His Secret

A Second Chance

"Harry," Annie whispered, pushing past the people surrounding him. "Harry!" But she was held back, the red haired boy who had held her earlier wrapped his arms around her holding her back, at a loss of what to say to this girl who's name he did not know.

"It's okay, it'll be okay," he said soothingly.

"He breathed! He's okay! Harry!" Everyone snapped their heads up, looking at Harry's chest. And sure enough, the scar riddled, broken chest rose the smallest inch as Harry's emerald eyes slowly broke open.

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The time that followed was confusing to say the least. Vernon, who had been left cowering in the corner, was taken into Ministry custody. Draco too was taken into custody, the parenting of Lucius having been deemed less than adequate. Dumbledore, still weak from poison, was confined to his rooms. And Harry, Harry was alive.

Following the nights affairs, from his sick bed Dumbledore had explained his full understanding of the events that had been uncovered. To Harry, Sirius, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George and even little Annie he explained the prophecy, the horocruxes, and how it was the piece of Voldemort's soul that resided in Harry, not Harry's own soul, which had been killed by Voldemort's killing curse. He explained Snape's role as a double agent, his understanding of the horocrux within Harry which had saved his life and his position, vital to the Order, still deep within Voldemort's ranks.

"Still wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him," came Ron's snide remark to that, at which Sirius almost smirked.

When it came to what next, Harry's shoulder's sagged. There was a long way to go until the Dark Lord could be defeated, it was going to be hard fight and they were in it until the end.

So he asked, "What next? How do we get the next horocrux?"

Yet before Dumbledore could begin to draw breath, Sirius spun around, whipping his hair with him.

"What next?! What next?! Harry James Potter what is next is that you are living under my roof and you will be grounded if you ever seek out a fight against Lord Voldemort ever again!"

Harry stood, speechless, staring at Sirius. Then he looked to Dumbledore, then back at Sirius.

Dumbledore began to speak gently, "Of course what is next is tracking an-"

"No," Sirius interupted.

Then Dumbledore began again, "Harry, your godfather has taken up your legal guardianship. Over the past year various members of the Order have been working closely with the Ministry of Magic to ensure his freedom, as of two days ago, he was pronounced a free man."

Harry gaped at Sirius who simply answered with a huffy, "Well if you hadn't bloody gone and run away maybe I would have been the one to tell you."

Pausing to let Harry have a moment to digest, Dumbledore continued, "Of course what this means Harry, is that as per your parents wishes, Sirius is now your legal guardian."

Harry remained silent. And then he fell forward into Sirius's arms, the weight of everything he'd endured flooding out in uncontainable sobs.

Together they stood, godfather and godson, both knowing it would be a long road to being okay, but a path they'd walk together.