Usual Disclaimer: Unfortunately this world and its wonderful inhabitants do not belong to me, they belong to J. K. Rowling, I'm just borrowing them. I am making no money from this it is purely for the enjoyment of those few who choose to read it. Thanks J. K. for lending me your ready made world of magic.
A/N: I have reposted all chapters of this story to try and iron out all the typos, spelling mistakes and grammar errors. There has been no change in the storyline at all and so it isn't necessary to reread any parts but I just thought I'd tell you all anyway...
Anyhoo.. Thanks to all my reviewers, namely: Fancy Fantasy Fairy, Siriusly Black2, Isis-mystic, Marie Falcon, NiaSphinx, Malfoy's Kitten, Hermione Bullstrode, tamachan444, SiLvErFaTeD, Fuzzy-Bumpkins, Nichole08, Raven, SeparatriX, Fallen Angel (Glad I was of help, thanks for continuing to review.)
Extra Disclaimer: Song lyrics below belong to Christina Aguilera. The song is 'Keep on Singing My Song'.
"I woke up this morning with a smile on my face
And nobody's gonna bring me down today.
Been felling like nothing's been going my way lately
But I decided right here, right now, that my outlook's gonna change."
Chapter 18 - Memories, Suspicions And Long Awaited Admissions.
"Oh wow, Harry." Ron exclaimed as they all stepped through into the Den.
"Wow." Hermione's expression exactly mirrored Ron's emotions.
"Welcome to the Marauders Den." Harry grinned.
"Oh, Harry!" Ginny cried excitedly, rushing over to the mural. "Did your dad do this?" She asked, running her fingers over the inscription in the corner. Nobody mentioned the large piece missing where the rat should have been. Ginny knew a bit about the Marauders but not everything that Ron and Hermione knew, she knew enough to be ecstatic that Harry was including her in this. She was a new Marauder and she couldn't have been happier. Harry nodded at her question, still grinning.
"Looks like we're the new generation of Marauders." He smiled around at them. "All of us." He added as he caught Ron's glance towards Draco.
"Me too?" Ginny squeaked, still hardly able to believe that she was being included in this.
"All of us." Harry reiterated, smiling warmly at her.
Ginny could resist the urge no longer and, jumping with excitement, she flung her arms around Harry's neck and briefly brushed her lips against his cheek in a swift kiss.
Harry blushed and glanced nervously at Draco who was currently scowling at Ginny who was now standing back and looking decidedly embarrassed but excited all the same. Ron was busy inspecting various trinkets and Ginny joined him, so Hermione was the only one who noticed Draco's expression but she pretended not to and joined Ron and Ginny although keeping one eye on Harry and Draco. She watched as Harry caught Draco's eye and shook his head almost imperceptibly, as if warning him not to curse Ginny. Harry's head turned in her direction and caught her prying eyes. He looked piercingly at her but again she pretended not to have seen anything and turned her attention to Ginny and Ron who were currently arguing over some object or another. Harry bit his lip with a look at Draco, but knew he couldn't afford to dwell on it or some one would definitely notice. 'Sorry' Draco mouthed, his eyes wide with fear of what he'd done. Harry smiled reassuringly, watched once again out of the corner of Hermione's eye.
"There's something else I want to show you guys." Harry said after a moment and he took an old fashioned key from his pocket. Ro and Ginny stopped arguing and he now had their rapt attention as he moved to the hatch in the floor and crouched down, unlocking it and lifting the pensieve from it's depths.
"Is that...?"
"A pensieve." Harry finished for her. "Full of Marauders memories."
"Wow Harry." Ron found himself saying once again, moving forward. "Can we?"
"Sure you all go ahead, I'll think I'll stay here, let you enjoy it." Hermione knew it must be hard for Harry to be sharing this, it must have been hard for him to see James and Sirius, and she had never been so grateful to be his friend. He wanted to share it with them. She was pretty sure that Harry would do anything for his friends and feeling overcome with happiness, she gave him a huge hug. "Thank you for sharing this with us." She whispered, trying to control her tears. She knew she had been a bit overly emotional since the scene she had witnessed that morning but she ignored the strange look Ron was giving her and proceeded to let herself into the pensieve, followed immediately by Ron and Ginny.
"Hermione knows something." Harry bit his lip, looking at Draco with a scared, wide-eyed expression.
"Knows what? How much?"
"I don't know but she knows something."
"It'll be okay." Draco tried to reassure Harry, pulling him into a tight embrace.
"I'm gonna tell her." Harry made a snap decision. "I'm gonna tell her everything before she can say anything to the others. I just hope I'm not too late." He cast a nervous glance over to the pensieve where his friends were currently swimming around in Marauder's memories.
"She wouldn't tell them, would she?" Draco raised a perfectly defined eyebrow.
"Better safe than sorry, I know she and Ron are going out but haven't told anyone so she can hardly tell me I'm in the wrong for hiding things..." Harry rushed out in one long breath. "She'll understand right?" Again he looked to Draco for reassurance.
"Of course she will." Draco squeezed Harry's hand that had slipped into his so naturally that he had barely registered it being there. "They're going out?"
"I think so. I picked up on something last night but I didn't say anything."
Harry gave a small smile. He had noticed small, furtive, lingering looks pass between them, much like the ones that had often passed between himself and Draco.
"That's better." Draco smiled himself, tracing a delicate finger over Harry's lips as he smiled. "Let's see the happy, confident Harry that held me in his arms this morning."
Harry sighed and melted into Draco's comforting arms.
Still nervous, Harry could not sit still and so paced the Den, inspecting objects he had already memorised every inch of. Eventually he came to the glass orb Draco had held the previous day. Sitting on the desk, it looked like an ordinary glass paperweight full of silvery smoke but as soon as Harry picked it up, the smoke cleared, showing him the Den as it was at that moment, focusing in on Draco in the armchair by the trinket cabinet.
"How does it work?" Harry wondered out loud, turning to face Draco.
"I don't know, I just picked it up and it showed me you. It followed you all the way up the stairs and back in here as well. I think it shows us each other."
"But nothing happened when Ron picked it up earlier. It didn't show him anything." Harry recalled from earlier when they had just shown Hermione, Ron and Ginny the Den. Draco shrugged and Harry passed him the orb, the focus quickly changed to show Harry.
"Weird." Harry murmured before a smile crept onto his lips and he took the orb back from Draco.
"What?" Draco asked, not sure that he liked the mischievous grin harry was now giving him.
"Oh nothing... just wondering who gets to take this back to Hogwarts?"
Draco reached up to take it back but Harry held it just out of reach. Draco smirked and stood up. Harry took two steps back as Draco dived at him the result of which being that Draco grabbed onto Harry's waist instead of his arm. Harry laughed and wriggled from Draco's grip.
"But I found it first." Draco pouted.
"Nuh-uh." Harry shook his head. "The puppy-dog eyes won't work." He grinned.
Draco growled playfully and lunged again but Harry was too quick, moving behind an armchair and watching as Draco banged his knee against the arm of the chair.
"Shit!" He cursed, rubbing his knee and pouting again. He took the chance while harry was laughing at him to reach out and grab the waistband of Harry's trousers, preventing his getaway. Draco moved towards him, pressing their bodies together. Harry gasped and his eyes flooded with desire as Draco kissed him. Before he knew it, Draco had pulled swiftly away and was standing a few feet away holding the orb triumphantly in one hand.
"Cheat!" Harry said pretending to be shocked and offended.
"Not my fault you're easily distracted." Draco replied smoothly. Harry moved closer to him and was about to do some 'distracting' of his own when the doorbell went and Mrs Black went ballistic.
"We'll finish this later." Harry promised and with a last hungry kiss, they left the orb on the desk and hurried downstairs.
"Remus!" Harry greeted the werewolf warmly and led him into the kitchen. He looked pretty rough and Harry deduced that it had recently been the full moon. Harry had not seen him since they had found the pensieve and he studied his old professor's features closely as Draco went about making cups of tea.
"So you found it?"
"The pensieve? Yeah, Ron, Hermione and Ginny are in it just now; I showed them this morning. It's brilliant Remus thank you."
"What are you thanking me for?"
"If it hadn't been for you we'd never have known t look for anything."
"I'm sure you'd have found it anyway." He smiled. "So... you've been through it? All of it?" Harry nodded, Remus looked nervous.
"Pretty much everything."
"So..." Remus swallowed, unsure of how to continue.
"I know." Remus searched Harry's eyes. "It's okay, I understand. I'm not naive." Harry looked back into the saddened eyes of his former professor.
"I... we know we should have told you... we talked about it but there was never a right time... and then..."
"I know. I would have been happy that you had each other. I just wish I'd known. I should have been there for you."
"No, don't think like that Harry. I should have been there for you; I just didn't have the guts to tell you." He shook his head sadly.
"I suppose we should have been there for each other." Harry smiled at the irony. There was a strained silence as Draco placed their steaming cups of tea in front of them. He had listened to every word of their conversation but had stayed respectfully silent. He had not made himself any tea, deciding he should leave them to talk as they needed to. Harry flashed him a grateful smile as left the kitchen, going for a long soak in a hot bath.
After a few moments of silence Harry asked the question he had longed to ask. "Werewolves mate for life don't they?" He blurted out the burning question before he could think better of it. Remus nodded slowly. "Oh Remus I'm so sorry..."
"I'm okay, really." He smiled slightly, trying to reassure Harry and stop him from worrying. He had enough to worry about. Harry sensed that Remus did not want to talk about it as he subtly changed the subject. "Ron, Hermione and Ginny will be okay with it won't they?"
"I think so, they might take a while to adjust but I'll talk to them. Don't worry." Harry reassured him.
"I'm glad you're okay with it. I was so worried."
"Is that why Sirius locked the pensieve away and hid the key?"
"Partly, but mostly because he couldn't bear to look into it after James died. It was painful, for both of us."
"I'm glad you helped me find it. Thank you."
"I couldn't have kept something like that from you. I know how important it would be to you." Harry smiled and they sat in thoughtful silence for a moment before harry was shaken from his reminiscing by the wandering thought flickered across his mind. 'Why is he staring at me so strangely'.
"What?" He finally asked.
"Nothing... I..."
"Spit it out." Harry began to worry that it would be bad news.
"I... Can I ask you something?"
"Of course." Harry replied looking puzzled by Remus' strange behaviour.
"Are you..? I mean... um are you and Draco...?"
Harry flushed bright red and switched his gaze down to look at the table, which suddenly became highly interesting. He had never felt so nervous and embarrassed in his life. Eventually he found his voice to reply. "Yes." He said in a quiet, croaky voice. When he finally looked up at Remus for a reaction, he was surprised and embarrassed at the same time, to see that he was smiling.
"What are you smiling at?" Harry frowned, noticing that Remus' smile was verging on laughter.
"You certainly know how to pick 'em." Remus gave into laughter and once harry had gotten over his initial surprise, he began to laugh too. Remus was the first person to make light of the situation and Harry was grateful for as his whole body flooded with relief that Remus had not judged him. If anything, somewhere deep down, Remus' reaction inspired newfound hope and confidence that he and Draco might be accepted.
Their laughter subsided and Harry found he looked at his former professor with, if possible, even more respect and admiration than ever. He was the closest connection Harry had to his parents and he found that he couldn't imagine life without Remus' support.
"Do Ron and Hermione know?"
"Not yet... well Hermione suspects something. I should have known better than to try hide things from her. Although I'm not the only one hiding things."
"What do you mean?"
"Ron and Hermione."
"Finally!"
"My sentiments exactly. Although they have neglected to divulge the information as yet."
"How do you know they're together then?"
"I'm just very vigilant I guess." Harry's eyes twinkled and Remus nodded knowingly recognising the sparkle immediately.
"Your dad was the same. Never missed a trick."
Harry smiled, he had witnessed his father's skill at spotting obscure things immediately and his unnerving ability to analyse his surroundings quickly and accurately through the memories contained in the pensieve. Harry felt he had inherited some of his father's ability but did not have it quite as refined as James had. Nobody had ever really pulled a prank on James he was too observant and too quick.
They chatted a while longer feeling extremely comfortable now that there was no secrets between him. Remus had slipped into guardian mode for a few minutes, warning harry that there were problems that could arise over Draco but Harry assured him that he was well aware of this and was prepared to put up a fight and do whatever necessary. Remus had wanted to ask how serious things were between Harry and Draco but he decided to leave that discussion for another day, feeling that he wasn't quite up to giving Harry 'the talk' just yet.
Harry, having said goodbye to Remus (giving him a jar of peanut butter to take with him seeing as they had not yet managed to consume the three jars they had ended up with after the shopping trip) headed back upstairs. He met Draco coming out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel. Water dripped sexily down his chest and his wet hair hung around his pale, defined features.
"Mmm." Harry murmured, admiring his boyfriend's sexy features and swiftly kissing him on the lips.
"Mmm. You're happy. What did you talk about?"
"Remus knows about us." Draco's eyes widened but harry smiled. "It's okay. He's happy for me, for us."
"Really?" Draco raised an eyebrow.
"Yes really." Harry continued to smile. "And he won't tell anyone." He said, sensing Draco's fear before he had a chance to voice it. Harry ran a hand over Draco's smooth, wet chest and Draco groaned.
"How long do you reckon we have?" His eyes clouded with desire.
"Long enough." Harry stated, pushing Draco back into the bathroom and closing the door behind them. "Now, where were we?" He didn't wait for an answer before kissing Draco hungrily, continuing where they had left off before they had been rudely interrupted by the doorbell.
Harry had been right an assuming that Hermione, Ron and Ginny would not be back until later that night and so he and Draco had made the most of it while they could. Exhausted, Draco had gone to bed while Harry returned to the Den to read. He had been reading for a while when three familiar figures tumbled out of the pensieve looking tired and dishevelled but grinning never the less. Or rather Hermione and Ginny were grinning, Ron looked troubled, looking torn between laughter and disgust.
"Hey guys, have fun?" Harry greeted them, putting his book down.
"It was fantastic."
"Brilliant."
"Hilarious."
"I loved it!" Hermione and Ginny's words tumbled out in a confusion until the settled on the last statement in unison. Ron stayed uncharacteristically quiet.
Harry looked to him for a verdict, with an inkling of what was coming next.
"Have you seen it? Them? Sirius and Remus?!" He blurted out. Hermione waited with bated breath for Harry's reaction.
