A Family Once More

TWENTY SEVEN ~ He's got us

It was a while before the family of three parted from their hug. James and Lily stared lovingly at their son, while Harry stared back into their eyes as well, finding more comfort in them than he had ever felt in his life.  

They did this for a while, though none of them even thought of breaking the eye contact. However, Harry couldn't stop a yawn that made his way to his system, signalling how tired he really was. 

His parents smiled at him, saying that he should get some rest. 

However, Harry didn't want to go back to sleep, he was just reunited with his parents.

James could tell what was going on in his son's head, so he said, "If you get some rest now, then you will be more energised tomorrow, and then we can talk more, okay?" 

Harry reluctantly nodded his reply, he was tried, but he really wanted to spend more time with his family. 

His mother bent down his forehead and kissed it gently before bringing him into another embrace. When she let go, James ruffled Harry's white hair before giving him another embrace as well. 

Harry looked like he was about to ask his  parents something, but seemed hesitant to do so. However, Lily could tell that something was bothering her son. 

"What is it?" She gently asked him, hoping that he would open up to her even though they had just recently met.. again. 

Harry chewed his bottom lip for a while, but when he saw the encouraging smiles on both his parent's faces, he finally gave in. 

"Stay with me?" He asked simply, hoping he didn't sound too childish or clingy. 

"We weren't planning on leaving anyways." James replied with a smile. 

Once Harry was reassured that his parents won't be leaving his side so soon, he slowly leaned back onto his pillows and closed his eyes. He fell asleep soon after with his parents gazing down lovingly at his as he fell asleep. 

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Meanwhile, outside the Hospital Wing

"I will be off now, if you need me for anything, I will be in my office." With that, Dumbledore left,  leaving Remus, Sirius, Hermione and Ron to decide what they would like to do with their evening. 

"Would you two like to come over to our guest room so that we can talk?" Remus suggested to Ron and Hermione. 

The two of them glanced at each other before Hermione replied with a sure and a thanks for the invitation. 

She knew that both of them wanted to know how they found Harry in the manor, and that this would be the perfect opportunity to catch up with them as well. 

However, what they didn't know is that the two men already suspected that they wanted to know more about how Harry was kidnapped and what happened while he was there. 

With that, Sirius and Remus lead the way to their guest room after they altered their appearances once more. 

They halted to a stop outside the wall, and so Ron and Hermione stared at the two men questioningly. 

"It works like Platform 9 & 3/4, it's a hidden magical barrier." Remus explained. 

"That's so interesting!" Hermione exclaimed, excitement shone in her eyes a the prospect of learning something new about Hogwarts. "Guest rooms were never mentioned in either copies of Hogwarts: A History that I've read." 

"How come this was never in the marauders map?" Ron asked. 

"Like the Room of Requirement, we never found out of its existence, so we never did get the chance to add it to the map." Sirius replied with a small smile, thinking back to the days where they would get up to marauder mischief. 

Sirius then turned back to the wall after making sure no one else was looking, and stepped inside. 

Remus instructed Hermione and Ron to just walk through the wall like they did yearly through the platform. After they had gone in, Remus then entered the room that he had been staying in for months. 

He found Sirius, Hermione and Ron sitting on the couch, waiting for him to enter. 

As soon as he sat down, Sirius started talking. "I'm assuming you have some questions regarding Harry?" 

Hermione and Ron looked at each other, shocked for a moment. However, they realised that it was probably pretty clear to the marauders what they wanted to talk about. 

"Why did Voldemort kidnap Harry from Hogwarts?" Ron asked first, "And how did the Death Eaters get into Hogwarts?"

"It was Peter wasn't it?" Hermione replied Ron's question with another to Sirius and Remus. "We saw him hiding in a corner in the Tower." 

"Pathetic." was Sirius's only reply. "That boy can't duel to save a piece of parchment, much more his own life."

"Since you saw Peter there, I'm guessing he was the one who let the Death Eaters in. He probably used the passageway from the Shrieking Shack." Remus stated. "We should have never let him be join us as a marauder." 

"Bloody coward."Sirius added. "We accepted him in, and he betrayed us just like that, all for power." 

Sensing Sirius's rising anger at Wormtail, Hermione tentatively asked, "Were all of you true friends? Did you hang out together and planned pranks altogether." 

"In fact we did. Actually, James was the one who really put in the effort to include Peter." Sirius stated. 

"He even came up with some ideas for our pranks before, and they weren't all that bad." he added as an after thought. "He was actually fun to hang around with, we all thought of him as a true friend." 

"What really happened to Harry at the manor? No one would tells anything?" Ron asked, wanting to know what his best friend had been through. 

"No one really knows seeing as Harry doesn't have any memory of his 2 weeks being there. But we can guess that he was subjected to the Cruciatus curse daily, and that some of the Death Eaters used muggle methods of torture." Remus replied sadly, thinking about all hi pup had gone through. 

"Is his loss of memory because of the cruciatus curse?" Hermione softly asked. 

"Madame Pomfrey suspects so, but Harry was also fed unknown potions by Voldemort, so it could have been one of those that caused his memory loss of recent events." Sirius replied glumly. 

"Will his hair change back to black?" Ron asked, curious of how much effect the potion have on his best mate. 

"Madame Pomfrey thinks that it will not be permanent, but since he was fed potions created by Voldemort, no one but Voldemort really knows what the potions do." Remus replied. 

"So you're saying that there is a chance that the change in hair colour may just be a side-effect of something?" Hermione inquired, sensing a hidden meaning behind Remus's words. 

The two adults just nodded at Hermione's question, affirming hero her suspicions. 

"We may not know what may happen to Harry in the future because of those potions, but we know how strong he is, and he's got us." Sirius stated, trying to convince himself that his godson would be alright. 

He knew that Harry would never live a normal life after all he's been through these past years, but he hoped that he would be able to emerge stronger than ever.

"He's got us." Ron parroted sadly.