Listen Now: A Harry Potter & Remus Lupin Hurt/Comfort Adoption Fic

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A/N: This story is a sequel to Speak Now. However, if you choose to read this story without reading the first in the series, you'll need to know the following.

Speak Now spoilers: Harry tells Remus Lupin about his detention with Umbridge, and Remus encourages him to report her. Sirius doesn't find out until later; he is bitter, at first, about being kept out of the loop, but learns that he needs to be more careful about his own safety if he is to bring security into Harry's life. The relationship between Remus and Harry has become more of a father/son dynamic, while Sirius is like a close older brother or uncle. Because Umbridge is sent to Azkaban and Harry's support system is strengthened in the face of his visions, Sirius's death is averted. At the end of Speak Now, Harry approaches Remus about the Dursleys' abuse.

To those of you who are reading this sequel having already finished Speak Now: thank you for reading and following! Your comments are always the most motivating, though, so a special thank you to reviewers :)

I'm also adding this to the Comfortember collection, because although it's late to the party, these early chapters absolutely follow the first few prompts (chapter 1 falls under "Rescue")

Without further ado . . .

On Lupin's instructions, Harry didn't send a message to Uncle Vernon letting him know when to pick up Harry from the train station. He figured it wouldn't matter much to Uncle Vernon, if he even noticed at all.

Lupin was there to meet him and take him to Grimmauld Place instead. At first, Harry felt like it was all a bit of a waste of time, since he'd just been there, but Lupin insisted that he had to go back to the school and get on the train, or his teachers would worry. Harry ended up being thankful to have the time on the train with his friends.

Once they reached the house, Lupin went right to work preparing tea while Harry sat at a counter in the kitchen. "Sirius will be down in a bit. He's taking care of a couple of cursed objects in one of the spare bedrooms." He placed a steaming cup in front of Harry.

"Thank you, sir."

"I'm not your professor anymore, Harry. You can call me Remus. You call Sirius by his first name, don't you?"

"Er, okay." For some reason, it felt different to him, but he supposed refusing would be even more disrespectful.

Lupin sat down across from him. "Harry, do you want to talk about what happened at your aunt and uncle's house?"

Harry swallowed. He really didn't want to talk about it, but he didn't suppose he really had the choice to back out of that conversation, now that he had brought up the subject. He couldn't exactly regret it, since he didn't have to go back there now. But it was still uncomfortable, especially since the lines weren't as clear. Umbridge had drawn blood; Uncle Vernon never had. "I—I might be overreacting. Honestly, Dudley was the worst part."

"Dudley is your cousin?"

"Yeah. He used to beat me up but, er, he mostly stopped after I started learning magic. And Uncle Vernon, he beat me a few times when I got my first accidental magic, but it's been years. I—I shouldn't have said anything."

"Harry." Lupin's eyes pierced his. "Tell me what's bothering you."

Harry winced. "At the Wizengamot, with Umbridge, I had marks to show, you know?"

"You were afraid to go back to them this summer. You must have had a reason."

"It's just . . . they hate me."

Lupin frowned. "Harry, I'm sure that's not—"

"My aunt and uncle used to get Dudley dozens of presents for every birthday and Christmas. They've ignored my birthday every year since I was ten. And when I turned ten, they gave me a coat hanger."