Author's Note:

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the little bit from chapter seventeen of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, that belongs to JKR.

This is technically the beginning of Part IV.

Reviews and Comments: To alix33: You don't know who you are more embarrassed for in terms of the upcoming sex talk? It's still a few chapters away so you have time to ponder lol. Yes, owls can deliver messages all over the world. Thanks for the review! To Sleepyhawk502: Thank you! I'm happy to hear that you love Sirius and Zee, too! To Guest: Thank you for saying Sirius had a perfect reaction while being by Harry's bedside! I know, it was so sad in the books how no one was there by his side when he was injured until Goblet of Fire. To Saz: Thank you! I am so excited to see you have caught up, one of my few and rare original readers from back in the day when I posted on SIYE. Love you, Saz!

Thank you very much for reading and please, please review!

Your reviews give me life! They give me inspiration! And they make me want to keep writing for more than just myself! Thank you!

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR:

The One Where the Whole School Knows

When Harry opened his eyes, sunlight was pouring in through the windows. He blinked owlishly at the figure slumped over his legs. He reached around for his glasses, bringing the figure into view and they widened when he saw that it was Remus. Sirius was sitting on the other side of him, asleep in the chair. Harry moved and the bed creaked. Sirius' eyes popped open. Harry was surprised to see that they were a little bloodshot and that his father looked dishevelled like he hadn't slept or changed his clothes in days.

"Harry!" he exclaimed, moving towards him and kissing his forehead. "Hey, Prongslet, hey."

Harry stared from him to Remus in confusion. "What happened? Why are you and Uncle Moony here?"

Remus was roused from sleep by the voices and he sat up, his own bloodshot eyes on Harry as Harry took in his own sleepy and dishevelled look. "Harry!" He kissed Harry's cheek, taking his hand in his. "Are you all right?"

"Prongslet, do you remember what happened?" Sirius asked, running a finger down Harry's cheek.

Harry blinked in confusion, his brain still sleepy and then his eyes widened. "Quirrell! He was trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone! Dumbledore has to —"

"—It's fine," Sirius interrupted him with a smile. "It's all good. The stone is safe and you are safe."

"Ron and Hermione! Neville! We petrified him and left him in the common room!"

Remus' eyebrow rose at that. "You petrified Neville? Whatever the hell for?"

"He was trying to stop us from going," Harry said quickly as Dumbledore stepped into the room. "Professor! The stone! It was Quirrell!"

Dumbledore smiled and raised a hand to silence Harry. "My dear boy, it is all taken care of."

As the story came pouring out of Harry about stumbling across Fluffy and how they learned each step, how they suspected Snape, and how ultimately they learned that it was Quirrell; Sirius and Remus sat stunned as they listened.

"You could have died like ten times!" Remus exclaimed, eyes wide.

Harry shrugged. "I didn't think about it, Uncle Rem. I just… I didn't want Voldemort to come back."

Sirius cradled Harry's hand to his heart, moving onto the bed and tugging the boy into his arms. "He is back, baby." He kissed Harry's forehead, wrapping his arms tighter as he held his son to his chest. "Prongslet, you stopped him — but he is back."

Dumbledore explained what had happened and Harry stared at him in awe, his head cradled over Sirius' heart.

"But what about the stone, Sir, is it safe?"

"I see that you are not to be distracted," Dumbledore said kindly. "Very well, the Stone. Professor Quirrell did not manage to take it from you. I arrived in time to prevent that, although you were doing very well on your own, I must say."

"You got there? You got Hermione's owl?"

"We must have crossed in midair. No sooner had I reached London than it became clear to me that the place I should be was the one I had just left. I arrived just in time to pull Quirrell off of you."

"It was you."

"I feared I might be too late."

"You nearly were, I couldn't have kept him off the Stone much longer —"

"Not the Stone, boy, you — the effort involved nearly killed you," Sirius gripped him tighter at those words. "For one terrible moment there, I was afraid it had. As for the Stone, it has been destroyed."

"Destroyed?" Harry said blankly. "But your friend — Nicolas Flamel —"

"Oh, you know about Nicolas?" Dumbledore said, sounding quite delighted. "You did do the thing properly, didn't you? Well, Nicolas and I have had a little chat, and agreed that it's all for the best."

"But that means he and his wife will die, won't they?"

"They have enough Elixir stored to set their affairs in order and then, yes, they will die." Dumbledore smiled at the look of amazement on Harry's face. "To one as young as you, I'm sure it seems incredible, but to Nicolas and Perenelle, it really is like going to bed after a very, very long day. After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all — the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them."

Harry lay there, lost for words.

Sirius pressed his lips against his temple and Harry smiled against his father's chest. The feeling of warmth and safety he felt was something he couldn't quite put into words. He basked in it for a moment and then he remembered his father's words: Sirius had said that Voldemort was back.

"Sir?" Harry said, carefully, turning his head away from Sirius' chest, "Well, Voldemort's going to try other ways of coming back, isn't he? I mean, he hasn't gone, has he?"

"No, Harry, he has not. He is still out there somewhere, perhaps looking for another body to share... not being truly alive, he cannot be killed. He left Quirrell to die; he shows just as little mercy to his followers as his enemies. Nevertheless, Harry, while you may only have delayed his return to power, it will merely take someone else who is prepared to fight what seems a losing battle next time — and if he is delayed again, and again, why, he may never return to power."

Harry nodded, but stopped quickly, because it made his head hurt. Then he said, "Sir, there are some other things that I'd like to know, if you can tell me…" he said as Sirius' grip tightened on him. "Things I want to know the truth about..."

"The truth," Dumbledore sighed. "It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution. However, I shall answer your questions unless I have a very good reason not to, in which case I beg you'll forgive me. I shall not, of course, lie."

"Albus," Sirius said softly.

"No, Sirius, he's right. He can ask them."

Harry looked between Dumbledore and his fathers before he spoke. "Well… Voldemort said that he only killed my mother because she tried to stop him from killing me. But, why would he want to kill me in the first place?"

Dumbledore sighed very deeply this time. "Alas, the first thing you ask me, I cannot tell you. Not today. Not now. You will know, one day... put it from your mind for now, Harry. When you are older... I know you hate to hear this... when you are ready, you will know."

And Harry knew that it would be no good to argue. "But why couldn't Quirrell touch me?"

"Because your mother died to save you. If there is one thing that Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn't realize that love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign... to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good and so pure."

"And there's something else…" Harry said carefully, his gaze meeting Remus' from across the bed before flitting back to Dumbledore.

"Fire away."

"Quirrell said Snape —"

"Professor Snape, Harry."

"Yes, him — Quirrell said that he hates me because he hated my father. Is that true?"

Sirius swore under his breath. "That git needs to learn to let things go."

"Sirius," Remus began, but Dumbledore held up his hand to silence them.

"Well, they did rather detest each other. And then, your father did something Snape could never forgive."

"What?"

"He saved his life."

"What?"

"Yes…" Dumbledore said dreamily. "Funny, the way people's minds work, isn't it? Professor Snape couldn't bear being in your father's debt… I do believe that he worked so hard to protect you this year because he felt that would make him and your father even. Then he could go back to hating your father's memory in peace…"

Harry tried to understand this but it made his head pound, so he stopped. "And Sir, there's one more thing…"

"Just the one?"

"How did I get the Stone out of the mirror?"

"Ah, now, I'm glad that you asked me that. It was one of my more brilliant ideas, and between you and me, that's saying something. You see, only one who wanted to find the Stone — find it, but not use it — would be able to get it, otherwise they'd just see themselves making gold or drinking the Elixir of Life. My brain surprises even me sometimes." Dumbledore stood up, smiling at Harry. "Now, I suggest you rest and let your fathers take care of you."

Harry nodded as Dumbledore left the room and Remus buried his face in his hands.

"Harry, the reason Snape seems to hate you… it's nothing to do with you. It's because of Sirius, your dad, and I."

Sirius nodded, kissing Harry's forehead. "We bullied him in school. We shouldn't have, and I regret it now, even though I still think that he's a great git — but we treated him unkindly. And at the end of fifth year, he was… he'd gone too far. He was always following us, trying to figure out where we snuck off to all of the time… and there was an argument by the lake and when your mother stepped in to stop us from hurting him he called her something foul. It infuriated James. When I caught him following us again, I just lost it. I told him that if he really wanted to see what we were doing then at midnight he was to go down to the grounds, use a tree branch to hit a knot on the Whomping Willow to stop the branches from moving and then to follow the tunnel all the way through. Your dad stopped him before he made it."

"What was there?"

Remus paled as he stood up, his hands in his hair. "I was, Harry. It was a full moon."

Harry's eyes widened. "You…" he looked at Sirius in horror. "He would have killed him!"

Sirius nodded, his eyes horrified as he remembered how he had felt the moment he'd realized that himself. "I know. I was sixteen and I was stupid and I didn't think it through. In my head I just thought it was Moony and… it's a regret that I've had to live with. If James hadn't found out and pulled Snape back, he would have been killed and it would have been my fault. James was the person that Snape hated the most and to have him be the one to save him… but from that moment on, Snape knew that Remus was a werewolf. I'm sorry, Harry. I'm sorry that my actions have caused you this."

Harry shook his head, hugging Sirius tightly. "They didn't. You told me once that I'm not my dad so I don't know why Snape seems to think I am."

Remus smiled, tugging Harry into his own arms and kissing his forehead. "You're an incredible boy, Harry, and we love you very much."

Harry hugged him back. "Are you upset with me for saving the stone?"

Sirius let out a long breath. "You were incredibly brave and foolish and I am very proud of you for being so brave and… you did try to do the right thing first. You went to an adult and Auntie Minnie didn't believe you. So, I can't really be upset with you. But Prongslet, promise me that this isn't going to happen again, yeah? No more near-death experiences? My heart simply can't take it."

Harry laughed and hugged his godfather, laughing when Remus made himself comfortable on the other side of his hospital bed and he was snuggled between the two of them. "Deal."

~ ASC ~

When Sirius and Remus left Hogwarts that afternoon, after being reassured by Madam Pomfrey that Harry was going to be released from the hospital wing that night, they were both exhausted. It had been almost three full days before Harry had even woken up and neither one of them had been willing to leave his bedside.

Sirius collapsed on his couch, yawning hugely as Remus took a seat in the chair next to him. "If Harry keeps up these kind of near-death experiences, he's going to give me grey hair!"

Remus chuckled, scratching his chin. "I have a few already so suck it up."

Sirius laughed and grinned at his friend, running his hands over his face, his expression darkening. "He faced Voldemort, Rem. I don't care in what kind of form, but he fucking faced him. He knows he's still alive."

Remus nodded, crossing his arms in front of him. "I know. But like Dumbledore said, we're safe right now. He's safe."

"I know," he said, yawning again. "But it's still a little terrifying to think of Harry going through that and I had no idea. He didn't even give me any idea that all of this was happening at school, did you know?"

Remus hesitated. "I didn't know exactly, but he questioned me about who Nicholas Flamel was over the Christmas holidays and I remember thinking that was a weird person to ask about, but that it was so random that I didn't question it. Looking back now, I knew that he was holding something back, but I never imagined… being that you raised him and that he's the son of James Potter, I should have."

Sirius chuckled at those words. "Hey, now, that's not fair."

"It's true though," Remus said with a smile.

"And we raised him, Moony."

Remus smiled at that. "Yeah, yeah, we have."

He had missed his friend, Remus thought.

They hadn't been spending as much time together lately because of the big fight they had had a while back about Tonks. Sirius hadn't brought it up again and neither had Remus for fear of setting his friend off again. He didn't need Sirius to tell him what an absolute idiot he was, he already knew that.

"Can you believe that three first year students got past all of those obstacles though? I mean, were they really that powerful or did the kids actually outsmart the teachers?"

Sirius shrugged. "It sounds to me like they were. I mean, Harry is the youngest Seeker in a century, finding and catching that flying key was probably easy for him. He always writes about this Hermione being a complete know-it-all so I imagine she was helpful and we both know how good Ron Weasley is at chess. He's even beaten you a few times."

"Hey," Remus said, grinning at that. "I've just been rusty."

Sirius smiled. "Three smart young minds and they not only were successful, but they did it well. Dumbledore said that he was going to award them house points for it. I hope that they win the cup. When Minnie took away all of those points when he was caught up at the Astronomy Tower, I could tell how devastated he was."

Remus nodded, smiling. "Yeah, busy first year."

Sirius smirked. "And then some."

There was a knock on the front door, making both of them turn towards it. Remus stood up to answer it, smiling at the small beautiful woman who stood there. "Hi, Zee, come on in."

Zee stepped inside, her gaze immediately finding Sirius. "Hey, I've been checking every hour or so, is Harry all right?"

Sirius nodded, smiling gratefully when she opened her arms and he hugged her close to him. "He's fine. I'm sorry for taking off like that."

"Please! Obviously Harry is much more important," she said, kissing his cheek. "What happened? Is Harry all right? How did a teacher die?" She took a seat on the chesterfield, smiling when Sirius draped an arm around her shoulders and took her hand in his.

He and Remus quickly explained what had happened and her eyes widened in shock.

"You Know Who? He's back?"

Sirius nodded, gently rubbing his thumb over the top of her hand. "And now you're where we are."

"Wow. Just wow. I don't even have words."

Remus smiled at them. "Look at you two, all cozy. I should be disgusted."

Sirius laughed. "We're not all cozy, Rem."

Zee smiled up at him. "We are pretty cozy, aren't we?" She kissed Sirius softly. "I kinda like him."

He rolled his eyes. "I think you more than kinda like me."

"Well, the sex is really good," she said with a smirk. "Not to mention my panther likes you."

"All priorities, I see," he said with a grin.

Zee chuckled. "Important, never the less."

Remus laughed. "You've been dating long enough now that you should have a few more priorities."

Sirius' eyebrow rose. "Are we dating?"

Zee shrugged, nipping at his bottom lip. "I thought we were just friendly neighbours who shagged — a lot."

He grinned. "This is why I like you, you don't feel the need to put a label on everything."

Remus chuckled. "You seem to make each other happy, whatever it is you're doing."

"Shagging," Sirius said. "A lot of shagging, in fact."

Zee laughed and wiggled out from his grasp to stand up. "Usually. Some of us have to work for a living though." She leaned and down and kissed Sirius softly. "See you later."

Sirius watched her leave with a grin, turning back to his friend. "What?"

Remus just shook his head. "I think it is time to admit you have a girlfriend."

Sirius waved him away with a smirk. "We don't need labels. We're just enjoying each other, nothing more. She's excited to meet Harry though. I talk about him so much she said that she feels as if she already knows him."

Remus nodded, standing up. "I'm sure Harry will be quite happy to see that you have a girlfriend, Sirius."

"Well, one of us should be having sex," he said, earning a glare from Remus.

"I do have sex," he insisted.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Your hand doesn't count. We both know that you haven't touched a woman since at least last summer."

Remus merely glared at him. "I thought that you were going to leave it alone."

Sirius stared at him for a moment. "If you want to ignore your soulmate, that's fine. I won't bring it up again. You have my word on that."

But as Remus watched his friend head into the kitchen, his heart pounded nervously in his chest.

His soulmate…

He'd lost every chance he had with her and he knew it.

And knowing it was completely his fault only made it that much worse.

~ ASC ~

When Harry woke up the first day of summer holidays, he was surprised to see that it was after ten in the morning. He rubbed Marauder's belly vigorously as the dog simply beamed at him, clearly pleased to have his boy back home with him.

The end of the year had been great. He had won a massive amount of points and helped win Gryffindor the House Cup. Neville had forgiven them for petrifying him, also because he too had earned house points for his bravery — and Ron and Hermione had as well. It had been a great celebration, but Harry couldn't help but think of everything that had happened and the idea that some day Voldemort might return.

That he had actually faced Voldemort again.

And survived.

He stretched as he climbed out of bed, quickly getting dressed and brushing his teeth before he made his way downstairs.

The familiar sound of music coming from the kitchen made him smile as he recognized Aerosmith. He was about to say as much to Sirius when he stepped into the kitchen, but he was too surprised at the sight before him.

Sirius was standing at the kitchen counter where a small dark haired woman had her legs wrapped around his waist and her hands were in his hair as they snogged quite intensely. Harry felt his mouth drop open in surprise.

The woman saw him and blushed, pushing Sirius away. "I think someone is awake, Siri."

Sirius licked his lips, turning to see Harry and grinned. "Morning, Prongslet." He lifted the woman off of the counter with a smirk. "We um, got a little carried away I guess," he said with a grin. "Come sit down, what do you want for breakfast this morning?"

"I'll make you boys breakfast," the woman said with a smile. "It's the least I can do for showing up so early. How do you feel about chocolate chip pancakes?"

"He loves them," Sirius said with a grin.

Harry shook his head, his mouth suddenly very dry. He wasn't feeling very hungry anymore. "I just want toast."

The woman looked slightly taken aback, but she smiled warmly at him. "Of course, toast sounds great."

Sirius put his hands in his pockets and grinned at Harry. "So, Harry, um, this is Zee Zacarias. She moved into the Morrison house back in September. She's our new neighbour."

"I don't remember you sticking your tongue down Mrs Morrison's throat," Harry said, earning a smirk from Zee.

Sirius merely grinned at him, giving him a sharp look. "Well, Mrs Morrison was a happily married woman, Harry, and Zee is… well, we've been seeing each other."

"I rather got that impression on my own thanks," Harry said, smartly, earning a light cuff on the head from his godfather. He turned to smile kindly at Zee. "It's nice to meet you, Zee."

Zee smiled brightly at him as she buttered the freshly toasted bread. "It's lovely to meet you too, Harry. Sirius talks about you all the time. I feel as if I already know you."

Harry simply nodded. "That's nice. He's never mentioned you."

Sirius flushed. "Harry!"

"What are we doing today, Uncle Sirius?" Harry asked, moving to take a seat at the kitchen table and ignoring Zee completely.

Sirius stared at his son for a moment, surprised at his words. He added jam to the toast and passed the plate to Harry before he spoke. "Well, Zee actually has some magical creatures for us to check out. She came by this morning to invite us along. She works at the Ministry as a Magizoologist. What do you think?" Sirius asked, sitting next to Harry. "She's been studying them and thought maybe you'd like to see a few?"

Harry nodded, tapping his fingers on the table. It did sound kind of neat, but he wasn't sure if he liked the idea of Zee coming along with them. He had been hoping to hang out with just Sirius and Remus. Before this morning, he hadn't even known she existed.

"Okay."

Sirius draped an arm across Harry's shoulders. "Let's try to have a nice chill summer, Prongslet. Your first year at school was a little more intense than I banked on, yeah?"

Harry could only nod. Sirius wasn't wrong.

But his first week at home didn't feel much like home anymore, Harry thought. Zee always seemed to be there. She was always coming over; showing up for at least one meal of the day or joining them in whatever they were doing from working on the motorbike, flying, water balloon fights… she was just always there.

He said as much to his friends when he wrote to them. Hermione wrote back first with a response.

Is she his girlfriend, Harry? You did say that he was single. It sounds like he fell in love. Is that really a bad thing? Maybe you'll have a new mum?

Harry really didn't like the sound of that and said as much to Neville.

Harry, Hermione didn't mean it like they are going to get married or something! But Sirius is all alone maybe he wants a girl in his life. Uncle Algie says that Sirius Black is still a very young man who never got to have his own life because he went to prison and then he was raising you. Now it's his turn to be happy.

That had made Harry angry too. Neville made it sound like Sirius had regretted raising him, taking him away from the Dursleys, and being his dad. When he said as much to Ron, Ron made fun of him.

Of course he doesn't regret it, you dolt! Parents need lives too or so Mum always says. Her and Dad have a date night once a month. Once, Ginny and I caught them snogging in the kitchen, it was gross! But I guess it makes sense that Sirius would want to snog someone too — can't imagine why, it looks bloody awful to stick your tongue in someone else's mouth.

But none of his friends had made him any feel better.

He was up in the treehouse, sitting in the pirate ship two weeks into the summer holiday when Tonks climbed up and sat next to him.

"Wotcher, Harry!"

He smiled at her. "Hi, Tonks. How's life as an A1?"

She grinned widely and shrugged. "Pretty wicked. I like fighting the bad guys, makes me feel like a superhero."

Harry grinned. "You kind of are."

Tonks laughed and smiled at him. "I'm sorry that missed you at the train station to welcome you home, but I had to work. It is long hours as an A1, but I really like it. It sounds like you had a very intense first year."

"You can say that again."

She smiled and moved to sit cross-legged. "So, Sirius says that you've been hiding up here."

"Not hiding, just… thinking."

"About what?"

He frowned and shrugged.

Tonks elbowed him lightly. "Come on, Harry, you can tell me. We're friends, right? I think of you like my little brother."

A small smile escaped his lips. "Yeah, but you're like a grown up big sister now."

She laughed and scratched her chin. "I guess I kind of am… doesn't mean that I can't listen. Zee is down there making something that smells delicious in the kitchen. Why don't we go steal some of it?"

Harry shook his head, his brow wrinkling. "Nah."

Tonks smiled at him. "Don't you like Zee?"

He shrugged, his eyes on the string that he was fiddling with from his shorts.

"Sirius seems to like her. They've been together since just before Halloween, which is pretty much a record for him according to my mum. But she works a lot and travels for weeks at a time so, if you put that into consideration I guess it hasn't really been that long since they were together really, actually barely three months. But he seems to like her. She's gorgeous. I wish I looked like her, curvy and beautiful, then maybe someone would notice me." she added bitterly, her gaze moving down to the patio where Remus was sitting with Sirius and laughing.

Harry looked over at her in surprise. Her hair was shorter than ever now. Shaved in the back with a mop of curls on the top. It was bubblegum pink with highlights of dark purple and dark pink. Her long legs were tanned from sun and she was dressed in purple cotton shorts and a black halter top. She was barefoot with purple toenails and Harry thought she looked just as cool as always.

"You're so pretty, Tonks! Way prettier than Zee."

She kissed his cheek and he blushed. "Flatterer! Now come on, tell me what's going on?"

"I don't know," he told her honestly. "It's just… Uncle Sirius seems to really like her and she's always hanging out here with us and it's not just me and him anymore. I feel like he doesn't even care that I came home for the summer."

Tonks' eyebrow rose. "Not even care? Harry, that bloke is over the moon that you are home for the summer holidays! He has been nonstop excited to have you back! We had dinner a few weeks ago and he talked mine and Zee's ear off about how excited he was for you to come home! How he wanted to show you the new workshop and his work on the bikes, to spend time with you, and to fly with you, and to introduce you to Zee — who has been so excited to meet you."

"She was?"

"Of course she was, silly! You're the most important person in Sirius' life! He'd want her to love you just as much as he does."

"Does he love her?" Harry blurted out.

Tonks smiled at him, reaching out and gently brushing his hair away from eyes. "I don't know, you'd have to ask him. I know that he cares about her and that he likes to spend time with her. She makes him smile. She makes him laugh. She has an exciting job and she's kind of a badass. She just came back from North America where she was working with Thunderbirds and she's leaving again soon to track some Jarveys in Spain. They have a lot in common."

"I think you're a badass," he told her making her laugh.

"Oh, I totally am, but she is one, too."

"I guess," Harry said as he sneaked a glance at her. "But I like that it's just me and Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus and sometimes you."

She smiled at him. "I know you do and that's because it's what you're used to. But change is good sometimes. Just you know, give her a chance before you decide to push her away."

He sighed and was quiet for a minute as he watched Sirius and Remus chat below. "Does Uncle Sirius know?"

"That you are hiding up here because you don't like Zee? Nah, he's much too oblivious and too happy to notice. Plus, I think he's still in that mindset of being so absolutely happy that you made it out alive at the end of the school year to even consider thinking or worrying about anything else. Remus is happy, too. When they told me what happened…"

Harry watched her watch Remus for a few minutes. "You like him."

"Like who?" Tonks asked, looking bewildered and slightly flushed.

"Uncle Rem," Harry said smartly. "You still fancy him even after all of these years."

She chuckled. She remembered telling Harry when she had been fourteen that she was going to marry Remus Lupin one day and how he would have to call her Auntie Tonks. Harry had found that hilarious.

"I never really stopped, but now I like him for completely different reasons than I did when I was a kid. Now I like the man that he is and it doesn't matter anyway, he doesn't feel the same way about me. He still thinks that I'm a little kid."

Harry frowned at that. "You're not a little kid. You're a badass Auror, an A1 actually."

Tonks laughed and kissed his cheek. "And don't you forget it, Harry Potter!" She sighed. "Remus thinks that I'm too young for him, which I suppose is fair, he is quite a bit older than me and I get that, but still…"

"Not only that, it's because of his..." he trailed off.

He had never once spoken to anyone that Remus was a werewolf. He had kept his promise and he knew that even Tonks didn't know. But he knew enough that Sirius was always lecturing Remus on not putting himself down for something that he couldn't control. He knew that being a werewolf was something that ate at Remus. And he knew that the reason Remus was really pushing Tonks away was because she didn't know and he thought that she would be repulsed by him if she ever found out.

"Because of his what, Harry?"

Harry shook his head. It wasn't his secret to tell even though he thought she deserved to know the real reason. "He's stubborn is all. He asks about you a lot. Asks what we talk about and if you seem happy. I think he likes you, too."

Tonks frowned at that, her gaze moving back down to where Remus was sitting. "He does, does he? Then why does he push me away? He doesn't even act like my friend anymore." She reached around her neck and pulled out the long chain she wore, fiddling with the wolf pendant on the end of it. "He sent me this for my birthday. I thought it was interesting as I've always liked wolves, but I didn't know that he knew that?"

Harry smirked. He found that even more interesting. "One day you will be my auntie, I think."

Tonks grinned widely and draped an arm over his shoulder. "And then you can be the godfather when I have a kid, deal?"

He grinned huge. "Deal."

End Author's Notes:

Just reminder if you were to read this in sections, it is the following:

Part I: Chapters 1-49 — Harry's first year with his dads. (1985-1986)

Part II: Chapters 50-61 — Harry ages 7-11. (1987-1991)

Part III: Chapters 62-73 — Harry's first year at Hogwarts. (1991-1992)

Part IV: Chapters 74-present — Harry's second year Hogwarts. (1992-)

Thank you for reading and please review!