Fate

Chapter 44 - Two Roads Colliding

They both sat still up at the head table, head bent together, talking about something or other. Harry knew they had noticed his absence at the feast and he wanted to talk to them before they left. But he also didn't want to be spotted by anyone else. He wasn't in the mood for any more questions or concerns.

He kept an eye on them until the other students were all gone up the stairs and just as they walked out of the hall together.

"Sirius?"

His Godfather turned quickly, smiling when he spotted Harry in the shadows behind a suit of armor. Harry stepped out and met his guardians halfway, Sirius giving him a quick hug.

"We missed you at the feast, Harry," Remus said with a raised eyebrow.

Harry shrugged. "I wasn't that hungry."

"You want to go somewhere to talk?" Sirius tactfully suggested.

"No," Harry said, shaking his head. "I just wanted to see you before you left."

Remus smirked. "You'll be seeing enough of us, as you live with us, and we'll be on the train with everyone tomorrow."

He frowned. "Why?" Comprehension dawned and before they could reply he said, "Oh, right. Voldemort."

"Speaking of which," Sirius said in the air of changing the subject, "Ginny says you were quite upset this evening."

Harry knew his Godfather saw his lip twitch. "I just forgot that no life is perfect," he mumbled.

"You're only 15, Emeralds," Sirius reminded him.

"Well, technically I'm 16," Harry reminded him, smiling at last.

"That'll get confusing," Sirius mumbled to no one in particular.

"Cheer up, Cub," Remus said after a moment, using a nickname Harry had come to respond to in the last few weeks. "It might not seem like much, but it's got to be better than where we all used to be."

"No!" Harry said suddenly, looking up at them with wide eyes. "I mean, yes, its better, but it's so MUCH better and I..." he couldn't find the words. This whole conversation wasn't coming out the way he had pictured it. Not at all. "I'm so...so happy," he chuckled. "It's just weird to feel this happy." He tensely smiled up at them. "I wanted both of you to know that....I'm happy."

The two men smiled warmly. "That's all we want, Harry."

"I know." He took a deep breath. "I also found out what happened that night...when we went to the Ministry. It was you, Remus," he explained, turning to the werewolf. "Voldemort didn't lure me there with Sirius, but you."

Remus looked as surprised as Harry had felt when Luna first told him. "Me?"

Harry exchanged a grin with Sirius and then looked back at the still astonished Remus. "Well, I'm your cub, aren't I?"

Remus let out a laugh and grabbed Harry, pulling him into a tight hug. Harry held him back tightly, realizing how familiar it seemed, even though he had hugged Remus only a handful of time in his old life. In this new reality he knew that it was much different.

"Love you, Moony..." He whispered and he knew that Remus heard it.

"Love you too, cub."

He pulled away from Remus and went into Sirius' waiting arms, not caring that he looked quite a bit younger than his 16 years, but he didn't really care. Why would anyone care about that when they felt so safe and protected in the arms of their family?

"I love you, Padfoot."

"Right back at ya, Emeralds."

----

Stepping into the common room just after midnight, Harry wasn't surprised to see Ginny asleep on the couch, the fire barely a flicker in the large fireplace.

Stopping for a moment, he got a sense of déjà vu as he remembered the last time he had seen her looks so peaceful.

And he was the one who had ruined it for her moment later when he told her of the plan to go into the past.

Unwilling to wake her, he quietly tiptoed to one of the overstuffed chairs, practically falling into it with exhaustion as he continued to watch her sleep. His eyes managed to drift shut for a few moments, the events of the last month seeming to suddenly weight down on him all at once.

He thought about Luna's earlier words and the strange comfort they had given him. It had been hard, to say the least, being thrown back into the reality of the prophecy, that damning idea that he could not escape Fate. He had found the book on time travel that Remus and Sirius had mentioned and skimmed it cover to cover, looking for anything it had to say on the subject The more and more he found, the less and less he began to believe he could ever change the prophecy.

Etched in stone...

Seeing the headlines in the newspaper was like a smack in the face. He wanted to tear it up, burn it and bury it deep in the ground, anything to get away from the bolded words that tore through the pages. He had gone back to the book, almost in desperation.

Then Ginny had turned up.

She had an odd sense of timing.

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly as he thought of her. The memories in his head swirled and mixed as he saw the two different lives he had with her. The two different roads.

"What are you smirking about, Potter?" a sleepy voice interrupted his musings.

He cracked one eye to see Ginny propped up on one elbow, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

He smirked even wider. "Why? Like what you see, Weasley?"

"As a matter of fact..." she sat up on the couch, scooting over to the end closest to where his chair was, "...I believe I do."

Her face was about a foot away from his and she was staring at him innocently, her hair tousled from sleep but her eyes already wide and playful. He recognized this playful banter they had picked up a few years back when people had started teasing them that they were both mad about each other. He raised a curious eyebrow. "Miss Weasley, I do believe you're trying to seduce me."

Her face split into a grin and her eyes sparkled. "Oh really?" She flicked her hair to the side. "Is it working?"

Deciding to play with her a bit, Harry's face softened and he tilted towards her a bit till he could feel her breath on his face. He could hear her breath quicken, but moments later, he simply pulled back, leaning his head back in the chair again and closing his eyes.

Harry tried not to grin as he could almost see her reaction. He eyes blazing and her fists clenching together.

Surprisingly, though, she didn't come around and give him a swift kick in the shins like he figured she would. In fact, he couldn't hear here even move at all.

"Where have you been, Harry?" Her voice was quiet and soft, dropping drastically from the lighthearted mood they had been in only moments before.

He sighed, rolling to his side so that he could look at her. "I wandered around for a while," he said truthfully. "Mostly just trying to get away from people in general..." He could see the sadness in her eyes. Sadness for him. He looked down, unable to keep eye contact anymore. "From life in general..."

She stayed typically silent, waiting for him to continue.

"It's easy for me to feel like a coward..." he looked back up at her, "...even though I know I shouldn't."

Silence.

"Are you scared?" she asked gently.

He blinked once. "To death."

She finally was the one to break eye contact but he continued to look at her, watching the dying ember light highlight her hair. Merlin...she was still beautiful.

"You've accepted it then?" Her voice was a whisper. "You know it can't be changed?"

"Everybody needs a hero, Gin," he answered. "I drew the short straw."

She looked back up at him and he was startled to see tears sparkling in her eyes.

"Then who's gonna be your hero, Harry?"

He shrugged. "I've got Sirius and Remus. They're more than I could have ever wanted."

Before he knew it she had stood up and crossed the distance between them, throwing her arms up and grabbed him in a tight hug. He held her back, burying his face in her sweet smelling hair and ignoring the tears that fell from his face onto her robes.

"What about me?" Ginny whispered in his ear.

Ignoring the feelings of confusion and doubt, Harry pulled back just enough to kiss her gently on the mouth, half of his brain reminding him that this was his best friend and the other half reminding him that this was his girlfriend...two different roads...

But there were now two roads colliding.

She made no move to pull away and it was only lack of air that made them both pull back, breathing heavily. Ginny at once laid her head on his shoulder and, with their arms still wrapped around one another, they fell into a peaceful sleep, both deciding their isolation had gone on long enough.

----

Remus sat on his bed heavily, exhaustion creeping over him as he ran a hand through his graying hair and let out a sigh.

One more problem solved...

His memories were jumbled and confusing, especially to his already werewolf mind. To go from having practically no one to have a literal family to call his own was getting less and less harder for him to accept. Harry's words tonight seemed to have broken off the final nail that held the fence around his heart. Too much heartache and anger in the past had taken his hope away of ever being as happy as he had been when he was in school.

But it had all changed in the twinkling of an eye and he could not help but be happy.

He threw off his robe, staying only in his cotton shirt and pants as he lay back on his bed, knowing sleep was going to come soon.

But as he lay back, his head hit something hard. Confused, he sat up, turning to see a discarded robe on his bed. He recognized it as the robe he had been wearing during the time travel.

Curious, he picked it up, indeed feeling an added weight in it and didn't have to search long before he pulled out a small black box, bringing back the memories of Dumbledore handing it to him just before they left.

He held it in his hands, his heart beating wildly. He had completely forgotten about it! Dumbledore had said there were some memory items in there for the time travelers, courtesy of the young Marauders. He turned it over and over, hearing no noise on the inside of items shifting, and wondering what could possibly be in it.

But knowing that Sirius and Harry would want to be there when it was opened, he carefully set it on his nightstand, leaving it for tomorrow when all three of them got home.

Home...