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batsutousaiTitle: Nose to the Wind
Series: Like a Ghost in My Town
Fandom: Harry Potter
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: Teen
Pairing: Harry Potter/Lord Voldemort, James Potter/Lily Potter
Warnings: AU, violence, universe hopping/rebirth, Dark!Harry, werewolf!Harry, underage relationship (ish)
Summary: While Harry had been content with his second chance, that didn't keep him from thinking what he could have done different, how many people could have survived if he hadn't been set on the very specific path he'd walked. Third time is the charm, though, right?
A/N: For ages at the start of this chapter, Harry is 11. (Will is 9 and Chris is 7.)
Cross-posted to Archive of Our Own and LiveJournal.
Chapter Twelve – The Heart Yearns
-0-
Voldemort kept quiet in all the ways, following Harry's birthday, and Harry determined that he really didn't fucking care. (He did, but he'd had more than enough practise at pretending the dark lord didn't bother him.) He cared even less when he started at the local secondary – he'd had the option to board at a better school, but had insisted he'd rather stay at home, despite being told he'd have better luck with some of the courses he wanted to take if he went elsewhere – because it was one adventure he'd never had before. There were a number of students he'd never met before, as they'd gone to a different primary, and there was a very different air than Hogwarts, between it not being a boarding school and there being no magic.
As the holidays approached, however, Harry realised he wasn't sure what to do about Voldemort's birthday. He'd never actually been angry with the dark lord, per se, and his disappointment had always been second to a sense of resignation, so he saw no reason to avoid passing on the copies of Inventio Fortunata and Itinerarium that he'd managed to hunt down and repair, with help from those in the Realm of Death. But he couldn't guarantee that Voldemort would accept the gift.
Right. And when had that stopped Harry?
But should he leave a note on them? What would he even write? 'I think you're an inconsiderate jerk, but I'm not going to hold it against you'?
"What would you write to let him know you still love him, even though you want to beat his head against the nearest brick wall?" he asked Merope one evening.
She sighed, having made it clear that she thought they were both being children (though she was actually on Harry's side in the debate, he knew). "You could just talk to him."
"I could commit suicide, too," Harry replied agreeably, flashing her a bright smile.
Merope just gave him an unimpressed look.
Harry slumped back against the boulder that had appeared for him to lean back against when he sat down. "I know. But all of my experience with Tom says that, if I come to him, he's going to think he's won."
"And this gift isn't coming to him?" Merope asked.
Harry snorted. "Not if I leave a note saying I still think he's wrong."
Merope sighed again and shook her head. "Is it too much to ask that you two actually be happy together?" she complained.
Harry wrapped his arms around his knees and hugged them to his chest. "Wouldn't that be nice?" he whispered, closing his eyes.
Merope shifted closer after a moment, wrapping one arm around his shoulders and drawing him into a hug. "You could be less stubborn," she murmured.
Harry laughed. "Have you met me?"
She let out a helpless sounding laugh into his hair. "Yes," she admitted.
Harry turned his face into her shoulder, taking a deep breath of the cold death that made up her being. "I miss him," he whispered, his voice so very small, it should have been embarrassing.
"I know," Merope whispered back, and it was as cold a comfort as her hug, but at least there was one person in his life – save Death – who understood exactly how hurt Harry was by the whole mess.
Harry was up first thing on the fourteenth of December, making breakfast for everyone before they'd even begun to rouse. When Lily finally made it downstairs, James not far behind, she laughed. "Harry, the train doesn't get in until the evening."
Harry fluttered his fingers at her, which had James laughing. "I know that. You think I don't know that? I'm allowed to be excited about making a new friend. Jeez, Mum."
"You know," James commented as he sat at his usual spot at the table, where there was already a plate for him, "for all we know, this girl is an absolute horror. I mean, all we know is her name."
Harry snorted and dropped into his own seat with a plate.
James' eyes narrowed. "Have you been snooping where your nose doesn't belong?" he demanded, while Lily muffled a laugh.
Harry put on his over-the-top innocent face, the one he knew made it clear he was hiding something. "I'm sure I've no earthly idea what you mean by that."
"He's been snooping again," James said to Lily.
Harry snorted again and twirled his fork around in the air a bit as he swallowed. "Oh, please. My nose hasn't been anywhere, I just happen to know people who have nothing to do all day but spy around Hogwarts. Which is how I know she's a Ravenclaw. However," he continued, feeling his mood drop at the reminder of the news he'd heard of Hermione struggling in a school that wasn't fond of muggleborns, "she doesn't have many friends. Too attached to proving her knowledge, at the start, made her very unpopular with all of the other students. Professor Flitwick did finally get her to tone it down a bit, just before Halloween, but the damage'd already been done."
"Oh dear," Lily murmured, brows furrowed.
James cleared his throat, his own expression gloomy. "Sounds like she needs a friend," he commented.
Harry nodded. "Yeah. And a place to get away from it all for a while."
"I think we can provide that much," James decided, his voice determined, and Harry smiled at him, grateful.
Sirius arrived shortly after Will and Chris finally made it downstairs, and while James went to update Sirius about Hermione, Harry stepped up next to Lily at the sink, holding out a hand for the plate she'd just finished washing. "So, heard anything from Secret?" he murmured.
Lily glanced back towards the door to the living room, where James and Sirius were talking, and sighed. "No," she admitted, picking out the next plate in the stack. "I don't expect we will until Monday, honestly."
"I know," Harry admitted with a shrug. "It's why I gave him a full year."
Lily shot him an amused look. "Of course you did."
Harry smirked. "Don't start with me; you haven't warned him one of his students is staying with us, I bet."
"He's perfectly capable of looking for our name on the list," Lily insisted.
"Not that he would."
Lily sucked in her lips in that way that said she was suppressing a smile. "Pretty much."
Harry laughed.
There was a minor debate about who would be going to King's Cross, when it came time to leave, because Lily and Remus weren't certain it was a good idea to overwhelm Hermione, but Will and Chris were determined to come along, and Remus was the only one who was willing to stay home with them.
For his part, Harry just watched the whole drama from behind a book he'd given up reading when the debate started. No one had bothered asking what he wanted to do, though he expected Lily and James had resigned themselves to his presence as soon as they'd found him making breakfast that morning.
Eventually, however, Lily gave in, throwing up her hands and calling, "Fine! But, if you lot scare her off, I will not be held accountable!"
"She's got to get used to them eventually," James pointed out while Harry got up, keeping his book just because he expected Hermione would find comfort in someone who was carrying a book around with them.
Lily rounded on her husband and shoved a finger against his chest hard enough that he stumbled back a step. "You're half the problem!"
"Only half?" Sirius muttered, and James shoved him.
Harry snorted. "We're going to be late, at this rate," he commented.
That organised matters fairly quickly, and Harry ended up apparating with Remus. "This family," Remus muttered as soon as they'd appeared at King's Cross, the two of them quickly stepping out of the designated apparation zone.
"Don't look at me," Harry replied, quietly enough that only Remus' advanced hearing could have picked it up under the surrounding noise of tens of families, "I wasn't the one that picked them." Then he raised an eyebrow at his godfather.
Remus snorted. "True enough."
"Where are we supposed to wait?" Lily asked, coming up behind them, James and Chris a half-step behind.
"This way," James offered as Sirius and Will apparated in, motioning towards where a handful of families were already waiting, two aurors standing off to the side.
When they reached them, the aurors both offered smiles to James, who was in the lead. "Brought in all the troops, eh, James?" one of them commented.
James grinned and tipped them a wink. "The kids refused to stay behind, and we didn't have the heart to force them."
"Kids," one of them said knowingly. "Well, gather with the group, then. Are you picking anyone save a muggleborn up?"
"Nah," James replied with a shrug. "Couple years yet before that'll happen."
"I thought you had a kid who's Hogwarts' age," the other auror chimed in, frowning.
James' eyes glanced to the side, uncertain, and Harry snorted. "He does, but I'm a squib," he offered, unashamed, before poking James' side. "We're in the way, and the train's coming."
"Right. Gents," James offered, tipping his head to the two aurors, who both looked a little uncertain. Once they were settled off to one side of the crowd, James gave Harry a helpless look. "Really?"
Harry raised an eyebrow at his father. "I refuse to be this family's dirty little secret. Well," he added, grimacing, when Sirius snorted behind him, "not for that."
"You turn 'dirty little secret' into an art form, pup," Sirius teased, ruffling Harry's hair.
Harry rolled his eyes.
The train pulled in and everyone fell quiet as the brakes squealed it to a stop, then the doors flew open. Pureblood and halfblood students poured off first, going immediately to their families. As those not waiting for a muggleborn cleared out, the elder muggleborns started stepping off. They gave their name to the aurors at the head of the group, and the aurors called the family forward, though most of the families clearly knew when their student stepped off.
Finally, it was down to four other families and the Potters – the Malfoys, Boneses, Notts, and Parkinsons – and Harry wondered how much snarling Voldemort had been required to do to get his Death Eaters to put their names in. He also wondered who'd been forced to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays or had chosen not to attend, because he'd felt certain there'd been more than five muggleborns in his year.
Hermione, Hannah Abbott, Terry Boot, Kevin Entwhistle, and Justin Finch-Fletchley were the students who stepped forward to meet them, Hermione struggling with a trunk that was clearly too heavy for her to manage alone, while the others all only had knapsacks. Hannah went with the Bones family, which Harry was glad for, recalling that she and Susan had been friends in his first reality; Terry ended up with the Notts; Kevin with the Parkinsons; and Justin with the Malfoys.
Death, Harry thought as he watched the pair-ups, please have someone keep an eye on Justin, Kevin, and Terry for me.
"Consider it done, Master," Death promised, and he couldn't quite suppress his grateful smile.
"Potters," the more talkative auror called, and they stepped forward to meet with Hermione, who looked so worn down, Harry's heart ached. "This is Hermione Granger. Miss Granger, these are James and Lily Potter and their family. They'll be your host family for the holidays."
"I understand," Hermione replied in a monotone.
"Thanks, Mark, Andrew," James offered to the aurors while Lily stepped forward.
"Hello, Hermione," Lily said, a hopeful smile on her face. "My name is Lily, but you're welcome to call me Mrs Potter, if you'd prefer."
Hermione looked up at her, eyes tired. "Yes'm, Mrs Potter."
Lily's brow furrowed and she glanced around the near-empty station, then sighed. "Why don't we do introductions at home?" she suggested, and Will and Chris both groaned.
"Stop it," Harry ordered, giving his brothers unimpressed looks, and using Atlantean in a purposeful bid to catch Hermione's interest. "This is hardly the best place to be trading about with names, anyway. Go on."
"Harry," Lily called, disapproving. "English."
Harry flashed her a smile, which widened when he saw interest in Hermione's eyes. "Sorry, Mum," he sing-songed as he stepped over to Remus, and his brothers both stifled giggles.
Remus shook his head, but took his hand and apparated them back to the Potters' house without comment.
Once everyone was in the living room, and Hermione had shaken off her first brush with apparation, Lily gently touched her shoulder. "Hermione, this is James, or Mr Potter, that's Sirius–"
"Who refuses to be a 'Mr' anything, thanks," Sirius called, a winning smile splitting his face.
"–or Mr Black," Lily continued, as if Sirius hadn't spoken, "and that's Remus, or Mr Lupin. Remus and Sirius don't live here, but they visit often, so you'll see them a lot. And then these are my sons, Harry, Will, and Chris."
Hermione looked around at them all, looking very uncertain. "Hello," she offered quietly.
Harry stepped forward, an easy smile on his face. "Hey. Want me to show you where to put your things?"
"We can help, too!" Will called out, catching a hand on Harry's shoulder and jumping behind him, waving one hand wildly. "Me and Chris–"
"Chris and I," Harry, Lily, and Remus chorused.
"Me and Chris," Will stressed, sticking his tongue out when Harry looked back at him, amused.
Hermione let out a startled laugh, then clapped a hand over her mouth, looking uncertain.
Harry grinned at her and motioned towards her trunk. "Want me to get that?"
"Oh, it's a bit, uhm–" Hermione started before Will dashed forward and grabbed the nearest end. He tried to tug on it, only to let out a strained noise and let go.
"What do you have in there?" he complained.
Hermione flushed. "Books."
"Scoot," Harry ordered, and Will quickly got out of the way. He tapped the trunk with his finger, ordering, "Wheels," and they popped out the other end, then picked it up with only a little difficulty. "You might consider investing in a feather-light charm," he commented as he started towards the stairs.
"I–" Hermione shook her head and followed after him, Will and Chris bringing up the rear. "It broke."
"Shoddy work, then," Harry guessed. "We'll have Mum apply a new one before you go back to Hogwarts; she's an ace with charms work."
"People used to pay her to charm things," Will agreed.
"I'd appreciate that," Hermione admitted.
"Why do you have a trunk?" Chris asked quietly. "I didn't see any others."
"This is you," Harry called back as he stepped into the room set up for Hermione. Lily had charmed the walls a light blue that afternoon, while the bed was done with pastel purple linens.
"Oh," Hermione whispered, stopping in the doorway and staring around at the room. "It's...It's..." And then she started to cry.
Will and Chris sent Harry panicked looks from behind her, clearly at a loss of what to do for a crying girl, since Ginny had punched Will the last time he'd tried to comfort her when she'd been crying. Which, well, Harry and Ron had both told Will to leave her alone, but he'd been determined to help.
Harry stepped forward and touched Hermione's shoulders. "Hey," he whispered, ducking his head so he could meet her eyes, "you're welcome here, okay? Whatever crap is going on at Hogwarts, whatever horror stories you were told to make you expect the worst? Forget it. We want you here. You're home."
Hermione pushed forward into Harry's arms and clung to him, crying into his shirt. And Harry wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes, unspeakably relieved to have one of his best friends back.
"Thank you," she whispered after a while, finally pulling away and wiping roughly at her eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm just–"
"It's rough," Harry offered quietly, "trying to be enough in a world that already looks down on you because of the circumstances of your birth."
Hermione blinked at him. "Y-Yeah."
Harry smiled. "I'm a squib," he explained. "Mum and Dad are pretty cool about it, but I'm not much accepted in the wizarding world."
Hermione frowned and glanced towards her trunk. "A...squib?" she asked, clearly unfamiliar with the word, and Harry couldn't help but wonder what all was being left out of books, with Voldemort in control. (Although, for all he knew, she hadn't known what that was in their first year during his first life, either.)
"Harry can't perform magic," Will explained.
Hermione looked over her shoulder at Will and Chris before hurriedly stepping further into her room, so they could stop hovering in the doorway. Then she seemed to realise what Will had said, because she turned horrified eyes on Harry. "You can't do magic?"
Harry shrugged. "I can make potions and ride brooms and the such, and I've a mystery benefactor who gave me a wand with some useful spells that Mum and Dad have to recharge occasionally, but, yeah–" he spread his arms "–I'll never go to Hogwarts."
Hermione covered her mouth, her eyes filling with tears again. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
Harry shook his head. "It's fine." He allowed a wry smile. "Okay, it's really not, but I'm resigned. I've had eleven years to get used to the idea."
"You'd be in my year?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah."
"Dad's afraid Harry'd be a Slytherin," Will insisted. "He says it's for the best we'll never know."
Harry pinned his brother with an unamused look. "I really hope you end up in Slytherin, just because you said that."
"I am going to be a Gryffindor," Will insisted, which was a complete switch-up from a few years ago, but he'd been flipping back and forth for a few years now, in all honesty.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Merlin save me from a family of lions."
Hermione let out a startled laugh. "Well," she offered with a small smile when they all looked over at her, "I'm a Ravenclaw, if that helps?"
"Salvation from the heavens!" Harry declared.
"Aww, eagles aren't that awesome," Will insisted.
"William," Harry said, giving his brother a disapproving look.
"Erm, no offence, Hermione," Will added, glancing towards her.
Hermione shook her head, clearly more amused that insulted. "It's okay." She sighed, looking tired again. "Honestly, there are a lot of not-so-great kids in my House. I should have taken the Hat up on the offer to be in Gryffindor."
Harry shrugged. "I don't know exactly what the problem is, but I don't expect being in Gryffindor would help all that much. Like I said, it's hard fitting in when everyone's already prepared to dislike you."
Hermione slumped. "I guess." She shook her head. "Professor Flitwick – that's the head of Ravenclaw, he teaches charms – said that I was trying too hard. That I should have just kept my head down."
"Maybe," Harry allowed.
"It worked for Terry and Kevin," she added.
Harry bit his lip and shrugged.
"Well, you shouldn't have any of that trouble here," Will insisted.
"Yeah!" Chris chipped in, looking hopeful. "Tell us more about Hogwarts?"
Hermione smiled. "You've never been, have you?"
"Well..." Will looked uncertainly towards the doorway.
Harry snorted. "They're still downstairs," he told his brother before looking at Hermione and lowering his voice to explain, "Mum and Headmaster Snape are friends, and she took us to visit him at the castle one year, over the holiday. Chris didn't get to see much, but Will and I went exploring. So, we know what the castle looks like, but not really anything about the people."
"And we can't tell Dad about Secret," Will added, keeping his own voice down and glancing towards the doorway again.
Harry nodded and explained, "Headmaster Snape and Dad really don't get on, so he only comes when Dad's at work. Dad doesn't know we've ever met him, even."
Hermione shook her head. "That's... Why doesn't your dad get on with the headmaster, do you know? I mean, he's never seemed particularly nice, but if he and your mum are friends..." she said, matching her volume to theirs.
"It's...complicated," Harry admitted, grimacing. "There was a rivalry in school, and it involved Mum somehow. I don't really know the details."
"Dad starts calling Secret names when he gets brought up, and Mum doesn't like talking about it, so we've never heard the whole story," Chris said, shrugging.
Hermione nodded. "Okay. So, don't bring up the headmaster around your dad. Got it."
"Or Uncle Sirius," Will suggested with a knowing nod. "And Uncle Remus gets really quiet when he gets brought up, but he doesn't start calling Secret names."
"Yes, welcome to the Potter family drama," Harry commented drily. "Let us know when you feel the need to run like hell in the other direction."
Hermione choked out a laugh.
"Boys!" Lily called up. "Hermione! Dinner!"
Will and Chris ran for it without further prompting, but Harry stopped in the doorway, looking back towards where Hermione was looking around her new room with a mix of sorrow and gratitude in her eyes. "Hermione?" he asked quietly after a moment.
She glanced up at him. "Oh, sorry. You didn't have to wait for me," she offered as she joined him.
"I wanted to," Harry admitted, because he knew how nice it was to actually have someone care enough to hang back.
Hermione smiled at him, wholly grateful. "Thanks."
Harry smiled back and led the way down to the kitchen.
Sunday was spent getting Hermione settled in. Lily was happy to cast a lightening charm on her trunk, while James helpfully suggested they could look into buying her a better one. Hermione turned him down, though she did look tempted at the mention of an extra compartment just for books. By the look that passed between Lily and James, Harry suspected he knew exactly what Hermione would be getting for Christmas that year.
She did unpack some things, and Will was happy to comment on each book she pulled out. There followed a great deal of "Harry/Mum has that," until Hermione finally snapped, "Is there anything your family doesn't have?!"
"Possibly," Will agreed, undaunted.
"Will," Harry called from their bedroom, where he'd been working on his holiday homework, "if you don't stop being a pest, I'm telling Mum you volunteered to wash the dishes for the next month."
"That's not even a little fair!" Will complained.
"What language is that?" Hermione asked.
Will was quiet for a moment, and Harry could just imagine the uncertain look on his face while he tried to decide whether he should try keeping it a secret or not. "Atlantean," he said finally.
"Atlantean? What, from Atlantis, or something?" Hermione asked with a laugh. After a beat, she sucked in a breath. "No. Really? Atlantis exists?"
"Existed," Will corrected. "It sank. No one knows where it is."
Harry had already hidden away his collection of Atlantean books, unwilling to leave them out as a puzzle piece for Hermione, but he couldn't help glancing over his bookcase anyway, checking to make sure he hadn't missed any.
"But, so, what? It's a dead language?"
"A...what?" Will asked, sounding vaguely panicked. "Harry!"
Harry sighed and rubbed a hand over his face before setting his things down and walking next door to Hermione's room. Will was lying on her bed, leaning over the footboard, where he had a good view of her sorting attempts in the floor, but he was currently staring towards the doorway, clearly freaking out at the casual mention of death in relation to the language he'd received from the being. "A dead language is what you call one that is no longer spoken," he explained. "It may, actually, be more correct to call Atlantean an extinct language, however, as there remains no written forms of the language, and all of its speakers died in the tsunami that sank the city."
Hermione blinked at him. "Right. And you know it...how?"
It was probably a good thing she was so focussed on Harry, because Will clearly had no good answer to that.
Harry shrugged. "Haven't the faintest. I've always known it, and I taught Will and Chris, so they're nearly as fluent. Mum and Dad have picked up a bit, over the years, but they don't speak it."
"They barely understand it," Will added, grinning widely, and Harry had to resist the urge to roll his eyes.
"You have a secret language," Hermione deadpanned, looking unimpressed.
Harry sighed. "It got us through my starting primary," he admitted. "And I did help Mum and Dad some, fixing up the dictionary they'd been building, but, yeah, it's always been something just for us."
"I see," Hermione said, looking back toward her trunk.
Harry raised an eyebrow at Will, then looked towards Hermione. Will scowled and shook his head, so Harry raised his other eyebrow, putting on his disappointed face.
Will slumped. "Do you want to learn?" he asked Hermione, and Harry turned away to hide a victorious smile.
Hermione startled. "What? You want–? You're willing–?"
"Yeah," Will agreed, and it sounded like he was warming to the idea.
"Really?" Hermione whispered, sounding so very hopeful.
"Absolutely," Harry agreed, offering her a smile over his shoulder. "We can probably even teach you the alphabet, which is different from the Latin one English uses, and you can start coding your class notes."
Hermione made a face. "Why would I want to do that?"
Harry flashed her a grin that was just shy of too toothy. "You mean, you don't want the chance to snub any purebloods who think they can use your notes to study because they're too lazy to take their own?"
Hermione's eyes widened, then she smiled a mean little smile back. "Now that you mention it..." she agreed.
Will jumped off her bed with a snicker. "Let me get my key!"
Harry rolled his eyes as his brother dashed past him. "As if I can't just write a new one."
"Are you sure?" Hermione asked quietly, and when Harry looked at her, he found the same broken confidence he'd seen in her when she got off the train.
He stepped forward and knelt in front of her. "I've always been happy to share Atlantean," he admitted quietly. "But when I taught Will to distract him from my being gone all day, he decided it was something just for us and Chris. He offered, and he might drag his feet a bit, but he'll keep to it. So, yeah, I'm sure."
Hermione swallowed and rubbed at her eyes. "You would have been too nice for Slytherin," she told him.
Harry's smile turned sad. "No," he replied, getting back up as Will dashed back into the room. "I'm afraid I would have fit right in." Then he turned and left Hermione to his brother's less than tender teaching methods.
With Hermione new to the household, no one had questioned Lily taking the whole week off.
"You know, Mum," Harry commented after James had left for work Monday morning, "you're going to run out of reasons to stay home one of these days."
Lily snorted. "One of you can start breaking limbs."
"Make Harry do it!" Will called from where he was correcting Hermione's attempts at translating something he'd written in Atlantean. "He'll heal faster!"
"True enough," Harry agreed. "If I break a leg, I can even stay in the living room and read for Secret's entire visit."
"On second thought," Lily muttered, and all three boys snickered.
"Why would you heal so fast?" Hermione asked, peering at him like she was wondering if she could dissect his every secret with only her eyes.
Harry smiled at her. "I'm wereborn, a werewolf. Means I'm born a squib, but I get accelerated healing, excellent senses, and a second form, as a trade-off."
Hermione blinked. "You're a werewolf?" she asked, her tone saying she wasn't sure how she felt about that.
Harry shot her a sharp-toothed smile.
"Oh my God," Hermione breathed, and she sounded more intrigued than anything else. "What else can you do?"
A knock came on the front door. "Not while Sev is here," Lily ordered as she got up to get the door.
"Secret doesn't like werewolves," Will offered quietly.
Hermione shot Harry an uncertain look and he snorted. "He knows. It freaks him out a little bit, but he's pretty good about it. Unless I'm showing off."
"Hello, Severus," they all heard Lily say. "And Barty!"
"Hello, Mrs Potter," Barty replied uncertainly.
"Professor Crouch?" Hermione squeaked. "I thought you said it was just going to be the headmaster!"
Harry flashed her a mean little smile. "Whoops."
"Lily is fine," Lily said as she moved out of the way and they stepped inside. She shut the door behind them, adding, "Oh, I don't know if you saw, Sev, but James–"
Severus let out a disgusted sound that had Harry's brothers hiding smiles while Hermione's eyes widened.
"–and I added our names to the list of families willing to take on a muggleborn for the holidays. So one of your students is over."
"Of course you did," Severus said with a resigned sigh. "And you couldn't be bothered to warn me in advance."
"Five years, Severus," Lily shot back. "You had to be blackmailed into telling me you were sleeping with someone."
"Oh my God," Hermione breathed, connecting the dots like only she could.
Harry leant back in his chair, fully enjoying everything.
"Should we just–" Barty started.
"Absolutely not! You're coming in so I can grill you."
"Lily!" Severus complained, sounding more like a child caught out by his mum, than Hogwarts' headmaster.
"This is gold," Harry breathed, and Chris muffled a giggle into his hand next to him.
There was a momentary silence from the living room, then Severus let out a resigned sigh. "They're in the kitchen."
"You were early," Lily replied, entirely unapologetic.
Severus' footsteps sounded against the carpet in the living room for a moment before he appeared in the doorway. "Miss Granger," he offered, his game-face on. "Will, Chris, Harry."
"Morning, Secret!" Will chirped, his eyes dancing.
"Good morning, Headmaster," Hermione whispered, wide-eyed.
Severus sighed again. "I expect you're capable of holding your tongue about anything you happen to learn in this house, Miss Granger."
"Yes, sir."
Harry slipped out of his chair. "Right!" he called. "Time to get dressed and head on outside so the adults can discuss all the sordid details that we're far too young for."
"What are sordid details?" Will asked while he, Hermione, and Chris all got up.
Hermione flushed. "Just walk, Will."
Harry let them get ahead of him, quirking a smile when he heard Hermione trade embarrassed greetings with Barty Crouch Jr. "She doesn't know," he commented to Severus as he stopped next to him. "I'd like to keep it that way, for a while, at least."
"Reasonable," Severus replied quietly. "You don't know how loyal she is."
Harry shook his head. "The sad truth of being a muggleborn in Hogwarts, is that their loyalty is easy to win, if only you're willing to show a little kindness."
"That's not my doing," Severus promised.
"I know," Harry agreed. "It's the sickness of our world." He shook his head. "At least she's allowed to learn." Then he continued on, smiling when he found his mum and Barty standing just outside the doorway. "Play nice, Mum," he offered cheerfully, before heading upstairs to change into outdoors-appropriate clothing.
Lily laughed behind him, while Barty let out a vaguely worried sound.
Once they'd all got outside and were started towards where the Potter boys usually met with their muggle friends, Hermione shook her head and declared, "That was so awkward!"
Harry snickered. "You realise they're going to stay through lunch, at least."
Hermione closed her eyes a bit helplessly. "Good-bye, Outstanding. It was nice knowing you for that single brief moment."
"Don't be so dramatic," Harry ordered, catching her by the elbow when she stumbled over a bit of crooked pavement. "Mum will make them both miserable if she finds out Barty's grading you down because you know something about his private life."
"Your mum's a little bit scary," Hermione admitted.
"You have no idea," Will insisted.
"She's scarier than Voldemort!" Chris agreed.
Hermione let out a startled noise and stopped walking, staring at Chris like he'd said something vile. "You're not supposed to say his name!" she hissed.
Chris and Will both turned to Harry, and he shrugged. "You're not," he admitted, "but Mum and Dad have never been willing to muck about calling him the dark lord or You Know Who or whatever, so they've always called him Voldemort. Though," he added while his brothers nodded in understanding and Hermione continued to stare in disbelief at the casual use of Voldemort's chosen name, "Mum does tend to call him the dark lord while Severus is over, since it makes him twitchy when she doesn't."
"Your parents have a death wish," Hermione breathed.
Harry shook his head. "No, not really. See, when the war was nearing the end, Voldemort offered amnesty and a promise of future protection to anyone who'd been opposing him who came forward and promised to stop fighting. Mum and Dad and Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus all took the offer, so they're safe. He doesn't like their lack of deference, but he didn't do anything about it when we saw him at Hogwarts that one time."
"Your mum called him his name to his face?" Hermione whispered, looking very much like a stiff wind would knock her over.
Harry and his brothers all nodded. "He didn't look very happy," Will added, "but he didn't say anything. He even offered to let us use the carriage he was taking, so we didn't have to walk all the way up to the castle." He glanced towards Harry, his expression falling. "He was really nice."
"He has his moments," Harry agreed quietly in Atlantean.
"You're all completely barking," Hermione declared before hooking her elbow with Harry's. "Come on, show me to these other friends of yours so I can get away before I catch something."
Harry laughed. "I think it's too late for you."
"Shut up," Hermione ordered, but her eyes were bright and she was clearly trying to suppress a smile.
And Harry... Well, he was so unspeakably happy to see Hermione looking so alive.
Lunch, when they all trooped back inside, was quite awkward to start, Hermione uncertain how to act around her professors, said professors equally uncertain about how to hold themselves in front of the mixed group. Harry finally rolled his eyes and asked about the muggleborn introduction to the magical world, not really knowing anything about it, beyond that something existed.
Hermione was quick to jump in to an explanation, mentioning a few places it had been lacking. Severus was obviously paying attention, because he started asking her questions about her complaints, looking for ways to improve things. Harry, his brothers, and Lily were all happy to add their five pence, having all gone to muggle schools, while Barty sat there and just generally looked lost. But he didn't make any disparaging comments, which raised Harry's estimation of his character a fair bit.
By the time lunch was over, the ice had been broken. There was still an air of uncertainty to Barty, and a certain stiffness to Severus (which Harry couldn't be certain had nothing to do with the truth of who he was, in all honesty) which hadn't been there in the past, and Hermione was very obviously uncertain what to think about being on something of a first names basis with two of her professors, but they were all a fair bit easier with each other.
Harry decided it had been an excellent day.
On the twenty-first, Hermione came down to breakfast looking unaccountably nervous. Harry was confused as to why until James looked up, then snapped his fingers. "Right! That's what I forgot to ask: Are your parents willing to come out to the meet-up today?"
Harry's eyes widened in understanding, remembering when he'd insisted that the students should be given the option to see their parents at least once a year.
Hermione shifted and nodded. "Yeah. If it's not too much trouble?"
"Of course not," James agreed, glancing towards Lily, who nodded. "I can take you over, get a chance to meet them myself."
"But not everyone," Lily added, casting her gaze over Harry, Will, and Chris. "You three can stay here, with me."
"Aww, but, Mum," Will complained.
"I expect it'd be fairly boring for us, anyway," Harry agreed with a shrug, before shooting Hermione a knowing smile. "You've already told us all the exciting news about Hogwarts."
Hermione offered an uncertain smile back. "I'm sure I missed something."
"We'll squeeze it from you eventually."
Hermione shook her head. "Right."
James took her by floo a little later – another new experience for her, judging by the questions she'd started asking before she'd even stepped into the fireplace – and Will moped around the house for approximately ten minutes before declaring he was going to go hang out with Geoffrey.
"Come on, Chris," Harry suggested while Lily shook her head in amusement. "Let's go amuse ourselves by tormenting the muggles."
"Harry," Lily sighed.
"The tormenting being in an entirely Marauders-esque manner," Harry insisted.
"Harry."
Chris snickered. "No tormenting?" he guessed.
"Parents," Harry complained, and Lily snorted, clearly familiar with that word. "Fine, we're going to play age-appropriate games with our playmates, who happen to be muggles."
"Get outside," Lily ordered, her eyes laughing.
Hermione didn't get back until after lunch, but she looked far happier than she had done, when she joined Harry and Chris outside.
"Feeling better?" Harry asked.
Hermione nodded. "Yeah. And your dad said maybe we can set something up over the summer, even though it's not really the..."
"Done thing?"
"A little illegal," Hermione corrected.
Harry snorted. "Dad and Uncle Sirius became animagi while they were in school, and didn't register until they became aurors. You say 'illegal' he hears 'do the thing'."
Hermione let out a sound that was somewhere between a moan and a laugh. "I'm going to see my parents this summer, aren't I?"
"You are totally going to see your parents this summer," Harry agreed, and Hermione hugged him.
On the thirtieth, Harry had Death wake him after Voldemort had finally gone to bed, which was so late, Harry had to hurry in dropping off the books and his note, lest Sirius come to wake them before he got back.
'I'm still cross with you, but not so much that I could forget your birthday. Enjoy these books and, if you're looking for someone to torture, you might drop by the Parkinsons and check on how they're treating their muggleborn ward.'
Over lunch, Death murmured into Harry's mind, "The Parkinsons have been dealt with, and Kevin Entwhistle is on his way back to Hogwarts."
Harry didn't even try suppressing his cruel smile, just ducked his head and hid it with his juice glass.
Stand Against the Moon Chapters:
Pro | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05
06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12
Nose to the Wind Chapters:
1 - Death Once Again || 2 - Bring Out All the Good Inside Me || 3 - Death and Living Reconciled
4 - Orphan Man || 5 - Using Gentle Words to Shelter Me || 6 - Living on Your Breath
7 - You Just Might Get it All || 8 - Never Want to Come Down || 9 - Only the Silence Remains
10 - Love is a Doing Word || 11 - Nothing Sacred ||
13 - Mirrored in Your Stare || 14 - Camouflage Denial || 15 - Precious and Fragile Things
16 - Perfectly Reckless || 17 - Your Arms Feel Like Home || 18 - The Sun Will Set For You
19 - Your Love Has Always Been Enough || 20 - Keep Up This Charade || 21 - Truth Like a Blazing Fire
22 - Give Yourself a Try || 23 - Done Pleading Ignorance || 24 - Your Razorblade Caress of Love
25 - Summer's Scent Still Lingers || 26 - Burn Out the Stain || 27 - Final Masquerade
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