Morning all! Chapter 15 is up! Hope its enjoyable and just a bit of fun, let me know!

After Harry had retaken his seat there was another two hours of discussion, they had shown their results from the organisation, they had read statements from the public as well as the welfare offices - that Harry was slightly surprised to realise the wizarding world had - they had shown their reports and shown the support they had from the crème de la crème of magical society. They read the letters that they had received from the European lycanthropes communities that offered not only approval but questions on how to improve their own packs and how lycanthrope changes could be completed smoother (Remus had known at lot of lycanthropes)

In the end Rosier and those of his likeminded ilk hadn't been able to offer much more of a resistance as their arguments were summarily dismissed and used against them. The voting had been unanimous, the change would go ahead. Then they had to put together the committee members who would initiate the changing of the law, Harry immediately voted for Lord Ogden, Lord Broodmare and Lady Marchbank to put across as his personal recommendation. Although they had discussed putting Sirius forward, they decided that others would disregard him as being too personally involved with the change. It was therefore with some surprise that Lord Brown put Lord Black forward as a recommendation while Harry himself was voted for by Lord Ogden.

The committee would meet two days a week for a month and Harry happily passed his notes on what those laws should be over to Lord Ogden who winked at him with a chuckle as he whispered.

"God show, my lord. Jolly good."

Since they had left the chamber of doom -as Sirius put it – they had made a brief stop at Potter Manor to pick up some things and then had headed over straight away to the Farm. The others had been waiting with bated breath before it exploded out of them with delight, excitement and pure joy. There was much celebrating that night and after the Greengrasses, Longbottoms, Davis' and a few more stragglers had arrived it turned into a complete party. It was only two hours into it when the first of the letters began arriving…

They came in a sweeping wave across the darkening sky. Mere specks of black in the distance only a couple that they didn't think much of assuming it was from their friends or supporters. When the first of them reached the group that were enjoying the warm afternoon air, it landed on the table that housed sausage rolls, crisps, peanuts, celery sticks and pork pies plus several jugs or orange juice, pimms and a few bottles of beer; and held out its foot with a disdainful glare.

Sammy was the first to react to it and he pulled on Theo's hand until the older boy eventually gave in and grabbed the letter that was attached to the bird.

"Dear Lord Black, Lord Potter and Mr Lupin, I apologise for not writing before but I was apprehensive. I am a werewolf, have been since I was 16 and I am now 19. I have been homeless during those two years, I was attacked one night on my way home from work and immediately my family requested I leave. After hearing the news today though I wondered if you had the space for another within your organisation? Please let me know at your earliest convenience. I have never attacked anyone, I only wish to provide for myself a somewhat sustained life, I am a hard worker and will try anything to be a good fit. As you can see I have written this with a blood quill so you know I am telling the truth. Sincerely Abigail Runeswood."

There was a brief moment of silence before the shock of hearing from anyone faded.

"Well of course she's welcome here!" Said Bobby with a confident look around and Harry grinned at how much the boy had changed.

"She must come, she sounded very nervous in her letter. And she's homeless! At 19!" Joy said with a sympathetic look of heart break on her face as she reached over and grabbed her son in a fierce hug.

"You know you're going to get a lot more like this." Madam Longbottom said in the middle of everyone's excitement at having a new person over.

"What do you mean?" Bobby asked trying to escape his mothers grip.

"Well how much courage did it take for you all to send letters? Now lycanthropes feel like they have a fighting chance to be treated normally and have the opportunity to have a safe place where they can belong. I foresee a lot more letters asking for a place here."

Madam Longbottom was right, within the next hour there was five more letters another half an hour after that they had 14. It was a wonderful thing but before they got too into answering them, Sirius was the one to put his foot down.

"First of all, we are celebrating a win, we are not working. Working can wait until tomorrow especially as we're going to have to go through these and more with a fine-toothed comb…"

He was not wrong, the next week was an influx of not only requests to join but donations and letters of encouragement to them. They had kept a few and were now hung proudly from a little bit of string that Coodly had placed around the edges of the parlour. Mrs Weasleys and Hermione's stood together on the mantle, having been the first to arrive. They all worked together, analysing a letter one by one as to how right the person was and how truthful they could be and how much they needed a place to be. There was more than one tear shred at the stories of loss, pain and suffering as well as the tiniest thread of hope that they could practically taste coming off the page.

It was during this time that Harry realised he was going back to Hogwarts and that - for the first time- he wasn't thrilled about it. He considered it with a surprise just after they had all collapsed back onto their beds at the manor one night. Within two minutes he felt a twisting in his gut and he tried to keep his breath steady as the sounds of snoring came from Theo's sofa. As quietly as he could he shuffled out from under his covers and headed to the kitchen. Settling into the chair he jumped up almost straight away and began pulling bowls from the cupboard.

"Master Harry, can Coodly make yous anything."

He turned to give the little elf a small smile as she took a hesitant step into the kitchen.

"Thank you Coodly but go to bed, I just want something to do."

"Goodnight Just Harry." The elf said cheekily but just as Harry opened his mouth to retort the elf snapped her fingers and disappeared with a soft pop.

Harry scouted out the flour and vanilla essence and began mixing the egg and milk to make cupcakes. He was just wondering if he should do two tiered ones when Sirius strolled in and sunk into one of the chairs.

"Alright, Prongslet?"

"Fine Padfoot, just couldn't sleep." Harry muttered as he concentrated on slowly adding the sugar.

Sirius made a hum as he watched his godson. He waited patiently, knowing from the angry crease in Harry's brow that he would speak when he was ready so he grabbed some leftover millionaire shortbread from the fridge and tucked in while he waited. It took all way up to putting them in the oven and finish wiping everything down and washing up that Harry started, his back turned as he focussed on the mixing bowl.

"School starts again soon."

Another hum.

"I just…I want go back I do…but…its weird. Like it's not such a looked forward to thing as normal." He tried to say.

A third hum.

"I want to go back obviously, but I don't get it. I thought I could just carry on like normal. I just…I'm going to miss home." The last part coming out as a mere whisper, there was quiet in the kitchen as Sirius wondered how to proceed, luckily he didn't have to.

"And I know you guys are going to always be here and I'll have so much to be getting on with but I'm not going to see you everyday you know…and that's strange."

Sirius had to let out a chuckle at that point.

"I know what you mean, prongslet."

Harry turned to meet his eye.

"Yeah?"

"Yes! You have no idea the amount of times that Remus has had to shut down my idea of simply locking you in your room." They shared a grin at that. " But we both know you love Hogwarts and you have your friends there. And you're right."

Greene eyes turned confused.

"We will always be here, and you can floo call or mirror us every day if you want! We love hearing everything about you. Though maybe not if you try to stab a 30ft snake again…"

"I promise I'll try and resist that." He said dryly.

"See that you do. My point is that you finally have a home and a family. It's only right that you're looking forward but also not looking forward to going. In fact we'd be rather insulted if you were super excited to leave. And its okay to want to leave, it's okay to want to stay. Missing people who care about you is normal and you know the kind of place you're going back to." He watched as Harry took a seat at the table while the scent of baking floated around the kitchen.

"Hogwarts isn't home anymore." Harry murmured and the teenager felt slightly sad at the thought.

"But you have a better one now, where you'll never have to worry about us hiring someone who will try to kill you, or letting a complete idiot into the building who can only teach you how to comb your hair or any of that nonsense or a deadly tournament and someone who is supposedly already dead coming back to life."

Harry grinned at his guardian.

"Don't forget practically giving ex- convicts a way in to try to kill me."

"That too though luckily the devilishly handsome wrongly incarcerated convict was only trying to protect you."

There was another quiet in the kitchen, more peaceful and calmer than before with a pleasant atmosphere.

"Everyday if I want?" The voice breaking it was quiet and teasing and Sirius grinned at his godson.

"Everyday if you want."

The talk had been much needed and the next few weeks had been spent answering the letters as well as keeping in close contact with Lady Marchbank and Lord Ogden as to the wording of the laws. Alongside doing a few radio interviews and a few bizarre quizzes for the Quibbler where he had to prove he wasn't in fact an alien as well as still having Flitwick coming over to train him in duelling and simply relaxing and enjoying the last summer days, there was barely a day without something to do. The farm was set to grow substantially and Remus and Theresa were having a brilliant time interviewing people for certain jobs around the farm as well as those who simply needed a home. Joy had also started cooking up a storm and - after being granted the quickest permission in the history of all permissions from Remus - had begun sending care packages back to a few that clearly needed immediate help.

On one such day Daphne and Harry were painting a smaller room in one of the other buildings in preparation and enjoying the Weird Sisters as they played through the wireless they'd put in the middle as they painted it a pale blue.

"Harry…"

"Hmm?"

"On a scale of one to ten…"

"Hmm?"

"How interesting do you think this year will be?"

Harry finally stopped focusing on his brush strokes and turned to his girlfriend who was idily wiping at the exact same spot that harry knew he'd have to go over later. Aquilla had already warned him about her daughters less than stellar painting skills.

"In terms of there's murderous madman out there whose trying to kill me? Or do I think Theo will finally ask out Danika and how difficult are OWL's going to be?"

"More the second and third but now you've mentioned it the first as well please?"

They hadn't given much details to the group about the removal of the horcrux and they hadn't asked but naturally Harry had spilled a little more to Daphne and then had to almost sit on her to stop her from hunting down Riddle herself after all the pain he'd caused her Harry.

"Well…" He began, furrowing he wiped his forehead clear of sweat and left behind a streak of blue that Daphne felt no need to mention. "OWL's are going to be tricky, I'm still trying to keep up in runes and warding. Flitwick thinks if I keep up the way I am then I could theoretically do a tournament during the Christmas holidays. Socially Theo needs to ask Danika out before she does it for him and Nev and I hold it over his head for the rest of his life. I think Padfoot is still hoping to hook Moony up with someone from the farm but is waiting for me to leave first. Plus all the wizengamont stuff that he will act as my regent while I'm at school but he'll still forward me letters and the discussions etc. So that's severely going to cut into our time together." He said with a turn of his lips and a gleam in his eye that had Daphne's pulse pick up.

"Oh? You're envisioning that we'll spend a lot of time together, huh?" She returned with a delicate arch of her brow. Stepping closer Harry closed his hand around her hips to gently tug her into him, her hands rested on his shoulders as she smiled up at him.

"Hm I envision it a lot." He replied with a cheeky brush of his lips that almost had her reaching up for more before the urge to win held her back.

"Really? And you see this time being cut short do you?" She murmured, blue eyes drifting to his lips and causing Harry to flex his fingers.

"Not if I can help it."

"Well that's good, because I have some ideas on how to use our time more… proactively." She said, swiping a finger along his lower lip.

"Really?" Came the croak.

"Hmm, long hours of being in each others company…"

He began to lean in, eyes a deep green, pupils taking up most of the space but instead of meeting him halfway Daphne began to lean back against the pressure of his hands.

"Oh yes, long hours." She said wickedly at the confusion in his eyes as she leaned up to his ear to whisper. "Of studying." Before pulling away completely and swiping her paintbrush across his check and darting to the other side of the room where she resumed brushing as though nothing had occurred.

Harry watched open mouth as his girlfriend pranced away from him, from this angle he could just see her grinning reflection. Making sure his own brush had enough on it he slid behind her and slipped an arm around her waist, gratified by the way her breath stuttered out of her.

"You're very mean." He whispered before quickly placing a kiss on her cheek and swiping his paint down her nose.

Immediately she gasped and shoved him away.

"Harry!" She shrieked though the giggle was very present in her voice.

"Daphne!" He retorted in a very high pitched voice and then stopped his laughter at the challenge in the blue eyes.

"Oh its on." She announced, launching herself at him the blue dripping from the brush that was pointing directly at him.

Outside, Theo, Tracey, Sammy and Oscar glanced up in concern at the shrieks that came down the stairs and into the courtyard where they were playing boules.

Two minutes later the Greengrass heiress came rushing out followed by Lord Potter whose top half was covered in pale blue paint; the normally shaggy black hair, lying flat against his face in a 'snowy skies' colour that Melissa had approved of.

"Get back here minx!"

"I said I was sorry!"

"And I said I didn't care!"

"Blue is very much your colour!"

"Liar!"

Harry cried as he finally caught up with the sprinting blonde and swung her over his shoulder as he made his way back to the now laughing four.

"What are you gonna do Harry?" Sammy asked, dancing around the duo. His little face shining with joy and lightly tanned and rounded from the summer sun and the delicious food that Daniel and Anna managed to cook up between them.

"Oh I was thinking about dunking her in a vat of paint, Sammy. What do you think."

"Oh yes! Can I watch-"

"Don't you dare! I'm sorry! I'm desolate with agony over my choice and regret it most heartily! Please I wish to throw myself at the mercy." Daphne cried out in between her giggles.

"You're getting light headed?" Tracey guessed.

"That is also true." She conceded.

Harry rolled his eyes before gently placing his girlfriend back on her feet and steadying her as she wobbled, the redness fading as the blood rushed back.

"So no paint?" Sammy asked slowly, looking terribly disappointed.

"I'm afraid not, I know Miss Daphne would be most upset with me and I don't want." Harry replied very solemn though his eyes sparkled at his girlfriend as she beamed up at him.

"Eurgh mushy stuff sucks." Sammy mumbled as he made his way back over to the others who were still chuckling.

"Hey, what did you say?" Harry exclaimed moving forward and sweeping the younger boy up and over his head, making the boy burst into giggles as he got spun around.

"Mm..mmmu…mmushy stu..stuff SUCKS!" The boy yelled, his laughter spilling over into his words.

"Oh it does, huh? Ithink I'm just gonna have to change your mind."

"Nu uh!"

"Yehuh!"

"Nu uh!"

"Yehuh!"

Daphne joined the others watching the spinning, arguing duo as her giggles got the best of her.

"Well at least you know he's good with kids." Tracey said with a chuckle as she nudged her best friends side who merely rolled her eyes at her friend but couldn't stop the affectionate smile from passing her lips as she watched the two.

"How much of the upstairs room is done, Daphne?" Oscar asked after a minute.

"Almost done, we just need to go over the messy parts but the majority is complete. Have we got the furniture sorted?"

"All in the store room, and Anna is going to help me put it together."

"Awh cute building date." Tracey said with a wink.

"Oh shush you, its not a date." Oscar laughed.

"Well it should be!"

"Not yet, we're all still getting settled and now we have new people and the boys are maybe starting school at Christmas and –"

"And it sounds like a whole bunch of excuses." Tracey deadpanned. "Either ask her out or don't but you guys have a lot of moments and sooner or later someone else will come along and realise how amazing she is and sweep her off her feet."

"Tracey, its their life." Theo reminded her gently at the slightly crestfallen expression on their friends face.

Tracey shot him a glare and he nodded his head towards Oscar who was now focussing on the silver ball in his hand with more attention than strictly necessary. With a nod of realisation, she put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry Oscar, I overstepped. It's none of my business I just see you guys happy together, but I should stay out of it."

After a long pause Oscar glanced at her with a small grin and shrugged his shoulders.

"I know why you do it Tracey, just need a bit more time though."

"Bit more time for what." Sammy interrupted as he and Harry came back to stand by them, swinging their hands and looking a little red in the face.

"Time to perfect the bread recipe your father is trying to make!" Theo injected as Oscar shot them a panicked look.

"Oh he's been trying that for years! Mummy says he'll turn 100 before he gets it right."

"Well, why don't we go see if he has some leftovers from his last attempt?" Oscar asked and immediately the little boy began tugging on his hand.

"Oh yes! Can we see if theres some honey to put on it as well? And banana?"

"Banana?! On bread?"

"Yep, its yummy and healthy which Daddy says makes the perfect snack!" Sammy decreed as he pulled Oscar away.

The four left, waved to the retreaters before packing up the game.

"So has anyone started packing? We leave in less than a week!" Tracey squealed as she did a happy little jig.

"Remus is trying to encourage us." Harry said glancing at Theo who grinned back and said.

"But he doesn't seem to be putting much effort into it."

"Oh really?" Tracey asked with a perplexed look on her face. "My parents can't wait to get me out on the 1st."

"Maybe because they've had to put with you for the last fourteen years and this is their rest time." Daphne retorted, dodging the hand that reached round to smack her arm.

"Well Sirius keeps muttering about the last four years and how well they've gone." Harry admitted and immediately Tracey's jovial turned a little more understanding and concerned. "Don't get me wrong they're happy that I still love it there and want to go back, but I think they're just preparing themselves for another of life-threatening injuries, teachers who don't listen and general idiotness of other students." He said as they locked up the boules case and headed towards the main house where the adults had carried on answering letters while giving the kids a break.

"I get that, I think my parents would have withdrawn me after the first year if I'd gone through what you had." She answered.

"Nah Trace you'd have been dead." Theo said with an evil smile as he wrapped an arm around his friend.

"Hey I might have made it through!"

"Actually I have to disagree with both of you." Daphne said with a grin. "She would have slept straight through the whole thing."

The two looked at each other and nodded.

"Yep." Tracey said.

"Totally possible." Theo agreed. "Good thing the saviour was the one to figure it out."

"Don't tell Padfoot that, he'll think you're trying to get me to take my life in my hands." Harry said as Daphne wound her arm through his.

"Can't be having that, they'll probably lock me up."

"Nah Moony wouldn't allow it, he likes you too much." Tracey said.

"Right they'd just make me do more swimming as punishment." Theo said with a mock shiver. Even though he'd been doing it almost every day, Theo still wasn't a total fan of swimming as he put it, he had a sun lounging body not an exercise body.

Walking through the door they were met with the image of almost everyone around the table still answering letters and discussing the contents. Melissa and Timothy were cooking what smelt like pasta bake while Sammy kept trying to steal bits of chorizo of the chopping board to the amusement of his parents.

"Love the hair Harry, who was your colourist?" Anna asked with a chuckle as Harry came into view, it took only took a second for everyone else to look up and the laughter overtake them all. Harry took it all and mock glared at the giggling girl who he thrilled to wrap in his arms.

"My darling dearest one here thought I needed to be personally decorated."

"She simply thought you seemed a little blue." Tracey said with an extremely straight face before bursting into laughter complete with tears spilling over her cheeks. It also set off the chain reaction around her and soon the entire kitchen was giggling with blue haired boy pouting at them all.

10 minutes they had calmed down and had resumed their various tasks of preparing dinner, sneaking food in before dinner, answering letters and discussing nonsense(Tracey). All in all they made a pleasant group, and as Sirius looked around and saw his Godson sitting with Sammy on his lap as they bickered good naturedly over who got to have the last eclair and to Remus who was speaking with Joy about some more food parcels and he leant back in his chair with the odd realisation that he would have gone through the last thirteen years exactly the same if it meant leading to this moment again.

I'm doing my best, Prongs. He thought with the usual flush of sadness but this time with the a edge of peace that accompanied when he knew Harry was happy. A sudden warmth filled is being, making him lose his breath for a moment as memories filled with fun and brotherhood brought a sudden tightness to his chest and throat. In the next instance it was gone leaving nothing but a fuzzy weight and a smile in the grey eyes.

Four days later Harry slammed down the lid of his trunk with a high level of satisfaction, he had spent the last two hours packing a repacking and then struggling to close it; finally succeeding in it…

"Bloody hell what have you got in this thing?"

With a little help. He looked up into the grinning face of Theo who was sitting on the case with a slightly red face.

"I can't remember ever having this much to pack."

"That's because all your clothes were thread bare and you only had one pair of shoes."

"Well yes but honestly this is ridiculous." He exclaimed, gesturing at the oddly deformed case as its sides bulged out.

"Could always take out a couple of those hoodies."

"…"

"What was that?"

"Daphne likes wearing them." He said very, very quietly and Theo's grin split his face in half as the chuckles started to escape.

"Oh does she?"

Harry glared at him and he backed tracked at the happy gleam in his friends eye that he couldn't conceal.

"Hey I get it, the girl's glare is terrifying. If she wanted me to take something for her then I'd pack it sharpish."

There was a pause.

"I mean I use them too…"

"I'm sure you do." Theo said with a strained voice.

"I do!"

"U huh…"

"Oh you piece of-" Harry started before he grabbed the pillow and threw it hard, managing to hit his target dead on.

The result was then a pillow face that escalated into a fist fight that would have gone for a lot longer if a shriek hadn't finally got through into their skulls and cold water suddenly seeped into their clothes. With a strangled yell they both leapt away from each other, shaking water out of their eyes and looking around for the attacker only to see a very upset elf standing in front of them.

"Ahem, hi Tilly." Harry said trying to go for nonchalance.

"HARRY JAMES POTTER! You is ruining yous room! One day to go before you leave and yous is fighting!"

Theo and Harry stared at the creature with wide eyes before glancing at each, each with an acknowledgement of fear in his eyes.

"Well I didn't mean too, Theo started it and I was just-"

"Harry Potter is insisting on doing his own packing and Tilly agreed! Why did Tilly agree!?"

"Well it was only a little fight." Harry mumbled as the full weight of the house-elf fell on him after taking note of the pillows and blankets on the floor and the knocked over chair and trunk that had fallen to the floor and burst open.

"Out get out and Tilly will take care, Master Theo leaves too!"

"Yes ma'am sorry ma'am." They both said, hurrying to the door as quickly as possible, pausing at the top of the stairs to burst into laughter before being cut off quickly as another bucket of water emptied itself over them.

"Tilly!" Harry gasped. "We said we were sorry!"

"Hmm, you is not sounding it." Said the elf as she stood in the doorway shaking a finger at them.

Hurrying down the stairs before another bucket came at them, the two teenagers crashed into the parlour still shoving each other as they argued about who started it.

"Well I'm happy to see that my presence hasn't been missed." Came the dry response from the sofa and there was a split second before "MOONY" was yelled and Harry leapt at the man who they hadn't seen the last few days.

Remus eagerly returned the hug from his favourite nephew remembering a time when the young man stepped away from physical contact.

"How have you been Prongslet?" He asked, as he waved Theo in who took the more distinguished approach and merely walked over to give the man a firm pat on the back before getting dragged into a hug.

"Just relaxing really and answering the few letters that you've been sending over." They'd come up with a system where Harry and co. took to the younger kids and people who needed the extra encouragement to turn up. As a result, they already had a few teenagers signed up to arrive at some point in the coming months as well as a one family of four. "Apart from that it's been packing and keeping Sirius from going up to talk to Dumbledork."

They all took seats.

"Ah yes he did hint something about a chat I do hope between the two of us he's got it out of his head though. Speaking of how did the packing go?"

"Fine, managed to get the thing closed."

"And you have the mirror?"

"Yep, wrapped up in a hoodie to make sure it didn't break."

"And Theo you're all done?"

"Yup, all good"

"You haven't tried to add more books to the perfect amount?"

There had been a fairly large discussion when Theo had suggested shrinking his Nott Family Library to take them all to Hogwarts( now that his father was in Azkaban as the heir he could officially keep them at Hogwarts for safe keeping even if some were dark) the others had managed to talk him down to an even 14 to which he had only agreed to with the understanding that he could send them back and Sirius would send more.

"No, Harry made a pretty compelling case. How's it going at the farm?"

"Its going brilliantly, the rooms are all sorted now and tomorrow afternoon, Theresa and I will head over to Gringotts to see about setting up official accounts for them as workers and all of that fun grown up stuff."

"And being an alpha to a larger group is sitting okay?" Harry checked.

"He's excited at having more people in his pack, after being alone so long this feels good. But we've made sure to understand that its very different to have them become pack than just staying with us."

"Is he getting used to being in charge?" Theo asked.

"Oh yes, he actually quite enjoys it, making sure his pack are happy and content is the highlight of his day." The man shrugged with a rueful grin. " He looks forward to the little jobs around the place, but also being in charge. Its good to have a team again, plus Sirius and you and Theo are all here for that support I need and this will always be home but the farm is comfortable and feels right as well."

"That's good, glad you're happy there." Harry said, genuinely feeling the words.

"I am." Reus assured them. "Now tell me about the packing here? Where even is the mutt?"

"He wanted to check over something with Madam Longbottom, and then he'll bring Neville back with him when they're done."

"Ah yes, the judgement call. He wants to do it next week but needs to still sent that letter to Mrs Malfoy and wanted to check that Madam Longbottom wanted to be there."

"Do you think she will?" Asked Theo curiously.

"Honestly I'm not sure, judgement is a terrible thing to call on someone and although I do not doubt Madam Longbottom wants justice for her son and daughter in law…It's a horrible process, I don't know if she would think it too much of a private family matter to intrude."

Just then they heard the floo flare in the formal parlour.

"Honey I'm home." Came the booming voice of Sirius to which the others rolled their eyes.

"In here." Harry yelled back and a minute late Sirius and Neville walked in, immediately throwing themselves onto the unoccupied sofa.

"How did it go?" Remus hedged.

"About as well as it could, I will see if Cissy wishes to join and if she does then Madam Longbottom won't attend, if Cissy doesn't then she will. How did the packing go?" He answered shortly and the three exchanged glances before diving into the dramatic tale of what had been occurring in his absence.

"I can't believe you were fighting in your rooms, Gran would have a field day!" Neville said as he slumped back, stomach hurting from the laughter.

"It was an accident." Theo defended himself.

"Yeah an accident you started!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Alright alright why don't we get a game of snap out before this falls into another fight!" Remus said.

"An excellent idea my good man!" Sirius announced, leaping from his seat to grab the cars off the mantle, I'll shuffle shall I?"

"NO!" Came the collective yell causing him to jump and the cards fly from his grip.

"Alright, keep your hair on." He grumbled handing them to Neville who delicately began shuffling them to keep them from exploding unlike a certain lord.

Moving around slightly they shifted and turned until a vague circle had been made of the furniture and the rest of the afternoon was spent laughing over the various games and reminiscing over various pranks that the holidays had brought.

Thinking about the looming school year Harry could only say he was going to get through it simply to come back to this next summer.