Dun da dun da duuun! Here it is at last. So sorry this took so long, RL has been… interesting, as usual…

The house elves do get paid, it just hasn't been interesting enough for me to put it in the story…

There are no romantic relationships in this story (with Harry), and there is no slash.

CHAPTER 29

Dissolution

Harry settled in a comfy chair in his study, a book in his hands and feet outstretched towards the crackling fire. Unlike many of the educational books that he'd been studying since his release, this was merely a muggle fantasy novel. Harry found that while many of the muggle authors had a very warped idea of what magic was, they overcame their lack of accurate knowledge with fascinating ideas and deep plots. Not that he was really appreciating either to the fullest extent at the moment. He was more just trying to pass the time, waiting for the inevitable. They would come, and for once, Harry actually felt himself prepared to face their questions. To face them.

He both wanted this conversation to happen, wished it wouldn't, and couldn't wait for it to be over. But some things had to be said. A small smile quirked at the edge of his lips. For the first time in quite a while, if ever, he felt in control, not of the situation, because, quite frankly, he was often in control of that. He felt in control of himself. He felt as if life was going to work out. It wasn't something that he was all that familiar with. It felt good.

Sure enough, it wasn't very long before a tentative knock sounded at the door. Harry waved a hand in the general direction of the door and heard it open. Putting the book down, he glanced over. Both Remus and Sirius stood in the doorway.

Remus looked happy. It was one of those situations where no one would have ever realized that the weight of the curse he carried effected him physically until one saw him after it was lifted. There was a light in his eyes that Harry had never seen before, and he looked younger and more alive. He was also very confused. Sirius looked no better, with rampant confusion battling with happiness for his best friend in his eyes.

Harry gave up his searching stare. "Well, don't just stand there. Come in."

They moved cautiously into the room, both men sensing that something was about to happen. Remus was the first to find his voice. "H-how?" He couldn't seem to even say the words, but his meaning was clear.

Harry took pity on his baffled tone and explained briefly. "That book you showed me had a potion in it that Snape adapted to be used with the Wolfsbane potion. It worked without it, but it killed more than it cured, since the werewolf had to drink it during the full moon."

Remus winced and nodded, understanding exactly what Harry was implying. "Thank you, Harry. I can't ever…" He trailed off, shock sweeping over his face. "Harry? Harry?"

Sirius muttered out of the side of his mouth. "He's right there in the chair, Moony."

The glare that Remus shot his friend was truly scathing. "I know that!"

Sirius looked concerned. "Then why do you keep saying Harry… oh." He turned back to face Harry, who was watching this exchange with an unreadable look in his eyes.

Harry watched as realization dawned in Sirius' eyes. Silence reigned for a couple of long, almost painful moments. Harry spoke. "Yes, you are both right. The bond is no longer effective."

Remus blinked in surprise and then schooled his face into rather polite blankness. It was a typical response for him. When he was unsure of where a conversation or situation was heading, Remus tended to play it very safe until he had a better idea of what was going on. Harry decided right then never to play any serious card games with the former werewolf. That poker face was enviable.

Sirius, on the other hand, was much easier to read. Harry just didn't understand what he was reading. He couldn't figure out why, for a split second, his godfather's eyes shone with worry. Sirius stepped forward. "Harry, please, the bond was a mistake. I know that now, and I am sorry. We really thought that you would need help." Sirius looked down, and admitted. "I needed help when I got out, and we assumed that you'd be the same. I never considered what the bond would mean if you didn't need us. It was never our intention to try to push you in any way." Harry opened his mouth to comment, but Sirius rushed on. "No, please, let me finish?" He looked at Harry with pleading in his eyes.

Harry leaned back in his chair and then nodded once. "Fine. Say what you need to." He folded his arms, looking forbidding. So far, things were going pretty much as he'd anticipated. They had assumed that he'd figured out some magic to break the bond, not that it had dissolved on its own. He was perfectly content to let them think that for a while. Forgiven or not, he was in no mood to make this easy on his godfather.

Sirius winced slightly, but plunged on. "I know that there isn't anything I can do to make this right. What happened, what I thought happened, what I did, that's unforgivable and I know that." Sirius looked up. The pain in his eyes brought back memories of how he had looked, all those years ago, when he was talking about his mistake of trusting Wormtail and what it had cost him both in his own life and in the loss of two of his closest friends. "It's all my fault, Harry. I was even the one who went to talk to Ron and Hermione. They were arguing up until then, but they…" He swallowed hard. "…they believed me."

Harry watched as his godfather looked down and almost visibly forced himself to continue. "Anyway, I know you hate me, but you should probably know that…" He looked momentarily lost, but found what he wanted to say soon enough. "I'm glad you found a way to break the bond, because you didn't like it, but you should know that whatever happens, the bond's still there for me." Harry raised an eyebrow. Sirius met his eyes. "If you ever need, or want, anything from me, it's yours. Anything. Merlin, Harry, I am so sorry for what I did to you." And then he waited for a response, looking remarkably like a criminal awaiting judgment.

Harry was somewhat stunned by the depth of the remorse that shone in Sirius' eyes. It also reinforced the fact that he was doing the right thing. But some things had to be said. "It's not something that I'll be able forget." His voice was totally controlled, and Sirius slumped slightly at the words, but Harry just continued coldly. "I don't really remember much from that first year or so, but I do remember that whenever the dementors left me alone long enough to actually think clearly, my thoughts were usually some variation of 'what's taking Sirius so long?'"

The words almost visibly slammed into Sirius, and he fell to his knees, unable to stay upright. He turned his face away from the light, but Harry saw the firelight reflect off the tears running down the other man's face. Remus didn't look much better, biting his lip so hard that it was nearly bleeding. Harry continued, needing to finish this. "I think it was the same day that I finally realized that no one was coming for me that I went insane, but frankly, I'm not really sure. It was all pretty blank for a while after that." Harry slid out of the chair and crouched before his huddled godfather. "Look at me, Sirius."

It was a command, and Sirius couldn't have disobeyed to save his life. Anguished blue eyes met searching green ones. "I can't forget waiting for you, Sirius, and I probably never will be able to. Nothing you could give me or do for me could ever erase that." Harry took a deep breath and stared at Sirius for a long moment. Sirius just looked back, his face awash with guilt, eyes nearly dead.

And then Harry did something that surprised both of the other men. He smiled. It was small, but it was still a genuine smile. For the first time in over six years, Harry looked closer to his actual age. Harry looked more alive when his eyes dropped the closed, guarded look. Remus felt a flare of hope, and didn't bother to suppress it as he would have normally. Why not hope? It had already been a night of miracles.

Harry stood, leaving Sirius on the floor, blinking up at him. "I didn't break the bond. It dissolved. You can't do anything to make this up to me, but I forgive you anyway."

Shock was written all over Sirius' face. He literally couldn't believe it. Harry had been so cold and furious for so long, and even though he had been lightening up over the last few weeks, Sirius had never even dared hope that Harry would forgive him. Perhaps learn to tolerate, but never forgive. When he finally spoke, the words were choked and soft. "W-what?"

Harry unconsciously looked almost exactly like his father as he answered, and that really didn't help Sirius process what he said any easier. "I forgive you, Sirius."

Sirius clambered to his feet, eyes wide, unbelieving. "Why?"

Harry thought, once again faced with the confusion of sorting through his own emotions to answer that question. Finally, he shrugged. "Because being hateful and angry is exactly what Voldemort would have wanted. It seems stupid when everything turned out right in the end. It was really Voldemort's fault, not yours. Hating the world isn't all it's cracked up to be. Choose one." He didn't give the reason that he'd given Snape. The Slytherin would understand that one far more than anyone else.

"But… but…" Sirius looked torn between accepting the situation before Harry changed his mind and knowing that it didn't seem right. "…I don't deserve…"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "No, quite frankly, you don't. But forgiveness isn't something you earn. It's a gift. You made a mistake, a bad one, to be sure, but a mistake. Everybody makes mistakes." Then his eyes hardened as he stepped forward and got right in Sirius' face. To Sirius' credit, he didn't cower when faced with the icy green eyes of his godson. "But I swear, Sirius, if you ever do anything like that to me again, you'd better hope that whatever it is kills me, because if not, the rest of your days are going to be both painful and numbered." Harry knew, deep down, even though he hated to acknowledge it, that if he was betrayed again, he would go dark. There was only so much a person could take.

Sirius didn't doubt this for a minute, but it hardly mattered. He spoke with absolute certainty. "I'd die first." He took in a long, shaky breath. "Thank you."

Harry backed off and grinned. "Call me Harry." He sat back down in his armchair with a sigh. "Well, that was overly emotional."

Sirius seemed unable to muster an answer to that. He just stood there for a moment and tried to process how much things had changed in just a few short minutes. Relief filled him and he silently swore to James and Lily on his very life that he wouldn't make any more mistakes.

Remus, who had been quiet all this time, correctly judging that godfather and godson needed to talk without interruption, stepped forward from where he had backed against the wall. "Thank you, Harry." The words held a wealth of meaning. "I can't thank you enough…" Remus trailed off, realizing for the first time the ramifications of what had transpired in the dungeons. Exactly how Harry had repaid his abandonment of him. True, he hadn't been a guardian to Harry, but Remus knew one thing about their relationship all those years ago. Harry had trusted him. If Harry had needed help, he would have went to Sirius first and the Weasleys second, but Remus would have been the third or fourth in line. Harry had trusted him, and for a werewolf, someone else's trust wasn't something to taken lightly. Except he had. And Harry's response to this was to cure him of the curse.

Remus staggered a little as he tried to comprehend every thing that had happened. Harry leaned forward and spoke with concern in his voice. "Remus? You all right?" The former werewolf's wide and unblinking stare was beginning to worry him. Just because Snape hadn't expected any strange reactions didn't mean there wasn't a possibility.

Sirius chuckled and waved his hand wildly in front of Remus' shocked face. There was no reaction. "It's shock. I think it just set in. He blanks out a bit when he's really surprised about something, although I have to admit that I haven't seen it this bad since the Christmas Ball in 7th year when Prongs and I blackmailed his girlfriend into telling him that she was preg…"

That snapped Remus out of it quite nicely. "Sirius Black, don't you dare even start on that. It wasn't at all funny!" His tone was laced with outrage, but a hint of laughter was evident as well.

Sirius grinned mischievously and mused to himself. "I wonder, I bet I still have those pictures somewhere…"

Remus just glared. "Do tell. Go ahead, I know exactly where the pictures detailing the entire scope of my revenge are. I'm sure Harry would love to see those." The tone of his voice was so dry it could have peeled paint.

Sirius paled slightly at the memory. "No, no, no, that's quite all right. We'll just forget the whole matter, right?"

Harry burst into laughter. Both of the other men whirled, having momentarily forgot his presence. He waved a weak hand. "Oh, no, please don't stop, I haven't laughed this hard in years."

In hindsight, it wasn't the best thing to say. Sirius winced at the term 'years' and started babbling another longwinded apology. Remus, deprived of Sirius' jokes to keep his mind off of his newfound freedom, just wandered over the hearth and started touching the silver candlesticks in awe.

Harry just laughed.

Looking back later, Harry was amazed by the quickness of the events that followed. He hadn't even been reconciled with his godfather and former professor for more than two days, both of which were filled with discussion, the occasional tense moments, and Sirius' continual apologies, when Murphy's law struck again. The discussions, which ranged from what had happened in the outside world while Harry was imprisoned to tales of the Marauders in all their prank filled glory, were quite enjoyable and the tense moments began to lessen as the three of them relaxed more around each other. However, Harry firmly believed that the apologies had to stop. They were beginning to drive him crazy.

This was the reason that he wasn't entirely surprised to look up on the evening of the second day and see Sirius coming towards him with a serious look on his face. Harry steeled himself for another apology and was pleasantly surprised when there wasn't one. "Harry, I'm sorry, but it's important. I just got an owl from Moody. There's been an emergency Order of the Phoenix meeting called. Remus and I, we need to go."

Harry raised an eyebrow in curiosity and nodded his agreement. "Of course, you don't have to ask me anymore, you know. What's going on, or do you know?" Thoughts of a new dark lord, an uprising of something or other or maybe even problems at Hogwarts flowed through his mind.

Sirius looked down. "The letter was pretty brief, being from Moody and all, but I think… I think something's wrong with Dumbledore." He looked up, worry in his eyes.

That wasn't what Harry was expecting at all.

COMING SOON: An emergency, a meeting, and moving on.

Whew. That was a tough chapter. Important, but hard to write. It looks like (unless I get carried away again, and you all know how that goes…) we're one chapter away from full explanations, and possibly two or three and an epilogue from the… END! Thank you so much for all of the wonderful and encouraging reviews. -krtshadow