Chapter 36: That Same Old Feeling

Hermione glared at Harry and sat down at the far end of the Gryffindor table. He had been irritatingly consoling and understanding since she and Sirius had shouted at each other. As annoying as he was being, she was grateful he hadn't heard their whole argument or tried prying to find out what Sirius had done. She imagined him bringing Sirius back from the dead just to kill him slowly. His protectiveness made her smile even as it pained her.

Sighing, she started picking at her toast. According to Remus, Lily and James were gone, so she knew Sirius was gone now, too. Even if she couldn't talk him out of going back, she had at least hoped to mend the rift that had grown from her possession.

"Boys are so stupid," she muttered and ripped the toast apart for lack of appetite and anything more productive to do.

"Is this seat taken?"

Hermione clenched her eyes shut. Her mind was playing sick jokes on her; those were the exact words he had used when they first met. She cursed her brain for not letting go. "Yes," she said rudely.

"Too bad," the boy said and sat down beside her. She could actually hear the cocky grin, feel the warmth of the body that she knew couldn't be there, feel the weight of his arm around her shoulder.

"Excuse me!" she said and snapped her eyes open to glare at the boy. Her mouth fell open at the sight of the warm grey eyes and long black hair, the sexy grin and broad shoulders. "Sirius?"

He grinned. "So, about that second date... You've been putting it off for far too long."

Words failed her as her brain ground to a halt trying to process the sight and feel of him. He shouldn't be there. He was supposed to have taken the potion and gone with Lily and James. Her eyes darted to the Gryffindors around her; none of them were looking at her like she was mad, so she apparently wasn't carrying on a one-sided conversation with an empty seat.

"I thought that after what you did…" she said weakly.

"I told you," he said, the smirk belying his sincerity. "There's no limit to the dirty things I would do to save you and your honor. If I have to get myself more detentions for you, I will. Especially if it means pranking old Snivellus."

"Detentions?" she repeated slowly, her mind quickly whirring to life as she started to understand. "When did you last see me, Sirius?"

He considered the question. "I've been in hospital since Saturday… so Friday evening."

"Hospital?" She looked at him curiously and studied his face. His skin was still marred from where the birds had attacked him, the peck marks disguised where she had clawed him with her nails. Had that really only been the previous afternoon?

He nodded. "Nasty hex, but, on the bright side, I did have very vivid dreams about saving you. Then I woke up and found you back to your beautiful," he kissed her cheek, "brilliant," the corner of her mouth, "lovely self," her lips. "I like to think I had something to do with it."

"I know you did," she smiled.

The boy frowned and a bit of the gleam left his eye. "I should apologize. Apparently, I'm quite the disgusting bastard in my dreams."

"I forgive you," she said, a knowing smile pulling at her mouth and relief filling her. "They were only dreams, and it was to save me, right?"

"Anything to save you," he insisted, pulling her so close she was nearly on his lap. "Back to my original question – are you free Saturday for another date?"

"Yes, I believe I am," she smiled. "Oh, but I'm still not allowed into Hogsmeade." She frowned slightly at the restriction. It was ridiculous to punish her for something that had clearly not been her fault. Yet Professor McGonagall insisted that the punishment stand since so few knew the real reason behind her attack on Pansy.

Sirius brushed the creases from her forehead. "Love, we've a whole castle at our disposal. What do we need Hogsmeade for?" He smirked, "In fact, I would say having the castle to ourselves when all the others are in the village would be quite the advantage…"

"I think those dreams have gone to your head, sir," she turned her face away to hide her smile.

"Oi! You two, class!" Seamus slapped them on the head as he passed, Sirius a little more vigorously than Hermione, grinning madly and running from the Great Hall as Sirius jumped up to retaliate. Hermione was left to grab a few slices of toast and walk alone to Defence.

"Am I going mad or was that Sirius?" Harry asked.

The smile on her face told him the answer, but he still wanted to hear it. "You're not going mad."

"Snape isn't going to be happy," he commented dryly.

"Ah, Mini-Marauder," Sirius beamed at Harry as he held Seamus in a headlock. "Give us a hand. This one's small, but he's wiry."

"Just let him go," Harry shook his head.

"Never! He attacked my lady and she must be avenged!" He turned his attention back to the struggling Seamus, bringing out his wand and hitting the boy with a jinx that left him laughing so hard he turned red and his eyes started watering. Sirius stood back and let the boy laugh hysterically outside the Defence classroom.

Harry gaped in disbelief. "What did you do to him, Hermione?"

The girl shrugged and enjoyed the sight of everyone being happy for the first time in months. Not even the Slytherins could hold back some chuckles at the spectacle Seamus was making of himself. Malfoy stood well back and didn't dare sneer at anyone, least of all Hermione.

The classroom door slammed open, Snape glaring out at them in cold anger. Only Seamus continued to laugh. He wished desperately to stop but the jinx wouldn't allow him to. The professor waved his wand, silencing the boy. "Ten points from Gryffindor. Get in."

"Good morning, Professor," Sirius smiled as he entered. Snape's nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed at the boy.

"You should have left with the others," he said in a low voice.

"It seems I couldn't, Professor," Sirius grinned. "A very clever witch cast a spell on me… in more ways than one. That was a play on words. See, she—"

"Thank you, Mr Porter. Now get to your seat." Snape said. Harry noticed something in his voice, a particular tone he had come to recognize after years of having it directed his way. That was Snape's 'I have a surprise for you' tone and was only used in conjunction with something very nasty.

Despite outward appearances, the professor was quite pleased that Sirius was still among them. He had every intention of honoring his promise to Lily; he would treat Harry only as harshly as he did any other Gryffindor, which was still rather worse than Lily would have liked. Instead, he directed his malice toward Sirius. As the weeks passed, the other Sirius received longer essay assignments, lost more points and was given more detentions, most of them unwarranted. He did earn the one for charming Snape's door to insult all Slytherins and the one for jinxing Snape's chalk to write only swear words and the one for fixing Snape's desk to the ceiling, but all the others were completely uncalled for.

Sirius took to life without James with minimal difficulty since Seamus and Harry had enough cheek and mischievous tendencies to pass for Mini-Marauders. Ron was summarily dismissed without consideration; Neville had a two week grace period, but was caught on his three attempts to reach the kitchens. Instead Ginny was given status as the fourth Marauder for the simple fact that she was the only one in the whole Gryffindor tower other than Hermione capable of getting him to shut up... though the girl's methods differed considerably from Hermione's.

"Have you read the Prophet?" Seamus asked one morning shortly before Christmas holidays.

"No, why?" Ron asked, his mouth half-filled with bacon. He received a dirty look from Hermione and a slap on the head from Sirius for it.

"Half a dozen Death Eaters have turned themselves in," he said and pushed the paper in front of Harry. "That's got to make a full twenty that have abandoned You-Know-Who. He'll be easy pickings for you, eh, Chosen One?"

"Oh, shut it," Harry threw a roll at him and quickly scanned the article. He was right. Another six Death Eaters confessed to the Ministry and named their comrades in exchange for leniency and safety from the weakening wizard's wrath. The Malfoys had been the first to switch sides, Draco and his mother named every Death Eater of their acquaintance in order to get Lucius out of Azkaban.

"I guess without his Horcruxes, they don't think he's worth following anymore," Hermione commented quietly.

"Or maybe because he got his arse handed to him by a Muggle-born," Harry offered, making her blush. She didn't like to talk about what she had done while under the book's influence, even though it had changed everything for their side. Voldemort was never as vulnerable or alone as he was now and it was all because of her.

A late owl flew into the Great Hall, flapping excitedly around their heads before dropping onto the table in front of Sirius and Harry. "Pig," Ron grunted while Harry took the letter from the twittering little owl.

"It's from Remus," Harry smiled.

"What does Moony have to say for himself?" Sirius asked and leaned over to read the letter.

"Wants us to come to Grimmauld Place for Christmas," Harry said. "You and me, says Hermione is welcome, too, and that Ron's parents will bring him and Ginny later."

Sirius slumped in his seat. "Do I have to? I hate that place. I told you about the stuffed elf heads on the wall, right?"

"Yes, I've seen them for myself, but I've never had anywhere to go for Christmas," Harry said. "You can stay if you want, but I'm going."

Sirius grumbled and cursed the house and his family and Remus for making him go. He kept at it for the rest of the week and on the walk to Hogsmeade Station and for half the train ride to London until Hermione demonstrated a highly effective way of shutting his mouth. As they pushed their way off the train, his mood darkened again. Not even Molly Weasley's coddling could lure a smile.

"Oh, Sirius, dear," Molly hugged him. "So glad you're still with us." He just nodded glumly and followed along. "The house is so much nicer than when you last saw it, Harry."

"Much easier now that Kreacher isn't thwarting us at every turn," Arthur agreed. He gestured them to the waiting car, which somehow managed to fit both Weasley parents, Harry, Ron, Ginny and Sirius and their trunks. Harry was nothing but grins. He had never been away from school for the holidays without a threat hanging over him. They drove in silence, out of London; apparently, a ploy to keep any spies from knowing where Harry was really travelling. The Ministry driver and the Auror in the front seat still on high alert despite Voldemort's dwindling forces. They arrived at the Burrow after a time and were accosted by the rest of the Weasleys. Even Sirius managed to lighten as Fred and George showed off their latest inventions.

"Brilliant!" Sirius grinned.

"Did you hear that?" The twins swooned.

"Come along, Harry, Sirius," Arthur called. "Remus is waiting." Harry noticed the man's face. It was happy and slightly mischievous like he was keeping a secret and was about to burst from it. Molly was the same. He narrowed his eyes at the pair, unsure what to make of them. "Hurry along now!"

The man shoved their trunks one at a time into the fireplace and sent them to Number 12. "We'll see you in a few days," Arthur assured them and shoved Harry into the fireplace. The boy didn't even have time to say goodbye before the man sent him on his way. He got a mouthful of ash and arrived choking on the other side.

"Hello, Harry," Remus greeted and pulled him from the fire before Sirius could come crashing into him.

"Moony!" Sirius pounced on the man. "What's the big idea squatting in my house?"

"Actually, it's my house," Harry grinned cheekily.

"Oi! Don't make me play the Godfather card, because I will," Sirius pointed a warning finger at him.

"Remus," a woman called from the hall. "Is that them? Are they here yet?" Even as he wondered who the woman was, Harry braced himself for the ear-splitting curses of Walburga Black's portrait.

Remus watched him and smiled. "She's gone."

"What?" Harry said and ran from the kitchen to the entrance hall. It was no longer dark and mournful. The wall where the life-sized portrait had hung was now empty and painted a welcoming yellow. The troll leg umbrella holder was gone, and a small table sat in its place. Sirius had been alone in that house for a year, suffocating under the dismal décor and memories, yet Remus had managed to make it more than livable in a few months… he didn't understand. "How did you manage it?"

"Well, it seems mad old Walburga hadn't considered that we might tear the whole wall down," Remus smiled.

Harry's eyes grew enormous at the idea of what else might have changed. Open-mouthed in awe he stumbled into every room he came across, each one was practically normal. Even the Dursleys wouldn't have been frightened to visit, although the moving paintings and photographs wouldn't have sat particularly well with them.

"Harry," Sirius approached him as he stood marveling at the pristine banister and complete lack of stuffed heads on the wall, "I want my house back."

"Remus!" the woman called from upstairs again, more insistently. "I asked if they were here yet!"

"Got a girlfriend, Moony?" Sirius smirked.

"No," the man grinned with the same mischief as Arthur had. "An old friend has been helping me clean this place up."

"Moony!" a man shouted, interrupting Harry's question before it made it to his mouth. "Answer the woman's question! Are they here yet?" The owner of the voice stomped out onto the stairs and glared down at Remus through his rectangular glasses. "Oh, damn." He ran a nervous hand through his unruly hair and smiled. "Uh… Welcome home."

"Dad?" Harry stared.

"Prongs?" Sirius grinned. "You got old!"

"James, are they here yet?" a woman asked as she stepped out from the upstairs bedroom.

"Yeah, I kind of ruined the surprise there…" James admitted bashfully. "Sorry, Moony."

Remus laughed. "I think they're surprised enough."

"They're real?" Harry said, refusing to look away or even blink. "I'm not seeing things?"

The woman hurried down the stair and wrapped him in a hug. The woman, his mother, Lily Potter, was real. As real as she had been weeks earlier when she hugged him and drank the potion. There was something different now. Before it felt like he was being hugged by a friend, now he had that same giddy feeling he remembered when Molly Weasley hugged him for the first time. This was what it was like to be hugged by his mum.

"What did you do, Moony?" Sirius slapped the man on the head. "It was that damned book again, wasn't it?"

"It was," Remus admitted. "But it wasn't me. Dumbledore."

"Old bastard should know better," the boy mumbled even as James leveled a smirk at him.

"It was done selflessly," Remus defended the decision. "We all thought it was about time Harry got the life he deserved."

"Why aren't they young as me?"

"Ah," Remus said, his professor voice firmly in place. "That is interesting."

"Is this going to be boring?" Sirius interrupted. "Should I sit down?"

Remus punched him in the arm. "Do you remember my day as Defence teacher? I don't give boring lessons." Sirius rolled his eyes and motioned for the man to go on. "We figured out that the thoughts of the person casting the spell will affect the outcome."

Sirius raised his hand and batted his lashed coyly, "I know this, Professor Lupin. When someone casts a spell to raise the dead, and they do it out of love, they will be unaffected."

"Very good, Mr Black. Ten points to Gryffindor," Remus said, adding a rude hand gesture. "May I continue? It's more than intentions; it's actual thoughts. Hermione thought about sixteen-year-old Harry and brought back you three at sixteen years old. Clever man that he is, Dumbledore managed to think about James and Lily at their proper age." He glanced over to the reunion with a warm smile. It was what Harry should have had his entire life, two parents who loved and wanted him.

"Batty old man," the boy muttered. "They'll be no saving him from turning evil. Man lost his virginity a century ago."

Remus draped an arm on the boy's shoulder, "I think we're safe. It was all for Harry."

End.