Harry Potter and his whole world belong to JK Rowling. I am borrowing them and writing what I hope might happen in future books

Back to Number 12, Grimmauld Place

"How have you been, Harry?" It was the first thing Professor Lupin said to him. They were aboard the Knight Bus, which had just jumped from Little Whinging to Manchester. Harry steadied himself first, and then looked up at Professor Lupin.

"I've been okay," he answered. It was a lie and they both knew it. Professor Lupin didn't pursue it, however. "How have you been?"

Lupin's eyes glazed a little as he looked out the window. "I have bad days and I have days that aren't so bad. I think…" Lupin went quiet. Harry glanced out the window, to see if something had distracted him. Lupin cleared his throat and rubbed his eyes. "I can't help but think that there's something more we should have done." He was so quiet that Harry barely understood what he said.

The bus jumped from Manchester to London. Harry knew that the bus would let them out in Grimmauld Lane, which was not far from Grimmauld Place, where the Order's headquarters were located. Professor Lupin had thought it better that they walk the additional distance.

"'Ere we are," Stan Shunpike said happily as they slid to a stop in Grimmauld Lane. He grinned at Harry and Lupin as they passed him, dragging Harry's trunk. "Good to see you, Harry!" he called after them. Harry smiled at him as the bus disappeared.

"Each time I take that bus, I feel as though I've aged ten years," Lupin said dryly. Harry snorted as they started toward Number 12, Grimmauld Place.

*

"Do you want to sleep, or do you want to talk first?" Lupin asked, using his wand to Banish Harry's trunk up the stairs. The sun was starting to come up, and Harry was feeling a little tired.

"Well," he said hesitantly. "I am a little tired. Maybe I will sleep first."

"Okay," Lupin said easily. "I'm going to try to grab a bit of sleep too. I'll let Molly know we've gotten back okay."

He headed up the stairs quietly. Harry stayed where he was, looking around. It was strange to be in Sirius's home, when Sirius would never come back to it. The house looked completely different than it had the last time Harry had been there, last Christmas. All signs that a dark wizard had ever set foot in the house had been removed. The walls were a different colour; the wood floor was polished to a shine. The only things that remained were the portrait of Mrs Black and the plaques which bore the heads of several house-elves. Harry sighed and headed up the stairs. He was surprised to find that even the door handles had been changed. Where there had once been a serpent was now the Gryffindor lion. Harry stepped into Ron's room quickly and fell into the second bed without taking his clothes off. He was asleep within seconds.

*

"Harry!" Hermione cried as Harry came through the doors into the basement kitchen, hours later. She was sitting at the table, holding an enormous old book in her hands. She set it down and jumped up, ran over to him and threw her arms around him.

"Oh, it's wonderful to see you! Are you okay? Why are you here? When did you get here?" She suddenly had a very worried look on her face.

"Early this morning," he answered, sitting at the table. Ron was grinning at him across the table. "I'm alright; I just wanted to be here. I need…I wanted to talk to Professor Lupin." He looked around the kitchen. "Is he up yet?"

"Not yet, dear," Mrs Weasley answered as she poured him a goblet of pumpkin juice. "He wanted me to wake him, though, if he isn't up by 9." She added eggs and sausages to his plate. She paused and looked down at him, slightly misty eyed. "I know how hard this is, Harry," she whispered, so that only he could hear. "I know that you're hurting, and if you wish to talk to me, I'm here. All right?"

Harry nodded, not quite trusting his voice. It felt nice to be back among people who cared about how he was feeling. He looked around the room quickly, smiling to himself.

Lupin and Ginny shuffled into the kitchen about the same time. Ginny's hair was pulled into a messy red ponytail and she looked like she'd just woken up. Lupin looked wide awake. Both had sat at the table before Ginny noticed Harry.

"Hi!" she exclaimed, blinking at him. "When did you get here?"

"Couple hours ago," Lupin said, opening the Daily Prophet before him. "Came on the Knight Bus."

Harry didn't need to read the paper to know what was going on. Malfoy had gotten out of Azkaban two weeks before, claiming that he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Harry figured that to mean that Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, had received a large sack of gold. Harry still seethed with anger every time he thought about it.

Now that the Prophet had announced that Voldemort was back, they were running regular safety pieces and updates on Death Eater whereabouts. They had Ministry officials guarding Azkaban, as the Dementors had deserted it just after it became public knowledge that Voldemort was back.

Harry had been ever so surprised to receive two letters of apology at the start of summer. One had been from Cornelius Fudge, apologizing for dragging Harry's name through the mud. He had also apologized in an article in the Prophet. Harry, however, still hadn't forgotten how Fudge had called him a liar and had done everything in his power to discredit him, and had even gone so far as to try to have him expelled. Harry was less than inclined to accept his apology.

The second apology had come from Percy Weasley. Harry had nearly fallen off his bed in shock when that letter had arrived. Percy had sent Ron a letter the previous year, explaining how Ron should 'sever all ties' with Harry, as he was disturbed and possibly dangerous. His apology had simply said "I apologize for my letter, accusing you of lying, Harry. I'm sure you understand, at the time, I thought it for the best." Harry had thrown it into the fire.

Harry came back to the present. Hermione was telling Harry that she'd only just arrived the previous day.

"Mum and Dad are going to America, for a holiday. I wouldn't mind going, I'm sure the American wizards and witches are fascinating, Harry, but I wasn't invited. They were going to leave me with my grandparents, but I asked if I could stay with Mr and Mrs Weasley instead and they said yes, so here I am." She smiled at Harry. Then her eyes became serious. "How are you, Harry?" she asked quietly. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine," he answered. Hermione looked at him intently for a moment and then decided to not pursue to topic, for which Harry was grateful.

"We're going to Diagon Alley next weekend," she said. "We should have our letters by then. We'll find out how many OWLs we got."

Harry grimaced. He was sure that he'd only gotten an O in Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"I wonder who will be our Defence professor this year," he said absently.

Professor Lupin stood up suddenly and looked down at Harry.

"I'll be in the study when you're ready, Harry," he said softly. He exited the room.

Harry looked after him, eyebrows furrowed.

"Did I say something wrong?"

Mrs Weasley shook her head. "No, dear. I'm not sure what that's about, but he's been doing it all summer, whenever Ron or Ginny mention their new professor."

Harry sighed. "I wish Professor Lupin could come back," he said, almost wistfully. "He was the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher we had."

Ron, Hermione and Ginny all nodded fervently. "I just hope that Snape didn't finally get the job," Ginny laughed.

"Professor Snape, Ginny," Mrs Weasley snapped. Ginny glowered at her mother. Harry quietly got up from the table and headed toward the study.

Professor Lupin was sitting at the writing desk, staring into space, slapping an envelope against his hand. Harry noticed that the tapestry that bore Sirius's family tree had been removed. The walls in the room had been repainted, and there were no signs that a large tapestry had once hanged on the wall. Harry knocked at the door, trying to not scare Lupin. He started and swivelled around in the chair.

"Is everything okay, Professor Lupin?" Harry asked softly, entering the room.

"Let's just get one thing straight, Harry," Lupin said with a grim smile. "As much as I enjoyed being your professor, it feels unnatural to have James's son calling me Professor Lupin. Please, call me Remus." He nodded at the chair next to the desk. Harry sat.

"Okay," Harry said. He glanced at the parchment in Lupin's hand. "Oh, wait!" He jumped back up. "I'll be right back."

He tore up to his and Ron's room, and rummaged through his trunk. Certain that he'd found all the pieces, he hurried back down to the study. Remus was staring into space again.

"Can you fix this for me, Remus?" Harry asked. Remus looked around at him, a question in his eyes. He glanced down at the glass in his hand. He flicked his wand, said "Reparo!" and the glass flew together. Remus gave a gasp and stood up so fast his chair nearly fell over.

"Where did you get this?" he demanded. Harry stared up at him.

"Sirius gave it to me. Last Christmas, just before we went back to Hogwarts. I didn't find it until…after. I guess I forgot about it." Harry took a deep breath. "I wish I hadn't. I could have checked with him, instead of running off…" his voice trailed off.

"It's not your fault, Harry," Remus said quietly. "It's more my fault than yours, and Dumbledore assures me that it's not my fault." He smiled, a very thin smile, full of anger and hurt. He was still tapping the envelope against his palm.

Harry nodded. "Well, after I found it, I tried to use it. It didn't work, of course. It broke during the train ride home, and I was thinking yesterday, that even if it didn't work, it would be nice to have it. Sirius gave it to me, after all. And I could use it to talk to…people here." He wanted to say 'talk to you', but thought he better not. Not yet, anyway. "And then I thought - Remus, what's that envelope? I don't mean to pry, but you keep -"

Remus looked at him grimly. He set the parchment envelope down.

"This is Sirius's Last Will and Testament," he said quietly. "I found it in here, yesterday evening."

Harry stared at him. Remus pressed the envelope into his hand. Harry noticed his name on it, as well as Remus'.

"You might be interested in it."

He stood up and walked to the window, giving Harry some privacy.