Tom got everyone back to Dragonsrest safely, and Harry immediately bolted to his room and closed the door. Draco and Dudley looked at each other uncertainly, not sure of the problem. Petunia and Tom, however had heard what Harry had half-yelled at Lupin and knew the difficulty.

Tom cursed under his breath. "Harry didn't need someone undermining his faith in Severus. He's just getting used to the idea of having a family, such as we are."

Petunia nodded and wrung her hands. She had recognized the shabby figure of Remus after staring at him long enough. It had been over ten years since the last time she had seen him, after all. Several of James' friends had been at his and Lily's wedding. Lily had sent her an invitation and Prtunia had hesitantly responded and persuaded Vernon to go, as well.

The outcome of their attending the wedding had been bad, of course. Several of James' friends had decided to make Petunia and Vernon pay for their estrangement from Lily. Vernon had never really forgiven the humiliation and had hated the very thought of magic after that.

Severus and Lucius arrived very quickly after them and Severus looked up at Harry's closed door with dismay, and then took and deep breath and went up to enter the room, and re-closing the door behind him.

Harry was curled in a corner of the window seat, Hedwig hooting softly at him and grooming his hair comfortingly.

Severus went over to the boy, sitting near him uncertainly and looked at Harry's rebellious face. "Harry..." Severus began, but Harry burst out a denial of the whole event.

"He's lying - I know he's lying. He's just a jealous prat ... he doesn't want me to be happy if it's with someone he doesn't approve of." Harry's rant finally wound to an end, and Harry's shoulders hunched - as if waiting for a reprimand.

Severus sat back in silence. He hadn't expected an immediate denial, and it was a bit discouraging, as it meant that Harry at least partially believed Remus or he wouldn't be so angry and defiant over it.

"I'm sure that Remus had convinced himself that I'm trying to erase the parts of you that remind me of James." Severus said slowly. "The truth is that yes, at times you remind me of James." Harry's eyes flew to him in alarm, at that, but at least he was looking at him, Severus thought. "However, much reminds me of Lily as well. Mostly, Harry I see you as you, and any flashes of James or Lily don't bother me."

"How can it not bother you - Remus said you were enemies, and the way he said it...things had to have been worse between you than you've said." Harry looked at him a bit accusingly.

Severus winced a bit, and then looked at Harry earnestly. "Harry, there is no way I would ever mistake you for your father - and I'm not speaking so about your looks at the moment. James was an only child of a very elderly rich pureblood couple - he was spoiled and made to feel he could do nothing wrong - obviously your childhoods were completely different. Your manner towards others is completely different - you don't act like you should be catered to or as if you are the center of the universe." Severus struggled to explain himself. "If you emulated James in those areas, then yes, I would be likely to resent you. You don't remind me of James in any way that I would resent."

Harry looked at him hopefully. "So...getting rid of the glasses wasn't to make me look different from him?"

Severus shook his head. "You were nearly blind without the glasses - a severe disadvantage if enemies realized that knocking them off would effectively blind you."

Harry nodded slowly, looking relieved - and then started with the fidgeting. Severus sighed, he knew that was a sure sign something was bothering Harry and he didn't know how to broach the subject. "Harry?" Severus caught his eyes. "If something bothers you, I'd rather get this all done at once."

Harry gulped a bit. "Did you and my father hate each other so much?"

Severus sat back again; he knew he couldn't sugar-coat things, as he had been. He hated doing this. "We both loved Lily, and yes, we hated each other because we felt the other had an unfair advantage in their pursuit of her. James knew we had been best friends for years - giving me a certain advantage. James had looks, money, a talent in Quidditch and he was in Gryffindor with Lily - so I was wary of his advantages."

Severus struggled a bit. "It's hard to make you understand how such a rivalry can become so bitterly hate-filled - all I can say is that when you truly fall in love with someone, then you will know how easy it is to hate someone who you know might take them from you."

"But you don't hate him, now?" Harry asked with more hope.

"Well, if you had asked me this spring - I would have said yes." Severus grimaced. "But I have had months now to really look at my feelings, since becoming your guardian. Also, since my involvement with Rosemerta - I've had years to try to move past my feelings for your parents - I'll always remember my love for Lily and her friendship, of course. James, though, as Rosemerta has said - it seems stupid to hate someone who is dead, especially since he died defending Lily and you." Severus willed Harry to understand this and believe him.

Harry's face had been lightening throughout Severus' attempt to explain. The fact that Severus was trying to explain instead of simply denying it flatly was a help. He didn't seem to be trying to evade any questions and had - reluctantly - admitted that he and James really had hated each other, so he wasn't glossing things over anymore. But now Harry was beginning to feel guilty for making such a fuss.

"I'm sorry I listened to Mr. Lupin at all." Harry said anxiously. "Are...are you mad at me?"

"No, of course not." Severus answered in surprise. "Unfortunately Lupin had a good idea of where to attack, and he drove a wedge into an area he felt was weakest - my past antagonistic relationship with James. I would say that Lupin arrived feeling you should not be living with me and was looking for ‘evidence' to support and validate his belief, and you getting your eyes fixed was just the ‘evidence' he was looking for."

Harry looked relieved. "Thank you for explaining, I know it must be a pain to have to constantly make things clear to me."

Severus felt a wave of relief, Harry believed him. "I am given to understand that this is a part of parenting."

Harry giggled and grinned, lifting the last weights from Severus' heart. Harry seemed ultimately unharmed by the brush with the marauder. Severus stood and helped Harry up from the floor.

"I believe we mostly missed lunch, shall we see what the elves can whip up on short notice?" Harry nodded eagerly, with his appetite restored and Severus watched with relief as Harry opened the door and went down the stairs with his usual bounce. Hedwig watched Severus and hooted in what Severus hoped was an approving manner.

The group downstairs watched a cheerful Harry return down the stairs with relief. Harry approached Lucius and Petunia, who had been exchanging ‘I didn't enjoy meeting those horrid marauders either' stories.

"I'm sorry I ruined the lunch, Mr. Malfoy, Aunt Petunia. I shouldn't have let Mr. Lupin upset me." Harry said seriously.

"Not at all, Harry. Lupin set out to upset you deliberately. It takes time to learn to not react to provocation." Lucius answered with relief. Severus had apparently defused the situation quite well.

Petunia reached out and pulled Harry into a tight hug. "Don't be silly, Harry. You were right to be upset with him. He'd no right to say such things."

Tom watched the proceedings with a low burning anger. He had watched the Slytherin/Gryffindor rivalry in his own time enough to know how long-lasting the feuds could be, but this anger between the werewolf and Severus had seemed especially deep. The werewolf had hid his antipathy fairly well, with it only showing through when he had talked to Harry, but Yvane had noticed it - and had shared his findings with Tom.

Tom could easily remember when planning the disposing of an irritant like Lupin would have not given him a second thought. A werewolf could be provoked into a fight - with enough wizards backing him up the werewolf could be killed and no one would look hard at the death of a werewolf. Before getting stuck in the diary, he and his group at Hogwarts hadn't put such plans into action - yet, but they had reasoned out how to get rid of rivals such as Lupin.

Tom looked over at Harry thoughtfully, this Lupin had hurt Harry, but he could understand why Harry might not want him dead and why the others weren't arranging for a tragic accident for the werewolf. Mr. Lupin was Harry's last close link to his father - the only reason Severus had allowed the meeting to take place at all.

Lucius met Tom's eyes, understanding flowing between them. It would be easy to arrange for Lupin to never be seen again - but they were backing Harry and the ‘light' side now. So things had to be done a bit more...umm, legally.

The elves more than made up for the interrupted lunch and the hungry boys dug in. Dudley and Draco were flanking Harry and promising to tell off Mr. Lupin the next time they saw him. The trio then ran off to take closer looks at the dragons guarding the door today and the others had barely sat down in the parlor when the floo sounded.

Albus Dumbledore was requesting a word with Severus.

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Neville watched his Uncle Algie make his way into the floo with his usual debonair flourish. For the first time in memory it didn't annoy Neville. He thought with satisfaction on the many painful boils and sores that would be erupting in a few hours.

Callidora and he had spent hours thinking of a way around the problem of masking Neville's magic. Callidora had finally remembered that some hexes could have a ‘time release' built in, so Neville could cast the hex just before someone left, so they wouldn't realize that Neville had done it.

They had found a book on ‘time releasing spells' that listed what spells it could be done with and the appropriate incantations. They had searched the book, giggling over some of the spells and writing down possibilities. The boil curse had been too good to pass up, and it was one of the easiest incantations and the wand movement was simply aiming at the intended part of the body.

Neville had practiced the incantation with the addition of the time release words over and over waiting for tonight - Uncle Algie's ‘night with the boys' - meaning gambling night. Grandmother gave Uncle Algie a weekly stipend out of some small legacy a relative had left him - and had had the wit to leave Augusta in charge of. ‘Allowance day' meant ‘gambling that night'. So Neville waited until Algie headed for the floo and cast the hex. It would be about an hour and a half before they erupted - making Algie believe it was someone at the wizard casino.

Neville smiled blissfully and walked into the dining room with a smile - no dinner with Algie, either. He looked at Grandmother Augusta with a happy smile - the first in years and asked if she would like to play some wizard chess.

August looked at her grandson in surprise. He hadn't asked to play that in...years. And...Neville looked odd - she looked closer and realized he was smiling, and since he looked strange that way - he apparently hadn't done a lot of that, lately. Augusta answered, ‘yes', a bit guiltily. She had known the Neville was unhappy, but had felt unable to fix the problem. Algie, the dear, had been doing his best to ‘jar his magic into the open', and had finally succeeded. She smiled mistily. Algie had been such a disappointment in many ways, but he was a dutiful Uncle.

Augusta had been terrified that her grandson would be a squib. She and her friend Muriel Prewett had talked at length about it. Muriel had had terrible problems with her squib son, and now he was back with his two magical children, causing trouble again.

Well, at least Neville wasn't a squib, to her relief so she didn't have to figure out what to do with a squib relative, like Muriel had had to - not that Lawrence had listened, he'd run off to the muggle world, instead. They finished up supper and moved to the family room to set up a game of wizard chess. She and Neville had played this years ago, before worries about his magic had started. He hadn't really understood the game, but had had fun, anyway.

They made their opening moves and Neville hummed happily, it was almost like when Grandmother had still cared about him, instead of his magic, he thought. Now if he could just get rid of Uncle Algie...he sent a knight to smash a cringing rook with satisfaction...yes, if Uncle Algie was gone Grandmother would forget to worry so much about his magic levels - especially if he let her see a spot of magic or two, she'd be satisfied for a time.

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Astrid and Hazelette had spent a great deal of time guarding Dragonsrest the past week. Astrid felt some gratitude toward the occupants of the home for having freed him and Hazelette didn't like to stray too far from Astrid. Hazelette knew that her mind wandered at times and she would forget why she was going somewhere or doing something and Astrid would good about reminding her. She had started teaching Astrid healing magic, as he had developed a personal interest in that after she had healed his wounds and eyes. He had the aptitude and was learning quickly.

They lounged in front of the house, knowing the young boys were watching them from the large porch at the front of the house, peeking around the bushes and vines at them. Hazelette preened a little, and told Astrid some lengthy tales of young humans she had met in the past. One of her riders had been rather prolific and she had gotten used to having ‘younglings' around.

Afternoon settled in and Astrid wandered over to the compound to eat. Astrid put in her own order for food. "See if they have any nice plump deer. Cattle are all well and good, but nothing beats a tender young buck." Hazelette continued reminiscing about some past feasts as he wandered off. She rested her head on her forelegs musing on whether does were sweeter tasting than bucks. Her eyes were half-lidded, but Hazelette was quite alert.

McNair, however, thought that this was the opportunity he'd been waiting for. Harry and two other boys were alone on the porch - the one had the look of Lucius Malfoy and the other must be the muggleborn cousin. He knew he would have to be quick, but he wanted to kill all three of them and then quickly apparate away. He had transfigured some driftwood into replica of his favorite large axe. If he blocked the entrance to the porch, they shouldn't be able to get away - a few swings and they would be gone, and the end would be bloodier and more horrifying for Lucius and Severus.

It seemed the perfect time - one of the dragons had left and the other was asleep. He crept forward toward the porch with the boys still whispering about the bloody dragon. Just as he reached the porch a large clawed foot crashed down in front of the entrance, blocking his path.

Hazelette had not been asleep, of course, and she watched carefully as McNair had approached. She recognized him immediately - Yao and other dragons that had seen him at the party had passed around very clear images of the evil wizard. She felt quite gleeful that she would be the one to capture him - the young dragons wouldn't tease her about being absentminded after this! She kept still, continuing to pretend sleep until he was directly in front of her and then she stopped him with her foot, quickly sitting up on her haunches, tail lashing in eagerness.

The boys looked over and caught sight of the enraged McNair clutching his blade. Dudley, at least, knew an axe murderer when he saw one and yelled loudly for his mum. Draco's eyes popped and he let out a rather high-pitched scream. Harry however was stunned to silence and merely thought ... ‘more killers again, already?'

McNair saw the chance was blown and made a fatal mistake. In his rage, he raised his axe and brought it down on the clawed foot blocking his path, striking deeply into the back of it. Hazelette shrieked in pain - her roar echoing throughout the area - and instinct immediately kicked in and the elderly dragon snapped at the puny human who dared to cause her pain. A couple of snaps and she suddenly realized the human was gone. She could hear the dismayed boys yelling ‘yuck' and grasped the fact that she'd eaten the offender.

Dragonriders and dragons were coming from everywhere and wizards were erupting from Dragonsrest, Tom in the lead. Tom looked down at the forearm still clutching the axe lying on the ground - that was all that was left of McNair, and gazed up at the sheepish looking Hazelette who merely said. "Oops?"

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Albus had left the floo with reluctance. He had gone to the house Remus was now working on in Hogsmeade when the wards alert him that he had returned. It had obviously been a very short visit with Harry and that worried him. Sure enough, there had been difficulties.

Remus had given a rather disjointed account referring several times to the ‘fact' that Severus was changing Harry ‘into someone that won't look like James' and ‘won't remind him of James'. Harry's angry response had concerned Albus the most and he thought with resigned anger that he would have to clean up this mess, as well.

He'd snapped at Remus a bit, reminding him that Severus was obviously making Harry happy and that was all that counted. "A lack of glasses won't change his looks that much, and you're an idiot to think that Harry will believe your assertions."

Remus had looked aggravated at Albus' lack of support, and had sullenly gone back to work on warding.

Now Albus stood in Dragonsrest facing at least two angry Slytherins with an apologetic look. "I understand the luncheon didn't go well?"

Severus gave Albus a brief account of the conversation between Harry and Remus. "I managed to prevent any real damage to Harry feeling secure in his own home - he's just starting to believe he is truly wanted here and he didn't need Remus undermining that."

Albus nodded, "I'm glad no damage was done." He sighed, hating to be caught in the middle. "I underestimated Remus' need to try to re-form his pack." The others looked at him in confusion. "Remus was orphaned just before his third year, and that was when the marauders found out his secret. I've often wondered if Remus let it slip on purpose, because werewolves don't do well without a pack. The marauders quickly became his pack. James was his alpha, although Sirius was also far above him, pack-wise. Peter was the only one who might have been beneath him in their little pack. With all of his pack dead Remus has been wandering much of France and Germany - the Ministries there have a much better handle on their werewolves - they support the packs being together and set aside areas for them to live and they are only restricted during the full moons. The packs appreciate the consideration and police their own ranks quite well."

Lucius nodded slowly, he knew Europe had an easier time with their werewolves. "Spain has larger areas set aside and they rarely leave their lands. Their numbers are dropping, though, as fewer and fewer are bitten - at least in Spain. Several areas have been closed and packs consolidated."

"Well, with Harry now getting a little older - almost Hogwarts age, he's looking for his pack to regroup - Harry would replace James as alpha, and any friends he acquired would soon become Remus' ‘pack'. That is likely why he reacted so badly to your changing Harry in any way that makes him look less like James - he needs to see James in him as much as possible to ‘connect' with him as his new packleader." Albus ended.

"You've done a lot of research, Headmaster." Lucius remarked, half in approval. Albus smiled a bit and nodded.

"I needed to understand why my efforts with Remus at Hogwarts met with such little success. I didn't know nearly enough about them, and drastically underestimated the effect of the wolf on his actions. I thought that a wizard could ... suppress the wolf's impulses if he was not around other werewolves. It obviously didn't work." Albus sighed regretfully and went back to the business at hand. "However you must not cater to Remus' paranoia - you must do what is best for Harry."

Severus looked relieved that he wasn't in for an argument. "I really am not trying to change Harry's appearance - I don't really see James in him - oh, now and then he'll do something that reminds me of him, or he'll get that gleeful grin that James used to have. But I don't feel resentful when that happens. I see just as many flashes of Lily. The glasses have to go because he's just about blind without them - if they were knocked off he would be helpless."

Albus nodded agreeably. "What do you wish to do about Remus?"

Tom immediately thought of a nice wolf-skin rug. Lucius mused over several deserted islands Remus could be left on, wandless of course. Petunia thought darkly about revisiting several pranks that had been done to herself and Vernon. Severus wondered if he could obliviate Harry from Remus' mind.

Albus smirked, reading their faces quite easily. "I thought perhaps Remus could send a few letters - with the understanding that you would read them first." Albus said to Severus.

"That might be ... acceptable." Severus answered slowly. Remus would be careful, that way, knowing Severus would not hesitate to return any letters he did not approve of.

His musing was interrupted by boyish bellowing and screams, and then a thunderous roar from one of the dragons that literally shook the house. They all ran for the front door to find the boys making gagging noises and a confused looking dragon that was looking down at a severed arm clutching an evil looking axe as if she was unsure of how it had gotten there. Dozens of dragons and Dragonriders had run to the spot in haste and looked a bit stunned at the blood-covered area.

Harry at least had the presence of mind to say. "It was McNair - he thought he could get by her, I guess, and when he couldn't he got her in the foot with his axe and well - she sort of retaliated."

Hazelette nodded vigorously clutching the foot to her chest and then gave an inelegant burp.

"Well, he got what he deserved, although it will mean a lot of paperwork." Yuan said philosophically. All the gathered Dragonriders and dragons seemed in agreement and Hazelette was led off to have her foot looked at. Hazelette seemed to be overdoing the limping, but they guessed she deserved the attention.

The Head of the Wizengamot - Albus Dumbledore looked down at the arm and muttered. "Well, that saves us a trial, I suppose." He looked over at Yuan who was also looking at the dragon-style leftovers with distaste. He hated it when a dragon didn't finish their meal.

"Perhaps I should call the IFOW law enforcement?" Yuan finally offered. "We rarely have this type of thing to deal with."

"Yes, and of course we offer any assistance you might need." Albus said, and followed the others back inside Dragonsrest, where there was now a wrestling match in progress - apparently over who had been the bravest - or not during the attack.

"You screamed like a girl" Dudley was shouting at Draco, who had him in a headlock.

"Well you yelled for your Mum!" Draco yelled in return, just before Dudley got free and tackled him.

"Not in the house, gentlemen!" Severus said calmly and shooed them into the garden to roughhouse, along with Harry. Lucius nodded and added that they had better not get any blood on their clothing.

"Well, it has been an interesting afternoon. I must say I will be glad when you return to classes. Potions has turned out to also be more interesting than expected. I have to admit I have no idea how you manage to get any information into the students heads." Albus admitted with a dry chuckle.

"I have been planning to ask for some student assistants or even a regular assistant." Severus immediately put in.

"You perhaps have a student in mind?" Albus looked over at the hopeful looking Tom.

"Of course, Albus." Severus answered smugly. "But we have the rest of this year to formalize the position."

Albus nodded with a smile and flooed away, leaving several smug Slytherins behind.

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