The Marauders' Sons

Harry was in the common room recovering from his date the day before. He and Luna had had a discussion about what is was that they were going to do, and he was emotionally drained. Harry was not one to open up, and the vulnerability he felt from this encounter bothered him and at the same time made him feel better. It bothered him because he still felt that he was putting Luna right in the middle of a war she should never had been involved with. It went all the way back to that day at the Hog's Head when he held the first meeting of what would become the DA.

Despite all the negative feelings that had resulted from his "date" with Luna, he also felt a little reassured of his own feelings for her. If he was being honest with himself, he was a worrywart when it came to his friends. The deaths of Cedric and Sirius had done that to him. The only person who surpassed Ron and Hermione in the "What the blue Hell am I doing? I'm going to get them killed!" department was Luna. He would be devastated if he lost Ron or Hermione, but he would not know what to do with himself if he ever had Luna taken from him by the Death Eaters or anyone for that matter. He felt, in his not so professional opinion, that this was a big step for him. He had come out of his shell that he had erected for himself since Sirius died and he had lived to tell the tale. Though he was never going to be anywhere near the definition of an extrovert, Harry was intelligent enough to know that he should not bottle himself up like that. Knowing what must ne done and actually doing it are two very different things though.

As Harry sat in his dorm brooding with the best of them, Ginny was just stepping into the common room. She had had a split second conversation with Malfoy, as a matter of fact all he said was, "Room, twenty minutes, bring O'Malley," and now she was looking for him, as he assumed that he would be in the common room, being a Sunday afternoon. She was right, too, as he was laying on one of the couches with Hermione on top of him, and they appeared to be resting peacefully.

"Tom," she said quietly as she shook his shoulder, trying to wake him, "Tom get up! We have to go!"

She was getting nowhere, so she decided that it was time to play dirty.

"Tom!" she spoke into his ear, so it would appear to him she was shouting, "Harry's missing!"

This did the trick. Tom shot up immediately, throwing Hermione to the floor and started looking around the room wildly.

"WHAT? When? How? SHIT!"

Tom went on like this for about a minute until it registered to him that Ginny was smiling.

"I fucking hate you."

"Hello," came a voice from the floor, "I hate to be a bother, but could you be so kind as to help me up, seeing as it's your fault I'm down here in the first place?"

Tom looked down and saw Hermione looking at him with daggers in her eyes. He hated that look, not because he was afraid of her, but because that fucking cat, as he called him, would be here any minute.

"Don't look at me! The girl who cried wolf over here scared the shit out of me!" he said as he helped her to her feet.

"The least you could have done, and I do mean the least, would be to try to wake me first instead of jumping into action like your in some sort of movie!" she replied, still fuming at being thrown to the floor during a perfectly good dream that Tom, or anyone for that matter, would never hear about.

"Alright, alright, alright, I'm sorry," he said, and then turned to the offending redhead, "What was the goddamn emergency in the first place?"

"We have to talk, DA stuff. Sorry Hermione, but he has to come alone."

"Oh," she fumed, "so you can talk to Ginny, but not me. I see. Well I hope you don't think that yesterday will be a common occurrence, because that is the final time!"

"Hermione," Tom whispered, "you know it's not like that at all. I can't tell you because I can't. Can we talk about this later? Please? Think about it for a second. If Ginny is worried enough to talk about it in the middle of the common room, it has to be important."

"We are going to talk about this later, Mister!" And with that final admonition, Tom and Ginny started across the common room.

"I hope, you're fucking happy, Weasley, she is pissed at me because you decided to be all dramatic! OWWWWWW! FUCKING CAT!!!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Tom and Ginny made their way to the Room of Requirement in record time, as Tom thought this was a critical situation, and he believed it must be for Ginny to go to all this trouble. At least it better be. Thankfully, Harry was brooding away in the dormitories, so he could take care of the problem, whatever it was. When they got to the door, seeing it was already there, Tom burst through and was greeted by a kick in the stomach.

"Umph!"

Veronica was waiting for him at the doorway, and decided that Tom needed the kick that Mia had suggested to Draco, having just heard the prophesy herself.

"You ass! You could have told us! No wonder the kid looks so distant! Who wouldn't? Don't you think we could help?"

Once Tom realized once again what was going on, he skipped to the important parts.

"That really fucking hurt! The Hell was that for?"

"I kicked you in the stomach because I missed your balls! Don't play dumb with us," she said as he just noticed Draco and Mia behind her, "we know you must have known the prophecy!"

Shit. Now, Tom felt, was a good time to hide, but first he was going to at least try to calm them down with questions before he got himself into more trouble.

"How did you all find out? As far as I know, there are only a small few who know, and non who would tell." Good. Ask questions and hope they calm down before this becomes a free-for-all.

Surprisingly, it was Malfoy who answered, "When Red was with Potter and Lovegood, he heard them talking, and Potter told her then. Red just overheard them. You knew, too, didn't you?"

"Yeah," he answered exasperated, "I knew. But he only told Ron and Hermione besides, so I thought that I should keep my mouth shut. It's his story to tell, and I was not about to go and yell his business to the world."

"You still should have said something to us," Ginny replied, sounding angry and slightly hurt.

"Look, I'm not going to apologize for not saying anything, but I probably should have asked him if I could tell you when he told me." It was none of their business that he knew long before that.

"Whatever, anyways, that's not all that's going on around here."

"Oh God, what now?" Tom's day was getting worse and worse.

"Yesterday," Mia answered, "me and Draco saw Parkinson, Crabbe, Goyle, and Nott huddled in a corner talking in hushed voices. That is something I have never seen before, and quite frankly I'm a little worried. They may be planning something."

"No fucking shit, Sherlock," Malfoy supplied.

"Sod off, Malfoy!" chorused Mia, Ginny, and Veronica.

"Nice to know I'm loved," he mumbled under his breath.

"Focus!" Tom yelled, once again marveling at how this arrangement ever worked.

"Alright!" they all yelled right back.

"OK," Tom said as he switched into commander mode, "me and Ginny will pay a little more attention to Harry, and the two of you see what you can find out. We'll just have to wait and see. And pray."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"AHHHHHHH!"

Harry hated few things in this world. Sure he hated Voldemort, and he sure as Hell hated Bellatrix Lestrange, but among these most obvious choices was another that was not as noticeable. He hated shopping with a fiery, burning passion of a thousand suns.

And yet, here he was on Halloween, the day before he, Ron, Hermione, Luna, Tom, and Remus (Dumbledore would have been there anyway) were to go to the Ministry so Harry could receive the Order of Merlin, First Class. Or as he referred to it, "That goddamn piece of metal." And it was in Madam Malkin's Hogsmeade store that, as a result of his complete frustration with shopping and his inability to pick out something he liked, he let out a blood-curdling scream.

"Christ, mate, it's not that serious," came the unhelpful response from Ron, who took about five minutes to pick something out, as he had a limited budget as he once again refused to allow Harry to pick up the tab. Hermione and Luna had insisted they be allowed to go alone, so they wouldn't see the dresses, and Remus had allowed Harry to buy his quickly so he could do some Order business elsewhere. So it was Harry, Ron and Tom all alone. Shopping.

"Easy for you to say, you wont be in front of the whole bloody wizarding world in what you're wearing." Harry was a little on edge at the moment, as the ceremony was also a little painful for him emotionally. The one thought that had been in his head since he first decided to take the award was I should be there with my parents. He liked and respected Remus, but it just was not the same. He was a good mentor, but he looked like James and Lily Potter, not Remus Lupin. Needless to say, he never allowed anyone to hear him say this, as it would no doubt hurt Remus, and he did not want to lose him, too. Right now however, he was more focused on his hatred of shopping, and his already short temper was getting shorter.

"Can you two please stop bickering like an old married couple, it's a little embarrassing?" asked Tom from behind Ron, as he perused the aisle for his set of dress robes. He was of course going with Hermione as her date, and since she refused to tell him what she was wearing, he decided on the neutral black set before him.

"Sod off! No one asked you!" shot back Harry, "How are you paying for those anyway?" Harry was feeling a little stressed of late, and Tom was a convenient target, as he was on all accounts an asshole.

Unluckily for all involved, the inaction regarding the threat from the Slytherins was making Tom a little (more) short-fused. Draco and Mia had nothing to report, though Veronica had informed him that a boy in her house and year named Michael Walters had been seen talking to Pansy. This was little help, as all it did was give him even more to worry about. Pansy and Nott's pure balls as apparent Death Eaters to be, Crabbe and Goyle's strength, and a Ravenclaw's brain thrown in. All in all, nothing good could come from this kind of situation.

"OK, you know what? I'm pretty fucking sick and tired of you, Potter. You have been a whiny little bitch all week and I have had it up to here!" he said as he lifted his hand to his eyes, "So just do us all a favor and mercifully cut the shit!"

"Fuck you!" Harry yelled as he suddenly let loose the thought he had been pining over, "Don't you think this just might be a little hard for me, seeing as this is something I would do anything to share with my parents? Did it ever occur to you, in your all-knowing glory that this is a little tough for me? You have no idea what this is like!"

Tom was actually going to let this little diatribe slide, but he fucking went there.

"Really? I have no idea. Did you watch her die?"

"What?"

"I said, Potter, did you watch your mother die?"

"No."

"Then you're right, we can't relate," and with that he paid and left for the castle.

Tom was not in a good mood. He knew he was overreacting, and that Harry had no idea, but the injustice of it all made him crack. He never spoke of what happened to bring him here other than his father, and as a matter of fact he didn't like to even think about it. He left his robes on his bed, grabbed his Invisibility Cloak, and headed off to the Room of Requirement. It had become a sort of haven for him, as it was one of the few places that he could go and hide, as few knew of it. When he got there, he decided on something that would calm him down, and walked through the door to a deserted Boston Common.

When Tom went into hiding after that night, he had spent some time hiding in the area around the Common, and pick pocketed the unsuspecting tourists. He was pretty good too, if he didn't say so himself. He had taken all the money out of his Gringotts account and hidden it in a new account in the London branch, as that was his destination. At the time he wanted to find his father, so he owled the only man in Britain who would be in the position to help and be willing to do so: Albus Wulfric Brian Percival Dumbledore. However, as he his downtown in the meantime, he had come to love the Common. It relaxed him somehow, as it was a slice of country in the middle of the city. And right now, he needed to lie down in the grass under the sun, and relax.

He wouldn't get off that easy, as Hermione walked in. She had seen him storm in and out of the common room, and though (to her discovery) he had an Invisibility Cloak, she somehow knew where to find him.

"You OK?" she asked.

"Not in the slightest."

"You want to talk about it?"

"Not really," he said as she thought, Not this time, you don't.

"Where are we?"

"This," he answered, "is Boston Common. It's right in the thick of the city, but as you can see, it can be rather peaceful despite the shops and businesses and roads all around. I think that's it's empty because of the fact we are still at Hogwarts, but it will do just fine. This place helps me relax."

"What is bothering you so much? I'm not letting you stop me this time. I want to help, please let me."

Tom had to admire her resilience. God, I love her...wait, where did that come from?

"I suppose it's about time I told you this story, but before I do, I want you to promise me one thing. You will not make any decisions about us until you get time to think."

Oh God, what have I done? "OK"

Here goes everything. "To start, my mother was an Auror. Remember than day at the Burrow, when you had that dream about me stunning you?" she nodded, "That actually happened. The spell was the Gladius Charm, one of my mom's inventions, and it allows you to turn defensive magic into a sort of sword."

"It looked like a lightsaber."

"I guess it does. Anyways, she was a good Auror, one of the best, and she was assigned to head the Flanagan case. Big Jimmy Flanagan was a huge mob boss out of Southie...er...South Boston, and he ran in potions, diamonds, talismans, racketeering, extortion, and not to mention plenty of Muggle drugs and weapons. He was a cold-blooded killer too, though he had nothing on his sons, Ryan and Jimmy Jr. Eventually, my mother and her team started to put a big dent in his business, big enough that we had all these security measures taken at our house for our protection. Then one night..."

Here he faltered. Up to this point, Tom was able to hide the emotions tearing through him, but now he couldn't hold it in any longer. Hermione however consoled him.

"C'mon, sweetie, you can do this."

With a little more encouragement, she got him to continue, though now his voice cracked a little and he had trouble remaining coherent.

"One night last April, I'm sound asleep in my bed and I hear a noise downstairs. I grabbed my wand and crept to the balcony of the staircase and saw my worst nightmare. There were five of Flanagan's men in my living room, one was Stunned. I recognized him as Ryan Flanagan. Then I saw that the bulge on one of them was my mother. They didn't notice me there, and without any interrogation at all, the slaughtered her. They gutted her like a fish! Like she didn't even fucking matter! I couldn't take it, so I used a Gladius Relascio, the slicing curse, and went down the stairs in a rage and killed them all like they killed my mother. One I beheaded, another I sliced through the middle, and the third I ran through with the curse. The one that actually killed my mother I cut all his limbs off and left to bleed. Then I saw my mother, with her intestines lying next to her, and, Hermione, I could barely keep the strength to stand. By this time I was covered in blood, I don't remember getting any on me, but I remember seeing my clothes afterwards. That's when I noticed Ryan Flanagan. He was still on the ground Stunned, but he looked so much like his father, the man who had done this, that...that..."

"Yes?"

"I beheaded him."