Once they managed to get the elves settled down and Sirius had taken the locket from between them and placed it on the coffee table he had them explain themselves.
Dobby told his master everything straightforward. He had cleaned the rest of the house, the only place left was Kreacher's cupboard. Kreacher had been off wandering morosely around the house somewhere and had come back just as Dobby was holding the locket, sensing its importance and intending to give it to his Master Sirius. That's when Kreacher and he started grappling around over it. Dobby had apparated away from him to the sitting room, but Kreacher followed and then the three men returned.
Kreacher had taken a while to even begin explaining his actions. He kept rocking back and forth, pulling on his ears and shaking his head. Eventually he started talking about 'his master', but he didn't mean Sirius. He meant his previous master. Regulus, to whom the locket belonged according to Kreacher. It took the greater part of an hour to get the full story, and it was a fantastical story. Voldemort had used Kreacher to hide this locket in a seaside cave, near on impossible to reach by Muggle methods even to get to just the mouth of the cave. And impossible for any but a magical person to go any further. Kreacher had been given to Voldemort to assist with hiding the locket, and Voldemort had anticipated that the House Elf would be trapped there forever, for he did not understand House Elf magic.
"That was how my master. My poor master Regulus." Kreacher rocked harder and harder with enormous tears escaping his eyes.
Sirius, Remus and Harry had all been shocked silent by his story, but Sirius managed to find his voice. "Voldemort killed Regulus because he found out you survived?" He asked quietly. If Harry had to guess, it looked like Sirius was grieving over this information. He hadn't spoken to Harry at all of his brother, just of his parents and how they disapproved of his distaste regarding the Dark Arts and the views of Voldemort.
Kreacher shook his head more aggressively. "No, no, no, no, no. The Dark Lord did not know. He did not know my master did not trust him. He did not know how great my master was. How much he would sacrifice. Oh!" He cried harder. "Oh, my poor master!"
"Regulus was not a loyal follower?" Sirius asked, sounding short of breath. Kreacher didn't answer, he seemed to be regressing in on himself. "Kreacher. I order you to tell me what happened."
Kreacher gasped in a big breath. "Master ordered Kreacher to take him to the cave. He ordered Kreacher to feed him the evil potion. He ordered Kreacher to replace the Dark Lords locket with a fake. He ordered." Sob. "He ordered Kreacher to." Sob. "to leave him there."
Harry felt chills running through him. This elf had been horrible to everyone, and he hadn't understood why the elf had worshiped his previous masters when they were such horrible people. But the little being was truly devastated about being forced to sacrifice his masters life. According to what Harry had learned about House Elves, they had no choice when it came to an order from their master.
Harry actually felt really bad for the little guy.
"Regulus risked his life to get this locket?" Sirius asked staring at the ornamental crest on the front of it. "What is it?"
Kreacher stopped crying, he stopped rocking, he stopped twisting his ears. He just looked at the locket with pure unadulterated loathing and shook in anger. "Evil."
Sirius, Remus and Harry exchanged startled looks. Harry felt a little nervous at how these two grown men seemed to be at a loss. They had been through the last war and had surely seen a few horrible things in their time, but they too were a little frightened of this elf's claim that the locket was evil.
Dobby was the one to break the silence in the room. "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named gave pieces of his evil to his most loyal of followers."
All attention shifted to Dobby, who had been patiently listening to Kreacher's tale. He had been basically ignored by the men since he finished his story, but now that they were all looking at him Harry could see that he was sitting entirely too rigidly.
"What was that?" Remus asked with wide eyes. "Voldemort gave pieces of evil to his followers? What pieces of evil? Are they all lockets?"
Dobby hesitated, then it looked like it was his turn to try mutilating his ears by twisting them. His head lolled a bit as though he was struggling with thoughts that were literally bouncing around in his head.
"Dobby." Sirius said sternly. "I am your master and I command you to tell me."
That made the elf visibly relax a bit. "My previous master was given a piece of evil. It was a Diary from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It was evil. Pure darkness. Evil. Evil. Bad Dobby." He hit himself.
"Dobby!" Sirius warned. "You are not allowed to hurt yourself. I forbid it." Dobby lowered his hands and gripped the side of the couch. "Now then. I command you to tell me who your previous master was."
Dobby shivered and croaked something that they couldn't quite make out then started humming.
"The Malfoy's." Kreacher translated.
Remus looked sharply over at Sirius. "You. You didn't know?" Remus asked him with wide eyes.
"I had no idea." Sirius answered dumbfounded.
Harry felt like his blood was draining out of his face. Dobby had been owned by Death Eaters, Kreacher had been owned by Death Eaters. From what he'd read it was predominantly the old wizarding families that had fallen into that category. And it was the pureblood families that would own House Elves, so it did make sense but it was still a shock.
"If he went through so much trouble to hide this locket, then it must be something truly dark." Remus got a little closer to the locket to look closer. "Those are rune's around the outside of it."
"Kreacher was supposed to destroy it, but Kreacher could not." He told them. "Not fire, not brute force, not even my magic. Nothing is working to destroy the evil."
"What is it though?" Harry wondered aloud. "You keep saying that it is evil, but it's an object. How is that evil?"
"It is inside it." Dobby said importantly. "The evil is inside. It is keeping it for him. For when he returns."
"When?" Remus and Sirius asked at the same time.
"What do you mean WHEN?" Sirius asked. "He died fifteen years ago. He's dead, gone."
Dobby shook his head. "It is a dark magic master."
"A very dark magic." Kreacher agreed.
Harry sat back, not knowing what exactly was going on. The man that killed his parents had supposedly died that night, but not really? How could he be dead and have disappeared for fifteen years, but not be dead? "What. What should we do?" Harry asked.
"You don't have to do anything." Sirius told him. "We will talk to Dumbledore about this." He indicated to Remus and himself.
"Master will destroy the locket?" Kreacher asked hopefully.
"After we figure out exactly what it is. Yes. We will destroy it." He promised.
"I can go back to the school and see if Dumbledore is there." Remus offered.
"You could check my map first!" Harry offered, happy to be able to contribute to this situation in some way. He got up and went over to the folder on the side table with the rest of his Christmas presents that hadn't been taken upstairs yet and pulled out the Marauders Map. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." He tapped the map and felt a little thrill when the ink spidered out over the pages.
Remus and Sirius came over to look over his shoulder and Remus folded the map out to show the Headmasters office. "There he is." Remus pointed. "Alright. I'm going to go and grab him and bring him back here." He promptly left through the green flames of the Floo with out another thought.
Harry and Sirius stood there at the hutch watching as Remus' name appeared in front of the fireplace in his personal quarters.
"Master is sure that the half beast is trustworthy." Kreacher asked.
Sirius took in a sharp breath and rounded on the older House Elf with an angry look. "Do not ever refer to him as that again."
"Half beast?" Harry asked confused. "Why would he call Remus that?"
Sirius looked at Harry, his eyes full of conflicting emotion. "Sorry Harry. You'll have to ask Remus that yourself." His shoulders sagged and he went over to the liquor cabinet. "I'd offer you one, but with your headmaster about to come over and my trying to get proper custody papers in line I don't think it'd be a very good idea."
Harry's jaw dropped at that. "Custody papers?" He whispered.
Sirius turned back from the cabinet, mid pour, and gave him a bewildered look. "You didn't think I'd let you go back to the Dursley's did you? We talked about this. I wanted you to come live here with me next summer, and that's before you're of age, so I'll need the legal right to do that."
They had talked about it, and written about it, but Harry hadn't thought of it like Sirius would be his proper legal guardian. He'd thought of it like he wouldn't have to go back to the Dursley's ever again. "I just hadn't thought about whether there was legal stuff that had to be done to make that happen." What if it was too much of a hassle? He wondered. "I mean. It is only just over a month I'd have to stay with them, so if there's too much red tape or whatever-"
"Let me stop you right there." Sirius cut him off. "I don't care what I have to do. You aren't going back to the Dursley's, you're living here with me. Where you belong."
Harry's face heated up at that and he worked really hard to school his expression so that Sirius didn't see just how much he longed for someone to have said he belonged with them. Sirius had told him that he regretted his actions that landed him in Azkaban and Harry knew he had suffered enough for that. Guilt for how Harry had been raised did not need to be added to that.
"Harry?" Sirius said his name softly. He must have seen something in Harry's expression because he set his drink down and came towards Harry pulling him into a hug.
His arms around him in the most paternal manner he'd ever been held was too much. Tears pooled in his eyes and slid down his face. This was twice now he'd lost it when Sirius embraced him, but it felt so comforting and cathartic to be hugged by him while he was so emotional.
"I've half a mind to go over to Privet Drive and give those bastards a piece of my mind." Sirius told him and hugged him tighter. "But my getting thrown back in Azkaban for attacking Muggles wouldn't help this situation at all."
Harry sniffled a laugh. "No. But I could always have them thrown out of the house. Maybe just sign the deed off to an immigrant family. That'd get Uncle Vernon really chuffed."
"Geez, does that lazy tub of lard like anybody?"
Harry chuckled. "No. Not really. Apparently he is perfect though."
Sirius made the movement of one suppressing vomit. "Urgh. Don't think he'll be gracing any magazine covers ever."
Harry pulled back and wiped his eyes with the palm of his hand. "Thanks Sirius. Really. For everything."
Sirius sighed. "You got dealt a shit hand Pup. We'll just have to make sure it's all the better from here on out, yeah?"
Harry's brow furrowed at how Sirius called him 'Pup'. It had happened a few times now.
The flames burst to life again and Remus and Dumbledore stepped out. Dumbledore didn't even greet them, his eyes wandered desperately around the surfaces of the room and then he went straight to the coffee table and examined the locket.
"Which of you tried to destroy this?" He asked the House Elves.
Neither of them spoke, they simply looked to Sirius. Harry actually had a moment of startle realizing that they were still in the room, and had in fact not moved from the couch this entire time. They were just so still and quiet, and had front row seats to his moment of weakness. He wondered if it was part of the House Elf magic to only have humans be aware of their presence when they were required to.
"Kreacher, Dobby. You are to answer Dumbledore's questions with complete honesty. I command it." Sirius ordered.
"Kreacher has tried to destroy the locket for many years.-" Kreacher told the Headmaster. Dumbledore received the whole story from the Elf all over again and asked for the coordinates of the hidden cave, as well as many other questions that led Harry to believe that he'd been waiting for something like this to happen for years.
"And you, Dobby." Dumbledore asked the other House Elf. "You worked for the Malfoys and they too received an evil object from Voldemort."
"Yes sir, mister Dumbledore sir." Dobby rocked back and forth. "A Diary sir."
"And do they still have this Diary? Are there any enchantments around it?"
"The old master tried to get rid of it years ago. But he could not. So he hides it." Dobby whispered the last part.
"Where?" Sirius asked him. "Where did he hide it?"
Dobby's head leaned to the left and he fought against revealing the secret until Kreacher clocked him over the head.
"Kreacher!" Sirius protested.
"Dobby needs punishment for not answering our master right away." Kreacher stated without remorse.
"Dobby does needs it sir. Bad Dobby." He told himself. "My old master hides it in his wife's vault. At Gringotts."
Sirius rushed forward. "His wife's vault? His wife's vault under the Black name?" He pressed desperately.
Dobby nodded so hard that his ears were flapping.
"Aha!" Sirius sat back in his chair, looking a little victorious. "And a Merry Christmas to me! I transferred everything from that vault into mine." He explained his jubilation proudly.
"So you are in possession of this Diary then. Sirius." Dumbledore implored. "I think I know what these items are, but would you allow me to verify that and destroy them?"
"What are they?" Remus asked.
Dumbledore sighed and looked back behind him, where Harry was standing. Clearly he thought Harry was too young to hear anything about the dark magic that had been used on these items. "Perhaps-"
"Harry's nearly of age. And knowing the truth is always better than speculation." Sirius stopped Dumbledore from sending Harry out of the room.
Dumbledore looked to be grappling with himself over whether it was a good idea to include Harry in this or not. "I believe that he split his soul into fragments, hiding them away to make it so he could not be killed until each piece was destroyed."
"What?!" The two other grown men asked.
Harry didn't understand though. How would one split their soul. How could a soul be split and then locked away in a locket? Or a diary. A diary doesn't even have a compartment. It's just pages.
"Do you have anything that could prove your theory correct?" Remus asked. "Aside from the locket here."
Harry came around to sit on the ground with his back against Sirius' armchair. If there were many more of these bombshells about to go off, he really needed more holding him up than his legs.
After a few moments of hesitancy over the answer to that question, it looked like someone would have to smack the Headmaster over the head to get an answer out of him as well. Sirius' method of getting him a glass of whiskey seemed to be the equivalent.
"Our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor a few years ago was partially possessed by him." Dumbledore admitted.
That bombshell would have for sure had Harry falling on his arse. "Which one was that?" He asked. Maybe it was Gildroy Lockhart. That would have explained why he was such a tosser.
"Quirinus Quirrell."
"What?!" Harry gasped. "Professor Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort?" He had been odd, sure. And that turban was completely ridiculous. Although, if he was fighting against a possession or something then the nervous twitches and such made a lot more sense.
"He was not possessed per se. He was actually playing partial host to what is left of his soul."
"Partial. Host?" Remus asked, looking like he was going to be sick.
"I didn't discover it until the end of the year. When he made an attempt to go after the Philosophers stone."
"What happened to him?" Sirius asked.
"Quirinus did not survive Voldemort leaving his body." Dumbledore said sounding regretful.
"Did he not survive, or did you not let him survive?" Sirius asked seriously.
With another weary glance at Harry, Dumbledore didn't need to answer that question for the occupants of the room to know which happened.
Harry was not as shocked as he felt he probably should be. Dumbledore was known to be a great wizard, and his first DADA professor had been playing a willing host to one of the most evil men he'd ever heard of. It was like it wasn't even real in his head. Professor Quirrell was killed by Dumbledore, and Peter Pettigrew had been killed by Sirius. It seemed like they were an 'eye for an eye' situations. Those two men had made terrible choices and had finally met their end because of it. What would have happened if Voldemort got the Philosophers stone and rose to power again? How many lives would have been lost then? It wasn't even a necessary evil in his opinion, it was just necessary.
"So, how many of these." Harry pointed over to the locket. "How many do you think he made then? Just two?"
"Doubt it." Sirius said behind him. "Bet old Voldy would have wanted to make at least three of them. Hit a powerful number."
Harry looked back at his godfather at that. What constituted a 'powerful number'?
Remus answered his unasked question. "Either three or seven are the more powerful numbers. That's something you would have learned in Arithmancy." He gave Harry a scolding look that was very out of sync with the atmosphere of the room and made them both chuckle slightly. He had dropped many hints for Harry to switch from Divination to Arithmancy in his third year and it had fallen on deaf ears.
"Perhaps for now I could take this locket into a secure space in the house and cast a few spells on it to see if it is in fact what I believe it to be?" Dumbledore asked Sirius.
Sirius observed him a moment, then looked over at Kreacher who was staring between Dumbledore and the locket with wide eyes. "Yes. But I and Kreacher will go with you."
Dumbledore's eyebrows went up at that request, looking over to Kreacher before turning back to Sirius. "May I ask why?"
"He's suffered enough for this locket and spent years trying to destroy it. I think he's earned the right to see what becomes of it." It was an olive branch that Sirius was extending.
"Thank you master." Kreacher croaked and stood.
"Dobby too?" Dobby asked.
Sirius nodded and stood, showing Dumbledore and the House Elves out of the room.
Harry got up to occupy the chair Sirius had just abandoned as he and Dumbledore went with Kreacher to the dining room at the other side of the main floor. Dobby was tentatively getting up to follow them, but Remus stayed in his seat.
"So. The guy that I supposedly killed isn't actually dead." Harry surmised, still quite lost with the information he'd just been provided.
Remus stared at Harry, and he could see the gears turning in his professors head, trying to figure out how to make all of the different reactions and words in his head come out in some comforting and understandable speech.
"If you could just say the first thing that comes to your mind instead of internally editing, I'd appreciate it." Harry told him wryly.
Remus sighed and took another sip of his drink before setting it down and clasping his hands together, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "From what I've just heard, that is basically what he's thinking. There are some truly horrific types of Dark Magic. There are a few different methods that Voldemort could have used to try to become immortal. If that locket is what I think it is, from what Kreacher said, then he can't actually die until all the pieces of his soul are found and 'killed' as well."
Harry nodded. That was essentially what he'd taken from what Dumbledore had said. "So if he isn't dead, then..."
"He is most likely hiding out and attempting to get his body back."
Harry thought over what that meant. He imagined an impression of a person, like when you took a crayon pencil and just sort of scribbled out the general shape of a man with empty lines in between the colored spaces. "So... he would be a ghost or something right now?"
"Erm. More likely a wraith." He went on at Harry's puzzled expression. "A wraith is a disembodied soul. He would be able to possess small animals, but when he isn't he would be like a spirit. If you were to stumble upon one, they are sort of like and insubstantial presence. A ghost can't be brought back to life, but a wraith can."
"So that's why he could share a body with Quirrell." He was still having trouble grasping it. It was like every time he thought he had a grasp of this world he was born into, but denied access to for his formative years, all the rules just jump up and change on him.
"Yes."
"So then couldn't he just be anywhere? Possessing anyone right now?"
"It would be fairly obvious if he were. If he were sharing a body with you, then your body would show some of himself. With what I've heard of Quirrell it seems he was actually growing out of the back of his head."
"Yeah, and no one noticed." Harry pointed out. The image of a science fiction movie Dudley had been watching a few summers ago popped into his head. It had been well beyond suitable for someone their age to watch, but in it there was a man sharing a body with someone, and he was visible through the mans belly. Harry shuddered and felt the urge to vomit at that recollection.
"Harry. Let's not let our imaginations go wild right now, okay? Voldemort hasn't been seen for five years if what Dumbledore said was true, and fifteen years if it wasn't. Just." He hesitated. "Why don't we just wait and see what they say when they come back?" He looked over at the door to the hallway. They had heard the door to the dining room close and it still hadn't opened again. "This could take a while." He took another drink from his glass.
Harry nodded, but found it hard to do as asked. The man that killed his parents was still out there somewhere. And he was a monster.
"Why would Kreacher call you a 'half-beast'?" Harry asked, recalling suddenly what the House Elf said while Remus was getting Dumbledore.
Remus froze with his glass on the way back to his lips. He brought his glass back down to the arm of his chair slowly. "I." He sighed. "When I was a child, there was a man named Greyback that held a grudge against my father. This man wanted revenge on him for something he said. The way that he took that revenge was by." Remus shook slightly. He was talking rather slowly, the story was clearly really hard for him to tell. "One night he came into our house in the dead of the night and... bit me."
"Bit you?" Harry asked. He sat up straighter. "Did you say Greyback?" In the copies of the Daily Prophet there had been stories of Greyback's victims. The one's that had died and the one's that had- "You're a Werewolf?! How did I not realize this years ago?" He thought back over all the information he knew about Werewolves, and tried to come up with any hints that he'd missed that would have led him to realize sooner that his favorite Professor was one of the creatures he had to teach his students about.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner." Remus hung his head. "It's been nearly thirty years now that I've been infected."
"So.. on a full moon, you turn into a werewolf." Harry said dumbly.
"Yes. But I'm not a danger to anybody." He assured him. "I take Wolfsbane potion diligently leading up to the full moon. That makes it so that I just sort of curl up into a ball in my suite and sleep through it."
"Oh. I'm not, I'm not worried or anything. It's just." Harry let out a laugh. "Really it's just adding to the list of things I didn't know until the past few months." He shrugged.
Remus relaxed. "You're not scared or anything?"
"Why would I be scared of you?" Harry asked incredulously. "I've been around you for three and a half years and you've been great."
Remus grinned and shook his head. "You are so like your parents."
"Really?" Harry asked eagerly.
"You know, that's why your dad and Sirius became Animagi." He told him. "And Peter." He added begrudgingly.
"My dad could turn into an animal? What was he?" Harry felt his own face light up in excitement. He could never get enough information about his parents.
"A stag." Remus told him emotionally. "They realized what I was and instead of shunning me." Tears welled up in his eyes. "They wanted to become Animagi so they could be with me and make it easier. Your dad and Sirius were amazing."
Harry's excitement died down a touch as he empathized with where Remus was coming from on some level. When he got to Hogwarts he was excited to learn about this new world, but he'd never had friends before. So when Neville and Hermione came along and befriended him right away, stood up to Malfoy and other bullies for him and alongside him, it was just the best feeling.
"What about my mum? When did she find out?"
Remus chuckled and sniffled a bit, still trying not to let his emotions get the better of him. "She said she found out some time around our fourth year, but never said anything about it. I only found out she knew when she was Head Girl. I was a Prefect see, and I was hanging out with her and your dad, who was Head Boy. Lily was making up the schedule for the prefects for rounds. I still remember the feeling I had when I noticed she had put my name down to do rounds the night before a full moon. I wouldn't have been in the best shape for that. But before I could say anything, come up with an excuse, she made this... noise. Like she was frustrated she'd mixed something up, then she switched my name with someone else so I would be scheduled a few days after the full moon instead. I gave a look to James, but he seemed just as surprised as I was." Remus' chin warbled slightly. "I asked her why she did that and she gave me this knowing and loving smile and just said she thought I might be 'under the weather' that night."
"She sounds like she was a great friend." Harry felt himself choking up a bit too. This was an emotional Christmas.
"She was the best." He smiled warmly. "I was so." He sucked in a breath and had to steady himself. "So devastated." Tears started rolling down his cheeks and he put head in his hand.
Harry felt the fluttering in his chest of restraining the impulse to tuck his knees to his chest and begin crying again. "When they." He couldn't get the words out.
After a moment Remus pulled his head up and took a deep breath. "I really want to be able to get this out. Because I've wanted to explain myself to you ever since that night." he took a few more breaths. "Harry. My entire world imploded that night you lost your parents. James and Lily were my family, I loved them so much. And you. And then Sirius was shipped off to Azkaban for supposedly murdering another who I held near and dear to me. On top of. I just. I completely fell apart." His knee started jostling. "The whole of the magical world was out celebrating and I was a complete mess. Everyone I held close was gone. I was lost and betrayed and just an empty shell."
Harry had tears rolling down his cheeks and did nothing to staunch the flow.
"If I'd been stronger. I. I could have been there for you. I couldn't have raised you, the ministry wouldn't have allowed it. I thought you'd be taken care of though. I had no idea."
It had to have been Ginny's influence on him. Physical contact was not something he ever would have initiated before she came into his life, but here he was standing up and pulling Remus up from his chair for a fierce hug.
They were all orphans, Harry realized. He, Remus and Sirius were all with-out parents or any direct bloodline.
He had only his aunt, but already he considered Mrs. Weasley more of a parental family figure than his Aunt, and he'd only met Mrs. Weasley three times. She'd knitted him an entire jumper for Christmas! That was just so sweet of her. Meanwhile he hadn't heard from his blood relative since August 31st and even then she'd avoided eye contact with him.
The both of them heard the door open down the corridor and pulled back from the hug giving each other somewhat shy smiles before wiping their eyes and attempting to look nonchalant while they waited for the others to come back in.
"Looks like we're going to Gringotts first thing in the morning." Sirius announced and picked up his tumbler from the coffee table, taking it over to the liquor cabinet for a refill.
"If you wouldn't mind." Dumbledore summoned his own and handed it over for a refill of his own. He looked over to Harry. "Also, if you wouldn't mind, I'd rather you not tell any of your peers that you witnessed your Headmaster enjoying too much whiskey over the holidays."
Harry gave a confirmation in the form of some kind of flustered shoulder waggle and head nod. He was trying to switch gears and reign in his emotions still. Doing that whilst trying not to look like you were doing that was making him move about rather like a marionette.
"So that was a piece of his soul then." Remus asked. He looked like he'd regained his senses. He'd also had several more years of practice composing himself than Harry.
"It was. Unfortunately I was not able to destroy it yet." Dumbledore took a seat on the couch.
The House Elves did not come back into the room with them, Harry realized, but didn't think on it too much.
"We might need to find a Parselmouth to get it open." Sirius said regretfully to Remus and sat back in his armchair.
Remus let out disbelieving noise. "That's the only way you think you can get it open?"
"Due to the inscription on the locket it is looking like that is the case. I am not one hundred percent sure, but I believe it was Slytherin's locket and it is what he was known for." Dumbledore explained.
"Err. What's a Parselmouth?" Harry asked.
"Someone who can talk to snakes." Sirius said depressingly.
"Oh! I can do that." Harry perked up. Then had a moment of regret as the three of them turned to stare at him in shock. "Uh. Is. Is it not common?"
"No." Sirius said slowly. "How... since when? When did you find out you could talk to snakes?"
His hand went to the hair at the nape of his neck and he blushed slightly. "I, um. I may have accidentally set a Boa Constrictor on my cousin Dudley when I was ten. We were at the Zoo." He added quickly. "Dudley was being a pain, and I was apologizing to the snake, and he just sort of, understood me, and then I did some accidental magic and made the glass disappear." He gave a nervous chuckle.
"And the snake spoke to you too?" Remus asked slowly.
"Uh. Yeah. He said 'thanks'" Harry told them.
"What?" Sirius asked. "What does that mean?"
"Huh?" Harry was confused by the question. "What do you mean? Thanks means thanks. He was happy I freed him."
The three of them exchanged a look. "Harry." Dumbledore started. "The first time you told us what the snake said, you told us in Parseltongue. We didn't understand it."
Harry stared at him stupidly. "I spoke Parseltongue, and I didn't even realize it?" He mentally added that to his growing list of previously unknown facts about himself. Can speak different languages with-out hearing the difference.
"Well." Sirius raised a glass in his direction. "Guess that solves that problem. Cheers, Harry." Whether he was downplaying this new information Harry couldn't tell.
Remus turned to him. "You" He shook his head once more and sighed. "You were saying something about going to Gringotts tomorrow?"
"Yes. I'm going to look for that diary with Dobby's help. And I was thinking. My nutter cousin Bellatrix was pretty high up the ladder with that psychopath. There's a chance that there's something else down there too, and I was hoping you would come with me and the elves to search tomorrow."
"Me too?" Harry asked, wanting to be of more assistance than just unknowingly hissing a few words.
"Sorry Pup. If we could put this off until August, then yes. However you are not an adult, nor a Black. You get to sleep in tomorrow though, how lucky are you!" Sirius teased.
()()()
It was the morning after Christmas and Ginny didn't know whether she should be bringing her new coat with her, or if her Weasley jumper from last year would be enough. She had the Weasley jumper that she'd received yesterday, but she had a little bit of growing to do before that one fit her in a flattering way.
She was going over to Sirius' place to spend some time with he and Harry, and she was really curious to see what kind of place Sirius lived in. Just how horrible was this house that he couldn't bear going back to that made him feel that he had to stay at the Burrow. Was it the house that was so horrible, or was it the company that he was craving?
Her brothers had taken some working over by Sirius yesterday. Her parents were completely comfortable with him in human form, but everyone else was slightly tip-toeing around him. With the exception of Ron, who didn't really seem to care, and her, who was constantly trying to make him slightly uncomfortable himself. She'd found the dog bed and wedged it in between the armchairs for him as an offering of a place to sit.
He'd taken her up on it as well. That was how he'd won around the twin's favor.
Bill and Charlie had been completely too adult about the whole situation. They'd shaken his hand and offered their condolences for the whole situation. Percy hadn't interacted with Sirius much at all, and looked to have purposefully situated himself as far away from Sirius as possible the whole day.
All it took for Kenneth was having the dog back for a bit. Sirius transformed and the kid was all over him. The little betrayer.
Everyone was super nice to Harry though, and she was so glad he had been there. Seeing the joy in his eyes through out the whole afternoon and into the evening really made her Christmas.
Now Ginny was hoping she'd be able to get some alone time with Harry. Some real alone time.
Her hopes weren't high on that one as it would be her first visit over there, and Sirius wouldn't want to come off as an irresponsible supervisor of sorts. Plus, Professor Lupin was staying there too right now.
She decided to pull on last years Weasley jumper and pull on her coat over top of that, just in case her mum had some problem with her wearing her tighter jumper for some reason.
When she and Harry had come back after she'd 'shown him around' the property the day they'd arrived from Hogwarts she'd seen the look that her mum gave her. Obviously she'd take the opportunity to snog her boyfriend at the very least and she would completely fess up to that, but there couldn't possibly be a way her mum would be able to tell she'd just lost her virginity in the orchard.
It had hurt a bit, and but by the time Harry had finished it was starting to feel really good. She'd been reliving it over and over in her head, particularly at night when she was alone in bed and really wanted to try that again.
It hadn't been how she'd envisioned it happening, but it had been feeling more like a hurdle to jump over than an all-important moment that required everything to be perfect. With how much it hurt and how quickly Harry had finished, would it have wound up being perfect? Even if they found somewhere to be together all night and uninterrupted with a hundred lit candles and all that other cheesy stuff that romance books make you think you need, it still would have had the same end result.
Perhaps a mattress would have been nice though. Even with their coats tucked underneath her bum, her tailbone had been a little tender for a few days after.
Either way, she loved Harry. She was happy that they'd finally been together in that way and was eagerly looking forward to trying that again.
"Mum." She called out into the kitchen when she got down to the main landing. "I told Harry and Sirius I'd pop in around now. Alright if I head over?"
Her mum had been in the kitchen, as always, preparing preserves. "Yes dear. Here, take some of these left overs for them will you?" She handed her a container of food from the dinner last night that Sirius had told her wasn't necessary.
Ginny grinned and accepted what would probably turn out to be her lunch. "Thanks. Did Ron come downstairs yet?" Her brother had been in alright spirits yesterday, but he was a little depressed all around still about the prospect of loosing Hermione. It was hard to watch, but not really something she could offer him assistance with. She'd told him as much as she could about it from the female perspective and now it was up to him to deal with the situation.
Her mum frowned. "No. He's still up there moping about."
"Well, if you see him, maybe suggest he send an Owl over to Neville?" Ginny offered. "He could probably do with some guy time. And Neville knows Hermione really well."
That actually caused her mum to smirk at her a bit and give a knowing look. "Don't want him interrupting you and Harry then?"
Ginny shrugged. "No. I don't." She said honestly. "He's being a grump, and I want to have a nice time at Sirius'."
Her mum nodded her head, understanding. "Alright. That's a decent suggestion, now go on. And I want you home before 6 alright?"
"Alright." She went over and gave her mum a kiss on the cheek and headed to the fireplace.
Her landing in Sirius' sitting room was remarkably graceful! Sure she'd traveled by Floo at least a hundred times in her life, but a graceful landing was something that only happened once and a while.
Too bad there was no one to see it.
The sitting room of Grimmauld Place looked fairly posh under all of the Christmas decorations that looked rather hastily and clumsily strung up everywhere. She had to chuckle at the sight of the Christmas Tree. It looked like the boys had gotten bored with stringing up the tinsel and just threw clumps of it at the branches and hoped for the best.
There were unwrapped piles of sweets still under the tree, including the biscuits she'd given to Sirius in the shape of dog bones, and the James Potter file was open on a side table. It looked like Harry was making his way through all of the detention slips.
She'd had to sneak Harry's invisibility cloak to pull that off, and convince a few of the younger students to cause a ruckus on one of the higher floors to drag Filch and his cat far away from his office. It helped knowing that Filch wasn't all that adept at magic. Fred and George had taught her how to use a Muggle lock picking set and a few spells that worked along the lines of an advanced 'Alohamora' so she could be prepared for whatever it took to get into the caretakers files.
She had looked for one on Lily Evans too, but there really wasn't much, and what there had been had involved James Potter as well, so stealing only James Potter's file would make it less obvious that it would be in Harry's possession. She probably should have duplicated the file and replaced it, but unfortunately she didn't know how to do that magic.
The reaction she'd received from Harry was exactly what she'd hoped for. Excitement, amazement and he'd been completely touched by the thought behind it.
The present she'd received from him had been a little over the top though. It was really nice and she appreciated it, and it wasn't like she had something else she'd been hoping he'd get her, but still. He really didn't need to have spent so much money on her.
"Hello?" Ginny called out. She couldn't hear anyone moving about in the house. There was a chance they were all still sleeping. Who knew what those boys got up to when they got home. There were three unwashed tumblers on the coffee table, there was a chance they were all sleeping off the liquor.
Didn't Sirius currently have two House Elves? Why hadn't they tidied up after them?
Ginny shed her coat and put it on the nearest armchair and went into the hallway. She was on the main landing it seemed. There was a door directly across from her, and stairs leading up to the next level. It would be rude to go snooping, but she did still owe Sirius some payback, so how much did she really care about being slightly rude?
Opening the door across from the sitting room she found herself in the kitchen. No one was in there either, but she put the container of food her mum had given her in the ice box and peered into the closet type space that looked like one of the House Elves had made a bedroom out of. Probably Kreacher considering the state of it. She'd read some of what Sirius had owled to Harry and he'd mentioned the behavior of the old family House Elf.
Going back to the hallway she walked past the stairs and opened the door at the end of the corridor. It was a rather large dining area that looked quite clean but was horribly decorated and dark. There was a window and a door at the far end of it that looked into a small backyard area that was completely overgrown with weeds. She could see them poking up through the foot or so of undisturbed snow.
Back in the entrance-way she called up from the foot of the stairs again, and again received no response. There was a chance that there were silencing spells around each of the bedrooms. It was an old family house so there could be all kinds of spells and wards all over the different rooms and the whole house in general.
She slowly began climbing the stairs and took a look at each of the portraits on the way up. Sirius' relatives did not look like they approved of her. That, or their faces were simply permanently holding the expression of having just sucked on a lemon. He should probably take them down and replace them with something pleasant to look at.
On the second floor there were four doors. One to her right, two on her left and one at the back behind the stairs that lead up to the next floor.
The door to her right was closest so she knocked on it and received no response. The handle turned with out protest and she pushed the door open. It was a library. Dark wood bookshelves, dark red velvet curtains over the window and two uncomfortable looking armchairs, they had wooden arms on them and stiff upright backing.
She closed the door and went to the opposite side of the hallway and knocked again on the first door.
Again, no answer. So she opened that door too and it was a four piece bathroom. It had some toiletries in it scattered on the counter. At least that meant someone occupied this floor.
Ginny knocked on the next door before opening it. This one was a bedroom. And an occupied bedroom at that.
Harry was alone and asleep in the bed.
She grinned wickedly at that.
It was a large room he had all to himself. At least four times the size of her own bedroom, and had a dark four poster king sized bed that he was currently sleeping in.
She closed the door as quietly as possible and locked it before pulling off her jumper and her shoes and jeans so she was only in her t-shirt and knickers then walked over to stand by his bedside. It looked like he was sleeping topless. She got a thrill running through her over that.
Delicately she pulled up the covers on her side and slipped into the bed, shifting over until she was right up beside him on her side. He moved slightly, but still didn't wake so she leaned over his chest and gave him a kiss to his sternum.
That had him jolt awake. "Ginny?!" She looked up at him with a grin. His arms came around her and pulled her up so she lay completely on top of him. He kissed her full on the lips and his hands trailed down to her bum. He took a sharp inhale when he realized she was only in her knickers. "Hmm. This is the best dream."
Ginny smiled against his mouth. "Most of my dreams involve you being on top." She moved down and nuzzled his neck. He was growing hard against her belly. She was only a little disappointed he was wearing pajama bottoms.
Harry ran his hands up under her shirt and she pulled back to take it off, along with her bra and flung them to the floor with-out a thought. He flipped them over and kissed down her neck and to her breasts, taking a nipple into his mouth. Ginny arched her back and sighed at the feeling. She felt herself grow wet at his touches. "Harry. I want you."
Without hesitation he hooked a finger in her knickers and tugged them down before kissing his way back up to her mouth. He paused hovering over her. "I'm not dreaming, am I?"
She opened her eyes to see him staring down at her face and her breath hitched at the look he was giving her. "No. You aren't dreaming."
He smiled at her and tugged down his pajama bottoms, his erection springing free and hitting her gently against her sex. She rocked against it one time before he reached down between them and positioned himself at her entrance before slowly pushing himself inside her.
The both of them let out a loud exhale at the incredible sensation.
It didn't hurt like last time. He pushed himself all the way in and slowly pulled back before rocking forward again. It felt incredible. She was so full. Full of him.
Harry buried his head in pillow beside her head and had his arms under her shoulders, supporting some of his weight as he rocked in and out of her. She started meeting him half way as he thrust gently forward and together they set the pace. It was slow and steady and made her feel it in her entire body.
Her toes were curling from the pleasure, her thigh muscles were tense and engaging her movements, the muscles in her bum were clenching when he hit that spot deep inside her. Ginny's back was arching with the pleasure, her chest was expanding and contracting with the feeling that built up in her belly, her hands were gripping his back and slowly making their way lower and lower down towards his bum. And her eyes were rolling back behind her closed eyelids showing her the completely erotic image of Harry's hardness pushing inside her over and over again.
There was a familiar sensation building up. She could feel herself getting close to her orgasm and clutched at him tighter with her hands. She felt her body growing stiffer and her breath short and quick.
"Gin." Harry groaned his release. His thrusts turned more to jabs as he came.
'No!' Ginny screamed in her head. She'd been so close. She'd managed not to verbalize her protest, at least she thought so anyways. But a whimper did escape her.
Harry pulled his head up and she saw he was slightly dazed. "Did I hurt you?"
She wanted to demand he keep going. She was entirely turned on and so close. If he could just manage to continue at the pace for two more minutes she was sure she'd be groaning his name too. She shook her head no and tried not to look too disappointed as she felt him soften inside her.
"Ginny?" Harry asked concerned.
She closed her eyes. He thought she was lying about it hurting. The truth would surely be less painful for him than that. "I was so close." She confessed.
She felt Harry let out a breath on her face. He slipped out of her and she opened her eyes to see his messy mop of hair as he lowered himself to kiss her chest. She started breathing hard again as he continued his way south with his kisses.
All.
The way.
Down.
Her whole body tensed up as his mouth came against her folds and she sucked in a gasping breath. She was in shock. They'd talked about how they each wanted to do this to the other ages ago, but she hadn't expected this.
A strangled and satisfied moan escaped her lips as his tongue lapped against her clit and she bucked against his mouth at his movements.
His hands came up to grasp at her breasts and she spread her legs farther apart, fisting her hands in the sheets to try and gain some sense of control over her own body. But it felt so incredible. If there was some way for him to create this sensation with his tongue while he was buried deep inside her she'd do absolutely anything he asked for, completely submit herself over to him and be his slave.
As it was, with just his tongue against her that climb up to her release was building higher, and the fact that she was missing those thrusting movements inside her was almost like delayed gratification, making it somehow hotter. She began bucking against him desperately, not caring how wanton she was coming across because she was about to-
"YES!" She screamed out and arched her back so far that her forehead was nearly in line with the headboard behind her.
Harry kept his lips against her until she relaxed back onto the mattress and then kissed his way back up so he was aligned with her again. She was still coming down from her high but felt him hard against her once more. "Can I?" He asked desperately.
She couldn't talk but nodded. And he filled her once more.
He slid in even easier this time with how wet she was, and she was extra sensitive to the movements. They were both frantically matching thrust this time and her fingernails were digging into the flesh at his hips.
Not entirely sure what she was doing she hooked one of her legs over his and pushed off the mattress with her other foot to flip them over.
At this angle she could grind herself against him while he was still deep inside her. With the pressure against all the right spots she was quickly feeling the buildup in her lower belly again. This time her cry out was simply that, a cry of unadulterated pleasure at the release.
"Fuck!" Harry groaned in amazement and grabbed her hips, thrusting up into her hard at a rapid-fire pace. "So. Tight." He gritted out through clenched teeth before letting out an illegible groan of his own and wrapped his arms around her tight, hugging her to his chest while he continued a few half-hearted thrust.
She had her eyes closed and felt completely satisfied relaxing against his chest as his arms slowly loosened their tight hold around her. His erection softened again and slipped out of her.
They lay there gasping for breath together, chests pressing into each others with each heavy intake of air.
She found her last amount of energy and shifted over to lay beside him tucked into the crook of his arm incapable of any further movement.
AN- I was referencing Total Recall when Harry remembers the science fiction movie Dudley had been watching.
Thanks blattgefluester for correcting the spelling of Kreacher.