"Yeah," James agreed with a slight grin. "One of us could be Minister if we play our cards right!"

"Or famous!" Sirius shouted.

"Or a teacher!" Remus jumped in.

His two friends froze with disgusted looks on their faces. "Honestly Moony, I will never understand why you insist on wanting such a profession," Sirius muttered.

"Yeah, nothing but paperwork and listening to kids complain all day," James agreed.

"Unless he got cool students like us!" Sirius amended, with a touch of excitement. "Then they could help make life entertaining."

Remus paled slightly at the prospect of teaching children like the Marauders because he had firsthand experience what kind of disaster that could be. Harry said nothing; he was merely watching his family with rapt attention. The first chapter had struck a hard cord inside him, as he realized he would grow up away from these people. Did he want his memories back if his own parents weren't going to be in them? He never found a chance to raise these questions however, since his mother had decided to ignore the others and start reading.

Ten years have passed since the first chapter, and the Dursley's house hasn't seemed to change at all. The only thing marking the change of time was the pictures above the mantel, showing the years of Dudley.

"Really?" Lily asked curiously.

"I do hope that means that we finally got through to Dumbledore," Sirius said with a straight face, "and that Harry's living with us now," and he gestured towards Remus, who was shaking his head sadly.

"You, Sirius, he'd be living with you. Werewolves aren't allowed to adopt, you know that." Harry jerked once in shock, as he appraised the man sitting next to him, but after a brief moment he relaxed again and pretended he hadn't heard a thing. If wizards existed, why not other creatures as well?

The others had continued on in the conversation, obviously not realizing such a slip had been made.

"Still, I would be able to adopt him and you'd be living with us. I could use all the help I could get in raising a kid, and we all know how much smarter than me you are." Sirius had continued in a slightly sarcastic tone at the end at that old joke.

"True enough," Remus chuckled, then frowned. "Though I'm still worried, if Harry's no longer living there, why would they make such a comment at that last sentence?" With a heavy sigh, Lily read the next sentence.

Yet Harry was still there, currently asleep, but not for long.

"Damn!" Sirius snarled.

"Then why didn't we come and get him?" Remus wondered, and they all turned to Harry as if

expecting an answer. He however merely shrugged, as lost as them.

His Aunt Petunia was awake and she used her shrill voice to yell at him to get up, now!

"What a pleasant wake-up call," James said as he rolled his eyes.

Harry wakes up very suddenly, his Aunt seemed to have walked away for a moment as he hears the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove.

Remus quirked a brow in surprise at the comment as he thought, how thin was the walls in that house for Harry to have heard that?

Harry lay back for a moment and thought of the dream he'd been having, it was a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it.

"Wow, what a mind," Remus whistled. "To be able to remember that."

"I don't think he actually remembers," Lily shook her head. "Just his subconscious dredging up things."

"If only my memory was still that good," Harry sighed, rubbing his temple in agitation.

Then his aunt was back, demanding to know if he was up yet so that he could look after the food. It was Dudley's birthday, and Harry had to make sure not to burn anything.

That stopped Lily cold as she turned from the book to her son, "They made you cook? You were probably just ten, and they had you cook?" she demanded, eyes flashing.

"Maybe I like cooking," Harry shrugged, unable to come up with any other reason for this.

"What's the big deal?" Sirius shrugged. "If he can reach the stove he can get his own food, faster that way."

Lily groaned and James shot him a look that clearly said 'you're not helping.'

Harry groaned because he seemed to have forgotten this fact.

Harry jolted in surprise, suddenly having a horrid sense of Déjà vu, but why? Was Dudley's birthday a major event in his life, something that would help him? With high hopes he egged his mother to go on.

Harry got dressed and exited his bed, which happens to be in the cupboard under the stairs where he slept.

It took a moment for that to sink in, but once it did you'd think someone had died in the household. With a snarl of rage Lily dropped the book and lunged to her feet, as if she were intending to march to her sister's house with an army and tear every joint out of place, slowly. James didn't know what to think, was this some kind of sick joke? He reached down and picked up the book, determined to see this for himself. There were the words printed bold as brass upon the page. He too got up and made to go and curse those Dursleys to jelly for forcing his son to sleep in a cupboard. That was a place for shoes, not his son!

Remus and Sirius seemed to be more in shock, still reeling from the fact that they had not picked Harry up at the first moment. Where were they? Had something happened to them too? Perhaps the death eaters had killed them as well, but Dumbledore and McGonagall had not known yet, or

it had happened a short time later. It was a very surreal fact to realize you were going to die. Harry was just looking around the room in confusion;he did not really understand how or why they were so upset. Wasn't that normal?

Losing air in her lungs, Lily ceased spouting verbal abuse and strode towards the door, wand in hand. No one made a move to stop her, so Harry quickly got to his feet and stood in front of his mother with a pleading look. "It's okay, it hasn't happened yet. Or it already happened, or...oh never mind. The point is, can't do much about it now can you? I'm okay, and I doubt I was in there long. Maybe something was wrong with my room." He paused as he tried to remember this, and a vague memory of cramped and dark living conditions crept upon him, but nothing more than that.

James shook his head violently from side to side and said, "Harry, it said that was where you slept, and even if there was something wrong with your bedroom, you should share a room with your cousin before you slept in a bloody cupboard."

Feeling exasperated but unwilling to let his parents leave him, he cast his mind about for some other way to keep them here, until the baby started crying. He looked around in relief as little baby Harry kicked up a fuss in Sirius's grip, and Lily deflated as she rushed over to comfort him. James seemed to be teetering on edge, obviously wanting to go and right the wrong that had been done against his son, but looking into both of their faces; decided he couldn't leave, not quite yet.

With a sigh of relief Harry went back to the couch and sat between his parents again, and Lily transferred baby Harry to James while she got the book and went back to her place, while the older Harry sat rubbing at his temples. Just from the little he had read, a vague sort of feeling had come over him, along with the cramped feeling of before. How long had he lived in that cupboard? It must have been a while, if he could remember nothing more than that spacing. His mother, finally a little bit calmer, was ready to read on.

When he gets to the kitchen he sees the table hidden beneath Dudley's presents. Noticing a new computer, television, and racing bike.

When James opened his mouth to ask, Sirius quickly jumped in with, "Muggle stuff James. Don't ask."

The three all threw him surprised looks before James really did ask, "How would you know that?"

Sirius snorted and reminded them, "I did take Muggle Studies, remember?"

"But you actually paid attention?" Lily demanded, only half joking.

Sirius simply shrugged, enjoying their shock. "Sure, I took the class to piss me mum off. What better way than to get a NEWT in the class." Lily and Remus both rolled their eyes before Lily went on.

Harry silently wonders to himself why Dudley could want this last thing, as he was adverse to any form of exercise that didn't involve punching someone.

"Oh great," Lily sighed. "My son's going to grow up with a bully."

Dudley's favorite victim was Harry.

"Hey!" The boys all snarled, before James spoke. "Great, he not only grew up with a bully, but he's victim to him as well."

"I'm sure his parents at least try to prevent it," Lily said in a hopeful voice.

Remus snorted, unconvinced. "Please Lils, do you not remember where he sleeps?" Again, they all turned to Harry, like they wanted an answer, but he just shrugged. He vaguely remembered being knocked to the ground quite a bit, but not much else or who did it.

Harry describes himself as being small and skinny, and equates that to growing up in the dark cupboard.

Lily and James both pursed their lips at the reminder, while Sirius and Remus laughed. "Nope sorry kid, that's genes. Your father was a scrawny git when I first met him," Sirius snickered for Harry's benefit.

"Oi!" James snapped, but had no way to deny it.

Harry merely beamed as he realized he was even more like his father.

His stature seemed all the smaller because he only had clothes that once belonged to Dudley, a boy four times his size.

"Are you kidding me?" Lily yelped in anger. "They don't even buy him his own clothes?"

"That can't be right," Remus frowned. "What on Earth would the school think? One boy comes in looking prim, while the other looks half sick?" James and Sirius were fuming up a storm, both wanting answers and revenge but unclear of how to get it yet.

Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, and bright green eyes.

"A perfect combination of your parents that is," Sirius told him, managing to bring up a smile for the older Harry, who again couldn't help but beam with pride.

He wore round glasses held together with Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.

"Let me guess," Remus snarled. "Your Aunt and Uncle couldn't be bothered to ever get you new ones, or even bother to ask how they were broken?" Harry merely shrugged and tapped the tip of his glasses, deciding they were probably only mended now because he had fixed them himself with magic.

The only thing Harry seems to like about his own appearance was the scar upon his forehead. When he'd asked how he'd gotten it, his Aunt had told him 'in the car crash where your parents died.'

"What!?" shouted all of the adults in the room, outraged that Petunia would lie about something like that. The combined volume of their fury once again set the baby off, causing them to quiet down, though they were no less angry. Lily made to set the book down and reach for her son again, but James waved her off and cradled his son close, crooning to him and apologizing for startling him. Hickory heard the disturbance and slunk down from the mantle and crawled up onto James lap, settling himself close to Harry's face again. Once the cat's tail was back in his view, baby Harry started to giggle and attempted to grab at it, settling him down once more.

Now that all the shouting was done, Remus turned on the adult Harry and demanded, "You grew up for ten years thinking that your parents died in a car crash?"

Harry shrugged, unable to fully answer him with his fuzzy memories, but unwilling to admit that

he believed that was true. Sirius had a mad look on his face as he spat, "But Dumbledore left a note explaining what happened to them in your bedding clear as day. No way could they have missed it! How could they lie about such a thing?"

Lily's mind was frantic, trying to come up with some excuse for her sister. She was not in a forgiving mood after the treatment it implied her child had been getting, but finally settled on the most plausible thing she could think of. "Maybe she just said that until he gets his Hogwarts letter. She's trying to protect him from the horrible truth, just like Dumbledore wanted. He might have even told them to do it."

Sirius twisted around and spat in the fire to let out his agitation as James growled, "If he did then he'll be hearing from me! Lie to my son about something like this! You can't really believe that?" Lily deflated, no she didn't believe it, but she didn't want to think her sister would do something like this either. So she went on reading, ignoring the irritated glares in her direction.

She would always follow up with 'don't ask questions.'

Remus frowned in agitation. "How do you cover that one Lils? Don't ask questions; it's as if they're trying to pretend he doesn't even live there!"

Lily still had her head ducked towards the book, unwilling to admit that it seemed this way to her as well.

As Vernon entered the kitchen for the first time, his first comment to Harry was to comb his hair.

"As pleasant as his wife," Sirius growled.

Dudley makes his arrival last, being described as very blonde and pink faced with lots of extra weight. His mother often called him a baby angel.

James snorted, "Yeah, if baby angels look like blond piglets." His friends gave appreciative snorts of amusement for that.

Harry said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.

At that they all roared with laughter, "It's official , you are their son," Remus decided.

"When was it unofficial?" Harry asked, though he too seemed pleased by this.

Once Dudley sits down and counts out his presents, he complains that he has two less than the year before.

Everyone in the room had astounded looks on their faces at that, "Why would he even remember such a thing?" Lily wondered.

Harry on the other hand was busy mulling over memories that he was pretty sure had come from his early childhood and decided that this was quite common, and had finally settled on the fact that he did indeed remember this day, and suddenly wanted to encourage his younger self to hurry up and finish his breakfast.

Petunia tries to pacify Dudley, telling him he hadn't looked at the one his mummy had gotten him.

"The way she talks to him!" Lily rolled her eyes. "I don't even talk to baby Harry like that, and

he's less than a year old."

Sirius shrugged and said, "Maybe the lot of them have a mental disorder and they can't process things above a year six level?" James and Remus snickered at that.

Dudley still looks in danger of throwing a fit even after his mother points out he miss counted one, and Harry begins to eat faster, knowing Dudley had a habit of throwing the table over.

"How often did that happen?" Sirius asked curiously.

"About once a month since he was five," Harry said automatically, and then jolted in surprise at what he said. He didn't know how he remembered that, it just sort of came out.

The others were all looking on, his parents with disapproval, and the other two with glee. "You're getting your memories back!" Remus said with a grin.

"What a horrible child," Lily muttered.

"I can't believe you grew up with that boy," James grumbled.

His mother fixes the problem by promising to buy him two more presents while they were out today.

Everyone in the room looked appalled at that, "That is so not the way you deal with an impending tantrum!" Lily spluttered.

Dudley struggled to add this up, his mother supplying the correct number of presents he will then have.

"Did I say six years old?" Sirius asked with a straight face. "I meant two."

Dudley finally seems appeased and sits down to begin opening the nearest parcel.

"That's obviously the way they dealt with it in the past," Remus sighed.

"At least the father's not in on it," James said grimly. "He's been silent so far."

"Wait for it," Harry muttered.

Vernon's reaction is to praise his son, saying he deserved this and more.

"I stand corrected," James groaned, looking more upset about their behavior than the fact that he was wrong.

Dudley opens several more presents of expensive taste, like a video camera and a VCR.

Before the pure-blood could open his mouth, Lily and Remus quickly said, "Later."

He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch

"Huh," Sirius said in surprise, "that's usually what we give wizards when they come of age." His eyes quickly flashed to the watch on the grown Harry's wrist, and then flickered to the one on James. They were not the same one, as they should have been.

"Who gave you that one then?" Remus asked as he gestured at the slightly dented watch.

Harry glanced down at his wrist, almost as if he'd forgotten he had it on, and then frowned in agitation. All he could remember was a sense of warmth, and perhaps a warm hug, whenever he tried to remember. When he told the others, they all looked slightly happy at that, but James was still frowning. Harry should have gotten his watch, been hugged by Lily when he received it.

When Petunia came back from the phone looking angry, saying that someone named Mrs. Figg couldn't 'take him'.

"What does she mean, 'take him?'" Lily asked in surprise. "Surely wherever they're going they planned on taking my son."

"Come off it," Sirius scoffed. "You really believe that from what we've seen so far?" Lily pursed her lips before going on.

The narrative explains that every year for Dudley's birthday, while the Dursleys are out, Harry is left with the neighbor Mrs. Figg.

"You've got to be kidding me," James snarled with clenched fists, but quickly relaxed when the baby in his arms squirmed. Sirius twisted around and spat in the fireplace again, while the others vented their frustration by cursing themselves. Harry merely watched, almost amused by their reactions. He had no problem with this, why would he want to be around these people more often anyway? They didn't seem to be very good company, unlike the people he was with now.

Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.

"Argh!" Sirius groaned. "I feel so sorry for you Harry."

"Why?" Harry asked curiously, it didn't sound very pleasant but Sirius' reaction seemed a little extreme.

"Cabbage, that's the worst thing I could think of, pure torture that is," Sirius grumbled.

Petunia gives Harry a nasty look, as if he'd planned this.

"I bet," James snorted. "I can just imagine my son plotting how to break an old lady's leg."

"Really?" Harry asked with a frown.

"No sweetie," Lily said smiling. "He was joking."

Remus smiled and said, "One thing you should learn quickly about those two," he jerked his head in his friend's direction. "Don't take much of what they say seriously." Remus winced in horror at once as he realized his slip a moment too late.

"I take everything Siriusly," Sirius said at once, while the others just groaned and Harry laughed.

Harry knew he should have felt sorry, but since he hated his time there looking at pictures of old cats it didn't come easy.

"Hum," Remus said thoughtfully. "Isn't there a Figg in the Order? She's not quite as old as Harry leads us to believe, plus she's a squib. I know she breeds kneazles then names them ridiculous things to throw off what they are."

"Could be," James agreed. "After all, Harry is 'The Boy Who Lived'. Dumbledore probably wants

an Order member close to him."

"If so," Lily said in a cold voice. "Why wouldn't she have told him about the treatment Harry receives? Even if he never told anyone, it seems apparent just by the description of him."

"Right," Remus deflated. "Forget I mentioned anything."

Vernon suggests calling someone named Marge.

"Who's Marge?" Sirius asked with a frown, clearly knowing he wasn't going to like the answer.

"The name rings a bell, I can tell you now she's not someone we'd like to meet," Harry answered, also frowning.

All the adults exchanged looks, knowing that if Harry was acting like this without the memories to reinforce such feelings, they were going to hate this woman.

No one seemed to take into account Harry was sitting right there, they often spoke about him as if he wasn't there, or like he couldn't understand them, like a slug.

"I'd go with the first option," James sneered. "If only because it makes me feel better than calling my son a slug."

"That is horrible," Remus snarled. "How could you treat anyone like that?"

"Prejudices," Sirius said quietly, his mind flashing back to when he had suggested bringing Remus round to his place once. He regretted that thought at once.

Vernon suggests Petunia could call someone named Yvonne.

Lily looked up in surprise. "I can't believe Petunia's still friends with her. They were always going on about traveling together, but Yvonne left a few years ago without Petunia. Tuney swore she wasn't ever going to talk to her again for that."

James shrugged and said, "I suppose she changed her mind."

"Well she can't have many friends, probably made up with her to at least claim she still had one," Sirius snorted derisively.

A few hours ago Lily would have told Sirius off for talking about her sister like that, but then her mind swiveled back to the cupboard, and she held her tongue.

Harry offers that they could just leave him home alone.

"They might do that if they don't think like Harry," Remus said, grinning. "I believe the phrase that runs through their minds is 'see or not to be seen'. If we're still going with the assumption that they are trying to ignore his existence, Harry might just get away with that."

"Let's hope they don't think like Harry," Sirius muttered.

Petunia looks horrified at the thought, snapping that they would come back to find the house in ruins.

"What do they think he's going to do," James rolled his eyes. "Burn it down?"

Harry tries to protest in saying he won't blow up the house, but no one listened.

"This is awesome!" Sirius crowed. "Now we've got a nice round number of think-a likes!"

You could almost hear the crickets chirping in the background after that kind of declaration as Remus shook his head slowly and said, "Really Sirius? Really?"

Petunia suggested taking him to the zoo, but leaving him in the car.

"What the bloody hell?" Lily hissed. "My son is not a dog!"

"You know, technically, you're not even supposed to do that to dogs," Remus said wisely. "Even if you leave the windows open a little, the direct sunlight streaming into the car without any, or little, ventilation outwards can cause heat strokes in dogs. The bigger the dog, the more likely."

"Thank you for that educational lesson Professor," James rolled his eyes. "Now I feel bad for locking Padfoot in the sun room last week."

"You did that?" Sirius yelped. "You told me Peter did that!"

"I lied," he said simply, smirking a little.

Harry felt an instant of blood chilling hatred for something Sirius had just said, but the combination of his ingrained no questions habit and honestly not even sure how to address such a feeling made it quickly fade to the back of his mind before he even recognized it.

Lily sighed as she realized what her boys were trying to do, pissed though they were as well, they were helping her to try to take her mind off of it. It was in vain however, as she still had to keep reading.

Vernon protests the car was new; Harry wasn't going to be left in it alone.

"Yeah, cause that's the most important part of that suggestion," Sirius rolled his eyes as he twisted around to spit in the fire.

Dudley began to fake cry, knowing if he pretended to wail his mother would give him anything he wanted.

Remus leaned forward and rubbed his temples in agitation, just imagining that noise was giving him a horrid headache. While the other three adults were shooting each other significant looks, knowing full well that all three would like to pop that kid a good one in the mouth when they were still kids. Harry was still frowning, straining to remember what happened.

His mother refers to him in a ridiculous pet name, 'Dinky Duddydums'

"And the year levels are still dropping," Sirius chuckled.

"You keep going with that and you're going to reverse them back into the womb," James reminded him.

Sirius just shrugged, clearly saying 'it works.'

Dudley sobs that he doesn't want Harry to come, because he would ruin everything, then shoots Harry a nasty grin where his mother couldn't see.

"Jerk-"

"Prat-"

"Oaf-"

"Pig-"

"Arse."

They all looked at each other, startled upon realizing they had all used different insults that still fit him perfectly.

At that moment one of Dudley's friends comes over, and he's briefly described as having the face of a rat.

"It almost makes you feel for all these ugly people," Harry sighed dramatically, causing the rest of the room to chuckle.

He seems to have the same personality as Dudley, as Harry notes he's the one who usually pins the kids arms back while Dudley punches them.

"Charming boy that one is," Sirius sneered as he tried not to picture whose arms he would have been holding.

Dudley stopped pretending tocr y at once.

"'Course he did," Remus snarled. "Can't look weak in front of your awful friends."

"You can show any emotion around real friends," Lily agreed quietly, coming to the sudden realization that it had not mentioned one single friend of Harry's.

Harry gets to go to the zoo with the Dursleys, mostly because they couldn't think of anything else to do with him.

"I don't think a zoo trip's worth that," James wrinkled his nose.

"Yeah, was there even space?" Sirius pondered, picturing half the back seat taken up by that pig.

Before they could leave though, Vernon pulls Harry aside and threatens him that if any funny business happens, he'd lock Harry up in his cupboard until Christmas.

"They- they wouldn't do that, would they?" Lily gasped, horror etched into her face.

"I doubt that," Sirius muttered with a horrible look on his face. "Unless they don't value their lives at all." Harry pursed his lips and did not comment.

Harry promised nothing would happen, but no one ever believed him when he said that.

"That's not right," Remus muttered sadly. "No child should have to grow up with no one listening to them."

"I didn't totally grow up that way," Harry muttered to himself, trying to recollect this vague sense of friendship he had. He was hoping that, like with this birthday, more memories would come back to him if he had more Déjà vu. So far, nothing, he could just remember his childhood, which wasn't that pleasant to remember anyway.

The narrative begins listing some of the odd things that happen around Harry, starting with the time Petunia cut off most of his hair but left the bangs to hide his scar.

"That's not right!" James hissed in outrage. "Unless you consented to that, and I doubt you did, they shouldn't have done it. I don't care how old you are!"

Harry decided not to mention that his Aunt had threatened him with a week in his cupboard if he so much as flinched to try and stop her, since there was nothing he could do about it now and it would probably just upset his dad further.

Harry spent the night worrying how stupid he would look, but his hair seemed to magically grow back overnight.

"Good," James sighed in relief, running his hand through his hair.

"Your hair is way too important to you," Remus joked.

"Why shouldn't it be? It's what got me this beautiful family," James agreed.

"I did not fall in love with you because of your hair," Lily snapped. "That's what kept me away from you for all those years!" Before they could get into a familiar round, Remus cleared his throat, to Harry's disappointment as for some reason watching bickering felt very familiar to him, and Lily read on.

He was locked in his cupboard for a week for this happening.

"That- that- that-!" Lily stuttered, unable to come up with a proper insult for her sister. No, no Petunia Dursley was no longer her sister, she didn't deserve the title. No Tuney she had ever known would do this to her son.

The males were clearly just as upset but after a look at Harry, who was staring apprehensively around the room as if thinking they were all going to start yelling at him. Then let out the breathe he was holding when they merely scowled and started muttering all the things they'd like to do to those relatives of his.

Another time Petunia tried to force a sweater onto Harry and the more Harry struggled against it the more it shrank . By the end it could have fit a mouse, but not Harry. Petunia decided it must have shrunk in the wash, and Harry wasn't punished.

"You never should have been," They all snapped at once, startling baby Harry in James arms.

On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens.

"How much is terrible trouble?" James growled, rounding on his son.

Harry just shrugged and tried to put an innocent look on his face, but Remus intervened. "Don't lie Harry, that face isn't going to fool us. You remember, now tell."

With a huge sigh Harry admitted, "A week in the cupboard, and a week of chores." While the adults started muttering in disgust, Harry mentally added 'and a day without meals.'

Dudley's gang had been chasing him when, to Harry's surprise, there he was sitting on the chimney.

"Nice, you apparated!" James grinned.

"I don't think so," Lily shrugged. "He probably would have described that odd feeling, he could have just flown."

"Either way," Sirius whistled low in his throat. "Damn."

When the Dursleys got a letter from the school telling them this, Harry was once again locked in his cupboard.

Their thoughts were once again ripped off of the child's magic in favor of that horrid home life.

Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.

"How skinny were you, for you to believe that?" Sirius asked

Harry chuckled slightly and said, "I also thought the over large clothes would act as a parasol, help catch the wind."

Far from finding this amusing, it merely aggravated them that his clothes didn't fit properly.

Harry was determined that nothing would go wrong today. Stating it was worth being crammed in the backseat with Dudley just to be going somewhere new.

"Yeah, I suppose," James amended his earlier statement. "When you put it like that."

While he drove, Vernon spent the ride complaining. He seemed to enjoy complaining about things, including people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry.

"Moony, I bet you can't guess his top three favorite things to complain about!" Sirius said, choosing to make a joke out of it rather than curse some more.

Remus decided to play along as he pretended to mull it over and said, "Um, people at work, the bank, and the council."

"Err!" Sirius made a sound like a buzzer. "It's Harry, then Harry, then Harry!" Harry burst out laughing at their antics, so the bantering served its purpose.

This morning, it was motorcycles.

"What's wrong with motorcycles?" James asked as he rolled his eyes.

"Jamesie, let me put it to you this way; if it's cool, he doesn't like it," Sirius said with a straight face and a serious tone.

Harry mentioned that he'd had a dream about a flying motorcycle.

"Why on Earth would you do that?" Lily moaned, hoping this wouldn't ruin her son's, rare, good day. If they had learned anything about those Dursleys, it was that Harry shouldn't be drawing attention to himself.

"Sorry," Harry muttered. "It was the euphoria of being out, besides it's not like they ever listened to what I said anyway. Mostly they just ignored me if I did say something. Didn't expect them to actually hear me." Nobody appreciated this bit of honesty.

Vernon nearly crashed into another car.

"Pity he didn't," Sirius sighed.

"Sirius!" Lily snapped. "My son's in that car."

James shrugged and said, "Yeah Lils, but he's a wizard, it wouldn't even scratch him. Plus, I like the irony," and a dark look overtook him as he remembered that horrible lie.

"Yes, but if he did crash, he'd blame it on Harry," Remus pointed out, which put a stop to any kind of thinking like that.

He began yelling at Harry that motorcycles can't fly!

"Shows what you know," Sirius sneered.

Harry regretted saying anything, since he got told off even more when he mentioned things that weren't remotely the way they should be, even if they were just from the television. He thought the Dursleys would think it gave him dangerous ideas.

"I don't think it's you, so much as you might mention them to your cousin," Remus said slowly.

"What's a television?" James asked instead of snapping that wasn't helping like he wanted to.

"Eh, it's kind of like if the pictures that we talked to had backgrounds that moved as well, inside a box. Runs on the Muggles form of energy called electricity, that's how they were watching the news on the first chapter," Sirius happily explained. He knew James had a good reason for not having registered that the first time, but he would have thought back on that eventually so he just added it on now. James nodded in understanding, not pressing for more details like he wanted to.

When they got to the zoo, there's an ice cream stand at the entrance. Harry gets a cheap lemon pop before the Dursleys can shoo him away.

All of the adults shifted in agitation, thinking 'at least he got some thing.'

While wandering around Harry spots a gorilla that looks a lot like his cousin, except it wasn't blond.

"That's right Prongslet," James patted adult Harry on the top of his head. "Think positive." Harry laughed at the way his dad was doing that, but then determined that he would have to ask about those nicknames they kept using when the chapter was over.

By lunch Harry starts hanging back from the rest, in case Dudley started getting bored and picked up on his favorite hobby of hitting Harry.

Lily shot a disgusted look at the Marauders, clearly remembering their favorite hobby on the occasions they got bored in the school corridors, but she was in too much of a temper to really go at that now. Besides they had, in the past few years, made it clear to her that they did at least slightly regret doing those things.

During lunch Harry gets to finish Dudley's desert because he didn't want it.

Harry frowned, but chose not to bring up the fact that the book left a little something out. The only reason he had been allowed to finish it was because it was half melted in the sun and Piers had refused to eat it because it had looked disgusting . Uncle Vernon had shoved it roughly to the side and Harry just took it and no one stopped him. The adults in the room looked so pleased that Harry had gotten something like that; he just couldn't bring himself to mention his memory.

Harry felt that he should have known it was all too good to last.

"Dun, dun, dun..." Sirius said in a low tone voice.

"Sirius." Lily scolded .

"Sorry Lils." Sirius said trying to hide a chuckle only to get a glare from Lily.

While in the reptile house, they found a huge snake that could have wrapped around Vernon's car and easily crushed it.

"A lovely thought, that one," all three boys sighed, clearly daydreaming this very thing.

But it was sleeping as Dudley pressed his nose against the glass.

"Poor snake," Sirius shuddered, "having to get a close up of that."

"I don't believe it!" James pretended to faint. "Who are you and what have you done with Sirius? He would never say poor snake! Horrible snake maybe, disgusting snake probably, but never poor!"

Sirius just shrugged and said, "I have nothing against the animals, 's'not their fault, so don't take things out of context mate." James pouted slightly because Sirius hadn't played along but let it go for now.

Dudley orders his father to make the snake move, so Vernon raps his knuckles smartly against the window.

"I didn't know he could do anything smartly," Remus gasped, making Harry chuckle.

"It's an expression Remus," Lily rolled her eyes while Remus frowned at her.

"I know that Lily." Remus grumbled.

Dudley gets bored and begins to wander away, so Harry takes a closer look, starting to feel pity for the creature that had nothing to do but have people bother it all day.

"Sounds like fun to me," Sirius drawled. "Parties every night and people to freak out, what more could you want?" This time the others just ignored him.

Harry compared his life to the snakes, thinking at least he got to stretch his legs.

"Your life's got to be really bad if you're sympathizing with a zoo animal," Remus muttered, mostly to himself.

The snake took notice of Harry's attention and woke up, then met Harry's eye level and blinked.

"Snakes can't blink," Lily frowned. "They don't have eyelids."

"Maybe it's a trick of the light," Harry agreed, trying to think back to what was about to happen.

The snake seemed abnormally intelligent, giving a very obvious look to where Vernon and Dudley were and then looking to the ceiling in a gesture that clearly said 'I get that all the time.

All four of them frowned, finding this action rather odd of a common animal, perhaps the snake did tricks?

Harry whispered back how annoying that must be, and the snake nods.

"It-" James started, and then stopped, seeming unable to keep going. Sirius and Lily also had astounded looks on their faces. Harry frowned and edged away from them, having a faint memory of lots of eyes boring into him with hate, fear, and dislike.

Remus caught sight of this first, and quickly said, "It's alright Harry, we're not mad at you. Just confused. Parseltongue goes down through bloodlines, and James isn't one. We just don't understand why you're one."

"Oh." he muttered, relaxing again at that, but then frowned as the word tickled something in his mind. "What's a parseltongue?"

"It means you can talk to snakes. You speak parseltongue, so you're a parselmouth," Sirius said slowly, still trying to get over the shock.

Lily and James exchanged a look, and decided that they wouldn't tell him they were so freaked out because the only snake talking people were those of very dark and evil magic, but this was their son. No, they wouldn't give him any more to worry about, so Lily just read on. Taking the hint, neither Remus nor Sirius intended to go into any further details either.

Harry begins a full conversation with the snake now, asking it if it had a life before he came to the zoo.

"I rather like this snake," James laughed, trying to shake off the last of his confusion. "It's right friendly."

"You were taking this rather calmly," Lily voiced, "had this happened to you before?"

"No," Harry shrugged, "but after all of the weird things that had happened to me, I just kind of went with this." Privately adding it was nice to talk to anyone who paid the slightest bit of attention to him like this reptile was doing. He had often spoken to the spiders in his cupboard sometimes in this same way, though they'd never responded back of course.

The snake was shaking its head no in answer when Dudley's friend catches sight of what Harry's doing and calls Dudley back over. Dudley came hurrying over as fast as he could.

"I doubt it could have been that fast," Sirius snickered.

On his way, Dudley punches Harry in the ribs.

All three males clenched their fists at that, wishing they were ten years old again so they could punch that git in the face and not get into as much trouble for it.

Harry falls back in shock, so he misses what happens in between Dudley looking into the glass and Dudley leaping back in fear.

"What happened?" the boys asked in excitement, hoping their little Marauder Jr. would come up with something more creative than punching him back later.

The glass had disappeared giving the snake the chance to slither away but stopped to thank

Harry. The keeper of the reptile house was in shock, repeating over and over again where the glass could have gone?

"Wherever it wanted to," James rolled his eyes.

"That was a pointless interruption James," Lily snapped, starting to get to the end of her rope.

"Quite the clean-up job for Ministry though," Remus chuckled.

On the ride home Dudley and his friend began exaggerating the story, though the snake had only nipped playfully at them as he escaped.

"Knew I liked that snake," Sirius laughed.

According to Dudley though, the snake nearly bit his leg off, and Dudley's friend was going into all sorts of details how he was nearly strangled.

"If only, if only, if only," James hummed under his breath.

But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say that Harry had been talking to the snake.

"No!" all the adults gasped, now Harry was going to get in trouble again! They were all shaking, just a bit. What kind of punishment would he really get for putting his cousin in danger?

Vernon waited until Piers was out of the house before starting on Harry.

"Why?" they all hissed at once, trying not to picture those reasons.

He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to stutter out for Harry to go to his cupboard, with no meals. Petunia scuttled away to get Vernon some alcohol.

"No meals?" Lily murmured, looking faint.

James quickly placed baby Harry in her arms, which seemed to steady her, but then he lunged to his feet and started swearing at the top of his lungs. In a fit of pure rage Sirius summoned up a pillow off the sofa and stuffed it in his mouth to keep himself from doing the same while his hands clenched and unclenched as if wishing to wring somebody's neck.

Remus jumped to his feet and spat in the fire, and Sirius noticed that there was a bit of blood in there. He must have bitten his tongue with the effort of not copying James' actions. "I can't believe this!" Remus growled, pacing back and forth in front of the couch, looking very much like a mother wolf protecting her cubs. "I really can't believe any of them. Even Peter or Sirius alone would be better guardians than them!"

Sirius would have made a comment about that any other day, but now he felt that Remus had never spoken truer words. Harry went around to all of them and did his best to reassure them, until they were all at least quiet enough or still whispering mutinously but low enough to hear, that Lily went on. Lily gently deposited baby Harry back into James' arms so she could finish the chapter.

Harry lay awake in his cupboard hours later, knowing he couldn't sneak out for food until he was sure everyone else was asleep.

Lily clenched her jaw so tight her vision started to blur to keep the tears away; you shouldn't have to sneak around your own home! Even if that was the farthest thing from home any one could

picture.

The boys were all looking murderous that Harry would have to put such useful skills as sneaking about to something like that, but managed to hold their tongues.

Harry reflected how he'd lived with the Dursleys all his life, all ten years of it miserable, and how he wished his parents hadn't died in that car crash.

Sirius twisted and spat in the fire for that horrid reminder, and noted absently how badly it was starting to sputter out. He quickly pulled out his wand and helped the flames back up to a healthier level while the others looked at him enviously, wishing they could do something similar to vent.

He couldn't remember being in the car when it happened, just a blinding green light.

Now they were all shifting their weight around, trying not to picture what had been done to their Harry.

This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from.

"We ran a green light," Lily muttered snidely.

He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and he was forbidden to ask. There were no photographs of them in the house.

Everyone deflated like tires with punctures in them. "You, didn't even know what we looked like?" James asked sadly.

"I do know," Harry reminded him, "now. Besides, like you guys pointed out at the beginning of the chapter, you can fix this. We can read all this, and hopefully I'll remember enough so that we can prevent this from happening. I can grow up with you guys."

"Nothing would ever please us more," Lily whispered.

Harry reflected back on when he was younger, when he'd dreamed of someone taking him away from this place.

Both Remus and Sirius winced at that, convinced they must have died, as well as Peter, to leave Harry like that.

The Dursleys were his only family.

"That's not family," Lily hissed in outrage, but did not need to elaborate, they all knew what she meant.

There had been a few odd moments where random people on the street seemed to acknowledge Harry, but they all vanished before Harry could ask.

"Huh," Remus muttered. "Those are probably surviving members of the Order. I can't believe Dumbledore would just leave you there with no one watching you."

"Look what good it's done," James muttered in disgust.

This must just be fantasies though, because Harry had no one.

James reached over and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder before saying softly, "It's okay Lily flower, I'd like to think his Hogwarts letter will be coming soon, very soon, and then they'll have to treat him decently. They'll know he's a wizard, and wouldn't do a thing to him."

Lily sighed, unconvinced, but passed the book to James none the less as she took her son back.