To Have a Home

by beksta

With the help of Severus Snape, the Dursleys raise Harry as their son with the knowledge that he is magical. However when, at the age of seven, a magical bond forms between Harry and Hermione Granger life becomes very difficult, especially when he finds himself falling for one of his closest male friends. HP/SF Slash.

35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35

Black, Harry was shocked to note, looked much healthier than he had on the wanted posters; whilst he was still somewhat underweight his face wasn't quite as gaunt as it had been, his hair was now shiny, and his skin, whilst pale, had lost the waxy corpse like quality it had appeared to have in the Daily Prophet. Harry realized with disgust that the reason Black looked so well was because he and Hermione had taken him in, they'd fed him, cleaned him, and given him a place to live.

Black turned, looking at Harry and lunged at them, snatching Dean's wand from his hand and pointing it at Harry, Ron, and Percy in turn. "Expelliarmus, Expelliarmus, Expelliarmus." He then turned Dean's wand away from the four boys, into the forest, and roared. "Stupefy."

Harry, horrified by the appearance of the man who had all but killed his parents was too stunned to react as the Disarming spell hit him and his wand flew from his grip and into Black's outstretched hand.

"Harry, you shouldn't have followed me." Black chastened in the same tone Aunt Petunia would use to tell him off if he snacked before dinner. "It was very brave of you, but silly; you never know what dangers are lurking in the Forbidden Forest."

Harry snorted in disgust. "Dangers? You mean other than the bastard who got my parents killed?"

Black shook his head slowly. "I never meant for that to happen, if I'd known his plan I'd have never-"

Harry's almost manic laugh cut Black off. "You never meant for it to happen? What did you bloody well expect? Don't lie to me, Black, I know about the prophecy; we know why Voldemort wanted to kill me. I know far more than you give me credit for, but what I don't understand, Black, what I can't get my bloody head around is why you did it. My parents loved you!"

Harry took a step forward, feeling anger bubbling in his chest; he didn't need a wand, he didn't need to be armed to kill Sirius Black. Harry tilted his head to the side, forcing himself to smile at Black as he took another step forwards. "So how did a slimy git like you ever manage to get sorted into Gryffindor?"

Black exhaled, a small smirk playing on his lips. "'Slimy git', that was one of your father's favourite nicknames for old Snape when we were at school."

"Don't you dare," Harry hissed. "Don't taunt me, Black!"

Black shook his head. "I'm not taunting you, Harry, just go back up to the castle. I've got something I need to deal with and I don't want you to see what I'm going to do."

"Ah, yes, the mass murdering psychopath wants to protect the innocence of the boy who he made an orphan." Harry said, his hands shaking in anger.

"Harry," Dean whispered, putting a restraining hand on Harry's shoulder. "Don't taunt him."

Harry shrugged Dean's hand away and took another small step forwards, bringing him less than a meter away from Black. He narrowed his eyes, glaring at Black with loathing.

"When you do try to kill me, I suggest that you take your master's approach; whilst admittedly your bitch of a cousin's method is usually successful, it's pretty time consuming and we've got to think of time management. I mean, if you finish us off quickly you could pop up to the castle and kill Remus, you know, and then you'd be able to say you killed all of the Marauders."

"There's only one Marauder I'm interested in killing, Harry." Black said, frowning down at Harry.

"Well then I'd better warn Remus, hadn't I?" Harry dived at Black, colliding with him before Black even realized Harry had moved.

Wrenching his wand out of Black's hand, Harry pointed in what he hoped was the direction of the castle, thought of his family and roared. "Expecto Patronum."

The silvery stag erupted from the end of Harry's wand and galloped away down the path. Watching his Patronus vanish into the forest, Harry didn't notice that Black had moved until Harry felt him collide with him and his wand leave his hand.

Harry tumbled over the root of a tree and, hitting his head on a nearby tree stump, landed on the forest floor with a thud. Twisting onto his side Harry winced at the sharp pain in the back of his head and looked up to see Percy launch himself over Harry and collide with Black. Dazed, Harry sat up and watched as Percy crashed his fist into the side of Black's face.

Black jerked backwards as Percy advanced on him, fists raised and eyes glittering fiercely. He moved his arms up to protect his face and Percy, seeming to misunderstand Black's movements, landed a second blow on his chest.

Harry tried to stand up but felt dizziness wash over him. He could hear Black breathing heavily, even over the sounds of Ron and Dean roaring insults at Black and encouragement at Percy.

Black, stumbling backwards from the force of Percy's blow, fell against a nearby tree and Harry watched in surprise as Percy wrenched the four wands from Black's grip and took a step back. Not taking his eyes from Black, Percy trained his wand on the other man and held the other three wands out to Ron who had moved to stand next to his brother.

"Don't move." Percy panted, his eyes still on Black.

Glancing between his brother and Black, Ron took the three wands from Percy and passed the first to Dean before holding a hand out to help a still dazed Harry to his feet and handing him his wand.

Harry blinked twice and took a step forward, trying to steady his wand as he pointed it at Black.

"Going to kill me, Harry?" Black whispered.

"It's nothing worse than you deserve." Harry spat, blinking rapidly to stop the world from becoming blurred.

"I don't deny that what happened to your parents was my fault," Black said levelly. "But you may want to hear the whole story before you act rashly."

Harry shook his head, swaying on the spot and glowered at Black. "I already know the story, Black; you sold my parents to Voldemort."

Percy placed a steadying hand on his shoulder and Harry felt his swaying immediately cease. Harry blinked rapidly as bright lights floated in front of his eyes. There was something very wrong with him. Harry tried to remember whether Black had had the chance to curse him when he'd been in possession of the three wands.

Unable to recall anything, Harry rested a hand on Ron's shoulder and tried to steady himself between the two Weasley brothers as he glared blearily at Black.

Harry sucked in a deep breath, trying to steel himself for what he was about to do. Raising his wand, Harry reminded himself of everything Black had done, he'd betrayed his parents and murdered Peter Pettigrew and thirteen other Muggles. Harry told himself that that was more than enough to warrant death, and yet he couldn't bring himself to say the two words that had ended countless other wizards' lives. Two words, Harry thought furiously, all he needed to do was say those two words and he could avenge his mother and father. Two words, that's all it would take to end Black's life.

Harry lowered his wand, shaking his head furiously; he was being weak, too weak to kill the man that had left him an orphan, but there was a small, traitorous part of his mind telling him that it would be wrong to kill Black in cold blood.

"I can't do it." Harry shook his head again, mentally berating himself for his weakness. "I can't kill him." He looked from Ron to Percy and then around to Dean. "I'm not going to kill you, Black, you can go back to Azkaban, even though it's far more than a traitorous git like you deserves."

"I can't go back to Azkaban." Black whispered hoarsely. "Not now, not when I'm so close."

Percy took a step forward, still keeping one hand on Harry's shoulder and glared at Black. "You can come quietly or we'll take you to the dementors by force. We may not have been trained by You-Know-Who, but we are armed and you are not. I am confident that we can subdue you."

"You don't understand." Black roared in frustration. "I need the rat. You can take me when I've found the rat."

Percy glanced back at the three younger boys and nodded. "Then you leave us no choice, Black, you're a danger to my family and friends and, therefore, I will ensure you are returned to the custody of the dementors."

As Percy raised his wand to stun Black, there was a loud crash from behind the four boys. Harry heard a familiar voice roar 'Expelliarmus' and for the third time he felt his wand leave his grip.

Harry spun around and, feeling a wave of dizziness wash over him, watched as a blurry Remus tumbled out of the undergrowth holding Harry, Ron, Dean, and Percy's wands.

"Where is he, Sirius?" Remus asked in a tense voice. "I saw the two of you run into the forest."

"How?" Black blinked, and a relieved smile creeping over his face said. "Ah, werewolf vision."

"It's nice to see you again, Padfoot." Remus smiled tightly and added, "Despite the fact that you switched without telling me."

"I'm sorry, Moony." Black said, striding forward and pulling Remus into a tight embrace. "We thought it was you, he promised the werewolves that he was developing a cure, we all agreed that we'd forgive you anyway."

Remus snorted. "Well, that's great, I suppose, you and James were so caught up pitying me that you completely forgot about Pete."

Black's face twisted in disgust. "We could understand why you'd do it, you've suffered all your life and we'd have gone to the ends of the earth to help you with your furry little problem. But him, there's no excuse."

Remus looked around. "I don't see him, have you done it already?"

Harry watched the two men in confusion, a cold feeling sweeping over him as he came to the realization that Remus must be in league with Black.

"Remus," Harry said sharply, "what's going on? You're not- you're not... How could you?"

Harry glared up at Remus, feeling more betrayed than he had when hearing about what Black had done. He trusted Remus, trusted him to enough meet his family, he was his only remaining link to his father.

"Harry, please." Remus pleaded, turning to Harry.

"No!" Harry roared, his head pounding and entire body shaking with fury. "No, I trusted you, I trusted you, you were my dad's friend, you were my friend." Horrified, Harry felt his eyes sting as tears began to leak down his face.

Harry balled his hands into fists and tried to launch himself at Remus but felt Percy's arms wrap around his middle. "Harry, no." Percy whispered urgently in his ear. "You're unarmed; you're going to get yourself killed."

Harry tried to fight against Percy's hold on him. "No, I'll kill him, the bastard. I don't need a wand; I'll rip him to pieces."

"Harry, listen, you don't understand." Remus shouted, trying to make his voice heard over the combined voices of Harry, Ron, and Dean who were roaring an unintelligible mix of curses and insults at Remus and Sirius.

"I understand more than enough." Harry roared, putting a hand on his head to stop its violent pounding.

Percy loosened his hold around Harry's waist, without letting him go, and glowered at Remus, Harry was amazed at how, despite being completely unarmed and facing a mass murderer and a werewolf, Percy's tone remained stern and commanding.

"Explain, then. Harry has the right to know your justification for betraying your best friends before we hand you over to the dementors." Percy said, his voice heavy with disgust.

"And how exactly do you intend on taking us to the dementors?" Black asked. "Take Harry back to the castle and let me do what I need to, I'll hand myself in after that."

"You'll hand yourself in?" Remus repeated in incredulity.

"I still have to pay for what happened to Lily and James."

"Oh, shut up, Padfoot." Remus glared at Black in annoyance. "You can let Harry decide once we've explained everything to him."

"You might as well hand yourselves in now." Harry growled, still straining against Percy's hold on him. "You've been helping him all along; I won't believe a single thing you say."

"I have not been helping Sirius," said Remus.

"So how did you know he was here, if you haven't been helping him?" Harry asked, his tone mocking as he glowered at Remus.

"I watched from my office window. I saw Sirius chase Peter from the Quidditch pitch and into the forest. At first I could hardly believe my eyes, but there was no way I could've mistaken them, why else would Sirius have chased the rat?"

Harry frowned up at Remus, trying to make sense of what he was telling him. His head was pounding more than ever and Harry could barely process Remus's words over the pain. He could feel drowsiness wash over him and was grateful when Ron finally voiced the question that Harry had been trying to form in his mind.

"What in the name of Merlin is that supposed to mean?"

"Your rat, Ron, isn't a rat; he's an Animagus by the name of Peter Pettigrew." Remus said quietly.

"You're both mental." Ron said faintly. "He's a rat, that's it, nothing special."

"Pettigrew's dead." Dean said, looking between Black and Remus. "You killed him twelve years ago."

"I meant to," Black growled, his yellow teeth bared, "but little Peter got the better of me… not this time, though!"

There was a loud crash in the trees above and Harry looked up to see Hermione, riding a broom, smash her way through the canopy of trees and land in a heap on the path between Ron and Percy.

"Harry," Hermione leapt to her feet, "it wasn't Black-"

She was cut off by another loud crash as Neville and Seamus smashed through the trees, Neville hurtled to the ground, landing with a loud thud and Seamus touched down gracefully beside him and pulled him to his feet.

She looked around and gasped. "You know? We have to go to Dumbledore immediately. Mr. Black," she turned to Black, smiling politely and said, "I'm assuming you're also an animagus."

Black, taken aback by how politely Hermione addressed him, nodded dumbly.

"Well, you're going to have to transform yourself back to animal form. We need to get back to the castle as quickly as possible and you can't be seen by anyone- not whilst you're still a wanted criminal."

"Hermione, what the hell are you on about?" Ron asked rudely, taking a step forward.

"What do you mean, what am I on about? Aren't I talking English?" Hermione snapped turning to face Ron. "The forest is dangerous and we need to take Mr. Black up to the castle so he can tell Professor Dumbledore what really happened with Harry's parents and clear his name."

"Yeah, I heard that." Ron said glowering at Hermione. "What I meant to ask was have you gone mental? Black's a murder and you're just talking to him as if he's a professor or something."

"Yes, well, manners cost nothing, so maybe you should use them." Hermione said snippily, repeating one of Aunt Petunia's favourite sayings.

"I'm not being polite to that git." Ron said, waving his hand angrily in Black's direction. "And frankly Hermione I'm amazed your being so polite after everything he's done to Harry."

"But he's innocent." Neville protested looking worriedly between Ron and Hermione. "Didn't you already know that?"

Harry stared at Neville in shock; his headache had escalated to a point where he was actually hearing things. If Harry hadn't known better he would have sworn that Neville and Hermione were protesting that Black hadn't actually done the crime for which he'd served twelve years in Azkaban.

"Sorry, could you repeat that?" Harry asked, still staring at Neville in confusion.

"Black wasn't your parent's Secret Keeper, Peter Pettigrew was." Neville said slowly looking from Harry, to Percy, and then across at Ron and Dean.

Harry blinked, trying to process what Neville was telling him, it matched almost perfectly with Remus and Black's story but it could hardly be true, there had been witnesses who had seen Pettigrew killed. Maybe Remus had confunded his friends before he'd come out into the forest to meet Black.

Harry reached out through the bond to Hermione, feeling for any sign that someone had tampered with her mind. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Harry tried to pull himself deeper into Hermione's mind but was pulled back painfully into his body by a sharp pain in the back of his head where he'd bumped it earlier.

Harry reached a hand back to touch the spot where he'd felt the shooting pain. He vaguely registered that the back of his head was slightly damp and sticky. Pressing his hand against the wetness Harry felt another sharp jolt in the back of his head and quickly brought his hand away.

The forest seemed to be getting darker and darker, and Harry was certain that he was now looking at two Hermione's rather than just one. Everything seemed to grow darker, ahead of him he could see Neville's mouth opening and closing as though he was talking but all Harry could hear was a loud rining in his ears.

Harry tried to take a deep breath, as the darkness closed in on him, and felt his legs give way beneath him. He slumped forward, feeling his strength leave him as he lost consciousness.

OOOOO

Harry groaned, his entire body felt as heavy as lead and his head was throbbing so much that he was certain that if he were to move it would explode. Harry shifted, trying to alleviate some of the pain in his limbs.

Through the bond he could feel the soft glow of Hermione sitting near him, she knew he was waking up. Somewhere to his left he could hear Ron and Percy having a hissed argument about how Ron was 'breathing in an irritating way'.

"Harry," Hermione whispered, he could sense her moving closer to him, the sound of her voice making his head pound harder still. "Harry, are you all right?" She asked softly, her hand reaching out and wrapping around his wrist.

He groaned again as Hermione squeezed his hand lightly, a surge of warmth flowing from where Hermione's hand touched his wrist up his arm and into his body. The heavy pounding in his head slowly receded and Harry blinked, light stinging his eyes as the hospital wing slowly came into focus. He tried to sit up, looking around for his glasses but felt Hermione's other hand press gently against his chest.

"Don't try and sit up Harry, Madam Pomfrey will want to see you before you try anything." Hermione said gently, and, reading Harry's thoughts through the bond, she picked up his glasses from the nightstand and handed them to him. "You haven't been out long, when Professor Dumbledore and Severus have finished interrogating... Cosmo I'll ask about breaking you out early."

"What happened after I...?"

Harry paused and Ron, grinning down at Harry in a mixture of relief and amusement, said, "After you were concussed by an evil tree, we can pretend it was the Whomping Willow if you want, mate -you know, to make it less embarrassing for you."

Dean, who was standing at the foot of Harry's bed with Seamus and Neville, snorted. "You'd think a ballerina would be more graceful."

Harry groaned again and shuffled his body further up the bed so that he'd have a better view of his friends. "Okay, so I was attacked by a villainous Death Eater tree and then my pet dog turned out to be the most wanted mass murderer who hadn't actually killed anyone. Instead, Peter Pettigrew betrayed my parents and, like Black, has also spent the year hiding out in the castle."

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Ron and Percy wince, he rolled over slightly in his bed and frowned up at the two Weasely brothers. "What? I might have got some facts wrong but even concussed I couldn't have made all that up." Harry said hoping dearly, for the sake of his sanity, that he had remembered the events in the Forbidden Forrest correctly.

"It's not that, mate, it's just that you're not the only one who's been keeping an animagus for a pet, just be thankful it was only for one year, we've had Scabbers for twelve." Ron said, gesturing between himself and his brother.

"Scabbers?" Harry asked slowly, his brain still somewhat sluggish from being knocked out. "Wait, he was an animagus too?"

"Yeah," Ron chuckled darkly and glanced up at his older brother, "do you reckon adding 'harbouring evil git Peter Pettigrew for twelve years' to the 'accomplishments' section of your Auror application would decrease your chances of being selected?"

"You're kidding, Scabbers? The bastard, I used to feed him my leftover Christmas liquorice from Granny Granger." Harry hissed, feeling a strange sense of betrayal at what Scabbers had done.

"You hate liquorice." Hermione pointed out.

"I could have given it to Seamus, Seamus loves liquorice but I thought Ron's rat was more deserving of my generosity and now it turns out that he wasn't even a real rat, bloody hell! What else did I miss? Let me guess, next you're going to tell me that Hedwig is actually Morganna and Hiss is the Queen of bloody England." Harry threw his arms up in fury.

"Oh, don't be so melodramatic, Harry." Hermione chastised rolling her eyes. "If you don't keep your voice down we're going to be kicked out, so calm down, keep your mouth closed, and let us explain what happened."

Harry sighed and nodded, silently miming zipping his mouth closed as Hermione once again rolled her eyes.

Hermione glanced from Neville to Seamus and frowned. "Seamus, do you want to explain the first bit, you know, about how we worked out that Pettigrew was the traitor."

Seamus glared accusingly at Hermione as though he felt it was unfair that she was trying to make him explain. Harry tried to reach through the bond to find out why both Hermione and Seamus appeared to be reluctant to explain to him about Peter Pettigrew but found that Hermione was somehow shielding her memories from him. Glowering up at Hermione he gave her a swift, mental shove as he returned fully to his own mind.

"I'll not talk about how yet." Harry turned to Seamus who had begun talking at the same time as Hermione had shot Harry a withering look and released his hand. "If we talk about that then you'll get yourself worked up and then Madam Pomfrey will come in here and skin the lot of us."

Harry opened his mouth to demand that his friends tell him every detail about what he had missed but Seamus held up a hand and shook his head. "I won't tell you, so don't bother asking. Anyway, after I realized that Pettigrew was the one who, y'know, betrayed your parents we went to tell Remus, he wasn't there and Hermione saw on the Marauder's Map that you, Ron, Dean, and Percy were all in the forest with Black and Pettigrew. So she suggested using brooms to follow you, which thinking back on it was kind of mental, she almost flew right into a tree because she was concentrating on finding you, and Neville almost fell off his.

"After you were knocked out by the 'villainous Death Eater tree' Black kind of went mental and Accioed Scabbers who had been stunned just a few meters away from the path. When he had Scabbers in his hand he did some kind of spell that made him transform back to a human. Hermione tried to persuade Black not to kill Scabbers by suggesting that we turn him in instead so that Black'd be free, but that's when the moon rose and Remus started to change. Obviously, we chose not to hang about in the forest after that, Black grabbed you and your Firebolt and we kind of followed his lead. When we were clear of the forest Black handed you over to me and then turned back into Cosmo. We brought you up to the castle and Pomfrey called Dumbledore to the hospital wing, he checked that you were all right, asked Hermione a couple of questions, then Snape appeared, tried to kill Black, and then Dumbledore ordered both of them to go to his office."

"You carried me all the way to the castle?" Harry asked Seamus in amazement, he wasn't a particularly heavy person, especially in comparison to his brother, but Seamus was smaller than Harry and would have had to walk up an entire flight of stairs to get there.

Seamus shrugged. "We kind of thought that it'd look bad if Percy carried you in, everyone's seen you both duelling and if someone saw you everyone in the school would probably believe that the Headboy attacked 'the boy who lived'."

Harry nodded in agreement, rumours, especially those concerning Harry, seemed to spread around the school in a matter of hours. "And what about you?" Harry asked turning to look up at Hermione. "How are you feeling?"

Hermione pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I felt faint with worry when you collapsed but I'm feeling much better now." She said raising her eyebrows to indicate to Harry that her faintness had had more to do with the fact that Harry had knocked himself out rather than worry.

Harry smiled. "Good."

Harry couldn't imagine what he'd tell his friends if he and Hermione had just happened to collapse at the exact same time. They could have maybe made up some kind of excuse for he and Hermione collapsing together but something like that could easily make their friends suspicious. What if they realized that Hermione had managed to locate Harry in the middle of the forest with no help or that Harry had only managed to produce his first Patronus after holding Hermione's hand? They'd been so careful up until this point and now that Pettigrew was once again on the loose it wouldn't be good to let anyone, who didn't need to, know about their secrets.

Harry sat up, too quickly for Hermione to stop him, as a sudden terrible thought came to him. "He knows, the bloody git must know."

He flung his bed sheets off and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, Black definitely knew about the bond, he could remember several occasions when he and Hermione had mentioned it in front of the dog, surely that would mean there was a chance of Pettigrew knowing too.

"We never imagined that Scabbers was actually a Death Eater, I mean, you don't tend to avoid talking about secrets in the company of animals." Harry said shakily as he tried to push himself out of the bed.

"That is of course if You-Know-Who doesn't already know." Seamus spat, his voice heavy with disgust.

"What?" Harry asked, a shiver ran through his body and Harry twisted to look at Seamus who was frowning in distaste, he couldn't understand how Seamus could know his secret. Harry glanced around his bed at his friends, all of whom appeared to be scowling at Seamus in annoyance. Harry couldn't understand, had they all known about the bond?

"Well, what proof do you really have that Snape is no longer a Death Eater?" Seamus asked after a long pause.

Harry shook his head. "No, Severus isn't a Death Eater." Harry pushed himself out of the bed and blinked as a wave of dizziness washed over him. "I get that what you saw in that diary was dreadful, but Sev's changed, he's a good person and you need to get over your stupid prejudice against him."

"He's not as good a bloke as you like to think." Seamus hissed, clutching the foot of Harry's bed. "If you knew half of what he's done you wouldn't be as quick to trust him."

Putting a hand on his bedside table to steady himself, Harry glowered at his friend and snapped, "Don't be such a dick, Seamus. If you knew anything about Severus-"

Seamus snorted. "If I knew anything about him?" He repeated in disbelief. "I've seen him do terrible things; I've seen him torture people, seen him kill, and I saw him..." Seamus trailed of uncertainly and glanced around the Hospital Wing.

"Yeah?" Harry asked raising an eyebrow. "What did you see him do?"

Seamus shook his head in disbelief. "What, murder and torture aren't enough for you? He's a murderer!"

"We were at war; he did what he had to." Harry said, shaking his head; he couldn't expect Seamus to understand. Whilst Seamus had seen the war from Voldemort's perspective, Harry had heard the stories of it from Severus and had fought Death Eaters on several occasions.

"Oh, so he had to tell You-Know-Who the prophecy, did he?" Seamus slapped a hand over his mouth and lowered his eyes, looking guiltily down at the floor.

"You don't understand what you're talking about." Harry hissed as he pushed his glasses onto his face and sat back down on his bed to put his shoes on.

"You knew?" Seamus asked raising his eyebrows in incredulity and letting his hand fall to his side. "You knew and you still trust him?"

"Of course I know, he told me at the end of first year, you might not like Sev but do you really think he's so much of a bastard that he'd keep something like that from me?" Harry glared at Seamus and then around at his friends who were watching the exchange with a mixture of uncertainty, worry, and curiosity on their faces.

Harry sighed and lifting his foot to tie his laces twisted on the bed to properly face Seamus. "Look, the first thing you don't realize is that he told Voldemort before he became a double agent. The prophecy is what made him see that the Death Eaters had it wrong. The next thing you don't understand is that he didn't hear all of the prophecy, he had no idea what he was telling Voldemort."

Seamus rolled his eyes. "That doesn't make what he did any better."

"It might not, but Severus truly regrets telling Voldemort. He's blamed himself for what happened to my parents since the night it happened. He didn't tell us about the whole Secret Keeper thing; instead he let me believe that he was solely responsible for the deaths of my parents. Voldemort's the one to blame," Harry said firmly as he locked eyes with Seamus.

"Yeah, because you were so quick to forgive Black when you thought he was the traitor." Seamus shook his head in disappointment. "You're being a hypocrite."

"Oh for fu-" Harry felt a sharp jab through the bond as Hermione reprimanded him for his language, shooting her a quick glance he rolled his eyes and back pedalled. "For flip's sake, you can't honestly be comparing what Pettigrew did to Severus telling Voldemort the prophecy; Severus didn't realize what impact the prophecy would have. It was an accident, admittedly an accident that resulted in the loss of several lives, but an accident nonetheless. Pettigrew chose to betray his best friends and frame another one for murder; he chose to kill twelve innocent Muggles."

Harry hopped down from the bed and shoved his wand into the breast pocked of his pyjama shirt and turned to face the five boys crowded around his vacated bed. "Severus is a good person, I'd trust him with my life and if you trust me you'd trust my judgement."

"Where're you going?" Neville asked uncertainly, taking a step towards him.

"I need to speak to Dumbledore, Severus, and Black about Pettigrew." Harry said as he began walking towards the door.

"Harry, you've had a serious injury, it's not safe for you to leave the hospital wing until Madam Pomfrey discharges you." Percy said, taking a step forward and placing a hand on his shoulder.

Harry shook his head as he turned and looked up at Percy. "I'm not waiting, it's highly possible that Pettigrew will rejoin Voldemort, we've got to act fast."

"Just sit down for a second whilst I alert Madam Pomfrey." Percy said, taking a step backwards and frowned disapprovingly as Harry shook his head and once again made his way towards the exit.

Harry neared the double doors as an arm wrapped around his middle and lifted him from the ground.

"Let me go." Harry roared, beating his hands against Percy's arms.

"Sorry, Harry, but you can't just wander about the castle at this time of night, especially not when you're still concussed." Percy said as he neared the hospital bed and dropped Harry onto it.

"That's not fair." Harry crossed his arms as he landed on the soft mattress, suddenly he felt very much like a young child being scolded by a parent. "I need to get to Dumbledore's office as soon as possible."

"You need to wait until Madam Pomfrey discharges you." Hermione scolded as she took Harry's wand from his breast pocket.

"But Pettigrew!" Harry protested, glowering at Percy. It was, of course, Percy's fault that everyone was treating him like an invalid, now that they had a seventh year with them Harry was no longer the unofficial leader of the group and so, rather than allowing him to forge on with his plans, they were standing around questioning how sensible they were.

"I don't think we have to worry about Pettigrew knowing about your secrets." Percy said, still standing next to Harry as though he believed he would make another break for freedom.

"And why is that?" Harry asked sitting up as straight as he could in the bed. Harry couldn't help smiling to himself as he saw Percy frown at him; if they wouldn't let him leave the bed then he was going to do everything he could do to annoy them.

"Well, I imagine you're wondering why, despite the fact that he spent the year sharing your dormitory, Black never found Pettigrew until tonight." Percy said.

Harry frowned as he crossed his legs, ensuring that Percy and Hermione could see that he was still wearing his trainers in bed. He hadn't been wondering about that at all, in fact it hadn't occurred to him that, as they were sharing a dormitory, Black should have caught Pettigrew within the first week of term.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I was wondering that actually." He lied, refusing to look at Hermione who he could feel frowning at him through the bond

"Well, it seems that Black believed that Scabbers was my rat, and whilst three years ago that might have been true it appears to have seriously impeded Black's progress in catching Pettigrew as he spent the year tailing me." Said Percy.

"But why would he believe that?" Harry asked.

Percy reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out a neatly folded sheet of paper. Laying it out flat on the end of Harry's bed, Percy carefully unfolded the sheet of paper which Harry could now see was a worn page from the Daily Prophet.

Percy turned the page and Harry leant forward for a closer look. Harry's breath caught in his throat as he immediately recognized the newspaper page. It had been written the previous year and Harry was both surprised and saddened by the fact that Percy appeared to have been carrying it around with him since it had been published.

This newspaper, Harry remembered, had come out just as the students were sent home from school. The page Percy had kept had been the front page of the Prophet and had been largely dominated by a full colour photograph of Percy and Penelope Clearwater, walking hand in hand across the school grounds.

For a second Harry couldn't understand why Percy was showing him the page but then, as Percy moved to kiss Penelope, Harry caught sight of Scabbers, half hanging out of left hand pocket of Percy's robes.

"Oh." Harry couldn't think of anything else to say as Percy lovingly folded up the page and slipped it back into his pocket. "I can, uh, see why he made that mistake." Harry said clearing his throat as Neville, Dean, and Seamus pretended to be engrossed in a conversation about Gobstones.

Percy sat down on the edge of the bed and Harry had to shuffle over to his left to make room next to him.

"Have you thought about what you're going to say to Sirius when you see him?" Percy asked, leaning forward so that he could properly survey Harry.

Harry settled against the headboard and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, he's been living with you for almost a year now and for that year you've believed that he's a dog, that's rather a big deal." Percy unconsciously patted the pocket where he kept his picture of Penelope and Harry pursed his lips.

"I'm not sure, if what he told you is the truth then I suppose I don't really have any reason to mistrust him, I mean he spent a year as a dog trying to capture the man who betrayed my parents; you can't exactly say he's not loyal." Harry shrugged and chewed on his lower lip. "I'll definitely have to speak to him, I mean there are some worrying things, some secrets he probably knows about and the fact that he spent almost every night at Hogwarts sleeping at the foot of Seamus's bed but I'll just have to let him tell me about it. I can't really make any decisions until I've had a conversation with him without one of us pointing a wand at the other."

Percy crossed his ankles and frowned as he leaned back against the headboard. "But you are going to speak to him?"

Harry let out a small snort of laughter at Percy's expression. "Why do I get the impression that you don't approve?"

"Well..." Percy paused, licking his lips as though he was looking for the right words to express his misgivings. "I'd be cautious about him if I were you; you have to ask yourself why he didn't let you know who he was as soon as you met him."

Harry tilted his head to the left and frowned, he hadn't really thought about that but the answer seemed so obvious to him that Harry didn't even have to think about it before he spoke again. "Because it was safer for both of us and it gave Black the element of surprise against Scabbers. Really, if you think about it, it makes perfect sense; why have more people than necessary know the secret? Black needed us to not know he was in the castle to get to Scabbers and he couldn't risk us knowing because then the secret could get out."

"I'm not sure that I agree with you, Harry." Percy frowned, his face creased with worry. "Surely Sirius's primary concern should be you rather than his revenge against Pettigrew? And the lies, if Black's intention was to protect you from potential harm then why would he lie to you, why would you keep a secret so important from someone you care about, surely in the long run that'll do more damage than good?"

Harry inhaled sharply and attempted to run a hand through his hair, which along with the back of his head had been bandaged up tightly by Madam Pomfrey. Percy didn't know anything about the bond; Harry was certain of it, but the way he talked about lying made Harry feel almost ill.

"Maybe I'm mental but I can kind of see Black's point. He blames himself for what happened to my mum and dad and, to him, the only way he can make it right is through punishing Pettigrew for his betrayal." Percy opened his mouth to say something but Harry held up a hand to silence him. "It's not exactly rational but it makes sense, I could see myself feeling the same. I suppose if he blames himself then he might also find it difficult to face me since my parents' deaths were sort of the result of his mistake. And the lies, well... sometimes you need to lie to the people you care about."

Percy shook his head. "Maybe you're more forgiving than me but even if he hadn't turned out to be a murderer I'm not sure that I would be able to forgive Pettigrew for being Scabbers for so long."

"It's different, Black's my godfather, I have to try and speak to him. He's one of the last links to my parents I have, I only really have him and Remus who actually knew my father, my Aunt Petunia and Uncle Severus kind of hated him."

Percy squeezed Harry's shoulder lightly and smiled down at him. "Well, then, I hope, for your sake, that Black does the right thing by you this time."

Harry grinned. "Yeah, so do I, Perce, I really hope it all turns out all right."

When Harry and Hermione were called up to Professor Dumbledore's office sometime later they were met by Severus and Sirius who had taken seats in front of Dumbledore's desk as far from one another as Harry imagined possible.

Once Harry and Hermione had, to the best of their abilities, explained what had happened in the Forbidden Forest, Harry told Dumbledore how he feared that in his time in the boy's dormitory Pettigrew might have learnt some of Harry's secrets. Fortunately, according to Severus and Dumbledore, Harry had nothing to worry about as Severus was fairly certain that, if Voldemort did ever return, he was good enough at Occlumensy to allow Voldemort to believe that he had been acting as a double agent all along. As for the soul bond, Sirius said that, from what he'd heard whilst living in the third year boy's dormitories, Harry and Hermione had been wary enough whilst talking about their bond that it was unlikely that Pettigrew had heard anything.

After a lengthy time speaking, and pleading, with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon in Dumbledore's fire Harry managed to persuade Aunt Petunia to allow Sirius to stay with them at the Terrace until they could clear his name.

OOOOO

The remainder of the school term passed rather uneventfully and before Harry knew it, he and his friends were packing their trunks and boarding the Hogwarts Express to go home for the summer.

The train had just pulled out of Hogsmead station when Percy burst into the compartment Harry was sharing with Hermione, Ron, Seamus, Neville, Dean and Sirius, waving a sheet of parchment wildly above his head.

"I got in!" Percy roared, beaming as he grabbed Ron and Harry, crushing them together in a tight hug. "I just got the owl, I got in; I'm going to be an Auror!"

Rubbing his head from where it had collided with Harry's, Ron took a step back, grinning almost as widely as his brother. "Wow, Mum's going to be ecstatic when she hears. An Auror, blimey, that's brilliant Perce, Merlin knows you've worked hard enough. We should have a party, right now; I'll go get Fred, George, and Gin."

As Ron hurried out of the compartment, Percy turned to Harry and, unable to contain his excitement, pulled him into another hug. Harry blinked up at Percy in amusement as the older boy released him, as a general rule Percy wasn't fond of physical contact so to receive two hugs from Percy in a week, never mind in five minutes, was nothing short of a miracle.

"You know, I couldn't have done it without you, Harry, if there's anything I can do for you, absolutely anything, then don't hesitate to ask." Percy said, his voice increasing in pitch as he became more and more excited.

Stuffing his hands into his pockets Harry blushed, there was nothing that embarrassed Harry more than being thanked or praised for something that he didn't really do. "I had nothing to do with it, mate, it was all you. An Auror though, well that's just... wow, you're the best of the best now, Perce. When d'you start?"

"The day after tomorrow." Percy answered promptly as he handed his letter over for Hermione to read.

"So soon? But you've just finished school." Dean said as Hermione handed him the letter.

Percy shrugged beginning to pace the compartment, his entire body shaking with excitement. "They want dedication; I'm the first person to be accepted in three years; since that Metamorphmagus, Tonks I think her name is, joined."

Harry laughed as, wagging his tail, Sirius stood on his hind legs and licked Percy across the face. Percy grimaced and backed away from the giant black dog.

"You're going to make a great Auror, Perce," Harry said, patting Percy on the shoulder as he and Neville attempted to back him into one of the seats to stop his manic pacing. "I know he turned out to be pretty cool in the end but when you punched Sirius, well it was kind of awesome, and a bit scary... but mostly awesome."

Sirius made a strange huffing noise as he curled up onto a seat next to Dean his expression unidentifiable as a dog.

Ron, Fred, George, Ginny, and Lee Jordan arrived in the compartment several minutes later, bringing with them a crate of butterbeer and three backpacks filled with sweets cakes and pasties.

Whilst the twins and Ginny overenthusiastically congratulated Percy on his acceptance onto the Auror programme, Harry picked up a package Hermione had neatly wrapped for him the night before and leant over to where Hermione and Seamus were sitting, trying to avoid being hit by one of Fred and George's over exuberant hand gestures.

"I'm just going to give this to Cedric, I'll be back in a bit." Shuffling between Lee and Ron, Harry slid out through the compartment door.

Harry bumped into Oliver Wood almost as soon as he stepped out of the compartment. Harry stumbled backwards and Wood caught him by the upper arm, heaving him onto his feet.

"Sorry, Potter, I didn't see you there." Wood said gruffly as the train rounded a corner and both boys slid into the wall to Harry's left.

Brushing off Wood's apology, Harry beamed up at his former captain and gestured back into the compartment. "Have you heard Percy's news?"

"What?" Wood glanced over Harry's shoulder and into the crowded compartment behind them. "Wait, did he hear back from the Aurors?" A small smile began to form on Wood's lips.

Harry beamed. "Ah, well I can't tell you that, you'll have to ask Perce."

Wood frowned. "I was actually just about to go find him; did I tell you I got an offer from the Puddlemere United reserve team?"

"Really? That's brilliant, do the rest of the team know yet?" Harry asked, straightening his glasses.

At the mention of the rest of the team Wood's frown deepened and Harry wondered if Wood was really as enthusiastic about leaving school as he had been lead to believe.

"Listen, Harry, I need to have a word with Angelina, tell Percy I'd like to congratulate him when he's got a chance." Wood patted Harry roughly on the shoulder before turning and walking away.

Frowning at Wood's odd behaviour, Harry continued towards the other end of the train, looking into each compartment for Cedric as he passed. As he neared the end of the train, Luna Lovegood fell into step beside Harry.

"Hello, Harry, you look like you've got a nasty case of Wrackspurts." Luna observed in a tone of voice that left Harry wondering whether or not he had been insulted.

"Uh, Wrackspurts?"

Luna shook her head in exasperation. "They're invisible. They float in through your ears and make your brain go fuzzy. You could maybe try standing on your head to get rid of them, although with an infestation like yours you might need some beetroot."

Harry nodded his head, deciding that it would probably be simpler to not ask what he was supposed to do with the beetroot, lest Luna order him to shove it up his nose or something equally absurd. "I'll get right onto that as soon as I get back to my compartment."

Luna nodded. "It would be advisable." And then, her eyebrows creasing together in a frown, said, "You don't have Hiss with you."

"Oh, yeah, no I had to set him free in the forest; it was the one condition my aunt set for me keeping my dog." Harry told her, reasoning to himself that he wasn't exactly lying; Aunt Petunia had said that if Harry wanted Sirius to stay with them then Hiss, who she had always hated, would have to stay at Hogwarts.

"Oh, that's a shame; I really wanted to speak to him."

Harry looked around at Luna who was staring expressionlessly ahead. "Uh... Luna, you aren't a Parselmouth." Harry pointed out, feeling as though he'd missed something very important.

"Oh, I know that, but Daddy sent me this," Luna held up what looked like a big metal bucket with holes drilled into the top and violently green ribbon threaded through the holes and a giant magnifying glass spello-taped to the top. "He made it himself you know, the ribbons enchanted and it's designed to give the wearer the ability to lip-read snakes."

Harry frowned, unable to take his eyes off the bucket. "Oh, well, sorry I couldn't be of more help to you, Luna."

"Oh, that's fine." Luna turned to walk back the way they had come, paused and then looked over her shoulder. "By the way, Harry, I think that there's a high chance that Cosmo is actually an Occamy in disguise."

Harry nodded. "I'll be sure to keep an eye on him then."

"Well, have a good summer then, Harry." Luna smiled, turned away and began skipping away down the corridor.

Harry continued down the corridor, wondering if it was 'confuse Harry day' and what Cedric would have in store for him.

Much to Harry's annoyance and confusion, he found Cedric alone in his compartment, clutching a crumpled sheet of parchment and pacing in what looked to Harry to be a very angry way.

Harry knocked once and opened the sliding door, stepping into the compartment and holding his gift in front of him like a shield.

Cedric glanced up once as Harry entered before turning away and continuing his pacing. "What do you want, Harry?" Cedric asked, not looking up.

"I just brought you this," Harry held out the gift. "It's just some stuff I got you from Honeydukes, to say thanks for letting me borrow your broom this year."

Cedric sighed and slumped down in the seat behind him, letting the sheet of paper he was holding fall to the floor. "You didn't have to get me anything, Harry... although chocolate would probably be good right now."

Harry let Cedric take the box before sitting on the seat opposite Cedric. Trying to do it as unnoticeably as possible Harry glanced down at the paper, catching sight of what looked like a coat of arms with a golden wand set against a blue background before Cedric pointed his wand at the parchment and muttered, "Incendio."

Cedric watched the parchment with an expression close to satisfaction on his face as it was swallowed by the flames.

"Bad news?" Harry asked gently as he watched the flames slowly die away, leaving only a scorch mark on the floor of the compartment.

"I don't really want to talk about it, Harry." Cedric said, still not looking up at Harry.

From Cedric's behaviour, Harry guessed that maybe something had happened to a relative or close friend of Cedric's, making a mental not to look up the coat of arms in 'Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy' when he got back to his compartment, Harry nodded. "Fair enough, but if you need to talk I'm happy to help, or you could talk to Hermione she's good at... emotions."

Watching Cedric clench his fists, Harry winced, he couldn't really offer any sympathies, the last time he'd really faced any form of bereavement was when he was six and Granddad Dursley had had a heart attack. Would Cedric want to be alone or would he prefer it if Harry stayed with him?

Almost as though he sensed Harry's indecision Cedric looked up, his eyes bloodshot. "I'd prefer to be alone if you don't mind."

"A-are you sure?" Harry asked standing up but not moving towards the door.

"Yes, I don't really want to talk."

Harry nodded once and hurried out of the door, still wondering as he made his way back to his compartment whether he had done the right thing by leaving Cedric on his own.

AN: Thanks to all my readers and my awesome beta Bitch Goddess. Sorry for the lateness of the update.