Lovely (a Scorbus story)

Part 17

Hermione shifted anxiously.

"Oh—he's awake! Ron!"

A figure stood in the corner; a man with shaggy dark hair, looking absolutely dumbfounded.

"What happened?" he demanded. "Where did everyone go?"

Harry, who had just come to, realized with a horrible sinking feeling that Sirius was not aware that twenty-five years had passed, seemingly in the blink of an eye.

"James?" he asked, staring at Harry.

"Sirius—no," Hermione said hastily. "It's us—Harry, Ron and Hermione."

Sirius looked around at all them.

"What happened?"

"You died," Harry said, standing up. "Or...we thought you did."

"How long ago?" Sirius's voice was rising, becoming increasingly more desperate. "How many years has it been?"

They all looked at Harry.

"Around twenty-five," he mumbled.

"God—" Sirius slammed his hand against the wall. "I did it again. I missed half your life."

"It's not your fault!" Hermione said quickly. "Harry knows that—he missed you terribly, Sirius, we all did, we're so glad you're back..."

Sirius looked around at all of them, from Hermione's stricken face, to Ron, who was speechless, and Harry, who was staring as though for the life of him he couldn't fathom what was going on.

"Start from the beginning," Sirius said wearily. "I have a feeling this story will take a long time." He looked around. "Is anyone else here? Remus, Moody, maybe Tonks..." He swung his head around to look at Harry. "First of all...You-Know-Who."

"Dead," Harry said. "I killed him."

"I knew you could do it." Sirius let out a breath of relief. "I imagine Dumbledore was so proud..."

Harry exchanged a glance with Hermione, who was in tears.

"Dumbledore died shortly after you did," Harry said heavily. "It was Snape...Snape killed him."

"What?"

"But Dumbledore told him to," Ron explained quickly. "Snape really was on our side all along."

"He was in love with my mum," Harry said. "And he promised Dumbledore he'd protect me. He was a spy for the Death Eaters, and Dumbledore was dying anyway...and he and Snape made a deal that when the time came, Snape would give him a quick easy death."

"He was buried at Hogwarts," Hermione said quietly.

"So where's Snape?" Sirius demanded.

"He was killed in the battle," Harry said. "That snake got him."

"Hmph." Sirius sat back, looking a bit relieved, presumably that he didn't have to face his old enemy with gratitude for saving his godson.

"And...I killed Voldemort...and there was a battle..."

"A lot of people died," Ron said.

"Who?" Sirius demanded.

Harry glanced at Ron and Hermione.

"Remus," he said slowly. "Tonks. Fred Weasley."

"Moody died earlier," Ron said. "I dunno...we lost half the Order, not that it really exists anymore."

"Remus is dead?" Sirius seemed to be concentrating only on this bit of information. "What about Peter Pettigrew?"

"Dead," Harry shuddered.

"Good," Sirius said savagely.

Ron had a bit of a grin on his face. "Sirius, mate, you're not gonna like this..." He glanced at Harry. "Tell him what you named your son."

"Well, my eldest is James Sirius Potter," Harry said, stalling.

"And?"

"Albus is the other one."

"Albus Severus Potter," Ron snorted.

"You named your own child after Severus Snape?" Sirius was looking at Harry as though he'd never met him. "Who are you and what have you done with—"

"Remus had a son, too," Harry interrupted quickly.

"What?" Sirius said loudly.

"And Voldemort had a daughter," Ron muttered.

"WHAT?"

"Don't worry, she's in Azkaban," Harry said. "Thanks to Albus."

"Who did you marry?" Sirius asked. "The only girl I ever knew you dated was Cho Chang."

"Ginny Weasley," Harry said.

"And you two will have married, of course," Sirius said to Ron and Hermione. "Yes? Good, Remus owes me ten Galleons." He shook his head. "Back to Remus's son—"

The door burst open. Half a dozen Aurors stood, wands pointed.

Hermione stood up coolly. "Yes?"

"I...a detector was tripped in this room, Minister," one of them said.

"That was probably me," Hermione said firmly. "May I help you?"

"We wanted to make sure everything's okay."

"Perfectly fine, thank you," Hermione said.

"Merlin's beard, is that Sirius Black?" one of them yelped.

"That," Hermione said crisply, "is none of your business, and I'll thank you to get back to work."

Muttering, they backed out of the room. Hermione looked exhausted.

"Ron, please owl Ginny, tell her she needs to get back as soon as she can. Then owl Teddy Lupin and ask him if he can join us for supper at Harry's."

"I don't recall inviting you," Harry joked.

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "As for you, you can owl McGonagall and tell her we'll be taking all five of the kids out of school on Tuesday and bringing them back Wednesday night. And tell her the reason," she added, almost as an afterthought.

"Let's go," Harry said to Sirius. "I have so much to tell you...so much you need to know."

"I'm sorry," Sirius said. "I left you when you most needed me."

"Yeah, you did. But it wasn't your fault." Harry glanced at Hermione, who was talking quietly with Ron. "Anyway...you're back, and that's all that really matters."