Chapter 33

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"Sirius wants us all to come for dinner at his place with Remus tomorrow night, he said he'd order pizzas, he's got something to tell us, I wonder what it is," Harry said reading the letter Sirius had sent him.

Daniel got up and went to ring Sirius to ask what was going on, he had been worried about his foster son's godfather after the phone call that morning and now this invitation coming out of the blue concerned him.

"Hi Dan," Sirius answered excitedly.

"Hello Sirius. What's up? You were oddly anxious on the phone this morning and now you sound like a little kid on Christmas morning? Harry said you wanted us to come for dinner at your house to tell us something?" Daniel asked.

"I was worried how something would turn out this morning and it turned out even better than I'd hoped it would, but I don't want to tell you on the phone. I need you to see it for yourselves," Sirius said excitedly.

"Sirius…" Daniel said anxiously.

"I promise that it's nothing bad at all. You know that I can't do anything to hurt you or Harry or to take him away from you, this isn't going to harm him. I think that he will be really pleased," Sirius said more seriously.

The reminder of the vow settled Daniel a little but he still wanted to know more about what Sirius was up to before he was willing to take his family to his house for dinner. Some reading up about wards had made him wary of entering the house of any wizard, and that fact that the way Sirius talked about the vow he'd made didn't quite match up with what Sirius had vowed rang alarm bells in Daniel's mind.

"How about we meet at a restaurant. There's a lot of dining places in Warragul that I'm still eager to try," Daniel replied.

"I think that I need a bit more privacy than a restaurant to explain this," Sirius said.

"There are a couple of restaurants that have been repurposed from other buildings that have some small private dining rooms, and Harry and Hermione have been teaching us about privacy charms, some of them even have pizza if that's what you want to eat," Daniel said determinedly.

"You don't trust me enough to come to the house?" Sirius asked disappointed, he'd thought their relationship was better than that these days.

"Normally I would be happy to have you here, but you've been a bit off today. You did warn us to be careful to make sure you were acting of your own volition before trusting you," Daniel reminded the dark haired wizard.

"So I did, but I'll have a hard time proving that in a public restaurant," Sirius said with a bark of laughter.

"Harry has training tomorrow night; shall we say Wednesday?" Daniel asked.

"Okey dokey, I don't really want to wait but I know better than to come between a boy and his quidditch," Sirius agreed willingly enough though Daniel could hear even more disappointment in his voice at the delay. Whatever Sirius wanted to tell them was big news, to Sirius at least. Daniel hoped it would be good news for his family too.

"I'll text you the address of the restaurant when I've made the booking," Daniel said.

"He's agreed to meet us at a restaurant Wednesday night," Daniel told the family. "He's very excited about something. I want you to make sure you wear your portkeys and perhaps we should have Dobby come with us. I'll make a booking for one of the small rooms at ''The Courthouse',"

"You think he's planning something?" Emma asked.

"Oh I know he's planning something, he's too keen to meet us not to be, but I have no idea what it is and he did promise that it wouldn't harm Harry or try to take him away from us, it could be something quite innocuous," Daniel replied. "Whatever it is, he's excited about something, so be prepared for a treat or something he thinks will be a treat."

Emma laughed. "Knowing Sirius, whatever it is will be fun."

"And probably highly irresponsible," Hermione said.

"He wouldn't have invited Dan and Emma if he was going to do anything illegal or too dangerous," Harry tried to console his best friend.

"I don't think he thinks like that," Hermione said.

"Sure he does, he knows that Dan and Emma are authority figures in our lives, he's spent a lifetime working out ways to get around adults, he wouldn't have invited them if he didn't want them there," Harry replied.

Emma laughed again, "I think Harry's right. Sirius doesn't expect us to be angry or upset by this, whatever it is about. Though he wouldn't have expected you to agree to come if he hadn't invited Daniel and I as well."

"Yes he all but promised that Harry will be pleased about what he had to show us," Daniel agreed.

"But he still has some funny ideas about what Harry will like," Hermione said.

"He is getting better as he gets to know us. Don't worry so much, Dan and Emma will be there," Harry said.

-o0o-

The Puckles arrived early at the restaurant, they wanted to be inside and seated before Sirius and Remus arrived. Unfortunately, they'd underestimated the effect of Sirius' excitement and he was standing outside the restaurant waiting for them, almost bouncing on his feet with impatience. Remus was leaning on the wall of the building a few feet away trying ineffectively to calm Sirius down.

"There you are," Sirius exclaimed as he noticed them.

"We're not late," Hermione said defensively.

"No, you're very punctual but Sirius has the patience of a toddler when he's excited for something to happen. Hello everyone. Shall we go in?" Remus said joining them.

"Hello Sirius, Hello Remus," Daniel greeted them shaking their hands.

Harry and Emma also murmured greetings. "Can we go in, I'm starving," Harry said. It wasn't exactly true, he was a little too nervous about what Sirius was planning to spring on them to eat but he knew that his foster parents would feel safer inside the restaurant whether they actually were or not, and that if Dobby did have to appear to protect them there would be less chance of a witness having to be obliviated indoors. Being a teenage boy he knew the comment would be accepted at face value.

"Oh to be able to eat like a teenager again," Remus said with a grin though with his werewolf metabolism he did eat nearly as much as the average teenage boy when he could afford to, and Sirius never cared about things like a healthy diet though he was still far too thin from the conditions in Azkaban and frequently forgot to eat at all these days, he'd been hungry for so long in prison his body ignored the sensation now as if he didn't remember what feeling hungry meant.

They got settled at the table with drinks before Emma asked. "What did you want to tell us Sirius?"

"Remus visited a local healer that specialises in werewolves and he believes that he has managed to remove all of the compulsions from him," Sirius said.

"How when nobody could remove them in Britain?" Hermione demanded suspicious that some quack had taken advantage of them and made them believe Remus was safe to be around Harry without actually doing anything.

"Well for one they don't have healers that specialise in Lycanthropy in Britain. Most werewolves couldn't afford to see them even if they did. And he used a muggle anaesthetic to stop the wolf from fighting the removal of the compulsions. He said that he is happy for you to make an appointment to answer any questions you have and reassure you about the success of the procedure, and I gave him permission for full disclosure about the compulsions and their removal," Remus replied.

"He really removed them?" Harry asked eagerly.

"Tell them what you think about Dumbledore?" Sirius said excitedly.

"Personally, I'm bloody furious that he would take away my ability to be in charge of my own life and make decisions for myself. I think he is an old man that originally meant well but let his belief that his way was the only correct way of doing anything and need to be in control of every aspect of his life and the people surrounding him corrupt him. I believe he was seriously misguided in his decisions during the last Voldemort war and since then, and I believe he cannot be trusted when it comes to Harry, he had an agenda in regards to Harry that he refused to explain to anyone no matter how potioned into loyalty we were which suggests that it isn't likely to be in Harry's best interests and could be something so horrific that even the loyalty potions wouldn't be enough to force us to accept without struggling against them, and I doubt that he's totally given up, his obsession was too strong to abandon no matter what the opposition. If he gets out then he will come looking for you and I don't know if he has a way to find you," Remus stated comprehensively.

"And your thoughts on Harry staying in Australia and never returning to Hogwarts?" Emma asked.

"I am glad to see that Harry is happy and that he's found a new family for himself though I admit to being disappointed that he didn't find it in Sirius and I, I understand that that was our fault for not being there when he needed us.

"Do you plan to continue to try to get him to return to Hogwarts?" Emma pressed.

"I believe that James would be a little disappointed that Harry didn't find Hogwarts to be as wonderful as they did but I also understand why Harry doesn't feel safe to go back there and think that James and Lily would accept that and want him to feel safe more than they wanted him to attend Hogwarts. I think from the things Harry and Hermione have told me and that I've read about Bunyip is easily Hogwarts' equal educationally and am glad that he has a school where he feels safe and able to be his best," Remus replied.

"Are you completely free of the compulsions?" Daniel asked.

"Magically yes they're gone completely on the Healer's scans and they have no power over me but those thoughts were part of me for so long that some of them have become automatic so sometimes I'm going to need to be reminded to stop and think about what I really feel and believe. The compulsions about Harry are easily fought off but the healer thinks that some of the other compulsions go back to when I was a student at Hogwarts," Remus explained.

"Isn't it fantastic! I have my friend back!" Sirius said excitedly.

"That's great Sirius," Harry said supportively, though he was not quite as confident that the compulsions were truly gone or that Remus didn't secretly still believe that he needed to get Harry to return to Hogwarts in spite of what he'd said tonight.

"It is, it must be such a relief for you too Remus, to be able to trust your thoughts and opinions again," Dan stated, though inwardly he was also feeling less than convinced.

"It should be but to be honest I feel betrayed more than anything. I didn't even know how many compulsions I was under, I knew about the ones about Harry because Harry and Sirius were able to show me that what I was saying wasn't right and I shouldn't be feeling like that but some of these compulsions were placed just after I finished at Hogwarts and there's possibly some I haven't realised yet that are even earlier than that. The compulsions are what stopped me from leaving England permanently myself and finding a country like this where I could get a decent job and get married and have a normal life, I'm almost afraid to examine the earlier memories. I don't even know how much of my personality is truly mine. What if some of them were cast the first day he met with my parents to discuss the arrangements for me to come to Hogwarts? Would I even have been a person James and Sirius wanted to befriend if Dumbledore hadn't made me into a perfect Gryffindor?" Remus said sombrely.

"What an idiotic idea! Of course, we would be your friend still!" Sirius declared.

"Sirius, my parents were shocked that I got into Gryffindor, they were expecting Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. I really wasn't brave at all before Hogwarts. It even took ages for Dumbledore and my parents to talk me into going, knowing that I was going to draw so much attention being the only werewolf there. And I hated pranks and practical jokes, I thought that most of them were mean," Remus admitted. "Looking back now, I have no idea why I went along with them, let alone helped plan pranks that I'm ashamed to admit to pulling."

"So does Harry, and Sirius still likes him," Daniel said supportively.

"What!?" Sirius yelled.

"You knew Harry didn't pull pranks. He's been bullied too much of his childhood to enjoy bullying other people or watching someone else get bullied. He finds some of the whole school pranks you've told him about amusing but he doesn't like hearing about the pranks that targeted an individual," Emma told him gently.

"He never laughed at any of the pranks the Weasley twins pulled either," Hermione added.

"Not even the pranks we pulled on Snape?" Sirius asked.

Harry looked away, refusing to answer.

"He found the idea amusing because Snape was such a git to him, but those pranks are the reason Professor Snape hated Harry, he more than paid for the fun you had in unearned detentions and attempts to humiliate him in class," Hermione said.

Sirius jumped up angrily, only to be pushed back by Daniel. "We're not blaming you for the way Professor Snape treated Harry, he was as much under Dumbledore's thumb as Remus was and you've already told us Severus is in prison for crimes not related to you or to Harry. You can't do anything about the way Harry was treated at Hogwarts and getting angry isn't helping your relationship with Harry," he reminded the younger man severely. "You might want to think about apologising instead of getting angry at Harry for being the victim of the man you bullied as a teenager."

"I'm not angry with Harry," Sirius declared.

"Abused children often don't recognise when anger isn't directed at them," Daniel said quietly.

"Calm down Sirius before I put you in time out," Emma said sternly.

Hermione giggled at the idea of her mother putting a grown man nearly a foot taller than her into time out in a public restaurant and seeing that she wasn't jumped on or yelled at for giggling, Harry began to relax.

"I'm sorry that our actions at school made life harder for you," Remus said to Harry genuinely remorseful. "You're right that perhaps Snape didn't deserve the first prank we pulled on him but his retaliations were more vicious than ours. He didn't have the right to still feel resentful."

"I don't suppose that matters when carrying a grudge, you and Sirius still hate him too. Can you honestly say you and Sirius would be nice to Snape's son if he had him in your power somehow without anyone who cared about how he was treated?" Hermione asked.

"No, I don't suppose he would, I couldn't promise that I would either after hearing how Snape treated Harry. What I cannot understand is why none of the other professors stepped in if the situation was as bad as you're describing," Remus admitted.

"McGonagall never stood up for us, and if their boss and your own head of house is content with the status quo then nobody else is going to get in between them, though Flitwick and Sprout stood up for their own students if they thought something was particularly unfair," Harry replied.

"McGonagall didn't have time to advocate for her house, she had a heavy teaching load, nearly twice what any of the professors at Bunyip had and all the administration duties as Deputy Headmistress and a lot of Dumbledore's duties that he didn't have time for," Hermione pointed out.

Harry just nodded, still frowning.

"So you can understand why Professor Snape bullied Harry?" Emma pointed out.

"You're blaming us?" Remus asked.

"No, you were children, I'm sure you'd never given a thought to how you'd want your son's raised much less how your actions at the time would affect them decades into the future, I know I did some things I wouldn't want Hermione or Harry doing when I was that age," Daniel replied.

"James would never have let Snape treat Harry as he did," Remus said. "I should have been there for him. I might not have had the clout to get Severus to treat Harry better but at least I could have reassured Harry it wasn't because of anything that he'd done, and maybe tried to make up for the mistreatment or at least let Harry know that someone cared about it."

"And that's how feuds begin, like the Weasleys and the Malfoys. Ron and his brothers all hate Draco Malfoy and Mr Weasley hates Mr Malfoy but none of them can tell me why. They said it's just always been that way but I wonder if it started with resentment over a silly schoolyard fight that just went too far," Hermione said curiously.

"I'm afraid I don't know, Sirius might though his family were always interested in the old family histories," Remus replied.

"That's a polite way of saying that the Blacks collected information to use against their enemies and their allies, like other people collect coins or stamps," Sirius said grinning. "But no, I don't personally know, though there may be a mention of it in the family journals. To be honest it may not have started with us. James and Severus hated each other on sight, I blamed it on jealousy over Lily, James pretty much fell in love with her at first sight and she was friends with Snape before Hogwarts and defended him quite vocally."

"I thought that to but do you remember, James and Severus were fighting on the train in first year before we met Lily," Remus said.

"We met Lily on the train," Sirius argued.

"Yes, but James cursed Snape as we were looking for a compartment before the train left, we didn't meet Lily til after that. Turned his hair Chudley Cannons orange. They hadn't even spoken to each other," Remus said.

"I didn't know that was James," Sirius said surprised. "He said he'd never met Snape before our argument on the way to the boats."

"Did he ever tell you what Snape said that made him push him out into the middle of the lake?" Remus asked.

Sirius looked surprised for a moment. "No actually he didn't, and after the sorting we never asked."

"So our friendship was manipulated right from the beginning," Remus said looking sick.

"We would've been friends anyway, we were dorm mates," Sirius answered unconcernedly.

"Would we? Didn't it concern you that James was so violent in his dislike for a boy he'd never met?" Remus asked.

"I hated a lot of people I'd never met, pureblood bigots from families that associated with my parents. I just assumed Snivellous had said something insulting about his family," Sirius replied.

"That would do it, he was very protective of his parents but if Severus had insulted his family that suggests he knew them, and he was lying to us," Remus argued.

"Knowing Snape's family or Snape knowing about James' family doesn't mean James had met him before, he could've just known of them if like Hermione suggested there was a long running feud between the two families," Sirius countered.

"It doesn't change the fact that we forgave and forgot awfully quickly when we really didn't know him well enough to want to do that," Remus said.

"It was your first day at Hogwarts, you probably were so keen to make friends in your new house that you wanted to overlook his behaviour, like I did with Ron," Harry said.

"What happened with Ron?" Hermione asked curiously. They seemed to have been getting along well enough by the time she'd met them on the train that day.

"He was all excited because I was the-boy-who-lived and wanted to see my scar, then admitted that their whole family had nothing to do with the cousin who didn't have magic. He called you a nightmare and it was his reaction t Draco that made Draco start insulting people but I automatically took Ron's side, and he ate nearly all my sweets, I'd hardly ever had a sweet before let alone enough to keep some for later and I was used to Dudley and his gang taking my things. Thinking back I would have thought I'd be a lot more angry and mistrustful about that, not befriended a boy whose greediness reminded me of my cousin," Harry said. "He was my first ever friend my own age, but looking back now I think the main reason he was my best mate was because I met him first and we spent the train ride together before I met the others. I wonder if I'd spent the train ride with someone else I might have ended up in a different house with them."

"You're suggesting that it was normal for us to side with James who we'd spent the train ride getting to know rather than the victim of his bullying?" Remus said.

"Yeah, I think so because if you'd said anything he would've turned on you and then you were sorted into the same house and Snape into the house with the fiercest rivalry against Gryffindor so of course it made sense to take Dad's side," Harry said.

"You don't think we were magically influenced?" Sirius confirmed nodding.

"I think that the whole school could be magically influenced into house loyalty, very few cross house friendships exist which is strange when other than the muggleborn and muggle raised they would all have known each other for years before starting Hogwarts," Hermione said.

"That's true, even Padma and Parvati rarely hang out together," Harry said.

"I've heard Hermione talk about Parvati but who's Padma?" Emma asked.

"Parvati's identical twin, she's a Ravenclaw, we don't have many classes together but they didn't sit together or study together, Parvati rarely talks about her either, but maybe they never got along, they don't seem to have had much in common," Hermione answered.

"It was the same in our day, there were very few interhouse friendships and those there were didn't last," Remus said thoughtfully. "Of course, with the war brewing and he-who-must-not-be-named gaining followers, tensions were high and it was difficult to trust people you didn't know well."

"I'm sure that the prank war you had going against the other houses didn't help," Hermione snapped.

"I don't think it would have done much harm, the whole school pranks the Weasleys pulled were pretty funny," Harry said.

"I'm not talking about that, the targeted pranks against Snape and his friends would have started a Slytherin Gryffindor war which probably escalated from pranks to jinxes to curses and duelling in the corridor," Hermione replied.

Sirius just laughed but Remus hung his head in embarrassment, showing Hermione that she was right.

"Why would anyone want the houses not to get along? Surely nobody benefits from children fighting in the hallways?" Daniel asked.

"It prevented us from uniting against a common enemy," Remus said thoughtfully.

"Okay, I'll give you that but who was the common enemy in this case?" Daniel asked.

"The obvious answer would be Voldemort, but he wasn't there and I don't think that the ongoing animosity between the houses could be magically caused by a student. Who wouldn't want us to unite against him?" Harry replied.

"Who in the school wanted Voldemort to win? In our time there I would've said Quirrell in first year, but the problem had to have been going on for years. There weren't any cross-house friendships among the older years either, except among some of the prefects," Hermione said.

"Maybe it isn't about Voldemort. Snape hates everyone except the Slytherins, and he's a potions master he could easily add something to the pumpkin juice or something, and he'd been there for years," Harry suggested.

"And he was the most disliked teacher, if the Slytherins didn't hate us they would have objected to the way he treated everyone other than them. A united student body could easily have had him removed," Hermione said.

"It makes sense from your point of view, Snape was certainly capable of potioning the entire student body, but it doesn't explain who was doing it when Sirius and I were at school, or why," Remus said. "It wasn't one of the things Dumbledore confessed to so we know he didn't do it but he seemed happy with the outcome and to make maximum advantage of it so he may have known how it was done."

"Are you sure someone asked Dumbledore about the interhouse rivalry? He wasn't volunteering confessions," Daniel asked.

"For that matter, are you sure anyone did it? The problem could have been caused by the school rivalry and peer group pressure, nothing sinister at all though a less overly encumbered teaching staff would surely have tried to prevent it but I could certainly understand why they didn't have the time and energy to fix something they saw as pretty normal as things were," Emma asked.

"You're right, it would be convenient to blame the level of rivalry and hostility between the houses on some magical influence or potion but the truth is that kids can be pretty cruel and the separation of the houses encourages a bit of a gang mentality which bullies could easily take advantage of as an acceptable outlet," Remus said thoughtfully. "Hermione's right too, we probably didn't help the situation with our pranking."

"And the fact that most of the staff are school alumni perpetuates the problem," Daniel said.

"No most of them were pretty fair, it was only Snape. But then he was also the youngest. The rest of them had been teaching for so long they probably weren't affected by their time as a student," Hermione said.

"I'm starting to look for undue influence in everyone I meet," Remus said sighing. "I don't know how I'm going to learn to start trusting people again."

"You can trust Sirius, ever since we've met he has stood up for you, and he searched for the lealer that freed you from the compulsions," Daniel replied gently.

"Can I, I've been under compulsions since before we met and I don't know how much of my personality was altered by them. What if he doesn't like the real me, or if we cannot get along?" Remus asked.

"From what I've seen there were a lot of things you were being compelled to do and opinions you were compelled to have since we met that he didn't like or agree with but he still stood by you because you were one of his best friends," Emma reminded him. "People change as they grow older and experience new things. Yes of course you're not the same as the eleven year old boy Sirius met during your first year at Hogwarts but Sirius isn't the same person he was then either. That's okay. You need to take the time to get to know yourself and for you and Sirius to get to know each other again. I'm not promising that your friendship will be exactly the same as it was but there's no reason to believe that the changes will all be negative."

"You really believe that?" Remus asked.

"Yes, your friendship is not superficial. It's important to both of you. I'm not saying it won't take a bit of effort but most things that are worthwhile do," Emma replied.

Remus smiled reminiscently and nodded. "My mother used to tell me that,"

Harry still didn't know what to feel around Remus and decided that the best way to cope with the uncertainty for the time being was to concentrate on his food. Thanks to the healing he'd received in St Mungo's and the months of normal meals since he was able to eat like a normal boy his age, that is as many helpings as Daniel and Emma would let him. He'd begun to have another growth spurt so they weren't afraid of letting him eat as much as he liked so long as a good percentage of what he ate was healthy so he stocked up on salads from the salad bar in addition to finishing off the pizzas the others were ignoring in favour of their conversation. Emma and Daniel were aware that he was eating to avoid taking a larger part in the conversation and let it go for now, his stomach would punish him if he took it too far. Harry was learning that his family wanted to hear his thoughts and opinions but the years of being punished for asking questions often made him hesitate or prefer to go away and think things through on his own before voicing an opinion.

A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.

Stay safe everyone.