uh, i have no idea when this takes places, though i'm estimating at about the same time as the books. title from "hey ho" by dave carter.
someone's dread and darling boy
i ain't leaving you nowhere
Sometimes, he wakes up and forgets that his parents are dead.
But he's used to that feeling and even if it stays, he knows how to pretend that everything's fine. More importantly: he knows how to do his job without letting his emotions get the better of him.
Sirius sometimes says it's better to let emotions guide you, but Harry's been a part of the Creed long enough to know that they can carry you too far. He learned that the hard way.
Hermione understands, at least. Ron sometimes does too, and Neville almost does. But it is Draco—Draco who understands the best though (if for different reasons) and sometimes he thinks that this is why they haven't killed each other yet.
Well, and their mutual respect for the other's abilities.
But they still avoid each other when they can and Sirius and Remus usually try to keep it this way even if Dumbledore wants them working together on most missions.
Dumbledore wants a lot of things from all of the members of the Creed, and most of it is reasonable.
Assassins have honor, though, and when there's a line somebody has, Dumbledore's smart enough not to push them over it. He's not the best person in this Creed—Harry doesn't know if any of them are, if you can be an Assassin and still be good—but he's a good leader, and he knows Tom Riddle. That alone keeps him at the top, if nothing else does.
(As soon as Riddle's dead, Dumbledore's going to lose his position. Everyone knows this. But they don't know who can take his place, and that scares people more than Riddle himself.)
Harry doesn't know what's going to happen when they finally take down Riddle. He's been at this long enough to have almost forgotten life with his parents. He's been at this long enough to know that that life is never coming back—not any of it.
But he's been at this long enough to know it's never that simple.
Sirius says he can live with him, and Harry thinks that has more to do with loneliness than any sense of duty with being a godfather. He doesn't blame him, though—can't, even if he sometimes wishes he could.
(Harry has also been at this long enough to know people deal with grief differently.)
But the end is years away. Tom Riddle is cunning and has managed to avoid death for a decade now, and Harry figures it might take another decade to destroy him and the empire he has created.
That's alright, though. The Creed may not be his parents, but they're a family. Even if they don't manage to take Riddle down, Harry knows they'll have each other.
That, at least, is one thing he's sure they'll still have after this war.