Bound To You

Chapter 23: Terungkaplah....

The days passed quite happily for Harry, though he did wonder where Professor Lupin went the last few days. But he didn't think too much about it, as long as he spent time with Tom. Though after a few weeks, Professor McGonagall had came up to him and apologized and invited him to go back to the lion's dorm, since the whole gender-changing prank had all but ended. In fact, things seemed to have cooled down a bit, and there were no more evidence of the prank war ever happening. It was quite funny though, to see a few of his school mates walking around in a variation of colours and half-transfigurations.

There was a rumour that the gender-changing prank had originated from the Potions Professor, but many didn't want to believe that the scowling, snarky professor had been the one to create such an ingenious plan. But then again, while the professor was one of the most-hated professor in Hogwarts, he was quite the genius--what with the many potions he invented and enhanced, most prominently the Wolfsbane potion. Not that many people know though.

But that was another story altogether.

After talking a few more times with Professor Lupin, together with Sirius and Snape, he'd finally gotten to know them all better, and had started to see all three of them as some sort of guardian, especially Sirius with his godfather status. And while he'd gotten many stories about his father--James, he'd valued Snape's stories of his mother even more. Who knew Snape and Lily were childhood friends? To Harry, they were like sun and moon.

He'd been intrigued by his admission that the flying spell, while he'd learnt the spell from Voldemort originally, Lily had been the one who had created one with safety measures to it; one of them being the parallel-direction charm that she'd integrated into the original spell to prevent fatal injury. Apparently, she'd also cast those charms to Harry's very first broom, one he'd received when he was still a one-year-old and James had the brilliant idea of letting him fly it outside.

Harry was happy to know more about his parents, and more importantly, for getting more friends.

Eventually, the excitement died down, and things were peaceful.

It was a sunny day, warm in comparison to the days previous. It was probably one of the last warm days, since the chill of winter has been settling in for the past week. "Let's go outside and enjoy the sun today," Hermione said, shocking both Ron and Harry. The lioness just rolled her eyes and picked up a lazing Crookshanks, draping the kneazle comfortably around her neck.

"Who are you and what have you done to our Hermione?!" Ron said with a grin.

"Oh, you wound me. Now come on," she urged, pulling Ron to his feet as Harry had excused himself to go pick up his scarf.

"Hey, Harry, go grab Scabbers if he's in his cage, would you?" Ron called.

"Sure!" Harry called back, wrapping the red and gold scarf around his neck snugly. His eyes sought the cage Ron had bought in the last Hogsmeade week since Crookshanks kept chasing him, and almost eating him once, and Scabbards kept disappearing. Ron didn't want anything to happen to his rat like it did for Neville's frog, and with Harry and Hermione's help, they could buy the cage together.

He leaned down to peer into said cage and smiled when he saw Ron's rat. "Hello, little guy, we're going out to enjoy some sun," Harry whispered excitedly. "Ron wants to bring you along, so I'll have to close the cage door, alright?" The rat only squeaked as he closed and locked the cage door, warding it also, for good measure. No need for any pranking school mates going around and spelling the cage open.

"Come on, let's go!" Hermione said, standing in front of the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Patience, 'Mione," Harry rolled his eyes amusedly. "Here, Ron," Harry handed the cage to him.