Chapter 62

Once again, girl troubles were on Harry's mind. This time, it wasn't trying to ask a girl out. It was trying to find new ways to subtly avoid the ones who kept trying to offer him a drink or sweet that were laced with a love potion. He also had the new problem of dealing with Ron and Lavender Brown. Normally he'd have been happy for his friend, but Hermione was the most upset about it that he'd ever seen her about anything. Besides, Lavender's sticking to Ron like glue and calling his "Won Won" was getting sickening very fast. Even Ron didn't seem to like her much, and Harry suspected it was only to get at Hermione that Ron put up with Lavender at all.

That wasn't the end of romance worries for Harry. Lately he'd started to notice the way he felt about Ginny wasn't the way he felt about Hermione or even Cho for that matter. With Hermione it had always been a deep friendship and with Cho a crush, but Ginny didn't fit either of those catagories. It was more than friendship and stronger than a crush.

Harry had never felt jealous when Hermione had spent time with Krum, although he knew Ron hadn't been able to stand it. Cedric had officially broken up with Cho last year when she'd been a bad sport about Ravenclaw losing a quiddich match, although they hadn't been on the best of terms ever since Cedric had warned the DA when Marietta was going to betray them. Yet Harry hadn't been interested in trying to start a relationship with Cho when he'd heard.

However, when he and Ron had caught Ginny kissing Dean, he'd wanted to hex Dean into oblivion, even though he'd never had any problem with Dean before.

As soon as he'd realized what his feelings meant, he tried to deny it. Ginny was his best friend's sister. This relationship was not going to happen. He was not going to risk his friendship with Ron for anything, and he knew Ron had never liked any of Ginny's boyfriends. All the Weasleys were very protective of Ginny. And then what about Luna? Harry and Luna had become very close friends, but did she think they were something more? He didn't want to end up hurting her either. Still, he knew his feelings for her were friendship only.

When Christmas grew closer, Harry noticed groups of girls tended to cluster under the mistletoe whenever he was around. Luckily, he was able to find ways around them thanks to the Marauder's Map, although he found himself thinking he wouldn't mind finding Ginny under the mistletoe.

Everyone had a good Christmas that year except for one thing. Percy was being very cold to his family. He did not like the fact that he'd been so wrong at all, and was having a harder time getting over his family being right than he would have had forgiving them for being wrong. Otherwise everyone was happily enjoying being home again. Harry suspected most of the Weasleys were having a better time without Percy around, except for Molly and Arthur. Percy only stopped by for a brief visit.

Harry's family had a visitor that Christmas to. Scrimgeour came to give them an update on his trying to reverse the anti- werewolf legislation.

"I can't say many people are fond of the idea. People would be afraid to work with werewolves on a daily basis."

"You know perfectly well that a werewolf raised me," Harry reminded him. "And you know I've never been bitten. There's no reason to be afraid of being around werewolves."

Scrimgeour scowled. "I'm only letting you know it won't be easy. I've submitted the request to stop discrimination against werewolves, but it has to be voted on. He groaned. "You said if I met your requests, you'd support me."

"I'll support your policies that are right," Harry reminded him. "I'm not just going to be used as a poster boy. But so far you're at least trying, and I give you credit for that. Tell whoever you like that I back getting werewolves equal rights as long as you don't mention any specific werewolves by name." It was still important that outsiders not know Remus and Mila were werewolves.

"At least you're trying, Mr. Scrimgeour," Mila spoke up. The Minister turned to look at her in surprise.

"You'll be the little werewolf girl who Auror Tonks adopted."

Mila wasn't the frightened child anymore who was terrified about what she'd be like now that she was a werewolf.

"I'm Mila Tonks," she said simply. Remus was less tolerant though. He'd take whatever people said about him stoically, but he wasn't going to let anyone say anything bad about his children.

"Mila being a werewolf does not make her less of a person," he said sharply. "And if you're thinking otherwise-"

"I don't have anything personal against her, or against you, just because you're werewolves," Scrimgeour said. Harry wondered how sincere he was. "When I told you about the voting I was just saying it won't be easy. Just don't hope for too much."

Knowing Harry supported werewolf rights may or may not have affected the outcome of the voting, but either way, the day Harry was to return to school Scrimgeour stopped by again to the vote had been in favor of removing the anti werewolf legislation. Although no names or details were mentioned, it was known to most people by now that a group of werewolves had helped in the final battle against Voldemort. Even so, the vote had only passed by a narrow margin, but it was the first victory werewolves had in years. They could actually find jobs now. Lawrence was hoping to find a job as a mechanic of some sort since he enjoyed tools and fixing things, and with some luck he might be able to find a job before he married Gwen.

Back at Hogwarts, the school year was passing quickly for Harry and his friends. There were apparation lessons, although Harry would have to wait until he turned seventeen to take the test. There were also his meetings with Sirius and Tonks on Hogsmead weekends, which he hadn't gotten around to explaining to anyone yet, and the DA meetings to keep him busy. Not to mention his Quiddich captain duties. The Gryffindor team was doing brilliantly now that Ron had gained a little confidence, and there was talk of them winning the Quiddich Cup again that year.

In what little free time he had that wasn't spent with his friends, Harry was either wondering what to do about Ginny or reading through the Half Blood Prince's book. One day he noticed a spell the Prince had invented himself.

"Sectumsempra," Harry whispered, not casting the spell but trying to remember where he'd heard of it before. It was a self invented spell, so he knew he'd never learned it in class. He'd never seen any wizard use it before either. Then he froze. Yes he had seen it. How could he have forgotten? It was the spell Snape had used to save his and Remus' lives last year when Dolohov had tried killing them. And if the Prince had invented that spell and was a gnious at Potions that meant-

That meant Harry was going to be in big trouble.

Snape was going to kill him. Harry could have just not let him know, could have just kept the new Potions book he'd ordered and never said a word about it. But he knew what he had to do. He'd given Slughorn a new copy of the book back, ordered a second new copy for himself, and asked if he could keep the old book. Again he found himself waiting behind after Defense.

"I believe I have something of yours, sir."

He laid the book on Snape's desk. As he expected, Snape glared at him and was about to say something when Harry started to explain. It wasn't that Harry was worried about Snape yelling at him. He'd never been afraid of a person and even if he had, he'd always been more irritated than intimidated by Snape. He just wanted a chance to have his say.

"I wasn't trying to get away with anything by using it," he said defensively. "I just needed to borrow a Potions book at the start of term and this happened to be the one Slughorn gave me. I didn't know it was yours until I saw 'Sectumsempra' written in it. I used your hints to be better at Potions this year. That's all."

Snape was quiet for a moment, then asked coldly "So you finally managed to learn something from me about Potions? Perhaps if you'd listened to me durring your past five years at Hogwarts you'd have learned something then too."

Harry wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a put down that Harry had never learned from him, or a compliment that he wasn't as incapable of learning as Snape had thought.

"I think a detention for decieving Professor Slughorn and for cheating is in order."

"Cheating?" Harry couldn't believe it.

"Copying another student's work is cheating."

"But you're not a student anymore, you're a teacher! And I just used what you'd-" He groaned. Well, he couldn't say it wasn't expected. And he knew there was no way he'd get Snape to let him off.

After spending the next evening doing every difficult chore Snape could find for him without him using magic though, Snape asked "SO, you believe yourself capable of brewing complicated potions?"

Iritated, Harry answered "Well, I'm keeping up with NEWT level work. I managed in today's lesson even without your book."

"So you believe you could brew the Wolfsbane potion without poisoning your father or sister?"

Sure that Snape could not have said what he just did, Harry asked "Did you just offer to teach me to brew the wolfsbane potion?"

"Why else would I have asked if you believed yourself capable of brewing it?"

It was almost impossible to believe, but Snape had started to thaw towards Harry. Was it because he could see Harry was making an effort to be on peaceful terms? Was it because he saw part of Lily alive in her son? Snape would always be Snape and would never be a softy, but somehow he and Harry were learning to tolerate, even like each other.

By the end of the year, Harry had learned to brew the Wolfsbane potion so perfectly even Snape couldn't find anything wrong with it. When the last lesson on brewing it was over, Harry left a small bottle filled with gold liquid on Snape'd desk. Harry didn't need it, and had only pretended to use it once, to give Ron confidence. But he didn't need it now, and Snape could probably use a little luck. It had been his knowledge that had won Harry the potion anyway.

"So what is this, the seventeenth wedding this summer?" Ron asked. Harry had to laugh. It did seem that way at times.

"It's only the fourth, Ron," Hermione reminded him. "And the last."

Remus and Tonk's wedding had been the first of the summer, followed by Lawrence's and Gwen's. Bill and Fleur had been married last week, the day after Harry came of age, and now it was Sirius and Alexandra's turn.

"At least Aunt Muriel only had to come to one of the wedding," Ron said gratefully. Nobody liked the batty old woman. Percy had been at the wedding, finally having made up with his family. That didn't mean he wouldn't be the victim of as many pranks as everybody could possibly play on him for some time to come though. Things weren't going so well for him at the Ministry either. With Fudge gone, Percy was given a very unimportant job there.

"I don't know. Even with her and Percy, I think Bill and Fleur had a wonderful wedding," Harry said, his expression a bit dreamy. The reason he'd liked that wedding so much was because he'd spent most of the reception with Ginny. She'd broken up with Dean towards the end of last year, but it had been at Bill and Fleur's wedding that Harry had first let his true feelings for Ginny be known. Luna had encouraged him when she sat down beside him as a song started.

"When are you going to ask Ginny to dance?" she'd asked, much to Harry's surprise. Sometimes he forgot how good she was at reading people's expressions and understanding people in general. And it turned out that although she felt as strong a friendship for Harry as he felt for her, she didn't have any more ropmantic feelings about it than he did. So he needn't have worried about that. Once he'd finally admitted his feelings, all the Weasleys showed they were more than Happy about him being with Ginny. Although her brothers would always be protective of her and would hex him to kingdom come if he ever hurt her, but he had no intentions of ever hurting Ginny anyway. Ginny of course was delighted. It turned out she'd had special feelings for Harry for years, and had been wondering if he'd ever feel the same way.

"I thought the father daughter dances were so sweet," Hermione commented. That had been Mila's favorite moment at all the weddings. The first thing Remus had seen to after being married was that Mila was legally adopted by him so she was officially both his daughter and Tonk's.

"Poor Tonks though," Harry couldn't help laughing a little. "She had to say her real name when they exchanged vows."

They all had to chuckle at that. Tonks had made a face, grimacing as she said her first name, but her biggest worry had been making it down the aisle without tripping. She did trip once, stumbling a little when she'd leaned in to kiss Remus. Sirius, of course, couldn't resist pretending he'd lost teh ring, and Andromeda had cried, but the entire wedding had been so beautiful.

Lawrence and Gwen had a House a short ways from London now, and hadn't been heard from much lately since they were on their honeymoon, but it was clear they would stop by often once they'd settled in to married life.

Now everyone else was at the reception for Sirius and Alex's wedding, and talk turned to the events of this day.

"I'm not surprised Sirius didn't wait for the minister to say he could before kissing the bride," Harry grinned. Another favorite moment had been when Alex's parents, both muggles, had arrived. Alex's father had made it clear Sirius had better take good care of her, and Sirius had to assure him he'd make keeping Alex happy his first priority. It had been funny to see Sirius look like a scolded puppy.

When the big moment came though and he and Alex were declared husband and wife, he looked so happy it was hard to believe he'd evereven heard of a place as terrible as Azkaban.

Sirius and Alex returned from their honeymoon, and Alex asked to be carried over the threshold, which Sirius thought was silly.

"You've already been in the house a million times. Besides, you don't believe in that nonsense, do you?"

Seeming to debate, she said "Carry me over it, and then I'll decide."

Sirius couldn't resist the laughter in her eyes. Laughing himself he kissed her, picked her up, and carried her inside.

"Why are you so heavy?" he teased. She was anything but heavy.

"Did you ever think I might be pregnant?" she asked. Sirius nearly dropped her.

"Are you?"

While there was happiness in her eyes, there was no teasing.

"You're going to be a great father, Siri."

Sirius let out a joyful yell and kissed his wife. Then he started worrying as he set her down.

"Do you need anything? Is there anything I can get you? Should we go to St. Mungo's?"

"Siri, there's no need to do anything differently for now. I'm only a couple weeks along." Then she'd teased. "And you'd better save your energy. You're going to be changing a lot of nappies."

Tonks hadn't been feeling well lately, yet it wasn't as if she was sick exactly. It came and went. She also found certain foods and smells she'd never had a problem with were making her sick, and so did traveling by floo powder. One day she mentioned it to Mrs. Weasley. To her surprise, Molly had an expression of pure delight.

"Tonks dear, I think I might know why you're feeling that way."

"Why? What do I have?"

Molly smiled. "the same thing I had seven times."

"Seven times?" Tonks asked. Then her mouth dropped. "Oh Merlin!"

AN: Thanks for reading, everybody. This story is almost over, and there will probably be only one more chapter. I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it.