The Only Thing to Give

The Only Thing to Give

Chapter 1

"Ready Harry?" Remus asked as they stood in front of the alley between eleven and thirteen Grimmauld Place.

"Do I have to tell anybody?" Harry said, kicking a rock down the sidewalk.

"Well Harry, it's your choice," Remus paused, trying to choose his words as carefully as possible, "but they're going to find out sooner or later. I think they should hear it from you." As Remus finished he gave Harry a warm smile and put his hand on Harry's shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Harry looked at Remus and gave a nod just as the door to number twelve appeared. Harry stepped inside and was greeted by a pair of friendly arms pulling him into a hug.

"Hello Sirius." Harry smiled as his godfather pulled back to take a look at him. In the beginning of sixth year Hermione had accidentally stumbled upon an ancient Aztec spell to bring Sirius back from the 'dead'. It was a book, bought from an old, scary looking witch with a glass eye in Diagon Alley. Even though Harry knew that Dumbledore would never approve of him bringing his dead godfather back to the land of the living, he had to try. But to Harry's surprise the old headmaster had agreed and even performed the ritual to make sure it was done correctly. Harry figured that it was Dumbledore's guilt for what he had kept hidden from Harry that made him agree, or maybe to lessen the amount of tragedy in Harry's life. For whatever reason, Harry was just happy to have Sirius back.

"You've grown since I saw you last," his godfather said as he ruffled Harry's hair.

"Is he here?" Harry looked up at his godfather with a glimmer of hope.

Sirius just looked at Remus, avoiding Harry's question. "Why don't you put your trunk upstairs, I'm sure Ron and Hermione can't wait to see you." he finished, not looking back at Harry as he retreated down the hall.

"Alright," Harry said with a small frown before he asked Remus to help him. Remus put a Levitation Charm on the Harry's trunk and guided it up the stairs. Harry just gave a nod of thanks and started up the stairs after his trunk.

Once he got into the room Harry saw Ron lounging on one of the two beds in the large room with his back facing the door, reading what looked like a Quidditch magazine.

"Hello Ron!" Harry said with a smile. He hadn't seen or talked to Ron since the end of the term. Dumbledore thought it would be too risky to have two boys converse through owl post after the summer of sixth year.

A letter Ron had sent to Harry was intercepted and altered to tell Harry that Hermione had been severely injured and he was to meet Ron and Remus at the Leaky Cauldron. On his way to the Leaky Cauldron, the Knight Bus Harry was traveling on was ambushed by Death-Eaters. Thankfully, no one was fatally injured and Harry escaped with no more than a few scratches. Dumbledore decided that he couldn't risk it happening again, thus inconspicuously giving him another excuse to shut Harry out of the wizarding world for another summer.

"Harry!" Ron said as he jumped off the bed to greet his friend. "How are you?" Ron said with some concern in his voice. When Harry said he was fine, Ron continued, "There have been some bloody crazy things going on here the past two months, you wouldn't believe who's joined the Order, it's-" at the thought of this person Ron's face turned scarlet with anger, clashing with his 'oh so red hair', and began to incoherently babble to himself without having time to finish his original thought, "...that slimy git...I can't believe...how could they let him join... bloody git bastard..." Harry just rolled his eyes and turned to the figure standing in the doorway.

"Harry you're here!" Hermione said as she gave him an enthusiastic hug.

"Hermione!" was all Harry could get out because of the lack of air do to Hermione's arms squeezing him around the middle. When she finally let go she looked at Ron.

"What is he babbling about now?" Hermione said as she put her hands on her hips and made an annoyed face while tapping her foot at the red-haired boy.

"If you two don't mind I'm going to go downstairs and say hello to everyone else. "Harry turned to go down the stairs when Hermione grabbed his arm.

"Harry, I have to tell you something before you go down there!" she had a worried look in her eyes.

"I'm sure it can wait Hermione," Harry said as he tried to yank his arm from Hermione's grip. "I really need to go downstairs." he had an anxious glint in his eye, which worried Hermione. She let go of his arm and watched his retreating figure down the stairs.

"How do you think he's going to react when he sees who's down there?"

Ron asked, looking worried.

"I'm sure he won't react quite as rash as you did when you first saw him here...but in all honesty, I don't know. He is definitely going to be shocked." Hermione said staring at the now empty spot where Harry had been standing only ten seconds before. After a few seconds she turned and went back into the room, with Ron at her heel.

*~*~*~*~*~*~

As soon as Harry got to the kitchen he heard a very familiar voice speaking. "You can't enter that way there are too many guards, the only place to enter is here," the speaker stopped to point at something. Harry tried to see whom that familiar voice belonged to but 'Mad Eye' Moody was blocking his view. The voice continued speaking. "This is the only place to enter without being detected," the voice sounded frustrated. "This is the only place where the wards are weak enough!" The voice sounded even more aggravated than before. There was a long silence after the speaker's last words. Harry took this as an opportunity to scan the room.

Standing to the left of Moody was Professor Dumbledore and to the left of him was Snape. On the other side of Moody Harry saw Tonks, who today was sporting long, purple curls that flowed down her back. To her right stood Remus and Sirius who were giving each other weird looks. Harry saw Sirius wink at Remus and the other man smiled sweetly back. Ever since Harry found out about their relationship he started noticing the little things that no one else saw, or were supposed to see. Harry always noticed the subtle way Sirius would brush his hand over Remus's when they were next to one another or the looks that they exchanged when they thought no one else was paying attention. It was just nice to see his godfather happy after all that happened to him over the years, and both Remus and Sirius deserved to have all the happiness that they could...

Harry's train of though was interrupted by Moody's raspy voice.

"Alright, Alright, no need to get yourself all worked up boy!" after a second Harry felt a magical eye staring at him through the back of Moody's head. "Harry, instead of sneaking around and listening at the door, just come in." Harry hated when Moody did that, and, to tell you the truth, it kind of freaked him out.

As Harry entered the room Moody shifted to the right, revealing the familiar voice he had heard a couple of minutes before. Harry looked upon the speaker in a state of shock. "M-Malfoy?" he finally croaked.