I'll probably end up tweaking Remus and Sirius' talk about Harry's letter later on. Nothing major.

Warnings: This is shounen-ai, slash, yaoi, gay, Harry Potter/ Tom Riddle

Notes: (X) is pov change and or time jump

Chapter 27: Introductions

Harry yawned, smiling when he felt Aderes lying beside him. For the first time ever, it was a Sunday morning during the school year, and he hadn't woken up in a state of panic because all his homework was already finished. Having an eccentric boyfriend was a blessing in that sense. He could spend his day any way he wanted to now without worry and let's face it. He needed at least one day where his life didn't threaten to spiral out of control. I shouldn't jinx myself. Now that he'd thought that, Dumbledore was going to walk into his room any second and tell him some new and horrible thing Aderes had done while he slept before he dragged the Slytherin off by the back of his robes. If he was lucky, he'd seen his boyfriend again in fifteen to twenty years, preferably with his soul still intact.

Turning over, he wrapped both of his arms around Aderes. As strange and questionable as his morals and life had become, he couldn't deny that Aderes had made it better. And not just a little… He sighed, closing his eyes. He felt guilty for even considering the things he had the night before, but part of him knew he wasn't wrong. Attacking someone for fun wasn't right. Defending yourself was perfectly acceptable. Not that he was going to pretend for a second that what Aderes had done was 'defense' or 'right'.

But…

If Umbridge had touched Aderes… It was stupid. Aderes was by far stronger and more intelligent than he'd ever be, and yet he felt the need to protect him. Maybe I should protect him from himself. Snickering, he leaned forward and kissed Aderes on the forehead.

"Harry? You awake?"

The Gryffindor turned over. Ron was sitting up in his bed looking at him. Harry sat up, wishing he'd gotten at least a few more minutes alone with Aderes, and stuck his head out of the silenced area. "Yeah?"

"Want to do homework together?" He was practically begging.

Right. Ron didn't have a grade obsessive boyfriend watching his every move. Maybe he should get one. "Mine's done already." He pulled on his glasses.

His shoulder's slumped. "Oh…"

He's my friend. And Aderes had been nice enough to help him, so he should pay it forward. "I'll help… eh with what I can." Which probably wouldn't be much, but Ron was used to failing. All Harry needed to do was keep the redhead focused, so he'd have something to turn in instead of blank pieces of parchment.

Ron's eyes lit up. "Yeah?"

"I know we haven't been on the best terms lately." It also felt like they were kind of drifting apart, despite how close they'd been for years and everything they'd gone through. Not having Ron as a friend wouldn't be right. "Just don't expect any O's. I'm not Aderes or Hermione."

"Deal."

Harry glanced back at his boyfriend. Aderes didn't look like he'd be budging any time soon. He gave his boyfriend a quick kiss on the cheek and slid off the bed, doing his best not to wake Aderes up. When Aderes didn't move, he frowned. He's alive, right? It's not like his boyfriend had felt cold when he'd kissed him. I shouldn't… But a nagging feeling in the back of his head wouldn't stop. Before his common sense could kick in, he put his hand under Aderes' nose.

'Harry?' Aderes' consciousness was almost nonexistent. 'What's wrong?'

He cursed under his breath, realizing not his movements, but his anxiety had woken Aderes up. 'Nothing. I'm going down to—' He let out a small yell as he found arms wrapping around his waist and pulling him back onto the bed.

"Harry," Ron shouted.

"Aderes!" He tried to turn, but Aderes was holding him in a death grip, laughing. 'Did you actually think you were going somewhere without me?' The bond assured him that was not happening, ever.

'I was trying to let you sleep,' he said, mentally pouting.

'Who can sleep when your boyfriend is having a panic attack because he thinks you're dead?' Amusement. 'Why do you keep thinking I'm dead or going to die, anyway? You realize there isn't a single person who's stronger or smarter than me, right?' He kissed Harry, his grip around him tightening.

'I don't know…' He'd been trying to figure that out himself. Not once could he remember thinking everyone around him was going to die at any second, and really, he still didn't. It was just Aderes.

"Harry—AD—" Ron's mouth and eyes widened with shock and he seemed to be screaming something, but no sound was leaving his mouth.

"It seems we've been found out," Aderes sighed.

"You think? You pulled me onto the bed without warning." It probably looked like something had snatched him up and ate him. Movement had Harry taking a good look around the dorm now. The others were waking up, no doubt thinking, Ron and he was fighting again. Another perfect start to a wonderful day. All he'd wanted was some alone time to snog his boyfriend.

"I'll meet you in the Great Hall… Oh, and if I find out you're letting that fool copy your homework, I will burn yours and you can start over, alone." He kissed Harry again before his form vanished from Harry's bed.

Harry did his best to ignore the loneliness trying to take him over. He'd thought for sure the longer Aderes and him were together, that his obsession with him would fade, that he'd be able to handle not having Aderes next to him every waking second, but it almost seemed like it was getting worse.

"WHAT—" Harry got to his feet fast, slapping his hand over Ron's mouth. "Belt it," he hissed.

Ron blinked and nodded.

"I will explain when we are alone. Got it?" Their other dormmates would not understand, and Harry wasn't about to try to explain it to them, anyway. Besides, there was no telling what Dumbledore would do if he found out Harry had another person in his bed at night, especially a non-Gryffindor person.

Another nod.

"Good." He removed his hand. When Ron didn't scream, he went to his trunk and started rummaging through his clothes. The weekend meant he didn't have to bother wearing school robes, but he didn't exactly have a ton of clothes either. Usually, he didn't care what he threw on, but a small part of him wanted to wear something that Aderes would enjoy seeing on him. Can you have clothes delivered? Hermione would know, but he wasn't even sure what kind of clothes would look good on him. I should have gone to Diagon. Only that wouldn't have helped much, because at that point he hadn't had a boyfriend or had to worry about his clothes.

'As much as I appreciate the effort, just put something on so we can have breakfast together.'

Harry's face burned. He really needed to find a way to keep some of his thoughts to himself. He grabbed the first set out clothes from the top of his trunk, a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and put them on.

"So…"

Harry looked up. The room had emptied out while he'd been facing his dilemma over his clothes. "You saw," he said, somewhat embarrassed. He'd known someone would catch Aderes in his bed sooner or later, better Ron than someone else. "It's not like we've done anything," he said, quickly. The thought had crossed his mind and thankfully, Aderes hadn't pushed it, though he'd made it quite clear through the bond the second Harry asked him to, Aderes would be removing his clothes.

"Yeah, but… how in the hell did he get into our dorm?"

Harry raised an eyebrow at his friend. That was his concern? Well, Ron never had been too bright and often worried about the wrong things. At least it was to his advantage this time. "The necklace?"

"O, oh… right…"

This was awkward as hell. "This isn't how I wanted you to find out about any of it. I wanted to tell you yesterday about what's been going on, but it's hard. I've been really anxious lately and..."

"Who wouldn't be with a boyfriend like that?"

"I don't think it's because of Aderes… or not exactly." Of course, that was part of it, but there was something more to it. He kept trying to tell himself it was because of Mrs. Weasley's death, but deep down he knew that wasn't the reason. There was something else. "I'm scared Aderes is going to be taken from me."

Ron snorted. "Just about every girl in the school wants him. If they knew how he really was..."

"No, I mean… I keep thinking he's going to be killed. Even the Boggart back at number twelve, it was him lying there dead."

"… How is that possible? You didn't even know what he looked like until he started school this year."

"I don't know…" He'd found that strange as well, but Aderes had started making out with him and his curiosity had flown away. Or rather, it'd gotten shoved out.

"I don't know, Harry. There's something off about him."

"I know."

"So why are you dating him? Is it because of his looks? Because Cho likes you too and she's pretty."

"I don't even have feelings for Cho anymore. Anything I felt for her before is gone." At least that had happened before they'd gotten together. "Besides, what I feel for Aderes is a lot stronger than anything I ever felt for Cho."

Ron looked uneasy. "... Did he slip you a love potion or something?"

How should I know? "Would I be able to tell him how much I disapprove of his choices if he'd given me one?" Love potions weren't exactly a commonly discussed topic, at least no one Harry knew had ever spoken about them. No… that's not right… He did remember someone mentioning something about a love potion, but who?

"All I'm saying is, be careful."

Harry nodded, and they left the dorm. He was going to mention the bond, but with Ron so against Aderes already, telling him anything more would just make him hate Aderes more, and he couldn't have that happen until after he'd convinced Sirius to accept Aderes has his boyfriend.

Aderes glared at Ron the second they came into view. "Stop making Harry's life difficult." He wrapped his arms around Harry and kissed him, hard. 'That red head is pushing it.'

Harry did a quick mental scan of the bond to see exactly what issue Aderes had with Ron at the moment. 'He has a point; how did I know what you looked like?'

Aderes mentally rolled his eyes. 'The bond, how else?'

Jeez. That made sense. Why hadn't he thought about that? Sometimes random thoughts from Aderes passed through the bond. Why wouldn't his appearance, even if it wasn't a conscious thought? 'I didn't think about that.'

'Maybe do so instead of thinking the worst next time?'

'I'll try.'

'Fine.' He sighed dramatically, lacing his fingers with Harry's, and led him into the Great Hall, ignoring Ron's protests from behind. "I'm guessing two hours of writing down random answers is enough time to waste on him?"

"H, hey!"

'Honestly, knowing Ron, it'll probably take all day.'

"No," Aderes said, his voice leaving no room for debate.

Harry blinked. "I can't just—"

'You don't want to waste your entire day with him anymore than I want you to.'

True, but he couldn't just let Ron fail or in this case, not have anything to turn in tomorrow.

'Harry, you are not responsible for his grades or keeping him on task. Maybe a few weeks of detention for not doing his homework will be a wake-up call for him.'

'I know, but if he gets kicked off the Quidditch team, it's an even bigger issue than his grades.'

Aderes stared at him. "You're joking."

"No, if you want to stay on the Quidditch team—"

"I meant that you actually think Quidditch is more important than your grades! Quidditch is not going to teach you anything! It's not going to help in a fight, it—"

"It does help learning strategies," he said, knowing how weak his argument was. 'Besides, it's not just about Quidditch, Ron's my friend.'

'Get a new friend. Draco could use one.'

'I am friends with Draco!'

'He uses you and Hermione.'

'I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Ron. He was my first friend!'

'So, you had no precedent to make sure you chose a good friend versus a bad one. Once you met Hermione, you should have come to your senses.'

'I'm just trying to help him out.'

'He's not asking for help, he's too lazy to do it himself and wants to copy everything. You ask questions and read your assignments. You wrote your own essays, and I went over them afterwards and gave you suggestions. That's helping.'

'I wouldn't even know where to start with fixing his essays like you do mine.'

Aderes sighed, releasing Harry's hand and walking to the Gryffindor table.

"Aderes!" He ran after him.

"Hermione, I need a favor," Aderes said as he sat down.

Hermione looked up, slightly surprised. "Sure. What do you need?"

"Get this thing a homework schedule made," he growled, jerking his finger at Ron. "I will not have him acting as a parasite."

"I'm not a parasite!"

"Fooled me," Aderes snorted.

"I usually make homework schedules for the three of us anyway," she said. "I've just been so busy this week, but I should be able to get them finished today."

"Thank you."

"So, it's okay if you use Hermione, but not us," Ron asked.

Why are you so stupid, Ron?

"I'm not using Hermione. She's doing me a favor. When she needs something, I will return the favor."

"How is that any different!?"

"What have you actually done for Hermione in return for her help?"

Ron's face went red. "Lots of stuff!"

"Well, when you can name that 'stuff' let me know and we'll reevaluate. Until then, the verdict stands. You're a useless parasite."

Aderes… He sighed, wondering if Ron was going to hate him again. "My friend is not a parasite." Though he could hardly deny what Aderes was saying. Ron did abuse Hermione's help. And so did I, he reminded himself. The only reason he'd stopped was due to Aderes' intervention, making Ron's situation unfair. He'd gone from using Hermione to using Aderes and was trying, unintentionally slowly, to break himself of the habit. Aderes was trying to get Ron to stop all at once with no help.

Aderes turned to him, his eyes narrowed. 'Don't start that!'

'Well, it's true!'

Annoyance. 'I'm going to murder your friend, so you don't have to worry about any of this anymore.'

'Aderes!'

(X)

"Oh, thank Merlin you're home! Read this!"

Remus blinked and nearly fell backwards when Sirius thrust the piece of parchment in front of his face. "What's wrong?" He could barely make out the words given how close the parchment was, not to mention how tired he felt. He'd been up for the last fifteen hours doing his best not to skin Greyback alive and turn him into a new rug for number twelve. Yet here was Sirius, shoving paper at him when he hadn't even been inside long enough to remove his shoes.

"This!" Sirius waved the parchment around.

Sighing, Remus stepped around the paper and went down the hall, Sirius going after him. He collapsed into the first kitchen chair he managed to stagger over to. "Is there any tea?"

"Yeah."

"... can I have some?"

Sirius nodded. "Yeah. You can read this while I make it." He dropped the parchment onto the table and rushed off to the cabinet above the sink.

With Sirius distracted, he closed his eyes for a minute. He really wanted a nap.

"Remus!"

He jumped, frowning when he saw the cup of tea sitting in front of him. "S, sorry."

"I know you're tired, but you need to read this before you go lie down."

"Okay, okay." He took a gulp of his tea before picking up the letter.

Padfoot,

I'm not entirely sure where to start. I've only been at school for a week and my life has fallen apart. I don't know what to do. The magical item issue we were dealing with over the summer? It turns out it was actually a real person. They were doing some kind of research and got stuck in it. I'm begging you not to get mad, but I kissed him and… we've been dating since. I don't know what it is about him, but I really like being with him.

Remus whistled. One week at school and Harry had a boyfriend. He looked at Sirius. His poor husband looked like he had when he'd first gotten out of Azkaban, just with more energy.

So that's the good news. Maybe sit down for the rest of this letter.

Okay. He took another sip of his tea to help prepare himself.

I'm sure you've read the daily prophet and saw the picture of the student who was dealing with blood inking. It was me.

His eyes widened. "Are you kidding me?" Dumbledore had allowed Umbridge to conduct blood inking on a student and of course it had conveniently been Harry?

"Keep reading."

My boyfriend got involved, and it's been… 'dealt with.' I can't go into detail in the letter, but… Well, he was sorted into Slytherin.

Oh dear. The fact that Harry thought someone being sorted into Slytherin automatically made them a bad person made him snicker.

I know you don't like Slytherin. I don't understand it myself, but somehow Draco Malfoy has ended up in our group and it's been nice. Snape hasn't been giving me such a hard time, but I think that's because of my boyfriend. I'm begging you to please just get to know him. He's a little morally challenged, but I'm working on it. He's been helping keep my scar from hurting, and he's helped with a lot of other things.

Oh, Ron made it onto the Quidditch team.

Stag.

Remus burst into laughter and did his best to reread the letter to make sure he hadn't missed anything.

"What in that letter is even relatively funny!?"

"I'm laughing because Harry seems to think telling us Ron made it onto the Quidditch team makes everything else in the letter sound better."

"This is serious, Remus! He's dating a guy we don't know, a Slytherin—"

He should have known Sirius wouldn't be completely open to Harry dating someone. "But we do kind of know him. He stopped Harry's uncle from choking him, he cleaned Harry's Gytrash cut, and he helped snap Harry out of his trance so he could drive away the Dementors," he said listing off all the things Harry had repeated to them over the summer. Slytherin or not, Harry had found himself quite the amazing boyfriend.

"He also threw Ron into a wall and he caused Harry how much pain!?"

"Dumbledore explained that." This is going to take some time.

"Yeah. He explained that Harry got wrapped up in some really dark magic and somehow doesn't remember any of it, and—"

"And that everything that happened was one of the only reasons Harry survived the graveyard," he said, hoping to get Sirius to calm down, if only a little. "Harry really seems taken with him."

"I still don't like it. And how can we even trust Dumbledore anymore? He seems to have no regard for Harry's safety or even his life!" He sat down across from Remus, glowering.

Remus had been wondering the same thing ever since he'd come home and heard about the attack on Harry and Dumbledore's complete lack of concern about it. "Well… this boyfriend seems to be there whenever Harry needs help… It even says here that he stopped Umbridge's detention."

"Or Dumbledore made it seem that way, so we'd drop our defenses and let this guy get close to Harry."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "What would he gain by doing that?"

"I don't know! But I don't trust him, Remus. Something isn't adding up here. And this kid has Harry talking to Draco Malfoy—"

"That was my doing actually," he said, smiling when Sirius looked like he might fall over.

"What?! Why!?"

"Because everyone here was giving Harry a hard time. When we were at Molly's funeral, I caught the two of them talking and it seemed like Draco was in need of a friend and so was Harry. I know Lucius is a pure blood sympathizer and a Death Eater, but I taught one year at Hogwarts and Draco isn't the monster his father is, not yet anyway. Harry might be the one person who can keep him from falling to his father's level."

Sirius snorted. "All of you have gone mad!"

"You can't just judge people without meeting them," he said, frowning. "You're a Black, but you're nothing like your parents." Sirius snorted. "Why don't we have Harry introduce us over the holidays? Dumbledore didn't seem to mind that he was here in number twelve. That has to count for something. Even if he doesn't have Harry's best interests in mind, he would never risk the Order as a whole."

Sirius deflated a little. "... Yeah. You're right. I still don't like it."

"Harry really wants your approval or he wouldn't be begging you in his letter not to hate his boyfriend."

"I get it," he sighed.

"Good. I'm going to get some sleep. Maybe calm down a little before replying to Harry's letter?"

"I will."

"Thank you." He leaned across the table and kissed Sirius.

Sirius blushed and grabbed Remus's hand. "Maybe I'll come join you for a while."

"Just remember, I'm going to sleep."

"Eventually."

(X)

"What subject are we on now," Harry asked. They'd gone back to their dorm after breakfast, Hermione refusing to even tell Ron what the assigned pages were. Luckily, Harry had written them down because he doubted Aderes would tell him either. For some reason it felt like Ron had twice the amount of homework Harry had. He swore he hadn't done some of these assignments, but when he went through his bag to check, sure enough, they were there.

"Herbology," Ron muttered.

"Okay." He removed his herbology book and joined Ron on his bed, wondering how much longer he'd be dealing with this. If Ron had just done the assignments as they were handed out, he could be somewhere snogging Aderes instead of listening to Ron curse every few minutes. They'd finished Divination and Astrology, so at least they were getting somewhere. "Herbology is an essay about the proper way to care for a Mandrake from seedling to fully bloomed flower."

"Why," Ron groaned at the ceiling, and dropping the book into his lap. "I'm never going to try and grow one of these things at home!"

"Yeah, and we never use Divination for anything, but we signed up for the class."

"I can't wait to drop it next year."

"Can we do that?"

Ron nodded. "You can drop as many classes as you want your sixth year, but you can only sign up for a class if you get a high enough O.W.L."

Harry's mind was racing now. He wasn't just getting away from Snape. He could drop out of Divination and stop hearing her predict his death every week. No more having to listen to Professor Binns go on and on about history that he couldn't care less about. Next year was going to be amazing.

(X)

'You're drifting again, perhaps you should just get some sleep,' Aderes offered, nuzzling Harry gently. They were sitting in an overstuffed chair, Aderes invisible in his shadow form, Harry practically asleep on top of him.

'No…. not until Ron is finished,' he answered with a half yawn. He was tired, he'd admit that, but he refused to ditch Ron. He'd ended up wasting his entire day already, trying hard to keep Ron from straying from his homework. After dinner Hermione had finally taken pity on Harry and offered to help babysit their friend in the commons. If he left now, it would make all the hours he put in seem pointless.

'Harry?'

'Hmm?'

Aderes said something, but Harry didn't catch it, his attention elsewhere. He could have sworn he'd seen something out of the corner of his eye.

'Harry.'

"Wait.' He'd seen the movement again; he was sure of it. Removing himself from Aderes' arms, he got up from the overstuffed chair and walked over to the fireplace. Hermione and Ron looked up at him.

"Is something wrong," Ron asked, frowning.

"I think…. I just saw Sirius' head," he said. But that wasn't possible, was it? How could he be seeing Sirius' head?

The flames went into a whirlwind dance, almost like a doorway opening in the fireplace.

What in the…?

'Your godfather is an idiot,' Aderes said, bored.

"What could he possibly be thinking? This is no time to be pulling stunts like this! He should know better! Oh! Where's Lupin when you need him," Hermione demanded, sounding like a panicked Mrs. Weasley.

Harry agreed. His godfather was being reckless, but he had so many things he needed to talk about that he'd kick himself if he didn't take advantage of this.

"Snuffles!"

"Harry," Sirius said, smiling. "Don't talk too loud, Moony is sleeping."

So that's how he got away with doing this.

Aderes mentally agreed, snickering.

"I know how risky this is, but after reading that letter… well." He paused, his eyes boring into Harry's.

"It's really not…" If he finished that sentence, he'd be lying.

"You should have just written back," Hermione whispered, harshly.

"No. I needed to talk to Harry in person about some of these issues."

"It's not as bad as it sounds," Harry said, holding his hand up to the fire. "You can't even see it anymore." Thank god Aderes had used the healing ointment he had. There was no telling what Sirius would have done if he'd seen another scar on Harry's body.

"That's not the issue I was concerned about."

"It's not?" What else could possibly be worse than the blood inking?

"No, I want to hear about this... boyfriend of yours." His face went sour when he uttered the word boyfriend.

"That's what you're risking your safety for," Hermione demanded.

"The guy's a creep," Ron said, without hesitation. "He crammed himself into a necklace, mailed himself to Harry, and he's been snogging him since! He's a Slytherin, and—"

"And he risked getting sent to Azkaban so Umbridge couldn't hurt me," Harry growled.

"He's not normal!"

"You're just jealous," Hermione snapped.

"Who would be jealous of that weirdo!?"

Sirius let out a small gasp and Harry followed his gaze, sighing when he saw Aderes flickering into his human form.

"Normal would be rather boring," he said, walking towards the fireplace, head held high. When he was next to Harry, he sat down beside him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Harry grinned, his face burning.

Sirius studied them for a moment.

"I know I didn't get to explain much in the letter, but... I wanted you to know," Harry said. To know and hopefully be happy for him.

"How did a Slytherin get into the Gryffindor common room?"

"With practice," Aderes smirked.

"I don't like it," he said, glaring at the teen. "But Harry wants me to give you a chance. I'll be meeting you soon. Then we can talk, preferably, alone."

Aderes shrugged, his arm snaking around Harry's waist. "I'll be there."

Sirius nodded. He still didn't seem happy, but the fact that he wasn't trying to kill Aderes on sight was a good start. "How are your lessons in Umbridge's class going," he seemed to ask randomly. "I saw the Daily Prophet this morning. If I wasn't being held here…"

"Awful," Ron said, sulking. "All we do is read the stupid textbook!"

"I figured as much. From what we understand here, Fudge doesn't want anyone to be trained in combat, so he pretty much destroyed the Defense Against the Dark Arts class," he sighed. "What a mistake."

"Trained for combat? What does he think we're doing here, forming some sort of wizard army," Harry asked in shock. That was one of the craziest things he'd heard lately.

Sirius nodded. "That's exactly what he thinks. Fudge is paranoid and bringing the school down with him. Thinks Dumbledore is trying to steal his power from the Ministry," he let out another sigh. "When will these people ever learn? Of course, that move on Dumbledore's part was basically him declaring war—"

"You couldn't have expected him to not do anything," Harry snapped.

"Of course not," Sirius said, his eyes widening slightly. "I wish I could do something myself, but Remus would skin me alive. I'm just surprised he moved so quickly. That's a bit unlike him."

"He didn't have a choice," Aderes said. "If he hadn't, Fudge would have had a lot more problems than some bad publicity." Images of a dead Umbridge flickered through the bond.

"Aderes!"

"What? it's not like I was hiding it," he laughed.

"You're going to get me sent to St. Mungo's," he sighed, leaning against him.

"Fudge is trying to find some reason, any reason, to get Dumbledore arrested—"

"What," Aderes demanded, his eyes flicking to Sirius, his voice a low growl. It seemed his boyfriend had not been privy to that information. Flames were practically surging through the bond. Thankfully, his boyfriend had them under control enough to not let them lash out at Harry.

"For what," Harry asked.

"That article in The Daily Prophet about the blood inking wasn't received nicely by other parents. They didn't write about it, but a lot of parents showed up at the Ministry of Magic demanding the torture stop and for Fudge take responsibility. There's even been talks about removing him from his position."

"Good. If someone got the real results for the mental evaluation done during Harry's trial from St. Mungo's, they would see just how unstable he really is. You know what drove him to the edge, right," Aderes asked Sirius.

"If you're suggesting I did something—"

"It was the Dementor he was keeping as a bodyguard."

Harry swore he could see a hint of surprise in Sirius eyes.

"I see you catch on quick."

"I'm at the front of everything."

Sirius' head vanished suddenly, Remus appearing a second later. "I'm closing this connection before this arse gets caught." His eyes fell on Aderes. "You're the one from Harry's Boggart." He smiled. "Please continue to look after Harry." To the others. "It's late. Go to bed." His head vanished into the flames. They could hear yelling and Harry saw what had to be what Lupin had called the "connection" fall in on itself. There was another burst of flames and then nothing.

Harry let out a breath. Sirius was willing to give Aderes a chance. Grinning, he turned to Aderes, threw his arms around his neck, and pushed him down, kissing him.

(TBC)