average human’s Reviews > Avada Kedavra > Status Update

“No,” he said as sternly as he could. “No, not even for you, Lue. I fell for it last year, I’m not doing it again.”

“I was only going to say that I think Professor Slughorn is very nice, even if he isn’t as good as Professor Snape,” Luna said with a little hurt pout. “No reason to be so rude.”

“I’m sorry,” Harry sighed and offered Luna a small smile. “I thought you were going to try and guilt trip me in to joining the ‘Slug Club’.”

“Guilt trip you?” Luna’s eyes were wide and deceptively innocent. “Harry, I would never do that to you. Even though you did cancel the only club I ever got to be a part of...”

Draco snickered before quickly adopting a mask of solemnity. “I’m sure he didn’t do it just to hurt you, Luna,” he said. He wrapped an arm around Luna’s shoulders and gave Harry a baleful look. “Even if your feelings were dreadfully hurt... I’m sure that wasn’t exactly his intentions.”

Harry was positive he was being played.

Almost 100% positive.

But there was a little pleading look in Luna’s eyes.

“Lue, you literally told me that you were fine with me cancelling the club,” Harry reminded her desperately. “You said you wanted to focus on your OWLS, remember? Maybe apply for that mastery program in potions?”

“I remember,” Luna nodded slowly. “But then you’ve been having secret club meetings with only Trent, and I’ve felt very left out and truthfully, Harry, I think this is the way to make it up to me.”

Harry had not been ‘leaving her out’. It was just that Luna was already a brilliant witch and Trent needed to know how to kill a man with a knife.

It was common sense.

Harry narrowed his eyes at her.

Luna blinked slowly.

Harry scowled.

Luna smiled.

“What are the nargles’ odds that I give in?” Harry growled through a clenched jaw.

“Oh there’s no doubt,” Luna let out a tinkling laugh. “We’re all going on Friday and it will be so fun.”

Harry doubted that it was going to be ‘so fun’, but he did believe that he would be there.

Because Luna was a shameless manipulator.

“How did you avoid Slytherin?” Theo asked her with no small amount of admiration in his voice.

“I just asked the Sorting Hat to put me in Ravenclaw,” Luna said airily.

“You asked it for Ravenclaw?” Hermione asked, scandalized.

“Mhmm.”

“Why?” Draco asked. “You could have been in our house this whole time??”

“Oh, I could never, I look much better in blue than I do green.”

Harry didn’t know if it was due to Luna’s green tie she wore, one of Draco’s he was certain, or because of the very serious way she said it, but the rest of them started cracking up with laughter loud enough to draw a lot of curious stares.

Harry hissed at them, causing the curious faces to blanch and turn away, which only increased the laughter of his friends.



Harry considered Slughorn that morning while they began the second stage in brewing Polyjuice. He didn’t really seem like much of a creep, even if he was suspiciously interested in Harry. In fact, the way he talked about her, Harry wondered if Slughorn had a bit of a crush on his mum. But Slughorn also had nothing Harry wanted. There was no reason to play nice and let him brag one day to his future students about having Harry Potter in his posh little club.

At least, there wasn’t any reason, until dinner that night.

“Look who decided to show up,” Susan murmured to Harry.

Harry followed her glare and saw that Dumbledore was once more at the head table. A rarity, as he’d been as frequently absent from meals as Snape himself had been recently. Harry and Susan had thought that Dumbledore had been accompanying Snape on his secret ‘I’ll tell you in due time’ trips, but Snape said he wasn’t, and he wasn’t a liar. Harry watched with his head tilted curiously as Dumbledore and Slughorn chatted on happily, seeming to be the very best friends. Then Slughorn turned his head, took a sip of his tea, and made a face.

Nothing major.

Just a little downtick of his lips.

But Harry saw it.

And suddenly Slughorn seemed much more tolerable than he had before.

“Ya know,” Harry said thoughtfully, “I think I haven’t been fair to Slughorn after all. He’s got good instincts, doesn’t he?”

“Does he?” Theo asked skeptically.

“Yeah.” Harry watched as Slughorn seemed to intentionally turn a little bit to talk with Sirius instead of resuming his conversation with Dumbledore. “He does.”

Anyone that wasn’t in Dumbledore’s fan club was certainly welcome to join his.



It was with this newfound appreciation for Slughorn that Harry and his friends trooped to his office on Friday evening.

Since Binns didn’t use it, and Snape wouldn’t give his up, Slughorn took over the History of Magic office.

Except...

Harry walked in and looked around the room with a curious brow raised.

He was pretty sure the office had never been this big, nor this lavishly decorated, when Binns had it.

Slughorn had stretched the inner dimensions surely to the bursting point as the room was larger than most classrooms. He also must have a preference for purple, as the carpet was the same plush purple color as the heavy drapes over the windows. There were probably half a dozen little round tables with white table cloths and red cushioned chairs surrounding them.

As soon as Harry’s group made it past the entryway, a Hogwarts elf in a clean white robe with a wide toothy smile popped up.

“Will’s you be wanting some drinks?” it asked politely.

Harry squinted at it and tried to remember which elf it was. “No thanks, Mags,” he said once he was certain of her name. “Maybe later, yeah?”

“This is tacky,” Blaise snickered beside Harry as Mags gave them a smile and an odd little bow before popping off again. “Oh, God, and he invited Macmillan!”

Harry and Susan smiled in unison as they spotted Ernie Macmillan, a sixth year Hufflepuff student they had never gotten along with, chatting up Slughorn.

“We’ll just go say hi to...” Hermione trailed off and rolled her eyes as she realized Harry and Susan, closely followed by Trent, Draco, and Luna, were already walking over to Slughorn and Macmillan.

“Harry!” Slughorn’s cry caused Macmillan to spin around and grimace at Harry behind Slughorn’s back. “You made it!”

“Of course, sir,” Susan smiled sweetly. “Have you met our friends? This is Professor Black’s cousin, Draco, Luna Lovegood, and Harry’s godbrother Trent Bailey.”

Harry smiled blandly as Slughorn forgot all about Macmillan and made a big deal over Draco and Luna. Susan really was a genius, reframing Draco’s relatives to include Sirius, who Slughorn seemed to love, instead of his father, who was still in Azkaban as an apparent death eater.

“Godbrother, hmm?” Slughorn peered at Trent. “Are you sure you’re not related to the Potter line somewhere? You look quite a bit like Harry here and his father James.”

“Pretty sure,” Trent said in a careless drawl he’d picked up from Blaise. “My parents are muggles, sir.”

“Nothing wrong with that at all!” Slughorn said quickly with a smile. “I’m starting to think some of the best witches and wizards are!”

Harry’s smile sharpened a little; apparently Slughorn didn’t forget that Harry called him a bigot in his second class.

Slughorn turned to Harry after chatting with Trent for a minute and gave him a happy smile. “I didn’t think you’d come,” he said. He moved to put an arm over Harry’s shoulder, but Harry spotted the movement and stepped closer to Susan, preventing it.

“Absolutely we came, sir,” Harry said with all his usual charms the professors enjoyed having on display. “Why wouldn’t we?”

“Sirius seemed to think you wouldn’t be interested in joining my little club,” Slughorn said with a small grin and a shake of his head. “I personally think he’s just still upset that I never invited him when he was a student.”

Susan giggled a little and nodded her head. “I’m sure he is,” she winked teasingly.

“Why didn’t you invite Sirius?” Harry asked curiously. He looked around and took a quick measure of the students in the room. Even though Harry’s group made up the majority in attendance, the others were all ones that Harry was certain were either academically gifted or had famous or powerful relatives.

And Sirius had both when he was a student. A ‘noble’ lineage, and a knack for transfiguration and defense both.

“Between us,” Slughorn said, lowering his voice and leaning towards Harry and Susan, “Sirius and your father, James, were just more trouble than they were worth. I couldn’t have them here and risk them poisoning the punch, eh?”

Trent and Harry exchanged quick knowing smirks while Susan laughed.

That actually sounded exactly like something fucking daft Sirius would pull.

“Your mother though,” Slughorn sighed and got that wistful look on his face he always had when he brought up Lily Potter, “I didn’t play favorites, of course, but if I did, she would have been mine. I’ve never met a better person than Lily Potter.”

Harry tried to smile, but it felt a bit more like a grimace so he dropped it quickly and blinked

37%

Friday, November 21

“You have to answer, Harry,” Hermione sighed. “It’s part of the game.”

“Well the game is stupid and I don’t want to,” Harry scowled.

“Booooock, booooock,” Ron said, probably impersonating a chicken, as if that would cause Harry to answer Blaise’s stupid question.

“It’s fine, if Harry’s too scared to answer, we can skip him,” Blaise said with a smirk.

“Fine.” Harry threw his hands up in exasperation. “I’d marry McGonagall, kill Sirius, and shag Flitwick. Are you happy?”

Harry’s friends in their circle on the dorm floor howled with laughter until Neville was literally pounding the floor with his fists.

“Why- why would you kill Sirius?” Susan asked, tears clinging to her lashes from her laughter. “He’s your godfather!”

“Exactly, so it would be gross to marry him or shag him, wouldn’t it?”

”McGonagall’s a damn sight prettier than Flitwick,” Ron grinned.

Harry shrugged. He just liked his hypothetical odds against Flitwick more than McGonagall, even if Ron was right and McGonagall was more attractive. “Imagine Sirius rolling in his grave though when I marry his Minnie,” he smirked.

Luna laughed until her head fell over on to Trent’s shoulder, knocking Trent to the floor, causing the others to laugh even harder.

Harry had no idea how they started such a daft game, but Blaise said that the seventh year Ravenclaw boys had played it in their dorm one night and he loved it.

“My turn now, isn’t it?” Harry asked. He eyed the others when Blaise agreed until he landed on Neville. “Nev, shag, marry, kill: Snape, Sirius, Lupin?”

“No fair!” Draco cried. “If he kills Snape then you’ll curse him!”

“No I won’t,” Harry said with a roll of his eyes. “I know it’s a game, Dray. C’mon, Nev, if I had to answer, so do you.”

Neville’s face was beet red as the others looked at him, but he took a fortifying drink of Ron’s smuggled bottle of firewhiskey and answered anyway. “Shag Remus, marry Snape, kill Sirius.”

“Poor Sirius,” Trent laughed gleefully. “It just isn’t his night, is it?”

“Why would you marry Snape?” Draco asked Neville incredulously. “You were terrified to ask him for a game of cards, but now you’ll ask for his hand in marriage?”

“Forget that, why would you shag Lupin over Snape or Black?” Susan asked, just as incredulously as Draco. “I’d shag Snape and Black together before I shagged Lupin.”

“Ew!” Trent cried. “That’s disgusting!”

“That’s actually- no, it’s not,” Hermione giggled with a blush.

Harry was inclined to agree with Trent on that one.

“Neville doesn’t have to explain his choices if he doesn’t want to,” Blaise said loyally. “Even if he chose alllll wrong. I’d marry Black, shag Snape, and kill Lupin.”

“I did not choose wrong, you’re not thinking it through properly,” Neville said stubbornly. “Snape’s terrifying, right? Like, if someone hurt Harry then he’d kill them. Imagine what he’d do if someone hurt his husband, eh?”

Harry nodded in instant understanding. “You’d be the safest person in the entire bloody world.”

“Exactly,” Neville smirked. “And... er... well... Sirius is a nice bloke, alright? But... but I just think he’d be a bit too nice, and Lupin would be... a bit... less nice?”

“A wild animal in the sack,” Susan said seriously. “God damn, Neville, you’re right. Lupin is the obvious choice of a rough shag.”

Harry joined the others in laughing that time. Only Susan would think Lupin, with his faded cardigans and bland smiles and softly spoken words would be an ‘obvious choice of a rough shag’.

Even if Harry had no idea why Susan would want a shag to be rough in the first place.

“My turn,” Neville grinned. He tapped his cheek thoughtfully as he looked the others over before landing on Luna. “Lunaaaa,” he sang, already sounding partly inebriated. “Shag, marry, kill: Blaise, Ron, or me.”

“Oh, fuck,” Trent hiccuped, his eyes eager as he watched Luna ponder Neville’s question.

“I would kill you, marry Blaise, and shag Ron,” Luna said firmly.

Ron and Blaise looked really pleased with themselves, until Luna added:

“I would want Juliana to be my mother-in-law more than your gran, and I just think Ron would be really grateful to be shagged, and he’d want to make sure I enjoyed myself so I let him do it again.”

Harry fell flat on his back as he laughed at that. Maybe this game wasn’t so stupid after all. In fact, after the annoying week he’d had, this was just the thing to relax.

Harry had been released from the hospital wing before lunch on Sunday, and had consequently broken every bone in McLaggen’s hand by Sunday night. Luckily, Susan reminded Harry that bones could be mended quickly, but took at least a few painful hours to regrow, so Harry concentrated hard and managed to vanish a couple of them.

McLaggen tattled, because he’s an idiot, and Snape had Harry in detention three nights in a row. A cunning ruse for Snape to pester the hell out of Harry on his ‘mummy issues’ (Fred’s phrase he used when Harry told him about it). Harry didn’t ‘elaborate’ and Snape eventually dropped it, but neither of them had been happy about it.

So it’d been a bit of a shit week, and it didn’t get much better when Thursday night Trent returned to the dorm and told Harry he had been ‘carefully questioned’ on Harry’s activities by Dumbledore. Harry didn’t want to have Trent swear in to the gang, but fuckin Dumbledore didn’t leave him many options.

They were even relaxing their rule on letting Trent drink to sort of make it up to him. Even though Trent had been thrilled to officially be in the gang.

Harry was pretty sure that Dumbledore had been fishing for a way to pin Ginny and Finnigan’s attacks on him- it would make it easier for him to kill Harry if he was expelled, but Trent hadn’t fallen for it even if the rest of the castle firmly believed Harry had been behind the attacks.

So the gang was celebrating.

Susan said any time one of them refused to answer Dumbledore’s questions it merited a fun sleepover.

Harry wholeheartedly agreed. Plus, if anyone got stabbed and obliviated tonight, he’d have nine alibis that could swear he was getting pissed and playing games in his dorm all night.

“Why does nobody ever ask me anything?” Trent scowled when Luna turned to Draco with a wicked smile on her lips.

“Because you’re our little baby PJ and you shouldn’t be thinking of shagging anyone,” Hermione teased him, causing Trent’s scowl to increase.

“Draco, my handsome, wonderful, sweet Draco.”

Harry knew whatever Luna was about to ask was going to be hilarious, and Draco knew too because he was already downing his third shot of the night in preparation.

“Shag, marry, kill: Harry, Ron, or Susan?”

“You are supposed to be on my side,” Draco hissed while the others screamed their laughs.

“This isn’t a team sport,” Luna winked.

Harry tilted his head at Draco, smirking just a little when Draco seemed to look between Susan and Harry a lot.

“Marry Ron,” Draco finally said confidently. “Shag... Harry, but definitely before I killed Susan.”

“No qualifiers!” Theo protested between his laughter.

“You aren’t even gay!” Susan cried. “We kissed, once! Why would you kill me and not Harry?!”

Draco sighed and gave Susan a look of pure exasperation. “Do you honestly think I could kill Harry?”

“D’you think you could kill Susan?” Harry asked with a smug smile.

“I like my odds better with her than you,” Draco said.

“Why are you killing Susan after shagging Harry?” Neville asked.

“Because if I killed Susan before I shagged Harry, then Harry would kill me mid-shag and that is a terrible way to die,” Draco shuddered.

“That’s precisely how I want to die,” Blaise laughed. “Aah, just buried in—”

“Kindly do not finish that sentence, Zabini.”

Harry looked up from his glass he was refilling and saw Snape standing in their doorway.

Fuck.

Harry very unsubtly threw the uncapped bottle directly underneath the nearest bed, leaving a trail of strongly scented firewhiskey behind it.

“Sev,” he said cheerily, “what’s up?”

Harry’s smile slipped as he registered Snape’s expression. He didn’t even look annoyed at the bottles of alcohol, one of which Harry swiped from his own cabinet. He looked... tired? No.

Sad.

Snape looked sad.

“I need Miss Bones,” Snape said softly. “Susan, come along, please.”

Nobody was laughing, or felt like laughing, anymore. Harry felt his insides freeze as he looked up at Snape. Instinctively, his hand reached out and grabbed Susan’s right hand tightly.

“She didn’t do anything,” Hermione said. “We’ve been in here since dinner and Susan and I had classes together before that.”

Harry didn’t think Susan was in trouble, and, judging from the way Susan was crushing Harry’s fingers as her breaths became loud enough to hear over Harry’s thudding heart, Susan didn’t think so either.

“Susan has done nothing wrong,” Snape said. His voice was all wrong. It was gentle, soft. Like he was approaching a wild animal, not talking to a group of teenagers. “Susan, will you come with me, please? Harry may join us, if you would like.”

“I’d like you to tell me now,” Susan said. Her voice was trembling, terrified, and it put Harry on a sharp edge.

Susan was never terrified of anything.

“I believe we should have a modicum of privacy,” Snape said.

“No!” Susan snapped. “Tell me now, Snape. TELL ME.”

Don’t say it, Harry mentally begged him. Go away. Don’t say it. Don’t say it.

“There was an attack early this morning-”

Please, no. Don’t say it.

“Amelia was killed.”

Harry didn’t know who cried out first, but, like magnets, Harry and Susan turned to each other and clung together.

“Make him leave,” Susan whispered in Harry’s neck. “Please, make him leave.”

“Take it back!” Harry yelled at Snape over Susan’s shoulder. His vision was a bit blurry with his shock and his anger, but he could still see Snape standing there dressed in his black robes. “Take it back or fucking leave!”

Susan’s wails began after Snape quietly said he would wait for her in the hall.

Harry held Susan as tightly to him as he could, and the others circled around them, burying Harry and Susan in their arms and their silence.



Amelia.

Kind, funny, sweet Amelia.



“Maybe it’s a mistake,” Blaise whispered desperately. “Maybe they’re wrong.”

“Maybe they aren’t,” Theo said softly. “She m-might have been a big target.”

Hermione pinched Theo’s arm as Susan’s sobs increased in both tempo and rate.

There wasn’t anything to say after that.

Nobody spoke for a long time.

Harry held Susan.

Susan held Harry.

Susan sobbed loudly in Harry’s chest.

Harry became so enraged, so shocked, that he felt numb.

And the others tried to offer silent comfort, while thinking of their own families.

39%

Severus followed Harry through the floo, unsurprised that Harry led them directly to Severus’ quarters where Harry immediately sunk down on his sofa and buried his hands in his hair.

Severus sat on the sofa beside him, slowly putting his arm over his shoulders. A comfort for them both, truly.

“She was going to leave me,” Harry whispered. “She was going to join Amelia and leave me behind.”

“No, Harry, I’m certain she was not attempting to leave you,” Severus said quickly. He tightened his hold on Harry and pulled him closer to his side.

“No, you’re right, I’m sure she just cut her arm open for fun.” Harry’s sneer was muffled slightly by his hands, but his cheek even in the face of exhaustion brought a small twitch of fondness to Severus’ lips.

“Susan heard terrible news and reacted without thinking, just as you once had,” Severus reminded him gently. “It was a shallow injury, and we both know that Susan could have cut her arm off with the strength of her right arm if she truly wanted to.”

“Why do it then?” Harry picked his face up and stared blankly at the wall. “Why do it at all if she wasn’t trying to die?”

Severus considered it carefully. He considered the half-mumbled apologies and explanation Bones made during their private discussion, the thoughts Pomona shared in his meeting with her and Albus. He considered how a teenage girl may be feeling after hearing that the largest portion of her last living relative that remained for identification and burial had been her brain.

And why Black and Shacklebolt had thought that would be a piece of information to share with a grieving child, Severus will never know.

“Susan was- is in terrible pain,” Severus said carefully. “She was upset, distressed, and likely believed that the pain would end if she were to die, but did not actually want to die. Does that make sense?”

“No,” Harry huffed and leaned back in his seat, half on Severus, half on the back of the sofa. “Either she wanted to live or she wanted to leave me.”

“Or she wanted the pain to be gone and did not see a different path in the moment,” Severus said gently. He reached out and tentatively brushed Harry’s hair off his forehead. “It is difficult for people to see through their grief, but Susan must have known she could never truly leave you in such a way, or she would be gone.”

“Well she’s gone now, isn’t she?” Harry said quietly. His voice was plaintive, childlike in a way he typically avoided. “And Lupin’s the one who’s going to fix her, again, because I’m fuckin worthless.”

“You are no more worthless than I am,” Severus assured him. “We all have our specialities, Harry. Lupin is merely the one with the type of patience and knowledge of coping with loss that you and I do not have.”

Harry huffed again and seemed to settle more firmly in Severus’ side. “What’s your speciality?” he asked.

“Mine?” Severus looked over at the teenage boy peering up at him and attempted his best efforts at a smirk. “My speciality is potions, idiot child.”

Harry didn’t smile, but his face relaxed just slightly. “And mine?” he asked.

Severus’ smirk felt more natural now. “Revenge, of course. When Miss Bones is ready to burn the world to ash on Amelia’s behalf, you will be the expert.”

Harry laughed quietly and stuck his hand out, silently summoning the quilt Severus once made the terrible mistake of allowing Nymphadora to use.

“Someone has to burn the world down,” Harry said quietly as he tossed the blanket over the two of them. “I’m getting fuckin sick of funerals, aren’t you?”

He was.

Severus believed that Harry’s funeral would be the next one he attended, and instead it would be pushed back in favor of Amelia’s.

“I am,” Severus agreed, his voice rough with barely concealed emotion. “Are we sleeping on this lumpy sofa?”

Harry froze in the process of peeling off his boots. He did not look up, but Severus saw the crimson stain blooming on his cheeks.

Harry mumbled something as he quickly scooted away from Severus. Severus rolled his eyes and kicked his own boots to the floor.

“You will have to assist me in brewing a new bath of extra strength pain relievers tonight,” Severus said calmly as he repositioned himself so he could lay against the arm of the sofa. Harry quickly laid on the opposite arm, and they subsequently began a juvenile kicking match to claim the most space for their almost equally long legs. Severus managed to win, then Harry immediately tossed his legs on top of Severus’ crushing him to the sofa.

“Why extra strength?” Harry murmured.

“Because you and your misfits give me extra strong migraines,” Severus said simply. He waved his wand, dimming the torches along the wall, and fixed the blanket. “Sleep, brat.”

Harry blinked heavily at Severus across the sofa from him and nudged him lightly in the hip with his socked foot. “I’m not gonna wake up to you cutting your arm open, am I?”

Severus easily translated this to mean: ‘don’t leave me.’

“You are not,” Severus assured him thickly. “I could not move if I tried, you are quite heavy.”

Harry’s lips curved upwards for a moment as he seemed to stare in Severus’ eyes, searching for any tell that would cause him to believe Severus was lying to him.

“Wake me when Lupin calls,” Harry eventually said before closing his eyes.



It didn’t take long for Harry’s breaths to become deep and even.

Severus watched him as he slept for longer than his own exhausted mind should have, but the weight of grief was heavy in his mind.

They would bury Amelia soon- what remained of her to be buried.

And, unless Severus gave up his only son, there would be countless other funerals to follow.

“I love you,” Severus whispered roughly to his sleeping child. He tucked the blanket more firmly around Harry before laying back and closing his eyes.



When Severus woke, he was certain it was quite late. He sat up slightly, shaking his head at the patch of wet fabric beneath Harry’s open mouth.

Harry’s habit of drooling in his sleep was somehow both incredibly disgusting and endearing at the same time.

Severus glanced up at the clock and it took him a moment to understand that a quarter after two likely meant am considering they had not returned to the castle until after lunch. Which meant either the Wolf had not called, or Severus and Harry had slept through it. He carefully stretched his arm out to grab his wand off the table and looked at Harry sleeping relatively peacefully before casting his patronus.

He sent the little fox off with a curtly whispered, “How is she?” then settled back to await a response.

When the response came, it came quickly, though irritatingly loud enough to cause Harry to wake up with a jump.

“She woke up after you left and ate dinner then we talked for a while and she went back to sleep. Everything here is fine, I will update you if anything changes. Goodnight.”

Harry blinked as the silver wolf dissipated. “He could have been a bit more specific.”

“He could not have,” Severus said, slowly extracting his legs from beneath Harry’s. “Susan is allowed her privacy to choose what to share with you when she returns. It is not our right to know her every discussion and mood.”

Harry scowled for a moment then dropped it quickly. “You think I could go see her?”

Severus sent a pointed look at the clock, where it was now nearly half past two.

“Probably not then,” Harry sighed. He shuffled around and stretched out as Severus sat up. “You going somewhere?”

“I am going to shower and get some work done since I’m awake now,” Severus told him. “You are quite welcome to go back to sleep.”

Harry yawned and nuzzled the sofa arm. “Might do that,” he said. “Wake me up in a few hours and we’ll have breakfast.”

“Certainly. Perhaps we will go ensure the Wolf did not eat Susan afterwards.”

Harry’s lips turned upwards for a moment. “Lupin’s not as bad as I thought, even if I would personally rather shag noseless before I did him.”

Severus was startled by that queer and factually spoken statement and huffed out a quiet laugh. “Disturbing, Harry,” he said. “You are very disturbing.”

“Ta,” Harry murmured. “Night.”

Severus shook his head at him once more before setting off to get a very early start to his day.

After a calming shower, and repairing any tears in his mental barriers that he brought on himself with his morbid thoughts, Severus settled down at the dining table with a cup of coffee and a stack of essays rife with misspellings from his first year students.

Severus had made it through two cups of coffee, an entire bottle of red ink, and a third of the essays when a silver cat patronus gracefully flew through his walls and settled itself in front of him.

“I believe I have something that belongs to you in the Hospital Wing,” Minerva said through the cats mouth.

Severus stood and saw that Harry’s messy head of black hair was still snoring softly on the sofa, Bones was at Moon Lodge, which left...

Theodore or Lovegood.

“Fuck,” Severus swore quietly. He hastily scrawled a note to Harry and left it levitating by his head, in case he woke before he returned, and hastened out the door.

Severus moved quickly through the corridors, dropping his stoic persona in favor of hurrying to discover which child did what now. He thankfully passed no one, aside from the Bloody Baron who nodded to him. When he approached the Hospital Wing he took a steadying breath before opening the door and looking for either Theodore’s brown hair or Lovegood’s blonde.

What he found, was pink.

“Ah, Severus, so glad you could join us,” Minerva called from Nymphadora’s bedside. “Perhaps you can explain to Miss Tonks the dangers of apparation after drinking.”

Severus stepped up quickly and sighed when he saw the freshly pink skin on Nymphadora’s right calf.

“Fool,” he scowled at Nymphadora who ignored him in favor of openly glowering at Minerva.

“I told you not to bother him,” she told Minerva hotly. “It’s Sunday.”

“You didn’t seem to mind bothering him when you apparated to our gates and left a blood trail behind you,” Minerva said drily. “Severus, this is your problem. Good day.”

Severus watched as Minerva stalked off to Poppy’s office, undoubtedly to cluck over this new piece of gossip together over tea.

“Sorry, Sev.” Nymphadora rolled down her trouser leg and covered the recent injury. “I had a bit too much to drink, thought I’d come see you, and forgot it was Sunday until someone sobered me right up.”

“Someone sobered you, or the splinching sobered you?” Severus asked. He held his hand out politely to assist Nymphadora in standing.

“Little bit of both.”

Severus looked her over as she pulled on his hand to stand and frowned at the obvious signs of distress. In the initial grief of losing Amelia, his panic over Susan, and his general state of exhaustion, he had forgotten that Nymphadora had been quite close to Amelia.

“Were you drinking alone?” Severus asked her.

“No,” Nymphadora waved one hand with a forced air of ease. “A lot of us from the DMLE went out together. To... well...” she frowned and lifted one shoulder, “you know.”

“Aah.”

“Yeah.” Nymphadora pulled her hand free and jammed both hands in her pockets. “Well, I should get going. I’ll see you Friday? Or... or Wednesday, I guess. A-Amelia’s services are on Wednesday morning.”

Severus sighed and rolled his eyes at her. “Come eat breakfast. You should not be apparating on an empty stomach.”

Nymphadora’s shoulders tightened then slumped. “Sev, I’m fine,” she smiled, though it appeared strained. “Go have breakfast with Harry, I’ve got a lot to get done today.”

“You don’t work Sundays,” Severus reminded her. “Harry will forgive us this one intrusion.”

“Or he’ll kill me,” Nymphadora muttered, but she followed along regardless.

Severus snuck a few subtle glanced at Nymphadora as they walked together in silence and frowned at what he saw.

“You look unwell,” Severus said gently.

Nymphadora snorted, “And you have such a way with words.”

There was a reason Severus called Lupin to handle Susan— Emotions were messy and Severus preferred to keep his messes in the potions lab.

He hesitated outside the entrance to his quarters. “If you want someone to talk to about it...”

Nymphadora gave Severus a small smile and placed her hand on his arm. “Thanks,” she said genuinely. “I’ll take you up on that sometime.”

...he had been about to recommend Lupin.

Though that didn’t seem to be how she took it.

Severus nodded and then slowly opened the door, letting out a breath of relief that Harry was still asleep.

“Aww, he looks a bit less terrifying in his sleep,” Nymphadora said quietly with a playful grin.

Severus held back a scoff and waited for Nymphadora to follow him to the dining table before flicking his wand and casting a nonverbal muffliato to ensure they did not wake Harry.

Which, typically, is what woke the paranoid child.

Harry slowly stretched on the sofa, kicking his legs out like a ridiculous gangly fawn. He mumbled something in to the arm rest and sat up with a lazy stretch. “Sev? Oh. Tonks?”

“Wotcher, Harry,” Nymphadora said with an expression that seemed torn between a smile and a grimace. “Sorry for intruding.”

Harry blinked at Nymphadora.

He blinked at Severus.

Then Harry rolled his eyes.

“Think I can go see Sue?” he asked casually with a pointed look at the clock.

“Certainly, after you eat,” Severus said. “She may still be sleeping.”

“Where’s Susan at?” Nymphadora asked, a bit curtly. “Is she not here?”

“None of your business,” Harry snapped.

“Yes, my business,” Nymphadora said, unfazed by Harry’s tone. “Is she not in the castle?”

“She is with Remus Lupin for a few days,” Severus said, intervening in what seemed to be a blossoming argument. “Resting away from the chaos of the castle.”

“Oh,” Nymphadora sighed and relaxed. “Gotcha.”

Severus felt incredibly awkward as Harry narrowed his eyes at Nymphadora for a long moment.

“Mavis,” Severus called, desperate to break the uncomfortable tension.

Mavis, thankfully, did not tardy as he popped in Severus’ dining room. “Mister Snoops is, Oh!” Mavis blinked owlishly at Nymphadora before dipping his head in a bow. “Mister Snoops is having Miss Tonks over, without my Master Harry? On Sunday?”

Harry scoffed, drawing Mavis’ eyes to him.

“Oh! Master Harry!” Mavis smiled then frowned and pulled on one of his ears nervously. “Mavis is hearing about Misses Susan’s aunt, can Mavis be sending Miss Susan her pumpkin pasties?”

“That’d be brill,” Harry said warmly. “Can you send them to Moon Lodge?”

“Of course,” Mavis bowed with a wide smile once more. “Shall Mavis be bringing breakfast for you’s?”

Harry’s eyes flicked to Nymphadora quickly before Severus saw his jaw clench and unclench. “Yeah, if you don’t mind, for three of us?”

Severus felt a bit of pride unfurling. Harry truly had matured past his pettier behaviors- to an extent. At a minimum, he seemed willing to share breakfast with Nymphadora on a Sunday.

Mavis popped away with a quick agreement and Harry warily moved towards the table.

“Well, this is awkward,” Nymphadora said brightly as the three of them sat in silence for the longest two minutes of Severus’ life.

“A bit,” Harry agreed with a faint grin. “Why are you here, anyway?”

“I got pissed at the pub with some of the others from the DMLE and thought I’d come irritate Sev,” Nymphadora said shamelessly. “I splinched the hell out of my leg and Poppy had to patch me up.”

“Why were you coming to irritate Sev?”

“He’s fun to irritate,” Nymphadora shrugged.

“Have you given him a migraine yet?” Harry smirked as the food popped up on the table.

“Does he have migraines?” Nymphadora asked curiously.

Severus scowled and sat back as he was clearly not included in their discussion.

“Loads of them,” Harry grinned. “Cissa swears he’s going prematurely grey too. I suppose you aren’t irritating him properly if you haven’t given him a migraine, have you?”

“Teach me your ways, oh wise one,” Nymphadora laughed.

“Or hurry up and eat and go see your Susan,” Severus said.

Harry frowned and began eating with a speed that was both unbecoming and disgusting.

“Don’t choke,” Nymphadora told him before turning to Severus. “Albus said he’s canceling classes on Wednesday since Amelia is... was such an important witch.”

“As he should,” Severus said truthfully. “I know at least nearly a dozen students who wish to attend.”

“The Ministry is covering everything,” Nymphadora told him. “There’s supposed to be a big thing in the paper tomorrow I think.”

Severus nodded, unsure how he was meant to respond. “Will Shacklebolt be taking her spot within the DMLE?”

Severus did not have to look up to feel Harry’s scowl at the mention of the auror. Shacklebolt and Harry had seemed to have built a terrible rapport between them. Likely due to Shacklebolt’s insistence that Harry was a killer and Harry’s natural distrust of anyone who works with Albus.

It was understandable on both ends.

“No,” Nymphadora scrunched her nose and stabbed especially hard at an egg with her fork. “Pius Thicknesse.”

Severus struggled to place the name. “Is he a tolerable replacement?”

“Not at all,” Nymphadora said bluntly. “He’s a pureblood, he’s spouted off some nasty rhetoric before.”

“Fuck him then,” Harry sneered. “I’m done, I’m going to Moon Lodge, I’ll be back later.”

“Be back by dinner, please,” Severus told him as Harry jumped to his feet. “I would prefer not to explain to Albus why my floo was activated past curfew.”

“‘Kay.” Harry gave Severus and Nymphadora a two fingered salute then practically sprinted to the floo.

“I reckon he didn’t want his trainers then?” Nymphadora asked after Harry spun away to Moon Lodge dressed in the same clothes he has had on since Friday night and his socks.

“Apparently not,” Severus said, relatively unconcerned with Harry’s footwear. He placed his fork down and folded his hands on the table. “You and Amelia were close, how are you?”

“Miserable,” Nymphadora said baldly. “How are you?”

Severus was taken aback by her question and answered a bit too truthfully. “Surprised and rather unhappy, I suppose.”

Nymphadora sighed heavily. “It was surprising,” she said softly. “But Amelia died a hero, she saved a lot of lives and took down three death eaters in one go.”

“And left behind her niece,” Severus added.

“Why is Susan at Moon Lodge?” Nymphadora asked. “If she’s with Remus then she can’t be doing that great, can she?”

“She is not,” Severus said carefully. He wanted to appease Nymphadora’s nerves about Susan’s placement, but did not want to divulge the privacy Susan deserved. “I am hopeful that Lupin may have more success in assisting her in working her grief out in a healthy manner.”

Nymphadora seemed to weigh his words for a moment. “That makes it sound like she’s doing badly, very badly.”

Severus inclined his head, silently agreeing.

Abruptly, Nymphadora jumped to her feet, tripping slightly over her chair leg as she shoved it to the table. “Thanks for breakfast, Sev,” she said. “I need to go, I’ve got something to take care of.”

Severus was once more caught off guard by the witch. “Do you need assistance?”

“No,” Nymphadora gave him a lopsided grin, “Thanks though. I’ll see you Wednesday.”

Severus hardly blinked twice before Nymphadora too floo’d away, headed to the Ministry.

On a Sunday.

When she was off work.