The next day, they moved to the albums. Hermione was the first to notice that each album was marked with the date of its first image, making it easier to browse them chronologically. "Start with this," she told him, passing an album with "May 1959" written on the corner of the cover.
Harry looked a bit surprised. Not even his mother was born at that time. He still opened it obediently.
The first picture was of the same couple he had seen in the framed picture, only younger. Both looked happy. A caption under the image stated, "The doctor confirmed our suspicions. We're expecting!"
Another image showed the young woman holding a blonde toddler. Both were smiling. "We told Petunia. Not quite sure what she understood."
That was followed by some more pictures showing the woman's pregnancy advancing. Some were even showing her in only knickers and a bra (Or was that a bikini swimsuit? How could he know?) making him blush. And then, there was a picture of a newborn. Well, it was a bundle of cloth with only a tiny head peeking in the middle, yet the tuft of hair on the baby's head was definitely red. "Our Lily was born on 30th January 1960."
It was followed by many more pictures of the baby, some of which made Harry blush, Baby suckling, baby taking a bath, Dad changing nappies, etc. The baby was getting bigger from page to page, turning into a toddler, helped in the first steps by the dotting mother and the slightly older sister. Then she turned into a charming young girl who played with her dolls and in the playground with her sister. Some pictures showed her in school uniform and one or two showed her playing with a dark-haired boy about her age.
The next album started in August 1971. It showed Lily in her Hogwarts attire but with no caption. Most of the following pictures were magical, showing her at Hogwarts with some friends – all girls, except for a serious boy with brown hair. It took Harry a moment to recognize him as young Remus. Only a few pictures had captions, mainly names that meant nothing to Harry. He suspected that not all friendships were held to the end of school or beyond. Some may have also died in the war, just like his parents. That was not a comforting thought, so he pushed it away.
While the first few albums also had a few pictures with the black-haired boy, identified as Severus, he almost disappeared from the fourth year and never appeared after it. His mother certainly had a fallout with Severus. Instead, another boy eventually found his way into the album and into Lily's heart, eventually. He had black unruly hair, rectangular eyeglasses and a roughish smile. Harry had no doubt who that boy was even before he read the caption, "James tries to be friendly. Again…"
Two more boys seemed to come along. One was short, plump and with mousy features. The other was recognizable as Sirius Black. Then, during the seventh year, it was evident that Lily and James were becoming very close. There was barely a picture without him in it, although Sirius, Remus and Peter also appeared in many.
The last pictures were of the graduation ceremony and the ball that followed. Lily looked extremely beautiful in her elegant dress robes which were more like a ball dress than robes. She was dancing with James and both looked very much in love.
The next album was dedicated to their wedding. None of their parents was present – a painful reminder of the dangers of that period. Still, the young couple looked happy, surrounded by friends. Sirius was the best man. Albus Dumbledore was also present and quite a few teachers. Not all of them were still teaching at Hogwarts.
The last album was dedicated to Harry, from the moment the pregnancy was confirmed up to October 1981, a few days before Halloween. Even the cat appeared in quite a few pictures. It was named Matilda, as some captions indicated.
Harry was thankful that Hermione stayed at his side the whole time and hugged him when the images turned too emotional. He doubted he could do that without her help. He was sure he would have collapsed in tears while watching the second album, if not the first.
–..–
They started meeting the two Marauders regularly, enjoying hearing stories about Harry's parents and (somewhat less) about the pranks they all played at school.
"You didn't act very nicely," Hermione reprimanded them.
Remus nodded sadly. "Most children and teens have very little empathy, you know, and they usually manifest it only towards a few selected individuals, acting quite cruelly to others. Luckily, the others showed me empathy. That was their main push to become animagii."
"You are animagii?" Harry blurted in surprise.
"Why did you need empathy?" Hermione asked at the same time.
Remus seemed to cringe, having put himself in a position that forced him to reveal his problem. He sighed heavily and said, "When I was a small child, I was bitten by Fenrir Grayback. That turned me into a werewolf. My friends noticed that I was taken away before each full moon and returned a day or two later. It didn't take them long to reach the right conclusions. I was afraid they would then reject me, but they stayed my friends, secretly learning to change into animals so they could join me on the night I transformed."
"What are your forms?" Harry asked.
Sirius smiled. "Well, Moony is not an animagus, but he changes into a kind of wolf during the nights of the full moon. Padfoot is the name of a large black dog. James was Prongs – a majestic stag. Peter turned into Wormtail – a rat. We should have better understood what it meant."
"We are white wolves," Hermione said proudly.
Remus frowned. "Are you sure? You're too young to start looking for your animal form."
Hermione smiled and glanced at Harry. Without a word, both changed at once, making the older men gasp in surprise.
A moment later, the two children sat back on their chairs in their human form, grinning widely.
It took Sirius some time to recover from the surprise. "Who taught you?" he asked.
Harry smiled. "Nobody. We found a thin book about the animagus transformation while looking for other books and we thought it would be interesting to read. Then, after reading it, we found it easy enough to transform, but it was extremely exhausting the first time. We can now do it easily and not tire at all."
"Let me understand. Do you mean it took you less than two months to master this?" Sirius still sounded incredulous.
Hermione answered this time. "We only had less than a month, you know. We only met at the beginning of August and we first changed… I think it was about a week later, but it was too exhausting. Then, after we studied some more magic, it became much easier, as you could now see."
"A week? A full week?" Sirius wasn't sure how to react.
Hermione didn't think it was a rhetorical question. "Well, thinking back, I think it took us only five or six days, but we only gave it less than two days of studies. The rest we just thought about it."
That seemed to silence Sirius completely. Remus had another question. "How long can you hold it?"
The children looked at each other as if consulting silently before Harry replied. "The longest we tried until now is a few hours, but we didn't feel exhausted or forced to revert to our human forms. We simply had to rejoin our classmates for dinner."
Remus sighed. "Do you know how magically powerful you are? There's a spell to measure magical potential, although I'm unsure where I learned it."
"Oh, we found it in a book and it worked quite well on our classmates, but it failed on us for some reason." Hermione looked quite sad admitting a failure.
Remus tried to smile reassuringly. "I've later found a few more spells, each with its own limitations and drawbacks. Do you mind if I try them on you?"
Both children shrugged. Remus tried the regular spell first. It failed, giving an unreadable result.
"Did you get similar results?" he asked Hermione. She only nodded.
He then tried a spell to measure higher powers. It also failed, making him frown. "Interesting…" he mumbled.
Finally, he tried another spell. It produced eight glowing spheres, seven were green and the last was mostly transparent with only a small band of green at its bottom. He then cancelled it and cast again, getting a similar result.
Remus shook his head as if dislodging unwanted thoughts and turned to Harry. The first two spells gave no result, but he was already expecting that. The third produced eight balls, the last only slightly fuller than Hermione's.
Remus sat down, almost falling into his chair. "I can barely believe it," he mumbled.
"Is there any problem?" Hermione asked worriedly.
Remus straightened in his chair and forced himself to smile. "Not quite a problem, but very surprising results."
"How so?" the inquisitive girl asked.
Remus took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly before taking another breath and talking. "Let me start with some background. These spells measure one's magical potential on a scale of zero to a hundred. It can only indicate the raw power available, not how it is used or how efficiently. The scale itself is logarithmic, meaning that a difference of ten translates to ten times the power. Now, children your age normally have power levels between twenty-five and forty-five. These numbers get somewhat higher by the time they graduate, extending to fifty or slightly above it. My Merlin Index, as these numbers are called, was fifty-one at graduation, and I'm considered well above average, in power. Your parents, Harry, were fifty-three and fifty-five, for Lily, which is quite extraordinary. Sirius is also a very powerful wizard, at fifty-two. Well, these numbers may have changed slightly since then, as we constantly change as long as we live."
Remus stopped for another breath, noticing the attention with which both children were listening. "The first spell, the one you also tried, I presume, can only measure up to fifty-five and is not very exact near the top. The second spell I tried is used for more powerful magical people. Its results are not as easy to read, but they are reliable up to sixty and a bit above. As you can see, that was not enough. The third spell is intended for extremely powerful individuals and is supposed to be able to measure up to ninety, although there's no record of anybody measured that high."
He stopped for another calming breath before continuing. "As you can see, your indexes are above seventy. The exact numbers are difficult to interpret, but you, Lady Potter, seem to be slightly above seventy, probably seventy-one or very near it. Then, your husband is even more powerful, probably seventy-two or -three."
Remus turned silent as if trying to understand what he'd said. Hermione was also contemplating his explanation. She also made some calculations. If Remus was fifty-one and she was seventy-one, that meant… she was about a hundred times more powerful! It just didn't make sense. Yet the normal spell failed on her and Harry, so they must be outside its range… It felt so confusing.
Harry had similar thoughts, but he didn't keep them to himself. "Are you saying we're about a hundred times more powerful than you?" he asked Remus.
Remus moved his hands in a defeated gesture. "That's the only interpretation I can find, too. It may explain your unprecedented control of complex magic and your animagus abilities, maybe even your early bond. There's also the question of how you survived the attack on Halloween. I thought it was something Lily had done. Maybe it was, but if you powered that protection, I doubt anybody could overcome it."
Harry frowned. "Why? How powerful was Voldemort?"
It was Sirius who answered this time, finally overcoming his surprise. "You may not yet know, but each graduating student is checked at the infirmary before graduation. That ensures no lasting effect of any spells one had been hit with during studies that hadn't been treated on time but it also serves to measure one's Merlin Index, given to each on a small parchment. Most people don't tell their index to others, but it usually becomes known soon enough. From what I know, the Dark Lord was measured about seventy when he graduated. He may have gained some more power, and there are rumours that he also used some dark rituals to enhance his powers, yet these can't raise one's index by more than four or five points, as far as I know. Then, rumours say that Dumbledore graduated with a Merlin Index of seventy-five or seventy-six, making him quite a bit more powerful than Voldemort even after enhancing his powers."
Harry sighed. If the information about his power level got out, he'd gain even more unwanted fame. Well, he had a way to keep it secret. "Sirius and Remus, you should know that our power levels are a Potter House Secret and should not be divulged to anyone without our prior consent."
Sirius smiled sadly. "I didn't expect you to already know about House Secrets, but this information should certainly be one. I'll keep it secret."
Remus nodded. "And so will I."