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Chapter Sixty-Five
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"MUM!" Harry cried as soon as he had popped into the open foyer.
All of the lights were out, reminding Harry of how late it actually was. But he didn't care. He needed to see her. Needed to know that she was safe and unharmed.
Because Snape knew.
Somehow, miraculously, Snape knew that his mum was alive.
"MUM!" Harry yelled again as he started for the main staircase.
He thundered up the steps, desperation clouding his mind. It was as he had just gotten to the middle landing when his dad appeared at the top of the stairwell that lead to the west wing.
His hair was more dishevelled than usual and he wasn't wearing his glasses.
"Harry?" His dad mumbled sleepily as he ran a tired hand down his face. "What is it?"
"Where's mum?" Harry demanded as he looked up at his father.
James' eyes narrowed slightly in confusion. "Why did you-"
But he didn't finish, as Lily Potter chose that exact moment to appear from behind her husband, hastily tying the sash to her robe. As soon as Harry caught sight of his mother's beautiful face, all of the weight on his chest lifted and he felt as though he could finally breathe again.
Lily stepped around James and immediately went down the steps to the landing where Harry stood and enveloped him in her arms. "What is it, darling?"
Harry's arms came up and constricted around her, clinging to her desperately. "It's Snape." He mumbled into her neck.
Lily tried to move away but Harry wouldn't allow her to move. "What-"
"WHAT in the name of bloody Gryffindor is it now?!" The huffy voice of his Godfather resounded from down the hall before he and Remus both came up from behind James.
Harry finally allowed for his mother to pull back from his restricting embrace and Lily immediately cupped his cheek with her palm. Her thumb drew circles on his skin.
"What about Snape?" Lily's voice urged him, not allowing herself to be distracted by his boisterous Godfather. "What has he done now?"
Harry stared at her for a moment before he slowly shook his head. "He knows."
Lily's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What?"
Harry swallowed thickly against the bile in his throat. "Snape knows that you're alive."
He watched as her face morphed into gaping shock, staring back at him with an intense gaze. She was frozen, motionless, from what Harry could only guess was from fear by this newfound information.
It made sense. Snape was once allied to Voldemort, and Harry was certain that the slimy git still was, gauging from the conversation he had overheard between Snape and Draco about an unbreakable vow.
And as for Harry's deal with Death? Snape knowing about his mum's resurrection could seriously complicate Harry's plans to save his family. Because no doubt, if Voldemort found out from Snape about his family, they would become You-Know-Who's number-one target, next to Harry himself.
"WHAT?!" His dad bellowed, suddenly a lot more awake than he had been a moment before. Harry's gaze snapped up to his father and was startled by what he saw.
He saw a man. A man whose entire body stiffened in a protective stance and whose eyes burned with consuming rage and hatred.
This is the same man who had died to protect his family and would willingly do so again if necessary. Harry always knew that his father was this man. But this was the first time he has seen the physical embodiment of it.
"How…" James hissed, low and dangerous as his wand seemingly appeared in his firm grasp, threateningly, "...In the name of Merlin, did that slimy git find out about your mother?"
Harry's first instinct was to think that his dad was blaming him, that Harry was the one to let Snape know about the resurrection. But looking at his father's intense gaze, he seemed to understand that this wasn't the case. His father just wanted answers. In fact, he needed them in order to try and rectify the situation as he best saw fit.
Because there was no way that James Potter was going to let this go. Not with Lily Potter's safety on the line.
Harry was about to answer with his lack of knowledge on how Snape came to know about his mum when he was stopped by her voice.
"It was me…" Her voice was monotone, her eyes were sightless as she looked out in front of her. "I went to see him, to threaten him. It was the night you called us on the mirror and told us about what he said to you about your father…"
Everyone was silent as they gaped at her. Her eyes finally turned to stare deep into Harry's eyes. They were so broken and apologetic that the ice that had formed over in Harry's chest had started to thaw some.
"I couldn't stand how he was treating you. It was so unwarranted and I wanted him to know how I felt about him after all of these years. I wanted him to know how much I despised him. So, I took the vial of your father's blood that we had stashed for emergencies and left to confront him."
He honestly didn't know what to say… what to feel even. Betrayal wasn't the right word to describe what his mum had done, but perhaps deception was?
Harry opened his mouth to speak, but was unable to voice anything before…
"How- How could you?" James' voice rang out, broken and accusatory, his expression matched his voice exactly. It was easy to tell how deeply hurt his dad felt at the moment as he stared down at his wife with so many questions in his eyes.
Lily met his gaze head-on, her mouth opening and closing without supplying any answers.
James' eyes snapped shut and a hard mask of indifference replaced all other emotions on his face before he turned on his heel and stormed back down the darkened hallway.
"J-James!" His mum's desperate voice rang out as she immediately went up the stairs after him. "Wait!"
When she too disappeared down the hall, Harry finally found his bearings and made to also follow them. He made it to the top of the stairwell when his Godfather's arm came out to stop him.
"Hold on a minute, Harry," Sirius' reassuring voice echoed out to him. "You best let them work this out for themselves."
Harry gaped at his Godfather. "But- But dad, he looked so-"
Remus put a heavy hand on Harry's shoulder and shook his head. "Sirius is right, Harry. It's things such as this that married couples need to work out alone."
Harry shrugged off Remus' hand and took a step back from both of them. "But you saw dad's face! Wh-What if they separate from this? It would be all my fault!"
Remus and Sirius shared a single look before they both burst out into laughter. Harry frowned at the lot of them, glaring at their lack of concern.
Sirius was wiping tears from his eyes as he took a step forward and patted Harry on the back. "You really think that your father would let your mum go that easy? Voldemort himself couldn't come between them, so what makes you think that Snape could?"
Harry bit his lip, uncertain. But the words did make sense…
Remus nodded in agreement. "Your dad may be angry now, but he'll get over it. They've been through much worse than this and managed to pull through."
It took a moment of thinking over both of their reasonings before his tense shoulders slumped in relief.
Sirius elbowed Remus in the side in a jovial manner. "I gotta say, though, it's mighty strange to see Lily in hot water instead of James this time around. I wonder how long it'll take for James to give in to the prospect of make-up sex-"
"And we are done with this conversation," Harry interrupted loudly as he glared at his Godfather.
Sirius and Remus snickered at his obvious discomfort at the thought of his parents being… intimate.
He knew it happened. He would be daft to think otherwise. They were still young, after all. But that didn't mean that he wanted to hear any sordid details.
"Fine, then," Remus said, amusement still colouring his tone. "How's school been?"
"Fine," Harry said in a disinterested tone as he looked down at his shoes.
There was a beat of silence before Sirius asked, "How's Ginny?"
Harry froze at the mention of his girlfriend. How was Ginny really at the moment?
He honestly didn't know how to answer that question.
Was she feeling betrayed? Hurt? Growing doubtful in their relationship?
He couldn't blame her one bit if she did feel these things after what had happened earlier in the evening when she found Death's Hourglass scar.
"Trouble in paradise, Harry?" Remus asked, his brows furrowed in concern.
A long exhale escaped him in response, his hand came up to scratch helplessly at the back of his head. "She's put out with me at the moment, actually."
"I see…" Remus mused, giving Harry time to explain in further detail if he decided to delve deeper.
Padfoot, however, gave him no such choice.
"What did you do to muck it up this time, Prongslette?"
For the second time that night, Harry glared at his Godfather.
Sirius shrugged, "Why are you glaring at me? I'm not the one who messed up here. And instead of giving me that teenage attitude, you could be telling us what you did so that we can help you at least try and salvage it with as much of your manhood intact as possible."
Harry winced at the imagery before he sagged in defeat. "Ginny has been wanting to know all of my secrets regarding the war. But… I can't tell her because I just know that she'll want to get more involved." He looked at the two men before him with imploring eyes. "I… I can't lose her. I wouldn't be able to continue on without her, I just know it. So it's just better that she stays out of it entirely."
Remus looked down at him with slight disapproval in his gaze, "And I assume that Ginny doesn't accept this reason?"
Harry immediately shook his head.
"We came to somewhat of an understanding the other night, where she said that she understood the reason why I needed to have secrets from her, even though she didn't like it. But then tonight, she seemed… withdrawn when I wouldn't tell her something that she wanted to know. Sh-She said that she was trying to understand, but… I guess I just don't know what to do to fix it."
Sirius levelled Harry with a gaze. "You do nothing."
Harry shot him a bewildered look. "Wh-What do you mean I do nothing?"
Sirius rocked back on his heels and shrugged. "This seems like something that Ginny needs to work through by herself. You have already come to an agreement together, and you have to allow her the time to get used to it. If you make false promises to be more open with her in the future, it will only hurt her more in the long run."
The solution seemed so simple. Almost too simple. But his Godfather's reasoning made sense. Ginny did say that she was trying to understand, so maybe all she needed was time and space for reflection.
Harry smiled slightly to himself before he turned it towards his Godfather.
Sirius grinned at him before staring, "It's not up to you to always fix everything, Harry. Same with trying to fix the row between your parents. Some things need to just play out without your involvement. Do you understand that now?"
Harry nodded.
"Good. Now you can take a bloody break every once in a while and rest." With that, Sirius swooped Harry up in his arms, engulfing him in a great bear hug. "Let us, the adults, worry about you for once."
Harry snorted before he wrapped his arms around Sirius' muscular frame.
"I'm almost seventeen, you know. Practically an adult by Wizarding standards," Harry murmured against his Godfather's shoulder.
Sirius and Remus chuckled as Harry was allowed to pull away from the embrace.
"Coming up too fast for our liking, Harry," Remus said, a somber lilt to his tone
"Yeah…" Sirius mused, his voice wistful. "But that does remind me, how's the Animagus preparations coming along?"
For the first time that night, Harry grinned wide before he reached into his mouth and lifted his tongue for them to see. "Sthill sthuck whith ah sthicking charhm."
Both Remus and Sirius ducked their heads to better see the mandrake leaf that was stuck to the bottom of Harry's tongue.
"It's coming along nicely," Remus said appreciatively as he studied the leaf, "Pretty soon it will be ready for the Animagus Potion. Only a week left, right?"
Harry let go of his tongue and nodded excitedly at the both of them.
Sirius grinned sideways at Remus, "I'll bet he'll become a dog like his favourite Godfather."
Remus looked affronted. "More like a wolf so that he can join the pack."
And as the two bickered about what they thought Harry's Animagus would be, Harry simply let himself sit back and listen. Secretly thinking that more than anything, he wanted to become a stag like his dad.
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A/N: Hey…. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. :( It's been too long, hasn't it? I'd be surprised if I still had any readers actively following this story. For those of you who do, I'll try to be better about updating from now on. My life has calmed down a bit so I should be able to spend more time writing from this point on. If you liked this short chapter, then please let me know your thoughts in a review. Thanks!