Thanks to everyone who has reviewed. Also, thanks must be given to my brother-in-law, who stepped in as beta when my regular beta got sick. Thanks, Ben!
Thanks for being so patient. RL was extremely busy these past two months, so I didn't get to put these up when they were ready. I hope you like the rest of the story!

Chapter 11

"I think I should just move in."

Siri whipped around to see Harry glaring at the pajama shirt Pomfrey had stuffed him into. The green-eyed teen looked up and locked onto Siri's own gray ones.

"Don't you think?" Harry asked.

Siri shook his head to clear it. "I don't think what?"

"That I should move into the hospital wing," Harry disgustedly said.

He smirked. "I don't think Pomfrey would let us do anything kinky."

Harry's face flushed a violent red. "Siri. We don't..."

"I know."

"You're cruel."

"You love me anyway."

Harry smiled almost insanely. "I must be mad to do so."

Siri gave a mock pout. "Then you don't love me."

The green eyes glared. "Siri," he warned.

He put his hands up in surrender. "I get it." He looked at Harry with as open an expression he could. "And I love you, too."

Harry gave a pleased smile.

They managed a few seconds of comfortable silence before Madam Pomfrey bustled in, starched skirts rustling.

"I thought I asked you to inform me when Mr. Potter awoke, Mr. Greystone."

Siri grinned cheekily. "But then you wouldn't have anyone to yell at. Except Harry, and I can't let you do that to him." He paused dramatically. "He isn't feeling the best, after all. That wouldn't be very fair to him."

Pomfrey seemed to be holding back a smile, so Siri bowed deeply to try and coax it out.

The nurse chuckled lightly in response, with Harry's groan in accompaniment. Pomfrey shook her head at Siri's antics.

"Mr. Greystone, you do remind me of several students who attended Hogwarts before you were born." She sobered quickly before continuing. "But the dead are better left alone."

Siri's jovial mood plunged rapidly and it wavered between sorrow for James and worry that Pomfrey might make the correct connections regarding his name. It wouldn't do for someone to connect Siri Greystone with Sirius Black, even if the rest of the world thought him to be dead. Only members of the Order knew he was alive, and only a handful of them knew he was hiding here at the school in this disguise.

"Madam Pomfrey?" Harry broke the silence. "Do I have to stay, or can I leave for dinner and eat in the Great Hall?"

The nurse visibly shook herself. Emotionally regrouped, she patted Harry's hand. "Let's check you out then, Mr. Potter."

Harry groaned but then stayed silent. Siri himself was kicked out from behind the curtain. He strained his ears for any sound, other than Pomfrey's murmured scanning spell, but nothing came. Pomfrey finally came out from behind the curtain, closing it after her.

"Is he going to live?" Siri asked.

The nurse shook her head. "I'm afraid not."

"Hey!" came Harry's indignant voice from the other side of the curtain.

Siri and Pomfrey smirked at each other. The nurse laid a hand on his shoulder.

"I do like you, Mr. Greystone. I do believe you have the right sort of levity for this place."

He stilled in shock as a memory came back to him with all the force of a high-speed bludger.

"Blacks do not become healers!" his father shouted at him. He seemed to tower over Sirius in his anger, even though they were almost the same height.

Sirius had just arrived home from his fifth year at Hogwarts. His mother had already shouted at him - for being a Gryffindor. Or existing in general, he couldn't tell which. McGonagall had sent home the career choices Sirius had selected, and rather than deal with it herself, his mother had given it to his father.

Light gray eyes burned like a silver flame, while the rest of Severus Black's face was a violent purple. For a moment, Sirius was the tiniest bit afraid. Then he remembered that he was a Gryffindor and that Madam Pomfrey had said he had the healing touch when he'd brought Peter in from that broom incident.

"So. Blacks also weren't supposed to be Gryffindors - " Sirius began.

"That is another subject in which I will talk with you - again - when we are through here!"

A snigger from the doorway let Sirius know that Regelus was listening in - and it wasn't as if he would get punished for eavesdropping in the first place.

Sirius' tolerance for his family was rapidly going in the negatives much farther than they had been. He was sixteen, dammit, and it was his life. He wasn't about to let his mother or father or even the portrait of some long dead ancestor tell him what he could or couldn't do.

"No," he stated, standing tall. "We will not 'discuss' this."

Severus Black reached for his wand. "I will not tolerate talk like that in this house!"

That was when Sirius had left home and moved in with James and his family. Sirius had been disappointed to learn that, in order to become a certified healer, he would need to complete two more years of schooling past Hogwarts. He was lucky enough that his parents had been proud enough to pay for all seven years of his schooling before he ever set foot on the Hogwarts Express. Otherwise, he would have been up shit creek without a paddle anywhere in the vicinity. Because of this, when he had left school, Sirius had joined James in Auror training but hadn't completed it by the time Voldemort visited Godric's Hollow.

Now it was looking like he would be able to pursue that career, after all. But only if....

He turned to Harry as they walked down to the Great Hall to eat. "Harry?"

"Hm?"

"What do you want to do after school?"

"You mean if I make it through NEWTs?"

Siri glared. "Stop that."

Harry grinned unrepentantly. "Hey, I've heard they aren't called Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests for nothing."

He tapped the green-eyed teen in the back of the head. "Answer the question."

Harry shrugged. "Right now the only thing I would be good at is being an Auror. And I really don't know what else I could do."

Siri looked at him. "We seriously need to talk, Harry."

"Seriously?"

He tapped him again.

"Sorry." Harry paused. "Yeah, I guess we should."

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Harry wrinkled his nose at the smell of his potion. It reminded him of Dudley's socks - gym or otherwise - because it was just as rancid. He looked up to see where Snape was and sighed in relief when he saw the potions master was clear on the other side of the classroom. Next to him, Siri was already starting to bottle his potion up. Harry wasn't surprised, since Siri was just a little faster getting his ingredients chopped up. Of course, his potion wasn't as smooth as Harry's, since Siri wasn't as neat with his ingredients.

January and February had passed swiftly. And since Christmas, both Snape and Malfoy had steered clear of Harry and Siri, but for different reasons. Malfoy's reason was obvious to anyone who had heard about the scuffle in the hallway.

Snape, on the other hand, was avoiding them and had been since the news that Sirius Black had been 'posthumously' exonerated of all charges. With that brought a lot of attention to Harry, as well as Sirius' former classmates. The potions master had kept a quiet profile when the reporters had attempted to breach the school, and though Harry didn't know all of the reasons why, he knew enough of them.

His potion was finally through its timed simmer, so Harry took it off the flame. He quickly bottled it into the charmed vials he'd been using this year and set it on Snape's desk. Back at the bench, Siri had gotten together his bag, impatient to leave the dungeons.

"I still need to clean my cauldron, Siri."

He grinned. "No, you don't. I didn't clean mine."

Hermione came back from the sink where she had finished cleaning her own cauldron. "That is why your potions aren't turning out correctly. All potions need to start with a clean cauldron."

Siri shrugged. "Then I'll do it later." He looked at Harry with a pleading look. "Come on, Harry."

Harry shook his head. "Two minutes, Siri. Why don't you and Hermione head on up and I'll just finish putting this away."

"Okay," Siri said, even as Hermione offered to stay and help.

"Go on. I'll meet you at lunch." Harry picked up his cauldron and carried it over to the sink.

He was almost out the door when something made him pause. Harry wasn't sure what it was, but whatever it was, there was something definitely wrong.

The next moment, there was a loud bang behind him, and he was slammed into the sink, almost falling head first into it. A second shockwave followed, pushing Harry's midsection into the rim of the sink. Pain blossomed and quickly spread through his limbs and head.

The pain intensified, and Harry could feel the blackness creep in. He fought it off, though. There was something waiting for him in the darkness that he knew he did not want to meet. Instead, he forced it away until all he could see was a bright green light. It was nowhere near the sickly green color of the killing curse, which had haunted his nightly slumber for years. The potions classroom appeared as only slightly darker images among the green, fading in to the point that Harry couldn't tell what he was looking at.

He turned to fully face the middle of the room, but it didn't feel normal. It felt almost like he didn't have feet or even legs. Harry tried to move his arms and the same thing happened. He thought that he should be panicking, but knew that he was safe here.

It reminded him of being hugged by Mrs. Weasley, or during fifth year at Christmas, when Sirius had happily sung - out of tune - at the top of his lungs. It made him think of lying in Siri's arms late at night with the bed curtains drawn tight, when they had finished talking about their day and were content to bask in the comfortable silence.

Harry wondered if this was the same green light that had been in the Department of Mysteries. When he had gone to rescue Sirius - though he didn't know it at the time, he'd just wanted some kind of contact - he hadn't paid much attention to the light itself. He had been more concerned about getting to Sirius and then to the Dursleys than what that room really contained. Even in those first few days, he hadn't thought about the actual light. It had been more about what he had been able to do all of a sudden.

He drifted for a while, content to bask in the peacefulness that surrounded him. Harry imagined this was what he had felt in his mother's arms. He didn't exactly remember it, but it felt so familiar.

Eventually he began wondering how long he had been here and just how he was supposed to go back to the real world. Not that this one wasn't real, but that it wasn't in the same timeline of his own world.

As soon as he thought that he needed to get back to Sirius and the rest of his family, he could feel his body returning. Harry felt like he was in a Gringotts cart, passing varying kinds of vaults, and dragons were trying to catch him with their fire.

Reality slammed into him and he couldn't hold back a groan. His midsection felt like it had been squished between two Dudleys who had decided to take up sumo wrestling instead of boxing. He opened his eyes to find he was still against the sink, a cauldron next to it on the countertop. Confused because he could remember turning around before going wherever that had been, he turned around to find the potions classroom decimated. Tables and chairs were practically in splinters, and the few cauldrons that hadn't been stored away were bent and twisted, with one almost fully embedded into the wall. The destruction was enormous, so why was he still standing with nothing more than a squished stomach?

"Harry?" Sirius' voice rang through the hallway just outside of where the door used to be. "Harry?!" He rushed into the room and almost fell over an upturned table that lay just inside the doorway. He swiveled his head and even from where Harry was standing he could see Siri's eyes widen when he caught sight of him.

"Harry! Are you all right?" Siri asked as he began climbing over debris. He slipped more than once on spilled potions from class and did fall when he stepped in a greenish-black goo that stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

Harry smiled tiredly once Siri reached him. "I'm okay, Siri," he reassured the other boy. "Nothing major."

Siri waved his wand over Harry, even as the sounds of other people approaching reached their ears. "You are not fine, Harry!" Siri scolded. "Your stomach is bleeding and your spleen is about to burst. We need to get you to Madam Pomfrey right away, 'cause I don't know how to fix that."

Dumbledore and Snape walked in the room at the point.

"She is on her way, Mr. Greystone," the headmaster said.

Snape was already looking over the damage done to his classroom by the time Dumbledore finished speaking. "What happened?" he asked Harry. "Tell me what you remember."

Harry sighed and then winced as he body reminded him that he was in pain. He had the feeling this could take a while.

000000

Siri and Harry stood by the window, watching the last of the students leave the castle on their way to the train station in Hogsmeade. Gryffindor Tower already seemed lonely, making Siri wish they could stay, but the Ministry had wanted the school year to end early, due to Voldemort's increased activity, especially when the student who had set off the potion to try and kill Harry turned out to be Marked. The self-proclaimed Dark Lord had rampaged through much of the British countryside, with some forays into the continent, and had even attacked the Ministry branch in Edinburgh. Dumbledore had agreed, reluctantly, when some parents had wanted their children to come home, stating that he was afraid it would leave the children vulnerable at home.

Fudge had compromised on sending the students home in batches and with a full force of Aurors on the train. It had taken quite a bit of arguing to get that much, and it had come about after the attack in Edinburgh, when the small shopping center and ministry building had been hit when it had been busy.

"This doesn't feel right," Harry said into the silence.

"What doesn't?" Siri asked, turning to look at him.

Harry shrugged. "I don't know, but it just doesn't."

Siri studied his profile and then his face as Harry turned. "Are you all right?"

"No." He sighed when Siri moved to embrace him. "It's not physical. It's more like I can tell that he's up to something, but I don't know what."

Sirius hugged Harry tightly and could feel a faint tremor run through him. He wished he could take all of this away from Harry, but Siri knew he couldn't. All he could do was to stand by Harry's side and give him what strength he could.

"I'm scared, Siri," Harry whispered into Siri's neck.

He tightened his hold on Harry. "It's okay to be scared, Harry," Siri whispered back. "It's very okay. I'm scared of losing you." His throat threatened to close on him as he said his greatest fear.

Harry pulled back just enough to look Siri in the eye. "You won't lose me, Siri. And I'm not going to lose you, either."

Siri looked deep into Harry's green eyes and could see the determination that was a flame within.

"Hold onto that thought, Harry. And I'll do the same."

Harry smiled the tiniest bit. "Promise?"

Siri nodded. "I most definitely promise."

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The owl arrived three hours after the train left Hogsmeade. The Order members who were at Hogwarts had just finished eating when the poor barn owl winged its way into the Great Hall, crash landing into Professor Dumbledore's almost empty goblet of pumpkin juice. One wing was bent - obviously broken - and its back was badly scorched. The owl tried to hoot, but what sounded like a screech of pain came out.

Siri reached for the owl as the headmaster took the letter it had literally dropped into his lap.

"Who is it, Albus?" McGonagall asked.

"The Express has been attacked," Dumbledore said gravely. "It looks like Mr. McMillan's writing, but it is Miss Abbott's owl."

"She'll live," Siri said as he finished with a couple of basic healing spells. "She didn't fly too far to get here. Maybe thirty miles."

Dumbledore nodded. "Then let us move. The Aurors may be overwhelmed by the numbers Voldemort has managed to amass."

Siri stood with the others, cradling the injured owl. He looked at Harry, and their eyes met and locked, silently communicating.

"We should split into two groups," Harry said as most of the group reached the doors leading to the Entrance Hall. "I'll take the first and Dumbledore will follow with the second."

"Harry," Molly Weasley began. "You shouldn't come. None of the children should come."

"Yes, I should." Harry let loose some of his power, and Siri could feel it wash over him as if he stood in the ocean's waves at high tide. To him it was welcome and familiar. He had felt it many times before as Harry trained in the Room of Requirement. Others in the group, though, shuddered as Harry's magic bombarded them. Snape especially trembled, but Remus wasn't that far behind. Siri knew that it was because of the dark magic that lay within their bones and their souls, but for much different reasons.

Dumbledore looked at Harry for a couple of seconds before he nodded. "My group will leave twenty minutes after yours then, Harry."

"Albus!" "Dumbledore!" The older adults protested.

The Weasley boys looked at each other, then at their parents. "We're going with Harry, Mum," Bill said. "Ron will go with you, and Ginny is going to stay and help Madam Pomfrey."

Tonks stepped forward. "I'm going with Harry, and Kingsley and Em are following with you." She came over to where Siri was standing. "I'll keep an eye on him for you, Siri, until you get there."

He looked at his cousin. "How...?"

Tonks winked and then smirked. "You need better silencing charms."

Siri felt his face flush. He knew they had forgotten something last night, but they had taken advantage of the fact that the dorm room was empty but for them. Ron had gone to stay with his family in the guest wing, and they had felt that they were both finally ready to make love. Now it looked like they had both forgotten that several members of the Order had been given beds in the floors above and below them.

"Let's go," Harry said, saving Siri from more embarrassment.

As Harry pulled away, Siri grabbed his hand and squeezed. He was afraid that if he touched Harry any more than that he would never let him go. Instead, he let his eyes say everything that he needed to say.

"I'll see you there," he whispered as Harry squeezed back. Siri watched Harry until he was past the doors, stealing all chances of another glimpse for the moment. "I'll see you there."