Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Restoration of Magic	By : Bickymonster & CelticKitsune Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male Views: 10396 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: We do not own Harry Potter or any concepts or characters associated with it. We are not making any money from this this story.

Chapter List
- 11
- 12
- 13
Huge thank you to Emily for beta reading this for us! After a couple months of craziness, things are finally winding down and we have managed to get a couple more chapters written, so we are set for two more updates following this one! In the meantime enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 11

21st December 1995

Sirius was not a morning person. In fact, he didn’t consider himself to be a ‘person’ until he had had his first cup of coffee. Nothing could wake him up faster than that first cup; at least that’s what Sirius had believed for most of his life, until he walked into his godson’s room, intending to wake him up for breakfast, only to discover the bed empty. The sudden panic he felt upon finding his godson once again missing woke him up faster than any cup of coffee ever could.

Hurrying out of the room, Sirius went to the bedroom across the hall, the one that he knew belonged to Blaise. Looking inside, his panic doubled when he saw that this room was empty as well. Holding back the urge to call for Remus, Sirius moved to the next room, pushing the door open quickly and froze just inside the doorway.

There, lying on the enlarged bed were all four of the boys, sleeping the same way they had when they had stayed the night at the Ministry. Sirius’ shoulders sagged in relief, as he closed his eyes, trying to calm his racing heart.

“Are you okay?”

Sirius looked back at the bed, blinking when he saw Harry sitting up and staring at him with concern. He couldn’t help but smile at the boy. It was still hard to believe that Harry was actually here, that some of the missing children had been found, and with a bit of time and patience, it might be possible to bring the rest of the children home as well.

“I’m fine,” Sirius assured him. “I just came to wake you four up; it’s time for breakfast,” he said, and Harry tilted his head curiously. He seemed to be debating whether Sirius was telling the truth or not. After a long moment of the two of them staring at each other, Harry finally nodded.

“Okay, I’ll wake the others,” Harry said, a mischievous smile already playing on his lips. Sirius smiled back and slowly closed the door; though he was curious as to what Harry had planned, he didn’t want to be an accomplice.

Sirius was halfway down the stairs when he heard a shriek from one of the boys. Chuckling, he shook his head and continued on his way down to the kitchen. Sirius had just reached the bottom of the stairs when he saw Remus come running from the kitchen, a spatula still gripped tightly in his hand.

“I heard one of the boys scream,” Remus said, and Sirius laughed.

“Harry took it upon himself to wake the others,” Sirius said, knowing that after witnessing Harry’s antics the night before while trying to help prepare dinner, no further explanation was needed. Remus clearly thought so too as he let out an exasperated, though relieved, sigh, and turned to head back into the kitchen; Sirius followed him. “Smells good,” he commented, as he came to lean over his lover’s shoulder to see what Remus was making.

“Your coffee is on the table,” Remus told him and he hit the back of Sirius’ hand with the spatula as Sirius reached to steal a piece of bacon from the pan. “Coffee. Table,” he reiterated, “before you manage to burn yourself. Fingers in a hot pan, idiot,” Remus tutted under his breath as Sirius headed over to get his beverage as instructed.

Sirius chuckled and dropped himself into a chair, before taking a large gulp of his coffee; he wasn’t surprised to find that Remus had prepared it perfectly and had charmed it to keep it’s warmth.

“Was thinking we could maybe get Molly to bring her kids over later,” Sirius suggested, and Remus looked up at him, a curious expression on his face. “Thought the boys might open up a bit more if they had some people around closer to their age,” he explained.

Remus hummed, and nodded. “Maybe we could get them all helping to decorate the house for Christmas?”

“You’re suggesting we let Weasleys decorate our home?” Sirius asked with an exaggeratedly shocked gasp. Remus glanced up and gave him a pointed look. “Just imagine all the trouble those twins could get up to, particularly if they are teaming up with Harry.”

“You’re the one who just suggested that they come over.” Remus rolled his eyes, turning his attention back to what he was doing at the stove. “I think the damage done to our home would be significantly less if they all have something to occupy themselves with,” Remus said. “I also think more would get accomplished if we kept Harry and Draco separate; those two seem to cause the most trouble when they’re together.”

“Yeah, they definitely seem to be really good friends,” Sirius said.

“They remind me a lot of you and James,” Remus said, glancing back at Sirius when his boyfriend let out that barking laugh that Remus loved so much.

“No way, Remus,” Sirius said, grinning widely. “Those two boys have a LONG way to go before they reach the level of immature mischief that James and I achieved.”

Harry’s screeching laugh sounded out through the house, a second before he came charging into the kitchen, with Draco just on his heels.

“No running in the kitchen!” Remus told them sternly, as the two boys did a lap of the kitchen island and headed straight back out the door again. He turned back to his lover. “Immature enough for you?” he asked, and started unloading the bacon onto a plate.

“Not even close,” Sirius said with an impish grin, “but we will make true Marauders out of them yet.”

“I don’t think they need any encouragement,” Remus said as he started putting plates on the table and he turned to give Blaise and Theo a smile as the two of them came into the kitchen, far more calmly than their mates.

“If you mean Harry and Draco, then yes, definitely don’t encourage them,” Theo told them. Draco and Harry could still be heard running around the house, Draco threatening bodily harm once he caught up with the over-energetic Harry.

“Did you boys sleep alright?” Remus asked, watching as the two teens took a seat at the table.

“Well enough,” Theodore answered, glancing at Blaise, who looked as if he would rather crawl back into bed and sleep for another few hours.

“Here kid,” Sirius said, sliding over his cup of coffee toward Blaise. “This should help wake you up a bit.”

“Sirius!” Remus snapped, even as Blaise blinked at the cup offered him, picking it up and taking a sip.

“What? The kid clearly needs it more than I do at the moment,” Sirius shrugged unapologetically.

“If he gets as addicted to coffee as you are, I’m holding you personally responsible,” Remus said, glancing at Blaise, who was gulping down the drink, already looking a bit more awake than he had moments before.

Harry and Draco came running into the kitchen again, and Sirius chuckled as he watched the two of them make their rounds around the kitchen again. Standing quickly as Harry ran passed, Sirius caught the small boy around the waist and lifted him off the floor. “Alright, you two, that’s enough. Remus said no running in here and it’s time for breakfast. Draco you can get your revenge on Harry after you’ve both eaten,” Sirius said, setting Harry down in the seat he had just vacated.

“Help yourselves,” Remus said, as he joined them at the table, bringing the fruit bowl with him, glad he had done so when all four of the boys practically fell on it, Draco going straight for a pear, while Blaise and Harry both went for apples, and Theo picked a banana.

“You’re allowed some of this too,” Sirius told them, as he took a seat next to Harry and filled his own plate with bacon and scrambled egg, topping it off with brown sauce. “Remus is a great cook, I promise. You guys enjoyed dinner last night, didn’t you?.”

“Of course. And this looks great, but we are used to lots of fruit,” Blaise explained with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Eat whatever you like,” Remus assured them, “I am sure Sirius will managed to eat anything left anyway.”

“Hey!” Sirius said, pouting for a moment. “He’s probably right, though,” he added in a loud whisper to Harry, who giggled. Breaking into a grin, Sirius helped himself to a few more pieces of bacon. “So good,” he moaned as he stuffed half a piece into his mouth, The four boys all laughed at him, as Remus rolled his eyes, and Harry and Theo both helped themselves to some of what Remus had cooked, while both Blaise and Draco went back for more fruit.

---------------x

The boys had been kicked out of the kitchen after breakfast and given permission to explore the grounds around the house today, though Theodore figured it was mostly to stop Harry and Draco from destroying the house on their first full day there. At least outside there was space for them to run around and cause mischief without actually breaking anything.

“I’d love to know where those two are getting all their energy,” Blaise said, leaning against the beam under the pergola, pulling his cloak tighter around himself to protect against the winter cold.

“Well they are only little, guess they have less of themselves to throw around,” Theo commented with a shrug, sitting down on the bench swing, which seemed to have been charmed to be resistant to the snow that was covering the rest of the garden. He watched as Harry helped Draco climb up into the large tree that was right next to Sirius and Remus’ house.

“They were never this bad in the Fae city though,” Blaise pointed out, forcing himself not to dart over to the tree and get ready to catch Harry; he didn’t think his mate was actually likely to fall, but he couldn’t help but worry.

“They have more freedom here,” Theo said, glancing towards his friend. Blaise looked at him questioningly. “In the Fae city, we knew what our boundaries were, what we could and couldn’t get away with.”

“And here the rules are an unknown that they are testing?” Blaise asked, looking skeptical. “Doesn’t that sound a bit… infantile?”

Theo shrugged his shoulders. “Perhaps, but you have to admit, it feels like there is suddenly a whole world of possibility that just wasn’t there before.”

“I suppose,” Blaise said, looking back to Harry and Draco, frowning when he saw that the two of them were already half way up the tree, and still climbing. “I, for one, don’t like the possibility that those two might break their necks,” Blasie pushed away from the beam he was leaning against, and went over to the tree. “Hey!” he called up to Harry and Draco.

“Are you coming up too, Blaise? Me and Draco are going to see if we can get onto the roof from up here!” Harry called down.

“I have a better idea,” Blaise said, resisting the urge to climb up after them and drag them down.

“What is it?” Draco asked, leaning down over a branch to peer down at him.

“Come back down and I’ll tell you,” Blaise said, sounding far calmer than he was feeling.

“Tell us, and maybe we’ll come down,” Draco chuckled, while Harry climbed up a bit higher.

“Draco.” Theodore stood up from the swing, moving to stand next to Blaise as he too looked up the tree at his own mate. “Why don’t you two come down, before Blaise has a heart attack from the mere thought of you two falling,” Theo said.

“Aww, are you worried about us?” Draco asked, before looking up at Harry, who was giggling. “Come on, we’ll climb up there later,” he said.

“Fine,” Harry huffed and climbed down a few branches until he was level with Draco again. “Race you to the bottom,” he grinned.

“No! No racing!” Blaise exclaimed. The only reply he got was laughter from the two in the tree as they began to quickly climb down, Harry making it a little more than halfway down before deciding to jump.

“Cheater!” Draco yelled, at the same time that Blaise cried out, moving forward quickly to catch Harry. Blaise’s arms wrapped tightly around his mate as the two of them fell to the ground, Harry landing on top of him.

“Nice catch,” Harry said, shifting to sit up, but Blaise still had his arms wrapped tightly around him, holding him close. Harry frowned, tilting his head up to look at Blaise, who was breathing deeply and had a terrified expression on his face. Harry suddenly felt guilty as he could now clearly feel how scared and worried Blaise had been about him.

“Blaise… I am so, so sorry,” Harry said, though Blaise kept a firm hold on him, seeming unwilling to let him go just yet.

“Harry, please just… just be more careful. Don’t do stuff like that,” Blaise requested, looking down at his mate, and Harry nodded.

“I was just playing around; I knew you would catch me. I never wanted to scare you this badly though,” Harry said, as he wiggled around a little bit until Blaise loosened his hold enough so that they were able to push themselves up into a sitting position. Harry shifted around until he was straddling Blaise’s lap.

“I promise I’ll be more careful,” Harry said.

“And no more jumping from trees,” Blaise said sternly.

“No more jumping from trees, until I’m a little closer to the ground next time and don’t have to rely on you catching me.” Harry smiled widely when Blaise rolled his eyes.

“I suppose I can accept that,” Blaise sighed.

“But really, thank you for catching me, Blaise,” Harry said, leaning forward and pressing his lips against Blaise’s. The sudden kiss catching the other boy by surprise, though he didn’t question it, tightening his arms around Harry again he took control of the kiss quickly. The world around them seemed to melt away, until the only thing that Blaise could focus on was Harry.

Harry wasn’t much better, his hands fisting in Blaise’s coat, allowing his mate to control the kiss as he was quickly swept away in the feeling of his and Blaise’s emotions. No longer registering, or even caring, that Theodore and Draco were standing a few feet away.

“Harry!” Draco exclaimed, looking scandalised by his friend’s behaviour. He had suspected that Blaise and Harry had shared a kiss before, but it wasn’t something that Harry had confirmed or denied.

Theo stood by and watched for a moment, and he could easily see what Blaise had been talking about. Neither Harry or Blaise seemed to notice that there was anyone else around, and as their kiss quickly grew more heated, Theo knew he had to put a stop to it. Kneeling down, he picked up a handful of snow and threw it at Blaise’s head.

Harry pulled away from Blaise quickly, blinking in confusion as he looked around trying to figure out what had just happened when he was suddenly pulled from Blaise’s lap.

“What was that?” Draco demanded, turning Harry so that his friend was now facing him.

“Uh… a kiss?” Harry answered, shaking his head as he tried to clear the fog that seemed to have taken over his brain for the moment.

“That was not just a kiss, Harry,” Draco narrowed his eyes, glancing in the direction of Blaise, who was accepting help up from Theodore. The two older boys shared a look with each other, and Draco got the feeling that he was missing something very important.

“So, Blaise, what was your ‘better idea’?” Theodore asked.

“My what?” Blaise blinked in confusion.

“You told Draco and Harry to get out of the tree, that you had a better idea that didn’t involve them climbing on the roof,” Theo reminded him.

“Oh, that,” Blaise chuckled. “Well, I was thinking we could take a look at the wards around this place. They don’t feel very stable to me, and if we’re going to be staying here a while, it would probably be better for us overall if we had some magic around that we’re more familiar with,” Blaise said.

“That is actually a pretty smart idea.” Theo sounded impressed. “We should start with feeling out the wards, see what it will take to fix them, or if we should just start from scratch,” Theodore said. Getting three nods of agreement from the others, they made their way through the snow away from the house and towards the edge of the property.

Harry shivered, moving closer to Blaise as they got near the wards. “I don’t think these can be fixed,” Harry said, his stomach turning with the feeling of the magic around them.

Theodore reached a hand out, placing it where he could feel the wards and shuddered. He could tell what this magic was supposed to be doing and, all things considered, they were pretty good wards, and would indeed keep intruders out, but the way they had been cast was all wrong, causing the magic to be warped and distorted, even weaker in some places.

“We’ll have to take these down,” Theo said, agreeing with Harry’s statement before; the wards were beyond fixing. “Their way of magic is so curious. They have the right ideas, but they seem to go about them in all the wrong ways.” Theo sighed, turning to face his friends and mate once more.

“We can question their use of magic later; let’s get this done. I’m feeling sick just being close to these wards,” Blaise complained, and Harry eagerly nodded his agreement.

“Alright, this property is pretty big, it might be best if we split up into pairs, each of us take a corner, work our way around,” Theo said. “Harry, Draco, you two take the other side of the house. Blaise and I will start work over here, we’ll meet back at the house when we’re done.”

“Sure,” Draco agreed. “Are we just replacing what is already here, done properly of course, or are we adding anything new?” he asked, knowing that they would need to be somewhat in sync for the wards that each of them were putting up to meld together properly.

“Let’s start with replacing these,” Harry suggested, just wanting to get it done already.

“We can go over them again later if we have to and add to them then, but I think these wards are going to take us long enough to get done,” Blaise said. Harry and Draco nodded, turning so they could head to their own corner of the house and start working.

“Make sure you two take breaks when you need to!” Theo called after them. Putting up wards was an easy task, and something that all of them had learned to do at an early age, but working around this foreign magic was going to take it’s toll on all of them. Harry and Draco called back an acknowledgement that they had heard him, before hurrying off.

------------------x

Sirius coughed waving his hand in front of his face in a vain attempt to get rid of the dust that was invading his personal space. “Tell me again why we keep the decorations in the dusty attic?”

“As opposed to the nice clean one?” Remus retorted sarcastically.

Sirius, however, wasn’t really listening as he dragged a large box forward, peering in the top and pushing it off to one side when it didn’t contain what he was looking for. “And how does the attic collect so much dust to begin with?! We just cleaned this all out last year,” Sirius complained, crawling forward to reach the next one.

Remus simply rolled his eyes, knowing that Sirius mostly just liked to grumble. But he had to admit the dust did make this job rather more unpleasant, and so, pulling his wand out, he waved it to clear away some of the dust before he pulled out another box.

“Found one!” he declared happily, knowing that this would mean the rest of the boxes were close by. He loved their large home, but they had still somehow managed to gather enough stuff to completely fill it, including the vast attic space, which had boxes upon boxes upon trunks of stuff that one or the other of them couldn’t bear to be parted from. And at least one section of the attic contained boxes of things that both Remus and Sirius had managed to salvage from James and Lily’s destroyed house.

“Baubles!” Sirius exclaimed happily as he crawled over to his lover and inspected the contents of the open box. “Which means that this one is....” he said as he wordlessly summoned another box across the floor towards them, and hastily pulled it open, “...tinsel!”

“And this one is the lights…” Remus said, having opened another one, but his voice trailed off, the two men turning to look at each other in concern.

“You felt that right?” Sirius asked, already moving towards the hatch to get back down into the main part of the house.

Remus nodded firmly, following his lover as quickly as he could. “The wards?” he asked, wanting to make sure they were on the same page, and Sirius nodded before he all but jumped down the ladder. “Is someone attacking? Should we get Dumbledore.”

“You get Dumbledore; I’ll find the boys,” Sirius instructed, switching to Auror mode, hurrying towards the back doors out into the garden, trusting Remus to find the Headmaster.

Sirius’ heart was pounding in his chest. The wards didn’t feel like they were falling exactly, but someone was definitely tampering with them. Sirius suspected that the boys had something to do with it, given the conversation he had had the day before with Blaise about the wards, but he didn’t have time to stop and explain that to Remus, not if there was a slightest chance that someone really was trying to get in.

He burst out the large french doors at the back of the house, his eyes scouring the garden for any sign of the four children in their care. He had to force himself to remain calm when he didn’t immediately see them. Hurrying further out into the snow, he looked around again and still couldn’t see them, which just convinced him even more that they were the ones messing around with the wards. He didn’t exactly like the idea of them being so close to the edge of the wards, and wanted to go see they were up to; however, he was sure by now Remus had gotten in touch with Dumbledore, and the headmaster would have the whole Order on standby.

“Harry? Blaise?” he called out, hoping they might be close enough to hear. “Draco? Theo?” he waited a moment longer, but there was still no sign of them.

He huffed in frustration, knowing that it could take him a while to find them in the four acres they had around their home. Glancing around once again, just to make sure the boys weren’t hiding somewhere close by, Sirius hurried back into the house to fill Remus in quickly before he went to search for the boys and find out what they were doing.

Dumbledore was already standing in the sitting room when Sirius came rushing back inside. Remus looked over at his boyfriend, frowning when he didn’t see the four boys with him.

“Where are they?” Remus asked.

“I didn’t find them, but I am fairly certain that they’re the ones messing around with the wards. I wanted to tell you that before the whole Order showed up ready for battle. The last thing I want is to freak the boys out,” Sirius explained quickly. “I’m going to find them now, and find out exactly what it is they’re doing.” He turned to do just that when Dumbledore spoke.

“Do you want any help finding them?” he offered. “You do have a rather large yard, and it could take some time.”

Sirius looked back at the headmaster for a moment. “Thanks, but no, I’ve got this,” Sirius said with a small grin, and a moment later a large black dog was standing where Sirius had been a moment before. Not waiting any longer, and ignoring Remus calling after him, Sirius hurried back outside.

He didn’t want to waste time searching from one end of the property to the other, and while it had been a while since he had to search for anyone by sniffing them out, he was fairly sure he would be able to locate the boys faster this way. It still took a few minutes of searching, but Sirius managed to find a trail of footprints in the snow leading off in one direction. He started off in that direction, but soon stopped when he saw another group of footprints leading in the opposite direction.

Letting out a low growl, Sirius sniffed around for a moment. He easily picked up on Harry and Draco’s scent, and decided that it would be a good idea to find the two of them first. Even though he hadn’t known the boys for very long, Sirius already knew that Harry and Draco were more wild and curious than Blaise and Theodore. He could trust the latter two to stay behind the wards; however, if Harry saw something that caught his attention, Sirius wasn’t so sure his godson wouldn’t go wandering off the property.

Putting in an extra burst of speed, Sirius hurried through the snow, following the footprints as he scanned the surrounding area for the two boys. Sirius was glad that he had thought to transform before starting his search; he was much faster on four legs than he was on two, and it was because of this extra speed that he managed to find Harry and Draco quickly.

The two boys were standing close to the pond. Sirius felt relieved that he had found them easily enough; he was also relieved that they hadn’t tried to go out onto the ice, as Sirius wasn’t sure if the whole thing was frozen yet or not.

Harry and Draco were oblivious to the approaching dog, the two of them more fascinated by the frozen pond in front of them. Harry knelt down in the snow, watching with wide eyes as he pushed another object across the water.

“Give me something else, Draco,” Harry demanded, not looking back at his blond friend as he held his hand out waiting to receive whatever Draco would give him this time.

“Haven’t you tested this enough? No matter what you push out there, it’s going to stay on the ice,” Draco said, but picked up a stick and transfigured it into a small duck before handing it over to Harry. The duck let out a ‘quack’ as Harry took it and slid it across the ice.

“I know; I’ve just never seen so much ice in one place before!” Harry laughed as the duck slid further along the ice before coming to a stop. “Why do you think they let the pond freeze over though? What about the animals that use it? Or how do they get drinking water if it’s all frozen?” Harry asked, putting his hand on the ice and pressing down on it.

“If there is one thing we’ve learned in the day we’ve been here, it’s that wizards are weird,” Draco said. “Let’s stop playing and get back to work. I’m sure Blaise and Theo are nearly finished with their side of the house,” Draco said, bracing himself for what he knew was coming, and sure enough Harry turned toward him pouting.

“Don’t you want to see if the ice can hold us too?” Harry asked, Draco’s eyes went wide, and he shook his head quickly.

“No, I do not! And neither do you!” Draco snapped, crossing his arms over his chest as Harry laughed. “It’s not funny Harry, don’t even think about it. If you do, I’m leaving you here to go get Blaise!” Draco said firmly, which only caused Harry to laugh harder.

“I wasn’t being serious!” Harry said, grinning up at Draco. That’s when he spotted something large and black in the snow heading right for them. “Um… Draco,” Harry pointed, standing up slowly as Draco turned around to see what it was that Harry had seen.

“Don’t run,” Draco warned quickly, knowing that if one thing was going to make the animal attack them, it would be that.

“I’ve never seen one that big before… do wolves get that big?” Harry asked, reaching out and gripping Draco’s arm.

“Some of them can be,” Draco said, knowing that Harry had only really ever interacted with the cubs before.

“Draco,” Harry gripped tighter onto his friend's arm as the animal got closer.

“Don’t. Run,” Draco said firmly, “I can handle it if it gets too close.” Draco shifted slightly as the animal came to a sudden stop a few yards away from them. It started shifting around strangely, pulling back until it was standing on its hind legs, which were changing shape and extending, its front paws transforming into hands, all the fur vanishing except for the shaggy mess of hair left on top of the head.

“Sirius?” Harry stared at his godfather with wide eyes.

“Hey, kiddo,” Sirius greeted.

“What do you mean ‘hey’?” Draco demanded angrily. “What did you just do? What WAS that? What are you?”

“Woah, take it easy kid. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Sirius said, as he held his hands up. “That was my animagus form. Haven’t you ever seen anyone do that before?”

Both Harry and Draco shook their heads, still staring at him in surprise. “Were you really a wolf?” Harry asked eagerly, moving forward now that he knew that it was just his godfather. He was fairly sure that most of the Fae would never lower themselves to actually becoming a lesser creature.

“A dog, but yeah,” Sirius told him, throwing his arm over Harry’s shoulder. “So, do either of you want to tell me what you were doing to the wards around the house?”

“We were fixing them,” Harry said, grinning up at Sirius. “Can you turn into a wolf again?” Harry asked.

“Dog,” Sirius corrected, chuckling when Harry looked at him curiously. “I change into a dog, not a wolf. And maybe I’ll show you later,” he offered, ruffling Harry’s hair when the teen pouted, “but for right now, why don’t you show me what you boys were doing. The wards are here to keep us all safe, and if you tamper with them too much-”

“We weren’t tampering with them!” Draco huffed. “We were fixing them.”

Harry nodded his head, pulling away from Sirius. He grabbed his arm, pulling on it to get Sirius to follow. “Come on, we’ll show you. Really we were just fixing the wards. Yours were good, but there were lots of holes in it,” Harry said, pulling harder on Sirius’ arm until the man followed along.

Draco followed after, a bit more slowly, watching Sirius with a look of interest; seeing a dog turn into a human wasn’t exactly something you saw every day. He would definitely have to ask the man how he did it later. Draco had to wonder if it was something the man had learned because Remus was a werewolf, knowing that werewolves were better around animals than humans.

“...and now the wards feel all smooth,” Harry was declaring up ahead, grabbing Sirius’ hand and holding it against the wards. Sirius, however, just looked confused, and Draco strongly suspected that the man couldn’t feel what Harry was talking about. Draco was actually starting to think that these wizards couldn’t actually feel magic at all.

“Maybe we should see if Blaise and Theo have finished their half?” Draco suggested. “Then they can help us finish up this side, since you decided to stop and play with the ice,” Draco said.

“No, we can finish this up,” Harry said. “We’re almost done too, but maybe it will go faster if Sirius helps?” Harry suggested and looked up at Sirius.

“How can I help?” Sirius questioned.

“Simple. Me and Draco can put up our wards, and you can just take yours down as ours go up,” Harry said excitedly.

“I don’t know…” Sirius said.

“Harry asked you to help, which means you don’t have much of a choice. You’re going to help,” Draco said. “Let’s just get this done. It’s getting cold out,” the blond complained, turning to start putting up the wards again. Harry grinned happily and turned to help Draco, pausing when he noticed that Sirius had made no move to start taking the old wards down.

“I’m still not sure about this,” Sirius said.

“Then go back to the house, and we’ll do it,” Draco said, keeping his focus on his work, while Harry pouted and turned back towards the wards.

“Well, I could just do it the fast way,” Harry suggested.

“No, you’re better at putting the wards up. I’ll do this the fast way, but you have to be quick with getting the new wards up,” Draco insisted, moving a few paces away from Harry where he could feel the old wards better.

“What’s the fast way?” Sirius asked, eyeing the blond boy as Draco ran his hands through the air.

“He’s going to rip them down,” Harry said happily, and got ready to throw the new wards up as soon as Draco had the old down.

“Rip them… no wait!” Sirius said, but it was too late. Draco had already gripped the edge of the ward with his own magic, and pulled it down. Sirius felt his wards fall completely, leaving nothing behind, but his focus was on the blond boy that was standing extremely still.

“Draco?” Harry asked worriedly, as his friend suddenly looked very pale.

“It’s okay, Draco,” Sirius said, rushing to the boy’s side, an arm wrapping around him to keep Draco on his feet. “Close your eyes and take slow breaths,” he instructed, and the blond did as instructed.

“What’s wrong with him?” Harry asked, as he quickly put up the wards where the hole in them was, before moving to his friend’s other side.

“Magical shock,” Sirius told him bluntly, rubbing circles on Draco’s back. “The wards snapped back against his core when he pulled them down that fast,” he explained.

“Going to be sick,” Draco groaned quietly, lowering himself to the ground with some help from Sirius. “Don’t touch me!” Draco shouted when Harry reached out to help him too. “Trust me, you don’t want to feel this.”

Harry bit his lip, backing away a little. “I just want to help…” Harry said.

“You can help,” Sirius said, looking towards Harry. “Why don’t you go back to the house and tell Remus what happened.”

Harry looked from Sirius back to Draco before nodding. He turned and ran as fast as he could back towards the house.

“You do know, he’s not going back to the house,” Draco said, knowing that Harry’s first instinct would be to get Theodore and Blaise.

“He’ll get back to the house eventually,” Sirius said, trusting that Harry would be too worried about getting help for Draco to manage to get himself into any more trouble. “Now, are you going to be sick, or do you think I can move you?” Sirius asked.

“I think…” Draco shifted to try and stand up but stopped. “Sick, definitely sick,” Sirius continued rubbing circles on Draco’s back as the blond emptied the contents of his stomach.

------------------x

Harry hurried through the backyard, looking behind him once again, but he could no longer see Sirius or Draco. He wanted to turn back around and go help his friend, but he was no healer, and standing around worrying wasn’t going to be very helpful. Sirius had told him to go find Remus, but Harry knew that Draco was going to need Theodore.

Looking ahead of him again, Harry was happy that he wouldn’t have to run back to the other side of the yard to find Blaise and Theodore, as the two of them were already near the house, and looked to be on their way in Harry’s direction.

“Theo!” Harry called out, running quickly so he could meet up with the two of them.

“Harry?” Blaise frowned when he saw his mate was alone. “What happened? Why are you running?”

“It’s Draco; he’s sick,” Harry said, turning and pointing in the direction that Draco and Sirius were in.

“And you left him alone?” Theodore looked shocked.

“No! Of course not!” Harry frowned, looking at Theodore. “Sirius is with him,” Harry said, his frown deepened when he felt a small spike of annoyance come from Theodore. “Did I do something wrong?” Harry asked.

“Blaise, I’ll leave you to talk to him, I’m going to get Draco,” Theodore said, and hurried off leaving Harry feeling even more confused as he turned to look at Blaise again.

“Draco ripped down the wards, and Sirius said that he has magical shock… I wanted to help, but there wasn't anything I could do, so Sirius sent me back to the house to get Remus and tell him what happened, but I was coming to get you and Theo first…” Harry explained.

“And you left Draco alone,” Blaise said.

“I didn’t! I told you, he’s with Sirius,” Harry frowned. “Draco was sick. I couldn’t move him.”

“Leaving Draco with Sirius is the same as leaving him alone,” Blaise tried to explain. “I meant to talk to you about this last night, but Harry, I think you are trusting these wizards far too easily,” Blaise said.

“But Sirius and Remus are good people; they’re helping us,” Harry said, still not sure what it was that he had done wrong.

“They are helping us, and they are decent people. They are at least better than a couple of the wizards we’ve met so far, but that doesn’t mean they’re good, and it doesn’t mean we should trust them,” Blaise said.

“If we can’t trust them, then who should we trust?” Harry asked.

“We trust each other,” Blaise sighed. “I know you want to trust everyone; be friends with every new person you see, but we can’t live like that Harry.”

“We can’t live hiding and never trusting anyone either!” Harry glared up at Blaise. “I like Sirius and Remus. I trust them because they don’t FEEL like bad people!”

“I know, but not all of us have that,” Blaise pointed out. “Theo and I, we just want to keep you and Draco safe. I am doing all I can to believe you when you say that someone is a good person, but you also have a talent of seeing nothing but good in people.” Blaise sighed, running a hand through his own hair as he looked down at Harry. “All I’m asking is that you turn your empathy off for a while because sometimes even the nicest people can’t be trusted,” Blaise said.

“We’re not going to leave here, are we?” Harry asked, not wanting to leave the relative safety that Sirius and Remus’ house had provided.

“No, we’re staying right here. Just because I don’t trust them, doesn’t mean I don’t like them,” Blaise said, and Harry shook his head.

“You are so confusing,” Harry said. Blaise smiled, moving to wrap his arms around Harry and pull him into a hug. Harry rested his head against Blaise’s chest; he wanted to do what his mate wanted, but Harry knew that he couldn’t just not trust people. “I will do better at blocking people, and try not to use my empathy as much, but I can’t promise that I’ll stop trusting people.”

“I know, Harry,” Blaise sighed again. “I don’t want you to change, not really, but I just need you to be more careful. Or at least talk to us before you take other people at their word.”

“I can promise you that,” Harry said, looking up at Blaise. “I still have to go tell Remus what happened. I don’t know what magical shock is… but it doesn’t sound fun, and I think Remus knows how to make Draco better.”

“Then let’s go do that because Theodore is going to be impossible to live with until Draco is back at one hundred percent,” Blaise said. Keeping one arm wrapped around Harry, he turned the two of them back toward the house.

“Remus!” Harry called out as the they headed inside. It didn’t take more than a few seconds for the man in question to come hurrying through the door from the sitting room.

“There you are!” Remus greeted as he hurried over to check the two boys. “Where are the others?”

“Sirius and Theo are with Draco. He ripped the wards down because it was faster,” Harry explained urgently.

“Who ripped them down? Draco?” Remus asked, looking alarmed, and Harry nodded. Remus’ eyes widened and it was obvious he knew what that meant. “You two wait here,” Remus ordered, and he started hurrying around the kitchen, starting a kettle of water before opening a cupboard that had an assortment of tiny bottles.

“What are you doing?” Blaise questioned.

“He is getting a potion that will help Draco.” Dumbledore spoke from the doorway leading into the sitting room. The two boys glanced over at him, rather surprised to see the old man back again.

“He doesn't need those,” Blaise said, returning his attention to Remus. He couldn’t bring himself to care much about what the elderly man had to say on the matter at that moment. “And you’ll have a hard time convincing Theo that Draco needs that stuff.”

“It will help him,” Remus said looking up at Blaise. “I know you boys aren't used to the way things are done in the wizarding world, but these potions will help him get better faster.”

“You're right. We’re not used to the way things are done here, and we never will get used to them because from what I have personally seen, none of you are doing anything right!” Blaise snapped. “Your magic is wrong. The way you use everything, disregarding how magic feels. All you do is wave your sticks around and force the magic to do your bidding; you can't enslave magic, bottle it up to use later.”

“Blaise!” Harry stood in front of his mate. “Remus is just trying to help. They don't know any better. That's why we're here; we have to show them. Yelling and getting angry isn't going to help anyone, least of all Draco,” Harry said. Blaise opened his mouth to say something else, but Harry cut him off. “Just let Remus help. Draco can look at those potions; he’s the healer and knows better than any of us if that stuff will actually work or not.”

Blaise closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He really didn’t like it, but he had to admit that Harry had a point; it was their job to help the wizards understand and Remus was clearly only trying to help. Opening his eyes again, Blaise looked toward Remus. The werewolf was making the tea, the potion bottles sitting next to him on the counter. “I’m sorry for getting angry,” Blaise said, and Remus looked back at him.

“It’s alright,” Remus said. “There are bound to be many more fights in the future. We will all have to learn how to meet each other halfway in certain things for a while.”

Blaise nodded his agreement, then looked down at Harry who was smiling at him. “Come on; let’s go change into some dry clothes.”

“But Draco…” Harry looked back toward the back door, wanting to stay, and wait for Sirius to come back with Draco and Theo.

“It may be a few minutes before Sirius can even move Draco,” Remus informed them. “Magical shock isn’t pleasant; even the slightest movement can make you sick. If they’re not back in five minutes, I’ll go out and get them,” Remus said, and even though Harry still looked worried, he allowed Blaise to lead him out of the kitchen and up the stairs to get changed.

“Those boys seem to be quite the handful,” Dumbledore said after watching Blaise and Harry vanish up the stairs.

“Yes, they definitely are, and it’s only the first full day,” Remus sighed, putting a charm over the tea to keep it warm while they waited. “I really don’t know how we’re going to do this. Everything about those boys is so different,” Remus said.

“Different, yes, but even you have to admit their story is a fascinating one,” Dumbledore said. “Those four boys have more knowledge than most fully grown, well educated wizards and witches I know. And, as you said, things will be a bit easier on all of you if you can meet each other halfway; so long as you all learn from each other as well,” Dumbledore said, and Remus smiled at him.

It was at that moment that the back door opened, and Sirius came in carrying Draco, Theodore right behind them not looking happy at all. “Sirius, put him in the sitting room on the settee. I have some tea ready, and some potions,” Remus said.

Sirius nodded, carrying Draco through to the next room. Theo and Dumbledore both followed after them, watching on with concerned expressions as Draco was laid on the sofa with great care. Theo hurried to Draco’s side when the blond let out a soft groan.

“Good to see you’re awake,” Remus said, as he crouched next to Draco’s head, placing the tea and potions on the floor, close to hand.

“I’m not so sure,” Draco replied quietly, his voice a little croaky and his eyes barely open. “Think I would rather pass out.”

“Well, then it would be trickier to give you this,” Remus told him, picking up a small phial and holding it up in Draco’s eyeline. “It will help that headache,” he explained, when Draco looked apprehensive. “And I have another one that will settle your stomach too.”

Draco still didn’t look sure and glanced up at his mate, who was standing close by. “It’s your choice,” Theo told him, despite looking very much like he wanted to swat the phial from Remus’ hand and get it far away from Draco.

Draco looked back at Remus, his eyes focusing on the phial. “Can I see it for a moment?” Draco requested, holding his hand out for it. Remus held it out for him without argument, and remained silent as the blond boy turned the phial over in his hand slowly. “... it doesn’t feel bad,” Draco said, sounding a little confused by this fact.

“Most potions created for healing aren’t bad, even if most of them taste that way,” Sirius said.

“Potions are most likely one of the purest forms of magic that we currently have,” Dumbledore said, earning curious looks from both Theodore and Draco. “A potion is created by using the innate magic in the ingredients we use. While it may seem strange, I do not believe it is something that even the Fae could take objection to?”

“Uses the magic of the ingredients?” Draco asked, looking fascinated by the idea. “But just mixing things together isn’t going to make it work, even if the things used have magic to begin with,” Draco said.

“Quite so,” Dumbledore said with a smile and twinkling eyes, nodding his head in agreement. “The ingredients alone aren’t enough, as they need to have their potential released. This is the only part of potion making that we use magic for, and even then it’s very briefly, depending on what the potion is supposed to be.”

“I could show you how it is done at some point,” Remus offered, and Draco seemed interested in that suggestion, even if he was unable to express much enthusiasm given his current state.

“You think we would be able to make it work, even though we use magic differently?” Draco asked, his curiosity winning out over his current discomfort.

“I believe so, and it may even be closer to the magic you are used to, than the spells we perform,” Dumbledore assured him. “Potions require the intent of the witch or wizard to be in line with what they are trying to achieve, so for these potions here that are meant to heal a person, the person making these would have let their magic work on instinct based on what they intend the potion to be.”

“For instance, any potion made for me or Remus you can never be sure if it’s a healing potion or poison,” Sirius added unhelpfully, earning a glare from Remus.

“That is not true and you know it! Severus may think about slipping poison into your food, but he knows that the potions we have here are used for the entire Order,” Remus snapped. “Now, if you don’t mind, go somewhere else and be useless for a while,” Remus said, turning away from Sirius as the man left as instructed, and looked back at Draco, who was eyeing the phial cautiously now.

“Maybe you shouldn’t take it,” Theodore said, also looking at the potion Draco was holding.

“I promise you, it’s not poison,” Remus said, gently taking the phial from Draco’s hand and opening it. Theodore shifted forward, ready to knock the phial away if Remus tried to give the potion to Draco, but stopped when the werewolf took a sip of the potion instead. Theodore and Draco watched Remus with wide eyes, waiting to see what would happen.

“It’s really not poison?” Draco asked.

“No,” Remus smiled. “It’s just a headache potion,” Remus handed the phial back to Draco. The blond boy looked at it for a moment before opening it and took a sip as well. He made a disgusted face, thrusting the phial back at Remus.

“That is horrid! “ Draco said.

“Most potions taste awful. That is why I made you some tea; you can drink that after you have the other potion to settle your stomach,” Remus said, holding up the second phial.

“Does that one taste bad too?” Draco asked, not sure if it would be worth drinking or not.

“Some people are okay with the taste,” was all Remus said, as he handed the phial over, smiling as Draco looked at it apprehensively, before opening that one too. “You will want to take a good swig of this one, or it won’t do anything to help your stomach,” Remus said. Draco nodded slowly and did as he was told.

Theodore stood close by, wanting to help but he could see that Remus knew exactly what he was doing, even by making Draco drink extra of the second potion. The werewolf had a bucket ready and waiting for when Draco dropped the phial and rolled over, taking deep breaths as he attempted to calm his stomach. Though at this point Theo was more focused on Remus than Draco, and he couldn’t help but smile as he watched the werewolf taking care of the blond boy.

“Draco!” Harry’s was heard only a second before he was seen, the small boy running into the room kneeling next to the settee. “Are you okay? Do you feel any better? Remus said he was going to give you something to make you feel better.” Harry paused and looked toward Remus. “Did you give him that stuff?” Harry asked, and Remus smiled, placing a hand on Harry’s head.

“Yes, I gave him the potions. He’s going to need some rest now, so it might be best if you leave him alone for now,” Remus said.

“Oh… okay,” Harry said, looking back at Draco, who was laying on his back again, his eyes closed.

“He’s going to rest here for a little while,” Remus said. “Do you want to do me a favor?” The werewolf smiled when Harry’s attention snapped toward him, and the boy nodding eagerly. “Go upstairs and grab a blanket and a pillow for him.” Remus chuckled, as Harry jumped to his feet and ran out of the room to do what he was asked.

Theodore watched as Harry ran past him again, and turned to watch the energetic boy vanish into the hallway again. “Your mate has too much energy,” Theodore said when he saw Blaise standing in the doorway.

“You learn to deal with it,” Blaise said with a small smirk. “Besides, I like his energy.” Blaise moved into the room to stand next to Theodore. “So, did you really allow Draco to take those potions?”

“I left the decision up to him,” Theodore said. “It was also explained to us how the potions actually work.”

“Wasn’t it you who was telling me not even an hour ago that I had to talk to Harry about his trust issues?” Blaise raised a questioning eyebrow at his friend.

“Yes, and this is different,” Theodore pointed out.

“Enlighten me, how is this different?” Blaise said, trying to keep his voice down, but he knew that it was practically pointless as Remus could hear them easily anyway.

“Because we’ve already been adopted,” Theodore pointed out, nodding his head in the direction of Remus. Blaise turned his attention toward the werewolf as well, frowning slightly as he watched Remus fuss over Draco a bit more before he started picking up the empty phials of potion, standing and placing them on the coffee table along with the tea that Draco hadn’t touched yet.

“Oh,” Blaise chuckled understandingly. “Well, I suppose being the adopted cubs of a werewolf is about the best protection we could ask for,” Blaise said.

An amused chuckle from Dumbledore drew the two teens attention toward the elderly wizard. Though Dumbledore was looking at Remus and not them. “I am surprised you have told these boys your secret so soon,” Dumbledore said.

“I haven’t…” Remus replied to Dumbledore, but his attention was on Blaise and Theo. “You two know?”

“Of course,” Theo said, not sure why it was so surprising.

“Were we not supposed to know?” Blaise questioned, glancing behind him when he heard Harry running back into the room, dragging a blanket and pillow behind him.

“What’s wrong?” Harry asked, unable to miss the worry and fear radiating from Remus, or the confusion from his mate and Theo.

“You know what I am?” Remus asked, this time turning to look at Harry, who had frozen halfway across the room, pillow pulled against his chest and the blanket still trailing behind him.

“You’re a wizard,” Harry said hesitantly, frowning in confusion, glancing over to Blaise and Theo to make sure he hadn’t said something wrong, but they both just shrugged their shoulders.

“So Harry doesn’t know?” Remus questioned, looking back to Blaise and Theo again.

“We all know you’re a werewolf,” Draco said irritably, his words muffled by his half-asleep state.

“Oh, yeah, I knew that,” Harry said happily, glad that this was something that hadn’t been kept from him. And now that he considered the matter resolved he moved over to Draco, helping to put the pillow under his friend’s head, before draping the blanket over him carefully. He came up short however, when he turned back around and found Remus and Dumbledore staring at him with baffled expressions.

“Did I say something wrong?” Harry asked with a frown.

“No, of course not,” Remus was quick to reassure the boy. “It’s just, I don’t usually tell people what I am, and it’s not very often that they are able to guess within a single day either,” Remus explained.

“Oh, we didn’t guess.” Harry smiled. “I knew what you were when I first saw you, all of us did, it’s not that difficult to tell.”

“Would this happen to be similar to how you feel magic?” Dumbledore asked.

“I think so?” Harry didn’t look so sure about his answer so he looked toward Blaise for help.

“Each magical creature has a different feel to them, though there are other subtle signs as well,” Blaise explained. “We were raised to be able to identify other creatures, so it’s easy for us, but it wouldn’t be something we could easily teach anyone else,” Blaise said.

“And none of you care that I’m a werewolf?” Remus asked.

“Are we supposed to care?” Harry looked confused. “You don’t plan on biting us, do you?”

“No!” Remus answered quickly, looking horrified by the very idea of it.

“Then we don’t care what you are, because you’re just Remus,” Harry explained and grinned widely, wrapping his arms tightly around Remus’ middle. The werewolf looked a little stunned, but returned the hug regardless.

“Apparently I missed something,” Sirius said as he came back into the room, taking in the sight of his lover and his godson embracing.

“Mhmm,” Remus hummed, smiling down at Harry affectionately, realising that Theo might actually be right. “It seems,” he said, looking over in Sirius’ direction, “that my inner wolf might have claimed these boys for our own.”

“Ha!” Sirius exclaimed in amused surprise, looking around as though expecting one of the teenagers to object to such a thing, but, if anything, Blaise and Theo looked almost relieved. “Well I think we could live with that,” he declared happily, throwing an arm over each of Theo and Blaise’s shoulders.

“I think we can too,” Blaise agreed, looking between Sirius and Remus. Theo nodded too as he glanced over to where Draco was now fast asleep. Maybe Harry was right about trusting them after all.

TBC

Hope everyone liked that! Our next update will be between Jan 7-9, see you all in the new year!
CelticKitsune: Also for anyone who was reading Unwanted Bonds, the sequel to that story will be posted Jan 3rd. :D
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Restoration of Magic