Time Is Life

familia hereditatem

"What were you thinking?! Staying alone with Barty on the lose trying to kill you?! And what happened to Crouch?!"

Harry rolls his eyes inside his father's personal chambers.

"I stunned myself to get Dumbledore off my scent for a while, Barty killed Crouch after I snapped his spine. It was so satisfying hearing his desperate screams and those last fleeting slivers of sanity waning. He was a weak man, useless to my cause and so he had to disappear." He smiles innocently but the wicked gleam in those black orbs betrays his joy at the death of a person.

Severus stares at him incredulously, then he sneers. "You are lucky I'm your father, brat! We will be working on that for the following years! Now," he makes a vague gesture towards the office table and the two adjacent seats, "on to pressing matters. You wanted the list with first years coming from Muggle orphanages." He slides the list over the table.

Harry takes the parchment in his hands and scans through it in quick succession. His eyes lingering on every orphanage and the names of the children. His eyes fall on two names from Wool's orphanage. He gasps then smiles to himself. "There's just one way to find out..." He looks up at his dad. "Thank you for doing this, I will perform the spell in the following days. I'll have to talk to the people in question. Do you wish to discuss anything else?"

Severus nods and folds his arms on the table. "Are you certain you want to go through with this plan? That you can trust the dark Lord? I don't wish for you to get hurt."

Harry smiles kindly, warmed by his dad's worry over him. He nods and their eyes meet in a silent confrontation. "I am serious and I won't be persuaded otherwise. But shouldn't you be more focused on getting Remus back?" He chuckles softly, then continues solemnly, "I want for you to be happy, just like I am."

"This reminds me of that article a month back. You dodged my question last time. You better answer me, Harry!"

"What? No brat? Now that's new." He laughs, though without humour. His expression souring very soon and his blank features regarding his father.

"Do not change the subject. What have you been doing with mister Diggory?"

There is an uncomfortable silence stretching between them, Harry fiddles around with his robes and bites his lips. His gaze shifting around the room, until he finally sighs.

"He's my mate, just like Remus is to you. We started courting on September 20th. We wanted to keep a low profile and keep our relationship a secret. With Skeeter running around it has been more difficult, but we've managed."

"I see. And is he treating you well?"

Harry blinks at his father before chuckling. The glow of the fireplace bathing them in orange light, the crackling of wood filling the air. "Of course he is. He's loyal, kind and a gentleman. You don't think he could harm anybody, do you?"

Severus shrugs with a similar grim expression as his son. "I don't know, anything could happen."

"Point taken. But Cedric is fine, albeit very insecure, but brave nonetheless. You don't have anything to fear." He smiles and offers his hand.

The black-clad man takes the offered hand and his long thin fingers wrap securely around the smaller hand.

"I could get used to this...it's so much nicer with a parent to talk to. All other adults are showing so much animosity towards our guests that it gets suffocating at times. I don't understand why they would invite Beauxbatons or Durmstrang if the English people are so biased. Viktor is nicer than most British, certainly awkward at first but a bright mind. Fleur knows a lot about creatures but she can come off as highly arrogant, but she's a great friend too." He fondly smiles at his father, wicked gleam gone and disposition normal again. He's calm and collected, in control.