#this is so much funnier given what Remus's voice sounds like

[stonerundump]

Wouldja believe this is Sanders Sides fanart? That's one Christine that won't care about the murder!

[halothenthehorns]

TLTNL- SILVER AND OPALS

James took the book from Lily with a happy enough air. He was mostly hoping the first Quidditch game would come up soon, considering tryouts were already past and they needed to see the team in action of course.

Where was Dumbledore, and what was he doing?

"Thoughts I really don't think of too often, unlike Moony," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"You make me sound like a panting teenager," Remus grumbled. "Of course I wonder all the time where the leader of the Order is."

"Your ears really have been saved Harry," Sirius continued as if he hadn't spoken. "Used to come up at least once a meal what that man could be up to, and that's nothing compared to school."

"I take it back," James agreed. "We might not have ever noticed if he was missing from the staff table, but Remus would have flipped the castle inside out if he was missing for more than a day."

Remus' scowl increased upon both of his friends. Their jesting was in good nature, but it still rankled him they weren't wrong. It simply angered him more than anything how blind he'd been until days ago, how he'd refused to see any side of Dumbledore except his white beard until he had it shoved in his face he could be missing something.

His friends obviously knew that had been shaken. They just weren't sure what to make of that themselves. It should have been...a relief? That wasn't the right word either, because it was too sad how down he was now with no one to look up to in that same sense.

When James realized Moony wasn't going to react in any sense of the word he decided to keep going instead, deciding he'd been through more than enough today already, no need to push it.

Harry caught sight of the headmaster only twice over the next few weeks. He rarely appeared at meals anymore, and Harry was sure Hermione was right in thinking that he was leaving the school for days at a time. Had Dumbledore forgotten the lessons he was supposed to be giving Harry?

"I entirely doubt that," Lily sighed. "Though what else he is busy doing is beyond me."

Harry nodded his agreement, trying not to pretend he hadn't been panicking just slightly at the thought of being forgotten, left alone, again.

  Dumbledore had said that the lessons were leading to something to do with the prophecy; Harry had felt bolstered, comforted, and now he felt slightly abandoned.

He wanted to laugh at his own thoughts, but his teeth were still rather gritted. He didn't want to see the expressions on those around him, either pity, remorse, or anything else for something of his past that just could not be changed no matter how much he'd wish for it, so was more than relieved when James continued without too much of a hitch in his throat.

Halfway through October came their first trip of the term to Hogsmeade. Harry had wondered whether these trips would still be allowed, given the increasingly tight security measures around the school,

"Nah, never seen the school get that bad," Sirius rolled his eyes at the thought. "The teachers are well aware we'd burn the place to the ground ourselves if they didn't let the students get some air."

"And that was the normal students, considering this lot went about it without permission," Lily snorted.

but was pleased to know that they were going ahead; it was always good to get out of the castle grounds for a few hours.

Harry woke early on the morning of the trip, which was proving stormy, and whiled away the time until breakfast by reading his copy of Advanced Potion-Making. He did not usually lie in bed reading his textbooks; that sort of behavior, as Ron rightly said, was indecent in anybody except Hermione, who was simply weird that way.

Lily started snickering away again at once, and Harry looked at her in exasperation, still wanting to demand just what was so funny he was missing? It certainly wasn't the same reaction from the Marauders, who looked more dumbfounded than anything this was how Harry chose to spend his time. Even if he'd chosen to pursue homework they'd have thought nothing of it, but independent study!

"You lot can't even really mock him," Remus pleasantly interpreted the almost constipated look on James and Sirius, "because I caught you lot doing the same thing with Transfiguration books so often I honestly thought you had split personalities."

"Yes, well, we had a pretty damn good reason," James huffed.

"So does Harry, he's catching up on five years worth of Potions that useless teacher couldn't have taught him," Sirius insisted, deciding to defend this for now, though no one in here was accusing him of anything.

Lily started laughing harder than ever, and James quickly kept going then, to Harry's relief.

Harry felt, however, that the Half-Blood Princes copy of Advanced Potion-Making hardly qualified as a textbook. The more Harry pored over the book, the more he realized how much was in there, not only the handy hints and shortcuts on potions that was earning him such a glowing reputation with Slughorn, but also the imaginative little jinxes and hexes scribbled in the margins, which Harry was sure, judging by the crossings-out and revisions, that the Prince had invented himself.

Harry whistled in surprise. "Hard to imagine a student inventing spells."

"I wouldn't be that surprised, we tend to experiment quite a bit in our years, far more than when we age and do things out of habit," Remus shrugged.

Harry had already attempted a few of the Prince's self-invented spells. There had been a hex that caused toenails to grow alarmingly fast (he had tried this on Crabbe in the corridor, with very entertaining results); a jinx that glued the tongue to the roof of the mouth (which he had twice used, to general applause, on an unsuspecting Argus Filch); and, perhaps most useful of all, Muffliato, a spell that filled the ears of anyone nearby with an unidentifiable buzzing, so that lengthy conversations could be held in class with out being overheard.

The first two weren't of much consequence, they were used regularly in all their years at school amongst the students and it was more likely this Prince had simply copied a spell he intended to practice. That last one however did catch them off guard, they'd never heard of that exact spell.

"That's really interesting, sort of like honing an Imperturbable Charm, except instead of directly forcing anything not to be around you, you're merely distracting them instead," James eyes were alight at once with the possibility of this.

"Glory I want to meet whoever got a nail on that spell," Sirius agreed enthusiastically, causing James' face to settle back into drawn confusion for that and Lily to start snickering harder than ever.

The only person who did not find these charms amusing was Hermione,

"No surprise there," Remus rolled his eyes at this continuing to be mentioned.

who maintained a rigidly disapproving expression throughout and refused to talk at all if Harry had used the Muffliato spell on anyone in the vicinity.

Sitting up in bed, Harry turned the book sideways so as to examine more closely the scribbled instructions for a spell that seemed to have caused the Prince some trouble. There were many crossings-out and alterations, but finally, crammed into a corner of the page, the scribble:

Levicorpus (nvbl)

Harry watched wearily as those around him frowned at the mention of that spell, one they hadn't used in quite some time. Before he even had a chance to ask, James gave a blustering sigh but explained, "you already saw that one in action, courtesy of me."

Harry's eyes flipped wide in surprise as he demanded, "you invented that spell?"

James frowned in confusion at Harry's leap. "Nah, did a Transfiguration paper for a sixth year Slytherin, he taught me this in exchange." He waited and watched Harry flip through the spells he'd seen his father use, only one of which was silent in the one time he'd 'seen' his father perform magic.

"Oh," was all he could think to mutter before waving him on. He still felt like there was some connection he was missing in this, even if he had latched onto the right memory for once for an answer.

While the wind and sleet pounded relentlessly on the windows, and Neville snored loudly, Harry stared at the letters in brackets. Nvbl., that had to mean "nonverbal." Harry rather doubted he would be able to bring off this particular spell; he was still having difficulty with nonverbal spells, something Snape had been quick to comment on in every D.A.D.A. class. On the other hand, the Prince had proved a much more effective teacher than Snape so far.

Lily had to fight very, very hard this time not to fall off the furniture in a fit of laughter, she knew that would be just too much of a giveaway. Thankfully she'd been in such a spirited mood for so long now, the others were just ignoring her still near constant stream of snickering, even though their annoyance continued to grow just what she found so funny.

Pointing his wand at nothing in particular, he gave it an upward flick and said Levicorpus! inside his head.

Then there was a scream.

"Well, it seems to have worked," Sirius said pleasantly.

"Wonder which of his roommates he snagged," James chuckled, he'd accidentally caught a random third year on his first try and this was bound to be funnier because Harry would know the bloke.

"Hopefully not myself," was all Harry could think to mutter.

There was a flash of light and the room was full of voices: Everyone had woken up as Ron had let out a yell.

"I half expected it to be Neville, you already mentioned him snoring and he hasn't had a catastrophe happen to him in ages," James chuckled.

Harry sent Advanced Potion-Making flying in panic; Ron was dangling upside down in midair as though an invisible hook had hoisted him up by the ankle.

"Revenge for him punching you awake over the summer," Remus got a good laugh out of that. "It happened so long ago he wouldn't even realize you'd still planned retaliation."

"Moony's favorite," Sirius sighed.

Harry yelled an apology, as Dean and Seamus roared with laughter, and Neville picked himself up from the floor, having fallen out of bed.

"Ah, well, I was half right," James's laughter continued, the easy mood flowing through the room making him continuing just had everyone chuckling even harder than they really should have been.

He groped for the potion book and riffled through it in a panic, trying to find the right page; at last he located it and deciphered the cramped word underneath the spell: Praying that this was the counter-jinx, Harry thought Liberacorpus! with all his might. There was another flash of light, and Ron fell in a heap onto his mattress.

Harry repeated his apology, while Dean and Seamus continued to roar with laughter.

Ron requested tomorrow, Harry just use an alarm clock.

"Now where's the fun in that?" Sirius cackled.

By the time they had got dressed, padding themselves out with several of Mrs. Weasleys hand-knitted sweaters and carrying, cloaks, scarves, and gloves, Ron's shock had subsided and he had decided that Harry's new spell was highly amusing; so amusing, in fact, that he lost no time in regaling Hermione with the story as they sat down for breakfast.

"Why?" Remus demanded, looking genuinely dumbfounded at this display. "He must know by now anything regarding that book won't entertain her."

Harry just shrugged, he hadn't been planning on telling her.

Hermione had not cracked a smile during this anecdote, and now turned an expression of wintry disapproval upon Harry, demanding if this was yet another spell from that potion book of his.

Harry frowned at her, calling her out on always jumping to the worst conclusions.

"It's even worse when she's right," Sirius huffed.

He agreed it was though, and she lectured him on just attempting an unknown, handwritten spell to see what would happen!

"She's got half a point," Lily couldn't help but agree now that some of their laughter had subsided. "That really could have been dangerous, or you may not have even known the effect at all until it was too late to understand something was wrong, may not even have had a countercurse ready."

Harry couldn't help but shift in unease, not at all enjoying the foreboding feeling he believed her.

Harry asked what made it so bad handwritten?

Hermione snapped that meant it wasn't Ministry approved,

"Gah!" Sirius clutched his ears in pain.

"As if we didn't hear enough of that last year, Hermione's really working to get on every one of my nerves lately," James agreed tartly.

She also concluded this Prince must have been quite a dodgy one, to be inventing spells to dangle people around, who put energy into that?

"I don't even think the Prince made up half those spells," James rolled his eyes. "I'm starting to wonder if he just heard about them and was trying to figure out how to do them himself." At least four of them so far had been common knowledge during his time at school, it seemed ridiculous one person had made up all of those and they'd grown popular in that same time frame.

Ron offered his twin brothers, while Harry pointed out his dad. He quickly fibbed and told Lupin had mentioned this spell once, but this last part was not true; in fact, Harry had seen his father use the spell on Snape, but he had never told Ron and Hermione about that particular excursion into the Pensieve. Now, however, a wonderful possibility occurred to him. Could the Half-Blood Prince possibly be-?

James tried to laugh, but the sound didn't really make it to full crescendo. Harry very obviously realized the answer to that one here and now, but what he wouldn't give to gift his son with something like this. His cloak often times didn't feel like it was enough to remind his only child he'd even existed, but he tried as always to shake off those thoughts.

Lily really was getting a handle on herself and almost entirely smothered the funny little noise Harry had the wrong parents influence for this book.

Hermione kept going past his thoughts, pointing out they'd seen this spell in action before as well, by Death Eaters during the Quidditch World Cup.

"That must have been an entirely different spell," Remus disagreed, "or at least a modified version of it. Levicorpus very specifically hoists one up by their ankle. That other bit of magic was much more..." he trailed off, not at all liking the words his mind offered up to explain such evil magic.

Flexible seemed to light for what those Muggles had suffered.

Ron came to his aid, saying this was different, those people were abusing the spell. Harry and his dad were just having a laugh, then he told Hermione she just didn't like this Prince because he was better than Hermione at Potions.

Hermione insisted it had nothing to do with that, even as her cheeks went red.

"At once proving her wrong," Sirius needlessly pointed out with his own eye roll. Girl needed to get a handle on her expressions. He only wished Lily were so easy to read, he still kept eyeing her and hoping any moment she'd slip and tell them who this Prince was, but aside from laughing at their ignorance he wasn't getting anything.

She insisted it was all just irresponsible what they were doing with the unknown of that book. Then she persisted Ron stop calling him Prince, like it's a title, he obviously wasn't a good person!

Harry deflected if she was getting towards him being a Death Eater there's no way he'd be boasting as a half-blood.

Lily let out a blistering sigh the kids had just so easily transitioned into talking about what she'd refused to see for far too long about this Prince.

Even as he said it, Harry remembered that his father had been pure-blood, but he pushed the thought out of his mind; he would worry about that later.

Hermione stubbornly went on with her point, Death Eaters couldn't all be pure-blood, there just weren't that many of them. At least some had to be half-bloods, pretending to be pure. It was only Muggle-borns they outright hated, they'd be quite happy to let Harry and Ron join up.

"Oh but of course, lots of parties would be going on during that," Sirius wrinkled his nose in disgust even as he joked of this.

"Deathday parties," Remus agreed with the same expression.

In Ron's indignation, he sent a sausage flying to hit Ernie Macmillan.

James snorted at the random insertion, and all the sudden memories of doing that with much more purpose.

Pointing out his family was nothing but blood traitors, and that was worse than a Muggle-born as far as Death Eaters were concerned!

Harry agreed they'd just love to have him around, they'd all be best pals if they'd stop trying to kill him.

"You mean that's not how you make the best of friends?" Remus mockingly demanded.

This made Ron laugh; even Hermione gave a grudging smile, and a distraction arrived in the shape of Ginny.

"Ginny's been doing that a lot this year," Lily chuckled in surprise while Harry was quick to smile again for getting off this topic, it was starting to give him a headache lingering on this.

She gave him another scroll of parchment with Harry's name written upon it in familiar, thin, slanting writing from Dumbledore. He thanked her, and then asked if she'd be going with them to Hogsmeade?

Ginny said no, she was meeting up with Dean, but would probably see them there.

Filch was standing at the oak front doors as usual, checking off the names of people who had permission to go into Hogsmeade. The process took even longer than normal as Filch was triple-checking everybody with his Secrecy Sensor.

Ron demanded why they were checking to see if they were smuggling Dark stuff out? Surely this would only happen when they were trying to get back in with it.

His cheek earned him a few extra jabs with the Sensor, and he was still wincing as they stepped out into the wind and sleet.

The three Marauders sighed heavily, more than making their point they'd laughingly demanded the same thing of Filch at one point or another, and received the same results.

The walk into Hogsmeade was not enjoyable. Harry wrapped his scarf over his lower face; the exposed part soon felt both raw and numb. The road to the village was full of students bent double against the bitter wind. More than once Harry wondered whether they might not have had a better time in the warm common room, and when they finally reached Hogsmeade and saw that Zonko's Joke Shop had been boarded up, Harry took it as confirmation that this trip was not destined to be fun.

"Fred and George already put them out of business?" James forcefully put a happy little spin back in his voice at the reminder of how murky business' were in this climate. He still hated all the reminders pouring back in now upon Harry's life.

Harry couldn't even begin to play along. Ginny had only caused a slight delay in an ever growing headache, which clearly hadn't been about the Prince, but his coming day, and this wasn't boding well.

Ron pointed, with a thickly gloved hand, toward Honeydukes, which was mercifully open, and Harry and Hermione staggered in his wake into the crowded shop.

They were immediately enveloped by warm, toffee-scented air.

Sirius inhaled deeply like he was trying to pull that scent to him right now, boy he missed his frequent trips to that shop.

Ron was just saying how they should stay in here all afternoon when Slughorn called out to them from behind. He had a box of crystallized pineapple in his arm, and was scolding Harry he'd missed three of his little suppers now.

"That toffee scent still worth it?" Remus muttered conspiratorially, as if Slughorn were here now and trying to wrangle the pair of his friends along once again.

"Nah, I'd have gone outside again already," Sirius agreed.

"Maybe come back with a few snowballs if he didn't take a hint," James agreed.

He insisted this wouldn't do, Miss Granger loved them!

Hermione helplessly said they certainly were-

"I can't decide if Hermione's lying to herself, or him," James snorted.

Harry defended he'd had Quidditch practice, when in fact he'd been scheduling these every time Slughorn had sent him a little, violet ribbon-adorned invitation. This strategy meant that Ron was not left out, and they usually had a laugh with Ginny, imagining Hermione shut up with McLaggen and Zabini.

All of the boys got a good laugh out of that, while Lily rolled her eyes. They really weren't that bad.

Slughorn said he expected them to certainly win their coming match then, with all this hard work.

"I already expected that," James smirked while Harry gave a nervous grin back. He really wanted this game to go without a hitch, it being his first one as captain.

He tried to offer Harry to come on Monday, he surely wouldn't be playing in this weather.

Harry said he had an appointment with Dumbledore, and Slughorn dramatically sighed he'd been foisted again. He threatened Harry couldn't avoid him forever.

"Try him," Sirius sniffed, they'd managed quite often in their years.

And with a regal wave, he waddled out of the shop, taking as little notice of Ron as though he had been a display of Cockroach Clusters.

"An insult on top of an insult," Remus groaned, as if Ron didn't have reason enough for his insecurity problems to be in his face.

Hermione added on even after Slughorn left that they really weren't that bad, they could be fun at times. Then she caught sight of Ron's face, and was suddenly very interested in the deluxe sugar quills.

"Subtle," Sirius drew the word out with a deadpan expression.

"I don't see why she doesn't just invite him along," Lily sighed. "Ask Slughorn if she can bring a friend, he'll say yes on principle, he can come along to one and see how they are. I'll doubt he'd want to go again after that," she finished with a grumpy look at the boys.

"After that first one she hadn't the chance," Harry reminded of his Quidditch practices.

"And I'd be even more cross with her, subjecting him to that!" James rolled his eyes good naturedly. They'd invited Remus and...well they'd invited their friends to one as well, and they'd taken to it as well as to be expected. Needless to say, there was a reason Slughorn only invited he and Sirius to the important parties instead of every one after that.

Glad that Hermione had changed the subject, Harry showed much more interest in the new extra-large sugar quills than he would normally have done, but Ron continued to look moody and merely shrugged when Hermione asked him where he wanted to go next.

No one wanted to linger in the shop after that, and instead bundled backup to head for The Three Broomsticks.

The bitter wind was like knives on their faces after the sugary warmth of Honeydukes. The street was not very busy; nobody was lingering to chat, just hurrying toward their destinations. The exceptions were two men a little ahead of them, standing just outside the Three Broomsticks. One was very tall and thin; squinting through his rain-washed glasses Harry recognized the barman who worked in the other Hogsmeade pub, the Hog's Head. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione drew closer, the barman drew his cloak more tightly around his neck and walked away, leaving the shorter man to fumble with something in his arms. They were barely feet from him when Harry realized who the man was, Mundungus.

"Oh joy," Sirius huffed. The last time this one had been significantly mentioned he'd dropped the ball and allowed a dementor to attack Harry. The end results weren't the point, this one wasn't a favorite of theirs no matter the good laugh he was worth from time to time.

The squat, bandy-legged man with long, straggly, ginger hair jumped and dropped an ancient suitcase, which burst open, releasing what looked like the entire contents of a junk shop window.

"Sounds about right," Remus snorted.

"Probably stole the lot," James agreed.

He greeted them with a most unconvincing stab at airiness.

"Wonder why he would be," Lily muttered. Harry really hadn't shown much inclination towards him for Mundungus to be anything other than passingly cordial.

He began scrabbling on the ground to retrieve the contents of his suitcase with every appearance of a man eager to be gone.

Harry politely asked if he was selling all this?

Mundungus snapped yes he was while snatching a silver goblet out of Ron's hands.

Ron had just begun to say how familiar that looked when Mundungus shouted ouch!

James startled hard in surprise, automatically trying to lean in closer to his kid in fear someone had attacked him. It was a natural reaction after all the threatening situations his kid had been in. Forcing himself not to imagine dementors swooping in once more upon his child, he kept going frantically because of that one simple word.

Harry had pinned Mundungus against the wall of the pub by the throat. Holding him fast with one hand, he pulled out his wand.

"Bloody hell, what did he have!" Lily yelped in concern, fighting with herself to jump in front of Harry and demand a reasonable explanation for this. His fierce expression wasn't giving much of an answer, clearly so outraged the words weren't coming to him, but she just knew it had to be a good one for him to be acting like this.

Harry pressed their noses together as he shouted that had been from Sirius' house! That had the Black family crest on it!

This was so far beyond the scope of the danger they'd been fearing, the burst of surprised laughter almost sounded like it had been punched out of Sirius. He still kept going though, his shoulders shaking with mirth even as his eyes landed shrewdly on his godson. "What a reaction."

Harry's anger didn't lessen at all for his godfathers careless way, keeping a focused anger on no one in here for the disrespect he saw in this act.

James cleared his throat uneasily before calling for his attention. "Really not seeing what you are here Harry. Sirius doesn't give a damn about that stuff, surely you know that."

"He nicked his stuff!" Harry spat, aghast now that no one seemed to be getting this. "It doesn't matter he wouldn't care, it was still his things!"

James still exchanged a puzzled look with Remus, who shrugged without answer. If he'd caught Mundungus doing that, he likely would have rolled his eyes and ignored the act, exactly for the reason Prongs had just said. They were things, they barely associated that house and anything inside it with their friend because Sirius himself put so much distance away from it.

Sirius decided it was best to just play this off for now though, it didn't really matter what his reaction would have been, but Harry's anger for it, and so he persisted, "well, the point here is Harry's finally giving Mundungus some revenge for bailing on him last summer, so whatever the reason, I say you keep going with it Prongs."

James shrugged and did just that, not doing a very good job of hiding his mystified expression.

Mundungus tried to protest, but Harry's hold only tightened as he demanded if he'd gone back that very night to strip the place?!

James winced hard at that line, swallowing convulsively and nearly choking on the spit. He had to remind himself it had already been months to Harry since this happened, where as he'd just heard the news days ago. He could hardly fathom speaking the words in a conversation yet, let alone Harry still casually dumping that pile of words no matter his temper.

Harry demanded Mundungus hand it all over, but with a crack, he disapparated.

Harry whirled on the spot, demanding to know where he'd gone.

"Not anywhere around there," Lily muttered. If there was one thing Mundungus was good at, it was weaseling himself out of those kinds of situations.

He kept shouting about that thieving-

Tonks appeared out of nowhere, her mousy hair now slick with sleet. She told him there was no point in his yelling.

Harry's anger only seemed to double as he howled, "am I really still being followed?!"

"Wouldn't surprise me," Remus frowned, a bit of reproach already boiling if Harry really took this out on Tonks, she didn't deserve it at all for doing her job. "What makes you think it went away?"

"Probably not though," Sirius quickly tried to defuse, more than happy to jump topics. "She said she was stationed in Hogsmeade, probably walking the area and the Hogshead is as good a place as any to do that, or maybe you just missed an Order meeting."

Harry just turned to grumbling and not acknowledging either of them, his hands still itching like he wished to pin someone where they stood.

When Harry groused what had happened, Tonks seemingly took no notice of the information but to say there still wasn't a point to yelling about it.

"Wouldn't surprise me if she knew," James gave an uneasy chuckle at the idea of her helping to pack it away instead of Sirius like they'd all laughed about at one point. Why did everything have to come back to haunt them with their jokes?

Then she told them to get out of the cold. She watched them go through the door of the Three Broomsticks. The moment he was inside, Harry burst out in further frustration about Sirius' stuff being nicked!

"So we gathered," Lily frowned in sympathy at him. She really was trying to understand why Harry was in such a temper about this, and she could sort of see it just being the principle of someone desecrating his godfathers house like that, but even then that wasn't a place Harry liked to think of Sirius in anymore than them. Sad maybe, depressed at the reminder of those things now in Mundungus' possession she'd understand, but where was this anger coming from? It was starting to wind her up as much as him for the simple fact she couldn't grasp what was bothering her child.

Hermione softly agreed, but also rebuked his shouting as people were staring. She told him to go sit down and she'd fetch drinks.

Harry was still fuming when Hermione returned to their table a few minutes later holding three bottles of butterbeer.

"I don't know why you wouldn't be, you're clearly not going to let this go," Sirius sighed, though he more than wanted to.

Harry demanded of no one couldn't the Order keep him in check? He shouldn't be able to steal whatever isn't nailed down!

"No," all four of them muttered. That really had been part of Mundungus' 'charm.' It wouldn't do to have a thief around who wasn't good at his job.

Hermione desperately shushed him now, looking around to make sure nobody was listening; there were a couple of warlocks sitting close by who were staring at Harry with great interest, and Zabini was lolling against a pillar not far away.

"Oh good, I needed someone to hex," James muttered for himself on that one, well aware Harry didn't partake in his personal feelings of venting, but he certainly was envisioning it right now.

She did agree she'd be annoyed to, someone stealing her stuff- Harry gagged on his butterbeer; he had momentarily forgotten that he owned number twelve, Grimmauld Place.

"All the more reason I would have laughed it all off, now it was doubly uncared for," Sirius sighed. "Least Mundungus would put it to a good cause, his own pockets."

Harry gave him a scandalized look and Sirius quickly raised his hands in surrender, deciding against pursuing the point.

He did agree it was no wonder Mundungus hadn't been happy to see him, that being his now. He still decided he was going to tell Dumbledore about this Monday.

"What exactly do you expect Dumbledore to do about it?" James asked curiously.

Harry just let his expression keep stewing without an answer, he didn't really have one.

Hermione seemed pleased he'd at least found a solution to get him to stop shouting, then demanded of Ron what he was doing. He'd been glancing around the room this whole time, but quickly muttered nothing when caught. Harry knew he was trying to catch the eye of the curvy and attractive bar-maid, Madam Rosmerta, for whom he had long nursed a soft spot.

"Most lads do," Sirius chuckled, "though I'd think he'd know better by now than to show as much in front of Hermione."

"Getting her back for ignoring him at breakfast that other day," James shrugged.

Hermione clearly didn't buy it, as she waspishly said 'nothing,' was probably in the back getting more drinks.

"Hermione's jealousy really is getting more obvious than ever," Remus chuckled, more than willing to play along and put that nasty business off their minds. "I'm wondering how long it'll take Harry to lock them in a classroom and force them to have it out."

"I was more waiting for them to get on with it, they'd never been subtle in the past about their rows," Harry rolled his eyes, but at least his words weren't as biting anymore, he was clearly calming down.

Ron ignored this jibe, sipping his drink in what he evidently considered to be a dignified silence. Harry was thinking about Sirius, and how he had hated those silver goblets anyway.

All four of them sighed as it registered Harry knew this anyways. It was maddening he wouldn't just spit it out and tell them what his real problem with this was, but he also had his teeth clenched again and wasn't looking at any of them. Weather he thought it was obvious enough or just didn't want to talk about it, no one was going to force it out of him when they'd rather it never be spoken of again.

Hermione drummed her fingers on the table, her eyes flickering between Ron and the bar. The moment Harry drained the last drops in his bottle she asked if they were ready to head back to the castle?

The other two nodded; it had not been a fun trip and the weather was getting worse the longer they stayed. Once again they drew their cloaks tightly around them, rearranged their scarves, pulled on their gloves, then followed Katie Bell and a friend out of the pub and back up the High Street.

Despite his hands still twitching in his lap and his face tightening more every second, they all thought he was still just on the topic of Sirius, it didn't occur to them a headache was forming again. That warning feeling deep in his gut was starting to bubble, this trip into Hogsmeade was destined to get worse.

Harry's thoughts strayed to Ginny as they trudged up the road to Hogwarts through the frozen slush.

"How random," Sirius chuckled forcefully, but was all for Harry's stray thoughts being shown rather than his lingering one.

They had not met up with her, undoubtedly, thought Harry, because she and Dean were cozily closeted in Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, that haunt of happy couples. Scowling, he bowed his head against the swirling sleet and trudged on.

"I can see how that would bother you," James was quick to jump in and agree with this, making Lily wonder if she wasn't the only one feeling wrong footed in not getting a handle on Harry's real problem. "If I had anything resembling a sister I'd feel the same."

Harry was so startled to hear that coming out of his mouth he entirely lost his contrite expression and turned to him in surprise. He'd never contradicted when anyone said this because before now he'd really felt no reason to. This time though, he wanted to protest in disgust it was nothing like that, Ginny was far more of a friend to him than anything resembling a sister. He held back though, because he wasn't sure that was the right comparison anymore either. It wasn't like his friendship with Hermione after all...so what was the word to use for it? He was chewing on this so hard he hardly noticed the tempo of his headache increasing as his dad continued.

It was a little while before Harry became aware that the voices of Katie Bell and her friend, which were being carried back to him on the wind, had become shriller and louder. Harry squinted at their indistinct figures. The two girls were having an argument about something Katie was holding in her hand with her friend Leanne.

"Urgh, avoid this Harry," Sirius swiftly inserted. "Teammate she is, but you don't want to get in between her tiff with her friend. She'd think you're a right pig of a captain."

A trickle of sweat started forming on the nap of Harry's neck despite the freezing temperatures he so vividly remembered. He could no longer focus on Ginny, Sirius, or much of anyone right now except the very real pain of his head screaming at him to pay attention around the splitting it was causing his vision.

They rounded a corner in the lane, sleet coming thick and fast, blurring Harry's glasses. Just as he raised a gloved hand to wipe them, Leanne made to grab hold of the package Katie was holding; Katie tugged it back and the package fell to the ground.

At once, Katie rose into the air, not as Ron had done, suspended comically by the ankle, but gracefully, her arms outstretched, as though she was about to fly.

James froze, the feeling erupting in the room all around them. As Harry had just said, this was not in any way funny, but with a glance at his friends he tried his hardest not to immediately assume a Death Eater was around. This didn't have to be the panic inducing fear for life he was already latching onto with far too much practice...

Yet there was something wrong, something eerie. . . . Her hair was whipped around her by the fierce wind, but her eyes were closed and her face was quite empty of expression. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Leanne had all halted in their tracks, watching.

Lily's lip was already trembling, her face as white as the sleet in her mind during this depiction, she was fighting back the urge to shriek as loud as that wind. Even without Harry's ghastly face a mask of horror promising this should not be interpreted any other way, she knew, they all did, something was terribly wrong.

Then, six feet above the ground, Katie let out a terrible scream.

James startled to his feet without remembering to do so, his body trying to put him into action even as no spell truly came to mind. There was no answer for this, his eyes only staying locked on the words for explanation, even while the back of his mind was already offering up the horror of this happening to the rest of the kids, his Harry next any second.

Her eyes flew open but whatever she could see, or whatever she was feeling, was clearly causing her terrible anguish. She screamed and screamed; Leanne started to scream too and seized Katie's ankles, trying to tug her back to the ground. Harry, Ron, and Hermione rushed forward to help, but even as they grabbed Katie's legs, she fell on top of them; Harry and Ron managed to catch her but she was writhing so much they could hardly hold her. Instead they lowered her to the ground where she thrashed and screamed, apparently unable to recognize any of them.

Harry looked around; the landscape seemed deserted.

He told them all to stay here while he ran for help.

"No! You don't separate from them!"

Harry hardly acknowledged this, couldn't even have said who'd scolded him, his mind purely absorbed on the one goal of finding help.

He began to sprint toward the school; he had never seen anyone behave as Katie had just behaved and could not think what had caused it; he hurtled around a bend in the lane and collided with what seemed to be an enormous bear on its hind legs.

Before the guttural noise could even form, a snarl of anger or fear for Harry next running into yet another problem, James was still going in the same breath, though he really hadn't breathed since Katie began her 'flight.'

Harry recognized Hagrid in relief and quickly explained someone had been cursed!

Hagrid was in a panic at once, asking about Ron and Hermione?

A spastic noise thumped somewhere in Sirius' throat, a good old laugh about who Hagrid worried about more with the order of those names, but it never even made a flicker in his mind, to focused on every word Prongs was saying.

Harry corrected the right girl before leading the way.

Together they ran back along the lane. It took them no time to find the little group of people around Katie, who was still writhing and screaming on the ground; Ron, Hermione, and Leanne were all trying to quiet her.

Hagrid shouted at them all to get back, and then without a word, bent down, scooped her into his arms, and ran off toward the castle with her. Within seconds, Katie's piercing screams had died away and the only sound was the roar of the wind.

Lily was still shivering nonstop, her teeth clicking together as if that cold was permeating the air in here as well. This was what brought James back to the room, and he crossed it quickly to settle beside her, with her son on her other side. She tried to protest, but he ignored her as he kept going still on the same breath, even if it was coming out more strained every second for not giving himself a chance to breathe in between this mayhem starting out of the blue.

Hermione hurried over to Katie's wailing friend and put an arm around her.

She asked if Leanne could tell them anything more that happened. All she could sob was it happened when that package tore. She pointed at the now sodden brown-paper package on the ground, which had split open to reveal a greenish glitter. Ron bent down, his hand outstretched,

Harry startled out of his seat as well, nearly sending Lily and Sirius to the floor in his wild grab to stop this. James hardly noticed, locked as he was to the words to ensure Harry's intent went through to the one who needed it.

but Harry seized his arm and pulled him back, telling him not to touch it.

The breath of release escaping them all finally forced air in again. They'd all wanted to shout that from the moment Leanne had said the words, afraid Harry's natural curiosity would send him off to do this, but it had been locked in place until he showed he'd be doing otherwise, the opposite in ensuring his friend wouldn't suffer the same fate.

"It's cursed," Remus said flatly, as his mind finally spun back into processing things again.

"And a powerful one at that," Sirius agreed as he rubbed ruefully at his jaw, that was the kind of thing he'd expect to find in his mothers jewelry box, not some poor kid at Hogwarts possessing.

"What the bloody hell was Katie doing with it?" Lily demanded, her voice not anywhere near normal volume no matter how hard she tried. 

"That is a very good question," James agreed, only managing the flat tone because he was still getting his breath back. He took one more cautious look at Harry, the idea of his son going through that nearly suffocating him all over again. It helped nothing Harry refused to take his seat, but began pacing the room, a deeply troubled look that he hoped had everything to do with his teammate being in these circumstances rather than remembering this happening to him next.

He crouched down. An ornate opal necklace was visible, poking out of the paper. He recognized it, that was on display in Borgin and Burkes when last he'd been, the case had said it was cursed.

Sirius snarled, fighting back the impulse to spit in disgust at how often that store kept being brought up recently. He made a mental note to burn it to the ground, and sadly that wasn't even in his top ten of things he had to do first.

Katie must have touched it. He looked up at Leanne, who had started to shake uncontrollably, and asked how they'd come across this?

Leanne explained that's why they'd been arguing. Katie had come back from the bathroom with it, and she'd been acting odd saying she had to get it to Hogwarts right now. She brokenly ended in further sobs Katie had probably been Imperius and Leanne hadn't even realized!

"There are more ways of bending people to your will then that curse, that one just tends to be the most powerful." Lily murmured to herself, the idea of it happening at all still causing her to want to scream any second. Why did this have to keep happening in Harry's life? She wished this was more boggling, but sadly in their time in school it wasn't unheard of for students to come across cursed objects, and cursing each other with powerful spells was a walking liability, and still her son kept managing to find the most oblique ways of emphasizing that in his life.

Hermione patted her shoulder gently.

Harry tried to find out more, if Katie had said who it was for, but Leanne said Katie wouldn't say. So she'd tried to take it away from her, and then- Leanne let out a wail of despair.

Harry hesitated for a moment, then pulled his scarf from around his face and, ignoring Ron's gasp, carefully covered the necklace in it and picked it up.

James shivered so hard the book nearly fell from his grasp. He understood why Harry was doing it of course, so no one else could unwittingly come across it, so someone like Dumbledore could investigate it. Reasoning obviously said Harry would be fine, so had Katie until it had been touched by skin and his son was clearly being careful of this. None of that fought off the compulsion to slap that away from his child this second, to be the one to do this instead.

He told his friends they'd have to take this to Madam Pomfrey.

As they followed Hermione and Leanne up the road, Harry was thinking furiously. They had just entered the grounds when he spoke, unable to keep his thoughts to himself any longer, he spoke aloud to Ron this must have been Malfoy's doing. This is what he'd bought that day in Borgin and Burkes.

"You're very likely not wrong," Lily passively agreed as she watched his hurried steps pick up in tempo, weather in agitation for being wrong or excitement of being right she really couldn't tell. "It does tie up rather well, but at the same time, it doesn't at all explain the conversation you heard between Borgin and Draco." The bit about being seen carrying it down the street sticking out most in her mind, this was easily something that could have been hidden away. Hermione herself had seen it moments later when she'd stepped in after Malfoy.

Harry just gave a jerky nod he'd heard her without adding anything, likely meaning he was still thinking hard about something else, or trying very hard not to think of something more likely.

Ron was hesitant of the idea, reminding this had happened in a girls bathroom, surely Malfoy wasn't in there.

"Like a bloke couldn't slip into the girls bathroom for a second," Sirius jeered, entirely sick of Harry's friends protesting something like this at every turn. "It's not as if it's got a ward on it to stop us!"

"An interesting query though, why the girls bathroom? If it was indeed Malfoy and not some isolated incident, why did it have to be a girl? Malfoy could have just as easily done this to any male coming along," Remus muttered, wondering if they were missing some significance in light of Harry's train of thought.

Before Harry could go any further, McGonagall came marching down the stairs to meet them. Harry quickly handed over the wrapped necklace. They were stopped by Filch at the door hurrying forward with his Secrecy Sensor,

"That's another thing," James said in clipped tones. "No matter the cursers intentions, there's no way that thing would have gotten in the school past Filch with Katie."

"Maybe she wasn't trying to get it back to the school, but headed to somewhere else in Hogsmeade with it." Remus offered.

"No, Leanne specifically said someone inside Hogwarts," Harry parotid, still pacing this way and that as his mind clamored to show him something he was forced to keep away, the movement wasn't helping at all.

"Someone inside Hogwarts who very likely wasn't actually inside the school at that time," Remus agreed. "Everyone in the castle was likely to be out that day," clearly thinking his theory still stood.

Harry didn't acknowledge him, afraid anything he said would only make his own mind worse.

McGonagall carefully passed the necklace off to him, telling him to take this to Snape.

They really were all in such a highly agitated state that hardly made a blip on their thoughts. If they'd thought about it at all, they would have said McGonagall herself, they just cared to much about Katie and whoever the target had been right now to think otherwise of who looked that thing over.

Harry and the others followed Professor McGonagall upstairs and into her office. The sleet-spattered windows were rattling in their frames, and the room was chilly despite the fire crackling in the grate. Professor McGonagall closed the door and swept around her desk to face Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the still sobbing Leanne.

The moment the door closed she demanded what happened.

Haltingly, and with many pauses while she attempted to control her crying, Leanne told Professor McGonagall how Katie had gone to the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks and returned holding the unmarked package, how Katie had seemed a little odd, and how they had argued about the advisability of agreeing to deliver unknown objects, the argument culminating in the tussle over the parcel, which tore open. At this point, Leanne was so overcome, there was no getting another word out of her.

McGonagall kindly asked her to go onto the Hospital Wing then, and she left.

Her expression returned sharp as she continued to the trio this all happened when Katie touched the necklace?

Harry described the rest in detail. Then he followed up if he could speak to Dumbledore.

She looked surprised, but responded he'd be gone until Monday. However, anything he had to tell the Headmaster could be said to her.

"I think you offended her," Sirius tried absently to put a smile in place, though nothing of this whole chapter had been funny at all.

For a split second, Harry hesitated. Professor McGonagall did not invite confidences; Dumbledore, though in many ways more intimidating, still seemed less likely to scorn a theory, however wild.

"I can see your point though," Lily said fairly, even if the same thing wouldn't have crossed her mind. No matter how open Dumbledore seemed to Harry, her son was still one of the few students in that school who would see him that way, everyone else had even less direct contact with him and would have gone to their head of house with this.

This was a life-and-death matter, though, and no moment to worry about being laughed at. So he blurted out his idea about Malfoy.

On one side of him, Ron rubbed his nose in apparent embarrassment; on the other, Hermione shuffled her feet as though quite keen to put a bit of distance between herself and Harry.

All three Marauders looked very snappy at that, with the firm belief they held that no matter their personal disagreements they wouldn't be showing that in front of anyone else. This was just insulting on Harry's friends part, far more than disagreeing with him in general when they wouldn't even play along with his idea.

McGonagall said that was a very serious accusation,

"He didn't accuse me?" Sirius went wide-eyed and innocent again.

Harry glanced up at him and gave an obligatory laugh, but only faked that this put him at ease as he sank down in the nearest seat, next to Remus. He was still rubbing hard at his temples, his eyes clenched shut and for all the world wishing he could sever his head to be rid of this constant pain.

Harry admitted he didn't have any proof, but also told her about what they'd heard over the summer.

Hermione cut in to remind Borgin had asked if he'd wanted to take a package with him, and Malfoy had said no.

Ron interjected he'd look like a prat carrying a necklace down the street.

"Both you boys really aren't keeping up very well with this," Lily shook her head at them.

"It had been months since that happened, not this morning," Harry mumbled in slight defense he hadn't recalled the exact words, even as much as he'd obsessed over them.

Hermione sharply reminded both of them it would have been wrapped up, that wasn't the problem. Obviously it had been something big and bulky Malfoy couldn't go around with.

McGonagall cut into their squabble, furious now at their accusation that held nothing. Hundreds of people could be in the same circumstance.

Ron muttered that's what he'd said.

"Congratulations Ron, now you're mimicking the book inside the book," Sirius pressed out an even more forced chuckle, growing heavily agitated this was getting harder every time.

In any case, Mr. Malfoy was not in Hogsmeade today.

"How would she know?" Lily muttered in confusion, that seemed more like something Snape would be aware of. The point didn't particularly matter she supposed, as she agreed with James' next words.

"Ra-drat," James sighed, there went his prime suspect.

"I wouldn't rule him out just yet though," Sirius still had a calculating look in place, still prepared to defend Harry's idea. "Crabbe or Goyle could have done this for him, if he is the one behind this." He really found it hard to believe Malfoy was very possibly up to something this year and then this happened without being connected.

Harry looked up sharply at him, but even this answer still felt a step off. Still, it did ease his pain somewhat, as always, to hear the conversation around him circulating, the true answer just beyond his reach but at least not festering as his dad continued.

Harry gaped at her, deflating, asking how she knew.

McGonagall explained he was doing a detention with her, as he'd failed to turn in two Transfiguration assignments.

"I didn't realize Malfoy's boasting earlier literally meant he wasn't going to be doing his work this year," Remus rolled his eyes at this inconsequential bit of information.

"Surprised he hasn't been paying someone to do it for him like all the other years," Sirius groused.

She dismissed them then, as she needed to go check on Katie.

They began climbing the stairs towards their dorm, and no matter how angry Harry was at the two for not backing him in front of McGonagall, he still joined in as they discussed who the necklace was supposed to go to.

Hermione said the most likely subjects were Dumbledore, Slughorn, or Harry.

Harry's eyes lit up briefly, he was so sure that was the right answer and the confidence nearly spurred him into words, but was cut off by Remus shaking his head while James had been listening the other two. "No, to all three. I'm still leaning towards it being a woman the intended target now. Why the girls bathroom, that part just makes no sense."

It had all happened so fast he'd lost his confidence with the exact same thought, back to muttering in squalor of the uselessness of his mind.

Harry disagreed with the last one at least, or Katie would have turned around right then to hand it to him.

"I might disagree," Lily hedged, twisting a strand of hair around her finger as she thought. "It really depends on the kind of magic placed upon her to force her doing this. If she'd been given the very explicit command to give this to you in your shared common room, she may not have even registered you behind her at all." Her focus came back though, and she shook her head sharply to dispel away that line of thinking. "Point is, though sound logic Hermione's using, we can't rule out anyone."

Harry could at least nod his agreement to that, though his eyes kept drifting out of focus like he'd struck gold and let it slip through his fingers all at once and for the life of him couldn't understand why.

He did wonder aloud why Malfoy had told her to take it into the castle at all.

Hermione stamped her foot in frustration Malfoy hadn't been in Hogsmeade today!

"Ooh, now we know we've got her in a temper," James huffed with a roll of his eyes, but did tell Harry, "you're being rather single minded with this though. You're causing just as much trouble not hearing others ideas and insisting on your own as they are ignoring yours."

"But you know I'm right!" Harry spluttered.

"Not really," he sighed. "I agree it's a very, very good chance, but it also never hurts to hear other ideas while you're at it. Could even somehow round back to helping your own on a completely different theory."

Harry crossed his arms and muttered defiantly, causing Remus to actually smirk in genuine amusement again. Harry sounded so like both James and Sirius with the grumbles he was using.

Harry moved past that, saying he must have an accomplice. Crabbe or Goyle, or any number of Death Eaters now he could call upon for help.

Ron and Hermione exchanged looks that plainly said, 'There's no point arguing with him.'

"That's as much as you can ask for at this point," Sirius sighed. "Letting you talk yourself out."

"Gee, thanks," Harry snipped.

The portrait swung open to admit them to the common room. It was quite full and smelled of damp clothing; many people seemed to have returned from Hogsmeade early because of the bad weather. There was no buzz of fear or speculation, however: Clearly, the news of Katie's fate had not yet spread.

"Give it a few hours," Lily sighed, knowing this wasn't the kind of thing to stay secret in the castle.

"At least until breakfast," James agreed.

Ron boosted a first year out of a seat next to the fireplace as he said

Remus snorted in surprise.

the whole thing wasn't done very slick at all. The curse didn't make it into the castle, and had a very low chance of doing so. Not very foolproof.

Hermione agreed with him, even as she toed him out of the chair and offered it back t the first year.

"I'll call that a small miracle she managed that," Sirius agreed, finally managing an easy laugh along with Remus for that random exchange.

It hadn't been very well thought out at all.

Harry agreed up to the point of saying since when was Malfoy a great thinker.

Neither Ron nor Hermione answered him.

"Glory, why is it always you," James groaned as he hastily snapped his chapter shut before anything else could happen.

Harry couldn't help but agree. His stance on Malfoy aside, why had it been him coming across this at all!

HPHPHPHP

Actually, despite the characters not, I do get Harry's little tizzy over Mundungus in this chapter. I'd have been just as outraged, as it's the principle of the matter Sirius was being stolen from. I hope I made it clear though that they just don't because they can't associate that stuff with Sirius, whereas that's really all Harry has learned to attach to his godfather, things. He barely has any memories with him. This is getting depressing, but I still hope you enjoyed on some level.

[halothenthehorns]

THE DEMENTORS KISS

Lily looked like she could get up and kiss him at that kind of news! While it would never not sting to forever realize she wasn't going to be there for her boy, the fact that he had Sirius for him there now was the best second thing she could hope for! She was the only one who had really registered the news though.

Remus was still lost in thought, kicking himself into a grave and getting cold all over because he had seen that look Harry had given him at his exclamation, and he knew quite well what it meant. Even though Harry couldn't say it out loud, Remus would never forgive himself if the rat really did get away because of him.

James looked like he wanted to be happy, he tried for the feeling, and it was certainly there on the level Sirius was suggesting, but something was holding him back. Of course he was ecstatic, he'd do anything in the world for Harry to get away from the Dursleys. Sirius would do a great job taking care of Harry...so why did he feel something foreign and not at all pleasant at the thought?

Sirius clearly didn't notice as Harry tossed him the book, he looked more than happy to take it, looking like he'd sing it to the heavens the justice and triumph he was feeling, but was cut off by Lily.

Lily was shocked that she was the one to notice the time, and deciding to linger on whatever good mood this would afford them for as long as possible, she offered, "why don't we eat."

The boys looked scandalized, and some private part of Lily would have laughed at this, but she insisted her point, "I want to see him being turned in as much as anyone, but it's about time for the baby's lunch, and I'd rather pause now when we've got some good timing."

They didn't look happy, but no one argued the point either. The boys ate probably the lightest lunch they'd ever had in their life, food was the last thing on their mind after everything they'd just lived through, but forced down a bit each to at least get rid of some of Lily's worry lines. No one brought up Remus' condition again, it was a sore enough subject already and they would just have to deal with it after this nightmare book was done, there couldn't be too much left.

The baby was fed and then put back in his playpen for a while longer, none of them wanted him in the room so long as the rat was going to be mentioned. Sirius went back and picked up the book and properly got to reading, still forcing a light feeling into his voice at what he wanted to hear, rather than the worry lingering he knew they all felt.

Harry followed the group along with Crookshanks in the lead, Pettigrew in between Ron and Lupin all chained together, then Snape floating along held aloft by his own wand, being supported by Sirius.

Sirius still adored every last drop of irony reading that caused him.

Snape's head was currently being dragged along the ceiling, scraping it raw, but Harry got the feeling Black wasn't trying to stop that.

Lily wanted to roll her eyes at this childish display, but after everything they'd just gone through she couldn't even find it in herself to do that as all four boys gave little snickers at that mental image.

Black turned his attention to Harry though, showing a lot more interest as he asked him if he understood what this could mean, turning Pettigrew in?

"It's not going to be much fun if you point it out every few minutes," James mumbled, and while Sirius gave him a confused look for how odd James sounded, he put it down to any lingering feelings he had about bringing up the rats name. He didn't feel much better, but knew he'd chant that putrid name for an hour if it would get Harry out of the Dursleys.

Harry agreed that would mean Sirius could go free, but Sirius also added on that he wasn't sure if anyone had ever told Harry, he was also his godfather.

"Well no one ever technically told me, I just sort of found out," Harry couldn't help but give a little smirk, happy to see everyone did the same back. Maybe he was just being paranoid, surely nothing too bad was going to ruin this mood again so soon.

Harry agreed he'd heard, and Black sounded fairly unsure as he pointed out that as such a title he had been expected to take care of Harry should anything happen to his parents. Harry at first wasn't sure what that could mean, so Black kept going by saying he'd of course understand that Harry would much rather stay with his aunt and uncle,

Harry laughed, but he was the only one who did. It was such a ludicrous sentence that he found it the appropriate reaction, but the others were still so foul tempered about everything that they half wished before Sirius properly took Harry in he'd make a visit to those Dursleys and show a bit more of that violent edge he'd displayed.

but if ever he wanted another option...

Remus couldn't help but burst out laughing now when he realized Sirius had only known Harry for five minutes, and this was the first real question he asked him! It was made all the funnier under these circumstances, but he sobered out very quickly as he vividly remembered that his own self may prevent this and more from happening.

Harry felt something bombard his innards, stumbling and cracking his own head on the ceiling as he blurted out he could leave the Dursleys!

Sirius couldn't help a snort of amusement, he knew he understood now far better than he would have then Harry's reaction to this.

Black took that reaction the wrong way, trying to retract he had no problems if Harry wanted to stay there, but Harry cut him off by demanding to know when he could move in!

Which gave them all a good laugh. Harry had only learned five minutes ago that Sirius wasn't some insane murderer intent on killing him, but it became all the more depressing when they realized just how bad Harry's life there must really be if he instantly said yes to the first person who offered. It was quite a terrifying idea to imagine for a moment, some stranger so easily could have kidnapped their little boy...but that hadn't happened of course, and they spent enough time dwelling on horrid stuff of late.

Harry had a goofy smile on his face, he looked as pleased as anyone at this prospect and clung to the image already forming in his head desperately, refusing to admit that he wasn't getting any real feelings about this becoming true. He also wouldn't meet anyone's eyes right then, the last thing he wanted was for someone to ask for details about why he was so eager to get out of there.

Black turned then to properly look at Harry, Snape's head now being left to smash repeatedly against the ceiling.

That set them into giggling maniacs all over again, they wanted more than anything to spend the next set of years listening to Harry's life like this with no concerns about the Dursleys, which with any luck Harry may well confide about to Sirius.

He was smiling down at Harry, a true genuine look that drained ten years off of his malnourished face and for the first time Harry got a glimpse of that picture he'd seen of him at his parents' wedding.

James blanched, he still couldn't picture that, didn't want to. He glanced at his brother's face now and saw him beaming with pride and it looked the most natural thing in the world, he just couldn't understand how ten years would make him hardly recognizable...and he just kept remembering whose fault it was.

They didn't speak anymore as they climbed out of the tree, Crookshanks had darted ahead and froze it for them. Harry could see ahead Pettigrew was still breathing extra hard and still letting out little sad noises.

Sirius hadn't believed it possible, but he only read that with three quarters amount of hatred rather than all consuming. He was still too busy happily picturing in his head he and Harry getting to have all the moments properly in the future like they were right now.

Harry was the happiest he'd been in his life, realizing he could finally leave the Dursley's, he was going to live with Sirius, one of his dad's old friends! What would the Dursleys say when he told them he was going to live with that escaped prisoner they'd heard about last summer?

Lily cracked up laughing hardest of all, they all remembered making jokes about wanting that convict to come make a visit to those Dursleys, and now their wish was coming true in the best way possible!

Lupin still had his wand out, covering Pettigrew and threatening him if he twitched in a way he didn't like he'd regret it. The procession continued towards the castle, when the clouds began to shift, and the moon shone above.

Sirius refused to acknowledge what that could mean, though he more than anyone should know better. He just couldn't do it though, not now! Timing must be on their side, just this once, that the full moon wouldn't peak and Remus would...

Remus went rigid at once, his face going an almost scary white, coupled with just how terrible he looked since he was going to transform this night he looked likely to keel over any second.

James and Sirius couldn't stand that, James going back over to his friend and sitting down on his side to put him in-between him and Sirius as he comforted, "hey, relax Moony, we're all do for a bit of good luck, I'm sure nothing happens."

Remus either couldn't, or wouldn't answer, flapping his hand and silently demanding Sirius go on so he could get his real answer.

Snape rammed into the three of them, because Black froze in place, forcing Harry and Hermione to stop as well as they all watched Lupin, who was beginning to shake.

Remus began hyperventilating at once, he'd been so stressed for so long that this really was too much. He couldn't see anything, couldn't make out any words, his nightmare was coming to life and oh he was well aware it was going to happen again tonight and he was probably going to kill Lily and Harry then, just like he probably killed everyone out there that night as well...

"James, we have to do something," Lily tried desperately to keep her voice from shrieking levels as she danced in place watching Remus shake all over, looking like he had fallen into a seizure and clearly not aware of anything. "He's going to hurt himself!" She felt so useless and desperate she may well be heading towards her own panic attack soon.

Sirius tried to say in an analytical tone of voice, rather than how frustrated he felt he couldn't seem to get through to Remus, "most likely he'll pass out here in a few minutes from oxygen deprivation."

"That's not helping," James ground out, trying to ignore the fact that Remus was folding in on himself and would have long since face planted the table if James wasn't holding onto him.

"Couldn't you use that potion on him, the one you used on me earlier to make me relax," Harry tried, not wanting to wait for a response and go get it now, but he wasn't sure where it was.

"Wouldn't work on him," Lily moaned, logic nearly lost as it was taking everything in her not to do something similar.

James and Sirius were still alternating back and forth trying to calm him down in smooth, reassuring tones. Sadly this wasn't even the first time they'd seen this happen to him, he'd acted like this a few times when he'd first woken up and seen how badly he'd harmed them when they'd first began their monthly transformations with him. Despite their scholarly research, it had taken them ages to convince him his bites wouldn't harm them so long as they were animals, and even then he was left gasping and guilt ridden at how deep some of their scars were. The only thing that ever worked in breaking him out of these was just to let him wear it out, keep talking to him and remind him it wasn't that bad, and try to keep the blood out of sight.

This time all of that was a little harder to pull off, because of how worried they were for the kids. Harry clearly hadn't been bitten, but what about Ron or Hermione? Ron was literally chained up to Remus, without a leg to run on, but Moony would break out of those in seconds and turn on either him or the rat. It would be true irony indeed if the second were to happen, and the rat lost his life to Moony, but for now they were more concerned with convincing him he wasn't going to hurt anyone.

Finally Sirius' prediction seemed to have come true, Remus slumped completely as he lost the fight for air, but he seemed to snap out of it quick enough as he jacked back upright and crashed into Sirius' nose.

"Ouch," Sirius grumbled, rubbing at the spot and grumbling this was a terrible time to be paying him back for that, but one wild look around and Remus realized what was happening and he nearly started all over again.

"Wait, Remus please, calm down," Lily quickly jumped in, trying to catch his eye. "No bites, see you didn't attack him-"

"Or anyone," Harry quickly added on, before hissing in pain as white spots flashed across his eyes for remembering that too soon.

That one little action gave Remus a shot of here and now, seeing Harry in pain was as vivid a reminder as he could get, but it was the comfort he needed. He trusted his friends, and Sirius and James were going to be there for him tonight to make sure he never did this, and Sirius was even there for him then to make sure of the same thing.

It didn't seem to help for long though, as almost at once he began having another spaz attack.

"Moony," Sirius groaned, he'd seen him relax for an actual second and they'd been sure he'd calmed down, what had made him relapse?

"Sirius, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, glory if I actually-" Remus had his eyes screwed tight shut and kept shaking his head back and forth, intermittently muttering, "I am going to kill him," in between apologizing.

It took a moment for the others to catch up and realize why he'd be doing this, and then Sirius gripped his arm so hard there was likely to be a bruise as he hissed, "you don't get to blame yourself for one second for whatever that rat does. If he makes a run for it, Merlin help it, if he gets away, it is not your fault. You couldn't have stopped him then anymore then you could stop him all those years ago from deciding to become an animagus. I hung back to talk to Harry, but Hermione couldn't have done it either, there should have been one of us up there covering him. You don't get to blame yourself for anything he does."

Remus still looked miserable, so they couldn't decide how much of that he'd taken to heart, but he didn't look like he was going to argue the point, so that had to count for something, right?

They didn't really want to at this point, just so sick and tired of everything that could go wrong would, but them hearing about it wasn't going to change what did happen. Harry lived through it, and that was the most important thing to all of them, so despite the fact that Remus wanted to curl up into a hole and never come out, he didn't protest either as James and Sirius convinced Lily and Harry to sit back down so Sirius could find out what really happened.

Hermione fearfully pointed out he hadn't taken his potion, he would be dangerous.

"Least someone admits it," Remus huffed, never understanding how these two, well four he corrected, could still defend him and stand by him even at his worst moments.

He received a very sharp smack from James having heard that, giving him a threatening look to make it clear he'd do worse if Remus didn't cut out the comments about himself. Neither he nor Sirius were delusional in thinking Remus wasn't dangerous at those times, but he wasn't this unbearable monster either like he tried to paint himself.

Black yelled at the two kids to run, but Harry wasn't going anywhere, watching Ron who was still chained up.

Harry's face was set now, fully saying he wasn't going anywhere when Ron was in danger, which gave them all yet another warm flood of happiness when they remembered all over again what good friends, pretty much family, those three were, and felt a terrible wince all over again when they couldn't say the same for their whole family anymore. They all really hoped this wouldn't start showing up every single time now, desperately hoping they could come to grips and the rat's betrayal would stop coming to mind every five seconds soon.

Harry tried to run forward, but Black threw him back and yelled at them to run, then he vanished, a black dog in place. Harry was still watching Lupin though, as dark fur began sprouting everywhere, his arms and legs were dipping on to the ground and sprouting claws.

Remus was still curling into himself in shame and disgust, he'd never had his transformations explained to him in such vivid detail and he just couldn't stand how calm Sirius was forcing himself to sound about it. How was he not disgusted, afraid, he'd been asking himself that his whole life and knew he could never understand when talking about a real life monster.

The werewolf howled, and tore itself free of the chains, but didn't get a second to do anything as the bear like dog caught him at the neck and began dragging him away.

Harry couldn't help but startle in remembered horror at these two doing this to each other. He'd only seen once before two street cats fighting in an alley, but even that hadn't been as brutal as when these two beasts went at it. He'd heard the term fur flying but never before had he understood how bad that could be, watching the literal flesh be pulled off of each other as at least one of them would have gone for a mortal blow.

The two canines went at each other, teeth and claws going wild.

Lily couldn't help but shrink into Harry, just a little bit. For obvious reasons she'd never been near Remus during this time, and her boys had never gone into such detail of how violent these nights could get. It certainly explained why more times than she could count the Marauders would show up with more than just Quidditch injuries, but no one had ever questioned it too deeply because of all the insane things they got up to. She regretted the action at once when she saw Remus flinch like she'd slapped him, and she wanted to apologize and insist she didn't mean it, it had just been shock, but Sirius hadn't noticed a thing and seemed determined not to stop until he got his answer of what happened to the rat during this mess. She still determined the second this was over she would have a proper talk with him, all three of these boys needed it.

Harry had been watching them, so he missed why at first Hermione started screaming, but then he turned and saw Pettigrew going for Lupin's dropped wand.

Remus was trying to get away from his two friends, trying to go back to his own corner of the room or something because he couldn't stand just sitting here and listening to not only taking a bite out of Sirius but how it was unarguably his damned fault that rat really was going to get away now!

Neither of them were still having it though, Sirius was multitasking by digging his elbow into Remus' ribs and reading loudly, trying to get to the part already where hopefully Harry came to his senses and tried to pin down the rat long enough the spell would wear off and he could be stunned again.

James now practically had Remus pinned to his side, all earlier anger at him forgotten and to be dealt with later. His annoyance Remus had turned on Sirius so easily was nothing compared to what Peter had done to him, and he was far more concerned now making sure Remus knew he could look past it, he would make amends to both of his brothers and keep them going just like they did for him every day in this unforgiving war.

Ron overbalanced and didn't have a chance as a shot of light hit him, and he fell.

Harry swore violently, making a move like he wanted to go for his own wand for anyone cursing his friend! His only comfort which he quickly told the others was that it had been a flash of red light, he'd only been stunned.

One more spell was let off towards Crookshanks, who also collapsed.

"Was the cat really necessary," Sirius grumbled to himself.

Harry finally got a spell off, Expelliarmus, and though Lupin's wand shot away and Harry ran forward, yelling at Pettigrew to stop, the man changed form and he was already running away on all fours as they reached Ron.

"No, no, no, no!" They all kept muttering in varying levels of hatred and shock. They still couldn't understand how he could do this to them, to Sirius! He was really running again, leaving Sirius in that exact same circumstance, leaving Harry to deal with an angry werewolf...just leaving like it meant nothing to him.

Sirius was only reading on autopilot now, he couldn't even find it in himself anymore to feel hopeful something good still worked itself out, just wanting to finish this already whatever the answer. He knew Remus was fine because Sirius wouldn't let him attack anyone, Moony would be his priority and he'd let the rat escape, and he couldn't bring it in himself to resent it. He cared more for Remus' sound mind when he came out of this then his own revenge, finally making the right decision. If he'd tracked down the rat once, he would do it again, now with Remus' help.

Harry spun around at the sounds of howling, and he watched as the werewolf made a shot for the forest.

Remus sighed in relief, not caring whatever he'd heard to drag him away, just thankful it was getting him away from Harry and those innocent kids. He wasn't nearly so forgiving of his actions this night, he'd hate himself no matter when the rat was recaught because he'd gotten away this time because of his own stupid, useless, life.

Harry shouted for Sirius, telling him that Pettigrew was making a run for it, and though bleeding from multiple wounds,

Sirius hardly sounded like he cared, he'd survived Azkaban for cripes sake, a couple of scratches shouldn't faze him for long.

Remus didn't hold nearly the same feelings at the news, but reflected it wasn't the worst thing he'd done to his friend recently.

and went charging in the direction the rat had disappeared in. Harry and Hermione turned their attention back to Ron, and though breathing, they weren't sure how to help him. Harry was looking desperately around, his eyes catching on Snape who was still floating there.

James released a violent noise, like he wanted to laugh about that all over again, but couldn't grasp the emotion, he was too caught up on other things. Lingering hatred and annoyance still clung in there as well at Snape even being there, he'd done nothing useful this whole night except to wrongly attack the friends he shouldn't be.

Harry suggested they went to the castle to get help, but then he heard a dog whimper.

Remus made a pretty good attempt at that sound now, thinking he'd gone back around and went for Padfoot again. The others didn't really agree, but trying to think up something else that would attack Sirius right now wasn't pleasant either. Had he chased the rat into the Forest or something?

Harry felt so bad for all of them he asked the first question that came to mind, "Why didn't he just leave the grounds in the first place, why did he hide out at Hagrid's?"

No one needed to ask which he Harry meant, as Harry realized it was hard enough hearing the name whenever it popped up in the book now.

James didn't really want to sit around and think about these things, but he wasn't going to deny his son either. "He was probably hoping Sirius would get caught again, and he could make a miraculous return to Ron, why leave his cushy life if he didn't have to." The terrible bitterness coloring his every syllable left no one wanting to add on further.

Harry muttered Sirius' name in fear, torn between staying and helping Ron, or running after Sirius who sounded like he was in trouble.

Sirius couldn't help a little bubbling of warmth, that Harry was already running off to help him like that, though he knew he didn't really want Harry anywhere near what was going on between him and the rodent.

Sirius won, as Harry realized there was nothing he could do for Ron and both he and Hermione went running to the lake, not taking notice of how cold it was getting...

Lily nearly screamed again, the sound was certainly trying to build up in her throat but kept getting lodged there. She couldn't help it though, she just wanted to scream as loud as she could 'no!' Over and over again until someone proved her wrong this wasn't about to happen! Not to Sirius, he'd been through so much already, he didn't deserve this!

Sirius either didn't notice, or didn't register why the others would be freaking out. Maybe he was still too intent on reading about catching the rat, maybe he was forcing his own denial, either way he kept going.

The sounds of the dog died off, and Harry was watching Sirius as a human.

There was a horrible beat of silence where Sirius froze up, trying to understand why he would do that, but he wouldn't let it last long, blinking past suddenly blurry vision to force out.

He was still on all fours, moaning 'no' as the dementors arrived.

"Why!" Harry yelped clearly startling them all badly, they'd each frozen up and gone into lockdown, strangled breathing a kind description, fear was doing so much to them, but Harry cracked and let out a stream of questions, "why did you change back! Why didn't you keep running? Why would you collapse, you've had years of being around them and you do this now!" His voice kept rising, anger bleeding into his tone, but as Sirius watched him he recognized it wasn't the actual rage at him, but for what Harry was well aware was fixing to happen to him. "Why didn't you just use a Patronus, surely you still had Snape's wand! Why-" he finally strangled himself off, just watching Sirius desperately. He somehow just knew that Sirius was in trouble, that he needed to save him, something went terribly wrong...

"Harry!" Lily finally got out, wanting to scold, but he just looked so desperate she couldn't find the right tone, she was more concerned than ever something really was fixing to happen to Sirius! The worst part was no one could find it in themselves to say anything. Harry's reaction really did lead them all to believe that Sirius was about to be Kissed, and they really couldn't stand that. Not after everything they just went through, getting the truth and then having it smashed down on their lives, they could not deal with the fact that Sirius would still take the fall in the end, leaving Harry like that.

They were all out of anger, they'd spent it out on the rat. Now they were just left feeling empty, scared, and desperate.

Harry couldn't help it though, hadn't even realized how loudly he'd been shouting because his wide green eyes just kept watching Sirius with horror and he knew he didn't want to lose him again!

Sirius was the first to come out of his shock, watching his little pup like that wrenched at every part of him and he'd do anything to get rid of that look, so he blurted out answers to his abundant questions, just for everyone else to hear him talk now, just so he could prove to himself he was still alive even if this was the last thing in the world he wanted to talk about. "I'm no expert on dementors, but I can tell you now that years of being around them only would have decreased my ability to fight them off, not the other way around. The shock of having been away from them for so many months, and then forced back around even one, would have shocked me so bad I'm not surprised if I lost my hold on being Padfoot and reverted." The silence continued, so he just kept talking, trying to fill a void that kept lingering in the room.

"Same reason I wouldn't have been able to produce a Patronus again, or kept running, or anything. It was probably a lot of shock. Not to mention if they really are there to Ki-" he stuttered out, even he couldn't say that with a straight face, but since they all knew what he meant he kept going in a forced relaxed voice like talking about his imminent death was Sunday brunch, "well that's two different things. A dementor gives off a powerful aura, their natural state is what causes the depression most people feel, but when they're set on doing, err, that other thing, it becomes ten times more powerful. Even I never would have been around that. Not to mention the realization that the rat escaped would have put me at an all-time low," he finished, unable to keep the sour filled disgust out of that last part.

Remus snapped first, pulling him into a tight hug despite Sirius' protest and grumbling, "would you let me go! I'm not dead yet, so quit acting like you're staring at my funeral! And if you even start apologizing, any of you, I will personally set out to make every last serious and dog pun in the world!"

"Padfoot that's just cruel," James whimpered, running his hand furiously against his eyes and unable to put any real emotion into his voice.

Sirius finally managed to wrestle himself away from Remus, giving the others a warning look in case they planned on doing the same. "Now I am going to finish this, and, and Harry's fine so that's-"

"That doesn't make this okay," Harry growled, still shaking terribly and looking ready to keep screaming any second. Maybe not at his godfather, but at something about all this injustice.

"You," Lily snapped, moving with lightning speed and snatching the book away, "are not reading that! None of you are."

"So glad you can," Sirius grumbled, not expecting Lily to smack him over the head with the book. "Ouch, what was that for!"

"Because you deserved it," Lily snapped right back, taking his momentary distraction at him rubbing his head to dash back to her seat and try to read, hoping that she could continue to smack him for fifty years to come, hoping that her doing this would distract him for the next seven books...and starting to run out of hope.

At least a hundred of them,

Well that distraction lasted all of six bleeding words! A hundred! It's no wonder Sirius had such a reaction! She really was doubting even she could do this. Hadn't they all suffered enough? Harry had heard both her and James' death, he'd had his life destroyed by one of James old friends, Remus had tried to attack him this night, and now Sirius was going to die! She still hadn't fully wrapped her head around the rat's betrayal, she'd accepted it, but she hadn't had time to process and think. She knew she was still in shock when she could think the words 'Sirius would no longer be around' and not burst into endless tears. All of this had come out in less than a year to Harry, less than two days for them, and she really wasn't sure how she could keep doing this. Then Harry wrapped an arm around her, his live warmth cutting through the worst of the cold and dread, and though she forced herself to keep going as fast as possible, like hearing the words slurring together would make it less painful to hear, she kept glancing up every other word to find the three boys huddled into each other. Still alive, still breathing, still here with her.

coming forward, encircling them. Harry yelled at Hermione to help him, latching onto the memory of Sirius telling him he was going to leave the Dursleys, to live with his godfather.

Sirius couldn't help a little jolt of shock. He was already Harry's happy memory? He remembered back to Harry choosing to leave the Dursleys and come to Hogwarts had produced his best Patronus, until that game where he'd summoned one, even around those fakes, and adrenaline and his love for the game had caused something even more substantial. Now Harry was trying to project another one in his defense, using him and his promise...and it wasn't going to be enough. Glory no wonder the kid had reacted so badly, he must blame himself! It was a miracle Harry and Hermione had even survived this night, dementors weren't known for their discretion. He was now just thanking his lucky stars Harry and Hermione hadn't been Kissed as well!

Then Sirius really looked at Harry, and realized he was actually crying now. He met Sirius' eyes for a second, then he got up and tried to storm away. Sirius pounced at once, grabbing his shoulder and trying to turn him back, and though he did turn back and face him he still screamed, "I could have saved you! You shouldn't have been there, you only were because of me!"

Sirius wasn't having that, growling right back, "you shut that trap kid. You don't get to feel guilty about this, the patronus just wasn't in your capability yet, nothing could have been done. I would have tracked that rat anywhere in the world and then come looking for you, this is his fault, not yours."

Harry couldn't help but wobble then, wondering what about that felt off... he lost it.

Sirius saw the indecision though, the hesitancy, so he kept going. "You were a thirteen year old kid, it was my job, my responsibility, my decision, and his fault. The world's a damned cruel place you had to watch this, but I'll stand here blue in the face till you realize this is Siriusly my problem."

Harry couldn't help it, that was so random he cracked and let out a weak little chuckle.

Looking quite pleased with himself, he nudged Harry back to his mother's side and soothed the room at large now, "that goes for all of you. You can cry at my funeral, so long as you make sure to get my best picture up there."

James' hand twitched, like he wanted to smack the living daylights out of Sirius for actually making jokes at a time like this, but he supposed it was all what they needed. Watching his brother use his vanity and name at a time like this was just so, Sirius. It gave them a shot of fresh air that what they kept reading was not set in stone. Harry must have come back to this time and place for a reason, they must be able to fix this!

Sirius took back his spot, except now in between his friends again, and eyed Lily expectantly. She shook her head at him, a look Sirius had seen practically his whole life of Lily Evans, well Potter now but that wasn't the point, exasperated at the Marauders and everything they did, but it was better than that dead eyed look of loss she'd held seconds ago. Sirius would ignore his own feelings on the matter, and keep babbling all he wanted to until this was done with.

Harry was forcing his mind to concentrate on Black,

Remus couldn't help but randomly wonder why Harry was still referring to Sirius by his last name. He recognized the look of consternation that crossed Sirius' face every time he heard it as well, that was still there right now in the middle of all this, which caused him to finally crack a smile. Maybe Sirius was exaggerating the face, maybe Remus just needed something to smile about before he lost himself, but that did it.

as he cried Expecto Patronum! Black gave one last shiver, but then he rolled over, pale as death.

Sirius was already starting to run out of things to say, recoiling along with the rest of them, knowing he wouldn't be able to keep it up when the moment came and his life was likely to flash across his eyes as surely now as it would then, and he could no longer look upon half of it with any kind of happiness because of the tainted person.

Harry refused to acknowledge that, insisting he was going to be fine and still shouting the spell over and over again, but the dementors were paying this no mind, still coming closer, and the screaming began in his head.

Lily was not stumbling through this as fast as she'd planned, the words kept getting jumbled together and she just knew she was going to vomit here in a second. The only thing still keeping her going was a near constant glance up at the black haired youth, sitting next to her husband. When he caught sight of her staring he put on such a brave face she had no choice but to smile until she kept going.

Only a small bit of silver came out to protect them, and Hermione passed out without even doing that, and Harry was left alone.

Again! Again, and again, and again, Harry just kept getting left on his own to deal with these things, it always felt like he was abandoned at the worst of times, now Sirius was the cause of it!

Sirius finally lost any last drop of comfort he was going for in sake of the others, now wanting to hurry the process up and just greet the Reaper by this point he felt so ashamed.

Harry wasn't quitting though, still saying the spell over and over again, but then one dementor passed through his feeble patronus, and it began to lower its hood.

Sirius swore violently and scrambled to his feet in a real life panic now. All of them were when they realized that thing was going to Kiss Harry! The dementors were acting on orders about attacking Sirius, it didn't make them hate them any less, but if there was one thing to kick them from misery to fire tempered protection it was Harry being in trouble.

What could they do though, what could anyone do? The only living person they could have counted on for help was running around in the Forbidden Forest, Remus wouldn't even realize what was happening until morning, and what could a werewolf do against a dementor? Harry blinked in shock and blurted out "do dementors affect werewolves? I mean, like, the actual werewolf part."

Remus gave Harry a look of utter disbelief. He seemed remarkably calm now, still confused and upset like the others, but not particularly concerned for his life. Considering his reaction to Sirius a moment ago, it gave him a real pause and a blatant reminder Harry had survived. How? No one knew, but he certainly wanted that answer, so instead of cursing and screaming and unnecessarily producing a patronus right now, no matter how much he hated that animal, like he knew they all wanted to do, he answered, "I have no idea. As far as I know the two have never intersected. The werewolf's base emotion is to attack, that's certainly not a happy feeling, so I doubt the dementors could affect that."

Harry grinned in appreciation, watching the others wearily sit back down as they realized what Remus had. They wanted their answers more than swearing to the heavens those things existed.

They'd spent so long being angry at what the rat had done, and now were so low at what was going to happen to Sirius, the fact that Harry was okay was the only thing keeping them going.

Below was a gray skull, with empty eye sockets and a jagged shape for a mouth, which was trying to suck up more than air.

James hands wouldn't sit still. Wanting to reach over and grab hold of Sirius, to never let go so long as he just kept breathing. To reach for his wand and do something, anything to make this go away. To hold and cuddle his baby to his chest, to go and hug his son now so that he had something to cling onto who despite all odds lived when the rest of them hadn't. No one had ever looked under a dementors hood and lived, and now James had a mental image he never wanted, and it still wasn't the worst thing to happen to him today.

Harry lost the hold on his spell, the little of his patronus faded away.

Sirius felt like that was his own lifeline that had been snipped. He fell back against his friends and probably would have kept falling forever if they weren't both there now, each holding tight to him to make sure he wasn't really going anywhere.

Still he fought back, grasping hold of Sirius' arms, trying to insist he was innocent, they weren't going to take him.

Harry felt torn in two, he wanted to go to Sirius and cling to him now, promise himself that a connection to his family really hadn't been lost this night, but Remus and James weren't leaving much room, Sirius looked nearly smothered, and he wouldn't leave his mom now.

The dementor cared nothing, its clammy hands holding fast to his throat, raising him up to meet the replica of its face, and the last thing Harry would ever hear was his mother screaming in his head.

His mother's great sob was his answer, she definitely needed him more, as he curled tightly into her and promised he wasn't going anywhere, and Lily had to blink ghosts and tears and screams away for several minutes, watching the book in her lap and all the little wet spots on the pages that still weren't enough to erase the words, and just wanting this to be over.

Just behind the fog of white in his brain, something silver was moving towards them. Suddenly Harry was back on the ground, face first, the dementor had let him go.

Lily finally felt like she could breathe again, clutching the lifeline of little print that promised her something had changed, whatever had saved her son's life was happening!

The light continued to grow brighter, it was now galloping in a circle around the three of them, and once all of the dementors were gone it went back across the lake.

'A patronus,' they all realized at once. Though what, who could have sent it? Maybe a teacher from the school had come down and realized what had happened. Galloping, that implied a horse like shape to whoever owned it, but there were just too many possibilities, and they were just too exalted in breathing air again to care. Harry was safe...but what about Sirius? Had the dementors gotten him while Harry was being attacked? They had come from all sides...

Fighting against a black swirl, Harry forced his eyes to focus, and as the bright creature came to its end, Harry saw someone oddly familiar greet it...but it couldn't be.

"Who did it look like?" Sirius quickly asked, his voice no longer sounding like his own, but just wanting to think of anything but a shell of his body being left behind for Harry to find.

Harry didn't answer though, he was blinking and squinting at nothing like he couldn't see clearly, still holding tight to his mother and throwing fear filled looks at Sirius. Clearly whoever he'd seen had startled him, but the fact that he didn't answer wasn't promising. Lily just wanted to get the book out of her own hands at this point so finished.

His body failed him, and he fainted.

Lily let out a pitiful moan as she pushed the book away, letting it land on the floor and just clinging to her son because that was all she could think to do. The boys weren't much better, each of them stuck on the idea, but unable to say it, spit it out, it even hurt to think it, because Sirius just couldn't be dead.

HPHPHPHP

So yeah, been dropping little hints for a while that Harry was going to remember something soon that wasn't going to be good, and it was this. Harry remembers how he felt when Sirius died, and has no way to tell them otherwise, but this was the wrong time, so they get to spend this and most of the next chapter thinking Sirius is dead...I am a cruel person and I regret nothing.