Writer: Azure K Mello

Title: A Bond Never Dies

Part: 98 of ? or part 15 of Part Three

Words: 506

Remember that time, at the start of the year when we went to that concert? That was fun.

Waking to the scent of cooking eggs Harry cuddled into the warm mass next to him and the mass laughed, "Morning, Har," said Sirius wrapping an arm around his step-son's waist.

"I don't wanna go to school."

"And I don't want to go to work but I think we'll both get speeches from your dad if we don't."

Harry opened his eyes slowly and asked, "Who's making breakfast?"

"I think it's Severus, he likes doing int when he's home."

The words made Harry sad. Severus was a spy so he had to keep up the appearance of lonely solitude but it did leave the man actually lonely. He generally only got home a coupled nights out of the week. Remus kept up the pretense of commuting to the school while, in reality, he spent as much time in his lover's quarters as possible which wasn't much time at all. The sneaking about had amused them at first, acting like teenagers. But after nearly a decade it was growing tiring and it was evident in the way they would sit sometimes at night reading. They would lean against each other in an outward show of comfortable silence while it was obvious that they were soaking up the feeling of each other's presence and storing it for the nights they were apart.

Harry sat up and stretched before walking over to the pile of his clothes that his dad had neatly folded the night before. James loved playing at being an adult and Harry smiled at his refolded socks. He could smell a cleansing spell on the materials as he pulled his shirt over his head. Out in the kitchen he bid everyone a good morning as he grabbed a plate off the counter and thanked Severus for feeding him. Remus asked how he'd slept and Harry lied and said fine. Every time he'd drifted off to sleep he'd seen people he loved dying and he'd grabbed his dad's arm in his sleep and unknowingly forced the man to witness it too because of their shared powers. He'd woken in tears and his father was stroking his hair promising that things would be alright. And Harry had whispered, not wanting to wake Sirius that, while he had seen pictures of her, he could not remember what his mother looked like. And James had assured him that she wouldn't resent him for not remembering and Harry had said, "She was so beautiful." And James had nodded. And when her face had been contorted in pain Harry could almost convince himself that she'd been laughing, and she'd been beautiful throughout it all.

James flooed with him into the entrance hall fire place at the castle and said, "Come home tonight?"

And Harry said, "No, I'll be fine now. I'll call you if I have any dreams." And he was lying again. That was two lies in under and hour. He had never lied to his father before, not over important things. He looked at his surroundings and hated the castle.