Chapter 16

Colky had just managed to close the front door behind Fred and George before the little elf turned to them, "Misters Red Twins cans leave their shoes by the door, Colky will take care of them." The twins looked at each other, 'That elf is way to happy to take our shoes,' Fred thought, 'Should we be worried?' George joked back. They did as the elf said, not really willing to deny the excited elf.

Just as Colky "Pop"-ed away with their shoes something rammed into George's back, almost making George winch from the wounds on his back. George tried to turn around to look at the person who tried to bulldozer him when he heard "George! Fred! You're here!"

"Harry!" the pressure from George's back lifted and he finally got to turn around to see Harry smiling up at him. Fred leant over George's shoulder, half-hugging his twin from behind, and getting a better look at Harry, "We see you -"

"-are happy to see us," George ended Fred's sentence. They knew that they were showing Harry matching grins, but Harry didn't have quite the usual reaction to their grins. Usually, the reactions ranged from fear, annoyance, or even anger, no matter what, it was always negative. Harry's reaction, however, was very different, and definitely positive. Harry was smiling back at them. 'Are his cheeks redder than normal?' George's grin widened even more, and he knew Fred's smile was doing the same thing.

"Of course, I'm happy to see you guys! Why wouldn't I be?" Harry continued to smile at them as he told them about his new home. He began leading them through the house while talking and telling them what the different rooms were.

At the end of the unprompted tour, they arrived at the dining room. Fred and George were kind of happy for that, they were hungry. At the table sat Sirius, Remus, and Severus, talking quietly together. They had stopped talking when they saw who had arrived, "Hey, fellas! You finally decided to visit?" Sirius began talking first, getting up to, presumably, go around the table and meet them by the door.

"You've showed them around already, Harry?" Severus placed a hand on Sirius' shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. At Harry's nod he smiled, a small upturn by the corners of the lips, "Good, then we can have lunch now, you must be hungry." The last part was directed at all of them, and all three of them nodded.

"Then let's have lunch, all three of you probably have some questions, right?" Remus said with a knowing smile, making eye contact with all of them.

It didn't take long for all of them to sit down, but 5 elves had already "pop"-ed by with plates, utensils, napkins and drinking glasses. By the time the 5 elves were done setting the table another 8 elves "pop"-ed in with different plates and bowls of food to set on the table. Harry thanked all of them before they "pop"-ed away again before he began eating.

The food was good, actually better than Molly's cooking, which Fred and George had to begrudgingly admit was very good. they ate in silence for a few minutes, not really knowing what to say. The silence wasn't suffocating, as it sometimes was back home when Dad was gone, but still a little awkward.

'That is our potions professor, DADA professor, and an Azkaban escapee we are sitting with…'

'They are also Harry's legal guardians, and we know Sirius didn't do anything he was convicted of.'

'I know, but still. He escaped Azkaban; he deserves a medal! Another thing though, Professor Snape is smiling and actually acting nice, that is so strange.'

'It is! But we can't really blame him for how he was before. Anyway, it's not Snape anymore, it's Professor Black-Prince-Lupin'

At that both twins had to hold in their laughter, they did get a weird look from Harry, who were sitting between them, but the other three didn't see, or at least didn't comment.

'We are so using that against him,' was the last that was though before Remus began speaking.

"So, -" he began, "-do any of you have any questions you want answered by us?" he looked over the table at Harry, Fred, and George. Sirius and Severus were both sitting on Remus' right, and both were also looking over the table at them. They all had a look of curiosity and acceptance, and all three of the teenagers knew that the adults wouldn't judge them for any question they might have.

"Why didn't anyone remember that Mr. Weasley, I mean Mr. Weasley-Prewett, didn't marry that woman?" Harry asked after a little pause. 'That is a good question…' Fred thought, George gave him a small nod in agreement.

Remus looked a little stunned at the question, but his expression soon morphed into a half confused and half contemplated face. Still, he remained silent. It was Severus that broke the silence, "I think I can answer that," he said, and all three of the teens turned to look at him. "It is called 'knowing obliviation'. It's old ritual magick, it causes everyone that know 'the one specific thing' to forget it, -" Severus told all of them, "-the caster can also replace the memories with something else. Which is what I think happened in this instance," he finished.

Sirius leaned forward and looked past Remus and at Severus, "So, everyone that knew Arthur married Fabian and Gideon had their memories replaced with Arthur marrying Molly instead?" he asked. He got a small nod and another smile from Severus. "But then, how do you know this?" Sirius asked, tilting his head at Severus, which Fred and George found half entertaining, and half embarrassed about.

"Dumbledore may never have said anything about his plans, but he did like to show off his knowledge. He usually calls me up to his office to prattle on about one thing or the other," Severus' voice had gained a small amount of frost while talking. He clearly didn't like these "info-dumps" Dumbledore did.

After that they continued to eat, now having pleasant conversation. Fred and George learned that Harry's aunt and cousin were out of the house. They were going to get their name change registered and decided to make it a mother-son day out.

It didn't take long for all of them to have eaten their fill and for the house-elves to "pop" back in and take the dishes away. "Harry, why don't you show Fred and George your room? And we'll call you down when Arthur gets here," Remus smiled and said as the teens stood up from the table.

"Okay," Harry said, and Fred and George though that Harry's face was kind of pink. 'Look at him! he's embarrassed!' George thought, almost making Fred laugh. Harry was quick to lead Fred and George out of the dining room, they both said their thanks as they followed Harry out the door.

Harry's room was on the third floor, and the door furthest away from the stairs. Harry led them inside, and Fred and George promptly went slack jawed. "This is a big room…" Fred whispered.

"I know," Harry, who was still standing in front of them, said. His back was turned, like some imitation of their conversation after the meeting at Gringotts. "I didn't choose it, -" he continued, still with his back turned, "the house-elves said this was my room when I lived here as a baby," Harry was hunching his shoulders now, and his voice was tight.

"That's understandable, but -" Fred began.

"-it doesn't look like -"

"-you like it. Is something -"

"-wrong with it?" George finished. They both had taken a few steps to stand on either side of Harry, but still gave him enough room to not feel trapped. Harry was facing the floor, and his hands were clenched into fists.

Finally, Harry looked up, but didn't look at any of them, just straight forward, "It's just… I don't know…" Harry was struggling to form the right words, "I never had my own room, not really. Until I was eleven, I lived in the… the cupboard under the stairs. And after that I lived in 'Dudley's second room', it was never mine," he confessed. "And now, I have this, something that was always supposed to be mine, and it's foreign and strange and 'not mine'," Harry continued saying while looking at the far-wall. After a few seconds of silence, where Fred and George tried to find something to say, Harry began talking again, "Sorry, I didn't mean to say that," he said embarrassingly, "I just felt like it, I think?"

The feeling that Fred and George felt at that was a total 180 in comparison to what they felt at Harry's confection. They felt so happy, Harry trusted them enough to tell them. "Can we hug you?" George asked and they both smiled when Harry nodded in answer. They took the last step towards Harry and wrapped their arms around him. Fred rested one hand on Harry's lower back and another on Harry's upper arm, while George had his hands on Harry's other arm and shoulder. They were bent down to bump their foreheads on either side of Harry's head.

Harry just stood there for a while just accepting the hug, but after a while he raised his arms and grabbed their arms that wrapped around his chest. Another moment of silence followed before anyone spoke again. "Maybe we should sit down? I still have to treat the new cuts on your backs," Harry said.

Both Fred and George stiffen for a split second, but they continued to hug Harry as they answered, "What are you -"

"-talking about?" they asked in a low whisper right next to Harry's ears, making Harry shiver slightly from the sensation.

"You two know exactly what I am talking about. Do you think I didn't notice?" Harry's voice had taken on some of the sternness he sometime used on people (Fred and George mostly). "You guys were way too careful to not lean your backs on the chair when we ate," Harry said and Fred and George understood, once again, that they would never be able to hide anything from Harry. 'Not that we would want to.'

"Okay, -" George began, and both him and Fred slowly let go of Harry.

"-where do we sit?" Fred asked as they righted themselves up from their bent position.

Harry gave both of them a small smile, "Go sit on the sofa, I'll go get something to treat your cuts," he said and pointed at a seating arrangement on one side of the room. While Fred and George went over to the sofas, Harry walked over to another door and went through before closing the door behind him.

Fred and George had only just sat down when they heard a small "pop". Now stood beside the sofas were a house-elf. "Finly is heres to ask Misters Red Twins if they wouldes like to have tea?" the little house-elf squeaked at them.

Fred and George looked at each other for a second, "Yes, thank you." they said together. And with that the elf "pop"-ed away again.

It didn't take long after that Harry came back, now with what looked like a small box. It was white and had a red cross on the side. "It's a first aid kit," Harry said with a laugh after seeing the twins send confused looks at both him and the box. "It's a muggle thing, but I have made a few modifications," Harry continued to explain while coming up to the sofas. Fred and George scooted a little from each other and patted the seat now between them, signaling Harry to sit down between them.

Harry placed the box on the table and sat down between them. "In a normal first aid kit there is things like bandages, gauze, and different muggle medicines," Harry said as he leant forward to open the box. "In this one, -" he continued, "-I have added some things," he opened the first aid kit to show the content. It was a flat surface, not even a centimeter down, with a small leather handle in the middle. Harry reached his hand out and gripped the handle, then he pulled. The flat surface lifted and reviled a kind of pull-up shelf. Each shelf had different things, some had bandages, some had potions, and there were some shelves with glasslike containers that must be muggle medicine. Fred and George were impressed with the expansion and featherlight charm that were definitely placed on the kit. There were also a few drawers between the shelves, and Harry opened one of them. Inside, there were glass containers with different plants and herbs. Harry's hand went straight for one of the containers, and he pulled it out of the drawer, showing that it was taller that the drawer would indicate it should be.

"Dittany," Harry said to as an explanation. He pushed the kit to the middle of the table to make space for the dittany, the gauze, and a role of… something. "Okay," Harry said, "George first. You were more careful, so I'm assuming that you have more cuts." Harry turned to George as he said it. "Take of your shirt," he said, and Fred and George tried not to think about how that sentence could mean so many other things.

George was slow to unbutton the shirt he was wearing, and even slower with pulling the shirt of. Of course, it was because he didn't want to aggravate the cuts on his back. When the shirt had finally fallen George carefully turned his back to Harry, and Fred behind him. Harry and Fred had also turned, and they were now sitting in some kind of train, with George in front of and Fred behind Harry.

There were five long cuts, running down the length of Georges back, and another few shorter ones on his shoulder blades. Harry's own shoulders where shacking, Fred noticed, and he placed his hand on one of them, trying to calm Harry down. Harry stopped shacking, so Fred counted that as a win.

After that, Harry did quick work of dressing George's wounds, and Harry explained what the roll of medicine tape. Harry worked slowly to finish taping the gauze to George's back, with pieces of dittany leaves pressed onto the cuts. When he was done he leant forward and pressed a small kiss on one of George's bare shoulders. "There, I'm finished now," Harry whispered at George's shoulder, before pulling back again and turning to Fred, "Your turn!" Both Fred and George's hearts were beating quite a few beats quicker than for a few seconds ago, and they probably had very pink cheeks, but if Harry noticed, he didn't say anything.

Fred only had three long cuts down his back, but he had more of the smaller cuts on his shoulder blades. George did the same as Fred and placed a hand on one of Harry's shoulders while Harry dressed Fred's cuts. When Harry was finished, he leant forward and placed a kiss on Fred's shoulder too. He leant back just enough to talk without being muffled, "There, that's all," he said before pulling away fully.

Just as Fred finished buttoning up his shirt and Harry finished placing the dittany, gauze, and tape back and closing the lid of the kit a "pop" was heard from besides the seating arrangement. "Finly have returned with tea and biscuits!" the small house-elf who had just "pop"-ed in squeaked. She was holding a big, for her, tray with three cups of steaming tea and a plate of, as she said, biscuits.

"Oh, Finly! Thank you," Harry said to the house-elf as she placed the tray on the table.

"Finly is justs doing her job, Little master Harry. Finly is happy to bes of help!" she answered Harry before he could continue saying anything else.

"Thank you," Fred and George said to Finly before she "pop"-ed away again.

After that Fred, George, and Harry sat and talked, drinking tea and eating biscuits until there was a knock at the door. It was Remus, telling them that Arthur was here to pick up Fred and George. Before going down Harry pulled them into a tight hug, and whispered; "Everything is going to be fine."