A/N: For my faithful few.

Chapter 4

Harry wasn't sure why, but he didn't tell Ron and Hermione everything he had talked about with Professor Watson. Part of it was that he didn't see as much of them as he used to. During the summer, Hermione had decided she wanted to know once and for all if the attraction she felt for Ron was mutual. The events at the Ministry of Magic had brought home to her how fragile life could be with Voldemort on the loose. She finally worked up the nerve, while staying at The Burrow, to tell Ron how she felt and discovered he was in complete agreement. Ever since they had become a couple, and both were made prefects, Harry had seen less and less of them.

More and more he found himself in Ginny's company, which wasn't altogether disappointing. Like Hermione, she was more studious and thus nudged Harry in that direction also, and he was able to help her some with her studies since he was a year ahead of her.

It didn't entirely fit with Ginny's plan to get over Harry and focus on her studies, but it seemed whenever she was studying in the common room or the library and he came in, he sought her out and joined her. Part of her wished he wouldn't, but a larger part of her was pleased that he did; she just wished it meant something more than Ron and Hermione not being available.

With the demise of the Dolores Umbridge regime at Hogwarts, Harry's lifetime ban from Quidditch had been lifted and he was looking forward to the new season. He was made the new captain of the team, with the graduation of several team members, and Ginny didn't begrudge his return as seeker. She decided she preferred to try out for Chaser instead and had easily won a spot. The other positions were also filled and practices added to an already full schedule.

One thing most students liked was that the new Defense teacher wasn't big on written work. Some subjects warranted an essay, but mostly she was a 'hands-on' person and preferred to drill them in class. It wasn't unusual to be sitting in class and have her attempt to hex a student unawares. They had learned to keep their wands on their desks and be prepared for anything unexpected from her. As she pointed out, someone attacking them wasn't going to give them time to be aware an attack was coming or prepare a defense – it had to be an automatic reaction on their part. It got to the point if they even glimpsed a wand being raised in their peripheral vision, they snatched their wand at the ready.

The other change she made to the Defense class, was to start teaching them to use magic without their wands. While such magic was more unfocused and less powerful, she pointed out that they didn't want to be entirely helpless if their wand was unavailable to them. Harry had volunteered a first-hand experience he had had with such magic and agreed it could come in handy. More than once when facing Voldemort he had been unarmed.

As much as Harry was enjoying the Defense classes, and the lack of homework in them, he still felt reluctant to approach Professor Watson and ask her more about his parents. She hadn't pursued the subject any further since that one evening when they had talked, but he was anxious to find out more about his mother, and anything else she might know about his parents and Sirius.

Part of his reluctance to approach her had to do with Snape's apparent recovery from their argument. Snape was once again seeking out her company, and so Harry found it difficult to catch her when Snape was not around. He wasn't quite sure what her relationship with Snape was, but more than once he thought he caught a hint of annoyance on her face when Snape turned up. Snape naturally was never happy to see Harry anywhere, at any time, and did all he could to get rid of him if he was hanging around Professor Watson. Not wanting to be around Snape or say anything personal in front of him, Harry usually beat a hasty retreat at the sight of him.

And so it might have continued had Snape not made a snide comment to him during Occlumency lessons. Something he had done had irritated Snape who finally snapped at him, "When are you going to stop expecting preferential treatment, Potter? Just because Professor Watson used to be in love with your godfather and she treats you with deference doesn't mean the rest of us will! You need to learn to discipline yourself and do the work, not expect leniency!" With that, he had sent Harry on his way for the evening; but his comment had raised new questions in Harry's mind. Professor Watson had been in love with Sirius? He had only gotten the impression from what she had said that they were friends, nothing more. He decided to stick his neck out and arrange to talk to her again and see if he could find out more.

An opportunity didn't arrive for nearly a week, but when she dismissed class a little early one day, he told Ron and Hermione he'd catch up to them and approached her. "Um, Professor, I wonder if I might meet with you after classes today?" She appeared curious, but nodded, "Certainly, Harry. Come by around five."

When Harry returned, shortly after five o'clock, he saw Snape headed in the same direction, but went on into the classroom and knocked on the office door, which was standing open. Professor Watson looked up at him and smiled, "Come in, Harry." She waved him toward a chair and looked questioningly at him.

Harry cleared his throat and glanced out the open door, where Snape was entering the classroom. She followed his gaze and spotted the reason for his hesitation. Standing quickly she moved to close the door, and then seemed to notice Snape for the first time as he climbed the stairs. "Oh, Severus, I'm busy with a student just now. Perhaps I'll see you later." Not waiting for a response, she closed the door on him. Harry turned his head to hide his grin.

There was a twinkle in Watson's eyes as she returned to her chair, "So, Harry, what did you want to see me about?"

Nervously he cleared his throat again and, not quite looking directly at her, answered, "Well, Professor Snape said something and I was kind of wondering if it was true. But it may not be any of my business." He added the last bit quickly, just in case she thought he wanted to pry. She seemed to be a pretty private person.

"Well, I won't know if it's none of your business until I know what he said," she told him and raised an eyebrow at him.

"He, uh, well, he said that you were...in love with Sirius." To his own ears it sounded pretty stupid, and he winced at even having brought it up.

To his surprise, she let out a chuckle. "Hmmm, that's a bit tricky to answer. Snape wasn't lying in the sense that everyone thought we were in love with each other. And I guess we never really made much of an effort to correct that impression – except when Sirius had his eye on some girl and it wasn't convenient to have a 'girlfriend', that is! But the truth is, we were never in love. I loved him dearly, it's true, and we were great friends, but I was never 'in love' with him, and he knew that. And I really don't think he was ever in love with me either. If he was, he hid it well in his ogling of other girls, even when he was with me!"

Harry wasn't sure if he felt relieved or disappointed. Apparently she could tell her answer didn't entirely satisfy his curiosity, so she told him, "Harry, maybe I better give you a bit more history so you'll understand the situation."

Her gaze shifted out the window and she was lost in thought for a few moments, "Where to begin...I guess before I can explain my relationship with Sirius, I need to explain a few things about your parents." Harry leaned forward with interest.

"James fell in love with Lily somewhere in third or fourth year, but like many teenage boys that age, he was pretty obnoxious. Especially when he was with Sirius and the other Marauders. He was good looking, athletically talented and supremely self-confident, so naturally a great many of the girls at Hogwarts had mad crushes on him, but Lily wasn't one of them. I think at first his interest in her may partially have been fueled by the fact that she seemed immune to his charm, but over time he began to really have feelings for her. But he could never get her to see past his cocky, obnoxious exterior, and it didn't help that no matter how hard he tried to behave in order to impress her, Sirius would inevitably show up and lure him into some escapade that completely undermined his efforts."

"Over time, he grew up and gained a bit of maturity, but he was still a ready participant in the pranks of the Marauders. He finally decided that the only way he was going to be able to convince Lily to give him a chance, was if he could find a new 'playmate' for Sirius. That's where I came in. As Lily's best friend, I knew that deep inside she did actually rather like James, but was too stubborn to admit it. I had always gotten along fine with the Marauders, much to her disgust. James finally enlisted my aid in keeping Sirius occupied, away from him, so he could work on improving Lily's opinion of him. We put the plan into action around Christmas of our sixth year.

"Sirius and I readily hit it off, getting along even better than we had imagined. Although we were friendly prior to that, I never spent any real time with him, mostly out of loyalty to Lily. But James fixed us up on a date for the Yule Ball to get us started and give me an excuse to start spending more time with him and less with Lily. I never really took Sirius, well...seriously, if you'll pardon the pun. I knew a lot of his showing off was just to get attention, and I never really had a crush on him or James, so I wasn't easily swept off my feet by their charms. In a way, that may have been part of why we hit it off so well. Sirius had tons of girls willing to swoon all over him, and he thoroughly enjoyed that, believe me. But as he got older, he found he actually wanted something more, and most of the girls who had their eye on him didn't fit the bill. As James began moving more toward Lily, and slowly getting her to warm up to him, Sirius was left feeling a bit adrift. Guys, and girls for that matter, have different relationships with the different sexes. There were things he would talk about with me that I'm sure he never would have felt comfortable telling James or the others. And I doubt very much that he let the guys see him cry very often, if ever. So I guess I filled a spot in his life that needed filling." She paused in her narrative, lost in thought, then finally continued.

"Anyway, I served the purpose James had in mind. My spending a lot of time with Sirius left Lily alone for James to approach, and it kept Sirius occupied so James could approach her. To tell you the truth, I think I confessed the whole thing to Sirius about three weeks along – about James using me to keep him busy. He pretended to be affronted by it, but he had to admit he had fun with me and didn't really mind too much. And he wanted James to be happy. Plus Sirius and I fell into an easy relationship. I filled in a lot for the absent James, which luckily Remus and Peter never minded. When Sirius would take notice of a girl he wanted to pursue, we'd just 'break up' until he got tired of her and they split up. Then he'd come 'back' to me. I suppose the fact that I 'always took him back' fueled the belief that I was in love with him!"

"But he'd do the same for you, right?" Harry asked. "If you were interested in a guy, he'd break up with you so the guy could approach you?"

She shrugged, "That never came up. I was only ever really in love once and the guy in question never demonstrated any feelings for me beyond friendship. But, yes, he would have helped me out along those lines if I had wanted him to." Her gaze drifted off into space again, and Harry caught a look of sadness. He couldn't help wondering who the guy was who hadn't been interested. He almost got the feeling that she had never gotten over him, but that was just too personal to ask about and he kept his curiosity to himself.

"But...well, I heard that my mom used to hate my dad. How did he convince her to start liking him?" he asked instead.

She smiled gently, "Partly he just grew up a bit and started acting more mature. Partly she already rather liked him even if she was unwilling to admit it to herself. And partly we all conspired against her!" Harry looked vaguely shocked at this admission so she added, "Oh, nothing bad. Lily was always very straight-laced, too much so in fact. I really had to work on her to get her to have any fun, even good clean fun. That was part of the distance separating her and James – they were completely different personalities. So I worked on getting her to loosen up, and James worked on settling down and behaving more, until they were able to reach an acceptable middle ground that both of them could live with. And really, in essentials, they weren't all that different. Both were very caring, loyal and kind people. Sometimes it showed in different ways for each of them, but it was still there. And they were good for each other. Once they finally did fall in love with each other, it brought out the best in both of them."

Harry sat grinning to himself at the portrait she had painted of his parents. Despite what he had seen in Snape's pensieve the previous year, he now had a better idea of who his father was, and a realization that that one incident wasn't an accurate reflection of who he was or what he became later. Suddenly he realized he was still sitting in Professor Watson's office and looked up a bit guiltily. "Sorry. Didn't mean to get lost in thought like that," he offered.

"It's all right. I've given you quite a bit to think about," she replied. "But now, perhaps we should go get some dinner."

As they moved toward the door together, Harry glanced at her, "Um, Professor, would it be okay if I came by some now and then to talk about my parents and Sirius?"

She put a hand on his shoulder, "Of course, Harry. I'll try to tell you anything you want to know about them. Just be patient with me, okay? I'm still finding it difficult to deal with their being gone." He nodded his understanding, and agreement, and they moved on toward the Great Hall.