"Chris, Chris!" I scowled and turned to Hermione who was grabbing my arm and shaking it. I wrenched it from her grip and glared at her. "What?" She pointed to the door to the Great Hall and there was Harry.

Chapter 2

I stood up and rushed at him, I needed to see that he was real—I needed to touch him. He staggered back as I charged at him and grabbed him and pulled him into my arms. He was real, I could feel his heart beating against my own; I was content to know he was alive.

After months of waiting to know if I would get to see him again in person, I was pretty close to tears—but of course, I still had my reputation to keep and crying for a thirteen year-old boy was not cool. We stood like that for a few seconds until Harry started to wiggle out of my arms. "Can you let go of me now?"

I shook my head no but did it anyway because I finally realized what a scene I was making. I grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from the Great Hall and out to the grounds so I could talk to him privately. When we had came to a shaded area by the lake, I turned to make sure there was no one around and pulled him back into a hug, but this time he reciprocated it.

"I can't believe you're here. I thought you were going to stay in a hospital or d—" I couldn't finish my sentence as I struggled to keep from breathing heavily as I was close to tears. He rubbed my back and pulled away a bit.

"I'm dying, it's official." Harry breathed out heavily. "There was nothing they could do for me, nothing that anyone has successfully been able to do since…" He trailed off, refusing to look me in the eye and instead focused on the lake. "I didn't want to stay with my aunt and uncle, they just…"

He breathed out unevenly, a tear falling down his check. "None of the pain medication has been working for about a year and I didn't want to just die alone." He sniffed as he tried to wipe his tears with his robe sleeve. "I just, I know it's useless to attend school but," He looked up at me with a watery smile. "I wanted to spend the time I have left with someone who cares—the only one who cares, in fact."

I pulled him back in my arms and held him as he broke down crying. I held him until I noticed students coming out of the castle to go to their classes. I hesitantly broke away from him and we mixed with our classmates.

Hagrid introduced Hippogriffs to us and I couldn't help but smile when Harry volunteered to bow to Buckbeak and end up getting to ride it around the clearing. I had hoped a class with Hagrid would have just enough comic relief to get my mind off Harry's illness, but no of course Malfoy had go around ruining everything.

We were divided into groups and I had Harry with me, completely ignoring Ron and Hermione bickering. I turned to tell Harry something (I don't remember what) when I turned and saw him on the ground with blood everywhere. I ran to him, but Ron held me back as Buckbeak was being led away Hagrid. Malfoy was on the ground in shock, but then he ran to Harry and tried to move him, I growled and broke out of Ron's grip.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM RIGHT NOW!" Malfoy—still jumpy from shock—moved away from him as I ran to Harry's side. Why Harry!? I didn't understand all of what was going on, I turned to Hermione. "Please, do something!"

She shook her head, mumbling excuses about how she didn't know any healing spells that would stop the rapid blood loss. I felt tears rush to my eyes again, why was this always happening to him? Luckily Hagrid came along and took Harry up to the castle.

I turned back to Malfoy and grabbed the front of his robes in anger, pushing him against a tree. "WHAT DID YOU DO!?" I couldn't get a coherent sound out of him so threw him into Goyle, and ran up to the castle; I prayed Harry would be alive when I got there.

All sorts of scenarios ran through my head on my journey to the Hospital Wing and right when I was about to open the door Hagrid came out looking somber. "Oh, Chris. What're you doin' here?" I looked around him for Harry and Hagrid sighed in understanding. "He's okay, Madame Pomfrey was able ter heal him; he just needs rest righ' now. She won't allow any visitors in." He dragged me away from the Hospital Wing and into the Great Hall, then went back out— probably headed to Professor Dumbledore's office.

As I sat down between Ron and Hermione, I looked over to the Slytherin table and saw Malfoy looking up at me. From his expression it was obvious he wanted to know if Harry was okay, I just shook my head and started to fill my plate. No need to tell him the truth, he started this mess, so why not have a bit of fun with him? I wanted to make him pay. As I decimated my dinner I couldn't help but wonder what else Harry had to endure before he was finally left in peace.

It was during double Potions on Thursday that Harry came back to class. He quietly walked in and began to immediately work on his potion. Snape barked at the class to get back to work—seeing as we had all been gossiping about Harry's return.

A standard Neville potion catastrophe later, the class was back to gossiping and of course Seamus had to be the one to tell us that Peter Pettigrew was seen near the school. I ignored him and finished my potion, attempting to ignore the drama surrounding Neville and Snape.

I caught up to Harry and tried to get him to talk, but he brushed me off telling me we would talk later. Remus was a brilliant professor, no surprise there, how he moved the class and successfully triumphed over Peeves awed the class. Everything was going swell with the boggarts until it came to Harry's turn.

Oddly enough, it was a cloaked figure; I felt ice settle inside my stomach as I realized it was a Dementor. When had Harry run into one of those? Harry was unable to cast the charm against the boggart and stood watching it. "Expe—" I frowned realizing that he wasn't even saying the right spell. As Lupin put the boggart away and dismissed the class, I couldn't help but wonder why Harry was unable to produce the Rididikulus Charm, I really hoped it wasn't because he was too weak to perform magic.

After dinner I followed Harry to our dorm and sat down on his bed as he laid down on it. "What do you want to know?" he asked, seemingly too tired to really care about what I wanted to ask. "What happened?"

He rolled over on his side, eyes closed and yawned. "Malfoy had insulted Buckbeak and I managed to push him out of the way before it could attack him." I was about to retort that he shouldn't have stepped between and a monster and its stupid prey, but his even breathing told me he had fallen asleep. I took off his shoes and glasses then pulled the covers over him and closed the curtains to let him sleep.

The next few weeks were very difficult for me, between the Divination professor being convinced I was going to die by Christmas to Hagrid's class that had become the most boring subject with flobberworms as the main study; I was excited when Quidditch came.

I didn't care that I wasn't good at flying, I was just happy to have something to make me forget about Harry for awhile. I came back from practice one night thinking it was a welcome distraction until I saw that the first Hogsmeade weekend was on Halloween. I scowled when I saw everyone being excited about the trip because my parents hadn't signed my permission slip; it was punishment for running off over the summer.

I saw Ron and Hermonie off at the Entrance Hall and was about to leave when I realized that Harry also wouldn't be going to Hogsmeade. I ran to the library to find him and sure enough, he was snoozing on his table with various books scattered around him. I shook him awake.

"Hey, Chris." He mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"Want to hang out?" I asked, trying to get every possible moment I could with him. He seemed to think along the same lines and closed all his books and walked out with me, I sniggered at the pile of books he left behind and hadn't bothered to put back to their proper place. Madame Pince was going to be livid.

Harry and I started to aimlessly wander around the castle and somehow ended up on the first floor. "I'm surprised you aren't going," he said as we turned a corner. "I rather expected you to go with your friends." I shrugged. "I was grounded this summer and they refused to sign my permission slip." He smirked. "What did you do to get grounded?"

"Chris? Harry?" Harry and I jumped and turned around to see Remus sticking his head out of his office door. I smiled, "Hi, Remus." Remus opened his door a bit more and gestured for us to come inside. We sat down and after giving us tea, he started to look at us. "It's odd, I never thought I would see the day when I would be having tea with the two of you." Harry and I looked down at our tea, I was hoping this visit would be uplifting but instead it was going downhill fast. Trying to prevent the inevitable train wreck, I tried to get us on a different topic.

"Sorry I haven't had the chance to talk to you properly since—"

"Last summer, yeah." Remus took a big gulp of his tea. "I know you were busy, but I've been thinking about what we discussed at your birthday—"

"Drop it." I glared at Remus. Usually he was a man of tact who could take cues but the more we sat with him, the more awkward I felt.

"Well Harry, how are you getting on? I know we haven't actually had a conversation before and I know Sirius is your godfather, but I just wanted to tell you I'm here if you want to talk." Harry nodded and I nearly growled under my breath, pulling the godfather card on Harry at a time like this.

Where was this a month ago when he first saw Harry? Forget a month ago, why not years ago, you know, before Harry went to his aunt and uncle? Why is that Remus only started to take an interest in him now? Sirius was a godfather to Harry and me, but he only really fulfilled his obligation every so often since he was always off living his life and fooling around with my dad as though they were still pranksters in school with Remus to clean up the mess.

I stood up suddenly. "Harry, I think it's time to go. Remus, the tea has been great, we should do this again sometime." I grabbed Harry's arm and dragged him out as he staggered a quick good-bye. We were just about outside when we crashed into Professor Snape. He sneered at us and went into Remus's office, slamming the door shut.

We don't need Remus, we don't need our parents, Harry and I only needed each other.

AN: Thank you so much for reading, reviewing, and adding me to your lists. Also, I realized that in order to be canon, Harry and Chris had to end up in Lupin's office so I had them go to the first floor, which according to Snitchseeker is where the DADA office is located and since they tend to be really careful with their information, I'm going to trust it. Anyway, thank you all so much and I'll see you in the next chapter.