Fic: Rhythm of the Night (No Challenge)
Title: Rhythm of the Night
Summary: Harry starts chatting with Sirius' portrait, until he learns that it's not a portrait. Then he, Hermione and Neville figure out a way to get Sirius out, just in time for Christmas. Written for mini-fest. Originally posted Here.
Characters/Pairings: Sirius Black, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom
Genre: General
Beta: Jess/rhye - Thank you so much sweetie
Rating/Warnings: PG-13, Mentions of self-guilt that leads to not eating
Word Count: 3200
"It's been eighteen months," Harry says to the portrait next to him, leaning against the edge of the opened window, looking out at the glistening lake. It's been eighteen months since his godfather died, and the thought pains him. A lot has changed in those near two years, of course. He stopped blindly following Dumbledore, realizing that the older man was more manipulative than most thought. Harry maintains he stopped blindly following him because Harry hadn't found out about the prophecy until it helped Dumbledore - and was at the worst time in his life. He stopped eating, too. Sure, he still ate at dinner and lunch, but the amounts were smaller. He just felt guilty for being alive, if he was honest.
(Sirius wasn't too thrilled when he heard about that.)
He also stopped playing Quidditch. Everyone tried to get him to reconsider, but if he was honest, the sport didn't thrill him anymore. Nothing did, actually. The most surprising fact about that, though, was that Professor McGonagall told him she understood completely, and if he ever wanted back on the team, his spot would be open.
He also stopped hanging out with Ron. Ron, who just didn't understand why he was so depressed after Sirius' death and who consistently made cruel remarks about it, despite being asked to stop. It also didn't help that he remained friends with Hermione, who did understand how Harry felt about Sirius' death, and became really close with Neville, who completely understood Harry's position. Ron was actually a little bitter about that, he thought.
Harry notices the portrait staring at him and looks down, shuffling his feet. Because he doesn't eat as much, he's lost a lot of weight, making him look a little sickly. He's also grown his hair out, which constantly has Sirius laughing. The first time Sirius noticed, he laughed for a good thirty minutes, saying Harry reminded him of a teenage version of himself. Harry didn't believe him until Sirius managed to find a photo of a seventeen year old Sirius Black.
It's been eighteen months since Sirius died, but it's been six months since Harry first found his portrait in the castle. Ever since Sirius died, Harry's emotions have been warring inside of him. He's gone from furiously angry to absolutely depressed, yelling at everyone and breaking down in private at the simplest things.
It hasn't been easy, really. The day he had found Sirius' portrait was the worst yet. He had gotten into a fight with Hermione over -- he doesn't even remember. What he does remember was her shouting that it was his fault Sirius was dead before reacting in such shock. Her hands were over her mouth and her eyes were wide at that point. And all Harry could do was stare in surprised hurt before he had walked away, thunder roaring in the background of that June night and lightning lighting his way through the castle. He knew that if he hadn't, after all, he'd say something he'd regret, and he couldn't have that. He hadn't recognized where he had ended up walking to, not since it was pretty dark at the time, but the portrait was the first thing he had seen.
And when he had seen it that first time, he had felt a pull to it. He had walked towards it slowly, hesitantly, and he remembers how his heart had felt like it was going to beat out of his chest once the person in the portrait turned around.
"Harry?" Sirius asks, jolting Harry out of his thoughts and letting him refocus on his godfather. Harry smiles slightly, shrugging in response as he looks out of the window with sadness.
"It's been almost two years, Siri," He mumbles, looking down, trying not to cry at the memories of that night.
"Yeah, but for six months, I've been here, talking to you." Sirius replies quietly, a small smile flittering through his face as Harry smirks a little.
"It's not the same thing and you know it," Harry responds after a few minutes of silence, chewing his lower lip in thought.
"You're damn right it's not," Sirius growls out, stomping right to the edge of the portrait. "I'm not able to hold you in comfort when you have your nightmares and I'm not able to enjoy my new so-called freedom and I'm not able to take you to Hogsmeade or buy you Christmas gifts this year," Sirius sighs, his aggravation fizzling out as he goes on.
And Harry sighs at this, looking down once more at the snow-covered lake. It isn't his first Christmas without Sirius - that was last year, and it wasn't an easy one - but it would be his first Christmas with a dead Sirius that he could talk to. And he wasn't sure which Christmas was going to hurt more.
Just as he's about to reply to Sirius though, he can hear footsteps rushing up the stairs, causing him to frown. No one really knows about this area, from what Sirius tells him, people never come up here unless it's by accident. But by the sounds of the footsteps, the person knows exactly where they're heading, and it causes Harry to look at his godfather in confusion. Just as Sirius shrugs, the door is flung open to show Hermione and Neville, both out of breath and panting.
Harry jolts in surprise, his eyes widening slightly before narrowing at the chuckle that Sirius lets out, wondering what his godfather could possibly be thinking.
"What are you guys even doing here?" Harry eventually asks, arching his eyebrow as Hermione tries to regulate her breathing.
"Harry, the portrait!" Hermione says, causing Harry to frown harder and turn towards Sirius, who only shrugs in response.
"What about the portrait?" He asks with a sigh, shoulders drooping, wondering if maybe it was just his imagination all along. It wouldn't surprise him. He did need healthier ways of coping, other than starving himself and thinking about self-harm, something he hadn't shared with anyone.
"Harry, it's not actually a portrait!" Hermione replies with a grin, bouncing on the heels of her feet, causing both Sirius and Harry to look at her in surprise, wide-eyed and curious.
"What exactly do you mean, Hermione, that I'm not actually in a portrait?" Sirius questions while edging even closer to the edge of the portrait as Hermione beams.
"Well, I mean, don't you think it's a little weird, that you appeared here a year after your death? That only Harry and us, I s'pose, can come and find you if need be?" Hermione starts, more energetic than what Harry's used to recently.
"And so I started wondering, why is it that you appeared here, and why is it that only the three of us know where to find you at any given moment we need someone to talk to-" Harry frowns here before glaring lightly at the girl and scowling at his godfather, who just smirks and shrugs in response - “And you know me, Harry, I have to research everything, so I've been taking time to do just that and-" She trails off as Neville chuckles.
"Essentially, once she started researching, Hermione realized that sometimes, what seems like a portrait is anything but a portrait," Neville interrupts while Hermione scowls at him slightly before turning towards Harry with a smile.
"Harry, the portrait of Sirius is actually a two-way mirror." She says. Harry could swear that his heart stops beating at that moment and that the world starts spinning. That can't be true, because surely he would have known about it. Hell, surely Sirius would've known about it. He turns towards Sirius, only to see that his godfather is equally surprised, and then he turns towards Hermione once more, eyes wide as he steps closer.
"Please, please Hermione, don't joke about something-"
"Why on Earth do you think I would joke about something like this to you, Harry?" She asks, lower lip trembling as Harry sighs, realizing that if he's not careful, she'll be crying.
"I - is there a way to get him out?" Harry asks quietly, not wanting to look at his godfather's reaction. He knows Sirius heard though by the sigh coming from him.
"Harry, you need to -" Sirius begins, only to have Harry interrupt him.
"I can't!" He nearly shouts but whines instead, throwing his head back. He sees Sirius smile lightly before he turns back to Hermione, his body tense at her response to his question. She's biting her lip and her eyes are wide.
"You don't-" Hermione begins, still biting her lip.
"Yes." Neville interrupts as everyone turns to him, Hermione especially, in surprise.
"You might have researched what Sirius was actually stuck in, Hermione, but knowing Harry the way I do? Understanding what this might open up for him? I researched if we could fix it and get Sirius back," Neville replies with a shrug, smiling at a grinning Harry.
"Are you sure that getting me out of here would be safe?" Sirius questions while completely relaxed against a wall in the portrait. Harry turns towards him, fists clenching, as he wonders what his godfather is getting at.
"You do want to come back, don't you?" He asks, eyes wide and watering. He finally has a chance to have his godfather back in this world with him and just the thought of Sirius being back to life has his hopes soaring and his mood rising. But if Sirius doesn’t want to come back, he doesn't know what he would do.
"Of course I do pup," Sirius replies sadly, a small smile on his face and Harry looks down, wiping his eyes as he does so, trying to hide it. "I just want to make sure it's safe and it's permanent," Sirius finishes and Harry nods, not realizing that Hermione and Neville have stepped back for the time being.
"Plus, someone has to help you get through fighting a dark wizard, since you've pretty much pushed everyone else away from you," Sirius chuckles as Harry snorts, knowing how true that is. When Sirius first died, he stopped talking to most of the Order, simply because of the fact that were too suffocating.
"And you think you're the godfather for the job?" He snorts as Sirius scoffs and the two grin at one another before turning towards Neville, who had cleared his throat.
"We'll need certain potion ingredients and spells need to be learned, but as long as we get everything finish by the morning after tomorrow, Sirius should be able to leave the portrait-mirror," Neville says, getting a list of stuff out from his pocket.
Finding some of the ingredients hadn't been easy for the potion, as they needed to go into Snape's private stores. Sirius wasn't too thrilled about that, but he became even less thrilled when he was told it wasn't the first time they'd be stealing from Snape's private storage.
Luckily enough for them, Snape had had enough ingredients for Hermione to quickly steal during class, not-so reminiscent of the last time they tried, just in case the professor still had his suspicions about the first time.
Once the ingredients were collected, the trio made their way back to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, where they were, once again, producing the potion. Sirius was a little - hesitant - about knowing what his godson was doing. Despite the fact that he was once a Marauder, he couldn't help but worry, but waited patiently in his own little portrait-mirror for later that night to come about.
Once the potion was made, the trio decided to enlarge Harry's invisibility cloak. It was all thanks to Sirius telling them how to do-so due to past knowledge, and slowly, they made their way to Sirius' corridor. The entire thing had to occur in front of Sirius' portrait and it needed to happen soon, so the group was trying to walk a little faster than possible.
A half hour later, and twenty minutes before the spell needed to be done, the trio were finally in the corridor with Sirius' portrait, panting in exhaustion. They ended up sitting on the ground for five minutes before deciding to set everything up, with Harry making his way next to the portrait.
"Are you ready, Siri?" He asks quietly, chewing his lower lip in thought. He doesn't want anything to go wrong, doesn't want to make a mistake, and he knows his emotions are clearly visible on his face from the way Sirius is looking at him.
"Harry, if this doesn't work-"
"It'll work!" He exclaims, eyes going wide while Sirius' softens.
"If it doesn't work, pup, let it go. Live your life," Sirius finishes as Harry shuffles his body. "Promise me, pup. You can't go on living this way, alright?" Sirius pressures and after a while, Harry finally nods, wiping his cheek at the tears that have fallen down. He turns away, towards Hermione and Neville.
"Is everything ready?" He asks and after a few minutes, Hermione nods and Harry sighs before standing next to Hermione and Neville as they've created a small circle around the cauldron, with Sirius' portrait in front of them.
"Alright, let's do this," Harry says as Hermione and Neville nod. Within minutes, the three of them are chanting as the cauldron bubbles, steam rising up as their voices increase in pitch and volume. Sirius watches with interest, his head tilted, wondering how this could possibly help him get out of the portrait he's been in for six months.
Just as the trio begins shouting, the steam turns a dark purple color before suddenly, Harry has taken out his wand and pointed it at the portrait, yelling something that he's sure Sirius can't make out through the frown on his face, while the other two are still chanting. The coloring from the steam in the cauldron fades and the chanting quiets and before anyone can realize it, Sirius is being thrown out of the portrait and across the room, causing him to shout in surprise.
Harry can't believe it. Sure, he did the chant, and the spell, and the potion, but he never actually thought that any of those things would work. Sure, he had hope - -hope to be able to see his godfather again, tell him all of the things he never got around to telling him before, have late night conversations with him but - it actually happened. Sirius is actually lying in front of him, after being thrown out of the portrait he had been in, and Harry can't believe it.
His eyes are wide, and all he wants to do is go to his godfather and hug the hell out of him, but Hermione and Neville are holding him back. He can understand why - they don't know if Sirius is actually okay, and they don't know if there are any side-effects to what they did - but he really just wants to go to his godfather and see if he's actually there and he's not just imagining it like he did before his sixth year.
"Hermione," He whines, just slightly, jumping as Hermione snorts quietly and rolls her eyes.
"Give him a minute, Harry," She whispers, watching as Sirius slowly sits up and runs his fingers through his hair, looking at them with amused fondness. Harry is nearly vibrating where he stands and when Sirius chuckles and opens his arms, Hermione and Neville know to let go of their friend, knowing that he'll go straight to Sirius in happiness.
Harry doesn't care that Hermione and Neville are right behind him watching as he flies into his godfather's arms, sobbing desperately as he finally accepts that it is indeed Sirius. His fingers are clenched in the suit Sirius had on when he died, and his head is pounding due to the loud sobs he's letting loose, but he just doesn't care. Not right now.
"Shh, Harry, it's alright," Sirius is telling him quietly and Harry can't help himself, holding onto Sirius even tighter.
"Promise you won't leave me again," he sobs into Sirius' shoulder as he feels Sirius cling onto him in return.
"Never, pup. Fucking never." Sirius replies, looking up and probably realizing that Hermione and Neville have moved to the shadows to give them some semblance of privacy. Thank goodness. Harry knows he will be embarrassed about this, later.
The two remain like that for quite a while before Sirius decides to stand up. He doesn't care about Harry not letting go, knows his godson needs the comfort right now, and instead, turns to Hermione and Neville.
"Alright, go to someone the three of you trust. Tell them what you guys did and then bring them here so we can figure things out," Sirius states, and the two nod before rushing away. Sirius goes back to embracing his godson.
"We have a lot to do, pup," He whispers quietly, running his fingers through Harry's long hair, still snorting at how much Harry reminds Sirius of a seventeen year old version of himself. He can feel Harry nod slightly and sighs, bringing himself and Harry down to the ground so that they're now sitting on it.
"You have a lot to catch me up on, because I know you hid stuff from me. And we're going to have to figure out what to do about me being alive again. And we're going to have to avoid Dumbledore now more than ever-" Sirius pauses here, smiling slightly in nostalgia, "We're going to have to visit your parents' grave this year. They would've liked that, and you're seventeen now, so it's time."
"But please realize, pup. I'm not going anywhere. Not ever again. I'm going to be there with you of every second of this war. You don't have to be alone ever again, okay?" Sirius replies, and he can't help but chuckle at the wide eyed look Harry is giving him.
"You -" Harry begins before flying into his arms again and sobbing.
"You mean it?"
"Of course I do, pup." Sirius replies, hugging Harry and looking skyward with a smile.
Outside, snow is falling, blanketing the lake with even more whiteness and chilling people that have their windows open. In the far recesses of the forest, a glow can be seen, and two people appear, surrounded by red and green.
They stare at one another with teary smiles, before looking back up at the tower that they know Sirius is in.
"Goodbye, Padfoot," The man whispers with a sad smile.
"Take great care of Harry for us, Siri," The woman replies, wiping her eyes.
"And have a Merry Christmas," They murmur together as a strong wind comes by, carrying their voices to Harry and Sirius, who smile briefly into the hug they're sharing.
Outside, the couple holds hands and turn around, walking towards their graves, knowing that soon, they'll be visited by the duo and only then, can the real fight they're preparing for begin and they can come back.
3200 Words / 30 = 107 points
Summary: Harry starts chatting with Sirius' portrait, until he learns that it's not a portrait. Then he, Hermione and Neville figure out a way to get Sirius out, just in time for Christmas. Written for mini-fest. Originally posted Here.
Characters/Pairings: Sirius Black, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom
Genre: General
Beta: Jess/rhye - Thank you so much sweetie
Rating/Warnings: PG-13, Mentions of self-guilt that leads to not eating
Word Count: 3200
"It's been eighteen months," Harry says to the portrait next to him, leaning against the edge of the opened window, looking out at the glistening lake. It's been eighteen months since his godfather died, and the thought pains him. A lot has changed in those near two years, of course. He stopped blindly following Dumbledore, realizing that the older man was more manipulative than most thought. Harry maintains he stopped blindly following him because Harry hadn't found out about the prophecy until it helped Dumbledore - and was at the worst time in his life. He stopped eating, too. Sure, he still ate at dinner and lunch, but the amounts were smaller. He just felt guilty for being alive, if he was honest.
(Sirius wasn't too thrilled when he heard about that.)
He also stopped playing Quidditch. Everyone tried to get him to reconsider, but if he was honest, the sport didn't thrill him anymore. Nothing did, actually. The most surprising fact about that, though, was that Professor McGonagall told him she understood completely, and if he ever wanted back on the team, his spot would be open.
He also stopped hanging out with Ron. Ron, who just didn't understand why he was so depressed after Sirius' death and who consistently made cruel remarks about it, despite being asked to stop. It also didn't help that he remained friends with Hermione, who did understand how Harry felt about Sirius' death, and became really close with Neville, who completely understood Harry's position. Ron was actually a little bitter about that, he thought.
Harry notices the portrait staring at him and looks down, shuffling his feet. Because he doesn't eat as much, he's lost a lot of weight, making him look a little sickly. He's also grown his hair out, which constantly has Sirius laughing. The first time Sirius noticed, he laughed for a good thirty minutes, saying Harry reminded him of a teenage version of himself. Harry didn't believe him until Sirius managed to find a photo of a seventeen year old Sirius Black.
It's been eighteen months since Sirius died, but it's been six months since Harry first found his portrait in the castle. Ever since Sirius died, Harry's emotions have been warring inside of him. He's gone from furiously angry to absolutely depressed, yelling at everyone and breaking down in private at the simplest things.
It hasn't been easy, really. The day he had found Sirius' portrait was the worst yet. He had gotten into a fight with Hermione over -- he doesn't even remember. What he does remember was her shouting that it was his fault Sirius was dead before reacting in such shock. Her hands were over her mouth and her eyes were wide at that point. And all Harry could do was stare in surprised hurt before he had walked away, thunder roaring in the background of that June night and lightning lighting his way through the castle. He knew that if he hadn't, after all, he'd say something he'd regret, and he couldn't have that. He hadn't recognized where he had ended up walking to, not since it was pretty dark at the time, but the portrait was the first thing he had seen.
And when he had seen it that first time, he had felt a pull to it. He had walked towards it slowly, hesitantly, and he remembers how his heart had felt like it was going to beat out of his chest once the person in the portrait turned around.
"Harry?" Sirius asks, jolting Harry out of his thoughts and letting him refocus on his godfather. Harry smiles slightly, shrugging in response as he looks out of the window with sadness.
"It's been almost two years, Siri," He mumbles, looking down, trying not to cry at the memories of that night.
"Yeah, but for six months, I've been here, talking to you." Sirius replies quietly, a small smile flittering through his face as Harry smirks a little.
"It's not the same thing and you know it," Harry responds after a few minutes of silence, chewing his lower lip in thought.
"You're damn right it's not," Sirius growls out, stomping right to the edge of the portrait. "I'm not able to hold you in comfort when you have your nightmares and I'm not able to enjoy my new so-called freedom and I'm not able to take you to Hogsmeade or buy you Christmas gifts this year," Sirius sighs, his aggravation fizzling out as he goes on.
And Harry sighs at this, looking down once more at the snow-covered lake. It isn't his first Christmas without Sirius - that was last year, and it wasn't an easy one - but it would be his first Christmas with a dead Sirius that he could talk to. And he wasn't sure which Christmas was going to hurt more.
Just as he's about to reply to Sirius though, he can hear footsteps rushing up the stairs, causing him to frown. No one really knows about this area, from what Sirius tells him, people never come up here unless it's by accident. But by the sounds of the footsteps, the person knows exactly where they're heading, and it causes Harry to look at his godfather in confusion. Just as Sirius shrugs, the door is flung open to show Hermione and Neville, both out of breath and panting.
Harry jolts in surprise, his eyes widening slightly before narrowing at the chuckle that Sirius lets out, wondering what his godfather could possibly be thinking.
"What are you guys even doing here?" Harry eventually asks, arching his eyebrow as Hermione tries to regulate her breathing.
"Harry, the portrait!" Hermione says, causing Harry to frown harder and turn towards Sirius, who only shrugs in response.
"What about the portrait?" He asks with a sigh, shoulders drooping, wondering if maybe it was just his imagination all along. It wouldn't surprise him. He did need healthier ways of coping, other than starving himself and thinking about self-harm, something he hadn't shared with anyone.
"Harry, it's not actually a portrait!" Hermione replies with a grin, bouncing on the heels of her feet, causing both Sirius and Harry to look at her in surprise, wide-eyed and curious.
"What exactly do you mean, Hermione, that I'm not actually in a portrait?" Sirius questions while edging even closer to the edge of the portrait as Hermione beams.
"Well, I mean, don't you think it's a little weird, that you appeared here a year after your death? That only Harry and us, I s'pose, can come and find you if need be?" Hermione starts, more energetic than what Harry's used to recently.
"And so I started wondering, why is it that you appeared here, and why is it that only the three of us know where to find you at any given moment we need someone to talk to-" Harry frowns here before glaring lightly at the girl and scowling at his godfather, who just smirks and shrugs in response - “And you know me, Harry, I have to research everything, so I've been taking time to do just that and-" She trails off as Neville chuckles.
"Essentially, once she started researching, Hermione realized that sometimes, what seems like a portrait is anything but a portrait," Neville interrupts while Hermione scowls at him slightly before turning towards Harry with a smile.
"Harry, the portrait of Sirius is actually a two-way mirror." She says. Harry could swear that his heart stops beating at that moment and that the world starts spinning. That can't be true, because surely he would have known about it. Hell, surely Sirius would've known about it. He turns towards Sirius, only to see that his godfather is equally surprised, and then he turns towards Hermione once more, eyes wide as he steps closer.
"Please, please Hermione, don't joke about something-"
"Why on Earth do you think I would joke about something like this to you, Harry?" She asks, lower lip trembling as Harry sighs, realizing that if he's not careful, she'll be crying.
"I - is there a way to get him out?" Harry asks quietly, not wanting to look at his godfather's reaction. He knows Sirius heard though by the sigh coming from him.
"Harry, you need to -" Sirius begins, only to have Harry interrupt him.
"I can't!" He nearly shouts but whines instead, throwing his head back. He sees Sirius smile lightly before he turns back to Hermione, his body tense at her response to his question. She's biting her lip and her eyes are wide.
"You don't-" Hermione begins, still biting her lip.
"Yes." Neville interrupts as everyone turns to him, Hermione especially, in surprise.
"You might have researched what Sirius was actually stuck in, Hermione, but knowing Harry the way I do? Understanding what this might open up for him? I researched if we could fix it and get Sirius back," Neville replies with a shrug, smiling at a grinning Harry.
"Are you sure that getting me out of here would be safe?" Sirius questions while completely relaxed against a wall in the portrait. Harry turns towards him, fists clenching, as he wonders what his godfather is getting at.
"You do want to come back, don't you?" He asks, eyes wide and watering. He finally has a chance to have his godfather back in this world with him and just the thought of Sirius being back to life has his hopes soaring and his mood rising. But if Sirius doesn’t want to come back, he doesn't know what he would do.
"Of course I do pup," Sirius replies sadly, a small smile on his face and Harry looks down, wiping his eyes as he does so, trying to hide it. "I just want to make sure it's safe and it's permanent," Sirius finishes and Harry nods, not realizing that Hermione and Neville have stepped back for the time being.
"Plus, someone has to help you get through fighting a dark wizard, since you've pretty much pushed everyone else away from you," Sirius chuckles as Harry snorts, knowing how true that is. When Sirius first died, he stopped talking to most of the Order, simply because of the fact that were too suffocating.
"And you think you're the godfather for the job?" He snorts as Sirius scoffs and the two grin at one another before turning towards Neville, who had cleared his throat.
"We'll need certain potion ingredients and spells need to be learned, but as long as we get everything finish by the morning after tomorrow, Sirius should be able to leave the portrait-mirror," Neville says, getting a list of stuff out from his pocket.
Finding some of the ingredients hadn't been easy for the potion, as they needed to go into Snape's private stores. Sirius wasn't too thrilled about that, but he became even less thrilled when he was told it wasn't the first time they'd be stealing from Snape's private storage.
Luckily enough for them, Snape had had enough ingredients for Hermione to quickly steal during class, not-so reminiscent of the last time they tried, just in case the professor still had his suspicions about the first time.
Once the ingredients were collected, the trio made their way back to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, where they were, once again, producing the potion. Sirius was a little - hesitant - about knowing what his godson was doing. Despite the fact that he was once a Marauder, he couldn't help but worry, but waited patiently in his own little portrait-mirror for later that night to come about.
Once the potion was made, the trio decided to enlarge Harry's invisibility cloak. It was all thanks to Sirius telling them how to do-so due to past knowledge, and slowly, they made their way to Sirius' corridor. The entire thing had to occur in front of Sirius' portrait and it needed to happen soon, so the group was trying to walk a little faster than possible.
A half hour later, and twenty minutes before the spell needed to be done, the trio were finally in the corridor with Sirius' portrait, panting in exhaustion. They ended up sitting on the ground for five minutes before deciding to set everything up, with Harry making his way next to the portrait.
"Are you ready, Siri?" He asks quietly, chewing his lower lip in thought. He doesn't want anything to go wrong, doesn't want to make a mistake, and he knows his emotions are clearly visible on his face from the way Sirius is looking at him.
"Harry, if this doesn't work-"
"It'll work!" He exclaims, eyes going wide while Sirius' softens.
"If it doesn't work, pup, let it go. Live your life," Sirius finishes as Harry shuffles his body. "Promise me, pup. You can't go on living this way, alright?" Sirius pressures and after a while, Harry finally nods, wiping his cheek at the tears that have fallen down. He turns away, towards Hermione and Neville.
"Is everything ready?" He asks and after a few minutes, Hermione nods and Harry sighs before standing next to Hermione and Neville as they've created a small circle around the cauldron, with Sirius' portrait in front of them.
"Alright, let's do this," Harry says as Hermione and Neville nod. Within minutes, the three of them are chanting as the cauldron bubbles, steam rising up as their voices increase in pitch and volume. Sirius watches with interest, his head tilted, wondering how this could possibly help him get out of the portrait he's been in for six months.
Just as the trio begins shouting, the steam turns a dark purple color before suddenly, Harry has taken out his wand and pointed it at the portrait, yelling something that he's sure Sirius can't make out through the frown on his face, while the other two are still chanting. The coloring from the steam in the cauldron fades and the chanting quiets and before anyone can realize it, Sirius is being thrown out of the portrait and across the room, causing him to shout in surprise.
Harry can't believe it. Sure, he did the chant, and the spell, and the potion, but he never actually thought that any of those things would work. Sure, he had hope - -hope to be able to see his godfather again, tell him all of the things he never got around to telling him before, have late night conversations with him but - it actually happened. Sirius is actually lying in front of him, after being thrown out of the portrait he had been in, and Harry can't believe it.
His eyes are wide, and all he wants to do is go to his godfather and hug the hell out of him, but Hermione and Neville are holding him back. He can understand why - they don't know if Sirius is actually okay, and they don't know if there are any side-effects to what they did - but he really just wants to go to his godfather and see if he's actually there and he's not just imagining it like he did before his sixth year.
"Hermione," He whines, just slightly, jumping as Hermione snorts quietly and rolls her eyes.
"Give him a minute, Harry," She whispers, watching as Sirius slowly sits up and runs his fingers through his hair, looking at them with amused fondness. Harry is nearly vibrating where he stands and when Sirius chuckles and opens his arms, Hermione and Neville know to let go of their friend, knowing that he'll go straight to Sirius in happiness.
Harry doesn't care that Hermione and Neville are right behind him watching as he flies into his godfather's arms, sobbing desperately as he finally accepts that it is indeed Sirius. His fingers are clenched in the suit Sirius had on when he died, and his head is pounding due to the loud sobs he's letting loose, but he just doesn't care. Not right now.
"Shh, Harry, it's alright," Sirius is telling him quietly and Harry can't help himself, holding onto Sirius even tighter.
"Promise you won't leave me again," he sobs into Sirius' shoulder as he feels Sirius cling onto him in return.
"Never, pup. Fucking never." Sirius replies, looking up and probably realizing that Hermione and Neville have moved to the shadows to give them some semblance of privacy. Thank goodness. Harry knows he will be embarrassed about this, later.
The two remain like that for quite a while before Sirius decides to stand up. He doesn't care about Harry not letting go, knows his godson needs the comfort right now, and instead, turns to Hermione and Neville.
"Alright, go to someone the three of you trust. Tell them what you guys did and then bring them here so we can figure things out," Sirius states, and the two nod before rushing away. Sirius goes back to embracing his godson.
"We have a lot to do, pup," He whispers quietly, running his fingers through Harry's long hair, still snorting at how much Harry reminds Sirius of a seventeen year old version of himself. He can feel Harry nod slightly and sighs, bringing himself and Harry down to the ground so that they're now sitting on it.
"You have a lot to catch me up on, because I know you hid stuff from me. And we're going to have to figure out what to do about me being alive again. And we're going to have to avoid Dumbledore now more than ever-" Sirius pauses here, smiling slightly in nostalgia, "We're going to have to visit your parents' grave this year. They would've liked that, and you're seventeen now, so it's time."
"But please realize, pup. I'm not going anywhere. Not ever again. I'm going to be there with you of every second of this war. You don't have to be alone ever again, okay?" Sirius replies, and he can't help but chuckle at the wide eyed look Harry is giving him.
"You -" Harry begins before flying into his arms again and sobbing.
"You mean it?"
"Of course I do, pup." Sirius replies, hugging Harry and looking skyward with a smile.
Outside, snow is falling, blanketing the lake with even more whiteness and chilling people that have their windows open. In the far recesses of the forest, a glow can be seen, and two people appear, surrounded by red and green.
They stare at one another with teary smiles, before looking back up at the tower that they know Sirius is in.
"Goodbye, Padfoot," The man whispers with a sad smile.
"Take great care of Harry for us, Siri," The woman replies, wiping her eyes.
"And have a Merry Christmas," They murmur together as a strong wind comes by, carrying their voices to Harry and Sirius, who smile briefly into the hug they're sharing.
Outside, the couple holds hands and turn around, walking towards their graves, knowing that soon, they'll be visited by the duo and only then, can the real fight they're preparing for begin and they can come back.
3200 Words / 30 = 107 points