Walk the Shadows

'Er, it'll be great to have you back as a professor. You were the best we've had at Defense.'

Remus gave him a rueful smile. 'That's damning with faint praise, I do believe.'

Harry relaxed a little. 'Well, maybe. But you're the only one who didn't want to kill me.'

'Though I still could have.' Remus sat forward again, looking very serious. 'I will be taking my potions like clockwork.'

'See that you do, Lupin,' Snape said, still coldly. 'I will not have you putting the boy in danger again.'

'I know, I know . . .' He gave Snape a shrewd look. 'You're taking his protection a little personally, aren't you, Severus?'

Snape scowled. 'Only as personally as I should.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'That, Wolf, is none of your business.'

Remus' eyes narrowed. 'What's going on here . . . Harry?'

Snape merely gave Harry a raised-eyebrow look, as if letting him know that it was his decision whether to tell Remus of their new standing. Harry sighed. Better to get it out in the open now. 'Professor Snape's going to be my guardian. At least, he's put in the paperwork for it.'

It took a few minutes for Remus to recover. Until then, his mouth gaped open and his gaze warbled back and forth between him and Snape. Finally he said, 'What?'

'Your erudition does you credit,' Snape sneered. 'Though, perhaps your hearing should be checked.'

'Harry . . .'

'I'm telling you the truth, Remus. He offered to be my guardian, till I'm of age, and I said it was okay.' Please don't make a scene, Remus, Harry begged in his thoughts, even as he realized that Sirius would have been shrieking right about now. But them if he were here, Harry would have been staying with him. How would Sirius have dealt with Harry right out of that manor? These last few weeks . . . ? The idea made him shiver.

Remus stared at Snape now. 'Severus?'

'I assure you, Potter is not lying.' He looked Harry over with his sardonic gaze, and curved one half of his mouth up as if to say, 'This time,' but he didn't say the words, which Harry found oddly reassuring.

'But why?'

'Because up till now, his guardians have been woefully incompetent when it comes to protecting him, in either mind or body, from Muggles, Dark Lords and their minions, or even various Defense teachers who can be classified as 'other.'' Snape gave Remus one of his most condescending smiles. 'And I believe I can do better.'

'So this is one-upmanship is it? Still trying to outdo Sirius?'

'I do not consider seeing to Harry's welfare to be a competition, Lupin. I can imagine, however, that the dog might have needed--'

'Please!' Harry cried, stopping the tirade. 'Please, sir, don't argue about it. Remus, I want Professor Snape as my guardian, okay? Honest. I trust him, and . . .'

'And you don't trust me,' Remus said softly. 'I'm sorry, Harry, for whatever I did to--'

'You didn't do anything!' Harry yelled.

'And that's the crux of it, I'm sure.' Remus' golden eyes closed, and he put his head in his hands. 'I don't know if you were listening, that day in the infirmary, when you brought Professor Snape in, and I couldn't see you, but I admitted that I never checked on you with those Muggles. I wasn't there for you when it mattered. After James and Lily died . . . I just wasn't myself.' He looked up at last. 'And I am deeply sorry for that.'

'It wasn't your fault.' Harry reached a shaking hand out to touch Remus' knee, and Remus covered it with his own hand. 'It was just . . . a bunch of things went wrong. But it's no one's fault. And now the Dursleys are gone, so I wouldn't have to go back there anyway.'

'Thank you, Harry.' Remus still looked sad, but he didn't try to hold on when Harry pulled his hand back. 'Oh! I almost forgot.' He jumped up and went to his desk, where he opened one of the drawers. 'I went to check their house, right after we heard you were caught, to see if I could find anything that might help us find you.' He pulled a bundle of cloth and a book out and came back toward Harry, holding them out. 'Most of the house was empty, but I found these in what I assume was your room, under the bed.'

Oh, god. His Invisibility Cloak. And the album of his parents that Hagrid had put together for him, and that he'd added to over the years, with pictures of himself, and Ron and Hermione, many taken by Colin Creevy. His hands were shaking again as he took the two items from Remus. 'Thank you,' he breathed. 'I thought these were gone . . .'

'The Death Eaters searched the house,' Snape explained, sounding much less cross than he had a minute ago. 'You must have been there right before them.'

'Maybe,' Remus said, even as Harry flipped through the first couple pages of the album, while draping the cloak over his legs. 'But they were hidden pretty well. At least, the album was, tucked down in a secret compartment in the floor.'

Not really thinking, Harry said, 'Yeah, I bet you found part of an old plum cake there, too. Sorry, it was prob'ly hard as rock.'

'In fact I did.' Remus paused. 'Why did you have a petrified plum cake under your bed?'

'It was all that was left of Mrs. Weasley's care package.' He traced his fingers over a picture of his Mum and Dad together, this one taken at their wedding, he thought. They looked so happy. Smiling back at them as they waved, something loosened in his chest. He hadn't realized how very much he missed this album until he got it