Found

When Harry woke up, he found himself in Nr. 12, Grimmauld place, staring at the ceiling, surrounded by members of the Order of the Phoenix and those who probably were now, mostly former members of the DA.

Bloody hell.

At least it didn't look like they wanted to lynch him.

He recognized the faces. Ron, Hermione, whom he'd betrayed the most, as his best friends, Luna and Neville, outsiders which he'd failed, Ginny, whom he'd tortured, Professor Dumbledore, who always had trusted him to do the right thing.

He wanted to pretend to still be unconscious.

They were silent. It was like one of his nightmares all over again.

He pinched himself.

Nope, not a nightmare, unfortunately. He wanted to be home with Morgan and Thomas right now. They were probably worried sick right now, and Morgan couldn't sleep when she didn't feel safe.

Nobody talked, still.

"Uh..."

Great beginning, Harry, he chided himself.

"Hello."

Still no answer.

"You are all still able to talk, right?"

Finally, Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"Hello, Harry."

Silence. All of them were still staring at him.

It was more than unnerving.

"So, why am I here?"

"You became a Death Eater."

"Yes."

They obviously hadn't expected this answer. Probably had thought he'd say something about how sorry he was. Well, he was sorry, but if he'd have to chose again, he wouldn't change a thing.

"You tortured others."

"Yes. Could you just tell me what you want from me?"

"Aren't you at least a bit repentant?"

"I didn't like quite a lot of the things I did, but I wouldn't change anything."

Not now, when he was happy, living with Tom and Morgan in their home.

"Can you tell us your reasons for changing sides?"

"No." He would not tell them about Morgan. That would mean getting her killed.

"Anything about the Dark Lord's disappearance?"

"No."

"Anything at all?"

"No."

"Very well... you're on probation. You will have to work under a member of the Wizengamot for a year to prove your not a danger to society."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then you'll have to go to Azkaban."

"So, basically, I've got no choice. What if I just disappear again?"

"We'll find you."

Harry snorted.

"And how are you going to do that? You can either keep me here, in prison, or let me go."

"Ah, that's the beauty. Look at your wrist."

There was a band there. Harry tried to touch it with his other hand, and screamed.

"What the hell is this?"

"It will make sure you'll come. If you don't, the pain will get worse and worse."

He fidled his wand out from his back pocket and checked it for tracking spells.

He breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw that there weren't any.

"Is there any reason why your first action would be checking for tracking spells?"

"Nothing I'm gonna tell you."

"You don't trust us."

"I don't. Well, there are people here I do trust, but not you."

Specifically, he trusted Ron and Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Luna, and Remus. He was pretty sure he trusted Malfoy - well, both Malfoys - and Snape more than Dumbledore.

"Why?"

Because he was the worst educator he knew? Because he damned people before taking a good, long look, like he did with Tom, or decided they should be heroes, like himself, or good people to grow up with, like the Dursleys?

Who ever gave him the right to play with other people's lives?

"That's a long story."

"You listened to Lord Voldemort."

"Of course. And to common sense, as well. Technically, I didn't so much as listen to him, but look at his memories. I'm rather disappointed, Professor. You absolutely had to frighten an eleven-year-old into submission, didn't you?"

Dumbledore was speechless.

"And that's a good end for this conversation. Now, there are some people I actually wanted to talk to here. May I?"

Dumbledore needed a few seconds to talk again.

"Of course. All at the same time, or one after the other?"

"All of them. Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Ginny and Remus."

They were sitting in a room, Harry had charmed the door and put up silencing wards. He wanted to make sure no one snooped.

They sat in silence.

"So... any news?"

"Why did you join Voldemort?"

He wanted to answer, but he wasn't sure what they'd do, how they'd react.

"That's a long story and... well, it's not entirely mine to tell."

They looked at him, partially outraged, partially thinking him a traitor, likely.

Ginny locked eyes with him.

"You're protecting someone, aren't you?"

He hesitated. She remembered their conversation in the Room of Requirement, it seemed.

"Yes."

"More than one person?"

He nodded.

"Two."

"Did they do anything criminal?"

"One of them."

"Friends?"

"Family." They were his family, both Morgan and Tom.

"I... guess you can't really tell any details without betraying them?"

"Guessed correctly."

"So, how's your life now?" Ginny, it seemed, had taken the lead.

"Well, the three of us have gone Muggle, so, yeah, rather normal, I guess. I don't have a job, but I've been working on getting good enough to take University courses, and one of us does have a job. He's really, really good at it, something which I'd never have expected, but, well, you never really know."

"What does he do?"

"He's a teacher. Best I've ever met. A lot like McGonagall in class, from what the principal says."

"And the other person?"

"I can't tell you, sorry. So, what's up with you guys?"

"May I introduce? Hermione Jane Granger-Weasley."

"Let me guess. She married Ron."

Ginny nodded, grinning.

"It was so obvious. I mean, even a blind man could have seen it after the Yule Ball fiasco."

Ron and Hermione's jaws slacked.

"You knew?"

"Yep. I also already know that Tonks is Mrs. Lupin now."

"So, you haven't heard of Teddy?"

"Your son?"

"Yeah."

"Tell me. Tell me everything. Weddings, new kids, everything."

And so, Harry listened to news that were normal, happy, and without any mention of Death Eaters or Dark Lords. He listened to the tale of Bill and Fleur's wedding, how Victoire was born and that Ginny and Hermione had held her sixth and seventh, respectively, how Teddy and Victoire had made their first steps, what their first words were, that Teddy was Ron's godson and that he liked to paint with finger crayons and to watch little Victoire, that Ron and Hermione's wedding had been beautiful and decorated with roses upon roses and that they'd decided that they wanted to name any girls they had Rose, that all of them had been to Draco Malfoy and Astoria Greengrass' wedding and that Draco had been getting along rather well with all of them lately, that Neville was dating Hannah Abbott right now and they were getting along fabulously, that Luna had made a few voyages, and other news that fell under the category "family".

Then, there was stuff that was much more interesting for him.

There were three new teachers at Hogwarts: Draco Malfoy, History of Magic - finally someone who might get students interested in the subject.
Neville Longbottom, who'd start as the Herbology teacher this year.

And of course, Ginny Weasley, Defense against the Dark Arts.

It didn't surprise Harry she'd been holding the position for more than a year now. After the Dark Mark was lifted, Tom had also removed the curse from the position. He was a teacher now, and happy where he was. Being petty didn't help him.

"Hey, if you're Professors, that means I'll work right beside you."

"Yeah, you will."

Ginny and Neville grinned at him.

He grinned back.

He had the sudden feeling this wouldn't be all that bad.