A/N: And we're back for another chapter! Reminder again to comment with ideas for the Triwizard Tournament if you've got any. I'd like to see what your minds can come up with! On with the chapter!
Harry shot up and looked around the room he was in. He recognized it pretty quickly, having spent more than one night in it before. The hospital wing? How? Why?
"Oh, good! You're awake." came the voice of Susan beside him, her red hair seemingly glowing in the glow of the afternoon sun behind her. "Scared us a bit there, you've been out all of last night and today."
"What happened? Last thing I knew we were surrounded by the Dementors." Harry asked, sifting through his scattered thoughts to see if he could piece it together. He'd summoned his Patronus hadn't he? That Sphinx… it was still clear in his mind. Gleaming silver, powerful and regal.
"Unsurprising that you don't remember much from after that Mr. Potter, you likely completely drained yourself of magic a few minutes after that." Madame Pomfrey said, moving over to him and waving her wand about his person. "Congratulations on your successful casting of the Patronus charm, even more so for successfully conjuring more than one at a time."
"Huh?" Harry asked, confused.
"I can only relay what Hermione and Luna told me, but apparently when those dementors came, you summoned a Sphinx that fought them off. It couldn't be everywhere at once though, so you summoned a second one. The pair of them fought off the Dementors, driving them away, before they tackled Professor Lupin and held him down while the others put him in a body bind." Susan said. "After that, Professor Flitwick found you all and Hermione and Luna told him everything. They took Mr. Black and that Pettigrew man to Dumbledore. Auntie is supposedly looking into his case now, so if what he said about not getting a trial is true, he'll probably get one."
"That's good. Are Hermione, Luna, and Neville okay?" Harry asked.
"They're fine Mr. Potter. A few scrapes, but nothing major. You were our worry, like usual. Completely drained of magic you were." Madame Pomfrey said, continuing her examination on Harry.
"That's good." Harry said, relaxing into the bed. He'd done it. They were safe. That was enough.
"You really need to stop making us worry like this though Harry, one of these days you're going to fight something that's too much for you." Susan said, as she held his hand. "You mean too much to us for you to keep doing that."
"I'll admit, even I'm getting tired of waking up in the hospital wing here. No offense Madam Pomfrey." Harry said, as the medi-witch chuckled.
"While I do enjoy seeing you Mr. Potter, my ideal Hospital wing only has people come in for routine check-ups, no injuries or illnesses." Madame Pomfrey said. "You seem to be in good health now, a significant improvement from the last time you needed to be in here. I'd tell you to make sure that you don't come back next year, but I feel that such a fate may be unavoidable for you. Instead I'll say: make sure you survive enough that I am capable of fixing you."
"I'll do my best Madame Pomfrey." Harry said, as he moved to stand up from his bed. His balance was slightly unsteady, but otherwise he was fine. Susan handed him a fresh set of clothes.
"Head in the back room and change, your clothes are still filthy." Susan said, pointing him off. "I'll wait for you and we'll head to the Sphinx Club room together. You'll need to get packing tonight though, we leave in the morning for home."
Harry nodded and left to change, entering the back room he stripped down and took a quick moment to cast a few cleaning charms on himself. Not a substitute for a proper shower, but enough to get him through the day at the very least. Coming back into the room Susan took his hand, before leading him out of the Hospital wing.
"So I was out all day?" Harry asked, looking to his red haired girlfriend. She seemed like she hadn't slept well.
"You were half awake for a few minutes once, managed to get you to drink some water, but you weren't really there. Beyond that, you were out cold. I've been with you most of that time, while Padma has been with the others trying to work out what can be done about the whole Sirius Black thing. Hermione, Luna, and Neville explained what they could to us, so the Buckbeak team launched right back into legal research." Susan said. "I had a floo call with Auntie about the whole thing. She's upset at you, but not really. More frustrated that you've gotten yourself in a mess again."
Harry sheepishly chuckled at that. He really was getting into it a lot these days. "Sorry about that. I didn't realize how frustrating it must be for you all to deal with my lack of planning and forethought for these kinds of things. Honestly, when Sirius talked about capturing Pettigrew and then didn't think past what to do when he was captured, I realized that must be what you all see every time I'm involved in something like this."
"Maybe, but we know that you're doing your best. We were pretty upset with you about the whole Basilisk situation last year, but if you hadn't been doing that… I might not be here. Your concern is one of the things I love about you Harry. It saved me, even if maybe you didn't have much of a plan to fight the Basilisk, you still pulled it off. I can't thank you enough for that." Susan said, squeezing his hand tighter. "You don't ask for this, it just kind of falls in your lap. Maybe it's destiny, maybe it's bad luck, but it always seems to happen to you. That's scary sometimes, but it's also exciting. If putting up with all of that is what it takes to have you in my life though, it's a trade-off I'm happy to make. I love you, Harry, so much."
Harry pulled her into a hug, and kissed the top of her head. "I love you too Susan. I'm sorry you have to go through all of this." Harry said.
The pair walked in comfortable silence to the Sphinx Club room, where the others were all waiting for them. Upon seeing Harry, the rest of his cadre of girlfriends shot over to him.
"Oh! You're awake! We're so glad, we were worried." Luna said, she looked him over. "Thank you for saving us from those Dementors… they were frightening."
"You know I'd never let anything happen to you. To any of you." Harry said, taking Luna into his arms. "As long as I'm here, you'll be safe as houses."
Their reunion was a calmer affair than Harry had anticipated. Given the excitement of the previous night, the party had been canceled, with the acquired sweets simply being divvied out to those who would have been in attendance, and an invitation being given to the next party they planned. The Sphinx Club did know how to throw one after all, and the Weasley Twins, the only outside members who were invited at this moment in time, were happy to accept. Harry was grateful for that. Charlie was brotherly to Harry after all, and if things continued as expected, would someday actually BE his brother, so Harry wanted to be on good terms with the Weasley Clan. Ginny was a good friend to begin with, and his interactions with Bill had made that easy as well. Now it seemed only Percy and Ron were the ones he couldn't quite get along with, but Percy was polite at the very least.
Speaking of Percy though, Harry had heard a bit of gossip about him from Lavender. It seems that his long standing relationship with Penelope Clearwater had ended. Harry was unsure how to take that news. Supposedly the break-up hadn't been messy, but it wasn't totally amicable either. Harry hoped Penelope was doing well with that news. He looked up to her a lot, and had, once upon a time, had quite the crush on her. At that moment it had hit him that he wouldn't see her next year, and that filled him with a kind of sadness. Penelope had been the first older student to really be nice to him, she was the Prefect who had shown him to the dorms initially, had helped him study on many occasions, and had been a good friend. Hogwarts without her would in some way feel… lonely.
Was that what it was like for other students as well? Watching those in the years above them leave, possibly to never see them again? Harry wanted the best for Penelope surely, but… was that what he had to look forward to as well? Harry's eyes turned towards Luna. He wouldn't be at Hogwarts for her final year, she'd have Ginny and Astoria yes, but he couldn't be here to help her. She'd be the last of the Sphinx Club proper, unless Ginny and Astoria joined on fully. The thought sunk him into his seat a bit, although Harry was glad about it in some ways.
Just last night, Harry's greatest worry had been the lives of Hermione, Luna, and Neville. Making sure they were safe from Dementors and Werewolves. For his biggest worry today to be something as mundane as not being able to be there for his friends schooling after he graduated? That was a welcome change. Harry didn't have to be a hero, he was still a schoolboy after all. He liked the sense of normalcy that came with that. Leaving your friends as you got older was something normal people got to worry about, and after how extraordinary most of his life had been, some mundane problems felt like a breath of fresh air.
Luna would certainly be fine without him here at Hogwarts. Hell, if she truly wanted she was more than capable of testing out of her year and joining them anyway. While they had never attempted to coddle Luna in her studies, Harry had briefly forgotten that she wasn't in their year during their study sessions this year. When it came to the core subjects, she had been studying the same material alongside them, having spent most of her first year closing the gap between herself and the rest of the Sphinx Club. She was on the same level as the rest of them now, which meant she was far and away above her yearmates. Ginny and Astoria were her only real equals in her year, and they had had similar treatment, having joined the Sphinx Club often for study sessions.
"Harry? Are you in there?" Daphne's voice asked, pulling Harry from his thoughts.
"Yeah, just thinking." Harry said, trying to move himself into the present. It would be years before he had to worry about not being there for Luna. He had time.
"Don't wear yourself out!" Neville said, causing some laughter to flow through the room. Harry even chuckled at that.
"I'll try not to. Hard to believe the year's over though." Harry said, trying to move past his worries.
"Yeah, although next year is sure to be exciting." Padma said, moving a piece in the game of Wizard's Chess she was playing with Daphne.
"What makes you say that?" Harry asked, looking to his Indian girlfriend. He brow was furrowed in concentration, as Daphne had her well and truly on the back foot in their game. Unsurprising, Daphne was far and away the best chess player they knew.
"Well, every year is exciting with you guys. First year we founded the club, second year we were solving a mystery of the Heir of Slytherin, and this year we got to do legal research for Buckbeak, and do training to keep you ready for if Sirius attacked you, though thankfully we really missed the mark on the danger there." Padma said, knocking over her king as Daphne had her well and truly beaten. "While I hope we don't have to do anything dangerous, it seems that excitement follows us wherever we go! That's fun in its way isn't it?"
Harry thought about it. Was that fun? Yeah… it was. For all Harry did want to be ordinary, sometimes being extraordinary was fun in its own right. "It kind of is. Although I could do with less creatures to fight. Dementors, Basilisks and Trolls have kind of given me enough fighting for now." Harry said.
"Come on Harry! Don't you want to go up against a Dragon? Or a Nundu? Not even some zombies?" Daphne asked, poking him a bit.
"Well, I guess meeting a dragon would be nice. I'd rather not fight it though. It'd probably make me think of Norbert… or Norberta I suppose." Harry said.
"I'm sad I missed out on that, I would have loved to watch a dragon hatch!" Luna said. "I wonder if I could have talked to it."
"Probably, we haven't found anything you can't talk to." Harry said. "Even if you don't quite get snakes."
"Not my fault I'm not a Parseltongue. I wonder why they speak differently than other animals." Luna pondered, stroking her face with a finger and thumb as though she was rubbing a beard.
"Who knows?" Lavender said, before pulling out a gobstones set. "Anyone up for a game?"
Harry packed up that night, and departed Hogwarts on the train for King's Cross that next morning. Ted and Andromeda picked him up at the station and brought him home after he said goodbye to his friends, and especially his girlfriends. Promises to write were exchanged, and the girls said they would coordinate some date times for him. Harry was happy about that, he loved them dearly, but they were all significantly better at scheduling than he was.
Arriving in the Tonks house was a refreshing thing for Harry. He stepped through the Floo, thankfully not falling on his face this time, though he did stumble a tad, and turned to look at the fireplace that Ted and Andromeda would be coming through shortly. Hanging above it was a family portrait, one that featured Harry, and that brought a smile to his face. He had a home, and although it had been over two years since he had been adopted, it was still exciting to him to be part of a family.
Andromeda and Ted came through the floo shortly behind, and sat down on the couch. Harry looked over to them and noticed some worried looks on their faces. "What's wrong?" Harry asked, taking a seat on the neighboring loveseat.
"Well, we need to talk a bit." Andromeda said. "Do you mind if I take this one Ted? It's kind of my part of the family."
"Go ahead honey. I'll go ahead and get dinner ordered. You still just want Cheese Pizza Harry?" Ted asked.
"Yeah dad." Harry said, his voice becoming worried. Had he done something wrong? This time really hadn't been his fault.
Ted left into the next room, and Andromeda sighed before looking towards Harry. "I heard about what happened the other night with you and Sirius. Remus sent me a letter yesterday explaining everything. I went straight from there to the DMLE holding cells where I spoke to Sirius. Pettigrew was there as well, which… lent some credence to his story. I need you to tell me what happened, and what you think about all of this." Andromeda said. "I'm not mad. I know you didn't ask to be involved in this kind of thing, and I'm still going to be your mother, cheering you on every step of the way. This however, could change the family dynamic a bit. We need to see where we're going."
"Alright mum. Well, we finished up our finals and were relaxing outside waiting for the others to get done…" Harry began to explain to his mother. The story lasted a few minutes, Harry telling her everything from Sirius's revealing himself, all the way to when the Dementors attacked.
"Well… I suppose that puts a lot of things into perspective. Sirius's version of the story makes much more sense given what I know of him than what we had thought all of those years. I'll hold out judgment until the trial though." Andromeda said, sighing deeply at that. "Working under the assumption that he is actually innocent of that though, we have an issue we'll need to deal with."
"What's that?" Harry asked.
"By law, since he's your godfather, if he's capable of taking care of you, you would end up in his custody, as opposed to ours. We love you dearly Harry, but by the time all of this is sorted, you'll be old enough to make your own decision about it. Would you want to be with Sirius?" Andromeda asked.
Harry was confused. Really? She needed to ask? "Of course I want to stay with you. I've only just met Sirius. Even if he's technically my godfather, you and Dad have been the ones taking care of me for the last two years. I love you all. I'd like Sirius to be a part of my life, sure. Some connection to my parents would be nice, but he's not my dad. That's Ted." Harry said.
Andromeda pulled him into a hug with tears in her eyes. "Oh, I'm so glad to hear you say that Harry. I was going to let you make that decision, but if you had left us I would be so upset. I love you to pieces; I don't know what I'd do if you left."
"I'm not going anywhere mum." Harry said, taking his adopted mother into a hug.
Godfather or not, Harry's home was with the Tonks'.