Panics and Dinner
A few minutes passed by, Harry removed himself from his parents’ arms and wiped his face from his tears. He gave half a laugh and looked at his parents, “Crying like a right child, aren’t I?” James laughed in response and ruffled Harry’s hair.
“You and I both,” He responded, it was then he saw the tears in his father’s eyes. Father, that was a weird thing to think about. “Merlin, you look so much like me.” James commented looking at Harry.
“But I have my mother’s eyes. I get told that a lot.”
“Unfortunate you have your father’s hair though, it never does tame does it?” Lily said, pushing her fingers through Harry’s hair.
“Potter hair is a breed of its own.” James said proudly.
There was a knock on the kitchen door, the three Potters turned around to see Sirius and Remus standing in the doorway. With a nod from James and Lily they entered the kitchen. Sirius immediately came over to give Harry a hug who graciously accepted.
“I’m so sorry Harry, I should have been there for you,” he mumbled.
Harry pulled back looking appalled, “Sirius, there was nothing you could do, nothing you can do! I should have fought harder! I should have known my dreams were real!” Harry started to panic, gripping his pants, clenching and unclenching his fists. “I could have done something, why didn’t I do something…” he trailed off. Everything around him felt like static electricity, like everything was coming to get him. He could see the four other people in the room get close to him, everything was so close. It was too much, way too much and then there was a hand covering his. He jerked his arm away from the touch and everything went to shit. The lights in the kitchen exploded causing everyone to duck. Harry looked around like a deer caught in headlights. His eyes round as he connects the dots. He saw Lily reach for him once more, he flinched back but immediately regretted it. He saw the hurt look on his mother and the worried one on his father’s. It was too much, he turned around and ran upstairs. While he was running he ran past Malfoy and the rest of the teens up to the room he was staying in with Ron.
As Harry ran out, the rest of the teens walked into the kitchen, must’ve hearing the commotion. “What happened? What did you do?” Ron asked, looking at the four adults.
“Harry panicked,” Sirius said.
“No shit Pads, the lights blew up.” James responded looking around at the glass surrounding them. Ron and Hermione looked at each other before running upstairs after their friend. Ginny looked like she wanted to follow before being stopped by Fred.
“If anyone is going to calm him down, it’s going to be those two.” George said. “What set him off?” He directed the question at the adults.
“I told him I was sorry, that I should’ve gone with him and protected him.” Sirius said.
“Well that’s preposterous, you’re more wanted than anyone else.” Draco said, no one had really acknowledged his presence until then.
“Yeah that’s what he said too, he started to freak out and then Lily went to go touch him and he ran.” Remus said.
“Yeah that’d be it.” Fred said. George nodded along.
“What do you mean?” Lily asked.
“Harry’s never been one to deal with emotions.” George added.
“Nor is he good with physical touch, he gets weird about it and there’s been a lot of that in the past hour. Not to mention everything else that’s happened in the past week…” Ginny trailed off looking up the stairs to where the Golden Trio had disappeared to.
“He loved being held as a baby…” Lily said looking at James who nodded along.
The three Weasleys shared a look with each other, they definitely knew why, the Dursleys. But this wasn’t the proper time to dig into that. Remus and Sirius sighed, also drawing to the same conclusion.
Ron and Hermione finally made it to Harry’s room, they glanced at each other before entering the room. They walked in and found Harry pacing the room, they could feel his anxiety waving off him and could hear his ragged, erratic breathing. He looked at them with panicked eyes before stopping his pace.
“I can’t calm down,” he breathed.
“You need to control your breathing, in through your nose, out through your mouth,” Hermione said, taking a step forward. Harry took a step back and the lights flickered, Ron put out an arm to hold her back.
“He can’t control his magic, give him space” Ron whispered to Hermione before turning his attention back to Harry. “Harry, you’re safe, you’re not in a cell and you’re not at the Dursleys. You’re at Grimmauld Place. You’re safe.”
Harry nodded. “Harry you need to breathe, breathe in,” Hermione instructed waiting for Harry to follow and when he did she continued. “Good, now hold.” she paused for a few seconds, “breathe out.'' They repeated that cycle for a few minutes before Harry finally sat down on his bed. Hermione and Ron were close behind him and sat down next to him.
“Thanks,” he said. His friends smiled at him in response, knowing nothing needed to be said. “It just got to be too much.”
“No need to explain mate, we know,” Ron said. Harry gave a small smile in return.
“Think I freaked them out?”
“No more than hearing voices in walls,” Ron said, referencing second year.
“Ronald! Not the time!” Hermione slapped Ron’s arm, earring a small chuckle from Harry. “I’m sure they’ll understand Harry, it’s a huge adjustment and there’s a lot going on right now.”
It was silent for a moment before Harry spoke up. “It’s weird isn’t it? I’m not the only one a little weirded out that my dead parents aren’t dead anymore?”
Ron barked a laugh in response, “That’s what weirded you out? Not that bloody Draco Malfoy saved your arse and he’s now downstairs?” Harry chuckled as well and Hermione rolled her eyes. “Well this has been fun, want to play chess?” Ron asked.
Harry knew he was trying to keep him distracted so he wouldn’t panic again and took the invitation gratefully. Hermione went to grab a book while Ron set up the board. They played in relative silence with the exception of a few curses that flew from Harry’s mouth and Hermione’s small giggles. Merlin, he loved his friends.
Everyone had eventually migrated back into the kitchen as the sun set. Molly started working on dinner while Lily, Tonks, Charlie, Bill and Fleur talked about muggle bands and Fred, George, Remus, Sirius, and James discussed past and future pranks. Draco observed the conversations from a safe distance at the end of the table. He felt a bit awkward sitting in on the cliques, knowing he wasn’t entirely welcome. Arthur had gone upstairs to grab the trio and was on their way back to the kitchen when Molly had instructed the kids to start setting the table.
The trio, plus Arthur walked in and went to their normal spots. Harry stopped by his parents, Sirius and Remus, “I’m sorry about earlier, I freaked and I-” he was cut off by Lily.
“Harry, it’s fine! You have nothing to apologize for.” She smiled. He returned with a small smile before heading to the back part of the dining room.
“I suppose I owe you a thank you,” He said, extending his arm to someone he considered to be an enemy. “You saved my life and brought my family home. Thank you.”
Draco paused for a moment before returning the handshake. “I suppose I owe you a thank you for jumping in front of that curse. Let’s not make this a habit.” It seemed like Draco wanted it to come off rude, but Harry gave a bark laugh in response.
“I agree completely.” and with that he sat down next to Ron and Hermione.
Molly announced dinner and everyone took their seat. Arthur sat at the head, to his right was Molly, Bill, Fleur, Hermione, Harry, Ron, Tonks, and Draco. To Arthur’s left was Charlie, Remus, Lily, James, Sirius, Fred, George, and Ginny. There were polite conversations as dinner continued until James spoke up.
“So Harry, how’s school? What house are you in? Do you play quidditch?” James word vomited as the table quieted down.
“James slow down, that’s so many questions all at once,” Lily reprimanded.
“Does he play quidditch?” Fred gasped
“What an atrocious thing to ask!” George responded just as flabbergasted.
“It’s not like he hasn’t won the cup every year!” Ginny responded.
“Well except for third year,” Ron inputted.
“Yeah, but that hardly counts, the dementors kinda made him fall off his broom.” Hermione responded.
“I thought Wood would have kicked me off the team for that one.” Harry said.
“It wasn’t like you told them to go after you, they were looking for someone else,” Remus said, leaning his head around Lily and James to glare at Sirius.
“Oh come on! It was one time!” Sirius said exasperated.
“It was the whole year!” Harry playfully yelled back earning laughs from the table. “To answer your questions though, I’m in Gryffindor and I have played as a seeker on the team since first year.” Harry said proudly.
“First year?! I told you he was a prodigy, Lils! I told you! That makes you what, the youngest seeker in a century?” James asked, earning a nod from his son. “I knew it! From the time Siri bought him that toy broom, I knew he would be a player!”
“I had a toy broom?” Harry asked curiously.
“Of course you did! I bought it for you for your first birthday!” Sirius said proudly.
“Nearly killed the cat when you knocked over a vase Petunia gave me.” Lily chuckled. The room stilled around the mention of a Dursley, Lily noticed, but decided to mention it later. “So what are your classes like?”
“Defense is definitely my strongest class, potions is the worst by far.” Harry said.
“Maybe if you put effort in it would be easier,” Draco snickered.
“Maybe if you would stop sabotaging other people’s potions we all might have a chance to learn.” Hermione snapped back.
“You get into trouble? Pull pranks?” James asked with a light behind his eyes. Molly groaned in response.
“Oh he gets into trouble all right, always something going on with those three.” She elaborated.
“Who? Us?” Ron asked, looking appalled. Hermione and Harry picked up on what he was doing.
“We don’t go looking for trouble.” Hermione started.
“Trouble usually finds us.” Harry finished. “Besides, the twins get all the credit for the pranks.”
“What do you mean trouble usually finds you?” Remus asked.
“Oh there's always something they find themselves in the middle of.” Ginny said.
“I’m going to need to know what all that means.” Sirius said looking around the table, James and Lily nodding along.
The trio turned their seats around and created a small circle between them. “Should we give them a rundown?” Ron asked.
“They deserve to know.” Hermione added.
Harry paused before turning to the rest of the table. “Starting tomorrow we’ll tell everyone what happened during school up to this point. There’s stuff we need to go over ourselves before we bring it up to everyone.” Everyone seemed ok with that response, to Harry’s relief.