Hey everyone,
I just want to say that I am not looking forward to this chapter, yet it does have to happen and I might even get a more positive twist out of it all. It won't turn out so that Hari will discover that Lupin and Snuffles have a relation – that will come in later chapters – but I will do my best to not make this chapter too depressing.
Wish me luck,

Venquine1990
PS. Inspiration comes from Leontte. Check out her content

Chapter 09
Catching Up

23rd of December 1976
Lotelle Garden, Ariador
Snuffles's POV

I still don't fully understand what has happened over the last hour or so as just half an hour I was battling in a large stone room with a deadly arch in the center of the room and with several just as dangerous witches and wizards that have absolutely no reservation for killing either my godson or any of his friends.
Yet, just when two words that made me fear for practically everyone in the room with me, yet just before I could realize that the spell was meant for me, do I feel as if the whole world suddenly met the sun for a split second as everything turned white for only a split second and when sight returned to me, was I somewhere new.
I had definitely been surprised, yet while it had also made my shock grow, did most of my surprise get replaced with relieved joy when suddenly I was embraced by what looks like an older version of the godson I had been fighting alongside only minutes earlier, yet it had been a boy I heard had died earlier that explained it all.

The idea of time travel had definitely boggled my mind, yet my heart had felt heavy with pain when I realized that the Elf named Merden had saved me from certain death and the idea that Harry – now known as Hari – had lived 3 years without me had been the cause for me to work hard to keep the painful emotions down.
Yet while meeting James – now Jaurion – and the others, including my own younger self, had made it easier, had the plan Merden showed us made it harder as I just hate hearing of all the things that prove Hari had all the reason to try and run away when he was thirteen, not to mention why he was so happy to accept my offer later.

And then, to hear of a hut that sounds so similar to the cell I had been staying in for almost a full twelve years, had made it easy for all of the dark emotions to almost completely overwhelm me, the last year where I had been locked up in a house that is filled with my worst memories only making the negativity in my heart stronger.
Luckily enough I had been able to count on my old mate and beloved crush, Lupin, to bring me back and help me keep the Darkness in my heart from showing to the room around me, something I really don't want to do as some of those that are from the present time have just not yet seen the darkness that I have and I want to savor that.
However, the more we read the end of that chapter and through the one following it, the harder it was for me to keep the dark emotions from showing and finally, at the near end of the following chapter, does the reminder of what happened to my best friend so many years ago – and still so many years from now – overcome me.

Lupin and Hari had moved me out of the tent and ever since then have the three of us been walking through the forest of trees that is located at the foot of the giant tower with the tent at the top, neither Hari nor Lupin saying a word, even though the worried, caring looks showing in their eyes speaking more than they ever could.
"What happened?" I then ask, deciding to just get at least one of my deep fears off my chest and when the other two look slightly confused, do I elaborate as I say: "After I died. What happened?" To this the two cringe, obviously hating the idea of thinking back to that day, yet I send them both a look, silently asking them to answer.
Harry sighs and says: "I – I was devastated. I completely lost myself when I saw you fall through there and I – I just tried going after you at first, but Lupin kept me, holding me back with his arms around me, but – but then I saw Bellatrix flee the room and – I just lost myself as I broke free from Lupin's grasp and chased her."

This worries me, even though it has taken until now for me to realize that it had been Bellatrix that had been the one who had shouted those two terrifying words and when Hari keeps quiet, do I turn to Lupin, but the man shakes his head and says: "I didn't chase after him, Snuffles. I – I was just too devastated, too much in disbelief.
I didn't see Hari anymore after that until he and I met at the Burrow two weeks into the summer hols. I did try to keep contact with him over the years that followed, but – but then at the end of his sixth – Dumbledore died." This makes my heart miss a beat as I can only imagine all the danger Hari was in without his mentor.
"Yet, before the man had died, he had left Hari with some kind of mission, one he practically ordered the boy not to say anything about to anyone bar Ron and Hermione and – well, a few days after Hari's 17th birthday I met with the boy again and discovered that his secret mission made it so that he and his friends wouldn't return to school."

At this I turn to Hari, but the boy keeps quiet and says: "Last book." His tone proving me he just doesn't feel up to speaking about the whole mission or what happened while he completed it and while my heart grips itself together with fear over hearing him sound so dead and his voice laden with heartfelt guilt.
I strengthen my grip on him through my hug and pull his body closer against mine as we walk, passing one small forest path for another before Remus goes on and says: "I tried making sure I could go with them for their mission, yet – well, something happened that – that made me have to pick between cub – and a new pack."
At this I look at Lupin in shock, yet the man sends me a short message through his eyes, telling me he will explain later and I nod, knowing now just isn't the time to let Hari know of the relationship we had until one of his last meetings with the werewolves during the first war and that we never really dared to continue after my escape.

"In the end, Hari convinced me to pick pack over cub, yet the way it happened wasn't pretty, even if he was right. We didn't see each other for almost the rest of the year, not until after Easter when my pack had expanded and I felt I just had to merge all remaining members of my pack together so I searched Harry out.
I found him in Bill's new house, Shell Cottage, and asked him to be godfather for the expansion of my pack, the little baby you saw me and Neville with when we came here and after that did I stay with my cub's mother – until June 2nd when Voldemort attacked Hogwarts – and where I died, being killed by Antonin Dolochov."
This makes my heart practically stop beating, yet the man then smiles at Hari and says: "However, just before I felt the man make the move that I now know would have been the end of me, did it feel as if someone suddenly used Lumos Maxima right in front of my eyes and – the next thing I know we are all in the field we arrived in.
And let me tell you, Snuffles, seeing you and Hari like you were after Hari disarmed Cedric – it felt as if Hari defeated Voldemort, Grindlewald and with their deaths revived everyone we ever lost. It felt as if, instead of traveling back 21 years, we traveled back to the day everything was lost and solved it all with a single act.

It just felt so right." This makes Hari nod with tears streaming down his eyes as he must be reliving everything that Lupin is telling me and while I slightly hate calling my beloved by his last name all the time while I personally send the man a loving smile before turning to my softly crying godson and the boy breaths in as he says:
"I killed Voldemort the same day, though – well." Here the boy stops, his voice suddenly small and filled with worried fear and after Lupin and I share a worried glance, do I hear the boy take another deep breath before he asks: "Do you remember Dumbledore telling me I needed Occlumency lessons due to my link with Voldemort?"
The two of us nod, me still hating the fact that it had to be Snape who taught my godson this most valuable technique of magic and then, after yet another deep breath that only makes my worry grow, does Hari say: "The link was more than Dumbledore was letting on. It – it allowed Voldemort to remain alive as long as it remained."
This shocks me, yet while I can clearly tell that, like his mentor, there are things that my godson isn't telling us, does Hari then stop walking, the two of us not wanting to, but letting go off him and taking a stance on his left and right in front of him, which for some reason makes Hari close his eyes even tighter before he says:

"It – it took me until – until Voldemort killed Snape out of misjudged beliefs before I discovered the full truth, but I – I had to –." Here he takes a deep breath and while I already have some kind of a feeling that I know what the boy is going to say, do my heart and mind scream for me to be wrong, only for Hari to whisper:
"I had to die – for the link to be broken. And it had to be Voldemort that killed me for it to work." This makes me want to sink through my knees and fall to the ground, but instead of that, do I just stay rooted to the spot, my eyes on Hari, who looks from me to Lupin and then says something that I would have never expected.
"The Deathly Hallows are real. I – I used the Resurrection Stone just before I confronted Voldemort and – and I used it to summon the both of you as well as my parents. You were right, Snuffles. Getting hit by the Killing Curse and dying really is just as easy as falling asleep." And the gentle smile on his face spurs me into action.

I rush for the boy, wrap my arms around him with all the emotions that pour from my heart being poured into the boy through my embrace and then whisper the words I have been wanting to say ever since Hari and I met in the Shrieking Shack and even more when I met him in the cave and later at Grimmauld Place.
"I, Sirius Orion Black –." But then a hand on my shoulder stops me and when I turn to look at Lupin who has pained eyes, but an accepting smile on his face, does he say: "Wait until you have the king's permission. Hari is and remains royalty and the best oath you could make is one where Hari keeps all of his family, parents and grandparents."
To this, as much as I just want to make the oath and seal my bond with my godson and pup, do I still agree with the wise words of my Alpha and nod at the man, before a soft sound that almost resembles a whine sounds from Hari and the next thing I know, the two of us are hugging the most precious thing to our lives; Our little pup.

Holy crap, that went WELL!
It also really took a life of its own, yet when I started to write the starting point of the chapter did I realize something. Yes, we already read how Hari and the others experienced the return of their beloved ones, but how did Lupin, Snuffles and the others experience it being a second away from death – and then being saved?
And because the whole time-travel experience to Hari and the others felt like all the colors of the world getting sped up and turned backwards, did I decide to just let a bright light, like the kind you see when blinking and turning on a light in the middle of the night, be what the souls saw as they got saved from certain death.
Now I will admit that the chapter is a little short – and we didn't really elaborate on why the three of them wanted to just leave the Garden so badly – but the whole thing with the Resurrection stone just felt like a proper ending point, especially because I am quite sure that some people will be unhappy with me ending that oath.
Sorry about that,

Venquine1990