Hello! We're back again! Woohoo! Well for the first time in a while I've managed to write a chapter I can safely say that I am completely , genuinely happy with. Go me!

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Chapter Thirty-One

By Rosa241

Percy POV:

The variety of colours around the room makes me smile. It seems like it's been years since we've done this, years since we've sat around together and just been a family. In this timeline it's been only a few months but for me it's been far longer.

"I'm serious we're going to be over run one of these days." Dad shakes his head at mums words but says nothing as mum goes on. Ever since this morning when she'd found a rogue gnome wandering round in the snow she'd been ranting. Usually in this weather they all disappeared so now she was worried. It was just like mum.

"How did you even get away with that?" Charlie whispers to Fred and George who break out into identical grins. I make a point of ignoring whatever they're talking about, if I don't know what it is then I can't be grilled about it when mum inevitably finds out. Plausible deniability.

Across from me Ron is talking Harrys ear off about something I've missed. Looking at Harry it seems strange to see him so care free. I suppose I've gotten so used to seeing him so serious in the other timeline that I'm not yet used to it. The smile that had graced his lips this morning when he'd woken had remained in place all day long. As my eyes drift downwards I find a smile crossing my own lips as I catch sight of the 'H' on his jumper. We were all wearing them. It's a family tradition of course one I'd never held much love of before. Now though…

"Percy back me up here." Bills words bring me out of my thoughts and back to the topic of conversation.

"Sorry what was that?" Rolling his eyes Bill sets about explaining the argument he and George were currently engaged in.

It's much later that night, long after the others had gone to sleep, that I find myself pulled into a surprise hug.

"What?" Bill's always been the hugger of the family and so it shouldn't surprise me that he's the one whose wrapped his arms around me. It does however. The family had long since worked out that I wasn't comfortable with the amount of physical contact that sometimes went on.

"Had a conversation with dad before." Oh. I had a feeling that dad wouldn't be keeping our conversation entirely to himself. He'd worked out at a long time ago that Bill had a habit of getting us to open up. Partly because he was a stubborn idiot but also because he was our older brother. Sometimes it was easier to open up to him than it was to talk to mum and dad.

"And he told you what exactly?" From the way that his face falls I can tell that dad had told him exactly what I didn't want him to.

"Why didn't you talk to me?" That right there is why I didn't want dad to talk to him. He's already blaming himself. "Why didn't you tell me how you felt?"

"Because…because I didn't want to think about it. I just thought that if I ignored how I felt then it would eventually go away. It didn't." I assumed I'd be having this conversation at some point this Christmas but not quite today. "I just wanted to ignore that fact that I felt so different. I wanted to forget about it because if I didn't think about it then it wasn't a problem and if I didn't talk about it then no one could tell me that it was true."

"You should have told me. I could have helped." Bill this isn't your fault.

"Or you could have told me that it was true and that something was wrong with me." The hurt is evident on his face and it's clear that he's not happy with my words.

"Wait you actually thought that I'd say that?" For a while I did. For a while I really thought that if I ever admitted to how I felt then someone would just tell me that everything was true. "Perce…"

"Back then yeah, I did. Back then I really thought that if I ever admitted to how I felt then I'd just be told that it was true and…" Trailing off I find it's harder to admit this than I thought. I've had years to wrap my head around this but it still hurts. "I know that's wrong now. I know that I had everything backwards. If I'd told you how I felt then you'd have gone out of your way to make me see I was wrong."

"Too right. There's nothing wrong with you and there never will be." He spends the next hour trying desperately to convince me of something that I'd come to terms with long ago and I let him. He needs to do this.

By the time we finally head upstairs to bed it's long past midnight and, despite knowing that I'll be exhausted in the morning, I don't care. Drifting away from Bill and Charlie hurt far worse than anything else. I'd always been closer to them than I had the others. Loosing them had been hell.

I won't lose them this time.

Harry POV:

"Alright boys time for bed." Mr Weasley says as Ron yawns once more. Truth be told I'm struggling to keep my eyes open myself but even still I can't help feeling disappointed. I've never really liked Christmas before and I never understood why people were so eager for it to arrive. Then again if every Christmas was like this then I wouldn't be able to wait a full year for it to arrive either.

Saying our good nights Ron and I begin to make our way up to bed when Mr Weasley speaks again.

"Harry? Could we have a quick word?" Worry spikes through me as it always does when an adult wants to speak to me alone. What did I do wrong?

"Now dear we have something we want to ask you." Ask me what? "We received a letter yesterday from a Mr Black. He said he was your god father."

Sirius?

Why did Sirius want to speak to them?

"What did he say?" Despite my fear of speaking to adults I find it hard to keep quiet right now. The two of them share a look before Mrs Weasley speaks again.

"Well dear. He was writing to us to ask permission to come and see you." What!? Sirius wants to come and see me!? He really wants to?

"Really?" The hope inside me ignites and I find it hard to stop the smile that crosses my face.

"Yes dear. Well we talked about it and we came to a decision." Please don't say no. Please don't say no. "If you want to see him then we'll be happy for him to come and visit."

"Yes! Yes I want to see him." They both smile before ushering me off up to bed.

As I lie in bed that night I find it hard to sleep. The memories I've got from today would have been enough to last a lifetime and the happiness within me is more than enough that I could have ever hoped for. This day was special and the most amazing day that I've ever had. I honestly didn't think it could get any better.

Now Sirius wants to see me.

He's actually going to come and see me.

I don't know when yet but I already can't wait.

He wants to see me.

Sirius POV:

"I'm worried." It's not the first time he's said that in the last few days and I can't help but echo the sentiment.

"I know. The ministry wouldn't be getting involved if they weren't genuinely worried about Harry. If they didn't have genuine concerns they wouldn't have sent her round here." Since Miss Montgomerys visit we've gone over and over what could have happened but so far we have no real thoughts on what could have happened. So far all we know is that it has something to do with his Aunt and Uncle.

"I went round there once." That's new. "I wanted to see him but after I mentioned Lily and James they turned me away. I never had the courage to go back."

"Why not?" Why wouldn't he go back to see him? What would stop him?

"I felt guilty of course. I couldn't understand why I hadn't seen it, why things had gone so wrong. I blamed myself and when they turned me away I thought they did too. If I'd gone back…" He trails off and I can sense the guilt pouring out of him.

"Then they'd have turned you away again. If they didn't want you to see him then they wouldn't have allowed it either way." He knows this, I know that he does, but right now his guilt is over taking his common sense.

"If I'd fought then-" Sensing where this is going I quickly cut him off. He isn't allowed to blame himself.

"Then the ministry would have turned you down. There is no way that they'd have allowed a werewolf to take care of a child let alone Harry Potter." He winces as I speak and as harsh as it sounds he knows it's the truth. There is no way that they'd ever have allowed him to take care of Harry.

"If you hadn't been locked up for something you didn't do then they'd have allowed you to become his legal guardian." Yet again another thing I have to blame that coward for.

As we descend into quiet a small tapping gets our focus. Looking towards the window a familiar owl is fluttering against the glass with a letter between it's beak.

"Its from them." Remus says as he hands the letter to me. With shaking hands I carefully unfold the letter and take in the words in front of me. "Well?" My friend says after several moments of silence.

"They want us to come and see him the day after tomorrow." Relief, hope and happiness flow through me all at once.

I'm going to see him.

I'm going to see Harry.

Awww! Fluff! It's been a while since I introduced this plot line and finally we're at the right point where they can meet. Yay!

Until next time,

Bye x