"For Merlin's sake, dad! Stop with this nonsense, you already sent your own son to the hospital half-dead once!" Harry screamed, beyond frustrated with James.

"Harry, can't you see that he's manipulating you to get to me? All of this is only his vengeance, why can't you see this?"

"Not everything is about you, James," Severus said with a sneer, not letting go of Harry.

"Take. Your. Bloody hands... Off him!"

"ENOUGH!" Harry yelled, getting up from the bed, the rage making his hair sparkle with electricity. "You are not going to refer to my partner in such a rude manner! If you want to know, I am the one who wanted this first, I am the one who went after him!"

James stopped in shock at the sight of his son yelling at him and protecting his old enemy. The world turned upside down.

Sirius frowned at them. "Harry, you don't know him as we do. He's vicious and would do anything to get revenge on James, even using you. He might have been giving you love potions for years now. You wouldn't even notice."

"You were so happy with Ginny," James said. "You can have that back, you just have to fight it! You can choose not to be a freak like him. If you just let me help you-"

"James," Lily started, but Harry could defend his lover and himself, even though his eyes were stinging from unshed tears.

"He's not a freak. And neither am I. Honestly, you are the one who should be considered a freak. Who in his right mind would cast their own son out of the family?"

"Harry, I didn't-"

"I remember it clearly. You told me not to call you 'dad' because you didn't have a son. Do you have any idea how you hurt me?" He swallowed convulsively; it was getting harder to hold the tears. He looked at Severus pleadingly, and he understood immediately.

"I'll call the healer so we can go home," he said and left the room.

"Home?" Sirius said, baffled. "Are you living together?"

Harry flushed at Sirius' tone. "It's temporary. I needed a place to stay until I got my Mastery and could search for a job, and since my own father didn't want me at home…"

James was green. "Did you… Have you…" He couldn't seem to find the words.

Harry gave him a flat look. "Of course, dad. We are boyfriends, after all."

James stood still, horrified. "He… He deflowered you..."

"He wasn't the first one," Harry said, and his father took a step back as if he had been hit.

Sirius just sneered. "You're just perverted as he is, then."

Thankfully, the healer returned at that moment to discharge Harry, so he didn't have to answer that.

He was tired of dealing with their hate.

Harry thought things would get easier, but they didn't. His father continually tried to convince him to break up with Severus. He sent him long letters that Harry didn't read, howlers with painful accusations, potions of "cleansing" to get rid of what Severus was supposedly giving him.

They even had gone to his friends hoping they could "knock some sense on him". His friends refused to repeat the exact words he used, though.

All of that seemed to be the work of Sirius and James, and Harry kept hoping that Remus would eventually show him some support — but that never happened. Since Harry had come out, Remus had been strangely absent, which was worse than hate.

Harry knew that his dad and Sirius believed they were helping him. They wanted him back to them, back to the way things once were, and Harry chose to believe it meant they loved him. Remus, though, seemed content to cut all ties with Harry, as if he wasn't important at all.

He couldn't even think of them by their nicknames anymore. Padfoot and Moony were the amazing godparents he had as a kid, not the hateful and distant strangers he knew now.

At least he still had the rest of his family. Lily was the one he always searched for relationship advice, or to complain about something Severus had done wrong, or to talk endlessly about the good things they were having together.

If there was something he didn't feel comfortable discussing with his mom, he went to Tonks. It was good to catch up with her and with Teddy, but they had an unspoken agreement not to mention Remus. With her, Harry felt free to ask all the embarrassing questions he had or to simply talk about intimate moments without feeling awkward or reprimanded. Tonks talked about sex so naturally that Harry eventually became more and more confident about it.

Sometimes he also caught up with Andromeda and Ted, but those were moments he usually brought Severus with him. The man didn't have any family alive, and although Andromeda and Ted weren't much older than him, they had readily included him in the family and treated him like a son. His partner always left those meetings relaxed and smiling.

He also could always count on his friends. Even after each and every one of them got married, they still met regularly to catch up. Harry liked to schedule regular Quidditch matches, and on these days the only people not flying were Severus and Hermione, who stayed watching them and discussing intellectual stuff.

Harry and Severus eventually got married in a small ceremony. Harry cried copiously when Ted led him to the altar, wishing desperately that it was his own father doing that. It hurt so bad to not have him at his wedding.

Sometimes, in his lower moments, Harry considered giving up on everything to have his family back. Maybe if he had tried harder to suppress his queerness, none of this would have happened. Maybe he could still try.

He loved his family so much that he considered letting their hate destroy him, only to have them back.

But Severus always found him in those moments, and he would hug him and let him cry until the bad emotions went away. His partner (now husband!) seemed to always know what to say and what to do to bring him back.

He loved Severus so much that he let that love heal him.