Proper Life

Beta read by aaquater. You do so much for me!

The results for this AU's love interests are in, and below! No going back now, hope you all enjoy!

In my defense for this chapter, I never explicitly stated Remus and Sirius weren't dating during The Life that Never Lived, and this is AU rather than canon, so, that'll be relevant here soon...

War was not a good time to be sneaking out, but Harry and Leo were still too unaware of the world to know that. They were going to learn by the end of the night.

It had started with a casual enough dinner amongst the family.

"Dad, how many different ways can I phrase it, I'm not dating anyone!" Leo sighed.

"You still won't tell me who you were trying to ask advice for about the Yule Ball last year," Sirius insisted.

Leo remained quiet, just like always. Nothing official was going on, and he'd been too embarrassed to say so. His Dad switched to another familiar tactic, "Come on Harry, you must have seen something!"

"What did you want me to do, follow him around all night?" Harry snorted. "I've already told you, I saw him there with one of his friends, but I never saw who he snuck in with."

Thankfully Uncle Remus cut in to distract him about packing, and the two shared a relieved look before James could butt in asking for details if anything had developed with Ginny over the summer because of a few letters.

To Leo's disappointment at first, Harry didn't seem as willing to ignore the subject as he was hoping though, as he found himself being shaken awake in the early hours.

"Have another nightmare?" He asked softly, wishing he could take at least some of the burden away from him.

Harry didn't answer, which was answer enough. "Want to get out of here?"

"Last time you snuck out, you were grounded for a whole summer," Leo reminded.

"I need out of this house," he said bluntly, "are you in or what?"

"I didn't say I wasn't coming," he sighed, already slipping out of bed and looking for a jumper. "I just felt like reminding you before we spend twenty minutes on a broom for ten minutes of fun and a whole summer of misery, that I warned you."

"Who said anything about a broom?"

Sirius's motorcycle kept them warm as they blasted through the night air, taking turns flying through the skies, scaring flocks of birds, and baffling a helicopter before swerving out of sight. They'd landed in a quiet neighborhood with a diminutive mall their respective Muggleborn friends had told them about and wanted a poke around, but then the chill set in.

"Leo, run!" He screamed in a panic, trying to do so himself. It was no good, he was already frozen in place as he felt the soul-sucking creatures creep ever closer.

Harry had never been able to manage a Patronus in his lessons third year, no matter how substantial his attempts came along. They'd tampered off in his fourth year for obvious reasons, and now he was finally going to meet his end, but not without a fight.

"Expecto Patronum!" He shouted as his mother's scream continued to reverberate in his head, like a whisper now, but he still wasn't strong enough. Flashes of memories flew through his mind, he clung to each more desperate than the last, but none were any stronger than his other attempts. His friends, his dad and Uncles, they were all wavering from his vision, being sucked away-

"Harry!" The small, pleading voice would be the last thing he heard...but wait, that wasn't his mother shouting to spare him. It was a cry for help.

A protective flare surged so powerful in him, he thought for a moment he'd outdone the Dementors' own capabilities and the whole place was shimmering with light. Then the silver animal burst from his wand and charged headfirst into the nearest Dementor, sending it far away.

"Leo!" He could see now, and it was a nightmare, a Dementor had him pinned down and was dragging his hands away from his face he'd instinctively tried to cover. His Patronus charged at the first glimmer of thought, leaving his cousin on the ground shaking and gasping, but still alive.

He ran to Leo by the silver light still lingering, the smallest part of him in wonder at what he'd done as the Patronus stayed protectively beside them until they made their way back to the bike and going home, and only then did the silvery doe fade.

5

Fading into sight once more was the graveyard, Cassius Warrington's dead eyes staring back at him, his mother's spectral form offering him a way out of Voldemort's death- and then he was in a long black corridor with a door that wouldn't open-

"Harry!"

He was jolted nearly onto the floor as a swath of red hair jerked him into awareness in the strange room.

"Ron!" A more reproachful voice spoke behind him. "How would you like to be woken up like that!"

"I can't believe he's asleep, I'm too excited," his best mate slammed down on the bed beside him, still beaming around the desolate room. "We're going to be helping out the Order of the Phoenix this summer!"

"I wouldn't get your hopes up too high," Harry said around a painfully long yawn. "I've barely gotten a word out of anyone what all this is about, they just said it would be safer for now to establish a headquarters. Apparently we had to be here a whole day early to make sure all the security spells were still in check, Uncle Sirius isn't happy at all-"

"Why they chose this dump I can't imagine," Ron snorted, eyeing the faded wallpaper with disgust. "Though, it is such a useless looking place, I'll bet Voldemort never would think twice about us being here-

"Ron, this is Sirius's childhood home, don't be so-"

"Oh, Uncle Sirius has called it much worse than that already," Harry cut across her. "He's going to be a real treat this summer, I can tell already, he's not any happier to be here."

A long mane of red hair came into the room then, Ginny brightening upon seeing Harry awake, but turning to Ron first and saying, "Mum's already yelling about you waking up those portraits on the way up here, you're not helping things along you know."

"I'll bet the twins ruddy did the same," he scowled. "They probably apparated to the roof and are working down from there how to blow this place up."

"I'll join them," Sirius said from behind Ginny, his now seemingly permanent scowl lodged into place as he eyed the group, muttering to himself something about a house-elf. "When you lot are done, we're meeting down in the kitchen in five."

"We're not waiting for Neville to get here?" Hermione asked in surprise.

"He and his parents have politely declined our invitation," Sirius said vaguely, "now come on you lot. The faster we get this over with, the faster we can all go back home."

"We've only been here the one night," Harry began to protest, "and you lot won't even let us-"

"You don't need to be wandering around this place," Sirius snapped uncharacteristically harsh. He caught himself at all of their shocked looks and took a deep breath, fixing a more familiar teasing expression into place. "Come on Harry, half of it's going to be about you, and I know how much you love that."

Harry resisted the urge to give his godfather the bird as he left and shooed everyone out so he could get dressed.

Daylight penetrating through the grimy windows did not make the place anymore inviting on his descent of the stairs, the house-elf heads leering down at him, the dust floating about his every step, it was no wonder his nightmare hadn't been chased away despite the new room. He caught Leo in the drawing room on the way down, seemingly framed by the enormous tapestry Sirius had tried to gare holes through last night, eyeing a wobbling desk drawer with distaste and clutching his wand.

He beckoned to him and he happily followed, keeping his voice at the barest whisper, they'd already learned that lesson the hard way. "Why do you think my dad never mentioned this place?"

"Same reason he doesn't like talking about Regulus," Harry shrugged. "Pretty sure he blames him dying on this house." He'd all but said it several times over their life. "Can you imagine growing up here? I wouldn't much either."

The kitchen was fully assembled as the two took places amongst Harry's friends at the end of the table. All around them were members of the Order, both those they recognized and some they didn't.

Harry's eyes flickered at once to his dad, Arthur, and his Uncles whispering in a quiet huddle near the head of the table, Molly beside them but holding herself stiff and slightly away with a look of complete distaste. Tension radiated from the little group tangibly. He turned questioning eyes onto his best mate, who was watching his parents resentfully, and leaned in close to whisper to him and Hermione, "Mum didn't even want to be here, threw a damned fit about us getting involved, but Professor Lupin's a persuasive one, convinced her she should know all the facts before making that decision. After that row with Percy," he paused for a moment with an ugly grimace, Harry imagining it had been much worse three days ago when he'd written Harry to tell him about it, "guess she didn't want another fight so soon, but she's not happy about any of this."

Whatever the five were discussing seemed to reach an agreement, and the table settled into mutual quiet for a moment, before Arthur cleared his throat and began, "So ah, a few introductions for some who don't-"

"Where's Dumbledore?" Ron burst out in surprise.

"Ronald!" Molly said, and even as far away as she was, Ron still reclined in his seat, but held his tone defensively. "What, this is his thing, isn't it? I just thought he'd be here."

"He's, confident we can handle this part on our own," James said with a strained smile. "Really, we're just here to make sure everyone's on the same page, and as Dumbledore practically wrote all of those pages, well," he finished with an awkward laugh. Harry watched him with interest, finding something new in his dad's tone he hadn't heard before speaking of the headmaster, but then Arthur cleared his throat and welcomed them before making sure all names were passed around, ending with Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Just the man I've been wanting to speak to actually," Sirius was quick to cut in, hardly waiting a second past the niceties. "Any news on dragging Remus back away?" His smile was predatory, even if he was trying for a jesting tone.

Kingsley seemed unphased as he calmly told, "I've made inquiries, but there has been no official word on why those Dementors attacked Harry and Leo when they did, and it certainly had nothing to do with that."

"So you're saying it's a coincidence Dementors attacked our kids, on the outskirts of our home," James' tone spoke volumes above his casual disbelief.

"I can only assure you it was not an attempt to further investigate the pair of you," Kingsley agreed, "with the kids at the wrong place, at the wrong time."

"How long is this going to go on?" Leo asked quietly, but confidently as he eyed the man. "Isn't there something we can do to prove Uncle Remus didn't attack Harry last year, there must be something other than two soulless witnesses."

"We're working on something," Sirius promised at once while Remus continued to sit uncomfortably in his seat, flushed a bit in the spotlight. "As soon as it's a foolproof plan, you two will be the first to know."

"Why do we only get told after the fact?" Harry challenged. "Why can't we help, that's what we're here for, isn't it?"

James leaned forward in his seat now, frowning at Harry, "You're here to see who you know you can trust, and so we can have a chat about this trial of yours approaching." Harry felt a flare of outrage as his dad continued to the table at large casually, "I don't like this at all, the Ministry's already proven in my eyes they'll blame the easiest victim, they tried to expel him from Hogwarts that same night. I've got a bad feeling-"

"What about Voldemort!" Harry loudly cut across, ignoring the flinches around most and the scowl on his dad for the outburst. "What's he doing? I thought that was why we were here!"

James took a long, deep breath before answering calmly, "You know as well as I do the Ministry didn't take well to Voldemort being back, so we're being careful how we go forward telling people, keeping tabs on what he's doing as quietly as possible. We don't want to cause any more of a stir than what's already been done," he finished brutally as he looked at his son, but Harry didn't flinch or back down.

"So what then? You'll tell me when you have a plan again? When he's taken over, then I get to know everything? I don't get a say in any of this?"

Something sparked in his dad's eye that did scare Harry for a moment as his dad opened his mouth, but then Sirius leaned forward and grabbed his shoulder, hissing something so low nobody had a hope of hearing.

James tried to jerk his shoulder away, but his Uncle's grip went almost white-knuckled as he added something else, and then his dad relaxed again with only a small muscle going off in his jaw. He spoke calmly now, like nothing had happened. "I'm sorry if you disagree Harry, but you have to realize your own position. You're still in school, and whatever you're told may not stay, just with you," he finished slowly, seeming to regret his own choice of words in the end as Harry glared furiously at the implications.

"So what? I either have to never talk to my friends again or never know what happened after I escaped that graveyard?"

His dad went white, he looked like he was going to be sick for a moment. Harry felt guilty for a split second, but then his Uncle Remus cut in, "I think that's enough for now. Let's take a breather, try again after lunch."

He said it with such finality, several members were already making to get up and stretch their legs after five whole minutes. His friends hesitated for a moment before doing the same, and for a heartbeat Harry didn't follow. He was going to sit there, prove he could be told anything and not share it with them if that's what it took, but then he saw Ron hesitating at the doorway waiting for him, Leo and Hermione exchanging worried looks and taking each step with care as they glanced back at him. He couldn't do it. He hadn't lied to his friends about anything since first year, and he'd never hidden anything from Leo intentionally. With a bang he stood up, not even realizing he'd knocked his chair over as he went out with them.

"That went well," Sirius muttered, before letting his face slam down onto the table. "Who thought it was a good idea to do this here again? Bloody place gives me the creeps, like I'm in a crypt."

James didn't respond, didn't even seem to be breathing, eyes still on the stairs.

Remus patted Sirius' back sympathetically while still watching James uneasily. To Kingsley, whom alone had stayed in the room, he asked, "Something we can help you with?"

"Perhaps it's not the best timing, but you did ask me to keep you informed," he folded his arms as he calmly addressed Remus alone. "Tonks is back from her sick leave next week."

"Oh, good," he said in relief, "Sirius even tried to reach out to Andromeda to find out what was going on and never got a response!"

"Were you hoping to invite her into this as well? I would have no problems extending the invitation quietly."

"Couldn't hurt to have more new blood," he agreed eagerly, "Dumbledore's already assured he has no problems with her." He hesitated for a moment before adding on, "Ah, perhaps keep to yourself everyone who's here for now until she's more comfortable, yeah? She and these two didn't depart on the best of terms."

"I can't imagine," Kingsley said with a small, albeit sly smile before nodding formally and leaving as well.

The house was quiet again, Sirius kept his forehead resting uncomfortably on the table and listening intently for anything otherwise. There were still footsteps above, and he imagined the kids were having their own powwow upstairs about what had just happened just like they would have done at fifteen. He couldn't help but ask the obvious follow up. "So, what now?"

5

"Now James, be reasonable-"

"This is me being reasonable Dumbledore," James spoke calmly, even if his arms were still crossed, he sat forward openly in the chair. "Either you tell Harry, or I will. After that trial, you can hardly pretend any more than I do; Harry knows something's up. You avoiding him on top of me hardly able to hide from him something else is going on will only make things worse."

"To tell Harry anything about the Prophecy would only make it more tantalizing for Voldemort to explore the connection-"

"And that's another thing," James tried his hardest not to let his voice rise, "instead of just worrying about what Voldemort might do, how about we do something to try and prevent it!"

"You think he's ready to know everything?" Dumbledore asked quietly.

James' heart plummeted to the dungeons below, he'd rather live there rather than answer, but he'd thought long and hard about this moment. "No, not yet. Soon though, but I'll allow you to keep doing your little side project until we have something more than an idea to tell him. He doesn't have to hear our theories of why this connection exists to try and fight back against it though."

Dumbledore stapled his fingers together in contemplative silence, and James let him as long as he needed. If they didn't come to an understanding in here, he'd go home and find one with his family, all of them this time. He only worried they'd be more outlandish than actually attainable outcomes, he, Sirius, and Remus had been trying fruitlessly for fourteen years after all and had nothing to show for it.

"There is one method, we could possibly try," Dumbledore finally spoke again, James thankfully being dragged out of his past memories turning back to him expectantly. "However, as I've had a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher assigned to me, one Dolores Umbridge-"

"Not that hag!" James instantly protested. "If I have to see her in the paper one more time- she's having a field day with Remus! Making every werewolf in the world out to be some monster, setting back all the laws that have been helping them by decades!"

"It was not my decision," Dumbledore sighed, "the Ministry is trying to ostracize my placement and discredit me-"

"Are you trying to change the subject?" James bluntly cut off. "I thought we were talking about helping Harry."

"They are, I'm afraid, not mutually exclusive at this point James," Dumbledore frowned just slightly behind his long beard. "I am merely emphasizing how, tricky, this might prove with her at our necks during this coming time. There is one method that might help Harry-"

"Let's do it then, to hell with that toad," James instantly agreed.

Dumbledore continued as if he hadn't been interrupted, "it is called Occlumency. Extremely advanced, a sort of mind exercise that very few wizards are capable of in any capacity, and possibly not at all the solution to Harry's unique problem, but perhaps-"

"Well then, we'd better get started, hadn't we," James snipped, clearly tired of the preamble.

"We?" Dumbledore sighed, and James had the odd moment of realizing how tired the old man sounded. "No, James, I'm afraid I cannot be a part of this. To open my mind to Harry, Voldemort would surely circle ever closer to him before he'd even begun to form any defense."

James fought off the urge to quiver with unease. He often loathed how much he depended on Dumbledore to have an answer, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shake the feeling his old headmaster had some vital part of information James needed to hear. He'd successfully gone fourteen years now without sharing it, but James was determined to keep peace between the two until he dug up whatever it could be. He was done hiding from the feeling that had been trying to guide him for so long. Whatever happened now, he'd plunge headfirst into that often ignored sense he'd developed.

"You should not be involved either," Dumbledore was continuing, "the path to learning Occlumency puts both parties at risk, certain secrets that one would rather keep buried-"

"I don't hide anything from my son," James said stoutly. Lying by omission is still a lie Harry! The memory slammed into him with such force, he swore for a moment his head would fall off from the pain. When had he shouted that though?

Harry had never lied to him, and he'd never purposefully done the same... He pushed away the guilt his own words caused him, speculation was not the same thing as facts. "You tell me everything you can, and I'll get Harry through this Occlumency myself."

5

"-myself not included obviously," Neville finished, rubbing at his tired eyes.

"I can't imagine my parents knowing what's going on and refusing to do anything," Ginny admitted quietly. "Even though Mum's scared stiff about us being involved, she's still trying to help."

Neville didn't answer, he was gazing up at his suitcase as if wishing he could drag it back from their compartment, his every vibe making it clear he regretted joining them on this train-ride to put this off a few more moments.

"They used to be in the Order though, didn't they?" Harry asked gently. "I, sort of remember, my dad mentioned once my mum and yours used to be friends, I think-"

"Yeah, that's probably why they don't want to be involved," Neville quickly latched on like a drowning victim. "Sorry Harry," he added quietly.

Harry didn't argue the point farther, leaving Neville's thoughts to himself, even as he shared with him like he already had Ron and Hermione his upcoming Occlumency lessons. He was admittedly excited, sneaking about the castle once a week to meet up with his dad or one of his Uncles, practicing advanced magic again to help stop his scar hurting like it had been doing increasingly over the summer, what more could he ask for?

5

"Four? Don't you think that's a little much?" Remus scoffed.

"It is being guarded inside the Ministry after all, so whatever we add on top will feel like extra," James shrugged as he shuffled papers around in front of him.

"Moody left his cloak here and specifically encouraged us to rotate every four to five hours, so everyone stays refreshed," Elphias piped up. "Some, like Arthur, only need to slip in at the end of his shift. Others can just be escorted inside under it."

"I'll take over tonight," James sighed. "Sirius? Did you want a turn any time soon, or were you hoping we'd all forget you were here?"

He'd been sitting in the corner rather than at the table and was glaring up at the ceiling.

"He's pouting," Remus mock whispered an explanation.

"I don't understand why we're doing this here!" He snapped. "The security for this place is set up in case of emergency, now we can be doing this at home!"

"Where the Ministry already suspects us of helping break someone out of Azkaban," James reminded him dryly. "I find doing at least some of our illegal activities out of the house every once in a while a good change of pace."

"I'm not complaining," Remus agreed, "you didn't have to come."

"You both said you wouldn't tell me what you were talking about unless I came myself!" He sulked. "So I might as well have-"

He was interrupted by a knock on the door, causing the portraits above to begin wailing once more.

"I'll get it," Remus offered with a meaningful look at James, who nodded and beckoned Sirius to follow. The three went upstairs, but as Remus went to stun the never ending flow of curses from Sirius's late mother, James pulled the last Black farther up the stairs to have a chat with him, both of them missing Remus opening the door to Kingsley and Tonks.

"Oh," he flushed in surprise, before trying to hurry aside so fast he knocked over the troll foot umbrella holder and only setting off the cacophony again.

Kingsley helped him fix the noise back without comment, and then exited down into the kitchen, leaving the two to stand in awkward silence as Tonks peered up at him in the gloom.

"Ah," he all but mouthed, torn between inviting her down the stairs to make this official or upstairs to somewhere more private to talk. He made the mistake of looking into her dark purple eyes again, and saw the world of questions she had, which made up his mind. She followed silently as they went up one floor and he closed the door shut tight behind him in the drawing room, before turning slowly to face her.

"So, erm, I heard you were coming by today, you'd think I'd have thought of what to say before this," he trailed off with a nervous laugh while her face slowly gained color. She kept herself at the opposite end of the room, arms crossed defensively in front of her.

"I, heard you were out sick for some time," he added on with complete remorse, "I'm so sorry you were, struggling and, the way James and Sirius treated you, while-"

"Oh, and what did those two hypocrites have to say about me?" She flared, voice dangerously soft.

Remus flinched in surprise, but also ruffled with anger for the slight. "Hypocrites? Tonks, whatever they said to you, they were lying to protect me. I'm sorry they wouldn't tell you where I've been, but they were worried about who to trust, they didn't even tell Dumbledore!"

Now it was her turn to look surprised and uneasy, taking a few cautious steps towards him as she looked up into his face. He saw words building in her, and he was quick to soothe any misgivings, "I apologize sincerely for not explaining myself to you much sooner, but I promise you it wasn't those two forcing me not to reach out, I did that myself so as not to put you under the Ministry's radar, risk your job-"

"I've already done all that, and I'll never think twice about it," she stated, coming even closer now, her face lighting with hope, and something more.

He took a cautionary step back, trying to make himself clear, "I'm not saying we can just, ah, pick up where we left off, things have changed a bit-"

She laughed, and he didn't get the joke, but kept going persistently, "but I'm hoping we can still be friends. The Order of the Phoenix, it'll help so many people-"

"Kingsley didn't exactly keep his promise," Tonks interrupted him with an odd smile. "He warned me James and Sirius were going to be a part of this, asked if that was going to be a problem. I told him no because I wanted another word with them, I was going to tell them- but I never dreamed- you being here is even better!" She stopped with a radiant expression, and Remus was starting to get nervous about that look.

"Alright," he said cautiously when she just kept gazing up at him now. "So ah, here I am, what did you need to tell me?"

"It, would probably be easier to just show you," she hedged, only looking just slightly nervous, but clearly still more excited as she took his hand and began pulling him back down the stairs. He let her get all the way to the door before pulling her up short, the sounds of more feet on stairs behind him telling him his friends were done above and would be joining them in moments anyway.

"No, I don't want to wait," she said breathless, ignoring his hesitating footsteps, dragging a bit with indecision into the bright sunlight. He hadn't gone anywhere without them in almost a year now, shut up in their home or here unless it was a full moon...there was no harm indulging her on this whim, and he trusted Tonks.

"Where are we going?"

"To meet someone," she squeezed his hand painfully tight, "he's waited long enough."

5

"Enough joking around Mikey!" Poppy sighed.

"I'm serious-"

"No, that's my dad," Leo blithely cut in.

"One of these days we're going to have to sit somewhere he can't sneak up on us," Mikey grumbled as he sat down behind them at the green hued table during Friday night's dinner.

"You'll do no such thing," Leo sniffed. "Now, what are we being my dad about?"

Poppy giggled in surprise while Mikey heavily rolled his eyes. "We're being serious about Umbridge! We just had her first class, and she was a nightmare!"

Leo's smile dropped as he nodded solemnly, erasing Poppy's good mood. "Oh not you too! So she came off a little, well-"

"She gave Harry a detention for telling the truth!" Leo said stoutly. "Now I've got one tonight as well for telling her what I thought of it! If she's going to be a bloody menace in our first week, I can only imagine how much worse she'll get."

Harry watched as all across the Great Hall similar conversations took place around him, and he hadn't a care to join in a single one. Dread filled his stomach like hot lead as he stared down at the back of his hand. Now would be the best time to tell Leo, or a Professor, or even slip off to write to his dad and tell him what his next detention would house as surely as his first. The students around him only whispered about Umbridge, but he already knew, and had no idea what to do about it.

His thoughts were interrupted by Ginny sliding in beside him. "So, any updates?" She asked casually as she began pouring stew into her bowl.

"From the Order?" He asked in surprise. "I doubt they'll bother to tell us anything more useful than the ruddy Prophet-"

"No," she interrupted kindly, "with the Quidditch tryouts tonight."

"Oh, right," he muttered. "Honestly Ginny, I'm not even going to ask. I can already guess Umbridge will just give me extra detentions for trying to worm out of this one."

She pursed her lips, clearly displeased, and muttered, "Well, I don't want to be the one to tell Angelina."

"Then don't, she'll figure it out for herself tonight when I'm not there," he scowled into his plate and blindly stabbed at whatever was on there.

She reached over and grabbed his hand, thankfully his left that was a clenched fist on the table. "Harry, what's really happening in those detentions? There's something you're not saying-"

"She's a horrible woman," he snapped, but didn't pull his hand away as he tried to meet her eyes. "That's, all anyone needs to know right now." It wasn't her problem, it wasn't anyone else's problem. He'd handle this on his own. "Where are Ron, Hermione, and Neville?" He asked to change the subject.

She pursed her lips, clearly displeased, but released his hand as she said, "Down at the pitch, watching Ron do early practice before the tryouts. I said I'd go help, but I wanted to check on you first." She went back to quickly polishing off her own meal before doing so herself. His hand felt cold the rest of the evening, even as the blood trickled down his right wrist for the fifth night in a row.

5

"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream," Tonks hummed gently to keep him soothed as he stirred in his sleep.

Five months old. Add to that the time Tonks had been pregnant and alone, afraid to turn to anyone but her own parents for help, and his child had gone over a year without his father.

Tonks had even smiled shyly when she'd told him, like she was worried he could ever hate anything about him... "You're positive?" He couldn't help but ask again, his hand still trembling just above the little youth's body, afraid to do even the smallest thing wrong.

"If nothing's happened by now but his hair changing colors, I think we're all quite positive he's more me than you," she said quietly, staying close to his side and holding his hand for support.

He took his out from underneath hers gently, and finally let his fingers trace his face lightly, her button nose, his light brown hair, the little flutter of air brushing over his fingers as he breathed. He still vividly remembered Harry and Leo at this age, what had felt like a lifetime ago...

Not hesitating a moment longer, he gently lifted his son into his arms, the baby fussing only a moment at the adjustment before sleeping soundly on. He glanced up at Tonks, but only saw the inexpressible happiness. No condemnation, not a trace of anger, only clear relief she'd finally been able to find someone else in the world who would love their son like he deserved, and not for who his father was.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered to the pair of them. "If I'd have known..."

"I tried to tell your friends," she hugged her arms to herself tightly now, shame coloring her own face. "I, they were so harsh. Afraid, I know now, but then I thought, if I'd told them, I didn't know if they'd turned on you because of what happened-"

"It's not your fault," he assured, he would not waste anymore time on what-ifs, holding his baby all the more tightly in his arms. All he could think of now was what to come. He'd been desperate before to have his name cleared, just for a taste at normal life again outside the walls of his friend's home, but now it was more than a desire, it was a tangible need. He would not hide away in shame while his son needed him, they had to fix this, by whatever means necessary.

Tonks didn't seem to notice the shift that had taken place in him, his desire to go out in the world right now and eradicate any walls in his way. She just sighed in relief, as if a physical load had been taken off of her, and he realized how much she'd been blaming herself for her silence, having to hide away their son as if in shame. He wanted to comfort her, hold her in his arms once more-

A lone, but sharp chirp rang through the house. The baby hardly flinched, but Tonks's hand crept at once to her wand in alarm, and for the first time in Remus's life he felt the protective flare of a parent. He'd nursed such a thing before, he cared for Harry and Leo like he would his own, but now he knew how true that was, Voldemort himself would not harm him.

"Sensory alarm," Tonks needlessly told him as she crept to the window, peeking out, before relaxing only slightly. "It's your friends. I should have known they wouldn't give us a damned moment of privacy."

"In their defense," he said softly, "you did sort of drag me off in the middle of an Order meeting without telling anyone, and they're not exactly in the most trusting mood lately."

Tonks didn't seem to hear a word, eyes on the gently beating heart in his arms in worry, but he just laughed softly as he encouraged her, "Let them in, please. I promise you, they'll have ah, well even better reactions than I did I'm sure."

"How sure?" She demanded, staring him in the eyes. "You having a meltdown because your son could have been a werewolf is one thing, but he shouldn't be around anything even more drastic."

Remus frowned at the idea, wondering just what she'd thought he would do at the news. Run for it? Abandon them? In his split second of realization the wild idea had crossed his mind, but he'd dismissed it just as fast in disgust, and insisted, "I swear Dora, they're safe," the alarm went off again as they tried to enter farther onto the property, and his smile turned more amused than strained, "or at least, they will be so long as you let them in voluntarily."

She did not look equally amused. "These wards were put up personally, not even the Ministry could break in here and take him," her tone held every blunt threat imaginable. "They certainly can't get in unless I or my parents let them."

"Let's ah, not test that on them," Remus pleaded.

She glanced towards the empty bedrooms, clearly wishing she'd done this when her parents were at home for backup, and Remus tried to hide a scowl as she only reluctantly waved her wand, and went to intercept the front door. He calmly followed behind her, forcing himself to remember her perspective on them, which would surely begin to melt as soon as she watched his new Uncles interact with their son. She didn't have to do this alone anymore.

Sirius, never the one for formalities on his best day, was already traipsing into this new house without so much as a courteous knock, James only a step behind him. Both with incredibly ill-tempered looks.

They had mutual looks of relief upon seeing Remus, and then very colorfully and appropriately stunned faces as they took in the scene. Whatever they'd been about to come in and say clearly wasn't relevant anymore.

"What, the bloody hell is that?" Sirius demanded, eyes buggering so wide he could have been looking at a firecrab and manticore crossbred rather than a baby in his friend's arms.

"He is our son," Tonks hissed in the blackest anger, wand still held threateningly at her side, "and I won't stand here and let you insult -"

"Oh," James articulated lamely. "Well, ah, that explains, a bit," he finished in a mutter, clearly doing the mental math much better than Sirius who still couldn't close his mouth.

Remus walked past Tonks, ignoring the way she still held herself tense and uneasy, as his steady hands offered his own little cub for them to better see. "His name is Teddy."

5

"Teddy? That's brilliant!" Harry laughed in surprise and glee, even as his Uncle Sirius' smile remained rather strained.

"What's the matter?" Harry asked in concern. "The baby's alright, isn't he? I mean, if I got bit by a fake werewolf once and nothing happened to me, surely-"

"Oh, yeah, the baby's healthy and being lovingly dotted as we speak," he was quick to assure.

"I can't wait to meet him," Harry grinned. "You'll tell Uncle Remus, won't you? And don't worry, I'll tell Leo as soon as we're done here, I haven't actually seen him lately so...Uncle Sirius?"

He didn't seem to hear a word Harry had said, and only at his name again did he jolt back and nod, "Right, let's get to it then. Before you get another detention," he added with a more familiar impish grin.

Now Harry's smile turned rather stiff, he quickly stuffed his hands into his pockets guiltily for his continued silence, but he still couldn't imagine how telling them would help anything. Umbridge had gone out of her way to make it clear she was untouchable by anyone but the Minister if word of her detentions got out-

"Right, so Occlumency," Sirius clapped his hands and bounced on the heels of his feet with his usual energy now as if nothing had happened. "The three of us have been going over this like crazy since Dumbledore turned us onto the idea-"

"Oh yeah?" Harry arched an unimpressed brow. "Did this come up in-between the talks of helping Uncle Remus and what Voldemort's doing, my scar hurting so much more lately?"

"Don't get cheeky Harry, McGonagall's only guaranteed us two hours in her office, and even then I wouldn't put it past Umbridge to poke her nose in here unannounced," Sirius sighed. "Don't you want this to stop?"

"Yes," Harry said automatically, "I just wish I'd, I don't know, that my dad would ask me every once in a while if I had any ideas on the mess of my life. I want to help you know, not just be babied through it all."

"I know that Harry," Sirius promised, "and so does your dad. He just, wants you to have a normal life before you dedicate yourself to stopping the force of all evil."

"Hard to have a normal life when Voldemort's out there," Harry whispered bitterly, glaring out the window.

Sirius tapped him lightly on the shoulder, all attention on him now as he softly met his eyes. "We managed it just fine. We spent seven years at this school living our lives while Voldemort gained his power around us. We might not have had so many, well, one on one's with the madman, but we still didn't let him control our actions." He finished calmly.

Harry gazed up at him for a moment, letting that sink in, before taking a deep breath and forcing himself to hear what his Uncle was saying. He had been particularly harsh on everyone since last June, worst of all his dad.

"Is that why he didn't come tonight?" Harry asked quietly. "He's, fighting Voldemort so I don't have to?"

Sirius hesitated for a moment before nodding slowly. "That's right pup, he wanted to be here for this first try, but well, as angry as you've been at him lately, decided maybe he should take a step back, give you some space and focus on other ways to keep Voldemort out of your life."

Guilt flooded Harry as he looked back out the window, already imagining the letter he was putting together in his head to tell his dad how much he loved him and how sorry he was for being the reason between this distance between them, but then Sirius gave him a friendly shake to keep his attention and took a few paces back.

He stopped to pull his long hair into a bun on the nape of his neck, something he only did when he was about to play a pick-up game of Quidditch with them, about the only thing he ever took, well, seriously, so Harry straightened himself, drew his wand and focused on this just like he knew his dad was doing right now.

"Right, Occlumency," Harry prompted.

Sirius cleared his throat theatrically before mock quoting something, and Harry didn't even need to ask it was likely the way his Uncle Remus had explained it. "We're going to take it in turns to pry open each others thoughts, if there's even anything there in the first place, and how to fend off foreign attacks to stop this happening against our will." Then he dropped the act and turned stern. "This is difficult magic Harry, and we all warned you it might not help, as we don't yet have proof why you have this connection to Voldemort."

Harry nodded in understanding, running his fingers over his scar for a moment before saying with determination, "I still want to try."

Sirius nodded with a proud little smile, and took one last deep breath. "Okay then, focus on something. One, single thing, idea, memory, whatever it is, and only on that. I've found it helps me anyways. That lovely patronus of yours," he added with a grin, "whatever you used to finally conjure that, might be a good place to start. You'll know when I begin, attacking," he finished with quiet unease.

Harry stood ready, just as uneasy as his Uncle stared him down, but tried to console himself he was being given the best advice he could. He tried to conjure that feeling he'd had of saving Leo's soul, but it felt impossible, how could you do such a thing on command? What else was there to do, have his cousin be in danger whenever his scar began to hurt? He didn't let how woefully under-prepared he felt as Sirius calmly said, "Legilimens."

He was four years old and sitting on his dad's lap, looking at all the moving pictures of the Mum he'd never meet. "Am I ever going to have another mommy?" Harry asked quietly. He didn't understand the look on his dad's face then, the way he tried to hide away the pain as he whispered, "No Harry, your mother was the only woman I've ever loved."

He was five, he and Leo each opening their own new brooms and trying to see how high up they could fly before their dads caught up.

He was seven and falling asleep in Uncle Remus's arms under a new moon.

He was nine and Padfoot was chasing him about the yard, unable to bark loud enough to scare away the kid's laughter.

He saw Ginny for the first time, eagerly asking her mother to go meet him on that platform, before Ron opened the compartment door.

He had timed it perfectly, Ron and Neville causing a distraction by setting toddling Mandrakes loose in the Great Hall for a seemingly end-of-year release prank, as Harry slipped a few of their leaves into his pocket-

"No!" Harry gasped in surprise, the flare of fear for what he was doing finally blocking everything else out, shouting on instinct, "Protego!"

He was six and hiding with Regulus under the kitchen table, listening to Father rant about the Mudbloods and laughing when they were caught because that's what they were supposed to do.

He was fifteen and laughing along as Prongs pantsed Snivellus, satisfied the little whelp was getting what he deserved for what he'd said to Evans.

He was seventeen and admitting to Remus that their sneaking off to experiment what snogging a bloke felt like had turned into something more and Moony smiling back.

James came crashing down into the kitchen table seemingly out of nowhere, but then he came skidding into the kitchen right behind them-

He was staring at Buggle with an unopened letter returning once more, dozens of others clutched in his hand holding the same content. He couldn't find him. A full moon was tomorrow, and even if they didn't understand why, something terrible was about to happen-

With a painful gasp, Sirius finally released the spell from both of them, the two staggering away from each other and panting in pain.

Harry's legs felt like water, he wasn't surprised to find himself on the floor and clutching his head.

Sirius mastered himself first, spitting hair that had come loose out of his mouth and stumbling to him, trying to control his shaking hands as he sunk down to Harry's level, eyeing him with concern. "That was, new," he finally muttered.

"Guess you lot didn't try that on each other," Harry whispered, as he looked up at his flushed face. He dithered for a moment, before whispering, "so, you and Uncle Moony-"

"Doesn't matter anymore," Sirius said bluntly, grey eyes holding dark shadows. "That's long done." He cleared his throat and cocked a brow at his godson. "You feel like explaining yourself?"

Harry's hands formed into fists, he scowled as he shot back, "I'm doing exactly what you lot did, you can't get so mad at me-"

"Who said anything about being mad?" Sirius burst out laughing in surprise. "I just wanted to know how far along you got?"

Harry watched him for several long minutes in surprise before quietly answering, "Ah, not far at all actually. I've done as much as I can, but I'm still-"

"Stuck on that last part," Sirius nodded without surprise. "We had motivation to get us through-"

"So do I!" Harry protested.

"I know you do Harry," Sirius ruffled his hair lovingly. "It still took us a good two years, but we were doing it illegally," he hesitated for a moment before adding almost casually, "and we didn't have help. You could."

"Really?" Harry asked, not sure he was hearing right. "I thought, you and dad would go ballistic, I wasn't even going to tell you I'd done it until I was of age."

Sirius burst out laughing, a much needed noise as the two caught their breath back from the painful experience. "Honestly pup, I'm offended, don't you know us at all? I'll admit, I'm a bit miffed you felt like hiding something so great! You going to share what Leo is, or am I going to have to guess?"

Harry wasn't so sure his dad would take to the news as well as his Uncle was now, but he smiled none-the-less he wouldn't be shouted at from all sides at least. "We're not sure, something with scales we think. He hasn't managed a Patronus yet either to even figure it out."

He nodded with a pleased smile, before dusting himself off and offering his hand, pulling them both back to their feet. "Right, now quit distracting me pup, we can work on illegal Animagus practice after we master this insane bit of magic."

He stowed his wand away and stretched with an already exhausted look in place. "Now I'll admit, it wasn't our best first attempt, but now we know how to improve. We've only been practicing this on each other for the past month and we still aren't having much luck blocking each other out completely, so maybe next time your dad will have different advice on what works, but for now, when you go to bed, practice on how to control your emotions, yeah? Make yourself angry, then sad, really feel it down to your heart, I've found that's what works for me. Hard for anyone to want to stay in your head when you're throwing an alien emotion at them, yeah?"

Harry nodded slowly, trying to completely take in the advice and commit as he walked back to Gryffindor tower, letting nothing else linger in his mind.

5

"Mind over matter," Ron said confidently during that morning's first official team practice, he and Harry dragging behind the rest slightly so his best mate could more properly brag. "I told you, I knew I had this Keeper position in the bag."

Harry smiled and genuinely meant his congratulations, but his best mate could still sense his mind on other things.

"Told anyone about it yet?" He asked quietly, eyes on Harry's still red hand. He clenched it painfully and avoided looking at him, and rubbing at it.

"No, and I don't think I'm going to."

Ron's disapproving face spoke volumes, his voice coming out in a low hiss, "I meant it last night Harry, you've got to tell someone! I won't do it behind your back, but-"

"What good will it do?" Harry hissed back. "If they didn't want Umbridge here, they wouldn't have let her-"

"Harry, I can't believe that detention is legal! Surely if you told-"

"My dad's already in trouble with the Ministry, this will only make things worse," Harry insisted. "McGonagall, no one can do anything-"

"And what? You think if you handle this yourself your dad will trust you more or something?" Ron had hit the nail on the head, and Harry not answering proved it. "This isn't some competition mate, you don't have to handle Umbridge alone."

Harry said nothing as Angelina blew a whistle and they circled into a group to begin tossing the Quaffle to each other. He couldn't promise Ron he'd tell anyone no more than he could guarantee there would be no more detentions on the horizon. This was his problem.

5

"Problem? Yeah, I'd say this is a ruddy problem!" Sirius groaned as he crumpled the paper in his hands. "High Inquisitor my arse! She hasn't been at this school a whole month yet and is trying to take over! I swear, if she tries to get rid of McGonagall-"

"I'm going to take whatever comfort I can she at least won't pass her own inspection," James said, chair tipped back and eyeing the ceiling rather than Sirius. "She'll have to kick herself out, and Moony can go back."

"Right, yeah, thanks for the delusional dream Prongs, I needed it," Sirius said sourly as he continued to pace furiously.

"Have you talked to him-"

"You know I haven't," Sirius snapped back.

"So, is your plan to just avoid him forever then?" James sighed.

"Who's avoiding whom?" Sirius easily sidestepped. "You keep sneaking off to go somewhere at night. At least Moony has an excuse, making up for lost time with his kid. Speaking of," Sirius said brightly as if the idea had just occurred to him, "I should be heading up to school, unless Harry managed to get another detention," he paused to mock wipe a tear away, "as if I couldn't be more proud."

James chuckled slightly as he finally lowered his chair, and Sirius fully met his eyes. "Planning on coming? Or would you like to make more jokes about avoiding people?"

Prongs flushed with guilt as he looked longingly towards the fireplace Sirius would depart from. "Probably best I shouldn't," he finally whispered.

"Suit yourself," Sirius sighed as he began slowly walking over to the Floo powder. "Though what makes you think putting this off forever is going to help any I can't imagine."

James didn't answer as Sirius exaggeratedly took a pinch and threw it into the fire, before stretching obnoxiously and getting in. James was still watching him with an unreadable expression as Sirius announced, "McGonagall's office."

Harry was just stepping in as Sirius came out, ruffling his hair and distractedly looking over.

"What's up pup?" He asked with a jaunting, winning smile to mask how truly worried about James he was.

He didn't think Harry would have bought it if he hadn't immediately burst into speech, "Ron's brother, Percy, sent him this obnoxious letter. Calling me dangerous and unhinged, this whole school's treating me like a leper for telling the truth!"

"Whole school huh?" He frowned in sympathy even as he gently tried to prod a smile into place. "Well, I'll just have to go have a talk with your friends, refusing to come see you this summer. And Neville, well obviously we'll have to discontinue those joint birthday parties for the pair of you-"

"Alright Uncle Sirius, I get it," Harry sighed, drawing his wand and meeting him in the center of the room. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Sirius shrugged without remorse. "You need to vent, and I can't say you're wrong, the world is acting pretty loony towards the truth," he finished with an ugly grimace of his own.

Harry eyed him curiously for a moment before telling him, "Speaking of truth, it might help to get a few things off your chest yourself. How's Uncle Remus and Teddy? Did you bring a picture this time?"

"But of course," both of them took a moment to gaze down at the happy father and the baby that had the bright pink hair of his mother, his pudgy face already losing a slight tint of his youth as he gazed up at his father and small scratch marks began flickering across his face like he was trying to mimic that as well. "Remus hates this one," Sirius smiled fondly at it. "I can't help but laugh, the kid's going to be a real spitfire."

"Guess I can't keep this one either?" Harry sighed.

"Prongs is scrap-booking the whole thing," Sirius promised as he stuffed it back away. "You won't be able to escape the adorableness of it all come break."

"I'll hold you to that," Harry grinned while Sirius began tying up his hair in a bun again.

The lesson did not go much better the second time, another dozen of memories flying past their minds, all from Harry this time, before Sirius recoiled as a stinging hex was zapped across his arm and Harry fell to the floor in exhaustion once more.

"Maybe we should be spacing these out a bit farther," Sirius said, completely repentant as he helped Harry to his feet once more. "Perhaps every two weeks-"

"No, it's fine," Harry insisted breathlessly. "I, I've got to do this! Let's go again."

Sirius was clearly doing so against his better judgment, and then cut off the next string himself as Harry began screaming.

"We're taking a break," his voice came out far harsher than he'd ever spoken to his godson, keeping him upright. Harry didn't protest this time as he stayed leaning against him, breaths coming out in a ragged mess as he clutched at his head. "Let's, um, let's head down to the kitchens, yeah?" He decided to offer. "Walk this off a bit, getting a snack might help."

"Dad always said that was your answer to everything," Harry whispered with a playful smile, eyes still slightly shut as Sirius began leading him to the door.

"Yes, well, your father does have the advantage of knowing me a bit," Sirius chuckled.

Harry finally seemed to clear his vision as they left the corridor, and was walking upright by himself as they reached the stairs. "Probably a good thing you didn't try and sneak one of McGonagall's biscuits, I think she laces them with something."

"Wouldn't surprise me at all," Sirius snorted in agreement.

"This is great though, now I can introduce you to Dobby."

"That mad little elf from two years ago?" He asked in surprise.

"I didn't tell you he started working at Hogwarts last year," Harry seemed surprised at his own lapse.

"What do you mean working here?" Sirius had the unironic urge to clean out his ears. "Elves can't hardly work anywhere after they've been given clothes, most just die off from shame."

"Dumbledore pays him," Harry looked at him in confusion for the icy tone, "and Crouch's old elf Winky is here too."

"Huh," Sirius muttered, unable to stop his mind flickering to Kreacher. He'd always hoped the bugger had died when he'd released him, now he had this odd fear there was just a group of disgraced elves in this school he might have to start avoiding.

By the time they got back to McGonagall's office, she was already in there and trying to shoo the two back to their respective places before Umbridge caught up to what they were doing, all while scolding them for not taking this time to be used properly.

Sirius was chuckling a bit as he stepped back to go home, hardly able to wait to tell Prongs she still bossed him around like a school child, before sagging in disappointment to once again find himself home alone.

5

"Alone?" Poppy said more plainly, as Mikey had begun to follow them out of the Hog's Head.

"Oh, yeah," Leo muttered in surprise and tried to visibly agree, watching Harry and Ginny leave the Hog's Head together with an uneasy look now.

Mikey took the hint and waved, catching up to Luna, as the two began to walk silently for a few streets.

They passed the rest of the assembled Hog's Head students leaving in twos and threes. Leo decided he'd rather keep watching them for a moment rather than his stomach twisting in knots at why Poppy wanted to see him alone.

Dean and Seamus were lingering at the door, holding hands and whispering to each other with unease. He caught a few snippets of Seamus' mum being unhappy about something as he passed.

Anthony Goldstein and Terry Boot seemed to be instantly forgetting about everything they'd just heard and were discussing an upcoming Gobstones tournament like nothing had happened, angering him for a moment as that seemed to be the whole wizarding world's attitude. Just pretend nothing was happening until they had no choice, at least they'd showed up.

Ernie, Hannah, and Neville were up ahead, grim faced as well like so many older students. Hannah had a copy of the Daily Prophet clutched in her hand, and Leo didn't want to know what new horrors were being covered up in there.

Cedric Diggory, his girlfriend Cho Chang, and a friend with curly hair he'd forgotten the name of were lingering behind the Hog's Head chatting uneasily as the bartender came out to shoo them away.

The twins were still following Zacharias Smith with mischievous smiles, and Ron and Hermione were seen farther ahead dropping into the Three Broomsticks holding hands.

He had been the only Slytherin in attendance, and it was technically his fault. Hermione had asked him outright if there was anyone he'd trust from his own house to bring along, and he'd vehemently said otherwise, not trusting his dorm mates as far as he could throw them, and a bit afraid of trusting anyone younger to keep a secret, and questioning anyone older to be in Malfoy's pocket.

He surprisingly felt guilty for that now, as he and Poppy began wandering down the high streets, seeing just as many green-clad students in the cold wind with dread in their wake as surely as their shadows. Since the start of the year his common room had been surprisingly subdued, as if they were all collectively waiting for something to happen. Leo wondered if he'd missed his opportunity to be the start of that heading in the right direction.

The death of Warrington had set so many on edge. The majority of those he'd heard whispers from couldn't seem to make themselves believe Voldemort would so ruthlessly kill a pureblood member of their house, that it must have been Potter to do it, or flat out refusing to think Voldemort was back at all and it was some freak accident.

But Harry's story couldn't go on ignored forever. Something would have to change.

"So, what did you think about that meeting?" Leo finally broke the silence. "I'm rather jealous we didn't think of this ourselves, a Defense group to show Umbridge we'd rather teach ourselves then-"

"Yeah, Harry's brilliant," Poppy sighed, coming to an abrupt halt outside Dervish and Bangs. She hesitated for a moment, looking Leo in the eye, before grabbing his hand and pulling him behind the building.

"Poppy, what's going on?" Leo asked, noticing she didn't let his hand go in the shadows.

"You tell me," she whispered, the space between them not even big enough for a bowtruckle to squeeze through. Poppy brushed her thumb over the red marks on the back of Leo's hand, gaze painfully intense. "What's going on in those detentions?"

Leo swallowed uncomfortably, this is not what he'd been hoping was about to happen seconds ago. "I told you, just writing lines-"

"You're lying," how was it possible she moved closer? "You have to tell someone. Even Harry, if not, me."

"He's got enough to deal with," Leo's laugh sounded fake to his own ears. "Now he's getting secret animagus practice with my dad once a month, on top of his Occlumency lessons once a week around Umbridge, now he's trying to juggle in these Defense meetings on top of his near constant detentions as well." He bit down on his lip with worry. He'd seen his hand had been as red as his own, and worried the same thing was happening to him, but what more could he do? He already spent the first minute of every class getting kicked out for mouthing off to Umbridge and then spending evenings in detention as punishment, would Slughorn care considering he'd passed inspection with flying colors? The mark wasn't permanent yet, surely it would fade like it did before. He'd already tried to hold his tongue during their last class in hopes this would happen by Christmas holiday-

His mind blurred into nothing more as Poppy reached up and brushed the hair away from his face, he leaned automatically into the touch with nothing more on his mind but a wish for more.

"You were going to ask me something," Poppy whispered, her hazel eyes intensely focused. "Right before Hermione told us to meet Harry here. What was it? The same thing you were going to ask me at the Yule Ball?"

Leo would swear his heart did a somersault in his chest. It felt ridiculous to ask now, they were standing so close...

"If you're going to ask what I think you are Leo, the answer's yes, but you have to be honest with me, otherwise this won't work. You've got to tell me-"

"I will, I promise," Leo whispered, before finally pulling her in that last inch and kissing her.

5

"-her medieval methods will not be tolerated!" McGonagall stated in cold fury.

"If you don't have her out of this school by the time I leave here, I'll cut her hands off myself," Sirius snarled, pacing so furiously in front of Leo's bed it was a wonder he didn't leave a trail of fire across the Hospital Wing.

"There is no need for threats," Dumbledore spoke in the quietest voice that still radiated above all four angry adults. Madam Pomfrey patted his hand and bustled to Harry's side to check on his essence of Murtlap as their headmaster stated, "had I known this was taking place I would have stepped in that moment-"

"That wasn't a threat Dumbledore, that was a promise," James stated, his hands remaining in fists by Harry's side. "If she left a scar on our kids, on any kids in the castle she's been doing this to- I told you to handle this! I knew something was wrong-"

"Come now, let's be reasonable," Slughorn tried to keep the calm, looking rather more minuscule than his size should allow near the doorway. "The way she's been implementing Educational Decrees, she'll have us all fired and put in jail the moment we speak a word of this on some trumped up charges against the Ministry!"

"I shall handle Dolores," Dumbledore said with absolute confidence. "Everyone shall have to hold onto, and temper out their feelings on the matter in the appropriate times." Then he left without further ado.

"That man really has a knack for saying know your place," Sirius scowled at the door, all but vibrating on the spot. "Prongs, stay here would you, I need to step out for a moment." He made to leave as well, no one having any doubts this was a bathroom break.

No one stopped him until he reached the door, and then James's voice seemed wrenched from him without his control, "Wait!"

"Are you mad!" Sirius didn't even turn around.

"Yeah, possibly," James laughed without humor. "He's right though, dammit as much as I hate to admit it, Sirius you're going to wind up in Azkaban next if you do this."

"Please, Dad," Leo's whisper carried across the room. "I want her fired, but not if you get in trouble for it." His unspoken worry lingered for their missing Uncle who should be here, who both of them would have gone to without question if he'd been able to be where he should.

Moving only one finger at a time, he slowly released the door and turned to look his son in the face who so resembled him. "Alright cub," he flushed in embarrassment at his pet name but kept looking into his eyes, "but if she bloody does it again-"

"I'll tell Dumbledore straight away," Leo promised on the spot.

He nodded slowly, it looked painful, before he addressed Madam Pomfrey, "Is that going to leave a scar?"

"No, it shouldn't," she pulled Harry's hand out for a moment to inspect it, before patting it and placing it back into the mix. "Much longer, and then perhaps, but I believe it was caught before that."

Sirius didn't so much as look at James as he walked past him, giving his son a sweet kiss on the forehead, and then Harry a rough hug. "Love you both."

"Love you too," Leo couldn't help but laugh at what he thought was his dad being theatrical now, they were clearly fine. "Can you two get out of here now, please, before our friends show up and find you two fawning over us." He glanced hopefully at Uncle James, but he wasn't looking at anyone, eyes unfocused and gazing with still worried eyes at the closed doors.

Sirius did with a last look back at the kids, before slipping out into the corridors. Leo hoped he'd manage to leave the grounds before any students saw him, then he turned to look at Uncle James, who had finally shook himself out of his stupor at the door closing a second time and caught Leo's eyes with a small, worried smile. He tried to do the same to Harry, but he was glaring at Leo and didn't even seem to notice his dad calling the same parting words.

Harry waited impatiently for Madam Pomfrey to go to her office, making the two swear they'd keep their hands right where they were before she would, before telling his cousin with his own scowl, "If I'd known she was doing this to you as well this whole time, I would have-"

"What?" Leo cut him off with an eye roll. "Threatened Umbridge some more? Started a new secret group to sulk about these rotten detentions? You weren't going to tell any more than I was before my new girlfriend dragged me to Slughorn's office and made me tell him."

Harry's eyes widened in surprise, and Leo clucked his tongue as he realized the only part Harry heard. "You've barely seen me this whole school year except to tell me we've got a new cousin, when would I have had the time to tell you Poppy and I started dating since our last Hogsmeade trip?"

He felt sorry for the clear guilt his cousin had at this realization, and switched to soothing, "It's alright Harry, you're busy, I get that. I'm looking forward to these meetings starting. That stupid educational decree isn't going to scare me away. First one's still tonight, right?"

He nodded with the first real smile, and he was eager to see it stay there for once. "So, how's it all going?"

"It?" He asked around a laugh. "If you mean the animagus practice, really well, Uncle Sirius thinks I'll manage it by Easter."

"Lucky," he pouted, "I've done everything you have!"

"I'm also a year older than you," he couldn't keep the smirk of superiority out of his tone, "it was bound to happen, considering you still can hardly grow more than a few black scales at once."

Leo huffed and pouted for a moment before noticing him wince and rub at his scar, and he immediately turned back to sympathetic. "And the Occlumency? Is it helping at all?"

"I, don't think so," Harry sighed. "I think, it's hurting worse honestly. I'm still having those dreams, and I've no idea what they mean!"

"I'm sorry all of this is happening to you," he whispered.

He put on a brave smile, "I guess I'd rather it be me than you." He paused for so long Leo thought the conversation was meant to end there, he even heard Madam Pomfrey's door open again behind them. They sat in silence as she handed them each a vial and told them to keep their hands soaking in it for a night and come to see her in the morning to check on the progress before allowing them down for dinner, a miracle in itself.

They made it down a whole floor before Harry finally asked, "How do you feel about Ginny?"

Leo didn't miss a beat. "What, like as your girlfriend?"

"Maybe," Harry only blushed slightly. "We haven't said anything official yet like you two, but, I mean I hope-"

"If you're asking for approval cuz, you've got it. She's been hanging around you more than us this year, but she was sort of my friend first, so I know she's a good one."

"I already knew that," Harry rolled his eyes, "I was just, I don't know, looking for something nice to talk about."

"And you thought of Ginny first? Oh yeah, you two will be dating by Christmas." Then Leo burst out laughing as he bumped their shoulders together. "Our dads are going to go ballistic come winter break if we share all of this. I admit, I still can't wait, I want to see Teddy!" He paused for a moment, looking around and genuinely worried someone would over hear, so lowering his voice to a whisper, "Do you think we should have said something to my dad? About him and Uncle Remus? Both of us said it would be nice to see them together, now would have been a time to ask why it didn't work between them, maybe caught him off guard while he's worrying about us."

"I've tried," Harry sighed. "He shuts me out every time, he clearly doesn't like to talk about it."

"Well, we'll have to come up with something over the holiday," Leo said with complete determination. "Maybe some well placed mistletoe will do the trick."

"I don't know if we should meddle Leo," Harry tried to caution. "Uncle Remus had a baby with this Tonks, remember? Maybe they're together now."

"One of our dads surely would have mentioned that when they told us about his newfound infant," Leo protested. "I don't like her much anyways, hiding that all this time! I don't want Uncle Remus with her!"

"I don't think we got the whole story," Harry hedged. "I don't know, I'm just not sure we have a right to meddle in, this," he said awkwardly, while Leo sighed heavily.

"The one thing you want to keep your nose out of!" Harry said nothing, so he declared, "Fine, I'll figure something out without you." Harry didn't answer, but Leo smiled all the way down to the Great Hall, he was completely confident Uncle Remus was going to thank his help getting back together with his dad.

5

"Dad?" Harry stopped in surprise upon finding him in McGonagall's office, which quickly turned into worry. "Is Mr. Weasley alright? Did that snake attack Uncle Sirius this time-"

"Wha- no, yes, they're fine!" James was quick to assure. "Nothing new's happened with anyone, everybody's fine!"

"Oh," Harry rocked uneasily on his heels, feeling bad for the assumption now. "Alright, ah, guess, you just, surprised me," he finished lamely.

James nodded in understanding, his mind clearly still distracted as he went right back to looking past Harry, but this time shook himself and clearly cut off his train of thought. "No, ah, I just figured, after what happened, maybe I should have a crack at helping you with this? That is, I, well I took to it differently than Sirius, so-"

"Yeah, sure, couldn't hurt right," Harry said with an uneasy smile he didn't at all feel. He couldn't imagine what help his dad would be other than his Uncle Sirius, he'd been almost ready to tell them all to give it up at this point. He'd been in the mind of Voldemort's snake, if anything these lessons were just making everything worse.

He hadn't spent any time with any of his family over the holiday though, everyone was so worried about Arthur and the Weasleys, running around St. Mungo's and the Burrow to help out in the meantime. He and Leo had only gotten to meet their newest cousin for a few brief moments before Uncle Remus had whisked Tonks and Teddy back home on Christmas day, what with the Ministry sending over Dawlish and another Auror for an official inquiry.

Hectic had become his new normal, but the two consistent things had been his Uncle Sirius's weekly visits for Occlumency and their progressive DA lessons. He didn't like the idea of that changing now, considering his dad hadn't managed any more than him to put into words the void between them that only seemed to be filling with time, both unable to speak to the other about their own growing worries of late.

Maybe now they could, as James began to start his lesson. "Right, so, I know Sirius has been trying to get you to concentrate on a singular emotion, and you've been having spotty progress, yes?"

"Yeah," Harry uneasily agreed. He could now, more or less, throw off the Legilimens spell cast his way, but this was always followed up with painful shoots of pain across his forehead and even more vivid nightmares after every lesson.

"So, now, we're going to try the next step, advance the lesson if you will. You're going to empty your mind of everything. Emotion, feeling, let it slowly out of you."

Harry gaped at him in disbelief. "How on Earth am I supposed to manage that?"

James gave him a tired grin. "If you manage it, I'd love to know. I'm rather stuck on that myself. Doesn't hurt to practice though, right? Can't hardly make it worse."

Harry didn't feel as confident, but stood ready all the same. He tried his hardest, picturing the white school grounds in his mind unmarked by footprints yet, but then realizing that was invoking the emotion of the joy he had with every snowball fight with his friends. He tried again, summoning a blank bit of parchment, but that just lead to boredom leading to homework, and that was still an emotion! He ground his teeth in frustration, screwing his eyes tight shut and imagining his mind like a faucet, twisting the handle and letting everything out like slowly dripping water...

"Okay," he whispered.

There was an uneasy pause, the hesitation distracting him at the last second- "Legilimens!"

"I'm sorry Lily," Wormtail whispered as Lord Voldemort stepped over the threshold.

She took a step back, away from him, them, the realization of betrayal smothered in the same second that it was replaced with a spark. That very same one that had been so many's last. Her eyes strayed to her wand, clutched in her once friend's hand, and he saw in her the will to wrestle it away, fight back. It may have even been amusing for a moment before he cut her down...

Then the infant in her arms began fussing, and she fled.

He glided behind her, filled with that righteous sense of purpose that preceded murder, yet not for her. He would do his loyal follower this, if she accepted what was to come.

He could hear the furniture being thrown around in one closed door, and he waved his wand with hardly a thought, finding her standing defiantly in front of the crib.

"Not Harry! Please, kill me instead, not Harry!"

He considered for a moment, it would be so easy to simply move her aside, but no, he had already allowed one life to be spared tonight. The pureblood may have some worth down the line, but what use could she be-

It ended as abruptly as it began. "I'm sorry!" Harry gasped. "I, don't understand, I didn't..." he trailed off, watching his dad miserably, his heart thundering in his chest as more memories than he ever would have believed he'd wanted lingered in his mind over that night...

His dad didn't seem to hear him, was looking right through him. Harry clutched miserably at his forehead, trying to understand the jumble of what had just happened. "Dad, what, what was that?" It had all come in flashes, his mother's bright red hair, the flash of green light, her screams he knew so well- "Dad?"

James jolted like an electric shock had surged through him, he gasped like it was his last breath as he met his son's eyes. "Harry?"

Harry shrank back from him in confusion, fear even. His dad had never said his name like that, like a question he didn't know the answer to.

"I'm sorry, I, I have to," he hated himself more than Voldemort as his feet took him from that room, out of the castle grounds. He owed his son an explanation, but he had to remember what that was first.

5

"First place I should have checked," Sirius whispered miserably to himself, his words being carried away by the wind anyways before a soul could hear. He had not entered this home in over fourteen years, none of them had, unable to bear the weight of what it did to them just to even think of the place. He didn't know where else to go though.

The door opened quietly, to his surprise, the whole house held an eerie silence so absolute at first Sirius still hoped he'd been wrong and could leave here. A glance to the left, up the stairs would have been his first instinct, but then the clouds flickered above enough to cast light in the shadows of the living room and he saw him.

James was leaning against the sofa, hands trembling on the back and looking down into the frayed seat cushions with a completely blank look across his face.

"Prongs?" His best mate started to life, whirling on the spot with a wand now in Sirius' face. Sirius hardly blinked as he took him in, the chalk white skin, the half mad look in his eyes. "What the bloody hell is the matter with you?"

"I don't know," James' voice managed to sound like it was coming from a million miles away despite whispering it right in front of him.

"Well let's start with something easier then," Sirius moved forward fearlessly, grabbing his arm and slowly lowering the wand he didn't even seem to realize he was still clutching. "Where the hell have you been? Is this where you've been coming all year? You didn't come home from the Occlumency lesson, giving me a right heart attack! Voldemort's out there you areshole and you chose now to vanish on us! Been running around all night trying to figure out where you- why you'd be here!"

James wasn't looking at him anymore, eyes back to traveling the old room. "I, Harry had, a memory," he answered in a dead like voice. "It's not one he should have though. I keep- the same's been happening to me since Voldemort came back. I should have known, we should have known that was going to happen... I don't think it's a theory anymore Sirius, it's true."

Sirius felt his heart thud painfully in his chest, but he wasn't really surprised, forcing himself to sound blithe as he took it in stride. "Well, then we'll fix it, get it out of him-"

James turned back to look at him with that mad look back behind his eyes. "I've been remembering things myself, things that didn't happen, or they should have happened but didn't-" his hands pressed painfully into his temples, he would have been screaming if his voice wasn't hoarse. "I stopped, ignoring that feeling, ever since Barty Crouch Jr. tried to kill Harry! I've been trying to remember- I know you felt it too! Now I, I can't make it stop-"

"James! James, look at me," Sirius grabbed his shoulders, shaking him almost painfully. "We can't change what happened-"

"But we could have," James sobbed. "My fault, I, ignored that feeling, thought Peter could change-"

Sirius released him, stepping away as if he'd been burned, the shame of his own actions that night rearing their head once more- but now James grabbed him, and he was looking at him again with pure sanity, and fierceness. "You've got to promise me Sirius!"

"Anything," he said without hesitation.

"You, you and Remus," James' voice tried to keep steady, but he was still shaking. "If, anything happens to me, you two can't, can't stop looking out for each other! You've got to trust each other, look out for Harry-"

"Of course," Sirius instantly bristled at him thinking anything otherwise, but then he felt it, what James could no longer shake off. A tiny little shot of pain through his skull, a whisper of something else, that made this not always true...that instinct had nearly killed him the last time he'd listened to it though... "James, listen to me," he grabbed his arm and began pulling him back towards the door, away from this place. "We left here, promising we'd do right by our kids, yeah? We didn't come back after Godric's Hollow, because we wanted a fresh start without scaring ourselves what would happen next."

James stumbled along with him, but he still took one last desperate glance to the old kitchen, the table sitting innocently in perfect condition.

"Let's go home Prongs," Sirius pleaded, "you can sleep this off, get your head right, as if it ever was before," he added feebly. They crossed the threshold, and James slowly began to blink as if waking from a long sleep. He nodded, and tried to believe what his best friend was saying, that they could still fix this. He would wait only a few months longer to tell Harry, let his son finish his school year with one last shred of piece, before they could no longer fight the truth.

5

"Truth, I swear-"

"Here, see for yourself-"

Neville heard it all like wasps buzzing in the background as the Great Hall passed around the same article to each other, whispering their names in fear, but also excitement for such an unprecedented development.

"Neville! Wait up!" He didn't hear his friends trying to follow after him as he sprinted along the House tables, could hardly spare a thought for how Harry would be feeling towards this news being blamed on his Uncle.

"It makes perfect sense a monster would break out these inmates-"

"You're talking about Professor Lupin!"

"My dad said I was lucky to not be eaten while he was here-"

He didn't care about any of it. He heard like a faint croak Umbridge trying to demand order as he burst into the Entrance Hall and took off up the stairs, one clear thought in his head, to get home. He made it all the way to McGonagall's office, barging in without knocking he was so far lost in his own head, before he stopped in surprise to find it empty, only then registering what he hadn't taken the time to. She'd be down at breakfast, where he just left. He had neither the time, nor the inclination to go through her office for the green powder, he would have to ask her then. She had to get him home!

He turned on the spot so fast it was as if he were hoping to apparate back down there no matter how ineffective that was here, and slammed right into Harry.

"What the bloody hell Neville?" Ron demanded, red in the face from chasing after him, Hermione sprinting up as well, clutching a stitch in her side.

He didn't want to stop to explain, it would only waste time, so he grabbed Harry off the floor and all but dragged him along. If they wanted to hear this, they'd have to keep up.

"Bellatrix Lestrange is out!"

"Yeah, we got that part," Harry panted.

"She, it's complicated, but I've got to get home, check on Maybell!"

"Your sister?" Hermione asked, only slightly lagging behind the taller boys.

He almost rammed into a wall he turned a corner so fast and all but flew down more stairs. "I know I never talk about her, alright, and I've got a good reason! Just, believe me for now, alright!"

Their silence was answer enough, nobody asked any more questions as they wound up right back where they started, in time to see Professors McGonagall and Sprout leaving with very concerned expressions, whispering to each other.

"Professor McGonagall!" Neville called over the din of students heading off to class.

She spotted him, the four of them all panting from exertion from their bout of the castle, and without hesitation beckoned them into the antichamber off the Great Hall.

It was strange to be back in here, most rarely glanced at the place after their first night in the castle before the sorting, but he had more important things to worry about than sentimentality as the door closed behind their Head of House and he at once stated, "I've got to go home! You've got to let me Floo through your fireplace-"

"Mr. Longbottom," Professor McGonagall began, half stern half cautious. "If there's been an emergency, you must tell me so I can alert-"

"You can't alert anyone to what's happening, they already know!" He shouted. "Bellatrix Lestrange's going to go after my parents, right now!"

"And what makes you so sure," she asked kindly, recognizing his panic and clearly trying to infuse some logic into him. "Be reasonable Mr. Longbottom, an escaped prisoner will have more on their mind than-"

"My parents put her away!" Neville interrupted, ignoring his friends watching with shock around him. "I don't know the story alright, they've just always warned me if there's one person they put away who would want revenge, it's her! My sister, Maybell, she's a squib! She can't defend herself, I've got to go home, right now, make sure she's okay!"

McGonagall's face softened in understanding, but was no less adamant as she said, "I'm sorry Mr. Longbottom, but even if I could permit you to leave, your parents have already sent me instructions to remind you your grandmother is a perfectly capable witch."

"Gran?" The surprise in his voice was only matched by the uneasiness he clearly still felt about that. "They haven't talked to her much lately, she didn't seem thrilled when, well, when Maybell was found to be a Squib."

"You missed the morning mail," she added kindly, "perhaps that shall soothe your nerves. I shall inform Professor Flitwick of your temporary tardiness."

She left them there while Neville sank back against the wall, feeling ten times worse than he ever had worrying about what house he'd be sorted into.

Ron rubbed at the back of his neck uneasily before whispering, "I, ah, if I ever said anything about Filch, Neville, you know we wouldn't mock your sister for that, right?"

Their friend rubbed at his eyes for a few moments, they were still slightly bloodshot as he looked back at them. "Yeah, no, I mean, don't worry Ron. I've bad mouthed Filch myself, he's a menace, but my sister's nothing like him. She's sweet, an artist actually, spends all her free time painting," he took a rattling breath and tried to steady his nerves. "My parents told me not to talk about her much though, didn't want the wrong people to hear, I mean, they're not hiding her away," he said stoutly, "they just-"

"Worry," Harry whispered empathetically.

The two gazed at each other in understanding, like the other two just couldn't. Harry was already falling in love with Ginny, even now couldn't imagine the pain of Voldemort taking her away, but still knew he hadn't grasped what his dad felt as he relived losing Lily Potter last night. He just wished his dad didn't have to hide that pain from him.

"Come on Neville," Hermione urged him, "I think McGonagall was saying you missed a bit of mail from your parents, so the owl would either be up in Gryffindor tower waiting for you, or up in the Owlery, waiting to deliver it tomorrow."

"We'll take the Owlery," Harry agreed, "come on Neville."

The four went back up the school, alternately bad mouthing Umbridge some more for cutting off access to and from the school even from the teachers in more bouts of tyranny, and trying to come up with ways to comfort Neville, each other really, that their families outside were still alright.

5

"Alright? Of course I'm alright with it, why wouldn't I be? They've only been snogging in front of me for almost three months now."

Hermione couldn't help a small laugh at his forced casual tone as she repeated patiently, "Just making sure there's nothing you wanted to get off your chest, not that you've ever needed such encouragement before." She paused to allow Peeves to whizz by, fighting back the restraint of following him even if they've been ignoring the third rule in their Prefects guide handbook since their patrols had started while Umbridge was here.

Ron suddenly stopped halfway down the corridor, leaning abruptly against the statue of a one-eyed witch with a hump so that Hermione almost crashed into him. "What's wrong?"

"It's not that I'm not happy for them," he muttered, glaring out into the night rather than properly looking at her. "It's just, I don't know, would it have killed one of my best mates to say something before this started?"

"I don't think it was much Harry's idea anyway," Hermione shrugged. "Ginny wanted some way to cheer him up after he was kicked off the Quidditch team, things just spiraled from there. Neville and I sort of thought it was coming anyway, they've been hanging out a lot since the Yule Ball," she hinted, but then, she'd been doing that since last year herself.

Ron didn't seem to pick up on it any more than he had a year ago, sometimes she wondered what even would have happened if Neville hadn't intervened. Ron was the most oblivious idiot in this school, but she was sure it wasn't just her imagination he'd been finding excuses to hold her hand a lot lately, and they didn't strictly have to do their Prefect duties together but he'd been coming along with her nevertheless...

It was obvious enough, wasn't it? She should stop waiting around, if she wanted it any more clear she should just say something herself-

Ron startled to life with a yelp, turning on the spot and drawing his wand in the same moment as he stayed between her and the statue behind them opening.

One of the twins poked his head out, then smirked. "See George, I told you we weren't interrupting anything."

Fred climbed out, and moments later his twin joined, the two looking as casual as ever as George folded a bit of parchment and stuffed it out of sight.

"What the bloody hell were you two doing in there?" Ron demanded, lowering his wand but still looking ready to hex the pair for their abrupt arrival.

"Now that's an interesting question, isn't it," George smirked.

"I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable answer," Fred added with a chuckle.

Hermione opened her mouth, but then, to everyone's surprise, closed it, clearly all but biting her tongue for a moment before speaking again, "Is this another of your plans against Umbridge? If so, come on Ron, we've got to finish our patrols."

Ron looked longingly at the statue before following in her wake, not even bothering to whisper, "We're not even going to ask where that statue goes? I'm bloody curious myself-"

The twins hesitated only a moment more, before George impulsively shouted, "Wait up Ron."

Fred rolled his eyes and muttered something about waiting, but their only younger brother had already turned back in surprise, and a bit of eagerness. "Yeah?"

"I do believe you've just proven yourself a worthy successor," George grinned, beckoning him back.

"Err, what?" He muttered, stopping with plenty of room to spare just in case now as he glanced back at Hermione. His brothers had been putting their pranking efforts solely on Umbridge for some time now, but he wasn't sure what else could be going on. She merely shrugged, as mystified as him.

"It takes quite the Prefect to not only acknowledge trouble but walk away from it," George snorted.

"Plus, we were going to give this to you anyways when we graduated, but I suppose we can now as well," Fred sighed.

"We've got a few more big plans left all squared away anyways, we hardly need it anymore," George told his twin bracingly before pulling that bit of parchment back out.

"Err," Ron could only think to say in answer to whatever was going on.

"Hopefully this'll help keep you lot into trouble," Fred grinned.

"We hope you use it well," George grinned identically, before the two showed off their 'favorite teachers'.

Ron hardly looked up from it the rest of the patrol, while Hermione thought to herself she wished they'd done this years ago, it would have done so much in keeping them safe.

5

"-safe in these arms my magic child," Remus crooned as Teddy finally fell asleep in his arms once more.

Sirius grinned from the doorway where he'd been leaning, watching the show. "Lily used to sing that one all the time," he sighed. "Leo wouldn't settle for a lullaby to save his life, I had to read whole books to settle him down for the briefest nap."

"Hmm, reading puts him to sleep, and he's a tad extra about it, now who does that sound like?" Remus chuckled softly, heart melting all over again as his son nestled farther into his chest when it rumbled with laughter. After a few more blissful moments, he finally had to acquit it wouldn't do Teddy any good to live out of his father's arms, and laid him gently down in his crib, shutting the door softly behind him and following Sirius to the living room. He was surprised not to find James there.

"How's Prongs?" He tried to ask casually, instead of his instinctive worry to dart over to their house.

"About the same," Sirius muttered, beginning to pace uneasily under the guise of rearranging a few stray toys left about. His hand lingered in an odd way for the sheets folded neatly on the couch. "Was Ollivander here?" He asked in surprise, finding a new to him wand left on the table.

"Yeah, he finally came through," Remus said in relief, stepping forward to take it back up and pocket it. "Can't imagine what Dumbledore said to him-"

"The truth seems to work for most people," Sirius said venomously, before he winced and Remus stepped closer to him in concern.

"Truth," Sirius laughed ironically. "That's what James is convinced is going through his head. Been muttering to himself a lot, things that make no damn sense. You remember I gave Kreacher clothes, back all that time ago when I found out my brother died? Yeah well, Prongs spent a good ten minutes yesterday trying to convince me he was still around Grimmauld Place and we had to do something about him before that mad elf did something to me. Can you imagine?"

Remus sunk uneasily onto the couch, rubbing at the scars across his face he still wasn't used to feeling. He worried what his son would think about them when he grew up, knew the kind of harm he could inflict on himself, let alone him...all he'd have to do was look at Harry's arm to see how dangerous this world was just because he was involved. "There must be something we can do to, I don't know, help him calm back down. Have you tried asking Dumbledore yet?" He asked distractedly.

The odd noise Sirius made had Remus looking up completely alert in further concern, "That's actually why I'm here. Figured you'd want to know, but err, Dumbledore's on the run from the Ministry now too. Just got word from McGonagall, Harry's DA group got caught by Umbridge, Dumbledore pinned it on himself to save Harry, it was a whole messy thing apparently, now he's wanted for questioning about anti-Ministry influences."

Remus hadn't realized his mouth was open until Sirius managed a grin, coming over to close his jaw for him. Then he sank down beside him on the couch and rubbed his palms against his robes to try and hide the tension he kept well out of his voice. "Things are going to hell Moony," he whispered, "I think we should move forward with my idea."

"I think so too," Remus said at once, he'd been wanting to bring up the same since he'd found out about Teddy, but had agreed to wait so Harry could have the extra time with Sirius for the Occlumency lessons. Now, those seemed unofficially done, or at least, nobody had brought them up since Prongs had been there last. Harry had already sent them multiple letters telling them it was okay if they missed a few more sessions, they hadn't seemed to be helping much anyways.

Now Sirius had all the time in the world to act this out, for the lot of them to plan every step and contingency. It was dangerous, and had great potential to backfire in a spectacular way, but they were out of options. They had to get Remus in the clear before things got steadily worse.

"Think we'll be able to manage faking my own death? Where did you come up with an idea like that anyway?" Remus asked, just to be sure they were still on the same page, eyes back on his infant's room.

"Don't know, just sort of came to me. Leaving a finger behind though, you've got to admit, that's a bit genius."

"Yeah, can't say I'm looking forward to it, we still don't have proof Skele Gro will work on me," Remus muttered, flexing his hand in concern.

"We won't take an important finger," Sirius rolled his eyes, reaching over to casually grab his hand and sort them out, palm against palm, before jabbing Remus' ring finger. "How about this one? It isn't doing you any good."

Remus jerked his hand away with a scowl, his faith in this slipping by the minute. Even if it went off without a hitch, and the entire Ministry believed the ruse, there were no guarantees whatever fake name and disguise he tried to use afterward would not get him caught just as fast and they'd end up in an even worse situation. The risk was worth it though, just to go to Diagon Alley with his son...

Sirius cleared his throat before asking, "Ah, where's Tonks? She might, you know, want some details before we start."

"At work, she's going to be late tonight."

"Oh, alright," Sirius muttered lamely, still sitting on the edge of the seat and not looking at anything, but hands still fidgeting with the sheets. "Erm, so are you two, living together now? You're here more than our house lately."

Remus sighed, knowing they had to address the dragon in the room if this was ever going to work. They had to trust each other explicitly, without a second of hesitation, and get James on board, as he was no fan of this. Sirius's problem seemed easier to address. "I don't know, I still...need to figure that out myself."

He'd been expecting it, but felt no pleasure Sirius swelled with anger at the implications. "Well, it's not as if you haven't had almost twenty years to know what falling in love feels like. It's a simple question Remus, do you love her or not? Do you want to marry her?"

The last time Sirius had asked that, there had been no her involved, and Remus had run away to Albania rather than answer him.

The mistake had proved irreparable upon his return with Sirius having a baby now, and the unspoken conversation that had stretched for following years was building now more than ever. All the reasons, excuses, he'd used back then, already flimsy, could no longer be thrown around.

This was the first time they'd been truly alone together since Teddy, and Remus breathed in every last awkward second of it. He'd do anything for his son, including never being there for him again if this all went so terribly wrong and he died for real. At least his son would grow up with his mother's name and be free in his own way.

"Doesn't matter anymore," Remus whispered, "that's not going to play a part in what happens next."

"I still think it does," Sirius said around a thick throat. "Might want to enact a quick hitch before we begin the burial!"

"Guess we don't get all the answers we wanted then," Remus said firmly. "Maybe, if I had more time to think about it-"

"You've had since we were seventeen to think about it Remus!" Sirius snapped, finally looking at him. There was a dark glint in his grey eyes, something Remus used to see all the time in their youth, a promise someone was going to walk away from this in pain. "Don't tell me what you think I want to hear you idiot! I'm not hung up over you anymore than you are me! That's why we never bothered to bring this up, or at least I didn't! I respected you didn't want kids, well look how well that turned out for you!"

"I never said that," Remus whispered, so quietly he almost hoped Sirius didn't hear him above his shouting, but he did anyway. "I, do, did, whatever. I just, despite the Wolfsbane as close to a cure as I would ever get, I worried," his very human nails bit into the palms of his hands, but that didn't erase the flash of the wolf-like paw scraping across his own face in a Dementor-ridden pain-fueled nightmare that had driven him to show who he really was.

"I'm not like you Sirius, I can't pretend I'm, not with Leo-" Sirius looked ready to hit him for a moment and Remus quickly backtracked, "not with any kid-"

"But you are now, you idiot!" Remus winced at the volume and glanced worriedly at the door to see if he'd woken, and then looked back to see Sirius' smug look.

"I know, and it was the best mistake I've ever made. I wouldn't take it back if given the chance, but Sirius, I don't think that changes- look at my life you idiot! I'm hiding out under a cloak half the time now because of what I am! Once a month, for the rest of his life, I can't be near him! You really want that for Leo?"

"That's already his life you idiot," Sirius rolled his eyes. "He loves you, as does Harry, and half the damn kids at that school! I'll never understand why, no matter what, you insist life's going to screw you over."

"Hard to shake the feeling," Remus said quietly, the sense of deja vu that had slowly been building around them growing more painful as the days dragged on.

Sirius felt his stomach heave, he wondered if he was going to be sick for a moment as the same feeling tried to wash over him, but he refused to let that consume him. "Dammit, I don't care what goes wrong! I made a promise and I'm still going to be your best friend as long as I'm James's brother! No stupid, feeling, is going to change that, I'll live my life however I f'ing want no matter what comes next!"

Sirius' face was flushed with anger at the end for the world, making Remus' blood start to boil with worry. This plan had to work, or he likely wouldn't ever get the chance to see him again any more than his son. Now that the reality of that was sitting right around the corner from him, they would have to do this by summer's end lest Harry and Leo try to get involved, he still proved the coward he was.

Something was about to happen. He wouldn't let it without Sirius, both of them having an answer, so he leaned forward and kissed him.

Just like he always had, Sirius pulled him in closer. Remus couldn't blame Sirius being the instigator this time, but he did still have to be the one to pull away and get his breath back.

Sirius still looked punch-drunk for a few moments even as his hand lingered on Moony's shirt collar. "Tonks?"

"I never kissed her like that," Remus answered.

Sirius turned smug, and Remus pushed him away, just a bit. "You're such an arse."

"You already knew that," Sirius shrugged without remorse as he only scooted back closer.

Remus let him with an unrepentant smile. He felt lighter than he had since he'd been at Hogwarts, and even then his home there as a teacher had never looked so promising. "Well then, just one more thing to do before we go kamikaze."

"What's that?" Sirius didn't know why he bothered asking, he already knew the answer, and nobody was going to like it.

Remus said it aloud anyways. "Tell Prongs."

5

"Prongs-" Sirius didn't stop as he followed James to the doorway, but there was a feeling again. One they'd been carrying, acknowledging with increasing consistency lately, now more powerful than ever as they began their desperate sprint to the Ministry.

"I know Padfoot," James agreed without hesitation. "Slughorn wasn't much to go off of, it's a miracle he had the brains, let alone the guts to follow Harry into the Forest when Umbridge asked for his help. You stay clear of Bellatrix, though, yeah? Focus on getting our boys out of there."

"Wha-" Sirius tried to interrupt. He didn't like the look on his face as they apparated to the visitors' entrance, not waiting on the rest of the Order since Slughorn was heading to Headquarters next. He wasn't a member, it would take some explaining, more time than either of them were willing to spare to go there themselves when their kids needed them, now.

The spots of madness that had been coloring James had finally seemed to vanish, he was walking into this with a completely clear head with his son in danger. "Just trust me Sirius. We'll watch each other's backs, just like always."

They didn't say another word as they tore down to the place they'd been guarding all year against Voldemort, only to enter the Department of Mysteries now and find their path wide open. They had not put an Order guard on sight, what with their ranks dwindling by the day now it had felt equal to suicide to leave anyone alone to guard the Prophecy anymore, none had suspected Voldemort would make his move after Broderick Bode had been driven insane trying to carry out the Imperiused orders. Riddle himself would have to come and retrieve it, they'd thought it was safe...

Forced to try one room at a time and delayed by this place living up to its name, they finally found the right room and crept slowly into a scene from their nightmares. Harry, Leo, a whole group of kids surrounded by Death Eaters, vulnerable and afraid. Harry was clutching the Prophecy, shoulder to shoulder with his cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange was staring at them with a hungry look in her eyes.

Before either could move, the kids burst into action. They would have been proud of the shelves toppling over and the following chaos that ensued, if it weren't for how it all ended.

5

"-ended that fight the moment- I should have- we always, always promised we would put you first- Harry, I would have done anything to-" he swallowed, tried again, "I can't imagine how you're feeling, no matter how much I'm going to miss him too. He, he was-" this wasn't how it was supposed to go! This wasn't part of the plan!

Harry didn't care, this was not the voice he needed to hear right now, and it never would be again. He lashed out, desperate to make this feeling bleed into someone else, "I don't care! I wish it had been anyone else! I wish it were you!"

Harry's voice broke on the last word as he was left gasping and sobbing, finally his knees gave out and he just fell to the floor.

Sirius followed, like he nearly had when James fell through that veil. Only the cry of his godson had stopped him. He didn't leave his side the rest of the night, comforting the boy no matter how hard he pulled away, as the two cried neither knew how long.

...Hate me yet?

For the record, I can't for the life of me figure out what Dumbledore could have said to Umbridge to make her stop using the blood quill, but it did work never-the-less. Put it down to Dumbledore's magic just like he got her away from the Centaurs later, maybe he even said the exact same thing. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Oh, and to also clarify, they didn't go through with the plan, Harry seeing Voldemort torturing (James or Sirius, I really couldn't pick,) happened before they managed to do it, so in the next book Remus's name will just be cleared like Sirius's was due to the Ministry forcing to admit Voldemort's back and acknowledge Dumbledore's always right about everything. Another anticlimactic end to a story-line...sorry...I warned you guys I'm no good at this back in the first chapter!

Last thing of note, I'm genuinely surprised the canon pairings won the poll. That is all.