Hey again! I would like to answer a few questions…

Is Harry's disguise gone now that Sirius spelled him?

No… Harry's hair had been changed to fall into his face and cover his scar so no one could see it. When Sirius changed it to dreadlocks, they spread in a way that his scar was visible. Do you really think Dumbledore's charm would wear off if a seventh year cast a spell?

Are other characters going to be appearing? Like Neville or Luna? Maybe even Teddy or George?

I don't know. I hadn't thought about that. Probably not George, I just don't see how he'd fit into the story and I know I'd make him depressed and so un-George (hey, give him a break…Fred is gone breaks down into tears).. Maybe Neville or Luna, but I'm not sure. What reason would they have to show up? Teddy would be fun—especially an older Teddy, like from Harry's future (he deserves a change to meet dad too), but he's too young now and one era difference is enough…I guess it's sort of up to you guys. What do the reviewers think? Like the idea? Tell me if you do and which characters you want to show up. ( Disclaimer: I am not promising to put others in there. It would depend on how they would fit into the story. You're input is appreciated, but not automatically to be followed. Thank you).

Update sooner!

Okay, not a question, but I get it a lot. Sorry, but I have a really busy schedule. I opted for the challenging classes, lessons in flute, violin, Irish Dance, and Youth and Cell Group. Add practice and homework for the above and I have zero free time. I'll update when I have the time. I am not going to fail a class so I can write fanfiction, sorry. My future is too important to me to do that.

That's it. Any other questions, ask. I will try to respond quickly.

Do you guys think I should add review responses at the end of my chapters?

Chapter 11:

When Harry woke up the next morning, he smiled quietly before he opened his eyes. He could tell that he still had yellow and orange dreadlocks. He could also feel his crazy robes. It turns out that James had managed to add a sticking Charm to them, so Harry would be unable to get rid of the purple robes until later that day. He grinned, wondering what sort of looks he would get from the population of Hogwarts today. For once, he wouldn't mind the stares he received. They would be fully deserved, and not because of something he had done.

"I have to ask why you're smiling, Smith. You look like a Christmas ornament gone wrong," he heard someone say from above him. Of course, he shot up in bed, glancing around and gripping his wand (which he'd had under his pillow, just in case). He was immediately grateful his hand was still under his pillow, hiding his white knuckled grip on the warm piece of wood. He didn't James and Sirius would take too kindly to his wand at their throats, being the carefree pranksters they were. They were two who were standing next to his bed, grinning.

"Nice description, Prongs. Though I think saying Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasion threw up on him works just as well," Sirius said, and he still sounded half asleep. He still looked half-asleep as well. His eyes were still really cloudy and out of focus as he stared at Harry, almost swaying on his feet. Harry heard a laugh from some other part of the room and turned to see Remus—already ready to head down to breakfast—laughing.

"It's much too long. I vote for James's," he said, and Sirius stuck his tongue out at him while James cheered, smirking.

"C'mon, Remus! Where's your sense of creativity? Don't you have a description for us?" Sirius goaded, but with half his usual energy. Harry knew that the Sirius he had known wasn't a morning person and it was clear that the teenage Sirius wasn't, either. Remus was too smart to fall for Sirius's bait.

"It's morning. I may be better than you and James, but I'm still no morning person," he replied easily, grabbing his bag, sitting on his bed, and staring at the two. They didn't move, and he sighed. "Aren't you going to leave Daniel alone and get ready? We have breakfast—" Remus started, but was interrupted when Ron shot off the bed next to Harry's.

"Breakfast!" he yelled, grabbing something from his trunk and stumbling towards the bathroom. Harry laughed, and realized that Remus and James were laughing with him. Sirius was staring at the bathroom in shock, and Harry noted that he had his own robes—and hair gel—with him.

"It…it was my turn next," he said slowly, blinking in sleep-fogged confusion. Unbeknownst to the two new boys in the dormitory, the Marauders had a set order of doing things in the morning. In fact, the morning was the only time that the Marauders ever did anything in an orderly manner, simply because they wanted to avoid hexing each other in their morning hazes. None of the Marauders were morning people, and Sirius was least of all (though Remus sometimes thought that James was worse than even Sirius). So, The Order (as Sirius liked to call it, always with a false awe in his voice) had been established. Remus would always get up first (unless it was the night after the full moon, in which case James would) and get ready, then he would wake Sirius up. While waiting for Sirius to move, he would wake James up, and James would get ready. Peter was always the last to get ready, as he got ready the quickest (caring about his appearance the least). The Order had been going on since first year, even before they knew Remus's condition (at that time, Remus had always been first up, full moon or no). And now…? Now, the new kids were throwing it off, and it was slightly too much for Sirius's muddled brain to handle.

Harry laughed at the look on Sirius face, and shook his head. Because of the prank, all he had to do was brush his teeth and he was ready. After all, he couldn't mess with his robes or his hair (not that he could ever do much with his hair anyway, and from the look of James's hair, his father couldn't either).

He easily could've undone their prank (goodness knows, Ron had enough experience with prank magic to know which spells had been used. Combine that with Harry knowledge of anti-jinxes and hexes and Hermione's extensive knowledge of everything, the spell would've been gone in a second), but he was enjoying being pranked like just another student. Not the Boy-Who-Lived-Twice, Not the Chosen-One, not the Man-Who-Conquered—just another Hogwarts student. Added to the normalcy—which he was always craving—he had been pranked by Sirius Black and James Potter…his dead godfather and father. He'd take a worse prank if it was from them.

He had trouble stopping his grin as he headed down to breakfast.

Of course, he was also grinning because a certain red-headed, green-eyed Head Girl decided to feel sorry for him.

"Potter and Black can get a little carried away, Daniel. I have to apologize for them. Potter is Head Boy after all, so he should have a little restraint," she was telling him a breakfast, totally ignoring James and Sirius, who were staring at her with open mouths. James was stunned that she was sitting with him…again. Sirius was stunned that she felt she had the right to talk that way.

"You were laughing last night!" he said incredulously, causing some fifth years boys going by to drop their jaws and stare from him to Lily. "Not like that, you idiots!" he snapped at them as Lily paled.

"For once, I agree with Black. Never. Like. That," she said, and then she leveled her infamous glare on the fifth years, who hurriedly—and wisely—moved on and sat at the other end of the table. Then she transferred her glare to Sirius, though it wasn't much of glare. Her twitching lips and twinkling eyes ruined the effect. "Last night was different. Had you made it undoable, it would've been okay, but—" she was saying, and James and Sirius were preparing their protests (not that it required much preparation, they'd done this so often). But they didn't get to give a premade excuse from their rather lengthy list. Their defense came from a different mouth.

"They're pranksters, Lily…would they be the infamous Marauders if they made a prank easily undoable? And anyway, it's only a day. I'm sure the Professors won't let me walk around out of uniform for long," Harry said, laughing and pushing a roll of orange hair out of his face. Ron's, Hermione's, and Ginny's lips twitched at the mention of the Professors, knowing that he was talking of McGonagall, and they broke out into full smiles as James and Sirius looked at each other, slightly worried—but not overly so—and clearly thinking of the same professor.

"Er—you're okay with this?" Lily asked, her jaw dropping this time. She clearly thought that no sane person would be happy to walk around with puke-orange-neon-yellow-highlighted dreadlocks and bright purple robes for a day.

"Okay with it? Yes…it's a prank. It's not like they killed me," Harry said, laughing slightly. "No, I just look a little—er—interesting." Harry couldn't help but look down at his robes, which were flashing green, black, red, and silver stars. The red and purple didn't really go too well together. Then he smirked at James and Sirius. "And you know what else? I stand by what I said before…" Harry said dramatically, letting his voice drop out. He paused as Sirius and James leaned in towards him, "you guys have nothing on Fred and George!" with that, he grinned as the two pranksters spluttered in mixed shock and indignation. With a smile sent his friends way, he nodded and left, whistling a happy tune.

After he was gone, there was silence for a few minutes around the eight remaining.

"He's kidding!" the two boys said together.

"There's no way they're better than us," Sirius said.

"We're the best there was, is, and ever will be! Look at all we've done to Snivellus!" James said, not noticing Lily's eyes hardening dangerously.

"Yeah!" Sirius said, and James, feeling like he was on a role, kept going.

"Do you remember the one time we turned his robes neon pink?" James asked, grinning.

"Green hair?"

"Go Gryffindor robes?"

"Bubble burping and speak jinx?"

"How 'bout that one time we took his pants off in front of every—" WHAM! James was forced to shut up as Lily shoved a pastry in both his and Sirius's face.

"What was that for?" Sirius asked, annoyed. He flinched as Lily glared at him. "Never mind," he muttered, shaking his head and looking away. No teacher could get him to back down (well, McGonagall could when she was really, really angry), but in the morning, when Lily's anger was roused, let's just say that she could make even Sirius Black feel slightly guilty for whatever he'd done to incite her wrath. (This weakness—as Sirius referred to it—was simply because he was too tired to be his normal, carefree, "I-don't-care-what-Lily-or-the-Teacher-think-of-my-Behavior" self). And this morning, she was particularly furious. The two boys had managed to forgot that Lily reacted rather strongly to mention of that day. It was a sore spot and the entire school (rarely with exception) knew not to mention it to the witch. If you did, you faced her terrorizing, rad-haired wrath.

"Can you pass some eggs, Rupert?" Remus casually asked a stunned Ron. Ron didn't even react, he was still staring at James and Sirius in slight humor and Lily in scared awe. He was too distracted to remember that his name was Rupert now. Hermione elbowed him.

"What?" he asked. "Oh, sure, Remus," he said quickly, catching on to his slip. Everyone else put his lack of reaction to the question on being stunned that James and Sirius had gotten 'pasted.' The fact that no one else reacted to James and Sirius getting literally creamed showed that they were used to such a scene. It wasn't Hogwarts without James and Sirius ending up with some type of food on their face at least twice a month, usually more (and usually courtesy of Lily).

Sirius grinned suddenly, licked his lips, and said, "Give me one of the pastries. Taste's good." Everyone laughed.

They didn't notice that hadn't truly left and was standing at the doors to the Great Hall, smiling at them sadly. But Ginny did, and worry entered her eyes at his face. She found herself wondering what would happen once they left. After all…Harry would once again be loosing Remus, Sirius, and James. How would he deal with it?

The exchange students, the Marauders, and Lily and her friends took up most of the right side of the Transfiguration classroom. Lily found herself giggling at odd moments, looking at James and Sirius. James was chuckling too, as was everyone else. Sirius kept asking what everyone was laughing at. He was quiet unaware that he had missed the cream in his eyebrows when he'd wiped his face. His eyebrows moved with every facial expression and because of everyone laughing at him (he was aware that they were laughing at him), his face changed expression a lot.

"Quiet," McGonagall said, sweeping into her classroom and up to the front. Silence fell almost immediately, everyone suppressing their laughter.

McGongall let her eyes sweep over her classroom, resting on the smirking Slytherin's for a fraction of second before moving immediately to the Marauders. If the Slytherin's were smirking, something was up with the four Gryffindor boys. But…they were smirking too?

The class could almost see her working things out on her face as she started hard at Peter—who kept getting a silly grin on his face—, then Remus—who kept his face pretty straight, but his lips did tend to twitch and his flick to his right, to where James and Sirius were sitting. She paused for a long while on James, whose face was the picture of innocence—a perfect clue that something was up. Finally her gaze settled on Sirius, and she studied him for mischief. Then a small smile suddenly graced her face.

"Mr. Black, I didn't know that cream was an accessory," she said, raising one eyebrow. Of course, Sirius just had to raise both of his, getting the cream into his hair. This made his friends crack up, and the rest of the class was soon laughing along. Especially as Sirius still clearly had no idea what was going on.

"What!?" he yelled angrily.

"Mr. Black, could you kindly wipe the cream out of your eyebrows? It seems to be distracting your classmates," she said, and Sirius's hands reached his face in a blur. He quickly wiped it off, looking slightly mortified that he hadn't noticed it. "My hair!" he was heard to whisper to James. Harry bit back a snort. And concentrated on what McGonagall was saying. "Now, to the rest of you, I must talk of N.E.W.T.'s first, though I'm sure you've all had this talk already," she said, and her lips twitched as the class groaned. "I am sure you all remember you Ordinary Wizarding Levels, but I promise you that your Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests are much, much harder. They have earned their names. I am sure that more of you will have breakdowns during the test, but if you study right and prepare, there should be no need. Of course, this is easier for some of us than for others," she said sharply, her eyes straying to the Marauders. They looked back at her quite innocently. "If you apply yourselves and do your homework, you should be amply prepared." Once again, she paused her lecture to send a hard look her students way, and not just the Marauders were on the receiving end this time. "So, let's get started. I expect all of you to do your best and get at least E's on your N.E.W.T.'s, because I know you're all capable of it. Quills out, and write down what's on the board," she said, and with a flick of her wand, notes went up.

Harry sighed along with his classmates as he got out his quill and parchment. Notes really were a bother…maybe he could just use Hermione's…

"Why aren't you writing anything?" someone hissed at him. He turned to Ginny and sighed.

"I am going to be writing the same notes for McGonagall once we get back. I really don't want to write the same notes twice," he told her, thanking his lucky stars that it was a perfectly viable excuse.

"And how are you going to explain it to McGonagall?" she asked him smartly, a smirk playing on her lips.

"Er…tell her I already know this?" he tried, quickly scanning the notes to see that he did, in fact, already know this. It was a bit more complex than changing your eyebrows, but it was a form of self-transfiguration he had studied already. He silently thanked his lucky stars for the conversation he had managed to get into with Victor Krum at a celebration at the Weasley's (he had once again been invited by Fleur, and Ron had actually been civil. Well, as civil as staring at someone else in awe and asking for their autograph—11 times—could be considered to be). They'd ended up discussing the Triwizard, Fleur joining them. Krum had told them how he'd done his transfiguration for the 2nd task, and he'd spoken irritably of what he'd done wrong.

"Would you care to prove that?" Ginny asked with a slight smirk, pretty sure he couldn't. And Harry really didn't want to test it. He might understand the notes this time, but he had never actually done the magic. He scowled slightly at her, picked up his quill, and hastily started scribbling down the notes. "Hm," Ginny said in a satisfied tone.

"Shut it, Bonnie," Harry said, only half crossly.

"You know I'm right," she answered him in a whisper that somehow managed to convey a sing-song tone.

"Do not," he answered back, not really taking his eyes from either the board or his paper.

"I'm always right. Admit it."

"Never!"

"You just don't want to admit it."

"That's what the 'never' would imply," he responded, with a slight smirk of her own. She let a smile flash across her face.

Silence settled at their table for about five minutes before Ginny took up the conversation again. "So…what exactly did you mean, you love Bonnie?" she asked him suddenly. He jumped at the question, drawing a line across his notes and staring at her. He didn't notice Hermione elbow Ron to get him to stop evesdropping.

"Er…well…I guess that…I, er…um...ImeantwhatIsaid," he said quickly, going back to his notes. He really didn't want to have this conversation in the middle of Transfiguration! And definitely not while he looked like a Christmas Ornament Gone Wrong, as James had so accurately described him.

"Hmm? Could you repeat that?" she said, and he risked a glance up at her. Which was stupid, really, because he had trouble looking away from her eyes once they met his.

"Well…I said…um…I mean what I said…I love Bon—er, you. I love you," he said, before blushing and looking back to his notes. They weren't really that interesting. Why in the world did he keep looking back at them?

He felt something grab his hand under the table and squeeze it gently, and looked up automatically, kicking himself as soon as he did so. But she wasn't smirking at him, or grinning. No, she only had a small, happy smile.

"That's good to know," she said, squeezing his hand again, before leaning in and whispering in his ear, "because I'm waiting for you." Suddenly, she was back to t aking her own notes, his hand cold without hers holding it, and his ear still tingling from the closeness of her mouth and warmth of her breath. He blinked, then looked at her. She was waiting for him. He'd known it, but to have her say it…He smiled softly to himself. Reaching under the table, he gave her hand a quick sqeeze.

"I hope I'm worth it, because I know you are," he said, thanking God that Ron wasn't listening. Ron would never let him forget saying something that corny. But he thought it might be worth it, even if Ron was listening. Ginny was grinning at him, her smiled dazzling and love shining in her eyes. It was at times like these that it was the hardest to remind himself why didn't just take her in his arms and kiss her. But what they'd said was true…it was worth waiting for. When they were ready. Harry coudlnt' help hoping he got over his depression soon.

A few minutes later, Ginny let out a frustrated sound—somewhere between a snort and groan. "How many notes are there!" she whined quietly, looking at her two rolls of parchment full already.

"This is a difficult branch of Transfiguration, Ginny," he said, shrugging his shoulders. At the table next to them, Sirius suddenly let out a loud, bark-like laugh, and James quickly joined him. Harry quickly looked away from Ginny, but not before she saw the conflict in his eyes. Happiness warring with sadness. She leaned in towards him, and his eyes were drawn up towards hers. She was staring at him with intense, serious eyes that made him want to look away.

"Harry…can you handle this? And don't brush me off with a simple 'yes,' either. You know that I'm not talking about Transfiguration. Can you handle getting them back only to loose them again so soon?" she whispered, her eyes searching his. He wished he could pull his blue eyes away from her brown ones, but found it impossible.

He tried to brush it off with a 'yes,' just as she'd told him not to, but somehow, he was unable to. The words got stuck in his throat. He sat there, struggling for words, for a few seconds before he simply shut his mouth and shrugged.

"I don't know, Bonnie. But I have to, don't I? It's gonna happen," he told her, searching her gaze and seeing the heaviness there.

"Will your life ever be easy?" she asked him, a smile playing upon her lips. He knew that he wasn't just hearing an undertone of seriousness to the question.

"Probably not what's considered easy to normal people, Bon, but easy for me? Sure…I mean, he's gone, isn't he?" There was no casual grin, no triumphant smile, no happy smirk gracing his lips. They were slightly turned down, in a frown that was there too often of late, and Ginny looked unsure whether to frown or smile. In the end, she settled on a small, comforting smile his direction.

"Yeah, he is, Harry. Everyone was fighting so that peace could be achieved, so that we didn't have to go on living in fear…and we don't. It's bittersweet," she said, never once bringing up anyone's death, but addressing the issue anyway.

Harry sighed and looked away, looking at his hastily written notes. He shook his head, resting it on the palm of one hand. She was right. Remus and Fred and Colin and Snape…they'd all died for a good cause. As Lupin had said, he'd died so Teddy could have a chance at freedom. And Teddy did have a chance at freedom, so did everyone else…Dennis Creevy, Bill and Fluer's child (which was on the way), the first years…..even those who had fought and survived the battle…but did that justify what he, Harry, had done? …Harry couldn't help letting a small smile creep upon his face even as the doubts wormed there way back into his mind. Because, for the first time since it had happened, Harry allowed himself to think that it just might be justified.

A/N Had to be a little more than pure fluff, didn't it? Don't worry, there will be a plot and more interaction later. This is just a chapter to show how Harry's already beginning to be affected by being here, free of fame and expectations. He's being allowed to be a kid, and it's freeing his mind more than anything else ever could. For those of you who think his trip out of depression is coming on fast, notice that the doubts are still there. It will be a while before he's fully our Harry again.

Thanks!