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[alt_sirius]

Found an empty house to kip for a bit. Catch up on the journals.

Merlin, Mordred and Morgana.

Still no word from Albus?

I shouldn't have left.

Comments

[alt_lupin]

Raz and Lucius both -- I don't think any more of Malfoy than you do, but he's been a father figure to Harry.

Because everything that makes Harry decent -- his compassion, his loyalty to his friends, all of it -- is weakness, to Voldemort. Something to be rooted out.

That tactic can backfire, though. Case in point. That's some reason to hope, anyway.

[alt_sirius]

S'pose. I figure that's part of why Harry tried to not to show how much it frightened him: He doesn't want me to think less of him for caring what happens to them.

It can do, yeah. More often it doesn't. Or he'll take some desperate measure to make sure that it poisons the well.

Malfoy, for example. Harry said he wasn't even very coherent about why he Cruciated Malfoy - just did it in his rage. But I wonder if there was a method to it. If he's trying to drive a wedge between Harry and Draco? Not sure what for but perhaps to make sure that Draco stops indulging Harry's sentimentality?

Or perhaps I'm - what's the term? - projecting. For some reason I can't get my father's last duel out of my head today. The way he saw it, if he killed James's father, James would never forgive me. Bringing my uncle along for extra assurance.

Didn't figure on Cyrus being just as fast as them both combined, did he? Or on James being twice as forgiving as I'd ever been.

[alt_lupin]

Well, that's just it, isn't it?

People like your father -- or Voldemort -- they think they get it. Your father thought if he killed Cyrus, James and Grace would never forgive you, and would cast you out the way the Blacks had. Because HE was the sort of person who believed that the actions of one family member tarnished everyone with the same last name. Because HE would have held a grudge like that. The idea that James and Grace would say, 'that bastard took Cyrus away from us, but damned if we're going to let him take Sirius' -- that was beyond his capacity to imagine.

And so he died for nothing. And took your uncle with him. The one thing he thought he'd accomplish was beyond his power even when he picked up his wand.

I don't know if I'm making any sense here, but I think Harry's finding his way to this -- to the idea that you can defy people like Voldemort simply by refusing to be anything other than who you are.

[alt_sirius]

Yes. But Cyrus was just as dead. Did you know he'd been ill? He decided it was worth it to stop my father's vendetta.

Harry may be coming to the revelation, sure. But he's also coming to see that defying Voldemort means one thing and one thing only.


You know what?


I'm not curling up in some abandoned house by myself tonight. I want to sleep in my bed. With YOU.

Is it clear to Apparate back? Or should I aim for the next alley over and slip back in as Sinbad?

Don't suppose you'd be willing to suddenly fancy a pot of ginger tea, in the middle of the night?

[alt_lupin]

I've put the kettle on.

Better aim for the next alley over; I hear Ellie stirring, though I tried not to wake her. She's been checking for you all hours. I think she'll sleep better when she sees you're back.