Harry Potter and the Marauder's Secret

A Re-Write of the Harry Potter Series

By: marauderette-47

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I do not claim to own the series, characters, or any lines quoted directly from the books. I am making no money from this creation. It is purely for the enjoyment of myself and other fans. Please don't sue!:)

Author's Note: Thank you so much for the great reviews! This chapter is officially my favorite so far - which is saying something, because I love ALL the chapters! But Sirius is FINALLY reunited with his friends! Yays! Remember - more reviews = faster upload. Your comments keep me going:) Also, if anyone knows of any good stories where a) James and Lily come back b) Sirius comes back c) Fred comes back or d) all of the above, let me know! I think I've read, like, EVERY story like that, but I might be missing out on some good works because I didn't ask:/ So let me know! Okey dokey - here we go!

Dinner With the Potters

Sirius had never run so fast in his life - except perhaps when he had heard about what happened to James and Lily in Godric's Hollow. But even then, Sirius had known in his heart that he was too late, and that had slowed him down a great deal. But now...now, it was like someone had lit a fire in his heart, and he knew that he had to run until he collapsed. It seemed to take him no time at all to reach the statue of the gargoyle that would lead him to Dumbledore's office. If anyone knew how to reach the Potters, it would be the old Headmaster. He seemed to know everything that went on in the lives of his students - even those who had already graduated.

Sirius said the password to the statue, and it moved aside to grant him passage. Sirius nearly tripped twice as he went up the long marble staircase. He wrenched open the door, to reveal an ashen faced Dumbledore. Usually, Sirius would have stopped his quick pace to ask Albus what was wrong, but today, he did not have the patience. Dumbledore seemed to almost read his mind, and he pointed slowly to the fireplace at the back of the wall. Sirius nodded his thanks, took some Floo powder from a pounch by the flames, and shouted, "Potter Manor!" Instantly, green flames swirled around the young professor, and spat him back out in a neat and tidy living room.

The living room was spacey, and very organized. Framed pictures littered the wall, though none of the pictures were taken outside of the little home. And all of the pictures were of the same three people - Lily, James, and Harry Potter. Sirius had an intake of breath as he stared at the photographs, all of the waving Potters. His heart stopped as his looked at the memoirs of his godson's childhood. His trance was broken only by the sound of feet shuffling on the floor above him. Sirius cast a Dillusionment charm on himself, and hid in the corner of the room.

"It's been two days, Lils," Sirius heard James say. He knew that the couple were not yet in the living room, but they were too close for comfort and he didn't want to scare them. "If they don't check in by the end of the week, I'm going back to Hogwarts."

"Okay," said Lily, in that tone she used when she did not wish to be argued with. "For Harry, he's probably having too much fun to check in, James. You can't expect him to write us every day. As for Sirius, give the man some time! You just dropped a bloody bomb on him, you must let him absorb all that's happened!"

James grumbled and stalked upstairs. Lily was headed in the direction of the kitchen that could be seen from the living room. Sirius quietly cast a silencing charm on the doorframe of the kitchen, and snuck right up behind Lily as she was retrieving a pot from a wooden cabinet. Sirius got right behind her, and tickled her sides.

"JAMES!" squealed Lily, cringing away from the contact. She turned around to slap her husband, but did not see him. Sirius tapped his head with his wand, and gave Lily a breathtaking smile. The latter sucked in a shocked breath, not able to speak for a moment. Then -

"Sirius!" Lily paled, and looked like she was considerably close to fainting. Sirius laughed at her shocked expression, and put a hand behind her back to ensure that she wouldn't fall. Suddenly, Lily smiled a grin so wide, it looked as though it wouldn't fit on her face. She screamed once in delight, laughed a bit, then flung both arms around Sirius's neck and gave him a small, friendly peck on the cheek. Sirius chuckled at her enthusiasm, and hugged her back. For so long, Sirius had believed that this beauty of the world was lost forever - but here she was, back in his arms. Suddenly, Lily pulled away from him, as though just realized what his being here meant.

"James!" she squealed excitedly, looking around the kitchen as if she expected him to be hiding there. "Have you seen him yet? Does he know you're here? How is it he's not heard us?"

"Lils," said Sirius hoarsley, using the redhead's name for the first time in a long time. "Relax, please. One question at a time. No, James does not know I'm here. I haven't seem him since that little...argument. And he's not heard us because despite your beliefs, I am not stupid, and I cast a silencing charm on the room before I entered it. Actually, I was rather hoping you could help me."

"With what?" asked Lily brightly, the smile still on her face. "It doesn't matter what it is, Sirius, I'll help any way I can!"

Sirius laughed again, and removed a strand of hair from Lily's face. "I would like to surprise your darling husband this evening."

Lily grinned almost evilly, and said, "I can help with that."

James sat alone in Harry's room on his bed, looking at an old Quidditch magazine. He missed his son like crazy, but he knew there wasn't much that he could do about that. Since he was fairly certain that his wife was becoming annoyed with him, James decided to sulk in silence from now on. Sighing, he tossed the magazine to the corner of the room, and dug his head into the red velvet pillow.

"James!" called Lily. "Time for supper, darling!"

James groaned, but his stomach was growling, so he got out of his son's bed. He did not make the mistake of waiting for Harry this time. Instead, James groggily made his way down the staircase all by himself, and he came out at the bottom face to face with his wife setting up the dining room table. She smiled at him as he approached, and she tucked a loose strand of hair behind ears. James could smell the delicious dinner that Lily had prepared, including mashed potatoes, beef, corn, and pumpkin pie. James's stomach gave another rumble, and Lily chuckled.

"Not hungry or anything, are you Mister Potter?" she asked innocently, raising an eyebrow. Lily smiled, and took her seat at the table. James followed her lead, and sat down next to his lovely wife, only to be nearly run over by a large black beast.

"What is this?" shrieked James, trying to dodge the slobbery mangry mutt.

"Oh, relax," laughed Lily, whistling. The dog looked up, and ran to her, sitting at her feet. "Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen, James?"

"Where'd you get him?" asked James, looking over the familiar dog. It looked just like Padfoot, but maybe James was overexaggerating.

"I found him wandering about the yard," said Lily innocently, petting the dog. "He was whimpering for food, and I just couldn't leave him out in the cold."

"So you just took him in?" asked James.

"Do you have a problem with that?" challenged Lily, raising a brow. James thrust his hands into the air in innocence, and backed off. He knew better than to mess with Lily when she used that tone of voice.

"Not at all," mumbled James, looking back to his dinner. "This looks good, Lil."

"Thanks." smiled Lily. "C'mon, doggie. Do you want some food, little guy? Awe, you're so loveable and sweet and not at all an ass. No you're not, no you're not!"

James looked at Lily with concerned eyes. She was turning to mush around the big dog like she used to be with Harry. But James shrugged Lily's persistant cooing off, and went to his dinner, digging in like a boy who hadn't eaten a good meal in a long time. Just as James took the first bite, Lily's stupid dog started barking and whimpering like mad, running in circles around the table.

"Awe, James," breathed Lily, looking sadly at the dog. "Why don't you give him some food off your plate? The poor thing looks starved!"

"Lily, I'm not letting him lick dung off my plate! Who knows what kind of diseases that thing is carrying!"

By this time, the dog had done another lap around the table, and was now stopped behind James. After James had said his previous statement, the whimpering had ceased, and was replaced with a whining statement. "I reckon no more than I was carrying a decade ago, Prongs."

It was lunchtime in the Great Hall, and Harry Potter had a grin on his face from ear to ear. How he wished he could be a fly on the wall in his home at the moment! He could only imagine the shocked expression on his dad's face when he saw Sirius...he and his mum had probably devised a special surprise to tell his dad...it would be a sight to see, that's for sure. Harry's friends could hardly fail to notice his good spirits, and that put them in a good mood as well.

"Everything alright, mate?" chuckled Ron inbetween manic bites of chicken.

"Brilliant!" exclaimed Harry happily. "Everything is brilliant, Ron!"

"Any paritcular reason why?" smiled Hermione, raising an eyebrow. She reminded Harry a lot of his mum when she did that.

"I'll tell you later," said Harry, brushing the topic aside. He tried to focus on the infinant number of conversations going on around him, but he just couldn't seem to. Oh well, he decided. It wasn't a big deal.

"Remus, come off it, mate. We know you don't have a sick aunt or a sick mother, or a sick sister, or a -"

"Enough, Sirius - he gets it."

"Point is, Remmy, we know that you've been hiding something."

"Something big."

"Yeah!"

"And it'd be a whole bunch easier on us if you'd just spill the beans now."

"No, you don't understand-"

"Why you've been lying to us? No, we don't, but we'd love to hear."

"Remus, whatever it is, you can trust us."

"Yeah, buddy! We've got your back!"

"Listen to me, guys-"

"Not unless you're going to tell us where you're off to every month."

"You won't like what you-"

"Doesn't matter. We still want to know."

"Guys, please, don't make me-"

"Remus, you know how persistant James and Sirius are when they want something. Please, it's easier for us all if you'd just tell us!"

"Peter, you don't understand. I can't just-"

"Why not? I thought we were your friends, Remus!"

"You are, but -"

"Fine, Remus. We gave you the easy way. Time for things to get hard -"

"Ha!"

"Sirius, get your mind out of the gutter. Remus, what I mean is...we know about your...er...'furry little problem'."

"My...what?"

"We know you're a bloody werewolf, Remus!"

Remus Lupin woke up from yet another dream about his past - the good old days, he'd once called them. Oh, how he missed his friends! He still had Sirius, of course, but he could tell that the old dog was steadily losing his mind without James. Back before the Marauders were ever even in existance, Padfoot and Prongs had been known amongst Hogwarts as the 'dynamic duo'. And in his heart, Remus knew that - no matter how good a friend he was to Padfoot - he could never replace James.

Remus was tired of the way things were - he hardly ever saw Sirius anymore, and he hadn't even seen Harry since he was a year old. He'd pretty much been living in isolation for the past ten years, and he was sick of it. He wanted to have a life, and what he was doing surely wasn't living. He was going to get back at least some of the old days, no matter what he'd have to do. He'd stow away in Hogwarts if he had to, he knew that he couldn't go on alone forever.

Getting out of bed to make himself some tea, Remus yawned, and stretched his back. It was another fifteen days until the full moon, so at least he didn't have to worry about that for a little while. As the tea kettle whistled, Remus thought back to his dream. It had been the one where the others - Sirius, Peter, and James - had discovered Remus's lycanthropy. At first, Remus had been truly and utterly terrified that his friends were going to leave him. But they had done just the opposite - they had done something that he never would have even considered for them before. They spent the better part of three years becoming Animagi so as to accompony him during his 'full moon adventures'.

Remus thought back to Sirius - he'd surely gone through many changes over the last decade. He was still Padfoot - no amount of deaths could change him enough to make him stop being an immature prat at the worst of times. But without James, it seemed like he was only half of himself. Remus could tell that Sirius was lonely without his friend, but Remus was his friend too, wasn't he?

He also looked back on Sirius's hopeful expression when he spoke of how he thought Harry was James - Remus hoped with all his might that Sirius never told Harry that. How much it would hurt the poor kid! And James's son deserved better than that...

As he sat alone in the middle of the night drinking his tea, Remus mulled over many painful topics. He eventually came to the realization that he could not go on like this - he intended to make Sirius see sense and get his friend back - even if that was the only part of his childhood that would ever return to him.

And that's that! I realize that this chapter was a little short, but I really wanted to keep that cliffhanger when Sirius revealed himself to James, and I couldn't think of what else to add:/ But whatevsies! I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, and pretty please review! Oh, and don't forget your story reccomendations! Thanks again,

~marauderette-47