Harry woke up and stretched his arms, yawning. He knew he wasn't at the Dursleys, he knew he didn't have to go to class, he'd be spending the day with his best friends, and he was with the closest thing he'd ever get to a parent: life didn't get much better than this.
The floor was warm as he stepped out of bed. He didn't bother getting dressed; pajamas were fine for breakfast. Harry came to the door of the guest room and knocked, "Ron, breakfast."
He heard a groan from behind the door. Apparently Ron wasn't ready to get up yet.
Harry went downstairs without him.
Sirius was just setting the table for breakfast. He set the table for six.
"What's going on? There's only three of us."
"Oh, Jenn stuck her head in the fireplace and said the girls wanted to come see you later, but I told her, 'Why wait?' And I invited them all over for breakfast."
"Oh. I'll be right back." Harry ran upstairs and threw open the door to the guest room. "Ron!"
"What? Can't a guy get any sleep around here?"
"You can if you want to miss breakfast. Hermione and Renata are coming over."
"They are?"
"They'll be here any minute."
They ran downstairs still in their pajamas and didn't slow until they were nearly in the kitchen. The girls were at the table.
Renata saw them and laughed, "Wow. Pajamas at breakfast. It must be the latest fashion statement!"
Hermione smiled, "We must be really behind the times, Renata."
"Yeah, I'll say. First thing tomorrow I'm buying new PJs."
The boys tried to shrug it off. "It's early. We didn't feel like changing. Big deal."
"Yeah. What's for breakfast?" *********************************************
That night, after Ron had gone upstairs and Renata had gone home, Hermione stayed and talked to Harry for a long time.
Harry asked, "We're almost done with school. We'll have to join the real world. Any regrets yet in life?"
"I wish my parents understood more about me being a witch. They don't really. It confuses them. They say they're proud and I know they love me but they don't really understand. And I think my sister's afraid of me."
"You never told us you had a sister."
"She's fourteen. Not a witch. She doesn't understand either. And at least my parents are supportive. She tries to pretend it isn't true. She tells her friends I'm at boarding school and I think she tries to believe it, too. Do you have regrets?"
"Yeah, I do. I couldn't stop them dying. Not Cedric. Not Terry. Not my parents. Not Hagrid. I couldn't save them. They all died and I couldn't do a thing about it."
Hermione tried to lighten the mood. "It's not your fault, you're the only one who thinks you have to carry the world on your shoulders. You're answer just now seemed really honest, so I guess that truth serum of Malfoy's is still working. So what do you really think of Renata?"
"Actually, it's not working. And I'm not going to tell you."
"Why not?"
"Because.it's not your business."
"It could be. Maybe I could help."
"How?"
"Well that depends on what you think of her."
"What do you think of Ron?"
"I think I'm leaving now and I'm not going to tell you. Goodbye, Harry. I'll see you in the morning."
"Bye, Hermione." He heard her leave via the fireplace as he went upstairs to put on his pajamas. *************************************
The next two days were a lot of fun; they hung out, talked, and didn't come to the table in their pajamas if the girls were coming over. Although the very next day the girls had done just that and laughed when they saw the boys weren't wearing pajamas. All the while Sirius and Jenn watched with bemused smiles. ************************************
On the twenty-fourth no one came over for breakfast, and Ron wasn't there when Harry woke up.
He walked downstairs, fully dressed. "Sirius, what's going on? Where's Ron?"
"Harry, I think you should come with me."
"Where are we going, Sirius?"
"I think it's time you saw this." Harry and Sirius stood in front of the fire. Harry didn't catch the name of the place they were whisked off to but when they got there were a gate and a security guard in front of him.
"Sirius, where are we?"
"I thought you ought to see where your parents are buried, Harry." Sirius showed the guard his identification and he pushed back Harry's bangs with the other hand. The guard nodded and the gates opened. Sirius steered Harry in with a hand on his shoulder.
They walked past rows of headstones. Finally they reached two of the headstones in particular and stopped in front of them. One was a triangle. It read: HERE LIES LILLY POTTER, LOVING MOTHER & WIFE. MAY HER SPIRIT FOREVER ENDURE. Beneath the words was a small carving of a phoenix, shaded in with red and gold. The headstone next to it was a circle that read: HERE RESTS JAMES POTTER, DEVOTED FATHER AND HUSBAND. MAY HE ALWAYS BE AT PEACE. Beneath his words was a phoenix icon identical to Lilly's. Harry looked around and saw that very few of the headstones bore the mark of the phoenix. Probably no more than two-dozen.
Harry knew he was crying. He let himself cry. Sirius was crying too. Sirius finished and Harry cried for another minute or so, Sirius's hand on his shoulder.
Finally, he looked up at Sirius. "I never knew them, Sirius. The only time I see them or hesr them is while I watch them die, over and over in my mind. I don't have memories. Only guilt. They died because of me. Just like Cedric did. I watched them all die and I couldn't do anything."
"Listen to me, Harry. It's not your fault. Voldemort killed Cedric. Voldemort killed Terry. Voldemort killed your parents. You couldn't stop him."
"Sirius, what's going to happen when I die?"
"No one really knows what happens when we die. Some people become ghosts but as to the rest, how do any of us know?"
"People think that when I die.something will happen. Something bad. Dumbledore thinks so and so does Renata's mum. Sirius, do all of you know something that I don't? What's going to happen?"
Sirius hugged him tightly. "We aren't going to let anything happen to you, Harry."
"I'm not afraid of him, Sirius. What's going to happen to everyone else?"
"I can't tell you, Harry."
"Why?"
"Because, I'm not allowed to, Harry! Don't you understand? You took divination. Didn't you plot out the paths of destiny? Don't you know?"
"Know? Know? No, I don't know. We're supposed to start destiny plotting this year."
Sirius sighed, genuine pain was in his face and voice. "I just can't tell you. Dumbledore will. He'll tell you when he thinks your ready to hear the truth."
"Sirius, I can handle whatever it is. I want answers. Please. I need answers."
"Harry."
"Why aren't you teaching this year? Why did Voldemort want to kill my parents? Sirius, answer me!"
"Harry, Dumbledore gave me an excellent recommendation to teach at another school. So I will still be teaching."
"What about my parents? Voldemort killed them because of me. Didn't he?"
"Harry, I think we should go home."
"No! Not until you answer my questions."
"Harry, this isn't a talk I'm allowed to have with you. Dumbledore told you he'd tell you when the time was right."
"Sirius, for seven years I've been asking why it happened. If the time isn't right now when will it be?"
"Harry, I trust Dumbledore in this. He knows what he's doing."
"Sirius, Hagrid trusted Dumbledore, too. Don't you see? It doesn't matter anymore because something didn't go right and Hagrid is dead. Just like my parents. If I don't know anything I'm not going to be able to help stop it."
"Harry, even if I could tell you I don't think there'd be anything you could do about it."
"Can't you tell me anything?"
"Let's go home, Harry."
"I'm not leaving. Not yet."
"Alright. I'm going. Come home when you're ready."
Harry wandered around the cemetery. He read the headstones and thought about his parents and anything he could remember hearing about them. He knew every word his parents had said when Voldemort had shown up. He knew precisely how they lay when they died. He knew their last words. Harry tried to think of something else about them. He remembered a dream he'd had in his fifth year, during his stay at St. Mungos Hospital for Magical Maladies. He found himself at his parents' home. They were alive and well, his mother holding a one year old him in her arms. He had warned them about Peter. He told them to get of there, told them that they had to leave. They said they knew and that that was the way it had to be. Then he'd woken up. He tried to think of anything else he could remember, he tried to get away from that awful night. He thought back to the day he'd first met Hagrid. Hagrid had told him that his parents had been Head Girl and Head Boy at Hogwarts. Harry was Head Boy now. Thinking about Hagrid was still painful too, what else did he know? Quiditch. His dad played Quiditch for Gryffindor. Nothing painful there, Harry was great at Quiditch.
Harry sighed. A handful of things he'd been told. That was all he had left of them; that, a pile of money in Gringotts, the invisibility cloak, and a single notebook that had belonged to his mum. Walking around he found the grave of Jonathan Delano, there was a Phoenix icon. Harry thought This must be Renata's dad. In another part he saw the grave of Mrs. Figg's husband.
Harry knew he didn't need to stay any longer. He made his way back to the gate, nodded at the security guard, and disappeared through the fireplace.