All Hail the Dark Lord, Or Something Idiotic Like That

Ghosts around us pt2

A/N: Not my story! Original available on ao3

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"Brilliant!" Harry grinned broadly at him and led the way out of the house with a laughing Tonks and Remus following along behind them.

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Harry took in a deep steadying breath, using the distraction of him holding the paper with the address to the already clearly visible to him Grimmauld Place to take a personal moment. He wasn't sure what was going to happen to the wards on the house when he entered. Hopefully nothing, but magic was odd and not bound by time as much as humans are, and Harry had been the owner of the house and made significant changes to the house itself and wards. Plus, he had a sneaking suspicion the house liked him better than Sirius...

Regardless, he really couldn't care less at the moment. He knew he was going to have a hell of a time making it through what awaited him on the other side of that door. While he loved Remus and Tonks both, he was really not ever that close to them. He'd been much closer to Teddy. The people in that house though...Sirius, Fred, Kreacher...Ron and Hermione...he wasn't sure he could mentally make it through the next few minutes and wished to Merlin that Percy was there with him to ground him to reality.

"Oh wow...cool," he said with as much feeling as he could muster at the house supposedly appearing...it really wasn't much feeling at all.

The next few minutes were all a blur to Harry...people were talking and he was being led into the house, he even felt the wards snapping into place around him, claiming him as their master, but all that was ancillary to the person waiting for him on the other side of the door.

"Harry!!" Sirius beamed at him and rushed over, only pausing when he wasn't sure if they were hugging people or not.

"Sirius..." Harry was almost frantically rubbing at the invisible silver bar through his eyebrow, trying to keep himself in the present. "Hey...I missed you..." he breached the distance and wrapped his arms around his godfather's middle, breathing in the smell of dust, whiskey, and aftershave.

He did briefly black out then, but it seemed to only be a second as he felt Moody shove by them and bring him back to reality. "You never told me the brat had the most braincells of you lot," Moody remarked as he walked by.

"Don't call Harry, brat!" Sirius grumbled with Harry's head still in his chest. The glamour even freaking made him seem smaller and Harry was loving being almost wrapped up completely in the man he loved so much and had missed so dearly.

"Harry actually gave him permission," Remus laughed since Moody hadn't even paused to respond.

Walburga began screeching when Tonks, of course, tripped over the umbrella stand and Harry just smiled into Sirius's shirt. He would have words with the portrait later...she was probably the only one that recognized the wards changing over anyway. Sirius was too disconnected from his family magic to have noticed, and thankfully, Dumbledore wasn't there when it happened.

"Padfoot...heads up, you might want to give our little Prongslet a lecture on safe-sex, by the way," Remus told the man pointedly. "Probably more than a bit overdue."

"Hey!" Harry protested with very little feeling. He'd sit through a lecture if it meant he could be with Sirius...frankly, he figured he'd be much less embarrassed at the whole thing than the other man, it might even be a bit funny.

Sirius chuckled and leaned away to look at Harry better. "You got caught out by the werewolf nose too? Merlin, we never could get away with anything in school with Moony around. Who is the lucky young lady? And erm, Moony...you might be better for that particular lecture because...you know..." He gave a dramatic nod with wide eyes.

"I don't think he's going to mind, Padfoot," Remus rolled his eyes fondly at his friend. "Especially since he said he'd spent the day with his boyfriend."

"Merlin! Really?! Thank Mother Magic!" Sirius almost crumpled in relief. "Remy said you'd been living with muggles, and they're super prejudiced and that it might be best if I keep the whole being gay thing under wraps for now...but, wow! We have so much to talk about!! Merlin, it feels good to not have to keep a secret from you!"

Harry raised a surprised eyebrow. One, he'd never known that about Sirius, and two, why had his godfather thought he'd be prejudiced like his horrible family? "We really can skip the sex-talk and just chat about life, you know," he finally responded, stepping back a bit. He really just wanted to know Sirius as a person better.

Harry was actually proud of himself; he'd gotten through that entire encounter without crying or disassociating or even blacking out for more than a second. It was a win for him. He was sure he'd pay for it with horrific night-terrors that evening though. It was just the way his luck (and trauma) ran.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the meeting he was fearing the most. "Harry!" He heard a deep voice he hadn't heard in several years now call out excitedly from the stairwell.

He gripped his arms, almost drawing blood and tried to breathe normally. It wasn't working. "Harry?" the same voice now spoke much nearer to him and with worry tinging it. The world disappeared and he could only hear screams and crying. Everything was pain...

Harry crashed back to reality as Sirius's scent came back into proximity and his familiar hand landed on his back. "Hey, Pup...you ok?"

Shit! Clearly, he wasn't holding it together. He tried to smile, but it was probably more like a grimace. There was the familiar haze starting at the corners of his vision once again, but he tried to push it aside as he looked at the two people now crowding out the older men. Sod it! Harry launched himself into Ron's arms, not being able to handle everything anymore. The tears flowed from his eyes as he blindly reached out and too tightly grasped Hermione's hand as well.

These were his friends...yes, they were younger versions, but they were still his people. They were his family, and he'd missed them like not being able to breathe. "Hey, it's ok...what happened?" Ron muttered with a stunned tone in his voice and the tightest grip possible around Harry's frame. "They said you were fine. Was it your relatives? I knew we should have cursed them or something!"

"Harry...it's ok, we're here," Hermione returned the crushing grip and rubbed his back with her free hand.

"What happened to him?" Sirius's voice asked from the other side of Harry's cocoon of everything he'd come back to the past for.

"I'm fine," he mumbled from Ron's collar. "I almost died and didn't think I'd see you two again," he said, it was a crap explanation for his actions, but it was the best he could do right now.

"We love you too, mate," Ron mumbled back in a surprised tone while Hermione continued to rub circles into his back.

"Oh Harry..." Mrs. Weasley's sad voice broke into the group, causing Harry to gather himself up and finally release his death-grip on his friends. "We're so glad you are here...why don't you all go take a moment to yourselves and settle in upstairs before dinner," she suggested pointedly to her son and Hermione.

Harry was grateful she recognized that he probably didn't want this breakdown seen by the entire Order and gave her a little nod. He loved Mum Weasley and had missed her, especially her cooking. "Yeah, that sounds good...show me to my room, R-Ron?" He almost gasped out.

"Yeah...come on," Ron uncharacteristically actually took Harry's hand in his and pulled him towards the stairs, somehow instinctively realizing he needed the comfort.