It's the end! The very last bit of this one! I like this chapter though, it always makes me grin ^_^.

Mythic Alliance

by Jendra

Harry's eyelashes fluttered slightly. He was so tired. He managed to open his eyes for long enough to recognize the Hogwarts infirmary before they closed once more. The last thing he noticed before falling back to sleep was a quiet voice he knew he should recognize,

What might have been hours or might have been days later, he opened his eyes again. This time, he managed to keep them open and look around blearily. He blinked as his glasses settled down onto his nose.

"Hey kiddo."

"Sirius?" Harry blinked again with confusion. He'd just woken up, it was way too early to think. Then he realized where he was, and who was sitting next to him, and pushed himself upright. "Sirius! What are you doing here? What if someone sees you?"

"I get why you're worried, but there's no need," Sirius grinned happily. "It's been a while since anyone has fainted at the sight of my manliness."

"Huh?"

"You did tell Malfoy you'd trust him if he managed to get me declared innocent, didn't you? Though personally, I'd think it would make more sense if it had happened *before* the final battle."

"You're innocent? How?"

"And all this time I thought you believed in my innocence! You're questioning it now?" Sirius looked hurt.

Harry groaned and lay back down. "Wake me up when you're making sense, will you?"

Sirius laughed. "Okay, okay. It's actually very simple. When the Aurors showed up, *after* everything was over of course, Malfoy handed over a stunned Wormtail, before getting the three of you back here. A few drops of Veritaserum, and I'm cleared of all charges."

Harry started to grin widely. "So, does that mean you're my guardian now?"

The grin started to fall off Sirius' face before he forced it back on. "Not just yet. My rights were severed when I got thrown into Azkaban, even though they shouldn't have been, since I was never convicted of anything. I have to go in front of the Wizengamot to petition to get them back. I'm sure it's just a formality though. They just want me to get checked out at St. Mungo's, make sure I'm healthy, and all of that before they let me have you. Once I get through with all the rigamarole, though, you're all mine."

Harry continued to smile. "I can't wait."

"Me neither kiddo, me neither."

"How are Draco, Severus and Mr. Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"Smelling like roses," Sirius said with disgust. "Malfoy Senior barely needed Madam Pomfrey at all, slept less than a day. Snivellus... OW! What did you do that for?" Sirius asked with a hurt look as he rubbed his head.

Harry tucked the pillow back behind his back while continuing to glare at his godfather. "Don't call him that."

"You said you didn't expect us to be friends," Sirius whined.

"I don't," Harry agreed, "but that doesn't mean you can insult him in front of me. He might not be your friend, but he is mine."

"Okay, fine," Sirius pouted. "Snape," he waited for a chastisement that didn't come, "woke up three days ago, and Madam Pomfrey let him go. Malfoy Junior woke up yesterday and is over there." He gestured to the beds on the right.

Harry looked over automatically and absently noticed the white blond hair lying two beds away. His mind however, was a bit preoccupied with other matters. "Three days ago! How long..."

"You've been unconscious for more than a week," Sirius informed him. "You missed Christmas."

"Over a week?" Harry parroted.

"Yep. Worst case of magical exhaustion Poppy's ever seen." Sirius lost the joking demeanor for the moment, and reached out to gather Harry into a hard hug. "Don't scare me like that again, Harry," he murmured into his hair. "This old heart can't take it."

Harry hugged him back, basking in the feeling, happily sure he could stay there all day. Unfortunately, the time was cut short when Madam Pomfrey came bustling in.

"Harry!" she gasped, but soon regained her composure. "It's good to see you awake at last, Mr. Potter. But you, Mr. Black, can just head on out of my hospital wing if you can't even obey a simple instruction such as 'alert me if his condition changes.' Out you go. You can tell everyone waiting that after I've checked him over and he's had something to eat, I will allow in a few people at a time. Not a minute sooner!"

Pomfrey bustled around, checking Harry over and then getting a dinner tray for him and Draco.

"How are you?" Harry asked as soon as she moved off. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, now you ask," Draco said with a huff. "Knowing your Gryffindor tendencies, I would have expected it to be the first thing out of your mouth."

"I was surprised!" Harry defended. "Besides, I'd just woken up; it took me a few minutes to remember what happened!"

"Hmph," Draco responded.

"Oh, come on, Draco, don't be like that," Harry was not in the mood to deal with a pouting Draco. "So, I'm guessing the first words out of your mouth were, 'How's Harry?'?"

"Of course," Draco said virtuously.

"Liar," Harry snorted. "You wouldn't call me Harry in public."

"I wouldn't call the hospital wing 'public', especially since the only one around when I woke up was Severus."

"Well, see, there you go," Harry jumped in. "You had Professor Snape there as a reminder of what happened. It was entirely different."

Draco looked up from his food, frowning. "And you're back to Professor Snape instead of Severus, for what reason?"

"It's nothing," Harry said airily. All his attention seemed to be on his next bite of food, but his depressed expression gave him away.

"It is not 'nothing'," Draco growled.

"It's just... Voldemort's dead," Harry finally murmured softly.

"Yes, I know, I helped with that."

"Well, it's just... there's no reason to be friends with me anymore," Harry said, so softly it could barely be heard two beds away. "We don't need to train anymore, and now you two are just as famous as I am. I'm glad for that, I really am! But I'm going to miss the detentions."

"You... you... you *idiot*!" Draco almost yelled. "We became friends long before we decided to fight Voldemort, you berk! And since nobody could know about it until now, we certainly weren't friends with you for the fame! As for Sev, he'd actually made plans to try to get guardianship of you, to get you away from the Dursleys."

Harry looked up, gobsmacked. "He did?" he whispered hopefully.

"Of course he did! He cares for you. Only someone with the intellectual capacity of a flobberworm could possibly miss that!"

"Oh," Harry said, smiling gently down at his food and finally starting to eat with a hearty appetite. Two beds away, Draco also started to eat more solidly, but stopped every once in a while to glare.

"And what has Potter done this time to put that expression on your face, Mr. Malfoy?" Professor Snape's silken tones were the first clue they had that there were now more visitors. They looked up quickly to see not only their Potions professor, but the Headmaster as well.

"He," Draco said, jerking a thumb in Harry's direction, "thinks that just because we defeated Voldemort, he's never going to get a detention again."

"Is that so, Mr. Potter? Does your arrogance know no bounds? Perhaps a detention as soon as you leave this place will deflate some of that big-headedness of yours."

Harry looked down until he could control the broad grin that wanted to take over his face. "Yes, sir," he said as sullenly as he could.

"Now, now, Severus," Dumbledore interrupted. "I'm sure it wasn't meant like that. There's no reason to give him a detention over such a little thing, now is there?"

"As you say," Severus answered, his tone annoyed.

Dumbledore settled down in the chair where Sirius had been sitting. "Now, my dear boy, it's so good to see you awake once more. We were becoming quite worried."

"I'm fine, Headmaster," Harry assured him. "I'm a little tired, but other than that, I feel great."

"That's wonderful to hear, truly wonderful. Mr. Malfoy and Professor Snape have informed me of what happened, but I would like to hear your version of events. When you're up to it, of course."

"Do I have to?" Harry whined. "I'm sure they told you everything."

"I'm afraid so," Dumbledore informed him with twinkling blue eyes and a grandfatherly smile. "The newspapers have been clamoring for an interview."

Harry's eyes widened with true panic. He still remembered the last interview he did and how Skeeter twisted his words around. He didn't want to do another one... ever!

"I see you don't care for that idea."

Harry shook his head violently. "No, sir. I don't want to do an interview."

"It's all right, child," Dumbledore patted his hand soothingly. "I'll take care of it."

"Thank you, sir." Harry breathed out in relief, relaxing back into the bed.

"Well, I can see you're tired, and I certainly don't want Madam Pomfrey to take me to task about it. She's a wonderful woman, but she can yell quite loudly if someone is bothering her patients," Dumbledore informed him in a benevolent but secretive tone. "My ears are still ringing from the last time. I will see you when you feel better."

"Yes sir," Harry agreed.

"Ah, and Severus, we still need to discuss that new potion of yours," Dumbledore said, when it looked as if the professor planned to stay with his student.

Severus bent down to say something quietly to Draco, before heading to the door and the waiting Headmaster. He furtively ran his hand over Harry's covered feet as he walked by his bed.

Harry frowned down at his still unfinished tray, before a devilish thought made him grin wickedly. Before he could consider the pros and cons of his idea, he was acting on it. "Professor!" he called out.

Severus stopped at the door and turned to see what Harry wanted. With no more warning, Harry flung the spoonful of mashed potatoes straight at his Potion professor's face. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, Harry was close enough that the mashed potatoes made it to their destination. It was only as Severus stood there, mashed potatoes dripping from his face, and Harry heard Draco choking behind him, that he started to think it had been a bad idea.

Severus reached up, wiped the food product away, and glared. "Detention, Potter. For a week!"

He twirled to leave the room with what little dignity he had remaining.

Harry couldn't help himself. He yelled out, "And you have a big nose!"

"A month, Potter! Detention for a month!" Severus roared as he left the room.

With Draco's laughter roaring out behind him, Harry settled back into his bed with a happy sigh and a big grin. Voldemort was gone, Sirius was free, and he had detention for a month. Could life get any better?

The End

When I wrote Mythic Alliance, the rest of the series had already been written... and I am never again writing a prequel, way too much stress. I did, however, want this story to mostly stand on it's own and be completely gen, so it was acceptable to a larger audience. I think I did that. Therefore, if you want information on the two slash sequels, it will be down there a bit. If you want to see this as a completely finished story, that's just fine with me ^_^. Hope you enjoyed this journey! I'm really hoping to get 260 reviews, so I have an average of 10 per chapter! I've been nice and haven't really begged for reviews so far so... Please! ^_^

The sequel to this story is Jade Green Eyes. It is slash of the Harry/Lucius variety and includes cross-dressing as a major part of the story. Although it will be marked M, I will not be posting graphic sex scenes to this site. In fact, I will not be posting the NC17 version of JGE or BE (Beyond Expectations, the third part of the story which also includes Mpreg) to any site outside of my yahoogroup. As I did with this story, I will be posting new chapters every Monday and Thursday... at least that's the plan right now. I will post an author's note on this story when I start to post JGE.