Chapter twenty-three: a New Year has begun

The New Year saw a change of weather - iron frosts, bitter winds and air so cold it burned - and a change in the tenuous peace that had been built in Grimmauld Place. Change came through the door one bitter morning in the form of the Daily Prophet. Made up news was better than no news, and they could usually tell truth from fiction with a bit of thought and contact with the Headmaster. Snape had even made it part of his Defence course that the teenagers of the house attempt to ferret the kernels of truth from the stories printed in the paper.

Harry's first inkling of the changes to come was given by Sirius who spat the mouthful of tea he'd just taken all over the table when he unfolded the morning paper. Snape and Draco immediately protested, using inflammatory and unflattering language that the animagus ignored. Even the Weasley's looked faintly disgusted though this was probably a common occurrence in their household.

"What is it?" Harry was closest and passed his serviette over to his godfather while Ron summoned a tea towel to wipe up the table.

"Oh… er, nothing Harry. There's a sale on at Quality Quidditch Supplies," Sirius smiled lamely, and Harry folded his arms, glaring with all the power of a soon-to-be-annoyed teen. Sirius surrendered the paper to his lover and looked relieved that he was no longer able to give Harry precise details about the paper and the article that had surprised him.

Moony went a very pale shade and bit his lip. Harry knew that whatever was in the article related to him, and he knew that it was probably derogatory in the extreme, but he had to know what was being said. After all, it was his reputation to be defended or besmirched as the paper fancied, and after last year he had a deep-seated need to know. Arthur was up out of his seat and reading over the werewolf's shoulder - from the look on his face he was trying very hard not to say or do anything that would give things away. Harry thought idly that it made him look a little constipated.

"Here Potter," Snape said quietly and handed over his personal copy of the Prophet. He hated getting the paper second hand, and didn't trust the two 'Miscreants' not to prank the house copy before he got to it. For a moment, Molly looked as if she'd like to protest, but subsided uneasily when her husband shot her a look. Ron used sharing the paper as a pretext to scoot over and wrap an arm around Harry, which he leant into automatically.

On the front page there was a bold headline, hovering over a picture of a ruined cottage. From the look of the building it had been ruined for quite some time, as if it had been damaged and then simply left to rot away. Harry looked it over curiously before focusing on the words that were literally jumping up and down, demanding attention.

'Atrocity at Godrics Hollow - Dark Spells performed at the birth home of the Boy Who Lived!'

A quick skim of the article showed that Fudge had announced that a Dark Spell had discharged itself 'some time ago' and that the Unspeakables had 'finally released their findings' to him personally. According to his Unspeakables, two separate discharges had occurred, and there was the possibility 'that Dark sacrificial magics had been performed'. It was also thought that 'an as yet unknown group of wizards' had removed the 'sacrificial victims' and 'spirited them away to an as yet unknown location'.

"They found out about mum and dad," Harry sighed and passed the paper to Draco, who was sitting beside him. Draco spat his mouthful of tea all over Snape's paper, and then cringed. The resulting glare was awful to behold, as was the silently implied punishment that would doubtless follow.

"Your parents?" Draco turned from the irate Potions Master beside him, "No offence, but I thought they were dead, Potter."

"None taken, and they're not," Harry replied equably, though the memory of his estrangement with the two people in the word who were supposed to accept him without conditions still hurt a little. Sirius and their 'naps' had helped him a lot in overcoming his tendency to inappropriate guilt.

"How is that possible?" Draco demanded, and the Weasley's and Snape looked interested too. It seemed that the method of the Potter's survival had not been passed on to them.

"Tom Riddle used a perverted version of the time turner spell to send them here," Harry replied, "The killing curse I remember being cast must have been the one he used on me, not my mum."

It was Remus turn to spit tea everywhere, and Sirius wiped the side of his face with the already soggy napkin, a long-suffering expression in his eyes. Remus coughed as Charlie patted him cautiously on the back, and Harry looked at his uncle with concern.

"Moony?" he asked, "What's wrong?"

"That's not what happened!" Moony exclaimed heatedly, "Who told you that?"

"Mum and dad," Harry frowned, "Why? What were you told? And by who?"

"The Headmaster said that Vol-Voldemort did cast killing curses on your parents, as well as the perverted time turner spell, but that you invoked a shield of love much as your mother supposedly did while trying to protect you. Because they were outside of time for fifteen years your spell gave them the chance to completely recover," Moony frowned, "Why didn't they tell you the truth?"

Harry shrugged and inched closer to Ron, not really aware that he was doing it. His lover hauled him closer and Harry sent him a grateful smile. Public display be damned, it felt good to have Ron's familiar and solid body supporting his.

"If they have completely recovered, why aren't they here? We could ask them why they didn't tell Potter the truth. Or if they even knew the truth," Draco pointed out innocently, and Ron growled under his breath, as did the werewolf and Grim on the other side of the table.

"We're estranged," Harry said the difficult words in an even voice, "They couldn't accept my family, and I wouldn't give them up."

Ron immediately dropped a kiss on his ear and Harry gave his anxious looking lover a tender smile in reward. The rest of the table nodded, and glared significantly at Draco to shut him up. The blonde subsided with an awkward look of apology as the Floo flared and the Headmaster stepped out.

"Ah," he said quietly, "I see you have read the morning papers."

"Some of us have," Snape muttered, and Harry was mildly surprised that the glare his Potions Master was directing at the tea soaked paper hadn't dried it out already. He waved his wand at it and the tea vanished, the paper refolded itself into crisp lines and settled in its usual spot beside Snape's place.

"Show off," Draco sulked and Ron sniggered. Harry wondered why the blonde hadn't thought to do that, but put it out of his mind.

"Albus," Molly said quietly, "There is some confusion here. How did Harry's parents survive?"

The Headmaster frowned and repeated the explanation he had given Sirius and Remus when he first told them the Potters were still alive. There was silence as everyone digested this and Draco shot Harry slightly awed looks. Vanishing Snape's Dark Mark was incredible enough, but saving someone from the Killing Curse as an eighteen month old was even more impressive. Harry was mildly impressed himself, if resigned to being even more freakish than before.

"Did the Potter's know this?" there was an edge to Snape's voice that surprised Harry. If he thought about it he assumed that Snape was glad not to have to deal with the leader of the Marauders as well as the two surviving members. Moony and Padfoot were at least civil now, and Snape kept his sneers to a minimum when talking to them. The edge to his voice made it sound as if Snape didn't approve of James rejection of Harry. Surely, Harry thought, Snape would be happy to see his old enemy estranged from his only son. He put the question aside though, well aware that Snape was a very complicated person and figuring him out over breakfast was an unlikely task to say the least.

"They did," Albus nodded, "I assume this is not what they told you Harry?"

"They only told me about the time turner curse. I assumed they'd never been hit with the killing curse at all - that the green flash I remembered was for me."

"Wait a minute, you remember the attack?" Draco burst out and flinched when Snape kicked him under the table. His former Head of House was glaring in silent warning.

"Only when I get close to a Dementor," Harry's voice held a subtle barb that made Draco flush. His pranks in third year suddenly took on a much more sinister aspect than he'd planned. Albus sighed and settled into an empty chair.

"I don't know why they didn't tell you the full story," he murmured, "Harry, had I known…"

"It's ok sir," Harry smiled, "It isn't vital information. The important thing is that they're alive, right?"

"Yes," Albus twinkled and looked around at the silent breakfast table. The Weasley family were obviously off in their own thoughts, Moony and Padfoot looked a little hot under the collar, and the two Slytherins of the house were uncomfortable to say the least.

"I will have to find a way to deal with this mess," Albus warned Harry, "It may be time to go public with some of our information. On the plus side that would mean that Sirius could soon have his name cleared."

"Where are mum and dad at the moment?" Harry asked idly, once more inching closer to Ron. Moony got a fond look in his eye and Padfoot hauled his werewolf closer. Snape looked vaguely disgusted but had long since given up protesting the public display, or spectacle as he liked to call it.

"Living with Muggles," Albus sighed, "It's complicated Harry, and we will have to be a little creative with the facts, but it is better that you don't know just yet. There is every possibility that you will be forced into some sort of public reunion with the Potters - I hope you can find it in yourself to at least play along. I know this situation is not your fault, but it may well be that you have to be the mature one."

That was a pretty stinging condemnation of the senior Potters right there, and Harry nodded, his eyes as wide as Ron's. Molly smiled proudly and offered the Headmaster breakfast, which was declined. The venerable wizard got up, wished them all a happy New Year, and Flooed away again, to begin dealing with the mess.

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