Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

    Empty. That was all he felt now-a-days. No matter what he did. It all was finally over, the war he’d prepared for his whole life. It was a bit anticlimactic actually. He had known for a long time now that he was going to die in this war one way or the other.

  Ever since he heard the prophecy in Dumbledore’s office, he had prepared himself for the inevitable death that was going to follow, and it did, he embraced it, thinking he’d finally achieve his peace. Finally get to be with his parents, with Sirius. But then he was given a second chance and yeah he could never just let things go could he, couldn’t leave his friends to fight the monster alone, couldn’t leave his task unfinished and leave others to suffer for it.

  It shouldn’t have been his task to begin with. From the time of that blasted prophecy had been made, his life had been manipulated by everyone for their own gain. As much as he had detested Snape, he did get one thing right. His whole life surmised in one single sentence, He had been a pig raised for slaughter. But no, even that wasn’t entirely true. Even those pigs had more privileges than he had had in his life, atleast they got decent meals and a lazy life. 

  When had he ever had the chance at happiness, First the Dursleys and then all his wonderfully danger free days at Hogwarts and then being on run and war. What was his life. Sometimes he wondered how he had managed to stay sane through all this, no that wasn’t really true; perhaps he had always been a little insane. But everyone had their breaking point and he had finally reached his.

   But he had finally had enough of all this, it was time to change, time to take control of his life. Time to get his people back.

  Harry felt the first stirrings of emotion he had felt in days since the battle, since the betrayals of the ones he had once held dear. Once he had the beginnings of a plan forming in his head, he felt a flickering excitement. Yes, no more living for others, no more being the obedient little golden boy. He was going to live his life the way he wanted, with the people he wanted it with and he was going to make it happen. It was just a small inconsistency that said people were dead.

  With that in mind Harry began his research.

  The only positive thing about his current place of residence was the Black library. Admittedly living in Grimmauld place wasn’t the best decision for his already fragile mental state, but he didn’t really have anywhere else to go. Didn’t have a place to call his. Being in the house brought back the worst memories of fifth year, the war and most importantly the constant guilt he always felt over losing Sirius, the one person, besides his parents who had genuinely cared for him without any ulterior motives.

  Sirius had loved him for him. He was the one person for whom Harry was always a priority over everyone else. The one person who had put him above everyone else and tried to protect him, even after 12 years in Azkaban, even when being a fugitive. Sirius: the only person whose loyalty had always been to Harry.

   The Black library was extensive. There were all types of books in there and Harry was actually very fascinated with it. When he had initially started research he was prepared for it to be grueling and tiring, afterall he hadn’t been the best in his classes with the exception of DADA. But once he started, it was hard to stop. There were books on all kinds of subjects, be it light, dark or grey magic. He learned more in the 6 months that followed than he had in his entire time at Hogwarts.

   Harry snorted self deprecating, of course that was an easy score to beat afterall when had he ever had the time to just focus on learning between his childhood with the Dursleys spent on chores, avoiding beatings and deliberately not doing well in school to avoid beating Dudley’s already very low scores, least he appeared smarter than the spoiled little brat, which would then dissolve into his beloved aunt and uncle trying to beat the smarts out of him along with the ‘Freakiness’

   Then came his time at Hogwarts. The less said about that the better really. Most of it had been because he was so very naïve then, so oblivious, too trusting and insecure in himself. He couldn’t even say he blamed his past self for it really after all he had been molded his entire life for those exact character traits. All of them had used him, taken from him until all he had left was an empty shell, until he had nothing left to give anymore, and then left him to his empty life.

  Just as well, he had no patience for their shit now, he was done crying, he was done begging for their acceptance which never came anyway. All his tears had long since dried away no more left to shed.

  As he finally shed the chains of expectations, he found himself. The him that had been ruthlessly crushed and shoved aside, to make way for their golden boy.

      Harry got up at his usual 6:00 am. He had never managed to fall asleep after that anyway, a leftover habit from his time at the Dursleys, he tried at first in his early days at Hogwarts to sleep in during the weekends like every other boy in his dorm, but then he’d wake up anyway and even if he managed to fall asleep in a light doze, his heart would start to pound faster expecting Vernon to drag him out by his hair or for Petunia to hit him with her frying pan or Dudley to rain saw dust on him. Technically he knew that he wasn’t at the Dursley’s then but his subconscious never seemed convinced and he gave up on the idea after a while, it wasn’t worth the anxiety he felt every time he tried to sleep in. He never felt safe enough for that anywhere.

   He did his usual morning workout. In time he’d come to realize just how much the wizarding world relied only on magic and were too proud of their magic to go around working out or learn to throw punches like common muggles. But the war had taught him enough, to have all the skills you could possibly learn; you never know when you might need them. Over time he had also come to learn that keeping the body healthy and trained made it easier to control his magic and made it flow easier.

  Meditation helped significantly, it was a necessity really after his seventeenth birthday. It was a known fact in the wizarding world that when the magical children come of age their powers increase significantly, kind of like an inheritance. Everyone had their own strengths different for everyone. Some excelled in different fields. Some had an affinity towards plants, some towards magical creatures; some were good at transfiguration, divination, defense and other fields.

  But really when had things ever gone according to the norm for Harry. He had to go and wake up the day of his birthday with everything around him afloat in the air and seeing swirls of colour everywhere around him. The source being himself.  He saw the lines everywhere wherever he looked around in the room. Suffice to say he freaked out, thinking he had finally gone round the bend. He couldn’t describe it himself but he could feel the magic all around him.

   Harry tried to rein it in applying the combined meditation and occlumency he had been learning to try and gain some semblance of control of his magic which had been going haywire since he died and came back. It helped a fair deal and with the help of the books in library he was able to mostly control his erratic magic. It did help him now too and he got about searching about his condition and what exactly happened. The search wasn’t really helpful and he gained little knowledge. He did figure out that he had inherited a fair amount of magical boost, it wasn’t anywhere to the normal levels though and apparently he could now sense and see magic. It was a phenomenon that hadn’t happened since a long time as the books in the library told him.

  It was a very rare ability and no one in nearly a hundred years had been reported to have it. In addition to that the magic that seemed to permanently ready to explode out of him. Harry’s control on his magic was very precarious in the initial days, but it got better to control it.

  After that he did his morning chores, then he dressed and got out and apparated to the next place on his places to visit. It was something he had prepared after spending a month cooped up in Grimmauld place doing research with only kreature for company, he realized he would literally go mad if it continued this way and he seriously needed human company which he hadn’t since his so called friends had abandoned him.

  He realized he had to stop punishing himself, stop letting others dictate his life and that meant doing all the things that he had dreamed of and the most important being his wish to travel. So, he prepared a long list of places he wanted to visit all over the earth. Every day he apparated to the location he wanted to visit and international apparation was possible for him thanks to his new powers. He disguised himself with a new identity using magic controlled by parseltongue so no one would be able to take the glamour off him other than himself.

  Harry visited the places on his list enjoying the sights and interacting with people there, learning about different cultures magical and muggle alike all over the world. It was amazing to learn and also that wizarding England was far behind and backward in their culture than some others he visited. He got to learn different magical techniques. He also made a point to learn more about muggle technologies, which he was ashamed to admit he was also very ignorant about. He met many people and it was freeing to interact with them when they didn’t know who he was.

  When he returned it was generally in the afternoon, he had breakfast and lunch at the place he was at the current time, he continued his research. The different experts he met and libraries in different countries held books and information on the topics he was researching and that too helped a lot so he didn’t feel too guilty about abandoning his research.

   It left him feeling fresh and pulled him from the depressive state he had been in since his war and he learned he could focus much better and gain more fruitful results now. Harry then had dinner when it was time exercised some more till he tired himself enough to fall asleep, the dreams, nightmares more like generally woke him up every night and kept him awake most nights. Dreamless sleep potions were addictive and he couldn’t let himself get dependent on it. So he generally read a book or continued research till he fell asleep or it was time to get up, and then repeat.

Chapter Text

    Harry was very close he could feel it. He just had to figure out the last remaining key and then he would have accomplished what he had set out to do. Just a little more time and research.

   He sat reading in the study room trying to figure out what he was missing when Kreature appeared suddenly,

  “Granger and Weasley are requesting entrance master” he croaked, grimacing at having to call them by their names as Harry had forbidden him to call anyone any bad name. Their relationship hadn’t gotten any better and he still couldn’t free the elf. Harry had absolutely no desire to keep the Kreature any more than the elf had the desire to serve him, but Kreature knew too many of his secrets now and he couldn’t risk those getting out. He might have gotten more tolerable since they gave him Regulus’s locket but Harry still couldn’t help but resent the elf, he was one of the reasons that Sirius wasn’t with him now.

    Frowning Harry narrowed his eyes as he registered what the house elf had said, what were they doing here now, the last thing he wanted was to deal with those two, but he knew they wouldn’t go away till he went and listened to what they had to say.

  “Fine let them in and tell them to sit in the living room”

  “Yes master”

   Harry took a deep breath and composed himself it wouldn’t do to let those two find out what he was planning. He went down to find his ‘friends’ seated on the couch looking around anxiously.

    They turned to look at him as he came.

“Harry!” Granger made to get up, arms raised as if to hug him, but Harry held out a hand in front of him stopping her in her tracks. She made a confused noise and took on a hurt expression, He snorted internally, did she really expect everything to be the same after all that had happened. That he’d just forget and forgive them again, like he’d been doing since he met them.

  “Granger, Weasley what can I do for you” He asked them politely being as civil as he could. He really had no energy to argue with them more, they hadn’t listened then and he had no desire to explain anything to them anymore, he just wanted them out of the house so he could go back to his research in peace.

  Their reaction to him referring to them formally was almost comical Weasley spluttered looking offended and Granger for the first time in his life looked speechless.

  “Harry! What… why are you talking like that” She managed after recovering.

  “Like What?” He asked but then sighed, “Look just say why you came here, so we can all go back our way, I’m a bit busy right now.”

   Weasley had started to turn red now. “Harry what the hell, what’s with the attitude? We came to talk to you first, when it should have been you, you’ve been ignoring our letters and didn’t come to see us once.”

  Despite his better judgment Harry felt his temper rise,

  “Oh really, I’ve been ignoring your letters. I thought that was you both when the 50 letters I send you were returned. some unopened, some in various states of damage and my personal favorite were the ones attached with a howler which shrieked quite clearly that I wasn’t to contact any of you again, calling me quite a few choice words I have no desire to repeat.”

 Both squirmed in their seats when Harry glared at them. Granger spoke up then with a pleading expression on her face, “Harry please, come on you have to understand, we weren’t really in a good place then, and we were still grieving… ”

  “And I wasn’t, you think what happened did not affect me, that you were the only one who was suffering. You all abandoned me right when I needed you the most and you have the gall to sit here and expect me to forget everything and move on.” Harry bit out.

  Weasley stood up then, “We needed time to process and you didn’t make it easier either you know, what with you behaving all strange and rejecting Ginny and then George..”

   “Yes right, time to process and in said time you felt the need to curse me out, blame me for every single bad thing that ever happened to you and then quite literally kick me out when I showed up at the burrow despite everything ready to apologize for something that wasn’t even my fault in the first place no matter how much everyone seems to want to pin it on me.”

   Granger stood up then nervously looking between Ron and Him, “Harry please, you have to understand what the situation looked like and you had been acting strange..”

 Harry whirled on her, “Oh yeah, strange how? Just because I wasn’t always in a mood to talk, because I sometimes zoned out, because I was reading some dark books because I wanted to find out what actually happened to the Horcrux in my damn head if it would have any side effects so I would be better prepared, which one was it? I had just died and came back and then finally killed the bastard I had been trained to fight my whole life, been through a bloody war lost so many people, so yes I should have been completely normal yes.”

  “You rejected Ginny! You broke her heart for no reason.”Weasley shouted.

  “No reason, really now, she was dating Dean Thomas again right till the moment that Voldemort was defeated and what was I expected to do.”

  “Harry that wasn’t anything, you have to understand that we were gone for a year and left her behind and things were bad for them in the castle with Deatheaters torturing them..” Granger tried to explain as diplomatically as she could.

  “Ofcourse we were having a very grand vacation ourselves during that time right, what with being on run, eating scraps, sleeping in tents, looking for Horcruxes, Deatheaters trying to kill us, yes it was very grand I should feel guilty not wanting her with me amidst it all. So I couldn’t even expect the girl I loved to stay loyal to me for a year”

  “Harry, you broke up with her, and her and with Dean it was just physical, it didn’t mean anything between them”

   “Call me old fashioned Granger but I would like to be with someone who would not give up on me so easily. Was that too much to ask?”

  “And what about George then?” Weasley asked fuming now.

  “What about George?” Harry wasn’t sure how long he would be able to control his magic from lashing out now, his emotions were running high, it was getting harder for him to keep it in check.

  “You got him killed, first Fred and then George”

Harry lost it then his magic whipped around him in swirls making everything around him shake, the two in front of him took two hasty steps back looking shocked,

  “I got them killed!! Yes of course why did I ever expect any different from you both. The entire world was busy blaming me for everything that happened, calling me  the next Dark lord, I thought at least the two people I considered my best friends would give me the benefit of doubt, but no it happened again they always assume the worst of me first.”

   All the hurt he’d felt those initial days when he had gone to the burrow and Ron had punched him first, Hermione looking at him with accusing eyes as he took what Ron dealt out, and then Mrs. Weasley screaming at him to bring her boys back calling him ungrateful and that was when something inside him just broke, he couldn’t take their accusing stares on top of the guilt he already felt. He apparated back to Grimmauld place and broke down for the first time since Sirius died.

   “He was with you on that raid along with that Auror, how come they both died and as always you were the only survivor” Weasley screamed again in his face.

  “Yes, he was and I told him to stay behind, I did not want George to come with me on that raid, I told him not to react emotionally, but he didn’t listen he wanted revenge for Fred wanted to kill the one who killed his Brother, he was emotionally compromised, but as always the ministry is full of morons and they were so desperate to catch every last Deatheater as fast as they could to save face after sitting on their ass when children fought the war that they should have. They gave permission despite me warning them how much of a bad idea that was. If I recall correctly I had come to you too, to tell you but you weren’t listening were you, so upset that I had broken up with your sister for good.”

  Harry took a deep breath, “He rushed in without thinking it out, they had tricked us, they knew we were coming they ambushed, we were outnumbered, I was dueling three of them, couldn’t do anything but I tried, god knows I tried”

  “Well it wasn’t enough, was it? He still died, we all lost something, but you wouldn’t understand that would you? ” Weasley said again not giving up.

  Harry let out a humorless chuckle, “Haven’t lost anything, me. Tell me Ron did I not lose my parents at the age of 1, tell me I didn’t lose my entire childhood when I was sent to live with the Dursleys where I was treated worse than a slave and locked in a cupboard when they did not wish to see me, when they tried to stamp the freakiness out of me, tell me I didn’t lose my only family, my godfather again when I just got him back, when I lost Remus, that I didn’t lose all faith in people around me when I found out that the man I had looked up to since arriving at Hogwarts, the one I thought cared about me was only raising me to be slaughtered at the right time, when I lost a part of myself when I died. Tell me what is going to be enough for you” He was shouting at the end of his rant but he was beyond caring now.

   Weasley looked a little uncomfortable now, and Granger looked to be holding back tears.

  “Look arguing with you is pointless I’ve learned that lesson a while ago, so now if you’ve said what you wanted I would like it if you get out of my house” Harry said suddenly very tired.

   He did not want to go around in circles again. He wanted the hurt to go away, he thought he was over it, he thought it didn’t matter to him anymore what they said, but seeing them made the hurt resurface again made him vulnerable and he almost preferred the numbness that had spread through him when it had all become too much to process.  

    “Harry..” Granger started, voice trembling. “We’re sorry Harry, you can’t imagine how sorry I am. We shouldn’t have abandoned you..”

   “You shouldn’t have.” Harry said in a quiet voice.

“But its ok, I accepted it and learned to live with it for a while now. I’m done waiting around for you to get your head straight and come here offer some half-assed apology and go back to behaving that all this never happened like you’ve always done. I needed you then, I don’t anymore and I don’t want to suffer again when you both decide that I’m not worth your time the next time something like this happens, and knowing my life it will happen again. I’m not sure how much more I would be able to take anymore before I break.”

    Tears were flowing down his face now, Granger was openely sobbing now, Weasley not meeting his eyes.

    “Kreacher will escort you out. I’m tired I would like to go sleep now” Harry finally broke the silence, running a hand down his face.

  “Harry… is there any chance that you would forgive us in the future. We would do anything, just please give us a chance.”

   He looked up to see Granger looking at him with a pleading expression,

  Harry sighed he felt wrung out, exhausted like he hadn’t in a while. “I don’t know, I don’t know Hermione. Just do me a favour for now would you”  

   “Anything” She said instantly and Harry finally managed to give her a small smile, atleast she cared enough to apologize and try to make amends.

  “Would you leave now. I need time to process and don’t try to contact me again. I will reach out to you when I’m ready to.”

   Hermione nodded finally looking resigned. “OK Harry, just.. Be safe”

  Harry nodded, she then started dragging Weasley out, who went easily, stopping at the door and looking back. Harry stared back steadily.

  “Mate..For what its worth, I’m sorry” and with that they were both out.

  Harry didn’t know how long he stood there, but after a while he shakily made his way back to his bedroom and lied down on his bed. He didn’t know what he felt right then, but he was too tired to analyze the different things he felt at the moment but one thing was very clear, he felt lighter than he had the past few months, maybe a little closure was what he had needed and it was freeing.

  Whether he forgave them wasn’t the point now and he doubt he ever could, he wasn’t going to be here long enough to eventually get to it, but he felt a weight that he had been carrying ease a little. Now he just had to figure out what he was missing in his little project and he would soon be where he wanted.

  With that in mind Harry finally fell asleep.     

Chapter Text

    Harry drew the runes required for the ritual he was about to perform, carefully mapping everything out and checking and rechecking that everything was according to calculations. He couldn’t afford to make a mistake here.

  It would all go horribly wrong if there was even a smallest error. What he was about to do was incredibly risky but he had faith in himself. All these months spent researching and calculating learning, he had finally succeeded in finding a way.

  He knew all the risks, had done all the calculations himself, prepared everything from scratch. There was about 70% chance that he would succeed and he was more than willing to take it if it meant that he would be where he wanted to be.

  Harry had prepared for this for so long and he was so close. He was ready now. He had everything he would need there. He had all the fake documents prepared which he would require in the past if he wanted to go anywhere legally.

  All his things, books and clothes were packed in trunks which he had then shrunk and put in the pouch he kept on him which had an undetectable extension charm on it, inspired Hermione’s beaded bag. He had all his money in the money pouch he had purchased from goblins that could carry all the coins he could want. Which was a lot. Nearly all his money from the Potter and Black vaults. The Goblins certainly weren’t happy that he’d drained the two of their most ancient and wealthy vaults. But they couldn’t prevent him from taking his own money and also couldn’t tell anyone about it due the confidentiality rules of goblin business.

   Harry simply wanted to be prepared and money was very important, he didn’t want to struggle or make adjustments when he could live as he wanted to without worrying about financial issues. All his life he had never had anything that was his and he couldn’t purchase anything because the Dursleys certainly weren’t interested in wasting any of their money on him and then he held back from spending his money because of the jealous redhead. Ron had never made his jealousy a secret and so as not to upset him Harry had always held back from spending his money.

  That wasn’t the case anymore and he refused to feel guilty about using his own money to live life a little comfortably. He wasn’t about to go to the past unprepared now.

  He also took his marauder’s map and the hallows. Another thing that he discovered after war was that the he couldn’t get rid of the hallows. The stone and wand returned to him the next day sitting innocently on his bedside, if he didn’t know for sure that he had left the stone in the forest and the wand somewhere downstairs with the intention of placing it in Dumbledore’s tomb he would have thought he simply placed them there. After that he tried to lose them, but even leaving them on the other side of the world did not help, they always appeared wherever he was within 24 hours, same with his invisibility cloak. He still didn’t know what that meant for him and he wasn’t sure he wanted to just yet.

  The moonlight shone in the clearing in the middle of forbidden forest where he’d chosen to perform the ritual. If he was correct in his estimation then he would land in the past in the same place he performed the ritual on and he did not want to appear anywhere where others might see him. The forest was the perfect place for the ritual. It was filled with wild magic which would aid in the completion of the ritual. The wards he had cast around the clearing were strong and would repel any curious animals that decided to wander this way.

  It was time now as he finished with the runes and symbols. Harry took a deep breath. He had one chance at this and he couldn’t afford to fail, but he felt oddly calm in the stillness of the forest and the calm moonlight. He had no regrets.

  Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on his core magic. Chanting the ancient spells he urged the wild magic to come to his aid. As he opened his eyes, he could see as well as feel the wild magic all around him, judging him. The magic was thick in the air almost suffocating, it almost brought him down to his knees but Harry held on, it wouldn’t do to appear weak now.

  He needed the aid to wild magic to pull this off, his own magic though strong wasn’t enough. He felt the magic trying to force him into submission but he gritted his teeth and fought back. Finally after what felt like an eternity the oppressive force lifted and he was able to breathe normally again.

  The magic was still there waiting to be used, it seemed that he had gained its approval, that it had deemed him worthy. A smile curved his lips as he directed the all the magic to the runes and they began to glow one by one. As the glowing runes completed a full circle around him the light suddenly grew blinding and as he closed his eyes, excruciating pain hit him. His body felt as if it was tearing itself apart atom by atom. An involuntary scream ripped from his throat and he couldn’t hold on to consciousness any longer.

    There was warmth on the side of his face was the first thing he noticed. He was lying on his side, groaning he turned to lay on his back bringing a hand to shield his eyes from the brightness behind his eyelids, but his entire body ached and the ground he was laying on was very uneven. Confusion spreading through his mind he slowly opened his eyes blinking in the sudden sunlight.

   The sun shone through the canopy of trees above. Harry lay there for a few minutes confused, before it all came back to him and he sat up abruptly, which in hindsight wasn’t a good decision as his stomach protested violently and he ended up vomiting on the forest floor.

   After his stomach had settled a little, Harry looked around. He was in the same clearing that he had performed the ritual in, but that didn’t tell him anything. There was no sign that any kind of ritual had been performed here. He checked his things. His old wand and the elder wand were still there in the wand holsters. His pouch was still there. Everything that he had been carrying on him was intact.

   Harry cast a tempus. 8:05am. That still didn’t tell him anything. He needed to get out of the forest, somewhere where he could confirm if it had worked or not. Harry took out his firebolt from his pouch. He cast disillusionment charms on himself and his broom. Mounting he flew in the direction opposite to where he knew Hogwarts was, he couldn’t risk going there just yet. The wards surrounding Hogwarts would immediately alert the headmaster and if he was in the past then Dumbledore was the last person he wanted knowing who he was.

   Harry flew directly over to muggle London landing in a deserted alley. He cancelled the charms and put his broom away. He felt anxious to know if it had worked. His clothes were normal formal shirt and trousers. He walked out of the alley. He had never come to this part of muggle London before. He couldn’t tell if it was the past or not.

     Harry went to the nearest paper stand and grabbed the day’s paper, scanning it for the date. He felt like he couldn’t breathe for a second, staring at the paper in shock.

   “Hey boy, are you alright?” the gentleman next to him shook him. Harry looked around wide eyed coming out of his shocked state and glanced down at the date again ’10 August 1977’ As the reality of what had happened finally penetrated his mind.

   Sensing the confusion of the man beside him, “Yes, yes I’m fine.” The man nodded and went back to his own paper. Harry quickly asked for the price paid and walked off with the paper, back into the alley.

   Once he reached the alley he quickly cast a confundus charm and a silencio and then couldn’t hold it in anymore. The hysterical laughter that he had been holding in spilled forth and soon he was laughing till he had tears running down his face.

   Harry slid down the alley wall sitting with his knees drawn up as he calmed down, the adrenalin wearing off and he remembered his entire body ached and he couldn’t hold himself up anymore. Exhaustion hitting him hard, But nothing could deter him from the euphoria he felt.

   Harry knew he would succeed, but there was always that niggling doubt at the back of the mind. Despite everything he had done it. He was exactly where he wanted to be or to be more precise when he wanted to be.

    He had accomplished what no one had done before. He had gone back in time by several years.

   Harry looked at the date again 1977 the year, marauder’s started their seventh year. The year that marked the start of the 1^st war officially.

  His calculations had worked out just like he wanted to. Months of hard work had paid off. He was finally where he wanted to be. Somewhere in this world his parents were alive, Sirius was alive.

  Harry put his head between his knees and took deep breaths, trying to calm down. Before anything now, he needed sleep first. His whole body ached and his headache was killing him.

   A place to sleep was his first priority before executed his further plans. He got up with the support of the wall and exited the alley. Walking slowly he started looking for hotels. Finally finding a suitable one he booked a room for the day using one of his fake IDs and finally collapsed on it. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.  

      Harry slept straight through the day. When he woke up it was already dark outside. He was still tempted to keep sleeping but his stomach apparently disagreed. Reluctantly getting up he became aware of how dirty he was.

   He set out in search of somewhere to eat. Finding a nice little Italian restaurant he took seat and gave his order.

   Harry still had trouble believing he was in the past. It was so surreal. He had picked up a different paper on his way out from the hotel just to confirm it to himself that it wasn’t a dream. He set about reading it to pass time till his order arrived, or at least pretended to read it.

  He had so many things going through his mind, he had so many things he wanted to do now before September 1^st. His head still felt foggy though like walking through a dream. Though that might also be the effect of pain potion he had taken before coming out of the hotel.

   He suppose he would be useless until he got another 12 hours of sleep at least. Time travel really did take a lot out of him.

   The first thing he had to do tomorrow was send off his application and paperwork to the headmaster of Hogwarts. An application for his admission in seventh year. 

Chapter Text

   After sending off the required documents in the morning all he could do was wait for the return owl. He was pretty confident he would be accepted, his documents were all pretty solid and Dumbledore had no reason to reject him. There had been some cases of transfer students Hogwarts had accepted before.

   Now he had to start dealing with Voldemort and his Horcruxes. But above all else he wanted to see them. He wanted to see his family.

   Harry knew he couldn’t really tell them who he was right away. He didn’t know if he ever would but what he did want was a chance to get to know them, a chance to become their found family. He wanted a chance to be included in their group.

   He first needed to look into the Horcruxes and determine how many were there and destroy them before his being in this timeline inevitably changed it, because there was no way he would sit in the sidelines and watch everything be destroyed again.

     Harry checked out of the hotel and headed out. His first stop was Gringotts.

   Leaky Cauldron was pretty much the same and so was Tom. Harry pulled his the hood of his robes up over his head though he was pretty sure no one would look at him and immediately make a connection about him being a Potter.

   It’s true that when he had first came to Hogwarts or rather when he was small he looked remarkably like his father so much that people always took one look at him and concluded he was James Potter’s son.

   That was not the case now though, had not been since his inheritance. He had changed remarkably since hitting puberty. His hair which had always been untamable had smoothed out, it was still a little wild but in a way that felt deliberate and artful.  His eyes were a darker shade of forest green than before and he had gotten his eyes treated so he now no longer needed glasses. His skin was tan from all the travelling he did and his body had filled out remarkably due to his daily exercise routine.

    There were enough differences that it would not appear suspicious. But he still didn’t want to risk anyone seeing him before Hogwarts.

    Walking through Diagon alley was a new experience all over again.

    Getting a vault set up in Gringotts was a pretty straightforward procedure. He only had to show them his fake identity which he would be using in the wizarding world now. Since according to his cover story he was posing as a halfblood and did not have any prior vault in Gringotts he was asked to give his blood on a parchment so they could store the record for future identification purposes.

    He handed over a quarter of the money he had brought. The goblins mostly did not care about anything as long as it doesn’t pose a threat to the bank and their infallible reputation but even they were bound to get suspicious if he suddenly produced a large sum of galleons out of nowhere. To avoid that he had already converted a quarter of his money into muggle ones before the time travel. So he handed over the muggle money to be converted back into galleons and opened a vault with them.

   The rest of his three quarters he kept with himself. It was an extravagant amount Potter and Black fortune and depositing them all would most certainly arouse suspicion. He was already pushing it with the amount of muggle money he had deposited, but a vague story about how his recently dead muggle father left him a lot of money and how he was just entering the wizarding world as he had been homeschooled his entire life and wanted to make a place here seemed to satisfy their suspicions.

   Harry headed out then having done what he had come for. Harry headed to Flourish and Blotts. He needed to get some books and newspapers on recent history and events as he did not have much idea about what was the situation now. Harry was busy picking out some books when someone bumped into him dropping the books they were holding.

   Harry immediately bent down to help the girl pick up the scattered books,

“I’m so sorry, I probably shouldn’t have been carrying these many books at once, I didn’t see you there” She apologized.

     Having finished gathering all the books in a pile Harry looked up waving away her apology, “Its Ok, no probl…” voice trailing off as he looked at exactly who had bumped into him. There was no mistaking the fiery red hair and eyes identical to what his had been majority of his life, there was no mistaking Lily Evans.

  Heart pounding Harry could do little more than stare at her. He hadn’t planned running into anyone today. She looked just like she did in the photos he had of her, if only a little younger.

   She was starting to look a little uncomfortable at his continued staring, so shaking his head Harry snapped out of the trance he had fallen in,

“I’m sorry, its just that you look so much like someone I knew ..”

   Her face cleared then “Oh its Ok.” She gathered the books back in her arms.

  “Here let me help you, I was heading to the counter too” he said as he took half of the books from her along the two books he had selected.

  She smiled at him gratefully, “Thanks”

  They walked together to the check in counter. There was a bit of a queue as it was a rush hour and with school starting soon many students were out purchasing their school supplies.

   “So are you new here” She asked him as they stood waiting for their turn.

  Harry looked at her, not that he had stopped staring in the first place but he had more sense to do it discreetly now. “Oh yes”

  She nodded, “Hmm I thought so, You look about my age and I don’t remember seeing you at Hogwarts. So where are you from?”

  “No I didn’t go to Hogwarts. I was homeschooled all my life, my mum was a witch and dad a muggle. He had to travel a lot and they didn’t want to send me to a boarding school. So I had muggle and magical tutors.”

   “Oh, I have never heard of homeschooling in wizarding world and what about your OWLS and NEWTS?”

  The queue moved forward a little and they shuffled forward. Harry adjusted a the books in his arms and then remembered something, shifting the books to one arm Harry took out his wand and cast a feather light charm on the books, “May I?” he gestured towards the books in her arms.

   She realized it at the same times and looked exasperated with herself and nodded at him, he cast the same for her,

  “I can’t believe I always forget to do that.” She said moving her books to one arm and shaking out her other one.

   “Yeah, Its hard to remember when you’ve lived most of your life around muggles. It doesn’t come to mind instinctively like purebloods.” He said conversationally, he didn’t want to stop talking to her.

    “Same here. I’m a muggleborn so I get what you’re saying”

   “oh and about OWLS and NEWTS, I applied for my OWLS externally in the British ministry. As for NEWTS I plan to go to Hogwarts this year as a seventh year.” He answered remembering her previous question.

  She looked surprised at that, “Wow a new student in seventh year, I haven’t heard of that before.”

  “Yeah its not common but not really unheard of. I have yet to get my acceptance letter though so I hope I am accepted. ”

  “hmm. It will be interesting to have a new student among us. I will be a seventh year too. I’m Lily by the way Lily Evans. Can’t believe we had an entire conversation and forgot to introduce ourselves.” She laughed holding out her free hand.

  Harry smiled and shook her hand, “Harold Griffiths, but call me Harry.” He said introducing himself according to his fake identity.

   “Nice to meet you Harry. Hope you do get accepted.”

  “Thanks, I would like to experience what it is like to go to an actual school.”

  Lily, god it felt weird to call her by her name, “Oh I think you’ll like it. Hogwarts is awesome. But why the sudden change?” asked curiously.

   “I assume you’re asking about the homeschooling to boarding school change?” Lily nodded. They had reached the counter by then and Harry gestured for Lily to go first. She placed her books on the counter and as the shopkeeper started billing it she turned to him waiting for his answer.

   Harry smiled a little wanly, “My parents died last year, car crash so I’m alone now and there’s no need for travelling, so I decided to go to Hogwarts. I’ve heard many stories about it and my mom did go there. I’ve always wanted to go there but I couldn’t before so this is a good time as any.”

   Lily winced at that looking apologetic, and Harry instantly felt bad about lying to her, but it wasn’t like he could tell her the truth. 

   “I’m sorry” she said. Harry smiled at her reassuringly.

   She packed away her books and Harry moved forward to pay for his books. Lily waited till he was finished and he smiled at her in thanks for waiting as they moved together to exit the shop. Harry wanted to get to know her more but he couldn’t really do that without seeming creepy. So he turned to say goodbye when she asked,

   “have you had lunch yet”

  He blinked surprised and shook his head, he hadn’t eaten anything since he had his morning breakfast and looking down at his watch he realized it was nearly 1 in the afternoon.

   Lily smiled “would you like to join us for lunch then? I’m here with my parents. They’re waiting in a restaurant just outside the Leaky Cauldron. I told them to go ahead and order.” She said. She probably felt bad for him after hearing about his parents.

   Harry smiled at her, yeah it sounded like the stories about his mom he had heard caring and thoughtful. But he shook his head, “I wouldn’t want to intrude” even though he was actually dying to go with her.

   “No no you wouldn’t be intruding at all. I wouldn’t invite you if I didn’t genuinely want you to come. Besides you’re new here aren’t you I could tell you more about Hogwarts and my parents are always happy to meet my friends” she insisted. Then backtracked “Sorry I didn’t mean to presume..”

   Harry interrupted her feeling warm inside to already be considered her friend, “I would like to join you in that case. I was feeling a little out of place. I don’t really know anyone here still. And I would be honored to be considered your friend.”

  Lily smiled wider, “good so come on lets go.” She lead the way out.

   Harry felt overwhelmed. He had always dreamed of meeting his mother and she was everything he had expected her to be, and she already considered him her friend. He did not expect the day to go like this. But he wouldn’t have it any other way.

   Plus it looked like he would also get to meet his grandparents.

   “So where do you live now? If you don’t mind me asking.” She asked.

  “I live in the countryside just outside London. We lived there whenever we were in the country. So now its just me.” He shrugged. He technically still didn’t have anywhere to live, but he did plan to buy a house just like he had told her. He would need to have somewhere to return home to, and he had always wanted a place that was just his.

   “What about your relatives, can’t you live with them?” she asked concerned.

 “I don’t have any. There are my aunt and uncle but they don’t really want anything to do with me and frankly I don’t either and my grandparents from both sides are dead. But don’t worry I manage I’m used to being alone.” He tried to reassure her but she still looked worried.

   They exited the wizarding world in muggle London and walked towards the restaurant Lily had pointed out.

   One thing was very clear to Harry though as he was introduced to his grandparents and they welcomed him with curious but warm expressions, that whatever happened he was never going to regret all the hard work he had done to get here, it had all been worth it and he felt more at home after just a day here than he had ever felt back in his original timeline.

Chapter Text

   Tapping sound to the window woke Harry up, he squinted his eyes against the sunlight streaming between the curtains to see an owl perched on his windowsill. Confused as to whose owl it was Harry went over to open the windows and let it in. Only people he could receive an owl from were his real estate agent, or Lily.

    But the agent had no reason to send him an owl now as all the paper work for the house had been squared away. Untying the letter from the owl Harry offered it some water from the bowl he kept for this exact same purpose.

    Harry opens the door to the terrace attached to his room. Stepping outside with the letter in hand Harry smiles at the brilliant view ahead.

    He had finally found the perfect home. After meeting his grandparents who were very lovely and welcoming, and promising to write to Lily , Harry had gone back to Diagon alley, found an agent that could be discreet as well as find him the house he desired.

   It had taken a few days and repeated trips to different places but all the hard work had paid off. As soon as he had laid his eyes upon this house he had fallen in love with it.

    It was a mix of modern and traditional, surrounded on three sides by trees and facing a beautiful lake. It was far enough from other houses that would give him a bit of privacy but not too far that he would feel too alone.

    Wooden interior with huge windows, it had a living room, a big kitchen with all the modern appliances, one bedroom, a study room, a bathroom and a room that he planned to convert into a library on the ground floor. The floor above that had a living room, and a master bedroom with an attached bathroom, and an attached terrace/ balcony and another bedroom that could be a guest room. 

    It even had a hidden basement underground. It was perfect. Not too big and not too small. Harry was proud to call it his. The house was semi furnished and Harry spent the next few days properly furnishing the house making it as he wanted it to be. It was a first real home and he loved it. He also placed various wards around it making it as secure as he could without actually placing it under fidelous.

    Harry had taken the master bedroom on the first floor as his because the view from there was amazing. He could spend hours looking out, it gave him a sense of peace.

    Remembering the letter he turned it to open it and wasn’t really surprised to see the Hogwarts seal. It was high time Dumbledore replied to his application. Hoping it was an acceptance Harry broke the seal and opened the letter.

  A smile slowly spread across his face. It was an acceptance letter. He was going to Hogwarts. Even if he had been rejected Harry would have found a way to work around it but being accepted certainly made things easier.

   Now he only had to get his school supplies according to the given list. That was easily done. He would have to make another trip to Diagon alley.

   Going through his morning rituals which now included a nice long run around the lake. It was a very pleasant and refreshing way to start the day. Harry got ready. He only had today to complete his shopping, tomorrow was September 1^st, his first day at Hogwarts.

        Harry checked all his necessary luggage before apparating to the station. It was finally time. He could hardly wait, but at the same he was very nervous. He was going to see Sirius and his father today. He wanted to make a good first impression.

   Harry walked through the station, towards the platform and as she’d promised Lily was there, waiting for him with her parents.

   They had exchanged a few letters from the time they met, Lily telling her all about Hogwarts and passing him her notes so he could catch up on the syllabus. Harry also got to know his mother better, he was happy that at least she seemed to consider him a friend of hers now.

   Lily smiled on seeing him, “Harry, glad you made it.”

   Harry smiled back, “Yeah, Your headmaster did take his time accepting my application”

  “Hmm, Even I was getting worried.”She said.

   Harry greeted Mr. and Mrs. Evans. His heart was starting to beat fast now as his nervousness built. Lily was explaining him about how to get to platform. She seemed to notice his worry and placed a hand on his arm reassuring him, “Hey its alright. It might seem intimidating, it is your first time going to a school but you’ll be fine.”

   Harry smiled at her, even if that was not what he was nervous about, and nodded. They said goodbye to her parents and Lily walked through the platform first to demonstrate how its done. Harry walked in after her.

    It was an overwhelming sight, The Hogwarts Express. He hadn’t thought he would get to travel by it again, what with his seventh year spent on run. It gave him a nostalgic feeling and even though he still hadn’t completely forgiven them, he missed the old days when the three of them; him, Ron and Hermione would travel together.

  “Its something else isn’t it, wait till you see the castle. Its been 6 years and I still couldn’t get used to it. Sometimes I feel like I’ve just made this all up and I’m still at home dreaming or something.” Lily said as she came to stand beside him.

   “Yeah its certainly impressive” He knew exactly how that felt. He himself spent half the time at Hogwarts wondering if it was all an illusion, or a fantasy his mind made up to distract himself from his life at the Dursley’s. But that was before he died. It was amazing how many things were suddenly put into perspective after having come back from death.

      The fact that he was also the master of Death also contributed a lot to how he viewed the world now. Things he never knew and never thought about were suddenly very clear to him and there was all this new knowledge floating around in his head that he didn’t know what to do about.    

      They made their way towards the train. Harry looked around, searching for familiar faces, if he could recognize anyone, one or two people did feel familiar but no one he could name. Lily just thought he was looking around taking everything in.

   They boarded the train. Lily had offered him to sit with her and her friends and Harry had accepted gratefully, he technically did not know anyone else and Lily had reassured him that her friends won’t mind.

    They made their way towards Lily’s usual compartment. Lily slid open the doors, there were already three people occupying the compartment. The three girls all stood and gave Lily hugs and eyed Harry curiously.

   “Girls this is Harold Griffiths. I told you about him in the Letters.” Lily introduced him. Harry smiled at them.

  “Harry these are Alice Fortesque, Marlene Mckinnon and Mary Mcdonald” she introduced pointing to each of them.

    Harry gave them a little wave, “Hello, call me Harry, no one uses Harold”

   Alice came forward and extended her hand and Harry was struck by how much Neville looked like her. He accepted her hand, “Nice to meet you Harry, Lily’s told us a bit about you. Looking forward to get to know you”

   Then Mary came forward extending her hand as well, “It will be interesting to have a new student, especially one as handsome as you.” She winked at him.

   “Thanks, that’s a lot of pressure to put on the new students. But I’ll be sure to keep you entertained” He winked at her smiling charmingly and she giggled.

    Marlene only nodded at him and he did the same back. She seemed to be the more reserved one of the group. They all took their seat, the three girls sitting on one side and Harry and Lily on other.

     “What house do you think you’ll end up in? How is your sorting going to be though, you are a seventh year. I’ve never seen anyone but first years getting sorted.” Mary asked as the whistle blew and the train began moving towards Hogwarts.

   “Oh, I don’t really know, the acceptance letter I got didn’t really say anything. I guess I’ll know when we get there. But I’ve read that it is going to be the same as it would be for first years by the sorting hat, at least it was for the transfer cases before me.” Harry answered.

    “It would be nice if you’re sorted in Gryffindor though. Finally some decent guy in our year for once.” Lily added.

    When Harry blinked in confusion, Alice laughed, “Don’t mind Lily Harry, she’s just holding a grudge against a certain messy haired, spectacled Headboy.”

  “I’m not holding anything against him that’s not justified. How come he became the head boy anyway. What was professor Dumbledore even thinking making Potter the head boy?” Lily muttered angrily.

   “Oh lils come on, even you have to admit Potter is a good candidate for head boy, he does have the second top score in our year, beaten only by Black.” Mary placated her.

   “Don’t remind me. How come they always top even playing pranks all year round?” Lily continued.

   “They do study you know. I’ve seen them in the library studying as much as I’ve seen them in the common room planning pranks, if not more.” Marlene piped up for the first time since Harry entered their compartment.

    “Whatever, but that still doesn’t make him a good choice for such a big responsibility.” Lily was not the one to admit defeat Harry had come to know.

   “Who’s he?” Harry asked playing ignorant. He had known from Snape’s memory that his mother had hated his father at one point, but practically seeing it was very different. He wanted to know more about him though regardless.

     “James Potter, the bane of Lily’s existence.” Alice replied with a flourish.

   Harry’s lips twitched. He wondered how they got together if there was this much animosity between them. But he knew it stemmed mostly from misunderstandings. Afterall Lily had been friends with Snape and that would contribute to most of the hatred.

     “He’s a pureblood Gryffindor in our year. He and his group of friends Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew; they call themselves The Marauders. They’re troublemakers, famous for playing pranks.” Mary explained further.

     “Remus is the only one who is fine though. I don’t know why he stays with them.” Lily put in.

      “She’s mostly annoyed because James fancies her and she’s afraid that she likes him back.” Marlene had a knowing expression on her face as she looked at Lily, who now looked scandalized at her friend’s statement.

     “Marlene, I do not like Potter and never would” She exclaimed. Marlene just shook her head.

    Lily huffed turning her attention to Harry, “I would suggest to stay away from that group though, Wouldn’t put it past them to prank the new kid.”

    Harry raised his eyebrows, seems there was a lot of hostility there, he didn’t know how the marauders were going to react to him, but he certainly wasn’t going to stay away from them.

    “I can handle myself.” He said instead.

   “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Lily said, getting up she straightened her robes, “I have to go now. Headgirl duties.”

    Alice got up as well as she was a prefect. Lily turned to Harry before exiting the compartment, “You’ll be alright?” she asked and Harry smiled at her reassuring, “Yes I’ll be fine.”

   Lily nodded, Alice gave him a smile and they were out of the compartment.

   Mary then turned to Harry, “What should we do then?”

   The three of them looked at each other awkward without Lily there, but Harry had come prepared for that, he pulled out cards “Exploding snap” he suggested and Mary grinned. Even Marlene joined them in playing.

          After a couple of games, Marlene had retired and had her head now buried in a book and Mary was grilling Harry for more information.

    Harry wanted to get out though, he was restless knowing his Dad and Sirius were out here somewhere and he wanted to see them atleast even if he didn’t get to speak to them. He knew he was unlikely to see his Dad now as he would be busy with his headboy duties.

     Sirius would be in the compartment though but he didn’t know where that was, it wasn’t like he could start searching through compartments randomly, especially when no one knew who he was. But he just wanted some fresh air for now. Being in the compartment was making him edgy. 

    “I’ll be back. Restroom” He told Mary getting up. She nodded and told him the directions. Harry got out shutting the door behind himself and breathed deep. He really did need to use the restroom though, so he first makes his way there. 

     Getting out, Harry wanders towards the entrance of the bogey, not yet ready to go back and feeling restless, he sits in the entrance looking out at the scenery and feeling the wind pleasantly on his face.

    It hits him then, that he was actually in the past and going towards Hogwarts now. But the only thing he feels is a sense of peace and anticipation of what happens nest.

    He still hasn’t made any progress regarding the Horcruxes and he needs to start on that. So busy he was in thinking about how he would begin his Horcrux hunt, he didn’t even notice the footsteps as someone came to stand behind him.

      “Hey” Harry jumped on hearing the voice, steadying himself, he turned around and his breath caught in his throat. He could do little more than stare at the person before him.

   Silver eyes narrowed at him in contemplation. A furrow appeared between those sharp eyebrows as they took Harry in.

    “Who’re you” the person asked suspiciously, arching one perfect eyebrow.

     Harry’s eyes widened, he really needed to learn to control his damn emotions or he would be caught out before he ever stepped foot in Hogwarts. But how could one even expect him to remain calm or rational when faced with the enigma that was Sirius Black.

Chapter Text

“Uh Hi” Harry waved awkwardly. Internally cringing at himself, way to make a first impression.

   Sirius stared at him in silence for what felt like an eternity and Harry tried not to squirm as it felt like Sirius was staring right into his soul.

   Sirius tilted his head and Harry tried to give him a confident smile and judging by the amused expression he now sported Harry wasn’t successful in pulling off the confident part of the smile. But amused was better than suspicious so at least he had accomplished that goal.    

    Harry stood up than extending his hand, “I’m Harold Griffiths” he introduced himself.

   Sirius who had apparently deemed him harmless for now took his hand, “Sirius” he said simply as a way for introduction deliberately not giving his last name.

    Harry understood. With Black name came many expectations and none of them good. Sirius had always hated it and Harry was a stranger to him. Sirius was not the one to trust easy, no; that was his dad. He already knew he was going to have to work his arse off to gain Sirius’s trust. He was going to be the hardest nut to crack.

    “Harold, I’ve never seen you before here. I would remember if you went to Hogwarts.” Sirius questioned him smoothly without actually asking him anything.

   “I prefer to go by Harry” Harry got out first. Being called Harold was very weird but he had to change his name. He chose Harold because it was the closest to Harry and he could pass using Harry as a nickname.

   “..and yes, I didn’t go to Hogwarts. I’m actually a new admission. Home schooled before this.”Harry said answering the second part of the not-question.

    “Interesting” was the only thing Sirius said as he made his way to the entrance and sat down mimicking Harry’s earlier position, deliberately leaving enough space beside him for Harry to join.

   Harry took the unspoken invitation and sat down in his earlier position, looking sideways at Sirius. Now that he wasn’t being scrutinized by those intense silver eyes, he was struck by how handsome he was.

    Objectively he knew Sirius was good looking after he had cleaned up and was somewhat stable when Harry saw him again in his fifth year.

     But now looking at this young Sirius, unburdened by his friends death, by betrayals, by the shadows that always surrounded him after Azkaban, the malnutrition and starving in prison, Sirius was radiant. With his coal black hair that fell perfectly and framed his face, shorter than he had ever seen on his Sirius but still long enough to fall on his forehead attractively, his perfect aristocratic eyebrows, his sparkling silver eyes, the straight elegant nose, sharp cheekbones and full lips. He was gorgeous. Harry would even say that Sirius was the most beautiful person he had seen in his life.

     Harry blinked and realized that it was a slightly inappropriate line of thought in the current situation and that he had been staring at Sirius long enough now, who was seemingly oblivious to it but he knew perfectly well that Sirius was very aware of every little movement Harry made. Sirius wouldn’t let his guard down so soon.

   Harry turned his head staring ahead. They sat in silence for a while.

  “Which year then?” Sirius questioned still looking ahead.

   “Seventh year” Harry answered.

   “Why the sudden change?” Sirius asked sounding mildly curious.

   “Parents travelled a lot, Father’s job. Didn’t want to send me to a boarding school. Father wanted me to be familiar with both worlds. They died in a car accident last year, no reason for travelling now, so why not.” Harry answered. He didn’t really need to put too much effort in adding emotion to his voice, his parents death was a topic that never got easy to speak of even if it was a long time ago.

   Sirius turned to him then, looking at him. Harry determinedly stared ahead. Sirius had always been very good at spotting his lies.   

   “You’re a Half-blood then” Sirius had never been the one to beat around the bush afterall.

   “Yes, father was a muggle and mother a witch. Heard a lot about Hogwarts from her, always did want to know what it was like.”

   “What about you? You’re a seventh year too aren’t you” Harry asked clearly changing the subject.

  “How do you know that?” Sirius asked back.

 “Lily warned me about a group of troublemakers in her year. I don’t believe Sirius is a very common name. ”

  Sirius’s lips twitched, then he frowned, “Evans huh. How do you know her?”

  Harry shrugged, “Not very well. We met in Diagon alley, when we were both shopping for books, got talking. Sent some owls back and forth. I would even say we’re friends now.”

   “Where…” Sirius started but Harry cut him off.

  “Any way what about you? I think you’ve interrogated me enough for now.” Harry smiled apologetic for cutting him mid sentence but not willing to answer anymore of the questions which would inevitably lead to more lies.

      Sirius seemed to understand that it was all he would get from the boy beside him and acquiesced, “What about me?”

     “Why are you out here for one?” Harry asked the first thing that came to mind.

  “Just wanted some fresh air, got bored inside. James and Remus are both on their Headboy and Prefect duties.” Sirius answered. Curiously he did not mention the traitor.

   “I heard from Lily and her friends that you’re the top of your year, how come you aren’t a prefect?” Harry asked. He genuinely did want to know that. He had not known before that Sirius was the one who held the highest scores before the girls had mentioned it. But even so, Harry had known that Sirius had been good at academics in his school years. It had made him wonder that why he wasn’t even made a prefect.

    If it was the fact that he was known as a troublemaker, then so was his dad and he had been made a Headboy and Harry knew he was also a quidditch captain.

   So why had Sirius never been given that trust. Remus even if he was the quietest of the group was also a part of it and got involved in pranks more often than not, had been made a prefect from his fifth year itself. Remus might come off as better behaved of the group but he was just as involved and never stopped them from playing prank. Pettigrew wasn’t someone fit to even be considered the less he thought about the traitor the better.

   So why was Sirius the only one left behind? It was something Harry had thought about in his Fifth year but he never got to ask Sirius. It was what he was thinking about now, so why not ask. It occurred to him too late that this might be a sore subject and not something you discussed with someone you just met, but the question was out now.

    The silver eyes that looked at him now held an emotion that Harry couldn’t place. “Evans told you about my last name?” he asked instead.

   “Black, isn’t it?” Harry said. And Sirius made a hand gesture as if to say that was all, as if that was the answer to everything.

   Only thing it did was confuse Harry more. But pushing more wasn’t going to endear him to Sirius, so Harry let it go, for now.

   “So, how is Hogwarts? My mother did tell me about it, but I would like to know more from someone more recent.” Harry asked

   Sirius’s eyes lit up, like they always did whenever he talked about his days at Hogwarts, “Its brilliant” he said and then started to describe the castle, the professors, quidditch and eventually he came to the topic of the marauders.

    Harry listened smiling as he told him about a prank they had played recently making wild hand gestures.

   “Harry?” Harry turned at the voice and saw Mary approaching, and behind her Lily and with her James Potter.

   Sirius stood up and Harry followed suit.

   “There you are. We looked everywhere for you, Lily almost bit my head off for losing you so soon” Mary said as they came closer.

   “Oh sorry, just wanted some fresh air and then met Sirius, I guess we lost track of time.” Harry smiled at them apologetically.

   He consciously avoided staring at his Dad this time very aware that Sirius would definitely catch that.

   “So you’re the new student.” His dad stated as he came forward, exchanging a look with Sirius that he couldn’t decipher.

   “I’m James Potter” he introduced himself extending a hand. Harry grasped it firmly “Harold Griffiths, prefer to go by Harry.” Looking at his dad Harry realized he really did look a lot like him till fifth year. The messy hair and round glasses probably did not help his case much.

   Lily stood behind looking out of depth by something, Harry gave her a concerned glance, to which she just shook her head.

   James looked at him for a long moment like he was searching for something in Harry but shook himself out of it, then gave him a friendly smile, “I just received an owl in the meeting, I’ve been tasked with inducting you in the school as you’ll be a direct seventh year, so your circumstances would be a lot different than an average first year. If you want to ask anything or need anything feel free to seek me out anytime. I’ll be your unofficial mentor if you want to know anything about school.”

     Harry smiled, feeling grateful for this, though he won’t need any mentoring about school at all, it will give him a chance to get to know his dad and hopefully become his friend.

 “Thanks, I will keep that in mind.” He nodded.

  Mary than clapped her hands, “Alright then lets head back, we’re close now anyway.”

  James then gave him a friendly pat on the back, “I’ll come find you after we reach the castle for your sorting, I have to manage the other students for now.” He said.

   Sirius gave him a small smile as well, “nice talking to you Griffiths. Evans, Mary” Nodding to each of them, he and James both walked away towards their own compartments. “Harry” he called out correcting Sirius. Sirius looked back and gave him a small smile and nod, “Harry” he repeated.

    Harry then turned to the girls, “I see you met Sirius Black” Mary said stating the obvious.

    “Yeah, I came out here, seems like he had the same idea and we got talking. Sorry if I worried you.”

   They walked back to their own compartment. Alice and Marlene were there eating chocolate frogs. They took their seats and Alice offered him one which he took.

   Lily still hadn’t said anything and Harry was worried about her. In the short time Harry had known her Lily was not the one to stay quiet, she usually spoke whatever was on her mind without hesitation. Harry looked towards Alice inquiringly but only got a shrug in return.

   He then decided a direct approach, “Lily, everything alright.”

   “huh yeah, everything’s fine” she said and Harry decided to drop it.

   They reached their destination soon after that. Everyone collected their respective things and Lily and Alice left once again to do their duties. The three left then made their way out of the station, towards the carriages, Mary once again explaining about the ride towards the castle and how it was different for first years.

    They boarded a carriage. Harry looked in awe as the castle came into view, the sight would never get old. No matter what Hogwarts was his first home and therefore would always hold a special place in him. The memories of war would always accompany the good memories he had in the castle, but he had a chance to create an entirely new set of memories now, with people he would choose and he was looking forward to it.

 “Its beautiful isn’t it” Marlene spoke, as she noticed the awe on his face.

   Harry nodded, “Yes, more than I expected.”

   Harry made sure to keep an appropriate look of awe suitable for someone who’s seeing the castle for the first time, as they entered the castle. Mary kept up a running commentary about the directions and random bits of information about the castle as they walked the hallways towards the Great hall. 

   He was uncertain as to what he was expected to do now, just when he was about to enter the great hall still unsure, James caught up to him.

  “Griffiths” James called out as he jogged towards him.

  “Harry please” it was just weird when someone called him that, even though he knew he had to get used to it, but all his life he had been called Harry or Potter, it was difficult to change now.

   “Harry, you will have to wait to be sorted. The first years will be sorted first and then Professor Dumbledore will make the announcement regarding you.”

  “Ok where should I wait?” Harry asked.

 “The first years are yet to arrive, and it would take a while to get them all sorted and my instructions were a bit unclear so I have no idea where you are supposed to wait” James smiled at him apologetically, “But you can’t just stand here, so come sit with us at the Gryffindor’s table till then, I’m sure the professors won’t mind.”

   “He’s right. Besides I have a feeling you’d be sorted in our house anyway” Mary added from where she had been waiting patiently off to the side.

   Harry agrees and together the four of them entered the Hall. He looked around the crowded hall and the enchanted ceiling, the candles floating around and the students chattering, it brought on a very strong sense of nostalgia for him.

    He didn’t exactly miss his timeline, No, he had made a decision and he would not regret it. But standing in the Great hall now did bring back memories of the good times he had shared with Ron and Hermione and all the others. Entering the hall after long summers at Privet Drive was like coming home and that feeling hadn’t changed, even if it was a different timeline, even if his memories of Hogwarts would now forever be tainted with war.

     They led him towards the Gryffindor table. Many were busy chatting with each other, catching up after a long holiday, but a few that caught the sight of him did look at him curiously.

    Sirius was already seated at the table looking bored, but he smiled when he saw them. James took a seat beside Sirius where there was empty space and pulled Harry to sit beside him. Mary and Marlene sat opposite to them. Alice and Lily were still nowhere to be seen.

    The hall slowly filled, as more students entered. Lily and Marlene entered then along with a familiar brown haired boy trailing along.

   “Remus” James called out alerting them to where they were. Remus slid into a seat on Sirius’s other side, which Harry just noticed was occupied by a chubby boy with dirty blonde hair. Peter Pettigrew.

    As soon as he laid his eyes on the traitor, Harry felt rage rise up in him. This was the person because of whom his whole life had been destroyed. Harry gripped the edge of the table to stop himself from launching out of his seat and strangling the rat.

   A hand on his shoulder startled him out of the tunnel vision his mind had been focused on and he turned to the source and found Lily looking at him with worry.

  “You alright” she asked. Harry looked around. Thankfully nobody else seemed to have noticed his momentary loss of control, Sirius was thankfully focused on whatever Remus was saying and James was saying something to Marlene. “I’m fine, just nervous”

   Lily nodded in understanding squeezing his shoulder comfortingly, “Don’t worry, It’ll be alright.”

  “Hope so. Just I don’t know much anyone here and I don’t know what house I’ll be sorted in.” Harry said.

 “Its ok, you’ll get used to here soon enough and love it too, also no matter what house you’ll be in you’ll always have a friend.” Lily assured him and Harry smiled grateful, relaxing once again. His rage subdued for now but not forgotten. Lily took her seat just as the first years filed in, ready to be sorted.

Chapter Text

   Harry watched as the first years were sorted clapping at appropriate times and waited for his turn. He had already decided what path he was going to take, but it did not stop him from feeling apprehensive.

   Finally when all the first years were sorted, Dumbledore stood up and all the great hall fell silent. Whatever else he might have to say about the old man, Harry had to admit one thing that Dumbledore did have was quite a presence. Those familiar twinkling eyes swept the hall looking at all the students before finally settling on Harry as he began speaking,

   “Congratulations to all the first years. I’m sure you’ll all do well in your respective houses.” He gave a smile over his half-moon spectacles. “Now you might be wondering who the new face among you is as he’s clearly not a first year.” At that most of the students followed Dumbledore’s line of sight and looked at Harry.

  “You will be delighted to know that we have a Direct seventh year student among us, Harold Griffiths; for the first time in many years. This young man had been homeschooled before this, but applied to Hogwarts this year, and of course anyone who wishes to study here is always welcome. He will be joining the seventh years, but as he hasn’t been sorted in any house yet, that will be done now. I hope you will all make him feel welcome.” Dumbledore finished his little speech and took his seat once again, just as Professor McGonagall announced his name,

    “Harold Griffiths”

  Harry stood, across the table Lily and Mary gave him reassuring smiles. James clapped him on the back, encouragingly. Sirius looked at him curiously as did the other students. Harry walked towards the front where McGonagall stood with the sorting hat.

    Harry took his seat at the stool there as indicated and closed his eyes as the hat was placed upon his head.

   ‘Ah, a time traveler!’ Though Harry knew this was going to happen, he still startled a little when he heard that voice directly in his head.

 ‘Yes, can you not tell, I know you’re under an oath of secrecy but I don’t know if Dumbledore has any way around it and I don’t want anyone knowing, it would destroy everything all over again.’ Harry had to be sure the hat didn’t accidentally reveal anything.

   ‘I’ve been around for generations traveler, it’s not my job to reveal any secrets any students may have. My only job is to sort students into a house I think they’ll do well in. Dumbledore may be the current headmaster, but he has no control over me, I belong to the school.’ The hat replied seeming irritated that Harry would even imply that he gave away student’s secrets.

   Harry laughed, ‘Sorry, didn’t mean to offend you, I just had to be sure.’

  ‘Hmm, Now let’s see, where should I send you.’

  ‘You already know where you’re going to sort me, why waste time’

  The hat sounded amused now, ‘I was just waiting to see if you would contradict me again this time.’

 ‘Well I won’t’

 ‘I see you’ve made up your mind’

  ‘Yes’ Harry said with conviction. ‘I know where I want to go and what would be the best house for me to execute all my plans’

  ‘Alright then, better be..’

“SLYTHERIN” it shouted it aloud.

The hat was lifted from his head. Harry blinked as the hall came back into focus. Everyone, now even the Slytherins were staring at him. The Ravenclaws mostly looked curious, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors with distrust and Slytherins with curiosity.

  Harry got off and started walking towards what would be his house for the rest of his year. He took his seat on the far end of the slytherin table. The slytherins closest to him looked to be 5^th or 6^th years stared at him with distrust and curiosity, while some outright glared at him and Harry glared right back till they finally looked away.

   Behind him now whispers had broken out now through the great hall, no doubt talking about the new student being sorted into slytherin. Harry kept a stoic face through it all and resolutely ignored the snide comments being thrown his way.

 Finally Dumbledore got up and said his usual nonsensical words and began the feast. Harry started on his meal eating methodically. The students closest to him had moved on to ignoring him now, which suited him just fine.

   When the feast was over, A prefect came over to him, she nodded at him, “Follow me, you’ll have to come with the first years for now, so you will get the tour and the rules can be explained to you.” She then turned and started walking.

   Harry followed her, towards where the first year slytherins were gathered together. As he passed, he looked over to the Gryffindor table. Lily was looking at him, but as soon as he met her eyes she turned away looking down, Mary looked conflicted, Marlene was talking to Alice their attention elsewhere.

   James was getting up from his seat along with Remus, likely to herd the Gryffindor first years. Sirius though was looking directly at him with narrowed eyes. Harry looked away. He knew this would happen. He knew he was likely to lose what little trust he had managed to earn when he was sorted in slytherin. He knew it how it looked, a direct seventh year, who appeared out of nowhere and was sorted in slytherin. It would be tough to gain their trust now, but Harry had never backed down from a challenge.

   He had his reasons for agreeing to be sorted in slytherin. First and foremost of all was that the marauders would have him figured out within a month at most. He didn’t want anyone knowing his identity until Voldemort was done with. He wouldn’t be able to do whatever he wanted if he was in Gryffindor and constantly around Marauders, they would become even more suspicious of him. What he had planned ahead would only be possible if he was in Slytherin. Also if he was around Pettigrew constantly he would end up strangling the bastard and the Marauders would never forgive him for that.

    Harry reached the group just as the prefect had started giving out instructions, “Alright, Follow behind us in a line, do not wander off and behave with some decorum. Indiscipline will not be tolerated, you all are Slytherins now. Keep that in mind. Further instructions will be given in the common room.”

   Harry followed behind the group. They reached the Slytherin dungeons. The prefects leading them showed the way in and soon they were gathered in the common room.

   “Alright first years and the new student” One of the prefects started first looking at the children and then reluctantly glancing at Harry as if he was something stuck at the back of her shoe.

   “Harry” he corrected, “Griffiths if you must. ‘The new student’ seems rather tiresome to say every time.”

  The prefect narrowed her eyes at him, and Harry stared right back. She seemed familiar but Harry couldn’t point out why. She had black hair and pointy features. The prefect that had come to fetch him in the hall before, this one with light blonde hair and piercing blue eyes looked at him curiously as if trying to figure him out.

   The black haired one continued speaking, “All of you were chosen for Slytherin and now your loyalty belongs to Slytherin only. We as a house follow some strict rules that are not to be under any circumstances to be broken.” She looked at the students with narrowed eyes trying to intimidate them Harry supposes.

  “The most important rule is, whatever you do don’t get caught. I don’t care what you do to other houses, if you start fight, maim someone or kill them make sure you cover your tracks well and don’t get caught doing it. We will not have you spoiling the reputation of our great house.” Harry raised one unimpressed eyebrow at the prefect. Harry didn’t know what she was trying to instill in the students with that kind of speech. Did Slytherin genuinely give these ‘welcoming speeches every year?’

   The blond prefect standing slightly behind her grimaced, but then maybe not Harry thought, maybe the black haired one was just trying to awe the first years many of whom were already smirking arrogantly and Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes, the rich spoilt little blood supremacists no doubt.

   “Second Slytherins stick together, I don’t care if you are enemies inside the dungeons but outside that door you will aid your fellow slytherins if they need it. United front is important.” That was one rule Harry could agree with. It was practical and he had seen how no matter what Slytherins did help eachother out, they stuck together. Harry could have used a rule like this during his time at Hogwarts, instead his Gryffindors had turned on him the second they had the slightest reason to.

   “Third, all of you are now a part of Salazar Slytherin's house. You will not behave like some plebeian. You will behave in a manner appropriate to this house. Observe your upperclassmen and learn from them. ”

  “Last is that you do not cost us house points. The professors are always looking for reasons to take points from us and Slytherins are always the ones to get blamed first especially Dumbledore. Be extra careful around him. Do not interact with other houses more than necessary.” She finished.

   The blonde one then came forward and took over, “Your schedules will be handed over to you tomorrow at breakfast along with the map to your classes by our head of the House that is Professor Horace Slughorn. If any of you have problems with anything regarding studying or adjusting or even personal problems you come to any of us prefects first and take our guidance before going to any of the professors. You are expected to do well in your studies. Failure is not tolerated here.”

    “If you are having difficulty in any of your subjects and are in need of tutoring you seek out the seniors that are willing to assist you and work out an arrangement that is beneficial for both of you, whether they take their payment in money or favour or objects that is between you.”

  “Form study groups, strive for information and remember Slytherins secrets stay in Slytherin. Anything you learn or see once you enter here is not to be repeated outside ever. If anything leaks outside even the smallest of information that anyone outside this house is not supposed to know, we will find you and you will be punished and it won’t be pleasant.” The blond prefect finished. Many first years looked excited while some looked uncertain and some a little intimidated.

    Harry thought most of these rules were quite reasonable and he would follow them at his own convenience of course.

   He would need to move carefully now, Slytherins were more perspective than other houses and he knew they would have a close eye on him as he was still an unknown. His status as a half-blood would not help either. He would need to establish his presence and Harry was sure he would get a chance to do so soon.

   For now he needed to lay low and find out who his potential allies could be, who could be manipulated and who he needed to be careful of.

   Harry settled in his dorm which he was going to be sharing with two other boys who had yet to show. He was tired and had no desire to wait up for his new roommates, so he placed his trunk under his bed under several protective charms and after casting privacy and silencing charms on his bed he closed the curtains and fell asleep. He would meet his roommates next morning.

    “Lily you alright” Mary asked from the bed next to hers. Lily looked up from the book she had been staring at for past 15 minutes without turning the page. Mary got up from her bed and came to sit next to Lily on hers.

  Lily sighed and closed her book. “Is this about Harry getting sorted in Slytherin” Mary asked looking at her knowingly. Mary had been her closest friend since they had been assigned the same dorm since first year, so ofcourse she knew what was troubling her, Lily had never been able to hide her emotions very well afterall.

   “I don’t know what to think Mar. Its like Severus all over again.” She couldn’t help but think about the boy who had once been her closest friend. The same boy who had taught her all about magic before Hogwarts, who had always been by her side had who had claimed to love her but still chose Dark arts over their friendship. Lily couldn’t help but believe the rumors about slytherin being a bad house. Everyone who went to Slytherin changed drastically.

    She had been heartbroken that her best friend wouldn’t be in the same house as her, but despite her fellow Gryffindors warning her time and time again not to associate with a Slytherin, she had still done everything in her power to hold their friendship together. But fifth year had been the last straw, after he had shouted that foul word at her, she couldn’t forgive him again. Sometimes she thought if she was being too cruel, too unforgiving. But then she would remember what kind of company he kept now-a-days and knew he would never give up his dark arts.

    When she met Harry in the shop, she felt something as she had looked at him. She didn’t know what it was but she knew that she could trust him. He felt familiar in a way that she couldn’t exactly point out. There had been an instinctive desire to help him out, to erase that sad look from his eyes and Lily’s instincts had never led her astray. So she had taken him with her for lunch and felt happy when he had relaxed around her.

   She had been beginning to see him as a good friend. Harry was strong, was the word she would use to describe him. She could see he had been through a lot in life. Ofcourse losing his parents must have been a severe blow but there was something else he wasn’t telling. Something that had brought that haunted broken look in his eyes that never seemed to fade.

   Lily did notice he seemed to relax more around her and she was happy to help, after all Hogwarts was a completely new place for him and she could understand it would be hard for him to adjust. She had been so sure that he would be a Gryffindor, his mannerisms and personality suited Gryffindor. She had considered ravenclaw too with the amount of knowledge he had. They had exchanged some letters arguing about some topics back and forth. Slytherin was something she hadn’t even considered for him, and now that he had been sorted there she didn’t know how to proceed.

    The incident with Severus and their resulting fallout had hurt her lot. She didn’t want a repeat of it again. She told Mary as much,

  “But Lily you have to understand Harry is not Snape. We can’t just assume that he would turn evil or is evil just because he was sorted there.” Mary tried to rationalize.

   “Yes, I know Harry is not Severus, but even if he is not like them, who’s to say he won’t be influenced by them. I tried to hold it together with Severus but it didn’t work and you know how Slytherins are, even if by chance he would want to maintain our friendship with us they will bully him for being friends with a mudblood” Lily said with a humorless laugh.

  Mary sighed, “Lily, lets not form opinions so soon. If Harry doesn’t want anything to do with us again then that’s his loss and not worth thinking over again, but if he still wants to be friends then we could respect that. Besides he doesn’t seem to be the type to be influenced by others easily. Judging that he would turn out just like the other slytherins this soon isn’t fair to him or you.”

   Lily thought that over and knew Mary was right. She would wait to form opinions. She sincerely hoped Harry would not shun their friendship. In a short time he had managed to become someone she considered among her short list of genuine friends and she didn’t want to lose it. It would all become clear tomorrow anyway, no use worrying over it now.

   She turned to Mary then giving her a genuine smile, “How do you always know what to say and stay calm and rational in these situations?”

  Mary laughed “Well someone’s got to balance out your impulsiveness and infamous temper.”

   Lily shoved her but laughed as well. It was true she did have quite a temper. Feeling much better now, Lily went to sleep with anticipation of tomorrow. It would certainly be an interesting day.

    In the boys Dormitory Four boys sat in a circle on one of the four beds. Their heads bent together conspiratorially.

   “So Harold Griffiths” Sirius Black started, prompting others to express their thoughts on said topic.

    “Harry” James couldn’t help correcting and Sirius glared at him for that interruption.

   Remus sighed tired and sleepy, just wanting to go to bed now, “I don’t know why you two are this obsessive over him. You only met him today, so what he was sorted in Slytherin”

   Sirius now turned his offended glare on him, “So what!!” he said with far more dramatics than Remus thought were necessary.

    “Look I don’t think we should worry about it too much. He seemed like a decent bloke to me. I did think he would be sorted in Gryffindor but who knows. Either way we should leave it alone, till he gives us a reason to doubt him.” James tried to reason before his friends started bickering.

    “I can’t believe you are saying it” Sirius turned his incredulous gaze on him once again. “A boy turns up out of no where and gets sorted in Slytherin and you’re not finding it suspicious”

   “Not no where didn’t you listen to professor Dumbledore, he was homeschooled” Remus put in.

  “Not my point” Sirius muttered sullenly.

  Peter who had been silent till now butted in, “I think we should keep an eye on him. He is a Slytherin now after all they cannot be trusted. Maybe we should prank him tomorrow.”

    James ended that discussion quickly though, he wasn’t in a mood to plan pranks now, “No, we are not playing pranks on the new kid, at least until he gives us a reason to. He is new to this school and it might be that he doesn’t even understand what being in slytherin means in Hogwarts and he is a halfblood isn’t he, its possible that his own housemates would bully him, he doesn’t need pranks on top of that. So just leave him alone for now, we’ll just observe, not engage.”

   Remus and Peter looked at him incredulously but Sirius looked contemplative, he finally nodded, “Fine, we will leave the new student alone for now. But if he gives me a reason…” leaving the sentence unfinished.

  “I don’t think he will though, he seemed different somehow, I don’t know but I don’t think he is like the other slytherins.” James voiced his thoughts. He didn’t understand it but he did feel a strange connection to the newcomer and he was willing to wait to give his judgment for now. A year earlier he wouldn’t have hesitated to label him as evil for being sorted in Slytherin but a lot of things had been put in perspective for him after the summer vacation.

    Sirius fixed him with a look that plainly said I don’t trust him but I trust you judgment and will go your way for now.

   Peter looked disappointed and Remus looked a mix of proud and surprised.

   “Lets just go to sleep for now” James urged the others. He was tired from the Headboy duties and he missed home and his parents terribly.

   Remus and Peter went off to their own beds but Sirius stayed behind. His inquisitive eyes looked at James, “You alright?”

  James nodded, “Just worried” he said knowing he wouldn’t be able to hide anything from his brother.

   Sure enough Sirius nodded in understanding placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing comfortingly, “Mum and Dad will be fine. They’ll be healthy again in no time.” Sirius tried to be reassuring despite the fact that he was just as worried. Dorea and Charlus Potter were diagnosed with Dragon pox this summer and were receiving treatment. It was and dangerous disease and there was no definitive cure for it now. James and he were both worried but there was nothing they could do.

    The healers were working on every possible cure and they were stable for now, but it could get worse anytime and he didn’t know what they would do then. James had been subdued since they had heard the news and Sirius was just as upset. They were the people who had taken him in when he had nowhere else to go and treated him like their own son. They were the only parents he had known and he wanted them to recover soon for both his and James’s sake.

   But despite everything there was something about the new boy that had captured his attention, and then the boy had to go and get sorted in Slytherin. The boy was hiding something he knew and he would find out. He would find out weather the boy was threat to his found family. For now he would respect James’s wishes and only observe. 

Chapter Text

      Harry woke up again at 6am. It was an experience, once again being back at Hogwarts; Familiar with respect to the beddings and the stone walls around him but at the same time different house colors and the unfamiliar cold of the dungeons.

   The other two bed curtains were still drawn, so Harry got up and went about his morning rituals. Dressing in his school robes Harry took one last look at his still sleeping roommates and set out.

   The common room was still mostly empty as it was only quarter to seven and breakfast didn’t start till seven thirty. Harry went to the greathall as he did most days. Out of habit he almost went towards the Gryffindors table but changed his course last minute and sat at the Slytherins table.

    Pulling out the book he was currently reading Harry lost himself in it.

    A hand on his shoulder startled him and he turned to look at who it was and found himself facing Lily. Harry stood up absently noticing that it must be much later as the great hall was mostly filled out.

   “Lily..” he was surprised to see her. Harry had planned to seek her out later but hadn’t expected for her to come to him.

    “Hey, we didn’t get a chance to talk after your sorting, so I just wanted to see if you were alright.” She asked. She looked uncomfortable standing at the Slytherin table as the surrounding slytherins threw glares at her. Harry felt affection swell for his mother that despite everything she had still braved coming to the Slytherin table just to talk to him.

    Harry smiled at her, “I fine Lily thanks. I was worried you wouldn’t want to talk to me.”

    Lily smiled back relaxing a little, “I actually was a little worried about that exact thing.”

   Mary walked up to Lily then and smiled at Harry, “Hey, Harry. Good morning!”

   “Morning Mary” Harry returned the greeting glad that she too was willing to talk to him.

   “Sorry Harry but I need to borrow Lily for now, Professor McGonagall is handing out our schedules and she won’t be happy if she doesn’t find us in our place.”

   Harry nodded noticing Slughorn handing out their schedules as well and the glares of his housemates were getting positively glacial. It was better if Lily went back to Gryffindors now, before any of the Slytherins said something to her. Harry won’t be able to control his temper and that won’t end well for anyone. He didn’t want to create a scene on the first day.

    Promising to talk later Lily and Mary went back to their tables and Harry settled back in his seat.

    “Openly fraternizing with a muggleborn Gryffindor on first day while sitting at the slytherin table? Can’t decide if its brave of you or extremely stupid.” Harry narrowed his eyes at the boy sitting next to him. He looked like a seventh year.

   “Does it matter what I do at this point? Me not being a pureblood already docks my social points here.”

   The boy looked at him his amber eyes curious, “Even so, there’s one thing to not being a pureblood and another to openly disregard pureblood values in Slytherin. They aren’t happy with you.” He said indicating to his now housemates.

    Harry considered the boy next to him, he didn’t seem disapproving or even threatening, he talked like he was just stating facts with no judgment, so Harry decided to humor him if only to see where exactly he was going with this, “I don’t much care what they think about me. I won’t stop talking to my friend just because of some misguided pureblood beliefs.”

     “Hmm, well you haven’t set an easy path in front of you then.”

   Harry shrugged “I haven’t taken an easy path a day in my life, not about to start now.”

   The boy looked amused now, “You’re going to be trouble I can tell.” He then stuck out his hand “Lewis Williams, your new roommate and a fellow seventh year.”

    Harry looked at him in surprise, shaking his hand, “Harry Griffiths” he introduced himself. Subtly checking his apparent roommate, he didn’t look like anyone Harry knew and Williams wasn’t a pureblood surname. He was either a halfblood or a muggleborn but that was unlikely.  A muggleborn in slytherin were practically unheard of, but it seemed rude to ask, so he’ll just have to wait and see.

    The dark haired boy then indicated to the one sitting next to him, “He’s the other roommate Archie Deverill”

  Harry looked at the boy sitting next to Williams, he had curly chestnut hair and dark eyes, pale skin with angular features. Looked to be a pureblood and Harry had read that the Deverill was a pureblood name, though he didn’t really know much about the family and what happened to them in the war.  

    Deverill gave him a nod in acknowledgement which Harry returned. Slughorn made his way over then,

“Ah the new student, lets see what was it” he said talking at Harry while shuffling the schedules in his hand, “Yes, here it is Harold Griffiths”

  “Hmm Potions, DADA, charms, transfiguration, Arithmacy, Ancient Runes, Ancient Studies and extras too” Slughorn looked skeptical. “Quite a full schedule you’ve got there boy. Are you going to be able to handle it. ”

   Harry gave Slughorn a tight smile, “Thank you for your concern professor but I’m sure I’ll manage”

   Slughorn then moved on to other students.

   The first class of day was Transfiguration and Harry walked with his newly introduced roommates. The Slytherins were paired with Ravenclaw for the class. Harry sat with Lewis for the class which was of course taught by Mcgonagall. It wasn’t too hard for Harry as he had already studied most of it before.

    The class passed without any incident. Next came potions, which wasn’t something he was looking forward to. He had gotten a lot better at it than before. He made a lot of potions for practice in his self-imposed exile after the war when he had discovered a potions lab gathering dust at Grimmauld place and had been motivated enough to try it out. He found out that he could do a lot better at potions when there wasn’t Snape breathing down his neck, even without the Half blood Prince’s book; but it still wasn’t something he enjoyed.

     They walked towards the dungeons. Harry, Lewis and Archie making small talk as they went. Harry found he liked Lewis, he was a laid back guy and seemed like a cheerful and positive kind of person. But Harry knew there was more to him then met the eye, afterall you don’t survive in Slytherin this long just by being an optimist. The slytherins still gave him the stink eye but, overall didn’t bother him. Lewis seemed oblivious to the hostility around him and Archie walked with them occasionally adding a word but otherwise silent and listening.

    Slughorn was already there when they entered the classroom. Once everyone was settled Slughorn took his attendance and then stood up.

    “My dear students, I’m happy to see you all after at the start of this new year. Hope your holidays have been pleasant” he greeted smiling widely, Then clapped his hands, “So lets get started shall we. I’m sure you all must have reviewed your seventh year syllabus by now. Seventh year deals with potions that are a little more advanced than what you did in your last year. I will be here to guide you of course, but you will be doing most of the work yourselves.” He gave a brief review of the potions they would be preparing.

  “Now time to choose your partners for the year. I leave it up to you to select your own partners and make sure to pick someone you can work with all year long, I won’t allow a change of partners in the middle of the year without a valid reason. I will give you ten minutes to sort it out then we will begin with today’s class.”

    Harry looked around, he would have to wait and look who was left last as most would have already paired with their friends and it wasn’t like he had any very close friend here. He remained at the back as everyone paired up. A hand on his shoulder startled him and he looked to the side to see it was Lily, “Hey, want to pair up” she asked. Surprised Harry looked around assumed she would be pairing up with Alice as he had seen them both in the class only to find that she had already paired up with Mary, Lily followed his gaze and answered his unspoken question,

    “I paired up with Alice last year and Mary and Marlene had paired up, but Marlene dropped potions this year and I offered to be your partner” she said shrugging. Harry gave her a smile, happy for the extra time he would get to spend with her because of this and agreed.

    They were then assigned their workspace. Slughorn then introduced them to the potion they would be working on that day, “So since it is your first day we start off simple, with a Pepperup potion. Now I don’t think I need to explain this potion to you do I? Any one who can give me a brief introduction about it?” he asked the class.

  Immediately several hands went up including Harry and Lily. Slughorn looked around and then his eyes came to rest on Harry, “Ah the new boy, why don’t you tell us.”

    Harry stood up,“ Potioneer Linfred of Stinchcombe developed a rudimentary treatment for common cold and Glover Hipworth worked on it as a base and perfected the Pepper-up as it is today. The pepper-up potion is red in colour generally used to cure common cold and also warms up the recipient with the side effect of causing steam to emit from the drinker’s ears.”

    Slughorn looked fairly impressed, “very well my boy, 5 points to Slytherin for an accurate answer” Lily smiled at him as he sat down. Harry normally wasn’t the one for answering in class even if he knew the answer. That was Hermione’s job and she enjoyed giving answers so he never bothered and the added attention wasn’t something he had ever wanted, but this was different. No one recognized him as the boy who lived here. He was working on a clean slate. Whatever image he built here will be on his own knowledge and personality, it felt good and freeing. He could be whoever he wanted, without having an image to live up to.

   Slughorn instructed them to get to work. They opened their textbooks and made a list of the ingredients. Harry offered to go and get the ingredients from the storage cupboard. Finding all the required items, Harry starts making his way back to the table but someone bumps him hard from behind almost making him spill his ingredients, he manages to balance them in time and looks up to see who the asshole that didn’t even bother with a simple apology was, the only one who could have bumped into him was walking away to the table at the back. Harry shook his head, it wasn’t worth causing a scene over and walked back to his own table without incident.

    As Slughorn had previously told Harry, Lily was excellent at potions. She worked fast and with precision. It was a good thing that pepper-up was a potion that Harry had already made multiple times, so he was able to keep up with her. They worked seamlessly together and were done with their potion with twenty minutes to spare. Harry looked around the room to see that they were the first ones to finish.

   Slughorn was making his rounds to check everyone’s progress and came to them when he saw that they were done. He inspected their potion,

   “Excellent work Lily, as expected from my best student of course and finished earlier than anyone else too.” He exclaimed looking at Lily completely ignoring Harry, which was just typical. Slughorn was only ever this cheery to those he sensed could benefit him in the future and Harry had done nothing that could indicate to it.

      Lily smiled a little embarrassed, “Couldn’t have done it without Harry professor. He did half the work.” Lily said trying to get Slughorn to give him some credit. Slughorn only waved it off, “of course you would say that my dear” and Harry rolled his eyes. Not that he wanted Slughorn’s praise but if only he had gotten at least half this level of apathy from the professor in his sixth year it would have made potions a lot more bearable.

     Slughorn after instructing them to submit the potion and then wait for everyone to finish, moved on to the next table. As they started clearing their table Lily looked at him apologetically, “Sorry about that Harry he just..”

    Harry cut off her apology, “Its alright Lily, it doesn’t matter not your fault.”

  “But we both made the potion and you were an excellent partner you should get equal credit” she insisted. Harry just smiled and shrugged, “Honestly this treatment is a lot better than my previous potion tutor”

    Lily looked at him incredulously, “This is better?”

   Harry nodded, “yeah, my last tutor hated my guts, always critiqued my smallest mistakes, he couldn’t stand me and I couldn’t stand him, I think he might partially be the reason I did so poorly in potions before I practiced on my own and discovered that potions wasn’t such a complicated subject after all. I mean I still don’t really like it but at least I am not making silly mistakes now”    

        “But why didn’t you just hire another tutor if he was that bad” Lily asked as they poured their potion in a vial.

   “Didn’t have an option at the time” he answered. They submitted the vial and sat down to wait.

   “How’s Slytherin treating you then?” Lily asked. He just shrugged, “so far so good, no one’s really bothered me yet but they keep glaring.”

    “Just be careful, Slytherins aren’t exactly known to be the friendliest.” Lily said.

   They chatted for a while. Lily telling him about all the professors and giving him markers on how to remain in their good graces, all the while he felt eyes on him, it was a gut feeling that wouldn’t go away and he discreetly glanced around the room. Everyone was busy with their own potions not really paying attention to him. His eyes lingered on James and Sirius who were paired up for the potions and were diligently following the instructions with only occasionally snickering among themselves. Then there were Remus and Pettigrew, with Remus concentrating on the potion and Pettigrew standing uselessly by his side.

    After surveying the whole classroom his gaze landed on the table at the very back and he had a very strong sense of deja’vu as he was met with glaring dark eyes. Harry blinked as it clicked who he was looking at, Severus Snape; or at least the teenaged version of him.

    Snape more or less looked the same, just younger. He sported the same long hair and sullen expression on his face that was currently busy scowling at Harry, with eyes that occasionally darted towards Harry’s current companion, Lily who was oblivious to it or just very committed on ignoring it. Harry simple raised his eyebrows which only served to make that scowl deeper. Shaking his head Harry turned his attention back to Lily.

    After potion class was done, Harry and Lily were joined by Mary and Alice. Harry had to separate and go to the Slytherin table for lunch. He had always thought this extreme house separation was ridiculous. It was one thing to divide students in different houses and another to separate them to such an extent that there were such intense rivalries between each house that went way beyond friendly competition. The most disturbing thing was that the teachers did nothing to curb the animosity in the students and on many occasions even supported it.

      Harry would have went and sat with Lily and her friends in an instant, but he was reluctant to take such a big step just yet. He had to get the support of his fellow slytherins, at least of those who were yet neutral if he was to prepare for the war to come. He had to move carefully for now, and make change in small waves. Him sitting at the Gryffindors table was sure to create a Tsunami and he wasn’t ready to deal with it yet.

     Fortunately he was soon joined by Lewis and Archie and this time accompanied with a blond slytherin girl, who Harry noted was the same prefect who had led the first years.

  “Maisie Carter” she introduced herself extending her hand. Harry shook it, “Harry” he said simply.

   She nodded, “Hmm, you caused quite the uproar in the house yesterday.”

   Harry snorted, “Yeah I’ve been known to do that.”

   She only raised an eyebrow in response, “Lewis for some reason has taken a liking to you, and he hasn’t led us wrong yet so don’t do anything that would harm the group or it won’t end well for you.”

    She said it all very calmly like stating the facts, Harry was quite impressed. He assumed that by group she meant her, Archie and Lewis. It was true that Lewis had been the first to approach him and Harry liked his easy attitude. He didn’t yet trust him because he didn’t know the motivation behind it and he had been betrayed too many times to trust easily again, but Harry was willing to give him and the other two a chance.

    Ever since his inheritance Harry could feel the Aura of those around him. It was very faint and he couldn’t always decipher the meaning behind what he felt, but one reason why he was willing to try and build a friendship with Lewis was that he had a very bright aura. He couldn’t really detect any negativity or ill intentions in it, there was something else but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

    “I won’t” Harry assured Maisie. She nodded and settled in her seat.

   “Don’t worry about her, she will warm up to you eventually” Lewis reassured him. Harry smiled and started their lunch.

     After a lot of subtle interrogation on both sides Harry learned that Maisie was a halfblood, Archie a pureblood which Harry had already guessed, but what surprised him was that Lewis was a muggleborn. Though it might explain why he was more willing to talk to Harry first, there’s more to it though and Harry is determined to find out what.

   The glares have eased off now, everyone chatting in their own little groups, though the atmosphere at the Slytherin table is a lot more subdued than the other tables, Gryffindors of course being the loudest.

     They had charms later, taught by Professor Flitwick and then they had to sit through History of magic and endure Binns where most of the students were falling asleep as always; some things never changed.

     Harry walked through the halls of Hogwarts familiarizing himself with it again. It was hard being here in these halls again, all his better moments were overshadowed by the memories of the war fought inside these very walls.

   Unknowingly his feet carried him towards the direction of the Gryffindors tower and he immediately changed his direction upon realizing it, that would only make the Gryffindors more suspicious then they already were if they found him loitering near there.

     He was halfway down the corridor when he saw the marauders coming from the opposite direction. They noticed him and had a varied range of reactions. James smiled, Sirius narrowed his eyes suspicious, Remus looked curious and Pettigrew just looked confused.

   “Hey” James greeted him as they came closer.

  Harry smiled back, “James”

  “Hey Harry” Remus greeted. Pettigrew lingered behind and Sirius had his eyes narrowed and was outright glaring at him now. Harry didn’t know what he had done to piss him off, besides the obvious; being sorted in Slytherin of course.

   Harry still smiled at him and Remus politely. “What are you doing here?” Sirius asked in a flat tone, no trace of the friendly demeanor he had showed Harry on the train.

  “I was actually trying to get to the Library but got lost.” Harry said playing the new student card.

   “Surely you were given a map. All first years are, or you didn’t think to ask someone, maybe one of your lovely housemates?” Sirius questioned him again in a mocking tone.

   Harry narrowed his own eyes, he knew Sirius won’t exactly be alright with him being a Slytherin but this outright hostility was still unexpected.

“I did not get any map and I did ask for directions, but the castle isn’t exactly small, plus the stairs keep changing. I got lost.” Harry answered simply, swallowing back his angry retort, now was not the time to sass back.

   “What about…” Sirius started again, not the one to give up but James placed his hand on Sirius’s shoulder and pulled him back, “Sirius enough” he said in a quiet but firm voice and Sirius just looked at him for a few seconds and it was like they had an entire conversation with just their eyes before Sirius sighed and backed down.

    James then turned to Harry with a smile, “I can show you the way to the library if you want.” He offered.

    “Oh no, its alright, just give me the directions I’ll be fine.” Harry declined.

  “You would just get lost again and like you said Hogwarts is huge, we still get lost sometimes and we’ve been studying here for six years now. Besides I was tasked with helping you should you need anything.” James stated simply.

   Harry wasn’t going to argue after that, any chance to get to know the man that would become his father was a good one so he nodded, “I would appreciate that, if its not too much trouble.”

    James then turned to the rest of the three, Sirius rolled his eyes, “Whatever I’m going to the common room, I’m tired” he said and then walked off. “Yeah me too” Remus said following him giving Harry an apologetic smile, Pettigrew nodded at him awkwardly and set off after the.

   James shook his head, “Come on then, let’s get going.”

  James then set off in the direction of the Library and Harry followed him.    

Chapter Text

  “Your friend doesn’t seem to like me” Harry stated hoping to start a conversation and maybe gain a little insight on what it was about him that had rubbed Sirius the wrong way, other than the Slytherin thing of course.

    James just shrugged, “Don’t mind him, Sirius doesn’t warm up to people easily and on top of that you were sorted into Slytherin which doesn’t help your case. Remus is just tired and Peter probably wanted to take a nap before dinner.”

    “So Sirius just hates everyone in Slytherin on principle?” Harry pushed further not willing to let it drop just yet.

   James gave him a sharp look, “Sirius has his reasons and its not like the Slytherins make it difficult to hate them.” He said instantly jumping to defend Sirius. It almost made Harry smile before he reined it in keeping his facial expression neutral. It won’t do to smile on what was an indirect insult to him and make James even more suspicious than he already was. He had always heard from everyone about the bond between his father and his godfather, but to witness it with his own eyes was surreal.

    “You’re right they don’t. God knows they haven’t stopped glaring at me since I stepped foot in Hogwarts.”

  James looked at him, “They haven’t tried anything have they” he asked looking almost concerned.

   Harry shook his head, “No, they haven’t gone beyond the glaring”

  “Hmm, be careful though and keep your guard up.” James advised. 

   “of course. I think I did make some friends though, my roommates seem to be alright.”

   James tilted his head curiously, “Who?”

   “Lewis Williams and Archie Deverill. Maisie Carter’s good too.” Harry answered wanting to know what James thought about them and also with the intention of gathering more information about them.

    James narrowed his eyes contemplatively, “Oh yes I’ve seen them around. They seem to be fine, don’t seem to get in any trouble and mostly keep to themselves. Its good that you got them as roommates, same with Carter.”

   They reached the Library by then, “Here we are, Just go to madam Prince and she’ll help you get started.” James said gesturing towards the library.

   “I should get going now, I have somethings to do before dinner. Just remember dinner starts at 7pm. Would you be able to find the Greathall from here?”

    Harry nodded, “I’ll just ask someone and thank you for showing me the way.”

   James gave him a small smile and turned around walking back.

   As he was already there, Harry decided to go inside and get started on his transfiguration essay that Mcgonagall had assigned them.

    The week passed by pretty much the same. Harry got to know Lewis, Archie and Maisie a little more and found that he liked what he found so far. When Harry had intended to get sorted in Slytherin he hadn’t expected to be making good friends, the most he had hoped for was acquaintances. It was a surprise to find the kind of people here that he actually wanted to get to know better and befriend. Harry was glad to be included in their little group, they were still a little reserved with him but that was to be expected as Harry was the same.

    Other than the occasional awkward silences they got along very well. They kept to themselves isolated even from their fellow slytherins and the slytherins too for the most part left them alone.

    Harry spent his first week blending in and observing those around him, gathering information on everyone that could prove vital for this war.

    It was a Sunday now and that meant they got to visit Hogsmeade. Harry was looking forward to getting out for a change. Harry sat having breakfast with his Slytherin group,

   “What are your plans for today then?” Maisie asked him.

   Harry shrugged, “Nothing specific, just explore for today. I have heard good things about Honeydukes sweets and the butterbeer at that Inn… What was that name again.. Something about Broomsticks.”

     “The three Broomsticks” Lewis supplied. “Yeah that” Harry nodded.

   “What about you?” Harry asked.

    “Look for some books I couldn’t find in the library than have butterbeer” Lewis answered.

    “I’m not going today, have some work to take care of.” Maisie said.

    Archie wasn’t there yet, taking advantage of the weekend and sleeping in.

    After breakfast Harry set off, Lewis was going to wait for Archie so Harry was alone for now. He wandered aimlessly for a while, taking in all the changes but was pleasantly surprised to find that not much had changed between his parent’s time here and his own. Hogsmeade looked more or less the same.

   Harry did decide to go to Honeydukes later and purchased some of his favorite sweets. He decided to head to the three broomsticks then. It was pretty packed but luckily he found an empty table and sat down with his butterbeer.

     Times like these he missed Ron and Hermione and their constant presence around him. Though he had made friends here but that friendships weren’t to the point yet that he could impose on them whenever he wanted, despite everything he was still a new student and he couldn’t expect anyone to integrate him into their groups formed years before he came. It would happen with time.

    Harry’s main focus now was to find the Horcruxes. He was pretty sure of the position of three Horcruxes, Diadem must be in the room of requirement now, the Slytherin’s locket in the cave and the resurrection stone in the Gaunt shack. Voldemort doesn’t have Nagini yet. The other two were a bit more tricky, he didn’t know if Voldemort had handed his Horcruxes to Bellatrix and Lucius for safekeeping yet and to confirm that he would either have to break into the Malfoy Manor or Gringotts, both of which was very difficult and would surely draw a lot of attention. Attention on him wasn’t something he wanted yet.

     Harry would have to focus on the other three horcruxes first and meanwhile figure out a plan to get the other two.  He was so lost in thought that he startled violently when he felt a hand on his shoulder,

   “woah.. relax its just me. Sorry about that, didn’t think you’d startle that bad”

   Harry looked up to see James Potter standing there, looking at him apologetically and behind him the rest of the marauders.

  “Its alright I was just lost in thought” he said accepting the apology.

   James nodded, “Mind if we sit? Everywhere else is full.”

   Harry nodded and James sat down beside him while Sirius and Pettigrew sitting in the opposite seats, Remus brought over an empty chair from the nearby table.

   “You adjusting alright so far then Harry?” Remus asked once they were all seated sipping their butterbeers.

   Harry nodded, “Yeah, its been a little different than what I’m used to and my house isn’t exactly welcoming..” Sirius snorted at that but Harry continued, “But I did make some friends who’ve helped me adjust a great deal and the professors are great.”

   “What about you, How’s your week been?” Harry asked.

   It was James that answered, “Pretty normal so far actually. Professors are keeping us busy this year right from the start.”

    “First year that you haven’t had any detention in the first week eh James” Remus teased grinning.

   “Believe me I’m disappointed in myself. My reputation is in tatters now” James sighed dramatically.

  “Oh please, your reputation is just fine think about mine, my perfect detention record all gone now, only because you had to go and become the Headboy and then forbid me from playing any pranks for the week” Sirius joined in.

  “Well I had to give some respect to the badge now, didn’t I, believe me it pained me to do so but I did promise mom that I would behave at least for the first week” James tried to justify himself.

    “We’re going to have to do something big this week or people won’t have any respect left for the marauders anymore” Sirius said decisively.

   James looked at Sirius curiously, “You have anything in mind?”

   Sirius huffed crossing his arms, “Of course, what do you take me for, an amateur?”

   Remus sighed shaking his head, “I didn’t say that to motivate you into getting detentions you know”

   James laughed, “Well too bad now Moony You’ve challenged our Marauder’s pride.” James then looked at Sirius again, “Well then pads what did you have in mind?”

    Sirius opened his mouth to speak when Pettigrew spoke up for the first time, “Uh.. guys shouldn’t we wait to discuss it, this area is too public.” He said glancing at Harry nervously.

   Sirius gave Harry a look, “You’re right Petey we do have unwanted company don’t we?”

    Harry who had been enjoying the marauder’s dramatics till now, rolled his eyes at that, “As far as I recall the said unwanted company was sitting by himself and very graciously allowed the marauders to sit with him and if they think they can bully him out of the table that wasn’t their’s in the first place, they can think again”

    Sirius’s lips twitched at that like he was holding back a smile. James laughed, “You’re right Harry, and we can discuss it here. I’m sure Harry knows to keep a secret.”

   “Yeah sure, I’ve heard so much about the marauders pranks I’m actually excited to see what you people come up with this time.”

    Sirius grinned at that, “Alright, so here’s the plan…”

    Harry felt quite good as he walked towards the Slytherin dormitory. He had made progress significant progress in befriending the three marauders. He wouldn’t say that they were friends now or they trusted him but he would definitely say that they didn’t hate him now, except for Pettigrew who seemed twitchy the whole time he was there, which Harry didn’t quite understand why as he had tried his best to limit his glares, maybe he hadn’t quite succeeded in that.

     Harry found Lewis and Maisie sitting in the common room completing their essays and Harry went and joined them. Lewis smiled at him, “seems like you’re once again a prime subject of discussion in Hogwarts”

    Harry snorted, “Really now, what have I done this time?”

   Maisie shook her head, “you getting friendly with the Marauders of course.”

    “huh, right that” Harry said picking up Lewis’s essay to scan it. He had already finished his earlier.

   “Yeah that.” Lewis nodded. “They don’t normally associate with slytherins though, I’m curious as to how you managed to hold a civil conversation with them which didn’t end in bloodshed, since they seem to think that all slytherins are the incarnations of evil and rotten to the core.”

    “There are mostly a lot of misunderstandings and misconceptions between the students here, since I am new I don’t have them.” Harry explained, “I just promised not to tell on them and helped them plan a prank and we were good”

      Maisie looked at him incredulously but then shook her head, mostly used to his eccentricity by now, “whatever I really don’t care as long as I am excluded from that prank, you better make sure I am not caught in the it Griffiths” she said going back to her essay.

    But then looked up again, “Just be careful alright, they…especially Potter and Black they can be vicious in their pranking and you are a slytherin now and they could just be trying to trick you.” She said.

   Harry looked at her then, she had turned back to her essay like it wasn’t a big deal for her to be concerned about him, but Harry knew how much it had cost her to show that concern. She was a slytherin and their principles were a lot different than gryffindors. Her warning him and showing concern was a sign that she to some extent was starting to trust him and it was a gift that Harry wasn’t going to take for granted.

      He laid her hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes to show that he understood and appreciated it, “I will be careful” and she nodded once. Harry then turned to Lewis who had been quite until then, “Where’s Archie?”

    “He went to the library, wanted another refrence for his essay, will be back soon.” Harry nodded and went on to suggest a few changes to the transfiguration essay he was holding.

    By the time the four of them were done with their work it was dinner time. Harry sent the three ahead to the great hall as he had to put his things away first. Harry was just a deserted hallway towards the greathall when he sensed a spell coming towards him and out of instinct ducked, the bright yellow spell passing by harmlessly. Harry turned towards the direction the spell came from his wand drawn, only to come face to face with a group of slytherins.

     “nice duck Griffiths but you won’t be so lucky next time” one of them spoke grinning maliciously. Harry recognized him a Evan rosier a future deatheater of course. The others cackled and Harry sighed internally. He had been hoping to avoid this kind of confrontation for atleast another few weeks inevitable as it was. Seems like he was going to have to teach these baby deatheaters a lesson sooner than expected.

    Harry straightened up squaring his shoulders and giving them a pleasant smile, “so it seems like we have a problem here, I don’t suppose it could be solved by talking it out.”

Chapter Text

       There were six of them in total. Harry recognized Rosier and Rodolphus Lestrange he could also see Snape at the back. Harry didn’t recognize the other three at first glance.

    “Any reason you attacked me unprovoked?” He asked still smiling at them pleasantly.

   The group was staring at him with a range of expressions going from angry to bewildered to confused to angry again.

   Finally Rosier spoke up again, “What the hell are you smiling at mudblood”

    Harry only raised an eyebrow at that, “Wow straight to the hard insults huh and unoriginal one at that.”

     Lestrange was the one to speak this time, Rosier seemed too stumped, “What are you playing at you halfblood?”

    “Ah, much more accurate now but that’s a fact not an insult. Also to answer your question, I’m not playing at anything, you were the ones that tried to hex me when I was only trying to get to the greathall, while my back was turned I might add and now are trying to insult me quite unsuccessfully at that, though to tell you the truth I don’t feel particularly insulted.” Harry continued in the same pleasant tone.

    Now all the Slytherins were staring at him with wide eyes, probably never having expected such a response and not knowing how to react.

    Snape is the one that steps forward now and Harry gives him an even wider smile, “You’re Severus aren’t you, also the one that keeps trying to trip me. I did want to ask you what that was about, now’s the perfect chance, so any reason?”

   Snape looked uncomfortable at being caught now and a little bewildered. Harry was really enjoying the varying range of gaping expressions on the slytherins faces and continued, now adopting an expression of enlightenment and clicking his fingers,

  “I get it, was it your way of hazing me, like a little ritual or a test to see if I’m good enough to be your friend. Is that what all this is about? oh Sev! you should have just said, I would love to be your friend.”

    The other Slytherins snickered at that. Snape had turned purple by now, “don’t call me that you….” He seemed too mad and embarrassed to think about a suitable insult now and instead just drew his wand up and yelled, “Sectumsempra”

   The smile instantly slid off Harry’s face as soon as he heard the words and he reacted on instinct summoning the statue in the path of the curse, it was too dangerous to just step out of its path, as it could hit anyone coming down the hallway and Harry couldn’t take that chance.

   The curse hit the statue causing minimal damage, the statue cluttered to the floor and Harry looked up at Snape who seemed shocked, at what Harry didn’t know but Harry was so done with the slimy snake. The constant bumping into him and sending hexes Harry’s way when his back was turned had been annoying, still Harry had let it go but this wasn’t acceptable.

    Harry looked straight at Snape who himself looked shocked at his own lack of control, showing the fury in his eyes satisfied to see him flinch and spoke letting ice bleed in his voice, “try something like that again Snape and there will be consequences.”

    Then he looked at the rest of group, “Is there a point to any of this? What exactly were you trying to achieve by cornering me here?”

    Rosier once again stages himself as the impromptu leader and speaks up, “You are insulting the slytherins, fraternizing with the gryffindors and disrespecting slytherin traditions. Its time we teach you a lesson.”

      The other slytherins have returned to glaring at him at this point, trying to intimidate him but Harry only raises an unimpressed eyebrow, “Really that’s it? There were no such rules anywhere that I couldn’t talk to the other houses and I’ve done nothing that suggests that I don’t respect slytherin, I was sorted there wasn’t I? So obviously slytherin is the best house for me.”

     Rosier looked at a loss of words clearly floundering about how to proceed, one of the other slytherins speaks up, “Well what about you cozying up to those marauders, they’re our enemies; all of gryffindors are.”

      Harry looked at the one who had spoken, he didn’t recognize him but answered the question, “Well I don’t know about the history you have with them, they haven’t done anything so far for me to consider them enemies, in fact they’ve been more civil to me than most of my own housemates, so why would I not talk to them.”

    Harry looked at the group pointedly and continued, “also, what I gathered form this whole interaction, the reason you sought me out here, six on one, in a deserted corridor was only to establish some kind of dominance. Isn’t it one of the slytherin rules that slytherins have to stick together, I don’t see you following it. You’re the ones disrespecting Slytherin principles.”

       Harry let them think on that, Rosier looked angry and Snape’s face didn’t give away anything but the others looked contemplative.

   “Look I have nothing against any of you and have done nothing to harm or antagonize you so I don’t see any reason for this confrontation. I am not going to stop being friends with Lily or stop talking to Gryffindors or any other houses just because you say so.”

    “That’s exactly the reason you shouldn’t be in slytherin, mudbloods like you never understand the importance of purity and class” Rosier spat.

     “Are we really going there? Look I’m really hungry and would prefer to get to the greathall before all the food is gone, can we cut this discussion to some other time. If I start explaining Genetics and dangers of inbreeding, its going to take forever. But do think about it. How strong are you from the halfblood and muggleborns here?”

     “have any of you ever stopped to question the beliefs that have been ingrained in you since you were small? You’ve grown up enough to think for yourselves haven’t you, are you always going to blindly follow some outdated beliefs without even stopping to verify if they’re actually true. All of you have some beliefs about muggles but I bet anyone here except Snape have never ventured in the muggle world to see for yourselves.”

    Harry gave them a challenging look, “Do you know the ratio of population of muggles to wizards. Do you know the kind of weapons they have, one atomic bomb and majority of wizarding population will be wiped out. Did you read up about the world wars that happened in the muggle world? The vast manpower and how destructive their weapons are?”

     “You really think that by keeping your blood ‘pure’ and eliminating muggleborns is going to help in the long run? The only thing that’s going to accompalish is make your bloodlines weak due to inbreeding and reduce your populations. I suggest you look up all I’ve told you or at least give it a thought and if anyone manages to make a good counter argument to convince me that muggleborns are not good for the wizarding world, then I’ll follow whatever your so called principles are. Until then I suggest you let me be, because the next time you decide to attack me while my back is turned, I won’t give you the benefit of doubt that I did this time.”

   Having said what he wanted to and planting a seed of doubt in their minds Harry turned and started walking towards his original destination. The Slytherins were too shocked or confused to try and stop him, they hadn’t expected the confrontation to go this way he supposes.

      He had no delusions that he had changed anyone’s world view with only his brief speech, it wasn’t that easy but if even one out of them took some time to seriously think about what he said, then it was a task accomplished.

      Harry arrived at the greathall and made a beeline towards his friends and sat down in the seat Lewis had saved for him. The three of them were giving him questioning looks, but he just mouthed later at them and they went back to their meals. A few minutes the other six slytherins entered the hall and took their seats. Harry could feel some of them glaring at him but he paid no attention to them.

    Once they were done with their dinner they headed back to their dorms, Maisie with them. As soon as they were in their dorm, she shut the door and locked it casting silencing charms on it.

    Then the three of them turned to Harry expectantly, Maisie was the one who spoke up, “What happened? First of all you came in late for lunch which wouldn’t be anything unusual but the group that followed you into the greathall not a minute after you came in certainly is, so spill.”

    Lewis and Archie nodded and Harry sighed, “Alright, alright and I was going to tell you anyway.”

    Harry recounts the entire incident to them and Lewis starts laughing while Maisie and Archie shake their heads.

    “You really are something else” Lewis got out.

    “You should stop playing with fire Harry, in the end you’ll only get burned” Archie though looked worried as he advised him. Harry smiled at him reassuringly, “Don’t worry I’ve been playing with fire since before I remember. I know my limits and I know how much to push and when to step back. I’ll be fine and I also won’t do anything that would put any of you in the path of flames.”

     Maisie looked at him intently, “You know what I didn’t think it was possible but I do believe you. We aren’t idiots you know, you have a lot of secrets and we also know that you have your own reasons for not telling us and you’re here with some preplanned goal.”

    Harry just looked at her wondering where she was going with this. He knew that they knew something was up with him. He had dropped most of his defenses around them and they had noticed he wasn’t some ordinary transfer student.

    Lewis was the one who spoke up when it became clear that Maisie wasn’t going to elaborate, “What she’s trying to say is that as long as it isn’t something that goes against our personal principles and doesn’t put us in any danger you have nothing to fear from us and that you have our support. We all have come to like you”

    Harry looked at them shocked, he had expected for them to be worried that he was putting them in danger but he hadn’t expected them to actually offer their support without even knowing what it was that he was trying to achieve, yet he couldn’t detect any insincerity from them.

    He gave them all a smile, “Thanks guys and I do trust you a lot more than I should in such a small time actually and I have come to like you all too. You are right, I do have an objective for which I came to Hogwarts and I promise I will tell you in a while, but now isn’t the time.”

    Maisie nodded, “alright, you do realize you might have been able to escape them for now because you surprised them but they will come after you again and you won’t be able to get out with just some clever words.” She asked raising an eyebrow and changing the subject effectively.

    Harry flopped down on his bed, “I know, I’ll just have to be careful not to be caught offgaurd.”

   Archie just shook his head, “You do that”

   “Prongs”

   “PronGS..”

  “Hmm” James hummed not looking up from his charms assignment.

    Frustrated Sirius threw a chocolate frog at his head from where he lying in own bed beside James’s. The frog hit the side of James’s face,

   “Oww.. pads what the hell!” Finally looking up from his homework and rubbing the side of his head James glared at Sirius who just sat up and glared back, 

     “I’ve been calling you since forever, can’t believe I have to compete for attention with charms assignment now.”

    James rolled his eyes, “You have my attention now, what is it that can’t wait five bloody minutes for me to finish my work?”

     James looked at him impatiently, Sirius though now looked contemplative and just hummed. Irritated James threw his quill at Sirius aiming perfectly for his forehead, “Heyy, this is abuse you know” Sirius exclaimed indignantly.

   “Spit it out pads”

   “What do you think about Griffiths?” Sirius asked.

   James just stared at him with wide eyes before he dragged his hand over his face frustrated, “I swear to Merlin Sirius not this again”

   “What”

    “Harry Griffiths. That’s what.”

  “Hey I just asked your opinion”

   James only raised an eyebrow unimpressed, “And how many times have you asked me this now. I don’t know why you have this weird obsession with him, I’ve never seen you this wound up about anyone before.”

    Sirius now looked offended, “I don’t have an obsession with anyone alright, he’s hiding something, I know it.”

   James rolled his eyes, “Maybe but that’s his business as long as it isn’t hurting anyone. I like him, he’s not so bad for a Slytherin.”

     “Exactly” Sirius emphasized with both hands, “He’s way too clean cut for a Slytherin. Maybe he’s just lulling us into a false sense of security.”

    “Merlin! Do you even hear yourself. What use could that possibly be. Just leave him alone Sirius.”

    “Fine alright.” Sirius sighed and went quite. James waited for a minute to see if there was anything else his friend wanted to add before going back to his assignment.

 “He and Lily seem pretty close though.” Sirius looked at James nonchalantly, trying to gauge his reaction to that.

 James looked up sharply at that narrowing his eyes at Sirius, “Don’t try to bait me Sirius, we’ve talked about this”

    Sirius squirmed under James’s sharp stare looking properly chastised, finally he hung his head not looking at James.

   James rolled his eyes, “I don’t like to be manipulated, especially not by my best friend”

    “As for your not so subtle attempt at riling me up, what Lily does and who she spends her time with are none of my business.” James looked away and closed his eyes, shaking his head.

    “James you can’t be serious. I know you said you’d given up pursuing Lily but…” Sirius frowned.

     James sighed, “But what Sirius? Just drop it will you. I said I wasn’t going to pursue her anymore and I’m going to abide by that, She’s not interested in me so it doesn’t matter either way and I don’t blame her for that I was a right git before.”

   James turned to Sirius, “It’s not like I’ve stopped having feelings for her, I’ve just come to understand that those aren’t going to be reciprocated anyway and I need to move on.”

    Sirius looked at his friend searchingly, “Alright, I won’t bring it up again, if that’s what you want.”

    “….due this coming Tuesday Pete”

    James and Sirius looked up to see Remus enter followed by Peter.

    Peter looked worried, “So I have to complete charms as well as potions assignment still? You’ll help me won’t you?”

    Remus now looked exasperated, “I reminded you to start on it yesterday Pete, or you should have come to the library earlier, I’m just going to sleep now. Its full moon day after tomorrow and I’m exhausted.” Remus collapsed on his bed, “Night Everyone”

     Peter then turned to James, who shook his head going back to his own charms work, “I haven’t finished mine yet.” 

   Sirius rolled his eyes, “Alright come on Wormy, it seems I’m the only one that can save you”

Chapter Text

“Harry”

    Harry heard someone call out his name and turned to see Lily walking towards him. He stopped to let her catch up. “Where are you headed?” she asked on reaching him.

     “I had some free time between lectures so I was heading to the library to get some work done.” He answered. Lily nodded, “Come on then I was on my way to the library too.”

    “Are you done with the potions assignment?” Lily asked. Harry shook his head, “I’m halfway through, but there’s this one thing I’m stuck on, I was actually thinking about tracking you down to ask you.”

    “Well you’ve got the right person then”

    They reached the Library and found an empty table to sit. Lily helped Harry with the part he was having difficulty with and they both worked in relative silence for a while.

   Harry saw moment out of the corner of his eye and looked up to see Lewis and Archie approaching. He waved them over. Lily looked up from her work and stared warily at the approaching duo.

  “Hey guys, how was herbology?” Harry asked when they reached the table.

    “Professor had us working with screechsnap, one of the hufflepuffs accidently poured a whole bag of dragon dung fertilizers and the plant spent the whole hour screeching our ears off. My ears are still ringing” Arnie answered grimacing.

    Harry winced in sympathy, “That’s rough, glad I opted out of herbology though. Come sit with us.” He invited them.

    Lewis and Archie hesitated, “We wouldn’t want to intrude” Lewis objected looking at Lily.

    Harry turned to Lily, “You don’t mind if they sit with us do you Lily?” He asked her. Harry knew Lily was hesitant around other slytherins which was understandable considering her experience with the ones she’d come across wasn’t good, but Harry wanted her to meet and get to know his friends. He was sure once they actually interacted they’d get along pretty well.

     Lily still looked wary but nodded her consent.

   Archie and Lewis took their seats, and Lewis extended his hand to Lily, “Hi, I don’t think we’ve ever officially met each other, I’m Lewis Wilson.”

   Lily looked surprised but shook his hand, “Lily”

   Archie nodded at her, “Archie Deverill”

   Lily nodded back. Lewis grimaced and folded his hands on the table resting his head on them, “God I have a headache.”

   Archie shook his head, “He was the nearest to the plant” he elaborated.

    Lily winced in sympathy, “We have herbology tomorrow, hope no one does anything stupid then.”

     Lewis groaned in agreement, not lifting his head up.

    “Why didn’t you go to madam Pomfrey, I’m sure she would take pity on you and give you headache potion.” Harry suggested.  

     Archie shook his head, “We did think of that but Prof. Sprout has forbidden anyone from the class from going to the infirmary for the day, said that this was a good lesson for everyone not to make these kind of mistakes and maybe now we would understand how the poor plant felt. I swear that woman is insanely protective of her plants. I feel like this should be considered student abuse or something.” He ranted rolling his eyes.

      “Keep the chatter down would you, normally it’s a struggle to get you to speak more than two sentences and you’ve taken today of all days to become extroverted.” Lewis hissed.

    Archie rolled his eyes again, “One does not just become extroverted by speaking more than normal” he then looked contemplative, but his lips were twitching, “the correct word for that would have been ambiverted, but even that…”

     “Merlin! shut up, I am not arguing language with you today” Lewis said finally lifting his head and glaring at Archie and then at Harry who was struggling not to laugh.

      Lily looked from one boy to another, surprised at the normalcy of their interactions, she didn’t know what she had expected.

    She dug around in her bag, she was sure she had it there. Finally she cleared her throat and the three boys turned to look at her, “I do have some extra headache potion. I wasn’t feeling well the day before so Madam Pomfrey gave it to me, but I didn’t end up using all of it.”

       Lewis’s eyes widened and he looked at the potion and then at Lily with stars in her eyes, “You’re a goddess, where have you been all my life.”

    Lily’s eyes widened and Harry burst out laughing along with Archie.

     Lewis however was now laser focused on the potion, “I will forever owe you if you give me that potion.”

    Lily by now also looked amused, lips twitching, “There’s no need for all that, here” she said handing over the potion to Lewis who immediately downed it, then sighed in relief when his headache lessened immediately.

       “Thanks Evans, you’re a life saver.”

    Lily nodded. She was surprised that the he had just taken her word for the potion and downed it, without checking if it really was a headache potion. It showed that they trusted Harry’s judgement and by extension her.

     The more time she spent with the three of them the more it surprised her. When she was still friends with Severus, she hadn’t spend time much, or any time with any other slytherins, even those Severus claimed were his friends. She and Snape spent a lot of their free time together and whenever they encountered any of the slytherins during that time Severus always appeared nervous and embarrassed and it made her feel as if he was ashamed of her.

       Lily knew Severus’s Slytherin friends didn’t like her and she didn’t like them either. He was always with people like Lestrange, Avery, Mulciber who were all pureblood bigots. She knew they influenced Severus and she had tried to warn him off them on several occasions. She had even often not talked to him for days when she caught him with them when bullying someone for no reason but always forgave him in the end when he begged for her forgiveness. He always gave the reason that he never personally bullied anyone but had to stand with the rest of the group of he wanted to live in slytherin without trouble.  

        Lily understood it was probably the pressure put on him by his housemates and so she had tried to look past all that and stayed friends with him but it all came to an end on that horrible day when he called her a mudblood himself. She just couldn’t bring herself to forgive him after that.

        She had been afraid something similar would happen with Harry and hadn’t wanted to keep her hopes high but now seeing him interact with his friends she relaxed a little. Lewis and Archie as they insisted on being called were surprisingly friendly and pleasant to talk with. They even helped her on her essay on a part she got stuck on and she never got any feeling of hostility with them.

        She was ashamed to admit that she had let herself get prejudiced against the Slytherin house as a whole based on some incidents and some people. She realized that not all the Slytherins were bad and she just hadn’t yet encountered the decent ones. she vowed to keep a more open mind now.

                Sirius woke up with a gasp, a scream dying in his throat. He was sweating and breathing shallow. He took a few deep breaths trying to calm down. This hadn’t happened in a few weeks now, he didn’t know what set him off. He cast a quick tempus to check the time, it was 3 in the morning.  

     Nightmares weren’t something new to him, in fact they were the most consistent and common occurrence in his life since he was a child and his mother had taken him to the basement of the black house to punish him because she had found him reading a muggle science book that he had bought from a muggle store near Grimmauld place. The scars from that ‘discipline session’ were something that he carried to this day along with the nightmares.

       That didn’t mean he started acting like the perfect Black heir that Walburga wanted though, in fact from that day he had made it a point to disagree with everything she said and those discipline sessions had become very common till Hogwarts. Summer holidays home were never exactly fun for him though.

         It had been better since he had been staying at the Potter’s house but the nightmares still made an occurrence once in a while. Sirius sat up, knowing he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep now. He got up from bed and noticed that he had thankfully woken up before he could scream and wake up his friends. It always made him feel guilty when they woke up and stayed awake with him because he couldn’t sleep. He had used silencing charm around his bed at first but James had made him promise he wouldn’t do that anymore. Sirius knew his friends just wanted to help him but that didn’t stop him from feeling guilty for making them suffer with him.

      Sirius took the invisibility cloak from James’s trunk and set off towards his usual go to place whenever he had nightmares. Strolling through the halls of Hogwarts calmed him down further, it felt more like home than the Black house ever did.

       As he arrived at the astronomy tower, Sirius realized that the place was already occupied by another person. He almost turned back to go somewhere else, but curiosity setting the better of him, he wanted to see, who it was at this time of night. He had never encountered anyone in the years he had come here.

      On walking closer, careful to not make any noise he realized it was Griffiths, sitting on the edge and looking deep in thought. Sirius debated on what to do next, but he was tired after his nightmare and did not want to go back to the dorm just yet. Decision made Sirius stepped back and removed the invisibility cloak. The sound alerted Griffiths and he was on his feet, wand pointed at Sirius in a second.

       Griffiths stared at him for a few seconds and Sirius stared back, “Mind lowering your wand Griffiths” he drawled, fighting the urge to pull out his own wand.

         “Its Harry” Griffiths muttered lowering his wand.

       Sirius ignored that and went ahead and sat down. A few seconds later he felt the other boy sit beside him. They both sat in silence for a while, neither willing to break the strange tranquility of the atmosphere.

        “Couldn’t sleep either?” Sirius was the one who finally broke the silence.

          Griffiths nodded, “Yeah needed to get out, get some air. This is the first place that came to mind.”

        He didn’t add anything more and Sirius didn’t either. His emotions about Griffiths were complicated. Sirius had wanted to hate the boy on principle when he was sorted in Slytherin. He constantly had a feeling that he was hiding something, that the boy knew more than he let on. That made Sirius immediately wary around him. But there was also this strange familiarity about the boy that made him want to befriend him and be close to him.

     With two completely different emotions whenever he thought about Griffiths made him feel confused. He didn’t know how to react to the boy and he didn’t like that. That made him irrationally irritated.

         “mind if I ask you something?” Griffiths asked turning to look at him.

      Sirius nodded, “Go ahead.”

    “Why do you hate me, as far as I recall I’ve done nothing to deserve that, other than of course being sorted in Slytherin, but that can’t be the only reason?”

   Sirius sighed when he heard the question. He had an idea that this was what Griffiths would ask but he had no clue as to how to answer that question when he himself didn’t know what the reason was.

    “I know you’ve done nothing wrong but I’m not the kind of person who trusts easily, I’ve been going through my own issues and the addition of a new variable in an already complicated equation was not helping, on top of that you were sorted in slytherin and I have a long history with that house.” Sirius thought he owed the boy at least a little explanation for his behavior. He was self-aware enough to realize that he had developed some severe prejudices against Slytherins and it was just second nature to dis trust anyone from slytherin, but as far as he had observed Griffiths seemed alright and James for some reason liked him and he trusted James’s judgement. He had decided to give Griffiths a chance.

       So he continued, “But, I believe I owe you an apology for being so short with you. I still don’t trust you but, not even close and if you do anything to that harms my friends, I’ll make you regret it.”

       Griffiths only inclined his head in acknowledgement. “apology accepted and threat acknowledged. Now please would you stop glaring at me when I am so much as in the same room as you, its getting really annoying.”

     Sirius laughed at that, “Alright I’ll stop, my eyes will surely be relieved, they’ve been having to focus extra hard to accomplish the intensity to make you uncomfortable.”

   Harry rolled his eyes, “I know, I could always tell when you were within a ten feet radius of me, from the hole I could feel you burning in the back of my head.”

    They both laughed at that and then quieted down, observing the starry night sky. Both feeling much better and grateful for not being alone, appreciating the quiet company beside them from someone who, maybe understood what the nightmares were like.

        It was early, the sky just started to brighten when they returned to their respective dorms. Harry felt much lighter. It was like a weight on his shoulder, he didn’t know he had been carrying was lifted off. He had suppressed how much Sirius’s distrust had hurt him. He had known winning Sirius over was going to be hard work but Sirius never even deigned to speak to him ever since he was announced a slytherin. He had pushed down the hurt though, he had no time to sit and wallow in it, there were things that needed to get done.

     Today Sirius had promised to atleast give him a chance and that felt like a victory in itself. Now he only had to make sure that he gave Sirius no reason to doubt him. Harry had just finished showering and was packing his bag for the day’s lecture, when his roommates woke up. Archie stumbled his way to the bathroom blindly eyes not yet open and Lewis opened his bed curtain yawning. He glanced around the room and stared when his gaze landed on Harry, going as far as tilting his head and narrowing his eyes.

    Uncomfortable with the intensity of Lewis’s stare that always seemed to Harry as if it he was reading his soul, Harry jerked his head in a questioning motion.

   “What’s that on your face Griffiths” Lewis finally spoke up but left Harry even more bewildered than before. He quickly bought his hands up to his face patting to check if there was anything unusual, finding nothing he looked back at Lewis who shook his head,

   “That mile wide smile Harry. We’ve known each other for nearly a month now and I’ve never seen a smile that big before.” He explained.

     It was then Harry realized that the muscles in his cheek felt a little strained and that he hadn’t been able to stop smiling since he and Sirius had reconciled. Harry quickly got his smile under control,

   “I’ve smiled before, it’s not that big of a thing. You don’t need to overreact that much.” Harry said rolling his eyes.

  “You do smile but this one was something else, make you look actually happy” Lewis elaborated and then looked at Harry questioningly, “something happened in the night?”

     Harry shook his head, “nothing you need to know right now.”

   Lewis nodded knowing Harry would let him know when he needs to. Harry liked that about his slytherin friends, they never pushed for him to share everything with them, they gave him the space he needed and trusted that Harry would let tell them whatever was important.

    “I’ll go ahead, you lot take your time, I have some research to do before breakfast.” Harry informed his Lewis and then set off in the direction of the library.   

         James raised his eyebrow when Sirius entered the dorm in the morning. The remaining two marauders were still fast asleep.

   “where were you” he asked straight away.

     Sirius shrugged, “astronomy tower”

   James’s eyes narrowed, “nightmare?” he knew Sirius went there whenever he had a particularly bad nightmare, but what made him question was that even after calming down significantly Sirius stayed withdrawn the whole day after that. But today instead of that pinched irritation and annoyance on Sirius’s face there was a faint smile and he looked relaxed.

     Sirius nodded at his question, which confused James even more, “and what happened the tower?” he questioned further since it didn’t look like Sirius was going to elaborate.

      “I reconciled with Griffiths….Harry” Sirius said, correcting himself on the boy’s name. James’s eyebrows went up to his hairline on hearing that.

   “reconciled…did you?” he repeated. Sirius rolled his eyes and nodded, “yes, weren’t you the one that kept telling me to just give him a chance. So I decided that I would now. he’s….alright” Sirius admitted reluctantly.

     James smirked, “alright is he?”

     Sirius shot him an exasperated look, “James”

     “Sirius” James shot back imitating Sirius.

    “Its nothing like that. I’m just going to give him a chance to prove himself trustworthy and maybe try to be his friend like you have been telling me to.” Sirius defended himself.

     “sure ‘friends’” James smirked, “we’ll see, I have a feeling… and I’m rarely wrong”

      “Prongs don’t, not again. You know what happened last time. You are not going to try and set me up or anything.” Sirius warned him.

    James frowned concerned, “Siri come on, you have to move on from that, or do you still..”

          Sirius cut him off, “No, no I don’t, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to try again.”

     James’s face softened and he came up to Sirius placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing comfortingly, “Pads you know I was only teasing right, take your own time, I just worry about you. It seems like we both are just unlucky when it comes to these things.”

     Sirius placed his hand on top of James’s, “you know Evans will come around Prongs. I can feel it, she’s been looking at you different since the start of this year.”

    James sighed, “After what happened last year, I don’t know what my feelings are anymore. Anyway its good that you reconciled with Harry. I have a good feeling about him.”

    “Hope you’re right.”

Chapter Text

“Griffiths”

Harry startled at the shout from where he sat comfortably leaning against the tree overlooking the great lake. He came here to get some quiet time as it was a nice day out and he had a free slot. Lewis and Archie had class and Maisie had a prefects meeting.

    He looked behind to see who had disturbed him and saw Sirius approaching, bag slung over his shoulders, tie missing robes askew but still somehow managing to make it work and look graceful. He and Sirius hadn’t had much time to interact after their talk two days ago. Both busy with their own classes but there was a marked decrease in glares all around and Sirius had even greeted him civilly when they crossed paths in the corridors.

       Wondering what reason Sirius could have to seek him out now Harry waved at him and beckoned him closer. Sirius walked right up to him and plopped down beside him making himself comfortable right up against Harry, while Harry watched amused.

       “comfortable” Harry inquired sarcastically. He hadn’t wanted his quiet interrupted by anyone, but if anyone could be an exception it would be Sirius, so he wasn’t actually annoyed.

      Sirius turned to face him, “I am now” leaning even more into Harry. Harry rolled his eyes good-naturedly while feeling warm inside. He knew that while Sirius may seem to be a very tactile person when seen with the marauders, he was quite touch shy, due to his situation back home. He only appeared that casual around the marauders as he trusted them. That Sirius actually initiated physical contact was his way of showing that he was starting to trust Harry too.

      “James busy?” Harry asked. Sirius nodded “Busy being head boy”

      “Hmm” Harry went back to staring ahead. There was obviously a reason Sirius had sought him out and he didn’t want to push so he waited it out.

    “So how’s Slytherin?” Sirius asked a little too casually. Harry felt his eyebrows go up but he kept his gaze towards the lake and shrugged, careful not to dislodge the weight against him. “It’s fine, still an occasional glare here and there but they mostly leave me alone.”

     Harry kept it as vague as possible trying to guess where Sirius was going with this.

     “You’ve been here for a while now, anyone special catch your eye yet then?”

   Harry blinked, that wasn’t what he had expected, “what do you mean?”

    “I mean are you interested in anyone yet?” when all he got was a blank stare, Sirius rolled his eyes and elaborated “Romantically”

    Finally understanding what Sirius was trying to ask him Harry frowned wondering where that line of questioning was coming from, “No. Come on I haven’t been here that long and I didn’t expect you of all people to have any interest in my nonexistent love life.”

     Sirius hesitated here, “Well you and Lily seem pretty close”

   Harry’s eyes widened as the implications of what Sirius was trying to say hit him and he couldn’t control his next exclamation, “What! You think me and Lily are….” Harry couldn’t even bring himself to finish the sentence and he shook his head as if that could shake that idea out of his head. “NO! Lily and I are just friends, nothing more, where the hell did you even get that idea from.”

           By now Sirius had sat up from his position of reclining against Harry and was watching Harry with no small amount of amusement and curiosity, “You know Griffiths, Evans is good looking and overall good girlfriend material even if she isn’t my type, but I don’t understand why you look so disgusted to the point that even I’m offended on Evan’s behalf, at the mere suggestion that you two might be dating.”

      Harry quickly schooled his expression to indifference again, but he knew the damage was done now, but he just couldn’t control his reaction to the thought of dating Lily. He couldn’t even come up with some reasonable excuse as to explain away his reaction as objectively speaking Lily was quite a catch.

    “No, it’s just that Lily is my friend and she’s a great girl, she’s helped me a lot since I came here. I don’t know what I would have done without her but she’s like a sister to me, I don’t see her that way. Besides, I have a feeling she’s already set on someone else.” Harry tried to explain and deflect the attention from him at the same time.

        Sirius frowned, “What? She’s dating someone now?”

    Happy Sirius was distracted from his reaction Harry answered, “No she isn’t dating anyone yet and you still haven’t told me why you want to know?”

       “Who is Evans interested in?” Sirius asked bluntly completely bypassing Harry’s question.

     Harry raised an eyebrow, “Why do you think I should tell you when you still haven’t answered my question about why you want to know”

     Sirius narrowed his eyes at Harry but Harry just stared right back not willing to give. Sirius sighed understanding he wasn’t going to get any answers without stating his purpose,

    “James is gone on Evans that’s why. He says he’s getting over her but I know he isn’t and if Evans starts dating someone else then I know he will be heartbroken and I want to be prepared for that fallout.”

     Harry stared at Sirius finally understanding why he was so intent on knowing and he was once again hit with a wave of fondness for the man in front of him. That was just like Sirius, to worry about people close to him and try to protect them at all costs. Sirius would do anything for the people he considered his and the bond between Sirius and James was legendry.

     Harry smiled at Sirius reassuringly, “I shouldn’t be telling you this but you did tell me about James and it would be beneficial for both of them so…Lily does like James or at least she’s starting to.”

      Sirius frowned at him, “How do you know? Did Evans tell you?”

   Harry shook his head, “No not in so many words but I did get the gist of it. She’s starting to notice him more, she always talks about him and how he’s changed, how he seems more mature now, and she is quite perplexed as to why he hasn’t tried asking her out yet this year”

     “Are you sure she simply isn’t relieved that he’s off her back now?” Sirius asked again to confirm, he didn’t want to get his hopes up that his brother may have a chance with the love of his life, for nothing.

   “No, I’m quite sure she likes him back, she’s just too stubborn and hasn’t accepted it to herself yet, but she will soon.”

    Sirius smiled, “Well I hope so” Then his smile turned mischievous, “and that was a nice try at deflecting, but I haven’t forgotten that you still haven’t answered me about why you reacted that way”

     Harry’s tried to keep his face as impassive as possible but internally his mind was whirling trying to come up with a suitable excuse, “Its nothing, I just hadn’t thought about Lily like that so I was just caught off guard”

      Sirius was apparently not going to buy his flimsy excuse, “that was not a caught off guard kind of reaction. That was straight-up disgust like I had just suggested you were dating your mother or something.”

    Harry had to use up all the control he had to not react right then to how close Sirius actually was to the truth. “So if I am to guess its either you already have someone and are so dedicated to them that even the thought of dating someone else is enough to extract such a reaction, which I personally feel is unlikely given what I have observed about you so far, so the only thing that makes sense is that you aren’t interested in girls altogether.” Sirius was now looking at Harry probingly observing his every reaction to see how he would react to this analysis.

        Harry blinked not expecting that, he actually felt like he would either burst into laughter or in tears. He was glad that at least Sirius was far from his original accurate assumption, though he did not know how to react to the statement Sirius had just made. He certainly did not have anyone back home that he loves and as for the second statement he had never been interested in anyone of his own gender before and he had never actually given any thought to his sexuality.

   Harry shrugged, “Believe what you want to since it’s clear you’re not going to be persuaded.”  

     Sirius knowing that he wasn’t about to get any answers out of Harry anymore leaned back against the tree and slumped into Harry’s side once again.

      “Anyway, what about you? I’ve heard a lot of things, you’re quite famous among the ladies.” Harry asked.

    Sirius snorted but didn’t say anything further and Harry dropped it. They both sat in companionable silence for a while before they were disturbed by someone calling out Sirius’s name. Both turned to see Remus walking towards them. Sirius waved him over but didn’t bother straightening up from his comfortable position.

      Remus gave them a weird look as he reached them. Harry couldn’t quite place what he was thinking, but he gave Remus a friendly smile. Remus’s returning smile looked more like a grimace which made Harry frown, wondering what was wrong with the boy. He looked towards Sirius who didn’t seem to be paying them any attention staring at the lake.

    Remus sat down adjacent to Sirius. “So, meeting’s over?” Harry asked. Remus nodded, “James and Lily are still busy but all the prefects are done. What are you two doing here anyway?”

     “Oh I was just enjoying the peace and quiet until someone decided to come and disturb me” Harry answered with a pointed look at the boy leaning on him.

    Sirius made no reaction that he had even heard Harry. Harry turned back to Remus, “I heard you were unwell for the past two days, hope you’ve recovered” Harry knew it was the full moon two days before.

     Remus looked surprised before he nodded, “Yeah I’m fine. Thanks for asking.”

     “Hey boys” they looked up to see Mary and Alice. Harry smiled upon seeing them, “Hey come join us, we haven’t had a chance to talk since ages”

           The girls sat beside Remus who shifted a little so they formed a little circle. Mary mock glared at Harry, “and whose fault is that, you’ve thrown in your lot with the Slytherins now, we poor Gryffindors have no space in your life anymore” she sighed dramatically. Harry laughed out loud, “Oh please, Gryffindors are a lot of things but poor is the last word I would use to address them in any respect.” The present Gryffindors all smirked and Harry shook his head,

     “I’m sorry though I have been too busy catching up and assimilating myself to the new environment that I haven’t had much time to catch up with you.” Mary smiled, “Don’t worry Harry we understand. I’m glad to see you’ve settled in well.” Then she turned towards Sirius who was silent till now, still comfortably leaning against Harry and raised both her eyebrows, “Though I did not see this coming.”

    Harry furrowed his brows in confusion, looking at Sirius who just shrugged, “What?”

    Alice rolled her eyes, “she means that no one thought we would live to see a day where the marauders associated with a Slytherin.”

      “We’ve decided to make an exception.” Sirius declared nonchalantly. Mary smirked, “Why now after six years of rivalry with Slytherin?”

    Sirius rolled his eyes “a marauder does not share his secrets or need to give any explanations, besides James for some reason trusts him and I trust James’s judgement. Harry’s our honorary Marauder now though he’s still on probation for another two months at least.”

  Harry laughed, “Am I now.”

 Everyone laughed except Remus who muttered loud enough for them all to hear, “That’s news to me. Seems like I’m being replaced” and though Remus tried to portray it as a joke it fell flat.

Remus had a strange look on his face, his smile was almost a grimace. Harry frowned at that. Remus had been acting strange since the moment he came down. He was just about to question Remus if something was wrong when Sirius suddenly got up 

 “Alright we’ll get going now. I still have that transfigurations essay to complete and pranks to plan, come on Remus” he tugged Remus to stand and started dragging him towards the castle. Mary, Alice and Harry watched in confusion until Alice finally blinked,

  “well that was abrupt and strange” she stated. Harry nodded, “Remus seemed upset about something. I hope everything’s ok”

Mary however smirked, “Oh don’t worry Harry I’m sure it’s nothing. Besides a little bit of jealousy isn’t going to hurt him.”

Harry frowned, “Jealousy? What? For whom?”

   Mary smiled secretively, “well you’ve been getting quite close to Sirius lately haven’t you.”

   “yeah, but why would Remus be jealous of that. Sirius is the most mistrustful person I’ve ever met. He almost always threatens me with bodily harm over the possibility of me ever betrayed him in the future. It’s not like I’m anywhere even close to Sirius like he is.”

    Mary smiled, “well that’s Sirius for you. He never trusts easy but once he does there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for you and Remus may be close to Sirius as a friend but there’s more than that to consider between you and Sirius isn’t there.”

     Harry for a second was fearful that she was referring to his connection to Sirius in the timeline from where he came but quickly dismissed it as there was no way she could know. But as he thought about what she was trying to say was when it hit him that she was implying that Sirius might be interested romantically and Harry blushed deep red.

  Mary and Alice burst out laughing when Harry flushed on realizing what they were trying to say, “Figured it out have you”

    Harry shook his head, “That’s not what it is. I’m sure you’ve misunderstood and anyway I should get going too.” He quickly got up and bid the ladies goodbye who were still busy teasing him. He wasn’t sure what to think about what Mary had implied but quickly dismissed it.

    Sirius dragged Remus into an empty corridor. As soon as it was confirmed that they were alone Sirius let go of Remus and turned to face him. “What was that about? You were behaving weird.”

   Remus glared at him, “I wasn’t behaving weird, that was you. Since when do you just go and cuddle the new guy.”

   Sirius narrowed his eyes, “What does that have to do with anything? and I wasn’t cuddling him he was just more comfortable than the bloody tree to lean on.”

   “Really now, just a few days ago you were all suspicious about him and now you’re suddenly naming him an honorary marauder and being best pals with him.” Remus was almost yelling in his face and that more than anything left Sirius bewildered, he didn’t know what exactly Remus was upset about.

      “Look we talked and it wasn’t exactly fair to him that I never even gave him a chance before labelling him an enemy, he hasn’t done anything to warrant hostility yet and I realized after spending some time with him that he was someone that just might become a good friend in the future given time. Besides didn’t we have that discussion at the end of sixth year about broadening our horizons and making more friends outside our little group. So can you please explain what’s gotten you so riled up”

   “Its you, being so close to him, you’re never this tactile with anyone other than me and James not even with Peter or other people that we’ve known for six years now. How come you’re this comfortable with Griffiths suddenly or is it that you’re aiming for more than friendship here?” Remus finished with a sneer on his face.

    Sirius’s eyes widened at the uncharacteristic behavior of his friend but then his temper flared because how dare Remus even ask him this, what right did he have to accuse him of this after everything that happened at the end of fifth year.

     “What if I am, what is it to you?”

    Remus to his surprise laughed mockingly, “I should have expected it, moved on rather quickly, didn’t you. Of course what else can you expect from the great Sirius Black. I should have known that I was just a passing fancy to you. If you truly did love me like you claimed than ‘the prank’ would never have happened would it. If you truly did love me then you would never have disclosed my secret to anyone when you knew very well that it could destroy me if it ever got out. What else, you also tried to kill someone with it. I’m glad I never gave you a chance. It doesn’t matter. It seems like you’re off working your charms on Griffiths now.”

     Sirius couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He had never thought Remus was even capable of spewing such vitriol. “You know it wasn’t like that Remus, you told me you forgave me last year. I know I was wrong but it wasn’t that simple, I never meant for Snape to go there and I didn’t intentionally disclose your secret. I meant what I told you fifth year and I accepted it when you rejected me. I loved you then and I still love you only with the exception that I’ve come to terms with the fact that you could never love me the same way so, I tried all sixth year to keep my feelings to myself and just treat you as a friend after you made it known that you didn’t return my feelings and now when I’ve finally moved on you throw this at me. I’m not that stupid enough to make the same mistake twice. I won’t be able to go through that again. It hurt enough the first time so no Harry is just a potential good friend, I’m not going to give up talking to him just because you don’t like it. I don’t even know what exactly it is that you’re trying here. Even if I was interested in him romantically why should it bother you?” with that Sirius walked away not willing to argue any further. It had hurt enough to know how low Remus’s opinion of him was, he had nothing else to say.

     Meanwhile Harry was reeling from what he’d just heard. He couldn’t believe it. He had fled from Mary and Alice and was just taking his usual route to the library one that was almost always empty when he heard voices down the corridor. Upon going to investigate he found Remus and Sirius arguing. Curious he had stayed hidden listening and what followed explained so many things. A conversation between Sirius and Remus that he had overheard during the Christmas holidays of fifth year came to mind and he finally understood why Sirius had been so upset then,

    Harry woke up gasping having been dreaming about Voldemort again. His dreams were becoming more and more frequent now, he hadn’t gotten a full night’s sleep in months. No matter what he did he just couldn’t master occlumency. Snape’s repeated attacks on his mind had only left him feeling vulnerable and torn. How was he supposed to clear his mind and defend it if he wasn’t taught the mechanism behind it.

  Harry cast a tempus and found it was a little after 5 am. He got up knowing it was a futile effort to try and sleep now, he wouldn’t be able to, so might as well get up. Harry freshened up and went down for some water and a snack since he found himself quite hungry and while at the Dursleys he would never have dared to act on that hunger, here he was at his godfather’s house and he was going to take full advantage of it which included getting a snack whenever he wanted it.

   Harry went down quietly not making any noise which he had a lifetime of practice doing due to the Dursleys and then sneaking around in Hogwarts, not wanting to wake anyone up but as he neared the kitchen he realized that someone was already there from the hushed voices he heard. He slowly crept near and it became clear that it was Remus and Sirius. Confused as to why those two were up so early Harry was just about to reveal himself when he heard Sirius raise his voice slightly,

  “Leave me alone would you, you have no right to demand anything of me, not anymore and I am not obliged to answer you”

   Harry heard Remus sigh in frustration, “You are being childish Sirius can’t you be a bit more mature.”

    Sirius gave a humor less laugh, “Yeah that’s what you all keep telling me since I got out. Like being in Azkaban for 12 years didn’t have any effect on me, like being accused of the murder of my brother didn’t have any effect on me. I’m supposed to be entirely unaffected by the fact that I’m trapped again a prisoner in the house that holds the worst memories of my childhood, the house where I was abused. No I’m supposed to sit and obey like a good little dog. I still haven’t complained at all, but now you expect me to stop drinking and pour my heart out to you. Why should I? what exactly are you to me. Why don’t you run to dear Nymphadora, I’m sure she’ll bend over backwards for you but don’t expect that form me, not anymore.”

    Remus growled, “Don’t you dare bring Dora into this. I thought you had betrayed us Sirius. You think everyone else has it easy, you think any of this was easy on me, while you sat in Azkaban for twelve years, I had to struggle everyday. Had to live with the fact that the person I loved had gotten our bestfriend killed had betrayed us all. I had to endure all the full moons alone, couldn’t keep a stable job. You think it was easy to find out that you had been innocent all along, that you didn’t trust me with the truth of switching the secret keepers..”

   Now Sirius hissed angrily interrupting Remus, “How many times do I have to tell you, you bloody idiot that I didn’t tell you about switching secret keepers because it was a last minute decision and I couldn’t inform you immediately because I didn’t exactly know where you were because you never told me on what mission Dumbledore had sent you on. I would have told you the second you came back but I never got a chance to before I was chucked in Azkaban without a trial and no one even questioned it. It was so easy to believe that I had betrayed James and Lily, just because I was born a Black. After a whole lifetime spent hating my family name and doing everything I could to be different than them, it only took a suspicion to blame me and you the one who supposedly loved me never even tried to find out what really happened. You never even gave me the benefit of doubt.”

    There was a sound of chair scrapping as Harry assumed Sirius stood up, “Just stay away from me Remus, I don’t need you to babysit me. I’m not going to rush off and do anything reckless, I don’t particularly care about my own life anymore but I would never put Harry through that, he’s already lost too many people.”

With that Sirius had walked out leaving Remus in the kitchen. Harry flattened himself behind the door and Sirius was so preoccupied that he never noticed Harry. Harry didn’t dare move till he was completely sure Sirius was gone and only then did he retreat and go up to his room not feeling hungry anymore.

Harry had been confused then about why Sirius was upset about Tonks and Lupin, was it because Sirius himself had not had anyone but that couldn’t have been the only reason. Harry also found himself annoyed at Remus. How could the werewolf be that callous with Sirius talking about his time in Azkaban like Sirius had taken a voluntary 12 years vacation and was sitting on a tropical Island the whole time enjoying life. It was horrible what had happened to him. Azkaban had been hard on Sirius and Harry admired the strength of his godfather who had endured so much and came out on the other side mostly sane. Sirius who had made Harry his priority the minute they had been reunited, who had loved Harry and Who in the end had given his life for Harry.

  Harry had hurt for Sirius when Snape and Mrs. Weasley had ridiculed him constantly in his own home and Remus who was supposed to be his friend had never even tried to defend him instead he was always there with a disapproving glare at Sirius. Harry himself had been a coward not wanting to upset Mrs. Weasley or Remus he never dared to say a word in Sirius’s defence.

    Harry understood why Sirius was upset at Remus but what he didn’t understand was where Tonks fit into it all and why Remus being in a relationship with her would upset him. Harry had assumed at the time that the love they had been talking about was platonic one between bestfreinds. But now that he thought about it and the conversation he just heard confirmed it that Remus and Sirius were in a romantic relationship before his parents death and despite everything Remus had still believed Sirius was the traitor, never even trying to question it.

    He finally got why Sirius was upset about Tonks. It couldn’t have been easy after coming out of Azkaban and realizing that the one you love had moved on and was in a relationship with your cousin. At that time Harry forgot all about the conversation he had overheard getting lost in his own nightmares and troubles but looking back now Harry couldn’t help but feel like he had failed his Godfather.

   Sirius had already been going through so much and Harry had only heaped his own problems on top of that. But Remus had no right to talk to Sirius like that. Sirius was right Remus had been his best friend since they were 11 and if Harry’s suspicions were correct which he was pretty sure they were they had even been lovers so how come Remus had believed so easily that Sirius was the traitor. Just because Dumbledore and the others said so.

    Even now what right did Remus had to question Sirius’s friendship with Harry. Harry felt his resentment towards Remus grow. No he was not going to let Sirius suffer anymore not at the hands of anyone. It was obvious that Remus was not a right choice for Sirius, the man was too weak willed and easily manipulated and Sirius deserved someone better. Harry was glad Sirius had moved on from him.

 Harry had failed Sirius once, but not again. This time he would make sure Sirius lived a long and Happy life and no one was allowed to take that happiness away not even Lupin. Harry would keep an eye on the werewolf to make sure he would not do anything to upset Sirius again.