Disclaimer - I don't own Harry Potter. It belongs to J.K Rowling, and I guess in some part, Warner Brothers.
When Harry Potter woke up the next morning, he was pleasantly surprised to find a rather large black dog nestled at the foot of his bed. When Harry sat up, the dog immediately jumped onto the floor, ran to Harry's trunk, flipped open the top, pulled out a robe, and flung the robe on top of the bed. Harry grinned and got out of bed quietly, shooing the dog out and quickly getting dressed. The stones were cold against his bare feet, so he pulled on his socks and shoes as well. Downstairs, the common room was empty, save his parents and the reformed Sirius.
"Let's go take a walk." Lily suggested brightly, with forced enthusiasm. She got up and gave Harry a lingering, tight hug. James got up and ruffled Harry's already ruffled hair.
"Yeah, good idea, Lils."
"C'mon Harry, don't want to get grounded, do you?" Sirius asked, getting up off the couch and winking at Harry. With that, he transformed back into the big black dog. Harry followed the little group out of the portrait hole. They walked along in silence until they reached one of the unused classrooms, and James ushered everyone inside. Sirius remained in his Animagus form. Instead of sitting with the others, he flopped down with a sigh in a circle and curled up into a ball. James shot the dog an irritated look, then wiped his face carefully blank.
"Harry, we need to tell you something." James began. Harry looked from his parents to Sirius and back again. His stomach was clenching, and he could tell something was wrong. He should have realized it the instant that Sirius curled up in the corner.
"We can't...stay like this, Harry. Not when it'll cost Remus his life. There are more important things in life than...living a long life." Lily said gently, but awkwardly. Harry felt like someone had stuffed cotton in his ears and mouth. A feeling of panic was taking over him and his heart was thudding against his breastbone.
"It's more important to be honorable, and good. Loyal to your friends. We couldn't be happy living like this Harry. We're going to stay with you until Voldemort is gone again. We're so proud of you, Harry. I know life hasn't been easy for you," James was saying. But Harry was no longer listening. He could barely hear his father, it was like he had been stuffed underwater. Taking a quick, shuddery gasp for air, Harry catapulted off the desk he'd been sitting on and burst out of the room. The black dog leapt to its feet and began to gallop towards the door.
"Stop, Sirius!" Lily called pleadingly, tears choking her voice. The dog's body jerked, but it halted. It turned and stared at the couple with sad brown eyes. James felt like his heart had split in half. He wrapped Lily in his arms when she started to cry and fixed his eyes on the empty doorway. The black dog yelped miserably, and curled up in the corner again.
Harry meanwhile, was running aimlessly down corridors. He felt like he was going to be sick if he stopped running, and he couldn't even bring himself to stop running. Suddenly, he changed directions, running for all he was worth down a corridor, and focusing hard on something. And then, suddenly, as he passed the same blank wall for the third time, the door of the Room of Requirement materialized. Harry latched onto the handle, pulled it open, and raced inside, pulling the door shut tight behind him.
"You mind?" someone snapped. Harry froze, the blood rushing from his face. Draco Malfoy's voice cut like a knife through Harry's mind. He hoped Malfoy wasn't here...with someone. Taking a deep breath, he turned around. Draco rose from where he had been sitting. Harry blinked and took a moment to decide whether he was dreaming. Books. The room was crammed with books, and there was an open one on the table Malfoy had been sitting at. He wondered what kind of books they were, and dared to take a step closer. To his even greater surprise, they were real books. The one before Draco was 'The Iliad', by Homer. Draco's golden blonde hair gleamed in the light.
"What are you doing here?" Harry asked coldly. Draco shrugged, the icy demeanor vanishing.
"I come here when I find even my own House members too stupid to be around. You?" Malfoy fired back, his grey eyes narrowing.
"Needed to be alone." Harry mumbled. Draco rolled his eyes.
"Let me guess. Your precious mum and dad are going to be good and honorable and go back to being dead." Malfoy sneered carelessly. Harry didn't even think - he punched Draco square in the nose. Draco stumbled back into a pile of books and toppled over, blood trailing down from his nose.
"Shut up!" Harry bellowed. Draco staggered to his feet, pulled out his wand, and muttered a spell to himself. The blood flowing from his nose stopped and vanished.
"Touchy, aren't we?" he muttered, more to himself than Harry. Draco sat down in his chair again. "You were kidding yourself if you thought they'd stay, Potter. They prided themselves on being honorable more than anything. Isn't that the way of you Gryffindors? If it had been my parents, they would have said 'To Hell with the other person' and stayed alive. The way of Slytherins, right?" Draco asked with a smirk that, if Harry looked closely, seemed a bit sardonic. "So in a way, we'll both be bitter." Draco said, slamming shut his book. He got up and headed for the door. "The room is yours, Potter." Malfoy announced from over his shoulder. He opened the door and walked out, shutting it tightly behind him. All the books vanished, and instead, they were replaced with a squashy couch, the red and yellow glow of a fire in a fireplace, and a keg of butterbeer. Harry took one of the already filled mugs, sat down on the couch, and stared in slight shock into the fireplace.
James finally slid off the desk he and Lily were sitting on.
"Where are you going?" Lily asked.
"I'm going to find Harry. I need to explain this all to him." James said. The words escaped his tight throat with difficulty. Lily watched as James nearly sprinted out of the room, and fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. She got off the desk and crouched by the black dog. It watched mournfully as she cried, and gave a startled snort as she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. In an effort to be comforting, it wrapped one paw around her and licked her cheek. After a few minutes passed, the black dog heaved itself to its feet, and padded out through the doorway. Lily hiccupped and attempted to squash the sad feelings. Failing miserably, she pulled her knees up to her chest, put her head down, and sobbed in the empty classroom; something she hadn't done since Third Year when one of the Slytherins made a joke about her heritage.
The door to the Room of Requirement banged open. Harry took another slow sip of Butterbeer, not bothering to turn around. Most likely, it was Dumbledore, or even Ron or Hermione, coming with more sage words of advice.
"We need to talk, Harry." James said, shutting the door firmly behind him.
"'Bout what?" Harry asked dully, staring into the blazing fire as James took a seat behind him.
"About the decision your mother, Sirius and I made. And about...something else."
"Go ahead. Tell me. I can take it." Harry snapped.
"Harry, I know this is," James sighed heavily. "This is the hardest damn thing I've ever had to do in my life. Do right by friend, or do right by my son. I want to stay here with you Harry. We all do. But we can't just take away Remus's life. He didn't know how it all would turn out. You have to understand." James said harshly, unable to be gentle or consoling at the moment.
"I get it." Harry assured him.
"You hate it, but you'll accept it, right?"
"Sure."
"Harry, damn it, we want to stay!" James bellowed. Harry finally looked over at him.
"Then go back! I'll be joining you soon - Voldemort and his stupid Death Eaters will see to that!" Harry shouted back.
"Listen, I know there's a lot of pressure on you. And I know you're scared. You won't show that to anyone, but I think you're terrified of Voldemort. You should be. I am. Not enough to sit back and let him go unchallenged, but enough that I used to sit awake in the middle of the night and debate over whose room I should stand guard over that night. Most nights I would bring you into your mom's and my room so that I could watch over both of you." James explained in a somewhat breathless voice. "This is an amazing second chance Harry. To get to know you. You get to know how proud we are of you, how much we love you. A lot of kids don't get that chance. Sirius never got it. But it's not fair to everyone. This is the only way we can make it fair."
"Why does everything have to be fair? Voldemort never is fair!" Harry shouted.
"But why would we want to be like him?" James shot back. Harry fell silent. "There's something else I want to talk to you about, Harry. The memory...that you saw of Snape's. The one with me and Sirius and Remus in it? It was wrong of us then. I know that now. Snape and I never liked each other. OK, so that was his worst memory. Well, you didn't see some of mine. You didn't see him poison my dinner one night, so that when I went to make a speech as Head Boy, I threw up everywhere. You didn't see Snape slip a potion into my drink one night, strong enough to make me go unconscious for a week - which it did. You didn't see some of the stuff he did. It doesn't justify what I did by any means. But it was always a war between us, and we were both desperate to win any way we could." James explained. Harry was staring fixedly into his Butterbeer.
"Then why weren't you the bigger man? Why didn't you just let him do what he wanted, and just walk away?"
"Haven't you or one of your friends ever snapped when Draco has been mean to you?"
"Yeah, but it wasn't public humiliation."
"So you deal in secrecy, but Snape and I did everything publicly. I'm not asking you to tell me 'OK Dad, then it's fine', because it really isn't fine. I'm trying to explain why I did those things. It never helped that Sirius didn't mind and no one would stop me. You're lucky Harry. You have friends who will restrain you, and friends who will probably egg you on at times. I'm going to check on your mother. She was pretty upset by you running off." James said heavily, getting to his feet. With that, he took his leave, and left Harry staring into the fire. Finally, Harry took one last swallow, set down the mug, and followed after his father.
I'M GETTING BETTER AT UPDATING! YAY! MORE STUFF IN THE NEXT CHAPTER - PLEASE REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT! (Again, any comments/criticism, etc. welcome)