Windows of the Soul

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Author's Notes: This story ignores HBP and DH. Thank you to my beta Sometimeselkie for all her hard work.

Next morning found Harry, Draco, and Elli sprawled over each other in the library at Grimmauld Place. Draco was reading to Elli whilst Harry had his ever-present pencil and pad in his hands. Remus came into the room followed by Severus. They were both carrying multiple steaming mugs of tea, which they gave out until everyone had one, and both men sat down on another sofa. Severus sat and looked at his recently-gained family. His godson looked so relaxed, his “daughter” Elli looked not so drawn and tired as she had been, and his “adopted son” Harry looked like he had no cares in the world, not like he had had a psychotic madman on his back for the last six years.

Remus cleared his throat. “We have decided that we have to go to Diagon Alley to get your school stuff.” He looked at Draco. “You will have to go with Severus, Draco. It would look suspicious if you came with Harry, Elli, and me, but not so out of place with your godfather.”

Draco nodded and looked over at Harry with longing in his eyes. Severus rolled his eyes, looking at the two boys, and sneered at his lover.

“You will need suitable clothing, so I suggest you all go and get ready and meet us in the hallway in fifteen minutes.”

He looked at his godson with a raised eyebrow. “Fifteen minutes, Draco.”

Draco smirked at his godfather. “Yes, Severus, fifteen minutes.” With that, he got up and extended his hand to Harry, pulling him up and out of the room.

Elli stood up slowly. “I will just get my cloak, Papa, and I will check up on Harry’s progress,” she said with a smile, walking slowly out of the room.

Remus looked at Severus, noting the dark circles under his eyes and the creases on his forehead, which only he seemed to see. He put his hand on Severus’s arm and gently squeezed it. “Don’t worry too much, love; it will be OK.”

Severus smiled sadly. “I know, Remy. It’s just that we know that Voldemort is planning something, but we don’t know what. He hasn’t let me in on anything and that worries me.” He turned and put his arms around his lover. Remus was surprised at this action, but he put his arms around Severus and just held him. “I just want to keep them safe, Remy. They’re part of our family and I don’t want them hurt.”

Remus was shocked at the words coming out of the stern, snarky Potions master. They were totally unlike the man he had fallen in love with. He knew that Severus had come to care for Elli and loved Draco, even tolerated Harry, but to say that they were his family? Something bad was happening for Severus to admit that.

“We won’t let anything happen to any of them; we will keep them safe.” With that, he kissed Severus with all the longing and love he felt. He let his arms fall away and started to walk towards the hallway. “Come on, love. Diagon Alley, here we come.”

“Oh, joy. A whole afternoon surrounded by irritating school children. How will I control my joy?” Severus sneered as he collected his cloak and walked towards Remus. Remus smiled. He knew that his snarky, sneering, stern, feared Potions master was now back in control.


Draco pulled Harry along to his rooms with Harry dragging his heels and pleading for Draco to slow down or stop. When they reached the room, Harry threw himself down on the bed with a glare at his boyfriend. Draco looked over at Harry with a question in his gaze. “What’s wrong, love?”

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong? I thought you understood about my reasons for not coming out to other people, but nooo... you just ignore that and do whatever you want to do, and sod my feelings.” Harry was nearly shouting the last few words. Draco went to touch him, but Harry pulled away, rolled over the bed, and stood up at the other side away from Draco. “I don’t want you touching me yet. You say you understand, but then you do something like that and prove that you don’t.”

Draco looked up in confusion. “Do something like what? I don’t know what I’ve done, Harry; please tell me so I can put it right. I promise.”

Harry drew in a deep breath, and looked at the love of his life. “You say you understand that I would like to keep our relationship quiet for now, but then you grab me and act nice and loving to me in front of Remus and Snape. If they don’t realise that something has changed between us then I am a
Blue-Spotted Nargle.”

Draco looked at Harry and realised his mistake. He walked around the bed and took Harry’s hands into his. “I am so sorry, Harry. I know how much keeping us quiet means to you; it’s just that I love you and I want to be with you. I don’t care what people think. I just don’t want to hide any more, but I do care for your feelings and I am sorry if I overstepped the mark this morning. I honestly think that both Remus and Severus have realised that things are different for us and they are okay about it. I will respect your decision though and I am really sorry.”

Harry looked into Draco’s eyes and could see that he was being sincere; he relaxed and placed a chaste kiss onto Draco’s lips.

Draco smiled and hugged Harry. They jumped apart when there was knock on the door and Elli’s head popped around the corner. “Time’s nearly up, guys. We need to go.”

Draco kissed Harry’s forehead and grabbed their cloaks, throwing Harry his as they both left the room and went downstairs.

Severus was waiting impatiently at the bottom of the stairs. He glared at them. “Draco, we must be going; we have to see your father first before going to get your supplies.”

Harry looked up. “Why do you need to see him?”

Severus glared at Harry. “Well, Potter, it is none of your business. Lucius has asked to see Draco before going for his school supplies.” He took Draco’s arm and, with a crack, Apparated.

Remus sighed at the look on Harry’s face. He moved over to Elli and gently grasped both her hand and Harry’s arm.

Remus, Harry, and Elli Apparated into the alley near the Leaky Cauldron.

Making sure that Harry had his hand on Elli and was guiding her with him, Remus walked into the Leaky Cauldron, followed by his children. It was quite busy inside but they managed to go through the inn without too much difficulty, only stopping once when Tom spotted Harry and forced him into making excuses to not have a drink.

They walked through the doors at the back. Remus allowed Harry to touch his wand to the brick wall, watching Harry’s face light up as the wall moved and opened up to show Diagon Alley.

Remus faced them. “I want you both to stay close together.” He turned to Harry. “Harry, make sure that you are with Elli all the time. Don’t let her out of your sight.”

Harry nodded. “Don’t worry, Remus; I will be with her all the time. I’ll keep her safe.” He smiled as he looked at his “sister”.

Elli tipped her head to one side and smiled towards her Papa and “brother”. “I will stick to Harry; you don’t have to worry about me, Papa.”

Remus squeezed her shoulder lovingly. “OK, let’s get your school things. Flourish and Blotts looks not too busy at the moment. Maybe we should get your books first.”

He turned and started to walk towards the shop. Harry placed his hand on Elli’s elbow and leant towards her. “Let’s see if any of your teaching has actually got into my thick skull.”

Elli smirked at Harry. “With the amount of time I beat you with it, then maybe.”

Harry started to guide Elli into the shop.

Flourish and Blotts was quite busy with all the children and parents getting their schoolbooks. Harry and Elli were just picking out the last of their books when suddenly Harry found himself being engulfed by a pair of arms and pushed away from Elli.

“Oh, Harry! We haven’t heard from you for weeks. How have you been?”

Harry gently extracted himself from Hermione’s arms and started to look over her shoulder for Elli. Hermione followed his eyes. “Who or what are you looking for, Harry?”

Harry looked, and then smiled as he saw that Ron was helping Elli up off the floor, where she had fallen when Hermione had jumped Harry. “I was looking for my ‘sister’.”

Hermione and Ron looked astonished at this; Ron was the first to respond. “Your...your sister?”

“Yes, my ‘sister’. Ellorra, or Elli, as she’s called.” With that, he moved and took Elli’s hand. “Elli, I would like to introduce you to my two best friends Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley.”

Elli held out her hand in front of her and smiled nervously. “Hello, it’s nice to meet you. I have heard so much about the both of you from Harry that I feel I know you already. I hope we can become friends.”

Ron looked at her hand and grasped it in his, holding it for a few seconds and smiling at his new friend. “I hope you didn’t believe everything you heard from Harry,” he whispered quite loudly. “We’re not really that bad.”

Elli laughed at that.

Harry looked at Hermione as she had been quiet; she looked as if she had just had a Bertie Botts’ earwax-flavoured bean. Harry didn’t like the thought of his friend not getting on with his sister, but thought she would understand when he explained everything later.

Harry pressed closer to Hermione and spoke quietly. “I will explain everything when we meet on the train. Just know that Elli will be coming to school with us this year....”

Harry was just about to say something else when there was screaming heard from outside.

Harry looked around for any sign of Remus, but there was nothing. He grabbed Elli’s hand with a short, “Stay close to me and do as I say.” He didn’t see her nod, but he felt her squeeze his hand.

He took his wand out and looked at his friends. He saw that they had done the same and were following him out of the shop into the street.

The scene in the street was one that Harry had seen before at the Quidditch World Cup - people running around in fear, hooded and masked figures firing curses from their wands, and bodies on the ground.

Harry had his wand out and was firing counter-curses and shouting for people to get inside; beside him, Ron and Hermione were doing the same. Elli was nearly keeping up with Harry, but there were a couple of times that Harry or Ron had had to push her out of the way of a close call.

Harry looked about the street, searching for Remus. He hadn’t seen his godfather since they had entered the book shop and he was getting worried about him, but there was no sign of him.

Elli was getting more frantic minute by minute. She was in a place that she didn’t know, surrounded by people that she didn’t know, curses were being thrown about, and her Papa was missing. She knew that she would have to use her gift, but was wary of doing so until absolutely necessary.

They made their way down one side of the street when someone shouted, “There’s Potter! Get him!”

Elli’s gift clicked on and she just managed to pull Harry out of the way of a very nasty Slicing Hex, which hit the doorway behind him.

Ron threw a Stupefying Charm towards the Death Eater and watched as he fell to the ground.

Elli looked at the other side of the street and saw Remus carrying a small child and trying to dodge curses. She let go of Harry and ran across to him casting the strongest shield she could. He looked up at her in shock as she opened a door in front of them, pulling him into a shop.

Harry leapt up to go after Elli when he felt her move, but breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Remus and Elli go into a shop for safety.

There was no respite for him, though; the hexes and curses were being thrown towards him at an alarming rate. He could feel himself tiring and he knew that Ron and Hermione must be feeling the same. He heard a sound beside him and looked over at his friends to see Hermione lying on the floor with her hand clutched at the top of her arm. Blood was running through her fingers and tears down her face.

Suddenly he felt a wand tip jab the side of his neck. “Well, Potter, the Dark Lord will definitely reward me when I present you as a gift.” Antonin Dolohov stood leering over Harry, twisting his wand into his neck.

“He never said if you had to be all in one piece, just alive. Crucio!”

Harry fell to the floor, writhing with agony, when suddenly it was lifted; Harry opened one of his eyes that had been firmly shut to see Dolohov fall to the floor unconscious with blood streaming from a broken nose. Hands were helping him up and he saw an unusual look on the usually stern face of his professor.

Without words, they both knew that Severus had given up his job as a spy in return for saving Harry.

Severus helped Harry to his feet and they looked around the battle, The Death Eaters had realised that their side was losing and they were making a hasty retreat. Aurors had arrived, as had some members of the Order.

Harry looked at Severus with a question in his eyes. The professor, knowing the question, nodded as his answer and Harry felt relief flood through him as he knew that Draco was safe.

Harry walked over to where Ron was helping Hermione stem the bleeding from her arm. Before he reached them he heard a cackling that he would never forget.

“Poor little ickle Potter, has your little Mudblood gotten hurt? Oh, poor little Potter.”

Bellatrix stood in the middle of the street in full view as she swayed from side to side and smiled maniacally.

Harry saw that she had a clear shot at either Ron or Hermione unless he could get to her first, but he knew that it was a long shot.

Bellatrix smiled at him and she raised her wand. Wordlessly, she fired a hex at them. Harry leapt in front of his friends, shouting “CRUCIO!” at her, and she dodged, turned, and Apparated.

There was silence and then a scream.

“HARRY!”

Severus was suddenly beside him, bending down and picking up the limp, but alive, body of the Boy Who Lived.

Remus and Elli came running out of the shop and Remus looked into the eyes of his lover, nodded, and wordlessly grasped Elli’s hand and Severus’s arm. Severus called over to Kingsley Shacklebolt who, with the other Aurors, was collecting the subdued Death Eaters.

“I’m taking them to Hogwarts.” Kingsley nodded, and with a pop they Apparated to the gates of the school.