Harry spent the first few hours of the new year being sobbed on, screamed at, struck, and - in the interesting case of Sirius - fainted on.
Theo disappeared after bringing Sev to Harry with a mumbled excuse that he needed to sleep. Harry suspected that he just wanted to avoid the hysterics.
Sev had stood in the doorway for a solid two minutes after Theo left, just staring at Harry. His long fingers were touching his lips lightly and his eyes were more wide than Harry had ever seen them before.
Harry assumed that it was his job to speak up first since Sev didn't seem likely to.
"Abracadabra," Harry croaked out weakly. He lifted his hands and wiggled his fingers before dropping them back on his lap. "I'm not dead."
Sev's eyes glistened and Harry only had a moment to prepare himself before Sev strode across the room in two long strides and collapsed in Theo's abandoned chair.
"How could you?" Sev asked Harry, never looking away from Harry's eyes.
Harry didn't know what Sev meant, specifically.
How could Harry make a horcrux?
How could Harry not tell him?
How could Harry reabsorb the piece of his soul?
How could Harry have been dead for five days and was no longer dead?
"Magic," Harry said flatly. There was a time for Harry to answer all those questions, but it wasn't just then. He was exhausted, truly down to his bones, Harry was exhausted. "Riddle dead?" he asked.
"He is," Sev said.
Harry leaned his head against the wall again and closed his eyes. It was over.
It was all over.
"Stay," Harry said. "Please."
Sev put his hand on top of Harry's head and Harry reveled in the gentle caress.
"Always," Sev murmured. "I will always stay, you idiot boy."
Harry had just enough energy to grin before he slipped off to a deep and dreamless sleep.
A very short sleep that was interrupted by the sound of a door banging off a wall.
Harry opened his bleary eyes and saw Susan standing right beside his bed.
"A horcrux?!" Susan hissed loudly enough to startle Sev, who must have drifted off when Harry did.
"You made a horcrux and you made me think you were going to die?!" Susan cuffed Harry in the side of the head. Thankfully she did it with her normal hand, otherwise it all might have been for nothing.
"I could have," Harry muttered as he rubbed his head. "We had no idea if it would work or not."
Theo had been confident, Harry had not.
A living being with a horcrux in them that then tore their own soul in half to create another horcrux? It was magic that had never even been considered before. There was no proof it would work and Harry couldn't get anyone's hopes up without some sort of proof.
Harry didn't even dare get his own hopes up. He'd continued on with knowledge that he'd die and he didn't try to imagine anything past that.
"Imagine if you lot thought I'd live and I really died," Harry said to both Susan and Sev. "This way was better."
When Susan went to smack Harry again, Harry caught her hand.
"Don't hit me," he said irritably. His head ached and his body was sore. He didn't need Susan to keep hitting him.
Susan twisted her face up in a scowl and then, with no warning at all, burst in loud and hysterical sobs. Harry inched over so there was room on his bed for Susan and she climbed in immediately.
"It- wasn't- better!" Susan wailed in Harry's shoulder. She held him so tightly that it was nearly painful. "I love you so much, Harry. So, so much!"
Harry smoothed his hand down Susan's uncharacteristically unruly hair and looked at Sev over her. Sev wasn't crying or trying to hit Harry, but Harry could see that he agreed with Susan fully.
"I only had two crap choices," Harry told them truthfully. They needed to understand that Harry had chosen the option that he thought would bring them less pain in the long run.
What was five days of mourning as compared to what could have been a lifetime of hoping and endless disappointment?
"There was no proof it would work," Harry told them. "I couldn't… I couldn't get your hopes up like that."
It was bad enough that Theo had apparently spent five sleepless days by Harry's beside, hoping he would be able to absorb the horcrux and return. There had to have been moments where Theo doubted himself and those moments had to have hurt.
"It is gone then?" Sev asked him. "The horcrux?"
"Better be, it hurt like hell to absorb," Harry muttered darkly. He felt around in the bed until he found his first knife. Harry slowly unfolded the blade and they all watched as Harry snapped it in half.
Harry held up proof that the knife was only a knife again before he sent a small push of magic through his hand and repaired it.
It was Harry's favorite knife.
"Do you have any idea what you risked?" Sev asked Harry quietly, as serious as he had ever been. There was a heavy look of grief in Sev's dark eyes and Harry swallowed as he nodded.
Harry knew what it cost him to create the horcrux. Harry didn't just take Dudley's life, Harry had ensured that he would never be granted entrance to the afterlife where his parents and his friends waited for him.
It had been a dark and irreversible thing that Harry did. Harry's soul was in tact, but there would always be a stain on it for his sin against magic and life itself.
Harry tricked Death and evaded its embrace by the choice he made. And Death wouldn't forget. One day, when Harry truly died, Death would get the final laugh.
"I do," Harry said solemnly. His hold on Susan tightened and Harry looked from the teary eyes of the first person who loved him to the sad eyes of the man who loved him the most.
"But do you have any idea what I gained?" Harry breathed.
Because it was everything.
After Susan left, Fred arrived.
Sev stepped just outside the room to give them a few minutes of privacy that Harry wasn't sure he wanted.
"Hi," Harry said. He felt too weak to truly do more than sit up in bed and he watched Fred through his lashes as a mixture of emotions flashed across his face.
Shock. Hurt. Anger. Joy.
Fred had always been so easy to read. He never learned occlumency or taught himself that emotions were weaknesses.
Fred wore his heart on his sleeve and wasn't ashamed to show Harry it had been hurt.
"You were dead," Fred said quietly. He stood out of Harry's reach and Harry wanted him to move closer.
"And now I'm not," Harry said carefully. Fred wasn't Sev with his flexible morals or Susan who would have killed Dudley herself to save Harry's life.
Fred may have been considered for Slytherin, but he went to Gryffindor. If Fred had been in Harry's shoes, Harry assumed that he would have chosen to just die.
"Technically, we said unto death do us apart, and I died, so… so you don't really have any obligations to be here," Harry said in a rush when Fred remained silent. "But, and I'm not guilting you, but I did give up quite a bit so that we could spend the rest of our lives together. So… so there's that."
Harry dropped his eyes to his hands on his lap and he began twisting the blanket between his fingers. Harry had no idea who thought to cover him with the blanket Luna made him for Christmas one year, but it was comforting to have while Harry waited to find out who he still had.
It had been stupid to think that everyone would just… be glad Harry was alive.
And it had been stupid to not expect people to cry… as Fred began doing.
"You think I want to leave you?!" Fred demanded as tears began spilling down his face. "I can't decide if I want to smack you or snog you!"
Harry perked up some at that rather positive statement.
"Susan already smacked me but I haven't been snogged yet," Harry said with a smile that had once been dazzling and had gained a cautious edge to it.
Fred launched himself at Harry and knocked the wind from him when he landed directly on top of Harry. Harry didn't even have the breath to laugh as Fred began leaving ridiculous kisses all over every inch of Harry's face.
"You- utter- adorable- stupid- cruel- perfect- husband- of- mine!"
Harry smiled and then did laugh when Fred accidentally kissed his teeth.
"Gross!" Harry tried to push him off him as he turned his head away. "I haven't brushed my teeth in five days, Fred."
"I don't care." Fred put his hands on either side of Harry's face and stared hard in his eyes. "Never do that to me again," he whispered.
Harry grinned crookedly.
"Deal."
Sirius literally burst through Harry's door while Fred was still in Harry's bed.
And then he took one step toward Harry before his eyes rolled backward in his head and he fell forward and smashed his face on the floor.
"Did he just faint?" Harry asked, torn between exasperation and amusement.
Sev was right behind Sirius and flicked his wand to levitate his body in air, leaving a trickle of blood from where he cracked his nose.
"I may have been too vague in the details of the emergency I summoned him for," Sev said smoothly. He guided Sirius' body out of the room and Harry imagined that bumping his slack head on the doorframe hadn't been an accident.
"Come downstairs and eat breakfast if you only wish to share your story once," Sev called over his shoulder. "Miss Bones has cleared her home of any but your misfits and my wife."
Harry narrowed his eyes and wasn't sure which was more annoying: the idea that people might not return Harry's belongings to him or the reminder that Sev married Tonks before Harry died.
"Think Luna will bring me a tray?" Harry asked Fred as he tried to mentally count how many stairs he would have to walk down to get to the dining room.
"Probably not, no," Fred said. He had a stupid smile on his face. Harry figured that they'd row over it later, Harry had hurt him- he wasn't ignorant of that, but Fred seemed to have settled on giddy excitement for the time being.
Harry made a token noise of complaint when Fred stood up and scooped Harry in his arms.
"Recently reincarnated husbands don't walk," Fred said. He kissed Harry square on the lips before smiling at him. "I'm really bloody mad at you."
"I can tell," Harry quipped drily before laying his head on Fred's shoulder and breathing in his familiar scent of the citrus soap he favored.
"I'm plotting out a lifetime of pranks to make this up to you," Fred said while he carried Harry down the stairs. "Maybe I'll snog Verity, that might drive home a single fraction of the pain I've been in."
Harry winced at Fred's words even though he said them in a light-hearted tone.
"I'd rather you didn't," Harry said. "I'm thinking that I've killed enough people for a while… it'd be a shame to add another one."
"I give that a year," Fred snorted. He went quiet when they entered the sitting room and Harry felt anxious about what he would find in the dining room.
More tears, probably.
Possibly some screaming.
And at least one more person was going to hit Harry.
Sev, Tonks, Theo, Susan, Ron, Neville, Blaise, Luna, and…
"Rosie." Harry's eyes locked on his goddaughter in Luna's arms and he hardly noticed that his eyes welled up with tears until Luna stood up to pass Rosie to him and wiped his cheek softly.
"I'm very upset with you," Luna told Harry. "You broke my heart, Harry."
Harry let the warm and solid little bundle of beautiful baby settle against his chest before he reached out for Luna's wrist and spoke directly to her.
"I couldn't give you hope," Harry told her. "Not… not after Draco."
Luna sniffled and then wrapped her arms around Harry's neck and held him close.
"Can he come back too?" Luna whispered in Harry's ear.
Harry closed his eyes as the pain over Draco's death truly hit him for the first time. It was made worse by tiny hint of hope in Luna's voice, proof that Harry made the right decision.
"No," Harry told her. "I'm so sorry."
Harry didn't kill Draco, Harry would have done anything to save him, but Harry knew that him coming back would give everyone hope for their loved ones.
And for that, Harry was sorry.
Harry had hoped that having Rosie would make him attack-proof, but Blaise put that idea to rest immediately.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Harry yelped when Luna moved so Blaise could stand beside Harry. Harry kind of expected him to yell, not to punch him in the jaw when Harry was too tired and too weighed down by Rosie to retaliate.
Blaise scowled at Harry before he grabbed Harry by the face and bent down to press a long kiss on Harry's lips.
… right in front of Harry's husband.
"What the fuck??" Harry said again when Blaise pulled off him.
"You're an idiot," Blaise hissed. "A completely reckless, selfish, stubborn, secretive, idiot."
"Which explains why you kissed me." Harry sent a panicked look at Fred and raised his eyebrows. "I didn't consent to that kiss," he said quickly.
No need to make their inevitable fight even worse.
"I saw that," Fred said. He watched Blaise closely as Blaise swaggered back to his chair with an unrepentant smirk.
It was even more tense before Ron snorted loudly.
"You won't mind if I don't kiss you, do you, mate?" Ron asked. He managed to smile at Harry despite the heavy and dark bags beneath his eyes. "Fred cooties, you know. Neville might."
"Neville won't," Neville said immediately. While Ron looked exhausted and weighed down from the war and the losses, there was a lightness in Neville's grin he aimed at Harry.
Harry tilted his head in a silent question and Neville nodded.
Good.
Harry looked at Tonks next and realized that she'd been entirely silent the entire time. Sev had been too, but Sev liked to bottle things up and explode at a later date.
"Don't hit me and don't kiss me," Harry warned her.
There was something smug and teasing in Tonks' twist of her lips. It didn't bode well for Harry that Sev suddenly chuckled under his breath either.
"I would never hit you," Tonks said sweetly, much too sweetly. "How would that look, hmm? The Minister of Magic smacking the hero who slaughtered Voldemort?"
It took Harry a moment to process what Tonks was saying and the giggle from Susan didn't help matters.
"Tonks…" Harry warily watched Tonks stand up and trip over her chair while she made her way around the circle table toward Harry. "Tell me you're not the Minister of Magic."
Tonks let out a delighted laugh and bent down to embrace Harry around the neck. Just before she pecked his cheek, she added some salt to the fresh wound.
"Yeah, but you can just call me Stepmum if you'd prefer."
Harry's jaw dropped and he felt truly betrayed when Rosie made a soft and bubbling laugh to mix in with the cascade of other laughs.
Even while crying, Susan and Luna were laughing at Harry's stunned face while they clutched each other. Neville and Ron were snickering and Blaise winked at Harry while he merely smiled contently.
Theo didn't laugh though.
Harry decided it was a poor time to point out that Theo's loyalty was why he was the only one to know about the horcrux.
Harry sort of forgot to worry about Mavis though when the mad elf charged from the kitchen and tried to hand-feed Harry mini treacle tarts while he smacked Harry with a spatula.
They were truly pushing Harry's patience with the desire to hit him. Harry was going to give them until midnight and then start hitting back.
Harry filled everyone in on what he'd done while they ate breakfast. Everyone seemed to have unanimously decided that they wouldn't tell Harry what he missed until he came clean to them.
Which Harry did, while omitting only the parts he wasn't ready to share.
"I killed Dudley," Harry told them all. He didn't say it with any pride at all, just the blunt truth of a man owning up to his decisions.
"Your cousin?" Tonks asked.
"Shh," Susan seated at Tonks while she seemed prepared to hang on Harry's every word. "Go on."
"I killed him and I used him to make a horcrux," Harry said. He saw Neville twitch from the corner of his eye, but Harry focused down on Rosie while he admitted what he hid for so long.
"But I didn't know if it would work, did I?" Harry said. "Timmy broke the laws of magic when he made seven; surely I broke them again by creating a horcrux of my own while Timmy's soul was inside me."
Harry had explored magic that didn't exist. There was no precedence for what Harry did… he took the laws of magic and death in his hands and twisted them to fit his needs.
"Everything was cold," Harry said down to Rosie. "It wasn't just that I didn't - couldn't - feel anything good. I couldn't feel anything."
"Hence the string of murders," Sev murmured.
Harry shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe I would have done it anyway. I probably wouldn't have killed Alexander, but who knows? I had to find the horcruxes, I had to make sure the path to Timmy was clear for you lot, and I had to make sure all my loose ends were tied in case it didn't work."
"Why?"
Harry looked behind him and saw that Sirius stood in the doorway with his face twisted in absolute misery.
"Why what?" Harry asked.
"Why would you do that to us?" Sirius clarified. "You didn't want to give us hope? That's crap, Harry."
"That's… yeah," Harry breathed. He nodded at Sirius and tried to give him a remorseful look. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" Sirius stepped toward Harry and frowned. "You ripped your soul in half. You lied to use. You let us all think you were dead! And Theo- Theo didn't say a bloody word until we were ready to bury you in the ground!"
Harry winced at the raw emotion in Sirius' voice, but he couldn't let Theo take any blame for Harry's choices.
"He couldn't," Harry said. "I asked him not to."
That was the only excuse Harry could make, one for Theo. Harry had done all those other things and if he was man enough to do it, he was damn sure man enough to own it.
Harry and Sirius stared each other down with their chins lifted and their shoulders squared. Harry was ready for screaming, crying, maybe one hit.
Harry wasn't prepared when Sirius turned his back on him and walked through the living room and right out the front door. Harry's breath caught in his throat and he had to swallow hard to keep from making any sound of distress.
Neville, maybe.
Fred, a possibility.
Ron, even odds.
But never did Harry consider that it would be Sirius who walked away.
"I'll go," Tonks offered immediately. She was back on her feet and stopped only to kiss Sev on the cheek and Harry on the top of the head before she went chasing after her cousin.
"Theo?" Harry nodded down at Rosie as a silent offer for Theo to take the sleeping baby. As soon as Theo did, Harry looked around at the others with exhaustion and remorse etched on every line of his face.
"I gave up ever seeing my parents again so I could spend the rest of my life with you all," Harry said truthfully. "That doesn't mean any of you have to give up anything. I'm sorry I hurt you, I'm sorry for every damn thing I did. But…" Harry looked at them pleadingly. "But it worked. And I'm here."
Even if you don't want me went unsaid.
Nobody said anything and Harry nodded his head while he bit his tongue hard and tried to stand up. Harry swayed and Sev beat Fred to grabbing Harry firmly by the elbow and keeping him on his feet.
"You need sleep," Sev insisted. He guided Harry back toward the staircase and lowered his voice. "And when you wake, you will tell me what you are holding back."
"I'm sorry," Harry whispered weakly as Sev led him up the stairs slowly. "I'm so sorry."
"Harry." Sev stopped Harry outside his bedroom door and turned him to grasp Harry by the shoulders. "You should feel remorse for the grief you put us all through. I understand why you made the choice you did, but you must understand that no decision comes with consequences."
If nothing else, Harry had learned that.
"Do not apologize for coming back though," Sev said. He pulled Harry toward him and slid his hands from Harry's shoulders to his back and his head, holding Harry against his shoulder where Harry could hide the tears that he couldn't stop from bothering him.
"I am so truly grateful that you are here," Sev said. "I love you, Harry."
Harry was less embarrassed by his tears when he heard Sev sniffle quietly.
"I love you too," Harry told him. Harry held Sev close and realized that he had never once worried that Sev would turn away from him.
"Thank you," Harry said.
Harry didn't need to explain what he was thanking Sev for, Sev just knew.
"Do not thank me, idiot child," Sev said. He pulled away from Harry just enough to lead him to bed. "I will always be here. And… and I am certain your godfather will return."
Harry grinned at Sev when he laid his head on the pillow.
"Did that hurt to say?" Harry asked.
Sev grimaced. "Excruciatingly."
Sev had been wrong for nearly a week.
Harry had given the Quibbler an exclusive interview full of lies about how he had killed Timmy and then needed rest to recuperate and grieve the losses they had suffered. Everyone had filled Harry in on what had been a beautifully bloody end for Timmy and Susan took Harry to Spinners End to see where it happened.
That had been when Harry saw Narcissa and Lucius for the first time.
They had been crouched on the ground in front of Draco's tombstone and Harry accidentally startled them when he conjured a wreath of white roses to lay on Draco's grave.
Narcissa had cried, Lucius had gone so pale that Harry thought he might faint as well.
It caused Harry genuine pain to quietly tell them that no, Draco wouldn't be returning.
"Did you see him?" Narcissa asked. She looked beautiful in her heartbreak, there were tears streaming freely and she had a tight grip on Harry's hands.
Harry could have lied, it would have been kind. But kind lies had only hurt everyone before.
"I saw Regulus," Harry said both evasively and truthfully. "He's with Draco. He's taking care of him."
Narcissa broke in horrible sobs and Lucius wrapped an arm around her waist while shaking Harry's hand with his other arm.
"Thank you," Lucius said. His eyes were sad and Harry had never imagined the polished man could ever look so broken.
"I failed," Harry told him. "I'm sorry."
"You tried," Narcissa said.
It wasn't forgiveness, but acceptance.
It was more than Harry had thought to hope for.
When Sirius arrived, he did so the day after Harry's interview had went public.
Harry was still staying in his parents' cottage with Fred, Sev, Tonks, Theo, and Rosie. Susan went back to the Burrow with Charlie and Ron. Neville went back to Hogwarts to help the school get re-organized. Luna was staying with the Malfoy's. And Blaise was… probably hiding from Fred, honestly.
Harry was sitting alone in the sitting room, flipping through the album that his friends gave him for his seventeenth birthday and that Charlie returned to Harry, when the front door opened.
Sirius stepped inside and then froze just past the doorway. He looked tired, unhappy, and Harry wasn't sure what he wanted.
"Can I sit?" Sirius asked, pointing toward the open seat beside Harry on the sofa.
"Sure," Harry agreed warily. Harry didn't want to scoot away when Sirius sat beside him, but it took all his willpower to not do it.
Sirius looked over at Harry's scrapbook that was open to the drag queen quidditch match. It was an absurd photo, one of the boys all lined up in their dresses while Hermione had been bent over at the waist, laughing hysterically.
"You all looked happy," Sirius said.
Harry traced Draco's grin and Hermione's giggles and smiled sadly.
"We were," Harry said. He slowly shut the scrapbook, taking away Sirius' ability to stall, and sent him a look from the corner of his eye. "If you're going to hit me this time, I'm feeling much better and I will hit you back."
As Bill Weasley learned when he punched Harry in the shoulder for 'tricking them all' when Harry had been dragged to the Burrow for dinner with the Weasleys. Harry had went easy on him, he just slugged Bill in the stomach, but it had been effective to make everyone else keep their hands to themselves.
"Harry… I'm sorry," Sirius said. He had his hands clenched together between his knees and Harry saw that he stared down at them while he spoke. "It's… do you know what it felt like, coming here to the house where your parents died and finding you dead?"
Harry shook his head. He hadn't considered that at all. It… Harry assumed it had been a lot like Sirius having to go back to Azkaban and help free the muggleborns.
Painful.
"It killed me," Sirius said in a heated whisper. "It was like I was back here all those years ago and this time James was dead, Lily was dead, and then you were as well."
"I'm sorry," Harry said. It had become his most recent mantra and it was beginning to wear on Harry to repeat it so much.
It was as if Harry had made up for over six years of never apologizing in the last nine days.
"I know you are," Sirius said. He looked up and met Harry's eyes and Harry refused to feel hopeful at the lack of anger in Sirius' eyes.
"Harry, you'll never see them again," Sirius told Harry quietly. "You… I can see why you did it, but did you think about what you lost?"
"I did." Harry had known what he had lost as soon as he agreed to creating the horcrux. It hurt, but Harry had chosen to live.
Harry survived for so long, he had just wanted to live so badly.
"But… maybe when you get up there, you'll tell them all I love them?" Harry asked thickly. His eyes clouded and he didn't see it as Sirius reached over to grasp Harry's hand until he had done it.
"I will," Sirius said. "I'll tell them that you love them and- and I'll tell them how amazing you are."
Harry slowly tilted his head over until it rested on Sirius' shoulder. They sat like that for a long time, both of them thinking about the last owners of the cottage and what they would think of the person their son grew to become.
Life didn't become 'normal', life became a new pattern of abnormality.
There were still moments when one of Harry's friends would burst in tears at odd moments. Things with Sirius were strained, though Remus tried to mediate it with lunches at the castle. Fred and Harry did have a row, one filled with screams and tears and reconciled when night fell and they couldn't sleep apart.
Harry spent time with Rosie and Theo. Theo had apologized to Harry for pushing him to make a horcrux and Harry refused to let him.
Theo had suggested it, but Harry didn't doubt that he would have thought of it by the end.
And the night before Sev's thirty-seventh birthday, Harry told him about Little Harry.
"I don't know how you stuck by me," Harry said honestly. They were seated on the little patio set in the backyard, sharing a bottle of whisky. Harry had lit a cigarette and Sev sighed heavily before taking one as well.
"It is remarkable that you allowed him to kill you," Sev said. He blew a mouthful of smoke out in the night and looked thoughtful. "I never could have imagined that of you."
Harry thought about it as he sipped his whisky.
"I deserved it," Harry said. "I deserved every bit of pain that he gave me. And, I think, a lot of the pain came from knowing that Little Harry was just… he was me, Sev."
Harry had been that cruel and nasty person. He still was. That would always be a part of Harry.
Sev took a long drink of his whisky before making a thoughtful hum.
"I believe that it is not your past that will determine your future, but the choices you make from here on out," Sev said. He looked over at Harry with a soft expression. "I further believe that you are capable of becoming whoever you truly wish, to your very soul, to be."
Harry thought that was a kind lie to tell. He didn't have a chance to call him out on it though because Sev's old pocket watch in Harry's pocket beeped and alerted him to the time.
"Happy Birthday, Sev," Harry said. He refilled both their glasses and held his out to Sev in a toast. "Here's to a quiet and peaceful life."
Sev threw back his drink and then scoffed.
"With you? Never," Sev said. "I will settle for moderately less chaotic."
Harry grinned at Sev and felt a wave of affection rush over him for the man.
"How's this for quiet and peaceful?" Harry pulled an envelope from his inner pocket and offered it to Sev. Harry gestured impatiently when Sev hesitated. "I'm not dying. It's a birthday gift, I swear."
Sev slowly opened the envelope as if worried that Harry had somehow implanted the bombs from the military inside of them. What he found were two innocent slips of parchment with times and dates for a joint portkey.
"We are traveling?" Sev asked curiously.
"We're going on vacation," Harry said. He smiled widely when Sev looked up at him, seemingly startled. "Just us. Remember?"
It took Sev a moment, but he eventually smiled back at Harry.
"Just us," Sev agreed. "No bloodshed, no war, no mischief."
Harry swallowed the rest of his drink and then laughed, a free and open sound of amusement.
"I never said no mischief," Harry grinned.
Sev sighed and Harry relaxed for what felt as if the first time in his entire life.
It wasn't normal, but it was perfectly abnormal.
And Harry wouldn't trade it for a single other life.