Author writes like a maniac, hoping to appease readers who have admittedly been forced to wait for an update for over a week.

Harry and Severus circled each other in the training room. They had been training for two days, wanting to be in top condition for the coming confrontation. Harry had spied a little more on Voldemort, which was much easier now that Severus was helping him, and discovered Remus was indeed alive. He had been beated up a bit when captured, but otherwise was left alone for the time being and reasonably well taken care of.

"Ouch, Sev, that hurt."

"Good. You let your mind wander. Complete concentration, please."

"Ok, ok…"

Severus wiped his brow. Even when distracted, Harry was a lethal opponent.

"Why haven't you lectured me yet on my refusal to talk to Dumbledore?" he asked.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Do I lecture you that often? It is between you and Albus, and I do understand why you acted like that."

Severus ducked to avoid Harry taking him out, and with his mind picked up a sword.

"No, you never lectured me, only advised me," he admitted, "but this is your godfather we are talking about. I would understand it if you pestered me about it."

"I trust you," Harry said simply, ducking the swing of the blade and holding up his hand, catching the hilt, "the only thing that worries me is that you have to face Remus again as a werewolf. Remus is important to me, but so are you. You are the only person I ever wanted to impress."

Severus raised an eyebrow and threw a javelin at Harry. "Me? We hated each other."

Harry jumped aside and sent the javelin right back. "Exactly. I may have hated you, but you never treated me like anything special, like the others did. No sane adult would expect an eleven year old to face Voldemort. Everyone had such high expectations of me. You didn't expect anything unreasonable, and I think that's why I wanted to impress you."

Severus caught the Javelin and banished it back to the weapon rack. "I know. You had to do things no one had a right to expect from you. But, I'm very impressed with you, Harry. I always was, I just didn't want to show it. When you drove away all those Dementors in your third year…after I stopped ranting about it, I realised you did something previously unheard of."

Harry levitated himself into the air. "I'm sorry we stunned you. It must have been very difficult for you to come and save us."

Severus followed him into the air and threw up a shield as Harry bombarded him with powerful stunners.

"It was. I was so mad at Albus and Remus for endangering students like that. Even though you should not have been out that night…"

"That was an ACCIDENT. We only wanted to see Hagrid before Buckbeak was executed. Sirius dragged Ron into the shack, breaking his leg in the process. Idiot."

"Did you just call your Godfather an idiot?" Severus smirked, putting more power in the shield to keep it up.

"Well, I loved him dearly, but he never did grow up. Reckless as when he was a teen, and without consideration for others. I can see now that in many ways, he was incredibly juvenile."

"True. He really was devoted to you, though. But I must admit, however much Remus scares me by being the werewolf that almost killed me, he is much more mature. Well, despite his lapse in judgement in your third year, but I guess that's to be expected. He apologised to me later, in Grimmauld place. I know I should never have gotten him fired, but I was so scared."

Harry sent a huge blast and broke through Severus' shield, catching the man before he could fall or slam into a wall and hurt himself.

"It's not the amount of power you sent into the shield, it's how you use it. You can more or less configure it to suit the spell that's sent to you. It will save energy. Is the Shrieking Shack what drove you to Voldemort?"

Severus got up from the floor and experimented with the shield as Harry had advised.

"More or less. I think I wouldn't have if I had been allowed to talk about it. And if the Marauders had been told to back off. But instead they tormented me about not being allowed to talk to anyone, while I was sleep deprived from having nightmares about it every night…Hey! I wasn't going to talk to you about it."

Harry smiled slightly. "Sparring is an excellent opportunity to talk. Let's get this straight, Severus. I loved Sirius. I love Remus, who has been the perfect godfather to me since Sirius died. But I am not blind to their faults and I care a lot about you. I certainly won't forbid you to talk about what happened in the Shack…twice. You can be angry at Sirius, at Remus, at my Dad, and at me, we do deserve that. It means a lot to me that after all you've been through, you still volunteered to help Remus this way. I consider you my best friend, Severus, and if there's anything bothering you, I want to know so I can help you."

Severus snorted. "I'm not angry with you. You were thirteen, and did what you thought was best. I wasn't very receptive either. You grew up a lot, and I'm proud to call you my friend now. I'm terrified of Remus, but I'm not really angry anymore. Your father and Sirius are dead. The only one I'm angry with about all this is Albus."

"You know you can tell him that," Harry said, as he summoned a trunk.

"Why would I?"

"He would listen now."

"Exactly. Now. You were a child, Harry, with the weight of the world on your shoulders. And I made your life hell. I was the adult, and I should have known better. I'm glad you forgave me for that, by the way. Now imagine me as a child, having had a near death experience as a result of a prank, and a wizard over 100 years old, tells me to shut up about it. Even years later, when you came to Hogwarts, he would tell me to drop my lousy attitude towards the Marauders. He threw me in Azkaban because of a potion, but he wasn't under the influence of a potion all those years before. Back then, HE was the adult who should have known better."

Harry nodded, throwing up his own shield. "I guess with you everyone always knew what to expect, even if it wasn't good. But Dumbledore raised expectations and then dropped you like a rock. I guess it's no wonder you were a lousy teacher, you didn't exactly have the best of examples."

Severus sneered. "Why, thank you for this assessment of my teaching skills, Harry."

"Oh, you got better. You taught me a lot this year. But you have to admit that Neville, for instance, would have been better off with a more patient potions instructor. He managed alright once Hermione began to teach him in seventh year so he could take the NEWT."

"He passed his potions NEWT?" Severus asked in amazement.

"Yes he did. He needed it for his career as a Herbologist. He has his own business now and many of my ingredients come from his shop."

"I'm glad to hear it. Pomona always did brag about his abilities."

"Yes, he's gaining fame fast. Anyway, there's a Boggart in this trunk. I presume it will change into Remus' werewolf. I know you can't actually mindlink to a Boggart, but you can practice alternative ways of restricting him."

Severus took a deep breath and nodded. "I'm ready."

Harry opened the trunk, and out leapt a snarling werewolf, foam on its mouth, eyes fixed on the Potions Master, who raised a trembling hand.

It may be a werewolf, Harry thought, but it did have some characteristics of his godfather. The color of the fur, something in the shape of the eyes and nose, reminded him of Remus.

From the corner of his eye he saw Dumbledore enter, and pale at the sight of the werewolf.

Something was wrong. Severus seemed paralysed with fear. His face was pale and sweaty and he didn't make a move to stop the wolf at all.

Harry was debating whether or not to interfere when Severus finally managed to reach his magic and thrust it out, binding the wolf's legs and muzzling it. Then he walked up to it and touched it.

"A-apparate to the cellar room here," he said, shaking all over.

"Riddikulus," Harry said, banishing the Boggart, "are you ok, Sev?"

"N..No, I don't think so…but I will be. I did it, didn't I?"

Dumbledore walked towards them and gently put a hand on the still shaking shoulder. Severus flinched and shrugged the hand off quickly, glaring at the headmaster.

"Child…" the headmaster began, trying to catch the Potions Masters eyes, but Severus turned away.

"Go away. I don't need another lecture on why I should let go of my feelings towards your Golden Gryffindors," he said harshly, trying to wipe the sweat from his face.

"Severus, I'm not…"

"GO AWAY!" Severus yelled, "Isn't it enough that I have to go through this? I'm WORKING on it, ok? I will save him, for Harry! Do you have to come taunt me while I'm training too?"

Harry fully expected Dumbledore to either leave or start reproaching the younger wizard, but instead, the headmaster walked up to Severus and grabbed his shoulders, firmly turning him around.

"Look at me. LOOK AT ME!" he yelled in the man's face, "Look into my eyes. I won't throw up any defences. Look into my mind if you won't believe my words."

The angry man tried to free himself from the tight grip, but the headmaster held on, finally catching his eyes.

Harry, still mindlinked with Severus, was drawn into the headmasters mind as well before he realised what was happening and broke the link, but the one peek he got was enough to see that Dumbledore was sincere. He was truly sorry for how he treated Severus, and while he was still fond of Harry's father and godfathers, as well as of Harry himself, his mind showed beyond a shadow of doubt that only Severus held the place of a son in his heart.

Severus relaxed, but didn't break the connection. Instead, Harry saw him opening his own mind. Harry had a good idea what he was showing the old wizard, and his suspicions were confirmed when Dumbledore shuddered and paled.

"Haunted by Marauders and werewolves," Severus said softly, "Years of spying and torture. Being thrown in Azkaban. I love you too, but you keep expecting too much of me. It can't all be right suddenly. I haven't been happy at any time in my life. Living here with Harry this past year could qualify as 'happy' if I didn't have Azkaban and all the other junk to work through, not to mention worrying about defeating Voldemort. If you can't live with that, sir, if you can't accept that I will be going back and forth between getting better and having relapses for probably many years to come, I will understand. I believe you, your mind can't lie, but I don't want you to stay out of guilt or pity."

Dumbledore snorted before drawing the dark head to his shoulder. "Don't be ridiculous, child."

Severus sighed and briefly closed his eyes before pulling back. "Speaking of Riddikulus," he smiled slightly, "we should probably try this again."

They practised with the Boggart for another hour until Severus could face it without freezing up again.

"Do you think you can manage?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Severus said, waving his hand to summon a drink of juice, "it all depends on the mindlink. If that works, I can get him out of there easily and without any risk. But should that fail, I now know I can handle it."

Diagon Alley was emptied. So was Knockturn Alley. Hit wizards had taken their places, hidden on top of buildings. Dumbledore and the others chosen to fight –Harry had insisted only the most experienced warriors joined them- were hidden inside shops. Harry and Severus would enter Diagon Alley from the Leaky Cauldron, appearing to be alone. They doubted Voldemort would believe it, but it did give them an advantage. They wore battle gear, and appeared to have no wands with them. Harry did have his, as it might be an advantage to have the brother wand of Voldemort's at some point, hidden in the secret pocket of his pants, but Severus hadn't bothered bringing his.

5.45 pm

"Remember, shield first, mindlink later," Harry whispered through the corner of his mouth.

"Yes, yes, I do remember, thank you," Severus said impatiently, and more then a little nervous.

"Are they here yet?"

"No, not yet. No signs of them in Knockturn Alley either."

5.50 pm

"Death Eaters have begun to Apparate to Knockturn Alley. They have hidden inside the shops. Fred and George are sneaking around, locking up as many as they can," Draco reported through his mindlink with Harry.

5.55 pm

"Tonks is about to have a fit. He better be here quickly. If this continues, I will have to pull her out of the battle and send her back to Hogwarts to wait. She might not be stable enough."

"Do what you think is necessary to keep her safe. Be careful, Draco, and break the mindlink as soon as Voldemort has entered Diagon Alley."

"I will. Good luck, guys."

5.59 pm

"It has begun. He is here. I'm breaking the link now. Go get 'em, Harry."

Voldemort entered Diagon Alley, surrounded by Death Eaters and Dementors, one of them dragging an exhausted Remus Lupin along on a silver chain.

"We are ready for you, Harry," he taunted.