Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Xavier had no idea what he was doing. He wasn’t the guy who broke the rules and let things like murder slide.

Xavier was quiet, an honor student, a loner perfectly adept at being alone.

None of which explained why Xavier was speed walking from the hospital to his art shed with a murderous monster or a furious wizard to confront the man who killed Harry.

Xavier had never seen Tyler so angry before, not even when he’d turned into a snarling Hyde the night before when Harry…

Well.

When Harry was taken from them.

Ares was moving quickly for a guy who just woke up from a coma. Of course, if Xavier had a magic wand that shot spells from it, he’d probably be able to take off when he wanted to. And Tyler…

Xavier glanced at Tyler and tried to separate this guy with the puffy eyes and pale face from the Hyde that tore people open and taunted Xavier in his dreams.

He couldn’t. That was the problem.

Xavier couldn’t separate them. To accept one as his friend, he had to accept the other.

And after the two of them spent the night on Tyler’s couch together, mourning and screaming and ranting together, was Xavier supposed to not accept him?

Was Xavier supposed to not love him?

Probably.

That’s what a good person would do.

“This is the place?” Ares asked them. They’d cut through the forest and made it to the shed just outside Nevermore in record time. Ares clenched his jaw and his fingers tightened on his wand when Xavier nodded. Truthfully, Ares looked rather frightening.

Ares’ face had crumpled when Xavier and Tyler told him about Harry. He’d curled up over himself and his shoulders shook with the most heartbreaking sobs that Xavier had heard.

“What’s the date?” he asked, his voice raspy and broken.

Xavier had looked at his phone, but it was still dead. He’d forgotten to charge it at Tyler’s and he had no idea what day it was.

“November first,” Tyler told Ares, having glanced at his watch.

Ares make a choked whimper. “Harry… Harry died last night?”

The boys nodded.

Ares closed his eyes and another broken sound ripped from his throat. Before Xavier could comfort him, his eyes snapped open and there was a fire burning in them- partial fury, partial madness.

“I want to see the man who killed him,” he said. “Now.”

And now they were there.

Xavier still didn’t know if he was there to keep Ares and Tyler from killing Fester Addams or if he was there to help them.

“You boys can wait out here,” Ares said. He tightened his recently cleaned and repaired jacket around himself and narrowed his eyes in genuine hate. “This won’t take long.”

“I’m not staying out here,” Tyler said.

Xavier stuck his hand in his pocket and felt Harry’s glasses. He clenched them in his hand and focused on the bite of the metal in his palm.

It felt like an important decision was resting on his shoulders. It felt like who Xavier was weighed on him; what kind of man was he?

A man like his father- focused on displaying the image of the perfect person? A cold man, alone and only ever content, never truly happy?

Did Xavier want to be like Ares and Tyler- focused on revenge and extracting a life for the life that was taken from them? Would killing Fester Addams bring Harry back?

Or would it just bring more pain to others, like Wednesday Addams and her family, who would mourn Fester as they would Harry? Two family members taken in a single go?

“I’ll wait out here,” Xavier said. He held Harry’s glasses and thought of what Harry would want. Harry wouldn’t want Wednesday to be miserable, Xavier was sure of it. Even if it had been her idea that led to his death, Harry would forgive her.

Harry had the worst taste in friends, himself and Tyler included.

Tyler looked at Xavier and weighed him up through his eyes. Xavier held his gaze steadily, knowing that he wouldn’t stop him, but he wouldn’t help either.

“I get it,” Tyler said. There was ice in his eyes, but a spark of warmth as well. They might not be the same, but they understood each other.

That meant something.

Xavier nodded and turned to face out in the forest while Tyler and Ares slipped inside the shed. There were three of them inside the shed, and only two were going to come out.

And neither would be Fester Addams.

Sirius thought he knew pain and misery, he really did.

He spent ten years in Azkaban, berating himself for convincing James to switch secret keepers. Then he spent weeks looking for Harry, distressed when the Daily Prophet reported him as missing, ice in his chest when he couldn’t find him.

Seeing Harry gaining marks, scars, and bruises while he was losing weight, color, and joy had been miserable. Following him around as a dog, unable to protect him as his godfather had been agony.

And then two boys told Sirius that someone killed Harry - that Harry had been a horcrux - and Sirius knew that he never understood pain before.

But he understood pain then and whoever the madman was that took Harry from him was about to understand it as well.

Sirius stepped inside the little blue shed with his wand drawn and a spell on the tip of his tongue. The boy that loved Harry flicked on the light and Sirius slashed his wand directly toward the figure standing in the back.

“CRUCIO!”

The man in the black coat hit his knees and arched his back, knocking his black bowler hat from his head and revealing a shining bald head.

Sirius and Tyler split up, approaching the man from separate sides. Sirius kept his wand aimed at him, his fury and pain pouring through the curse that had the man’s shoulders shaking.

When Sirius stepped in front of the man, prepared to see the face that took Harry from the world, his wand fell limply at his side and the crucio ended.

“Fester?”

Fester Addams lifted his head and Sirius saw then that he wasn’t shaking from pain, but from laughter. His pale face was shining with mirth and his eyes glowed in the darkness of the shed.

“Sirius, you always did know how to make an entrance,” Fester cackled. “I must admit, that had a little more zest than last time.”

Sirius was dumbstruck as the boys’ story made more sense. He’d never heard of a wizard with the power of electricity, but Fester wasn’t exactly a wizard either.

Frankly, Sirius had no idea what Fester was.

“You know each other?” Tyler howled, his anger radiating off him in nearly palpable waves. “He- he- HE KILLED HARRY!”

Sirius fed off Tyler’s anger, letting it wash away his memory of meeting Fester nearly eighteen years ago when they’d both been younger men.

When they’d both been innocent men.

Sirius pointed his wand between Fester’s eyes and curled his upper lip in fury so sharp it was like glass cutting through his chest.

“Harry is James’ son,” Sirius snarled. “James’ son, Fester. My godson. You killed him.”

“Technically I removed that pesky little horcrux from his body,” Fester hedged. “It was the lightning that stopped his heart.”

Fester held his hands up by his shoulders and let a wave of electricity crackle across the skin.

“You fucking killed him,” Tyler said. He pulled back and cracked Fester in the jaw with a hard fist that knocked Fester backward for a moment.

Like a damn punching bag though, Fester popped right back up with blood dripping down his chin and a wide smile on his face.

“You hit like a beast,” Fester told Tyler, taunting the boy. “Come on, try again, you know you want to.”

Tyler let out a scream of fury and hit him again and when Fester went down, Tyler went down with him.

“THE ONE GOOD THING AND YOU KILLED HIM!” Tyler yelled, punctuating each word with a blow to Fester’s face. “YOU KILLED HIM!”

Sirius felt for him, he really did. God knew he wanted to bash Peter’s teeth through the back of his skull for taking James from him, but there were better ways to make Fester suffer.

“Stop,” Sirius told Tyler, putting his hand on the boy’s quivering shoulder. He pulled him back enough to see that Fester was just laying on the dusty wooden floor with a smile on his bloody and swollen face.

Sirius never thought he’d meet someone as mad as his cousin Bellatrix, but James’ cousin really took the cake.

Tyler stood beside Sirius and Sirius pointed his wand at Fester once again.

“You killed my godson,” Sirius said flatly, the words nearly unreal to say. “Do you deny it?”

Fester swallowed what looked like a mouthful of blood and smiled widely. “Nope.”

Sirius shook his head. Once this was finished, there’s be nothing keeping him from drowning. He had to eliminate the fire in his chest that demanded Fester pay for what he did to Harry. And once it was quenched, Sirius would drown.

Tyler had it right when he said Harry was the one good thing.

And he was gone.

Sirius put his wand directly between Fester’s eyes, the man went cross-eyed to watch it.

“What were Harry’s last words?” Sirius asked him hoarsely. He needed to know. He needed to know what Harry said last.

It didn’t matter, but somehow it was the most important thing.

“‘He loves me’.”

“What?” Tyler curled his hand in a fist, ready to strike Fester again. “No he didn’t, you’re fucking lying. I was here. He told Xavier ‘thanks’.” Tyler’s voice broke on a sob, “He fucking said ‘thanks’.”

Sirius knew from Tyler’s voice that he wasn’t lying. It was sick, Harry’s last word being one of gratitude as he laid there and thought he would walk away.

But Fester wasn’t lying either. Sirius couldn’t pinpoint why, but maybe it was just because Fester had no reason to lie. He admitted to killing Harry, he—

Sirius’ head whipped around the shed and he raised his wand high enough to cast a lumos to see every corner.

“Where is he?”

“Hmm?”

Sirius jabbed his wand in Fester’s forehead, leaving behind a round burn where Harry had once wore a scar.

“Harry’s body,” he demanded. He’d been distracted by Fester, but he’d steeled himself to see Harry’s body when he entered the shed and it wasn’t there.

And Harry had to be taken to Godric’s Hallow and buried with his parents.

It wasn’t a question or an option to not do it.

“WHERE IS MY GODSON’S BODY?!” Sirius demanded. His wand was shaking, but he wouldn’t miss a shot directly to Fester’s round and pale face.

Fester licked his lips, the blood coating his tongue, and tilted his head to the side.

“Hmm… have you checked the coffee shop? That boy loves coffee.”

Sirius howled - how dare Fester be cracking jokes?! - and Tyler lunged forward again. That time, Sirius didn’t stop him, not until the sound of Fester’s breaths became ragged.

“Where the fuck did you put him, you sicko?!” Tyler screamed. He jumped to his feet and kicked Fester in the side. “Where is he?!”

“I don’t know,” Fester finally cried out. He showed no signs of pain, but damn if Tyler didn’t have a hell of a right hook. Fester’s teeth were more messed up than Tom the Bartender’s used to be and his jaw looked definitely swollen. He was hard to understand, but Sirius knelt down close so he didn’t miss a sound.

“Tell me where Harry’s body is,” Sirius said quietly. He jabbed his wand directly in the broken jaw and grit his teeth when Fester didn’t even flinch. “You tell me where he is, no bloody games, and I’ll end this now. If you don’t…” Sirius trailed off and looked at Tyler over his shoulder.

The kid stood there with tears streaking down his face, leaving trails in the blood that had sprayed from Fester’s face to his own. Tyler’s chest was heaving and his grey eyes were blazing.

That boy would kill Fester with his bare hands if Sirius let him; and Sirius would if Fester didn’t tell him where Harry’s body was.

“I don’t know where he’s at,” Fester said again. “Wednesday took him.”

“Wednesday took him?” Tyler cringed away, his face twisting in some mixture of disgust and fury. “You let her take his body?!”

“Harry wasn’t complaining,” Fester cackled.

A piss poor move on his part because Sirius was the one who swung then and knocked another tooth out for that.

“Quit with the bloody jokes,” Sirius growled. There were ways to track Harry’s body if Wednesday had taken it, and Sirius would find him.

Sirius would find Harry and he’d make sure he was laid to rest with his parents.

The Potter family reunited too soon.

“You shouldn’t have touched my godson,” Sirius told Fester. He drew a slow breath and held his wand steady.

Sirius had never cast the spell before, but he stared in Fester’s pale and bloodshot eyes and knew he’d have no problem doing it then.

“Avada Ked—”

“STOP!”

The shed door burst open hard enough to splinter and bounce off the walls, knocking paintings off the walls. Sirius turned his head enough to see Xavier, Harry’s mate, rushing in with wide eyes and a pale face.

“STOP,” Xavier shouted again, sounding frantic.

Tyler snarled at him. “Get out of here if you don’t want to see it, Xavier.”

Xavier shook his head, his long hair swinging wildly. “There’s something you do want to see though.”

Sirius would have told him to piss off, he didn’t give a damn about whatever Xavier wanted to show him, but then someone stepped in behind Xavier and Sirius dropped his wand to the floor.

“Hi,” Harry said. He lifted a hand and looked around the shed, appearing more than a little shocked at the destruction they’d wrought. “Er… what did that bloke say? Oh,” Harry nodded to himself, “I think that reports of my death were greatly exaggerated.”

Fester spit out another mouthful of blood and forced himself to his feet while Sirius and Tyler stared at Harry.

“You couldn’t wait another minute, nephew? It was just getting good!”