CHAPTER ONE

Harry swallowed the medicine his mother gave to him, choking down the urge to spit the bitter liquid back out. He made a face once he had finished, scrunching up his nose in distaste.

"That's just going to make me feel worse." He said childishly.

His mother laughed as she refastened the bottle lid, and brushed his hair fondly off his forehead, her green eyes sparkling. "Ginny and Ron are here to see you." She told him, winking knowingly.

He blushed, and ducked his face from his mother's view. HIs parents teased him mercilessly about Ginny, his best friend's younger sister, and his new girlfriend. They'd only started dating a couple of weeks ago, to cries of annoyance from her brother Ron, and delight from her mother.

When Harry's parents had found out, they'd imimediately launched into teasing cries about just how 'cute' they were together. Of course, once his father had found out, his godfather had quickly followed, bringing advice on how he should 'interact' with his girlfriend in more private settings - not, Harry thought, that he would know, given his sexual preferences - and remarking on how similar Harry was to his father.

Appearance, sense of adventure, and now a taste for fiery red-headed girls; Sirius had been amused to no end by the similarities, and only Lily's disapproving smile had stopped him from embarrassing Harry too much.

"But I'm sick!" He said, then winced at how childish he sounded.

"And they're worried about you." His mother countered, heading for the door.

"I don't see why." Harry muttered sullenly, dark bitterness tainting his voice as he realised that he didn't know why he was so reluctant to see his friends. He was so tired, and for some reason, he felt as if they had abandoned him, had left him to something that he couldn't face alone, something that he couldn't do without his friends by his side.

But that hadn't happened, was only bare snatches of a nightmare that he couldn't quite remember. One which was vanquished finally by his mother's twinkling laughter rining in his ears. He sighed, tiredly, and nodded at her.

"Tell them I'll be down in a minute," he told her, fingering the sleeve of his pajama top. "I'm just going to get changed."

He took his time getting dressed, and when he finally made his way downstairs, he found Sirius and Ron engrossed in a game of chess - Sirius losing horribly - and Ginny sitting on the couch with Remus, discussing the assignment that he had given her English class over the holidays.

He smiled at the sight, basking for a moment in the simple warmth that it filled him with.

Sirius seemed to have sensed him there, because he looked up from his chess game, and grinned wolfishly. "Nice of you to join us, Harry."

Harry couldn't help the answering grin that formed on his face, and he made his way over to the couch sitting down, a little nervously, beside Ginny.

"'Morning," he said, to the room in general.

Ginny pasued in her converation with Remus, to smile at him, and to reach over and clasp his hand.

"Hullo," she said quietly, kissing his cheek quickly, before turning back to Remus.

Harry found, much to his embarrassment, that he was blushing.

"Hermione," Ron said, his voice slightly disdainful. "Couldn't be here because she's got a date with Viktor." He didn't move his eyes from the game in front of him, but Harry was sure that his expression was one of disgust. "She says sorry, and wants to know whether you're well enough to come and see a movie with us on the weekend."

Harry snickered. "Will Viktor be there, Ron?"

Ron lifted his head to glower at him. "No," he snarled. "He won't." A self-satisfied grin appeared on his face. "I made her promise not to bring him."

Across from Ron, Sirius snorted, and Harry was quick to roll his eyes as well.

"Someone might think you were jealous, Ron," Sirius told him, smirking.

Ron made an incoherent growl at him, before moving a chess piece, then folding his arms across his chest and grinning. "Check-mate, Sirius."

Sirius studied the board momentarily, then shook his head. "I don't know why I even bother."

"Someone might think you were a tad masochistic." Remus commented from across the room, a faint smile on his face. He shook his head as Sirius stuck his tongue out at him. "Mature, Sirius, very mature."

Sirius grinned. "That's why you love me, Moony."

Lily walked into the room and placed a plate of chocolate buscuits down on the coffe table beside Harry, laughing as she did so.

"Cute, Sirius, very cute," she said, grinning. She sat down in the armchair across from Remus. "Albus wants to know whether you're going to be at the reunion next weekend, Sirius. He also suggested that if you were planning on coming, I remind you of the neccessity to play nice with the other boys. Which means that he doesn't want to see any of the petty fights which were so common between you and Severus when we were at school."

Sirius made a face. "Petty? I'll have you know that greasy haired git-"

"Sirius." Remus' quiet voice held a note of warning.

"What?!"

Lily fixed a narrow look on him. "I would appreciate it if you didn't badmouth the children's teacher in front of them." Both Harry an Ron snickered at that, and she turned the look to them. "It's bad enough when they do it themselves, they don't need to have someone they lookk up to doing the same thing."

Sirius folded his arms across his chest and, to Harry's considerable amusement, pouted.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Again with the maturity, Sirius." He turned to Lily, a determined smile on his face. "You can let Albus know that he will be at the reunion, and there will be no fighting with Severus, even if I have to tie him to a chair to do so."

"Remus!" Sirius sounded terribly scandalized, although the glint in his eyes belied his tone of voice. "Not in front of the children!"

Harry began to cough, drawing Lily's attention to himself, quite certain that his doing so was the only thing that saved Sirius from being yelled at by both Remus, and his mother.