Author's Note: First, thank you for reading and reviewing. Second, you have no idea how hard it is not to find a reason for Charlie to come to Hogwarts. Many times I find myself getting carried away with my plans for a chapter and have to take a step back and return to my original vision.

Also, work is having me travel a lot and so my writing time is practically non-existant.

Standard disclaimer about not owning anything; I am so thankful for JKR and all that she did for us. She gave us one of the greatest gifts, and so many people have taken to this site and played brilliantly with her creation. We should have a JKR day and it should be a global holiday!

Harry looked at Sirius' face again.

His Godfather was concerned but was waiting patiently.

"Sorry, I zoned out. What did you say again?"

Harry met Sirius' eyes briefly and then focused them on his hands in front of him.

Sirius breathed out, looking at his Godson and charge with a mixed of emotions. The events of that day that still hadn't sunk in yet, despite it being almost a week later.

He had truthfully been quite worried when Dumbledore had first alerted the staff to the unbelievable events that had transpired during the Defense Against the Dark Arts' class for the fifth-year students.

Sirius had practically rushed to the room only to find that Harry was missing, and not even Ron or Hermione could tell him where he was.

Though, it didn't take them very long to realize that he had most likely gone to the chamber. After all, it was the one place in the castle that only Harry could enter.

Much of the rest of Sirius' activities that day had involved trying to wait patiently and hope that Harry hadn't gone off the deep end. Not that he was very good at being patient.

His relief had been palpable when Harry had knocked on his door later that night under the protection of his invisibility cloak.

It had been difficult, but they managed to get through that night and Harry had been able to open up to his Godfather about what he was feeling and how he had managed to leave the classroom without throwing several Crucios at Dolores.

Sirius had no idea that Harry had become that capable with his Occlumency and was quite proud that the young man had managed to do something that he himself would have probably not been able to do.

Because Sirius was still furious with Umbridge as he sat there a week later across from Harry as they ate breakfast together in his chambers.

It had been a good thing that they had removed the woman immediately to Azkaban because otherwise Sirius had no doubt in his mind that he would have used some of his family's best curses on her.

But looking at Harry's face now as he reconsidered his question gave him a different perspective on everything. If Harry could handle things, and it was evident by how he spoke and what he talked about that he was dealing with this rather than burying it, then Sirius could start to process it differently himself.

"It's okay pup," he said as he released some of the tension that he had been carrying.

So much of his life had become focused on making sure that Harry was surviving and would survive that sometimes he took things more personal than Harry did. After all, he just wanted his Godson to finally be happy and safe for one extended period of time.

It pained him to see how low Harry had fallen in the wake of the Dementors' attack at the Burrow and he never wanted his Godson to experience that ever again.

"I just asked how classes had been this past week," Sirius said again once he had Harry's attention.

"Oh… better, I think."

Harry paused for a minute before continuing.

Their relationship had been slowly building up again since Christmas and he was more aware now of how he had taken the man's presence for granted. He was trying to be as honest with his Godfather as he could while dealing with each day as best he could.

"Not as many people are constantly staring at me anymore. I think without anything being said in the papers about what happened meant that eventually all of the hype would die down."

Sirius nodded, but Harry continued.

"When I had first been able to process everything that she had said … I half-expected everyone to believe that Voldemort was back overnight; but that clearly didn't happen. The Ministry doesn't want people to know, do they?"

It was still hard for Harry to think about that vile woman without getting angry and sad and so he tried to focus as little as he could on her; however, what had happened in that class had been the only thing that the other student's had kept talking about.

In truth he was quite thankful that exams were approaching since it would mean that the chatter and gossip would finally die down. Otherwise he didn't think that he would have been able to keep up his Occlumency shields indefinitely.

Sirius shook his head and gave Harry a regretful look.

"No Harry, they don't," he said taking a slight pause before continuing.

"Only certain people within the Ministry are aware, and they want to prevent the panic that such information would cause. Which also explains why someone's recent trip to Azkaban was swept under the rug."

Sirius had learned that it was best not to mention the awful woman by name – for both of their sakes.

"Still, I wonder what will happen since many in the class no doubt wrote home and told their parents what had happened. They can't keep news of it silent forever, can they?"

Sirius smiled at Harry, but it wasn't a happy smile.

"When did you become so knowledgeable on how things worked?" Sirius shook his head, already knowing the answer.

"I had to grow up," Harry replied anyway.

If Sirius didn't know better, he would have taken Harry's rigid and silent exterior to mean that the boy was shutting down and hiding from the world.

However, he knew that it was just how Harry had come to responsibly deal with the events of his life. He had real concerns in his life that others his age just would never be able to grasp and that had caused him to mature quite rapidly, especially within the past year.

Harry had become more patient and thoughtful; no doubt allowing him to acquire an understanding of things that didn't have to be explicitly apparent in the world around him.

Sirius knew that a large part of Harry's ability to handle everything stemmed from his Occlumency, but until the past week he had had no idea just how much of a good thing that was.

As a former Auror, Sirius was aware of the mind art and had a better than average grasp on how it worked since it had been a requirement of his job. Still, he found himself practicing more and more during the past week as he saw how much it was benefitting Harry.

Of course, just because he thought that Harry had handled everything exceptionally better than he would have didn't meant that Harry hadn't lost it at some point over the course of the week. In fact most of Sirius' belongings had needed to be repaired after Harry had shown up to his quarters after hiding in the Chamber of Secrets for the day.

Which in retrospect was a healthy and good thing since it had provided Harry an outlet for his emotions, and made the whole thing easier on Sirius because at least he knew that his Godson wasn't holding all of the pain of it inside. Like Remus had in the aftermath of losing all of his friends in one fell swoop; the man still hadn't dealt with everything appropriately.

"What's on the docket for today?" Sirius asked after they both poured themselves another round of hot tea.

"With our Ordinary Wizarding Levels right around the corner, I expect we will be in the library for the foreseeable future."

Sirius nodded.

"How do you feel about them?"

"I'm not worried about passing, if that's what you mean. I expect I will do nothing worse than an Exceeds Expectation."

Talking about positive things improved both of their moods.

"Any thought to what you wanted to do this summer?"

Sirius would strive and make sure that Harry could relax, even though he knew that some part of it would be spent preparing for the upcoming war. Although Sirius thought it was too soon to start talking about the prophecy again.

But they would have to in time, and likely earlier than Sirius was comfortable with.

"I honestly just want to relax for a little while. I think that is the only thing I can think of at the moment and worry about the rest later."

Harry shrugged his shoulders as he finished his cup of tea.

"Sounds about right," Sirius quipped in return.

Sirius closed his eyes and let some measure of relief pass through him that they were both on more or less of the same page.

He then opened his eyes and attempted to look more relaxed himself.

"But we will make sure to have some fun, all right?"

Harry nodded, though not as enthusiastically as Sirius had hoped that he would.

But it didn't matter; he would make sure that Harry kept his spirits up.

Although, even if Harry wasn't as outwardly appreciative of all that Sirius was doing for him, that didn't mean that he wasn't grateful. Far from it to be honest.

"Thanks for this breakfast, Sirius. I needed a break from the rest of the castle, even if it was just for a meal."

Sirius put his cup of tea down and stared right into Harry's eyes.

"I would do anything for you, pup. You are and will always be the most important thing in the world to me."

Harry could just nod and smile back. However, the part of him that would always in some form remain associated with that unloved child who had endured such abuse at Number Four Privet Drive felt just a little bit lighter.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes before Harry got up and hugged Sirius before heading off to the library to meet his friends.

A week later found almost all of the fifth years cramming as much material into their brains as possible. For this was their last weekend to prepare for their O.W.L.s that began bright and early on Monday morning.

But Harry and his friends had followed Hermione's study schedule and felt quite prepared for their exams. While they were studying just like everyone else, they weren't reading everything with a frantic desperation. It would have been unrealistic for them to have prepared any better than they had and at this point, all that was left for them to do was to go through their extensive notes a final time.

Even with concentrating as hard as he was, Harry would still randomly get drawn into his own thoughts.

The whole year had been quite hard on him. To be honest, it had probably been the most difficult series of events that he had ever faced, time at the Dursleys included.

However, at the same time he had also found that he had grown the most and was becoming with each passing day a person that he was more and more proud of.

While some aspects of being Harry Potter would never go away, they had shaped him into the person that he was. Which generally was someone that Harry was quite happy with.

Plus, this year had also brought Charlie into his life and that was something that he was most thankful for. Charlie was just someone that wasn't just easy to be around; the older boy made it easier to just live.

With every letter that they had exchanged, they became even closer to where sometimes it felt like Charlie was right there and reading his own words to Harry.

After experiencing the feelings of loss and grief that had come with Cedric, Harry was surprised by how quickly he had gone to beginning to feel the same way about someone else.

Well, that wasn't entirely true; he was feeling things for Charlie that quite frankly scared him and were beyond what he had experienced with Cedric.

The discrepancy between the intensity of his two separate attractions had caused him to contemplate things all over again.

Dealing with Cedric had been the hardest thing that he had ever done, and though he had felt that pain again with Umbridge's reveal of the truth, he was in a different place.

He had the perspective now to look back and know that what he had felt for Cedric, and still felt for him, was intensified by the fact that Cedric was and would always be the first person that he had really thought of as someone more than friends.

Which made him take an even deeper look at what he was feeling for Charlie. His relationship with the older Weasley had not been borne out of escaping a harrowing situation, like the one with Cedric had.

Nor had it escalated so quickly through stolen kisses at the top of the Astronomy Tower as the school year was coming to a close, which only further fueled their desire for one another because they would soon be without it.

Charlie had entered his life when he had needed someone to talk to about what he was feeling, and so all of the feelings that developed later were in response to getting to know the person that he was writing to. The hard thing, initially, was when he had begun to feel guilty for having these feelings so soon after Cedric. Visiting him in the hospital though had helped him to put the past behind him and begin another chapter in his life. One that was free of feeling guilty for moving on.

However, Harry was also not one to forget about the past and was committed to keeping his promise to avenge Cedric, even if it hadn't been the person that he had originally thought to be responsible.

Sending Dementors after people was just the sort of thing that something that Voldemort would do, and, to be honest, it scared him to think that he had to go up against someone like that.

He just hoped that he would be able to beat the man some day, and hopefully it would be sooner as opposed to later.

But all of these thoughts were getting him worked up as he sat in the library looking across the table at his friends, the ones who knew everything and would fight alongside him when the time came. Just knowing how far they had all come in the past year gave him hope. Besides, he also had Severus and Minerva and Sirius, along with a slew of other people who would fight because they believed in what they were fighting for.

In fact, it got to the point where Harry was so overwhelmed just thinking how there was a chance that they would succeed with this, that it made him realize just how truly important and special what was developing between himself and Charlie.

Soon, the only thing on Harry's mind was thoughts of Charlie and wondering how things would work out between them. He was so incredibly anxious to get finished with his exams and to be able to spend time with him in person without the distraction of his classes.

However, until summer break came they would only have their letters. Which reminded him that he should go to the owlery and mail his before dinner.

It wasn't like he was getting anything done in the library anyways.

The first week of exams had gone well for Harry. In fact, he was sure that he had achieved Outstanding on all of his tests so far. Even Ron was feeling sure of himself that he had done no worse than an Acceptable on his Ordinary Wizarding Levels.

Of course, it didn't matter how well she thought she had done, for Hermione would be able to find some answer or part of the exam where her anxiety convinced her that she had lost points for some inane reason. Though, she didn't fret about it as much as usual, which was something that both Ron and Harry were grateful for.

However, the most surprising thing that had occurred so far during the first week of exams was the way in which Neville was carrying himself. The fifth-year Gryffindor had changed since the beginning of the year, and Harry had a likely guess as to why. It had to have been a huge relief off of Neville's shoulders when he realized that the reason that he just wasn't getting things in classes wasn't because he was incapable as a wizard; it just had to do with perspective and how he went about learning.

The more that Neville explored the various methods that worked better for him, the more enjoyable he found his classes to be and the more he started to actually perform well in them.

And nothing highlighted his pleasure better than when they had finished with Potions and Neville had walked out of the practical with a huge smile on his face.

All in all, things could be considered as going exceedingly well for Harry and his friends.

Things were made even better with the fact that he was holding Charlie's latest letter in his hands as he stretched out on his bed.

For he had decided to take Saturday afternoon off from studying and indulge himself with Charlie's response to his own letter that he had written in the aftermath of Umbridge's swift departure.

Harry had taken more of a chance and continued with their increasingly not-so-subtle hints about how they felt about each other. One of the things that he had done was to make Charlie promise that he would stop by Grimmauld Place during his first week back and spend an day with him just hanging out.

Harry didn't care what they did; he was just looking forward to being in Charlie's company.

After not being able to wait any longer, Harry tore open the envelope and began to read.

Harry,

First, I am so very sorry to hear about what happened. It took all of the self-control that I possessed to not rush straight to Hogwarts and see you. I couldn't imagine having to endure that and I still can't imagine how you were able to walk away without hurting her. I don't think I would have been able to be that mature and level-headed.

It makes me feel so bad inside knowing that you had to experience that. I wish there was something more that I could do, but it sounds like you have a pretty good support system there. I'm glad that at least Sirius and your friends were able to be there for you.

Though, perhaps I COULD understand how you were able to bare it with Occlumency. However, I have never had much luck with that sort of magic. Maybe you could teach me though?

Anyways, I am sort of selfishly glad that you were thinking of me this week. Ditto. I can't wait to see you when you get home and of course I will be available at Grimmauld Place. We can do whatever you want. And not just for a day, but I'll make sure that you have a great summer and that I can take your mind off things.

I know that there are other things that are going on, which are very hard to write about, but I am convinced that you deserve a bit of fun. And that comes with all of the hugs that you want.

I guess I don't know what else to write. I don't want to take up too much of your time with everything else going on in the castle (but I am sure you are doing wonderfully on your exams). It is just that the words flow very quickly through my quill when I think that you are reading this that it makes it hard to stop. I literally feel like I could keep right on writing and know what you mean when you described that same feeling in your last letter. It does provide a certain comfort knowing that it feels so effortless in sharing things with you that I never have with anyone else.

You are on my mind so much of the time that I may have even named a new Dragon after you at the reserve. I just blurted it out one day and it was so unusual that no one knew quite what to say, and it stuck. The funny thing is (assuming that you are okay with having a Dragon named after you) is that Harry is Norberta's son. She found quite the stunner here and gave birth a few weeks ago. I'm sure she calls her son something else, but I just wanted to let you know.

I really can't wait to see you Harry and just be able to relax in your presence. Know that you aren't alone with having those feelings.

-Yours,

Charlie.

Harry found it incredibly difficult to stop his cheeks from blushing. As always, Charlie's newest letter didn't disappoint. However, Harry was now left with an even greater desire for the school year to be over so that he could be with Charlie in person.

The other effect that Harry couldn't control in response to reading the letter was the hardness that had developed in his pants. Harry could just imagine being swept up in the man's arms and the thought excited him greatly. In fact, Harry became to feel a different desire inside of his body that sped through his veins and quickened his pulse.

Other thoughts of Charlie were now making their way into his mind, and Harry got lost with imagining just how it would feel to kiss him.

A little later that day, and after a long shower to clean his body of his recent activities, Harry was sitting in the Great Hall next to Hermione. He was trying desperately to not look at Ron and think about how he had gotten off to the idea of someone else for the first time, let alone Ron's brother.

Thankfully, the plates of food appeared rather quickly and everyone dug in. Harry had been so thoroughly distracted with thoughts of Charlie that he had failed to notice the way the teachers were all whispering quietly at the head table. Then the food had appeared and Harry had focused on that, and so he still hadn't cottoned onto the worried looks that passed across their features from time to time.

So it came as an even bigger surprise when Owls suddenly flooded the space above the tables and descended towards the students who had a subscription to the Daily Prophet. It wasn't often when a special, nightly edition of the paper was needed. Oftentimes, the Editor often felt that it was only necessary when something tragic had occurred.

And this edition was no exception as the various copies were unfurled and the headline was revealed.

Mass Outbreak At Azkaban.

By Rita Skeeter.

My Dear Readers,

I wish I had better news. I really wish that I had better news. Early this morning, a series of explosions rocketed the isolated prison that is heavily fortified and protected by more than just magic. The Ministry and their brave team of Aurors responded instantly to the distress call that went out shortly after breakfast. However, and brace yourselves my dear readers, not a single soul was found alive. The Warden was found in his control tower, likely a victim of the dreaded and illegal killing curse. Many of the guards were also missing, and those present I am sad to say were killed in the same manner as the Warden.

And not a single prisoner remained. The Ministry does not know for certain everything surrounding this incident, but I have found out that a working theory being tossed around is that Bellatrix Lestrange (nee Black) was somehow involved. Of course, my astute readers will remember that she escaped last year in the beginning of the summer and her whereabouts have remained unknown. The Ministry is asking the wizarding community to be vigilant for any sightings of her or one of the prisoners listed below. Again, readers are cautioned to treat her and any escaped prisoner as heavily armed and exceedingly dangerous.

The Ministry has set up this hotline, reachable by Owl or Patronus, for our readers to share any information with the authorities. I wish I had better news, and ask each of you to remain cautious, not only tonight but in the coming days as the Ministry works tirelessly to deal with this unexpected tragedy.

Not a single person in the Great Hall was eating. Little by little, rumors began swirling as to the real reason behind this. It didn't take the study body long to reignite the nervous and fearful chatter that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named could be back, and that Umbridge could have possibly been right about the man's return.

Let me know what you think!