Gold Tinted Spectacles (Hecatemus Book #1)

Chapter 37 - Apologies (pt1)

It took days before Harry and Draco could bear to be out of each other's sight. They stayed together through everything including interviews with Aurors for the official records, and talking with their friends and house heads. It was also well over a week before they could go anywhere without the other for any amount of time.

Both of them decided that they needed to overcome the irrational need to be in each other's company the entire time and set their minds to returning to normal as quickly as possible. But it was a struggle. Over time they found their memories of events returning as well, which was hard on them both, but they faced it together and the nightmares did not keep them awake every night.

With his returning memory came the realisation for Harry that he had been nasty to quite a few people when he had been separated from Draco. None of them appeared to blame him for it, but it didn't help his guilt at all. His soulmate had tried to convince him that it was not his fault and he should forget about it, but even Draco had finally realised that remorse was something that Harry just did.

"If it will make you feel better, apologise," had been his soulmate's honest opinion.

So Harry decided to do just that:

Dumbledore walked into his office three days after Harry chose to make amends to find a large selection of Honeydukes' best sweets on his desk, so large in fact that it covered the whole surface of the piece of furniture;

Madam Pomfrey was presented with three vials of different, somewhat difficult to come by healing potions by owl;

Professor McGonagall found a small, very old book about ancient shape changing rituals wrapped in tissue paper in her office;

Professor Snape entered his rooms to find several new jars of some of his rarer potions ingredients sitting on the sideboard;

Remus Lupin walked into his kitchen to find a copy of the diaries of one Jemima Cranbrook, the only Hecatema in history to have married a werewolf;

Tonks found a new set of everyday robes in lurid pink on the bed of the guest room in which she was staying;

Ron woke up to find a five year subscription to Quidditch Weekly sitting on his bedside table;

Hermione opened her eyes to see a complete, new set of "Arithmancy - Advanced Magic by Numbers" books which she had been borrowing from the library all year, next to her bed done up with a ribbon;

and lastly Cornelius Fudge received a letter by owl where Harry apologised for his behaviour, but not the sentiments behind it.

It had taken every spare minute of the three days leading up to these events to prepare, and long hours to compose the notes that went with each gift, but when he had finished, Harry felt very pleased with himself. His actions assuaged his guilt, but they did not remove it entirely, as Draco put it, he was far too much of a Gryffindor for that. After the thank yous from his friends the aftermath of the whole event could actually be summed up by Ron's question at breakfast:

"Just how loaded are you?"

Draco had nearly choked on the bacon he had just stolen from Hermione as he tried to laugh and eat at the same time. Harry went red and hedged around the question.

* * *

Everyone accepted the gifts graciously, sending him a note saying thank you, he shouldn't have done, and he was forgiven, and those sort of things, everyone except Snape. The Potions Master's note had simply told Harry to be in Snape's office at five after his last class. He turned up on the dot feeling like his life was about to end and knocked on the door.