"There you are! Why did you run off yesterday, you've been missing a day now -"
Harry threw himself into his mama's arms. He buried his face in her shoulder and squeezed, ignoring the hum of embarrassment at the childish action. A chair scraped against the flooring and Sirius joined them, sandwiching Harry in between their bodies. They made concerned eye contact over his head when Alabasandria tried to ease out of his grasp, and Harry made a noise of frustration and held on tighter.
Her nails carded through his hair.
"What's wrong? What's happened?"
"It's just been a bad couple of weeks, is all."
"The ritual did not work, did it?" Mama sighed. "I knew something was up when you came back that night looking upset. I'm sorry, dear. We'll find a way to uncover the tournament's tasks. We still have time until the first -"
"No, no. It worked." Harry released them, hiding his face as he moved over to a loveseat and burrowed into it. They were at the Black Library, he noticed, as he huddled into a thick blanket. Open tomes and ink-blotted paper dotted the central table. Boxes full of bones were stacked at its side. It was the sort of thing Dumbledore had sworn that not even the Most Noble and Dark-Arts-Obsessed House of Black would engage in, yet look at them now. He bit back hysterical laughter. Sirius was dabbling in things the headmaster could not even comprehend. He frowned, looking at the items set up for a summoning ritual. They'd been busy before Harry had interrupted. Good job.
"Harry, love. Please talk to us," Sirius scooted into the sliver of space left on the couch. "I saw that article. Are the students giving you trouble?"
"Everything is giving me trouble," he sighed. "But don't worry about it. I know you guys are busy, I'll just -"
"No, do not do that. We aren't too busy for you. Talk to us, please."
Harry talked.
Then he received some more hugs.
"I didn't think," Sirius sighed. "I should have known. Even the stuff you have mentioned would have been enough to worry you, but you had seemed fine after the wand weighing ceremony. I'm sorry love, I should have checked in with you."
"'S not your fault," Harry mumbled. "I didn't tell you everything."
Alabasandria bit back a retort that Harry should have absolutely told them everything, instead of gambling with Dumbledore on his own. The only thing worse than children were teenagers. Somehow, they cried more.
"I've got an idea," Sirius said. "Would it be helpful if we split everything up and talked about what might happen worst-case scenario? A lot of your worries are in your head, Harry, even if their timing seems imminent. You don't have to focus on it all right now."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"Well, of all that stuff you mentioned, what worries you the least?"
Harry thought for a moment. "Are you mad I told Neville? I don't think he'll say anything."
"No," Alabasandria said. "I doubt he will. He's -" She hummed in thought. "Well, he would be rather easy to keep in line. All you have to do is convince him you could heal his parents and he would do whatever you wanted."
Sirius groaned. "But that is very cruel," he argued. "So don't you dare do that unless you have to, young man. He's your friend, and he at least suspected a great deal, to confront you about it, for who knows how long, and he never said anything."
"Yeah, I trust Neville." Harry agreed.
"For the record, he is one of my most tolerable students," Alabasandria argued. "I don't think he would spill either. We are prepping for the worst-case scenario, like you said. So don't look at me like that, Sirius."
When Harry thought things over with a settled mind and the others reminded him of logic, he felt assured that most of his problems were solvable. Malfoy was a coward who was probably just jealous of Harry, Skeeter was the weird one for bullying children, and Sirius agreed to fend off the horde of reporters who were very interested in their theories about Voldemort.
"What about the prophecy?"
"A load of rubbish," mama waved her hand dismissively. "They let anyone's prophecies be certified these days, rubbish! What have I told you about divination?"
"It's vague and stupid."
....
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