This is a big chapter… one that I don't really want to talk about too much here as I know I'll give it away, so instead I'll simply let you crack on with reading it and hope that you all enjoy!
Sleep evaded Leo for that entire night as he stayed inside the drapes of his four-poster bed tossing and turning, the mirror clutched tightly to his chest as Leo willed it to heat up and vibrate. As the hours passed however, nothing was happening. Groaning quietly so as to not wake up Dean and Seamus, Leo pulled his Arithmancy book out that Hermione had gifted him for his birthday, but even the complexity of the most difficult subject Hogwarts had to offer couldn't calm his mind. He was both worried about both of his parents potentially fighting You-Know-Who considering both were in the Order of the Phoenix, and then angry at Harry.
He felt like he had done well to get rid of his old jealousy about Harry Potter since Christmas. He thought he had decided that it had all been irrational and misplaced, that after listening to his stories in the Hog's Head, Grimmauld Place and even in the Quibbler he could get past his old annoyance and move on by being friends with the Boy-Who-Lived. Now though, Harry had deliberately excluded Leo from something that was directly to do with his Father, and Leo wasn't sure how he could forgive his classmate if anything happened whilst he was stuck in his bed.
More hours passed and Leo was still sat, festering in his emotions. He had thrown the book away by midnight and had started simply staring at the mirror, almost willing himself to say the name that would activate it but stopping himself just in case he caused a horrifying distraction. He then picked up the picture at the side of his bed, and smiled fondly at the sight of his Grandfather. Magnus had always been Leo's biggest fan at whatever he had done, and had taught the Gryffindor how to ride a broom, how to fish, and even how to do his first spell, much to his Mother's anger. Smiling fondly at the memory and at the grinning old man looking up at him in the picture, Leo's thoughts once again turned to whatever was happening in London as he worried about his Mother.
More time passed, and Leo still hadn't managed to get a wink of sleep. He could see the start of the sunrise begin to filter through the curtains, and almost at the same time a silver husky floated through the drapes on Leo's bed and in an echoed version of his Mother's soft Scottish tone.
"Come to the Hospital Wing. We are here."
Leo didn't hesitate, and he ripped open the drapes and hastily put his shoes on. He didn't even wait to see that Seamus and Dean had woken up and were groggily staring as he sprinted out of the dormitory and the Common Room down to the Hospital Wing, not caring one bit about being caught out of bed after curfew.
The scene in front of him looked awful. Most of the beds had been filled and Madam Pomfrey was moving between them all as well as her office rapidly. Leo opened the door gingerly and took one step in before the scary nurse was in front of him with a glare. "Not today!" She exclaimed angrily.
"Poppy, it's ok." Leo's mum's voice sounded from one of the beds. "I invited him."
Madam Pomfrey rolled her eyes and tutted. "Very well, but be sure to stay out of my way." She warned Leo, who simply nodded. Madam Pomfrey then went over to Neville Longbottom who was sat up, his lower face covered in blood and his nose was bent out of shape. "Finally, your turn Longbottom. Episkey." She waved her wand and Neville's nose shifted back into place. "I want you in overnight just to be sure you haven't been hit with anything we might have missed. Drink this." She handed him a blood replenishing potion. "If you feel anything out of the ordinary, tell me."
Leo ignored the nurse then and looked around. Professor Moody… or the real Alastor Moody, Leo realised, was sat upright with a nasty looking salve on his chest covering some form of wound, though the former Auror didn't look too worried. Next to him lay Nymphadora Tonks, who Madam Pomfrey had just gone to crowd around by pulling the blinds around the bed. Opposite Tonks sat Luna Lovegood looking relatively healthy as well, though the bed next to her worried Leo. Hermione was lay there in a hospital gown fast asleep, her table full of all kinds of different potion vials.
Nearer to the door was his Mother, and after fully assessing the scene Leo walked quickly over to her bed. "Leo." She whispered fondly, pulling him into a hug as she sat upright on the hospital bed.
"You're ok." He whispered. "I feared…" He pulled back, noticing a nasty gash on her shoulder and falling silent in worry.
Mary smiled, though Leo could see it was forced. "I'm fine, just a bit of a nasty curse." She waved away.
"Your mum was brilliant, Leo." Neville grinned. "She banished one of the Death Eaters into this… bell thing. Turned him into a really old man." He then frowned. "Then he turned to bones before they just crumbled into dust… it was actually quite brutal now I think about it."
"Mulciber." Mary explained, a dark tone to her voice. "It wasn't intentional, I didn't know it would kill him, but I'm not beating myself up about it."
Leo nodded, knowing exactly what she meant. "He deserved it." He whispered, settling into a chair and holding his mum's hand. "What happened? I've been left in the dark…" His eyes wondered over to Hermione. "Is everybody ok…"
Mary's eyes watered. "No." She whispered. "Arthur…"
"I told him." Moody muttered groggily from his bed. "He wasn't fit for it."
Mary looked harshly at the former Auror. "He was protecting his children, Alastor. I would do the same no matter how healthy I was without question."
Leo realised what was being implied. "Mr Weasley?" He asked horrified.
Mary nodded sadly. "His body was taken back to the Burrow with Ron and Ginny. They're fine, by the way. Just cut up, as well as the obvious."
Leo had only ever seen Mr Weasley from afar for the most part, but the way everybody that knew him spoke about the Weasley patriarch it was still a blow. Leo then thought of Ron, Ginny and the twins and his heart almost broke for them. "What about Hermione?" He asked.
"A nasty curse." Mary muttered coldly. "Dolohov was always brutal."
"Madam Pomfrey reckons she'll be ok though." Neville explained. "But… out of action for a while."
"We don't really know what she was hit with." Mary explained. "But other than a nasty scar, it seems like she will be ok."
Leo breathed a bit of relief, before asking the question he felt obligated to ask. "And Harry?"
"Up with Professor Dumbledore." Mary explained. "With Sirius."
And there it was, Leo let out another sigh of relief as he realised that he was one of the lucky ones and both of his parents had come out of the fight. "What actually happened?" Leo repeated the question.
Neville started. "We tried to get Harry to wait for you, honestly we did. But he was convinced he needed to rush to the Ministry to save Sirius and we weren't going to let him go on his own." He looked bashful. "Sorry mate." Leo waved that away despite the anger at being left behind that was bubbling under the surface, he knew it wasn't Neville's fault after all. "Anyway, once we got to the Ministry and into the Atrium the fires all turned green…"
"Your warning got us ready." Mary explained. "Aye, Sirius called us all and sent us to the Ministry where we met the kids, and once Harry realised that Sirius was fine he felt like a right wee prat. But we knew that You-Know-Who was luring him for something, and we thought we could take him by surprise. We got to the Department of Mysteries and split into groups of adults and kids. I was with Luna here."
"I'm very glad." Luna smiled airily.
Mary smiled back. "Anyway, the first thing I knew of trouble was when we heard spells being cast and glass smashing, Harry and Sirius managed to get out of the Hall of Prophecies in time, but they were followed by Death Eaters. Then we fought."
Neville grinned menacingly. "Sirius cut off Bellatrix Lestrange's ear. It was brilliant!"
"Neville." Mary warned, but the Gryffindor just shrugged. "I don't know what happened at the end, but once we'd fought our way out to the Atrium once more having taken most of the Death Eaters hostage, Fudge was there with what looked like the entire Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
"And the press." Neville added.
"Aye, and the press." Mary explained. "I barely saw Dumbledore hand Harry and Sirius a portkey before he came over and made some for us, and then we were here."
"And I became busy at three o'clock in the morning." Madam Pomfrey muttered from Tonks' bed. She drew back the curtains and Leo noticed that her face was lined with worry. "Is everybody alright for a moment? I need to send an owl to London…"
"Go, Poppy." Mary nodded. "We'll be alright."
Madam Pomfrey nodded, briskly walking out of the room. Leo then sighed, leaning back in his chair but still keeping his hand in his mum's. "So whatever You-Know-Who wanted Harry there for… did we stop it?"
Mary just nodded. "Aye, we didn't lose."
"What was it?" Leo asked, intrigued. Mary looked uneasy at telling him, but thankfully Neville was tired enough not to see that unease and blurted it out.
"A prophecy." Neville explained, before his face fell into one of guilt. "I smashed… I mean, it smashed." He explained. "We don't know what it was, but it was something to do with Harry and You-Know-Who. Their names were on the label."
Leo felt more confused than ever. "All of this just to get his hands on a prophecy that he could have retrieved himself?"
"Voldemort's far too arrogant to do his own dirty work." A voice sounded from the doorway, and Leo turned with a grin as he saw Sirius standing there in the doorway.
"Shouldn't you be hiding?" Mary hissed.
Sirius simply shrugged. "Fudge is in disarray with Voldemort showing his ugly face, Dumbledore says he's used the commotion and has finally got me that trial he should have managed to sort out fourteen years ago. For now at the very least, I'm safe. The news should break tomorrow."
Leo grinned at the one bit of good news from the night. "So you'll be free soon?" He asked.
Sirius nodded, coming over to sit down next to Leo. "With any luck, depending on certain witnesses." He looked pointedly at Mary. Leo followed the gaze and noticed that her cheeks were pinker than before.
"Only if you're nice to me." Mary shrugged.
Sirius chuckled, before placing a hand on Leo's shoulder. "You did good today." Sirius said.
Shaking his head, Leo looked at his feet. "I didn't do anything; I wasn't even there."
"Listen to me." Sirius moved his hand to Leo's chin, lifting it up so that Sirius' grey eyes met Leo's own dark blue ones. "Your warning stopped us from going in blind. We could form a plan before Harry got there and you gave us the upper hand over the Death Eaters."
"But Mr Weasley still…" Leo trailed off.
"That isn't your fault." Sirius said softly his hands moving to stroke Leo's hair. "Arthur made his choice to protect his family and he died believing wholeheartedly in that choice. That's not on you. In fact, without you who knows what else would have happened, who else would have died."
It didn't make him feel any better, but Leo nodded all the same as he heard the words. "Are you staying here tonight?"
Sirius nodded. "I am. Your Mother needs to be kept in overnight and I think Poppy wants to check me over too. We'll see you after you've gotten some sleep, you look shattered."
He was shattered, and his eyes were starting to close of their own accord now that he knew those he cared about the most were safe, though his heart still ached for the Weasley's. Nodding, Leo rose to his feet. "I'll get a couple of hours and then come and see you." He explained.
Sirius nodded, rising to his feet as well. The pair stood there for a brief moment not knowing what to do until Leo broke the stand-off and moved in for a bit of an awkward hug. He leant over and kissed his mum on the cheek, then said bye to all those still awake in the Hospital Wing before making his way back up to the dormitory for some well-deserved rest.
It was lunchtime by the time Leo managed to wake up, and after getting changed and grabbing something quick to eat he made his way back to the Hospital Wing. It had changed in the few hours since dawn. Tonks and Moody were gone, their beds fully made up. Neville and Luna were also gone, whilst Leo's mum was just getting a final check-up from Madam Pomfrey.
"Leo." Sirius was the first to acknowledge his presence. "We've got to go and see Professor Dumbledore quickly, but we'll be back down in a bit, ok?"
Leo nodded. "Yeah, fine." He looked at where Mary had been injured, noticing only a thin purple line on her bare shoulder.
"You're good to go, Mary." Madam Pomfrey explained. "But make sure you drink a sip of this every four hours for three days." She handed her a large vial.
"I will, thank you Poppy." Mary smiled, before swooping towards Leo and kissing him on the cheek. "We'll be back soon, stay here?"
Leo nodded, turning to watch his parents walk out of the room. Once they had turned a corner Leo turned back and began to fold some things of his mum's up, placing them in a bag. His attention was grabbed by a voice further into the room however. "Leo."
Looking up he saw Hermione. Her eyes were red as if she'd been crying but she was sat up without looking too uncomfortable. Putting the folded clothes on the bed he walked around to the chair by Hermione's bed and sat down in it. "You're ok?" He asked, worriedly.
Hermione scoffed. "10 potions a day for as long as it takes and the memory of feeling like my insides were on fire…" She sighed. "But I'm better off than some." She sniffed again, threatening to cry. Leo conjured up some tissues and handed them to a grateful Hermione, who wiped her eyes and blue her nose. "I'm sorry we couldn't stop Harry… I did say we should have included you but he was adamant…"
"He may have had his reasons, but not letting me in shouldn't have been his decision to make." Leo stated bluntly.
"I think he forgets sometimes that Sirius has a child." Hermione explained. "We've not really spoken about third year much, have we?" Leo shook his head. "Well when the truth came to light and we realised he was innocent… Harry and Sirius had a moment between themselves. I was told later of course, but Sirius offered to let Harry move in with him when it was all settled because he's really the only parenting figure Harry has left. His aunt and uncle are terrible…" She caught herself and took a breath before going too deep into a tangent. "At the time we didn't know your link of course, and I think Harry took that idea to heart. Then obviously things happened and Sirius had to go on the run, but that future never truly left Harry, I don't think."
It honestly did explain a lot. "When did you find out?" He asked her, not remembering.
Hermione looked a little embarrassed. "I guessed just before school started. I was at headquarters for a while before Harry and I didn't think I could spend every waking minute with Ron without clawing my eyes out so I took some time and visited the Black library. Some of the books in there are awful by the way…" She was going off track again, but thankfully a look from Leo made her continue. "But anyway, I overheard some of the arguments between Sirius and your mum and I realised that they had some kind of a relationship before Azkaban, and after seeing Sirius looking slightly healthier again as well as knowing you for 5 years… I worked it out." She looked into his eyes. "You've inherited his dark eyes but have just enough blue to get away with it."
Leo felt himself blushing as he stared back into Hermione's own brown eyes. Clearing his throat nervously he was the one to break eye contact. "You could have told me." He mumbled awkwardly.
Hermione snorted amusedly, before wincing in pain. "Ow." She whispered but carried on speaking before Leo could make a fuss over her. "That would have gone well. 'Hello Leo, I know you don't know who your Father is but he's actually the fugitive Sirius Black, and also he isn't a murderer but a really nice guy'." She smirked. "What would you have thought to that?"
"That you were loopy." He admitted, grinning back. "Fair enough, I'll forgive you."
Hermione smiled. "I wasn't completely certain until we all found out together at Headquarters." She told him. "If that makes you feel better." It didn't, but he wasn't that fussed about exactly when she theorised it. It was nice chatting about anything to take his mind off of his anger at Harry. The conversation soon shifted to their exams, a topic which Leo protested until he was told that it would keep her mind off of the pain and so Leo indulged, explaining his reasoning behind his answers in History of Magic and debating different arguments before Hermione gasped suddenly. "I'm going to miss so many classes!"
Leo laughed aloud. "After everything you've been through you're worried about missing a week of classes where we won't even do anything?"
Hermione pouted. "We might get a start on next year…"
Leo shook his head. "Fifth years and seventh years get some time off after their exams. So all you need to worry about here is getting yourself better."
The unspoken grief following Mr Weasley's death was obvious at Hermione's face, but she nodded all the same. "Can you grab me some books for next year then? There should be some in the library." She asked. "If I'm going to be stuck here without any homework I may as well get a head start on some reading…"
Leo grinned at her eagerness. "Sure." He promised, hearing the door open behind him as he said it to reveal Mary gesturing for him to follow her. "I need to go, but I'll be back in a bit. Get a list together and I'll sort those books out for you."
"Thank you, Leo." Hermione smiled, placing her hand on top of his for a second before retracting it. "See you later."
He ended up taking a walk around the lake with his mother. Sirius had needed to go back to Grimmauld Place via the floo network so he wasn't flaunting his potential freedom too early, but Mary had immediately explained that he was already hard at work in preparing his case. Leo's main questions though, were on what was going to happen in the future.
"You-Know-Who won't be so stealthy now." Mary admitted worriedly after he had voiced his concerns. "We'll have to be careful, if being at the Ministry wasn't enough to have placed a target on my back then beating Mulciber will be."
Leo stopped walking, pulling his mum's arm back to stop her from moving too. "Are you sure you are ok with that? It's not an easy thing…" He trailed off.
Mary smiled. "My sweet boy." She moved her hand up to tuck his hair behind an ear. "I made my peace with it years ago. I'll never tell you that murder is acceptable, you know it isn't. But my intention wasn't to kill him no matter if I felt he deserved it for what he did to me, I was simply trying to protect Luna from him."
Leo nodded, but he made a mental note to keep checking up on her throughout the summer. "So what about the Order? If you aren't protecting the prophecy…"
"I can't tell you everything, Leo. You're still only sixteen." She sighed apologetically. "We'll keep doing whatever we can to fight against You-Know-Who and his followers. Hopefully, now that Fudge is about to publicly announce You-Know-Who's return, we can get back on the front foot." She kissed his cheek. "But please, enough dreary chatter. Talk to me about Hogwarts. How are Fay and Anna? I haven't seen them in a while. And Hermione, you two looked cosy in the Hospital Wing."
"Mum." Leo groaned. But he indulged her all the same as the MacDonald's tried to distract themselves with positivity.
Reviews:
MongoStomp910: He's survived this fight at least…
Balerion Blackspark: That was the idea! We all know the canon version of the fight so I wanted to sort of push that thought into your heads, only for the true outcome to be different.
AZW330: You've definitely been reading my things for too long you've got me perfectly! I never wanted Sirius to just be a Year 5 thing, but I'm not going to let a battle like that pass by without casualties.
SkepticPrinceArthur: 'The more things change, the more they stay the same' is an apt quote here. Death still hits the Department of Mysteries, but the changes to the timeline just shift it around.
Lightningscar: 2B seems to fit the most, but Leo won't forgive Harry easily. Sirius in this universe has been a dad properly, even if it was only for a year before that fateful Halloween, but that instinct is in him, and as he's just got back in contact with his son he doesn't want to risk that.