Last time I published I decided it wasn't worth posting these chapters anymore. And now, change a tack, I seem to believe it is. Between rotting here or in my PC, the difference isn't so big.

When Harry reached the kitchen, after much tripping, falling, fumbling around and stumbling down the eternal flight of stairs, he was surprised to find it was rather full. He had expected being the only one up, seeing it was incredibly early – almost noon. He looked around the room, rather neddlessly, seeing his ears already told him what he wanted to know: it was full, and loud. The morning noises filled his head with pain that trobbed in his skull. His mouth was dry, doughy.

"Can I…" he started. Seconds later, he held a cup of coffee in hand. He brought the warm liquid to his lips, and swallowed it slowly. Now it was all better.

He looked up, to see Lupin was greating him with a huge smile. "I was just about to wake you up."

"I probably would have murdered you," he replied with honesty.

Tonks laughed very loudly at his comment, a clear laugh that echoed in the kitchen, making Harry cringe. Embarassed, and probably affected by the half-dozen of angry looks that were shot in her direction, she focused on the dirty dishes stacked up in the sink, blushing. Almost immediately, the silence was destroyed by a large crashing sound – the sound that procelain makes when it is dropped on the ground.

"Ugh!" cried Ron, softly. "Please, nothing loud." He was sitting at the kitchen table, surrounded by the twins and his two older brothers. Charlie seemed fine, grinning widely, a cup of coffee in hand, and though Bill didn't reach his elder's level of casualty and nonchalance, he nevertheless appeared to be rather lively. The three younger Weasleys, on the other hand, were beat. Just as bad as Harry was.

Remus chuckled. "We better get you guys up and running before twelve."

"Good luck with that" Harry croaked.

"Oho, we don't have choice. Arthur told Molly that he had replaced the Nothern Lights with simple Fire Whiskey."

"And?" Geroge asked.

"And that's what convinced her of letting you drink some. If she sees you this way, she'll understand it wasn't true and…"

On that Ron got on his feet, ripped the coffee pot out of the coffee maker and placed it in evidence on the table. "If we can't drink this as quickly as we drank yesterday, we'll be fine."

Remus chuckled once again, and poured more of the black beverage everyone's cups. Apparently, he didn't trust the young ones around hot liquids.

Sirius arrived in the kitchen, radiant. "RISE AND SHINE!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. Harry and Ron jumped, both spilling boiling coffee on their hands. The burn quickly spread in Harry's cells, followed by the pain. He took out his wand, and conjured a healing spell. "Nice going," he told his godfather angrily as he helped Ron, who hadn't had the same reflex as him and was still staring at his crimson limb. "I just wanted to tease our little guys," he replied, ruffling the boy's jet hair with both hands. "Celebrate your new discovery."

"Of which I want the recipe, by the way," Bill told Charlie with a huge smile and a small twinkle in his eye.

Sirius still observed the four exhausted boys. "Spent the whole night up?"

"No," Ron replied, "went to sleep same time as you."

"For once, even these two didn't feel like talking," Harry added, pointing a lazy finger at the twins who didn't have enough energy to react.

"Ah well. I guess we can't all be extremely resistant!" Sirius let out, as Remus rolled his eyes. The werewolf felt the urge to cut short to his friend's boastfullness.

"We weren't always like that… Remember…"

"Summer '85!" they both let out with much vigor, as Harry, Ron, Fred and George groaned in anger.

"Yeah that was great, eh Thalia?" Sirius said. He looked around. "She isn't awake yet?" he asked, puzzled.

"As you can see, she isn't."

"Are you sure?"

"Well…" Remus simply stated, oppening his arms wide, to show she was obviously not in the room.

"But… she was sleeping in Regulus' room, and when I woke up I looked inside and she wasn't there." He still arbored his puzzled expression.

"Why d'you check if she was there?" Remus asked.

"I felt like shouting very loudly," he explained with a childish smile.

The werewolf laughed. "Thalia and I switched. In was in Regulus' bedroom."

Sirius seemed more baffled than ever. "And why would you do that? You enjoy green bedding with snakes on it?"

"No," he chuckled, "Thalia offered that she take the small bed on the guys' floor and gave me the bigger one."

"Why?"

Remus was uneasy, and Tonks flew to the rescue. "So I could leave my tiny bed on the girls' floor to join him."

Sirius let out a small "Oh", and then suddenly had his attention caught by his fascinating cup of coffee. Apparently he felt uneasy revealing his friend's personnal life that way. Remus, on the other hand, was not at all indisposed by the annoucement he had just been forced to make. Tonks slipped her small body under his arm and rested her head on his chest, naturally, as if Lupin's body was fit to accommodate hers. Harry smiled at Remus, who smiled back, an honest, beaming smile. The boy was glad to know he had guessed right the night before. Finally, the future was mending the past. One of the many problems Harry had witnessed when he had oppened a window on twenty years ago was settled.

On that happy thought, Thalia walked in the kitchen. She marched straight to the fridge, oppened it, and took out some juice, to then find a chair and sloushed on it. Harry was about to comment on how impolite her entrance had been when he realized he had done just the same.

"Why hello my little morning sunshine," Sirius joked. Thalia smiled back, and then took out her wand, conjuring a glass to her. As it floated from a cupboard to her hand, she greeted everyone with much sarcastic liveliness. "Good morning everyone."

"Good morning Miss Beauregard," the four younger boys joked simultaneously.

"Here, it's Thalia," she replied. "In that state, anyways," she added, "it's only Thalia."

She poured herself orange juice, which she gulped down gluttonsouly. She then let out a small satisfied smile.

"I thought you were thougher than that," Sirius remarked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're not in as bad shape as our little novices here," he explained, pointing at the boys who seemed to be awakening from the dead, "but I thought you'd be as good as new this morning."

"So then you're wake-up plan wasn't pure evil," Remus let out.

Thalia raised an intrigued eyebrow, then stared at Remus, to then gaze at Sirius… and immediately focus her attention back on Remus, exhultant. "Finally!" she said, gesticulating in his direction. "When did you admit it?"

"When Sirius found out you hadn't been sleeping in Regulus' room."

"Oh. So I helped," she added with a wink.

"I guess."

"Then you have to tell me what wake-up plan Sirius had in mind."

Remus laughed once again – Harry was glad to see that the morning was cheerful, but would have preferd it to be silent and cheerful – but was interrupted by Sirius, who once again bore a five-year-old grin. "I'll tell her. I wanted to enter your room, and scream."

Thalia giggled and then lazily threw a crumpled doily at his direction. He dodged it with a smile, which she returned, an amused look on her face. Harry could not believe the scene he was witnessing.

"So, if you're not hungover, since apparently you aren't… what's wrong with you?"

Thalia waited for a few seconds to answer. "You know how they tell you, when you're a kid, that alcool amplifies your emotions?"

"Erm, yeah."

"Well I was worried sick about Sev. And now it's worse."

She curled up in a little ball, her knees resting under her chin, her arms wrapped around her legs, and tears formed themselves at the corner of her eyes.

"Hey," Lupin intervened, "he'll be fine. It's St-Mungos."

"That's why I decided to join the Order, Remus. Because there are some things St-Mungos just can't fix."

Harry looked at Ron, puzzled, and only saw in his face the reflection of his own interrogations. He starred at Sirius. "Frank and Alice" his godfather silently mouthed, as Lupin rushed to reach Thalia's side. "Yeah, but you saw Snape. He was conscious. He could talk, he was himself."

"Yeah… But that's what's worrying. What's wrong? Why doesn't the healing spell work? Why won't natural healing work!?" she exclaimed, fighting against the tears.

"Miss Beauregard," he said, lightly, "I don't think this represents you very well. Sobbing?"

"Hell yeah, Remus. If you knew how much I changed."

"Some things don't change. You're a fighter. You're a Gryffondor who won't abandon."

"A Gryffondor," she laughed, whipping the water off her face with the back of her hand. "It would drive Snape mad to know you're telling me this right now." She laughed once again. "You're ridiculous, Rem."

"Yeah, but at least you're smilling."

Thalia' cheeks were suddenly tinted with a suddle hint of crimson. She smiled and held Remus' hand in hers, for a rather long time, very tightly. They then let go, sharing a mutual smile. The man backed away, and reintegrated his place by Tonks' side, who gave Thalia an encouraging smile.

"Alright so, it's all happy happy happy on the adult side, Thalia and Sirius aren't shouting at each other ("Luckilly" Ron let out) Remus and Tonks are dating and all of you guys are sharing good memories," Fred enumerated. "Can we have a bit of attention now?"

"Huh!" Thalia laughed, "You kids always have attention. For once it's our time to have a bit of fun."

"Hurray for '87!" Sirius let out softly for the guys' sake, lifting his coffe cup high in the air. Thalia and Remus followed, and so did Tonks, adding a small "And '92!" to include herself. Charlie observed silently, and then asked: "Do we count too?"

"Can you stand straight?" Thalia asked.

"Hurray for '98 and '99!" was his only answer, which he uttered while lifting both his and Bill's coffee cups.

"And hurray for '83," Arthur added when he entered the kitchen. He picked up an empty glass from the cupboard just in time to cheer with the others. He then looked at his sons. "You can let go of the coffee boys. Your mother will be sleeping for a good part of the day." He erased the question marks in their eyes by adding: "You're not the only ones who can celebrate."

"Want some juice, Arthur?" Thalia offered.

"Yeah. Want to go to St-Mugos, Thalia?" he added, imitating her tone of voice.

She jumped off her chair like a jack out of a box. "You'd drive me there?!"

"Well I thought we could all go pay a little visit to Snape. And Dumbledore told me Neville might be there. It would be nice if he could come spend a day or two with us."

Thought Harry was displeased by Miss Beauregard's joyous – loud – reaction to the news, he was happy that his schoolmate might come and celebrate with them for a little while. The mention of Frank and Alice had reminded him that not everyone was going to spend such cheerful holidays.

***

Almost everyone was ready to leave, but Harry had to find it: the photo album. In the corridor, he could hear Ron and Hermione arguing.

"Alcool is the cause of many of the horrors that roam this earth," the girl let out.

Harry couldn't disagree with that. Not after seeing in which state his father had… The knot in his throat tightened, and returned to his search. "Think happy thoughts," he told himself. "That's why your looking for the album. To remember of those happy thoughts."

He finally put his hand on it's black cover page, just as Ron spoke. "We just intended on having fun, no harm was done, we didn't do or say anything stupid or disregardfull."

Harry couldn't disagree with that either.

"That's what you think," Hermione replied. There was a silence in the corridor, and Harry chocked on the thousands of giggled that tried escaping his throat. He didn't remember exactly, but Charlie had told him and the twins that Ron had found great interest in Hermione the previous night. He opened the yearbook, his eyes lingering for a few seconds on the golden writing spread over the first page. He flipped to what he believed must have been the section dedicated to the year '85. Summer '85.

"We even managed to slip a few pictures of the event in the year album. They were pissed when they found out their beloved school was linked to underage drinking," Sirius had explained, laughing. "You can check it out later."

But Harry wasn't patient enough to wait for later. The euphory of the morning might have time to wear off until then, and Harry wanted to see a picture of his father with Thalia while it lasted. Quickly enough, he found one. It was easy to do so, seeing it was the only picture featuring a forest as background. Harry smiled. He had hit the jackpot.

James' arms were wrapped around Thalia's shoulders and both were smilling to the camera, beside Remus and Lupin who were engaged in a conversation apparently so captivating they simply could not postpone it in order to face whoever was taking the picture. James suddenly lifted Thalia up in the air, and she started screaming, grabbing Sirius' arm. Harry's godfather then turned in surprise right in time for the camera to capture his deer-in-the-healights expression. Thalia was finally placed back on the ground so the routine could start again and again, immortalised by the picture. Harry smiled. Though the very image didn't make any sense – it had been taken less than two years before any link had been permanently destroyed before the two friends – to Harry, it did. And it was not only explained by the fact that when this picture was taken, if Thalia was correct in her date approximation, his parents weren't together yet. It was a simple as this: James did not hate Thalia in her every day life. He hated her on a higher, more symbolic level.

"Yes, Ron, you did say that."

"I didn't even see you last night!" the boy protested. Harry shut the album and threw it on his bed, delecting in this audio-performance his two friends were delivering.

"Yes you did, Ron, when you and Harry came to see Ginny and I."

Harry's laughter died on the spot. He had talked to Ginny, last night?

"Erm, Harry, could I talk to you for a while?"

"Ginny!" The boy jumped to his feet. He turned on the spot, not even bothering to erase the panicked look on his features. "Can we talk?" she repeated.

"Hell no, hell no, hell no, hell no," he thought. "Of course," he said. "Where?"

"Well Dad and Thalia are in the kitchen so I thought we could walk up the stairs until we find some place where we can be alone."

Alone. Harry suddenly loathed that word. "Sure." As he walked out the room and circled his two friends, he saw Ron slowly mouth the words "Save me". He couldn't help him: he needed to be saved too. Hermione was right. Damn alcohol.

They walked up to the next floor, and found, on the right, an open door, and on the left, a closed one. "It's the other "boys" floor. Remus, well Thalia slept here, Bill and Charlie in here," Ginny explained. She peeked inside the door on the right. "Miss Beauregard's room. Maybe we can borrow my brothers'…"

"Private lessons!" they both heard emerging from the door on the left. It was Charlie.

"Shh! You bloody idiot! Whisper!"

"Oh come on," Charlie continued, ignoring his brother's warning, "they'll understand it's just a cover when they'll realize you don't speak a single word of french after a year of… private lessons!" he burst into laughter. "Actually, no, you'll be great at french!" Charlie's giggles were ended by a low thud – probably a pillow. Ginny looked puzzled. "Let's go higher…" she proposed, climbing the stairs two by two before he had approved.

They arrived to the next floor. "That's our floor, Hermione and I, and Tonks." Tonks' door was closed, and both teenagers guessed it was occupied by humans who were, most probably, equipped with a pair of ears. Ginny sighed. "Up we go!"

They finally arrived at the last floor. "Oh no," Ginny whined, "Sirius is there." Harry sighed, desperatly wanting to avoid finding another staircase under his feet. He took Ginny's hand. "We'll be fine in here," he said, pulling her into Regulus' room. She laughed. Something moved inside Harry. "Sure?" she asked.

"Yeah, I've already been in here."

"Rooms don't work like Fidelius charms, you know."

They both smiled, standing still in the room. "So?" Harry asked. "What stupid thing did I say last night?"

She giggled once again, and her hair went in motion like a flamming cascade. "Nothing. You stayed silent. But I can read eyes." The temperature in the room suddenly rised by half-a-dozen degrees. "I broke up with Eric, just so you know."

"E… Eric?"

She sighed. "The Ravenclaw."

"Oh. That's cool," Harry replied, pathetically trying to sound aloof.

"Harry, I'm not here to play games with you. I just want you to know. If I happen to be right, well, I thought you might be happy to know." The boy threw a quick glance out the window. It was still the middle of the day, and yet, everything was dark in his mind. He turned back to face Ginny. Maybe it was a second-hand effect of the Northern Lights, but he could litterally see stars shinning in her eyes. Her lips seemed so soft. And the ringing words that hit her ears were even softer. For a second he tried resisting, but then logic destroyed all chances of restraint. She knew, and she wanted it to happen as badly as he did. He bent forward, and placed a delicate kiss on the edge of her lips. He could feel them curling upwards as she smiled, and didn't oppose any resistance when she gave a small push in direction of the bed, sending both of them tumbling down on the soft mattress. Suddenly, with her body over his, he felt as thought their mouths' had been welded together.

Ginny suddenly sat up. "We're leaving soon," she whispered, breathing heavily. On that, she departed, leaving Harry completely dazed, drowning in a green sea of snakes.