In the last chapter: Harry began his training for the Animagus Transformation. He and Sirius began settling into home life when Remus Lupin shows up to make amends with Sirius and gets sucked into their 'family.' Sirius attends his mind-healer sessions and Harry takes his 'extracurricular' spell training with Death back up for the summer. Harry ends his training and transforms into a Boelen Python Ostium. The Malfoys, Goldstiens, and Grangers come together for Harry's birthday. Peter Pettigrew is convicted with a life sentence in Azkaban.

Telling Remus and Sirius about his new form had actually gone over quite well. Sirius had been tense whenever he was in his snake form, but he'd tried not to let Harry notice, which said something about the man. Remus had been sincere in his congratulations on the form, but Sirius was wary in the beginning. It was later that night that Harry walked past the sitting room and heard Remus discussing it with Sirius, explaining that the form didn't have just one meaning.

He explained that the Boelen Python Ostium's parts were often used in various healing potions and rituals. Symbolically, that particular species was very intelligent and represented healing or mending of bonds. Harry felt it was rather fitting for the reasons he had decided to learn the form. After that, Sirius was far more comfortable around Harry's new form and even transformed with him a few times.

Following Death's advice, Harry went to Diagon Alley with Sirius and Remus the next day. Apart from the Alley being quite busy, there was nothing worth noting as they walked around and bought his new supplies. All Harry really needed was new parchment and quills, new robes, potions ingredients to restock his supply from the previous year, and his new textbooks.

When they reached Flourish and Blots, however, Harry felt a sinking feeling in his gut as he witnessed the utter chaos of the shop from the other side of the street. Apparently a famous author was doing a book signing, and after a quick peak of his required book materials for the year, he put it together that his new DADA professor was either a huge fan of Gilderoy Lockhart's, or he was Gilderoy Lockhart. Either way, Harry was not looking forward the upcoming year.

Wanting to get it over with as quickly as possible, the three of them all took a portion of the texts to find and buy, then they would meet back out in front of the shop. Divide and conquer, or something like that.

While in the pandemonium, Harry saw several familiar faces, but didn't say anything to them because they weren't friends and he'd much rather get out of the shop as quickly as possible. Ducking through and sliding past people was much easier with his small stature, and so, Harry was the first to make it back out to their meeting spot across from the shop.

As Harry waited, he idly watched everyone who came and left the shop, staying unseen with a notice-me-not charm cast on him the moment he entered the Alley. Harry was mildly surprised to see the Malfoys—sans Narcissa—approach the shop. Draco ducked inside eagerly while his father trailed behind him. Just as Lucius was entering the shop, a small girl with bright red hair and a spatter of freckles across her nose was being shoved out of the shop by what looked like an older brother.

The girl ran straight into Lucius and the man glared down at the girl as she sputtered with wide eyes and took a step back. Just before she did, though, Harry caught the movement of Lucius's robes before a plain black book slid into the girl's cauldron with the rest of her books. Tilting his head to the side, Harry watched curiously as the interaction came to an end and the girl walked over to her parents, completely unaware of the additional book in her cauldron.

'Hmm, I'll have to keep an eye on that girl, see just what Lucius is up to.' Harry mentally noted, watching as Ronald Weasley and the two infamous Weasley twins left the shop and joined the girl and their parents, completing the red-headed picture.

Harry wasn't able to continue watching the family, as they started walking further into the Alley and Sirius and Remus reappeared to take him back to Grimmauld Place with all of his supplies shrunken in their pockets.

Later that night, Remus sat in the drawing room, lit only by the crackling fire as he sat in a warm leather chair. Bringing a tumbler of scotch to his lips, Remus barely noticed the smooth burn as his thoughts demanded all of his attention.

The spell was only broken when Sirius plopped down into the chair adjacent his. When Remus flicked his gaze up to Sirius, he felt a pinch in his gut at the concern clear on his friend's face.

"What's the celebration for?" Sirius' sarcastic tone had Remus rolling his eyes before he returned to his previous thoughts and studied the amber liquid inside his glass for a long moment.

"This isn't a celebration, it's a pity party." Remus smiled at the surprised snort from Sirius. "He'll be going back soon. . ." Remus finished quietly, staring down into his glass before taking a generous sip. The smile on Sirius' face faded at the reminder.

"Yeah. If feels too soon." The somber tone reflected exactly how Remus felt. They had only just gotten Harry back; it would definitely hurt to let him go again until winter break.

"He's . . . different than I thought he'd be." Remus spoke softly after a long, comfortable silence.

"How do you mean?"

"He's just- . . . He's nothing like them! I mean, sure he looks like them, but I thought I'd see bits and pieces of Lils and James in his personality. Where James was reckless and constantly cracking jokes, Harry is serenely calm and impassive. Lily always had the most beautiful emerald eyes, but Harry's are . . . chilling, arctic really. I know it's ridiculous, but I can't help but fear that something happened, something that changed our Harry." Remus' voice sounded wrecked by the end and he rubbed a hand roughly over his face.

Sirius sighed and reached over the arm of his chair in order to place a firm, grounding hand on his best mate's shoulder. He waited until Remus met his gaze to speak.

"Of course something happened! He witnessed the unimaginable at such a young age, and though he probably doesn't remember it, that affects a person in inexplicable ways. He witnessed the death of his parents, survived the killing curse, and had to live with Lily's vile sister for most of his life. Even if he'd grown up in the most loving and happy home, you can't expect him to be the same as the little boy who fell asleep on your chest or screeched excitedly every time he saw you. Harry's growing up in very difficult circumstances and I think he's doing great, considering." Sirius' tone wasn't unkind as he soothed Remus' shoulder in small circles and explained the very same thought process he'd gone through after meeting Harry again after so many years.

Remus sagged, but it was in relief. There was still a tension in his body, though, that said not all of his worries had been eased.

"But what if he doesn't follow in his parents' footsteps?" Remus worded carefully, knowing Sirius would pick up on what he really meant. 'What if he decides to fight for the dark? What if he becomes a dark wizard?'

"Well, if he doesn't follow their path, then we hope that whatever path he chose is safer. If it isn't, then we follow him anyway. We protect him, because our allegiance is no longer to a side, it's to Harry." Remus seemed shocked by the utter conviction in his friend's voice, which only made Sirius feel more secure in his stance.

"You'd do that? Even if he . . . even if he joined the dark? You spent so many years condemning your family and anything to do with the dark—except for me, of course—but you'd really put all of that aside to protect Harry?" Remus didn't sound worried, in fact, he looked and sounded hopeful as he stared wide-eyed at Sirius.

Sirius snorted, a bit of the normal Sirius dripping back into his expression and body language.

"Oh come on, my issue was with my family, not the side they supported. I mean, I don't think I could ever fully become dark, not with all of the stereotypes and discrimination plaguing that side at the moment, but there were things here and there that I agreed with. And I can't change the fact that I was raised in a dark family, surrounded by dark magic, therefore making me far more comfortable and adept at dark magic.

"My tryst with the light side in my earlier years had been far more about pissing off my parents and staying close with James and Lily than anything else. Both sides have issues and I don't agree with the management of either. Harry . . . I've come to realize that even though I've only known this new, older Harry for a short while, he is truly something special and I will protect him with my life. Not because of who his parents were, but because he's already family. I never dreamed about having children, but now I can't say I'd have it any other way." Sirius squeezed Remus' shoulder for emphasis.

Remus had never seen that particular look on his friend's face, so profound and peaceful at the same time. After a summer with their little ward, though, Remus was starting to understand. Children were . . . so much more than either of them could ever hope to be. It doesn't matter your achievements or failures in life, once you find yourself in the position of caring for and protecting a small child, nothing else matters. Nothing you've ever done up until that point can compare, and that's okay.

It's quite difficult to explain the feeling.

As the pair continued to sit in silence, staring into the fire and lost in their own thoughts, neither noticed the small, shadowed figure leaving the wall right outside the doorframe to go back upstairs. And if that figure just happened to be smiling, well . . . there was no one there in the living world to see it.

The morning that Harry was supposed to go back to Hogwarts was overcast with a surprising chill despite it still technically being summer. Harry had packed everything he needed the night before and had shrunken his trunk to fit in the pocket of his robes to make the short trip to the station easier.

Both Sirius and Remus accompanied him to the station, getting there early so that they had plenty of time to say goodbye. Harry didn't mind Remus coming with, in fact, he actually appreciated it. Without really realizing it, Remus had become a part of their strange little family.

The few families on the platform were either overly curious about the trio, or scared enough of the ex-prisoner to shuffle their kids behind them or just make sure they stood between Sirius and their kids at all times. Harry had a few choice words for their behavior, but didn't say it out loud, Remus was strict about swearing. Not that he did it often, but when it was necessary he didn't shy away.

As they stood on the platform, the two older men got into an argument over whether or not to confront the more obvious gawkers. Sirius thought it wouldn't be setting a good example to for Harry to just roll over and allow himself to be pushed around and Remus thought that confrontation and hostility should be avoided at all costs.

Harry wasn't really paying attention though. His focus had been drawn to a flock of bustling redheads that had just made their way onto the platform as it became increasingly busy. One red head in particular had caught his attention. The youngest Weasley was standing not twenty yards away, staring at the ground vacantly as her family bickered and joked and hugged around her.

Looking a bit closer, Harry saw that the only thing that she held was that same black, leather-bound book he'd seen Lucius slip into her caldron. Though her body and expression was lax and impassive, her grip on the book looked almost painfully tight. Harry's eyes narrowed in suspicion. He'd never met the girl, so he couldn't say anything about her personality and whether there was a change or not, but her glazed eyes made something in his gut churn.

Harry had saved himself from many sticky situations by listening to his instincts and gut-feelings, and something about that girl was giving him the same feeling that said that something wasn't right.

"Ah, already got your eye on a girl, have you Harry?" Sirius cut through his thoughts with a suggestive eyebrow-quirk and a devious smirk as he glanced between Harry and the Weasley girl in an obvious manner. Harry didn't dignify that with a response, as he normally did whenever Sirius said something especially obtuse.

Looking back to where the large family was standing, Harry saw one of the twins tug on her hair and jump out of the way just in time to avoid the furious slap aimed at his face from the previously vacant girl. Like a switch had been flipped, the youngest Weasley unleashed a fiery temper on her older brother and chased him around their family members until the matriarch of the family snapped at them both to cut it out.

Harry cataloged the events away in his mind for later and turned back to his own rag-tag family just in time to see Remus hide a grin with a cough and a hand pressed to his mouth. Apparently Sirius wasn't the only one to think Harry had taken quite an interest in the girl. Which, truthfully, he had. Just not in the way that they thought he had.

Granger was the first of his friends to arrive, then Anthony. Draco didn't show up until they had already said goodbye to their families, boarded the train, and found themselves a compartment to sequester off for their group.

Saying goodbye to Sirius and Remus had been . . . an experience. Both had hugged him fiercely and had to be coaxed into letting go by a flustered Harry. Harry hadn't known what to make of the curling warmth in his belly at the display of affection, so unfamiliar to him in his life before Hogwarts, so he just blushed and quickly said farewell before hurrying off to the train with his friends.

On the train, Draco sat down in their compartment only a few minutes-shy of the train actually taking off.

For the first hour of the train ride, everyone chatted about their summers—even though they had been sending letters back and forth all throughout break. Harry and Anthony sat on one side, while Draco and Hermione sat on the other. The pair bickered on and off for a while, but eventually settled into a civil conversation about their classes and the new DADA professor.

Harry, not feeing up for conversation, pulled out a book he had shrunken in his pocket. Anthony, next to him, turned and kicked his legs up onto the bench so that he could lay back to sleep. Except that his head was now pillowed on Harry's thigh. Slowly, Harry lifted his book in order to see Anthony's face, his eyes closed but his lips twitching perilously close to a grin.

Harry huffed in mock-annoyance and set the book's spine none-too-gently on Antony's forehead. From under the book, the blonde burst in fits of laughter that had his shoulders shaking and stomach tensing. He didn't move the book, though, or his head, so Harry just continued to read as if nothing had even happened.

Draco was usually the one Harry had to ignore because he was trying to get a rise out of him, but occasionally Anthony poked at his patience, curious to see if there really was a sleeping beast inside the slight boy as Draco and several other amiable Slytherins had claimed there to be. Harry wasn't exactly quick to anger, so as long as they never pushed it too far, they would never know what beast slithered through his veins and hollowed out his bones.

Anthony fell asleep on his lap surprisingly fast; a deeper, more relaxed breathing coming from under his book, warm breath tickling Harry's fingers curled around the edges. Seeing that one of their friends had already fallen off into sleep, Draco and Hermione eventually decided to try to make the train ride go fast as well by taking a nap. Which left Harry in a compartment full of slumbering children, feeling like an underpaid babysitter.

After an hour of sitting there with everyone still out like a light, Harry decided to get up and go to the bathroom. Setting a gentle levitation charm on Anthony's head, Harry slipped out from under him without waking him up and quietly exited the compartment. Not wanting anyone to come and mess with his sleeping friends, he cast a wandless spell on the door so that it could only be opened from the inside.

After taking care of business, Harry washed his hands and began making his way back to his compartment. On the way there, Harry caught a glimpse of Ginny, sitting alone in a compartment and writing furiously in the black book. 'Ah, so not a book. A journal, perhaps? Or a notebook? Why would Lucius give the girl a notebook?' Not want to raise any suspicion, Harry didn't even slow in his stride as he passed.

Crossing over into the next train car, Harry immediately spotted two figures in the long hallway. And they were right in front of his door. If that weren't worrying enough, that fact that these were the notorious Weasley twin pranksters definitely would be concerning.

One was kneeling in front of the door with the tip of his wand pressed against the door handle as he cast a multitude of spells, none of them working to tear down Harry's spell. Meanwhile, the other twin was bent over his brother's shoulder and bickering with him about how to get in and that he was taking too long.

Harry stopped a meter away from the pair, watching them work. To be honest, he was a little impressed with their creativity in terms of what spells they used. They were two years older than Harry, which meant that they were going into their fourth year.

Over the summer, Harry had picked through the materials and units that would be covered in the years to come. At this point, the twins would have only skimmed the surface of spells beyond the fundamentals, these two seemed to have been doing some extracurricular spell learning.

"Merlin, George! Back off and let me do my thing or we'll never get in! Besides, you're supposed to be the lookout. Well . . . start looking!" The twin kneeling in front of the door—Fred—snapped in a harsh whisper.

"Right!" George straightened up, turned, and yelped when he saw Harry, jumping in fright and pressing a hand to his chest. Harry perked an unamused eyebrow at George. Fred spun around, as if to snap at his brother again, but then let out an identical yelp when, he too, saw Harry standing there.

"What are you doing?" He asked calmly.

The twins glanced at each other, something unspoken passing between them, before they looked back at Harry with identical false smiles on their faces.

"A friend of ours said she may have left her coat in there." George started.

"She'd been looking for a place to sit on the train earlier, left it here, went to the bathroom, and then it was full when she came back." Fred continued with a fluidity that only came with lying quite often and knowing his brother well enough to know where he would take a story.

"Our friend is quite shy and didn't want to disturb anyone, so we came instead." George went on just as smoothly.

"When we saw that everyone was sleeping, we thought we'd grab the jacket and go before anyone woke up."

"But the door's spelled shut and whatever charm was used, we're not familiar with it and it's quite a devil of a spell, can't get it open." George glanced at the door his brother had just been working on.

The fast paced back-and-fourth paired with their blatant tenacity was actually a bit amusing.

"How about I take a peek, see if the jacket is there, and give it to you if it is?" Harry asked, playing along with the little charade. The twins looked skeptical, but that was because they didn't know that Harry was the one who put it up. Harry didn't wait for their answer, instead he stepped up to the door, pulled out his wand for show, and cancelled the spell.

Harry slipped inside and one of the twins behind him made a surprised strangled noise. Harry had been convinced that they'd been lying, so to say that he was surprised when he found the suspect jacket shoved under the seat like it had been kicked there, was certainly an understatement. He grabbed the small blue silk bomber jacket from under the seat.

When Harry handed over the jacket, Fred and George seemed just as shocked to see it as he'd been. Which didn't exactly help in making them look less suspicious. Despite, Fred—or perhaps it was George—took the jacket Harry held out and with a quick 'cheers mate' they scurried away. Sighing, Harry closed the door again and took his seat under Anthony's head once again, canceling the levitation spell.

'This is going to be a long year.' Harry projected to the lurking figure just outside of the physical realm. The other-worldly being drifted closer to the surface with an echoing chuckle.

'Giving up so soon? What happened to your enthusiasm just an hour ago?' Death's tone was mocking and snide, grating against Harry's agitated mood even further. Picking his book back up with one hand and using his other hand to lightly comb through Anthony's golden curls in order to sooth his nerves, as well as make sure that Anthony stayed asleep, Harry ignored him for a long moment.

'You're insufferable.' Harry dead-panned, though the small smile that formed on his lips betrayed him.