To Hope for Anything

To Hope for Anything

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Surprises and Secrets

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3 Months, 4 days

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Harry was just coming home from his training. It was odd, how he nowadays thought of the Grimmauld Place as his home. Once, he had thought he would never spend time there if he had any choice, but lately, he had noticed that it had become more and more dear to him. Maybe it was the fact that it had been cleaned and redecorated, maybe it was just Remus's presence -- his beloved werewolf could make him feel at home anywhere. Anyway, lately he had found himself thinking about buying the house from Sirius. He wasn't too sure about that, though -- at the moment, Sirius and Severus were both staying at Hogwarts, true, but if he knew his godfather any, Sirius would soon make Severus move out of the castle. The dungeons certainly were not improving his health, not at all.

Like usually, he was soon greeted by a small creature with huge eyes and even larger ears. "Harry Potter has come home!" it exclaimed. "Oh, how Dobby is happy to be seeing Harry Potter again!"

Harry heroistically resisted the urge to sigh and roll his eyes towards the ceiling. Dobby no more called him "Master Harry Potter," like it had first tried to do when it had moved to the Grimmauld Place, but the adoration hadn't disappeared anywhere. "Dobby," Harry said, giving the small creature a quick, slightly worried glance, "has Remus been eating properly? You have been taking care of him for me, haven't you?"

The house-elf nodded repeatedly. "Dobby has been taking good care of Masters Remus, Harry Potter, sir!" Dobby announced. Then it added with a bit worried tone, "Masters Remus no eat much. He eat enough, what Harry Potter has told him to eat, but not any more. Masters Remus very thin now."

"I know, Dobby, I know," sighed Harry. "Believe me, I do know -- even though I don't want to. I hope I could do something for him, but alas, I can do little but hope that there will be a change for better."

That, however, was not very probable. As much as it pained him to admit it, Remus was becoming even thinner by every passing day. The transformations definitely didn't help the case, and the amounts he ate were so small that a mouse would have had a hard time trying to survive with them. Lately, with Harry practically forcing him, he had started to eat a little more, but still no more than he absolutely had to eat to not get any thinner. And, like a mediwizard Harry'd spoken with had worriedly told him after hearing Remus's basic medical information, that was definitely not enough. If he didn't gain any weight, only five transformations more would kill him.

So, the young Auror-to-be's thoughts were anything but happy as he made his way towards the sitting room where Remus usually spent his time. To his surprise, the sitting room was empty -- well, empty of any werewolves, anyway. Instead, there was an owl pecking at the window. Opening the window, Harry let the bird fly in. It was one of the Hogwarts school owls, he noticed. Sirius, then, or Dumbledore.

He took the offered letter and quickly read through it. The further he got, the broader his grin grew. In the end, he was grinning like a madman, his eyes twinkling with delight.

Remus chose just that moment to walk into the room. "Have I maybe missed something?" he asked, raising an eyebrow in the way he'd copied from Severus and Harry found just adorable.

"Did you hear it already?" asked Harry happily, turning his attention to the werewolf.

Remus gazed questioningly at Harry. "Did I hear what?" he asked, frowning a bit.

The young Auror-to-be smiled broadly. "Sirius and Severus are going to have a baby!"

"What?!" exclaimed the werewolf, jumping to his feet. "You mean, as in, a child?"

"Of course as in a child, love," Harry said, still grinning like a lunatic. "I just got an owl from Sirius. Apparently, Severus is now about a month along. So I'll get a godsister or godbrother!"

"I do not believe those are actual words," Remus noted amusedly. "But I do get your point. I'm really happy for them, too -- they, if anyone, do deserve some happiness in their lives for a change."

"Yeah," replied Harry. Then he turned serious again. "I wonder how they're going to do it, though," he said, sighing a bit. "It's Severus who's pregnant. It'll be really hard for him to try to eat enough for both himself and the baby, I'm sure. He's having enough problems with eating for one, leave alone two." He snorted. "Well, at least that's one thing we don't have to worry about," he added then dryly.

In an instant, Remus went very pale. "Harry," he said with a rather weird tone. "You do know that I'm really sorry for not being able to..." His voice trailed off.

"Merlin! Remus, I didn't mean it that way," Harry said, reaching out to grasp the werewolf's hand. The werewolf shivered as he did this, but didn't pull his hand away. For this, the young wizard was grateful. "Look, Remus," he said softly, "I am going to wait. We have all the time in the world. As long as I have you on my side, I don't care about sex. If you never feel ready, then we never have it. It's that simple."

The werewolf gave him a weak smile. "I'm grateful," he whispered. "I just don't know what I have managed to do right to deserve such a perfect creature as you are."

Harry nodded, slowly running his thumb over the other man's knuckles in a gentle caress. Then he said softly, "You really should eat more, you know. Everybody is getting really worried."

Remus blinked. "But I am eating properly," he said with a bit snappish tone, drawing his hand away. "Why do you always have to keep nagging at me for that? It's not like I skipped meals or anything."

"No, it isn't," Harry admitted. "However, you eat too little on every meal. The transformations keep weakening you. If you don't manage to eat more, you'll be dead in half a year." The young auror-to-be didn't have to fake the tears that rose into his eyes. "Please, Remus," he whispered. "Don't die on me."

The werewolf merely gave him a sad smile, his irritated mood all forgotten. "I won't, Harry, I promise I won't," he said. "And believe me, I do try to eat more. It's just... I have to force every bit of food down my throat like it tried to fly back up on its own. It just doesn't manage."

"Well, then you must try harder. And let me help," Harry added then eagerly. "If you keep everything bottled up, it'll eat you inside. I know you're keeping something from me. You're trying to push that out of your mind by concentrating on food and eating. Why can't you tell me?"

"What do you mean?" asked Remus, frowning. "There's nothing I haven't told you. You know everything about me, Harry -- well, maybe except for Poppy, or Dumbledore. Dumbledore knows everything."

"Yes, he does, doesn't he?" Harry smirked a bit. Then he sighed. "Anyway," he said, trying to cheer up a bit, "what about we ask Dobby for some hot chocolate? I think I could use a cup."

To his great delight, the werewolf agreed to this. So, after telling Dobby what they wanted, they both sat down on the couch, until the house-elf returned with a pot of hot chocolate, two cups, and some biscuits. Glancing questioningly at Remus and receiving a nod in response, Harry poured them both some chocolate, then handed one of the cups to the werewolf. With a bit of offering, he managed to make the other wizard accept a couple of biscuits as well. Then, they started to drink the chocolate, both thinking, even though the things going around their minds were quite different to each man.

Fortunately, Remus was so distracted with his own thoughts that not even his usually sharp senses had noticed when Harry'd quietly slipped a very special potion into his chocolate. A very special nutrification potion, to be exact, one Severus had been very glad to provide him with -- yet another symptom of anorexia was an eagerness to cook for other people, and try to make them fatter. Of course, unknown by Severus, half of the potion had ended up in Sirius's hands, where it would also be put into a good use.

So, for the first time in quite some time, Harry could sigh secretly in relief. For now.

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