All a Dream

Chapter 7

Lunch at the Weasley's that afternoon was one of the more fun occasions Harry could remember at the Burrow, mostly due to the fact that there were now triplets instead of twins, Ginny was quite possibly just as exuberant as them, if not more, and Percy was not quite as strict as Harry had thought. However, no matter how much fun Harry had, he had a nagging thought at the back of his mind that he couldn't quite register. It wasn't until Bill asked Harry what he thought Voldemort looked like that it finally clicked. No-one was afraid of Voldemort's name anymore.

"You said his name?"

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"Yeah, Harry. What's there to fear in the name of a dead wizard?"

"But you said his name."

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Ron snapped his fingers in front of Harry's eyes. "Hello? Harry? Bill was wondering what you thought Voldemort looked like."

"Oh. Sorry." Harry snapped out of his reverie. "He was tall, pale, red eyes like a snake's, no nose, and bald."

"A bald Voldemort would have been an improvement," Mr. Weasley snickered. "He had a flock-of-seagulls haircut."

.:. :.: .:.

Over the course of the day, Ron and Harry wrote letters to everyone that Harry had known. He was at first surprised, but then understood why Dean Thomas didn't actually exist. He had been Muggle-born, so Harry wouldn't have known him. Most people, however, had been the children of Harry's parent's friends, like Padma and Parvati Patil and Neville Longbottom. Hermione had an uncle who was a wizard (her mother was a Squib), and he had been an Auror, like James Potter, working on finding Death Eaters when Voldemort was in power.

While Harry and Ron were waiting for dinner to be ready - or rather for them to be voluntold to set the table -, Harry asked Ron for his version of the events leading up to the death of Voldemort. He thought his father's version was lacking in the details department.

"Well, it's pretty much like your dad said. The only things he left out were that when his second Killing Curse missed Lily, it hit your crib. The crib exploded, and you were stuck in a coma. The other your dad left out was that Voldemort was right pissed."

"Pissed as in drunk, or pissed as in mad?" asked Harry.

"Both, apparently," Ron replied. "That was probably why he didn't notice Remus following him up the stairs to your room."

Harry nodded his head in agreement.

.:. :.: .:.

Dinner was huge, and had to be held outside. Several other families came to the Weasley's for dinner, including the Blacks, both Regulus and Sirius. Some other families that attended were Remus Lupin and Dora, with Teddy, the Longbottoms, all of them completely sane (though Neville's grandmother could be seen as eccentric), and the Finnegans. Harry's mother came for only a few minutes because she was busy with plans for Harry coming home afterwards to meet with "the rest of the people who want to see you, dear".

By seven, the mosquitoes were becoming an issue, so the party moved inside. It was then that Harry got to sit down and really talk with Sirius.

Sirius Black hadn't really changed much since James and Lily's wedding. There were a few more wrinkles on his face, but when he smiled they were completely hidden.

"So, Harry, welcome back," said Sirius as he took a seat opposite Harry in the Weasley's dining room. "I expect you must be tired of hearing that, but nothing else sums it up better, eh?"

Harry smiled, still overjoyed at seeing Sirius after so many years. "Man, Sirius. It's great to see you. I thought you were dead."

Sirius did not exactly react the way Harry expected. He thought that Sirius would stare at him incredulously. Instead, he laughed, saying, "I'm not that old Harry, I thought you knew that."

Harry laughed, but then became more serious. "Tell me about your life; I have no idea what it's actually like. Where do you live, what's your job at St. Mungo's like?"

"Well, I live in the place I bought when I was sixteen, a little bungalow in North Wales. It's just me and Regulus, my brother. Poor guy had the Imperius Curse on him for five years before Voldemort was killed, five years. It took him about a year to get his brains back to normal, mostly. He still gets worried that his flashbacks will come back, but he hasn't had one for about 10 months.

"Anyway, you asked me about my job at Mungo's. I actually got the job because Regulus was in the ward for the violently insane, and I was the only one able to calm him down. I've been working there for a few years now, and I have to say that there've only been two major incidents, the first one where one of the patients stole a healer's wand and tried to kill the same healer. No-one was hurt. Not badly, anyway. The other incident was similar, except it was my wand the patient got."

Harry stared in awe. Sirius had been through much more than Harry had thought.

"Oh, and did I tell you Harry? I'm your second godfather."

A/N: Firstly, a flock-of-seagulls haircut looks like this: (the link thingy wouldn't work, so just go to google and search "flock of seagulls haircut".)

Secondly, thank you to the reviewers. Reviews make me happy, whether negative or positive. They also make me more likely to write.

Thirdly, I'm sorry if this chapter is messed up. I'm not too awake right now, so literary cheese may result.