Hey! Celebrate! Here's an update! Hooray! Yes, I know, that's a lot of rhyming, but it's late and I'm tired and I had to rework this chapter from what I originally planned. So Harry's going somewhere to vent, and Tess needs to have a conversation with Sirius and Remus. Sound good? Not very action packed, but next chapter you're getting a Hogwarts Christmas dinner with the Order and Harry's people plus a tiny Voldemort scene. Please review! Enjoy! Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. If I did, I wouldn't have to type on a laptop missing the G and H keys. Honestly, do you know how many words have G and H in them? A lot!

Fortunately, it wasn't hard for Tess to track Sirius and Remus down. In fact, they were still sitting at the same table in Hog's Head Harry had left them at, still trying to puzzle out his reaction. It was a difficult task figuring out Harry James Potter. After eight years of friendship, Tess still felt like there were parts of Harry she hadn't seen. No one ever got a full picture from him, only whatever part he felt like giving.

Hands on her hips, she faced Remus and Sirius, a scowl on her face. To her surprise, it was Sirius who caved first. She would've thought he'd had more experience with angry women than Remus, but she later found it that Sirius had dodged every date he pissed off at Hogwarts and after, leaving it to Remus soothe their ire.

"We told Harry you showed us memories!" Sirius shouted.

Remus glared at Sirius. "Padfoot!"

"What?" Sirius said. "You know angry women frighten me." He shivered.

Tess raised an eyebrow. "What else did you say to him?" she asked.

"We asked him about how the Dursleys treated him," Remus explained. "He gave us a pretty detailed list of every way they abused him. We also asked him about that girl from the memories..." He trailed off, unable to remember her name.

"Bea," Tess whispered, a ghost of a smile on her face. She looked at the two obviously curious men. "Probably not the smartest thing you could've asked."
"We noticed," Sirius joked dryly. "But why?"

Tess sighed. "Look, Harry likes to keep his life divided up into sections: everything before he was six, the Street Rats, living with Fiona and Phin, and then everything after that. None of those parts are allowed to mix. You probably learned more about how the Dursleys treated him today than I've ever heard him talk about. At Fiona and Phin's, I never heard Harry talk about the Street Rats. I only heard Bea and Harry were visiting them unless Fiona mentioned it. After... the attack, he never said Bea's name, and he didn't like it when I did." She paused. "Harry doesn't like to talk about the past."

"But he should talk about," Remus insisted. "Bottling everything up isn't good for him."

Tess shrugged. "He says that talking about the past doesn't change it. And he never mentions this, but it hurts. I know it hurts for me, and I'm sure it hurts for him."

There was a moment of silence, Sirius and Remus seemingly absorbing everything she had said. Finally Sirius spoke up. "Can you tell us about Bea?" he asked. Seeing the brunette's questioning look, he stated, "I want to know about this girl that was so important to my godson."

Tess smiled. "Bea was..." She thought about her old friend for a moment. "She was bright, like sunshine. No matter what, she could make you smile. She could talk a mile a minute, which I always found funny because Harry's fluent in monosyllables. Then again, I always thought they could read each other's minds. Bea always knew what was going on in his head. She could talk him into anything. She could've talked anybody into anything." Tess wiped away a tear she didn't even realize had fallen. "She was a great friend. We were like sisters, but she was Harry's other half."

"Lightness to darkness, huh?" Sirius teased.

Tess laughed. "Something like that." Her face turned more serious. "A part of him died with her."

Remus looked at her with kind eyes. "Why do you say that?"

Tess fiddled with the zipper of her coat. "Because when we came back after the attack, Phin had to hold Harry back from running off and trying to find Bellatrix. He was screaming, howling, crying. It was like something inside him broke." She looked at them, her eyes haunted with the memory of that sight. She would never forget seeing Harry like that. She would never forget his cries, begging for it to be him, swearing vengeance. Sometimes, in her nightmares, those cries rang in her ears.

Deciding they had reopened enough painful memories of Tess's, Remus ordered another round of firewhiskeys for him and Sirius and a Butterbeer for the lady as well as three orders of fish and chips seeing as it was around lunchtime. It was a well-kept secret that Aberforth did the best fish and chips in Scotland. It didn't take long for their food to be brought out. Amusing anecdotes of Remus and Sirius's school days were thrown around, some of them the same told to Harry earlier.

As they finished up their meal, Tess looked at the two remaining Marauders. It was clear they loved Harry, for better or worse, but there were a lot of people that loved him (even if the idiot didn't realize it). Still, something was endearing about them, and so she issued them a warning. "Don't ask Harry about the past again," she advised. "It won't get you any closer to him. Just focus on the present."

The two men agreed, not because they liked it but because Tess was right and they really didn't want to face her angry at them again. Angry women were scary. It was the reason both of them were still single.

Old Mam stirred the pot of clam chowder on the stove, humming a soft old tune as she did. She looked over her shoulder to see the twins still playing cards in almost complete silence, a miraculous feet for them, since Ariella was napping on the recliner next to them. Despite all of her efforts, the little girl still wasn't sleeping peacefully through the nights, and so little naps throughout the day were important. Ralph was tinkering with something in the bathroom, probably the pipes again. They kept leaking. Pandora and Isa had gone out for a girl's day, promising to be home for dinner. Though at one point after their spot was discovered they had lived separately, most of the "Street Rats" as Harry and Isa had ridiculously named the group as children now lived in her tiny house.

The house had been acquired after she had gone to Gringotts for the first time in thirty years to discover that her husband's older brother had died and left them a comfortable sum of money and a small house. Old Mam didn't care much about the money. Her family got by, everyone contributing. Ralph did a lot of repair work, Pandora babysat for local families, Isa waitressed, and Harry... Well, she didn't ask what jobs he worked, and he didn't tell.

Still, the house had been a big deal. It became a base for her children, a place to return when they went separate ways. It was three bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, a living room, and a very spacious backyard. The twins, Adrianna, and Isa shared a room, Isa moving in two years ago at Harry's request after a boyfriend got violent. Pandora and Ralph shared a room. Ariella slept in her room so she could keep an eye on her at night. Harry, on the rare occasion he stayed, pitched his tent in the backyard. Ariella usually joined him, sleeping peacefully through the night in his presence. Markus had not been home in a very long time, but he preferred the pull-out in the living room.

There was a knock on the front door, startling the old woman. Her children usually Flooed in and out. The front door was used rarely and usually only by one particular person. She went and opened the door, not at all surprised by who she found. Harry looked distinctly frazzled. There were bags under his eyes, and she noted with displeasure that it was mid-November and yet all he was wearing was jeans, a t-shirt, and a leather jacket.

Bubbling with questions, Old Mam only said, "Hello, dear. Come on in. I have a pot of clam chowder on the stove. Would you like a bowl?"

Harry smiled and stepped inside, happily accepting the offer. This was exactly why he had flown here from Hogwarts. Originally, he had gotten on his bike and just started going, not sure where he was going until he was halfway there. Old Mam's house was probably the closest to peaceful he could ever get.

He wasn't in the house two minutes before there were two weights on his legs. Harry looked down to see Lettie and Mari, one twin clinging to each leg. "Harry!" they squealed in unison.

Old Mam smiled at the antics of the girls but shushed their squeals, gesturing to a sleeping Ariella. "Now, why don't you two girls go wash up, I'll wake up Ariella, and then we can eat?"

Lettie looked up at Harry, a frown on her usually smiling face. "Promise you'll be here when we get back?"

"Promise," Harry said with a smile.

"Pinkie swear?" Mari asked, holding out a pinkie. Lettie mimicked her sister.

Harry laughed, taking both his pinkies and hooking one into the pinkie of each girl. "Pinkie swear!" That was all it took to get the twins to detach from his legs and scurry off to the bathroom. "I take it nothing's changed around here then," Harry commented.

Old Mam smiled as she ushered him into the kitchen, making him sit down and pulling out a bowl and spoon. "Those two will be the death of me, I swear," she said. "I'm half-convinced they were sent to me from Tim and Tony just to make sure I didn't lose my sense of humor."

Harry smiled faintly. "That sounds like something they would do." He looked down at the tablecloth. He knew questions were coming.

"Harry, what's on your mind?" Old Mam asked, taking a seat in the chair across from him. "I know you didn't fly that dangerous contraption all the way from Hogwarts just to have a bowl of my clam chowder."

Harry shrugged. "That sounds like a great reason to me." Getting a look from Old Mam, he sighed. "Okay, fine. I snapped at Tess today. I snapped at Tess and Sirius and Remus, and I've snapped at Dumbledore and Draco Malfoy and basically anyone who looks at me funny, which is very common at Hogwarts. I might as well be a bloody snapping turtle!"

Ignoring Harry's language, Old Mam set her hand on top of his. Harry didn't move his hand as he would've with any other adult. "And why are you lashing out at everyone?"

Harry exhaled. "Well, I hate Hogwarts. I feel like a caged animal. I don't trust Dumbledore, and I'm starting to feel like I can't trust my friends." He looked down, unwilling to meet her eyes. "And I miss Bea."

Old Mam's heart broke for her boy. She had never heard him say the words out loud before, but she knew it had been something weighing him down for a while. She and her husband had never had children of their own, but this rag-tag group of kids had become her children. Of all her children, she worried about Isa and Harry the most. Sometimes Markus was on that list as well, but he had common sense, limits that he wouldn't be willing to cross. Harry and Isa didn't. "It's okay to miss her."

Harry fiddled with the loose string on his t-shirt, not sure what to say. Old Mam waited until he was ready. "Being at Hogwarts was always her dream. She'd beg Fiona and Phin for stories about the castle. Being there without her just doesn't feel right."

Old Mam didn't try to offer any words of comfort or understanding. Her kids weren't the kind that liked unsolicited advice, and so she wouldn't offer any. Instead, she would give the only comfort she could. She got up, grabbed two bowls, and ladled a healthy amount into both bowls. Old Mam set one of those bowls in front of Harry and handed him a spoon. "Now let's get some meat on those bones," she exclaimed. "Honestly, don't they feed you at Hogwarts?'

Harry grinned as he began to devour the contents of the bowl, almost choking on the soup in laughter after Old Mam shouted, "Girls, hurry up! If I find out you put another dung bomb in the shower, I'll make a sugarless, flourless cake for your birthday." This was why he had driven here. No one tried to coddle him or condescend him. Advice was given only when asked for. Old Mam simply listened to him vent, no matter how irrational he sounded. Just being in this warm house was a soothing balm for his anger. Of course, Old Mam's cooking didn't hurt either.