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Chapter Text

“Thick as Thieves”

August 5, 1991

Harry sat inside the Leaky Cauldron, gazing around in wonder at all the people around him.

Just last week, he was in a gross little shack with his relatives, and now?

Now he was a wizard going to a school for magic.

And, Harry was never going back to the Dursley’s house again.

He was really feeling kind of smug about it. Hagrid had offered to take Harry home and Harry had assured him that he could find his way there on his own. He told Hagrid that he did it loads of times and Hagrid just believed him!

So Harry went right back in the Leaky Cauldron and rented a room from the friendly barkeeper and planned on enjoying the rest of his summer.

And he was.

He’d explored all the stores in the area. He even found a neat second-hand clothes store that had muggle clothes for ‘wizards who need to blend in’ and bought new clothes. He found a used bookstore that had a book exchange program like a library so he could just borrow books and return them when he was done. And he’d met so many people.

He met a nice boy named Neville Longbottom who had a toad and whose Gran had known Harry’s parents.

He met a pair of red-headed twins named Gred and Forge who said that if Harry was in Gryffindor then he could sit with them at the Welcoming Feast.

He met a quiet boy at the bookstore, a boy with dark brown hair and curious brown eyes, named Theo. They didn’t talk much, but Theo told Harry he should check out the potions section since he heard the potions teacher was very strict, so Harry liked him quite a bit already.

He even met a pair of girls, a blonde named Hannah and a red-head named Susan, who said he could sit with them on the train. Susan even offered to pick Harry up from the Leaky Cauldron on September first so that he could ‘floo’ to the platform with her.

All in all, being a wizard was the greatest thing to ever happen to Harry.

And it was just the beginning.

Harry was fidgeting with his trunk and his new clothes and his satchel with his robes and wand in it on September first.

He hadn’t really considered it at the time, but what if Susan had been lying about picking him up? Or if she forgot? What happened if Harry missed the train? Would he—

Knock, knock.

Harry threw open the door to his room and felt incredibly relieved to see Susan standing there in a crisp and clean collared white dress with her dark red hair in two braids and a wide, slightly gap toothed, smile on her face.

“Hiya, Harry!” Susan was bouncing in place and looked as excited as Harry felt. “Are you ready? My aunt’s downstairs and she’s sooo excited to meet you!”

“Yep!” Harry grabbed his trunk and tossed his bag over his shoulder. “Let’s go!!”

Susan led the way down the stairs, talking nonstop at the speed of light as she went. Harry had no idea what she was saying, as quickly as she said it, but her excitement and cheer was infectious and had Harry’s stomach bubbling with anticipation. Susan didn’t stop talking until they entered the main part of the pub and ran smack dab into another witch.

“You’re going to break your neck at Hogwarts,” the witch said fondly as she steadied Susan. She turned to Harry and smiled kindly at him. “You must be the Harry that I heard all about?” She stuck her hand out, “I’m Susan’s aunt, Amelia Bones.”

Harry was relieved that she didn’t even glance at his scar and he accepted her handshake. “Yes, ma’am,” he said politely. “Harry Potter.”

The woman smiled a little wider and Harry thought she looked very kind. Much kinder than his aunt was anyway. Susan’s aunt had dark blonde hair pulled back into a neat bun. She had lines around her teal eyes, the same color as Susan’s, and she was dressed in very official looking robes.

“It’s for the DMLE,” she explained when she noticed Harry inspecting the badge on her robes.

“Aunt Amelia is the head of the DMLE,” Susan said with an adoring smile for her aunt. “It means she’s in charge of it all!”

“What’s the DMLE?” Harry asked, feeling a bit dim.

“The department for magical law enforcement,” Amelia said. She didn’t sound like she thought Harry was dim, so he relaxed a little more. She did check her pocket watch though and raised her brows. “And we need to get you kids off to Hogwarts! Harry, are your relatives here? They’re welcome to floo with us if they’d like. I can ensure they get back safely.”

“Er…” Harry shifted and ducked his head. “No, ma’am, they’re not here.”

Harry missed the supremely unimpressed look that Amelia sent Tom for renting an eleven year old a room. He also missed Tom’s returning shrug and grimace.

“Harry, does your family know where you are?” Amelia asked Harry.

Harry shrugged his shoulders up by his ears a little bit. “Probably not,” he admitted. “They don’t care though, don’t worry,” he added hastily as he looked up at her and gave her an earnest look. “We don’t really get along, I’m sure this has been the best summer ever for them too.”

Amelia pursed her lips and checked the time again before sighing a little. “We will discuss this at a later date,” she warned Harry. Not that he had any idea why they needed to discuss anything. “Let’s get to the platform.”

Harry and Susan smiled at each other before listening while Amelia explained floo travel to Harry.

In the end, Amelia wound up flooing with them both. Harry didn’t think she trusted him much.

“This is so neat!” Susan squealed as she pulled Harry along the train they boarded together. “Can you believe it, Harry? Can you? We’re finally going!!”

“I know!” Susan’s excitement was contagious and Harry was quickly filling with joy. “It’s amazing!”

They found an empty compartment on the train and quickly claimed it for themselves. Susan mentioned Hannah joining them later, but Harry wasn’t too fussed, he was just happy to already have a friend.

His first ever friend.

Harry and Susan were talking rapid-fire about their classes when a boy, Ron Weasley, asked to join them. Then Hannah showed up, and Neville with his toad and a witch named Hermione. Theo also popped in midway through the trip and asked to join them. And before they made it to Hogwarts, the rude blonde from Madam Malkin’s had shown up as well.

Harry probably wouldn’t have let Draco join them, as he looked like he wanted to be mean to Ron, who was the red headed twins’ little brother, but Susan ushered him in and it wound up being fine.

It wouldn’t have mattered if a fight did break out, because Harry looked at Susan and they shared bright smiles— they were going to Hogwarts and everything was going to be brilliant.

Everything was not brilliant.

Harry’s friends kept getting sorted-

Hannah went to Hufflepuff.

Susan went to Hufflepuff.

Hermione went to Ravenclaw.

Neville went to Hufflepuff.

Draco went to Slytherin.

Theo went to Slytherin.

And then it was Harry’s turn, and where did he go?

Bloody Gryffindor.

He’d argued with the dumb hat about going to Hufflepuff and it laughed at him; said he wasn’t loyal or fair, which was bollocks! He’d nearly accepted the hats offer of Slytherin, but when he asked for his other options (thinking Ravenclaw would be fine with Hermione if he couldn’t be in Hufflepuff with Susan) the hat just yelled ‘GRYFFINDOR!’

Harry shot a morose look to where Susan sat, smiling and clapping with Neville and Hannah as he drug himself to the screaming and shouting red and gold table.

“Way to go!” One of Ron’s twin brothers ruffled Harry’s hair and smiled at Harry. “Best house in the castle!”

Harry forced a smile, one that felt a touch more genuine when Ron joined him, but he would have much rather been a Hufflepuff.

Despite Harry’s secret worry that he and Susan wouldn’t be friends anymore, it was Susan who waited for Harry to walk to breakfast together the very next morning.

“Harry!” She grabbed Harry’s hand and pulled him along as she walked, barely slowing her pace for Ron to catch up. “How’s Gryffindor? Are the beds very comfortable? Do you love it? Oh you look wonderful in red! Yellow isn’t my color, but I’m very proud of my house.”

Ron shot Harry a bewildered look as Susan’s chatter continued clear to the Great Hall where she led them to the Hufflepuff table where Neville and Hannah sat together. Harry didn’t mind Susan’s quick conversation; before he met Susan, he’d never had anyone that wanted to talk to him, so he was happy to listen. Plus, it was funny the way Susan wanted to compare their timetables and she marked hers with all the classes they shared.

Harry shuffled his feet and smiled shyly at Susan when the bell dismissed them for their first ever classes. “I’m glad we’re still friends. I thought…”

“You thought I cared about silly houses?” Susan asked knowingly. She smiled and then startled Harry as she threw her arms around him in a hug. “We’re best friends forever, Harry,” she declared. “No matter what!”

And Harry, who never had a best friend but always wanted one, hoped that she never changed her mind.

Their friendship seemed to be tested all year that year. First, Susan and Hermione didn’t seem to get along much, which made Harry uncomfortable as Hermione obviously wanted to be his friend. The two girls bickered a lot, causing the boys and Hannah to become exasperated, up until Halloween when a troll got in the castle and nearly killed Hermione.

“I’m sorry!” Hermione wailed after Harry, Susan, and Ron knocked the troll out with its own club. Harry and Ron were shocked when the two girls embraced as if they were sisters. “You saved my life!”

Susan patted Hermione’s back. “The boys helped some,” she said simply with a quick grin for Harry over Hermione’s shoulder.

Harry rolled his eyes at Susan, but he was rather glad to not have had Hermione hugging him. He liked her well enough, when she wasn’t being bossy about rules and homework, but he really only liked it when Susan hugged him. She never squeezed too tight or cried on his shoulder.

They were tested again when Susan returned from Christmas holidays with her aunt and noticed Harry’s despondency.

“Talk to me,” she insisted when she cornered him in the quidditch stands one night. “Please? Something’s wrong.”

“I’m fine,” Harry snapped. It was cold out and Susan’s teeth were chattering. “Go inside, Susan, you’ll freeze to death.”

“So will you,” Susan said.

Harry tugged on the scarf and hat that Susan sent him for Christmas. “I’m fine.”

“You are not fine.” Susan crossed her arms and glared at him. “Talk or I’m going to hex you.”

Harry blew out a huff of air, pushing his fringe upward before it landed right back on his forehead.

He didn’t think Susan would hex him, but he also thought best friends should share everything.

“I found this mirror…” he said slowly. Susan inched over beside him, laying her head on his shoulder and they sat outside together, sharing warmth, while Harry shared his discovery.

Harry didn’t know if it was the blanket of darkness that loosened his tongue, or just the fact that Susan let Harry talk uninterrupted, but he told her everything. How much he wished he had a family like the rest of their friends had. He told her how the Dursleys didn’t like him, couldn’t stand him, really. How much it hurt seeing his parents for the first time in a mirror whose sole purpose seemed to be taunting Harry. How Dumbledore moved it and now Harry couldn’t see his parents again and it was so unfair it made his chest ache.

By the time he was done, Harry’s insides felt like jelly, like he’d given Susan his bones along with his complaints.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. He scrubbed his face with his robe sleeve, thankful that the dark kept Susan from seeing the embarrassing tears that escaped him.

“For what?” Susan asked quietly, her voice thick and her head resting on Harry’s shoulder.

Harry shrugged. “Whining, I guess.”

Susan’s arm that she wrapped around Harry’s waist tightened. “It’s not whining,” she said firmly. “I’m glad you told me. Also,” she lifted her head and Harry could see her eyelashes were wet and glistening in the moonlight, “can I borrow Hedwig?”

Harry laughed at the change in subject, relieved that she didn’t want to ask a million questions. “Sure, c’mon, let’s go inside, it’s cold.”

They used Harry’s cloak to get in the castle, and Susan gave Harry a hug before he left her at the entrance for the Hufflepuff common rooms.

“You’re my best friend,” Susan said. She pecked Harry’s cheek and smiled shyly at him. “Thanks for telling me everything.”

Harry’s face was still hot when he made it to the Gryffindor tower.

And, two mornings later, Harry realized Susan hadn’t been changing the subject at all when she asked to use Hedwig.

“What’s this?” Harry asked curiously when his beautiful owl brought a package to Harry at breakfast.

“A box, obviously,” Draco said haughtily. He rolled his eyes at Harry. “Open it, Potter.”

“Do it,” Susan urged Harry on when his hands faltered. “It’s brilliant, I promise!”

Harry felt rather on the spot as his friends all leaned forward to watch him open the box. There was a letter on top of the paper wrapped contents, so Harry read that first.

Harry,
I received these from an old friend and thought you might like them. Also, I would be delighted if you’d like to come over during the Easter holiday.
I’ve already obtained permission from the nasty peop your relatives. Let Susan know if you would like to come.
—Amelia Bones

Harry shot Susan a curious look before he unwrapped the items inside the box and let out a gasp that drew more attention than usual to their odd group at the Hufflepuff table.

“What is it?” Ron asked from across the table.

Harry swallowed and turned the frame to show the others.

“My parents,” he said. He was grateful when he felt Susan’s hand squeezing his knee beneath the table, a reassuring anchor when he thought he might do something embarrassing like cry in front of the others.

While Harry’s friends passed around the wedding photo of James and Lily Potter, Harry pulled out the thick album and began slowly, carefully, turning through pages.

“I’ve seen some of those before,” Neville said quietly as he peered over Harry’s shoulder. “I think Gran still has a box of photos from when my parents were at school, your parents were in a bunch. I- I can see if I can get copies over the holidays?”

Harry’s quick agreement must have made him look more desperate for the photos than he meant to, because Ron and Draco both quickly offered to ask their parents for photographs as well.

“My mother is cousins with your father’s old friend,” Draco explained. “She may know where some of the photos were stashed.”

And, a week later, when Draco, Ron, and Neville all found over a dozen total photographs of Harry’s parents to add to his collection, a few from Draco that even included baby Harry in them, Harry had Susan to thank.

“You’re the best,” he told her happily as they sat together in the library, organizing Harry’s photos ‘in chronological order’ in his new album.

“I know.” Susan grinned at Harry, her eyes crinkling around the edges as they always did when she was really happy. “You can tell me how amazing I am over Easter break.”

“Deal.”

Except Easter break wound up testing Harry and Susan’s friendship rather harshly.

“YOU TOLD HER I WAS- WAS…abused?!” Harry hissed after slamming his way in Susan’s room and glaring at her.

He’d just sat through an hour long conversation with Susan’s aunt about Harry’s ‘home life’. Apparently, Susan told her aunt just enough to send her aunt to go ‘investigate’ and she found ‘unsatisfactory results’. And now Amelia was at the ministry, ‘looking in to options’, and Harry was left at Susan’s home with his best friend and a burning sense of shame coursing through his body.

Susan looked up from the book she’d been reading, looking more curious than ashamed of herself as Harry thought she should be.

“I told her you were locked in a cupboard, they refused to feed you, and that they insulted you more often than Professor Snape does,” Susan said simply.

Harry crossed his arms, standing firm in her doorway, and glowering at her as harshly as he could manage. “Well she called it abuse,” he said angrily, his throat constricting at the word. Other kids were abused, the ones with the bruises and foster homes. Harry was not abused.

“That’s because it is abuse.”

“No it isn’t!”

“It is.”

“NO IT ISN’T!”

“Fine.” Susan uncrossed her legs and got to her feet. She smoothed down her jumper and grinned at Harry. “Come on then.”

Harry was bemused, angry, and still embarrassed and self-conscious as he followed Susan down her staircase and to the foyer. He felt his breath hitch when Susan approached the little wooden door build in to the stairs. She opened it up, ignoring how Harry uneasily stepped away to the far wall, and Harry saw that it was roughly the same size as the Dursleys, though more clean and distinctly lacking a bed.

Susan poked her head in the cupboard, then shot Harry a determined look over her shoulder.

“What’s the longest you stayed in a cupboard at the Dursleys?”

Harry shook his head, his shame fleeing and a muted sense of shock freezing him.

“A day? Two days? Four? A week?”

“Without leaving? A… I dunno… a week, maybe,” Harry said, his voice shaky. “Sue, c’mon, let’s do something else. I’m sorry- I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

Susan smiled, but it was faint and more pitying than genuine. “Call it abuse.”

He couldn’t.

Susan must have seen that, because she shrugged her shoulders and ducked in the cupboard, pulled the door shut, and yelled through the vent, “I’ll see you in a week then.”

Harry stayed against the wall, his palms flat on the smooth and hard surface at his sides, his insides a horrible mix of anger and shame and fear and…

It felt more like Harry had just seen Susan walk in to a cave filled with horrifying monsters than a clean and small cupboard.

“GET OUT,” he yelled at Susan, feeling as if he might be sick. “YOU DONT BELONG IN THERE!”

“Why not?”

Why… why not?!

It felt like Harry was moving through sand as he struggled to get across the foyer and to the cupboard door. He reached up for the handle and jerked his hand away at the last second.

“Please, Sue, come out,” he whispered through the door. He rested his heavy and swimming head against the door and tried to find his best friend through the tiny slats. “Please?”

The doorknob didn’t so much as jiggle, but Harry could sense Susan leaning against the door just as he did.

Only she had to be more hunched over because you couldn’t stand up straight in a cupboard past a certain height. You had to be hunched and uncomfortable. You couldn’t ever stretch out either, which meant your muscles were always tense and strained and aching. And cupboards were stifling, especially in the summer months, so the air was always heavy with the stench of sweat and dust and misery.

“Why can’t I stay in here for a week?” Susan asked, her voice sounding brave instead of terrified- it was dark in there, the lightbulbs always burnt out and nobody replaced them because it was a waste of money.

“What if there’s a fire?” Harry asked, rambling and trapped in his own swirling fears. “They won’t unlock the door. They’ll forget you. You’ll be trapped and you’ll burn to death. What if you get hurt? There’s nails in the wall, you could cut yourself and bleed to death and nobody would know because they can’t hear you. Or what if the door never opens again? And you just suffocate slowly or starve to death? Please, Sue, please just get out.”

“It’s cruel to trap a kid in a cupboard.”

“It’s horrible!” Harry cried. He smacked his head on the door, frustrated. “You could die. Please come out?” He was whining, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. “Get out.”

“If Auntie Amelia made me stay in here for a week, would it be abuse?”

“YES!” Harry yelled. He smacked his head on the door again and saw more than felt when a tear dripped from his face to the floor. “IT IS ABUSE! It’s cruel and mean and she would never do it because she loves you! Come out, now.”

Harry was knocked backwards, hitting the wooden floor on his bottom, when the door beneath him was shoved open.

Susan took one look at Harry’s pale face, the tears that were still trickling down his cheeks, and his wide eyed look of hurt, and threw herself on the floor beside him. She pulled Harry up in to a hug, their heads buried in the crook of each other’s neck as if being held in place by magnets.

“I’m sorry,” Susan whispered, her voice thick as Harry’s emotions twisted her insides and upset her. She rubbed Harry’s back with one hand and stroked his hair with the other. “That was mean, I’m sorry.”

“Why… why?” Harry asked, unable to form the words for the thought that plagued him.

It was like he didn’t need to. Susan didn’t need Harry’s words because she seemed to just get him.

“Because they’re horrid people who don’t deserve you,” Susan said. She held Harry as tightly as he did her. “Fuck them.”

Harry snorted, nearly choking on his own snot to do so. “Fuck them,” he agreed.

When Amelia returned home, bursting with good news and a floo address for Andromeda and Ted Tonks, it was to find Harry and Susan snuggling on the sofa, sound asleep.

“Yeah, there’s a reason Harry couldn’t stay here,” she whispered to herself with a chuckle as she summoned a blanket to toss over them. “Thick as thieves, these two.”

Their friendship wasn’t tested again after that, not for a while anyway.

When Harry met the Tonks family- Andromeda (“Call me Andy, please.”), and Ted (“Nice to meet you, son.”), and Tonks (“Don’t you dare call me Nymphadora or I’ll jinx your skin blue.”) -Susan went with him.

When Harry went in the chamber beneath the castle, desperate to keep the stone from Voldemort, Susan went with Harry and Ron.

When Harry panicked on the last day of school, anxious and worried about spending his summer with people he didn’t know very well (despite the nonstop flow of letters between himself and Andy since meeting), it was Susan who calmed him with promises to come over as often as he wanted.

Susan was Harry’s best friend and he hoped that her promise to be lifelong friends would hold true.

Chapter Text

Harry wound up having Susan over to his new house every day for the first two weeks, then a more reasonable amount after that when he realized Andy and Ted, and even Tonks, were actually a perfectly normal family.

Sure, Tonks was kind of annoying when she ruffled Harry’s hair as if he were a child. And Andy was a bit much with her insistence on buying Harry more clothes than he could ever wear. But Ted was a cheerful bloke who worked in the muggle world as a therapist or counselor or something similar to that.

Ted, obviously, was Harry’s favorite within their household. He always had a game to play, or fun stories to share. It was… odd, but nice, having someone who merely wanted to spend time with Harry without any ulterior motives besides getting to know him.

Harry’s favorite person outside the house was always Susan though.

He spent time with all his friends, except for Theo who spent his summers traveling with his dad and Hannah who went on holiday with her parents and brother.

Andy and Ted let Harry go to the Weasley home where Harry spent his time flying with the boys and avoiding a blushing Ginny Weasley at all costs.

Neville’s house was fun, with the greenhouses filled with every plant imaginable, but Neville’s Gran was a bit terrifying and Harry felt rather sorry for Neville having to live with her.

Andy wouldn’t give Harry permission to go to Draco’s, apparently Draco’s mum was Andy’s sister and she didn’t trust her with ‘her son’ (a sentiment that had Harry burning red with a confused sort of embarrassment), but Draco came to their home multiple times.

Hermione had to be visited at her house, which Harry and Susan did a few times, and they had a lot of fun watching films on Hermione’s telly.

The best days were the ones spent with just Susan though. The two of them even spent so much time together that they managed to build an entire treehouse in the Tonks’ backyard with a little help from Tonks herself.

“It’s our personal home,” Susan said. She hung up the sign they’d decorated on the little crooked door they’d painted red and yellow striped. “Done!”

~Harry & Susan’s Home~

“It’s a bit small to be a whole house,” Harry said wryly as he looked inside the one room treehouse.

Susan waved an airy hand. “When we graduate, we’ll have a much nicer house. This is called a starter home, Harry.”

Harry grinned and imagined himself and Susan sharing a little three bedroom house like the Tonks’ one day- a room for Harry, a room for Susan, and a room for their friends to stay in when they visited.

It was an image he liked quite a bit.

Harry’s friendship with his group stayed firm even when the Chamber of Secrets was opened on Halloween and Filch screamed that Harry attacked his cat.

As if Harry would attack an innocent cat, it was mad. It would be like someone being upset with him and killing Hedwig! An uncomfortable and terrifying thought.

His friends didn’t even blink too much when it was revealed that Harry was a Parslemouth.

“It’s so unfair, you aren’t even a Slytherin!” Draco whined. “Can you teach me??”

Harry tried, but since all hisses basically sounded the same, he wasn’t very successful.

The next time their friendship had been tested was in their second year, when Justin Finch-Fletchey was petrified and Harry was no longer welcome to sit at the Hufflepuff table for meals with his friends.

Harry turned his nose up irritably when Susan, Neville, Hermione, Draco, and Theo arrived at the Gryffindor table and poked and prodded the others so they could sit with Harry and Ron.

“Oh, I’m sorry, so I can’t sit there but you lot can sit here?” Harry asked Susan and Neville, ignoring the fact that they moved the instant they realized Harry was being given cold looks by the other Hufflepuffs.

“Merlin, he’s dramatic, isn’t he?” Theo murmured with a small smirk on his lips as he slid on the bench between Draco and Ron.

“He’s not dramatic, but he is being a wanker,” Susan sniffed haughtily. “Imagine being rude to your friends who spent all night fighting with their housemates over you.”

Harry’s anger disappeared as quickly as it had came on and he felt rather ashamed of himself as he looked between Susan and Neville.

“Did you really?” he asked in a small voice. “That’s not on, you have to live with them.”

“We couldn’t live with ourselves if we didn’t,” Neville said firmly. “So quit being a git and let’s eat.”

“Let’s also try and figure out the true culprit,” Hermione whispered.

Harry didn’t apologize, as he was terrible at them and never knew what to say, but he did buy some sweets from an older Gryffindor girl and gave them to Neville and Susan with an apologetic smile when they sat with him at the Gryffindor table again during dinner.

Things were better after that.

Well, actually they were worse, as people kept getting petrified and the others blamed Harry, but he had his friends and his best friend by his side so it wasn’t unbearable.

Harry wasn’t really impressed by the singing Valentine Susan sent him, but he retaliated with one as well and he swore he’d find a way to save the memory of it as Draco said was possible. Susan’s face had been as red as her hair, even though her teal eyes filled with tears of laughter.

Then Hermione was petrified.

Ginny Weasley got taken in the chamber.

Harry and Ron went after his sister.

And Harry somehow managed to get—

“Grounded?” Harry gasped.

Harry and Ron managed to save Ginny, kill the basilisk, get rid of the shade of Voldemort that had been possessing her, and arrived in the Headmaster’s office just in time for Harry to be drug to St Mungo’s for ‘a full checkup’ by a pale faced and trembling Andy.

Andy stood next to Harry’s hospital bed with her arms crossed, Ted looking anxious at her side despite the healer’s report that stated Harry was fine thanks to Fawkes.

“You had no business going down there,” Andy said firmly. “There are a few mildly competent professors in that building, you should have went to one of them.”

“I got Lockhart,” Harry muttered mulishly, glaring down at the inane hospital gown he’d been forced in to.

“I did say competent,” Andy snapped, driving Harry further on his bed with a small flinch.

He’d never made her mad before. Not even the time over the summer when Susan stayed for a few days and they stayed up all night eating ice cream and reading wizarding comic books in the tree house. Sure, she’d been mildly annoyed when she realized they’d spent the night outside in ‘a horribly unsafe wooden clubhouse that dangles thirty feet in the air’, but she hadn’t been mad.

“Son, we aren’t mad at you, we were very worried for your safety,” Ted said gently, approaching the bed slowly and reaching out to put his hand on Harry’s shoulder. Harry didn’t know if he just had an easy to read face, but Ted seemed to always know what he was worrying about from just a look, which… which was nice, in a way.

“What does being grounded mean?” Harry asked them, twisting the front of the gown between his fingers. “Chores?”

“An essay,” Andy said. “I want you to write me an essay on the ways you could have handled the situation differently and the three of us will discuss it when you’re finished. No flying, no trips with Nymphadora, no Susan until it’s finished. Acceptable?”

No punishment that kept Harry from Susan would ever be ‘acceptable’, but… but it wasn’t a cupboard and it didn’t involve Harry repainting a fence in the heat without anything to eat.

“I can see Susan as soon as it’s done?” Harry asked Andy, leery about being banned from seeing his best friend.

Andy’s face was solemn and trustworthy when she nodded. “You may.”

Harry smiled weakly, nervous. “Susan won’t like this,” he said in what he hoped was a playful tone. “She’s going to be very upset.”

Andy smirked and Ted chuckled.

“You explain to her exactly why you’re grounded, and I doubt Miss Bones will be upset with me,” Andy said.

Andy was right on all accounts.

Susan wasn’t upset with Andy for grounding Harry. Susan was upset that Harry went in the Chamber of Secrets without her.

“I CAN’T PROTECT YOU IF I’M NOT THERE, YOU BOOB!” Susan yelled at Harry when he finally got the okay from St Mungo’s (overkill, on Andy’s part, in Harry’s silent opinion) and returned to Hogwarts mid-celebration feast.

Harry looked toward his other friends, but the boys were grinning like idiots and Hermione was nodding along beside Susan.

“I don’t need protected, Susan,” Harry scowled. “I did just fine.”

“He did!” Ron piped up loyally. He threw an arm over Harry’s shoulders and beamed at him. “Killed that snake with a sword!”

“And could have died,” Susan hissed. “If you ever do that again I’ll- I’ll…”

“Break up with him?” Theo snickered, causing Harry to sputter and Susan to blush darkly.

“I’ll steal your broomstick,” Susan declared. “And you’ll never see it again.”

Harry gaped at her, shocked by her audacity. “You’re evil, Susan.”

Susan sniffed and then winked at him. “You love me.”

He did, but he wasn’t going to say it in front of all his friends and listen to Draco, Theo, and Ron rib him even more about his friendship with Susan. There were only so many times Harry was willing to explain that Susan was his best friend, not his girlfriend, before he gave up.

Apparently Ron, Theo, and Draco didn’t have a best friend, which was sad for them and not really Harry’s problem if they didn’t understand Harry and Susan’s friendship.

Chapter Text

A week in to summer break, when Harry finally finished the essay he’d struggled through, he was shocked by Andy on more than one account.

First, she said that Harry’s essay was ‘thoughtful’ and she hoped he would keep it in mind for ‘future Gryffindor acts of impulsivity’. Then, she said that Susan and Harry’s friends could all come over as much as they wanted, but Harry himself couldn’t leave unless Tonks was free from work and could accompany him since apparently her cousin broke out of Azkaban, a wizard prison, and everyone thought he was after Harry to kill him.

Something that would have been much more startling if it hadn’t been for the ‘very serious conversation’ Andy, Ted, and Tonks wanted to have with Harry at dinner that night.

“Harry, we would like for you to consider letting us make you an official member of our family,” Andy said after they finished eating and Harry had been shifting uneasily in his chair.

Ted slid a packet of parchment across the table to Harry, nearly shocking him out of his seat at the bold font on the top of it.

Harry blinked at it and felt very off-kilter. “Adoption?” He looked at the three Tonks’, ignoring the way that Tonks had changed her nose to a pig snout in an effort to lighten the mood. “Why?”

“Because we love you, son,” Ted said with a smile to match the warmth in his tone.

“And we would be quite honored if you felt the same about us,” Andy added.

Harry felt a lot like he had walked in to a brick wall- he couldn’t get any air in his lungs, his head ached fiercely, and he couldn’t even figure out what he was thinking.

He swallowed back the bile threatening to spew out of his mouth and scrambled out of his chair, sprinted for the door, and climbed the ladder to the little one room tree house in the backyard as quickly as he could.

Harry crouched in the corner of the treehouse, his head buried between his knees, and he struggled to force air in and out of his body to get rid of the black spots threatening to overtake him.

It wasn’t long, or perhaps it was many hours and days later, that the door creaked open and Harry turned his head so he could see Susan joining him.

“Hiya,” she said. She slid over and plopped down beside Harry, curling her knees up to her chest just as his were. “Rough day?”

Harry shrugged, a nearly imperceptible movement in the darkness of their little house. “I’ve had worse,” he admitted, aiming for a sarcastic tone and missing by meters. He didn’t bother asking how she knew where he was, he was certain Andy called her. “Do you- do you think… do you think my parents would hate me?”

Susan reared back, blinking in shock. “Why would they hate you?”

Harry turned his head back to his knees. He wouldn’t say it if it were anyone aside from Susan, but he could tell Susan anything.

“Because Andy and Ted want to adopt me,” he said hoarsely. “And- and I thought that would be brilliant, just like having real parents, except… except I have- had? real parents and it’s not their fault they died. So they’d probably be sad if I let someone else adopt me, wouldn’t they?”

Harry was pleased when Susan didn’t immediately respond, proof she was willing to actually to think it through with a rationality that Harry wasn’t capable of giving it.

“I don’t think they would be,” Susan finally said. She wrapped her arm around Harry’s shoulders, drawing him close to her. “I bet they love you enough that they want you to have a family, a set of parents to come watch you be an idiot on a broomstick, cheer when we graduate, all those parent-ish things.”

Harry grinned a bit at her jab about being an idiot on a broomstick, Susan loved to watch him fly, she said so herself.

“Is- is that what Amelia is for you?” Harry asked tentatively. Susan never mentioned her parents, aside from briefly telling Harry they were killed personally by Voldemort as his were, but she did have a lot of photos of them framed in her bedroom.

Susan didn’t seem offended or bothered by Harry’s question, she just smiled sadly. “It is,” she said. “And if we didn’t already have the same last name, and I didn’t already consider her to be a mother to me, I think she would adopt me as well.”

“So…” Harry trailed a path in the dusty floor with his foot, making an idle note to clean the little house the next day. “You think… you think I should let them?”

Susan grinned, a grin that was becoming more pretty and less childish as it used to be, even if the little gap between her front teeth was proof that it was the same smile it had always been.

“I think it’s your decision, but I also think that Andy is brilliant, since she floo called me and asked me to come over. And I think Ted is probably worried about us being out here in the dark, he is such a worrier. AND, as if you need a third reason, but Tonks did bake fresh biscuits and got us a new movie to watch tonight.”

Harry grimaced, “Tonks can’t bake. She caught the stove on fire last summer when she tried to make birthday cupcakes.”

“Fair,” Susan nodded. “But she did buy a new witch movie and I’m sure Ted has other snacks we can eat.”

“Unless they hate me because I ran outside instead of saying yes,” Harry scoffed. He accepted Susan’s hand when she helped him up and she rolled her eyes.

“I’m sooo sure that the people that love you enough to want to legally make you their son will definitely hate you because you needed time alone to think,” she drawled sarcastically. She let go of his hand long enough for them to both climb down the magically reinforced ladder before claiming it again and swinging their hands between them as they walked toward the house. “I can’t wait for you to be a Tonks, it’ll be so funny when Snape calls you ‘Potter’ and you just say ‘it’s Tonks now, thanks’.”

Harry laughed, imagining the look of fury on Snape’s face. “Next time he says I’m arrogant like my father, I can ask him ‘which one, sir?’”

“‘Sir, am I an attention seeking prat because of my father James or my mother Andromeda?’ Because I, personally, would love to see him say that to Andy’s face.”

The two of them kept coming up with more and more ridiculous taunts that Harry could use against Snape, both of them knowing that Harry would never dare to do it, while they ate biscuits that Tonks baked (with a heavy amount of help from Ted, making them edible at least) and watched the movie Tonks got them.

And, after the movie, while Susan was making up a place for them to sleep on the sitting room floor with Tonks, Harry very nervously told Andy and Ted that he’d actually quite like to be a permanent part of their family.

“If you’ll still have me…”

Harry suddenly found himself being engulfed in a hug from Andy and Ted both.

“We would love to,” Andy breathed.

“And we love you,” Ted added.

Harry peeked between their arms to raise bewildered brows at Susan, but she merely winked and saluted him. Which wasn’t really helpful at all.

Tonks’ high pitched exclamation that she had ‘ALWAYS WANTED A BROTHER!’ was helpful though.

Andy had a terribly embarrassing birthday party for Harry when she timed his adoption to be finalized on the day before he turned thirteen.

Draco came, along with his mum who was beautiful and terrifying and looked horribly uncomfortable as she tried to make small talk with Andy. Neville and his gran came, as did Hermione and her parents. Ron brought his twin brothers and Ginny, the latter of whom Harry was happy to avoid and Susan didn’t seem to like at all. Theo came with Draco, stating his father didn’t know where he was and nobody was allowed to tell him. Even Hannah came, her older brother, a soon to be sixth year Hufflepuff boy with an easy smile and blonde dreadlocks, coming along ‘to supervise’ and Harry didn’t care for him at all.

His name was Johnny and he seemed to smile a lot at Susan, which was incredibly annoying, something Hermione snickered about when Harry mentioned it to her.

“You’ve just been adopted, you turned thirteen today, and a mass murderer, your new parents’ cousin, has escaped from prison to find you and kill you, and you’re worried about Hannah’s brother smiling at Susan?” she whispered while Harry glared at where Johnny was leaning against a tree and chatting with Susan.

“I don’t trust him,” Harry said stubbornly. “He’s- I don’t know… he’s weird, isn’t he?”

“No.” Hermione laughed and patted Harry on the head, annoyingly condescendingly. “He is not weird. You are jealous, for absolutely no reason.”

Harry sputtered, he was not jealous. Susan was his best friend, he was as confident of that as he was his new name, Harry James Potter-Tonks, but Johnny didn’t even know Susan so he really had no business making her laugh like he was.

Harry swore that day that, aside from Sirius Black who apparently got Harry’s parents killed, Johnny Abbot was his least favorite person in the world.

“What’s gotten in your bonnet, bro?” Tonks asked when she launched herself in Harry’s bed the next weekend. The two of them went shopping for Harry’s supplies, Tonks insisting on paying for his books with her ‘insane auror salary’ and overall they had a good time together. Until they ran in to Susan and Hannah and Johnny at Flourish & Blotts.

Harry hadn’t even known that Susan was going shopping that day.

“Nothing,” he scowled. He was packing his trunk, desperately trying to get all of his belongings to fit without him having to fold any of his clothes.

“Back up,” Tonks ordered him. She brandished her wand, sending Harry’s belongings in the air before she swished her wand again and not a single thing changed as they fell back in his trunk.

Even Hedwig gave an unimpressed hoot from her perch beside the window.

“Helpful, thanks,” Harry said with a roll of his eyes.

“I live to please. You could ask Mum, but she’d just tell you it’s important character growth to fold your pants by hand, or something silly.”

Harry blushed, embarrassed to imagine Andy instructing him to fold his pants, which only caused Tonks to laugh.

She rolled on her stomach, propping her chin in her hands, and batted her lashes at Harry from the foot of his bed. “I forgot you’re a teeeenager now,” she said, drawing the word out ridiculously. “Now you’re all ‘don’t talk about my pants, don’t talk about Susan hanging around some fit bloke and making me jealous’.”

“Johnny is not fit and I am not jealous,” Harry scoffed. He emphasized his point by slamming his trunk lid especially harshly, forcing it to close on all his messy belongings. “Susan is perfectly able to hang out with anyone she wants. I don’t own her, Tonks.”

Tonks laughed and ruffled Harry’s hair, an annoying habit of hers. “This is going to blow up in your face so hard, little brother, and I am here for it.”

Harry’s glower deepened. Nothing was going to ‘blow up in his face’. Susan could be friends with anyone she wanted, as long as Harry was her best friend as she was his.

It took a month in to third year for Harry and Susan to have their first true fight.

Harry came down for breakfast with Ron, planning on sitting at the Hufflepuff table as he had ever since they admitted he wasn’t the Heir of Slytherin, and who was sitting in Harry’s seat beside Susan?

Johnny Bloody Abbott.

Ron, good mate that he was, followed Harry when he turned on his heel and stormed to the Gryffindor table.

Draco, Theo, Neville, Hannah, and Hermione shot the two of them a lot of confused looks, but Harry too was busy wishing Johnny fell over dead to notice.

“I hate him,” Harry whispered to Ron, curling his lip up at Johnny when he looked at Harry, then turned to Susan and laughed. “What d’you think they’re talking about?”

Ron squinted over at the Hufflepuff table for a moment. “I mean, probably Hufflepuff stuff?” he said vaguely. “Nothing terribly interesting about them, is there?”

“Susan is the most interesting person in the entire castle,” Harry said firmly. He stabbed a sausage off the plate Ron slid him aggressively and waved it around. “It’s Mister ‘Look at me, I’m so handsome’ that isn’t interesting at all.”

“Then why does it matter if he talks to Susan?” Ron grinned.

“Because I hate him,” Harry said, “obviously.”

“Obviously,” Ron agreed.

Susan caught up to Harry on their way to defense. She yanked him by the arm and glared at him while their classmates all filtered past to Professor Lupin’s classroom.

“Why didn’t you sit with us this morning?” she asked.

Harry scoffed. “Noticed that, did you? I thought maybe you’d be too busy with your new best friend to realize it.”

Susan’s glower slowly turned in to a grin. “You’re jealous!” she cried gleefully. “Of who? Johnny?”

Harry almost stomped his foot, a childish move Tonks jokingly pulled when Ted didn’t save her dessert for after she got off work, refraining at the last second to preserve his own dignity. “I am not jealous,” he spat. “If you and Johnny want to go skipping off in the bloody sunset together, then do it, I don’t even care.”

“Well you’re in a positively charming mood,” Susan hummed. She looked entirely too amused for the very serious situation. “Dementors making you mad, love?”

A very small part of Harry’s brain knew Susan was making a joke, but the rest of his brain was horribly embarrassed to be reminded of fainting on the train in front of all of his friends.

“Piss off,” Harry snapped, averting his eyes so he didn’t have to see the moment of hurt that flashed in Susan’s eyes. “I’m not crazy, I’m not jealous, I just don’t like him.”

“Well how about I just go to Hogsmeade with him this weekend instead of you?” Susan asked, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at Harry. “At least he’s never told me to ‘piss off’ because he was jealous.”

“I AM NOT JEALOUS!” Harry shouted.

He hadn’t meant to yell, and he regret it all the more when Professor Lupin poked his head out of his classroom door and raised his brows at where Harry and Susan were glaring at each other.

“Bell rang,” he said lightly. “Mind saving this quarrel for later, guys?”

“No quarrel, sir,” Susan said. She spun around and walked toward the classroom with her head held high. “Just someone I thought was my best friend being a jealous toerag.”

Harry stomped to class, choosing to sit with Neville instead of Susan, and felt his face burning when Professor Lupin laughed loudly enough out in the corridor that they could all hear it in the classroom.

Nothing about the situation was funny. Now Susan would be going to Hogsmeade with Johnny and Harry would be going with…

“Absolutely not,” Hermione said when Harry asked her to go to Hogsmeade with him. “I am not getting in between you and Susan.”

“No thank you,” Hannah said slowly, fidgeting with her robe sleeves. “Susan won’t be very happy, I don’t think.”

“I’d love to!” Lavender beamed up at Harry from the sofa in the Gryffindor common room she’d been sitting on with her friend. “I can meet you here at noon and we can walk down there together?”

“Perfect,” Harry said quickly, returning Lavender’s smile. “Thanks, Lavender.”

Ron caught up with Harry on his way up to their dorm room and he opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to say something Harry didn’t want to hear, so Harry cut him off almost immediately.

“Not a word,” Harry said warningly. “If Susan can have her cute little date this weekend, then I can go with Lavender.”

Ron sighed and shook his head. “You’re mad, mate. But… Lavender might be worse. Imagine Susan’s face when she sees the two of you there together.”

Harry had actually, guiltily, enjoyed imagining Susan’s face when Harry went to the magical village with Lavender, who was quite pretty, if rather plain with her gap-free teeth and lack of freckles on her nose.

Susan’s reaction had been much worse than Harry had anticipated though.

Harry had been suffering through listening to Lavender chat his ear off for nearly two hours when he finally bumped in to Susan at the Three Broomsticks.

Literally.

Harry had followed Lavender in the pub when he walked face first in to Susan, knocking them both backward a few steps.

“Oh you are kidding,” Susan scowled when Lavender placed a hand on Harry’s elbow to help steady him. “You brought LAVENDER with you?”

Harry spotted Johnny a few steps behind Susan and moved closer to Lavender, tucking her hand in his arm politely. “Lavender and I are friends,” he said snottily. “Like you and Johnny.”

“I will kill you,” Susan told Lavender, stepping right up in her face and drawing her wand. It was probably Harry’s imagination, or the breeze from the open door, but it was as if the wind were blowing Susan’s hair around, causing her to look like a vengeful and beautiful god.

“Let’s just go,” Johnny murmured, putting his hand on Susan’s shoulder and pulling on it slightly.

“Don’t touch her,” Harry snapped, drawing his own wand and pointing it at the older boy. “You’re not her boss, she can do whatever the hell she wants.”

“Don’t you point your wand at him!” Susan snapped.

“You don’t point your wand at me!!” Lavender shrieked in a tone that was actually a little painful to Harry’s ears.

“The lot of you get out of my pub!”

Harry looked up from where he’d been glaring at Johnny to see the barmaid staring them down, along with the many customers inside the bar, with an unimpressed look on her face.

Harry flushed and lowered his wand slowly. “Come on, Lavender, let’s go somewhere else.”

Lavender, to the little bit of credit Harry was willing to give her, stuck her nose in the air and held on to Harry’s arm as they stormed from the pub. Well, Harry stormed, Lavender did a flouncing sort of walk.

Harry didn’t feel much like exploring the village any more after that. He stopped outside the pub and stalled by patting the head of a black dog wandering around.

“Harry?”

“Hmm?”

“Did you invite me to Hogsmeade just to make Susan jealous?”

Harry looked up from the dog, guilt written all over his face. “Er…”

Lavender waved her hand around, smirking. “I don’t mind, I’m flattered, really, but I do wish you would have told me! I wore ‘first date’ clothes, not ‘make a girl jealous’ clothes!”

Harry glanced at her jumper and skirt outfit and shrugged. “You’re not mad?”

Lavender grinned and linked their arm as the dog ran off, barking loudly. “I mean, sure, it would have been fun to go on an actual date, but it is very flattering that you thought of me first to use to make someone jealous. I didn’t think I had that lioness aura, but I guess I was wrong.”

Harry had already been rude by using her to upset Susan, he wasn’t going to insult her by telling her that he’d asked two other witches before her. Instead, he listened to her explain the best way to make Susan ‘mad with jealousy’.

Harry didn’t necessarily want Susan to be jealous, just… he just didn’t want her hanging out with Johnny so much. He still listened to Lavender anyway, she seemed to know what she was talking about.

Susan didn’t speak to Harry for the rest of the month. In fact, if it wasn’t for Sirius Black, Harry thought his friendship with Susan would be over for good.

After Sirius Black tried to break in the Gryffindor Tower, prompting Dumbledore to send all the students to the Great Hall for the night, Harry barely stepped in the hall when he was tackled by Susan, knocking them backward in to Percy Weasley, who shoved them a little, and knocked them to the ground.

“I’m sorry!” Susan wailed, tightening her arms around Harry’s neck and squeezing as if she wanted him to not breathe. “They said- they said Sirius Black broke in and slashed someone open with a knife and I just realized how stupid we’re being! Fuck Johnny and Lavender, you’re my best friend, Harry James!”

Harry only understood about half of what she said, as he was struggling to keep her from suffocating him, but he fervently agreed. “Fuck Johnny,” he said.

Susan laughed and released him, smiling brightly in his face, distracting him by her sparkling eyes. “It’s you and me forever, I swear.”

Harry felt his heart skip, his breathing hitched… if he bent forward just a bit, he could kiss her. Susan’s lips parted as they stared at each other- did she want him to kiss him? Would it be weird? Would it be amaz—

“You two wanna go get a place to kip for the night?”

Susan jerked away from Harry, drawing attention to the rather awkward position they were in in the entrance of the Great Hall, at Ron’s question.

“Of course.” Susan got up, her face as red as her hair, and offered Harry a hand to help him up. She dropped it the second Harry was on his feet, leaving him feeling…

Bereft? Somehow?

“Sorry, mate,” Ron muttered as they followed their other friends to a corner where Hermione had a stack of purple sleeping bags secured for them.

“It’s fine.” Harry clapped his shoulder. “I’m only going to be pissed at you for like… two years, maybe three?”

Ron chuckled and Harry sighed.

Ron probably did him a favor. If Susan was interested in blokes that were tall, fit, blonde, and looked like Johnny Abbott, then she wouldn’t be interested in Harry.

He hadn’t even realized he was interested in Susan until she’d been sitting on his lap, her face right in his, her eyes sparkling and her face all lit up…

He’d have to be blind to not realize that Susan Bones was the prettiest, funniest, smartest, most brilliant girl he’d ever known.

He was lucky to have her as a best friend, he shouldn’t push his luck by thinking anything more about her…

That logic didn’t follow Harry to his dreams though. After his group got done discussing Sirius Black, Harry fell asleep and dreamt of teal eyes, pink lips, and the laughter of his best friend.

Things went back to normal with Susan after Halloween. They still studied together in the library, ate their meals together in the hall, and Susan went to all of Harry’s practices, no matter the time. And if Harry occasionally stared a little too long at Susan when they were on the grounds and the sun hit her hair, or when she came to breakfast with a dab of toothpaste on her lips, well, nobody seemed to notice.

(They all noticed and had bets on which one of their idiot friends would finally make the first move. Ron, Hannah, and Theo said it would be Harry; Hermione, Neville, and Draco said it would be Susan.)

After Harry fainted on the quidditch pitch, losing the match and his beloved broomstick, he’d been determined to find a way to never embarrass himself like that again. Not only did a lot of the Slytherins find amusement in mocking him in the corridors, but also Peeves overheard Andy shredding Dumbledore to pieces for ‘his lax safety measures when it came to students within his castle’ and began quoting her in song form at random times.

Sure, ‘you’re so old you’ve got brain rot’ was hysterical, but it was also embarrassing.

Christmas had been interesting, as Harry spent it with his family that year. Ted and Andy both had to work during Harry’s second year, so it was Harry’s first Christmas spent with them.

And it was mad.

First, Tonks woke Harry up Christmas morning at five in the bloody morning by jumping on him.

“Presents, little brother!” Tonks shook Harry and tried to tickle him (Tonks clearly had no respect for boundaries, something Harry heard Andy say all the time). “Come on! Get up, lazy!”

“Nymphadora, you leave your brother alone!” Andy yelled from down the hall.

“But Mummmm, it’s Christmas!” Tonks yelled.

Harry groaned and snagged his glasses from his nightstand before shoving Tonks as hard as he could, trying to knock her off him.

“I’m up, you mad witch,” he mumbled. “Merlin, Tonks, the sun isn’t even up yet!”

“I lit the fire, picked up breakfast, and there’s hot chocolate,” Tonks sang while Harry rolled out of bed and grabbed a jumper to fight the chill of the early morning. “And Amelia’s owl was here a few hours ago, so your girlfriend definitely sent you a gift.”

Harry glared at Tonks. “Susan isn’t my girlfriend and I sent her something as well.”

Something that Lavender Brown had helped Harry choose from a jewelry catalogue. A gold locket with a photo of Harry and Susan on the inside, and Susan’s birthstone on the outside. It hadn’t been cheap, but Harry thought it was well worth the cost.

After the rude wake up call, Harry was caught off guard by the sheer amount of stuff bought for him.

Andy had a shopping addiction, Harry was certain of it.

He was glad that he had spent a lot of time choosing gifts for Andy, Ted, and Tonks and that they all seemed pleased with the things he chose. In fact, Tonks immediately put on the Ballycastle Bats jersey he’d purchased ages ago and sent to the team with a carefully penned request to have it signed.

One of Draco’s ideas, when Harry mentioned it to him. It had been awkward, using his unwanted fame to get a favor, but well worth it when Tonks seemed so pleased.

Andy arched her brow at Tonks when Harry went to open the last present buried beneath their tree, but Tonks shrugged and shook her head.

“Hold on please,” Andy told Harry, causing him to freeze just as he went to tear the paper off the long and thin package.

Harry and Ted watched as Andy and Tonks both cast a variety of spells on the package. After they’d both cast nearly a dozen spells with no results, Andy handed it to Harry.

Tonks swore, earning a gentle swat in the back of the head from Andy, when Harry opened the box to reveal a—

“Firebolt,” Harry breathed. He ran a hand down the side of the gleaming broomstick, stars surely in his eyes as he imagined riding a broom that looked like that. He turned to look at Andy and Ted, “This- this is too much,” he said. “You shouldn’t have…”

“We didn’t,” Ted chuckled with a nervous look at his wife. “We we’re going to wait until this summer, take you to pick out a broom at the World Cup.”

Andy’s lips were pursed and her grey eyes were thoughtful. “Is there no card, Harry?”

Harry gently, reverently, lifted the broom from the box, allowing Tonks to flip it upside down in search of a card.

“Nothing,” Tonks quipped, perplexed.

Ted tapped his chin with his index finger, “Hmm…”

“I do wonder who would have the funds, cause, and ability to send our Harry such an outrageously lavish gift without leaving so much as a card behind,” Andy said drily.

“Maybe someone who had always been a quidditch fanatic, eh?” Ted suggested.

“What- what am I missing?” Tonks asked her parents slowly.

There was an entire discussion happening between the three of them that Harry heard none of as he rubbed the broomstick lovingly, feeling the thrum of magic beneath his fingers.

Aside from Susan, it was the most beautiful thing Harry had ever seen.

Overall, it had been the best Christmas Harry ever had. Even without spending hours on his Firebolt in the yard, Harry had never spent a holiday just… just being a part of a family.

It was brilliant.

Life continued to improve when Harry returned from Christmas and Professor Lupin agreed to teach Harry how to cast a patronus. It took a small dive Harry found out he was utter crap at it though.

“I don’t know why my memories aren’t happy enough,” Harry huffed after listening to his mum beg for his life for the third time one evening.

Lupin offered Harry a piece of chocolate and a reassuring smile. “You’re already doing very well,” he said. “May I ask what memory you were using?”

Harry stared down at the chocolate, mildly anxious after telling the man who supposedly knew his parents back in school. “Er… I was thinking about Tonks, my sister,” he told him quietly. “She… she likes calling me her brother, and I like hearing it.”

Lupin smiled, his expression warm. “I may have no right to tell you this, Harry, but I believe James and Lily would be pleased to know that you have a sister now. They had always wanted multiple kids, enough for his own quidditch team, James said.”

Harry perked up. That didn’t seem like something a casual acquaintance would know. “Were you and my dad close then?”

Lupin cleared his throat and took a step away from Harry. “Once more for tonight?” he asked, obviously refusing to answer Harry’s question. “May I make a suggestion on a memory to use?”

Harry got to his feet, pulling his wand out again. “Sure, sir.”

Lupin’s eyes twinkled for an odd moment before he spoke. “Perhaps something involving Miss Bones?”

Harry squinted at Lupin as he fought back the burn on the back of his neck. “Susan and I are just friends, sir.”

Lupin held his empty hands up placatingly. “Thick as thieves, from what I’ve seen. You seem happy when you’re around her, that’s all I’m saying.”

Harry toyed with the idea in his mind. He was happy when he was with Susan, how could he not be? She was his best friend, his first true friend. She loved him, and Harry loved her.

“Fine,” Harry conceded. He closed his eyes, trying to think of his best memory with Susan, and his lips curled up in a small smile when he remembered his idea that one day they’d share a house when they were finished with school. Sure, eleven year old Harry had thought they’d have separate bedrooms, but the idea shifted…

Just Harry and Susan, in a little cottage… Curled up together on cold nights, growing a garden of silly flowers in the summer… Harry would cook dinner, Susan would bake treats… Their cottage would always be filled with Susan’s laughter and Harry’s contentment…

“Expecto Patronum!”

“I did it!” Harry told his friends at breakfast the next day. He gave Susan an extra bright smile, grateful that she had been the one that gave him the memory (hope?) to create his patronus. “I’ve got a patronus now!”

“Amazing!” Susan cried. “I knew you could do it!”

“That’s brilliant!” Hermione leaned forward eagerly. “What animal was it??”

Harry crinkled his nose, still bemused about Lupin’s amusement over his patronus. “It’s a giant fluffy dog, a sheepdog, I guess.”

“What’s weird about that?” Draco asked curiously. “Sheepdogs are considered to be very protective and courageous. Classic Gryffindor.”

The weird part wasn’t Harry’s animal, the weird part was when Professor Lupin chuckled and mused aloud what Susan’s patronus would be.

“You have to learn how to cast it now,” Harry told Susan bossily. “Just in case I’m busy flying at our next match and dementors decide to cheat for the Hufflepuff’s again,” he added hastily.

Harry’s friends broke out in a playful debate about if the dementors could be bribed by Slytherin to cheat at the next game or not, but Susan winked at Harry and promised to work on learning the patronus charm for herself.

All of Susan’s practice wound up being all for naught when a week before Harry’s next match, the dementors were dismissed from the school and Sirius Black was declared innocent in the papers.

“Innocent?!” Harry gasped when he read the paper at breakfast over Susan’s shoulder. “But… but my parents?”

“It says it was done by Peter Pettigrew,” Susan read aloud. “It looks like Auntie Amelia oversaw the hearing that was requested by… by Andy?”

“What?!” Harry snatched the paper from Susan, a burning sense of anger filling him. Why would Andy do that? Sirius Black sold his parents to Voldemort! And now he was being let off scot-free?! “Why would Andy do that??”

“Ahem.” Theo cleared his throat and nodded toward the doors to the Great Hall. “I suppose you can ask her.”

Harry looked up from the paper and practically flew from his seat when he saw Andy standing in the doorway between Professor McGonagall and Tonks, who was dressed in her official auror robes.

“Come along, Potter,” McGonagall said when Harry skid to a stop and merely gaped accusingly at Andy. McGonagall looked past Harry for a moment and her lips twitched, “You as well, Miss Bones.”

Harry hadn’t realized that Susan followed him, but he was glad that she stepped up and grabbed his hand, always his anchor. It was an anchor that was needed all the more when McGonagall led them to her office and Andy filled Harry in on her cousin.

Tonks went to speak with Ron, only arriving mid-way through the conversation with a shake of her head that made Andy frown.

Harry was more concerned about the whole ‘godfather’ bit to worry about whatever Tonks was up to.

“So… so I suppose you’ll be wanting me to move out?” Harry asked Andy. He was relieved that Tonks and McGonagall stepped out in the corridor, leaving Harry alone with Andy and Susan. Susan squeezed Harry’s hand while Andy’s brows pinched together and she kneeled down in front of the chair Harry sat in.

“Why would I want that?”

Harry shrugged, keeping his eyes on his lap. “Well… you only took me in because I didn’t have anywhere else to go, so… it sounds like this bloke, Sirius, was the one saddled with me after my parents died. So I just assumed you’d want me to try and move in with him…”

It would hurt, losing Andy and Ted and Tonks and Harry’s new last name, but… but Andy didn’t have any obligation to keep Harry around.

“Harry…” Andy waited until Harry glanced up at her, surprised to see a warm smile and a misty look in her usually steel eyes. “Do you know what they say about people who assume things?”

Harry shook his head.

“It makes an ass out of you and me,” Andy said.

It hadn’t actually lessened Harry’s concerns, but the hug he received from Andy, along with a whispered ‘I love you, son,’ that caused him to choke up, had.

Susan grinned teasingly at Harry as they walked out to the grounds, released from their morning classes. “Ha ha, you love your mum,” she giggled.

Harry stuck his tongue out at her, feeling as if he were walking on air. “Shut your mouth, Bones, I don’t love anyone.”

Susan pouted, her eyes going big and her lower lip sticking out. “Not even me?”

Harry rolled his eyes and bit his tongue to keep from blurting anything embarrassing that would compromise their friendship.

“I tolerate you,” he said as pompously as he could.

He peeked over when Susan laughed, enraptured as always by the way the sunshine made her face light up and her hair practically glow. He smiled to see the locket he got her was still around her neck, then averted his eyes quickly when it seemed like he was staring at her chest.

He loved her so much.

The rest of their third year passed peacefully, aside from the small hiccup when Ron accused Hermione’s cat of eating his pet rat the same day Andy visited the castle. Harry won his next two quidditch matches, securing the quidditch cup for Gryffindor. Susan went with Harry to meet Sirius Black in Hogsmeade, closely supervised by Tonks and her partner, a quiet and solemn faced man named Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Sirius wasn’t a bad bloke at all either. He was funny and chatty, asking Harry loads of questions about himself and sharing stories about James and Lily when Harry asked for them. He also knew Susan’s aunt too, and Andy of course, and had been happy enough to share stories about them as well.

He’d been rather put out when he told Harry that he’d hoped they’d live together, but he cheered right up when Tonks rolled her eyes and told Sirius that he could come to the Tonks home as often as he wanted during the summer to visit them all.

Harry did wonder if Tonks went to make sure Sirius didn’t try and ‘kidnap her little brother’, as she loudly accused the man of doing the first weekend they met, or to make eyes at Professor Lupin who coincidentally seemed to be at the Three Broomsticks every time Harry met Sirius there.

“Your sister likes Lupin,” Susan snickered on their way back to the castle one weekend. “Tonks and Lupin sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”

Harry laughed, imagining Tonks telling Andy that she was chasing after a bloke thirteen years older than her. “As long as they don’t do it in our tree, it’s fine.”

“Someone should be kissing in our tree,” Susan sniffed. “It’s terribly romantic with those fairy lights we added.”

“I’ll ki—” Harry cut himself off abruptly, cursing his impulsive tongue when Susan gave him a curious look. “I’ll, er… I’ll kick your arse in a race back to the castle?”

Susan’s eyes flashed, her lips turning down at the corner briefly, but she shook it off and grinned. “You’re on, love.”

Harry was regretful to leave Hogwarts that year, nostalgic as always for the school term to end, all the more so when he found out that Snape told his students that Lupin was a werewolf, prompting Lupin’s resignation from his position.

Lupin didn’t seem too put out by it though, he was positively cheerful when Harry went to see him before he left.

“These things happen,” he said. “But I’m grateful to have been here, and- and quite glad I got to spend time with you, Harry.”

“Thanks,” Harry said with a shy grin. “And, er… here,” Harry handed Lupin a scrap of paper. “It’s my address, you should come by for dinner sometime this summer. My par— er, Ted and Andy, would be happy to meet you.”

Lupin looked surprised, but agreed to come over with Sirius at some point and Harry smirked, pleased with himself.

Tonks owed him big time.

Chapter Text

“I am going to suffocate you in your sleep, you little runt,” Tonks hissed as she chased Harry in their kitchen that summer. Technically, it wasn’t Tonks’ kitchen anymore, as she apparently moved out during the term, but she was still over for dinner every day.

“Nymphadora!” Andy glared at Tonks as Harry ducked around the table, laughing at her. “Do not call your brother a runt!”

“Mum!” Tonks’ hair flashed red before settling back on her usual pink. “He’s trying to set me up!”

“I am not,” Harry defended himself when Andy gave him a curious look. He definitely was, and it was worth it too to see Tonks blush and trip when she answered the door and saw Lupin standing there looking politely confused in his cardigan and nice trousers. “Lupin is friends with Sirius, he just came with him. And I’m not the one who invited Sirius, am I?”

“As if I wouldn’t invite your godfather to your birthday dinner,” Andy sniffed. She gave Harry and Tonks both a stern look. “Nymphadora, do not ever let me hear you insult your brother again. Harry, do not be purposefully embarrassing your sister. Is that understood?”

Out of habit, from hearing Andy lecture Tonks many, many, times, Harry echoed her response along with her.

“Yes, Mum,” they both said.

Andy looked particularly pleased as she shooed them out of the kitchen to rejoin the others out in the yard.

“I won’t let her hear me again,” Tonks warned Harry in a whisper.

Harry smirked up at her. “And I won’t be embarrassing you purposefully. Besides, you do just fine on your own.”

“Keep it up and I’ll be announcing what I heard you mumbling in your sleep the other night in front of your giiiiiirlfriend,” Tonks sang annoyingly.

Harry aimed a swift kick at her ankle, then ducked out the door when it landed and caused her to stumble.

“Brat!” Tonks yelled.

Harry grinned and waved to Amelia, who was in a quick conversation with Sirius, both of their hands flying wildly and smiles on their faces, as he moved to where his friends were all seated at a picnic table together.

“Happy birthday, love!” Susan wrapped Harry in a very flowery scented hug- did she change perfumes? -and pecked his cheek. “You’re all grown up now,” she sniffled, wiping a fake tear from her cheek. “Time sure flies!”

“Happy birthday, we aren’t kissing you,” Draco said drily when the others chuckled at Susan’s antics.

“I’m a kissable bloke,” Harry grinned, relaxing in the easy banter with his friends. “You’d be so lucky, Draco.”

Susan squinted at Harry, “How do you know if you’re kissable?”

“The dozens of witches he’s tried it out on, of course,” Theo said with a smirk.

“You should see our dorm, positively a line of witches trying to kiss him,” Ron added with a wink over Susan’s head for Harry.

“Susan’s kissable too.”

Harry felt every muscle in his body tense up as he looked slowly from Ron to Neville. “What?”

Neville Longbottom did not kiss Susan. There was no way. Neville was great, but…

But if Neville kissed Susan then Harry would never speak to him again. Might even ask Tonks or Sirius for a few new jinxes to try out on him.

Neville blanched at Harry’s cold look. “I was joking,” he said hastily. “Because Ron said you were kissable and we all know you and Susan— ouch!” Neville yelped and shot Susan a dark look. “What was that for?”

Harry glanced curiously at Susan, but she was inspecting her lime green fingernails casually.

“Hmm?” Susan hummed. “Sorry, Neville, accident. I have leg ticks, you know.”

She didn’t. Harry was certain of it. But he was glad the conversation moved past Susan’s kissableness and on to the Quidditch World Cup. Sirius had gotten tickets for it, enough for himself, Lupin, Amelia, Susan, Tonks, and Harry. He had to argue with Andy quite a bit, since she apparently didn’t trust Sirius to have Harry for a weekend, but with the reassurance of Tonks and Amelia going, she relented. Ron was also going with his family and bringing Hermione and Neville. And Draco was going with his parents and bringing Theo.

Harry would feel bad that Hannah wasn’t going, except she didn’t seem to mind at all, stating she wasn’t a fan of quidditch anyway (which was mad), and also it meant that Johnny wouldn’t be there.

Harry expected the World Cup to be brilliant.

The World Cup was not brilliant.

Sure, watching the teams fly had been wicked, Viktor Krum was a bloody god in Harry’s opinion, but the fiasco of the death eaters trampling the fields, attacking muggles, had left Harry’s group shaken.

Harry had been keeping Hermione and Susan as far from the death eaters as he could, along with his other friends, when they’d been attacked by a team of aurors for someone else casting a dark mark. Harry truly thought that Tonks was going to toss her wand and deck Cedric Diggory’s dad in the face when he accused Harry of casting it. He kind of wished she had.

“Never again,” Andy swore when Sirius brought Harry back home the morning after the attacks. Andy was pale, pacing the sitting room in her pajamas, a very uncharacteristic move, and she’d all but swooped on Harry when she wrapped him in her arms and seemed unwilling to ever release him. “My God, do you know how scared I’ve been? You should have brought him back last night, Sirius!”

Sirius must have made a face, because Andy quickly moved Harry from in front of her to her side, still keeping an arm wrapped around his shoulder while she ranted and raved at Sirius about responsibility.

Harry was… he was rather content, frankly. It was nice having someone fret about his safety, worrying if he would make it home or not. Plus, Harry knew Andy loved Sirius, so he doubted if she were truly angry at him. More like the kind of anger that came from concern, like Ron’s mum.

In fact, for the last two weeks of summer, Harry went back and forth with himself as he interacted with Andy and Ted. He watched how they treated Tonks, how they treated him. He compared it to how Ron’s parents treated him, how Susan’s aunt treated her, and how Hermione’s parents treated her.

And it was all the same, really.

So just before he got on the train, cowardly waiting until the last moment in case they were unhappy with it, Harry accepted Andy and Ted’s hugs and well-wishes for the term, beaming at the promises of spending the holiday together again. Then he gave them a crooked grin, a blush staining his cheeks.

“Love you Mum, love you Dad.”

Harry then dashed off to the train so he didn’t have to see it if they were upset.

And while Harry sat on the train and discussed the Triwizard Tournament with his friends, Andy sobbed the entire way back to the home that was too quiet without her son.

Fourth year was meant to be brilliant. It was meant to be a year of spending time with his friends while they watched other champions compete. Harry and Ron had briefly mentioned that the tournament sounded like fun, but Susan and Hermione called them idiots for wanting to risk their lives, so they simply exchanged small grins instead. It was meant to be a fun year of having a crazy ex-auror (the one who trained Harry’s sister) as their defense professor. It was supposed to be Ron helping Harry decide if Susan would be interested in snogging him or not.

It was not supposed to be Harry’s name coming out of the Goblet of Fire on Halloween.

“Harry Potter-Tonks.”

“I didn’t do it,” Harry told his friends immediately, noting that it had been a bad night to sit at the Hufflepuff table as they all suddenly glared at him with the unfriendliest faces he had ever seen.

“Of course you didn’t enter the tournament,” Susan yelled through the silence of the Great Hall. “Because if you did, then Dumbledore is an incompetent wizard, and I’m certain no one is implying that.”

Harry wasn’t sure if Susan thought that was helpful or not, but it wasn’t.

It was helpful the way she followed Harry to the teachers chamber, staring defiantly at Dumbledore when he said only Harry was needed.

“Since Harry’s name wasn’t meant to come out of the cup, I suppose we’re breaking all sorts of rules tonight, sir,” she said politely before stalking right to the door and holding it open for Harry.

Harry glanced one more time at Dumbledore, relaxing slightly at his twinkly eyed look of amusement, then followed his best friend, feeling a bit like he was walking to his death.

“I’m going to die,” Harry whispered to Susan, stricken after his meeting with the professors and ministry staff. He didn’t want to be a champion with Cedric and Fleur and Viktor Krum. He wanted to live and one day snog Susan and perhaps fly for the Chudley Cannons with Ron and—

“Mister Potter-Tonks.”

Harry and Susan jerked to a halt as Professor McGonagall’s boots clacked quickly down the stone corridor in her haste to catch up to them.

McGonagall’s lips were thin, a sure sign of her simmering anger, but her nostrils weren’t flaring anymore, so she must have calmed down to an extent since exploding on the other professors about Harry’s innocence. “I believe you have a floo call to make. Follow me. Come along, Miss Bones, it isn’t as if I can speak with one of you without the other.”

Susan winked at Harry and followed McGonagall immediately, Harry was a little more leery.

“Who do I need to call, ma’am?”

McGonagall peered at Harry over her shoulder with her brows raised. “Your parents, of course, your mother is going to be furious. Come along now.”

Harry added telling Andy that he’d been entered in the Triwizard Tournament and he forgot to call her before he was told he’d been locked in to a contract to the list of things he very much did not want to do.

“I would like to speak with Albus and Severus, now,” Andy snapped when she stepped through the floo to McGonagall’s office with Ted after they listened to Harry and Susan tell her what happened.

McGonagall nodded, looking as if she had expected nothing less. “I will fetch them, although,” her face softened by perhaps a single degree when she glanced at Harry, “I am afraid it sounds as if Harry will be forced to participate, less he lose his magic.”

“Better to be a muggle than dead,” Ted scoffed, his typically jolly face hard and angry.

Harry edged backward when McGonagall went to get Snape and Dumbledore. Susan squeezed his hand and murmured something, but he couldn’t hear her over the buzzing sound in his ears.

In fact, Harry couldn’t hear a single thing until he was pulled in Andy’s arms, once more being crushed by the woman, and she began speaking.

“My poor dear, you must be so terrified,” she said quietly, running her hand over and over in his hair. “Oh, love, why didn’t you ask for me? I would have brought your sister and every barrister I know before you verbally agreed to participate.”

Harry felt like the vice on his lungs loosened. “You believe me? That I didn’t enter?”

“Of course we do, son,” Ted said, gently squeezing the bit of Harry’s arm that wasn’t smushed by Andy. “No way you entered. Even your sister wouldn’t be foolish enough to pull a stunt like that.”

Harry couldn’t properly explain how it felt to know that Andy and Ted were furious for him and not at him, but he’d give up anything in the world aside from Susan to feel that way all the time.

It was a feeling that only got sweeter when Dumbledore and Snape arrived. Andy shooed Harry and Susan off to bed, but Ted winked at them before he left McGonagall’s door cracked enough for the two of them to hear Andy lose her mind on the two wizards.

“WHAT KIND OF POSITIVELY INCOMPETENT AND ASININE SAFETY MEASURES DID YOU PUT IN PLACE, ALBUS?! TELL ME WHY MY CHILD, MY BELOVED ONLY SON, MY FOURTEEN YEAR OLD BOY, IS IN A TOURNAMENT WITH A DEATH TOLL?”

Ted didn’t yell like Andy did, but he didn’t need to, his words were brutal.

“If I hear you’ve been unkind to my son one more time, Severus, one. more. time., I swear to you that you will never know a moment of peace again. Taunting a child who was terrified and entered in a dangerous tournament against his will? Calling a child under your care juvenile names and humiliating him in front of his peers? Is that truly the type of man you are? If so, I am disgusted and pray that no child here ever uses you as their role model.”

Harry smiled clear to the Gryffindor Tower— then lost his smile when he entered mid-party and remembered that all the plans he made for the year were smashed to pieces.

He rather felt like crying when he drug himself to his dorm, swallowing back an embarrassing sob when he saw Ron’s curtains were closed. Ron was probably just another person in the Gryffindor Tower who thought Harry entered himself and he wasn’t interested in—

“Alright there, mate?”

Harry yelped when he pulled back his own curtains and found Ron laying in his bed, looking casual as you please in his Chudley Canon pajamas.

Harry blinked. “Not really,” he said truthfully. “Why are you in my bed?”

Ron grinned and patted the mattress beside where he was stretched out. “I thought we were going to plan how to get Susan to fall in love with you?”

Harry’s spirits that the other Gryffindor’s crushed lifted once more. “You’re not… you don’t want to ask if I entered myself or not?”

Ron snorted. “You wouldn’t lie to Susan.”

And that was that.

Harry and Ron chatted about half a dozen ways to get Susan to fall madly in love with Harry, each more ridiculous and unlikely than the last, and when Harry went to sleep he had a small amount of hope that it would be a decent year… death toll tournament aside.

“This is the worst year yet,” Harry said glumly, less than a week later as he ate breakfast out on the lawns with his friends yet again.

The morning after Halloween, when Neville and Susan were at the Gryffindor table, Harry knew he was once more unwelcome at the Hufflepuff table. And the morning after that, when Draco and Theo were at the Gryffindor table and half the students in green wore badges stating ‘Potter Sucks!’, Harry knew he was unwelcome at the Slytherin table. Not that he’d ever ate there before, but the point remained.

Draco had made him smile just a little when he haughtily told a sixth year Slytherin that Harry’s last name was ‘Potter-Tonks’.

“If you’re going to insult him, at least be factual about it.”

“Yeah, but we have Hogsmeade to look forward to this weekend,” Ron said bracingly while Susan passed Harry a sticky bun and Hermione and Theo recast warming charms on their group.

Even the thought of Hogsmeade, where Tonks and Sirius swore to meet up with Harry, didn’t cheer Harry up much. He had planned on asking Susan to go, maybe take her to the queer little teashop Lavender recommended, but he couldn’t push past his feeling of doom and imminent death to find the nerve to ask her.

Probably for the best.

Harry would hate to get a single date with Susan then die a week later in the first task.

And Harry was definitely going to die in the task because it was dragons.

“Dragons, Mum,” Harry whispered through Professor McGonagall’s floo at six o’clock the morning after Hagrid showed them to him. McGonagall hadn’t seemed impressed to have Harry and Susan pounding on her door before breakfast even started on a Sunday, but she took one look at their frantic faces and led them to the floo.

“It’s dragons,” Harry repeated, as Andy looked frozen in shock. “I’m dead.”

That last word seemed to snap Andy out of whatever private terror she had been experiencing because she shook her head and narrowed her eyes at him.

“You will not be dead,” she said curtly. “Do not ever say that again, do not even think it, Harry James. Let me get ahold of your sister, and I will call you back before dinner, alright? In the meantime, go speak with Professor Moody. He trained Nymphadora, he was rather fond of her I believe, he even personally took her under his wing. Carefully, and cunningly, remind him that Nymphadora is your sister and see if he has any ideas on how to get past a dragon, or, preferably, how you can sit the task out entirely. Understood?”

Harry swallowed and nodded. “Careful and cunning,” he said. “I can do that.”

Andy studied Harry for a moment before smiling, an amused sort of smirk really. “Is Susan there?”

“Yes, Mum.”

“Put her on, dear. I forget that you’re much too guileless for cunning.”

Harry had been a touch insulted, but Susan had easily sweet talked Moody in to discussing ‘the best ways to evade vicious beasts… as an auror, of course, you know, like Harry’s sister Tonks’, which led to Harry practicing a summoning charm for hours every evening with Draco’s old Nimbus 2001 (Harry, Draco, and Ron all agreed that a Firebolt was simply too valuable a broom to risk around a fire breathing dragon).

The morning of the first task, Harry sat at the Gryffindor table, surrounded by his friends, refusing all food, and feeling utterly frantic.

His friends’ worry about him, and attempts to force feed him, were interrupted when Andy and Ted showed up thirty minutes before Harry had to go to the grounds for the task.

“Mum, Dad!” Harry jumped from his seat and hugged Andy tightly before accepting an equally tight hug from Ted. “What are you guys doing here? I- I didn’t know parents could come to watch the tasks?”

Andy hummed and shot a small and cool smile up to the Head Table where Dumbledore and the other judges were seated.

“And I thought fourteen year olds couldn’t compete,” she said. She looked over Harry’s shoulder to Susan, arching a questioning brow. “Has he eaten?”

Susan, traitor that she was, immediately shook her head.

Andy rather forcefully, if still gently, shoved Harry in his seat and sat beside him, displacing Ron from his left-hand side. “Eat, Harry James.”

“Anything I eat I’ll just throw back up,” Harry said truthfully, rolling his eyes at his friends’ snickers. “You lot go face a dragon and see how hungry you are,” he whispered, shutting them up at once.

“Sorry, son,” Ted smiled and pushed a plate of toast toward Harry. “I’d rather see you throw up than faint. Two slices and I swear I won’t let your mother embarrass you today.”

Harry sighed and accepted two pieces of toast. Throwing up in front of the school would be preferable to whatever evil Andy had been thinking up that caused her to look over Harry’s head to Susan and smirk.

Outside the Champion Tent, Harry felt as if he were in some horrible nightmare while his friends wished him luck and Andy and Ted hugged him so fiercely.

Andy looked calm, but Harry saw the tightness of her eyes and the lack of color in her face.

He wished he could go sit in the stands with them and watch the tournament from the sidelines.

“You’ll do great,” Susan said as soon as they were alone. “You’ve got a plan, you’ve got—”

“Will you kiss me?”

Harry’s blurted question caused Susan to snap her mouth shut.

“Pardon?” she finally said, quiet and soft.

Harry ran a nervous hand through his hair, feeling stupid and wishing his brain would learn to wake up before he spoke. He desperately tried to think of a way to salvage his idiotic question just in case he survived and he still needed his best friend.

“Er… if I die, I’ve never been kissed,” specifically by her, Harry silently added. “So you should kiss me so it’s not the most pathetic life ever?”

Susan didn’t look very impressed by Harry’s nonsensical explanation. “You want your first kiss to be before you die?”

Harry just wanted to kiss Susan before he died.

“Yes.”

Susan scoffed, but she leaned forward and Harry thought she was going to kiss him. His eyes fluttered closed, his heart rate picked up, and…

Susan kissed his cheek, her lips lingering on his skin. “I’m not kissing you because you think you’re going to die,” she murmured, tickling Harry with her warm breath. “Slay the dragon and then you can get your first kiss.”

Harry tried to grin, brush it off as a joke. “Don’t tell anyone at my funeral that I died without ever being kissed, okay?”

Susan rolled her eyes. “Get your arse in there, slay the dragon, then you can kiss anyone you want.” She threw her arms around Harry’s neck, “I love you, be careful.”

Harry nodded and repeated the mantra over and over in his head.

Slay the dragon, kiss anyone he wanted.

Harry didn’t listen to the crowd when the other champions went before him.

Slay the dragon, kiss anyone he wanted.

And Harry hardly heard the screams and shouts when it was his turn to try and outfly the Hungarian Horntail.

Slay the dragon, kiss anyone he wanted.

When the dragon had been ‘slayed’, outflew, really, and Harry had his golden egg held high, he didn’t even think about the pain in his shoulder from the dragon’s tail as his eyes sought out Susan’s in the crowd.

She was standing beside Andy in the stands, her face lit up as she screamed and cheered and shouted for Harry.

She was breathtaking in her joy.

Kiss anyone he wanted.

There would never be anyone Harry wanted to kiss as badly as he did Susan.

He didn’t get a chance though, not when he’d been hounded by his friends and family after he got his scores. And, by the time he found himself being all but drug to the Gryffindor Tower, yanking Susan along by the arm, he lost all the bravado he felt before the task.

“You should have done it tonight, mate,” Ron murmured from his bed beside Harry’s. “A victory kiss during a celebration party? Would have been the perfect time. Then you could blame it on your excitement at winning if she didn’t like it.”

“I couldn’t,” Harry said glumly. “She’d been drinking and Mum said if I ever kiss anyone under the influence that I’d be in the worst trouble of my life.”

Susan only had a single drink, as much as Harry had, but Andy had been terribly firm that any alcohol was too much alcohol when they had their awkward ‘consent is key’ conversation over the summer so Harry hadn’t wanted to risk it.

Ron rolled on his side so he could peer over at Harry with his head propped up on his hand. “You just took on a dragon, what could possibly be worse than that?”

“She swears she knows a curse that would cause me to feel imbalanced for an eternity. I’d never be able to fly again,” he said seriously.

Ron snorted, which caused Harry to grin, then Ron chuckled, Harry laughed, and the two of them were still in a fit of laughter when Seamus and Dean returned to the dorm.

“This school is a bloody joke and I hate it,” Harry declared furiously at dinner one night. He stabbed at his steak and kidney pie, taking his anger at Hogwarts out on his food.

Ron gave him a sympathetic look that the others didn’t share. “You can go home until the ball,” he said. “McGonagall said she’d give you permission to use her floo.”

She did.

After McGonagall said that Harry had to open a daft ball with his fellow champions, dancing, Harry had been unable to keep his face from crumpling.

“You will have no trouble finding a date,” McGonagall told him, as if thinking that was Harry’s concern.

Even though… he kind of doubted that he’d find a date.

“Ma’am, it’s just… it’s… I- my parents, Ted and Andy, they wanted me to come home for the holiday,” Harry mumbled. He scuffed his trainer against the floor, “And I wanted to… I wanted to go home.”

McGonagall studied Harry over her glasses for a long moment before she sighed. “Very well, I presume that Andromeda would be quite unhappy if she missed an opportunity to share a holiday with you. I will speak with Andromeda and Ted and perhaps a compromise can be made? You go home for the holiday, then return the day of the Yule Ball. I will even allow you to use my floo, is that acceptable?”

It had been. Until McGonagall told him it meant he needed to find a date in the next four days before he left for home.

“She said I can use her floo if I find a date for the ball before break,” Harry muttered to his friends. “So I probably won’t be able to leave, Ted will cry, Tonks will hate me, and then I’ll die in the second task because I can’t figure out the damn egg anyway.”

“Merlin you’re dramatic,” Theo scoffed. He waved a hand, gesturing at the packed and gleefully chattering Great Hall. “Any one of these students would be happy to go with you.”

Harry felt Susan stiffen from beside him, and he worked very hard to not look at her, the one person he would most want to go with.

Dancing in front of the entire school wouldn’t be so bad if he could do it with Susan…

“Why don’t you go with Susan?”

Harry and Susan both looked up instantly at Hermione’s sarcastic sounding question.

“I…” Harry glanced at Susan, noticed her pink cheeks (Susan blushed when she was pleased and when she was embarrassed- so which was it?) “S-Susan? Do you… do you want to go with me?”

Susan toyed with a lock of her hair, a nervous habit of hers that drove Harry mad as he wanted to toy with her hair. “As friends or…?”

“Friends,” Harry said quickly, not wanting to push his luck. He gave her a hopeful grin, “Best friends?”

Susan sighed a little, which caused Harry’s heart to actually feel as if it broke, but she nodded. “As best friends, Harry,” she said with a weak smile.

Harry left the Great Hall quickly after that, muttering an excuse about needing to pack, and swallowed back his disappointment when he threw himself in his bed with his curtains firmly closed.

It would be something like a dream taking Susan to the ball, but it wasn’t as if she had looked very cheerful about going with him… If he were a better person, he’d tell her nevermind, let her go with someone she actually wanted to go with, but… but Harry wasn’t that good of a person.

“You’re so stupid,” Tonks sighed. “She’s mad about you, Harry. She was probably upset that you wanted to go as just friends. Hand me the strawberry sauce.”

Harry dutifully handed over the strawberry sauce, swapping it for the marshmallow fluff he poured over his bowl of ice cream while he considered it. “Why wouldn’t Susan just say she wanted it to be a date if that’s what she wanted?”

“Why didn’t you?” Tonks countered with. She sprayed a whole mountain of cream on top of her sundae and turned the bottle toward Harry, who nodded.

“Because if I said I wanted it to be a date, and she didn’t, then it would ruin our friendship,” Harry explained patiently. “That’s enough, I don’t need that much.”

Tonks swiped her finger through Harry’s whipped cream, grinning before she ate it. “Cherries,” she said bossily. “Susan probably thought the same thing. If she said she wanted it to be a date, and you didn’t, then your friendship might have been ruined.”

Harry frowned thoughtfully while he threw a cherry on both their massive sundaes. “Might have?” he repeated.

Tonks got them both a spoon and led them to the sitting room while Harry juggled their bowls.

“I don’t think anything could really ruin your friendship,” she said. She flicked on the telly and plopped down on the sofa beside where Harry sat. “You two are like… like two halves of the same person. Thick as thieves, that’s what you are.”

Harry grinned reluctantly while he handed over her dessert. “She’s my best friend,” he said simply.

“Friends to lovers,” Tonks sniffled and swiped away a fake tear beneath her eye. “It’s my favorite trope.”

“You’re an idiot. How- how do I ask her if she wants to make it a date without it being weird?”

Tonks narrowed her eyes at the telly and hummed while she took a giant bite of her ice cream sundae disaster.

“Here’s what you do,” she said as the beginning notes of whatever ridiculous Christmas movie she chose started up, “don’t ask her if it’s a date, just make it a date. So get her flowers, dance with her, be all ‘datey’,” she nearly dropped her bowl to do the air quotes, “and then make a move at the end of the dance. It’ll be romantic, right?”

Harry grimaced. If he waited until after they danced together, it wouldn’t be romantic at all. “I can’t dance,” he said glumly as he stirred up all his toppings in his ice cream. “I’ll step on her toes or something and she’ll never want it to be a date.”

Tonks gave Harry a truly evil smile, a stark contrast to the cheery Christmas carols being sang on the telly by little animated chipmunks. “Harry, Harry, Harry, Mum will be thrilled to teach you to dance. Don’t you worry, I’ll be sure to tell her you need lessons first thing in the morning.”

Harry shot a panicked look toward the stairs before schooling his expression in to something less terrified. “Er… no, Tonks, don’t do that.”

“I won’t tell her if you help me figure out what Remus meant when he said he ‘didn’t feel like going out’ with me?”

Harry stared at her, deadpan. “Uh, that he didn’t feel like going out with you, duh.”

The ‘duh’ was probably too much.

Harry figured that was what prompted Tonks to tell Andy at lunch the next day that he didn’t know how to dance, prompting Harry to be subjected to humiliating dance lessons every day until Christmas Day.

The four of them had a brilliant morning together. Ted made breakfast and Tonks woke Harry up at five, a tradition, apparently, Andy took photos of Harry and Tonks throwing wrapping paper at one another.

And Harry had never been so glad that he told McGonagall that he wanted to go home for the holiday as he was in those moments.

“Ooh, you look wonderful,” Andy cooed and flashed a camera in Harry’s face when he went downstairs to floo back to Hogwarts, wearing the posh navy blue dress robes that Tonks got him for Christmas.

Harry flushed, flattered and embarrassed. “I look like a ponce,” he muttered.

“A handsome ponce,” Ted winked. He handed Harry a bouquet of red roses, “For Susan.”

“I think she’s a bit young for you, Dad, but I’ll pass them along,” Harry grinned.

Ted laughed and went to ruffle Harry’s hair, only stopping when Andy swatted his hand with a thin lipped look.

“It took me an hour to get it to lay flat, don’t mess it up now,” she scolded him. “Harry, darling, have a wonderful time. We’ll miss you so terribly and we’ll see you at the second task, okay?”

“Which you need to get working on,” Ted said seriously.

Harry had been about to step in the floo when he stopped, surprised. “Er… didn’t I tell you? Tonks solved the egg the other day. It’s mermaids, they’re going to steal something of mine and I’ve got to go retrieve it within an hour.”

Judging from the looks on his parents’ faces, Harry had not told them.

“Right, well… Tonks is going to send me gillyweed, which she said is ‘Harry-proof’, so… it’ll be fine,” Harry said with forced bravado. “I’ll swim to the bottom, fetch my Firebolt, and come back.”

Andy waited until Harry floo’d to Professor McGonagall’s office to turn to Ted with wide and horrified eyes.

“Does he believe anything is truly ‘Harry-proof’?”

Ted tried to grin, though he was as concerned as his wife. “Don’t stress too much, dear. He said Dora helped him create his plan.”

“Is that meant to make me feel better?!”

Harry stood at the bottom of the grand staircase, frozen, as the air left his body, his blood ceased flowing, and all he could see was her.

Susan walked slowly down the stairs, the only thing of importance in any world, looking like… like a goddess… or a princess… or…

There was nothing perfect enough to describe how she looked.

Susan had a small, nervous, grin. A red lipped grin that made it stand out even more than usual. Her auburn hair was loose, perfect curls laying across her bare shoulders. And her eyes, Merlin, her eyes, Harry didn’t know what mysterious magic was used to make Susan’s eyes look so wide, that made them sparkle more than the silver floor-length gown she wore, but it was absolutely witchcraft.

Nothing Harry had ever witnessed before carried as much proof of the existence of magic as Susan Bones did.

“Hiya,” Susan said quietly when she reached the bottom of the stairs and smiled at Harry. “You look handsome.”

Harry tried to get his tongue to work, to tell her how unearthly, magically, perfectly, beautiful she looked, but all he managed to do was stutter a bit and cause Susan to tilt her head curiously at him.

“For you,” Harry finally said, holding the roses out to her.

Susan smiled widely, her little gap between her teeth proof that this was the same Susan that Harry had known for years, the Susan that knew Harry better than anyone.

“Thank you,” she said. She tapped the roses with her wand, quietly shrinking them until she could tuck them in the little sequined clutch she carried. “Should we go line up with the others? Everyone else is here, somewhere.”

Harry nodded quickly, rather out of the loop on which of their friends were going to the ball and who they had as dates. Susan filled him in while they walked, hand-in-hand, toward the line of champions.

“Neville brought Ginny, Ron is with Hannah, Theo brought Daphne Greengrass, and Draco brought her younger sister, Astoria. Draco wanted to bring that horrible Pansy, but I told him I’d jinx his hair red if he did.”

Harry laughed, relaxing at the familiar topics. “What about Hermione? Is she here?”

Susan giggled and pointed subtly to a pretty girl standing beside Viktor Krum in a periwinkle dress.

“Oh, she looks nice,” Harry said dismissively.

Susan quirked a brow, but didn’t say anything more about it as McGonagall came around in her prim dress robes to line them up for their entrance in the hall.

Harry would have been more stressed, worried about embarrassing himself in front of everyone, if it weren’t for Susan’s arm being tucked in his own. Sometimes he thought he could take on a whole army of dragons as long as he had Susan by his side.

Susan made him want to do better, be better.

“You’re the best person I have in my life,” Harry whispered to Susan when they danced the opening song together.

Susan lifted her head from where it had been resting on Harry’s chest and looked up at him through her lashes.

“You’re my best friend,” Susan said simply, four words Harry not got tired of hearing.

Harry tried to think of something to say that would tell Susan he wanted it to be a real date- something smooth and romantic that would make her smile as they swayed in each other’s arms on the dance floor while the Great Hall was decorated so perfectly.

But Susan’s eyes were distracting and Harry wound up saying something utterly idiotic.

“Tonks said friends to lovers is her favorite trope.”

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

It worked partially though, Susan did smile, she laughed, in fact.

“Your sister is the best,” she giggled as she laid her head back on his chest. “How was your holiday?”

Harry mentally sighed, he’d buggered up a perfect moment because he was a moron. He figured he’d have another chance at the end of the night, maybe a kiss at the end?, so he let it go for the moment and filled Susan in on his too brief holiday. He even told her about his dance lessons with Andy, something that made Susan laugh again until Harry laughed as well.

Susan even managed to make dancing enjoyable, an impossible task.

Overall, the Ball wound up being much more fun than Harry expected it to be. And since Susan looked as if she felt the same way, Harry had high hopes for ending the night on a date-like note.

Until he was reminded that if he ever wanted to kiss Susan, he was going to have to get rid of the rest of his friends first.

Just when Harry thought he worked up the bravery to kiss Susan, Ron and Hermione started a terrific screaming match not ten feet from where Harry and Susan stood. Worse than that, they drug the two of them in to it.

“If you don’t like who I went with maybe you should have asked me yourself!” Hermione yelled at Ron.

“Is Ron still upset about Krum?” Harry murmured to Susan.

Susan nodded. “Ron fancies Hermione.”

Obviously.

Harry heard about Hermione Granger almost as often as Ron heard about Susan.

“It has nothing to do that!” Ron screamed back. “You’re- you’re fraternizing with the enemy!” Ron looked around while Hermione scoffed and Harry groaned when his eyes landed on him, “Right, Harry?”

Harry took an automatic step backwards. “Er…”

“Don’t be thick,” Susan snapped at Ron. “You’re just upset because you fancy Hermione.”

“I do not!” Ron’s voice hit what seemed to be a horribly high pitch. “What would you know about fancying someone anyway? You’re the thickest person I know.”

“Woah,” Harry stepped back forward, frowning at Ron. “That’s not on.”

Sure, Susan didn’t seem to know Harry fancied her…

Was fancy even the right word for the never ending, all encompassing, dream interrupting, feelings he had for her?

…but Harry didn’t want her to know yet either.

“She doesn’t need defended by you, Harry,” Hermione said waspishly. “You’re as bad as Ron.”

“Don’t have a go at Harry because Ron’s being a twit,” Susan warned Hermione. “Harry hasn’t had as much time to understand flirting.”

“Oi!” Harry gave Susan a wounded look. “What’s that mean?”

Harry understood flirting just fine. It was Susan who never seemed to notice when he was flirting with her.

… okay, so Harry understood flirting, he just wasn’t good at it.

“Nothing, love,” Susan sighed. She pecked Harry on the cheek and gave him a tired smile. “Tonight was lovely, I’ll just walk Hermione back to her tower before they say something they regret, hmm?”

Ironically, Harry was filled with regret when he watched Susan and Hermione run up the staircase together.

“Girls are mad,” Ron muttered darkly as the two of them slunk off to their common room together.

Harry gave Ron an exasperated look. “I am mad. At you,” he clarified. “I was going to finally kiss her.”

Ron patted Harry’s shoulder. “Course you were, mate.”

Mum
Tonks
Sirius,
Can we meet up in Hogsmeade and talk, please? My next weekend is the 14th. I need advice and you’re my only hope.
I’m not saying this is an emergency, necessarily, but I am saying it is a matter of life or death.
Come alone.
-Harry

“Life or death may have been an exaggeration,” Harry said slowly, blinking in surprise.

Sirius didn’t even reply to his letter, he just arrived at Hogwarts on the fourteenth, at the gates no less, and stood beside his motorbike with his wand in hand and a terrifyingly solemn expression.

Sirius’ hand clenched and unclenched on his wand. He waited until Harry’s friends headed off toward Hogsmeade, all sporting similar smirks and giggles, before he sighed.

“Kiddo, you said life or death.”

Harry shifted from foot to foot, “It feels like it,” he hedged. “I needed advice.”

Sirius stared at Harry for a long moment, long enough for Harry to worry about having pissed him off, before he sighed again, grinned, and swung a leg over his bike.

“Climb on,” Sirius told him. “We’ll fly to a quiet pub, eh? Then you can tell me about your girl problems.”

Harry did as instructed, mentally praying that nobody ever told Andy he rode with Sirius without a helmet. “How’d you know it was girl problems?” he yelled while he held on to Sirius and they soared through the sky.

Sirius laughed louder than the air rushing past them. “You’re a Potter at heart, it’s always about a girl with you Potters.”

Harry thought that was rather unfair as he had currently been competing in a life or death tournament, but… but Harry did need advice about a girl.

“You are so like your father,” Sirius grinned after Harry spilled his soul to him. “James,” he clarified. “Merlin, you sound just like James when he used to go on about Lily.”

It wasn’t that Harry didn’t enjoy hearing how he was like James Potter, especially when it came from someone aside from Snape (who hadn’t spoken a single word to Harry since Halloween), but it wasn’t as if James and Lily had a happy ever after.

And Harry wanted a hell of a lot longer than a few years with Susan.

“So how did he get her to go out with him?” Harry asked, more than a bit desperately. “Were they friends first? Was he worried about ruining his friendship? Who made the first move?”

Sirius laughed and nudged Harry’s butterbeer toward him. “They weren’t friends, not like you and Susan. Your dad liked her from the first time they met though. It’s why Snape hated him.”

Harry spat out a mouthful of butterbeer and he never wound up getting advice about Susan.

He did leave with a faintly disgusted feeling like he needed a shower though after hearing about how his greasy and cruel professor had been best friends with his mum up until he called her the ‘m word’ (a term Ted used that Harry adopted in his own vocabulary).

Harry was the first one at dinner that night, freshly showered and still deeply disturbed. Susan and the others arrived while Harry was buttering a roll.

Susan plopped down beside him and casually brushed a piece of wet hair off Harry’s forehead with a grin. “You need a haircut,” she said. “Did Sirius give you any tips on the next task?”

Harry’s mind was busy trying to decide if he’d be better off asking Hermione or Draco to cut his hair for him and he forgot the lie he gave Susan for why they couldn’t go to Hogsmeade together.

“What? No, Tonks did.”

Ron coughed at the same time as Susan lifting her brows.

“I thought you needed Sirius’ help?” she asked Harry.

“Er… I did, and he helped me because Tonks helped him. Like, she gave him the idea?” Harry said quickly, making it up as he went. “She was at his house, er, hanging out, since they’re cousins you know, and he mentioned the egg and then Tonks said oh maybe it’s mermish and then Sirius thought maybe it was in the lake, and now Tonks sent- is going to send me gillyweed.”

Harry had been pleased with his explanation, though Draco and Neville snickered at him and Susan hadn’t looked convinced at all.

“Overkill there, mate,” Ron said as they made their way to the dorm. “Want me to cut your hair?”

Harry sighed and nodded. Even if Ron buggered it up, he’d grown it back after Petunia got at him with clippers before.

Thankfully though, Dean stepped in before Ron could make Harry look stupid, and Dean was surprisingly good at cutting hair. Good enough that Susan complimented Harry the next morning and made his whole month.

Which was good, because the next month had been terrible.

“Where’s Susan?” Harry groaned to his friends for the umpteenth time. He was due to be on the grounds for the task in the next ten minutes and Andy, Ted, and Tonks (who got the day off work just for the task) were already down there. Ron, Draco, Neville, and Theo were waiting with Harry though as neither Susan nor Hermione had arrived at the Great Hall yet.

“Maybe she overslept?” Neville suggested. “I didn’t see her in the common room this morning…”

“Maybe she had another sleepover in Hermione’s dorm,” Theo said with a patient tone that didn’t match Harry’s anxious state at all. “I’m sure they’ll be there in time to stare at the lake for an hour.”

“At a minimum, they’re together anyway,” Ron added when Harry’s disappointment must have been visible.

Ron had been right.

Susan and Hermione were together.

In the bottom of the lake.

Harry’s heart stopped when he found Susan in the bottom of the lake, tied to a statue. He didn’t stop to think, didn’t stop to notice Hermione or Cho Chang or the little blonde girl, he just untied Susan and swam to the surface with her, terrified she was already dead.

“Thing you’d miss the most, huh?” Susan asked faintly when her head broke the water and her lashes fluttered.

Harry didn’t even have the energy to banter with her, he’d swam so hard and so fast he was struggling with dragging Susan to shore. “Guess so.”

When they got to the dock, and Ron and Neville helped drag them up, and after Andy and Tonks embarrassed Harry by smothering them in concern, Susan gave Harry the sweetest smile he’d ever seen from her.

“You’d be the thing I’d miss the most too,” she said. She leaned forward to kiss Harry’s cheek and, maybe it was his imagination, but he thought she’d lingered with her lips on his cheek longer than usual.

Harry was so gone for her.

It was Susan Bones or nobody for him.

What witch, what human being, could ever compete with her brilliance? Her wit? The way she made Harry feel so warm and happy, as if he were arriving at home after a long day? The way that everything that made him Harry was safe in the hands of Susan Bones- his secrets, his stories, his fears, and his dreams?

It was Susan Bones or nobody.

Time kept slipping away after that.

Time to study with Hermione and Theo- gone.

Time to play chess with Ron and Draco- gone.

Time to laugh in the kitchens with Neville and Hannah- gone.

Time with Susan doing everything and nothing at all- gone.

Everyone told him he had no problems in the first or second task, he was the champion in the lead, so he would be fine in the third task as well, but Harry didn’t share their optimism.

The Triwizard Tournament had a death toll and Harry had too much to live for, too much left to do in his life, to not worry that he’d be another tally mark in the category. It was that reason that led to Harry practicing every spell he could when the third task had been announced.

It almost felt like cheating, having a sister who was an auror, because Tonks was a genius and came to Hogwarts every weekend to train Harry for a month.

Correction, Tonks was a genius and also a bit of a prat as she ran Harry, and whatever friends of his were daft enough to go train with him, completely ragged.

“Eat up,” Lupin said cheerfully when he passed out chocolate to Harry, Susan, and Draco after the last weekend before the third task. Draco curled his lip up at Lupin, though if it was because he didn’t care for Lupin or because he was as exhausted as Harry felt remained to be seen. Harry didn’t mind Lupin, he thought it was a riot that Tonks was disguising dates with the man as ‘defensive magic training’, but he didn’t want chocolate so he gave his piece to Susan.

“I think you’ll do fine,” Tonks told Harry before she left. She hugged him and tussled his hair with a wan grin, “Dad’ll be pleased when I tell him how hard you worked today.”

Harry, in a moment of madness, hugged Tonks a little tighter. “You think I’ll die?” he whispered, a worry he’d only trusted Susan with before then.

Tonks pulled away from Harry, holding him by the shoulders and looking more solemn than he had ever seen her look before.

“I think you better do your best not to, or Mum will kill us both.”

The night before the third task, Harry couldn’t sleep. He pulled out Sirius’ old map, the one that Lupin confiscated from the Weasley Twins and gave to Harry before he left (Harry didn’t feel too guilty about it, as it was one of the very few things of James Potter’s that he owned). Harry turned the map on and looked in the Hufflepuff dorm for Susan’s dot.

It was probably creepy, invasive even, but sometimes Harry felt better just seeing her name on the map. Susan meant the world to him, so if she was alive and on the map, then Harry’s world was safe.

Except Susan wasn’t in bed, her dot was moving back and forth in the Hufflepuff common room.

And if Harry couldn’t sleep, and Susan clearly wasn’t sleeping, then there was no reason they couldn’t worry about the task together.

That was how they wound up wrapped up in a blanket and warming charms on the bank by the Black Lake. It was quiet out, still and silent, and Harry felt peaceful as he stroked Susan’s hair from where she had her head on his lap.

He wished every day could be like that moment.

“Harry?”

“Hmm?”

“When we graduate, what do you want to do?”

Harry was leaning back, his legs stretched out and his body propped up with one hand in the sand. He looked away from the moon he had been watching to see Susan staring up at him with her wide eyes, earnest and guileless, Susan would never mock Harry for his dreams and ideas.

“Travel,” he said. He ran his fingers down her hair, always in awe at how soft it was and how Susan just let him touch her whenever he needed something to ground him out of his swirling thoughts. “I want to see the world, Susan. And- and I want you to go with me.”

Susan smiled, “Paris,” she said simply. She turned back to watch the ripples of the lake that broke the reflection of the moon. “Let’s go to Paris first.”

Harry closed his eyes for a moment, a fierce fire building in his chest; he had to finish the tournament then take Susan to Paris.

“Paris first,” he agreed.

It was something like a dream that Harry once had as a very small child when he stood at the entrance of the maze with his fellow champions.

The fact that he was about to enter the third task was the nightmarish aspect that all his dreams used to have, but the rest of it was better than Harry could have ever expected.

“IN FIRST PLACE, OUR YOUNGEST CHAMPION, FROM HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF MAGIC I GIVE YOU HARRY POTTER-TONKS!”

A name that meant he had people who loved him, a family.

The stands were as loud for Harry as they were Cedric, maybe even a touch louder. Certainly the section marked off for Harry’s family was much louder. Sirius and Amelia were whistling and clapping, Tonks and Lupin were stomping their feet (they couldn’t clap as Tonks claimed she was ‘so worried about her brother’ she needed to hold Lupin’s hand) and cheering. And right in the middle, looking so proud that Harry could cry, were Andy and Ted. Andy clapped politely while Ted yelled Harry’s name with all the pride of any other father.

It felt like something from a dream.

Harry raised his hand one last time to his family, his family, before searching for his friends in the stands, locking eyes with Susan, mouthing ‘love you’, and entering the maze.

He didn’t care about winning, not really, he cared about surviving. But… but Harry also imagined himself actually winning, holding that cup high, and seeing his family look so proud, having Susan run up to him… he could kiss her then, he would.

Win or lose, Harry was determined to finish the maze and make it back to Susan.

Survive, Harry thought when Cedric was killed only moments after they took the cup together.

Make it back to Susan, Harry thought when he was tied to Tom Riddle’s tombstone by a man he’d only ever heard about before.

Don’t break Andy’s heart, Harry thought when he ducked behind a tombstone to jeers and laughter from Death Eaters and taunts from Voldemort himself.

Make Ted proud, Harry decided when Voldemort mocked him, reminding him that James Potter died on his feet while Harry was being a coward.

“I’m sorry,” Harry whispered when his wand was locked with Voldemort’s and James and Lily Potter came out of the connection.

“We’re so proud of you, we’re so happy you found your family,” James told Harry.

“We love you so much,” Lily added with a sweet smile. “Be ready to run, baby, run and get back to your family, your Susan.”

Get back to your family, Harry told himself, sprinting for Cedric’s body on his destroyed leg and trying to summon the Portkey.

Harry made it back to his family, Cedric didn’t, and the world became so cold.

“You’re safe, darling,” Andy murmured. She sat next to Harry on his hospital bed, holding him against her body tightly while she ran a hand up and down his arm, as if knowing Harry was freezing from the inside out. “You did excellent, Harry, so, so excellent.”

“He’s dead, Mum,” Harry cried, idly glad that Andy kicked everyone out of the Hospital Wing aside from himself and his parents, Tonks and Sirius as well, but they had taken up positions by the door and kindly pretended not to notice Harry falling to pieces. “I- I told him to take the cup with me, said we could share the glory, I- I just thought… I thought maybe…”

He thought Susan would be pleased with him, pleased that Harry wanted Hufflepuff to be celebrated as she complained they were often so overlooked.

Harry’s crush killed a person.

It was all so juvenile, so childish.

Harry wanted Susan to smile at him, and it had gotten Cedric killed.

“No,” Ted said firmly. He couldn’t fit on Harry’s bed, not with Andy sitting there with Harry all but in her lap as he cried. Ted still grasped Harry’s shoulder tightly and held him as if he also thought Harry very nearly didn’t return to them. “Whatever you’re thinking, you are wrong, son. There is no one to blame for Cedric’s death aside from the one who cast the spell, is that understood?”

Harry didn’t bother responding, since Ted was wrong for once, and instead let Andy baby him until Madam Pomfrey quietly brought a vial of Dreamless Sleep for Harry to take.

Andy handed it to Harry, and he hesitated before taking it.

“Mum, is… where’s..?”

Andy smiled patiently. “She’s in the corridor with Amelia, shall I have Tonks fetch her?”

Harry hesitated, but Tonks must have heard Andy because she opened the door and Susan burst in the room.

“Harry!” Susan ran to Harry’s bed and climbed right in his bed, shaking and sobbing in his lap as Harry had just been doing to Andy. “I thought- and nobody- and then… I thought you were gone!”

Andy sat Harry’s potion on the nightstand and silently stepped over to the doorway with Ted, Tonks, and Sirius.

Harry clutched Susan to him, both of them crying and whispering a mix of nonsense and apologies.

“I’m so sorry you had to do that,” Susan whispered after Harry told her as much as he could choke out. She swiped a tear off Harry’s cheek and looked as wrecked as Harry felt.

Harry caught her hand and held it to his face while he stared in her glistening eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t do enough.”

Susan tilted her forehead to his, their noses bumping together.

“You did more than anyone could have expected.”

That didn’t mean it had been enough.

Chapter Text

Harry spent the first week of the summer before fifth year curled up in his room.

There was a war being brewed, groups being formed, alliances built, and Harry didn’t care about any of it.

Well, he cared about the war in the way that it wouldn’t have started if it weren’t for him, but that was it.

Everyone seemed fine with Harry’s self-imposed exile for a while, or they put up with it anyway, until Tonks burst in Harry’s room one afternoon, fed up with him.

“Get your arse out of bed right now,” she demanded. She had her hands on her hips, her auror robes unbuttoned and a pair of jeans and a black tshirt on underneath them. She held her wand up when Harry just blinked at her from beneath his cocoon of blankets. “Now, Harry, or I swear I’ll drown you.”

“Get out of bed or you’ll kill me?” Harry snorted and pulled his blanket more securely around himself. “You’ll have to get in line, Nymphadora, I think Voldemort called dibs on ending my life. His crucio is probably a bit worse than yours though, no offense.”

“You asked for this.”

Harry yelped when he suddenly found himself under a stream of water pouring from Tonks’ wand.

“MUM!! GET YOUR DAUGHTER!” he yelled when Tonks didn’t stop until Harry jumped from his bed.

“She’s gone,” Tonks said smugly. “She’s with Sirius and Amelia at an order meeting.”

Harry shook his head, sending a spray of water droplets from his hair toward Tonks, then glared at his sister. “So you thought you’d irritate me because you’re bored?”

“I thought I’d drag your arse out of bed and the pity party you’re having,” Tonks said firmly, brokering no argument in her tone. “Everything sucks, but it sucks worse with you hiding and pushing us all away. Now, are we family or not Harry?”

Harry glared down at the floor, his lower lip caught between his teeth. Would Tonks be hurt being related to Harry? Would Andy or Ted? Would they all be in danger because Voldemort was back now?

“Admit I’m a brilliant and powerful auror or I will hex you until you do.”

Harry glanced up, “Excuse me?”

Tonks smirked at him and swished her wand through the air, losing her smirk when Harry flinched.

‘That hurt, didn’t it, Harry? You don’t want me to do it again, do you? Answer me! Crucio!’

“Sorry,” Tonks said sheepishly, tucking the wand away, ripping Harry from his ever-swirling memories as her hair flashed different shades and caught his attention. “It was a joke, I’d never actually hurt you. But I am a brilliant auror, top of my finishing class, actually. So whatever nonsense you’re thinking, worrying about in that little selfless head of yours, you’re wrong. You hiding in your room doesn’t keep us safe, it just hurts us.”

She shrugged and put her hands in her pockets before adding the cherry to the top of the guilt trip sundae. “Mum’s been crying every day.”

That, more than anything, caused such a twist of guilt in Harry’s stomach that he left his sanctuary and rejoined his life.

And seeing Andy’s smile when she returned from an order meeting (apparently the group founded by Dumbledore to face off against Voldemort) and she saw Harry sitting at their kitchen table, places set, dinner waiting, made it worth it.

It was still quite possibly the worst summer of Harry’s life though.

Once a week, Harry would meet Susan, Ron, and Hermione at Andy’s deceased aunt’s home, Sirius’ childhood home, so that Andy, Ted, Tonks, Sirius, Amelia, and Ron’s parents could attend a meeting for Dumbledore’s Order of the Phoenix.

Meetings that Harry was barred from, much to his rising anger.

“It’s bullshit!” Harry cried, furiously pacing one of the bedrooms that Ron was staying in at Grimmauld Place. “I’m sick of being treated like- like some dumb kid who can’t be trusted with big boy information.”

“We know you’re a big boy,” Susan said with a tiny and unappreciated grin. “Good luck convincing Andy of anything though.”

Harry tried to do just that at breakfast the next morning. Susan stayed the night, so she could find out what Harry did, and they waited until Tonks was there, certain she would back him up, and then he subtly brought it up to his parents.

“I want to know what the Order is doing to stop Voldemort.”

Admittedly, it wasn’t all that subtle. It was effective though.

Andy pursed her lips and shared a long look with Ted where they seemed to communicate with just their eyes. After a few moments, Ted chuckled.

“Thick as thieves they are,” he told Andy. “If you tell one, might as well tell the other.”

Andy hummed, “Might as well,” she agreed. She gave Harry and Susan a severe look when they exchanged excited looks.

“This does not leave this room,” she said, serious as she had ever been. “I would not tell you, except I believe the more information you have, the better protected you will be.”

“We won’t tell anyone else,” Harry agreed quickly while Susan nodded and clutched his hand under the table.

“Alright,” Andy sighed heavily and suddenly looked years older than usual, “it started with a prophecy…”

Harry and Susan sat wide eyed as they listened to Andy talk about a prophecy, a guarded department in the ministry, and a connection to Voldemort that got James and Lily killed.

“So it’s kill or be killed,” Harry whispered to Susan in their treehouse that night. They hadn’t brought it up yet, both of them waiting to be alone to discuss it.

Susan had her head on Harry’s lap, curled up on him like an adorable kitten. She hummed then and stretched her long legs out, rounding out the idea of her looking like a cat.

“You believe in prophecies?”

Harry squinted down at her head and his hand stilled from where he’d been playing with her hair to distract himself.

“Does it matter?” Harry asked her. He’d held it together in front of Andy and Ted, wanting to appear the adult they treated him as, but in the safety of darkness with only Susan around, Harry could drudge up all the shit he had been pushing away.

“He’s going to keep coming for me, going to keep killing anyone near me.” Harry’s hands, contrary to his thoughts, tightened his grip on Susan, “It’s not safe to be around me. In the end, he’s going to kill me, Susan. I- I can’t fight that! Look…” Harry swallowed harshly. “Look how easily he killed my parents… Cedric… I’m a dead man.”

Susan flipped over so she could look up at Harry during his rant. She reached up and cupped Harry’s jaw with her hand, squeezing a bit tighter than necessary.

“You will not die,” she swore. “If it means you have to kill him, so be it. But you’re not allowed to die, Harry James.”

Harry smiled sadly at her. “He’s stronger than me.”

“So we work hard in defense this year,” Susan said firmly. She smirked slightly when she added, “And you don’t really think you’re going to die.”

“Do I not?”

“Nope. Or you’d ask me to kiss you again.”

Harry laughed and knocked her hand off his face. “Maybe I’ve already gotten my first kiss,” he joked. “And if not, then surely loads of our classmates will want to kiss the Boy-Who-Lies or whatever tosh the Prophet’s saying about me today.”

Susan blinked and her smirk of amusement wavered for something softer, more vulnerable.

“Did you?” she asked so softly.

“No,” Harry said truthfully. “I’m, er… saving it for a special moment, I suppose.”

He had been saving it for Susan, right up until his crush got his classmate killed.

“That’s smart,” Susan grinned, her voice soft and quiet in the stillness of the night. “Let me know when you find that special moment, hmm?”

Harry looked down at her, watched the sparkles from the lights they’d decorated their little sanctuary with played across her face, and nodded slowly.

“Yeah, Susan, you’ll be the first to know.”

Harry went to sleep with a new mantra that night:

Kill Voldemort. Survive the war. Keep Susan safe.

He could do it.

Probably.

Harry had been confident in himself, as he spent the remainder of his summer training in all areas of magic with Tonks, Remus, and Sirius, all the way up until he arrived at Hogwarts.

She’s going to get us all killed.

Harry looked at the note Susan slid him in their first defense class of the year and nodded shortly.

Their new defense professor, Professor Umbridge, planned an entire year of not using defensive magic. Which meant a lot of kids, especially the younger ones, becoming sitting ducks for Voldemort and the death eaters.

A lot of kids ending up like Cedric.

It was that last thought that had Harry thrusting his hand in the air.

“Excuse me, but you aren’t planning on actually teaching us magic?”

Umbridge looked delighted with Harry while some of his classmates, Susan, Ron, and Lavender, groaned at his simmering temper making an appearance, and the rest of the class looked as if they expected nothing less from ‘Crazy Potter’.

“The theory is quite enough, Mister Potter,” Umbridge said.

“Potter-Tonks,” Susan corrected her with a quiet cough.

Harry gave Susan a brief grin in appreciation before twitching his fingers in a ‘shut up’ sort of motion at her.

“The ‘theory’ is going to make kids sitting ducks when death eaters come knocking,” Harry said firmly. He lifted his chin in Tonks’ stubborn way and narrowed his eyes at Umbridge. “That’s a lot of needless deaths because you won’t teach magic.”

Umbridge laughed, an annoying sound that grated on Harry’s nerves and only served to increase his temper.

“Death eaters? You must be mistaken. Sit down now, Mister Potter.”

Harry hadn’t realized he’d gotten to his feet, but he was staying on them.

“Potter-Tonks,” Harry spat. “Mistaken am I? Hard to miss them when they were trying to kill me back in June at Voldemort’s command.”

The class went deathly silent. No one dared even breathe too loudly as Umbridge and Harry had a stare down.

Then Susan huffed and stood up on one side of Harry, Ron slowly did the same on Harry’s other side, and even Lavender stood up with a toss of her hair from the desk behind them.

Umbridge slowly walked to her desk, keeping her beady eyes locked on Harry with a look in them that Harry typically only ever saw from Snape.

“You are mistaken,” Umbridge said as she wrote something on a parchment. “You are spreading lies, fear mongering, and I will not listen to it in my class. Potter, take this to your head of house. And I will see you at detention tonight.”

Harry stormed up front to grab the scroll then turned on his heel to take it to McGonagall.

“It’s Potter-Tonks,” he said once more before slamming the classroom door behind him.

Harry was fuming as he strode down the corridor; as lost in his own anger as he was, he leapt about a foot in the air and had his wand brandished when someone touched his shoulder.

“Oh.” It was Susan, smiling widely with her bag slung across her shoulder. “What are you doing?”

“Skipping class,” she said brightly, as if the prefect badge pinned to her chest meant nothing. “Come on, let’s go talk to McGonagall about your detention then we’ll go plot on how to bring Draco back to the fold, hmm?”

Two daunting tasks as Harry didn’t much fancy making McGonagall angry with him and also had no idea how to get Draco away from the influence of his parents. He hadn’t even considered Draco when he saw Lucius in the graveyard, but it had became pretty clear that Draco was no longer allowed to be friends with Harry Potter when he sat in a separate compartment and at the Slytherin for all meals since they arrived back at school.

Somehow though, the impossible didn’t seem so difficult when it was Susan who linked arms with Harry and walked beside him.

“You’re the best,” Harry told her conversationally as they neared McGonagall’s office and Harry’s hot temper had entirely cooled.

“I know,” Susan sniffed pompously. “Don’t forget it.”

As if he could.

After they… had tea and biscuits with a perfectly amiable Professor McGonagall in what was perhaps the oddest interaction of Harry’s life… Susan decided that the direct approach was the best to do to speak with Draco.

The two of them hid underneath Harry’s cloak and lingered outside the Slytherin common room. Susan had Harry’s map open in her hands while Harry held his wand up, waiting for Draco to leave the common room so they could strike.

“Here he comes,” Susan whispered. “He’s alone, be ready.”

Harry waited until Draco shut the door behind him before stunning him right in the back.

“What the hell?” Draco snarled when they revived him in the empty and locked classroom that Susan levitated his body to. His eyes were frantic when they caught Harry’s. “Do you want me to die?!” he hissed.

“Is that the threat? Be Harry’s friend and die?” Susan asked him. She kept her wand leveled on Draco and tilted her head curiously. “Is Voldemort in your house?”

Draco blanched and Harry felt his stomach twist with pity and anger.

“Come stay with me,” Harry blurted, hating seeing Draco look so suddenly terrified. Draco was meant to be haughty and ridiculous and oftentimes arrogant, not wide eyed and scared. Draco caught Harry’s eyes and winced before looking away.

“He’ll kill me,” Draco muttered.

Susan let out a pained sound and knelt down on the chair in front of Draco. She snatched his hands and squeezed them until Draco looked at her.

“He’ll kill you anyway,” she said quietly, earnestly. “Cedric didn’t do anything, did he? He was just in the way. Go stay with your Aunt Andromeda or you can come stay with me and Auntie Amelia. Please, Draco? Don’t die for your parents’ cause.”

Draco looked up at Harry and Harry nodded with tight eyes and the memory of Cedric dying right in front of him for no reason playing in his mind.

‘Kill the spare!’

‘Avada Kedavra!’

“Can you write to your mother?” Draco asked Harry softly, sounding more uncertain than ever before. “See if- if I can come this summer? My father won’t like it,” he added quickly, “but I think my mother won’t fight it.”

Harry and Susan exchanged relieved smiles when the three of them quickly went and sent a letter to Andy before dinner.

They were all the more relieved that Draco promised to sit with them again once Andy confirmed that he could stay with Harry over the summer.

“You’re a genius,” Harry whispered to Susan on their way to sit with their friends.

Susan’s smile wasn’t as smug as usual when she said she was already aware of that.

“It’s all very serious now, isn’t it?” she mused softly. “Voldemort in Draco’s house, lines being drawn…” Susan shook her head sadly and sat down. “We need proper defense now more than ever, Harry.”

“I couldn’t agree more!” Hermione cried indignantly. “I think if Umbridge isn’t going to teach us, then we need to teach ourselves!”

Harry quickly scarfed down his meal while the girls drew the others in their conversation about how to learn defensive magic. Harry’s only input, that they write to Tonks and Lupin and ask them to come up on Hogsmeade weekends, had been ignored so he elected to ignore them in return and inhale his meal so he wasn’t late to detention.

Susan looked up when Harry got to his feet and she and Ron gave him sympathetic grimaces.

“Let me know how it goes,” Susan told him. “I’m on patrol tonight, I’ll look for you.”

“Yes, mum,” Harry said with a playful salute. “I’ll see you lot later.”

“He’s incorrigible,” Susan told Hermione fondly when Harry walked out of the Great Hall.

“And you’re hopeless,” Hermione said.

And Harry was pissed.

When his detention ended, he had all but forgotten about Susan’s promise to catch up with him.

“I hate her, I hate her, I hate her,” Harry mumbled under his breath as he made his way to the Gryffindor Tower.

“Better not be me.”

Harry yelped and jumped about a foot in the air at Susan’s chipper remark. He spun around and glared at her, quickly tucking his left hand away and out of sight.

“It will be if you scare me again,” Harry said without any true heat to his tone.

Susan laughed lightly and skipped up beside him, easily walking together toward the tower. “Maybe if you were paying attention I wouldn’t have scared you,” she teased him. “How was detention? Was Umbridge terrible?”

Harry hesitated. He’d never kept secrets from Susan before, but this felt rather personal…

“It was fine,” he said stoutly. “She’s just decorated her office in kittens, Susan, kittens.”

“Ugh.” Susan wrinkled her nose up adorably. “I think Moody’s office was the best, all those dark art detectors? Brilliant.”

Harry relaxed at the easy topic and argued in Lupin’s favor the rest of the walk to the Gryffindor Tower. He met up with Ron, who had just returned from practicing for upcoming quidditch tryouts, so Harry talked about that with him and tried to forget all about Umbridge for the night.

On Harry’s third night of detentions, when his scar ached as fiercely as his hand did, he got caught.

“Love?”

Harry bit back a groan as Susan and Hermione jogged up to him in the corridor with their perfect badges gleaming in the candlelight. Susan quirked a brow at Harry.

“Why did we just follow a trail of blood to find you?” Susan asked Harry slowly.

“And why is your forehead inflamed?” Hermione asked him.

“Don’t know and headache,” Harry said curtly.

Susan stared at Harry hard and he tried to not fidget beneath her quelling gaze.

“Tell me why you’re bleeding or I’ll go use Professor Sprout’s floo right now and call your mother,” Susan said. She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Now, Harry James.”

“Tattling?” Harry curled his lip up in a sneer. “That’s petty, Susan. I thought we were best friends.”

“So did I. So tell me why you’re bleeding and being a prat.”

“I just said I’ve got a headache,” Harry scowled. He ignored Hermione, who had a tiny grin on her lips while she twisted her robe sleeve in her hands and watched the two of them have a spat. “Leave it, Susan.”

“Nope,” Susan popped her pink-glossed lips irritatingly. “Why don’t you go get a potion from Madam Pomfrey? I’d do my duty as prefect and walk you, but I’ve got a very important floo call to make, you see.”

Harry rubbed his forehead with his right hand, keeping his bleeding left one in his pocket, and narrowed his eyes at Susan.

“Do not,” he said warningly. “Drop it, please Susan? It’s…” Harry glanced over at Hermione and frowned. “It’s embarrassing.”

Susan hummed for a moment before making a decisive nod. “Fine, I won’t call Andy if you let me take you to get a pain potion and if you tell me what’s going on?”

“And I’ll just pretend I heard nothing, shall I?” Hermione offered kindly.

Harry’s shoulders sagged when Hermione took off and Susan guided Harry toward the Hospital Wing instead of Gryffindor Tower.

“I’d never really tell Andy unless I thought you were in real danger,” Susan said instead of an apology after they walked in silence for a few minutes.

“I know.” Harry gave her a tired smile. “I’m sorry I snapped at you, it’s just…” He bit his lip to hold back the tsunami of all the overwhelming unfairness of the world. “This year blows,” he said in a small voice.

“I know, love.” Susan wrapped an arm around Harry’s waist, once more becoming his much needed anchor. “You’re not… you’re not cutting yourself, are you?”

Harry gave her a bewildered look. “How’d you know that?”

Susan skidded to a stop and jerked Harry to a stop as well.

“Let me see,” she said softly, her eyes filled with some sentiment Harry couldn’t place. Pity? Empathy? Something out of place.

“Tell me how you knew first,” Harry said. He hadn’t told anyone except Ron, who had helped him bandage the cuts that Umbridge’s quill left on his hand. Harry was certain Ron wouldn’t have told anyone, but it was an oddly accurate thing for Susan to guess right off the bat.

“You’re just… you’ve been very down lately,” Susan said, sounding as if she were choosing her words carefully. “I understand, but I think you should stop. Andy and Ted would be heartbroken if they knew.”

Harry suddenly felt as if they were having two separate conversations; a disconnect he didn’t typically have with Susan. On almost any given day, Harry and Susan could communicate with just a twist of their lips, a lift of a brow. It drove their friends mad, Ron said they were worse than the twins.

It was that break in communication that had Harry slowly pulling his left hand from his pocket and holding it out for Susan to see.

“‘I must not…’” Susan’s eyes became comically wide as she read the cut in Harry’s hand. “What the hell is this? Who did this?!”

“I did,” Harry said. He furrowed his brows together when he added, “In detention?”

“She… so when I…” Susan’s mouth opened and closed for a moment as she stared unblinkingly at Harry. Abruptly her pretty face twisted in to a furious snarl, “She’s got you cutting yourself?!”

It was unhelpful, but Harry forgot how truly beautiful Susan was when she was enraged. Her hair, usually neatly curled or straightened around her shoulders, whipped around, as if caught in a current of wind caused by her magic. Her eyes, the tranquil teal that Harry adored, became fiery and fierce. She was unfairly beautiful while Harry was terribly plain.

She also spun on her heel and began storming off in the opposite direction of the Hospital Wing while Harry had been gawking at her.

“Oi! Where are you going?” Harry asked as he ran to catch up.

“To kill her,” Susan grit out. She had her wand clenched in her hand and a look of stubborn determination on her face.

Harry would have laughed, if he didn’t have a headache and if he didn’t think Susan was entirely serious.

They had their first real argument in what seemed like ages right in the middle of the corridor that night.

Susan wanted to torture or kill Umbridge, give her a dose of her own medicine.

Harry didn’t want Susan to get in trouble over something so stupid.

Susan said he was an idiot and she was either going to go curse Umbridge or call her aunt.

Harry tried to get Susan to understand that between the DMLE and the Order, Amelia was rather busy with important things.

“You’re important, Harry.”

“I thought I was an idiot?”

“They’re not mutually exclusive.”

They compromised in the end- Harry would ask Professor McGonagall to use her floo and would tell Tonks (he was not running off to his mum, no matter how much Susan pestered him) to see if Harry legally had to return to detention or not.

“Tonks is the worst sister ever,” Harry scowled at lunch the next day. Sure, Tonks said she’d ‘look in to it and get back with him’, but apparently what she meant was:

‘I’m telling Mum.’

Because otherwise Harry couldn’t imagine what had Andy storming in the Great Hall on a Thursday afternoon with a thin-lipped and furious McGonagall at her side.

… and Snape, for some reason.

“Could be a coincidence, mate,” Ron mumbled as Andy didn’t even spare Harry a look before marching up to the head table.

“Doubt it,” Susan sang smugly.

It wasn’t a coincidence.

Andy all but ordered Dumbledore to his own office. McGonagall got Harry (and Susan), Snape got Draco, and then they were all witnesses to Andy truly, spectacularly, losing her mind.

“SHE CUT MY SON OPEN, ALBUS! I DO NOT CARE IF HER ROYAL MAJESTY HERSELF PLACED THAT DISGRACEFUL WASTE OF A MAGICAL GIFT HERE- GET HER OUT OF THIS SCHOOL OR I WILL HAVE HARRY IN BEAUXBATON BEFORE YOU CAN SAY LEMON DROP!”

“I don’t know French,” Harry whispered to Draco.

Draco arched a blonde brow at him. “You’re a Black,” he whispered back. “Surely you’ve been taught?”

Harry shook his head.

Draco whispered what seemed like an insult in French.

Harry very quietly hissed a dirty joke Lupin taught him in Parsletongue.

“You win,” Draco muttered.

Dumbledore had never looked so serious as he did when he stared Harry down when Andy paused to breathe.

“Please show me your hand, Harry.”

Harry had been red-faced and humiliated, having a huge fuss made while Snape watched curiously from the corner, but he did as ordered and held his hand out for everyone to see.

Andy slapped her hands on Dumbledore’s desk and glared right in his face after Dumbledore closed his eyes and nodded, allowing Harry to tuck his hand back in his pocket.

“Do something, immediately,” Andy hissed venomously. “You will not enjoy it if I handle it, Albus.”

“Your mum is brilliant,” Susan breathed in Harry’s ear. “She sounds positively mad.”

She did actually. Harry was both awed and respectfully terrified.

When Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall left, Harry worked very hard to not cow beneath the look Andy gave him.

“Harry, darling, why did I hear about this egregious wrong done to you from your sister?”

Because Tonks was a filthy traitor apparently wasn’t the sentiment Andy expected from him.

“If you are being abused—” Andy reworded her statement and softened her tone at Harry’s small twitch. “If you are being mistreated by a person in a power of authority over you, it is your responsibility to tell me. Is that understood?”

Harry jerked his chin in a semblance of a nod, driving Andy to sigh and turn to Susan.

“Susan, dear, call me directly next time, will you?”

Susan smiled sweetly. “Yes ma’am.”

Andy smiled fondly at her before turning to Draco. “And you, nephew, are under the same rules as you are now a part of our household.”

Draco looked up like he couldn’t believe his luck.

“How?” Draco breathed.

Andy smiled kindly and pulled a scroll from her pocket that she handed over to him. “Your mother,” she said simply. “Get to classes now. I will see the three of you for Christmas.” She laughed quietly, a single peal of mirthless laughter, “Unless of course Albus is unable to remove Umbridge. In which case, I suggest you all brush up on your French.”

“Harry doesn’t know French,” Draco quipped with a smirk.

Andy looked much more putout than Harry thought the situation warranted.

“We will remedy that this summer,” Andy said. She hugged Harry closely and shook her head at him when she pulled away. “Susan made you floo Nymphadora, didn’t she?”

“Yes,” Harry admitted.

“When you end your needless dancing around each other, remind me that I have an heirloom you should gift her as a courting gift,” Andy whispered so the others couldn’t hear.

Harry gave her an exasperated look and shooed his friends off with a promise to catch up. “We are just friends, Mum.”

Andy raked a loving hand through Harry’s hair. “That’s what I used to say about Ted,” she smiled gently. “But friends simply don’t look at each other as you two do.”

Harry perked up a little.

“Does Susan look at me?” he asked casually.

“About as subtly as your sister looks at Remus,” Andy said drily.

And since Tonks wasn’t subtle about her crush on Lupin at all, Harry left Dumbledore’s office in relatively high spirits.

Spirits that soared even higher when it was announced that defense classes were ‘temporarily postponed’ at an Umbridge-free dinner that night.

“What an excellent day,” Susan said brightly. She threw one arm around Harry’s shoulders and the other around Draco’s, now that he could officially distance himself from the other children of death eaters. “Our Draco is back, Umbridge is gone, and Harry can teach us all defense in the meantime!”

Harry gave Draco a suspicious look, causing his cousin to carefully edge out from beneath Susan’s arm with a roll of his eyes.

“I’m not teaching anyone defense,” Harry told Susan. He pointed at Hermione, “Ask her if you want to pass your OWLS.”

Susan stuck a pleading lip out. “I don’t care about OWLS, I want to live to see Paris.”

“Who’s going to Paris?” Theo asked.

Susan gave him a bright smile. “Harry and I are once we graduate.”

“Not if he doesn’t know French,” Draco scoffed.

By the end of the meal, Harry had agreed to teach them all how to cast the patronus charm in exchange for Draco teaching him French.

He really did need to know it if he planned on taking Susan to Paris one day.

Things felt… oddly normal after that.

It was as if the war brewing outside couldn’t break through to Hogwarts. Harry felt his scar twinge and burn and occasionally send him odd dreams of dark corridors, but Harry and his friends seemed determined to be… normal.

They all cheered when Lupin was reinstated as the defense professor. Harry especially cheered when Lupin told him that Tonks would be covering him during the full moon (Tonks sent Harry a cheery letter, stating that she and Lupin were officially ‘together’ that Lupin sputtered and blushed and didn’t deny).

Harry still kept his word and tried to teach his friends all the patronus charm. They used a room that one of the house-elves told Harry about during one of his late night chats with Neville in the kitchens. Draco kept his word as well and began teaching Harry French, a process much more complex than the OWL level magic they were doing in classes.

Their group spent three nights a week studying for OWLS, all of them nervous when discussing their upcoming career discussions they’d be having with their Heads of Houses. Their OWLS determined which classes they could take next year, which determined which careers they could even have.

Ron wanted to be an auror, Hermione wanted to… well, take over the world it seemed like. Theo quietly stated he thought that exploring space with muggle NASA would be interesting. Hannah wanted to open a restaurant. Neville wanted to one day teach Herbology at Hogwarts. Draco planned on joining the Wizengamot ‘if he wasn’t entirely disowned by then’.

Susan looked expectantly at Harry. “And you, love?”

Harry hesitated, shrinking under the expectant looks of his friends.

“Maybe an auror?” Harry hedged. “Tonks makes it sound pretty wicked.”

Susan rolled her eyes and huffed at him. “Well I think you should become a defense teacher.”

Harry grinned at her. “I’m bollocks at teaching.”

“You are not,” Hermione said quickly. “You taught us all the patronus charm!”

“Neville and Ron are the only ones who can do it,” Harry argued. “So I’m what? Two out of seven? Think I’d be fired with results like that, Hermione.”

“The rest of us simply don’t have happy enough memories yet,” Susan said. “If you’d just tell me what memory you use, perhaps I could use it as well.”

You, Harry thought helplessly as he stared at his best friend.

“What about you, Susan? What do you want to do after Hogwarts?” Ron asked, swiftly changing the topic and tossing Harry a knowing grin.

Susan sniffed and stuck her nose up in the air. “I’m going to teach charms, which is why Harry needs to teach defense so we can be co-professors like Tonks and Lupin.”

The others snickered, but Harry lost track of the conversation as he lost himself to a pleasant daydream involving himself and Susan traveling the world, teaching together at foreign schools, sharing cozy quarters…

“You’re so lost for her, mate,” Ron said sympathetically when they returned to their dorm that night.

Harry hummed. “A bit,” he agreed. “Oi, do you think Susan looks at me?”

Ron flipped over on his bed and had no issue staying up late that night as the two of them dissected every word and gesture that Susan and Hermione had ever made in their presence.

“We should just ask them out at Sirius’ Christmas party,” Ron decided. “Then if they say no, we can pretend it was just the eggnog talking.”

Harry gave Ron a pleased smile for his idea. Sirius had been planning the Christmas party for ages, it would be fun, noisy, and knowing Sirius, filled with alcohol. Harry couldn’t kiss Susan if she’d been drinking, but nothing Andy said kept Harry from asking Susan out and kissing her if he had a glass of something to bolster his courage.

“It’s the perfect time to ask them,” Harry told Ron happily. “You’re a genius, mate.”

“I know.” Ron yawned. “I hear it all the time.”

Harry laughed and had went to sleep with plans of doing just that over Christmas break.

Then Ron’s dad was attacked.

And Harry had done it.

Harry was ushered to Sirius’ house, Grimmauld Place, with Ron and his siblings, the day before Christmas break was meant to start. Ted, Tonks, and Sirius met them there, but they weren’t who Harry wanted.

“I did it, Mum,” Harry told Andy in a stricken whisper after locking himself in his room and refusing all but Andy entry. “I… I was the snake, and I bit him. Ron’s my best mate and I almost killed his dad.”

“You did no such thing, darling,” Andy said firmly. She sat on Harry’s bed, against his headboard, and watched as Harry paced the room and tugged at his hair.

“Arthur is healing as we speak,” she said confidently. “And you were in your bed, Harry James. You did not do it. You simply have an unfortunate link to Voldemort.”

“I ATTACKED HIM AND THEN I WANTED TO ATTACK DUMBLEDORE!” Harry yelled. “I’M DANGEROUS AND YOU SHOULD THROW ME OUT!”

“Are you finished?” Andy asked coolly.

“NO!” Harry shouted. He aimed a kick at a dustbin, sending it flying at the wall. “I COULD GET YOU ALL KILLED! IF HE IS IN MY HEAD THEN I AM A LIABILITY AND YOU NEED TO GET RID OF ME!”

“I would prefer not to.”

“NO? ARE YOU MAD? YOU COULD BE NEXT, ANDY!”

Andy raised a brow. “Oh? Am I Andy now? Are you already distancing yourself from me, son?”

No.

“Yes,” Harry said. He tried to say it firmly, to say it while ignoring the pang in his chest. He turned to his trunk and began sifting for a bag to stuff clothes in. “I need to go, it’s not safe with me here. You’re not safe with me around.”

And Harry would die before he let Andy or Ted or Tonks be at risk because of him.

He didn’t used to spend days in a cupboard wishing for a family to let them die now.

His bag packed, his shoulders set against any more words from Andy, Harry turned to leave the room and—

“Let me out,” he told Andy quietly. He rattled the locked door handle. “Unlock it.”

“I know I have taught you better manners.”

“Please.”

“No.”

“Let. Me. Go.”

“I would prefer not to.”

Harry spun around and glared at Andy’s calm and collected face.

“Why?” he growled. “I’m dangerous.”

Andy quirked a side of her mouth up in a grin. “My darling son, you’re a fifteen year old boy. I don’t mean to brag, but I’m quite certain that I could disarm you and have you stunned without even breaking a sweat.”

Harry gave Andy a skeptical look.

Andy issued him an easy challenge:

They duel. If Harry can disarm Andy, he can leave with no more arguments.

“And if I disarm you, I expect you to stay and hug me,” Andy said sternly. Her face was soft as she got up and offered Harry her hand, “Deal?”

Harry hesitated. He didn’t want to risk having to stay, but how could he risk leaving?

“Deal.”

Andy had him disarmed and wrapped up in her arms as he shook with sobs and apologies within minutes.

“I don’t want to lose you guys,” Harry cried.

Andy rubbed his back as she always did when Harry became unhinged and borderline incoherent.

“You will not,” she swore to him. “I will be there for you always.”

“I can’t lose you,” Harry told her.

Andy smiled at him and laid her cheek on the top of his head. “And you never will. Certainly not before gifting me with multiple red-headed grandchildren, as your sister and Remus plan on giving me zero.”

Harry laughed and the world felt right for a while. The world always felt right when Andy was around.

“Love you, Mum,” Harry told her when he’d climbed in bed and she’d tucked him in like a child.

Andy pressed a soft kiss to Harry’s forehead, right on top of the cursed scar that ruined so much in his life.

“And I love you.”

On Christmas Eve, Ron’s dad came to Grimmauld Place.

Sirius still planned his Christmas party, determined to give them all ‘something to smile over’.

Ron, Draco, and Harry sipped cups of eggnog, spiked with something bitter, and watched their friends and family dance and chat and act merry.

“This isn’t how I pictured it,” Ron said in a hushed tone. His eyes kept trailing to where his dad sit in a chair, weary, but happy.

“Pictured what?” Draco asked, looking between the two of them.

“Nothing,” Harry said hastily. “It was stupid, it was— Ron, why is Fred under the mistletoe with Susan?!”

Ron’s jaw dropped as he and Draco looked where Harry stared.

“Harry, mate, don’t—”

“Too late,” Draco laughed when Harry tore off to the kitchen doorway where Fred stood with his arms crossed and Susan smiled up at him. “Ten galleons says Harry kills him.”

“You’re on.”

Harry stepped up beside Susan and threw an arm over her shoulder. He wasn’t being possessive, he was being… protective.

Fred was a nice guy, a good bloke, but…

“Where’s Angelina?” Harry asked him brightly, interrupting what sounded to be a punchline for a joke involving a house elf and a Christmas tree.

“We broke up,” Fred said with an airy wave of his hand. “You missed a wicked row over it, Harrikins. It’s a good thing Oliver’s gone, he’d have his pants all wadded up his arse if he heard the things Angelina threatened to do to me with my own broomstick.”

Susan giggled, giggled, and Harry had to fight to keep the friendly smile on his face.

“Hey, Susan, can I talk to you?” Harry asked, supremely casually. “It’s important.”

Susan sobered up immediately, causing Harry to feel guilty for whatever she must think he needed to discuss.

“Can’t,” Fred drawled with a teasing smirk. He pointed up at the mistletoe, “As I was just telling the lovely Miss Bones, we’re stuck here until someone gets snogged.” Fred winked at Susan, “And I’m entirely free.”

Susan tried to lift a foot and grimaced at Harry when she couldn’t. “You’re the one who gave them your winnings,” she said drily. “‘Oh it’ll be great’, and look where we are.”

Harry later blamed the eggnog, and his faith in Fred’s invention having self-serving purposes, for the way he quickly lunged forward, pressing his lips to Fred’s, and ending the jinx that held them all in place.

Fred looked shocked, but not wholly displeased, and Harry felt his heart sink as Susan fell to the ground in a peal of laughter after the mistletoe dissolved in a puff of red glitter.

“This was your special moment?!” Susan laughed hysterically. “A drunken kiss with Ron’s brother?! You could have kissed me and broken the jinx!”

Harry… Harry hadn’t even considered that.

“Aww…” Fred wrapped an arm around Harry’s neck. “Was I your first kiss, Harry?”

Harry bit his arm, causing Fred to release him with a yelp, and then turned on his heel and stormed from the room with tears of embarrassment prickling the back of his eyes.

Sirius caught up with him in the drawing room where Harry took his embarrassment and frustration out on the tapestry Sirius hated with every hex he could think up.

Sirius put a soothing hand on Harry’s shoulder and offered him a drink.

“You know, Lily wasn’t James’ first kiss,” he said quietly.

Harry gave him a quietly hopeful look. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Sirius smiled and managed to look younger than Harry had ever seen him and also more mature. “The first kiss doesn’t matter so much, kiddo, it’s the last one that counts, get it?”

Harry mulled it over for a moment before he relaxed his shoulders and nodded. “Yeah.”

Sirius winked then, losing his brief moment of maturity.

“Of course, Amy was my first kiss and I’m determined to make her my last.”

It took until Harry was in bed that night to realize that ‘Amy’ was Susan’s aunt Amelia.

“Ron!” Harry kicked Ron from their side-by-side beds. They’d rearranged their room when their other friends arrived, as Draco insisted on sharing a room with the two of them. “Did you know Sirius fancies Amelia?”

“Course,” Ron mumbled sleepily. “Not a secret, was it?”

“The real secret was Harry’s crush on Fred,” Draco snickered from the other side of Harry.

Any other night, Harry would have laughed off Draco’s sarcastic quip. That night, he decided it was a comment worthy of a full blown war.

Pillows weren’t as effective as wands, but Harry still managed to be the victor.

Despite the circumstances that led them all to leaving Hogwarts, Harry and his friends were in high spirits when they returned. Sure, Harry had to learn occlumency from Snape, but Andy and Ted swore that it wouldn’t be terrible and if it was, Harry was supposed to floo them immediately. And ‘Remedial Potions’ sounded humiliating, but Draco assured him that nobody would believe that Snape would offer Harry extra classes, so it wasn’t as if it would be a believable cover story.

All in all, Ron’s dad was alive, Harry’s friends were alive, Harry had his own necklace with a sheepdog pendant that Susan got him for Christmas, and his spirits were relatively high.

Harry was even more pleased when in their first study session back after Christmas, Susan finally managed the patronus charm.

“HARRY!” Susan yelled across the room and caught Harry’s attention from where he’d been helping Ginny with the charm. He was surprised by the amount of students who heard about their study sessions and hastened to join, but Theo told Harry he was a ‘natural leader’ so Harry tried to take it in stride, even if it was a bit embarrassing. “Look!”

Harry looked up where Susan pointed and felt his heart swell with pride to see a silver swan patronus floating through the room.

“You did it!” Harry yelled. He laughed and caught Susan, swinging her in a circle, when she threw herself in his arms. “What memory finally did it?”

Susan gave him a cute and impish grin. “You kissing Fred.”

Harry had been fairly certain she was lying, but he dropped her on the ground anyway.

“Hysterical, Bones,” Harry drawled with a roll of his eyes. “You’re about as funny as Fred is.”

“I’m funnier,” Susan grinned from her spot on the floor. Her swan flew over to her and began circling Susan, drawing a gasp of pleasure from her.

Harry softened when he saw Susan’s face all lit up by the patronus, a glow to her cheeks and a twinkle in her eyes.

“Yeah,” he admitted with a fond smile, “you are.”

Harry scowled at Draco and Susan two mornings after his first meeting with Snape.

“Who tattled to my mum?” he demanded hotly.

Ron blinked at him, “What?”

Harry gestured to where Hedwig flew to Harry, a scroll secured to her leg. “If that’s not a letter from Andy about lessons with Snape, then I’ll kiss Fred again.”

Hermione and Hannah giggled, but Harry fixed Draco and Susan with a hard look.

“Don’t look at me,” Draco sniffed. “It was your girlfriend.”

Susan shrugged carelessly and offered Hedwig a piece of toast when she landed on Harry’s shoulder.

“Snape made you sick,” Susan said in her simple and careless way. “He tore in your mind, insulted you, then left you shaking and ill in the dungeons. I promised Andy I’d tell her next time you were being treated unjustly, and I have.” She smiled at Harry, “You’re welcome.”

“Tattletale,” Harry muttered ungratefully as he unrolled the scroll.

My beloved son,
You and I will meet weekly in Professor McGonagall’s office on Wednesday evenings, the hour before dinner. If Severus says a single word to you, you have my blessing to remind him that he is a petty and disgraceful man who should remember whose child you are.
All my love,
Mum
PS: don’t be upset with Susan, someone must watch out for your well-being as it clearly won’t be yourself.

Susan looked entirely too smug as she read the letter over Harry’s shoulder.

“Your mum likes me better,” she sang.

Harry grinned, the weight of the disastrous occlumency lessons now taken off his shoulders. He scooped up a bit of jam off his plate and smeared it on Susan’s freckled nose.

“Piss off, Bones.”

“They’re disgusting,” Theo whispered to Draco.

Draco grimaced in agreement. “And I’m stuck with them all summer,” he whined.

Neville patted Draco’s shoulder consolingly while Susan tried to put jam on Harry’s cheek. “Hopefully they’ll get together by then and will tone it down.”

Hannah shook her head, her blonde braids flying as she did. “No way,” she whispered. “They’ll just be worse. Imagine Harry once he decides a pet name for Susan?”

Three three boys shuddered in unison.

“Should have taken your chances with the Dark Lord,” Theo whispered to Draco.

Draco merely nodded glumly.

A month later, when Harry entered McGonagall’s office for his career discussion, he felt as if he knew precisely where his life was headed.

“I want to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts,” Harry said firmly.

McGonagall gave Harry a scrutinizing look over her spectacles. Over the last month, as Harry appeared in her office weekly for meetings with Andy to practice occlumency (something that was much simpler than Snape made Harry believe), Harry and McGonagall had enjoyed a few friendly chats here and there. Enough to where McGonagall waved Harry in a seat and produced her tin of biscuits he knew she kept in a desk drawer.

“Your sister has been raving in the staff room about your future as an auror,” McGonagall said without judgement. “I admit that Professor Sprout and myself have been torn, as Professor Lupin believes you would be an exceptional professor.”

Harry thanked her when he accepted one of the ginger biscuits he was fond of and he thought it over as he chewed.

“I don’t want to fight, not when I don’t have to,” Harry explained slowly. “Tonks is brilliant, ma’am, but she loves the rush of the fight. I’d rather just… not,” he finished lamely.

McGonagall didn’t look as if she thought he were lame at all. In fact, if Harry didn’t know better, he’d have said she looked rather proud of him in that moment.

“Should Hogwarts prepare itself for you and Miss Bones to come knocking with your résumé’s after graduation?” she asked Harry, causing him to choke on his biscuit. She looked amused as Harry worked to clear his airway in a way that wasn’t horribly embarrassing. “Professor Sprout believed that Miss Bones was planning on returning one day to take Professor Flitwick’s job.”

Harry finally swallowed and managed to drum up a cheeky smile. “As long as you’re still here, how can I stay away?”

McGonagall tsk’d at him, but she didn’t seem angry at his brazen tone. “You are as shameless as James,” she said, sounding just on the warm side of fond. “That boy seemed to test his flirting methods on me before he used them on your mother.”

Harry snagged another biscuit, settled in his seat, and spent an excellent hour in his transfiguration Professor’s office listening to stories about his parents. He even saved some of the ideas that James had used to ask out Lily, just because they hadn’t worked on his mum, didn’t mean they wouldn’t work on Susan.

“Mate… this is a bad idea,” Ron whispered.

Harry held the magic firework he bought from Zonko’s and raised a brow at Ron before straddling his broomstick. “So you’re not doing it?”

Ron sighed and snatched another firework off the ground and climbed on his own broom. “No, I am,” he said loyally. “I’m just saying, when we get detention, I’m blaming you.”

Harry laughed and shook his head. “We won’t get detention.”

They absolutely got detention.

A weeks worth of them.

“Of all the foolish…” McGonagall glared at the two boys as they peered owlishly at her in the trophy room for detention that night. McGonagall sighed and looked up to the ceiling, as if searching for assistance. “I blame myself,” she sighed. “I never should have told James Junior about James’ attempt to sky write an invitation to Hogsmeade to Lily.”

“In my defense,” she narrowed her eyes sharply at the boys, causing them to gulp, “James did it outside, as I am certain I mentioned.”

Harry swallowed and attempted to smile. “It was raining, ma’am.”

“And,” Ron gave Harry a baleful look, “it wasn’t as if it worked.”

In hindsight, trying to fit Harry’s message of ‘Will you go out with me, Susan?’ and Ron’s message of ‘I love you, Hermione’ on the ceiling of the Great Hall had been a bit ambitious. They wrote almost the entire message before McGonagall knocked them from the air with a couple well aimed jinxes, but they overlapped so much they were indecipherable.

The girls had thought it was hysterical, they were under the impression that Harry and Ron were merely giving the twins a run for their money on pranks

Draco had squinted at the smoky letters on the ceiling and shook his head at the absolute brain-dead theatrics of his two friends when either girl would throw themselves at them if they would merely ask like normal people.

Harry and Ron had a decent time in detention anyway. McGonagall merely found rooms that needed cleaned, and let them loose with a bucket of water and soap. Harry certainly wouldn’t be the one to tell her, but he and Ron spent most of their time coming up with their next idea to ask the girls out.

One night, Lavender found them while on patrols and the three of them had a merry time coming up with plots and plans. Harry would never understand why Susan refused to befriend Lavender, when she wasn’t giggling with the Patil twins, she was rather fun to be around.

Her idea of Harry telling Susan, to her face, that he fancied her was stupid though and he told her so.

As if time itself knew how much everyone dreaded the war to reach a boiling point, it continued to speed up.

Weekends of goofing around were filled with studying for OWLS. Notes passed in class were replaced with actual notes in class. Harry’s occlumency lessons with Andy progressed quickly, and her questions became more focused on his studies after their meetings.

Even Susan began to feel the strain, and wound up in the Hospital Wing the day before the quidditch finals.

“I’m sorry I won’t be there,” Susan sniffed, looking genuinely remorseful.

Harry waved away her apology before gripping her hand. “You’re exhausted, Susan, get some rest,” he said gently. “No studying, no strenuous exercise, just… just rest, okay?” Harry grinned at her, “Maybe I’ll bring you my trophy tomorrow when we kick Hufflepuff’s arse.”

Susan laughed and accepted the hug Harry gave her.

“I’m always rooting for you,” she said, sounding so painfully genuine.

“That’s because… er… Très amoureux de toi,” Harry said with a bright smile, showing off a bit from the French lessons with Draco. It was peculiar, the way Susan looked so touched by Harry saying she was his best friend, and Susan must have understood Harry’s confusion because she scoffed and told Harry to translate himself before he came back with the trophy.

When Harry returned to the Hospital Wing, beneath his cloak so Madam Pomfrey couldn’t make him leave, it was with a sheepish grin and the trophy he’d temporarily borrowed from McGonagall.

“Draco might have lied to me,” Harry whispered after climbing in Susan’s bed and sharing the pastries he’d gotten from the kitchen on his way there.

“Did he?” Even in the dark Susan’s eyes were sparkling with laughter.

“Yeah, I thought I said you were my best friend, but…” Harry rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I guess that’s not what that meant.”

And Harry would get revenge on Draco one day. What was the point of learning French if Draco was only going to teach him the wrong phrases?

“It was not,” Susan grinned. She leaned against Harry’s side and nudged him with her elbow, “Was it a lie though?”

Harry looked at Susan’s smile, still with a little gap between her teeth, her hair in loose waves around her shoulder, longer than it had ever been before, and the steady look in her teal eyes that said Harry could tell her anything and they’d still be friends.

“Do I lie to you?” Harry asked, his voice only mildly choked.

“No,” Susan said quietly, her smile shrinking but her eyes sparkling even more merrily, “we don’t lie to each other.”

Harry sat there, the glow of winning the quidditch cup dulling as embarrassment took its place. Susan didn’t leave him to stew too terribly long (it felt as if it were a century).

“Je t’aime, Harry.”

It wasn’t the same thing Harry said, but it was good enough.

Everyone in year five was subdued during OWLS week. There seemed to be a heavy weight on all their shoulders to get proper scores. There wasn’t time for silly plots with Ron or dodging pranks from the twins.

Harry studied for defense with fervor as if his life depended on it. And, in a way, it did. Future Harry, future Harry who had a glimmer of hope that he could survive Voldemort and a prophecy, depended on Harry getting top scores in his defense OWL.

McGonagall told him that getting anything less than an ‘O’ in defense wouldn’t be accepted by most mastery programs, if Harry wanted to truly be a Master of the speciality, and that he should strive for high scores in all his core classes.

It was why, when Harry’s scar began burning so fiercely in his history OWL, Harry screwed his eyes shut and concentrated on clearing his mind. He had to get at least an A, he didn’t have time for blurry visions and headaches.

Harry and his friends celebrated the end of their OWLS while their families battled in the Department of Mysteries.

While Harry and Susan laughed and drank the firewhisky the twins smuggled in the Gryffindor Tower for a party, Bellatrix Lestrange struck Sirius in the chest with a curse that knocked him toward the Veil of Death.

Susan tried to talk Harry in to dancing with her while Amelia hit Sirius with a knockback jinx. Amelia broke three of his ribs, but saved his life. Sirius proposed to Amelia while Harry and Susan did a ridiculous dance together at Hogwarts, but Amelia told Sirius to ask her again after the war.

When Antonin Dolohov had his wand to Tonks’ unconscious head, it had been Remus, alerted by Severus, who struck the man with a hex and kept Tonks alive to see another day.

And while Harry and his friends laid on the Gryffindor common room floor, chatting in the nonsensical and giggly way that only drunk teenagers were able to do, Andromeda Tonks smirked smugly as Albus dueled Voldemort and Voldemort raged about the Boy-Who-Lived not answering the visions he sent him.

Harry and his friends read the letters from their families outlining the battle the next morning, wide eyed and more than a little hungover.

Hermione also read aloud the article in the Prophet claiming that Voldemort was back.

“No apology to Harry though, hmm?” Susan scoffed. “Typical rag of a paper. Just burn it, Hermione, it’s better as ashes than a source of information.”

Neville, sober prat he was, cheered when Hermione burnt the paper, causing the others to wince at the unnecessary noise.

Draco and Theo had been on edge, hesitant about their place in the group as their father’s had been fighting against their friends’ families at the Ministry, but a game of pickup quidditch later, and everyone pushed away the choices of their parents.

They all felt a sense of trepidation when they left for the Hogwarts Express to return home a few days later.

The war had officially started, there was no more hiding, but…

Harry had Susan’s head in his lap, her complaints about Sirius ‘sniffing around her auntie’ filling his ears, and he couldn’t truly be bothered to worry about a prophecy and a mental connection to Voldemort.

That was future Harry’s problem. A problem he knew that he wouldn’t be facing on his own.

Chapter Text

“Mum, Draco’s thrown all my shirts on the bloody floor!” Harry yelled.

“Language, Harry! Draco, did you throw his clothes?”

“I took out the ones that didn’t fit him so I could put my clothes in the closet as well.” Draco stuck his nose up in the air, “He should be thanking me.”

“I can’t get rid of those shirts! Some of them were gifts!” Harry scowled, barely refraining from stomping a foot in irritation.

He wondered for a moment if this was how Tonks felt when he moved in, then dismissed it as he never would have thrown her belongings on the floor. It didn’t matter if the floor was clean, Harry despised putting away his laundry and now he’d have to rehang all those shirts. By hand.

Andy’s lips twitched, as if she were fighting off a smile, as she looked between her fuming son and her haughty nephew.

“Perhaps it is time for Nymphadora to clear out her room,” Andy suggested calmly. “If the two of you can keep from killing each other until this weekend, we can put Draco in her old room.”

“I’d rather sleep in the treehouse than share your slobby room anyway,” Draco whispered when they went back upstairs.

Harry rolled his eyes and flopped on his bed. “You wish you could sleep in the treehouse.”

“You wish you could shag Susan in the treehouse.”

Andy floo called Nymphadora at Remus’ home and explained to her the situation while Harry and Draco began a new row upstairs in the room they’d been sharing for all of seven hours so far.

Tonks was all smiles while she and Harry emptied out her old room together that weekend.

“It’s just the excuse I needed to convince Remus that I actually live with him, I don’t just spend the night seven nights a week,” she said cheerily.

“Does Mum know?” Harry asked shrewdly as he packed some books in a box.

“Nope!”

Harry smiled as innocently as he was able to. “Sure would be a shame if she found out, huh?”

Tonks spun around and glowered at his innocent face with an arm full of socks. “What do you want?”

“A week at Grimmauld Place without Mum or Dad,” Harry said immediately.

Tonks smirked and tossed the socks she had in a box. “Let me guess, you asked her, she said no?”

“Precisely,” Harry nodded. “All of a sudden, Susan and I can’t sleep in the same house, it’s mad, Tonks.”

It was mad and rather unfair as Andy and Ted had ushered Harry to Grimmauld all the time last summer. Now that Susan and her aunt had moved in there with Sirius, after threats were made to Amelia through her job at the DMLE and she worried for Susan’s safety, suddenly Andy didn’t trust Sirius to supervise ‘hormonal teenagers’ alone. And since Amelia had her job at odd hours, she didn’t count as supervision either.

“Yeah, ‘mad’,” Tonks snorted. She tossed a yellow and black knitted blanket at Harry from her closet. “Our Grandmum, Dad’s mum, made that, you can have it.”

Harry clutched the blanket tightly as he waited for Tonks to decide his blackmail favor.

“Not a word about Remus and I living together?” Tonks checked as she filled the last of her boxes and began shrinking them down.

Harry held an open hand up. “She won’t hear it from me.”

“Alright,” Tonks grinned and ruffled Harry’s hair. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Harry had been elated a few days later when Tonks managed to get Draco and himself to Grimmauld with promises to their mother that her and Remus would supervise the whole time.

“Toodles,” Tonks laughed after depositing the boys in the sitting room at Grimmauld. “Remus and I have an entire week planned together that does not involve you.”

Harry waited until Tonks left before giving Draco a winning smile.

“Ron’s in the third room, you can bunk with him,” he said before snatching his bag off the ground and marching toward the stairs.

“Where are you bunking?” Draco huffed as he caught up with him.

Harry gave him an incredulous look over his shoulder. “With Susan, obviously.”

Draco froze on the stairs. “Does she know you plan on sleeping in her room?!” he hissed, glancing around furtively for possible eavesdropping elves or animagus godfathers.

Harry grinned and tugged his bag a little higher on his shoulder. “Good point, hold on.” He stopped at the landing for the room he knew Susan would be in and knocked politely.

“Harry!” Susan threw the door open and wrapped him in a flowery scented hug. “Are you really staying all week?”

“Yup.” Harry grinned and fixed his glasses when Susan released him to beam up at him. “Except…” He stuck his lip out in a pathetic pleading pout. “Draco’s staying in Ron’s room, and he’s been suuuch a prat lately…”

“So what you’re saying is ‘dear Susan, can I sleep in your room where it doesn’t stink like teenage boy?’” Susan laughed and grabbed Harry’s arm, yanking him in her room. “Come on, we’ll play a brilliant game this week called ‘don’t tell Auntie Amelia that you’re sleeping in my room’.”

Harry shot Draco a smug look over his shoulder before shutting the door behind him.

Draco rolled his eyes and muttered about idiots with no foresight clear to Ron’s room.

“Harry kipping with Susan?” Ron asked when Draco barged in without knocking.

Draco nodded curtly. “I think we’re supposed to pretend he’s sleeping in here if your mother, Susan’s aunt, or his godfather ask.”

Ron laughed and pulled his chessboard out from beneath his bed. “Odds on them getting together by the end of the week?”

Draco kicked his shoes off and clambered up in Ron’s bed to sit cross-legged and begin setting up his pieces.

“Have you told Granger about your pathetic crush yet?”

Ron grunted in a decisively negative way.

Draco smirked and made the first move on the board. “Then they’ll only be together if Susan makes the first move. Gryffindors are obviously terrified of possible rejection.”

Ron laughed a little as he moved his pawn. “Harry’s odds are a damn sight higher than mine.”

Draco rolled his eyes once more and added ‘painfully obvious’ to his list of the problems with Gryffindors.

It was a shock that any of them ever managed to get married and have seven ginger Gryffindor children.

Susan flopped down on the large bed with the pink duvet in her room and gave Harry a wicked grin.

“Does Andy know you’re here?”

Harry tossed his bag on the floor and crawled in the bed. He smiled contentedly when Susan wriggled her way in a loose embrace with her back to his front.

“She knows I’m at Grimmauld, but she doesn’t trust us alone, so she thinks Tonks is staying with us.” Harry smoothed her hair out of his face and then buried his nose in it anyway, “You smell like home.”

“Pardon?”

Harry tensed up with his arms around Susan and closed his eyes in momentary mortification.

Did receiving the killing curse as an infant impact his ability to not blurt out every mad thought he had?!

It merited consideration.

“Er… you…” Harry stalled, his brain entirely frozen. What could he say that would make his odd statement not sound like something terribly creepy?

Susan wiggled her body around, rolling in Harry’s arms until her arms crept around his waist and they were chest to chest and staring in each other’s faces.

“You know what you smell like?” she whispered, her breath sweet when it tickled Harry’s face.

Harry shook his head, mute as he stared in the eyes of one of the greatest people he had ever known.

Those eyes sparkled with laughter when Susan abruptly began tickling Harry’s sides.

“Like a sweaty teenage boy,” she laughed as Harry thrashed and tried to snatch her hands away. “Say you love me or I’m not stopping, Harry!”

Harry breathlessly cried that he loved her, an easy admission, and he caught his breath from her cruel attack once she quite smugly cuddled up against him once more.

It was warm in the room, the open window blowing a nice breeze through. Harry had Susan in his arms, a floral scent from her perfume enveloping him in a comfortable mind-space.

Harry was half-asleep, glasses and shoes still on, when Susan tapped his ankle with her foot.

“Love?”

“Hmm?”

“You don’t stink, you smell like home too.”

Harry grinned and hid his warm face in Susan’s hair before drifting off in a well-deserved nap.

The first few days mostly consisted of Susan and Ron sharing all they knew about the Order and their plans with Harry and Draco.

“Nothing much,” Ron said bitterly. “A lot of death eater attacks, a bunch of people dying.”

“And a whole lot of our side showing up after people are dead,” Susan added.

None of them were thrilled about that.

Harry slept in Susan’s room the entire week. He thought he’d been busted when he left her room one morning and ran in to Sirius in the corridor, but…

But Andy was probably right to not trust Sirius because Sirius merely shrugged and asked Harry if he knew how to use a condom. Harry very hotly, as in his face had truly been burning, explained in a whisper that they were not doing anything that would require a condom, and Sirius just… just accepted it.

Harry could have been lying.

He wasn’t, but he could have been.

Amelia, Molly, and Arthur were none the wiser about which room and which bed Harry slept in though, so he felt better rested by his fourth day at Grimmauld than he had in ages.

They stayed up late, whispering gossip about their friends, their classmates, their families.

Harry woke her the first night when he thrashed and dreamt of the graveyard. Susan stroked his hair and listened to Harry when he admitted how much he’d worried he wasn’t going to make it back. Susan admitted that she felt guilt overwhelm her when she thought about how grateful she was that Harry made it back instead of Cedric.

“It didn’t have to be either or, but if I had to choose, I’d always choose you,” she said tearfully.

It was one of the many ways Susan said she loved him.

“You look cold,” paired with a blanket thrown at his face was another way. Though he preferred it when it was “You look cold,” paired with Susan cuddling with him on the sofa when he played cards with Ron or Draco, but a blanket tossed at his face was preferable to having Amelia see her niece climb on Harry’s lap.

He wasn’t sure how to interpret Susan’s pink cheeks when she told him he’d “gotten rather fit lately”, but he liked hearing it all the same.

On Harry’s fifth day there, when Harry, Susan, Ron, Hermione, Draco, and Ginny were arguing over if Sirius’ animagus form was more useful than McGonagall’s, they were interrupted by Professor Dumbledore.

Harry had just finished a long-winded rant about how just because Sirius could beat McGonagall in a fight didn’t mean that the cat wasn’t more useful in general. Susan was draped across him, her arm twined behind his neck, and her head bobbing along with a mockingly solemn expression.

“I do enjoy a good debate over the animagus branch of Transfiguration.”

Six pairs of eyes looked up in the doorway to the very amused ones of their Headmaster and Harry abruptly pushed Susan off his lap and to the floor.

Hermione and Ginny scowled at him for it, but Susan merely rolled her eyes. It wasn’t as if Harry’s lap was exactly a conventional seat for their Headmaster to find Susan in.

“Professor Dumbledore, how are you?” Harry asked politely. He got to his feet to offer Dumbledore his hand.

“Ah, I’m afraid I’m not much for handshakes anymore, dear boy.” Dumbledore held out his left hand for a brief moment, long enough for the six teens to see it was shriveled and blackened.

“Sir, what…?”

Dumbledore shook down his robe sleeve, hiding his hand from view.

“A thrilling tale for another day,” Dumbledore smiled kindly at him. “Today though, I have obtained permission from Andromeda and Amelia to borrow you and Susan for a quick errand if you wouldn’t be opposed.”

Harry glanced at Susan, but she was already grabbing their jackets.

As much as she complained about Harry staying in safety, that girl loved adventure.

They were both shocked when Dumbledore told them that Remus wouldn’t be returning to Hogwarts that year.

“He has volunteered for a mission for the Order,” is all Dumbledore cryptically shared.

They were shocked once more when Dumbledore took them to meet Professor Slughorn. It wasn’t that surprising to Harry that Dumbledore used him to coax the man from retirement, the shock came when Susan asked Slughorn what subject he taught, and he said potions.

“Professor Snape has requested the defense position,” Dumbledore told them when they left. He had been in high spirits and congratulated them on a job well done. “Ah, speaking of classes,” He looked directly at Harry and his smile dimmed, “Andromeda told you of the prophecy?”

“No,” Harry lied, darting his eyes away quickly. Susan squeezed his hand in silent support. Andy didn’t tell them they could tell Dumbledore, and Harry’s mum was a hell of a lot more important than his Headmaster.

Dumbledore chuckled as they lingered outside Grimmauld Place. “Odd, as Andromeda and Ted told me they told the two of you the full prophecy last summer.”

Harry let out a relieved sigh and gave Dumbledore a sheepish smile. “Sorry, sir, I just—”

Dumbledore held his good hand up with a gentle smile. “No need for apologies, Harry, it is truly admirable to be as loyal to your family as you are.” Harry perked up more when Dumbledore truly looked as if he were proud of him.

“It is why I regret that I must make you an offer, and if you choose to accept it, I would require you to keep it to yourself. Well,” he smiled at Susan by Harry’s side, “and Miss Bones, of course, I doubt if you could ever be happy keeping something from her.”

Wary of any offer that he would have to keep from his parents and sister, Harry carefully said that he would consider it.

Dumbledore was rather kind as he stood on the stoop of Grimmauld and studied the sky while Harry and Susan silently discussed his offer of private classes for Harry.

A downturn of Susan’s lips, she didn’t like keeping it a secret.

A half grimace from Harry, he didn’t much either.

Susan twisted her lips up, it was interesting though.

Harry raised both brows, he agreed. He subtly lifted a shoulder, did he have much of a choice? A tiny grin, he promised her Paris.

Susan squeezed his hand in agreement.

“I’ll do it, sir,” Harry told Dumbledore.

“Wonderful!” Dumbledore smiled at the two of them brightly. “Aah, to be young, in love, and able to hold entire conversations just from looking in your lovers eyes!” Dumbledore swiped what Harry hoped was a fake tear from his face while Harry and Susan gaped at him.

Had the Headmaster truly just called Harry and Susan lovers?

“I don’t like the idea of keeping things from Andy,” Susan whispered to Harry that night from the safety of her bed.

The two of them gave their friends a brief rundown, though Harry was determined to get permission from Dumbledore to tell Ron about his classes at first chance. Ron was his best mate, Harry wouldn’t be able to hide extra classes from him anyway. As soon as dinner was over, Harry and Susan bolted to her room to discuss the situation.

“I like that only a little more than dying,” Harry confessed quietly. Dumbledore’s offer was a stark reminder to Harry that in the end, it was kill or be killed. He held Susan tightly. “I didn’t learn French to die before Paris.”

Harry’s attempt at a jest worked slightly. Susan laughed, but when she rolled over to look at him, her eyes were wet.

“Let’s go now,” she said softly. She reached up and put a hand on Harry’s cheek. “What if- what if it’s too late later?”

‘What if one of us dies in the next two years?’

Harry held her gaze evenly as he considered the weight Susan carried, loving someone who had a fifty-fifty shot at surviving a war. Sticking by Harry’s side, despite the increasing danger of doing so.

“If I don’t make it to Paris, you still have to go,” Harry told her. He put a finger on her lips when she opened her mouth to argue and shook his head. “Don’t argue, Susan, we both know I might not make it.”

Harry steeled himself with a shaky and nervous breath while Susan let a single tear escape her.

“And even if I’m not there, you have to be,” Harry said fervidly. “You- you’re my whole world, Susan, there’s no me without you.”

Susan ran her thumb under Harry’s eye and caught a small tear of his own.

“Are you saying that because you think you’re going to die?” she whispered.

Harry’s voice was steady, certain. If he was certain of anything in his life, it was his feelings for Susan.

“No.”

The look in Susan’s eyes as her face crumpled was part fierce joy, part endless sorrow.

She moved first, or perhaps he did, but Harry later thought they moved simultaneously, just as they always did.

Their first kiss didn’t taste like Susan’s strawberry scented lipgloss as he always thought it would; it tasted like the salt from their mutual tears. It felt right though, it felt as if Harry Potter-Tonks had been created to fit Susan Bones to him.

They were two halves of a whole and in that moment- they were connected fully and Harry couldn’t describe the joy, the love, that ripped through him.

For ten years of his life Harry had an entire being filled with love, just waiting for someone to share it with. And then he met a bubbly girl in Diagon Alley five years ago who gave him an outlet for it.

Susan found the family Harry desperately needed.

Susan gave him herself, open to his love even when they were eleven and they barely understood the meaning of it.

And Harry in return gave her his essential and entire being. Everything that made him who he was, he gave to her.

They gave each other themselves fully that night, cementing a bond that felt as if it were more prophesied than anything else, it was something as easy as breathing when it was Susan.

When the sun began to send orange rays of light in Susan’s room, they were nestled in each other’s arms with a heavy blanket of peace and contentment weighing them down and urging them to sleep.

“Love?”

Harry’s lips curled up in a tired smile. “Hmm?”

Susan kissed his hand that had been curled over her own.

“There’s no me without you either.”

They got caught that day.

Amelia went to check on Susan when she didn’t show up for breakfast before she had to leave for work. She opened the door quietly and took stock of the shirtless teenage boy with his body wrapped around Susan’s smaller and more petite one. They both slept so soundly, Amelia was loath to wake them.

It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been expecting it. She had known for years that Harry would one day take her baby girl and make her the center of his world, but she preferred to not encourage them outright either.

“Deal with your godson,” Amelia told Sirius as she chastely kissed him goodbye while he finished breakfast with the Weasley’s and the other teenagers staying with them.

Sirius furrowed his brows together. “What- what am I doing with Harry? What’d he do?”

Amelia rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. “Either you give him the talk or you inform Ted that he needs to,” she said shortly, ignoring Molly’s gasp of surprise. Amelia softened when she thought of the tender way Harry held Susan, as if even in sleep he thought he needed to protect her.

“Leave them be,” she told Molly and Arthur chidingly as she fastened her cloak on top of her robes. “Andromeda and I knew this was coming, we merely want them to be safe.”

“I’ll handle it,” Sirius said with a happy grin. “My duty as godfather, eh?”

Sirius tossed a box of condoms at Harry in the middle of lunch, causing his friends to roar with laughter and Harry and Susan to blush as dark as they had ever done before.

Not only were Ron and Draco’s snickers annoying, but it felt as if it cheapened the change in Harry and Susan’s relationship to literally have condoms thrown at his head.

Harry made to toss them back, to keep from confirming something Susan might not want to others to definitively know, but Susan pocketed them with a short nod of thanks to Sirius.

When Tonks returned after a week to pick Harry and Draco up, she did it with mousy brown hair and no Remus, so Harry assumed whatever mission Remus accepted, Tonks wasn’t happy about.

She smiled and cracked a joke when Susan kissed Harry goodbye though, so Harry hoped she wasn’t too downtrodden by whatever Remus had done.

If Harry saw Remus though, he’d be sure to scold him for upsetting Tonks. It was pretty damn obvious that Tonks was mad about him, Harry expected Remus to treat his sister with a lot more consideration than he apparently had.

It was… it was simple and effortless to transition from Harry and Susan, best friends, to Harry and Susan, boyfriend and girlfriend.

“It’s why everyone should simply fall in love with their best friend,” Susan said when Harry said just that to her. The two of them were sitting in the treehouse, their legs dangling over the little porch they’d added and being warmed by the sun.

Harry grinned over at her with his chin propped up on the rail.

“Haha, you love me,” he said playfully with a tug on one of her curls.

“We’re too old for pigtail pulling,” Susan sniffed haughtily with a quick wink. “Grow up, Harry.”

“You grow up,” Harry told her when she reached over and pulled on his hair.

“Get a haircut.”

Harry pushed his fringe off his forehead and told Susan, “Cut it yourself, Bones.”

Harry had been kidding, but Susan lit up all eagerly so he wasn’t likely to take it back.

Harry chewed his lip as he sat carefully still and let Susan clip away at his hair.

Ted’s quiet chuckles weren’t exactly making Harry think that Susan was doing a bang up job at playing beautician.

“You recall of course that you’re not a metamorphmagus, correct?” Andy asked Harry when she entered the kitchen and saw him being attacked by Susan and a pair of scissors.

Harry peeked up at her and shrugged, earning a tiny swat from Susan at the motion.

“She said I needed a haircut.”

Ted wrapped an arm around Andy’s waist and laughed. “And our son is whipped, dear.”

“He is,” Susan agreed brightly. “You’ve done such a lovely job raising him. Alright, love, are you ready?”

No.

“Yeah.”

Ted conjured a mirror for Harry as Susan whipped the cloak she’d been using to protect his shirt off with a dramatic flourish.

“Oh.” Harry peered in the mirror and ran a hand through his shorter locks of hair. He let out a relieved laugh. “This isn’t even bad!”

Susan put a hand on her hip and raised her brows. “Did you truly think I’d make you look horrible?”

“Less competition that way, you see,” Harry grinned. He got up and swung Susan around playfully. “I love it.”

“Good, so I can cut it again?”

Harry lifted her up to press a quick kiss to her lips, elated that he could do that any time he wanted now.

“Always,” he promised her.

Andy and Ted exchanged a tiny smile as their son seemed to have forgotten their presence entirely in favor of the sunshine of his life.

“I suppose I’ll dig out my grandmother’s ring, eh?” Ted whispered.

Andy tapped her lips thoughtfully with her index finger. “Save that for Remus,” she said slowly. “I believe Harry would prefer our set.”

Ted chuckled as the two of them returned to the kitchen to prepare dinner for their ever-expanding household.

“Now we just have to find a nice Hufflepuff girl for Draco and the Black legacy of Slytherins can be properly ruined, eh?”

Andy clinked her tea mug to Ted’s with a twinkle in her eyes.

“Lovely.”

Harry, Draco, Susan, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny along with Sirius, Tonks, and Amelia, went to get their school supplies a week before they were meant to be on the train.

Andy hadn’t wanted Harry or Draco to go, terrified they’d be targeted, so they’d had to push it off until nearly last minute so Amelia could go with them.

Harry and Draco had privately rolled their eyes at Andy’s fears, believing her to be overprotective, but as soon as their group made it to Diagon Alley, Harry understood.

“I hate this,” Susan told Harry quietly as they passed yet another boarded up shop.

Harry hated having Susan in the limelight, holding hands with ‘the Chosen One’, painting a target on her back, but Susan hated Harry fretting over her so he kept his mouth shut.

Harry didn’t want a target on Susan’s back, but he didn’t exactly hold back on keeping an arm around her waist and being perhaps a bit more doting than necessary when they were in Fred and George’s shop.

He narrowed his eyes at Fred when Fred gave them a considering look.

“Your assistant is pretty, go snog her,” Harry whispered to Fred when Susan was distracted with the pygmy puffs with Ginny.

Fred grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “But Haaaarry, I bet Verity doesn’t snog as well as you do.”

“She probably doesn’t, but that’s your problem,” Susan snapped, apparently eavesdropping on their conversation. She held up a bright purple little ball of fur, “And how much for a puff?”

Susan got her Pygmy Puff, and none of them got textbooks as Amelia got called away on urgent business. Sirius made a list of their books and promised to order them; true to form, he forgot half of them and Ted promised to mail them all textbooks when they got to school.

On September first, Harry, Susan, their friends, Hedwig, and ‘Jamie the Pygmy Puff’ were on the train when Colin Creevey came to tell Harry that he and Susan were being invited to go have tea with Professor Slughorn.

“Why’s he want us?” Harry asked, bemused.

“Because you’re famous and even Slughorn has realized you don’t go anywhere without Susan,” Draco said drily. He sat on the floor in the middle of the compartment with Ginny, the two of them discussing the design choices of the current pro quidditch teams. “Ugh, another year of the worst team having the worst designers,” he groaned, already dismissing Harry.

“Oi! I know you don’t mean the Canons!”

Harry glanced down at Susan, who had her feet propped up on the bench and her head in his lap, and arched a questioning brow.

“Reckon we should go?” Harry asked her.

Susan hummed while nuzzling her nose in lucky Jamie’s fur. “Do you want to go be fawned over and asked if you’re some prophesied savior of the wizarding world?”

“Not at all,” Harry replied with a genuine shudder.

Susan grinned and poked his nose with a finger. “Then we don’t go.”

So they didn’t.

They did mildly discuss the prophecy, as its contents had been leaked in the prophet after being smashed in the battle last June. Harry did a lot of humming and grunting, but his friends seemed to have put the pieces together for themselves anyway.

“‘Chosen One’,” Draco scoffed. “Your mum still cuts the crust off your sandwiches.”

“I don’t ask her to!” Harry said hotly. “And she did it for you too, you berk.”

Draco gave Harry a long-suffering look when the girls kept teasing them over it during the feast, but since Draco brought it up, it was his own fault.

Their first week back had Harry wishing to just go home. First, Slughorn had been truly annoying when he kept praising Harry in class. Harry’s potion had only been good because he used the notes from the bloke who owned his borrowed book before him. Something Draco was quick to point out after class.

“Cheaters never prosper, Potter-Tonks,” he sniffed.

Hermione and Theo nodded in agreement while Ron complained about Harry getting the nearly indecipherable textbook.

Harry didn’t pay them any mind though, he was still preening over Susan’s note she passed him in class:

Amortentia smells like thunderstorms and your cologne.

Also, having Snape teach defense was an exercise in patience that Harry didn’t have.

“It is truly remarkable that so many of you made it to NEWT level,” he murmured with his dark eyes lingering on Harry’s defiant green ones. “No worry though, I doubt if any of you will pass after this year.”

Harry had to literally bite his tongue to keep from mouthing off to the Professor who now held Harry’s future in his hands.

If he didn’t end up as another death at Voldemort’s hands, he would need top grades in defense to be accepted in a mastery program. Fighting with Snape wouldn’t exactly further that goal.

The most disappointing part of returning to Hogwarts was when Harry went to his first lesson with Dumbledore and found out that he wouldn’t be teaching him anything to save his life.

“We just talked about Voldemort,” Harry told Susan and Ron that night when Susan breezed right in the common room and curled up on the couch to hear about his lesson with Dumbledore. He filled them in on the memories they watched, all three of them grimaced about the way Tom Riddle Junior came to be conceived.

“I don’t understand how this is supposed to help you?” Ron whispered. “None of it seems very relevant?”

“Ooh, relevant, he said,” Susan cooed at Ron. “Are you brushing up on your thesaurus to impress Hermione?”

Ron scowled and denied it, but Harry knew he had been. They agreed that now that Harry and Susan were together, Ron really needed to get with Hermione so they could do double dates.

“This is not what I meant,” Harry told Ron a week later when they were on a double-date in Hogsmeade.

Harry and Susan sat on one side of the booth, Harry’s arm around Susan’s shoulders, Susan wearing his Gryffindor Captain quidditch hoodie and looking… looking sort of indecently perfect in it, honestly. And then Ron and Lavender sat on the other side. Ron had on his own quidditch hoodie and Lavender wore what Harry suspected was a ‘make a girl jealous’ outfit.

Susan didn’t seem to like it anyway.

Draco and Ginny got drug along and had pulled two chairs up to the table. Harry saw Draco’s Slytherin scarf around Ginny’s neck, but since they spent most of the day arguing with each other, he didn’t really think it meant the same thing as Susan wearing Harry’s clothes.

“She went to Puddifoots with Theo,” Ron scowled. He politely shared his basket of crisps with Lavender and grinned appreciatively when she pushed her mug of butterbeer between them to share.

“To study,” Susan emphasized with a dark look at Lavender.

“Mm, I don’t think so,” Ginny quipped as she stole a crisp from Harry and Susan’s basket. She stuck a tongue out at Susan before adding, “Theo likes Hermione.”

“But Hermione likes you,” Susan assured Ron quickly. She smacked Ginny’s hand when she tried to steal another crisp and nodded at Draco’s basket.

“God only knows why,” Draco muttered, causing Ginny to laugh rather rudely.

“Quit,” Harry warned them with a shake of his head. Poor Ron had fancied Hermione for ages, he’d be heartbroken if she got with Theo. He gave Ron a bracing smile, rather hoping he and Hermione got together as he knew Ron wanted. “Just wait until she sees us kick Draco’s arse next weekend, eh? She can’t turn you down then.”

“She will if she thinks Lavender is dating Ron,” Susan said, as if poor Lavender wasn’t sitting directly across from her.

“Oh, we aren’t telling people we’re dating.” Lavender laughed and shared a mischievous smile with Ron. “Only shagging.”

Draco choked on his spit as Harry roared with laughter and Susan and Ginny shook their heads.

“I’m sorry I used Lavender to make you jealous,” Harry told Susan as they walked back to the castle, separate from their friends.

Susan grinned up at Harry and crinkled her nose. “I’m sorry I used Johnny to make you jealous.”

Harry stopped in the middle of the path, pulling Susan to a stop alongside him, and gaped at her.

“You didn’t fancy him?”

“Nope.”

“But… but he was tall and blonde and fit and made you laugh!”

Susan quirked her lips up in a smirk. “I’m sorry, love, did you want his address? Perhaps you can write to him and tell him how fit you think he is?”

Harry blinked and then grinned as he realized he was being teased. “That’s it, Bones, prepare to be thrown in the lake.”

Susan shrieked and began running full speed toward the castle.

Harry took a quick moment to appreciate the sight- Susan running with the leaves falling around her, crunching beneath her feet, filling the air with the scent of autumn. Susan smiled at Harry over her shoulder, her hair blowing around her shoulders, his name in gold lettering across her back…

“Come catch me, Potter-Tonks!” she yelled.

Harry smiled and swore he would buy a camera soon.

Then he chased after her until he managed to scoop her up and throw her in a pile of leaves while she shrieked with laughter.

Harry didn’t realize it until after Gryffindor won their first match and everyone made a big fuss about Ron and Lavender snogging in the common room, causing a sea of gossip to breakout, but…

“You know, nobody made a fuss about Susan and I getting together,” Harry said thoughtfully, if a bit drunkenly, to Susan as they laid on the sofa in front of the fire. The party was still going on around them, but Harry had decided at some point that laying across Susan had become much more interesting than playing drinking games with his teammates and Draco (who snuck in when Susan did, also abusing his prefect badge).

Seamus, who had been dancing with Dean nearby, actually stopped to snort at Harry.

“Mate, we thought the two of you were married in first year, didn’t we? Gossip has to be new to be interesting.”

Dean nodded earnestly. “The only bet we’ve got now is how long until Draco and Ginny call it official.”

“Call what official?” Harry asked with a pinch of his brows.

Dean and Seamus exchanged looks while Susan ducked her head in Harry’s shoulder and giggled.

“He’s oblivious, don’t bother,” Seamus told Dean with a sigh. “I reckon they’d have to be as obvious as Ron and Lavender for Harry to notice.”

“Jokes on you, Ron and Lavender are fake dating,” Harry said smugly.

“Her tongue down his throat doesn’t look real fake to meeee,” Dean sang annoyingly.

Harry ignored them to stick his lower lip out at Susan. “Why isn’t your tongue down my throat?”

Susan grinned and ran a hand through Harry’s hair, causing him to close his eyes in utter contentment.

“You’re a bit drunk for public snogging, love.”

“Where were you when I kissed Fred?” Harry grumbled, leaning in to her touch as she continued to stroke his hair so sweetly.

“Mm, I was listening to Fred ask me if I thought you were interested in blokes or not, then you came along and made his Christmas wish come true by kissing him.”

“What?!” Harry opened his eyes with a yelp. “Susan! I thought he was hitting on you!”

“Like I said,” Seamus muttered, “bloody oblivious he is.”

With extreme reluctance, Harry cancelled his December Hogsmeade date with Susan to go shopping with Ron.

Ron who…

Who talked as much about Lavender as he used to Hermione.

Harry was bemused as the two of them carefully searched for a gift for Lavender for Christmas.

“Do you fancy her now?” Harry asked Ron curiously. The two of them were in the pet store and Harry had been ignoring the complaints of the snakes in their cage to listen to Ron, but he suddenly felt as if he were missing something.

For years now, Harry assumed that Ron was as in love with Hermione as he was Susan. But Harry couldn’t imagine just… just talking about another witch like how Ron talked about Lavender. Sure, Harry and Lavender had their one fake-date and they were friends, but Harry wasn’t spending hours bemoaning over a gift for her.

He got her a book on complex charms for clothes and called it a day.

Ron hesitated as he tried to decide on a brand of treats for Lavender’s pretty calico cat. He’d had the idea to make a ‘gift box’ of various things Lavender would like, which truthfully was a rather good idea that Harry would be stealing come Valentine’s Day.

“Uh… I mean, we’re dating?” Ron mumbled with red ears. He snatched a bag of treats and then grabbed a cat toy for good measure.

Harry waited until they paid, he’d gotten Hedwig some treats too, and were on their way to Honeydukes, before continuing his train of thought.

“I thought you loved Hermione?”

Ron shrugged his shoulders up while his face turned thoughtful. Harry kicked at the snow on the ground while they walked, giving Ron time to respond just as Ted always did for Harry.

“She’s seeing Theo now, isn’t she?” Ron eventually said, drawing his words out slowly. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Hermione, but… but maybe I’m not in love with her, you know?”

“Not really, no,” Harry admitted.

It had always been Susan for Harry. Susan could have dated half the castle and Harry never would have stopped being in love with her.

He probably would have been a jealous prat about it, but he would have loved her all the same.

Ron looked over at Harry and huffed out an exasperated sigh, creating a little cloud in the cold, before grinning and shaking his head.

“We don’t all have a happily ever after with the first person we go out with,” Ron said teasingly.

Harry smirked at him. “Luckily for you, eh? Since the first person I went out with was your giiiiirlfriend.”

“Oi!” Ron stopped to scoop up a handful of snow in his mittened hand. “It was a fake date!”

“Lavender didn’t know that, did she?”

Ron made an indignant sound, but he didn’t truly look mad. He did nail Harry in the head with a well-aimed snowball though, so their shopping had been put on hold until after they covered each other in snow and warmed up in the Three Broomsticks.

The night before Slughorn’s Christmas Party, the one he seemed to have planned specifically to trap Harry in to going as it was on the last day of term and Harry had no practice or Hogsmeade dates to use as an excuse, Harry walked the corridors with Susan.

She had her prefect badge on and was ‘patrolling’, Harry had his cloak on and was ‘enjoying time together’.

“Did you know Ron actually fancies Lavender now?” Harry whispered after they’d passed Peeves in the Transfiguration corridor.

Susan hummed softly. “I’m not surprised,” she said diplomatically. “I mean, they have more in common than Ron and Hermione did.”

“Like what? Lavender doesn’t even like quidditch and I’ve never seen her play chess.”

Susan laughed softly, her musical tone echoing in the empty halls.

“Their personalities, love,” she said with only a touch of condensation. “Ron and Lavender are optimistic, cheerful people. It makes sense that they’d be happy together.”

Harry chewed his lip while they walked and he thought that over.

“Are we… we don’t have similar personalities?” he finally said. They didn’t, not really. In fact, now that Harry began worrying about it, it seemed as if Ron and Lavender had loads of things more in common than Harry and Susan.

Susan was bubbly, friendly, outgoing. Harry was what Tonks described as ‘a moody bastard’.

Susan made friends everywhere she went, Harry had never met a stranger he didn’t scrutinize suspiciously.

Harry loved to fly, he loved to be doing things, and he sometimes felt as if he had enough energy to run around the world twice and not blink. Some days, Harry thought he could fight God and win, other days, he wished God would have drowned him as an infant.

Susan was quieter in her hobbies. She liked to talk and laugh, but she also liked to curl up and read, always fiction when she didn’t have homework. She was a decent flier, but preferred to watch.

“We don’t have anything in common!” Harry said with a gasp. He ripped the hood of his cloak off and stared at Susan in horror. “Baby, we’re not the same at all!”

Susan’s cheeks turned the faint shade of pink they always did when Harry called her that, the reason he did it, honestly, and she reached beneath the cloak to grab his hand.

“We don’t need to have similar personalities or a bunch of the same hobbies to be a perfect match.” She leaned forward and kissed Harry before he could argue any more. “Plus, we have dead parent trauma.”

Harry laughed as Susan covered his head back up with his cloak and resumed skipping down the corridor.

“Dead parent trauma?” Harry asked her quietly, not eager to land himself in detention before going home for break. “Is that what drew us together?”

“Obviously,” Susan said, drawing the word out in a scathing tone like Snape used. She even stuck her nose up in the air to complete the picture. “Actually, I’m lying, it was because you were just so tiny at eleven, I suppose I couldn’t help but loving you.”

Harry felt his heart melt for a moment at Susan’s thoughtful sentiment. Then he bristled defensively.

“Take that back,” he whispered. “I was not tiny, Sue!”

Susan grinned and danced away from Harry, correctly assuming he was about to tickle her.

“Never!” she declared. “You were teeny tiny with big green eyes and ooh I just wanted to wrap you up in a blanket and stick you on a shelf for safekeeping.”

That… that was sweet, in a way.

Harry still chased her through the corridors, their steps echoing almost as loudly as their laughter, until he caught her in an alcove and tickled her until she cried for mercy.

Then she snogged him until he did the same.

Christmas break was… was not what Harry expected when he and Draco floo’d home together. For one, they’d been relocated to Grimmauld Place until wards could be set up on their home. That in itself wouldn’t be a cause for alarm, as it meant Harry would be spending the holiday with his family, Susan’s family, and Ron’s family, but Harry didn’t like the idea that his family had become targeted in the war.

“Don’t concern yourself with it,” Ted told him firmly when Harry apologized for them having to move. “We would have been targets anyway, son. It’s only a matter of time before muggleborns have to hide out.”

As if that made Harry feel better.

Then there was also a lot of discomfort between Tonks and Remus that had Harry watching them closely. Remus looked exhausted, overworked and underweight. And Tonks, typically so bright in speech and looks, was dull.

Harry tried to gently prod at her, find out what happened that kept her from flirting with Remus, teasing him as she always did, but she refused to discuss it. So, rationally, Harry snagged his wand and hunted down Remus as soon as his friends were all asleep.

He found him in the sitting room with Sirius and Amelia on his second night. Amelia was leaning in Sirius’ shoulder, her glasses on as she read from a thick book. Sirius had his head tipped back, his throat bobbing every time he took a sip of his drink.

Remus sat hunched over in a chair, his head buried in his hands, his shoulders slumped morosely.

Any other day, Harry would feel a twinge of pity for him. But all Harry’s pity went to his sister and her mousy hair and her bleak eyes.

“What the hell did you do to Tonks?” Harry demanded as he marched in the room, his wand drawn and pointed at Remus. He liked Remus, but he clearly did something to Tonks and Harry couldn’t stand for that.

Tonks was one of the greatest people Harry had ever known. She called Harry ‘little bro’ and ruffled his hair and irritated the hell out of him, but she was his sister and if Remus truly hurt her, then Harry would hurt him.

Remus picked his head up and looked from the tip of Harry’s wand up to his face.

“James’ son through and through,” Remus said drily, not bothering to even pull his own wand. “Eh, Sirius?”

Sirius made a scratching and noncommittal noise in the back of his throat as he peered a bleary eye open to watch Harry loom over Remus. Amelia slowly set her book down, but she also didn’t bother to intercede.

“Tonks’ brother, actually,” Harry reminded Remus harshly. “And I’d like to know why my sister doesn’t have pink hair anymore. I’d like to know what you did to make her so bloody unhappy.”

Remus’ eyes were burning with some sort of desperate emotion as he twisted his lips in a semblance of a joyless grin.

“You’re a good brother, Harry, truly, but our problems are not yours.”

“Wrong,” Harry spat. He moved a step closer, his wand still held high. “If Tonks is unhappy, it’s my problem. So,” he jabbed his wand at Remus, “spill.”

Sirius chuckled from the sofa behind Harry. “James’ loyalty refined in a Hufflepuff house, he’s dangerous.”

“Andromeda was a Slytherin,” Amelia reminded Sirius, her sharp eyes watching Harry and Remus closely.

“Mm, was she though?”

Remus ignored his friends as he weighed Harry’s determination to get through to the crux of his issue with Tonks.

“Dora deserve better. I don’t need to tell you that,” Remus said with a self-deprecating scoff. “Dora wants marriage, a family, all things I can’t provide.”

Harry suddenly felt as if perhaps he didn’t know his sister at all. He had no idea Tonks wanted marriage, or a family, and perhaps that lack of knowledge meant that it truly wasn’t Harry’s place to interfere, but he was already there.

“And you’re already married?” Harry asked Remus lightly, hiding his irritation behind a politely curious tone.

“What? No, I’m not.”

“Impotent?”

Remus sputtered as his friends laughed.

“No, Harry, I’m a werewolf.”

“I don’t see the issue then,” Harry said. He pulled his wand back and pocketed it. “I’m not saying knock my sister up in the middle of a war, and God knows that Mum and I want to be at the wedding, but if you love her and you want to be with her, then do it.”

Remus scrubbed his face with his hands and then took a drink before he sat up straight and leveled Harry with a solemn look.

“I’m a penniless werewolf on a mission to recruit other werewolves, I could be dead by spring. You’d want me to marry Dora knowing I could leave her a widow before she reaches thirty?”

Harry momentarily regret pocketing his wand. He was better with spells than words, but he channeled his inner-Snape as he curled his lip up derisively.

“What I want is for you to give Tonks the choice,” he sneered. “Don’t end things because you think she can do better. To be clear, perhaps she can because she’s brilliant, but she clearly wants you, doesn’t she?”

Harry turned on his heel and strode from the room while Sirius let out a quiet ‘Told you so’.

“Also,” Harry pulled his wand once more to aim it at Remus from the doorway, “if Tonks’ hair isn’t pink by Christmas morning, I’m going to make you regret it.” He gave Sirius and Amelia an apologetic smile, “Goodnight.”

“Well,” Sirius chuckled when Harry left the room, “at least you know Susan’s safe with Harry, Amy.”

Amelia nodded and relaxed against Sirius’ side once more as she resumed reading through the book she’d taken from his library.

“I’ve never doubted it,” she said simply.

Tonks woke Harry and his friends up on Christmas morning by jumping on the sofa Harry and Susan slept on.

With Andy, Ted, Molly, Arthur, Amelia, Remus, Sirius, and Tonks in the house, Harry hadn’t slept in Susan’s room the entire break. Instead, they slipped away to the attic to be alone and then convinced the others to sleep in the sitting room with them. Nobody could complain about Harry and Susan sleeping together when there were roughly a dozen other teenagers sharing the same space.

“Merry Christmas, little brother and little future Tonks!” Tonks cried. She swished her wand, stealing everyone’s blankets. “And everyone else who I don’t care nearly as much about.”

“I am your cousin,” Draco muttered darkly as he blinked at Tonks from the sofa he shared with…

With Ginny.

Huh.

Harry had been certain that Ron had been on that sofa before he fell asleep.

“Bros before hoes,” Susan said brightly, ever the morning sun to Harry’s lingering shade. She pushed Tonks, knocking her to the floor, and kissed Harry rather chastely. “Merry Christmas, love.”

“Merry Christmas,” Harry mumbled, his deep-rooted hatred of mornings easing as it always did when he woke up to Susan. He looked down to where Tonks was pouting on the floor and felt his mood lift the rest of the way up.

Tonks had on the knitted jumper Harry once asked Molly to make for her, a pair of baggy and unfamiliar grey sweat pants, and her hair was pink.

Pink was perhaps Harry’s favorite color.

The mismatch of families enjoyed a huge breakfast together, courtesy of Ted and Molly, before retiring to the drawing room that Sirius had lavishly decorated and had been overflowing with gifts for everyone.

Harry adored the jumper that Susan made him, made him with her own two hands, that had her swan and his dog on the front. He also laughed with his friends at what he assumed was a joke gift Lavender sent Ron, a gold necklace that said ‘My Darling’ in cursive font (Harry wondered if Lavender knew that Ron actually fancied her or not).

Best of all though, Harry clutched Susan’s hand tightly when Remus got to his feet, nodded at Harry, then kneeled in front of Tonks.

“Nymphadora, I’ve been an idiot,” he said, a sentiment that had Harry and Susan nodding in tangent. “If you’re happy being with an idiot though, then I’d like to spend the rest of my life working to deserve the love you’ve given me so freely. Will you marry me?”

Harry had never seen Tonks as happy as she was as she enthusiastically agreed and accepted their great-grandmother Edith’s engagement ring and was congratulated by everyone in the room.

“Thank you,” Remus whispered when Harry offered him a brotherly hug.

“If you hurt her, I will kill you,” Harry said cheerfully.

Remus laughed, but Harry hadn’t been kidding.

He hadn’t been kidding when they all toasted to Tonks and Remus with champagne Andy suspiciously seemed to have read and he looked over at Susan wistfully.

“One day, I hope that’s us,” he said quietly, nodding to where Tonks and Remus were sharing a love seat and sharing love filled smiles.

Susan’s smile was just as full of love as she looked at Harry, setting every nerve inside him aflame with just how bloody lucky he was to have her.

“One day it will be,” she said confidently.

All Harry had to do was kill Voldemort to get that future.

No big deal.

Christmas couldn’t be Christmas without something mad happening though, but Harry had been more than happy to let Andy and Amelia handle it when Minister Scrimgeour tripped the wards at the Burrow in a quest to find Harry.

“He wanted my son to be some ridiculous mascot for the ministry,” Andy said furiously when she returned from the Burrow. She smiled kindly when Harry pushed a mug of cocoa in her icy hands. “Thank you, darling. Do me a favor, Harry, hmm? If Scrimgeour is still in his position when you reach thirty, I’d appreciate you running for Minister to unseat him.”

Harry blanched at the idea of that much power, that much attention, being focused on him.

“He can’t,” Susan said after a light laugh. “We’re going to be traveling the world together.”

“Pissing away Harry’s inheritance,” Sirius said with an approving smile. “James would be so proud.”

Harry raised his mug to Sirius in a quiet toast, privately hoping that he’d make all these people who stood up for him so staunchly proud one day.

Having the break from school seemed to have injected some spirit in Harry’s group of friends. They were the loudest ones at dinner, holding friendly debates over any topic they could think up. Harry, Ron, and Neville were rowdy in the corridors, shouting ridiculous insults and nicknames after one another.

They all went on ‘the school’s largest group dates’ (as McGonagall called it when she caught the ten of them leaving the castle together) to Hogsmeade on their free weekends. Harry and Susan, Ron and Lavender, Neville and Hannah, Hermione and Theo, and…

“Oh, they’re actually dating?” Harry asked Susan when he caught sight of Ginny and Draco holding hands and laughing together on the icy streets in Hogsmeade.

“They have been for a while,” Theo answered him. He quirked a brow up, “Don’t you live together?”

“Harry’s rather unobservant,” Hermione teased Harry.

Harry and Susan shared an amused smile as Hermione hadn’t even realized that Ron and Lavender’s odd ‘fake-dating-but-not-fake-on-Ron’s-part’ act had been for her benefit.

Except…

Harry looked over Lavender’s outfit she wore that weekend. A light purple knitted jumper, one Harry was certain Molly made, paired with a set of black boots and a tight pair of jeans.

Harry was relatively confident, due to extended periods of time spent around Lavender, that she wasn’t wearing a ‘make a girl jealous’ outfit, but rather a normal ‘spending time with my friends’ outfit.

It shouldn’t be separate, but Harry learned a long time ago to not question witches on their clothing choices.

Returning to Hogwarts also set Harry up with renewed determination to pay more attention in his lessons with Dumbledore. It was this determination that had him holding an emergency discussion with Susan and Ron after one lesson.

“I have to get a memory from Slughorn,” Harry told them. The three of them were hunched around a table in a quiet corner of the Gryffindor common room. Harry had used trick coins Hermione developed to send Susan a message as soon as his lesson ended, a more subtle method than using his patronus as he typically enjoyed doing.

“Well that won’t be hard, will it? You’re his little potion prodigy, I’m sure he’d be chuffed to do anything to help you,” Ron said.

Susan scrunched her nose up. “I don’t think so,” she said slowly. “I think you’ll need to be very cunning to get it from him, love.”

Harry groaned. “So I’ll never get it?”

Susan had a glimmer of resolve in her eyes as she squeezed his hand reassuringly.

“Oh, we’ll get that memory,” she said confidently. “Perhaps you should just get lucky.”

Ron snorted. “‘M not sure what you shagging Harry has to do with Slughorn, Susan.”

Their loud laughter that attracted the attention of the others effectively ended their private conversation, but Harry did use a small sip of his Felix Felicis potion the next weekend to try and get the memory from Slughorn.

Harry was in Professor Dumbledore’s office five hours after taking the potion with the memory in hand.

“You’ve done it!” Dumbledore cried happily. “How?”

“I cornered him after dinner, asked to chat about my mum, Lily, and he wound up having a drink and one thing led to another,” Harry said proudly.

Dumbledore’s brows pinched together slightly as he glanced out his stained glass window.

“Did it take that long to convince him?” he asked. “Dinner was quite some time ago, dear boy.”

Harry fought down a blush, mumbled something about Susan, and Dumbledore laughed merrily.

“How quickly I forget the priorities of youth,” he said with a twinkly-eyed smile. “Of course visiting your Miss Bones would carry more weight than your old Headmaster.”

Harry grinned a bit cheekily as he ran a hand through his hair.

“Well, sir, you did say that love is the power Voldemort knows not…”

Dumbledore laughed again as he poured Slughorn’s memory in his pensive. “So I did,” he agreed. “Come, let us confirm my guess and take another step closer to finishing his reign, shall we?”

And since that sounded like precisely what Harry wanted to do with his life at that moment, he dutifully obliged him.

As grateful as Harry was to Slughorn for providing the memory he needed to him, he was even more grateful when Slughorn provided an antidote to the love potioned chocolates Ron ate the morning of his birthday.

Not only did poor Lavender look devastated when Ron began spewing nonsense about Romilda Vane to her in the common room, but Susan was going to kill Romilda once she found out her intended victim.

“Ron likes you,” Harry assured Lavender as he ushered Ron to Slughorn’s office. “He drives me barmy talking about you.”

Lavender softened when she saw the gold chain of the necklace she bought Ron around his neck. “He would have to actually like me to wear that hideous thing, wouldn’t he?”

Slughorn thought the whole thing was a riot when he poured Harry and Ron a glass of elf-made wine.

“To young love, true love, not manufactured,” he added hastily as a cheer.

Harry and Ron raised their glasses then downed them simultaneously.

Harry was quite certain that professors weren’t meant to be drinking with their students, but as nothing drastic happened, he assumed it was a one off.

The drama didn’t happen until that night, when Susan and Lavender put their past aside in order to make Romilda Vane regret ever being born.

“It’ll wear off in a week or so,” Susan said indifferently, referring to the hex of acne across Romilda’s face that spelled out ‘slag’ in bright red marks.

“Mm, it would have, except coupled with the extended and untested skin shading spells from the twins?” Lavender clicked her tongue carelessly. “Who knows how the two spells will interact?”

Susan smiled and clinked her glass to Lavender’s. “Too true, bestie, too true.”

Harry and Ron watched with appropriate levels of fear, awe, and respect in their eyes.

“I think I preferred it when they didn’t get along,” Ron muttered.

“Bit terrifying, isn’t it?” Harry agreed. He squinted across the table at their girlfriends and lowered his voice. “It’s… it’s really bloody hot, right?”

“Right.”

“Thought so.”

As Hermione, Theo, Neville, and Hannah were the only ones in their group to go home for the Easter holidays, Harry and the others spent the week playing quidditch in the early spring sunshine.

Harry and Lavender played seeker while Ron and Ginny acted as keeper and Draco and Susan were their sole chasers.

“How…?” Ron stared dumbfounded at Lavender after she caught the snitch before Harry. “Holy hell, I think I love her.”

Harry rolled his eyes and relaxed back on his broom as he floated beside the goalposts where Ron seemed frozen. The two of them watched the girls celebrate their win, and Harry moved over a bit to make room for Draco when he flew over to them.

“You let her win,” Draco accused him flatly.

“Course not,” Harry lied. He grinned to see the three girls attempting barrel rolls and laughed aloud when Susan nearly slipped from her broom. “COME ON, BONES, I THOUGHT WE WERE FLYING OVER THE OCEAN ONE DAY?”

“Piss off, sweetheart!” Susan yelled back with a rude hand gesture.

“Who cares who won?” Harry told Draco with a nod to the giggling trio of girls. “They’re so happy.”

“And you’re so whipped,” Draco sighed.

That too.

If Ginny Weasley held even a small candle to Susan Bones’ brilliance though, perhaps Draco would be more whipped.

Harry knew the joy and peace he had with his friends couldn’t last forever. Not with the war brewing, not worth Dumbledore disappearing from the school more often and looking more and more worn out.

It all came to a head the last week of May. Dumbledore summoned Harry, asking if he wanted to help retrieve a horcrux he found.

Harry couldn’t find Susan before he left, but he sent her his patronus with a vague ‘Ron has my map, love you’. He left the rest of his liquid luck with Ron and Lavender, along with the map, and took just his cloak and wand to retrieve the horcrux with Dumbledore.

Everything that night happened so quickly, Harry didn’t have time to process it. He merely reacted, as each terrible thing happened, Harry just reacted.

Dumbledore drank the poison in the basin.

They were attacked by inferi after taking the horcrux.

Harry barely got the two of them back to Hogsmeade, where Dumbledore directed him to fly them to the Astronomy Tower.

“Go find Severus now,” Dumbledore whispered to Harry when they landed.

Harry hadn’t reacted in time, he’d hesitated when he heard footsteps approach.

He’d been stunned beneath his cloak just as Snape came tearing through the door.

Harry couldn’t react then- he could only bear witness to Dumbledore’s murder.

“Severus, please.”

“We discussed this.”

“I believe you are a good man who will fulfill your promise. Please, Severus.”

Whatever promise Dumbledore wanted Snape to fulfill, it was broken as Snape raised his wand and his eyes filled with fury and anguish.

“Avada Kedavra!”

And then Harry was reacting once more.

Harry charged Snape through the castle, screaming insults he couldn’t recall, alerting the other professors to the murder that took place.

“You worthless coward! FIGHT BACK!” Harry screamed when they raced across the grounds. He flung a silent Sectumsempra (a handy spell Harry found in his potions textbook, one marked for enemies- which Snape certainly was) at Snape’s back, grateful to all the hours he spent working with Tonks, Sirius, and Remus when it landed on the back of Snape’s knees.

“COWARD?!” Snape spun around, stumbling slightly from the deep gash across his legs. He blew Harry backwards with hardly a twist of his wand. “YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE SPEAKING OF, POTTER!”

Harry thought Snape would kill him as well, take him away from his friends and family, away from Susan and his parents, until a voice yelled across the grounds:

“IT’S POTTER-TONKS! STUPEFY!”

Snape blocked the spell easily and Harry quickly leapt to his feet to join the fray as Draco and Ginny began sending a mixture of spells at Snape.

“Stay down, idiot,” Theo snarked as he helped Harry to his feet again when he sent another silent curse at Snape’s head.

“SLIMY COWARD!” Ginny shrieked when Snape sprinted the last of the ground between himself and the gate and apparated away with one last hex from Draco following him.

“What the hell just happened?” Lavender panted as she and Ron ran to their group. Her face was pale, but her jaw was set with a stubborn sort of determination to stay strong. “Hermione and I were on patrol and we heard Harry screaming that- that Dumbledore…?”

Harry spun around and noticed every one of his friends stood beside him, all with wands drawn and ready to fight. It would have been a sight brilliant enough to bring Harry to tears, if Susan were there.

“Susan? Where’s Susan?” Harry asked frantically. He began sprinting back to the castle- back to Dumbledore, too late, back to Susan, don’t be too late -leaving his friends to chase him once more.

“She was right behind us,” Hermione said in a quivering voice. “Harry, I swear, she was right behind us!”

There was a crowd on the grounds, dozens of students in their pajamas. Dozens of students crying and screaming. Harry was certain they stood around Dumbledore’s body—

“Please, Severus.”

—but he had to be sure.

Losing Dumbledore was unreal, losing Susan couldn’t happen.

The crowd parted for Harry, allowing him to move toward the blue clothed body of their headmaster- their leader- and the shaking girl kneeling by his side.

“Harry?” Susan looked up and stared at Harry with tears pouring shamelessly down her face. “HARRY!”

She jumped to her feet and grabbed him in a tight hold. The two of them stood there like that for a few minutes, several hours, a day, an eternity. Susan cried in the crook of Harry’s neck while Harry held the girl he loved while he stared numbly at the dead body of the Professor he’d so admired.

They might have stayed like that forever if it weren’t for a firm hand grabbing Harry’s shoulder and guiding him toward the castle.

“Hospital Wing, Mum said,” Tonks said in a choked voice. Her hand never left Harry’s shoulder and Harry’s arms never left Susan’s body.

How close to death was Susan that night?

As close as Harry?

As close as Dumbledore?

Andy pulled Harry in her arms the instant Tonks pushed him in the Hospital Wing.

“Where were you?” Andy sobbed as she clung to him. “Where were you?”

Harry had reacted as much as he could that night. His fire, his fight, was as extinguished as Dumbledore’s life.

“I’m sorry,” he told Andy instead of a response. He let her cry on him until he spotted McGonagall in the corner with Remus and Sirius, a handkerchief pressed against her lips.

“It was Snape,” Harry said, working hard to sound firm instead of flat. “I saw him.”

“I’ll go alert Amy,” Sirius murmured. He grasped Harry’s arm briefly before he left the room. “Don’t ever do that to us again, kiddo.”

Harry listened to the others explain what happened as Andy and Susan sandwiched him between them on a bed.

“We were on patrol when we heard Harry yelling,” Lavender explained. She sat on the floor with Ron, Draco, and Ginny and seemed the least shaken of their group. “We heard him screaming ‘greasy piece of shit’ and knew he had to be chasing Snape.”

“We tried to follow, but they were running so quick.” Hermione pulled a gold coin from her pocket and held it up. “I sent a message to the others, telling them Harry was back, and… and we just tried to catch him.”

“I tried to keep track of when you got back with the map,” Susan whispered from Harry’s side. She seemed to be trying to burrow in his side, sharing her warmth that Harry’s freezing body desperately needed. “I looked away for a second, just a second I swear, and… and I ran with the others, but…” Susan sniffed and seemed to be steeling herself. “I stopped when we passed Professor Sprout’s office.”

Harry closed his eyes in gratitude for the first time as he realized Susan must stopped to floo his family. He’d never been so thankful for the way Susan always tattled to the Tonks’ before, but it kept her from the brief fight with Snape, so he was thankful then.

“Susan called me, said there was something happening,” Tonks said. “I came through as quick as I could, I just- I sent a message to Remus first.”

“And then I tried to find you,” Susan told Harry. She looked up at him and he could see absolute sorrow in those perfect teal eyes. “I saw… I saw a body… on the ground, and I… I thought…”

“Sh…” Harry wrapped her more securely in his arms as he pieced together the rest of her story. Susan came to help in the fight and must have spotted Dumbledore’s body only moments before Harry found her. It seemed as if the fight with Snape lasted hours, but it couldn’t have been more than minutes.

“Son, where were you tonight?” Ted asked Harry after Susan’s cries subsided.

Harry looked over at his dad and stared him right in the eyes when he answered.

“I can’t tell you.”

Ted didn’t seem surprised by Harry’s answer, or perhaps he saw in Harry’s eyes that he wouldn’t, couldn’t concede, but Andy wouldn’t accept it.

“Darling, given the circumstances…”

“No, Mum.” Harry took one arm from Susan to grab Andy’s hand and give her a solemn look. “Given the circumstances, I need you to trust me that I wouldn’t keep something from you if it weren’t important.”

Andy’s eyes were piercing as she stared in Harry’s. He didn’t even feel guilt as he steadily held his mum’s gaze; Dumbledore died for the horcrux, Harry had to keep them secret.

The less people who knew, the less people who would be marked for immediate death if Voldemort ever discovered it.

“I trust you,” Andy finally said. She pressed her lips to Harry’s head and inhaled deeply. “Don’t ever scare us in such a way again.”

Harry caught Ron’s look from across the room and the weight of all they both knew passed between them.

And Harry lied to Andy.

“I won’t, Mum.”

Harry walked the grounds with his friends after Dumbledore’s funeral.

They were all leaving that afternoon, and Harry knew he wouldn’t be back.

“What’s the plan, mate?” Ron asked as the ten of them, Harry’s closest friends, the ones who stood and fought with him even when they didn’t know why they were fighting, sat on the grass bordering the Black Lake.

Harry hummed and thought of all the time he and Susan had spent out at the lake. Talking, planning for the future, a future Harry had to secure for them now.

Dumbledore destroyed a ring, Harry destroyed a diary, the locket was a fake. And now it landed on Harry’s shoulders to find and destroy the rest of Voldemort’s horcruxes.

“Now we make a plan,” Harry told him. He tilted his head to Susan’s when she laid on his shoulder.

“Together?” Susan asked quietly.

Harry turned his head so he could smell her shampoo, the floral scent that he knew Amortentia would always smell like for him.

“Together,” he lied.

Chapter Text

“You’ve lost your mind.”

Harry spun around guiltily and then swallowed when he and Ron exchanged quick looks.

“Sue, hey, baby,” Harry tried to smile but it wavered in the face of Susan’s supremely unimpressed glare. She stood in the doorway of the drawing room that Harry and Ron just tiptoed past, dressed in one of Harry’s hoodies and a pair of jeans, with her arms crossed and a boot tapping on the floor. Susan was dressed like she was going somewhere, which she absolutely was not.

Harry suffered through his sisters quick backyard wedding to Remus. He suffered through his birthday dinner - where he’d privately cried when Dad gave him a watch, a traditional gift for wizards to give their sons on their seventeenth birthday.

Harry had it in his pocket and knew that if he died on his mission, he would die with the token of his family on him.

He suffered through meeting with the Minister and taking possession of an old snitch while Ron received Dumbledore’s deluminator and Susan was given a storybook for children.

He suffered through hugs from Hermione and Theo, who were fleeing together. Hermione wanted to stay and fight, Theo smartly convinced her to leave. It broke Harry’s heart to wonder if he’d ever see his friends again, but he mostly just hoped they’d be safe.

Then Harry suffered through Bill and Fleur’s wedding, which had been crashed by death eaters and led the mixed families to all return to Grimmauld Place to hide out at.

And Harry knew what he needed to do to keep anyone else from suffering. Dumbledore left him a job, and Harry was going to do it. Ron would go with him, unshakably loyal mate he was, but Susan couldn’t.

Harry couldn’t risk her safety. If he died during his mission, he wouldn’t go out without knowing Susan was safe.

“What are you doing up?” Harry asked Susan, holding his shrunken bag behind his back while Ron hastily did the same thing.

Susan raised a brow that said her eyes missed nothing and she stalked toward Harry in a way that sent a shiver down his spine for all the wrong reasons.

“It’s cold in my bed without you,” Susan said. She lowered her lashes and placed a hand on Harry’s cheek. “Come to bed with me, love.”

Harry swallowed a groan, he would love to, but he had to go.

“Five minutes,” he whispered to her, ignoring their audience of Harry’s very guilty looking best mate. Harry placed a hand on Susan’s waist and memorized each tiny freckle on her nose. “Go back to bed, please, I love you.”

Susan slid her hand to the back of Harry’s head and curled her fingers in his hair.

“I love you,” she whispered. She yanked his head back harshly just as Harry thought she was going to kiss him. “And I’m going with you.”

Harry yanked his head out of her grip, his face twisting up in a scowl.

“No, you’re not,” he said flatly, dropping his hand from her waist and taking a step further away from her and closer to the door. “Go to bed.”

Susan smiled so sweetly that Harry knew she was about to say something terrible.

“Here’s your options, Potter-Tonks; either I go with you, or I go wake up Andy and Tonks. Decide now, love.”

Harry glanced at Ron, weighing if they could apparate away before Susan woke his mum and sister, but Ron just shrugged.

“Might as well bring her, mate. I said we should from the start.”

Susan rolled her eyes and pulled what was doubtlessly a fully packed and shrunken bag from her hoodie pocket.

“It’s a sad day when Ron is the brains of your operation,” she quipped. “Let’s go, gentlemen.”

Harry placed his note for Draco, demanding he protect Andy and Harry’s family at all costs, and they left.

And the duo of wizards planning on hunting horcruxes became a trio.

“A locket, a cup, something of Ravenclaw’s, the snake,” Harry repeated while the three of them approached Susan’s abandoned cottage.

“Find out who RAB is and find a way to destroy the horcruxes,” Ron said, adding to their list.

“Kill Voldemort and win the war,” Susan said. She pulled her wand out and squinted at her door. “I think we should—”

CRACK!

Whatever Susan thought they should do had been interrupted by the arrival of two Death Eaters in full garb. It took a split-second where they stared at the teens and the teens stared back, then Susan groaned quietly and the fight began.

It was proof that Harry’s wish that Susan had stayed home wasn’t mad when he spent half the fight trying to protect her instead of dueling to the best of his abilities.

Something Susan was quick to snap about after they’d stunned, obliviated, and disposed of the two Death Eaters in a dodgy alley in London.

“Quit worrying about me,” Susan snapped once they’d made it back to the cottage and settled in the sitting room together. Until they knew how they’d been found so quickly, Harry didn’t want to sleep separate even if it meant that Harry and Susan lacked privacy for their argument.

“I am perfectly able to defend myself, Harry,” she said. Her teal eyes flashed with true irritation and it only made Harry just as irritated.

“You don’t have to be a git about it,” he told her heatedly. “What would I do if you got hurt, Susan? Huh? How do you think I’d feel if someone hurt you because I let you come with us?”

Ron burrowed himself down beneath the quilt on the sofa and tried to pretend that he didn’t exist.

Susan scoffed at Harry’s demanding questions. “You shouldn’t feel any worse than I will if you get hurt because you were too busy watching my back to watch your own,” she said waspishly. “We are a team, Harry, try and remember it.”

Harry scowled and crossed his arms.

“If you die then don’t you dare blame me,” he said. He ignored the sharp pain in his chest that accompanied his words and Susan rolled her eyes.

“If I die then avenge me and I’ll be happy,” she said firmly. “Now budge over, just because you’re a jerk doesn’t mean I’m not cuddling you.”

Harry cuddled her, but he did it begrudgingly.

The next week was spent planning out places to look for the final horcruxes - the true locket, the cup, the tiara, and the snake.

“Snake’s gonna have to be last,” Ron said while they fried up eggs for breakfast one morning. “I reckon it’ll be snake then snake-face.”

Harry snorted. Susan was paranoid that Voldemort’s name had been tabooed, an extremely dark spell that had been used the last war, so they’d gotten increasingly more creative as Harry refused to say ‘You-Know-Who’.

“You’re probably right,” Harry agreed. He slid some eggs from the pan to a plate. He gave them to Susan with a grin. “Bon appétit,” he said.

Susan giggled and accepted the plate gracefully. “Merci,” she said primly.

It was silly, but using French on occasion was the most hope that Harry had. It was hope that Paris wasn’t off the table - that they’d see the Eiffel Tower after they won a war.

Lofty dreams, but it was something.

“What we need to do is figure out who RAB is,” Susan muttered as she paced in the sitting room one night. “The only person I can think of with those initials is Sirius’ brother.”

“The death eater?” Harry asked curiously. He had been sitting on the sofa with Ron, desperately trying to think of anything that could help them.

Susan hummed and nodded. “I had the room across from his, his name was on the door, I saw it every morning.”

Harry and Ron exchanged grimaces.

“There’s no chance we can get in Grimmauld to look,” Ron said slowly. “But…”

“But maybe we can get someone out of Grimmauld to tell us,” Harry said. “What’s it called when a trio gains a fourth person?”

“A quartet,” Susan said. “Still have those trick coins, Harry?”

Harry fished his from his pocket, his hand brushing over the pocket watch from his dad as he did.

“Here,” Harry handed it over to Susan.

“Let’s hope Draco has his,” Susan said solemnly before tapping it with her wand, sending Draco a message.

Luck had been on their side, because Draco got the message and arrived the next afternoon. That was where their luck ended though, because Remus followed him.

“Your mother is devastated,” Remus told Harry. He stood across from the sofa where Harry, Susan, and Ron sat and looked as stern as ever. Harry wondered idly if he enjoyed being the one on the moral high ground for a lecture. “Your sister and godfather are losing their minds searching for you three.”

“To be fair, I think Sirius lost his mind long ago,” Draco said brightly. He sat in the recliner with his legs crossed and a smirk on his face. Harry hadn’t gotten a chance to ask about the horcrux, not with Remus popping up, but Harry hoped that was why Draco looked so smug.

“Regardless…” Remus crouched down in front of Harry and stared him hard in the eyes. “What are you doing that’s so dangerous you didn’t tell your mother goodbye properly?”

Harry shifted uncomfortably. If Remus was trying to guilt the truth from him, it was very good. Harry couldn’t stand the thought of Andy being heartbroken, but..

But he couldn’t stand the thought of losing his family in a war when he had the knowledge on how to end it.

“I can’t tell you,” Harry said firmly. He couldn’t let guilt ruin this last mission left to him by Dumbledore. “I’m sorry, Remus. Tell mum- tell mum I’m sorry too.”

Harry had been looking at the ground when he said that, so he missed the way Remus drew himself up tall and squared his shoulders.

“Instead of an apology, why don’t you offer her peace of mind and allow me to accompany you?” Remus held his hands up when Harry immediately began to argue. “You wouldn’t have to tell me what you’re doing, but I believe I would be an asset to you. And,” Remus smiled gently at the four teenagers, “I think your families would sleep better to know that I was with you.”

Harry furrowed his brow and tried to puzzle through why that offer bothered him instead of relieved him. As usual though, Susan seemed to know Harry better than anyone and she immediately put a finger on it.

“What about Tonks?” she asked Remus. “Wouldn’t you rather stay with her?”

Remus’ smile turned strained. “I think Nymphadora would prefer I stay with her brother.”

Harry couldn’t argue with that. He clapped his hands and was about to officially welcome Remus to team horcrux hunters when Draco spoke up.

“And I’m sure Harry doesn’t mind you dipping out on his future niece or nephew at all,” he drawled.

Harry’s eyes turned to steel as he looked up at Remus and hissed through his teeth.

“What?!”

Remus immediately tried to defend himself - Tonks was pregnant, the baby was an accident, it would be better without Remus around - and Harry was hearing none of it.

He stood up and pulled his wand out, aiming it directly at Remus’ face. Harry’s chest was heaving with anger. How dare he? How dare he?!

“You have twenty seconds to get out of here, get back to my sister, and be a father to your child or I will kill you,” Harry swore. “You do not get to KNOCK UP MY SISTER THEN ABANDON HER, YOU HEARTLESS COWARD!”

“Coward?!” Remus pulled his own wand, prompting Susan, Ron, and Draco to hastily get theirs out as well. Harry and Remus paid them no mind as they glared each other down.

“She’s better off without me!” Remus yelled. “She would prefer I be here!”

“And I would prefer you not abandon your family!” Harry yelled right back.

Remus’ face twisted up angrily. “You mean like you are?” he spat.

His accusation knocked the air from Harry’s lung and Draco shot a blasting hex at Remus. It missed, but it seemed intentional.

Remus turned to Draco when the brick wall beside him burst in a cloud of dust.

“Go,” Draco said coolly. Susan’s hand slipped in Harry’s and she squeezed it silently while her wand never moved from Remus’ face.

“This is a mistake,” Remus warned Harry before he turned on the spot and disapparated.

Ron was in motion immediately while Harry still was frozen in place by shock.

“I abandoned them,” Harry whispered faintly. He looked over at Susan with stricken eyes. “I abandoned my family. I just walked right out, without even saying goodbye.”

“Oh don’t listen to him,” Draco scoffed as he hastily helped Ron stuff all their supplies in bags. “He’s been a moody prat since Tonks told everyone. We need to move though, unless you’d rather be drug back by your hair?”

“Decide now, love,” Susan said gently, leaving the decision in Harry’s hands. “Go back or go on?”

Harry hesitated as he considered his niece or nephew. He would love to be there to watch Tonks swell up as they grew, but he had to make sure the world was safe before they entered it.

“Go on,” Harry said. He silently prayed that he would get to meet Tonks’ baby one day then linked arms with the others. “Let’s go.”

The four of them apparated away less than a minute before Andromeda, Ted, Sirius, and Amelia apparated in the cottage.

Draco joining them was a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing how he brought a story from Kreacher about the whereabouts of the locket - apparently nicked by Mundungus Fletcher during an Order Meeting. But Merlin if Draco wasn’t the whiniest person to exist.

“It’s the tent or the forest, choose now and shut the hell up,” Susan told Draco after hearing him complain about the confines of the two bedroom tent Ron had thought to bring with him.

“Yeah, mate, Harry used to sleep in a cupboard so this is like a mansion to him,” Ron said with a grin. Susan scolded Ron for being insensitive, but Harry laughed for the first time in days.

“He’s right,” Harry told Draco with his own crooked smile. “So sit down and shut up, I’ve got a plan to grab Mundungus.”

It wasn’t a perfect plan, it was risky, but they needed that horcrux.

They scouted out the Pickled Portkey, the pub in Knockturn that they’d seen Mundungus at in previous scouting trips, and waited in the alley beside it for him to arrive. He had been there the night before, peddling wares in his coat pockets, but Harry hadn’t grabbed him since only he and Susan had been there.

They had one chance to grab him and Harry didn’t want to mess it up. Not when the stakes were so high.

Harry and Draco were beneath Harry’s cloak while Susan and Ron - purebloods who weren’t outright traitors to Voldemort - waited more brazenly in the open. Harry’s heart sank when they’d been waiting nearly an hour past when Mundungus had been there before.

Maybe he’d moved on?

Then a crack of apparation and a stiffening in Ron’s spine.

“Bleedin’ Ministry wantin’ to ruin an honest bit ‘o work.” Mundungus’ voice was unmistakable. “Ain’t nobody knows proper respect no more, oh yeah, they’ll see…”

“Good evening.” Susan stepped from the shadows with the others following behind her. She didn’t have her wand drawn yet, but Harry and Draco did. One wrong move and Harry would stun Mundungus before he could get away.

Mundungus blinked at Susan and Ron and then he screwed his eyes up.

“What d’ya want?” he asked gruffly. “I’m not doing nothing wrong here.”

“I doubt that,” Ron snorted. He had his hands in his pocket and an easy smile on his face. “My brothers said you were the person to ask for curious items, things that are hard to find?”

They’d debated on if they should point out that Ron’s brothers were the twins - it carried the risk of Mundungus mentioning them, but they eventually agreed that the mutual connection was worth more than the risk. And Mundungus did relax after he scrutinized Ron closely.

“Shouldn’t you be on a train?” he asked shrewdly.

“That’s our business,” Susan said sweetly. “We’re more interested in your business right now.” She pulled a bag from her pocket and jangled it in Mundungus’ face. It was filled with muggle coins, not even worth a single galleon, but Mundungus didn’t know that.

And Harry certainly wasn’t spending his parents’ money on a bit of Voldemort’s soul.

Mundungus’ greedy eyes widened and a smile spread across his face.

“Of course,” he said in a simpering way that had Harry grinding his teeth together. “What are you interested in?”

“A necklace,” Ron said smoothly. “A Slytherin necklace.”

Harry watched as Mundungus’ face shifted to a quick look of boredom that he couldn’t begin to interpret.

Did he have it?

Draco pinched Harry’s arm harshly when Mundungus opened his coat and pulled out a necklace. A thick silver chain with an obstinate emerald S on the front.

The necklace that Harry knew once belonged to Merelope Gaunt and that Tom Riddle killed a woman to retrieve.

The locked that Sirius’ brother died in a vain attempt to destroy and that Dumbledore died in an equally vain attempt to fetch.

Mundungus held up a horcrux and his smile was as slick as oil at the way Ron and Susan’s eyes lit up.

“This necklace?”

Ron was beaming. “That’s the one, mate.”

Harry wasn’t sure what the side effect of four stunners to a single man’s chest was, but he couldn’t be arsed to care either.

One horcrux down, three to go.

Spirits were high in the days that followed their retrieval of the locket. Sure, they had no idea how to destroy it yet, but they were all confident that it would come to them in time while they found the next one. After riding out the high of their victory though, spirits began to slip.

It was taxing on them all to move their tent so frequently, not daring to stay in one location too long. Obtaining food was something that was a risk instead of a given as well. None of them held any compunction against theft —

“If we’re saving the muggles from death or enslavement, the least they can do is let us rob their stores,” Draco said firmly.

— but it was still dangerous to go in and out of muggle towns even with the cloak. Muggles never noticed them, but they ran in to a cluster of dementors at one town and Harry and Susan gave themselves away with their dog and swan patronus’.

October was coming to a close and they were all frustrated at their lack of progress and began to bicker over it more frequently.

Harry and Ron sat at their little table and we’re going over the previous horcruxes and their locations, seeing if there was any pattern to it, when their worst fight ever broke out.

“Oi! Draco!” Ron turned in his chair to look at where Draco was curled up on the sofa. Draco looked exhausted and Harry would have thought he was asleep if it hadn’t been for the way he stared blankly at the wall and toyed with the locket he wore for his turn protecting the evil thing.

“Think your dad has any more horcruxes laying around?” Ron asked Draco. He waited a beat before saying anything again, “Draco?”

Draco blinked and then looked toward Ron. His eyes narrowed and he looked furious for no reason that Harry could discern.

“Why?” Draco asked scathingly. “Because my family is nothing but death eaters?”

“Er…” Ron glanced at Harry, but Harry only shrugged helplessly. “No… because your dad had the diary, didn’t he? So maybe he had two?” Ron said to Draco.

Susan wandered in from where she’d been making dinner, wiping her hands on a towel and frowning as Draco’s voice increased in both volume and pitch.

“Well let me just call him up and ask,” Draco said sarcastically. He sat up and rolled his grey eyes to complete the picture of derision. “Oh wait, I can’t because he’s with the Dark Lord AND I AM STUCK IN A TENT!”

“Nobody’s forcing you,” Harry told him. He tried to ramp down on his own rising temper, but he didn’t have time to deal with Draco drama. He had a job to do and it sucked, but he had to do it. He never made anyone go with him. “You’re free to go home if you want, no hard feelings.”

Draco pulled his lip back in a sneer. “Oh, sure I’d love to go home, but I CAN’T BECAUSE THE DARK LORD IS IN MY HOUSE!”

“Then go to Grimmauld Place,” Susan said curtly. She had her hands on her hips and was scowling at Draco. “You have a home, you prat. Andy would be more than happy to see you.”

“Before or after she interrogates me for where you all are?” Draco asked Susan. “Because I think she’d rather have Saint Harry, don’t you?”

“Oi, that’s enough,” Ron said. He got up and stood with his hands on the table and stared hard at Draco. “Take the locket off and go for a walk, mate.”

“A walk is not going to keep my family safe, it isn’t going to get us finished any faster!”

Harry stood too as the room felt thick with tension. “We all miss our family, but fighting isn’t going to help anything,” he said calmly.

Draco’s eyes flashed and he looked at Harry as if they were mortal enemies instead of two boys who had been friends for years and lived together all last summer.

“What would you know about family?” Draco sneered. “You don’t even have one.”

Harry felt his accusation like a punch to the gut. He shot a hex off at Draco without even thinking about it, just an automatic reflex.

Susan shouted as Harry and Draco began slinging spells at each other, but they didn’t hear her.

“I DO SO HAVE A FAMILY!” Harry yelled as he tried to hit Draco with a stinging hex. “SORRY YOUR MUM’S A DEATH EATER, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU CAN INSULT MY PARENTS!”

“THEY ADOPTED YOU BECAUSE THEY FELT BAD FOR YOU!” Draco screamed shrilly. He sent a sickly yellow spell right at Harry’s head that Harry had to duck to avoid. “THEY’RE PROBABLY HAPPY YOU’RE GONE!”

“QUIT FIGHTING!” Susan shrieked. “BOYS, PLEASE!”

“YEAH? I BET GINNY’S RELIEVED YOU’RE GONE,” Harry said nastily. “NO MORE PRETENDING TO LIKE YOU!”

“LEAVE MY SISTER OUT OF IT!” Ron shouted.

“DONT YOU BLOODY YELL AT HIM!”

“OH SURE, BACK HARRY UP, WE’RE ALL REAL SURPRISED!”

“WHY WOULDN’T SHE BACK ME UP? I’M NOT THE ONE BEING A JERK!”

“YOU’RE THE ONE WHO BROUGHT US ON THIS LITTLE TRIP WITH NO BLOODY CLUE WHAT TO DO!”

“I TOLD YOU EVERYTHING I KNEW!”

“YOU DON’T KNOW A DAMN THING!”

“PISS OFF!”

Their shouts were intermixed with spell fire that made Harry sick to see. Susan stood to Harry’s right and Ron was somewhere across from Harry in the mix of spells being thrown around.

How did it get so bad?

Why did Harry let them come?

“I SHOULD HAVE CAME AL—” Harry and Susan both gasped and spun to face the tent doorway when the sound of a branch breaking stole their attention.

“Quiet,” Susan hissed to the boys. She raised her wand and pointed it at the ceiling. A few murmured spells later and the four of them were hidden in darkness with the buzzing of a muffling spell for added security.

Harry knew they cast more wards and spells to protect their tent than were possibly ever needed, but they never had to test it before. A tap on his shoulder and Harry looked over to see Ron holding up a few pairs of extendable ears. Harry accepted them with a grateful nod, their fight forgotten in face of the possible danger of exposure.

All four of them crept up by the door and slid the ears through a small opening. Harry and Susan shared one so they could give Ron and Draco each their own and then they all three listened hard for sounds of a stranger in their camp.

“If we move a little closer to the river, we can probably catch some fish,” a familiar voice said.

Harry looked at Susan and she looked just as puzzled as he did, but Ron knew the mystery voice right off the bat.

“Dean Thomas!” he whispered to them all.

“Tell me again how long you’ve been out here?” Another voice asked, this one familiar and painful.

“Ted?” Draco whispered curiously. Harry glanced at him and saw Draco’s eyes were red rimmed and he looked bewildered. He also wasn’t wearing the locket anymore, he must have taken it off while they were fighting. Harry glanced back at the sofa and saw it laying there, Draco caught his eye again and mouthed ‘I’m sorry’.

Harry figured they had worse problems than a spat between friends if Ted was outside, so he nodded and accepted the apology at face value.

“Been on the run since I got to the Platform and saw it was full of Death Eaters,” Dean snorted. “My friends were safe enough going to school, Seamus and Lavender are purebloods—”

Ron made a pained sound at his girlfriend’s name and Susan slid a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“—but I knew Hogwarts wasn’t for me anymore. You’re muggleborn as well?”

“Muggleborn and Harry Potter-Tonks’ father,” Ted said, sounding proud enough of the title that Harry’s eyes stung. “My family and I got caught up with some snatchers, gave away our location, so I got them set up somewhere else and figured it was time to split. Go look for my son and ground the hell out of him.”

Dean snorted and their voices grew faint as they drifted away further.

“Good luck with that, Harry’s always been stubborn as long as I’ve known him.”

“Eh, he gets it from his mum.”

Once they couldn’t hear anymore, Susan turned the lights back on and the three of them looked at Harry.

“What do we do?” Susan asked. Harry could tell from Draco and Ron’s expressions that whatever he said, they would go with.

Harry closed his eyes and considered it. Adding another person to their team meant more people with more possibilities of getting hurt, but Ted was already on the run, already at risk.

And Harry didn’t want to have another muggleborn parent of his struck down - or tortured for information - on his behalf.

So when it was dark enough that Harry felt as if he could move in the forest beneath his cloak safely, he tracked down where Ted and Dean were sleeping by the river. Harry gave Dean a remorseful look, but he couldn’t bring him as well.

Draco was already pissy that Ted would be another mouth to feed, another bed to use that they didn’t have.

Harry knelt down by his dad and poked his side before placing an invisible hand over his mouth. Ted’s eyes snapped open and his wand stabbed Harry in the stomach.

“It’s me,” Harry breathed. “Quiet now, don’t wake Dean.”

And, after another argument, this one between father and son, Ted joined their group. Ted filled them in on what was happening back home, Grimmauld wasn’t safe anymore, but Andy and Tonks were in a safe house with Remus, Sirius, and Amelia.

They were all still fighting, still going on missions to protect muggles and subdue death eaters. Nobody was willing to give in or roll over and die.

“Everyone’s working hard,” Ted said solemnly. He sat at their table and looked older than Harry had ever seen him. There were lines in his face that hadn’t been there months ago and perhaps even a grey hair or two on his head. “Now tell me what you’ve been doing.”

They didn’t dare tell him what they were searching for, just that they were important items that would end Voldemort. And Ted accepted the limited information they could share and insisted they get down to business.

“Let’s see if we can’t get you kids home by Christmas,” he laughed.

“What day is it today?” Draco asked him. “We haven’t been able to get a paper in a while.”

“And the last one we got had us all marked as wanted,” Susan said cheerfully. Harry smiled fondly at her, Susan had been thrilled to see her picture on the front of the paper on a wanted poster. She swore she would save their ‘mugshots’ and hang them on a wall for the kids to see one day.

Ted hummed and tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Let’s see… it was the 24th when I left, and that’s been about a week now, so Halloween I’d say?”

Harry laughed at that until he wound up sobbing with Ted holding him as if he were a child and not nearly a grown man.

Sixteen years ago he lost two parents, that day he got one back.

And he desperately wanted to get his mother back as well.

Tiara. Cup. Snake.

Destroy them all.

Kill Voldemort.

Find Andy.

Beg for forgiveness.

Paris.

They all had reasons for why they were doing what they were. They all had reasons for why they were following the path of a seventeen year old blindly trying to find the path of his dead mentor.

Harry’s were simple when he cut them to the quick—

Everything he did he chose to do for love.

To protect love.

To reunite with love.

To have a future with love.

When Dumbledore said that love was the power Harry had that Voldemort didn’t, Harry believed him. Because he would do anything for his family, his friends, his Susan.

Harry and Ted went alone to Godric’s Hollow.

They left flowers on Lily and James Potter’s graves and Ted told Harry that they would be just as proud of him as he was.

When Bathilda Bagshot interrupted their moment, Ted agreed with Harry that maybe she had some answers to their questions.

And when Bathilda led Harry to her attic, Ted crept behind him and blasted her across the room as soon as she asked Harry if he truly was Harry Potter.

“Bathilda Bagshot isn’t a Parslemouth,” Ted said. He hastily grabbed Harry’s hand and apparated them out of her home before Harry could even comprehend that the woman had been speaking Parsletongue.

Harry’s scar burst open with fire not ten minutes after they arrived back in camp and filled the others in. He watched as Voldemort burnt down Bathilda Bagshots home and took Nagini, who had been animating Bathilda’s corpse, with him.

“It was right there,” Harry whispered hoarsely to Susan and Ron while Ted and Draco were on guard outside the tent. “The snake was right there. I could have killed it and we’d been one step closer to home.”

They were sympathetic, but Ron was also logical in a way that eased Harry’s guilt.

“We still don’t have a way to destroy them yet,” he reminded Harry bracingly. “Once we do, we’ll get it done, mate.”

Their dilemma on how to destroy the horcruxes was resolved not two weeks later with the delivery of the Sword of Gryffindor.

Harry and Susan were on watch and they had the Marauder’s Map open so they could see proof that their friends - Hannah, Neville, Ginny, Lavender - were all alive and well inside the castle. They’d been quietly discussing what Hermione and Theo might be up to when a bright light lit up the forest and drove them both to their feet.

“It’s beautiful,” Susan breathed when a doe patronus came waltzing to them. She extended her hand to touch it and Harry frowned when it walked off and stopped.

“Does it want us to follow?” Harry asked Susan.

Susan bit her lip and hesitated. “Do you think it’s a trap?”

Harry looked at the beautiful doe and shrugged. “How many death eaters do you know that can make a patronus?” he asked her.

Susan couldn’t find an argument against it, so they silently followed the doe until she disappeared over the middle of a frozen pond. Harry spun around looking for it, but Susan looked down and gasped.

“Harry!” she cried. “The sword!!”

Sure enough, deep in the frozen pond, lay the Sword of Gryffindor. And Susan was already shedding her clothes, as if she were going to go in after it.

“Sorry, love.” Harry cracked the ice and dropped his wand in the snow while Susan was shedding a jumper. “I’d rather freeze to death than you. Tell dad I died doing something stupid, will you?”

Susan yelled at Harry, but he was too far in the water to hear her.

“Harry wanted you to know if he died it was doing something stupid,” Susan said cheerfully while Harry shivered and offered the sword and the destroyed locket to his dad ten minutes later.

Ted took one look at his pathetically shivering and freezing son and sighed.

“Yeah, that’s what his mother and I are always afraid of.”

With the return of the sword, the four teens put a renewed vigor in finding the other horcruxes.

“I’m sure one’s hidden in Hogwarts,” Ron said while they whispered over it out of Ted’s hearing. “It’s safer than Gringotts.”

Harry shook his head. “Dumbledore didn’t think it was there.”

“Dumbledore also trusted Snape so maybe we don’t take his word as law,” Draco drawled.

It was a fair enough reasoning, but breaking into Hogwarts would be more difficult than breaking into Gringotts.

Though, not a month after that conversation, breaking into Gringotts became their top priority.

The five of them were caught by a group of snatchers, though Ted had the foresight to toss Harry his cloak when Harry broke the taboo and a group of people apparated inside their wards. The snatchers might never have known the group of people they captured had Harry Potter-Tonks in their midst if Harry hadn’t disarmed one of them and been tackled by Greyback himself.

Greyback cackled when he held Harry off the ground by his hair.

“The Boy-Who-Lived, a mudblood, two blood traitors, and a pretty little witch,” he said. He licked his lips when he looked at where Susan was being restrained by another snatcher. “What’s your story, poppet? Who are you?”

Susan snarled and Harry renewed his efforts to escape.

“I’m the one that’s going to kill you,” Susan swore.

Greyback laughed. “Feisty, I like it. Hold ‘em tight, we’ll take the lot of them to Malfoy.” He leered at Draco, “Ready to go see your daddy, boy?”

The way Draco bit the arm of the bloke who had him in a headlock was a pretty definitive answer, but it was apparently a hypothetical question and they were all taken anyway.

It was in the dungeon of Malfoy Manor —

“Who owns a bloody dungeon?!”

“Piss off, Ron.”

— that Harry, Ted, Ron, and Draco realized that Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry and Draco’s insane aunt, had something in her Gringott’s vault that she didn’t want them to know of.

Not that Harry really processed it as he was clawing the walls trying to get to Susan.

Susan who was screaming under torture and refusing to disclose where they got the sword from or what mission they were doing.

Brave, brilliant, Susan who tried so hard not to scream and Harry cried hard enough for both of them.

And it was Draco who helped them to escape.

“We used to house house-elves down here,” Draco whispered while they freed Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw girl who’d been taken hostage, and Ollivander the wand maker, from their ropes. “It was much cleaner then, I wonder…” Draco blinked slowly and then his face lit up in a terribly inappropriate smile. “House elves!” he hissed. “Kreacher!”

Harry sent Kreacher away with Draco, Ron, Luna, and Ollivander then he and his dad stormed up the stairs to save Susan.

Ted knocked Pettigrew out with an impressive right hook and snatched his wand from his silver hand while he lay on the floor unconscious.

“Never underestimate the power of punching a pureblood,” he told Harry sternly. “Stick close, as soon as I disarm someone, snatch their wand and get your girl, son.”

And that’s precisely what they did.

Ted disarmed Lucius Malfoy then Harry caught his wand and summoned the bag of their own belongings from Narcissa Malfoy’s slack hand. He grabbed Susan’s hand and called for Kreacher again. Susan looked terrible, she was semi-conscious and mumbling nonsense about France and flowers, and Harry sent her to Ron’s brothers house where Ted had told them the others were.

As soon as Susan was gone, Harry helped his dad duel the others until his scar felt like it was splitting open and they had to leave.

It was a narrow escape, but Kreacher had seemed oddly pleased to help them get away safely from the Manor.

“Nasty, cruel, place,” Kreacher cackled when he grabbed Harry’s hand and Ted’s. “Master Draco is much nicer than his nasty parents.”

With a soft pop they left with more information than they had beforehand.

Andy wasn’t at Shell Cottage when they arrived, only Bill and Fleur were, but she was there the next morning while Fleur was force feeding everyone an insane amount of food.

“HARRY!” Andy’s face was covered in tears when she burst in the cottage and streaked right past the others to throw her arms around Harry. Harry broke down almost immediately when his mum sobbed and squeezed him. “I thought I’d never see you again,” she cried.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Never do that to me again.”

“I won’t,” he lied.

Two days after Remus came to announce that Harry’s nephew had been born - Edward James Lupin - Harry, Ron, Susan, and Draco slipped away with Polyjuice and a half-arsed plan on breaking into a bank.

It was sick, seeing Susan disguised as Bellatrix, but it was effective.

Not as effective as the imperious curse that Harry and Draco used on every goblin and wizard that crossed their path, but still effective enough.

“THIS IS MAD!” Susan shouted as they escaped on the back of a dragon that Draco insisted they save.

Harry looked at where Susan’s face was lit up with adrenaline from the rush of robbing a vault. Her red hair flew wildly in the wind and her eyes were gleaming with excitement.

He wished he had his camera then.

“YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL,” Harry shouted over the loud wind.

“JE T’AIME,” Susan screamed with a joyful laugh.

Harry loved her so much it ached.

It ached almost as much as his scar did when Voldemort discovered their theft and began to seek out his other horcruxes to check their safety.

As soon as they destroyed the cup with the sword, Harry knew it was time to get to Hogwarts.

“You brilliant girl.” Draco swung Ginny in a gleeful hug when they’d broke in the castle with Aberforth’s assistance and Ginny and Neville told them about how they’d been building a resistance inside the castle with other students.

Ginny snogged Draco passionately then smacked him upside the head.

“Don’t ever leave me behind again!” she yelled. “You bloody moron!”

Ron and Lavender were having a similar reunion and Harry hated to break it up, but they still had a mission that now had a timer ticking above it.

Ron and Draco were in charge of getting ahold of the others - it was going to be a battle, Harry just knew it - and Harry and Susan slipped away beneath the cloak to find the Ravenclaw diadem.

It wasn’t in the Ravenclaw Tower, but Amycus Carrow was and Harry and Susan both took too much pleasure in cursing the man with crucio when he spat at Professor McGonagall.

“No time to explain,” Harry said hastily when McGonagall looked close to stroking out over his sudden appearance. “Voldemort’s coming, Professor. Get the students out.”

“And for the love of God someone kill Snape,” Susan added over her shoulder as they ran to find the ghost of Ravenclaw.

Harry grinned at Susan appreciatively.

“Dibs on killing Snape if we find him first,” he said as they chased a ghost that continued to evade them.

Susan laughed and shook her head. “No chance, love. He cursed you, I’m killing him myself.”

As it turned out, neither of them got the pleasure of killing Snape.

They found the tiara and Harry screamed when they left the Hidden Room and they saw his sister fighting in the middle of a group of death eaters.

“GO HOME!” Harry shouted. He slashed his wand over and over, using Snape’s sectumsempra spell against those wizards that dared try and take Harry’s sister from him. “HAVE YOU LOST YOUR FUCKING MIND?!”

Tonks laughed and spun spells around as naturally as she breathed.

“Teddy’s with Ron’s Aunt Muriel,” she said. “By the way, Mum isn’t happy with you.”

“There’s a war happening,” Harry growled.

Tonks, mad witch that she was, stopped long enough to ruffle Harry’s hair, grimacing at the blood and ash that their trip to the bank left him covered in.

“There’s never a bad time for your mum to be mad,” she said. “In fact—”

“DUCK!”

Susan blasted Tonks away when a death eater chose to try and hit her with the killing spell from behind.

“You saved her life,” Harry told Susan gratefully when they went in search of Ron and the sword. They left Tonks with Remus and strict orders to heal her and take her home to their son.

And if Remus didn’t then Harry was going to finally, once and for all, kick his arse.

Susan winked at Harry and flipped her equally dirty hair off her shoulders.

“Perhaps they’ll name the next baby after me,” she said.

Harry grinned at her. “Maybe we’ll name our kids after Tonks.”

Susan laughed even as she stunned a death eater that was attacking a group of fighting students.

“Nymphadora is a terrible name,” she said. “But I like the way you think. Let’s finish up here and then argue over our future kids’ names, hm?”

It sounded as good of a plan as any to Harry.

They found Ron with Sirius, Amelia, Draco, and the twins facing off against a group of death eaters firing green spells everywhere.

“Susan Bones! You are grounded!” Amelia screamed when she saw her niece for the first time in eight months.

“You too, kid,” Sirius told Harry.

Fred laughed and shook his head at Harry and Susan. “You two should ground them, you know they went and got hitched?”

“What?!” Harry yelped. “You’re joking!”

Fred looked offended. “I never joke!”

A blast like a canon went off and Harry grabbed Susan, yanking her to the ground, and Sirius shielded the nearby others with a spell to save them from the wall that had just been blown up.

“Blimey,” Fred whispered when the dust settled and the duel resumed. “That was nearly the end. You saved my life, Sirius.”

Harry snorted. “That means you have to name your first kid after him apparently.” He looked toward Ron and raised his brows meaningfully. “I need you, mate.”

Harry, Susan, Ron, and Draco slipped away to destroy the tiara with the sword.

“Last one,” Draco whispered afterward.

“Last one,” Harry agreed grimly.

“Luckily it’ll be the easiest,” Susan said brightly.

It was pretty piss poor timing - but they all laughed and then went to find the snake and end the war.

They found the snake, too little too late.

Snape died in Harry’s arms and gifted him with one last secret - a terrible secret. Harry watched the memories alone in Dumbledore’s office while the others went to help with the wounded during the hour Voldemort gave them to gather their dead and for Harry to turn himself in.

Harry exited the pensieve and felt his heart shatter.

There was no Paris.

There had never been a Paris.

Harry’s love might save the others, but it wouldn’t save him.

Harry left the office beneath his cloak and paused outside the Great Hall. There weren’t many dead, but the ones he saw broke his heart.

Colin Creevey.

Padma Patil.

Professor Trewlaney.

Ron held Lavender while she cried over the professor and Harry’s eyes roamed until he saw his family all together helping heal the wounded.

Except…

Harry had wanted one last look at his mother’s beautiful face, but it hadn’t been in the cards. Tonks and Remus were still there, helping the twins move injured fighters to the healing area. Susan worked with her aunt and Sirius, mending breaks and sealing wounds.

Harry allowed himself ten seconds to stand there and stare at her.

“Je t’aime,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”

She was going to be devastated, but she would be safe and that was more important.

Harry exited Hogwarts and found his mum on the ground with Draco and Ginny where they gathered up creatures and kids alike who’d been hurt during the battle.

It was soft as a whisper could be, but Andy’s head still snapped up when Harry whispered her name. She spun around and seemed to stare right at Harry, despite him being beneath his cloak.

“Son?” she called. “Darling, are you there?”

Harry said nothing; he soaked in her face and tried to commit it to memory.

“Harry, please,” Andy whispered. She reached out and Harry was numb as he silently moved out of her reach. “Don’t do it. Don’t go. I know you, you brave and beautiful boy, he won’t stop because you’ve went to him. You know he won’t.”

Harry did know. But he also knew that he couldn’t be stopped if Harry didn’t go to him.

“Please,” Andy’s voice broke and a sob wrenched from her throat. “Harry if you’re there, don’t go, baby. I can’t lose my son.”

Harry waited until he was at the line of the forest to send Andy a small comfort in the form of his sheepdog patronus.

He was going to break his mother’s heart, but he was going to see his other mother.

“I’m so proud of you,” Lily Potter whispered when Harry found the resurrection stone from the book of stories Dumbledore left Susan. He’d been reaching for Ted’s watch, wanting to hold it close when he went, and found the snitch with the stone inside it.

“We’ll see you soon, son,” James Potter added with a sad smile. “We love you.”

Harry faced down death to remove the horcrux inside him from the world - and he was rewarded with a choice.

A choice to stay or return.

“Susan’s there, my family,” Harry told Dumbledore. He looked around Kings Cross Station and shook his head. “I’ve got to go back.”

Dumbledore beamed at him. “Then go back you shall.”

If Harry thought walking to death alone had been the hardest thing he would ever do, he was wrong.

Laying on the ground at Voldemort’s feet while Harry’s parents screamed, his sister hit her knees and sobbed, and Susan was held back by Ginny and Lavender had been the hardest thing Harry had ever done.

He didn’t move though, he was waiting on a chance to kill the snake wrapped around Voldemort’s shoulders.

Draco beat him to it.

“Harry Potter is dead!” Voldemort shouted, twisting the knife in Andy’s heart.

Draco ran forward with the sword brandished like a warrior.

“HIS NAME WAS HARRY POTTER-TONKS!”

Draco slashed the head off Nagini and Harry threw his cloak over himself once more as a new battle broke out.

Tonks was there to save Draco when Voldemort tried to strike him down. The others, renewed by Draco’s bravery, shouted and charged the death eaters and creatures that had chosen the wrong side.

Andy‘s scream was terrible to hear when the giants began trampling the grounds.

“HARRY!” she screamed. “PLEASE, GOD, SOMEONE GRAB HARRY!”

Harry ducked and dodged the fighters until he made his way inside the castle and found Sirius, Ted, and Remus battling Voldemort while Amelia and Susan fought Bellatrix.

“Your wittle boyfriend is dead,” Bellatrix cackled at Susan. “Don’t worry, you can see him soon!”

Susan screamed and seemed to pour all her grief from her wand. A thick spell of bright green shot out and struck Bellatrix square in the chest.

Amelia caught Susan as she collapsed and Harry threw up the most powerful shield he could when Voldemort screamed at the death of his most loyal follower and turned his wand on Susan.

“Don’t you dare!” Harry yelled. He whipped his cloak off and gasps were heard through the hall. “You’re done, Tom.”

Harry stepped forward and pushed Ted, Sirius, and Remus away with a mindless spell.

“It’s got to be like this,” Harry said without looking away from Voldemort’s shocked red eyes. “Dad, go find Mum.”

Nobody made a sound as Harry and Voldemort began circling each other. Nobody could step forward through Harry’s shield - though many of them tried.

“How?” Voldemort whispered. “I killed you! How are you here?!”

Harry smiled at the fright in Voldemort’s eyes.

“I came back for them,” he said.

For his mum. For his dad. For his sister and his nephew.

Harry came back for Susan.

He came back for Paris.

“You wouldn’t understand because there’s nobody you love,” Harry told the pathetic wizard before him. “But sacrifices made in love will always be more powerful than those made in fear.”

Voldemort sneered and Harry smiled serenely.

They struck simultaneously.

And in the end - Harry’s love for his family beat out Voldemort’s fear of death.

Chapter Text

“It’s beautiful,” Susan sighed. She stood on the balcony and stared at their perfect view of the Eiffel Tower.

It was beautiful, with the lights shining on it and the flowers blossoming at its feet, it was stunning.

“Not as beautiful as you,” Harry told Susan truthfully. Susan turned and her hair swayed with the breeze, giving her a perfect red halo.

Susan smiled at him and it was the smile that Harry had always cherished above all others.

It was the smile of his best friend.

The smile of the love that carried him through a war and gave him a second chance at life.

And… Harry tore his eyes away from Susan’s gleaming eyes long enough to look at the ring that decorated her left hand… it was the smile of Harry’s entire future.

“I love you,” Susan said. She leaned forward and placed a soft and sweet kiss on Harry’s lips. “This has been incredible.”

It had been incredible.

Harry and Susan waited a month after the war ended to help with clean up, attend funerals, meet Harry’s nephew and godson (an honor he would never be able to top, Tonks assured him). Then they packed their trunks and set off.

Their first stop had been in the States to find Hermione and Theo. Apparently Theo had given his classmate Blaise Zabini enough of a hint of where they were going so they could return once the war ended.

Susan laughed herself sick when they found Hermione, Theo, and Hermione’s parents in Salem, Massachusetts. Hermione had been thrilled to see them and had apparently been riddled with guilt for leaving in the first place.

The baby she carried on her hip has cleared up any lingering questions on why they fled instead of fought and Harry assured her she’d done the right thing in leaving.

After traveling a bit in the States - the Grand Canyon was massive and Harry took a million photos for his mum - they went to Mexico.

From Mexico, Italy.

From Italy, Rome.

Rome to Greece.

And finally Paris.

Paris was where they finally fulfilled their promise to each other and Harry made a new promise to Susan.

“I promise to cherish you and love you every second of every day for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?”

Harry wasn’t ready to leave, but he was ready to see his family.

When they arrived back in London, Harry burst in his parents home and had been startled by the people who all jumped out screaming ‘CONGRATULATIONS!’

Harry and Susan held hands and blinked stupidly around the decorated sitting room filled with people.

Sirius and Amelia were there - sorry, Sirius and Minister of Magic Amelia Black, were there, beaming and holding up delicate champagne flutes. Tonks, Remus, and Teddy were there. Teddy came running at Harry on his chubby little baby legs and he wrapped Harry’s calves in a tight hug while he squealed excitedly.

Harry sighed when he saw the way Tonks had her hand over her stomach. Apparently he’d be getting another niece or nephew soon.

Ron and Lavender stood by Draco and Ginny, all four of them with their own champagne flutes and wide smiles. Even Hermione, Theo, and baby Christina were there, standing with Neville and Hannah.

“You promised we’d tell them together,” Susan hissed to Harry as he tried to process what was going on.

“I didn’t tell anyone!” Harry insisted.

Andy, who’d been lingering by the door with Ted’s arm around her waist, laughed brightly and hugged Harry as tightly as her grandson was still clinging to Harry’s legs.

“Oh, darling.” Andy pulled back and smiled joyfully at her son. “You’re not subtle, son. We knew what the two of you were up to as soon as we saw the postcard from Paris.”

Ted hugged Susan and patted her cheek gently. “Welcome to the family, dear.”

Amelia and Sirius rushed forward then and took turns hugging both of them and offering their congratulations.

“Oh, you spent a fortune,” Tonks laughed when she took her turn hugging Susan and she inspected the ring on her left hand.

“Spent all the money in your vault?” Sirius teased Harry.

Harry shrugged. “I saved enough for a house,” he hedged. He glanced uncertainly at his parents and gave them a nervous smile. “Mrs. Wiltshire is moving to Ireland with her grandkids, she offered me first dibs on her house.”

Andy gasped and Ted let out a happy laugh.

“You’re the new mystery buyer for the house across from us?” Andy asked. Harry and Susan nodded and she hugged them both again. “This is wonderful! Oh, Harry, I’m so proud of you.”

Susan snickered and gave Harry a fond look of exasperation.

“Someone couldn’t bear to live away from his mum,” she said playfully. “It was either across the street or upstairs.”

Harry blushed and scowled even while Andy looked thrilled beyond measure.

“Well it’s the least he could do after eloping like a plebeian,” Draco said with a pointed look at Sirius.

“Honestly, mate,” Ron shook his head at Harry, “Mum’s gone spare that we didn’t get invited.”

Harry looked around the room at the silver and white decorations, the fancy white cake on the table, the champagne, and realized they were all celebrating two separate things.

“Er… we didn’t elope?” Harry said with a frown. “Is that what you’re all celebrating?”

Susan giggled quietly at the gobsmacked expressions on their faces and swung Teddy up in her arms.

Harry tried to ignore how sweet it looked when Teddy changed his hair to a dark red to match Susan’s. They agreed to not have kids until they’d finished their mastery classes and started teaching, but…

But Susan with a little red headed baby on her hip was a cute image that Harry doubted he’d be able to get out of his head for quite some time.

Andy’s eyes filled with tears when she realized they hadn’t gotten married in Paris.

“I simply assumed…” she said, trailing off questioningly.

Susan grinned and was apparently taunting Harry when she kissed Teddy on the forehead.

“I wanted to, but Harry said he wouldn’t get married without his family there,” Susan explained. She gave everyone a faux-stern look. “So you all owe me an excellent wedding gift for being so patient.”

Harry laughed when everyone cheered again and he felt his heart swell with pure happiness when he looked around the room at his friends, his family, his reasons to live.

He never knew life could be so grand and he only had Susan to thank.

Harry felt giddy, like a kid on Christmas, when they approached the door of their first home together. They’d been together nearly their entire lives, since the moment they met the summer before first year, and now they would finally get to establish their life together as adults.

It started with a home… then marriage… a few kids… a white picket fence eventually as Tonks and Remus had…

“Wait! It’s almost perfect!”

Susan turned a bright smile at Harry, her face just as exquisitely beautiful as it had ever been, before she pulled a parchment from her pocket that she quickly fixed to the blue wooden door with a silent sticking charm.

“There,” she said, leaning in to Harry’s sideways embrace, “now it’s perfect.”

Harry ducked his head to kiss her, overwhelmed with his love for this beautiful, brilliant, perfect witch.

“Now it’s perfect,” he agreed after they broke apart, both sporting pink cheeks and happy smiles.

Susan giggled when Harry scooped her up bridal style in his arms and he carried her inside their home, smiling once more at the poster affixed to the door before kicking it closed behind them.

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