CHAPTER ELEVEN
Just say the word, we'll take on the world
I do not own Harry Potter, that being said, this fanfiction is being written upon my blood sweat and tears haha, please don't steal my writing
-o0o0o0o-
"So..boys." Sirius said awkwardly as he sat down in front of them on the plush sofa. He, Remus, Frank, and Lucius were sitting on one side of the living room, rather awkwardly staring at their children.
Yes, the twins, Theo, and Blaise counted as their children. No, they would not take criticism.
As far as the men were concerned, these boys had been adopted into their family the moment they decided to go into a dangerous situation with their boys so they wouldn't be alone.
Family is not just blood. Something Sirius and Remus learned in their own Hogwarts years, and something Lucius Malfoy learned twelve years ago.
"Why are we here?" Theo questioned, his eyebrows furrowed. The twins suspected they knew why, and were internally cringing at receiving the 'talk' once more.
"We're here to discuss the…changes that were mentioned at the dinner table." Lucius said gruffly.
"Now..when a man reaches a certain age," Frank said, his throat scratchy as he kept swallowing and his lips felt too dry. "Changes begin to happen to their bodies."
"What kind of changes?" Harry asked, raising a brow.
"Well..er, you begin to notice girls," Sirius began.
"Or boys." Frank added supportively. Sirius nodded.
"Or boys." He agreed. "And your voice begins to crack and grow deeper."
"So is that what's happening to us?" Draco asked, his grey eyes wide.
"Yes, it is."
Blaise was also cringing, having received his own 'talk' two weeks prior when he realised he could not stop staring at a pretty woman's bum in the Italian version of Britain's Diagon Alley.
"And so, when you're old enough…you begin relationships." Lucius began, adding a cough.
"And in these relationships..your…sexuality will begin to arise. And soon you will want to be having sex." Remus added, his palms felt sweaty and he would truthfully be anywhere but where he was right now.
"And what's that?" Fred asked jovially, enjoying making the adults squirm.
"When a man and a woman love each other–" Sirius tried speaking, only to be cut off.
"They don't have to love each other." Frank added in unhelpfully. Sirius nodded in agreement.
"You're right, they don't. So the act of sex is–"
-o0o0o0o-
The boys did not look Daphne nor Hermione in the eyes for two days after they got into the discussion with the men.
Daphne and Hermione looked incredibly exasperated and finally snapped at them.
And so, the days went on and bled into weeks until it was the week before they were set to go to Hogwarts.
They were sitting at the table eating breakfast when the Daily Prophet owls flew in through the window. Harry caught a glimpse of the headline.
HEADMASTER DUMBLEDORE EXPRESSES OUTRAGE AT MINISTRY ORDERED DEMENTORS STATIONED AT HOGWARTS
The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge has administered an Executive Order to have the Dementors stationed at our beloved Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts and Supreme Mugwump of the ICW expresses his outrage at the thought and has been fighting tooth and nail, stating the 'safety of the students should be everyone's top priority' in the search for Azkaban escapee Peter Pettigrew.
Harry could not read any further into the article before he threw it on the table in disgust. He pushed his plate away, having lost his appetite.
This could have been their opening. They should have gone to the Prophet with what they knew. That Dumbledore did not care for the students at all. This was a publicity stunt, and everyone at the table knew it.
"Bloody bastard!" Arcturus spat, reading the article with hatred burning in his eyes.
"If we had done what I said we should do, his reputation would be ruined by now!" Harry spat, his anger coursing through his veins and spilling over him like a poisonous snake.
"We must wait, Harry." Melania said, not unkindly, but in a voice that reminded him despite being as kindhearted as she is, she is still Lady Black.
"Wait!" Draco snorted. "We've been waiting, Grandmother Melania."
"It's time for him to go down." Neville added, his glare intensifying as his eyes landed on the paper.
"And how exactly will he go down?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow. "Disregarding whether Dumbledore supported it or not, he cannot fight an executive order placed by the Minister. The Dementors being at Hogwarts would not fall on his head."
"But–"
"The only thing he can be held accountable for is what happened in your first year which is being treated as a State Secret and only known about in the Ministry and Wizengamot for the sole reason of a slow and gradual alert to the public that Voldemort is alive and will be back." Pollux added.
Harry and the others could not refute the logic behind their arguments of waiting, as they truly have nothing on Dumbledore yet that could ruin his reputation.
That did not mean that they liked it, however, and were quite upset at the turn of events.
They were subdued for the rest of their summer.
-o0o0o0o-
They were sitting on the train, playing exploding snap when it happened.
"Does something feel..off to you guys too?" Neville murmured softly.
"It feels..cold." George muttered, trying to warm himself up by exhaling into his cupped hands.
The train screeched to a halt suddenly and everyone lurched forward, each person grabbing onto something to steady themselves.
"What the bloody hell is going on?" Hermione demanded, her eyes wide with fear. She felt it gripping her chest, sucking every single happy thought and emotion out of her very being.
"No.." Harry whispered, eyes wide in fear and grabbing onto his head. "No..no..no.." he mumbled to himself, his knees pulled to his chest as he kept rocking back and forth.
"Harry?" Theo whispered, crawling over to him. "Harry!" The lights went out. All they could hear was Harry's soft whimpering.
"Stand aside.." he murmured. "Lily..take Harry.."
"Oh merlin." Draco breathed, his heart hammering in his chest as he watched his brother.
"Draco! Neville!" Daphne called out, fear gripping her own chest and suffocating her. "What is going on with him?"
"He's reliving his parents' final moments." Neville responded tightly. Harry was having a panic attack, and the obvious dementors nearby did not help him one bit.
Theo was holding Harry, who was shaking incredibly. The twins were shaken out of their stupor when a disgustingly boney hand slowly opened up their compartment door. The dementor was a ghastly being, with a gaping hole for a mouth and covered in a black cloak that eerily floated in the cold wind that followed it.
It neared Harry.
"STAY BACK!" Fred shouted, shooting fire out of his wand. It did not deter the dementor, only momentarily before they continued coming closer.
"What's the spell?!" Blaise shouted. "Ex-expectrum? Expecto! Expecto Patronum!"
But his wand only dispelled a pitiful white mist. Everyone began trying to cast the spell to no avail. Harry was officially out cold, the memories playing in his mind too painful for him to bear. And in the moment when they felt it was hopeless, a blinding flash of white light burst through the room, causing the dementor to flee.
George looked to their saviour. "Remus?!"
"What are you doing here?" Blaise asked in shock.
"I'm your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." Remus said with a haggard and tired smile. He looked at Harry and brushed the wild obsidian locks away from his forehead softly, staring at the boy he raised with a pained, soft, smile.
"Oh, Harry," he whispered. Daphne thought it sounded almost like a lament. "Why does it always have to be you?"
Remus sat with the kids in the compartment for the rest of the ride home, feeding them all rich chocolate from Honeydukes, and when Harry woke up, feeding the boy who was like his son chocolate as well.
-o0o0o0o-
The dementor incident was barely addressed at the welcome back feast. Harry was still reeling from his encounter, his mind a scattered mess and he could not string together a coherent thought.
So for the majority of dinner, he was silent. It was when he heard a mocking whisper, that he made any indication he was aware of his surroundings.
"Oi! Potter!" An annoying and sneering voice caught his attention. He turned towards the Gryffindor table. Ronald Weasley. "Is it true you fainted? I mean, really? You fainted? Guess we now know why you weren't a Gryffindor."
"Oi! Weasley!" Oliver Wood's thick scottish brogue caught his ears just as Harry was attempting to piece together a reply. "I heard that you wet yourself in your carriage. Mind your business, lad."
Ronald's face turned as bright red as his hair and it looked as if steam was coming out of his ears as he glowered at his mountain-full of food piled upon his plate.
"Oh, so that's what that smell was." Hermione mused, from her place beside Neville and the twins. "And I was wondering what smelled so strange at the table." The people beside her chortled softly, and Ron glared even more.
"Nobody asked your opinion, you insufferable know-it-all." Ron snapped.
"Oooh!" Hermione pretended to wince. "Was that the best you could do? I'm hurt, truly." She snapped sardonically.
"I sometimes wonder how he's a Gryffindor," Neville added, his tone light but his eyes scathing. "I didn't think it was possible for someone to get his head so far up his own arse."
"Didn't you hear?" Theo snorted. "It's a modern Gryffindor trait. Godric is turning in his grave as we speak. There are a select few exceptions." Theo said, winking at their Gryffindor friends cheekily.
"What would you know?" Seamus Finnigan snapped.
"I can ask his portrait, you imbecile." Theo snapped back.
"Godric Gryffindor doesn't have a portrait." Dean said, his tone sounding confused.
"Yes he does." Blaise said back. "And he really is rolling in his grave as we speak. Salazar is probably having a field day right now."
"Slytherin and Gryffindor hated each other, now I know you're talking bollocks." Ron snapped, his face still an incredible shade of puce.
"I tire of you," Blaise said, always elegant with his slight Italian accent and trained decorum. "Go be a cretin elsewhere, Weasley." He then looked at the twins. "Sorry."
"No apologies necessary." Fred and George said in unison, glaring at their brother who seemed to want to make himself disappear.
"Don't provoke a sleeping snake," Daphne muttered, a smirk on her face as they turned back to their meal.
"I believe the saying goes; Never tickle a sleeping Dragon." Harry joked, which earned a smile and laugh from his friends sitting beside him. He smiled softly back, feeling his inside warm considerably.
-o0o0o0o-
Everyone knew Defence Against the Dark Arts with Professor Lupin was going to be unlike any of their other classes, including last year's defence class with Cassiopeia Black.
When they walked into the class after Remus' display with Peeves and the gum, he asked them to put their books away.
Until now, a practical lesson in their very first class had never been done before.
"Can anyone tell me what the natural shape of a Boggart is?" Remus asked, his smile kind. "Dean!" He called on the boy.
Dean smiled as he spoke. "Nobody truly knows, Boggarts are shapeshifters, and they take form in what the person fears the most!"
"Correct!" Remus smiled. "Take five points for Gryffindor. Now, what we are going to do is confuse it. If it senses so many people it will not know which shape to take. Everyone get in line please. Neville, why don't you step forward."
Neville walked up to the wardrobe that was now rattling with confidence, his head held high and chin in the air.
"The spell is going to be Riddikulus."
Neville nodded, and twirled his hand with his fingertips before readying himself.
The boggart strode out of the wardrobe in the shape of what was Lord Voldemort.
Everyone began whimpering, and there were some screams. Neville and the others did not move. He stayed still, face impassive as he raised his wand. His hand was only shaking slightly, whether from fear or anger, Harry did not know.
"Riddikulus." he spoke clearly, and with a loud crack, the boggart began to transform and up stepped Draco.
Draco's boggart was something the others did not expect. It was himself with the dark mark.
Draco swallowed but steeled himself. He cast the spell.
Next was Blaise.
Blaise's deepest fear was something that struck a chord with them all, to the point it caused them to flinch.
Harry was on the ground, twitching in pain, screaming with every fibre of his being.
He beat his own boggart with minimal difficulty, but when he walked to the back, he touched Harry on the shoulder, as if to make sure he was standing and he was okay.
Daphne was next. The boggart transformed into the dark mark in the sky, and there were distant screams of people, begging for help.
Harry was struck. Their worst fears were things he was destined to fight and to face, and they stood with him and fought them with him. Facing their biggest and darkest fears everyday to remain at his side.
A flood of affection and warmth rose up within him as he watched Hermione step forward.
Hers seemed to be the worst of them all.
With a loud CRACK and a swish of shadows, the boggart transformed to Fred laying dead on the floor. George, no laughter in his eyes, nothing in his eyes at all, and no breath moving his chest. It then turned into Harry beaten, bruised, and no longer breathing. Neville, dead. Draco, dead. All of them unnaturally still.
It turned into Theo, screaming at her, telling her everything that happened was her fault, and then he died as well. It turned into Blaise battered on the floor and an earth shattering scream.
Daphne, looking as if she was a dead and reanimated corpse. "It was all your fault. We're all dead, because of you!" Boggart Daphne snarled.
Hermione whimpered and staggered back. "R-Riddikulus!" She called out, her hand shaking. She stumbled to the back of the line as the Boggart began to twist and change shape.
Her friends crowded around her immediately. She reached out to them all for comfort. Harry's heart ached for her.
Suddenly the class went still. Their silly fears of spiders, of clowns and snakes, now seemed insignificant having seen the fears of these students. Students their age, but with fears of those that have seen war.
Harry stepped forward. The boggart turned into a dementor. Harry began to hear the voices and feel the effects of fainting, Remus made a move to step in front of him, but it was Theo that made it first.
And this was Theo's breaking point. He stared at his boggart in complete horror, shock filling every vein and every morsel of his being. It was his father.
a/n: heyyyyy! it's been a while. this month has been sooo hectic. my birthday on top of all of my friends' and finals is just insane. anywaysss, please review and let me know what you guys think of this chapter. until next time, xoxo.