Before Harry even opened his eyes, he felt a grin spread across his face like the morning sun he just awoke to. Rubbing roughly at his face, he swiped along his bedside table for his glasses, blindly sliding them up his nose as he switched on his phone. Still groggy from hours of unconsciousness, he sunk back into the flat, lumpy pillow and squinted at the small screen, his eyes screaming to be closed again.
Harry: good morning
Draco: What the fuck do you want, Potter?
Harry: jesus someone woke up on the wrong side of the incredibly expensive bed
Draco: Fuck off.
Harry: did the silk pillow cases tousel your hair too much?
Draco: *tousle.
And I do not have silk pillowcases.
Harry: u sure buddy
Draco: Call me 'buddy' again and I slit your throat.
Harry: ok budster
Draco: Go hurl yourself into the Thames. And when you're at the bottom, make sure to take a deep breath so that I will never hear you say that ever again.
Draco: Are you going to be at the cafe this morning or not.
Rolling out of bed, Harry shuffled into jeans he had discarded on his bedroom floor and quickly sprayed himself with a half-empty deodorant can before typing into his phone as he walked out the door.
Harry: yep. U?
Draco: If you have an alternative shop that sells coffee this early, please do share.
---
Above Harry's head was a sheet of various greys, the difference between where the clouds ended and the sky started indistinguishable. The cold bit at Harry's cheeks and he hurried down the pathway, hands deep in his pockets.
Someone fell into step beside him. "Mornin, Harry."
With a bright smile, Harry turned his face to the young woman as he continued walking briskly. "Oh, good morning, Tonks. What's the special occasion?"
Tonks' bright orange head of hair bobbed up and down but her firmly cheerful tone did not waver. "Top secret meeting." she playfully grimaced. "I'm to accompany you."
Harry tried not to let his smile falter. "Oh. But, I have a shift a-"
"Nope. McGonagall has replaced you, you're good to go." Abruptly stopping, Tonks gestured to a car beside her and opened the passenger door. "After you."
Pressing his lips together, Harry looked up the street as he put a hand on the door. Two more blocks and he would have been there. Draco would have been there.
Trying not to let his disappointment show, Harry ducked and climbed into the front seat, slamming the door behind him.
---
"Nice house," Harry said sarcastically, slowly walking past the rusty iron pickets and over the crumbling garden. He squinted upwards at the grey building, wondering where all the windows were. "Where are we, exactly?"
"Grimmauld Place," Tonks replied, ever chipper. She waltzed past Harry and rapped smartly on the old looking door and shot Harry a mischievous smile. "This is where Sirius grew up."
"What?" Harry said sharply, a smile growing across his face as he jogged so that he was standing on the porch next to Tonks. Suddenly, the old looking house was much more interesting. "No way."
"Yes, way," Tonks winked before turning to the door and knocking again but this time a specific sequence that moved too fast for Harry to process.
Almost immediately, the great door swung open.
"Hiya Harry!" A tall, ginger boy grinned down at him, holding open the door. "Come on in."
Harry was about to thank him before an identical boy opposite him held out his hands. "Your coat, monsieur."
"Fred, George," Harry smiled, shuffling out of his jacket. As he walked past them down the hallway, running into the very narrow walls or accidentally scuffing them with his shoes, he heard Tonks receive the exact same greeting from the twins as he had. Shaking his head, he chuckled.
A door with dark chipped paint met Harry down the hallway, muffled voices filtering out from behind it. Almost without a thought, he opened it.
A handsome man with his arm around another looked up, eyebrows raised. His face split into a smile. "Harry," Sirius said.
Arms crossed on the table and looking as tired as ever, Remus glanced upwards and couldn't help but smile as well.
"We're here!" Tonks announced, sliding past him into the long room.
A sullen voice from the corner of the table interrupted any warm welcomes Harry was about to receive. "Finally. Let's begin, shall we?" Snape said, hunched over the table.
Why was he always here? Harry frowned, taking a seat pulled over for him in between his godfathers, but his frown rapidly dissolved when Sirius put an arm around his chair, his strong cologne making him finally feel at home.
"Where are we starting?" The older, ginger man said, clapping his hands together. Arthur scanned the table for someone to take over.
Luckily Kingsley spoke up before things started to get awkward. "Filling Harry in about where the Order stands with the government will be a good start, I believe."
People around the table nodded.
"I'll explain where we stand with the government," Sirius said loudly with a dry smile (and a wary glance from Remus). "We don't."
Glancing to Remus for confirmation, Harry wasn't comforted when he saw him nod. "Why not?" as he asked, his eyes flitted towards Kingsley, the government worker.
"Because it's corru-"
"Oh, Sirius," Molly's voice interrupted Sirius, but there was no poison in her tone. She sat on Remus' right side. "Harry, he... he's so young." She buried her face in her hands, and Remus patted her back.
"He can handle this, Molly," he said softly. "He may be young, but he's been through and will go through things that no one his age generally goes through." Remus' gaze raised so that he was looking at Harry. "Sometimes we don't get to control when our childhoods are taken away from us; when we're forced to grow up."
Harry dropped his eyes, staring down at the table. He felt as though people expected him to be unhappy or self-pitying. And maybe he was. But just then, he couldn't stop thinking about someone who never got to experience the privilege of childhood innocence. "How bad are these- his followers, whatever they are, anyway?"
Around the table, people shifted uncomfortably.
"What could you expect from a white supremacist group?" Remus asked sarcastically.
Sirius nodded. "They make the KKK look like kindergarten bullies," he said solemnly.
After a couple of seconds, Remus sent him a sceptical glance. "...Kindergarten?"
"Okay well maybe not THAT bad," Sirius defended in a manner that Harry felt bad for chuckling at. "But the KKK has, like, decades of experience on their side." With everyone's withering stares, Sirius weakly added, "And... like, documentaries." he looked around the table. "Well sorry, I was just trying to make it relatable. Jesus." Sinking back into his chair, he bitterly crossed his arms.
"Carrying on." Kingsley cleared his throat and looked at Harry. "The government cannot be trusted, so we have to orchestrate the downfall of Voldemort ourselves."
At the mention of the name, multiple people flinched.
The Order continued filling Harry in on plans involving Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters. The more horrors he found out, the more complex Harry's feelings became. His whole life, Draco lived in the shadow of Voldemort's downfall but then through his slow incline to power again, and now he was more powerful than ever. There was no way Draco was safe, and Harry couldn't even think of a positive way Draco could get out of the situation.
But they also told Harry about who he used to think was just a simple Headmaster. Within a few minutes, Harry's perception of Dumbledore had completely changed.
After Mrs Weasley offered to make everyone brunch, he got a few moments to pull out his phone and talk to someone who he knew would help push down the tight feeling in his chest that was rapidly rising with each disturbing new fact that was unveiled.
Draco: Where the fuck were you this morning? Between the awkward tension between Weasel and Granger as well as leaving with a suboptimal coffee, this morning was uncomfortable for everyone. Where were you?
Harry: they told me about dumbledore
As two figures plopped down on the seats next to him, Harry turned his phone off and almost threw it face down to the ground. "Jesus, you guys scared me."
"Everything alright, Hazza?" One of the twins - George - ruffled Harry's head.
Fred nodded. "That's kind of heavy shit to be dealing with as a wee eighteen-year-old."
"Practically still a baby," George tutted, but his smile was gentle. "You let us know if you need some healthy distractions, yeah?"
A cheeky grin across his pale face, Fred elbowed Harry. "Although one will be coming very soon. If you value your sinuses, I'd hold your breath when Snape sits down on his completely untouched chair that we have not rigged with anything."
Shaking his head, Harry readjusted his glasses. "One day someone is going to murder you guys, assuming Snape doesn't today. But thank you."
With another head ruffle (which once again slid Harry's glasses down his nose), the twins departed and Harry was alone again. He unlocked his phone and squinted down at the screen.
Draco: About how all the Intelligence Agencies wanted him?
Harry: yeah
Draco: Kind of a weird life to live. Opened a cafe, became a teacher, kept thwarting a mass murderer in the process. An interesting skillset to possess.
Smiling to himself, Harry began chewing on his nail as he hunched over his phone.
Harry: do the death eaters really want to murder him?
Draco: I think you already know that answer.
Harry: thats fucked up
Draco: Welcome to my world.