YourSide, Their Side and the Truth by Mizzy ( )

Part VII - Second Nature (7.45)

Disclaimer: Harry Potter doesn't belong to me, this is a fan fiction, by a fan for the fans. No money has exchanged hands during its production.

Harry awoke with a start. Fumbling around for his glasses he blinked hazily around at his surroundings. Sighing in frustration, he collapsed back down on the bed, trying to wipe away the sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand.

This was the fifth night in a row…

He shook his head in a last-ditch attempt to clear it, but his headache remained stubborn.

It was the fifth night in a row since Voldemort had been defeated that he'd been tormented by the dreams… Or nightmares as one might put it.

Harry stared at the ceiling, examining the scarlet hangings distractedly. A lot of questions were plaguing him, questions only some people could answer.

That was it. He couldn't stand it any more. Slipping out of bed, he got to his feet and put on his invisibility cloak, returned by Draco after he'd used it at Durmstrangs. Harry tiptoed past the sleeping Gryffindor boys, pausing only once to look through a gap in one of the curtains fondly. Draco hadn't closed them fully and Harry could see the newest Gryffindor at complete rest.

Harry smiled softly, then took a deep breath and left the Gryffindor dorm. He managed to make it down to the common room before he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Your toes are poking out," Ron yawned sleepily. Harry sighed and dropped the cloak.

"Hey Ron," Harry said regretfully. He'd really wanted to go out on his own to see Sirius.

"You going to see Sirius?"

Harry sighed. "Yes. Do you want to come with me?"

"I guess, if he's up," Ron said, shrugging.

Harry nodded. "He's always up around about now," he explained. "But maybe we should try and get Hermione to come too. You know, the three of us."

"How about Draco too," Ron suggested. Harry had to stifle a laugh at how funny it sounded coming from the redhead's mouth. It was almost like hearing him say 'Harry, guess what? Snape was happy today!' "We'll not all fit under the cloak, but if we're caught we can just explain what we're doing I'm sure they won't mind."

Harry coughed as he realised Ron was still speaking. "Ah, yes, of course. You really don't mind Draco then?"

Ron shrugged. "He's all right. Now he's a Gryffindor and semi-permanently attached to your side, he's uh… decent."

"Thanks for not being mad at me or anything."

"Why should I be mad?"

Five minutes later and both Hermione and Draco were awake. Both wanted to go as well, and they exited the Gryffindor area. The Fat Lady frowned reproachfully, but let them through all the same. Surprisingly they made it all the way to Sirius' room without meeting any teachers. Of course they 'didn't' see Ernie MacMillan and Hannah Abbott and they 'weren't seen' by said 'unseen' people.

Hermione blinked sleepily. "Are you sure he's up at thi-" Hermione stopped as the door opened and Sirius stood there, grinning at the sight of all four students standing there.

"Come on in."

Harry blinked when they all crowded into the small study and sat down on armchairs (curiously there was enough for them all) as he realized Remus Lupin was sat there, smiling at him.

"Hello Harry," Remus said, a little nervously in Harry's opinion. "Glad you developed that Patronus of yours. I heard it came in handy."

"Yes, extremely." Harry smiled thankfully at his old teacher. "Thanks for teaching me it."

" And Hermione! Still getting those abnormally high grades?"

Hermione blushed. "Yes sir."

"I don't teach here any more, it's just Remus." Remus smiled. "So, Sirius, what are you doing getting all these students out of bed like this? I'm ashamed of you."

Sirius laughed shortly. "When you get Harry, Remus, Hermione, Ron and Draco aren't far behind. They'll call them the new inseparable four."

"Who were the first?" Ron scratched his nose, looking confused and intrigued.

"Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs…" Sirius and Remus exchanged a sad look and there was silence as the names hung in the air.

"That's what I wanted to ask," Harry said suddenly.

"About Peter, right?" Sirius eyes suddenly darkened with a fury Harry had only seen on Professor Dumbledore's face before.

"Why did he clear your name, and then was back with Voldemort again?"

"They're good questions," Sirius replied thoughtfully, after a second's though. "I don't know if we'll ever get a satisfactory answer though."

"I wish we…" Ron blurted out. "I wish we knew how Pettigrew's mind worked, so we could find out what he's up to!"

Sirius paused thoughtfully. "There may be a way, I wonder if it would help… Remus, we were both there, we have the memories do you think…"

"Yes, I guess it would… Then they'd be able to see everything we saw…" Remus nodded contemplatively. "I'm sure that would help them. Besides, it would nice to see them again as they were."

"And if we both did it, yes, I suppose we'd be able to uncover more…" Sirius trailed off and reached behind his desk. He pulled out the basin of water. Harry and Hermione weren't surprised at the appearance of it; Harry having experienced one last year and Hermione having researched it vigorously as usual. Draco and Ron though blinked at it cautiously.

"Is it…" Ron gulped loudly. "Is it safe?"

Sirius laughed and both he and Remus got out their wands.

"It's safe," Sirius said. "Now hold onto each other and we'll try it."

Hands were taken and two wands are tapped on the side of the pensieve.

"Here we go," Sirius said softly and moments later Harry felt the familiar sensations of the pensieve as they all disappeared inside Sirius and Remus' memories.

"What in the hell is going on?"

Ron blinked as he watched two people literally passed through him. He turned stuttering to Sirius. The black-haired professor seemed lost in his thoughts. When he noticed the redhead blinking at him confusedly he shook his head to clear his mind and grinned. "They're just memories, Ron, we can't do anything or change anything. We're here merely to observe."

"Weird," Draco commented. "Hogwarts hasn't changed much at all!"

Remus smiled once suddenly. "This way. I know when we are."

Sirius chuckled as Remus pulled Harry and Hermione back from staring wordlessly around at everything and forcibly managed to get them all to follow him.

"Oy, Longbottom!" Harry stifled a laugh as a couple of burly Gryffindor guys went up to a klutzy blond boy currently entangled in a pile of netting on the hallway floor.

"That'll be Neville's dad Frank, won't it?" Hermione surmised.

"A huge family resemblance there too," Ron commented.

"And there," Draco pointed. All four of the younger students turned to see a flaming redhead Gryffindor fifth year drop his book in surprise and a pretty ginger-haired girl stoop down to help him pick them up.

"Isn't that your mum and dad?" Harry grinned as the redheaded girl started to walk alongside the redheaded boy.

"No!" Ron laughed. "That's my dad and my aunty June!"

Hermione giggled a little.

"Come on, you four," Sirius said, his eyes drifting over to where they were watching.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked as they crossed a few more hallways and tripped up some stairs. They passed Amanda Turpin (Lisa's mother) Lee Jordan's dad (Thomas) and several more of the parents of the current fifth years of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.

"You'll see," Remus said mysteriously. They followed on without comment until they reached the Charm classrooms.

"We used to hang out here all the time," Sirius explained, holding the door open while the others walked nervously through.

Harry stared transfixed at the scene, tears shining unshed in his eyes as he realized that in the corner were his mother and father – talking animatedly. He couldn't take his eyes away from it. Overwhelmed he clung to Draco's hand.

"We could go up closer if you want," Draco suggested. Harry nodded and padded over and sat on one of the desks to listen to his parents talk as they were.

"…so you're entering the singing competition, right?" James looked at Lily intently, passing one hand through his mess of black hair which Harry had so obviously inherited. Draco couldn't help looking between Lily, James and Harry, marvelling at the similarities between them.

Before them, Lily nodded, blushing. "Yes, obviously."

"I always would have loved to have a musical talent," James mused.

"Well, why don't you do what I've done?" Lily asked gently. James raised an eyebrow and Lily blushed again before continuing. "Made a promise that any child of mine would be taught some kind of music when they're young, because music is the best kind of magic there is."

James grinned rakishly. "Well any child of yours would be a child of mine too," he said cheekily. Lily flushed as James winked at her and hopped off his desk to where a younger version of Sirius and Remus sat arguing. James opened his mouth to say something but he was interrupted by the door opening.

"Slytherin alert!" All heads in the room – both real and the 'ghosts' – turned to see a slightly chubby boy breathless from running enter the room waving a piece of paper. Peter flushed a little at Sirius' outburst, and muttered something about crazy Ravenclaws.

"The map! It's finished!" The younger Remus yelled; crashing to his feet and hugging the startled boy around his neck.

"Come on, let's try it!" James said excitedly.

"What map?" Lily asked, wandering over curiously.

"Inseparable four business, sorry," the younger Sirius said, grinning.

"I forgot what a ponce you were," the real Remus said, smiling softly.

The real Sirius scowled and refrained from answering.

Lily scowled.

"Oh come on, Siri, you know James will just show it to her when we're not around," the younger Remus said, grinning. The younger Sirius stuck his tongue out.

"Now, now, don't do that unless you intend to use it," the younger Remus said cheekily. The younger Sirius flushed, Peter suppressed a little giggle and Lily rolled her eyes.

"Let's try the uninitiated thing on Lily," Peter suggested. Lily raised an eyebrow.

James glared at Peter softly before shrugging. "It won't hurt you," he said earnestly. Lily rolled her eyes and tapped the parchment with her wand.

"Reveal your secrets," she whispered.

"Mr Moony would like to welcome Lily Evans to this place."

Lily blinked and bent down to look at it closer.

"Mr Prongs would like to add that Lily Evans is incredibly cute."

James started to blush and Lily giggled a little.

"Mr Wormtail would like to say that Mr Prongs is blushing like an idiot," the parchment continued.

Peter laughed shortly and James tried to cool himself down a little.

"Mr Padfoot would like you to know that he has had nothing to do whatsoever with the Christmas concert."

"Huh?" Lily blinked, confused. The younger Remus grinned and pulled the parchment away.

"Hey guys, can I try the next part?" Peter tried softly.

"Watch this," James said, rolling up his sleeves.

"Guys?" Peter prompted; starting to look a little upset. Lily bent over the table to watch, blocking Peter's view of the parchment.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," James said, a smirk on his face. The younger Sirius could hardly stop a giggle, the younger Remus hurriedly clamped a hand over the younger Sirius' mouth.

"Can't I see at least?" Peter asked plaintively.

"Oh, wow, what's that?" Lily asked, peering at the map in amazement, watching the title cross the top of the page.

"It's a map it shows you where everything and everyone is in Hogwarts," Peter said.

"It shows you where everyone is, and every secret way out of Hogwarts you could imagine," James explained. Peter frowned, then something crossed over his face.

"Oh you four will pay for this someday, yes you will," he muttered and stalked off.

"Oh, Peter just left," Lily said, frowning. "Why?"

Three heads turned to see the room empty.

"I don't think we should worry about that, Lucius and Severus are headed to the room now!" The younger Sirius said. Whipping out his wand. "Mischief managed!" The hissed words made the map suddenly clear and they whipped it off the desk just in time as a younger version of Lucius Malfoy and a younger Severus Snape came round the corner. Severus was kind of cowering behind Lucius and peeking out shyly at the other four.

"Well, well, what are we up to," Lucius said, his voice thick with heavy humour. "Not getting up to any trouble as usual?"

"Oh please, Lucius, bugger off," James said, rolling his eyes.

"As you will," Lucius said, bowing low. "But Professor Hedley knows about the things you stole from his supply cupboard. I'd say Gryffindor stand to lose a lot of points if they find whatever you did with the ingredients." Lucius laughed thinly. "Come along, Severus."

The black-haired boy with the pronounced hook nose stood behind him blinked, blushed and walked away.

"Well that was weird," James commented.

"Yeah," the younger Remus breathed.

"Time to go, I think," the real Sirius said.

"But –" Harry started to protest then gave up when he saw his godfather's pained expression.

"Come on," the real Remus said softly, and moments later they found themselves back in the office.

Sirius carefully placed the Pensieve back where it was kept and sighed softly as he dropped to the chair.

"At least we know why Peter resented us. He thought we didn't care about him," he said regretfully.

"You four should go to bed," Remus said wearily. The experience had taken a lot out of everyone involved.

Harry nodded and held the door open.

Once out in the corridors, the four discussed what they saw in broken whispers.

"So we know why Peter had a grudge against them, but how could he turn so bad? I mean he already gave your parents to you-know-who.. sorry, Voldemort, so what else could he be so narked about?" Ron wondered.

"I don't know," Harry said softly. "There's a lot about this whole business that has really been plaguing me. "Like why Voldemort gave up so easily. And why he reverted to Tom when it all was over. And why the death eaters gave up so easily."

"What are you saying?" Draco asked nervously.

"I see what you're getting at," Hermione said, troubled. "And I don't like it."

They approached the fat lady and Ron said: "Gillyweed". The portrait hole swung open and the four collapsed through and sat on the sofa nearest to the fire.

"What?" Ron asked, bewildered at Harry and Hermione's dual serious expressions.

"I…" Harry bit his lip. "I don't know, exactly, but I have this theory. Tom was just a… a kind of vessel for something bigger… Something more evil than we could imagine…"

There was silence as the words rung in the common room eerily.

"That sounds scary," a small voice echoed through the air. Harry, Hermione, Ron and Draco turned to see Ginny Weasley standing there, looking pale and tired as she walked over. She sat next to Ron and her older brother instinctively gave her shoulder a small squeeze.

"It's only a hypothesis," Hermione countered quickly. "We don't know that for sure."

"I think it's right," Ginny declared staunchly. "When I talked to Tom in the diary at times he didn't seem evil at all, then this… kind of force took over and then he was really evil…"

Again there was silence.

"You! What are you doing out of bed!" Ron's eyes widened as he suddenly realized his sister should be in bed and he glared at her menacingly. The short redhead glared back.

"Hypocrite!" Ginny sniffed and folded her arms, refusing to move.

Ron laughed a little.

Hermione stifled a yawn then frowned. "Well I don't know about you guys but I'm really tired." She rose up slowly and smiled crinkly at the boys and at Ginny. "Good night."

"'Night, 'Mione," Ron said sleepily. "Ginny, now would be a good time to go to bed before I tell Percy you've been out of bed.

Ginny's eyes widened and she scrambled to her feet hurriedly.

"Good night!" Ginny smiled swiftly and ran to the girls' dorm stairs.

"I think I'll go to bed now too," Ron said, yawning and getting to his feet. "You two coming or what?"

"I'm not really sleepy," Harry said. "But you two can head on up if you want."

"I'll stay," Draco offered instantly. Ron rolled his eyes and set off for the stairs.

"'Night," he offered sleepily before heading up the stairs.

There was silence between Harry and Draco as they realized how deserted the common room was at about two o' clock in the morning.

"Are you all right?" Draco asked softly, grey eyes boring intently into Harry's own green eyes.

Harry shook his head. "Not really… Seeing my parents like that, so care-free and unassuming of what was going to happen… I just wanted to tell them, but it wouldn't have made a difference, that wouldn't have happened."

Draco fell silent. "It was funny seeing my father as he was though…" He laughed softly. "Gods, I was exactly like he was! Arrogant prick!"

Harry laughed a little. "Well I wasn't going to say anything…" he said cheekily.

"Bitch," Draco said good-humouredly.

They fell silent again and Harry just rested his head against Draco's, breathing softly. Draco rested his head on Harry's then laughed a little. Harry raised his head to look at Draco, frowning.

"What's so funny?" He asked.

Draco took a deep breath to regain his composure. "It's just…" He laughed again then stopped as Harry blinked at him; confused. "It's just if anyone had told me I'd end up with as a Gryffindor, being friends with Granger and Weasley and going out with the famous Harry Potter I would have broken their nose."

Harry laughed a little. "It is rather funny. What the hell happened? I mean we were bitter enemies and now…"

"Yeah…" Draco trailed off. "Guess something got into us too."

"So you think it's something external? Like with Peter and Tom? An external force?" Harry asked, unsure of how to take that comment.

"No," Draco said sincerely. "I think whatever that would have happened, this would have happened." He waved his hand indicating them.

"Why?" Harry asked sleepily, letting his head drop onto Draco's shoulder again.

"Because…" Draco grinned. "Because there was too much emotion… Because even at the beginning I was obsessed with you… Just because."

"Because is a good reason," Harry said sleepily.

"Very good reason," Draco said, pushing Harry off his shoulder. Caught unprepared the raven-haired boy slid to the floor with a clunk, glaring at Draco exasperatedly.

"We should go to bed," Draco said ruefully. "Don't want anyone to catch us up."

"'Spose," Harry said ruefully.

"No, please… Don't…No!"

Draco was awakened by a few muffled shouts barely a few hours later and she stumbled out of the scarlet-hung bed sleepily. Pushing aside the curtains, he noticed Harry's curtains pushed slightly apart and Seamus, Dean, Neville and Ron all inside the area. Curiously he went to see what was the matter. What he saw caught in his throat. Harry was tossing and turning; his face twisted in some kind of pain.

"What's the matter?" Draco asked quietly.

"I don't know," Ron replied, his voice low.

"I'll go get a teacher," Neville offered, turning and starting to run. Draco bit his lip as he saw Harry in so much pain, frustrated that he couldn't do anything.

"Should we wake him up?" Seamus asked, concerned for his friend.

"I dunno," Dean replied, a little startled.

"We should try," Ron said softly, leaning down to shake his friend. "Harry?"

Harry grunted in pain and twisted away from his friend.

"HARRY!"

All four boys tried yelling.

Nothing was working.

"He's not waking," Draco said, obviously out of his mind with worry as he gripped the edge of his night clothes – his knuckles turning white from the force he was clutching his palms with.

Seconds later the door opened and two people came crashing through – Hagrid and Sirius. Neville reappeared moments later. breathless.

"Harry? HARRY!" Hagrid yelled boomingly in the boy's face. No response. The half-giant looked as worried, if not more, than Sirius and Draco.

"He's in a plagued sleep," Sirius said; his tone low and troubled. "Hagrid, get him to Madam Pomfrey. I'll need Professor Snape with some help for the counter-charm… Yes, and possibly Hermione too… Hagrid, Ron, go NOW!"

Ron blinked fuzzily, realizing he'd been commanded to go get Hermione. An irrational thought blazed across his mind that he was going to be literally fried alive for going into the girls' dorm but the urgency of the situation took over and he turned and pelted down the stairs. Seconds later Hagrid was following, Harry in his arms, Sirius pelting down after him.

Draco stood there in the dorm, he dropped to the ground in disbelief, faintly aware of Seamus supporting him as he fell. He'd never felt so helpless before in his entire life.

"Hermione!"

Hermione shot awake, prompted by the hand shaking her shoulder and high-pitched squeals.

"Ron?"

The bushy-haired girl lurched upwards, staring at the redhead in complete shock and disbelief.

"Get him out!" Lavender squealed, hugging a large eiderdown around her thin nightshift.

"Ron, what are you doing in the girls' dorm?" Hermione asked sleepily.

Ron looked scared for a second then swallowed. "It's Harry. Something's wrong."

Seconds later Hermione was on her feet and Ron was leading her down to the infirmary at breakneck speed. They passed Professor McGonagall in the transfiguration corridor on the way, both were going so fast running barefoot that they knocked her glasses off accidentally.

"What in the –" was all she got to breathe out as she stared at the two running down the corridors as if their lives depended on it.

Maybe they did.