Halloween
The Great Hall of Hogwarts buzzed with more morning excitement than usual on Halloween. Everyone sounded louder than normal while they chatted about the feast that would happen that evening beneath the overcast sky charmed on the ceiling.
Harry glanced across the hall and looked at where Ron sat at the Gryffindor table. Ron was frowning and poking at his breakfast. Seamus, who sat across from Ron, must have said something because Ron looked up at him and then caught Harry staring.
Harry started to lift his hand in a greeting and Ron only scowled harder, his dislike practically palpable even from across the room. Ron went back to his food while Harry’s heart sank in disappointment.
Ron had been Harry’s first ever friend and suddenly Harry was living in a world where Ron blamed Harry for his pet disappearing. It was an unflattering feeling of how Hermione must have felt in their third year.
“Harry, are you listening?” Daphne’s soft voice broke through Harry’s thoughts and he shook his head, trying to act like he was listening.
“Er… yeah,” Harry lied. He turned to Daphne and Pansy and forced a smile. “In case I wasn’t though, what were you talking about?”
Daphne rolled her eyes and Pansy smirked while she did a funny little flip of her short hair, one that Harry had realized was a habit though he had never known her well enough to pick up on before.
“We were talking about the feast tonight,” Pansy said. “Are you looking forward to it?”
Harry nodded absently, his thoughts already slipping back toward Ron. Harry could hear Sirius’s conversation on the other side of the table, stilted and short. Sirius wasn’t in any better of a mood than Harry, though his was more of the date than of any friendship he lost.
“Harry! You’re not listening at all!”
Harry blinked and looked at Daphne again.
“What?”
“Nevermind,” she said, obviously annoyed with him. “I forgot you’re busy staring at Ron.”
At the mention of Ron, Sirius reached out beneath the table and nudged Harry’s foot with his own without ever breaking the conversation he had going with Draco.
It was reassuring, though Harry didn’t know what the message was meant to be. Either it was ‘Forget Ron he’s a git’ or ‘You’ve got me, who needs him?’
Harry did have Sirius, he only wished he also had Ron. Even if Harry was used to being in Slytherin, sharing classes with students he couldn’t stand before, he would have liked to be on good terms with Ron and his brothers.
It would be fine though, probably. They would work it out in the end, probably. By next Halloween Harry and Ron would have a friendship again, probably.
All the uncertainties were driving Harry mad. Why couldn’t a troll break into the castle and Harry could heroically… and Harry…
“Siri.” Harry kicked Sirius under the table. “Oi, how dedicated are you to going to class today?”
Sirius didn’t look dedicated, he looked miserable really. It wasn’t a picnic of a day for Harry, but Harry could see that the anniversary of his parents' deaths was weighing heavily on Sirius. Even in his sleep, Sirius had thrashed most of the night, calling out for James. Harry kept waking him up, but the second he fell asleep the nightmares started again.
A distraction would be good for them both.
“What’s on the schedule?” Sirius asked.
It was Thursday, so history first thing.
“Not even a little dedicated,” Sirius said when Harry told him so. Sirius pushed his plate of untouched food away, actually shoving it toward Harry, and grinned tiredly.
“I hope you’re thinking we go lay in bed all day,” he said.
“Or…” Harry ignored the others and tried to channel Sirius’s own charming charisma back at him. “We go find a troll.”
Draco started choking on a piece of his toast, but Harry could see in Sirius’s eyes that whatever mad plan Harry had - he was interested in.
It wasn’t that mad, really. It was just Harry forcing what would have happened naturally if he hadn’t gotten rid of Quirrell too early. Between Harry and Sirius, they could keep it contained enough so that nobody was injured.
And if Harry could set it up so that Ron needed rescuing… well, that was just a bonus.
Harry sent Sirius after the cloak and map while he went to find Hermione. Explaining his plan to Sirius had reminded Harry that Hermione was going to have a bad afternoon if things hadn’t changed all that much.
Hermione was just leaving the Great Hall when Harry found her. Surprisingly, she was talking with Susan Bones and Lily Moon. Harry had just started to greet her when Lily - of all the strange things - handed Harry a small potted plant.
It looked like a homemade pot, sort of lumpy and imperfectly painted in colors of black and gold. There was a little tree just beginning to sprout up in the center of it.
“Er…” Harry wasn’t actually sure what he was meant to do. He looked from the little tree to the girls and was relieved to see that Hermione seemed as mystified as he was.
“It’s for you,” Lily said in her soft and strange voice that Harry had only heard a few times before. She giggled, as did Susan. “Get it?”
No.
“Oh, a yew tree!” Hermione said, clearing up the joke for Harry.
“You should put it in your circle tonight,” Lily told Harry. “I’ve put the date on it for you.”
“A circle?” Harry repeated cluelessly. “What circle do I put this in?”
“Your Samhain Circle,” Susan said. If she thought that cleared anything up for Harry, she was wrong. Harry had other things to do though rather than decipher girl-talk and he nodded before turning back to Hermione.
“I just wanted to remind you that you and I are friends,” Harry told her. “I think you’re brilliant and I am your friend.”
Hermione blinked and blushed a furious shade of red while Susan and Lily suddenly started giggling loudly. It took Harry a second to realize that maybe he had come on a little strong, but it was too late by then and he wouldn’t take it back.
Hermione was brilliant and she was Harry’s friend. Maybe it was a different friendship than they had before, but they were friends.
“Thanks, Harry,” Hermione said. “Um… I think you’re brilliant too?”
It would have to do because if Harry had to listen to any more giggling then he would go crazy. Hopefully if Ron said anything unkind that Hermione would remember that she did have at least one friend who didn’t think she was a nightmare or a know-it-all.
“Right,” Harry said awkwardly. “Well I’m off then. I’ll see you later.”
With a final goodbye to the other girls and a word of thanks for the… tree… Harry started walking toward the Slytherin dorms. He would need to put his plant away before he went to find a troll with Sirius.
What a strange morning.
It was Sirius who cleared up Harry’s confusion about the tree and Samhain while they walked through the forest together later. Harry had the cloak over one shoulder, Sirius’s arm wrapped around both of his shoulders. Sirius had the map tucked in his back pocket and had more life in the dim forest than he had all morning.
“There’s some rituals that a lot of the old pureblooded families follow on Halloween,” Sirius explained. “You should go to it, it’s interesting to see the different circles everyone makes.”
“What are the circles for?” Harry asked. He had a vague recollection of ritual circles being discussed in history, but the only experience he had with them had been the circle of death eaters in the cemetery when Voldemort had been trying to kill him.
“Sacrifices, offerings, mostly just gifts to try and call down the spirit of the deceased,” Sirius said. “They’ll probably set up on the pitch tonight, it’s the only place big enough for everyone to work.”
“Have you gone to one before?” Harry asked curiously. He had never heard of any Halloween rituals before, not even from Ron’s brothers who were all purebloods.
“Every year when I was a kid,” Sirius said. He moved a tree branch out of the way for Harry so they could travel deeper and deeper in the forest. “Then I didn’t go again until my sixth year. My uncle Alphard had died and I wanted to thank him for leaving me everything in his will. The mad bastard had always liked me.”
Harry could admit that he was curious about the tradition. It sounded like something out of a film and he wondered how many of his classmates participated in it.
“Will you go with me?” Harry asked. He didn’t want to go if Sirius didn’t, he wouldn’t know what to do and he didn’t fancy the idea of leaving Sirius alone on Halloween night.
Sirius sighed and took his time considering it. They were quite deep in the forest, Harry could hardly see a thing because it was so dark. They hadn’t found any evidence of any trolls yet, but Harry was hopeful they’d find something to bring back to the castle with them.
“Yeah, I’ll go,” Sirius said after a while. “We can share a circle, if you don’t mind. I’d rather not give any relatives the chance to attack me.”
“Can that happen?!”
“Oh, yeah,” Sirius said merrily. “I remember one year my mother got her arse kicked. I was seven? Maybe eight? Anyway…”
Harry listened eagerly while Sirius described a Halloween he had as a child where an ancestor attacked his mother in front of a group of friends who gossiped about it for months. Sirius was a great storyteller; he used both hands to talk with and changed his voice to mimic others. He had Harry laughing and gasping at the insane story.
Sirius was so animated that Harry wasn’t surprised they weren’t finding any creatures to take back with them. It was fine though, they had all day to find something.
And when they did find the perfect creature, they had to hurry back to get everything set up.
Sirius clearly wasn’t thrilled with Harry’s idea to force a friendship with Ron - and he called Harry jealous - but he still helped all the same.
The two of them were dirty, out of breath, and late when they arrived at the feast later that night. Harry had some blood on his shirt from a cut that Sirius healed for him. Sirius had a limp from the fight they had with the creature back to the castle, but overall it had been a success really.
They slid in their chairs, unnoticed by the table of professors, and Harry began searching the hall to find Ron. They had a plan, a great plan, to get Ron on his own. Really, Harry was impressed with himself for it all. It was a bit risky, but the rewards would be worth it.
“Where's everyone at?” Sirius asked Blaise. Harry looked around their table then too and noticed that most of the first years were strangely absent. Blaise, Daphne, and Millicent Bulstrode were the only three other first years at the table.
“You told them you were bringing a troll in the castle,” Blaise said, waving his fork carelessly. “They’re hiding.”
“Cowards.” Harry scoffed as he began making a plate. Sirius knocked Harry’s hand out of the way and started adding twice as much food to his plate than Harry planned on eating.
It was the examination results, Harry was sure. Sirius had been trying to fatten Harry up ever since they saw that embarrassing report.
“We didn’t even find a troll,” Sirius said. He grinned and winked at Harry. “We found something much better.”
Much, much better.
“That’s… why exactly did you bring a monster into the castle?” Daphne asked Harry. “You’re going to attack Ron with it?”
“Not attack, no,” Harry said quickly. “We’re going to trap him with it, then I'll save him, then we’ll be friends.”
Sirius snorted in amusement, finally finished piling Harry’s plate with food and filling his own.
“And if that doesn’t work, then Ron dies a painful and tragic death,” Sirius said brightly. “No real downside here, I’m sure.”
“It will work.” Harry was confident. If a troll could cement a friendship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione, then a slightly modified plan would cement a friendship between Harry and Ron.
The Slytherin table was somewhat subdued during the dinner. Harry thought that he and Sirius were receiving a lot of nervous glances from some of the older students and he tried to seem normal by bringing up the tradition meant to happen that night.
“You are coming?” Daphne asked. She squealed happily when Harry confirmed it. “Oh that’s great! I thought you would but Pansy said you’re practically a muggle and wouldn’t be interested! I have extra candles you can use, do you know what things you’ll bring? Who you’ll try and call?”
Harry was once again grateful that Sirius seemed to speak the same language as many of their classmates so that Harry could talk about the ritual without embarrassing himself. He wasn’t entirely sure what all he would bring to it, though his dad’s cloak seemed to be a given.
That made Harry realize that he didn’t own anything of his mum’s and wasn’t even sure what he could put in a circle to try and call down her spirit. He looked at Sirius for help and Sirius tapped his lips in thought.
“Go find Remus,” Sirius told him, quickly and quietly. “I bet he’s got a million books that used to belong to your mum. They were always swapping for their swotty and smutty little book club.”
Harry looked up and searched the Head Table quickly. He didn’t see Lupin anywhere and it took Sirius a minute to find him on the map.
“Go quick,” Sirius said, pointing at where Lupin’s dot was inside his quarters, just beside his office. “I’ll meet you in the loo in fifteen.”
Harry nodded and then took off, eager to get something that belonged to his mum before he made a new friendship with Ron. Harry didn’t really appreciate that it was Lupin who he had to ask something of, but it would be nice to have it all the same.
Lupin took a few minutes to answer his door while Harry incessantly knocked. Harry didn’t actually care if Lupin was asleep or what he was doing, Harry just wanted the book so he could put it in his circle.
“Harry?” When Lupin opened the door, he was disheveled and seemed to smell faintly like liquor. Harry leaned past him and blinked in surprise when he saw that Snape was in Lupin’s quarters, looking back at Harry with a glass in his hand and sneer twisting his lips. It was probably a good thing he seemed to have only just arrived, Harry didn’t think Sirius would appreciate having to see his dot around his precious Lupin.
“Er…” It took Harry a moment to remember why he was there, he was so caught off-guard. “Oh! Professor, do you happen to have anything that belonged to my mum?”
“Something that belonged to your mum?” Lupin repeated. Snape stood up behind him and began to drift closer to the doorway, clearly interested in Harry’s conversation even if Harry wished that he would stay very far away.
“Why - why would I have that?” Lupin asked.
“Er… your first name is Remus, right?” Harry said, speaking quickly and inventing a lie just as quick. “She mentioned you in a diary of hers I found. It sounded like you were friends and I need something of hers for tonight.”
“Why not use her diary?” Snape asked, too perceptive and easily catching Harry in his lie.
“It’s in my vault,” Harry said, wishing Snape wouldn’t even refer to Harry’s mother, the woman he set up to be killed. “I didn’t want it to get damaged. Professor,” Harry focused solely on Lupin, “do you have something? I’m in a bit of a rush.”
“I… yeah, maybe,” Lupin said. “Here, come in for a moment. Let me check. What did you say this is for?”
Harry took a step inside and looked around in interest while he briefly explained the ritual. Lupin’s place wasn’t very decorated, though Harry didn’t know if that was expected since it was the first time he’d ever seen the quarters of a professor.
“Ah, Samhain,” Lupin said. He ran his fingers over the spines of the books on his shelf, occasionally pausing to pull one out only to put it back and continue searching. “I didn’t know you followed the old traditions.”
Why would he? Lupin didn’t know anything about Harry, despite the way he acted.
“I have this, I think I got it from your mother.” Lupin pulled a book from the shelf and barely took a step toward Harry with it before Snape summoned it abruptly.
“Oi!” Harry cried indignantly, only to be ignored.
Snape flipped open the cover page and lightly traced whatever he saw there. Harry nearly called out again when Snape roughly threw the book back to Lupin.
“This was stolen from a library, the ritual works best if it’s something truly owned by the spirit,” Snape said. “Tilly!”
A house-elf suddenly appeared in the middle of the sitting room. It was the female elf that always shoved margarine packets in Harry’s pockets when he visited the kitchens. Sirius said she was sweet on him, which was ridiculous.
“Mister Snape, sir?” Tilly squeaked, looking around at the three of them with big eyes. “You is needing Tilly?”
“Go to my office, bottom drawer on the right of my desk. There’s a small cardboard box, bring it to me,” Snape ordered.
Tilly disappeared immediately, leaving Harry to stand in the room while anger and resentment began bubbling up in him.
“You have something that belonged to my mum?” Harry asked angrily, glowering at Snape for all he was worth. “Unbelievable.”
“Harry…” Lupin said, a soft reprimand.
Snape didn’t seem bothered, he only gazed at Harry coolly with his dark eyes. It was impossible to picture someone as hateful and cold as Snape being friends with someone as lovely as Lily. If it hadn’t been Sirius who told Harry that, Harry never would have believed it.
“I do,” Snape confirmed, only a moment before Tilly arrived and handed Snape a small rectangular cardboard box. She gave Harry a toothy smile before disappearing again.
“Take it,” Snape said, floating the box over to Harry. “It was hers. It will work for your ritual.”
Harry curiously, and a bit cautiously, opened the box. There was a necklace inside, a cheap silver chain with a flower pendant hooked on it.
“Your mother bought it with her allowance when she was on a holiday as a girl,” Snape said stiffly. “There were no prior owners.”
Harry didn’t question why Snape had the necklace that his mother bought on holiday, he only pocketed and nodded uncomfortably.
“Do you have something of James’s?” Lupin asked, soo kindly. “I’m sure I have a scarf of his in my wardrobe.”
The injustice of Harry’s least favorite two men in the world owning things that belonged to Harry’s parents burned him from the inside out. They already had memories and photographs with Harry’s parents, it was unfair that they also were hoarding their possessions as well.
Harry didn’t care if they were the best of friends or not, Harry was their son. Harry would do anything to have a memory with his parents that wasn’t tainted with their deaths or holding the background memory of fighting for his life in a graveyard.
The fifteen minute mark was quickly approaching, but it turned out that there was something more important to Harry than building a friendship with Ron.
“I’ll take anything of theirs that you have,” Harry said. His voice broke and the softening of Lupin’s face made Harry think he had misinterpreted Harry’s emotions as upset instead of more furious than he could ever remember being before.
How many years did Lupin have before to tell Harry about James and Lily? How many opportunities did he have to talk about a book club with Harry’s mum and why he owned one of his dad’s scarves?
It was very like Snape to never bother mentioning anything that would make Harry happy in any way, but it didn’t make Harry any less inclined to hate him just as fiercely.
Lupin ended up giving Harry an entire box of things that had belonged to his parents. There was a scarf of his dads, books that Lupin and his mum traded around. There were notebooks full of doodlings signed by James Potter. A sun-catcher painted by Lily.
Harry staggered down to the Slytherin dorms with the box held in his arms as carefully as someone might hold a baby. Harry had some of their belongings and once he caught back up with Sirius then he could get the stories behind them.
Why was James so interested in drawing constellations? Was it because of Sirius or some other reason? Did Lily truly like the books she read or did she read them because someone else recommended them?
Every piece of their belongings brought up half a dozen questions Harry had and he hoped Sirius would answer them all.
Harry was so lost in thought that he didn’t even notice the noises coming from the bathroom he passed on the main floor until he had already walked past. When he realized it was the bathroom that he was meant to be in, he backed up to rush inside.
Standing in front of the row of sinks, pale and trembling, was Ron. Beside him stood Neville, who looked just as terrified. They were covered in a worrying amount of blood that glittered in the candlelight of the bathroom.
Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore were both in there as well, turning as one to Harry. They could have been ghosts for all the notice that Harry took of them.
Because there was Sirius.
Harry’s breath caught in his throat and his heart skipped a beat.
Sirius looked every bit a hero as he stood confidently beside the acromantula that was unmistakably dead. With his hair tussled and a few rips in his uniform showing how Sirius must have fought the acromantula on his own, it was well-worth the effort it took to get the acromantula in the castle to begin with.
Sirius caught Harry’s eyes and flashed a grin, one that was reminiscent of every photo and memory Harry had seen of Sirius before Azkaban. Confident, mischievous, triumphant…
It was perfect.
“Harry! You missed it!” Sirius said, jolting Harry from his staring. “There was a giant spider in here, isn’t that wild?”
“It is not wild!” Ron shrieked suddenly. He pointed a shaking finger at Sirius like an accusation. “He put it in here so he could kill me like he did Scabbers!”
“What?” Harry clutched his box to his chest and turned to Ron. “Sirius didn’t kill Scabbers!”
“Then you did!” Ron yelled wildly. “And you thought if you killed me that nobody would ever know!”
Harry wondered if that was how he had sounded when he spent years blaming Snape and Malfoy for everything bad that ever happened. If so, it was no wonder nobody ever took him seriously. Ron sounded deranged.
“I didn’t kill your rat and nobody was trying to kill you,” Harry said. He took a few steps closer to Sirius, not liking the way Ron glared at him one bit.
“He was!” Ron insisted, looking up at McGonagall. “Professor, you’ve got to believe me! He lured me here and I’d be a dead man if it wasn’t for Neville!”
Neville?
“Why are you here?” Harry asked Neville.
“He followed Ron,” Sirius told him. “And I saved both of their lives when this acromantula tried to attack them.”
“Which begs the question, how an acromantula came to be inside the castle,” McGonagall said loudly, speaking over the rebuttal Ron had and silencing everyone. “Mister Longbottom, can you tell me what happened here?”
“Um… well…” Neville shrank under the stares of everyone in the room but powered through to give an explanation that Harry thought was probably true.
“Sirius told R-Ron that he thought he saw Scabbers, Ron’s pet rat, in the bathroom.” Neville twisted the sleeve of his robe in his hands and glanced nervously at the acromantula. “The - the spider attacked them, ma’am. It could talk too and it seemed mad—”
“It said ‘how dare you take me from my family’,” Ron interrupted. He pointed at Sirius again, pissing Harry right off. “And it was talking to him!”
“Prove it,” Harry snapped. “Prove it or shut your mouth.”
Preferably, Harry wanted him to shut up. Dumbledore was standing right there, listening intently to the entire story.
“That is enough,” McGonagall told Harry sternly. “Longbottom, continue please.”
“It tried to attack us and Sirius - Sirius killed it,” Neville said. “That was it.”
“Mister Black,” Dumbledore looked at Sirius with a grave expression. “Is that true?”
“That a giant spider tried to kill them and I saved their lives? Yeah, it is,” Sirius said.
Dumbledore seemed skeptical, in Harry’s long history of taking his troubles to a man he once admired. McGonagall wasn’t as skeptical though, thankfully.
“Very well,” she said. “If nobody is injured, return to your common rooms. If I discover that a dangerous creature was brought in the school on purpose, rest assured that there will be dire consequences.”
All of the boys agreed and then parted ways quickly. Ron aggressively pushed past Sirius, which Harry repaid by a quick jab of his elbow to Ron’s ribcage. Poor Neville seemed miserable when he looked around at them all with big eyes before ultimately chasing after Ron toward the Gryffindor Tower.
“That went well,” Harry muttered as he and Sirius walked slowly toward the dungeons together.
“It was all downhill the second the damn thing started talking,” Sirius said. He sighed before putting a familiar arm on Harry’s shoulders. “I’m sorry, Pup.”
Sirius sounded genuine enough and Harry accepted the apology at face value. It wasn’t Sirius’s fault, Harry wasn’t exactly at his friendliest when Ron started accusing Sirius of trying to kill him.
“Maybe it’s just… not meant to happen yet,” Harry said, rather disappointed in that idea.
“Who knows? Ron’s a brat, maybe he’ll grow up,” Sirius said, apparently forgetting that they had technically planted the acromantula in the bathroom specifically to trap Ron with. It was meant to be the same as when Hermione had been trapped with the troll… but maybe they took it too far.
“What’s in the box?” Sirius asked Harry after they turned to walk down the last set of steps before they’d reach the common room. “You were gone forever.”
“Oh, yeah.” Harry raised the box but didn’t want to risk holding it one-handed to open it yet. “I’ll show you when we get back to the dorms. Lupin gave me loads of things that belonged to my parents. And, get this, Snape gave me a necklace that used to be my mum’s.”
“Ugh, you’ll have to wash the grease off it,” Sirius said unkindly. “I bet he stole it from her, he was bloody obsessed with your mum.”
A disturbing comment that Harry was too eager to pretend he didn’t hear.
The Slytherin common room had no signs of anyone going to bed anytime soon. There was a loud buzz of conversation happening as students ran back and forth, sharing candles and showing off items they would be putting in their circle. Harry was no exception as he found a quiet corner of the room to start showing Sirius what he had been given.
All of Harry’s hopes that Sirius could tell him about the items hadn’t been in vain. Sirius barely remembered to place a charm around them for privacy before he launched into stories about each and every item.
James picked up drawing in his fourth year, but he was terrible at it. Sirius used to make fun of him a lot, though there was a folder of every drawing James made in his trunk at Grimmauld Place. Lily loved to read, ‘a proper bookworm’, but she mostly liked muggle classics and told everyone how wizarding novels didn’t compare.
Harry sat on the floor and stared up at Sirius, unknowingly smiling, while Sirius talked and talked. Every item he touched had a story behind it and often those stories were linked to other stories that Sirius told him.
When Harry first met Sirius, he had a million wild hopes that he placed on Sirius’s shoulders. Harry had wanted a friend, he wanted someone to tell him about his parents. He had wanted a real home; somewhere outside of Hogwarts that felt like home.
Harry put all those wishes on Sirius and it took them years to get there - they had to fall through a mysterious veil and fight and scream and cross more lines than Harry had known existed between them - but it felt like they were finally there.
When the time neared midnight, Gemma Fawley called for everyone to line up with their belongings.
“Anyone who is abstaining is to stay here and go to their beds,” she said with a stern glare that made her seem much more official than Harry considered her to be. “Everyone else, follow me in a single-file line.”
Harry ended up standing in front of Sirius, just behind Draco. It felt very strange, but exciting too, to be leaving the castle to have a Samhain ritual. Harry had never before thought about the different aspects of magic outside of casting spells, but he had seen rituals… He had witnessed the rebirth of Voldemort, he remembered the dome that surrounded him during their duel and the way that brother wands responded when turned against one another.
Harry hoped that the Samhain ritual would be exciting, though he didn’t expect to truly get to speak to his parents or have their spirits or whatever respond to him. It felt more as if he was honoring them, in an odd way, simply by choosing to cast a circle with the others.
The line of Slytherin students met up with a much shorter line of Hufflepuff students in the corridor leading to the Entrance Hall. Susan Bones and Lily Moon were in that line and they waved cheerfully at Harry. There was already a line of Ravenclaws in the Entrance Hall, where Harry recognized Stephen Cornfoot and Sue Li. The groups were quiet and thrumming with a silent sort of anticipation while they waited for the Gryffindors.
That was the shortest line yet, though Harry was surprised how many of them he recognized. Angelina Johnson, Oliver Wood, and Alicia Spinnet were in the line. Harry was further surprised to see Percy Weasley leading the line, though he might have been only fulfilling his duty as prefect. The biggest shock was seeing Hermione at the end of the line.
Hermione smiled hugely and waved when she saw Harry. She hung back some from the others while they all trooped outside so she could walk beside Harry to hold a whispered conversation.
“I’ve never had a Samhain circle before,” Hermione whispered. “I read all about it after Susan and Lily brought it up this morning. It didn’t say it works for non-magical relatives, but it didn’t say it doesn’t either.”
Draco made a scathing noise in front of Harry and Harry didn’t feel badly at all as he ‘accidentally’ stepped on the back of Draco’s shoes for it.
“Who are you casting for?” Harry asked curiously. It seemed silly, but Harry realized then that he didn’t really know of any of Hermione’s relatives outside of her parents.
“Well…” Hermione had a small bag in her hands and she held it closer, protective over whatever was inside of it. She looked down and seemed suddenly uncomfortable. “I’d rather not say, I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay,” Harry said quickly, not meaning to be too nosy. Harry’s Hermione would have told him… but it wasn’t Harry’s Hermione. “Er… Sirius and I are going to cast for my parents. Do you have candles? I think Daphne has loads extra if not.”
“I got some!” Hermione said, perking up instantly. “Alicia, she’s a third year in Gryffindor, she told me all about it and gave me some candles. She even said I could set my circle up beside her so she can help me if I need it.”
“I’m sure you’ll do great.” Harry was happy that Hermione was making some friends in Gryffindor, even if it meant she was making those friends away from Harry.
“Thanks.” Hermione bounced on the balls of her feet when they reached the quidditch pitch and everyone started roaming to set up. “Good luck, Harry! I hope you get to talk to your family.”
Harry wished her the same before Sirius joined him and started leading Harry to an unoccupied area of the pitch to set up at.
Sirius did the candles, since he knew where they all needed to be. The tallest ones went in each corner, lining up with the south, north, west, and east. The others filled the lines between them and Sirius stepped inside the circle before he lit them all one at a time with a box of matches.
While Sirius did that, Harry carefully pulled out his parents belongings from his box.
Dad’s cloak went on the ground first, then his book of drawings. Mum’s necklace went on top of the book. Harry didn’t bring any of her books, as he was worried that Snape would be right and he’d summon someone else’s spirit by accident.
Harry fussed over the placement of his things, furtively looking around at where the others had their circles going. It was hard to see, with as dark as it was and the candles obscuring those inside the circles, but there was an electric feeling in the air… a magical feeling.
It made Harry hopeful.
“Ready?” Sirius asked. He had moved to the northernmost spot of the circle and Harry quickly took the south.
“Yes,” Harry breathed, shaking with excitement and nerves and too much hope.
Sirius took a deep breath and laid his wand at his feet, Harry mirroring him. When Sirius spread his arms wide and began the chant, Harry held his arms out and hoped with all of his might that it would work.
“Spirits of the veil so thin, hear my call, and now begin. From realms beyond, where shadows lie, I summon James and Lily Potter from the sky. Per te, amice, invoco, ad me, nunc, et loquere, oro.”
All through the field, the same chant was being repeated. The candles flickered in Harry and Sirius’s circle and Sirius lifted his hands higher as he repeated himself.
“Spirits of the veil so thin, hear my call and now begin. From realms beyond, where shadows lie, I summon James and Lily Potter from the sky. Per te, amice, invoco, ad me, nunc, et loquere, oro.”
Harry joined him for the third chant with his hands as high in the sky as Sirius’s. There was an intoxicating feeling inside of him, a hot and comfortable feeling of pure magic crackling around him, calling him in, accepting him.
It brought tears to Harry’s eyes and had his voice strong and confident when they started the fourth chant.
“SPIRITS OF THE VEIL SO THIN, HEAR MY CALL AND NOW BEGIN! FROM REALMS BEYOND, WHERE SHADOWS LIE, I SUMMON JAMES AND LILY POTTER FROM THE SKY!”
There was a sudden rush of wind, enough to cause Harry to stagger. Their candles flickered, never extinguished, and smoke filled their circle, obscuring Harry’s view of Sirius. Harry would have been worried, concerned their ritual had gone wrong, if it weren’t for the joyful laugh filling his ears.
“Mum?” Harry squinted through the smoke, trying to find where his mum’s spirit might have been. It sounded like her laugh, though Harry couldn’t explain why he knew that.
“Harry, my Harry…”
“Mum?” Harry was the one to laugh then, a laugh that nearly broke in a sob. “Are you here?”
“We’re always here,” another voice said, a voice that was masculine but soft, kind. “We’d never leave you.”
“Dad!” Harry was overjoyed, overwhelmed. He sank to his knees and forgot about Sirius entirely while he tried to soak in his parents' presence. “I can’t believe it worked, I can’t believe nobody ever told me I could do this.”
“It doesn’t always work, love.” There was a low warmth on Harry’s shoulder, one that felt like the small hand of a young woman. “There has to be deep desire on both sides to make it work.”
“We’ve hoped for years that you would call on us,” Dad - because it had to be Harry’s dad, it just did, even if Harry couldn’t see him, he sounded the same as he did when Harry saw him in the graveyard - said.
“I love you,” Harry said, stray tears trickling down his cheeks that were wiped away by fingers that were calloused and gentle. “I miss you both so much. I - I wish you were here. I have so many things I want to talk to you both about.”
“We know, baby, we know,” Mum said, sounding like maybe she was crying twice as much as Harry. “You’re so brave—”
“Like your mother.”
“And twice as reckless as your father.”
Harry laughed again, feeling a bit as if his chest was cracking in half. It was more than he had expected, but there was a terrible sort of pain in talking with people who he couldn’t see, who weren’t really there.
“Sirius is here,” Harry said, unsure why he couldn’t hear him. “He talks about you two a lot.”
“Your father more than me,” Mum said. It sounded like a joke, like a familiar joke that maybe Harry would have heard while growing up.
“Yeah,” he said, desperately trying to wipe his eyes without dislodging the warm hands that were on both of his shoulders. “That’s true.”
“We’re so proud of you, Harry,” Dad said. “Never forget that, okay? We love you and we’re proud of you.”
“Always,” Mum added. “We’re always so proud of our perfect son.”
“Do you have to go?” Harry asked, sounding much like a child. “Please, can you stay a little longer?”
“The veil thickens every moment after midnight,” Dad told him sadly. “We’d stay forever if we could, son. I solemnly swear.”
“And we’re never really gone,” Mum reminded him. “Wherever you go, we’re with you, baby. You’re going to be so incredible, I just know it.”
Harry shivered when the warmth surrounding him began to fade, little by little. It only took a moment before the fierce wind that had been whipping Harry’s hair and clothes suddenly died out, taking the smoke and warmth of his parents' spirits with it.
The other circles were becoming more clear and Harry didn’t feel any sort of embarrassment for the wetness covering his face, not when he could hear the sound of others crying from their areas.
Harry did wipe his face and slowly stood up, blinking quickly to try and find Sirius. Sirius was a dark figure curled up on his knees at the other end of the circle and Harry stood over him for a second, wondering if Sirius was crying as well. Sirius had his head bowed and his shoulders curled up, seemingly just as overwhelmed as Harry was by the experience.
“Siri?” Harry held a hand out. “Are you alright? Did - did you talk to them?” As far as Harry knew, his parents had only spoken to him, but maybe they had talked with Sirius as well. It would explain why Harry never heard Sirius saying anything during the too brief conversation.
“Yeah.” Sirius looked up at Harry and Harry saw that he too had been crying, he still was. Sirius grasped Harry’s hand and when Harry pulled him to his feet, Sirius pulled Harry close to wrap in what felt like a desperate embrace.
“I never said it,” Sirius said in a croaking whisper, not at all as composed as he usually was. “But I love you, Harry. Alright? I do.”
There was a small warmth that built inside Harry’s chest at Sirius’s rushed statement. It was different from the warmth of his parents, different from the pleased feeling he had when he realized Hermione was making friends. It was small, but nearly hot enough to be uncomfortable right in the center of his chest.
“I love you too,” Harry told him, meaning it fully.
Sirius lifted his head from where it had been semi-hidden on Harry’s shoulders and there was a long moment where they only stared intently in each others eyes. Harry saw pain and love, joy and misery, in Sirius’s eyes.
Whatever Sirius saw in Harry’s eyes had him leaning in slowly to press his lips against Harry’s. It was quick, hesitant, over before Harry really registered what it was.
It was a kiss.
Sirius kissed him.
Sirius kissed Harry.