

Lily turned to look at her half dressed fourteen year old daughter. “No clue, I don’t recognize the writing or the phoenix, but this had to have come from the outside world!” 

“She’s beautiful!” Rose said as she saw Hedwig.

James walked into the living room and froze staring at the phoenix. “That’s certainly not Fawkes.”

Lily opened the envelope and pulled the letter out, leaving the photographs in the envelope for the moment. “Dear Mum and Dad, if this reaches you…” she trailed off as she glanced at the bottom of the letter where it was signed Harry James Potter. “It’s Harry!”

“Go on, read the rest,” he encouraged eagerly. 

“My brother has a phoenix?” Rose asked in disbelief.

“No idea, he might have just talked him into sending a message,” Lily replied as she as she read the P.S. at the bottom of the page. “Apparently ‘her’ name is Hedwig and she’ll wait a couple hours for us to send a reply.”

“Nice work, son,” James said proudly.

Lily went back to the top and started reading again, “I’d like to report that I’m in good health and that I just found out that you might be alive. Petunia said you and Dad died in a car crash… What the hell was he doing anywhere near Petty?!”

“I thought you said she was a bitter bitch that hated magic?” Rose asked.

“I’m not sure I ever said it in those exact words but yes, she was jealous and more than a little bitter about not having magic. Not that I blame her for that part.”

“Don’t forget horrible taste in men,” James added, recalling his thankfully few encounters with Vernon.

“Sadly,” Lily muttered then continued reading, “It wasn’t until I got to Hogwarts that I found out Voldemort had killed you or at least that was what everyone said. Hermione said that I needed to give you an overview of my life at Hogwarts, so here goes. First year was normal enough other than people thinking I was responsible for killing Voldemort, at least if you ignore the evil Defense teacher that wanted to kill me and the fact that he was possessed by Voldemort. Oh, I also got on the Quidditch team in first year Dad, youngest Seeker in years.”

“What the hell?” Rose asked, wanting a bit more elaboration on the evil Defense teacher.

“He made seeker?” James asked enthusiastically.

“That’s what you focus on?” Lily asked with a touch of exasperation.

“I haven’t flown on a proper broom in fifteen years,” James complained, “and we already know he’s fine or he couldn’t have sent the letter.”

Lily shook her head then continued reading, “Second year was a bit less amusing on account of the 1,000 year old magical snake that was using the pipes to get around the school and petrify people. Luckily looking at a reflection of a basilisk only petrifies them. Don’t worry, no one died, other than the snake. Apparently getting a sword stabbed into the roof of your mouth is a bad thing, who knew. And on a related note, I got a pretty cool sword.” She sighed. ”Great, he inherited your sense of humor.”

James shook his head. “I’d like to think I know how to mix truth and lies dear into a believable story. His story is a little over the top.”

“My brother is awesome!” Rose stated enthusiastically.

Lily shook her head, knowing that Rose had built up an image of a rockstar older brother that Harry would have a hard time living up to. “Third year I found out that an insane mass murderer named Sirius Black had escaped Azkaban and was after me.”

“What the hell?!” James sputtered.

“Apparently they thought he was the secret keeper,” Lily grumbled then continued. “Thankfully we figured out that he wasn’t a mass murderer, jury is still out on his sanity, yes that’s a joke. Remus Lupin was also the first decent Defense teacher we had. Hermione said I should also tell you he taught me how to create a patronus to deal with the horde of dementors Fudge assigned to the school. Yeah, not my favorite Minister ever.”

“Dementors?” Rose asked curiously.

“Foul soul sucking wraiths,” Lily replied, more than a little horrified that they were anywhere near the school. “Fourth year we had an insane Death Eater pretending to be Mad Eye Moody for our Defense teacher and Fudge and a couple idiots decided that bringing back the Triwizard tournament was a good idea. Neat you ask? It might have been if they hadn’t canceled Quidditch for the year and if a certain insane teacher hadn’t tossed my name in the Goblet of Fire and tried to kill me. Don’t worry, I survived. I’m also supposed to tell you that I should have just invited Hermione to the dance to start with.”

“Must be his girlfriend,” Rose mused. “Hopefully there’s a picture of her as well.”

“Probably,” Lily agreed. “I got attacked during the summer by dementors near my aunt’s house and put on trial for underage magic for defending myself. We got stuck with an evil bitch of a Defense teacher thanks to Fudge, a Ministry flunky named Dolores Umbridge.”

“That’s not nice,” Rose muttered.

James snorted. “I’ve met the woman, I’d rather set her on fire than let her near children.”

“Ah, one of those?” Lily asked.

“Pretty much. Did Albus get rid of her?”

Lily snickered as she read the next part. “You could say that. Thankfully she went insane and they had to replace her with Nymphadora Tonks which is a much better teacher as far as I’m concerned.”

“I wonder how he managed that,” James mused.

“What makes you think it was his fault, Dad?” Rose asked.

“It’s what I would have done if we’d ended up with Umbridge for a teacher.”

Lily glanced at Hedwig then continued reading, “Enjoy the pictures and send a reply, I’m driving myself a little crazy wondering if you’re alive and if I have any siblings. Rather short on details.”

“I wouldn’t be all that forthcoming in my first letter either,” James pointed out. “You can either try and get things perfect, driving yourself nuts, or quickly get in contact and then expand on things as you get to know them.”

“Let’s see the pictures!” Rose exclaimed enthusiastically.

Lily set the letter down and carefully pulled the pictures out of the envelope.

“That snake looks huge!” Rose blurted as she saw a boy that looked a lot like her father standing next to a massive partially decomposed snake, a broadsword on his shoulder. 

“What was that you were saying about lies?” Lily asked with amusement.

“I might have been mistaken,” James admitted as he looked at the massive basilisk.

Lily flipped the photograph over and looked at the back. “Harry, next to the basilisk he killed in second year. What the hell?”

“Damn, best brother in the world,” Rose bragged smugly. 

Lily looked at the collection of redheads in the next picture then flipped it over and read the names on the back. “Looks like he found a group of Weasleys.”

“We should show this one to Gideon and Fabian, they’d get a kick out of seeing their niece and nephews or at least some of them.”

Rose grinned as she saw a picture of Harry with his arm around a gorgeous girl with bushy hair. “Nice taste.”

“No stealing your brother’s girlfriend,” Lily replied absently as she looked through the rest of the photos that seemed to be taken from various years at Hogwarts.

“I’d share,” Rose replied with a pout. “Okay, seriously I wouldn’t do that, Mum.”

Lily shook her head.

“But seriously, is there Veela blood somewhere in our bloodline you’re not telling us about Dad?” Rose asked as she saw a picture of two drop dead gorgeous girls with red hair on either side of Harry. “They can’t all be Harry’s girlfriends…” she trailed off as Harry’s image moved his hands to the girls’ behinds. “Or maybe they can?”

James frowned slightly as the girls blew a kiss at Rose. “The girls look vaguely familiar.”

“Most of the people in the wizarding world are related, everyone looks familiar after a while,” Lily said as she flipped the picture over and looked at the back. “Selena and Beth, Harry’s other girlfriends. Same tidy handwriting that doesn’t match Harry’s handwriting.”

“At least he looks happy,” Rose grinned as she spotted another picture of a cute blond haired girl with a lion’s head hat. “How many girlfriends does he have?”

James laughed. “I’m not sure if I should be proud or just laugh at his situation.”

“Probably both,” Lily said as she looked through the pictures. “Is that a shot of the paper?”

“Yep, proof that he won the Triwizard tournament,” James said smugly. “Not that we needed it with Frank catching a recording of the announcement.”

Lily glanced at Hedwig. “We should probably figure out what to send back. It might take a couple minutes to find a picture with the girls in clothes that are considered decent enough for the prudish wizarding world.”

“Overrated, that’s what sunblock charms are for,” Rose replied as saw a picture of her brother catching the snitch in his quidditch gear. “If he can send a letter, he can figure out a way to come here before another decade or two, right?” she asked hopefully.

“That would be nice,” James agreed as he saw a picture of a boy that looked like Frank and Alice Longbottom. He flipped the picture over. “Neville Longbottom, always has our backs when it matters. That sounds like Frank and Alice alright.”

“Should I track down the twins and triplets while you get started writing a response?” Rose asked, fairly sure they’d still be at the beach.

Lily said, “Thanks, Dora and Bell would scream bloody murder if they had a chance to send a letter to Harry and we didn’t tell them.”

“Most likely,” Rose replied as she headed outside of the stone tower to find her sisters.

“Hopefully this is just the first letter,” James said, wanting to get a chance to know their son, even if it was just through letters.

0o0o0

Sirius groaned as he woke up with a bit of a hangover and someone banging on his door. “What?”

“Are you decent?” Remus called out as he let his arm drop now that he’d gotten a response.

Sirius glanced down at his missing shorts then at the naked girls in his bed. “As much as always, why?”

Selena whispered as she gently draped her leg over Sirius’s crotch, “There, perfectly decent now.”

Beth snickered as she leaned against Sirius.

“Tonks is downstairs…” Remus trailed off as he opened the door and saw a couple of vaguely familiar looking naked girls on the bed with Sirius, all three of them sans clothing though thankfully one of the girls’ legs was blocking his view of Sirius’s junk. “What the hell?”

“Relax, it’s not like you haven’t walked in on me with a girl,” Sirius replied with amusement as he noticed the look of disbelief on his friend’s face.

Beth frowned slightly as she looked at Remus. “Doesn’t that mustache look familiar?”

“Just like the picture of Dad,” Selena agreed as she sat up to get a better look at his face.

Remus’s mind derailed as he realized why the girls looked familiar. “Shit, is your mother’s name Elizabeth?”

“Yep,” Beth agreed.

Remus snapped his eyes shut. “I’m going to murder you Sirius.”

“Why?” Sirius asked in confusion as he saw his friend’s expression go from disbelief to horrified. “What’s got your panties in a bunch Remus?”

“Wait, that’s actually his name?!” Selena blurted.

“Remus Lupin?” Beth asked in disbelief. “We just figured he’d given Mum a fake name.”

“Oh…” Sirius winced as he realized he’d just spent the night fucking his friend’s daughters. “In my defense, I didn’t know.”

“Would that have stopped you?” Remus asked in annoyance.

“Have you seen them?” Sirius defended himself, not at all sorry that he’d fucked the twins repeatedly after Harry had dropped them off. “I’m fairly sure Tonks was tempted and she’s straight.”

“More than a little bent and really good in bed,” Selena joked.

“You and Tonks?” Remus blurted.

“Yep, she’s awesome…” Selena trailed off suggestively, trying not to giggle.

“Just joking, we haven’t slept with Tonks,” Beth said, grinning. 

“We’re saving that for a special occasion,” Selena broke into a snicker as Remus fled the room with his fingers in his ears. “Too much?”

“You’re both evil, you know that right?” Sirius asked with amusement.

“If we’re already busted, we should invite Tonks up here so we have a chance to actually seduce her,” Beth mused.

“Considering I’m her cousin, pretty sure that would ruin your chances,” Sirius pointed out.

“We are sisters,” Beth pointed out, “that’s a lot closer than cousins.”

“Yeah, but you’re twins, there is a twin exception,” Sirius assured her.

“In that case, you should probably get dressed so that we can get something to eat,” Beth said as she bounced off the bed.

“Considering Remus is our father, we should probably get dressed if only to save what’s left of his sanity,” Selena pointed out.

“It’s far too late for that, he’s been a marauder for decades,” Sirius said with amusement. “Still, not a bad idea considering the Order is still using the ground floor and who wants to hear Molly screaming about scarlet women?”

“You mean redheads?” Selena asked with a snicker as she bounced off the bed and started looking for her clothes.

“Basically,” Sirius replied as he grabbed some clothes he was pretty sure were his.

0o0o0

Remus sighed in relief as the twins walked in wearing pants and shirts that looked respectable with Sirius following behind them. “Tonks was just telling me about her classes.”

“They’re not as fun as chasing down dark wizards, but the two paychecks are nice,” Tonks said, happy that she wasn’t on the detail that had to deal with the Knockturn alley thefts by the group the Ministry was calling the Wet Bandits, on account of the floors being so clean when they left that it looked like they’d washed them.

“Especially with the recent wave of thefts,” Remus agreed.

“It’s not like they didn’t deserve it,” Sirius pointed out as he walked over and sat down at the table.

“Considering the tanner used to buy our hides from Ralph, I can’t say I really care,” Beth said as she walked over and sat down next to Tonks.

Remus blinked then snapped, “What?! Your hides?”

“He some ancient Egyptian slave collars that granted increased regeneration, he used to skin us and then sell our skins to a tanner.”

Remus twitched as he had to force himself not to scream or shout, “Where can I find him?”

“The shop? Not sure, Harry mentioned it was dealt with. He took care of Ralph and Hermione got our collars off,” Selena replied as she walked over and sat 

“Took care of?” Remus asked warily.

“We didn’t ask for details, Harry just said that we wouldn’t have to worry about him anymore,” Beth replied, trying not to think about her time with Ralph.

“That was good enough for us,” Selena agreed.

“I’m going to assume that means he stunned him and turned him into the muggle authorities... “ Tonks trailed off as she realized there was a problem with the girls’ story. “Wait a minute, I’ve heard of those collars, she shouldn’t have been able to get them off.”

“That’s a good point,” Sirius admitted. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of them being removed without killing the person they were put on.”

“What can we say, she’s a genius in and out of bed,” Beth said with amusement.

“Can you not talk about your sex lives around me, please,” Remus muttered.

“It’s not like you haven’t had sex, a lot,” Sirius teased. “Back in school-”

Remus looked down his nose at Sirius. “If you start telling tales, I’ll start as well.”

“Right, so what were we saying?” Sirius asked with amusement, taking pity on his friend.

“You were talking about the collars that were impossible to be opened… seven impossible things, shit,” Tonks muttered, thinking about what Harry had said.

“Seven impossible things?” Remus asked warily. It was always a bad thing when a magic user quoted Lewis Carroll.

“Harry was flirting, I reminded him that I was a teacher and that nothing would come of it, he used a cheesy line from Alice and Wonderland about seven impossible things and got me to agree to a bet.”

Sirius laughed. “No godson of mine would take a bet like that unless he already had a solution, what was the bet?”

“I’d go on a date with him if he cured Remus’s lycanthropy,” Tonks lied, not wanting to go into the real bet if she didn’t have to.

“That’s a bit of a tall order but this is Harry we’re talking about, he’s been doing impossible things his whole life. He survived a killing curse to the head when just a babe, killed a 1,000 year old basilisk with a sword while in his second year, defied time itself to save me, drove off over one hundred dementors with a solid patronus, won the triwizard tournament at fourteen, defeated Voldemort in a duel in front of his followers... Yeah, are you sure you wanted to win that bet?”

“That still doesn’t explain how they managed to deal with the kidnapper without anyone hearing a whisper, what else haven’t we heard about?” Tonks asked warily, quickly changing the subject.

“Probably not all that much, most of their adventures were public knowledge around the school or at least versions of them,” Remus pointed out.

“Yeah, most of those stories involved Ron running his mouth. Would you involve him with anything you didn’t want him blabbing about?” Sirius asked with amusement.

“You mean like fucking a hot redhead that happens to be his sister?” Selena asked smuggly.

Remus blinked. “Wait, him and Ginny?”

“Oh yeah,” Beth agreed happily. “On a coffee table, the sofa, the remains of the coffee table, in the shower in the Shrieking Shack, on Harry’s bed… well you get the idea.”

Selena snickered at the look on Remus’s face. “Don’t forget the hot tub with the five of us.”

“Or the orgy when we were playing strip poker with Luna, man is she flexible,” Beth added smugly.

“Enough,” Remus said, “Not those types of adventures, I mean rescuing people and doing dangerous stuff.”

“Like them confronting some annoying Ravenclaws that were harassing Luna?” Beth asked.

“Yes, stuff like that, nice and normal,” Remus requested.

“He didn’t mention that,” Sirius muttered.

“It wasn’t a big deal, they confronted them and then the group talked to Flitwick and that was the end of it as far as I know,” Beth explained.

“Well there was those huge spider legs he cooked up,” Selena mused.

“Giant spider legs?” Tonks asked warily.

“Hermione just said that some creatures needed to be instructed on how to behave properly around students,” Selena replied with a shrug.

“I’m fairly sure that Harry just wanted to work on his cooking skills,” Beth pointed out.

“Yeah, I have a feeling we’re going to have to talk to them about their adventures but first, you should probably fill Remus in on your lives as I get the feeling he didn’t know you existed,” Sirius said.

“I didn’t,” Remus agreed, “else I would have been involved in your upbringing, despite my curse.”

“Not going to be able to use that excuse for much longer,” Sirius said with a smirk.