To Hope for Happiness

To Hope for Happiness

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Tell the Truth

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The Day

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It had been two weeks now since Harry had been saved from the Dursleys, and he was happier than ever. He now had two parents who cared about him, a nice home, and a permission to ask his friends to visit him sometime during the summer. His room was amazing, Hedwig had returned to him in good health, and everything was nice and well.

The only thing that was disturbing him was the abuse he had suffered from the Dursleys. Sirius and Remus had, with very serious expressions, asked him to put some of his memories about it into a Pensieve. The Pensieve would be presented to the Wizarding court, they'd told, so that he didn't have to face the Dursleys in a trial. It had also been charmed so that no lie could remain in it, so that he could just as well have been giving his testimony under the effect of Veritaserum.

Right now, however, he didn't much care about this. The sun was shining, and they were all on the field around their house. It was a nice house, light and happy. He'd heard that Sirius's original family home had been just horrible, but that it had been sold away as soon as Sirius's name had been cleared and he had gained back his property.

His two guardians were sitting on the ground, Sirius behind Remus, his arms around the werewolf's shoulders. The Animagus was happily nuzzling his lover's neck, while Remus squirmed a bit, smiling warmly all the same.

As he watched in fascination, Sirius pulled Remus's right sleeve up, revealing a small, slightly glowing blue spot on top of the werewolf's arm. After this, his Godfather placed his own arm atop Remus's, closing the werewolf's hand inside his own, bigger hand. Harry didn't see the spot on his Godfather's arm, but he knew that it was there, it had to be there, like he had suspected so many times before. After all, it had to be -- he had seen the spot on Lupin's arm on his third year, and if they were together, they had to be bonded to each other, hadn't they?

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Flashback

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When Harry looked at his professor, he noticed something he hadn't seen before. "Professor Lupin," he said curiously, "what's that?"

The older man turned towards him to see where he was pointing at. When he turned his gaze to that direction, he, for Harry's great surprise, blushed slightly. "That," he said then, his tone oddly blank, "is my bondmark."

Harry stared at him. "Your bondmark?" he echoed softly. "You -- you are bonded?" He knew very little about wizarding marriages. He did know, though, that there were many levels of marriage. Bonding was the deepest, the strongest, the firmest of them all. It created a way to the ones in love to know each other's feelings, sometimes, in the strongest cases, even telepathy. It only could be created between two soulmates. It required real love to be created, and it could only be broken by death.

So if Professor Lupin still had his bondmark, what had happened to his bonded? And if his bonded was still alive, why weren't they together?

"I was," the professor replied bluntly. "Once. Sometimes I think I still am." He sighed heavily, looking at Harry with eyes full of tiredness and pain. "I don't want to talk about it, Harry," he said, almost apologizing tone in his voice. "It's been so long time after... After I was left alone."

Harry nodded, knowing it better not to bring up the topic ever again. One thing still disturbed him, but he was sure that there was a natural explanation for it.

Certainly it wasn't that unusual that a wizard had the bondmark on top of his arm, despite what they'd been told in Charms - that it was always the wizard's hand above, the mark being created on the bottom of his arm. Surely there was an explanation - if not, then why would professor Lupin have the mark atop his forearm?

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End flashback

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Now Harry smiled at his thirteen-year-old self. His unknowing and "properly raised" younger self hadn't paid a single thought to the possibility that Professor Lupin might be bonded to another wizard. Really, that should have been obvious.

Suddenly he blinked. He had seen Remus's bondmark first time when the werewolf had raised his wand, letting the sleeve drop.

But Remus was left-handed.

"Do you have two bondmarks?" he bursted out bluntly.

Both men turned around to stare at him, in complete shock. Then, very, very slowly, Remus nodded. "I have," he replied. "So has Sirius."

"How's that possible?" Harry asked, very confused. In Charms they had learned that a person could only be bonded once, and only to their soulmate. It should be impossible that they had two bondmarks... Unless...

Unless they had been bonded to two people at the same time. Which was also possible.

"Harry... Do you know remember what we told you about soulmates?" Sirius asked.

"I know that they're tested on the seventh year. Also, your soulmate is your perfect counterpart."

"Exactly. So you remember that most wizards believe that souls are divided between two people? And they can't feel complete without their other half?" Remus took his best teacher-like tone.

"Well... Yes." Harry nodded.

"So you've at least been paying attention," Remus huffed. Then he smiled sadly. "But what you maybe don't remember is that one soul can also be shared by three people. Although I'm much happier with Sirius than I'd be alone, neither of us can feel complete without our third soulmate."

"And who's that?" Harry asked curiously, feeling slightly nervous as well. He still tried to digest everything he had just heard, but he was eager to learn more about his new guardians - no matter how weird feeling it gave him to heard about it.

"The third part of our soul," Sirius said, looking surprisingly serious, "was placed in the body of James Potter."

Harry stared at them, hoping that he had misheard them or something. When he only saw the same serious expression on Remus's face, confirming what Sirius had said, he couldn't stand it longer. He turned around and ran to the house, not looking behind.

.:SB:.:RL:.

The two adult Marauders found the distressed teen in his room. Harry was sitting on his bed, curled up like a little child, sulking.

"What else are you going to say?" he snapped as soon as they entered the room. "What next? My father was a mountain troll?"

"No, Harry," Sirius said, struggling to stay calm. "James was indeed your father."

The teen snorted disbelievingly. "But what about Mum?" he asked then cautiously. "If you three were bonded, why was Dad married to her? And how was I even generated at the first place?"

Remus sighed deeply. "I don't think I can explain this part," he said, biting his lower lip like he was struggling against tears. "Padfoot, could you...?"

"Of course, honey." Sirius stroked gently his lover's cheek. "You can leave if you want."

"I will." Remus turned around and walked quickly out of the room.

Harry looked after his former professor, very surprised. "What's wrong with him?" he asked. He was used to see Remus always calm, always controlled. It was more like Sirius to get suddenly angry or sad; his Godfather was much less patient than his bonded.

"You'll understand if you listen to me." Sirius let his glance go around the floor. Then he suddenly raised his stormy grey eyes to meet Harry's gaze. "I know this sounds bizarre, Harry, but it's true. About your mum --"

"Yeah?" Harry hurried him. "What about her?"

"Harry, please don't be too shocked, but -- you never had a mother."

"WHAT?" Harry shouted. He knew that his jaw was hanging open, but he didn't care. He just stared at the serious man in front of him, not understanding what he had just said.

"You never had a mother, Harry. At least not a female one." Sirius glanced at the now closed door. "Harry... Remus carried you."

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