#actually no i changed my mind. i agree with sirius. lily beats dumbledore in a fight with her sheer hotness and willpower | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

halothenthehorns · 3 years

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TLTNL- FELIX FELICIS

Remus helped her out at once, speaking while trying to pull his thoughts together at the same time to somehow get an answer. "I'm wondering now if Voldemort has, cursed objects?" It didn't seem right, as even if he did, what could be the significance of that in relation to Harry surviving the prophecy?

"Your thinking that necklace that cursed Katie belonged to him?" Sirius tried to understand where he was heading, his mind on an entirely different matter, like how all this tied back to Voldemort wanting to go after Prongs for any significant reason.

"You think Voldemort tried to slip him one over the summer, and failed? That's what could have started all this?" She prompted, her mind lingering on their old headmasters injury. It was hard to believe he'd fall for such a ruse though, and she still felt like they were missing the real significance of what was going on here.

"If Malfoy's supposed to be helping with something, maybe Harry's right, and he's trying to get one of these treasures of his into the school somehow. For a reason that can't be good." James uneasily agreed.

"And it walked right in the front door because of me," Harry said, but the nausea wasn't quite right for that feeling, he was sure they weren't on the mark now.

"We could be entirely wrong," Remus quickly disagreed. "When he was young, he kept treasures on his person, I'm sure he treated those like a secret. Why hand them out now?"

"Because now he knows how to curse people," Harry rebutted far harsher than he meant to, but he refused to let this theory slip away from him, back into the recesses of his mind. He was right, and he wouldn't let this one go.

When no one else offered anything, he reached eagerly for the book, but Lily held it to her instead. "It's getting late, we should probably stop for dinner before anyone else nearly gets murdered."

The dower comment wasn't much to wet their appetites, but no one disagreed either. Harry picked restlessly along his meal, not even realizing what he was eating. This really was one of his more mild years, he had to admit, and yet with each passing page he could feel something terrible lurking on the edge of his mind, waiting for him to let his guard down and spring upon him.

It was as noticeable to the others as it was the guilt they felt for seeing it. Sirius had tried in vain several times through the meal to catch Harry's attention and put him on a lighter topic of conversation, but it was clear he would not be pulled from whatever unhappy thoughts he was lingering in. They almost wished it wasn't his turn to read, so that they could try and put off a little longer and put him in some sort of good mood before he started, but in his preoccupation he hardly even seemed to recognize his audience as he began.

Harry had Herbology first thing the following morning. He had been unable to tell Ron and Hermione about his lesson with Dumbledore over breakfast for fear of being over-heard,

"They didn't wait up for you this time?" James demanded in mock outrage far louder than was called for, but he was still as determined as the others to snag Harry's attention.

He barely glanced up, muttering about their prefect duties that night in answer before plowing on.

but he filled them in as they walked across the vegetable patch toward the greenhouses. The weekend's brutal wind had died out at last; the weird mist had returned and it took them a little longer than usual to find the correct greenhouse.

Ron quietly said what a scary thought it was, the kid You-Know-Who, as they took their places around one of the gnarled Snargaluff stumps that formed this terms project, and began pulling on their protective gloves. He didn't get why Dumbledore was showing him all this. It was sort of interesting, but what was the point?

Harry agreed he wasn't sure as he put on his gum shield*, but Dumbledore had promised it would help him survive, though his words were now slightly contorted.

"I'm sure they can still understand you with that in your mouth," Sirius rolled his eyes, he found them bulky and extremely annoying to talk through. It didn't help Moony had once given him one on his birthday as a hint.

Hermione earnestly pointed out how fascinating it all was, it made absolute sense to know as much about Voldemort as possible. How else would they find his weaknesses?

"I'm not disagreeing," Lily said grudgingly.

"It wouldn't kill the man to get to the point a little faster though," James huffed, he really felt like this was all dragging a bit.

Harry changed the subject and asked how Slughorn's party had gone.

Hermione said enjoyable for the most part. He prattled on a bit about all the famous people he knew, but he also invited a few of them, like Gweong Jones, Captain of the Holyhead Harpies.

Harry beamed, and didn't wait for anyone to ask why, "I hope Ginny was at that one then, she'd have loved that! It's her favorite team!"

Professor Sprout came over then to tell them to get to work, Neville already had his first pod.

"I demand a reason I need to fight with a plant rather than chat with my friends, the second is definitely more useful for my life," Sirius huffed.

They looked around; sure enough, there sat Neville with a bloody lip and several nasty scratches along the side of his face, but clutching an unpleasantly pulsating green object about the size of a grapefruit.

"Was he working all by himself?" Lily asked, impressed. She often did as well, and especially in that class it could prove difficult with some of these larger plants, this one especially. It had taken her at least the first twenty minutes of class to manage this, and she was sure from this conversation they hadn't been talking that long.

Harry had already agreed he was and moved on.

Ron quickly agreed to appease her, but waited until she'd walked away before muttering to Harry they should have used Muffliato.

"She still would have noticed you aren't working," Remus disagreed.

"Yeah, then she would have likely even taken away points, putting a spell up trying to distract her," James agreed with a sigh.

Hermione at once, like she always did, looked intensely cross at the thought of the Half-Blood Prince and his spells.

Lily smiled privately to herself, really wondering at what Hermione's reaction was going to be if she learned the origins of that book. She really wasn't even sure if Harry did, though she'd very likely inform him at the end of the year when the teacher would no longer be there, for whatever reason she still wasn't sure she wanted to know.

Now she changed the subject by telling them to get to work.

They all took deep breaths and then dived at the gnarled stump between them.

It sprang to life at once; long, prickly, bramble like vines flew out of the top and whipped through the air. One tangled itself in Hermione's hair, and Ron beat it back with a pair of secateurs; Harry succeeded in trapping a couple of vines and knotting them together; a hole opened in the middle of all the tentacle like branches; Hermione plunged her arm bravely into this hole, which closed like a trap around her elbow; Harry and Ron tugged and wrenched at the vines, forcing the hole to open again, and Hermione snatched her arm free, clutching in her fingers a pod just like Neville's. At once, the prickly vines shot back inside, and the gnarled stump sat there looking like an innocently dead lump of wood.

"Lovely things, aren't they," James wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"I remember I once tried to feed some snotty little third year into one for asking why I was in the wrong common room that morning," Sirius smirked. "What?" He demanded of Lily's agitated look. "He came out with a dozen of those little pods, I really should have gotten a thanks!"

Ron casually suggested he wasn't planning on putting one of these in his garden as he wiped sweat from his face.

"No Lily," James said at once when she opened her mouth.

"Oh, but, the pods-" she began to wheedle.

James purposefully wouldn't look into her pouting face, knowing he'd cave in an instant to her ever growing garden idea.

Then Remus helpfully tacked in, "actually, I wouldn't mind helping prune this one, perhaps even give it a snack from time to time. See how Padfoot likes it," he finished with an obvious look at his friend, who scowled and pressed his hand to his heart in betrayal.

Harry still couldn't be distracted by any of this. Not his memories of wrestling a plant, his family having just a nice conversation around him, even Ginny's briefly coming to mind had faded just as quickly so that he wasn't aware of anything anymore than the gaping hole in his mind where the answer to Voldemort, to everything this year should sit. He wanted to skip right past all of this, find Dumbledore's next lesson and keep going with that and come back for this mess later, but he knew the others would never agree.

Hermione held the pulsating pod at arm's length; Harry handed over a bowl and she dropped the pod into it with a look of disgust on her face.

Professor Sprout called to them not to be squeamish and pop it fresh.

Hermione decided to continue their interrupted conversation as though a lump of wood had not just attacked them,

"What do you mean that's not perfectly normal?" James politely asked.

Lily couldn't tell if he was kidding that time.

about Slughorn's parties, and how Harry had been invited to the Christmas one. Slughorn had specifically asked her to check Harry's available dates to be sure he could come.

"I will demote her to passing friend along with Neville if she didn't lie!" Sirius said at once.

That did get Harry's attention, he never really did like it when they made cracks at Hermione like that, even in defense of him. That was his friend after all, so he swiftly returned, "you'd have done the same thing if one of these two had annoyed you so much recently."

Sirius contemplated that for a moment, before nodding along and saying, "true, revenge and forcing them to live it with me at the same time. Alright, I'll take it back."

"Good," Harry chuckled. "I'm the only one allowed to demote my best friends from anything, and it won't ever be happening."

They were all just pleased Harry had finally reacted normally to something!

Harry groaned. Meanwhile, Ron, who was attempting to burst the pod in the bowl by putting both hands on it, standing up, and squashing it as hard as he could, asked angrily, that this was just another party for Slughorn's favorites?

Hermione said yes, and the pod flew out from under Ron's fingers and hit the green house glass, rebounding onto the back of Professor Sprout's head and knocking off her old, patched hat.

"Well she can't say you aren't working anymore," Remus said with chipper.

Harry went to retrieve the pod; when he got back, Hermione was saying, she wasn't the one to name it the Slug Club.

Ron repeated the name with a sneer worthy of Malfoy.

"Ugh," Harry heard those around him mutter, but he honestly couldn't have put a better comparison at the time. He was sure it was unintentional on Ron's part, but it didn't mean Harry enjoyed it either. He braced himself anyways, getting the feeling Ron may be getting just a touch on his nerves of late, it definitely wasn't declining the more the Slug Club was brought up.

He insisted the name was pathetic, and so were these parties. Was Slughorn going to make her and McLaggen King and Queen Slugs?

James couldn't help but snort a bit at that, it was quite comical. Incidentally, didn't that make him and Lily heirs to that throne?

Hermione was turning scarlet now as she said they were allowed to bring guests, but if he thought it was so stupid she wouldn't bother asking him!

"Ha, that's brilliant!" Lily chuckled. "She certainly put him in a spot, deciding not to share this until after he'd badmouthed it all."

"Now if he goes, it'll be obvious he's only doing it for her company," James agreed, finding Hermione quite clever, though that wasn't anything new.

Harry suddenly wished the pod had flown a little farther, so that he need not have been sitting here with the pair of them.

"What's with you?" Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Unlike you two privileged souls, these were my two best mates having this right in front of me, not one of them whom you didn't have to pick sides for," Harry finished with a huff, feeling it was obvious.

Remus and Sirius exchanged a look before deciding it was lucky no one in their group had ever succumbed to this problem.

Unnoticed by either, he seized the bowl that contained the pod and began to try and open it by the noisiest and most energetic means he could think of; unfortunately, he could still hear every word of their conversation.

"I actually wanted details of that," Sirius smirked.

"Like cracking it against Ron's head," Remus agreed with a sly smirk that Harry didn't need to question, Remus wasn't picturing Ron.

Ron had a very different tone now as he confirmed she was going to ask him?

Hermione sounded more angry than anything as she said yes, but if he'd rather she take McLaggen, she would.

There was a pause while Harry continued to pound the resilient pod with a trowel.

Ron said in a very quiet voice he wouldn't prefer that.

Harry missed the pod, hit the bowl, and shattered it.

He hastily used the 'Reparo' charm on it, poking the pieces with his wand, and the bowl sprang back together again. The crash, however, appeared to have awoken Ron and Hermione to Harry's presence.

"Darn, and it was just getting good," Lily sighed, actually looking a bit disappointed. It would be nice to finally have some definitive answer so these two would quite jumping around the subject. This had been a very good opportunity for such a thing, and she hoped they picked it up when Harry wasn't around.

Hermione looked flustered and immediately started fussing about for her copy of 'Flesh-Eating Trees of the World' to find out the correct way to juice Snargaluff pods; Ron, on the other hand, looked sheepish but also rather pleased with himself.

Hermione took the pod from him, explaining they were supposed to be using something sharp to pierce the pod.

Harry passed it all to her while he and Ron both snapped their goggles back over their eyes and dived, once more, for the stump.

It was not as though he was really surprised, thought Harry, as he wrestled with a thorny vine intent upon throttling him;

"Can't think of a better description for dealing with this," Remus snorted.

he had had an inkling that this might happen sooner or later.

"I'm glad, otherwise you'd be more daft than Lockhart of all things!" Sirius smirked.

But he was not sure how he felt about it.

"That's a bit fair, awkward transitioning phase and all," James shrugged.

"Don't know what you're talking about, Harry's had time to transition since at least his fourth year," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"It's one thing to be thinking it, it's another to witness, and still yet another to see in action. Have yet to see that last one," Harry sighed.

He and Cho were now too embarrassed to look at each other, let alone talk to each other; what if Ron and Hermione started going out together, then split up? Could their friendship survive it? Harry remembered the few weeks when they had not been talking to each other in the third year; he had not enjoyed trying to bridge the distance between them. And then, what if they didn't split up? What if they became like Bill and Fleur, and it became excruciatingly embarrassing to be in their presence, so that he was shut out for good?

Harry sighed as both options were laid out like that. He wished someone would tell him it would all work out and neither extreme option was going to happen, but he also couldn't help but appreciate no one was giving him another false security. They just had this awkward look on their face, like they knew better than to say anything, so he just ran his hand through his hair to lay it flat and concentrated very hard on that sense of peace he could still cling to when he thought of his friends, confident that would never fade.

Ron suddenly yelled in triumph, pulling a second pod from the stump just as Hermione managed to burst the first one open, so that the bowl was full of tubers wriggling like pale green worms.

The rest of the lesson passed without further mention of Slughorn's party. Although Harry watched his two friends more closely over the next few days, Ron and Hermione did not seem any different except that they were a little politer to each other than usual. Harry supposed he would just have to wait to see what happened under the influence of butterbeer in Slughorn's dimly lit room on the night of the party.

Harry grumbled a bit more and shifted restlessly in his seat. He wasn't truly worried, that wasn't the right feeling, he may even be happy for them. There was just an anxiety over their relationship he couldn't quite place, like it would come back and bite him hard eventually.

In the meantime, however, he had more pressing worries.

Katie Bell was still in St. Mungo's Hospital with no prospect of leaving, which meant that the promising Gryffindor team Harry had been training so carefully since September was one Chaser short. He kept putting off replacing Katie in the hope that she would return, but their opening match against Slytherin was looming, and he finally had to accept that she would not be back in time to play.

"Oh, the poor thing!" James sounded as remorseful as if he were just receiving the news all over again she was in the hospital.

Harry did not think he could stand another full-House tryout. With a sinking feeling that had little to do with Quidditch,

James looked confounded, like it was hard to imagine anything that didn't relate back to Quidditch in some way. His questioning eyes sought out Harry's, who merely shrugged. "If it doesn't explain all the reasons, I will. Mostly though I thought it was obvious, I don't want another full-House tryout spectacle."

"I guess," James muttered, hoping that game hurried up already.

he cornered Dean Thomas after Transfiguration one day. Most of the class had already left, although several twittering yellow birds were still zooming around the room, all of Hermione's creation; nobody else had succeeded in conjuring so much as a feather from thin air.

"That spell always seemed more like a charm to me, conjuring things rather than, well, transforming them," Remus grumbled.

He outright asked him to be on the team, and Dean said of course at once.

Over Dean's shoulder, Harry saw Seamus Finnegan slamming his books into his bag, looking sour. One of the reasons why Harry would have preferred not to have to ask Dean to play was that he knew Seamus would not like it. On the other hand, he had to do what was best for the team, and Dean had outflown Seamus at the tryouts.

"So it's only fair then," James quickly agreed, and Harry gave a lackluster smile back.

Harry said that was settled then, and told him when the next practice was.

Dean cheered, and at once muttered about going to find Ginny to tell her the news.

Harry huffed a bit, and the others thought he was still so put out about his team no one noticed his mutters about him having to tell Ginny this first.

He sprinted out of the room, leaving Harry and Seamus alone together, an uncomfortable moment made no easier when a bird dropping landed on Seamus's head as one of Hermione's canaries whizzed over them.

All five of them got a snort out of that, perhaps they weren't quite over their foul attitude of his last year.

Seamus was not the only person disgruntled by the choice of Katie's substitute. There was much muttering in the common room about the fact that Harry had now chosen two of his class-mates for the team. As Harry had endured much worse mutterings than this in his school career, he was not particularly bothered, but all the same, the pressure was increasing to provide a win in the upcoming match against Slytherin. If Gryffindor won, Harry knew that the whole House would forget that they had criticized him and swear that they had always known it was a great team. If they lost. . . well, Harry thought wryly, he had still endured worse mutterings. . . .

"There's the bright side," Lily half managed a giggle. She'd never really be invested in this sport for all the trouble it caused, but the clear stress it was putting on her son couldn't be played off either, so she was happy to see he was trying to look up all on his own.

Harry had no reason to regret his choice once he saw Dean fly that evening; he worked well with Ginny and Demelza. The Beaters, Peakes and Coote, were getting better all the time. The only problem was Ron.

Harry had known all along that Ron was an inconsistent player who suffered from nerves and a lack of confidence, and unfortunately, the looming prospect of the opening game of the season seemed to have brought out all his old insecurities.

Harry sighed and fidgeted with the pages, it was clear his apprehension was mounting. She almost wished he had picked McLaggen now for the team, even if it would have caused extra strain between him and Ron, surely his best friend would have gotten over it and faced facts there was a better player? She sometimes worried he was too loyal, and look where that had gotten her until the last straw.

After letting in half a dozen goals, most of them scored by Ginny, his technique became wilder and wilder, until he finally punched an oncoming Demelza Robins in the mouth.

"Foul," Sirius said in what he clearly thought was a helpful tone of voice while they all winced.

Ron profusely apologized, while Ginny called him a prat for giving her a split lip.

Harry zipped over and fixed it with the Episkey spell.

"Was that really safe?" Lily couldn't help but scold him. "You'd only had the spell done on you once, you really should have someone explain that to you more before you go using it on others." She only realized after the fact her words weren't helping anything, his mouth seemed permanently set in that uneasy frown, so she soothed her tone and finished with, "but it was very sweet of you, and I'm glad you learned it."

Then he turned on Ginny and told her not to call Ron a prat, she wasn't Captain.

Ginny merely said he'd seemed busy, and someone needed to.

Remus snorted in surprised agreement.

Harry forced himself not to laugh.

"You're a better man than some," James clucked his tongue and was very clearly trying not to do the same, while Sirius and Remus were having no such restraints.

Overall it was one of the worst practices they had had all term, though Harry did not feel that honesty was the best policy when they were this close to the match. He made sure the team heard his thoughts of them flattening Slytherin tomorrow, and the rest left with good spirits.

When he and Ron were alone in the locker room, Ron slumped into his seat and called himself a sack of dung.

Harry insisted he was no such thing, he was the best Keeper. He only had some problems with nerves.

He kept up a relentless flow of encouragement all the way back to the castle, and by the time they reached the second floor, Ron was looking marginally more cheerful. When Harry pushed open the tapestry to take their usual shortcut up to Gryffindor Tower, however, they found themselves looking at Dean and Ginny, who were locked in a close embrace and kissing fiercely as though glued together.

"Urgh, not something you ever want to walk in on," Remus said with a stank eye at the redhead in here, who was blushing faintly while James wasn't bothering with anything except a smirk. Sirius had never been any better, nor subtle, hardly ever waiting until he was alone to parlay in the same practice.

Harry really didn't need to ask, nor was he even paying it much mind.

He felt like screaming, though at no one in here. His fist clenched so tight the ring upon it actually felt strained on his finger. He'd never felt such a powerful feeling in all his time here, not even in his memories, and for once he read on looking for some kind of name to put to this newfound surge.

It was as though something large and scaly erupted into life in Harry's stomach, clawing at his insides: Hot blood seemed to flood his brain, so that all thought was extinguished, replaced by a savage urge to jinx Dean into a jelly.

"I knew it!" Lily smirked.

"Knew what?" Harry demanded, still fighting back that burst of outrage.

"You've been paying more attention to Ginny for ages, and now you're out and jealous," she finished with a giggle.

"Jealous?" Harry tried to snap in protest, but it came out as more of a question.

"I'm not that surprised," Remus shrugged, "at least how he's been acting in here. He's always paid much more mind to her than he ever seemed to in the past, and I always wondered about the change."

"I am," James was still frowning lightly between the book and his kid. "Just hours ago you were still referring to her as Ron's little sister. Where's this coming from?"

Sirius suddenly burst out laughing, but he was watching Harry in a weary kind of way. "Well this could be all kinds of awkward if it keeps going, even if it's just as far as it was with Cho. You were thinking how not fun it would be to have your two best friends dating, try your best friends little sister."

"Sorry Harry, but none of us can really compare, seeing as none of us have sisters." James agreed.

Sirius thoughtfully rubbed his jaw for a moment before offering, "I don't know, if one of you had made a play at my brother, I'd think you were pretty barmy."

"Well darn," Remus sighed, "there goes my love life."

Harry let them make a couple more jokes of it, but then decided to go back to the moment. His ring still felt heavier by the moment, and he was more sure than ever they were down playing this moment. Jealous didn't even feel like a strong enough word, though he was now convinced his mum was right. There was more to it though, so he pressed on eagerly, to explore this new feeling that was very rapidly developing.

Wrestling with this sudden madness, he heard Ron's voice as though from a great distance away shouting to get their attention.

Dean and Ginny broke apart, Ginny looking around without much care to demand what he wanted.

Ron shouted back he didn't want to find his own sister snogging people in public!

Ginny snapped back this was a deserted corridor before he'd come butting in.

"I mean, she's not wrong," Lily snickered, clearly still finding this funnier than anything. She was very pleased to finally have this one out in the open, Ginny had been seeking Harry out for ages and he'd been reciprocating more and more as her youth vanished. Clearly it had just taken the right circumstances to make Harry realize what she'd been seeing.

Dean was looking embarrassed. He gave Harry a shifty grin that Harry did not return, as the newborn monster inside him was roaring for Dean's instant dismissal from the team.

"You've got Hermione as your conscious, now a monster ruling your jealousy, you're just made up of all kinds of things. Wonder what else is going to develop when you ask out Ginny?" Sirius smirked and shook his head as he continued to pick apart jokes for all this. They'd been wanting to know Harry's new fancy, and now they had it, this was going to be hilarious until he moved on.

Dean tried to coax her away, but Ginny told him to go on, she wanted a word with her dear brother.

"Prongs isn't her brother," Sirius said, clearly mystified.

"Shut up Padfoot," James rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

Dean left, looking as though he was not sorry to depart the scene.

Ginny gave her long hair a toss over her shoulder before squaring off, telling Ron it was none of his business who she went out with or what she did with them.

"I'd be paying real close attention to this Harry," Remus mock whispered, "you could be Dean next."

Harry blushed faintly, but the reaction wasn't near as severe as they would have thought. Perhaps this jealousy would come and go even faster than they were thinking then, for him to have so little a reaction.

In all honesty, Harry couldn't get too worked up over this teasing like he had the last time with Cho. He couldn't even put it into words, it just felt natural to him, like watching his parents together. He wasn't even that worried about Ron's response, like the idea occurring to him now said he should be. So he'd take whatever ribbing they or anyone else offered and go with it.

Ron defended yes it was, he didn't want people thinking his sister was a-

Ginny drew her wand threatening, demanding a what exactly?

Harry automatically told Ginny her brother didn't mean anything, though the monster in his chest was roaring approval with Ron.

"Glad someone approves of what's going on, even an inner-" James subtly elbowed Sirius to get him to stop that one before it went too far.

Ginny flared up at him now, shouting Ronald's problem was that the best kiss he'd ever had was from their Auntie Muriel!

"Oooh," James sucked in air backwards through his teeth. "This just went from awkward to flat out bad."

"What does Ginny think she's doing, throwing that around," Remus agreed with an uneasy wince.

"She's proving a point, and standing up for herself," Lily said just a touch defensively. "Her brother's being awful to her, trying to control her like that."

"He's telling her to get a room, Ginny's the one who escalated it, calling him out just because he's never had a girlfriend." Sirius scowled back.

"Both of them are being rotten siblings to each other, they need to take a step back," Lily sighed.

"Without their mum around, I doubt either of them are going to have the good grace to do that," Remus muttered. Harry privately agreed, and it was making him anxious, thinking of having to take sides in that.

It was pathetic, the way he kept hoping Fleur would give him a peck on the cheek every time she passed! If he went out and had a bit of snogging himself, maybe he wouldn't find it so disgusting when others did it!

Ron pulled his wand too, Harry stepped in between them.

All five of them were looking like a bomb was about to go off now, not one of them wanted this to keep escalating, but they were all sure it would.

Ron was now trying to get a clear shot at Ginny around Harry, who was now standing in front of her with his arms outstretched.

"Eesh, I don't even want to know what he's going to throw at her," Sirius winced hard, very aware of the variations he'd set on his brother for multiple lesser things. He wished he could push Harry out of the way of this one.

Ginny cared nothing as she carried on Harry had snogged Cho Chang, and Hermione had Victor Krum! He was the only one acting like a twelve-year-old when it went on! Then she stormed away.

Harry rubbed awkwardly at the back of his neck. That was most definitely not how he'd wanted his feelings for Ginny to flourish...if he did at all. Now that he'd so vividly seen Ron's vehement reaction to someone being with his sister, it even turning into a brawl, Harry's calm assuredness from moments ago vanished just like Ginny had from that corridor. What had he been thinking, Ron would would be okay with this?! He'd murder him!

"Well, I can find a bright spot in this for Lily," Sirius continued pleasantly like nothing more had happened. "Ron's going to hook up with Hermione just to prove a point."

"Was that supposed to make me feel better?" Lily scowled at him. "I'd want them to get together because they want to be, not for Ron to show off to his sister. If Hermione finds out this is the reason Ron finally made a move, I'll very much doubt she'll be happy."

"Can't win anything with you woman," Sirius rolled his eyes.

James noticed Harry was still looking rather queasy, and had a wash of sympathy for him. Sirius and Lily had been nonstop having a go at each other since he'd started dating her. It had gradually turned into the friendship they'd developed, but James didn't envy Harry's position of having to pick a side in that argument, something that never had, and fingers crossed never would happen in his life. He was still half convinced Harry's sudden spurt of feelings for Ginny would fade though, so he pushed that away and was more than happy when Harry forced himself to keep going.

Harry quickly let go of Ron; the look on his face was murderous. They both stood there, breathing heavily, until Mrs. Norris, appeared around the corner, which broke the tension.

Harry quickly led them both away before Filch himself could catch up.

A small girl was standing in the middle of the seventh-floor corridor, and jumped in fright and dropped a bottle of toadspawn as Ron snapped at her to move.

Harry hardly noticed the sound of shattering glass; he felt disoriented, dizzy; being struck by a lightning bolt must be something like this.

Harry still felt that way, as if his mind were being split in two. One part kept replaying that scene, like he should have been paying much more attention to it, instead of letting the rest flit off to corridors, to imaginations he'd never share with Ron...or memories?

It's just because she's Ron's sister, he told himself. You just didn't like seeing her kissing Dean because she's Ron's sister. . . .

But unbidden into his mind came an image of that same deserted corridor with himself kissing Ginny instead. . . .

James whistled in surprise his sons mind was already going that rout then, he'd never even escalated that far with Cho, especially not right off the bat.

"Ginny slip something in your evening dinner?" Sirius burst out laughing at Harry's now scarlet face, that was not something he'd ever wanted to share with them. "Where's all this coming from?"

"I really think it's just been building for ages," Lily said clinically as she kept eyeing him as well. Harry kept his eyes trained on the pages instead, well aware how much every one of them were still looking at him.

"Let's hope it doesn't take him another two years to get his act together and do something about it then," Sirius chuckled.

The monster in his chest purred . . .

James snorted slightly that kept being brought up, but really he was still assessing all this, while Harry fidgeted more than ever with that ring on his finger. Was it like before, with Cho? Whoever his wife was should be on his mind now, with some new love interest present, or was it him trying to recall Ginny as that wife? He wasn't sure, and he still felt more sorry for Harry than anything, especially if it wasn't Ginny. This just got more awkward the more he thought about it.

but then he saw Ron ripping open the tapestry curtain and drawing his wand on Harry, shouting things like, 'betrayal of trust'. . . 'supposed to be my friend' . . .

"No second guessing at all what Ginny might say eh?" Sirius chuckled.

"Apparently he's still hoping that celebrity crush is alive and well," Remus agreed.

Ron abruptly intruded to demand of him if Hermione had snogged Krum?

Harry didn't really answer, as his mind supplied the idea that yes he did think so,

"Do you really think they got to know each other that well?" James more than happily jumped topics, though was sad Hermione wasn't actually here so he could asses a real answer out of her.

"I was under the impression they didn't have too much to do with each other after the second task at least, but at the same time, they've been writing since, so," Lily trailed off with a shrug. She could see how it would anyways.

however, Ron seemed to gather the worst from the look on Harry's face. They climbed through the portrait hole into the common room.

Neither of them mentioned Ginny or Hermione again; indeed, they barely spoke to each other that evening and got into bed in silence, each absorbed in his own thoughts.

Harry lay awake for a long time, looking up at the canopy of his four-poster and trying to convince himself that his feelings for Ginny were entirely elder-brotherly.

"What you were imagining just now had nothing to do with siblings," Remus told him like he'd gone daft.

"At least I'm relieved he is trying to talk himself out of it," James gave an uneasy chuckle. "I really can't see how this one's going to go."

Harry scowled at the two, looking twice as offended as anything they'd said about Cho, but still no one could tell on what level. Paternal like, or more?

They had lived, had they not, like brother and sister all summer, playing Quidditch, teasing Ron, and having a laugh about Bill and Phlegm? He had known Ginny for years now. ... It was natural that he should feel protective . . . natural that he should want to look out for her . . . want to rip Dean limb from limb for kissing her... No ... he would have to control that particular brotherly feeling. . . .

Ron gave a great grunting snore.

She's Ron's sister, Harry told himself firmly. Ron's sister. She's out-of-bounds. He would not risk his friendship with Ron for anything. He punched his pillow into a more comfortable shape and waited for sleep to come, trying his utmost not to allow his thoughts to stray anywhere near Ginny.

"I'm already convinced his dreams didn't follow the same pattern," James said, but with an affectionate look at Lily who blushed faintly but refused to acknowledge that one.

Harry awoke next morning feeling slightly dazed and confused by a series of dreams in which Ron had chased him with a Beater's bat,

"Ron doesn't even play that position," Sirius chuckled.

"We don't need Trelawney to pick that one apart," Remus rolled his eyes.

but by midday he would have happily exchanged the dream Ron for the real one, who was not only cold-shouldering Ginny and Dean, but also treating a hurt and bewildered Hermione with an icy, sneering indifference. What was more, Ron seemed to have become, overnight, as touchy and ready to lash out as the average Blast-Ended Skrewt. Harry spent the day attempting to keep the peace between Ron and Hermione with no success; finally, Hermione departed for bed in high dudgeon, and Ron stalked off to the boys' dormitory after swearing angrily at several frightened first years for looking at him.

"Merlin, one little spat with his sister and Ron thinks his life is ending," James said with more sympathy than anything. At this point in his life he'd been pretty frustrated the girl of his dreams still had no interest in him, even when she wasn't hanging around Snape anymore. He hadn't always been at his most pleasant either, though he liked to think he'd never gotten this bad.

"He's being a ponce," Lily scowled for this attitude no one deserved. "If he has a problem, even one he doesn't want to talk about, taking it out on everyone else is inexcusable."

To Harry's dismay, Ron's new aggression did not wear off over the next few days. Worse still, it coincided with an even deeper dip in his Keeping skills, which made him still more aggressive, so that during the final Quidditch practice before Saturdays match, he failed to save every single goal the Chasers aimed at him, but bellowed at everybody so much that he reduced Demelza Robins to tears.

"Bloody hell, just go snog a girl already and be done with it," Sirius said in exasperation as this pent up feeling only grew worse.

"Sirius, that really should not be your answer to everything," Remus rolled his eyes in exasperation, before grudgingly saying, "but in this particular case I can't help agreeing with him. Ron needs to work this out, and if that's what does it I'm all for it."

Peakes flew into his face and shouted to leave her alone! He was two-thirds Ron's size, but was carrying a heavy bat.

"Yeah, that would be a sight," James muttered, hoping Harry stepped in soon to calm his team before it went that far.

Harry bellowed at them that was enough, especially at Ginny, who he had seen glowering in Ron's direction and, remembering her reputation as an accomplished caster of the Bat-Bogey Hex, soared over to intervene before things got out of hand.

He told the rest of the team to go and pack up for the night, and waited until they were out of earshot before confronting Ron. Telling him that best mates they were, if he didn't stop this he'd be kicked off the team!

He really thought for a moment that Ron might hit him, but then something much worse happened: Ron seemed to sag on his broom.

"Maybe this'll finally help," Lily honestly tried to put some hope into her voice. "He needed someone to give him a swift kick in his arse."

"I can't see how Harry attacking him now will really help," Sirius disagreed, thinking what Ron really needed and wishing he could help just like he'd tried for Moony all those years ago, still occasionally tried to do no matter how much Remus protested and refused to participate in whatever blind-dates he'd set up.

All the fight went out of him and he simply resigned on the spot.

Harry fiercely said he didn't accept! He could save anything when he was on form, he just had a mental problem!

Ron demanded he was being called mental?

"He's sure acting like it lately," Remus agreed.

Harry agreed he was right now.

They glared at each other for a moment, then Ron shook his head wearily. He conceded Harry couldn't find a new Keeper so soon, but when they lost the game tomorrow, he was resigning.

Nothing Harry said made any difference. He tried boosting Ron's confidence all through dinner, but Ron was too busy being grumpy and surly with Hermione to notice.

"I'm sure she loved that," Lily grumbled, wishing to swat him upside the head for still taking this out on the wrong person.

Harry persisted in the common room that evening, but his assertion that the whole team would be devastated if Ron left was somewhat undermined by the fact that the rest of the team was sitting in a huddle in a distant corner, clearly muttering about Ron and casting him nasty looks.

"Ouch, yeah, probably not helping," James winced, but he was at a loss of anything to help Ron as well. If winning the Championship last year didn't do it, he didn't know anything that would encourage Ron now. Maybe quitting really was best for the poor guy, even if they had to endure McLaggen because of it.

Finally Harry tried getting angry again in the hope of provoking Ron into a defiant, and hopefully goal-saving, attitude, but this strategy did not appear to work any better than encouragement; Ron went to bed as dejected and hopeless as ever.

"Credit for determination," Sirius offered, which did about as much good in distracting Harry as he'd been trying to do to Ron.

Harry lay awake for a very long time in the darkness. He did not want to lose the upcoming match; not only was it his first as Captain, but he was determined to beat Draco Malfoy at Quidditch even if he could not yet prove his suspicions about him. Yet if Ron played as he had done in the last few practices, their chances of winning were very slim. . . .

If only there was something he could do to make Ron pull him-self together . . . make him play at the top of his form . . . something that would ensure that Ron had a really good day.

...

And the answer came to Harry in one, sudden, glorious stroke of inspiration.

"Oh Harry, you don't!" James groaned at once.

Harry went wide-eyed and innocent, fighting to keep his expression under control and not give himself away.

"That's cheating that is, getting him onto the team is bad enough. What's the point of playing Quidditch if you won't rough it," Sirius scowled, trying hard not to say the words too venomously to Harry, but he really didn't appreciate what he was hearing.

"I've never cheated," Harry said, his defensive voice pure and helping well to smother the light in the back of his eyes. "I never will."

The two exchanged a calculating look, but really weren't sure what Harry was on about then. They kept themselves quiet and just let it play out then.

Breakfast was the usual excitable affair next morning; the Slytherins hissed and booed loudly as every member of the Gryffindor team entered the Great Hall. Harry glanced at the ceiling and saw a clear, pale blue sky: a good omen.

The Gryffindor table, a solid mass of red and gold, cheered as Harry and Ron approached. Harry grinned and waved; Ron grimaced weakly and shook his head.

Lavender gave him a cheerful greeting, saying she knew he'd be brilliant!

Ron ignored her.

"Irony in its purest," Remus muttered. "Ron's finally getting all the attention he ever wanted, and he hates every minute of it."

"I really thought he'd be loving it, especially the way he gloried in it last year. He really can't decide what he wants about anything this year," Harry agreed with a sigh, his mind not really on Quidditch now.

Harry offered him a variety of drinks, but Ron just said anything without a care as he started moodily on a piece of toast.

A few minutes later Hermione, who had become so tired of Ron's recent unpleasant behavior that she had not come down to breakfast with them, paused on her way up the table.

She asked how they were feeling, her eyes on Ron.

Harry said they'd be great once they got some breakfast, and handed Ron a glass of pumpkin juice.

Ron had just raised the glass to his lips when Hermione spoke sharply at him not to drink that!

Harry was fighting back more every moment the smile trying to tug across his face. It wasn't helping the others jumped in surprise and looked on in concern now for what was happening.

Both Harry and Ron looked up at her.

Ron asked why not, but Hermione was now staring at Harry as though she could not believe her eyes as she accused Harry he'd just put something in Ron's drink!

His fathers and Godfathers scandalized expressions grew, but his previous assurance held their tongue. It was clearly maddening to them they were missing something, but why would Hermione say something otherwise?! Harry was biting the inside of his cheek as he tried to continue without picturing the looks he knew would come when they figured it out.

Harry defended he'd done no such thing, but Hermione insisted otherwise.

Hermione turned sharply to Ron and pleaded with him not to drink that, but he took it all in one large gulp after telling her to stop bossing him around.

"Is playing them against each other really helping anything?" Lily sighed. She wasn't nearly as invested in Quidditch as the others, nor did she find it too hard to believe her rotten boy would pull such a thing for a game he clearly loved. If he'd get into such a big fight with Hermione over a broom, she really wouldn't put this past him no matter how much she still loved that determination to do anything.

Harry just batted his eyes innocently, but it was even harder to fake on his mum with that calculating look, so he quickly kept going.

She looked scandalized. Bending low so that only Harry could hear her, she hissed he could be expelled for that!

Harry politely returned back if she'd Confunded anyone lately?

"Heh, got her there," Remus snickered, he was enjoying this immensely. The one thing he could guarantee would rile his friends up was something Harry was now toeing the line with, and he couldn't get enough of the show, considering he might well have done the same for one of his friends if they'd needed the boost that day like Ron clearly had.

She stormed up the table away from them. Harry watched her go without regret. Hermione had never really understood what a serious business Quidditch was.

"Invoking my name right now won't help you Harry," Sirius said with a stiff lip, but his expression was softening now as he tried to dig up some explanation for this. Harry insisted he never had, nor ever would cheat, but that's exactly what he'd just been caught doing. What was he missing? The puzzle at least stopped him constantly glaring at his godson for an explanation.

He then looked around at Ron, who was smacking his lips.

The frosty grass crunched underfoot as they strode down to the stadium.

Harry casually asked him it was pretty lucky the weather was this good.

Ron agreed while looking paler than ever.

Ginny and Demelza were already wearing their Quidditch robes and waiting in the changing room.

Ginny completely ignored Ron's presence as she told Harry the Slytherin line-up wouldn't be the usual. Vaisey took a Bludger to the head during their last practice and was in the Hospital Wing, and Malfoy was out sick.

"What's this now?" Lily asked with interest, agreeing with the suddenly intense look of concentration on Harry's face for this development.

Harry turned on the spot in surprise, asking what was wrong with him?

Ginny didn't know, but the team was playing Harper instead. He was in her year, and an idiot.

"So's Malfoy, but he's actually decent on a broom," James gave a casual enough roll of his eyes, even as he kept shifting his weight for the game to begin. He'd had enough people dangling answers over his head already this year, but found he was actually enjoying Harry doing it to him. Something about his sons expression promised a payoff he'd appreciate at least, even if he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Harry smiled back vaguely, but as he pulled on his scarlet robes his mind was far from Quidditch. Malfoy had once before claimed he could not play due to injury, but on that occasion he had made sure the whole match was rescheduled for a time that suited the Slytherins better. Why was he now happy to let a substitute go on? Was he really ill, or was he faking?

"Who cares?" the three Marauders said, just wanting to get to the game already and figure out what Harry was up to. They'd already spent far too much time caring about Malfoy this year, and they wanted this one thing to enjoy.

Harry tried to get Ron to see how fishy this was, but Ron called it lucky again, then his eyes bulged wide as he turned to Harry and began babbling about his drink this morning.

Harry raised his eyebrows, but said nothing except they'd be starting in five minutes and he wanted everyone dressed.

'All of this would have happened the other day though, the Luck potion wouldn't have caused this to happen in the last hour,' James thought to himself, before his eyes widened in understanding and he quickly stopped an 'oh' of surprise escaping. He wasn't sure he was right, but suddenly he wondered why Harry showed no shame of his actions. He had more faith in the Captain of this team not pulling such a stunt, but if it really was a literal stunt...

They walked out onto the pitch to tumultuous roars and boos. One end of the stadium was solid red and gold; the other, a sea of green and silver. Many Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had taken sides too: Amidst all the yelling and clapping Harry could distinctly hear the roar of Luna Lovegood's famous lion-topped hat.

Sirius did get a laugh out of that. "I've missed hearing about her, wish we could see if she'd added anything to the hat."

"Sorry, I'll let you know later if I notice," Harry said with all the cheer in the world. Sirius was still shifting restlessly for the game, not even sure what he wanted to hear now. If Ron started miraculously catching all the goals, he couldn't even be thrilled at it, but he still had faith Harry hadn't lied to him, so what was the other option?

Harry stepped up to Madam Hooch, the referee, who was standing ready to release the balls from the crate. She told the Captain's to shake hands. Harry and Urquhart tried to crush each others instead.

"I actually wouldn't be surprised if Malfoy quit the team that morning in protest of not being made Captain." Remus said with a huff of disgust. "Been mock practicing with them in training, and then did this to spite them at the last second. Seems the kind of thing he'd do."

The whistle sounded, Harry and the others kicked off hard from the frozen ground, and they were away.

Harry soared around the perimeter of the grounds, looking around for the Snitch and keeping one eye on Harper, who was zigzagging far below him. Then a voice that was jarringly different to the usual commentator's started up.

"Oh yeah, Lee Jordan graduated," Lily puckered her lips in disappointment, she'd always enjoyed his commentary.

"Hopefully the next person is just as entertaining," Remus said with a bright smile.

It didn't start well, pointing out Ronald Weasley was a patch performer in his Keeper position last year, so many were surprised to see his reappearance on the tea. Of course it helped to be friends with the Captain.

Sirius grumbled in disgust, he'd heard that insult a lot in his last year of school, right around the time he'd been trying to restrain himself from cursing the lot. It had been a long year.

These words were greeted with jeers and applause from the Slytherin end of the pitch. Harry craned around on his broom to look toward the commentator's podium. A tall, skinny blond buy with an upturned nose was standing there, talking into the magical megaphone that had once been Lee Jordan's; Harry recognized Zacharias Smith, a Hufflepuff player whom he heartily disliked.

"I'll pay McGonagall extra to kick him from the stands," James muttered.

His words were not met with anything though, as Urquhart sent the first ball of the game, and Weasley saved it. Smith wasn't impressed, saying everyone had to get lucky.

Harry grinned to himself,

James was eyeing Harry shrewdly still to get a nail on an answer and Sirius was muttering to himself about his godson doing this to him at a time like this. Why couldn't they ever just enjoy one match without it being something?

as he dived amongst the Chasers with his eyes searching all around for some hint of the elusive Snitch.

With half an hour of the game gone, Gryffindor were leading sixty points to zero, Ron having made some truly spectacular saves, some by the very tips of his gloves,

All four of them narrowed their eyes at Harry, but it was maddening this didn't really mean an answer because Ron had done this before as well. He really was good at the game, the boost it was implied he was given really wouldn't make a real difference if Harry had gotten Ron's head on straight before this.

and Ginny having scored four of Gryffindor's six goals. This effectively stopped Zacharias wondering loudly whether the two Weasleys were only there because Harry liked them, and he started on Peakes and Coote instead.

Describing Coote as not the usual build for a Beater, they generally had more muscle-

Harry bellowed at Coote as he passed to hit a Bludger to Smith, but Coote only grinned and sent the next one to oncoming Harper.

"Well I'm certainly liking him more and more," Sirius did get a grin out of that, though certainly wouldn't mind if the next one went a bit wild.

Harry was pleased to hear the dull thunk that meant the Bludger had found its mark.

It seemed as though Gryffindor could do no wrong. Again and again they scored, and again and again, at the other end of the pitch, Ron saved goals with apparent ease. He was actually smiling now, and when the crowd greeted a particularly good save with a rousing chorus of the old favorite "Weasley Is Our King,"

Lily sniffed a bit, couldn't they add in something for Ginny's sake? She was doing as much as Ron. She'd start having her own problems of inferiority soon.

he pretended to conduct them from on high.

"Ron's really been compared to Malfoy a lot lately," James said a bit tartly, knowing he would have found that funnier under other circumstances.

Harper collided himself into Harry for the purpose of mocking Ron, calling him a blood- traitor pal.

Hooch had her back turned at the time, so by the time the Gryffindor shrieks of a foul reached her ears and she turned, Harper was shooting away.

Harry's shoulder was aching as he raced after him, determined to ram him back

"You can afford the foul," Sirius agreed in clipped tones, but he really couldn't help it, he put his feeling about Harry aside and started to lean forward with an eager smile, at least trying to enjoy the good of the game before whatever happened for it later came up.

Smith airily said Harper had seen something Potter hadn't, and Harry thought him a right idiot. Hadn't Smith seen them just collide moments before? Next moment, his stomach seemed to drop out of the , sky â€" Smith was right and Harry was wrong: Harper had not sped upward at random; he had spotted what Harry had not: The Snitch was speeding along high above them, glinting brightly against the clear blue sky.

Sirius growled in his seat, shifting his hands desperately to throw a Bludger, or anything, to help get a win out of this! He was certain no matter what Harry had done the team still deserved this!

Harry accelerated; the wind was whistling in his ears so that it drowned all sound of Smith's commentary or the crowd,

"That Firebolt really coming in handy right now," James breathed, then caught his breath and held it, fists clenched with hope his boy would pull off another win, at least he'd never done anything to himself to deserve that. Had that been what he'd meant earlier, he was only promising he'd never helped himself win? He forced his mind to snap back to this and worry about everything else in a moment.

but Harper was still ahead of him, and Gryffindor was only a hundred points up; if Harper got there first Gryffindor had lost. . . and now Harper was feet from it, his hand outstretched.

Harry desperately shouted after him how much Malfoy had paid him to come on instead?

"Razzing him at a time like this could work," James stressed the word as much as his body was tensed, regretting the hiss of words that escaped him as it only delayed a few moments longer the answer!

He did not know what made him say it, but Harper did a double-take; he fumbled the Snitch, let it slip through his fingers, and shot right past it. Harry made a great swipe for the tiny, fluttering ball and caught it.

All four of them cheered with excitement, Harry beamed with pride as his fist still tried to clench over his prize. He couldn't help it, even despite their weariness of what he was pulling on them, that was genuine praise for something he'd done! Something he never in his life expected to feel from his parents!

Harry whooped as he circled back. Wheeling around, he hurtled back toward the ground, the Snitch held high in his hand. As the crowd realized what had happened, a great shout went up that almost drowned the sound of the whistle that signaled the end of the game.

Harry found himself trapped in the midst of a mass midair hug with the rest of the team, but Ginny sped right on past them,

"Disappointed not to be getting a particular hug eh?" Sirius asked with a cheerful enough wink, but his mood was still soured more than Harry was used to for a win. He considered telling them already, but he was still sure he'd have to explain himself to Hermione as well, so waited just a few moments more.

until, with an almighty crash, she collided with the commentators podium. As the crowd shrieked and laughed, the Gryffindor team landed beside the wreckage of wood under which Zacharias was feebly stirring,: Harry heard Ginny saying blithely to an irate Professor McGonagall, she'd forgot to put on the brakes.

All five of them lost it, laughing in nothing but a carefree way for Ginny lighting all of them. Harry found himself with a growing ache, one he'd held since he first remembered Ron and Hermione. He wanted Ginny here now too. To meet his parents, to see where he'd come from! He looked wistfully to the kitchen once more, and then just as quickly looked away, scolding himself for such a thing. He was going to enjoy the time he had with his parents, and he'd find a way to make all the lives he wanted come together in the end.

Laughing, Harry broke free of the rest of the team and hugged Ginny, but let go very quickly. Avoiding her gaze, he clapped a cheering Ron on the back instead as, all enmity forgotten, the Gryffindor team left the pitch arm in arm, punching the air, waving to their supporters.

The atmosphere in the changing room was jubilant. Dean was already yelling about a party up in the common room!

"Always is," James agreed with nostalgia. He still missed those times, especially the ones in his last year, with his Lily Flower on his arm.

Ron and Harry were the last two in the changing room. They were just about to leave when Hermione entered. She was twisting her Gryffindor scarf in her hands and looked upset but determined. She told him what he'd done was illegal, Slughorn had said so.

Ron asked if she was going to turn them in?

"Why's he still being so defensive, she's trying to be on his side," Lily grumbled.

"Well it's not like Hermione hasn't done that before," Sirius snipped.

"And Ron's ego just got a bit of a boost, potion or not," Remus agreed with a sigh, he wouldn't expect anything to bring him down right now, instead it was likely to just keep climbing.

Harry asked what they were even talking about, turning away from both of them so they wouldn't see him smiling.

James clucked his tongue and Sirius shifted a bit, both determined to hear an explanation before they really got to scolding as well. Harry would admit to it, if nothing else, when he was confronted. He'd always been honest with them, and his friends.

Hermione shrilly shouted he'd used Felix Felicis to spike Ron's drink this morning!

Harry said he hadn't, turning back to face them.

James's face squished up, his mind scrambling to catch up with his sons. He suddenly sympathized in a whole new way how Harry must always feel to constantly be missing something, he was certainly getting that feeling a lot lately.

He promised he hadn't slipped anyone anything, as pulled from inside his jacket pocket the tiny bottle that Hermione had seen in his hand that morning. It was full of golden potion and the cork was still tightly sealed with wax.

"You-" Remus began in disbelief, but he could hardly get past the first word as Sirius and James burst out laughing.

"You rotten little curd," James wagged his finger even as he was grinning ear to ear. "Pulling such a stunt, I couldn't be prouder!"

"You couldn't have just said that!" Sirius agreed even as his breath came out in stops and starts from laughing.

"Where would be the fun in that?" Harry asked, more pleased than words could say he'd guessed right, they'd taken it all in stride for the joke. It was a warmth he never expected to get, knowing how his family would react to something he'd done.

"That's so sneaky," Lily tried to scold even as she was fighting back twitching lips. "Was winning the game that important to you? Would you have really done it?"

"Didn't need to," Harry gleefully pointed out, wishing Ron and Hermione were here now more than ever so he could relive seeing them go through this with him. "But no, if the idea hadn't worked, I'd have just put up with the aftermath, just like always," he finished, his smile starting to dim as he wondered why that left such a sinking feeling, why he was immediately regretting his thoughts and quite happy his friends weren't here. That was ridiculous, he'd just won a match, surely Ron would apologize and everything would go back to normal now. Suddenly anxious, he stopped Remus adding in and cut off James and Sirius still chortling to get back to his aching mind, fingers crossed he was misunderstanding something to bring the mood back down already.

Harry explained he'd only wanted Ron to think he had, but he'd really done all that himself.

Ron was astounded with himself, but then he rounded on Hermione, thrusting in her face he hadn't needed any help, he could do that without a potion!

"It's not like she knew that anymore than him," Lily huffed, still wanting to give him a good whack. He really needed to stop taking everything out on her, she'd done nothing to deserve it.

Hermione protested she hadn't said otherwise-

but Ron was completely ignoring her now and walked right out.

Harry stood there awkwardly, he hadn't expected this part of his plan to backfire. He offered to walk up to the party with her, but she told him to go on without her. She didn't know what she'd done to Ron, but she was sick of it! She stamped away, tears in her eyes.

"Would you have told her, if she'd stayed?" Remus asked in concern. This wasn't nearly as bad as some of their previous fights, but this certainly needed to be resolved, perhaps by Harry stepping in no matter how awkward.

"I don't know, probably, even though that would have made her more mad, then they'd both be mad at me," Harry sighed as he explained why he'd yet to do it. He wasn't happy at all his forewarned thoughts had been right, surely this was the unpleasant feeling, his friends still fighting.

Harry walked slowly back up the grounds toward the castle through the crowd, many of whom shouted congratulations at him, but he felt a great sense of letdown; he had been sure that if Ron won the match, he and Hermione would be friends again immediately. He did not see how he could possibly explain to Hermione that what she had done to offend Ron was kiss Viktor Krum, not when the offense had occurred so long ago.

Harry could not see Hermione at the Gryffindor celebration party, which was in full swing when he arrived. Renewed cheers and clapping greeted his appearance, and he was soon surrounded by a mob of people congratulating him. What with trying to shake off the Creevey brothers, who wanted a blow-by-blow match analysis,

"And you didn't give them one?" Sirius demanded. "You've given us plenty."

"Those two reminded me of puppies even more than you, and I didn't need the extra attention right then," Harry huffed, but at least Sirius smirked for the joke.

and the large group of girls that encircled him, laughing at his least amusing comments and batting their eyelids, it was some time before he could try and find Ron. At last, he extricated himself from Romilda Vane, who was hinting heavily that she would like to go to Slughorn's Christmas party with him. As he was ducking toward the drinks table, he walked straight into Ginny, Arnold the Pygmy Puff riding on her shoulder and Crookshanks mewing hopefully at her heels.

"Oh boy, let's hope another Weasley Hermione row doesn't sprout from Crookshanks eating him," James muttered. Hermione really did need a break, hopefully Crookshanks wouldn't start anything.

She smirked as she passed Harry, asking if he was looking for Ron? He was over there being a hypocrite.

"Excuse em wa'?" Remus put on a terrible french accent to mock what his mind was suddenly offering him in explanation. Either he'd made up with Hermione extraordinarily fast, or something far worse was about to happen. He really couldn't decide which he wanted to hear at this point, either was going to be awkward for Harry to live through.

Harry looked into the corner she was indicating. There, in full view of the whole room, stood Ron wrapped so closely around Lavender Brown it was hard to tell whose hands were whose.

"Well then," Sirius chuckled, clearly all at ease with this display. "Glad someone's untying his knickers."

"Thank you Sirius," Lily huffed.

"This won't go well," James muttered, seeing everyone else's expression but his best mates was thinking the same. Where was Hermione?

Ginny dispassionately said it looked like he was trying to eat her face.

Sirius still got a cheerful laugh out of that, now eyeing Harry and expecting his mind to trail off, to wonder what Ginny would say when Harry tried kissing her. He expected that to come up sooner rather than later.

She supposed he'd have to refine his technique somehow though. Then she told Harry good game, and patted him on the arm as she left. Harry felt a swooping sensation in his stomach, but then she walked off to help herself to more butterbeer. Crookshanks trotted after her, his yellow eyes fixed upon Arnold.

Harry turned away from Ron, who did not look like he would be surfacing soon, just as the portrait hole was closing. With a sinking feeling, he thought he saw a mane of bushy brown hair whipping out of sight.

He sighed though when he realized instead where Harry was going. He hoped Hermione wouldn't be too difficult about this, Ron was just letting off some steam. Surely Hermione would understand that.

He darted forward, sidestepped Romilda Vane again, and pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady. The corridor outside, seemed to be deserted.

He found her in the first unlocked classroom he tried. She was sitting on the teacher's desk, alone except for a small ring of twittering yellow birds circling her head, which she had clearly just conjured out of midair.

"Why?" Remus drew the word out in concern.

"Try to keep her mind on other things," Lily shrugged, running her hand through her hair uneasily. She at least hoped Hermione wouldn't take this out on Harry, but would save it for the friend who deserved it. Ron was being foul treating her this way. Whether he was avoiding the problem or he really didn't return her feelings in that way, which she doubted, this was just a terrible time to be doing anything of the sort like he was, especially as Ginny had just called out, in such a hypocritical way. They'd never even gotten an answer on what he'd said about the Slughorn party, but this wouldn't have helped anything.

She greeted him in a brittle voice, telling him she was just looking for somewhere to practice.

"She clearly doesn't need it," James said carefully, like he had an angry witches wand trained on him now. This was not a good place to start, and he had no faith his son would make it better, he'd never been very good at doing that for Hermione in the past.

He had no idea what to say to her. He was just wondering whether there was any chance that she had not noticed Ron, that she had merely left the room because the party was a little too rowdy, when she said, in an unnaturally high-pitched voice, Ron seemed to be enjoying himself.

Harry awkwardly said he wasn't sure what she meant, and she snapped at him Ronald hadn't been hiding it!

The door behind them burst open. To Harry's horror, Ron came in, laughing, pulling Lavender by the hand.

"Timing!" Sirius cried to try and break the growing tension. He was ignored.

He drew up short at the sight of Harry and Hermione.

Lavender quickly backed out of the room giggling.

"I'm sure she won't be when she gets up to her common room and remembers how close Hermione's bed is to hers," Remus muttered.

The door swung shut behind her.

There was a horrible, swelling, billowing silence. Hermione was staring at Ron, who refused to look at her, but said with an odd mixture of bravado and awkwardness, to Harry he'd wondered he'd gotten to.

"Yeah, that's why he was going into that room with Lavender," James muttered, his face pulled tight for he didn't even know what. Were Ron and Hermione going to blow this off, or start another row? He really didn't want the latter, but the first would be painfully awkward because it would then take them even longer just to talk again as if they were having a fight.

Hermione slid off the desk. The little flock of golden birds continued to twitter in circles around her head so that she looked like a strange, feathery model of the solar system.

Sirius snorted for the comparison, then pouted when he was the only one who bothered to crack again. Honestly, everyone got so cut up over romance.

She quietly said he shouldn't leave Lavender to herself. She walked very slowly and erectly toward the door. Harry glanced at Ron, who was looking relieved that nothing worse had happened.

Remus had just opened his mouth to agree to the same, when Harry had gone on in the same breath.

The spell 'Oppugno!' came as a shriek from the doorway.

Harry spun around to see Hermione pointing her wand at Ron, her expression wild: The little flock of birds was speeding like a hail of fat golden bullets toward Ron, who yelped and covered his face with his hands, but the birds attacked, pecking and clawing at every bit of flesh they could reach.

All five of them felt their mouths flop open in shock for such a display. Then Sirius started laughing harder than ever. "Well, I may not have seen this coming, but in hindsight it makes sense. She's got a bit of a violent streak, she did punch Malfoy in the face when he finally pushed her too far."

"Sirius Black, this is not funny!" Lily snapped at him.

"Why not?" He returned casually. "Ron's being an arse, either trying to make Hermione jealous or playing around with some options to see how his feelings for Hermione stack up. Honestly, he could even be just messing around for some fun."

Lily had looked surprised, even impressed he really had grasped some emotional level of what was going on, until he'd finished with another attempt to blow all this off.

She'd just opened her mouth to retort when Harry desperately tried to finish the last line,

Ron yelled to get them off of him, but with one last look of vindictive fury, Hermione wrenched open the door and disappeared through it. Harry thought he heard a sob before it slammed.

Harry groaned and let the book fall to the floor with a thud as he grabbed his head in misery. He could already feel this was going to get worse before it got better.

HPHPHPHP

Lots of romancing going on in this chapter, but the big controversial you've all been waiting for, Harry/Ginny, has finally arrived!...It's not bad.

Honestly, I don't dislike the pairing, there's certainly worse out there, but I'll never get over how little it was set up. Of all the plot threads JK did in advance, this has to be the least developed of all. Now yes I've seen a ton of posts claiming otherwise, but even rereading these recently with a critical eye, I've done more to have Harry notice her than JK ever bothered. Even in this book, there's been what, three instances of Harry noticing her? She was set up for a romance no better than if he'd suddenly fallen in love with Dean. So yeah, proceeding will as follow, this is cannon and Harry is purely smitten with her, but I just don't much care for the two together either way. I'll still do my best to have the characters invest in it like normal of course.

As for Ron and Hermione, I genuinely do like them. They're idiotic teenagers figuring out love for the first time, it's been clear it's going to be getting to this point for ages, and they're going about it in the worst way possible to each other. I personally think that makes them a stronger couple in the end, I don't believe there's such a thing as the perfect romance and some problems at the start are probably healthier than finding them later in life. I've heard JK's commentary that they'd probably have to have a counselor at some point in their marriage, but I don't get why people say that means she didn't want them to end up together. There's nothing wrong with needing a mediator to find a way to talk to each other, hell, I'm pretty sure Harry's the counselor she meant. He's already had years of practice at it already.

This has been my thoughts none of you asked for on the two current pairings in the series. I think I made myself pretty clear on Harry/ Cho, Harry/ Luna will come up in a later chapter, you already know my stance on Jilly and Wolfstar, I'll address Dramione near the end of seven if any of you really care, and Remadora will come up in a later chapter which I'm sure you can guess at.

*A mouth guard, to those who didn't recognize the word like I didn't and googled it upon my first read. I don't know why I pictured a wand creating a wad of gum to surround them first, my mind feels idiotic now for not putting it together, but that's what happens when I spend too much time in a place like Hogwarts. Things like that seem more real than common safety practice.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #The Life That Never Lived #HP #HBP #Marauders #James Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Lily Potter

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im-up-to-no-good · 5 years

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I solemnly swear ( Part 1 )

Summary: Y/N Potter is the twin-sister of James Potter and the current teacher for Care of Magical Creatures at Hogwarts during Harry's third year.

As the news of Sirius Black breaking out ouf Azkaban start to spread, her life is turned upside down as it gets harder and harder to keep their feelings for each other hidden in the dark.

What will happen when Harry finds out about his aunt's long kept secret?

A/N: Hi guys, I finally found some time to write down what is on my mind and I would be happy to know if you want this story to continue. I don't have so many experience with writing these, so I would appreciate any suggestions according the story or my writing in general - Feel free to critisize! I hope you enjoy my work.

Word count: 2114

_______________

"No! No, please! No, you promised me you would be safe, you promised James!"

Loud sobs escaped your mouth as you hovered over the dead body of your twin brother. You couldn't quite process what was happening around you, all you could see was him through your blured vision.

"You lied to me. You said you'll be alright, how dare you!"

A heart wrenching scream escaped your mouth as you took his hand in yours and laid your head down on his chest. Your whole body didn't seem to function in that moment, every muscle felt sore.

"How dare you, James. I can't lose you."

Your head snapped up again as you heart a quite whimper in the dark. A cry.

It took you all of your strength to stand up and leave your brother to get to the source of it but you did it mindlessly. As you reached the room your heart shattered into a million pieces again. Your best friend was lying on the floor, her eyes were livelessly staring back in your direction and you broke down again.

"I'm so sorry Lily, I'm so sorry."

Time seemed to stop as you finally realized Harry right next to you in his crib. He looked at you with tears in his eyes and reached out to you desperately. You immediately embraced him and took a deep breath. You had to be strong for him - for all them.

"I will protect him Lily. I'll guarantee. I won't let anything bad happen to him."

With that you slowly turned around with Harry in your arms and left the room. You came to an halt once you reached the staircase again. You walked down a few steps until you stopped and kneeled down next to James. You looked at him and lowered your head to give him one last kiss on his forehead. "I love you so much, James."

You stood up again - holding Harry tight to your chest - and slowly walked downstairs. You turned around one last time to look at your brother and left the house.

"Y/N!" Your heart stopped working for a second. "Sirius!" You looked up to see your husband walking towards you, his eyes were red and puffy and you immediately knew he saw the same as you did a few seconds ago. And you knew immediately that something else was wrong too.

"Sirius, what the hell happened? How?" He wiped away a tear on your face and kissed your forehead before he spoke.

"I'm so sorry, love. It's all my fault, I shouldn't have.." His words got stuck in his throat and nothing but a quite whisper escaped his mouth. "I have to find Peter. He will regret it, he will pay for what he has done. Trust me on this."

He walked past you but you quickly grabbed his wrist.

"What are you talking about, Sirius? Please, don't try to do anything on your own. We can find a solution together when the time is right, but don't do anything stupid right now."

You could see the pain in his eyes as he listened to you. He knew that you were right but he couldn't handle the rage bubbling up inside of him. He embraced you both for what felt like forever before he actually let go and looked at you.

" I love you, sweetheart." - "Sirius!"

Before you could say anything else he was gone. And you two were alone.

________________

You woke up with a scream that filled the whole room, followed by your rapidly beating heart and abnormal breathing. These nightmares weren't that uncommon to you, actually they haunt you night after night for a few weeks now and there's nothing you can do about it, but live with them. Once you came down a little bit you decided to take a shower because you knew that you wouldn't be able to sleep again right now and sat down at your kitchentable afterwards.

It was 8 o'clock in the morning now and everything seemed normal normal to you at first, but while you were reading the newspaper you felt like somebody was watching you.

You took your wand in your right hand slowly and tightened your grip as you heard a noise coming from behind of you. You turned around and noticed nothing but an owl waiting for you on your window shelf - knocking impatiently. You opened the window slowly after you took a deep breath and put out some sweets for her to take the letter she was carrying. You caressed her head and opened the letter.

"Dear Mrs. Potter,

I have an important issue I need to discuss with you. Please meet me in Hogwarts as fast as you can."

- Dumbledore

You looked down at the paper in your hands clearly irritated what could be that important that Dumbledore wants to discuss it one week before he would see you anyway, but you decided to do as he said.

You slowly went back to your bedroom and changed your clothes reluctantly. After that you walked back to the kitchen and apparated to the bridge right in front of Hogwarts. You couldn't help it but enjoy the beautiful picture in front of you. You always loved it, no matter what. No matter how often you got here, it always felt like coming home when you wandered through the school halls.

It took you less than a few minutes to finally reach Dumbledore's office and as you did so he was already waiting for you at his door.

"Hello Professor" He looked at you and smiled politely.

"I'm glad that you're finally here, Mrs. Potter - please, come in and take a seat."

You nodded your head and walked past him to reach his desk. As you turned your gaze away from Dumbledore you could see that there already was another person staring at you with a doubtful and almost worried look on his face - waiting for you.

As you recognized the man in front of you your pace fastened immediately until you could finally embrace him. A smile was plastered on his face as he hugged you back with all the strength he had.

"I can't believe it, what are you doing here, Moony?"

"Dumbledore asked me to be the new teacher for Defense against the dark arts and I really loved that idea." He paused and looked at you happily.

"And additionally I thought it would be the best opportunity to see you again after all this time." You smiled up at Remus and took a seat next to him after that.

"Congratulations Professor R. J. Lupin." You bowed your head as you both started to laugh like in the good old days before all went downhill.

As much as you enjoyed it to talk to him right now, your attention wandered off to Dumbledore - waiting for him to explain the matter to you - but all he did was walking around his office thinking about how he would go on, now that you're actually here.

The silence slowly started to make you feel uncomfortable and you started to realize about what he might want to talk about. You weren't oblivious to the rumors that continued to spread through the Wizarding world, but even though you slightly wished that they were true you knew that it could be dangerous for all of you. Actually you just weren't quite sure how it would affect your life and most importantly Harry's.

Your look wavered between Remus and Dumbledore waiting for one of them to finally start explaining why you were here and what they were hiding from you.

"So, do you mind to fill me in now or are we just going to stay quite for another hour or two?"

Remus shifted in his seat nervously and turned his head to you. You could feel his gaze on you for a few seconds until Dumbledore finally stopped walking around his office and cleared his throat. " I believe you heard what the people are whispering in the streets Mrs. Potter?" You nodded, turning around and waiting for him to continue.

"The rumors are true. Sirius is no longer locked up in Azkaban. He somehow managed to escape a few months ago and there's still no hint where he could be at the moment."

"A few months ago? You are kidding me, right?" Once again he fell silent. "Why didn't you tell me before? I believe it's important for me to know, don't you think so?" You paused and took a deep breath to calm yourself. "Do you really want to tell me that the ministry didn't fill you in earlier, Albus?"

Dumbledore didn't look at you. He was staring at the man sitting on the chair beside you. "Actually, they told me the minute they knew." His head turned back to you taking in the questioning look that was plastered on your face.

"I talked to Mr. Lupin first." You turned around to look at Remus who didn't dare to say anything. Your gaze went back to Dumbledore as he continued to explain the matter to you. "We both agreed that it would be the best to keep you in the dark at first. Otherwise you may would have tried to find him on your own and we couldn't take the risk that you put yourself in danger, Y/N."

Your breathing increased with every word he said, anger and disappointment bubbling inside of you. "Please tell me it wasn't your idea in the first place." You didn't even have to look at Remus to know how devastated it made him feel to see you like this. You were his family and yet again he had let you down by not telling you the truth.

You heard a movement beside you and within a few seconds later Remus was standing in front of you, a pleading look on his face. "I'll give you one minute to explain. Talk. "

"He's not the person we thought he is, Y/N. And you know this." He paused, looking down at the ground before continuing - his voice barely above a whisper. "You would have put yourself in danger, like always, by believing that he's innocent. I just couldn't do that again."

You couldn't quiet process what you just heard. You shook your head in disbelief as your feelings seemed to overcome you. A tear rolled down your cheeks as you looked up at him, controlling your body to not just slap him right across his face. You wiped the tear away and turned your attention to Dumbledore.

"What about Harry? Can I trust you that he will be alright? Does he know that there's an alleged murderer after him?"

"You don't have to worry about him. He's save with the Dursleys for now and he will be save in Hogwarts too, I'll guarantee it. We'll do the best we can to keep Sirius away from him. And away from you too, Mrs. Potter. I hope you understand this."

You knew that it was impossible to discuss this matter any further without shouting at both of them, so you decided to stay quiet and let it be for the moment. You took one last glance at Remus and made your way to the door.

"What do you expect me to do now, Professor? I can't just act like nothing happened."

"I trust you, Y/N. Just try to stand out of trouble for once in your life. I will take care of the rest."

You nodded his way and finally walked out of the door. You made your way out of the castle and nearly ran across the bridge to get away as fast as you can. "Y/N, please, slow down." You turned around and looked up at Remus. You hold up your hand quickly to stop him from talking.

"I really don't want to speak to you right now. You did enough by lying to me. Again, I want to add. I hope you're happy with what you've done, Remus." Your voice was a little bit rougher as you wanted it to be but you could see that it worked according to the silence that laid between you two. You slowly walked a few steps backwards and apparated back home without another word.

You fell down to the floor trying to focus on your rapidly beating heart. It took you a while to finally calm down and process what was happening around you.

All you knew was that Harry's safety was your priority right now and nothing should change your mind - but you also knew that it will be hard to keep such a promise.

#harry potter #hp #hogwarts #i solemnly swear i am up to no good #sirius black #sirius x reader

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justhereforseverus · 4 years

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A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

Chapter 6: There is flattery in friendship

Summary:

After a heavy and choatic sleep, you'll awake restless in the middle of the night. You decide to talk a walk to your usual bench and form a pact that might just change the future..

Notes:

Hey folks. Thank you so much for your kind comments, kudos and hits in general! They really make my day!!! It’s the first thing I’ve written for many years. I used to be a very active poet and writer but lost my connection with it due to some life events. Slowly, I’m trying to get back to it again and alone the fact that people read and enjoy something I’m putting out there is amazing! Thank you! I'm trying to get the next chapters up in a weekly schedule but whenever I have more time to write and finish a chapter, it'll go up.

I’m not sure how to proceed with the timeline/canon/not canon kind of thing. However, I see that in my story Lily and Severus had a fight involving the m-word and then she and others turned their back on him. He thought about joining dark forces and did some stuff but there was no war, Voldemort didn’t succeed and everyone went on with their lives. However, James and Lily Potter live in another country thus Remus and Sirius have more contact with each other than with them. I hope it makes sense somehow. It will be more of a topic later focusing more on Severus perspective and choices.

Chapter Text

I returned to my room sometime later and went straight to bed. I didn’t even bother taking off my clothes. Unlike me, I fell asleep immediately and dreamed of potions spilling on an enormous piano. I awoke around midnight knowing only too well I won’t be able to sleep anymore for tonight. I sighed, there go my attempts at a normal sleeping schedule. I decided to take a walk because I was desperate to escape my thoughts dealing with whatever happened today.

The night breeze soothed my spirits and I watched a black and white cat making her way through a flower bed. I sat on my usual bench and looked up. It was a bit cloudy tonight, so I couldn’t see much of the constellations but here and there some stars glistened their way through. I tried to control my breathing to calm down and focus on the here and now – in and out – in and out- in and out. It’s ok. Everything is fine. We can deal with this. Yet, my mind managed to wander back again and again to my anxiety, my pain, my tears and the memories I pushed away for so long. This was not the only thing I felt though. Between all these dark clouds was a warm light. Something I had longed for back then. Something that could have saved me. I closed my eyes to focus on this positive feeling. To push everything else away. Let this light surround and heal me. Everything is going to be ok.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps near me. I opened my eyes and saw Severus standing under the lamppost next to the bench. The soft, warm light fell on his long black hair and I saw that he didn’t have his cloak on, just his buttoned jacket. He held a book in his left hand and his wand in the other still lightened up by the Lumos spell. He looked so elegant and mesmerising in the dim light. He greeted me by saying with a slight sarcastic undertone: “Either my sleeping potion was ineffective or you have slept too much already.”

“The latter. That’s the problem with going to sleep in the afternoon – you’re awake for the rest of the night. Or it’s just me and my body.”

He sat next to me, turned off the light on his wand and looked at the cloudy sky. Neither of us said anything for a while. We just watched the sky and somehow it didn’t feel awkward at all. However, after a while I asked: “What about you? Why are you sitting with a sleepless arts teacher on a bench at 2am on a Saturday night?”

He replied: “I’ve worked until now and needed a bit of fresh air before I go to rest.”

“What did you have to do? Grading essays again?”

“No, not this time. I brew potions for someone who found herself unable to produce them herself.”

“Wait….do you mean me?”

“Obviously.”

“Which potions did you do?”

“All of them actually. They have been put in my personal storage. You can have them whenever you need.”

I was flabbergasted. Shocked. Flattered. Anxious. Basically, all the emotions at once. Classic.

“You didn’t have to do that! Why are you doing me so many favours? We’ve barely known each other. Is this.. a joke? Do you want something in return? I…”

“No, I don’t. Don’t think I’m doing this because of any ulterior motive. I’m not that kind of man independent of what is said behind my back. I simply thought it could help you and make you feel better after today.”

“That’s… sweet. Thank you. But why bother bothering? I’m not saying I don’t appreciate it but I still don’t understand why?”

He sighed and said after a while: “I’m rather attached to muggle fiction. Especially, Shakespeare. I started with one old and rather battered collection of my mum when I was a kid and reread and studied it for years after. Yet, I never saw a play on stage. I turned my back on all things related to muggles when… certain events happened and then I was busy with my profession here. Frankly, I’m also not a person who longs to travel a lot, so it never occurred to me to actively visit a theatre and put myself in a crowd of people. As I’ve mentioned before, I found myself rather satisifed, for once, with Dumbledore’s staff decisions when I heard he had invited you here despite the controversial treatment of theatre in the wizard world. He always tries to support subjects and people, who he deems to be capable of bringing change into this old conservative world. He also gives people a chance whose fate might seem hopeless and one could argue this includes my appointment, too. Recently, I’ve came to the conclusion that if I want change and growth in me or others, I need to actively support what I think is worth it and take an open stand. Therefore, I want to support you. I want you to have everything you need to change their minds and I assure you, I don’t need or want anything in return for my own benefit. You don’t need to defend or stand up for me in any way. You don’t have to mention my name. You don’t need to be sympathetic to me. All of this is of no relevance to me. It’s the cause I want to support… and you.”

I was speechless. That was so sweet and kind. He trusted me with this information and opened up despite everything I’ve heard from others. “He won’t talk with you much. He hates everyone here. Better to leave him alone. He only listens to Dumbledore. He is still mad that he didn’t get the DADA position. He is the Slytherin headteacher so he’ll dislike you as his house is firmly against half-born and anything muggle. It’s just how it is.” He is a respected teacher and potion master but apart from that he is feared and despised. He lives rather isolated from the rest of the staff. That was what everyone apart from Dumbledore told me so I thought I won’t bother. But he is so different to me. And we’ve barely known each other but I feel somehow safe with him. Like he speaks the truth and I can trust him. This could be a mistake but then I decided this was worh the risk. Suddenly, I had an idea.

“Then let’s make it official. You and I will run the drama group. I take care of the performance and the students. You are responsible for the magical effect potions and will teach the students how to brew and handle them, too. For your time and effort, you’ll receive some perks in return.” – he sighed and opened his mouth but before he could interject, I continued – “I insist upon it. You’re welcome at every rehearsal; you’ll have an official title that will be communicated to others and you’ll be a permanent member of my team. Of course, taking into account that we actually survive for more than one year. What do you say?”

He looked at his hands for some moments in deep thought, ever so slightly clutching the book on his lap. He then replied:

“What an unusual offer. I won’t argue with a lady about her requests. However, are you sure that my name won’t cause any distractions and keep other people away?”

“Oh no. Probably the opposite. They’ll be curious to know what made you do it and will flock to us even more.”

He chuckled: “Then let’s make up the most fantastic story and draw them in.”

“Agreed.” – and we both shook hands. His hand was warm and his skin softer than I expected. When our fingers touched my heart skipped a beat. Our eyes met doing so and I swear I could see some joy concealed behind his usual monotone mask. I felt like this was the beginning of something important and certainly something very good.

“YOU DID WHAT?!” – Remus almost choked on his toast on Monday morning and the entire hall looked at us suspiciously. “Calm down Remus, I don’t want the entire school to think I’ve just murdered someone.” I quickly said, doing a quick motion with my wand to refill his glass with orange juice. When he could talk again Remus apologised and continued:

“Oh, I gotta send an owl to Sirius this is hilarious.” I send him an evil look and then he said:

“Seriously though. Severus Snape as part of an extracurricular activity, voluntarily and outside of his office hours is… What did you do to him? Have you managed to put a spell on the untouchable chemistry master?!”

“Come down! No, I don’t think that would’ve worked and is probably very illegal.”

“I swear, I won’t report you to the ministry of magic if you tell me.” – he laughed – “No, but for real. This is very unlike him. However, I do remember Lily telling me once that he used to read a lot of muggle books in his childhood. I wasn’t sure if that continued into his later life as she cut contact with him after the fight. Actually, we all did this in one way or the other. The first time I saw him again was after I started working here. He mentioned that it was a recent decision. I wonder what caused him to do this…”

“Maybe it wasn’t a particular event. I mean people grow old. They realise what they did was wrong and want to change. I sure regret many things I did. I have the feeling I improved much over the years but I'm still working on becoming a better person."

“Yes, we all do that hopefully. Including me. I regret many things I did as a teenager…. or last year for that matter. Yet, he has been so isolated and stuck in the same old grudges, I never thought he’d do something else. I’m flabbergasted really. Maybe you are just the person he needed.”

I looked at the empty chair reserved for Severus in the great hall. He never joined dinners unless they are connected to a big event. I wonder…

#severus snape #pro snape #snape x reader #snape appreciation month #fanfiction #ao3 #harry potter

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marauder--harder · 6 years

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Mission: What If- A Sirius Black Imagine (Part 5 of Mission: Improbable)

A/N: This is a lil filler, fluff type chapter till we can get to the good bits. Someone remind me to stop making slow burn fics, yeah? lmao, I hope y’all enjoy. Much love, xoxo. :)

Word Count: 3,050.

The incessant sound of your muggle alarm clock ringing woke you that morning. You groaned, burying your head back into pillow, determined to get at least another few minutes of rest before you had to start your day. Blindly reaching out in the direction of the snooze button, you stopped as you heard it quiet suddenly. Your tired mind did little at the confused thought as to how it turned off, instead snuggling deeper into your covers.

“As cute as you look bundled up in your sheets, I didn’t sign up for my partner to be a flobberworm in disguise.”

Your eyes snapped open at the sound of the deep voice coming from your right and you quickly peeked out from your hut of warmth to have a look at who was bothering you this early. A set of twinkling gray eyes met yours, causing them to roll on their own volition. Of course it was Sirius.

“You know,” you drawled lowly, voice still laced with sleep. “Keep sneaking into my room, Sirius, and I’m going to think that you are a pervert.”

The sound of his barking laugh, while much too happy for such an ungodly hour, brought the faintest of smiles to your face.

“I’d hardly call this sneaking, love.”

“Yeah? Then what do you call it?”

Sirius palmed your alarm clock, shoving it in your general direction. “A service to all mankind. This bloody thing was going off for nearly five minutes before I shut it off.”

“I was getting to it,” you huffed, a slight flush rising on your cheeks at your obvious ignoring of the annoying contraption.

“Well, now that you’re up,” Sirius smiled suddenly and plopped onto the foot of your bed. “Shall we discuss our plan for the mission today? We need some sort of cover; this is a rather small town and I wouldn’t imagine that they get many visitors.”

“Lily and James are already stopping through on their trip to Italy,” you surmised with a yawn. “Can’t we just be two patrons again?”

Sirius shook his head, giving you his ‘I’ve got a plan’ look. “Three groups of random people passing through all at the same time? Not likely, love.”

“What were you thinking then?”

“You and I head in today, get settled and scope the place out then Lily and James head through in two days time. We don’t exactly know when they are planning on striking this week, so we need to be prepared for them. Establishing a spot in the community is a smart move.”

“You act like we’re setting up for a month long stakeout, Pads. This shouldn’t take more than a few days.”

“Unless they alter their plans because they realized someone from the Order was spying on their meeting.”

A cold pit formed in your stomach at the thought. You knew that they hadn’t actually gotten a good look of your face, but they had seen you. This meant that they could change their plan, attack at any time. Worse yet, they could have already set the village to burn. Sitting up in your bed, you threw the covers back and quickly moved to your armoire.

“Has Dumbledore secured that the town was safe as of this morning?” you asked, beginning to pilfer through your clothes, pulling everything you thought you might have needed for the mission.

Sirius furrowed his brows at your sudden haste, yet nodded all the same. “Yeah, his contact said that there’s been one Death Eater that’s infiltrated the city so far; we’re being sent to draw him and his slimey mates out.”

“Alright, good. Go tell Lily and James the plan, I’ll be ready in fifteen,” you added quickly before walking into your washroom and shutting the door with a hurried slam.

Sirius stared at the door for a few seconds, trying to comprehend what just had happened. You had jumped to accept his plan without even fully hearing it through. Yet, his mind was more preoccupied with the sight of your baggy ABBA t-shirt hanging off your shoulder, dipping just past your bum. The long expanse of your legs drew Sirius’ eyes and he took in a deep breath, trying to rid himself of his thoughts. This wasn’t the time; you all had a mission to do.

Twelve minutes later, not that Sirius was counting, you emerged from your room looking all the part muggle-ready-for-winter-holiday. Sirius stared for a moment, looking at just how adorable you seemed all bundled up in your favorite sweater and scarf. You tended to wear muggle clothes often, thinking that they were much more comfortable than your robes. Sirius agreed with you, for the most part; but the selfish part of him agreed just so he could see you donning more muggle fashion trends.

“Did Dumbledore tell you the apparition site, Pads?” you asked, shaking Sirius from his thoughts.

He nodded before clearing his throat. “Uh, yeah.”

“Ready then?” Another nod in affirmation had you smiling softly, walking over to Lily and James. You wrapped them both in a quick hug. “We’ll see you both in a few days, yeah?”

“Of course; send along a patronus if you need backup. James and I will be waiting at the apparition site just one town over. We’ll be right behind you both.”

“Excellent,” you muttered before pulling away to stand next to Sirius again. “Ready?”

Sirius extended his arm, looking at you with such a fond expression that you couldn’t help the slight acceleration of your heartbeat. That was odd. “Let’s blow up this joint.”

“It’s ‘let’s blow this joint,’ you ponce.” You slowly linked your arm with his, readying your knees for the blow you knew was to come. Being a side along wasn’t always preferable, but Sirius tried to make the experience as easy as possible for you. You winced at the lurch in your stomach, before the tightening of your body made you stiff and tried to relax. Apparition always was made more difficult if your body went rigid. That was asking for a splinching to happen.

When you opened your eyes, you looked around to see a quaint little alley in what you assumed was the neighboring town. It was a rural town, not many people in it, so you figured it was the perfect place to set up as your apparition point in order to stay under the radar of the Death Eaters you knew were in the neighboring village.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to being your side-along,” you muttered, waiting for your stomach to settle before letting go of Sirius’ arm.

He merely chuckled lowly beside you, offering a comforting pat on your arm. “You always say that. It can’t be that bad.”

“Yeah, well, I never see you being a side-along here,” you grumbled as you pulled away.

“That’s because neither of us want to get splinched and you know it,” he joked with a wink. “Now come on, we’ve got a bit of a hike to trek and I want to get in before lunch.”

“Is food the only thing ever on your mind, Sirius?”

Another bark of laughter could be heard coming from the man in front of you, before he smirked devilishly. “I can think of a few other things,” he winked again.

Rolling your eyes, you sighed and grabbed your duffel. “I shouldn't have asked, you perv. Let’s just get a move on.”

“So you expect me to just ignore the way your legs looked this morning?”

A gasp escaped your lips before you could stop it as you stared at him, wide eyes, “Sirius Orion Black! You right cheeky bastard!”

He dodged your swats with another round of peeling laughter, and hurried along in front of you. “Can’t say it wasn’t worth it, love!”

The two of you walked in relatively amicable silence for a while, falling into a comfortable pace. Sirius had suggested you take a muggle taxi to the next town but you didn’t want to raise any suspicion or have any connection to the town you apparated to. The less muggles you came in contact with along the way, the better.

After a while, however, you couldn’t help but think about just how much the war has affected each of your friends. It touched everyone in the wizarding world, you knew; but it really changed the entire course of your life. You wondered what your life would be like if you weren’t in the war.

“You alright?” Sirius asked, after trying to get your attention nearly three times. You had spaced out so far that you hadn’t even heard him.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Sirius nodded and continued to walk in silence before asking softly, “where’d you just go?”

“Just thinking a bit, tha’s all,” you responded, voice equally soft and careful.

“‘Bout anything in particular? You seem… a bit upset.”

As soon as you turned to look up at Sirius, you noticed the gentle concern he held in his gaze. Staring down at you with an intensity that probably should have made you self-conscious, you simply smiled. His stare was piercing, yet soft and gentle. You could tell how curious he was, yet how easily he would drop it if you only said the words. Strangely enough, you didn’t mind the thought of telling him. He had never been one not to understand your plights before.

“You ever think about where you would have ended up if not for the war?”

A sad smile lifted Sirius’ frown for a moment. “Not really, no.” Oh. There were a few beats of silence, and then, “I’ve learned to stop asking ‘what if’s a long time ago, actually.”

“Why?”

“Dunno—just seemed easier. Less disappointment. As a kid I used to ask a lot of ‘what if’s. What if I had been put into Slytherin? What if my parents weren’t part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight? What if Walburga were more like James’ mum?”

Suddenly, you felt awful. “I’m sorry, I had no idea.”

“It’s not your fault,” he said with a wave of dismissal. “You wouldn’t have known. The Potters have been my family since sixth year—hell, before that if I really thought about it.”

“You’re a good fit with them,” you responded quietly. You thought back to the smile on Sirius’ face when James’ mum would give him a big, sloppy kiss on both of his cheeks at King’s Cross his sixth year. He looked happier than you had ever seen him. You now realized that it was probably because Sirius had been rid of his old family, and living permanently with the Potters.

“They are the closest thing I have to family.”

“You’re lucky to have them,” you smiled, thinking of your own family and how much you would have loved to see them recently. Yet, with the war on the rise you had told them that your new job required you to be travelling a lot and that you wouldn’t see them often. They were muggles themselves, so it wasn’t difficult to convince them. They knew little about the world you lived in and you would keep it that way until it was safe enough for them.

Sirius and you didn’t say much after that, both pondering the lives you lived without your parents. Sirius knew you were a muggleborn and had wondered if you were missing your own family right now. He had the luxury of writing the Potters on the off days he and James weren’t working for the Order. He had just talked with them last month, ensuring that they were both well and safe. Yet, you were forbidden from contacting your family in fear that it may be intercepted and they become targets. A deep pang stabbed at his heart and Sirius glanced over at you sadly.

“So, what about you?” he asked. At your confused look, he continued, “What would you be doing if not in the Order?”

A small smile grew on your face at his obvious attempt of changing the subject. Sirius’ heartbeat stuttered again in his chest and he didn’t even fight the feeling this time. “It’s silly, really.”

“Try me.”

“You’ll laugh.”

“Well, only if it is stupid,” he joked.

“Sirius! Now I’m definitely not going to tell you.”

“Oh come off it,” he whined. “You’re a brilliant witch; I’m sure whatever you wanted to dedicate your life to will be just as amazing.”

Glancing up at him with narrowed eyes, you only saw sincerity shining back at you. His face was the same gentle concern that was held earlier, letting you know that you had an out as long as you said so. Maybe that was your curse, you realized. You could never say no to such genuine curiosity. Sirius’ gaze was piercing and beautiful and you knew right then and there that you were in for danger because you’d never be able to deny him any part of yourself if he looked at you like that.

“I always wanted to be an astronomer,” you spoke softly, so softly that Sirius had to strain just to hear you.

Yet, he did. The smile that lit up his face, then, was blinding. Your heart leapt in your chest and you had to stop yourself from mirroring his borderline stupid grin as you stood your ground. You would not give into him this easily. Still, Sirius looked so genuinely pleased with this information and you couldn’t place why.

“Yeah?” he asked, grin still wide and happy. “Is that why you were always sneaking out in the middle of the night at Hogwarts?”

“It doesn’t count as sneaking out if you are going to class, Sirius,” you laughed. Then, you stopped. “Wait, how did you know that I was leaving my common room at night?”

Sirius’ smile turned sheepish as his hand came up to rub at the back of his neck. “Uh, the marauders and I, uh, kind of had a map that kept track of everyone on school grounds.”

“You spied on people!” you screeched, both shocked, embarrassed, and quite amazed at the idea of a map of everyone, everywhere, at all times. “Is that how you lot got away with so many of your pranks over the years?”

Wide eyes soon turned to barks of laughter pulled deep from Sirius’ throat. He couldn’t believe your first thought was its use in all of his pranks throughout his schooling. “Yeah, just about. Our skill with charms was also part of it; and Pete’s ability to weasel out of just about anything, really.”

“That’s…” you trailed off, trying to find the word for it. “Well, bloody brilliant is the only thing that really comes to mind. Did you boys come up with it on your own?” At his nod, your eyebrows rose high. “Mighty impressive, then, Black. It must have taken ages to figure out every place in the castle though.”

“The secret passageways too, no doubt,” he added with a fond nod, remembering the months of preparation and surveillance their map had taken.

“Hogwarts had secret passageways??” Sirius’ laughter was now almost uncontrollable at the look of absolute shock on your features. “You arsehole! Never telling me any of this! I could have taken shortcuts along the castle this whole time!! It would have saved me hours of getting lost over the years.”

“Hey, you said it yourself, love: we weren’t close.”

Your mouth snapped shut at that for a moment, before nodding. “Remind me to hex Moony when we get back; he’s got a lot of explaining to do.”

“Merlin, what did I just set up for the poor bloke,” Sirius moaned. “It was a marauder’s secret; it was no wonder he didn’t tell you.”

“Oh, pish posh, like everyone didn’t break at least one of those secrets over the years.”

“I didn’t,” Sirius said confidently.

“Well, you’re… very noble then, Sirius.”

“Nah, they’re my mates. I’d trust them with anything and they’d do the same for me.”

You smiled, then. It was a soft, sort of fond smile that similarly mirrored Sirius’ own nostalgic grin. “Sorta like your family, yeah?”

“Yeah, a bit like that,” he responded lightly, thinking of just how lucky he was to have three friends as good as the marauders. He really did think of them as family.

“Seems to me like you’ve got family in all sorts of places, Sirius. I guess you’ve no need for what if’s. ‘Been dealt a bit of a shite start, but you’ve managed to right things for yourself. I think all we can really ask for is a group of people to care ‘bout us.”

Sirius was silent as he thought about all the people that he could now call family. James, the Potters, Peter, Remus, even Lily—they were all family to Sirius now and he couldn’t be more grateful. “I’m a lucky bloke, aren’t I?”

“Not lucky if you deserve it,” you smiled, bumping his shoulder with yours as you walked. “Hope you're not fishing for compliments here but you’re a good man, Pads; I’ve told you this before. You deserve happiness and I’m glad you’ve found it in the boys.”

“They make me good,” he said quietly but you were quick with your response.

“You do that all on your own. They just give you more opportunities to show it,” you smiled. “Now, come on; we’re almost here.”

Sirius watched as you sped along to the front doors of the small bed and breakfast the two of you were staying at. His eyes watched you open the doors, knocking softly and putting on the most charming smile he had seen. Your absolute sincerity in your conversation had his stomach a churning, fumbling mess and yet, he couldn’t seem to care. The way you were affecting him hadn’t happened as such since he was a young boy. Yet, a beautiful and kind, grown woman had him nearly blushing and grinning like an idiot over a few teasing quips. Merlin, the more he got to know you, the more he couldn’t rationalize why he should try to take things slowly. He realized, now, that he wanted you and he wanted to know as much about you as possible.

This was going to be a very long mission.

Tag List: (please let me know if you’d like to be tagged!)

@obscurilicious // @mgc-its-easy-as-123 // @whompingwillowy // @mischief-siriusly-managed // @marauderskeeper // @emi-loser // @bxckybxrnxs // @amelya5567 // @thisismysecrethappyplace // @dude-whatawave // @the-apple-princess // @fantasticchaoticwho // @i-padfootblack-things // @cutie-bug // @sly-vixen-up2nogood // @hufflepeople // @marveliskindacool // @clockworkherondale // @dreamgirl8704

#sirius x reader #mission: improbable #sirius black imagine #marauders imagine #harry potter imagine #sirius black x reader #sirius imagine

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

Text

TLTNL- EXCESS OF PHLEGM

"Remus, can I speak to you." James snapped before Harry could even think of passing the book along, his tone in no way implying that as a question.

Remus got to his feet slowly and dragged his feet to the hallway, he'd been expecting this, and was almost happy at the delay Lily caused.

"James, I can fight my own battles," she snapped at him, eyeing Remus with more worry than anything as he trudged off. Considering everything that had been going on, it hadn't even crossed her mind to hold any of his comments against him.

"I'm not daft enough to think otherwise," James agreed, flicking his eyes to her and smiling for a moment before going for the stairs himself. "I'd still like a word with him."

Sirius followed as well, and Lily and Harry exchanged wary looks before going into the kitchen and prepping an early lunch.

He may have been expecting it, but Remus was no more pleased to be hearing from these two than they clearly were trying to ask him what his problem was. He hadn't meant to make it so plain there at the end, and bitterly regretted he had such a hard time hiding his emotions around here.

The two exchanged a look before James launched off, "What has gotten into you lately? Picking fights with Lily? Snapping at everyone for the stupidest things? I'm sorry Dumbledore's been acting like a prat lately with everything going on in Harry's time, but you're driving me nuts Moony!"

Remus almost wanted to smile. Prongs had left him perfectly open to either vent about this lesser, though still pressing agitation on his life, or correct him. He considered the first for several moments before finally stating, "Acting a prat? James the man's gone off the world and left the lot of us to rot! The best part is, he's pretending like he hasn't!"

Sirius watched him steadily beat out his rant, and wished he could say more. He couldn't though. He knew Remus looked up to Dumbledore, his idol. To hear of all the things he'd done would be hardest of all on him, like Harry realizing the true nature of the Marauders last year. The difference was they couldn't Floo Dumbledore, ask him to make them feel better about ruining Harry's life, their life.

When Remus was finally done he slumped back against the wall, looking utterly exhausted, but finally one of the lines creasing his face faded away for getting it all out.

"I know Moony," was all Sirius could think to say.

"You should really chat with Harry," the look on James' face made it perfectly clear of the double in there. Of course he could just mean Remus could go to Harry and talk to him about Dumbledore, only those two had such a close connection to the Headmaster and could understand each other...or anything else, like they needed to.

Remus didn't disagree, but he was almost afraid to as well. Afraid that he'd say the wrong thing to him, again. Terrified Harry's promise was wrong, that he vanished from that teenager's life, or worse, that he stayed and only made things worse like he was now. He couldn't bring himself to say this to either of the people he most wanted to though, because they had more of a connection to Harry than he'd ever had a claim to. He wouldn't put anything more in between any of them, this was a problem he had to deal with on his own.

They came back in to find Harry and Lily having a lively discussion about Slughorn.

"I mean, who decides to turn down a job by faking being attacked?"

"Obviously Dumbledore wasn't there to take no for an answer, I can see Slughorn doing something so drastic," Lily said peaceably as she stirred a pan on the stove.

Harry was at the table cutting up some vegetables, by hand of all things, and didn't even seem to notice their entrance with his back to the hallway. He was just as busy keeping Hickory from stealing carrots from his pile as he was chatting with his mother.

"How did Dumbledore even know where Slughorn was, he was on the run and hiding from Death Eaters? And of all things, how did Dumbledore know he was a chair? And how did Dumbledore know he was faking all that? He never even told me why we were there at midnight, I wouldn't want someone popping in on me at that time either."

"I can't begin to imagine what goes through either of those men's minds," Lily sighed with exasperation, dumping the sauce into a pot and giving it a sharp crack with her wand, causing some red wine to start pouring into the mixture as well.

"The least surprising part was that he tore the house apart in less than two minutes, and how he was still trying to put details up as we were walking in-" Harry froze as he went to pass the vegetables to her and saw the others. He didn't even seem sure what expression to make, so settled for an uneasy smile, eyes still flickering to Remus and away just as much as the other two now, guilt heaviest of all he couldn't do anything right by anyone.

"You think he'll ever run out of questions?" Sirius asked as he plopped himself into the chair nearest Harry and kicked his feet back on the table, leaning the chair back.

Easily breaking all tension when Harry gave an already knowing smile, and didn't have to wait for the show his godfather had started.

Lily didn't even glance over her shoulder, merely sent a tripping hex instead and causing him to topple over.

Sirius made several colorful statements as he got himself back to his feet and then harangued Lily about her enforcing such archaic rules. The other three were too busy laughing at them all through the meal to even consider such things as awkwardness, especially as they all got so easily pulled into it themselves.

They went back to reading with the first bit of pleasantness they had all day, and Remus didn't even consider it as he took the book from Harry to begin. He knew he'd have to confront the larger problem, soon, but for now he'd take the blessing of his friend doing what he always did, giving him more time.

Harry and Dumbledore approached the back door of the Burrow, which was surrounded by the familiar litter of old Wellington boots and rusty cauldrons; Harry could hear the soft clucking of sleepy chickens coming from a distant shed. Dumbledore knocked three times and Harry saw sudden movement behind the kitchen window.

Mrs. Weasley's voice could neverosly be heard telling them to declare themselves.

As soon as Dumbledore said who it was, the door opened to reveal her.

She greeted them with surprise, Dumbledore had warned they wouldn't be here until morning, but Dumbledore explained Slughorn had been more persuadable than expected.

"He didn't even want them there!" James balked. "What in the world was his plan involving till sunrise?"

"I'm, grateful, we didn't have to find out," Lily said slowly and not as if she really meant it, it certainly would have been fascinating to hear of more of his other plans that didn't involve Harry being such an enticing return.

Then he greeted Nymphadora.

"Tonks is back!" Sirius cheered at once.

"I can't wait to hear what she was up to," Remus agreed with a cheerful smirk, clearly not able to kick that good mood out now that Sirius had put it in here.

Harry looked around and saw that Mrs. Weasley was not alone, despite the lateness of the hour. A young witch with a pale, heart-shaped face and mousy brown hair was sitting at the table clutching a large mug between her hands.

"What happened to her pink hair?" James pouted. "I liked that."

"Maybe she just got back from business and hasn't even realized she'd like to change it back," Lily shrugged.

Harry thought she looked drawn, even ill, and there was something forced in her smile.

All of them frowned in concern for that. None of them even knew her that well, not even Harry really, but she'd been a little bright spot all of the last book and it was genuinely depressing to hear of even more sobering things going on in this future to someone they so normally would have called cheerful.

Certainly her appearance was less colorful than usual without her customary shade of bubble-gum-pink hair.

She quickly excused herself, thanking Molly for the tea and sympathy.

"Sympathy for what?" Lily muttered, catching on that word and wishing to pull the girl aside herself and have a friendly chat if she could.

Dumbledore asked her not to leave on his account, but she really insisted she couldn't stay,while not meeting his eyes.

"Oooh, what kind of tiff is going on there," Sirius demanded with a touch more interest than was called for. He'd really liked hearing of Tonks and if Dumbledore was yet another obstacle in another person's life, he'd really start struggling not to start acting like Moony earlier and gripe at this mans every doing.

Molly invited her to dinner this weekend, Mad-Eye and Remus would be there.

Sirius let out a righteous bark at once, before jabbing his finger into Moony's face, "aha! You are coming back around, so I don't want to hear another word out of you whining about this!"

"Is this only when I'm in the actual chapter, or just in general you don't want to hear me, because frankly I won't be accommodating either," Remus said with such a stupid smile in place it ruined his sarcasm. He'd honestly convinced himself so much that he'd fall back out of Harry's life without another mention, coming over for a dinner was the best news he'd yet heard.

Harry smiled along with the others for this, but he had a funny feeling in place as he kept that smile. He suddenly wondered if it wasn't Dumbledore, but someone else Tonks was trying to

avoid. Mad-Eye seemed the most likely of those two, being fellow Aurors...right? What could they be fighting about though? Then he pushed the whole thing off, telling himself to stop thinking about things so much, it was likely nothing at all Tonks couldn't work out for herself.

Insisting otherwise, Tonks hurried past Dumbledore and Harry into the yard; a few paces beyond the doorstep, she turned on the spot and vanished into thin air.

"The apparition spot was out by the broom-shed?" Harry questioned.

"You can have it two separate places, the entrance and the departure," Lily explained.

Harry noticed that Mrs. Weasley looked troubled.

Dumbledore chose to leave as well, parting with Harry and telling Molly â€˜your servant,'* before following Tonks, vanishing at precisely the same spot. Mrs. Weasley closed the door on the empty yard and then steered Harry by the shoulders into the full glow of the lantern on the table to examine his appearance.

Molly turned to Harry and first noted how much he'd already grown since she'd last seen him, then asked if he was hungry. Harry agreed he was starving.

Lily made a little tisking noise of disapproval, well remembering Harry saying how little he'd eaten before now and it was his own doing that time. At least he hadn't carried that in here.

As Harry sat down, a furry ginger cat with a squashed face lumped onto his knees and settled there, purring.

"Crookshanks is back!" Sirius cheered with just as much enthusiasm as he had for Tonks, at least a cat couldn't depress him!

"Are you going to do that for everyone who turns up at the Burrow?" James asked curiously.

"I might," Sirius sniffed.

Harry asked Hermione was here as well while happily tickling Crookshanks behind the ,ears.**

Mrs. Weasley agreed she'd arrived the day before yesterday, rapping a large iron pot with her wand.

"Err," Lily couldn't help but say with some general concern. "I know I brought this up your last Christmas, but does Hermione ever spend time with her parents?"

Harry merely shrugged. He'd just been happy to spend the majority of his holiday with both of his friends, he hadn't questioned it farther than that. Ron had sometimes to ask a question about Muggles in general, but Hermione never really spoke about her parents, well, anymore than he did the Dursleys.

It bounced onto the stove with a loud clang and began to bubble at once while she continued everyone else was in bed.

She tapped the pot again; it rose into the air, flew toward Harry, and tipped over; Mrs. Weasley slid a bowl nearly beneath it just in time to catch the stream of thick, steaming onion soup.

James couldn't help but make a little humming noise, that was one of his favorite dishes.

She waved her wand over her shoulder; a loaf of bread and a knife soared gracefully onto the table; as the loaf sliced itself and the soup pot dropped back onto the stove, Mrs.

Weasley sat down opposite him.

She asked him about Slughorn, but Harry had his mouth mostly full of soup and merely nodded. She went on to explain he'd taught her and Arthur,

"I didn't know that," Lily blinked in surprise.

"Kind of fascinating, when you realize how many life spans teachers influence," Remus muttered for himself.

and had been at Hogwarts at least as long as Dumbledore. How had Harry liked him?

Harry shrugged and gave a noncommittal jerk of the head.

She agreed she understood that, he could be charming, but wasn't to everyone's taste. He'd never even given Arthur the time of day, hadn't seen him as much of a highflier.

"Shows how good Slughorn's stupid talent really is," James scoffed.

Just went to show even Slughorn made mistakes. She didn't know if Ron had told him yet, but Arthur had been promoted!

James was the only one not immiedly happy at this, and that was just because he was still making a funny face at having said the same thing as Molly. This was genuinely wonderful news! The man had deserved it long before now!

It could not have been clearer that Mrs. Weasley had been bursting to say this.

"Well I can't really blame her," Lily agreed cheerfully, "I'd be just as bad if my husband even bothered to get a job." James widened his eyes with a look of pure innocence while the couple exchanged a loving smile knowing they would indeed be just as proud, James had certainly not shut up to the only three people who would listen any time she did...well anything.

Harry had at that moment swallowed a large amount of hot soup, searing the inside of his throat, which possibly lead Mrs. Weasley to think his tears of pain were for this.

Sirius did start snickering hysterically at this.

She went on to explain Scrimgeour had opened several new offices to help recent circumstances, and Arthur was now heading the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects.

"Much more of a mouthful than his old title," James said in surprise.

"Sounds to me like he's dealing with all kinds of things now, not just Muggle Artifacts, so I'm sure he's more than pleased," Remus agreed.

It was a big job, he had ten people reporting to him now!

Sirius let out a low whistle in surprise, and further concurrence.

Harry asked what exactly that was, and she explained he helped manage artifacts that people kept trying to pass off as real items to protect, when in fact they were more often than not cursed things for a quick buck. He was more busy than ever, and it was silly to miss his Muggle rubbish.

Sirius had been reading with more interest than anything, up until the very end, where he couldn't help but snicker.

"Honestly, it's as if the man can't have a hobby," James agreed lightly.

Mrs. Weasley ended her speech with a stern look, as if it had been Harry suggesting that it was natural to miss spark plugs.

"You mean it's not?" Sirius demanded. "What on Earth has my life come to!"

"More spark plugs, apparently, and I can't disagree you need them to the head," Remus smirked.

"Thank you Moony," Sirius nodded along, "that's just what I wanted to hear."

Harry asked if he was still at work, and she uneasily agreed he was, and in fact running late.

She glanced to her clock, which showed all nine Weasleys on each hand, all of which were pointed to mortal peril.

James had to fight very hard against a surprised snort of laughter, and only just managed it from the fear stopping his breath short. What did that mean?! Was it because Harry was there? Surely not!

She noticed his staring and told it had been like that since You-Know-Who had been out in the open.

Lily tried to release a breath like that was somehow reliving news, but it wasn't all that convincing, they all had the same expression in place like they'd been thinking the same thing.

She couldn't check if it was only her family, she didn't know anyone else with a clock like it- She cut off in surprise as they watched Arthur's hand moved to traveling, and moments later, home.

She moved to the backdoor, but kept it shut to make sure it was him.

He agreed it was, but pointed out he'd say the same if he were a Death Eater. She still needed to ask the question.

"At least some families practice that," Remus gave a surprised laugh.

"Just because we don't do it at every door doesn't make us lax," Sirius rolled his eyes at him.

Remus failed to point out the Order seemed to disagree after losing another of its members.

After some exasperation she asked him what his dearest ambition was, and his response was to learn how airplanes stayed up.

Lily couldn't help a surprised giggle at that, finding more each passing time he spoke how much fun Arthur would likely have interrogating a Muggle if he had more of a chance.

She made to open the door for him, but apparently he was holding the other knob, as he refused to let it go until he asked what did she like to be called when they were alone?

All three boys made little ugh noises of entirely not wanting to know that, and Harry even almost went so far as to plug his ears before Sirius just got it done with.

Even by the dim light of the lantern Harry could tell that Mrs. Weasley had turned bright red; he himself felt suddenly warm around the ears and neck, and hastily gulped soup, clattering his spoon as loudly as he could against the bowl. It did nothing to help him hear the answer.

Lily offered a reluctant smile amidst all of the boys muttering how much they hadn't wanted to know that, "well, I'll give the man credit, no Death Eater would likely think to ask such a thing."

"Doesn't mean we wanted to know," Harry stated, as red faced in here as he was then.

"They're not meant for you to know, Arthur doesn't know you're there yet," James reminded.

"Then I'll happily pretend like I never found out," Sirius grumbled before moving on loudly.

He finally allowed the door to be open, Mrs. Weasley saying in exasperation she didn't know why he insisted on going through that every time he came home. If he were a Death Eater, he would have just blown down the door, not bother impersonating anyone.

"The point of it is to think up questions and answers they wouldn't think to ask in that scenario," Lily wisely endowed to Harry's suddenly uneasy look.

He nodded, but the thought hadn't been what if Mr. Weasley was right, it was the act itself he couldn't shake off. He didn't want to imagine what he would have told someone to save the life of another being tortured, the idea was too horrible to consider even as he forced his mind to ignore the echoing screams from a memory he hoped he was misunderstanding.

Arthur reminded as a Ministry employe, he needed to set an example for their kids. Plus, what if he really had been a Death Eater.

"His kids are all apparently asleep, who's he setting an example for?" Sirius snorted.

"And Merlin help those two if Molly answers that around their kids too," James agreed.

He smelt the onion soup then and looked hopefully towards the table, where he finally spotted Harry.

The two greeted each other cheerfully before he went into some details about work, like someone selling Metamorph-Medals. A thousand disguises for ten Galleons!

"A shame we can't really have something like that," Harry muttered, it would make his Transfiguration classes a lot more smooth he was sure.

All that really happened when they were put on was turning orange and sprouting tentacles, as if St. Mungo's didn't have enough to be getting on with.

Lily scoffed in further disgust of people, depressed this was more news than something she'd had plenty of time fixing herself on her time off.

Mrs. Weasley hesitantly said that sounded like the kind of thing the twins would do.

"They would never," James defended at once. "Even in school they knew when not to mess around."

Lily just rolled her eyes at him. Molly was just being a concerned mother, and Lily could think of several instances where they'd been idiots, and practical idiots.

Arthur at once said they were doing no such thing, they knew better.

Molly caught Harry yawning then and sent him off to bed,

"Aww," Sirius muttered in genuine disappointment, he was rather enjoying hearing about Arthur's job.

he'd be staying in the twins room.

"Why?" Remus asked in concern at once.

Harry asked where they were.

"Oh, I meant what's wrong with Ron's room, but that works too," Remus muttered.

She told they were sleeping above their shop in Diagon Alley, they apparently needed to with how busy they were.

All of them beamed at the thought, though unsurprised. This was by far the best thing a Potter had ever invested in!

She really hadn't approved at first,

"Didn't approve," Sirius repeated with an eye roll, finding that far too low brow for her trashing their things and telling them at every opportunity what wasted potential they were.

but they did seem to have a flair for business.

Harry called a goodnight to Mr. Weasley as he followed Molly upstairs, glancing one more time at the clock, all nine hands now back to mortal peril.

Lily couldn't help nibbling at her lip again, glancing fearfully at Harry and away with more questions for this poor family that she knew he couldn't answer.

Fred and George's bedroom was on the second floor.

James couldn't help but to start bouncing eagerly in anticipation, he'd been wanting to hear details about the twins room since he'd first heard of Ron's!

Mrs. Weasley pointed her wand at a lamp on the bedside table and it ignited at once, bathing the room in a pleasant golden glow. Though a large vase of flowers had been placed on a desk in front of the small window, their perfume could not disguise the lingering smell of what Harry thought was gunpowder.

"A memorable entrance indeed," Sirius blinked in surprise before they all started snickering.

A considerable amount of floor space was devoted to a vast number of unmarked, sealed cardboard boxes, amongst which stood Harry's school trunk. The room looked as though it was being used as a temporary warehouse.

"It probably is," Remus agreed.

Hedwig hooted happily at Harry from her perch on top of a large wardrobe, then took off through the window; Harry knew she had been waiting to see him before going hunting.

"Aww," Lily cooed, smiling over at their own bright orange screech owl, Click, who more often than not chose to live off of the owl treats than hunt.

Harry bade Mrs. Weasley good night, put on pajamas, and got into one of the beds. There was something hard inside the pillowcase. He groped inside it and pulled out a sticky purple-and-orange sweet, which he recognized as a Puking Pastille.

"Hopefully not a sign of the rest of this book," James muttered, remembering several nauseating times already from Harry's past.

Smiling to himself, he rolled over and was instantly asleep.

Seconds later, or so it seemed to Harry, he was awakened by what sounded like cannon fire as the door burst open.

"I think Ginny realized he was there," Sirius couldn't help but tease, though the tiny little girl fawning over Harry had been replaced with the formidable fifteen year old telling his godson he wasn't leaving without her in that forest in his mind, so the joke held no weight.

"Be fair, Hermione's been known to attack hug him as well," James chuckled while Harry ignored them both.

Sitting bolt upright, he heard the rasp of the curtains being pulled back: The dazzling sunlight seemed to poke him hard in both eyes. Shielding them with one hand, he groped hopelessly for his glasses with the other.

He blurrily demanded what was going on, while a loud voice shouted they hadn't known he was here so early! Then Harry got a sharp blow to his head.

A girl reprimanded Ron not to hit him.

"Honestly, this really is a kind awakening, you don't want to know how these two have gotten me out of a bed," Remus rolled his eyes at Harry's face, a mix of pleased at his friends again and severe agitation with such an abrupt awakening.

Harry's hand found his glasses and he shoved them on, though the light was so bright he could hardly see anyway. A long, looming shadow quivered .in front of him for a moment; he blinked and Ron Weasley came into focus, grinning down at him.

They asked how he was, and Harry said never better while rubbing the top of his head.

"A much kinder response than I've ever given," Sirius chuckled.

Harry asked what time it was, and Ron said just past noon, their mum had only just told them he was here.

Hermione asked how it had been with the Muggles, had they treated him okay?

"Just brushing right past he's hardly gone to bed then," Lily shook her head, but found that a relevant enough question she didn't blame Hermione. They hadn't exactly been keeping better hours around here anyways.

Harry said same as usual, he hadn't really spent much time there thankfully.

Hermione, was scrutinizing Harry as though he was sickening for something. He thought he knew what was behind this, and as he had no wish to discuss Sirius's death or any other miserable subject at the moment,

"I can not blame you," Sirius said extra loudly to emphasize he wanted the same.

asked if he'd missed breakfast?

Ron promised a tray was coming up for him, then asked what he'd really been up to.

Harry didn't get it, and Ron told him to stop messing around, he'd been with Dumbledore!

"That always sounds far more exciting than it turns out to be," Lily shook her head.

Harry told that they'd only been getting a teacher out of retirement, and Ron looked disappointed as he began they'd thought- then Hermione gave him a warning look and he finished they'd thought it would be that.

"Well he's gotten much better at that picking up on things," James laughed.

"Getting a teacher out of retirement would be top of my list of things I thought you'd be doing too," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Why'd Hermione want him not to ask about that though?" Remus was surprised. "Harry's never not told them what he's been up to.

"Maybe Hermione thinks that's a sensitive topic too," Lily rolled her eyes.

It made sense they'd need a new Defense teacher, what had he been like?

"It's nice to have more foreknowledge than the teenagers for once," Sirius laughed hard at that one.

"Technically we only know they're wrong about their assumption, not who the new Defense teacher is," Remus pointed out.

"Must you ruin all my fun?" Sirius rolled his eyes.

Harry said he looked a bit like a walrus, and he used to be Head of Slytherin.

"About sums him up as far as I'm concerned," James agreed.

Then he asked Hermione if something was wrong?

She was watching him as though expecting strange symptoms to manifest themselves at any moment. She rearranged her features hastily in an unconvincing smile.

"What is her problem this morning?" Sirius asked in exasperation.

"Harry's interrupting her and Ron's room the past three weeks?" Remus offered under his breath, causing Sirius to both snort and smile innocently, and Remus to hurry on before explaining the joke. Neither thought Harry would find it funny.

She said no of course not! Then quickly asked what kind of teacher he'd be?

Harry just said couldn't be worse than Umbridge.

"He's got me there," Sirius sighed, and there used to be a time Slughorn was his least favorite teacher, but Snape had already trumped that, now the man seemed like a blessing after that frosted catnip.

A voice from the doorway interrupted there was certainly someone worse than Umbridge.

"I find that hard to agree," Lily said at once with a disparaging look at her sons right hand.

Ron's younger sister slouched into the room, looking irritable, but still gave Harry a hi.

"That's certainly a contrast than glowing like the sun upon first meeting you," James smiled slightly, though it was just a bit saddening to hear of this girl's growing up more than he'd got to witness his own son doing so.

Ron asked what her problem was, and she shouted she was being driven mad!

Hermione sympathetically asked what had been done now?

Ginny returned she kept being spoken to like she was three!

Hermione agreed she was so full of herself.

"This is just rude, playing the pronoun game right in front of us," Sirius grumbled as this conversation just kept carrying on.

"I'm not sure who they could even be talking about," Remus agreed, "doesn't seem like Molly."

"Certainly not Tonks, who's the only other girl we've seen over there," James agreed, completely baffled.

"Maybe it's still someone new," Lily shrugged as she waved them on.

Harry was astonished to hear Hermione talking about Mrs. Weasley like this and could not blame Ron for saying angrily they needed to lay off for five seconds.

"Ron joining in on this just made it more interesting," Sirius didn't try very hard to fight off a smirk.

Ginny snapped of course he'd defend her, he couldn't get enough of her!

This seemed an odd comment to make about Ron's mother.

Harry scowled at their collective snorts and grumbled they all thought themselves so smart, he had just woken up!

He had just asked who they were speaking of when again someone came in the door.

Harry instinctively yanked the bedcovers up to his chin so hard that Hermione and Ginny slid off the bed onto the floor.

"They kind of deserved it after your morning," James chuckled.

A young woman was standing in the doorway, a woman of such breathtaking beauty that the room seemed to have become strangely airless. She was tall and willowy with long blonde hair and appeared to emanate a faint, silvery glow. To complete this vision of perfection, she was carrying a heavily laden breakfast tray.

"Err," most of them muttered, as this cleared up nothing. Harry wasn't being of much help, still blinking spastically as if he had a bright light in his eyes. Sirius though well remembered a girl of this description, and the next line only magnified that expression.

A girl in a thick French accent greeted ˜Arry, it had been too long!

"Oh, it's Fleur!" Remus yelped.

James let out a surprised whistle as this registered, "wow, her and Bill must be getting on really well for her to already be hanging around his house this much."

Lily was still rolling her eyes at Sirius for not just telling them this when he'd realized it.

As she swept over the threshold toward him, Mrs. Weasley was revealed, bobbing along in her wake, looking rather cross. Pointing out there was no need for this, she was doing it herself.

Flure said it was no problem, she'd wanted to come see him! Gabrielle would be so delighted about this as well.

"Merlin, how many people do they have crammed into that house?" Lily asked with some concern for this declaration.

"Bill and her are likely just there visiting with her, I doubt they're staying there," James shrugged.

Harry asked she was here to.

Flure corrected next summer, when the- then she stopped in surprise he didn't know.

"How could he know, he's literally just awoken," Remus reminded, clearly still far more against this than anything.

Her great blue eyes widened and she looked reproachfully at Mrs. Weasley, who said they hadn't a chance to tell him yet.

"She doesn't seem particularly excited for it," Lily noticed, a few things popping to mind.

Fleur turned back to Harry, swinging her silvery sheet of hair so that it whipped Mrs. Weasley across the face.

"Endearing," Sirius snickered.

Announcing her and Bill were to be married!

"Ah, well I was right," James smirked.

"Wonder what's got Molly so wound up about it," Sirius shrugged without much concern.

"Her first baby's starting his own family, I'm sure she's going through all sorts of things," Lily told, eyeing Harry's ring with something very acute to how Molly would be feeling, while unable to stop a pleased little smile of her own for these circumstances.

Harry just said oh blankly. He could not help noticing how Mrs. Weasley, Hermione, and Ginny were all determinedly avoiding one another's gaze.

Lily couldn't help but understand those girls, she hadn't thought much of Fleur either until Harry had gotten to know her a bit better.

He congratulated her, and she swooped down upon him and kissed him on each cheek while continuing Bill was very busy with his job for now so he invited her over here to get to know his family, though there wasn't much to do unless you liked cooking and chickens.

"Should I be worried she thinks things are going to be more exciting with him around?" Remus went wide eyed with some genuine concern for that.

"She met Harry when he entered the tournament he shouldn't, I can't blame her," Sirius reminded without any enthusiasm.

She waved him goodbye and bid him enjoy his breakfast before leaving.

Ginny whispered as soon as she left Mum hated her.

Molly snapped at once she did not, she just thought they were rushing into this engagement!

"Well I can't say a word," Lily muttered with a gleaming smile. She never would have thought herself the kind to marry right after school and have a family started, and Bill would be about that same age. She wouldn't change her life for anything though, and would of course caution her own child not to do the same.

Ron pointed out they knew each other for a year, still staring groggily at the door.

"I think someone's still got a Veela infatuation," Sirius said wisely.

Molly said that certainly wasn't long enough! People were doing this across the country, all this uncertainty with You-Know-Who! It was the same last time, people eloping left, right, and center.

"Yes. And?" James asked with an unconcerned smirk as he fought the compulsion to go over to his wife just to take her hand.

"Prongs, you are not the example to be setting for anyone," Remus scoffed.

"Oh, and you are?" Sirius challenged.

"You're all idiots, so I don't know what you're comparing," Lily reminded.

Ginny reminded as well as her own parents, and Molly went slightly red before pointing out they were made for each other.

"Right," James drew out the word defiantly, Molly had just turned herself into a bit of a hypocrite, again.

Whereas Bill and Fleur didn't have a thing in common. He was down to earth and hard working, where as she-

Was a cow, Ginny happily inserted. He loved adventure and glamour, probably why he fell for Phlegm.

They all snorted in surprise, that having been the last thing they'd expect Ginny to call anyone.

Mrs. Weasley snapped at her daughter not to call her that as Harry and Hermione laughed.

"I don't see where she gets off telling Ginny that," Harry said a bit defensively, "she was just bad mouthing Fleur as well."

"Do as I say, not as I do," Sirius shrugged.

She went back downstairs then, while Ron was still shaking his head like he was punch-drunk.

Harry asked didn't he get used to it with her over here so much?

Ron agreed mostly, but not when she just jumped out like that.

"It's the Yule Ball all over again," Remus snickered.

"I do hope Fleur's told Bill about that exciting tale," Sirius agreed.

Hermione furiously called him pathetic, striding away from Ron as far as she could go and turning to face him with her arms folded once she had reached the wall.

"Never mind, they're still squabbling, and ignoring the fun side of acting like a married couple," Remus muttered.

Ginny protested he couldn't want her around forever? Mum was going to find a way to stop it.

"Oh, she wouldn't go that far," Lily disagreed. "She may not approve, and I'm sure she's told Bill as much, but I can't imagine her standing in his way like that."

"I can," James scowled, well remembering her harshness of the twins, and his own best mate last time she'd been around.

Harry asked how she'd managed that, and Hermione explained she kept trying to have Tonks around, like she hoped Bill would fall for her instead.

Ginny agreed she'd much rather have her in the family.

"Yeah, I can see it," Sirius grinned.

Harry just laughed, having an odd feeling this was in fact the exact opposite of what was going on, but not quite far off either?

Ron didn't buy it, no bloke in his right mind would fancy Tonks when Fleur was around.

"Oh now that's not fair," Remus frowned for that. "I've much more enjoyed hearing about her than some pretty French girl."

"Got to agree with Moony on that one, she'd be much more fun to have around," Sirius nodded.

Tonks is okay-looking when she wasn't doing stupid things to her hair and her nose,

"I thought that was when she was at her best," Remus snipped.

"Go for the girl with a sense of humor," James agreed, very purposely looking to his wife who was snickering along.

Hermione agreed Tonks was even more intelligent, being an Auror.

Harry contradicted Fleur had been in the Triwizard Tournament, that had to take some brains.

"Intelligence wasn't a factor for that Harry," Sirius snorted in surprise.

"Plus, she came in last," James agreed.

"Oh stop, the lot of you, we're not having a contest over this," Lily fought to straighten her face and scold.

Hermione snapped not him as well!

Ginny scornfully asked if he liked the way she said ˜Arry?

Harry, now regretting having spoken at all, tried to say Phlegm, err, Fleur-

"Apparently Ginny's nickname was catchier than I first thought," Sirius snickered.

but Ginny just interrupted she wanted Tonks in the family.

Ron pointed out she hadn't been much fun lately, acting more like Moaning Myrtle the past few times she'd been around.

"Do they know something about that?" Lily asked, her concern for this returning at once.

"Let's find out," Sirius agreed.

Hermione snapped that wasn't fair, she still hadn't gotten over it! He was her cousin!

Sirius blanched in surprised, that had not been the answer he'd been expecting!

"Nah, surely that's not it," James tried to say casually, though the hitch in his voice made that anything but. He couldn't even continue, but looked away from everyone, despising his mind for reliving those last few moments all over again.

Sirius muttered a bit at Hermione still managing to bring this up before pressing on for the fifth time already about this.

Harry's heart sank. They had arrived at Sirius. He picked up a fork and began shoveling scrambled eggs into his mouth, hoping to deflect any invitation to join in this part of the conversation.

"Food has been known to solve many a problem," Remus agreed while trying to examine his nails and ignoring the ringing in his ears.

Ron scoffed that was ridiculous, they'd barely known each other, he'd been in Azkaban half her life and their families never met.

"Close enough to the truth," Lily whispered, watching Sirius' face drain of all color for being further reminded of this. He'd probably spent more time laughing about Tonks in here than he ever had with her.

Hermione snapped that wasn't the point, she thought it was her own fault he'd died.

Harry asked how Tonks would work that out despite himself.

"Yeah, I thought I took the blame for everything," Sirius happily falsified his voice to mock Harry's when trying to say that. For some reason his godson didn't appreciate the attempt.

Hermione reminded she'd been the last one fighting Bellatrix before it happened.

Ron said that was stupid, but Hermione reminded it was survivors guilt. She'd heard Lupin had tired to talk her around,

Harry couldn't help making a funny noise at that, though he wasn't sure what it was. Not quite laughter for Hermione's assumption.

but she'd been really down, having trouble with her Metamorphosing!

"Her what?" They yelped in genuine concern.

She hadn't been changing her appearance at will, probably shock.

"Now I'm really convinced something's wrong, and it's not me," Sirius' frown turned heavier than ever for his poor little cousins health.

"I'm sure that's the first time you've ever said that," Remus tried to playfully snip, but it fell flat. If it wasn't having to hear about Sirius, it was some other travesty happening in this future, and Tonks really was a light they could have used right now.

Harry was surprised that could happen, but Hermione said she was sure it could if one was really depressed.

"I can see it," Lily murmured uneasily. "Magic can have an affect on your state of mind, so I suppose the physical aspects would also be a bit touched."

"Whatever it is, I hope someone's trying to help," Remus huffed, still more worried than anything he wasn't being of any good to the Order even if he was clearly still around in some way.

Molly popped back in to ask Ginny to come help her with lunch.

"No, the conversation can't go on without her!" James dramatically wailed, causing the others a fresh burst of laughter for theatrics at least.

Ginny protested she was talking! Mrs. Weasley wouldn't hear it and said now! Ginny huffed she just didn't want to be alone with Phlegm, then swung her long red hair around in a very good imitation of Fleur and pranced across the room with her arms held aloft like a ballerina.

"A sight to behold I'm sure," Sirius forced a chipper mood again as well to go along with Prongs while Harry genuinely gave an affectionate smile for the show.

Harry took advantage of the temporary silence to eat more breakfast.

"A worthy cause," Remus chucked.

Hermione was peering into Fred and George's boxes, though every now and then she cast sideways looks at Harry. Ron, who was now helping himself to Harry's toast, was still gazing dreamily at the door.

She pulled a small telescope out of one and asked what it was.

Ron cautioned to be careful, though he wasn't sure. If Fred and George had left it behind, probably meant it wasn't ready for the shop.

"We all know what their last tests were like," Lily agreed with a small smile.

Speaking of his brothers, Harry asked if Percy had come around yet?

Lily perked up the most for this answer, the others were clearly still far more disgusted he'd even done such a thing.

Ron said nope.

Harry was shocked, Voldemort was back in the open now, he had to admit his parents were right.

"Clearly that's not enough for him to admit he was wrong of all things!" Siris snapped.

Hermione said Dumbledore had offered something along the lines of it was easier to forgive others for being wrong than right.

Ron agreed that was the mental sort of thing he'd say.

Harry conversationally put in he'd be taking private lessons with him this year.

Ron choked on a bit of toast and Hermione gasped, both shocked he'd kept that quiet!

"When exactly was he supposed to insert that into the conversation? When he was getting socked in the head, or Ron was drooling over Fleur?" James chuckled, though he knew he would have been just as bad if that had been dropped at any time.

Ron at once wondered where he, his voice tailed away. Harry saw him and Hermione exchange looks.

"Well they've clearly been having conversations without you again," Sirius pouted.

"Been doing that last year as well, and I'd be happy for them, if it weren't about me," Harry sighed.

Harry laid down his knife and fork, his heart beating rather fast considering that all he was doing was sitting in bed. Dumbledore had said to do it. ... Why not now?

"Because it would have been nice to go a whole five minutes without thinking about it," James sighed unhappily, but didn't begrudge Harry getting this out of the way either rather than dwelling on it his own some more.

He fixed his eyes on his fork, which was gleaming in the sunlight streaming into his lap, and began explaining those lessons had something to do with that prophecy.

Neither Ron nor Hermione spoke. Harry had the impression that both had frozen. He continued, still speaking to his fork,

"It's only polite, you should involve the utensils for all they do," Sirius nodded along while Remus gave him a light smack before he continued him on.

they knew the one, from the Department of Mysteries.

"Not a lot of other prophecies you could be referring to," James muttered agreement.

Hermione whispered it had been smashed, while Ron tried to interrupt the Daily Prophet had said, but Hermione shushed him.

"Hermione's allowed to interrupt but he's not?" Lily gave a halfhearted giggle.

Harry agreed he'd read those articles, and the prophet had it right, then he quoted the last lines for them, neither could live while the other survived.

"Is that really the only part your grasped on?" Lily demanded, wringing her own hands in an effort not to hold her son closer. "You've had experience with at least one other, surely you know not to take them at such face value!"

Harry couldn't bring himself to look at her, fight back, or contradict at all. He wished there were some other interpretation he was missing, but it all felt so inevitable it merely ate away at him what they'd think of him when it came to pass.

The three of them gazed at one another in silence for a moment. Then there was a loud bang and Hermione vanished behind a puff of black smoke.

Sirius startled a bit, before he burst out laughing. "Well, I guess we know what that," he went back and checked what exactly it was Hermione was holding, "telescope did!"

"The opposite of helped you to see, I like it," James chuckled in agreement.

The boys rushed to her in surprise, but she was already stepping out of the smoke, waving a hand in front of her face now with a black eye, gasping it had punched her!

"Oh, even better!" Remus yelped in surprise, still snickering delightedly at the gag.

Sure enough, they now saw a tiny fist on a long spring protruding from the end of the telescope.

Ron, who was plainly trying not to laugh,

No one was bothering with that in here.

promised her his mum could fix that.

Hermione said not to worry about that now,

"Sure she wouldn't have said that under any other circumstances," Lily snorted.

while rushing to Harry's side. They'd wondered if it was something like this, after all Lucius had said,

"It's no wonder the Prophet put this together, apparently everyone just knew this was going to happen," Harry sighed.

"Not if you don't want it to!" James reminded so forcefully Harry had to remind himself not to jump. "You can make your future whatever you want it to be!"

Harry glanced at him then, at all of them, and it really hit him why they were all so against this prophecy. Not because of his destiny being entwined with Voldemort, but because they refused to believe it was so inevitable Harry would be the one to do it. They just wanted him to have his own future, not be forced into this like Voldemort had done to them so many years ago, or so soon from now. He held tight to that knowledge, actually smiling as he promised, "Well, I'm sure you'll see to it it never gets this far."

"Absolutely," Lily agreed with all the confidence in the world.

She whispered if he was scared?

He admitted he had been, but now it felt like he'd always known he was going to face him at the end.

Sirius had to bite hard at his tongue to convince himself not to tell Harry that didn't have to define him, least of all allow someone else to tell him so! If he chose never to face Voldemort again he'd tear away anyone who tried to stop him.

Ron eagerly jumped on the topic of Dumbledore's lessons, saying he wouldn't be doing that if he thought Harry didn't have a chance.

"As eloquent as ever that one," Remus frowned more for the way he phrased it than disagreeing.

Hermione agreed he was probably going to learn powerful countercurses and anti-jinxes.

"I wouldn't really think so," Lily tugged at her hair in thought. "Voldemort is one of the most knowledgeable wizards there is, it must be how he's gotten as far as he has in his conquest. Not just anyone can come back from what he did after all, so it should be something more along the lines of other ways to defeat him than outright spells."

"Your idea has merits, but teaching him how to turn those statues into impervious shields wouldn't go awry either," James decided.

Harry did not really listen. A warmth was spreading through him that had nothing to do with the sunlight; a tight obstruction in his chest seemed to be dissolving. He knew that Ron and Hermione were more shocked than they were letting on, but the mere fact that they were still there on either side of him, speaking bracing words of comfort, not shrinking from him as though he were contaminated or dangerous, was worth more than he could ever tell them.

Lily sighed lovingly for her son, still as oblivious as he was at eleven. No one had thought this for a second anymore than they'd believed Ron and Hermione would take his cloak back at Fluffy's door. The smile on his face still showed otherwise, if not double more so because of those around him now.

She finished a bit anxious at least he knew of one class he'd be taking this year, wondering aloud when their OWL results would show up.

Harry distractedly said some time today, and Hermione shrieked!

"I think Hermione actually just had kittens," Sirius chuckled at such a reaction.

"To be fair, this is the most important moment of her life," Remus lightly mocked.

She leapt to her feet and darted down the stairs at once. When Harry arrived ten minutes later, fully dressed and carrying his empty breakfast tray, it was to find Hermione sitting at the kitchen table in great agitation, while Mrs. Weasley tried to lessen her resemblance to half a panda.

"A memorable depiction I shall never forget," James snickered.

Muttering to herself as she examined a text how her bruise wouldn't budge, she'd never come across this before!

Ginny agreed it was probably part of the twins trick so it wouldn't come off.

"I'd trust her on that," Sirius said a little to knowingly, and Harry wasn't sure he wanted to know when his godfather had tired much the same thing on anyone else.

Hermione squeaked it had to! She couldn't look like this forever!

Mrs. Weasley soothed they'd figure out something, while Fleur inserted Bill had told her how amusing Fred and George were.

"I'm guessing Bill wasn't on the end of many of their pranks then," Lily smiled.

"Or he actually does find them funny and can laugh along," James pointed out.

Hermione snapped she could hardly breathe from laughing at it!

"Those twins really should consider themselves lucky they aren't there for this," Sirius said while still unable to wipe away a smile for this imagined carnage. "We'd have an epic war about the house, considering this is the first time she's fallen victim to them personally."

"It's a miracle it never happened in school," Remus agreed.

She jumped up and started walking round and round the kitchen, twisting her fingers together and pleading with Mrs. Weasley she was sure no owls had come this morning?

Molly promised she'd have noticed, while Hermione barely heard her, still muttering about how she knew she'd messed up Ancient Runes, she'd certainly made one serious mistranslation.

"I never had the class, so I don't know what she's on about," Sirius went wide eyed with innocent curiosity.

"Because I missed this," Lily told him blandly while he continued on, high on his own cleverness.

And her Defense Against the Dark Arts practical was no good at all. She thought Transfiguration went all right at the time, but looking back-

"She O'd everything," James stated as if noticing the weather.

"She can't be entirely perfect, she might have gotten an E in Defense, especially if she's freezed again." Remus said fairly.

Ron barked at her to shut it, she'd be walking away with eleven Outstanding Owls.

Hermione wailed she had failed everything!

"Nah, then we'd know she got Malfoy's," Sirius said brightly.

Harry asked what happened if that were true, and Hermione told you were to have a meeting with Professor McGonagall, she'd asked at the end of last term.

"Whom I'm sure laughed hysterically first," Lily shook her head affectionately.

"Though I don't think any student has ever failed every single OWL," James properly explained. "You do need to revisit with your head of house to further discuss your career options though, if you've happened to not get a grade that didn't align with your path."

"Or you can have the option to retake it, and have to pay to do so, same as if you needed an OWL grade for a course you didn't take," Remus told.

Harry nodded, as he considered all of this, knowing no grade in the world would get him into a class with Snape again...but maybe Slughorn? He certainly didn't feel very worried about his future as an Auror still hanging.

Harry's stomach squirmed. He wished he had eaten less breakfast.

Fleur chose to explain that at Beauxbatons, they took those grades after six years, not five,

"I can see both sides to that," Lily said curiously. "If you wait until your sixth year, then you've an extra year to study for the classes you really want to excel in-"

"But there's no year in between taking two major exams for your life," James happily butted in with the other side.

"Well Fleur always thought her school was better, so I'm sure she'd be happy to rebuttal," Sirius shrugged, not wanting to hear either, just happy he'd never have to take another test again.

Fleur's words were drowned in a scream. Hermione was pointing through the kitchen window. Three black specks were clearly visible in the sky, growing larger all the time.

Harry was rubbing at his ear but looking a little grey, while the others all lit up with so much excitement to hear this they couldn't even laugh at Hermione's overreaction.

The three students huddled worriedly around the window as the birds descended, Mrs. Weasley having to squeeze past them to get the window open where they each landed in front of their carriers.

Harry moved forward. The letter addressed to him was tied to the leg of the owl in the middle. He untied it with fumbling fingers. To his left, Ron was trying to detach his own results; to his right, Hermione's hands were shaking so much she was making her whole owl tremble.

"I'm sure the poor birds have had worse done to them, like being vomited on," Sirius said slyly.

"I regret ever telling you that," Remus grumbled.

Nobody in the kitchen spoke. At last, Harry managed to detach the envelope. He slit it open quickly and unfolded the parchment inside.

Ordinary Wizarding Level Results

Pass Grades

Outstanding (O)

Exceeds Expectations (E)

Acceptable (A)

Fail Grades

Poor (P)

Dreadful (D)

Troll (T)

Sirius honestly skipped right past all of that nonsense, they already knew that.

Harry James Potter has achieved:

Astronomy A

Care of Magical Creatures E

Charms E

Defense Against the Dark Arts O

Divination P

Herbology E

History of Magic D

Potions E

Transfiguration E

"Congratulations!" James cheered while Lily did a little whoop of joy for him. Harry honestly found it hard to believe he'd done so well, much better than he ever would have given himself credit for in all the classes that mattered.

"Looks like McGonagall's Auror training is going to be completely unneeded, you managed all that yourself!" Sirius bounced happily in place.

"I'm still stunned stupid he got an E in Potions! It's hard to believe he learned anything in that class!" Remus looked struck dumb.

"Gee, thanks," Harry laughed lightly, though he didn't at all disagree.

Harry read the parchment through several times, his breathing becoming easier with each reading. It was all right: He had always known that he would fail Divination, and he had had no chance of passing History of Magic, given that he had collapsed halfway through the examination,

"Nobody cares about that class anyways," James waved off at once, fighting back the compulsion to scream some more at the mention of that particular exam.

but he had passed everything else! He ran his finger down the grades . . . he had passed well in Transfiguration and Herbology, he had even exceeded expectations at Potions! And best of all, he had achieved "Outstanding" at Defense Against the Dark Arts!

"No surprise there!" Sirius puffed up his chest. "He's been a natural at that from the start!"

"You did extremely well, you should hear that no matter how unsurprising it is," Lily told him gently as well as a rebuke to Sirius, who simply grinned in agreement rather than replying to her.

"Will you tell me what grades you got now?" James quickly asked her, batting his eyes pleadingly.

She just raised her brows at him in disbelief. "What makes you think I remember them all so many years later? I'm not as conceited as you lot, constantly lording over-"

"I'm guessing O in Potions, Herbology, and Charms, and at least an E in everything else," Sirius said loudly around her.

She blushed faintly, and had to take some niggling from Harry before finally admitting, " Well he wasn't wrong about the first three, but I got an A in my Ancient Runes and Transfiguration..."

"And," James happily prompted when it was clear she was refraining from saying something else.

She released a blistering noise before finishing, "and a T in my History of Magic. I was so busy studying for everything else, and it just sort of fell through the cracks there at the end-"

"Is that all?" Harry chuckled. "You did as well as I did Mum."

"Doesn't make it any more fun to remember," she huffed with a gleaming smile.

"Can't wait for your NEWT results now," Sirius said cheerfully before going on.

He looked around. Hermione had her back to him and her head bent, but Ron was looking delighted, noting he'd only failed Divination and History of Magic, and who cared about those! They swapped papers, Harry glanced down Ron's grades: There were no "Outstandings" there. ***

"Really?" Sirius said in honest surprise. "You'd think he'd have aced some class, I know he'd gotten on just as well in Care of Magical Creatures as Harry, what with his dragon keeper of a brother giving him some extra knowledge."

"Ron never took his classes to heart though, I'm sure he didn't even try his hardest, like others," Remus said pointedly to Sirius' careless shrug.

Mrs. Weasley praised her youngest son when she saw his results, telling those seven owls was more than Fred and George had gotten together!

"Still on that eh?" Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I don't want to hear it from the lot of you who stopped to recount yours," Lily snipped, "and then demanded mine."

Ginny tentatively called for Hermione, who still hadn't moved.

"Maybe she actually didn't get an O in everything," James went wide eyed in concern.

"I think I'll faint from shock," Sirius began fanning himself for a moment.

Hermione said in a small voice she hadn't done bad.

"Or she's just embarrassed she made such a big deal out of it and actually doesn't want to show off," Remus shook his head.

Ron walked over and snatched her paper away, then laughed she was actually disappointed she'd only gotten an Exceeds Expectations in her Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL.

"Wow," James mouthed theatrically.

"She's actually disappointed in herself," Sirius scratched at his temple for this reaction.

"She did admit Harry's beat her out in previous DA exams, I'm not too surprised about this one," Remus shrugged with an extra, though still tentative, smile at Harry, who returned it at once.

He looked down at her, half-amused, half-exasperated. Then declared them all N.W.E.T students, and asked his mum for more sausages.

"The proper response!" Sirius burst out laughing.

Harry looked back down at his results. They were as good as he could have hoped for. He felt just one tiny twinge of regret. . . . This was the end of his ambition to become an Auror. He had not secured the required Potions grade. He had known all along that he wouldn't, but he still felt a sinking in his stomach as he looked again at that small black E.

"I wish Dumbledore had told you what position Slughorn was coming back for now," Lily clucked her tongue sadly for that frown he was easily hiding now at knowing better. "Would save you a summer of stressing over this."

"At least McGonagall will set him straight at the beginning of the year," James reminded cheerfully.

It was odd, really, seeing that it had been a Death Eater in disguise who had first told Harry he would make a good Auror,

"Yeah, the irony of that has crossed me several times," James gave a heavy sigh.

"Doesn't make it any less appropriate given how your life's gone," Sirius pointed out.

but somehow the idea had taken hold of him, and he couldn't really think of anything else he would like to be. Moreover, it had seemed the right destiny for him since he had heard the prophecy a few weeks ago. . . . Neither can live while the other survives. . . .Wouldn't he be living up to the prophecy, and giving himself the best chance of survival, if he joined those highly trained wizards whose job it was to find and kill Voldemort?

The four around him made faces at this again being brought up, but now that Harry felt he better understood where they were coming from, he easily brushed past their concern as he happily watched his mother grab the book to continue.

HPHPHPHP

*This was a really weird line to me when I first read it, and I had to google if that was an actual saying or I just got some odd copy. Turns out it's an older way to say goodbye, especially to a lady. The more you know.

**I'm really not sure why Hermione was here for this summer holiday. She could have met up with them in Diagon Alley if she really needed to, but even then she wasn't essential to what goes on there. Why not have her spend the majority of the summer with her parents like she'd done before? I'll go more into this in the next book with their last mention, but still.

***I am genuinely insulted by this, Ron couldn't get one Outstanding? In Care of Creatures or something? She did for the other two, Hermione was obvious but still, Ron could have outshone Harry in one class, or at least have it be mentioned he got a higher grade than him in something.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #HP #HBP #The Life That Never Lived #Marauders #James Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Lily Potter

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halothenthehorns · 4 years

Text

THE DEATHDAY PARTY

"Is it so impossible for you to have a year without something creepy happening to you?" Lily huffed before Sirius could start.

"Apparently," Harry grumbled.

Sirius started the chapter with some unease, he really didn't want that voice to start becoming a regular thing around the castle.

October fell upon the castle, leaving most of the students with colds. Madam Pomfrey did have a remedy, a Pepperup Potion, which left the drinker with steaming ears for a few hours. Percy had been seen bullying Ginny into taking some Pepperup Potion,

"Sibling love I suppose," James chuckled.

"Is that why you guys forced me to take some," Remus huffed, "even though I don't get colds."

"Had to keep up your 'sick' appearance somehow," Sirius said brightly.

which left steam pouring out from underneath her red hair, giving the impression her head was on fire.

They all gave weak chuckles at that description, hoping to put those dark words out of their mind for now.

The weather had never affected Quidditch conditions though. Wood still had the team out on the fields in all manner of rain for endless training hours, which is why Harry made his way into the castle the Saturday before Halloween covered in mud.

"How do you even get muddy?" Lily demanded. "You play up in the air?" She was far more concerned with her son getting sick from spending so much time in the cold and wet then the actual act of being covered in muck.

There was a quick argument where both James and Sirius tried to answer her at once, and while they were doing that Harry told her, "It's mostly from walking around in it before and after we

land. I didn't bring a change of clothes and shower like most of the other's do."

While both his father, and godfather, pouted at him for not being able to talk about their favourite sport, Sirius huffed and grumbled a bit more before simply reading.

Outside of their own practice, Fred and George had been tasked with spying on the Slytherin team, and had sadly confirmed they were using their superior brooms to good use,

Harry suddenly looked rather crestfallen, hating that his team's spirits were being sunk so low because of stupid Malfoy, again.

describing them as nothing more than a blur in the air.

"I stand by what I said," Sirius said, "they can be as fast as they like, doesn't make them good."

Harry looked a little better for that.

Harry was going through the hallways very distracted by the upcoming match, but was easily distracted when he spotted Nearly Headless Nick by a window, muttering about how he didn't fulfill some sort of requirement, and something about not even half an inch...

"Guess he would still be on about that," Remus said, laughing for real this time.

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"Every year, Nick tries to join the Headless Hunt," James told him, "but obviously he can't get in, since he's not actually headless."

"He's been trying to for centuries," Sirius agreed, "you'd think he'd take the hint."

Harry greeted him, and Nick said hello back politely. He clearly noticed Harry's distraction as well, asking him what was troubling him? Harry noticed that there was a folded, transparent letter in Nick's hand, which he began to stuff away.

"How do you make transparent letters?" Harry asked in surprise.

"That's really complicated magic that only ghosts know how to work," Lily said sadly, "no one's ever been able to get them to tell either. They say it's a secret that stays with death."

"That's how Binn's works his notes in class," James agreed, "same kind of principle. We've talked to every ghost in that school countless times, but no one's ever told us."

"Buggers," Sirius huffed, "the Bloody Baron once snapped at me that he hoped I didn't turn into a ghost, just so I'd leave him be."

"Well, you bothered him the most out of every ghost," Remus chuckled.

"Oh, so now you're on his side?" Sirius asked, not finding this as fun as he would have before they started reading these books. They had all joked about their deaths before now, inevitable in

the era of fear they lived in, but it just didn't seem as funny now that four out of the five people in the room knew they were going to die in the next year of their time.

This fact became clear to James when it seemed Remus didn't want to continue, so James saved him by asking Sirius to keep reading.

Harry pointed out that Nick looked just as woebegone. Nick admitted that he had applied for something, but he hadn't fulfilled certain requirements. Despite going for a casual tone,m there were clear tones of bitterness on his face. After a beat he didn't seem able to bottle it up anymore, and he began shouting that after getting hit in the neck with an axe over forty times, you would think he'd qualify for the Headless Hunt!

"Sadly, not," Lily sighed, "because whoever did it didn't actually behead him."

Harry quickly agreed this was an injustice. Nick was still going on his rant, pulling his letter back out and reading straight from it that because Nick wasn't actually headless he wouldn't be able to join in on activities such as Head Polo.

"Poor guy," James said sadly, "we once told him he should start his own Nearly Headless Hunt. I thought he took to the idea, but apparently it didn't work."

"I can't imagine there are that many ghosts that are nearly headless," Remus said sadly, "Nick's kind of singular in that aspect."

Running out of steam, Nick turned his attention back to Harry and asked what was bothering him, and asked if he could help.

"Well that was sweet," Lily smiled.

"Oh yeah, that's how we got all of the ghosts in the castle on our side," Sirius agreed, "just listen to them for a few minutes. They're so grateful, most of them will do you a favour whenever you ask."

"That explains so many times you lot must have been the cause of something, but no one could prove it. Plus how you knew so many of the student's secrets," Lily smiled.

"Yes well, now that Sirius has just ruined one of our best secrets," James said, pretending to be mad.

Sirius grinned at him, playing along as he 'huffily' read on.

Harry said no, his problem couldn't really be helped, just as Mrs. Norris arrived.

"Why would she be hanging around Harry?" Remus asked in confusion, "he's not actually doing anything wrong."

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Sirius muttered, that cat never showed up for a good reason.

Nick warned Harry he'd better get lost, as Filch was in a particularly foul mood owing to the fact that he had the flu,

"He didn't use the Pepperup Potion like everyone else?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Most potions don't work on non-magical folks," Lily said sadly.

"Is that how you knew he was a squib?" James asked her curiously.

"Sure," Lily said with a shrug, "why else wouldn't he use magic to do his job like the rest of us?"

"What's a squib?" Harry asked.

"The opposite of a Muggleborn," Sirius said, "a non-magical person born to Wizard kind."

"Oh," Harry said, nodding in content.

The others just felt happy Harry had interrupted them to ask this, since this wasn't the first time they had mentioned that word, but Harry hadn't asked before. He must be feeling more

comfortable around them.

and some kids had managed to get frog brains over one of the dungeons ceilings. He'd been cleaning all day and would go crazy if he found Harry tracking mud around.

"Good point," Remus amended his earlier statement, "Harry, you should run for it."

Harry winced, guessing pretty well he didn't get away with it.

Harry agreed and was beginning to walk away, when Filch himself appeared from behind a tapestry. He was clearly out of breath as he glared around every corner, looking for his perpetrator.

"Turd knocker," James huffed.

"Harry can't get into trouble for that though," Lily defended, "there's no actual rule saying he can't track mud through the school."

"Not going to stop him from yelling at my pup though," Sirius huffed in annoyance, deciding to just get this over with.

His eyes landed on Harry, and he began screaming at once about all of the filth hanging from him. He commanded Harry to follow him, and Harry gave Nick a glum wave as he followed the caretaker back downstairs, leaving an even longer trail of mud in his wake.

"Wow," James laughed, "he's causing his own problems now."

"What's he doing anyways?" Remus asked, "Like Lily said, he can't actually punish Harry for that?"

Harry just shrugged.

Harry had never been inside Filch's office before.

The three trouble makers looked like they wanted to be heartbroken. Harry was in his second year now and didn't know half the good things that school had to offer, like Filch's filched cabinet. So dubbed because of all the things the caretaker had confiscated from other students, and the Marauders had put to use.

Lily was the only one who looked happy to hear this. After a short pause Sirius kept going.

The place was mostly packed with filing cabinets of students he'd caught misbehaving, with Fred and George getting an entire drawer to themselves.

"By the end of our seven years, we had our own cabinet to ourselves," James said proudly.

"And that's just the things they caught us doing," Sirius said, giving Harry a wink.

There were also some chains hanging from the ceiling, which didn't really surprise Harry as it was common knowledge among the students that Filch was often trying to persuade Dumbledore to let him hang students from their ankles.

"Did he switch it then?" Remus asked in a conversational tone of voice, "I thought he wanted to string us up by our thumbs?"

"He must change it around, for fun I'm sure," Harry chuckled.

Filch shuffled over to his desk, a ready parchment waiting as he dabbed his quill into some ink, muttering furiously to himself about all the things he had to clean up, including sizzling dragon bogies, and rat intestines.

"Aw, he does remember us," Sirius said, pressing a hand over his heart.

"Or Peter anyways," James snickered, "since that one was his idea."

Then all three friends frowned again, having avoided thinking about their friend acting oddly, but now thinking about it all over again

Lily piped up to distract them, "I want to know about the 'great sizzling dragon bogies', how do you even get a hold of those?"

"The twins would know I'm sure," Sirius said, shaking himself firmly so that he could read on.

Then he began filling out his form, first putting down Harry's name, then beginning with his crime,

"There's still not actually a crime," Remus huffed again.

and while Harry tried to protest that it was only a bit of mud, Filch shot back that it was a bit of mud he had to clean up! Then he wrote down that the crime was befouling the castle.

The three boys let out great snorts of amusement at that, James saying, "that's one of the vaguest rules there is!"

"I always took that to mean we weren't supposed to go leaving our personal stuff lying around. Which no one does anyways," Sirius said thoughtfully, then added, "or even no cursing in the

corridors, which no one enforces very much."

He began to write out what Harry's punishment was going to be,

"He's probably going to have you do his job for him again," Sirius grumbled, "that's his favourite punishment."

when there was a huge explosion above, rattling the ceiling.

"Timing," Remus said with a victorious grin.

"Finally, it worked out in Harry's favour," James agreed.

Filch roared Peeves' name at the top of his lungs at once.

"Or the twins," Sirius offered, "we know they're troublemakers, but we actually haven't gotten to see them do too much."

"The twins are what, in their fourth year now?" James asked, "Unless they were trying to get caught on purpose, which I'd like to hear their motive for, they wouldn't be stupid enough to do

that right above Filch's office."

"You lot are reading into this way too much," Lily laughed when it looked like Remus was about to add something else on.

Remus looked slightly abashed, but James and Sirius just exchanged mischievous grins, more than happy to put up with trouble abound at the school, rather than creepy voices following Harry.

He dropped Harry's slip at once and ran for the door, declaring he would catch Peeves in the act this time! Harry didn't usually like Peeves much, but would admit he appreciated the timing. With any luck whatever Peeves had done would distract Filch from Harry's doings.

"Agreed," Remus nodded, "he'll come back, wanting to write up a report on Peeves again, and tell you to leave. He'll have forgotten all about why you're even there."

Harry grinned, agreeing with all of them. Whoever it was, he was thanking their timing.

Harry decided he should still wait around for Filch to come back,

"Good," James nodded, "if you'd tried to sneak away, he would have found your form later and come after you for sneaking away. Staying there means he'll let you go from sheer annoyance."

Harry was laughing, while Lily rolled her eyes at him, he clearly had way too much experience with this.

and so sat down in a chair and began looking around the office. His eyes landed on a colourful envelope, entitled Kwikspell.

"Poor dear," Lily said, "is he still trying those?"

"How did you know about them?" James asked in surprise.

"I saw him trying one once when he was cleaning up a potion's mess in the dungeons. He was looking at that sheaf of parchment and waving a wand, but nothing happened. I'd figured out he

was a Squib already, and I felt awful for him."

"Wonder where he got the wand," Remus butted in.

Lily shrugged, she hadn't stopped to ask him that personal question.

"No pity hear," Sirius shrugged, "maybe if he wasn't such a jerk about it I would."

Lily gave him the stank eye and snapped, "how did you lot figure it out?"

"Peter did," Remus said, frowning again at the reminder of his missing friend. "He was in detention with Filch, helping him mop up some accident in a charms class one night, and Filch

kept going on about how 'these magical brat's couldn't get the simplest things' and such, and Peter snapped 'well why don't you just magic it away, then we can both go to bed'. Filch snapped at him to shut it, but after that we kept an eye on Filch, and realized he never did magic."

"I'll admit, we did feel bad for him at first," James said, "why would he get the job he had, it's like a constant reminder. But then the very next day he tossed Sirius in detention for cursing some Slytherin who had got him last week, and yeah pity gone. Life went on from there."

Lily sighed, but she couldn't disagree with at least part of James logic. Why would Filch get a job where he was constantly being reminded that he had no magical ability? She still felt bad for the poor dear, wishing she could do something for him, but there was nothing to be done by it at least right now.

Harry couldn't help but be a little interested as he pulled the information out, where the cover letter began by asking if you were feeling a little lacking in your magic?

"Would those even work though?" Harry asked, "If you don't have any magical abilities, could you learn it like that?"

"Nope," Remus said sadly, "Filch is just torturing himself more. The Kwickspells are for those who are struggling with magic, not incapable of it all together."

Harry read through the rest of the information, finding examples of satisfied customers exclaiming their delight with the product.

"Well at least these wizards are putting it to good use," Sirius chuckled, "showing off is the best way to prove yourself!"

"I can't tell if you're joking," Lily asked, knowing she really didn't want an answer.

Sirius didn't give her one, instead he kept reading.

Harry didn't get to look much longer though as he heard Filch returning, and Harry was quick to stuff the paper back and throw the envelope back onto Filch's desk. Filch came back in, crowing with pleasure that Peeves had broken a vanishing cabinet.

Harry felt an electric shock rocket up his spine, though the moment it passed he was left confused. So Peeves tried to break something, what was new about that?

"He tried to break the vanishing cabinet?" James said, looking rather upset himself. "That thing was awesome though! You could stuff people in there, and they'd disappear for days!"

"I am going to say you're joking, and not let you respond to that," Lily snapped, not wanting to hear an excuse for their use of that.

Then he spotted Harry, and the Kwikspell course which was a good two feet away from where Harry found it.

"Oops," Remus winced, "when Peter nearly figured it out, Filch turned pretty nasty to him. This might not be good."

"Ah, he'll just yell at Harry like he did Peter," Sirius shrugged, "if he did anything worse, than Harry would know for sure, and spread it around."

"Harry wouldn't do that," Lily huffed.

"I know," Sirius said, "but Filch doesn't."

Harry smiled, he had been rather insulted for a moment, thinking Sirius actually thought he was that kind of person, but instantly mollified.

Filch snapped at Harry, demanding to know if he'd looked at it? Harry quickly denied this,

"Good," James nodded, "you've gotten marginally better at that."

Harry grinned at him, while Lily rolled her eyes again. These boys were far too eager to corrupt her son.

and while Filch said that was a good thing, he also denied it even belonged to him. Saying it was for a friend.

"Okay, I'm feeling bad for him again," Remus said, wincing at that pathetic lie.

"Still not," Sirius shrugged, "he brings it on himself."

Harry was starting to feel pretty nervous, as Filch was far madder then Harry had ever seen him. His eyes looked about to pop out of his head, and the scarf wasn't helping anything.

The three boys laughed again, never growing tired of Harry's vivid depictions.

Filch then told Harry to get out of there, and Harry left with a sense of relief. Thinking that getting away from Filch without punishment must have been some sort of record.

"It's certainly up there," Sirius agreed, "we only got away with it once before, for something similar actually."

"What happened?" Harry asked eagerly.

"Peter got caught spreading rat intestines under all of the tables in the great hall," James grinned, "by Filch. Well we saw that, and we decided to distract him so we started a fight with this kid, Aubrey or something, by using a hex we made up. Filch caught us instead of Peter."

"So, you didn't actually get away with anything," Lily asked with a raised brow.

"No," Sirius shrugged, "but Peter did, which still counts."

Harry was heading back up the stairs when someone called out his name, asking if it had worked?

"Did what work?" Lily asked, confused at once.

Harry looked around to find Nick coming towards him, and Harry could see behind him a black cabinet smashed to bits, clearly having been dropped from quite a height.

"Oh wow," James said with glee, "you mean Nick set that up! That's brilliant!"

"Guess we taught him a thing or two," Sirius said with real pride.

Nick explained how he'd convinced Peeves to drop that over Filch's office in hopes of distracting the caretaker, and Harry greatly expressed his thanks. They continued walking off, and Harry voiced that he wished he could help Nick out with something now.

"Agreed," Remus nodded, "Nick did a favour for you, and if you at least try to return it, the exchange can be kept up for the rest of the time you're there."

Nick froze in place, and Harry accidentally walked through him.

"Eesh," all five of them shivered, having all experienced that at least once.

Harry shuddered in disgust as it felt like he'd walked through ice, but Nick was now ecstatic as he said that Harry could help him with something! This coming Halloween would be his five hundredth deathday.

Lily smiled brightly, giving James a real loving smile as she said, "I remember the first time I went to one."

"We went our last year there," James said to Harry, who was looking between his parents at the obvious exchange, "to his 485th Deathday party. It wasn't that big of a turn out, just the school ghost's mostly. Nick invited us in thanks for our help, we'd done with something else for him earlier that week, and I invited Lily as our first date."

"Your first date was to a deathday party?" Harry asked, unable to decide whether he was supposed to laugh or not.

"Yeah, I mocked him for that to," Sirius agreed, "I kept saying it was a bad omen and such, but look how wrong I was," he finished more than happy at the turn of events.

"I only said yes because of how much I wanted to go," Lily said, unable to keep the smile off of her face, "not because you asked me James. If I'd said yes to you every time you'd asked me out-"

"Yes, yes," he said, waving her off, "but you finally did. That's my point."

Lily chuckled and Harry smiled brightly at them. For the first time he wondered if this was new information to him? Upon hearing this little story, he hadn't felt a settling feeling in him, like he should have known this already. He wondered if he'd ever found out about this before, and knew before he had even formed the question in his mind he hadn't. He felt very happy and content

now, and Sirius gave him a small smile before reading.

Harry wasn't really sure if he was supposed to be happy or upset about this.

"Happy," James explained. "Ghosts celebrate their ages backwards from us. The longer they've been dead, the prouder they feel."

"Why though?" Harry asked, "it's not like they could die again, so what's there to be proud of being a ghost that long?"

"They've got to be proud of something," Remus shrugged, "honestly I think being a ghost would get rather boring, very quickly. So they've got to come up with something to keep up with the

times."

Nick explained that he was holding a party here at the castle, and invited Harry to come? Ron and Hermione were also more than welcome. Though he amended he'd understand if Harry would rather go to the schools feast.

"You should go," all four of them said at once, James adding on, "you can go to the feast any old year. This is a real treat, hardly any humans ever get to go to these things!"

"Well they're not exactly human friendly," Lily remembered, "but it is quite the experience."

Harry smiled indulgently at them, deciding against reminding them that his decision had already been made before they even heard about this. He also refrained from asking what his Mum had meant by 'human friendly'.

Harry agreed he'd come, and Nick jubilated! Then he further asked Harry if he wouldn't mind mentioning to a Sir Patrick, leader of the Headless Hunt, just how scary Harry found Nick.

"Ah, Sir Patrick himself is going to be there," Remus said, "now I see why Nick is so peeved. He probably sent him a Deathday invitation, along with another request to join the Headless Hunt.

Maybe he thought they'd take pity on him on his Deathday."

"I doubt anyone telling Patrick how scary Nick is would change their minds though," James said, "since it's not a matter of fear or respect. It's the matter of his head's still attached."

Harry agreed, and they parted ways. That night Harry explained to his friends the exchange, and Ron and Hermione both agreed it would be pretty fun. Hermione voiced it would be fascinating to go.

"Fascinating is a good word for it," Lily agreed.

Harry was about to go back a bit and also explain the Kwikspell he'd found at Filch's office as well, but then Fred and George caused a distraction. They'd liberated a salamander from their Care of Magical Creatures Class, and had decided to see what would happen if they fed it a firework.

"Very interesting things," James snickered.

"That didn't kill it did it?" Harry asked in concern.

"Nah," Remus said, "well, if it's a normal salamander yeah, but I don't think Fred and George seem that cruel. It's most likely a Fire Salamander, in which case-"

"Don't," Sirius cut him off, eyeing Harry bright eyed, "I want to see his face when the twins do it."

Remus just grinned and kept quiet.

The results were it shooting off multicolour sparks from its mouth as it flew around, effectively distracting Harry from Filch or anything else the rest of the night.

Harry grinned as he now vividly remembered the sight of that, making the three boys crack up laughing as they had done that to about a hundred Fire Salamanders at their last end of term banquet, that had been a night to remember.

Sirius broke off reading for a few minutes to tell Harry this, giving him all sorts of goofy details, and by the time they started reading again, they were happier in that moment then they had been in a while.

Sadly as the day came upon them, the trio began regretting their decision. One peak inside the Great Hall showed the swarm of Halloween decorations, and rumours were going around that Dumbledore had arranged some sort of entertainment for the school.

"They spread rumours around like that every year," James snorted. "Usually, nothing to exciting happens, you're better off at Nick's party."

They'd made a promise though, so down the stairs they went towards the dungeons. It was icy cold the farther down they stepped, and soon a horrible noise reached their ears akin to someone scraping up a chalkboard.

"That sounds awful," Harry winced, now remembering it vividly himself.

"I really don't know why they did that," Lily agreed, "they can still hear perfectly fine, so my guess is Nick just has a horrible taste in music."

Sirius snorted with amusement.

Ron wondered if that was really supposed to be their idea of music? They found the particular room where Nick was at the entrance, greeting all of his guests. They stepped inside for quite the sight. The place was decked out with black, and every guest visible was clearly a ghost. The temperature of the room was so chilly, the three could see their breaths rising from their mouths.

"This doesn't seem that different from the one we went to," Remus mused.

"How did all of that stuff get set up?" Harry asked, "it didn't seem ghostly."

"The teachers help out I think," James said, "honestly, we never thought to ask."

They spotted several of the Hogwarts ghosts as well, and one in particular made Hermione start to backpedal, whispering about not wanting to go near Moaning Myrtle.

Lily grimaced and said, "can't blame her there."

"Who's Moaning Myrtle?" Harry asked.

"Some wailing ghost who died in her fourth year," Sirius said, "she loves crying around all day, a real bore honestly."

"Why?" Harry asked, none of the other ghosts seemed so upset.

Remus snorted in amusement and said, "because she died when she was fourteen, so the whole world is still melodramatic to her."

"How did she die?" Harry asked, really getting curious now.

James answered, "apparently she died in the bathroom that she prefers to haunt, a girl's loo on the first floor. She said she saw an eye and died," then he trailed off laughing.

"We always thought she was exaggerating that," Sirius shrugged, "since the amount of things you look in the eye, and die from, are so rare she couldn't have run into one at Hogwarts. But we

never got another answer out of her either. After she told us that, all she'd ever talk about was the girl she came back to haunt, don't remember her name anymore."

Harry nodded, feeling content with these answers, but he had that feeling again. He knew Myrtle hadn't been lying, should know what killed the girl, but his mind seemed to be a blank space when

he needed it.

Harry asked who that was as Hermione explained that she was a ghost who haunted a girls toilet that had been out-of-order all year.

"Try every year," Lily rolled her eyes, nice to know some things never changed.

Apparently the ghost kept flooding the bathroom and throwing tantrums. Hermione said that no one ever went in there, because it was awful trying to take a piss with a ghost whining in the stall over.

All four boys snickered, at least none of the boy's bathroom had that problem.

Then Ron spotted some food.

"Not going to be any good food though," Sirius said in disgust, wrinkling his nose in remembrance.

Harry wanted to ask about that, but he figured he was about to get his answer anyways.

They hurried over, and regretted it at once. Every bit of food spread out was some form of rotting or gone bad.

Sirius looked and sounded like he was reading about kicked puppies.

"Really Sirius, it's just food," Lily scoffed.

"Perfectly good food, that went to waste so that some ghost can have the impression of eating it," Sirius disagreed, then read on in the same tragic tone.

Worst of all was the cake, burnt charcoal black, with the date of Nick's death on sour icing. A ghost came up and walked through a bit of moulding fish with his mouth open.

"Why?" Harry asked, "can they taste it then?"

"No," James said, "but being rotten like that increases its flavours-"

"The bad ones," Sirius huffed.

James ignored him "-and it's as close as they can get."

Harry asks if he can taste it that way, and the ghost says no, but it gives the impression of such. Hermione speculates that the food being so bad must enhance the flavour. Ron asks if they can move away, he was starting to feel sick.

"Peter actually was sick," Remus snickered in remembrance, "Sirius and I dragged him out of there before he could vomit on anything else."

Sirius chuckled and said, "well the smell of vomit was pretty strong to my nose, so they should have thanked him."

They couldn't get too far though when Peeves appeared, offering them a bowl of peanuts that had fuzzy mould on them.

"That's it," Remus nodded, "that's what made Peter puke. He popped a mouldy peanut in his mouth."

"This is really gross," Lily snapped at them, "and you boys need to stop it now."

Harry was still laughing at the lot of them, so Lily didn't seem to upset.

Hermione declined, and then Peeves said that he'd heard what Hermione had said about Myrtle. Then he called said ghost over to them.

"Oh great," Lily sighed, "that poltergeist is the worst."

"Nah, I've seen worse," James disagreed, he personally had a lot of fond memories of Peeves, mixed with bad of course. No one stayed on a Poltergeists good side for long.

Hermione greeted her in a falsely bright voice, saying how nice it was to see her out of a toilet.

Sirius snorted with mirth, that wasn't a sentence you got to hear a lot.

Peeves wasn't having this politeness though, and quickly told Myrtle what Hermione had been saying about her. Continuing a barrage of insults by calling her all sorts of things like fat and ugly.

"To be fair," Lily sighed, "she calls herself that, and we avoid her because of it, so she thinks we call her that. Really though, no one in the castle cares enough about a ghost to go around calling her that."

"Lily," James laughed, "no one was actually accusing anyone of doing that. It's just Myrtle being, well Moaning Myrtle."

Finishing off with pimply.

"Wow, Peeves is even mean to the ghosts," Harry said in surprise.

"Peeves has no bounds," Sirius said brightly.

Moaning Myrtle burst into tears and glided out of the room.

"I might feel bad," Lily said, still looking a little upset, "if she didn't do that even when you tried to be nice to her. Then she would just accuse you of lying, and do the same thing."

Nick came over then, asking how they were enjoying themselves.

"Not really," Harry muttered.

"It's something new though," James said bracingly.

They lied and said they were, and Nick was praising his turnout. Saying that one ghost had even come all the way from Kent.

"Do ghosts just travel by, err, floating," Harry asked, "did she walk all that way?"

"You know, I'm not sure," Remus said, suddenly puzzled by the question. "We only ever met the ones in the castle, but never outside of them. I've no idea how they get about traveling."

Harry nodded, only looking marginally disappointed. He couldn't expect his family to know the answer to every one of his odd questions.

Their conversation was cut off though by the sound of a hunting horn drowning out the terrible music.

"Cool," Lily said, "the Headless Hunt didn't make an appearance when we were there, so this should be interesting to see."

Harry was frowning again, not just at the way he felt about this rather depressing party, but because of something to do with Sir Patrick.

Nick did not seem enthused.

"Bet he wishes he could take back his invitation now," James said sadly, "he probably doesn't want the lot of them at his party, rubbing it in that Nick couldn't join."

Twelve ghost horses came charging through the wall,

"How does a horse become a ghost?" Harry asked.

"If the horse had a bond with their rider, the rider can choose to take the horse with him. Same with any familiar," Lily shrugged.

and astride each steed was a ghost supporting their head under one arm.

"And he's showing off to boot," Sirius said, rather upset on Nick's behalf.

The ghost at the front lifted his head above the crowd, making said crowd laugh,

No one in the room did, they were all sharing Nick's feelings of annoyance at yet another pompous person, even if it was a ghost.

and waltzed over to Nick, greeting him by making the joke to check if his head was still hanging on?

Lily gave a sniff of disdain, was that really necessary?

Nick gave a less than pleasant return greeting, but then Patrick noticed Harry and his friends and exclaimed 'live 'uns' and pretended to jump in surprise. His head came off and began to roll away, making the other ghosts laugh all the harder.

"Why is that funny?" Harry asked.

"Ghost joke, I guess," Sirius shrugged, "kind of like slapping someone randomly is funny to other people."

"Why does he act like he's never seen 'live 'uns' before?" Remus rolled his eyes, "we're more common than the ghosts are."

Nick was the only one who didn't, and Patrick laughed at him, calling him jealous because they'd refused to let him join the hunt.

"We're not arguing that you shouldn't let Nick join," Lily said hotly, "were saying you shouldn't rub it in."

The four boys gave Lily an odd look, but decided not to say anything to that.

Nick gave Harry a meaningful look, and Harry quickly jumped in by saying that he thought Nick was terrifying, but trailed off making Patrick laugh and guess that Nick had asked Harry to say that.

Harry was wincing in shame, he hadn't done a very good job of paying Nick back just then. Maybe he would take Sirius up on that 'lying lessons' offer.

Nick decided to draw his attention to the stadium, and began to give his customary speech. He only got a few words in though, when Patrick clearly got bored and decided to start a game of Head Hockey, which the rest of the crowd decided to turn and watch instead.

"I think that's about when we left," Harry said, looking as mad as everyone else in the room, "they were being really rude to Nick, but we couldn't really do anything about it."

"Guess I don't blame you," Lily said sadly.

Deciding to leave while they had the chance, they backed out of the room and began making their way back up the stairs, Ron pointing out that hopefully they could still catch some dessert from the Great Hall.

"Well that was awful," Remus said sadly.

"Poor Nick," Sirius agreed.

Harry though, froze up as he once again heard a deadly voice murmur 'rip

Sirius suddenly shivered in disgust, but no one needed to ask why. Looking like he dreaded every word, Sirius finished.

tear, kill.'

"Not again," Lily moaned.

"Why is that happening?" Harry said, hoping someone would have thought of an idea by now.

"Perhaps Hermione might have a good idea, or even Ron," James offered, "because I've still got nothing."

Harry looked very disappointed now, as did the others. They were genuinely happy and surprised Harry seemed to be relying on them for some kind of answer now, which made them all the more upset when they had no idea what Harry was hearing.

It was the same voice from before in Lockhart's office, a voice that promised murder. Harry shouted in surprise, urging Ron and Hermione to listen, but they were watching Harry with confusion.

"They..." Remus said faintly, "they don't hear it either?"

"They were looking at me, not where I was looking," Harry agreed sadly.

The voice was still continuing, promising to kill, but growing fainter as it headed up. Harry felt adrenaline pumping through him, wondering how on earth a voice could be going up?

"Must be a Phantom then," Sirius muttered, "can't think of anything else that could move up like that, still without being seen, but why can't anybody but Harry hear it?"

Remus hated not being able to figure it out.

Harry shouted that they had to go after it, but then they did reach the entrance hall, and the babbling voices coming from the Great Hall made the voice impossible to hear. So he pelted up to the first floor, Ron and Hermione only just keeping up as they demanded to know what Harry was doing.

"Did last year not teach you anything?" Lily asked faintly. "Why are you chasing the blood sniffing voice!"

"Because I was the only one hearing it!" Harry said, looking very frustrated by now, "and I wanted to know I wasn't crazy, so I was looking for whatever it was."

"You are not crazy Harry," Sirius said at once, with no doubt in his voice at all, "there is a reason for this! We just, haven't figured it out yet..." he trailed off, looking rather miserable at his confession.

Harry nodded, looking a little comforted.

Harry was still listening with all of his might, only able to hear the voice just above a whisper about how it smelt blood.

All five of them shivered in disgust, Harry had a very bad feeling about what he was fixing to find.

Harry felt his stomach leave his body as he declared it was going to kill someone.

'If it smells blood, doesn't that mean someone's already hurt' Lily thought to herself, not wanting Harry to hear that.

They went pelting down another hallway, rounding a corner when they spotted something that made them freeze up.

All four adults looked like they dearly wanted to scream at Harry to get away from there! They had more than enough of him charging into danger last year, and most of the time it hadn't been

his fault. Now he was actively looking for something that was dangerous! The only thing holding all four of them back, was the knowledge that Harry had done this many years ago already.

Yelling now would do him no good, and he already looked upset enough at thinking he was hearing voices.

Sirius sucked in a deep breath, fearing what he was about to read, but reading all the same.

There were words painted on the wall that said the Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware.

Sirius cocked his head to the side, then released a shaky breath of relief.

"What was that?" Lily asked. "The Chamber of Secrets? Is that a joke?"

"You've never heard of it?" James asked.

"No, and what's this to do with a voice Harry's hearing?" Lily said, still looking rather upset, though the three boys looked far less so.

James explained, "Well, as for Harry, I'm not really sure. I'm still thinking Remus should be right, and it might be some pureblood around the castle stirring up trouble. I, can't figure out how yet," he paused looking frustrated for a moment, before continuing, "but as for the Chamber itself. There's this old myth around the school that Salazar Slytherin built a secret chamber or something in the school, and if a pureblood found it, they could release a monster that would destroy all who were 'unworthy'."

Sirius said, "we looked for that thing for all seven years, never found a stinking trace of it."

"And why does this make Harry hearing a voice okay?" Lily demanded.

"Well, it doesn't," Remus shrugged, "the reasons for that are still weird, but the fact that Harry was lead there by that voice, it must mean something."

Harry was nodding, he looked less panicky now and seemed content again, so they must be on the right track. Lily sighed, leaning into Harry again for a moment, before Sirius finally decided to

read on.

Then Ron spotted something hanging from a torch below the words.

"Do I want to know?" Lily demanded.

Harry said nothing, trying desperately to remember what this thing was, and knowing he wasn't going to like the answer.

The three edged forward with all the caution they had, and found it to be Mrs. Norris, hanging from her tail. Stiff as a board, and staring with wide, lifeless eyes.

"Someone killed that cat!" Sirius yelped in shock.

"The poor thing," Lily said, then she went a little bug eyed and yelped, "A student killed a cat!"

"Damn," James winced, "we've never even hated Mrs. Norris that much."

"I think you missed the point of that James," Remus said, looking as upset as Lily, "it wasn't that Mrs. Norris is dead, which yeah is awful, it's that a student killed her! What kid is that kind of horrible to kill an animal, and leave it hanging up in the school? Assuming Lockhart didn't kill her of course, which would be-"

"She's not dead," Harry finally blurted, then he clenched up and grabbed hold of his head again. He had been trying very, very hard not to blurt that out, because he knew the pain it would cause, but the fact that they kept saying it over and over, and he knew it was wrong, it had just come out!

After a few minutes of panting and forcing his muscles to relax again, he finally looked up and around to begin, "Sor-"

"Stop that," James snorted, not looking very mad, just a little upset, "we were wrong, and you knew it, so you corrected us. I'm sorry it hurt you to do it, but you shouldn't be sorry you did it."

Harry nodded, then asked hesitantly and said, "err, any ideas what can petrify a cat?" Then he winced again, wondering what made him use that choice of words.

"A couple of spells," James shrugged, "in which case someone's just playing a really cruel joke on the cat. Boy I hope that's the case."

"I can only think of one thing that would actually petrify though," Remus said, taking more note of Harry's choice of words, "a Gorgon." Remus suddenly looked very frustrated, "but there's no way that could get around the castle without being seen."

"You said the same thing about a Mountain Troll," Sirius pointed out.

"Yes, but that was let in by a te-" Remus cut himself off and shoved his face into his hands as he realized what he was about to say.

"Lockhart can't handle pixies, let alone a Gorgon," Sirius said weakly, then automatically corrected himself, "of course, Quirrell the stuttering fool was actually skilled and fooled us as well."

"Fooled me," Harry corrected, "you guys are only seeing what I did. It's not your fault I didn't notice some things full grown wizards might have."

"None of the teachers seemed to do anything about it," Lily sniffed 'except Severus' she privately added, though she suddenly realized his real motives had never been fully revealed in that book. Why hadn't Severus gone to Dumbledore if he was trying to stop Quirrell?

"Well, if it is Lockhart, we're certainly on to him before we were Quirrell," James said bracingly, "let's keep going Sirius, and Harry can pipe up if he remembers anything else, without causing his head to explode," he finished paternally.

Harry smiled round at all of them, pleased beyond measure at their absolute faith that he wasn't going crazy, and doing their very best to keep him comfortable.

They remained frozen in shock for a few seconds before Ron voiced that they'd better get out of there. Harry wanted to stay and help the cat, but Ron insisted this was not the place they wanted to be found.

"He's got a point," Lily agreed at once, "I don't want anyone trying to blame you three for doing that."

Too late for that warning, the sounds of hundreds of students were making their way up into their corridor.

"Why?" Remus asked in confusion, "no one's common room is on the second floor. They should have kept going right up the main staircase?"

Harry sighed at his misfortune as he said, "like with the dancing skeleton's thing, there was another rumour Dumbledore was supposed to do some kind of show in that particular corridor.

Guess that one might have been true. I can't think of any other reason we got caught right then."

Every new student who approached went silent as they to spotted the cat, with Harry, Ron, and Hermione still stuck right beneath her.

"That's exactly what I was hoping to avoid," Lily groaned.

"Why is it you three seem to hop upon everything?" James grumbled.

"Cause otherwise, my school years would have been boring," Harry said just as unpleased as his father.

A voice behind them read out the text on the wall, calling out that they'd be next,

Sirius winced this time, but recognized it would be ridiculous if he refused to say it when everyone knew he didn't mean it.

mudbloods.

Sirius gritted his teeth in distaste while Remus huffed and said, "can't imagine who would say a thing like that!"

"I really wish I could punch out whoever taught him that word," James muttered.

Lily just looked depressed all over again, unable to hear that word without another Slytherin shouting it at her in the middle of a crowded court yard.

Draco was standing slightly in front of the crowd, a rather excited look on his face as he watched them.

"I've got it!" Remus suddenly yelped

"Got what?" Sirius laughed, passing Harry the book

"I think it's Malfoy that's been doing this."

#Harry Potter #James Potter #Lily Potter #Sirius Black #Remus Lupin #Reading The Books #fanfiction

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