Sirius held onto Remus's hand tightly, fingers knotted together, as they stood at the edge of the beach sand, staring out at the water, the sunlight shining off the surface, reflecting bright and shimmering. Remus thought of kelpie eggs and Sirius thought that if one could hear the sparkling of the sun, it would sound something like a bunch of tiny bells chiming. Sirius squeezed Remus's fingers all the more tightly and looked over at him.

"Can you believe it's been an entire year since we stood right here - right here on this very spot - and got bloody married?" Sirius asked excitedly.

Remus smirked, "Can you believe it's been only a year?"

Sirius chuckled, "What are you saying, Moony?"

Remus met Sirius's eyes. "That it feels more like forever."

"Because I've been such a pain in your arse?" Sirius inquired.

Remus said, "But also because I can't remember what my life was like before you."

"I remember what mine was like before you," Sirius answered, "Dismal. Gray. Full of pain and suffering."

"Wasn't that Tuesday?"

"No," Sirius smirked, "Tuesdays are always good."

"Oh alright," Remus laughed, "Ought you be here with your harem instead of your husband, then?"

Sirius shook his head, "I don't want to be here with anybody else."

Remus smiled, "Good. I don't want you to be here with anybody else. I don't think anybody else should have to witness the things that I plan to do to you." His chocolate eyes glinted meaningfully and Sirius made a sound something like a purr.

"Dirty," he murmured as he turned, hugging onto Remus Lupin, laying his head against Remus's chest and taking a deep breath of the smell of him. "I love Costa Rica," Sirius grinned. "It brings out your inner bad boy."

"My inner bad boy?" Remus laughed. "Didn't realize I had one of those."

"Yes," Sirius said lowly, "You do and he's fucking wonderful."

Remus hugged Sirius tight and rested his chin on top of Sirius's head - his husband made the perfect chin rest, after all - and they stood there, staring at the water and breathing in the salty scent of the sea and the oranges that grew in the grove just beyond the cabins behind them.

It was June 23rd and they'd left London on a gray, dismal day, entrusting Newt Scamander's suitcase to the care of Lily and James for the next two nights, so they could thoroughly enjoy their first anniversary by returning to the scene of the crime - also known as Sirius's favorite place in the entire world.

"I wish I could live here," Sirius said. "Imagine, Moony? Imagine if we lived here, what it would be like? I should think I were dreaming all of the time."

"Awful long way away from Godric's Hollow, though, don't you think? Not a simple pop-over by floo?" Remus asked. The Network, after all, extended only so far and overseas was simply not possible.

"We'd take the Pottys with us, obviously," Sirius said. "I'm sure you could magic a way to just uproot their entire property - back fields and all - and it would take him some time to even figure it out  that he'd been moved, thick as he is."

Remus laughed, picturing James realizing several months in that he wasn't in England any longer. "When did that happen?" Remus asked, mocking James's voice by deepening his own.

"I'm not thick though," Sirius added, also imitating James's voice.

"I'm James and I am observant of stuff and things," Remus added.

Sirius snickered and nodded. "That's him exactly."

Remus said, "Alright let's stop talking about James. I don't want to be thinking about him right now."

"No? What do you want to be thinking about?"

Remus paused, then reached for Sirius's chin, tipping his face upward and kissing him deeply so that their tongues touched and the world seemed to fade away to gray. Sirius was pleased because that was precisely what he wanted to be "thinking about", too.

Bradley was not taking the news that he was likely a muggle very well. Despite keeping a brave face about it during the pick-up quidditch game they'd played the day that he found out he couldn't fly a broomstick, the thought of being ordinary hadn't stopped ruminating about in his mind. Not that he was about to let on to anyone else, even now, a good deal of time later, he hadn't mentioned it at all to Remus or Sirius, and certainly not to James or Lily or anyone, really, except for Dougal, the Demiguise, who couldn't say anything to anyone else about how lousy Bradley was feeling about himself.

Desperate, Bradley had laid awake every night, trying to divine a way that the evidence presented by the broomstick had been somehow false. The broom had to of been mistaken or defective or - or something. So he had set it to his own mind to prove somehow to himself - and everyone else - that he was in fact magical. Maybe he was a wizard that just was no good at flying a broomstick.

He thought of all the stories that Uncle Jacob had told him about, and the one that kept repeating in his mind again and again was the time that they all went to Hogwarts and while everyone else was happy to be at the place they considered home - he, Jacob, had not even been able to see more than ruins because of disillusionment charms that kept muggles from being able to see the castle...

Bradley couldn't remember if he'd ever seen it. But he must have, right? ...Right?

Newt Scamander had lived at the castle when Bradley had first started living in the briefcase, hadn't he? Surely Bradley had been outside of the case in the castle walls, hadn't he? Wouldn't he remember if it had looked like they were in castle ruins? Of course, the only thing he could really recall was the dirty Shrieking Shack, where Remus used to transform. But try as he might, Bradley couldn't remember anything about the castle itself. He could remember loads of other places that he, Newt, Tina, and Ned Veigler had stayed, but Hogwarts escaped his memory and it was driving him crazy trying to remember a time he might've laid eyes upon it.

He tried drawing it. He lay on the carpet in his bedroom in the house inside the suitcase, colored pencils and papers scattered all around him as he worked on it. It didn't take long to realize, however, that he had no idea how he should even start the drawing since he couldn't even begin to imagine what Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry really looked like.

He sat staring at the blank page on the floor.

Somewhere far off he heard the briefcase opened and he rolled, sitting up, and gathered up his drawing things and shoved them into a box under the bed, getting up and running down the stairs and out onto the lawn, where the mooncalves were bustling about.

Lily Potter was halfway down the ladder, and Bradley reached the base about the same time as she did. "Oh!" she said in surprise, not having heard him rush up to greet her, "There you are. I wanted to see if you'd like to come with me to do some errands? You've been cooped up in here quite a lot, I thought we could go have some time outside and explore a bit of muggle London?"

Bradley lit up. "Yeah?"

"Yes," Lily said, smiling.

"Alright!" Bradley tried to push the melancholy thoughts away. He was thankful Lily had asked him to come along, it would be an excellent distraction from what was bothering him.

Little did Bradley know, Lily was thinking how thankful she was that he was coming because she, too, was feeling down, and wanting a distraction. Another month without James and Lily's best efforts had come with another negative on the pregnancy test and Lily was feeling frustrated. She'd been on the floor in the bathroom crying half the morning, hugging her knees and wondering what could be wrong with her that they could be trying so many times and still not be pregnant.

They left Godric's Hollow and took the Floo Network from the Potter's to Diagon Alley via the Leaky Cauldron. Bradley had been to Diagon Alley before with Tina, but it was still fascinating, following after Lily as she stopped by Gringott's and exchanged some of the gold from her coin purse for muggle money. She handed Bradley some of the muggle money and he looked at her with confusion. "Well we'll be going to a few stores and I thought you might like to buy something."

Bradley stared at awe at the bills and grinned up at Lily, "Really?" When she nodded, he said, "Wow cool, thank you!"

They did several errands of a mostly boring nature (though Bradley found even these fun because of the magic and chaos of Diagon Alley) before Lily finally led him back through to the Leaky Cauldron. After disappearing the bags through the floo back to the Potter Cottage in Godric's Hollow, Lily turned to Bradley, a smile on her face that reached all the way to her eyes. "Now," she said, "Time for the fun stuff!" She held out her hand and Bradley took it and they stepped into the street in a spot where they were tucked back from prying muggle eyes. "Are you ready?"

He nodded. 

She disapparated with a loud cracking sound, taking along Bradley by the hand, and hey twisted back into being behind a small building surrounded by trees. She stood still for a moment and he looked up at her in confusion. "Where are we?" he asked.

"Listen," Lily whispered.

Bradley listened and what he heard was a sound very familiar to him - the general quiet cacophony of wild beasts, including what he thought might be the loud grunts of the graphooks.

"Where are we?" he asked, "The suitcase?" He tried not to sound disappointed. He understood, a lot of people thought exploring the suitcase was brilliant - and it really was, there was no denying that - but Bradley had been hoping for something else, something --

"No, we're not in the suitcase," LIly said, interrupting his critical thoughts.

"We're not?" he was confused, "Then what --" 

"That's an elephant!" Lily said, excitement on her face.

Bradley listened and - yes, now he could hear it - it was clearly an elephant. But that meant -- His eyes lit up. "Are we at a zoo?"

"Yes!" Lily said. "Remus told me your favorite animals are giraffes and I've never seen one and I thought you could tell me about --"

"THERE ARE GIRAFFES HERE?" Bradley's eyes were wide.

"Yes, there are giraffes and elephants and monkeys and tigers and --"

But Bradley was already hurtling off, excited for the giraffes, and Lily laughed and followed after him, hurrying to keep up with the energy of the young boy as he raced 'round the back of the reptile house where they'd disapparated to. Lily laughed as she followed him out to the thoroughfare. Across the way from the Reptile House was a large gorilla enclosure and Bradley stared in awe at the gigantic black gorilla housed within, laughing with excitement as Lily caught up to him.

They raced about through the zoo, Lily following after Bradley, nearly as excited as he was. They visited exhibit after exhibit, Bradley being carefully thorough to read through each and every placard hung before every habitat. It didn't matter that his whole life revolved around magical creatures, the adrenaline was simply not dropping off a single bit.

Bradley was shaking as they neared the giraffe enclosure and Lily asked, "Have you ever seen a real life giraffe?" for his eyes were tearing up as they rounded a load of bushes that lined the pathway marked by little signs with giraffes on them, directing them to the viewing area.

Bradley shook his head. "Only pictures from books. My dad works with all magical creatures, not the regular sort, so we don't see loads of --" His words cut off short and he came to a stop. They'd turned the corner and found themselves staring out at a savannah that had been created right there in the middle of muggle London and he stared, wide-eyed and jaw dropped at a whole herd of giraffes, far off, plucking leaves from the high tree just feet away from the platform upon which they stood.

Bradley walked right up to the barrier, his hands clutching the top bar of railing, and stared at the giraffes in absolute, perfect awe.

Lily smiled and used Marlene McKinnon's old Polaroid, which she'd stolen from Sirius for the occasion, to snap a photograph of Bradley's expression. 

They spent such a long time by the giraffe enclosure. Bradley couldn't tear his eyes away as the giraffes ate and walked about, their long knobby legs carrying them gracefully about the enclosure, in and out of the tall doors of the giraffe house, and all over the enclosure. There were giraffes of varying heights, and Lily read one of the placards which talked about the enclosure's history and how they'd worked to help save giraffes from being endangered with their excellent breeding program. There had been loads and loads of baby giraffes born there.

After they'd been there for quite some time - people milling in and out of the enclosure behind them, coming and disappearing when they'd had their fill of the giraffe viewing - a man in khakis and a zoo shirt approached. "Excuse me," he said.

Lily turned 'round, but Bradley stayed staring at the giraffes.

"Hi," the guy said, nearing. He was holding a long branch of leaves, smiling. "Hi. My name is Mike, I'm one of the keepers for the giraffes," he explained. 

Bradley looked over at the man fleetingly, then back at the giraffes.

"I couldn't help but notice you lot have been here awhile and how much your boy loves the giraffes."

Lily smiled over at Bradley, "Yes, he really does love them," she said.

"Would he like to feed them?"

Bradley's head turned about so fast - he stood up (for he'd taken to kneeling to stare through the links of the barricade at them. "What? Really? I can feed them?" 

"Sure." Mike the Giraffe Keeper held out the long branch. "If you hold this out over the railing and shake the branch, they'll hear it and come over... I'll help you."

Bradley's face lit up as Mike the Giraffe Keeper came over and pulled a stool out from under a bench near by, which he'd cleverly hidden just for this very purpose - showing kids how to feed giraffes. Standing back a bit, Lily smiled as she watched him direct Bradley up onto the stool for better reach and handed him the branch. Bradley took hold of it and shook the branch as Mike directed him to, the branch's leaves rustling loudly, and sure enough from across the enclosure, one of the giraffe's looked up at the sound of the leaves and she turned and walked majestically across the space until she'd reached the platform and her head was so high up on her long slender neck that she had to bend down to reach the branch, and started eating the leaves, her head a mere foot away from Bradley Scamander as she chewed the leaves.

Lily of course snapped a second Polaroid of him feeding the giraffe.

"You wanna pet her?" Mike the Giraffe Keeper asked and when Bradley nodded, Mike gave a little whistle of a sound and the giraffe leaned forward and laid her chin against the railing directly in front of Bradley and Bradley's hand shook as he reached out and ran his palm over her nose as she blinked up at him with long-lashed eyes.

"Lily, Lily - Look," Bradley breathed.

Lily smiled and snapped another photo.

Bradley stood patting the giraffe while Mike the Giraffe Keeper told him all about her and how she'd been born there at the zoo, how they'd rescued her father after he'd been injured in the wild and sent to the zoo from South Africa. He told Bradley about what it was like working with the giraffes and about giraffe baths and how the house with the funny super-tall doors had been built in the 1800s especially for the giraffes to live in comfortably... 

Bradley couldn't stop talking about the giraffes and Mike the Giraffe Keeper, even hours and hours after they'd finally had to say goodbye to the giraffes and to Mike. He bought a book Mike had written about his time with the giraffes from the zoo gift shop and a little model of a giraffe and a refrigerator magnet with floppy legs and he chattered all the way back to the Reptile House, where they went inside and found a dark corner just 'round the bend from the boa constrictor where Lily took his hand and they disapparated back to Godric's Hollow.

"He let you feed them?!" James exclaimed when they were eating dinner and Bradley was recounting his experience. "No way, that's so cool!"

"I know!" Bradley exclaimed, his face pink with excitement. "It was just like he was a muggle version of my dad! Saving and caring for non-magical creatures!" Bradley's eyes were bright with a hope that hadn't been in them since the day of the pick-up quidditch as he showed James the pictures from Mike the Giraffe Keeper's book, and the Polaroids Lily had taken, and told James again and again how he'd patted the giraffe himself.

That night, he forgot all about his quest to remember Hogwarts, forgot all about the fact that the broomstick didn't fly up when he asked it to, forgot about being disappointed about being a muggle and not getting to go to magic school and all of that. Instead, he sat up hours and hours after Lily and James thought he'd gone to bed, sprawled out on the carpet in his room, drawing pictures of giraffes and of Wolfboy saving one from harm while in his wolfish form...