Chapter 13 – Return to Hogwarts, Remus's surprise

Soon it was time for Harry and his brothers to return to Hogwarts, Harry wasn't looking forward to the judgment he was going to receive, he knew that in everyone's eyes he would be the dark wizard who defeated the leader of the light.

Regulus and Sirius didn't seem to consider that as they were still incredibly happy, Regulus beamed with pride but he was nothing compared to Sirius who was definitely enjoying the fact that he had a brother who had beat whom many considered to be the greatest wizard of all time.

The rest of Harry's family was so proud, his father didn't even try to hide it like he usually did. Even his mother smiled at him, his grandfather kept visiting just to talk to him. The happiness spread to the others as even Sirius and Regulus were gaining more attention from the adults, his mother didn't even shout at Sirius when he accidentally dropped a vase. It was just repaired and they went on their business.

The adults had also been asking Harry some questions about Ginny, it seemed that they wanted to know more about the girl as they thought she must be special if she was chosen by the wandless wonder of the wizarding world, his mother even refrained from calling her a mudblood but she did slip up a few times,

Soon they arrived at Hogwarts, Harry grinned at his brothers who grinned right back and the trio walked towards the hall as dinner had started. Everyone in the hall was very surprised when the doors opened and the Brothers Black walked in, Dumbledore wasn't there this evening, all the better in Harry's opinion.

Whispers started circling throughout the hall, many were looking at Harry with a fearful expression. Bellatrix and Andromeda were smiling widely, as were the marauders and Lily, Harry noticed Ginny was trying not to laugh at the halls reaction.

"Hello everybody!" Sirius shouted in a cheery voice "How are we this fine evening? I'm good if you're interested, I've been spending time with my brothers. There's Regulus, the genius, almost as handsome as me"

"Hey" Regulus objected

"And here" Sirius continued "is the one and only Hadrius Black, defeater of Dumbledore. Have your brothers defeated Dumbledore? No? Thought not"

"Stop it" Harry admonished and gave Sirius a little slap on the back of the head "go eat with your friends, and please try to keep quiet"

"We both know I'm not going to do that" Sirius smiled and swaggered over to his friends

"As for the rest of you" Harry called out to the hall "I have two thing to say, the first being I hope you all don't judge me, I'm still the same person I've always been. The second is can you all please stop staring at me? It's getting a bit uncomfortable"

Most of the students looked away, Harry just shook his head and walked to the Slytherin table with Regulus. Harry sat down in-between Andromeda and Bellatrix with Snape and Regulus opposite him.

"I can't believe you beat Dumbledore!" Andromeda whispered

"I can" Bellatrix smiled

"It's amazing" Snape looked at Harry in awe

"Not really" Harry shrugged

"What do you mean not really?!" Snape was flabbergasted by Harry's comment, he did just beat Dumbledore while in his third year

"Look" Harry said, knowing a lot of people were listening to him "yes I beat Dumbledore, yes I did it easily but I really don't think people should keep looking at me like I'm the next Merlin. Yes Dumbledore is strong, I'm just stronger, that's what everyone in power forgets. There is always someone better or stronger, I'm at the top of the mountain now but one day someone stronger might come and push me off"

"But nobody is stronger than you!" Bellatrix objected

"And how many people said that about Dumbledore?" Harry raised an eyebrow

"Good point" She conceded even though she didn't like to admit it. Harry could see that the others were thinking on his words as well

"I don't understand you" Snape looked at Harry with a confused face "you're the most powerful wizard in Britain, probably even the world and you act like you're just everyone else"

"Do you know what power and money have in common?" Harry asked, the confused boy looked as if he was trying to sort out a riddle but quickly shook his head "there's lots of it, anybody can have it, everyone wants it but it's useless once you're dead. There are more important things in life than gaining power"

"Like what?" Regulus asked

"Living life to the fullest and dying a happy person" Harry answered "I know it seems a bit weird and odd, but it's true. Many people forget what they have in favour of what they don't, some chase it their whole lives and never get it. Be who you are, being anything else is just wrong."

"Yes, oh wise one" Bellatrix mock bowed

"Wise" Harry repeated "hmm, another thing to add to the list that is me. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to see my girlfriend, I imagine that defeating Dumbledore is a good enough reason to get a snog." Harry got up and made his way over to Ginny, leaving behind a group of amused Slytherin's

"Your brother is my new idol!" James said to Sirius

"He's amazing!" Peter said with awe in his voice

"What actually happened?" Remus asked, thoroughly enjoying the fact that Dumbledore was beaten by Hadrius, he liked it so much that he almost forgot that there was a full moon tomorrow

"Well" Sirius started "we got at court, Harry said he'd take truth serum and give memories and basically said he'd do anything he needed to prove it. Then Dumbledore started talking as if Harry was a confused child"

"Why would he do that?" Peter asked

"He was trying to make it like Harry was wrong" Remus explained "he was hoping to make Harry look confused and to make it look like Harry had just made a mistake"

"Exactly, and Harry realised that" Sirius continued "so he challenged Dumbledore to a truth duel, that's this thing where the loser has to answer questions from the winner honestly, they can't lie if they lose. And if they lose they have to do one thing for the loser"

"What?" James asked

"Anything the winner wants" Sirius answered "so it started with Dumbledore firing a few spells at Harry, and it was amazing, Harry slapped it away then Dumbledore fired another spell and Harry blew it away"

"Blew it away?" James looked at Sirius like he was mad

"Actually blew it away! Like a birthday candle! Then Dumbledore started firing lots of spells and Harry just blocked and dodged them all, he wasn't even putting in effort. Then Harry decided to end it"

"Go on" Remus prompted

"Well you know how when Harry gets angry everyone gets scared" The boys nodded "well he did that, except he did it a lot stronger than he usually did. Me and Regulus were close to puking, but he focused it on Dumbledore and Dumbledore dropped his wand and fell to his knees. Harry hit him with a stunner and he won"

"Wow!" Peter breathed

"I know! Then he asked Dumbledore if he read his mind and was singling out the Black family, Dumbledore said yes and when Harry asked him why Dumbledore was doing it and Dumbledore said it was because he wanted Harry"

"Wanted Harry?" James repeated

"I think he wanted him to be his apprentice or something" Sirius explained "then Harry chose what he wanted Dumbledore to do, he made Dumbledore give him all of his money"

"HE WHAT?!" Lily who had chosen to be silent blurted out in surprise

"Made Dumbledore give him all of his money" Sirius repeated with a smug grin "now Hadrius is rich! Or at least richer than before!"

"Is there anything he can't do?!" James said in what was a combination of amazement and exasperation

"Not that I can think of" Sirius shrugged

"Bloody hell" Remus exclaimed. They all looked towards Hadrius Black who was currently talking to Ginny, or flirting if you wanted to be accurate. And they were all wondering the same thing, is the madman human?

Later in the Slytherin common rooms, the Slytherin's were all sitting with anticipation. Hadrius Black was back, the underage parslemouth, wandless wonder and magical miracle who beat Dumbledore was back.

The common room door opened, first Regulus Black entered, he was followed by Bellatrix and Andromeda Black. Then, Harry entered, and the temperature dropped.

"Where is Lucius Malfoy?" Harry asked in a soft voice, suddenly a group of Slytherin's jumped back and Harry found Lucius Malfoy standing on the opposite end of the room. "Ah, there you are"

"What do you want, Black?" Lucius tried to sound brave but was failing miserably

"Funny thing" Harry spoke "I took Dumbledore to that trial because he tried to read my mind, he tried to read my mind in an argument I had when I was defending my brother and my two cousins. Why was I defending them? Funny you should ask, apparently they were in trouble because they put you in hospital" Harry took a few steps forward "they put you in hospital because you were messing with them"

"I was not" Lucius denied the accusation

"Are you calling my brother and cousins liars?" Harry narrowed his eyes

"N...no" Lucius quickly backtracked "not at all"

"No?" Harry adopted a confused face "but you just said they made a false accusation, you said you weren't bothering them when they said you were."

"Well" Lucius gulped "it was a misunderstanding"

"Ah, I'm sure it was" Harry spoke in a cold voice "we all have misunderstandings, it's perfectly reasonable but I think we should avoid those to the best of our abilities. So I will personally make sure there are no more misunderstandings"

Harry aimed his hand at Malfoy, Malfoys body became stiff, Harry raised his arm and Malfoy rose with it. This continued until Malfoy found his head being pushed against the ceiling. The other Slytherin's were too terrified to move at this point, a deathly silence fell over the room.

"Nobody messes with the Black family" Harry told the common room "I'm a fair person, you mess with my family, you mess with me. If my family have done anything to you, you tell me and I won't hesitate to discipline them and I will not do anything to you if you tell me. However if any of you take matters into your own hands then the next time I won't stop at the ceiling."

Harry temporarily let go of Malfoy, Harry was glad to hear Malfoy scream like a girl on the way down, Harry took a sadistic pleasure to letting the boy free fall but he caught him just before he hit the floor. Harry then gently placed him down.

"Malfoy" Harry spoke "you're currently a sixth year, I'm sure you can survive a year and a half of staying out of my way, can you?"

"Y...yes" Malfoy stuttered

"Good" Harry nodded "now I'm going to sleep, the first person to disturb me will have their internal organs decorating the common room" Harry made his way over to his family.

"That was awesome" Bellatrix grinned

"Thank you" Harry smiled "I helped you this time because you guys were in the right, but I meant what I said. If you do something worth punishing then I will not help you, is that understood?"

"Yes Harry" The three chorused

"Good" Harry pulled the three into a hug, giving each a kiss on the forehead "good night"

Harry waved goodbye and made his way up to his room, his usual privacy and security charms were in place to keep him from being disturbed. He found Ginny sitting on his bed, reading a muggle fiction book. Harry considered asking if it was a good book but decided not to seeing as he could just see the book from her mind.

"Tired?" She asked, even though she knew the answer

"Little bit" Harry yawned "but never too tired for you" Harry made his way over and sat next to her, Ginny put the book down and looked at Harry before she gave him a short but sweet kiss.

"So" She said with an amused expression "heir to the most ancient and noble house of Black, wandless wonder, magical genius, magical miracle and defeater of Dumbledore. You can't help but grab titles can you?"

"Ha ha" Harry gave her a fake laugh "and no, it seems I'm destined to permanently be in the spotlight. It's going to be a hundred times worse now"

"Of course that's going to happen if you defeat Albus Dumbledore" Ginny pointed out

"Yeah I know but sometimes I wish people would just get a life" Harry replied "and stop worrying about mine. Ah well, doesn't really matter does it? I'm used to it, and you're with me so I think I can handle a few stares"

"Such a sweet talker" Ginny smiled "it appears that hundreds of years of life has helped you develop into a charmer"

"Hey, we both know I was a charmer before that" Harry objected "anyway, I have to be charming to match such a charming woman"

"I'm not a woman" Ginny pointed out

"Not in this life at least" Harry replied "you've been a woman in our previous lives, I didn't rescue a little girl from that tower, I rescued an adult princess."

"My hero" Ginny said dryly

"When we were pirates we were known as 'green eyes' and the 'red lady'. Notice how they said Lady and not girl"

"Yes, okay, you've made your point. But I'm still a girl in this life" Ginny responded

"You still have lips though" Harry shrugged, Ginny mock glared at him before leaning in and giving him a kiss.

The next day Harry had gotten to breakfast early, no sooner than he had started eating he had someone sat next to him and someone sat opposite him. Next to him was Roxanne, opposite him was Cyrus.

"Alright guys?" Harry asked

"Really?!" Roxanne looked at him as if he had grown a second head "You take Dumbledore to court, beat him in a duel, come back and threaten the whole of Slytherin house and all you have to say is 'alright guys?'"

"Fine" Harry responded "I took Dumbledore to court, beat him in a duel, I came back and threatened the whole of Slytherin house, you guys alright?"

"Little better" Cyrus smirked

"So" Harry spoke "does this change things?"

"What are you on about?" Roxanne asked

"Does this change things?" Harry repeated "Are we still friends or am I too good for you guys now?"

"No" Roxanne shook her head "we're still friends"

"Good" Harry smiled

"Yes" Cyrus spoke "after all we mere mortals need you"

"Very funny" Harry said sarcastically

"It was a little funny" Cyrus insisted

"It wasn't" Roxanne responded "so Harry, how's your girlfriend doing?"

"Great, as far as I know" Harry responded, and seeing as he could detect her emotions and read her mind, he knew a lot.

"That's nice" Cyrus said "how is your family taking you being with a muggleborn?"

"Mum threw a fit at first" Harry sighed "but then I made some reasonable arguments as to why it shouldn't matter, mum wasn't really listening as she's set in her ways but dad and granddad thought about it. When they came to school, they met her, and I could tell they were surprised by the way she acted. I had taught her how to act like the perfect pureblood and if that girl can do one thing, it's act.

Dad and granddad haven't said it but I can tell that they're impressed, and they're starting to see my way of seeing things. Mum is somewhere between hating her for being a muggleborn, respecting her for learning about the proper behaviour and curious as to why I've chosen her when I could've had any other pureblood girl."

"Why did you chose her?" Roxanne raised an eyebrow "Not that I have anything against her, but it is true that you could have chosen any girl yet you chose a redheaded muggleborn?"

"First of all, redheads are brilliant" Harry replied "second of all, like I said, I don't really care about blood. Third of all, I really like her. She's funny, smart and I think she's the only one who can match me."

"What?! She's as strong as you?!" Cyrus blurted out in surprise

"No" Harry shook his head "I'm not talking about power. She's just what I need, someone to keep me grounded"

"Grounded?" Cyrus asked

"He needs someone to keep him in control" Roxanne explained "so you've chosen her"

"Yes, she's perfect." Harry nodded "Anyone else would just roll over, and do what I want. She's not afraid to tell me what she thinks but she's not pushy or bossy enough to be annoying."

'Such a high opinion of me' Ginny's voice echoed in his head

'Gin I love you but I'm trying to have a conversation'

'Fine, I'm coming down to breakfast now, I'll meet you in two minutes'

"I do find it funny though" Roxanne smiled "the wandless wonder of the wizarding world and defeater of Albus Dumbledore, held down by a petite redhead"

"A petite good looking red head" Harry corrected

"True but I'm more into blondes" Cyrus replied

"Speaking of good looking" Harry gestured to Ginny who had just come over and sat next to him. "Hi Ginny, how are you doing?"

"I'm fine" She pecked him on the lips "what about you?"

"Great"

"So Ginny" Roxanne spoke "how does it feel? Going out with the defeater of Albus Dumbledore?"

"Tiring" Ginny answered

"Tiring?"

"Yeah" Ginny nodded "he has his ego in check but I might need to double check it for him in case he gets a big head"

"Hey" Harry objected

"Plus all the girls were asking about him yesterday" Ginny continued "I'll need to beat them away with a stick soon"

"True" Roxanne replied "if you need any help with that then just ask, I know this really nice ice hex if you want to learn it"

"Thanks, though I know a few good hexes of my own" Ginny smirked "I could probably teach you a few"

"Oh Merlin" Cyrus whispered to Harry "they're teaming up"

"We're doomed" Harry whispered dramatically

The rest of Harry's day went normal, for the most part. People still looked at him like he could kill them in a moment, to be fair he could but it wasn't like he was going to. Malfoy had done his best to stay away from him as much as possible.

Slughorn appeared to like Harry even more, he was beaming with pride when he looked at Harry. Some of the teachers were a bit wary about Harry, but tried not to show it. Professor Sprout was somewhere between being prideful but trying not to treat him differently, Flitwick still loved him but the man loved everyone so that didn't bother Harry.

Professor McGonagall's reaction really interested Harry as she acted the exact same as before, she wasn't more or less afraid or proud of him. She acted professional and treated him just like any other student and it was a breath of fresh air for Harry, one which Harry enjoyed, until she gave him detention for trying to reenact muggle duelling with Sirius and James using the suits of armour from the third floor.

"Remus" Harry sat at the Gryffindor table at dinner "how are you?"

"I'm fine" Remus sighed "incredibly tired and I'll break the nose of the first person who irritates me but fine"

"I couldn't help but notice he looked at you when he said that Sirius" James grinned

"Hey" Sirius replied "I'm not irritating"

"Of course not" Lily said sarcastically

"Anyway" Remus looked around to make sure nobody was listening in "are you still coming with me tonight Harry?"

"About that" Harry said slowly "I have a surprise for you"

"What surprise?" Remus asked curiously

"The best kind, the ones you don't see coming" Harry smirked "all I can promise is that you'll like it"

"Oh good Merlin, it's the look" Sirius spoke dramatically

"The look?" James played along, equally dramatic.

"The 'I've done something crazy' look" Sirius answered

"Well, it is a bit crazy" Harry admitted "brilliant but crazy"

"What sort of crazy?" Peter asked

"The 'I have wrecked reality' type of crazy" Harry responded "it's also the 'I will change your entire life' type of crazy. Anyway, I got to go now, I'll see you later Remus" Harry smiled and quickly left.

"What do you think the surprise is?" Peter voiced the question on everybody's mind

"Knowing Harry" Sirius though about it "he probably invented a cure for werewolves or something"

"Remus, here is a cure for werewolves" Harry told Remus once they were in the shack

"WHAT?!" Remus looked intensely at the vial in Harry's hand

"Cure for werewolves, I invented it" Harry said proudly "Slughorn sent it off to the British Potions society, the news will be out tomorrow but I wanted you to be the first one to receive it."

"Are you serious?!"

"No, my brother is, yes you walked right into that. But honestly, you drink this and you'll be the first cured werewolf"

"I don't know what to say" Tears dripped down Remus's face

"Thank you works" Harry shrugged "now take it, go on, down the hatch"

Remus took the vial, he looked at it with hope, he looked at it as if it was the best present he had ever had and if it worked then it would be the best present he had ever had. He took it and gulped it down quickly, it tasted surprisingly nice but he didn't really care about that.

Remus handed the vial back to Harry, he couldn't feel any different. He looked out the window and saw the moon was rising, he closed his eyes and prepared for the pain. The inevitable pain that came when his bones expanded and changed shape, the pain when his teeth grew longer and his skin changed. He waited for the loss of control, the intent to kill whoever was in his way, he waited for the wolf to come.

He opened his eyes, and he realised that it hadn't come, the only thing he saw in front of him was a proud Hadrius Black. Remus looked down, his hands didn't have fur, he checked his teeth and saw that he was still an omnivore as opposed to a carnivore. He wasn't a wolf, he was Remus, Remus Lupin.

"Told you" Harry whispered

Remus launched at Harry and pulled the older boy into a hug, Harry didn't move back as he was expecting it, he simply hugged Remus back. Remus hugged Harry tightly, many emotions were active in Remus. Gratitude, relief and happiness being the key ones. Remus had never cried more in his life, but the boy couldn't stop, no matter how much he wanted to.

Remus was normal now, he wasn't a dark creature or a freak, he was a normal boy. He would no longer have to worry about being judged or hated, he wouldn't have to worry about hurting anyone else, now all he had to worry about was being Remus Lupin.

Harry didn't say anything, he just stayed quiet, he let Remus have his moment. He didn't complain about Remus getting his clothes wet with tears or the fact that Remus was trying to squeeze the life out of him. The boy had suffered, suffered his whole life, so Harry wasn't about to ruin his moment of happiness.

Remus cried himself dry, before he let Harry go. Harry gently guided Remus and sat him down against a wall, he got a blanket and wrapped it around the boy. And sat down next to him, Remus was in no position to move so Harry figured he'd stay with him for the night.

Soon Remus got tired, his head fell and landed on Harry's shoulder. Harry didn't say anything, tonight was Remus's night and he could stomach letting the boy use him as a pillow.

"Thank you" Remus whispered in a sleepy voice "thank you, bro" A smile made its way on Harry's face.

"Not a problem" Harry whispered back "now go sleep yeah, I'll wake you up in the morning"

"Hmm, I love you" Remus whispered before sleep had claimed him.

"You too mate" Harry said "you too"