Remorse Filled Love

Casual Gossiping

"Um, sorry—um..." Severus stuttered confusingly and looked around him trying to get a hint what to do.

Sirius and Remus got up grinning and hugged him tightly followed by James and a slightly blushing Lucius. Severus was still standing there awkwardly looking at the group hugging each other. As they all settled down, the Marauders raised their eyebrows at Severus.

"Um, Snivellus, you can hug him, did you know?" Sirius said pointing at Harry.

Severus scowled at the name, but then turned to Harry again, his face a bit pink. Harry tilted his head at him.

"Severus, she isn't here, and moreover, she really wouldn't mind you hug me." Harry said rolling his eyes. "But you don't have to, if—you know." Harry shrugged.

Harry got up and walked to Severus putting a hand around his shoulder, slightly smiling at him.

They talked among them for some more time, before they left as Madam Pomfrey came bustling from her cabin and ushered everybody out of the hospital saying that Harry still needs some rest.

A week later after their end term exams, they were all sitting by the Black Lake enjoying the sun. They had told Lily about Harry, and she had hugged him with great affection; which Harry, very awkwardly, found motherly.

"I still cannot believe that Lily married me!" James said in a dreamy voice grinning.

"James, come off it! Lucinda is going to kill you if she hears about this." Sirius said sniggering.

"I think you are forgetting someone. Before anybody touches you, I'll kill you, if you fantasize about her once more." Severus said glaring at James.

Harry cleared his throat awkwardly and turned away at the Black Lake. Remus and Sirius sniggered at the trio.

"God, why am I even here?" Harry muttered.

"It's good that you are here. I can't imagine breaking my friendship with Lily. And moreover..." Severus trailed off.

"Thank you Severus, I'd have never imagined talking civilly with you. Whenever you talked with me, either it 'twenty points from Gryffindor' or 'detention Potter'. This is tolerable." Harry said grinning.

Severus was blushing profusely. "Uh—sorry would be useless." He said.

Everybody sniggered at that. James clapped Severus on his back. "We can imagine you like that, Severus. Don't be so glum." He said.

"You are not helping." Severus said rolling his eyes.

"Actually there's one more reason why he hated me so much, I happen to look exactly like you James, if you had noticed before. And also I have Lily's eyes." Harry said.

"Well, we have noticed that before, though." Sirius said laughing.

"Yeah, at first we thought you to be some distant cousin of James. But—you turned out to be his son." Remus said giggling.

"I miss those days when you came here as Olympian." Peter spoke up.

Harry's head snapped up. "You knew?" he asked bewildered.

"Yeah; from the second day you visited us." Peter said smirking. "Your eyes told the whole story." He said grinning.

"Holy crap; then why did you act as if you didn't know?" Harry asked.

"We were afraid that you'd stop coming if we let you know. You were already ignoring us by then." Remus said smiling fondly at him. Harry smiled back sheepishly.

Severus and Lucius looked at each other in utter confusion. "Who's Olympian? Whom are you guys talking about?" Lucius asked frowning.

Harry glanced at the Marauders and stood up with a smirk. "Well... they are talking about this." He said and shifted into his beautiful eagle form after checking for anyone around them.