Hello everyone!! Nice to be here again :) There was a bit of a long wait between the ending of The Guardian and the publishing of this one, I know. But my life has been really crazy, with end-of-terms projects and stuff. So…anyway :P
Oh yeah, to those who don't know me, hello! :D kkkkk
Summary:Harry was brought up by Remus and Sirius and that little change made a lot of difference! His life is just that of a normal wizard child what with the occasional appearances of a dark lord. But between Snape's detentions and the fatality of war he finds himself slowly getting closer to one he had once considered his enemy.
Pairings: Harry/Draco(main), Remus/Sirius(mentioned), Ron/Hermione(mentioned)
If you haven't noticed yet that this is Slash (as in male/male relationship) be warned!
Oh and this fic is beta'ed!! Yeyeyey! Three cheers for Hollee for being a wonderful (and, mind you, fast) beta reader! \o/ Thanks!! -hugs-
This story is a sequel to "The Guardian", but it stands on its own, you absolutely don't need to read the prequel to understand this ;P but just to do a little 'look into the past' here. In "The Guardian" these key events happened:
-Harry's four years old in the guardian.
-Sirius Brakes out of Azkaban after a three year stay
-Harry stays at Hogwarts for a brief amount of time
-Remus gets beaten up pretty bad by a couple of death Eaters (and Harry sees this, which is why he is all sensitive about Remus)
-Remus and Sirius get Harry's custody and raise him together
I don't own HP (duh -.-) (I wonder if JK ever wrote a fanfiction lol, I mean, she could be writing slash all over the place without anyone knowing! -laughs-)
I hope you guys will enjoy this fic as much as the previous one :)
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He watched for as long as he could as his two fathers sped out of sight. The train was really leaving the platform behind... the greatness of it all seemed to hit him right at that moment: he was leaving for Hogwarts.
Sighing, he swallowed hard, grabbed all his courage and, standing straight, he started looking for a place to sit. He walked down the corridors with uncertainty, looking into the compartments and seeing them all filled. Surely somewhere there were first years like him right? Somewhere behind all of these already-formed groups of same house mates there were frightened, unsorted first-years like him…so where were they?
Some time and many, many, compartments later he found one that wasn't full, there was only one boy inside. He bit his lower lip nervously, trait he had acquired from his honey-haired father, and finally opened the door.
"Can I sit here? Every where else is full." He asked, trying not to sound too uncertain.
The red-head stopped playing with a big gray rat and looked at him, nodding.
He sat down across from him and they both stayed in silence for quite some time.
"You a… first year too?" the blue eyed boy asked him finally.
"Yeah, I'm really…" scared would be the right word, but he figure it wouldn't be very smart to say that "…anxious".
Harry was very eager to make a friend, he wanted to grow up and be able to tell all sort of stories like his parents told him.
"Yeah, I don't know what to expect. I have two brothers who went here already. And Percy, George and Fred are still students. Charlie told me it's brilliant, but Fred and George keep saying all sort of… frightening things." He said energetically, whispering the last part.
"You have five brothers? Wow, I'm an only child, must be fun having a large family." Harry said, cocking hi head to the side.
The red-head frowned.
"It's ok most of the time, but they can really be a bugger when they want to, ya know? But Charlie doesn't live with us anymore; he's in Romania studying dragons. Bill doesn't either, he works as a spell breaker for the Gringotts, he does… you know… top secret stuff" he said proudly "Pretty cool, huh? And I have a sister too, but she's just ten."
"Yeah it's cool" Harry agreed smiling "I never had many kids to play with, where I live there isn't much of anyone around."
"Doesn't it get boring?" the freckled boy asked, frowning, as he pocketed his fat rat and took from another pocket a crumpled sandwich.
"Not really, 'cuz there's loads of things to do, and dad's always home, we always do stuff together. I even get to play quidditch sometimes" he added grinning. Sure, he was exaggerating just a bit on that playing part, but never mind that. "And kids come around in summer and stuff, so it's ok."
"Wow! My mom would never let me even near a broom. Your dad must be really cool!" he said, amazed, as he unwrapped his food without even looking at it. After a brief silence, the freckled red-head looked up at him and shook his head. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I'm Ron Weasley " he said, offering his hand with a smile.
At this, Harry bit his lip and hesitated before breathing in heavily. "I'm…Harry, Harry…Potter" he said, thinking immediately he should have just stopped at his first name.
His newest friend paled a bit and his eyes budged. "Blimey…you…wow…I'm mean…you really look like I thought…" he trailed off, not being able to say something coherent "Do you really have the…you know…" he asked pointing to his forehead.
The messy haired boy smiled at the other's curiosity and willingly parted his bangs so his lighting-shaped scar could be seen.
Ron looked about to say something, but just then a cart full of goods stopped by their compartment.
"Want anything off the trolley, dears?" the woman that was pushing it asked.
The red-head shook his head and looked back at the crumpled food that lay forgotten.
Harry noticed his longing expression and took a galleon out of his pocket; this had been, of course, given to him by Sirius.
He got a bit of all the sweets he liked the most and that was saying a lot. One grows up around Remus, one is addicted to sweets.
The blue-eyed one denied any good offered to him at first, but eventually Harry convinced him to take some. And soon they were both animatedly checking the chocolate frog cards.
"Ah, I got Dumbledore again, I got loads of him at home" Harry said, looking at the soon-to-be-gone wizard. "I hope he's nice…" he murmured to himself as the old man faded.
"I got Grindelwald!" Ron managed to say, though his mouth was stuffed with chocolate. "I had him already, but Errol - that's our owl - ate it. That bird is mental, I tell you"
Harry laughed as he pictured the comical scene in his head.
"So…" the red-head started, taking an enormous bite into another pasty "wah hous yo dink yo'll geh into?" he asked, or at least tried too.
He was barely understood by Harry, but the question was clear enough to make the boy-who-lived tense up. "Hum… I… I don't know. I mean, see, my parents were both from Gryffindor… and dad hates slytherins, I guess I wouldn't wanna be put there. I guess… anywhere else is fine." He said, suddenly nervous again.
"Yeah, I know about the lot of them. There isn't a wizard whose gone bad that wasn't from Slytherin. My family has been in Gryffindor forever. Mom said it's ok if I'm not, but Fred and George said they'll disown me! And they won't even tell me how it is that we get sorted. Though I heard them saying the worst things, ya know? About trolls and all that stuff. But… I guess they're joking, right?" his face was slowly mimicking Harry's own.
"Yeah! I mean, they couldn't do that… 'cause… we don't know any magic yet, right? And the muggle-borns too, they know even less!" he said, trying to, above all, convince himself.
But panic had been established already, they chose to eat a bit more before saying anything, maybe the sweets would take their mind of those thoughts.
"You know any magic yet?" Harry asked as he took an awfully disgusting bean out of his mouth, he didn't even want to know what flavor that had been.
Ron shook his head, feeling sorry for his friend and then grabbed his wand out of the pocket. It was sort of weird looking, Harry thought, it seemed… broken?
"My brothers taught me a spell to turn Scabbers yellow. Wanna see?" he asked pulling his sleeping rat out.
"Yeah!" the boy-who-lived nodded, anxious to see something.
Then, all of a sudden, the door was opened and there was a girl who seemed to come from nowhere saying something about a frog.
"What?" they asked, almost at the same time.
"I asked if either of you saw a toad, Neville's lost one" she repeated in an annoyed, bossy-tone.
Harry frowned and shook his head as did Ron and they kept still looking at the girl with loads of bushy hair and large front teeth that was standing there.
She suddenly arched her brow, seeing the ginger-head's wand.
"Oh I see you're trying to do magic, I'd like to see that" she said, and as though invited, sat down across from them.
At Ron' poor attempt, the girl shook her head "It doesn't look like a real spell to me, or at least you didn't say it right" she said matter-of-factly "I've tried spells before, but all of them worked for me."
The boys looked at each other and shrugged "Who are you anyway?" Ron asked frowning.
"Hermione Granger, and you?"
"I'm Ron Weasley" the red head answered still feeling…invaded by the bossy girl.
"Harry Potter" the black haired one answered as well.
She looked at Harry intently "Are you really? I've read about you. Pleasure."
Ok, that had to be the strangest and most straight forward introduction Harry's ever had and he'd learn later that the Hermione girl simply was like that.
She left as suddenly as she had come, leaving both boys looking oddly at the door.
"Is it just me, or is that girl mental? Ya know what? I'll take any house she doesn't get into."
Harry just laughed and shook his head, standing up; the girl had said they were close to stopping. He wanted to get himself busy with finding his robes and putting them on, rather than letting his mind wander off to the fear of the sorting.
He did not know then, that the two people he had just met would turn out to be the best friends one could ever ask for. Nor did he know that the brief encounter with one Draco Malfoy would mark an addicting rivalry.
Harry got into Gryffindor as one would expect, he was Sirius' son alright, and had he not had the restraint Remus taught him, he would have started the Marauders' new generation. But he left the post to be taken by George and Fred, Ron's twin brothers, and, mind you, they really lived up to the name.
Hermione and Ron joined Gryffindor as well, and it didn't take very long before the 'Golden Trio' had been formed. What with finding the castle's secret passageways and solving mysteries about a to-be-stolen magical stone, they became closer and closer.
Close enough that one day Harry felt it was alright to reveal something that he had been 'keeping' from his friends. Well, keeping wasn't the right word. It was just that Ron and Hermione had never asked before, and he just… never had the initiative to tell them.
The three of them were in the empty common room, by the fire, discussing the upcoming holiday plans as the bushy haired witch half-read a book and Harry got crushed by Ron in wizard's chess.
"I'm going skiing with my parents, they owled me already" Hermione announced, sighing.
She took a good look around and shook her head "Funny isn't it? We've been here for four months and it feels like we lived here forever." She said in a way one would think she'd never come back. "I don't know if you guys feel like that since both of you have magical families, but for me who has to go back to the muggle word…" she sighed again "I sure am going to miss being here."
"Oh, come on, don't be sad 'Mione, it's not like you'll be gone forever. And you must miss your parents, right?" Harry said comfortingly, looking up from the board. "We'll write to you, and I bet you'll have fun skiing."
"I suppose" she agreed softly, not even bothering to correct her friend "But you guys have to promise you'll really write ok?" she asked, putting her book down "And I'll be back a week before term starts again, hopefully we can see each other then?"
Harry nodded, agreeing, he was sure his parents wouldn't mind.
"I guess so. Well, I'm going home to the Burrow, nothing much really. Charlie and Bill are coming back to spend Christmas with us, so it should be fun. They always bring nice stuff and have loads of things to tell." Ron said from his place, not looking up at them, and then he moved a piece "Check."
"Ouch, didn't see that one coming…" the Boy-Who-Lived murmured just as his queen started insulting his chess playing abilities, or lack thereof. He bit his lip trying to concentrate and moved his pawn uncertainly, Ron just grinned.
While it was Ron's turn, Harry turned back to Hermione. "I'm going home too" he answered. "My parents are planning a Christmas dinner of some sort together with the neighbors."
At this statement the young witch and freckled boy looked at each other, both knowing exactly what the other wanted to ask, and both not knowing how to do it.
It was the messy haired boy's turn again and it prevented him from becoming aware of the glances exchanged between his best friends.
Ron frowned at Hermione and motioned to Harry with his head, urging her to take the lead. He didn't have a way with words and could be really insensitive sometimes without meaning to.
The bushy haired witch nodded and put her book aside altogether, she drew a large breath and thought carefully on how to approach the subject.
"Ahm… Harry?" she called in a soft voice.
Still having not made his move, the boy looked up "Yeah?" then he saw both faces looking at him with identical expressions. "Something wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked, confused. "Is there something on my face?" he asked, passing a hand over it and checking for non existent dirt.
The blue eyed boy looked away. 'Coward' Hermione thought darkly, 'so much for Gryffindor courage'.
"It's nothing Harry" she assured "It's just that... me and Ron, we were... wondering. I mean, your parents… weren't they… I mean… didn't You-Know-Who… kill them?" she asked softly, the last thing she wanted was to upset her friend because of her and Ron's curiosity. "Yet you talk about them all the time, well, actually you only talk about your dad… we just… ahm… it's ok if you don't wanna talk about it" she trailed off, not sure what to say anymore.
Harry sighed, he knew this question would come…but still, he felt insecure about it. For one, he had no idea how his friends would react, and what with growing up with his fathers he learned that it wasn't everyone who would accept their relationship. He was afraid either of his friends would act in a way he didn't expect and he'd start… thinking less of them because of it. After all, he was very sensitive about someone speaking ill of his parents, Remus especially.
But he would have to deal with it, so he just got his courage together and looked back at them, nodding.
"Ahm, it's kinda... you see, I have sort of an… unusual family" he started "And… I don't know, you guys are my best friends, I hope… you don't think it's… odd or anything."
Harry could see he had both their attentions entirely; they had wanted this answer for a long time, apparently.
"My parents, as in Lily and James, are… really gone, I'm not talking about them. And ahm… before they died they left a Will, which made my dad, Sirius, my guardian – he was, I mean, is my godfather. So… I've been living with him since I was very little. And then there's my other dad, Remus, he was also James' best friend – sort of like us three – and he brought me up too. So they're my parents, they have been since I was four." He explained, noticing that the whole thing might be confusing. He also wondered if he should just stop there and let them read between the lines, but no…it was best if he just said I already, no use making a fuss over something that was so simple. "So I have no mother because neither of them got married, cause… they're… together" he said finally "Which is why they were raising me together in the first place."
Silence.
"Well, that's… that's really…" Hermione struggled with her words, trying to break the ice. "It's not odd at all Harry, I'm sure they must be great, I'd love to meet them." She said honestly, the news had just been unexpected. "And these days, surely everyone can understand something like this right? If you're a family, these details don't matter."
Harry smiled, feeling as a weight lifted from his shoulders. "Thanks 'Mione."
They were now both looking at Ron, as though waiting for him to do something drastic at any moment. The red-head was frowning, looking concentrated, as though he was about to make a chess move.
"Now that explains a lot!" he said suddenly, looking up at both his friends, as if everything made sense.
Harry was the one frowning now, what should he make out of that random statement? Was it a good thing or bad?
"Harry, mate, I thought your dad was mental!" he stated as though his reasoning was obvious, his friends becoming even more confused. "Sometimes you'd go: 'Dad's very quiet, he loves to read books just like you Mione' and at other times you'd say he was really loud and loved to play quidditch. Then you'd talk about his work, but then later you'd say he's always home with you." He explained, feeling strange to be in the situation where he understood something and he was the one doing explanations. "I really though that he, or maybe you, mate, were really insane. So that's what it is! They're two different people!"
The three of them started laughing; now seeing that Ron's previous comment made sense.
"I'm sure they're nice blokes Harry. Actually I've heard loads about them already. I have two uncles that worked with them, you know, back during the war and all. And I guess everyone heard Sirius Black's name before right? What with him being the only person to ever breakout of Azkaban."
Hermione gave him that sharp look that told him he had said something insensitive, but he shrugged, he couldn't help it!
Harry was just smiling though, unaffected.
"I'm… really glad you guys are… you know, ok with this. And sorry I never told you before, I just… figured you would ask someday" he chuckled.
Hermione smiled at him and nodded, picking up her book, just as Ron looked back at the chess board, Harry having made his move already.
"Oh, check-mate." The red-head announced, grinning at his best friend.
Their afternoon went on as they resumed their holiday plans and discussed top secret stuff like the mysteries of one Nicholas Flamel and a treasure hidden deep within Hogwarts. Yep, the three of them had a lot on their minds to plan.
Harry wrote happily to his parents that night, he did it at least once a week, usually every other day. He was glad to be delivering good news after the little mishap with potions the other day.
Over all, he'd say it's been a very nice year, though later in the term he would find himself face-to-face with the one that changed his entire life. He'd even look back years ahead and think this was one of the quietest years of his life, of course… he didn't know that then.
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A.N:
Ok, that's that!
Errm ok, notes about this chapter:
-I think it was a bit rushed and stuff, but the beginning (2 or 3 chapters at most) of this fic is just like the final chapters of the guardian: a bunch of little stories I have to cover. These are key events I thought were important to be shown. The actual plot starts at fifth year.
-Humm, I think they're a tad mature for eleven-year-old -laughs- but this whole conversation had to be in year one, I mean, Harry wouldn't possibly hide it further then he did.
-I know Grindelwald isn't in the chocolate frog cards, well he should be u.u
Well, that's it!! Please review! I really like to know what you guys think and it's what keeps me writing!
Kisses!