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Chapter 12

Remus made sure that he was holding Harry's hand as they touched the PortKey. Even though Harry didn't like them, he agreed that he wasn't in the best shape to apparate. The funeral had taken a lot out of him, emotionally and physically. The younger man hadn't left his side but once to give Hermione's mother a hug. The rest of the time, Ron and Harry had stood still, Remus on one side, and Molly on the other.

Afterwards, Hermione's parents had talked quietly to the two, inviting them to come over. They would need the help to go through her things, since they didn't understand most of the things she had collected since beginning Hogwarts. While they had been discussing that, Remus had noticed Sirius talking to Snape. It was no longer as shocking to see such a scene, but, like now, it was surprising that neither of them were arguing. Eventually the two had made their way back, Sirius volunteering to take the Grangers back home with Fred and George.

Once they were back at Hogwarts, Remus and Harry made their way back to their rooms. Getting him ready for bed, Remus watched as Harry slowly drifted off. It had been a difficult four days since that day in the infirmary. Many times Remus had felt like he wasn't helping, but Harry had let him know that just by being there he was.

He was glad for that, remembering the difficulty he'd had after *that* Halloween. His friends had been ripped from him and his entire world turned upside-down. This was a little different, but Remus knew that Harry would react much different than he had. And yet it was the same. Remus had been trapped by his curse, and it wasn't until he'd come to Hogwarts that he'd found true friends. Harry's upbringing by the Dursleys had left him emotionally scarred and isolated. Coming to Hogwarts had allowed him to grow to be well rounded emotionally, even under the strain of having Voldemort on the loose.

The difference was the way Harry had been.... He couldn't say that he had been fighting with Hermione, but they hadn't exactly been acting like the friends they were. Remus, while growing apart from his friends under the threat of war, had been torn by the 'betrayal' by Sirius.

Checking on Harry and making sure he was still sleeping, he got ready for bed himself, remembering the awful time he and Sirius had gone through when the Animagus had shown up on Remus' doorstep after Voldemort's revival. The few letters they had exchanged before then hadn't mentioned anything about *that* Halloween. Instead, they had discussed Harry, Sirius being eager for news on his godson. But when they were finally face to face, the fireworks had flown. Remus had been trying to work through his pain of hearing that he hadn't been trusted because he was a werewolf. It had been hard for him to believe that the friends he'd had for those ten years had thought he was the one who had turned to Voldemort instead of Peter. Remus had spent all that summer and most of the fall cursing Sirius, and even James, for doubting his loyalty to them and the order, just because he was a Dark creature.

The two of them had fought as Remus tried to understand and forgive Sirius for all that hurt. It had been horrible, even as he realized that Sirius had already been doing penance for his mistakes. The other man had spent twelve years haunted by the Dementors, while Remus had only ghosts.

Eventually they had come to an understanding, knowing that they would have to get over all the past hurts to fight their enemy. Remus knew that their friendship was stronger now than it had ever been when they were younger. United in both their concern over Harry – although it was a platonic, even parental concern then for Remus – and their willingness to fight, they had discovered that they bonded closer when things were dark. They now knew how to protect each other and to give emotional support that they hadn't before realized was needed.

Pulling Harry into his arms, he hoped that Sirius was up to helping Harry start living again. School would be starting in a few days, and all of them needed to be on top of things to handle the students. Wishing that life wouldn't be as painful as it really was, Remus fell asleep.

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The numbness that Harry had been feeling was slowly fading, turning into a growing pit of nervousness deep within his stomach. On top of that he felt lonely, as Remus was waiting for the first years in the room that he himself had been waiting in eight years ago. He watched as the older students filed their way into the Great Hall, many of them staring up at the Teacher's table. Even though he was sure that most of them knew he was the new Transfiguration instructor, there was an awful lot of pointing going on.

On the other side of Remus' empty seat, Sirius was grinning back at various students, watching their eyes slide away. Harry was glad for the distraction, watching his godfather's rueful looks as half the girls couldn't decide if they should throw themselves at him or run from the pardoned ex-convict. At least that was sort of good, considering none of those girls had a chance, judging by the looks Sirius had been throwing at his former potions professor.

That was a strange development – that the two men could even be friends, let alone... more. Harry was entirely sure that neither of the two knew what was going on, but he had been startled when Remus had pointed it out at the staff meeting they'd had this morning.

All of them had been discussing the latest article in The Daily Prophet – Harry more than the others, since the headline basically stated that he was 'having relations with a former teacher.' Sirius had thought it funny, laughing at both his godson and best friend's red faces and had ended up leaning against Snape, who had been invited to the meeting. The former head of Slytherin would be at the castle for the first two months, helping Warrington find her way in her duties, while helping Sirius continue their work on advanced potions.

Most of the professors didn't mind the publicity – seeing as how no parent had pulled their children out of the school based on the structural changes that had been announced at the end of the previous school year. A few, however, had problems with the fact that two of their members were living together. Sprout had no problem with the situation, and backed by Dumbledore, Harry and Remus hadn't been given a tough time.

After that they had talked about the Ministry's investigation into Hermione's murder. Harry hid his shudder at the thought, just as he did every time he thought about what had happened to his best friend. The word seemed so cold and lifeless – as if her life hadn't been worth as much as it had. The Ministry workers would be at the castle for a few more days, finishing up their interviews. Harry's had been the first, and it had been horrible. The only reason why he had gotten through it was the knowledge that they needed every bit of information they could gather to catch whoever did this to Hermione.

Most of them had dismissed the idea that it was Lucius Malfoy, but between Harry, Remus, Sirius, and Snape, they had a good idea that it was he. He was devious enough to have given someone else Polyjuice Potion and told them to target his son. After all, he would be legally dead and able to do as he pleased. The four of them, though, vowed to keep an eye on the situation. Malfoy was intelligent enough to use the chaos caused by the attack on Hermione to his advantage – and they would be watching to see if he would press it.

Since the Ministry had come, Ron had left as soon as possible, but was scheduled to come back tomorrow. He was coming to help Harry talk to the seventh years for the first couple of classes. Harry had made it a point that it had to be Ron rather than any of his brothers. He was determined to help his best friend and to get him interested in the idea that he could help the investigation along.

A noise from the back of the hall signaled the arrival of Remus and the first years. Harry shot a quick smile at his lover before sitting back to watch the nervous eleven-year-olds. Tonight was not a night to think of such serious things. Instead, he would use the time during the feast to remember all the times he, Ron, and Hermione had sat at the Gryffindor table, talking and arguing about everything and nothing.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry sucked in a deep breath, trying to recover the oxygen he'd been keeping from his lungs. His first class had gone very well. He would have to remember to thank Colin for calming the students down after the large fight several of them had gotten into over the betting pool half way through class.

Harry had forgotten all about the pool. With more serious matters on his mind, he had been surprised when Colin had approached him before the first class to talk about it. Together, the two of them had devised a way to drain the pool as it were, and disband the group of betting students.

It was a very good thing that most of those who had participated in the pool had already graduated – namely Seamus. One of the things Colin had brought it was a letter, and money, from the newly graduated Gryffindor, proclaiming Colin the winner of that last pool where they had been trying to find out just who Harry was taking to the 'graduation' party.

"What is this, Colin?" he had asked, eyeing the piece of parchment in the younger boy's hand.

Colin's face lit up with a smile. "I won, Harry! Oops, sorry."

Harry waved it off. He had the feeling that many of his friends would have the same problem as Colin in calling him Harry instead of Professor like they should. "Won what?"

The seventh year's smile turned sheepish. "The pool about your date at the party." The smile suddenly dropped off his face, Colin seeming to sense the hurt that Harry felt at the reminder.

Mentally shaking his head, Harry pulled his thoughts away from the hurt to the matter at hand. "Did you just guess?" he asked, curious to find out just what exactly Colin had known.

Colin smiled. "No," he said, slyly. He started to laugh at the incredulous look on Harry's face. "The last couple of months you were mooning over him pretty awful, Harry... Professor."

Harry brushed it off again, while trying to hold back the blush that threatened to erupt across his cheeks. He hadn't thought he had been *that* obvious, especially since most of his classmates had been shocked when he had grabbed Remus' hand at the party before they had apparated back to Hogsmeade. "But, how...? I didn't think anybody knew."

The seventh year shrugged his shoulders. "A couple of pictures, but they didn't show Professor Lupin, so I didn't get it right away. It was only after Seamus announced that the pool would have to change that I figured it out."

Harry blushed then. "Oh." He made a mental note to question Seamus very thoroughly about his interest in Harry's sex life.

Colin gave a quick smile as he took a step back. "I won't say anything, so don't worry about it. Besides, I happen to know that you wouldn't have done anything while in school."

He was right. Other than those few kisses that first day, Harry and Remus hadn't done anything physically with each other until Harry was no longer an official student of Remus'. Smiling at Colin, he indicated that it was time for class to start.

And the end of the day, he sat down heavily into the couch in his and Remus' rooms and heaved a sigh of relief.

"That bad?" Remus asked as he sat down next to him.

Harry shook his head. "Other than they kept on forgetting to call me Professor, it wasn't that bad." He leaned into Remus' shoulder. "Oh. Colin had something interesting from Seamus. Seems that he won the pool about just who I was bringing to the party."

He felt Remus tense for a half-second before he wrapped an arm around Harry's shoulders. "Did he say anything?"

Harry again shook his head. He felt a relieved sigh pass through Remus' body and he pressed deeper into his side. It felt good just to be close to him like this after the day's stress.

"Are you going to see Draco tomorrow?" Remus asked after a while.

Nodding, Harry sat up slightly. "Yeah. With everything that's going on, I think I'll need to talk to him just as much as he needs company."

Remus gave a soft smile that made Harry's heart twitch. He was very thankful that he had Remus to help him. Wrapping his arms around Remus' waist, he pulled himself on the other man's lap and buried his face into his neck.

"Love you."

"Love you, too," came the reply as Remus touched his lips to Harry's temple.

******

Sirius breathed a sigh of relief. It was Friday, and as much as he had discovered he loved teaching, he really needed the weekend to recuperate. In the month that school had been in session, he had found that there were several students that were as enthusiastic – Harry's word for it – as he was about potions.

A grin touched his lips as he remembered Severus' grudging compliment on teaching. It hadn't been in the words – as if anything about teaching methods from the potions master would count as a true compliment other than a left-handed one – but in his tone. Sirius was glad that the other man hadn't thought about how he could have changed his methods, but instead had pointed out several things that he thought hadn't caused any problems.

Once seated in the Great Hall next to Severus, he dug into dinner, content to listen to Harry talk about what they had done in class with Remus. He smiled as he remembered James talking the same way about transfiguration, especially when they had been working on their animagi transformations. James had been the one who had figured out the last step, and, much like his father, Harry had pretty much figured it out on his own.

Now it turned out that Harry was a natural teacher. Once he had gotten over his shyness, and trepidation at teaching his peers, Transfigurations had become a popular class. Sirius was very proud of his godson, and even if he wished James could see what his son had grown up to accomplish, he knew that he wouldn't ever be able to change the past. For once he was happy about that. Several times over the last couple of years he had found himself wishing he could go back to that point where he suggested Wormtail as James and Lily's Secret Keeper. Twelve years in Azkaban, and another two and a half on the run hadn't been good for his health, but it was only lately that he had learned that those years had taught him more than he would have learned if he'd been free.

He was no longer the reckless teenager that had almost killed a fellow student. Now he could admit he actually liked to talk to Severus, instead of wanting to kill him. Sirius had relived that incident more times than he would be able to count, and though he hadn't felt particularly guilty about it, when he and Severus had to make peace after the third task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, he'd known that they would have to talk about it sometime.

That time had come over this past summer, a couple of days after Hermione's funeral. The two of them had been working on a new potion Madam Pomfrey had suggested they make for the infirmary when Severus had asked him about why he had done it. In the middle of their fighting, Sirius had let Severus know he'd been hurt by what the Slytherin had been saying about him. Sirius had taken all those years' worth of insults and taunting and had finally had enough. He had just wanted to scare the other boy, but in the end it had hurt him as well.

"Hey, Sirius?"

He turned to see his godson standing in the door. A smile forming on his face, he stood and made his way over to him. "What's up?" he asked as they made their way down the hall.

"Nothing. I just thought that you would like some company tonight?"

Sirius looked at his godson, starting to wonder what he was talking about. "What about Remus?"

Harry laughed. "I can't spend time with you?"

The older wizard grinned. "Why would you want to spend time with me when you have Remus?"

Harry shook his head. "I am not going to answer that. I just wanted to talk to you tonight, and it has nothing to do with Remus or Severus or anything like that. I just wanted to spend time with you."

Sirius felt a soft smile touch his face, his spirit lightening from the stress of the week. "I think we can arrange that," he said, even as he wondered just why Harry had brought up Severus.

An hour later they were making their way to Sirius' quarters, both of them intent on a friendly chess match when Poppy came running breathlessly down the hall towards them.

"Harry!" she shouted, trying to catch her breath once she was up to them. "It's Draco!"

"What?" Harry's alarmed voice cut through Sirius' shock at Poppy's sudden appearance.

"He's awake!"

"What?" Sirius asked, as he and Harry exchanged a shocked look before running towards the hospital wing, Poppy close behind them.

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